by John Donne

John Donne (1572-1631) was one of the defining voices of seventeenth-century English devotion: a poet of violent inward argument, a priest of the Church of England, and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. His sermons were famous in his own lifetime for their compression of theology, wit, mortality, and pastoral urgency; after his death, they were gathered into the three great folio collections reproduced here.

This library file brings together the donor text's witness to LXXX Sermons (1640), Fifty Sermons (1649), and XXVI Sermons (1661), followed by Donne's Holy Sonnets. Together they form a broad public reading witness to Donne's sacred prose and sacred verse: Christmas sermons, Easter and Whitsunday sermons, court sermons, penitential sermons, marriage and funeral sermons, and the compact devotional poems in which Donne turns the same spiritual pressure inward.

The text was donated to the Good Work Library by Chris of Antediluvian Publications. According to the donor, it was prepared from a University of Michigan OCR witness, with OCR errors corrected, long-s forms normalized to ordinary short-s spelling, selective modernization of spelling, and modernization of Biblical names. The result should be read as an OCR-corrected, lightly modernized public-domain transcription rather than a fully critical edition.

LXXX Sermons (1640)

Sermon I. Preached at St. Pauls, upon Christmas day. 1622.

Coloss. 1.19, 20.

For, it pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his Cross, by Him, to reconcile all things to himself, by Him, whether they be things in Earth, or things in heaven.

THE whole journey of a Christian is in these words; and therefore we were better set out early, then ride too fast; better enter presently into the parts, then be forced to pass through them too hastily. First then we consider the Collation and Reference of the Text, and then the Illation, and Inference thereof. For, the Text looks back to all that was said from the twelfth verse. For, the first word of the text, [For] which is a particle of connexion, as well as of argumentation, is a seal of all that was said from that place. And then, the Text looks forward to the 23 ver. where all these blessings are sealed to us, with that Condition, If ye continue settled in the Gospel. This is the Collation, the Reference of the text; for the Illation, and Inference, the first clause thereof, [For, it pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell] presents a double Instruction; First, that we are not bound to accept matters of Religion, merely without all reason, and probable inducements; And secondly, with what modesty we are to proceed, and in what bounds we are to limit that inquisition, that search of Reason in matters of that nature. When the Apostle presents to us here, the great mystery of our reconciliation to God, he, in whose power it was not to infuse faith into every reader of his Epistle, proceeds by reason. He tells us, That the Father hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, the Son of his love. That were well, if we were sure of it; If our consciences did not accuse us, and suggest to us our own unworthiness, and thereby an impossibility of being so translated. Why no, says the Apostle, there is no such impossibility now, For, Now we have Redemption, and forgiveness of sins. Who should procure us that? If a man sin against God, who shall plead for him? What man is able to mediate, and stand in the gap between God and man? You say true, says the Apostle, no man is able to do it; and therefore, He that is the Image of the invisible God, he by whom all things were created, and by whom all things consist, he hath done it. Hath God reconciled me to God; And reconciled me by way of satisfaction? (for, that I know his justice requires) What could God pay for me? What could God suffer? God himself could not; and therefore God hath taken a body that could. And as he is the Head of that body, he is passible, so he may suffer; And, as he is the first born of the dead, he did suffer; so that he was defective in nothing; not in Power, as God, not in passibility, as man; for, Complacuit; It pleased the Father, that in him, All fullness (a full capacity to all purposes) should dwell. Thus far we are to trace the reason of our redemption, intimated in that first word, For. And then, we are to limit and determine our reason in the next, Quia complacuit, because it was his will, his pleasure to proceed so, and no otherwise. Christ himself goes no farther then so, in a case of much strangeness, That God had hid his mysteries from the wise, and revealed them unto babes; This was a strange course, but Ita est, quia, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. I would fain be able to prove to my self that my redemption is accomplished; and therefore I search the Scriptures; and I grow sure that Christ hath redeemed the world; and I search the Scriptures again, to find what marks are upon them, that are of the participation of that Redemption, and I grow to a religious, and modest assurance, that those marks are upon me. I find reasons to prove to me, that God does love my soul; but why God should love men better then his own Son, or why God should love me better then other men, I must end in the reason of the text, Quia complacuit, and in the reason of Christ himself, Ita est, quia, It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure was it should be so.

To pass then from the Collation and Reference, by which, the text hath his Cohaerence with the precedent, and subsequent passages, and the Illation and Inference, by which you have seen the general doctrine, That reason is not to be excluded in religion, but yet to be tenderly and modestly pressed, we have here the Person that redeemed us, and his Qualification for that great office, (That all fullness should dwell in him.) And then we have the Pacification, and the Means thereof, (Peace was made through the blood of his Cross) And then, the Effect, the application of all this, to them, for whom it was wrought, (That all things in earth and heaven, might be reconciled to God by him.) In the qualification of the person, we find plenitudinem, fullness, and omnem plenitudinem, all fullness; and omnem plenitudinem inhabitantem, all fullness dwelling, permanent. And yet, even this dwelling fullness, even in this person Christ Jesus, by no title of merit in himself, but only quia complacuit, because it pleased the Father it should be so. In the pacification, (which is our second part) (Peace was made, by the blood of his Cross) we shall see first, quod bellum, what the war was, and then quae pax, what the peace is, and lastly quis modus, how this peace was made, which was strange; per sanguinem, by blood; to save blood, and yet by blood. And per sanguinem ejus, by his blood, his, who was victoriously to triumph in this peace; and per sanguinem Crucis ejus, by the blood of his Cross, that is his death; the blood of his Circumcision, the blood of his Agony, the blood of his scourging was not enough; It must be, and so it was the blood of his Cross; And these pieces constitute our second part, the Pacification: And then in the third, the Application, (That all things might be reconciled to God,) we shall see first, what this Reconciliation is, and then how it extends to all things on earth, (which we might think were not capable of it;) and all things in heaven, (which we might think stood in no need of it.) And in these three parts, The person and his qualification, The thing it self, The Pacification, The effect of this, The Reconciliation, the Application, we shall determine all.

First, In the person that redeems us we find fullness. And there had need be so; for, he found our measure full of sin towards God, and Gods measure full of anger towards us; for our parts, as when a River swells, at first it will find out all the channels, or lower parts of the bank, and enter there, but after a while it covers, and overflows the whole field, and all is water without distinction; so, though we be naturally channels of concupiscencies, (for there sin begins, and as water runs naturally in the veins and bowels of the earth, so run concupiscencies naturally in our bowels) yet, when every imagination of the thoughts of our heart, is only evil continually; Then, (as it did there) it induces a flood, a deluge, our concupiscence swells above all channels, and actually overflows all; It hath found an issue at the ear, we delight in the defamation of others; and an issue at the eye, If we see a thief, we run with him; we concur in the plots of supplanting and destroying other men; It hath found an issue in the tongue, Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? We speak freely; seditious speeches against superiors, obscene and scurrile speeches against one another, profane and blasphemous speeches against God himself, are grown to be good jests, and marks of wit, and arguments of spirit. It finds an issue at our hands, they give way to oppression, by giving bribes; and an issue at our feet, They are swift to shed blood; and so by custom, sin overflows all, Omnia pontus, all our ways are sea, all our works are sin. This is our fullness, original sin filled us, actual sin presses down the measure, and habitual sins heap it up. And then Gods measure of anger was full too; from the beginning he was a jealous God, and that should have made us careful of our behavior, that a jealous eye watched over us. But because we see in the world, that jealous persons are oftnest deceived, because that distemper disorders them, so as that they see nothing clearly, and it puts the greater desire in the other, to deceive, because it is some kind of Victory, and Triumph to deceive a jealous, and watchful person, therefore we have hoped to go beyond God too, and his jealousy. But he is jealous of his honor, jealous of his jealousy, he will not have his jealousy despised, nor forgotten, for therefore he visits upon the children, to the third and fourth generation; when therefore the spirit of jealousy was come upon him, and that he had prepared that water of bitterness, which was to rot our bowels, that is, when God had bent all his bows, drawn forth, and whetted all his swords, when he was justly provoked, to execute all the Judgements denounced in all the Prophets, upon all mankind, when mans measure was full of sin, and Gods measure full of wrath, then was the fullness of time, and yet then Complacuit, It pleased the Father, that there should be another fullness to overflow all these, in Christ Jesus.

But what fullness is that? Omnis plenitudo, all fullness. And this was only in Christ. Elijah had a great portion of the spirit: but, but a portion. Elisha sees that that portion will not serve him, and therefore he asks a double portion of that spirit; but still but portions. Stephen is full of faith; a blessed fullness, where there is no corner for Infidelity, nor for doubt, for scruple, nor irresolution. Dorcas is full of good works; a fullness above faith; for there must be faith, before there can be good works; so that they are above faith, as the tree is above the root, and as the fruit is above the tree. The Virgin Mary is full of Grace; and Grace is a fullness above both; above faith and works too, for that is the means to preserve both; That we fall not from our faith, and that dead flyes corrupt not our ointment, that worldly mixtures do not vitiate our best works, and the memory of past sins, dead sins, do not beget new sins in us, is the operation of Grace. The seven Deacons were full of the Holy Ghost, and of Wisdom; full of Religion towards God, and full of such wisdom as might advance it towards men; full of zeal, and full of knowledge; full of truth, and full of discretion too. And these were plenitudines, fulnesses, but they were not all, Omnis plenitudo, all fullness. I shall be as full as St. Paul, in heaven; I shall have as full a vessel, but not so full a Cellar; I shall be as full, but I shall not have so much to fill. Christ only hath an infinite content, and capacity, an infinite room and receipt, and then an infinite fullness; omnem capacitatem, and omnem plenitudinem; He would receive as much as could be infused, and there was as much infused, as he could receive.

But what shall we say? Deus adimplendus; was Christ God before, and are these accessory, supplementary, additional fulnesses to be put to him? A fullness to be added to God? To make him a competent person to redeem man, something was to be added to Christ, though he were God; wherein we see to our inexpressible confusion of face, and consternation of spirit, the incomprehensibleness of mans sin, that even to God himself, there was required something else then God, before we could be redeemed; there was a fullness to be added to God, for this work, to make it omnem plenitudinem, for Christ was God before; there was that fullness; but God was not Christ before; there lacked that fullness. Not disputing therefore, what other ways God might have taken for our redemption, but giving him all possible thanks for that way which his goodness hath chosen, by the way of satisfying his justice, (for, howsoever I would be glad to be discharged of my debts any way, yet certainly, I should think my self more beholden to that man, who would be content to pay my debt for me, then to him that should entreat my creditor to forgive me my debt) for this work, to make Christ able to pay this debt, there was something to be added to him. First, he must pay it in such money as was lent; in the nature and flesh of man; for man had sinned, and man must pay. And then it was lent in such money as was coined even with the Image of God; man was made according to his Image: That Image being defaced, in a new Mint, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, there was new money coined; The Image of the invisible God, the second person in the Trinity, was imprinted into the humane nature. And then, that there might be omnis plenitudo, all fullness, as God, for the payment of this debt, sent down the Bullion, and the stamp, that is, God to be conceived in man, and as he provided the Mint, the womb of the Blessed Virgin, so hath he provided an Exchequer, where this money is issued; that is his Church, where his merits should be applied to the discharge of particular consciences. So that here is one fullness, that in this person dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Here is another fullness, that this person fulfilled all righteousness, and satisfied the Justice of God by his suffering; non est dolor sicut, there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow; It was so full that it exceeded all others. And then there is a third fullness, the Church, (which is his body, the fullness of him, that filleth all in all) perfect God, there is the fullness of his dignity; perfect man, there is the fullness of his passibility; and a perfect Church, there is the fullness of the distribution of his mercies, and merits to us. And this is omnis plenitudo, all fullness; which yet is farther extended in the next word, Inhabitavit, It pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell in him.

The Holy Ghost appeared in the Dove, but he did not dwell in it. The Holy Ghost hath dwelt in holy men, but not thus; So, as that ancient Bishop expresses it, Habitavit in Salomone per sapientiam, He dwelt in Solomon, in the spirit of wisdom; in Joseph, in the spirit of chastity; in Moses, in the spirit of meekness; but in Christo, in plenitudine, in Christ, in all fullness. Now this fullness is not fully expressed in the Hypostatical union of the two natures; God and Man in the person of Christ. For, (concerning the divine Nature) here was not a dram of glory in this union. This was a strange fullness, for it was a fullness of emptiness; It was all Humiliation, all exinanition, all evacuation of himself, by his obedience to the death of the Cross. But when it was done, Ne evacuaretur Crux Christi, (as the Apostle speaks in another case) lest the Cross of Christ should be evacuated, and made of none effect, he came to make this fullness perfect, by instituting and establishing a Church; The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, says the Prophet, of Christ. There is a fullness in general, for his qualification; The Spirit of the Lord; but what kind of spirit? It follows, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, and Power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; we see, the spirit that must rest upon Christ, is the Spirit in those beams, in those functions, in those operations, as conduce to government, that is, Wisdom, and Counsel, and Power. So that this is Christs fullness, that he is in a continual administration of his Church; in which he flows over upon us his Ministers; (for, of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace: that is, power by his grace, to derive grace upon the Congregation;) And so, of his fullness, all the Congregation receives too; and receives in that full measure, That they are filled with all the fullness of God; that is, all the fullness that was in both his natures, united in one person, when the fullness of the Deity dwelt in him bodily, all the merits of that person, are derived upon us, in his Word, Sacraments, in his Church; which Church being to continue to the end, it is most properly said habitavit, in him, (in him, as head of the Church) all fullness, all means of salvation, dwell, and are to be had permanently, constantly, infallibly.

Now how came Christ by all this fullness, this superlative fullness in himself, this derivative fullness upon us? That his merits should be able to build, and furnish such a house, to raise and rectify such a Church, acceptable to God, in which all fullness should dwell to the worlds end? It was only because complacuit, it pleased God (for this personal name of the Father (It pleased the Father) is but added suppletorily by our Translators, and is not in the Original) It pleased God to give him wherewithal, to enable him so far, for, this complacuit, is, (as we say in the School,) vox beneplaciti, it expresses only the good will and love of God, without contemplation or foresight of any goodness in man; nam hac posita plenitudine exorta sunt merita: First, we are to consider this fullness to have been in Christ, and then, from this fullness arose his merits; we can consider no merit in Christ himself before, whereby he should merit this fullness; for, this fullness was in him, before he merited any thing; and but for this fullness, he had not so merited. Ille homo, ut in unitatem filii Dei assumeretur, unde meruit? How did that man, (says St. Augustine speaking of Christ, as of the son of man) how did that man merit to be united in one person, with the eternal Son of God? Quid egit ante? Quid credidit? What had he done? nay, what had he believed? Had he either faith, or works, before that union of both natures? If then in Christ Jesus himself, there were no praevisa merita, That Gods fore-sight, that he would use this fullness well, did not work in God, as a cause to give him this fullness, but because he had it of the free gift of God, therefore he did use it well, and meritoriously, shall any of us be so frivolous, in so important a matter, as to think that God gave us our measure of grace, or our measure of Sanctification, because he fore-saw that we would heap up that measure, and employ that talent profitably? What canst thou imagine, he could fore-see in thee? A propenseness, a disposition to goodness, when his grace should come? Either there is no such propenseness, no such disposition in thee, or, if there be, even that propenseness and disposition to the good use of grace, is grace, it is an effect of former grace, and his grace wrought, before he saw any such propenseness, any such disposition; Grace was first, and his grace is his, it is none of thine. To end this point, and this part, non est discipulus supra magistrum; The fullness of Christ himself was rooted in the complacuit, It pleased the Father; (nothing else wrought in the nature of a Cause) and therefore that measure of that fullness, which is derived upon us, from him, (our vocation, our justification, our sanctification) are much more so; we have them, quia complacuit, because it hath pleased him freely to give them; God himself could see nothing in us, till he of his own goodness, put it into us. And so we have gone as far, as our first part carries us, in those two branches, and the fruits which we have gathered from thence; First, those general doctrines, that reason is not to be excluded in matters of religion; and then, that reason in all those cases, is to be limited, with the quia complacuit, merely in the good pleasure of God. In which first part, you have also had, the qualification of the person, that came this day, to establish Redemption for us, that in Him there was fullness, (infinite capacity, and infinite infusion,) and all fullness, defective in nothing, (impassible and yet passible, perfect God, and perfect man) and this fullness dwelling in Him, in Him as he is Head of the Church, that is, visible, sensible means of salvation to every soul in his Church; And so we pass to our second part, from this Qualification of the person, (It pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell) to the Pacification it self, for which it pleased the Father to do all this, that Peace might be made through the blood of his Cross.

In this Part, St. Chrysostom hath made our steps, our branches. It is much, says he, that God would admit any peace; magis, per sanguinem, more, that for peace he should require effusion of blood; magis, quod per ejus, more, that it must be His blood, his that was injured, his that was to triumph; Et adhuc magis, quod per sanguinem Crucis ejus; That it must be by the blood of his Cross, his heart blood, his death; and yet this was the case; He made Peace through the blood of his Cross. There was then a war before, and a heavy war; for, the Lord of hosts was our enemy; and what can all our musters come to, if the Lord of Hosts, of all Hosts have raised his forces against us? There was a heavy war denounced in the Inimicitias ponam, when God raised a war between the Devil, and us. For, if we could consider God to stand neutral in that war, and meddle with neither side, yet we were in a desperate case, to be put to fight against Powers and Principalities, against the Devil. How much more, when God, the Lord of Hosts, is the Lord even of that Host too? when God presses the Devil, and makes the Devil his Soldier, to fight his battles, and directs his arrows, and his bullets, and makes his approaches, and his attempts effectual upon us. That which is fallen upon the Jews now, for their sin against Christ, that there is not in all the world, a Soldier of their race, not a Jew in the world that bears armes, is true of all mankind for their sin against God; there is not a Soldier amongst them, able to hurt his spiritual enemy or defend himself. It is a strange war, where there are not two sides; and yet that is our case; for, God uses the Devil against us, and the Devil uses us against one another; nay, he uses every one of us, against our selves; so that God, and the Devil, and we, are all in one Army, and all for our destruction; we have a war, and yet there is but one Army, and we only are the Country that is fed upon, and wasted; From God to the Devil we have not one friend, and yet, as though we lacked enemies, we fight with one another in inhumane Duels; Vbi morimur homicidae, (as St. Bernard expresses it powerfully and elegantly) that in those Duels and Combats, he that is murdered dies a murderer, because he would have been one; Occisor laethaliter peccat, occisus aeternaliter perit; He that comes alive out of the field comes a dead man, because he comes a deadly sinner, and he that remains dead in the field, is gone into an everlasting death. So that by this inhumane effusion of one another's blood, we maintain a war against God himself, and we provoke him to that which he expresses in Isaiah, My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Inebriabitur sanguine, The sword of the Lord shall be made drunk with blood; Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. The same quarrel, which God hath against particular men, and particular Nations, for particular sins, God hath against all Mankind, for Adams sin. And there is the war. But what is the peace, and how are we included in that? That is our second and next disquisition, That peace might be made.

A man must not presently think himself included in this peace, because he feels no effects of this war. If God draw none of his swords of war, or famine, or pestilence, upon thee, (no outward war,) If God raise not a rebellion in thy self, nor fight against thee with thine own affections, in colluctations between the flesh, and the spirit; The war may last, for all this. Induciarum tempore, bellum manet, licet pugna cesset; Though there be no blow striken, the war remains in the time of Truce. But thy case is not so good; here is no Truce, no cessation, but a continual preparation to a fiercer war. All this while that thou enjoyest this imaginary security, the Enemy digges insensibly under ground, all this while he undermines thee, and will blow thee up at last more irrecoverably, then if he had battered thee with outward calamities all that time. So any State may be abused with a false peace present, or with a fruitless expectation of a future peace. But in this text, there is true peace, and peace already made; present peace, and and safe peace. Pax non promissa, sed missa, (says St. Bernard, in his musical and harmonious cadences,) not promised, but already sent; non dilata, sed data, not treated, but concluded; Non prophetata, sed praesentata, not prophesied, but actually established. There is the presentness thereof; And then, made by him, who lacked nothing for the making of a safe peace; For, after his Names of Counsellor, and of the Mighty God; he is called, for the consummation of all, princeps pacis; A Counsellor, There is his wisdom, A mighty God, There is his Power: and this Counsellor, This Mighty God, this wise, and this powerful Prince, hath undertaken to make our peace; But how, that is next, per sanguinem, Peace being made by blood.

Is effusion of blood the way of peace? effusion of blood may make them from whom blood is so abundantly drawn, glad of peace, because they are thereby reduced to a weakness. But in our wars, such a weakness puts us farther off from peace, and puts more fierceness in the Enemy. But here, mercy and truth are met together; God would be true to his own Justice, (blood was forfeited, and he would have blood) and God would be merciful to us, he would make us the stronger by drawing blood, and by drawing our best blood, the blood of Christ Jesus. Simeon and Levi, when they meditated their revenge for the rape committed upon their sister, when they pretended peace, yet they required a little blood: They would have the Sichemites circumcised: but when they had opened a veyne, they made them bleed to death; when they were under the soreness of Circumcision, they slew them all. Gods justice required blood, but that blood is not spilt, but poured from that head to our hearts, into the veins, and wounds of our own souls: There was blood shed, but no blood lost. Before the Law was thoroughly established, when Moses came down from God, and deprehended the people, in that Idolatry to the Calfe, before he would present himself as a Mediator between God and them, for that sin, he prepares a sacrifice of blood, in the execution of three thousand of those Idolaters, and after that he came to his vehement prayer, in their behalf. And in the strength of the Law, all things were purged with blood, and without blood there is no remission. Whether we place the reason of this in Gods Justice, which required blood, or whether we place it in the conveniency, that blood being ordinarily received to be sedes animae, the seat and residence of the soul; The soul, for which, that expiation was to be, could not be better represented, nor purified, then in the state, and seat of the soul, in blood; or whether we shut up our selves in an humble sobriety, to inquire into the reasons of Gods actions, thus we see it was, no peace, no remission, but in blood. Nor is that so strange, as that which follows in the next place, per sanguinem ejus, by his blood.

Before, under the Law, it was in sanguine hircorum, & vitulorum; In the blood of Goats, and Bullocks; here it is in sanguine ejus, in his blood. Not his, as he claims all the beasts of the forrest, all the cattle upon a thousand hills, and all the fowls of the mountains to be his; not his, as he says of Gold and Silver, The Silver is mine, and the Gold is mine; not his, as he is Lord, and proprietary of all, by Creation; so all blood is his; no nor his, as the blood of all the Martyrs was his blood, (which is a near relation and consanguinity) but his so, as it was the precious blood of his body, the seat of his soul, the matter of his spirits, the knot of his life, This blood he shed for me; and I have blood to shed for him too, though he call me not to the trial, nor to the glory of Martyrdom. Sanguis animae mea voluntas mea, The blood of my soul is my will; Scindatur vena ferro compunctionis, open a vein with that knife, remorce, compunction, ut si non sensus, certe consensus peccati effluat, That though thou canst not bleed out all motions to sin, thou mayst all consent thereunto. Noli esse nimium justus; noli sapere plus quam oportet; St. Bernard makes this use of those Counsels, Be not righteous overmuch, nor be not overwise, Cui putas venae parcendum, si justitia & sapientia egent minutione, what vein mayst thou spare, if thou must open those two veins, righteousness, and wisdom? If they may be superfluously abundant, if thou must bleed out some of thy Righteousness, and some of thy wisdom, cui venae parcendum, at what vein must thou not bleed? Now in all sacrifices, where blood was to be offered, the fat was to be offered to. If thou wilt sacrifice the blood of thy soul, (as St. Bernard calls the will) sacrifice the fat too; If thou give over thy purpose of continuing in thy sin, give over the memory of it, and give over all that thou possessest unjustly, and corruptly got by that sin; else thou keepest the fat from God, though thou give him the blood. If God had given over at his second days work, we had had no sun, no seasons; If at his fifth, we had had no being; If at the sixth, no Sabbath; but by proceeding to the seventh, we are all, and we have all. Naaman, who was out of the covenant, yet, by washing in Jordan seven times, was cured of his leprosy; seven times did it even in him, but less did not. The Priest in the Law used a seven-fold sprinkling of blood upon the Altar; and we observe a seven-fold shedding of blood in Christ; In his Circumcision, and in his Agony, in his fulfilling of that Prophesy; gen as vellicantibus, I gave my cheeks to them, that plucked off the hair, and in his scourging; in his crowning, and in his nayling, and lastly, in the piercing of his side. These seven channels hath the blood of thy Savior found. Pour out the blood of thy soul, sacrifice thy stubborn and rebellious will seven times too; seven times, that is, every day; and seven times every day; for so often a just man falleth; And then, how low must that man lie at last, if he fall so often, and never rise upon any fall? and therefore raise thy self as often, and as soon as thou fallest. Iericho would not fall, but by being compassed seven days, and seven times in one day. Compass thy self, comprehend thy self, seven times, many times, and thou shalt have thy loss of blood supplied with better blood, with a true sense of that peace, which he hath already made, and made by blood, and by his own blood, and by the blood of his Cross, which is the last branch of this second part.

Greater love hath no man, then to lay down his life for his friend, yet he that said so, did more then so, more then lay down his life, (for he exposed it to violences, and torments) and all that for his enemies. But doth not the necessity diminish the love? where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator: was there then a necessity in Christs dying? simply a necessity of coaction there was not; such as is in the death of other men, natural, or violent by the hand of Justice. There was nothing more arbitrary, more voluntary, more spontaneous then all that Christ did for man. And if you could consider a time, before the contract between the Father, and him, had passed, for the redemption of man by his death, we might say, that then there was no necessity upon Christ, that he must dye; But because that contract was from all eternity, supposing that contract, that this peace was to be made by his death, there entered the oportuit pati, That Christ ought to suffer all these things, and to enter into his glory. And so, as for his death, so for the manner of his death, (by the Cross) it was not of absolute necessity, and yet it was not by casualty neither, not because he was to suffer in that Nation, which did ordinarily punish such Malefactors, (such as he was accused to be) seditious persons, with that manner of death, but all this proceeded ex pacto, thus the contract led it, to this he was obedient, obedient unto death, and unto the death of the Cross. By blood, and not only by comming into this world, and assuming our nature, (which humiliation was an act of infinite value) and not by the blood of his Circumcision or Agony, but blood to death, and by no gentler, nor nobler death, then the death of the Cross, was this peace to be made by him. Though then one drop of his blood had been enough to have redeemed infinite worlds, if it had been so contracted, and so applied, yet he gave us, a morning shore of his blood in his Circumcision, and an evening shore at his passion, and a shore after Sunset, in the piercing of his side. And though any death had been an incomprehensible ransom, for the Lord of life to have given, for the children of death, yet he refused not the death of the Cross; The Cross, to which a bitter curse was nayled by Moses, from the beginning, he that is hanged, is, (not only accursed of God, as our Translation hath it,) but he is the curse of God, (as it is in the Original) not accursed, but a curse; not a simple curse, but the curse of God. And by the Cross, which besides the Infamy, was so painful a death, as that many men languished many days upon it, before they died: And by his blood of this torture, and this shame, this painful, and this ignominious death, was this peace made. In our great work of crucifying our selves to the world too, it is not enough to bleed the drops of a Circumcision, that is, to cut off some excessive, and notorious practice of sin; nor to bleed the drops of an Agony, to enter into a conflict and colluctation of the flesh and the spirit, whether we were not better trust in Gods mercy, for our continuance in that sin, then lose all that pleasure and profit, which that sin brings us; nor enough to bleed the drops of scourging, to be lashed with viperous, and venemous tongues by contumelies, and slanders; nor to bleed the drops of Thorns, to have Thorns and scruples enter into our consciences, with spiritual afflictions; but we must be content to bleed the streams of naylings to those Crosses, to continue in them all our lives, if God see that necessary for our confirmation; and, if men will pierce and wound us after our deaths in our good name, yea, if they will slander our Resurrection, (as they did Christs) if they will say, that it is impossible God should have mercy upon such a man, impossible that a man of so bad life, and so sad and comfortless a death, should have a joyful Resurrection, here is our comfort, as that piercing of Christs side was after the Consummatum est, after his passion ended, and therefore put him to no pain, as that slander of his Resurrection, was after that glorious triumph; He was risen and had showed himself before, and therefore it diminished not his power: so all these posthume wounds, and slanders after my death, after my God and my Soul shall have passed that Dialogue, Veni Domine Iesu, and euge bone serve, That I shall have said upon my death-bed, Come Lord Jesu, come quickly, and he shall have said, Well done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Masters joy, when I shall have said to him, In manus tuas Domine, Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit, And he to me, Hody mecum eris in paradiso, This day, this minute thou shalt be, now thou art with me in Paradise, when this shall be my state, God shall hear their slanders and maledictions, and write them all down, but not in my book, but in theirs, and there they shall meet them at Judgement, amongst their own sins, to their everlasting confusion, and find me in possession of that peace, made by blood, made by his blood, made by the blood of his Cross, which were all the pieces laid out for this second part, with which we have done; and pass from the qualification of the person, (It pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell) which was our first part, and the Pacification, and the way thereof, (by the blood of his Cross to make peace) which was our second, to the Reconciliation it self, and the Application thereof to all to whom that Reconciliation appertains, That all things, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven, might be reconciled unto him.

All this was done; He, in whom it pleased the Father, that this fullness should dwell, had made this peace by the blood of his Cross, and yet, after all this, the Apostle comes upon that Ambassage, We pray ye, in Christs stead, that ye be reconciled to God; So that this Reconciliation in the Text, is a subsequent thing to this peace. The general peace is made by Christs death, as a general pardon is given at the Kings comming; The Application of this peace is in the Church, as the suing out of the pardon, is in the Office. Job made Absaloms peace with his Father; Bring the young man again, says David to Job; but yet he was not reconciled to him, so as that he saw his face in two year. God hath sounded a Retreat to the Battle, As I live, saith the Lord, I would not the death of a sinner; He hath said to the destroyer, It is enough, stay now thy hand; He is pacified in Christ; and he hath bound the enemy in chains. Now let us labor for our Reconciliation; for all things are reconciled to him, in Christ, that is, offered a way of reconciliation. All things in heaven and earth, says the Apostle. And that is so large, as that Origen needed not to have extended it to Hell too, and conceive out of this place, a possibility, that the Devils themselves shall come to a Reconciliation with God. But to all in Heaven and Earth it appertains. Consider we how.

First then, there is a reconciliation of them in heaven to God, and then of them on earth to God, and then of them in heaven, and them in earth, to one another, by the blood of his Cross. If we consider them in heaven, to be those who are gone up to heaven from this world by death, they had the same reconciliation as we; either by reaching the hand of faith forward, to lay hold upon Christ before he came, (which was the case of all under the Law;) or by reaching back that hand, to lay hold upon all that he had done and suffered, when he was come, (which is the case of those that are dead before us in the profession of the Gospel.) All that are in heaven, and were upon earth, are reconciled one way, by application of Christ in the Church; so that, though they be now in heaven, yet they had their reconciliation here upon earth. But if we consider those who are in heaven, and have been so from the first minute of their creation, Angels, why have they, or how have they any reconciliation? How needed they any, and then, how is this of Christ applied unto them? They needed a confirmation; for the Angels were created in blessedness, but not in perfect blessedness; They might fall, they did fall. To those that fell, can appertain no reconciliation; no more then to those that die in their sins; for Quod homini mors, Angelis casus; The fall of the Angels wrought upon them, as the death of a man does upon him; They are both equally incapable of change to better. But to those Angels that stood, their standing being of grace, and their confirmation being not one transient act in God done at once, but a continual succession, and emanation of daily grace, belongs this reconciliation by Christ, because all matter of grace, and where any deficiency is to be supplied, whether by way of reparation, as in man, or by way of confirmation, as in Angels, proceeds from the Cross, from the Merits of Christ. They are so reconciled then, as that they are extra lapsus periculum, out of the danger of falling; but yet this stability, this infallibility is not yet indelibly imprinted in their natures; yet the Angels might fall, if this reconciler did not sustain them; for, if those words reperit in Angelis iniquitatem, that God found folly, (weakness, infirmity) in his Angels, be to be understood of the good Angels, that stand confirmed, (as procul dubio de diabolo intelligi non potest, without all doubt they cannot be understood of the ill Angels) the best service of the best Angels, divested of that successive grace, that supports them, if God should exacta rigorous account of it, could not be acceptable in the sight of God; So the Angels have a pacification, and a reconciliation, lest they should fall.

Thus things in heaven are reconciled to God by Christ; and things on earth too. First the creature, as S. Paul speaks; that is, other creatures then men. For, at the general resurrection, (which is rooted in the resurrection of Christ, and so hath relation to him) the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God; for which, the whole creation groans, and travails in pain yet. This deliverance then from this bondage, the whole creature hath by Christ, and that is their reconciliation. And then are we reconciled by the blood of his Cross, when having crucified our selves by a true repentance, we receive the seal of reconciliation, in his blood in the Sacrament. But the most proper, and most litteral sense of these words, is, that all things in heaven and earth, be reconciled to God, (that is, to his glory, to a fitter disposition to glorify him) by being reconciled to another, in Christ; that in him, as head of the Church, they in heaven, and we upon earth, be united together as one body in the Communion of Saints. For, this text hath a conformity, and a harmony with that to the Ephesians, and in sense, as well as in words, is the same, That God might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him; where the word which we translate (to gather) doth properly signify recapitulare, to bring all things to their first head, to Gods first purpose; which was, that Angels, and men, united in Christ Jesus, might glorify him eternally in the Kingdom of heaven. Then are things in heaven restored and reconciled, (says S. Augustine) Cum quod ex Angelis lapsum est, ex hominibus redditur, when good men have repaired the ruin of the bad Angels, and filled their places. And then are things on earth restored, and reconciled, Cum praedestinati à corruptionis vetustate renovantur, when Gods elect children are delivered from the corruptions of this world, to which, even they are subject here. Cum humiliati homines redeunt, unde Apostatae superbiendo ceciderunt, when men by humility are exalted, to those places from which Angels fell by pride, then are all things in heaven and earth reconciled in Christ.

The blood of the sacrifices was brought by the high priest, in sanctum sanctorum, into the place of greatest holiness; but it was brought but once, in festo expiationis, in the feast of expiation; but, in the other parts of the Temple, it was sprinkled every day. The blood of the Cross of Christ Jesus hath had his effect in sancto sanctorum, even in the highest heavens, in supplying their places that fell, in confirming them that stood, and in uniting us and them, in himself, as Head of all. In the other parts of the Temple it is to be sprinkled daily. Here, in the militant Church upon earth, there is still a reconciliation to be made; not only toward one another, in the band of charity, but in our selves. In our selves we may find things in heaven, and things on earth to reconcile. There is a heavenly zeal, but if it be not reconciled to discretion, there is a heavenly purity, but if it be not reconciled to the bearing of one another's infirmities, there is a heavenly liberty, but if it be not reconciled to a care, for the prevention of scandal, All things in our heaven, and our earth are not reconciled in Christ. In a word, till the flesh and the spirit be reconciled, this reconciliation is not accomplished. For, neither spirit, nor flesh must be destroyed in us; a spiritual man is not all spirit, he is a man still. But then is flesh and spirit reconciled in Christ, when in all the faculties of the soul, and all the organs of the body we glorify him in this world; for then, in the next world we shall be glorified by him, and with him, in soul, and in body too, where we shall be thoroughly reconciled to one another, no suits, no controversies; and thoroughly to the Angels; when we shall not only be sieut Angeli, as the Angels in some one property, but aequales Angelis, equal to the Angels in all, for, Non erunt duae societates Angelorum & hominum, Men and Angels shall not make two companies, sed omnium beatitudo erit, uni adhaerere Deo, this shall be the blessedness of them both, to be united in one head, Christ Jesus.

And these reconcilings are reconcilings enow; for these are all that are in heaven and earth. If you will reconcile things in heaven, and earth, with things in hell, that is a reconciling out of this Text. If you will mingle the service of God, and the service of this world, there is no reconciling of God and Mammon in this Text. If you will mingle a true religion, and a false religion, there is no reconciling of God and Belial in this Text. For the adhering of persons born within the Church of Rome, to the Church of Rome, our law says nothing to them if they come; But for reconciling to the Church of Rome, by persons born within the Allegiance of the King, or for persuading of men to be so reconciled, our law hath called by an infamous and Capital name of Treason, and yet every Tavern, and Ordinary is full of such Traitors. Every place from jest to earnest is filled with them; from the very stage to the death-bed; At a Comedy they will persuade you, as you sit, as you laugh, And in your sickness they will persuade you, as you lye, as you dye. And not only in the bed of sickness, but in the bed of wantonness they persuade too; and there may be examples of women, that have thought it a fit way to gain a soul, by prostituting themselves, and by entertaining unlawful love, with a purpose to convert a servant, which is somewhat a strange Topique, to draw arguments of religion from. Let me see a Dominican and a Jesuit reconciled, in doctrinal papistry, for freewill and predestination, Let me see a French papist and an Italian papist reconciled in State-papistry, for the Popes jurisdiction, Let me see the Jesuits, and the secular priests reconciled in England, and when they are reconciled to one another, let them press reconciliation to their Church. To end all, Those men have their bodies from the earth, and they have their souls from heaven; and so all things in earth and heaven are reconciled: but they have their Doctrine from the Devil; and for things in hell, there is no peace made, and with things in hell, there is no reconciliation to be had by the blood of his Cross, except we will tread that blood under our feet, and make a mock of Christ Jesus, and crucify the Lord of Life again.

Sermon II. Preached at Pauls, upon Christmas Day, in the Evening. 1624.

ESAIAH. 7.14.

Part of the first Lesson, that Evening.

Therefore the Lord shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

SAint Bernard spent his consideration upon three remarkable conjunctions, this Day. First, a Conjunction of God, and Man in one person, Christ Jesus; Then a conjunction of the incompatible Titles, Maid and Mother, in one blessed woman, the blessed Virgin Mary: And thirdly a conjunction of Faith, and the Reason of man, that so believes, and comprehends those two conjunctions. Let us accompany these three with another strange conjunction, in the first word of this Text, Propterea, Therefore; for that joins the anger of God, and his mercy together. God chides and rebukes the King Ahaz by the Prophet, he is angry with him, and Therefore, says the Text, because he is angry he will give him a sign, a seal of mercy, Therefore the Lord shall give you a sign, Behold, a Virgin, &c. This Therefore, shall therefore be a first part of this Exercise, That God takes any occasion to show mercy; And a second shall be, The particular way of his mercy, declared here, The Lord shall give you a sign; And then a third and last, what this sign was, Behold, a Virgin, &c.

In these three parts, we shall walk by these steps; Having made our entrance into the first, with that general consideration, that Gods mercy is always in season, upon that station, upon that height we shall look into the particular occasions of Gods mercy here, what this King Ahaz had done to alien God, and to avert his mercy, and in those two branches we shall determine that part. In the second, we shall also first make this general entrance, That God persists in his own ways, goes forward with his own purposes, And then what his way, and his purpose here was, he would give them a sign: and farther we shall not extend that second part. In the third we have more steps to make; First, what this sign is in general, it is, that there is a Redeemer given. And then how, thus; First, Virgo concipiet, a Virgin shall conceive, she shall be a Virgin then; And Virgo pariet, a Virgin shall bring forth, she shall be a Virgin then; And Pariet filium, she shall bear a Son, and therefore he is of her substance, not only man, but man of her; And this Virgin shall call this Son Immanuel, God with us, that is, God and Man in one person. Though the Angel at the Conception tell Joseph, That he shall call his name Jesus, and tell Mary her self, that she shall call his name Jesus, yet the blessed Virgin her self shall have a further reach, a clearer illustration, She shall call his name Immanuel, God with us: Others were called Jesus, Iosuah was so, divers others were so; but, in the Scriptures there was never any but Christ called Immanuel. Though Jesus signify a Savior, Joseph was able to call this child Jesus, upon a more peculiar reason, and way of salvation then others who had that name, because they had saved the people from present calamities, and imminent dangers; for, the Angel told Joseph, that he should therefore be called Jesus, because he should save the people from their sins; and so, no Iosuah, no other Jesus was a Jesus. But the blessed Virgin saw more then this; not only that he should be such a Jesus as should save them from their sins, but she saw the manner how, that he should be Immanuel, God with us, God and man in one person; That so, being Man, he might suffer, and being God, that should give an infinite value to his sufferings, according to the contract passed between the Father and him; and so he should be Jesus, a Savior, a Savior from sin, and this by this way and means. And then that all this should be established, and declared by an infallible sign, with this Ecce, Behold; That whosoever can call upon God by that name Immanuel, that is, confess Christ to be come in the flesh, that Man shall have an Ecce, a light, a sign, a token, an assurance that this Immanuel, this Jesus, this Savior belongs unto him, and he shall be able to say, Ecce, Behold, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

We begin with that which is elder then our beginning, and shall over-live our end, The mercy of God. I will sing of thy mercy and judgement, says David; when we fixe our selves upon the meditation and modulation of the mercy of God, even his judgements cannot put us out of tune, but we shall sing, and be cheerful, even in them. As God made grass for beasts, before he made beasts, and beasts for man, before he made man: As in that first generation, the Creation, so in the regeneration, our re-creating, he begins with that which was necessary for that which follows, Mercy before Judgement. Nay, to say that mercy was first, is but to post-date mercy; to prefer mercy but so, is to diminish mercy; The names of first or last derogate from it, for first and last are but ragges of time, and his mercy hath no relation to time, no limitation in time, it is not first, nor last, but eternal, everlasting; Let the Devil make me so far desperate as to conceive a time wh̄ there was no mercy, and he hath made me so far an Atheist, as to conceive a time when there was no God; if I despoile him of his mercy, any one minute, and say, now God hath no mercy, for that minute I discontinue his very Godhead, and his being. Later Grammarians have wrung the name of mercy out of misery; Misericordia praesumit miseriam, say these, there could be no subsequent mercy, if there were no precedent misery; But the true root of the word mercy, through all the Prophets, is Racham, and Racham is diligere, to love; as long as there hath been love (and God is love) there hath been mercy: And mercy considered externally, and in the practise and in the effect, began not at the helping of man, when man was fallen and become miserable, but at the making of man, when man was nothing. So then, here we consider not mercy as it is radically in God, and an essential attribute of his, but productively in us, as it is an action, a working upon us, and that more especially, as God takes all occasions to exercise that action, and to shed that mercy upon us: for particular mercies are feathers of his wings, and that prayer, Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee, is our birdlime; particular mercies are that cloud of Quailes which hovered over the host of Israel, and that prayer, Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us, is our net to catch, our Gomer to fill of those Quailes. The aire is not so full of Moats, of Atoms, as the Church is of Mercies; and as we can suck in no part of aire, but we take in those Moats, those Atoms; so here in the Congregation we cannot suck in a word from the preacher, we cannot speak, we cannot sigh a prayer to God, but that that whole breath and aire is made of mercy. But we call not upon you from this Text, to consider Gods ordinary mercy, that which he exhibits to all in the ministry of his Church; nor his miraculous mercy, his extraordinary deliverances of States and Churches; but we call upon particular Consciences, by occasion of this Text, to call to mind Gods occasional mercies to them; such mercies as a regenerate man will call mercies, though a natural man would call them accidents, or occurrences, or contingencies; A man wakes at mid-night full of unclean thoughts, and he hears a passing Bell; this is an occasional mercy, if he call that his own knell, and consider how unfit he was to be called out of the world then, how unready to receive that voice, Fool, this night they shall fetch away thy soul. The adulterer, whose eye waits for the twy-light, goes forth, and casts his eyes upon forbidden houses, and would enter, and sees a Lord have mercy upon us upon the door; this is an occasional mercy, if this bring him to know that they who lie sick of the plague within, pass through a furnace, but by Gods grace, to heaven; and he without, carries his own furnace to hell, his lustful loins to everlasting perdition. What an occasional mercy had Balaam, when his Ass Catechized him? What an occasional mercy had one Theefe, when the other catechized him so, Art not thou afraid being under the same condemnation? What an occasional mercy had all they that saw that, when the Devil himself fought for the name of Jesus, and wounded the sons of Sceva for exorcising in the name of Jesus, with that indignation, with that increpation, Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye? If I should declare what God hath done (done occasionally) for my soul, where he instructed me for fear of falling, where he raised me when I was fallen, perchance you would rather fixe your thoughts upon my illness, and wonder at that, then at Gods goodness, and glorify him in that; rather wonder at my sins, then at his mercies, rather consider how ill a man I was, then how good a God he is. If I should inquire upon what occasion God elected me, and writ my name in the book of Life, I should sooner be afraid that it were not so, then find a reason why it should be so. God made Sun and Moon to distinguish seasons, and day, and night, and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons: But God hath made no decree to distinguish the seasons of his mercies; In paradise, the fruits were ripe, the first minute, and in heaven it is always Autumn, his mercies are ever in their maturity. We ask panem quetidianum, our daily bread, and God never says you should have come yesterday, he never says you must again to morrow, but to day if you will hear his voice, to day he will hear you. If some King of the earth have so large an extent of Dominion, in North, and South, as that he hath Winter and Summer together in his Dominions, so large an extent East and West, as that he hath day and night together in his Dominions, much more hath God mercy and judgement together: He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light; he can bring thy Summer out of Winter, though thou have no Spring; though in the ways of fortune, or understanding, or conscience, thou have been benighted till now, wintred and frozen, clouded and eclypsed, damped and benummed, smothered and stupefied till now, now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the Sun at noon to illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite his mercies, and all times are his seasons.

If it were not thus in general, it would never have been so in this particular, in our case, in the Text, in King Ahaz; If God did not seek occasion to do good to all, he would never have found occasion to do good to King Ahaz. Subjects are to look upon the faults of Princes, with the spectacles of obedience, and reverence, to their place, and persons; little and dark spectacles, and so their faults, and errors are to appear little, and excusable to them; Gods perspective glass, his spectacle is the whole world; he looks not upon the Sun, in his sphere only, but as he works upon the whole earth: And he looks upon Kings, not only what harm they do at home, but what harm they occasion abroad; & through that spectacle, the faults of Princes, in Gods eye, are multiplied, far above those of private men. Ahaz had such faults, and yet God sought occasion of Mercy. Iotham, his Father, is called a good King, and yet all Idolatry was not removed in his time, and he was a good King, for all that. Ahaz is called ill, both because himself sacrificed Idolatrously, (And the King was a commanding person) And because he made the Priest Vriah to do so, (And the Priest was an exemplar person) And because he made his Son commit the abominations of the heathen; (And the actions of the Kings Son pierce far in leading others.) Ahaz had these faults, and yet God fought occasion of mercy. If the evening sky be red, you promise your selves a faire day, says Christ; you would not do so if the evening were black and cloudy: when you see the fields white with corn, you say harvest is ready; you would not do so if they were white with frost. If ye consent, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the Land, says God in the Prophet; shall ye do so if you refuse, and rebell? Ahaz did, and yet God sought occasion of mercy. There arise diseases for which there is no probatum est, in all the books of Physicians; There is scarce any sin of which we have not had experiments of Gods mercies; He concludes with no sin, excludes no occasion, precludes no person: And so we have done with our first part, Gods general disposition, for the Rule, declared in Ahaz case for the example.

Our second part consists of a Rule, and an Example too: The Rule, That God goes forward in his own ways, proceeds, as he begun, in mercy; The Example, what his proceeding, what his subsequent mercy to Ahaz was. One of the most convenient Hieroglyphicks of God, is a Circle; and a Circle is endless; whom God loves, he loves to the end: and not only to their own end, to their death, but to his end, and his end is, that he might love them still. His hailestones, and his thunder-bolts, and his shores of blood (emblemes and instruments of his Judgements) fall down in a direct line, and affect and strike some one person, or place: His Sun, and Moon, and Stars, (Emblemes and Instruments of his Blessings) move circularly, and communicate themselves to all. His Church is his chariot; in that, he moves more gloriously, then in the Sun; as much more, as his begotten Son exceeds his created Sun, and his Son of glory, and of his right hand, the Sun of the firmament; and this Church, his chariot, moves in that communicable motion, circularly; It began in the East, it came to us, and is passing now, shining out now, in the farthest West. As the Sun does not set to any Nation, but withdraw it self, and return again; God, in the exercise of his mercy, does not set to thy soul, though he benight it with an affliction. Remember that our Savior Christ himself, in many actions and passions of our humane nature, and infirmities, smothered that Divinity, and suffered it not to work, but yet it was always in him, and wrought most powerfully in the deepest danger; when he was absolutely dead, it raised him again: If Christ slumbered the God-head in himself, The mercy of God may be slumbered, it may be hidden from his servants, but it cannot be taken away, and in the greatest necessities, it shall break out. The Blessed Virgin was overshadowed, but it was with the Holy Ghost that overshadowed her: Thine understanding, thy conscience may be so too, and yet it may be the work of the Holy Ghost, who moves in thy darkness, and will bring light even out of that, knowledge out of thine ignorance, clearness out of thy scruples, and consolation out of thy Dejection of Spirit. God is thy portion, says David; David does not speak so narrowly, so penuriously, as to say, God hath given thee thy portion, and thou must look for no more; but, God is thy portion, and as long as he is God, he hath more to give, and as long as thou art his, thou hast more to receive. Thou canst not have so good a Title, to a subsequent blessing, as a former blessing; where thou art an ancient tenant, thou wilt look to be preferred before a stranger; and that is thy title to Gods future mercies, if thou have been formerly accustomed to them. The Sun is not weary with six thousand years shining; God cannot be weary of doing good; And therefore never say, God hath given me these and these temporal things, and I have scattered them wastfully, surely he will give me no more; These and these spiritual graces, and I have neglected them, abused them, surely he will give me no more; For, for things created, we have instruments to measure them; we know the compass of a Meridian, and the depth of a Diameter of the Earth, and we know this, even of the uppermost sphere in the heavens: But when we come to the Throne of God himself, the Orbe of the Saints, and Angels that see his face, and the virtues, and powers that flow from thence, we have no balance to weigh them, no instruments to measure them, no hearts to conceive them: So, for temporal things, we know the most that man can have; for we know all the world; but for Gods mercy, and his spiritual graces, as that language in which God spake, the Hebrew, hath no superlative, so, that which he promises, in all that he hath spoken, his mercy hath no superlative; he shows no mercy, which you can call his Greatest Mercy, his Mercy is never at the highest; whatsoever he hath done for thy soul, or for any other, in applying himself to it, he can exceed that. Only he can raise a Tower, whose top shall reach to heaven: The Basis of the highest building is but the Earth; But though thou be but a Tabernacle of Earth, God shall raise thee piece by piece, into a spiritual building; And after one Story of Creation, and another of Vocation, and another of Sanctification, he shall bring thee up, to meet thy self, in the bosom of thy God, where thou wast at first, in an eternal election: God is a circle himself, and he will make thee one; Go not thou about to square either circle, to bring that which is equal in it self, to Angles, and Corners, into dark and sad suspicions of God, or of thy self, that God can give, or that thou canst receive no more Mercy, then thou hast had already.

This then is the course of Gods mercy, He proceeds as he begun, which was the first branch of this second part; It is always in motion, and always moving towards All, always perpendicular, right over every one of us, and always circular, always communicable to all; And then the particular beam of this Mercy, shed upon Ahaz here in our Text, is, Dabit signum, The Lord shall give you a sign. It is a great Degree of Mercy, that he affords us signs. A natural man is not made of Reason alone, but of Reason, and Sense: A Regenerate man is not made of Faith alone, but of Faith and Reason; and Signs, external things, assist us all.

In the Creation, it was part of the office of the Sun and Moon, to be significative; he created them for signs, as well as for seasons: he directed the Jews to Christ, by signs, by sacrifices, and Sacraments, and ceremonies; and he entertains us with Christ, by the same means to; we know where to find Christ; In his House, in his Church; And we know at what sign he dwells; where the Word is rightly Preached, and the Sacraments duly administered. It is truly, and wisely said, Sic habenda fides verbo Dei, ut subsidia minimè contemnamus; We must so far satisfy our selves, with the word of God, as that we despise not those other subsidiary helps, which God in his Church hath afforded us: which is true (as of Sacraments especially) so of other Sacramental, and Ritual, and Ceremonial things, which assist the working of the Sacraments, though they infuse no power into the Sacraments. For, therefore does the Prophet say, when Ahaz refused a sign, Is it a small thing to weary (or disobey) men, but that you will weary (disobey) God himself? He disobeys God, in the way of contumacy, who refuses his signs, his outward assistances, his ceremonies which are induced by his authority, derived from him, upon men, in his Church, and so made a part, or a help, of his ordinary service, as Sacraments, and Sacramental things are.

There are signs of another sort, not fixed by Gods Ordinance, but signs which particular men, have sometimes desired at Gods hand, for a farther manifestation of Gods will, in which, it is not, otherwise, already fully manifested, and revealed. For, to seek such signs, in things which are sufficiently declared by God, or to seek them, with a resolution, That I will leave a duty undone, except I receive a sign, this is to tempt God, and to seek a way to excuse my self, for not doing that, which I was bound to do, by the strength of an old commandment, and ought not to look for a new sign. But the greatest fault in this kind, is, that if God, of his abundant goodness, do give me a sign, for my clearer directions, and I resist that sign, I dispute against that sign, I turn it another way, upon nature, upon fortune, upon mistaking, that so I may go mine own way, and not be bound, by believing that sign to be from God, to go that way, to which God by that sign calls me. And this was Ahaz case; God spoke unto him, and said, Ask a sign (that he would deliver him, from the enemy, that besieged Jerusalem) and he said, I will not ask a sign, nor tempt God; For, though St. Augustine, and some with him, ascribe this refusal of Ahaz, to a religious modesty, yet St. Jerome, and with him, the greatest party, justly impute this, for a fault to Ahaz: both because the sign was offered him from God, and not sought by himself, (which is the case that is most subject to error) And because the Prophet, who understood Gods mind, and the Kings mind to, takes knowledge of it, as of a great fault, In this, thou hast contemned, and wearyed, not Man but God. For, though there be but a few cases, in which we may put God to give a sign, (for Christ calls the Pharisees an evil, and an adulterous generation, therefore, because they sought a sign) yet God gave Moses a sign, of a Rod changed into a Serpent, and a sign of good flesh changed into leprous, and leprous into good, unasked: And after, Abraham asks a sign, whereby shall I know, that I shall inherit the land? and God gave him a sign. So Gideon, in a modest timorousness asks a sign, and presses God to a second sign: First, he would have all the dew upon the fleece, and then, none of the dew upon the fleece. God does give signs, and when he does so, he gives also irradiations, illustrations of the understanding, that they may be discerned to be his signs; and when they are so, it is but a pretended modesty, to say, we will not tempt God to ask a sign, we will not trouble God to tell us whether this be a sign or no, but against all significations from God, go on, as though all were but natural accidents.

God gives signs rectè petentibus, to them that ask them upon due grounds, (so to Abraham, so to Gideon) And it is too long for this time, to put cases, when a man may or may not put God to a sign; He gives signs also Non petentibus, without being asked, to illustrate the case, and to confirm the person, and so he did to Moses. Both these are high expressions of his mercy; for what binds God, to begin with man, and give him a sign before he ask; or to wait upon man, and give it him, when he asks? But the highest of all, is, to persever in his mercy so far, as to give a sign, though upon the offer thereof, it be refused; And that is Ahaz case: Ask ye, says God, And, I will not, says Ahaz, and then, It is not Quamvis, for all that, though thou refuse, but it is Propterea, Therefore, because thou refusest, The Lord himself shall give thee a sign. His fault is carried thus high: Because he had treasure to pay an army, because he had contracted with the Assyrians to assist him with men, therefore he refuses the assistance offered by the Prophet from God, and would fain go his own ways, and yet would have a religious pretext, He will not tempt God. Nay his fault is carried thus much higher, That which we read, Non tentabo, I will not tempt, is in the Original, Nasas; and Nasas is non Extollam, non glorificabo, I will not glorify God so much, that is, I will not be beholden to God for this victory, I will not take him into the league for this action, I will do it of my self: And yet, (and then, who shall doubt of the largeness of Gods mercy?) God proceeds in his purpose: Ask a sign, will ye not? Therefore the Lord shall give you a sign: Because you will do nothing for your self, the Lord shall do all; which is so transcendent a mercy, as that, howsoever God afforded it to Ahaz here, we can promise it to no man hereafter.

We are come to our third part, which is more peculiar to this Day: It is, first, what the sign is in general, And then, some more particular circumstances, Behold a Virgin shall conceive, &c. In general then, the sign that God gives Ahaz and his company, is, That there shall be a Messiah, a Redeemer given. Now, how is this future thing, (There shall be a Messiah) a sign of their present deliverance from that siege? First, In the notion of the Prophet, it was not a future thing; for, as in Gods own sight, so in their sight, to whom he opens himself, future things are present. So this Prophet says, Puer datus, filius natus, unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: He was not given, he was not born in six hundred years after that; but such is the cleareness of a Prophets sight, such is the infallibility of Gods declared purpose. So then, if the Prophet could have made the King believe, with such an assuredness, as if he had seen it done, that God would give a deliverance, to all mankind, by a Messiah, that had been sign enough, evidence enough to have argued thereupon, That God who had done so much a greater work, would also give him a deliverance from that enemy, that pressed him then: If I can fixe my self, with the strength of faith, upon that which God hath done for man; I cannot doubt of his mercy, in any distress: If I lack a sign, I seek no other but this, That God was made man for me; which the Church and Church-writers, have well expressed by the word Incarnation, for that acknowledges, and denotes, that God was made my flesh: It were not so strange, that he who is spirit, should be made my spirit, my soul, but he was made my flesh: Therefore have the Fathers delighted themselves, in the variation of that word; so far, as that Hilary calls it Corporationem, That God assumed my Body; And Damascene calls it Inhumanationem, That God became this man, soul and body; And Irenaeus calls it Adunationem, and Nysen Contemperationem, A mingling, says one, an uniting, says the other, of two, of God and man, in one person. Shall I ask, what needs all this? what needed God to have put himself to this? I may say with S. Augustine, Alio modo poterat Deus nos liberare, sed si aliter faceret, similiter vestrae stultitiae displiceret: What other way soever God had taken for our salvation, our curiosity would no more have been satisfied in that way, than in this: But God having chosen the way of Redemption, which was the way of Justice, God could do no otherwise: Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis, non justè victus esset inimicus, says Irenaeus; As, if a man should get a battle by the power of the Devil, without fighting, this were not a just victory; so, if God, in mans behalf, had conquered the devil, without man, without dying, it had not been a just conquest. I must not ask why God took this way, to Incarnate his Son; And shall I ask how this was done? I do not ask how Rheubarb, or how Aloes came by this, or this virtue, to purge this, or this humor in my body: In talibus rebus, tota ratio facti, est potentia facientis: Even in natural things, all the reason of all that is done, is the power, and the will of him, who infused that virtue into that creature. And therefore much more, when we come to these supernatural points, such as this birth of Christ, we embrace S. Basils modesty, and abstinence, Nativitas ista silentio honoretur, This mystery is not so well celebrated, with our words, and discourse, as with a holy silence, and meditation: Immo potius ne cogitationibus permittatur, Nay, (says that Father) there may be danger in giving our selves leave, to think or study too much of it. Ne dixer is quando, says he, praeteri hanc interrogationem: Ask not thy self overcuriously, when this mystery was accomplished; be not over-vehement, over-peremptory, (so far, as to the perplexing of thine own reason and understanding, or so far, as to the despising of the reasons of other men) in calculating the time, the day or hour of this nativity: Praeteri hanc interrogationem, pass over this question, in good time, and with convenient satisfaction, Quando, when Christ was born; But noli inquirere Quomodo, (says S. Basil still) never come to that question, how it was done, cum ad hoc nihil sit quod responderi possit, for God hath given us no faculties to comprehend it, no way to answer it. That's enough, which we have in S. John, Every spirit, that confesses, that Jesus is come in the flesh, is of God: for, since it was a comming of Jesus, Jesus was before; so he was God; and since he came in the flesh, he is now made man; And, that God and Man, are so met, is a sign to me, that God, and I, shall never be parted.

This is the sign in general; That God hath had such a care of all men, is a sign to me, That he hath a care of me: But then there are signs of this sign; Divers; All these; A Virgin shall conceive, A Virgin shall bring forth, Bring forth a Son, And (whatsoever have been prophesied before) she shall call his name Immanuel.

First, a Virgin shall be a mother, which is a very particular sign, and was seen but once. That which Gellius, and Pliny say, that a Virgin had a child, almost 200. years before Christ, that which Genebrard says, that the like fell out in France, in his time, are not within our faith, and they are without our reason; our faith stoops not down to them, and our Reason reaches not up to them; of this Virgin in our text, If that be true, which Aquinas cites out of the Roman story, that in the times of Constantine and Irene, upon a dead body found in a sepulchre, there was found this inscription, in a plate of gold, Christus nascetur ex Virgin, & ego credo in eum, Christ shall be born of a Virgin, and I believe in that Christ, with this addition, in that inscription, O Sol, sub Irena, & Constantini temporibus, iterum me videbis, Though I be now buried from the sight of the sun, yet in Constantines time, the sun shall see me again; If this be true, yet our ground is not upon such testimony; If God had not said it, I would never have believed it. And therefore I must have leave to doubt of that which some of the Roman Casuists have delivered, That a Virgin may continue a virgin upon earth, and receive the particular dignity of a Virgin in Heaven, and yet have a child, by the insinuation and practise of the Devil; so that there shall be a father, and a mother, and yet both they Virgins. That this Mother, in our text, was a Virgin, is a peculiar, a singular sign, given, as such, by God; never done but then; and it is a singular testimony, how acceptable to God, that state of virginity is; He does not dishonor physic, that magnifies health; nor does he dishonor marriage, that praises Virginity; let them embrace that state, that can; and certainly, many more might do it, then do, if they would try whether they could, or no; and if they would follow S. Cyprians way, Virgo non tantum esse, sed & intelligi esse debet, & credi: It is not enough for a virgin to be a virgin in her own knowledge, but she must govern her self so, as that others may see, that she is one, and see, that she hath a desire, and a disposition, to continue so still; Ita, ut nemo, cum virginem viderit, dubitet an sit virgo, says that Father, She must appear in such garments, in such language, and in such motions, (for, as a wife may wear other clothes, so she may speak other words, then a virgin may do) as they that see her, may not question, nor dispute, whether she be a maid or no. The word in the Text, is derived à latendo, from retiring, from privateness: And Tertullian, who makes the note, notes withal, that Ipsa concupiscentia non latendi, non est pudica, The very concupiscence of conversation, and visits, is not chaste: Studium placendi, publication sui, periclitatur, says the same Author: Curious dressings are for public eyes; and the Virgin that desires to publish her self, is weary of that state: It is usefully added by him, Dum percutitur oculis alienis, frons duratur, & pudor teritur, the eyes of others, that strike upon her, (if she be willing to stand out that battery) dry up that blood, that should blush, and wear out that chastity, which should be preserved. So precious is virginity in Gods eye, as that he looks upon that, with a more jealous eye, than upon other states.

This blessed Mother of God, in our text, was a Virgin: when? Virgo concipiet, says our Text, A Virgin shall conceive, when she conceived, she was a Virgin. There are three Heresies; all noted by S. Augustine that impeach the virginity of this most blessed Woman: The Cerinthians said she conceived by ordinary generation; Iovinian said, she was delivered by ordinary means; And Helvidius said, she had children after: All against all the world besides themselves, and against one another. For the first, that is enough which S. Basil says, that if the word Virgin in our text signified no more but adolescentulam, a young woman (as they pretend) it had been an impertinent, an absurd thing for the Prophet to have made that a sign, and a wonder, that a young woman should have a child. This is enough, but that is abundantly enough, that S. Matthew, who spoke with the same spirit that Isaiah did, says in a word, which can admit no mis-interpretation, That that was fulfilled which Isaiah had said, A Virgin shall conceive; S. Matthews word without question, is a Virgin, and not a young woman, and S. Matthew took Esays word to be so too; and S. Matthew (at least he that spake in S. Matthew) did not, could not mistake, and mistake himself, for it was one and the same Holy Ghost that spake both. Christ says therefore of himself, vermis sum, I am a worm, but says S. Ambrose, vermis de Manna, a worm out of a pure substance, a holy Man, from a blessed Virgin; Virgo concepit, she was a Virgin then, then when she had conceived.

She was so to, In partu, then when she was delivered; Iovinian denied that: A better then he (Tertullian) denied it: Virgo quantum à viro, non quantum à partu, says he, she was such a Virgin as knew no man, not such a Virgin as needed no midwife: Virgo concepit, says he, in partu nupsit, a Virgin in her conception, but a wife in the deliverance of her Son. Let that be wrapped up amongst Tertullians errors, he had many; The text clears it, A virgin shall conceive, a virgin shall bear a Son: The Apostles Creed clears it, says S. August: when it says, Born of the Virgin Mary; and S. Ambrose clears it, when he says, with such indignation, De via iniquitat is produntur dicere, virgo cōcepit, sed non virgo generavit, It is said, that there are some men so impious, as to deny that she remained a Virgin at the birth of her Son: S. Ambrose wondered there should be, scarce believed it to be any other then a rumor, or a slander, that there could be any so impious, as to deny that: And yet there have been some so impious, as to charge Calvin, with that impiety, with denying her to be a Virgin then; It is true, he makes it not a matter of faith, to defend her perpetual virginity; but that's not this case, of her Virginity in her Deliverance: And even of that, (of her perpetual virginity) he says thus, Nemo unquam quaestionem movebit, nisi curiofus, nemo pertinaciter insistet, nisi contentiosus rixator; He is over-curious, that will make any doubt of it; but no man will persist in the denyal of it, but a contentious wrangler; And in that very point, S. Basil says fully as much, as Calvin. But, at his birth, and after his birth, there is evidence enough in this text, A Virgin shall conceive, A Virgin shall bring forth, A Virgin shall call him Immanuel, In all those future, and subsequent Acts, still it is the same person, and in the same condition.

Pariet, & pariet filium, She shall bring forth a Son; If a Son, then of the substance of his Mother; that the Anabaptists deny; But had it not been so, Christ had not been true Man, and then, man were yet unredeemed. He is her Son, but not her ward; his Father cannot dye: Her Son, but yet he asked her no leave, to stay at Jerusalem, nor to dispute with the Doctors, nor to go about his Fathers work: His setling of Religion, his governing the Church, his dispensing of his graces, is not by warrant from her: They that call upon the Bishop of Rome, in that voice, Impera Regibus, command Kings and Emperors, admit of that voice, Imperafilio, to her, that she should command her Sonno. The natural obedience of children to Parents, holds not in such civil things, as are public; A woman may be a Queen-Dowager, and yet a subject; The blessed Virgin Mary may be in a high rank, and yet no Sovereign; Blessed art thou amongst women, says the Angel to her; Amongst women, above women; but not above any person of the Trinity, that she should command her Son. Luther was awake, and risen, but he was not ready; He had seen light, and looked toward it, but yet saw not so clearly by it, then, when he said, That the blessed Virgin was of a middle condition, between Christ, and man; that man hath his conception, and his quickening (by the infusion of the soul) in original sin; that Christ had it in neither, no sin in his conception, none in his inanimation, in the infusion of his soul; But, says Luther, howsoever it were at the conception, certainly at the inanimation, at the quickening, she was preserved from original sin. Now, what needs this? may I not say, that I had rather be redeemed by Christ Jesus then be innocent? rather be beholden to Christs death, for my salvation, then to Adams standing in his innocency. Epiphanius said enough, Par detrimentum afferunt religioni, they hurt Religion as much, that ascribe too little, to the blessed Virgin, as they who ascribe too much; much is due to her, and this amongst the rest, That she had so clear notions, above all others, what kind of person, her Son was, that as Adam gave names, according to natures, so the Prophet here leaves it to her, to name her Son, according to his office, She shall call his name Immanuel.

We told you at first, that both Joseph and Mary, were told by the Angel, that his name was to be Jesus, and we told you also, that others, besides him, had been called by that name of Jesus: but, as, though others were called Jesus, (for Iosuah is called so, Heb. 4.8. If Jesus had given them rest; that is, If Iosuah had &c. And the son of Iosedech is called so, throughout the Prophet Aggai) yet there is observed a difference in the pointing, and founding of those names, from this our Jesus: so though other women were called Mary, as well as the blessed Virgin, yet the Evangelists, evermore make a difference, between her name, and the other Maries; for Her they call Mariam, and the rest Maria. Now this Jesus, in this person, is a real, an actual Savior, he that hath already really, and actually accomplished our salvation; But the blessed Virgin had a clearer illustration, then all that; for she only knew, or she knew best, the capacity, in which he could be a Savior, that is, as he is Immanuel, God with us; for she, and she only knew, that he was the Son of God, and not of natural generation by man. How much is enwrapped in this name Immanuel, and how little time to unfold it? I am afraid none at all; A minute will serve to repeat that which S. Bernard says, and a day, a life will not serve to comprehend it; (for to comprehend is not to know a thing, as far as I can know it, but to know it as far, as that thing can be known; and so only God, can comprehend God.) Immanuel est verbuminfans, says the Father; He is the ancient of days, and yet in minority; he is the Word it self, and yet speechless; he that is All, that all the Prophets spoke of, cannot speak: He adds more, He is Puer sapiens, but a child, and yet wiser then the elders, wiser in the Cradle, then they in the Chair: He is more, Deus lactens, God, at whose breasts all creatures suck, sucking at his Mothers breast, and such a Mother, as is a maid. Immanuel is God with us; it is not we with God: God seeks us, comes to us, before we to him: And it is God with us, in that notion, in that termination, El, which is Deus fortis, The powerful God; not only in infirmity, as when he died in our nature, but as he is Deus fortis, able and ready to assist, and deliver us, in all encumbrances; so he is with us; And with us, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world, in his Word, and in the Sacraments: for, though I may not say, as some have said, That by the word of Consecration, in the administration of the Sacrament, Christ is so infallibly produced, as that, if Christ had never been incarnate before, yet, at the pronouncing of those words of consecration, he must necessarily be incarnate then, yet I may say, that God is as effectually present, with every worthy receiver, as that he is not more effectually present with the Saints in Heaven.

And this is that, which is intimated in that word, which we seposed at first, for the last of all, Ecce, Behold; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive &c. God does not furnish a room, and leave it dark; he sets up lights in it; his first care was, that his benefits should be seen; he made light first, and then creatures, to be seen by that light: He sheds himself from my mouth, upon the whole auditory here; he powers himself from my hand, to all the Communicants at the table; I can say to you all here, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and remain with you all; I can say to them all there, The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for you, preserve you to everlasting life: I can bring it so near; but only the worthy hearer, and the worthy receiver, can call this Lord, this Jesus, this Christ, Immanuel, God with us; only that Virgin soul, devirginated in the blood of Adam, but restored in the blood of the Lambe, hath this Ecce, this testimony, this assurance, that God is with him; they that have this Ecce, this testimony, in a rectified conscience, are Godfathers to this child Jesus, and may call him Immanuel, God with us; for, as no man can deceive God, so God can deceive no man; God cannot live in the dark himself, neither can he leave those, who are his, in the dark: If he be with thee, he will make thee see, that he is with thee; and never go out of thy sight, till he have brought thee, where thou canst never go out of his.

Sermon III. Preached upon Christmas day, at S. Pauls, 1625.

GALAT. 4.4. & 5.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons.

WE are met here to celebrate the generation of Christ Jesus; but Generationem ejus quis enarrabit, says the Prophet, who shall declare his generation, his age? For, for his essential generation, be which he is the Son of God, the Angels, who are almost 6000. years elder then we, are no nearer to that generation of his, then if they had been made but yesterday: Eternity hath no such distinctions, no limits, no periods, no seasons, no months, no years, no days; Methusalem, who was so long lived, was no elder in respect of eternity, then Davids son by Berseba, that died the first week. The first Fiat in the Creation of Adam, and the last note of the blowing of the Trumpets to judgement, (though there be between these (as it is ordinarily received) 2000. years of nature, between the Creation, and the giving of the Law by Moses, and 2000. years of the Law between that, and the comming of Christ, and 2000. years of Grace and Gospel between Christ first, and his second comming) yet this Creation and this Judgement are not a minute asunder in respect of eternity, which hath no minutes. Whence then arises all our vexation and labor, all our anxieties and anguishes, all our suits and pleadings, for long leases, for many lives, for many years purchase in this world, when, if we be in our way to the eternal King of the eternal kingdom, Christ Jesus, all we are not yet, all the world shall never be a minute old; Generationem ejus quis enarrabit, what tongue can declare, what heart can conceive his generation which was so long before any heart or tongue was made? But we come not now to consider that eternal generation, not Christ merely as the Son of God, but the Son of Mary too: And that generation the Holy Ghost hath told us, was in the fullness of time: When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth, &c.

In which words, we have these three considerations; First, the time of Christs comming, and that was the fullness of time; And then, the manner of his comming, which is expressed in two degrees of humiliation, one, that he was made of a woman, the other, that he was made under the Law; And then, the third part is the purpose of his comming, which also was twofold; for first, he came to redeem them who were under the Law, All; And secondly he came, that we (we the elect of God in him) might receive adoption; When the fullness of time was come, &c.

For the full consideration of this fullness of time, we shall first consider this fullness in respect of the Jews, and then in respect of all Nations, and lastly in respect of our selves: The Jews might have seen the fullness of time, the Gentiles did (in some measure) see it, and we must (if we will have any benefit by it) see it too. It is an observation of S. Cyril, That none of the Saints of God, nor such as were noted to be exemplarily religious, and sanctified men did ever celebrate with any festival solemnity, their own birth-day. Pharaoh celebrated his own Nativity, but who would make Pharaoh his example? and besides, he polluted that festival with the blood of one of his servants. Herod celebrated his Nativity, but who would think it an honor to be like Herod? and besides, he polluted that festival with the blood of John Baptist. But the just contemplation of the miseries and calamities of this life, into which our birth-day is the door, and the entrance, is so far from giving any just occasion of a festival, as it hath often transported the best disposed Saints and servants of God to a distemper, to a malediction, and cursing of their birth-day. Cursed be the day wherein I was born, and let not that day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Let the day perish wherein I was born, let that day be darkness, and let not God regard it from above. How much misery is presaged to us, when we come so generally weeping into the world, that, perchance, in the whole body of history we read but of one child, Zoroaster, that laughed at his birth: What miserable revolutions and changes, what downfals, what break-necks, and precipitations may we justly think our selves ordained to, if we consider, that in our comming into this world out of our mothers womb, we do not make account that a child comes right, except it come with the head forward, and thereby prefigure that headlong falling into calamities which it must suffer after? Though therefore the days of the Martyrs, which are for our example celebrated in the Christian Church, be ordinarily called natalitia Martyrum, the birth-day of the Martyrs, yet that is not intended of their birth in this world, but of their birth in the next; when, by death their souls were new delivered of their prisons here, and they newly born into the kingdom of heaven; that day, upon that reason, the day of their death was called their birth-day, and celebrated in the Church by that name. Only to Christ Jesus, the fullness of time was at his birth; not because he also had not a painful life to pass through, but because the work of our redemption was an entire work, and all that Christ said, or did, or suffered, concurred to our salvation, as well his mothers swathing him in little clouts, as Iosephs shrowding him in a funeral sheet; as well his cold lying in the Manger, as his cold dying upon the Cross; as well the puer natus, as the consummatum est; as well his birth, as his death is said to have been the fullness of time.

First we consider it to have been so to the Jews; for this was that fullness, in which all the prophecies concerning the Messiah, were exactly fulfilled; That he must come whilst the Monarchy of Rome flourished; And before the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed; That he must be born in Bethlem; That he must be born of a Virgin; His person, his actions, his passion so distinctly prophesied, so exactly accomplished, as no word being left unfulfilled, this must necessarily be a fullness of time. So fully was the time of the Messiah comming, come, that though some of the Jews say now, that there is no certain time revealed in the Scriptures when the Messiah shall come, and others of them say, that there was a time determined, and revealed, and that this time was the time, but by reason of their great sins he did not come at his time, yet when they examine their own supputations, they are so convinced with that evidence, that this was that fullness of time, that now they express a kind of conditional acknowledgement of it, by this barbarous and inhumane custom of theirs, that they always keep in readiness the blood of some Christian, with which they anoint the body of any that dies amongst them, with these words, if Jesus Christ were the Messiah, then may the blood of this Christian avail thee to salvation: So that by their doubt, and their implied consent, in this action, this was the fullness of time, when Christ Jesus did come, that the Messiah should come.

It was so to the Jews, and it was so to the Gentiles too; It filled those wise men which dwelt so far in the East, that they followed the star from thence to Jerusalem. Herod was so full of it, that he filled the Country with streams of innocent blood, and lest he should spare that one innocent child, killed all. The two Emperors of Rome, Vespasian and Domitian were so full of it, that in jealousy of a Messiah to come then, from that race, they took special care for the destruction of all, of the posterity of David. All the whole people were so full of it, that divers false-Messiahs, Barcocab, and Moses of Crete, and others rose up, and drew, and deceived the people, as if they had been the Messiah, because that was ordinarily known, and received to be the time of his comming. And the Devil himself was so full of it, as that in his Oracles he gave that answer, That an Hebrew child should be God over all gods, and brought the Emperor to erect an Altar, to this Messiah Christ Jesus, though he knew not what he did. This was the fullness that filled Jew and Gentile, Kings and Philosophers, strangers and inhabitants, counterfaits and devils to the expectation of a Messiah; and when comes this fullness of time to us, that we feel this Messiah born in our selves?

In this fullness, in this comming of our Savior into us, we should find a threefold fullness in our selves; we should find a fullness of nature (because not only of spiritual, but of natural and temporal things, all the right which we have in this world, is in, and for, and by Christ, for so we end all our prayers of all sorts, with that clause, per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Grant this O Lord, for our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus sake.) And we should find a fullness of grace, a daily sense of improvement growth in grace, a filling of all former vacuities, a supplying of all emptinesses in our souls, till we came to Stephens fullness, Full of the holy Ghost and wisdom, and full of the holy Ghost and Faith, and full of faith and power: And so we should come to find a fullness of glory, that is an apprehension and inchoation of heaven in this life; for the glory of the next world, is not in the measure of that glory, but in the measure of my capacity; it is not that I shall have as much as any soul hath, but that I shall have as much as my soul can receive; it is not in an equality with the rest, but in a fullness in my self; And so, as I shall have a fullness of nature, that is, such an ability and such a use of natural faculties, and such a portion of the natural things of this world as shall serve to fill up Gods purpose in me: And as I shall have a fullness of grace, that is, such a measure of grace as shall make me discern a temptation, and resist a temptation, or at least repent it, if I have not effectually resisted it, so even here, I shall have a fullness of glory, that is, as much of that glory as a way-faring soul is capable of in this world; All these fulnesses I shall have, if I can find and feel in my self this birth of Christ. His eternal birth in heaven is unexpressible, where he was born without a mother; His birth on earth is unexpressible too, where he was born without a father; but thou shalt feel the joy of his third birth in thy soul, most inexpressible this day, where he is born this day (if thou wilt) without father or mother; that is, without any former, or any other reason then his own mere goodness that should beget that love in him towards thee, and without any matter or merit in thee which should enable thee to conceive him. He had a heavenly birth, by which he was the eternal Son of God, and without that he had not been a person able to redeem thee; He had a humane birth, by which he was the Son of Mary, and without that he had not been sensible in himself of thine infirmities, and necessities; but, this day (if thou wilt) he hath a spiritual birth in thy soul, without which, both his divine, and his humane birth are utterly unprofitable to thee, and thou art no better then if there had never been Son of God in heaven, nor Son of Mary upon earth. Even the Stork in the aire knoweth her appointed time, and the Turtle, and the Crane, and the Swallow observe the time of their comming, but my people knoweth not the judgements of the Lord. For, if you do know your time, you know that now is your fullness of time; This is your particular Christmas-day; when, if you be but as careful to cleanse your souls, as you are your houses, if you will but follow that counsel of S. Augustine, Quicquid non vis inveniri in domo tua, non inveniat Deus in anima tua, That uncleanness which you would be loth your neighbor should find in your houses, let not God nor his Angels find in your souls, Christ Jesus is certainly born. and will as certainly grow up in your souls.

We pass from this, to our second part, The manner of his comming; where we proposed two degrees of Christs humiliation, That he was made of a woman, and made under the Law. In the first alone, are two degrees too, that he takes the name of the Son of a woman, and wanes the glorious name of the Son of God; And then, that he takes the name of the son of a woman, and wanes the miraculous name of the son of a Virgin. For the first; Christ ever refers himself to his Father; As he says, The Father which sent me, gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak, so, for all that which he did or suffered, he says, My meat is to do his will that sent me, and to finish his work: And so, though he say, I am come out from the Father, and am come into the world; yet, be where he will, still, Ego & pater unum sumus, He and his Father were all one. But devesting that glory, or slumbering it in his flesh, till the Father glorify him again with that glory, which he had with him from the beginning, in his Ascension, he humbles himself here to that addition, The Son of a woman, made of a woman.

Christ waned the glorious Name of Son of God, and the miraculous Name of Son of a Virgin to; which is not omitted to draw into doubt, the perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Christ; she is not called a woman, as though she were not a Maid; when it is said, Joseph knew her not, donec peperit, till she brought forth her Son, this did not imply his knowledge of her after, no more, then when God says to Christ, donec ponam, sit at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool, that imports, that Christ should remove from his right hand after: For, here is a perpetual donec in both places; for evermore the ancient Expositors have understood that place of Ezekiel, to be intended of the perpetual Virginity of Mary, This gate shall be shut, and shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it. Solomon hath an exclamation, Is there any thing whereof a man may say, Behold this is new? and he answers himself immediately before, There is no new thing under the Sun. But behold here is a greater then Solomon, and he says now in action, by being born of a Virgin, as he had said, long before, in Prophesy, The Lord hath created a new thing upon earth, a woman shall compass a man. If this had been spoken of such a woman, as were no Maid, this had been no new thing: As it was, it was without example, and without natural reason; si ratio reddi posset, (says St. Bernard) non esset mirabile, si exempla haberemus, non esset singulare; If there were reason for it, it were no miracle, if there were precedents for it, it were not singular; and God intended both, that it should be a miracle, and that it should be done but once; we see in Nature, trees do bud out, and there is an emission, and emanation of flowers, and fruits, without any help of man, or any act done by him, to that tree; we read in Genesis, That the earth had produced all plants and herbs, before either any rain fell upon it, or any man tilled it. And these are good helps, and illustrations to us, after we have believed that a Virgin brought forth a Son; but nothing deduced out of nature, could prove this at first, to any man, except he believed it before. And therefore blessed be God, that hath given us that strength, which the Egyptian Mid-wives said the women of Israel had, that they brought forth children, without the help of Mid-wives: That we can humbly believe these mysteries of our religion, by faith, without the hand, and help of Reason; Si nondum mens idonea, abstrusa investigare, sine haesitatione credantur, says St. Augustine, In things which are not subject to any faculty of ours, to be discerned by reason, there is a present exercise of our faith. As we know it to be true, that the bush, in which God spake to Moses, was full of fire, and did burn, but not consume, because God hath said so, in his book, but yet we do not know, how that was done: so we know, (by the same evidence) that the Mother of our Savior, was a Virgin; but for the manner of this Mystery, we rest upon Epiphanius Rule, Quaecunque dicit Deus, credamus quòd sint; quomodo, Soli Deo cognitum: whatsoever God, in his word, says, was done, let us believe it to be done; how it was done, as we know that God knows, so we are content not to inquire more then it hath been his pleasure to communicate to us.

She was then, and she was always a Virgin; but because this Text is of his Humiliation, he leaves that Name that proceeds from miracle, and descends to that lower name of nature, Made of a woman. The Spirit of God fore-saw, that the issue between the Church, and the Heretics would not be Virgin or no Virgin, but whether Christ were made of a woman. Some Heretics did question the first; The Helvidians denied her perpetual Virginity: But that Heresy, and some others that opposed her Virginity, vanished in a short time. But the Manichees, that lasted long, and spread far in the old times, and the Anabaptists, which abound yet, deny that Christ was made of a woman; They say, that Christ passed through her, as water through a Pipe, but took nothing of her substance; and then, if he took not the nature of mankind, he hath not redeemed mankind. And therefore in that Prophesy of Jeremiah, that Christ should be born, and in this Gospel, in our Text, that Christ was born, the Holy Ghost mainttaines and continues that phrase, Made of a woman: And where he begins to express his Divinity in miracles, at the marriage in Cana, there Christ himself calls her, by no other name, Woman, what have I to do with thee? And when he had drawn all his miracles to a glorious consummatum est, upon the Cross, he calls her there, by that name too, Woman, behold thy Son. Here then was no such curious insisting upon Styles and Titles, and names of Dignities, no unkindness, no displeasure taken; if one should leave out a Right Honourable, or Right Worshipful, or an addition of an Office or Dignity; The powerfulness of Christs birth, consists in this, That he is made of God; The miraculousness of Christs birth, consisted in this, that he was made of a Virgin, and yet the Prophet and the Apostle, two principal Secretaries of the Holy Ghost, present him with this addition, made of a woman. Christ had one privilege in his birth, which never any Prince had, or shall have, that is, that he chose what Mother he would have, and might have been born of what woman he would have chosen. And in this large and universal chovce, though he chose a woman full of grace to be his Mother, yet that he might give spiritual comfort to all sorts of women, first to those, who should be unjustly suspected, and insimulated of sin and incontinency, when indeed they were innocent, he was content to come of a Mother, who should be subject to that suspicion, and whom her husband should think to be with child, before he married her, and thereupon purpose to put her away; And then, to fill those women, who had been guilty of that sin, with relief in their consciences against the wrath of God, and with reparation of their reputation and good name in the world, it was his unsearchable will and pleasure, that in all that Genealogy, and pedigree, which he, and his spirit hath inspired the Evangelists to record of his Ancestors, there is not one woman named, of whom Christ is descended, who is not dangerously noted in the Scriptures, to have had some aspersion of incontinence upon her; as both St. Jerome, and St. Ambrose, and St. Chrysostom observes, of Thamar, of Berseba, and of Ruth also.

So then, Christ Jesus who came only for the relief of sinners, is content to be known to have come, not only of poor parents, but of a sinful race; and though he exempted his Blessed Mother, more then any, from sin, yet he is now content to be born again of sinful Mothers: In that soul, that accuses it self most of sin; In that soul, that calls now to mind, (with remorce, and not with delight) the several times, and places, and ways, wherein she hath offended God; In that soul that acknowledgeth it self to have bin a sink of uncleanness, a Tabernacle, a Synagogue of Satan; In that soul, that hath been as it were possessed with Mary Magdalens seven Devils, yea with him, whose name was Legion, with all Devils; In that sinful soul would Christ Jesus fain be born, this day, and make that soul, his Mother, that he might be a regeneration to that soul. We cannot afford Christ, such a birth in us, as he had, to be born of a Virgin; for every one of us well-nigh hath married himself to some particular sin, some beloved sin, that he can hardly divorce himself from; nay, no man keeps his faith, to that one sin, that he hath married himself to, but mingles himself with other sins also. Though Covetousness, whom he loves, as the wife of his bosom, have made him rich, yet he will commit adultery with another sin, with Ambition; and he will part, even with those riches, for Honor: Though Ambition be his wife, his married sin, yet he will commit adultery with another sin, with Licentiousness, and he will endanger his Honor, to fulfill his Lust; Ambition may be his wife, but Lust is his Concubine. We abandon all spiritual chastity; all virginity, we marry our particular sins, and then we divide our loves with other sins too: Thou hast multiplied thy fornications, and yet art not satisfied, is a complaint, that reaches us all, in spiritual fornications, and goes very far, in carnal. And yet, for all this, we are capable of this Conception, Christ may be born in us, for all this: As God said unto the Prophet, Take thee a wife of fornications, and children of fornications; so is Christ Jesus content to take our souls, though too often mothers of fornications: As long as we are united, and incorporated in his beloved Spouse, the Church, conform our selves to her, grow up in her, hearken to his word in her, feed upon his Sacraments in her, acknowledge a seal of reconciliation, by the absolution of the Minister in her, so long, (how unclean soever we have bin, if we abhorre and forsake our uncleanness now) we participate of the chastity of that Spouse of his, the Church, and in her, are made capable of this conception of Christ Jesus, and so, it is as true this hour of us, as it was when the Apostle spoke these words, This is the fullness of time, when God sent his Son, &c.

Now you remember, that in this second part, (the manner of Christs comming) we proposed two degrees of humiliation; One which we have handled, in a double respect, as he is made, filius mulieris, non Dei, the son of a woman, and not the Son of God; the other, as he is filius mulieris, non Virginis, The son of a woman, and not called the son of a Virgin.

The second remains, that he was sub leg, under the law; now, this phrase, to be under the law, is not always so narrowly limited in the Scriptures, as to signify only the law of Moses; for, so, only the Jews were under the law, and so, Christs comming for them, who were under the law, his Death, and Merits should belong only to the Jews. But St. Augustine observes, that when Christ sent the message of his birth, to the wise men, in the East, by a starr, and to the shepherds, about Bethlem, by an Angel, In pastoribus, Iudaei; in magis, Gentes vocatae; The Jews had their calling in that manifestation to the shepherds, and the Gentiles in that, to the wise men in the East. But besides that Christ did submit himself, to all the weight even of the Ceremonial law of Moses, he was under a heavier law, then that, under that lex decreti, the contract and covenant with God the Father, under that oportuit pati, This he ought to suffer, before he could enter into glory. So that his being under the law, may be accounted not a part of his Humiliation, as his being made of a woman was, but rather the whole history, and frame of his humiliation, All that concerns his obedience, even to that law, which the Father had laid upon him; for, the life and death of Christ, from the Ave Maria, to the consummatum est, from his comming into this World, in his Conception, to his transmigration upon the Cross, was all under this law, heavier then any law, that any man is under, the law of the contract, and covenant between the Father, and him.

Though therefore we may think, judging by the law of reason, that since Christ came to gather a Church, and to draw the world to him, it would more have advanced that purpose of his, to have been born at Rome, where the seat of the Empire, and the confluence of all Nations, was, then in Iury, and (if he would offer the Gospel first to the Jews) better to have been born at Jerusalem, where all the outward, public, solemn worship of the Jews was, then at obscure Bethlem, and in Bethlem, in some better place then in an Inn, in a Stable, in a Manger; though we may think thus, in the law of reason, yet, non cogitationes mea cogitationes vestrae, says God in the Prophet, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor my laws your laws, for I am sub leg decreti, under another manner of law, then falls within your reading, under an obedience to that covenant, which hath passed between my Father, and me, and by those Degrees, and no other way, was my humiliation, for your Redemption, to be expressed. Though we may think in the law of Reason, that his work of propagating the Gospel, would have gone better forward, if he had taken for his Apostles, some Tullies, or Hortensii, or Senecaes, great, and persuading Orators, in stead of his Peter, and John, and Matthew, and those Fishermen, and tent-makers, and toll-gatherers; Though we might think in reason, and in piety too, that when he would humble himself to take our salvation into his care, it had been enough, to have been under the law of Moses, to live innocently, and righteously, without shedding of his blood; If he would shed blood, it might have been enough to have done so in the Circumcision, and scourging, without dying; If he would die, it might have been enough to have died some less accursed, and less ignominious death, then the death of the Cross; though we might reasonably enough, and piously enough, think thus, yet, non cogitationes vestrae, cogitationes mea, says the Lord, your way is not my way, your law is not my law; for, Christ was sub leg decreti, and thus, as he did, and no other way, it became him to fulfill all righteousness, that is, all that Decree of God, which he had accepted, and acknowledged as Righteous. He was so much under Moses law, as he would be: so much under that law, as that he suffered that law, to be wrested against him, and to be pretended to be broken by him, and to be endited, and condemned by that law. The Jews pressed that law, non sines veneficū vivere, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, when they attributed all his glorious miracles, to the power of the devil: and the Romans were incensed against him, for treason, and sedition, as though he aliened and withdrew the people from Caesar. But he was under a heavier law, then Jews or Romans, the Law of his Father, and his own eternal Decree, so far, as that he came to that sense of the weight thereof, Eli, Eli, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? and was never delivered from the burden of this law, till he pleaded the performance of all conditions between his Father, and him, and delivered up all the evidence thereof, in those words, In manus tuas, Into thy hands, O Lord I give my spirit, and so presented both the righteousness of his soul, which had fulfilled the law, and the soul it self, which was under the law. He died in Execution, and so discharged all; And so we have done with our second part, The manner of his comming.

We are come now, in our Order, to our third part, The purpose of Christs comming; and in that we consider two objects, that Christ had, and two subjects to work upon, two kinds of work, and two kinds of persons; First, to Redeem, and then to Adopt; Those are his works, his objects; And then, To redeem those that were under the law, that is, all, but to Adopt those whom he had chosen, us; And those are the persons, the subjects, that he works upon, by his comming.

First then, (to begin with the persons) those of the first kind, those that were under the Law: for them, (as we told you before) the law must not be so narrowly restrained here, as to be intended only of Moses Law, for Christs purpose was not only upon the Jews; for else, Naaman the Syrian, by whom God fought great battles, before he was cured of his leprosy, and who, when he was cured, was so zealous of the worship of the true God, that he would needs carry holy earth, to make Altars of, from the place, where the Prophet dwelt: And else, Job, who though he were of the land of Hus, hath good testimony of being an upright and just man, and one that feared God; And else, the Widow of Sarepta, whose meal, and oil God preserved unwasted, and whose dead son, God raised again, at the prayer of Elijah; All these, and all others, whom the searching Spirit of God, seals to his service, in all the corners of the earth, because they are strangers in the land of Israel, should not be under the Law, and so should have no profit by Christs being made under the Law, if the Law should be understood, only of the Law of Moses. And therefore to be under the Law, signifies here, thus much, To be a debter to the law of nature, to have a testimony in our hearts and consciences, that there lyes a law upon us, which we have no power in our selves to perform; that to those laws, To love God with all our powers, and to love our neighbor as our selves, and to do, as we would be done to, we find our selves naturally bound, and yet we find our selves naturally unable to perform them, and so to need the assistance of another, which must be Christ Jesus, to perform them for us; And so, all men, Jews and Gentiles are under the Law, because naturally they feel a law upon them, which they break. And therefore wheresoever our power becomes defective, in the performance of this law, if our will be not defective too, if we come not to say, God hath given us an impossible Law, and therefore it is lost labor, to go about to perform it, or God hath given us another to perform this Law for us, and therefore nothing is required at our hands; If we abstain from these quarrels to the law, and these murmurings at our own infirmity, we shall find, that the fullness of time is this day come, this day Christ is come to all that are under the Law, that is, to all mankind; to all, because all are unable to perform that Law, which they all see, by the light of nature to lye upon them.

These then be the persons of the first kind, All, all the world; Dilexit mundum, God so loved the world, that he gave his Son for it, for all the world; And, accordingly, venit salvare mundum, the obedience of the Son, was as large as the love of the Father, He came to save all the world, and he did save all the world; God would have all men, and Christ did save all men. It is therefore fearefully (and scarce allowably said) that Christ did contrary to his Fathers will, when he called those to grace, of whom he knew his Fathers pleasure to be, that they should have no grace; It is fearefully and dangerously said, Absurdum non esse, Deum interdum falsa loqui, & falsum loquenti credendum, that it is not absurd to say, (that is, that it may truly be said) that God does sometimes speak untruly, and that we are bound to believe God, when he does so: for, if we consider the sovereign balm of our souls, the blood of Christ Jesus, there is enough for all the world, if we consider the application of this physic, by the Ministers of Christ Jesus in the Church, he hath given us that spreading Commission, To go and preach to every creature, we are bid to offer, to apply, to minister this to all the world: Christ hath excommunicated no Nation, no shire, no house, no man: He gives none of his Ministers leave to say to any man, thou art not Redeemed, he gives no wounded nor afflicted conscience leave, to say to it self, I am not Redeemed. There may be meat enough brought into the house, for all the house, though some be so weak, as they cannot, (which is the case of the Gentiles) some so stubborn, as they will not eat, (which is the case of the carnal man, though in the Christian Church.)

He came to all, There are the persons, and to Redeem all, there is his errand; but how to Redeem? S. Jerome says, Gentes non Redimuntur, sed emuntur: The Gentiles, says he, are not properly Christs, by way of Redeeming, but by an absolute purchase: To which purpose those words are also applied, which the Apostle says to the Corinthians, Ye are bought with a price, S. Hieroms meaning therein, is, that if we compare the Jews and the Gentiles, though God permitted the Jews, in punishment of their rebellions, to be captivated by the devil in Idolatries, yet the Jews were but as in a mortgage, for they had been Gods peculiar people before; But the Gentiles were as the devils inheritance, for God had never claimed them, nor owned them for his; and therefore God says to Christ, Postula à me, Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance; as though they were not his yet, or not his by that title, as the Jews were. So that, in S. Hieromes construction, the Jews, which were Gods people before, were properly Redeemed, the Gentiles, to whom God made no title before, are rather bought, then redeemed. But, Nullum tempus occurrit Regi, against the King of Kings there runs no prescription; no man can divest his Allegiance to his Prince, and say he will be subject no longer; And therefore, since the Gentiles, were his by his first title of Creation, (for, it is he that hath made us, and not we our selves, nor the devil neither) when all we, by our general revolt, and prevarication, (as we were all collectively in Adams loins) came to be under that law, morte morieris, Thou shalt dye the death, when Christ came in the fullness of time, and delivered us from the sharpest, and heaviest clause of that Law, which is the second death, then he Redeemed us properly, because, (though not by the same title of Covenant, as the Jews were) yet we were his, and sold over to his enemy. These then were the persons, All, (none can say that he did not need him, none can say, that he may not have him) And this was his first work, to Redeem, to vindicate them from the usurper, to deliver them from the intruder, to emancipate them from the tyran, to cancel the covenant between hell, and them, and restore them so far to their liberty, as that they might come to their first Master, if they would; this was Redeeming.

But in his other work, which is Adoption, and where the persons were more particular, not all, but we, Christ hath taken us to him, in a straiter and more peculiar title, then Redeeming. For, A servando Servi, men who were, by another mans valor, saved and redeemed from the enemy, or from present death, they became thereby, servants to him that saved and redeemed them: Redemption makes us (who were but subjects before, for all are so, by creation) servants; but it is but servants; but Adoption makes us, who are thus made servants by Redemption, sons, for, Adoption is verbum forense, though it be a word which the Holy Ghost takes, yet he takes it from a civil use, and signification, in which, it expresses in divers circumstances, our Adoption into the state of Gods children. First, he that adopted another, must by that law, be a man, who had no children of his own; And this was Gods case towards us; He had no children of his own, we were all filii ira, The children of wrath, not one of us could be said to be the child of God, by nature, if we had not had this Adoption in Christ. Secondly, he, who, by that law, might Adopt, must be a Man, who had had, or naturally might have had children; for an Infant under years, or a man, who by nature was disabled from having children, could not Adopt another; And this was Gods case towards us too; for God had had children without Adoption; for by our creation in Innocence, we were the sons of God till we died all in one transgression, and lost all right, and all life, and all means of regaining it, but by this way of Adoption in Christ Jesus. Again, no man might adopt an elder man then himself; and so, our Father by Adoption, is not only Antiquus dierum, The ancient of Days, but Antiquior diebus ancienter then any Days, before Time was; he is (as Damascene forces himself to express it) Super-principal principium, the Beginning, and the first Beginning, and before the first beginning; He is, says he, aeternus, and prae-aeternus, Eternal, and elder then any eternity, that we can take into our imagination. So likewise no man might adopt a man of better quality then himself, and here, we are so far from comparing, as that we cannot comprehend his greatness, and his goodness, of whom, and to whom, S. Augustin says well, Quid mihi es? If I shall go about to declare thy goodness, not to the world in general, but Quid mihi es, how good thou art to me, Miserere ut loquar, says he, I must have more of thy goodness, to be able to tell thy former goodness, Be merciful unto me again, that I may be thereby able to declare how merciful thou wast to me before, except thou speak in me, I cannot declare what thou hast done for me. Lastly, no man might be adopted, into any other degree of kindred, but into the name, and right of a son; he could not be an adopted Brother, nor cousin, nor nephew: And this is especially our dignity; we have the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. So that, as here is a fullness of time in the text, so there is a fullness of persons, All, and a fullness of the work belonging to them, Redeeming, Emancipation, delivering from the chains of Satan, (we were his by Creation, we sold our selves for nothing, and he redeemed us, without money, that is, without any cost of ours) but because for all this general Redemption, we may turn from him, and submit our selves to other services, therefore he hath Adopted us, drawn into his family and into his more especial care, those who are chosen by him, to be his. Now that Redemption reached to all, there was enough for all; this dispensation of that Redemption, this Adoption reaches only to us, all this is done, That we might receive the Adoption of Sons.

But who are this We? why, they are the elect of God. But who are they, who are these elect? Qui timidè rogat, docet negare: If a man ask me with a diffidence, Can I be the adopted son of God, that have rebelled against him, in all my affections, that have trodden upon his Commandments, in all mine actions, that have divorced my self from him, in preferring the love of his creatures before himself, that have murmured at his corrections, and thought them too much, that have undervalued his benefits, and thought them too little, that have abandoned, and prostituted my body, his Temple, to all uncleanness, and my spirit to indevotion, and contempt of his Ordinances; can I be the adopted son of God, that have done this? Ne timidè roges, ask me not this, with a diffidence and distrust in Gods mercy, as if thou thoughtst with Cain thy iniquities were greater then could be forgiven; But ask me with that holy confidence, which belongs to a true convert, Am not I, who, though I am never without sin, yet am never without hearty remorce and repentance for my sins; though the weakness of my flesh sometimes betray me, the strength of his Spirit still recovers me; though my body be under the paw of that lion, that seeks whom he may devour, yet the lion of Judah raises again and upholds my soul; though I wound my Savior with many sins, yet all these, be they never so many, I strive against, I lament, confess, and forsake as far as I am able. Am not I the child of God, and his adopted son in this state? Roga fidenter, ask me with a holy confidence in thine and my God, & docs affirmare, thy very question gives me mine answer to thee, thou teachest me to say, thou art; God himself teaches me to say so, by his Apostle, The foundation of God is sure, and this is the Seal, God knoweth who are his, and let them that call upon his name, depart from all iniquity: He that departs so far, as to repent former sins, and shut up the ways, which he knows in his conscience, do lead him into temptations, he is of this quorum, one of us, one of them, who are adopted by Christ, to be the sons of God. I am of this quorum, if I preach the Gospel sincerely, and live thereafter, (for he preaches twice a day, that follows his own doctrine, and does as he says) And you are of this quorum, if you preach over the Sermons which you hear, to your own souls in your meditation, to your families in your relation, to the world in your conversation. If you come to this place, to meet the Spirit of God, and not to meet one another, If you have sate in this place, with a delight in the Word of God, and not in the words of any speaker, If you go out of this place, in such a disposition, as that, if you should meet the last Trumpets at the gates, and Christ Jesus in the clouds, you would not entreat him to go back, and stay another year: To enwrap all in one, if you have a religious and sober assurance, that you are his, and walk according to your belief, you are his, and, as the fullness of time, so the fullness of grace is come upon you, and you are not only within the first commission, of those who were under the Law, and so Redeemed, but of this quorum who are selected out of them, the adopted sons of that God, who never disinherits those that forsake not him.

Sermon IV. Preached at S. Pauls upon Christmas day. 1626.

LUKE. 2.29, & 30.

Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

THe whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die Martyrs, but Christ was born a Martyr. He found a Golgatha, (where he was crucified) even in Bethlem, where he was born; For, to his tenderness then, the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after; and the Manger as uneasy at first, as his Cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas-day and his Good Friday, are but the evening and morning of one and the same day. And as even his birth, is his death, so every action and passage that manifests Christ to us, is his birth; for, Epiphany is manifestation; And therefore, though the Church do now call Twelf-day Epiphany, because upon that day Christ was manifested to the Gentiles, in those Wise men who came then to worship him, yet the Ancient Church called this day, (the day of Christs birth) the Epiphany, because this day Christ was manifested to the world, by being born this day. Every manifestation of Christ to the world, to the Church, to a particular soul, is an Epiphany, a Christmas-day. Now there is no where a more evident manifestation of Christ, then in that which induced this text, Lord now lettest thou thy servant, &c.

It had been revealed to Simeon (whose words these are) that he should see Christ before he died; And actually, and really, substantially, essentially, bodily, presentially, personally he does see him; so it is Simeons Epiphany, Simeons Christmas-day. So also this day, in which we commemorate and celebrate the general Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the whole world in his birth, all we, we, who besides our interest in the universal Epiphany and manifestation implied in the very day, have this day received the Body and Blood of Christ in his holy and blessed Sacrament, have had another Epiphany, another Christmas-day, another manifestation and application of Christ to our selves; And as the Church prepares our devotion before Christmas-day, with four Sundays in Advent, which brings Christ nearer and nearer unto us, and remembers us that he is comming, and then continues that remembrance again, with the celebration of other festivals with it, and after it, as S. Stephen, S. John, and the rest that follow; so for this birth of Christ, in your particular souls, for this Epiphany, this Christmas-day, this manifestation of Christ which you have had in the most blessed Sacrament this day, as you were prepared before by that which was said before, so it belongs to the through celebration of the day, and to the dignity of that mysterious act, and to the blessedness of worthy, and the danger of unworthy Receivers, to press that evidence in your behalf, and to enable you by a farther examination of your selves, to depart in peace, because your eyes have seen his salvation.

To be able to conclude to you selves, that because you have had a Christmas-day, a manifestation of Christs birth in your souls, by the Sacrament, you shall have a whole Good-Friday, a crucifying, and a consummatum est, a measure of corrections, and joy in those corrections, temptations, and the issue with the temptation; And that you shall have a Resurrection, and an Ascension, an inchoation, and an unremoveable possession of heaven it self in this world. Make good your Christmas day, that Christ by a worthy receiving of the Sacrament, be born in you, and he that died for you, will live with you all the year, and all the years of your lives, and inspire into you, and receive from you at the last gasp, this blessed acclamation, Lord now lettest thou thy servant, &c.

The end of all digestions, and concoctions is assimilation, that that meat may become our body. The end of all consideration of all the actions of such leading and exemplar men, as Simeon was, is assimilation too; That we may be like that man. Therefore we shall make it a first part, to take a picture, to give a character of this man, to consider how Simeon was qualified and prepared, matured and disposed to that confidence, that he could desire to depart in peace, intimated in that first word, Now; now, that all that I look for is accomplished; And farther expressed in the first word of the other clause, For, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation; Now, now the time is fulfilled; For, for mine eyes have seen. And then enters the second part, what is the greatest happiness that can be well wished in this world, by a man well prepared, is, that he may depart in peace; Lord now lettest thou, &c. And all the way, in every step that we make, in his light, (in Simeons light) we shall see light; we shall consider, that that preparation, and disposition, and acquiescence, which Simeon had in his Epiphany, in his visible seeing of Christ then, is offered to us in this Epiphany, in this manifestation and application of Christ in the Sacrament; And that therefore every penitent, and devout, and reverent, and worthy receiver, hath had in that holy action his Now, there are all things accomplished to him, and his For, for his eyes have seen his salvation; and so may be content, nay glad to depart in peace.

In the first part then, in which we collect some marks, and qualities in Simeon which prepared him to a quiet death, qualities applicable to us in that capacity, as we are entered for the Sacrament, (for in that way only, we shall walk throughout this exercise) we consider first, the action it self, what was done at this time. At this time our Savior Christ, according to the Law, by which all the first born were to be presented to God in the Temple, at a certain time after their birth, was presented to God in the Temple, and there acknowledged to be his; And then, bought of him again by his parents, at a certain price prescribed in the Law. A Lord could not exhibit his Son to his Tenants, and say, this is your Land-lord; nor a King his Son to his Subjects, and say, this is your Prince; but first he was to be tendered to God; his they were all; He that is not Gods first, is not truly his Kings, nor his own. And then God does not sell him back again to his parents, at a racked, at an improved price; He sells a Lord, or a King back again to the world, as cheap as a Yeoman, he takes one and the same price for all; God made all Mankind of one blood, and with one blood, the blood of his Son, he bought all Mankind again: At one price, and upon the same conditions, he hath delivered over all into this world; Tantummodo crede, and then fac hoc, & vives, is the price of all; Believe, and live well: More he asks not, less he takes not for any man, upon any pretence of any unconditioned decree.

At the time of this presentation, there were to be offered a pair of Turtles, or a pair of Pigeons. The Sacrifice was indifferent; Turtles that live solitarily, and Pigeons, that live sociably, were all one to God. God in Christ may be had in an active, and sociable life, denoted in the Pigeon, and in the solitary and contemplative life, denoted in the Turtle; Let not Westminster despise the Church, nor the Church the Exchange, nor the Exchange and trade despise Armes; God in Christ may be had in every lawful calling. And then, the Pigeon was an embleme of fecundity, and fruitfulness in marriage; And the Turtle may be an Embleme of chaste widowhood; for, I think we find no Bigamy in the Turtle. But in these Sacrifices we find no Embleme of a natural, or of a vowed barrenness: Nothing that countenances a vowed virginity, to the dishonor or undervaluing of marriage. Thus was our Savior presented to God; And in this especially was that fulfilled, The glory of the later house shall be greater then the glory of the former; The later Temple exceeded the former in this, that the Lord, the God of this house, was in the house bodily, as one of the congregation; And the little body of a sucking child, was a Chappel in that Temple, infinitely more glorious then the Temple it self. How was the joy of Noah at the return of the Dove into the Ark, multiplied upon Simeon at the bringing of this Dove into the Temple? At how cheap a price was Christ tumbled up and down in this world? It does almost take off our pious scorn of the low price, at which Judas sold him, to consider that his Father sold him to the world for nothing; and then, when he had him again, by this new title of primogeniture and presentation, he sold him to the world again, if not for a Turtle, or for a Pigeon, yet at most for 5. shekels, which at most is but 10. shillings.

And yet you have had him cheaper then that, to day in the Sacrament: whom hath Christ cost 5. shekels there? As Christ was presented to God in the Temple, so is he presented to God in the Sacrament; not sucking, but bleeding. And God gives him back again to thee. And at what price? upon this exchange; Take his first born, Christ Jesus, and give him thine. Who is thine? Cor primogenitum, says S. August: The heart is the first part of the body that lives; Give him that; And then, as it is in nature, it shall be in grace too, the last part that dies; for it shall never dye; If a man eat the bread that cometh down from heaven, he shall not die, says Christ. If a man in exchange of his heart receive Christ Jesus himself, he can no more die then Christ Jesus himself can die. That which Eschines said to Socrates, admits a faire accommodation here; He saw every body give Socrates some present, and he said, Because I have nothing else to give, I will give thee my self. Do so, says Socrates, and I will give thee back again to thy self, better then when I received thee. If thou have truly given thy self to him in the Sacrament, God hath given thee thy self back, so much mended, as that thou hast received thy self and him too; Thy self, in a holy liberty, to walk in the world in a calling, and himself, in giving a blessing upon all the works of thy calling, and imprinting in thee a holy desire to do all those works to his glory. And so having thus far made this profit of these circumstances in the action it self, applicable to us as receivers of the Sacrament, that as the child Jesus was first presented to God in the Temple, so for your children, (the children of your bodies, and the children of your minds, and the children of your hands, all your actions, and intentions) that you direct them first upon God, and God in the Temple, that is, God manifested in the Church, before you assign them, or determine them upon any other worldly courses, and then, that as God returned Christ as all other children, at a certain price, so God delivers man upon certain, and upon the same conditions: He comes not into the world, nor he comes not to the Sacrament, as to a Lottery, where perchance he may draw Salvation, but it is ten to one he misses, but upon these few and easy conditions, Believe, & Love, he may be sure: And then also, that the Sacrifice, Pigeons, or Turtles was indifferent, so it were offered to God, for any honest calling, is acceptable to God, if Gods glory be intended in it; That of marriage and of widowhood we have some typical intimations in the Law, in the Pigeon, and in the Turtle, but of a vow of virginity, begun in the parents for their temporal ends, and forced upon their children, for those ends, we have no shadow at all; That Christ who was sold after by Judas for a little money, was sold in this presentation by his Father, for less, and yet for less then that to us, this day in the Sacrament. Having made these uses of these circumstances in the action it self, we passeion now, to the consideration of some such qualities, and dispositions of this person, Simeon, as may be applicable to us in our having received the Sacrament.

First then, we receive it, though not literally, and expressly in the story, yet by convenient implication there, and by general tradition from all, that Simeon was now come to a great age, a very old Man. For so S. August. argues, That God raised up two witnesses for Christ in the Temple; one of each Sex; and both of much reverence for age; Anna, whose age is expressed, and Simeon, who is recommended in the same respect, says that Father, for age too. And Nicephorus, and others with him, make him very old; as it is likely he was, if he were, as Pet: Galatinus makes him, the son of Rabbi Hillel, Hillel the master of Gamaliel, the master of S. Paul. So then we accept him; A person in a reverend age. Even in nature Age was the center of reverence; the channel, the valley, to which all reverence flowed; temporal jurisdiction, and spiritual jurisdiction, the Magistracy, and the Priesthood were appropriated to the eldest; almost in all vulgar languages, the name of a Lord, or magistrate, hath no other derivation then so, an Elder; Senior noster, is a word that passes freely, through the authors of the middle age, for our Lord, or our King; and the same derivation hath the name of Priest, in a holy language, Presbyter an Elder. So evermore in the course of the Scripture all counsel, and all government is placed in the Elders; and all the service of God is expressed so, even in heaven too, by the four and twenty Elders. Thy Creator will be remembered in the days of thy youth; but God hath had longer experience of that man, and longer conversation with that man, who is come to a holy age. That wise King, who could carry nothing to a higher pitch in any comparison, then to a Crown, says, Age is a crown of glory, when it is found in the ways of the righteous; but in the ways of righteousness, no blessing is a blessing; and in the ways of righteousness, wealth may be a crown of our labours, and health may be a crown of our temperance, but age is the crown of glory, of reverence;that crown, the crown of reverence, the Lord the righteous Judge hath reserved to that day, the day of our age, because our age is the seal of our constancy, and perseverance. In this blessed age, Simeon was thus dignified, admitted to this Epiphany, this manifestation of Christ. And, to be admitted to thy Epiphany, and manifestation of Christ in the Sacrament, thou must put off the young man, and put on the old. God, to whose Table thou art called, is represented as Antiquus Dierum, the ancient of Days; and his Guests must be of mortified affections; He must be crucified to the world, that will receive him, that was crucified for the world; the lusts of youth, the voluptuousness of youth, the revengefulness of youth, must have a holy damp, and a religious stupidity shed upon them, that come thither. Nay, it is not enough to be suddenly old, to have sad, and mortified thoughts then; no, nor to be suddenly dead, to renounce the world then, that hour, that morning, but quatriduani sitis, you should have been dead three days, as Lazarus; you should have passed an Examination, an accusation, a condemnation of your selves, divers days before ye came to that Table. God was most glorified in the raising of Lazarus, when he was long dead, and putrefied; God is most glorified in giving a resurrection to him, that hath been longest dead; that is, longest in the Contemplation of his own sinful and spiritual putrefaction. For, he that stinks most in his own, by true contrition, is the best perfume to Gods nostrils, and a conscience troubled in it self, is Odor quietis, as Noahs sacrifice was, a savor of rest to God.

This assistance we have to the exaltation of our devotion, from that circumstance, that Simeon was an old man; we have another from another, that he was a Priest, and in that notion and capacity, the better fitted for this Epiphany, this Christmas, this Manifestation of Christ. We have not this neither in the letter of the story; no, nor so constantly in Tradition, that he was a Priest, as that he was an old man: But it is rooted in Antiquity too; In Athanasius, in St. Cyrill, in Epiphanius, in others, who argue, and inferre it fairly and conveniently, out of some Priestly acts, which Simeon seems to have done in the Temple, (as the taking of Christ in his armes, which belongs to the Priest, and the blessing of God, which is the Thanks-giving to God, in the behalf of the congregation, and then the blessing of the people, in the behalf of God, which are acts peculiar to the Priest.) Accepting him in that quality, a Priest, we consider, that as the King takes it worse in his household servants, then in his Subjects at large, if they go not his ways, so they who dwell in Gods house, whose livelihood grows out of the revenue of his Church, and whose service lies within the walls of his Church, are most inexcusable, if they have not a continual Epiphany, a continual Manifestation of Christ: All men should look towards God, but the Priest should never look off from God. And, at the Sacrament every man is a Priest. I had rather that were not said, (which yet a very Reverend Divine says) That this Simeon might be aliquis plebeius homo, some ordinary common man, that was in the Temple at that time, when Christ was brought. He, who is of another sub-division, (though in the reformed Church too) collects piously, that God chose extraordinary men, to give testimony of his Son; Nicodemus a great Magistrate, Gamaliel a great Doctor, Iairus a Ruler in the Synagogue, and this Simeon, in probability, pregnant enough, a Priest. But was that any great Addition to him, if he were so? For holiness, certainly it was; But for outward dignity, and respect, it was so too, amongst them. In omni Nation, certum aliquod Nobilitatis argumentum. Every Nation hath some particular way of ennobling, and some particular evidence, and declaration of Nobility: Armes for a great part, is that in Spain; and Merchandize in some States in Italy; and learning in France, where besides the very many preferments by the Church, in which, some other Nation may be equal to them, there are more preferments, by other ways of learning, especially of Judicature, then in any other Nation. All Nations, says Iosephus, had some peculiar way, and amongst the Jews, says he, Priesthood was that way; A Priest was, even for civil privileges, a Gentleman. Therefore hath the Apostle, not knighted, nor ennobled, but crowned every good soul, with that style, Regale Sacerdotium, That they are a Royal Priesthood; To be Royal without Priesthood, seemed not to him Dignity enough. Consider then, that to come to the Communion Table, is to take Orders; Every man should come to that Altar, as holy as the Priest, for there he is a Priest: And, Sacer dotem nemo agit, qui libenter aliud est, quam Sacerdos: No man is truly a Priest, which is any thing else besides a Priest; that is, that entangles himself in any other business, so, as that that hinders his function in his Priesthood. No man comes to the Sacrament well, that is sorry he is there; that is, whom the penalty of the law, or observation of neighbours, or any collateral respect brings thither. There thou art a Priest, though thou beest but a lay-man at home; And then, no man that hath taken Orders, can deprive himself, or divest his Orders, when he will: Thou art bound to continue in the same holiness after, in which thou presentest thy self at that Table. As the sails of a ship when they are spread and swolne, and the way that the ship makes, shows me the wind, where it is, though the wind it self be an invisible thing; so thy actions to morrow, and the life that thou leadest all the year, will show me, with what mind thou camest to the Sacrament, to day, though only God, and not I, can see thy mind. Live in remembrance, that thou wast a Priest to day; (for no man hath received Christ, that hath not sacrificed himself.) And live, as though thou wert a Priest still; and then I say, with Sidonius Apollinaris, Malo Sacerdotalem virum, quam Sacerdotem, I had rather have one man that lives as a Priest should do, then a hundred Priests that live not so. A worthy Receiver shall rise in Judgement against an unworthy Giver: Christ shall be the Sacrifice still, and thou the Priest, that camest but to receive, because thou hast sacrificed thy self; and he the Judas, that pretended to be the Priest, because he hath betrald Christ to himself, and as much as lay in him, evacuated the Sacrament, and made it of none effect to thee.

It is farther added for his honor, and for his competency, and fitness for this Epiphany, to see his Savior, that he was Iustus, a just, and righteous man. This is a legal Righteousness; a Righteousness, in which St. Paul says, he was unreproachable; that is, in the sight of all the world. And this Righteousness, even this outward righteousness, he must bring with him that comes to this Epiphany, to this Manifestation, and Application of his Savior, to him, in the Sacrament: It must stand well between him, and all the world. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar, says Christ, (if thou bring thy self to the Altar, says our case) and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee, (it was ill done, not to remember it before; but if thou remember it then) Go thy way, says Christ, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come, and offer thy gift; that is, offer thy self for that sacrifice: Better come a month after, with a clear, then kneel it out then with a perplexed conscience. It is, If thy brother have ought against thee; how little soever: If thou have but scandalized him, though thou have not injured him, yet venture not upon this holy action, till thou have satisfied him. Thou mayst be good; good so, as that thou hast intended no ill to him: He may be good too; good so, as that he wishes no ill to thee. And yet some negligence and remisness in thee, may have struck upon a weakness and a tenderness in him, so as that he may be come, to think uncharitably of thee; and though this uncharitableness be his fault, and not thine, yet the negligence that occasioned it, was thine: Satisfy him; and that rectifies both; it redeems thy negligence, it recovers his weakness. Till that be done, neither of you are fit for this holy action; God neither accepts that man, that is negligent of his actions, and cares not what others think, nor him that is over-easy to be scandalized, and mis-interpret actions, otherwise indifferent: For, to them who study not this righteousness, to stand upright in the good opinions of good men, as God says, Why takest thou my word into thy mouth, so Christ shall say, to the shaking of that conscience, why takest thou my Body, and Blood into thy hand?

This must be done; He must be just, righteous in the eyes of men; though more seem to be implied in his other character, that he was Timoratus, which we translate Devout: In the former, his object was man, though godly men; here it is God himself: Man must be respected, but God especially. And this devotion is well placed in fear; for Basis verbi est timor sanctus, says St. Augustine; and it is excellently said, if this be his meaning, That whatsoever I promise my self out of the word of God, yet the Basis upon which that promise stands, is my fear of God: If my fear of God fall, the word of God, so far as it is a promise to me, falls to. Tertullian intends the same thing, when he says, fundamentum salutis timor; Though I have a holy confidence of my salvation, yet the foundation of this confidence is a modest, and a tender, and a reverential fear, that I am not diligent enough in the performance of those conditions which are required to the establishing of it; for this Eulabeia, which St. Jerome translates Timoratum, and we translate Devout, is a middle disposition between a Pharisaical superstition, and a negligent irreverence, and profanation of Gods Ordinance. I come not with this Eulabeia, with Simeons disposition, to my Epiphany, to my receiving of my Savior; if I think that Bread, my God, and superstitiously adore it, for that is Pharisaical, and carnal; neither do I bring that disposition thither, if I think God no otherwise present there, then in his own other Ordinances, and so refuse such postures, and actions of reverence, as are required to testify outwardly mine inward devotion; for these may well consist together, I am sure I receive him effectually, when I look upon his Mercy; I am afraid I do not receive him worthily, when I look upon mine own unworthiness.

We cannot pursue this Anatomy of good old Simeon, this Just, and Devout Priest, so far, as to show you all his parts, and the use of them all, in particular. His example, and the characters that are upon him, are our Alphabet. I shall only have time to name the rest of those characters; you must spell them, and put them into their syllables; you must forme them, and put them into their words; you must compose them, and put them into their Syntaxis, and sentences; that is, you must pursue the imitation, that when I have told you what he was, you may present your selves to God, such as he was. He was one that had the Holy Ghost upon him, says that Story. The testimony given before, that he was Iustus, & Timoratus, righteous, and fearing God, was evidence enough, that the Holy Ghost was upon him. This addition is a testimony of a more particular presence, and operation of the Holy Ghost, in some certain way; and the way is agreed by all, to be, In dono Prophetiae, the Holy Ghost was upon him, in the spirit of Prophesy, so, as that he made him, at that time, a Prophet. Thou art a Prophet upon thy self, when thou commest to the Communion; Thou art able to foretell, and to pronounce upon thy self, what thou shalt be for ever; Vpon thy disposition then, thou mayst conclude thine eternal state; then thou knowest which part of St. Pauls distribution falls upon thee; whether that tribulations and anguish upon every soul of man, that doth evil; Or that, But glory, and honor, and peace to every man, that worketh good. Thou art this Prophet; silence not this Prophet; do not chide thy conscience for chiding thee; Stone not this Prophet; do not petrify, and harden thy conscience against these holy suggestions: Say not with Ahab to the Prophet, Hast thou found me out, O mine enemy? when an unrepented sin comes to thy memory then, be not thou sorry that thou remembrest it then, nor do not say, I would this sin had not troubled me now, I would I had not remembered it till to morrow; For, in that action, first, in Thesi, for the Rule, thou art a Preacher to thy self, and thou hast thy. Text in St. Paul, He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself; And then in Hypothesi, for the application to the particular case, thou art a Prophet to thy self; Thou that knowest in thy self, what thou doest then, canst say to thy self, what thou shalt suffer after, if thou do ill.

There are more Elements in the making up of this man; many more. He waited, says his story; He gave God his leisure. Simeon had informed himself, out of Daniel, and the other Prophets, that the time of the Messiah comming was near: As Daniel had informed himself out of Jeremiah, and the other Prophets, that the time of the Deliverance from Babylon, was near: Both waited patiently, and yet both prayed for the accelerating of that, which they waited for; Daniel for the Deliverance, Simeon for the Epiphany. Those consist well enough, patiently to attend Gods time, and yet earnestly to solicit the hastning of that time; for that time is Gods time, to which, our prayers have brought God; as that price was Gods price for Sodom, to which Abrahams solicitation brought God, and not the first fifty. That Prophet that says, Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker, that is, that presses God before his time, says also, for all that, Oh that thou wouldst rent the heavens, and come down. When thou commest to this seal of thy peace, the Sacrament, pray that God will give thee that light, that may direct and establish thee, in necessary and fundamental things; that is, the light of faith to see, that the Body and Blood of Christ, is applied to thee, in that action; But for the manner, how the Body and Blood of Christ is there, wait his leisure, if he have not yet manifested that to thee: Grieve not at that, wonder not at that, press not for that; for he hath not manifested that, not the way, not the manner of his presence in the Sacrament, to the Church. A peremptory prejudice upon other mens opinions, that no opinion but thine can be true, in the doctrine of the Sacrament, and an un charitable condemning of other men, or other Churches that may be of another persuasion then thou art, in the matter of the Sacrament, may frustrate and disappoint thee of all that benefit, which thou mightst have, by an humble receiving thereof, if thou wouldst excercise thy faith only, here, and leave thy passion at home, and referre thy reason, and disputation to the School.

He waited, says the story; And he waited for the consolation of Israel. It is not an appropriating of hopes, or possessions of those hopes, to himself; but a charitable desire, of a communication of this consolation, upon all the Israel of God. Therefore is the Sacrament a Communion; Therefore is the Church, which is built of us, Built of lively stones: And in such buildings, as stones do, Vnusquisque portat alterum, & portatur ab altero: Every stone is supported by another, and supports another. As thou wouldst be well interpreted by others, interpret others well; and, as when thou commest to heaven, the joy, and the glory of every soul, shall be thy glory, and thy joy; so when thou commest to the porch of the Triumphant Church, the door of heaven, the Communion table, desire that that joy, which thou feelest in thy soul then, may then be communicated to every communicant there.

To this purpose, to testify his devotion to the communion of Saints, Simeon came into the Temple, says the story; to do a holy work, in a holy place. When we say, that God is no accepter of persons, we do not mean, but that they which are within his Covenant, and they that have preserved the seals of his grace, are more acceptable to him, then they which are not, or have not. When we say, that God is not tied to places, we must not mean, but that God is otherwise present, and works otherwise, in places consecrated to his service, then in every profane place. When I pray in my chamber, I build a Temple there, that hour; And, that minute, when I cast out a prayer, in the street, I build a Temple there; And when my soul prays without any voice, my very body is then a Temple: And God, who knows what I am doing in these actions, erecting these Temples, he comes to them and prospers, and blesses my devotions; and shall not I come to his Temple, where he is always resident? My chamber were no Temple, my body were no Temple, except God came to it; but whether I come hither, or no, this will be Gods Temple: I may lose by my absence; He gains nothing by my comming. He that hath a cause to be heard, will not go to Smithfield, nor he that hath cattaile to buy or sell, to Westminster; He that hath bargains to make, or news to tell, should not come to do that at Church; nor he that hath prayers to make, walk in the fields for his devotions. If I have a great friend, though in cases of necessity, as sickness, or other restraints, he will vouchsafe to visit me, yet I must make my fuits to him at home, at his own house. In cases of necessity, Christ in the Sacrament, vouchsafes to come home to me; And the Court is where the King is; his blessings are with his Ordinances, wheresoever: But the place to which he hath invited me, is his house. He that made the great Supper in the Gospel, called in new guests; but he sent out no meat to them, who had been invited, and might have come, and came not. Chamber-prayers, single, or with your family, Chamber-Sermons, Sermons read over there, and Chamber-Sacraments, administered in necessity there, are blessed assistants, and supplements; they are as the alms at the gate, but the feast is within; they are as a cock of water without, but the Cistern is within; habenti dabitur; he that hath a handful of devotion at home, shall have his devotion multiplied to a Gomer here; for when he is become a part of the Congregation, he is joint-tenant with them, and the devotion of all the Congregation, and the blessings upon all the Congregation, are his blessings, and his devotions.

He came to a holy place, and he came by a holy motion, by the Spirit, says his Evidence, without holiness, no man shall see God; not so well, without holiness of the place; but not there neither, if he trust only to the holiness of the place, and bring no holiness with him. Between that fearful occasion of comming to Church, which S. Augustine confesses and laments, That they came to make wanton bargains with their eyes, and met there, because they could meet no whereelse; and that more fearful occasion of comming, when they came only to elude the Law, and proceeding in their treacherous and traiterous religion in their heart, and yet communicating with us, draw God himself into their conspiracies, and to mock us, make a mock of God, and his religion too: between these two, this licencious comming, and this treacherous comming, there are many commings to Church, commings for company, for observation, for music: And all these indispositions are ill at prayers; there they are unwholesome, but at the Sacrament, deadly: He that brings any collateral respect to prayers, looses the benefit of the prayers of the Congregation; and he that brings that to a Sermon, looses the blessing of Gods ordinance in that Sermon; he hears but the Logic, or the Retorique, or the Ethique, or the poetry of the Sermon, but the Sermon of the Sermon he hears not; but he that brings this disposition to the Sacrament, ends not in the loss of a benefit, but he acquires, and procures his own damnation.

All that we consider in Simeon, and apply from Simeon, to a worthy receiver of the Sacrament, is how he was fitted to depart in peace. All those pieces, which we have named, conduce to that: but all those are collected into that one, which remains yet, Viderunt oculi, that his eyes had seen that salvation; for that was the accomplishment and fulfilling of Gods Word, According to thy word; All that God had said, should be done, was done; for, as it is said, v. 26. It was revealed unto him, by the holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lords Christ, and now his eyes had seen that Salvation. Abraham saw this before; but, but with the eye of faith; and yet rejoiced to see it so, he was glad even of that. Simeon saw it before this time; then, when he was illustrated with that Revelation, he saw it; but, but with the eye of hope; of such hope Abraham had no such ground; no particular hope, no promise, that he should see the Messiah in his time; Simeon had, and yet he waited, he attended Gods leisure; But hope defered maketh the heart sick, (says Solomon) but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. His desire was come; he saw his salvation. Perchance not so, as S. Cyprian seems to take it, That till this time Simeon was blind, and upon this presentation of Christ in the Temple, came to his sight again, and so saw this Salvation: for, I think, no one Author, but S. Cyprian, says so, that Simeon was blind till now, and now restored to sight; And I may ease S. Cyprian too, of that singularity; for it is enough, and abundantly evident, that that book in which that is said (which is, Altercatio Iasonis & papisci de Messia) cannot possibly be S. Cyprians. But with his bodily eyes, open to other objects before, he saw the Lords Salvation, and his Salvation; the Lords, as it came from the Lord, and his, as it was applicable to him. He saw it, according to his word; that is, so far, as God had promised, he should see it. He saw not, how, that God, which was in this Child, & which was this child, was the Son of God; The manner of that eternal Generation he saw not. He saw not how this Son of God became man in a Virgins womb, whom no man knew; The manner of this Incarnation he saw not: for this eternal Generation, and this miraculous Incarnation, fell not within that Secundùm verbum, according to thy Word; God had promised Simeon nothing concerning those mysteries: But Christum Domini, the Lords Salvation, and his Salvation, that is, the person who was all that (which was all, that was within the word, and the promise) Simeon saw, and saw with bodily eyes. Beloved, in the blessed, and glorious, and mysterious Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, thou seest Christum Domini, the Lords Salvation, and thy Salvation, and that, thus far with bodily eyes; That Bread which thou seest after the Consecration, is not the same bread, which was presented before; not that it is Transubstantiated to another substance, for it is bread still, (which is the heretical Riddle of the Roman Church, and satans sophistry, to dishonor miracles, by the assiduity and frequency, and multiplicity of them) but that it is severed, and appropriated by God, in that Ordinance to another use; It is other Bread, so, as a Judge is another man, upon the bench, then he is at home, in his own house. In the Roman Church, they multiply, and extend miracles, til the miracle it self crack, and become none, but vanish into nothing, as boys bubbles, (which were but bubbles before, at best) by an overblowing become nothing: Nay they constitute such miracles, as do not only destroy the nature of the miracle, but destroy him, that should do that miracle, even God himself: for, nothing proceeds farther to the destroying of God, then to make God do contradictory things; for, contradictions have falsehood, and so imply impotency, and infirmity in God. There cannot be a deeper Atheism, then to impute contradictions to God; neither doth any one thing so overcharge God with contradictions, as the Transubstantiation of the Roman Church. There must be a Body there, and yet no where; In no place, and yet in every place, where there is a consecration. The Bread and the Wine must nourish the body, nay, the bread and the wine may poison a body, and yet there is no bread, nor wine there. They multiply miracles, and they give not over, till they make God unable to do a miracle, till they make him a contradictory, that is, an impotent God. And therefore Luther inferres well, that since miracles are so easy and cheap, and obvious to them, as they have induced a miraculous transubstantiation, they might have done well to have procured one miracle more, a trans-accidentation, that since the substance is changed, the accidents might have been changed too; and since there is no bread, there might be no demensions, no color, no nourishing, no other qualities of bread neither; for, these remaining, there is rather an annihilation of God, in making him no God by being a contradictory God, then an annihilation of the Bread, by making that, which was formerly bread, God himself, by that way of Transubstantiation.

But yet, though this bread be not so transubstantiated, we refuse not the words of the Fathers, in which they have expressed themselves in this Mystery: Not Irenaeus his est corpus, that that bread is his body now; Not Tertullians fecit corpus, that that bread is made his body, which was not so before; Not S. Cyprians mutatus, that that bread is changed; Not Damascens supernaturaliter mutatus, that that bread is not only changed so in the use, as when at the Kings table certain portions of bread are made bread of Essay, to pass over every dish, whether for safety or for Majesty; not only so civilly changed, but changed supernaturally; no nor Theophylacts transformatus est; (which seems to be the word that goes farthest of all) for this transforming, cannot be intended of the outward form and fashion, for that is not changed; but be it of that internal form, which is the very essence and nature of the bread, so it is transformed, so the bread hath received a new form, a new essence, a new nature, because whereas the nature of bread is but to nourish the body, the nature of this bread now is to nourish the soul. And therefore, Cum non dubitavit Dominus dicere, hoc est corpus meum, cum signum daret corporis, Since Christ forbore not to say, This is my body, when he gave the sign of his body, why should we forbear to say of that bread, this is Christs body, which is the Sacrament of his body. You would have said at noon, this light is the Sun, and you will say now, this light is the Candle; That light was not the Sun, this light is not the Candle, but it is that portion of aire which the Sun did then, and which the Candle doth now enlighten. We say the Sacramental bread is the body of Christ, because God hath shed his Ordinance upon it, and made it of another nature in the use, though not in the substance; Almost 600. years ago, the Roman Church made Berengarius swear, sensualiter tangitur, frangitur, teritur corpus Christs, That the body of Christ was sensibly handled, and broken, and chewed. They are ashamed of that now, and have mollified it with many modifications; and God knows whether 100. years hence they will not be as much ashamed of their Transubstantiation, and see as much unnatural absurdity in their Trent Canon, or Lateran Canon,as they do in Berengarius oath. As they that deny the body of Christ to be in the Sacrament, lose their footing in departing from their ground, the express Scriptures; so they that will assign a particular manner, how that body is there, have no footing, no ground at all, no Scripture to Anchor upon: And so, diving in a bottomless sea, they pop sometimes above water to take breath, to appear to say something, and then snatch at a loose preposition, that swims upon the face of the waters; and so the Roman Church hath catched a Trans, and others a Con, and a Sub, and an In, and varied their poetry into a Transubstantiation, and a Consubstantiation, and the rest, and rymed themselves beyond reason, into absurdities, and heresies, and by a young figure of similiter cadens, they are fallen alike into error, though the errors that they are fallen into, be not of a like nature, nor danger. We offer to go no farther, then according to his Word; In the Sacrament our eyes see his salvation, according to that, so far, as that hath manifested unto us, and in that light we depart in peace, without scruple in our own, without offence to other mens consciences.

Having thus seen Simeon in these his Dimensions, with these holy impressions, these blessed characters upon him; first, 1 A man in a reverend age, & then, 2 In a holy function and calling, and with that, 3 Righteous in the eyes of men, and withal, 4 Devout in the eyes of God, 5 And made a Prophet upon himself by the holy Ghost, 6 still wayting Gods time, and his leisure, 7 And in that, desiring that his joy might be spread upon the whole Israel of God, 8 Frequenting holy places, the Temple, 9 And that upon holy motions, and there, 10 seeing the salvation of the Lord, that is, Discerning the application of salvation in the Ordinances of the Church, 11 And lastly, contenting himself with so much therein, as was according to his word, and not inquiring farther then God had been pleased to reveal; and having reflected all these several beams upon every worthy Receiver of the Sacrament, the whole Quire of such worthy receivers may join with Simeon in this Antiphon, Nunc Dimittis, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, &c. S. Ambrose reads not this place as we do, Nunc dimittis, but Nunc dimitte; not, Lord thou doest so; but, Lord do so; and so he gives it the forme of a prayer; and implies not only a patience, and a contentedness, but a desire, and an ambition that he might die; at least such an indifferency, and equanimity as Israel had, when he had seen Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face; after he had seen his face, the next face that he desired to see, was the face of God. For, howsoever there may be some disorder, some irregularity, in S. Pauls Anathema pro fratribus, that he desired to be separated from Christ, rather then his brethren should, (that may scarce be drawn into consequence, or made a wish for us to imitate) yet to S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi, to an express, and to a deliberate desire, to be dissolved here, and to be united to Christ in heaven, (still with a primary relation to the glory of God, and a reservation of the will of God) a godly, a rectified and a well-disposed man may safely come. And so, (I know not upon what grounds) Nicephorus says, Simeon did wish, and had his wish; he prayed that he might die, and actually he did die then. Neither can a man at any time be fitter to make and obtain this wish, then when his eyes have seen his salvation in the Sacrament. At least, make this an argument of your having been worthy receivers thereof, that you are in Aequilibrio, in an evenness, in an indifferency, in an equanimity, whether ye die this night or no. For, howsoever S. Ambrose seem to make it a direct prayer, that he might die, he intends but such an equanimity, such an indifferency; Quasi servus nonrefugit vitae obsequium, & quasi sapiem lucrum mortis amplectitur, says that Father; Simeon is so good a servant, as that he is content to serve his old master still, in his old place, in this world, but yet, he is so good a husband too, as that he sees what a gainer he might be, if he might be made free by death. If thou desire not death, (that is the case of very few, to do so in a rectified conscience, and without distemper) if thou beest not equally disposed towards death (that should be the case of all; and yet we are far from condemning all that are not come to that equanimity) yet if thou now fear death inordinately, I should fear that thine eyes have not seen thy salvation to day; who can fear the darkness of death, that hath had the light of this world, and of the next too? who can fear death this night, that hath had the Lord of life in his hand to day? It is a question of consternation, a question that should strike him, that should answer it, dumb (as Christs question, Amice, quomodo intrasti? Friend, how camest in hither? did him to whom that was said) which Origen asks in this case, When wilt thou dare to go out of this world, if thou darest not go now, when Christ Jesus hath taken thee by the hand to lead thee out?

This then is truly to depart in peace, by the Gospel of peace, to the God of peace. My body is my prison; and I would be so obedient to the Law, as not to break prison; I would not hasten my death by starving, or macerating this body: But if this prison be burnt down by continual fevers, or blowen down with continual vapours, would any man be so in love with that ground upon which that prison stood, as to desire rather to stay there, then to go home? Our prisons are fallen, our bodies are dead to many former uses; Our palate dead in a tastlesness; Our stomach dead in an indigestibleness; our feet dead in a lameness, and our invention in a dulness, and our memory in a forgetfulness; and yet, as a man that should love the ground, where his prison stood, we love this clay, that was a body in the days of our youth, and but our prison then, when it was at best; we abhorre the graves of our bodies; and the body, which, in the best vigor thereof, was but the grave of the soul, we over-love. Pharaohs Butler, and his Baker went both out of prison in a day; and in both cases, Joseph, in the interpretation of their dreams, calls that, (their very discharge out of prison) a lifting up of their heads, a kind of preferment: Death raises every man alike, so far, as that it delivers every man from his prison, from the incumbrances of this body: both Baker and Butler were delivered of their prison; but they passed into divers states after, one to the restitution of his place, the other to an ignominious execution. Of thy prison thou shalt be delivered whether thou wilt or no; thou must die; Fool, this night thy soul may be taken from thee; and then, what thou shalt be to morrow, prophecy upon thy self, by that which thou hast done to day; If thou didst depart from that Table in peace, thou canst depart from this world in peace. And the peace of that Table is, to come to it in pace desiderii, with a contented mind, and with an enjoying of those temporal blessings which thou hast, without macerating thy self, without usurping upon others, without murmuring at God; And to be at that Table, in pace cogitationum, in the peace of the Church, without the spirit of contradiction, or inquisition, without uncharitableness towards others, without curiosity in thy self: And then to come from that Table in pace domestica, with a bosom peace, in thine own Conscience, in that seal of thy reconciliation, in that Sacrament; that so, riding at that Anchor, and in that calm whether God enlarge thy voyage, by enlarging thy life, or put thee into the harbor, by the breath, by the breathlesness of Death, either way, East or West, thou mayst depart in peace, according to his word, that is, as he shall be pleased to manifest his pleasure upon thee.

Sermon V. Preached at Pauls, upon Christmas Day. 1627.

EXOD. 4.13.

O my Lord, send I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

IT hath been suspiciously doubted, more then that, freely disputed, more then that too, absolutely denied, that Christ was born the five and twentieth of December, that this is Christmas-day: yet for all these doubts, and disputations, and denials, we forbear not, with the whole Church of God, constantly and confidently to celebrate this for his Day. It hath been doubted, and disputed, and denied too, that this Text, O my Lord, send I pray thee, by the hand of him, whom thou wilt send, hath any relation to the sending of the Messiah, to the comming of Christ, to Christmas-day; yet we forbear not to wait upon the ancient Fathers, and as they said, to say, that Moses having received a commandment from God, to undertake that great employment of delivering the children of Israel from the oppressions of Pharaoh in Egypt, and having excused himself by some other modest and pious pretences, at last, when God pressed the employment still upon him, he determines all in this, O my Lord, send I pray thee, by the hand of him, whom thou wilt send, or, (as it is in our Margin) when thou shouldest send. It is a work, next to the great work of the redemption of the whole world, to redeem Israel out of Egypt; And therefore do both works at once, put both into one hand, and mitte quem missurus es, send him, whom I know, thou wilt send, him, whom pursuing thine own decree, thou shouldest send, send Christ, send him now, to redeem Israel from Egypt.

These words then (though some have made that interpretation of them, and truly, not without a faire appearance, and probability, and verisimilitude) do not necessarily imply a slackness in Moses zeal, that he desired not affectionately, and earnestly the deliverance of his Nation from the pressures of Egypt; nor do they imply any diffidence, or distrust, that God could not, or would not endow him with faculties fit for that employment; But, as a thoughtful man, a pensive, a considerative man, that stands still for a while, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, before his feet, when he casts up his head, hath presently, instantly the Sun, or the heavens for his object, he sees not a tree, nor a house, nor a steeple by the way, but as soon as his eye is departed from the earth where it was long fixed, the next thing he sees is the Sun or the heavens; so when Moses had fixed himself long upon the consideration of his own insufficiency for this service, when he took his eye from that low piece of ground, Himself, considered as he was then, he fell upon no tree, no house, no steeple, no such consideration as this, God may endow me, improve me, exalt me, enable me, qualify me with faculties fit for this service, but his first object was that which presented an infallibility with it, Christ Jesus himself, the Messiah himself, and the first petition that he offers to God is this, O my Lord send I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. For me, as I am, I am altogether unfit; when thou shalt be pleased to work upon me, thou wilt find me but stone, hard to receive thy holy impressions, and then but snow, easy to melt, and lose those holy forms again: There must be labor laid, and perchance labor lost upon me; but put the business into a safe had, and under an infallible instrument, and Mitte quem missurus es, send him whom, I know, thou wilt send, him, whom, pursuing thine own decree, thou shouldest send, send him, send Christ now.

As much as Paradise exceeded all the places of the earth, do the Scriptures of God exceed Paradise. In the midst of Paradise grew the Tree of knowledge, and the tree of life: In this Paradise, the Scripture, every word is both those Trees; there is Life and Knowledge in every word of the Word of God. That Germen Iehovae, as the Prophet Isaiah calls Christ, that Off-spring of Jehova, that Bud, that Blossom, that fruit of God himself, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeemer, Christ Jesus, grows upon every tree in this Paradise, the Scripture; for Christ was the occasion before, and is the consummation after, of all Scripture. This have I written (says S. John,) and so say all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost, in all that they have written, This have we written, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Knowledge and life grows upon every tree in this Paradise, upon every word in this Book, because upon every Tree here, upon every word, grows Christ himself, in some relation.

From this Branch, this Text, O my Lord send, I pray thee by the hand of him, whom thou wilt send, we shall not so much stand, to gather here and there an Apple, that is, to consider some particular words of the Text it self, as endeavor to shake the whole tree, that is, the Context, and coherence and dependance of the words: for, since all that passed between God and Moses in this affaire, and negotiation, Gods employing of Moses, and Moses presenting his excuses to God, and Gods taking of all those excuses, determines in our Text, in our Text is the whole story, virtually and radically implied; And therefore, by just occasion thereof, we shall consider first, That though for the ordinary duties of our callings, arising out of the evidence of express Scriptures, we are allowed no haesitation, no disputation, whether we will do them or no; but they require a present, and an exact execution thereof: yet in extraordinary cases, and in such actions as are not laid upon us, by any former and permanent notification thereof in Scripture, such as was Moses case here, to undertake the deliverance of Israel from Egypt; in such cases, not only some haesitation, some deliberation, some consultation in our selves, but some expostulation with God himself, may be excusable in us. We shall therefore see, that Moses did excuse himself four ways; And how God was pleased to join issue with him in all four, and to cast him, and overcome him in them all: And when we come to consider his fifth, which is rather a Diversion upon another, then an Excuse in himself, and yet, is that, which is most literally in our Text, O my Lord send, I pray thee, by the hand of him, whom thou wilt send, because this was a thing which God had reserved wholly to himself, The sending of Christ: we shall see, that God would not have been pressed for that, but, (as it follows immediately, and is also a bough of this tree, that is, grows out of this Text) God was angry; But yet (as we shall see in the due place) it was but such an anger, as ended in an Instruction, rather then in an Increpation; and in an Encouragement, rather then in a Desertion, for he established Moses in a resolution to undertake the work, by joining his brother Aaron in commission with him. So then, we have shook the tree, that is, resolved and analyzed the Context, of all which, the Text it self is the root, and the seal. And, as we have presented to your sight, we shall farther offer to your taste, and digestion, and rumination, these particular fruits; First, that ordinary Duties require a present execution; Secondly, that in Extraordinary, God allows a Deliberation, and requires not an implicite, a blind obedience: And in a third place, we shall give you those four circumstances, that accompanied, or constituted Moses deliberation, and Gods removing of those four impediments: And in a fourth, some, that Consultation or Diversion, The sending of Christ: And in that, How God was affected with it, He was angry: angry that Moses would offer to look into those things, which he had lockt up in his secret counsels, such as that sending of Christ, which he intended: But yet, not angry so, as that he left Moses unsatisfied, or un-accommodated for the main business, but settled him in a holy and cheerful readiness to obey his commandment. And through all these particulars, we shall pass, with as much clearness, as the weight, and as much shortness, as the number will permit.

First then, our first Consideration constitutes that Proposition, Ordinary Duties, arising out of the Evidence of Gods Word, require a present Execution. There are Duties that bind us semper, and Adsemper, as our Casuists speak; we are Always bound to do them, and bound to do them Always; that is, Always to produce Actus elicitos, Determinate acts, Successive and Consecutive acts, conformable to those Duties; whereas in some other Duties, we are only bound to an Habitual disposition, to do them in such and such necessary cases; And those Actions of the later sort, fall in Genere Deliberativo, we may consider Circumstances, before we fall under a necessity of doing them; that is, of doing them Then, or doing them Thus: Of which kind, even those great duties of Praying, and Fasting are; for we are always bound to Pray, and always bound to Fast; but not bound to fast always, nor always to pray. But for Actions of the first kind, such as are the worshipping of God, and the not worshipping of Images; such as are the sanctifying of Gods Sabbaths, and the not blaspheming of his Name, which arise out of clear and evident commands of God; they admit no Deliberation, but require a present Execution. Therefore as S. Stephen saw Christ, standing at the right hand of his Father, (a posture that denotes first a readiness to survey, and take knowledge of our distresses, and then a readiness to proceed, and come forth to our assistance) so in our Liturgy, in our Service, in the Congregation, we stand up at the profession of the Creed, at the rehearsing the Articles of our Faith, thereby to declare to God, and his Church, our readiness to stand to, and our readiness to proceed in that Profession. The commendation which is given of Andrew, and Peter for obeying Christs call, lyes not so much in the Reliquerunt retia, that they left their nets, as in the Protinus reliquerunt, that forthwith, immediately, without farther deliberation, they left their nets, the means of their livelyhood, and followed Christ. The Lord and his Spirit hath anointed us to preach, says the Prophet Isaiah: To preach what? Acceptabilem annum, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. All the year long the Lord stands with his armes open to embrace you, and all the year long we pray you in Christs stead, that you would be reconciled to God. But yet, God would fain reduce it to a narrower compass of time, Hodie si vocem ejus audieritis, that you would hear his voice to day, and not harden your hearts to day: And to a narrower compass then that, Dabitur in illa hora, says Christ, The holy Ghost shall teach you in that hour: In this hour the holy Ghost offers himself unto you: And to a narrower compass then an hour, Beati qui nunc esuritis, qui nunc fletis, Blessed are ye that hunger now, and that mourn now, that put not off years, nor days, nor hours, but come to a sense of your sins, and of the means of reconciliation to God, now, this minute. And therefore, when ye read, Iusta pondera, just weights, and Just balances, and just measures, a just Hin, and a just Ephah shall ye have, I am the Lord your God, Do not you say, so I will hereafter, I will come to just weights and measures, and to deal uprightly in the world, as soon as I have made a fortune, established a state, raised a competency for wife and children, but yet I must do as other men do; when you read Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath day, (and by the way, remember that God hath called his other holy days, and holy convocations, Sabbaths too) remember that you celebrate his Sabbaths by your presence here, do not you say, so I will if I can rise time enough, if I can dine soon enough; when you read, swear not at all, do not you say, no more I would but that I live amongst men that will not believe me without swearing, and laugh at me if I did not swear; for duties of this kind, permanent and constant duties arising out of the evidence of Gods word, such as just and true dealing with men, such as keeping Gods Sabbaths, such as not blaspheming his name, have no latitude about them, no conditions in them; they have no circumstance, but are all substance, no apparel, but are all body, no body, but are all soul, no matter, but are all forme; They are not in Genere deliberativo, they admit no deliberation, but require an immediate, and an exact execution.

But then, for extraordinary things, things that have not their evidence in the word of God formerly revealed unto us, whether we consider matters of Doctrine, and new opinions, or matter of Practise, and new commands, from what depth of learning soever that new opinion seem to us to rise, or from height of Power soever that new-Command seem to fall, it is still in genere deliberativo, still we are allowed, nay still we are commanded to deliberate, to doubt, to consider, before we execute. As a good Author in the Roman Church, says, Perniciosius est Ecclesiae, It is more dangerous to the Church, to accept an Apocryphal book for Canonical, then to reject a Canonical book for Apocryphal: so may it be more dangerous, to do some things, which to a distempered man may seem to be commanded by God, then to forbear some things, which are truly commanded by him. God had rather that himself should be suspected, then that a false god should be admitted. The easiness of admitting Revelations, and Visions, and Apparitions of spirits, and Purgatory souls in the Roman Church; And then, the overbending, and super-exaltation of zeal, and the captivity to the private spirit, which some have fallen into, that have not been content to consist in moderate, and middle ways in the Reformed Church; this easiness of admitting imaginary apparitions of spirits in the Papist, and this easiness of submitting to the private spirit, in the Schismatike, hath produced effects equally mischievous: Melancholy being made the seat of Religion on the one side, by the Papist, and Phrenzy on the other side, by the Schismatick. Multi, prae studio immoderato intendi in contrarium aberrarunt à medio, was the observation and the complaint of that Father in his time, and his prophecy of ours; That many times, an over-vehement bending into some way of our own choosing, does not only withdraw us from the left hand way, the way of superstition, and Idolatry, from which we should all draw, but from the middle way too, in which we should stand, and walk. And then, the danger is thus great, facile in omnia flagitia impulit, quos religion decepit diabolus; As God doth, the devil also doth make Zeal and Religion his instrument. And in other temptations, the devil is but a serpent; but in this, when he makes zeal and religion his instrument, he is a Lyon. As long as the devil doth but say, Do this, or thou wilt live a fool, and dye a begger; Do this, or thou canst not live in this world, the devil is but a devil, he plays but a devils part, a lyer, a seducer; But when the devil comes to say, Do this, or thou canst not live in the next world, thou canst not be saved, here the devil pretends to be God, here he acts Gods part, and so prevails the more powerfully upon us. And then, when men are so mis-transported, either in opinions, or in actions, with this private spirit, and inordinate zeal, Quibus non potest auferre fidem, aufert charitatem, says the same Father, Though the devil hath not quenched faith in that man himself, yet he hath quenched that mans charity towards other men; Though that man might be saved, in that opinion which he holds, because (perchance) that opinion destroys no fundamental point, yet his salvation is shrewdly shook, and endangered, in his uncharitable thinking, that no body can be saved that thinks otherwise. And as it works thus to an uncharitableness in private, so doth it to turbulency, and sedition in the public. Of which, we have a pregnant, and an aplyable example in the life of Constantine the Emperor; In his time, there arose some new questions, and new opinions in some points of Religion; the Emperor writ alike to both parties, thus: De rebus ejusmodi, nec omnino rogetis, nec rogati respondeatis: Do you move no questions, in such things, your selves; and if any other do, yet be not you too forward, to write, so much as against them. What questions doth he mean? That is expressed, Quas nulla lex, Canonve Ecclesiasticus necessario praescribit; Such questions, as are not evidently declared, and more then evidently declared, necessarily enjoined by some law, some rule, some Canon of the Church: Disturbe not the peace of the Church, upon Inferences, and Consequences, but deal only upon those things, which are evidently declared in the Articles, and necessarily enjoined by the Church. And yet, though that Emperor declared himself on neither side, nor did any act in favor of either side, yet because he did not declare himself on their side, those promovers of these new opinions, Eo pervenere, (says that Author) ut imagines Imperatoris violarint, They came as far as they could, to violate the person of the Emperor, for they violated and defaced his statues, his images, his pictures, the ensigns of his power and honor; And in this insolency they continued (says that Author) even after the Emperor had silenced both parties; when he, by his express Edict, had forbidden both sides to write, the promovers of the new opinions would write. Still such men think, that whatsoeuer they think, is not only true in it self, but necessary for salvation to every man; whereas new opinions, that may vary from the Scriptures; new commands, that may vary from the Church, are still in Genere deliberativo, they admit, they require Deliberation. Blind and implicite faith shall not save us in matter of Doctrine, nor blind and implicite obedience, in matter of practice; neither is there any faith so blind, and implicite, as to believe those imaginary apparitions of spirits, nor any obedience so blind and implicite, as to obey our own private spirit, and distempered zeal. Truly, I should hope better of their salvation, who in the first darker times, doubted of the Revelations of St. John, then of theirs, who in these clear and evident times, accept, and enjoin, and magnify, so much as they do in the Roman Church, the Revelations of St. Brigid: And I should rather accompany them, who out of their charitable moderation, do believe, that some Christians, though possessed with some errors, may be saved, then them, who out of their passionate severity, first call every difference from themselves, an error; and then every error, damnable; and do not only pronounce, that none that holds any such error, can be saved, but that no man, though he hold none of those errors himself, can be saved, if he think any man can be saved, that holds them. And so we have done with those two propofitions, which are the walls upon which our whole frame is to be laid; That ordinary duties require a present execution, that was our first: but extraordinary admit deliberation, that was our second Consideration; And now our third is, to consider Moses case in particular, as it was an example of both.

As Moses was an example of the present performance of an evident duty, we carry you back, to the former chapter, where this root, this Text is first laid, that is, this employment first begun to be notified. There ver. 4. God calls Moses, and he calls him by name, and by name twice, Moses, Moses. Of this, Moses could not be ignorant; and therefore he comes to a present discharge of this duty to a present answer, ecce adsum, Lord, here I am. This is the advantage of innocence above guiltiness; God called Adam in Paradise, and he called him by name, and with a particular inquisition, Adam, ubies? Adam, where art thou? And Adam hid himself; God calls Moses, and Moses answers. He that is used to hear God, at home, in his conscience, and in his ears, at Church; and used to answer God, in both places, at home in his private meditations, and in public devotions at Church; he that is used to hear, and used to answer God thus, shall be glad to hear him, in his last voice, in his Angels Trumpets, and to that voice, Surgite qui dormitis, Arise thou that sleepest in the dust, and stand up to Judgement, as he shall have invested the righteousness of Christ Jesus, he shall answer in the very words of Christ Jesus; I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive, for evermore, Amen. In this evident duty then, Moses permitted himself no liberty; God called, and he answered instantly; He answered in action, as well as in words; and, indeed, that is our loudest, and most musical answer, to answer God, in deed, in action. So Moses did; He came, he hastened to the place, where God spake. It is one good argument of piety, to love the place where God speaks, the house of his presence. But yet Moses received an inhibition from God there, a ne appropies, Come not too near, too close to this place. God loves that we should come to him here, in his house; but God would not have us press too close upon him here; we must not be too familiar, too fellowly, too homely with God, here at home, in his house, nor loath to uncover our head, or bow our knee at his name. When God proceeded farther with Moses, and comes to say, descendi ut liberem, I am come down to deliver Israel from Egypt, (which was the first intimation that God gave of that purpose) Moses likes that well enough, opposes nothing to that, that God would be pleased to think of some course for delivering of Israel, and enable some Instrument for that work; for that is, for the most part Gods descending, and his comming down, to put his power instrumentally, ministerially, into the hand of another; General things, and remote things do not much affect us; Moses says nothing to Gods general proposition; That he was come down to deliver Israel, but when God comes to that particular, veni ergo ut mittamte, Come therefore that I may send thee, him into Egypt, Moses to Pharaoh, this was a Rock in his Sea, and a Remora upon his Ship, a Hill in his way, and a Snake in his path. Some light, that this was about the time, when Israel should be delivered, there was before. Moses takes knowledge, that God had promised Abraham, that after four generations, they should come back; and the four generations were come about. Some light, that Moses should be the man, by whom they should be delivered, it seems there was before; for upon that history which is in the second chapter of this book, that Moses flew an Egyptian who oppressed one of his Countrymen, St. Stephen, in his own Funeral Sermon, says, That Moses, in that act supposed, his brethren would have understood, how that God, by his hand would deliver them, but they understood it not. So that it seems some such thing had gone out in voice, some revelation, some intimation, some emanation of some kind of light there had been, by which they might have understood it, though they did not. But when Moses remembers now, that that succeeded not, that they apprehended not the offer of his service then, and that he was now grown to be eighty years old, and that forty of that eighty had been spent in an obscure, in a Shepherds life, and that he must now be sent, not only to work upon that people, who showed no forwardness towards him then, and might absolutely have forgotten him now, but upon Pharaoh himself, this created in Moses this haesitation, this deliberation; perchance not without some tincture of infirmity, but far from any degree of impiety; perchance not without some expostulation with God, but far from any reluctation against God. Consider Abraham; Abraham the Father of the faithful; of whom, as the Apostle says, that he hoped beyond hope, we may say, that he believed beyond faith, for, (as he says) he followed God, not knowing whither he led him; Abraham came to another manner of expostulation with God, in the behalf of Sodom; He says to God, wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Absit, be that far from thee; and he repeats it Absit, be that far from thee; and he pleads it with God, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Now as St. Paul says of Isaiah, Isaiah was bold when he said thus and thus; so we may say of Abraham, Abraham was bold, when he could conceive such an imagination, that God would destroy the righteous with the wicked, or that the Judge of all the earth should not do right; yet Abraham is not blamed for this. Consider St. Peters proceeding with Christ; he comes to a rebuking of Christ, and to a more vehement absit, Lord be this far from thee, this shall not be unto thee, speaking of his going up to Jerusalem, upon which journey dependeth the whole work of our redemption. And though S. Peter incurred an increpation from Christ, yet that which he did, was rooted in love, and piety, though it were mixed with inconsideration. S. Peter went farther then Abraham, but Abraham farthen then Moses; As therefore that first Revelation, which Moses may seem to have received, when he was forty years before this, in Egypt, did not so bind him, to a present prosecution of that work of their deliverance, but that, upon occasion he did withdraw himself from Egypt, and continue from thence, in a forty years absence; so neither did this intimation, which he received from God now, so bind him up, but that he might piously present his own unfitness for that emploiment; for it does not so much imply a denial to undertake the service, as a petition, that God would super-endow him, with parts, and faculties, fit for that service; It is far from that stubborn sons non ibo, I will not go to work in that Vineyard; But it is only this, except God do somewhat for me before Lgoe, I shall be very unfit to go: And that any Ambassador may say to his Prince, any Minister of State to his Master, any Messenger of God to God himself. And therefore good occasion of doctrines of edification offering it self from that consideration, we shall insist a little, upon each of his excuses, though they be four.

His first prospect that he looks upon in himself, his first object, that by way of objection he makes to God, is himself, and his own unworthiness. To consider others, is but to travail: to be at home, is to consider our selves: upon others we can look, but in oblique lines; only upon our selves, in direct. Man is but earth; Tis true; but earth is the center. That man who dwells upon himself, who is always conversant in himself, rests in his true center. Man is a celestial creature too, a heavenly creature; and that man that dwells upon himself, that hath his conversation in himself, hath his conversation in heaven, If you weigh any thing in a scale, the greater it is, the lower it sinks; as you grow greater and greater in the eyes of the world, sink lower and lower in your own. If thou ask thy self Quis ego, what am I? and beest able to answer thy self, why now I am a man of title, of honor, of place, of power, of possessions, a man fit for a Chronicle, a man considerable in the Heralds Office, go to the Heralds Office, the sphere and element of Honor, and thou shalt find those men as busy there, about the consideration of Funerals, as about the consideration of Creations; thou shalt find that office to be as well the Grave, as the Cradle of Honor; And thou shalt find in that Office as many Records of attainted families, and escheated families, and empoverished and forgotten, and obliterate families, as of families newly erected and presently celebrated. In what height soever, any of you that sit here, stand at home, there is some other in some higher station then yours, that weighs you down: And he that stands in the highest of subordinate heighths, nay in the highest supreme height in this world, is weighed down, by that, which is nothing; for what is any Monarch to the whole world? and the whole world is but that; but what? but nothing. What man amongst us looks Moses way, first upon himself; perchance enow do so; but who looks Moses way, and by Moses light? first upon himself, and in himself, first upon his own insufficiencies; what man amongst us, that is named to any place, by the good opinion of others, or that calls upon others, and begs, and buys their good opinion for that place, begins at Moses, Quis ego? What am I? where have I studied and practised sufficiently before, that I should fill such or such a place of Judicature? Quis ego? What am I? where have I served, and laboured, and preached in inferior places of the Church, that I should fill such or a such a place of Dignity or prelacy there? Quis ego? What am I? where have I seen and encountered, and discomfited the enemy, that I should fill such or such a place of Command in an army? There is not an Abraham left to say, Pulvis & Cinis, O my Lord, I am but dust and ashes; not a Jacob left to say, Non sum dignus, O my Lord I am not worthy of the least of these preferments; not a David left to say, Canis mortuies, & pulex, O my Lord I am but a dead dog, and a flea; But every man is vapored up into air; and, as the air can, he thinks he can fill any place: Every man is under that complicated disease, and that ridling distemper, not to be content with the most, and yet to be proud of the least thing he hath; that when he looks upon men, he dispises them, because he is some kind of Officer, and when he looks upon God, he murmures at him, because he made him not a King. But if man will not come to his Quis ego? who am I? to a due consideration of himself, God will come to his Quis tu? who art thou? and to his Amice quomodo intrasti? friend how came you in? To every man that comes in by undue means, God shall say, as first to us, in our profession, what hadst thou to do, to take my word into thy mouth? so to others in theirs, what hadst thou to do, to take my sword into thy hand? Only to those who are little in their own eyes, shall God say, as Christ said to his Church, Noli timere, fear not little flock, for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. It is not called a Kingdom, but the Kingdom; that Kingdom, which alone, is worth all the kingdoms that the devil showed Christ, The Kingdom of Heaven. Be but a worm and no man, as David speaks even in the person of Christ; find thy self trodden under foot, and under thine own foot, that is, depressed in thine own estimation, and God shall raise thee with that supportation, Fear not thou worm of Jacob, ye men of Israel. Be but worms and no more, in your own eyes, and God shall make you men, be but men and no more in your own eyes, and GOD shall make you the men of his Israel. This was Moses way; not a running away from God, but a turning into himself; not a reluctation against God, but a consideration of himself. For, though the lazy mans Quis ego, shall not profit him, when he shall say, what am I? I am but one man, I can do nothing alone, and so leave all reformation un-attempted in his place, because others will reform nothing in theirs; (for, that which David says, If thou sawest a thief, Currebas, thou didst rise and run with him, is not much worse, then when thou seest a lazy man, to lye down and sleep with him) Though this mans Quis ego, what am I? shall not profit him, for it is but the voice of prevarication, in the ordinary duties of his calling, yet in Moses case, in every undertaking of a new action, this examination, this exinanition of our selves is acceptable in the fight of God. And therefore Calvin says justly of this particular, in Moses case, Non modo culpa vacare, sed laude dignum puto, that Moses in this his proceeding with God, was so far from deserving blame, that he deserved much praise. And so it seems, God himself interpreted it, and accepted it; for first, for his way, he gives him that assurance, Certainly I will be with thee; and then for the end, and the effect too, he directs him thus, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt (as, certainly this people thou shalt bring from thence) then shall they serve God upon this Mountain. And further we may not carry the consideration of Moses first excuse, arising out of the contemplation of his own insufficiency, in general.

The second doubt and difficulty that Moses makes to himself, and presents to God, is this, that he was not able to tell them to whom he was sent, his name that sent him. When I am come to them, says Moses to God, and shall say, thou hast sent me, and they shall say, what is his Name, what shall I say unto them? In Eusebius his history, A Tyran, a persecutor, asks a martyr, Artalus, in the midst of his torments, in scorn and contempt, What is your Gods name? you pretend a necessity of worshipping a new God, your God, but what shall we call your God, what is your Gods name? And the Martyr answered, Qui plures sunt, nominibus decernuntur, qui unus est, nomine non indiget: You who worship many Gods, need many names to distinguish your Gods by; we, who know but one God, need no other name of God, but God; we who worship the only true God, need not the semi-gods, nor the sesqui-gods of the Roman Church; not their semi-gods, their half-gods, men beatified, but not sanctified; made private gods, but not public gods; chamber-gods, but not Church-gods; nor any sesqui-god, any that must be more then God, and receive appeals from God, and reverse the decrees of God, which they make the office of the Virgin Mary, whom no man can honor too much, that makes her not God, and they dishonor most, that make her so much more. But yet, some names, some notifications of God, no doubt the Jews had: Moses says here, that he would tell them, that the God of their Fathers had sent him; which was a name of specification, and distinction of this GOD, from all the gods of the Gentiles. But in this place, Moses desires such a name of God, as might not only intimate to them to whom he was sent, a great power in that Prince that sent him, but might also intimate a great privacy, and confidence in him that was sent; A name, by which he might be known, to know more of that God, then other men knew; for, nothing advances a business more, then when he that is employed, is believed to know the mind, and to have the heart of him, that sends him. Therefore God gives Moses a cyphar; God declares to Moses, his bosom name, his visceral name, his radical, his fundamental name, the name of his Essence, Qui sum, I am; Go, and tell them, that he whose name is I am, hath sent thee. It is true, that literally in the Original, this name is conceived in the future; it is there, Qui ero, I that shall be. But this present acceptation, I am, hath passed through all Translators, and all Commentors, and Fathers, and Councils, and Schools, and the whole Church of God rests in it. And I know but one, (who is of the Reformation, and of the most rigid sub-division in the Reformation, and who hath many other singularities besides this) that will needs translate this name, Qui eram, I was. Howsoever, all intend, that this is a name that denotes Essence, Being: Being is the name of God, and of God only: for, of every other creature, Plato says well, Ejus nomen est potius non esse; The name of the Creator is, I am, but of every creature rather, I am not, I am nothing. He considers it, and concludes it, in the best, and noblest of creatures, Man; for, he, as well as the rest, plus habet non entis, quam entis; Man hath more privatives, then positives in him; Man hath but his own being; Man hath not the being of an Angel, nor the being of a lyon; God hath all in a kind of eminence more excellently then the kinds themselves, only his name is I am. Plato pursues this consideration usefully; Habuit ante aeternum non esse, Man had an eternal not being before; that is, before the creation; for those infinite millions of millions of generations before the Creation, there was a God, whose name was I am; but till within these six thousand years, Man was not, there was no man. And so says Plato, Haberet aeternum non esse,Man had an eternal not being before the Creation; so he would have another eternal not-being after his dissolution by death, in soul, as well as in body, if God did not preserve that being, which he hath imprinted in both, in both. And jam dum est, says he, As man had one eternal not being before, and would have another after, so for that being which he seems to have here now, it is a continual declination into a not being, because he is in continual change, and mutation, quae desinit in non esse, as he says well; Every change and mutation bends to a not being, because in every change, it comes to a not being that which it was before; only the name of God is I am.

In which name, God gave Moses, and does give us who are also his Embassadors, so much knowledge of himself, as that we may tell you, though not what God is, yet, that God is; God, in the notification of this name, sends us sufficiently instructed, to establish you in the assurance of an everlasting, and an ever-ready God, but not to scatter you with unnecessary speculations, and impertinencies concerning this God. He is no fit messenger between God and his Church, that knows not Gods name; that is, how God hath notified, and manifested himself to man. God hath manifested himself to man in Christ; and manifested Christ in the Scriptures; and manifested the Scriptures in the Church; the name of God is the notification of God; how God will be called by man, and that is, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and how God will be called upon by man, that is, that all our prayers to God be directed in, and through, and by, and for Christ Jesus. If we know the name of God, Qui sum, I am, that is, believe Christ Jesus, whom we worship to have been from all eternity, to be God; and then for more particular points, believe those Doctrines, quae sunt, which are, that is, Quae sunt ubique, & semper, as Lyrinensis says, which have been always believed, and always believed to have been necessary to be believed as articles of Faith, through the whole Catholic Church, if we know the name of God thus, we have our Commission, and our qualification in that Gospel, Go, and teach all Nations, and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost; that is the name of God to a Christian, the Trinity. And least that Commission so delivered in the general and fundamental manner, professing the Trinity, should not seem enough, it is repeated and paraphrased in the verse following, Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. First there is a Teaching; good life it self is but a commentary, an exposition upon our preaching; that which is first laid upon us is preaching; and then teach them to observe, that is, to practise; breed them not in an opinion that such a faith as is without works is enough; and teach them to observe All; For, for matter of practice, He that breaks one Law is guilty of all, and he that thinks to serve God by way of compensation, that is, to recompense God by doing one duty, for the omission of another, sins even in that, in which he thinks he serves God; and for matter of belief, he that believes not all, solvit Iesum, as S. John speaks, he takes Jesus in pieces, and after the Jews have crucified him, he dissects him, and makes him an Anatomy. We must therefore teach all; but then it is but all, which Christ hath commanded us; additional and traditional doctrines of the Papist, speculative and dazling, riddling and entangling perplexities of the School, passionate, and uncharitable wranglings of Controverters, these fall not in Moses Commission, nor ours, who participate of his; we are to deliver to you by the Ordinance of God, Preaching, The name of God, that is, how God hath manifested himself to man, and how God will be called upon by man, That God is your God in Christ, if you receive Christ in the Scriptures, applied in the Church. And farther we carry not our consideration upon this second excuse of Moses, in which (as in the former, he considered his insufficiency in the general) he considers it in this, that he had not studied, he had not acquired, he had not sought the knowledge of those Mysteries which appertained to that calling, implied in that, that he did not know Gods name.

His third excuse, which induces a great discouragement, arises out of a defect in nature, whereas the former is rather of art, and study, and consideration; and to be naturally defective in those faculties, which are essential and necessary to that work, which is under our hand, is a great discouragement. Lameness is not always an insupportable calamity; but for Mephibosheth to have been hindered by lameness then, when he should have received favor from the King, and settled his inheritance, this was a heavy affliction. Lowness of stature is no insupportable thing; but when Zacheus came with such a desire to see Christ, then to be disappointed by reason of his lowness, this might affect him. It is not always insupportable to lack the assistance of a servant, or a friend; But when the Angel hath troubled the water, and made it medicinal for him that is first put in and no more, then to have lain many years in expectation, and still to lack a servant, or a friend to do that office, this is a misery. And this was Moses case; God will send him upon a service, that consisted much in persuasion, and good speech, and he says, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant. Where we see, there is some degree of eloquence required in the delivery of Gods Messages. There are not so eloquent Books in the world, as the Scriptures; neither should a man come to any kind of handling of them with uncircumcised lips, as Moses speaks, or with an extemporal and irreverent, or over-homely and vulgar language. The preparation of the heart is of the Lord, says Solomon; but it is not only that; The preparation of the heart, and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. To conceive good things for the glory of God, and to express them to the edification of Gods people, is a double blessing of God. Therefore does Hester form and institute her prayer to God so, Give me boldness, O Lord of all power; but she extends her prayer farther, And give me eloquent speech in my mouth. And the want of this in a natural defect, and unreadiness of speech discouraged Moses. And when God recompenses, and supplyes this defect in Moses, he does it but thus, I will be with thy mouth, and I will teach thee what thou shalt say. Still it is Moses that must say it; still Moses mouth that must utter it. Beloved, it is the general Ordinance of God, of whom, as we have received mercy, we have received the Ministry, and it is the particular grace of God that inanimates our labours, and makes them effectual upon you; All that is not of our planting, nor watring, but of God that gives the increase; But yet we must labor to get, and labor to improve such learning, and such language, and such other abilities as may best become that service; for the natural want of one of these, retarded Moses from a present acceptation of Gods employment. And so truly, should put any man, that puts himself, or puts his son upon this profession, upon that consideration, whether he have such natural parts as will admit acquisitions, and superedifications fit for that calling. And farther we carry not Moses third excuse, raised out of a natural defect, non sum eloquens, I am not eloquent enough.

The fourth is a shrewd discouragement: In the first verse of this Chapter, He answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me; when I have told them thy name, how thou hast manifested thy self to them, and in what name they must call upon thee, Behold, they will not believe me; And this is the saddest discouragement that can fall upon the Minister and Messenger of God, not to be believed. God found this, and complained of it at first, Quousque non credent? how long will it be ere this people believe? they will never believe. The Prophet Isaiah foresaw this; Quis credidit? Lord who hath believed our report? No man doth, no man will believe us. S. John found this prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled even then, when Christ in person was preaching, and working of Miracles; then says that Evangelist, was that of Isaiah fulfilled, They believed not his report. And S. Paul saw it performed amongst the Gentiles, as well as S. John amongst the Jews, Lord who hath believed our report? Christ hath said himself, and Christ hath bidden us say, Qui non crediderit, damnabitur, He that believes not, shall be damned: And yet, Lord who hath believed our report? There cannot fall a sadder discouragement upon the Messenger of God, then not to be believed.

How loth we find the blessed Fathers of the Primitive Church, to lack company at their Sermons? How earnestly Leo, in one of his Anniversary Sermons, complains of multitudes, and thrusts at Plays, and Masks, and of a thinness, and scarcity, and solitude at Church? How glad they were to draw men thither? And then how much they endeavoured, to hold them in a disposition of hearkening unto them, when they had them? Sometimes with observing them with phrases of humiliation; So Damascene professes himself Minimum servum Ecclesiae, the meanest and unworthiest servant to that Congregation. So Leo presents himself, Ad vestra paratus obsequia, Ready to do all obsequious service to that Congregation: And so S. Augustine, In hoc vobis servimus, we shall do this congregation the best service, in handling this point thus. Sometimes they did it so, by submitting themselves to the Congregation, in phrases of humiliation; and sometimes, by taking knowledge of the pious, and devout behavior of the congregation, even in their Sermons, and thanking them for it; As Leo does too, Quod non tacito honorastis affectu, That they did countenance that which was said, with a holy murmur, with a religious whispering, and with an ocular applause, with fixing their eyes upon the Preacher, and with turning their eyes upon one another; for those outward declarations were much, very much in use in those times. And though in the excess of such outward declarations, S. Chrysost: complain of them, Non Theatrum Ecclesia, My masters, what mean you, the Church is not a Theater, Quae mihi istorū plausuum utilitas? what get I by these plaudites, & acclamations? I had rather have one soul, then all these hands and eyes: yet it is easy to observe, in the general proceeding of those blessed Fathers, that they had a holy delight to be heard, and to be heard with delight. For, Nemo flectitur, qui molestè audit; No man profits by a Sermon, that hears with pain, or weariness. Therefore S. Chrysoslome awakes his drouzy Auditory with that alarm, His quae jam dicuntur, &c. Hearken, I pray you now, says he; for, Non rem vulgarem pollicemur, It is no ordinary matter that I shall tell you: and having so awakened them, he keeps them awake, with such Doctrines as he thought fittest for their edification. And to the same purpose, S. Augustine does not only profess of himself, Non praetermitto istos numeros clausularum, That he studied at home, to make his language sweet, and harmonious, and acceptable to Gods people, but he believes also, that S. Paul himself, and all the Apostles, had a delight, and a complacency, and a holy melting of the bowels, when the congregation liked their preaching: The Fathers were glad to be heard, glad to be liked, and glad to be understood too; for, therefore doth Damascene repeat, almost verbatim, that great Sermon of his De Imaginibus, a second time, because (as he assignes the reason) he was not throughly understood, in the first preaching thereof; And therefore doth Ezra extend himself so far, as to preach from morning (as it is in the Original, from the light) till noon, that by giving himself that compass, he might carry every point in a clearness, as he went. Now if these blessed Fathers, these Angels of the Church, these Archangels of the Primitive Church, were thus affected, if they were not frequented, but neglected for other entertainments; or if they were not hearkened to, when they were heard, but heard perfunctorily, fragmentarily, here and there a rag, a piece of a sentence; Or if they were not understood, because they that heard were scattered, and distracted with other thoughts, and so withdrawn from their observation; or if they were not liked, because the Auditory had some pre-contracts upon other Preachers, that they liked better; how may we think, that those holy and blessed spirits were troubled, if they were not believed? This destroys and demolishes the whole body of our building; this evacuates the whole function of our Ministry, if we lose our credibility; if we may not be believed; if the Church conceive a jealousy, that we preach to serve turns; And therefore vae per quem, and vae per quos; woe unto that man (if any such man there should ever be) that gives just occasion of such a jealousy, that he preaches to serve turns; And woe to them (who abound every where) who entertain such jealousies, where no just occasion is offered, but mis-interpret the faithful labours of Gods true servants, and think every thing done to serve turns, that doth not agree with their distemper, in the likeness of zeal. The Fathers were sorry if they were not heard, if they were not understood, if they were not liked; But the saddest discouragement of all, is the Non credent, if we be not believed. And farther we carry not our Consideration upon Moses four excuses; of which the first was, in Contemplation of his own insufficiency in general; The second, in that particular, of not having furnished himself with additions necessary for that service; The third, because he had a defect in natural faculties; and the last, for the indisposition of them, to whom he was to go.

But then the fifth, which is not so much an excuse, as a petition, (O my Lord, send I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send) tastes of most vehemence, and, as it may seem, of some passion in Moses. He says first, Quis ego? I am not worthy of this employment; That's true; but thou art able to qualify me for it; and that objection is taken away. Quod nomen? I know not thy name, how thou wilt be called, and how thou wilt be called upon by men; I have not studied that: But thou hast revealed unto me the knowledge of fundamental doctrines, necessary for salvation, and that objection is removed. Non facundus, I am not eloquent, not of ready speech, defective in those natural faculties; But the spirit of eloquence, and the irresistibleness of persuasion is in that mouth, in which thou speakest: and that excuse is taken away too. Non credent; I know their stubbornness, to whom I go, they will not believe me; But thou hast put the power of Miracles into my hands, as well as knowledge into my heart; God makes sometimes a plain and simple mans good life, as powerful, as the eloquentest Sermon. All this I acknowledge, says Moses; But yet, O Lord, when thou shalt have done all this, in me, and in them, made me worthy by thy power, taught me thy Name by thy grace, infused a perswasibility into them, and a perswasiveness into me, by thy Spirit, yet there is One who is to be sent, One whom I know thou wilt send, One, whom, pursuing thine own Decree, thou shouldst send, One, whose shoo-latchet I shall not be worthy to untie then, when thou shalt have multiplied all these qualifications upon me, and therefore, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by his hand, send him, send Christ now. So then, with the ancient Fathers, with Iustin Martyr, with S. Basil, with Tertullian, with more, many, very many more, we may safely take this to be a supplication, That God would be pleased to hasten the comming of the Messiah.

Of our later writers, Calvin departs from the Ancients herein, so far, as to say, nimis coacta, it seems somewhat a forced, somewhat an unnatural sense, to interpret these words of the comming of Christ; but he proceeds no farther. But another, of the same sub-division, is, (as he uses to be) more assured, more confident; and he says, est omnimoda & praecisa recusatio; It is an absolute refusal in Moses, to obey the commandment of God: And that truly, needed not to have been said. Now, when we consider the exposition in the Roman Church, when their great Bishop, (I mean their great writing Bishop) departs from the Ancients, & does not understand these words of the comming of Christ, a Jesuit is so bold with that Bishop, (their order forbids them to be Bishops, but not to be Controllers over Bishops) as to tell him, levis objectio, that he departs from a good foundation, the Fathers, and that upon a light reason. And when another Author in that Church proceeds farther, to so much vehemence, so much violence, as to say, that it is not only an incommodious, but a superstitious sense, to interpret these words of the comming of Christ, two Jesuits correct him, almost in the same words, (for in the ways of contumely and defamation, they agree well) and say, audacter obstrepit, he does but sawcily bark, and kick against the ancient Fathers, quibus ipse, says Pererius, to whom himself is not to be compared, neither for learning in himself, nor for place and dignity in the Church, nor for sanctity and holiness of life in the world. They may be as bold with one another, as they please; Indeed they are so used to uncharitable phrases towards all others, as sometimes they cannot spare one another. For our part, we lay no such imputations upon any of our later men, that accept not that sense of these words, but yet, we cannot doubt of leave to accompany the Fathers in that Exposition, that these words, O my Lord, send I pray thee, by the hand of him, whom thou wilt send, are a petition, and not a reluctation against God. And that, not as Lyra takes them; Lyra takes them to be a petition, and not a reluctation; but a petition of Moses, that he would send Aaron; That, if he would send any, he should send a man of better parts, and abilities, then himself; and this is a rare modesty, when a man is named for any place, to become suter for another to that place; Moses was the meekest man upon earth; but this was not his meaning here. Nor as Rabbi Solomon takes it; he takes it for a Petition, and no reluctation; but, a Petition, that God would send Iosuah; For, (says that Rabbi) Moses had had a Revelation, that Iosuah, and not he, should be the man, that should bring that People into the Land of Promise; and therefore, since Iosuah was to have the honor of the action, Moses would have laid the burden upon him too; but this makes Moses a more fashional, a more particular, a more self-considering man, for his own estimation, then he was. But, with the Ancients, and later devout men, we piously believe Moses in these words to have extended his Devotion towards his Nation, and the whole world together, as far, as one of them hath extended the Exposition; quid prodest ex Egypto exire, & in peccatis manere, says he; what shall they be the better, for comming out of the pressures of Egypt, if they must remain still, under the oppression of a sinful conscience? And that must be their case, if thou send but a Moses, and not a Christ to their succor. Quid Pharaonem essugere, & non Diabolum, says he; what shall they get, in being delivered from Pharaoh, if they be not delivered from the Devil? Intrare in terram promissam, & non in coelum? What preferment is it, to dwell in a good Land, and to be banished out of heaven? And this will be their case, if thou send but a Moses, and not a Christ, for their deliverance. He carries it from them, to God himself: Quid unum populum è servitute temporali liberare, & totum genus humanum relinquere sub potestate Diaboli? What glory will it be to thee, O God, who studiest thine own glory, to deliver one Nation from a temporal bondage, and leave all Mankind under everlasting condemnation? And that must be the case of all, if thou send but a Moses, and not a Christ; Moses, may, by thine abundant goodness, do some good; but there is one, one appointed to be sent, that will do all which Moses should do, better then Moses, and infinitely more then Moses can do, or, of himself, so much as wish to be done; and therefore send him, send him now, to do all together: And so these words are a Petition, and no Reluctation, though some men have taken them so; and a Petition for the sending of Christ, and no Aaron, no Iosuah, no other man; though some have taken so too.

Yet we do not deliver Moses from all infirmity herein; no nor from all error, and mistaking; no more then we do in that other prayer of his, dele me, pardon this people, or blot my name out of thy Book, where Moses capitulated too narrrowly, and upon too strict conditions with God. Therefore, in this place, it follows presently upon this prayer, That God was angry with him. Unseasonable prayers, though because they may be rooted in piety, they may be, in some sort, excusable in him that makes them, yet may be unacceptable to God. S. August. prayed for a dead Mother, Monica; and S. Ambrose prayed for a dead Master, Theodosius; God forbid we should condemn Augustine or Ambrose of impiety in doing so; But God forbid we should make Augustine or Ambrose his example, our rule to do so still. This sending of Christ, which Moses solicits here, was de Arcanit Dei; It was one of the secrets of his State, and of his government; It was one of his bosom Counsels, and Cabinet Decrees: One of those reserved cases, which he had communicated to no man; as the day of Christs second comming, his comming to Judgement, is now; which God hath communicated to no man; as the clear understanding of the state of the dead, who are departed this life, God hath imparted to no man; nor some circumstances of time, and place, and person in Antichrist; God hath revealed these to no man, not to his whole Church; These are acts of his Regality, and of his Prerogative; and as Princes say of their Prerogative, nolumus disputari, we will not have it disputed, nor called into question, so for these Reserved cases, and unrevealed Counsels of God, such as was the first comming of Christ in Moses time, and such as is the second comming of Christ, now in our time, God would not be importuned. God meant to give the children of Israel a King, from the beginning; we presume he meant it, because it is the best blessing of all forms of government: And we see he meant it, because long before, he established Laws, by which, they should govern themselves, in their chusing their King, and by which, their King should govern them, when he was chosen; yet God was angry, when they importuned him for a King, at such a time, and upon such terms, as he intended not to do it. But now, because in Moses case, though there were not a present obedience, yet there was no disobedience, the fault being no greater, the anger was not great neither; and therefore we may safely say with Rupertus, that the iratus fuit, was but non propitius fuit; God was so angry, as that he did not grant, nor accept Moses petition, nor entertain any farther discourse with him, concerning the sending of Christ; In Abrahams solicitation, in the behalf of Sodom, it is said, that God went not away, as long as Abraham had any thing to say; But here, God was so far angry, as to break off Moses discourse: But his anger was not so much an Increpation, that he had said any thing, as an Instruction that he should say no more of Gods unrevealed purposes.

Therefore God does not continue his anger, so as to discontinue his work. It was but a Catechistical anger, such an anger as S. Bernard begges at Gods hands, Irascaris mihi Domine, O Lord, be angry with me, and leave me not to my self; thou hast an anger, that instructs in the way; but thou hast a heavy indignation, that confounds, and exterminates in the end. Therefore our prayer in the Litany, is not, O Lord be never angry with us; but, O Lord, be not angry with us, for ever. David was a man according to Gods heart; yet, no doubt, but God was angry with David, for the matter of Vriah, as himself calls it. God was not angry with Moses so, as that he gave over his purpose of delivering Israel, or of delivering Israel by him, and him established in a cheerful assurance to undertake it; for in the same breath, in the same words, in the same verse, wherein his anger is expressed, his Benignity, and his Benevolence is expressed also; for there he says, Is not Aaron thy Brother; I know he can speak well; and also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: God had laid it so, that Moses should be settled this way, by having so able a man, and then, a man in whom he might be so confident, as a brother, joined in commission with him. Slide we in this note by the way; God loves not singularity: God binds us to nothing, that was never said but by one: As God loves Sympathy, God loves Symphony; God loves a compassion and fellow-feeling of others miseries, that is Sympathy, and God loves Harmony, and fellow believing of others Doctrines, that is Symphony: No one man alone makes a Church; no one Church alone makes a Catholic Church. Christ sent his own Disciples by couples, two and two: And Aquinas says out of his observation, Monachus solus est Daemon solitarius: Though naturally a Monk must love retiredness, yet a single Monk, a Monk always alone, says he, is plotting some singular mischief. Deus qui habitat in nobis, etiam nos custodiet ex nobis, is excellently said by that excellent Father: God that dwells in us, will sustain the building, and repair the building out of our selves; that is, he will make us Tutelar Angels to one another; and a holy, and reverential respect to one another, in good conversation, shall keep us from many sinful actions, which we would commit if we were alone. So then, God was not so angry, nor angry so with Moses, as that he did not pursue his first purpose upon him, of sending him, & sending him so, as might best speed, & advance his Negotiation. And therefore, as Moses praying for Christs first cōming, which was one of Gods reserved cases, and an act of his regality, and Prerogative, though he had not that prayer granted, yet was not left unsatisfied, nor unaccommodated by God, so, (which is the end, that we drive all to) when the calamities; and distresses of this life oppress us, and we pray for the second comming of Christ, in the consummation of all, in glory, though, because this second comming of Christ, is one of Gods Reserved cases, and an act of his Regality, and Prerogative, he do not grant that, that Christ do not come so; yet, in his blessed Spirit, he will come to us, in an assurance, that when he shall come so, in judgement, we in his right, shall stand upright even in that Judgement: And, if in extraordinary distresses, we pray for extraordinary reliefs, though extraordinary helps, and miracles be Reserved cases, and acts of his Regality, and Prerogative; yet, as he remembers his mercies, of old, he will remember his miracles of old too, (and as his mercies are new every morning, his miracles shall be new every morning too; and all that he did in eighty eight, in the last Centutry, he shall do (if we need it) in twenty eight, in this Century;) And though he may be angry with our prayers, as they are but verbal prayers, and not accompanied with actions of obedience, yet he will not be angry with us for ever, but re-establish at home, zeal to our present Religion, and good correspondence, and affections of all parts to one another, and our power, and our honor, in foreign Nations. Amen.

Sermon VI. Preached at S. Pauls, upon Christmas Day. 1628.

Lord, who hath believed our report?

Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro?

I Have named to you no book, no chapter, no verse, where these words are written: But I forbore not out of forgetfulness, nor out of singularity, but out of perplexity rather, because these words are written, in more then one, in more then two places of the Bible. In your ordinary conversation, and communication with other men, I am sure you have all observed, that many men have certain forms of speech, certain interjections, certain suppletory phrases, which fall often upon their tongue, and which they repeat almost in every sentence; and; for the most part, impertinently; and then, when that phrase conduces nothing to that which they would say; but rather disorders and discomposes the sentence, and confounds, or troubles the hearer. And this, which some do out of slackness, and in-observance, and infirmity, many men, God knows, do out of impiety; many men have certain suppletory Oaths, with which they fill up their Discourse, then, when they are not only not the better believed, but the worse understood for those blasphemous interjections. Now, this, which you may thus observe, in men, sometimes out of infirmity, sometimes out of impiety, out of an accommodation and communicableness of himself to man, out of desire, and a study, to shed himself the more familiarly, and to infuse himself the more powerfully into man, you may observe even in the holy Ghost in himself, in the Scriptures, which are the discourse and communication of God with man; There are certain idioms, certain forms of speech, certain propositions, which the holy Ghost repeats several times, upon several occasions in the Scriptures. It is so in the instrumental Authors of the particular Books of the Bible; There are certain forms of speech, certain characters, upon which I would pronounce, That's Moses, and not David, that's Job, and not Solomon, that's Isaiah and not Jeremiah. How often does Moses repeat his Vivit Dominus, and Ego vivo, As the Lord liveth, and As I live, saith the Lord? How often does Solomon repeat his vanitas vanitatum, All is vanity? How often does our blessed Savior repeat his Amen, Amen? and, in another sense, then others had used that word before him; so often, as that you may reckon it thirty times, in one Evangelist; so often, as that that may not inconveniently be thought some reason, why S. John called Christ by that name, Amen, Thus saith Amen, He whose name is Amen. How often does S. Paul, (especially in his Epistles to Timothy, and to Titus) repeat that phrase Fidelis Sermo, This is a true, and faithful saying? And how often, his juratory caution, Coram Domino, before the Lord; As God is my witness? And as it is thus for particular persons, and particular phrases, that they are often repeated; so are there certain whole sentences, certain entire propositions, which the holy Ghost does often repeat in the Scripture. And, except we except that proposition, of which S. Peick makes his use, That God is no accepter of persons, (for that is repeated in very many places, that every where, upō every occasiō, every man might be remembered of that, that God is no accepter of persons; Take heed how you presume upon your own knowledge, or your actions, for God is no accepter of persons; Take heed how you condemn another man for an Heretic, because he believes not just as you believe; or for a Reprobate, because he lives not just as you live, for God is no accepter of persons; Take heed how you rely wholly upon the outward means, that you are wrapped in the covenant, that you are bred in a reformed Church, for God is no accepter of persons) except you will except this proposition, I scarce remember any other that is so often repeated in the Scriptures, as this which is our Text, Lord, who hath believed our report? For, it is first in the Prophet Isaiah. There the Prophet is in holy throws, and pangs, and agonies, till he be delivered of that prophecy, the comming of the Messiah; the incarnation of Christ Jesus, and yet is put to this exclamation, Domine, quis credidit? Lord who hath believed our report? And then you have these words in the Gospel of S. John; where we are not put upon the consideration of a future Christ in prophecy, but the Evangelist exhibits Christ in person, actually, really, visibly, evidently, doing great works, executing great judgements, multiplying great Miracles; and yet put to the application of this exclamation, Domine, quis credidit? Lord, who hath believed this report? And then you have these words also in S. Paul, where we do not consider a prophecy of a future Christ, nor a history of a present Christ, but an application of that whole Christ to every soul, in the fetling of a Church, in that concatenation of means for the infusion of faith expressed in that Chapter, sending, and preaching, and hearing; and yet for all these powerful and familiar assistances, Domine, quis crodidit? Lord, who hath believed that report? So that now beloved, you cannot say that you have a Text without a place; for you have three places for this Text: you have it in the great Prophet, in Isaiah, in the great Evangelist, in S. John; and in the great Apostle, in S. Paul. And because in all three places, the words minister useful doctrine of edification, we shall, by yours and the times leave, consider the words in all three places.

In all three, the words are a sad and a serious expostulation of the Minister of God, with God himself, that his Means and his Ordinances powerfully committed to him, being faithfully transmitted by him to the people, were nevertheless fruitless, and ineffectual. I do Lord as thou biddest me, says the Prophet Isaiah; I prophecy, I foretell the comming of the Messiah, the incarnation of thy Son for the salvation of the world, and I know that none of them that hear me, can imagine or conceive any other way for the redemption of the world, by fatisfaction to thy Justice, but this, and yet, Domine quis credidit? Lord who hath believed my report? I do Lord as thou biddest me, says Christ himself in S. John; I come in person, I glorify thy name, I do thy will, I preach thy Gospel, I confirm my doctrine with evident Miracles, and I seal those Seals, I confirm those Miracles with my Blood; and yet, Quis credidit? Lord who hath believed my report? I do Lord as thou biddest me, says every one of us, who, as we have received mercy, have received the Ministry; I obey the inward calling of the Spirit, I accept the outward calling of the Church; furnished, and established with both these, I come into the world, I preach absolution of sins to every repentant Soul, I offer the seals of reconciliation to every contrite spirit; and yet, Domine quis credidit? Lord who hath believed my report? Indeed it is a sad contemplation, and must necessarily produce a serious and a vehement expostulation, when the predictions of Gods future judgements (so we shall find the case to have been in the words in Isaiah) when the execution of Gods present judgements, (so we shall find the case to have been in the words in S. John) when the Ordinances of God, for the relief of any soul, in any judgement, in his Church, are not believed. To say I believe you not, amounts to a lye; Not to believe Gods warnings before, not to believe Gods present judgements, not to believe that God hath established a way to come to him in all distresses, this is to give God the lye; and with this is the world charged in this Text, Lord who hath believed our report?

First then, where we find these words first, the Prophet reproaches their unbeleefe, and hardness of heart, in this, that they did not believe future things, future calamities, future judgements; for that is intended in that place. For, though this 53. of Isaiah be the continuation, and the consummation of that doctrine which the Prophet began to propose in the Chapter immediately preceding, which is, the comming of the Messiah (in general, the comfortablest doctrine that could be proposed) though this Chapter be especially that place, upon which S. Jerome grounds that Eulogy of Isaiah, that Isaiah was rather an Evangelist then a Prophet, because of his particular declaration of Christ in this Chapter; though upon this Chapter our Expositors sometimes say, that as we cite the Gospel according to S. Matthew, and the Gospel according to S. John, so here we may say, the Gospel according to the Prophet Isaiah; yet though this be a prophecy of the comming of Christ, and so, the comfortablest doctrine that can be proposed in the general, and in the end, and fruit of that comming, yet it is a prophecy of the exinanition of Christ, of the evacuation of Christ, of the inglorious and ignominious estate, the calamitous, and contumelious estate of Christ: Their Messiah they should have; but that Messiah should be reputed a Malefactor, and as a Malefactor crucified; Which miseries, and calamities being to fall upon him, for them, they ought to have been as sensible, and as much affected with those miseries to be endured for them, as if they had been to have fallen upon themselves. The later Jews and their Rabbis since the dispersion, do not, will not believe this prophecy of miseries, and calamities to belong to their Messiah. They do not, they will not believe, that that which is said, That there is no form, no beauty, no comeliness in him, so that men should long for him before, or desire to look upon him after, should have any reference to their Messiah, whom they expect in all outward splendor and glory; Nor that that which is added there, That he should be despised, and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs, should belong to him, in whose proceedings in this world, they look for continual Victories and Triumphs. But they will needs understand these miseries, and calamities prophesied here, to be those calamities, and those miseries, which have fallen, and dwelt upon their Nation, ever since their dispersion after Christs death. Now let it be but such a prophecy as that; take it either way; The Christian way, a prophecy of calamities upon the Messiah for them; or the Jews way, of calamities upon them for the Messiah; still it is a prophecy of future calamities, future judgements, of which they ought to have been sensible, and with which they ought to have been affected, and were not: And so that's their charge, they did not believe the Prophets report, they were not moved with Gods judgments denounced upon them, by those Prophets. Now, was this so heinous, not to believe a Prophet?

The office and function of a Prophet, in the time of the Law, was not so evident, nor so ordinary an office, as the office of the Priest and Minister in the Gospel now is; There was not a constant, an ordinary, a visible calling in the Church, to the office of a Prophet. Neither the high-priest, nor the Ecclesiastical Consistory, the Synedrium, did by any imposition of hands, or other Collation, or Declaration, give Orders to any man so, as that thereby that man was made a Prophet. I know some men, of much industry, and perspicacy too, in searching into those Scriptures, the sense whereof is not obvious to every man, have thought that the Prophets had an outward and a constant declaration of their Calling. And they think it proved, by that which is said to Elijah, when God commands him to anoint Hazael K. of Syria, & to anoint Iehu K. of Israel, & to anoint Elisha Prophet in his own room: Therefore, say they, the Prophet had as much evidence of his Calling, as the Minister hath, for that unction was as evident a thing, as our Imposition of hands is. And it is true, it was so, where it was actually, and really executed. But then, nothing is more evident, then that this word Meshiach, which signifies Anointing, is not restrained to that very action, a real unction, but frequently transferred, & communicated in a Scripture use, to every kind of Declaration of any Election, any Institution, any Inauguration, any Investiture of any person to any place; And, less then that, of any appropriation, any applicatiō of any thing to any particular use. Any appointing was an anointing; As in particular (for many other places) where S. Jerome reads, Arripite clypeos, buckle your shields; To you, which was an alarm to them, to arm, the original hath it, and so hath our translation, Anoint your shields; to apply them to their right use, was called an Anointing. And when God calls Cyrus, the King of Persia, Vnctum suum, his Anointed; it were weakly, and improperly argued from that word, that Cyrus King of Persia, was literally, actually, anointed; for that unction was peculiar to the Kings of Israel; but Cyrus was the anointed of the Lord, that is, declared and avowed by the Lord, to be his chosen Instrument. Neither could Elijah, literally execute this commandment, for anointing Hasael King of Syria; for Hasael the King of Syria could not be anointed by the Prophet of the Lord, for such unction was peculiar to the Kings of Israel. And for the Kings of Israel themselves, their own Rabbis tell us, that they were not ordinarily anointed, but only in those cases, where there arose some question, and difference, about the succession; as in Solomons case; there, because Adoniah pretended to the succession; to make all the more sure, David proceeded with a solemnity, and appointed an anointing of Solomon, which, otherwise, say their Rabbis, had not been done. But howsoever it may have been for their Kings, there seems to be a plain distinction between them, and the Prophets in the Psalm, for this evidence of unction; Touch not mine Anointed, says God there: They, they that were Anointed, constitute one rank, one classis; and then follows, And do my Prophets no harm: They, they who were not Anointed, the Prophets, constitute another classis, another rank. So that then an internal, a spiritual unction the Prophets had, that is, an application, an appropriation to that office from God, but a constant, an evident calling to that function, by any external act of the Church, they had not, but it was an extraordinary office, and imposed immediately by God; and therefore the people might seem the more excusable, if they did not believe a Prophet presently, because the office of the Prophet did not carry with it, such a manifestation by any thing evidently done upon him, and visible to them, that by that, that man must be a Prophet. But, as God clothes himself with light, as with a garment; so God clothes, and apparells his works with light too: for, frustra fecisset, says S. Ambrose, God had made creatures to no purpose, if he had not made light to see them by. Therefore when God does any extraordinary work, he accompanies that work with anextraordinary light, by which, he for whose instruction God does that work, may know that work to be his. So when he sent his Prophets to his people, he accompanied their mission, with an effectual light, and evidence, by which, that people did acknowledge in their own hearts, that that man was sent by God to them. Therefore they called that man at first, Roeh, videntem, a Seer, one whom they acknowledged to have been admitted to the sight of God, in the declaration of his will to them: for so we have it in Samuel, He that is now called a Prophet, was before time called a Seer. And then that addition of the name of a Prophet, gave them a farther qualification; for, Nabi, which is a Prophet, is from Niba; and Niba, is venire facio, to cause, to make a thing to come to pass. So that a Prophet was not only praefator, but praefactor; He did not only presage, but preordain; that is, there was such an infallibility, such an inevitableness in that which he had said, as that his very saying of it, seemed to them some kind of cause of the accomplishing thereof. For, hence it is, that we have that phrase so often in the new Testament, This and this was thus and thus done, that such and such a Prophecy might be fulfilled: They never went to that height, that such or such a secret purpose, or unrevealed Decree of God might be fulfilled; but they rested in the Declaration which God had made in his Church, and were satisfied in the execution of his Decrees, in his visible Ordinances. Therefore the increpation which the Prophet lays upon the people here, (Lord, who hath believed our report) is not, that they did not believe those Prophets to be Prophets, (for though that were an extraordinary office, yet it was accompanied with an extraordinary light) neither was it, that they did not believe that those things which were prophesied by them, should come to pass, (for they believed that man to be Roeh, a Seer, one that had seen the Counsels of God concerning them; And they believed him to be Nabi, venire facientem, one upon whose word they might as infallibly rely, as upon a cause, for an effect;) But this was the sin of this people, this was the sorrow of this Prophet, that they did not believe these predictions to belong to them, they did not believe that these judgements would fall out in their time. In one word, present security was their sin. And was that so heinous?

So heinous, as that that is it, with which God was so highly incensed, and with which he meant so deeply to affect his people, in that considerable passage, in that remarkeable, and vehement place, where he expostulates thus with them; Hear ye scornful men, (yee that make a jest, a scorn of future judgements) Hear ye scornful men, that rule this people, (says God there) (you that have a power over the affections of the people in the Pulpit, and can persuade what you will, or a power over the wills of the people in your place, and can command what you will) you that tell them (says the Prophet there) we have made a covenant with death, and are at an agreement with hell, (fear you nothing, let us alone; ambitious Princes shall turn their forces another way, antichristian plots shall be practised in other nations) you that tell them (says he) when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to you, (howsoever superstition be established in other places, howsoever prevailing armies be multiplied else-where, yet you shall have your religion, & your peace still; for we have made a covenant with death, & with hell, we are at an agreement) Hear ye scornful men, (says God) you that put this scorn upon my predictions, your covenant with death shall be disanulled, and your agreement with death shall not stand, (the faire promises of others to you, your own promises to your selves shall deceive you) and the overflowing scourge shall pass thorough, thorough you all, for, you, (you scornful men) shall be trodden down by it; and, (as it follows there, in an elegant, and a vehement expression) it shall be a vexation, only to understand the report: You that would not believe the report of the Prophet, that for these and these sins, such and such Judgements should fall upon you, shall be confounded even with the report, the noise, the news, how this overslowing scourge hath passed thorough your neighbours round about you; how much more with the sense, when you your selves shall be trodden down by it? There is scarce any of the Prophets, in which, God does not drive home this increpation of their security, and insensibleness of future calamities. As in Isaiah, so in Ezekiel God says, what is that Proverb which ye have in the Land of Israel? (it was, it seems, in every mans mouth, proverbially spoken by all) what was it? This, The days are prolonged, and every vision fails; The vision which he says, is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times afar off. But, (says God there) In your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and perform it: Not say it in our days, and perform it upon our children; but God will speak, and strike together, we shall hear him, and feel him at once, if we be not seriously affected with his predictions.

The same way God goes in Jeremiah, as in Isaiah, and in Ezekiel. I have sent unto you all my servants, the Prophets, (says God there) God hath no other servants, to this purpose, but his Prophets: If your dangers have been, by Gods appointment, preached to you, God hath done. You must not, as Dives did, in the behalf of his brethren, look for. Messengers from the state of the dead; you must not stay for instruction, nor for amendment, till you be Pro mortuis, (as the Apostle speaks) as good as dead, ready to dye; you must not stay till a Judgement fall, and then presume of understanding by that vexation, or of repentance by that affliction; for, this is to hearken after Messengers, from the state of the dead, to think of nothing till we be ready to join with them; But as Abraham says there to Dives, Thy brethren have the Law, and the Prophets, and that is enough, that is all, so God says here, I have sent them all my servants, the Prophets; that is enough, that is all: especially, when, (as God adds there) He hath risen early, and sent his Prophets, that is, given us warning time enough, before the calamity come near our own gates. But when they rejected, and despised all his Prophesies, and denunciations of future Judgements, then follows the sentence, the final, and fearful sentence. The Lord hath forsaken, and rejected them; Them; whom? as it follows in the sentence, The Lord hath forsaken, and rejected the generation of his wrath; The generation of his wrath? There is more horror, more consternation in that manner of expressing that rejection, then in the rejection it self; There is an insupportable weight, in that word. His wrath; but even that is infinitely aggravated in the other, The generation of his wrath. God hath forgot that Israel is his Son, and his first born; So he avowed him to be in Moses commission to Pharaoh. God hath forgot that He rebuked Kings for his sake; that he testifies to have done in his behalf, in David; God hath forgot that they were heirs according to the promise; that is their dignification in the Apostle; forgot that they were the apple of his own eye, that they were as the signet upon his own hand; forgot that Ephraim is his dear Son, that he is a pleasing child, a child for whom his bowels were troubled; God hath forgot all these paternities, all these filiations, all these incorporatings, all these inviscerations of Israel into his own bosom, and Israel is become the generation of his wrath. Not the subject of his wrath; A people upon whom God would exercise some one act of indignation, in a temporal calamity, as captivity, or so; or multiply acts of indignation, in one kind, as adding of penury or sickness to their captivity; nor is it only a multiplying of the kinds of calamity, as the aggravating of temporal calamities with spiritual, oppression of body and state, with sadness of heart, and dejection of spirit; for all these, as many as they are, are determined in this life; but that which God threatens, is, that he will for their grievous sins, multiply lives upon them, and make them immortal for immortal torments; They shall be a generation of his wrath; they shall dye in this world, in his displeasure, and receive a new birth, a new generation in the world to come, in a new capacity of new miseries; they shall dye in the next world, every minute, in the privation of the sight of God, and every minute receive a new generation, a new birth, a new capacity of real and sensible torments. When God hath sent all his servants, the Prophets, and so done all that is necessary for premonition, and risen early to send those Prophets, warned them time enough, to avoid the danger, and they are not affected with the sense of these predictions, God shall make them, us, any State, any Church, the generation of his wrath, God shall forget his former paternities, and our former filiations; forget his mercies exhibited to us in the reformation of Religion, in the preservation of our State, in the augmenting and adorning of our Church, and after all this, make us the generation of his wrath. And this may well be conceived to be the lamentable state deplored in this text, as the words are considered in their first place, the Prophet Isaiah, Lord, who hath believed our report. But this is brought nearer to us, in the second place, as we have the words in S. John; where we do not consider things in a remote distance, but Christ was in a personal and actual exercise of his works of power, and sovereignty, and yet the Evangelist comes to this, Lord, who hath believed this report?

That's true in a great part, which Irenaeus says, Prophetiae antequam effectum habent, aenigmata sunt, & ambiguitates hominibus, That prophecies till they come to be fulfilled, are but clouds in the eyes, and riddles in the understanding of men. So, many particulars, concerning the calling of the Jews, concerning the time, and place, and person, and duration, and actions of Antichrist, concerning the general Judgement, and other things, that lye yet, as an Embryon, as a child in the mothers womb, embowelled in the womb of prophecy, are yet but as clouds in the eyes, as riddles in the understandings of the learnedst men. Daniel himself, found that which he found in the Prophet Jeremiah, concerning the deliverance of Israel from Babylon, to be wrapped up in such a cloud, as that it is fairly collected by some, that Daniel himself at that time, did not clearly understand the Prophet Jeremiah. But these clouds, for the most part, arise in us, out of our curiosity, that we will needs know the time, when these prophecies shall be fulfilled; when the Jews shall be called, when Antichrist shall be fully manifested, when the day of Judgement shall be: And so, for such questions as these, Christ enwraps not only his Apostles, but himself in a cloud; for, that cloud which he casts upon them, Non est vestrum, It belongs not to you, to know times, and seasons, he spreads upon himself also, Non est meum, It belongs not to me, not to me, as the Son of man, to know when the day of Judgment shall be. But for that use of a prophecy, that the prediction of a future Judgement should induce a present repentance, that was never an enigmatical, a cloudy doctrine, but manifest to all, in all prophecies of that kind. But this, this commination of future judgements, for present repentance, wrought not upon these men; but, because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God: And, because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. But now, in the manifestation of Christ, they saw evident changes; changes, and revolutions in the highest sphere; they saw a new King, and they heard strangers proclaim him; foreign Kings do not send Ambassadors to congratulate, but come in person, to do their homage, and ask their audience in that style, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? not an elective, not an arbitrary, not a conditional, a provisional King, but an hereditary, a natural King, Born King of the Jews. They hear strangers proclaim him, and they proclaim him themselves, in that act of Recognition, in that acclamatory Hosanna, in this Chapter, Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord. They saw changes; changes with which Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And they saw sentence executed; for, as soon as Christ manifested himself, John Baptist says, Now, now that Christ declares himself, the axe is laid unto the root of the tree, and now, says he, His fan is in his hand, and he will purge his floor. And this sentence he executed, this regal power he exercised, not only after that Recognition of his subjects, in their Hosannaes in this chapter, (for, upon that, he did go into the Temple, and cast out the buyers, and sellers) but some years before that, at his first manifestation of himself, and soon after John Baptists Now, now is the axe laid to the root of the Tree, did Christ execute this sentence, not only to drive, but to scourge them out, that prophaned the Temple; which was the second miracle, that we ascribe to Christ. Indeed all his miracles were so many acts, not only of his regal power over some men, but of his absolute prerogative, over the whole frame, and body of nature. Nor can we conceive how the beholders of those miracles, could argue to themselves, otherwise then thus; The winds and seas obey this man, for when he suffers them, the winds roar, and when he whispers a silence to them, they are silenced; The Devils and unclean spirits obey him; for when he suffers it, they preach his glory, and when he refuses honor from so dishonourable mouths, they are silent. Death it self obeys him; for, when he will, death withholds his hand from closing that mans eye, that lyes upon his last gasp, and the last stroke of his bell, and he does not die; and, when he will, death withdraws his hand from him, who had been four days in his possession, and redelivers Lazarus to a new life. This they saw; and could they choose but say, the wind, and the sea, the devil, and unclean spirits, and death it self obeys this man, how shall we stand before this man, this King, this God? yet for all this voice, this loud voice of miracles, (for when S. Chrysostom says, Omni tuba clarior per opera demonstratio, Every good work hath the voice of a trumpet, every miracle hath the voice of thunder,) for all this loud voice, (as it is said in the verse before the text, Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him) it is fain to come to that, Quis credidit, Lord who hath believed this report? The first of those great names which were given to Christ, in the Prophet Isaiah, was Mirabilis, The wonderful, The supernatural man, the man that works miracles; for, of the Apostles it is said, by them, great miracles were wrought, but God wrought those miracles, by them. Christ wrought his miracles himself; And his Birth, and his Life, and Death, and Refurrection, and Ascension, were all complicated, and elemented of miracles. If he fasted himself, he did that miraculously; and it was with a miracle, when he feasted others. He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many Devils, says S. Mark; And S. Matthew carries it a great deal farther, He went about all the Cities, and villages, healing every sickness, and every disease among the people. Therefore Christ makes that, (the evidence of his miracles) the issue between them, If these mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, Tyre and Sidon would have repented; And therefore he places their inexcusableness in that, If I had not come, and spoken to them, they had had no sin; Nay, if I had not spoken to them, in this loud voice, the voice of miracles, they might have had some cloak for their sin, but now they have none, says Christ in that place; And, beloved, are not we inexcusable in that degree? Have not we seen changes, and seen judgements executed, and seen miraculous deliverances, and yet Domine quis credidit? Lord who hath believed these reports?

I would we could but take aright a mis-taken translation, and make that use that is offered us in others error. The vulgar Edition, the translation of the Roman Church, reads that place, in the 77. Psalm and 11. verse thus, Nunc caepi, says David, Now I have taken out my lesson the right way, now I have laid hold upon God by the right handle, Nunc caepi, Now I have all that I need to have; what is it? This; Haec mutatio dextrae Dei, this is to take out my lesson aright, to understand God truly, and to know, & acknowledge, that this change which I see, is an act of the right hand of God, and that it is a judgement, and not an accident. O, beloved, that we would not be afraid of giving God too much glory; not afraid of putting God into too much heart; or of making God too imperious over us, by acknowledging, that Haec mutatio dextrae Dei, that all our changes are acts of the right hand of God, and come from him. But we are not only subject to the Prophets increpation, Quis credit, that we do not believe Gods warnings of future judgements, but to the Evangelists increpation, in the person of Christ, Quis credidit? we do not believe present judgements to be judgements. An invincible navy hath been sent against us, and defeated, and we sacrifice to a casual storm for that; we say the winds delivered us. A powder treason hath been plotted, and discovered, and we sacrifice to a casual letter for that; we say, the letter delivered us. A devouring plague hath reigned, and gone out again, and we sacrifice to an early frost for that; we say, the cold weather delivered us. Domestic encumbrances, personal infirmities, sadness of heart, dejection of spirit oppresses us, and then wears out, and passes over, and we sacrifice for that, to wine, and strong drink, to music, to Comedies, to conversation, and to all Job's miserable comforters; we say, it was but a melancholic fit, and good company hath delivered us of it. But when God himself says, There is no evil done in the City, but I do it, we may be bold to say, there is no good done in the world but he does it. The very calamities are from him; the deliverance from those calamities much more. All comes from Gods hand; and from his hand, by way of hand-writing, by way of letter, and instruction to us. And therefore to ascribe things wholy to nature, to fortune, to power, to second causes, this is to mistake the hand, not to know Gods hand; But to acknowledge it to be Gods hand, and not to read it, to say that it is Gods doing, and not to consider, what God intends in it, is as much a slighting of God, as the other. Now, in every such letter, in every judgement, God writes to the King; but it becomes not me to open the Kings letter, nor to prescribe the King his interpretation of that judgement. In every such letter, in every judgement God writes to the State; but I will not open their letter, nor prescribe them their interpretation of that judgement; God, who of his goodness hath vouchsafed to write unto them in these letters, of his abundant goodness interprets himself to their religious hearts. But then, in every such letter in every judgement, God writes to me too; and that letter I will open, and read that letter; I will take knowledge that it is Gods hand to me, and I will study the will of God to me in that letter; and I will write back again to my God and return him an answer, in the amendment of my life, and give him my reformation for his information. Else I am fallen lower then under the Prophets increpation, non credidi, I have not believed comminations of future judgements, under Christs increpation too, non credidi, I do not believe judgements to be judgements, or (which is as dangerous an ignorance) not to be instructive judgements, medicinal and catechistical judgements to me. And this may well be the explication, at least, the application and accommodation of these words, Lord who hath believed our report, in those places, the Prophet Isaiah, and the Evangelist S. John. There remains only the third place, where we have these words in the Apostle S. Paul, and in them, there, do not consider, a prophecy of a future Christ, as in Isaiah, nor a history of a present Christ, as in S. John, but we consider an application of all, prophecy, and history, all that was foretold of Christ, all that was done and suffered by Christ, in this, that there is a Church instituted by Christ, endowed with means of reconciling us to God, what judgements soever our sins have drawn God to threaten against us, or to inflict upon us; and yet for all these offers, of all these helps, the Minister is put to this sad expostulation, Domine, quis credidit? Lord, who hath believed our report?

Here then the Apostles expostulation with God, and increpation upon the people, may usefully be conceived to be thus carried; from the light and notification of God, which we have in nature, to a clearer light, which we have in the Law and Prophets, and then a clearer then that in the Gospel, and a clearer, at least a nearer then that, in the Church. First then, even the natural man is inexcusable (says this Apostle) if he do not see the invisible God in the visible creature; inexcusable, if he do not read the law written in his own heart. But then, Quis credidit auditui suo? who hath believed his own report? who does read the Law written in his own heart? who does come home to Church to himself, or hearken to the motions of his own spirit, what he should do, or what will become of him, if he do still as he hath done? or who reads the history of his own conscience, what he hath done, and the judgements that belong to those former actions? Therefore we have a clearer light then this; Firmiorem propheticum sermonem, says S. Peter, We have a more sure word of the Prophets; that is, as S. Augustine reads that place, clariorem, a more manifest, a more evident declaration in the Prophets, then in nature, of the will of God towards man, and his rewarding the obedient, and rejecting the disobedient to that will. But then, Quis credidit auditui prophetico, who hath believed the report of the Prophet, so far, as to be so moved and affected with a prophecy, as to suspect himself, and apply that prophecy to himself, and to say this judgement of his belongs to this sin of mine? Therefore we have a clearer light then this; God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake to the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoke to us by his Son, says the Apostle; He spake personally, and he spake aloud, in the declaration of Miracles; But, Quis credidit auditui filii? who believed even his report? did they not call his preaching sedition, and call his Miracles conjuring? Therefore we have a clearer, that is, a nearer light then the written Gospel, that is, the Church. For, the principal intention in Christs Miracles, even in the purpose of God, was but thereby to create and constitute, and establish an assurance, that he that did those Miracles, was the right man, the true Messiah, that Son of God, who was made man for the redemption and ransom of the whole world. But then, that which was to give them their best assistance, that that was to supply all, by that way, to apply this general redemption to every particular soul, that was the establishing of a Church, of a visible and constant, and permanent means of salvation, by his Ordinances there, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world. And this is done, says this Apostle here; Christ is come, and gone, and come again; Born, and dead, and risen again; Ascended, and sate at the right hand of his Father in our nature, and descended again in his Spirit, the Holy Ghost; that Holy Ghost hath sent us, us the Apostles; we have made Bishops; they have made Priests and Deacons; and so that body, that family, that household of the faithful, by their Ministry is made up. 'Tis true, says the Apostle here, Men cannot be saved without calling upon God; nor call upon him acceptably without Faith; nor believe truly without Hearing; nor hear profitably without Preaching; nor preach avowably, and with a blessing, without sending; All this is true says our Apostle in this place; but all this is done; such a sending, such a preaching, such a hearing is established; For, I ask but this, says he, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world; And, for my self, says he, I have strived to preach the Gospel, where Christ was not named; that is, to carry the Church farther then the rest had carried it, and now all is done, says the Apostle. So that here is the case, if the natural man say, alas they are but dark notions of God which I have in nature; if the Jew say, alas they are but remote and ambiguous things which I have of Christ in the Prophets; If the slack and historical Christian say, alas they are but general things, done for the whole world indifferently, and not applied to me, which I read in the Gospel, to this natural man, to this Jew, to this slack Christian, we present an established Church, a Church endowed with a power, to open the wounds of Christ Jesus to receive every wounded soul, to spread the balm of his blood upon every bleeding heart; A Church that makes this general Christ particular to every Christian, that makes the Savior of the world, thy Savior, and my Savior; that offers the original sinner Baptism for that; and the actual sinner, the body and blood of Christ Jesus for that; a Church that mollifies, and entenders, and shivers the presumptuous sinner with denouncing the judgements of God, and then, consolidates and establishes the diffident soul with the promises of his Gospel; a Church, in contemplation whereof, God may say, Quid potui Vineae, what could I do more for my people then I have done? first to send mine only Son to die for the whole world, and then to spread a Church over the whole world, by which that death of his might be life to every soul. This we preach, this we propose, according to that commission put into our hands, It, praedicate, Go, and preach the Gospel to every creature, and yet, Domine, quis credidit? Lord, who hath believed our report?

In this then, the Apostle and this Text, places the inflexible, the incorrigible stiffeness of mans disobedience, in this he seals up his inexcusableness, his irrecoverableness, first, that he is not afraid of future judgements, because they are remote; then, that he does not believe present judgements to be judgements, because he can make shift to call them by a milder name, accidents, and not judgements, and can assign some natural, or moral, or casual reason for them. But especially in this, that he does not believe a perpetual presence of Christ in his Church, he does not believe an Ordinance of means, by which, all burdens of bodily infirmities, of crosses in fortune, of dejection of spirit, and of the primary cause of all these, that is, sin it self may be taken off, or made easy unto him; he does not believe a Church.

Now, as in our former part we were bound to know Gods hand, and then bound to read it, to acknowledge a judgement to be a judgement, and then to consider what God intended in that judgement, so here we are bound to know the true Church, and then to know what the true Church proposes to us. The true Church is that, where the word is truly preached, and the Sacraments duly administered. But it is the Word, the Word inspired by the holy Ghost; not Apocryphal, not Decretal, not Traditional, not Additional supplements; and it is the Sacraments, Sacraments instituted by Christ himself, and not those super-numerary sacraments, those posthume, post-nati sacramēts, that have been multiplied after: and then, that which the true Church proposes, is, all that is truly necessary to salvation, and nothing but that, in that quality, as necessary. So that Problematical points, of which, either side may be true, & in which, neither side is fundamentally necessary to salvation, those marginal & interlineary notes, that are not of the body of the text, opinions raised out of singularity, in some one man, and then maintained out of partiality, and affection to that man, these problematical things should not be called the Doctrine of the Church, nor lay obligations upon mens consciences; They should not disturb the general peace, they should not extinguish particular charity towards one another.

The Act then, that God requires of us, is to believe: so the words carry it in all the three places: The Object, the next, the nearest Object of this Belief, is made the Church; that is, to believe that God hath established means for the application of Christs death, to all, in all Christian Congregations. All things are possible to him that believeth, saith our Savior; In the Word, and Sacraments, there is Salvation to every soul, that believes there is so: As on the other side, we have from the same mouth, and the same pen, He that believeth not, is damned. Faith then being the root of all, and God having vouchsafed to plant this root, this faith, here in his terrestrial paradise, and not in heaven; in the manifest ministry of the Gospel, and not in a secret and unrevealed purpose, (for, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by preaching, which are things executed and transacted here in the Church) be thou content with those means which God hath ordained, and take thy faith in those means, and believe it to be influxus suasorius, that it is an influence from God, but an influence that works in thee by way of persuasion, and not of compulsion; It convinces thee, but it doth not constrain thee: It is, as S. Augustine says excellently, Vocatio congrua, it is the voice of God to thee: but, his voice then, when thou art fit to hear, and answer that voice; not fitted by any exaltation of thine own natural faculties, before the cōming of grace; nor fitted by a good husbanding of Gods former grace, so as in rigor of justice to merit an increase of grace, but fitted by his preventing, his auxiliant, his concomitant grace, grace exhibited to thee, at that time when he calls thee: for, so says that Father, Sic eum vocat, quo modo seit ei congruere, ut vocantē non respuat: God calls him then, when he knows he will not resist his calling; But he doth not say, then, when he cānot resist; that needs not be said. But, as there is podus glcriae, as the Apostle speaks, an eternal weight of glory, which mans understanding cannot cōprehend; so there is Pondus gratiae, a certain weight of grace, that God lays upon that soul, which shall be his, under which that soul shall not easily bend it self any way from God.

This then is the sum of this whole Catechism, which these words, in these three places do constitute: First, that we be truly affected with Gods fore-warnings, and say there, Domine credo, Lord I believe that report, I believe that judgement to be denounced against my sin: And then, that we be duly affected with present changes, and say there, Domine credo, Lord I believe that report, I believe this judgement to come from thee, and to be a letter of thy hand; Lord enlighten others to interpret it aright, for thy more public glory, and me, for my particular reformation. And then, lastly, to be sincerely, and seriously affected with the Ordinances of his Church, and to rest in them, for the means of our salvation; and to say there, Domine credo, Lord I believe this report, I believe that I cannot be saved without believing, nor believe without hearing. And therefore, whatsoever thou hast decreed to thy self above in heaven, give me a holy assiduity of indevor, and peace of conscience, in the execution of thy Decrees here; And let thy Spirit bear witness with my spirit, that I am of the number of thine elect, because I love the beauty of thy house, because I captivate mine understanding to thine Ordinances, because I subdue my will to obey thine, because I find thy Son Christ Jesus made mine, in the preaching of thy word, and my self made his, in the administration of his Sacraments. And keep me ever in the armes, and bosom of that Church, which without any tincture, any mixture, any leaven of superstition, or Idolatry, affords me all that is necessary to salvation, and obtrudes nothing, enforces nothing to be believed, by any Determination, or Article of hers that is not so. And be this enough for the Explication, and Application, and Complication of these words, in all these three places.

Sermon VII. Preached upon Christmas day.

JOHN 10.10.

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

THe Church celebrates this day, the Birth of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, blessed for ever; And though it fall amongst the shortest days in the yeere, yet of all the Festivals in the yeere, it is the longest: It is a day that consists of twelve days; A day not measured by the natural and ordinary motion of the Sun, but by a supernatural and extraordinary Star, which appeared to the Wisemen of the East, this day, and brought them to Christ, at Bethlem, upon Twelfe day. That day, Twelfe day, the Church now calls the Epiphany; The ancient Church called this day (Christmas day) the Epiphany. Both days together, and all the days between, This day, when Christ was manifested to the Jews, in the Shepherds by the Angels, and Twelfe day, when Christ was manifested to the Gentiles in those Wisemen of the East, make up the Epiphany, that is, the manifestation of God to man. And as this day is in such a respect a longer day then others, so, if we make longer hours in this day, then in other days; if I extend this Sermon, if you extend your Devotion, or your Patience, beyond the ordinary time, it is but a due, and a just celebration of the Day, and some accommodation to the Text, for, I am come, as he, in whose Name and Power I came, came; and he tells you, that He came that you might have life, and might have it more abundantly.

God, who vouchsafed to be made Man for man, for man vouchsafes also to do all the offices of man toward man. He is our Father, for he made us: Of what? Of clay; So God is Figulus, so in the Prophet; so in the Apostle, God is our Potter. God stamped his Image upon us, and so God is Statuarius, our Minter, our Statuary. God clothed us, and so is vestiarius; he hath opened his wardrobe unto us. God gave us all the fruits of the earth to eat, and so is oeconomus, our Steward. God pours his oil, and his wine into our wounds, and so is Medicus, and Vicinus, that Physician, that Neighbor, that Samaritan intended in the Parable. God plants us, and waters, and weeds us, and gives the increase; and so God is Hortulanus, our Gardiner. God builds us up into a Church, and so God is Architectus, our Architect, our Builder; God watches the City when it is built; and so God is Speculator, our Sentinel. God fishes for men, (for all his John's, and his Andrews, and his Peters, are but the nets that he fishes withal) God is the fisher of men; And here, in this Chapter, God in Christ is our Shepherd. The book of Job is a representation of God, in a Tragique-Comedy, lamentable beginnings comfortably ended: The book of the Canticles is a representation of God in Christ, as a Bridegroom in a Marriage-song, in an Epithalamion: God in Christ is represented to us, in divers forms, in divers places, and this Chapter is his Pastoral. The Lord is our Shepherd, and so called, in more places, then by any other name; and in this Chapter, exhibits some of the offices of a good Shepherd. Be pleased to taste a few of them. First, he says, The good Shepherd comes in at the door, the right way. If he come in at the window, that is, always clamber after preferment; If he come in at vaults, and cellars, that is, by clandestin, and secret contracts with his Patron, he comes not the right way: When he is in the right way, His sheep hear his voice: first there is a voice, He is heard; Ignorance doth not silence him, nor laziness, nor abundance of preferment; nor indiscreet, and distempered zeal does not silence him; (for to induce, or occasion a silencing upon our selves, is as ill as the ignorant, or the lazy silence) There is a voice, and (says that Text) is is his voice, not always another in his room; for (as it is added in the next verse) The sheep know his voice, which they could not do, if they heard it not often, if they were not used to it. And then, for the best testimony, and consummation of all, he says, The good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep. Every good Shepherd gives his life, that is, spends his life, wears out his life for his sheep: of which this may be one good argument, That there are not so many crazy, so many sickly men; men that so soon grow old in any profession, as in ours. But in this, Christ is our Shepherd in a more peculiar, and more incommunicable way, that he is Pastor humani generis, & esca; first, that he feeds not one Parish, nor one Diocesse, but humanum genus, all Mankind, the whole world, and then feeds us so, as that he is both our Pastor, and our Pasture, he feeds us, and feeds us with himself, for, His flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed. And therefore Honor telebratur totius gregis, per annua festa pastoris: As often as wecome to celebrate the comming of this Shepherd, in giving that honor, we receive an honor, because that is a declaration, that we are the sheep of that pasture, and the body of that head. And so much being not impertinently said, for the connexion of the words, and their complication with the day, pass we now to the more particular distribution and explication thereof, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

In these words, our parts will be three; for, first we must consider the Persons, The Shepherd and the sheep, God and Man, Him and Them, Them indefinitely, all them, all men, I came, says Christ, I alone, that they, all they might have life: And secondly we consider the action it self; as it is wrapped up in this word, veni, I came; for, that is first, that he who was always omnipresent, every where before, did yet study a new way of comming, & communicating himself with man, veni, I came, that is, novo modo veni, I came by a new way; And then, that he, who fed his former stock but with Prophesies, and promises, that he would come, feeds us now with actual performances, with his real presence, and the exhibition of himself. And lastly we shall consider the end, the purpose, the benefit of his comming, which is life: And first, ut daret, that he might give life, bring life, offer life to the world, (which is one mercy) and then, ut haberent, that we might have it, embrace it, possess it, (which is another) and, after both, a greater then both, that we might have this life abundantiùs, more abundantly; which is, first, abundantiùs illis, more abundantly then other men of this world, and then abundantiùs ipsis, more abundantly then we our selves had it in this world, in the world to come; for, therefore he came, that we might have life, and might have it more abundantly.

First then, in our first part, we consider the Persons, The Shepherd and the Sheep, Him and Them, God and Man; of which Persons, the one for his Greatness, God, the other for his littleness, man, can scarce fall under any consideration. What eye can fixe it self upon East and West at once? And he must see more then East and West, that sees God, for God spreads infinitely beyond both: God alone is all; not only all that is, but all that is not, all that might be, if he would have it be. God is too large, too immense, and then man is too narrow, too little to be considered; for, who can fixe his eye upon an Atome? and he must see a less thing then an Atome, that sees man, for man is nothing. First, for the incomprehensibleness of God, the understanding of man, hath a limited, a determined latitude; it is an intelligence able to move that Sphere which it is fixed to, but could not move a greater: I can comprehend naturam naturatam, created nature, but for that natura naturans, God himself, the understanding of man cannot comprehend. I can see the Sun in a looking-glass, but the nature, and the whole working of the Sun I cannot see in that glass. I can see God in the creature, but the nature, the essence, the secret purposes of God, I cannot see there. There is defatigatio in intellectualibus, says the saddest and soundest of the Hebrew Rabbis, the soul may be tired, as well as the body, and the understanding dazeled, as well as the eye. It is a good note of the same Rabbi, upon those words of Solomon, fill not thy self with honey, lest thou vomit it, that it is not said, that if thou beest cloyd with it, thou mayst be distasted, disaffected towards it after, but thou mayst vomit it, and a vomit works so, as that it does not only bring up that which was then, but that also which was formerly taken. Curious men busy themselves so much upon speculative subtilties, as that they desert, and abandon the solid foundations of Religion, and that is a dangerous vomit; To search so far into the nature, and unrevealed purposes of God, as to forget the nature, and duties of man, this is a shrewd surfeit, though of honey, and a dangerous vomit. It is not needful for thee, to see the things that are in secret, says the wife man; nonindiges, thou needest not that knowledge: Thou mayst do well enough in this world, and be Gods good servant, and do well enough in the next world, and be a glorious Saint, and yet never search into Gods secrets. Te decet Hymnus, (so the vulgar reads that place) To thee, O Lord, belong our Hymnes, our Psalms, our Praises, our cheerful acclamations; and conformably to that, we translate it, Praise waiteth for thee, O God in Sion: But if we will take it according to the Original, it must be, Tibi silentium laus est, Thy praise, O Lord, consists in silence: That that man praises God best, that says least of him; of him, that is of his nature, of his essence, of his unrevealed will, and secret purposes. O that men would praise the Lord, is Davids provocation to us all, but how? O that men would praise the Lord, and declare his wondrous works to the sons of men! but not to go about to declare his unrevealed Decrees, or secret purposes, is as good a way of praising him, as the other. And therefore, O that men would praise the Lord, so, forbear his Majesty, when he is retired into himself, in his Decrees, and magnify his Majesty, as he manifests himself to us, in the execution of those Decrees; of which, this in our Text is a great one, that he that is infinitely more then all, descended to him, that is infinitely less then nothing; which is the other person whom we are to consider in this part, ille illis, I to them, God to us.

The Hebrew Doctors almost every where repeat that adage of theirs, lex loquitur linguam filiorum hominum, God speaks mens language, that is, the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures descends to the capacity and understanding of man, and so presents God in the faculties of the mind of man, and in the lineaments of the body of man. But yet, say they, there is never brain, nor liver, nor spleen; nor any other inward part ascribed to God, but only the heart. God is all heart, and that whole heart, that inexhaustible fountain of love, is directed wholly upon man. And then, though in the Scriptures, those bodily lineaments, head and feet, and hands, and eyes, and ears be ascribed to God, God is never said to have shoulders; for, say they, shoulders are the subjects of burdens, and therein the figures of patience, and so God is all shoulder, all patience; he hears patiently, he sees patiently, he speaks patiently, he dies patiently: And is there a patience beyond that? In Christ there is, he suffers patiently a quotidian Crucifying; we kill the Lord of Life every day, every day we make a mock of Christ Jesus, and tread the blood of the Covenant under our feet every day: And as though all his passion, and blood, and wounds, and heart, were spent by our former oaths, and blasphemies, we crucify him daily by our daily sins, that we might have new blood, and heart, and wounds to swear by; and all this he suffers patiently, and after all this, ille illis, to this man, this God comes.

He to us, God to man; all to nothing: for upon that we insist first, as the first disproportion between us, and so the first exaltation of his mercy towards us. Man is, says the Prophet Isaiah, Quasi stilla situlae, As a drop upon the bucket. Man is not all that, not so much as that, as a drop upon the bucket, but quasi, something, some little thing towards it; and what is a drop upon the bucket, to a river, to a sea, to the waters above the firmament? Man to God? Man is, says the same Prophet in the same place, Quasi momenntum staterae; we translate it, As small dust upon the balance: Man is not all that, not that small grain of dust; but quasi, some little thing towards it: And what can a grain of dust work in governing the balance? What is man that God should be mindful of him? Vanity seems to be the lightest thing, that the Holy Ghost could name; and when he had named that, he says, and says, and says, often, very, very often, All is vanity. But when he comes to weigh man with vanity it self, he finds man lighter then vanity: Take, says he, great men, and mean men altogether, and altogether they are lighter then vanity. When that great Apostle says of himself, that he was in nothing behind the very chiefest of the Apostles, and yet, for all that, says he was nothing; who can think himself any thing, for being a Giant in proportion, a Magistrate in power, a Rabbi in learning, an Oracle in Counsel? Let man be something; how poor, and inconsiderable a rag of this world, is man? Man, whom Paracelsus would have undertaken to have made, in a Limbeck, in a Furnace: Man, who, if they were altogether, all the men, that ever were, and are, and shall be, would not have the power of one Angel in them all, whereas all the Angels, (who, in the School are conceived to be more in number, then, not only all the Species, but all the individualls of this lower world) have not in them all, the power of one finger of Gods hand: Man, of whom when David had said, (as the lowest diminution that he could put upon him) I am a worm and no man, He might have gone lower, and said, I am a man and no worm; for man is so much less then a worm, as that worms of his own production, shall feed upon his dead body in the grave, and an immortal worm gnaw his conscience in the torments of hell. And then, if that which God, and God in the counsel and concurrence, and cooperation of the whole Trinity hath made thee, Man, be nothing, canst thou be proud of that, or think that any thing which the King hath made thee, a Lord, or which thy wife hath made thee, Rich, or which thy riches have made thee, an Officer? As Job says of impertinent comforters, miserable comforters, so I say of these Creations, miserable creations are they all. Only as thou mayst be a new creature in Christ Jesus, thou mayst be something; for that's a nobler, and a harder creation then the first; when God had a clod of red earth in his hand, to make me in Adam, he had more towards his end, then when he hath me, an unregenerate, and rebellious soul, to make a new creature in Christ Jesus. And yet Ille illis, to this man comes this God, God that is infinitely more then all, to man that is infinitely less then nothing, which was our first disproportion, and the first exaltation of his mercy; and the next is, Ille illis, Illis qui hosts, that this God came to this man, then when this man was a professed enemy to this God.

Si contrarium Deo quaeras nihilest, says S. Augustine. If thou ask me what is contrary to God, I cannot say, that any thing is so; for, whatsoever is any thing, hath a being, and whatsoever hath so, hath in that very being some affinity with God, some assimilation to God; so that nothing is contrary to God. If thou ask me, Quis hostis, who is an enemy to GOD, I cannot say that of any thing in this World, but man. That viper that flew at Saint Paul, was not therein an enemy to GOD; that viper did not direct it self upon S. Paul, as S. Paul was a useful, and a necessary instrument of Christ; But S. Paul himself was a direct enemy to Christ himself, Tu me, thou persecutest me, says Christ himself unto him. And if we be not all enemies to God in such a direct opposition, as that we sin therefore because that sin violates the majesty of God, (and yet truly every habitual, and deliberated sin amounts to almost as much, because in every such sin, we seem to try conclusions, whether God can see a sin, or be affected with a sin, or can, or cares to punish a sin, as though we doubted whether God were a present God, or a pure God, or a powerful God, and so consequently whether there be any God or no) If we be not all enemies to God, in this kind, yet in adhering to the enemy we are enemies; In our prevarications, and easy betrayings, and surrendering of our selves to the enemy of his kingdom, satan, we are his enemies. For small wages, and ill paid pensions we serve him; and lest any man should flatter and delude himself, in saying, I have my wages, and my reward before hand, my pleasures in this life, the punishment, (if ever) not till the next, The Apostle destroys that dream, with that question of confusion, What fruit had you then in those things, of which you are now ashamed? Certainly sin is not a gainful way; without doubt more men are impoverished, and beggered by sinful courses, then enriched; what fruit had they? says the Apostle, and sin cannot be the way of honor, for we dare not avow our sins, but are ashamed of them, when they are done; fruitlesness, unprofitableness before, shame and dishonor after, and yet for these we are enemies to God; and yet for all this God comes to us; Ille illis, the Lord of Hosts, to naked and disarmed man, the God of peace to this enemy of God. Some men will continue kind, where they find a thankful reciver, but God is kind to the unthankful, says Christ himself. There may be found a man that will dye for his friend, says he; but God died for his enemies: Then when ye were enemies, you were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. To come so in-gloriously, he that is infinitely more then all, to him that is infinitely less then nothing, (that was our first disproportion, and the first axaltatation of his mercy) to come, (shall we venture to say so) so self proditoriously, as to betray himself and deliver himself to his enemies, (that was our second) is equalled, at least, in a third, ille illis, he to them, that is unus omnibus, he alone for the salvation of all men, as it is expressly said, for this word in our Text, they, hath no limitation, I came, I alone, that they, all they might be the better.

Some of the ancient Fathers, delivering the mercies of God, so, as the articles of our Church enjoin them to be delivered, that is, generally, as they are delivered in the Scriptures, have delivered them so over-generally, that they have seemed loth to think the devil himself excluded from all benefit of Christs comming. Some of the later Authors in the Roman Church, (who, as pious as they pretend to be towards the Fathers, are apter to discover the nakedness of the Fathers, then we are) have noted in Iustin Martyr, and in Epiphanius, and in Clement of Alexandria, and in Oecumenius, (and Oecumenius is no single Father, but Pater patratus, a manifold Father, a complicated father, a Father that collected Fathers) and even in S. Jerome himself, and S. Ambrose too, some inclinations towards that opinion, that the devil retaining still his faculty of free will, is therefore capable of repentance, and so of benefit by this comming of Christ; And those Authors of the Roman Church, that modify the matter, and excuse the Fathers herein, excuse them no other way but this, that though that opinion and doctrine of those Fathers, be not true in it self, yet it was never condemned by any Council, nor by any ancient Father. So very far, did very many go in enlarging the mercies of God in Christ, to all. But waiving this over-large extension and profusion thereof, and directing it upon a more possible, and a more credible object, that is, Man; S. Cyril of Alexandria, speaking of the possibility of the salvation of all men, says, by way of objection to himself, Omnes non credunt, How can all be saved since all do not believe? but, says he, Because actually they do not believe, is it therefore impossible they should believe? And for actual belief, says he, though all do not, yet so many do, utfacilè qui pereant, superent, that, by Gods goodness, more are saved, then lost, says that Father of tender and large bowels, S. Cyril. And howsoever he may seem too tender, and too large herein, yet it is a good piece of counsel, which that Rabbi whom I named before, gives, Ne redarguas ca falsitatis, de quorum contrariis nulla est demonstratio, Be not aptto call any opinion false, or heretical, or damnable, the contrary whereof cannot be evidently proved. And for this particular, the general possibility of salvation, all agree that the merit of Christ Jesus is sufficient for all. Whether this all-sufficiency grow ex intrinseca ratione formali, out of the very nature of the merit, the dignity of the person being considered, or grow ex pacto, & acceptatione, out of the acceptation of the Father, and the contract between him and the Son, for that, let the Thomists, and the Scotists, in the Roman Church wrangle. All agree, that there is enough done for all. And would God receive enough for all, and then, exclude some, of himself, without any relation, any consideration of sin? God forbid. Man is called by divers names, names of lowness enough, in the Scriptures; But, by the name of Enosh, Enosh that signifies mere misery, Man is never called in the Scriptures, till after the fall of Adam. Only sin after, and not any ill purpose in God before, made man miserable. The manner of expressing the mercy of God, in the frame and course of Scriptures, expresses evermore the largeness of that mercy. Very often, in the Scriptures, you shall find the person suddenly changed; and when God shall have said in the beginning of a sentence, I will show mercy unto them, them, as though he spoke of others, presently, in the same sentence, he will say, my loving kindness will I not draw from thee; not from thee, not from them, not from any; that so whensoever thou hearest of Gods mercy proposed to them, to others, thou mightest believe that mercy to be meant to thee, and whensoever they, others hear that mercy proposed to thee, they might believe it to be meant to them. And so much may, to good purpose, be observed out of some other parts of this Chapter, in another translation. In the third verse it is said, His sheep hear his voice, In the Arabique tranflation it is Oves audit, His sheep in the plural, does hear, in the singular. God is a plural God, and offers himself to all, collectively; God is a singular God, and offers himself to every man, distributively. So also is it said there, Nominibus suo, He calls his sheep by their names; It is names in the plural, and theirs, in the singular: whatsoever God proposes to any, he intends to all. In which contemplation, S. Augustine breaks out into that holy exclamation, O bone omnipotens qui sic cur as unumquemque nostrûm, tanquam solum cures, & sic omnes tamquam singulos, O good and mighty God, who art as loving to every man, as to all mankind, and meanest as well to all mankind, as to any man. Be pleased to make your use of this note, for the better imprinting of this largeness of Gods mercy. Moses desires of God, that he would show him Vias suas, His ways, his proceedings, his dealings with men; that which he calls after, Gloriam suam, His glory, how he glorifies himself upon man, God promises him in the next verse, that he will show him Omne bonum, All his goodness, God hath no way towards man but goodness, God glorifies himself in nothing upon man, but in his own goodness. And therefore when God comes to the performance of this promise, in the next Chapter, he shows him his way, and his glory, and his goodness, in shewing him that he is a merciful God, a gracious God, a long-suffering God, a God that forgives sins and iniquities, and (as the Hebrew Doctors note) there are thirteen attributes, thirteen denotations of God specified in that place, and of all those thirteen, there is but one that tastes of judgement, (That he will punish the sins of Fathers upon Children.) All the other twelve are merely, wholly mercy; such a proportion hath his mercy above his justice, such a proportion, as that there is no cause in him, if all men be not partakers of it. Shall we say, (says S. Cyril) Melius agriculturam non exerceri, si quae nocent tolli non possunt, It were better there were no tillage, then that weeds should grow, Melius non creasse, better that God had made no men, then that so many should be damned. God made none to be damned; And therefore though some would expunge out of our Litany, that Rogation, that Petition, That thou wouldst have mercy upon all men; as though it were contrary to Gods purpose to have mercy upon all men; yet S. Augustine enlarges his charity too far, Libera nos Domine, qui jam invocamus te, deliver us O Lord, who do now call upon thee, Et libera eos qui nondum invocant, ut invocent te, & liberes eos, and deliver them who do not yet call upon thee, that they may call upon thee, and be farther delivered by thee. But it is time to pass from this first part, the consideration of the Persons, Ille Illis, that God who is infinitely more then All, would come to man who is infinitely less then nothing; that God who is the God of peace, would come to man his professed enemy; that God, the only Son of God, would come to the relief of man, of all men, to our second general part, the action it self, so far as it is enwrapped in this word, Veni, I came; I came that they might have life.

Through this second part, veni, I came, we must pass apace; because, upon the third, the end of his comming, (that they might have life) we must necessarily insist sometime. In this therefore, we make but two steps; And this the first, that that God who is omnipresent, always every where, in love to man, studied a new way of comming, of communicating himself to man; veni, I came, novo modo, so as I was never with man before. The rule is worth the repeating, lex loquitur linguam filiorum hominum, God speaks mans language, that is, so, as that he would be understood by man. Therefore to God, who always fills all places, are there divers Positions, and Motions, and Transitions ascribed in Scriptures. In divers places is God said to sit; Sedet Rex, The Lord sitteth King for ever. Howsoever the Kings of the earth be troubled, and raised, and thrown down again, and troubled, and raised, and thrown down by him, yet the Lord sitteth King for ever. Habitat in Coelis, says David, and yet sedet in circulis terrae, says Isaiah, The Lord dwelleth in the heavens, and yet he sits upon the compass of this earth: Where no earth-quake shakes his seat; for sedet in confusion (as one Translation reads that place, Psal. 29.10.) The Lord sitteth upon the flood, (so we read it) what confusions soever disorder the world, what floods soever surround and overflow the world, the Lord sits safe. Other phrases there are of like denotation. Exit de loco, Behold the Lord cometh out of his place; that is, he produces, and brings to light, things which he kept secret before. And so, Revertar ad locum, I will go, and return to my place; that is, I will withdraw the light of my countenance, my presence, my providence from them. So that heaven is his place, and then is he said to come to us, when he manifests himself unto us in any new manner of working. In such a sense was God come to us, when he said, I lift up my hands to heaven, and say, I live for ever. Where was God when he lifted up his hands to heaven? Here, here upon earth, with us, in his Church, for our assurance, and our establishment, making that protestation (denoted in the lifting up of his hands to heaven) that he lived for ever, that he was the everliving God, and that therefore we need fear nothing. God is so omnipresent, as that the Ubiquitary will needs have the body of God every where: so omnipresent, as that the Stancarist will needs have God not only to be in every thing, but to be every thing, that God is an Angelin an Angel, and a stone in a stone, and a straw in a straw. But God is truly so omnipresent, as that he is with us before he comes to us: Quid peto ut venias in me, qui non essem, si non esses in me? why do I pray that thou wouldst come into me, who could not only not pray, but could not be, if thou wert not in me before? But his comming in this Text, is a new act of particular mercy, and therefore a new way of comming. What way? by assuming our nature in the blessed Virgin. That that Paradoxa virgo, (as Amelberga the wife of one of the Earls of Flanders, who lived continently even in marriage, and is therefore called Paradoxa virgo, a Virgin beyond opinion) that this most blessed Virgin Mary should not only have a Son, (for Manes, the Patriarch of that great Sect of Heretics, the Manichees, boasted himself to be the son of a Virgin, and some casuists in the Roman Church have ventured to say, that by the practice and intervention of the devil there may be a child, and yet both parents, father and mother remain Virgins) But that this Son of this blessed Virgin, should also be the Son of the eternal God, this is such a comming of him who was here before, as that if it had not arisen in his own goodness, no man would ever have thought of it, no man might ever have wished, or prayed for such a comming, that the only Son of God should come to die for all the sons of men. For Aliud est hîc esse, aliud hîc tibi esse; It is one thing for God to be here in the world, another thing to be come hither for thy sake, born of a woman for thy salvation. And this is the first act of his mercy wrapped up in this word, Veni, I came, I who was always present, studied a new way of comming, I who never went from thee, came again to thee.

The other act of his mercy enwrapped in this word, veni, I came, is this, that he that came to the old world but in promises, and prophecies, and figures, is actually, really, personally, and presentially come to us; of which difference, that man will have the best sense, who languishes under the heavy expectation of a reversion, in office, or inheritance, or hath felt the joy of comming to the actual possession of such a reversion. Christ was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; appointed for a Sacrifice from that first promise of a Messiah in Paradise long before that; from all eternity. For, whensoever the election of the elect was, (date it when you will) Christ was at that election; and not only as the second person in the Trinity, as God, but Christ considered as man, and as the propitiation and sacrifice for man; for whosoever was elected, was elected in Christ. Christ was always come in Gods purpose; and early come in Gods promise; and continually comming in the succession of the Prophets; with such a confidence, as that one of them says, Puer datus, filius natus, A child is given unto us, a Son is born unto us; Born and given already; because the purpose of God, in which he was born, cannot be disappointed; the promise of God, by which he was given, cannot be frustrated; the Prophets of God, by whom he was presented, cannot be mistaken. But yet, still it was a future thing. Christ is often called the Expectation of the world; but it was all that while, but an Expectation, but a reversion of a future thing. So God fed that old world with expectation of future things, as that that very name by which God notified himself most to that people, in his commission by Moses to Pharaoh, was a future name; howsoever our Translations and Expositions run upon the present, as though God had said Qui sum, my name is I am, yet in truth it is Qui ero, my name is I shall be. They had evidences enow that God was; but God was pleased to establish in them an assurance that he would be so still; and not only be so still as he was then; but that he would be so with them hereafter as he was never yet, he would be Immanuel, God with us so, as that God and man should be one person. It was then a faire assurance, and a blessed comfort which the children of Israel had in that of Zechary, Ecce venit rex, Rejoice ye daughters of Sion, and shout ye daughters of Jerusalem, Behold thy King cometh riding unto thee, upon an Ass. But yet this assurance, though delivered as in the present, produced not those acclamations, and recognitions, and Hosannaes, and Hosanna in the highest, to the Son of David, as his personal, and actual, and visible riding into Jerusalem upon Palme-Sunday did. Amougst the Jews there was light enough to discern this future blessing, this comming of Christ; but they durst not open it, nor publish it to others. We see the Jews would dye in defence of any part of their Law, were it but the Ceremonial; were it but for the not eating of Swines flesh; what unsufferable torments suffered the seven brothers in the Maccabees, for that? But yet we never find that any of them died, or exposed themselves to the danger, or to the dignity of Martyrdom for this Doctrine of the Messiah, this future comming of Christ. Nay, we find that the Septuagint, who first translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, for King Ptolome, disguised divers places thereof, and departed from the Original, rather then propose this future comming of the Son of God to the interpretation of the world. A little Candle they had for themselves, but they durst not light another's Candle at it. So also some of the more speculative Philosophers had got some beams of this light, but because they saw it would not be believed, they let it alone, they said little of it. Hence is it that S. Augustine says, si Platonici reviviscerent, if Plato and his Disciples should rise from the dead, and come now into our streets, and see those great Congregations, which thrust and throng every Sabbath, and every day of holy convocation, to the worship of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, Hoc fortasse dicerent, This it is likely they would say, says he, Haec sunt, quae populis persuadere non ausi, consaetudini cessimus, This is that religion, which because it consisted so much in future things, we durst not propose to the people, but were fain to leave them to those present, and sensible, and visible things, to which they had been accustomed before, lest when we had shook them in their old religion, we should not be able to settle, and establish them in the new; And, as in civil government, a Tyranny is better then an Anarchy, a hard King better then none, so when we consider religions, Idolatry is better then Atheism, and superstition better then profaneness. Not that the Idolater shall any more be saved then the Atheist; but that the Idolater having been accustomed to some sense and worship of God (of God in his estimation) is therefore apter to receive religious impressions, then the Atheist is. In this then consists this second act of Christs mercy to us in this word veni, I am actually, really, personally, presentially come, that those types and figures and sacrifices, which represented Christ to the old world, were not more visible to the eye, more palpable to the hand, more obvious to the very bodily senses, that Christ himself hath been since to us. Therefore S. John does not only rest in that, That which was from the beginning, (Christ was always in purpose, in prophecy, in promise) nor in that, That which we have heard, (the world heard of Christ long before they saw him) but he proceeds to that, That which we have seen, and looked upon with our eyes, and handled with our hands, that declare we unto you. So that we are now delivered from that jealousy that possessed those Septuagint, those Translators, that they durst not speak plain, and delivered from that suspicion that possessed Plato, and his disciples, that the people were incapable of that doctrine. We know that Christ is come, and we avow it, and we preach it, and we affirm, that it is not only as impious, and irreligious a thing, but as senseless, and as absurd a thing to deny that the Son of God hath redeemed the world, as to deny that God hath created the world; and that he is as formally, and as gloriously a Martyr that dies for this Article, The Son of God is come, as he that dies for this, There is a God. And these two acts of his mercy, enwrapped in this one word, veni, I came, (first, that he who is always present, out of an abundant love to man, studied a new way of comming, and then, that he who was but betrothed to the old world by way of promise, is married to us by an actual comming) will be farther explicated to us, in that, which only remains and constitutes our third, and last part, the end and purpose of his comming, That they might have life, and might have it more abundantly. And though this last part put forth many handles, we can but take them by the hand, and shake them by the hand, that is, open them, and so leave them.

First then in this last part, we consider the gift it self, the treasure, Life, That they might have life. Now life is the character by which Christ specificates and denominates himself; Life is his very name, and that name by which he consummates all his other names, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; And therefore does Peter justly and bitterly upbraid the Jews with that, Ye desired a murderer, (an enemy to life) to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life. Acts 3.14. It is an honor to any thing that it may be sworn by; by vulgar and trivial things men might not swear, How shall I pardon them this? says God, They have sworn by things that are not gods. And therefore God, who in so many places professes to swear by himself, and of whom the Apostle says, That because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, because he could propose no greater thing in himself, no clearer notion of himself then life, (for his life is his eternity, and his eternity is himself) does therefore through all the Law and the Prophets still swear in that form, Vivo ego, vivit Dominus, As I live, saith the Lord, and as the Lord liveth; still he swears by his own life; As that solemn Oath which is mentioned in Daniel, is conceived in that form too, He lift up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever; that is, by God, and God in that notion as he is life. All that the Queen and the Council could wish and apprecate to the King, was but that, Life, In sempiternum vive, vive in aeternum, O King live for ever. God is life, and would not the death of any. We are not sure that stones have not life; stones may have life; neither (to speak humanely) is it unreasonably thought by them, that thought the whole world to be inanimated by one soul, and to be one entire living creature; and in that respect does S. Augustine prefer a fly before the Sun, because a fly hath life, and the Sun hath not. This is the worst that the Apostle says of the young wanton widow, That if she live in pleasure, she is dead whilst she lives. So is that Magistrate that studies nothing but his own honor, and dignity in his place, dead in his place; And that Priest that studies nothing but his own ease, and profit, dead in his living; And that Judge that dares not condemn a guilty person, And (which is the bolder transgression) dares condemn the innocent, deader upon the Bench, then the Prisoner at the Bar; God hath included all that is good, in the name of Life, and all that is ill in the name of Death, when he says, See, I have set before thee Vitam & Bonum, Life and Good, Mortem & Malum, Death and Evil. This is the reward proposed to our faith, Iustus fide sua vivit, To live by our faith: And this is the reward proposed to our works, Fac hoc & vives, to live by our works; All is life. And this fullness, this consummation of happiness, Life, and the life of life, spiritual life, and the exaltation of spiritual life, eternal life, is the end of Christs comming, I came that they might have life.

And first, ut daret, that he might give life, bring life into the world, that there might be life to be had, that the world might be redeemed from that loss, which S. Augustine says it was fallen into, Perdidimus possibilitatem boni, That we had all lost all possibility of life. For, the heaven and the earth, and all that the Poet would call Chaos, was not a deader lump before the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, then Mankind was, before the influence of Christs comming wrought upon it. But now that God so loved the world, as that he gave his Son, now that the Son so loved the world, as that he gave himself, as David says of the Sun of the firmament, the father of nature, Nihit absconditum, there is nothing hid from the heat thereof; so we say of this Son of God, the Father of the faithful in a far higher sense, then Abraham was called so, Nihilabsconditum, there is nothing hid from him, no place, no person excluded from the benefit of his comming. The Son hath paid, the Father hath received enough for all; not in single money, for the discharge of thy lesser debts, thy idle words, thy wanton thoughts, thy unchaste looks, but in massy talents, to discharge thy crying debts, the clamors of those poor whom thou hast oppressed, and thy thundring debts, those blasphemies by which thou hast torn that Father that made thee, that Son that redeemed thee, that boly Ghost that would comfort thee. There is enough given; but then, as Hiram sent materials sufficient for the building of the Temple, but there was something else to be done, for the fitting, and placing thereof; so there is life enough brought into the world, for all the world, by the death of Christ, but then there is something else to be done for the application of this life to particular persons, intended in this word in our Text, ut haberent, I came that they might have life.

There is Air enough in the world, to give breath to every thing, though every thing do not breath. If a tree, or a stone do not breath, it is not because it wants air, but because it wants means to receive it, or to return it. All eggs are not hatched that the hen sits upon; neither could Christ himself get all the chickens that were hatched, to come, and to stay under his wings. That man that is blind, or that will wink, shall see no more sun upon S. Barnabies day, then upon S. Lucies; no more in the summer, then in the winter solstice. And therefore as there is copiosa redemptio, a plentiful redemption brought into the world by the death of Christ, so (as S. Paul found it in his particular conversion) there is copiosa lux, a great & a powerful light exhibited to us, that we might see, and lay hold of this life, in the Ordinances of the Church, in the Confessions, and Absolutions, and Services, and Sermons, and Sacraments of the Church: Christ came ut daret, that he might bring life into the world, by his death, and then he instituted his Church, ut haberent, that by the means thereof this life might be infused into us, and infused so, as the last word of our Text delivers it, Abundantiùs, I came, that they might have life more abundantly.

Dignaris Domine, ut eis, quibus debita dimittis, te, promissionibus tuis, debitorem facias; This, O Lord, is thine abundant proceeding; First thou forgivest me my debt to thee, and then thou makest thy self a debter to me by thy large promises; and after all, performest those promises more largely then thou madest them. Indeed, God can do nothing scantly, penuriously, singly. Even his maledictions, (to which God is ever loth to come) his first commination was plural, it was death, and death upon death, Morte morieris. Death may be plural; but this benediction of life cannot admit a singular; Chajim, which is the word for life, hath no singular number. This is the difference between Gods Mercy, and his Judgements, that sometimes his Judgements may be plural, complicated, enwrapped in one another, but his Mercies are always so, and cannot be otherwise; he gives them abundantiùs, more abundantly.

More abundantly then to whom? The natural man hath the Image of God imprinted in his soul; eternity is God himself, man hath not that, not eternity; but the Image of eternity, that is Immortality, a post eternity there is in the soul of man. And then, man is all soul in Moses expression; For, he does not say that man had, but that man was a living soul. So that the natural man hath life more abundantly then any other creature, (howsoever Oaks, and Crows, and Harts may be said to out-live him) because he hath a life after this life. But Christ came to give life more abundantly then this.

That he did, when he came to the Jews in promises, in Types, and Figures, and Sacrifices: He gave life more abundantly to the Jew, then to the Gentile, because he gave him better means to preserve that life, better means to illustrate that Image of God in his soul, that is, to make his Immortality Immortal happiness, (for otherwise our Immortality were our greatest curse) better means to conform himself to God, by having a particular Law for the direction of all his actions, which the Gentiles had not. For, therein especially consisted the abundant favor of God to the Jews, as it is expressed by Moses, Vnto what Nation are their gods come so near unto them, as the Lord our God is come unto us? And in what consisted this nearness? In this, What Nation hath Laws and Statutes so righteous as we have? God gave man life more abundantly then other creatures, because he gave him Immortality; God gave the Jews life more abundantly then other men, by giving them a Law to make their Immortality Immortal happiness, and yet there is a further abundantiùs, Christ came to give us, us Christians, life more abundantly then Gentile, or Jew.

Iustin Martyr denies, that ever any understood the true God, till Christ came. He goes upon the same ground that S. Paul does, Whilst you were without Christ, you were without God; that is, without such an evidence, such a manifestation, such an assurance of God, as faith requires, or as produces faith. For, the Ceremonial Laws of the Jews cast as many shadows as it did lights, and burdened them in easing them. Whereas the Christian Religion, is; as Greg. Nazianz. says, Simplex & nuda, nisi pravè in artem difficilimam converteretur: It is a plain, an easy, a perspicuous truth, but that the perverse and uncharitable wranglings of passionate and froward men, have made Religion a hard, an intricate, and a perplexed art; so that now, that Religion, which carnal and worldly men, have, by an ill life, discredited, and made hard to be believed, the passion, and perverseness of School-men, by Controversies, hath made hard to be understood. Whereas the Christian Religion, is of it self Iugumsuave, a sweet, and an easy yoke, and verbum abbreviatum, an abridgement and a contracted doctrine; for, where the Jews had all abridged in decem verba (as Moses calls the ten Commandments, ten words) the Christian hath all abridged in duo verba, into two words, love God, love thy neighbor. So Christ hath given us, us Christians life abundantiùs, more abundantly then to the Gen tile, or to the Jew; but there is a farther abundance yet; all this is but abundantiùs illis, more abundantly then to others, but Christ hath given us life abundantiùs ipsis, more abundantly then to our selves.

That is, in the Christian Church, he hath given us means to be better to day then yesterday, and to morrow then to day. That grace which God offers us in the Church, does not only fill that capacity, which we have, but give us a greater capacity then we had: And it is an abuse of Gods grace, not to emprove it, or not to procure such farther grace, as that present grace makes us capable of. As it is an improvident, and dangerous thing to spend upon the stock, so is it to rely upon that portion of grace, which I think I had in my election, or that measure of Sanctification, which I came to in my last sickness. Christ gives us life abundantiùs illis, better means of eternal life then to Gentile or Jew, and abundantiùs ipsis; better, that is, nearer assurance, in our growth of grace, and increase of Sanctification every day, then in the consideration of any thing done by God, in our behalf, heretofore.

Now, with these abundances (in which, we exceed illos, and ipsos, others and our selves) Christ comes to us, in this, that he hath constituted, and established a Church; and therefore we consider his abundant proceeding in that work. From this day, in which, the first stone of that building, the Church, was laid, (for, though the foundations of the Church were laid in Eternity, yet, that was under ground, the first stone above ground, that is, the manifestation of Gods purpose to the world was laid this day, in Christs birth) from this day, the Incarnation of Christ, (for, of all those names, by which the ancients design this day, Christmas day, Athanasius calling it the Substantiation of Christ; Tertullian, the Incorporation of Christ; Damascene, the Humanation of Christ; Of all those fifty names, which are collected out of the Fathers, for this day, most concur in that name, The Incarnation of Christ) from this day, God proceeded so abundantly in enlarging his Church, as that, within two hundred years, Tertullian was able to say, Ipsa hospitalia aegrorum, The very hospitals of the Christians are more and more sumptuously built, and more richly endowed, then the very Temples of the Idols, or then the Palaces of Idolatrous Princes. And still abundantiùs, not to compare only with Idolaters, but with the Jews themselves, and with them, in that wherein they magnified themselves most, their Temple. That Church, which Iustinian the Emperor built at Constantinople, and dedicated to Sophia, to the wisdom of God, (and the wisdom of God is Christ, Christ is the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God, 1 Cor. 1.24) is found by them, who have written that story, in bigness, and in beauty, to have exceeded Solomons Temple: Though in that, there were employed for many years, thirty thousand Carpenters, and forty thousand Masons, and (other endowments of rich vessel being proportionable to it) more then twenty thousand Bowls, and Goblets of gold, and silver, yet Iustinians Church at Constantinople exceeded that: Unto the riches of this wisdom of God, Christ Jesus, flowed all the treasure of the World, and upon this Wisdom of God, Christ Jesus, waited all the wisdom of the World. For, at that time, when Christ came into the world, was learning at that height, as that accounting from Cicero and Virgil, (two great Masters in two great kinds) to the two Plinies, (which may shut up one age) we may reckon in that one state, under whose government Christ was born, Rome, seven or eight score Authors, more then ever they had before or after. This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice, and be glad in it. And as Constantine ordained, that upon this day, the Church should burn no Oil, but Balsamum in her Lamps, so let us ever celebrate this day, with a thankful acknowledgment, that Christ, who is unctus Domini, The Anointed of the Lord, hath anointed us with the Oil of gladness above our fellows, and given us life more abundantly then others, in making us partakers of these means of salvation in his Church.

But I bring it closer then so; now, and here, within these walls, and at this hour, comes Christ unto you, in the offer of this abundance; and with what penuriousness, penuriousness of devotion, penuriousness of reverence do you meet him here? Deus stetit, says David, God standeth in the Congregation; does God stand there, and wilt thou sit? sit, and never kneel? I would speak so, as the congregation should not know whom I mean; but so, as that they whom it concerns, might know I mean them; I would speak: for, I must say, that there come some persons to this Church, and persons of example to many that come with them, of whom, (excepting some few, who must therefore have their praise from us, as, no doubt, they have their thanks and blessings from God) I never saw Master nor servant kneel, at his comming into this Church, or at any part of divine service. David had such a zeal to Gods service, as that he was content to be thought a fool, for his humility towards the Ark. S. Paul was content to be thought mad; so was our blessed Savior himself, not only by his enemies, but by his own friends and kinsfolke. Indeed, the root of that word Tehillim, which is the name of the Psalms, and of all cheerful and hearty service of God, is Halal, and Halal is Insanire, To fall mad; And, if humility in the service of God here, be madness, I would more of us were more out of our wits, then we are; I would all our Churches were, to that purpose, Bedlams. S. Hieroms rule is not only frequenter orandum, to come often to prayers, but Flexo corpore orandum, to declare an inward humiliation by an outward. As our comming to Church is a testification, a profession of our religion, to testify our fall in Adam, the Church appoints us to fall upon our knees; and to testify our Resurrection in Christ Jesus, the Church hath appointed certain times, to stand: But no man is so left to his liberty, as never to kneel. Genuflexio est peccatorum, kneeling is the sinners posture; if thou come hither in the quality of a sinner, (and, if thou do not so, what doest thou here, the whole need not the Physician) put thy self into the posture of a sinner, kneel. We are very far from enjoyning any one constant forme to be always observed by all men; we only direct you, by that good rule of S. Bernard, Habe reverentiam Deo, ut quod pluris est ei tribuas. Do but remember, with what reverence thou camest into thy Masters presence, when thou wast a servant, with what reverence thou camest to the Council table, or to the Kings presence, if thou have been called occasionally to those high places; and Quod plur is est, such reverence, as thou gavest to them there, be content to afford to God here. That Sacrifice that struggled at the Altar, the Ancients would not accept for a Sacrifice; But Caesar would not forbear a sacrifice for struggling, but sacrificed it for all that. He that struggles, and murmures at this instruction, this increpation, is the less fit for a sacrifice to God, for that; But the zeal that I bear to Gods house, puts so much of Caesars courage into me, as, for all that struggling, to say now, and to repeat as often as I see that irreverence continued, to the most impatient struggler, Deus stetit, God stands in the Congregation, and wilt thou sit; sit, and never kneel? Venite, says David, Let us come hither, let us be here; what to do? Venite adoremus, Let us come and worship; How? will not the heart serve? no; Adoremus & procidamus, Let us fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification; and as without this, without holiness, no man shall see God, though he pore whole nights upon the Bible; so without that, without humility, no man shall hear God speak to his soul, though he hear three two-hours Sermons every day. But if God bring thee to that humiliation of soul and body here, he will emprove, and advance thy sanctification abundantiùs, more abundantly, and when he hath brought it to the best perfection, that this life is capable of, he will provide another abundantiùs, another manner of abundance in the life to come; which is the last beating of the pulse of this text, the last panting of the breath thereof, our anhelation, and panting after the joys, and glory, and eternity of the kingdom of Heaven; of which, though, for the most part, I use to dismiss you, with saying something, yet it is always little that I can say thereof; at this time, but this, that if all the joys of all the Martyrs, from Abel to him that groans now in the Inquisition, were condensed into one body of joy, (and certainly the joys that the Martyrs felt at their deaths, would make up a far greater body, then their sorrows would do,) (for though it be said of our great Martyr, or great Witness, (as S. John calls Christ Jesus) to whom, all other Martyrs are but sub-martyrs, witnesses that testify his testimony, Non dolor sicut dolor ejus, there was never sorrow like unto his sorrow, it is also true, Non gaudium sicut gaudium ejus, There was never joy like unto that joy which was set before him, when he endured the cross;) If I had all this joy of all these Martyrs, (which would, no doubt, be such a joy, as would work a liquefaction, a melting of my bowels) yet I shall have it abundantiùs, a joy more abundant, then even this superlative joy, in the world to come. What a dim vespers of a glorious festival, what a poor half-holyday, is Methusalems nine hundred years, to eternity? what a poor account hath that man made, that says, this land hath been in my name, and in my Ancestors from the Conquest? what a yesterday is that? not six hundred years. If I could believe the transmigration of souls, and think that my soul had been successively in some creature or other, since the Creation, what a yesterday is that? not six thousand years. What a yesterday for the past, what a to morrow for the future, is any term, that can be comprehendred in Cyphar or Counters? But as, how abundant a life soever any man hath in this world for temporal abundances, I have life more abundantly then he, if I have the spiritual life of grace, so what measure soever I have of this spiritual life of grace, in this world, I shall have that more abundantly in Heaven, for there, my term shall be a term for three lives; for those three, that as long as the Father, and the Son, and the holy Ghost live, I shall not dye. And to this glorious Son of God, and the most almighty Father, &c.

Sermon VIII. Preached upon Candlemas Day.

MAT. 5.16.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

EIther of the names of this day, were Text enough for a Sermon, Purification, or Candlemas. Join we them together, and raise we only this one note from both, that all true purification is in the light; corner purity, clandestine purity, conventicle purity is not purity. Christ gave himself for us, says the Apostle, that he might purify to himself a peculiar people. How shall this purification appear? It follows; They shall be zealous of good works; They shall not wrangle about faith and works, but be actually zealous of goods works. For, purification was accompanied with an oblation, something was to be given; A Lamb, a Dove, a Turtle; All, emblemes of mildness; true purity is mild, meek, humble, and to despise and undervalue others, is an inseparable mark of false purity. The oblation of this days purification is light: so the day names it, Candlemas-day, so your custom celebrates it, with many lights. Now, when God received lights into his Tabernacle, he received none of Tallow, (the Ox hath horns) he received none of Wax, (the Be hath his sting) but he received only lamps of oil. And, though from many fruits and berries they pressed oil, yet God admitted no oil into the service of the Church, but only of the Olive; the Olive, the embleme of peace. Our purification is with an oblation, our oblation is light, our light is good works; our peace is rather to exhort you to them, then to institute any solemn, or other then occasional comparison between faith and them. Every good work hath faith for the root; but every faith hath not good works for the fruit thereof. And it is observable, that in all this great Sermon of our Saviours in the Mount, (which possesseth this, and the two next Chapters) there is no mention of faith, by way of persuasion or exhortation thereunto, but the whole Sermon is spent upon good works. For, good works presuppose faith; and therefore he concludes that they had but little faith, because they were so solicitous about the things of this world, O ye of little faith. And as Christ concludes an unstedfastness in their faith, out of their solicitude for this world, so may the world justly conclude an establishment in their faith, if they see them exercise themselves in the works of mercy, and so let their light shine before men, that they may see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven.

These are words spoken by our Savior to his Disciples in the Mount; a treasure deposited in those disciples, but in those disciples, as depositaries for us; an Oracle uttered to those disciples, but through those disciples to us; Paradise conveyed to those disciples, but to those disciples, as feoffees in trust for us; to every one of us, in them (from him, that rides with his hundreds of Torches, to him that crawls with his rush-candle) our Savior says, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, &c. The words have two parts; so must our explication of them; first a precept, Sic luceat, (Let your light so shine before men) and then the reason, the purpose, the end, the effect, ut videant, (that men may see your good works, and &c.) From the first bough will divers branches spring, and divers from the other; all of good taste and nourishment, if we might stay to press the fruits thereof. We cannot; yet, in the first we shall insist a while upon each of these three; First, the light it self, what that is, Sic luceat lux, Let your light so shine; And then, secondly, what this propriety is, lux vestra, (let your light shine, yours;) And lastly what this emanation of this light upon others is, coram hominibus, (let your light shine before men.) The second part, which is the reason, or the effect of this precept, ut videant, (that men may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven) abounds in particular considerations; and I should weary you, if I should make you stand all the while under so heavy a load, as to charge your memories with all those particulars, so long before I come to handle them. Reserving them therefore to their due time, anon, proceed we now to the three branches of our first part, first the light in it self, then the propriety in us, lastly, the emanation upon others, Let your light so shine before men.

First, for the light it self, There is a light that lightneth every man that cometh into the world. And, even this universal light is Christ, says S. John, (He was that light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.) And this universal enunciation, (He lightneth every man) moved S. Cyril to take this light for the light of nature, and natural reason. For even nature and natural reason is from Christ. All things were made by him, says S. John, even nature it self. And, By him, and for him, all things visible, and invisible were created, says the Apostle. And therefore our latter men of the Reformation, are not to be blamed, who for the most part, pursuing S. Cyrils interpretation, interpret this universal light, that lightneth every man, to be the light of nature. Divers others of the Fathers take this universal light (because Christ is said to be this light) to be Baptism. For, in the primitive Church, as the Nativity of Christ was called the Epiphany, Manifestation, so Baptism was called Illumination. And so, Christ lightens every man that comes into the world, (that is, into the Christian world) by that Sacrament of Illumination, Baptism. S. Augustine brought the exposition of that universal proposition into a narrow room; That he enlightened all that came into the world, that is, all that were enlightened in the world, were enlightened by him; there was no other light; and so he makes this light to be the light of faith, and the light of effectual grace, which all have not, but they that have, have it from Christ. Now which of these lights is intended in our Text, Let you light shine out? is it of the light of nature, at our comming into the world, or the light of Baptism, and that general grace that accompanies all Gods Ordinances, at our comming into the Church, or the light of faith, and particular grace, sealing our adoption, and spiritual filiation there? Properly, our light is none of these three; and yet it is truly, all; for our light is the light of good works; and that light proceeds from all the other three, and so is all those, and then it goes beyond all three, and so is none of them. It proceeds from all; for, if we consider the first light, the light of nature, in our creation, We are (says the Apostle) his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So that we were all made for that, for good works; even the natural man, by that first light. Consider it in the second light, in baptism; there we dye in Christ, and are buried in Christ, and rise in Christ, and in him we are new creatures, and with him we make a covenant in baptism, for holiness of life, which is the body of good works. Consider the third, that of faith, and as every thing in nature is, so faith is perfected by working; for, faith is dead, without breath, without spirit, if it be without works. So, this light is in all those lights; we are created, we are baptized, we are adopted for good works; and it is beyond them all, even that of faith; for, though faith have a preeminence, because works grow out of it, and so faith (as the root) is first, yet works have the preeminence thus, both that they include faith in them, and that they dilate, and diffuse, and spread themselves more declaratorily, then faith doth. Therefore, as our Savior said to some that asked him, What shall we do that we might work the work of God? (you see their mind was upon works, something they were sure was to be done) This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent, and so refers them to faith, so to another that asks him, What shall I do, that I may have eternal life? (all go upon that, that something there must be done, works there must be) Christ says, Keep the Commandments, and so refers him to works. He hath showed thee O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to show mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? This then is the light that lighteth every man that goes out of the world, good works; for, their works follow them. Their works; they shall be theirs, even after their death; which is our second branch in this first part, the propriety, lux vestra, let your light shine.

I cannot always call the works that I do, my works; for sometimes God works them, and sometimes the devil: Sometimes God works his own work, The Lord will do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Sometimes he works my works, Thou Lord hast wrought all our works in us. In us, and in all things else, Operatur omnia in omnibus, he worketh all in all. And all this in all these, Secundum consilium voluntatis suae, After the counsel of his own will; for, I will work, and who shall let it? But for all this his general working, his enemy works in us too. That which I do, I allow not, says the Apostle; nay, I know it not; for, says he, what I hate, that I do. And, if I do that I would not do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Yet, for all this diverse, this contrary working, as S. Augustine says of the faculty of the will, Nihil tam nostrum, quam voluntas, there is nothing so much our own, as our will before we work, so there is nothing so much our own, as our works, after they are done. They stick to us, they cleave to us; whether as fomentations to nourish us, or as corrasives, to gnaw upon us, that lyes in the nature of the work; but ours they are; and upon us our works work. Our good works are more ours, then our faith is ôurs. Our faith is ours as we have received it, our work is ours, as we have done it. Faith is ours, as we are possessors of it, the work ours, as we are doers, actors in it. Faith is ours, as our goods are ours, works, as our children are ours. And therefore when the Prophet Habakkuk says, Fide sua, The just shall live by his faith, that particle His, is a word of possession, not a word of Acquisition; That God hath infused that faith into him, and so it is his, not that he hath produced that faith in himself. His faith must save him, his own, and not another's, not his parents faith, though he be the son of holy parents, not the Churches faith, (if he be of years) though he be within the covenant, but his own personal faith; yet not his so, as that it grew in him, or was produced in him, by him, by any plantation, or semination of his own. And therefore S. Paul in citing that place of Habakkuk (as he doth cite it three several times) in all those places leaves out that particle of propriety; and acquisition, his, and still says, The just shall live by faith, and he says no more. And when our blessed Savior says to the woman with the bloody issue, Fides tua, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, it was said then, when he had seen that woman come trembling and fall down at his feet; he saw outward declarations of her faith, he saw works. And so, in divers of those places, where Christ repeats that, fides tua, thy faith, we find it added, Jesus videns fidem, Jesus seeing their faith. With what eyes? he looked upon them with his humane eyes, not his divine; he saw not (that is, considered not at that time) their hearts, but their outward declarations, and proceeding as a good man would, out of their good works concludes faith. Velle & nolle nostrum est, to assent or to dis-assent is our own; we may choose which we will do; Ipsumque quod nostrum est, sine Dei miseratione nostrum non est; But though this faculty be ours, it is ours, but because God hath imprinted it in us. So that still to will, as well as to do, to believe, as well as to work, is all from God; but yet they are from God in a diverse manner, and a diverse respect; and certainly our works are more ours then our faith is, and man concurres otherwise in the acting and perpetration of a good work, then he doth in the reception and admission of faith. Sed quae non fecimus ipsi, says the Poet; and he was Vates, a Prophet in saying so, Vix ea nostra voco; nothing is ours, but that which we have done our selves; and all that is ours. And though Christ refer us often to belief, in this life, because he would be sure to plant, and fasten safely that which is the only true root of all, that is, faith, yet when he comes to Judgement, in the next life, all his proceeding is grounded upon works, and he judges us by our fruits. So then, God gives us faith, immediately from himself, and out of that faith, he produces good works, instrumentally, by us, so, as that those works are otherwise ours, then that faith is. And this the propriety, lux vestra, let your light shine, which we proposed for the second branch in this first part, that God vouchsafes to afford us an interest, in the working of our salvation; And then our third branch is, the emanation of this light, from us, to others, Coram hominibus, let your light shine before men.

There was a particular Holy-day amongst the heathen, that bore the name of this day, Accensio luminum, Candlemas day; A superstitious multiplying of Lamps, and Torches in Divine Service. This superstition Lactantius reproves, elegantly, and bitterly. Num mentis suae compos putandus est? can we think that man in his wits, that offers to God, the Father, and Fountain, the Author and Giver of all light, a Candle for an Oblation, for a Sacrifice, for a New-years gift? Solem contempletur, says he; Let that man but consider seriously the Sun, and he will see, that that God who could spare him so glorious a light as the Sun, needs not his Candle. And therefore says Tertullian, (reprehending the same superstition) Lucernis diem non infringimus, we do not cut off, we do not shorten our days, by setting up lights at noon, nor induce, nor force, nor make night before it comes.

I would not be understood to condemn all use of candles by day, in Divine Service, nor all Churches that have or do use them; For, so, I might condemn even the Primitive Church, in her pure and innocent estate. And therefore, that which Lactantius, almost three hundred years after Christ, says of those Lights, and that which Tertullian, almost a hundred years before Lactantius, says, in reprehension thereof, must necessarily be understood of the abuse, and imitation of the Gentiles therein; for, that the thing it self, was in use, before either of their times, I think, admits little question. About Lactantius time, fell the Eliberitan Council; and then the use, and the abuse was evident. For, in the thirty fourth Canon of that Council, it is forbidden to set up Candles in the Church-yard: And, the reason that is added, declares the abuse, Non sunt enim inquietandi spiritus sidelium, That the souls of the Saints departed should not be troubled. Now the setting up of lights could not trouble them; but these lights were accompanied with superstitious Invocations, with magical Incantations, and with howlings and ejulations, which they had learnt from the Gentiles, and with these, the souls of the dead, were, in those times, thought to be affected, and disquieted. It is in this Ceremony of lights, as it is in other Ceremonies: They may be good in their Institution, and grow ill in their practise. So did many things, which the Christian Church received from the Gentiles, in a harmless innocency, degenerate after, into as pestilent superstition there, as amongst the Gentiles themselves. For, ceremonies, which were received, but for the instruction, and edification of the weaker sort of people, were made real parts of the service of God, and meritorious sacrifices. To those ceremonies, which were received as signa commonefacientia, helps to excite, and awaken devotion, was attributed an operation, and an effectual power, even to the ceremony it self; and they were not practised, as they should, significativè, but effectivè, not as things which should signify to the people higher mysteries, but as things as powerful, and effectual in themselves, as the greatest Mysteries of all, the Sacraments themselves. So lights were received in the Primitive Church, to signify to the people, that God, the Father of lights, was otherwise present in that place, then in any other, and then, men came to offer lights by way of sacrifice to God; And so, that which was providently intended for man, who indeed needed such helps, was turned upon God, as though he were to be supplied by us. But what then? Because things good in their institution, may be depraved in their practise, Ergonè nihil ceremoniarum rudioribus dabitur, ad juvandam eorum imperitiam? Shall therefore the people be denied all ceremonies, for the assistance of their weakness? Id ego non dico; I say not so, says he. Omnino illis utile esse sentio hoc genus adminiculi; I think these kinds of helps to be very behooveful for them; Tantum hîc contendo, all that I strive for, is but Moderation; and that Moderation he places very discreetly in this, That these ceremonies may be few in number; That they may be easy for observation; That they may be clearly understood in their signification; we must not therefore be hasty in condemning particular ceremonies: For, in so doing, in this ceremony of lights, we may condemn the Primitive Church, that did use them, and we condemn a great and Noble part of the reformed Church, which doth use them at this day.

These superstitious lights, are not the lights we call for here, sic luceat, let your light shine out; but lux vestra, your light, the light of good works; let that shine out. Truly, this carrying, and diffusing of light to others is so blessed a thing, as that though Lucifer, (whose name signifies the carrying of light) be now an odious name, an infamous name, applied only to the Devil, yet a great Bishop in the Primitive Church abstained not from that name, forbore not that name, Lucifer Talaritanus; that he might carry about him, in his name, a remembrancer, ferre lucem, to carry light to others, he was content with that name, Lucifer. God had made light the first day, and yet he made many lights after. One light of thine shines out in our eyes, thy profession of Christ; let us see more lights, works worthy of that profession. God calls the Sun, and the Moon too, Great lights, because though there be greater in the Firmament, they appear greatest to us; those works of ours are greatest in the sight of God, that are greatest in the sight of men, that are most beneficial, most exemplary, and conduce most to the promoving of others to glorify God. To such rich men, as produce no light at all, (no works) that of S. Angustine is applicable, cimices sunt, they are as these worms, or flies, the cimices, qui vivi mordent, mortui foetent, They bite, and suck a man, whilst they live, and they stink pestilently, and offend so, when they are dead. The actions of such rich men are mischievous whilst they live, and their memory odious when they are dead. But all rich men are not such, to be absolutely without all light. But then they may have light, (a determined purpose to do some good works) and yet this light not shine out. No man can more properly be said to hide his light under a bushel, (which because Christ says, (in the verse before our Text) no man does, certainly no man should do) then he, who hath disposed some part of his estate to pious uses, but hides it in his will, and locks up that will in his cabinet; For, in this case, though there be light, yet it does not shine out. Your gold, and your silver is cankered, says S. James, and the rust of them shall be a witness, and shall eat your flesh, as it were fire. He does not say the gold and the silver it self, as reproving the ill getting of it, but the rust, the hiding, the concealing thereof, shall be this witness against thee, this executioner upon thee. That man dies in an ill state, of whose faith we have had no evidence, till, after his death, his executors meet, and open his Will, and then publish some Legacies to pious uses: And we had no evidence before, if he had done no good before. For, show me thy faith without thy works, says the Apostle; and he proposes it, as an impossible thing, impossible to show it, impossible to have it. And therefore, as good works are our own, so are they never so properly our own, as when they are done with our own hands; for this is the true shining of our light, the emanation from us, upon others. And so have you the three pieces, which constitute our first part, the precept, Let your light shine before men; The light it self, not the light of nature, nor of Baptism, nor of Adoption, but the light of good works; And then the Appropriation of this light, how these works are ours, though the goodness thereof be only from God; And lastly the emanation of this light upon others; which cannot well be said to be an emanation of our light, of light from us, except it be whilst we are we, that is, alive. And so we pass to those many particulars, which frame our second part, the reason, and the end of this, That men may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

In this end, our beginning is, ut videant, that men may see it. The apparitions in old times, were evermore accompanied with lights; but they were private lights; such an old woman, or such a child saw a light; but non videbant homines, it did not shine out, so that men might see this light. We have a story delivered by a very pious man, and of the truth whereof he seems to be very well assured, that one Conradus a devout Priest, had such an illustration, such an irradiation, such a coruscation, such a light at the tops of those fingers, which he used in the consecration of the Sacrament, as that by that light of his fingers ends, he could have read in the night, as well as by so many Candles; But this was but a private light, & non viderunt homines, It did not shine out, so that men might see it. Blessed S. Augustine reports, (if that Epistle be S. Augustines) that when himself was writing to S. Jerome, to know his opinion of the measure and quality of the Joy, and Glory of Heaven, suddenly in his Chamber there appeared ineffabile lumen, says he, an unspeakable, an unexpressible light, nostr is invisum temporibus, such a light as our times never saw, and out of that light issued this voice, Hieronymi anima sum, I am the soul of that Jerome to whom thou art writing, who this hour died at Bethlem, and am come from thence to thee, &c. But this was but a private light, and whatsoever S. Augustine saw, (who was not easily deceived, nor would deceive others) non videbant homines, this light did not shine so, as that men might see it. Here, in our Text, there is a light required that men may see. Those lights of their apparitions we cannot see; There is a light of ours, which our adversaries may see, and will not; which is truly the light of this Text, the light of good works. Though our zeal to good works shine out assiduously, day by day in our Sermons, and shine out powerfully in the Homilies of our Church, composed expressly to that purpose, and shine out actually in our many sumptuous buildings, and rich endowments, (in which works, we of this Kingdom, in this last Century, since the Reformation of Religion, have perhaps exceeded our Fathers, in any one hundred of years, whilst they lived under the Roman persuasion) yet still they cry out, we are enemies of this light, and abhorre good works. As I have heard them, in some obscure places abroad, Preach, that here in England, we had not only no true Church, no true Priesthood, no true Sacraments, but that we have no material Churches, no holy Convocations, no observing of Sundays, or Holy days, no places to serve God in; so I have heard them Preach, that we do not only not advance, but that we cry down, and discredit, and dissuade, and discountenance the doctrine of good works. It is enough to say to them, as the Angel said to the Devil, Increpet te Dominus, The Lord rebuke thee. And the Lord does rebuke them, in enabling us to proceed in these pious works, which, with so notorious falsehood they deny; And we do rebuke them, the best and most powerful way, in that, (as the Apostle says) we consider one another, (consider the necessities of others) and provoke one another to love, and good works.

But then, if this be Gods end in our good works, ut videant homines, that men may see them, why is Christ so earnest, in this very sermon as to say, Take heed you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them? Is there no contradiction in these? far from it; The intent of both precepts together make up this doctrine, That we do them not therefore, not to that end, that men may see them. So far we must come, that men must see them, but we must not rest there; for, it is but Sic luceat, Let your light shine out so, it is not, let it shine out therefore; Our doing of good works must have a farther end, then the knowledge of men, as we shall see, towards our end, anon.

Men must see them then, and see them to be works, Vt videant opera, That they may see your works: which is a word that implies difficulty, and pain, and labor, and is accompanied with some loathness, with some colluctation. Do such works, for Gods sake, as are hard for thee to do. In such a word does God deliver his Commandment of the Sabbath; not that word, which in that language signifies ordinary and easy works, but servile and laborious works, toylesome and gaineful works, those works thou mayst not do upon the Sabbath. But those works, in the virtue of the precept of this text, thou must do in the sight of men; those that are hard for thee to do. David would not consecrate nor offer unto God, that which cost him nothing; first he would buy Araunahs threshing floare at a valuable price, and then he would dedicate it to God. To give old clothes, past wearing, to the poor, is not so good a work as to make new for them. To give a little of your superfluities, not so acceptable as the widows gift, that gave all. To give a poor soul a farthing at that door, where you give a Player a shilling, is not equal dealing; for, this is to give God quisquilias frumenti, The refuse of the wheat. But do thou some such things, as are truly works in our sense, such as are against the nature, and ordinary practice of worldly men to do; some things, by which they may see, that thou dost prefer God before honor, and wife, and children, and hadst rather build, and endow some place, for Gods service, then pour out money to multiply titles of honor upon thy self, or enlarge joyntures, and portions, to an unnecessary, and unmeasurable proportion, when there is enough done before.

Let men see that that thou doest, to be a work, qualified with some difficulty in the doing, and then those works, to be good works, Videant opera bona, that they may see your good works. They are not good works how magnificent soever, if they be not directed to good ends. A superstitious end, or a seditious end vitiates the best work. Great contributions have been raised, and great sums given, to build, and endow Seminaries, and schools, and Colledges in foreign parts; but that hath a superstitious end. Great contributions have been raised, and great sums given at home, for the maintenance of such refractary persons, as by opposing the government and discipline of the Church, have drawn upon themselves, silencings, and suspensions, and deprivations; but that hath a seditious end. But, give so, as in a rectified conscience, and not a distempered zeal, (a rectified conscience is that, that hath the restimony and approbation of most good men, in a succession of times, and not to rely occasionally upon one or a few men of the separation, for the present) give so, as thou mayst sincerely say, God gave me this, to give thus, and so it is a good work. So it must be, A work (something of some importance) and a good work, (not depraved with an ill end) and then your work, Vt videant opera vestra, That they may see your good works.

They are not your works, if that that you give be not your own. Nor is it your own, if it were ill gotten at first. How long soever it have been possessed, or how often soever it have been transformed, from money to ware, from ware to land, from land to office, from office to honor, the money, the ware, the land, the office, the honor is none of thine, if, in thy knowlege, it were ill gotten at first. Zacheus, in S. Luke, gives half his goods to the poor; but it is half of his, his own; for there might be goods in his house, which were none of his. Therefore in the same instrument, he passes that scrutiny, If I have taken any thing unjustly, I restore him four-fold. First let that that was ill gotten, be deducted, and restored, and then, of the rest, which is truly thine own, give cheerfully. When Moses says, that our years are three score and ten, if we deduct from that term, all the hours of our unnecessary sleep, of superfluous sittings at feasts, of curiosity in dressing, of largeness in recreations, of plotting, and compassing of vanities, or sins, scarce any man of chreescore and ten, would be ten years old, when he dies. If we should deal so with worldly mens estates, (defalse unjust gettings) it would abridge and attenuate many a swelling Inventory. Till this defalcation, this scrutiny be made, that you know what's your own, what's other mens, as your Tombe shall be but a monument of your rotten bones, how much gold or marble soever be bestowed upon it, so that Hospital, that free-school, that Colledge that you shall build, and endow, will be but a monument of your bribery, your extortion, your oppression; and God, who will not be in debt, (though he owe you nothing that built it) may be pleased to give the reward of all that, to them, from whom that which was spent upon it, was unjustly taken; for, The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous, says Solomon. The sinner may do pious works, and the righteous may be rewarded for them; the world may think of one founder, and God knows another. That which is enjoined in the name of light here, is works, (not trifles) and good works, (made good by the good ends they are directed to) and then your works (done out of that which is truly your own) and by seeing this light, men will be moved to glorify your Father which is in Heaven; which is the true end of all; that men may see them, but see them therefore, To glorisy your Father which is in Heaven.

He does not say, that by seeing your good works, men shall glorify your sons upon earth. And yet truly, even that part of the reward, and retribution is worth a great deal of your cost, and your alms; that God shall establish your posterity in the world, and in the good opinion of good men. As you have your estates, you have your children from God too. As it is Davids recognition, Dominus pars haereditatis mea, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, so the Possedi virum à Domino, was Eves Recognition upon the birth of her first son, Cain, I have gotten, I possess a man from the Lord. Now that that man that thou possessest from the Lord, thy son, may possess that land that thou possessest from the Lord, it behooves thee to be righteous; for so, (by that righteousness) thou becomest a foundation for posterity, (The righteous is an everlasting foundation) his light, (his good works) shall be a cheerful light unto him; (for, The light of the righteous reioyceth him.) They shall be so in this life, and, He shall have hope in his death, saith Solomon; that is, hope for himself in another world, & hope of his posterity in this world; for, says he, He leaveth an inheritance to his children's children; that is, an inheritance, out of which he hath taken, and restored all that was unjustly got from men, and taken a bountiful part, which he hath offered to God in pious uses, that the rest may descend free from all claims, and encumbrances upon his children's children. The righteous is merciful, and lendeth, says David. Merciful as his Father in Heaven is merciful; that is, in perpetual, not transitory endowments, (for, God did not set up his lights, his Sun, and his Moon for a day, but for ever, and such should our light, or good works be too.) He is merciful, and he lendeth; to whom? for to the poor he giveth; he looks for no return from them, for they are the waters upon which he casts his bread. Yet he lendeth; He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord. The righteous is merciful and lendeth, and then, (as David adds there) His seed is blessed. Blessed in this (which follows there) that he shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever, (which he ratifies again, Surely he shall not be moved for ever; that is, he shall never be moved, in his posterity) And as he is blessed that way, blessed in the establishment of his possession upon his children's children, so is he blessed in this, that his honor, and good name shall be poured out as a fragrant oil upon his posterity, The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Their memory shall be always alive, and always fresh in their posterity, when The name of the wicked shall rot. So then, the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life, says Solomon; that is, the righteous shall produce plants, that shall grow up, and flourish; so his posterity shall be a tree of life to many generations; and then, The glory of children are their Fathers, says that wise King; As Fathers receive comfort from good children, so children receive glory from good parents; in this are children glorified, that they had righteous Fathers, that lent unto the Lord. So that, (to recollect these pieces) it is no small reward that God affords you, if men, seeing your good works, glorify, that is, esteem, and respect, and love, and honor your children upon earth. But it is not only that; your good works shall be an occasion of carrying glory upon the right object, They shall glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

It is not the Father which is in Heaven; that they should glorify God, as the common Father of all, by creation. For, for that they need not your light, your good works; The Heavens declare the glory of God, says David; that is, glorify him in an acknowledgement, that he is the Father of them, and of all other things by creation. Is not he thy Father? hath he not made thee? is an interrogatory ministered by Moses, to which all things must answer with the Prophet Malachi, yes, He is our Father, for he hath made us. But that's not the paternity of this text, as God is Father of us all by creation. Nor as he is a Father of some in a more particular consideration, in giving them large portions, great patrimonies in this world; for, thus, he may be my Father and yet disinherit me; he may give me plenty of temporal blessings, and withhold from me spiritual, and eternal blessings. Now, to see this, men need not your light, your good works; for, they see daily, That he maketh his sun to shine on the evil, and on the good; and causeth it to rain on the just, and the unjust; He feeds Goats as well as Sheep, he gives the wicked temporal blessings, as well as the righteous. These then are not the paternities of our text, that men, by this occasion, glorify God as the Father of all men by creation, nor as the Father of all rich men, by their large patrimonies, not as he is the Father, not as he is a Father, but as he is your Father, as he is made yours, as he is become yours, by that particular grace of using the temporal blessings which he hath given you, to his glory, in letting your light shine before men. For, it were better God disinherited us so, as to give us nothing, then that he gave us not the grace to use that that he gave us, well: without this, all his bread were stone, and all his fishes serpents, all his temporal liberality malediction. How much happier had that man been, that hath wasted thousands in play, in riot, in wantonness, in sinful excesses, if his parents had left him no more at first, then he hath left himself at last? How much nearer to a kingdom in Heaven had he been, if he had been born a begger here? Nay, though he have done no ill, (of such excessive kinds) how much happier had he been, if he had had nothing left him, if he have done no good? There cannot be a more fearful commination upon man, nor a more dangerous dereliction from God, then when God says, I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; Though thou offer none, I care not, Ile never tell thee of it, nor reprove thee for it, I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices. And when he says, (as he does there) If I be hungry I will not tell thee; I will not awake thy charity, I will not excite thee, not provoke thee, with any occasion of feeding me, in feeding the poor. When God shall say to me, I care not whether you come to Church or no, whether you pray or no, repent or no, confess, receive or no, this is a fearful dereliction; so is it, when he says to a rich man, I care not whether your light shine out, or no; whether men see your good works or no; I can provide for my glory other ways. For, certainly God hath not determined his purpose, and his glory so much in that, to make some men rich that the poor might be relieved, (for, that ends in bodily relief) as in this, that he hath made some men poor, whereby the rich might have occasion to exercise their charity; for, that reaches to spiritual happiness; for which use, the poor do not so much need the rich, as the rich need the poor; the poor may better be saved without the rich, then the rich without the poor. But when men shall see, that that God, who is the Father of us all, by creating us, and the father of all the rich, by enriching them, is also become your father, yours by adoption, yours by infusion of that particular grace, to do good with your goods, then are you made blessed instruments of that which God seeks here, his glory, They shall glorify your father which is in heaven.

Glory is so inseparable to God, as that God himself is called Glory, They changed their Glory into the similitude of an Ox; Their glory, their true God into an inglorious Idol. That glory may dwell in our land, says he; that is, that God may dwell therein. The first end of letting our light to shine before men, is, that they may know Gods proceedings; but, the last end to which all conduces, is, that God may have glory. Whatsoever God did first in his own bosom, in his own decree, (what that was, contentious men will needs wrangle) whatsoever that first act was, Gods last end in that first act of his was his own glory. And therefore to impute any inglorious or ignoble thing to God, comes too near blasphemy. And be any man who hath any sense or taste of nobleness, or honor, judge, whether there be any glory in the destruction of those creatures whom they have raised, till those persons have deserved ill at their hands, and in some way have damnified them, or dishonoured them. Nor can God propose that for glory, to destroy man till he find cause in man. Now, this glory, to which Christ bends all in this Text, (that men by seeing your good works, might glorify your Father) consists especially in these two declarations, Commemoration, and Imitation; a due celebration of former founders and benefactors, and a pious proceeding according to such precedents, is this glorifying of God.

When God calls himself so often, The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, God would have the world remember, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were extraordinary men, memorable men. When God says, Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were here, they should not deliver this people, God would have it known, that Noah, Daniel, and Job were memorable men, and able to do much with him. When the Holy Ghost is so careful to give men their additions, That Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents, & keep Cattle, & Iubal the father of Harpers, and Organists, and Tubal-Cain of all Gravers in Brass and Iron. And when he presents with so many particularities every piece of work, that Hiram of Tyre wrought in Brass for the furnishing of Solomons Temple, God certainly is not afraid that his honor will be diminished, in the honourable mentioning of such men as have benefited the world by public good works. The wise man seems to settle himself upon that meditation; let us now praise famous men, says he, and our fathers that begot us; and so he institutes a solemn commemoration, and gives a catalogue of Enoch, and Abraham, and Moses, and Aaron, and so many more, as possess six Chapters; nor doth he ever end the meditation till he end his book; so was he fixt upon the commemoration of good men; as S. Paul likewise feeds and delights himself in the like meditation, even from Abel. It is therefore a wretched impotency, not to endure the commemoration, and honourable mentioning of our Founders and Benefactors. God hath delivered us, and our Church, from those straights, in which, some Churches of the Reformation have thought themselves to be, when they have made Canons, That there should be no Bell rung, no dole given, no mention made of the dead at any Funeral, lest that should savor of superstition. The Holy Ghost hath taught us the difference between praising the dead, and praying for the dead, between commemorating of Saints, and invocating of Saints. We understand what David means, when he says, This honor have all his Saints, and what S. Paul means, when he says, Vnto the only wise God be honor, and glory, for ever and ever. God is honoured in due honor given to his Saints, and glorified in the commemoration of those good men whose light hath so shined out before men, that they have seen their good works. But then he is glorified more, in our imitation, then in our commemoration.

Herein is my Father glorified, (says Christ) that ye bear much fruit. The seed sowed in good ground, bore some an hundred fold, the least thirty. The seed (in this case) is the example that is before you, of those good men, whose light hath shined out so, that you have seen their good works. Let this seed, these good examples bring forth hundreds, and sixties, and thirties in you, much fruit; for herein is your Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. Of which plentiful increase, I am afraid there is one great hinderance that passes through many of you, that is, that when your Will lyes by you, in which some little lamp of this light is set up, something given to God in pious uses, if a Ship miscarry, if a Debtor break, if your state be any way empaired, the first that suffers, the first that is blotted out of the Will, is God and his Legacy; and if your estates increase, portions increase, and perchance other legacies, but Gods portion and legacy stands at a stay. Christ left two uses of his passion; application and imitation. He suffered for us, says the Apostle; for us, that is, that we might make his death ours, apply his death, and then (as it follows there) he left us an example. So Christ gives us two uses of the Reformation of Religion; first, the doctrine, how to do good works without relying upon them, as meritorious; and then example, many, very many men (and more by much, in some kinds of charity since the Reformation of Religion, then before) even in this City, whose light hath shined out before you, and you have seen their good works. That as this noble City hath justly acquired the reputation and the testimony of all who have had occasion to consider their dealings in that kind, that they deal most faithfully, most justly, most providently, in all things which are committed to their trust for pious uses, from others, not only in a full employment of that which was given, but in an improvement thereof, and then an employment of that emprovement to the same pious use, so every man in his particular may propose to himself, some of those blessed examples which have risen amongst your selves, and follow that, and exceed that; That as your lights are Torches, and not petty Candles, and your Torches better then others Torches, so he also may be a larger example to others, then others have been to him, for, Herein is your Father glorified, if you bear much fruit, and that is the end of all, that we all do, That men seeing it, may glorify our Father which is in heaven.

Sermon IX. Preached upon Candlemas day.

ROM. 13.7.

Render therefore to all men their dues.

The Text being part of the Epistle of that day, that year.

THe largeness of this short Text consists in that word, Therefore; therefore because you have been so particularly taught your particular duties, therefore perform them, therefore practise them, Reddite omnibus debita, Render therefore to every man his due. The Philosopher might seem to have contracted as large a law, into a few words, in his suum cuique, as the Holy Ghost had done in his Reddite omnibus, if it were not for this, Therefore; for that carries our consideration over the whole Epistle. This Epistle particularizing all duties, which appertain ad pietatem erga Deum, to our religious worship of God, ad charitatem erga proximum, to charitable offices towards one another, and ad sanctimoniam propriam, to a sanctification and holiness of life in our selves. You have seen a list of your debts, says the Apostle, (and that men deeply endebted are loath to do) you have seen what you owe God, what you owe your selves, and what you owe the world, Reddite ergo omnibus debita, be therefore behind hand with none of these, but render unto all their dues: For, our debts here are not restrained to those that are mentioned in the following part of this verse, Tribute, and Custom, and Fear, and Honor, but it is the knot that ties up all, and this Text in this verse, is the same that begins the next verse also; Reddite debita omnibus, Render to all men their dues, and Nemini quicquam debeas, Owe nothing to any man, is all one: It is farther then many use to come, to know what they owe; since I have brought you so far, says our Apostle, Render to all men their dues.

It is one degree of thrift, (but for the most part it comes late) to bring our debts into as few hands as we can. Our debt here we cannot bring into fewer then these three, to God, to our Neighbor, to our selves. Consider our debts to God, to be our sins, and so we dare not come to a reckoning with him, but we discharge our selves entirely upon our surety, our Savior Christ Jesus: but yet of that debt we must pay an acknowledgement, an interest (as it were) of praise, for all that we have, and of prayer for all that we would have, and these are our debts to God. Consider our debts to man, and our creditors are persons above us, and persons below us, superiors, and inferiors; and to superiors (who are the persons of whom this Text, or this verse, is most literally intended) we are debtors first in matter of substance, expressed here, in those words Tribute, and Custom; and in matter of ceremony, expressed here, in those words, Fear, and Honor. And to our inferiors, we are debtors for counsel to direct them, and for relief in compassion of their sufferings. And then to come to our third sort of creditors, to our selves, we owe our selves some debts which are to be tendered at noon, which are to be paid in our best strength and prosperity, in the course of our lives; and some which are to be tendered at night, at our Sun-set, at our deaths: Reddite ergo omnibus, Render therefore to all their dues. For your first debt, to God, we bring you to Church; this is no place to arrest in; but yet the Spirit of God calls upon you for those debts, praise him in his holy place, and pray to him in his house, which is the house of prayer. For your debts of the second kind, to other men, for those to superiors, we send you to Court; for those to inferiors, we send you to Hospitals, and prisons; and though Courts and prisons be ill paying places, yet pay you your debts of substance, and of ceremony, of tribute, and of honor, at Court; and your debt of counsel and relief to those that need them, in the darkest corners. And for you third kind of debts, debts to your selves, make even with your selves all the way in your lives, lest your payment prove too heavy, and you break, and your hearts break, when you come to see that you cannot do that upon your death-bed: Reddite omnibus, Render to all, to God, to man, to your selves, their dues.

To begin then with our beginning, our debts to God; if we take that definition of of debts, which arises out of the sound of the word, Debere est de alio habere, a man owes all that which he hath received of another, we are debtors of all that we have, and all that we are, to God; our well being, and our very being is from him. If we take that definition of debt, Debere est Iure aliquo teneri ad dandum aut faciendum aliquid, To owe, is to be bound by some Law, to give something, or to do something to some person; The Law of Nature in our hearts, the Law of the Creature in our eyes, the Law of the Word in our ears, provokes us to give and to do something to that God, who hath given and done all to us; and more then giving or doing, hath suffered so much for us. What then is the payment which we are to make? First, Glory, Praise: For, in all his works, God still proposed to himself, his Glory. Those men who will needs be of Gods Cabinet Counsel, and pronounce what God did first, what was his first Decree, and the first clause in that Decree, those men who will needs know, and then publish Gods secrets, (And, by the way, that, which sometimes it may concern us to know, yet it may be a Libel to publish it) Those mysteries, which, for the opposing and countermining stubborn, and perverse Heresies, it may concern us, in Councils and Synods, and other fit places, to argue, and to clear, it may be an injury to God, and against his Crown, and Dignity, in breaking the peace of the Church, to publish and divulge to every popular auditory, and every itching ear, and thereby perplexe the consciences of weak men, or offer contentious men, that which is their food, and delight, disputation; These men, I say, though they differ, in their order, whether Gods Decree of Reprobation and Salvation, were before his Decree of Creation, (for some place it before, and some after) yet all, on all sides agree in this, That Gods first purpose was his own glory; that was his first Decree, by what degrees soever he proceeded to the execution of that Decree. And so in the great and incomprehensible work of our Salvation, when that was uttered in the mouth of Angels to the Shepherds, that Ambassage began with a Gloria in excelsis, There was Peace upon earth, and there was good will towards men, but first there was Glory to God on high. And though to correct Heretical and Schismatical men, amongst whom, some would express themselves in Gods service, in one manner, and some in another, to the endangering of Doctrine, and to the confusion of Order, and thereupon some would say, in the Church-Service, Gloria Patri, in Filio, per Spiritum Sanctum, Glory be to the Father, in the Son, by the Holy Ghost; And some Gloria Patri per Filium, Glory be to the Father by the Son; And some Gloria Patri, & Filio, per Spiritum Sanctum, Glory be to the Father, and the Son, by the Holy Ghost; Though to prevent the danger of these divers forms of service, the Church came to determine all, in that one, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, yet we see out of the forms of the Heretics themselves, still so far as they conceived the Godhead to extend, so far they extended Glory, in that holy acclamation; those who believed not the Son to be God, or the Holy Ghost not to be God, left out Glory, when they came to their Persons; but to him that is God, in all confessions, Glory appertains. Now Glory is, Clara cum laude notitia, says S. Ambrose: It is an evident knowledge, and acknowledgement of God, by which, others come to know him too; which acknowledgement is well called a recognition, for it is a second, a ruminated, a reflected knowledge: Beasts do remember, but they do not remember that they remember; they do not reflect upon it, which is that that constitutes memory: Every carnal and natural man knows God, but the acknowledgement, the recognition, the manifestation of the greatness and goodness of God, accompanied with praise of him for that, this appertains to the godly man, and this constitutes glory. If God have delivered me from a sickness, and I do not glorify him for that, that is, make others know his goodness to me, my sickness is but changed to a spiritual apoplexy, to a lethargy, to a stupefaction. If God have delivered us from destruction in the bowels of the Sea, in an Invasion, and from destruction in the bowels of the earth, in the Powder-treason, and we grow faint in the publication of our thanks for this deliverance, our punishment is but aggravated, for we shall be destroyed both for those old sins which induced those attempts of those destructions, and for this later and greater sin, of forgetting those deliverances; God requires nothing else; but he requires that, Glory and Praise. And that book of the Scriptures, of which, S. Basil says, That if all the other parts of Scripture could perish, yet out of that book alone, we might have enough for all uses, for Catechizing, for Preaching, for Disputing; That whole Book, which contains all subjects that appertain to Religion, is called altogether Sepher Tehillim, The Book of praises, for all our Religion is Praise. And of that Book every particular Psalm is appointed by the Church, and continued at least for a thousand and two hundred years, to be shut up with that humble and glorious acclamation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; O that men would therefore praise the Lord, and declare the wonderful works that he doth for the sons of men! Nil quisquam debet nisi quod turpe est, non reddere, says the Law: It is Turpe, an infamous and ignominious thing, not to pay debt; And, infamous and ignominious, are heavy and reproachful words in the Law; and the Gospel would add to that Turpe, Impium: It is not only an infamous but an impious, an irreligious thing, not to pay debts. As in debts, the State, and the Judge is my security, they undertake I shall be paid, or they execute Judgement; so, consider our selves as Christians, God is my security, and he will punish where I am defrauded. Either thou owest God nothing, (And then, if thou owe him nothing, from whom, or from what hath shestollen that face, that is faire; or he that estate, that is rich; or that office, that commands others; or that learning, and those orders and commission, that preaches to others; or they their souls, that understand me now? If you owe nothing, from whom had you all these, all this?) Or if thou dost owe, Turpe est, Impium est, It is an unworthy, it is an unhonest, it is an irreligious thing, not to pay him, in that money, which his own Spirit mints, and coynes in thee, and of his own bullion too, praise and thanksgiving. Not to pay him then, when he himself gives thee the money that must pay him, the Spirit of Thankfulness, falls under all the reproaches, that Law or Gospel can inflict in any names. How many men have we seen molder and crumble away great estates, and yet pay no debts? It is all our cases: What Poems, and what Orations we make, how industrious, and witty we are, to over-praise men, and never give God his due praise? Nay how often is the Pulpit it self, made the shop, and the Theatre of praise upon present men, and God left out? How often is that called a Sermon, that speaks more of Great men, then of our great God? Laudate eum omnes Augeli ejus, laudate eum omnes virtutes ejus; David calls upon the Angels, and all the Host of Heaven, to praise God, and in the Roman Church, they will employ willingly all their praise upon the Angels, and the Host of Heaven it self; and this is not reddere debitum; here is money enough spent, but no debt paid; praise enough given, but not to the true God. Laudate eum ligna fructifera, & universa pecora, & volucres pennatae, says David there; David calls upon fruits, and fowl, and cattle to praise God, and we praise, and set forth our lands, and fruits, and fowl, and cattle, with all Hyperbolical praises; and this is not reddere debitum, no payment of a debt, where it is due. Laudate eum juvenes, & senes, & virgines, says David too; He calls upon old men, and young men, and virgins, to praise the Lord, and we spend all our praises, upon young men, which are growing up in favor, or upon old men, who have the government in their hands, or upon maidens, towards whom our affections have transported us, and all this is no payment of the debt of praise. Laudate eum Reges terrae, Principes & omnes Iudices; He calls upon Kings, and Judges, and Magistrates to praise God, and we employ all our praise upon the actions of those persons themselves. Beloved, God cannot be flattered, he cannot be over-praised, we can speak nothing Hyperbolically of God: But he cannot be mocked neither; He will not be told, I have praised thee, in praising thy creature, which is thine Image; would that discharge any of my debt to a Merchant, to tell him, that I had bestowed as much, or more money then my debt, upon his picture? Though Princes, and Judges, and Magistrates be pictures, and Images of God, though beauty, and riches, and honor, and power, and favor, be, in a proportion, so too, yet, as I bought not that Merchants picture, because it was his, or for love of him, but because it was a good piece, and of a good Masters hand, and a good house-ornament; so though I spend my nights, and days, and thoughts, and spirits, and words, and preaching, and writing, upon Princes, and Judges, and Magistrates, and persons of estimation, and their praise, yet my intention determines in that use which I have of their favor, and respects not the glory of God in them; and when I have spent my self to the last farthing, my lungs to the last breath, my wit to the last Metaphor, my tongue to the last syllable, I have not paid a farthing of my debt to God; I have not praised him, but I have praised them, till not only my self, but even they, whom I have so mispraised, are the worse in the sight of God, for my over-praising; I have flattered them, and they have taken occasion by that, to think that their faults are not discerned, and so they have proceeded in them.

This is then our first debt to God, glory and praise, which is, (as we said out of S. Ambrose) a manifestation of Gods blessing to us: for it is not towards God as it is towards great persons, under whom we have risen, that we should be afraid to let the world know, how rich we are, lest they that raised us, should borrow of us, or draw us into bands for them: God requires nothing but the glory, the manifestation, that by knowing what he hath done for thee, others may know what to hope, and what to pray for, at his hands: In our debts to God, the noverint universi, is the quietus est, our publishing of them, to his praise and glory, is his acquittance and discharge for them.

Our other debt to God is Prayer, for that also is due to him, and him only; For, Si quod petendum est petis, sed non à quo petendum est, impius es: If we direct our prayers to any, even for temporal things, as to the Authors of those benefits, we may pour out as many prayers, as would have paid that debt, if they had been rightly placed, but yet by such a payment, our debt is grown a debt of a higher nature, a sin. This is a circumstance, nay, an essential difference peculiar to our debts to God, that we do not pay them, except we contract more; we grow best out of debt, by growing farther in debt; by praying for more, we pay our former debt. Domus med Domus Orationis, my house, says God, is a house of prayer; for this use, and purpose, he built himself a house upon earth; He had praise and glory in heaven before, but for Prayer he erected a house here, his Church. All the world is his Exchequer, he gives in all; from every creature, from Heaven, and Sea, and Land, and all the inhabitants of all them, wereceive benefits; But the Church is his Court of Requests, there he receives our petitions, there we receive his answers.

It is true that neither is that house only for prayer, nor prayer only for that house: Christ, in his person, consecrated that place, the Temple, by Preaching too: And for prayer elsewhere, Christ did much accustom himself to private prayer: But in him, who was truly Head of the Church, the whole Church was; Christ alone, was a Congregation, he was the Catholic Church. But when we meet in Gods house, though, by occasion, there be no Sermon, yet if we meet to pray, we pay our debt, we do our duty; so do we not, if we meet at a Sermon, without prayer. The Church is the house of prayer, so, as that upon occasion, preaching may be left out, but never a house of preaching, so, as that Prayer may be left out. And for the debt of prayer, God will not be paid, with money of our own coining, (with sudden, extemporal, inconsiderate prayer) but with currant money, that bears the Kings Image, and inscription; The Church of God, by his Ordinance, hath fet his stamp, upon a Liturgy and Service, for his house. Audit Deus in corde cogitantis, quod nec ipse audit, qui cogitat, says S. Bernard: God hears the very first motions of a mans heart, which, that man, till he proceed to a farther consideration, doth not hear, not feel, not deprehend in himself.

That soul, that is accustomed to direct her self to God, upon every occasion, that, as a flower at Sun-rising, conceives a sense of God, in every beam of his, and spreads and dilates it self towards him, in a thankfulness, in every small blessing that he sheds upon her; that soul, that as a flower at the Suns declining, contracts and gathers in, and shuts up her self, as though she had received a blow, when soever she hears her Savior wounded by a oath, or blasphemy, or execration; that soul, who, whatsoever string be strucken in her, base or treble, her high or her low estate, is ever tuned toward God, that soul prays sometimes when it does not know that it prays. I hear that man name God, and ask him what said you, and perchance he cannot tell; but I remember, that he casts forth some of those ejaculations animae, (as S. August: calls them) some of those darts of a devout soul, which, though they have not particular deliberations, and be not formal prayers, yet they are the indicia, pregnant evidences and blessed fruits of a religious custom; much more is it true, which S. Bernard says there, of them, Deus audit, God hears that voice of the heart, which the heart it self hears not, that is, at first considers not. Those occasional and transitory prayers, and those fixed and stationary prayers, for which, many times, we bind our selves to private prayer at such a time, are payments of this debt, in such pieces, and in such sums, as God, no doubt, accepts at our hands. But yet the solemn days of payment, are the Sabbaths of the Lord, and the place of this payment, is the house of the Lord, where, as Tertullian expresses it, Agmine facto, we muster our forces together, and besiege God; that is, not taking up every tattered fellow, every sudden rag or fragment of speech, that rises from our tongue, or our affections, but mustering up those words, which the Church hath levied for that service, in the Confessions, and Absolutions, and Collects, and Litanies of the Church, we pay this debt, and we receive our acquittance. First, we must be sure to pray, where we may be sure to speed, and only God can give. It is a strange thing, says Iustin Martyr, to pray to Esculapius or to Apollo for health, as Gods thereof, Qui apud Chironem medicinā didicerunt; when they who pray to them, may know, to whom those gods were beholden for all their medicines, and of whom they learnt all their physic: why should they not rather pray to their Masters, then to them? why should Apollo, Chiroes scholar, and not Chiro, Apollo's Master, be the god of physic? why should I pray to S. George for victory, when I may go to the Lord of Hosts, Almighty God himself; or consult with a Seargeant, or Corporal, when I may go to the General? Or to another Saint for peace, when I may go to the Prince of peace Christ Jesus? Why should I pray to Saint Nicolas for a faire passage at Sea, when he that rebuked the storm, is nearer me then S. Nicolas? why should I pray to S. Antony for my hoggs, when he that gave the devil leave to drown the Gergesens whole heard of hoggs, did not do that by S. Antonies leave, nor by putting a caveat or prae-non-obstante in his monopoly of preserving hoggs? I know not where to find S. Petronilla when I have an ague, nor S. Apollonia, when I have the tooth-ache, nor S. Liberius, when I have the stone: I know not whether they can hear me in Heaven, or no; Our Adversaries will not say, that all Saints in Heaven hear all that is said on earth: I know not whether they be in Heaven, or no: our Adversaries will not say, that the Pope may not err, in a matter of fact, and so may canonize a Traytor for a Saint: I know not whether those Saints were ever upon earth or no; our Adversaries will not say, that all their Legends were really, historically true, but that many of them, are holy, but yet symbolical inventions, to figure out not what was truly done before, but what we should endeavor to do now. I know my Redeemer liveth, and I know where he is; and no man knows, where he is not. He is our Creditor, to him we must pray. But for what? we may find in some respects a better model of prayer in heathen, and unchristian Rome, then in superstitious Rome. There we find their prayer to have been, Aut innocentiam des nobis, aut maturam poenitentiam; preserve us O Lord, in an innocency, or afford us a speedy repentance: And as we find that there was in that State a public Officer, Conditor precum, that made their Collects, and prayers for public use, so we find in their prayers, that which may make us ashamed; At first, for many years, their prayer was, Vt res populi Romani ampliores facerent, that their Gods would enlarge their State; after that, it was, Vt res perpetuò incolumes servarent, that their Gods would preserve, and establish them, in that State; And after, Vota nuncupata, si res eo stetissent statu; They vowed their service, and their sacrifice to God, upon condition that he should keep them always in that State, and not otherwise. So far therefore they may be our example, that they contented themselves with a competency, but not, that they made themselves Judges of that competency. We come to Gods house to pay a debt, and our debt is, to confess that we can have from none but him, nor desire from him any more, then he is pleased to give.

We come now to our second sort of Creditors, to whom we are commanded to render their dues; to men: And of them, to our Superiors first, and then to our Inferiors. For, that with which, the Apostle enters into this Chapter, Omnis anima, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, S. Chrysostom applies Ad Prophetam, & Euangelistam, though he were a Prophet; or an Evangelist; S. Bernard, Ad Episcopum, & Archiepiscopum, though a Bishop, or Archbishop, (for, though they be as spiritual meteors between Heaven, and earth, and stand between God and us, yet they are subject to that jurisdiction, which God hath given man over man, though they were in an extraordinary calling, (the Prophets were so) yet they were subject to an ordinary jurisdiction;) And Theophylact, and Theodoret both, apply it ad Monachum & Fratrem, to Monks and Friers; though they seem to be gone out of the world, yet to this entendment, of being subject to higher powers, they are all within the world, no Cloister, no Cathedral Church, no profession, no dignity is a sanctuary, a privileged place from the payment of this debt. Here is a Quo warranto to be brought against all, and what exception can be pleaded to this Omnis anima, let every soul be subject? The Anabaptist would not pay this debt, he acknowledges no Magistrate, and yet John Baptist did, who submitted himself to Herod; The Jesuit will not pay this debt, he acknowledges no secular Magistrate, and yet Christ Jesus did, who submitted himself to Pilate; Nemo secularior Pilato, cui adstitit Dominus judicandus, says S. Bernard, there was never a more secular Judge then Pilate, and yet the Lord of life was judged to death by him.

We cannot enlarge this consideration to all our Creditors, in these debts, not to all Superiors, natural, as Parents, and civil, as Magistrates, and Ecclesiastical, as Prelates, and that which is mixed of all, matrimonial, from the wife to the husband, and therefore we contract it to the root of all, the Sovereign; And to him we consider first a Real, and substantial, and then a circumstantial and ceremonial debt. The substantial debt is paid in a faithful, in a ready and cheerful paying of those debts, those Tributes, and Customs, (as the Apostle calls them here) which belong to the King, and he that makes no conscience in defrauding the public, he that withholds part of this debt, whensoever he can, he would pay that which he pays, in counterfeit money, if he durst: he that deceives, because he sees he can scape with that deceit, he would coin too, if he saw too, that he could scape for that coining. A principal reason that makes coining and adulterating of money capital in all states, is not so much because he that coynes usurpes the Princes authority, (for every coyner is not a pretender to the Crown) nor because he diminishes the Princes majesty, (for what is the Prince the worse in that his face is stamped by another in base mettal, then when that is done by himself, or when his face is graved in any stone that is not precious?) as because he that coynes, injuries the public: and no man injuries the public more, then he, who defrauds him, who is Gods steward for the public, the King. In matter of clothes and apparel, God wrought a miracle in private mens cases, in continuing and enlarging the children of Israels clothes in the wilderness: In matter of meat he wrought a miracle in private mens behalf too, in feeding so many, with so few loafs, and fishes; and so he did for drink too, in a miraculous providing of wine at the Marriage; for, meat, and drink, and clothes are things necessary for every man: But because money is not so, if these other things may otherwise be had, (as some nations have lived, by permutation of commodities, without money) therefore God never wrought a miracle in matter of money, in any private mans case; But because money is the most necessary of all, to the public, to the Prince, therefore he wrought a miracle for that; and for that, only then, when that money was to be employed upon tribute to Caesar; no miracle in matter of money but for tribute. As it is a sign of subjection to see a man stand bare headed, so it may be a declination towards a worse condition, to see a State bare headed, to see the Prince, the Head, kept bare, by being either defrauded of that which is ordinarily due to him, or denied that which becomes also due in the payment, though it were extraordinarily given in the grant. But I am not here, to deal upon affections, but consciences, and but so far upon them, in this point, as they find themselves in a rectified, and well examined conscience, to have been enemies to the public, by having defrauded that, by any means, of that which was truly due to it. And to bring that into consideration, which is little considered, that as it is a greater sin to defraud the public, then to defraud any private person, so doth the assisting of the public lay a greater obligation upon us, then the assisting of any other, by private alms.

The other debt from us to men, and of them to Superiors, and of them principally to the Sovereign, we called ceremonial; And the Apostle, in that which follows in this verse, referres chiefly to that, in those words, Fear, and Honor, for it consists especially in those things, wherein, by outward reverence, we contribute to the maintenance, and upholding of the dignity of the Prince; and of these outward ceremonial things hath God always professed himself to be most jealous. And, (if I mistake not, as I may easily do, in things so far removed out of my way) when in your judicial proceedings in criminal causes, you make the greatest offences to be against the Crown and Dignity, in the first, (the Crown) you intend the essential part, and in the other, (the Dignity) the ceremonial, the Honor, and Reverence, and Reputation of the Prince. God gave his very Essence to his Son, he was very God of very God; But when this Son of his became man, that which God says in general, my Honor will I give to no man, reaches so far to the Son of God himself, as that the honor due to God, is not to be given to the body, not to the manhood of Christ Jesus himself. How very great a part of the Law of God was ceremonial? and how very heavy punishments were ordained for the breakers even of those Ceremonies? The Sabbaths themselves, S. Paul puts amongst Ceremonies: And that man, who assisted the Reformation of Religion, with as much learning, and modesty, as any, defines the Commandment of the Sabbath well, to be Morale praeceptum, de Ceremoniali, That though the Commandment be moral, and bind all men for ever, yet that which is commanded in that moral Commandment, is in it self Ceremonial; for, indeed, all that which we call by the general name of Religion, as it is the outward worship of God, is Ceremonial, and there is nothing more moral, then that some ceremonial things there must be. Now, as these Ceremonial things are due to God himself, so are they to them, to whom God hath imparted his name, in saying they are Gods. We shall not read in any secular or profane story, of greater humility and reverence in subjects to their Princes, then in the book of God, to the Kings there. What phrases of abjecting themselves, in respect of the Prince, can exceed Davids humble expressing of himself to Saul? Or Daniels magnifying the King, when he calls him King of Kings? And certainly some of the best, and most religious of Christian Emperors took to themselves so great Titles, in their stile, as can be excused no other way, but because their Predecessors had done so, there lay a necessity upon them, to keep this ceremonial respect and dignity, at the same height, because upon the Ceremonial, much of the Essential depends too. And therefore God pierces to the root, to the heart, when he forbids an irreverent, or unrespective thought of the Prince, for, says he, Those that have wings, shall declare the matter; God employs so many Informers, as Angels; It is not an office unworthy of the Angels of Heaven, much less of any other Angels of the Church, (no, not though it be delivered by way of confession) to discover any disloyal purposes; though in other cases, by our own Canons, that seal of Confession lay justly a strong obligation upon us, and God gives Angels an ability, a faculty, which in their nature they have not, that is, to know thoughts, for this purpose, for the discovery of such irreverent, and disloyal hearts. Angels do not know thoughts naturally, yet to this purpose they shall know thoughts, says God. Moral men should not discover the secrets of friends, we should not discover the things we receive in confession; but when it comes to matter of disloyalty, all moral seals, and all Ecclesiastical seals lose their obligation.

The foot of this account, the total sum of this Ceremonial debt to Superiors, is, that due respect be given to every man, in his place; for when young men think it the only argument of a good spirit, to behave themselves fellowly, and frowardly to great persons, those greater persons in time, take away their respect from Princes, and at last, (for in the chain of order, every link depends upon one another) God loses the respect and honor due to him; private men lessen their respect of Magistrates, and Magistrates of Princes, and Princes and all, of God. And therefore, that which S. Chrysostom says of the highest rank, Non puts Christian a philosophiae dignitatem laedi, reaches to all sorts, Let no man think that he departs from the dignity of a Christian, in attributing to every man that which appertains to the dignity of his place. I speak not all this, as though a man should lose the substance for the ceremony, that that man, whose place it is to advise and counsel, should be so ceremonious with his superior, as to concur with him in the allowance of all his errors. Caput meum conquassatum est (it is an expostulation of S. Bernards) My head is bruised, corrupted, putrefied, (he speaks it of his head, his superior, a Bishop) Et jam sanguine ebulliente, putaverim esse tegendum, now my head runs down with blood, can I think to cover it? Quicquid apposuero, cruentabitur, whatsoever I lay to it will be bloody too; if I dissemble, or cover his faults, his blood will fall upon me, and I shall have part of his sins. Every wife hath a superior at home, so hath every child, and every servant, and every man a superjor some where, in some respect, that is, in a spiritual respect: for so, not only the King, but the highest spiritual person hath a superior for absolution. And to this superior respectively, every man owes a ceremonial respect, as a debt, though this debt be not so far, as to accompany him, or to encourage him in his ill purposes, for that is too high a ceremony, and too transcendent a complement, to be damned for his sake, by concurring with my superior in his sins. And then, they whose office it is to direct, even their superiors, by their counsel, (as that office may in cases belong to a wife, to a child, to a servant, as Job professes it was in his family) have also a ceremonial duty in that duty, which is, to do even that, with sweetness, with respect, with reverence. It was a better rule in so high a business, then a man would look for at a Friars hands, which S. Bernard hath, Absque prudentia & benevolentia, non sunt perfecta consilia: No man is a good Counsellor, for all his wisdom, and for all his liberty of speech, except he love the person whom he counsels: If he do not wish him well, as well as tell him his faults, he is rather a Satyrist, and a Calumniator, and seeks to vent his own wisdom, and to exercise his authority, then a good Counsellor. And therefore, says that Father, before Christ took Peter into that high place, he asked him, and asked him thrice, Amas me? Lovest thou me? He would be sure of his love to him first, before he preferred him; Vix in multitudine hominum, unum reperio, in utraque gratia consummatum, says he still: Not one man amongst a thousand, that is both able to give counsel to great persons, and then doth that office out of love to that person, but rather to let others see his ability in himself, or his authority and power over that person, and so upon pretence of counselling, opens his weaknesses to the knowledge, and to the contempt of other men; as Davids wife, when he had danced (as she thought) undecently before the Ark, spoke freely enough, with liberty enough, but it was with scorn, and contempt: And this is in no sort any payment of this ceremonial debt, which is, (that the foundations, and the substance being preserved, that is, the glory of God, and moral, and religious truths being kept inviolate) to think, and say, and do, those things which may conduce to the estimation, and dignity of his superior.

Now this hath led us to our other list of humane creditors, that is, our inferiors, and to render to them also their dues; for, to them we said at beginning, there was due, counsel, if they were weak in understanding; and there was due, relief, if they were weak in their fortunes. For the first, there are some persons in so high place in this world, as that they can owe nothing to any temporal superior, for they have none: But there is none so low in this world, but he hath some lower then he is, to pay this debt of counsel and advise to: at least the debt of prayer for him, if he will not receive the debt of counsel to him. But in this place (for haste) we contract our selves to the debt of relief to the poor: Amongst whom, we may consider one sort of poor whom we our selves have made poor, and damnified, and then our debt is Restitution, and another sort, whom God, for reasons unknown to us hath made poor, and there our debt is Alms. For the first of these (those whom thou hast damnified and made poor) thou needst not come to the Apostles question of the blind man, Did this man sin or his parents, that he is born blind? Did this man waste himself in house-keeping, or in play, or in wantonness, that he is become poor? Neither he sinned, nor his parents, says Christ; neither excess, nor play, nor wantonness hath undone this man, but thy prevarication in his cause, thy extortion, thy oppression: And now he starves, and thou huntest after a popular reputation of a good house-keeper with his meat; now he freezes in nakedness, and thy train shines in liveries out of his Wardrobe; every Constable is ready to lay hold upon him for a rogue, and thy son is Knighted with his money. Sileat licèt fama, non silet fames, says good and holy Bernard, fame may be silent, but famine will not: perchance the world knows not this, or is weary of speaking of it, but those poor wretches that starve by thy oppression, know it, and cry out in his hearing, where thine own conscience accompanies them, and cries out with them against thee. Pay this debt, this debt of restitution, and pay it quickly; for nothing perishes, nothing decays an estate more, nothing consumes, nothing enfeebles a soul more, then to let a great debt run on long.

But if they be poor of Gods making, and not of thine (as they are to thee, if thou know not why, or how they are become poor) (for though God have inflicted poverty upon them for their sins, that is a secret between God and them, that which God hath revealed to thee, is their poverty, and not their sins) then thou owest them a debt of alms, though not restitution: though thou have nothing in thy hands which was theirs, yet thou hast something which should be theirs; nothing perchance which thou hast taken from them, but something certainly which thou hast received from God for them; and in that sense S. Bernard says truly, in the behalf, and in the person of the poor, to wasteful men, Nostrum est quod effunditis, you are prodigal, there is one fault; but then you are prodigal of that which is not your own, but ours, and that is a greater; and then we whose goods you wast, are poor and miserable, and that is the greatest fault of all. Nobis crudeliter subtrahitur, quod inaniter expenditis, whatsoever you spend wantonly and vainly upon your selves, or sinfully upon others, is cruelly and bloodily drawn out of our bowels, and worse then so, sacrilegiously too, because we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost: If not properly taken away because we had it not, yet unjustly and cruelly with-held and kept away, because we should have it, say those poor souls to these wasteful prodigalls in that devout and persuasive mouth of S. Bernard. Here is a double misery, of which you, you that are prodigals are authors, Vos vanitando peritis, nos spoliando perimitis, In this prodigality you waste your selves, even your souls, and you rob us; you leave us naked in the cold, and you cast your selves into dark and tormenting fire. So that whether they be poor of Gods making, or poor of your making, Reddite debitum, pay the debt you owe, to the one by alms, to the other by restitution.

We descend now to our last creditors, our selves. It is a good rule of S. Bernard, Qui ad sui mensuram proximum diligit, seipsum diligere norit, since we are commanded to love our neighbor, as our selves, we must be sure to love our selves so as we should do, or else we proceed by a wrong, and a crooked rule. So to give some guess of our ability, and of our willingness, to pay our debts to God, and our debts to man, we must consider what we owe, and how we pay our selves. Thou art a debtor (as S. Paul says of himself) to the Greek, and to the Barbarian, to the wise, and to the unwise; And thou thy self art amongst some of these; wise and learned in the best art, though thou know not a letter, rich and mighty in the best treasure, though thou possess not a penny, if thou pay these debts duly, (for as God tells us we may buy without money, so we may pay debts without money) and then ignorant and unlettered, in the midst of thy library and languages, and poor and beggarly in the midst of thy coffers and rentals, if thou call not thy self to this account, for his debt to himself alone, is debt enough to oppress any man. Solus mihi servandus, says S. Bernard, I am Bishop over no man but my self, I have no larger Diocesse then mine own person, no mans debts to pay but mine own, nor any man to pay them to, but to my self, Solus tamen mihi sum scandalo, yet I am scandalized in my self, I have brought an ill name upon my self, to be an ill pay master to mine own soul; Solus taedio, though I have no creditor to disappoint but my self, yet I am growen a gedious, and dilatory man to my self, I have taken longer and longer days with my self, and still put off my repentances, from sickness to sickness, Solus taedio; solus oneri, I am a burden to my self, I have over-burdened my self even with collateral security, with entering into new bands, with new vows upon my repentances, new contracts, new stipulations, new protestations to my God, which I have forfeited also, solus oneri; and solus periculo, I am become a dangerous man to my self, I dare not trust my self alone, though I abstain from my former sinful company, yet custom of sin hath made me a temptation to my self, and I sin where no temptation offers it self: Solus mihi servandus, I have no body to save, says S. Bernard in his Cloister, but my self, and I cannot do that, but I damn my self alone.

Begin therefore to pay these debts to thy self betimes; for, as we told you at beginning, some you are to tender at noon, some at evening. Even at your noon and warmest Sun-shine of prosperity, you owe your selves a true information, how you came by that prosperity, who gave it you, and why he gave it. Let not the Olive boast of her own fatness, nor the Fig-tree of her own sweetness, nor the Vine of her own fruitfulness, for we were all but Brambles. Let no man say, I could not miss a fortune, for I have studied all my youth; How many men have studied more nights, then he hath done hours, and studied themselves blind, and mad in the Mathematiques, & yet withers in beggary in a corner? Let him never add, But I studied in a useful and gainful profession; How many have done so too, and yet never compassed the favor of a Judge? And how many that have had all that, have struck upon a Rock, even at full Sea, and perished there? In their Grandfathers & great Grandfathers, in a few generations, whosoever is greatest now, must say, With this staff came I over Jordan; nay, without any staff came I over Jordan, for he had in them at first, a beginning of nothing. As for spiritual happiness, Non volentis, nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei, It is not in him that would run, nor in him that doth, but only in God that prospers his course; so for the things of this world, it is in vain to rise early, and to lie down late, and to eat the bread of sorrow, for, nisi Dominus aedificaverit, nisi Dominus custodierit, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain; except the Lord keep the City, the watchman waketh but in vain. Come not therefore to say, I studied more then my fellows, and therefore am richer then my fellows, but say, God that gave me my contemplations at first, gave me my practice after, and hath given me his blessing now. How many men have worn their brains upon other studies, and spent their time and themselves therein? how many men have studied more in thine own profession, and yet, for diffidence in themselves, or some disfavor from others, have not had thy practice? How many men have been equal to thee, in study, in practice, and in getting too, and yet upon a wanton confidence, that that world would always last, or upon the burden of many children, and an expensive breeding of them, or for other reasons, which God hath found in his ways, are left upon the sand at last, in a low fortune? whilst the Sun shines upon thee in all these, pay thy self the debt, of knowing whence, and why all this came, for else thou canst not know how much, or how little is thine, nor thou canst not come to restore that which is none of thine, but unjustly wrung from others. Pay therefore this debt of surveying thine estate, and then pay thy self thine own too, by a cheerful enjoying and using that which is truly thine, and do not deny nor defraud thy self of those things which are thine, and so become a wretched debtor, to thy back, or to thy belly, as though the world had not enough, or God knew not what were enough for thee.

Pay this debt to thy self of looking into thy debts, of surveying, of severing, of serving thy self with that which is truly thine, at thy noon, in the best of thy fortune, and in the strength of thine understanding; that when thou commest to pay thy other, thy last debt to thy self, which is, to open a door out of this world, by the dissolution of body and soul, thou have not all thy money to tell over when the Sun is ready to set, all the account to make of every bag of money, and of every quillet of land, whose it is, and whether it be his that looks for it from thee, or his from whom it was taken by thee; whether it belong to thine heir, that weeps joyful tears behind the curtain, or belong to him that weeps true, and bloody tears, in the hole in a prison. There will come a time, when that land that thou leavest shall not be his land, when it shall be no bodies land, when it shall be no land, for the earth must perish; there will be a time when there shall be no Mannors; no Acres in the world, and yet there shall lie Mannors and Acres upon thy soul, when land shall be no more, when time shall be no more, and thou pass away, not into the land of the living, but of eternal death. Then the Accuser will be ready to interline the schedules of thy debts, thy sins, and infert false debts, by abusing an over-tenderness, which may be in thy conscience then, in thy last sickness, in thy deathbed: Then he will be ready to add a cyphar more to thy debts, and make hundreds thousands, and abuse the faintness which may be in thy conscience then, in thy last sickness, in thy death-bed. Then he will be ready to abuse even thy confidence in God, and bring thee to think, that as a Pirate ventures boldly home, though all that he hath be stolen, if he be rich enough to bribe for a pardon; so, howsoever those families perish whom thou hast ruined, and those whole parishes whom thou hast depopulated, thy soul may go confidently home too, if thou bribe God then, with an Hospital or a Fellowship in a Colledge, or a Legacy to any pious use in appearance, and in the eye of the world.

Pay thy self therefore this debt, that is, make up thine account all the way, for when that voice comes, Redde rationem, Give up an account of thy Stewardship, it is not, go home now, and make up thy account perfect; but now, now deliver up thine account; if it be perfect, it is well, if it be not, here is no longer day, for Iam non poteris villicare, now thou canst be no lenger Steward, now thou hast no more to do with thy self. Here the voice is not in the word to Ezekiah, Dispone domui, put thy house in order, for, morieris, thou shalt die; For, there God had a gracious purpose, to give him a longer term, but here it is, fool, this night, repetunt, not they shall, but they do fetch away thy soul, and then what is become of that To morrow, which thou hadst imagined and promised to thy self, for the payment of this debt, of this repentance? Be just therefore to thy self all the way, pay thy self, and take acquittances of thy self, all the way, which is only done under the seal, and in the testimony of a rectified conscience. Let thine own conscience be thine evidence, and thy Rolls, and not the opinion of others: Non tutum planè, sed stultum, ibi thesaurum tuum recondere, ubi non vales resumere, cum volueris, says Saint Bernard. It is not providently done, to lock thy treasure in a chest, of which thou hast no key, and to which thou hast no access: Si ponis in os meum jam non in tua, sed mea potestate est, ut te laudare, vel tibi derogare possim: If thou build thy reputation upon my report, it is now in my power, not in thine, whether thou shalt be good or bad, honourable or infamous: Sanum vas, & inconcussum, conscientia, a good conscience is a sweet vessel, and a strong; Quicquid in ea reposueris, servabit vivo, & defuncto restituet: Whatsoever thou laiest up in that, shall serve thee all thy life, and after; and that shall be thine acquittance, and discharge, atthy last payment, in manustuas, when thou returnest thy spirit, into his hands that gave it: And then reddidisti debita omnibus, thou shalt have rendered to all their dues, when thou hast given the King, Honor; the poor, alms; thy self, peace; and God thy soul.

Sermon X. Preached upon Candlemas Day.

ROM. 12.20.

Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink; for, in so doing thou shalt heap coales of fire on his head.

IT falls out, I know not how, but, I take it from the instinct of the Holy Ghost, and from the Prophetical spirit residing in the Church of God, that those Scriptures which are appointed to be read in the Church, all these days, (for I take no other this Term) do evermore afford, and offer us Texts, that direct us to patience, as though these times had especial need of those instructions. And truly so they have; for though God have so far spared us as yet, as to give us no exercise of patience in any afflictions, inflicted upon our selves, yet, as the heart akes if the head do, nay, if the foot ake, the heart akes too; so all that profess the name of Christ Jesus aright, making up but one body, we are but dead members of that body, if we be not affected with the distempers of the most remote parts thereof. That man says but faintly, that he is heart-whole, that is macerated with the Gout, or lacerated with the Stone; It is not a heart, but a stone grown into that forme, that feels no pain, till the pain seize the very substance thereof. How much and how often S. Paul delights himself with that sociable syllable, Syn, Con, Conregnare, and Convificare, and Consedere, of Reigning together, and living, and quickening together: As much also doth God delight in it, from us, when we express it in a Conformity, and Compunction, and Compassion, and Condolency, and (as it is but a little before the Text) in weeping with them that weep. Our patience therefore being actually exercised in the miseries of our brethren round about us, and probably threatened in the aims and plots of our adversaries upon us, though I hunt not after them, yet I decline not such Texts, as may direct our thoughts upon duties of that kind.

This Text does so; for the circle of this Epistle of S. Paul, this precious ring, being made of that golden Doctrine, That Justification is by faith, and being enameled with that beautiful Doctrine of good works too, in which enameled Ring, as a precious stone in the midst thereof, there is set, the glorious Doctrine of our Election, by Gods eternal Predestination, our Text falls in that part, which concerns obedience, holy life, good works; which, when both the Doctrines, that of Justification by faith, and that of Predestination have suffered controversy, hath been by all sides embraced, and accepted; that there is no faith, which the Angels in heaven, or the Church upon earth, or our own consciences can take knowledge of, without good works. Of which good works, and the degrees of obedience, of patience, it is a great one; and a hard one that is enjoined in this Text; for whereas S. Augustine observes six degrees, six steps in our behavior towards our enemies, whereof the first is nolle laedere, to be loth to hurt any man by way of provocation, not to begin; And a second, nolle amplius quam laesus laedere, That if another provoke him, yet what power soever he have, he would return no more upon his enemy, then his enemy had cast upon him, he would not exceed in his revenge; And a third, velle minus, not to do so much as he suffered, but in a less proportion, only to show some sense of the injury; And then another is, nolle laedere licet laesus, to return no revenge at all, though he have been provoked by an injury; And a higher then that, par atum se exhibere ut amplius laedatur, to turn the other cheek, when he is smitten, and open himself to farther injuries; That which is in this Text, is the sixth step, and the highest of all, laedenti benefacere, to do good to him, of whom we have received evil, If thine enemy hunger, to feed him, if he thirst, to give him drink; for in so, &c.

The Text is a building of stone, and that bound in with barres of Iron: fundamental Doctrine, in point of manners, in it self, and yet buttressed, and established with reasons too, therefore, and for; Therefore feed thine enemy; For, in so doing, thou shalt heap coales. This therefore, confirms the precedent Doctrine, and this For, confirms that confirmation.

But all the words of God are Yea, and Amen, and therefore we need not insist upon reasons, to ratify or establish them. Our parts shall be but two; Mandatum, and Emolumentum; first the Commandment, (for we dare not call it by so indifferent a name, as an Euangelical Counsel that we may choose whether we will do or no; It is a Commandment, do good to thine enemy) And secondly, the benefit that we receive by that benefit, we heap coales upon his head. Each part will have divers branches: for, in the Commandment, we shall first look upon the person, to which God directs us, inimicus, though he be an enemy, and inimicus tuus, though he be thine enemy; but yet it is but tuus, thine enemy; It is not simply inimicus homo, the Devil, nor inimicus vester, a spreading enemy, an enemy to the State, nor inimicus Dei, an enemy to Religion; And from the person, we shall pass to the duty, Ciba, and Da aquam, feed, and give drink, in which, all kinds of reliefs are implied: But that is, si esurierit, if he be hungry; There is no wanton nor superfluous pampering of our enemy required, but so much as may preserve the man, and not nourish the enmity. In these considerations we shall determine our first part; and our second in these; First, that God takes nothing from us, without recompense; nothing for nothing; he seals his Commandment with a powerful reason, promise of reward: And then, the reward specified here, arises from the enemy himself; And that reward is, That thou shalt cast coales of fire upon his head; and congeres, accumulabis, Thou shalt heap coales of fire upon him.

It is not ill said by a Jesuit, of these words, Sententia magis Euangelica, quàm Mosaica; This Text, that enjoynes benefits upon our enemies, is fitter for the Gospel, then for the Law, fitter for the new, then for the old Testament; and yet it is tam Mosaica, quam Euangelica, to show that it is Universal, Catholic, Moral Doctrine, appertaining to Jew, and Christian, and all, this Text is in the old Testament, as well as in the new. In the mouth of two witnesses is this truth established, in the mouth of a Prophet, and in the mouth of an Apostle, Solomon had said it before, and S. Paul says it here, If thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, &c.

Your Senecaes and your Plutarchs have taught you an art, how to make profit of enemies, because as flatterers dilate a man, and make him live the more negligently, because he is sure of good interpretations of his worst actions; So a mans enemies contract him, and shut him up, and make him live the more watchfully, because he is sure to be calumniated even in his best actions: But this is a lesson above Seneca, and Plutarch, reserved for Solomon, and Saint Paul, to make profit by conferring and placing benefits upon enemies: And that is our first branch, Though he be an enemy.

S. Augustine cites, and approves that saying of the moral Philosopher, Omnes odit, qui malos odit, he that hates ill men, hates all men, for if a man will love none but honest men, where shall he find any exercise, any object of his love? So if a man will hold friendship with none, nor do offices of society to none, but to good natured, and gentle, and souple, and sociable men, he shall leave very necessary businesses undone. The frowardest and perversest man may be good ad hoc, for such or such a particular use. By good company and good usage, that is, by being mingled with other simples, and ingredients, the very flesh of a Viper, is made an Antidote: A Viper loses not his place in Physic, because he is poison; a Magistrate ceases not to be a Magistrate, because he is an ill man; much less does a man cease to be a man, and so to have a title to those duties, which are rooted in nature, because he is of an ill disposition. God makes his Sun to shine upon the good, and upon the bad, and sendeth rain upon the just, and upon the unjust. God hath made of one blood all mankind: how unkindly then, how unmanly is it to draw blood? We come too soon to the name of enemy, and we carry it too far: Plaintife and Defendant in a matter of Trespass, must be enemies: Disputers in a Problematical matter of Controversy, that concerns not foundations, must be enemies; And then all enmity must imply an irreconcileableness, once enemies may never be friends again: we come too soon to the name, and we stand too long upon the thing; for there are offices and duties even to an enemy; and that, though an enemy in as high a Degree, as the word imports here, osor, a hater, and osor tuus, such an enemy as hates thee, which is our next Branch.

We use to say, that those benefits are longest remembered, which are public, and common; and those injuries, which are private, and personal: But truly in both, the private, and personal makes the greatest impression. For, if a man have benefitted the public, with a Colledge, with an Hospital, with any perpetual endowment, yet he that comes after to receive the benefit of any such place, for the most part determines his thankfulness upon that person, who brought him thither, and reflects little upon the founder, or those that are descended from him. And so it is in injuries, and violences too, we hate men more for personal, then for national injuries; more, if he have taken my Ship, then if he have attempted my Country. We should be more sensible of the public, but because private and personal things do affect us most, the Commandment here goes to the particular.; Though he be thine enemy, and hate thee. If you love them that love you, and lend to them that pay you, what thanks have you? Truly not much: Publicans do the same, says S. Matthew; Sinners do the same, says S. Luke: But love you your enemies; For, in the same place, where Christ puts all those cases, If a man have been angry with his Brother, If a man haue said Racha to his Brother, if he have called his Brother Fool, he ends all with that, Agree with thine adversary; Though he be thine adversary, yet he is thy Brother. If he have damnified thee, calumniated thee, pardon him. If he have done that to another, thou hast no power to pardon him; Herein only thou hast exercise of greatness and goodness too, If he be thine enemy, thou and thou only canst pardon him; and herein only thou hast a Supremacy, and a Prerogative to show.

So far then, the text goes literally, do good to an enemy; to thine enemy; and literally, no farther: It does not say to a State, Si Inimicus vester, It does not bind us to favor, or further a public enemy; It does not bind the Magistrate to favor Thieves and Murderers at land, nor Pirates at Sea, who are truly Inimici nostri, our enemies even as we are men, enemies to mankind. It does not bind Societies and Corporations Ecclesiastical or Civil, to sink under such enemies, as would dissolve them or impair them in their privileges; for such are not only Inimici vestri, but Vestrorum, enemies of you, and yours, of those that succeed you: And all men are bound to transferre their jurisdictions and privileges, in the same integrity, in which they received them, without any prevarication. In such cases it is true, that Corporations have no souls, that is, they are not bound to such a tenderness of conscience; for there are divers laws in this doctrine of patience, that bind particular men, that do not bind States and Societies, under those penalties.

Much less does the Commandment bind us to the Inimicus homo, which is the devil, to farther him, by fuelling and advancing his temptations, by high diet, wanton company, or licencious discourse; and so, upon pretence of maintaining our health, or our cheerfulness, invite occasions of sin. S. Jerome tells us of one sense, in which we should favor that enemy, the devil, and that in this text, we are commanded to do so: Benevolus est erga Diabolum, says he, he is the devils best friend, that resists him; for by our yeelding to the devils temptations, wesubmit him to greater torments, then, if he mist of his purpose upon us, he should suffer. But between this enemy and us, God himself hath set such an enmity, that, as no man may separate those whom God hath joined, so no man may join those whom God hath separated; God created not this enmity in the devil; he began it in himself; but God created an enmity in us, against him; and, upon no collateral conditions, may we be reconciled to him, in admitting any of his superstitions.

It is not then Inimicus vester, the common enemy, the enemy of the State; less, Inimicus homo, the spiritual enemy of Mankind, the devil; least of all, Inimicus Dei, they who oppose God, (so, as God can be opposed) in his servants who profess his truth. David durst not have put himself upon that issue with God, (Do not I hate them, that hate thee) if he had been subject to that increpation, which the Prophet Iehu laid upon Iehoshaphat, Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them, that hate the Lord? But David had the testimony of his conscience, that he hated them, with a perfect hatred: which, though it may admit that interpretation, that it is De perfectione virtutis, that his perfect hatred, was a hatred becoming a perfect man, a charitable hatred; yet it is De perfectione intentionis, a perfect hatred is a vehement hatred, and so the Chalde paraphrase expresses it, Odio consummato, a hatred to which nothing can be added; Odio religioso, with a religious hatred; not only that religion may consist with it, but that Religion cannot subsist without it; a hatred that gives the tincture, and the stamp to Religion it self. The imputation that lyes upon them, who do not hate those that hate God, is sufficiently expressed in S. Gregory; He saw how little temporisers and worldly men, were moved with the word Impiety, and ungodliness, and therefore he waves that; He saw they preferred the estimation of wisdom before and above piety, and therefore he says not Impium est, but stultum est, si illis placere quaerimus, quos non placere domino scimus: It is a foolish thing, to endeavor to be acceptable to them, who, in our own knowledge, do not endeavor to be acceptable to God.

But yet, Beloved, even in those enemies, that thus hate God, Solomons rule hath place, There is a time to hate, and a time to love. Though the person be the same, the affection may vary. As S. Cyprian says, (if that book be not rather Origens, then Cyprians, for it is attributed to both) Ama foeminas inter Sacra solennia, Love a woman at Church, (that is, love her comming to Church,) (though, as S. Augustine in his time did, we, in our times may complain of wanton meetings there) But Odio habe in communione privata, Hate, that is, forbear women in private conversation; so, for those that hate God in the truth of his Gospel, and content themselves with an Idolatrous Religion, we love them at Church, we would be glad to see them here, and though they come not hither, we love them so far, as that we pray for them; and we love them in our studies so far, as we may rectify them by our labours; But we hate them in our Convocations, where we oppose Canons against their Doctrines, and we hate them in our Consultations, where we make laws to defend us from their malice, and we hate them in our bed-chambers, where they make children Idolaters, and perchance make the children themselves. We acknowledge with S. Augustine, Perfectio odii est in charitate, the perfect hatred consists with charity, Cum nec propter vitia homines oderimus, nec vitia propter homines amemut; when the greatness of the men brings us not to love their religion, nor the illness of their Religion, to hate the men. Moses, in that place, is S. Augustines example, whom he proposes, Orabat & occidebat, he prayed for the Idolaters, and he slew them; he hated, says he, Iniquitatem, quam puniebat, that sin which he punished, and he loved Humanitatem, pro qua or abat, that nature, as they were men, for whom he prayed: for, that, says he, is perfectum odium, quod facti sunt diligere, quod fecerunt, odiisse, to love them as they are creatures, to hate them as they are Traytors. Thus much love is due to any enemy, that if God be pleased to advance him, De ejus profectu non dejiciamur, says S. Gregory, His advancement do not deject us, to a murmuring against God, or to a diffidence in God; And that when God, in his time, shall cast him down again, Congaudeamus justitiae Iudicis, condoleamus miseriae pereuntis, We may both congratulate the justice of God, and yet condole the misery of that person, upon whom that judgement is justly fallen: for, though Inimicus vester, the enemy that malignes the State, and Inimicus Dei, the enemy that opposes our religion, be not so far within this text, as that we are bound to feed them, or to do them good; yet there are scarce any enemies, with whom we may not live peaceably, and to whom we may not wish charitably.

We have done with all, which was intended and proposed of the person; we come to the duty expressed in this text, Ciba, feed him, and give him drink. Here, there might be use in noting the largeness, the fullness, the abundance of the Gospel, above the law: Not only in that the blessings of God are presented in the Old Testament, in the name of Milk and Honey, and Oil, and Wine, (all temporal things) and in the New Testament, in the name of Joy, and Glory, (things, in a manner spiritual,) But that also, in the Old Testament, the best things are limited, and measured unto them; a Gomer of Manna, and no more, for the best man, whereas for the joy of the Gospel, we shall enter In Gandium Domini, Into our Masters Joy, and be made partakers with Christ Jesus, of that Joy, for which he endured the Cross; And here, in this world, Gaudium meum erit, says Christ, My Joy shall be in you; in what measure? Implebitar, says he, Your Joy shall be full; How long? for ever; Nemo tollet, your Joy shall no man take from you. And such as the Joy is, such is the glory too: How precious? Divitiae Gloria, The Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance; How much? Pondus gloriae, A weight of glory; How long? Immarcescibilis Corona, A crown of Glory, that never fadeth: We might, I say, take occasion of making this comparison, between the Old, and the New Testament, out of this Text, because this charity, enjoined here, in this text, to our enemy, in that place, from whence this text is taken, in the Proverbs, is but Lachem, and Maiim, Bread, and Water; But here, in S. Paul, it is in words of better signification, feed him, give him drink. But indeed, the words, at the narrowest, (as it is but bread and water) signify whatsoever is necessary for the relief of him, that stands in need. And if we be enjoined so much to our enemy, how inexcusable are those Datores cyminibiles (as the Canonists call them) that give Mint, and Cummin for alms, a root that their Hogs will not, a broth that their Dogs will not eat. Remember in thy charity, the times, and the proportions of thy Savior; After his Death, in the wound in his side, he poured out water, and blood, which represented both Sacraments, and so was a bountiful Dole: provide in thy life, to do good after thy death, and it shall be welcome, even in the eyes of God, then: But remember too, that this dole at his death, was not the first alms that he gave; his water was his white money, and his blood was his gold, and he poured out both together in his agony, and severally in his weeping, and being scourged for thee. What proportion of relief is due to him, that is thy brother in Nature, thy brother in Nation, thy brother in Religion, if meat and drink, and in that, whatsoever is necessary to his sustentation, be due to thine enemy?

But all this bountiful charity, is Si esurierit, si sitit, If he be hungry, if he be thirsty. To the King, who bears the care and the charge of the public, we are bound to give, Antequam esuriat, Antequam sitias, before he be overtaken with dangerous, and dishonorable, and less remediable necessities: not only substantial wants, upon which our safety depends, but circumstantial and ceremonial wants, upon which his Dignity, and Majesty depends, are always to be, not only supplied, but prevented. But our enemy must be in hunger, and thirst, that is, reduced to the state, as he may not become our enemy again, by that which we give, before we are bound, by this text, to give any thing. No doubt but the Church of Rome hungers still for the money of this land, upon which they fed so luxuriantly heretofore: and no doubt but those men, whom they shall at any time animate, will thirst for the blood of this land, which they have sought before; but this is not the hunger, and the thirst of the enemy, which we must feed: The Commandment goes not so far, as to feed that enemy, that may thereby be a more powerful enemy; But yet, thus far, truly, it does go, deny no office of civility, of peace, of commerce, of charity to any, only therefore, because he hath been heretofore an enemy.

There remains nothing of those two branches, which constitute our first part, the person, that is, an one reduced to a better disposition; and the duty, that is, to relieve him, with things necessary for that state: And for the second part, we must stop upon those steps laid down at first, of which the first was, That God takes nothing for nothing, he gives a Reward. When God took that great proportion of Sheep and Oxen out of his subjects goods in the State of Israel, for Sacrifice, that proportion, which would have kept divers Kings houses, and would have victualed divers navies, perchance no man could say, I have this, or this benefit, for this, or this Sacrifice; but yet could any man say, God hath taken a Sacrifice for nothing? Where we have Peace, and Justice, and Protection, can any man say, he gives any thing for nothing? When God says, If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, that's not intended, which Tertullian says, Scriptum est, Deus non esuriet nec sitiet, It is written, God shall neither hunger nor thirst, (for, first, Tertullians memory failed him, there is no such sentence in all the Scripture, as he cites there; And then God does hunger and thirst, in this sense, in the members of his mystical body,) neither is that only intended in that place of the Psalm (though Cassiodore take it so) That if God in his poor Saints, were hungry, he could provide them, without telling thee; but it is, If I were hungry, I need not tell thee; for, The earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof, and they that dwell therein. God does not always bind himself to declare his hunger, his thirst, his pressing occasions, to use the goods of his subjects, but as the Lord gives, so the Lord takes, where and when he will: But yet, as God transfuses a measure of this Right and power of taking, into them, of whom he hath said, you are Gods, so he transfuses this goodness too, which is in himself, that he takes nothing for nothing; He promises here a reward, and a reward arising from the enemy, which puts a greater encouragement upon us, to do it; Super caput ejus, In so doing, thou shalt heap coales of fire on his head.

God is the Lord of Hosts, and in this Text, he makes the seat of the war in the enemies Country, and enriches his servants Ex manubiis, out of the spoyle of the enemy; In caput ejus, It shall fall upon his head. Though all men that go to the war, go not upon those just reasons deliberated before in themselves, which are defence of a just cause, the obedience to a lawful Commandment, yet of those that do go without those conscientiense deliberations, none goes therefore, because he may have room in an Hospital, or relief by a pension, when he comes home lame, but because he may get something, by going into a fat country, and against a rich enemy; Though honor may seem to feed upon blows, and dangers, men go cheerfully against an enemy, from whom something is to be got; for, profit is a good salve to knocks, a good Cere-cloth to bruises, and a good Balsamum to wounds. God therefore here raises the reward out of the enemy, feed him, and thou shalt gain by it. But yet the profit that God promises by the enemy here, is rather that we shall gain a soul, then any temporal gain; rather that we shall make that enemy a better man, then that we shall make him a weaker enemy: God respects his spiritual good, as we shall see in that phrase, which is our last branch, Congeres carbones, Thou shalt heap coales of fire upon his head.

It is true that S. Chrysostom (and not he alone) takes this phrase to imply a Revenge: that Gods judgements shall be the more vehement upon such ungrateful persons, Et terrebuntur beneficiis, the good turns that thou hast done to them, shall be a scourge and a terror to their consciences. This sense is not inconvenient; but it is too narrow: The Holy Ghost hath taken so large a Metaphor, as implies more then that. It implies the divers offices, and effects of fire; all this; That if he have any gold, any pure metal in him, this fire of this kindness will purge out the dross, & there is a friend made. If he be nothing but straw and stubble, combustible still, still ready to take fire against thee, this fire which Gods breath shall blow, will consume him, and burn him out, and there is an enemy marred: If he have any tenderness any way, this fire will mollify him towards thee; Nimis durus animus, says S. Augustine, he is a very hard hearted man, Qui si ultro dilectionem non vult impendere, etiam nolit rependere, Who, though he will not requite thy love, yet will not acknowledge it. If he be wax, he melts with this fire; and if he be clay, he hardens with it, and then thou wilt arm thy self against that pellet. Thus much good, God intends to the enemy, in this phrase, that it is pia vindicta si resipiscant, we have taken a blessed revenge upon our enemies, if our charitable applying of our selves to them, may bring them to apply themselves to God, and to glorify him: si benefaciendo cicuremus, says S. Jerome, if we can tame a wild beast by sitting up with him, and reduce an enemy by offices of friendship, it is well.much good God intends him in this phrase, and so much good he intends us, that, si non incendant, if these coales do not purge him, si non injiciant pudorem, if they do not kindle a shame in him, to have offended one that hath deserved so well, yet this fire gives thee light to see him clearly, and to run away from him, and to assure thee, that he, whom so many benefits cannot reconcile, is irreconcileable.

Sermon XI. Preached upon Candlemas day.

MAT. 9.2.

And Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, My son, be of good cheare, thy sins be forgiven thee.

IN these words, and by occasion of them, we shall present to you these two general considerations; first upon what occasion Christ did that which he did, and then what it was that he did. And in the first, we shall see first some occasions that were remote, but yet conduce to the Miracle it self; some circumstances of time, and place, and some such dispositions, and then the more immediate occasion, the disposition of those persons who presented this sick man to Christ; and there we shall see first, that Faith was the occasion of all, for without faith it is impossible to please God, and without pleasing of God, it is impossible to have remission of sins. It was fides, and fides illorum, their faith, all their faith; for, though in the faith of others there be an assistance, yet without a personal faith in himself, no man of ripe age comes so far, as to the forgiveness of sins; And then, this faith of them all, was fides visa, a faith that was seen; Christ saw their faith, and he saw it as man, it was a faith expressed, and declared in actions: And yet, when all was done, it is but cum vidit, it is not quia vidit, Christ did it When he saw, not Because he saw their faith, that was not the principle and primary cause of his mercy, for the mercy of God is all, and above all; it is the effect and it is the cause too, there is no cause of his mercy, but his mercy. And when we come in the second part, to consider what in his mercy he did, we shall see first, that he establishes him, and comforts him with a gracious acceptation, with that gracious appellation, Fili, Son: He doth not disavow him, he doth not disinherite him; and then, he doth not wound him, whom God had striken; he doth not flea him, whom God had scourged; he doth not salt him, whom God had fled; he doth not add affliction to affliction, he doth not shake, but settle that faith which he had with more, Confide fili, My son be of good cheare; and then he seals all with that assurance, Dimittuntur peccata, Thy sins are forgiven thee; In which, first he catechises this patient, and gives him all these lessons, first that he gives before we ask, for he that was brought, they who brought him had asked nothing in his behalf, when Christ unasked, enlarged himself towards them, Dat prius, God gives before we ask, that is first; And then Dat meliora, God gives better things then we ask, All that all they meant to ask, was but bodily health, and Christ gave him spiritual; and the third lesson was, that sin was the cause of bodily sickness, and that therefore he ought to have sought his spiritual recovery before his bodily health: and then, after he had thus rectified him, by this Catechism, implied in those few words, Thy sins are forgiven thee, he takes occasion by this act, to rectify the by-standers too, which were the Pharisees, who did not believe Christ to be God: For, for proof of that, first he takes knowledge of their inward thoughts, not expressed by any act or word, which none but God could do; And then he restores the patient to bodily health, only by his word, without any natural means applied, which none but God could do neither. And into fewer particulars then these, this pregnant and abundant Text is not easily contracted.

First then to begin with the Branches of the first part, of which the first was, to consider some, somewhat more remote circumstances, and occasions conducing to this miracle, we cannot avoid the making of some use of the Time, when it was done: It was done, when Christ had dispossessed those two men of furious, and raging Devils, amongst the Gergesens; at what time, because Christ had been an occasion of drowning their heard of swine, the whole City came out to meet him, but not with a thankful reverence, and acclamation, but their procession was, to beseech him to depart out of their coasts: They had rather have had their Legion of Devils still, then have lost their hogs; and since Christs presence was an occasion of impairing their temporal substance, they were glad to be rid of him.

We need not put on spectacles to search Maps for this Land of the Gergesens; God knows we dwell in it; Non quaerimus Iesum propter Iesum, (which was a Prophetical complaint by S. August.) we love the profession of Christ only so far, as that profession conduces to our temporal ends. We seek him not at the Cross; there most of his friends left him; but we are content to embrace him, where the Kings of the East bring him presents of Gold, and Myrrh, and Frankincense, that we may participate of those: we seek him not in the hundred and thirtieth Psalm, where, though there be plenty, yet it is but copiosa redemtio, plentiful redemption, plenty of that that comes not yet; but in the twenty fourth Psalm we are glad to meet him, where he proclaims Domini terra, & plenitudo ejus, The earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof, that our portion therein may be plenteous: We care not for him in S. Peters Hospital, where he excuses himself, Aurum & argentum non habeo, Silver and gold have I none; but in the Prophet Haggais Exchequer we do, where he makes that claim, Aurum meum, All the gold and all the silver is mine. Scarce any Son is Protestant enough, to stand out a rebuke of his Father, or any Servant of his Master, or any Officer of his Prince, if that Father, or Master, or Prince would be, or would have him be a Papist; But, as though the different forms of Religion, were but the fashions of the garment, and not the stuff, we put on, and we put off Religion, as we would do a Livery, to testify our respect to him, whom we serve, and (miserable Gergesens) had rather take in that Devil again, of which we have been dispossessed three or fourscore years since, then lose another hogg, in departing with any part of our pleasures or profits; Non quaerimus Iesum propter Iesum, we profess not Jesus, for his, but for our own sakes.

But we pass from the circumstance of the time, to a second, that though Christ thus despised by the Gergesens, did, in his Justice, depart from them; yet, as the Sea gains in one place, what it loses in another, his abundant mercy builds up more in Capernaum, then his Justice throws down amongst the Gergesens: Because they drave him away, in Judgement he went from them, but in Mercy he went to the others, who had not intreated him to come.

Apply this also; And, wretched Gergesen, if thou have intreated Christ to go from thee, for loss of thy hoggs, that when thou hast found the Preaching of Christ, or the sting of thy conscience whet thereby, to hinder thee in growing rich so hastily as thou wouldst, or trouble thee, in following thy pleasures so fully as thou wouldst, thou hast made shift to divest, and put off Christ, and sear up thy conscience, yet Chirst comes into his Capernaum now, that sent not for him; he comes into thy soul now, who camest not hither to meet him, but to celebrate the day, by this ordinary, and fashional meeting; to thee he comes, as into Capernaum, to preach his own Gospel, and to work his miracles upon thee. And it is a high mercy in Christ, that he will thus surprize thy soul, that he will thus way-lay thy conscience, that what collateral respect soever brought thee hither, yet when he hath thee here, he will make thee see that thou art in his house, and he will speak to thee, and he will be heard by thee, and he will be answered from thee; and though thou thoughtest not of him, when thou camest hither, yet he will send thee away, full of the love of him, full of comforts from him.

But we pass also from this, to a third circumstance, that when he came to Capernaum, he is said to have come into his own City; not Nazareth, where he was born, but Capernaum where he dwelt, and preached, is called his own City. Thou art not a Christian, because thou wast born in a Christian Kingdom, and born within the Covenant, and born of Christian Parents, but because thou hast dwelt in the Christian Church, and performed the duties presented to thee there.

Again, Capernaum was his own City, but yet Christ went forth of Capernaum, to many other places. I take the application of this, from you, to our selves; Christ fixes no man by his example so to one Church, as that no occasion may make his absence from thence excusable. But yet when Christ did go from Capernaum, he went to do his Fathers will, and that, which he was sent for. Nothing but preaching the Gospel, and edifying Gods Church, is an excuse for such an absence; for, Vaesi non Euangelizaverit, if he neither preach at Capernaum, nor to the Gergesens, neither at home, nor abroad, woe be unto him: If I be at home, but to take my tithes; If I be abroad, but to take the aire, woe be unto me.

But we must not stop long upon these circumstances; we end all of this kind, in this one, that when Christ had undertaken that great work of the Conversion of the world, by the Word, and Sacraments, to show that the word was at that time the more powerful means of those two, (for Sacraments were instituted by Christ, as subsidiary things, in a great part, for our infirmity, who stand in need of such visible and sensible assistances) Christ preached the Christian Doctrine, long before he instituted the Sacraments; But yet, though these two permanent Sacraments, Baptism, and the Supper were not so soon instituted, Christ always descended so much to mans infirmity, as to accompany the preaching of the Word, with certain transitory, and occasional Sacraments; for miracles are transitory and occasional Sacraments, as they are visible signs of invisible grace, though not seals thereof; Christs purpose in every miracle was, that by that work, they should see Grace to be offered unto them. Now this history, from whence this Text is taken, begins, and ends with the principal means, with preaching; for, as S. Mark relates it, he was in the act of preaching, when this cure was done; And in S. Matthew, after all was done, he went about the Cities, and Villages, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom: And then between, S. Matthew here, records five of his transitory and occasional Sacraments, five miracles, of which every one, well considered, (as the petitions of Abraham did upon God) may justly be thought to have gained more and more, upon his Auditory.

First, this paralytique man in our Text, who is Sarcinasibi, over-loaded with himself, he cannot stand under his own burden, he is cadaver animatum; It is true, he hath a soul, but a soul in a sack, it hath no Lims, no Organs to move, this Paralytique, this living dead man, this dead and buried man, buried in himself, is instantly cured, and recovered. But the Palsy was a sudden sickness; what could he do, upon an inveterate disease? He cured the woman that had had the bloody issue twelve years, by only touching the hem of his garment. After, he extends his miraculous power to two at once, he cures two blind men. But all these, though not by such means merely, yet in nature, and in art might be possible, Palsies, and Issues, and Blindnesses have been cured: but he went farther then ever art pretended to go; He raised the Rulers Daughter to life, then when he was laughed to scorn, for going about to do it. And lastly to show his Power, as over sickness, and over death, so over hell it self, he cast out the Devil out of the dumb man, in some such extraordinary manner, as that the multitude marvailed, and said, It was never so seen in Israel. This then was his way, and this must be ours, and it must be your way too. Christ preached, and he wrought great works, and he preached again; It is not enough in us to preach, and in you to hear, except both do and practice, that which is said, and heard; Neither may we, though we have done all this, give over, for every day produces new temptations, and therefore needs new assistances. And so we pass from these more remote, to that which is our second Branch of this first part, the immediate occasion of Christs doing this miracle, When Jesus saw their faith.

Here then, the occasion of all that ensued, was faith; for, without faith, it is impossible to please God; Where you may be pleased to admit some use of this note, (for it is not a mere Grammatical curiosity to note it) that it is not said in those words of S. Paul, It is impossible to please God, or impossible to please him, (which is with relation to God, as our Translation hath it,) but it is merely, simply, only, impossible to please, and no more, impossible to please any worth pleasing; but if we take away our faith in God, God will take away the protection of Angels, the favor of Princes, the obedience of children, the respect of servants, the assistance of friends, the society of neighbours; God shall make us unpleasing to all; without faith it is impossible to please any, but such, as we shall repent to have made our selves pleasing companions unto. When our Savior Christ perfected the Apostles Commission, and set his last seal to it, after his Resurrection, he never modifies, never mollifies their instructions, with any milder phrase then this, He that believeth not, shall be damned. It is not, that he shall be in danger of a Council; no, nor in danger of hell fire: It is not, that it were better a Mill-stone were tied about his neck, and he cast into the Sea: It is not, that it will go hard with him at the last day: It is not, that it shall be easier to Tyre, and Sidon, then to him; For he is not bound to believe, but that Tyre, and Sidon, and he too, may do well enough: Here is no modification, no mollification, no reservation; roundly, and irrevocably, Christ Jesus himself, after his Resurrection, says, Qui non crediderit, he that believeth not, shall be damned.

If the Judge must come to a sentence of condemnation, upon any person of great quality in the Kingdom, that Judge must not say, Your Lordship must pass out of this world, nor, your Lordship must be beheaded; but he must tell them plainly, You must be carryed to the place of execution and there hanged. Christ Jesus hath given us the Commission and the sentence there; Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature; And then, the sentence follows upon those that will not receive it, He that believeth not, shall be damned. These men then, who prevailed so far upon Christ, brought faith; though not an explicite faith of all those articles, which we, who from the beginning have been Catechized in all those points, are bound to have, yet a constant assurance that Christ could, and that he would relieve this distressed person, in which assurance, there was enwrapped an implicite faith even of the Messiah, that could remove all occasions of sickness, even sin it self.

There was faith in the case; but in whom? Whose faith was it, that Christ had respect to? To whom hath that Illorum in the Text, their faith, reference? There can be no question, but that it hath reference to those four friends, that brought this sick man in his bed, to Christ: For, else it could not have been spoken in the plural, and called their faith. And certainly S. Ambrose does not inconveniently make that particular an argument of Gods greatness and goodness, of his magnificence, and munificence, Magnus Dominus, qui aliorum meritis, aliis ignostit; This is the large and plentiful mercy of God, that for one mans sake, he forgives another. This Ioash acknowledged in the person of Elisha; when Elisha was sick, the King came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, O my Father, my Father, the Chariot of Israel, and the horse men thereof. Here were all the forces of Israel mustred upon one sick bed, the whole strength of Israel consisted in the goodness of that one man. The Angel said to Paul, when they were in an evident and imminent danger of shipwreck, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee; He spared them, not for their own sakes, but for Pauls. God gave those passengers to Paul so, as he had given Paul himself before to Stephen; Si Stephanus non sic orasset, Paulum hodiè Ecclesia non haberet, says S. Augustine; If Paul had not been enwrapped in those prayers, which Stephen made for his persecutors, the Church had lost the benefit of all Pauls labours; and if God had not given Paul the lives of all those passengers in that Ship, they had all perished. For the righteousness of a few, (if those few could have been found) God would have spared the whole City of Sodom: And when Gods fury was kindled upon the Cities of that Country, God remembered Abraham, says that story, and he delivered Lot: And when he delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib, he takes his servant David by the hand, he puts his servant David into Commission with himself, and he says, I will defend this City, and save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant Davids sake. Quantus murus Patriae vir justus, is a holy exclamation of S. Ambrose, What a Wall to any Town, what a Sea to any Iland, what a Navy to any Sea, what an Admiral to any Navy, is a good man! Apply thy self therefore, and make thy conversation with good men, and get their love, and that shall be an armor of proof to thee.

When Saint Augustines Mother lamented the ill courses that her son took in his youth, still that Priest, to whom she imparted her sorrows, said, Filius istarum lacrymarum, non potest perire; That Son, for whom so good a Mother hath shed so many tears, cannot perish: He put it not upon that issue, filius Dci, the elect child of God, the son of predestination cannot perish, for at that time, that name was either no name, or would scarce have seemed to have belonged to S. Augustine, but the child of these tears, of this devotion cannot be lost. Christ said to the Centurion, fiat sicut credidisti, Go thy way, and as thou beleevest, so be it done unto thee, and his servant was healed in the self-same hour: The master believed, and the servant was healed. Little knowest thou, what thou hast received at Gods hands, by the prayers of the Saints in heaven, that enwrap thee in their general prayers for the Militant Church. Little knowest thou, what the public prayers of the Congregation, what the private prayers of particular devout friends, that lament thy carelesness, and negligence in praying for thy self, have wrung and extorted out of Gods hands, in their charitable importunity for thee. And therefore, at last, make thy self fit to do for others, that which others, when thou wast unfit to do thy self that office, have done for thee, in assisting thee with their prayers. If thou meet thine enemies Ox, or Ass going astray, (says the Law) thou shalt surely bring it back to him again: If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee, lying under his burden, and wouldst forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help him. Estnè Deo cura de Bobus, is the Apostles question, Hath God care of Oxen? of other mens Oxen? How much more of his own Sheep? And therefore if thon see one of his Sheep, one of thy fellow Christians, strayed into sins of infirmity, and negligent of himself, join him with thine own soul, in thy prayers to God. Relieve him, (if that be that which he needs) with thy prayers for him, and relieve him, (if his wants be of another kind) according to his prayers to thee. Cur apud te homo Collega non valeat, says S. Ambrose, why should not he that is thy Colleague, thy fellow-man, as good a man, that is as much a man as thou, made of the same blood, and redeemed with the same blood as thou art, why should not he prevail with thee, so far as to the obtaining of an alms, Cum apud Deum, servus, & interveniendi meritum, & jus habe at impetrandi, when some fellow-servant of thine, hath had that interest in God, as by his intercession, and prayers to advance thy salvation? wilt not thou save the life of another man that prays to thee, when perchance thy soul hath been saved by another man, that prayed for thee?

Well then; Christ had respect to their faith, that brought this sick man to him. Consuetudo est miserecordis Dei, It is Gods ordinary way, (says S. Chysost.) hunc honorem dare servis suis, ut propter eos salventur & alii, to afford this honor to his servants, that for their sakes he saves others. But neither this which we say now out of S.Crhysostome, nor that which we said before out of S. Ambrose, nor all that we might multiply out of the other Fathers, doth exclude the faith of that particular man, who is to be saved. It is true, that in this particular case, S. Jerome says, Non vidit fidem ejus qui offer ebatur, sed corum qui offerebant, That Christ did not respect his faith that was brought, but only theirs that brought him; but except S. Jerome be to be understood so, that Christ did not first respect his faith, but theirs, we must depart from him, to S. Chrysostom, Neque enim se portari sustinuisset, He would neither have put himself, nor them, to so many difficulties, as he did, if he had not had a faith, that is, a constant assurance in this means of his recovery. And therefore the Rule may be best given thus; That God gives worldly blessings, bodily health, deliverance from dangers, and the like, to some men, in contemplation of others, though themselves never thought of it, all the examples which we have touched upon, convince abundantly.

That God gives spiritual blessings to Infants, presented according to his Ordinance, in Baptism, in Contemplation of the faith of their Parents, or of the Church, or of their sureties, without any actual faith in the Infant, is probable enough, credible enough. But take it as our case is, de adultis, in a man who is come to the use of his own reason, and discretion, so God never saves any man, for the faith of another, otherwise then thus, that the faithful man may pray for the conversion of an unfaithful, who does not know, nor, if he did, would be content to be prayed for, and God, for his sake that prays, may be pleased to work upon the other; but before that man comes to the Dimittuntur peccata, that his sins are forgiven, that man comes to have faith in himself. Iustus in fide sua vivit; there is no life without faith, nor In fide aliena, no such life as constitutes Righteousness, without a personal faith of our own. So that this fides illorum, in our Text, this that is called their faith, hath reference to the sick man himself, as well as to them that brought him.

And then, in Him, and in Them, it was fides visa, faith, which, by an ouvert act, was declared, and made evident. For, Christ, who was now to convey into that company the knowledge that he was the Messiah, which Messiah was to be God, and Man, as afterwards for their conviction, who would not believe him to be God, he showed that he knew their inward thoughts, and did some other things, which none but God could do; so here, for the better edification of men, he required such a faith, as might be evident to men. For, though Christ could have seen their faith, by looking into their hearts, yet to think, that here he saw it by that power of his Divinity, nimis coactum videtur, It is too narrow, and too forced an interpretation of the place, says Calvin. They then, that is, all they declared their faith, their assurance, that Christ could, and would help him. It was good evidence of a strength of faith in him, that in a disease, very little capable of cure, then when he had so far resolved, and slackened his sinewes, that he could endure no posture but his bed, he suffered himself to be put to so many incommodities. It was good evidence of a strength of faith in them, that they could believe that Christ would not reject them for that importunity of troubling him, and the congregation, in the midst of a Sermon; That when they saw, that they who came only to hear, could not get near the door, they should think to get in, with that load, that offensive spectacle; That they should ever conceive, or go about to execute, or be suffered to execute such a plot, as without the leave of Christ, (if Christ preached this Sermon in his own house, as some take it to have been done) or without the Masters leave, in whose house soever it was, they should first until or open, and then break through the floor, and so let down, their miserable burden: That they should have an apprehension, that it was not fit for them to stay, till the Sermon were done, and the company parted, but that it was likeliest to conduce to the glory of God, that Preaching, and working might go together, this was evidence, this was argument of strength of faith in them. Take therefore their example, not to defer that assistance, which thou art able to give to another. Ne dic as assistam cr as, says S. Gregory, do not say, I will help thee to morrow; Ne quid inter propositum, & beneficium intercedat; Perchance that poor soul may not need thee to morrow, perchance thou mayst have nothing to give to morrow, perchance there shall be no such day, as to morrow, and so thou hast lost that opportunity of thy charity, which God offered thee, to day: Vnica beneficentia est, quae moram non admittit, only that is charity, that is given presently.

But yet, when all was done, when there was faith, and faith in them all, and faith declared in their outward works, yet Christ is not said to have done this miracle, quia sides, but cum fides, not Because he saw, but only When he saw their faith. Let us transferre none of that, which belongs to God, to our selves: when we do our duties, (but when do we go about to begin to do any part of any of them?) we are unprofitable servants: When God does work in us, are we saved by that work, as by the cause, when there is another cause of the work it self? When the ground brings forth good corn, yet that ground becomes not fit for our food: When a man hath brought forth good fruits, yet that man is not thereby made worthy of heaven. Not faith it self (and yet faith is of somewhat a deeper dye, and tincture, then any works) is any such cause of our salvation. A beggars believing that I will give him an alms, is no cause of my charity: My believing that Christ will have mercy upon me, is no cause of Christs mercy; for what proportion hath my temporary faith, with my everlasting salvation? But yet, though it work not as a cause, though it be not qui a vidit, because he saw it, yet cum videt, when Christ finds this faith, according to that gracious Covenant, and Contract which he hath made with us, that wheresoever, and whensoever he finds faith, he will enlarge his mercy, finding that in this patient, he expressed his mercy, in that which constitutes our second part, Fili confide, my son be of good cheare, thy sins are forgiven thee.

Where we see first, our Savior. Christ opening the bowels of compassion to him, and receiving him so, as if he had issued out of his bowels, and from his loins, in that gracious appellation, Fili, my Son. He does not call him brother; for greater enmity can be no where, then is often expressed to have been between brethren; for in that degree, and distance, enmity amongst men began in Cain, and Abel, and was pursued in many pairs of brethren after, in Sacred and in secular story. He does not call him friend; that name, even in Christs own mouth, is not always accompanied with good entertainment: Amice, quomodo intrasti, says he, Friend, how came you in? and he bound him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. He does not call him son of Abraham, which might give him an interest in all the promises, but he gives him a present Adoption, and so a present fruition of all, Fili, my Son. His Son, and not his Son in law; he loads him not with the encumbrances, and half-impossibilities of the Law, but he seals to him the whole Gospel, in the remission of sins. His Son, and not his dis-inherited son, as the Jews were, but his Son, upon whom he settled his ancient Inheritance, his eternal election, and his new purchase, which he came now into the world to make with his blood. His Son, and not his prodigal son, to whom Christ imputes no wastefulness of his former graces, but gives him a general release, and Quietus est, in the forgiveness of sins. All that Christ asks of his Sons, is, Fili da mihi cor, My Son give me thy heart; and till God give us that, we cannot give it him; and therefore in this Son he creates a new heart, he infuses a new courage, he establishes a new confidence, in the next word, Fili confide, My Son be of good cheer.

Christ then does not stay so long wrastling with this mans faith, and shaking it, and trying whether it were fast rooted, as he did with that Woman in the Gospel, who came after him, in her daughters behalf, crying, Have mercy upon me O Lord, thou Son of David, for Christ gave not that woman one word; when her importunity made his Disciples speak to him, he said no more, but that he was not sent to such as she; This was far, very far from a Confide filia, Daughter be of good cheer: But yet, this put her not oft, but (as it follows) She followed, and worshipped him, and said, O Lord help me: And all this prevailed no farther with him, but to give such an answer, as was more discomfortable, then a silence, It is not fit to take the children's bread, and cast it unto dogs. She denies not that, she contradicts him not; she says, Truth Lord, It is not fit to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto dogs, and Truth Lord, I am one of those dogs; but yet she persevers in her holy importunity, and in her good ill-manners, and says, Yet the Dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the Masters table: And then, and not till then comes Jesus to that, O Woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt; and her Daughter was healed. But all this, at last, was but a bodily restitution, here was no Dimittuntur peccata in the case, no declaration of forgiveness of sins: But with this man in our Text, Christ goes farther, and comes sooner to an end; He exercises him with no disputation, he leaves no room for any diffidence, but at first word establishes him, and then builds upon him. Now beloved, which way soever of these two God have taken with thee, whether the longer, or the shorter way, bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for that. If God have settled and strengthened thy faith early, early in thy youth heretofore, early at the beginning of a Sermon now, A day is as a thousand years with God, a minute is as six thousand years with God, that which God hath not done upon the Nations, upon the Gentiles, in six thousand years, never since the Creation, which is, to reduce them to the knowlege, and application of the Messiah, Christ Jesus, that he hath done upon thee, in an instant. If he have carried thee about the longer way, if he have exposed thee to scruples, and perplexities, and storms in thine understanding, or conscience, yet in the midst of the tempest, the soft air, that he is said to come in, shall breath into thee; in the midst of those clouds, his Son shall shine upon thee; In the midst of that flood he shall put out his Rainbow, his seal that thou shalt not drown, his Sacrament of faire weather to come, and as it was to the Thief, thy Cross shall be thine Altar, and thy Faith shall be thy Sacrifice. Whether he accomplish his work-upon thee soon or late, he shall never leave thee all the way, without this Confide fili, a holy confidence, that thou art his, which shall carry thee to the Dimittuntur peccata, to the peace of conscience, in the remission of sins.

In which two words, we noted unto you, that Christ hath instituted a Catechism, an Instruction for this new Convertite, and adopted Son of his; in which, the first lesson that is therein implied, is, Antequam rogetur, That God is more forward to give, then man to ask: It is not said that the sick man, or his company in his behalf, said any thing to Christ, but Christ speaks first to them. If God have touched thee here, didst thou ask that at his hands? Didst thou pray before thou camest hither, that he would touch thy heart here? perchance thou didst: But when thou wast brought to thy Baptism, didst thou ask any thing at Gods hands then? But those that brought thee, that presented thee, did; They did in thy Baptism; but at thine election, then when God writing down the names of all the Elect, in the book of Life, how camest thou in? who brought thee in then? Didst thou ask any thing at Gods hands then, when thou thy self wast not at all?

Dat prius, that's the first lesson in this Catechism, God gives before we ask, and then Dat meliora rogatis, God gives better things, then we ask; They intended to ask but bodily health, and Christ gave spiritual, he gave Remission of sins. And what gained he by that? why, Beati quorum remissae iniquitates, Blessed are they, whose sins are forgiven. But what is Blessedness? Any more then a consident expectation of a good state in the next world? Yes; Blessedness includes all that can be asked or conceived in the next world, and in this too. Christ in his Sermon of blessedness, says first, Blessed are they, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; and after, Blessed are they, for they shall in her it the earth; Again, Blessed, for they shall obtain mercy; and, Blessed for they shall be filled: Remission of sins is blessedness, and as Godliness hath the promise of this world, and the next, so blessedness hath the performance of both: He that hath peace in the remission of sins, is blessed already, and shall have those blessings infinitely multiplied in the world to come. The farthest that Christ goes in the expressing of the affections of a natural Father here, is, That if his Son ask bread, he will not give him a stone; and if he ask a Fish, he will not give him a Scorpion; He will not give him worse then he asked; But it is the peculiar bounty of this Father, who adopted this Son, to give more, and better, spiritual for temporal.

Another lesson, which Christ was pleased to propose to this new Convertite, in this Catechism, was, to inform him, That sins were the true causes of all bodily diseases. Diseases and bodily afflictions are sometimes inflicted by God Ad poenam, non ad purgationem, Not to purge or purify the soul of that man, by that affliction, but to bring him by the rack to the gallows, through temporary afflictions here, to everlasting torments hereafter; As Judas his hanging, and Herods being eaten with worms, was their entrance into that place, where they are yet. Sometimes diseases and afflictions are inflicted only, or principally to manifest the glory of God, in the removing thereof; So Christ says of that man, that was born blind, that neither he himself had sinned, nor bore the sins of his parents, but he was born blind to present an occasion of doing a miracle. Sometimes they are inflicted Ad humiliationem, for our future humiliation; So S. Paul says of himself, That least he should be exalted above measure, by the abundance of Revelations, he had that Stimulum carnis, That vexation of the flesh, that messenger of Satan, to humble him. And then, sometimes they are inflicted for trial, and farther declaration of your conformity to Gods will, as upon Job. But howsoever there be divers particular causes, for the diseases and afflictions of particular men, the first cause of death, and sickness, and all infirmities upon mankind in general, was sin; and it would not be hard for every particular man, almost, to find it in his own case too, to assign his fever to such a surfeit, or his consumption to such an intemperance. And therefore to break that circle, in which we compass, and immure, and imprison our selves, That as sin begot diseases, so diseases begot more sins, impatience and murmuring at Gods corrections, Christ begins to shake this circle, in the right way to break it, in the right link, that is, first to remove the sin, which occasioned the disease; for, till that be done, a man is in no better case, then, (as the Prophet expresses it) If he should fly from a Lion, and a Bear met him, or if he should lean upon a wall, and a Serpent bit him. What ease were it, to be delivered of a palsy, of slack and dissolved sinews, and remain under the tyranny of a lustful heart, of licentious eyes, of slack and dissolute speech and conversation? What ease to be delivered of the putrefaction of a wound in my body, and meet a murder in my conscience, done, or intended, or desired upon my neighbor? To be delivered of a fever in my spirits, and to have my spirit troubled with the guiltiness of an adultery? To be delivered of Cramps, and Coliques, and Convulsions in my joints and sinewes, and suffer in my soul all these, from my oppressions, and extortions, by which I have ground the face of the poor. It is but lost labor, and cost, to give a man a precious cordial, when he hath a thorn in his foot, or an arrow in his flesh; for, as long as the sin, which is the cause of the sickness, remains, Deterius sequetur, A worse thing will follow; we may be rid of a Fever, and the Pestilence will follow, rid of the Cramp, and a Gout will follow, rid of sickness, and Death, eternal death will follow. That which our Savior prescribes is, Noli peccare ampliùs, sin no more; first, non ampliùs, sin no more sins, take heed of gravid sins, of pregnant sins, of sins of concomitance, and concatentation, that chain and induce more sins after, as Davids idleness did adultery, and that murder, & the loss of the Lords Army, and Honor, in the blaspheming of his name, Noli ampliùs, sin no more, no such sin as induces more; And Noli ampliùs, sin no more, that is, sin thy own sin, thy beloved sin, no more times over; And still Noli ampliùs, sin not that sin which thou hast given over in thy practise, in thy memory, by a sinful delight in remembering it; And again, Noli ampliùs, sin not over thy former sins, by holding in thy possession; such things as were corruptly gotten, by any such former practises: for, Deterius sequetur, a worse thing will follow, A Tertian will be a Quartan, and a Quartan a Hectique, and a Hectique a Consumption, and a Consumption without a consummation, that shall never consume it self, nor consume thee to an unsensibleness of torment.

And then after these three lessons in this Catechism, That God gives before we ask, That he gives better then we ask, That he informs us in the true cause of sickness, sin, He involves a tacit, nay he expresses an express rebuke, and increpation, and in beginning at the Dimittuntur peccata, at the forgiveness of sins, tells him in his ear, that his spiritual health should have been prefered before his bodily, and the cure of his soul before his Palsy; that first the Priest should have been, and then the Physician might be consulted. That which Christ does to his new adopted Son here, the Wiseman says to his Son, My Son, in thy sickness be not negligent; But wherein is his diligence required, or to be expressed? in that, which follows, Pray unto the Lord, and he will make thee whole; But upon what conditions, or what preparations? Leave off from sin, order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Is this all? needs there no declaration, no testimony of this? Yes, Give a sweet savor, and a memorial of fine flour, and make a fat offering, as not being; that is, as though thou wert dead: Give, and give that which thou givest in thy life time, as not being. And when all this is piously, and religiously done, thou hast repented, restored, amended, and given to pious uses, Then, says he there, give place to the Physician, for the Lord hath created him. For if we proceed otherwise, if we begin with the Physician, Physic is a curse; He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hands of the Physician, says the Wiseman there: It is not, Let him come into the hands of the Physician, as though that were a curse, but let him fall, let him cast and throw himself into his hands, and rely upon natural means, and leave out all consideration of his other, and worse disease, and the supernatural Physic for that. Asa had had a great deliverance from God, when the Prophet Hanani asked him, Were not the Ethiopians, and the Lubins a huge Host? but because after this deliverance, he relied upon the King of Syria, and not upon God, the Judgement is, From henceforth thou shalt have wars: That was a sickness upon the State, & then he fell sick in his own person, and in that sickness, says that story, He sought not to the Lord, but to the Physician, and then he died. To the Lord and then to the Physician had been the right way; If to the Physician and then to the Lord, though this had been out of the right way, yet he might have returned to it: But it was to the Physician, and not to the Lord, and then he died. Omnipotenti medico nullus languor insanabilis, says S. Ambrose, there is but one Almighty; and none but the Almighty can cure all diseases, because he only can cure diseases in the root, that is, in the forgiveness of sins.

We are almost at an end; when we had thus Catechised his Convertite, thus rectified his patient, he turns upon them, who beheld all this, and were scandalized with his words, the Scribes and Pharisees; And because they were scandalized only in this, that he being but man, undertook the office of God, to forgive sins, he declares himself to them, to be God. Christ would not leave, even malice it self unsatisfied; And therefore do not thou think thy self Christian enough, for having an innocence in thy self, but be content to descend to the infirmities, and to the very malice of other men, and to give the world satisfaction; Nec paratum habeas illud ètrivio, (says S. Jerome) do not arm thy self with that vulgar, and trivial saying, Sufficit mihi conscientia mea, nec curo quid loquantur homines, It suffices me, that mine own conscience is clear, and I care not what all the world says; thou must care what the world says, and thinks; Christ himself had that respect even towards the Scribes, and Pharisees. For, first he declared himself to be God, in that he took knowledge of their thoughts; for they had said nothing, and he says to them, why reason you thus in your hearts? and they themselves did not, could not deny, but that those words of Solomon appertained only to God, Thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men, And those of Jeremiah, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, and I try the reins. Let the School dispute infinitely, (for he that will not content himself with means of salvation, till all School points be reconciled, will come too late) let Scotus and his Heard think, That Angels, and separate souls have a natural power to understand thoughts, though God for his particular glory restrain the exercise of that power in them, (as in the Roman Church, Priests have a power to forgive all sins, though the Pope restrain that power in reserved cases; And the Cardinals by their Creation, have a voice in the Consistory, but that the Pope for a certain time inhibites them to give voice) And let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary, That those spirits have no natural power to know thoughts; we seek no farther, but that Christ Jesus himself thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees, and prove himself God, by knowing their thoughts. Eadem Majestate & potentia, says S. Jerome, Since you see I proceed as God, in knowing your thoughts, why believe you not, that I may forgive his sins as God too?

And then, in the last act he joins both together; he satisfies the patient, and he satisfies the beholders too: he gives him his first desire, bodily health; He bids him take up his bed and walk, and he doth it; and he shows them that he is God, by doing that, which (as it appears in the Story) was harder in their opinion, then remission of sins, which was, to cure and recover a diseased man, only by his word, without any natural, or second means. And therefore since all the world shakes in a palsy of wars, and rumors of wars, since we are sure, that Christs Vicar in this case will come to his Dimitmittuntur peccata, to send his Buls, and Indulgences, and Crociatars for the maintenance of his part, in that cause, let us also, who are to do the duties of private men, to obey and not to direct, by presenting our diseased and paralytique souls to Christ Jesus, now, when he in the Ministry of his unworthiest servant is preaching unto you, by untiling the house, by removing all disguises, and palliations of our former sins, by true confession, and hearty detestation, let us endeavor to bring him to his Dimittuntur peccata, to forgive us all those sins, which are the true causes of all our palsies, and slacknesses in his service; and so, without limiting him, or his great Vicegerents, and Lieutenants, the way, or the time to beg of him, that he will imprint in them, such counsels and such resolutions, as his wisdom knows best to conduce to his glory, and the maintenance of his Gospel. Amen.

Sermon XII. Preached upon Candlemas day.

MAT. 5.2.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

THe Church, which is the Daughter of God, and Spouse of Christ, celebrates this day, the Purification of the blessed Virgin, the Mother of God: And she celebrates this day by the name, vulgarly, of Candlemas day. It is dies luminarium, the day of lights; The Church took the occasion of doing so, from the Gentiles; At this time of the year, about the beginning of February, they celebrated the feast of Februus, which is their Pluto; And, because that was the God of darkness, they solemnized it, with a multiplicity of Lights. The Church of God, in the outward and ceremonial part of his worship, did not disdain the ceremonies of the Gentiles; Men who are so severe, as to condemn, and to remove from the Church, whatsoever was in use amongst the Gentiles before, may, before they are aware, become Surveyors, and Controllers upon Christ himself, in the institution of his greatest seals: for Baptism, which is the Sacrament of purification by washing in water, and the very Sacrament of the Supper it self, religious eating, and drinking in the Temple, were in use amongst the Gentiles too. It is a perverse way, rather to abolish Things and Names, (for vehement zeal will work upon Names as well as Things) because they have been abused, then to reduce them to their right use. We dealt in the reformation of Religion, as Christ did in the institution thereof; He found ceremonies amongst the Gentiles, and he took them in, not because he found them there, but because the Gentiles had received them from the Jews, as they had their washings, and their religious meetings to eat and drink in the Temple, from the Jews Passeover. Christ borrowed nothing of the Gentiles, but he took his own where he found it: Those ceremonies, which himself had instituted in the first Church of the Jews, and the Gentiles had purloined, and prophaned, and corrupted after, he returned to a good use again. And so did we in the Reformation, in some ceremonies which had been of use in the Primitive Church, and depraved and corrupted in the Roman. For the solemnizing of this Day, Candlemas-day, when the Church did admit Candles into the Church, as the Gentiles did, it was not upon the reason of the Gentiles, who worshipped therein the God of darkness, Februus, Pluto; but because he who was the light of the world, was this day presented and brought into the Temple, the Church admitted lights. The Church would signify, that as we are to walk in the light, so we are to receive our light from the Church, and to receive Christ, and our knowledge of him, so as Christ hath notified himself to us. So it is a day of purification to us, and a day of lights, and so our Text fits the Day, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

In these words we shall consider first, Qui sint, who they are, that are brought into consideration, that are put into the balance, and they are mundi corde, such as are pure of heart; And secondly, Quid sint, what they come to be, and it is Beati, blessed are the pure in heart; And lastly, Vnd, from whence this blessedness accrews and arises unto them, and in what it consists, and that is, Videbunt Deum, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Ask me wherein these men differ from other men, and it is in this main difference, Mundi corde, that whereas every imagination of the thought of mans heart, is only evil continually, They are pure of heart. Ask me what they get by that, They get this main purchase, Beati, That which all the books of all the Philosophers could never teach them so much as what it was, that is true Blessedness; That their pocket book, their Manual, their bosom book, their conscience, doth not only show them, but give them, not only declare it to them, but possess them of it. Ask me how long this Blessedness shall last, because all those Blessednesses which Philosophers have imagined, as honor, and health, and profit, and pleasure, and the like, have evaporated and vanished away, this shall last for ever; Videbunt Deum, they shall see God, and they shall no more see an end of their seeing God, then an end of his being God: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

These then are our three parts; first the Price, mundities cordis, cleanness, and cleanness of heart; Secondly, the Purchase, Beati, Blessedness, and present possession of blessedness, Blessed are they; And then thirdly, the Habendum, the term, Everlastingness, because it consists in the enjoying of him who is everlasting, They shall see God. These arise out of the Text; but from whence arises the Text it self? The Text it self is a piece of a Sermon, of that blessed Sermon of our Saviours, which is called the Sermon of Beatitudes. So that we shall make it a part apart, to consider the Sermon from which this Text is taken, before we dilate the Text it self into a Sermon: for there will arise some useful observations, out of these three doubts, first Quae concio, what this Sermon it self was; and then Quibus, to what Auditory it was preached; And lastly, Quomodo, in what manner Christ preached this Sermon: And these three, the Sermon, the Auditory, the disposition of the Preacher, will also be three branches of this, which we shall make our first part, before we come to the other three of the Text it self.

First then, there is this doubt made of this Sermon altogether, whether this Sermon which S. Matthew records here, be the same Sermon which S. Luke mentions in his sixth Chapter, or whether they were preached at several times; The greater part of the ancients (but yet not all) take them to be several Sermons; The greater part of the later men (and yet not all neither) take them to be but one and the same Sermon. If it be so, if both be but one Sermon, this may be justly considered, that since S. Luke remembers but a few passages, and a few parts of that Sermon, in respect of S. Matthew, (for S. Matthews relation is large and particular, and S. Lukes more brief and summary) they that come to hear Sermons, and would make benefit by them, by a subsequent meditation, must not think themselves frustrated of their purposes, if they do not understand all, or not remember all the Sermon. Scarce any Sermon is so preached, or so intended, as that all works upon all, or all belongs unto all. The Lord and his Spirit puts into the Preachers mouth, a judgement against oppression, against extortion, against usury, and he utters that judgement. But perchance thou hast no lands to rack tenants, no office to grind suitors, no money to devour a debtor by usury, and so that passage of the Sermon, bent against oppression, or extortion, or usury, concerns not thee, affects not thee. But next to thee there may sit an oppressor, or extortioner, or usurer, and he needed that, and by Gods grace receives benefit by that, which found nothing to work upon in thee. And then thy turn comes after, and God speaks to thy soul, in a discovery of those sins to which thou art inclined; and then he gives thy neighbor (who was pinched, and brought to a remorse before) that refreshing which thou hadst before, that is, a thankful acknowledgement, that though he be subject to other sins, yet God hath preserved him from that particular.

God directs the tongue of his Ministers, as he doth his shores of rain: They fall upon the face of a large compass of earth, when as all that earth did not need that rain. The whole Congregation is, oftentimes, in common entendment, conformable, and well settled in all matters of Doctrine, and all matters of Discipline. And yet God directs us sometimes to extend our discourse (perchance with a zeal and a vehemence, which may seem unnecessary, and impertinent, because all in the Church are presumed to be of one mind) in the proof of our doctrine against Papists, or of our discipline against Nonconformitans. For, Gods eye sees, in what seat there sits, or in what corner there stands some one man that wavers in matters of Doctrine, and inclines to hearken after a Seducer, a Jesuit, or a Semi-Jesuit, a practising Papist, or a Sesqui-Jesuit, a Jesuited Lady; And Gods eye sees in what seat there sits, or in what corner there stands some weak soul that is scandalized, with some Ceremony, or part of our Discipline, and in danger of falling from the unity of the Church: And for the refreshing of that one span of ground, God lets fall a whole shore of rain; for the rectifying of that one soul, God pours out the Meditations of the Preacher, into such a subject, as perchance doth little concern the rest of the Congregation. S. Matthew relates Christs Sermon at large, and S. Luke but briefly, and yet S. Luke remembers some things that S. Matthew had left out. If thou remember not all that was presented to thy faith, all the Citations of places of Scriptures, nor all that was presented to thy reason, all the deducements, and inferences of the Schools, nor all that was presented to thy spiritual delight, all the sentences of ornament produced out of the Fathers, yet if thou remember that which concerned thy sin, and thy soul, if thou meditate upon that, apply that, thou hast brought away all the Sermon, all that was intended by the Holy Ghost to be preached to thee. And if thou have done so, as at a donative at a Coronation, or other solemnity, when money is thrown among the people, though thou light but upon one shilling of that money, thou canst not think that all the rest is lost, but that some others are the richer for it, though thou beest not; so if thou remember, or apply, or understand but one part of the Sermon, do not think all the rest to have been idly, or unnecessarily, or impertinently spoken, for thou broughtest a fever, and hast had thy Julips, another brought a fainting, and a diffident spirit, and must have his Cordials.

Thus then, if S. Lukes Sermon be the same that S. Matthews was, we see by S. Lukes manner of repeating it, That a Sermon may be well remembered, and well applied, though all the parts thereof be not so. And then, if these were divers Sermons, and so preached by Christ, at several times, there arises also this consideration, That Christ did not, and therefore we need not forbear to preach the same particular Doctrines, or to handle the same particular points, which we, or others, in that place, have handled before: A preachers end is not a gathering of fame to himself, but a gathering of souls to God; and his way is not novelty, but edification. If we consider the Sermon in Saint Matthew, and the Sermon in S. Luke, the purpose and the scope of both, the matter and the forme of both, the body and the parts of both, the phrase and the language of both, is for the most part the same, and yet Christ forbore not to preach it twice.

This excuses no mans ignorance, that is not able to preach seasonably, and to break, and distribute the bread of life according to the emergent necessities of that Congregation, at that time; Nor it excuses no mans laziness, that will not employ his whole time upon his calling; Nor any mans vain-glory, and ostentation, who having made a Pye of Plums, without meat, offers it to sale in every Market, and having made an Oration of Flores, and Figures, and Phrases without strength, sings it over in every Pulpit: It excuses no mans ignorance, nor laziness, nor vain-glory, but yet it reproaches their itching and curious ears, to whom any repetition of the same things is irk some and fastidious. You may have heard an answer of an Epigrammatist appliable to this purpose; When he read his Epigrams in an Auditory, one of the hearers stopped him, and said, Did not I hear an Epigram to this purpose from you, last year? Yes, says he, it is like you did; but is not that vice still in you this year, which last years Epigram reprehended? If your curiosity bring you to say to any Preacher, Did not I hear this Point thus handled in your Sermon, last year? Yes, must he say, and so you must next year again, till it appear in your amendment, that you did hear it. The Devil maintains a War good cheap, if he may fight with the same sword, and we may not defend with the same buckler; If he can tempt a Son with his Fathers covetousness, and a Daughter with her Mothers wantonness, if he need not vary the sin, nor the temptation, must we vary our Doctrine? This is indeed to put new Wine into old vessels, new Doctrine into ears, and hearts not disburdened of old sins. We say, as the Spouse says, Vetera & nova, we prepare old and new, all that may any way serve your holy taste, and conduce to your spiritual nourishment; And he is not a Preacher sufficiently learned, that must of necessity preach the same things again, but he is not a Preacher sufficiently discreet neither, that for bears any thing therefore, because himself, or another in that place, hath handled that before. Christ himself varied his Sermon very little, if this in S. Matthew, and that in S. Luke, were divers Sermons.

The second doubt which is made about this Sermon, and which ministers to us occasion of another kind of observations, is the Auditory, to whom Christ preached this Sermon. For first, as this Evangelist reports it, it seems to have been Concio ad Clerum, a Sermon Preached to them who had taken Degrees in Christs School, and followed him, and not ad populum, to the promiscuous, and vulgar people; for he says, That Christ seeing the multitude, went up into a mountain, and thither his Disciples came, and to them he Preached. And then, as S. Luke reports, though the Sermon seem principally to be directed to the Disciples, yet it was in the presence and hearing of all; for he says, Christ came down, and stood in the plain, and a great multitude of people about him. Both must be done; we must preach in the Mountain, and preach in the plain too; preach to the learned, and preach to the simple too; preach to the Court, and preach to the Country too. Only when we preach in the mountain, they in the plain must not calumniate us, and say, This man goes up to Jerusalem, he will be heard by none but Princes, and great persons, as though it were out of affectation, and not in discharge of our duty, that we do preach there: And when we preach on the plain, they of the mountain must not say, This man may serve for a mean Auditory, for a simple Congregation, for a Country Church, as though the sitting of our selves to the capacity, and the edification of such persons, were out of ignorance, or laziness, and not a performance of our duties, as well as the other. Christ preached on the mountain, and he preached in the plain; he hath his Church in both; and they that preach in both, or either, for his glory, and not their own vain-glory, have his Example for their Action.

To make the like use of the other difficulty, arising out of the several relation of this Sermon, which is Quomodo, in what manner, in what position of body Christ preached this Sermon, by this Evangelist it seems that Christ preached sitting, and by the other, that he preached standing. Now, for the most part, Christ did preach sitting. When he preached in the Synagogue of Nazareth, and took that Text, out of Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, &c. He stood up to read, (says the story) and then he closed the Book, and sate down to preach. So also when he came down from the Mount of Olives into the Temple, he sate down there and taught them. And so Christ himself professes, that it was his ordinary custom to do; For, when they came to apprehend him, he said, Are ye come out, as against a Thief? I sate daily with you, teaching in the Temple, and ye laid no hold on me. And according to this custom of his, they who came to great place, and dignity in the Church, did ordinarily preach sitting too; and therefore their Churches were called Cathedral, because they preached sitting in chairs.

Why then will such men, as in all actious of Divine Service, pretend to limit every thing precisely to the pattern of Christ himself, to do just as he did, and no otherwise, why will they admit any other position of the body, in preaching, then sitting, since, ut plurimùm, at least, for the most part, Christ did preach sitting? Or if Christ did both sit, and stand, why will they not acknowledge, that all positions of the body, that are reverent, are indifferent in themselves, in the service of God; and being so, why will they not admit that position of the body, which being indifferent in it self, is by the just command of lawful authority, made necessary to them, that is, kneeling at the Sacrament? They who resuse it, pretend but two Reasons; First, because Christ at the institution thereof, did not use that position of kneeling, but sitting; Secondly, because they might scandalize others, or enter a false belief into others, who should see them kneel, that they kneeled in such adoration thereof, as the Papists do.

But for the first, who referre all (in their desire) to the practise of Christ himself herein, it cannot be a clear case, In what position of body Christ did institute this Sacrament. There was at that time, a civil Supper, the ordinary household Supper, and there was a legal Supper, the eating of the Passeover, and then this Sacramental Supper, of a new institution; And it is clear, that Christ did not continue one position all this while, but he arose and did some actions between; Neither could that position of body, which they used at the Table, for their civil Supper, and natural refection, be properly called a sitting, for it was rather a lying, a reclining, a leaning upon a bed; And let it be exactly a sitting, and let that sitting run through all the three Suppers, yet how will that position of sitting, justify that Canon, which hath passed in a Synod amongst out neighbours, Liberum est stando, sedendo, eundo, coenam celebrare, non autem geniculando? How will standing, or walking, be any more maintainable then kneeling, by Christs example? and yet they say, sitting, or walking, or standing, they may receive, but kneeling they must not: But this, I presume that particular Synod did not declare by way of Doctrine, to bind other Churches, but enjoined a Discipline for their own.

Now, for the danger of scandalizing others, all that come to Church, and are of our profession in Religion, are sufficiently catechized, and informed of the reason of our kneeling, and that we are therein far from the Adoration of the Roman Practise. It is a complaint often made, and often to be repeated, that one of the greatest illusions, and impostures of the Roman Church, is, That the Book-Doctrine, of their learned men, and the ordinary practice of their people agree not. They know the people do commit Idolatry, in their manner of adoring the Bread in the Sacrament, and they never preach against this error of the people, nor tell them wherein that Idolatry lies; It is true, that in their Books of Controversies, which the people could not understand, if they might read them, nor may read them, if they could understand them, in those books they proceed upon safer grounds; There they say, that when a man adores the Sacrament, he must be sure, that he carry not his thoughts upon any thing that he sees, not only not upon Bread and Wine, (for, that they must not believe to be there, whatsoever they see or taste) but not upon those species and apparences of Bread and Wine, which they seem to see, but he must carry all his thoughts upon the person of Christ, who is there, though he see him not; for, otherwise, say they, if he should adore that which he sees, he should commit Idolatry. Now, if the people were acquainted with this Doctrine, and could possibly observe it, the danger were not so great, in that Adoration of the Sacrament. Much less is there in our kneeling, who, as we acknowledge, that God is present every where, yet otherwise present to us, when we throw our selves down before him in devotion, and prayer in our Chamber, then he is in the Market, or in the street, and otherwise in the Congregation, at Public prayer, then at private prayer in our Chamber; so weacknowledge, that he is otherwise present at the Sacrament, then at any other act of Divine Service. That which Christs Example left indifferent, the Authority of that Church, in which God hath given thee thy station, may make necessary to thee; Though not absolutely necessary, and Ratione medii, that none can be saved that do not kneel at the Sacrament, therefore because they do not kneel, yet necessary Ratione praecepti, as it is enjoined by lawful authority, and to resist lawful authority, is a disobedience, that may endanger any mans salvation.

Now from this Sermon, which gave us our Text, we pass to the Text, which must give us our Sermon, the particular Branches of the Text it self, which we proposed at first, for our second part. And there, our first is, Qui sint, who they be, that are brought into consideration, Mundi corde, those that are pure of heart; first pure, and then, pure of heart. In the purest times of the Primitive Church, there crept in false opinions of purity; we find two sorts of Puritanes then; The Catharists, and the Cathari; the Catharists were purifying Puritanes, and the Cathari were purified Puritanes: The first thought no creatures pure for mans use, till they were sanctified by them; and thereupon they induced certain charms, and forms of Purification, too detestable to be named amongst Christians. And then the Cathari, the purified Puritanes thought no men pure but themselves, and themselves so pure, as that they left out that petition out of the Lords prayer, Dimitte nobis, forgive us our trespasses, for they thought they had trespassed in nothing.

They have a third state of Puritanes above these, in the Roman Church; where they say that a man come to such a state of purity in this life, as that he shall be abstracted, not only a passionibus, from all inordinateness of affections and passions, but a phantasmatibus, from apprehending any thing by those lazy degrees of the senses, and the phantasy, and discourse, and reading, and meditation, and conversation, but they shall come to such a familiarity with God, as that they shall know all by immediate Revelation; They mean, (and, indeed, some of them say) that a man come to that purity in this life, as that in this life, he shall be in possession of that very Beatifical vision, which is the state of glory in heaven; In which purity, they say also, that a man may not only be empty of all sin, but he may be too full of Gods presence, overfraighted with his grace, so far, that (as they make Philip Nerius, the Founder of their last Order, their example) they shall be put to that exclamation, Recede à me Domine, O Lord depart farther from me, and withdraw some of this grace, which thou pourest upon me.

And then besides these three imaginary and illusory purities, The Catharists that think no things pure, The Cathari that think no men pure but themselves, and the Super-cathari, in the Roman Church, that think these men as pure, as the Saints, who are in possession of the sight of God in heaven, there is a true purity, which will not serve our turns, which is a partial purity, that pureness, that cleanness, that innocency, to which David so often referres himself, in his religious and humble expostulations with God, Judge me, and deal with me, according to my righteousness, and mine innocency, and cleanness of heart, and hands, says David; that is, as I am innocent, and guiltlesse, in that particular, which Saul imputes to me, and persecutes me for. For, this pureness, which is this mark of the Saints of God, is not partial, but universal; it is not a fig-leaf, that covers one spot of nakedness, but an entire garment, a cleanness in all our actions.

We say sometimes, and not altogether improperly, that a man walks clean, if in a foul way, he contract but a few spots of dirt; but yet this is not an absolute cleanness. A house is not clean, except Cobwebs be swept down; A man is not clean, except he remove the lightest and slightest occasions of provocation. It is the speech of the greatest to the greatest, of Christ to the Church, Capite vulpeculas, Take us the little Foxes, for they devour the Vine. It is not a cropping, a pilling, a retarding of the growth of the Vine that is threatened, but a devouring, though but from little Foxes. It is not so desperate a state, to have thy soul attempted by that Lion, that seeks whom he may devour, (for then, in great and apparent sins, thou wilt be occasioned to call upon the Lion of the tribe of Juda, to thine assistance) as it is to have thy soul eaten up by vermin, by the custom and habit of small sins. God punished the Egyptians with little things, with Hailestones, and Froggs, and Grashoppers; and Pharaohs Conjurers, that counterfeited all Moses greater works, failed in the least, in the making of lice. A man may stand a great temptation, and satisfy himself in that, and think he hath done enough in the way of spiritual valor, and then fall as irrecoverably under the custom of small. I were as good lie under a milstone, as under a hill of sand; for howsoever I might have blown away every grain of sand, if I had watched it, as it fell, yet when it is a hill, I cannot blow it, nor shove it away: and when I shall think to say to God, I have done no great sins, God shall not proceed with me, by weight, but by measure, nor ask how much, but how long I have sinned.

And though I may have done thus much towards this purity, as that, for a good time, I have discontinued my sin, yet if my heart be still set upon the delight, and enjoying of that which was got by my former sins, though I be not that dog that returns to his vomit, yet I am still that Sow, that wallows in her mire; though I do not thrust my hands into new dirt, yet the old dirt is still baked upon my hands; though mine own clothes do not defile me again, as Job speaks, (though I do not relapse to the practise of mine old sin) yet I have none of Ieremies Nitre, and Sope, none of Job's Snow-water, to wash me clean, except I come to Restitution. As long as the heart is set upon things sinfully got, thou sinnest over those years sins, every day: thou art not come to the purity of this text, for it is pure, and pure in heart.

But can any man come to that pureness? to have a heart pure from all foulness? can a man be born so? Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness, is Job's unanswerable question? can any man make it clean, of himself? Who can say, I have made clean my heart? is Solomons unanswerable question. Beloved, when such questions as these, are asked in the Scriptures, How can? who can do this? Sometimes they import an absolute impossibility, It cannot be done by any means; And sometimes they import but a difficulty, It can hardly be done, it can be done but some one way. When the Prophet says, Quid proderit sculptile? What good can an Idol, or an Idolatrous Religion do us? It shall not help us in soul, in reputation, in preferment, it will deceive us every way, it is absolutely impossible, that an Idol, or an Idolatrous Religion should do us any good. But then when David says, Domine quis habitabit, Lord who shall ascend to thy Tabernacle, and dwell in thy holy hil? David does not mean that there is no possibility of ascending thither, or dwelling there, though it be hard clambring thither, & hard holding there; And therefore when the Prophet says, Quis sapiens, & intelliget haec, Who is so wise as to find out this way, he places this cleanness, which we inquire after, in Wisdom. What is Wisdom? we may content our selves, with that old definition of Wisdom, that it is Rerum humanarum, & divinarum scientia; The Wisdom that accomplishes this cleanness, is the knowledge, the right valuation of this world, and of the next; To be able to compare the joys of heaven, and the pleasures of this world, and the gain of the one, with the loss of the other, this is the way to this cleaneness of the heart; because that heart that considers, and examines, what it takes in, will take in no foul, no infectious thing. God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness, says the Apostle. If we be in the ways of uncleanness, God hath not called us thither: We may slip into them, by the infirmity of our nature; or we may run into them by a custom of sin; we may be drawn into them, by the inordinateness of our affections; or we may be driven into them, by fear of losing the favor of those great Persons, upon whom we depend, and so accompany, or assist them in their sins.

So we may slip, and run, and be drawn, and be driven, but we are not called, not called by God, into any sin; not called by any Decree of God; not by any profession or calling; not by any complexion, or constitution, to a necessity of committing any sin; All sin is from our selves: But if we be in the ways of holiness, it is God that called us thither, we have not brought our selves. God calls us by his Ordinance, and Ministry in the Church; But when God hath called us thither, we may see, what he expects from us, by that which the Apostle says, Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness; that is, let us employ that faculty, that is in our selves, let us be applicable and supple, easy and ductile, in those ways, to which God hath called us. Since God, by breeding us in the Christian Church, and in the knowledge of his word, by putting that balance into our hand, to try heavenly, and earthly things, by which we may distinguish Lepram à non lepra, what is a leprous and sinful, what is an indifferent, and clean action, let us be content to put the ware, and the weights into the balance, that is, to bring all objects, and all actions to a consideration, and to an examination, by that trial, before we set our hearts upon them: for God leaves no man, with whom he hath proceeded so far, as to breed him in the Christian Church, without a power to do that, to discern his own actions, if he do not wink.

Upon those word, Isaac digged the Wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham, and the Philistims had stopped, Origen extends this power far, though not very confidently; Fortè in uniuscuiusque nostrûm anima, says he; perchance in every one of our souls, there is this Well of the water of Life, and this power to open it: whether Origens Nostrûm, our soul, be intended by him of us, as we are men, or of us, as we are Christians, I pronounce not; but divide it; In all us, as we are natural men, there is this Well of water of Life, Abraham digged it at first, The Father of the faithful our heavenly Abraham, infused it into us all at first in Adam, from whom, as we have the Image of God, though defaced, so we have this Well of water though stopped up; But then the Philistims having stopped this well, (Satan by sin having barred it up) the power of opening it again is not in the natural man; but Isaac diggs them again, Isaac who is Filius laetitiae, the Son of Joy, our Isaac, our Jesus, he opens them again, to all that receive him according to his Ordinance in his Church, he hath given this power, of keeping open in themselves, this Well of Life, these means of Salvation: Peccata tua alios inducunt colors, says Origen in the same place; Thy sins cover the Image of God with other Images, Images of Beauty, of Honor, of Pleasure, so that sometimes thou dost not discern the Image of God, in thy soul, but yet there it is: sometimes thou fillest this Well with other waters, with tears of hypocrisy, to deceive, or tears of lamentation for worldly crosses, but yet such a Well, such a power to assist thine own salvation, there is in thee: Mulier drachmam invenit, non extrinsecus, sed in dome; The Woman who had lost her piece of silver, found it not without doors, but within; It was In domo mundata, when her house was made clean, but it was within the house, and within her own house. Make clean thy house, by the assistances, which Christ affords thee in his Church, and thou shalt never fail finding of that within thee, which shall save thee: Not that it grows in thee naturally, or that thou canst produce it of thy self, but that God hath bound himself by his holy Covenant, to perfect his work, in every man, that works with him. So then in repenting of former sins, in breaking off the practise of those sins, in restoring whatsoever was gotten by those sins, in precluding all relapses, by a diligent survey and examination of particular actions, this is this cleanness, this purity of heart, which constitutes our first branch of this part; And the second is the Purchase, what we get by it, which is Blessedness, Blessed are the pure in heart.

In this, we make two steps, Blessedness, and the present possession of this Blessedness. Now, to this purpose, it is a good Rule that S. Bernard gives, and a good way that he goes: Cui quaeque res sapiunt prout sunt, is sapiens est, says he: He that tastes, and apprehends all things in their proper and natural taste, he that takes all things aright as they are, Is sapiens est, nothing distasts him, nothing alters him, he is wise. If he take the riches of this world to be in their nature, indifferent, neither good, nor bad in themselves, but to receive their denomination in their use, If he take long life to be naturally an effect of a good constitution, and temperament of the body, and a good husbanding of that temper by temperance, If he take sickness to be a declination and disorder thereof, and so other calamities to be the declination of their power, or their favor, in whose protection he trusted, then he takes all these things, prout sunt, as they are, in their right taste, and Is sapiens est, he that takes things so, is morally wise. But thus far, S. Bernard does but tell us, Quis sapiens, who is wise; but then, Cui ipsa sapientia sapit, prout est, is beatus, He that tastes this Wisdom it self aright, he only is Blessed. Now to taste this moral Wisdom aright, to make the right use of that, is to direct all that knowledge upon heavenly things. To understand the wretchedness of this world, is to be wise, but to make this wisdom apprehend a happiness in the next world, that is to be blessed. If I can digest the want of Riches, the want of Health, the want of Reputation, out of this consideration, that good men want these, as well as bad, this is moral Wisdom, and a natural man may be as wise, herein, as I. But if I can make this Wisdom carry me to a higher contemplation, That God hath cast these wants upon me, to draw me the more easily to him, and to see, that in all likelihood, my disposition being considered, more wealth, more health, more preferment would have retarded me, and slackened my pace in his service, then this Wisdom, that is, this use of this moral Wisdom, hath made me blessed; and to this Blessedness, a natural man cannot come.

This Blessedness then, is Congeries bonorum, A concurrence, a confluence, an accumulation of all that is Good; And he that is Mundus corde, pure of heart, safe in a rectified conscience, hath that. Not that every thing, that hath Aliquam rationem boni, any tincture, or name of Good in it, (as Riches, and Health, and Honor) must necessarily fall upon every man, that is, good, and pure of heart; (for, for the most part, such men want these more then any other men.) But because even those things, which have in them, Aliquam rationem mali, some tincture, and name of ill, (as sickness of body, or vexation of spirit) shall be good to them, because they shall advance them in their way to God; therefore are they blessed, as Blessedness is Congeries bonorum, the accumulation of all that is good, because nothing can put on the nature of ill, to them. And though Blessedness seem to be but an expectative, a reversion reserved to the next life, yet so blessed are they in this testimony of a rectified conscience, which is this purity of heart, as that they have this blessedness in a present possession, Blessed are the pure in heart; they are now, they are already Blessed.

The farthest that any of the Philosophers went in the discovery of Blessedness, was but to come to that, Nemo ante obitum, to pronounce that no man could be called Blessed before his death; not that they had found what kind of better Blessedness they went to after their death, but that still till death they were shure, every man was subject to new miseries, and interruptions of any thing which they could have called Blessedness. The Christian Philosophy goes farther; It shows us a perfecter Blessedness then they conceived for the next life, and it imparts that Blessedness to this life also: The pure in heart are blessed already, not only comparatively, that they are in a better way of Blessedness, then others are, but actually in a present possession of it: for this world and the next world, are not, to the pure in heart, two houses, but two rooms, a Gallery to pass thorough, and a Lodging to rest in, in the same House, which are both under one roof, Christ Jesus; The Militant and the Triumphant, are not two Churches, but this the Porch, and that the Chancel of the same Church, which are under one Head, Christ Jesus; so the Joy, and the sense of Salvation, which the pure in heart have here, is not a joy severed from the Joy of Heaven, but a Joy that begins in us here, and continues, and accompanies us thither, and there flows on, and dilates it self to an infinite expansion, (so, as if you should touch one corn of powder in a train, and that train should carry fire into a whole City, from the beginning it was one and the same fire) though the fullness of the glory thereof be reserved to that which is expressed in the last branch, Videbunt Deum, They shall see God; for, as S. Bernard notes, when the Church is highliest extolled for her Beauty, yet it is but Pulcherrima inter mulieres, The fairest amongst women, that is, says he, Inter animas terrenas, non autem inter Angelicas beatitudines, She is not compared with her own state in Heaven, she shall have a better state in that State, then she hath here; So when John Baptists Office is highliest extolled, that he is called The greatest Prophet, it is but Inter natos mulierum, Amongst the sons of women, he is not compared with the Son of God. So this Blessedness appropriated to the pure in heart, gives a present assurance of future joy, and a present inchoation of that now, though the plenary consummation thereof be respited, till we see God.

And first videbunt & non contremiscent; This is a Blessedness, they shall see God, and be glad to see him; see him in Judgement, and be able to stand in Judgement in his sight; They shall see him, and never trouble the hills to fall upon them, nor call the mountains to cover them; upon them he shall not steal as a thief in the night, but because he hath used to stand at their door, and knock, and enter, they shall look for his comming, and be glad of it. First they come to a true valuation of this world, in S. Pauls Omnia stercora, I count all things but Dung, but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; When they have found the true value of worldly things, they will come to something worth the getting, they will come to S. Pauls way of Gain, Mors lucrum, that to die is gain and advantage: When they know that, they will conceive a religious covetousness of that, and so come to S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi, to desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ: When they have entertained that Desire, they will declare it, make a petition, a suite for it, with a Veni Domine Iesu, Come Lord Iesu, come quickly; and they shall have a holy and modest, but yet an infallible assurance of this answer to their petition; Venite benedicti, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world; So Videbunt & non contremiscent, by this acquainting themselves, and accustoming themselves to his presence, in all their actions, and meditations in this life, they shall see him, and be glad to see him, even in Judgement, in the next.

But the seeing of God principally intended in this place, is that Visio beatifica, to see God so, as that that very seeing makes the seer Blessed, They are Blessed therefore, because they see him; And that is videre Essentiam, to see the very Essence and nature of God. For, that we shall see God in his Essence, is evident enough by that place of the Apostle, Now we are the Sons of God, (that is, now by this purity of heart, and testimony of a rectified conscience, we are so) And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, (that is, there are degrees of glory reserved for us, that yet do not appear to our understanding, we cannot conceive them) But we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, (that is, receive incorruption and glory in our bodies, as he hath done) And then the reason given there, of that, is, For we shall see him, sicuti est, as he is, in his Essence; All our Beatification, and Glorification in our bodies consists in this, that we shall see him sicuti est, as he is, in his Essence. Then says S. Paul, I shall know, even as I am known, Essentially. But whether then, in the resurrection, and glorification of the body, God in his Essence be to be seen with those eyes which the body shall then have, is yet, and hath been long a question. The Scripture goes no farther, then to S. John's Sicuti est, I shall see him as he is, and to S. Pauls Cognoscam, I shall know him as I am known; but with what eyes I shall see him, (without any perplexing curiosities) we will look a little into the Fathers, and into the School, and conclude so, as may best advance our edification.

For the Fathers, it may be sufficient to insist upon S. Augustine; not because he is always to be preferred before all, but because in this point, he hath best collected all that were before him, and is best followed of all that come after. S. Augustine had written against a Bishop who was of the Sect of the Anthropomorphits, whose Heresy was that God had a Body; and in opposition of him, S. Augustine had said, Istius corporis oculos nec videre Deum, nec visuros, That God was so far from having a Body, that our bodily eyes, howsoever glorified, should never see God. In that Treatise S. Augustine had been very bitter against that Bishop, and being warned of it, in another Epistle to another Bishop, Fortunatianus, he repents, and retracts his bitterness, but his opinion, his doctrine, That our bodily eyes should never see God, S. Augustine never retracted. He professes ingenuously, Longè tolerabilius corpori arrogare, quàm Deo derogare, That he could be more easily brought to attribute so much too much to the body of man, as to say that with these bodily eyes he should see God, then to derogate so much from God, as to say that he had a body that might be seen; but because he saw that one might follow on the other, he denied both, and did no more believe that mans eyes should see God, then that God had a body to be seen.

And this negative opinion of his, S. Augustine builds upon S. Ambrose, and upon S. Jerome too, who seem to deny that the Angels themselves see the Essence of God; and upon Athanasius, who, against the Arrians opinion, That God the Father only was invisible, but the Son, (who was not equal to the Father) and the Holy Ghost, (who was not equal to the Son) might be seen, argues and maintains, that the whole Trinity is equal in it self, and equally invisible to us. So doth he also assist himself with that of Nazianzen, Quando Deus visus, salva sua invisibilitate visus, howsoever God be said to have been seen, it is said in some such sense, as that even then when he was seen, he was invisible. He might have added Chrysostomes testimony too, Ipsum quod Deus est, nec Angeli viderunt, nec Archangeli; Neither Angel nor Archangel did ever see that Nature, which is the very Essence of God: And he might have added Areopagita too, who expresses it with equal elegancy and vehemency, Dei nec sententia est, nec ratio, nec opinio, nec sensus, nec phantasia: If we bring the very Nature and Essence of God into question, we can give no judgement upon it, (non sententia) we can make no probable discourse of it, (non ratio) we can frame no likely opinion, or conjecture in it, (non opinio) we cannot prepare our selves with any thing which hath fallen under our senses, (non sensus) nor with any thing which we can bring studiously, or which can fall casually into our fancy, or imagination, (non phantasia.) And upon the whole matter, and all the evidence, he joins in this verdict with S. Jerome, Tunc cernitur, cum invisibilis creditur; God is best seen by us, when we confess that he cannot be seen of us. S. Augustine denies not, That our eyes shall be spiritual eyes, but in what proportion spiritual, or to what particular use spiritual, he will not pretend to know: Vtrum in simplicitatem spiritus cedat, it a ut totus homo jam sit spiritus, whether the body of man shall be so attenuated and rarified, as that the whole man shall become spirit, Aut animam adjuvet corpus ad videndum, whether the body shall contribute and assist the faculties of the soul, as in this life it doth, Fateor me non alicubi legisse, quod existimarem sufficere, ad docendum, aut ad discendum, says that blessed and sober Father, I confess I never read any thing that I thought sufficient to rectify mine own judgement, much less to change another's: But to all those places of Scripture, which are to this purpose, That the Angels see the face of God, and that we shall be like the Angels, and see God face to face, he answers well, Facies Dei ea est, qua Deus innotescit nobis, That is the face of God to us all, by which God is known and manifested to us; in which sense, Reason is the face of God to the natural man, the Law to the Jew, and the Gospel to us; and such a sight of God, doth no more put such a power of seeing in our bodily eyes, then it puts a face upon God: We shall see God face to face, and yet God shall have no face to be seen, nor we bodily eyes to see him by: For, Non legi, That, I have not read, says he; This, says he, I have read, Regi incorruptibili, & invisibili, Vnto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, &c. Neither dare I, says S. Augustine, sever those things which the Spirit of God hath joined, Vt dicam incorruptibilem quidem in saecula saeculorum, invisibilem autem in hoc saeculo, I dare not say that God is immortal in this world, and in the next world too, but invisible in this world only, and visible in the next, for the Holy Ghost hath pronounced him invisible, as far as immortal.

Si rogas, says he, if you press me, Cannot God then be seen? Yes, I confess he can. If you ask me, how? Cum vult, & sicuti vult, He may be seen when he will, and how he will. If you pursue it, can he not be seen in his Essence? yes, he can; If you proceed farther, and ask me how again? I can say no more, says he, then Christ says, Erimus sicut Angeli, we shall be like the Angels, and we shall see God, so as the Angels do, but they see him not with bodily eyes, nor as an object, which is that that S. Ambrose, and S. Hicrome, and S. Chrysostom intend, when they deny that the Angels see the Essence of God, that is, they see him not otherwise then by understanding him. All agree in this resolution, Solus Deus videt cor, & solum cor videt Deum, Only God can see the heart of man and only the heart of man can see God: For, in this world, our bodily eyes do not see bodies, they see but colors and dimensions, they see not bodies; much less shall our eyes, though spiritual, see spirits in heaven; least of all, that Spirit, in comparison of of whom, Angels, and our spirits are but grosse bodies.

So far the Fathers lead us towards a determination herein; and thus far the School; Nulla visio naturalis in terris; Here, in this life, neither the eyes, nor the mind of the most subtle, and most sanctified man can see the Essence of God: Nulla visio corporalis in coelis, The bodily eyes of no man, in the highest stare of glorification in heaven, can see the Essence of God: Nulla visio comprehensiva omnino, That faculty of man, which shall see the Essence of God in heaven, yet shall not comprehend that Essence; for to comprehend, is not to know a thing, as well as I can know it, but to know it as well as that thing can be known; and so only God himself can see, and know, that is, comprehend God.

To end all, in the whole body of the Scriptures we have no light, that our bodily eyes shall be so enlightened in the Resurrection, as to see the Essence of God; For, when Job says, In carne mea, In my flesh I shall see God, and Oculi mei videbunt, Mine eyes shall see God, (if these words must necessarily be understood of the last Resurrection, which some Expositors deny, and Calvin in particular, understands them of a particular resurrection from that calamity which lay upon Job at that time, and of his confidence that God would raise him again, even in this life) yet howsoever, and to which resurrection soever you refer them, the words must be understood thus, In my flesh, that is, when my soul shall re-assume this flesh in the Resurrection, In that flesh I shall see God; he doth not say, That flesh shall, but He, in that flesh, shall. So when he adds Oculi mei, Mine eyes shall do it, he intends Oculos internos, of which the Apostle speaks, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. So then, a faculty to see him so, in his Essence, with bodily eyes, we find not in Scripture; But yet in the Scriptures we do find, that we shall see him so, Sicuti est, As he is, in his Essence; How? It is a safe answer which S. Augustine gives in all such questions, Meliùs affirmamus, de quibus minimè dubitamus, Only those things are safely affirmed, and resolved, which admit no doubt: This hath never admitted any doubt, but that our soul, and her faculties shall be so exalted in that state of glory, as that in those internal faculties of the soul, so exalted, we shall see the very Essence of God, which no measure of the light of grace, communicated to any, the most fanctified man here, doth effect, but only the light of glory there shall. And therefore this being clear, that in the faculties of our souls we shall see him, Restat ut de illa vision secundum interiorem hominem certissimi simus, says that blessed and sober Father, As our reason is satisfied that the Saints in heaven shall see God so, so let our consciences be satisfied, that we have an interest in that state, and that we in particular shall come to that sight of God; Et cor mundum ad illam visionem praeparemus, Let us not abuse our selves with false assurances, nor rest in any other, then this, that we have made clean, and pure our very hearts, for only such shall see God. Omnis meridies diluculum habuit, (as the same Father continues this Meditation) The brightest non had a faint twi-light, and break of day; The sight of God which we shall have in heaven, must have a Diluculum, a break of day here; If we will see his face there, we must see it in some beams here: And to that purpose, Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, (as S. Augustine hath collected out of several places of Scripture) Every sense is called sight, for there is Odora & vide, and Gusta & vide, Taste and See how sweet, and Smell and See what a savor of life the Lord is; So S. John turned about, To see a voice, There Hearing was Sight; And so our Savior Christ says, Palpate & videte, and there Feeling is Seeing. All things concur to this Seeing, and therefore in all the works of your senses, and in all your other faculties, See ye the Lord; Hear him in his word, and so see him; Speak to him in your prayers, and so see him; Touch him in his Sacrament, and so see him; Present holy and religious actions unto him, and so see him.

Davids heart was towards Absalon, says that Story: Job saw that, and, as every man will be forward to further persons growing in favor, (for so it should be done to him, whom the King will honor) Ioah plotted and effected Absalons return, but yet Absalon saw not the Kings face in two years. Beloved in Christ Jesus, the heart of your gracious God is set upon you; and we his servants have told you so, and brought you thus near him, into his Court, into his house, into the Church, but yet we cannot get you to see his face, to come to that tenderness of conscience, as to remember and consider, that all your most secret actions are done in his sight and his presence; Caesars face, and Caesars inscription you can see; The face of the Prince in his coin you can rise before the Sun to see, and sit up till mid-night to see; but if you do not see the face of God upon every piece of that money too, all that money is counterfeit; If Christ have not brought that fish to the hook, that brings the money in the mouth, (as he did to Peter) that money is ill fished for; If nourishing of suits, and love of contention amongst others, for your own gain have brought it, it is out of the way of that counsel, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob; Innocens manibus, & mundus corde, either such an innocence, as never fouled the hands, or such an innocency as hath washed them clean again, such an innocency as hath kept you from corrupt getting, or such an innocency as hath restored us, by restoring that, which was corruptly got. It is testified of Solomon, That he exceeded all the Kings of the Earth, for Wisdom, and for Riches, and all the Earth sought the face of Solomon; A greater then Solomon is here, for Wisdom, and Riches; your wisdom is foolishness, and your riches beggary, if you see not the face of this Solomon; If either you have studied, or practised, or judged, when his back is towards you, that is, if you have not done all, as in his presence. You are in his presence now; go not out of it, when you go from hence. Amor rerum terrenarum, viscus pennarum spiritualium; God hath given you the wings of Doves, and the eyes of Eagles to see him now, in this place; If in returning from this place, you return to your former ways of pleasure or profit, this is a breaking of those Doves wings, and a cieling of those Eagles eyes. Coge cor tuum cogitare divina, compelle, urge, says that Father; Here, in the Church, thou canst not choose but see God, and raise thy heart towards him: But when thou art returned to thy several distractions, that vanities shall pull thine eyes, and obtrectation, and libellous defamation of others shall pull thine ears, and profit shall pull thy hands, then Coge, compelle, urge. force and compell thy heart, and press, even in that thrust of temptations, to see God. What God is in his Essence, or what our sight of the Essence of God shall be in the next world, dispute not too curiously, determine nor too peremptorily; Cogitans de Deo, si finivisti, Deus non est, is excellently said by S. Augustine: If thou begin to think, what the Essence of God is, and canst bring that thought to an end, thou hast mistaken it; whensoever thou canst say, Deus est, this is God, or God is this, non est Deus, that is not God, God is not that, for he is more, infinitely more then that. But, non pots dicere, Deus est, thou art not able to say, This is God, God is this; Saltem dicas, hoc Deus non est; Be able to say, This is not God, God is not this: The belly is not God; Mammon is not God; Mauzzim, the God of Forces, Oppression, is not God; Belphegor, Licentiousness, is not God: Howsoever God sees me, to my confusion, yet I do not see God, when I am sacrificing to these, which are not Gods.

Let us begin at that which is nearest us, within us, pureness of heart, and from thence receive the testimony of Gods Privy Seal, the impression of his Spirit, that we are Blessed; and that leads us to the Great Seal, the full fruition of all; we shall see God, there, where he shall make us drink of the Rivers of his pleasures; There is fullness, plenty; but lest it should be a Feast of one day, or of a few, as it is said, they are rivers, so it is added, with thee is the Fountain of life; An abundant river, to convey, and a perpetual spring, to feed, and continue that river: And then, wherein appears all this? In this, for in thy light we shall see light; In seeing God, we shall see all that concerns us, and see it always; No night to determine that day, no cloud to overcast it. We end all, with S. Augustines devout exclamation, Deus bone, qui erunt illi oculi! Glorious God, what kind of eyes shall they be! Quam decori! quam sereni! How bright eyes, and how well set! Quam valentes! quam constantes! How strong eyes, and how durable! Quid arbitremur? quid aestimemus? quid loquemur? What quality, what value, what name shall we give to those eyes? Occurrunt verba quotidiana & sordidata vilissimis rebus; I would say something of the beauty and glory of these eyes, and can find no words, but such, as I my self have mis-used in lower things. Our best expressing of it, is to express a desire to come to it, for there only we shall learn what to call it. That so, we may go the Apostles way, to his end, That being made free from sin, and become servants to God, we may have our fruit unto holiness, and then, the End, life everlasting.

Sermon XIII. Preached in Lent, To the King. April 20. 1630.

JOB 16. v. 17, 18, 19.

Not for any injustice in my hands: Also my prayer is pure. O earth cover not thou my blood; and let my cry have no place. Also now behold, my Witness is in heaven, and my Record is on high.

IObs friends (as, in civility we are fain to call them, because they came upon a civil pretence, to visit him, and to comfort him) had now done speaking. It was long before they would have done. Andivi frequenter talia, says Job to them, I have often heard such things as you say, they are not new to me; and therefore, Onerosi consolatores, Miserable comforters, troublesome comforters are ye all, old and new. But, Numquid finem habebunt verba ventosa, says he, Shall your windy words, your empty, your aery, your frothy words have any end? Now they have an end. Eliphas ends his charge in the last, and in this Chapter Job begins to answer for himself. But how? By a middle way. Job does not justify himself; but yet he does not prevaricate, he does not betray his Innocence neither. For there may be a pusillanimity even towards God; A man may over-clog his own conscience, and bely himself in his confessions, out of a distempered jealousy, and suspicion of Gods purposes upon him; Job does not so. Many men have troubled themselves more, how the soul comes into man, then how it goes out; They wrangle, whether it comes in by Infusion from God, or by Propagation from parents, and never consider, whether it shall return to Him that made it, or to him that marred it, to Him that gave it, or to him that corrupted it. So, many of our Expositors upon this Book of Job, have spent themselves upon the Person, and the Place, and the Time, who Job was, when Job was, where Job was, and whether there were ever any such person as Job, or no; and have passed over too slightly the senses, and doctrines of the Book. S. Gregory hath, (to good use) given us many Morals, (as he calls them) upon this Book, but, truly, not many Literals, for, for the most part, he bends all the sufferings of Job figuratively, mystically upon Christ. Origen, who (except S. Gregory) hath written most of this Book; and yet gone but a little way into the book neither, doth never pretend much literalness in his expositions, so that we are not to look for that at Origens hands. We must not therefore refuse the assistance of later men, in the exposition of this Text, Not for any Injustice in my hands, &c.

In this Chapter, and before this text, we have Job's Anatomy, Job's Sceleton, the ruins to which he was reduced. In the eighth verse he takes knowledge, That God had filled him with leanness and wrinckles, and that those wrinckles, and that leanness were witnesses against him, and, That they that hated him, had torn him in pieces, in the ninth verse. In the eleventh verse, That God had delivered him over to the ungodly, and, That God himself had shook him in pieces, and set him up as a mark to shoot at, in the twelfe verse, That God had cleft his reins, and poured out his gall upon the ground, in the thirteenth verse, and in the fourteenth, That he broke him, breach after breach, and run over him as a Gyant, and at last, in the sixteenth verse, That foulness was upon his face, and the shadow of death upon his eyelids. Now, let me ask in Job's behalf Gods question to Ezekiel, Putasnè vivent ossaista? Doest thou believe that these bones can live? Can this Anatomy, this Sceleton, these ruins, this rubbidge of Job speak? It can, it does in this Text, Not for any Injustice in my hands, &c.

And, in these words, it delivers us, first, The confidence of a godly man; Do God what he will, say ye what ye will, That because I am more afflicted then other men, therefore I am guilty of more heinous sins then other men, yet I know, that whatsoever Gods end be in this proceeding, It is not for any Injustice in my hands, Also my prayer is pure. Secondly, it delivers us that kind of infirme anguish, and indignation, that halfedistemper, that expostulation with God, which sometimes comes to an excess even in good and godly men, O earth cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place; I desire not that any thing should be concealed or disguised, let all that ever I have done be written in my forehead, and read by all men. And then thirdly and lastly, it delivers us the foundation of his confidence, and the recovery from this his infirmity, and from his excess in the manner of expressing it, if he have been over-bold therein, My Witness is in heaven, and my Record is on high; God is his Witness, that that which they charge him with, is false, That that which he says in his own discharge (in that sense that he says it) is true; And in these three, Job's Protestation, Not guilty, Job's Manifest, I would all the world knew all, Job's Establishment, and consolidation, My Witness is in Heaven; in these three branches, and in some fruits, which, in passing, we shall gather from them, we shall determine all that appertains to these words.

I remember S. Gregory, in handling one text, professes, that he will endeavor to handle it so, Vt ejus altitudo non sic fieret nescientibus cognita, ut esset scientibus onerosa; So, as that the weakest understanding might comprehend the highest points, and the highest understanding not be weary to hear ordinary doctrines so delivered. Indeed it is a good art, to deliver deep points in a holy plainness, and plain points in a holy delightfulness: for, many times, one part of our auditory understands us not, when we have done, and so they are weary; and another part understands us before we begun, and so they are weary. To day, my humble petition must be, That you will be content to hear plain things plainly delivered. Of which, be this the first, That Job found himself under the oppression, and calumny of that mis-interpretation, that Kings themselves, and States, and Churches have not escaped.

The tore of Siloe fell and slew them, therefore they were the greater sinners in Jerusalem; this man prospers not in the world, Therefore he proceeds not in the fear of God; the heir wastes the estate, therefore the estate was ill gotten, are hasty conclusions in private affaires. Treasures are empty, therefore there are unnecessary wastes; Discontented persons murmure, therefore things are ill carried; our neigbours prosper by Action, therefore we perish by not appearing, are hasty conclusions in State affaires. This man is affected when he hears a blasphemous oath; and when he looks upon the general liberty of sinning; therefore he is a Puritan; That man loves the ancient forms, and Doctrines, and Disciplines of the Church, and retains, and delights in the reverend names of Priest, and Altar, and Sacrifice, therefore he is a Papist, are hasty conclusions in Church affaires. When we do fall under these mis-interpretations, and ill applications of Gods proceedings, we may say with Job, I also could speak, as you do; if your soul were in my souls stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you, conclude desperately, speak scornefully of you. But I will not; yet I will not betray my self, I will make my protestation, what end soever God propose to himself in this his proceeding, It is not for any injustice in my hands, Also my prayer is pure.

In these two, cleanness of hands, pureness of Prayer, are all religious duties comprehended: for clean hands denote justice and righteousness towards men, and pure prayer Devotion, and the service and worship of God. Job protests for both. Therefore does Origen say of Job, Certè puto, quod & audeo dicere, I do verily believe, and therefore may be bold to say, that for constancy and fidelity towards God, Job did exceed, Non solum homines, sed & ipsos Angelos, Not only men, but Angels themselves; for, says Origen, Job did not only suffer Absque culpa, without being guilty of those things to which his afflictions were imputed, but he suffered Cum gratiarum actionibus, he said grace when he had no meat, when God gave him Stones for Bread, and Scorpions for Fish; he praised God as much for the affliction it self, as for his former, or his subsequent benefits and blessings. Not that Job was merely innocent, but that he was guilty of no such things, as might confer those conclusions, which, from his afflictions, his enemies raised. If I justify my self, says Job, Mine own mouth shall condemn me; Every self-justification is a self-condemnation; when I give judgement for my self, I am therein a witness against my self. If I say I am perfect, says he in the same place, even that proves me perverse; If I say I never go out of the way, I am out then, and therefore because I say so: I have sinned, says he, What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men? Job felt the hand of destruction upon him, and he felt the hand of preservation too; and it was all one hand; This is Gods Method, and his alone, to preserve by destroying. Men of this world do sometimes repair, and recompense those men whom they have oppressed before, but this is an after recompense; Gods first intention even when he destroys is to preserve, as a Physicians first intention, in the most distasteful physic, is health; even Gods demolitions are super-edifications, his Anatomies, his dissections are so many re-compactings, so many resurrections; God winds us off the Skein, that he may weave us up into the whole piece, and he cuts us out of the whole piece into pieces, that he may make us up into a whole garment.

But for all these humiliations, and confessions, Job doth not wave his protestation; My rightcousness I hold fast, and my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. Not that I shall never sin, but never leave any sin unrepented; And then, my heart cannot reproach me of a repented sin, without reproaching God himself. The Sun must not set upon my anger; much less will I let the Sun set upon the anger of God towards me, or sleep in an unrepeted sin. Every nights sleep is a Nunc dimittis; then the Lord lets his servant depart in peace. Thy lying down is a valediction, a parting, a taking leave, (shall I say so?) a shaking hands with God; and, when thou shakest hands with God, let those hands be clean. Enter into thy grave, thy metaphorical, thy quotidian grave, thy bed, as thou entredstinto the Church at first, by Water, by Baptism; Re-baptise thy self every night, in Job's Snow water, in holy tears that may cool the inordinate lusts of thy heart, and with-hold unclean abuses of those hands even in that thy grave, thy Bed; And evermore remember Job's fear and jealouste in that place, That when he had washed himself in Snow water, Abominabuntur me vestimenta mea, Mine own clothes will make me foul again. Thy flesh is thy clothes; and to this mischievous purpose of fouling thy hands with thine own clothes, thou hast most clothes on when thou art naked; Then, in that nakedness, thou art in most danger of fouling thy hands with thine own clothes. Miserable man! that couldest have no use of hands, nor any other organ of sense, if there were no other creature but thy self, & yet, if there were no other creature but thy self, couldest sin upon thy self, and foul thy hands with thine own hands. How much more then, if thou strike with those hands, by oppression in thy office, or shut up those hands, and that which is due to another, in them? Sleep with clean hands, either kept clean all day, by integrity; or washed clean, at night, by repentance; and whensoever thou wakest, though all Job's messengers thunder about thee, and all Job's friends multiply mis-interpretations against thee, yet Job's protestation shall be thy protestation, what end soever God have in this proceeding, It is not for any injustice in my hands, and the other part of his protestation too, Also my prayer is pure.

As clean hands denote all righteousness towards man, so do pure prayers all devotion, and worship, and service of God. For, we are of the household of the faithful, and the service which we are to do, as his household servants, is prayer; for, his house is the house of prayer. And therein only is it possible to us, to fulfill that Commandment, pray continually, that continually, in all our familiar actions, we may serve God, glorify God, (whether we eat or drink, we may do it to his glory) and every glorifying, every thanksgiving, is prayer; there cannot be a more effectual prayer for future, then a thankful acknowledgement of former benefits. Petitc, & dabitur; How often is that repeated in the Gospel, and in the Epistles? Ask, and it shall be given yee; no grant without prayer, no denial upon prayer.

It must be prayer, and my prayer; Also my prayer is pure. I must not rely upon the prayers of others; not of Angels; Though they be Ministerial spirits, and not only to God himself, but between God and Man, and so, as they present our prayers, no doubt pour out their own for us too, yet we must not rely upon the prayers of Angels. Nor of Saints; Though they have a more personal, and experimental sense of our miseries then Angels have, we must not rely upon the prayers of Saints. No, nor upon the prayers of the Congregation, though we see, and hear them pray, except we make our selves parts of the Congregation, by true devotion, as well as by personal presence.

It must be mine own prayer, and no prayer is so truly, or so properly mine, as that that the Church hath delivered and recommended to me. In sudden and unpremeditate prayer, I am not always I; and when I am not my self, my prayer is not my prayer. Passions and affections sometimes, sometimes bodily infirmities, and sometimes a vain desire of being eloquent in prayer, aliens me, withdraws me from my self, and then that prayer is not my prayer. Though that prayer which Luther is said to have said upon his death-bed, Oremus pro Domine Deo nostro Iesu Christo, Let us pray for our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, may admit a good sense, because Christ being (as S. Augustine says often) Caput & Corpus, both the Head and the Body, as he is the Body, the Church, subject to so many pressures, he had need to be prayed for; yet, his state being considered at that time, almost at the last gasp, he being scarce he, that prayer can scarce be called his prayer.

In that African Council, in which S. Augustine was present, to remedy the abuse of various forms of Prayers, which divers Churches assumed, it was decreed that no prayers should be received in the Church, but such as were composed, or approved by the Council. We have proceeded so too; No prayers received for public use, but those that are delivered by public authority; and so, they become My prayers. As the Law of the Land is my Law, and I have an inheritance in it, so the prayers of the Church are my prayers, and I have an interest in them, because I am a Son of that family. My Baptism is mine, and my Absolution is mine, because the Church hath given them to me, and so are her prayers mine. You would scarce thank a man for an extemporal Elegy, or Epigram, or Panegyrique in your praise, if it cost the Poet, or the Orator no pains. God will scarce hearken to sudden, inconsidered, irreverent prayers. Men will study even for Complements; and Princes and Ambassadors will not speak to one another, without thinking what they will say. Let not us put God to speak to us so, (Preaching is Gods speaking to us) Let not us speak to God so, (Praying is our speaking to God) not extemporally, unadvisedly, inconsiderately. Prayer must be my prayer; and Quid habeo quod non accepi? Even in this kind, what have I that I have not received? I have received my prayer altogether, as a bundle of Myrrhe, in that prayer which I have received from my Savior, and then I have received it appropriated to me, and apportioned to my particular necessities, and sacrifices, by the piety and wisdom of the Church; so it is my prayer, and, as Job's prayer was, pure prayer, Also my prayer is pure.

The Holy Ghost hath so marshalled and disposed the qualifications of Prayer in this place, as that there is no pure prayer without clean hands. The lifting up of hands was the gesture of prayer, even among the heathen, Manibus supplex or are supinis. Amongst the Jews, Prayer, and the lifting up of hands, was one and the same thing, Let the lifting up of my hands be an evening Sacrifice; And, longer then Moses hands were lifted up, his prayer had no effect. All this, perchance therefore especially, that this lifting up of my hands, brings them into my sight; then I can see them, and see whether they be clean, or no, and consider, that if I see impurity in my hands, God sees impurity in my Prayer. Can I think to receive ease from God with that hand that oppresses another? Mercy from God with that hand that exercises cruelty upon another? Or Bounty from God with that hand that with-holds right from another? Prayer is our hand, but it must be a clean hand, pure prayer.

That Emperor whom no religion would lose, Constantine, (for, the heathen deified him, and the Christians canonized him, They made him a god, and we came as near as we could, we made him a Saint) that Emperor was coined Praying. Other Emperors were coined Triumphing, in Chariots, or preparing for Triumphs, in Battles, and Victories, but he, Constantine, in that posture, Kneeling, Praying. He knew his coyn would pass through every family; and to every family he desired to be an example of piety; Every piece of single money was a Catechism, and testified to every Subject all this, surely he will graciously receive my Petition, and look graciously upon me, when I kneel, for, behold he kneels to, and he exhibits petitions to that God, from whom he acknowledges, that he needs as much as I can from him. And yet this Symbolical, and Catechistical coyn of Constantines, was not so convincing, nor so irrefragable a testimony of his piety, (for Constantine might be coined praying, and yet never pray) as when we see as great a Prince as he, actually, really, personally, daily, duly at prayer with us.

To end this branch, let not thy prayer be lucrative, nor vindicative, pray not for temporal superfluities, pray not for the confusion of them that differ from thee in opinion, or in manners, but condition thy prayer, inanimate thy prayer with the glory of God, and thine own everlasting happiness, and the edification of others, and this prayer is Job's prayer, pure prayer. And farther we enlarge not his Protestation, My hands are clean, I do no man wrong; my prayer is pure, I mock not God. But because continuing under so great afflictions, men would not believe this, he proceeds, perchance to some excess, and inconsiderateness, in desiring a manifestation of all his actions, O Earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

Difference of Expositions makes us stop here, upon this inquisition, in what affection Job spake this. Whether this were merely an adjuration of the earth, not to cover his blood, but that his miseries, and the cry thereof might pass, and be transferred over all the world; or whether it had the nature of an imprecation upon himself, That he wished, or admitted against himself, that which is against the nature of every man to admit, that is, to have all that ever he had done, published, declared, manifested to all the world. S. Gregory, according to his manner, through all this book, which is, to apply all Job's sufferings to Christ, and to make Job some kind of type of Christ, makes no more of this, but that it is an adjuration of the earth, in the person and behalf of Christ, not to suck in, or smoother his blood, but that it might be notified, and communicated to all the world. And truly, this is a good use, but it cannot be said to be a good sense of the place, because it cannot consist with the rest of the words.

Amongst our later men, Cajetan, (and he, from a Rabbi of the Jews, Aben Ezra) takes this to be an adjuration of the Earth, as Gregory does, but not, as Gregory does, in the person of Christ, but of Job himself; That Job adjures the earth, not to cover his blood, that is, not to cover the shedding of his blood, not to conspire with the malice of his enemies so much, as to deny him burial when he was dead, that they which trod him down alive, might not triumph over him after his death, or conclude that God did certainly forsake him alive, since he continued these declarations against him, when he was dead. And this also may have good use, but yet it is too narrow, and too shallow, to be the sense of this phrase, this elegancy, this vehemency of the Holy Ghost, in the mouth of Job.

S. Chrysostom, I think, was the first that gave light to the sense of this place. He says, that such men, as are (as they think) over-punished, have naturally a desire, that the world knew their faults; that so, by comparing their faults with their punishments, there might arise some pity and commiseration of their state. And, surely, this, that Chrysostom says, is true, and natural; for, if two men were to be executed together, by one kind of death, the one for stealing a Sheep, (perchance in hunger) the other for killing his Father, certainly, he that had but stollen the Sheep, would be sorry the world should think their cases alike, or that he had killed a Father too. And in such an affection Job says, I am so far from being guilty of those things that are imputed to me, that I would be content, that all that ever I have done, were known to all the world.

This light, which S. Chrysost. gave to this place, shined not out, (I think) till the Reformation; for, I have not observed any Author, between Chrysostom and the Reformation, that hath taken knowledge of this interpretation; nor any of the Reformation, as from him, from Chrysostom. But, since our Authors of the Reformation, have somewhat generally pursued that sense, (Calvin hath done so, and so Tremellius, and so Piscator, and many, many more) now, one Author of the Roman Church, (one as curious and diligent in interpreting obscure places of Scripture, as any amongst them, and then more bold and confident in departing from their vulgar, and frivolous, and impertinent interpretations of Scriptures, then any amongst them) the Capuchin Bolduc, hath also pursued that sense. That sense is, that in this adjuration, or imprecation, O Earth cover not thou my blood; Blood is not literally bodily blood, but spiritual blood, the blood of the soul, exhausted by many, and heinous sins, such as they insimulated Job of. For, in this signification, is that word, Blood, often taken in the Scriptures. When God says, when you stretch forth your hands, they are full of blood, there blood is all manner of rapine, of oppression, of concussion, of violence. When David prays to be delivered from bloodguiltiness, it is not intended only, of an actual shedding of blood, for, it is in the Original, à sanguinibus, in the plural; other crimes then the actual shedding of blood, are bloody crimes. Therefore, says one Prophet, the land is full of bloody crimes; And, another, blood toucheth blood, whom the Chalde Paraprase expresses aright, Aggregant peccata peccatis, blood toucheth blood, when sin induces sin. Which place of Hosea, S. Gregory interprets too, then blood touches blood, cum ante oculos Dei, adjunctis peccatis cruentatur anima; Then God sees a soul in her blood, when she wounds and wounds her self again, with variation of divers, or iteration of the same sins.

This then being thus established, that blood in this Text, is the blood of the soul, exhausted by sin, (for every sin is an incision of the soul, a Lancination, a Phlebotomy, a letting of the soul blood, and then, a delight in sin, is a going with open veins into a warm bath, and bleeding to death) This will be the force of Job's Admiration, or Imprecation, O Earth cover not thou my blood, I am content to stand as naked now, as I shall do at the day of Judgement, when all men shall see all mens actions, I desire no disguise, I deny, I excuse, I extenuate nothing that ever I did, I would mine enemies knew my worst, that they might study some other reason of Gods thus proceeding with me, then those heinous sins, which, from these afflictions, they will necessarily conclude against me.

But had Job been able to have stood out this trial? Was Job so innocent, as that he need not care, though all the world knew all? Perchance there may have been some excess, some inordinateness in his manner of his expressing it; we cannot excuse the vehemence of some holy men, in such expressions. We cannot say, that there was no excess in Moses his Dele me, Pardon this people, or blot my name out of thy book; or that there was no excess in S. Pauls Anathema pro fratribus, That he wished to be accursed, to be separated from Christ for his brethren. But for Job, we shall not need this excuse; for, either we may restrain his words to those sins, which they imputed to him, and then they have but the nature of that protestation, which David made so often to God, Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to mine innocency, according to the cleanness of my hands; which was not spoken by David simply, but respectively, not of all his sins, but of those which Saul pursued him for: Or, if we enlarge Job's words generally to all his sins, we must consider them to be spoken after his repentance, and reconciliation to God thereupon; If they knew, (may Job have said) how it stood between God and my soul, how earnestly I have repented, how fully he hath forgiven, they would never say, these afflictions proceeded from those sins.

And truly, so may I, so may every soul say, that is rectified, refreshed, restored, reestablished by the seals of Gods pardon, and his mercy, so the world would take knowledge of the consequences of my sins, as well as of the sins themselves, and read my leafs on both sides, and hear the second part of my story, as well as the first; so the world would look upon my temporal calamities, the bodily sicknesses, and the penuriousness of my fortune contracted by my sins, and upon my spiritual calamities, dejections of spirit, sadness of heart, declinations towards a diffidence and distrust in the mercy of God, and then, when the world sees me in this agony and bloody sweat, in this agony and bloody sweat would also see the Angels of heaven ministering comforts unto me; so they would consider me in my Peccavi, and God in his Transtulit, Me in my earnest Confessions, God in his powerful Absolutions, Me drawn out of one Sea of blood, the blood of mine own soul, and cast into another Sea, the bottomelesse Sea of the blood of Christ Jesus; so they would know as well what God hath done for my soul, as what my soul and body have done against my God; so they would read me throughout, and look upon me altogether, I would join with Job, in his confident adjuration, O Earth cover not thou my blood; Let all the world know all the sins of my youth, and of mine age too, and I would not doubt, but God should receive more glory, and the world more benefit, then if I had never sinned. This is that that exalts Job's confidence, he was guilty of nothing, that is, no such thing as they concluded upon, of nothing absolutely, because he had repented all. And from this, his confidence rises to a higher pitch then this, Nec clamor, O Earth cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

What means Job in this? Doubtful Expositors make us doubt too. Some have said, that Job desires his cry might have no place, that is, no termination, no resting place, but that his just complaint might be heard over all the world; Stunnica the Augustinian interprets it so. Some have said, that he intends by his cry, his crying sins, that they might have no place, that is, no hiding place, but that his greatest sins, and secret sins might be brought to light; Bolduc the Capuchin interprets it so; according to that use of the word Clamor, God looked for righteousness, & ecce clamorem, behold a cry; that is, sins crying in the ears of God. But there is more then so, in this phrase, in this elegancy, in this vehemency of the Holy Ghost in Job's mouth, Let my cry have no place.

In the former part, (Job's Protestation) he considered God and man; righteousness towards man in clean hands, and, in pure prayers, devotion towards God. In this part, (his Manifest) he pursues the same method, he considers man, and God; Though men knew all my sins, that should not trouble me, says he, (and that we have considered) yea, though my cry find no place, no place with God, that should not trouble me; I should be content that God should seem not to hear my prayers, but that he laid me open to that ill interpretation of wicked men, Tush, he prays, but the Lord hears him not, he cries, but God relieves him not. And yet, when wilt thou relieve me, O thou reliever of men, if not upon my cries, upon my prayers? Yet, S. Augustine hath repeated that, more then once, more then twice, Non est magnum exaudiri ad voluntatem, non est magnum; Be not over-joyed when God grants thee thy prayer. Exauditi ad voluntatem Daemones, says that Father, The Devil had his prayer granted, when he had leave to enter into the Heard of Swine; And so he had (says he, exemplifying in our present example) when he obtained power from God against Job. But all this aggravated the Devils punishment; so may it do thine, to have some prayers granted. And, as that must not over-joy thee, if it be, so if thy prayer be not granted, it must not deject thee. God suffered S. Paul to pray, and pray and pray, yet, after his thrice praying, granted him not that he prayed for. God suffered that si possibile, if it be possiblle, and that Transeat calix, Let this Cup pass, to pass from Christ himself, yet he granted it not.

But, in many of these cases, a man does easier satisfy his own mind, then other men. If God grant me not my prayer, I recover quickly, and I lay hold upon the horns of that Altar, and ride safely at that Anchor, God saw that that which I prayed for, was not so good for him, nor so good for me. But when the world shall come to say, Where is now your Religion, where is your Reformation? do not all other Rivers, as well as the Tiber, or the Poe, does not the Seine, and the Rhene, and the Maene too, begin to ebb back, and to empty it self in the Sea of Rome? why should not your Thames do so, as well as these other Rivers? Where is now your Religion, your Reformation? Were not you as good run in the same channel as others do? This is a shrewd temptation, and induces opprobrious conclusions from malicious enemies, when our cries have no place, our religious service no present acceptation, our prayers no speedy return from God. But yet because even in this, God may propose farther glory to himself, more benefit to me, and more edification even to them, at last, who, at first, made ill constructions of his proceedings, I admit, as Job admits, O Earth cover not thou my blood, (let all the world see all my faults) and let my cry have no place, (let them imagine that God hath forsaken me, and does not hear my prayers;) my satisfaction, my acquiescence arises not out of their opinion, and interpretation, that must not be my trial, but testis in coelis, My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high, which is our third, and last Consideration.

We must do in this last, as we have done in our former two parts, crack a shell, to taste the kernel, clear the words, to gain the Doctrine. I am ever willing to assist that observation, That the books of Scripture are the eloquentest books in the world, that every word in them hath his weight and value, his taste and verdure. And therefore must not blame those Translators, nor those Expositors, who have, with a particular elegancy, varied the words in this last clause of the Text, my witness, and my record. The oldest Latin Translation received this variation, and the last Latin, even Tremellius himself, (as close as he sticks to the Hebrew) retains this variation, Testis, and Conscius. And that collection, which hath been made upon this variation, is not without use, that conscius may be spoken de interno, that God will bear witness to my inward conscience; and testis, de externo, that God will, in his time, testify to the world in my behalf. But other places of Scripture will more advance that observation of the elegancy thereof, then this; for in this, the two words signify but one and the same thing, it is but witness, and witness, and no more. Not that it is easy to find in Hebrew (nor, perchance, in any language) two words so absolutely Synonymous, as to signify the same thing, without any difference, but that the two words in our Text are not both of one language, not both Hebrew. For, the first word, Gned, is an Hebrew word, but the other, Sahad, is Syriaque; and both signify alike, and equally, testem, a witness. He that hears the voice of swearing, and is a witness, says Moses, in the first word of our Text; and then the Chalde Paraphrase, intending the same thing, expresses it in the other word, Sahad. So in the contract between Laban and Jacob, Laban calls that heap of stones, which he had erected, Iegar-Sehadutha, by an extraction from the last word of our Text, Sahad; Jacob calls it, by the first word: And the reason is given in the body of the Text it self, in the Vulgate Edition, (though how it got thither, we know not, for, in the Original it is not) Vterque juxta proprietatem lingua suae; Laban spake in his language, Syriaque, Jacob spake in his, Hebrew, and both called that heap of stones, a witness.

Now, our bestowing this little time upon the clearing of the words, hath saved us much more time; for, by this means we have shortened this clause of our Text, and all that we are to consider, is but this, My witness is in heaven. And truly, that is enough; I care not though all the world knew all my faults, I care not what they conclude of Gods not granting my prayers, my witness is in heaven. To be condemned unjustly amongst men, to be ill interpreted in the acts of my Religion, is a heavy case; but yet, I have a relief in all this, my witness is in heaven.

The first comfort is, Quia in Coelis, because he, whom I rely upon, is in heaven. For, that is the foundation and Basis upon which our Savior erects that prayer, which he hath recommended unto us, Qui es in coelis, Our Father, which art in heaven; when I lay hold upon him there, in heaven, I pursue cheerfully and confidently all the other petitions, for daily bread, for forgiveness of sins, for deliverance from temptations; from, and for all. Est in coelis, he is in heaven, and then Sedet in coelis, be sits in heaven; That as I see him in that posture that Stephen saw him, standing at the right hand of the Father, and so, in procinctu, in a readiness, in a willingness to come to my succor, so I might contemplate him in a judiciary posture, in a potestative, a sovereign posture, sitting, and consider him as able, as willing to relieve me. He is in heaven, and he sits in heaven, and then habitat in coelis, he dwells in heaven, he is, and he is always there. Baals Priests could not always find him at home; Job's God, and our God is never abroad. He dwells in the heavens, and, (as it is expressed there) In excelsis, he dwells on high; so high, that, (as it is there added) God humbles himself, to behold the things that are in heaven. With what amazedness must we consider the humiliation of God, in descending to the earth, lower then so, to hell, when even his descending unto heaven, is a humiliation? God humbles himself, when he beholds any thing lower then himself, though Cherubins, though Seraphins, though the humane nature, the body of his own, and only eternal Son; and yet he beholds, considers, studies us, worms of the earth, and no men.

This then is Job's, and our first comfort, Quia in coelis, because he is in heaven, and sits in heaven, and dwells in heaven, in the highest heaven, and so, sees all things. But then, if God see, and say nothing, David apprehends that for a most dangerous condition; and therefore he says, Be not silent, O Lord, lest if thou be silent, I perish. And again, Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked is opened against me: And, Lord, let thy mercy be as forward as their malice. And therefore, as God, from that height, sees all, (and the strictest examination that we put upon any Witness, is, that if he pretend to testify any thing upon his knowledge, we ask, how he came by that knowledge, and if he be oculatus testis, a Witness that saw it, this is good evidence) as God is to this purpose, all eye, and sees all, so for our farther comfort, he descends to the office of being a Witness, There is a Witness in heaven.

But then, God may be a Witness, and yet not my Witness, and in that, there is small comfort, if God be a Witness on my adversaries side, a Witness against me. Even I know, and am a Witness, saith the Lord; that is, a Witness of the sins, which I know by thee. And that is that which Job, with so much tenderness apprehended, Thou renewest thy witnesses against me; Thou sent'st a witness against me, in the Sabaeans, upon my servants; and then, thou renewedst that witness in the Caldaeans upon my cattle; and then, thou renewedst that, in thy storms and tempests, upon my children. All this while God was a Witness, but not his witness, but a witness on his adversaries side. Now, if our own heart, our own conscience condemn us, this is shrewd evidence, says S. John; for mine own conscience, single, is a thousand witnesses against me. But then, (says the Apostle there) God is greater then the heart; for, (says he) he knows all things; He knows circumstances of sin, as well as substance; and, that, we seldom know, seldom take knowledge of. If then mine own heart be a thousand, God, that is greater, is ten thousand witnesses, if he witness against me. But if he be my Witness, a Witness for me, as he always multiplies in his ways of mercy, he is thousands of thousands, millions of millions of witnesses in my behalf, for there is no condemation, no possible condemnation, to them that are in him; not, if every grain of dust upon the earth were an Achitophel, and gave counsel against me, not if every sand upon the shore were a Rabshakeh, and railed against me, not if every atome in the air were a Satan, an Adversary, an Accuser, not if every drop in the Sea, were an Abaddon, an Apollyon, a Destroyer, there could be no condemuation, if he be my Witness. If he be my Witness, he proceeds thus in my behalf, his Spirit bears witness with my spirit, for mine inward assurance, that I stand established in his favor, and, either by an actual deliverance, or by some such declaration, as shall preserve me from fainting, if I be not actually delivered, he gives a farther testimony in my behalf. For, he is in Heaven, and he sits in Heaven, and he dwells in Heaven, in the highest Heaven, and sees all, and is a Witness, and my Witness; there is the largeness of our comfort.

But will all this come home to Job's end and purpose; That he need not care though all men knew all his faults, he need not care though God passed over his prayers, because God is his Witness; what declarations soever he had in himself, would the world believe, that God testified in his behalf, when they saw his calamities multiplied upon him, and his prayers neglected? If they will not, herein lyes his, and our final comfort, That he that is my Witness, is in the highest Heaven, there is no person above him, and therefore He that is my Witness, is my Judge too. I shall not be tried by an arbitrary Court, where it may be wisdom enough, to follow a wise leader, and think as he thinks. I shall not be tried by a Jury, that had rather I suffered, then they fasted, rather I lost my life, then they lost a meal. Nor tried by Peers, where Honor shall be the Bible. But I shall be tried by the King himself, then which no man can propose a Nobler trial, and that King shall be the King of Kings too; for, He, who in the first of the Revelation, is called The faithful Witness, is, in the same place, called The Prince of the Kings of the earth; and, as he is there produced as a Witness, so, He is ordained to be the Judge of the quick and the dedd, and so, All Judgement is committed to him. He that is my Witness, is my Judge, and the same person is my Jesus, my Savior, my Redeemer; He that hath taken my nature, He that hath given me his blood. So that he is my Witness, in his own cause, and my Judge, but of his own Title, and will, in me, preserve himself; He will not let that nature, that he hath invested, perish, nor that treasure, which he hath poured out for me, his blood, be ineffectual. My Witness is in Heaven, my Judge is in Heaven; my Redeemer is in Heaven, and in them, who are but One, I have not only a constant hope, that I shall be there too, but an evident assurance, that I am there already, in his Person.

Go then in this peace, That you always study to preserve this testification of the Spirit of God, by outward evidences of Sanctification. You are naturally composed of four Elements, and three of those four are evident, and unquestioned; The fourth Element, the element of Fire, is a more litigious element, more problematical, more disputable. Every good man, every true Christian, in his Metaphysicks,(for, in a regenerate man, all is Metaphysical, supernatural) hath four Elements also; and three of those four are declared in this text. First, a good Name, the good opinion of good men, for honest dealing in the world, and religious discharge of duties towards God, That there be no injustice in our hands, Also that our prayer be pure. A second Element is a good conscience in my self, That either a holy wariness before, or a holy repentance after, settle me so in God, as that I care not though all the world knew all my faults. And a third element is, my Hope in God, that my Witness which is in Heaven, will testify for me, as a witness in my behalf, here, or acquit me, as a merciful Judge, hereafter. Now, there may be a fourth Element, an Infallibility of final perseverance, grounded upon the eternal knowledge of God; but this is, as the Element of fire, which may be, but is not, at least, is not so discernable, so demonstrable as the rest. And therefore, as men argue of the Element of fire, that whereas the other elements produce creatures in such abundance, The Earth such herds of Cattle, the Waters such shoals of Fish, the Aire such flocks of Birds, it is no unreasonable thing, to stop upon this consideration, whether there should be an element of fire, more spacious, and comprehensive then all the rest, and yet produce no Creatures; so, if thy pretended Element of Infallibility produce no creatures, no good works, no holy actions, thou mayst justly doubt there is no such element in thee. In all doubts that arise in thee, still it will be a good rule, to choose that now, which thou wouldst choose upon thy death-bed. If a temptation to Beauty, to Riches, to Honor, be proposed to thee, upon such, and such conditions, consider whether thou wouldst accept that, upon those conditions, upon thy death-bed, when thou must part with them, in a few minutes. So, when thou doubtest, in what thou shouldst place thy assurance in God, think seriously, whether thou shalt not have more comfort then, upon thy death-bed, in being able to say, I have finished my course, I have fought a good fight, I have fulfilled the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, I have clothed him when he was naked, and fed him when he was poor, then in any other thing, that thou maiest conceive God to have done for thee; And do all the way, as thou wouldst do then; prove thy element of fire, by the creatures it produces, prove thine election by thy sanctification; for that is the right method, and shall deliver thee over, infallibly, to everlasting glory at last, Amen.

Sermon XIV. Preached at White-hall, March 3. 1619.

AMOS 5.18.

Woe unto you, that desire the day of the Lord: what have yee to do with it? the day of the Lord is darkness and not light.

FOr the presenting of the woes and judgements of God, denounced by the Prophets against Judah and Israel, and the extending and applying them to others, involved in the same sins as Judah and Israel were, Solomon seems to have given us somewhat a clear direction; Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee, Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. But how if the wiseman and this scorner be all in one man, all one person? If the wiseman of this world be come to take S. Paul so literally at his word, as to think scornefully that preaching is indeed but the foolishness of preaching, and that as the Church is within the State, so preaching is a part of State government, flexible to the present occasions of time, applicable to the present dispositions of men; This fell upon this Prophet in this prophecy, Amasias the Priest of Bethel informed the King that Amos medled with matters of State, and that the Land was not able to bear his words, and to Amos himself he says, Eat thy bread in someother place, but prophecy here no more, for this is the Kings Chappel, and the Kings Court; Amos replies, I was no Prophet nor the son of a Prophet, but in an other course, and the Lord took me and said unto me, Go and Prophecy to my People. Though we find no Amasiah no mis-interpreting Priest here, (we are far from that, because we are far from having a Ieroboam to our King as he had, easy to give ear, easy to give credit to false informations) yet every man that comes with Gods Message hither, brings a little Amasiah of his own, in his own bosom, a little wisperer in his own heart, that tells him, This is the Kings Chappel, and it is the Kings Court, and these woes and judgements, and the denouncers and proclaimers of them are not so acceptable here. But we must have our own Amos, aswell as our Amasias, this answer to this suggestion, I was no Prophet, and the Lord took me and bad me prophecy. What shall I do?

And besides, since the woe in this Text is not S. John's wo? his iterated, his multiplied wo, Vae, vae, vae habitantibus terram, a woe of desolation upon the whole world (for God loves this world, as the work of his own hands, as the subject of his providence, as the Scene of his glory, as the Garden-plot that is watered by the Blood of his Son:) Since the Woe in this Text is not Esays wo, Vae genti peccatrici, an increpation and commination upon our whole Nation (for God hath not come so near to any Nation, and dealt so well with any Nation as with ours:) Since the Woe in this Text is not Ezekiels Woe, Vae Civitati sanguinum, an imputation of injustice or oppression, and consequently of a malediction laid upon the whole City (for God hath carried his woes upon other Cities, Vae Chorasin, vae Bethsaida; God hath laid his heavy hand of war and other calamities upon other Cities, that this City might see her self and her calamities long before in that glass, and so avoid them:) Since the Woe in this Text, is not the Prophets other woe, Vae domui, not a woe upon any family (for when any man in his family comes to Joshua's protestation, Ego & domus mea, As for me and my house we will serve the Lord, the Lord comes to his protestation, In mille generations, I will show mercy to thee and thy house for a thousand generations:) Since the Woe in this Text, is not Esays woe again, Vae Coronae, (for, the same Prophet tells us of what affection they are, that they are Idolaters, persons inclined to an idolatrous and superstitious Religion, and fret themselves, and curse the King and their God; we know that the Prophets Vae Coronae in that place is Vae Coronae superbiae, and the crown and height of Pride is in him, who hath set himself above all that is called God. Christian Princes know that if their Crowns were but so as they seem (all gold) they should be but so much the heavier for being all gold; but they are but Crowns of thorns gilded, specious cares, glorious troubles, and therefore no subject of pride:) To contract this, since the Woe in this Text, is no State woe, nor Church woe, for it is not Ezechiels Vae Pastoribus insipientibus, which cannot feed their flock, nor Ieremies Vae Pastoribus disperdentibus, Woe unto those lazy Shepherds, which do not feed their flock but suffer them to scatter: Since the Woe in this Text is not a woe upon the whole World, nor upon the whole Nation, nor upon the whole City, nor upon any whole Family, nor upon any whole rank or calling of men, when I have asked with Solomon, Cui vae? to whom belongs this woe? I must answer with S. Paul, Vae mihi, woe unto me if I do not tell them to whom it belongs. And therefore since in spiritual things especially charity begins with it self, I shall transferre this Vae from my self, by laying it upon them, whom your own conscience shall find it to belong unto; Vae desiderantibus diem Domini; Woe be unto them that desire the day of the Lord, &c.

But yet if these words can be narrow in respect of persons, it is strange, for in respect of the sins that they are directed upon, they have a great compass; they reach from that high fin of Presumption, and contempt, and deriding the day of the Lord, the judgements of God, and they pass through the sin of Hypocrisy, when we make shift to make the world, and to make our selves believe that we are in good case towards God, and would be glad that the day of the Lord, the day of judgement would come now; and then they come down to the deepest sin, the sin of Desperation, of an unnatural valuing of this life, when overwhelmed with the burden of other sins, or with Gods punishment for them; men grow to a murmuring weariness of this life, and to an impatient desire, and perchance to a practise of their own ends: In the first acceptation, the day of the Lord is the day of his Judgements and afflictions in this life; In the second, the day of the Lord is the day of the general judgement; And in the third, the day of the Lord, is that Crepusculum that twilight between the two lives, or rather that Meridies noctis, as the Poet calls it, that noon of night, the hour of our death and transmigration out of this world. And if any desire any of these days of the Lord, out of any of these indispositions, out of presumption, out of hypocrisy, out of desperation, he falls within the compass of this Text, and from him we cannot take off this Vae desiderantibus.

First then the Prophet directs himself most literally upon the first sin of Presumption. They were come to say, that in truth whatsoever the Prophet declaimed in the streets, there was no such thing as Dies Domini, any purpose in God to bring such heavy judgements upon them; to the Prophets themselves they were come to say, You your selves live parched and macerated in a starved and penurious fortune, and therefore you cry out that all we must die of famine too, you your selves have not a foot of land a mong all the Tribes, & therefore you cry out that all the Tribes must be carried into another Land in Captivity. That which you call the Day of the Lord is come upon you, beggary, and nakedness, and hunger, contempt, and affliction, and imprisonment is come upon you, and therefore you will needs extend this day upon the whole State, but desideramus, we would fain see any such thing come to pass, we would fain see God go about to do any such thing, as that the State should not be wise enough to prevent him. To see a Prophet neglected, because he will not flatter, to see him despised below, because he is neglected above, to see him injured, insulted upon, and really damnified, because he is despised, All this is dies mundi, and not dies Domini, it is the ordinary course of the world, and no extraordinary day of the Lord, but that there should be such a stupor and consternation of mind and conscience as you talk of, and that that should be so expressed in the countenance, that they which had been purer then snow, whiter then milk, redder then Rubies, smoother then Saphirs, should not only be, as in other cases, pale with a sudden fear, but blacker in face then a coal, as the Prophet says there, that they should not be able to set a good face upon their miseries, nor disguise them with a confident countenance, that there should be such a consternation of countenance and conscience, and then such an excommunication of Church and State, as that the whole body of the children of Israel should be without King, without Sacrifice, without Ephod, without Terafim, Desideramus, We would fain see such a time, we would fain see such a God as were so much too hard for us.

They had seen such a God before, they had known that that God had formerly brought all the people upon the face of the earth so near to an annihilation, so near to a new creation, as to be but eight persons in the general flood, they had seen that God to have brought their own numerous, and multitudinous Nation, their 600000. men that came out of Egypt to that paucity, as that but two of them are recorded to enter into the land of promise, And could they doubt what that God could do, or would do upon them? Or as Jeremiah saith, Could they bely the Lord, and say it is not he? neither shall evil come upon us, or shall we see sword and famine? God expressed his anger thrice upon this people, in their State, in their form of government, First he exprest it in giving them a King, for though that be the best form of government in it self, yet for that people at that time, God saw it not to be the fittest, and so it was extorted from him, and he gave them their King in anger. Secondly, he expressed his anger in giving them two Kings in the desection of the ten Tribes, and division of the two Kingdoms. Thirdly, he exprest his anger in leaving them without any King after this Captivity which was prophesied here.

Now of those 6000. years, which are vulgarly esteemed to be the age and term of this world, 3000. were past before the division of the Kingdom, and presently upon the division, they argued à divisibili ad corruptibile, whatsoever may be broken and divided may come to nothing. It is the devils way to come to destruction by breaking of unions. There was a contract between God and Job, because Job loved and feared him, and there the devil attempts to draw away the head from the union, God from Job, with that suggestion, Doth Job serve thee for nothing? Doest thou get any thing by this union? or doth not Job serve himself upon thee? There was a natural, an essential, an eternal union between the Father and the Son in the Trinity, and the devil sought to break that. If he could break the union in the Godhead, he saw not why he might not destroy the Godhead. The devil was Logician good enough, Omne divisibile corruptibile, whatsoever may be broken, may be annihilated. And the devil was Papist good enough, Schisma aequipollet haeresi, Whosoever is a Schismatick, departed from the obedience of the Roman Church, is easily brought within compass of heresy too, because it is a matter of faith to affirm a necessity of such an obedience. And therefore the devil attempts to make that Schism in the Trinity, with that, Si filius Deis, Make these stones bread, If thou beest the Son of God, cast thy self down from this Pinnacle, that is, do something of thy self, exceed thy commission, and never attend so punctually all thy directions from thy Father. In Job's case he would draw the head from the union; In Christs case he would alienate the Son from the Father, because division is the fore runner (and alas, but a little way the fore-runner) of destruction. And therefore assoon as that Kingdom was come to a division between ten and two Tribes, between a King of Judah, and a King of Israel, presently upon it, and in the compass of a very short time arose all those Prophets that prophesied of a destruction; assoon as they saw a division, they foresaw a destruction. And therefore when God had showed before what he could do, and declared by his Prophets then what he would do, Vae desiderantibus, Woe unto them that say, Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it: That is, that are yet confident that no such thing shall fall upon us, and confident with a scorn, and fulfill that which the Apostle saith, There shall come in the latter days scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of his comming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning at the Creation. But God shall answer their scorn with scorn, as in Ezekiel, Son of man, What is that Proverb which you have in the Land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision fails? That is, the Prophets talk of great calamities, but we are safe enough, Tell them (says the Lord) I will make their proverb to cease, I will speak and it shall come to pass; in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and per-form it.

And therefore ut quid vobis? what should you pretend to desire that day? what can ye get by that day? Because you have made a covenant with death, and are at an agreement with hell, when that Invadens flagellum, (as the Prophet with an elegant horror, if they can consist, expresses it) when that over-flowing scourge shall pass through, shall it not come to you? Why? who are you? have you thought of it before hand, considered it, digested it, and resolved, that in the worst that can fall, your vocal constancy, and your humane valor shall sustain you from all dejection of spirit? what judgement of God soever shall fall upon you, whensoever this dies Domini shall break out upon you, you have light in your selves, and by that light you shall see light, and pass through all incommodities. Be not deceived, this day of the Lord is darkness and not light, the first blast, the first breath of his indignation blows out thy candle, extinguishes all thy Wisdom, all thy Counsells, all thy Philosophical sentences, disorders thy Seneca, thy Plutarch, thy Tacitus, and all thy premeditations; for the sword of the Lord is a two-edged sword, it cuts bodily, and it cuts ghostly, it cuts temporally, and it cuts spiritually, it cuts off all worldly relief from others, and it cuts off all Christian patience, and good interpretation of Gods correction in thine own heart.

Vt quid vobis? what can you get by that day? can you imagine that though you have been benighted under your own obduration and security before, yet when this day of the Lord, the day of affliction shall come, afflictio dabit intellectum, the day will bring light of it self, the affliction will give understanding, and it will be time enough to see the danger and the remedy both at once, and to turn to God by that light, which that affliction shall give? Be not deceived, dies Domini tenebrae, this day of the Lord will be darkness and not light. God hath made two great lights for man, the Sun, and the Moon; God doth manifest himself two ways to man, by prosperity, and adversity; but if there were no Sun, there would be no light in the Moon neither; If there be no sense of God in thy greatness, in thy abundance, it is a dark time to seek him in the clouds of affliction, and heaviness of heart. Experience teacheth us, that if we be reading any book in the evening, if the twilight surprise us, and it grows dark, yet we can read longer in that book which we were in before, then if we took a new book of another subject into our hands: If we have been accustomed to the contemplation of God in the Sunshine of prosperity, we shall see him better in the night of misery, then if we began but then, Vae desiderantibus. If you seem to desire that day of the Lord, because you do not believe that that day will come, or because you believe that when that day comes, it will be time enough to rectify your selves, then, Vi quod vobis? this day shall be good for nothing to either of you, for to both you it shall be darkness, and not light.

The days which God made for man were darkness, and then light, still the evening and the morning made up the day. The day which the Lord shall bring upon secure and carnal men, is darkness without light, judgements without any beams of mercy shine through them, such judgements, as if we will consider the vehemency of them, we shall find them expressed in such an extraordinary height, as scarce anywhere else in Iercmy, Men shall ask one of another if they be in labor, whether they travel with child. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travel? Alas, because that day is great, and none is like it. This is the unexpected and unconsidered strangeness of that day, if we consider the vehemency, and if we consider the suddenness, the speed of bringing that day upon secure man. That is intimated very sufficiently in another story of the same Prophet, that when he had said to the Prophet Hananiah, That he should die within a year, when God saith, his judgements shall come shortly, if then we consider the vehemency, or the nearness of the day of the Lord, the day of his visitation, we shall be glad to say with that Prophet, As for me I have not desired that woeful day thou knowest, that is, I have neither doubted but that there shall be such a day, nor I have not put off my repentance to that day, for what can that do good to either of those dispositions, when to them it shall be darkness, and not light?

Now this Woe of this Prophet thus denounced against contemptuous scorners of the day of the Lord, as that day signifies afflictions in this life, have had no subject to work upon this congregation (as by Gods grace there is none of that distemper here) it is a piece of a Sermon well lost; and God be blessed that it hath had no use, that no body needed it. But as the Woe is denounced in the second acceptation against Hypocrites, so it is a chain-shot, and in every congregation takes whole ranks, and here Dies Domini is the last day of Judgement, and the desire in the Text is not, as before, a denying that any such day should be, but it is an hypocritical pretence, that we have so well performed our duties, as that we should be glad if that day would come, and then the darkness of the Text is everlasting condemnation.

For this day of the Lord then, the last day of judgement, consider only, or reflect only upon these three circumstances: First, there is Lex violata, a law given to thee and broken by thee. Secondly, there is Testis prolatus, Evidence produced against thee, and confessed by thee. And then there is Sententia lata, A judgement given against thee, and executed upon thee.

For the Law first, when that Law is To love God with all thy power, not to scatter thy love upon any other creature, when the Law is not to do, not to covet any ill, wilt thou say this Law doth not concern me, because it is impossible in it self, for this coveting, this first concupiscence is not in a mans own power? Why, this Law was possible to man, when it was given to man, for it was naturally imprinted in the heart of man, when man was in his state of innocency, and then it was possible, and the impossibility that is grown into it since, is by mans own fault. Man by breaking the Law, hath made the Law impossible, and himself inexcusable; wilt thou say with that man in the Gospel, Omnia haec à juventute, I have kept all this Law from my youth? From thy youth? remember thy youth well, and what Law thou keptst then, and thou wilt find it to be another Law, Lex in membris, A Law of the flesh warring against the Law of the mind, nay thou wilt find that thou didst never maintain a war against that Law of the flesh, but wast glad that thou camest to the obedience of that Law so soon, and art sorry thou canst follow that Law no longer.

This is the Law, and wilt thou put this to trial? Wilt thou say who can prove it? Who comes in to give evidence against me? All those whom thy sollicitations have overcome, and who have overcome thy sollicitations, good and bad, friends and enemies, Wives and Mistresses, persons most incompatible, and contrary, here shall join together, and be of the Jury. If S. Pauls case were so far thy case, as that thou wert in righteousness unblameable, no man, no woman able to testify against thee, yet when the records of all thoughts shall be laid open, and a retired and obscure man shall appear to have been as ambitious in his Cloister, as a pretending man at the Court, and a retired woman in her chamber, appear to be as licentious as a prostitute woman in the Stews, when the heart shall be laid open, and this laid open too, that some sins of the heart are the greatest sins of all (as Infidelity, the greatest sin of all, is rooted in the heart) and sin produced to action, is but a dilatation of that sin, and all dilatation is some degree of extenuation, (The body sometimes grows weary of acting some sin, but the heart never grows weary of contriving of sin.)

When this shall be that Law, and this the Evidence, what can be the Sentence, but that, Itemaledicti, Go ye accursed into ever lasting fire? where it is not as in the form of our judgement here, You shall be carried to the place of execution, but It, Go, our own consciences shall be our executioners, and precipitate us into that condemnation. It is not a Captivity of Babylon for 70. years, (and yet 70. years is the time of mans life, and why might not so many years punishment, expiate so many years sinful pleasure?) but it is 70. millions of millions of generations, for they shall live so long in hell, as God himself in heaven; It is not an imprisonment during the Kings pleasure, but during the Kings displeasure, whom nothing can please nor reconcile, after he shall have made up that account with his Son, and told him, These be all you died for, these be all you purchased, these be all whom I am bound to save for your sake, for the rest, their portion is everlasting destruction.

Under this law, under this evidence, under this sentence, vae desiderantibus, woe to them that pretend to desire this day of the Lord, as though by their own outward righteousness, they could stand upright in this judgement. Woe to them that say, Let God come when he will, it shall go hard, but he shall find me at Church, I hear three or four Sermons a week; he shall find me in my Discipline and Mortification, I fast twice a week; he shall find me in my Stewardship and Dispensation, I give tithes of all that I possess. When Hezekiah showed the Ambassadors of Babylon all his Treasure and his Armor, the malediction of the Prophet fell upon it, that all that Treasure and Armor which he had so gloriously showed, should be transported to them, to whom he had showed it, into Babylon. He that publishes his good works to the world, they are carried into the world, and that is his reward. Not that there is not a good use of letting our light shine before men too; for when S. Paul says, If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ; and when he saith, I do please all men in all things: S. Austin found no difficulty in reconciling those two; Navem quaero, says he, sed & patriam, When I go to the Haven to hire a Ship, it is for the love I have to my Country; When I declare my faith by my works to men, it is for the love I bear to the glory of God; but if I desire the Lords day upon confidence in these works, vae scirpo, as Job expresses it, woe unto me poor rush, for (says he) the rush is green till the Sun come, that is, says Gregory upon that place, donec divina districtio in judicio candeat, till the fire of the judgement examine our works, they may have some verdure, some color, but vae desiderantibus, wo unto them that put themselves unto that judgement for their works sake.

For ut quid vobis? to what end is it for you? If your hypocritical security could hold out to the last, if you could delude the world at the last gasp, if those that stand about you then could be brought to say, he went away like a Lambe, alas the Lambe of God went not away so, the Lamb of God had his colluctations, disputations, expostulations, apprehensions of Gods indignation upon him then: This security, call it by a worse name, stupidity, is not a lying down like a Lamb, but a lying down like Issachers Ass between two burdens, for two greater burdens cannot be, then sin, and the senselessness of sin. Vt quid vobis? what will ye do at that day, which shall be darkness and not light? God dwells in luce inaccessibili, in such light as no man by the light of nature can comprehend here, but when that light of grace which was shed upon thee here, should have brought thee at last to that inaccessible light, then thou must be cast in tenebras exteriores, into darkness, and darkness without the Kingdom of heaven. And if the darkness of this world, which was but a darkness of our making, could not comprehend the light, when Christ in his person, brought the light and offered repentance, certainly in that outward darkness of the next world, the darkness which God hath made for punishment, they shall see nothing, neither intramittendo, nor extramittendo, neither by receiving offer of grace from heaven, nor in the disposition to pray for grace in hell. For as at our inanimation in our Mothers womb, our immortal soul when it comes, swallows up the other souls of vegetation, and of sense, which were in us before; so at this our regeneration in the next world, the light of glory shall swallow up the light of grace. To as many as shall be within, there will need no grace to supply defects, nor eschew dangers, because there we shall have neither defects nor dangers. There shall be no night, no need of candle, nor of Sun, for the Lord shall give them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever. There shall be no such light of grace, as shall work repentance to them that are in the light of glory; neither could they that are in outward darkness, comprehend the light of grace, if it could flow out upon them. First, you did the works of darkness, says the Apostle, and then that custom, that practice brought you to love darkness better then light; and then as the Prince of darkness delights to transform himself into an Angel of light; so by your hypocrisy you pretend a light of grace, when you are darkness it self, and therefore, at quid vobis? what will you get by that day which is darkness and not light?

Now as this Woe and commination of our Prophet had one aim, to beat down their scorn which derided the judgements of God in this world, and a second aim to beat down their confidence, that thought themselves of themselves able to stand in Gods judgements in the next world; so it hath a third mark better then these two, it hath an aim upon them in whom a weariness of this life, when Gods corrections are upon them, or some other mistaking of their own estate and case, works an over-hasty and impatient desire of death, and in this sense and acceptation, the day of the Lord is the day of our death and transmigration out of this world, and the darkness is still everlasting darkness. Now for this we take our lesson in Job, Vita militia, mans life is a warfare; man might have lived at peace, he himself chose a rebellious war, and now quod volens expetiit nolens portat, that war which he willingly embarked himself in at first, though it be against his will now, he must go through with. In Job we have our lesson, and in S. Paul we have our Law, Take ye the whole armor of God, that ye may be able having done all to stand; that is, that having overcome one temptation, you may stand in battle against the next, for it is not adoloscentia militia, but vita; that we should think to triumph if we had overcome the heat and intemperance of youth, but we must fight it out to our lives end. And then we have the reward of this lesson, and of this law limited, nemo coronatur, no man is crowned, except he fight according to this law that is, he persever to the end. And as we have our lesson in Job, our rule and reward in the Apostle, who were both great Commanders in the warfare; so we have our example in our great General, Christ Jesus, Who though his soul were heavy, and heavy unto death, though he had a baptism to be baptised with, & coarctabatur, he was straightened, and in pain till it were accomplished, and though he had power to lay down his soul, and take it up again, and no man else could take it from him, yet he sought it out to the last hour, and till his hour came, he would not prevent it, nor lay down his soul. Vae desiderantibus, woe unto them that desire any other end of Gods correction, but what he hath ordained and appointed, for ut quid vobis? what shall you get by choosing your own ways? Tenebrae & non lux; They shall pass out of this world, in this inward darkness of melancholy, and dejection of spirit, into the outward darkness, which is an everlasting exclusion from the Father of lights, and from the Kingdom of joy; their case is well expressed in the next verse to our Text, they shall fly from a Lyon, and a Bear shall meet them, they shall lean on a wall, and a Serpent shall bite them; they shall end this life by a miserable and hasty death, and out of that death shall grow an immortal life in torments, which no weariness, nor desire, nor practice can ever bring to an end.

And here in this acceptation of these words, this vae falls directly upon them who colouring and apparelling treason in martyrdom, expose their lives to the danger of the Law, & embrace death; these of whom one of their own society saith, that the Scevolaes, the Caves, the Porciaes, the Cleopatraes of the old time, were nothing to the Jesuites, for saith he, they could dye once, but they lacked courage ad multas mortes; perchance he means, that after those men were once in danger of the Law, and forfeited their lives by one comming, they could come again and again, as often as the plentiful mercy of their King would send them away, Rapiunt mortem spontanea irruptione, says he to their glory, they are voluntary and violent pursuers of their own death, and as he expresses it, Crederes morbo adesos, you would think that the desire of death is a disease in them; A graver man then he mistakes their case and cause of death as much, you are (saith he, incouraging those of our Nation to the pursuit of death) in sacris septis ad martyrium saginati, fed up and fatned here for martyrdom, & Sacramento sanguinem spospondistis, they have taken an oath that they will be hanged, but that he in whom (as his great pattern God himself) mercy is above all his works, out of his abundant sweetness makes them perjured when they have so Tworne and vowed their own ruin. But those that send them, give not the lives of these men so freely, so cheaply as they pretend. But as in dry Pumps, men pour in a little water, that they may pump up more; so they are content to drop in a little blood of imaginary, but traiterous Martyrs, that, by that at last they may draw up at last the royal blood of Princes, and the loyal blood of Subjects; vae desiderantibus, woe to them that are made thus ambitious of their own ruin, ut quid vobis? Tenebrae & non lux, you are kept in darkness in this world, and sent into darkness from heaven into the next, and so your ambition, ad multas mortes, shall be satisfied, you dye more then one death, morte moriemini, this death delivers you to another, from which you shall never be delivered.

We have now past through these three acceptations of these words, which have fallen into the contemplation, and meditation of the Ancients in their Expositions of this Text; as this dark day of the Lord, signifies his judgements upon Atheistical scorners in this world, as it signifies his last irrevocable, and irremediable judgements upon hypocritical relyers upon their own righteousness in the next world, and between both, as it signifies their uncomfortable passage out of this life, who bring their death inordinately upon themselves; and we shall shut up all with one signification more of the Lords day, That, that is the Lords day, of which the whole Lent is the Vigil, and the Eve. All this time of mortification; and our often meeting in this place to hear of our mortality, and our immortality, which are the two real Texts, and Subjects of all our Sermons; All this time is the Eve of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the Lords day, when all our mortification, and dejection of spirit, and humbling of our souls, shall be abundantly exalted in his resurrection, and when all our fasts and abstinence shall be abundantly recompensed in the participation of his body & his blood in the Sacrament; Gods Chancery is always open, and his seal works always; at all times remission of sins may be sealed to a penitent soul in the Sacrament. That clause which the Chancellors had in their Patents under the Roman Emperors, Vt praerogativamgerat conscientiae nostrae, is in our commission too, for God hath put his conscience into his Church, & whose sins are remitted there, are remitted in heaven at all times; but yet dies Domini, the Lords resurrection is as the full Term, a more general application of this seal of reconciliation: But vae desiderantibus, woe unto them that desire that day, only because they would have these days of preaching, and prayer, and fasting, and trouble some preparation past and gone. Vae desiderantibus, woe unto them who desire that day, only, that by receiving the Sacrament day, that they might delude the world, as though they were not of a contrary religion in their heart; vae desiderantibus, woe unto them who present themselves that day without such a preparation as becomes so fearful and mystesious an action, upon any carnal or collateral respects. Before that day of the Lord comes, comes the day of his crucifying; before you come to that day, if you come not to a crucifying of your selves to the world, and the world to you, ut quid vobis? what shall you get by that day? you shall profane that day, and the Author of it, as to make that day of Christs triumph, the triumph of Satan, and to make even that body and blood of Christ Jesus, Vehiculum Satanae, his Chariot to enter into you, as he did into Judas. That day of the Lord will be darkness and not light, and that darkness will be, that you shall not discern the Lords body, you shall scatter all your thoughts upon wrangling and controversies, de modo, how the Lords body can be there, and you shall not discern by the effects, nor in your own conscience, that the Lords body is there at all. But you shall take it to be only an obedience to civil or Ecclesiastical constitutions, or only a testimony of outward conformity, which should be signaculum & viaticum, a seal of pardon for past sins, and a provision of grace against future. But he that is well prepared for this, strips himself of all these vae desiderantibus, of all these comminations that belong to carnal desires, and he shall be as Daniel was, vir desideriorum, a man of chaste and heavenly desires only; he shall desire that day of the Lord, as that day signifies affliction here, with David, Bonum est mihi quòd humiliasti me, I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty; and strengthened by my weakness; and with S. Bern. desire, Irascar is mihi Domine, O Lord be angry with me, for if thou chidest me not, thou considerest me not, if I taste no bitterness, I have no Physic; If thou correct me not, I am not thy son: And he shall desire that day of the Lord, as that day signifies, the last judgement, with the desire of the Martyrs under the Altar, Vsquequo Domine? How long, O Lord, ere thou execute judgement? And he shall desire this day of the Lord, as this day is the day of his own death, with S. Pauls desire, Cupio dissolvi, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. And when this day of the Lord, as it is the day of the Lords resurrection shall come, his soul shall be satified as with marrow, and with fatness, in the body and blood of his Savior, and in the participation of all his merits, as entirely, as if all that Christ Jesus hath said, and done, and suffered, had been said, and done, and suffered for his soul alone. Enlarge our days, O Lord, to that blessed day, prepare us before that day, seal to us at that day, ratify to us after that day, all the days of our life, an assurance in that Kingdom, which thy Son our Savior hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood, To which glorious Son of God, &c.

Sermon XV. Preached at White-hall, March 8. 1621.

1 COR. 15.26.

The last Enemy that shall be destroyed, is Death.

THis is a Text of the Resurrection, and it is not Easter yet; but it is Easter Eve; All Lent, is but the Vigil, the Eve of Easter: to so long a Festival as never shall end, the Resurrection, we may well begin the Eve betimes. Forty years long was God grieved for that Generation which he loved; let us be content to humble our selves forty days, to be fitter for that glory which we expect. In the Book of God there are many Songs; there is but one Lamentation: And that one Song of Solomon, nay some one of Davids hundred and fifty Psalms, is longer then the whole book of Lamentations. Make way to an everlasting Easter by a short Lent, to an undeterminable glory, by a temporary humiliation. You must weep these tears, tears of contrition, tears of mortification, before God will wipe all tears from your eyes; You must dye this death, this death of the righteous, the death to sin, before this last enemy, Death, shallbe destroyed in you, and you made partakers of everlasting life in soul and body too.

Our division shall be but a short, and our whole exercise but a larger paraphrase upon the words. The words imply first, That the Kingdom of Christ, which must be perfected, must be accomplished, (because all things must be subdued unto him) is not yet perfected, not accomplished yet. Why? what lacks it? It lacks the bodies of Men, which yet lie under the dominion of another. When we shall also see by that Metaphor which the Holy Ghost chooseth to express that in, which is that there is Hostis, and so Militia, an enemy, and a war, and therefore that Kingdom is not perfected, that he places perfect happiness, and perfect glory, in perfect peace. But then how far is any State consisting of many men, how far the state, and condition of any one man in particular, from this perfect peace? How truly a warfare is this life, if the Kingdom of Heaven it self, have not this peace in perfection? And it hath it not, Quia hostis, because there is an enemy: though that enemy shall not overthrow it, yet because it plots, and works, and machinates, and would overthrow it, this is a defect in that peace.

Who then is this enemy? An enemy that may thus far think himself equal to God, that as no man ever saw God, and lived; so no man ever saw this enemy and lived, for it is Death; And in this may think himself in number superior to God, that many men live who shall never see God; But Quis homo, is Davids question, which was never answered, Is there any man that lives, and shall not see death? An enemy that is so well victualled against man, as that he cannot want as long as there are men, for he feeds upon man himself. And so well armed against Man, as that he cannot want Munition, while there are men, for he fights with our weapons, our own faculties, nay our calamities, yea our own pleasures are our death. And therefore he is Novissimus hostis, saith the Text, The last enemy.

We have other Enemies; Satan about us, sin within us; but the power of both those, this enemy shall destroy; but when they are destroyed, he shall retain a hostile, and triumphant dominion over us. But Vsque quo Domine? How long O Lord? for ever? No, Abolebitur: we see this Enemy all the way, and all the way we feel him; but we shall see him destroyed; Abolebitur. But how? or when? At, and by the resurrection of our bodies: for as upon my expiration, my transmigration from hence, as soon as my soul enters into Heaven, I shall be able to say to the Angels, I am of the same stuff as you, spirit, and spirit, and therefore let me stand with you, and look upon the face of your God, and my God, so at the Resurrection of this body, I shall be able to say to the Angel of the great Council, the Son of God, Christ Jesus himself, I am of the same stuff as you, Body and body, Flesh and flesh, and therefore let me sit down with you, at the right hand of the Father in an everlasting security from this last enemy, who is now destroyed, death. And in these seven steps we shall pass apace, and yet clearly through this paraphrase.

We begin with this; That the Kingdom of Heaven hath not all that it must have to a consummate perfection, till it have bodies too. In those infinite millions of millions of generations, in which the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity enjoyed themselves one another, and no more, they thought not their glory so perfect, but that it might receive an addition from creatures; and therefore they made a world, a material world, a corporeal world, they would have bodies. In that noble part of that world which Moses calls the Firmament, that great expansion from Gods chair to his footstool, from Heaven to earth, there was a defect, which God did not supply that day, nor the next, but the fourth day, he did; for that day he made those bodies, those great, and lightsome bodies, the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, and placed them in the Firmament. So also the Heaven of Heavens, the Presence Chamber of God himself, expects the presence of our bodies.

No State upon earth, can subsist without those bodies, Men of their own. For men that are supplied from others, may either in necessity, or in indignation, be withdrawn, and so that State which stood upon foreign legs, sinks. Let the head be gold, and the armes silver, and the belly brass, if the feet be clay, Men that may slip, and molder away, all is but an Image, all is but a dream of an Image: for foreign helps are rather crutches then legs. There must be bodies, Men, and able bodies, able men; Men that eat the good things of the land, their own figges and olives; Men not macerated with extortions: They are glorified bodies that make up the kingdom of Heaven; bodies that partake of the good of the State, that make up the State. Bodies, able bodies, and lastly, bodies inanimated with one soul: one vegetative soul, all must be sensible and compassionate of one another's misery; and especially the Immortal soul, one supreame soul, one Religion. For as God hath made us under good Princes, a great example of all that, Abundance of Men, Men that live like men, men united in one Religion, so we need not go far for an example of a slippery, and uncertain being, where they must stand upon others Mens men, and must over-load all men with exactions, and distortions, and convulsions, and earthquakes in the multiplicity of Religions.

The Kingdom of Heaven must have bodies; Kingdoms of the earth must have them; and if upon the earth thou beest in the way to Heaven, thou must have a body too, a body of thine own, a body in thy possession: for thy body hath thee, and not thou it, if thy body tyrannize over thee. If thou canst not withdraw thine eye from an object of temptation, or withhold thy hand from subscribing against thy conscience, nor turn thine ear from a popular, and seditious Libel, what hast thou towards a man? Thou hast no soul, nay thou hast no body: There is a body, but thou hast it not, it is not thine, it is not in thy power. Thy body will rebell against thee even in a sin: It will not perform a sin, when, and where thou wouldst have it. Much more will it rebell against any good work, till thou have imprinted Stigmata Iesu, The Marks of the Lord Jesus, which were but exemplar in him, but are essential, and necessary to thee, abstinencies, and such discrete disciplines, and mortifications, as may subdue that body to thee, and make it thine: for till then it is but thine enemy, and maintains a war against thee; and war, and enemy is the Metaphor which the holy Ghost hath taken here to express a want, a kind of imperfectness even in Heaven it self. Bellum Symbolum mali. As peace is of all goodness, so war is an embleme, a Hieroglyphique, of all misery; And that is our second step in this paraphrase.

If the feet of them that preach peace, be beautiful, (And, O how beautiful are the feet of them that preach peace? The Prophet Isaiah asks the question, 52.7. And the Prophet Nahum asks it, 1.15. and the Apostle S. Paul asks it, Rom. 10.15. They all ask it, but none answers it) who shall answer us, if we ask, How beautiful is his face, who is the Author of this peace, when we shall see that in the glory of Heaven, the Center of all true peace? It was the inheritance of Christ Jesus upon the earth, he had it at his birth, he brought it with him, Glory be to God on high, peace upon earth. It was his purchase upon earth, He made peace (indeed he bought peace) through the blood of his Cross. It was his Testament, when he went from earth; Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Divide with him in that blessed Inheritance, partake with him in that blessed Purchase, enrich thy self with that blessed Legacy, his Peace.

Let the whole world be in thy consideration as one house; and then consider in that, in the peaceful harmony of creatures, in the peaceful succession, and connexion of causes, and effects, the peace of Nature. Let this Kingdom, where God hath blessed thee with a being, be the Gallery, the best room of that house, and consider in the two walls of that Gallery, the Church and the State, the peace of a royal, and a religious Wisdom; Let thine own family be a Cabinet in this Gallery, and find in all the boxes thereof, in the several duties of Wife, and Children, and servants, the peace of virtue, and of the father and mother of all virtues, active discretion, passive obedience; and then lastly, let thine own bosom be the secret box, and reserve in this Cabinet, and then the best Jewel in the best Cabinet, and that in the best Gallery of the best house that can be had, peace with the Creature, peace in the Church, peace in the State, peace in thy house, peace in thy heart, is a faire Model, and a lovely design even of the heavenly Jerusalem which is Visio pacis, where there is no object but peace.

And therefore the holy Ghost to intimate to us, that happy perfectness, which we shall have at last, and not till then, chooses the Metaphor of an enemy, and enmity, to avert us from looking for true peace from any thing that presents it self in the way. Neither truly could the holy Ghost imprint more horror by any word, then that which intimates war, as the word enemy does. It is but a little way that the Poet hath got in description of war, Iam seges est, that now, that place is ploughed where the great City stood: for it is not so great a depopulation to translate a City from Merchants to husbandmen, from shops to ploughs, as it is from many Husbandmen to one Shepherd, and yet that hath been often done. And all that, at most, is but a depopulation, it is not a devastation, that Troy was ploughed. But, when the Prophet Isaiah comes to the devastation, to the extermination of a war, he expresses it first thus; Where there were a thousand Vineyards at a cheap rate, all the land become briars and thorns: That is much; but there is more, The earth shall be removed out of her place; that Land, that Nation, shall no more be called that Nation, nor that Land: But, yet more then that too; Not only, not that people, but no othe shall ever inhabit it. It shall never be inhabited from generation to generation, neither shall Shepherds be there; Not only no Merchant, nor Husbandman, but no depopulator: none but Owls, and Ostriches, and Satyres, Indeed God knows what, Ochim, and Ziim, words which truly we cannot translate.

In a word, the horror of War is best discerned in the company he keeps, in his associates. And when the Prophet Gad brought War into the presence of David, there came with him Famine, and Pestilence. And when Famine entered, we see the effects; It brought Mothers to eat their Children of a span long; that is, as some Expositors take it, to take medicines to procure abortions, to cast their Children, that they might have Children to eat. And when War's other companion, the Pestilence entered, we see the effects of that too: In less then half the time that it was threatened for, it devoured threescore and ten thousand of Davids men; and yet for all the vehemence, the violence, the impetuousness of this Pestilence, David chose this Pestilence rather then a War. Militia and Malitia, are words of so near a sound, as that the Vulgate Edition takes them as one. For where the Prophet speaking of the miseries that Hierusalem had suffered, says, Finita militia ejus, Let her warfare be at an end, they read, Finita malitia ejus, Let her misery be at an end; War and Misery is all one thing. But is there any of this in heaven? Even the Saints in heaven lack something of the consummation of their happiness, Quia hostis, because they have an enemy. And that is our third and next step.

Michael and his Angels fought against the devil and his Angels; though that war ended in victory, yet (taking that war, as divers Expositors do, for the fall of Angels) that Kingdom lost so many inhabitants, as that all the souls of all that shall be saved, shall but fill up the places of them that fell, and so make that Kingdom but as well as it was before that war: So ill effects accompany even the most victorious war. There is no war in heaven, yet all is not well, because there is an enemy; for that enemy would kindle a war again, but that he remembers how ill he sped last time he did so. It is not an enemy that invades neither, but only detains: he detains the bodies of the Saints which are in heaven, and therefore is an enemy to the Kingdom of Christ; He that detains the souls of men in Superstition, he that detains the hearts and allegiance of Subjects in an haesitation, a vacillation, an irresolution, where they shall fix them, whether upon their Sovereign, or a foreign power, he is in the notion, and acceptation of enemy in this Text; an enemy, though no hostile act be done. It is not a war, it is but an enemy; not an invading, but a detaining enemy; and then this enemy is but one enemy, and yet he troubles, and retards the consummation of that Kingdom.

Antichrist alone is enemy enough; but never carry this consideration beyond thy self. As long as there remains in thee one sin, or the sinful gain of that one sin, so long there is one enemy, and where there is one enemy, there is no peace. Gardeners that husband their ground to the best advantage, sow all their seeds in such order, one under another, that their Garden is always full of that which is then in season. If thou sin with that providence, with that seasonableness, that all thy spring, thy youth be spent in wantonness, all thy Summer, thy middle-age in ambition, and the ways of preferment, and thy Autumn, thy Winter in indevotion and covetousness, though thou have no farther taste of licentiousness, in thy middle-age, thou hast thy satiety in that sin, nor of ambition in thy last years, thou hast accumulated titles of honor, yet all the way thou hast had one enemy, and therefore never any perfect peace. But who is this one enemy in this Text? As long as we put it off, and as loath as we are to look this enemy in the face, yet we must, though it be Death. And this is Vestigium quartum, The fourth and next step in this paraphrase.

Surge & descend in domum figuli, says the Prophet Jeremiah, that is, say the Expositors, to the consideration of thy Mortality. It is Surge, descend, Arise and go down: A descent with an ascension: Our grave is upward, and our heart is upon Iacobs Ladder, in the way, and nearer to heaven. Our daily Funerals are some Emblemes of that; for though we be laid down in the earth after, yet we are lifted up upon mens shoulders before. We rise in the descent to death, and so we do in the descent to the contemplation of it. In all the Potters house, is there one vessel made of better stuff then clay? There is his matter. And of all forms, a Circle is the perfectest, and art thou loath to make up that Circle, with returning to the earth again?

Thou must, though thou be loath. Fortasse, says S. Augustine, That word of contingency, of casualty, Perchance, In omnibus ferme rebus, praeterquam in morte locum habet: It hath room in all humane actions excepting death. He makes his example thus: such a man is married; where he would, or at least where he must, where his parents, or his Gardian will have him; shall he have Children? Fortasse, says he, They are a young couple, perchance they shall: And shall those Children be sons? Fortasse, they are of a strong constitution, perchance they shall: And shall those sons live to be men? Fortasse, they are from healthy parents, perchance they shall: And when they have lived to be men, shall they be good men? Such as good men may be glad they may live? Fortasse, still; They are of virtuous parents, it may be they shall: But when they are come to that Morientur, shall those good men die? here, says that Father, the Fortasse vanishes; here it is omnino, certè, sine dubitatione; infallibly, inevitably, irrecoverably they must die. Doth not man die even in his birth? The breaking of prison is death, and what is our birth, but a breaking of prison? Assoon as we were clothed by God, our very apparel was an Embleme of death. In the skins of dead beasts, he covered the skins of dying men. Assoon as God set us on work, our very occupation was an Embleme of death; It was to dig the earth; not to dig pitfals for other men, but graves for our selves. Hath any man here forgot to day, that yesterday is dead? And the Bell tolls for to day, and will ring out anon; and for as much of every one of us, as appertains to this day. Quotidiè morimur, & tamen nos esse aeternos putamus, says S. Jerome; We die every day, and we die all the day long; and because we are notabsolutely dead, we call that an eternity, an eternity of dying: And is there comfort in that state? why, that is the state of hell it self, Eternal dying, and not dead.

But for this there is enough said, by the Moral man; (that we may respite divine proofs, for divine points anon, for our several Resurrections) for this death is merely natural, and it is enough that the moral man says, Mors lex, tributum, officium mortalium. First it is lex, you were born under that law, upon that condition to die: so it is a rebellious thing not to be content to die, it opposes the Law. Then it is Tributum, an imposition which nature the Queen of this world lays upon us, and which she will take, when and where se lift; here a young man, there an old man, herea happy, there a miserable man; And so itis a seditious thing not to be content to die, it opposes the prerogative. And lastly, it is Officium, men are to have their turns, to take their time, and then to give way by death to successors; and so it is Incivile, inofficiosum, not to be content to die, it opposes the frame and form of government. It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes. The eshes of an Oak in the Chimney, are no Epitaph of that Oak, to tell me how high or how large that was; It tells me not what flocks it sheltered while it stood, nor what men it hurt when it fell. The dust of great persons graves is speechless too, it says nothing, it distinguishes nothing: As soon the dust of a wretch whom thou wouldst not, as of a Prince whom thou couldest not look upon, will trouble thine eyes, if the wind blow it thither; and when a whirl-wind hath blown the dust of the Church-yard into the Church, and the man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Church-yard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again, and to pronounce, This is the Patrician, this is the noble flower, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebeian bran. Sois the death of Isabel (Ieabel was a Queen) expressed; They shall not say, this is Isabel; not only not wonder that it is, not pity that it should be, but they shall not say, they shall not know, This is Isabel. It comes to all, to all alike; but not alike welcome to all. To die too willingly, out ofimpatience to wish, or out of violence to hasten death, or to die too unwillingly, to murmure at Gods purpose reveled by age, or by sickness, are equal distempers; and to harbor a disobedient loathness all the way, or to entertain it at last, argues but an irreligious ignorance; An ignorance, that death is in nature but Expiratio, a breathing out, and we do that every minute; An ignorance that God himself took a day to rest in, and a good mans grave is his Sabbath; An ignorance that Abel the best of those whom we can compare with him, was the first that died. Howsoever, whensoever, all times are Gods times: Vocantur obni ne diutiús vexentur á noxiis, mali ne diutiús bonos persequantur, God calls the good to take them from their dangers, and God takes the bad to take them from their trumph. And therefore neither grudge that thou goest, nor that worse stay, for God can make his profit of both; Aut ideo vivit ut corrigatur, aut utper allum bonus exerceatur; God reprieves him to mend him, or to make another better by his exercise; and not to exult in the misery of another, but to glorify God in the ways of his justice, let him know, Quantumcunque seró, subitó ex hac óitatollitur, qui finem praevidere nescivit: How long soever he live, how long soever he lie sick, that man dies a sudden death, who never thought of it, If we consider death in S. Pauls Statutum est, It is decréed that all men must die, there death is indifferent; If we consider it in his Mori lucrum, that is an advantage to die, there death is good; and so much the Vulgate Edition seems to intimate, when (Deut. 30. 19) whereas we read, I have set before you life and death, that reads it, Vitam & honum, Life and that which is good. If then death be at the worst indifferent, and to the good, good, how is it Hostis, an enemy to the Kingdom of Christ? for that also is Vestigium quintum, the fifth and next step in this paraphrase.

First God did not make death, says the Wiseman, And therefore S. Augustine makes a reasonable prayer to God, Ne permittas Domine quod nonfecisti, dominari Creatur ae quam fecisti; Suffer not O Lord, death, whom thou didst not make, to have dominion over me whom thou didst. Whence then came death? The same Wiseman hath showed us the father, Through envy of the devil, came death into the world; and a wiser then he, the holy Ghost himself hath showed us the Mother, By sin came death into the world. But yet if God have naturalized death, taken death into the number of his servants, and made Death his Commissioner to punish sin, and he do but that, how is Death an enemy? First, he was an enemy in invading Christ, who was not in his Commission, because he had no sin; and still he is an enemy, because still he adheres to the enemy. Death hangs upon the edge of every persecutors sword; and upon the sting of every calumniators, and accusers tongue. In the Bull of Phalaris, in the Bulls of Basan, in the Buls of Babylon, the shrewdest Buls of all, in temporal, in spiritual persecutions, ever since God put an enmity between Man, and the Serpent, from the time of Cain who began in a murder, to the time of Antichrist, who proceeds in Massacres, Death hath adhered to the enemy, and so is an enemy.

Death hath a Commission, Stipendium peccati mors est, The reward of sin Death, but where God gives a Supersedeas, upon that Commission, Vivo Ego, nolo mortem, As I live saith the Lord, I would have no sinner dye, not dye the second death, yet Death proceeds to that execution: And where as the enemy, whom he adheres to, Serpent himself, hath power but In calcaneo, upon the heel, the lower, the mortal part, the body of man, Death is come up into our windows, saith the Prophet, into our best lights, our understandings, and benights us there, either with ignorance, before sin, or with senselessness after: And a Sheriff that should burn him, who were condemned to be hanged, were a murderer, though that man must have died: To come in by the door, by the way of sickness upon the body, is, but to come in at the window by the way of sin, is not deaths Commission; God opens not that window.

So then he is an enemy, for they that adhere to the enemy are enemies: And adhering is not only a present subministration of supply to the enemy (for that death doth not) but it is also a disposition to assist the enemy, then when he shall be strong enough to make benefit of that assistance. And so death adheres; when sin and Satan have weakened body and mind, death enters upon both. And in that respect he is Vltimus hostis, the last enemy, and that is Sextum vestigium, our sixth and next step in this paraphrase.

Death is the last, and in that respect the worst enemy. In an enemy, that appears at first, when we are or may be provided against him, there is some of that, which we call Honor: but in the enemy that reserves himself unto the last, and attends our weak estate, there is more danger. Keep it, where I intend it, in that which is my sphere, the Conscience: If mine enemy meet me betimes in my youth, in an object of temptation, (so Iosephs enemy met him in Putifars Wife) yet if I do not adhere to this enemy, dwell upon a delightful meditation of that sin, if I do not fuel, and foment that sin, assist and encourage that sin, by high diet, wanton discourse, other provocation, I shall have reason on my side, and I shall have grace on my side, and I shall have the History of thousand that have perished by that sin, on my side; Even Spittles will give me souldiers to fight for me, by their miserable example against taht sin; nay perchance sometimes the virtue of that woman, whom I sollicite, will assist me. But when I lye under the hands of that enemy, that hath reserved himself to the last, to my last bed, then when I shall be able to stir no limbe in any other measure then a Fever or a Palsy shall shake them, when everlasting darkness shall have an inchoation in the present dimness of mine eyes, and the everlasting gnashing in the present chattering of my teeth, and the everlasting worm in the present gnawing of the Agonies of my body, and anguishes of my mind, when the last enemy shall watch my remedilsse body, and my desconsolate soul there, there, where not the Physician, in his way, perchance not the Priist in hi, shall be able to give any assistance, And when he hath sported himself with my misery upon that stage, my death-bed, shall shift the Scene, and throw me from that bed, into the grave, and there triumph over me, God knows, how many generations, till the Redeemer, my Redeemer, the Redeemer of all me, body, aswell as soul, come again; As death is Novissimus hostis, the enemy which watches me, at my last weakness, and shall hold me, when I shall be no more, till that Angel come, Who shall say, and swear that time shall be no more, in that consideration, in that apprehension, he is the powerfullest, the fearefulest enemy; and yet even there this enemy Abolebitur, he shall be destroyed, which is, Septimum vestigium, our seventh and last step in this paraphrase.

This destruction, this abolition of this last enemy, is by the Resurrection; for the Text is part of an argument for the Resurrection. And truly, it is a faire intimation, and testimony of an everlasting end in that state of the Resurrection (that no time shall end it) that we have it presented to us in all the parts of time; in the past, in the present, and in the future. We had a Resurrection in prophecy; we have a Resurrection in the present working of Gods Sprit; we shall have a Resurrection in the final consummation. The Prophet speaks in the furture, He will swallow up death in victory, there it is Abolebit: All the Erangelists speak historically, of matter of fact, in them it is Abolevit. And here in this Apostle, it is in the present, Aboletur, now he is destroyed. And this exhibits unto us a threefold occasion of advancing our devotion, in considering a threefold Resurrection; First, a Resurrection from dejections and calamities in this world, a Temporary Resurrection; Secondly, a Resurrection from sin, a Spiritual Resurrection; and then a Resurrection; Secondly, a Resurrection.

A calamitate; When the Prophets speak of a Resurrection in the old Testament, for the most part their principal intention is, upon a temporal restitution from calamities that oppress them then. Neither doth Calvin carry those emphatical words, which are so often cited for a proof of the last Resurrection: That he knows his Redeemer lives, that he knows he shall stand the last man upon earth, that though his body be destroyed, yet in his flesh and with his eyes he shall see God, to any higher sense then so, that how low soeve he be brought, to what desperate state soever he be reducedin the eyes of the world, yet he assures himself of a Resurrection, a reparation, a restitution to his former bodily health, and worldly fortune which he had before, And such a Resurrection we all know Job had.

In that famous, and most considerable prophetical vision which God exhibited to Ezekiel, where God set the Prophet in a valley of very many, and very dry bones, and invites the several joints to knit again, tyes them with their old sinews, and ligaments, clothes them in their old flest, wraps them in their old skin, and calls life into them again, Gods, principal intention in that vision was thereby to give them an assurance of a Resurrection from their present calamity, not but that there is also good evidence of the last Resurrection in that vision too; Thus far God argues with them áre nota; from that which they knew before, the final Resurrection, he assures them that which they knew not till then, a present Resurrection from those pressures: Remember by this vision that which you all know already, that at last I shall re-unite the dead, and dry bones of all men in a general Resurrection: And them if you remember, if you consider, if you look upon that, can you doubt, but that I who can do that, can also recollect you, from your present desperation, and give you a Resurrection to your former temporal happiness? And this truly arises pregnantly, necessarily out of the Prophets answer; God asks him there, Son of man, cna these bones live? And he answers, Domine tu nósti, O Lord God thou knowest. The Prophet answers according to Gods intention in the question. If that had been for their living in the last Resurrection, Ezekiel would have answered God as Martha answered Christ, when he said, Thy brother Lazarus shall rise again; I know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection at the last day; but when the question was, whether men so macerated, so seattered in this world, could have a Resurrection to their former temproral happiness, here, that puts the Prophet to his Domine tu nósti, It is in thy breast to proposeit, itis in thy hand to execute it, whether thou do it, or do it not, thy name be glorisied; It falls not within our conjecture, which way it shall please thee to take for this Resurrection, Domine tu nósti, Thou Lord, and thou only knowest; Which is also the sense of those words, Others were tortured, and accepted not a deliverance, that they might obtain a better Resurrection: A present deliverance had been a Resurrection, but to be the more sure of a better hereafter, they less respected that; According to that of our Savior, He that finds hi life, shall lose it; He that fixeth himself too earnestly upon this Resurrection, shall lose a better.

This is then the prophetical Resurrection for the future, but a future in this world; That if Rulers take counsel against the Lord, the Lord shall have their counsel in derision; If they take armes against the Lord, the Lord shall break their Bows, and cut their Spears in sunder; If they hiss, and gnash their teeth, and say, we have swallowed him up; If we be made their by-word, their parable, their proverb, their libel, the theame and burden of their songs, as Job complains, yet whatsoever fall upon me, dmage, distress, scorn, or Hostis ultimus, death it self, that death which we consider here, death of possessions, death of estimation, death of health, death of contentment, yet Abolebitur, it shall be destroyed in a Resurrection, in the return of the light of Gods countenance upon me even in this world. And this is the first Resurrection.

But this first Resurrection, which is but from temporal calamities, doth so little concern a true and established Christian, whether it come or no, (for still Job's Basis is his Basis, and his Centre, Etiamsi occiderit, though he kill me, kill me, kill me, in all these several deaths, and give me no Resurrection in this world, yet I will trust in him) as that, as though this first resurrection were no resurrection, not to be numbered among the rersurrections, S. John calls that which we call the second, which is from sin, the first resurrection: Blessed and holy is be, who hath part in the firstresurrection: And this resurrection, Christimplies, when he says, Verely, verely, I say unto you, the hour is comming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the ovyce of the Son of God; and they that hear it shall live: That is, by the voice of the word of life, the Gospel of repentance, they shall have a spiritual resurrection to a new life. S. Austin and Lactantius both were so hard in believing the roundness of the earth, that they thought that those homines pensiles, as they call them, those men that hang upon the other cheek of the face of the earth, those Antipodes, whose feet are directly against ours, must necessarily fall from the earth, if the earth be round. But whither should they fall? If they fall, they must fall upwards, for heaven is above them too as it is to us. So if the spiritual Antipodes of this world, the Sons of God, that walk with feet opposed in ways contrary to the sons of men, shall be said to fall, when they fall to repentance, to mortification, to a religious negligence, and contempt of the pleasures of this life, truly their fall is up wards, they fall towards heaven, God gives breath unto the people upon the earth, says the Prophet, Et spiritum his, qui calcant illam. Our Translation carries that no farther, but that God gives breath to people upon the earth, and spirit to them that walk thereon; But Irenaeus makes a useful difference between afflatus and spiritus, that God gives breath to all upon earth, but his spirit only to them, who tread in a religious scorn upon earthly things.

Is it not a strange phrase of the Apostle, Mortify your members; fornication, uncleaneness, inordinate affections? He does not say, mortify your members against those sins, but he calls those very sins, the members of our bodies, as though we were elemented and compacted of nothing but sin, till we come to this resurrection, this mortification, which is indeed our vivification; Till we bear in our body, the dying of our Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body. God may give the other resurrection from worldly misery, and not give this. A widow may be rescued from the sorrow and solitariness of that state, by having a plentiful fortune; there she hath one resurrection; but the widow that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she lives; she hath no second resurrection; and so in that sense, even this Chappel may be a Church-yard, men may stand, and sit, and kneel, and yet be dead; and any Chamber alone may be a Golgotha, a place of dead mens bones, of men not come to this resurrection, which is the renunciation of their beloved sin.

It was inhumanely said by Vitellius, upon the death of Otho, when he walkedin the field of carcasses, where the battle was fought; O how sweet a perfume is a dead enemy! But it is a divine saying to thy soul, O what a savor of life, unto life, is the death of a beloved sin! What an Angelical comfort was that to Joseph and Mary in Egypt, after the death of Herod, Arise, for they are dead, that sought the childes life! And even that comfort is multiplied upon thy soul, when the Spirit of God says to thee, Arise come to this resurrection: for that Herod, that sin, that sought the life, the everlasting life of this child, the child of God, thy soul, is dead, dead by repentance, dead by mortification. The highest cruelty that story relates, or Poets imagine, is when a persecutor will not afford a miserable man death, not be so merciful to him, as to take his life. Thou hast made thy sin, thy soul, thy life; inanimated all thy actions, all thy purposes with that sin. Miserere animatuae, be so merciful to thy self, as to take away that life by mortification, by repentance, and thou art come to this Resurrection: and though a man may have the former resurrection, and not this, peace in his fortune, and yet not peace in his conscience, yet whosoever hath this second, hath an infallible seal of the third resurrection too, to a fullness of glory in body, as well as in soul. For Spiritus maturam efficit carnem & capacem incorruptelae; this resurrection by the spirit, mellowes the body of man, and makes that capable of everlasting glory, which is the last weapon, by which the last enemy death, shall be destroyed; A morte.

Upon that pious ground that all Scriptures were written for us, as we are Christians, that all Scriptures conduce to the proof of Christ, and of the Christian state, it is the ordinary manner of the Fathers to make all that David speaks historically of himself, and all that the Prophet speaks futurely of the Jews, if those place may be referred to Christ, to referre them to Christ primarily, and but by reflection, and in a second consideration upon David or upon the Jews, Thereupon do the Father (truly I think more generally more unanimously then in any other place of Scripture) take that place of Ezekile which we spake of before, to be primarily intended of the last resurrection, & but secundarily of the Jews restitution. But Gasper Sanctius a learned Jesuit, (that is not so rare, but an ingenuous Jesuit too) though he be bound by the Council Trent to interpret Scriptures according to the Fathers, yet he here ackowledges the whole truth, that Gods purpose was to prove, by that which they did know, which was the general resurrection, that which they knew not, their temporal restitution. Tertullian is vehement at first, but after, more supple, Allegoricae Scripturae, says he, resurrectionem subradiant aliae, aliae determinant: Some figurative places of Scripture, do intimate a resurrection, and some manifest it; and of those manifest places he takes this vision of Ezekiel to be one. But he comes after to this, Sit & corporum, & rerum, & meánihilinterest; let it sighnify a temporal resurrection, so it may signify the general resurrection of our bodies too, says he, and I am well satisfied; and then the truth satisfies him, for it doth signify both. It is true that Tertullian says, De vacuo similitudo non competit; If the vision be but a comparison, if there were no such thing as a resurrection, the comparison did not hold. De nullo par abola non convenit, says he, and truly; If there were no resurrection to which that Parable might have relation, it were no Parable. All that is true; but there was a resurrection always known to them, always believed by them, and that made their present resurrection from that calamity, the more easy, the more intelligible, the more credible, the more discernable to them.

Let therefore Gods method, be thy method; fixe thy self firmly upon that belief of the peneral resurrection, and thou wilt never doubt of either of the particular resurrections, either from sin, by Gods grace, or from worldly calamities, by Gods power. For that last resurrection is the ground of all. By that Verévicta mors, says Irenaeus, this Last enemy, death, is truly destroyed, because his last spoil, the body, is taken out of his hands. The same body, eadem ovis, (as the same Father notes) Christ did not fetch another sheep to the flock, in the place of that which was lost, but the same sheep: God shall not give me another, abetter body at the resurrection, but the same body made better; for Sinon haberet caro salvari, neutiquam verbum Dei caro factum fuisset, If the flesh of man were not to be saved, the Anchor of salvation would never have taken the flesh of man upon him.

The punishment that God laid upon Adam, In dolore & in sudore, In sweat, and in sorrow sbalt thou eat thy bread, is but Donecreverteris, till man return to dust: but when Man is returned to dust, God returns to the remembrance of that promise, Awake and sing yethat dwell in the dust. A mercy already exhibited to us, in the person of our Savior Christ Jesus, in whom, Per primitias benedixit campo, (says S. Chrysostom) as God by taking a handful for the first Fruits, gave ablessing to the wholw field; so he hath sealed the bodies of all mankind to his glory, by pre-assuming the body of Christ to that glory. For by that there is now Commercium inter Coelum & terram; there is a Trade driven, a Staple established between Heaven and earth; Ibi caronostra, hic Spiritus ejus; Thither have we sent our flest, and hither hath he sent his Spirti.

This is the last abolition of this enemy, Death; for after this, the bodies of the Saints he cannot touch, the bodes of the damned he cannot kill, and if he could, he were not therein their enemy, but their friend. This is that blessed and glorious State, of which, when all the Apostles met to make the Creed, they could say no more, but Credo Resurrectionem, I heleeve the Resurrection of the body; and when those two Reverend Fathers, to whom it belongs, shall come to speak of it, upon the day proper for it, in this place, and if all the Bishops, that ever met in Councils should meet them here, they could but second the Apostles Credo, with their Anathema, We believe, and woe be unto them that do not believe the Resurrection of the body; but in gong about to express it, the lips of an Angel would be uncircumcised lips, and the tongue of an Archangel would stammer. I offer not therefore at it: but in respect of, and with relation to that blessed State, according to the doctrine, and practise of our Church, we do pray for the dead; for the militant Church upon earth, and the trimphant Church in Heaven, and the whole Catholic Church in Heaven, and earth; we do pray that God will be pleased to hasten that Kingdom, that we with all others departed in the true Faith of his holy Name, may have this perfect consummation, both of body and soul, in his everlasting glory, Amen.

Sermon XVI. preached at White-hall, the first Friday in Lent. 1622.

JOHN 11.35.

Jesus wept.

I Am now but upon the Compassion of Christ. There is much difference between his Compassion and his Passion, as much as between the men that are to handle them here. But Lacryma pass, ionis Chrisi est vicaria: A great personage may speak of his Passion, of his blood; My vicargae is to speak of his Compassion and his tears. Let me chafe the wax, and melt your souls in a bath of his Tears now, Let him set to the great Seal of his effectual passion, in his blood, then. It is a Common place I know to speak of tears: I would you knew as well, it were a common practise, to shed them. Though it be not so, yet bring S. Bernards, patience, Libenter audiam, qui non sibi plausum, sed mihi planctum moveat; be willing to hear him, that seeks not your acclamation to himself, but your humiliation to his and your God; not to make you praise with them that praise, but to make you weep with them that weep, And Jesus wept.

The Masorites (the Masorites are the Critiques upon the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament) cannot tell us, who divided the Chapters of the Old Testament into verses; Neither can any other tell us, who did it in the New Testament. Whoever did it seems to have stopped in an amazement in this Text, and by making an entire verse of these two words, Jesus wept, and no more, to intimate that there needs no more for the exalting of our devotion to a competent height, then to consider, how, and where, and when, and why Jesus wept. There is not a shorter verse in the Bible, not a larger Text. There is another as short; Semper gaudete, Rejoice evermore, and of that holy Joy, I may have leave to speak here hereafter, more seasonably, in a more Festival time, by my ordinary service. This is the season of general Compunction, of general Mortification, and no man privileged, for Jesus wept.

In that Letter which Lentulus in said to have written to the Senate of Rome, in which he gives some Characters of Christ, he says, That Christ was never seen to laugh, but to weep often. Now in what number he limits his often, or upon what testimony he grounds him number, we know not. We take knowledgethat he wept thrice. He wept here, when he mourned with them that mourned for Lazarus; He wept again, when he drew near to Jerusalem, and looked upon that City; And he wept a third time in his Passion. There is but one Evangelist, but this, S. John, that tells us of these first tears, the rest say nothing of them; There is but one Evangelist, S. Luke, that tells us of his second tears, the rest speak not of those; There is no Evangelist, but there is an Apostle that tells us of his third tears, S. Paul says, That in the days of his flesh, be offered up prayers with strong cries, and tears; And those tears, Expositors of all sides referre to his Passion, though some to his Agony in the Garden, some to his Passion on the Corsse; and these in my opinion most fitly; because those words of S. Paul belong to the declaration of the Priesthood, and of the Sacrifice of Christ; and for that function of his, the Cross was the Altar; and therefore to the Cross we fixe those third tears. The first were Humane tears, the second were Prophetical, the third were Pontifical, appertaining to the Sarifice. The first were shed in a Condolency of a humane and natural calamity fallen upon one family; Lazarus was dead: The second were shed in Contemplation of future calamity upon a Nation; Jerusalem was to be destroyed: The third, in Contemplation of sin, and the everlasting punishments due to sin, and to such sinners, as would make no benefit of that Sacrifice, which he offered in offering himself. His friend was dead, and then Jesus wept; He justified naturail affectins and such offices of piety: Jerusalem was tobe destroyed, and then Jesus wept; He commiserated public and national calamities, though a private person: His very giving of himself for sin, was to become to a great many ineffectual; and then Jsus wept; He declared how indelible the natural stain of sin is, that not such sweat as hi, such tears, such blood as his could absolutely wash it out of mans nature. The tears of the text are as a Spring, a Well. belonging to onehoushold the Sisters of Lazarus: The tears over Jerusalem, are as a River belonging to a whole Country: The tears upon the Cross, are as the Sea belonging to all the world; and though literally there fall no more into our text, then the Spring, yet because the Spring flows into the River, and the River into the Sea, and that wheresoever we find that Jesus wept, we find our Text, (for our Text is but that, Iisus wept) therefore by the leave and light of his blessed Spirit, we shall look upon those lovely, those heavenly eye, through this glass of his own tears, in all these three lines, as he wept here over Lazarus, as he wept there over Jerusalem, as he wept upon the Cross over all us. For so often Jesus wept.

First then, Jesus wept Humanitus, he took a necessary occasion to show that he was true Man. He was now in hand with the greatest Miracle that ever he did, the raising of Lazarus, so long dead. Could we but do so in our spiritual raising, what a blessed harvest were that? What a comfort to find one man here to day, raised from his spiritual death, this day twelve-month? Christ did it every year, and every year he improved his Miracle, In the first year, he raised the Governours Daughter: se was newly dead, and as yetin the house. In the beginning of sin, and whilst in the house, in the house of God, in the Church, in a glad obedience to Gods Ordinances and Institutions there, for the reparation and resuscitation of dead souls, the work is not so hard. In his second year, Christ raised the Widows Son; and him he found without, ready to be buried. In a man grown cold and stiff in sin, impenetrable, inflexible by denouncing the Judgements of God, almost buried in a stupidity, and insensibleness of his being dead, there is more difficulty. But in his third year, Christ raised this Lazarus; he had been long dead, and buried, and in probability, puttrified after four days.

This Miracle Christ meant to make a pregnant proof of the Resurrection, which was his principal intention therein. For, the greatest arguments against the Resurrection, being for the most part of this kind, when a Fish eats a man, and another man eats that fish, or when one man eats another, how shall both these men rise again? when a body is resolved in the grave to the first principles, or is passed into other substances, the case is somewhat near the same; and therefore Christ would work upon a body near that state, abody putrefied. And truly, in our sriritual raising of the dead, to raise a sinner putrefied in his own earth, resolved in his own dung, especially that hath passed many transformations, from shape to shape, from sin to sin, (hi hath been a Salamander and lived in the fire, in the fire successvely, in the fire of lust in his youth, and in his age in the fire of Ambition; and then he hath been a Serpent, a Fish, and lived in the waters. , in the water successively, in the troubled water of sedition in his youth, and in his age in the cold waters of indevotion) how shall we raise this Salamander and this Serpent, when this Serpent and this Salamander is all one person, and must have contrary music to charm him, contrary physic to cure him? To raise a man resolved into diverse substances, scattered into diverse forms of several sins, is the greatest work. And there. fore this Miracle (which implied that) S. Basil calls Miraculum in Miraculo, a pregnant, a double Miracle. For here is Mortuus redivivus, A dead man lives; that had been done before; but Alligatus ambulat, says Basil; he that is settered, and manacled, and tied with many difficulties, he walks.

And therefore as this Miracle raised him most estmation, so (for they ever accompany one another) it raised him most envy: Envy that extended beyond him, to Lazarus himself, who had done nothing; and yet, The chief Priests consulted how they might put Lizarus to death, because by reason of him, many believed in Jesus. A disease, a distemper, a danger which no time shall ever be free from, that whereforer there is a coldness, a disaffection to Gods Cause, those who are any way occasionally instrumenta of Gods glory, shall find cold affection. If they killed Lazarus, had not Christ done enough to let them see that he could raise him again? for Caeca sevitia, sialiud videtur mertuus, aliud occisus; It was a blind malice, if they thought, that Christ could raise a man naturally dead, and could not if he were violently killed. This then being his greatest Miracle, preparing the hardest Article of the Creed, the Resurrection of the body, as the Mirracle it self declared sufficiently his Divinity, that nature, so in this declaration that he was God, he would declare that he was man too, and therefore Jesus wept.

He wept as man doth weep, and he wept as a man may weep; for these tears were Testes naturae, non Indices diffidentiae, They declared him to be true man, but no distrustful, no inordinate man. In Job there is a question asked of God, Hast thou eyes of flesh, and doest thou see, as man sees? Let this question be directed to God manifested in Christ, and Christ will weep out an answer to that question, I have eyes of flesh, and I do weep as man weeps. Not as sinful man, not as s man, that had het fall his bridle, by which he should trune his horse: Not as a man that were cast from the rudder, by which he should steer his Ship: Not as a man that had lost his interest and power in his affections, and passions: Christ wept not so. Christ mingt go farther that way, then any other man: Christ might ungirt himself, and give more scope and liberty to his passions, then any other man: both because he had no Original sin within, to drive him, no inordinate love without to draw him, when his affections were moved; which all other men have.

God says to the Jews, That they had wept in his ears; God had heard them weep: but for what, and how? they wept for flesh. There was a tincture, there was a deep dye of murmuring in their tears. Christ goes as far in the passion, in his agony, and he comes to a passionate deprecation, in his Tristis anima, and in the Si possibile, and in the Transeat calix. But as all these passions were sanctified in the root, from which no bitter leaf, no crooked twig could spring, so they were instantly washed with his Veruntamen, a present and a full submitting of all to Gods pleasure, Yet not my will O Father, but thine be done. It will not be safe for any man to come so near an excess of passions, as he may find some good men in the Scriptures to have done: That because he hears Moses say to God, Dele me, Blot my name out of the book of life, Therefore he may say, God damn me, or I renounce God. It is not safe for a man to expose himself to a temptation, because he hath seen another pass through it. Every man may know his own Byas, and to what sin that diverts him: The beauty of the person, the opportunity of the place, the importunity of the party, being his Mistress, could not shake Iosephs constancy. There is one such example, of one that resisted a strong temptation: But then there are in one place, two men together, that sinned upon their own bodies, Her and Onan, then when no temptation was offered, nay when a remedy against temptation was ministered to them.

Some man may be chaster in the Stews, then another in the Church; and some man will sin more in his dreams, then another in his discourse. Every man must know how much water his own vessel draws, and not to think to sail over, wheresoever he hath seen anothe (he knows not with how much labor) shove over: No nor to adventure so far, as he may have reason to be confident in his own strength: For though he may be safe in himself, yet he may sinin another, if by his indiscreete, and improvident example, another be scandalized. Christ was always safe; He was led ofthe Spirit: of what spirit? his own Spirit: Led willingly into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. No other man might do that; but he who was able to say to the Sun, Siste sol, was able to say to Satan, Siste Lucifer. Christ in another place gave such scope to his affections, and to others interpretations of his actions, that his friends and kinsfolds thught him mad, besides himself: But all this while, Christ had his own actions, and passions, and their interpretations in his own power: he could do what he would. Here in our Text, Jesus was troubled, and he groaned; and vehemently, and often, his affections were stirred: but as in a clan glass, if water be stirred and troubled, though it may conceive a little light froth, yet it contracts no foulness in that clean gals, the affections of Christ were moved, but so: in that holy vessel they would contract no foulness, no declination towards inordinateness. But then every Christian is not a Christ; and therefore as he that would fast forty days, as Christ did, might starve; and he that would whip Merchants out of the Temple, as Christ did, might be knockt down in the Temple; So he knowing his own inclinations, or but the general ill inclination of all mankind, as he is infected with Original sin, should converse so much with publicans and sinners, might participate of their sins. The rule is, we must avoid inordinateness of affections; but when we come to examples of that rule, our selves well understood by our selves, must be our own exaples; for it is not always good to go too far, as some good men have gone before.

Now though Christ were far from both, yet he came nearer to an excess of passion, then to an Indolency, to a senselessness, to a privation of natural affections. Inordinateness of affections may sometimes make some men like some beasts; but indolency, absence, emptiness, privation of affections, makes any man at all times, like stones, like dirt. In novissimis, saith S. Peter, In the last, that is, in the worst days, in the dregs, and lees, and tartar of sin, then shall come men, lovers of themselves; and that is ill enough in man; for that is an affection peculiar to God, to love himself. Non special vitium, sed radix omnium vitiorum, says the School in the mouth of Aquinas: self. love cannot be called a distinct sin, but the root of all sins. It is true that Iustin Martyr says, Philosophanti finis est Deo assimilari, The end of Christian Philosophy is to be wise like God; but not in this, to love our selves; for the greatest sin that ever was, and that upon which even the blood of Christ Jesus hath not wrought, the sin of Angels was that, Similis ero Altissimo, to be like God. To love our selves, to be satisfied in our selves, to find an omnisufficiency in our selves, is an intrusion, an usurpation upon God: And even God himself who had that omni-sufficiency in himself, conceived a conveniency for his glory, to draw a Circumference about that Center, Creatures about himself, and to shed forth lines of love upon all them, and not to love himself alone. Self-love in man sinks deep: but yet you see, the Apostle in his order, casts the other sin lower, that is, into a worse place, To be without natural affections.

S. Augustine extends these natural affections, to Religious affections, because they are natural to a supernatural man, to a regenerate man, who naturally loves those, that are of the household of the faithful, that profess the same truth of Religion: and not to be affected with their distresses, when Religion it self is distressed, in them, is impiety. He extends these affections to Moral affections; the love of Eminent and Heroical virtues in any man: we ought to be affected with the fall of such men. And he extends them to civil affections, the love of friends; not to be moved in their behalf, is argument enough that we do not much love them.

For our case in the Text, These men whom Jesus found weeping, and wept with them, were none of his kindred: They were Neighbours, and Christ had had a conversation, and contracted a friendship in that Family; He loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus, says the Story: and he would let the world see that he loved them: for so the Jews argued that saw him weep, Behold how he loved them; without outward declarations, who can conclude an inward love? to assure that, Jesus wept.

To an inordinateness of affections it never came; to a natural tenderness it did; and so far as to tears; and then who needs be ashamed of weeping? Look away far from me, for I will weep bitterly, says Hierusalem in Isaiah. But look upon me, says Christ in the Lamentations, Behold and see if ever there were any sorrow, any tears like mine: Not like his in value, but in the root as they proceeded from natural affection, they were tears of imitation, and we may, we must weep tears like his tears. They scourged him, they crowned him, they nailed him, they pierced him, and then blood came; but he shed tears voluntarily, and without violence: The blood came from their ill, but the tears from his own good nature: The blood was drawn, the tears were given. We call it a childish thing to weep, and a womanish; and perchance we mean worse in that then in the childish; for therein we may mean falsehood to be mingled with weakness. Christ made it an argument of his being man, to weep, for though the lineaments of mans body, eyes and ears, hands and feet, be ascribed to God in the Scriptures, though the affections of mans mind be ascribed to him, (even sorrow, nay Repentance it self, is attributed to God) I do not remember that ever God is said to have wept: It is for man. And when God shall come to that last Act in the glorifying of Man, when he promises, to wipe all tears from his eyes, what shall God have to do with that eye that never wept?

He wept out of a nutural tenderness in general; and he wept now out of a particular occasion. What was that? Quia mortuus, because Lazarus was dead. We stride over many steps at once; waive many such considerable circumstances as these; Lazarus his friend was dead, therefore he wept, Lazarus, the staff and sustentatio of that family was dead, he upon whom his Sisters relied, was dead, therefore he wept. But I stop only upon this one step, Quia mortuus, that he was dead. Now a good man is not the worse for dying, that is true and capable of a good sense, because he is established in a better world: but yet when he is gone out of this world he is none of us, he is no longer a man. The stronger opinion in the School, is, That Christ himself, when he lay dead in the grave, was no man. Though the God head never departed from the Carcass, (there was no divorce of that Hypostatical union) yet because the Humane soul was departed from it, he was no man. Hugo de S. Victor. who thinks otherwise, that Christ was a man then, thinks so upon a weak ground: He thinks, that because the soul is the form of man, the soul is man; and that therefore the soul remaining, the man remains. But it is not the soul, but the union of the soul, that makes the man. The Master of the Sentences, Peter Lombard, that thinks so too, that Christ was then a man, thinks so upon as weak a ground: He thinks that it is enough to constitute a man, that there be a soul and body, though that soul and body be not united; but still it is the union that makes the man: And therefore when he is disunited, dead, he is none of us, he is no man; and therefore we weep how well soever he be. Abraham was loath to let go his wife, though the King had her: A man hath a natural loathness to let go his friend, though God take him to him.

S. Augustine says, that he knew well enough, that his mother was in heaven; and S. Ambrose, that he knew well enough that his master Theodosius the emperor was in heaven, but because they saw not in what state they were, they thought that something might be asked at Gods hands in their behalf; and so out of a humane and pious officiousness, in a devotion perchance indigested, uncocted, and retaining yet some crudities, some irresolutions, they strayed into prayers for them after they were dead. Lazarus his sisters made no doubt of their brothers salvation; they believed his soul to be in a good estate: And for his body, they told Christ, Lord we know that he shall rise at the last day: And yet they wept.

Here, in this world, we who stay, lack those who are gone out of it: we know they shall never come to us; and when we shall go to them, whether we shall know them or no, we dispute. They who think that it conduces to the perfection of happiness in heaven, that we should know one another, think piously if they think we shall. For, as for the maintenance of public peace, States, and Churches, may think diversly in points of Religion, that are not fundamental, and yet both be true and Orthodoxal Churches; so for the exaltation of private devotion in points that are not fundamental, divers men may think diversly, and both be equally good Christians. Whether we shall know them there, or no, is problematical and equal; that we shall not till then, is dogmatical and certain: Therefore we weep. I know there are Philosophers that will not let us weep, nor lament the death of any: And I know that in the Scriptures there are rules, and that there are instructions conveyed in that example, that David left mourning as soon as the child was dead; And I know that there are Authors of a middle nature, above the Philosophers, and below the Scriptures, the Apocryphal books, and I know it is said there, Comfort thy self, for thou-shalt do him no good that is dead, Et teipsum pessimabis (as the Vulgate reads it) thou shalt make thy self worse and worse, in the worst degree. But yet all this is but of inordinate lamentation; for in the same place, the same Wise man says, My Son, let thy tears fall down over the dead; weep bitterly and make great moan, as he is worthy. When our Savior Christ had uttered his consummatum est, all was finished, and their rage could do him no more harm, when he had uttered his In manus tuas, he had delivered and God had received his soul, yet how did the whole frame of nature mourn in Eclipses, and tremble in earth-quakes, and dissolve and shed in pieces in the opening of the Temple, Quia mortuus, because he was dead.

Truly, to see the hand of a great and mighty Monarch, that hand that hath governed the civil sword, the sword of Justice at home, and drawn and sheathed the foreign sword, the sword of war abroad, to see that hand lie dead, and not be able to nip or fillip away one of his own worms (and then Quis homo, what man, though he be one of those men, of whom God hath said, Ye are gods, yet Quis homo, what man is there that lives, and shall not see death?) To see the brain of a great and religious Counsellor (and God bless all from making, all from calling any great that is not religious) to see that brain that produced means to becalme gusts at Council tables, storms in Parliaments, tempests in popular commotions, to see that brain produce nothing but swarms of worms and no Proclamation to disperse them; To see a reverend Prelate that hath resisted Heretics & Schismatiques all his life, fall like one of them by death, & perchance be called one of them when he is dead. To re-collect all, to see great men made no men, to be sure that they shall never come to us, not to be sure, that we shall know them when we come to them, to see the Lieutenants and Images of God, Kings, the sinews of the State, religious Counsellors, the spirit of the Church, zealous Prelates, And then to see vulgar, lgnorant, wicked, and facinorous men thrown all by one hand of death, into one Cart, into one common Tide-boat, one Hospital, one Almeshouse, one Prison, the grave, in whose dust no man can say, This is the King, this is the Slave, this is the Bishop, this is the Heretic, this is the Counsellor, this is the Fool, even this miserable equality of so unequal persons, by so foul a hand, is the subject of this lamentation, even Quia mortuus, because Lazarus was dead, Jesus wept.

He wept even in that respect, Quia mortuus, and he wept in this respect too, Quia non adhibita media, because those means which in appearance might have saved his life, by his default were not used, for when he came to the house, one sister, Martha says to him, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died; and then the other sister, Mary says so too, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died: They all cry out, that he who only, only by comming, might have saved his life, would not come. Our Savior knew in himself that he abstained to better purpose, and to the farther glory of God: for when he heard of his death, he said to his Disciples, I am glad for your sakes that I was not there. Christ had certain reserved purposes which conduced to a better establishing of their faith, and to a better advancing of Gods Kingdom, the working of that miracle. But yet because others were able to say to him, it was in you to have saved him, and he did not, even this Quia non adhibita media, affected him; and Jesus wept.

He wept, Etsi quatriduanus, though they said unto him, He hath been four days dead, and stinks. Christ doth not say, there is no such matter, he doth not stink; but though he do, my friend shall not lack my help. Good friends, useful friends though they may commit some errors, and though for some misbehaviours they may stink in our nostrils, must not be derelicted, abandoned to themselves. Many a son, many a good heir, finds an ill air from his Father; his Fathers life stinks in the nostrils of all the world, and he hears every where exclamations upon his Fathers usury, and extortion, and oppression: yet it becomes him by a betterlife, and by all other means to rectify and redeem his Fathers fame. Quatriduanus est, is no plea for my negligence in my family; to say, My son, or my servant hath proceeded so far in ill courses, that now it is to no purpose to go about to reform him, because Quatriduanus est. Quatriduanus est, is no plea in my pastoral charge, to say that seducers, and practisers, and perswaders, and sollicitors for superstition, enter so boldly into every family, that now it is to no purpose to preach religious wariness, religious discretion, religious constancy. Quatriduanus est, is no plea for my Usury, for my Simony; to say, I do but as all the world doth, and hath used to do a long time. To preach there where reprehension of growing sin is acceptable, is to preach in season; where it is not acceptable, it is out of season; but yet we must preach in season, and out of season too. And when men are so refractary, as that they forbear to hear, or hear and resist our preaching, we must pray; and where they dispise or forbid our praying, we must lament them, we must weep: Quatriduanus erat, Lazarus was far spent, yet Jesus wept.

He wept, Though he knew that Lazarus were to be restored, and raised to life again. for as he meant to declare a great good will to him at last, so he would utter some by the way; he would do a great miracle for him, as he was a mighty God; but he would weep for him too, as he was a good natured man. Truly it is no very charitable disposition, if I give all at my death to others, if I keep all all my life to my self. For how many families have we seen shook, ruined by this distemper, that though the Father mean to alien nothing of the inheritance from the Son at his death, yet because he affords him not a competent maintenance in his life, he submits his Son to an encumbring of his fame with ignominious shiftings, and an encumbring of the estare with irrecoverable debts. I may mean to feast a man plentifully at Christmas, and that man may starve before in Lent: Great persons may think it in their power to give life to persons and actions by their benefits, when they will, and before that will be up and ready, both may become incapable of their benefits. Jesus would not give this family, whom he pretended to love, occasion of jealousy, of suspicion, that he neglected them; and therefore though he came not presently to that great work, which he intended tended at last, yet he left them not comfortless by the way, Jesus wept.

And so (that we may reserve some minutes for the rest) we end this part, applying to every man that blessed exclamation of S. Ambrose, Ad monumentum hoc digner is accedere Domine Iesu, Lord Jesus be pleased to come to this grave, to weep over this dead Lazarus, this soul in this body: And though I come not to a present rising, a present deliverance from the power of all sin, yet if I can feel the dew of thy tears upon me, if I can discern the eye of the compassion bent towards me, I have comfort all the way, and that comfort will flow into an infallibility in the end.

And be this the end of this part, to which we are come by these steps. Jesus wept, That as he showed himself to be God, he might appear to be man too: he wept not in ordinately; but he came nearer excess then indolency: He wept because he was dead; and because all means for life had not been used; he wept, though he were far spent; and he wept, though he meant to raise him again.

We pass now from his humane to his prophetical tears, from Jesus weeping in contemplation of a natural calamity fallen upon one family, Lazarus was dead, to his weeping in contemplation of a National calamity foreseen upon a whole people; Jerusalem was to be destroyed. His former tears had sOme of the spirit of prophecy in them; for therefore says Epiphanius, Christ wept there, because he foresaw how little use the Jews would make of that miracle, his humane tears were prophetical, and his prophetical tears are humane too, they rise from good affections to that people. And therefore the same Author says, That because they thought it an uncomely thing for Christ to weep for any temporal thing, some men have expunged and removed that verse out of S. Lukes Gospel, That Jesus when he saw that City, wept: But he is willing to be proposed, and to stand for ever for an example of weeping in contemplation of public calamities; Therefore Iesuswept.

He wept first, Inter acclamationes, in the midst of the congratulations and acclamations of the people, then when the whole multitude of his Disciples cried out, Vivat Rex, Blessed be the King, that comes in the name of the Lord, Jesus wept. When Herod took to himself the name of the Lord, when he admitted that grosse flattery, It is a God and not a man that speaks, It was no wonder that present occasion of lamentation fell upon him. But in the best times, and under the best Prince, (first, such is the natural mutability of all worldly things; and then (and that especially) such is the infiniteness, and enormousness of our rebellious sin) then is ever just occasion of fear of worse, and so of tears. Every man is but a spunge, and but a spunge filled with tears: and whether you lay your right hand or your left upon a full spunge, it will weep. Whether God lay his left hand, temporal calamities, or his right hand, temporal prosperity; even that temporal prosperity comes always accompanied with so much anxiety in our selves, so much uncertainty in it self, and so much envy in others, as that that man who abounds most, that spunge shall weep.

Jesus wept, Inter acclamationes, when all went we enough with him; to show the slipperiness of worldly happiness, and then he wept Inter judicia; then when himself was in the act of denouncing judgements upon them, Jesus wept, To show with how ill a will he inflicted those judgements, and that themselves, and not he, had drawn those judgements upon them. How often do the Prophets repeat that phrase, Onus visionis, O the burden of the judgements that I have seen upon this, and this people! It was a burden that pressed tears from the Prophet Isaiah, I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon: when he must pronounce judgements upon her, he could not but weep over her. No Prophet so tender as Christ, nor so compassionate; and therefore he never takes rod into his hand, but with tears in his eyes. Alas, did God lack a footstool, that he should make man only to tread and trample upon? Did God lack glory, and could have it no other way, but by creating man therefore, to afflict him temporally here, and eternally hereafter? whatsoever Christ weeps for in the way of his mercy, it is likely he was displeased with it in the way of his Justice: If he weep for it, he had rather it were not so. If then those judgements upon Jerusalem were only from his own primary, and positive, and absolute Decree, without any respect to their sins, could he be displeased with his owneact, or weep and lament that which only himself had done? would God ask rael? if God lay open to that answer, We die therefore, because you have killed us; Jerusalem salem would not judge her self, therefore Christ judged her; Jerusalem would not weep for her self, and therefore Jesus wept; but in those tears of his, he showed, that he had rather her own tears had averted, and washed away those judgements.

He wept, cum appropinquavit, says the Text there, when Jesus came near the City and saw it then he wept; not till then. If we will not come near the miseries of our brethren, if we will not see them, we will never weep over them, never be affected towards them. It was cum ille, not cumilli, when Christ himself, not when his Disciples, his followers, who could do Jerusalem no good, took knowledge of it. It was not cum illi, nor it was not cum illa, not when those judgements drew near; It is not said so; neither is there any time limited in the Text, when those judgements were to fall upon Jerusalem; it is only said generally, indefinitely, these days shall come upon her. And yet Christ did not ease himself upon that, that those calamities were remote and far off, but though they were so, and not to fall till after his death, yet he lamented future calamities then, then Jesus wept. Many such little Brooks as these fall into this River, the consideration of Christs Prophetical tears; but let it be enough to have sprinkled these drops out of the River; That Jesus, though a private person, wept in contemplation of public calamities; That he wept in the best times, fore-seeing worse; That he wept in their miseries, because he was no Author of them: That he wept not till he took their miseries into his consideration: And he did weep a good time, before those miseries fell upon them. There remain yet his third tears, his pontifical tears, which accompany his sacrifice; Those tears we called the Sea, but a Sea which must now be bounded with a very little sand.

To sail apace through this Sea; these tears, the tears of his Cross, were expressed by that inestimable weight, the sins of all the world. If all the body were eye, argues the Apostle in another place; why, here all the body was eye; every pore of his body made an eye by tears of blood, and every inch of his body made an eye by their bloody scourges. And if Christs looking upon Peter, made Peter weep, shall not his looking upon us here, with tears in his eyes, such tears in such eyes, springs of tears, rivers of tears, seas of tears make us weep too? Peter who wept under the weight of his particular sin, wept bitterly: how bitterly wept Christ under the weight of all the sins of all the world? In the first tears. Christ humane tears (those we called a spring) we fetched water at one house, we condoled a private calamity in another; Lazarus was dead. In his second tears, his Prophetical tears, we went to the condoling of a whole Nation; and those we called a River. In these third tears, his pontifical tears, tears for sin, for all sins (those we call a Sea) here is Mare liberum, a Sea free and open to all; Every man may sail home, home to himself, and lament his own sins there.

I am far ftom concluding all to be impenitent, that do not actually weep and shed tears; I know there are constitutions, complexions, that do not afford them. And yet the worst Epithet, which the best Poet could fixe upon Pluto himself, was to call him Illachrymabilis, a person that could not weep. But to weep for other things, and not to weep for sin, or if not to tears, yet not to come to that tenderness, to that melting, to that thawing, that resolving of the bowels which good souls feel; this is a spunge (I said before, every man is a spunge) this is a spunge dried up into a Pumice stone; the lightness, the hollowness of a spunge is there still, but (as the Pumice is) dried the Aetnaes of lust, of ambition, of other flames in this world.

I have but three words to say of these tears of this weeping. What it is, what it is for, what it does; the nature, the use, the benefit of these tears, is all. And in the first, I forbear to insist upon S. Basils Metaphor, Lachrymae sudor animi male sani; Sin is my sickness, the blood of Christ Jesus is my Bezar, tears is the sweat that that produceth. I forbear Greg. Nyssens metaphor too, Lachryma sanguis cordis defoecatus; Tears are out best blood, so agitated, so ventilated, so purified, so rarified into spirits, as that thereby I become Idem spiritus, one spirit with my God. That is large enough, and embraces all, which S. Gregory says, That man weeps truly, that soul sheds true tears, that considers seriously, first, ubi fuit in innocentia, the blessed state which man was in, in his integrity at first, ubifuit; and then considers, ubi est in tentationibus, the weak estate that man is in now, in the midst of temptations, where, if he had no more, himself were temptation too much, ubi est; and yet considers farther, ubi erit, in gehenna, the insupportable, and for all that, the inevitable, theirreparable, and for all that, undeterminable torments of hell, ubi erit; and lastly, ubi non erit, in coelis, the unexpressible joy and glory which he loses in heaven, ubi non erit, where he shall never be. These four to consider seriously, where man was, where he is, where he shall be, where he shall never be, are four such Rivers, as constitute a Paradise. And as a ground may be a weeping ground, though it have no running River, no constant spring, no gathering of waters in it; so a soul that can pour out it self into these religious considerations, may be a weeping soul, though it have a dry eye: This weeping then is but a true sorrow, (that was our first) and then, what this true sorrow is given us for, and that is our next Consideration.

As water is in nature a thing indifferent, in may give life, (so the first livin things that were, were in the water) and it may destroy life, (so all things living upon the earth, were destroyed in the water) but yet though water may, though it have done good and bad, yet water does now one good office, which no ill quality that is in it can equal, it washes our souls in Bap?ism; so though there be good tears and bad tears, tears that wash away sin, and tears that are sin, yet all tears have this degree of good in them, that they are all some kind of argument of good nature, of a tender heart; and the Holy Ghost loves to work in Wax, and not in Marble. I hope that is but merely Poetical which the Poet says, Discunt lachrymare decenter; that some study to weep with a good grace; Quoque volunt plorant empore, quoquemode, they make use and advantage of their tears, and weep when they will. But of those who weep not when they would, but when they would not, do half employ their tears upon thatfor which God hath given them that sacrifice upon sin. God made the Firmament, which he called Heaven, after it had divided the waters: After we have distinguished our tears, natural from spiritual, worldly from heavenly, then there is a Firmament established in us, then there is a heaven opened to us: and truly, to cast Pearls before Swine, will scarce be better resembled, then to shed tears which resemble pearls for worldly losses.

Are there examples of menopassionately enamored upon age? or if upon age, upon deformity? If there be example of that, are they not examples of scorn too? do not all others laugh at their tears? and yet such is our passionate doting upon this world. Mundi facies, says S. Augustine, (and even S. Augustine himself hath scarce said any thing more pathetically) tanta rerani lab contrita, ut etiam speciem seductionis amiserit: The face of the whold world is so defaced, so wrinkled, so ruined, so deformed, as that man might be trusted with this world, and there is no jealousy, no suspicion that this world should be able to minister any occasion of temptation to man: Speciem seductionis amisit. And yet, Qui in seipso aruit, in nobis floret, says S. Gregory, as wittily as S. Augustine, (as it is easy to be witty, easy to extend an Epigram to a Satyre, and a Satyre to an Invective, in declaiming against this world) that world which finds it self truly in an Autumn, in it self, finds it self in a spring, in our imaginations. Labenti haeremus, says that Father; Et cum labentem sister non possumus, cum ipso labimur; The world passes away, and yet we cleave to it; and when we cannot stay it from passing away, we pass away with it.

To mourne passionately for the love of this world, which is decrepit, and upon the deathbed, or imoderately for the death of any that is passed out of this world, is not the right use of tears. That hath good use which Chrysologus notes, that when Christ was told of Lazarus death, he said he was glad; when he came to raise him to life, then he wept: for though his Disciples gained by it, (they were confirmed by a Miracle) though the family gained by it, (they had their Lazarus again) yet Lazarus himself lost by it, by being re-imprisoned, re-committed, re-submitted to the manifold incommodities of this world. When our Savior Christ forbad the women to weep for him, it was becausethere was nothing in him, for tears to work upon; no sin: Ordinem flendi docuit, says S. Bernard, Christ did not absolutely forbid tears, but regulate and order their tears, that they might weep in the right place; first for sin. David wept for Absolon; He might imagine, that he died in sin, he wept not for the Child by Bathsheba, he could not suspect so much danger in that. Exitus aquarum, says David, Rivers of waters ran down from mine eyes, why? Quia illi, Because they, who are they? not other men, as it is ordinarily taken; but Quia illi, Because mine own eyes (so Hilary, and Ambrose, and August take it) have not kept thy Laws: As the calamities of others, so the sins of others may, but our own sins must be the object of our sorrow. Thou shalt offer to me, says God, the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors, as our Translation hath it: The word in the Original ginal is Vedingnacha, lachrymarum, and of thy tears: Thy first tears must be to God for sin: The second and third may be to nature and civility, and such secular offices. But Liquor ad lippitudinem apto quisquamne ad pedes lavandos abutetur? It is S. Chrysostomes exclamation and admiration, will and wash his feet in water for sore eyes? will any man embalm the Carcass of the world, which he treads under foot, with those tears which should embalm his soul? Did Joseph of Arimathea bestow any of his perfumes (though he brought a superfluous quantity, a hundred pound weight for one body) yet did he bestow any upon the body of either of the Thieves? Tears are true sorrow, that you heard before; True sorrow is for sin, that you have heard now; All that remains is how this sorrow works, what is does.

The Fathers have infinitely delighted themselves in this descant, the blessed effect of holy tears. He amongst them that remembers us, that in the old Law all Sacrifices were washed, he means, That our best sacrifice, even prayer it self, receives an improvement, a dignity, by being washed in tears. He that remembers us, that if any room of out house be on fire, we run for water, means that in all temptations, we should have recourse to tears. He that tells us, that money being put into a bason, is seen at a farther distance, if there be water in the bason, then if it be empty, means also, that our most precious devotions receive an addition, a multiplication by holy tears. S. Bernard means all that they all mean in that, Cor lachrymas nesciens durum, impurum, A hard heart is a foul heart. Would you shut up the devil in his own channel, his channel of brimstone, and make that worse? S. Jerome tells the way, Plus tua lachryma, &c. Thy tears torment him more then the fires of hell; will you needs have holy water? truly, true tears are the holiest water. And for Purgatory, it is liberally confessed by a Jesuit, Non minùs efficax, &c. One tear will do thee as much good, as all the flames of Purgatory. We have said more then once, that man is a spunge; And in Codice scripta, all our sins are written in Gods Book, says S. Chrysostom: If there I can fill my spunge with tears, and so wipe out all my sins out of that Book, it is a blessed use of the Spunge.

I might stand upon this, the manifold benefits of godly tears, long: so long, as till you wept, and wept for sin; and that might be very long. I contract all to this one, which is all: To how many blessednesses must these tears, this godly sorrow reach by the way, when as it reaches to the very extreme, to that which is opposed to it, to Joy? for godly sorrow is Joy. The words in Job are in the Vulgate, Dimitte meut plang am dolorem meum: Lord spare me a while that I may lament my lamentable estate: and so ordinarily the Expositors that follow that Translation, make their use of them. But yet it is in the Original, Lord spare me a while, that I may take comfort: That which one calls lamenting, the other calls rejoicing: To conceive true sorrow and true joy, are things not only contiguous, but continual; they do not only touch and follow one another in a certain succession, Joy assuredly after sorrow, but they consist together, they are all one, Joy and Sorrow. My tears have been my meat day and night, says David: not that he had no other meat, but that none relisht so well. It is a Grammatical note of a Jesuit, (I do not tell you it is true; I have almost tole you that it is not true, by telling you whose it is, but that it is but a Grammatical note) That when it is said Tempus cantus, The time offinging is come, it might as well be rendered out of the Hebrew, Tempus plorationis, The time of weeping is come; And when it is said, Nomini tuo cantabo, Lord I will sing unto thy Name, it might be as well rendered out of the Hebrew, Plorabo, I will weep, I will sacrifice my tears unto thy Name. So equal, so indifferent a thing is it, when we come to godly sorrow, whether we call it sorrow or joy, weeping or singing.

To end all, to weep for sin is not a damp of melancholy, to sigh for sin, is not a vapor of the spleen, but as Monicaes Confessor said still unto her, in the behalf of her Son S. Augustine, filius istarum lachrymarum, the son of these tears cannot perish; so wash thy self in these three examplar bathes of Christs tears, in his humane tears, and be tenderly affected with humane accidents, in his Prophetical tears, and avert as much as in thee lieth, the calamities imminent upon others, but especially in his pontifical tears, tears for sin, and I am thy Confessor, non ego, sed Dominus; not I, but the spirit of God himself is thy Confessor, and he absolves thee, filius istarum lachrymarum, the soul bathed in these tears cannot perish: for this is trina immer sio, that threefold dipping which was used in the Primitive Church in baptism. And in this baptism, thou takest a new Christian name, thou who wast but a Christian, art now a regenerate Christian; and as Naaman the Leper came cleaner out of Jordan, then he was before his leprosy, (for his flesh came as the flesh of a child) so there shall be better evidence in this baptism of thy repentance, then in thy first baptism; better in thy self, for then thou hadst no sense of thy own estate, in this thou hast: And thou shalt have better evidence from others too; for howsoever some others will dispute, whether all children which dye after Baptism, be certainly saved or no, it never fell into doubt or disputation, whether all that die truly repentant, be saved or no. Weep these tears truly, and God shall perform to thee, first that promise which he makes in Isaiah, The Lord shall wipe all tears from thy face, all that are fallen by any occasion of calamity here, in the militant Church; and he shall perform that promise which he makes in the Revelation, The Lord shall wipe all tears from thine eyes, that is, dry up the fountain of tears; remove all occasion of tears hereafter, in the triumphant Church.

Sermon XVII. Preached at White-hall, March 4. 1624.

MAT. 19.17.

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me Good? There is none Good but One; that is, God.

THat which God commanded by his Word, to be done at some times (that we should humble our souls by fasting) the same God tommands by his Church, to be done now: In the Scriptures you have Praeceptum, The thing it self, What; In the Church, you have the Nunt, The time, When. The Scriptures are Gods Voice; The Church is his Eccho; a redoubling, a repeating of some particular syllables, and accents of the same voice. And as we harken with some earnestness, and some admiration at an Eccho, when perchance we do not understand the voice that occasioned that Eccho; so do the obedient children of God apply themselves to the Eccho of his Church, when perchance otherwise, they would less understand the voice of God, in his Scriptures, if that voice were not so redoubled unto them. This fasting then, thus enjoined by God, for the general, in his Word, and thus limited to this Time, for the particular, in his Church, is indeed but a continuation of a great Feast: Where, the first course (that which we begin to serve in now) is Manna, food of Angels, plentiful, frequent preaching; but the second course, is the very body and blood of Christ Jesus, shed for us, and given to us, in that blessed Sacrament, of which himself makes us worthy receivers at that time. Now, as the end of all bodily eating, is Assimilation, that after all other concoctions, that meat may be made Idem corpus, the same body that I am; so the end of all spiritual eating, is Assimilation too, That after all Hearing, and all Receiving, I may be made Idem spiritus cum Domino, the same spirit, that my God is: for, though it be good to Hear, good to Receive, good to Meditate, yet, (if we speak effectually, and consummatively) why call we these good? there is nothing good but One, that is, Assimilation to God; In which perfect and consummative sense, Christ says to this Man, in this Text, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God.

The words are part of a Dialogue, of a Conference, between Christ, and a man who proposed a question to him; to whom Christ makes an answer by way of another question, Why callest thou me good, &c. In the words, and by occasion of them, we consider the Text, the Context, and the Pretext: Not as three equal parts of the Building; but the Context, as the situation and Prospect of the house, The Pretext, as the Access and entrance to the house, And then the Text it self, as the House it self, as the body of the building: In a word, In the Text, the Words; In the Context, the Occasion of the words; In the Pretext, the Pretence, the purpose, the disposition of him who gave the occasion.

We begin with the Context; the situation, the prospect; how it stands, how it is butted, how it is bounded; to what it relates, with what it is connected. And in that, we are no farther curious, but only to note this, that the Text stands in that Story, where a man comes to Christ, inquires the way to Heaven, believes himself to be in that way already, and (when he hears of nothing, but keeping the Commandments) believes himself to be fargone in that way; But when he is told also, that there belongs to it a departing with his Riches, his beloved Riches, he breaks off the conference, he separates himself from Christ; for, (says the Story) This Man had great possessions. And to this purpose, (to separate us from Christ) the poorest amongst us, hath great possessions. He corners of the streets, as well as he that sits upon carpets, in the Region of perfumes, he that is ground and trod to durt, with obloquie, and contempt, as well as he that is built up every day, a story and story higher with additions of Honor, Every man hath some such possessions as possess him, some such affections as weigh down Christ Jesus, and separate him from Him, rather then from those affections, those possessions. Scarce any sinner but comes sometimes to Christ, in the language of the man in this Text, Good Master what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And if Christ would go no farther with such men, but to say to the Adulterer, Do not thou give thy money to usury; no more to the penurious Usurer, but, Do not thou wast thy self in superfluous and expensive feasting; If Christ would proceed no farther, but to say to the needy person, that had no money, Do not thou buy preferment; or to the ambitious person that soars up after all, Do not thou forsake thy self, deject thy self, undervalue thy self, In all these cases, the Adulterer and the Usurer, The needy and the ambitious man, would all say with the man in the Text, All these things have we done from our youth. But when Christ proceeds to a Vade, & vend, to depart with their possessions, that which they possess, that which possesses them, this changes the case.

There are some sins so rooted, so riveted in men, so incorporated, so consubstantiated in the soul, by habitual custom, as that those sins have contracted the nature of Ancient possessions. As men call Manners by their names, so sins have taken names from men, and from places; Simon Magus gave the name to a sin, and so did gehazi, and Sodom did so: There are sins that run in Names, in Families, in Blood; Hereditary sins, entailed sins; and men do almost prove their Gentry by those sins, and are scarce believed to be rightly born, if they have not those sins; These are great possessions, and men do much more easily part with Christ, then with these sins. But then there are less sins, light sins, vanities; and yet even these come to possess us, and separate us from Christ. How many men negiect this ordinary means of their Salvation, the comming to these Exercises, not because their undoing lyes on it, or their discountenancing; but merely out of levity, of vanity, of nothing; they know not what to do else, and yet do not this. You hear of one man that was drowned in a vessel of Wine; but how many thousands in ordinary water? And he was no more drowned in that precious liquor, then they in that common water. A gad of steele does no more choke a man, then a feather, then a hair; Men perish with whispering sins, nay with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience they are sins, as often as with crying sins: And in hell there shall meet as many men, that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in the compassing of sin; as many, who in a slack in consideration, never cast a thought upon that place, as that by searing their conscience, overcame the sense and fear of the place. Great sins are great possessions; but levities and vanities possess us too; and men had rather part with Christ, then with any possessions; which is all we will note out of this first part, The Context, the situation, and prospect of the house, the coherence and connexion of the Text.

The second part, is the pretext; that is the pretense, the purpose, the disposition of him that moved this question to Christ, and occasioned this answer. Upon which we make this stop, because it hath been variously apprehended by the Expositors; for some think he came in an humble disposition to learn of Christ, and others think he came in a Pharisaical confidence in himself, with which Epiphanius first, and then S. Jerome charge him. But in such doubtful cases in other mens actions, when it appears not evidently, whether it were well, or ill done, where the balance is even, always put you in your charity, and that will turn the scale the best way. Things which are in themselves, but mis-interpretable, do not you presently mis-interpret, you allow some grains to your gold, before you call it light: allow some infirmities to any man, before you call him ill. For this man in the Text, venit, says this Evangelist, he came to Christ, he came of himself. S. Peter himself came not so. S. Peter came not, till his brother Andrew brought him: none of the twelve Apostles came to Christ so, they came not, till Christ called them: Here, we hear of no calling, no inviting, no mention of any motion towards him, no intimation of any intimation to him, and yet he came. Blessed are they that come to Christ Jesus, before any collateral respects draw them, before the Laws compell them, before calamities drive them to him: He only comes hither, that comes voluntarily, and is glad he is here; He that comes so, as that he had rather he were away, is not here. Venit, says our Evangelist, of this man: And then, says S. Mark, handling the same story, Venit procurrens, He came running. nicodemus came not so, Nicodemus durst not avow his comming; and therefore he came creeping, and he came softly, and he came seldom, and he came by night.

Blessed are they who make haste to Christ, and publish their zeal to the encouragement of others: For, let no man promise himself a religious constancy in the time of his trial, that doth not his part in establishing the religious constancy of other men. Of all proofs, Demonstration is the powerfullest: when I have just reason to think my superious would have it thus, this is Music to my soul; When I hear them say they would have it thus, this is Rhetorique to my soul; When I see their Laws enjoin it to be thus, this is Logic to my soul; but when I see them actually, really, clearly, constantly do thus, this is a Demonstration to my soul, and Demonstration is the powerfullest proof: The eloquence of inferiors is in words, the eloquence of superiors is in action.

He came to Christ; he ran to him; and when he was come, as S. Mark relates it, He fell upon his knees to Christ. He stood not then Pharisaically upon his own legs, his own merits, though he had been a diligent observer of the Commandments before. Blessed are they, who bring the testimony of a forme zeal to Gods service, and yet make that no excuse for their present, or future slacknesst; The benefit of our former goodness is, that that enables us to be the better still: for, as all example is powerful upon us, so our own example most of all; in this case we are most immediately bound by ourselves; still to be so good, as we our selves have been before: There was a time when I was nothing; but there shall never be any time, when I shall be nothing; and therefore I am most to respect the future. The good services that a man hath done to God by pen, or sword, are wings, and they exalt him if he would go forward; but they are weights and depresse him, and aggravate his condemnation, if his presumption upon the merit of those former services, retard him for the future. This man had done well, but he stood not upon that; he kneeled to Christ, and he said to him, Magister bone, Good master. He was no ignorant man, and yet he acknowledged that he had somewhat more to learn of Christ, then he knew yet. Blessed are they that inanimate all their knowledge, consummate all in Christ Jesus. The University is a Paradise, Rivers of knowledge are there, Arts and Sciences flow from thence. Counsel Tables are Horti conclusi, (as it is said in the Canticles) Gardens that are walled in, and they are Fontes signati, Wells that are sealed up; bottomless depths of unsearchable Counsels there. But those Aquae quietudinum, which the Prophet speaks of, The waters of rest, they flow à magistro bono, from this good master, and flow into him again; All knowledge that begins not, and ends not with his glory, is but a giddy, but a vertiginous circle, but an elaborate and exquisite ignorance. He would learn of him, and what? Quid boni faciam, What good thing shall I do? Blessed are they that bring their knowledge into practise; and blessed again, that crown their former practise with future perseverance.

This was his disposition that came; His, though he were a youn man; (for so he is said to be, in the 22. ver.) and young men are not ofter so forward in such ways. I remember one of the Panegyriques celebrates & magnifies one of the Roman Emperors for? is, that he would marry when he was young; that he would so soon confine and limit his pleasures, so soon determine his affections in one person. When a young man comes to Christ, Christ receives him with an extraordinary welcome; well intimated though he were young; and he came though he wr Venus è principibus, (for so he is qualified in S. Luke) A principal man, a great man; as we translate it, One of the Rulers: for so he is a real and a personal answer and instance to that scornful question of the Pharisees, Nunquid è principibus, Do any of the Rulers, any great men, believe in Christ? It is true that the Holy Ghost doth say, Non multi nobiles, few noble men come to heaven. Not out of Panigorola, the Bishop of Asti, his reason, Pauci quia pauci, There cannot come many noble men to heaven, because there are not many upon earth; for many times there are many. In calm and peaceable times, the large favours of indulgent Princes, in active and stirring times, the merit and the fortune of forward men, do often enlarge the number. But such is often the corrupt inordinateness of greatness, that it only carries them so much beyond other men, but not so much nearer to God; It only sets men at a farther, not God at a nearer distance to them; but because they are come to be called gods, they think they have no farther to go to God, but to themselves. But God is the God of the Mountains, as well as of the Valleys: Great and small are equal, and equally nothing in his sight: for, when all the world is In pugillo, in Gods fist, (as the Prophet speaks) who can say then, This is the Ant, this is the Elephant? Our conversation should be in heaven; and if we look upon the men of this world, as from heaven, as if we looked upon this world it self, from thence, the hills would be no hills, but all one flat and equal plain; so are all men, one kind of dust. Records of nobility are only from the book of Life, and your preferment is your interest in a place at the right hand of God. But yet, when those men whom God hath raised in this world, take him in their armes, and raise him too, though God cannot be exalted above himself, yet he is content to call this a raising, and to thank them for it. Therefore when this man, a man of this rank came to him, Jesus beheld him, says the Gospel, and he loved him, and he said, one thing thou lackest; God knows, he lacked many things; but because he had that one, zeal to him, Christ doth not reproach to him his other defects: God pardons great men many errors, for that one good affection, a general zeal to his glory, and his cause.

His disposition then, (though it have seemed suspicious, and questionable to some) was so good, as that it hath afforded us these good considerations. If it were not so good as these circumstances promise, yet it affords us another as good consideration, That how bad soever it were, Christ Jesus refused him not, when he came to him. When he enquired of Christ after salvation, Christ doth not say, There is no salvation for thee, thou Viper, thou Hypocrite, thou Pharisee, I have locked an iron door of predestination between salvation and thee; when he enquired of him, what he should do to be sure of heaven, Christ doth not say, There is no such art, no such way, no such assurance here; but you must look into the eternal decree of Election first, and see whether that stand for you or no: But Christ teaches him the true method of this art: for, when he says to him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God, he only directs him in the way to that end, which he did indeed, or pretended to seek. And this direction of his, this method is our third part; In which, (having already seen in the first, the Context) the situation and prospect of the house, that is, the coherence and occasion of the words, And in the second, (the Pretext) the access and entrance to the house, that is, the pretense and purpose of him that occasioned the words, you may now be pleased to look farther into the house it self, and to see how that is built; that is, by what method Christ builds up, and edifies this new disciple of his; which is the principal scope and intention of the Text, and that, to which all the rest did somewhat necessarily prepare the way.

Our Savior Christ thus undertaking the farther rectifying of this thus disposed disciple, by a faire method leads him to the true end; Good ends, and by good ways, consummate goodness. Now Christs answer to this man is diversly read: We read it, (as you have heard) why callest thou me good? The Vulgate Edition in the Roman Church, reads it thus, Quid me interrogas de bono? Why dost thou question me concerning goodness? Which is true? That which answers the Original; and it can admit no question, but that ours doth so. But yet, Origen, to be sure, in his eighth Tractate upon this Gospel, reads it both ways: And S. Augustine, in his 63. Chap. of the second book De consensu Evangelist arum, thinks it may very well be believed, that Christ did say both: That when this man called him good master, Christ said then, There was none good but God; and that when this man asked him, what good thing he should do, then Christ said, Why dost thou ask me, me whom thou thinkest to be but a mere man, what is goodness? There is none good but God; If thou look to understand goodness from man, thou must look out such a man as is God too. So that this was Christs method, by these holy insinuations, by these approaches, and degrees, to bring this man to a knowledge, that he was very God, and so the Messiah that was expected. Nihil est falsitas, nisi cum esse putatur, quod non est: All error consists in this, that we take things to be less or more, other then they are. Christ was pleased to redeem this man from this error, and bring him to know truly what he was, that he was God. Christ therefore doth not rebuke this man, by any denying that he himself was good; for Christ doth assume that addition to himself, I am the good Shepherd. Neither doth God forbid, that those good parts which are in men, should be celebrated with condigne praise. We see that God, as soon as he saw that any thing was good, he said so, he uttered it, he declared it, first of the Light, and then of other creatures: God would be no author, no example of smothering the due praise of good actions. For, surely that man hath no zeal to goodness in himself, that affords no praise to goodness in other men.

But Christs purpose was also, that this praise, this recognition, this testimony of his goodness, might be carried higher, and referred to the only true author of it, to God. So the Priests and the Elders come to Judith, and they say to her, Thou art the exaltation of Jerusalem, thou art the great glory of Israel, thou art the rejoicing of our Nation, thou hast done all these things by thy hand; And all this was true of Judith, and due to Judith; and such recognitions, and such acclamations God requires of such people, as have received such benefits by such instruments: For as there is Treason, and petty-treason, so there is Sacrilege, and petty-sacrilege; and petty-sacrilege is to rob Princes and great persons of their just praise. But then, as we must confer this upon them, so must they, and we, and all transfer all upon God: for so Judith proceeds there, with her Priests and Elders, Begin unto my God, with Timbrels, sing unto the Lord with Cymbals, exalt him, and call upon his name. So likewise Elizabeth magnifies the blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed art thou amongst women: And this was true of her, and due to her; and she takes it to her self, when she says there, From henceforth all Generations shall call me blessed; but first, she had carried it higher, to the highest, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior. In a word, Christ forbids not this man to call him good, but he directs him to know in what capacity that attribute of goodness belonged to him, as he was God: That when this man believed before that Christ was good, and learnt from him now, that none was good but God, he might by a farther concoction, a farther rumination, a farther meditation of this, come in due time to know that Christ was God; And this was his Method.

Now this leads us into two rich and fragrant fields; this sets us upon the two Hemispheres of the world; the Western Hemisphere, the land of Gold, and Treasure, and the Eastern Hemisphere, the land of Spices and Perfumes; for this puts us upon both these considerations, first, That nothing is Essentially good, but God, (and there is the land of Gold, centrical Gold, visceral Gold, gremial Gold, Gold in the Matrice and womb of God, that is, Essential goodness in God himself) and then upon this consideration too, That this Essential goodness of God is so diffusive, so spreading, as that there is nothing in the world, that doth not participate of that goodness; and there is the land of Spices and Perfumes, the dilatation of Gods goodness. So that now both these propositions are true, First, That there is nothing in this world good, and then this also, That there is nothing ill: As, amongst the Fathers, it is in a good sense, as truly said, Deus non est Ens, Deus non est substantia, God is no Essence, God is no substance, (for fear of imprisoning God in a predicament) as it is said by others of the Fathers, that there is no other Essence, no other Substance but God.

First then, there is nothing good but God: neither can I conceive any thing in God, that concerns me so much as his goodness; for, by that I know him, and for that I love him. I know him by that, for, as Damascene says, primarium Dei nomen, Bonitas; Gods first name, that is, the first way by which God notified him self to man, was Goodness; for out of his goodness he made him. His name of Jehova we admire with a reverence; but we cannot express that name: not only not in the signification of it, but not considently, not assuredly in the sound thereof; we are not sure that we should call it Jehova; not sure that any man did call it Jehova a hundred years ago. But, ineffabili dulcedine teneor cum audio, Bonus Dominus; I am, not transported with astonishment, as at his name of Jehova, but replenished with all sweetness, established with all soundness, when I hear of my God in that name, my good God. By that I know him, and for that I love him: For, the object of my understanding is truth; but the object of my love, my affection, my desire, is goodness. If my understanding be defective, in many cases, faith will supply it; if I believe it, I am as well satisfied, as if I knew it; but nothing supplies, nor fills, nor satisfies the desire of man, on this side of God; Every man hath something to love, and desire, till he determine it in God; because God only hath Imminuibi lem bonitatem, as they render Dyonisius the Areopagite, an inexhaustible goodness; a sea that no land can suck in, a land that no sea can swallow up, a forrest that no fire can waste, a fire that no water can quench. He is so good, goodness so, as that he is Causa bonorum, & quae in nos, & quae in nobis, the cause of all good either received by us, or conceived in us; of all, either prepared externally for us, or produced internally in us. In a word, he is Bonum caetera bona colorans, & amabilia reddens, it is his goodness, that gilds and enamels all the good persons, or good actions in this world. There is none good but God; and quale bonum ille, says that Father, what kind of goodness God is, this doth sufficiently declare, Quòd nulli ab co recedenti bene sit, That no man that ever went from him, went by good way, or came to good end; There is none good but God; there is centrical, visceral, gremial gold, goodness in the root, in the tree of goodness, God.

Now, Arbor bona, bonos fructus, says Christ; If the tree be good, the fruit is good too. The tree is God; What are the fruits of this tree? What are the off-spring of God? S. Ambr. tells us, Angeli & homines, & virtutes eorum; Angels and men, and the good parts, and good actions of Angels and men, are the fruit of this tree, they grow from God. Angels, as they fell, Adam, as he fell, the sins of Angels and men, are not fruits of this tree, they grow not radically, not primarily from God. Nihil in se habet Deus semi-plenum, says Damascene: God is no half-god, no fragmentary God; he is an entire God, and not made of remnants; not good only so, as that he hath no room for ill in himself, but good so too, as that he hath no room for any ill will towards any man; no mans damnation, no mans sin, grows radically from this tree. When God had made all, says Tertullian, he blessed all; Maledicere non norat, quia nec malefacere, says he: God could no more mean ill, then do ill; God can no more make me sin, then sin himself. It is the fool that says, There is no God, says David; And it is the other fool, says S. Basil, that says, God produces any ill; par precii scelus, quia negat Deum bonum; It is as impiously done, to deny God to be entirely good, as to deny him to be God. For, we see the Manichees, and the Marcionites, and such other Heretics in the Primitive Church, would rather admit, and constitute two Gods, a good God, and a bad God, then be drawn to think, that he that was the good God indeed, could produce any ill of himself, or mean any ill to any man, that had done none.

And therefore even from Plato himself, some Christians might learn more moderation in expressing themselves in this point; Plato says, Creavit quia bonus, therefore did God create us, that he might be good to us; and then he adds, Bono nunquam inest invidia, certainly that God, that made us out of his goodness, does not now envy us that goodness which he hath communicated to us; certainly he does not wish us worse, that so he might more justly damn us, and therefore compell us, by any positive decree, to sin, to justify his desire of damning us: Much less did this good God hate us, or mean ill to us, before he made us, and made us only therefore, that he might have glory in our destruction. There is nothing good but God, there is nothing but goodness in God.

How abusively then do men call the things of this world, Goods? They may as well call them (so they do in their hearts) Gods, as Goods; for there is none good but God. But how much more abusively do they force the world, that call them Bona quia beant, Goods because they make us good, blessed, happy? In which sense, Seneca uses the word shrewdly, Insolens malum beata uxor, a good wife, a blessed wife, says he, that is, a wife that brings a great estate, is an insolent mischief. If we do but cast our eye upon that title in the Law, Bonorum, and De bonis, of Goods, we shall easily see, what poor things they make shift to cal Goods. And if we consider (if it deserve a consideration) how great a difference their Lawyers make (Baldus makes that, and others with him) between Bonorum possessio, and possessio bonorum, that one should amount to a right and propriety in the goods, and the other but to a sequestration of such goods, we may easily see, that they can scarce tell what to call, or where to place such Goods. Health, and strength, and stature, and comeliness, must be called Goods, though but of the body; The body it self is in the substance it self, but dust; these are but the accidents of that dust, and yet they must be Goods. Land, and Money, & honor must be called Goods, though but of fortune; Fortune her self, is but such an Idol, as that S. Aug. was ashamed ever to have named her in his works, and therefore repents it in his Retractations; her self is but an Idol, and an Idol is nothing these, but the accidents of that nothing, and yet they must be Goods. Are they such Goods, as make him necessarily good that hath them? Or such, as no man can be good, that is without them? How many men make themselves miserable, because they want these Goods? And how many men have been made miserable by others, because they had them? Except thou see the face of God upon all thy money, as well as the face of the King, the hand of God to all thy Patents, as well as the hand of the King, Gods Amen, as well as the Kings fiat, to all thy creatiōs, all these reach not to the title of Goods, for there is none good but God.

Nothing in this world; not if thou couldst have it all; carry it higher, to the highest, to heaven; heaven it self were not good, without God. For, in the School, very many and very great men, have thought and taught, That the humane nature of Christ, though united Hypostatically to the Divine Nature, was not merely by that Union, impeccable, but might have sinned, if besides that Union, God had not infused, and super-induced other graces, of which other graces, the Beatifical vision, the present sight of the face and Essence of God, was one: Because, (say they) Christ had from his Conception, in his Humane Nature, that Beatifical Vision of God, which we shall have in the state of Glory, therefore he could not sin. This Beatifical Vision, say they, which Christ had here, and which, (as they suppose, and not improbably, in the problematical way of the School) God, of his absolute power, might have with-held, and yet the Hypostatical Union have remained perfect; (for, say they, the two Natures, Humane & Divine, might have been so united, and yet the Humane not have so seen the Divine) This Beatifical Vision, this sight of God, was the Cause, or Seal, or Consummation of Christs Perfection, and impeccability in his Humane Nature. Much more is this Beatifical Vision, this sight of God in Heaven, the Cause or Consummation of all the joys and glory which we shall receive in that place: for howsoever they dispute, whether that kind of Blessedness consist in seeing God, formaliter, or causaliter, that is, whether I shall see all things in God, as in a glass, in which the species of all things are, or whether I shall see all things, by God, as by the benefit of a light, which shall discover all things to me, yet they all agree, (though they differ de modo, of the manner, how) that howsoever it be, the substance of the Blessedness is in this, that I shall see God: Blessed are the pure in heart, says Christ, for they shall see God; If they should not see God, they were not blessed. And therefore they who place children that die unbaptised, in a room, where though they feel no torment, yet they shall never see God, durst never call that room a part of heaven, but of hell rather; Though there be no torment, yet, if they see not God, it is hell. There is nothing good in this life, nothing in the next, without God, that is, without sight and fruition of the face, and presence of God; which is that, which S. Augustine intends, when he says, Secutio Dei est appetitus Beatitatis, consecutio Beatitas; our looking towards God, is the way to Blessedness, but Blessedness it self is only the sight of God himself.

That therefore thou mayst begin thy heaven here, put thy self in the sight of God, put God in thy sight, in every particular action. We cannot come to the body of the Sun, but we can use the light of the Sun many ways: we cannot come to God himself here, but yet here we can see him by many manifestations: so many, as that S. Augustine, in his 20. Chapt. De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, hath collected aright places of Scripture, where every one of our senses is called a Seeing; there is a Gustate & videte, and audit, and palpate; tasting, and hearing, and feeling, and all, to this purpose, are called seeing; In all our senses, in our faculties, we may see God if we will: God sees us at midnight; he sees us, then, when we had rather he looked off. If we see him so, it is a blessed interview. How would he that were come abroad at mid-night, to do a mischief, sneak away, if he saw the watch? what a damp must it necessarily cast upon any sinner, in the nearest approach to his sin, if he can see God? See him before thou sinnest; then he looks lovingly: After the sin, remember how fain Adam would have hid himself from God: He that goes one step out of Gods sight, is loath to come into it again: If you will sit at the right hand of God hereafter, you must walk with God here; So Abraham, so Enoch walked with God, and God took him. God knows, God takes not every man that dies: God says to the rich secure man, Fool, this night they shall fetch away thy soul; but he does not tell him who. That then you be no strangers to God then, see him now; and remember, that his last judgement is expressed in that word, Nescio vos, I know you not; not to be known by God, is damnation; and God knows no man there, with whom he was not acquainted here. There is none good but God; the fruition of that God, is in seeing him; The way to see him there, is to look towards him here. And so we have gone as far as the first of our two propositions carried us, That in this world there is nothing good.

The other that remains, is, That there is nothing ill; that this goodness of God is so spread over all, (all actions, all persons) as that there is nothing ill. Seneca, whom Tertullian calls still Senecam nostram, our Seneca, that is, that Christian Seneca, as though he had read that of S Paul, (between whom and him, it hath been thought, there passed Epistles) Quid habes, quod non accepisti? what hast thou, that thou hast not received from God? and meant to say more then that, says quid non dedit? what is there, that were good for thee, that God hath not given thee? And he, whom they call so often Platonem Hebraeorum, the Jews Plato, that is, Philo Iudaeus, says well, Nihil boni sterile creavit Deus; God hath made nothing, in which he hath not imprinted, and from which he hath not produced some good: He follows it so far, (and justly) as to say, that God does good, where that good does no good: He takes his examples from Gods raining in the Sea; that rain does no good in the Sea: And from Gods producing fresh springs in the desart Land, where, not only no beasts come to drink, but where the very salt tide overflows the fresh spring. He might have added an example from Paradise, that God would plant such a garden, for so few hours; that God would provide man such a dwelling, when he knew he would not dwell a day in it. And he might have added an example from the Light too; That God would create light, and say it was good, then when it could be good for nothing, for there was nothing made to see it, nor to be seen by it: so forward, so early was God, in diffusing his goodness. Of every particular thing. God said it was good, and of all together, that it was very good; there was, there is nothing ill. For, when it is ordinarily inquired in the School, whether any thing be essentially good, it is safely answered there, that if by essentially we mean independantly, so good as that it can subsist of it self, without dependance upon, or relation to any other thing, so there is nothing essentially good: But if by essentially good, we mean that whose essence, and being is good, so every thing is essentially good. And therefore when the Manichees pressed S. August. with that, Vnd malum? If there be not an ill God, as well as a good, unde malum, from whom, or from whence proceed all that ill that is in the world? S. Aug. says, Vnd malum? Quid malum? From whence comes evil? Why, what is there, that you can call evil? I know no such thing; so that, if there be such a God, that God hath no creature. For, as poisons conduce to Physic, and discord to Music, so those two kinds of evil, into which we contract all others, are of good use, that is, malum poenae, the evil of punishment, affliction, adversity, and malum culpae, even sin it self, from which, the punishment flows.

Be pleased to stop a little, upon each of these. First, malum poenae, affliction, poverty, sickness, imprisonment, banishment, and such, are not evil. The blood of Christ Jesus only is my cordial; that restores me, repairs me; but affliction is my Physic; that purges, that cleanses me. Hostiliter se opponit medicus, says Tertullian, The Physician comes in like an enemy, with a knife to launce, with fire to cauterize, but opponit se morbo, he is but an enemy to the disease, he means the patient no harm; no more does God to me, in all his medicinal corrections. But how if these afflictions hang long upon me? If they do so, that is Aegrotantium animarum diaeta; God enters into another course of Physic, and finds it better for me to spend my disease by a diet; and long sicknesses are such diets: God will recover my soul by a consumption of the body, and establish everlasting health, by long sickness. Howsoever, let Gods corrections go as high as they can go in this world, Etsi novum videtur, quod dicere volo, says Origen, dicam tamen; Though it be strange that I will say, I will say it, Etiam bonitas Dei est, qui dicitur faror ejus; That which we cal the anger of God, the wrath of God, the fury of God, is the goodness of God. Correct me not O Lord, in thy wrath, says David; but, rather then leave me uncorrected, correct me any way. We call God, Just, and we call him Merciful, according to our present taste of God, and use of God, Cum unicam habeat affectionem Deus, nempe bonitatem, when as God hath but one affection in himself, that is, goodness, nor but one purpose upon us, that is, to do us good.

So then, this which we call Malum poenae, Affliction, Adversity, is not evil; That which occasions this, Malum culpae, sin it self, is not evil; not evil so, as that it should make us incapable of this diffusive goodness of God. You know, I presume, in what sense we say in the School, Malum nihil, and Peccatum nihil, that evil is nothing, sin is nothing; that is, it hath no reality, it is no created substance, it is but a privation, as a shadow is, as sickness is; so it is nothing. It is wittily argued by Boethius, God can do all things; God cannot sin; Therefore sin is nothing. But it is strongly argued by S. Augustin, If there be any thing naturally evil, it must necessarily be contrary to that which is naturally good; and that is God. Now, Contraria aequalia, says he; whatsoever things are contrary to one another, are equal to one another; so, if we make any thing naturally evil, we shall slide into the Manichees error, to make an Evil God. So far doth the School follow this, as that there, one Archbishop of Canterbury, out of another, that is, Bradwardin out of Anselme, pronounces it Haereticum esse dicere, Malum esse aliquid, To say that any thing is naturally evil, is an heresy.

But if I cannot find a foundation for my comfort, in this subtilty of the School, That sin is nothing, (no such thing as was created or induced by God, much less forced upon me by him, in any coactive Decree) yet I can raise a second step for my consolation in this, that be sin what it will in the nature thereof, yet my sin shall conduce and cooperate to my good. So Joseph says to his Brethren, You thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good: which is not only good to Joseph, who was no partaker in the evil, but good even to them, who meant nothing but evil. And therefore, as Origen said, Etsi novum, Though it be strangely said, yet I say it, That Gods anger is good; so says S. Augustine, Audeo dicere, Though it be boldly said, yet I must say it, Vtile esse cadere in aliquod manifestum peccatum, Many sinners would never have been saved, if they had not committed some greater sin at last, then before; for, the punishment of that sin, hath brought them to a remorse of all their other sins formerly neglected. If neither of these will serve my turn, neither that sin is nothing in it self, and therefore not put upon me by God, nor that my sin, having occasioned my repentance, hath done me good, and established me in a better state with God, then I was in before that sin, yet this shall fully rectify me, and assure my consolation, that in a pious sense I may say, Christ Jesus is the sinner, and not I. For, though in the two and twentieth Session of the Council of Basil, that proposition were condemned as scandalous, in the mouth of a Bishop of Nazareth, Augustinus de Roma, Christus quotidy peccat, That Christ does sin every day, yet Gregory Nazianzen expresses the same intention, in equivalent terms, when he says, Quamdiu inobediens ego, tamdiu, quantum ad me attinet, inobediens Christus: As long as I sin, for so much as concerns me, me, who am incorporated in Christ, me, who by my true repentance have discharged my self upon Christ, Christ is the sinner, even in the sight, and justice of his Father, and not I.

And as this consideration, That the goodness of God, in Christ, is thus spread upon all persons, and all actions, takes me off from my aptness to mis-interpret other mens actions, not to be hasty to call indifferent things, sins, not to call hardness of access in great Persons, pride, not to call sociableness of conversation in women, prostitution, not to call accommodation of Civil businesses in States, prevarication, or dereliction and abandoning of God, and toleration of Religion; as it takes me off from this mis-interpreting of others; so, for my self, it puts me upon an ability, to chide, and yet to cheare my soul, with those words of David, O my Soul, why art thou so sad? why art thou so disquieted within me? Since sin is nothing, no such thing as is forced upon thee by God, by which thy damnation should be inevitable, or thy reconciliation impossible, since of what nature soever sin be in it self, thy sins being truly repented, have advanced, and emproved thy state in the favor of God, since thy sin, being by that repentance discharged upon Christ, Christ is now the sinner, and not thou, O my Soul, why art thou so sad? why art thou disquieted within me? And this consideration of Gods goodness, thus derived upon me, and made mine in Christ, ratifies and establishes such a holy confidence in me, as that all the moral constancy in the world, is but a bulrush, to this bulwark; and therefore, we end all, with that historical, but yet useful note, That that Duke of Burgundy, who was sirnamed Carolus Audax, Charles the Bold, was Son to that Duke, who was sirnamed Bonus, The Good Duke; A Good one produced a Bold one: True confidence proceeds only out of true Goodness: for, The wicked shall fly, when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a Lion. This constancy, and this confidence, and upon this ground, Holy courage in a holy fear of him, Almighty God infuse and imprint in you all, for his Son Christ Jesus sake. And to this glorious Son of God, &c.

Sermon XVIII. Preached at S. Pauls, in the Evening, upon Easter-day. 1623.

ACTS 2.36.

Part of the second Lesson of that Evening Prayer.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, That God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord, and Christ.

THe first word of the Text, must be the last part of the Sermon, Therefore; Therefore let all know it. Here is something necessary to be known, And the Means by which we are to know it; And these will be our two parts; Scientia, & Modus, Knowledge, and the way to it; For, Qui testatur de scientia, testatur de modo scientiae, is a good rule, in all Laws, He that will testify any thing upon his knowledge, must declare how he came by that knowledge. So then, what we must conclude, and upon what premisses, what we must resolve, and what must lead us to that resolution, are our two stages, our two resting places: And to those two, our several steps are these; In the first, Let all the house of Israel know, &c. we shall consider first, The Manner of S. Peter, (for the Text is part of a Sermon of S. Peters) in imprinting this Knowledge in his Auditory; which is, first, in that Compellation of love and honor, Domus Israel, The house of Israel: But yet, when he hath raised them to a sense of their dignity, in that attribute, he doth not pamper them with an over-value of them, he lets them know their worst, as well as their best, Though you be the house of Israel, yet it is you that have crucified Christ Jesus, That Jesus, whom ye have crucified; And from this his Manner of preparing them, we shall pass to the Matter that he proposes to them: When he had remembered them what God had done for them (You are the house of Israel) and what they had done against God, (You have crucified that Jesus) He imparts a blessed message to them all, Let all know it: Let them know it, and know it assuredly; He exhibits it to their reason, to their natural understanding, And what? The greatest mystery, the entire mystery of our salvation, That that Jesus is both Lord, and Christ; But he is made so; Made so by God; Made both; Made Christ, that is, anointed, embalmed, preserved from corruption, even in the grave, And made Lord by his triumph, and by being made Head of the Church, in the Resurrection, and in the Ascension: And so, that which is the last step of our first stage, (That that Jesus is made Lord, as well as he is made Christ) enters us upon our second stage, The means by which we are to know, and prove all this to our selves; Therefore, says the Text, let all know it; wherefore? why, because God hath raised him, after you had crucified him; Because God hath loosed the bands of death, because it was impossible that he should be holden by death; Because Davids prophecy of a deliverance from the grave is fulfilled in him, Therefore let all know this to be thus. So that the Resurrection of Christ is argument enough to prove, that Christ is made Lord of all; And if he be Lord, he hath Subjects, that do as he does; And so his Resurrection is become an argument, and an assurance of our Resurrection too; and that is as far as we shall go in our second part, That first Christs Resurrection is proof enough to us of his Dominion, if he be risen, he is Lord, and then his Dominion is proof enough to us of our Resurrection, if he be Lord, Lord of us, we shall rise too: And when we have paced, and passed through all these steps, we shall in some measure have solemnized this day of the Resurrection of Christ; and in some measure have made it the day of our Resurrection too.

First then, the Apostle applies himself to his Auditory, in a faire, in a gentle manner; he gives them their Titles, Domus Israel, The house of Israel. We have a word now denizened, and brought into familiar use amongst us, Complement; and for the most part, in an ill sense; so it is, when the heart of the speaker doth not answer his tongue; but God forbid but a true heart, and a faire tongue might very well consist together: As virtue it self receives an addition, by being in a faire body, so do good intentions of the heart, by being expressed in faire language. That man aggravates his condemnation, that gives me good words, and means ill; but he gives me a rich Jewel, and in a faire Cabinet, he gives me precious wine, and in a clean glass, that intends well, and expresses his good intentions well too. If I believe a faire speaker, I have comfort a little while, though he deceive me, but a froward and peremptory refuser, unsaddles me at first. I remember a vulgar Spanish Author, who writes, the Iosephina, the life of Joseph, the husband of the blessed Virgin Mary, who moving that question, why that Virgin is never called by any style of Majesty, or Honor in the Scriptures, he says, That if after the declaring of her to be the Mother of God, he had added any other Title, the Holy Ghost had not been a good Courtier, (as his very word is) nor exercised in good language, and he thinks that had been a defect in the Holy Ghost in himself. He means surely the same that Epiphanius doth, That in naming the Saints of God, and especially the blessed Virgin, we should always give them the best Titles that are appliable to them; Quis unquam ausus, (says he) proferre nomen Mariae, & non statim addidit virgo? Who ever durst utter the name of that Mary, without that addition of incomparable honor, The Virgin Mary?

That Spanish Author need not be suspicious of the Holy Ghost in that kind, that he is no good Courtier so; for in all the books of the world, you shall never read so civil language, nor so faire expressions of themselves to one another, as in the Bible: When Abraham shall call himself dust, and ashes, (and indeed if the Son of God were a worm and no man, what was Abraham?) If God shall call this Abraham, this Dust, this Worm of the dust, The friend of God, (and all friendship implies a parity, an equality in something;) when David shall call himself a flea, and a dead dog, even in respect of Saul, and God shall call David, A man according to his own heart, when God shall call us, The Apple of his own eye, The Seal upon his own right hand, who would go farther for an Example, or farther then that example for a Rule, of faire accesses, of civil approaches, of sweet and honourable entrances into the affections of them with whom they were to deal? Especially is this manner necessary in men of our profession; Not to break a bruised reed, nor to quench smoking flax, not to avert any, from a will to hear, by any frowardness, any morosity, any defrauding them of their due praise, and due titles; but to accompany this blessed Apostle, in this way of his discreet, and religious insinuation, to call them Men of Judea, ver. 14. and Men of Israel, ver. 22. and Men and Brethren, ver. 29. and here Domus Israel, the ancientest house, the honourablest house, the lastingest house in the world, The house of Israel.

He takes from them nothing that is due, that would but exasperate; He is civil, but his civility doth not amount to a flattery, as though the cause of God needed them, or God must be beholding to them, or God must pay for it, or smart for it, if they were not pleased. And therefore, though he do give them their titles, Apertè illis imputat crucifixionem Christi, says S. Chrysostom, Plainly and without disguise he imputes and puts home to them, the crucifying of Christ; how honourably soever they were descended, he lays that murder close to their Consciences, You, you house of Israel have crucified the Lord Jesus. There is a great deal of difference between Shimeis vociferations against David; Thou man of blood, thou man of Belial, And Nathans proceeding with David; and yet Nathan forbore not to tell him, Thou art the man, Thou hast despised the Lord, Thou hast killed Vriah, Thou hast taken his wife. It is one thing to sow pillows under the elbows of Kings, (flatterers do so) another thing to pull the chair from under the King, and popular and seditious men do so. Where Inferiors insult over their Superiors, we tell them, Christi Domini, they are the Lords anointed, and the Lord hath said, Touch not mine anointed; And when such Superiors insult over the Lord himself, and think themselves Gods without limitation, as the God of heaven is, when they do so, we must tell them they do so, Etsi Christi Domini, though you be the Lords anointed, yet you crucify the anointed Lord: for this was S. Peters method, though his successor will not be bound by it.

When he hath carried the matter thus evenly between them, (I do not deny, but you are the House of Israel, you cannot deny but you have crucified the Lord Jesus; you are heirs of a great deal of honor, but you are guilty of a shrewd fault too) stand or fall to your Master, your Master hath dealt thus mercifully with you all, that to you all, all, he sends a message, Sciant omnes, Let all the house of Israel know this. Needs the house of Israel know any thing? Needs there any learning in persons of Honor? We know, this characterizes, this distinguishes some whole Nations; In one Nation it is almost a scorn for a gentleman to be learned, in another almost every gentleman, is conveniently, and in some measure, learned. But I enlarge not my self, I pretend not to comprehend National virtues, or National vices. For this knowledge, which is proclaimed here, which is, the knowledge that the true Messiah is come, and that there is no other to be expected, is such a knowledge, as that even the house of Israel it self, is without a Foundation, if it be without this knowledge. Is there any house, that needs no reparations? Is there a house of Israel, (let it be the Library, the depositary of the Oracles of God, a true Church, that hath the true word of the true God, let it be the house fed with Manna, that hath the true administration of the true Sacraments of Christ Jesus) is there any such house, that needs not a farther knowledge, that there are always thieves about that house, that would rob us of that Word, and of those Sacraments?

The Holy Ghost is a Dove, and the Dove couples, pairs, is not alone; Take heed of singular, of schismatical opinions; & what is more singular, more schismatical, then when all Religion is confined in one mans breast? The Dove is animal sociale, a sociable creature, and not singular; and the Holy Ghost is that; And Christ is a Sheep, animal gregale, they flock together: Embrace thou those truths, which the whole flock of Christ Jesus, the whole Christian Church, hath from the beginning acknowledged to be truths, and truths necessary to salvation; for, for other Traditional, and Conditional, and Occasional, and Collateral, and Circumstantial points, for Almanack Divinity, that changes with the season, with the time, and Meridional Divinity, calculated to the height of such a place, and Lunary Divinity, that ebbs and flows, and State Divinity, that obeys affections of persons, Domus Israel, the true Church of God, had need of a continual succession of light, a contiual assistance of the Spirit of God, and of her own industry, to know those things that belong to her peace.

And therefore let no Church, no man, think that he hath done enough, or knows enough. If the Devil thought so too, we might the better think so: but since we see, that he is in continual practise against us, let us be in a continual diligence, and watchfulness, to countermine him. We are domus Israel, the house of Israel, and it is a great measure of knowledge, that God hath afforded us; but if every Pastor look into his Parish, and every Master into his own Family, and see what is practising there, sciat domus Israel, let all our Israel know, that there is more knowledge, and more wisdom necessary; Be every man far from calumniating his Superiors, for that mercy which is used towards them that are fallen, but be every man as far from remitting, or slackning his diligence, for the preserving of them, that are not fallen.

The wisest must know more, though you be domus Israel, the house of Israel already; and then, Etsi Crucifixistis, though you have crucified the Lord Jesus, you may know it, sciant omnes, let all know it. S. Paul says once, If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of life; but he never says, if they have crucified the Lord of life, they are excluded from knowledge. I mean no more, but that the mercy of God in manifesting and applying himself to us, is above all our sins. No man knows enough; what measure of temptations soever he have now, he may have temptations, through which, this knowledge, and this grace, will not carry him; and therefore he must proceed from grace to grace. So no man hath sinned so deeply, but that God offers himself to him yet; Sciant omnes, the wisest man hath ever something to learn, he must not presume; the sinfullest man hath God ever ready to teach him, he must not despair.

Now the universality of this mercy, hath God enlarged, and extended very far, in that he proposes it, even to our knowledge, Sciant, let all know it. It is not only credant, let all believe it; for the infusing of faith, is not in our power: but God hath put it in our power to satisfy their reason, and to chafe that wax, to which he himself vouchsafes to set to the great seal of faith. And that S. Jerome takes to be most properly his Commission, Tentemus animas, quae deficiunt a fide, natur alibus rationibus adjuvare; Let us indevor to assist them, who are weak in faith, with the strength of reason. And truly it is very well worthy of a serious consideration, that whereas all the Articles of our Creed, are objects of faith, so, as that we are bound to receive them de fide, as matters of faith, yet God hath left that, out of which, all these Articles are to be deduced, and proved, (that is, the Scripture) to humane arguments; It is not an Article of the Creed, to believe these, and these Books, to be, or not to be Canonical Scripture; but our arguments for the Scripture are humane arguments, proportioned to the reason of a natural man. God does not seal in water, in the fluid and transitory imaginations, and opinions of men; we never set the seal of faith to them; But in Wax, in the rectified reason of man, that reason that is ductile, and flexible, and pliant, to the impressions that are naturally proportioned unto it, God sets to his seal of faith. They are not continual, but they are contiguous, they flow not from one another, but they touch one another, they are not both of a piece, but they enwrap one another, Faith and Reason. Faith it self, by the Prophet Isaiah is called knowledge; By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, says God of Christ; that is, by that knowledge, that men shall have of him. So Zechary expresses it at the Circumcision of John Baptist, That he was to give knowledge of salvation, for the remission of sins.

As therefore it is not enough for us, in our profession to tell you, Qui non crediderit, damnabitur, Except you believe all this, you shall be damned, without we execute that Commission before, It praedicate, go and preach, work upon their affections, satisfy their reason; so it is not enough for you, to rest in an imaginary faith, and easiness in believing, except you know also what, and why, and how you come to that belief. Implicite beleevers, ignorant beleevers, the adversary may swallow; but the understanding believer, he must chaw, and pick bones, before he come to assimilate him, and make him like himself. The implicite believer stands in an open field, and the enemy will ride over him easily; the understanding believer, is in a fenced town, and he hath out-works to lose, before the town be pressed; that is, reasons to be answered, before his faith be shook, and he will sell himself dear, and lose himself by inches, if he be sold or lost at last; and therefore sciant omnes, let all men know, that is, endeavor to inform themselves, to understand.

That particular, that general particular, (if we may so say, for it includes all) which all were to know, is, that the same Jesus, whom they Crucified, was exalted above them all.

Suppose an impossibility; (S. Paul does so, when he says to the Galatians, If an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel; for that is impossible;) If we could have been in Paradise, and seen God take a clod of red earth, and make that wretched clod of contemptible earth, such a body as should be fit to receive his breath, an immortal soul, fit to be the house of the second person in the Trinity, for God the Son to dwel in bodily; fit to be the Temple for the third person, for the Holy Ghost, should we not have wondered more, then at the production of all other creatures? It is more, that the same Jesus, whom they had crucified, is exalted thus, to sit in that despised flesh, at the right hand of our glorious God; that all their spitting should but macerate him, and dissolve him to a better mold, a better plaister; that all their buffetings should but knead him, and press him into a better forme; that all their scoffs, and contumelies should be prophesies; that that Ecce Rex, Behold your King; and that Rex Iudaeorum, This is the King of the Jews, which words, they who spoke them, thought to be lies, in their own mouths, should become truths, and he be truly the King, not of the Jews only, but of all Nations too; that their nayling him upon the Cross, should be a setling of him upon an everlasting Throne; and their lifting him up upon the Cross, a waiting upon him, so far upon his way to heaven, that this Jesus, whom they had thus evacuated, thus crucified, should be thus exalted, was a subject of infinite admiration, but mixed with infinite confusion too.

Wretched Blasphemer of the name of Jesus, that Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, and treadest under thy feet, in that oath, is thus exalted. Unclean Adulterer, that Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, in stretching out those forbidden armes in a strange bed, thou that beheadest thy self, castest off thy Head; Christ Jesus, that thou mightst make thy body, the body of a Harlot, that Jesus, whom thou defilest there, is exalted. Let several sinners pass this through their several sins, and remember with wonder, but with confusion too, that that Jesus, whom they haue crucified, is exalted above all.

How far exalted? Three steps, which carry him above S. Pauls third heaven: He is Lord, and he is Christ, and he is made so by God; God hath made him both Lord and Christ. We return up these steps, as they lie, and take the lowest first: Fecit Deus, God made him so: Nature did not make him so, no, not if we consider him in that Nature, wherein he consists of two Natures, God, and Man. We place in the School, (for the most part) the infinite Merit of Christ Jesus (that his one act of dying once, should be a sufficient satisfaction to God, in his Justice, for all the sins of all men) we place it, I say, rather in pacto, then in persona, rather that this contract was thus made between the Father, and the Son, then that, whatsoever that person, thus consisting of God and Man, should do, should, only in respect of the person, be of an infinite value, and extension, to that purpose; for then, any act of his, his Incarnation, his Circumcision, any had been sufficient for our Redemption, without his death. But fecit Deus, God made him that, that he is; The contract between the Father and him, that all that he did, should be done so, and to that purpose, that way, and to that end, this is that, that hath exalted him, and us in him.

If then, not the subtilty, and curiosity, but the wisdom of the School, and of the Church of God, have justly found it most commodious, to place all the mysteries of our Religion, in pacto, rather then in persona, in the Covenant, rather then in the person, though a person of incomprehensible value, let us also, in applying to our selves those mysteries of our Religion, still adhaerere pactis, and not personis, still rely upon the Covenant of God, with man, revealed in his word, and not upon the person of any man: Not upon the persons of Martyrs, as if they had done more then they needed for themselves, and might relieve us, with their supererogations; for, if they may work for us, they may believe for us; and Iustus fide sua vivet, says the Prophet, The righteous shall live by his own faith. Not upon that person, who hath made himself supernumerary, and a Controller upon the three persons in the Trinity, the Bishop of Rome; not upon the consideration of accidents upon persons, when God suffers some to fall, who would have advanced his cause, and some to be advanced, who would have thrown down his cause, but let us ever dwell in pacto, and in the fecit Deus, this Covenant God hath made in his word, and in this we rest.

It is God then, not nature, not his nature that made him; And what? Christ; Christ is anointed: And then Mary Magdalen made him Christ, for she anointed him before his death; And Joseph of Arimathea made him Christ, for he anointed him, and embalmed him, after his death. But her anointing before, kept him not from death, nor his anointing after, would not have kept him from putrefaction in the grave, if God had not in a far other manner, made him Christ, anointed him praeconsortibus, above his fellows. God hath anointed him, embalmed him, enwrapped him in the leaves of the Prophets, That his flesh should not see corruption in the grave, That the flames of hell should not take hold of him, nor sindge him there; so anointed him, as that, in his Humane nature, He is ascended into heaven, and set down at the right hand of God; For, de eo quod ex Maria est, Petrus loquitur, says S. Basil, That making of him Christ, that is, that anointing which S. Peter speaks of in this place, is the dignifying of his humane nature, that was anointed, that was consecrated, that was glorified in heaven.

But he had a higher step then that; God made this Jesus, Christ, and he made him Lord; He brought him to heaven, in his own person, in his humane nature; so he shall all us; but when we shall be all there, he only shall be Lord of all. And if there should be no other bodies in heaven, then his, yet, yet now he is Lord of all, as he is Head of the Church. Ask of me, says his Father, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter most parts of the Earth for thy possession. And, as it is added, ver. 6. I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion; So he hath made him Lord, Head of the Jews, and of the Gentiles too, of Sion, and of the Nations also; He hath consecrated his person, raised his humane nature, to the glorious region of blessed Spirits, to Heaven, and he hath dignified him with an office, made him Lord, Head of the Church, not only of Jews, and Gentiles upon earth, but of the Militant and Triumphant Church too.

Our two general parts were Scientia, & modus, what we must all know, and by what we must know it. Our knowledge is, this Exaltation of Jesus; and our means is implied, in the first word of the Text, Therefore, Therefore because he is raised from the Dead; for to that Resurrection, expressed in three, or four several phrases before the Text, is this Text, and this Exaltation referred; Christ was delivered for our sins, raised for our justification, and upon that depends all. Christs descending into hell, and his Resurrection, in our Creed, make but one Article, and in our Creed we believe them both alike: Quis nisi Infidelis negaverit, apud inferos fuisse Christum? says S. Augustine; Who but an Infidel, will deny Christs descending into hell? And if he believe that to be a limb of the article of the Resurrection, His descent into hell, must rather be an inchoation of his triumph, then a consummation of his Exinanition, The first step of his Exaltation there, rather then the last step of his Passion upon the Cross: But the Declaration, the Manifestation, that which admits no disputation, was his Resurrection. Factus, id est, declaratus per Resurrectionem, says S. Cyrill, He was made Christ, and Lord, that is, declared evidently to be so, by his Resurrection; As there is the like phrase, in S. Paul, God hath made the wisdom of this world, foolishness, that is, declared it to be so. And therefore it is imputed to be a crucifying of the Lord Jesus again, Non credere eum, post mortem, immortalem, Not to believe, that now after his having overcome death in his Resurrection, he is in an immortal, and in a glorious state in heaven. For when the Apostle argues thus, If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith in vain, he implies the contrary too, If you believe the Resurrection, we have preached to good purpose: Mortuum esse Christum, pagani credunt; resurrexisse propria fides Christianorum: The Heathen confess Christs death; To believe his Resurrection, is the proper character of a Christian: for the first stone of the Christian faith, was laid in this article of the Resurrection; In the Resurrection only was the first promise performed, Ipse conteret, He shall bruise the Serpents head; for, in this, he triumphed over Death, and Hell; And the last stone of our faith, is laid in the same article too, that is, the day of Judgement; of a day of Judgement God hath given an assurance unto all men (says S. Paul at Athens) In that he hath raised Christ Jesus from the dead. In this Christ makes up his circle; in this he is truly Alpha and Omega, His comming in Paradise in a promise, his comming to Judgement in the clouds, are tied together in the Resurrection: And therefore all the Gospel, all our preaching, is contracted to that one text, To bear witness of the Resurrection; only for that, was there need of a new Apostle, There was a necessity of one to be chosen in Judas room, to be a witness of the Resurrection; Non ait caeterorum, sed tantùm Resurrectionis, says S. Chrysostom, He does not say, to bear witness of the other articles, but only of the Resurrection; he charges him with no more instructions, he needs no more, in his Commission, but to preach the Resurrection: for in that, Trophaeum de morte excitavit, & indubitatum reddidit corruptionem deletam: Here is a retreat from the whole warfare, here is a Trophee erected upon the last enemy; The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, and here is the death of that enemy, in the Resurrection.

And therefore, to all those who importuned him for a sign, Christ still turns upon the Resurrection. The Jews pressed him in general, Quod signum, What sign showest thou unto us? and he answers, Destroy this Temple, (this body) and in three days I will raise it. In another place, the Scribes and the Pharisees join, Master we would see a sign from thee, and he tells them, There shall be no sign, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas; who was a type of the Resurrection. And then the Pharisees, and Sadducees join; now they were bitter enemies to one another; but, as Tertullian says, Semper inter duos latrones crucifixus Christus, It was always Christs case to be crucified between two Thieves; So these, though enemies join in this vexation, They ask a sign, as the rest, and, as to the rest, Christ gives that answer of Jonas. So that Christ himself determines all, sums up all in this one Article, the Resurrection.

Now, if the Resurrection of this Jesus, have made him, not only Christ, Anointed and consecrated in Heaven, in his own person, but made him Lord, then he hath Subjects, upon whom that dominion, and that power works, and so we have assurance of a resurrection in him too. That he is made Lord of us by his Resurrection, is rooted in prophecy; It pleased the Lord to bruise him, says the Prophet Isaiah; But he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days; that is, he shall see those that are regenerate in him, live with him, forever. It is rooted in prophecy, and it spreads forth in the Gospel. To this end, says the Apostle, Christ died, and rose, that he might be Lord of the dead, and of the living. Now, what kind of Lord, if he had no subjects? Cum videmus caput super aquas, when the head is above water, will any imagine the body to be drowned? What a perverse consideration were it, to imagine a live head, and dead members? Or, consider our bodies in our selves, and Our bodies are Temples of the Holy Ghost; and shall the Temples of the holy Ghost lye for ever, for ever, buried in their rubbidge? They shall not; for, the day of Judgement, is the day of Regeneration, as it is called in the Gospel; Quia caro nostra ita generabitur per incorruptionem, sicut anima per fidem: Because our body shall be regenerated by glory there, as our souls are by faith here. Therefore, Tertul. calls the Resurrection, Exemplum spei nostrae, The Original, out of which we copy out our hope; and Clavem sepulchrorū nostrorum, How hard soever my grave be locked, yet with that key, with the application of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, it will open; And they are all names, which express this well, which Tertullian gives Christ, Vadem, obsidem, fidejussorem resurrectionis nostrae, That he is the pledge, the hostage, the surety of our Resurrection: So doth that also which is said in the School, Sicut Adam forma morientium, it a Christus forma resurgentium; Without Adam, there had been no such thing as death, without Christ, no such thing as a Resurrection: But ascendit ille effractor, (as the Prophet speaks) The breaker is gone up before, and they have passed through the gate, that is, assuredly, infallibly, they shall pass.

But what needs all this heat, all this animosity, all this vehemence, about the Resurrection? May not man be happy enough in heaven, though his body never come thither? upon what will ye ground the Resurrection? upon the Omnipotence of God? Asylum haereticorum est Omnipotentia Dei, (which was well said, and often repeated amongst the Ancients) The Omnipotence of God, hath always been the Sanctuary of Heretics, that is, always their refuge, in all their incredible doctrines, God is able to do it, can do it. You confess, the Resurrection is a miracle; And miracles are not to be multiplied, nor imagined without necessity; and what necessity of bodies in Heaven?

Beloved, we make the ground and foundation of the Resurrection, to be, not merely the Omnipotency of God, for God will not do all, that he can do: but the ground is, Omnipotens voluntas Dei revelata, The Almighty will of God revealed by him, to us: And therefore Christ joins both these together, Erratis, Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God; that is, not considering the power of God, as it is revealed in the Scriptures: for there is our foundation of this Doctrine: we know, out of the Omnipotence of God, it may be; and we know out of the Scriptures it must be: That works upon our faith, this upon our reason; That it is man that must be saved, man that must be damned; and to constitute a man, there must be a body, as well as a soul. Nay, the Immortality of the soul, will not so well lie in proof, without a resuming of the body. For, upon those words of the Apostle, If there were no Resurrection, we were the miserablest of all men, the School reasons reasonably; Naturally the soul and body are united, when they are separated by Death, it is contrary to nature, which nature still affects this union; and consequently the soul is the less perfect, for this separation; and it is not likely, that the perfect natural state of the soul, which is, to be united to the body, should last but three or four score years, and, in most, much less, and the unperfect state, that in the separation, should last eternally, for ever: so that either the body must be believed to live again, or the soul believed to die.

Never therefore dispute against thine own happiness; never say, God asks the heart, that is, the soul, and therefore rewards the soul, or punishes the soul, and hath no respect to the body; Nec auferamus cogitationes a collegio carnis, says Tertullian, Never go about to separate the thoughts of the heart, from the colledge, from the fellowship of the body; Siquidem in carne, & cum carne, & per carnem agitur, quicquid ab anima agitur, All that the soul does, it does in, and with, and by the body. And therefore, (says he also) Caro abluitur, ut anima emaculetur, The body is washed in baptism, but it is that the soul might be made clean; Caro ungitur, ut anima consecretur, In all unctions, whether that which was then in use in Baptism, or that which was in use at our transmigration, and passage out of this world, the body was anointed, that the soul might be consecrated; Caro signatur, (says Tertullian still) ut anima muniatur; The body is signed with the Cross, that the soul might be armed against temptations; And again, Caro de Corpore Christi vescitur, ut anima de Deo saginetur; My body received the body of Christ, that my soul might partake of his merits. He extends it into many particulars, and sums up all thus, Non possunt in mercede separari, quae opera conjungunt, These two, Body, and Soul, cannot be separated for ever, which, whilst they are together, concur in all that either of them do. Never think it presumption, says S. Gregory, Sperare in te, quod in se exhibuit Deus homo, To hope for that in thy self, which God admitted, when he took thy nature upon him. And God hath made it, says he, more easy then so, for thee, to believe it, because not only Christ himself, but such men, as thou art, did rise at the Resurrection of Christ. And therefore when our bodies are dissolved and liquefied in the Sea, putrefied in the earth, resolved to ashes in the fire, macerated in the air, Velut in vasa sua transfunditur caro nostra, make account that all the world is Gods cabinet, and water, and earth, and fire, and air, are the proper boxes, in which God lays up our bodies, for the Resurrection. Curiously to dispute against our own Resurrection, is seditiously to dispute against the dominion of Jesus; who is not made Lord by the Resurrection, if he have no subjects to follow him in the same way. We believe him to be Lord, therefore let us believe his, and our Resurrection.

This blessed day, which we celebrate now, he rose: he rose so, as none before did, none after, ever shall rise; He rose; others are but raised: Destroy this Temple, says he, and I will raise it; I, without employing any other Architect. I lay down my life, says he: the Jews could not have killed him, when he was alive; If he were alive here now, the Jesuits could not kill him here now; except his being made Christ, and Lord, an anointed King, have made him more open to them. I have a power to lay it down, says he, and I have a power to take it up again.

This day, we celebrate his Resurrection; this day let us celebrate our own: Our own, not our one Resurrection, for we need many. Upon those words of our Savior to Nicodemus, Oportet denuo nasci, speaking of the necessity of Baptism, Non solum denuo, sed tertiò nasci oportet, says S. Bernard, He must be born again, and again; again by baptism, for Original sin, and for actual sin, again by repentance; Infoelix homo ego, & miser abilis casus, says he, cui non sufficit una regeneratio! Miserable man that I am, and miserable condition that I am fallen into, whom one regeneration will not serve! So is it a miserable death that hath swallowed us, whom one Resurrection will serve. We need three, but if we have not two, we were as good be without one. There is a Resurrection from worldly calamities, a resurrection from sin, and a resurrection from the grave.

First, from calamities; for, as dangers are called death, (Pharaoh calls the plague of Locusts, a death, Entreat the Lord your God, that he may take from me, this death only, And so S. Paul says, in his dangers, I dye daily) So is the deliverance from danger called a Resurrection: It is the hope of the wicked upon the godly, Now that he lieth, he shall rise no more; that is, Now that he is dead in misery, he shall have no resurrection in this world. Now, this resurrection God does not always give to his servants, neither is this resurrection the measure of Gods love of man, whether he do raise him from worldly calamities or no.

The second is the resurrection from sin; and therefore, this S. John calls The first Resurrection, as though the other, whether we rise from worldly calamities, or no, were not to be reckoned. Anima spiritualiter cadit, & spiritualiter resurget, says S. Augustine, Since we are sure, there is a spiritual death of the soul, let us make sure a spiritual resurrection too. Audacter dicam, says S. Jerome, I say confidently, Cum omnia posset Deus, suscitare Virginem post ruinam, non potest; Howsoever God can do all things, he cannot restore a Virgin, that is fallen from it, to virginity again. He cannot do this in the body, but God is a Spirit, and hath reserved more power, upon the spirit and soul, then upon the body, and therefore Audacter dicam, I may say, with the same assurance, that S. Jerome does, No soul hath so prostituted her self, so multiplied her fornications; but that God can make her a virgin again, and give her, even the chastity of Christ himself. Fulfill therefore that which Christ says, The hour is comming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live: Be this that hour, be this thy first Resurrection. Bless Gods present goodness, for this now; and attend Gods leisure, for the other Resurrection hereafter. He that is the first fruits of them that slept, Christ Jesus is awake; he dies no more, he sleeps no more. Sacrificium pro te fuit, sed à te accepit, quod pro te obtulit: He offered a Sacrifice for thee, but he had that from thee, that he offered for thee: Primitiae fuit, sed tua primitiae; He was the first fruits, but the first fruits of thy Corn: Spera in te futurum, quod praecess it in primitiis tuis: Doubt not of having that in the whole Crop, which thou hast already in thy first fruits; that is, to have that in thy self, which thou hast in thy Savior. And what glory soever thou hast had in this world, Glory inherited from noble Ancestors, Glory acquired by merit and service, Glory purchased by money, and observation, what glory of beauty and proportion, what glory of health and strength soever thou hast had in this house of clay, The glory of the later house, shall be greater then of the former. To this glory, the God of this glory, by glorious or inglorious ways, such as may most advance his own glory, bring us in his time, for his Son Christ Jesus sake. Amen.

Sermon XIX. Preached at S. Pauls, upon Easter-day, in the Evening. 1624.

APOC. 20.6.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection.

IN the first book of the Scriptures, that of Genesis, there is danger in departing from the letter; In this last book, this of the Revelation, there is as much danger in adhering too close to the letter. The literal sense is always to be preserved; but the literal sense is not always to be discerned: for the literal sense is not always that, which the very Letter and Grammer of the place presents, as where it is literally said, That Christ is a Vine, and literally, That his flesh is bread, and literally, That the new Jerusalem is thus situated, thus built, thus furnished: But the literal sense of every place, is the principal intention of the Holy Ghost, in that place: And his principal intention in many places, is to express things by allegories, by figures; so that in many places of Scripture, a figurative sense is the literal sense, and more in this book then in any other. As then to depart from the literal sense, that sense which the very letter presents, in the book of Genesis, is dangerous, because if we do so there, we have no history of the Creation of the world in any other place to stick to; so to bind our selves to such a literal sense in this book, will take from us the consolation of many spiritual happinesses, and bury us in the carnal things of this world.

The first error of being too allegorical in Genesis, transported divers of the ancients beyond the certain evidence of truth, and the second error of being too literal in this book, fixed many, very many, very ancient, very learned, upon an evident falsehood; which was, that because here is mention of a first Resurrection, and of reigning with Christ a thousand years after that first Resurrection, There should be to all the Saints of God, a state of happiness in this world, after Christs comming, for a thousand years; In which happy state, though some of them have limited themselves in spiritual things, that they should enjoy a kind of conversation with Christ, and an impeccability, and a quiet serving of God without any reluctations, or cōcupiscences; or persecutions; yet others have dreamed on, and enlarged their dreams to an enjoying of all these worldly happinesses, which they, being formerly persecuted, did formerly want in this world, and then should have them for a thousand years together in recompense. And even this branch of that error, of possessing the things of this world, so long, in this world, did very many, and very good, and very great men, whose names are in honor, and justly in the Church of God, in those first times stray into; and flattered themselves with an imaginary intimation of some such thing, in these words, Blessed and holy is he, that hath part in the first Resurrection.

Thus far then the text is literal, That this Resurrection in the text, is different from the general Resurrection. The first differs from the last: And thus far it is figurative, allegorical, mystical, that it is a spiritual Resurrection, that is intended. But wherein spiritual? or of what spiritual Resurrection? In the figurative exposition of those places of Scripture, which require that way oft to be figuratively expounded, that Expositor is not to be blamed, who not destroying the literal sense, proposes such a figurative sense, as may exalt our devotion, and advance our edification; And as no one of those Expositors did ill, in proposing one such sense, so neither do those Expositors ill, who with those limitations, that it destroy not the literal sense, that it violate not the analogy of faith, that it advance devotion, do propose another and another such sense. So doth that preacher well also, who to the same end, and within the same limit, makes his use of both, of all those expositions; because all may stand, and it is not evident in such figurative speeches, which is the literal, that is, the principal intention of the Holy Ghost.

Of these words of this first Resurrection (which is not the last, of the body, but a spiritual Resurrection) there are three expositions authorized by persons of good note in the Church. First, that this first Resurrection, is a Resurrection from that low estate, to which persecution had brought the Church; and so it belongs to this whole State, and Church, and Blessed are we who have our part in this first Resurrection. Secondly, that it is a Resurrection from the death of sin, of actual, and habitual sin; so it belongs to every particular penitent soul; and Blessed art thou, blessed am I, if we have part in this first Resurrection. And then thirdly, because after this Resurrection, it is said, That we shall reign with Christ a thousand years, (which is a certain for an uncertain, a limited, for a long time) it hath also been taken for the state of the soul in heaven, after it is parted from the body by death; for though the soul cannot be said properly to have a Resurrection, because properly it cannot die, yet to be thus delivered from the danger of a second death, by future sin, to be removed from the distance, and latitude, and possibility of temptations in this world, is by very good Expositors called a Resurrection; and so it belongs to all them who are departed in the Lord; Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first Resurrection. And then the occasion of the day, which we celebrate now, being the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, invites me to propose a fourth sense, or rather use of the words; not indeed as an exposition of the words, but as a convenient exaltation of our devotion; which is, that this first Resurrection should be the first fruits of the dead; The first Rising, is the first Riser, Christ Jesus: for as Christ says of himself, that He is the Resurrection, so he is the first Resurrection, the root of the Resurrection. He upon whom our Resurrection, all ours, all our kinds of Resurrections are founded; and so it belongs to State and Church, and particular persons, alive, and dead; Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first Resurrection.

And these four considerations of the words; A Resurrection from persecution, by deliverance; a Resurrection from sin, by grace; a Resurrection from temptation to sin, by the way of death, to the glory of heaven; and all these, in the first Resurrection, in him that is the root of all, in Christ Jesus, These four steps, these four passages, these four transitions will be our quarter Clock, for this hours exercise.

First then, we consider this first Resurrection, to be a Resurrection from a persecution for religion, for the profession of the Gospel, to a forward glorious passage of the Gospel. And so a learned Expositor in the Roman Church carries the exposition of this whole place (though not indeed the ordinary way, yet truly not incommodiously, not improperly) upon that deliverance, which God afforded his Church, from those great persecutions, which had otherwise supplanted her, in her first planting, in the primitive times. Then says he (and in part well towards the letter of the place) The devil was chained for a thousand years, and then we began to reign with Christ for a thousand years; reckoning the time from that time, when God destroyed Idolatry more fully, and gave peace and rest, and free exercise of the Christian religion, under the Christian Emperors, till Antichrist in the height of his rage shall come, and let this thousand years prisoner Satan loose, and so interrupt our thousand years reign with Christ, with new persecutions. In that persecution was the death of the Church, in the eye of the world; In that deliverance by Christian Emperors was the Resurrection of the Church; And in Gods protecting her ever since is the chaining up of the devil, and our reigning with Christ for those thousand years.

And truly, beloved, if we consider the low, the very low estate of Christians in those persecutions, tried ten times in the fire, ten several and distinct persecutions, in which ten persecutions, God may seem to have had a mind to deal evenly with the world, and to lay as much upon his people whom he would try then, as he had laid upon others, for his people before, and so to equal the ten plagues of Egypt, in ten persecutions, in the primitive Church; if we consider that low, that very low estate, we may justly call their deliverance a Resurrection. For as God said to Jerusalem, I found thee in thy blood, and washed thee, so Christ Jesus found the Church, the Christian Church in her blood, and washed her, and wiped her; washed her in his own blood, which washes white, and wiped her with the garments of his own righteousness, that she might be acceptable in the sight of God, and then wiped all tears from her eyes, took away all occasions of complaint, and lamentation, that she might be glorious in the eyes of man, and cheerful in her own; such was her Resurrection.

We wonder, and justly, at the effusion, at the pouring out of blood, in the sacrifices of the old Law; that that little country scarce bigger then some three of our Shires, should spend more cattle in some few days sacrifice at some solemnities, and every year in the sacrifices of the whole year, then perchance this kingdom could give to any use. Seas of blood, and yet but brooks, tuns of blood, and yet but basons, compared with the sacrifices, the sacrifices of the blood of men, in the persecutions of the Primitive Church. For every Ox of the Jew, the Christian spent a man, and for every Sheep and Lamb, a Mother and her child; and for every heard of cattle, sometimes a town of Inhabitants, sometimes a Legion of Souldiers, all martyred at once; so that they did not stand to fill their Martyrologies with names, but with numbers, they had not room to say, such a day, such a Bishop, such a day, such a General, but the day of 500. the day of 5000. Martyrs, and the martyrdom of a City, or the Martyrdom of an Army; This was not a red Sea, such as the Jews passed, a Sinus, a Creek, an Arm, an Inlet, a gut of a Sea, but a red Ocean, that overflowed, and surrounded all parts; and from the depth of this Sea God raised them; and such was their Resurrection. Such, as that they which suffered, lay, and bled with more ease, then the executioner stood and sweat; and embraced the fire more fervently, then he blew it; and many times had this triumph in their death, that even the executioner himself, was in the act of execution converted to Christ, and executed with them; such was their Resurrection.

When the State of the Jews was in that depression, in that conculcation, in that consternation, in that extermination in the captivity of Babylon, as that God presents it to the Prophet in that Vision, in the field of dry bones, so, Fili hominis, Son of man, as thou art a reasonable man, dost thou think these bones can live, that these men can ever be re-collected to make up a Nation? The Prophet saith, Domine tu scis, Lord thou knowest; which is, not only thou knowest whether they can, or no, but thou knowest clearly they can; thou canst make them up of bones again, for thou madest those bones of earth before. If God had called in the Angels to the making of man at first, and as he said to the Prophet, Fili hominis, Son of man, as thou art a reasonable man, so he had said to them, Filii Dei, as you are the Sons of God, illumined by his face, do you think, that this clod of red earth can make a man, a man that shall be equal to you, in one of his parts, in his soul, and yet then shall have such another part, as that he, whom all you worship, my essential Son shall assume, and invest that part himself, can that man made of that body, and that soul, be made of this clod of earth? Those Angels would have said, Domine tu scis, Lord thou must needs know, how to make as good creatures as us of earth, who madest us of that which is infinitely less then earth, of nothing, before. To induce, to facilitate these apprehensions, there were some precedents, some such thing had been done before. But when the Church was newly conceived, and then lay like the egg of a Dove, and a Gyants foot over it, like a worm, like an ant, and hill upon hill whelmed upon it, nay, like a grain of corn between the upper and lower Mill-stone, ground to dust between Tyrans and Heretics, when as she bled in her Cradle, in those children whom Herod slew, so she bled upon her crutches, in those decrepit men whom former persecutions and tortures had creepled before, when East and West joined hands to crush her, and hands, and brains, joined execution to consultation to annihilate her; in this wane of the Moon, God gave her an instant fullness; in this exinanition, instant glory; in this grave, an instant Resurrection.

But beloved, the expressing the pressing of their depressions, does but chafe the Wax; the Printing of the seal, is the reducing to your memory, your own case: and not that point in your case, as you were for a few years under a sensible persecution of fire, and prisons; that was the least part of your persecution; for it is a cheap purchase of heaven, if we may have it for dying; To sell all we have to buy that field where we know the treasure is, is not so hard, as not to know it; To part with all, for the great Pearl, not so hard a bargain, as not to know that such a Pearl there might have been had; we could not say heaven was kept from us, when we might have it for a Fagot, and when even our enemies helpt us to it: but your greater affliction was, as you were long before, in an insensibleness, you thought your selves well enough, and yet were under a worse persecution of ignorance, and of superstition, when you, in your Fathers, were so far from expecting a resurrection, as that you did not know your low estate, or that you needed a Resurrection; And yet God gave you a Resurrection from it, a reformation of it.

Now, who have their parts in this first resurrection? or upon what conditions have you it? We see in the fourth verse, They that are beheaded for the witness of Jesus; that is, that are ready to be so, when the glory of Jesus shall require that testimony. In the mean time, as it follows there, They that have not worshipped the Beast; that is, not applied the Honor, and the Allegiance due to their Sovereign, to any foreign State; nor the Honor due to God, that is, infallibility, to another Prelate; That have not worshipped the Beast, nor his Image, says the Text; that is, that have not been transported with vain imaginations of his power, and his growth upon us here, which hath been so diligently Painted, and Printed, and Preached, and set out in the promises, and practises of his Instruments, to delude slack, and easy persons: And then, as it is added there, That have not received his mark upon their foreheads; That is, not declared themselves Romanists apparently; nor in their hands, says the Text; that is, which have not under-hand sold their secret endeavors, though not their public profession, to the advancement of his cause. These men, who are ready to be beheaded for Christ, and have not worshipped the Beast, nor the Image of the Beast, nor received his mark upon their foreheads, nor in their hands, these have their parts in this first resurrection. These are blessed, and holy, says our Text; Blessed, because they have means to be holy, in this resurrection; For the Lamb hath unclasped the book; the Scriptures are open; which way to holiness, our Fathers lacked; And then, our blessedness is, that we shall reign a thousand years with Christ; Now since this first resurrection, since the reformation we have reigned so with Christ, but 100. years: But if we persist in a good use of it, our posterity shall add the Cypher, and make that 100. 1000. even to the time, when Christ Jesus shall come again, and as he hath given us the first, so shall give us the last resurrection; and to that come Lord Jesus, come quickly; and till that, continue this.

This is the first resurrection, in the first acceptation, a resurrection from persecution, and a peaceable enjoying of the Gospel: And in a second, it is a resurrection from sin; and so it hath a more particular appropriation to every person. So S. Augustine takes this place, and with him many of the Fathers, and with them, many of the sons of the Fathers, better sons of the Fathers, then the Roman Church will confess them to be, or then they are themselves, The Expositors of the Reformed Church. They, for the most part, with S. Augustine, take this first resurrection, to be a resurrection from sin. Inter abjectos abjectissimus peccator: No man falls lower, then he that falls into a course of sin; Sin is a fall; It is not only a deviation, a turning out of the way, upon the right, or the left hand, but it is a sinking, a falling: In the other case, of going out of the way, a man may stand upon the way, and inquire, and then proceed in the way, if he be right, or to the way, if he be wrong; But when he is fallen, and lies still, he proceeds no farther, inquires no farther. To be too apt to conceive scruples in matters of religion, stops, and retards a man in the way; to mistake some points in the truth of religion, puts a man for that time in a wrong way; But to fall into a course of sin, this makes him unsensible of any end, that he hath to go to, of any way that he hath to go by. God hath not removed man, not with-drawn man from this Earth; he hath not given him the Aire to fly in, as to Birds, nor Spheres to move in, as to Sun and Moon; he hath left him upon the Earth; and not only to tread upon it, as in contempt, or in mere Dominion, but to walk upon it, in the discharge of the duties of his calling; and so to be conversant with the Earth, is not a falling. But as when man was nothing but earth, nothing but a body, he lay flat upon the earth, his mouth kissed the earth, his hands embraced the earth, his eyes respected the earth; And then God breathed the breath of life into him, and that raised him so far from the earth, as that only one part of his body, (the soles of his feet) touches it, And yet man, so raised by God, by sin fell lower to the earth again, then before, from the face of the earth, to the womb, to the bowels, to the grave; So God, finding the whole man, as low as he found Adams body then, fallen in Original sin, yet erects us by a new breath of life, in the Sacrament of Baptism, and yet we fall lower then before we were raised, from Original into Actual, into Habitual sins; So low, as that we think not, that we need, know not, that there is a resurrection; and that is the wonderful, that is the fearful fall.

Though those words, Quomodo cecidisti de Coelo, Lucifer, How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer, the Son of the morning? be ordinarily applied to the fall of the Angels, yet it is evident, that they are literally spoken of the fall of a man: It deserves wonder, more then pity, that man, whom God had raised, to so Noble a height in him, should fall so low from him. Man was born to love; he was made in the love of God; but then man falls in love; when he grows in love with the creature, he falls in love: As we are bid to honor the Physician, and to use the Physician, but yet it is said in the same Chapter, He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hands of the Physician; It is a blessing to use him, it is a curse to rely upon him, so it is a blessing to glorify God, in the right use of his creatures, but to grow in love with them, is a fall: For we love nothing that is so good as our selves; Beauty, Riches, Honor, is not so good as man; Man capable of grace here, of glory hereafter. Nay as those things, which we love, in their nature, are worse then we which love them, so in our loving them, we endeavor to make them worse then they in their own nature are; by over-loving the beauty of the body, we corrupt the soul, by overloving honor, and riches, we deflect, and detort these things, which are not in their nature ill, to ill uses, and make them serve our ill purposes: Man falls, as a fall of waters, that throws down, and corrupts all that it embraces. Nay beloved, when a man hath used those wings, which God hath given him, and raised himself to some height in religious knowledge, and religious practise, as Eutichus, out of a desire to hear Paul preach, was got up into a Chamber, and up into a window of that Chamber, and yet falling asleep, fell down dead; so we may fall into a security of our present state, into a pride of our knowledge, or of our purity, and so fall lower, then they, who never came to our height. So much need have we of a resurrection.

So sin is a fall, and every man is afraid of falling, even from his temporal station; more afraid of falling, then of not being raised. And Qui peccat, quatenus peccat, fit seipso deterior: In every sin a man falls from that degree which himself had before; In every sin, he is dishonoured, he is not so good a man, as he was; impoverished, he hath not so great a portion of grace as he had; Infatuated, he hath not so much of the true wisdom of the fear of God, as he had; disarmed, he hath not that interest and confidence in the love of God, that he had: and deformed, he hath not so lively a representation of the Image of God as before. In every sin, we become prodigals, but in the habit of sin, we become bankrupts, afraid to come to an account. A fall is a fearful thing, that needs a raising, a help; but sin is a death, and that needs a resurrection; and a resurrection is as great a work, as the very Creation it self. It is death in semine, in the root, it produces, it brings forth death; It is death in arbore, in the body, in it self; death is a divorce, and so is sin; and it is death in fructu, in the fruit thereof; sin plants spiritual death, and this death produces more sin, Obduration, Impenitence, and the like.

Be pleased to return, and cast one half thought upon each of these: Sin is the root of death; Death by sin entered, and death passed upon all men, for all men have sinned. It is death because we shall dye for it. But it is death in it self, We are dead already, dead in it; Thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead, was spoken to a whole Church. It is not evidence enough, to prove that thou art alive, to say, I saw thee at a Sermon; that spirit, that knows thy spirit, he that knows whether thou wert moved by a Sermon, melted by a Sermon, mended by a Sermon, he knows whether thou be alive or no.

That which had wont to be said, That dead men walked in Churches, is too true; Men walk out a Sermon, or walk out after a Sermon, as ill as they walked in; they have a name that they live, and are dead: But the hour is come, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: That is, at these hours they may hear, if they will, and till they do hear, they are dead. Sin is the root of death, the body of death, and then it is the fruit of death. S. Augustine confesses of himself, that he was Allisus intra parietes in celebritate solemnitatum tuarum, that in great meetings upon solemn days, in the Church, there, within the walls of Gods house, Egit negotium procurandi fructus mortis, he was not buying and selling doves, but buying and selling souls, by wanton looks, cheapning and making the bargain of the fruits of death, as himself expresses it. Sin is the root, and the tree, and the fruit of death; The mother of death, death it self, and the daughter of death; and from this death, this threefold death, death past in our past sins, present death in our present in sensibleness of sin, future death in those sins, with which sins God will punish our former, and present sins, (if he proceed merely in justice) God affords us this first resurrection.

How? Thus. Death is the Divorce of body and soul; Resurrection is the Re-union of body and soul: And in this spiritual death, and resurrection, which we consider now, and which is all determined in the soul it self, Grace is the soul of the soul, and so the departing of grace, is the death, and the returning of grace is the resurrection of this sinful soul. But how? By what way, what means? Consider Adam; Adam was made to enjoy an immortality in his body; He induced death upon himself: And then, as God having made Marriage for a remedy against uncleanness, intemperate men make even Marriage it self an occasion of more uncleanness, then if they had never married; so man having induced and created death, by sin, God takes death, and makes it a means of the glorifying of his body, in heaven. God did not induce death, death was not in his purpose; but veluti medium opportunum, quo vas confractum rursus fingeretur, As a means, whereby a broken vessel might be made up again, God took death, and made it serve for that purpose, That men by the grave might be translated to heaven.

So then, to the resurrection of the body, there is an ordinary way, The grave; To the resurrection of the soul, there is an ordinary way too, The Church. In the grave, the body that must be there prepared for the last resurrection, hath worms that eat upon it: In the Church, the soul that comes to this first resurrection, must have worms, The worm, the sting, the remorse, the compunction of Conscience; In those that have no part in this first resurrection, the worm of conscience shall never die, but gnaw on, to desperation; but those that have not this worm of conscience, this remorse, this compunction, shall never live. In the grave, which is the furnace, which ripens the body for the last resurrection, there is a putrefaction of the body, and an ill savor: In the Church, the womb where my soul must be mellowed for this first resurrection, my soul, which hath the savor of death in it, as it is leavened throughout with sin, must stink in my nostrils, and I come to a detestation of all those sins, which have putrefied her. And I must not be afraid to accuse my self, to condemn my self, to humble my self, lest I become a scorn to men; Nemo me derideat ab eo medico aegrum sanari, à quo sibi praestitum est ne aegrotaret, Let no man despise me, or wonder at me, that I am so humbled under the hand of God, or that I fly to God as to my Physician when I am sick, since the same God that hath recovered me as my Physician when I was sick, hath been his Physician too, and kept him from being sick, who, but for that Physician, had been as ill as I was: At least he must be his Physician, if ever he come to be sick, and come to know that he is sick, and come to a right desire to be well. Spiritual death was before bodily; sin before the wages of sin; God hath provided a resurrection for both deaths, but first for the first; This is the first resurrection, Reconciliation to God, and the returning of the soul of our soul, Grace, in his Church, by his Word, and his seals there.

Now every repentance is not a resurrection; It is rather a waking out of a dream, then a rising to a new life: Nay it is rather a startling in our sleep, then any awaking at all, to have a sudden remorse, a sudden flash, and no constant perseverance. Awake thou that sleepest, says the Apostle, out of the Prophet: First awake, come to a sense of thy state; and then arise from the dead, says he, from the practise of dead works; and then, Christ shall give thee light: life, and strength to walk in new ways. It is a long work, and hath many steps; Awake, arise, and walk, and therefore set out betimes; At the last day, in those, which shall be found alive upon the earth, we say there shall be a sudden death, and a sudden resurrection; In raptu, in transitu, in ictu oculi, In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye; but do not thou trust to have this first Resurrection In raptu, in transitu, in ictu oculi, In thy last passage upon thy death-bed, when the twinkling of the eye, must be the closing of thine eyes: But as we assign to glorified bodies after the last Resurrection, certain Dotes, (as we call them in the School) certain Endowments, so labor thou to find those endowments, in thy soul here, if thou beest come to this first Resurrection.

Amongst those Endowments we assign Subtilitatem, Agilitatem; The glorified body is become more subtle, more nimble, not encumbered, not disable for any motion, that it would make; So hath that soul, which is come to this first Resurrection, by grace, a spiritual agility, a holy nimbleness in it, that it can slide by temptations, and pass through temptations, and never be polluted; follow a calling, without taking infection, by the ordinary temptations of that calling. So have those glorified bodies Claritatem, a brightness upon them, from the face of God; and so have these souls, which are come to this first resurrection, a sun in themselves, an inherent light, by which they can presently distinguish between action and action; what must, what may, what must not be done. But of all the endowments of the glorified body, we consider most, Impassibilitatem, That that body shall suffer nothing; and is sure that it shall suffer nothing. And that which answers that endowment of the body most in this soul, that is come to this first resurrection, is as the Apostle speaks, That neither persecution, sickness, nor death, shall separate her from Christ Jesus. In Heaven we do not say, that our bodies shall divest their mortality, so, as that naturally they could not dye; for they shall have a composition still; and every compounded thing may perish: but they shall be so assured, and with such a preservation, as they shall always know they shall never dye. S. Augustine says well, Assit motio, absit fatigatio, assit potestas vescendi, absit necessitas esuriendi; They have in their nature a mortality, and yet be immortal; a possibility and an impossibility of dying, with those two divers relations, one to nature, the other to preservation, will consist together. So in this soul, that hath this first Resurrection from sin, by grace, a conscience of her own infirmity, that she may relapse, and yet a testimony of the powerfulness of Gods Spirit, that easily she shall not relapse, may consist well together. But the last seal of this holy confidence is reserved for that, which is the third acceptation of this first Resurrection; not from persecutions in this world, nor from sin in this world, but from all possibility of falling back into sin, in the world to come; and to this, have divers Expositors referred these words, this first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he, that hath part in this first Resurrection.

Now, a Resurrection of the soul, seems an improper, an impertinent, an improbable, an impossible forme of speech; for, Resurrection implies death, and the soul does not dye in her passage to Heaven. And therefore Damascene makes account, that he hath sufficiently proved the Resurrection of the body (which seems so incredible) if he could prove any Resurrection; if there be any Resurrection at all, says he, it must be of the body, for the soul cannot dye, therefore not rise. Yet have not those Fathers, nor those Expositors, who have in this text, acknowledged a Resurrection of the soul, mistaken nor miscalled the matter. Take Damascens own definition of Resurrection: Resurrectio est ejus quod cecidit secunda surrectio: A Resurrection is a second rising to that state, from which any thing is formerly fallen. Now though by death, the soul do not fall into any such state, as that it can complain, (for what can that lack, which God fils?) yet by death, the soul falls from that, for which it was infused, and poured into man at first; that is, to be the forme of that body, the King of that Kingdom; and therefore, when in the general Resurrection, the soul returns to that state, for which it was created, and to which it hath had an affection, and a desire, even in the fullness of the Joys of Heaven, then, when the soul returns to her office, to make up the man, because the whole man hath, therefore the soul hath a Resurrection; not from death, but from a deprivation of her former state; that state, which she was made for, and is ever inclined to.

But that is the last Resurrection; and so the soul hath part even in that last Resurrection; But we are in hand with the first Resurrection of the soul; and that is, when that soul, which was at first breathed from God, and hath long suffered a banishment, a close imprisonment in this body, returns to God again; The returning of the soul to him, from whom it proceeded at first, is a Resurrection of the soul. Here then especially, I feel the straitness of time; two considerations open themselves together, of such a largeness, as all the time from Moses his In principio, when time began, to the Angels Affidavit, in this book, That shall say and swear, that time shall be no more, were too narrow to contemplate these two Hemispheres of Man, this Evening, and Morning of Mans everlasting day; The miseries of man, in this banishment, in this emprisonment, in this grave of the soul, the body, And the glory, and exaltation of that soul in her Resurrection to Heaven. That soul, which being born free, is made a slave to this body, by comming to it; It must act, but what this body will give it leave to act, according to the Organs, which this body affords it; and if the body be lame in any limb, the soul must be lame in her operation, in that limb too; It must do, but what the body will have it do, and then it must suffer, whatsoever that body puts it to, or whatsoever any others will put that body to: If the body oppress it self with Melancholy, the soul must be sad; and if other men oppress the body with injury, the soul must be sad too; Consider, (it is too immense a thing to consider it) reflect but one thought, but upon this one thing in the soul, here, and hereafter, In her grave, the body, and in her Resurrection in Heaven; That is the knowledge of the soul.

Here says S. Augustine, when the soul considers the things of this world, Non veritate certior, sed consuetudine securior; She rests upon such things as she is not sure are true, but such as she sees, are ordinarily received and accepted for truths: so that the end of her knowledge is not Truth, but opinion, and the way, not Inquisition, but ease: But says he, when she proceeds in this life, to search into heavenly things, Verberatur luce veritatis, The beams of that light are too strong for her, and they sink her, and cast her down, Et ad familiaritatem tenebrarum suarum, non election sed fatigatione convertitur; and so she returns to her own darkness, because she is most familiar, and best acquainted with it; Non election, not because she loves ignorance, but because she is weary of the trouble of seeking out the truth, and so swallows even any Religion to escape the pain of debating, and disputing; and in this laziness she sleeps out her lease, her term of life, in this death, in this grave, in this body.

But then in her Resurrection, her measure is enlarged, and filled at once; There she reads without spelling, and knows without thinking, and concludes without arguing; she is at the end of her race, without running; In her triumph, without fighting; In her Haven, without sayling: A free-man, without any prentiship; at full years, without any wardship; and a Doctor, without any proceeding: She knows truly, and easily, and immediately, and entirely, and everlastingly; Nothing left out at first, nothing worn out at last, that conduces to her happiness. What a death is this life? what a resurrection is this death? For though this world be a sea, yet (which is most strange) our Harbor is larger then the sea; Heaven infinitely larger then this world. For, though that be not true, which Origen is said to say, That at last all shall be saved, nor that evident, which Cyril of Alexandria says, That without doubt the number of them that are saved, is far greater then of them that perish, yet surely the number of them, with whom we shall have communion in Heaven, is greater then ever lived at once upon the face of the earth: And of those who lived in our time, how few did we know? and of those whom we did know, how few did we care much for? In Heaven we shall have Communion of Joy and Glory with all, always; Vbi non intrat inimicus, nec amicus exit, Where never any man shall come in that loves us not, nor go from us that does.

Beloved, I think you could be content to hear, I could be content to speak of this Resurrection, our glorious state, by the low way of the grave, till God by that gate of earth, let us in at the other of precious Stones. And blessed and holy is he, who in a rectified conscience desires that resurrection now. But we shall not depart far from this consideration, by departing into our last branch, or conclusion, That this first Resurrection may also be understood to be the first riser Christ Jesus; and Blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first Resurrection.

This first Resurrection is then without any detorting, any violence, very applicable to Christ himself, who was Primitiae dormientium, in that, that action, That he rosc again, he is become (says the Apostle) the first fruits of them that sleep: He did rise, and rise first; others rose with him, none before him: for S. Jerome taking the words as he finds them in that Evangelist, makes this note, That though the graves were opened, at the instant of Christs death, (death was overcome, the City opened the gates) yet the bodies did not rise till after Christs Resurrection. For, for such Resurrections as are spoken of, That women received their dead raised to life again, and such as are recorded in the old and new Testament, they were all unperfect and temporary resurrections, such, as S. Jerome says of them all, Resurgebant iterum morituri; They were but reprieved, not pardoned; They had a Resurrection to life, but yet a Resurrection to another death. Christ is the first Resurrection; others were raised; but he only rose; they by a foreign, and extrinsique, he by his own power.

But we call him not the first, in that respect only; for so he was not only the first, but the only; he alone arose by his own power; but with relation to all our future Resurrections, he is the first Resurrection. First, If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, says the Apostle; You have a vain faith if you believe in a dead man. He might be true Man, though he remained in death; but it concerns you to believe, that he was the Son of God too; And he was declared to be the Son of God, by the Resurrection from the dead. That was the declaration of himself, his Justification; he was justified by the Spirit, when he was proved to be God, by raising himself. But thus our Justification is also in his Resurrection. For, He was raised from the dead, for our Iustification: how for ours? That we should be also in the likeness of his Resurrection. What is that? that he hath told us before; Our Resurrection in Christ is, that we should walk in newness of life.

So that then Christ is the first Resurrection, first, Efficiently, the only cause of his own Resurrection; First, Meritoriously, the only cause of our Resurrection; first, Exemplarily, the only pattern, how we should rise, and how we should walk, when we are up; and therefore, Blessed and happy are we, if we referre all our resurrections to this first Resurrection Christ Jesus. For as Job said of Comforters, so miserable Resurrections are they all without him.

If therefore thou need and seek this first Resurrection, in the first acceptation, a Resurrection from persecutions, and calamities, as they oppress thee here, have thy recourse to him, to Christ. Remember that at the death of Christ, there were earthquakes; the whole earth trembled; There were rendings of the Temple; Schisms, Convulsions, distractions in the Church will be: But then, the graves opened in the midst of those commotions; Then when thou thinkest thy self swallowed, and buried in affliction, as the Angel did his, Christ Jesus shall remove thy grave stone, and give thee a resurrection; but if thou think to remove it by thine own wit, thine own power, or the favor of potent Friends, Digitus Dei non est hic, The hand of God is not in all this, and the stone shall lye still upon thee, till thou putrify into desperation, and thou shalt have no part in this first Resurrection.

If thou need, and seek this first resurrection, in the second acceptation, from the fearful death of heinous sin, have thy recourse to him, to Christ Jesus, & remember the weight of the sins that lay upon him: All thy sins, and all thy Fathers, and all thy children's sins, all those sins that did induce the first flood, and shall induce the last fire upon this world; All those sins, which that we might take example by them to scape them, are recorded, and which, lest we should take example by them, to imitate them, are left unrecorded; all sins, of all ages, all sexes, all places, al times, all callings, sins heavy in their substance, sins aggravated by their circumstances, all kinds of sins, and all particular sins of every kind, were upon him, upon Christ Jesus; and yet he raised his holy Head, his royal Head, though under thorns, yet crowned with those thorns, and triumphed in this first Resurrection: and his body was not left in the Grave, nor his soul in Hell. Christs first tongue was a tongue that might be heard, He spoke to the Shepherds by Angels; His second tongue was a Star, a tongue which might be seen; He spoke to the Wisemen of the East by that. Hearken after him these two ways; As he speaks to thine ear, (and to thy soul, by it) in the preaching of his Word, as he speaks to thine eye, (and so to thy soul by that) in the exhibiting of his Sacraments: And thou shalt have thy part in this first Resurrection. But if thou think to overcome this death, this sense of sin, by diversions, by worldly delights, by mirth, and music, and society, or by good works, with a confidence of merit in them, or with a relation to God himself, but not as God hath manifested himself to thee, not in Christ Jesus, The stone shall lye still upon thee, till thou putrify into desperation, and then hast thou no part in this first Resurrection.

If thou desire this first Resurrection in the third acceptation, as S. Paul did, To be dissolved, and to be with Christ, go Christs way to that also. He desired that glory that thou doest; and he could have laid down his soul when he would; but he staid his hour, says the Gospel. He could have ascended immediately, immediately in time, yet he staid to descend into hell first; and he could have ascended immediately of himself, by going up, yet he staid till he was taken up. Thou hast no such power of thine own soul and life, not for the time, not for the means of comming to this first Resurrection by death; Stay therefore patiently, stay cheerfully Gods leisure till he call; but not so over-cheerfully, as to be loath to go when he calls. Relief in persecution by power, reconciliation in sin by grace, dissolution, and transmigration to heaven by death, are all within this first Resurrection: But that which is before them all, is Christ Jesus.

And therefore, as all that the natural man promises himself without God, is impious, so all that we promise our selves, though by God, without Christ, is frivolous. God, who hath spoken to us by his Son, works upon us by his Son too; He was our Creation, he was our Redemption, he is our Resurrection. And that man trades in the world without money, and goes out of the world without recommendation, that leaves out Christ Jesus. To be a good Moral man, and refer all to the law of Nature in our hearts, is but Diluculum, The dawning of the day; To be a godly man, and refer all to God, is but Crepusculum, A twylight; But the Meridional brightness, the glorious noon, and height, is to be a Christian, to pretend to no spiritual, no temporal blessing, but for, and by, and through, and in our only Lord and Savior Christ Jesus; for he is this first Resurrection, and Blessed and holy is he, that hath part in this first Resurrection.

Sermon XX. Preached at S. Pauls, in the Evening, upon Easter-day. 1625.

JOHN 5.28, 29.

Marvel not at this; for the hour is comming, in the which, all that are in the graves, shall hear his voice; And shall come forth, They that have done good, unto the Resurrection of Life; And they that have done evil, unto the Resurrection of Damnation.

AS the Sun works diversly, according to the diverse disposition of the subject, (for the Sun melts wax, and it hardens clay) so do the good actions of good men: upon good men they work a virtuous emulation, a noble and a holy desire to imitate, upon bad men they work a vicious, and impotent envy, a desire to disgrace, and calumniate. And the more the good is that is done, and the more it works upon good men, the more it disaffects the bad: for so the Pharisees express their rancor and malignity against Christ, in this Gospel, If we let him thus alone, all men will believe in him; And that they foresaw would destroy them in their reputation. And therefore they enlarged their malice, beyond Christ himself, to him, upon whom Christ had wrought a Miracle, to Lazarus, They consulted to put him to death, because by reason of him, many believed in Jesus. Our Text leads us to another example of this impotency in envious men; Christ, in this Chapter had, by his only word, cured a man that had been eight and thirty years infirm; and he had done this work upon the Sabbath. They envied the work in the substance, but they quarrel the circumstance; And they envy Christ, but they turn upon the man, who was more obnoxious to them; and they tell him, That it was not lawful for him to carry his bed that day. He discharges himself upon Christ; I dispute not with you concerning the Law; This satisfies me, He that made me whole, bad me take up my bed and walk. Thereupon they put him to find out Jesus; And when he could not find Jesus, Jesus found him, and in his behalf offers himself to the Pharisees. Then they direct themselves upon him, and (as the Gospel says) They sought to slay him, because he had done this upon the Sabbath: And, as the patient had discharged himself upon Christ, Christ discharges himself upon his Father; doth it displease you that I work upon the Sabbath? be angry with God, be angry with the Father, for the Father works when I work. And then this they take worse then his working of Miracles, or his working upon the Sabbath, That he would say, that God was his Father; And therefore in the averring of that, that so important point, That God was his Father, Christ grows into a holy vehemence, and earnestness, and he repeats his usual oath, Verily, verily, three several times: First, ver. 19. That whatsoever the Father doth, He, the Son, doth also, And then ver. 24. He that believeth on me, and him that sent me, hath life everlasting. And then again, ver. 25. The hour is comming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear it shall live. At this, that the dead should live, they marvelled; But because he knew that they were men more affected with things concerning the body, then spiritual things, as in another story, when they wondered that he would pretend to forgive sins, because he knew, that they thought it a greater matter to bid that man that had the Palsy, take up his bed and walk, then to forgive him his sins, therefore he took that way which was hardest in their opinion, he did bid him take up his bed and walk; So here, when they wondered at his speaking of a spiritual Resurrection, to hear him say, that at his preaching, the dead (that is, men spiritually dead in their sins) should rise again, to them who more respected the body, and did less believe a real Resurrection of the body, then a figurative Resurrection of the soul, he proceeds to that which was, in their apprehension, the more difficult, Marvel not at this, says he, here in our Text; not at that spiritual Resurrection by preaching, for the hour is comming, in the which, all that are in the graves, &c. and so he establishes the Resurrection of the body.

That then which Christ affirmes and avows, is, That he is the Son of God; and that is the first thing, that ever was done in Heaven, The eternal generation of the Son: that, by which, he proves this, to these men, is, That by him, there shall be a resurrection of the body; and that is the last thing, that shall be done in Heaven, for, after that, there is nothing, but an even continuance in equal glory. Before that, says he, that is, before the resurrection of the body, there shall be another resurrection, a spiritual resurrection of the soul from sin; but that shall be, by ordinary means, by Preaching, and Sacraments, and it shall be accomplished every day; but fix not upon that, determin not your thoughts upon that, marvaile not at that, make that no cause of extraordinary wonder, but make it ordinary to you, feel it, and find the effect thereof in your souls, as often as you hear, as often as you receive, and thereby provide for another resurrection, For, the hour is comming, in which, all that are in their graves, &c.

Where we must necessarily make thus many steps, though but short ones. First, the dignity of the Resurrection, marvaile at nothing so much, as at this, nothing is so marvailous, so wonderful as this; And secondly, the approach of the Resurrection, The hour is comming; And thirdly, The generality, All that are in the graves; And then the instrument of the resurrection, The voice of Christ, that shall be heard; And lastly, the diverse end of the resurrection, They shall come forth, they that have done good, &c. God hath a care of the Body of man, that is first; And he defers it not, that is next; And he extends it to all, that is a third; And a fourth is, That he does that last act, by him, by whom he did the first, The Creation, and all between, the Redemption, that is, by his Son, by Christ; And then the last is, that this is an everlasting separation and divorce of the good and the bad, The bad shall never be able to receive good from the Good, nor to do harm to the Good, after that.

First then, Christ says, Ne miremini, Marvaile not at this, not at your spiritual resurrection, not that a Sermon should work upon man, not that a Sacrament should comfort a man, make it not a miracle, nor an extraordinary thing, by hearing to come to repentance, and so to such a resurrection. For though S. Augustine say, That to convert a man from sin, is as great a miracle, as Creation, yet S. August. speaks that of a mans first conversion, in which the man himself does nothing, but God all; Then he is made of nothing; but after God hath renewed him, and proposed ordinary means in the Church still to work upon him, he must not look for miraculous working, but make Gods ordinary means, ordinary to him. This is Panis quotidianus, The daily bread which God gives you, as often as you meet here, according to his Ordinances; Ne miremini, stand not to wonder, as though you were not sure, but come to enjoy Gods goodness, in his ordinary way here.

But it is, Ne miremini hoc, Wonder not at this; but yet, there are things, which we may wonder at. Nil admirari, is but the Philosophers wisdom; He thinks it a weakness, to wonder at any thing, That any thing should be strange to him: But Christian Philosophy that is rooted in humility, tells us, in the mouth of Clement of Alexand. Principium veritatis est res admirari, The first step to faith, is to wonder, to stand, and consider with a holy admiration, the ways and proceedings of God with man: for, Admiration, wonder, stands as in the midst, between knowledge and faith, and hath an eye towards both. If I know a thing, or believe a thing, I do no longer wonder: but when I find that I have reason to stop upon the consideration of a thing, so, as that I see enough to induce admiration, to make me wonder, I come by that step, and God leads me by that hand, to a knowledge, if it be of a natural or civil thing, or to a faith, if it be of a supernatural, and spiritual thing.

And therefore be content to wonder at this, That God would have such a care to dignify, and to crown, and to associate to his own everlasting presence, the body of man. God himself is a Spirit, and heaven is his place; my soul is a spirit, and so proportioned to that place; That God, or Angels, or our Souls, which are all Spirits, should be in heaven, Ne miremini, never wonder at that. But since we wonder, and justly, that some late Philosophers have removed the whole earth from the Center, and carried it up, and placed it in one of the Spheres of heaven, That this clod of earth, this body of ours should be carried up to the highest heaven, placed in the eye of God, set down at the right hand of God, Miremini hoc, wonder at this; That God, all Spirit, served with Spirits, associated to Spirits, should have such an affection, such a love to this body, this earthly body, this deserves this wonder. The Father was pleased to breath into this body, at first, in the Creation; The Son was pleased to assume this body himself, after, in the Redemption; The Holy Ghost is pleased to consecrate this body, and make it his Temple, by his sanctisication; In that Faciamus hominem, Let us, all us, make man, that consuitation of the whole Trinity in making man, is exercised even upon this lower part of man, the dignifying of his body. So far, as that amongst the ancient Fathers, very many of them, are very various, and irresolved, which way to pronounce, and very many of them clear in the negative, in that point, That the soul of man comes not to the presence of God, but remains in some out-places till the Resurrection of the body: That observation, that consideration of the love of God, to the body of man, withdrew them into that error, That the soul it self should lack the glory of heaven, till the body were become capable of that glory too.

They therefore oppose God in his purpose of dignifying the body of man, first, who violate, and mangle this body, which is the Organ in which God breathes; And they also which pollute and defile this body, in which Christ Jesus is apparelled; and they likewise who profane this body, which the Holy Ghost, as the high Priest, inhabites, and consecrates.

Trangressors in the first kind, that put Gods Organ out of tune, that discompose, and tear the body of man with violence, are those inhumane persecutors, who with racks, and tortures, and prisons, and fires, and exquisite inquisitions, throw down the bodies of the true Gods true servants, to the Idolatrous worship of their imaginary Gods; that torture men into hell, and carry them through the inquisition into damnation. S. Augustine moves a question, and institutes a disputation, and carries it somewhat problematically, whether torture be to be admitted at all, or no. That presents a faire probability, which he says against it: we presume, says he, that an innocent man should be able to hold his tongue in torture; That is no part of our purpose in torture, says he, that he that is innocent, should accuse himself, by confession, in torture. And, if an innocent man be able to do so, why should we not think, that a guilty man, who shall save his life, by holding his tongue in torture, should be able to do so? And then, where is the use of torture? Res fragilis, & periculosa quaestio, says that Lawyer, who is esteemed the law, alone, Vlpian: It is a slippery trial, and uncertain, to convince by torture: For, many times, says S. Augustine again, Innocens luit pro incerto scelere certissimas poenas, He that is yet but questioned, whether he be guilty or no, before that be known, is, without all question, miserably tortured. And whereas, many times, the passion of the Judge, and the covetousness of the Judge, and the ambition of the Judge, are calamities heavy enough, upon a man, that is accused, in this case of torture, Ignorantia Iudicis est calamitas plerumque innocentis, says that Father, for the most part, even the ignorance of the Judge, is the greatest calamity of him that is accused: If the Judge knew that he were innocent, he should suffer nothing; If he knew he were guilty, he should not suffer torture; but because the Judge is ignorant, and knows nothing, therefore the Prisoner must be racked, and tortured, and mangled, says that Father.

There is a whole Epistle in S. Jerome, full of heavenly meditation, and of curious expressions: It is his forty ninth Epistle, Ad Innocentium: where a young man tortured for suspicion of adultery with a certain woman, ut compendio cruciatus vitaret, says he, for his ease, and to abridge his torment, and that he might thereby procure and compass a present death, confessed the adultery, though false: His confession was made evidence against the woman: and she makes that protestation, Tu testis Domine Iesu, Thou Lord Jesus be my Witness, Non ideo me negare velle, ne peream, sed ideo mentiri nolle, ne peccem: I do not deny the fact for fear of death, but I dare not bely my self, nor betray mine innocence, for fear of sinning, and offending the God of Truth; And, as it follows in that story, though no torture could draw any Confession, any accusation from her, she was condemned; and one Executioner had three blows at her with a Sword, and another four, and yet she could not be killed.

And therefore, because Story abounds with Examples of this kind, how uncertain a way of trial, and conviction, torture is, though S. Augustine would not say, that torture was unlawful, yet he says, It behoves every Judge to make that prayer, Erue me Domine à necessitatibus meis, If there be some cases, in which the Judge must necessarily proceed to torture; O Lord, deliver me, from having any such case brought before me.

But what use soever there may be for torture, for Confession, in the Inquisition they torture for a denial, for the denial of God, and for the renouncing of the truth of his Gospel: As men of great place, think it concerns their honor, to do above that which they suffer, to make their revenges, not only equal, but greater then their injuries; so the Roman Church thinks it necessary to her greatness, to inflict more tortures now, then were inflicted upon her in the Primitive Church; as though it were a just revenge, for the tortures she received then, for being Christian, to torture better Christians then her self, for being so. In which tortures, the Inquisition hath found one way, to escape the general clamor of the world against them, which is to torture to that height, that few survive, or come abroad after, to publish, how they have been tortured. And these, first, oppose Gods purpose, in the making, and preserving, and dignifying the body of man.

Transgressors herein, in the second kind, are they, that defile the garment of Christ Jesus, the body in which he hath vouchsafed to invest and enwrap himself, and so apparel a Harlot in Christs clothes, and make that body, which is his, hers. That Christ should take my body, though defiled with fornication, and make it his, is strange; but that I, in fornication, should take Christs body, and make it hers, is more. Know ye not, says the Apostle, that your bodies are the members of Christ? And again, Know you not, that he that is joined to a harlot, is one body? Some of the Roman Emperors, made it treason, to carry a Ring, that had their picture engraved in it, to any place in the house, of low Office. What Name can we give to that sin, to make the body of Christ, the body of a harlot? And yet, the Apostle there, as taking knowledge, that we loved our selves better then Christ, changes the edge of his argument, and argues thus, ver. 18. He that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body; If ye will be bold with Christs body, yet favor your own: No man ever hated his own body; and yet, no outward enemy is able so to macerate our body, as our own licentiousness. Christ, who took all our bodily infirmities upon him, Hunger, and Thirst, and Sweat, and Cold, took no bodily deformities upon him, he took not a lame, a blind, a crooked body; and we, by our intemperance, and licentiousness, deform that body which is his, all these ways. The licentious man, most of any, studies bodily handsomeness, to be comely, and gracious, and acceptable, and yet, soonest of any, deformes, and destroys it, and makes that loathsome to all, which all his care was to make amiable: And so they oppose Gods purpose of dignifying the body.

Transgressors in a third kind are they, that sacrilegiously profane the Temple of the Holy Ghost, by neglecting the respect and duties, belonging to the dead bodies of Gods Saints, in a decent and comely accompanying them to convenient Funerals. Heirs and Executors are oftentimes defective in these offices, and pretend better employments of that, which would be, (say they) vainly spent so. But remember you, of whom (in much such a case) that is said in S. John, This he said, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a Thief, and had the bagge, and bore that which was put therein: This Executors say, not because they intend pious uses, but because they bear, and bear away the bagges. Generally, thy opinion must be no rule for other mens actions; neither in these cases of Funerals, must thou call all too much, which is more then enough; That womans Ointment poured upon Christs feet, that hundred pound weight of perfumes to embalm his one body, was more then enough, necessarily enough; yet it was not too much, for the dignity of that person, nor for the testimony of their zeal, who did it, in so abundant manner.

Now, as in all these three ways, men may oppose the purpose of God, in dignifying the body, so in concurring with Gods purpose, for the dignifying thereof, a man may exceed, and go beyond Gods purpose, in all three. God would not have the body torn, and mangled with tortures, in those cases; but then, he would not have it pampered with wanton delicacies, nor varnished with foreign complexion. It is ill, when it is not our own heart, that appears in our words; it is ill too, when it is not our own blood, that appears in our cheeks; It may do some ill offices of blood, it may tempt, but it gives over, when it should do a good office of blood, it cannot blush. If when they are filling the wrinkles, and graves of their face, they would remember, that there is another grave, that calls for a filling with the whole body, so, even their pride would flow into a mortification. God would not have us put on a sad countenance, nor disfigure our face, not in our fastings, and other disciplines; God would not have us marre his work; nor God would not have us go about to do his last work, which he hath reserved to himself in heaven, here upon earth, that is, to glorify our bodies, with such additions here, as though we would need no glorification there.

So also in the second way of giving due respect to the body of man, a man may exceed Gods purpose. God would not have the body corrupted and attenuated, shrunk and deformed with incontinency, and licentiousness; But God would not have that sparing of the body, to dishonor, or undervalue, or forbear marriage, nor to frustrate that, which was one of Gods purposes, in the institution of marriage, procreation of children. Marriage without possibility of children, lacks one half of Gods purpose in the institution of marriage; for, the third reason of marriage, after the other two, (which two were, for a Helper, and for Children) which is, that marriage should be for a Remedy, that third came in after; for at the time of the institution of marriage, man was not fallen into any inordinate concupiscencies, and so, at that time, needed no remedy. Marriage without possibility of children, lacks one of Gods two reasons for children; but marriage with a contract against children, or a practice against children, is not (says S. Augustine) a marriage, but a solemn, an avowed, a daily Adultery. To choose to be ill in the sight of God, rather then to look ill, in the sight of men, is a perverse, and a poisonous Physic. The sin of Er, and Onan, in married men; the sin of procured abortions, in married women, do, in many cases, equal, in some, exceed, the sin of Adultery; To rob a husband, or a wife, of a future child, may be in the wife, or husband, as great a sin, as to bring a supposititious, or a spurious child, into the Fathers inheritance. God would not have the comeliness, the handsomeness of the body defaced by incontinency, and intemperance, but he would not have the care of that comeliness, and handsomeness frustrate his purpose of children in marriage.

And as in those two, (God would not have the body tortured, nor mangled, God would not have the body deformed by licentiousness) so, in his third respect to mans body, God would not have the bodies of his dead Saints neglected, Gods purpose may be exceeded too. Gods purpose therein is, that all men should be Decently; and Honourable persons, Honourably buried; but his purpose herein is exceeded, when any rag of their skin, or chip of their bones, or lock of their hair, is kept for a Relique, and made an Universal balm, and Amulet, and Antidote, against all temporal, and all spiritual diseases, and calamities, not only against the rage of a Fever, but of hell it self. What their counterfeit Reliques may do, against their counterfeit hell, against their Purgatory, I know not: That powerful, and precious, and only Relique, which is given to us, against hell it self, is only the Communion of the body, and blood of Christ Jesus, left to us by him, and preserved for us, in his Church, though his body be removed out of our sight.

To end this, Miramini hoc, marvel at this, at the wonderful love of God to the body of man, and thou wilt favor it so, as not to macerate thine own body, with uncommanded and inhumane flagellations, and whippings, nor afflict their bodies, who are in thy charge, with inordinate labor; thou wilt not dishonor this body, as it is Christs body, nor deform it, as it is thine own, with intemperance, but thou wilt behave thy self towards it so, as towards one, whom it hath pleased the King to honor, with a resurrection, (which was our first) and not to deferre that resurrection long, which is our next step, Venit hora, The hour is comming.

Non talem Deum tuum puts, qualis nec tu debes esse, is excellently said by S. Augustine: Never presume upon any other disposition in God, then such as thou findest in thine own heart, that thou art bound to have in thy self; for we find in our hearts, a band of conformity, and assimilation to God, that is, to be as like God as we can. Therefore whatsoever thou findest thy self bound to do to another, thou mayst expect at Gods hand. Thou art bound to help up another that is fallen, therefore thou mayst assure thy self, that God will give thee a Resurrection: so, thou findest in thy heart, that the soul of an alms, the soul of a benefit, that that gives it life, is the speedy, the present doing of it; Therefore thou mayst be sure, that God will make speed to save thee, that he will not long deferre this thy resurrection, horavenit. S. Augustine comparing the former resurrection, which is the spiritual resurrection of the soul, ver. 25. with this in the Text, which is the resurrection of the body, observes, that there Christ says, hora venit, & nunc est, the hour is comming, and now is; because in every private inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in every Sermon, in every meeting of the Congregation, the dead may hear, and live; nunc est, they may do it now. But that in this resurrection in the Text, the resurrection of the body, it is not said, nunc est, that the hour is now; for, the Son of Man who says it, (as he is the Son of Man) knows not when it shall be; But he says Hora venit, It is comming, and comming apace, and comming quickly, shortly.

As soon as God had made man, he gave him his patent, Dominamini, Dominion over the Creature; As soon as Man was fallen, God gave him the promise of a Messiah; And of his second comming, himself says, Ecce, venio citò, Behold, I come speedily: Venit, he comes, he is upon the way; and Ecce, venit, Behold, he comes, he is within sight, you may see him in his fore-running tokens; and Ecce citò, as little way as he hath to go, he makes haste, And there is a Jesuit that makes the haste so great, as that he says, Howsoever S. Augustine make use of that note, that it is not said in the Text, Nunc est, That the hour of the Resurrection is now, yet he does believe, that Christ did say so, though the Evangelist left it out. We need not say so; we do not; so much less liberty do we take in departing from the Fathers, then the Roman Authors do: But yet, so as S. John speaks, Hora novissima, This is the last time, (Now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know that this is the last time) And so, as S. Peter speaks, Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day: So as this Nunc may signify Vltimum statum, The last course of times, the time not of Nature, nor of Law, but of Grace; so we admit that addition in this Resurrection too, Hora venit, & nunc est, The hour is comming, and now is, because there are no other means to be hereafter instituted for the attaining of a happy Resurrection, then those that now are established in the Church, especially at a mans death, may we very properly say, Nunc est, Now is the Resurrection come to him, not only because the last Judgement is involved in the first, (for that Judgment which passeth upon every man at his death, stands for ever without Repeal, or Appeal, or Error) but because after the death of the Body, there is no more to be done with the Body, till the Resurrection; for as we say of an Arrow, that it is over shot, it is gone, it is beyond the mark, though it be not come to the mark yet, because there is no more to be done to it till it be; so we may say, that he that is come to death, is come to his Resurrection, because he hath not another step to make, another foot to go, another minute to count, till he be at the Resurrection.

The Resurrection then, being the Coronation of man, his Death, and lying down in the grave, is his enthroning, his sitting down in that chayre, where he is to receive that Crown. As then the Martyrs, under the Altar, though in heaven, yet do cry out for the Resurrection; so let us, in this miserable life, submit our selves cheerfully to the hand of God, in death, since till that death we cannot have this Resurrection, and the first thing that we shall do after this death, is to rise again. To the child that is now born, we may say, Hora venit, The day of his Resurrection is comming; To him that is old, we may say, The hour is come; but to him that is dead, The minute is come, because to him there are no more minutes till it do come.

Miremini hoc, Marvail at this, at the descent of Gods love, He loves the Body of Man, And Miremini hoc, Mervaile at his speed, He makes haste to express this love, Hora venit, And then Miremini hoc, Marvaile at the Generality, it reaches to all, all that are in the Grave; All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, &c. God hath made the Body as a House for the soul, till he call her out, and he hath made the Grave as a House for the body, till he call it up. The misery, and poor estate that Christ submitted himself unto for man, was not determined in that, That foxes had holes, but he no where to lay his head, while he lived; but he had no grave that he could claim, when he was dead. It is some discontinuance of the Communion of Saints, if I may not be buried with the Saints of God. Every man that hath not divested Humanity, hath a desire to have his bones lie at rest, and we cannot provide for that so well, any way, as to bury them in Consecrated places, which are, in common entendment, safest from profane violences. Even that respect, that his bones might lye at rest, seems to have moved one Prophet, to enjoin his Sons, to bury him, in the Sepulcher, where the other Prophet was buried. He knew that Josiah would burn the bones of all the other graves, upon the Altar of Bethel, as was prophesied; and he presumed that he would spare the bones of that Prophet, and so his bones should be safe, if they were mingled with the other. God expressed his love to Moses, in that particular, That he buried him; And, to deliver, and remove him, from the violence of any that loved him not, and so might dishonor his memory, and from the superstition of any that over-loved him, and so might over-honor his memory, God buried him in secret. In more then one place doth David complain, That there was none to bury Gods Saints; And the Dignity that is promised here in the Text, is appropriated to them, who are in the graves, who are buried.

But then, was that general? Is it simply, plainly, literally of them, and them only, who are in graves, who are buried? Shall none enjoy a Resurrection, that have not enjoyed a Grave? Still I say, it is a comfort to a dying man, it is an honor to his memory, it is a discharge of a duty in his friends, it is a piece of the Communion of Saints, to have a consecrated grave: But the word here is, In monumentis, All that are in Monuments; that is, in Receptacles of Bodies, of what kind soever they be: wheresoever the hand of God lays up a dead Body, that place is the Receptacle, so the monument, so the grave of that Body. God keeps all the bones of the righteous, so that none of them are broken: Though they be trod to dust in our sight, they are entire in his, because he can bid them be whole again in an instant. Some Nations burnt their dead, there the fire is the grave; some drowned their dead, there the sea is the grave; and some hung them up upon trees, and there the air is their grave: Some Nations eat their dead themselves, and some maintained dogs to eat the dead; and as they called those dogs, Canes Sepulchrales, Sepulchral dogs, so those men were sepulchral men, those men and those dogs were graves. Death and hell shall deliver up their dead, says S. John: That is, the whole state, and mansion of the dead, shall be emptied: The state of the dead is their grave, and upon all that are in this state, shall the testimony of Gods love, to the body of man, fall; And that is the Generality, All that are in the grave, &c.

Our next step is, The Instrument, the Means, by which, this, first so speedy, and then so general love of God, to man, to man in his lowest part, his body, is accomplished unto him; These, All these, All these that are in graves, in all these kinds of graves, shall hear his voice, and that is the Means. First, whose voice? That is expressed immediately before, The Son of man. In the other Resurrection, in that of the dead soul, ver. 25. there it is said, The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. In this, which is the Resurrection to Judgement, it is The Son of man. The former Resurrection (that of a sinner to repentance by preaching) is wrought by a plain, and ordinary means here in the Church; where you do but hear a man in a Pew, read prayers, and pronounce Absolution, and a man in a Pulpit preach a Sermon, and a man at a Table consecrate, and administer a Sacrament; And because all this, though it be the power of life, and the means of your spiritual resurrection, is wrought by the Ministry of man, who might be contemptible in your eye, therefore the whole work is referred to God, and not the son of man, but the Son of God, is said to do it.

In this Resurrection of the Text, which is a Resurrection to Judgement, and to an account with God, that God whom we have displeased, exasperated, violated, wounded in the whole course of our life, lest we should be terrified, and dejected at the presence of that God, the whole work is referred to the Son of Man, which hath himself formerly felt all our infirmities, and hath had as sad a soul at the approach of death, as bitter a Cup in the forme of Death, as heavy a fear of Gods forsaking him in the agony of death, as we can have: And for sin it self, I would not, I do not extenuate my sin, but let me have fallen, not seven times a day, but seventy seven times a minute, yet what are my sins, to all those sins that were upon Christ? The sins of all men, and all women, and all children, the sins of all Nations, all the East and West, and all the North and South, the sins of all times and ages, of Nature, of Law, of Grace, the sins of all natures, sins of the body, and sins of the mind, the sins of all growth, and all extentions, thoughts, and words, and acts, and habits, and delight, and glory, and contempt, and the very sin of boasting, nay of our belying our selves in sin; All these sins, past, present and future, were at once upon Christ, and in that depth of sin, mine are but a drop to his Ocean; In that treasure of sin, mine are but single money to his Talent; And therefore, that I might come with a holy reverence to his Ordinance, in this place, though it be but in the Ministry of man, that first Resurrection is attributed to the Son of God, to give a dignity to that Ministry of man, which otherwise might have been under-valued, that thereby we might have a consolation, and a cheerfulness towards it; It is He, that is, the Son of God, and the Son of man, Christ; which remembers us also, that all that belongs to the expressing of the Law of God to man, must be received by us, who profess our selves Christians, in, and by, and for, and through Christ.

We use to ascribe the Creation to the Father, but the Father created by the Word, and his Word, is his Son, Christ; When he prepared the Heavens, I was there, (says Christ, of himself in the person of Wisdom) and when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then was I by him, as one brought up with him; It is not, as one brought in to him, or brought in by him, but with him; one as old, that is, as eternal, as much God as he. We use to ascribe Sanctification to the Holy Ghost; But the Holy Ghost sanctifies in the Church, And the Church was purchased by the blood of Christ, and Christ remains Head of the Church, usque in consummationem, till the end of the world. I look upon every blessing that God affords me, and I consider whether it be temporal, or spiritual; and that distinguishes the metal; the temporal is my silver, and the spiritual is my Gold; but then I look again upon the Inscription, Cujus Imago, whose Image, whose inscription it bears, and whose Name; and except I have it, in, and for, and by Christ Jesus, Temporal, and Spiritual things too, are but imaginary, but illusory shadows; for God convays himself to us, no other way, but in Christ.

The benefit then in our Text, the Resurrection, is by him; but it is limited thus, It is by hearing him, They that are in their Graves shall hear, &c. So it is in the other Resurrection too, the spiritual resurrection. v. 25. There, they must hear him, that will live. In both resurrections, That in the Church, now, by Grace, And that in the Grave hereafter, by Power, it is said, They shall hear him. They shall, which seems to imply a necessity, though not a coaction; But that necessity, not of equal force, not equally irresistible in both: In the Grave, They shall; Though they be dead, and senseless as the dust, (for they are dust it self) though they bring no concurrence, no cooperation, They shall hear, that is, They shall not choose but hear. In the other resurrection, which is, in the Church, by Grace, in Gods Ordinance, They shall hear too, that is, There shall be a voice uttered so, as that they may hear, if they will, but not whether they will or no, as in the other cafe, in the grave. Therefore when God expresses his gathering of his Church, in this world, it is Sibilabo & congregabo, I will hiss, or chirp for them, and so gather them: He whispers in the voice of the Spirit, and he speaks a little louder, in the voice of a man; Let the man be a Boanerges, a Son of thunder, never so powerful a speaker, yet no thunder is heard over all the world. But for the voice that shall be heard at the Resurrection, He shall send his Angels, with a great sound of a Trumpet; A great sound, such as may be made by a Trumpet, such as an Angel, all his Angels can make in a Trumpet, and more then all that, The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven, and that, with a shout, and with the voice of an Archangel, that is, says S. Ambrose, of Christ himself, And in the Trumpet of God, that is also, Christ himself.

So then, you have the Person, Christ; The means, A Voice, And the powerfulness of that voice, in the Name of an Archangel, which is named but once more in all the Scriptures: And therefore, let no man, that hath an holy anhelation and panting after the Resurrection, suspect that he shall sleep in the dust, for ever; for, this is a voice, that will be heard, he must rise. Let no man, who because he hath made his course of life like a beast, would therefore be content his state in death might be like a beast too, hope that he shall sleep in the dust, for ever, for this is a voice, that must be heard, And all that hear shall come forth, they that have done good, &c.

He shall come forth; even he that hath done ill, and would not, shall come forth. You may have seen moral men, you may have seen impious men, go in confidently enough: not afrighted with death, not terrified with a grave; but when you shall see them come forth again, you shall see them in another complexion. That man that died so, with that confidence, thought death his end; It ends his seventy years, but it begins his seventy millions of generations of torments, even to his body, and he never thought of that: Indeed, Iudicii, nisi qui vitae aeternae praedestinatus est, non potest reminisci, says S. Ambrose, No man can, no man dares think upon the last Judgement, but he that can think upon it with comfort, he that is predestinated to eternal life. Even the best, are sometimes shook with the consideration of the Resurrection, because it is impossible to separate the consideration of the Resurrection, from the consideration of the Judgement; and the terrors of that may abate the joy of the other: Sive comedo sive bibo, says S. Jerome, Whether I eat, or drink, still me thinks I hear this sound, Surgite mortui, & venite ad Iudicium, Arise you dead, and come to Judgement: When it calls me up from death, I am glad, when it calls me to Judgement, that impairs my joy. Can I think that God will not take a strict account; or, can I be without fear, if I think he will? Non expavescere requisiturum est dicere, non requiret, is excellently said by S. Bernard, If I can put off all fear of that Judgement, I have put off all imagination, that any such Judgement shall be. But, when I begin this fear, in this life, here, I end this fear, in my death, and pass away cheerfully: But the wicked begin this fear, when the Trumpet sounds to the Resurrection, and then shall never end it; but, as a man condemned to be half hanged, and then quartered, hath a fearful addition in his quartering after, and yet had no ease in his hanging before; so they that have done ill, when they have had their hanging, when they have suffered in soul, the torments of Hell, from the day of their death, to the day of Judgement, shall come to that day with fear, as to an addition to that, which yet, was insinite before. And therefore the Vulgate Edition hath rendered this well, Procedent, They shall proceed, they shall go farther and farther in torment.

But this is not the object of our speculation, the subject of our meditation, now: we proposed this Text, for the Contemplation of Gods love to man, and therefore we rather comfort our selves with that branch, and refresh our selves with the shadow of that, That they who have done good, shall come forth unto the Resurrection of life. Alas, the others shall live as long as they; Lucifer is as immortal as Michael, and Judas as immortal as S. Peter: But Vita damnatorum, mors est, That which we call immortality in the damned, is but a continual dying; howsoever it must be called life, it hath all the qualities of death, saving the ease, and the end, which death hath, and damnation hath not. They must come forth; they that have done evil, must do so too: Neither can stay in their house, their grave; for, their house (though that house should be the sea) shall be burnt down; all the world dissolved with fire. But then, They who have done evil, shall pass from that fire, into a farther heat, without light, They who have done good, into a farther light, without heat.

But fix upon the Conditions, and perform them; They must have done Good; To have known Good, to have believed it, to have intended it, nay to have preached it to others, will not serve, They must have done good. They must be rooted in faith, and then bring forth fruit, and fruit in season; and then is the season of doing good, when another needs that good at thy hands. God gives the evening rain, but he gave the morning rain before; A good man gives at his death, but he gives in his life time too. To them belongs this Resurrection of the body to life; upon which, since our Text inclines us to marvel rather then to discourse, I will not venture to say with David, Narrabo omnia mirabilia tua, I will show all thy wondrous works, (an Angels tongue could not show them) but I will say with him, Mementote mirabilium, Remember the marvellous works he hath done, And by that, God will open your eyes, that you may behold the wondrous things that he will do: Remember with thankfulness the several resurrections that he hath given you; from superstition and ignorance, in which, you, in your Fathers lay dead; from sin, and a love of sin, in which, you, in the days of your youth, lay dead; from sadness, and dejection of spirit, in which, you, in your worldly crosses, or spiritual temptations, lay dead; And assure your self, that that God that loves to perfect his own works, when you shall lye dead in your graves, will give you that Resurrection to life, which he hath promised to all them that do good, and will extend to all them, who having done evil, do yet truly repent the evil they have done.

Sermon XXI. The first Sermon upon this Text, Preached at S. Pauls, in the Evening, upon Easter-day. 1626.

1 COR. 15.29.

Else what shall they do that are baptized for dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for dead?

O Dit Dominus qui festum Domini unum putat diem, says Origen; God hates that man that thinks any of his Holy days last but one day; That is, that never thinks of a Resurrection, but upon Easter-day. I have therefore proposed words unto you, which will not be determined this day; That so, when at any other time, we return to the handling of then, we may also return to the meditation of the Resurrection. To which we may best give a beginning this day, in which we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus: And in his one Resurrection, all those several kinds of Resurrections which appertain unto us, because howsoever these words have received divers good expositions from divers good Expositors, and received one perverse exposition from our adversaries in the Roman Church, who have detorted and deflected them, to the maintenance of their Purgatory, yet all agree, that these words are an argument for the Resurrection, and therefore proper to this day. And yet this day we shall not so much inquire, wherein, and in what sense the words are an argument of the Resurrection, as enjoy the assurance that they are so; not so much distribute the Text into an explication of the particular words (which is, as the Mintage and Coining of gold into several lesser pieces) as to lay up the whole wedge, and ingot of Gold all at once in you, that is, the precious assurance of your glorious Resurrection.

In establishing whereof, we shall this day, make but this short passage, by these two steps: Glory in the end, And Grace in the way; The Glory of our bodies, in the last Resurrection then, And the Grace upon our souls, in their present Resurrection now. For as we do not dig for gold merely and only for treasure, but to dispense and issue it also, for present provision and use, not only for the future, but for the present too; So we do not gather the doctrine of the Resurrection only for that dignity which the body shall receive in the Triumphant, but also for the consolation which thereby our souls may receive in the Militant Church. And therefore, as in our first part, which will be, By what means the knowledge and assurance of the Resurrection of the body accrues to us, we shall see, that though it be presented by Reason before, and illustrated by Reason after, yet the root and foundation thereof is in Faith; though Reason may chafe the wax, yet Faith imprints the seal, (for the Resurrection is not a conclusion out of natural Reason, but it is an article of supernatural Faith; and though you assent to me now, speaking of the Resurrection, yet that is not out of my Logic, nor out of my Rhetorique, but out of that Character, and Ordinance which God hath imprinted in me, in the power and efficacy whereof, I speak unto you, as often as I speak out of this place.) As, I say we determine our first part in this, How the assurance of this Resurrection accrues to us, so when we descend to our second part, That is the consolation which we receive whilst we are In via, here upon our way in this world, out of the contemplation of that Resurrection to glory, which we shall have In patria, at home in heaven, and how these two Resurrections are arguments and evidences of one another, we shall look upon some correspondencies, and resemblances between natural death, and spiritual death by sin, and between the glorious Resurrection of the body, and the gracious Resurrection of the soul, that so having brought bodily death and bodily Resurrection, and spiritual death and spiritual Resurrection, by their comparison into your consideration, you may anon depart somewhat the better edified in both, and so enjoy your present Resurrection of the soul, by Grace, with more certainty, and expect the future Resurrection of the body to glory, with the more alacrity and cheerfulness.

Though therefore we may hereafter take just occasion of entering into a war, in vindicating and redeeming these words, seased and seduced by our adversaries, to testify for their Purgatory, yet this day being a day of peace and reconciliation with God and man, we begin with peace, with that wherein all agree, That these words (Else what shall they do that are baptized for dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they baptized for dead?) must necessarily receive such an Exposition, as must be an argument for the Resurrection; This baptism pro mortuis, for dead, must be such a baptism as must prove that, the Resurrection. For, that the Apostle repeats twice in these few words; Else, (says he) that is, if there be no Resurrection, why are men thus baptized? And again, if the dead rise not, why are men thus baptized? Indeed the whole Chapter is a continual argument for the Resurrection; from the beginning thereof to the 35. ver. he handles the An sit, whether there be a Resurrection, or no; For, if that be denied, or doubted in the root, in the person of Christ, whether he be risen or no, the whole frame of our religion falls, and every man will be apt (and justly apt) to ask that question which the Indian King asked, when he had been catechized so far in the articles of our Christian religion, as to come to the suffered, and crucified, and dead, and buried, impatient of proceeding any farther, and so losing the consolation of the Resurrection, he asked only, Is your God dead, and buried? then let me return to the worship of the Sun, for I am sure the Sun will not die; If Christ be dead and buried, that is, continue in the state of death, and of the grave, without a Resurrection, where shall a Christian look for life? Therefore the Apostle handles, and establishes that first, that assurance, A Resurrection there is.

From thence he raises and pursues a second question De modo; But some man will say, says he, How are the dead raised up, and with what body come they forth? And in these questions, De modo, there is more exercise of reason and of discourse: for, many times, The matter is matter of faith, when the manner is not so, but considerable, and triable by reason; Many times, for the matter, we are all bound, and bound upon salvation, to think alike; But for the manner, we may think diversly, without forfeiture of salvation, or impeachment of discretion; For, he is not presently an indiscreet man, that differs in opinion from another man that is discreet, in things that fall under opinion. Absit superstito, hoc est superflua religio, says a moderate man of the Roman Church; This is truly superstition, to bring more under the necessity of being believed, then God hath brought in his Scriptures; superfluous religion, says he, is superstition; Remove that, and then (as he adds there) Contradictoria, quorum utrumque probabile, credi possunt, Where two contrary opinions are both probable, they may be embraced, and believed by two men, and those two be both learned, and discreet, and pious, and zealous men. And this consideration should keep men from that precipitation, of imprinting the odious and scandalous names of Sects, or Sectaries upon other men who may differ from them, and from others with them, in some opinions. Probability leads me in my assent, and I think thus; Let me allow another man his probability too, and let him think his way, in things that are not fundamental. They that do not believe alike, in all circumstances of the manner of the Resurrection, may all, by Gods goodness, meet there, and have their parts in the glory thereof, if their own uncharitableness do not hinder them: And he that may have been in the right opinion, may sooner miss heaven, then he that was in the wrong, if he come uncharitably to condemn or contemne the other: for, in such cases, humility, and love of peace, may, in the sight of God, excuse and recompense many errors, and mistakings.

And after these, of the Matter, of the Manner of the Resurrection, the Apostle proceeds to a third question, of their state and condition, whom Christ shall find alive upon Earth, at his second comming; and of them he says only this, Ecce, mysterium vobis dico, Behold, I tell you a mystery, a secret, we shall not all sleep, that is, not dye so, as that we shall rest any time in the grave, but we shall all be changed, that is, receive such an immutation, as that we shall have a sudden dissolution of body and soul, which is a true death, and a sudden re-union of body and soul, which is a true resurrection, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. Thus careful, and thus particular is the Apostle, that the knowledge of the resurrection might be derived unto us.

Now of these three questions, which he raises and pursues; first, whether there be a Resurrection, then what manner of Resurrection, and then what kind of Resu rrection they shall have that live to the day of Judgement, our Text enters into the first; For, for the first, That a resurrection there is, the Apostle opens several Topiques, to prove it; One is, from our Head, and Pattern, and Example, Christ Jesus: For so he argues first, If the dead be not raised, then Christ is not raised; As sure as the head is, so sure the body is raised. And then another Topique, from whence he produces arguments, is, the absurd consequences, and illations, that would follow, if there were no resurrection. Of that kind one is, Nos miserrimi, If in this life only we have hops in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable; Why? because in this life we suffer persecution for this profession. And another is, Edamus & bibamus, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall dye; What needs this abstinence, and this severe denying our selves, the conveniencies of this life, if all end in this life? And lastly, in the same kind, follows this Text, Si omnino mortui non excitentur, If the dead rise not at all, why are they baptized for dead? And by all these ways doth the Apostle convey this knowledge of the Resurrection.

But would all these ways serve? would all this satisfy that Inquisition which we have brought, how this assurance of the Resurrection accrues to us? Would any of these reasons, or would all these reasons convince a man, who were not at all prepossessed, and preoccupated with a belief of the resurrection, with an assurance thereof? The resurrection was always a mystery in it self; Sacrum secretum, a holy secret, and above the search of reason. For there are secrets and mysteries of two kinds, as the School presents them; some things are so, Quia quaedam interposita, Because, though the thing be near enough unto me, yet something is interposed between me, and it, and so I cannot see it: And somethings are so, Quia longè seposita, because they are at so remote a distance, as that, though nothing be interposed, yet my sight cannot extend to them. In the first sense, the Sacraments are mysteries, because though the grace therein be near me, yet there is Velamen interpositum, there is visible figure, a sensible sign, and seal, between me, and that grace, which is exhibited to me in the Sacrament: In the second sense, the resurrection is a mystery, because it is so far removed, as that it concerns our state and condition in the next world; For man sleepeth, and riseth not; he shall not wake again, nor be raised from his sleep, till the heavens be no more; that is, not till the dissolution of all.

So then, the knowledge of the resurrection in it self, is a mystery, removed out of the Sphere, and latitude of reason; And, (to consider this remoteness farther) though the knowledge of Christ Resurrection, be nearer us, then our own, (for first we know his, because from his we argue and conclude our own, as the Apostle institutes his argument, If the dead rise not, Christ is not risen) yet even the Resurrection of Christ, was so far from being clear and obvious to the best, and the best illumined understandings, as that, though Christ himself had spoken often of his Resurrection, to his Disciples, and Apostles, yet they did not clearly, throughly, (scarce at all) understand his Resurrection. When Christ said to the Jews promiscuously, Solvite Templum hoc, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it; I wonder not that they, blinded with their own malice, discerned no resurrection in that saying, but applied it to that Temple, which was forty six years in building; For, till the resurrection was really accomplished, and actually performed, the Apostles themselves understood not the Resurrection. Then, when Christ was risen from the dead, and that those two great Apostles, Peter, and John, had been at the Sepulchre, and received from thence so much evidence, as convinced them, and prevailed upon them, then, and not till then, they began to understand the resurrection; for, till then, (says the Text expressly there) they knew not the Scriptures, that he must rise from the dead.

And truly, if we take a holy liberty, (as piously we may) to consider Christs bodily actions after his resurrection, they were not such, as without admitting any opposition, might induce a necessity of confessing a resurrection. For, though he exhibited himself to their eyes to be seen, and to their ears to be heard, and to their fingers to be felt, though he eat with them, and did many other actions of a living body, yet, as the Angels in the old Testament, did the like actions, in those bodies which they had assumed; so might Christ have done all these, in such a body, though that which was buried in the Sepulchre, had had no resurrection.

It is true, that Christ confirmed his Resurrection, Multis argumentis, as the Vulgate reads that place; with many infallible tokens, says our former Translation, with many infallible proofs, says our later; But still all these arguments, and tokens, and proofs wrought by way of confirmation, something was otherwise imprinted in them, and established by a former apprehension of faith, and these arguments, and tokens, and proofs confirmed it. For, the reasons for the resurrection, do not convince a natural man at all, neither do they so convince a Christian, but that there is more left to his faith, and he believes something beyond and above his reason.

The resurrection in it self, Christs Resurrection, though it be clearer then ours, Christs Resurrection, even after it was actually accomplished, was still a mystery, out of the compass of reason; And then, as it was above our reason, so, howsoever it be out proof, and our pattern for our resurrection, yet it is above our imitation. For our resurrection shall not be like his. Omnes alii suscitati, Christus solus resurrexit, says S. Bernard; All we shall be raised from the dead, only Christ arose from the dead. We shall be raised by a power working upon us, he rose by a power inherent, and resident in himself. And yet, though in this respect, our resurrection be more open to the proof of reason, then the resurrection of Christ, (for that which hath least miracle in it, is most open to reason; and therefore a natural man would easier believe that God might raise a dead man, then that a dead man should be God, and so able to raise himself, which was Christs case, for the God-head of Christ was as much united to his dead body in the grave, as it was to his soul in Paradise, or to his whole person consisting of body and soul, before, or after his death and resurrection) Though, in this respect, I say, our resurrection be more open to reason, because it hath less of the miracle in it, yet when we come to assign reasons, even for our resurrection, (as we see Athanagoras hath undertaken, with a great deal of wit, and learning, and confidence, in his Apology for the Christians, to the Emperor, within 155. years after Christ; and the School-men make account, that they have brought it nearer to the understanding, nay even to the very sense, by producing some such things, as even in nature, do not only resemble, but (as they apprehend) evict a resurrection) yet when all is done, and all the reasons of Athenogaras, and the School, and of S. Paul himself, are weighed, they determine all in this, that they are faire, and pregnant, and convenient illustrations of that which was believed before; and that they have force, and power to incline to an assent, and to create and beget such a probability, as a discreet, and sad, and constant man might rest in, and submit to. But yet, we shall find also, that though no man may speak a word, or conceive a thought against the resurrection, because for the matter, we are absolutely and expressly concluded by the Scriptures, yet a man may speak probably, and dangerously against any particulur argument, that is produced for the resurrection. We believe it immediately, entirely, cheafully, undisputably, because we see it expressly delivered by the Holy Ghost; And we embrace thankfully, that sweetness, and that fullness of that blessed Spirit, that as he lays an obligation upon our faith, by delivering the article positively to us, so he is also pleased to accompany that Article, with reasons and arguments proportionable to our reason and understanding: for though those reasons do not so conclude us, as that nothing might be said to the contrary, or nothing doubted after, yet the Holy Ghost having first begotten the faith of this Article, Per ea augescit fides, & pinguescit, (as Luther speaks in another case) By those reasons and arguments, and illustrations, that faith is nourished and maintained in a good habitude and constitution.

And of that kind are all the reasons brought by S. Paul here; The matter is positively delivered by him, and so apprehended by us, and his reasons (as we said before) issue out of two Topiques; Be pleased to look upon both. The first is our pattern, Christ Jesus: He is risen, therefore we shall. In which, though I have a faire illustration and consolation in that, The Head is risen, therefore the Body shall, yet this reaches not to make my Resurrection like his, for I shall not rise as he did. And then from his other Topique, his reasons rise thus: If there be no Resurrection, we that suffer thus much for the prefession of Christ, are the miserablest men in the world. Why so? have not all Philosophers had Scholars, and all Heretics Disciples, and all great Men flatterers, and every private man affections? And hath there not been as much suffered by occasion of these, as S. Paul argues upon here, and yet no imagination, no expectation of a resurrection? Leave out the consideration of Philosophers, many of which suffered more then the Turks do, and yet the Turks suffer infinitely more, in their Mortifications, then the Papists do; Leave out the Heretics, which were so hungry of suffering, that if they could not provoke others to kill them, they would kill themselves; Leave out the pressures of our own affections, and concupiscencies, and yet the covetous man is in a continual starving, and the licentious man in a continual Consumption; Take only into your consideration, the miserable vexation of the flatterer, and humourer, and dependant upon great persons, that their time is not their own, nor their words their own; their joys are not their own, nay their sorrows are not their own; they might not smile if they would, nor they may not sigh when they would, they must do all according to another's mind, and yet they must not know his mind; consider this, and you cannot say, but that there is as much suffered in the world, as this upon which S. Paul argues, by them who place not their consolation, nor their retribution in the hope of a resurrection. He argues farther, Edamus & bibamus, If there be no resurrection, let us dissolve our selves into the pleasures of this world, and enjoy them; Why so too? Have we not stories full of exemplar men, that might be our patterns for sobriety, and continency, and denying themselves the sweetnesses of this life, and yet never placed Consolation, nor Retribution upon a Resurrection? Would not S. Pauls own Pondus gloriae, That there is an exceeding weight of eternal glory attending our afflictions, serve our turn, though that were determined in the salvation of the soul, though there were no resurrection of the body? It is strongly and wisely said by Aquinas, Derogant fidei Christianae rationes non cogentes; To offer reasons for any Article of faith, which will not convince a man therein, derogates from the dignity of that Article. Therefore we must consider S. Pauls reasons as they were intended; to Christians, that had received the Article of the Resurrection into their faith before; And then, as God gave Adam a body immediately from himself, but then maintained and nourished that body by other means; so the holy Ghost by S. Paul gives the article of the Resurrection to our faith positively, and then enables us to declare to our own consciences, and to other mens understandings, that we believe no impossible thing, in believing the Resurrection: for as it is the candle that lights me, but yet I take a lanthorne to defend that candle from the wind; so my faith assures me of the Resurrection, but these reasons and illustrations assist that faith. And so we have done with our first part, How this assurance accrues unto us, and pass in order to the other, The consolation which we have from this resurrection of the body, not only in it self, but as it gives us a sense of the spiritual resurrection of our souls from sin, by Grace.

We are assured then of a Resurrection, and we see how that assurance grows. But of what? Of all, Body and soul too; For, Quod cadit, resurgit, says S. Jerome, All that is fallen, receives a resurrection; and that is suppositum, says the School, that is, The person, the whole man, not taken in pieces, soul alone, or body alone, but both. For as Damascene expresses the same that S. Jerome intends, Resurrectio est ejus quod cecidit iterata surrectio, The Resurrection is a new rising of that which fell; and Man fell. A man is not saved, a sinner is not redeemed, I am not received into heaven, if my body be left out; The soul and the body concurred to the making of a sinner, and body and soul must concur to the making of a Saint. So it is in the last Resurrection, so it is in the first, which we consider now, by Grace from sin; And therefore we receive into comparison, Triplicem casum, a threefold fall, and a threefold resurrection, as in the natural and bodily death, so in the spiritual death of the soul also: For first, in natural death, there is Casus in separationem, The man, the person falls into a separation, a divorce of body and soul; and the resurrection from this fall is by Re-union, the soul and body are re-united at the last day. A second fall in natural death, is Casus in dissolutionem, The dead body falls by putrefaction into a dissolution, into atoms and grains of dust; and the resurrection from this fall, is by Re-efformation: God shall re-compact and re-compile those atoms and grains of dust, into that Body, which was before: And then a third fall in natural death, is Casus in Dispersionem, This man being fallen into a divorce of body and soul, this body being fallen into a dissolution of dust, this dust falls into a dispersion, and is scattered unsensibly, undiscernibly upon the face of the earth; and the resurrection from this death, is by way of Re-collection; God shall recall and re-collect all these Atoms, and grains of dust, and re-compact that body, and re-unite that soul, and so that resurrection is accomplished: And these three falls, Into a Divorce, into a Separation, into a Dispersion; And these three Resurrections, By Re-union, by Re-efformation, by Re-collecting, we shall also find in our present state, The spiritual death of the soul by sin.

First then, the first fall in the spiritual death, is the divorce of body and soul; That whereas God hath made the body to be the Organ of the soul, and the soul to be the breath of that Organ, and bound them to a mutual relation to one another, Man sometimes withdraws the soul from the body, by neglecting the duties of this life, for imaginary speculations; and oftener withdraws the body from the soul, which should be subject to the soul, but does maintain a war; and should be a wife to the soul, and does stand out in a divorce.

Now the Resurrection, from this first fall into a Divorce, is, seriously and wisely, that is, both piously and civilly to consider, that Man is not a soul alone, but a body too; That man is not placed in this world only for speculation; He is not sent into this world to live out of it, but to live in it; Adam was not put into Paradise, only in that Paradise to contemplate the future Paradise, but to dress and to keep the present; God did not breath a soul towards him, but into him; Not in an obsession, but a possession; Not to travail for knowledge abroad, but to direct him by counsel at home; Not for extasies, but for an inherence; for when it was come to that, in S. Paul, we see it is called a rapture, he was not in his proper station, nor his proper motion; He was transported into the third heaven: but as long as we are in our dwelling upon earth, though we must love God with all our soul, yet it is not with our soul alone; Our body also must testify and express our love, not only in a reverential humiliation thereof, in the dispositions, and postures, and motions, and actions of the body, when we present our selves at Gods Service, in his house, but in the discharge of our bodily duties, and the sociable offices of our callings, towards one another: Not to run away from that Service of God, by hiding our selves in a superstitious Monastery, or in a secular Monastery, in our own house, by an unprofitable retiredness, and absenting our selves from the necessary businesses of this world: Not to avoid a Calling, by taking none: Not to make void a Calling, by neglecting the due offices thereof. In a word, To understand, and to perform in the best measure we can, the duties of the body and of the soul, this is the resurrection from the first fall, The fall into a divorce of body and soul. And for the advancing of this knowledge, and the facilitating of this performance of these duties, be pleased a little to stop upon the consideration of both, both of Spiritual and Divine, and then of secular and sociable duties, so far as concerns this subject in hand.

First for the duties of the soul, God was never out of Christs sight; He was always with him, always within him, always he himself; yet Christ, at some times, applied himself in a nearer distance, and stricter way of prayer to God then at other times. Christs whole life was a continual abstinence, a perpetual sobriety, yet Christ proposed, and proportioned a certain time, and a certain number of days for a particular fast, upon particular occasion. This is the harmony, this is the resurrection of a Christian, in this respect, That his soul be always so fixed upon God, as that he do nothing but with relation to his glory principally, and habitually; That he think of God, at all times, but that, besides that, he sepose some times, to think of nothing but God: That he pray continually, so far, as to say nothing, to wish nothing, that he would not be content God should hear, but that, besides that, he sepose certain fixed times for private prayer in his chamber, and for public prayer in the Congregation. For, though it be no where expressly written, that Christ did pray in the Congregation, or in company, yet, all that Christ did, is not written; and it is written, that he went often into the Temples, and into the Synagogues; and it is written, that even the Pharisee, and the Publican, that went to those places, went thither to pray. But howsoever, Christ was never so alone, but that if he were not in the Church, the Church was in him; All Christians were in him, as all Men were in Adam.

This then is our first Resurrection, for the duty that belongs to the soul, That the soul do at all times think upon God, and at some times think upon nothing but him; And for that, which in this respect belongs to the body, That we neither enlarge, and pamper it so, nor so adorne and paint it, as though the soul required a spacious, and specious palace to dwell in. Of that excess, Porphyry, who loved not Christ nor Christians, said well, out of meer Morality, That this enormous fatning and enlarging our bodies by excessive diet, was but a shoveling of more and more fat earth upon our souls to bury them deeper: Dum corpus augemus, mortaliores efficimur, says he, The more we grow, the more mortal we make our selves, and the greater sacrifice we provide for death, when we gather so much flesh: with that elegancy speaks he, speaking out of Nature, and with this simplicity and homeliness speaks S. Jerome, speaking out of Grace, Qui Christum desiderat, & illo pane vescitur, de quàm preciesis cibis stercus conficiat, non quaerit, He that can rellish Christ, and feed upon that Bread of life, will not be so diligent to make precious dung, and curious excrements, to spend his purse, or his wit, in that, which being taken into him, must pass by so ignoble a way from him.

The flesh that God hath given us, is affliction enough; but the flesh that the devil gives us, is affliction upon affliction; and to that, there belongs a woe. Per tenuitatem assimilamur Deo, says the same Author; The attenuation, the slenderness, the deliverance of the body from the encumbrance of much flesh, gives us some assimilation, some conformity to God, and his Angels; The less flesh we carry, the liker we are to them, who have none: That is still, the less flesh of our own making: for, for that flesh, which God, and his instrument, Nature, hath given us, in what measure, or proportion soever, that does not oppress us, to this purpose, neither shall that be laid to our charge; but the flesh that we have built up by curious diet, by meats of provocation, and witty sawces, or by a slothful and drowsy negligence of the works of our calling. All flesh is sinful flesh; sinful so, as that it is the mother of sin, it occasions sin, natural flesh is so; But this artificial flesh of our own making, is sinful so, as that it is also the daughter of sin; It is, indeed, the punishment of former sins, and the occasion of future.

The soul then requires not so large, so vast a house of sinful flesh, to dwell in: But yet on the other side, we may not by inordinate abstinencies, by indiscreet fastings, by inhumane flagellations, by unnatural macerations, and such Disciplines, as God doth not command, nor authorize, so wither, and shrink, and contract the body, as though the soul were sent into it, as into a prison, or into fetters, and manacles, to wring, and pinch, and torture it. Nihil interest, says S. Jerome, It is all one whether thou kill thy self at one blow, or be long in doing it, if thou do it. All one, whether thou fall upon thine own sword, or sterve thy self with such a fasting, as thou discernest to induce that effect: for, says he, Descendit a dignitate viri, & not as insaniae incurrit. He departs from that dignity, which God hath imprinted in man, in giving him the use, and the dominion over his creatures, and he gives the world just occasion to think him mad; And, as Tertullian adds; Respuit datorem, qui datum deserit, He that does not use a benefit, reproaches the Benefactor, and he is ungrateful to God, that does not accept at his hands the use of his blessings. Therefore is it accepted as a good interpretation, which is made of Christs determining his fast in forty days, Ne sui homicida videretur, Lest if he continued it longer, he might have seemed to have killed himself, by being the author of his own death; And so do they interpret aright his Esuriit, That then he began to be hungry, that he began to languish, to faint, to find a detriment in his body; for else, a fasting when a man is not hungry, is no fasting; but then he gave over fasting, when he found the state of his body empaired by fasting.

And therefore those mad doctrines, (so S. Jerome calls them, Notas insaniae habent) yea those devilish doctrines, (so S. Paul calls them) that forbid certain meats, and that make un-commanded macerations of the body, meritorious, that upon a supposititious story, of an Ermit that lived 22. years, without eating any thing at all, And upon an impertinent example of their S. Francis, that kept three Lents in the year, which they extoll, and magnify in S. Francis, and S. Jerome condemned, and detested in the Montanists, who did so too, have built up those Carthusian Rules, That though it appear that that, and nothing but that, would save the patients life, yet he may not eat flesh, that is a Carthusian, And have brought into estimation those Apocryphal and bastardly Canons which they father upon the Apostles, That a man must rather sterve, then receive food from the hand of a person excommunicate, or otherwise detected of any mortal sin; And that all that can be done with the alms of such a person, is, that it be spent in wood and coales and other fuel, that so, (as the subtle philosophy of their Canon is) it may be burnt, and consumed by fire; for, to save a mans life, it must not be spent upon meat or drink, or such sustentation: These Doctrines are not the Doctrines of this Resurrection, by which, man considered in Composito, as he consists of soul and body, by a sober and temperate life, makes his body obsequious, and serviceable to his soul, but yet leaves his soul a body to work in, and an Organ to praise God upon, both in a devout humiliation of his body, in Gods service, and in a bodily performance of the duties of some calling; for this is our first Resurrection A casu separationis, from having fallen into a separation of body and soul, for they must serve God jointly together, because God having joined them, man may not separate them, but as God shall re-unite them at the last Resurrection, so must we, in our Resurrections in this life; And farther we extend not this Resurrection, from this separation, this divorce.

The second fall of man in natural death, is Casus in dissolutionem, The man being fallen into a divorce of soul and body, the body falls by putrefaction into a dissolution of dust; and the Resurrection from this fall, is, a re-efformation, when God shall recompact that dust into that body. This fall, and this resurrection we have in our spiritual death too: for we fall into daily customs, and continual habits of those sins, and we become not only as that Lazarus in the parable, to have sores upon us, but as that Lazarus in the Gospel, that was dead; Domine jam faetemus, & quatriduani sumus, Lord we stink in thy nostrils, and we have been buried four days; All the four changes of our life, Infancy, Youth, Middle Age, and Old, have been spent and worn out in a continual, and uninterrupted course of sin. In which, we shall best consider our fall, and best prepare our Resurrection, by looking from whence we are fallen, and by what steps; and they are three.

First, Perdidimus nardum nostrā, We have lost the sweet savor of our own Spikenard; for so the Spouse says, Nardus mea dedit odorem suum: My Spikenard hath given forth her sweet savor. There was a time, when we had a Spikenard, and a sweet savor of our own, when our own Natural faculties, in that state as God infused them, in Adam, had a power to apprehend, and lay hold upon the graces of God. Man hath a reasonable soul capable of Gods grace, so hath no creature but man; man hath natural faculties, which may be employed by God in his service, so hath no creature but man. Only man was made so, as that he might be better; whereas all other creatures were but to consist in that degree of goodness, in which they entered. Miserable fall! Only man was made to mend, and only man does grow worse; Only man was made capable of a spiritual sovereignty, and only man hath enthralled, and mancipated himself to a spiritual slavery. And Perdidimus possibilitatem boni, We have lost that good and all possibility of recovering it, by our selves, in losing Nardum nostram, The savor of our Spikenard, the life, and vigor of our natural faculties, to supernatural uses. For though the soul be Forma hominis, it is but Materia Dei; The soul may be the forme of man, for without that, Man is but a carcass; But the soul is but the matter upon which God works; for, except our soul receive another soul, and be inanimated with Grace, even the soul it self, is but a carcass. And for this, we have lost Nardum nostram, The odor, the verdure, the vigor of those powers, in possession whereof God put us into this world. But there is a step in our fall, lower then this.

We have not only lost Nardum nostram, The use of our own faculties, in original sin, But we have lost also Vnguentum Domini, The sweet savor, and the holy perfume of that ointment which the Lord hath poured out upon us. For, as the Spouse says in the same Chapter, Oleum effusum nomen ejus, His name is an ointment poured out upon us; The name of Christ hath been shed upon us all in our baptism, and that hath made us Christians; And the merits and promises of Christ have been shed upon us all, in the preaching of his word, and that hath declared us to be Christians; The ointment is super caput, super barbam, super oram vestimenti, as David speaks; It is fallen upon the Head, we have had, and have religious Princes; And upon the Beard, the Beard of Aaron, we have had, and have (no Time, no Church ever more, ever so much) a religious Clergy, vigilancy in the Superior, laboriousness in the Inferior Clergy; And it is fallen upon the Skirts of the garment, the love, the desire, the hunger of hearing is fallen upon the lowest, and upon all our Congregations, Oleum effusum nomen ejus, his Name, and his Ordinance is poured out upon us all; but, as the Spouse says there, Adolescentulae dilexerunt te, Only the virgins have loved thee; And where are those Virgins? which of us have preserved that virginity, that integrity? which of us hath not married himself to some particular sin? which of us hath not multiplied his fornications, and yet is not satisfied? we have all lost Nardum nostram, that which we had at first in Adam, and that which hath been offered us since in Christ. And this is our second step in this fall; But there is a lower then this.

We come to lose Odorem agri, The sweet savor of the field it self. As Isaac said of his Son, The smell of my Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed, So the Lord of heaven, as he smelt a savor of Rest from the Sacrifice of Noah, may have smelt from us the savor of medicinal hearbes, of Remorse, and Repentance, and Contrition, and Detestation of former sins, And the savor of odoriferous, and fragrant, and aromatical hearbes, works worthy of Repentance, amendment of life, edification of others, and zeal to his glory, and yet we may relapse into former sins, or fall into new, and come to savor only of the earth, in a worldly covetousness, or to savor of the flesh, in a licentious filthiness; We may have received the good seed, and dured for a while, as S. Matthew expresses Christs words; Received it, and Believed it for a while, as S. Luke expresses them, and then depart from the goodness which Gods grace had formerly wrought in us, and from the Grace of God it self.

Now to this lamentable state, belong those fearful words of the Apostle, That for a man that sins thus, there remaineth no more sacrifice; And those also, in another place, That for such a man it is impossible, impossible to be renewed. Some of the Fathers, out of a holy tenderness, and compassion, have mollified this impossibile with a difficile; It is impossible, say they, that is, it is very hard; very hard for him that hath been in Gods service, and is run away, to return to it again. For, as Tertullian says elegantly in that case, Iudicatò pronunciavit, That sinner, says he, hath proceeded solemnly, and judicially, and hath heard what both sides could say, what grace could say, and what sin, what God could say, and what Satan, and now he hath decreed the cause against Grace and against God, and declared the other side to be in the right, because he hath applied himself to the other side. But there is more in this Impossibile, then Difficile: It is not only hard, but truly impossible: So, as it is impossible for God to lie, (so the Apostle speaks) so as it is impossible to take away sin by the blood of Buls and Goats, (so he speaks) so as it is impossible to please God without faith, (so he speaks) so impossible is it for this man to be renewed. Impossibile est, non speres quod impossibile, says Chrysostom, It is impossible, never hope for that which is impossible. For (as that Father exalts this impossibility) Non dixit, non decet, non prodest, non licet; God hath not said, it becomes not the majesty, and the constancy of my proceedings to renew such a man; he says not so, non decet; He doth not say, it conduces not to my ends, nor to my manner of government, it would not be good for the public, for the Church, for the rest of my servants, who might be scandalized if I should exact so much as I do at their hands, and renew such a man; He says not so, non prodest; He doth not say, non licet; I cannot do it in justice, it cannot consist with my Laws, and my Edicts, by which I have proclaimed, That with the froward I will grow froward, and harden their hearts that oppose themselves against me; He doth not say so, non licet; for to all these (it stands not with my ways, non decet; or it conduces not to my ends, non prodest; or it consists not with my justice, non licet) mercy would still present dispensations; but it is expressly, directly impossibile, impossible.

It is true, that the hardness of this saying, put the Fathers to hard Expositions. The greater part by much, of them who find themselves put to a necessity of admitting an impossibility, (for as I told you before, some of them mollify and souple the impossibility into a difficulty) place the impossibility in this, That it is impossible for such a man to be renewed by baptism, as he was renewed before: for in those Primitive times, though they excluded not children, yet the greatest part of them who were baptized, were such as understood their case, persons of discretion, such as had spent many months, many times many years, in studying and in practising the Christian religion, and then were baptized; and if these men (say those Fathers) fell after this, it was impossible to be renewed that way, impossible that they should have a second baptism: And it is scarce mannerly, scarce safe to depart from so many as meet in this interpretation of this impossibility; for they all intend that which S. Chrysostom expresses most plainly, Dixit impossibile, ut in desperationem induceret; The Apostle says it is impossible, that he might bring us before hand into a kind of desperation; A desperation of this kind, That there was absolutely no hope of a possibility of renewing, as they were renewed before, that is, by baptism.

But because at this time when the Apostle writ, that questiō, which troubled the Church so much after, in S. Cyprians time, of Rebaptization, was not moved at all, neither doth it appear, nor is it likely, that any that fell so, put his hopes upon renewing by a second baptism; there is something else in this Impossibility then so. And that in one word is, That the falling intended here, is not a falling à nardo nostra, from the savor of our own Spikenard, the good use of our own faculties, lost in Original sin, nor a falling Ab unguento Domini, that though the perfume an Incense of the name of Christ, and the offer of his merits be shed upon us here, that doth not restrain us from falling into some sins, But this falling is, as it is expressed, a falling away, away from Christ in all his Ordinances; an undervaluing, a despising of those means which he hath established for the renewing of a broken soul, which is the making a mock of the Son of God, and the treading the blood of the Covenant under foot. When Christ hath ordained but one way for the renewing of a soul, The conveyance of his merits, in preaching the word, and the sealing thereof, in applying the Sacraments, to that man that is fallen so, as to refuse that, as it is impossible to live, if a man refuse to eat, Impossible to recover, if a man refuse Physic, so it is Impossible for him to be renewed, because God hath notified to us but one way, and he refuses that. So this is a true Impossibility, and yet limited too; for though it be impossible to us, by any means imparted to us, or to our dispensing, and stewardship, yet shall any thing be impossible to God? God forbid; For, even from this death, and this depth there is a Resurrection.

As from the loss of our Spikenard, our natural faculties in original sin, we have a resurrection in baptisine, And from the loss of the ointment of the Lord, the offer of his Graces, in these meetings, and the falling into some actual sins, for all that assistance, we have a resurrection in the other Sacrament; So when we have lost the savor of the field, those degrees of goodness, and holiness which we had, and had declared before, when we are fall̄ from all present sense of the means of a resurrection, yet there may be a resurrection wrapped up in the good purposes of God upon that man, which, unless he will himself, shall not be frustrated, not evacuated, not disappointed. Though he have foetorem pro Odore, as the Prophet speaks, That in stead of the sweet savor, which his former holy life exhaled and breathed up, he be come now to stink in the sight of the Church, (and howsoever God may have a good savor from his own work, from those holy purposes which he hath upon him, which lie in Gods bosom, yet from his present sins, and from the present testimony and evidence that the Church gives against him, as a present sinner, he must necessarily stink in the nostrils of God too) yet, as in the Resurrection of the body, it shall come, when we shall not know of it, So when this poor dead, put rified soul hath no sense of it, and perchance, little or no disposition towards it, the efficacy of Gods purpose shall break out, and work in him a resurrection: And this S. Chrysostom takes to be intended in that which is said in the same place to the Hebrews, That that earth which drinketh in the rain, and bringeth forth nothing but Bryers, is Maledicto proxima, nearest to be accursed, That man is nearest to be a Reprobate; But yet, says he, Vides quantam habet consolationem, We apprehend a blessed consolation in this, That it is said, near a curse, near reprobation, and no worse; for, Qui propè est, procul esse potcrit, says he, That soul which is but near destruction, may weather that mischief, and grow to be far from it, and out of danger of it.

It is true, this man hath lost his paratum cor meum; he cannot say, his heart is prepared; that he hath lost in original sin; This man hath lost his Confirmatum cor meum, he cannot say, his heart is est ablished; that hath been offered him in these exercises, but it hath not prevailed upon him. He hath lost his variis odoribus delectatum cor, the delight which his heart heretofore had in the savor of the field, in those good actions, in which formerly he exercised himself, and now is fallen from: But yet there may be cor novum, a new heart, a heart which is yet in Gods bosom, and shall be transplanted into his; A duplicate, an exemplification of Gods secret purpose to be manifested, and revealed by the Spirit of God, in his good time, upon him. And this may work, In insigni & vehementi mutatione, in such an evidence, and demonstration of it self, as he shall know it to be that, because it shall not work as a Circumcision, but as an Excision, not as a lopping off, but as a rooting up, not by mending him, but by making him a new creature; He shall not grow less riotous then before, for so a sentence in the Star-Chamber, or any other Criminal Court for a riot, might be a resurrection to him; nor less voluptuous, for so, poverty in his Fortune, or insipidness and tastlesness in his palate might be a resurrection to him; Nor less licentious, for so age or sickness, nor less quarrelsome, for so blows, and oppression might be a resurrection to him. But when in a rectified understanding he can but apprehend, that such a resurrection there may be, nay there is for him; it shall grow up to a holy confidence, established by the sensible effects thereof, that he shall not only discontinue his former acts, and divest his former habits of sin, but produce acts, and build up habits, contrary to his former habits, and former acts, for this is the resurrection from this second fall, In dissolutionem, into the dissolution of particular sins.

Now, after all this, there is in natural death, a third fall, casus in dispersionem, the man is fallen in separationem, into a divorce of body and soul, the body is fallen in dissolutionem, to putrefaction, and dissolution in dust, and then this dust is fallen in dispersionem, into a dispersion, and scattering over the earth, as God threatens, Comminuam in pulverem, I will break the wicked as small as dust, and scatter them with the wind; For after such a scattering, no power, but of God only can recollect those grains of dust, and re-compact them into a body, and re-inanimate them into a man. And such a state, such a dispersion, doth the heart and soul of an habitual sinner undergo; For, as the eyes of a fool are in the corners of the earth, so is the heart and soul of a sinner. The wanton and licentious man, sighs out his soul, weeps out his soul, swears out his soul, in every place, where his lust, or his custom, or the glory of victory, in overcomming, and deluding, puts him upon such solicitations. In the corrupt taker, his soul goes out, that it may leave him unsensible of his sin, and not trouble him in his corrupt bargain; and in a corrupt giver, ambitious of preferment, his soul goes out with his money, which he loves well, but not so well as his preferment: This year his soul and his money goes out upon one office, and next year, more soul, and more money upon another; He knows how his money will come in again; for they will bring it, that have need of his corruptness in his offices; But where will this man find his soul, thus scattered upon every woman corruptly won, upon every office corruptly usurped, upon every quillet corruptly bought, upon every fee corruptly taken?

Thus it is, when a soul is scattered upon the daily practise of any one predominant, and habitual sin; but when it is indifferently scattered upon all, how much more is it so? In him, that swallows sins in the world, as he would do meats at a feast; passes through every dish, and never asks Physician the nature, the quality, the danger, the offence of any dish: That baits at every sin that rises, and pours himself into every sinful mold he meets: That knows not when he began to spend his soul, nor where, nor upon what sin he laid it out; no, nor whether he have, whether ever he had any soul, or no; but hath lost his soul so long ago, in rusty, and in incoherent sins, (not sins that produced one another, as in Davids case (and yet that is a fearful state, that concatenation of sins, that pedigree of sins) but in sins which he embraces, merely out of an easiness to sin, and not out of a love, no, nor out of a temptation to that sin in particular) that in these incoherent sins hath so scattered his soul, as that he hath not soul enough left, to seek out the rest. And therefore David makes it the Title of the whole Psalm, Domine ne disperdas, O Lord do not scatter us: And he begins to express his sense of Gods Judgements, in the next Psalm, so, O Lord thou hast cast us out, thou hast scattered us, turn again unto us; for even from this aversion, there may be conversion, and from this last and lowest fall, a resurrection. But how?

In the general resurrection upon natural death, God shall work upon this dispersion of our scattered dust, as in the first fall, which is the Divorce, by way of Re-union, and in the second, which is Putrefaction, by way of Re-efformation; so in this third, which is Dispersion, by way of Re-collection; where mans buried flesh hath brought forth grass, and that grass fed beasts, and those beasts fed men, and those men fed other men, God that knows in which Box of his Cabinet all this seed Pearl lies, in what corner of the world every atome, every grain of every mans dust sleeps, shall recollect that dust, and then recompact that body, and then re-inanimate that man, and that is the accomplishment of all.

In this resurrection, from this Dilpersion and scattering in sin, the way is by Recollection too: That this sinner recollect himself, and his own history, his own annalls, his own journalls, and call to mind where he lost his way, and with what tenderness of conscience, and holy startling he entered into some sins at first, in which he is seared up now, and whereas his triumph should have been, in a victory over the flesh, he is come to a triumph in his victory over the spirit of God, and glories in having overcome the Holy Ghost, and brought his conscience to an unsensibleness of sin: If he can recollect himself thus, and cast up his account so, If he can say to God, Lord, we have sold our selves for nothing, he shall hear God say to him, as he does there in the Prophet, You have sold your selves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. But how is this recollecting wrought?

God hath intimated the way, in that vision to the Prophet Ezekiel: He brings the Prophet into a field of dead bones, and dry bones, sicca vehementer, (as it is said there) as dry as this dust which we speak of: And he asks him, fili hominis, thou that art but the son of man, and must judge humanely, Putasne vivent ossa ista? Dost thou think that these bones can live? The Prophet answers, Domine tu nosti, thou Lord, who knowest whose names are written in the Book of Life, and whose are not; whose bones are wrapped up in the Decree of thy Election, and whose are not, knowest whether these bones can live, or no; for, but in the efficacy and power of that Decree, they cannot. Yes, they shall, says God Almighty; and they shall live by this means, Dices eis, Thou shalt say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: As dry, as desperate, as irremediable as they are in themselves, God shall send his servants unto them, and they shall hear them: And, as it is added in that place, Prophetante me, factus sonitus, & commotio, As I Prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking; As whilst Peter spake, The Holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word; So whilst the Messengers of God speak in the presence of such sinners, there shall be a noise, and a commotion, a horror of their former sins, a wonder how they could provoke so patient, and so powerful a God, a sinking down under the weight of Gods Judgements, a flying up to the apprehension of his mercies, and this noise and commotion in their souls, shall be settled with that Gospel in that Prophet, Dabo super vos nervos, I will lay sinewes upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath into you, and you shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord; God shall restore them to life, and more, to strength, and more, to beauty, and comeliness, acceptable to himself in Christ Jesus.

Your way is Recollecting; gather your selves into the Congregation, and Communion of Saints in these places; gather your sins into your memory, and pour them out in humble confessions, to that God, whom they have wounded; Gather the crummes under his Table, lay hold upon the gracious promises, which by our Ministry he lets fall upon the Congregation now; and gather the seals of those promises, whensoever, in a rectified conscience, his Spirit bears witness with your spirit, that you may be worthy receivers of him in his Sacrament; and this recollecting shall be your resurrection.

Beatus qui habet partem, says S. John, Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power. He that rises to this Judgement of recollecting, and of judging himself, shall rise with a cheerfulness, and stand with a confidence, when Christ Jesus shall come in the second: And, Quando exacturus est in secundo, quod dedit in primo, when Christ shall call for an account, in that second judgement, how he hath husbanded those graces, which he gave him; for the first, he shall make his possession of this first resurrection, his title, and his evidence to the second. When thy body, which hath been subject to all kinds of destruction here; to the destruction of a Flood, in Catarrhs, and Rheums, and Dropsies, and such distillations, to the destruction of a fire, in Fevers, and Frenzies, and such conflagrations, shall be removed safely and gloriously above all such distempers, and malignant impressions, and body and soul so united, as if both were one spirit in it self, and God so united to both, as that thou shalt be the same spirit with God. God began the first World, but upon two, Adam and Eve: The second world, after the Flood, he began upon a greater stock, upon eight reserved in the Ark; But when he establishes the last and everlasting world in the last Resurrection, he shall admit such a number, as that none of us who are here now, none that is, or hath, or shall be upon the face of the earth, shall be denied in that Resurrection, if he have truly felt this; for Grace accepted, is the infallible earnest of Glory.

Sermon XXII. Preached at S. Pauls, upon Easter-day. 1627.

HEB. 11.35.

Women received their dead raised to life again: And others were tortured, not accepting a deliverance, that they might obtain a better Resurrection.

MErcy is Gods right hand, with that God gives all; Faith is mans right hand, with that man takes all. David, Psal. 136. opens, and enlarges this right hand of God, in pouring out his blessings, plentifully, abundantly, manifoldly there. And in this Chapter, the Apostle opens, and enlarges this right hand of man, by laying hold upon those mercies of God, plentifully, abundantly, manifoldly, by faith here. There, David powers down the mercies. of God, in repeating, and re-repeating that phrase, For his mercy endureth for ever; And here, S. Paul carries up man to heaven, by repeating, and re-repeating the blessings which man hath attained by faith; By faith Abel sacrificed, By faith Enoch walked with God, By faith Noah built an Ark, &c. And as in that Psalm, Gods mercies are exprest two ways, First in the good that God did for his servants, He remembered them in their low estate, for his mercy endureth for ever: And then again, He redeemed them from their enemies, for his mercy endureth for ever: And then also, in the evil that he brought upon their enemies, He slew famous Kings, for his mercy endureth for ever: And then, He gave their land for an heritage, for his mercy endureth for ever. So in this Chapter, the Apostle declares the benefits of faith, two ways also: First, how faith enriches us, and accommodates us in the ways of prosperity, By faith Abraham went to a place which he received for an inheritance: And so, By faith Sarah received strength to conceive seed: And then, how faith sustains, and establishes us in the ways of adversity, By faith they stopt the mouths of Lions, by faith they quencht the violence of fire, by faith they escaped the edge of the sword, in the verse immediately before the Text. And in this verse, which is our Text, the Apostle hath collected both; The benefits which they received by faith, Women received their dead raised to life again, And then, the holy courage which was infused by Faith, in their persecutions, Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might receive a better Resurrection. And because both these have relation, evidently, pregnantly to the Resurrection, (for their benefit was, that the Women received their dead by a Resurrection, And their courage in their persecution was, That they should receive a better Resurrection) therefore the whole meditation is proper to this day, in which we celebrate all Resurrections in the Root, in the Resurrection of the First fruits of the dead, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.

Our Parts are two; How plentifully God gives to the faithful, Women receive their dead raised to life again, And how patiently the faithful suffer Gods corrections, Others were tortured not accepting, &c. Though they be both large considerations, (Benefits by Faith, Patience in the Faithful) yet we shall contain our selves in those particulars which are exprest, or necessarily implied in the Text it self. And so in the first place we shall see first, The extraordinary consolation in Gods extraordinary Mercies, in his miraculous Deliverances, such as this, Women received their dead raised to life again, And secondly we shall seethe examples, to which the Apostle refers here, What women had had their dead restored to life again; And then, lastly, in that part, That this affection of joy, in having their dead restored to life again, being put in the weaker sex, in women only, we may argue conveniently from thence, That the strength of a true and just joy lies not in that, but that our virility, our holy manhood, our religious strength consists in a faithful assurance, that we have already a blessed communion with these Saints of God, though they be dead, and we alive; And that we shall have hereafter a glorious Association with them in the Resurrection, though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world. And in those three considerations, we shall determine that first part. And then, in the other, The Patience of the Faithful, Others were tortured, &c. we shall first look into the examples which the Apostle refers to; who they were that were thus tortured: And secondly, the height and exaltation of their patience, They would not accept a deliverance: And lastly, the ground upon which their Anchor was cast, what established their patience, That they might obtain a better Resurrection.

First then, for that Blessedness, which we need not be afraid, nor abstain from calling the Recompense, the Reward, the Retribution of the faithful, (for as we consider Death to grow out of Disobedience, and Life out of Obedience to the Law, as properly as Death is the wages of sin, Life is the wages of Righteousness) If I be asked, what it is wherein this Recompense, this Reward, this Retribution consists, if I must be put to my Special Plea, I must say it is, in that of the Apostle, Omnia cooperantur in bonum, That nothing can befall the faithful, that does not conduce to his good, and advance his happiness: For he shall not only find S. Pauls Mori lucrum, That he shall be the better for dying, if he must dye; but he shall find S. Augustines Vtile cadere, He shall be the better for sinning, if he have sinned; So the better, as that by a repentance after that sin, he shall find himself established in a nearer, and safer distance with God, then he was in that security, which he had before that sin. But the Title, and the Plea of the faithful to this Recompense, extends farther then so; It is not only, that nothing, how evil soever in the nature thereof, shall be evil to them; but that all that is Good, is theirs; properly theirs, theirs peculiarly. There is no want to them that fear the Lord, says David; The young Lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord, shall not want any good thing.

The Infidel hath no pretence upon the next world, none at all; No nor so clear a Title to any thing in this world, but that we dispute in the School, whether Infidels have any true dominion, any true propriety in any thing which they possess here; And whether there be not an inherent right in the Christians, to plant Christianity in any part of the Dominions of the Infidels, and consequently, to despoile them even of their possession, if they oppose such Plantations, so established, and such propagations of the Christian Religion. For though we may not begin at the dispossessing, and displanting of the native and natural Inhabitant, (for so we proceed but as men against men, and upon such equal terms, we have no right to take any mens possessions from them) yet, when pursuing that Right, which resides in the Christian, we have established such a Plantation, if they supplant that, we may supplant them, say our Schools, and our Casuists; For in that case, we proceed not as men against men; not by Gods Common Law, which is equal to all men; that is, the Law of Nature; but we proceed by his higher Law, by his Prerogative, as Christians against Infidels, and then, it is God that proceeds against them, by men, and not those men, of themselves, to serve their own Ambitions, or their other secular ends. All things are yours, says the Apostle; By what Right? You are Christs, says he, And Christ is Gods; Thus is a Title conveyed to us, All things are Gods, God hath put all things under Christs feet; And he under ours, as we are Christians. And then, as the general profession of Christ, entitles us to a general Title of the world, (for the World belongs to the Faithful; and Christians, as Christians, and no more, are Fideles, Faithful in respect of Infidels) so those Christians that come to that more particular, more active, more operative faith, which the Apostle speaks of in all this Chapter, come also to a more particular reward, and recompense, and retribution at Gods hands; God does not only give them the natural blessings of this World, to which they have an inherent right, as they are general Christians, but as they are thus faithful Christians, he gives them supernatural blessings, he enlarges himself even to Miracles, in their behalf; Which is a second consideration; First God opens himself in nature, and temporal blessings, to the general Christian, but to the Faithful, in Grace, exalted even to the height of Miracle.

In this, we consider first, That there is nothing dearer to God then a Miracle. There is nothing that God hath established in a constant course of nature, and which therefore is done every day, but would seem a Miracle, and exercise our admiration, if it were done but once; Nay, the ordinary things in Nature, would be greater miracles, then the extraordinary, which we admire most, if they were done but once; The standing still of the Sun, for Iosuahs use, was not, in it self, so wonderful a thing, as that so vast and immense a body as the Sun, should run so many miles, in a minute; The motion of the Sun were a greater wonder then the standing still, if all were to begin again; And only the daily doing takes off the admiration. But then God having, as it were, concluded himself in a course of nature, and written down in the book of Creatures, Thus and thus all things shall be carried, though he glorify himself sometimes, in doing a miracle, yet there is in every miracle, a silent chiding of the world, and a tacite reprehension of them, who require, or who need miracles.

Therefore hath God reserved to himself the power of Miracles, as a Prerogative; For the devil does no miracles; the devil and his instruments, do but hasten Nature, or hinder nature, antedate Nature, or postdate Nature, bring things sooner to pass, or retarde them; And howsoever they pretend to oppose nature, yet still it is but upon nature, and but by natural means, that they work; only God shakes the whole frame of Nature in pieces, and in a miracle, proceeds so, as if there were no Creation yet accomplished, no course of Nature yet established. Facit mirabilia magnasolus, says David; There are Mirabilia parva, some lesser wonders, that the devil and his Instruments, Pharaohs Sorcerers, can do; But when it comes to Mirabilia magna, Great wonders, so great, as that they amount to the nature of a Miracle, Facit solus, God, and God only does them. And amongst these, and amongst the greatest of these, is the raising of the Dead, and therefore we make it a particular consideration, the extraordinary Joy in that case, when Women received their dead raised to life again.

We know the dishonor, and the infamy that lay upon barrenness, among the Jews; how wives deplored, and lamented that. When God is pleased to take away that impediment of barrenness, and to give children, we know the misery, and desolation of orbity, when Parents are deprived of those children, by death; And by the measure of that sorrow, which follows barrenness, or orbity, we may proportion that joy, which accompanies Gods miraculous blessings, when Women receive their dead naised to life again. In all the secular, and profane Writers in the world, in the whole body of Story, you shall not find such an expressing of the misery of a famine, as that of the Holy Ghost in the Lamentations; That women eat Palmares silios; We translate it, Their children of a span long; that is, that they procured abortions and untimely births of those children, which were in their bodies, that they might have so much flesh to eat. As that is proposed for the greatest misery, that ever was, women to destroy their children so, so is this for the highest accumulation of Joy, to have dead children brought to life again. When we hear S. Augustine in his Confessions, lament so passionately the death of his Son, and insist so affectionately, upon the Pregnancy, and Forwardness of that Son; though that Son if he had lived, must have lived a continual evidence, and monument of his sin, (for, for all his Son, S. Augustine was no married man) yet what may we think, S. Augustine would have given, though it had been to have been cut out of his own life, to have had that Son restored to life again? Measure it but by the Joy, which we have, in recovering a sick child, from the hands, and jaws, and gates of death; Measure it but by that delight which we have, when we see our Garden recovered frō the death of Winter. Mens curiosities have carried them to unlawful desires of communication with the Dead; as in Sauls case towards Samuel. But if with a good conscience, and without that horror, which is likely to accompany such a communication with the Dead, a man might have the conversation of a friend, that had been dead, and had seen the other World; As Dives thought no Preacher so powerful to work upon his Brethren, as one sent from the Dead, so certainly all the Travailers in the World, if we could hear them all, all the Libraries in the world, if we could read them all, could not tell us so much, as that friend, returned from the dead, which had seen the other World.

But wayving that consideration, because as we know not, what kind of remembrance of this world, God leaves us in the next, when he translates us thither, so neither do we know, what kind of remembrance of that world, God would leave in that man, whom he should re-translate into this, we fixe only upon the examples entended in our Text, who these joyful Women were, that received their Dead raised to life again, which is our second Branch of this first part; for with those three considerations, which constituted our first Branch, we have done, That God gives us this World, as we are general Christians; And, as we are Faithful Christians, Miracles; And, the greatest of Miracles, The raising of the Dead.

In the second Branch, we have two Considerations; first, what kind of Women these were, and then, who they were; first, their Qualities, and then, their Persons. We have occasion to stop upon the first, because Aquinas in his Exposition of this Text, tells us, there are some Expositors, who take this word, Women, in this place, to be entended, not of Mothers, but of Wives; And then, because the Apostle says here, that Women received their dead, that is, say they, Wives received their dead Husbands, raised to life again, and received them, as Husbands, that is, cohabited with them as Husbands, therefore they conclude, says Aquinas, that Death it self does not dissolve the band of Marriage; and consequently, that all other Marriages, all super-inductions, even after Death, are unlawful. Let me say but one word, of the Word, and a word or two of the Matter it self, and I shall pass to the other Consideration, The Women whom the Apostle proposes for his examples.

The word, Women, taken alone, signifies the whole sex, women in general, When it is contracted to a particular signification, in any Author, it follows the circumstances, and the coherence of that place, in that Author; and by those a man shall easily discern, of what kind of Women, that word is entended in that place. In this place, the Apostle works upon his Brethren, the Hebrews, by such examples, as were within their own knowledge, and their own stories, throughout all this Chapter. And in those stories of theirs, we have no example, of any Wife, that had her dead Husband restored to her; but of Mothers that had their Children raised to life, we have. So that this word, Women, must signify here, Mothers, and not Wives, as Aquinas Expositors mis-imagined.

And for the matter it self, that is, second or oftener-iterated Marriages, the dis-approving of them, entered very soon into some Heretics, in the Primitive Church. For the eighth Canon of that great Council of Nice, (which is one of the indubitable Canons) forbids, by name, Catharos, The Puritanes of those Times, to be received by the Church, except they would be content to receive the Sacrament with persons that had been twice married; which, before they would not do. It entered soon into some Heretics, and it entered soon, and went far, in some holy and reverent Men, and some Assemblies, that had, and had justly, the name, and forme of Councils. For, in the Council of Neo-Caesarea, which was before the Nicen Council, in the seventh Canon, there are somewhat shrewd aspersions laid upon second Marriages. And certainly, the Roman Church cannot be denied, to come too near this dis-approving of second Marriages. For though they will not speak plain, (they love not that, because they get more by keeping things in suspence) yet plainly they forbid the Benediction at second Marriages. Valeat quantnm valere potest; Let them do as well as they can, with their second Marriage, Let them marry De bene esse, At all adventures; but they will afford no Blessing to a second, as to a first Marriage. And though they will not shut the Church doors against all such, yet they will shut up all Church functions against all such. No such Person as hath married twice, or married once, one that hath married twice, can be received to the dignity of Orders, in their Church.

And though some of the Fathers pared somewhat too near the quick in this point, yet it was not as in the Roman Church, to lay snares, and spread nets for gain, and profit, and to forbid only therefore, that they might have market for their Dispensations; neither was it to fixe, and appropriate sanctity, only in Ecclesiastical persons, who only must not marry twice, but out of a tender sense, and earnest love to Continency, and out of a holy indignation, that men tumbled and wallowed so licentiously, so promiscuously, so indifferently, so inconsiderately in all ways of incontinency, those blessed Fathers admitted in themselves a super-zealous, an over-vehement animosity in this point. But yet S. Jerome himself, though he remember with a holy scorn, that when he was at Rome in the assistance of Pope Damasus (as his word is, Cum juvarem) he saw a man that had buried twenty wives, marry a wife, that buried twenty two husbands, yet for the matter, and in seriousness, he says plainly enough, Non damno Bigamos, imo nec Trigamos, nec si dici potest octogamos, I condemn no man for marrying two, or three, or if he have a mind to it, eight wives. And so also in his former Epistle, Abjicimus de Ecclesia Digamos? absit; God forbid we should deny any Church assistance to any, for twice marrying; but yet, says that blessed Father, Monogamos ad continentiam provocamus; Let me have leave to persuade them who have been married, and are at liberty, to continency, now at last.

Those Fathers departed not from the Apostles Nubat in Domino, Let them marry in the Lord; but they would fain bring the Lord to the making of every marriage, and not only the world, and worldly respects. For the Lord himself, who honoured marriage, even with the first fruits of his miracles, yet persuades continency, He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. The fault which those Fathers did, and we may reprehend, is, that men do not try whether they be able to receive it or no; In all Treaties of marriage, in all Contracts for Portion, and Joynture, who ever ask their children, who ever ask themselves, whether they can live continently or no? Or what trial, what experiment can have been made of this, in Cradle-marriages? Marriage was given for a remedy; but not before any appearance of a danger. And given for Physic, but not before any appearance of a disease. And do any Parents lay up a medicine against the falling sickness, for their new-born children, because those children may have the falling sickness? The peace of neighbouring States, the uniting of great Families for good ends, may present just occasions of departing from severe rules. I only intend, as I take most of those Fathers to have done, to leave all persons to their Christian liberty, as the Lord hath done; and yet, as the Lord hath done too, to persuade them to consider themselves, and those who are theirs, how far they need the use of that Liberty, and not to exceed that. And thus much Aquinas Expositors, who would needs understand the Women in this Text, to be Wives, have occasioned us to say in this point. In our order proposed, we pass now to the other consideration, who these women were whom the Apostle makes his Examples, for they are but two, and may soon be considered.

The first is the Widow of Zareptha, in whose house Elijah the Prophet sojourned. She was a Widow, and a poor Widow, and might need the labor, or the providence of a husband in that respect: Yet she solicits not, nor Elijah endeavors not the raising of her dead husband to life again. A Widow, that is, A Widow indeed, (as the Apostle speaks) may have in that state of such a Widowhood, more assistances towards the next world, then she should have for this, by taking another husband. For, for that Widow, Quae in tumulo mariti, sepeliit voluptates, Who hath buried all her affections towards this world, in her husbands grave, the Apostle in that place, ordains honor, Honor Widows, that are Widows indeed. And when he says Honor, and speaks of poor Widows, he speaks not of such honor as such poor souls are incapable of, but of that Honor, which that word signifies ordinarily in the Scriptures, Qui non tam in salutationibus, quam in elecmosynis, says S. Chrysostom, which rather consists in Alms, and Relief, then in Salutations, and Reverences, or such respects. For so (as S. Jerome notes in particular) when we are commanded to honor our Parents, it is intended we should relieve and maintain our Parents, if they be decayed. And such honor the Apostle persuades to be given, and such honor God will provide, that is, Peace in the possession of their estate, if they have any estate; and relief from others, if they have none, for Widows, that are Widows indeed.

In which qualification of theirs, that they be Widows indeed, we may well take in that addition which the Apostle makes, That she have been the wise of one man. For though we make not that an only, or an essential Character of a Widow indeed, to have had but one husband, yet we note, as Calvin doth, that the Church received Widows, in years, therefore, Quia timendum er at, ne ad novas nuptias aspirarent, because the Church feared that they would marry again. And certainly, if the Church feared they would, the Church had rather they would not. It is (as Calvin adds there) Pignus continentiae, & pudoris (though Calvin were no man to be suspected, to countenance the perverseness of the Roman Church, in defaming, or undervaluing marriage. yet he says so) it is a good Pawn, and Evidence of Continency, to have rested in one husband.

This Widow of Zareptha then, importunes not the Prophet to restore her dead husband; She bears her widows estate well enough; but for her dead Son she doth importune him; in the agony and vehemence of a Passion, she says, at her first encounter with the Prophet, Quid mihi, & tibi? What have I to do with thee? She doth almost renounce the means; In irregular passion, a disconsolate soul comes to say, what have I to do with Prayers, with Sermons, with Sacraments, I see that God hath forsaken me: but yet she collects her self; What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? When she confesses him to be the man of God, she doth not renounce him; When we consider the means, to be means ordained by God, we find comfort in them. Yet she cannot contain the bitterness of her passion; Art thou come unto me, to call my sin to remembrance, and to kill my Son? She implies thus much; Shall my soul never be at peace? Shall no repentance from my heart, no absolution from thy mouth, make me sure that God hath forgiven and forgotten my sins? But when I have received all Seals of Reconciliation, will God still punish those sins which he pretends to have forgiven, and punish them with so high a hand, as the taking away of my only Child? And we may see an exaltation of this womans passion, not only in the loss, but in the recovery of her child too. For when she had received her child alive, she comes to that passionate acclamation, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth, is truth; As though, if this had not been done, she would not have believed that.

How then says our Apostle in this Text, That this woman received her dead Son by faith, when she declares this inordinateness, this dis-composedness, and fluctuation of passion? This question made S. Chrysostom refer this faith that the Apostle speaks of, to the Prophet that raised the child, and not to the mother; For she seems to him to have had none. And so the Syriack translates this place, Reddiderunt, not Acceperunt; By faith, They, that is, the Prophets restored the dead, not By faith, They, that is, the mothers received their dead.

But God forbid that natural affections, even in an exaltation, and vehement expressing thereof, should be thought to destroy faith; God forbid that I should conclude an extermination of faith, in Moses Dele me, Pardon this people, or blot my name out of thy Book; or in S. Pauls Anathema pro fratribus, That he desired to be separated from Christ, rather then his brethren should; or in Job, or in Jeremiah, or in Jonas, when they expostulate, and chide with God himself, out of a weariness of their lives; or in the Lord of Life himself, Christ Jesus, when he came to an Vt quid dereliquisti? To an apprehension that God had forsaken him upon the Cross. God that could restore her cold child, could keep his child, her faith, alive in those hot embers of Passion. So God did; But he did it thus; The child was taken from the mothers warm and soft bosom, and carried to the Prophets hard and cold bed.

Beloved, we die in our delicacies, and revive not, but in afflictions; In abundancies, the blow of death meets us, and the breath of life, in misery, and tribulation. God puts himself to the cost of one of his greatest Miracles, for her Faith; He raises her child to life; And then, he makes up his own work; he continues with that child, and makes him a good man; There are men, whom, even Miracles will not improve; but this child (we will not dispute it, but accept it from S. Jerome, who relates it) became a Prophet. It was that very Jonas, whom God employed to Ninive; in which Service, he gave some signs whose Son he was, and how much of his mothers passion he inherited in his vehement expostulations with God. Be this then our doctrinal instruction for this first example, the Widow of Zareptha; first, that God thinks nothing too dear for his faithful Children; not his great Treasure, not his Miracles; And then God preserves this faith of theirs, in contemplation of which only, he bestows this Treasure, this Miracle, in the midst of the storms of natural affections, and the tempest of distempered passions; and then lastly, that he proceeds, and goes on in his own goodness; Here he makes a Carcass a Man, and then that man a Prophet; Every day he makes a dead soul, a soul again, and then that soul, a Saint.

The other example in this point, is that Shunamite, whose dead son Elisha restored to life. In the beginning of that Chapter, you hear of another Widow; A certain woman, of the wives of the sons of the Prophets, cried unto Elisha, Thy servant my husband is dead; And truly a Widow of one of the sons of the Prophets, a Church-mans Widow, was like enough, to be poor enough; And yet, the Prophet doth not turn upon that way, either to restore her dead husband, or to provide her another husband; but only enquires how she was left; and finding her in poor estate, and in debt, provides her means to pay her debts, and to bring up her children, and to that purpose, procures a miracle from God, in the abundant increase of her oil; but he troubles not God for her old, or for a new husband. But our example, to which the Apostle in our Text referres himself, is not this Widow in the beginning, but that Mother, in the body of the Chapter, who having, by Elisha's prayers, obtained a Son of God, after she was past hope, and that Son being dead in her lap, in her also, (as in the former example) we may consider, how Passion and Faith may consist together: She asks her husband leave, That she might run to the Prophet; her zeal, her passionate zeal hastened her, she would run, but not without her husbands leave.

As S. Jerome forbids a Lady, to suffer her daughter, to go to what Churches she would, so may there be indiscretion at least, to suffer wives to go to what meetings (though holy Convocations) they will; she does not harbor in her house, a person dangerous to the Public State, or to her husbands private state, nor a person likely to solicit her chastity, though in a Prophets name; We may find women, that may have occasion of going to Confession, for something that their Confessors may have done to them. In this womans case, there was no disguise; She would fain go, and run; but not without her husbands knowledge, and allowance.

Her husband asks her, Why she would go to the Prophet, then, being neither Sabbath, nor new Moon? He acknowledges, that God is likelier to conferre blessings upon Sabbaths, and new Moons, upon some days, rather then other; That all days are not alike with God, then, when he, by his ordinance, hath put a difference between them. And he acknowledges too, that though the Sabbath be the principal of those days which God hath seposed for his especial working, yet there are new Moons too; there are other Holy-days, for holy Convocations, and for his Divine and Public Worship, besides the Sabbath. But this was neither Sabbath, nor new Moon, neither Sunday, nor Holy-day; Why would she go upon that day? Beloved, though for public meetings, in public places, the Sabbaths, and Holy-days be the proper days, yet for conference, and counsel, and other assistances from the Prophets, and Ministers of God, all times are seasonable, all days are Sabbaths.

She goes to the Prophet; she presses with so much passion, and so much faith too, and so good success, (for she had her dead son restored unto her) that as from the other, so from this example arises this, That in a heart absolutely surrendered to God, vehement expostulation with God, and yet full submission to God, and a quiet acquiescence in God; A storm of affections in nature, and yet a settled calm, and a fast anchorage in grace, a suspicion, and a jealousy, and yet an assurance, and a confidence in God, may well consist together: In the same instant that Christ said, Si possibile, he said Veruntamen too; though he desired that that cup might pass, yet he desired not, that his desire should be satisfied. In the same instant that the Martyrs under the Altar say, Vsque quò Domine, How long Lord before thou execute judgement? they see, that he does execute judgement every day, in their behalf. All jealousy in God, does not destroy our assurance in him; nor all diffidence, our confidence; nor all fear, our faith. These women had these natural weaknesses, that is, this strength of affections, and passions, and yet by this faith, these women received their dead, raised to life again.

But yet, (which is a last consideration, and our conclusion of this part) this being thus put only in women, in the weaker sex, that they desired, that they rejoiced in this resuscitation of the dead, may well intimate thus much unto us, that our virility, our holy manhood, our true and religious strength, consists in the assurance, that though death have divided us, and though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world, yet we do live together already, in a holy Communion of Saints, and shall live together for ever, hereafter, in a glorious Resurrection of bodies. Little know we, how little a way a soul hath to go to heaven, when it departs from the body; Whether it must pass locally, through Moon, and Sun, and Firmament, (and if all that must be done, all that may be done, in less time then I have proposed the doubt in) or whether that soul find new light in the same room, and be not carried into any other, but that the glory of heaven be diffused over all, I know not, I dispute not, I inquire not. Without disputing, or inquiring, I know, that when Christ says, That God is not the God of the dead, he says that to assure me, that those whom I call dead, are alive. And when the Apostle tells me, That God is not ashamed to be called the God of the dead, he tells me that to assure me, That Gods servants lose nothing by dying.

He was but a Heathen that said, If God love a man, Iuvenis tollitur, He takes him young out of this world; And they were but Heathens, that observed that custom, To put on mourning when their sons were born, and to feast and triumph when they died. But thus much we may learn from these Heathens, That if the dead, and we, be not upon one floor, nor under one story, yet we are under one roof. We think not a friend lost, because he is gone into another room, nor because he is gone into another Land; And into another world, no man is gone; for that Heaven, which God created, and this world, is all one world. If I had fixt a Son in Court, or married a daughter into a plentiful Fortune, I were satisfied for that son and that daughter. Shall I not be so, when the King of Heaven hath taken that son to himself, and married himself to that daughter, for ever? I spend none of my Faith, I exercise none of my Hope, in this, that I shall have my dead raised to life again.

This is the faith that sustains me, when I lose by the death of others, or when I suffer by living in misery my self, That the dead, and we, are now all in one Church, and at the resurrection, shall be all in one Quire. But that is the resurrection which belongs to our other part; That resurrection which we have handled, though it were a resurrection from death, yet it was to death too; for those that were raised again, died again. But the Resurrection which we are to speak of, is forever; They that rise then, shall see death no more, for it is (says our Text) A better Resurrection.

That which we did in the other part, in the last branch thereof, in this part we shall do in the first; First we shall consider the examples, from which the Apostle deduceth this encouragement, and faithful constancy, upon those Hebrews, to whom he directs this Epistle. Though, as he says in the beginning of the next Chapter, he were compassed about with a Cloud of witnesses, and so might have proposed examples from the Authentic Scriptures, and the Histories of the Bible, yet we accept that direction, which our Translators have given us, in the Marginal Concordance of their Translation, That the Apostle, in this Text, intends, and so referres to that Story, which is 2 Maccab. 7.7. To that Story also doth Aquinas referre this place; But Aquinas may have had a mind, to do that service to the Roman Church, to make the Apostle cite an Apocryphal Story, though the Apostle meant it not. It may be so in Aquinas; He might have such a mind, such a meaning. But surely Beza had no such meaning, Calvin had no such mind; and yet both Calvin, and Beza referre this Text to that Story. Though it be said, says Calvin, that Jeremiah was stoned to death, and Isaiah sawed to death, Non dubito, quin illas persecutiones designet, quae sub Antiocho, I doubt not, says he, but that the Apostle intends those persecutions, which the Maccabees suffered under Antiochus.

So then, there may be good use made of an Apocryphal Book. It always was, and always will be impossible, for our adversaries of the Roman Church, to establish that, which they have so long endeavoured, that is, to make the Apocryphal Books equal to the Canonical. It is true, that before there was any occasion of jealousy, or suspicion, that there would be new Articles of faith coined, and those new Articles authorized, and countenanced out of the Apocryphal Books, the blessed Fathers in the Primitive Church, afforded honourable names, and made faire and noble mention of those Books. So they have called them Sacred; and more then that, Divine; and more then that too, Canonical Books; and more then all that, by the general name of Scripture, and Holy Writ. But the Holy Ghost, who fore-saw the danger, though those blessed Fathers themselves did not, hath shed, and dropt, even in their writings, many evidences, to prove, in what sense they called those Books by those names, and in what distance they always held them, from those Books, which are purely, and positively, and to all purposes, and in all senses, Sacred, and Divine, and Canonical, and simply Scripture, and simply, Holy Writ.

Of this there is no doubt in the Fathers before S. Augustine: For all they proposed these Books, as Canones morum, non sidei, Canonical, that is, Regular, for applying our manners, and conversation to the Articles of Faith; but not Canonical, for the establishing those Articles; Canonical for edification, but not for foundation. And even in the later Roman Church, we have a good Author that gives us a good rule, Ne turberis Novity, Let no young Student be troubled, when he hears these Books, by some of the Fathers, called Canonical, for, they are so, says he, in their sense, Regulares ad aedificationem, Good Canons, good Rules for matter of manners, and conversation. And this distinction, says that Author, will serve to rectify, not only what the Fathers afore S. Augustine, (for they speak clearly enough) but what S. Augustine himself, and some Councils have said of this matter. But yet, this difference gives no occasion to an elimination, to an extermination of these Books, which we call Apocryphal. And therefore, when in a late foreign Synod, that Nation, where that Synod was gathered, would needs dispute, whether the Apocryphal Books should not be utterly left out of the Bible; And, not effecting that, yet determined, that those Books should be removed from their old place, where they had ever stood, that is, after the Books of the Old Testament, Exteri se excusari petierunt, (say the Acts of that Synod) Those that came to that Synod, from other places, desire to be excused, from assenting to the displacing of those Apocryphal Books. For, in that place, (as we see by Athanasius) they prescribe; For, though they be not Canonical, says he, yet they are Ejusdem veteris Instrumenti libri, Books that belong to the Old Testament, that is, (at least) to the elucidation, and clearing of many places in the Old Testament. And that the Ancient Fathers thought these Books worthy of their particular consideration, must necessarily be more then evident to him that reads S. Chrysostomes Homily, or Leo his Sermon upon this very part of that Book of the Maccab: to which the Apostle refers in this Text; that is, to that which the seven Brethren there, suffered for a better Resurrection. And if we take in the testimony of the Reformation, divers great and learned men, have interpreted these Books, by their particular Commentaries. Osyander hath done so, and done it, with a protestation, that divers great Divines intreated him to do it. Conrad: Pellicanus hath done so too; Who, lest these Books should seem to be undervalued, in the name of Apocryphal, says, that it is fitter to call them Libros Ecclesiasticos, rather Ecclesiastical, then Apocryphal Books. And of the first of these two books of the Maccab: he says freely, Reverà, Divini Spiritus instigatione, No doubt, but the holy Ghost moved some holy man to write this Book; because, says he, by it, many places of they Prophets are the better understood, and without that Book, (which is a great addition of dignity) Ecclesiastica eruditio perfecta non fuisset, The Church had not been so well enabled, to give perfect instruction in the Ecclesiastical Story. Therefore he calls it Piissimum Catholicae Ecclesiae institutum, A most holy Institution of the Catholike Church, that those Books were read in the Church; And, if that Custom had been every where continued, Non tot errors increvissent, So many errors had not grown in the Reformed Church, says that Author. And to descend to practise, at this day we see, that in many Churches of the Reformation, their Preachers never forbear, to preach upon Texts taken out of the Apocryphal Books. We discern clearly, and as earnestly we detest the mischievous purposes of our Adversaries, in magnifying these Apocryphal Books; It is not, principally, that they would have these Books as good as Scriptures; but, because they would have Scriptures, no better then these Books: That so, when it should appear, that these Books were weak books, and the Scriptures no better then they, their own Traditions might be as good as either. But, as their impiety is inexcusable, that thus overvalue them, so is their singularity too, that depresse these books too far; of which, the Apostle himself makes this use, not to establish Articles of Faith, but to establish the Hebrews in the Articles of Faith, by examples, deduced from this Book.

The example then, to which the Apostle leads them, is that Story of a Mother, and her seven Sons, which in one day suffered death, by exquisite torments, rather then break that Law of their God, which the King prest them to break, though but a Ceremonial Law. Now, as Leo says, in his Sermon upon their day, (for the Christian Church kept a day, in memory of the Martyredome of these seven Maccabees, though they were but Jews) Gravant audita, nisi suscipiantur imitanda; It is a pain to hear the good that others have done, except we have some desire to imitate them, in doing the like. The Panegyrick said well, Onerosum est, succederebono Principi; That King, that comes after a good Predecessor, hath a shrewd burden upon him; because all the World can compare him with the last King; and all the world will look, that he should be as good a King, as his immediate Predecessor, whom they all remember, was. So Gravant audita, It will trouble you to hear, what these Maccabees, which S. Paul speaks of, suffered for the Law of their God, but you are weary of it, and would be glad we would give over talking of them, except you have a desire to imitate them. And if you have that, you are glad to hear more, and more of them; and, from this Apostle here, you may. For he makes two uses of their example; First, that though they were tortured, they would not accept a deliverance, And then, that they put on that resolution, That they might obtain a better Resurrection.

What they suffered, hath exercised all our Grammarians, and all our Philologers, and all our Antiquaries, that have enquired into the Racks, and Tortures of those times. We translate it roundly, They were tortured. And S. Pauls word implies a torture of that kind, that their bodies were extended, and rackt, as upon a drum, and then beaten with staves. What the torture, intended in that word, was, we know not. But in the Story it self, to which he refers, in the Maccab: you have all these divers tortures; Cutting out of tongues, and cutting off of hands, and feet, and macerating in hot Cauldrons, and pulling off the skin of their heads, with their hair; And yet they would not accept a deliverance. Was it offered them? Expressly it was. The King promises, and swears to one of them, that he would make him Rich, and Happy, and his Friend, and trust him with his affaires, if he would apply himself to his desires; and yet he would not accept this deliverance. This is that which S. August: says, Sunt qui patienter moriuntur, There may be many found, that dye without any distemper, without any impatience, that suffer patiently enough; But then, Sunt qui patienter vivunt, & delectabiliter moriuntur; There are others, whose life exercises all their patience, so that it is a pain to them (though they indure it patiently) to live. But they could dye, not only patiently, but cheerfully; They are not only content, if they must, but glad if they may dye, when they may dye so, as that thereby, They may obtain a better Resurrection.

And this was the case of these Martyrs, whom the Apostle here proposes to the imitation of the Hebrews. They put all upon that issue, A better Resurrection. So the second Brother says to the King, Thou, like a Fury, takest us out of this life; but the King of the World, shall raise us up, who have died for his Law, unto everlasting life. Here lay his hope; That that which died, that which could dye, his body, should be raised again. So the third Brother proceeded; He held out his hands, and said, These I had from Heaven; and, for his Laws, I despise them; and from him, I hope to receive them again. There was his hope; a restitution of the same hands, in the Resurrection. And so the fourth Brother; It is good, being put to death, by men, to look for hope, from God. Hope of what? To be raised up again by him; There was his hope. And he thought he could not speak more bitterly to that Tyran, then to tell him, As for thee, thou shalt have no Resurrection unto life. And so the Mother establisht her self too; To her Sons she says, I gave you not life in my womb, but doubtless the Creator that did, will, of his mercy, give you life again. The soul needed not life again, for the soul never died; the body that died, did; Therefore her hope was in a Resurrection. And to her youngest Son she said, Be worthy of thy Brethren, Take thy death, that I may receive thee again, in mercy, with thy Brethren. All their establishment, all their expectation, all their issue was, That they might obtain a better Resurrection.

Now what was this that they qualified and dignified by that addition, The better Resurrection? Is it called better, in that it is better then this life, and determined in that comparison, and degree of betterness, and no more? Is it better then those honours, and preferments which that King offered them, and determined in that comparison, and no more? Or better then other men shall have at the last day, (for all men shall have a Resurrection) and determined in that? Or, as S. Chrysostom takes it, is it but a better Resurrection then that in the former part of this Text, where dead children are restored to their mothers alive again? Is it but a better Resurrection in some of these senses? Surely better in a higher sense then any of these; It is a supereminent degree of glory, a larger measure of glory, then every man, who in a general happiness, is made partaker of the Resurrection of the righteous, is made partaker of.

Beloved, There is nothing so little in heaven, as that we can express it; But if we could tell you the fullness of a soul there, what that fullness is; the infiniteness of that glory there, how far that infiniteness goes; the Eternity of that happiness there, how long that happiness lasts; if we could make you know all this, yet this Better Resurrection is a heaping, even of that Fullness, and an enlarging, even of that Infiniteness, and an extension, even of that eternity of happiness; For, all these, this Fullness, this Infiniteness, this Eternity are in all the Resurrections of the Righteous, and this is a better Resurrection; We may almost say, it is something more then Heaven; for, all that have any Resurrection to life, have all heaven; And something more then God; for, all that have any Resurrection to life, have all God; and yet these shall have a better Resurrection. Amorous soul, ambitious soul, covetous soul, voluptuous soul, what wouldst thou have in heaven? What doth thy holy amorousness, thy holy covetousness, thy holy ambition, and voluptuousness most carry thy desire upon? Call it what thou wilt; think it what thou canst; think it something that thou canst not think; and all this thou shalt have, if thou have any Resurrection unto life; and yet there is a Better Resurrection. When I consider what I was in my parents loins (a substance unworthy of a word, unworthy of a thought) when I consider what I am now, (a Volume of diseases bound up together, a dry cynder, if I look for natural, for radical moisture, and yet a Spunge, a bottle of overflowing Rheums, if I consider accidental; an aged child, a gray-headed Infant, and but the ghost of mine own youth) When I consider what I shall be at last, by the hand of death, in my grave, (first, but Putrefaction, and then, not so much as Putrefaction, I shall not be able to send forth so much as an ill air, not any air at all, but shall be all insipid, tastlesse, savourlesse dust; for a while, all worms, and after a while, not so much as worms, sordid, senseless, nameless dust) When I consider the past, and present, and suture state of this body, in this world, I am able to conceive, able to express the worst that can befall it in nature, and the worst that can be inflicted upon it by man, of fortune; But the least degree of glory that God hath prepared for that body in heaven, I am not able to express, not able to conceive.

That man comes with a Barly corn in his hand, to measure the compass of the Firmament, (and when will he have done that work, by that way?) he comes with a grain of dust in his scales, to weigh the whole body of the world, (and when will he have done that work, that way?) that bids his heart imagine, or his language declare, or his wit compare the least degree of the glory of any good mans Resurrection; And yet, there is a Better Resurrection. A Better Resurrection reserved for them, and appropriated to them That fulfill the sufferings of Christ, in their flesh, by Martyrdom, and so become witnesses to that Conveyance which he hath sealed with his blood, by shedding their blood; and glorify him upon earth (as far as it is possible for man) by the same way that he hath glorified them in heaven; and are admitted to such a conformity with Christ, as that (if we may have leave to express it so) they have died for one another.

Neither is this Martyrdom, and so this Better Resurrection, appropriated to a real, and actual, and absolute dying for Christ; but every suffering of ours, by which suffering, he may be glorified, is a degree of Martyrdom, and so a degree of improving, and bettering our Resurrection. For as S. Jerome says, That chastity is a perpetual Martyrdom, So every war maintained by us, against our own desires, is a Martyrdom too. In a word, to do good for Gods glory, brings us to a Good, but to suffer for his glory, brings us to a Better Resurrection; And, to suffer patiently, brings us to a Good, but to suffer chearefully, and more then that, thankfully, brings us to a Better Resurrection. If all the torments of all the afflicted men, from Abel, to that soul that groans in the Inquisition, or that gasps upon his death-bed, at this minute, were upon one man at once, all that had no proportion to the least torment of hell; nay if all the torments which all the damned in hell have suffered, from Cain to this minute, were at once upon one soul, so, as that soul for all that might know that those torments should have an end, though after a thousand millions of millions of Generations, all that would have no proportion to any of the torments of hell; because, the extension of those torments, and their everlastingness, hath more of the nature of torment, and of the nature of hell in it, then the intensness, and the vehemency thereof can have. So, if all the joys, of all the men that have had all their hearts desires, were con-centered in one heart, all that would not be as a spark in his Chimney, to the general conflagration of the whole world, in respect of the least joy, that that soul is made partaker of, that departs from this world, immediately after a pardon received, and reconciliation sealed to him, for all his sins; No doubt but he shall have a good Resurrection; But then, we cannot doubt neither, but that to him that hath been careful in all his ways, and yet crost in all his ways, to him whose daily bread hath been affliction, and yet is satisfied as with marrow, and with fatness, with that bread of affliction, and not only contented in, but glad of that affliction, no doubt but to him is reserved a Better Resurrection; Every Resurrection is more then we can think, but this is more then that more. Almighty God inform us, and reveal unto us, what this Better Resurrection is, by possessing us of it; And make the hastening to it, one degree of addition in it. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly to the consummation of that Kingdom which thou hast purchased for us, with inestimable price of thine incorruptible blood. Amen.

Sermon XXIII. Preached at S. Pauls, for Easter-day. 1628.

1 COR. 13.12.

For now we see through a Glass darkly, But then face to sac; Now I know in part, But then I shall know, even as also I am known.

THese two terms in our Text, Nunc and Tunc, Now and Then, Now in a glass, Then face to face, Now in part, Then in perfection, these two secular terms, of which, one designs the whole Age of this world from the Creation, to the dissolution thereof (for, all that is comprehended in this word, Now) And the other designs the everlastingness of the next world, (for that incomprehensibleness is comprehended in the other word, Then) These two words, that design two such Ages, are now met in one Day; in this Day, in which we celebrate all Resurrections in the root, in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, blessed for ever. For the first Term, Now (Now in a glass, now in part) is intended most especially of that very act, which we do now at this present, that is, of the Ministry of the Gospel, of declaring God in his Ordinance, of Preaching his word; (Now, in this Ministry of his Gospel, we see in a glass, we know in part) And then the Then, the time of seeing face to face, and knowing as we are known, is intended of that time, which we celebrate this day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Judgement, the day of the actual possession of the next life. So that this day, this whole Scripture is fulfilled in your ears; for now, (now in this Preaching) you have some sight, and then, (Then when that day comes, which (in the first root thereof) we celebrate this day) you shall have a perfect sight of all; Now we see through a glass, &c.

That therefore you may the better know him, when you come to see him face to face, then, by having seen him in a glass now, and that your seeing him now in his Ordinance, may prepare you to see him then in his Essence, proceed we thus in the handling of these words. First, That there is nothing brought into comparison, into consideration, nothing put into the balance, but the sight of God, the knowledge of God; It is not called a better sight, nor a better knowledge, but there is no other sight, no other knowledge proposed, or mentioned, or intimated, or imagined but this; All other sight is blindness, all other knowledge is ignorance; And then we shall see how there is a twofold sight of God, and a twofold knowledge of God proposed to us here; A sight, and a knowledge here in this life, and another manner of sight, and another manner of knowledge in the life to come: For, here we see God In speculo, in a glass, that is, by reflexion, And here we know God In aenigmate, says our Text, Darkly, (so we translate it) that is, by obscure representations, and therefore it is called a Knowledge but in part; But in heaven, our sight is face to face, And our knowledge is to know, as we are known.

For our sight of God here, our Theatre, the place where we sit and see him, is the whole world, the whole house and frame of nature, and our medium, our glass, is the Book of Creatures, and our light, by which we see him, is the light of Natural Reason. And then, for our knowledge of God here, our Place, our Academy, our University is the Church, our medium, is the Ordinance of God in his Church, Preaching, and Sacraments; and our light is the light of faith. Thus we shall find it to be, for our sight, and for our knowledge of God here. But for our sight of God in heaven, our place, our Sphere is heaven it self, our medium is the Patefaction, the Manifestation, the Revelation of God himself, and our light is the light of Glory. And then, for our knowledge of God there, God himself is All; God himself is the place, we see Him, in Him; God is our medium, we see Him, by him; God is our light; not a light which is His, but a light which is He; not a light which flows from him, no, nor a light which is in him, but that light which is He himself. Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, O Father of lights, that in thy light we may see light, that now we see this through this thy glass, thine Ordinance, and, by the good of this, hereafter face to face.

The sight is so much the Noblest of all the senses, as that it is all the senses. As the reasonable soul of man, when it enters, becomes all the soul of man, and he hath no longer a vegetative, and a sensitive soul, but all is that one reasonable soul; so, says S. Aug. (and he exemplifies it, by several pregnant places of Scripture) Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, All the senses are called Seeing; as there is videre & audire, S. John turned to see the sound; and there is Gustate, & videte, Taste, and see, how sweet the Lord is; And so of the rest of the senses, all is sight. Employ then this noblest sense upon the noblest object, see God; see God in every thing, and then thou needst not take off thine eye from Beauty, from Riches, from Honor, from any thing. S. Paul speaks here of a diverse seeing of God. Of seeing God in a glass, and seeing God face to face; but of not seeing God at all, the Apostle speaks not at all.

When Christ took the blind man by the hand, though he had then begun his cure upon him, yet he asked him, if he saw ought: Something he was sure he saw; but it was a question whether it were to be called a sight, for he saw men but as trees. The natural man sees Beauty, and Riches, and Honor, but yet it is a question whether he sees them or no, because he sees them, but as a snare. But he that sees God in them, sees them to be beams and evidences of that Beauty, that Wealth, that Honor, that is in God, that is God himself. The other blind man that importuned Christ, Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me, when Christ asked him, What wilt thou, that I shall do unto thee? Had presently that answer, Lord that I may receive my sight; And we may easily think, that if Christ had asked him a second question, What wouldst thou see, when thou hast received thy sight, he would have answered, Lord I would see thee; For when he had his sight, and Christ said to him, Go thy way, he had no way to go from Christ, but, as the Text says there, He followed him. All that he cared for, was seeing, all that he cared to see, was Christ. Whether he would see a Peace or a War, may be a States-mans Problem; whether he would see plenty or scarcity of some commodity, may be a Merchants Problem; whether he would see Rome, or Spain grow in greatness, may be a Jesuits Problem; But whether I had not rather see God then any thing, is no Problematical matter. All sight is blindness, that was our first; all knowledge is Ignorance, till we come to God, that is our next Consideration.

The first act of the will, is love, says the School; for till the will love, till it would have something, it is not a will. But then, Amare nisi nota non possumus; It is impossible to love any thing till we know it: First our Understanding must present it as Verum, as a Known truth, and then our Will embraces it as Bonum, as Good, and worthy to be loved. Therefore the Philosopher concludes easily, as a thing that admits no contradiction. That naturally, all men desire to know, that they may love. But then, as the addition of an honest man, varies the signification, with the profession, and calling of the man, (for he is a honest man at Court, that oppresses no man with his power; and at the Exchange he is the honest man, that keeps his word; and in an Army, the Valiant man is the honest man) so the Addition of learned and understanding, varies with the man: The Divine, the Physician, the Lawyer are not qualified, nor denominated by the same kind of learning. But yet, as it is for honesty, there is no honest man at Court, or Exchange, or Army, if he believe not in God; so there is no knowledge in the Physician, nor Lawyer, if he know not God. Neither does any man know God, except he know him so, as God hath made himself known, that is, In Christ. Therefore, as S. Paul desires to know nothing else, so let no man pretend to know any thing, but Christ Crucified; that is, Crucified for him, made his. In the eighth verse of this Chapt. he says, Prophesy shall fail, and Tongues shall fail, and Knowledge shall vanish; but this knowledge of God in Christ made mine, by being Crucified for me, shall dwell with me for ever. And so from this general consideration, All sight is blindness, all knowledge is ignorance, but of God, we pass to the particular Consideration of that twofold sight and knowledge of God expressed in this Text, Now we see through a glass, &c.

First then we consider, (before we come to our knowledge of God) our sight of God in this world, and that is, says our Apostle, In speculo, we see as in a glass. But how do we see in a glass? Truly, that is not easily determined. The old Writers in the Optiques said, That when we see a thing in a glass, we see not the thing it self, but a representation only; All the later men say, we do see the thing it self, but not by direct, but by reflected beams. It is a useless labor for the present, to reconcile them. This may well consist with both, That as that which we see in a glass, assures us, that such a thing there is, (for we cannot see a dream in a glass, nor a fancy, nor a Chimera) so this sight of God, which our Apostle says we have in a glass, is enough to assure us, that a God there is.

This glass is better then the water; The water gives a crookedness, and false dimensions to things that it shows; as we see by an Oar when we row a Boat, and as the Poet describes a wry and distorted face, Qui faciem sub aqua Phoebe natant is habes, That he looked like a man that swomme under water. But in the glass, which the Apostle intends, we may see God directly, that is, see directly that there is a God. And therefore S. Cyrils addition in this Text, is a Diminution; Videmus quasi in fumo, says he, we see God as in a smoke; we see him better then so; for it is a true sight of God, though it be not a perfect sight, which we have this way. This way, our Theatre, where we sit to see God, is the whole frame of nature; our medium, our glass in which we see him, is the Creature; and our light by which we see him, is Natural Reason.

Aquinas calls this Theatre, where we sit and see God, the whole world; And David compasses the world, and finds God every where, and says at last, Whither shall I fly from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; At Babel they thought to build to heaven; but did any men ever pretend to get above heaven? above the power of winds, or the impression of other malignant Meteors, some high hills are got: But can any man get above the power of God? If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, there thy right hand shall hold me, and lead me. If we sail to the waters above the Firmament, it is so too. Nay, take a place, which God never made, a place which grew out of our sins, that is Hell, yet, If we make our bed in hell, God is there too. It is a woeful Inn, to make our bed in, Hell; and so much the more woeful, as it is more then an Inn; an everlasting dwelling: But even there God is; and so much more strangely then in any other place, because he is there, without any emanation of any beam of comfort from him, who is the God of all consolation, or any beam of light from him, who is the Father of all lights. In a word, whether we be in the Eastern parts of the world, from whom the truth of Religion is passed, or in the Western, to which it is not yet come; whether we be in the darkness of ignorance, or darkness of the works of darkness, or darkness of oppression of spirit in sadness, The world is the Theatre that represents God, and every where every man may, nay must see him.

The whole frame of the world is the Theatre, and every creature the stage, the medium, the glass in which we may see God. Moses made the Laver in the Tabernacle, of the looking glasses of women: Scarce can you imagine a vainer thing (except you will except the vain lookers on, in that action) then the looking-glasses of women; and yet Moses brought the looking-glasses of women to a religious use, to show them that came in, the spots of dirt, which they had taken by the way, that they might wash themselves clean before they passed any farther.

There is not so poor a creature but may be thy glass to see God in. The greatest slat glass that can be made, cannot represent any thing greater then it is: If every gnat that flies were an Arch-angel, all that could but tell me, that there is a God; and the poorest worm that creeps, tells me that. If I should ask the Basilisk, how camest thou by those killing eyes, he would tell me, Thy God made me so; And if I should ask the Slowworme, how camest thou to be without eyes, he would tell me, Thy God made me so. The Cedar is no better a glass to see God in, then the Hyssope upon the wall; all things that are, are equally removed from being nothing; and whatsoever hath any being, is by that very being, a glass in which we see God, who is the root, and the fountain of all being. The whole frame of nature is the Theatre, the whole Volume of creatures is the glass, and the light of nature, reason, is our light, which is another Circumstance.

Of those words, John 1.9. That was the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the World, the slackest sense that they can admit, gives light enough to see God by. If we spare S. Chrysostomes sense, That that light, is the light of the Gospel, and of Grace, and that that light, considered in it self, and without opposition in us, does enlighten, that is, would enlighten, every man, if that man did not wink at that light; If we forbear S. Augustines sense, That light enlightens every man, that is, every man that is enlightened, is enlightened by that light; If we take but S. Cyrils sense, that this light is the light of natural Reason, which, without all question, enlightneth every man that comes into the world, yet have we light enough to see God by that light, in the Theatre of Nature, and in the glass of Creatures. God affords no man the comfort, the false comfort of Atheism: He will not allow a pretending Atheist the power to flatter himself, so far, as seriously to think there is no God. He must pull out his own eyes, and see no creature, before he can say, he sees no God; He must be no man, and quench his reasonable soul, before he can say to himself, there is no God. The difference between the Reason of man, and the Instinct of the beast is this, That the beast does but know, but the man knows that he knows. The bestial Atheist will pretend that he knows there is no God; but he cannot say, that he knows, that he knows it; for, his knowledge will not stand the battery of an argument from another, nor of a ratiocination from himself. He dares not ask himself, who is it that I pray to, in a sudden danger, if there be no God? Nay he dares not ask, who is it that I swear by, in a sudden passion, if there be no God? Whom do I tremble at, and sweat under, at midnight, and whom do I curse by next morning, if there be no God? It is safely said in the School, Media perfecta ad quae ordinantur, How weak soever those means which are ordained by God, seem to be, and be indeed in themselves, yet they are strong enough to those ends and purposes, for which God ordained them.

And so, for such a sight of God, as we take the Apostle to intend here, which is, to see that there is a God, The frame of Nature, the whole World is our Theatre, the book of Creatures is our Medium, our glass, and natural reason is light enough. But then, for the other degree, the other notification of God, which is, The knowing of God, though that also be first to be considered in this world, the means is of a higher nature, then served for the sight of God; and yet, whilst we are in this World, it is but In aenigmate, in an obscure Riddle, a representation, darkly, and in part, as we translate it.

As the glass which we spoke of before, was proposed to the sense, and so we might see God, that is, see that there is a God, This anigma that is spoken of now, this dark similitude, and comparison, is proposed to our faith, and so far we know God, that is, Believe in God in this life, but by aenigmaes, by dark representations, and allusions. Therefore says S. Augustine, that Moses saw God, in that conversation which he had with him in the Mount, Sevocatus ab omni corporis sensu, Removed from all benefit and assistance of bodily senses, (He needed not that Glass, the help of the Creature) And more then so, Ab omni significativo aenigmate Spiritus, Removed from all allusions, or similitudes, or representations of God, which might bring God to the understanding, and so to the belief; Moses knew God by a more immediate working, then either sense, or understanding, or faith. Therefore says that Father, Per speculum & aenigma, by this which the Apostle calls a glass, and this which he calls aenigma, a dark representation Intelliguntur omnia accommodata ad notificandum Deum, He understands all things by which God hath notified himself to man: By the Glass, to his Reason, by the aenigma to his faith. And so, for this knowing of God, by way of Believing in him, (as for seeing him, our Theatre was the world, the Creature was our glass, and Reason was our light) Our Academy to learn this knowledge, is the Church, our Medium is the Ordinance and Institution of Christ in his Church, and our light is the light of faith, in the application of those Ordinances in that Church.

This place then where we take our degrees in this knowledge of God, our Academy, our University for that, is the Church; for, though, as there may be some few examples given, of men that have grown learned, who never studied at University; so there may be some examples of men enlightened by God, and yet not within that covenant which constitutes the Church; yet the ordinary place for Degrees is the University, and the ordinary place for Illumination in the knowledge of God, is the Church. There fore did God, who ever intended to have his Kingdom of Heaven well peopled, so powerfully, so miraculously enlarge his way to it, The Church, that it prospered as a wood, which no felling, no stubbing, could destroy. We find in the Acts of the Church, five thousand Martyrs executed in a day; And we find in the Acts of the Apostles five thousand brought to the Church, by one Sermon; still our Christnings were equal to our burials at least.

Therefore when Christ says to the Church, Fear not little flock, it was not Quia de magnominuitur, sed quia de pusillo crescit, says Chrysologus, Not because it should fall from great to little, but rise from little to great. Such care had Christ of the growth thereof; and then such care of the establishment, and power thereof, as that the first time, that ever he names the Church, he invests it with an assurance of perpetuity, Vpon this Rock will I build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; Therein is denoted the strength and stability of the Church in it self, and then the power and authority of the Church upon others, in those often directions, Dic Ecclesiae, complain to the Church, and consult with the Church, and then Audi Ecclesiam, Harken to the Church, be judged by the Church; hear not them, that hear not the Church; And then Ejice de Ecclesia, let them that disobey the Church, be cast out of the Church. In all which, we are forbidden private Conventicles, private Spirits, private Opinions. For, as S. Augustine says well, (and he cites it from another whom he names not, Quidam dixit) If a wall stand single, not joined to any other wall, he that makes a door through the wall, and passes through that door, Adhuc foris est, for all this is without still, Nam domus nonest, One wall makes not a house; One opinion makes not Catholic Doctrine, one man makes not a Church; for this knowledge of God, the Church is our Academy, there we must be bred; and there we may be bred all our lives, and yet learn nothing. Therefore, as we must be there, so there we must use the means; And the means in the Church, are the Ordinances, and Institutions of the Church.

The most powerful means is the Scripture; But the Scripture in the Church. Not that we are discouraged from reading the Scripture at home: God forbid we should think any Christian family to be out of the Church. At home, the holy Ghost is with thee in the reading of the Scriptures; But there he is with thee as a Remembrancer, (The Holy Ghost shall bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you, says our Savior) Here, in the Church, he is with thee, as a Doctor to teach thee; First learn at Church and then meditate at home, Receive the seed by hearing the Scriptures interpreted here, and water it by returning to those places at home. When Christ bids you Search the Scriptures, he means you should go to them, who have a warrant to search; A warrant in their Calling. To know which are Scriptures, To know what the holy Ghost says in the Scriptures, apply thy self to the Church. Not that the Church is a Judge above the Scriptures, (for the power, and the Commission which the Church hath, it hath from the Scriptures) but the Church is a Judge above thee, which are the Scriptures, and what is the sense of the Holy Ghost in them.

So then thy means are the Scriptures; That is thy evidence: but then this evidence must be sealed to thee in the Sacraments, and delivered to thee in Preaching, and so sealed and delivered to thee in the presence of competent witnesses, the Congregation. When S. Paul was carried up In raptu, in an ecstasy, into Paradise, that which he gained by this powerful way of teaching, is not expressed in a Vidit, but an Audivit, It is not said that he saw, but that he heard unspeakeable things. The eye is the devils door, before the ear: for, though he do enter at the ear, by wanton discourse, yet he was at the eye be fore; we see, before we talk dangerously. But the ear is the Holy Ghosts first door, He assists us with Ritual and Ceremonial things, which we see in the Church; but Ceremonies have their right use, when their right use hath first been taught by preaching. Therefore to hearing does the Apostle apply faith; And, as the Church is our Academy, and our Medium the Ordinances of the Church, so the light by which we see this, that is, know God so, as to make him our God, is faith; and that is our other Consideration in this part.

Those Heretics, against whom S. Chrysostom, and others of the Fathers writ, The Anomaei, were inexcusable in this, that they said, They were able to know God in this life, as well as God knew himself; But in this more especially lay their impiety, that they said, They were able to do all this by the light of Nature, without Faith. By the light of Nature, in the Theatre of the World, by the Medium of Creatures, we see God; but to know God, by believing, not only Him, but in Him, is only in the Academy of the Church, only through the Medium of the Ordinances there, and only by the light of Faith.

The Schooledoes ordinarily design four ways of knowing God; and they make the first of these four ways, to be by faith; but then, by faith they mean no more but an assent, that there is a God; which is but that, which in our former Considerations we called The seeing of God; and which indeed needs not faith; for the light of Nature will serve for that, to see God so. They make their second way Contemplation, that is, An union of God in this life; which is truly the same thing that we mean by Faith: for we do not call an assent to the Gospel, faith, but faith is the application of the Gospel to our selves; not an assent that Christ died, but an assurance that Christ died for all. Their third way of knowing God is by Apparition; as when God appeared to the Patriarchs and others in fire, in Angels, or otherwise; And their fourth way is per apertam visionem, by his clear manifestation of himself in heaven.

Their first way, by assenting only, and their third way of apparition, are weak and uncertain ways. The other two, present Faith, and future Vision, are safe ways, but admit this difference, That that of future Vision, is gratiae consummantis, such a knowledge of God, as when it is once had can never be lost nor diminished, But knowledge by faith in this world, is Gratiae communis, it is an effect and fruit of that Grace which God shed upon the whole communion of Saints, that is, upon all those who in this Academy, the Church, do embrace the Medium, that is, the Ordinances of the Church; And this knowledge of God, by this faith, may be diminished, and increased; for it is but In aenigmate, says our Text, darkly, obscurely; Clearly in respect of the natural man, but yet but obscurely in respect of that knowledge of God which we shall have in heaven; for, says the Apostle, As long as we walk by faith, and not by sight, we are absent from the Lord. Faith is a blessed presence, but compared with heavenly vision, it is but an absence; though it create and constitute in us a possibility, a probability, a kind of certainty of salvation, yet that faith, which the best Christian hath, is not so far beyond that sight of God which the natural man hath, as that sight of God which I shall have in heaven, is above that faith which we have now in the highest exaltation. Therefore there belongs a consideration to that which is added by our Apostle here, That the knowledge which I have of God here (even by faith, through the ordinances of the Church) is but a knowledge in part. Now I know in part.

That which we call in part, the Syriack translates Modicum ex multis; Though we know by faith, yet, for all that faith, it is but a little of a great deal that we know yet, because, though faith be good evidence, yet faith is but the evidence of things not seen; And there is better evidence of them, when they are seen. For, if we consider the object, we cannot believe so much of God, nor of our happiness in him, as we shall see then. For, when it is said, that the heart comprehends it not, certainly faith comprehends it not neither: And if we consider the manner, faith it self is but darkness in respect of the vision of God in heaven: For, those words of the Prophet, I will search Jerusalem with Candles, are spoken of the times of the Christian Church, and of the best men in the Christian Church; yet they shall be searched with Candles, some darkness shall be found in them. To the Galatians well instructed, and well established, the Apostle says, Now, after ye have known God, or rather are known of God; The best knowledge that we have of God here, even by faith, is rather that he knows us, then that we know him. And in this Text, it is in his own person, that the Apostle puts the instance, Now I, (I, an Apostle, taught by Christ himself) know but in part. And therefore, as S. Augustine saith, Sunt quasi cunabula charitatis Dei, quibus diligimus proximum, The love which we bear to our neighbor is but as the Infancy, but as the Cradle of that love which we bear to God; so that sight of God which we have In speculo, in the Glass, that is, in nature, is but Cunabula fidei, but the infancy, but the cradle of that knowledge which we have in faith, and yet that knowledge which we have in faith, is but Cunabula visionis, the infancy and cradle of that knowledge which we shall have when we come to see God face to face. Faith is infinitely above nature, infinitely above works, even above those works which faith it self produces, as parents are to children, & the tree to the fruit: But yet faith is as much below vision, and seeing God face to face. And therefore, though we ascribe willingly to faith, more then we can express, yet let no man think himself so infallibly safe, because he finds that he believes in God, as he shall be when he sees God; The faithfullest man in the Church must say, Domine adauge, Lord increase my faith; He that is least in the kingdom of heaven, shall never be put to that. All the world is but Speculum, a glass, in which we see God; The Church it self, and that which the Ordinance of the Church begets in us, faith it self, is but aenigma, a dark representation of God to us, till we come to that state, To see God face to face, and to know, as also we are known.

Now, as for the sight of God here, our Theatre was the world, our Medium and glass was the creature, and our light was reason, And then for our knowledge of God here, our Academy was the Church, our Medium the Ordinances of the Church, and our Light the light of faith, so we consider the same Terms, first, for the sight of God, and then for the knowledge of God in the next life. First, the Sphere, the place where we shall see him, is heaven; He that asks me what heaven is, means not to hear me, but to silence me; He knows I cannot tell him; When I meet him there, I shall be able to tell him, and then he will be as able to tell me; yet then we shall be but able to tell one another, This, this that we enjoy is heaven, but the tongues of Angels, the tongues of glorified Saints, shall not be able to express what that heaven is; for, even in heaven our faculties shall be finite. Heaven is not a place that was created; for, all place that was created, shall be dissolved. God did not plant a Paradise for himself, and remove to that, as he planted a Paradise for Adam, and removed him to that; But God is still where he was before the world was made. And in that place, where there are more Suns then there are Stars in the Firmament, (for all the Saints are Suns) And more light in another Sun, The Sun of righteousness, the Son of Glory, the Son of God, then in all them, in that illustration, that emanation, that effusion of beams of glory, which began not to shine 6000. years ago, but 6000. millions of millions ago, had been 6000. millions of millions before that, in those eternal, in those uncreated heavens, shall we see God.

This is our Sphere, and that which we are fain to call our place; and then our Medium, our way to see him is Patefactio sui, Gods laying himself open, his manifestation, his revelation, his evisceration, and embowelling of himself to us, there. Doth God never afford this patefaction, this manifestation of himself in his Essence, to any in this life? We cannot answer yea, nor no, without offending a great part in the School, so many affirm, so many deny, that God hath been seen in his Essence in this life. There are that say, That it is fere de fide, little less then an article of faith, that it hath been done; And Aquinas denies it so absolutely, as that his Followers interpret him de absoluta potentia, That God by his absolute power cannot make a man, remaining a mortal man, and under the definition of a mortal man, capable of seeing his Essence; as we may truly say, that God cannot make a beast, remaining in that nature, capable of grace, or glory. S. Augustine speaking of discourses that passed between his mother, and him, not long before her death, says; Perambulavimus cuncta mortalia, & ipsum coelum, We talked our selves above this earth, and above all the heavens; Venimus in mentes nostras, & transcendimus es, We came to the consideration of our own minds, and our own souls, and we got above our own souls; that is, to the consideration of that place where our souls should be for ever; and we could consider God then, but then we could not see God in his Essence. As it may be fairly argued that Christ suffered not the very torments of very hell, because it is essential to the torments of hell, to be eternal, They were not torments of hell, if they received an end; So is it fairly argued too, That neither Adam in his ecstasy in Paradise, nor Moses in his conversation in the Mount, nor the other Apostles in the Transfiguration of Christ, nor S. Paul in his rapture to the third heavens, saw the Essence of God, because he that is admitted to that sight of God, can never look off, nor lose that sight again. Only in heaven shall God proceed to this patefaction, this manifestation, this revelation of himself; And that by the light of glory.

The light of glory is such a light, as that our School-men dare not say confidently, That every beam of it, is not all of it. When some of them say, That some souls see some things in God, and others, others, because all have not the same measure of the light of glory, the rest cry down that opinion, and say, that as the Essence of God is indivisible, and he that sees any of it, sees all of it, so is the light of glory communicated entirely to every blessed soul. God made light first, and three days after, that light became a Sun, a more glorious Light: God gave me the light of Nature, when I quickened in my mothers womb by receiving a reasonable soul; and God gave me the light of faith, when I quickened in my second mothers womb, the Church, by receiving my baptism; but in my third day, when my mortality shall put on immortality, he shall give me the light of glory, by which I shall see himself. To this light of glory, the light of honor is but a glow-worm; and majesty it self but a twilight; The Cherubims and Seraphims are but Candles; and that Gospel it self, which the Apostle calls the glorious Gospel, but a Star of the least magnitude. And if I cannot tell, what to call this light, by which I shall see it, what shall I call that which I shall see by it, The Essence of God himself? and yet there is something else then this sight of God, intended in that which remains, I shall not only see God face to face, but I shall know him, (which, as you have seen all the way, is above sight) and know him, even as also I am known.

In this Consideration, God alone is all; in all the former there was a place, and a means, and a light; here, for this perfect knowledge of God, God is all those. Then, sales the Apostle, God shall be all in all. Hic agit omnia in omnibus, says S. Jerome; Here God does all in all; but here he does all by Instruments; even in the infusing of faith, he works by the Ministry of the Gospel: But there he shall be all in all, do all in all, immediately by himself; for, Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father. His Kingdom is the administration of his Church, by his Ordinances in the Church. At the resurrection there shall be an end of that Kingdom; no more Church; no more working upon men, by preaching, but God himself shall be all in all. Ministri quasi larvae Dei, says Luther. It may be somewhat too familiarly, too vulgarly said, but usefully; The ministry of the Gospel is but as Gods Vizar; for, by such a liberty the Apostle here calls it aenigma, a riddle; or, (as Luther says too) Gods picture; but in the Resurrection, God shall put of that Vizar, and turn away that picture, and show his own face. Therefore is it said, That in heaven there is no Temple, but God himself is the Temple; God is Service, and Music, and Psalm, and Sermon, and Sacrament, and all. Erit vita de verbo sine verbo; We shall live upon the word, and hear never a word; live upon him, who being the word, was made flesh, the eternal Son of God. Hîc nonest omnia in omnibus, sed pars in singulis: Here God is not all in all; where he is at all in any man, that man is well; In Solomon sapientia, says that Father; It was well with Solomon, because God was wisdom with him, and patience in Job, and faith in Peter, and zeal in Paul, but there was something in all these, which God was not. But in heaven he shall be so all in all, Vt singuli sanctorum omnes virtutes habeant, that every soul shall have every perfection in it self; and the perfection of these perfections shall be, that their sight shall be face to face, and their knowledge as they are known.

Since S. Augustine calls it a debt, a double debt, a debt because she asked it, a debt because he promised it, to give, even a woman, Paulina, satisfaction in that high point, and mystery, how we should see God face to face in heaven, it cannot be unfit in this congregation, to ask and answer some short questions concerning that. Is it always a declaration of favor when God shows his face? No. I will set my face against that soul, that eateth blood, and cut him off. But when there is light joined with it, it is a declaration of favor; This was the blessing that God taught Moses for Aaron, to bless the people with, The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee. And there we shall see him face to face, by the light of his countenance, which is the light of glory. What shall we see, by seeing him so, face to face? not to enlarge our selves into Gregories wild speculation, Qui videt videntem omnia, oninia videt, because we shall see him that sees all things, we shall see all things in him, (for then we should see the thoughts of men) rest we in the testimony of a safer witness, a Council, In speculo Divinit at is quicquid eorum intersit illucescet; In that glass we shall see, whatsoever we can be the better for seeing. First, all things that they believed here, they shall see there; and therefore, Discamus in terris, quorum scicntia nobiscum perseveret in Caelis, let us meditate upon no other things on earth, then we would be glad to think on in heaven; and this consideration would put many frivolous, and many fond thoughts out of our mind, if men and women would love another but so, as that love might last in heaven.

This then we shall get, concerning our selves, by seeing God face to face; but what concerning God? nothing but the sight of the humanity of Christ, which only is visible to the eye. So Theodoret, so some others have thought; but that answers not the sicutiest; and we know we shall see God, (not only the body of Christ) as he is in his Essence. Why? did all that are said to have seen God face to face, fee his Essence? no. In earth God assumed some material things to appear in, and is said to have been seen face to face, when he was seen in those assumed forms. But in heaven there is no material thing to be assumed, and if God be seen face to face there, he is seen in his Essence. S. Augustine sums it up fully, upon those words, In lumine tuo, In thy light we shall see light, Te scilicet in te, we shall see thee in thee; that is, says he, face to face.

And then, what is it to know him, as we are known? First, is that it, which is intended here, That we shall know God so as we are known? It is not expressed in the Text so: It is only that we shall know so; not, that we shall know God so. But the frame, and context of the place, hath drawn that unanime exposition from all, that it is meant of our knowledge of God then. A comprehensive knowledge of God it cannot be; To comprehend is to know a thing as well as that thing can be known; and we can never know God so, but that he will know himself better: Our knowledge cannot be so dilated, nor God condensed, and contracted so, as that we can know him that way, comprehensively. It cannot be such a knowledge of God, as God hath of himself, nor as God hath of us; For God comprehends us, and all this world, and all the worlds that he could have made, and himself. But it is Nota similitudinis, non aequalitatis; As God knows me, so I shall know God; but I shall not know God so, as God knows me. It is not quantum, but sicut; not as much, but as truly; as the fire does as truly shine, as the Sun shines, though it shine not out so far, nor to so many purposes. So then, I shall know God so, as that there shall be nothing in me, to hinder me from knowing God; which cannot be said of the nature of man, though regenerate, upon earth, no, nor of the nature of an Angel in heaven, left to it self, till both have received a super-illustration from the light of Glory.

And so it shall be a knowledge so like his knowledge, as it shall produce a love, like his love, and we shall love him, as he loves us. For, as S. Chrysostom, and the rest of the Fathers, whom Oecumenius hath compacted, interpret it, Cognoscam practicè, idest, accurrendo, I shall know him, that is, embrace him, adhere to him. Qualis sine fine festivitas! what a Holy-day shall this be, which no working day shall ever follow! By knowing, and loving the unchangeable, the immutable God, Mutabimur in immutabilitatem, we shall be changed into an unchangeableness, says that Father, that never said any thing but extraordinarily. He says more, Dei praesentia si in inferno appareret, If God could be seen, and known in hell, hell in an instant would be heaven.

How many heavens are there in heaven? how is heaven multiplied to every soul in heaven, where infinite other happinesses are crowned with this, this fight, and this knowledge of God there? And how shall all those heavens be renewed to us every day, Qui non mir abimur hodiè, that shall be as glad to see, and to know God, millions of ages after every days seeing and knowing, as the first hour of looking upon his face. And as this seeing, and this knowing of God crowns all other joys, and glories, even in heaven, so this very crown is crowned; There grows from this a higher glory, which is, participes erimus Divinae naturae, (words, of which Luther says, that both Testaments afford none equal to them) That we shall be made partakers of the Divine nature; Immortal as the Father, righteous as the Son, and full of all comfort as the Holy Ghost.

Let me dismiss you, with an easy request of S. Augustine; Fieri non potest ut seipsum non diligat, qui Deum diligit; That man does not love God, that loves not himself; do but love your selves: Imo solus se diligere novit, qui Deum diligit, Only that man that loves God, hath the art to love himself; do but love your selves; for if he love God, he would live eternally with him, and, if he desire that, and indeavor it earnestly, he does truly love himself, and not otherwise. And he loves himself, who by seeing God in the Theatre of the world, and in the glass of the creature, by the light of reason, and knowing God in the Academy of the Church, by the Ordinances thereof, through the light of faith, indeavours to see God in heaven, by the manifestation of himself, through the light of Glory, and to know God himself, in himself, and by himself, as he is all in all; Contemplatively, by knowing as he is known, and Practically, by loving, as he is loved.

Sermon XXIV. Preached upon Easter-day. 1629.

JOB 4.18.

Rehold, he put no trust in his Servants, And his Angels he charged with folly.

WE celebrate this day, the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, Blessed for ever; and in His, all ours; All, that is, the Resurrection of all Persons; All, that is, the Resurrection of all kinds, whether the Resurrection from calamities in this world, Ezechiels Resurrection, where God says to him, Putasne vivent? Son of man doest thou think, these scattered Bones can live again? or the Resurrection from sin, S. John's Resurrection, Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection: Or of the Resurrection to Glory, S. Pauls Resurrection, that is, more argued, and more particularly established, by that Apostle, then by the rest. This Resurrection to glory, is the consummation of all the others; therefore we look especially at this; and in this, our qualification in this state of glory, is thus expressed by our Savior Christ himself, Erimus sicut Angeli, In the Resurrection, we shall be as the Angels. And that we might not flatter our selves in a dream of a better estate, then the Angels have, in this text we have an intimation, what their state and condition is, Behold, he put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly.

In our handling of these words, these shall be our two parts; De quibus, and De quo; Of whom these words are spoken, and then of what; First, what is positively said, and then, what is consequently inferred; what proposed, and what concluded; what of the Angels, and then, what of us, who shall be like the Angels. In the first, the Persons of whom these words are spoken, because, though our Interpreters vary in opinions, yet even from their various opinions, there arise good instructions, we shall rather Problematically inquire, then Dogmatically establish, first, whether these words were spoken of Angels, or no; whether this word Angel, in this text, be not (as it is in many other places of Scriptures, and in the nature of the Word it self) communicable to other servants, and other messengers then those, whom ordinarily we intend, when we say Angels; and then secondly, if the words be spoken of Angels, then, whether of Good or Bad Angels, of those which stand now, or those which fell at first; and again, if of those that stand, then what degree of perfection they have, and what that which we use to call their Confirmation, is, how it accrues to them, and how it works in them, if even of them it be said, Behold, he put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly. In our second part, what was inferd upon these premisses, what was concluded out of these propositions, what reflected upon us, by this assimilation of ours to the Angels, because it is a matter of much weight, we shall first, in our entrance into that part, consider the weight of the testimony, in the Person that gives it; for it is not Job himself that speaks these words; It is but one of his friends; but Elephaz, but the Temanite, a Gentile, a stranger from the Covenant and the Church of God, and yet his words are part of the Word of God. And then for the matter that is inferd, from our assimilation to the state of Angels, will be fairly collected, that if those Angels stand, but by the support of Grace, & not by any thing inseparably inhering in their nature, when we are at our best, in heaven, we shall do but so neither; much less whilst we are upon earth, have we in us any impossibility of falling, by any thing already done for us; Our standing is merely from the grace of God, and therefore let no man ascribe any thing to himself; and Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; for, God hath done no more for the best of us, here nor hereafter, then for those Angels, and of them we hear here, He put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly.

First then, for our first Disquisition, in our first part, De quibus, the persons of whom these words are spoken. Amongst all our Expositors of this book of Job, (which are very many) and amongst all Authors, Ancient and Modern, which have had occasion in their Sermons and Tractates to reflect upon this text, (which are many more, infinite) I have never observed more then one, that denies these words to be spoken of Angels, or that there is any mention, any intention, any intimation of Angels, in these words. And, (which is the greater wonder) this one single man, who thus departs from all, and prefers himself above all, is no Jesuit neither; It is but a Capuccin, but Bolduc upon this Book of Job, and yet he adventures to say, That that Person of whom it is said in this text, He put no trust in his Servants, and He charged his Angels with folly, is not God; and that they of whom it is said, He trusted not his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly, are not Angels; But that all that Eliphaz intended in all this passage of Job, was no more but this, That no great Person must trust in any kind of Greatness, particularly not in great retinues, and dependances, of many servants, and powerful instruments, for that was Job's own case, and yet he lost them all. The doctrine truly is good; neither should I sodainly condemn his singularity, if it were well grounded. For, though in the exposition of Scriptures, singularity always carry a suspicion with it, singularity is Indicium, (as we say in the Law) some kind of evidence, It is Semi-probatio, a kind of half-proof against that man, that holds an opinion, or induces an interpretation different from all other men; yet as these which we call Indicia, in the Law, work but so, as that they may bring a man to his oath, or, in some cases, to the rack, and to torture, but are not, alone sufficient to condemn him; So if we find this singularity in any man, we take from thence just occasion to question and sift him, and his Doctrine, the more narrowly, but not only upon that, presently to condemn him. For this was S. Augustines case; S. Augustine induced new Doctrines, in divers very important points, different from all that had written before him; but, upon due examination, for all his singularity, the Church hath found reason to adhere to him, in those points, ever since his reasons prevailed. In our single Capuccins case here in our text, it is not so.

And therefore here we must continue that complaint, which we are often put to make, of the iniquity of the Roman Church to us; If the Fathers seem to agree in any point, wherein we differ from them, they cry out, we depart from the Fathers; If we adhere to the Fathers, in any point, in which they differ from them, then they cry out, we forsake the Church; Still they press us with their Trent-Canon, You must interpret Scriptures according to the unanime consent of the Fathers, and yet they suffer a single Capuccin of their own, to depart from the Fathers, and Sons, from the Ancient and Modern Expositors in their own Church, And, I may add, from the Holy Ghost too, from the evident purpose and meaning of the place, in more places, then any Author, whom I have seen, and in this, more then in any other place, when he says, with such assurance, that in these words, He put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly, there is no mennon, no intention of God, or Angels, but it is only spoken of men, of the infidelity of servants, and of the insecurity of Masters relying upon such dependancies.

We take this then, as All do, All, (for this single Capuccin makes no considerable exception, more then a mole-hill to the roundness of the earth) to be spoken of Angels, which was our first problem and disquisition; And our second is, being spoken of Angels, of what Angels they are spoken, Good or Bad, of those that fell, or those that stood. Here we meet with the same rub as before, singularity. For, amongst all our Expositors upon this book, I have not observed any other then Calvin, to interpret this place, of the good Angels, of those that stand confirmed in grace. Not that Calvin is to be left alone, in that opinion, as though he were the only man, that thought that the good Angels, considered in themselves, might be defective in the offices committed unto them by God; for, it is evident that Origen in divers of his Homilies upon the book of Numbers, in his twentieth, and twenty two, and four, and twenty sixth, and in his thirteenth Homily upon S. Luke, And as evident that S. Jerome himself upon the first verse of the sixth Chapter of Micheas, thought and taught, That those good Angels whom God appoints for the tuition of certain men, and certain places, in this world, shall give an account at the day of Judgement, of the execution of their office, whether the men committed to them, have not fallen sometimes by their fault, and their dereliction; for so does he (and not he only) understand that place, That we shall judge the Angels; As also those words in the beginning of the Revelation, which S. John is commanded by Christ, to write to the Angels of certain Churches, that Father, S. Jerome interprets not only of figurative, and Metaphorical Angels, the Bishops of those Churches, but literally of the Angels of Heaven.

So then Calvin is from any singularity in that, That the good Angels considered in themselves, may be defective; but because he may be singular in interpreting this Text, of good Angels, (as for ought I have observed he is) this singularity of his, may be a just reason of suspending our assent, but not a just reason presently to condemn his exposition. The Church must bes just to him, as it was to S. Augustine, that is, to examine his grounds. And truly, his ground is faire; his ground is firm. It is this, that though this seem to derogato from the honor of Angels, that being confirmed, they should be subject to weakness, yet, says he, we must not pervert, nor force any place of Scripture, for the honor of the Angels. For indeed, the perverting, and forcing of Scriptures, for the over-honouring of Saints, hath induced a chain of Heresies in the Roman Church. And that this is a forcing of Scripture, to understand this Text of fallen Angels, Calvin argues rationally, That those Angels which are spoken of here, are called the servants of God; And devils are but his slaves, not his servants; They execute his will, but against their will; Good Angels are the servants of God; Nor shall we easily find that Title, The servant of God, applied to ill persons in the Scriptures. Therefore, (as he notes usefully) God doth not charge Angels in this Text, with rebellion, or obstination, or any haynous crime, but only with folly, weakness, infirmity, from which, in all degrees, none but God himself can be free. Though therefore there be no such necessity of accepting this exposition, as should produce that confident asseveration which he comes to, Dubium non est, It can admit no doubt, but this place must be thus understood, (for, by his favor, it may admit a doubt) yet neither is there any such newness in it, (because it is grounded upon Truth, and all Truth is ancient) but that it may very well be received; And therefore, as the sense that is most fit to advance his purpose that speaks it, (which is one principal thing to be considered in every place) as the sense that most conduces to Eliphaz his end, and to prove that which he intends to Job, without laying obligation upon any to think so, or imputation upon any that doth not think so, we accept this interpretation of these words; that they are spoken of Angels, (which was our first) and of good Angels, (which was our second disquifition) and now proceed to our third, what their confirmation is, and how it works, if for all that, God put no trust in those servants, but charged those Angels with folly.

That Moses did speak nothing of the fall, or of the confirmation of Angels, may justly seem a convenient reason to think, that he meant to speak nothing of the creation of Angels neither. If Moses had intended to have told us of the creation of Angels, he would have told us of their fall, and confirmation too; as having told us so particularly of the making of man, he tells us as particularly of the fall of man, and the restitution of man, by the promise of a Messiah in Paradise.

And therefore, that the Angels are wrapped up in that word of Moses, The Heavens, and that they were made when the heavens were made, or that they are wrapped up in that word of Moses, The Light, and that they were made, when Light was made, is all but conjectural, & cloudy: Neither doth any article of that Creed, which we call the Apostles, direct us upon any consideration of Angels. That they were created long before this world, all the Greek Fathers of the Eastern Church did constandy think; And in the Western Church, amongst the Latin Fathers, S. Jerome himself was so clear in it, as to say, Sex millia, nostri orbis, nondum implentur anni, Our world is not yet six thousand years old, Et quantas aternitates, quantas saeculorum origins, says that Father, what infinite revolutions of ages, what infinite eternities, did the Powers, and Principalities, and Thrones, and Angels of God, serve God in before? Theodoret that thinks not so, thinks it not against any article of Faith, to think that it was so. Aquinas, that thinks not so, will not call it an error, to think so, out of a reverence to Athanasius, and Nazianzen, who did think so; for that is an indelible character, which S. Jerome hath imprinted printed upon those two Fathers, That no man ever durst impute error to Athanasius, or Nazianzen. Therefore S. Augustine says moderately, and with that discreet and charitable temper which becomes every man, in matters that are not fundamental, Vt volet, unusquisq accipiat; I forbid no man, says he, either opinion, That the Angels were made before the world, or with it; Dum non Deo coaeternos, & de vera foelicitate securos non ambigat; Only this I forbid him, that he do not believe the Angels to be coeternal with God; For, if they were never made, but subsist of themselves, then they are God, If they be not creatures, they are Creators; And then, this I forbid him too, says he, That he do not think the Angels now in any danger of falling. So that S. Augustine makes this, matter of faith, That the Angels cannot fall; Nor hath S. Augustine any adversary in that point; we only inquire how they acquired this Infallibility, and assurance in their station. For, if they were made so long before this world, and fell when this world was made, since they that had stood so long, fell then, why may not they that stand yet, fall now? They are supported and established by a confirmation, says the School; And that is our present and ordinary answer; and it is enough; But how, or when was this confirmation sealed upon them, or how doth it work in them, if God do not yet trust these servants, but charge these Angels with folly?

That the Angels were created Viatores, and not Beati, in a possibility of everlasting blessedness, but not in actual possession of it, admits no doubt, because some of them did actually fall. Of whom S. Augustine says, Beatae vitae dulcedinem nongustaverunt, nec fastidiverunt acceptam; The Angels had not already fed upon Manna, and then were weary of that; Non ex eo quod acceperant, ceciderunt, sed ex eo, quod, si subdi Deo voluissent, accepissent, They fell not from that which they were come to, but from that, to which, if they had applied themselves to God, they should have come. So that then, they were not created in a state of blessedness, but in a way to it; and there was in them Pinguedo spiritus (as S. Jerome says elegantly) they were mere spirits; but if we compare them with God, there was a certain fleshliness, says he, a certain fatness, a slippriness of falling into a worse state, for any thing that was in their nature; and the nature of those that fell, and those that stood, is all one, neither is their nature that do stand, changed by the benefit of their confirmation. Hence is it, that the Fathers are both so evident, and so concurrent in that assertion, That an Angel is a spirit, Gratiâ, & non Naturà immortalitatem suscipiens, that is, Immortal, but Immortal by additional Grace, and not by Nature. Take it in the eldest; Immortalitas eorum ex aliena voluntate pendet, they have an Immortality, but dependant upon the will of another. And agreeably to thē another, Quia ortum habuerunt, occidere possunt, Because the Angels were produced of nothing, they may be reduced to nothing; for, Solus Deus naturaliter immortalis, says that Father, Only God is immortal in himself, and by nature. And bring it from the elder to later Fathers, still we shall meet that which was said before by them, and S. Bernard says after, Non creati, sed facti immortales, they were not created at first, but made immortal after. Which S. Jerome carries even to a spiritual death, the death of sin; Licèt non peccent, peccati tamen sunt capaces, says he; though Angels do not sin, if they were left to themselves, they might fin; As S. Ambrose expresses the same thing elegantly, Non in praejudicium trahas, you must not draw that into consequence, nor conclude so, Non moritur Gabriel, Vriel, Raphael non moritur, That the Angel Gabriel doth not die, Raphael, Vriel doth not die, therefore an Angel, and considered in his own nature, cannot die; for such an impossibility of dying, as in the soul of man, all agree to be in Angels; for, We shall be like the Angels, which cannot die, says Christ. But how this Immortality, and Infallibility accrues to them, and works in them, is still under our disquisition, since In these his servants God puts no trust, but charges these Angels with folly.

We have in the Ecclesiastical Story, a story of Alamandurus, a King of the Saracens, who having been converted, and baptized, and catechized in the true faith, was after attempted by some Bishops in his Court, of the Eutychian heresy. The Eutychian heresy was, That the divine nature in Christ, the Godhead, suffered aswell as the Humane; and the good King, providing a Packet of Intelligence to be delivered him, or something to be whispered in his ear in the presence of those heretical Bishops, upon reading thereof he told them, that he had received news, That Michael the Archangel was dead; And when those Bishops rejected that with a scorn, Alas Sir, Gabriel cannot die, Angels cannot die, The King replied, if an Angel cannot die, if an Angel be impassible, why would you make me believe, that the God-head it self, the Divine Nature suffered in Christ? So we see, that the piety of a religious King was able to maintain his holy station, even against the real practices of heretical Court Bishops. A pious and religious King should not easily be suspected of that levity, to hearken to impious and heretical motions, though there were good evidence, that that were practised upon him; much less, when the fears in himself, and in those which should practise upon him, are but imaginary, and proceed, (as by Gods grace they do) rather out of zeal that it may not be so, then out of evidence that it is so. Zeal distempered, (and God knows, zeal is not always well tempered) will think an Alamandurus, a constant and impregnable King, easily shook; and zeal distempered will think an Athanasius, a Nazianzen, an Eutychian Bishop. Woe, when Gods sword is in the Devils hand! zeal is Gods sword; uncharitableness is the Devils. When God gave a flaming sword to the Cherubims in Paradise, they make good that place, but that sword killed no body, wounded no body. God gives good men zeal; zeal to make good their station, zeal to conserve the integrity and the sincerity of Religion, but this zeal should not wound, not defame any man. Faith comes by hearing, by hearing Sermons, and God sends us many of them; Charity goes out by hearing, by hearing rumours, and the Devil sends many of them. God continue our faith, and restore our charity.

That Angels are impassible, that they cannot sin, that they cannot die, all say; but that, if they were left to themselves, without the support of additional grace, they might do both; not only the Ancient Fathers, but, both the first School, from Damascene, and the middle School, from Lombard, and the later School, (if we except only those Authors that have writ since the Lateran Council, I mean the later Lateran Council, in our Fathers times, (under Leo the tenth) in which Council, it was first determined, that the soul of man (and consequently Angels) was immortal by nature) do weigh down the scale on that side, That God does not so trust in those servants, nor so discharge them, of all weakness, but that they might fall, but for this support of grace, which is their Confirmation. Now how is this conferd upon them?

In Christ certainly; In Christ the Father reconciled to himself all things in earth, and in heaven. How? Not as a Redeemer; for those that fell, and thereby needed a redemption, never were, never shall be redeemed; but as a Mediator, an Intercessor in their behalf, that those that do stand, may stand for ever. For, therefore, says S. Augustine, do the Angels refuse sacrifice at our hands, Quia & ipsis nohiscum sacrificium norunt, Because they know that there is one sacrifice offered to God, for them, and for us too, that is Christ Jesus, a propitiation for them, and us; For us, by way of redemption; for them, by way of Mediation, and Intercession. In such a sense, as S. Augustine confesses that God had forgiven him the sins he never did, because but for his grace he should have done them, the Angels are well said to have received a reconciliation in Christ, because, but for his mediation, they might have fallen into Gods displeasure. Upon those words, that God showed Adam his judgements, Quae judicia? says that Bishop Catharinus, what judgements did God show Adam? Iudicia pessimorum spirituum, says he, the better to contain Adam in his duty, God declared to him, the judgement that he had executed upon those disobedient Angels. So that, as Adam, if he had made a right use of Gods grace, had been immortal in his body, and yet not immortal then, by nature, as our bodies in the state of glory in the resurrection, shall be immortal, and yet not immortal then by nature; so no Angel, after this Confirmation, (that is, the mediation of Christ applied to him) shall fall: For, Quis Catholicus ignorat, nullum novum Diabolum ex bonis Angelis futurum? Who can pretend to be a Catholic, and believe, that ever there shall be any new Devil from amongst the good Angels? And yet, by the way, many of the Ancient Fathers thought that those words, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men to be faire, and fell in love with them, were meant of good Angels, who fell in love with those women, that were committed to their charge, and that they sinned in so doing, and that they never returned to heaven, but fell to the first fallen Angels: So that those Fathers have more then implied a possibility of falling into sin, and punishment for sin, in the good Angels.

But this none says now; nor with any probability ever did. It is enough that they stand confirmed, confirmed by the grace of God in Christ Jesus; so that now, being in possession of the sight of God, and the light of Glory, their understanding is perfectly illustrated, so that they can apprehend nothing erroneously, and therefore their will is perfectly rectified, so that they can desire nothing irregularly, and therefore they cannot sin, and therefore they cannot die; for all sin is from the perverseness of the will, and all disorder in the will from error in the understanding; In heaven they are, and we, by our assimilation to them, shall be free from both, and impeccable, and impassible, by the continual grace of God; Though if they, or we were left to our selves, even there, God could put no trust in his servants, nor leave his Angels uncharged with folly. And so we have done with the pieces, which constitute our first part, De quibus, of whom these words are spoken; First, that they were spoken of Angels, rejecting that single Capuccin, who only denies it; and then, of good Angels, accepting Calvins interpretation, because, though he be singular in applying this Text to that Doctrine, yet in the Doctrine it self, he hath authority enough, and faire reasons for the Text it self; and lastly, how that which we call Confirmation in those Angels accrewes to them, and how it works in them. And so we pass to our second Part, what is inferred upon these premisses, what concluded upon these propositions, what by our assimilation to Angels, reflects upon us.

And here, because the matter is of much consideration, we proposed first to be considered, the weight and validity of the testimony, in the person of him that gives it; for many times the credit of the restimony depends much upon the credit of the witness. And here, it is not Job himself, it is but Eliphaz, Eliphaz the Temanite, an Alien, a stranger to the Covenant, and Church of God. But surely no greater a stranger, then those secular Poets, whose sentences S. Paul cites not only in his Epistles, but in his Sermons too. Certainly not so great a stranger, as the Devil, and yet in how many places of Scripture, are words spoken by the Devil himself inserted into the Scriptures, and thereby, so far made the word of God, as that the word of God, the Bible, were not perfect norintire to us, if we had not those words of those Poets, those words of the Devil himself in it? How can I doubt but that God can draw good out of ill, and make even some sin of mine, some occasion of my salvation, when the God of truth can make the word of the father of lies, his word? There is but one place in all this Book of Job cited in the New Testament; that is, He taketh the wise in their own craft; and those words are not spoken by Job himself, but by this very friend of Job, this Eliphaz, that speaks in our Text; and yet they are cited, in the phrase, and manner, in which holy Scripture is ordinarily cited, It is written, says the Apostle there, and so the Holy Ghost, that spoke in S. Paul, hath canonized the words spoken by Eliphaz.

But besides the credit which these words have, à posteriori, that they are after inserted into the word of God, (which is another manner of credit, and authentiqueness, then that which the Canonists speak of, that when any sentence of a Father is cited, and inserted into a Decretal Epistle of a Pope, or any part of the Canon Law, that sentence is thereby made authentical, and canonical) these words have their credit à priori, for, before be spake them to Job, he received them in a vision from God. I had a vision in the night, says he, and fear, and trembling came upon me, and a spirit stood before me, and I heard this voice.

Neither is there any necessity, no nor reason, to charge Eliphaz with a false relation, or counterfeiting a revelation from God, which he had not had, as some Expositors have done. For, howsoever in some argumentations, and applyings of things to Job's particular case, we may find some errors in Eliphaz, in modo probandi, in the manner of his proceeding, yet we shall not find him to proceed upon false grounds; and therefore, we believe Eliphaz to have received this that he says, from God, in a vision, and for the instruction of a man, more in Gods favor then himself, of Job. Balaam had the reputation of a great Wizard, and yet God made his Ass wiser then he, and able to instruct and catechize him. Generally we are to receive our instructions from Gods established Ordinances, from his ordinary means afforded to us, in his Church: And where those means, sufficient in themselves, are duly exhibited to us, we are not to hearken after revelations, nor to believe every thing, that may have some such appearance, to be a revelation.

But yet, we are not so to conclude God in his Law, as that he should have no Prerogative, nor so to bind him up in his Ordinances, as that he never can, or never does work by an extraordinary way of revelation. Neither must the profusion of miracles, the prodigality and prostitution of miracles in the Roman Church, (where miracles for every natural disease may be had, at some Shrine, or miracle-shop, better cheap, then a Medicine, a Drugge, a Simple at an Apothecaries) bring us to deny, or distrust all miracles, done by God upon extraordinary causes, and to important purposes. Eliphaz was a profane person, and yet received a Vision from God, and for the instruction of Job himself.

What was it? we see ver. 17. Shall mortal man be more just then God, shall a man be more pure then his Maker? Why? Did this Doctrine need this solemnity, this preparation, that Eliphaz gives it, v. 8. That it was a thing told him in secret, and such a secret, that he was able to comprehend but a little at once of it? Is there any such incomprehensibleness, any such difficulty in this Doctrine, That no mortal man is more just then God, no man more pure then his Maker, but that the shallowest capacity may receive it, and the shortest memory retain it? Needs this a Revelation, an extraordinary conveyance? For the general knowledge it does not; Every man will say, he knows mortal man cannot be more just then God, nor any man purer then his Maker; But, for the particular consideration it does. Every justifying a sin, is a making mortal man more just then God; when I come to say, With what justice can God punish a nights, or an hours sin, with everlasting torments? Every murmuring at Gods corrections is a making man purer then God; when I come to say, Does not God depart farther from the purity of his nature, when he is an angry, and a vindicative God, then I from mine, when I am an amorous, or wanton man? We that are but mortal men, must not think, says Eliphaz, to make our selves purer then our Maker; for, they, who in their nature, are much purer then we, the Angels, are far short of that, for, God put no trust in those servants, and those Angells he charged with folly.

So then, though Eliphaz his premisses reach to the Angels, and their state, his inference and his last purpose falls upon us, who, by Gods goodness, become capable of succession into the place of the Angels that are fallen, and of an association, and assimilation to those Angels that stand. And our assimilation is this, That as they have in their station, we also shall have in ours, a faithful certitude, that we shall never fall out of the armes and bosom of our gracious God. But then, there arises to us a sweeter rellish in considering this stability, this perpetuity, this infallibility to consist in the continual succession, and supply of grace, then in any one act, which God hath done for them, or us. I conceive a more effectual delight, when I consider God to have so wrought the confirmation of Angels, that he hath taken them into a state of glory, and a fruition of his sight, and to perpetuate that state unto them, perpetually superinfuses upon them more and more beams of that glory, then if I should consider God to have confirmed them, with such a measure of grace, at once, as that he could not withdraw, or they could forfeit that grace. For, as there is no doubt made by the Fathers, nor by the School, but that that light which the Apostles saw at the Transfiguration of Christ, was that very light of glory, which they see now in Heaven, and yet they lost the sight of that light again; so is there no violation of any Article of our Faith, if we concur in opinion with them, who say, That S. Paul in his ecstasy, in his rapture into the third heaven, did see that very light of glory, which constitutes the Beatifical Vision, and yet did lose that light again.

Truly to me, this consideration, That as his mercy is new every morning, so his grace is renewed to me every minute, That it is not by yesterdays grace that I live now, but that I have Panem quotidianum, and Panem horarium, My daily bread, my hourly bread, in a continual succession of his grace, That the eye of God is open upon me, though I wink at his light, and watches over me, though I sleep, That God makes these returns to my soul, and so studies me in every change, this consideration, infuses a sweeter verdure, and imprints a more cheerful tincture upon my soul, then any taste of any one Act, done at once, can minister unto me. God made the Angels all of one natural condition, in nature all alike; and God gave them all such grace, as that thereby they might have stood; and to them that used that grace aright, he gave a farther, a continual succession of grace, and that is their Confirmation; Not that they cannot, but that they shall not fall; not that they are safe in themselves, but by Gods preservation safe; for, otherwise, He puts no trust in those Servants, and those Angels he charges with folly.

This is our case too; ours that are under the blessed Election, and good purpose of God upon us; if we do not fall from him, it is not of our selves; for left to our selves, we should: For, so S. Augustine interprets those words of our Savior, Pater operatur, My Father worketh still; God hath not accomplished his work upon us, in one Act, though an Election; but he works in our Vocation, and he works in our Justification, and in our Sanctification he works still. And, if God himself be not so come to his Sabbath, and his rest in us, but that he works upon us still for all that Election, shall any man think to have such a Sabbath, such a rest, in that Election, as shall slacken our endeavor, to make sure our Salvation, and not work as God works, to his ends in us? Hence then we banish all self-subsistence, all attributing of any power, to any faculty of our own; either by preoperation, in any natural or moral disposing of our selves, before Gods preventing grace dispose us, or by such a cooperation, as should put God and man in Commission together, or make grace and nature Collegues in the work, or that God should do one half, and man the other; or any such post-operation, That I should think to proceed in the ways of godliness, by virtue of Gods former grace, without imploring, and obtaining more, in a continual succession of his concomitant grace, for every particular action: In Christ I can do all things; I need no more but him; without Christ, I can do nothing; not only not have him, but not know that I need him; for I am not better then those Angels, of whom it is said, He put no trust in those Servants, and those Angels he charged with folly.

And as we banish from hence all self-subsistence, all opinion of standing by our selves, so do we also all impeccability, and all impossibility of falling in our selves, or in any thing, that God hath already done for us, if he should discontinue his future grace, and leave us to our former stock. They that were raised from death to life again, Dorcas, Lazarus, and the rest, were subject to sin, in that new life, which was given them. They that are quickened by the soul of the soul, Election it self, are subject to sin, for all that. God sees the sins of the Elect, and sees their sins to be sins; and in his Ephemerides, his journals, he writes them down, under that Title, sins, and he reads them every day, in that book, as such; and they grow greater and greater in his sight, till our repentance have washed them out of his sight. Casuists will say, that though a dead man raised to life again, be not bound to his former marriage, yet he is bound to that Religion, that he had invested in Baptism, and bound to his former religious vows, and the same obedience to Superiors as before. We were all dead in Adam; and he that is raised again, even by Election, though he be not so married to the world, as others are, not so in love with sin, not so under the dominion of sin, yet he is as much bound to an obedience to the Will of God declared in his Law, and may no more presume of a liberty of sinning before, nor of an impunity of sin after, then he that pretends no such Election, to confide in. For, this is excellently said, to be the working of our election, by Prosper, the Disciple of S. Augustines Doctrines, and the Eccho of his words, Vt fiat permanendi voluntaria, foelixque necessitas, That our assurance of salvation by perseverance, is necessary, and yet voluntary; Consider it in Gods purpose, easily it cannot, consider it in our selves, it might be resisted. For we are no better then those Angels, and, In those servants he put no trust, and those Angels he charged with folly.

But such as they are, we shall be: And, since with the Lord there is Copiosa Redemptio, Plenteous Redemption, that overflowing mercy of our God, those super-superlative Merits of our Savior, that plenteous Redemption, may hold even in this particular blessedness, in our assimilation to them, That as, though there fell great numbers of Angels, yet great, and greater then they that fell, stood, So though The way to Heaven be narrow, and the gate strait, (which is said by Christ, to excite our industry, and are rather an expression arising out of his mercy, lest we should slacken our holy endeavors, then any intimidation, or commination) (for though the way be narrow, and the gate strait, yet the room is spacious enough within) why, by this plenteous redemption, may we not hope, that many more then are excluded, shall enter there? Those words, The dragons tail drew the third part of the stars from Heaven, the Fathers generally interprete of the fall of Angels with Lucifer; and it was but a third part; And by Gods grace, whose mercy is overflowing, whose merits are super-abundant, with whom there is plenteous redemption, the serpent gets no farther upon us. I know some say, that this third part of the stars, is meant of eminent persons, illustrated and assisted with the best means of salvation, and, if a third of them, how many meanlier furnished, fall? But, those that we can consider to be best provided of means of salvation, nextto these, are Christians in general; and so may this plenteous Redemption be well hoped to work, that but a third part of them, of Christians, shall perish; and then the God of this plenteous Redemption having promised us, that the Christian Religion shall be carried over all the world, still the number of those that shall be saved is enlarged.

Apply to thy self that which S. Cyril says of the Angels, Tristaris, quia aliqui vitam amiserunt? Does it grieve thee, that any are fallen? At plures meliorem statum apud Deum obtinent, Let this comfort thee, even in the application thereof to thy self, that more stood then fell. As Elisha said to his servant, in a danger of surprisal, Fear not, for they that be with us, are more then they that are with them, so, if a suspicion of the paucity of them that shall be saved, make thee afraid, look up upon this overflowing mercy of thy God, this super-abundant merit of thy Savior, this plenteous Redemption, and thou mayst find, find in a faire credulity, and in a well regulated hope, more with thee, then with them that perish. Live so, in such a warfare with temptations, in such a colluctation with thy concupiscences, in such a jealousy, and suspicion of thine indifferent, nay, of thy best actions, as though there were but one man to be saved, and thou wouldst be that one; But live and die in such a sense of this plenteous Redemption of thy God, as though neither thou, nor any could lose salvation, except he doubted of it. I doubt not of mine own salvation; and in whom can I have so much occasion of doubt, as in my self? When I come to heaven, shall I be able to say to any there, Lord! how got you hither? Was any man less likely to come thither then I? There is not only an Only God in heaven; But a Father, a Son, a Holy Ghost in that God; which are names of a plurality, and sociable relations, conversable notions. There is not only one Angel, a Gabriel; But to thee all Angels cry alond; and Cherubim, and Seraphim, are plural terminations; many Cherubs, many Seraphs in heaven. There is not only one Monarchal Apostle, a Peter, but The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee. There is not only a Proto-Martyr, a Stephen, but The noble army of Martyrs praise thee. Who ever amongst our Fathers, thought of any other way to the Moluccaes, or to China, then by the Promontory of Good hope? Yet another way opened it self to Magellan; a Strait; it is true; but yet a way thither; and who knows yet, whether there may not be a North-East, and a North-West way thither, besides? Go thou to heaven, in an humble thankfulness to God, and holy cheerfulness, in that way that God hath manifested to thee; and do not pronounce too bitterly, too desperately, that every man is in an error, that thinks not just as thou thinkest, or in no way, that is not in thy way. God found folly, weakness in his Angels, yet more stood then fell; God finds weakness, wickedness in us, yet he came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance; and who, that comes in that capacity, a Repentant sinner, can be shut out, or denied his part in this Resurrection?

The key of David opens, and no man shuts. The Son of David, is the key of David, Christ Jesus; He hath opened heaven for us all; let no man shut out himself, by diffidence in Gods mercy, nor shut out any other man, by overvaluing his own purity, in respect of others. But forbearing all lacerations, and tearings, and woundings of one another, with bitter invectives, all exasperations by odious names of subdivision, let us all study, first the redintegration of that body, of which Christ Jesus hath declared himself to be the head, the whole Christian Church, and pray that he would, and hope that he will enlarge the means of salvation to those, who have not yet been made partakers of it. That so, he that called the gates of heaven strait, may say to those gates, Elevamini portae aeternales, Be ye lifted up, ye eternal gates, and be ye enlarged, that as the King of glory himself is entered into you, for the farther glory of the King of glory, not only that hundred and four and forty thousand of the Tribes of the children of Israel, but that multitude which is spoken or in that place, which no man can number, of all Nations, and Kindreds, and People, and friends, may enter with that acclamation, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever. And unto this City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of Angels, to the general assembly, and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things then that of Abel, Blessed God bring us all, for thy Sons sake, and by the operation of thy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon XXV. Preached at S. Pauls, upon Easter-day. 1630.

MAT. 28.6.

He is not here, for he is risen, as he said; Come, See the place where the Lord lay.

THese are words spoken by an Angel of heaven, to certain devout Women, who, not yet considering the Resurrection of Christ, came with a pious intention to do an office of respect, and civil honor to the body of their Master, which they meant to embalm in the Monument where they thought to find it. How great a compass God went in this act of the Resurrection? Here was God, the God of life, dead in a grave, And here was man, a dead man, risen out of the grave; Here are Angels of heaven employed in so low an office, as to catechize Women, and Women employed in so high an office, as to catechize the Apostles. I chose this verse out of the body of the Story of the Resurrection, because in this verse the act of Christs rising, (which we celebrate this day) is expressly mentioned, Surrexit enim, for he is risen: Which word stands as a Candle, that shews it self, and all about it, and will minister occasion of illustrating your understanding, of establishing your faith, of exalting your devotion in some other things about the Resurrection, then fall literally within the words of this verse. For, from this verse we must necessarily reflect, both upon the persons (they to whom, and they by whom the words were spoken) and upon the occasion given. I shall not therefore now stand to divide the words into their parts and branches, at my first entering into them, but handle them, as I shall meet them again anon, springing out, and growing up from the body of the Story; for the Context is our Text, and the whole Resurrection is the work of the day, though it be virtually, implicitly contracted into this verse, He is not here, for he is risen, as he said; Come, and see the place where the Lord lay.

Our first consideration is upon the persons; and those we find to be Angelical women, and Euangelical Angels: Angels made Evangelists, to preach the Gospel of the Resurrection, and Women made Angels, (so as John Baptist is called an Angel, and so as the seven Bishops are called Angels) that is, Instructers of the Church; And to recompense that observation, that never good Angel appeared in the likeness of woman, here are good women made Angels, that is, Messengers, publishers of the greatest mysteries of our Religion. For, howsoever some men out of a petulancy and wantonness of wit, and out of the extravagancy of Paradoxes, and such singularities, have called the faculties, and abilities of women in question, even in the root thereof, in the reasonable and immortal soul, yet that one thing alone hath been enough to create a doubt, (almost an assurance in the negative) whether S. Ambroses Commentaries upon the Epistles of S. Paul, be truly his or no, that in that book there is a doubt made, whether the woman were created according to Gods Image; Therefore, because that doubt is made in that book, the book it self is suspected not to have had so great, so grave, so constant an author as S. Ambrose was; No author of gravity, of piety, of conversation in the Scriptures could admit that doubt, whether woman were created in the Image of God, that is, in possession of a reasonable and an immortal soul.

The faculties and abilities of the soul appear best in affaires of State, and in Ecclesiastical affaires; in matter of government, and in matter of religion; and in neither of these are we without examples of able women. For, for State affaires, and matter of government, our age hath given us such a Queen, as scarce any former King hath equalled; And in the Venetian Story, I remember, that certain Matrons of that City were sent by Commission, in quality of Ambassadors, to an Empresse with whom that State had occasion to treat; And in the Stories of the Eastern parts of the World, it is said to be in ordinary practise to send women for Ambassadors. And then, in matters of Religion, women have evermore had a great hand, though sometimes on the left, as well as on the right hand. Sometimes their abundant wealth, sometimes their personal affections to some Church-men, sometimes their irregular and indiscreet zeal hath made them great assistants of great Heretics; as S. Jerome tells us of Helena to Simon Magus, and so was Lucilia to Donatus, so another to Mahomet, and others to others. But so have they been also great instruments for the advancing of true Religion, as S. Paul testifies in their behalf, at Thessolonica, Of the chief women, not a few; Great, and Many. For, many times women have the proxies of greater persons then themselves, in their bosoms; many times women have voices, where they should have none; many times the voices of great men, in the greatest of Civil, or Ecclesiastical Assemblies, have been in the power and disposition of women.

Hence is it, that in the old Epistles of the Bishops of Rome, when they needed the Court, (as, at first they needed Courts as much, as they brought Courts to need them at last) we find as many letters of those Popes to the Emperors Wives, and the Emperors Mothers, and Sisters, and women of other names, and interests in the Emperors favours and affections, as to the Emperors themselves. S. Jerome writ many letters to divers holy Ladies; for the most part, all of one stock and kindred; and a stock and kindred so religious, as that I remember, the good old man says, That if Iupiter were their Cousin, of their kindred, he believes Iupiter would be a Christian; he would leave being such a God as he was, to be their fellow-servant to the true God.

Now if women were brought up according to S. Hieromes instructions in those letters, that by seven years of age, they should be able to say the Psalms without book; That as they grew in years, they should proceed in the knowledge of Scriptures, That they should love the Service of God at Church, but not sine Matre, not go to Church when they would, but when their Mother could go with them, Nec quaererent celebritatem Ecclesiarum, They should not always go to the greatest Churches, and where the most famous Preachers drew most company; If women have submitted themselves to as good an education as men, God forbid their sex should prejudice them, for being examples to others. Their sex? no, nor their sins neither: for, it is S. Hieromes note, That of all those women, that are named in Christs pedigree in the Gospel, there is not one, (his only Blessed Virgin-Mother excepted) upon whom there is not some suspicious note of incontinency. Of such women did Christ vouchsafe to come; He came of woman so, as that he came of nothing but woman; of woman, and not of man. Neither do we read of any woman in the Gospel, that assisted the persecutors of Christ, or furthered his afflictions; Even Pilats wife dissuaded it. Woman, as well as man, was made after the Image of God, in the Creation; and in the Resurrection, when we shall rise such as we were here, her sex shall not diminish her glory: Of which, she receives one faire beam, and inchoation in this Text, that the purpose of God, is, even by the ministry of Angel s, communicated to women. But what women? for, their preparation, their disposition is in this Text too; such women, as were not only devout, but sedulous, diligent, constant, perseverant in their devotion; To such women God communicated himself; which is another Consideration in these persons.

As our Savior Christ was pleased, that one of these women should be celebrated by name, for another act upon him, Mary Magdalen, and that wheresoever his Gospel was preached, her act should be remembered, so the rest, with her, are worthy to be known and celebrated by their names; Therefore we consider, Quae, and quales; first who they were, and then what they were; their names first, and then their conditions. There is an Historical relation, and observation, That though there be divers Kingdoms in Europe, in which the Crowns may fall upon women, yet, for some ages, they did not, and when they did, it was much at one time, and all upon women of one name, Mary. It was so with us in England, and in Scotland it was so; so in Denmark, and in Hungary it was so too; all four, Maries. Though regularly women should not preach, yet when these Legati à later, these Angels from heaven did give Orders to women, and made them Apostles to the Apostles, the Commission was to women of that name, Mary; for, though our Expositors dispute whether the Blessed Virgin Mary were there then, when this passed at the Sepulchre, yet of Mary Magdalen, and Mary the Mother of James, there can be no doubt. Indeed it is a Noble, and a Comprehensive name, Mary. It is the name of woman, in general; For, when Adam says of Eve, She shall be called Woman, in the Arabique Translation, there is this name, She shall be called Mary; and the Arabique is, perchance, a dialect of the Hebrew. But in pure, and Original Hebrew, the word signifies Exaltation, and whatsoever is best in the kind thereof. This is the name of that sister of Aaron, and Moses, that with her Quire of women assisted at that Eucharistical sacrifice, that Triumphant song of Thanksgiving, upon the destruction, the subversion, the submersion of Egypt, in the Red Sea. Her name was Miriam; and Miriam and Mary is the same name in women, as Iosuah and Jesus is the same name to men. The word denotes Greatness, not only in Power, but in Wisdom, and Learning too; and so signifies often Prophets, and Doctors; and so falls fitliest upon these blessed women, who, in that sense, were all made Maries, Messengers, Apostles to the Apostles; in which sense, even those women were made Maries, (that is, Messengers of the Resurrection) who, no doubt, had other names of their own. There was amongst them, the wife of Chusa, a great man in Herods Court, his Steward; and her name was Ioanna, Ioane. So that here was truly a Pope Ioane, a woman of that name, above the greatest men in the Church. For the dignity of the Papacy, they venture to say, that whosoever was S. Peters Successor in the Bishoprick of Rome, was above any of the Apostles, that over-lived Peter; as S. John did; Here was a woman, a Pope Ioane, Superior to S. Peter himself, and able to teach him. But though we found just reason to celebrate these women by name, we meant not to stay upon that circumstance; we shut it up with this prayer, That that blessing which God gave to these Maries, which was, to know more of Christ, then their former teachers knew, he will also be pleased to give to the greatest of that name amongst us, That she may know more of Christ, then her first teachers knew. And we pass on, from the Names, to the Conditions of these women.

And first we consider their sedulity; sedulity, that admits no intermission, no interruption, no discontinuance, no tepidity, no indifferency in religious offices. Consider we therefore their sedulity if we can. I say, if we can; because if a man should sit down at a Be-hive, or at an Ant-hill, and determine to watch such an Ant, or such a Be, in the working thereof, he would find that Be, or that Ant so sedulous, so serious, so various, so concurrent with others, so contributary to others, as that he would quickly lose his marks, and his sight of that Ant, or that Be; So if we fixe our consideration upon these devout women, and the sedulity of their devotion, so as the several Evangelists present it unto us, we may easily lose our sight, and hardly know which was which, or, at what time she or she came to the Sepulchre. They came in the end of the Sabbath, as it begun to dawn, towards the first day of the week, says S. Mathew; They came very early in the morning, upon the first day of the week, the Sun being then risen, says S. Mark; They prepared their Spices, and rested the Sabbath, and came early the next day, says S. Luke; They came the first day, when it was yet dark, says S. John. From Friday Evening, till Sunday morning they were sedulous, busy upon this service; so sedulous, as that Athanasius thinks these women came four several times to the Sepulchre, and that the four Evangelists have relation to their four commings; and S. Jerome argues upon this seeming variety in the Evangelists, thus, Non mendacii signum, sed sedulae visitationis officium, This variety argues no uncertainty in the Evangelists, but testifies the sedulity of those women they speak of; Dum crebrò abeunt & recurrunt, says he, whilst they make many accesses, and returns, Nec patiuntur à Sepulchro diu, aut longiùs abesse, and cannot indure to be far distant, or long absent from their devout exercise.

Beloved, true devotion is a serious, a sedulous, an impatient thing. He that said in the Gospel, I fast twice a week, was but a Pharisee; He that can reckon his devout actions, is no better; He that can tell how often he hath thought upon God to day, hath not thought upon him often enough. It is S. Augustines holy Circle, to pray, that we may hear Sermons profitably, and to hear Sermons that we learn to pray acceptably. Devotion is no Marginal note, no interlineary glosse, no Parenthesis that may be left out; It is no occasional thing, no conditional thing; I will go, if I like the Preacher, if the place, if the company, if the weather; but it is of the body of the Text, and lays upon us an Obligation of fervor and of continuance. This we have in this example of these, not only Euangelical, but Euangelistical (preaching) women; And thus much more, that as they were sedulous and diligent after, so they were early, and begun betimes; for, howsoever the Evangelists may seem to vary, in the point of time, when they came, they all agree they came early, which is another exaltation of Devotion.

They were women of quality, and means. They came with Christ from Galilee, and they came upon their own charges; and more then so; for, says the text, They ministered to Christ of their substance. Women of quality may be up and ready early enough for Gods service, if they will. If they be not, let them but seriously ask themselves that question, whether upon no other occasion, no entertainment, no visit, no letter to or from another, they could have made more haste; And if they find they could, I must say in that case, as Tertullian said, They have put God and that man into the balance, and weighed them together, and found God too light. That Mighty, that weighty, that ponderous God, that blasts a State with a breath, that melts a Church with a look, that molders a world with a touch, that God is weighed down with that man; That man, whose errand, if it be but conversation, is vanity, but, if it be sin, is nothing, weighs down God. The world will needs think one of these Maries, (Magdalen) to have been guilty of such entertainments as these, of Incontinency, and of that in the lowest (that is, the highest) kind, Prostitution; perchance she was; But, I would there were that necessity of thinking so, that because she was a Woman, and is called a sinner, therefore that must be her sin, as though they were capable of no other sin; Alas, it is not so. There may be women, whom even another sin, the sin of Pride, and over-valuation of themselves may have kept from that sin, and yet may well be called sinners too; There may be found women, whom only their scorn of others, hath kept honest, and yet are sinners, though not in that sin. But yet, even this woman; Mary Magdalen, be her sin what you will, came early to Christ; early, as soon as he afforded her any light. Christ says, in the person of Wisdom, I love them that love me, and they that seek me early, shall find me; And a good soul will eccho back that return of David, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee; and double that eccho with Isaiah, With my soul have I desired thee in the night, with my spirit with in me, will I seek thee early.

Now, what is this early seeking of God. First, there is a general rule given by Solomon, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; submit thy self to a religious discipline betimes. But then, in that there is a Now inserted into that rule of Solomons, (Remember Now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth,) there is an intimation, that there is a youth in our age, and an earliness acceptable to God, in every action; we seek him early, if we seek him at the beginning of every undertaking. If I awake at midnight, and embrace God in mine armes, that is, receive God into my thoughts, and pursue those meditations, by such a having had God in my company, I may have frustrated many temptations that would have attempted me, and perchance prevailed upon me, if I had been alone, for solitude is one of the devils scenes; and, I am afraid there are persons that sin oftener alone, then in company; but that man is not alone that hath God in his sight, in his thought. Thou preventedst me with the blessings of goodness, says David to God. I come not early enough to God, if I stay till his blessings in a prosperous fortune prevent me, and lead me to God; I should come before that. The days of affliction have prevented me, says Job. I come not early enough to God, if I stay till his Judgements prevent me, and whip me to him; I should come before that. But, if I prevent the night watches, and the dawning of the morning, If in the morning my prayer prevent thee O God, (which is a high expression of Davids, That I should wake before God wakes, and even prevent his preventing grace, before it be declared in any outward act, that day) If before blessing or cross fall upon me, I surrender my self entirely unto thee, and say, Lord here I lye, make thou these sheets my sheets of penance, in inflicting a long sickness, or my winding sheet, in delivering me over to present death, Here I lye, make thou this bed mine Altar, and bind me to it in the cords of decrepitness, and bedridness, or throw me off of it into the grave and dust of expectation, Here I lye, do thou choose whether I shall see any to morrow in this world, or begin my eternal day, this night, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done; when I seek God, merely for love of him, and his glory, without relation to his benefits or to his corrections, this is that early seeking, which we consider in those blessed Women, whose sedulity and earnestness, when they were come, and acceleration and earliness, in their comming, having already considered, pass we now to the Ad quid, to what purpose, and with what intention they came, for in that alone, there are divers exaltations of their devotion.

In the first verse of this Chapter it is said, They came to see the Sepulchre; Even to see the Sepulchre was an act of love, and every act of love to Christ, is Devotion. There is a love that will make one kiss the case of a picture, though it be shut; There is a love that will melt ones bowels, if he do but pass over, or pass by the grave of his dead friend. But their end was not only to see the Sepulchre, but to see whether the Sepulchre were in such state, as that they might come to their end, which was, To embalm their Masters body. But this was done before; and done to their knowledge; for, that all the Evangelists testify; particularly, S. Luke, The women followed, and beheld the Sepulchre, and how the body was laid. How, that is, how abundantly it was embalmed by Nicodemus. How, that is, how decently and orderly it was wound and bound up, according to the manner of the Jews funerals. What then intended these women to do more then was done already?

That cannot be well admitted, which Theophylact says, That as Iacobs body was embalmed forty days in Egypt, so they intended to re-embalm our Saviours body, formerly embalmed by Nicodemus. For, that was only done upon such bodies as were exenterated and embowelled, and then filled up, and plastered about with spices and gums, to preserve them from putrefaction, when they were to be carried into remote parts; But of these re-embalmings and post-unctions after the body had been laid in the Sepulchre, I know not, who may have read of them; I have not. Neither seems it to have been possible in this case; not possible for these women to have come to the body of Chrrist. For, if that be the true winding sheet of Christ which is kept in Savoy, it appears, that that sheet stuck so close to his body, as that it did, and does still retain the dimensions of his body, and the impressions and signatures of every wound that he had received in his body. So that it would have been no easy matter for those women to have pulled off that sheet, if it had had no other glue, no other gumme, but his own precious blood to hold it; But, if (as their more wary Authors say) Christs body were carried loose, in that sheet, which is showed in Savoy, from the Cross to the Sepulchre, and then taken out of that sheet, and embalmed by Nicodemus, and wrapped up in other linen, upon those spices and gummes which he bestowed upon it, and then buried according to the manner of the jews, whose manner it was to swathe the bodies of the dead, just as we swathe the bodies of children, all over, (for, so Lazarus came out bound hand and foot with grave-clothes) how could it fall into the imagination of these women, that they could come to embalm the body of Christ, so swathed, so wound, so bound up, as that body was; for, certainly, it was the body, and not the grave-clothes that they meant to embalm.

Truly I have often wondered, that amongst our very many Expositors of the Gospels, (which I can pronounce of some scores) no one hath touched upon this doubt. They all make good use of their piety, and devout officiousness towards their dead Master, but of the impossibility of comming to that body, and of the irregularity, and impertinency of undertaking that, and proceeding so far in that, which could not possibly be done, I find no mention. What shall be said of this? That may be said, which Chrysologus says, (though not of this, for of this none says any thing) Saeva passionis procella turbaverat, That a bitter storm of passion and consternation, had so disordered them, as that no faculty of theirs performed the right function; And that which Calvin says, of the same case, which Chrysologus intends, Prae fervore caecutiebant, Vehemence and earnestness had discomposed them, amazed them, amuzed them so, as that they discerned nothing clearly, did nothing orderly. This, these, and some other Authors say, of some other inconsiderations in these Women, particularly, of the removing of the stone of the Sepulchre. For, they had prepared their gumms, and they were come upon their way, before they ever thought of that. Then they stop, and say to one another, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the Sepulchre; we never thought of that. So also did they fall under the rebuke and increpation of the Angel for another supine inconsideration; Quid quaeritis vivum? Why seek yee the living amongst the dead? Why him, who is The Son of the living God? Why him, who is The Prince of life? Why him, Who hath life in himself? Why him who is Life it self? Why him, who is The Bread of life to us? Why him, who is this life and the next too, (I am the life, and the Resurrection) Why him, who by his death hath made you a path of life, (Thou wilt show me the path of life) Why seek ye the living among the dead? What makes you think of arming him with your gummes against putrefaction, who had told you before, that he was not subject to putrefaction, but would rise again. So also in such another inconsideratiō we may deprehend one of these womē, Mary Magdalen; wh̄ the Angel had told her at the Sepulchre, He is not here, for he is risin, as he said, yet when she came to Peter, she said nothing of the Resurrection, never thought of that, but poured her self out in that lamentation, Tulerunt Dominū, They have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulchre, & we know not where they have laid him; Wheras if she had cō sidered it advisedly, she must necessarily have known from the Angels words, that no man had taken away the Lord, that no man had laid him any where else, but that by his own power he was risen again. But as in this storm of passion they left Christs promise, That he would rise, unconsidered, & left the rolling of the stone frō the door of the Sepulchre, unconsidered, so in this storm they also left unconsidered the impossibility of comming to Christs body to do that office; Their devotion was awake, their consideration was in a slumber. But what though? Did they therefore lose all benefit of their plous and devout intention? That is another, and our next Consideration.

As Luther says, that if the marriage bed be kept undefiled, that is, from strange persons, and from such sins as are opposed against the very purpose of marriage, God pardons Maritales ineptias, some levities, and half-wantonnesses in married folks; so Calvin says of our present case, Deus non impat at, Because these good women were transported with a zealous piety towards Christ, God did not impure this in consideration unto them. For, though zeal without discretion produce ill effects, yet not so ill as discretion without zeal, worldly wisdom without Religion, for that is an evident preferring of thy worldly safety before the glory of God. When Moses makes that prayer to God in a holy fury and excess, Dele me, If thou wilt not forgive their sin, blot me I pray thee, out of the book thou hast written, (which was the excess of S. Paul too, in his Anathema; I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ, for my brethren) God proceeds not to any sharper rebuke toward Moses, then this. Take heed what you say in your inconsiderate prayer, you may sin in a prayer, and, Whosoever hath sinned against me, (says God there) him will I blot out of my book; yet it concerns but others, take heed you draw it not upon your selves. And such a charitable interpretation it becomes us to give of those prayers for the dead, which we find in the ancient Fathers; In S. Augustine for his mother Monica, in S. Anbrose for his Master Theodosius; They prayed inconsiderately, and upon consideration they retracted their prayers; at least, gave such Expositions of them, as that then they were no prayers, but vehement, and indeed, exorbitant declarations of piety mixed with passion. And so beloved, behooves it thee to do in thine own behalf, if at any time having cast thy self into the posture of prayer, upon thy knees, and entered into thy prayer thou have found thy self withdrawn, transported, strayed into some deviations, and by-thoughts; Thou must not think all that devotion lost; much less, that prayer to be turned into sin; for, God, who hath put all thy tears into his Bottle, all thy words into his Register, all thy sighs into his bosom, will also spread that zeal with which thou entredst into thy prayer, over thy whole prayer, and where that (thine own zeal) is too short, Christ Jesus himself will spread his prayer over thine, and say, Give him, O Father, that which he hath asked faithfully in my name, and, where he hath fallen into any deviations or negligences, Father forgive him, though he knew not what he said.

In our case in hand, for all their inconsideration, their misgovernment, their mistaking, the Angel doth not forbear to comfort them; Nolite timere, says he, Do not ye fear. In illis perseveret pavor, in quibus permanet incredulitas, says S. Jerome, in the person of this Angel to these women; I cannot blame ye, if ye fear; such unexpected changes, such violent earthquakes, such unnatural darknesses and eclipses, such rentings of the Temple, such cleaving of grave-stones may well occasion fear in you, but recollect your selves, In illis perseveret, Let them continue in fear, who continue in unbelief, and have no God to comfort themselves in. Cur vos pertimescitis, qui vestros concives videtis, (says S. Gregory also, in, and to the same persons) Let those mercenary souldiers, who are hired to watch the Sepulchre, fear, and never recover, Cur vos, why should you fear, who see none but us, Concives, your fellow-Citizens, in the City, and service of God, if your conversation be in heaven, as it is, if ye do truly seek that Jesus, who is risen from hence, that he might go thither? And as though this comfort from the Angel were not enough, he multiplies this comfort in person unto them; he meets them, and says, Avete, first salutes them, and then enlarges himself unto them; as long as the root of their actions was piety and zeal, he casts no cloud of discouragement upon them, he occasions no jealousy or suspicion of his good purpose towards them, in them, but he maintains and exalts their holy confidence. Peccata non nocent, ubi non placent; Even our sins are forgiven, when we leave delighting in them; much more our inconsiderations, and mistakings, when we recollect, and rectify our selves. For, all this withholds not the Angel from proceeding to a farther establishment of these devout, though weak women, in other particulars arising out of the very words, Non est hic, He is not here, for he is risen.

Non hic per praesentiam carnis, qui, per praesentiam Majestatis nusquam abest; He is not here, so as you thought to have found him here; so, as that you may anoint and embalm his body, he is not here: But, so as the secret sinner would wish him away, God is away no where. No adulterer that hath waited for the twilight, no whispering Calumniator that hath shot his arrow of slander In occulto, and wounded the righteous in secret, can say, Non est hic, God is not here, God sees not this. For even in the ways of death and hell (in all thy sinful courses) though God be a God of pure eyes and cannot behold evil, he sees thee. He sees thee in thy way thither, and when thou shalt make thy bed in hell, that is, enter into that perpetual prison, there will he be, felt though not seen. But could the Angel intend this for a comfort to these women, Non est hic, He is not here? Alas, might these poor souls say, we see that well enough, He is not here, but, where is he? From this arises the occasion of theirs, and all our comfort, Surrexit enim, He is not here, for he is risen.

First; this For, (for he is risen) this particle of argumentation, the Angel opposes prophetically, and by way of prevention, both against that heresy of Rome, That the body of Christ may be in divers places at once, by the way of Transubstantiation, and against that dream of the Ubiquetaries, That the body of Christ must necessarily be in all places at once, by communication of the divine Nature. For, if the Angel argue fairly, logically, sincerely, (He is not here, for he is risen) then there is no necessity, there is no possibility of this omni-presence, or this multi-presence, for then the Angels argument might have been denied, and they might have replied, What though he be risen, he may be here too, for he may be in divers places; But the Angel concludes us in this for, He cannot be here, for he is risen; Because he is risen, he cannot be here in the Sepulchre, so, as that you may embalm his body, Because he is ascended, he cannot be here, here in the Sacrament, so, as you may break or eat that body.

But is there such a comfort exhibited in this Surrexit, he is risen, as may recompense the discomfort that arises from the Non est hic, That he is not here? Abundantly, superabundantly there is; in these two channels and derivations of comfort; First, that he in whom we had placed our comfort, and our hope, is, by this his rising, declared to be the Son of God. God hath fulfilled his promise, in that he hath raised Jesus from the dead, as it is written in the second Psalm, says S. Paul in his Sermon at Antioch. Now, what is written in that Psalm, which S. Paul cites there, to our present purpose? This; Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. But is not this Hody genui, This this days begetting intended rather of the eternal filiation & generation of the Son of God, then of this days work, the Resurrection? Those words of that Psalm may well admit that interpretation, and so many have taken them. But, with S. Hilary, most of the ancients have applied them to the Resurrection, as the application of S. Paul himself directly binds us to do, That the Hody genui, This days generation, is this days manifestation that Christ was the Son of God. Calvin enlarges it farther; That every declaration of the Son by the Father, is a generation of the Son: So his baptism, and the voice then, so his Transfiguration, and the voice then, were each of them, a Hody genui, a generation of the Son that day. But especially (says Calvin) do those words of the Psalm belong to this day, because the Resurrection was the most evident actual declaration that Christ was the Son of God, for, He was declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead, says the Apostle expressly. But how? wherein was he declared? There were others that were raised from the dead by Prophets in the old Testament, by Christ and his Apostles in the new, and yet not thereby declared to be such Sons of God, Essential Sons; no nor any Sons of God, not Sons by adoption; for we are not sure that all those that were miraculously raised from the dead, were effectually saved at last. Therefore the comfort in our case is in that word of the Angel, Surrexit, He is risen; For so all our Translators, and Expositors do constantly carry it, not in a Suscitatus (as all the rest are) That he was raised, but in this Surrexit, He is risen, risen of himself. For so he testifies of himself, Destroy this Temple, and in three days Ego suscitabo, I will raise it up again; Not that the Father should, but that he would; so also, Ego pono, and Ego sumo, says Christ, I lay down, and I take again my soul; Not that it is given, or taken by another. And therefore Gregory Nyssen suspects, that for the infirmity of the then hearers, the Apostles thought it scarce safe, to express it often in that phrase, He rose, or He raised himself, and therefore, for the most part, return to the Suscitatus est, that He was raised, lest weak hearers might be scandalized with that, that a dead man had raised himself of his own power. And therefore the Angel in this place enlarges the comfort to these devout women, in a full measure, when he opens himself in that word Surrexit, He is risen, risen of himself.

This then is one piece of our evidence, and the foundation of all, that we cannot be deceived, because he, in whom we trust, is, by this his own rising, declared to be the Son of God; And another, and a powerful comfort is this, That he being risen for our justification, we are also risen in him. He that raised the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by the same Jesus. He shall; there is our assurance; but that is not all; for there is a con-resuscitavit, He hath quickened us together, and raised us together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places; not together with one another, but together with Christ. There is our comfort collected from this surrexit, He is risen, equivalent to the discomfort of the non est hîc, he is not here; That this his rising declares him to be the Son of God, who therefore can, and will, and to be that Jesus, an actual Redeemer, and therefore hath already raised us. To what? To that renovation, to that new creation, which is so excellently expressed by Severianus, as makes us sorry we have no more of his; Mutatur ordorerum, The whole frame and course of nature is changed; Sepulchrum non mortuum, sed mortem devorat, The grave, (now, since Christs Resurrection, and ours in him) does not bury the dead man, but death himself; My Bell tolls for death, and my Bell rings out for death, and not for me that dye; for I live, even in death; but death dies in me, and hath no more power over me.

I was crucified with Christ upon Friday, says Chrysologus, Et hodiè resurgo, to day I rose with him again; Et gloria resurrection is sepelivit injuriam morientis, The ingloriousness of having been buried in the dust, is recompensed in the glory I rise to, Liber inter mortuos; that which David says, and, (by S. Augustines application) of Christ, is true of me too; Christ was, and I am Liber inter mortuos, free amongst the dead, undetainable in the state of death. For, says S. Peter, It was not possible he should be holden of it. Not possible for Christ, because of the prediction of so many Prophets, whose words had an infallibility in them; not possible especially, because of the Union of the Divine Nature: Not possible for me neither, because God hath afforded me the marks of his Election, and thereby made me partaker of the Divine Nature too. But yet these things might, perchance, not fall into the consideration of these women; They did not; but they might, they should have done; for, as the Angel tells them here, Christ had told them of this before; Sicut dixit, he is risen, as he said.

Even the Angel himself referres himself to the word; Sicut dixit; The Angel himself desires not to be believed, but as he grounds himself upon the word, sicut dixit. Let therefore no Angel of the Church, not that super-Arch-angel of the Roman Church, proceed upon an ipse dixit, upon his own pectoral word, and determination, for the Angel here referres us to the sicut dixit, the former word. God will be content that we doubt, and suspend our assent to any revelation, if it do not concern some duty delivered in Scripture before; And to any miracle, if it do not conduce to the proof of some thing commanded in Scripture before. Sicut dixit, is an Angelical issue, As he said.

But, how often soever Christ had spoken of this Resurrection to others, these women might be ignorant of it. For, all that is said, even by Christ himself, is not said to all; nor is all, written for all, that is written by the Holy Ghost. No man must suspect that he knows not enough for salvation, if he understand not all places of Scripture. But yet these women could not well be ignorant of this, because being Disciples and followers of Christ, though Christ had never spoken of the Resurrection to them, they were likely to have heard of it from them, to whom Christ had spoken of it. It was Cleophas his question to Christ, (though he knew him not then to be so, when they went together to Emaus) Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? that is, hast thou been at Jerusalem, and is this, The death of Christ, strange to thee? So may we say to any that professes Christianity; Art thou in the Christian Church, and is this, The Resurrection of Christ, strange to thee? Are there any amongst us, that thrust to Fore-noons, and After-noons Sermons, that pant after high, and un-understandable Doctrines, of the secret purposes of God, and know not this, the fundamental points of Doctrine? Even these womens ignorance, though they were in the number of the Disciples of Christ, makes us afraid, that some such there may be; and therefore blessed be they that have set on foot that blessed way of Catechizing, that after great professions, we may not be ignorant of small things. These things these women might have learnt of others, who were to instruct them. But for their better assurance, the Angel tells them here, that Christ himself had told them of this before; Remember, says he, how Christ spoke to you whilst he was with you in Galile.

We observe, that Christ spoke to his Disciples, of his Resurrection, five times in the Gospel; Now, these women could not be present at any of the five but one, which was the third; And, before that, it is evident that they had applied themselves to Christ, and ministered unto him. The Angel then remembers them, what Christ said to them there. It was this; The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and Crucified, and the third day, rise again; And they remembered his words, says the Text there; Then they remembered them, when they heard of them again; but not till then.

Which gives me just occasion to note first the perverse tenderness, and the supercilious, and fastidious delicacy of those men, that can abide no repetitions, nor indure to hear any thing which they have heard before; when as even these things which Christ himself had preached to these women, in Galile, had been lost, if this Angel had not preached them over again to them at Jerusalem; Remember how he spake to you, says he to them. And why shouldst thou be loath to hear those things which thou hast heard before, when, till thou heardst them again, thou didst not know, that is, not consider that ever thou hadst heard them? So have we here also just occasion to note their impertinent curiosity, who though the sense be never so well observed, call every thing a salfification, if the place be not rightly cyphard, or the word exactly cited; and magnify one another for great Text men, though they understand no Text, because they cite Book, and Chapter, and Verse, and Words aright; whereas in this place, the Angel referres the women to Christs words, and they remember that Christ spake those words, and yet if we compare the places, (that where Christ speaks the words, and that where the Angel repeats them) though the sense be entirely the same, yet the words are not altogether so. Thus the Angel erects them in the consternation; Remember what was promised, that in three days he would rise; The third day is come, and he is risen, as he said; and, that your senses may be exercised as well as your faith, Come and see the place, where the Lord lay.

Even the Angel calls Christ Lord; and his Lord; for, the Lord, (and the Angel calls him so) is Lord of all, of men, and Angels. When God brings his Soninto the world, (says the Apostle) he says, let all the Angels of God worship him. And when God caries his Son out of the world, by the way of the Cross, they have just cause to worship him too, for, By the blood of his Cross are all things reconciled to God, both things in earth, and things in heaven, Men and Angels. Therefore did an Angel minister to Christ before he was, in the Annunciation to his blessed Mother, that he should be; And an Angel to his imaginary Father Joseph, before he was born; And a Quire of Angels to the Shepherds at his birth; An Angel after his temptation, And in his Agony, and Bloody-sweat, more Angels; Angels at his last step, at his Ascension, and here, at his Resurrection Angels minister unto him. The Angels of heaven acknowledged Christ to be their Lord. In the beginning some of the Angels would be Similes Altissimo, like to the most High; But what a transcendent, what a super-diabolical, what a prae-Luciferian pride is his, that will be supra Altissimum, superior to God; That not only exalteth himself above all that is called God, (Kings are called Gods, and this Arch-Monarch exalts himself above all Kings) but above God literally, and in that wherein God hath especially manifested himself to be God, to us, that is in prescribing us a Law, how he will be obeyed; for, in dispensing with this Law, and adding to, and withdrawing from this law, he exalts himself above God, as our Law-giver. And, (as it is also said there) He exalteth himself, and opposeth himself against God. There is no trusting of such neighbours, as are got above us in power. This man of sin hath made himself superior to God, and then, an enemy to God; for God is Truth, and he opposes him in that, for he is heresy and falsehood; and God is Love, and he opposes him in that, for he is envy, and hatred, and malice, and sedition, and invasion, and rebellion.

The Angel confesses Christ to be The Lord, his Lord, and he confesses him to be so then when he lay dead in the grave, Come, seethe place where the Lord lay. A West Indian King having been well wrought upon for his Conversion to the Christian Religion, and having digested the former Articles, when he came to that, He was crucified, dead, and buried, had no longer patience, but said, If your God be dead and buried, leave me to my old god, the Sun, for the Sun will not dye. But if he would have proceeded to the Article of the Resurrection, he should have seen, that even then, when he lay dead, he was GOD still; Then, when he was no Man, he was GOD still; Nay, then when he was no man, he was God, and Man, in this true sense, That though the body and soul were divorced from one another, and that during that divorce, he were no man, (for it is the union of body and soul that makes a man) yet the Godhead was not divided from either of these constitutive parts of man, body or soul. Even then, when a man is no man, he may be a Christian; when I am a worm and no man, when I am the off-scouring of the world, when I am the reproach, the proverb, the hissing of men, yet, as my Savior, when he lay in the grave, was the same Christ, so in this grave of oppression and persecution, I am the same Christian, as in my Baptism.

Let nothing therefore that can fall upon thee, dispoyle thee of the dignity and constancy of a Christian; howsoever thou be severed from those things, which thou makest account do make thee up, severed from a wife by divorce, from a child by death, from goods by fire, or water, from an office by just, or by unjust displeasure, (which is the heavier but the happier case) yet never think thy self severed from thy Head Christ Jesus, nor from being a lively member of his body. Though thou be a brother of Dragons and a companion of Owls, Though thy Harpe be turned into mourning, and thine Organ into the voice of them that weep, nay, Though the Lord kill thee, yet trust in him. Thy Savior when he lay dead in the grave, was still the same Lord, Thou, when thou art enwrapped, and enterred in confusion, art still the same Christian. To this meditation the Angel carries us, in keeping up Christs style at the highest, then when he was at the lowest, And to some other particulars he carries these Women, in that which remains, Come and see the place.

It is not nothing, certainly not merely nothing, that God does so often direct us to frequent his Sanctuary, and his holy places. Not nothing, that Solomon, into that Instrument which passed between God and him, for the Consecration of the Temple, inserted that Covenant, That not only they which came to that Temple, but they, who being necessarily absent, prayed towards the Temple, might be heard; which is, (not inconveniently) assigned for a reason of Hezekiah his turning to the wall to pray, in his sick bed, and of Daniels opening of his windows, when he prayed in his private chamber, because, in so doing, they looked towards Jerusalem, where the Temple was. When Naaman being recovered from his bodily leprosy, recovered from his spiritual leprosy too, and resolved to worship none but the true God, he was loath to worship the true God, in an unholy place, and therefore desired some of that earth to build an Altar upon. Pharaoh was come to be content that Moses and his people should sacrifice to their true God, so they would sacrifice in Egypt; But, Moses durst not accept of those conditions. Pharaoh grew content that they should go out of Egypt to Sacrifice, so they would not go far, but keep within his limits; but Moses durst not accept those conditions; nor any conditions less then those, in which God had determined him, which was, To go three days iourney into the Wilderness. We know that God is alike in all places, but he does not work in all places alike; God works otherwise in the Church, then in an Army; and diversly in his divers Ordinances in the Church; God works otherwise in Prayer then in Preaching, and otherwise in the Sacraments then in either; and otherwise in the later, then in the first Sacrament. The power is the same, and the end is the same, but the way is not so. Athanasius, scarce three hundred years after Christ, found the Church in possession of that Custom (and he takes knowledge of it, as of a precept from the Apostles themselves) That the Congregation should pray towards the East, to testify (says that Father) their desire of returning to the Country, which they had lost, Paradise. Places of profane and secular use should not be made equal with holy places; nor should holy actions, and motions, and gestures, and positions of the body in divine service, be submitted to scorn and derision. They have their use; either in a real exaltation of Devotion, or for a peaceable conservation of uniformity, and decency, or for a reverential obedience to lawful Authority; and any of these is enough, to authorize things in their use, which in themselves and in their own nature are indifferent. And though the principal purpose of the Angel, in shewing these women the place, were to assure them, that Christ was risen, yet may there also be an intimation of the help and assistance that we receive from holy places, in this their Ecce locus, Come, and see the place.

But this is far, very very far from that superstitious fixing of God to the free-hold, which they have induced in the Roman Church, and upon which, they have super-induced their meritorious Pilgrimages to certain places. Consider a little the Pilgrimage of these Pilgrimages, how they have gone on. Innocent the third, in the Lateran Council, about four hundred years since, gave free pardon of all sins to all men, that went or contributed to the recovery of the holy land. Now these expeditions were not with any hope of recovering that land, but principally to carry the powerfullest persons, and the activest spirits into those remote parts, that so these parts might be left the more open to the Inundation of that Sea of Rome, and the invasions of that Bishop. After this, these Indulgences were enlarged, and communicated to all that went to Jerusalem, not only as Soldiers, but as Pilgrims. And, after that by Boniface the eighths liberality the way was shortened, and they had as much that came but to Rome, as they that went to Jerusalem. As, a little before, by Clement the sixth, there was a power given to every man, that went such a Pilgrimage, to deliver four souls out of Purgatory, which he would, and a commandment given to the Angels of Heaven, to carry their souls that died in that Pilgrimage, immediately to Heaven, without touching upon Purgatory.

These abuses made that learned and devout Man, Gerson, the Chancelor of Paris, in his time, (as, let them deny it with what stiffness they will, nothing is more demonstrable, nor more evidently demonstrated, Then that in all times, some great men amongst themselves have opposed their Superstitions) This, I say, made Gerson say, (though he durst say no more) Abnegare non possumus, None of us all can deny, but that many things are induced upon color of Religion, quorum sanctior esset omissio, which he shall be more holy that forbears, then he that performs them. In detestation of this local and stationary salvation of these meritorious pilgrimages to certain places, some of the blessed Fathers spoke much, long before they were come to that enormous abuse, in which the later times exceeded. S. Jerome had occasion to say much of it, by a solicitation from Polinus, and he says this, Quanti hodieportant funera sua? How many men carry Sepulchres to the Sepulchre, when they carry themselves to Jerusalem? Non Hierosolymis vixisse, says he, To have lived well at Jerusalem is praise-worthy, but not to have lived there. Non audeo concludere, I dare not shut up that God, whom the Heavens cannot contain, in a corner of the earth; and Jerusalem is but so. Et de Britannia, & de Hierosolymis aequaliter patet aula coelestis, Heaven is as near England, (says S. Jerome) as it is to Jerusalem. And Christ, (says he) was then in Jerusalem, in that holy place, when he said, Abeamus hinc, Let us go from hence; as holy as the place was, he made haste out of it; for, (as that Father adds) it is a place full of mutinous Souldiers, of licentious prostitutes, of Players and Jesters; and these are the elements of the holiness of that place.

Gregory Nyssen (in the same time with Jerome) had a particular occasion to deliver his opinion of these pilgrimages to Jerusalem; for he had been there himself, though not as a Pilgrim. Sunt aliqui, There are some that make it a part of Religion, to have been at Jerusalem, Sin praeter praeceptum Domini, But, says he, if Christ never commanded it, (that is his Rule) I know not what can justify that man, that makes himself the Rule of his Religion. Christ never called that, Blessedness, says he, to have been at Jerusalem, nor ever called this Jerusalem the way to Heaven; why any man should do so, when Christ did not, Qui mentem habet, consideret, (says that Father) Let him that is not distracted, consider. Nay, says he, there is not only no certain profit, but evident danger to a chaste soul, in the unchaste conversation of those Pilgrims, and he exemplifies, and particularizes wherein; but we forbear that. Shall I be asked then, why I went to Jerusalem? says that Father; I went into those parts out of necessity, says he, being called to a Council held in those parts; And, being so near, I was chosen as an Arbitrator between some Churches, which were then at variance, which differences were to be composed at Jerusalem, and so I went thither. Howsoever, let no man be encouraged to go thither for my being there, (for I was never the better Christian for having been there) but let every man think and believe me to be the more competent witness, and judge of the dangers, because I saw them. I believed that Christ was risen, before I saw the empty Sepulchre; And though (I thank God for it) I lost none of my faith at Jerusalem, yet I increased it not there. Si perversè vivas; live Christianly, or thou art as far from Christ in the Sepulchre, and from all benefit of his Resurrection, as they that were hired to watch the Sepulchre, and to seal the Sepulchre to prevent the Resurrection, or as if he that lay in the Sepulchre had never died. When we have remembered you of that which S. Chrysostom (of the same time with Jerome and Nyssen) says, That there were some so vain, as to go to Arabia to kiss that dunghill where Job sate to be visited by his impertinent friends, you have testimony enough, concurrence enough for the detestation of these hypocritical Pilgrimages, and the manifold superstitions that grow from this tree; and grew to a far greater inexcusableness, when all was transferred to Rome, where, both the Indulgences were larger, and the pestilent infections of the place more contagious then at Jerusalem.

Now, to bind up our sheaf, and lay it so upon you, that you may easily carry it, you have seen, That women, though weak, are capable of religious offices; No understanding so weak, but it may believe, no body so weak, but it may do something in some calling. You have seen too, that these women were early in their religious work, they begun betimes; we have but one Parable that tells us, that they that came late to the labor were as well rewarded as the earliest. So have you also seen, that as they were early and forward, so were they earnest, and sedulous; Cursed be he that doth the work of God (that is, any godly work) negligently. You have likewise seen upon what their devotion was carried; upon things which could not entirely be done; yet God accepted their devotion; where the root and substance of the work is piety, God pretermits many times errors in circumstance. You have heard the Angels information to them, Non hîc, that Christ was not there, and yet comfort in that; God raises comfort out of all things, even out of discomfort it self to the godly. You have heard the reason added, Quia surrexit, for he is risen; And if this be a good reason, there is no Transubstantiation, no Ubiquitisme, for then Christ might have been there, though he were risen. He is risen, not only raised, and therefore the Son of God; and risen for our Instification, therefere we are risen in him. And this, Sicut dixit, As he had said before; No word is certain, not in the mouth of an Angel, but as it is referred to the former word of God. And it is Sicut dixit vobis, As he had said to you; Though all Scriptures be not proposed to all, and Gods secret purposes proposed to none, yet the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith are proposed to all, the weakest of all, These women had heard Christ. Him, this Angel calls The Lord, His Lord; How rebellious is that man of sin, that makes Christ his servant, and pretence of religion his instrument? He avows him to be the Lord, then when he lay dead in the grave; Be truly a Christian, and in the grave of persecution, in the grave of putrefaction thou shalt retain the same name, and even thy dust shall be Christian dust. And lastly, for the establishment of their comfort, the Angel directs them to consider the place, Ecce locus, not to incline them to superstitious pilgrimages, but yet to a holy reverence, and estimation of places consecrated to Gods service. And if these Meditations have raised you from the bed of sin, in any holy purpose, this is one of your Resurrections, and you have kept your Easter-day well. To which, he, whose name is Amen, say Amen, our blessed Savior Christ Jesus, in the power of his Father, and in the operation of his Spirit.

Sermon XXVI. Preached upon Easter-day.

1 THES. 4.17.

Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with the Lord.

IN this Epistle, our Apostle (according to his manner in all his Epistles) first establishes those to whom he writes, in those matters of faith, in which he had formerly instructed them; and then, rectifies them in matter of manners, of holiness of life, and the ways and fruits of sanctification. In this last part of this Chapter, he involves, he wraps up both together; a Fundamental point, the Resurrection of the dead, and then, an instruction for manners arising out of that, That they mourn not intemperately for the dead, as they do (saith he) which have no hope of seeing them again, who are gone. For we know, that they which are gone, are gone but into another room of the same house, (this world, and the next, do but make up God a house) they are gone but into another Pu of the same Church, (the Militant and the Triumphant do but make up God a Church.) If we believe that Jesus died, and rose again (says our Apostle) even so, them also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him: with him; For, howsoever they have lien ingloriously in the dust all this while, all this while they have been with God, and he shall bring them with him. But the Thessalonians were not so hard in believing the Resurrection, as curious in enquiring the order of the Resurrection. And as among the Corinthians some inquired de modo, How are the dead raised, and with what body do they come? So among the Thessalonians some inquired, de Ordine, in what order, for precedency, shall the last scean of this last act of man, be transacted? What difference between them that were dead thousands of years before, and them whom Christ shall find alive at his second comming? Them the Apostle satisfies; We that are alive, shall not prevent them that are asleep, we shall not enter into heaven before them; The dead in Christ shall first rise, says he; and then, (then enters our Text) Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall be ever with the Lord.

Then. When? This Then in our text, is an apprehensive, and a comprehensive word. It reaches to, and lays hold upon that which the Apostle says before the text, in the fifteenth and sixteenth verses. Then, when the dead in Christ are first risen, and risen by Christs comming down from heaven, in clamore, in a shout, in the voice of the Archangel, and in the Trumpet of God, Then, when that is done, We that are alive, and remain, shall be wrought upon, and all being joined in one body, They, and we together, shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. So that, in these words we shall have three things to consider, which will constitute three parts in this exercise. First, the raising of those that were dead before. Secondly, the changing of them who are alive then; And lastly, our union in our exaltation, and possession of the kingdom of God, We, together with them, shall be caught up.

Neither of these three parts will be swallowed down in a generality; There must pass a Mastication, a re-division into more particular branches upon them all. For, in the first, which the first word of our Text, Then induces, which is the raising of them who were dead before, we shall consider first, That the dead are not forgotten, though they have dwelt long in the house of forgetfulness, nor lost, though they have lain long in the dust of dispersion, nor neglected, nor deferred, that others might be preferred before them, which shall be alive then, for, says the Apostle, We shall not prevent them, but they shall rise first; How shall they rise? For, that is also a second consideration, induced by our first word. Then, Then when they shall be raised in virtute Christi, in the power of Christ, for, says the Text, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven to raise them. And how shall he exercise, how shall he execute, and declare his power in their raising? It shall be In clamore, with a shout, and in the voice of the Arch-angel, and the Trumpet of God. And in these three Branches, That the dead shall rise first, That they shall rise in the power of Christ, That that power shall be thus expressed, In a shout, in the voice of the Arch-angel, in the Trumpet of God, we shall determine that first Part. When that is done, and done so, we shall be wrought upon, We that are alive and remain then; where we shall first see, that some shall be alive, and remain then, when Christ comes, And then consider their state and condition, how they being then clothed with bodies of corruption shall be capable of that present entrance into glory; and in that disquisition we shall end our second Part. And then, in our third and last part, The glorious Union of these two Armies, Those which were dead, and those which are alive, we shall consider first, That here is no mention at all, of any Resurrection of the wicked, but only of them that sleep in Christ; They shall rise; And then, those that are to partake of this glory, are thus proceeded with; They are caught up, Rapiuntur; Caught up in the Clouds, In Nubibus; Exalted into the Air, In Aera; There to meet the Lord, Obviam Domino; And so to be with the Lord for ever. We shall be, and be with the Lord, and be with the Lord for ever; which are blessed and glorious gradations, if we may have time to insist upon them; which we may best hope for this day of all others; for, this day, we have two days in one. This day both Gods Sons arose; The Sun of his Firmament, and the Son of his bosom. And if one Sun do set upon us, the other will stay, as long as our devotion last. God went not from Abraham, till Abraham had no more to say; No more will Christ from us.

First then, for our first Branch of our first part, the rising of the dead, the first man that was laid in the dust of the earth, Abel, loses nothing by lying so long there; He loses nothing, that men of later ages gain; For, if we live to the comming of Christ to Judgement, we shall not prevent them, we shall have no precedency of them, that were dead ages before. No man is superannuated in the grave, that he is too old to enter into heaven, where the Master of the house is The ancient of days. No man is bed-rid with age in the grave, that he cannot rise. It is not with God, as it is with man; we do, but God does not forget the dead; and, as long as God is with them, they are with him. As he puts all thy tears into his bottles, so he puts all the grains of thy dust into his Cabinet, and the winds that scatter, the waters that wash them away, carry them not out of his sight. He remembers that we are but dust; but dust then when we lie in the grave; and yet he remembers us. But his memory goes farther then so, He remembers that we were but dust alive, at our best; They dye, says David, and they return to their own dust. It is not an entering into a new state, when they dye, but a returning to their old, They return to dust; And it is not to that dust which is cast upon them, in the grave, (for that may be another mans dust) but to that dust which they carried about them in their bodies, They return, and to dust; and to their own dust.

Nor is dust so inglorious a thing, but that God gives a dignity to dust, when he admits it into comparison to express the multiplication, the accumulation of his blessings upon Abraham, I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; not for weakness, but for infiniteness; And so, to the same purpose of expressing greatness, Balaam uses this Metaphor of dust, Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Neither does Abraham think it any diminution to lie in the dust of the earth, when he is dead, for he professes that he walks in the dust of the earth, in himself, whilst he is aliye, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord being but dust. And when David seems to fear the dust of death, (lighten mine eyes, lest they sleep the sleep of death) it is not that he suspects any detriment to himself by death, that he shall be the worse by dying, but that God may lose of his glory, when (as he adds there) the enemy shall say, we have prevailed against him. For, as in the Primitive Church, those that seem prayers for the dead, at Funerals, are, indeed, but thanksgivings to God, in their behalf that are departed; so, as often as David expresses himself in that Pathetical manner, Awake, O Lord, why sleepest thou? arise, and cast us not off for ever, it is a thanksgiving that he hath not, and a prayer that he would not forget them. When he says, Will God be favourable no more? he means, I am sure he will. Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for ever? Hath God forgot to be gracious? Hath he shut up his mercy in anger? All these imply a kind of confidence that he hath not.

And, as it is in that Resurrection of which David speaks most literally in those places, (that is, The Resurrection from the calamities and oppressions of this world) so is it in the Resurrection from the dust of the grave too; Thou hast brought me to the dust of the grave; but, be not thou far from me; That is, when thou shalt bring me to the dust of the grave, thou wilt not be far from me. And, when he says, (in apparence) by way of expostulation, and jealousy, and suspicion, Will God show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise him? shall his loving kindness be declared in the grave, or his faishfulness in destruction? All these passionate interrogatories, and vehement expostulations may safely be resolved into these Doctrinal propositions, Yes, God will show wonders to the dead, The dead shall rise and praise him, His loving kindness shall be declared in the grave, and his faithfulness in destruction. For, God will not forget the Congregation of his poor for ever. The poor of this world, are our poor; Gods poor are they that lie in the dust, the dust of the grave, the dead; of whom, God hath a greater Congregation under ground, then of the living upon the face of the earth; And, God will not forget the congregation of his poor for ever. Finitus est eorum pulvis; That which we translate, Their Extortioner is at an end, their Oppressor is at an end, is in S. Jerome, Their dust is at an end; that is, there comes a time, when the dust of the grave shall oppress them no longer. When? Truly, that time is virtually, and in an infallibility come already; as those other words of the same Prophet, may admit an accommodation in the person of Christ, Thy dead men shall live; When? Together with my dead body they shall rise. Consider, by occasion of those words, a promise, long before Christs Resurrection, that all they which slept in Christ should rise in him, with my dead body they shall rise; And then consider the performance of this promise in the Apostle, Consurrexerunt, together with Christ, all that slept in him, (nay, all that fell asleep since he waked, all that died since he rose) did arise. Virtually, and infallibly they did. And, for the actual accomplishment of this Resurrection in every individual person, they that were laid in the grave in the first ages, lose no time. For, there is no time of entering into heaven, till the Lord come to fetch us; And then, they that are dead, shall be so far from being pretermitted, as that they shall first be raised before any thing be done upon us. But how shall they be raised, by what power? (for that is a second Consideration induced also by this first word of our Text, Then, when the Lord shall have descended from heaven to raise them; Then when they are raised, In virtute Christi, in the virtue and power of Christ.

Then, (says our blessed Savior, speaking of the Resurrection) then, shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun; And wheresoever we are called the Sun, compared, assimilated to the Sun, Christ is our Zodiake; In him we move, from the beginning to the end of our Circle. And therefore, as the last point of our Circle, our resurrection determines in him, in Christ; so, the first point of our Circle, our first adoption began in him, in Christ too. And, if I were adopted in Christ, (in Christ who is a Redeemer of sinners) I was adopted in the condition, and in the consideration of a sinner, and such a sinner as should, as would lay hold upon this Christ, this Redeemer. Christ is the Resurrection; so Christ is the Adoption; If there be a Resurrection in him, there were some dead before; If there bean Adoption in him, there are some sinners before. The first look that God casts upon us, is in Christ, and therefore the first consideration that he takes of us, is, as we are sinners; He adopts none but penitent sinners, he reproves none but impenitent sinners. In him also the dead are raised; that is, in that power, which he was raised by, The power of God. For, still that phrase is ingeminated, iterated, multiplied, Suscitavit Deus, suscitatus à Deo, God raised Christ from the dead, and Christ was raised from the dead by God. And when it is said by the Angel to the women, Surrexit, He is risen, (risen of himself, as the word sounds) And when by those two which went with Christ to Emaus, it is said at their return to Jerusalem, to the eleven Apostles, surrex it verè, He is risen indeed, (risen of himself, as the word sounds) yet that phrase and expression, He is risen, if there were no more in it, but that expression, and that phrase, would not conclude Christs rising to have been in virtute propria, in his own power. For, of Dorcas who was raised from the dead, it is said, Resedit, she sate up, and of Lazarus, Prodiit, he came forth; and yet, these actions thus ascribed to themselves, were done in virtute aliena, in the power of another. Christs Resurrection was not so, In virtute aliena, in the power of another, if you consider his whole person, God and Man, but it was aliena à filio Mariae; Christ as the Son of Mary rose not by his own power. It was by his own; but his own, because he was God, as well as man. Nor could all the Magic in the world have raised him sooner, then by that his power, (his, as God) he (that is, that person, God and man) was pleased to rise. So sits he now at the right hand of his Father in heaven; nor can all the Consecrations of the Roman Priests either remove him from thence, or multiply him to a bodily being any where else, till his time of comming to Judgment, come. Then, and not till then, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, in clamore, says the Text, in a shout, with the voice of the Arch-angel, and with the Trumpet of God, which circumstances constitute our third, and last Branch of this first Part, The dead shall rise first, They shall rise in the power of Christ, (therefore Christ is God; for Christ himself rose in the power of God) and that power shall be thus declared, In a shout, in the voice of the Arch-Angel, in the Trumpet of God.

The dead hear not Thunder, nor feel they an Earth quake. If the Canon batter that Church walls, in which they lye buried, it wakes not them, nor does it shake or affect them, if that dust, which they are, be thrown out, but yet there is a voice, which the dead shall hear; The dead shall hear, the voice of the Son of God, (says the Son of God himself) and they that hear shall live; And that is the voice of our Text. It is here called a clamor, a vociferation, a shout, and varied by our Translators, and Expositors, according to the origination of the word, to be clamor hortatorius, and suasorius, and jussorins, A voice that carries with it a penetration, (all shall hear it) and a persuasion, (all shall believe it, and be glad of it) and a power, a command, (all shall obey it.) Since that voice at the Creation, Fiat, Let there be a world, was never heard such a voice as this, Surgite mortui, Arise ye dead. That was spoken to that that was merely nothing, and this to them, who in themselves shall have no cooperation, no concurrence to the hearing or answering this voice.

The power of this voice is exalted in that it is said to be the voice of the Archangel. Though legions of Angels, millions of Angels shall be employed about the Resurrection, to recollect their scattered dust, and recompact their ruined bodies, yet those bodies so recompact, shall not be able to hear a voice. They shall be then but such bodies, as they were when they were laid down in the grave, when, though they were entire bodies, they could not hear the voice of the mourner. But this voice of the Archangel shall enable them to hear; The Archangel shall re-infuse the several souls into their bodies, and so they shall hear that voice, Surgite mortui, Arise ye that were dead, and they shall arise. And here we are eased of that disputation, whether there be many Archangels, or no, for, if there be but one, yet this in our text, is he, for, it is not said, In the voice of An Archangel, but of The Archangel; if not the Only, yet he who comprehends them all, and in whom they all consist, Christ Jesus.

And then, the power of this voice is exalted to the highest in the last word, that it is, Tuba Dei, The Trumpet of God. For, that is an Hebraisme, and in that language, it constitutes a superlative, to add the name of God to any thing. As in Sauls case, when David surprised him, in his dead sleep, it is said, that Sopor Domini, The sleep of the Lord was upon him, that is, the heaviest, the deadest sleep that could be imagined, so here, The Trumpet of God is the loudest voice that we conceive God to speak in.

All these pieces, that it is In clamore, In a cry, in a shout, that it is In the voice of the Archangel, that it is In the Trumpet of God, make up this Conclusion, That all Resurrections from the dead, must be from the voice of God, and from his loud voice; It must be so, even in thy first Resurrection, thy resurrection from sin, by grace here; here, thou needest the voice of God, and his loud voice. And therefore, though thou think thou hear sometimes Gods sibilations, (as the Prophet Zechary speaks) Gods soft and whispering voice, (in ward remorses of thine own; and motions of the Spirit of God to thy spirit) yet think not thy spiritual resurrection accomplished, till, in this place, thou hear his loud voice; Till thou hear Christ descending from Heaven, (as the text says) that is, working in his Church; Till thou hear him In clamore, in this cry, in this shout, in this voice of Penetration, of persuasion, of power, that is, till thou feel in thy self in this place a liquefaction, a colliquation, a melting of thy bowels under the commination of the Judgements of God upon thy sin, and the application of his mercy to thy Repentance.

And then, this thou must hear In voce Archangeli, In the voice of the Archangel. S. John in the beginning of the Revelation, calls every Governor of a Church an Angel. And much respect and reverence, much faith, and credit behoves it thee to give to thine Angel, to the Pastor of that Church, in which God hath given thee thy station; for, he is thine Angel, thy Tutelar, thy guardian Angel. Men should seek the Law at the mouth of the Priest, says God in Malachi; (of that Priest that is set over him) For, the lips of the Priest, (of every Priest, to whom the souls of others are committed) should preserve knowledge, should be able to instruct and rectify his flock, Quia Angelus Domini Exercituum, because every such Priest is the Angel of the Lord of Hosts. Hearken thou therefore, to that Angel, thine Angel. But here thou art directed above thine Angel to the Archangel. Now, not the governor of any particular Church, but he Who hath purchased the whole Church with his blood, He who only is head of the whole Church, Christ Jesus, is this Archangel; Hear him. It is the voice of the Archangel, (that is, the trne and sincere word of God) that must raise thee from the death of sin, to the life of grace. If therefore any Angel differ from the Archangel, and preach other then the true and sincere word of God, Anathema, says the Apostle, let that Angel be accursed. And take thou heed of over-affecting, overvaluing the gifts of any man so, as that thou take the voice of an Angel, for the voice of the Archangel, any thing that that man says, for the word of God.

Yet thou must hear this voice of the Archangel in the Trumpet of God. The Trumpet of God is his loudest Instrument; and his loudest Instrument is his public Ordinance in the Church; Prayer, Preaching, and Sacraments; Hear him in these, In all these; come not to hear him in the Sermon alone, but come to him in Prayer, and in the Sacrament too. For, except the voice come in the Trumpet of God, (that is, in the public Ordinance of his Church) thou canst not know it to be the voice of the Archangel. Pretended services of God, in schismatical Conventicles, are not in the Trumpet of God, and therefore not the voice of the Archangel, and so, not the means ordained for thy spiritual resurrection. And, as our last resurrection from the grave, is rooted in the personal resurrection of Christ, (For, if Christ be not raised from the dead, we are yet in our sins, (says the Apostle) But why so? Because, to deliver us from sin, Christ was to destroy all our enemies; Now, the last enemy is Death; and last time that Death and Christ met, (upon the Cross) Death overcame him, and therefore, except he be risen from the power of Death, we are yet in our sins) as we root our last resurrection in the person of Christ, so do we our first resurrection in him, in his word, exhibited in his Ordinance, for, that is the voice of the Archangel in the Trumpet of God. And as the Apostle says here, This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that thus the last resurrection shall be accomplished by Christ himself, so, this we say to you, by the Word of the Lord, (by the harmony of all the Scriptures) thus, and no other way, By the pure word of God, delivered and applied by his public Ordinance, by Hearing, and Believing, and Practising, under the Seals of the Church, the Sacraments, is your first resurrection from sin, by grace, accomplished. So have you then those three branches, which constitute our first part; That they that are dead before us, shall not be prevented by us, but they shall rise first; That they shall be raised by the power of Christ, that is, the power of God in Christ; That that power, working to their resurrection shall be declared in a mighty voice, the voice of the Archangel, in the Trumpet of God. And then, then when they who were formerly dead, are first raised, and raised by this Power, and this power thus declared, then shall we, we who shall be then alive and remain, be wrought upon; which is our second, and our next general part.

When the Apostle says here, Nos qui vivimus, We that are alive, and remain, would he not be thought to speak this of himself, and the Thessalonians to whom he writes? Do not the words import that? That he, and they should live till Christs comming to Judgement? Some certainly had taken him so; But he complains that he was mistaken; We beseech you brethren, be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, by word or letter, as from us, that the day of the Lord is at hand; so at hand, as that we determine it in our days, in our life. So that the Apostle speaks here, but Hypothetically; he does but put a case, That if it should be Gods pleasure to continue them in the world, till the comming of his Son Christ Jesus, thus and thus they should be proceeded withal; for, thus and thus shall they be proceeded with, says he, that shall then be alive. Our blessed Savior hath such a manner of speech, of an ambiguous sense, in S. Matthew, That there were some standing there, that should not taste of death, till they saw the Son of man comming in his Kingdom. And this might give them just occasion to think, that that Kingdom into which the Judgement shall enter us, was at hand; For, the words which Christ spoke immediately before those, were evidently, undeniably spoken of that last, and everlasting kingdom of glory, The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his Angels, &c. Then follows, Some standing here shall live to see this. And yet Christ did not speak this of that last kingdom of glory; but either he spoke it of that manifestation of that kingdom which was showed to some of them, (to Peter, and James, and John) in the Transfiguration of Christ, (for the Transfiguration was a representation of the kingdom of glory) or else he spoke it of that inchoation of the kingdom of glory, which shined out in the kingdom of grace, which all the Apostles lived to see, in the personal comming of the Holy Ghost, and in his powerful working in the conversion of Nations in their life time.

And this is an inexpressible comfort to us, That our blessed Savior thus mingles his Kingdoms, that he makes the Kingdom of Grace, and the Kingdom of Glory, all one; the Church, and Heaven all one; and assures us, That if we see him In hoc speculo, in this his Glass, in his Ordinance, in his Kingdom of Grace, we have already begun to see him facie ad faciem, face to face, in his Kingdom of Glory; If we see him Sicuti manifestatur, as he looks in his Word, and Sacraments, in his Kingdom of Grace, we have begun to see him, Sicuti est, As he is, in his Essence, in the Kingdom of Glory; And when we pray, Thy Kingdom come; and mean but the Kingdom of Grace, he gives us more then we ask, an inchoative comprehension of the Kingdom of Glory, in this life. This is his inexpressible mercy, that he mingles his Kingdoms, and where he gives one, gives both. So is there also a faire beam of comfort exhibited to us in this Text, That the number reserved for that Kingdom of Glory, is no small number. For though David said, The Lord looked down from heaven, and saw not one that did good, no not one, (there it is less then a few) though when the times had better means to be better, when Christ preached personally upon the earth, when one Centurion had but replied to Christ, Sir, you need not trouble your self to go to my house, if you do but say the word here, my servant will be well, Christ said in his behalf, Verily I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel; When Christ makes so much of this single grain of Mustard-seed, this little faith, as to prefer it before all the faith of Israel, surely faith went very low in Israel at that time, Nay, when Christ himself says, speaking of his last comming, after so many ages preaching of the Gospel, When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith upon earth, any faith? We have I say, a blessed beam of comfort shining out of this text, that it is no small number that is reserved for that Kingdom; For, whether the Apostle speak this of himself and the Thessalonians, or of others, he speaks not as of a few, but that by Christs having preached the narrowness of the way, and the straitness of the gate, our holy industry and endeavor is so much exalted, (which was Christs principal end in taking those Metaphors of narrow ways, and strait gates, not to make any man suspect an impossibility of entering, but to be the more industrious and endeavorous in seeking it) that as he hath sent workmen in plenty, (abundant preaching) so he shall return a plentiful harvest, a glorious addition to his Kingdom, both of those which slept in him before, and of those which shall be then alive, fit, all together, to be caught up in the clouds to meet him, and be with him for ever; for these two armies imply no small number. Now, of the condition of these men, who shall be then alive, and how being clothed in bodies of corruption, they become capable of the glory of this text, in our first distribution, we proposed that for a particular consideration, and the other branch of this second part, and to that, in that order, we are come now.

I scarce know a place of Scripture, more diversly read, and consequently more variously interpreted then that place, which should most enlighten us, in this consideration presently under our hands; which is that place to the Corinthians, Non omnes dormiemus, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The Apostle professes there to deliver us a mystery, (Behold, I show you a mystery) but Translators and Expositors have multiplied mystical clouds upon the words. S. Chrysostom reads these words as we do, Non dormiemus, We shall not all sleep, but thereupon he argues, and concludes, that we shall not all die. The common reading of the ancients is contrary to that, Omnes dormiemus, sed non, &c. We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed. The Vulgate Edition in the Roman Church differs from both, and as much from the original, as from either, Omnes resurgemus, We shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed. S. Jerome examines the two readings, and then leaves the reader to his choice, as a thing indifferent. S. Augustine doth so too, and concludes aquè Catholicos esse, That they are as good Catholics that read it the one way, as the other. But howsoever, that which S. Chrysostom collects upon his reading, may not be maintained. He reads as we do; and without all doubt aright, We shall not all sleep; But what then? Therefore shall we not all die? To sleep there, is to rest in the grave, to continue in the state of the dead, and so we shall not all sleep, not continue in the state of the dead. But yet, Statutum est, says the Apostle, as verily as Christ was once offered to bear our sins, so verily is it appointed to every man once to die; And, as verily as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so verily death passed upon all men, for that all men have sinned; So the Apostle institutes the comparison, so he constitutes the doctrine, in those two places of Scripture, As verily as Christ died for all, all shall die, As verily as every man sins, every man shall die.

In that change then, which we who are then alive, shall receive, (for though we shall not all sleep, we shall all be changed) we shall have a present dissolution of body and soul, and that is truly a death, and a present redintegration of the same body and the same soul, and that is truly a Resurrection; we shall die, and be alive again, before another could consider that we were dead; but yet this shall not be done in an absolute instant; some succession of time, though undiscernible there is. It shall be done In raptu, in a rapture; but even in a rapture there is a motion, a transition from one to another place. It shall be done says he, In ictuoculi, In the twinkling of an eye; But even in the twinkling of an eye, there is a shutting of the eye-lids, and an opening of them again; Neither of these is done in an absolute instant, but requires some succession of time. The Apostle, in the Resurrection in our text, constitutes a Prius, something to be done first, and something after; first those that were dead in Christ shall rise first, and then, Then when that is done, after that, not all at once, we that are alive shall be wrought upon, we shall be changed, our change comes after their rising; so in our change there is a Prius too, first we shall be dissolved, (so we die) and then we shall be re-compact, (so we rise again) This is the difference, they that sleep in the grave, put off, and depart with the very substance of the body, it is no longer flesh, but dust, they that are changed at the last day, put off, and depart with, only the qualities of the body, as mortality and corruption; It is still the same body, without resolving into dust, but the first step that it makes, is into glory.

Now transfer this to the spiritual Resurrection of thy soul by grace, here. Here, Grace works not that Resurrection upon thy soul, in an absolute instant. And therefore suspect not Gods gracious purpose upon thee, if thou beest not presently, throughly recovered. God could have made all the world in one day, and so have come sooner to his Sabbath, his rest; but he wrought more, to give us an example of labor, and of patience, in attending his leisure in our second Creation, this Resurrection from sin, as we did in our first Creation, when we were not made till the sixth day. But remember too, that the last Resurrection, from death, is to be transacted quickly, speedily; And in thy first, thy spiritual Resurrection from sin, make haste. The last is to be done In raptu, in a rapture; Let this rapture in the first Resurrection be, to tear thy self from that company and conversation that leads thee into temptation. The last is to be done Inictu oculi, In the twinkling of an eye; Let that, in thy first Resurrection be, The shutting of thine eyes from looking upon things in things, upon creatures in creatures, upon beauty in that face that misleads thee, or upon honor in that place that possesses thee; And let the opening of thine eyes be, to look upon God in every object, to represent to thy self the beauty of his holiness, and the honor of his service in every action. And in this rapture, and in this twinkling of an eye, will thy Resurrection soon, though not suddenly, speedily, though not instantly be accomplished. And if God take thee out of the world, before thou think it throughly accomplished, yet he shall call thine inchoation, consummation, thine endeavor, performance, and thy desire, effect. For all Gods works are entire, and done in him, at once, and perfect as soon as begun; And this spiritual Resurrection is his work, and therefore quickened even in the Conception, and born even in the quickening, and grown up even in the birth, that is, perfected in the eyes of God, as soon as it is seriously intended in our heart. And farther we carry not your consideration upon those two Branches which constitute our second Part, That some shall be alive at Christs comming, That they that are alive, shall receive such a change, as shall be a true death, and a true Resurrection, And so shall be caught up into the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Aire, and so be with the Lord for ever; which are the Circumstances of our third, and last Part.

In this last part, we proposed it for the first Consideration, that the Apostle determines the Consideration of the Resurrection in those two, Them, and Us, They that slept in Christ, and We that expect the comming of Christ. Of any Resurrection of the wicked, here is no mention. Not that there is not one; but that the resurrection of the wicked conduced not to the Apostles purpose, which was to minister comfort in the loss of the dead, because they were to come again, and to meet the Lord, and to be with him for ever; whereas, in the Resurrection of the wicked, who are only to rise, that they may fall lower, there is no argument of comfort. And therefore our Savior Christ determines his Commission in that, This is the Fathers will that sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. This was his not losing, if it were raised again; but, he hath only them in charge to raise at the last day, whom the Father had given him; given him so, as that they were to be with him for ever; for others he never mentions.

And upon this, much, very much depends. For, this forbearing to mention the resurrection of the wicked with the righteous, gave occasion to many in the Primitive Church, to imagine a two-fold, a former and a later Resurrection; which was furthered by their mistaking of those words in S. John, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection; which words, being intended of the Resurrection from sin, by grace, in this life, the Chiliasts, the Millenarians, interpreted of this Resurrection in our Text, That at Christs comming, the righteous should rise, and live a thousand years, (as S. John says) in all temporal abundances, with Christ here, in recompense of those temporal calamities, and oppressions, which here they had suffered; and then, after those thousand years, so spent with Christ, in temporal abundances, should follow the resurrection of the wicked; and then the wicked, and the righteous should be disposed and distributed and settled in those Mansions, in which they should remain for ever. And of this error, (as very many of the Fathers persisted in it to the end) S. Augustine himself had a touch, and a tincture, at beginning. And this error, S. Jerome also, (though truly, I think, S. Jerome was never touched with it himself) out of a reverence to those many, and great men, that were, (Irenaeus, Tertullian, Lactantius, and the rest) would never call an Heresy, nor an Error, nor by any sharper name, then an opinion, which is no word of heavy detestation.

And as those blessed Fathers of tender bowels, enlarged themselves in this distribution, and apportioning the mercy of God, that it consisted best with the nature of his mercy, that as his Saints had suffered temporal calamities in this world, in this world they should be recompensed with temporal abundances, so did they enlarge this mercy farther, and carry it even to the Gentiles, to the Pagans that had no knowledge of Christ in any established Church. You shall not find a Trumegistus, a Numa Pompilius, a Plato, a Socrates, for whose salvation you shall not find some Father, or some Ancient and Reverend Author, an Advocate. In which liberality of Gods mercy, those tender Fathers proceed partly upon that rule, That in Trismegistus, and in the rest, they find evident impressions, and testimonies, that they knew the Son of God, and knew the Trinity; and then, say they, why should not these good men, believing a Trinity, be saved? and partly they go upon that rule, which goes through so many of the Fathers, Facienti quod in se est, That to that man who does as much as he can, by the light of nature, God never denies grace; and then, say they, why should not these men that do so be saved? And, upon this ground, S. Dionyse, the Areopagite says, That from the beginning of the world, God hath called some men of all Nations, and of all sorts, by the ministry of Angels, though not by the ministry of the Church. To me, to whom God hath revealed his Son, in a Gospel, by a Church, there can be no way of salvation, but by applying that Son of God, by that Gospel, in that Church. Nor is there any other foundation for any, nor other name by which any can be saved, but the name of Jesus. But how this foundation is presented, and how this name of Jesus is notified to them, amongst whom there is no Gospel preached, no Church established, I am not curious in inquiring. I know God can be as merciful as those tender Fathers present him to be; and I would be as charitable as they are. And therefore humbly embracing that manifestation of his Son, which he hath afforded me, I leave God, to his unsearchable ways of working upon others, without farther inquisition.

Neither did those tender Fathers then, (much less the School after) consist in carrying this overflowing, and inexhaustible mercy of God, upon his Saints, after their Resurrection, in temporal abundances, nor upon the Gentiles, who had no solemn, nor clear knowledge of Christ, (which is Magnificare misericordiam, to magnify, to extend, to stretch the mercy of God) but, Mirificant misericordiam, (as David also speaks) they stretch this mercy miraculously, for, they carry this mercy even to hell it self. For, first, for the Angels that fell in heaven, from the time that they committed their first sin, to the time that they were cast down into hell, they whom we call the more subtle part of the School, say, That In illa mora, during that space, between their falling into their sin, and their expulsion from heaven, the Angels might have repented, and been restored, for, so long, say they, those Angels were but in statu viatorum, in the state and condition of persons, as yet upon their way, (as all men are, as long as they are alive) and not In termino, in their last, and determined station. And that which is so often cited out of Damascene, concerning the fall of Angels, Quod hominibus mors est, Angelis casus, That as death works upon man, and concludes him, and makes him impenitible for ever, so works the fall upon the Angels, and concludes them for ever too, they interpret to have been intended by Damascene, not of the Angels fall in heaven, but their fall from heaven; for, till then, they were not, say they, Intermino, in their last state, and, so, not impenitible. And those Ancients, which expound that battle in heaven, between Michael and the Dragon, and their several Angels, to have been fought at that time, after their fall, and between Lucifers rebellion, and his expulsion, (as the Ancients abound much in that sense of that place) argue rationally, That that battle, (what kind of battle soever it were) must necessarily have spent some time. They conceive it to have been a battle of Disputation, of Argumentation, of Persuasion; and that those good Angels which are so glad of our Conversion, would have been infinitely glad to have reduced their rebellious brethren to their obedience. And, during that time, (which could not be a sudden instant) they were not Inadeptivi gratiae, incapable of repentance, and of mercy. S. Cyril comes towards it, comes near it; nay, if it be well observed, goes beyond it; Of Gods longanimity and patience toward man, (says he) we have in part spoken; Quanta ille Angelis condonaverit, nescimus; how great transgressions he hath forgiven in the Angels, we know not; only this we know, says he, Solus qui peccdre non possit Jesus est, There is none impeccable, none that cannot sin, Man nor Angel, but only Christ Jesus.

Nay after the expulsion of the Angels, not only after their fall in Heaven, but their fall from Heaven, many of the Ancients seem loath to exclude all ways of Gods mercy, even from hell it self. De statu moti, sed non irremediabiliter moti, says Origen, The Angels are fallen, fallen even into hell, but not so irrecoverably fallen, Vt Institutionibus bonorum Angelorum non possint restitui, But that by the counsel and labor of the good Angels, they may be restored again. Origen is thought to be single, singular in this doctrine, but he is not. Even S. Ambrose, interpreting that place, That S. Paul says He was made a Minister of the Gospel, Vt innotesceret, to the intent that the wisdom of God, might by the Church, be made known to Powers and Principalities, interprets it of fallen Angels; That they, the fallen Angels might receive benefit by the preaching of the Gospel in the Church. Prudentius says not so, but this he does say, That upon this day, when our blessed Savior arose from hell, Poenarum celebres sub Styge feriae, And, Suppliciis mitibus, Nee forvent solito flumina sulphure, Some relaxation, some ease in their torments, at some time, some very good men have imagined, even in hell. And more then that; they have not absolutely cried down (for, so much it deserves) that fable of Traian; That after that Emperor had been some time in hell, yet, upon the prayers of Pope Gregory, he was removed to Heaven. Nay, more then that; (for, that was but of one man) But, an Author of our age, and much esteemed in the Roman Church, delivers as his own opinion, (and thinks he hath the subtiler part of the School on his side) That that, which is so often said, (from hell there is no redemption) is only to be understood of them, whom God sends to hell, as to their last place; to them, certainly there is no redemption. But, says he, God may send souls of the heathen, who had not the benefit of any Christian Church, and yet were good moral men, to burn out certain errors, or ignorances, or sins in hell, and then remove them to Heaven; for, for so long time, they are but Viatores, they are but in their way, and not concluded.

Beloved, that we might have something in the balance to weigh down the curelty, and the petulancy, and the pertinacy of those men, who in these later times have so attenuated the mercy of God, as that they have almost brought it to nothing, (for there is no mercy where there is no misery, and they place all mercy to have been given at once, and that, before man was fallen into misery by sin, or before man was made) and have pronounced, that God never meant to show mercy to all them, nor but to a very few of them, to whom he pretended to offer it, that we might have something in the balance to weigh against these unmerciful men, I have staid thus long upon these over-merciful men, that have carried mercy upon the Saints of God, in temporal abundances after the Resurrection, and upon the Heathen who never heard Gospel preached, and upon the Angels fallen in Heaven, and upon those Angels fallen from Heaven into hell, and upon the souls of men there, not only in the ease of their torments, but in their translation from thence to Heaven. That so our later men might see, that the Ancients thought God so far from beginning at Hate, (That God should first, for his glory, hate some, and then make them that he might execute his hate upon them) as that they thought god implacable, inexorable, irreconciliable to none; therefore to these unmerciful, have we opposed these overmerciful men.

But yet, to them we must say, Numquid Deus indiget mendacio vestro, ut pro eo Ioquamini dolos? Shall we lye for God, or speak deceitfully for him? deceive your souls, with over-extending his mercy? we may derive mercy from hell, though we carry not mercy to hell. Gehenna non solum eorum, qui puniendi, causa facta, sed & eorum, qui salvandi; Hell was not only made for their sakes, who were to suffer in it, but for theirs, who were to be warned by it; and so there is mercy in hell. Cooperatur regno, says S. Chrysostom, elegantly, Hell hath a co-operation with Heaven, It works upon us, in the advancement of our Salvation, as well as Heaven; Nec saevitiaeres est, sed misericordiae, Hell is not a monument of Gods cruelty, but of his mercy, Et nisi fuisset intentata gehenna, in gehennam omnes cecidissemus, If we were not told of hell, we should all fall into hell; and, so there is mercy in hell. And therefore, says the same Father, Out of an unspeakeable wisdom, and Fatherly care, (as Fathers will speak loudest to their Children, and look angerliest, and make the greatest rods, when they intend not the severest correction) Christus saepius gehennam comminatus est, quam regnum pollicitus, Christ in his Gospel, hath oftener threatened us with hell, then promised us Heaven. We are bound to praise God, says he, as much for driving Adam out of Paradise, as for placing him there, Et agere gratias tam progehenna, quam pro regno, And to give him thanks, as well for hell, as for Heaven. For, whether he cauterise or foment, whether he draw blood, or apply Cordials, he is the same Physician, and seeks but one end, (our spiritual health) by his divers ways. For us, who by this notification of hell, escape hell, We shall not dye, but live; that is, not dye so, but that we shall live again; Therefore is death called a sleep, (Lazarus sleepeth, says Christ.) And Coemiteria are Dormitoria, Churchyards are our beds. And in those beds, (and in all other beds of death) (for, the dead have their beds in the Sea too, and sleep even in the restless motion thereof) the voice of the Archangel, and the Trumpet of God shall awake them that slept in Christ before, and they and we shall be united in one body; for, as our Apostle says here, We shall not prevent them, so he says also, That they shall not be made perfect without us. Though we live to see Christ, we shall not prevent them, though they have attended Christ five thousand years in the grave, they shall not prevent us, but united in one body, Rapiemur, They and we shall be caught, &c.

Rapiemur, We shall be caught up. This is a true Rapture, in which we do nothing our selves. Our last act towards Christ, is as our first; In the first act of our Conversion we do nothing; nothing in this last act, our Resurrection, but Rapimur, we are caught. In everything, the more there is left to our selves, the worse it is done; that that God does entirely, is entirely good. S. Paul had a Rapture too; He was caught up into Paradise; but whether in the body, or out of the body, he cannot tell. We can tell, that this Rapture of ours, shall be in body and soul, in the whole man. Man is but a vapor; but a glorious, and a blessed vapor, when he is attracted, and caught up by this Sun, the Son of Man, the Son of God. O what a blessed alleviation possesses that man! and to what a blessed levity, (if without levity we may so speak) to what a cheerful lightness of spirit is he come, that comes newly from Confession, and with the seal of Absolution upon him! Then, when nothing troubles his conscience, then, when he hath disburdened his soul of all that lay heavy upon it, then, when if his Confessor should unjustly reveal it to any other, yet God will never speak of it more to his conscience, not upbraid him with it, not reproach him for it, what a blessed alleviation, what a holy cheerfulness of spirit is that man come to? How much more in the endowments which we shall receive in the Rapture of this text, where we do not only divest all sins past, (as in Confession) but all possibility of future sins; and put on, not only incorruption, but incorruptibleness; not only impeccancy, but impeccability. And, to be invested with this endowment, Rapiemur, We shall be caught up, and Rapiemur in Nubibus, We shall be caught up in the Clouds.

We take a Sar to be the thickest, and so the impurest, and ignoblest part of that sphere; and yet, by the illustration of the Sun, it becomes a glorious star. Clouds are but the beds, and wombs of distempered and malignant impressions, of vapours, and exhalations, and the furnaces of Lightnings and of Thunder; yet by the presence of Christ, and his employment, these clouds are made glorious Chariots to bring him and his Saints together. Those Vapours and Clouds which David speaks of, S. Augustin interprets of the Ministers of the Church; that they are those Clouds. Those Ministers may have clouds in their understanding and knowledge, (some may be less learned then others) and clouds in their elocution & utterance, (some may have an unacceptable deliverance) and clouds in their aspect, and countenance, (some may have an unpleasing presence) and clouds in their respect and maintenance, (some may be oppressed in their fortunes) but still they are such clouds as are sent by Christ to bring thee up to him. And as the Children of Israel received direction and benefit, as well by the Pillar of Cloud, as by the Pillar of Fire, so do the Children of God in the Church, as well by Preachers of inferior gifts, as by higher. In Nubibus; Christ does not come in a Chariot, and send Carts for us. He comes as he went; This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven, say the Angels at his Ascension. In what manner did they see him go? He was taken up, and a Cloud received him out of their sight. So he went, so he shall return, so we shall be taken up, In the Clouds, to meet him in the Air.

The Transfiguration of Christ was not acted upon so high a Scene, as this our access to Christ shall be. That hill was not so high, nor so near to the Heaven of Heavens, as this region of the air shall be. Nor was the Transfiguration so eminent a manifestation of the glory of Christ, as this his comming in the air to Judgement shall be. And yet Peter that saw but that, desired no more, but thought it happiness enough to be there, and there to fixe their Tabernacles. But in this our meeting of Christ in the air, we shall see more then they saw in the Transfiguration, and yet be but in the way of seeing more, then we see in the air then; we shall be presently well, and yet improving. The Kings presence makes a Village the Court; but he that hath service to do at Court, would be glad to find it in a lodgeable and convenient place. I can build a Church in my bosom; I can serve God in my heart, and never cloth my prayer in words. God is often said to hear, and answer in the Scriptures, when they to whom he speaks, have said nothing. I can build a Church at my beds side; when I prostrate my self in humble prayer there, I do so. I can praise God cheerfully in my Chappel, cheerfully in my parish Church, as David says, In Ecclesiis, plurally, In the Congregations, In every Congregation will I bless the Lord; But yet, I find the highest exaltations, and the noblest elevations of my devotion, when I give thanks in the great Congregation, and praise him among much people, for, so me thinks, I come nearer and nearer to the Communion of Saints in Heaven. Where it is therefore said that there is no Temple, (I saw no Temple in Heaven) because all Heaven is a Temple, And because the Lord God Almighty, and the Lambe, (who fill all Heaven) are, (as S. John says there) the Temple thereof.

So far towards that, as into the Air, this text carries us, Obviam Domino, To meet the Lord. The Lord requires no more, not so much at our hands, as he does for us. When he is come from the right hand of his Father in heaven, into the air to meet us, he is come farther then we are to go from the grave to meet him. But we have met the Lord in many a lower place; in many unclean actions have we met the Lord in our own hearts, and said to our selves, Surely the Lord is here, and sees us, and (with Joseph) How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against my God? and yet have proceeded, gone forward in the accomplishment of that sin. But there it was Obviam Iesu, Obviam Christo, We met a Jesus, We met a Christ, a God of mercy, who forgave us those sins. Here in our text, it is Obviam Domino, We must meet the Lord; He invests here no other name but that; He hath laid aside his Christ, and his Jesus, names of Mercy, and Redemption, and Salvation, and comes only in the name of power, The Lord, The Judge of quick and dead. In which Judgement he shews no mercy; All his mercy is exercised in this life; and he that hath not received his portion of that mercy before his death, shall never receive any. There he judges only by our works, Whom hast thou fed, whom hast thou clothed? Then in judgement we meet the Lord, the Lord of power, and the last time that ever we shall meet a Jesus, a Christ, a God of mercy, is upon our death-bed; but there we shall meet him so, as that when we meet him in another name, The Lord, in the air, yet by the benefit of the former mercy received from Jesus, We shall be with the Lord for ever.

First Erimus, We shall Be, we shall have a Being. There is nothing more contrary to God, and his proceedings, then annihilation, to Be nothing, Do nothing, Think nothing. It is not so high a step, to raise the poor out of the dust, and to lift the needy from the dunghill, and set him with Princes, To make a King of a Beggar is not so much, as to make a Worm of nothing. Whatsoever God hath made thee since, yet his greatest work upon thee, was, that he made thee; and howsoever he extend his bounty in preferring thee, yet his greatest largeness, is, in preserving thee in thy Being And therefore his own name of Majesty, is Jehovah, which denotes his Essence, his Being. And it is usefully moved, and safely resolved in the School, that the devil himself cannot deliberately wish himself nothing. Suddenly a man may wish himself nothing, because that seems to deliver him from the sense of his present misery; but deliberately he cannot; because whatsoever a man wishes, must be something better then he hath yet; and whatsoever is better, is not nothing. Nihil contrarium Deo, There is nothing truly contrary to God; To do nothing, is contrary to his working; but contrary to his nature, contrary to his Essence there is nothing. For whatsoever is any thing, even in that Being, and therefore because it is, hath a conformity to God, and an affinity with God, who is Being, Essence it self. In him we have our Being, says the Apostle. But here it is more then so; not only In illo, but Cum illo, not only In him, but With him, not only in his Providence, but in his Presence.

The Hypocrite hath a Being, and, in God, but it is not with God, Qua cor long, With his lips he honours God, but removes his heart far from him. And God sends him after his heart, that he may keep him at that distance, (as S. Gregory reads and interprets that place of Isaiah) Redite praevaricatores ad cor, Return O sinners, follow your own heart, and then I am sure you and I shall never meet. Our Savior Christ delivers this distance plainly, Discedite à me, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. Where the first part of the sentence is incomparably the heaviest, the departing worse then the fire; the intensness of that fire, the air of that brimstone, the anguish of that worm, the discord of that howling, and gnashing of teeth, is no comparable, no considerable part of the torment, in respect of the privation of the sight of God, the banishment from the presence of God, an absolute hopelesness, an utter impossibility of ever comming to that, which sustains the miserable in this world, that though I see no Sun here, I shall see the Son of God there. The Hypocrite shall not do so; we shall Be, and Be with him, and Be with him for ever; which is the last thing that doth fall under ours, or can fall under any consideration.

Of S. Jerome, S. Augustine says, Quae Hicronymus neseivit, nullus hominum unquam seivit; That that S. Jerome knew not, no man ever knew. And S. Cyril, to whom S. Augustine said that, said also to S. Augustine, in magnifying of S. Jerome, That when a Catholic Priest disputed with an Heretic, and cited a passage of S. Jerome, and the Heretic said Jerome lied, instantly he was struck dumb; yet of this last and everlasting joy and glory of heaven, in the fruition of God, S. Jerome would adventure to say nothing, no not then, when he was divested of his mortal body, dead; for, as soon as he died at Bethlem, he came instantly to Hippo, S. Augustines Bishoprick, and though he told him, Hieronymi anima sum, I am the soul of that Jerome, to whom thou art now writing about the joys and glory of heaven, yet he said no more of that, but this, Quid quaeris brevi immittere vasculo totum mare? Canst thou hope to pour the whole Sea into a thimble, or to take the whole world into thy hand? And yet, that is easier, then to comprehend the joy and the glory of heaven in this life. Nor is there any thing, that makes this more incomprehensible, then this Semper in our text, the Eternity thereof, That we shall be with him for ever. For, this Eternity, this Everlastingness is not only incomprehensible to us in this life, but even in heaven we can never know it experimentally; and all knowledge in heaven is experimental; As all knowledge in this world is causal, (we know a thing, if we know the cause thereof) so the knowledge in heaven, is effectual, experimental, we know it, because we have found it to be so.

The endowments of the blessed, (those which the School calls Dotes beatorum) are ordinarily delivered to be these three, Visio, Dilectio, Fruitio, The sight of God, the love of God, and the fruition, the injoying, the possessing of God. Now, as no man can know what it is to see God in heaven, but by an experimental and actual seeing of him there, nor what it is to love God there, but by such an actual and experimental love of him, nor what it is to enjoy and possess God, but by an actual enjoying, and an experimental possessing of him, So can no man tell what the eternity, and everlastingness of all these, is, till he have passed through that eternity, and that everlastingness; and that he can never do; for, if it could be passed through, then it were not eternity. How barren a thing is Arithmetique? (and yet Arithmetique will tell you, how many single grains of sand, will fill this hollow Vault to the Firmament) How empty a thing is Rhetorique? (and yet Rherorique will make absent and remote things present to your understanding) How weak a thing is Poetry? (and yet Poetry is a counterfeit Creation, and makes things that are not, as though they were) How infirme, how impotent are all assistances, if they be put to express this Eternity? The best help that I can assign you, is, to use well Aeternum vestrum, your own Eternity; as S. Gregory calls our whole course of this life, Aeternum nostrum, our Eternity; Aequum est, ut qui in aeterno suo peccaverit, in aeterno Dei puniatur, says he; It is but justice, that he that hath sinned out his own Eternity, should suffer out Gods Eternity. So, if you suffer out your own Eternity, in submitting your selves to God, in the whole course of your life, in surrendering your will entirely to his, and glorifying of him in a constant patience, under all your tribulations, It is a righteous thing with God, (says our Apostle, in his other Epistle to these Thessalonians) To recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you, that are troubled rest with us, says he there; with us, who shall be caught up in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Air, and so shall be with the Lord for ever. Amen.

Sermon XXVII. Preached to the LL. upon Easter-day, at the Communion, The King being then dangerously sick at New-Market.

PSAL. 89.47.

What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?

AT first, God gave the judgement of death upon man, when he should transgress, absolutely, Morte morieris, Thou shalt surely dye: The woman in her Dialogue with the Serpent, she mollifies it, Ne fortè moriamur, perchance, if we eat, we may die; and then the Devil is as peremptory on the other side, Nequaquam moriemini, do what you will, surely you shall not die; And now God in this Text comes to his reply, Quis est homo, shall they not die? Give me but one instance, but one exception to this rule, What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Let no man, no woman, no devil offer a Ne fortè, (perchance we may dye) much less a Nequaquam, (surely we shall not dye) except he be provided of an answer to this question, except he can give an instance against this general, except he can produce that mans name, and history, that hath lived, and shall not see death. We are all conceived in close Prison; in our Mothers wombs, we are close Prisoners all; when we are born, we are born but to the liberty of the house; Prisoners still, though within larger walls; and then all our life is but a going out to the place of Execution, to death. Now was there ever any man seen to sleep in the Cart, between New-gate, and Tyborne? between the Prison, and the place of Execution, does any man sleep? And we sleep all the way; from the womb to the grave we are never throughly awake; but pass on with such dreams, and imaginations as these, I may live as well, as another, and why should I dye, rather then another? but awake, and tell me, says this Text, Quis homo? who is that other that thou talkest of? What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?

In these words, we shall first, for our general humiliation, consider the unanswerableness of this question, There is no man that lives, and shall not see death. Secondly, we shall see, how that modification of Eve may stand, fortè moriemur, how there may be a probable answer made to this question, that it is like enough, that there are some men that live, and shall not see death: And thirdly, we shall find that truly spoken, which the Devil spake deceitfully then, we shall find the Nequaquam verified, we shall find a direct, and full answer to this question; we shall find a man that lives, and shall not see death, our Lord, and Savior Christ Jesus, of whom both S. Augustine, and S. Jerome, do take this question to be principally asked, and this Text to be principally intended. Ask me this question then, of all the sons of men, generally guilty of original sin, Quis homo, and I am speechless, I can make no answer; Ask me this question of those men, which shall be alive upon earth at the last day, when Christ comes to judgement, Quis homo, and I can make a probable answer; forte moriemur, perchance they shall die; It is a problematical matter, and we say nothing too peremptorily. Ask me this question without relation to original sin, Quis homo, and then I will answer directly, fully, confidently, Ecce homo, there was a man that lived, and was not subject to death by the law, neither did he actually die so, but that he fulfilled the rest of this verse; Eruit animam de inferno, by his own power, he delivered his soul from the hand of the grave. From the first, this lesson rises, General doctrines must be generally delivered, All men must die: From the second, this lesson, Collateral, an unrevealed doctrines must be soberly delivered, How we shall be changed at the last day, we know not so clearly: From the third, this lesson arises, Conditional Doctrines must be conditionally delivered, If we be dead with him, we shall be raised with him.

First then, for the generality, Those other degrees of punishment, which God inflicted upon Adam, and Eve, and in them upon us, were as absolutely, and illimitedly pronounced, as this of death, and yet we see, they are many ways extended, or contracted; To man it was said, In sudore vultus, In the sweat of thy brows, thou shalt eat thy bread, and how many men never sweat, till they sweat with eating? To the woman it was said, Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee: and how many women have no desire to their husbands, how many over-rule them? Hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and sickness are denounced upon all, and yet if you ask me Quis homo? What is that man that hungers and thirsts not, that labours not, that sickens not? I can tell you of many, that never felt any of these; but contract the question to that one of death, Quis homo? What man is he that shall not taste death? And I know none. Whether we consider the Summer Solstice, when the day is sixteen hours, and the night but eight, or the Winter Solstice, when the night is sixteen hours, and the day but eight, still all is but twenty four hours, and still the evening and morning make but a day: The Patriarchs in the old Testament had their Summer day, long lives; we are in the Winter, short lived; but Quis homo? Which of them, or us come not to our night in death? If we consider violent deaths, casual deaths, it is almost a scornful thing to see, with what wantonness, and sportfulness, death plays with us; We have seen a man Canon proof in the time of War, and slain with his own Pistol in the time of peace: We have seen a man recovered after his drowning, and live to hang himself. But for that one kind of death, which is general, (though nothing be in truth more against nature then dissolution, and corruption, which is death) we are come to call that death, natural death, then which, indeed, nothing is more unnatural; The generality makes it natural; Moses says, that Mans age is seventy, and eighty is labor and pain; and yet himself was more then eighty, and in a good state, and habitude when he said so. No length, no strength enables us to answer this Quis homo? What man? &c.

Take a flat Map, a Globe in plano, and here is East, and there is West, as far asunder as two points can be put: but reduce this flat Map to roundness, which is the true form, and then East and West touch one another, and are all one: So consider mans life aright, to be a Circle, Pulvis es, & in pulverem reverteris, Dust thou art, and to dust thou must return; Nudus egressus, Nudus revertar, Naked I came, and naked I must go; In this, the circle, the two points meet, the womb and the grave are but one point, they make but one station, there is but a step from that to this. This brought in that custom amongst the Greek Emperors, that ever at the day of their Coronation, they were presented with several sorts of Marble, that they might then bespeak their Tombe. And this brought in that Custom into the Primitive Church, that they called the Martyrs days, wherein they suffered, Natalitia Martyrum, their birth days; birth, and death is all one.

Their death was a birth to them into another life, into the glory of God; It ended one Circle, and created another; for immortality, and eternity is a Circle too; not a Circle where two points meet, but a Circle made at once; This life is a Circle, made with a Compass, that passes from point to point; That life is a Circle stamped with a print, an endless, and perfect Circle, as soon as it begins. Of this Circle, the Mathematician is our great and good God; The other Circle we make up our selves; we bring the Cradle, and Grave together by a course of nature. Every man does; Mi Gheber, says the Original; It is not Ish, which is the first name of man, in the Scriptures, and signifies nothing but a sound; a voice, a word, a Musical air dies, and evaporates, what wonder if man, that is but Ish, a sound, dye too? It is not Adam, which is another name of man, and signifies nothing but red earth; Let it be earth red with blood, (with that murder which we have done upon our selves) let it be earth red with blushing, (so the word is used in the Original) with a conscience of our own infirmity, what wonder if man, that is but Adam, guilty of this self-murder in himself, guilty of this in-born frailty in himself, dye too? It is not Enos, which is also a third name of man, and signifies nothing but a wretched and miserable creature; what wonder if man, that is but earth, that is a burden to his Neighbours, to his friends, to his kindred, to himself, to whom all others, and to whom himself desires death, what wonder if he dye? But this question is framed upon none of these names; Not Ish, not Adam, not Enos; but it is Mi Gheber, Quis vir; which is the word always signifying a man accomplished in all excellencies, a man accompanied with all advantages; fame, and good opinion justly conceived, keeps him from being Ish, a mere sound, standing only upon popular acclamation; Innocency and integrity keeps him from being Adam, red earth, from bleeding, or blushing at any thing he hath done; That holy and Religious Art of Arts, which S. Paul professed, That he knew how to want, and how to abound, keeps him from being Enos, miserable or wretched in any fortune; He is Gheber, a great Man, and a good Man, a happy Man, and a holy Man, and yet Mi Gheber, Quis homo, this man must see death.

And therefore we will carry this question a little higher, from Quis homo, to Quis deorum, Which of the gods have not seen death? Ask it of those, who are Gods by participation of Gods power, of those of whom God says, Ego dixi, dii est is, and God answers for them, and of them, and to them, You shall dye like men; Ask it of those gods, who are gods by imputation, whom Creatures have created, whom Men have made gods, the gods of the Heathen, and do we not know, where all these gods died? Sometimes divers places dispute, who hath their tombs; but do not they deny their godhead in confessing their tombs? do they not all answer, that they cannot answer this text, Mi Gheber, Quis homo, What man, Quis deorum, What god of mans making hath not seen death? As Iustin martyr asks that question, Why should I pray to Apollo or Esculapius for health, Qui apud Chironem medicinam didicerunt, when I know who taught them all that they knew? so why should I look for Immortality from such or such a god, whose grave I find for a witness, that he himself is dead? Nay, carry this question higher then so, from this Quis homo, to quid homo, what is there in the nature and essence of Man, free from death? The whole man is not, for the dissolution of body and soul is death. The body is not; I shall as soon find an immortal Rose, an eternal Flower, as an immortal body. And for the Immortality of the Soul, It is safelier said to be immortal, by preservation, then immortal by nature; That God keeps it from dying, then, that it cannot dye. We magnify God in an humble and faithful acknowledgment of the immortality of our souls, but if we ask, quid homo, what is there in the nature of Man, that should keep him from death, even in that point, the question is not easily answered.

It is every mans case then; every man dies; and though it may perchance be but a mere Hebraisme to say, that every man shall see death, perchance it amounts to no more, but to that phrase, Gustare mortem, To taste death, yet thus much may be implied in it too, That as every man must dye, so every man may see, that he must dye; as it cannot be avoided, so it may be understood. A beast dies, but he does not see death; S. Basil says, he saw an Ox weep for the death of his yoke-fellow; but S. Basil might mistake the occasion of that Oxes tears. Many men dye too, and yet do not see death; The approaches of death amaze them, and stupify them; they feel no colluctation with Powers, and Principalities, upon their death bed; that is true; they feel no terrors in their consciences, no apprehensions of Judgement, upon their death bed; that is true; and this we call going away like a Lambe. But the Lambe of God had a sorrowful sense of death; His soul was heavy unto death, and he had an apprehension, that his Father had forsaken him; And in this text, the Chalde Paraphrase expresses it thus, Videbit Angelum mortis, he shall see a Messenger, a forerunner, a power of Death, an executioner of Death, he shall see something with horror, though not such as shall shake his moral, or his Christian constancy.

So that this Videbunt, They shall see, implies also a Viderunt, they have seen, that is, they have used to see death, to observe a death in the decay of themselves, and of every creature, and of the whole World. Almost fourteen hundred years ago, S. Cyprian writing against Demetrianus, who imputed all the wars, and deaths, and unseasonablenesses of that time, to the contempt, and irreligion of the Christians, that they were the cause of all those ils, because they would not worship their Gods, Cyprian imputes all those distempers to the age of the whole World; Canos videmus in pueris, says he, We see Children born gray-headed; Capilli deficiunt, antequam crescant, Their hair is changed, before it be grown. Nec aetas in senectute desinit, sed incipit asenectute, We do not dye with age, but we are born old. Many of us have seen Death in our particular selves; in many of those steps, in which the moral Man expresses it; We have seen Mortem infantiae, pueritiam, The death of infancy in youth; and Pueritiae, adolescentiam, and the death of youth in our middle age; And at last we shall see Mortem senectutis, mortem ipsam, the death of age in death it self. But yet after that, a step farther then that Moral man went, Mortem mortis in morte Iesu, We shall see the death of Death it self in the death of Christ. As we could not be clothed at first, in Paradise, till some Creatures were dead, (for we were clothed in beasts skins) so we cannot be clothed in Heaven, but in his garment who died for us.

This Videbunt, this future sight of Death implies a viderunt, they have seen, they have studied Death in every Book, in every Creature; and it implies a Vident, they do presently see death in every object, They see the hour-glass running to the death of the hour; They see the death of some profane thoughts in themselves, by the entrance of some Religious thought of compunction, and conversion to God; and then they see the death of that Religious thought, by an inundation of new profane thoughts, that overflow those. As Christ says, that as often as we eat the Sacramental Bread, we should remember his Death, so as often, as we eat ordinary bread, we may remember our death; for even hunger and thirst, are diseases; they are Mors quotidiana, a daily death, and if they lasted long, would kill us. In every object and subject, we all have, and do, and shall see death; not to our comfort as an end of misery, not only as such a misery in it self, as the Philosopher takes it to be, Mors omnium miseriarum, That Death is the death of all misery, because it destroys and dissolves our being; but as it is Stipendium peccati, The reward of sin; That as Solomon says, Indignatio Regis nuncius mortis, The wrath of the King, is as a messenger of Death, so Mors nuncius indignationis Regis, We see in Death a testimony, that our Heavenly King is angry; for, but for his indignation against our sins, we should not dye. And this death, as it is Malum, ill, (for if ye weigh it in the Philosophers balance; it is an annihilation of our present being, and if ye weigh it in the Divine Balance, it is a seal of Gods anger against sin) so this death is general; of this, this question there is no answer, Quis homo, What man, &c.

We pass then from the Morte moriemini, to the fortè moriemini, from the generality and the unescapableness of death, from this question, as it admits no answer, to the Fortè moriemini, perchance we shall dye; that is, to the question as it may admit a probable answer. Of which, we said at first, that in such questions, nothing becomes a Christian better then sobriety; to make a true difference between problematical, and dogmatical points, between upper buildings, and foundations, between collateral doctrines, and Doctrines in the right line: for fundamental things, Sine haesitatione credantur, They must be believed without disputing; there is no more to be done for them, but believing; for things that are not so, we are to weigh them in two balances, in the balance of Analogy, and in the balance of scandal: we must hold them so, as may be analogal, proportionable, agreeable to the Articles of our Faith, and we must hold them so, as our brother be not justly offended, nor scandalized by them; we must weigh them with faith, for our own strength, and we must weigh them with charity, for others weakness. Certainly nothing endangers a Church more, then to draw indifferent things to be necessary; I mean of a primary necessity, of a necessity to be believed De fide, not a secondary necessity, a necessity to be performed and practised for obedience: Without doubt, the Roman Church repents now, and sees now that she should better have preserved her self, if they had not denied so many particular things, which were indifferently and problematically disputed before, to be had necessarily De fide, in the Council of Trent.

Taking then this Text for a problem, Quis homo, What man lives, and shall not see Death? we answer, It may be that those Men, whom Christ shall find upon the earth alive, at his return to Judge the World, shall dye then, and it may be they shall but be changed, and not dye. That Christ shall judge quick and dead, is a fundamental thing; we hear it in S. Peters Sermon, to Cornelius and his company, and we say it every day in the Creed, He shall judge the quick and the dead. But though we do not take the quick and the dead, as Augustine and Chrysostom do, for the Righteous which lived in faith, and the unrighteous, which were dead in sin, Though we do not take the quick and the dead, as Ruffinus and others do, for the soul and the body, (He shall judge the soul, which was always alive, and he shall the body, which was dead for a time) though we take the words (as becomes us best) literally, yet the letter does not conclude, but that they, whom Christ shall find alive upon earth, shall have a present and sudden dissolution, and a present and sudden re-union of body and soul again. Saint Paul says, Behold I show you a mystery; Therefore it is not a clear case, and presently, and peremptorily determined; but what is it? We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. But whether this sleeping be spoke of death it self, and exclude that, that we shall not die, or whether this sleep be spoke of a rest in the grave, and exclude that, we shall not be buried, and remain in death, that may be a mystery still. S. Paul says too, The dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. But whether that may not still be true, that S. Augustine says, that there shall be Mors in raptu, An instant and sudden dis-union, and re-union of body and soul, which is death, who can tell? So on the other side, when it is said to him, in whom all we were, to Adam, Pulvis es, Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return, when it is said, In Adam all die, when it is said, Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned, Why may not all those sentences of Scripture, which imply a necessity of dying, admit that restriction, Nisi dies judicii natur ae cursum immutet, We shall all die, except those, in whom the comming of Christ shall change the course of Nature.

Consider the Scriptures then, and we shall be absolutely concluded neither way; Consider Authority, and we shall find the Fatherrs for the most part one way, and the School for the most part another; Take later men, and all those in the Roman Church; Then Cajetan thinks, that they shall not die, and Catharin is so peremptory, that they shall, as that he says of the other opinion, Falsam esse confidenter asserimus, & contra Scripturas sat is manifestas, & omnino sine ratione; It is false, and against Scriptures, and reason, saith he; Take later men, and all those in the reformed Church; and Calvin says, Quia aboletur prior natura, censetur species mortis, sed non migrabit anima à corpore: S. Paul calls it death, because it is a destruction of the former Being; but it is not truly death, saith Calvin; and Luther saith, That S. Pauls purpose in that place is only to show the suddenness of Christs comming to Judgement, Non autem inficiatur omnes morituros; nam dormire, est sepeliri: But S. Paul doth not deny, but that all shall die; for that sleeping which he speaks of, is burial; and all shall die, though all shall not be buried, saith Luther.

Take then that which is certain; It is certain, a judgement thou must pass: If thy close and cautelous proceeding have saved thee from all informations in the Exchequer, thy clearness of thy title from all Courts at Common Law, thy moderation from the Chancery, and Star-Chamber, If height of thy place, and Authority, have saved thee, even from the tongues of men, so that ill men dare not slander thy actions, nor good men dare not discover thy actions, no not to thy self, All those judgements, and all the judgements of the world, are but interlocutory judgements; There is a final judgement, In judicantes & judicatos, against Prisoners and Judges too, where all shallbe judged again; Datum est omne judicium, All judgement is given to the Son of man, and upon all the sons of men must his judgement pass. A judgement is certain, and the uncertainty of this judgement is certain too; perchance God will put off thy judgement; thou shalt not die yet; but who knows whether God in his mercy, do put off this judgement, till these good motions which his blessed Spirit inspires into thee now, may take root, and receive growth, and bring forth fruit, or whether he put it off, for a heavier judgement, to let thee see, by thy departing from these good motions, and returning to thy former sins, after a remorse conceived against those sins, that thou art inexcusable even to thy self, and thy condemnation is just, even to thine own conscience. So perchance God will bring this judgement upon thee now; now thou mayst die; but whether God will bring that judgement upon thee now, in mercy, whilst his Graces, in his Ordinance of preaching, work some tenderness in thee, and gives thee some preparation, some fitness, some courage to say, Veni Domine Iesu, Come Lord Iesu, come quickly, come now, or whether he will come now in judgement, because all this can work no tenderness in thee, who can tell?

Thou hearest the word of God preached, as thou hearest an Oration, with some gladness in thy self, if thou canst hear him, and never be moved by his Oratory; thou thinkest it a degree of wisdom, to be above persuasion; and when thou art told, that he that fears God, fears nothing else, thou thinkest thy self more valiant then so, if thou fear not God neither; Whether or why God defers, or hastens the judgement, we know not; This is certain, this all S. Pauls places collineate to, this all the Fathers, and all the School, all the Cajetans, and all the Catharins, all the Luthers, and all the Calvins agree in, A judgement must be, and it must be In ictu oculi, In the twinkling of an eye, and Fur in nocte, A thief in the night. Make the question, Quis homo? What man is he that liveth, and shall not pass this judgement? or, what man is he that liveth, and knows when this judgement shall be? So it is a Nemo scit, A question without an answer; but ask it, as in the text, Quis homo? Who liveth, and shall not die? so it is a problematical matter; and in such things as are problematical, if thou love the peace of Sion, be not too inquisitive to know, nor too vehement, when thou thinkest thou doest know it.

Come then to ask this question, not problematically, (as it is contracted to them that shall live in the last days) nor peremptorily of man, (as he is subject to original sin) but at large, so, as the question may include Christ himself, and then to that Quis homo? What man is he? We answer directly, here is the man that shall not see death; And of him principally, and literally, S. Augustine (as we said before) takes this question to be framed; Vt quaeras, dictum, non ut desperes, saith he, this question is moved, to move thee to seek out, and to have thy recourse to that man which is the Lord of Life, not to make thee despair, that there is no such man, in whose self, and in whom, for all us, there is Redemption from death: For, says he, this question is an exception to that which was said before the text; which is, Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? Consider it better, says the Holy Ghost, here, and it will not prove so; Man is not made in vain at first, though he do die now; for, Perditio tua ex te, This death proceeds from man himself; and Quare moriemini domus Israel? Why will ye die, ô house of Israel? God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living; The Wise man says it, and the true God swears it, As I live saith the Lord, I would not the death of a sinner. God did not create man in vain then, though he die; not in vain, for since he will needs die, God receives glory even by his death, in the execution of his justice; not in vain neither, because though he be dead, God hath provided him a Redeemer from death, in his mercy; Man is not created in vain at all; nor all men, so near vanity as to die; for here is one man, God and Man Christ Jesus, which liveth, and shall not see death. And conformable to S. Augustines purpose, speaks S. Jerome too, Scio quòd nullus homo carneus evadet, sed novi Deum sub velamento carnis latentem; I know there is no man but shall die; but I know where there is a God clothed in mans flesh, and that person cannot die.

But did not Christ die then? Shall we join with any of those Heretics, which brought Christ upon the stage to play a part, and say he was born, or lived, or died, In phantasmate, In appearance only, and representation; God forbid; so all men were created in vain indeed, if we had not a regeneration in his true death. Where is the contract between him, and his Father, that Oportuit pati, All this Christ ought to suffer, and so enter into glory: Is that contract void, and of none effect? Must he not die? Where is the ratification of that contract in all the Prophets? Where is Esays Verè languores nostros tulit, Surely he hath born our sorrows; and, he made his grave with the wicked in his death; Is the ratification of the Prophets cancelled? Shall he not, must he not die? Where is the consummation, and the testification of all this? Where is the Gospel, Consummatum est? And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost? Is that fabulous? Did he not die? How stands the validity of that contract, Christ must die; the dignity of those Prophecies, Christ will die; the truth of the Gospel, Christ did die, with this answer to this question, Here is a man that liveth and shall not see death? Very well; For though Christ Jesus did truly die, so as was contracted, so as was prophesied, so as was related, yet he did not die so, as was intended in this question, so as other natural men do die.

For first, Christ died because he would dye; other men admitted to the dignity of Martyrdom, are willing to dye; but they dye by the torments of the Executioners, they cannot bid their souls go out, and say, now I will dye. And this was Christs case: It was not only, I lay down my life for my sheep, but he says also, No man can take away my soul; And, I have power to lay it down; And De facto, he did lay it down, he did dye, before the torments could have extorted his soul from him; Many crucified men lived many days upon the Cross; The thieves were alive, long after Christ was dead; and therefore Pilate wondered, that he was already dead. His soul did not leave his body by force, but because he would, and when he would, and how he would; Thus far then first, this is an answer to this question, Quis homo? Christ did not die naturally, nor violently, as all others do, but only voluntarily.

Again, the penalty of death appertaining only to them, who were derived from Adam by carnal, and sinful generation, Christ Jesus being conceived miraculously of a Virgin, by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost, was not subject to the Law of death; and therefore in his person, it is a true answer to this Quis homo? Here is a man, that shall not see death, that is, he need not see death, he hath not incurred Gods displeasure, he is not involved in a general rebellion, and therefore is not involved in the general mortality, not included in the general penalty. He needed not have died by the rigor of any Law, all we must; he could not dye by the malice, or force of any Executioner, all we must; at least by natures general Executioners, Age, and Sickness; And then, when out of his own pleasure, and to advance our salvation, he would dye, yet he died so, as that though there were a dis-union of body and soul, (which is truly death) yet there remained a Nobler, and faster union, then that of body and soul, the Hypostatical Union of the God-head, not only to his soul, but to his body too; so that even in his death, both parts were still, not only inhabited by, but united to the Godhead it self; and in respect of that inseparable Union, we may answer to this question, Quis homo? Here is a man that shall not see death, that is, he shall see no separation of that, which is incomparably, and incomprehensibly, a better soul then his soul, the God-head shall not be separated from his body.

But, that which is indeed the most direct, and literal answer, to this question, is, That whereas the death in this Text, is intended of such a death, as hath Dominion over us, and from which we have no power to raise our selves, we may truly, and fully answer to his Quis homo? here is a man, that shall never see death so, but that he shall even in the jaws, and teeth of death, and in the bowels and womb of the grave, and in the sink, and furnace of hell it self, retain an Almighty power, and an effectual purpose, to deliver his soul from death, by a glorious, a victorious, and a Triumphant Resurrection: So it is true, Christ Josus died, else none of us could live; but yet he died not so, as is intended in this question; Not by the necessity of any Law, not by the violence of any Executioner, not by the separation of his best soul, (if we may so call it) the God-head, nor by such a separation of his natural, and humane soul, as that he would not, or could not, or did not resume it again.

If then this question had been asked of Angels at first, Quis Angelus? what Angel is that, that stands, and shall not fall? though as many of those Angels, as were disposed to that answer, Erimus similes Altissimo, We will be like God, and stand of our selves, without any dependance upon him, did fall, yet otherwise they might have answered the question fairly, All we may stand, if we will; If this question had been asked of Adam in Paradise, Quis homo? though when he harkned to her, who had harkned to that voice, Erit is sicut Dii, You shall be as Gods, he fell too, yet otherwise, he might have answered the question fairly so, I may live, and not dye, if I will; so, if this question be asked of us now, as the question implies the general penalty, as it considers us only as the sons of Adam, we have no other answer, but that by Adam sin entered upon all, and death by sin upon all; as it implies the state of them only, whom Christ at his second comming shall find upon earth, we have no other answer but a modest, non liquet, we are not sure, whether we shall dye then, or no; we are only sure, it shall be so, as most conduces to our good, and Gods glory; but as the question implies us to be members of our Head, Christ Jesus, as it was a true answer in him, it is true in every one of us, adopted in him, Here is a man that liveth, and shall not see death.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, says Solomon, in another sense; and in this sense too, If my tongue, suggested by my heart, and by my heart rooted in faith, can say, Non moriar, non moriar; If I can say, (and my conscience do not tell me, that I belye mine own state) if I can say, That the blood of my Savior runs in my veins, That the breath of his Spirit quickens all my purposes, that all my deaths have their Resurrection, all my sins their remorses, all my rebellions their reconciliations, I will harken no more after this question, as it is intended de morte naturali, of a natural death, I know I must die that death, what care I? nor de morte spirituali, the death of sin, I know I do, and shall die so; why despair I? but I will find out another death, mortem raptus, a death of rapture, and of ecstasy, that death which S. Paul died more then once, The death which S. Gregory speaks of, Divina contemplatio quoddam sepulchrum animae, The contemplation of God, and heaven, is a kind of burial, and Sepulchre, and rest of the soul; and in this death of rapture, and ecstasy, in this death of the Contemplation of my interest in my Savior, I shall find my self, and all my sins enterred, and entombed in his wounds, and like a Lily in Paradise, out of red earth, I shall see my soul rise out of his blade, in a candor, and in an innocence, contracted there, acceptable in the sight of his Father.

Though I have been dead, in the delight of sin, so that that of S. Paul, That a Widow that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth, be true of my soul, that so, viduatur, gratiâ mortuâ, when Christ is dead, not for the soul, but in the soul, that the soul hath no sense of Christ, Viduatur anima, the soul is a Widow, and no Dowager, she hath lost her husband, and hath nothing from him; yea though I have made a Covenant with death, and have been at an agreement with hell, and in a vain confidence have said to my self, that when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to me, yet God shall annull that covenant, he shall bring that scourge, that is, some medicinal correction upon me, and so give me a participation of all the stripes of his son; he shall give me a sweat, that is, some horror, and religious fear, and so give me a participation of his Agony; he shall give me a diet, perchance want, and penury, and so a participation of his fasting; and if he draw blood, if he kill me, all this shall be but Mors raptus, a death of rapture towards him, into a heavenly, and assured Contemplation, that I have a part in all his passion, yea such an entire interest in his whole passion, as though all that he did, or suffered, had been done, and suffered for my soul alone; Quasi moriens, & ecce vivo: some show of death I shall have, for I shall sin; and some show of death again, for I shall have a dissolution of this Tabernacle; Sed ecce vivo, still the Lord of life will keep me alive, and that with an Ecce, Behold, I live; that is, he will declare, and manifest my blessed state to me; I shall not sit in the shadow of death; no nor I shall not sit in darkness; his gracious purpose shall evermore be upon me, and I shall ever discern that gracious purpose of his; I shall not die, nor I shall not doubt that I shall; If I be dead within doors, (If I have sinned in my heart) why, Suscitavit in domo, Christ gave a Resurrection to the Rulers daughter within doors, in the house; If I be dead in the gate, (If I have sinned in the gates of my soul) in mine Eyes, or Ears, or Hands, in actual sins, why, Suscitavit in porta, Christ gave a Resurrection to the young man at the gate of Naim. If I be dead in the grave, (in customary, and habitual sins) why, Suscitavit in Sepulchro, Christ gave a Resurrection to Lazarus in the grave too. If God give me mortem raptus, a death of rapture, of ecstasy, of fervent Contemplation of Christ Jesus, a Transfusion, a Transplantation, a Transmigration, a Transmutation into him, (for good digestion brings always assimilation, certainly, if I come to a true meditation upon Christ, I come to a conformity with Christ) this is principally that Pretiosa mors Sanctorum, Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his Saints, by which they are dead and buried, and risen again in Christ Jesus: precious is that death, by which we apply that precious blood to our selves, and grow strong enough by it, to meet Davids question, Quis homo? what man? with Christs answer, Ego homo, I am the man, in whom whosoever abideth, shall not see death.

Sermon XXVIII. Preached at S. Pauls, upon Whitsunday. 1627.

JOHN 14.26.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

THis day is this Scripture fulfilled in your cares, saith our Savior Christ, having read for his Text, that place of Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And that day which we celebrate now, was another Scripture fulfilled in their ears, and in their eyes too; For all Christs promises are Scripture; They have all the Infallibility of Scripture; And Christ had promised, that that Spirit which was upon him, when he preached, should also be shed upon all his Apostles. And upon this day he performed that promise, when, They being all with one accord, in one place, there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled the house, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sate upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And this very particular day, in which we now commemorate, and celebrate that performance of Christs promise, in that Mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, are all these Scriptures performed again, in our ears, and eyes, and in our hearts; For in all those Congregations that meet this day, to this purpose, every Preacher hath so much of this Vnction (which Vnction is Christ) upon him, as that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and hath anointed him to that service; And every Congregation, and every good person in the Congregation, hath so much of the Apostle upon him, as that he feels This Spirit of the Lord, this Holy Ghost, as he is this cloven tongue, that sets one stem in his ear, and the other in his heart, one stem in his faith, and the other in his manners, one stem in his present obedience, and another in his perseverance, one to rectify him in the errors of life, another to establish him in the agonies of death; For the Holy Ghost, as he is a Cloven tongue, opens as a Compass, that reaches over all our Map, over all our World, from our East to our West, from our birth to our death, from our cradle to our grave, and directs us for all things, to all persons, in all places, and at all times; The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, he shall teach you all things, &c.

The blessed Spirit of God then, the Holy Ghost, the third person in the Trinity, (and yet, not Third so, as that either Second or First, Son or Father, were one minute before him in that Co-eternity, that enwraps them all alike) this Holy Ghost is here designed by Christ, in his Person, and in his Operation; Who he is, and what he does; From whence he comes, and why he comes; And these two, He, and His office, will constitute our two parts in this text. In the first of which, (which will be the exercise of this day) we shall direct you upon these several Considerations: First, that the Person designed for this Mission, and true Consolation, is the Holy Ghost; You shall not be without comfort, says Christ; But mistake not false comforts for true, nor deceitful comforters for faithful; It is the Holy Ghost, or it is none; His Comfort, or no comfort, Him the Father will send, sais Christ, in a second branch; though the Holy Ghost be God, equal to the Father, and so have all Missions, and Commissions in his own hand, yet he applies himself, accommodates himself to order, and he comes when he hath a Mission from the Father: and this Father, says Christ, (which is a third branch in this part) sends him in my name; Though he have as good interest in the name of Adonai, which is all our Powerful name, and in the name of Jehovah, which is all our Essential name, as I, or my Father have, (the holy Ghost is as much Adonai, and as much Ichovah, as we are) yet he is sent in my Name, that is, to proceed in my way, to perfect my work, and to accomplish that Redemption, by way of Application, which I had wrought, by way of Satisfaction.

And then lastly, that which qualifies him for this Mission, for this Employment, is his Title, and Addition in this Text, That he is the Comforter; Discomfortable doctrines (of a primary impossibility of Salvation, to any man, And that impossibility originally rooted in God, and in Gods hating of that man, and hating of that man, not only before he was a sinful man, but before he was any man at all, not only before an actual making, but before any intention to make him in Gods mind; That God cannot save that man, because he meant to damn him, before he meant to make him) are not the way, in which the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father, in the Sons Name; For they that sent him, and he that comes, intend all that is done, in that capacity, as he is a Comforter, as he is the Comforter. And this is the Person, and this will be the extent of our first part; It is the Holy Ghost; No deceiving Spirit. He, though as high as the Highest, respects order, attends a Mission, stays till he be sent. And thirdly, he comes in another's name, in another's way, to perfect another's work. And he does all, in the quality and denomination of a Comforter, not establishing, not countenancing any discomfortable Doctrines.

First then, the Person into whose hands this whole work is here recommended, is the Holy Ghost, The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost. The manifestation of the mysterle of the Trinity was reserved for Christ. Some intimations in the Old, but the publication only in the New Testament; Some irradiations in the Law, but the illustration only in the Gospel; Some emanation of beams, as of the Sun before it is got above the Horizon, in the Prophets, but the glorious proceeding thereof, and the attaining to a Meridianal height, only in the Evangelists. And then, the doctrine of the Trinity, thus reserved for the time of the Gospel, at that time was thus declared; So God loved the World, as that he sent his Son; So the Son loved the World, as that he would come into it, and die for it; So the Holy Ghost loved the World, as that he would dwell in it, and inable men, in his Ministry, and by his gifts, to apply this mercy of the Father, and this merit of the Son, to particular souls, and to whole Congregations. The mercy of the Father, that he would study such a way for the Redemption of our souls, as the death of his only Son, (a way which no man would ever have thought of, of himself, nor might have prayed for, if he could have imagined it) this Mercy of the Father is the object of our Thankfulness. The Merit of the Son, That into a man but of our nature, and equal to us in infirmities, there should be superinfused such another nature, such a divinity, as that any act of that Person, so composed of those two natures, should be even in the rigor of Justice, a sufficient ransom for all the sins of all the World, is the object of our admiration. But the object of our consolation (which is the subject of this Text) is this, That the Holy Ghost, by his presence, and by inanimating the Ordinances of Christ, in the Ministry of the Gospel, applies this mercy, and this merit to me, to thee, to every soul that answers his motions.

In that Contract that past between Solomon and Hiram, for commerce and trade between their Nations, That Solomon should send him Corn and Oil, and Hiram should send him Cedar, and other rich materials for Building, that people of God received an honor, and an assurance, in that present Contract, for future trade and commerce. So did the World, in that Contract, which past between the Father and the Son, That the Father should send down God, and the World should deliver up Man, The nature of Man to be assumed by that Son, and so a Redemption should be wrought after, in the fullness of Time. And then, in the performance of this Contract, when Hiram sent down those rich materials from Libanon to the Sea, and by Sea in Flots, to the place assigned, where Solomon received them, that people of God received a real profit, in that actual performance of that, which was but in contract before. So did the World too, when in the fullness of Time, and in the place assigned by God in the Prophet Micah, which was Bethlem, the Son of God came in our flesh, and after died for us; His Blood was the Substance, the Materials of our ransom, and actually, and really delivered, and deposited for us; which was the performance of the former Contract between his Father, and him. But then was the dignity of that people of God accomplisht, when those rich Materials, so sent, were really imploied in the building of the Temple; when the Altar, and the Oracle, were clothed with that Gold; when the Cherubim, and the Olive-Trees, and the other Figures were made of that rich stuff, which was provided; when certain chief Officers, and three thousand three hundred under-Officers, were appointed to over-see the Work, and ten thousand that attended by monthly courses, and seven score & ten thousand, that were always resident upon the Work. And so is our comfort accomplisht to us, when the Holy Ghost distributes these materials, the Blood, and the Merits of Christ, upon several Congregations, and that by his higher Officers, Reverend and Vigilant Bishops, and others that have part in the Government of the Church, and then, by those, who like Solomons ten thousand, performed the service by monthly courses, and those, who like his seven score and ten thousand, are always resident upon fixt places, that salvation of souls, so decreed at first by the Father, and so accomplished after by the Son, is, by the Holy Ghost, shed, and spread upon particular men.

When, as the world began in a community, that every thing was every bodies, but improved it self, to a propriety, and came to a Meum & Tuum, that every man knew his own; so, that which is Salus Domini, The Salvation of the Lord, as it is in the first Decree, and that which is Salus Mundi, The Salvation of the World, as it is in the accomplishment of the Decree by Christ, may be Mea, & Tua, My Salvation, and thy Salvation, as it is applied by the Holy Ghost, in the Ministry of the Church. Salvation in the Decree, is as the Bezar stone in the maw of that creature; there it grows. Salvation in Christs death, is as that Bezar in the Merchants, or Apothecaries provision; But salvation in the Church, in the distribution, and application thereof, by the Holy Ghost, is as that Bezar working in my veins, expelling my peccant humours, and rectifying my former defects.

The last work, the Seal, and Consummation of all, is of the Holy Ghost. And therefore, as the Manifestation of the whole Trinity seems to have been reserved for Christ, so Christ seems to have reserved the Manifestation of the Holy Ghost, for his last Doctrine. For this is the last Sermon that Christ preached; And this is a Sermon recorded only by that last Evangelist, who, as he considered the Divine Nature of Christ, more then the rest did, and so took it higher, so did he also consider the future state, and succession of the Church, more then the rest did, and so carried it lower. For, S. John was a Prophet, as well as an Evangelist. Therefore in this last, and lasting Evangelist, and in this last Sermon, Christ declares this last work, in this world, that is, the Consummation of our Redemption, in the application of the Holy Ghost. For herein consists our comfort, that it is He, the Holy Ghost, that ministers this comfort.

Christ had told them before, that there should be a Comforter sent; But he did not tell them then, that that Comforter was the Holy Ghost. Here he does; at last he does; and he ends all in that; that we might end and determine our comfort in that too, This God gives me, by the Holy Ghost. For we mistake false comforts for true. We comfort our selves in things, that come not at all from God; in things which are but vanities, and conduce not all to any true comfort. And we comfort our selves in things, which, though they do come from God, yet are not signed, nor sealed by the Holy Ghost. For, Wealth, and Honor, and Power, and Favor, are of God; but we have but stolen them from God, or received them by the hand of the Devil, if we be come to them by ill means. And if we have them from the hand of God, by having acquired them by good means, yet if we make them occasions of sin, in the ill use of them after, we lose the comfort of the Holy Ghost, which requires the testimony of a rectified conscience, that all was well got, and is well used. Therefore as Christ puts the Origination of our Redemption upon the Father, (I came but to do my Fathers will) and as he takes the execution of that Decree upon himself, (I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and the Resurrection; I am all) so he puts the comfort of all, upon the Holy Ghost: Discomfort, and Disconsolation, Sadness and Dejection, Damnation, and Damnation aggravated, and this aggravated Damnation multiplied upon that soul, that finds no comfort in the Holy Ghost.

If I have no Adventure in an East-Indian Return, though I be not the richer, yet neither am I poorer then I was, for that. But if I have no comfort from the Holy Ghost, I am worse, then if all mankind had been left in the Putrefaction of Adams loins, and in the condemnation of Adams sin. For then, I should have had but my equal part in the common misery; But now having had that extraordinary favor, of an offer of the Holy Ghost, if I feel no comfort in that, I must have an extraordinary condemnation. The Father came near me, when he breathed the breath of life into me, and gave me my flesh. The Son came near me, when he took my flesh upon him, and laid down his life for me. The Holy Ghost is always near me, always with me; with me now, if now I shed any drops of his dew, his Manna upon you; With me anon, if anon I turn any thing that I say to you now, to good nourishment in my self then, and do then, as I say now; With me when I eat, or drink, to say Grace at my meal, and to bless Gods Blessings to me; With me in my sleep, to keep out the Tempter from the fancy, and imagination, which is his proper Scene, and Sphere, That he triumph not in that, in such dreams as may be effects of sin, or causes of sin, or sins themselves. The Father is a Propitious Person; The Son is a Meritorious Person; The Holy Ghost is a Familiar Person; The Heavens must open, to show me the Son of Man at the right hand of the Father, as they did to Steven; But if I do but open my heart to my self, I may see the Holy Ghost there, and in him, all that the Father hath Thought and Decreed, all that the Son hath Said and Done, and Suffered for the whole World, made mine. Accustom your selves therefore to the Contemplation, to the Meditation of this Blessed Person of the glorious Trinity; Keep up that holy cheerfulness, which Christ makes the Ballast of a Christian, and his Freight too, to give him a rich Return in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Be always comforted; and always determine your comfort in the Holy Ghost; For that is Christs promise here, in this first Branch, A Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost; And Him (says our second Branch) the Father shall send.

There was a Mission of the Son, God sent his Son. There was a Mission of the Holy Ghost; This day God sent the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost. But between these two Missions, that of the Son, and this of the holy Ghost, we consider this difference, that the first, the sending of the Son, was without any merit preceding; There could be nothing but the mere mercy of God, to move God to send his Son. Man was so far from meriting that, that (as we said before) he could not, nor might, if he could, have wisht it. But for this second Mission, the sending of the holy Ghost, there was a preceding merit. Christ, by his dying had merited, that mankind, who by the fall of Adam, had lost, (as S. August. speaks) Possibilitatem boni, All possibility of Redintegration, should, not only be restored to a possibility of Salvation, but that actually, that that was done, should be pursued farther, and that by this Mission, and Operation of the holy Ghost, actually, really, effectually, men should be saved. So that, as the work of our Redemption falls under our consideration, that is, not in the Decree, but in the execution of the Decree, in this Mission of the holy Ghost into the World, Man hath so far an interest, (not any particular man, but Man, as all Mankind was in Christ) as that we may truly say, The holy Ghost was due to us. And as Christ said of himself, Nonne haec oportuit pati? Ought not Christ to suffer all this? Was not Christ bound to all this, by the Contract between him and his Father? to which Contract himself had a Privity; it was his own Act; He signed it; He sealed it; so we may say, Nonne hunc oportuit mitti? Ought not the holy Ghost to be sent? Had not Christ merited that the holy Ghost should be sent, to perfect the work of the Redemption? So that, in such a respect, and in such a holy and devout sense we may say, that the holy Ghost is more ours, then either of the other Persons of the Trinity; Because, though Christ be so ours, as that he is our selves, the same nature, and flesh, and blood, The holy Ghost is so ours, as that we, we in Christ, Christ in our nature merited the holy Ghost, purchased the holy Ghost, bought the holy Ghost; Which is a sanctified Simony, and hath a faire, and a pious truth in it, We, we in Christ, Christ in our nature, bought the holy Ghost, that is, merited the holy Ghost.

Christ then was so sent, as that, till we consider the Contract, (which was his own Act) there was no Oportuit pati, no obligation upon him, that he must have been sent. The Holy Ghost was so sent, as that the Merit of Christ, (of Christ, who was Man, as well as God) which was the Act of another, required, and deserved that he should be sent. Therefore he was sent A Patre, By the Father. Now, not so by the Father, as not by the Son too; For, there is an Ego mittam, If I depart, I will send him unto you. But, clean thorough Christs History, in all his proceedings, still you may observe, that he ascribes all that he does, as to his Superior, to his Father; though in one Capacity, as he was God, he were equal to the Father, yet to declare the meekeness and the humility of his Soul, still he makes his recourse to his inferior state, and to his lower nature, and still ascribes all to his Father: Thouh he might say, and do say there, I will send him, yet every where, the Father enters; I will send him, says he; Whom? I will send the Promise of my Father. Still the Father hath all the glory, and Christ sinks down to his inferior state, and lower nature.

In the World it is far otherwise; Here, men for the most part, do all things according to their greatest capacity; If they be Bishops, if they be Counsellors, if they be Justices, nay if they be but Constables, they will do every thing according to that capacity; As though that authority, confined to certain places, limited in certain persons, and determined in certain times, gave them always the same power, in all actions; And, because to some purposes he may be my superior, he will be my equal no where in nothing. Christ still withdrew himself to his lower capacity; And, howsoever worldly men engrosse the thanks of the world to themselves, Christ cast all the honor of all the benefits that he bestowed upon others, upon his Father; And in his Veruntamen, (Yet not my will, but thine O Father be done) He humbled himself, as low as David in his Non nobis Dominc, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be all glory given. They would have made him King; He would not; and Judge, to divide the Inheritance; and he would not. He sent the Holy Ghost; And yet, he says, I will pray the Father to send him. So the Holy Ghost was sent by them both; Father and Son; But not so, as that he was subject to a joint command of both, or to a diverse command of either, or that he came unwillingly, or had not a hand even in his own sending. But, howsoever he were perfect God, and had alwales an absolute power in himself, and had ever a desire to assist the salvation of man, yet he submitted himself to the Order of the Decree; He disordered nothing, prevented nothing, anticipated nothing, but staid, till all that which lay upon Christ, from his Incarnation, to his Ascension, was executed, and then in the due and appointed time, issued his Mission.

It is a blessed Termination, Mission; It determines and ends many words in our Language; as Permission, Commission, Remission, and others, which may afford good instruction, that as the Holy Ghost, did for his, so we may be content to stay Gods leisure, for all those Missions. A consideration, which, I presume, S. Bernard, who evermore embraced all occasions of exalting devotion from the melodious fall of words, would not have let pass; Nor S. Augustine, for all his holy and reverend gravity, would have thought Nimis juvenile, Too light a consideration to have insisted upon. And therefore I may have leave, to stay your meditations a little, upon this Termination, these Missions.

You may have a Permission; Many things are with some circumstances Permitted, which yet in discretion are better forborne. Moses permitted divorces, but that was for the hardness of their hearts; and Christ withdrew that Permission. S. Paul says, he had a Permission; Liberty to forbear working with his own hands, and so to live upon the Church; but yet he did not. What Permission soever thou have, by which thou mayst lawfully ease thy self, yet forbear, till thou see, that the glory of God, and the good of other men, may be more advanced by the use, then by the forbearance of that indulgence, and that Permission, and afford not thy self all the liberty that is afforded thee, but in such cases. The Holy Ghost staid so for his Mission; so stay thou for the exercise of thy Permission.

Thou mayst have a Commission too; In that of the Peace, in that for Ecclesiastical causes, thou mayst have part. But be not hasty in the execution of these Commissions; Come to an Inquisition upon another man; so as thou wouldst wish God to enquire into thee. Satan had a Commission upon Job; but he procured it so indirectly, on his part, by false suggestions against him, and executed it so uncharitably, as that he was as guilty of wrong and oppression, as if he had had no Commission. Thou canst not assist in the execution of those Commissions, of which thou art, till thou have taken the oaths of Supremacy, and of Allegiance to thy Sovereign. Do it not, till thou have sworn all that, to thy Super-sovereign, to thy God, That in all thy proceedings, his glory, and his will, and not thine own passion, or their purposes, upon whom thou dependest, shall be thy rule. The holy Ghost staid for his Mission; stay thou for thy Commission, till it be sealed over again in thine own bosom; sealed on one side, with a cleereness of understanding, and on the other, with a rectitude of conscience; that thou know what thou shouldst do, and do that.

There is also a Remission; a Remission of sins. It is an Article of Faith, therefore believe it. Believe it originally, and meritoriously in Christ; and believe it instrumentally, and ministerially in the power, constituted by Christ, in the Church. But believe it not too hastily, in the execution and in the application thereof to thine own case. A transitory sin, a sin that spent a few minutes in the doing thereof, was by the penitential Canons, (which were the rule of the Primitive Church) punished with many years penance. And doest thou think, to have Remission of thy seventy years sins, for one sigh, one groan, then, when that sigh, and that groan may be more in contemplation of the torment due to that sin, then for the sin it self; Nay more, that thou canst sin that sin no longer, then for that sin? Hast thou sought thy Remission at the Church, that is, in Gods Ordinances established in the Church? In qua remittuntur, extra quam non remittuntur peccata, In which Ordinances, there is an Infallibility of Remission, upon true repentance, and in a contempt or neglect of which Ordinances, all Repentance is illusory, and all Remission but imaginary. For, Quodammodo ante diem Iudicii, judicant, God refers causes to the Church, to be prepared, and mature there, before the great Hearing; and so, hath given the Church a Power to judge, before the day of Judgement. And therefore, Nemo sibi dicat, occultè ago, apud Deum ago, Let no man say, I repent in secret; God sees that I repent; It was scarce in secret, that thou didst sin; and wilt thou repent but in secret? At least let us know thy repentance by the amendment of thy life, and we shall not much press the knowing of it any other way. Only remember that the holy Ghost staid for his Mission; Presume not thou of thy Remission, till thou have done, not only something towards it, that might induce it from God, that is, Repentance, but something by it, that may testify it to man, that is, amendment of life.

There is a Manumission also, an emancipation, an enfranchisement from the tyranny, from the thraldome of sin. That which some Saints of God, particularly S. Paul, have importuned at Gods hand, so vehemently, so impatiently, as he did, to be delivered from the messenger of Satan, and from the provocations of the flesh, exprest with that passion, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He comes immediately there to a thanksgiving, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; But his thanksgiving was not for a Manumission; he had not received a deliverance from the power, and oppresssion of temptation; But he had here, as he had every where, an intimation from the Spirit of God, of that Gratia mea sufficit, That God would be as watchful over him with his grace, as the Devil could be with his temptations. And if thou come to no farther Manumission then this, in this life, that is, to be delivered, though not from temptations by his power, yet in temptations, by his grace, or by his mercy, after temptations have prevailed upon thee, attend Gods leisure for thy farther Manumission, for the holy Ghost staid for his Mission.

There falls lastly into this harmonious consort, occasioned by this Mission of the Holy Ghost, a Dismission; A dismissing out of this world; Not only in Simeons Nunc dimittis, To be content that we might, but in S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi, To have a desire that we might be dissolved, and be with Christ. But, whether the incumbrances of this World, extort from thee Davids groan, Heu mihi! Woe is me, that I so journe so long here! Or a slipperiness contracted by former habits of sin, make every thing a temptation to thee, so that thou canst not perform Job's covenant with thine eyes, of not looking upon a maid, nor stop at Christs period, which is, Look, but do not lust, but that every thing is a temptation to thee, and to be out of this hail-shot, this batrery of temptations, thou wouldst fain come to a dismission, to a dissolution, to a transmigration, Or whether a vehement desire of the fruition of the presence and face of God in Heaven, constitute this longing in thee, yet all these reasons arise in thy self, and determine in thy self, and are referred but to thine own ease, and to thine own happiness, and not primarily, to the glory of God, and therefore, since the Holy Ghost staid for his Mission, stay thou for thy Dismission too.

Gather up these scattered ears, and bind up this loose sheaf; Recollect these pieces of this branch. The Holy Ghost was sent by the Son, but the Son, in his exemplar humility, ascribes all to the Father. The Holy Ghost had absolute power to come at his pleasure, but he staid the order of the Decree, and Gods leisure for his Mission. Do thou so too, for thy Permission, exercise not all thy liberty; And for thy Commission, execute not all thy authority; And for thy Remission, presume not upon thy pardon too soon; And for thy Manumission, hope not for an exemption from temptations, till death; And for thy Dismission, practice not, nay wish not thy death, only in respect of thine own ease, no, nor only in respect of thine own salvation. In this act of the Holy Ghost, That he staid his Mission, we have one instruction, that we rely not upon our selves, but accommodate our selves to the disposition of others; And then another in the next, That the Father should send him in the Sons name, The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name.

The Holy Ghost comes not so in another's name, as that he hath not a full interest, in all the names of Power, and of Wisdom, and of Essence it self, that are attributed to God. For (not to extend to the particular attributes) the Radical name, the name of Essence, That name, The name, Jehovah, is given to the Holy Ghost. Jehovah says to Isaiah, Go, and tell this people, this and this. And then S. Paul making use of those words in the Acts, says, Well said the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Isaiah; So that Esays Jehovah, is S. Pauls Holy Ghost. And yet, the Holy Ghost being in possession of the highest names, and of the highest power implied in those names, comes in the name of another. How much more then may the powerfullest men upon earth, the greatest Magistrates, the greatest Monarchs, (who though they be by God himself called gods, are but representative gods, but metaphorical gods, and God knows, sometimes but ungodly gods) confess, that they are sent in another's name, inanimated with another's power, and least of all, their own, or made that that they are, for themselves? How much more are we, we considered in nature, and not in office, men and not Magistrates, Worms and not men, Serpents and not Worms, (For we are (as S. Chrysostom speaks) Spontanei daemones, Serpents in our own bosoms, devils in our own loins) bound to confess, that all the faculties of our soul, are in us, In nomine alieno, In the name of another?

That will, which we call Freewill, is so far from being ours, as that not only that Freedom, but that Will it self is from another, from God. Not only the rectitude of the faculty, but the faculty it self is his. Nay, though God have no part in the perverseness and the obliquity of my will, but that that perverseness, and that obliquity are entirely mine own, yet I could not have that perverseness, and that obliquity, but from him, so far, as that that faculty, in which my perverseness works, is his, and I could not have that perverse will from my self, if I had not that will it self from God first. And that very perverseness, and obliquity of the will, is so much his, as that, though it were not his, but mine, in the making, yet when it is made by me, he makes it his; that is, he makes it his instrument, and makes his use of it, so far, as to suffer it to flow out into a greater sin, or to determine in a lesser sin, then at first I, in my perverseness, intended. When I intended but an approach to a sin, and meant to stop there, to punish that exposing of my self to temptation, God suffers me to proceed to the act of that sin; And when I intend the act it self, God interrupts me, and cuts me off, by some intervening occasion, and determines me upon some approach to that sin, that by going so far in the way of that sin, I might see mine own infirmity, and see the power of his mercy, that I went no farther. The faculties of my soul are his, and the substance of my soul is his too; And yet, as I pervert the faculties, I subvert the substance; I damnify the faculties, but I damn the substance it self.

It would taste of uncharitableness, to cast more coales of fire upon the devil himself, then are upon him in hell now; Or not to assist him with our prayers, if it were not declared to us, that he is incapable of mercy. If the devil were now but under the guiltiness of that sin which he committed at first, and not under such an execution of judgement for that sin, as induced, or at least declared an obstination, an obduration, a desperation, and impenitibleness, if the devil were but as the worst sinner in this world can be, but In via, and not In exilio, In the way to destruction, and not under destruction it self, we might pray for the devil himself. And these poor souls of ours, these glorious souls of ours, none of ours, but Gods own souls, which now at worst, God loves better then ever he did the devil when he was at best, when he was an Angel uncorrupted, and better then he doth those Angels which stand uncorrupted stil, (for he hath not taken the nature of Angels, but our nature upon him) we think those souls our own, to do what we list with, and when we have usurpt them, we damn them. As Pirates take other mens subjects, and then make them slaves, we usurp the faculties of the soul, and call the will ours, we usurp the soul it self, and call it ours, and then deliver all to everlasting bondage. Would the King suffer his picture to be used, as we use the Image of God in our souls? or his Hall to be used, as we use the Temple of the Holy Ghost, our Bodies? We have nothing but that which we have received; and when we come to think that our own, we have not that; For God will take all from that man, that sacrifices to his own nets. When thou commest to Church, come in another's name: When thou givest an Alms, give it in another's name; that is, feel all thy devotion, and all thy charity to come from God; For, if it be not in his name, it will be in a worse; Thy devotion will contract the name of hypocrisy, and thine Alms the name of Vain-glory.

The Holy Ghost came in another's name, in Christs name; but not so, as Montanus, the Father of the Montanists, came in the Holy Ghosts name. Montanus said he was the Holy Ghost; The Holy Ghost did not pretend to be Christ. There is a man, the man of sin, at Rome, that pretends to be Christ, to all uses. And I would he would be content with that, and stop there, and not be a Hyper-Christus, Above Christ, more then Christ. I would he would no more trouble the peace of Christendom, no more occasion the assassinating of Christian Princes, no more bind the Christian liberty, in forbidding Meats, and Marriage, no more slacken and dissolve Christian bands, by Dispensations, and Indulgences, then Christ did. But if he will needs be more, if he will needs have an addition to the name of Christ, let him take heed of that addition, which some are apt enough to give him, however he deserve it, that he is Antichrist.

Now in what sense the Holy Ghost is said to have come in the name of Christ, S. Basil gives us one interpretation; that is, that one principal name of Christ belongs to the Holy Ghost. For Christ is Verbum, The Word, and so is the Holy Ghost, says that Father, Quia interpres filii, sicut filius patris, Because as the Son manifested the Father, so the Holy Ghost manifests the Son; S. Augustine gives another sense; Societas Patris & Filii, est Spiritus Sanctus, The Holy Ghost is the union of the Father and the Son. As the body is not the man, nor the soul is not the man, but the union of the soul and body, by those spirits, through which, the soul exercises her faculties in the Organs of the body, makes up the man; so the union of the Father and Son to one another, and of both to us, by the Holy Ghost, makes up the body of the Christian Religion. And so, this interpretation of S. Augustine, comes near to the fullness, in what sense the Holy Ghost came in Christs name. For when Christ says, I am come in my Fathers name, that was, to execute his Decree, to fulfill his Will, for the salvation of man, by dying; so when Christ says here, the Holy Ghost shall come in my name, that is, to perfect my work, to collect and to govern that Church, in which my salvation, by way of satisfaction, may be appropriated to particular souls by way of application. And for this purpose, to do this in Christs name, his own name is Paracletus, The Comforter, which is our last circumstance, The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.

The Comforter is an Euangelical name. Athanasius notes, that the Holy Ghost is never called Paracletus, The Comforter, in the old Testament. He is called Spiritus Dei, The Spirit of God, in the beginning of Genesis; And he is called Spiritus sanctus, The holy Spirit, and Spiritus principalis, The principal Spirit, in divers places of the Psalms, but never Paracletus, never the Comforter. A reason of that may well be, first, that the state of the Law needed not comfort; and then also, that the Law it self afforded not comfort, so there was no Comforter. Their Law was not opposed by any enemies, as enemies to their Law. If they had not (by that warrant which they had from God) invaded the possession of their neighbours, or grown too great to continue good neighbours, their neighbours had not envied them that Law. So that in the state of the Law, in that respect, they were well enough, and needed no Comforter. Whereas the Gospel, as it was sowed in our Saviours blood, so it grew up in blood, for divers hundreds of years; and therefore needed the sustentation, and the assurance of a Comforter. And then, for the substance of the Law, it was Lex interficiens, non perficiens, says S. Augustine, A Law that told them what was sin, and punisht them if they did sin, but could not conferre Remission for sin; which was a discomfortable case. Whereas the Gospel, and the Dispensation of the Gospel in the Church, by the Holy Ghost, is Grace, Mercy, Comfort, all the way, and in the end. Therefore Christ, v. 17. calls the Holy Ghost, Spiritum veritatis, The Spirit of truth; In which he opposes him, and preferres him, above all the remedies, and all the comforts of the Law. Not that the Holy Ghost in the Law, did not speak truth, but that he did not speak all the truth, in the Law. Origen expresses it well, The Types and Figures of the Law, were true Figures, and true Types of Christ, in the Gospel; but Christ, and his Gospel is the truth it self, prefigured in those Types. Therefore the Holy Ghost, is Paracletus, The Comforter, in the Gospel, which he was not in the Law.

In the Records, and Stories, and so in the Coynes, and Medals of the Roman Emperors, we see, that even then, when they had gotten the possession of the name of Emperors, yet they forbore not to add to their style, the name of Consul, and the name of Pontifex maximus; still they would be called Consuls, which was an acceptable name to the people, and High-Priests, which carried a reverence towards all the world. Where Christ himself is called by a name applicable to none but Christ, by a name implying the whole nature, and merit of Christ, that is, The Propitiation of the sins of the whole world, yet there, in that place, he is called by the name of this Text too, Paracletus, the Comforter. He would not forbear that sweet, that acceptable, that applicable name, that name that concerns us most, and establishes us best, Paracletus, the Comforter. And yet, he does not take that name, in that full, and whole sense, in which himself gives it to the Holy Ghost here. For there it is said of Christ, If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father; There, Paracletus, though placed upon Christ, is but an Advocate; But here, Christ sends Paracletum, in a more entire, and a more internal, and more visceral sense, A Comforter. Upon which Comforter, Christ imprints these two marks of dignity, First, The Father shall send you another Comforter; Another, then my self. For, howsoever Christ were the Fountain of comfort, yet there were many drammes, many ounces, many talents of discomfort mingled, in that their Comforter was first to depart from them by death, and being restored to them again by a Resurrection, was to depart again, by another Transmigration, by an Ascension. And therefore the second mark by which Christ dignifies this Comforter, is, That he shall abide with us for ever. And in the performance of that promise, he is here with you now.

And therefore, as we begun with those words of Isaiah, which our Savior applied to himself, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, to bind up the broken hearted, and to comfort all them that mourne; So the Spirit of the Lord is upon all us of his Ministry, in that Commandment of his, in the same Prophet, Consolamini, consolamini, Comfort ye, comfort yee my people, and speak comfortably unto Jerusalem. Receive the Holy Ghost, all ye that are the Israel of the Lord, in that Doctrine of comfort, that God is so far from having hated any of you, before he made you, as that he hates none of you now; not for the sins of your Parents; not for the sins of your persons; not for the sins of your youth; not for your yester-days, not for your yester-nights sins; not for that highest provocation of all, your unworthy receiving his Son this day. Only consider, that Comfort presumes Sadness. Sin does not make you incapable of comfort; but insensibleness of sin does. In great buildings, the Turrets are high in the Aire; but the Foundations are deep in the Earth. The Comforts of the Holy Ghost work so, as that only that soul is exalted, which was dejected. As in this place, where you stand, there bodies lie in the earth, whose souls are in heaven; so from this place, you carry away so much of the true comfort of the Holy Ghost, as you have true sorrow, and sadness for your sins here. Almighty God erect this building upon this Foundation; Such a Comfort, as may not be Presumption, upon such a Sorrow, as may not be Diffidence in him. And to him alone, but in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be ascribed all Honor, &c.

Sermon XXIX. Preached at S. Pauls upon Whitsunday. 1628.

JOHN 14.26.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

WE Eipasse from the Person to his working; we come from his comming, to his operation, from his Mission, and Commission, to his Executing thereof, from the Consideration, who he is, to what he does. His Specification, his Character, his Title, Paracletus, The Comforter, passes through all. Therefore our first comfort is, Docebimur, we shall be Taught, He shall teach you; As we consider our selves, The Disciples of the Holy Ghost, so it is a mere teaching, for, we, in our selves are merely ignorant; But wen we consider the things we are to be taught, so it is but a remembering, a refreshing of those things, which Christ in the time of his conversation in this world, had taught before; He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. These two then, The comfort in the Action, (we shall be Taught) and the comfort in the Way and Manner, (we shall not be subject to new Doctrines, but taught by remembering, by establishing us in things formerly Fundamentally laid) will be our two parts at this time. And in each of these, these our steps; First. in the first we shall consider the persons, that is, the Disciples, who were to learn; not only they who were so, when Christ spoke the words, but we, All, who to the end of the world, shall seek and receive knowledge from him; Vos, ye; first Vos ignorantes, you who are naturally ignorant, and know nothing, so as you should know it of your selves, (which is one Discomfort) And yet, Vos, ye, Vos appetentes, you that by nature have a desire to know, (which is another Discomfort, To have a desire, and no means to perform it) Vos docebimini, ye, ye that are ignorant, and know nothing; ye, ye that are hungry of knowledge, and have nothing to satisfy that hunger, ye shall be fed, ye shall be taught; (which is one comfort) And then Ille docebit, He shall teach you, He, who cannot only infuse true, and full knowledge in every capacity that he finds, but dilate that capacity where he finds it, yea create it, where he finds none, The Holy Ghost, who is not only A Comforter, but The Comforter, and not only so, but Comfort it self, He shall teach you; And in these we shall determine our first Part.

In our second Part, The Way and Manner of this Teaching, (By bringing to our remembrance all things whatsoever Christ had said unto us) there is a great largeness, but yet there is a limitation of those things which we are to learn of the Holy Ghost; for they are Omnia, All things whatsoever Christ hath taught before; But then, Sola ea, Only those things which Christ had taught before, and not new Additaments in the name of the Holy Ghost. Now this largeness extending it self to the whole body of the Christian Religion, (for Christ taught all that) all that being not reducible to that part of an hour, which will be left for this exercise, as fittest for the celebration of the day in which we arenow, we shall bind our selves to that particular consideration, what the Holy Ghost, being come from the Father, in Christs Name, that is, Pursuing Christs Doctrine, hath taught us of Himself, concerning Himself; That so ye may first see some insolencies and injuries offered to the Holy Ghost by some ancient Heretics, and some of later times, by the Church of Rome; For, truly, it is hard to name, or to imagine any one sin, nearer to that emphatical sin, that superlative sin, The sin against the Holy Ghost, then some offers of Doctrines, concerning the Holy Ghost, that have been obtruded, though not established, and some that have been absolutely established in that Church. And when we shall have delivered the Holy Ghost out of their hands, we shall also deliver him into yours, so as that you may feel him to shed himself upon you all here, and to accompany you all home, with a holy peace, and in a blessed calm, in testifying to your souls, that He, that Comforter, who is the holy Ghost, whom the Father hath sent in his Sons name, hath taught you all things, that is, awakened your memories, to the consideration of all that is necessary to your present establishment. And to these divers particulars, which thus constitute our two general parts, in their order thus proposed, we shall now proceed.

As when our Savior Christ received that confession of all the Disciples, in the mouth of S. Peter, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ replied thereunto some things, which had a more special, and a more personal respect to Peter, then to the rest, yet were intended of the rest too; so when Christ in this text, promises the Comforter, he does that most immediately, and most personally to them, to whom he then spoke, but he intends it to us also, and the holy Ghost shall teach us: us, that are in our selves Ignorant, which is our first Discomfort. The Schools have made so many Divisions, and sub-divisions, and re-devisions, and post-divisions of Ignorance, that there goes as much learning to understand ignorance, as knowleg. One, much elder then al they, & elder (as some will have it) then any but some of the first Secretaries of the Holy Ghost in the Bible, that is Trismegistus, hath said as much as all, Nequitia animae Ignorantia, Ignorance is not only the drousiness, the silliness, but the wickedness of the soul: Not only dis-estimation in this world, and damnification here, but damnation in the next world, proceeds from ignorance. And yet, here in this world, knowledge is but as the earth, and ignorance as the Sea; there is more sea then earth, more ignorance then knowledge; and as if the sea do gain in one place, it loses in another, so is it with knowledge too; if new things be found out, as many, and as good, that were known before, are forgotten and lost. What Anatomist knows the body of man thoroughly, or what Casuist the soul? What Politician knows the distemper of the State thoroughly; or what Master, the disorders of his own family? Princes glory in Arcanis, that they have secrets which no man shall know, and, God knows, they have hearts which they know not themselves; Thoughts and purposes indigested fall upon them and surprise them. It is so in natural, in moral, in civil things; we are ignorant of more things then we know; And it is so in divine and supernatural things too; for, for them, the Scripture is our only light, and of the Scripture, S. Augustine professes, Plur a se nescire quam scire, That there are more places of Scripture, that he does not, then that he does understand.

Hell is darkness; & the way to it, is the cloud of Ignorance; hell it self is but condensed Ignorance, multiplied Ignorance. To that, David ascribes all the distempers of the world, They do not know, neither will they understand, they walk on in darkness; and therefore, (as he adds there) All the foundations of all the earth are out of course. He that had made the most absolute conquest of Ignorance in this world, Solomon, is the best Judge of it, the best Counsellor against it; and he says, As thou knowest not how thy bones grew in thy Mother, even so thou knowest not the works of God, who worketh all. We are all equally Ignorant of all, of natural, of spiritual things. What though? This; That man knoweth not his time, but is snared in an evil time, If he knew his time, no time would be evil unto him. Yet though he know not the present time, but let that pass inconsiderately, yet if he consider the future, he may recover. But he does not that, he cannot do that; Man cannot tell what shall be, says Solomon; But may he not learn? No. For, who can tell him? says he there. For, he knows not how to go to the City; In vulgar, in trivial things, he is ignorant of his end, and ignorant of his way. Bene facere nesciverunt, says the Prophet, They have no knowledge to do good; and what follows? Erubescere nescierunt, They are not ashamed when they have done evil. Nesciunt cujus spiritus sunt; It was Christs increpation upon his own Disciples, They knew not of what spirit they were, They discerned not between a zealous and a vindicative spirit. Nescitis quid petatis, was Christs increpation upon his Disciples too, You know not what you ask. And yet this Nequitia animae, this wickedness of the soul, this pestilence of the soul, Ignorance, have men ventured to call The mother of devotion. But miserable Comforters are they, in respect of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost: for, as that Cum perver so perverteris, is spoken of God, That God will learn of the froward, to be froward, so God will learn of the ignorant, to be ignorant; ignorant of us; and to those that do not study him here, he will say hereafter, Nescio vos, I know not you. This then is our first discomfort, of our selves we are ignorant; and yet there is a greater vexation then this, that naturally we have a desire of knowledge, and naturally no means to attain to it.

Ignorance may be said to work, as an in-appetency in the stomach, and as an insipidness, a tastlesness in the palate; But the desire of knowledge, without means to attain to it, is as a hunger in a dearth, or in a wilderness. Ignorance is a kind of slumbering, or stupidity, but this desire without means, is a continual racking, a continual pressing; a far greater vexation, and torment; ignorance may work as a Lethargy, but this desire as a phrensy. This is the day of trouble, (says Hezekiah in the bitterness and passion of his soul) and of rebuke, and of blasphemy, for the Children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring them forth. To a barrenness, that is, never to have conceived, there belonged, amongst that people, a kind of shame and contempt, (and that is our case in ignonorance, which is the barrenness of the soul) But to come to the throws of Childbirth, and then not to have strength, or not to have help to be delivered, that is the dangerous, that is the deadly torment; and that represents our soul, in this desire of knowledge, without means to attain to it. And yet, this vexation no man can divest; It is an hereditary, a natural impression in man; every man naturally, says the Philosopher, desires to know, to learn. And yet, nature that imprinted that desire in every man, hath not given every man, not any man, in nature, means to satisfy that desire; for, even by nature man hath a desire to know supernatural things. Solomon was extended with this desire of knowledge, but he found no satisfaction, till upon petition, and contracting all his desires into that One, he obtained it of God. Daniel was Vir desideriorum, A man composed of desires, and of solicitude: He professes that he mourned three full weeks, He eat no pleasant bread, neither came flesh or wine into his mouth, nor oil upon his body; His comliness was turned into corruption, and he retained no strength, till God by his Angel satisfied his desire of knowledge. Consider the anxiety and torture, under which that Eunuch was in the Chariot, till he was taught the meaning of the Prophet Isaiah. And consider the way that God took; God sent an Angel, and that Angel sent Philip to him. Instruction is from God, but yet by the Ministry of man, Philip asks him, Doest thou understand? He would have a confession of his impotency from himself. Alas, How can I, says he, except some man shouldguide me? And Philip guides him; and then how soon he comes to that holy cheerfulness, and dilatation of the soul, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and, See, here is water, what doth hinder me, that I be baptized? Nec sanctior sum hoc Eunucho, nec studiosior, says S. Jerome of himself; I cannot have more desire to learn then he had; yet, in my self, I have no more means neither; and therefore must be under the same pain, till the same hand, the hand of God relieve me. The soul of man cannot be considered under a thicker cloud, then Ignorance, nor under a heavier weight, then desire of knowledge. And therefore, for our deliverance in both, our Savior Christ here comforts us with The Comforter; you, you that are in the darkness of Ignorance, you, you that are under the oppression of a hunger of knowledge, you shall be satisfied, for, He that comes from my Father, in my name, He shall teach you.

That which the Vulgate reads, Eccles. 6.9. Desider are quod nescias, To desire to know that which thou knowest not yet, our Translation calls, The wandering of the desire, and in the Original it is, The walking, the pilgrimage of the Soul; the rest lesness, and irresolution of the Soul. And when man is taught that which he desired to know, then the Soul is brought home, and laid to rest. Desire is the travail, knowledge is the Inn; desire is the wheel, knowledge is the bed of the Soul. Therefore we affect society and conversation to know present things; Therefore we assist our selves with History, to know things past, and with Astrology, and sometimes with worse Arts, to know future things. The name of Master, of Teacher, that passes through the Scripture, is Rabbi, and Rabbi in the root thereof signifies, Magnum, and Multum; It is a word that denotes Greatness; And truly no man should be greater in our eyes, nor be thought to have laid greater obligations upon us, then he that hath taught us. When Christ is promised thus, The Lord shall send them a Savior, and a Great one, there is this word Rabbi: The Lord shall send them a Savior, which shall be Rabbi a great Teacher; Christ was a Savior, as he paid God a ransom for all; As he made man capable of this Salvation, he was this Rabbi, this Teacher; and in this capacity, did those two Disciples of John Baptist, who first applied themselves to Christ, apply themselves, Magister ubi habitas? Master, where dwellest thou? where may we come to School to thee? where may we be taught by thee? S. Paul hath showed us the duty of all true disciples, in the practise of the Galatians; You received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus, and I bear you record, that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. I thank him that brings me a candle, when it grows dark, and him that assists me with a spectacle, when my sight grows old; But to him that hath given the eyes of my soul, light and spectacles, how much a greater debtor am I? I will not dispute against nature, nor natural affections, nor dispute against Allegiance, nor civil obligations, nor dispute against gratitude, nor retribution of Benefits; But I willingly pronounce, that I cannot owe more to any Benefactor, to my Father, to my Prince, then I do to them that have taught me; nor can there be a deeper ingratitude, then to turn thy face from that man, or from his children, that hath taught thee. This Christ presents for the first Comfort, Doccbimini, You are ignorant, but that cloud shall be dispersed, you would learn, but have no help, but that defect shall be supplied, you shall be taught: And then, this comfort shall be exalted to you, in the person of the Teacher, Ille docebit, He whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you.

Quintilian requires no more of a School-master, but that either he be learned, or do not think himself to be so, if he be not: Because if he over-value himself, he will admit no Usher, no assistant. Here we have a master that is both absolute in himself, and yet undertaken for by others too; The Father sends him, and in the Sons name, that is, to perfect the Sons work. Tertullian (a man of adventurous language) calls him Tertium numen divinitatis, & tertium nomen majestatis: The Holy Ghost hath but a third place, but the same God-head, but a third name, yet the same Majesty, as the first, The Father, or the second, The Son. Porphyry that denied the Trinity, is convinced by S. Cyril, to have established a Trinity, because he acknowledged first Deum summum, and then, Conditorem omnium, and after them, Animam mundi; One that is a supream God, One that was the Creator of all things, and One that quickens and inanimates all, and is the soul of the whole world: And this soul of the world is the Holy Ghost, who doth that office to the soul of every Christian, which the soul it self doth to every natural man, informs him, directs him, instructs him, makes him be that he is, and do that he doth. And therefore as Tertullian calls Christ by the Holy Ghosts name, (for he calls Christ Spiritum Dei, because, as the office of our spirits is to unite the body and the soul, so Christ hath united God and man in one Emanuel) S. Basil gives the Holy Ghost Christs name, for he calls the Holy Ghost Verbum Dei, The word of God, because he undertakes the Pedagogy of the soul, to be the souls School-master, and to teach it as much of God as concerns it, that is, Christ crucified. Therefore when the Holy Ghost was first sent, he was sent but to testify of Christ; At Christs Baptism (which was his first sending) he was sent but to establish an assurance, and a belief, that that Christ was the Son of God, in whom he was well pleased; And this he did but as a witness, not as a Teacher; for the voice that wrought this, and taught this, came not from the Dove, not from the Holy Ghost, but from above; The Holy Ghost said nothing then. But when the Holy Ghost in performance of Christs promise in this Text, was sent as a Teacher, then he came in the form of Tongues, and they that received him, were thereby presently enabled to speak to others.

This therefore is the comming, and this is the teaching of the Holy Ghost, promised and intended in this Text, and performed upon this Day, that he by his power enables and authorises other men to teach thee; That he establishes a Church, and Ordinances, and a Ministry, by which thou mayst be taught how to apply Christs Merits to thy soul. He needed not to have invested, and taken the form of a Tongue, if he would have had thee think it enough to hear the Spirit at home, alone; but to let thee see, that his way of teaching should be the ministry of men, he came in that organ of speech, the Tongue. And therefore learn thou by hearing, what he says: And that that he says, he says here; here in his Ordinance. And therefore hear what he hath declared, inquire not what he hath decreed; Hear what he hath said, there, where he hath spoken, ask not what he meant in his unrevealed will, of things whereof he hath said nothing; For they that do so, mistake Gods mind often. God protests, It never came into my mind, that they should sin thus; God never did it, God never meant it, that any should sin necessarily, without a willing concurrence in themselves, or be damned necessarily, without relation to sin willingly committed. Therefore is S. Augustine vehement in that expostulation, Quis tam stultè curiosus est, qui filium suum mittat in scholam, ut quid magister cogitat, discat? Doth any man put his son to school, to learn what his Master thinks? The Holy Ghost is sent to Teach; he teaches by speaking; he speaks by his Ordinance, and Institution in his Church. All knowledge, and all zeal, that is not kindled by him, by the Holy Ghost, and kindled here, at first is all smoke, and then all flame; Zeal without the Holy Ghost, is at first, cloudy ignorance, all smoke; and after, all crackling and clambering flame, Schismatical rage, and distemper. Here we, we that are naturally ignorant, we, we that are naturally hungry of knowledge, are taught, a free School is opened unto us, and taught by him, by the Holy Ghost speaking in his Delegates, in his Ministers; (which were the pieces that constituted our first part) And the second, to which we are now come, is the manner of the Holy Ghosts comming, and teaching in his Ordinance, that is, by remembering, He shall bring to your remembrance, &c.

They had wont to call Pictures in the Church, the lay-mans book, because in them, he that could not read at all, might read much. The ignorantest man that is, even he that cannot read a Picture, even a blind man, hath a better book in himself; In his own memory he may read many a history of Gods goodness to him. Quid ab initio, How it was in the beginning, is Christs Method; To determine things according to former precedents; And truly the Memory is oftener the Holy Ghosts Pulpit that he preaches in, then the Understanding. How many here would not understand me, or not rest in that which they heard, if I should spend the rest of this hour in repeating, and reconciling that which divers authors have spoken diversly of the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament, or the manner of Christs descent into Hell, or the manner of the concurrence, and joint-working of the grace of God, and the free-will of man, in mens actions? But is there any man amongst us that is not capable of this Catechism, Remember to morrow but those good thoughts which you have had within this hour, since you came hither now: Remember at your last hour, to be but as good as you are this minute; I would scarce ask more in any mans behalf, then that he would always be as good, as at some times he is; If he would never sink below himself, I would less care, though he did not exceed himself: If he would remember his own holy purposes at best, he would never forget God; If he would remember the comfort he had in having overcome such a temptation yesterday, he would not be overcome by that temptation to day. The Memory is as the conclusion of a Syllogism, which being inferred upon true propositions, cannot be denied: He that remembers Gods former blessings, concludes infallibly upon his future. Therefore Christ places the comfort of this Comforter, the Holy Ghost, in this, that he shall work upon that pregnant faculty, the Memory; He shall bring things to your remembrance; And then, Omnia, All those things which I have said unto you.

Christ gave the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, when he gave them the power of absolution in his life time. He gave them the Holy Ghost more powerfully, when after his Resurrection,He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. He opened himself to them, in a large fullness, when he said, All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you; But in a greater largeness then that, when upon this day, according to the promise of this Text, the holy Ghost was sent unto them; for this was in the behalf of others. And upon this fullness, out of Tertullian it is argued, Nihilignorarunt, crgo nihil non docuerunt, As the Apostles were taught all things by Christ, so they taught the Church all things. There is then the sphere, and the compass, and the date of our knowledge; not what was thought or taught in the tenth, or fourteenth Century: but what was taught in Christ, and in the Apostles time. Christ taught all things to his Apostles, and the Holy Ghost brought all things to their remembrance that he had taught them, that they might teach them to others, and so it is derived to us.

But it is Omnia & Sola; It is All, but it is Only those things. He shall testify of me, saith Christ concerning the Holy Ghost; Now the office of him that testifies, of a witness, is to say all the truth, but nothing but the truth. When the Roman Church charges us, not that all is not truth, which we teach, but that we do not teach all the truth, And we charge them, not that they do not teach all the truth, but that all is not truth that they teach, so that they charge us with a defective, we them with a superfluous religion, our case is the safer, because all that we affirm, is by confession of all parts true, but that which they have added, requires proof, and the proof lies on their side; and it rests yet unproved. And certainly many an Indian, who is begun to be catechized, and dies, is saved, before he come to believe all that we believe; But whether any be saved that believe more then we believe, and believe it as equally fundamental, and equally necessary to salvation, with that which we from the express word of God do believe, is a Problem, not easily answered, not safely affirmed. Truly I had rather put my salvation upon some of those ancient Creeds, which want some of the Articles of our Creed, (as the Nicene Creed doth, and so doth Athanasius) then upon the Trent Creed, that hath as many more Articles as ours hath. The office of the Holy Ghost himself, the Spirit of all comfort, is but to bring those things to remembrance, which Christ taught, and no more.

They are many; too many, for many revolutions of an hour-glass. Therefore we proposed at first, That when we should come to this Branch, for the proper celebration of the day, we would only touch some things, which the Holy Ghost had taught of himself, that so we might detect, and detest such things, as some ancient, and some later Heretics had said of the Holy Ghost. Now those things which the ancient Heretics have said, are sufficiently gain-said by the ancient Fathers. The Montanists said the Holy Ghost was in Christ, and in the Apostles, but in a far higher exaltation in Montanus, then in either; but Tertullian opposed that. Manes was more insolent then the Montanist, for he avowed himself to be the Holy Ghost, and S. Augustine overthrew that. Hierarchas was more modest then so, and did but say, That Melchisedech was the Holy Ghost, and S. Cyprian would not indure that. The Arrians said the Holy Ghost was but Creatura Creaturae, made by the Son, which Son himself was but made in time, and not eternally begotten by the Father; but Liberius, and many of the Fathers opposed that; as a whole general Council did Macedonius, when he refreshed many Errors formerly condemned, concerning the Holy Ghost; and few of these have had any Resurrection, any repulullation, or appeared again in these later days. But in these later times, two new Herefies have arisen concerning the Holy Ghost.

About four hundred years since, came out that famous infamous Book in the Roman Church, which they called Euangelium Spiritus Sancti, The Gospel of the Holy Ghost; in which, was pretended, That as God the Father had had his time in the government of the Church, in the Law, And God the Son his time, in the Gospel, so the Holy Ghost was to have his time; and his time was to begin within fifty years after the publishing of that Gospel, and to last to the end of the world; and therefore it was called Euangelium aeternum, The everlasting Gospel. By this Gospel, the Gospel of Christ was absolutely abrogated, and the power of governing the Church, according to the Gospel of Christ, utterly evacuated; for, it was therein taught, that only the literal sense of the Gospel had been committed to them, who had thus long governed in the name of the Church, but the spiritual and mystical sense was reserved to the Holy Ghost, and that now the Holy Ghost would set that on foot: And so, (which was the principal intention in that plot) they would have brought all Doctrine, and all Discipline, all Government into the Cloister, into their religious Orders, and overthrown the Hierarchy of the Church, of Bishops, and Priests, and Deacons, and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, and brought all into Monasteries. He that first opposed this Book was Waldo, he that gave the name to that great Body, that great power of Men, who attempted the Reformation of the Church, and were called the Waldenses, who were especially defamed, and especially persecuted for this, that they put themselves in the gap, and made themselves a Bank, against this torrent, this inundation, this impetuousness, this multiplicy of Fryars, and Monks, that surrounded the world in those times. And when this Book could not be dissembled, and being full of blasphemy against Christ, was necessarily brought into agitation, yet all that was done by them, who had the government of the Church in their hands then, was but this, That this Book, this Gospel of the Holy Ghost should be suppressed and smothered, but without any noise, or discredit; and the Book which was writ against it, should be solemnly, publicly, infamously burnt. And so they kindled a War in Heaven, greater then that in the Revelation, where Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon, and his Angels; For, here they brought God the Son into the field, against God the Holy Ghost, and made the Holy Ghost divest, dethrone, disseise, and dispossesse the Son of his Government.

Now when they could not advance that Heresy, when they could not bring the Holy Ghost to that greatness, when they could not make him King to their purposes, that is, King over Christ, They are come to an Heresy clean contrary to that Heresy, that is, to imprison the Holy Ghost, And since they could not make him King over Christ himself, they have made him a Prisoner, and a flave to Christs Vicar, and shut him up there, In scrinio pectoris, (as they call it) in that close imprisonment, in the breast and bosom of one man, that Bishop: And so, the Holy Ghost is no longer a Dove, a Dove in the Ark, a Dove with an Olive-Branch, a Messenger of peace, but now the Holy Ghost is in a Bull, in Buls worse then Phalaris his Bull, Buls of Excommunication, Buls of Rebellion, and Deposition, and Assassinates of Christian Princes. The Holy Ghost is no longer Omni-present, as in Davids time, (Whither shall I goefrom thy Spirit?) but he is only there, whither he shall be sent from Rome in a Cloak-bagge, and upon a Post-horse, as it was often complained in the Council of Trent. The Holy Ghost is no longer Omniscient, to know all at once, as in S. Pauls time, when the Spirit of God searched all things, yea the deep things of God, but as a Sea-Captain receives a Ticket, to be opened when he comes to such a height, and thereby to direct his future course, so the Holy Ghost is appointed to ask the Popes Nuntio, his Legate, what he shall declare to be truth. So the Holy Ghost was sent into this Kingdom, by Leo the tenth, with his Legate, that brought the Bull of Declaration for Hcnry the eights Divorce; but the Holy Ghost might not know of it, that is, not take knowledge of it, not declare it to be a Divorce, till some other conditions were performed by the King, which being never performed, the Holy Ghost remained in the case of a new created Cardinal, Ore clauso, he had novoyce; and so the Divorce, though past all debatements, and all consents, and all determinations at Rome, was no Divorce, because he that sent the Holy Ghost from Rome, forbad him to publish and declare it. So that the style of the Court is altered from the Apostles time; Then it was, Visum est Spiritui Sancto, & nobis, It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us; First to the Holy Ghost, before others; and when it is brought to others, it is to us, to others in the plural, to many others. But now it is Visum est mihi, & Spiritui Sancto, It seems good unto me, to one man alone; and when it does so, it shall seem good to the Holy Ghost too. And of these two Heretical violences to the Holy Ghost, we complain against that Church, first, that they put the Holy Ghost in a Rebellion against the Son of God, from whom he proceeds; And then, (as for the most part, the end of them, who pretend right to a Kingdom, and cannot prove it, is to lie in Prison) That they have imprisoned the Holy Ghost in one mans breast, and not suffered that wind to breath where it will, as Christ promised the Holy Ghost should do: For neither did the Holy Ghost bring any such thing to their remembrance, as though Christ had taught any such Doctrine, neither can they that teach it, come nearer the sin, The unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, then thus to make him a supplanter of Christ, or supplanted by Antichrist.

But we hold you no longer in this ill Aire, blasphemous and irksome contumelies against the Holy Ghost: we promised at first, to dismiss you at last, in a perfume, with the breath of the Holy Ghost upon you; and that is, to excite you to a rectified sense, and knowledge, that he offers himself unto you, and is received by you. Facies Dei est, qua nobis innotescit; That is always the face of God to us, by which God vouchsafes to manifest himself to us: So, his Ordinance in the Church, is his face. And Lux Dei, qua nobis illucescit, The light of God to us, is that light by which he shines upon us; Lex Dei, Lux Dei, his word, in his Church. And then, the Evidence, the Seal, the Witness of all, that this face which I see by this light, is directed upon me for my comfort, is, The Testimony of the Holy Ghost, when that Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that he is in us. And therefore in his blessed Name, and in the participation of his power, I say to you all, Accipite Spiritum sanctum, Receive ye the holy Ghost. Not that I can give it you, but I can tell you, that he offers to give himself to you all. Our sufficiency is of God, says the Apostle; Acknowledge you a sufficiency in us, a sufficient power to be in the Ministry; for, (as the Apostle adds) He hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament: Not able only in faculties and gifts requisite for that function, (those faculties and gifts, whether of nature, or of acquisition, be, in as great measure, in some that have not that function) but able, by his powerful Ordinance, (as it is also added there) to minister, not the letter, (not the letter only) but The Spirit, the Spirit of the New Testament, that is, the holy Ghost to you. Therefore as God said to Moses, I will come down, and talk with thee, and I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and put it upon them, God, in his Spirit does come down to us in his Ministry, and talk with us, his Ministers at home, that is, assist us in our Meditations, and lucubrations, and preparations, for this service here, and then, here, in this place, he takes of that Spirit from us, and sheds upon you, imparts the gifts of the holy Ghost to you also, and makes the holy Ghost as much yours, by your hearing, as he made him ours, by our study: Be not deceived by the letter, by the phrase of that place; God does not say there, that he will take of the Spirit from us, and give it you, that is, fill you with it, and leave us without it; but he will take of that Spirit, that is, impart that Spirit so to you, as that by us, and our present Ministry, he will give you that that shall be sufficient for you, to day, and yet call you to us again in his Ordinance, another day. Learn as much as you can every day, and never think that you have learnt so much, as that you have no more need of a Teacher; for though you need no more of that man, (you may be perchance as learned as he) yet you need more of that Ordinance: We give you the holy Ghost then, when we open your eyes to see his offers.

Those words of the Apostle, Our selves have the first fruits of the Spirit, S. Ambrose interprets so, Our selves, we the Ministers of God, have the first fruits of the Spirit, the pre-possession, the pre-inhabitation, but not the sole possession, nor sole inhabitation of the Holy Ghost; but we have grace for grace, the Spirit therefore, to shed the Spirit upon you; that that precious Ointment, (the Holy Ghost is this Unction) which was poured upon the Head, upon Christ, may run down, upon Aarons beard, and from those gray, and grave, and reverend hairs of his Ministers, may also go down to the skirts of his garments, to every one of you, who do not only make up the garment, that is, the visible, but the mystical body it self of Christ Jesus. The dew of Hermon descends upon the mountains of Sion; But the waters that fall upon the mountains, fall into the valleys too from thence; The Holy Ghost falls, through us, upon you also, so, as that you may, so, as that you must find it in your selves. The Holy Ghost was the first Person, that was declared in the Creation, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, that was the first motion. This is eternal life, to know God, and him whom he sent, Christ Jesus. But this you cannot do, but by him whom they both sent, the Holy Ghost; No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. John Baptist who was to baptize Christ, was filled with the holy Ghost from the womb. You, who were baptized in Christ, were filled, (in your measure) with the holy Ghost, from that womb, from the time that the Church conceived you in Baptism.

And therefore, as the Twelve said to the multitude, Look yee among ye seven men full of the holy Ghost, So we say to the whole Congregation, Look every man to himself, that he be one of the seven, one of that infinite number, which the holy Ghost offers to fall upon; That as ye were baptized in the holy Ghost, and as your bodies are Temples of the holy Ghost, so your souls may be Priests of the holy Ghost, and you, altogether a lively and reasonable sacrifice to God, in the holy Ghost. That as you have been sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, you may find in your selves the performance of that promise, find the seal of that promise, in your love to the Scriptures; for, (as S. Chrysostom argues usefully) Christ gave the Apostles no Scriptures, but he gave them the holy Ghost in stead of Scriptures; But to us, who are weaker, he hath given both, The holy Ghost in the Scriptures; and, if we neglect either, we have neither; If we trust to a private spirit, and call that the holy Ghost, without Scripture, or to the Scriptures without the holy Ghost, that is, without him, there, where he hath promised to be, in his Ordinance, in his Church, we have not the seal of that Promise, the holy Ghost. Find then that promise in your holy love, and sober study of the Scriptures, and find the performance, the fruits thereof in your conversation, and then you have an Autumn better then any worldly Spring, A vintage, a gathering of those blessed fruits, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meckeness, temperance; where (by the way) these are not called severally the fruits of the Spirit, as though they were so many several fruits, which might be had one without another, but collectively, all together, they are called the fruit; It is not Love alone, nor Joy alone, no nor Faith alone, that is the fruit of the holy Ghost; Love; but not love alone, but that love, when between the holy Ghost and you, you can joy in that love, and not repent it; Joy, but not joy alone, but that joy, when between the holy Ghost and you, you can find peace in that joy, that you be not the sadder after, for having been so merry before, this, these, these and all the rest together are the fruit of the holy Ghost; and therefore labor to have them all, or you lack all.

And then lastly, as we pursuing Gods Ordinance, have been able to say to you Accipite Spiritum sanctum, Behold the holy Ghost in your selves, behold he appeared to you, when he moved you to come hither, behold he appeared to you, as often as he hath opened the window of the Ark, your hearts, to take in this Dove, this hour, so we may say unto you, as we say in the School, There is an infusion of the holy Ghost; liquor is infused into a vessel, if that vessel hold it, though it do but cover the bottom and no more: The holy Ghost is infused into you, if he have made any entry, if he cover any part, if he have taken hold of any corrupt affection. There is also a diffusion of the holy Ghost; Liquor is diffused into a vessel, when it fils all the parts of the vessel, and leaves no emptiness, no driness: The holy Ghost is diffused into you, if he overspread you, and possess you all, and rectify all your perversnesses. But then, in the School, we have also an effusion of the holy Ghost; And liquor is effused then, when it so fils the vessel, as that that overflows, to the benefit of them, who will participate thereof. Receive therefore the holy Ghost, so, as that the holy Ghost may overflow, flow from your example, to the edification of others; That you may go home, and say to your children, receive ye the holy Ghost, in the Spirit of contentment, and acquiescence, and thankfulness to God, and me, in that portion that I can leave you, And say to your servants, receive ye the holy Ghost, in the spirit of obedience, and fidelity, And say to your neigh bours, receive ye the holy Ghost, in the spirit of peace and quiemesse, And say to your Creditors, receive ye the holy Ghost in the spirit of patience, and tenderness, and compassion, and for bearing, And to your debtors, receive ye the holy Ghost in the spirit of industry, and labor in your calling. You see, Preaching it self, even the Preaching of Christ himself, had been lost, if the holy Ghost had not brought all those things to their remembrance. And if the holy Ghost do bring these things, which we preach to your remembrance, you are also made fishers of men, and Apostles, and (as the Prophet speaks) Salvatores mundi, men that assist the salvation of the world, by the best way of preaching, an exemplar life, and holy convesation. Amen.

Sermon XXX. Preached upon Whitsunday. Part of the Gospel of the Day.

JOHN 14.20.

At that day shall ye know, That I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

THe two Volumes of the Scriptures are justly, and properly called two Testaments, for they are Testatio Mentis, The attestation, the declaration of the will and pleasure of God, how it pleased him to be served under the Law, and how in the state of the Gospel. But to speak according to the ordinary acceptation of the word, the Testament, that is, The last Will of Christ Jesus, is this speech, this declaration of his, to his Apostles, of which this text is a part. For, it was spoken, as at his Death-bed, his last Supper: And it was before his Agony in the garden, so that (if we should consider him as a mere man) there was no inordinateness, no irregularity in his affection; It was testified with sufficient witnesses, and it was sealed in blood, in the Institution of the Sacrament. By this Will then, as a rich, and abundant, and liberal Testator, having given them so great a Legacy, as a place in the kingdom of heaven, yet he adds a codicill, he gives more, he gives them the evidence by which they should maintain their right to that kingdom, that is, the testimony of the Spirit, The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom he promises to send to them; And still more and more abundant, he promises them, that that assurance of their right shall not be taken from them, till he himself return again to give them an everlasting possession, That he may receive us unto himself, and that where he is, we may also be. The main Legacy, the body of the gift is before: That which is given in this Text, is part of that evidence by which it appears to us that we have right, and by which that right is maintained, and that is knowledge, that knowledge which we have of our interest in God, and his kingdom here; At that day ye shall know, &c.

And in the giving of this, we shall consider, first, the Legacy it self, this knowledge, Cognoscetis, Ye shall know; And secondly, the time when this Legacy grows due to us, In illo die, At that day ye shall know; And thirdly, how much of this treasure is devised to us, what portion of this heavenly knowledge is bequeathed to us, and that is in three great sums, in three great mysteries; First, ye shall know the mystery of the Trinity, of distinct persons in the Godhead; Ego in patre, That I am in my Father; And then the mystery of the Incarnation of God, who took our flesh, Vos in me, That you are in me; And lastly, the mystery and working of our Redemption, in our Sanctification, Ego in vobis, That Christ (by his Spirit, the Holy Ghost) is in us.

Nequitia animae ignoratio, says Trismegistus; He doth not say it is the infirmity of the soul, or the impotency of the soul, but the iniquity, the wickedness of the soul consists in this, that we are ignorant of those ways, and those ends, upon which we should direct, and by which we should govern our purposes: And if ignorance be the corruption, and dissolution, certainly knowledge is the redintegration, and consolidation of the soul. From this corruption, from this ignorance God delivered his people at first, in some measure, by the Law; that is, he gave them thereby a way to get out of this ignorance; he put them to School; Lex Paedagogus, says the Apostle, The Law was their School-master. But in the state of the Gospel, in the shedding of the beams, of the streams of his grace in the blood of Christ Jesus we are graduats, and have proceeded so far, as to a manifestation of things already done, and so our faith is brought in a great part, to consist in matter of fact, and that which was but matter of prophecy to them (in the old Testament, they knew not when it should be done) to us in the New, is matter of History, and we know when it was done: In the old times God led his people, sometimes with clouds, sometimes with fire, some lights they had, but some hidings, some withdrawings of those lights too, the mysteries of their salvation were not fully revealed unto them: To us, all is holy fire, all is evident light, all is in the Epiphany, in the manifestation of Christ, and in the presence of the Holy Ghost, who is delivered over to us, to remain with us, Vsque ad consummationem, Till the end of the world. God hath buried & hidden from us the body of Moses; he hath removed that cloud, that vail, the ceremony, the letter of the Law. Yea he hath hidden that which benighted us more, and kept us in more ignorance of him, our infinite sins, which are clouds of witnesses to our Consciences, he hath hidden them in the wounds of his Son our Savior, so that there remains nothing but clearness, evident clearness; The Gospel being brought to us all, in that Christ is actually and really come, and Christ being brought to me, in that he is applicable in the Church to every particular soul; so that this Legacy that is given in this text, is not only in a possibility, and in a probability, and in a verisimilitude, but in an assurance, and in an infallibility, in a knowledge, we know it is thus, and thus.

We shall therefore consider this knowledge, first, as it is opposed to ignorance, secondly, as it is opposed to inconsideration, and thirdly, as it is opposed to conclealing, to smothering: First, we must have it, and then we must know that we have it, and after that we must publish it, and declare it, so that others may know that we know it. Now, as there is a profitable, a wholesome, a learned ignorance, which is a modest, and a reverent abstinence from searching into those secrets which God hath not revealed in his word, (whereupon S. Augustine says usefully, Libenter ignoremus, quae ignorare nos vult Deus, Let not us desire to know that which God hath no will to reveal) So also there is an unprofitable, an infectious, indeed an ignorant knowledge, which puffs, and swells us up: that, of which the Prophet says, Stultus factus est omnis homo, à scientia; Every mans knowledge makes him a fool, when it makes him undervalue, and despise another. And this is one strange and incurable effect of this opinion of wit and knowledge, that whereas every man murmurs, and says to himself, such a man hath more land then I, more money then I, more custom, more practise then I, (when perchance, in truth it is not so) yet every man thinks, that he hath more wit, more knowledge then all the world beside, when, God knows, it is very far from being so. When the Prophet in that place, calls this confident believer in his own wisdom, Fool, he hath therein fastened upon him a name of the greatest reproach to man, which the Holy Ghost, in the mouth of a Prophet, could choose; As it appears best in those gradations which Christ makes, where, Whosoever is angry, is made culpable of judgement, whosoever says Racha, (that is, expresses his anger in any contumelious speech) is subject to a Council, but whosoever shall say, Fool, shall be worthy to be punished in hell fire. For, by calling him Fool, says S. Chrysostom there, he takes from him that understanding, by which he is a man, and so, says he, despoils him of all interest in the creature, in this life, and all interest in God, in the life to come. It is the deepest indignation, the highest abomination that Job in his anguish conceived, Stulti despiciebant me, They that are but fools themselves, despised me; And after that again, They are the children of fools, and yet I am their song, and their talk: And in that comparison which God himself instituted, and proposed in Deuteronomy, They have moved me to jealousy, with that which is not God, and I will move them to jealousy, with those who are no people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish Nation, God intimates so much, That a Fool is no more a man, then an Idol is a God.

Now this foolishness which we speak of, against which God gives us this Legacy of knowledge, is not that bluntness, that dulness, that narrowness of understanding, which is opposed to sharpness of wit, or readiness of expressing, and delivering any matter, for very many very devout and godly men, lack that sharpness, and that readiness, and yet have a good portion of spiritual wisdom, and knowledge. Neither is this foolishness, that weakness, or inability, to amasse and gather together particulars, as they have fallen out in former times, and in our times, and thereby to judge of future occurrences by former precedents, (which is the wisdom of States-men, and of civil contemplation, to build up a body of knowledge, from reading stories, or observing actions) for this wisdom Solomon calls vanity, and vexation; Nor is this foolishness, that precipitation, that over-earnestness, that animosity, that heat which some men have, and which is opposed to discretion; for sometimes zeal it self hath such a heat, and such a precipitation in it, and yet that zeal may not be absolutely condemned, but may be sometimes of some use; The dull man, the weak man, the hasty man is not this fool, but (as the Wiseman, who knew best, hath told us,) The fool is he that trusteth in his own heart. And therefore, against this foolishness of trusting in our own hearts, of confiding, and relying upon our own plots and devices, and from sacrificing to our own nets, (as the Prophet Habakkuk speaks) from this attributing of all to our own industry, from this ignorance, that all blessings, spiritual and temporal too, proceed from God, and from God only, and from God manifested in Christ, and from Christ explicated in the Scriptures, and from the Scriptures applied in the Church, (which is the sum of all religion) God hath given us this Legacy of knowledge, Cognoscetis, At that day you shall know, as knowledge is opposed to ignorance.

As it is opposed to inconsideration, it is a great work that it doth too: for, as God hath made himself like man in many things, in taking upon him, in Scriptures, our lineaments and proportion, our affections and passions, our apparel and garments, so hath God made himself like man, in this also, that as man doth, so he also takes it worse to be neglected, then to be really injured; Some of our sins do not offend God so much, as our inconsideration, a stupid passing him over, as though that we did, that which we had, that which we were, appertained not to him, had no emanation from him, no dependance upon him. As God says in the Prophet, of lame, and blemished, and unperfect Sacrifices, Offer it unto any of your Princes, and see if they will accept it at your hands; So I say to them that pass their lives thus inconsiderately, Offer that to any of your Princes, any of your Superiors; Dares an officer that receives instructions from his Prince, when he leaves his commandments unperformed, say, I never thought of it? Dares a Subject, a Servant, a Son say so?

Now beloved, this knowledge, as it is opposed to inconsideration, is in this, that God by breeding us in the visible Church, multiplies unto us so many helps and assistances in the word preached, in the Sacraments, in other Sacramental, and Ritual, and Ceremonial things, which are auxiliary, subsidiary reliefs, and refreshings to our consideration, as that it is almost impossible to fall into this inconsideration. Here God shows this inconsiderate man, his book of creatures, which he may run and read; that is, he may go forward in his vocation, and yet see that every creature calls him to a consideration of God. Every Ant that he sees, asks him, Where had I this providence, and industry? Every flower that he sees, asks him, Where had I this beauty, this fragrancy, this medicinal virtue in me? Every creature calls him to consider, what great things God hath done in little subjects. But God opens to him also, here in his Church, his Book of Scriptures, and in that Book, every word cries out to him; every merciful promise cries to him, Why am I here, to meet thee, to wait upon thee, to perform Gods purpose towards thee, if thou never consider me, never apply me to thy self? Every judgement of his anger cries out, Why am I here, if thou respect me not. if thou make not thy profit, of performing those conditions, which are annexed to those judgements, and which thou mightest perform, if thou wouldst consider it? Yea, here God opens another book to him, his manual, his bosom, his pocket book, his Vade Mecum, the Abridgement of all Nature, and all Law, his own heart, and conscience: And this book, though he shut it up, and clasp it never so hard, yet it will sometimes burst open of it self; though he interline it with other studies, and knowledges, yet the Text it self, in the book it self, the testimonies of the conscience, will shine through and appear: Though he load it, and choak it with Commentaries and questions, that is, perplexe it with Circumstances, and Disputations, yet the matter it self, which is imprinted there, will present it self: yea, though he tear some leaves out of the Book, that is, wilfully, yea studiously forget some sins that he hath done, and discontinue the reading of this book, the survey and consideration of his conscience, for some time, yet he cannot lose, he cannot cast away this book, that is so in him, as that it is himself, and evermore calls upon him, to deliver him from this inconsideration, by this open and plentiful Library, which he carries about him. Consider, beloved, the great danger of this inconsideration, by remembering, That even that only perfect man, Christ Jesus, who had that great way of making him a perfect man, as that he was perfect God too, even in that act of deepest devotion, in his prayer in the garden, by permitting himself, out of that humane infirmity, which he was pleased to admit in himself, (though far from sin) to pass one petition in that prayer, without a debated and considered will, in his Transeat Calix, If it be possible, let this Cup pass, he was put to a re-consideration, and to correct his Prayer, Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thine be done. And if then our best acts of praying, and hearing, need such an exact consideration, consider the richness, and benefit of this Legacy, knowledge, as this knowledge is opposed to inconsideration.

It is also opposed to concealing and smothering; It must be published to the benefit of others. Paulùm sepultae distat inertiae celata virtus, says the Poet; Virtue that is never produced into action, is scarce worthy of that name. For that is it, which the Apostle, in his Epistle to that Church, which was in Philemons house, doth so much praise God for, That the fellowship of thy faith may be made fruitful, and that whatsoever good thing is in you through Jesus Christ, may be known: That according to the nature of goodness, and to the root of goodness, God himself, this knowledge of God may be communicated, and transfused, and shed, and spread, and derived, and digested upon others. And therefore certainly, as the Philosopher said of civil actions, Etiam simulare Philosophiam, Philosophia est, That it was some degree of wisdom, to be able to seem wise; so, though it be no degree of religion, to seem religious, yet even that may be a way of reducing others, and perchance themselves: when a man makes a public, an outward show of being religious, by comming ordinarily to Church, and doing those outward duties, though this be hypocrisy in him, yet sometimes other men receive profit by his example, and are religious in earnest, and, sometimes, Appropinquat & nescit, (as S. Augustine confesses that it was his case, when he came out of curiosity, and not out of devotion, to hear S. Ambrose preach) what respect soever brought that man hither, yet when God finds him here, in his house, he takes hold of his conscience, and shows himself to him, though he came not to see him. And if God do thus produce good out of the hypocrite, and work good in him, much more will he provide a plentiful harvest, by their labours, who having received this knowledge from God, assist their weaker brethren, both by the Example of their lives, and the comfort of their Doctrine.

This knowledge then, which to work the intended effect in us, is thus opposed to ignorance, and to inconsideration, and to concealing, (which were the pieces that constitute our first Part) in the second Part, which is the time when this Legacy accrues to us, is to be given us, In die illo, at that day, At that day shall yee know, &c. It is the illumination, the illustration of our hearts, and therefore well referred to the Day; The word it self affords cheerfulness. For when God inflicted that great plague, to kill all the first-born in Egypt, that was done at Midnight: And when God would intimate both deaths at once, spiritual, and temporal, he says, O fool, this night they will fetch away thy soul. Against all supply of knowledge, he calls him fool; and against all sense of comfort in the day, he threatens night.

It was In die, and In die illo, in the day, and at a certain day, and at a short day. For, after Christ had made his Will at this supper, & given strength to his Will, by his death, and proved his Will by his Resurrection, and left the Church possest of his estate, by his Ascension, within ten days after that, he poured out this Legacy of knowledge. For, though some take this day mentioned in the Text, to be Tanqnam unius diei tenor, à dato Spiritu, ad Resurrectionem; from the first giving of the Holy Ghost, to the Resurrection; And others take this day, to be from his Resurrection, to the end of his second Conversation upon earth, till his Ascension; and S. Augustine referre it, Ad perfectam visionem in Coelis, to the perfect fruition of the sight of God in Heaven, yet the most useful, and best followed acceptation is, This Day of the comming of the Holy Ghost.

That day we celebrate this day; and we can never find the Christian Church (so far as we can judge by the evidence of Story) to have been without this festival day. The reason of all Festivals in the Church, was, and is, Ne volumine temporum, ingrata subrepat oblivio, Lest after many ages involved, and wrapped up in one another, Gods particular benefits should be involved, and wrapped up in unthankfulness. And the benefits received this day, were such, as should never be forgotten: for, without this day, all the rest had been evacuated, and uneffectual: If the Apostles by the comming of the Holy Ghost had not been established in an infallibility in themselves, and in an ability, to deal with all Nations, by the benefit of tongues, the benefit of Christs passion had not been derived upon all Nations. And therefore, to This day, and to Easterday, all public Baptismes, in the Primitive Church, were reserved; None were baptized (except in cases of necessity) but upon one of these two days: for, as there is an Exaltation, a Resurrection given us in Baptism, represented by Easter; so there belongs to us a confirmation, an establishing of grace, and the increase thereof, represented in Pentecost, in the comming of the Holy Ghost. As the Jews had an Easter in the memory of their deliverance from Egypt, and a Pentecost in the memory of the Law given at Mout Sinai; So at Easter we celebrate the memory of that glorious Passeover, when Christ passed from the grave, and hell, in his Resurrection, and at this Feast of Pentecost we celebrate his giving of the Law to all Nations, and his investing and possessing himself of his Kingdom, the Church: for this is Festum Adoptionis, as S. Chrysostom calls it; The cheerful feast of our Adoption, in which, the Holy Ghost convaying the Son of God to us, enables us to be the Sons of God, and to cry Abba, Father.

This then is that day, when the Apostles being with one accord, and in one place, (that is, in one faith, and in one profession of that faith, not only without Heresy, but without Schism too) the Holy Ghost as a mighty wind, filled them all, and gave them utterance; As a wind, to note a powerful working; And he filled them, to note the abundance; And he gave them utterance, to inferre that which we spoke of before, The Communication of that knowledge, which they had received, to others. This was that Spirit, whom it concerned the Apostles so much to have, as that Christ himself must go from them, to send him to them; If I go not away, says Christ, the Comforter will not come to you. How great a comfort must this necessarily be, which must so abundantly recompense the loss of such a comfort; as the presence of Christ was? This is that Spirit, who though he were to be sent by the Father, and sent by the Son, yet he comes not as a Messenger from a Superior, for he was always equal to Father and Son: But the Father sent him, and the Son sent him, as a tree sends forth blossoms, and as those blossoms send forth a sweet smell, and as the Sun sends forth beams, by an emanation from it self; He is Spiritus quem nemo interpretari potest, says S. Chrysostom; he hath him not, that doth not see he hath him, nor is any man without him, who, in a rectified conscience, thinks he hath him: Illo Prophetae illustrantur, Illo idiotae condiuntur, says the same Father, The Prophets, as high as their calling was, saw nothing without this Spirit, and with this Spirit, a simple man understands the Prophets. And therefore doth S. Basil attribute that to the Holy Ghost, which seems to be peculiar to the Son; he calls him Verbum Dei, because says he, Spiritus interpres Filii, sicut Filius Patris, As the Son hath revealed to us the will of the Father, and so is the Word of God to us, so the Holy Ghost applies the promises, and the merits of the Son to us, and so is the Word of God to us too, and enables us to come to God, in that voice of his blessed Servant, S. Augustine, O Deus, secretissime, & patentissime, Though nothing be more mysterious then the knowledge of God in the Trinity, yet nothing is more manifest unto us, then, by the light of this person, the Holy Ghost, so much of both the other Persons, as is necessary for our Salvation, is.

Now, it is not only to the Apostles, that the Holy Ghost is descended this day, but, as S. Chrysostom says of the Annunciation, Non ad unam tantùm animam, It is not only to one Person, that the Angel said then, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and overshadow thee, but, says he, that Holy Ghost hath said, Super omnem, I will pour out my self upon all men, so I say of this day, This day, if you be all in this place, (concentred, united here in one Faith, and one Religion) If you be of one accord, (that is, in perfect charity) The Holy Ghost shall fill you all (according to your measure, and his purpose) and give you utterance, in your lives and conversations. Qui ita vacat orationibus, ut dignus fiat illo vehementi Spiritu, semper habet diem Pentecostes: He that-loves the exercise of prayer so earnestly, as that in prayer he feels this vehemence of the Holy Ghost, that man dwells in an everlasting Whitsunday: for so he does, he hath it always, that ever had it aright: Oditeos Deus, qui unam putant diem, festum Domini; God hates that man, says Origen also, that celebrates any Holy-day of his, but one day: that never thinks of the Incarnation of Christ, but upon Christmas-day, nor upon his Passion, and Resurrection, but upon Easter, and Good-friday. If you deal so with your souls, as with your bodies, and as you cloth your selves with your best habits to day, but return again to your ordinary apparel to morrow: so for this day, or this hour, you divest the thought of your sins, but return after to your vomit, you have not celebrated this day of Pentecost; you have not been truly in this place, for your hearts have been visiting your profits, or pleasures; you have not been here with one accord, you have not truly and sincerely joined with the Communion of Saints; Christ hath sent no Comforter to you this day, neither will he send any, till you be better prepared for him. But if you have brought your sins hither in your memory, and leave them here in the blood of your Savior, always flowing in his Church, and ready to receive them, if you be come to that heavenly knowledge, that there is no comfort but in him, and in him abundant consolation, then you are this day capable of this great Legacy, this knowledge, which is all the Christian Religion, That Christ is in the Father, and you in him, and he in you.

We are now come to our third part, Our portion in this Legacy, the measure of the knowledge of these mysteries, which we are to receive: of which, S. Chrysostom says well, Scientiae magnum argumentum est, nolle omnia scire, It is a good argument, that that man knows much, who desires not to know all; In pursuing true knowledge, he is gone a good way, that knows where to give over. When that great Manichean Felix would needs prove to S. Augustine, that Manes was the holy Ghost, because it was said that the holy Ghost should teach all truths, and that Manes did so, because he taught many things that they were ignorant of before, concerning the frame, and motion, and nature of the heavens and their stars, S. Augustine answered, Spiritus sanctus facit Christianos, non Mathematicos, The Holy Ghost makes us Christians, not Mathematicians. If any man think, by having his station at Court, that it is enough for him to have studied that one book, and that if in that book, The knowledge of the Court, he be come to an apprehension, by what means and persons businesses are likeliest to be carried, If he by his foresight have provided perspective glasses, to see objects a far off, and can make Almanacks for next year, and tell how matters will fall out then, and think that so he hath received his portion, as much knowledge as he needs, Spiritus sanctus facit Christianos, non Politicos, He must remember that the Holy Ghost makes Christians, and not Politians. So if a man have a good foundation of a fortune from his Parents, and think that all his study must be, to proceed in that, and still to add a Cyphar more to his accounts, to make tens, hundreds, and hundreds, thousands, Spiritus sanctus facit Christianos, non Arithmeticos, The Holy Ghost makes Christians, and not such Arithmeticians. If men who desire a change in Religion, and yet think it a great wisdom, to disguise that desire, and to temporise, lest they should be made less able to effect their purposes, if they should manifest themselves; but yet hope to see that transmutation of Religion, from that copper, which they esteem ours to be, to that gold, which, (perchance for the venality thereof) they esteem theirs: If others, who are also working in the fire, (though not in the fire of envy and of powder, yet in the fire of an indiscreet zeal, and though they pretend not to change the substance of the metal, the body of our Religion, yet they labor to blow away much of the ceremony, and circumstances, which are Vehicula, and Adminicula, if not Habitacula Religionis, They are, though not the very fuel, yet the bellows of Religion) If these men, I say, of either kind, They who call all differing from themselves, Error, and all error damnable; or they, who, as Tertullian expresses their humor, and indisposition prophetically, Qui vocant prostrationem Disciplinae, simplicitatem, which call the abolishing and extermination of all Discipline and Ceremony, pureness and holiness; If they think they have received their portion of this legacy, their measure of true knowledge, in labouring only to accuse, and reform, and refine others, Spiritus sanctus facit Christianos, non Chymistas, The holy Ghost makes men Christians, and not Alchymists. To contract this, If a man know ways enow to disguise all his sins, If no Exchequer take hold of his usurious contracts, no High Commission of his licentiousness, no Star-chamber of his misdemeanors, If he will not to sleep, till he can hold up his eyes no longer, for fear his sins should meet him in his bed, and vexe his conscience there, If he will not come to the Sacrament, but at that time of the year, when Laws compel him, or good company invite him, or other civil respects and reasons provoke him, If he have avoydances, to hide his sins from others, and from himself too, by such disguisings, This is all but Deceptio visus, a blinding of his own internal eyes, and Spirtus sanctus facit Christianos, non Circulatores, The Holy Ghost makes men Christians, and not Jugglers.

This knowledge then which we speak of, is to know the end and the way, Heaven and Christ, The Kingdom to which he is gone, and the means which he hath taught us to follow. Now, in all our ways, in all our journeys, a moderate pace brings a man most surely to his journeys end, and so doth a sober knowledge in matters of Divinity, and in the mysteries of Religion. And therefore the Fathers say, that this comming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, this day, though it were a vehement comming, did not give them all kind of knowledge, a knowledge of particular Arts, and Sciences; But he gave them knowledge enough for their present work, and withal a faithful confidence, that if at any time, they should have to do, with learned Heathens, with Philosophers, the Holy Ghost would either instantly furnish them, with such knowledge, as they had not before, (as we see in many relations in the Ecclesiastical Story, That men spoke upon the sudden, in divers cases, otherwise, then in any reason their education could promise or afford) or else he would blunt the sharpness of the Adversaries weapons, and cast a damp upon their understandings, as we see he did in the Council of Nice, when after many disputations, amongst the great Men of great estimation, the weakest Man in the Council rose up, and he, of whom his own party were afraid, lest his discourse should disadvantage the cause, overthrew, and converted, that great Advocate, and defender of Arius, whom all the rest could never shake; for though this man said no more then other men had said, yet God at this time disposed the understanding, and the abilities of the Adversaries, otherwise then before; sometimes God will have glory, in arming his friends, sometimes in disarming his enemies, sometimes in exalting our abilities, and sometimes in evacuating or enfeebling theirs.

And so, as the Apostles were, as many of us, as celebrate this day, as they did, are filled with the Holy Ghost, that is, with so much knowledge, as is necessary to Gods purpose in us. Enough for our selves, if we be private men, and enough for others, if we have charge of others: private men shall have knowledge enough where to seek for more, and the Priest shall have enough to communicate his knowledge to others. And though this knowledge were delivered to the Apostles, as from a print, from a stamp, all at once, and to us, but as by writing, letter after letter, syllable after syllable, by Catechisms, chismes, and Sermons, yet both are such knowledges, as are sufficient for each. As the glory of heaven shall fall upon us all, and though we be not all of equal measure, and capacity, yet we shall be equally full of that glory; so the way to that glory, this knowledge, shall be manifest to us all, and infallible to us all, though we do not all know alike; The simplest soul that hears me, shall know the way of his salvation, as well as the greatest of those Fathers, whom he hears me cite; And upon us all (so disposed) the holy Ghost shall fall, as he did here, in fire, and In tongues; In fire, to inflame us in a religious zeal, and in Tongues, to utter that in confession, and in profession, that is, to glorify God, both in our words, and in our actions. This then is our portion in this Legacy, A sober seeking after those points of knowledge which are necessary for our salvation, and these, in this text, Christ derived into these three, That I am in my Father, That you are in me, That I am in you.

The first of these is the knowledge of distinction of persons, and so of the Trinity. Principal munus scientiae est, cognoscere Trinitatem, saith Origen: The principal use and office of my knowledge, is to know the Trinity; for, to know an unity in the Godhead, that there is but one God, natural reason serves our turn: & to know a creation of the world of nothing, reason serves us too; we know by reason, that either neither of them is infinite, if there be two Gods, (and then neither of them can be God) or if both be infinite, (which is an impossibility) one of them is superfluous, because whatsoever is infinite, can alone extend to all. So also we can collect infallibly, that if the world were not made of nothing, yet that of which the world shall be pretended to have been made of, must have been made of nothing, or else it must be something eternal, and untreated; & whatsoever is so, must necessarily be God it self. To be sure of those two, an unity in the Godhead, and a creation of the world, I need no Scriptures; but to know this distinction of Persons, That the Son is in the Father, I need the Scriptures, and I need more then the Scriptures, I need this Pentecost, this comming, this illustration of the holy Ghost, to inspire a right understanding of these Scriptures into me. For, if this knowledge might be had without Scriptures, why should not the heathen believe the Trinity, as well as I, since they lack no natural faculties which Christians have? And if the Scriptures themselves, without the operation of the holy Ghost, should bring this clearness, why should not the Jews and the Arians conform themselves to this doctrine of the Trinity, as well as I, since they accept those Scriptures, out of which I provethe Trinity to mine own cōscience? We must then attend his working in us; we must not admit such a vexation of spirit, as either to vex our spirit, or the Spirit of God; by inquiring farther then he hath been pleased to reveal.

If you consider that Christ says here, You shall know That I am in the Father, and doth not say, You shall know How I am in the Father, and this to his Apostles themselves, and to the Apostles after they were to be filled with the holy Ghost, which should teach them all truth, it will out off many perplexing questions, and impertinent answers which have been produced for the expressing of the manner of this generation, and of the distinction of the persons in the Trinity; you shall know That it is, you shall not ask How it is. It is enough for a happy subject to enjoy the sweetness of a peaceable government, though he know not Arcana Imperii, The ways by which the Prince governs; So is it for a Christian to enjoy the working of Gods grace, in a faithful believing the mysteries of Religion, though he inquire not into Gods bed-chamber, nor seek into his unrevealed Decrees. It is Odiosa & exitialis vocula, Quomodo, says Luther, A hateful, a damnable Monosyllable, How, How God doth this or that: for, if a man come to the boldness of proposing such a question to himself, he will not give over till he find some answer: and then, others will not be content with his answer, but every man will have a several one. When the Church fell upon the Quomodo in the Sacrament, How, in what manner the body of Christ was there, we see what an inconvenient answer it fell upon, That it was done by Transubstantiation; That satisfied not, (as there was no reason it should) And then they fell upon others, In, Sub, and Cum, and none could, none can give satisfaction. And so also have our times, by asking Quomodo, How Christ descended into Hell, produced so many answers, as that some have thought it no Article at all, some have thought that it is all one thing to have descended into hell, and to have ascended into heaven, and that it amounts to no more, then a departing into the state of the dead. But Servate depositum, Make much of that knowledge which the holy Ghost hath trusted you withal, and believe the rest. No man knows how his soul came into him; whether there by infusion from God, or by generation from Parents, no man knows so, but that strong arguments will be produced on the other side; And yet no man doubts but he hath a soul. No man knows so, as that strong arguments may not be brought on the other side, how he sees, whether by reception of species from without, or by emission of beams from within; And yet no man doubts whether he see or no. The holy Ghost shall tell you, when he tells you the most that ever he shall tell you, in that behalf, That the Son is in the Father, but he will not tell you how.

Our second portion in this Legacy of knowledge, is, That we are in Christ; And this is the mystery of the Incarnation. For since the devil had so surprized us all, as to take mankind all in one lump, in a corner, in Adams loins, and poisoned us all there in the fountain, in the root, Christ, to deliver us as entirely, took all mankind upon him, and so took every one of us, and the nature, and the infirmities, and the sins, and the punishment of every singular man. So that the same pretence which the devil hath against every one of us, you are mine, for you sinned in Adam, we have also for our discharge, we are delivered, for we paid our debt in Christ Jesus. In all his temptations, send him to look upon the Records of that process, of Christs passion, and he shall find there, the names of all the faithful recorded: That such a day, that day when Christ died, I, and you, and all that shall be saved, suffered, died, and were crucified, and in Christ Jesus satisfied God the Father, for those infinite sins which we had committed: And now, Second death, which is damnation, hath no more title to any of the true members of his mystical body, then corruption upon natural, or violent death, could have upon the members of his natural body.

The assurance of this grows from the third part of this knowledge, That Christ is in us; for that is such a knowledge of Christs general Redemption of mankind, as that it is also an application of it to us in particular. For, for his Incarnation, by which we are in him, that may have given a dignity to our humane nature; But Quae beneficiorum magnitudo fuisset erganos, si hominem solummodo, quem assumpserat, salvaret? What great benefit (how ever the dignity had been great to all mankind) had mankind had, if Christ had saved no more then that one person whom he assumed? The largeness and bounty of Christ is, to give us of his best treasure, knowledge, and to give us most at last, To know Christ in me. For, to know that he is in his Father, this may serve me to convince another, that denies the Trinity; To know that we are in Christ, so as that he took our nature, this may show me an honor done to us, more then the Angels; But what gets a lame wretch at the pool, how sovereign soever the water be, if no body put him in? What gets a naked beggar by knowing that a dead man hath left much to pious uses, if the Executors take no knowledge of him? What get I by my knowledge of Christ in the Father, and of us in Christ so, if I find not Christ in me?

How then is Christ in us? Here the question De modo, How it is, is lawful: for, he hath revealed it to us. It is, by our obedience to his inspiration, and by our reverent use of those visible means, which he hath ordained in his Church, his Word and Sacraments: As our flesh is in him, by his participation thereof, so his flesh is in us, by our communication thereof; And so is his divinity in us, by making us partakers of his divine nature, and by making us one spirit with himself, which he doth at this Pentecost, that is, whensoever the holy Ghost visits us with his effectual grace: for this is an union, in which, Christ in his purpose hath married himself to our souls, inseparably, and Sine solution vinculi, Without any intention of divorce on his part: But if we will separate him à mensa & toro, If either we take the bed of licentiousness, or the board of voluptuousness, or if when we eat or drink, or sleep or wake, we do not all to the glory of God, if we separate, he will divorce.

If then we be thus come to this knowledge, let us make Ex scientia conscientiam, Enlarge science into conscience: for, Conscientia est Syllogismus practicus, Conscience is a Syllogism that comes to a conclusion; Then only hath a man true knowledge, when he can conclude in his own conscience, that his practise, and conversation hath expressed it. Who will believe that we know there is a ditch, and know the danger of falling into it, and drowning in it, if he see us run headlong towards it, and fall into it, and continue in it? Who can believe, that he that separates himself from Christ, by continuing in his sin, hath any knowledge, or sense, or evidence, or testimony of Christs being in him? As Christ proceeds by enlarging thy knowledge, and making thee wiser and wiser, so enlarge thy testimony of it, by growing better and better, and let him that is holy, be more holy. If thou have passed over the first heats of the day, the wantonnesses of youth, and the second heat, the fire of ambition, if these be quenched in thee, by preventing venting grace, or by repenting grace, be more and more holy, for thine age will meet another sin of covetousness, or of indevotion, that needs as much resistance. God staid not in any less degree of knowledge towards thee, then in bringing himself to thee; Do not thou stay by the way neither; not in the consideration of God alone, for that Coeli enarrant, all creatures declare it; stay not at the Trinity; Every comming to Church, nay thy first being brought to Church, at thy Baptism, is, and was a profession of that; stay not at the Incarnation; That the Devil knows, and testifies; But come to know that Christ is in thee, and express that knowledge in a sanctified life: For though he be in us all, in the work of his Redemption, so as that he hath poured out balm enough in his blood, to spread over all mankind, yet only he can enjoy the cheerfulness of this unction, and the inseparableness of this union, who, (as S. Augustine pursues this contemplation) Habet in memoria, & servat in vita, who always remembers that he stands in the presence of Christ, and behaves himself worthy of that glorious presence; Qui habet in Sermonibus, & servat in operibus, That hath Christ always at his tongues end, and always at his fingers ends, that loves to discourse of him, and to act his discourses; Que habet audiendo, & servat faciendo, That hears Gods will here in his house, and does his will at home in his own house; Qui habet faciendo, & servat perseverando, who having done well from the beginning, persevers in well doing to the end, he, and he only shall find Christ in him.

Sermon XXXI. Preached at S. Pauls, upon Whitsunday. 1629.

GEN. 1.2.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

THe Church of God celebrates this day the third Person of the Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity, The Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the God, the Spirit of Comfort; A Comforter; not one amongst others, but the Comforter; not the principal, but the entire, the only Comforter; and more then all that, The Comfort it self. That is an attribute of the Holy Ghost, Comfort; And then the office of the Holy Ghost is to gather, to establish, to illumine, to govern that Church which the Son of God, from whom together with the Father, the Holy Ghost proceeds, hath purchased with his blood. So that, as the Holy Ghost is the Comforter, so is this Comfort exhibited by him to us, and exercised by him upon us, in this especially, that he hath gathered us, established us, illumined us, and does govern us, as members of that body, of which Christ Jesus is the Head; that he hath brought us, and bred us, and fed us with the means of salvation, in his application of the merits of Christ to our souls, in the Ordinances of the Church.

In this Text is the first mention of this Third Person of the Trinity; And it is the first mention of any distinct Person in the God-head; In the first verse, there is an intimation of the Trinity, in that Bara Elohim, That Gods, Gods in the plural are said to have made heaven, and earth; And then, as the Church after having celebrated the memory of All Saints, together in that one day, which we call All Saints day, begins in the celebration of particular Saints, first with Saint Andrew, who first of any applied himself to Christ out of Saint John Baptists School after Christs Baptism; so Moses having given us an intimation of God, and the three Persons altogether in that Bara Eloim, before, gives us first notice of this Person, the Holy Ghost, in particular, because he applies to us the Mercies of the Father, and the Merits of the Son, and moves upon the face of the waters, and actuates, and fecundates our souls, and generates that knowledge, and that comfort, which we have in the knowledge of God. Now the moving of the Holy Ghost upon the face of the waters in this Text, cannot be literally understood of his working upon man; for man was not yet made; but when man is made, that is, made the man of God in Christ; there, in that new Creation the Holy Ghost begins again, with a new moving upon the face of the waters in the Sacrament of Baptism, which is the Conception of a Christian in the womb of the Church.

Therefore we shall consider these words, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; first, literally in the first, and then spiritually in the second Creation; first how the Holy Ghost moved upon the face of the Waters in making this world for us, And then how he moves upon the face of the Waters again, in making us for the other world. In which two several parts we shall consider these three terms in our Text, both in the Macrocosme, and Microcosm, the Great and the Lesser world, man extended in the world, and the world contracted, and abridged into man; first, Quid Spiritus Dei? what this Power, or this Person, which is here called the Spirit of God, is, for whether it be a Power, or a Person, hath been diversly disputed; And secondly, Quid ferebatur? what this Action, which is here called a Moving, was; for whether a Motion, or a Rest, an Agitation, or an Incubation, of that Power, or that Person, hath been disputed too; And lastly, Quid super faciem aquarum? what the subject of this Action, the face of the waters, was; for, whether it were a stirring, and an awakening of a power that was naturally in those waters, to produce creatures, or whether it were an infusing a new power, which till then those waters had not, hath likewise been disputed. And in these three, the Person, the Action, the Subject, considered twice over, in the Creation first, and in our regeneration in the Christian Church after, we shall determine all that is necessary for the literal, and for the spiritual sense of these words, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

First then, undertaking the consideration of the literal sense, and after, of the spiritual, we join with S. Augustine, Sint castae deliciae mea Scripturae tua; Lord I love to be conversant in thy Scriptures, let my conversation with thy Scriptures be a chaste conversation; that I discover no nakedness therein; offer not to touch any thing in thy Scriptures, but that, that thou hast vouchsafed to unmask, and manifest unto me: Nec fallar in eis, nec fallam ex eis; Lord, let not me mistake the meaning of thy Scriptures, nor mis-lead others, by imputing a false sense to them. Non frustra scribuntur, says he; Lord, thou hast writ nothing to no purpose; thou wouldst be understood in all: But not in all, by all men, at all times; Confiteor tibi quicquid invenero in libris tuis; Lord, I acknowledge that I receive from thee, whatsoever I understand in thy word; for else I do not understand it. This that blessed Father meditates upon the word of God; he speaks of this beginning of the Book of Genesis; and he speaks lamenting, Scripsit Moses & abiit, a little Moses hath said, and alas he is gone; Si hic esset, tonerem eum, & per te rogarem, If Moses were here, I would hold him here, and beg of him, for thy sake to tell me thy meaning in his words, of this Creation. But says he, since I cannot speak with Moses, Te, quo plenus vera dixit, Veritas, rogo, I beg of thee who art Truth it self, as thou enabledst him to utter it, enable me to understand what he hath said. So difficult a thing seemed it to that intelligent Father, to understand this history, this mystery of the Creation. But yet though he found; that divers senses offered themselves, he did not doubt of finding the Truth: For, Deus meus lumen oculorum meorum in occulto, says he, O my God, the light of mine eyes, in this dark inquisition, since divers senses, arise out of these words, and all true, Quid mihi obest, si alindego sensero, quam sensit alius, eum sensisse, qui scripsit? What hurt follows, though I follow another sense, then some other man takes to be Moses sense? for his may be a true sense, and so may mine, and neither be Moses his. He passes from prayer, and protestation, to counsel, and direction; In diversitate sententiarum verarum, concordiam pariat ipsa veritas, Where divers senses arise, and all true, (that is, that none of them oppose the truth) let truth agree them. But what is Truth? God; And what is God? Charity; Therefore let Charity reconcile such differences. Legitimè leg ut amur, says he, let us use the Law lawfully; Let us use our liberty of reading Scriptures according to the Law of liberty; that is, charitably to leave others to their liberty, if they but differ from us, and not differ from Fundamental Truths.

Si quis quaerat ex me, quid horum Moses senserit, If any man ask me, which of these, which may be all true, Moses meant, Non sum sermones isti confessions, Lord, says he, This that I say is not said by way of Confession, as I intend it should, if I do not freely confess, that I cannot tell, which Moses meant; But yet I can tell, that this that I take to be his meaning is true; and that is enough. Let him that finds a true sense of any place, rejoice in it, Let him that does not beg it of thee, Vtquid mihi molest us est? Why should any man press me, to give him the true sense of Moses here, or of the holy Ghost, in any dark place of Scripture? Ego illuminem ullum hominen, venientem in mundum? says he; Is that said of me, that I am the light, that enlightened every man, any man, that comes into this world? So far I will go, says he, so far will we, in his modesty and humility accompany him, as still to propose, Quod luce veritatis, quod fruge utilitatis excellit, such a sense as agrees with other Truths, that are evident in other places of Scripture, and such a sense as may conduce most to edisication. For to those two, does that heavenly Father reduce the four Elements, that make up a right exposition of Scripture; which are, first, the glory of God, such a sense as may most advance it; secondly, the analogy of faith, such a sense as may violate no confessed Article of Religion; and thirdly, exaltation of devotion, such a sense, as may carry us most powerfully upon the apprehension of the next life; and lastly, extension of charity, such a sense, as may best hold us in peace, or reconcile us, if we differ from one another. And within these limits we shall contain our selves, The glory of God, the analogy of faith, the exaltation of devotion, the extension of charity. In all the rest, that belongs to the explication or application, to the literal, or spiritual sense of these words, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, to which, having stopped a little upon this general consideration, the exposition of dark places, we pass now.

Within these rules we proceed to enquire, who this Spirit of God is, or what it is; whether a Power, or a Person. The Jews who are afraid of the Truth, lest they should meet evidences of the doctrine of the Trinity, and so of the Messiah, the Son of God, if they should admit any spiritual sense, admit none, but cleave so close to the letter, as that to them the Scripture becomes Liter a occidens, A killing Letter, and the savor of death unto death. They therefore, in this Spirit of God are so far from admitting any Person, that is, God, as they admit no extraordinary operation, or virtue proceeding from God in this place; but they take the word here (as in many other places of Scripture it does) to signify only a wind, and then that that addition of the name of God (The Spirit of God) which is in their Language a denotation of a vehemency, of a high degree, of a superlative, (as when it is said of Saul, Sopor Domini, A sleep of God was upon him, it is intended of a deep, a dead sleep) inforces, induces no more but that a very strong wind blew upon the face of the waters, and so in a great part dried them up. And this opinion I should let fly away with the wind, if only the Jews had said it. But Theodoret hath said it too, and therefore we afford it so much answer, That it is a strange anticipation, that Wind, which is a mixed Meteor, to the making whereof, divers occasions concur with exhalations, should be thus imagined, before any of these causes of Winds were created, or produced, and that there should be an effect before a cause, is somewhat irregular. In Lapland, the Witches are said to sell winds to all passengers; but that is but to turn those winds that Nature does produce, which way they will; but in our case, the Jews, and they that follow them, dream winds, before any winds, or cause of winds was created; The Spirit of God here cannot be the Wind.

It cannot be that neither, which some great men in the Christian Church have imagined it to be; Operatio Dei, The power of God working upon the waters, (so some) or, Efficientia Dei, A power by God infused into the waters; so others. And to that S. Augustine comes so near, as to say once in the negative, Spiritus Dei hic, res dei est, sed non ipse Deut est, The Spirit of God in this place is something proceeding from God, but it is not God himself; And once in the affirmative, Posse esse vitalem creaturam, quâ universus mundus movetur; That this Spirit of God may be that universal power, which sustains, and inanimates the whole world, which the Platoniques have called the Soul of the world, and others intend by the name of Nature, and we do well, if we call The providence of God.

But there is more of God, in this Action, then the Instrument of God, Nature, or the Vice-roy of God, Providence; for as the person of God, the Son was in the Incarnation, so the person of God, the Holy Ghost was in this Action; though far from that manner of becoming one and the same thing with the waters, which was done in the Incarnation of Christ, who became therein perfect man. That this word the Spirit of God, is intended of the Person of the Holy Ghost, in other places of Scripture, is evident, undeniable, unquestionable, and that therefore it may be so taken here. Where it is said, The Spirit of God shall rest upon him, (upon the Messiah) where it is said by himself, The Lord and his Spirit is upon me, And, the Lord and his Spirit hath anointed me, there it is certainly, and therefore here it may be probably spoken of the Holy Ghost personally. It is no impossible sense, it implies no contradiction; It is no inconvenient sense, it offends no other article; it is no new sense; nor can we assign any time, when it was a new sense: The eldest Fathers adhere to it, as the ancientest interpretation. Saint Basil says not only, Constantissimè asseverandum est, We must constantly maintain that interpretation, (for all that might be his own opinion) not only therefore, Quia verius est, (for that might be, but because he found it to be the common opinion of those times) but Quia à majoribus nostris approbatum, because it is accepted for the true sense, by the Ancients; The Ancients, says that ancient Father Basil; which reason prevails upon S. Ambrose too, Nos cum sanctorum, & fidelium sententia congruentes, We believe, and believe it, because the Ancients believed it to be so, that this is spoken generally of the Holy Ghost. S. Basil, and S. Ambrose assume it, as granted, S. Jerome disputes it, argues, concludes it, Vivificator, ergo Conditor, ergo Deus; This Spirit of God gave life, therefore this Spirit was a Creator; therefore God. S. Augustine prints his seal deep; Secundùm quod ego intelligere possum, ita est, as far as my understanding can reach, it is so; and his understanding reached far. But he adds, Nec ullomodo, &c. Neither can it possibly be otherwise. We cannot tell, whether that Poem which is called Genesis, be Tertullians, or Cyprians; It hath been thought an honor to the learnedest of the Fathers, to have been the Author of a good Poem; In that Poem this text is paraphrased thus, Immensusque Deus super aequora vastameabat; God, God personally moved upon the waters. Truly the later School is (as they have used it) a more Poetical part of divinity, then any of the Poems of the Fathers are, (take in Lactantius his Poem of the Phenix, and all the rest) and for the School, there Aquinas says, Secundùm Sanctos, intelligimus Spiritum sanctum, As the holy Fathers have done, we also understand this personally of the Holy Ghost.

To end this, these words do not afford such an argument for the Trinity, or the third Person thereof, the Holy Ghost, as is strong enough to convert, or convince a Jew, because it may have another sense; but we, who by Gods abundant goodness have otherwise an assurance, and faith in this doctrine, acknowledge all those other places, Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, and they are created, By his spirit he hath garnished the Heavens, and the rest of that kind, to be all but ecchoes from this voice, returns from Job, and from David, and the rest, of this doctrine of all comfort, first, and betimes delivered from Moses, that there is a distinct person in the Godhead, whose attribute is goodness, whose office is application, whose way is comfort. And so we pass from our first, That it is not only the Power of God, but the Person of God, To the second, in this branch, His Action, Ferebatur.

The Action of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, in this place, is expressed in a word, of a double, and very diverse signification; for it signifies motion, and it signifies rest. And therefore, as S. Augustine argues upon those words of David, Thou knowest my down sitting, and my uprising, That God knew all that he did, between his down sitting and his uprising; So in this word which signifies the Holy Ghosts first motion, and his last rest, we comprehend all that was done in the production, and creation of the Creatures. This word, we translate, As the Eagle fluttereth over her young ones, so it is a word of Motion; And S. Jerome upon our Text expresses it by Incubabat, to sit upon her young ones, to hatch them, or to preserve them, so it is a word of rest. And so, the Jews take this word to signify, properly the birds hatching of eggs. S. Cyprian unites the two significations well, Spiritus sanctus dabat aquis motum, & limitem; The Holy Ghost enabled the waters to move, and appointed how, and how far they should move. The beginnings, and the ways, and the ends, must proceed from God, and from God the Holy Ghost: That is, by those means, and those declarations, by which God doth manifest himself to us, for that is the office of the holy Ghost, to manifest and apply God to us. Now the word in our Text is not truly Ferebatur, The Spirit moved, which denotes a thing past; but the word is Movens, Moving, a Participle of the present; So that we ascribe first Gods manifestation of himself in the creation, and then the continual manifestation of himself in his providence, to the holy Ghost; for God had two purposes in the creation, Vt sint, ut maneant, That the creature should be, and be still; That it should exist at first, and subsist after; Be made, and made permanent. God did not mean that Paradise should have been of so small use when he made it; he made it for a perpetual habitation for man. God did not mean that man should be the subject of his wrath when he made him; he made him to take pleasure in, and to shed glory upon him. The holy Ghost moves, he is the first author; the holy Ghost perpetuates, settles, establishes, he is our rest, and acquiescence, and center; Beginning, Way, End, all is in this word, Recaph; The Spirit of God moved, and rested. And upon what? And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

S. Augustine observing aright, That at this time, of which this Text is spoken, The waters enwrapped all the whole substance, the whole matter, of which all things were to be created, all was surrounded with the waters, all was embowelled, and enwombed in the waters; And so the holy Ghost moving, and resting upon the face of the waters, moved, and rested, did his office upon the whole Mass of the world, and so produced all that was produced; and this admits no contradiction, no doubt, but that thus the thing was done, and that this, this word implies. But whether the holy Ghost wrought this production of the several creatures, by himself, or whether he infused, and imprinted a natural power in the waters, and all the substance under the waters, to produce creatures naturally of themselves, hath received some doubt. It need not: for the work ascribed to the holy Ghost here, is not the working by nature, but the creating of nature; Not what nature did after, but how nature her self was created at first. In this action, this moving, and resting upon the face of the waters, (that is, all involved in the waters) the Spirit of God, the holy Ghost, hatched, produced then all those creatures; For no power infused into the waters, or earth then, could have enabled that earth, then to have produced Trees with ripe fruits, in an instant, nor the waters to have brought forth Whales, in their growth, in an instant. The Spirit of God produced them then, and established and conserves ever since, that seminal power which we call nature, to produce all creatures (then first made by himself) in a perpetual Succession.

And so have you these words, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, literally, historically: And now these three terms, The Spirit of God, Moved, Vpon the face of the waters, You are also to receive in a spiritual sense, in the second world, the Christian Church: The Person, the Action, the Subject, the holy Ghost, and him moving, and moving upon the waters, in our regeneration.

Here, as before, our first Term, and Consideration, is the name, The Spirit of God; And here God knows, we know too many, even amongst the outward professors of the Christian religion, that in this name, The Spirit of God, take knowledge only of a power of God, and not of a person of God; They say it is the working of God, but not God working. Mira profunditas eloquiorum tuorum; The waters in the creation, were not so deep as the word of God, that delivers that creation. Ecce, ante nos superficies blandiens pueris, says that Father; We, we that are but babes in understanding, as long as we are but natural men, see the superficies, the top, the face, the outside of these waters, Sed mira profunditas, Deus meus, mira profunditas, But it is an infinite depth, Lord my God, an infinite depth to come to the bottom. The bottom is, to profess, and to feel the distinct working of the three distinct persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and holy Ghost. Rara anima, quae cum de illa loquitur, sciat quid loquatur, Not one man, not one Christian amongst a thousand, who when he speaks of the Trinity, knows what he himself means. Natural men will write of lands of Pygmies, and of lands of giants; and write of Phoenixes, and of Unicornes; But yet advisedly they do not believe, (at least confidently they do not know) that there are such Giants, or such Pygmies, such Unicorns or Phoenixes in the world. Christians speak continually of the Trinity, and the holy Ghost, but alas, advisedly, they know not what they mean in those names. The most know nothing, for want of consideration; They that have considered it enough, and spent thoughts enough upon the Trinity, to know as much as needs be known thereof, Contendunt & dimicant, & nemo sine pace vidit istam visionem, They dispute, and they wrangle, and they scratch, and wound one another's reputations, and they assist the common enemy of Christianity by their uncharitable differences, Et sine pace, And without peace, and mildness, and love, and charity, no man comes to know the holy Ghost, who is the God of peace, and the God of love. Da quod amo; amo enim, nam & hoc tu dedisti; I am loath to part from this father, and he is loath to be parted from, for he says this in more then one place; Lord thou hast enamoured me, made me in love; let me enjoy that that I love; That is, the holy Ghost: That as I feel the power of God (which sense, is a gift of the holy Ghost) I may without disputing rest in the belief of that person of the Trinity, that that Spirit of God, that moves upon these waters, is not only the power, but a person in the Godhead.

This is the person, without whom there is no Father, no Son of God to me, the holy Ghost. And his action, his operation is expressed in this word, Ferebatur, The Spirit of God moved; Which word, as before, is here also a comprehensive word, and denotes both motion, and rest; beginnings, and ways, and ends. We may best consider the motion, the stirring of the holy Ghost in zeal, and the rest of the holy Ghost in moderation; If we be without zeal, we have not the motion; If we be without moderation, we have not the rest, the peace of the holy Ghost. The moving of the holy Ghost upon me, is, as the moving of the mind of an Artificer, upon that piece of work that is then under his hand. A Jeweller, if he would make a jewel to answer the form of any flower, or any other figure, his mind goes along with his hand, nay prevents his hand, and he thinks in himself, a Ruby will conduce best to the expressing of this, and an Emeraud of this. The holy Ghost undertakes every man amongst us, and would make every man fit for Gods service, in some way, in some profession; and the holy Ghost sees, that one man profits most by one way, another by another, and moves their zeal to pursue those ways, and those means, by which, in a rectified conscience, they find most profit. And except a man have this sense, what doth him most good, and a desire to pursue that, the holy Ghost doth not move, nor stir up a zeal in him.

But then if God do afford him the benefit of these his Ordinances, in a competent measure for him, and he will not be satisfied with Manna, but will needs have Quailes, that is, cannot make one meal of Prayers, except he have a Sermon, nor satisfied with his Gomer of Manna, (with those Prayers which are appointed in the Church) nor satisfied with those Quailes which God sends, (the preaching of solid and fundamental doctrines) but must have birds of Paradise, unrevealed mysteries out of Gods own bosom preached unto him, howsoever the holy Ghost may seem to have moved, yet he doth not rest upon him; and from the beginning, the office and operation of the holy Ghost was double; He moved, and rested upon the waters in the creation; he came, and tarried still upon Christ in his Baptism: He moves us to a zeal of laying hold upon the means of salvation which God offers us in the Church; and he settles us in a peaceful conscience, that by having well used those means, we are made his. A holy hunger and thirst of the Word and Sacraments, a remorse, and compunction for former sins, a zeal to promove the cause, and glory of God, by word, and deed, this is the motion of the holy Ghost: And then, to content my self with Gods measure of temporal blessings, and for spiritual, that I do serve God faithfully in that calling which I lawfully profess, as far as that calling will admit, (for he, upon whose hand-labor the sustentation of his family depends, may offend God in running after many working days Sermons) This peace of conscience, this acquiescence of having done that that belongs to me, this is the rest of the Spirit of God. And this motion, and this rest is said to be done Super faciem, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, which is our last consideration.

In the moving of the Spirit of God upon the waters, we told you before, it was disputed, whether the Holy Ghost did immediately produce those creatures of himself, or whether he did fecundate, and inanimate, and inable those substances, (the water, and all contained under the waters) to produce creatures in their divers specifications. In this moving of the Spirit of God upon the waters, in our regeneration, it hath also been much disputed, How the Holy Ghost works, in producing mans supernatural actions; whether so immediately, as that it be altogether without dependance, or relation to any faculty in man, or man himself have some concurrence, and co-operation therein. There we found, that in the first creation, God wrought otherwise for the production of creatures, then he does now; At first he did it immediately, entirely, by himself; Now, he hath delegated, and substituted nature, and imprinted a natural power in every thing to produce the like. So in the first act of mans Conversion, God may be conceived to work otherwise, then in his subsequent holy actions; for in the first, man cannot be conceived to do any thing, in the rest he may: not that in the rest God does not all; but that God finds a better disposition, and soupleness, and maturity, and mellowing, to concur with his motion in that man, who hath formerly been accustomed to a sense, and good use of his former graces, then in him, who in his first conversion, receives, but then, the first motions of his grace.

But yet, even in the first creation, the Spirit of God did not move upon that nothing, which was before God made heaven and earth: But he moved upon the waters; though those waters had nothing in themselves, to answer his motion, yet he had waters to move upon: Though our faculties have nothing in themselves to answer the motions of the Spirit of God, yet upon our faculties the Spirit of God works; And as out of those waters, those creatures did proceed, though not from those waters, so out of our faculties, though not from our faculties, do our good actions proceed too. All in all, is from the love of God; but there is something for God to love; There is a man, there is a soul in that man, there is a will in that soul; and God is in love with this man, and this soul, and this will, & would have it. Non amor ita egenus & indigus, ut rebus quas diligit subjiciatur, says S. Aug. excellently: The love of God to us is not so poor a love, as our love to one another; that his love to us should make him subject to us, as ours does to them whom we love; but Superfertur, says that Father, and our Text, he moves above us; He loves us, but with a Powerful, a Majestical, an Imperial, a Commanding love; He offers those, whom he makes his, his grace; but so, as he sometimes will not be denied. So the Spirit moves spiritually upon the waters; He comes to the waters, to our natural faculties; but he moves above those waters, He inclines, he governs, he commands those faculties; And this his motion, upon those waters, we may usefully consider, in some divers applications and assimilations of water, to man, and the divers uses thereof towards man. We will name but a few; Baptism, and Sin, and Tribulation, and Death, are called in the Scripture, by that name, Waters; and we shall only illustrate that consideration, how this Spirit of God, moves upon these Waters, Baptism, Sin, Tribulation, and Death, and we have done.

The water of Baptism, is the water that runs through all the Fathers; All the Fathers that had occasion to dive, or dip in these waters (to say any thing of them) make these first waters, in the Creation, the figure of baptism. There Tertullian makes the water, Primam sedem Spiritus Sancti, The progress, and the settled house, The voyage, and the harbor, The circumference, and the centre of the Holy Ghost: And therefore S. Jerome calls these waters, Matrem Mundi, The Mother of the World; and this in the figure of Baptism. Nascentem Mundum in figura Baptismi parturiebat, The waters brought forth the whole World, were delivered of the whole World, as a Mother is delivered of a child; and this, In figura Baptismi, To fore-show, that the waters also should bring forth the Church; That the Church of God should be born of the Sacrament of Baptism: So says Damascene, And he establishes it with better authority then his own, Hoc Divinus asseruit Basilius, says he, This Divine Basil said, Hoc factum, quia per Spiritum Sanctum, & aquam voluit renovare hominem; The Spirit of God wrought upon the waters in the Creation, because he meant to do so after, in the regeneration of man. And therefore Pristinam sedem recognoscens conquiescit, Till the Holy Ghost have moved upon our children in Baptism, let us not think all done, that belongs to those children; And when the Holy Ghost hath moved upon those waters, so, in Baptism, let us not doubt of his power and effect upon all those children that dye so. We know no means how those waters could have produced a Menow, a Shrimp, without the Spirit of God had moved upon them; and by this motion of the Spirit of God, we know they produce Whales, and Leviathans. We know no ordinary means of any saving grace for a child, but Baptism; neither are we to doubt of the fullness of salvation, in them that have received it. And for our selves, Mergimur, & emergimus, In Baptism we are sunk under water, and then raised above the water again; which was the manner of baptizing in the Christian Church, by immersion, and not by aspersion, till of late times: Affectus, & ameres, says he, our corrupt affections, and our inordinate love of this world is that, that is to be drowned in us; Amor securitatis, A love of peace, and holy assurance, and acquiescence in Gods Ordinance, is that that lifts us above water.

Therefore that Father puts all upon the due consideration of our Baptism: And as S. Jerome says, Certainly he that thinks upon the last Judgement advisedly, cannot sin then, So he that says with S. Augustine, Procede in confessionc, fides mea, Let me make every day to God, this confession, Domine Deus meus, Sancte, Sancte, Sancte Domine Deus meus, O Lord my God, O Holy, Holy, Holy Lord my God; In nomine tuo Baptizatus sum, I consider that I was baptized in thy name, and what thou promisedst me, and what I promised thee then, and can I sin this sin? can this sin stand with those conditions, those stipulations which passed between us then? The Spirit of God is motion, the Spirit of God is rest too; And in the due consideration of Baptism, a true Christian is moved, and settled too; moved to a sense of the breach of his conditions, settled in the sense of the Mercy of his God, in the Merits of his Christ, upon his godly sorrow. So these waters are the waters of Baptism.

Sin also is called by that name in the Scriptures, Water. The great whore sitteth upon many waters; she sits upon them, as upon Eggs, and hatches Cockatrices, venomous and stinging sins; and yet pleasing, though venomous; which is the worst of sin, that it destroys, and yet delights; for though they be called waters, yet that is said also, That the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine. Sin is wine at first, so far as to allure, to intoxicate: It is water at last, so far as to suffocate, to strangle. Christ Jesus way is to change water into wine; sorrow into joy: The Devils way is to change wine into water; pleasure, and but false pleasure neither, into true bitterness. The watrish wine, which is spoken of there, and called fornication, is idolatry, and the like. And in such a respect, God says to his people, What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? In the way of Egypt we cannot choose but have something to do; some conversation with men of an Idolatrous religion, we must needs have. But yet, What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink of the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the ways of Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? Though we be bound to a peaceable conversation with men of an Idolatrous persuasion, we are not bound to take in, to drink, to taste their errors. For this facility, and this indifferency to accompany men of divers religions, in the acts of their religion, this multiplicity will end in a nullity, and we shall hew to our selves Cisternes, broken Cisternes, that can hold no water; We shall scatter one religion into many, and those many shall vanish into none. Praise we God therefore, that the Spirit of God hath so moved upon these waters; these sinful waters of superstition and idolatry, wherein our fore-Fathers were overwhelmed; that they have not swelled over us; For, then the cold North-wind blows, and the water is congealed into Ice; Affliction overtakes us, damps us, stupifies us, and we find no Religion to comfort us.

Affliction is as often expressed in this word, Waters, as sin. When thou passest through waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. But then, the Spirit of God moves upon these waters too; and grace against sin, and deliverance from affliction, is as often expressed in waters, as either. Where God takes another Metaphor for judgement, yet he continues that of water for his mercy; In the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against them, (speaking of enemies; but then speaking of Israel) I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. This is his way, and this is his measure; He sprinkles enough at first to make us clean; even the sprinkling of Baptism cleanses us from original sin; but then he sets open the windows of heaven, and he enlarges his Flood-gates, I will pour out water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: To them that thirst after him, he gives grace for grace; that is, present grace for an earnest of future grace; of subsequent grace, and concomitant grace, and auxiliant grace, and effectual grace; grace in more forms, more notions, and in more operations, then the School it self can tell how to name.

Thus the Spirit of God moves upon our waters. By faith Peter walked upon the waters; so we prevent occasions of temptation to sin, and sink not in them, but walk above them. By godly exercises we swim through waters; so the Centurion commanded that they that could swim, should cast themselves into the sea; Men exercised in holiness, can meet a temptation, or tribulation in the face, and not be shook with it; weaker men, men that cannot swim, must be more wary of exposing themselves to dangers of temptation; A Court does some man no harm, when another finds temptation in a Hermitage. By repentance we sail through waters; by the assistance of Gods ordinances in his Church, (which Church is the Ark) we attain the harbor, peace of conscience, after a sin; But this Ark, this help of the Church we must have. God can save from dangers, though a man went to Sea without art, Sine rate, says the Vulgate, without a Ship. But God would not that the work of his Wisdom should be idle; God hath given man Prudentiam navifactivam, says our Holkot upon that place, and he would have that wisdom exercised. God can save without Preaching, and Absolution, and Sacraments, but he would not have his Ordinance neglected.

To end all with the end of all, Death comes to us in the name, and notion of waters too, in the Scriptures. The Widow of Tekoah said to David in the behalf of Absalon, by the Counsel of Job, The water of death overslowes all; We must needs dye, says she, and are as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again: yet God devises means, that his banished, be not expelled from him. So the Spirit of God moves upon the face of these waters, the Spirit of life upon the danger of death. Consider the love, more then love, the study, more then study, the diligence of God; he devises means, that his banished, those whom sins, or death had banished, be not expelled from him. I sinned upon the strength of my youth, and God devised a means to reclaim me, an enfeebling sickness. I relapsed after my recovery, and God devised a means, an irrecoverable, a helpless Consumption to reclaim me; That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence in Gods mercy, and God devised a means, the comfort of the Angel of his Church, his Minister, The comfort of the Angel of the great Counsel, the body and blood of his Son Christ Jesus, at my transmigration. Yet he lets his correction proceed to death; I do dye of that sickness, and God devises a means, that I, though banished, banished into the grave, shall not be expelled from him, a glorious Resurrection. We must needs dye and be as water spilt upon the ground, but yet God devises means, that his banished shall not be expelled from him.

And this is the motion, and this is the Rest of the Spirit of God upon those waters in this spiritual sense of these words, He brings us to a desire of Baptism, he settles us in the sense of the obligation first, and then of the benefits of Baptism. He suffers us to go into the way of temptations, (for Coluber in via, and every calling hath particular temptations) and then he settles us, by his preventing, or his subsequent grace. He moves, in submitting us to tribulation, he settles us in finding, that our tribulations, do best of all conform us to his Son Christ Jesus. He moves in removing us by the hand of Death, and he settles us in an assurance, That it is he that now lets his Servants depart in peace; And he, who as he doth presently lay our souls in that safe Cabinet, the Bosom of Abraham, so he keeps an eye upon every grain, and atome of our dust, whither soever it be blown, and keeps a room at his own right hand for that body, when that shall be re-united in a blessed Resurrection; And so The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Serm. XXXII. Preached upon Whitsunday.

1 COR. 12.3.

Also no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

WE read that in the Tribe of Benjamin, which is, by interpretation Filius dextrae, The Son of the right hand, there were seven hundred left-handed Men, that could sling stones at a hairs breadth, and not fail. S. Paul was of that Tribe; and though he were from the beginning, in the purpose of God, Filius dextrae, A man ordained to be a dextrous Instrument of his glory, yet he was for a time a left-handed man, and took sinister ways, and in those ways, a good markman, a laborious and exquisite persecutor of Gods Church; And therefore it is, that Tertullian says of him, Paulum mihi etiam Genesis olim repromisit, I had a promise of Paul in Moses; Then, when Moses said, Jacob blessed Benjamin thus, Benjamin shall ravin as a Wolf, In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoilc, that is, At the beginning Paul shall scatter the flock of Christ, but at last, he shall gather, and re-unite the Nations to his service: As he had breathed threatnings, and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord, so he became Os orbi sufficiens, A mouth loud enough for all the world to hear: And as he had drawn and sucked the blood of Christs mystical body, the Church, so, in that proportion that God enabled him to, he recompensed that damage, by effusion of his own blood, He fulfilled the sufferings of Christ, in his flesh, as himself says, to the Colossians; And then he bequeathed to all posterity these Epistles, which are, as S. Augustine calls them, Vbera Ecclesia, The Paps, the Breasts, the Udders of the Church, And which are, as that cluster of Grapes of the Land of Canaan, which was born by two; for here, every couple, every pair, may have their load, Jew and Gentile, Learned and Ignorant, Man and Wife, Master and Servant, Father and Children, Prince and People, Counsel and Client, how distinct soever they think their callings to be towards the world, yet here every pair must equally submit their necks to this sweet and easy yoke, of confessing Jesus to be the Lord, and acknowledging that Confession to proceed from the working of the Holy Ghost, for No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, without the Holy Ghost.

In which words, these shall be the three things, that we will consider now; first, The general impotency of man, in spiritual duties, Nemo potest, no man can do this, no man can do any thing; secondly, How, and what those spiritual duties are expressed to be, It is a profession of Jesus to be the Lord, to say it, to declare it; And thirdly, the means of repairing this natural impotency, and rectifying this natural obliquity in man, That man by the Holy Ghost may be enabled to do this spiritual duty, to profess sincerely Jesus to be the Lord. In the first we shall see first, the universality of this flood, the generality of our loss in Adam, Nemo, none, not one, hath any, any power; which notes their blasphemy, that exempt any person from the infection of sin: And secondly, we shall see the impotency, the infirmity where it lies, It is in homine, no man; which notes their blasphemy, that say, Man may be saved by his natural faculties, as he is man: And thirdly, by just occasion of that word, Potest, he can, he is able, we shall see also the laziness of man, which, though he can do nothing effectually and primarily, yet he does not so much as he might do; And in those three, we shall determine our first part. In the second, what this spiritual duty, wherein we are all so impotent, is, It is first, an outward act, a profession; not that an outward act is enough, but that the inward affection alone is not enough neither; To think it, to believe it, is not enough, but we must say it, profess it: And what? why, first, That Jesus is; not only assent to the history, and matter of fact, that Jesus was, and did all that is reported, and recorded of him, but that he is still that which he pretended to be; Caesar is not Caesar still, nor Alexander, Alexander; But Jesus is Jesus still, and shall be for ever. This we must profess, That he is; And then, That he is the Lord; He was not sent hither as the greatest of the Prophets, nor as the greatest of the Priests; His work consists not only in having preached to us, and instructed us, nor in having sacrificed himself, thereby to be an example to us, to walk in those ways after him; but he is Lord, he purchased a Dominion, he bought us with his Blood, He is Lord; And lastly, he is The Lord, not only the Lord Paramount, the highest Lord, but The Lord, the only Lord, no other hath a Lordship in our souls, no other hath any part in the saving of them, but he: And so far we must necessarily enlarge our second consideration. And in the third part, which is, That this cannot be done but by the holy Ghost, we shall see, that in that But, is first implied an exclusion of all means but one; And therefore that one must necessarily be hard to be compassed, The knowledge and discerning of the holy Ghost, is a difficult thing; And yet, as this But hath an exclusion of all means but one, so it hath an inclusion, an admission, an allowance of that one, It is a necessary duty; nothing can effect it, but the having of the holy Ghost, and therefore the holy Ghost may be had: And in those two points, The hardness of it, And the possibility of it, will our last consideration be employed.

For the first branch of the first part, The generality, that reaches to us all, and to us all over; to all our persons, and to all our faculties; Perdidimus per peccatum, bonum possibilitatis, says S. Augustine, We have lost our possession, and our possibility of recovering, by Adams sin. Adam at his best had but a possibility of standing; we are fallen from that, and from all possibility of rising by any power derived from him: We have not only by this fall broke our armes, or our legs, but our necks; not our selves, not any other man can raise us; Every thing hath in it, as Physicians use to call it, Natural Balsamum, A natural Balsamum, which, if any wound or hurt which that creature hath received, be kept clean from extrinsique putrefaction, will heal of it self. We are so far from that natural Balsamum, as that we have a natural poison in us, Original sin: for that, original sin, (as it hath relation to God, as all sin is a violating of God) God being the God of mercy, and the God of life, because it deprives us of both those, of mercy, and of life, in opposition to mercy, it is called anger and wrath (We are all by nature the children of wrath) And in opposition to life, it is called death, Death enters by sin, and death is gone over all men; And as original sin hath relation to our souls, It is called that indeleble foulness, and uncleanness which God discovers in us all, (Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord) And which every man finds in himself, as Job did, If I wash my self in Snow-water, and purge my hands never so clean, yet mine own clothes shall make me filthy. As it hath relation to our bodies, so it is not only called Lex carnis, A law which the flesh cannot disobey, And Lex in membris, A law written and imprinted naturally in our bodies, and inseparably inherent there, but it is a law that hath got Posse comitatus, All our strength, and munition into her own hands, all our powers, and faculties to execute her purposes against us, and (as the Apostle expresses it fully) Hath force in our members, to bring forth fruits unto death.

Consider our original weakness, as God looks upon it, so it is inexcusable sin; consider it, as our souls suffer by it, so it is an indeleble foulness; consider it as our bodies contribute to it, and harbor it, and retain it, and so it is an unquenchable fire, and a brand of hell it self; It hath banished me out of my self, It is no more I that do any thing, but sin that dwelleth in me: It doth not only dwell, but reign in these mortal bodies; not only reign, but tyrannize, and lead us captives under the law of sin, which is in our members. So that we have utterly lost Bonum possibilitatis, for as men, we are out of all possibility, not only of that victorious, and triumphant gratulation and acclamation to our selves, as for a delivery, I thank God through Jesus Christ, but we cannot come to that sense of our misery, as to cry out in the Apostles words, immediately preceding, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Now as this death hath invaded every part and faculty of man, understanding, and will, and all, (for though original sin seem to be contracted without our will, yet Sicut omnium natura, ita omnium voluntates fuere originaliter in Adam, says S. Augustine, As the whole nature of mankind, and so of every particular man, was in Adam, so also were the faculties, and so the will of every particular man in him) so this death hath invaded every particular man; Death went over all men, for as much as all men had sinned. And therefore they that do blasphemously exempt some persons from sin, they set them not above the Law, but without the Law: They out-law them, in taking from them the benefit of the new Law, the Gospel, and of the author of that Law, Christ Jesus, who came a Physician to the sick, and was sent only to save sinners; for them that are none, it is well that they need no Redeemer, for if they did, they could have no part in ours, for he came only to redeem sinners, and they are none. God brought his Son out of Egypt, not out of Goshen in Egypt; not out of a privileged place in Egypt, but out of Egypt; God brought his Son Christ Jesus out of the Virgin Mary without sin, but he brought not her so, out of her mother. If they might be believed that the blessed Virgin, and John Baptist, and the Prophet Jeremiah were without all sin, they would go about at last to make us believe, that Ignatius were so too. For us, in the highest of our sanctification, still let us press with that, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, O Lord forgive us our trespasses, and confess that we needed forgiveness, even for the sins which we have not done; Dimissa fateor, & quae mea sponte feci, & quae te duce, non feci, says S. Augustine, I confess I need thy mercy, both for the sins which I have done, and for those, which if thy grace had not restrained me, I should have done. And therefore if another think he hath scaped those sins that I have committed, Non me derideat ab eo medico aegrum sanari, à quoei praestitum ne aegrotaret; Let him not despise me, who am recovered, since it is the same physician who hath wrought upon us both, though by a diverse method, for he hath preserved him, and he hath recovered me: for, for himself, we say still with the same Father, Perdiderat bonum possibilitatis, As well he as I, had lost all possibility of standing, or rising after our fall.

This was our first branch, The universal impotency; And our second is, That this is In homine, In man, no man (as man) can make this profession, That Jesus is the Lord: and therefore, we consider first, wherein, and how far man is disabled. In every Age, some men have attributed to the power of nature, more then a natural man can do, and yet no man doth so much as a natural man might do. For the over-valuing of nature, and her power, there are impressions in the Fathers themselves, which (whether mis-understood by the Readers, or by the Authors) have led and prevailed much. When Iustin Martyr says, Ratio pro fide Graecis & Barbaris, That rectified reason did the same office in the Gentiles, as faith did in the Christians; when Clement says, Philosophia per sese justi. ficavit Graecos, That the Gentiles to whom the Law and Gospel was not communicated, were justified by their Philosophy; when Chrysostom says, Satis fuit Gentibus abstinuisse ab Idololatria, It was sufficient for the Gentiles, if they did not worship false gods, though they understood not the true; when S. Augustine says, Rectè facis, nihil quaerere ampliùs, quàm quod docet ratio, He doth well that seeks no farther, then his reason leads them, these impressions in the Fathers have transported later men farther; so far, as that Andradius in the Roman Church, saves all honest Philosophers, that lived morally well without Christ: And Tostatus takes all impediments out of their way, That original sin is absolutely remitted to them, In prima bona operation in charitate, In their first good moral work that they do. So that they are in an easier way then we, who are but Christians; for in the opinion of Tostatus himself, and that whole Church, we cannot be delivered from original sin, but by baptism; nothing less then a Sacrament would deliver us from original sin, and any good work shall deliver any of the Gentiles so disposed.

In all ages, in all Churches, there have been men, who have been Ingrati gratiae, as S. Augustine calls them, that have been unthanful to the grace of God, and attributed that to nature, which belonged to grace. But we have an universal conclusion, God hath made of one blood all mankind, And no man can adopt himself into the family of God; man is excluded, and all power in man, and all assistance from man; neither your own reason, nor the reason of your Masters, whom you rely upon, can raise you to this knowledge: for, Aegyptus homo, non Deus, The Egyptians are men, and not Gods, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out his hand, the helper shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they shall fall together. The Atheist and all his Philosophy, Helper and he that is Holpen, Horse and Man, Nature and Art, Reason mounted and advanced upon Learning, shall never be able to leap over, or break thorough this wall, No man, no natural man can do any thing towards a supernatural work.

This was our second Branch, That too much is ordinarily attributed by man to man, And our third is, That too little is done by any man, and that is worse then the other. When Nebuchadnezzar had made his Image of gold of sixty Cubits, it had been a madness in him, not to have celebrated the Dedication thereof, with all the pomp, and solemnity that he did: To have gone so far, and not to have made it serve his farther uses, had been a strange impertinence. So is it a strange contemplation, to see a man set up a golden Image, to attribute even Divinity to our nature, and to imagine it to be able to do, whatsoever the grace of God can do, and yet with this Angelical nature, with this celestial soul, to contribute less to the glory of God, then an Ant, or a plant, or a stone. As the counsel of the Philosopher Epictetus directs thee, if thou take any new action in hand, consider what Socrates would do in that case; that is, dispose thy self therein, according to the example, and precedent of some wise man: So if thou wilt take this new action in hand, (that which is new, but should be ordinary unto thee) if thou wilt take a view of thy sins that are past, do but consider, if ever thou didst any sin, which Socrates, or Seneca would not have forborne. And whatsoever thou seest another can do, by the power of that reason, and that persuasion which thou art able to minister, who art not able to infuse faith, nor inspire grace into him, but must work by thy reason, and upon his reason, why shouldest not thou be as powerful upon thy self, and as strong in thine own behalf, and obey that counsel from thy self, which thou thinkest another man mad, if he do not obey, when thou givest it? Why shouldest thou pretend Reason, why another should forbear any particular sin, and not present that Reason to thy self, or not obey it? To love the Scriptures of God better then any other book; to love the house of God better then any other Court; to love the Communion of Saints better then any other Conversation; to study to know the revealed will of God, rather then the secrets of any Princes; to consider the direct purposes of God against his enemies, rather then the sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in Court; briefly to Read, to Hear, to Believe the Bible, is a work within the ability of nature, within the power of a moral man.

He that attributes more to nature, he that allows her any ability of disposing her self before hand, without prevention of grace, or concurrence and co-operation after, without continual assistance of particular graces, he sets up an Idol, and magnifies nature beyond that which appertains unto her. But he that goes not so far as this, That the reason of man, and his natural faculties, are the Instruments and Organs that God works in by his grace, howsoever he may in discourse and in argument exalt nature, howsoever he may so give too much to her, yet he does not so much with her, as he might do: He hath made her a Giant, and then, as though he were afraid of her, he runs away from her: He will not do that which is in his power, and yet he thinks it is in his power to repent when he lists, and when he lists to apply the merits of Christ to himself, and to do all those duties which are implied in our next Part, To say that Jesus is the Lord.

In this, our first duty is an outward act, Dicere, to profess Christ Jesus. Non erubesco, says S. Paul, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, for it is the power of God unto salvation: And, Qui erubuerit, says Christ, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my word, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in glory. This is a necessary duty, but is it the duty of this place? for here it is not non vult, but non potest; not that he is loath to profess Jesus, but that he is not able to do it. We see that some could say that, and say it aloud, preach it, and yet without the Holy Ghost; Some (says the Apostle) preach Christ through envy and strife, supposing to add more afflictions unto my bands. Which may well be, that some Jews and Gentiles, to exasperate the State against Paul, feigned themselves also to be converted to his religion, because when they had made him odious by drawing off others, they who pretended to have been drawn by him, could always save themselves with recanting, and renouncing their new profession: So they could say Dominum Iesum, That Jesus was the Lord, and never mean it. And of those twelve whom Christ chose to preach, Judas was one, of whom Christ says, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? So that this devil Judas, and that devil that made him a devil, the devil himself, could say as much as this, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; They said it, they cried it, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, and that incessantly, Till Jesus rebuked them, and suffered them not to say, That they knew him to be The Christ.

But besides that, even this confessing of Christ, is not Sine omni impulsu Spiritus sancti, Altogether without any motion of the holy Ghost (for the holy Ghost, even in these cases, had a purpose to draw testimonies for Christ, out of the mouths of his adversaries) this is not the professing required here; When Tiberius had a purpose to canonize Christ Jesus, and to admit him into the number of the Roman Gods, and to make him beholden to him for that honor, he therefore proposed it to the Senate, that so that honor, which Jesus should have, might be derived from him, And when the Senate had an inclination of themselves to have done Christ that honor, but yet forbore it, because the intimation came not from themselves, but from the Emperor, who still wrought and gained upon their privileges, neither of these, though they meant collaterally and obliquely to do Christ an honor, neither of them did say Iesum Dominum, that is, profess Jesus, so as is intended here, for they had their own ends, and their own honors principally in Contemplation.

There is first an open profession of the tongue required; And therefore the Holy Ghost descended in fiery tongues, Et lingua propria Spiritui Sancto, says S. Gregory, The tongue is the fittest Instrument for the Holy Ghost to work upon, and to work by; Qui magnam habet cognationem cum Verbo, says he, The Son of God is the Word, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from him, And because that faith that unites us to God, is expressed in the tongue, howsoever the heart be the center in which the Holy Ghost rests, the tongue is the Sphere, in which he moves: And therefore, says S. Cyril, as God set the Cherubim with a fiery sword, to keep us out of Paradise, so he hath set the Holy Ghost in fiery tongues to let us in again. As long as John Baptist was unborne, Zachary was dumb; when he was born, Zachary spoke; Christ is not born in us, we are not regenerate in him, if we delight not to speak of his wondrous mercyes, and infinite goodness to the sons of men; as soon as he is born in us, his Spirit speaks in us, and by us; in which, our first profession is Iesum esse, That Jesus is, That there is a Jesus.

This is to profess with Isaiah, That he is Germen Iehovae, The Bud of the Lord, The Blossom of God himself; for this Profession is a two-edged sword; for it wounds the Arians on one side, That Jesus is Jehovah, (because that is the name that signifies the very Essence of God) And then it wounds the Jews on the other side, because if Jesus be Germen Iehovae, The Bud, the Blossom, the Off-spring of God, then there is a plurality of Persons, Father and Son in the God-head. So that it is a Compendiary and Summary Abridgement, and Catechism of all our Religion, to profess that Jesus is, for that is a profession of his everlasting Essence, that is, his God-head. It hath been denied that he was such as he was pretended to be, that is, born of a Virgin; for the first Heretics of all, Gerinthus, and Ebion, who occasioned S. John's Gospel, affirmed him to be a mere man, made by ordinary generation, between Joseph and Mary. It hath been denied, that he was such a man, as those Heretics allowed him to be, for Apelles his Heresy was, That he made himself a Body out of the Elements, as he came down from Heaven, through them. It hath been denied, that he had any Body at all; Cerdon and Marcion said, That he lived and died, but in Phantasmate, in appearance, and only in a forme and shape of a Body assumed; but, in truth, no Body, that did live or dye, but did only appear, and vanish. It hath been denied that that Body which he had, though a true and a natural Body did suffer, for Basilides said, That when he was led to Execution, and that on the way, the Cross was laid upon Simon of Cyren, Christ cast a mist before their eyes, by which they took Simon for him, and crucified Simon, Christ having withdrawn himself invisibly from them, as at other times he had done. It hath been denied, (though he had a true Body, and suffered truly therein) that he hath any Body now in Heaven, or shall return with any, for he that said he made his Body of the Elements as he came down from Heaven, says also that he resolved that Body into those Elements again, at his return. It hath been denied, That he was, That he is, That he shall be; but this Profession, that Jesus is, includes all, for, He of whom that is always true, Est, He is, He is Eternal, and He that is Eternal, is God: This is therefore a Profession of the God-head of Christ Jesus.

Now, in the next, as we profess him to be Dominus, A Lord, we profess him to be God and man, we behold him as he is a mixed person, and so made fit to be the Messiah, the Anointed high Priest, King of that Church, which he hath purchased with his blood, And the anointed King of that Kingdom which he hath conquered with his Cross. As he is Germen Iehovae, The off-spring of Jehovah, so he must necessarily be Jehovah; & that is the name, which is evermore translated The Lord; So also as he is Jehovah, which is the fountain of all Essence and of all Being, so he is Lord, by his interest, and his concurrence, in our Creation; It is a devout exercise of the soul, to consider, how absolute a Lord he is, by this Title of Creation; If the King give a man a Creation by a new Title, the King found before in that man, some virtuous and fit disposition, some preparation, some object, some subject of his favor. The King gives Creations to men, whom the Universities, or other Societies had prepared; They Created persons whom other lower Schools had prepared; At lowest, he that deals upon him first, finds a man, begotten and prepared by Parents, upon whom he may work. But remember thy Creator, that called thee, when thou wast not, as though thou hadst been, and brought thee out of nothing; which is a condition (if we may call it a condition, to be nothing, not to be) farther removed from Heaven, then hell it self: Who is the Lord of life, and breathed this life into thee, and swears by that eternal life, which he is, that he would have this life of thine immortal, As I live, saith the Lord, I would not the death of a sinner.

This Contemplation of Jesus, as a Lord, by Creating us, is a devout, and an humble Contemplation; but to contemplate him as Lord by Redeeming us, and breeding us in a Church, where that Redemption is applied to us, this is a devout, and a glorious Contemplation. As he is Lord over that which his Father gave him, (his Father gave him all power in Heaven and in earth, and Omne Iudicium, His Father put all Judgement into his hands, all judiciary and all military power was his; He was Lord Judge, and Lord of Hosts) As he is Lord over his own purchase, Quod acquisivit sanguine, That Church which he purchased with his own blood: So he is more then the Heretics of our time have made him, That he was but sent as a principal Prophet to explain the Law, and make that clear to us in a Gospel; Or as a Priest, to sacrifice himself, but not for a Ransom, not for a Satisfaction, but only for a lively example, thereby to incline us to suffer for Gods glory, and for the edification of one another. If we call him Dominum, A Lord, we call him Messiam, Vnctum, Regem, anointed with the oil of gladness by the Holy Ghost, to be a cheerful conqueror of the world, and the grave, and sin, and hell, and anointed in his own blood, to be a Lord in the administration of that Church, which he hath so purchased. This is to say that Jesus is a Lord; To profess that he is a person so qualified, in his being composed of God and Man, that he was able to give sufficient for the whole world, and did give it, and so is Lord of it.

When we say Jesus est, That Jesus is, There we confess his eternity, and therein, his Godhead: when we say Jesus Dominus, that he is a Lord, therein we confess a dominion which he hath purchased; And when we say Iesum Dominum, so, as that we profess him to be the Lord, Then we confess a vigilancy, a superintendency, a residence, and a permanency of Christ, in his Dominion, in his Church, to the worlds end. If he be the Lord, in his Church, there is no other that rules with him, there is no other that rules for him. The temporal Magistrate is not so Lord, as that Christ and he are Collegues, or fellow-Consuls, that if he command against Christ, he should be as soon obeyed as Christ; for a Magistrate is a Lord, and Christ is the Lord, a Magistrate is a Lord to us, but Christ is the Lord to him, and to us, and to all, None rules with him, none rules for him; Christ needs no Vicar, he is no non-resident; He is nearer to all particular Churches at Gods right hand; then the Bishop of Rome, at his left. Direct lines, direct beams does always warm better, and produce their effects more powerfully, then oblique beams do; The influence of Christ Jesus directly from Heaven upon the Church, hath a truer operation, then the oblique and collateral reflections from Rome: Christ is not so far off, by being above the Clouds, as the Bishop of Rome is, by being beyond the Hills. Dicimus Dominum Iesum, we say that Jesus is the Lord, and we refuse all power upon earth, that will be Lord with him, as though he needed a Coadjutor, or Lord for him, as though he were absent from us.

To conclude this second part, To say that Jesus is the Lord, is to confess him to be God from everlasting, and to have been made man in the fullness of time, and to govern still that Church, which he hath purchased with his blood, and that therefore he looks that we direct all our particular actions to his glory. For this voice, wherein thou saiest Dominus Jesus, The Lord Jesus, must be, as the voice of the Seraphim in Isaiah, thrice repeated, Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Holy, holy, holy; our hearts must say it, and our tongue, and our hands too, or else we have not said it. For when a man will make Jesus his companion, and be sometimes with him, and sometimes with the world, and not direct all things principally towards him; when he will make Jesus his servant, that is, proceed in all things, upon the strength of his outward profession, upon the color, and pretence, and advantage of Religion, and devotion, would this man be thought to have said Iesum Dominum, That Jesus is the Lord? Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I speak to you? says Christ; Christ places a tongue in the hands; Actions speak; and Omni tuba clarior per opera Demonstratio, says S. Chrysostom, There is not only a tongue, but a Trumpet, in every good work. When Christ sees a disposition in his hearers, to do according unto their professing, then only he gives allowance to that that they say, Dicitis me Dominum, & bene dicitis, You call me Lord, and you do well in doing so, do ye therefore, as I have done to you. To call him Lord, is to contemplate his Kingdom of power, to feel his Kingdom of grace, to wish his Kingdom of glory. It is not a Domine usque quò, Lord how long before the Consummation come, as though we were weary of our warfare: It not a Domine si fuisses, Lord if thou hadst been here, our brother had not died, as Martha said of Lazarus, as though, as soon as we suffer any worldly calamity, we should think Christ to be absent from us, in his power, or in his care of us; It is not a Domine vis mandemus, Lord wilt thou that we command fire from Heaven to consume these Samaritans, as though we would serve the Lord no longer, then he would revenge his own and our quarrel; for, (that we may come to our last part) to that fiery question of the Apostles, Christ answered, You know not of what spirit you are; It is not the Spirit of God, it is not the Holy Ghost, which makes you call Jesus the Lord only to serve your own ends, and purposes; and No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

For this Part, we proposed only two Considerations, first that this But, excluding all means but one, that one must therefore necessarily be difficult, and secondly that that But, admitting one means, that one must therefore necessarily be possible; so that there is a difficulty, but yet a possibility in having this working by the Holy Ghost. For the first, of those heretical words of Fanstus the Manichaean, That in the Trinity, the Father dwelt In illa luce inaccessibili, In that light which none can attain to, And the Son of God dwelt in this created light, whose fountain and root is the Planet of the Sun, And the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Aire, and other parts illumined by the Sun, we may make this good use, that for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, we have not so present, so evident light in reason, as for the knowledge of the other blessed Persons of the glorious Trinity. For, for the Son, because he assumed our nature, and lived and died with us, we conceive certain bodily impressions, and notions of him; and then naturally, and necessarily, as soon as we hear of a Son, we conceive a Father too. But the knowledge of the Holy Ghost is not so evident, neither do we bend our thoughts upon the consideration of the Holy Ghost, so much as we ought to do. The Arians enwrapped him in double clouds of darkness, when they called him Creaturam Creaturae; That Christ himself, from whom (say they) the Holy Ghost had his Creation, was but a Creature, and not God, and so the Holy Ghost, the Creature of a Creature. And Maximus ille Gigas, (as Saint Bernard calls Plato) That Giant in all kind of Learning, Plato, never stopped at any knowledge, till he came to consider the holy Ghost: Vnum inveni, quod cuncta operatur, I have (says Plato) found One, who made all things; Et unum per quod cuncta efficiuntur, And I have found another, by whom all things were made; Tertium autem non potui invenire, A Third, besides those two, I could never find.

Though all the mysteries of the Trinity be things equally easy to faith, when God infuses that, yet to our reason, (even as reason serves faith, and presents things to that) things are not so equal, but that S. Basil himself saw, that the eternal generation of the Son, was too hard for Reason; but yet it is in the proceeding of the Holy Ghost, that he clearly professes his ignorance: Si cuncta putarem nostra cogitatione posse comprehendi, vererer fortè ignorantiam profiteri, If I thought that all things might be known by man, I should be as much afraid, and ashamed, as another man, to be ignorant; but, says he, since we all see, that there are many things whereof we are ignorant, Cur non de Spiritu sancto, absque rubore, ignorantiam faterer? Why should I be ashamed to confess mine ignorance in many things concerning the Holy Ghost?

There is then a difficulty, no less then an impossibility, in searching after the Holy Ghost, but it is in those things which appertain not to us; But in others, there is a possibility, a facility and easiness. For, there are two processions of the holy Ghost, Aeterna, and Temporaria, his proceeding from the Father, and the Son, and his proceeding into us. The first we shall never understand, if we read all the books of the world, The other we shall not choose but understand, if we study our own consciences. In the first, the darkness, and difficulty is recompensed in this, That though it be hard to find any thing, yet it is but little that we are to seek; It is only to find that there is a holy Ghost, proceeding from Father, and Son; for in searching farther, the danger is noted by S. Basil, to be thus great, Qui quomodo interrogas, & ubi ut in loco, & quando ut in tempore, interrogabis; If thou give thy curiosity the liberty to ask How the holy Ghost proceeded, thou wilt ask where it was done, as though there were several rooms, and distinct places, in that which is infinite, And thou wilt ask when it was done, as though there were pieces of time, in that which is eternal: Et quaeres, non ut fidem, sed ut infidelitatem invenias, (which is excellently added by that Father) The end of thy enquiring will not be, that thou mightest find any thing to establish thy belief, but to find something that might excuse thine unbelief; All thy curious questions are not in hope that thou shalt receive satisfaction, but in hope that the weakness of the answer may justify thy infidelity.

Thus it is, if we will be over curious in the first, the eternal proceeding of the Holy Ghost. In the other, the proceeding of the holy Ghost into us, we are to consider, that as in our natural persons, the body and soul do not make a perfect man, except they be united, except our spirits (which are the active part of the blood) do fit this body, and soul for one another's working;; So, though the body of our religion may seem to be determined in these two, our Creation, which is commonly attributed to the Father, Tanquam fonti Deitatis, As the fountain of the Godhead, (for Christ is God of God) And our Redemption, which belongs to the Son, yet for this body there is a spirit, that is, the holy Ghost, that takes this man, upon whom the Father hath wrought by Creation, and the Son included within his Redemption, and he works in him a Vocation, a Justification, and a sanctification, and leads him from that Esse, which the Father gave him in the Creation, And that Bene esse which he hath in being admitted into the body of his Son, the visible Church, and Congregation, to an Optimè esse, to that perfection, which is an assurance of the inhabitation of this Spirit in him, and an inchoation of eternal blessedness here, by a heavenly and sanctified conversation, without which Spirit No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, because he is not otherwise in a perfect obedience to him, if he embrace not the means ordained by him in his Church.

So that this Spirit disposes, and dispenses, distributes, and disperses, and orders all the power of the Father, and all the wisdom of the Son, and all the graces of God. It is a Center to all; So S. Bernard says upon those words of the Apostle, We approve our selves as the Ministers of God; But by what? By watching, by fasting, by suffering, by the holy Ghost, by love unfained. Vide, tanquam omnia ordinantem, quomodo in medio virtutum, sicut cor in medio corporis, constituit Spiritum Sanctum: As the heart is in the midst of the body, so between these virtues of fasting and suffering before, and love unfained after, the Apostle places the holy Ghost, who only gives life and soul to all Moral, and all Theological virtues. And as S. Bernard observes that in particular men, so doth S. Augustine of the whole Church; Quod in corpore nostro anima, id in corpore Christi, Ecclesia, Spiritus Sanctus; That office which the soul performs to our body, the holy Ghost performs in the body of Christ, which is the Church.

And therefore since the holy Ghost is thus necessary, and thus near, as at the Creation the whole Trinity was intimated in that plural word, Elohim, creavit Dii, but no person of the Trinity is distinctly named in the Creation, but the holy Ghost, The Spirit of God moved upon the waters, As the holy Ghost was first conveyed to our knowledge in the Creation, so in our Regeneration, by which we are new creatures, though our Creation, and our Redemption be religious subjects of our continual meditation, yet let us be sure to hold this that is nearest us, to keep a near, a familiar, and daily acquaintance, and conversation with the holy Ghost, and to be watchful to cherish his light, and working in us. Homines docent quaerere, solus ipse, qui docet invenire, habere, frui; Men can teach us ways how to find somethings; The Pilot how to find a Land, The Astronomer how to find a Star; Men can teach us ways how to find God, The natural man in the book of creatures, The Moral man in an exemplar life, The Jew in the Law, The Christian in general in the Gospel, But Solus ipse, qui docet invenire, habere, frui, Only the holy Ghost enables us to find God so, as to make him ours, and to enjoy him. First you must get more light then nature gives, for, The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit: When that light is so mended, that you have some sparks of faith, you must also leave the works of the flesh, For, Fleshly men have not the Spirit: When the Spirit offers it self in approaches, Resist it not, as Stephen accuses them to have done, Act. 7. When it hath prevailed, and sealed you to God, Grieve not the holy Spirit, by whom ye are sealed unto Redemption. For this preventing the Spirit, by trusting to nature, and morality, this infecting the Spirit, by living ill in a good profession, this grieving of the Spirit, by neglecting his operations, induces the last desperate work of Quenching the Spirit, which is a smothering, a suffocating of that light, by a final obduration.

Spiritus ubi vult spirat, says our Savior Christ; which S. Augustine, (and indeed most of the Fathers) interpret of the holy Ghost, and not of the wind, though it may also properly enough admit that interpretation too. But The holy Ghost, says he, breathes where it pleases him; Et vocem ejus audis, says Christ, You hear the voice of the holy Ghost; for, (says S. Augustine upon those words of Christ) Sonat psalmus, vox est Spiritus sancti, When you hear a Psalm sung, you hear the voice of the holy Ghost; Sonat Euangelium, sonat sermo Divinus, You hear the Gospel read, you hear a Sermon preached, still you hear the voice of the holy Ghost; And yet, as Christ says in that place, Nescis unde venit, Thou knowest not from whence that voice comes, Thou canst find nothing in thy self, why the holy Ghost should delight to entertain thee, and hold discourse with thee, in so familiar, and so frequent, and so importunate a speaking to thee; Nescis unde venit, Thou knowest not from whence all this goodness comes, but merely from his goodness; So also, as Christ adds there, Nescis quò vadat, Thou knowest not whither it goes, how long it will last and go with thee. If thou carry him to dark and foul corners, if thou carry him back to those sins, of which, since he began to speak to thee, at this time, thou hast felt some remorse, some detestation, he will not go with thee, he will give thee over. But as long as he, The Spirit of God, by your cherishing of him, stays with you, when Jesus shall say to you, (in your consciences) Quid vos dicitis? Whom do you say that I am? You can say Jesus Dominus, We say, we profess, That thou art Jesus, and that Jesus is the Lord: If he proceed, Si Dominus, ubi timor? If I be Lord, where is my fear? You shall show your fear of him, even in your confidence in him, In timore Domini, fiducia fortitudinis, In the fear of the Lord, is an assured strength: You shall not only say Iesum Dominum, profess Jesus to be the Lord, but Veni Domine Iesu, You shall invite, and solicit Jesus to a speedy judgement, and be able, in his right, to stand upright in that judgement. This you have, if you have this Spirit; and you may have this Spirit, if you resist it not, now; For, As when Peter spake, the holy Ghost fell upon all that heard, So in the Ministry of his weaker instruments, he conveys, and diffuses, and seals his gifts upon all, which come well disposed to the receiving of him, in his Ordinance.

Serm. XXXIII. Preached upon Whitsunday.

ACTS 10.44.

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them, which heard the word. Part of the second Lesson of that day.

THat which served for an argument amongst the Jews, to diminish, and under-value Christ, Have any of the Rulers believed in him? had no force amongst the Gentiles, for amongst them, the first persons that are recorded to have applied themselves to the profession of the Christian Religion, were Rulers, Persons of place, and quality: Sunè propter hoc Dignitates positae sunt, ut major pietas ostendatur, says S. Chrysostom, This is the true reason why men are Ennobled, why men are raised, why men are inriched, that they might glorify God the more, by that eminency; This is truly to be a good Student, Scrutari Scripturas, To search the Scriptures, in which is eternal life: This is truly to be called to the Bar, to be Crucified with Christ Jesus: And to be called to the Bench, to have part in his Resurrection, and reign in glory with him: and to be a Judge, to judge thy self, that thou beest not judged to condemnation, by Christ Jesus: Offices and Titles, and Dignities, make thee, in the eye, and tongue of the world, a better man; be truly a better man, between God and thee, for them, and they are well placed. Those Pyramides and Obelisces, which were raised up on high, in the Aire, but supported nothing, were vain testimonies of the frivolousness, and impertinency of those men that raised them; But when we see Pillars stand, we presume that something is to be placed upon them. They, who by their rank and place, are pillars of the State, and pillars of the Church, if Christ and his glory be not raised higher by them, then by other men, put Gods building most out of frame, and most discompose Gods purposes, of any others. And therefore S. Chrysostom hath noted usefully, That the first of the Gentiles, which was converted to Christianity, was that Eunuch, which was Treasurer to the Queen of Aethiopia; And the second was this Centurion, in whose house S. Peter preached this fruitful Sermon, at which, While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word.

Our Parts will be two; first some Circumstances that preceded this act, this miraculous descent and infusion of the Holy Ghost, And then the Act, the Descent it self. In the first, we shall consider first, the time, it was when Peter was speaking, when Gods Ordinance was then in executing, preaching; And secondly, what made way to this descent of the Holy Ghost, that is, what Peter was speaking, and preaching, These words, true and necessary Doctrine; And here also we shall touch a little, the place, and the Auditory, Cornelius, and his family. When from hence we shall descend to the second Part, The descent of the Holy Ghost, we shall look first, (so as it may become us) upon the Person, (the third Person in the holy, blessed, and glotions Trinity) And then upon his action, as it is expressed here, Cecidit, He fell; As of Christ it is said, Deliciae ejus cum filiis hominum, His delight is to be with the sons of men, And, (to speak humanely, a perverse delight, for it was to be with the worst men, with Publicans & sinners) so, (to speak humanely) the Holy Ghost had an extraordinary, a perverse ambition, to go downewards, to enlarge himself, in his working, by falling; He fell: And then, he fell so, as a shore of rain falls, that does not lie in those round drops in which it falls, but diffuses, and spreads and enlarges it self, He fell upon all; But then, it was because all heard, They came not to see a new action, preaching, not a new Preacher, Peter, nor to see one another at a Sermon, He fell upon all that heard; where also, I think, it will not be impertinent, to make this note, That Peter is said to have spoke these words, but they, on whom the holy Ghost fell, are said to have heard The word; It is not Many words, long Sermons, nor good words, witty and eloquent Sermons that induce the holy Ghost, for all these are words of men; and howsoever the whole Sermon is the Ordinance of God, the whole Sermon is not the word of God: But when all the good gifts of men are modestly employed, and humbly received, as vehicuia Spiritus, as S. Augustine calls them, The chariots of the holy Ghost, as means afforded by God, to convey the word of life into us, in Those words we hear The word, and there the word and the Spirit go together, as in our case in the Text, While Peter yet spake those words, the holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard The word.

When we come then to consider in the first place, the Time of this miracle, we may easily see that verified in S. Peters proceeding, which S. Ambrose says, Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia, The holy Ghost cannot go a slow pace; It is the devil in the serpent that creeps, but the holy Ghost in the Dove flyes: And then, in the proceeding with the Centurion, we may see that verified which Leo says, Vbi Deus Magister, quàm citò discitur? Where God teaches, how fast a godly man learns? Christ did almost all his miracles in an instant, without dilatory circumstances; Christ says to the man sick of the palsey, Tolle grabatum, Take up thy bed and walk, and immediately he did so: To the deaf man he says, Ephphatha, Be thine ears opened, and instantly they were opened: He says to the woman with the issue of blood, Esto sana à plagatua, and she was not only well immediately upon that, but she was well before, when she had but touched the hem of his garment. Upon him who had lain in his infirmity thirty eight years, at the pool, Christ makes a little stop; but it was no longer then to try his disposition with that question, Vis sanus fieri? Christ was sure what his answer would be; and as soon as he gives that answer, immediately he recovered. Where Christ seems to have stayed longest, which was upon the blind man, yet at his first touch, that man saw men walk, though not distinctly, but at the second touch he saw perfectly. As Christ proceeds in his miracles, so doth the holy Ghost in his powerful instructions. It is true, Scientiae sunt profectus, There is a growth in knowledge, and we overcome ignorances by degrees, and by succession of more and more light: Christ himself grew in knowledge, as well as in stature: But this is in the way of experimental knowledge, by study, by conversation, by other acquisitions. But when the holy Ghost takes a man into his school, he deals not with him, as a Painter, which makes an eye, and an ear, and a lip, and passes his pencil an hundred times over every muscle, and every hair, and so in many sittings makes up one man, but he deals as a Printer, that in one strain delivers a whole story.

We see that in this example of S. Peter, S. Peter had conceived a doubt, whether it were lawful for him to preach the Gospel to any of the Gentiles, because they were not within the Covenant; This was the sanus fieri, This very scruple was the voice and question of God in him: to come to a doubt, and to a debatement in any religious duty, is the voice of God in our conscience: Would you know the truth? Doubt, and then you will inquire: And facile solutionem accipit anima, quae prius dubitavit, says S. Chrysost. As no man resolves of any thing wisely, firmly, safely, of which he never doubted, never debated, so neither doth God withdraw a resolution from any man, that doubts with an humble purpose to settle his own faith, and not with a wrangling purpose to shake another mans. God rectifies Peters doubt immediately, and he rectifies it fully; he presents him a Book, and a Commentary, the Text, and the Exposition: He lets down a sheet from heaven with all kind of beasts and fowls, and tells him, that Nothing is unclean, and he tells him by the same spirit, that there were three men below to ask for him, who were sent by God to apply that visible Parable, and that God meant, in saying Nothing was unclean, that the Gentiles generally, and in particular, this Centurion Cornelius, were not incapable of the Gospel, nor unfit for his Ministry. And though Peter had been very hungry; and would fain have eaten, as appears in the tenth verse, yet after he received this instruction, we hear no more mention of his desire to eat; but, as his Master had said, Cibus meus est, My meat is to do my Fathers will that sent me, so his meat was to do him good that sent for him, and so he made haste to go with those Messengers.

The time then was, when Peter thus prepared by the Holy Ghost, was to prepare others for the Holy Ghost, and therefore it was, Cum locutus, When he spoke, that is, preached to them. For, Si adsit palatum fidei, cui sapiat mel Dei, says S. Augustine, To him who hath a spiritual taste, no honey is so sweet, as the word of God preached according to his Ordinance. If a man taste a little of this honey at his rods end, as Ionathan did, though he think his eyes enlightened, as Ionathan did, he may be in Ionathans case, I did but taste a little honey with my rod, Et ecce, morior, and behold, I dye. If a man read the Scriptures a little, superficially, perfunctorily, his eyes seem straight-ways enlightened, and he thinks he sees every thing that he had pre-conceived, and fore-imagined in himself, as clear as the Sun, in the Scriptures: He can find flesh in the Sacrament, without bread, because he finds Hoc est Corpus meum, This is my Body, and he will take no more of that honey, no more of those places of Scripture, where Christ says, Ego vitis, and Ego porta, that he is a Vine, and that he is a Gate, as literally as he seems to say, that that is his Body. So also he can find wormwood in this honey, because he finds in this Scripture, Stipendium peccati mors est, that The reward of sin is death, and he will take no more of that honey, not the Quandocunque, That at what time soever a sinner repents, he shall have mercy. As the Essential word of God, the Son of God, is Light of light, So the written Word of God is light of light too, one place of Scripture takes light of another: and if thou wilt read so, and hear so, as thine own affections transport, and mis-lead thee; If when a corrupt confidence in thine own strength possesses thee, thou read only those passages, Quare moriemini, domus Israel? Why will ye dye, O house of Israel? and conclude out of that, that thou hast such a free will of thine own, as that thou canst give life to thy self, when thou wilt; If when a vicious dejection of spirit, and a hellish melancholy, and declination towards desperation possesses thee, thou read only those passages, Impossibile est, That it is impossible, that he that falls, after he hath been enlightened, should be renewed again; And if thou hear Sermons so, as that thou art glad, when those sins are declamed against, which thou art free from, but wouldst hear no more, wouldst not have thine own sin touched upon, though all reading, and all hearing be honey, yet if thou take so little of this honey, Ionathans case will be thy case, Ecce, morieris, thou wilt dye of that honey; for the Scriptures are made to agree with one another, but not to agree to thy particular taste and humor.

But yet, the counsel is good, on the other side too, Hast thou found honey? eat so much thereof as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. Content thy self with reading those parts of Scriptures, which are clear, and edify, and perplex not thy self with Prophesies not yet performed; and content thy self with hearing those Sermons, which rectify thee In credendis, and Inagendis, in all those things, which thou art bound to believe, and bound to practise, and run not after those Men, who pretend to know those things, which God hath not revealed to his Church. Too little, or too much of this honey, of this reading, and of this hearing, may be unwholesome: God hath chosen ways of mediocrity; He Redeemed us not, by God alone, nor by man alone, but by him, who was both. He instructs us not, by the Holy Ghost alone, without the Ministry of man, nor by the Minister alone, without the assistance of the Holy Ghost. An Angel appeared to Cornelius, but that Angel bid him send for Peter: The Holy Ghost visits us, and disposes us, but yet the Holy Ghost sends us to the Ministry of man: Non dedignatur docere per hominem, qui dignatus est esse homo, says S. Augustine; He that came to us, as Man, is content that we go to men, for our instruction. Preaching is the ordinary means; that which S. Peter wrought upon them, was, Cum locutus, when he had, and because he had preached unto them.

And it was also Dum locutus est, Whilst he yet spake those words; Non permittit Spiritus absolvi Sermonem, says S. Chrysostom; The Holy Ghost did not leave them to future meditations, to future conferences, he did not stay till they told one another after the Sermon, That it was a learned Sermon, a consciencious Sermon, a useful Sermon, but whilst the Preacher yet spoke, the Holy Ghost spoke to their particular consciences. And as a Gardiner takes every bough of a young tree, or of a Vine, and leads them, and places them against a wall, where they may have most advantage, and so produce, most, and best fruit: So the Holy Ghost leads and places the words, and sentences of the Preacher, one upon an Usurer, another upon an Adulterer, another upon an ambitious person, another upon an active or passive Briber, when the Preacher knows of no Usurer, no Adulterer, no ambitious person, no Briber active or passive, in the Congregation. Nay, it is not only whilst he was yet speaking, but, as S. Peter himself reports the same Story, in the next Chapter, As I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell upon them.

Perchance in the beginning of a Sermon, the reprehension of the Preacher falls not upon me, it is not come to me; But, when as the duties of the Preacher are expressed by the Apostle, to be these three, To reprove, or convince by argument, to settle truths, to overthrow errors; And to exhort, to rectify our manners; And to rebuke, to denounce Gods Judgements upon the refractary; whatsoever he says the two first ways, by Convincing, and by Exhorting, all that belongs to all, from the beginning; And for that which he shall say, the third way, by way of Rebuking, As I know at midnight, that the Sun will break out upon me to morrow, though I know not how it works upon those places, where it shines then, So, though I know not how the rebukes of the Preacher work upon their consciences, whose sins he rebukes at the beginning; yet I must make account that he will meet with my sin too; & if he do not meet with my present sin; that sin which is my second wife, that sin which I have married now, (not after a divorce frō my former sin, so, as that I have put away that sin, but after the death of that sin, which sickness or poverty hath made me unable to continue in) yet if he bend himself upon that sin, which hath been my sin, or may be my sin, I must be sensible that the Holy Ghost hath offered himself to me, whilst he yet speaks, and ever since he began to speak; And, Cum locutus, Because Preaching is the ordinary means, and, Dum locutus, Because the Holy Ghost intends all for my edification, I must embrace and entertain the Holy Ghost, who exhibits himself to me, from the beginning, and not say, This concerns not me; for whatsoever the Preacher can say of Gods mercy in Christ Jesus to any man, all that belongs to me, for no man hath received more of that, then I may do; And whatsoever the Preacher can say of sin, all the way, all that belongs to me, for no man hath ever done any sin, which I should not have done, if God had left me to my self, and to mine own perverseness towards sin, and to mine own insatiableness in sin.

It was then, when he preached, and whilst he preached, and as soon as he preached, but when, and whilst, and as soon as he preached Thus, thus as is expressed here, Whilst he spake these words: In which, we shall only touch, but not much insist upon, his manner first, and then his matter; And for his manner, we consider only here, his preparation, and no other circumstance. Though S. Peter say to them, when he came, I ask therefore, for what intent you have sent for me, yet God had intimated to him before, That it was to Preach the Gospel to the Gentiles; And therefore some time of meditation he had; Though in such a person as S. Peter, so filled with all gifts necessary for his function, and to such persons as Cornelius was, who needed but Catechizing in the rudiments of the Gospel, much preparation needed not. The case was often of the same sort, after, in the Primitive Church; The persons were very able, and the people very ignorant; and therefore it is easy to observe a far greater frequency of Preaching amongst the Ancient Fathers, then ordinarily, men that love ease, will apprehend. We see evidently in S. Augustines hundred forty fourth Sermon De Tempore, And in S. Ambroses forty fourth Sermon De sancto Latrone, And in S. Bernards twelve Sermons upon one Psalm, that all these blessed and Reverend Fathers, preached more then one day, divers days together, without intermission: And we may see in S. Basils second Homily upon the six days work, that he preached in the after-noon; And so, by occasion of his often preaching, it seems by his second Homily De Baptismo, that he preached sometimes extemporally. But of all this, the reason is as evident as the fact, The Preachers were able to say much, The people were capable but of little: And where it was not so, the Clergy often assisted themselves with one another's labours; as S. Cyrils Sermons were studied without book, and preached over again to their several Congregations, by almost all the Bishops of the Eastern Church. Sometimes we may see Texts extended to very many Sermons, and sometimes Texts taken of that extent and largeness, as only a paraphrase upon the Text would make the Sermon; for we may see by S. Augustines tenth Sermon De verbis Apostoli, that they took sometimes the Epistle and Gospel of the day, and the Psalm before the Sermon for their text.

But in these our times, when the curiosity, (allow it a better name, for truly, God be blessed for it, it deserves a better name) when the capacity of the people requires matter of more labor, as there is not the same necessity, so there is not the same possibility of that assiduous, and that sudden preaching. No man will think that we have abler Preachers then the Primitive Church had; no man will doubt, but that we have learneder, and more capable auditories, and congregations then their were. The Apostles were not negligent, when they mended their nets: A preacher is not negligent, if he prepare for another Sermon, after he hath made one; nor a hearer is not negligent, if he meditate upon one Sermon, though he hear not another within three hours after. S. Peters Sermon was not extemporal; neither if it had (his person, and the quality of the hearers, being compared with our times) had that been any precedent, or pattern for our times, to do the like. But yet, Beloved, since our times are such, as are overtaken with another necessity, that our adversaries dare come, Cum locutus est, As soon as the Preacher hath done, and meet the people comming out of the Church, and deride the Preacher, and offer an answer to any thing that hath been said; since they are come to come to Church with us, and Dum locutus est, Then when the Preacher is speaking, to say to him, that sits next him, That is false, that is heretical; since they are come to join with us at the Communion, so that it is hard to find out the Judas, and if you do find him, he dares answer, Your Minister is no Priest, and so your Bread and Wine no Sacrament, and therefore I care not how much of it I take; since they are come to boast, that with all our assiduity of preaching, we cannot keep men from them; since it is thus, as we were always bound by Christs example, To gather you as a hen gathers her chickens, (to call you often to this assembling of your selves) so are we now much more bound to hide and cover you, as a hen doth her chickens, and because there is a Kite hovering in every corner, (a seducer lurking in every company) to defend and arm you, with more and more instructions against their insinuations. And if they deride us, for often preaching, and call us fools for that, as David said, He would be more vile, he would Dance more, So let us be more fools, in this foolishness of preaching, and preach more. If they think us mad, since we are mad for our souls, (as the Apostle speaks) let us be more mad; Let him that hath preached once, do it twice, and him that hath preached twice, do it thrice. But yet, not this, by comming to a negligent, and extemporal manner of preaching, but we will be content to take so many hours from our rest, that we, with you, may rest the safelyer in Abrahams bosom, and so many more hours from our meat, that we, with you, may the more surely eat, and drink with the Lamb, in the kingdom of heaven. Christ hath undertaken, that his word shall not pass away, but he hath not undertaken that it shall not pass from us: There is a Ne exeas munaum served upon the world, The Gospel cannot go, nor be driven out of the world, till the end of the world; but there is not a Ne exeas regnum, The Gospel may go out of this, or any Kingdom, if they flacken in the doing of those things which God hath ordained for the means of keeping it, that is, a zealous, and yet a discreet; a sober, and yet a learned assiduity in preaching.

Thus far then we have been justly carried, in consideration of this circumstance in the manner of his preaching, his preparation; In descending to the next, which is the matter of his Sermon, we see much of that in his Text. S. Peter took his Text here, ver. 34. out of Deuteronomy, of a truth I perceive, that God is no respecter of persons. Where, because the words are not precisely the same in Deuteronomy, as they are in this Text, we find just occasion to note, That neither Christ in his preaching, nor the holy Ghost in penning the Scriptures of the new Testament, were so curious as our times, in citing Chapters and Verses, or such distinctions, no nor in citing the very, very words of the places. Heb. 4.4. There is a sentence cited thus indefinitely, It is written in a certain place, without more particular note: And, to pass over many, conducing to that purpose, if we consider that one place in the Prophet Isaiah, (Make the heart of this people fat, make their eyes heavy, and shut them, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert, and be healed) and consider the same place, as it is cited six several times in the new Testament, we shall see, that they stood not upon such exact quotations, and citing of the very words. But to that purpose, for which S. Peter had taken that text, he follows his text. Now, Beloved, I do not go about to include S. Peters whole Sermon into one branch, of one part, of one of mine: Only I refresh to your memories, that which I presume you have often read in this Story, and this Chapter, that though S. Peter say, That God is no such accepter of persons, but that in every Nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him, yet it is upon this ground, Christ Jesus is Lord of all; And, (as it is, ver. 42.) He hath commanded us to preach; that is, he hath established a Church, and therein, visible means of salvation; And then, this is our general text, the subject of all our Sermons, That through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall have remission of sins. So that this is all that we dare avow concerning salvation, that howsoever God may afford salvation to some in all nations, yet he hath manifested to us no way of conveying salvation to them, but by the manifeltation of Christ Jesus in his Ordinance of preaching.

And such a manifestation of Christ, had God here ordained for this Centurion Cornelius. But why for him? I do not ask reasons of Gods mercy to particular men, for if I would do so, when should I find a reason, why he hath showed mercy to me? But yet, Audit omnes, qui in Militia estis, & Regibus assistitis, All that serve in Wars, or Courts, may find something to imitate in this Centurion: He was a devout man; A Souldier, and yet devout; God forbid they were so incompatible, as that courage, and devotion might not consist: A man that feared God; A Souldiers profession is fearlesness; And only he that fears God, fears nothing else: He and all his house; A Souldier, yet kept a house, and did not always wander; He kept his house in good order, and with good means: He gave much alms; Though Armes be an expensive profession for outward splendor, yet hereserved for alms, much alms: And he prayed to God always; Though Armes require much time for the duties thereof, yet he could pray at those times; In his Trenches, at the Assault, or at the defence of a Breach, he could pray: All this the holy Ghost testifies of him together, ver. 2. And this was his general disposition; and then, those who came from him to Peter, add this, That he had a good report amongst all the Nation of the Jews, ver. 22. And this to a stranger, (for the Jews loved not strangers) and one that served the State, in such a place, as that he could not choose but be heavy to the Jews, was hard to have. And then, himself, when Peter comes to him, adds thus much more, That this first mercy of God in having sent his Angel, and that farther mercy, that that Angel named a man, and then that man came, was exhibited to him, then, when he was fasting. And then, this man, thus humbled and macerated by fasting, thus soupled and entendered with the fear of God, thus burnt up and calcined with zeal and devotion, thus united to God by continual prayer, thus tributary to God by giving alms, thus exemplar in himself at home, to lead all his house, and thus diffusive of himself to others abroad, to gain the love of good men, this man prostrates himself to Peter at his comming, in such an over-reverential manner, as Peter durst not accept, but took him up, and said, I my self am also a man; Sudden devotion comes quickly near superstition.

This is a misery, which our time hath been well acquainted with, and had much experience of, and which grows upon us still, That when men have been mellowed with the fear of God, and by heavy corrections, and calamities, brought to a greater renderness of conscience then before, in that distemper of melancholy, and inordinate sadness, they have been easiliest seduced and withdrawn to a superstitious and Idolatrous religion. I speak this, because from the highest to the lowest place, there are Sentinels planted in every corner, to watch all advantages, and if a man lose his preferment at Court, or lose his child at home, or lose any such thing as affects him much, and imprints a deep sadness for the loss thereof, they work upon that sadness, to make him a Papist. When men have lived long from God, they never think they come near enough to him, except they go beyond him; because they have never offered to come to him before, now when they would come, they imagine God to be so hard of access, that there is no comming to him, but by the intervention, and intercession of Saints; and they think that that Church, in which they have lived ill, cannot be a good Church; whereas, if they would accustom themselves in a daily performing of Christian duties, to an ordinary presence of God, Religion would not be such a stranger, nor devotion such an Ague unto them. But when Peter had rectified Cornelius, in this mistaking, in this over-valuing of any person, and then saw Cornclius his disposition, who had brought materials to erect a Church in his house, by calling his kinsmen, and his friends together to hear Peter, Peter spoke those words, Which whilst he yet spake, the holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word. And so we are fallen into our second part.

In this, the first Consideration falls upon the person that fell: And as the Trinity is the most mysterious piece of our Religion, and hardest to be comprehended, So in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost is the most mysterious person, and hardest to be expressed. We are called the household of God, and the family of the faithful; and therefore out of a contemplation, and ordinary acquaintance with the parts of families, we are apter to conceive any such thing in God himself, as we see in a family. We seem not to go so far out of our way of reason, to believe a father, and a son, because father and son are pieces of families: nor in believing Christ and his Church, because husband and wife are pieces of families. We go not so far in believing Gods working upon us, either by ministering spirits from above, or by his spiritual ministers here upon earth, for master and servants are pieces of families. But does there arise any such thing, out of any of these couples, Father and Son, Husband and Wife, Master and Servant, as should come from them, and they be no whit before neither? Is there any thing in natural or civil families, that should assist our understanding to apprehend this, That in heaven there should be a Holy Spirit, so, as that the Father, and the Son, being all Spirit, and all Holy, and all Holiness, there should be another Holy Spirit, which had all their Essential holiness in him, and another holiness too, Sanctitatem Sanctificantem, a holiness, that should make us holy?

It was a hard work for the Apostles, and their successors, at first, to draw the Godhead, into one, into an unity: when the Gentiles had been long accustomed to make every power and attribute of God, and to make every remarkable creature of God a several God, and so to worship God in a multiplicity of Gods, it was a great work to limit, and determine their superstitious, and superfluous devotion in one God. But when all these lines were brought into one center, not to let that center rest, but to draw lines out of that again, and bring more persons into that one centrical God-head, this was hard forreason to digest: But yet to have extended that from that unity, to a duality, was not so much, as to a triplicity. And thereupon, though the Arians would never be brought to confess an equality between the Son and the Father, they were much farther from confessing it in the Holy Ghost: They made, says S. Augustine, Filium creaturam, The Son, they accounted to be but a creature; but they made the Holy Ghost Creaturam Creaturae, not only a Creature, and no God, but not a Creature of Gods, but a Creature, a Messenger of the son, who was himself (with them) but a Creature. But these mysteries are not to be chawed by reason, but to be swallowed by faith; we professed three persons in one God, in the simplicity of our infancy, at our baptism, and we have sealed that contract, in the other Sacrament often since; and this is eternal life to die in that belief. There are three that bear witness in heaven, The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; And in that testimony we rest, that there is a Holy Ghost, and in the testimony of this text, that this Holy Ghost falls down upon all that hear the word of God.

Now, it is as wonderful that this Holy Ghost should fall down from heaven, as that he should be in heaven. Quomodo cecidisti? How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, thou son of the morning? was a question asked by the Propher, of him, who was so fallen, as that he shall never return again. But the Holy Ghost, (as mysterious in his actions, as in his Essential, or in his Personal being) fell so from heaven, as that he remained in heaven, even then when he was fallen. This Dove sent from heaven, did more then that Dove, which was sent out of the Ark; That went and came, but was not in both places at once; Noah could not have showed that Dove to his sons and daughters, in the Ark, then, when the Dove was flown out: But now, when this Dove, the Holy Ghost, fell upon these men, at Peters Sermon, Stephen, who was then come up to heaven, saw the same Dove, the same Holy Ghost, whom they, whom he had left upon the earth, felt upon the earth then: As if the Holy Ghost fall upon any in this Congregation now, now the Saints of God see that Holy Ghost in heaven, whom they that are here, feel falling upon them here. In all his workings, the Holy Ghost descends, for there is nothing above him. There is a third heaven; but no such third heaven, as is above the heaven of heavens, above the seat and residence of the Holy Ghost: so that whatsoever he doth, is a descent, a diminution, a humiliation, and an act of mercy, because it is a Communication of himself, to a person inferior to himself.

But there is more in this Text, then a descent. When the Holy Ghost came upon Christ himself, after his Baptism, there it is said, He descended: Though Christ as the Son of God, were equal to him, and so it was no descent for the Holy Ghost to come to him, yet because Christ had a nature upon him, in which he was not equal to the Holy Ghost, here was a double descent in the Holy Ghost, That he who dwells with the Father and the Son, In luce inaccessibili, In light inaccessible, and too bright to be seen, would descend in a visible form, to be seen by men, And that he descended and wrought upon a mortal man, though that man were Christ. Christ also had a double descending too; He descended to be a man, and he descended to be no man; He descended to live amongst us, and he descended to die amongst us; He descended to the earth, and he descended to hell: Every operation of every person of the holy, and blessed, and glorious Trinity, is a Descending; But here the Holy Ghost is said to have fallen, which denotes a more earnest communicating of himself, a throwing, a pouring out of himself, upon those, upon whom he falls: He falls as a fall of waters, that covers that it falls upon; as a Hawk upon a prey, it desires and it will possess that it falls upon; as an Army into a Country, it Conquers, and it Governs where it falls. The Holy Ghost falls, but far otherwise, upon the ungodly. Whosoever shall fall upon this stone, shall be broken, but upon whomsocver this stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Indeed, he falls upon him so, as hail falls upon him; he falls upon him so, as he falls from him, and leaves him in an obduration, and impenitibleness, and in an irrecoverable ruin of him, that hath formorly despised, and despighted the Holy Ghost. But when the Holy Ghost falls not thus in the nature of a stone, but puts on the nature of a Dove, and a Dove with an Olivebranch, and that in the Ark, that is, testimonies of our peace, and reconciliation to God, in his Church, he falls as that kind of lightning, which melts swords, and hurts not scabbards; the Holy Ghost shall melt thy soul, and not hurt thy body; he shall give thee spiritual blessings, and saving graces, under the temporal seals of bodily health, and prosperity in this world: He shall let thee see, that thou art the child of God, in the obedience of thy children to thee, And that thou art the servant of God, in the faithfulness of thy servants to thee, And that thou standest in the favor of God, bythe favor of thy superiors to thee; he shall fall upon thy soul, and not wound thy body, give thee spiritual prosperity, and yet not by worldly adversity, and evermore over-shadow and refresh thy soul, & yet evermore keep thee in his Sunshine, and the light of his countenance.

But there is more then this, in this falling of the Holy Ghost, in this Text. For, it was not such a particular insinuation of the Holy Ghost, as that he convaied himself into those particular men, for their particular good, and salvation, and determined there; but such a powerful, and diffusive falling, as made his presence, and his power in them, to work upon others also. So when he came upon Christ, it was not to add any thing to Christ, but to inform others, that that was Christ: So when Christ breathed his spirit into the Apostles, it was not merely to infuse salvation into them, but it was especially to seal to them that Patent, that Commission, Quorum remiseritis, That others might receive remission of sins, by their power. So the Holy Ghost fell upon these men here, for the benefit of others, that thereby a great doubt might be removed, a great scruple divested, a great disputation extinguished, whether it were lawful to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, or no; for, as we see in the next Chapter, Peter himself was reproved of the Jews, for this that he had done: and therefore, God ratified, and gave testimony to this service of his, by this miraculous falling of the Holy Ghost, as S. Augustine makes the reason of this falling, very justly to have been; so then, this falling of the Holy Ghost, was not properly, or not merely an infusing of justifying grace, but an infusing of such gifts, as might edify others: for, S. Peter speaking of this very action, in the next Chapter, says, The Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us, in the beginning; Which was, when he fell upon them, as this day. This doth not imply Graduum aequalitatem, an equal measure of the same gifts, as the Apostles had, who were to pass over the whole world, and work upon all men, But it implies Doni identitatem, it was the same miraculous expressing of the presence, and working of the Holy Ghost, for the confirmation of Peter, that the Gentiles might be preached unto, and for the consolation of the Gentiles, that they might be enabled to preach to one another: for so it is expressly said in this Chapter, That they heard these men speak with divers tongues; they that heard the Preacher, were made partakers of the same gifts that the Preacher had; A good hearer becomes a good Preacher, that is, able to edify others.

It it true, that these men were not to be literally Preachers, as the Apostles (upon whom the Holy Ghost fell, as upon them) were, and therefore the gift of tongues may seem not to have been so necessary to them. But it is not only the Preacher, that hath use of the tongue, for the edification of Gods people, but in all our discourses, and conferences with one another, we should preach his glory, his goodness, his power, that every man might speak one another's language, and preach to one another's conscience; that when I accuse my self, and confess mine infirmities to another man, that man may understand, that there is, in that confession of mine, a Sermon, and a rebuke, and a reprehension to him, if he be guilty of the same sin; Nay, if he be guilty of a sin contrary to mine. For, as in that language in which God spoke, the Hebrew, the same root will take in words of a contrary signification, (as the word of Job's wife signifies blessing and cursing too) so the covetous man that hears me confess my prodigality, should argue to himself, If prodigality, which howsoever it hurt a particular person, yet spreads money abroad, which is the right and natural use of money, be so heavy a sin, how heavy is my covetousness, which, besides that it keeps me all the way in as much penuriousness, as the prodigal man brings himself to at last, is also a public sin, because it emprisons that money which should be at liberty, and employed in a free course abroad? And so also when I declare to another, the spiritual and temporal blessings which God hath bestowed upon me, he may be raised to a thankful remembrance, that he hath received all that from God also. This is not the use of having learnt divers tongues, to be able to talk of the wars with Durch Captains, or of trade with a French Merchant, or of State with a Spanish Agent, or of pleasure with an Italian Epicure; It is not to entertain discourse with strangers, but to bring strangers to a better knowledge of God, in that way, wherein we, by his Ordinance, do worship and serve him.

Now this place is ill detorted by the Roman Church, for the confirmation of their Sacrament of Confirmation: That because the Holy Ghost fell upon men, at another time then at Baptism, therefore there is a less perfect giving of the Holy Ghost, in Baptism. It is too forward a triumph in him, who says of this place, Locus insignis ad assertionem Sacramenti manus impositionis: That is an evident place for Confirmation of the Sacrament of Confirmation: It is true, that S. Cyprian says there, That a man is not truly sanctified, Nisi utroque Sacramento nascatur, Except he be regenerate by both Sacraments: And he tells us what those two Sacraments are, Aqua & Spiritus, Water and the Spirit, That except a man have both these seals, inward and outward, he is not safe: And S. Cyprian requires (and usefully truly) an outward declaration of this inward seal, of this giving of the Holy Ghost: For, he instances expressly in this, which was done in this Text, That there was both Baptism, and a giving of the Holy Ghost. Neither would S. Cyprian forbear the use of Confirmation, because it was also in use amongst some Heretics, Quia Novatianus facere audet, non putabimus nos esse faciendum? Shall we give over a good custom, because the Novatians do the like? Quia Novatianus extra Ecclesiam, vendicat sibi veritatis imaginem, relinquemus Ecclesiae veritatem? Shall the Church forbear any of those customs, which were induced to good purposes, because some Heretics, in a false Church, have counterfeited them, or corrupted them? And therefore, says that Father, It was so in the Apostles time, Et nunc quoque apud nos geritur, We continue it so in our time, That they who are Baptized, Signaculo Dominico consummentur, That they may have a ratification, a consummation in this seal of the Holy Ghost: Which was not in the Primitive Church (as in the later Roman Church) a confirmation of Baptism, so, as that that Sacrament should be but a half-Sacrament, but it was a Confirmation of Christians, with an increase of grace, when they came to such years, as they were naturally exposed to some temptations.

Our Church acknowledges the trueuse of this Confirmation; for, in the first Collect in the office of Confirmation, it confesses, that that child is already regenerated by water and the holy Ghost; and prays only for farther strength: And having like a good mother, taught us the right use of it, then our Church, like a supreme Commander too, enjoyns expressly, that none be admitted to the Communion, till they have received their Confirmation. And though this injunction be not in rigor and exactness pursued and executed, yet it is very necessary that the purpose thereof should be maintained; That is, that none should be received to the Communion, till they had given an account of their faith and proficiency. For, he is but an interpretative, but a presumptive Christian, who, because he is so old, ventures upon the Sacrament. A beard does not make a man fit for the Sacrament, nor a Husband, a woman: a man may be a great officer in the State, and a woman may be a grandmother in the family, and yet not be fit for that Sacrament, if they have never considered more in it, but only to do as others do. The Church enjoynes a precedent Confirmation; where that is not, we require yet a precedent Examination, before any be admitted, at first, to the Sacrament.

This was then the effectual working of the Holy Ghost, Non spiravit, He did not only breath upon them, and try whether they would receive the savor of life unto life, or no: Non sibilavit, He did not only whisper unto them, and try whether they had a disposition to hear, and answer; Non incubabat, He did not only hover over them, and sit upon them, to try what he could hatch, and produce out of them; Non descendit, He did not only descend towards them, and try whether they would reach out their hand to receive him; But Cecidit, He fell, so, as that he possessed them, enwrapped them, invested them with a penetrating, with a powerful force; And so, he fell upon them All. As we have read of some Generals, in secular story, that in great Services have knighted their whole Army, So the Holy Ghost Sanctifies, and Canonizes whole Congregations.

They are too good husbands, and too thrifty of Gods grace, too sparing of the Holy Ghost; that restrain Gods general propositions, Venite omnes, Let all come, and Vult omnes salvos, God would have all men saved, so particularly, as to say, that when God lays All, he means some of all sorts, some Men, some Women, some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, but he does not mean, as he seems to say, simply All. Yes; God does mean, simply All, so as that no man can say to another, God means not thee, no man can say to himself, God means not me. Nefas est dicere, Deum aliquid, nisi bonum praedestinare; It is modestly said by S. Augustine, and more were immodesty; There is no predestination in God, but to good. And therefore it is Durus sermo, They are hard words, to say, That God predestinated some, not only Ad damnationem, but Ad causas damnationis, Not only to damnation because they sinned, but to a necessity of sinning, that they might the more justly be damned; And to say, That God rejected some Odio libero, Out of a hate, that arose primarily in himself, against those persons, before those persons were created, (so much as in Gods intention) and not out of any hate of their sins, which he foresaw.

Beloved, we are to take in no other knowledge of Gods Decrees, but by the execution thereof; How should we know any Decree in God, of the creation of Man, according to his Image, but by the execution? Because I see that Man is created so, as I conceive to be intended in this phrase, After his Image, I believe that he Decreed to Create him so: because God does nothing extemporally, but according to his own most holy, and eternal preconceptions, and Ideas, and Decrees. So, we know his Decree of Election, and Reprobation, by the execution; And how is that? Does God ever say, that any shall be saved or damned, without relation, without condition, without doing, (in the Old Testament) and, in the New Testament, without believing in Christ Jesus? If faith in Christ Jesus be in the Execution of the Decree, faith in Christ Jesus was in the Decree it self too. Christ wept for the imminent calamities, temporal, and spiritual, which hung over Jerusalem; And Lacrymae Legati doloris, says S. Cyprian, Tears are the Ambassadors of sorrow; And they are Sanguis animi vulnerati, says S. Augustine, Tears are the blood of a wounded soul; And would Christ bleed out of a wounded soul, and weep out of a sad heart, for that, which himself, and only himself, by an absolute Decree, had made necessary and inevitable? The Scribes and Pharisees rejected the Counsel of God, says S. Luke: In this new language we must say, They fulfilled the Counsel of God, if positively, and primarily, and absolutely, Gods determinate Counsel were, that they should do so. But this is not Gods Counsel upon any, to be so far the Author of sin, as to impose such a necessity of sinning, as arises not out of his own will. Perditio nostra ex nobis, Our destruction is from our own sin, and the Devil that infuses it; not from God, or any ill purpose in him that enforces us. The blood of Christ was shed for all that will apply it, And the Holy Ghost is willing to fall, with the sprinkling of that blood, upon all that do not resist him; And that is, as follows in our text, Qui audiunt, The Holy Ghost fell upon all that heard.

Faith in Christ is in the Execution of Gods Decree, and Hearing is the means of this faith: And the proposition is not the less general, if it except them, who will not be included in it, if the Holy Ghost fall not on them, who will not come to hear. Let no man think that he hath heard enough, and needs no more; why did the Holy Ghost furnish his Church with four Evangelists, if it were enough to read one? And yet every one of the four, hath enough for salvation, if Gods abundant care had not enriched the Church with more: Those Nations which never heard of Christ, or of Evangelist, shall rise up in judgement against us, and though they perish themselves, thus far aggravate our condemnation, as to say, you had four Evangelists, and have not believed, if we had had any one of them, we would have been saved. It is the glory of Gods Word, not that it is come, but that it shall remain for ever: It is the glory of a Christian, not that he hath heard, but that he desires to hear still. Are the Angels weary of looking upon that face of God, which they looked upon yesterday? Or are Saints weary of singing that song, which they sung to Gods glory yesterday? And is not that Alleluiah, that song which is their morning and evening sacrifice, and which shall be their song, world without end, called still A new song?

Be not you weary of hearing those things which you have heard from others before: Do not say, if I had known this, I would not have come, for I have heard all this before; since thou never thoughtest of it since that former hearing, till thou heardst it again now, thou didst not know that thou hadst heard it before. Gideons Fleece, that had all the dew of heaven in it self alone, and all about it dry, one day, next day was all dry in it self, though all about it had received the dew: He that hath heard, and believed, may lose his knowledge, and his faith too, if he will hear no more. They say there is a way of castration, in cutting off the ears: There are certain veins behind the ears, which, if they be cut, disable a man from generation. The Ears are the Aqueducts of the water of life; and if we cut off those, that is, intermit our ordinary course of hearing, this is a castration of the soul, the soul becomes an Eunuch, and we grow to a rust, to a moss, to a barrenness, without fruit, without propagation. If then God have placed thee under such a Pastor, as presents thee variety, bless God, who enlarges himself, to afford thee that spiritual delight, in that variety; even for the satisfaction of that holy curiosity of thine. If he have placed thee under one, who often repeats, and often remembers thee of the same things, bless God even for that, that in that he hath let thee see, that the Christian Religion is Verbum abbreviatum, A contracted doctrine, and that they are but a few things which are necessary to salvation, and therefore be not loath to hear them often.

Our errand hither then, is not to see; but much less not to be able to see, to sleep: It is not to talk, but much less to snort: It is to hear, and to hear all the words of the Preacher, but, to hear in those words, the Word, that Word which is the soul of all that is said, and is the true Physic of all their souls that hear. The Word was made flesh; that is, assumed flesh; but yet the Godhead was not that flesh. The Word of God is made a Sermon, that is, a Text is dilated, diffused into a Sermon; but that whole Sermon is not the word of God. But yet all the Sermon is the Ordinance of God. Delight thy self in the Lord, and he will give thee thy hearts desire; Take a delight in Gods Ordinance, in mans preaching, and thou wilt find Gods Word in that. To end all in that Metaphor which we mentioned at beginning, As the word of God is as honey, so says Solomon, Pleasant words are as the honey combe: And when the pleasant words of Gods servants have conveyed the saving word of God himself into thy soul, then mayst thou say with Christ to the Spouse, I have caten my honey combe with my honey, mine understanding is enlightened with the words of the Preacher, and my faith is strengthened with the word of God; I glorify God much in the gifts of the man, but I glorify God much more in the gifts of his grace; I am glad I have heard him, but I am gladder I have heard God in him; I am happy that I have heard those words, but thrice happy, that in those words, I have heard the Word; Blessed be thou that camest in the name of the Lord, but blessed be the Lord, that is come to me in thee; Let me remember how the Preacher said it, but let me remember rather what he said. And beloved, all the best of us all, all that all together, all the days of our life shall be able to say unto you, is but this, That if ye will hear the same Jesus, in the same Gospel, by the same Ordinance, and not seek an imaginary Jesus, in an illusory sacrifice, in another Church, If you will hear so, as you have contracted with God in your Baptism, The holy Ghost shall fall upon you, whilst you hear, here in the house of God, and the holy Ghost shall accompany you home to your own houses, and make your domestic peace there, a type of your union with God in heaven; and make your eating and drinking there, a type of the abundance, and fullness of heaven; and make every days rising to you there, a type of your joyful Resurrection to heaven; and every nights rest, a type of your eternal Sabbath; and your very dreams, prayers, and meditations, and sacrifices to Almighty God.

Serm. XXXIV. Preached upon Whitsunday.

ROM. 8.16.

The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

I Take these words, to take occasion by them, to say something of the holy Ghost: Our order proposed at first, requires it, and our Text affords it. Since we speak by Him, let us love to speak of Him, and to speak for Him: but in both, to speak with Him, that is, so, as he hath spoken of himself to us in the Scriptures. God will be visited, but he will not be importuned; He will be looked upon, but he will not be pryed into. A man may flatter the best man; If he do not believe himself, when he speaks well of another, and when he praises him, though that which he says of him be true, yet he flatters; So an Atheist, that temporises, and serves the company, and seems to assent, flatters. A man may flatter the Saints in heaven, if he attribute to them that which is not theirs; and so a Papist flatters. A man may flatter God himself; If upon pretence of magnifying Gods mercy, he will say with Origen, That God at last will have mercy upon the devil, he flatters. So, though God be our business, we may be too busy with God; and though God be infinite, we may go beyond God, when we conceive, or speak otherwise of God, then God hath revealed unto us. By his own light therefore we shall look upon him; and with that reverence, and modesty, that That Spirit may bear witness to our spirit, that we are the children of God.

That which we shall say of these words, will best be conceived, and retained best, if we handle them thus; That whereas Christ hath bidden us to judge our selves, that we be not judged, to admit a trial here, lest we incurre a condemnation hereafter, This text is a good part of that trial, of that judicial proceeding. For, here are first, two persons that are able to say much, The Spirit it self, and Our spirit; And secondly, their office, their service, They bear witness; And thirdly, their testimony, That we are the children of God; And these will be our three parts. The first will have two branches, because there are two persons, The Spirit, and Our spirit; And the second, two branches, They witness, and They witness together, for so the word is; And the third also two branches, They testify of us, their testimony concerns us, and they testify well of us, That we are the children of God. The persons are withor exception, the Spirit of God cannot be deceived, and the spirit of man will not deceive himself: Their proceeding is Legal, and faire, they do not libel, they do not whisper, they do not calumniate; They testify, and they agree in their testimony: And lastly, the case is not argued so, as amongst practisers at the Law, that thereby, by the light of that they may after give Counsel to another in the like, but the testimony concerns our selves, it is our own case, The verdict upon the testimony of the Spirit, and our spirit, is upon our selves, whatsoever it be; And, blessed be the Father, in the Son, by the Holy Ghost, The verdict is, That we are the children of God. The Spirit beareth, &c.

First then, a slackness, a supineness, in consideration of the divers significations of this word Spirit, hath occasioned divers errors, when the word hath been intended in one sense, and taken in another. All the significations will fall into these four, for these four are very large; It is spoken of God, or of Angels, or of men, or of inferior creatures. And first, of God, it is spoken sometimes Essentially, sometimes Personally. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and truth. So also, The Aegyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and not spirit; For, if they were God, they were Spirit. So, God altogether, and considered in his Essence, is a Spirit: but when the word Spir it is spoken, not essentially of all, but personally of one, then that word designeth Spiritum sonctum, The holy Ghost: Go and baptize, In the name of the Father, and Son, & Spiritus sancti, and the holy Ghost. And as of God, so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects; of good Angels, Sent farth to minister for them, that shall be heirs of salvation, And evil Angels, The lying Spirit, that would deceive the King by the Prophet; The Spirit of Whoredome, spiritual whoredome, when the people ask counsel of their stocks, And Spiritus vertiginis, The spirit of giddiness, of perversities, (as we translate it) which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people, in his judgement. Of man also, is this word Spirit, spoken two ways; The Spirit is sometimes the soul, Into thy hands I commend my Spirit, sometimes it signifies those animal spirits, which conserve us in strength, and vigor, The poison of Gods arrows drinketh up my spirit; And also, the superior faculties of the soul in a regenerate man, as there, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Savior, And then lastly, of inferior creatures it is taken two ways too, of living creatures, The God of the spirits of all flesh; and of creatures without life, (other then a metaphorical life) as of the wind often, and of Ezckiels wheels, The Spirit of life was in the wheels. Now in this first Branch of this first Part of our Text, it is not of Angels, nor of men, nor of other creatures, but of God, and not of God Essentially, but Personally, that is, of the Holy Ghost.

Origen says, Antecessores nostri, The Ancients before him had made this note, That where we find the word Spirit without any addition, it is always intended of the Holy Ghost. Before him, and after him, they stuck much to that note; for S. Jerome makes it too, and produces many examples thereof; but yet it will not hold in all. Didymus of Alexandria, though born blind, in this light saw light, and writ so of the Holy Ghost, as S. Jerome thought that work worthy of his Translation; And he gives this note, That wheresoever the Apostles intend the Holy Ghost, they add to the word Spirit, Sanctus, Holy Spirit, or at least the Article The, The Spirit. And this note hath good use too, but yet it is not universally true. If we supply these notes with this, That whensoever any such thing is said of the Spirit, as cannot consist with the Divine nature, there it is not meant of the Holy Ghost, but of his gifts, or of his working; (as, when it is said, The Holy Ghost was not yet, (for his person was always) And where it is said, Quench not the Holy Ghost (for the Holy Ghost himself cannot be quenched) we have enough for our present purpose. Here, it is Spirit without any addition, and therefore fittest to be taken for the Holy Ghost; And it is Spirit, with that emphatical article, The, The Spirit, and in that respect also fittest to be so taken. And though it be fittest to understand the Holy Ghost here, not of his person, but his operation, yet it gives just occasion to look piously, and to consider modestly, who, and what this person is, that doth thus work upon us. And to that purpose, we shall touch upon four things: First, His Universality, He is All, He is God; Secondly, His Singularity, He is One, One Person; Thirdly, His root from whence he proceeded, Father and Son; And fourthly, His growth; his emanation, his manner of proceeding; for our order proposed at first, leading us now to speak of this third person of the Trinity, it will be almost necessary, to stop a little upon each of these.

First then, the Spirit mentioned here, the Holy Ghost is God, and if so, equal to Father and Son, and all that is God. He is God, because the Essential name of God is attributed to him; He is called Jehovah; Iebovah says to Isaiah, Go and tell this people, &c. And S. Paul making use of these words, in the Acts, he says, Well spake the Holy Ghost, by the Prophet Isaiah. The Essential name of God is attributed to him, and the Essential Attributes of God. He is Eternal; so is none but God; where we hear of the making of every thing else, in the general Creation, we hear that the Spirit of God moved, but never that the Spirit was made. He is every where; so is none but God; whither shall Igoe from thy Spirit? He knows all things; so doth none but God; The Spirit searcheth all things, yca the deep things of God. He hath the name of God, the Attributes of God, and he does the works of God. Is our Creator, our Maker, God? The Spirit of God hath mademe. Is he that can change the whole Creation, and frame of nature, in doing miracles, God? The Spirit lead the Israelites miraculously through the wilderness. Will the calling and the sending of the Prophets, show him to be God? The Lord God, and his Spirit hath sent me. Is it argument enough for his God-head, that he sent Christ himself? Christ himself applies to himself that, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and hath anointed me to preach. He foretold future things, The Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spoke before, says S. Peter. He establishes present things, The Spirit of truth guides into all truth. And he does this, by ways proper only to God; for, our illumination is his, He shall receive of me, (says Christ) and show it you. Our Justification is his; Ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of God. Our regeneration is his; There is a necessity of being born again of Water, and the Spirit. The holy sense of our natural wretchedness is his; For, It is he, that reproves the world of Sin, of Righteousness, of Judgement. The sense oftrue comfort is his; The Churches were multiplied in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. All from the Creation to the Resurrection, and the Resurrection it self, is his; The Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead, shall quicken your mortal bodies, by the same Spirit. He is Arrha, The earnest that God gives to them now, to whom he will give all hereafter. He is Sigillum, that seal of our evidence, You are sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. He is the water, which whosoever drinks, shall never thirst, when Christ hath given it; And he is that fire, with which Christ baptizes, who baptizes with fire, and with the Holy Ghost. He is Spiritus precum, The Spirit of grace, and supplication; And he is Oleum laetitiae, The oil of gladness, that anoints us, when we have prayed. He is our Advocate, He maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered; And when our groanings under the calamities of this world, are uttered without remedy, he is that Paracletus, The Comforter, who when Christ himself seems to be gone from us, comes to us; who is, (as Tertullian expresses it, elegantly enough, but not largely enough) Dei Villicus, & Vicaria vis Christi, The Vice-gerent of Christ, and the Steward of God; but he is more, much more, infinitely more, for he is God himself. All that which S. John intends, in the seven Spirits, which are about the Throne, is in this One, in this only Spirit, who is Vnicus & septiformis, solus & multiplex; One and yet seven, that is infinite; for, Though there be diversity of gifts, yet there is but one Spirit. He is God, because the essential name of God is his; Therefore let us call upon his name: And because the Attributes of God are his; Therefore let us attribute to him, All Might, Majesty, Dominion, Power, and Glory: And he is God, because the Works of God are his; Therefore let us co-operate, and work with this Spirit, and we shall be the same Spirit with him.

He is God, That was our first step, and our second is, that he is a distinct Person in the God-head. He is not Virtus à Deo in homine exaltata, Not the highest and powerfullest working of God in man; Not Afflatus Divinus, The breathing of God into the soul of man; These are low expressions; for they are all but Dona, Charismata, The gifts of the Holy Ghost, not the Holy Ghost himself: But he is a distinct person, as the taking of the shape of a Dove, and the shape of fiery tongues do declare, which are acts of a distinct person. It is not the Power of the King, that signs a pardon, but his Person. When the power of the Government was in two Persons, in the two Consuls at Rome, yet the several acts were done by their several Persons. Wilt thou ask me, What needs these three Persons? Is there any thing in the three Persons, that is not in the one God? Yes, The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, falls not in the bare consideration of that one God. Wilt thou say, What if they do not? What lack we if we have one Almighty God? Though that God had no Son, nor they two, no Holy Ghost? We lacked our redemption; we lacked all our direction; we lacked the revealed will of God, the Scriptures; we have not God, if we have him not, as he hath delivered himself; and he hath done that in the Scriptures; and we embrace him, as we find him there; and we find him there, to be one God in three Persons, and the Holy Ghost to be one of those three; and in them we rest.

He is one; but one that proceeds from two, from the Father, and from the Son. Some in the Greek Church, in later times, denied the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son; but this was especially a jealousy in terms; They thought that to make him proceed from two, were to make duo principia, two roots, two beginnings from whence the Holy Ghost should proceed, and that might not be admitted, for the Father, and the Son are but one cause of the Holy Ghost, (if we may use that word, Cause, in this my stery.) And therefore it is as suspiciously, and as dangerously said by the Master of the Sentences, and by the later School, That the Holy Ghost proceeds Minùs Principaliter, Not so radically from the Son, as from the Father; for, in this action, The Father and the Son are but one root, and the Holy Ghost equally from both: In the generation of the Son, the Father is in order before the Son, but in the procession of the holy Ghost, he is not so. He is from both; for where he is first named, he is called Spiritus Elohim, The Spirit of Gods, in the plural. In this Chapter, in the ninth verse, he is the Spirit of the Son, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; And so in the Apostle, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. God sent him, and Christ sent him, If I depart, I will send the Comforter unto you. He sent him after he went, and he gave him when he was here, He breathed upon his Apostles, and said, Receive ye the holy Ghost. So he is of both.

But by what manner comes he from them? By proceeding. That is a very general word; for, Creation is proceeding, and so is Generation too: Creatures proceed from God, and so doth God the Son proceed from God the Father; what is this proceeding of the holy Ghost, that is not Creation, nor Generation? Exponant cur & quomodo Spiritus pulsat in arteriis, & tum in processionem Spiritus sancti inquirant: When they are able clearly, and with full satisfaction to tell themselves how and from whence that spirit proceeds, which beats in their pulse, let them inquire how this Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. And let them think till they be mad, and speak till they behoarce, and read till they be blind, and write till they be lame, they must end with S. Augustine, Distinguere inter Processioncm, & Generationem, nescio, non valeo, non sufficio, I cannot distinguish, I cannot assign a difference between this Generation, and this Proceeding. We use to say, they differ principio, That the Son is from the Father alone, the holy Ghost from both: but when this is said, that must be said too, That both Father and Son are but one beginning. We use to say, They differ ordine, because the Son is the second, and the holy Ghost the third person; but the second was not before the third in time, nor is above him in dignity.

There is processio corporalis, such a bodily proceeding, as that that which proceeds is utterly another thing then that from which it proceeds: frogs proceed (perchance) of air, and mise of dust, and worms of carcasses; and they resemble not that air, that dust, those carcasses that produced them. There is also processio Metaphysica, when thoughts proceed out of the mind; but those thoughts remain still in the mind within, and have no separate subsistence in themselves: And then there is processio Hyperphysica, which is this which we seek and find in our souls, but not in our tongues, a proceeding of the holy Ghost so from Father and Son, as that he remains a subsistence alone, a distinct person of himself. This is as far as the School can reach, Ortu, qui relationis est, non est àse; Actu, qui personae est, per se subsistit: Consider him in his proceeding, so he must necessarily have a relation to another, Consider him actually in his person, so he subsists of himself. And De modo, for the manner of his proceeding, we need, we can say but this, As the Son proceeds per modu intellectus, (so as the mind of man conceives a thought) so the holy Ghost proceeds per modum voluntatis; when the mind hath produced a thought, that mind, and that discourse and ratiocination produce a will; first our understanding is settled, and that understanding leads our will. And nearer then this (though God knows this be far off) we cannot go, to the proceeding of the holy Ghost.

This then is The Spirit, The third person in the Trinity, but the first person in our Text, The other is our spirit, The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit. I told you before, that amongst the manifold acceptations of the word spirit, as it hath relation particularly to man, it is either the soul it self, or the vital spirits, (the thin and active parts of the blood) or the superior faculties of the soul, in a regenerate man; & that is our spirit in this place. So S. Paul distinguishes soul and spirit, The word of God pierces to the dividing asunder soul and spirit; where The soul is that which inanimates the body, and enables the organs of the senses to see and hear; The spirit is that which enables the soul to see God, and to hear his Gospel. The samephrase hath the same use in another place, I pray God your spirit, and soul, and body may be preserved blameless: Where it is not so absurdly said, (though a very great man call it an absurd exposition) That the soul, Anima, is that, qua animals homines, (as the Apostle calls them) that by which men are men, natural men, carnal men, And the spirit is the spirit of Regeneration, by which man is a new creature, a spiritual man, But that, that Expositor himself hath said enough to our present purpose, The soul is the seat of Affections, The spirit is rectified Reason. It is true, this Reason is the Sovereign, these Affections are the Officers, this Body is the Executioner: Reason authorizes, Affections command, the Body executes: And when we conceive in our mind, desire in our heart, perform in our body nothing that displeases God, then have we had benefit of S. Pauls prayer, That in body, and soul, and spirit we may be blameless. In sum, we need seek no farther for a word to express this spirit, but that which is familiar to us, The Conscience: A rectified conscience is this spirit; My conscience bearing me witness, says the Apostle: And so we have both the persons in this judicial proceeding; The Spirit is the holy Ghost; Our spirit is our Conscience: And now their office is to testify, to bear witness, which is our second general part, The Spirit bears witness, &c.

To be a witness, is not an unworthy office for the holy Ghost himself: Heretics in their pestilent doctrines, Tyrans in their bloody persecutions, call God himself so often, so far into question, as that he needs strong and pregnant testimony to acquit him. First, against Heretics, we see the whole Scripture is but a Testament; and Testamentum is Testatio ment is, it is but an attestation, a proof what the will of God is: And therefore when Tertullian deprehended himself to have slipped into another word, and to have called the Bible Instrumentum, he retracts and corrects himself thus, Magìs usui est dicere Testamentum quàm Instrumentum, It is more proper to call the Scripture a Testament, then a Conveyance or Covenant: All the Bible is Testament, Attestation, Declaration, Proof, Evidence of the will of God to man. And those two witnesses spoken of in the Revelation, are very conveniently, very probably interpreted to be the two Testaments; And to the Scriptures Christ himself refers the Jews, Search them, for they bear witness of me. The word of God written by the holy Ghost is a witness, and so the holy Ghost is a witness against Heretics. Against Tyrans and Persecuters, the office of a witness is an honourable office too; for that which we call more passionately, and more gloriously Martyrdom, is but Testimony; A Martyr is nothing but a Witness. He that pledges Christ in his own wine, in his own cup, in blood; He that washes away his sins in a second Baptism, and hath found a lawful way of Re-baptizing, even in blood; He that waters the Prophets ploughing, and the Apostles sowing with blood; He that can be content to bleed as long as a Tyran can foam, or an Executioner sweat; He that is pickled, nay embalmed in blood, salted with fire, and preserved in his own ashes; He that (to contract all, nay to enlarge beyond all) suffers in the Inquisition, when his body is upon the rack, when the rags are in his throat, when the boots are upon his legs, when the splinters are under his nails, if in those agonies he have the vigor to say, I suffer this to show what my Savior suffered, must yet make this difference, He suffered as a Savior, I suffer but as a witness. But yet to him that suffers as a Martyr, as a witness, a crown is reserved; It is a happy and a harmonious meeting in Stephens martyrdom; Proto-martyr, and Stephanus; that the first Martyr for Christ should have a Crown in his name. Such a blessed meeting there is in Ioash his Coronation, Posuit super eum Diadema & Testimonium, They put the Crown upon his head, and the Testimony; that is, The Law, which testified, That as he had the Crown from God, so he had it with a witness, with an obligation, that his Government, his life, and (if need were) his death should testify his zeal to him that gave him that Crown.

Thus the holy Ghost himself is a witness against Heretics in the word; and those men who are full of the holy Ghost, (as Stephen was) are witnesses against persecution, in action, in passion. At this time, and by occasion of these words, we consider principally the first, The testification of the holy Ghost himself; and therein we consider thus much more, That a witness ever testifies of some matter of fact, of something done before; The holy Ghost, the Spirit here, (as we shall see anon) witnesses that we are the children of God. Now if a Witness prove that I am a Tenant to such Land, or Lord of it, I do not become Lord nor Tenant by this Witness, but his testimony proves that I was so before. I have therefore a former right to be the child of God, that is, The eternal Election of God in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus could as well have disobeyed his Father, and said, I will not go, or disappointed his Father, and said, I will not go yet, as he could have dis-furnished his Father, and said, He would not redeem me. The holy Ghost bears witness, that is, he pleads, he produces that eternal Decree for my Election. And upon such Evidence shall I give sentence against my self? Si testaretur Angelus, vel Archangelus, posset quisquam addubitare? I should not doubt the testimony of an Angel, or Archangel, and yet Angels and Archangels, all sorts of Angels were deceivers in the Serpent. And therefore the Apostle presents it (though impossible in it self) as a thing that might fall into our mis-apprehension: If we, (that is, the Apostles) or if an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel, Anathema sit, let him be accursed. But Quando Deus testatur, quis locus relinquitur dubitationi? when God testifies to me, it is a rebellious sin to doubt: And therefore how hyperbolically soever S. Paul argue there, If Apostles, If Angels teach the contrary, teach false Doctrine, it never entered into his argument (though an argument ab Impossibili) to say, If God should teach, or testify false doctrine. Though then there be a former evidence for my being the child of God, a Decree in heaven, yet it is not enough that there is such a Record, but it must be produced, it must be pleaded, it must be testified to be that, it must have the witness of the Spirit, and by that, Innotescit, though it do not become my Election then, it makes my election appear then, and though it be not Introductory, it is Declaratory. The Root is in the Decree, the first fruits are in the testimony of the Spirit; but even that spirit will not be testis singularis, he will not be heard alone, and single, but it is Cum spiritu nostro, The Spirit testifies with our spirit, &c.

The holy Ghost will fulfill his own law, In ore duorum, In the mouth of two witnesses. Sometimes our spirit bears witness of somethings appertaining to the next world, without the testimony of the holy Ghost. Tertullian in that excellent Book of his, De testimonio Animae. Of the testimony which the soul of man gives of it self to it self, where he speaks of the soul of a natural, an unregenerate man, gives us just occasion to stop a little upon that consideration. If, says he, we for our Religion produce your own Authors against you, (he speaks to natural men, secular Philosophers) and show you out of them, what Passions, what Vices even they impute to those whom you have made your Gods, then you say, they were but Poetae vani, Those Authors were but vain, and frivolous Poets: But when those Authors speak any thing which sound against our Religion, then they are Philosophers, and reverend and classique Authors. And therefore, says he, I will draw no witness from them, Perversae foelicitatis, quibus in falso potiùs creditur, quàm in vero, Because they have this perverse, this left-handed happiness, to be believed when they lye, better then when they say true. Novum testimonium adduco, says he; I wayve all them, and I call upon a new witness: A witness, Omni literaturi notius, More legible then any Character, then any text hand, for it is the intimation of mine own soul, and conscience; and Omni Edition vulgatius, More public, more conspicuous then any Edition, any impression of any Author, for Editions may be called in, but who can call in the testimony of his own soul? He proceeds, Te simplicem, & Idioticum compello, I require but a simple, an unlearned soul, Qualem te habent, qui te solam habent, Such a soul, as that man hath, who hath nothing but a soul, no learning; Imperitia tua mibiopus est, quoniam aliquantulae peritiae tua nemo credit; I shall have the more use of thy testimony, the more ignorant thou art, for, in such cases, Art is suspicious, and from them who are able to prove any thing, we believe nothing; And therefore, says he, Nolo Academiis, bibliothecis instructam, I call not a soul made in an University, or nursed in a Library, but let this soul come now, as it came to me in my Mothers womb, an inartificial, an unexperienced soul; And then, (to contract Tertullians Contemplation) he proceeds to show the notions of the Christian Religion, which are in such a soul naturally, and which his spirit, that is, his rectified reason, rectified but by nature, is able to infuse into him. And certainly, some of that, which is proved by the testimony mentioned in this text, is proved by the testimony of our own natural soul, in that Poet whom the Apostle cites, that said, Genus ejus, We are the off-spring of God.

So then our spirit bears witness sometimes when the Spirit does not; that is, Nature testifies some things, without addition of particular grace: And then the Spirit, the Holy Ghost oftentimes testifies, when ours does not: How often stands he at the door, and knocks? How often spreads he his wings, to gather us, as a Hen her chickens? How often presents he to us the power of God in the mouth of the Preacher, and we bear witness to one another of the wit and of the eloquence of the Preacher, and no more? How often he bears witness, that such an action is odious in the sight of God, and our spirit bears witness, that it is acceptable, profitable, honourable in the sight of man? How often he bears witness, for Gods Judgements, and our spirit deposes for mercy, by presumption, and how often he testifies for mercy, and our spirit swears for Judgement, in desperation? But when the Spirit, and our spirit agree in their testimony, That he hath spoke comfortably to my soul, and my soul hath apprehended comfort by that speech, That, (to use Christs similitude) He hath piped, and we have danced, He hath showed me my Savior, and my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, He deposes for the Decree of my Election, and I depose for the seals and marks of that Decree, These two witnesses, The Spirit, and My spirit, induce a third witness, the world it self, to testify that which is the testimony of this text, That I am the child of God. And so we pass from the two former parts, The persons, The Spirit, and our spirit, And their office, to witness, and to agree in their witness, and we are fallen into our third part, The Testimony it self, That we are the Children of God.

This part hath also two branches; First, That the Testimony concerns our selves, We are; And then, That that which we are is this, We are the Children of God. And in the first branch, there will be two twiggs, two sub-considerations; 1 We, A personal appropriation of the grace of God to our selves, 2 We are, we are now, a present possession of those Graces. First, consider we the Consolation in the particle of appropriation, We. In the great Ant-hill of the whole world, I am an Ant; I have my part in the Creation, I am a Creature; But there are ignoble Creatures. God comes nearer; In the great field of clay, of red earth, that man was made of, & mankind, I am a clod; I am a man, I have my part in the Humanity; But Man was worse then annihilated again. When satan in that serpent was come, as Hercules with his club into a potters shop, and had broke all the vessels, destroyed all mankind, And the gracious promise of a Messiah to redeem all mankind, was shed and spread upon all, I had my drop of that dew of Heaven, my spark of that fire of heaven, in the universal promise, in which I was involved; But this promise was appropriated after, in a particular Covenant, to one people, to the Jews, to the seed of Abraham. But for all that I have my portion there; for all that profess Christ Jesus are by a spiritual engrafting, and transmigration, and transplantation, in and of that stock, and that seed of Abraham; and I am one of those. But then, of those who do profess Christ Jesus, some grovel still in the superstitions they were fallen into, and some are raised, by Gods good grace, out of them; and I am one of those; God hath afforded me my station, in that Church, which is departed from Babylon.

Now, all this while, my soul is in a cheerful progress; when I consider what God did for Goshen in Egypt, for a little park in the midst of a forest; what he did for Jury, in the midst of enemies, as a shire that should stand out against a Kingdom round about it: How many Sancerraes he hath delivered from famins, how many Genevas from plots, and machinations against her; all this while my soul is in a progress: But I am at home, when I consider Buls of excommunications, and solicitations of Rebellions, and pistols, and poisons, and the discoveries of those; There is our Nos, We, testimonies that we are in the favor, and care of God; We, our Nation, we, our Church; There I am at home; but I am in my Cabinet at home, when I consider, what God hath done for me, and my soul; There is the Ego, the particular, the individual, I. This appropriation is the consolation, We are; But who are they? or how are we of them? Testimonium est clamor ipse, says S. Chrysostom to our great advantage, Even this, that we are able to cry Abba, Father, by the Spirit of Adoption, is this testimony, that we are his Children; if we can truly do that, that testifies for us. The Spirit testifies two ways; Directly, expressly, personally, as in that, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee, And so to David by Nathan, Transtulit, The Lord hath taken away thy sin; And then he testifies, Per indicia, by constant marks, and infallible evidences. We are not to look for the first, for it is a kind of Revelation, nor are we to doubt of the second, for the marks are infallible. And therefore, as S. Augustine said of the Maniches, concerning the Scriptures, Insani sunt adversus Antidotum, quo sani esse possunt, They are enraged against that, which only can cure them of their rage, that was, the Scriptures; so there are men, which will still be in ignorance of that which might cure them of their ignorance, because they will not labor to find in themselves, the marks and seals of those who are ordained to salvation, they will needs think, that no man can have any such testimony.

They say, It is true, there is a blessed comfort, in this appropriation, if we could be sure of it; They may; we are; we are already in possession of it. The marks of our spiritual filiation, are less subject to error, then of temporal. Shall the Mothers honesty be the Evidence? Alas, we have some such examples of their falsehood, as will discredit any argument, built merely upon their truth. He is like the Father; Is that the evidence? Imagination may imprint those Characters: He hath his land; A supposititious child may have that. Spiritual marks are not so fallible as these: They have so much in them, as creates even a knowledge, Now we are the Sons of God, and we know that we shall be like him; And we know, that we are of God. Is all this but a conjectural knowledge, but a moral certitude? No tincture of faith in it? Can I acquire, and must I bring Certitudinem fidei, an assurance out of faith, That a Council cannot err; And then, such another faithful assurance, That the Council of Trent was a true council; And then another, That the Council of Trent did truly and duly proceed in all ways essential to the truth of a Council, in constituting their Decree against this doctrine? And may I not bring this assurance of faith to S. Paul, and S. John when they say the contrary? Is not S. Pauls sumus, and S. John's scimus, as good a ground for our faith, as the servile and mercenary voices of a herd of new pensionary Bishops, shovelled together at Trent for that purpose, are for the contrary?

A particular Bishop in the Roman Church, cites an universal Bishop, a Pope himself in this point, and he says well, Legem credendi statuit lex supplicandi, Whatsoever we may pray for, we may, we must believe Certitudine fidei, With an assurance of faith; If I may pray, and say Pater noster, if I may call God Father, I may believe with a faithful assurance, that I am the child of God. Stet invicta Pauli sententia, Let the Apostles doctrine, says that Bishop, remain unshaked; Et velut sagitta, says he, This doctrine, as an arrow shot at them, will put out their eyes that think to see beyond S. Paul. It is true, says that Bishop, there are differences, Inter Catholicos, Amongst Catholics themselves in this point; And then, why do they charge us, whom they defame, by the name of Heretics, with beginning this doctrine, which was amongst themselves before we were at all, if they did date us aright? Attestatur spiritus, & ei damus fidem, & ind certi sumus, says that Bishop: The holy Ghost bears witness, and our spirit with him, and thereby we are sure: but, says he, they will needs make a doubt whether this be a knowledge out of faith; which doubt, says he, Secum fert absurditatem, There is an absurdity, a contradiction in the very doubt: Ex Spiritu sancto, & humana? Is it a knowledge from the holy Ghost, and is it not a divine knowledge then? But, say they, (as that Bishop presses their objections) The holy Ghost doth not make them know, that it is the holy Ghost that assures them; This is, says he, as absurd as the other; For, Nisi se testantem insinuet, non testatur, Except he make them discern, that he is a witness, he is no witness to them: He ends it thus, Sustinere coguntur quod excidit; and that is indeed their case, in very many things controverted; Then when it conduced to their advantage in argument, or to their profit in purse, such and such things fell from them, and now that opposition is made against such sayings of theirs, their profit lyes at stake, and their reputation too, to make good, and to maintain that which they have once, how undiscreetly soever, said. Some of their severest later men, even of their Jesuits, acknowledges that we may know ourselves to be the children of God, with as good a knowledge, as that there is a Rome, or a Constantinople, And such an assurance as delivers them from all fear that they shall fall away; and is not this more then that assurance which we take to our selves? We give no such assurance as may occasion security, or slackness in the service of God, and they give such an assurance as may remove all fear and suspicion of falling from God.

It was truly good counsel in S. Gregory, when, writing to one of the Empresses bedchamber, a religious Lady of his own name, who had written to him, that she should never leave importuning him, till he sent her word, that he had received a revelation from God that she was saved: for, says he, Rem difficilem postulas, & inutilem, It is a hard matter you require, and an impertinent, and useless matter: for I am not a man worthy to receive revelations, and besides, such a revelation as you require, might make you too secure: And Mater negligentiae solet esse securitas, (says he) Such a security might make you negligent in those duties which should make sure your salvation. S. Augustine felt the witness of The Spirit, but not of his spirit, when he stood out so many solicitations of the holy Ghost, and deferred, and put off the outward means, his Baptism. In that state, when he had a disposition to Baptism, he says of himself, Inferbui exultando, sed inhorrui timendo; Still I had a fervent joy in me, because I saw the way to thee, and intended to put my self into that way, but yet, because I was not yet in it, I had a trembling, a jealousy, a suspicion of my self. Insinuati sunt mihi in profundo nutus tui, In that half darkness, in that twi-light I discerned thine eye to be upon me; Et gaudens in fide, laudavi nomen tuum, And this, says he, created a kind of faith, a confidence in me, and this induced an inward joy, and that produced a praising of thy goodness, Sed ea fides securum me non esse sinebat, But all this did not imprint, and establish that security, that assurance which I found as soon as I came to the outward seals, and marks, and testimonies of thine inseparable presence with me, in thy Baptism, and other Ordinances. S. Bernard puts the marks of as much assurance, as we teach, in these words of our Savior, Surge, tolle grabatum, & ambula, Arise, Take up thy bed, and walk. Surge ad divina, Raise thy thoughts upon the next world; Tolle corpus, ut non te ferat, sed tu illud, Take up thy body, bring thy body into thy power, that thou govern it, and not it thee; And then, Ambula, non retrospicias, Walk on, proceed forward, and look not back with a delight upon thy former sins: And a great deal an elder man then Bernard, expresses it well, Bene viventibus perhibet testimonium, quòd jam sumus filii Dei, To him that lives according to a right faith, the Spirit testifies that he is now the child of God, Et quòd talia faciendo, perseverabimus in ea filiatione, He carries this testimony thus much farther, That if we endeavor to continue in that course, we shall continue in that state, of being the children of God, and never be cast off, never disinherited. Herein is our assurance, an election there is; The Spirit bears witness to our spirit, that it is ours; We testify this in a holy life; and the Church of God, and the whole world joins in this testimony, That we are the children of God; which is our last branch, and conclusion of all.

The holy Ghost could not express more danger to a man, then when he calls him Filium saeculi, The child of this world; Nor a worse disposition, then when he calls him, Filium diffidentiae, The child of diffidence, and distrust in God; Nor a worse pursuer of that ill disposition, then when he calls him Filium diaboli, (as S. Peter calls Elymas) The child of the devil; Nor a worse possessing of the devil, then when he calls him Filium perditionis, The child of perdition; Nor a worse execution of all this, then when he calls him Filium gehennae, The child of hell: The child of this world, The child of desperation, The child of the devil, The child of perdition, The child of hell, is a high expressing, a deep aggravating of his damnation; That his damation is not only his purchase, as he hath acquired it, but it is his inheritance, he is the child of damnation. So is it also a high exaltation, when the holy Ghost draws our Pedigree from any good thing, and calls us the children of that: As, when he calls us Filios lucis, The children of light, that we have seen the day-star arise, when he calls us Filios sponsi, The children of the bride-chamber, begot in lawful marriage upon the true Church, these are faire approaches to the highest title of all, to be Filii Dei, The children of God; And not children of God, Per filiationem vestigii, (so every creature is a child of God) by having an Image, and impression of God, in the very Being thereof, but children so, as that we are heirs, and heirs so, as that we are Co-heirs with Christ, as it follows in the next verse, and is implied in this name, Children of God.

Heirs of heaven, which is not a Gavel-kind, every son, every man alike; but it is an universal primogeniture, every man full, so full, as that every man hath all, in such measure, as that there is nothing in heaven, which any man in heaven wants. Heirs of the joys of heaven; Joy in a continual dilatation of thy heart, to receive augmentation of that which is infinite, in the accumulation of essential and accidental joy. Joy in a continual melting of indissoluble bowels, in joyful, and yet compassionate beholding thy Savior; Rejoicing at thy being there, and almost lamenting (in a kind of affection, which we can call by no name) that thou couldst not come thither, but by those wounds, which are still wounds, though wounds glorified. Heirs of the joy, and heirs of the glory of heaven; where if thou look down, and see Kings fighting for Crowns, thou canst look off as easily, as from boys at stool-ball for points here; And from Kings triumphing after victories, as easily, as a Philosopher from a Pageant of children here. Where thou shalt not be subject to any other title of Dominion in others, but Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews, nor ambitious of any other title in thy self, but that which thou possessest, To be the child of God. Heirs of joy, heirs of glory, and heirs of the eternity of heaven; Where, in the possession of this joy, and this glory, The Angels which were there almost 6000. years before thee, and so prescribe, and those souls which shall come at Christs last comming, and so enter but then, shall not survive thee, but they, and thou, and all, shall live as long as he that gives you all that life, as God himself.

Heirs to heaven, and co-heirs with Christ: There is much to be said of that circumstance; but who shall say it? I that should say it, have said ill of it already, in calling it a Circumstance. To be co-heirs with Christ, is that Essential salvation it self; and to that he intitled us, when after his Resurrection he said of us, Go tell my brethren that I am gone. When he was but born of a woman, and submitted to the law, when in his minority, he was but a Carpenter, and at full age, but a Preacher, when they accused him in general, that he was a Malefactor, or else they would not have delivered him, but they knew not the name of his fault, when a fault of secular cognizance was objected to him, that he moved sedition, that he denied tribute, And then a fault of Ecclesiastical cognizance, that he spoke against the Law, and against the Temple, when Barrabas a seditious murderer was preferred before him, and saved, and yet two thieves left to accompany him, in his torment and death, in these diminutions of Christ, there was no great honor, no great cause why any man should have any great desire to be of his kindred; to be brother, or co-heir to his Cross. But if to be his brethren, when he had begun his triumph in his Resurrection, were a high dignity, what is it to be co-heirs with him in heaven, after his Ascension? But these are inexpressible, unconceivable things; bring it back to that which is nearest us; to those seals and marks which we have in this life; That by a holy, a sanctified passage through this life, and out of this life, from our first seal in Baptism, to our last seal upon our death-bed, The Spirit may bear witness to our spirit, that we are the children of God. Amen.

Serm. XXXV. Preached upon Whitsunday.

MAT. 12.31.

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; But the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

AS when a Merchant hath a faire and large, a deep and open Sea, into that Harbor to which he is bound with his Merchandize, it were an impertinent thing for him, to sound, and search for lands, and rocks, and clifts, which threaten irreparable shipwreck; so we being bound to the heavenly City, the new Jerusalem, by the spacious and bottomelesse Sea, the blood of Christ Jesus, having that large Sea opened unto us, in the beginning of this Text, All manner of sin, and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, It may seem an impertinent diversion, to turn into that little Creek, nay upon that desperate, and irrecoverable rock, The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven to men. But there must be Discoverers, as well as Merchants; for the security of Merchants, who by storm and tempest, or other accidents, may be cast upon those sands, and rocks, if they be not known, they must be known. So though we fail on, with a merry gale and full sails, with the breath of the holy Ghost in the first Part, All manner of sin, and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, yet we shall not leave out the discovery of that fearful and ruinating rock too, But the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

I would divide the Text, and fewer Parts then two, we cannot make, and this Text hath scarce two Parts: The whole Text is a conveiance; it is true; but there is a little Proviso at the end: The whole Text is a rule; it is true; but there is an exception at the end; The whole text is a Royal Palace; it is true; but there is a Sewar, a Vault behind it; Christ had said all, that of himself he would have said, when he said the first part, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, But the iniquity of the Pharisees extorted thus much more, But the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men: The first part is the sentence, the proposition, and the sense is perfect in that, All manner of sin, &c. The last part is but a Parenthesis, which Christ had rather might have been left out, but the Pharisees, and their perverseness inserted, But the blasphemy, &c. But since it deserves, and requires our consideration, as well, that the mercy of God can have any stop, any rub, determine any where, as that it can extend, and spread it self so far, as it doth in this text, let us make them two parts: And in the first consider with comfort, the largeness, the expansion of Gods mercy, that there is but one sin, that it reacheth not to; And in the second let us consider with fear, and trembling, that there is one sin, so swelling, so high, as that even the mercy of God does not reach to it. And in the first we shall proceed thus, in the magnifying Gods mercy, first, in the first term, Sin, we shall see that sin is even a wound, a violence upon God; and then Omne peccatum, Every sin is so; and nothing is so various, so divers as sin; and even that sin, that amounts to Blasphemy, a sin not only conceived in the thought, but expressed in contumelious words; and those contumelious and blasphemous words uttered against the Son, (for so it is expressed in the very next verse) All this shall be forgiven: But yet it is in futuro, They shall be: No mans sins are forgiven him, then when he sins them; but by repentance they shall be forgiven; forgiven unto men; that is, first, unto any man, and then, unto none but men; for the sin of the Angels shall never be forgiven: And these will be the Branches of the first Part. And in the second Part, we shall look as far as this text occasions it, upon that debated sin, the sin against the holy Ghost, and the irremissibleness of that; of which Part, we shall derive and raise the particular Branches anon, when we come to handle them.

First then, for the first term, Sin, we use to ask in the School, whether any action of mans can have rationem demeriti, whether it can be said to offend God, or to deserve ill of God: for whatsoever does so, must have some proportion with God. With things which are inanimate, things that have no will, and so no good nor bad purpose, as dust, or the wind, or such, a man cannot properly be so offended, as to say that they deserve ill of him. With those things which have no use, no command of their will, as children, and fools, and mad men, it is so too; And then, there is no creature so poor, so childish, so impotent in respect of man, as the best man is in respect of God: How then can he sin, that is, offend, that is, deserve ill of him? The question begun not in the School; It was asked before of Job: If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; but what is it to God? for, as Gregory says upon that place, Humana impietas ci nocet, quem pervertendo inquinat, Our sins hurt them, whom our example leads into temptation; but our sins cannot draw God to be accessory to our sins, or to make him sin with us. Our sin cannot hurt him so; nor hurt him directly any way; not his person: But his Subjects, whom he hath taken into his protection, it may; His Law, which he hath given for direction, it may; His Honor, of which he is jealous, which Honor consists much in our honouring of him, it may. Wherein is a Kings Person violated, by coining a false penny, or counterfeiting a seal? and yet this is Treason. God cannot be robbed, he cannot be damnified; whatsoever is taken from him (and there is a sacrilege in all unjust takings) wheresoever it be laid, he sees it, and it is still in his possession, and in his house, and in his hands. God cannot be robbed, nor God cannot be violated, he cannot be wounded, for he hath no limbs. But God is Vltimis fin is, The end to which we all go, and his Law is the way to that end; And transilire lineam, to transgress that Law, to leave that way, is a neglecting of him: and even negligences, and pretermissions, and slightings, are as great offences, as actual injuries. So God is communis Pater, the Father of all creatures; and so the abuse of the creature reflects upon God, as the injuries done to the children, do upon the Parents.

If then we can sin so against God, as we can against the King, and against the Law, and against Propriety, and against Parents; we have ways enow of sinning against God. Sin is not therefore so absolutely nothing, as that it is (in no consideration) other then a privation, only Absentia recti, and nothing at all in it self: but, not to enter farther into that inextricable point, we rest in this, that sin is Actus inordinatus, It is not only an obliquity, a privation, but it is an action deprived of that rectitude, which it should have; It does not only want that rectitude, but it should have that rectitude, and therefore hath a sinful want. We shall not dare to call sin merely, absolutely nothing, if we consider either the punishment due to sin, or the pardon of that punishment, or the price of that pardon. The punishment is everlasting; why should I believe it to be so? Os domini locutum, The mouth of the Lord hath said it. But why should it be so? Iustum est ut qui in suo aeter no peccavit contra Deum, in Dei aeterno puniatur, It is but justice, that he that sins in his eternity, should be punished in Gods eternity: Now to sin in our eternity, is to sin as long as we live, and if we could live eternally, to desire to sin eternally. God can cut off our eternity, he can shorten our life; If we could cut off his eternity, and quench hell, our punishment were not eternal. We consider sin to be Quoddam infinitum; as it is an aversion from God, who is infinite goodness, it is an infinite thing: and as it is a turning upon the Creature, it is finite, and determined; for all pleasure taken in the creature, is so: and accordingly sin hath a finite, and an infinite punishment: That which we call Poenam sensus, The torment which we feel, is not infinite; (otherwise, then by duration) for that torment is not equal in all the damned, and that which is infinite must necessarily be equal; but that which we call Poenam damni, The everlasting loss of the sight of the everliving God, that is infinite, and alike, and equal in all the damned. Sin is something then, if we consider the punishment; and so it is, if we consider our deliverance from this punishment: That which God could not pardon in the way of justice without satisfaction, that for which nothing could be a satisfaction, but the life of all men, or of one man worth all, the Son of God, that that tore the Son out of the armes of his Father, in the Quid dereliquisti, when he cried out, why hast thou forsaken me? That which imprinted in him, who was anointed with the Oil of gladness above his fellows, a deadly heaviness, in his Tristis anima, when his soul was heavy unto death, That which had power to open Heaven in his descent hither, and to open hell, in his descent thither, to open the womb of the Virgin in his Incarnation, and the womb of the Earth in his Resurrection, that which could change the frame of Nature in Miracles, and the God of Nature in becoming Man, that that deserved that punishment, that that needed that ransom (say the School men what they will of privations) cannot be merely, absolutely nothing, but the greatest thing that can be conceived, and yet that shall be forgiven.

That, and all that; Sin, and all sin: And there is not so much of any thing in the world, as of sin. Every virtue hath two extremes, two vices opposed to it; there is two to one; But Abrahams task was an easy task to tell the stars of Heaven; so it were to tell the sands, or hairs, or atoms, in respect of telling but our own sins. And will God say to me, Confide Fili, My Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee? Does he mean all my sins? He knows what original sin is, and I do not; and will he forgive me sin in that root, and sin in the branches, original sin, and actual sin too? He knows my secret sins, and I do not; will he forgive my manifest sins, and those sins too? He knows my relapses into sins repented; and will he forgive my faint repentances, and my rebellious relapses after them? will his mercy dive into my heart, and forgive my sinful thoughts there, and shed upon my lips, and forgive my blasphemous words there, and bathe the members of this body, and forgive mine unclean actions there? will he contract himself into himself, and meet me there, and forgive my sins against himself, And scatter himself upon the world, and forgive my sins against my neighbor, and emprison himself in me, and forgive my sins against my self? Will he forgive those sins, wherein my practise hath exceeded my Parents, and those wherein my example hath mis-led my children? Will he forgive that dim sight which I have of sin now, when sins scarce appear to be sins unto me, and will he forgive that over-quick sight, when I shall see my sins through Satans multiplying glass of desperation, when I shall think them greater then his mercy, upon my death bed? In that he said all, he left out nothing, is the Apostles argument: and, he is not almighty, if he cannot; his mercy endures not for ever, if he do not forgive all.

Sin, and all sin, even blasphemy: now blasphemy is not restrained to God alone; other persons besides God, other things, besides persons, may be blasphemed. The word of God, the Doctrine, Religion may be blasphemed. Magistracy and Dignities may be blasphemed. Nay, Omnia quae ignorant, says that Apostle, They blaspheme all things which they know not. And for persons, the Apostle takes it to his own person, Being blasphemed, yet we entreat; and he communicates it to all men, Neminem blasphemate, Blaspheme no man. Blasphemy, as it is a contumelious speech, derogating from any man, that good that is in him, or attributing to any man, that ill that is not in him, may be fastened upon any man. For the most part it is understood a sin against God, and that directly; and here, by the manner of Christ expressing himself, it is made the greatest sin; All sin, even blasphemy. And yet, a drunkard that cannot name God, will spue out a blasphemy against God: A child that cannot spell God, will stammer out a blasphemy against God: If we smart, we blaspheme God, and we blaspheme him if we be tickled; If I lose at play, I blaspheme, and if my fellow lose, he blasphemes, so that God is always sure to be a loser. An Usurer can show me his bags, and an Extortioner his houses, the fruits, the revenues of his sin; but where will the blasphemer show me his blasphemy, or what he hath got by it? The licentious man hath had his love in his armes, and the envious man hath had his enemy in the dust, but wherein hath the blasphemer hurt God?

In the School we put it for the consummation of the torment of the damned, that at the Resurrection, they shall have bodies, and so be able, even verbally, to blaspheme God; herein we exceed the Devil already, that we can speak blaspemously. There is a rebellious part of the body, that Adam covered with fig leaves, that hath damned many a wretched soul; but yet, I think, not more then the tongue; And therefore the whole torment that Dives suffered in hell, is expressed in that part, Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue. The Jews that crucified God, will not sound the name of God, and we for whom he was Crucified, belch him out in our surfeits, and foam him out in our fury: An Impertinent sin, without occasion before, and an unprofitable sin, without recompense after, and an incorrigible sin too; for, almost what Father dares chide his son for blasphemy, that may not tell him, Sir I learnt it of you? or what Master his servant, that cannot lay the same recrimination upon him? How much then do we need this extent of Gods mercy, that he will forgive sin, and all sin, and even this sin of blasphemy, and (which is also another addition) blasphemy against the Son.

This emphatical addition arises out of the connexion in the next verse, A word, (that is, a blasphemous word) against the Son, shall be forgiven. And here we carry not the word Son so high, as that the Son should be the eternal Son of God, Though words spoken against the eternal Son of God by many bitter and blasphemous Heretics have been forgiven: God forbid that all the Photinians who thought that Christ was not at all, till he was born of the Virgin Mary, That all the Nativitarians, that thought he was from all eternity with God, but yet was not the Son of God, That all the Arians, that thought him the Son of God, but yet not essentially, not by nature, but by grace and adoption, God forbid that all these should be damned, and because they once spoke against the Son, therefore they never repented, or were not received upon repentance. We carry not the word, Son, so high, as to be the eternal Son of God, for it is in the text, Filius hominis, The Son of Man; And, in that acceptation, we do not mean it, of all blasphemies that have been spoken of Christ, as the Son of man, that is, of Christ invested in the humane nature; though blasphemies in that kind have been forgiven too: God forbid that all the Arians, that thought Christ so much the Son of Man as that he took a humane body, but not so much, as that he took a humane soul, but that the Godhead it self (such a Godhead as they allowed him) was his soul; God forbid that all the Anabaptists that confess he took a body, but not a body of the substance of the Virgin; That all the Carpocratians, that thought only his soul, and not his body ascended into Heaven, God forbid all these should be damned, and never called to repentance, or not admitted upon it: There were fearful blasphemies against the Son, as the Son of God, and as the Son of Man, against his Divine, and against his Humane Nature, and those, in some of them, by Gods grace forgiven too. But here we consider him only as the Son of Man, merely as Man; but as such a Man, so good a Man, as to calumniate him, to blaspheme him, was an inexcusable sin. To say of him, who had fasted forty days and forty nights, Ecce homo vorax, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, To say of him, of whom themselves had said elsewhere, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man, that he was a friend of Publicans and sinners, That this man who was The Prince of Peace, should indure such contradiction, This was an inexcusable sin. If any man therefore have had his good intentions mis-construed, his zeal to assist Gods bleeding and fainting cause, called Innovation, his proceeding by ways good in themselves, to ends good in themselves, called Indiscretion, let him be content to forgive them, any Calumniator, against himself, who is but a worm and no man, since God himself forgave them against Christ, who was so Filius hominis, The Son of Man, as that he was the Son of God too.

There is then forgiveness for sin, for all sin, even for blasphemy, for blasphemy against the Son, but it is Infuturo remittetur, It shall be forgiven. It is not Remittebatur, It was forgiven; Let no man antedate his pardon, and say, His sins were forgiven in an Eternal Decree, and that no man that hath his name in the book of life, hath the addition, sinner; that if he were there from the beginning, from the beginning he was no sinner. It is not, in such a sense, Remittebatur, It was forgiven; nor it is not Remittitur, that even then, when the sin is committed, it is forgiven, whether the sinner think of it or no, That God sees not the sins of his Children, That God was no more affected with Davids adultery, or his murder, then an indulgent Father is to see his child do some witty waggish thing, or some sportful shrewd turn. It is but Remittetur, Any sin shall be, that is, may be forgiven, if the means required by God, and ordained by him, be entertained. If I take into my contemplation, the Majesty of God, and the ugliness of sin, If I divest my self of all that was sinfully got, and invest my self in the righteousness of Christ Jesus, (for else I am ill suted, and if I clothe myself in Mammon, the righteousness of Christ is no Cloke for that doublet) If I come to Gods Church for my absolution, and the seal of that reconciliation, the blessed Sacrament, Remittetur, by those means ordained by God any sin shall be forgiven me. But if I rely upon the Remittebatur, That I had my Quietus est before hand, in the eternal Decree, or in the Remittuntur, and so shut mine eyes, in an opinion that God hath shut his, and sees not the sins of his children, I change Gods Grammer, and I induce a dangerous solecisme, for, it is not They were forgiven before they were committed, nor They are forgiven in the committing, but, They shall be, by using the means ordained by God, they may be; And so, They shall be forgiven unto men, says the Text, and that is, first, unto every man.

The Kings of the earth are faire and glorious resemblances of the King of heaven; they are beams of that Sun, Tapers of that Torch, they are like gods, they are gods: The Lord killeth and maketh alive, He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up: This is the Lord of heaven; The Lords anointed, Kings of the earth do so too; They have the dispensation of judgement, and of mercy, they execute, and they pardon: But yet, with this difference amongst many other, that Kings of the earth (for the most part, and the best, most) bind themselves with an oath, not to pardon some offences; The King of heaven swears, and swears by himself, That there is no sinner but he can, and would pardon. At first, Illuminat omnem hominem, He is the true light, which lightneth every man that cometh into the world; Let that light (because many do interpret that place so) let that be but that natural light, which only man, and every man hath; yet that light makes him capable of the super-natural light of grace; for if he had not that reasonable soul, he could not have grace; and even by this natural light, he is able to see the invisible God, in the visible creature, and is inexcusable if he do not so. But because this light is (though not put out) brought to a dimness, by mans first fall, Therefore John Baptist came to bear witness of that light, that all men, through him, might believe: God raises up a John Baptist in every man; every man finds a testimony in himself, that he draws curtains between the light and him; that he runs into corners from that light; that he doth not make that use of those helps which God hath afforded him, as he might.

Thus God hath mercy upon all before, by way of prevention; thus he enlightneth every man that cometh into the world: but, because for all this men do stumble, even at noon, God hath given Collyrium, an Eye-salve to all, by which they may mend their eye-sight; He hath opened a pool of Bethesda to all, where not only he that comes at first, but he that comes even at last, he that comes washed with the water of Baptism in his infancy, and he that comes washed with the tears of Repentance in his age, may receive health and cleanness; For, the Font at first, and the death-bed at last, are Cisterns from this pool, and all men, and at all times, may wash therein: And from this power, and this love of God, is derived both that Catholic promise, Quandocunque, At what time soever a sinner repents, And that Catholic and extensive Commission, Quorum remiseritis, Whose sins soever you remit, shall be remitted. All men were in Adam; because the whole nature, mankind, was in him; and then, can any be without sin? All men were in Christ too, because the whole nature, mankind, was in him; and then, can any man be excluded from a possibility of mercy? There were whole Sects, whole bodies of Heretics, that denied the communication of Gods grace to others; The Cathari denied that any man had it but themselves: The Novatians denied that any man could have it again, after he had once lost it, by any deadly sin committed after Baptism, But there was never any Sect that denied it to themselves, no Sect of despairing men. We have some somewhere sprinkled; One in the old Testament, Cain, and one in the new, Judas, and one in the Ecclesiastique Story, Iulian; but no body, no Sect of despairing men. And therefore he that abandons himself to this sin of desperation, sins with the least reason of any, for he prefers his sin above Gods mercy, and he sins with the fewest examples of any, for God hath diffused this light, with an evidence to all, That all sins may be forgiven unto men, that is, unto all men; and then, herein also is Gods mercy to man magnified, that it is to man, that is, only to man.

Nothing can fall into this comparison, but Angels; and Angels shall not be forgiven: We shall be like the Angels, we shall participate of their glory which stand; But the Angels shall never be like us; never return to mercy, after they are fallen. They were Primogeniti Dei, Gods first born, and yet disinherited; and disinherited without any power, at least, without purpose of revocation, without annuities, without pensions, without any present supply, without any future hope. When the Angels were made, and when they fell, we dispute; but when they shall return, falls not into question. Howsoever Origen vary in himself, or howsoever he fell under that jealousy, or misinterpretation, that he thought the devil should be saved at last, I am sure his books that are extant, have pregnant and abundant testimony of their everlasting, and irreparable condemnation. To judge by our evidence, the evidence of Scriptures, for their sin, and the evidence of our conscience, for ours, there is none of us that hath not sinned more then any of them at first; and yet Christ hath not taken the nature of Angels, but of man, and redeemed us, having reserved them in everlasting chains, under darkness: How long? Vnto the judgement of the great day, says that Apostle; And is it but till then, then to have an end? Alas no; It is not untill that day, but unto that day; not that that day shall end or ease their torments which they have, but inflict accidental torments, which they have not yet; That is, an utter evacuation of that power of seducing, which, till that day come, they shall have leave to exercise upon the sons of men: To that are they reserved, and we to that glory, which they have lost, and lost for ever; and upon us, is that prayer of the Apostle fallen effectually, Mercy, and peace, and love is multiplied unto us; for, sin, and all sin, blasphemy, and blasphemy against the Son, shall be, that is, is not, nor was not, but may be forgiven to men, to all men, to none but men; And so we pass to our second part.

In this second part, which seems to present a bank even to this Sea, this infinite Sea of the blood of Christ Jesus; And an Horizon even to this heaven of heavens, to the mercy of God, we shall proceed thus: First, we shall inquire, but modestly, what that blasphemy, which is commonly called The sin against the holy Ghost, is: And secondly, how, and wherein it is irremissible, that it shall never be forgiven: And then thirdly, upon what places of Scripture it is grounded; amongst which, if this text do not constitute and establish that sin, The sin against the holy Ghost, yet we shall find, that that sin which is directly intended in this text, is a branch of that sin, The sin against the holy Ghost: And therefore we shall take just occasion from thence, to arm you with some instructions against those ways which lead into that irrecoverable destruction, into that irremissible sin: for though the sin it self be not so evident, yet the limbs of the sin, and the ways to the sin, are plain enough.

S. Augustine says, There is no question in the Scripture harder then this, what this sin is: And S. Ambrose gives some reason of the difficulty in this, Sicut una divinitas, una offensa: As there is but one Godhead, so there is no sin against God (and all sin is so) but it is against the whole Trinity: and that is true; but as there are certain attributes proper to every several person of the Trinity, so there are certain sins, more directly against the several attributes and properties of those persons, and in such a consideration, against the persons themselves. Of which there are divers sins against power, and they are principally against the Father; for to the Father we attribute power; and divers sins against wisdom, and wisdom we attribute to the Son; and divers against goodness, and love, and these we attribute to the holy Ghost. Of those against the holy Ghost, considered in that attribute of goodness, and of love, the place to speak, will be in our conclusion. But for this particular sin, The sin against the holy Ghost, as hard as S. Augustine makes it, and justly, yet he says too, Exercere nos voluit difficultate quaestionis, non decipere falsitate sententiae, God would exercise us with a hard question, but he would not deceive us with a false opinion: Quid sit quaeri voluit, non negari; God would have us modestly inquire what it is, not peremptorily deny that there is any such sin.

It is (for the most part) agreed, that it is a total falling away from the Gospel of Christ Jesus formerly acknowledged and professed, into a verbal calumniating, and a real persecuting of that Gospel, with a deliberate purpose to continue so to the end, and actually to do so, to persevere till then, and then to pass away in that disposition. It falls only upon the professors of the Gospel, and it is total, and it is practical, and it is deliberate, and it is final. Here we have that sin, but, by Gods grace, that sinner no where.

It is therefore somewhat early, somewhat forwardly pronounced, though by a reverend man, Certum reprobationis signum, in spiritum blasphemia, That it is an infallible assurance, that that man is a Reprobate that blasphemes the holy Ghost. For, whatsoever is an infallible sign, must be notorious to us; If we must know another thing by that, as a sign, we must know that thing which is our sign, in it self: And can we know what this blaspheming of the holy Ghost is? Did we ever hear any man say, or see any man do any thing against the holy Ghost, of whom we might say upon that word, or upon that action, This man can never repent, never be received to mercy? And yet, says he, Tenendum est, quod qui exciderint, nunquam resurgent; We are bound to hold, that they who fall so, shall never rise again. I presume, he grounded himself in that severe judgement of his, upon such places, as that to the Romans, When they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind: That that is the ordinary way of Gods justice, to withdraw his Spirit from that man that blasphemes his Spirit; but S. Paul blasphemed, and S. Peter blasphemed, and yet were not divorced from God.

S. Augustines rule is good; not to judge of this sin, and this sinner especially, but à posteriori, from his end, from his departing out of this world. Neither though I do see an ill life, sealed with an ill death, dare I be too forward in this judgement. He was not a Christian in profession, but worse then he are called Christians, that said, Qui pius est, summè Philosophatur; The charitable man is the great Philosopher; and it is charity not to suspect the state of a dead man. Consider in how sudden a minute the holy Ghost hath sometimes wrought upon thee; and hope that he hath done so upon another. It is a moderation to be embraced, that Peter Martyr leads us to: The Primitive Church had the spirit of discerning spirits; we have not; And therefore, though by way of definition, we may say, This is that sin, yet by way of demonstration, let us say of no man, This is that sinner: I may say of no man, This sin in thee is irremissible.

Now, in considering this word, Irremissible, That it cannot be forgiven, we find it to be a word, rather usurped by the School, then expressed in the Scriptures: for in all those three Evangelists, where this fearful denunciation is interminated, still it is in a phrase, of somewhat more mildness, then so; It is, It shall not be forgiven, It is not, it cannot be forgiven: It is an irremission, it is not an irremissibleness. Absolutely there is not an impossibility, and irremissibleness on Gods part: but yet some kind of impossibility there is on his part, and on ours too. For, if he could forgive this sin, he would; or else, his power were above his mercy; and his mercy is above all his works. But God can do nothing that implies contradiction; and God having declared, by what means only his mercy and forgiveness shall be conveyed to man, God should contradict himself, if he should give forgiveness to them, who will fully exclude those means of mercy. And therefore it were not boldly, nor irreverently said, That God could not give grace to a beast, nor mercy to the Devil, because either they are naturally destitute, or have wilfully despoiled themselves of the capacity of grace, and mercy. When we consider, that God the Father, whom, as the root of all, we consider principally in the Creation, created man in a possibility, and ability, to persist in that goodness, in which he created him, And consider that God the Son came, and wrought a reconciliation for man to God, and so brought in a treasure, in the nature thereof, a sufficient ransom for all the world, but then a man knows not this, or believes not this, otherwise then Historically, Morally, Civilly, and so evacuates, and shakes off God the Son, And then consider that the holy Ghost comes, and presents means of applying all this, and making the general satisfaction of Christ, reach and spread it self upon my soul, in particular, in the preaching of the Word, in the seals of the Sacraments, in the absolution of the Church, and I preclude the ways, and shut up my self against the holy Ghost, and so evacuate him, and shake him off, when I have resisted Father, Son, and holy Ghost, is there a fourth person in the God-head to work upon me? If I blaspheme, that is, deliberately pronounce against the holy Ghost, my sin is irremissible therefore, because there is no body left to forgive it, nor way left, wherein forgiveness should work upon me; So far it is irremissible on Gods part, and on mine too.

And then, take it there, in that state of irremissibleness, and consider seriously the fearefulness of it. I have been angry; and then, (as Christ tells me) I have been in danger of a judgement; but in judgement, I may have counsel, I may be heard; I have said Racha, expressed my anger and so been in danger of a Council; but a Council does but consult, what punishment is fit to be inflicted; and so long there is hope of mitigation, and commutation of penance; But I have said fatue, I have called my brother fool, and so am in danger of hell fire. In the first, there is Ira, an inward commotion, an irregular distemper; In the second, there is Ira & vox; In the first it is but Ira carnis, non animi, It is but my passion, it is not I that am angry, but in the second I have suffered my passion to vent and utter it self; but in the third, there is Ira, vox & vituperatio, A distemper within, a declaration to evil example without, and an injury and defamation to a third person, and this exalts the offence to the height: But then when this third Person comes to be the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, in all the other cases, there is danger, danger of judgement, danger of a Council, danger of hell, but here is irremissibleness, hell it self, and no avoiding of hell, no cooling in hell, no deliverance from hell; Irremissible; Those hands that reached to the ends of the world, in creating it, & span the world in preserving it, and stretched over all in redeeming it, those hands have I manacled, that they cannot open unto me: That tenderness that is affected to all, have I damped, retarded that proneness, stupefied that alacrity, confounded that voice, diverted those eyes, that are naturally disposed to all: And all this, Irremissibly, for ever; not, though he would, but because he will not show mercy; not, though I would, but because I cannot ask mercy: And therefore beware all approaches towards that sin, from which there is no returning, no redemption.

We are come now, in our order, to our third and last Branch of this last Part, That this Doctrine of a sin against the Holy Ghost, is not a dream of the School-men, though they have spoken many things frivolously of it, but grounded in evident places of Scriptures: Amongst which, we look especially, how far this Text conduces to that Doctrine. There are two places ordinarily cited, which seem directly to concern this sin; and two others, which to me seem not to do so. Those of the first kind, are both in the Epistle to the Hebrews: There the Apostle says, For those who were once inlightned, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, If they fall away, it is impossible to renew them by repentance. Now, if final impenitence had been added, there could have been no question, but that this must be The sin against the Holy Ghost; And because the Apostle speaks of such a total falling away, as precludes all way of repentance, it includes final impenitence, and so makes up that sin. The other place from which it rises most pregnantly, is, Of how sore a punishment shall they be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and have done despite unto the Spirit of grace? As he had said before, If we sin wilfully, after we have received the knowledge of truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgement, and fiery indignation. But yet, though from these places, there arises evidence, that such a sin there is, as naturally shuts out repentance, and so is thereby irremissible, yet there arise no marks, by which I can say, This man is such a sinner; not though he himself would swear to me, that he were so now, and that he would continue so, till death.

The other places that do not so directly concern this sin, and yet are sometimes used in this affaire, are, one in S. John, and this text another. That in S. John is, There is a sin unto death, I do not say, that he shall pray for it. It is true, that the Master of the Sentences, and from him, many of the School, and many of our later Interpreters too, do understand this, of the sin against the Holy Ghost, because we are (almost) forbidden to pray for it; but yet we are not absolutely forbidden, in that we are not bidden. And if we were forbidden, when God says to Jeremiah, Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry, nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee, And again, Pray not for them, for I will not hear them, Not them, though they should come to pray for themselves, God forbid that we should therefore say, that all that people had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. And for this particular place of S. John, that answer may suffice, which very good Divines have given, Pray not for them, is indeed pray not with them, admit them to no part in the public prayers of the Congregation, but if they sin a sin unto death, a notorious, an inexcusable sin, let them be persons excommunicated to thee.

For the words in this text, which seem to many applicable to that great sin, it is not clear, it is not much probable, that they can be so applied. Take the words invested in their circumstance, in the context and coherence, and it will appear evident. Christ speaks this to the Pharisees, upon occasion of that which they had said to him, and of him before, and he carries it, intends it no farther. That appears by the first word of out text, Propterea, Therefore I say unto you; Therefore, that is, Because you have used such words unto me. And S. Mark makes it more clear, He said this to them, because they said, He had an unclean spirit; because they said he did his Miracles by the power of the Devil. Now, this was certainly a sin against the Holy Ghost, so far, as that it was distinguished from the sins against the Son of Man; But it was not the sin against the Holy Ghost; for, Christ being a mixed person, God and Man, did some things, in which his Divinity had nothing to do, but were only actions of a mere natural man, and when they slandered him in these, they blasphemed the Son of Man. Some things he did in the power of his God head, in which his humanity contributed nothing; as all his Miracles; and when they attributed these works to the Devil, they blasphemed the Holy Ghost. And therefore S. Augustine says, That Christ in this place, did not so much accuse the Pharisees, that they had already incurred the sin of the Holy Ghost, they might at last fall into The sin, that impenitible, and therefore irremissible sin. But that sin, this could not be, because the Pharisees had not embraced the Gospel before, and so this could not be a falling from the Gospel, in them: Neither does it appear to have continued to a final impenitence; so far from it, as that S. Chrysost. makes no doubt, but that some of these Pharisees did repent upon Christs admonition.

Now, beloved, since we see by this collation of places, that it is not safe to say of any man, he is this sinner, nor very constantly agreed upon, what is this sin, but yet we are sure, that such a sin there is, that captivates even God himself, and takes from him the exercise of his mercy, and casts a dumness, a speechlesness upon the Church it self, that she may not pray for such a sinner; and since we see, that Christ, with so much earnestness, rebukes the Pharisees for this sin in the text, because it was a limbe of that sin, and conduced to it, let us use all religious diligence, to keep our selves in a safe distance from it. To which purpose, be pleased to cast a particular, but short and transitory glance, upon some such sins, as therefore, because they conduce to that, are sometimes called sins against the holy Ghost. Sins against Power, (that is the Fathers Attribute) sins of infirmity are easily forgiven; sins against Wisdom, (that is the Sons Attribute) sins of Ignorance are easily forgiven; but sins against Goodness, (that is the Holy Ghosts Attribute,) sins of an hard and ill nature are hardly forgiven: Not at all, when it comes to be The sin; not easily, when they are Those sins, those that conduce to it, and are branches of it.

For branches, the Schoolemen have named three couples, which they have called sins against the Holy Ghost, because naturally they shut out those means by which the Holy Ghost might work upon us. The first couple is, presumption and desperation; for presumption takes away the fear of God, and desperation the love of God. And then, they name Impenitence, and hardness of heart; for Impenitence removes all sorrow for sins past, and hardness of heart all tenderness towards future temptations. And lastly, they name The resisting of a truth acknowledged before, and the envying of other men, who have made better use of Gods grace then we have done; for this resisting of a Truth, is a shutting up of our selves against it, and this envying of others, is a sorrow, that that Truth should prevail upon them. And truly (to reflect a very little upon these three couples again) To presume upon God, that God cannot damn me eternally in the next world, for a few half-hours in this; what is a fornication, or what is an Idolatay to God? what is a jest, or a ballad, or a libel to a King? Or to despair, that God will not save me, how well soever I live, after a sin? what is a tear, what is a sigh, what is a prayer to God? what is a petition to a King? To be impenitent, senseless of sins past; I past yesterday in riot, and yesternight in wantonness, and yet I hear of some place, some office, some good fortune fallen to me to day; To be hardened against future sins; shall I forbear some company, because that company leads me into temptation? Why, that very temptation will lead me to preferment; To forsake the truth formerly professed, because the times are changed, and wiser men then I change with them; To envy and hate another, another State, another Church, another man, because they stand out in defence of the truth, (for, if they would change, I might have the better color, the better excuse of changing too) al these are shrewd and slippery approaches towards the sin against the Holy Ghost, and therefore the Schoolemen have called all these six, (not without just reason, and good use) by that heavy name.

And some of the Fathers have extended it farther, then to these six. S. Bernard, in particular, says, Nolle obedire, To resist lawful Authority; And another, Simulata poenitentia, To delude God with relapses, & counterfeit repentances; and another also, Omne schisma, All schismatical renting of the peace of the Church, All these they call in that sense, Sins against the Holy Ghost. Now, all sins against the Holy Ghost, are not irremissible. Stephen told his persecutors, They resisted the Holy Ghost, and yet he prayed for them. But because these sins may, and ordinarily do come to that sin, stop betimes. David was far from the murder of Vriah, when he did but look upon his Wife, as she was bathing. A man is far from defying the holy Ghost, when he does but neglect him; and yet David did come, and he will come to the bottom quickly. It may make some impression in you, to tell, and to apply a short story. In a great Schism at Rome, Ladislaus took that occasion to debauch and corrupt some of the Nobility; It was discerned; and then, to those seven Governors, whom they had before, whom they called Sapientes, Wise men, they added seven more, and called them Bonos, Good men, honest men, and relied, and confided in them. Goodness is the Attribute of the Holy Ghost; If you have Greatness, you may seem to have some of the Father, for Power is his: If you have Wisdom, you may seem to have some of the Son, for that is his: If you have Goodness, you have the Holy Ghost, who shall lead you into all truth. And Goodness is, To be good and easy in receiving his impressions, and good and constant in retaining them, and good and diffusive in deriving them upon others: To embrace the Gospel, to hold fast the Gospel, to propagate the Gospel, this is the goodness of the Holy Ghost. And to resist the entrance of the Gospel, to abandon it after we have professed it, to forsake them, whom we should assist and succor in the maintenance of it, This is to depart from the goodness of the Holy Ghost: and by these sins against him, to come too near the sin, the irremissible sin, in which the calamities of this world shall enwrap us, and deliver us over to the everlasting condemnation of the next. This is as much as these words do justly occasion us to say of that sin; and into a more curious search thereof, it is not holy sobriety to pierce.

Serm. XXXVI. Preached upon Whitsunday.

JOHN 16.8, 9, 10, 11.

And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. Of sin, because ye believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgement, because the Prince of this world is judged.

OUr Panis quotidianus, Our daily bread, is that Iuge sacrificium, That daily sacrifice of meditating upon God; Our Panis hodiernus, This days bread, is to meditate upon the holy Ghost. To day if ye will hear his voice, to day ye are with him in Paradise; For, wheresoever the holy Ghost is, he creates a Paradise. The day is not past yet; As our Savior said to Peter, Hody, in nocte hac, This day, even in this night thou shalt deny me, so, Hody in nocte hac, Even now, though evening, the day-spring from on high visits you, God carries back the shadow of your Sun-dyall, as to Hezechias; And now God brings you to the beginning of this day, if now you take knowledge, that he is come, who, when he comes, Reproves the world of sin, &c.

The solemnity of the day requires, and the method of the words offers for our first consideration, the Person; who is not named in our text, but designed by a most emphatical denotation, Ille, He, He who is all, and doth all. But the word hath relation to a name, proper to the holy Ghost: for, in the verse immediately preceding, our Savior tells his disciples, That he will send them the Comforter. So, forbearing all other mysterious considerations of the holy Ghost, we receive him in that notion, and function in which Christ sends him, The Comforter. And therefore, in this capacity, as The Comforter, we must consider his action, Arguet, He shall reprove; Reprove, and yet Comfort; nay, therefore comfort, because reprove: And then the subject of his action, Mundum, The world, the whole world; no part left unreproved, yet no part left without comfort: And after that, what he reproves the world of; That multiplies; Of sin, of righteousness, of judgement. Can there be comfort in reproof for sin? Or can there lie a reproof upon righteousness, or upon judgement? Very justly; Though the evidence seem at first, as strange as the crime; for, though that be good evidence against the sin of the world, That they believe not in Christ, (Of sin, because ye believe not on me) yet to be Reproved of righteousness, because Christ goes to his Father, and they see him no more, And to be Reproved of judgement, because the Prince of this world is judged, this seems strange, and yet this must be done, and done to our comfort; For, this must be done, Cum venerit, Then when the holy Ghost, and he in that function, as the Comforter, is come, is present, is working.

Beloved, Reproofs upon others without charity, rather to defame them, then amend them, Reproofs upon thy self, without shewing mercy to thine own soul, diffidences, and jealousies, and suspicions of God, either that he hated thee before thy sin, or hates thee irremediably, irreconciliably, irrecoverably, irreparably for thy sin, These are Reproofs, but they are Absente spiritu, In the absence of the holy Ghost, before he comes, or when he is gone; When he comes, and stays, He shall reprove, and reprove all the world, and all the world of those errors, sin, and righteousness, and judgement, and those errors upon those evidences, Of sin, because ye believe not on me, &c. But, in all this proceeding he shall never divest the nature of a Comforter; In that capacity he is sent, in that he comes, and works. I doubt I shall see an end of my hour, and your patience, before I shall have passed those branches, which appertain most properly to the celebration of this day, the Person, the Comforter, his action, Reproof, the subject thereof, the world, and the Time, Cum venerit, When he comes. The inditement, of what the accusation is, and the evidence, how it is proved, may exercise your devotion at other times. This day, the holy Ghost is said to have come suddenly, and therefore in that pace we proceed, and make haste to the consideration of the Person, Ille, When he, He the holy Ghost, the Comforter, is come.

Ille, Ille alone, He, is an emphatical denotation; for to this purpose Ille and Ipse is all one; And then, you know the Emphasis of that Ipse; Ipse conteret, He or It shall bruise the Serpents head, denotes the Messiah, though there be no Messiah named: This Ipse is so emphatical a denotation, as that the Church of Rome, and the Church of God strives for it; for they will needs read it Ipsa, and so refer our salvation, in the bruising of the Serpents head, to the Virgin Mary; we refer it according to the truth of the doctrine, and of the letter, to Christ himself, and therefore read it Ipse, He. If there were no more but that in David, It is He that hath made us, every man would conclude, that that He is God. And if S. Paul had said Ipse alone, and not Ipse spiritus, That He, and not He the Spirit bears witness with our spirit, every spirit would have understood this to be the holy Spirit, the holy Ghost. If in our text there had been no more, but such a denotation of a person that should speak to the hearts of all the world, that that Ille, that He would proceed thus, we must necessarily have seen an Almighty power in that denotation; But because that denotation might have carried terror in it, being taken alone, therefore we are not left to that, but have a relation to a former name, and specification of the holy Ghost, The Comforter.

For the establishment of Christs divinity, Christ is called The mighty God; for his relation to us, he hath divers names. As we were all In massa damnata, Forfeited, lost, he is Redemptor, A Redeemer, for that that is past, The Redeemer shall come to Sion, says the Prophet, and so Job saw His Redeemer, one that should redeem him from those miseries that oppressed him. As Christ was pleased to provide for the future, so he is, Salvator, A Savior, Therefore the Angel gave him that name Jesus, For he shall save his people from their sins. So, because to this purpose Christ consists of two natures, God and man, he is called our Mediator, There is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Because he presents those merits which are his, as ours, and in our behalf, he is called an Advocate, If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And because every man is to expect according to his actions, he is called the Judge, We testify that it is he, that is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. Now, for Christs first name, which is the root of all, which is, The mighty God, No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the holy Ghost; And there is our first comfort, in knowing that Christ is God; for, he were an Intruder for that which is past, no Redeemer, he were a weak Savior for the future, an insufficient Mediator, a silenced Advocate, and a Judge that might be misinformed, if he were not God. And though he were God, he might be all these to my discomfort, if there were not a holy Ghost to make all these offices comfortable unto me. To be a Redeemer and not a Savior, is but to pay my debts, and leave me nothing to live on. To be a Mediator, a person capable by his composition of two natures, to intercede between God and man, and not to be my Advocate, is but to be a good Counsellor, but not of counsel with me; To be a Judge of quick and dead, and to proceed out of outward evidence, and not out of his bosom mercy, is but an acceleration of my conviction; I were better lie in Prison still, then appear at that Assize; better lye in the dust of the grave for ever, then come to that judgement. But, as there is Mens in anima, There is a mind in the soul, and every man hath a soul, but every man hath not a mind, that is, a Consideration, an Actuation, an Application of the faculties of the soul to particulars; so there is Spiritus in Spiritu, a Holy Ghost in all the holy offices of Christ, which offices, being, in a great part, directed upon the whole world, are made comfortable to me, by being, by this holy Spirit, turned upon me, and appropriated to me; for so, even that name of Christ, which might most make me afraid, The name of Judge, becomes a comfort to me. To this purpose does S. Baesil call the holy Ghost, Verbum Dei, quia interpres filii: The Son of God is the word of God, because he manifests the Father, and the Holy Ghost is the word of God, because he applies the Son. Christ comes with that loud Proclamation, Ecce auditum fecit, Behold the Lord hath proclaimed it, to the end of the world, Ecce Salvator, and Ecce Merces, Behold his Salvation, Behold thy Reward, (This is his publication in the manifest Ordinances of the Church) And then the Holy Ghost whispers to thy soul, as thou standest in the Congregation, in that voice that he promises, Sibilabo populum meum, I will hiss, I will whisper to my people by soft and inward inspirations. Christ came to tell us all, That to as many as received him, he gave power to become the Sons of God, The Holy Ghost comes to tell thee, that thou art one of them. The Holy Ghost is therefore Legatus, and Legatum Christi, He is Christs Ambassador sent unto us, and he is his Legacy bequeathed unto us by his Will; his Will made of force by his death, and proved by his Ascension.

Now, when those days were come, that the Bridegroom was to be taken from them, Christ Jesus to be removed from their personal sight, and conversation, and therefore even the children of the marriage Chamber were to mourne, and fast; when that Church that mourned, and lamented his absence, when she was but his Spouse, must necessarily mourn now in a more vehement manner, when she was to be, (in some sense) his Widow; when that Shepherd was not only to be smitten, and so the flock dispersed, (this was done in his passion) but he was to be taken away, in his Ascension; what a powerful Comforter had that need to be, that should be able to recompense the absence of Christ Jesus himself, and to infuse comfort into his Orphans, the children of his marriage Chamber, into his Widow, the desolate, and disconsolate Church, into his flock, his amazed, his distressed, and, (as we may, properly enough, say in this case) his beheaded Apostles and Disciples? Quantus ergo Deus, qui dat Deum? Less then God could not minister this comfort; How great a God is he, that sends a God to comfort us? and how powerful a Comforter he, who is not only sent by God, but is God? Therefore does the Apostle enlarge, and dilate, and delight his soul upon this comfort, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction, by that comfort, wherewith our selves are comforted of God. The Apostle was loath to depart from the word, Comfort; And therefore, as God, because he could swear by no greater, sware by himself, So, because there is no stronger adjuration, then the comfort it self, to move you to accept this comfort, as the Apostle did, so we entreat you by that, If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellow ship of the Spirit, if any bowels, and mercy, Lay hold upon this true comfort, the comming of the Holy Ghost, and say to all the deceitful comforts of this world, not only Vanè consolati est is, Your comforts are frivolous, but Onerosi consolatores, Your comforts are burdensome; there is not only a disappointing of hopes, but an aggravating of sin, in entertaining the comforts of this world. As Barnabas, that is, Filius consolationis, The son of consolation, that he might be capable of this comfort, divested himself of all worldly possessions, so, as such sons, Suck and be satisfied, at the breasts of this consolation, that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of his glory; And as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Heaven is Glory, and heaven is Joy; we cannot tell which most; we cannot separate them; and this comfort is joy in the Holy Ghost. This makes all Job's states alike; as rich in the first Chapter of his Book, where all is suddenly lost, as in the last, where all is abundantly restored. This Consolation from the Holy Ghost makes my mid-night noon, mine Executionera Physician, a stake and pile of Fagots, a Bone-fire of triumph; this consolation makes a Satyr, and Slander, and Libel against me, a Panegyrique, and an Elogy in my praise; It makes a Tolle an Ave, a Va an Euge, a Crucifige an Hosanna; It makes my death-bed, a mariagebed, And my Passing-Bell, an Epithalamion. In this notion therefore we receive this Person, and in this notion we consider his proceeding, Ille, He, He the Comforter, shall reprove.

This word, that is here translated To reprove, Arguere, hath a double use and signification in the Scriptures. First to reprehend, to rebuke, to correct, with Authority, with Severity; So David, Ne in furore arguas me, O Lord rebuke me not in thine dnger: And secondly, to convince, to prove, to make a thing evident, by undeniable inferences, and necessary consequences; So, in the instructions of Gods Ministers, the first is To reprove, and then To rebuke; So that reproving is an act of a milder sense, then rebuking is. S. Augustine interprets these words twice in his Works; and in the first place he follows the first signification of the word, That the Holy Ghost should proceed, when he came, by power, by severity against the world. But though that sense will stand well with the first act of this Reproof, (That he shall Reprove, that is, reprehend the world of sin) yet it will not seem so properly said, To reprehend the world of Righteousness, or of Judgement; for how is Righteonsness, and Judgement the subject of reprehension? Therefore S. Augustine himself in the other place, where he handles these words, embraces the second sense, Hoc est arguere mundum, ostendere vera esse, quae non credidit; This is to reprove the world, to convince the world of her errors, and mistakings; And so (scarce any excepted) do all the Ancient Expositors take it, according to that, All things are reproved of the light, and so made manifest; The light does not reprehend them, not rebuke them, not chide, not upbraid them; but to declare them, to manifest them, to make the world see clearly what they are, this is to reprove.

That reproving then, which is warrantable by the Holy Ghost, is not a sharp increpation, a bitter proceeding, proceeding only out of power, and authority, but by inlightning, and informing, and convincing the understanding. The signification of this word, which the Holy Ghost uses here for reproof, Elenchos, is best deduced, and manifested to us, by the Philosopher who had so much use of the word, who expresses it thus, Elenchus est Syllogismus contra contraria opinantem; A reproof, is a proof, a proof by way of argument, against another man, who holds a contrary opinion. All the pieces must be laid together: For, first it must be against an opinion, and then an opinion contrary to truth, and then such an opinion held, insisted upon, maintained, and after all this, the reproof must lie in argument, not in force, not in violence.

First it must come so far, as to be an opinion; which is a middle station, between ignorance, and knowledge; for knowledge excludes all doubting, all hesitation; opinion does not so; but opinion excludes indifferency, and equanimity; I am rather inclined to one side then another, when I am of either opinion. Id opinatur quisque quod nescit: A man may have an opinion that a thing is so, and yet not know it. S. Bernard proposes three ways for our apprehending Divine things; first, understanding, which relies upon reason; faith, which relies upon supreme Authority; and opinion, which relies upon probability, and verisimilitude. Now there may arise in some man, some mistakings, some mis-apprehensions of the sense of a place of Scripture, there may arise some scruple in a case of conscience, there may arise some inclinations to some person, of whose integrity and ability I have otherwise had experience, there may arise some Paradoxical imaginations in my self, and yet these never attain to the setledness of an opinion, but they float in the fancy, and are but waking dreams; and such imaginations, and fancies, and dreams, receive too much honor in the things, and too much favor in the persons, if they be reproved, or questioned, or condemned, or disputed against. For, often times, even a condemnation nourishes the pride of the author of an opinion; and besides, begets a dangerous compassion, in spectators and hearers; and then, from pitying his pressures and sufferings, who is condemned, men come out of that pity, to excuse his opinions; and from excusing them, to incline towards them; And so that which was but straw at first, by being thus blown by vehement disputation, sets fire upon timber, and draws men of more learning and authority to side, and mingle themselves in these impertinencies. Every fancy should not be so much as reproved, disputed against, or called in question.

As it must not be only a fancy, an imagination, but an opinion, (in which, though there be not a Certò, yet there is a Potiùs, Though I be not sure, yet I do rather think it) so we consider Contraria opinantem, That it must be an opinion contrary to something that we are sure of; that is, to some received article, or to some evident religious duty; contrary to religion, as religion is matter of faith, or as religion is matter of obedience, to lawful Authority. Though fancies grow to be opinions, that men come to think they have reasons for their opinions, and to know they have other men on their side, in those opinions; yet, as long as these are but opinions of a little too much, or a little too little, in matter of Ceremony and Circumstance, as long as they are but deflectings, and deviations upon collateral matters, no foundation shook, no corner-stone displaced, as long as they are but preteritions, not contradictions, but omissions, not usurpations, they are not worthy of a reproof, of a conviction, and there may be more danger then profit in bringing them into an over-vehement agitation. Those men whose end is schism, and sedition, and distraction, are brought so near their own ends, and the accomplishment of their own desires, if they can draw other men together by the ears: As some have all they desire, if they can make other men drunk, so have these if they can make sober men wrangle.

They must be Opinions, not fancies, and they must have a contrariety, an opposition to certain truths, and then they must be held, persisted in, before it be fit to give a reproof, either by calling in question, or by confutation. As some men are said to have told a lye so often, as that at last, they believe it themselves, so a man admits sometimes an opinion to lodge so long, as that Transit in intellectum, It fastens upon his understanding, and that that he did but think before, now he seems to himself to know it, and he believes it. And then, Fides si habet haesitationem, infirma est, As that faith that admits a scruple is weak, and so, without scruple he comes peremptorily to believe it. But so, Opinio si habet assertionem, temeraria est, When that which is but an opinion comes to be published and avowed for a certain, and a necessary truth, then it becomes dangerous; And that grows apace; for scarcely does any man believe an opinion to be true, but he hath a certain appetite and itch to infuse it into others too.

Now when these pieces meet, when these atoms make up a body, a body of Error, that it come to an Opinion, a half-assurance, and that in some thing contrary to foundations, and that it be held stiffely, publicly persisted in, then enters this reproof; but yet even then reproof is but Syllogismus, it is but an argument, it is but convincing, it is not destroying; it is not an Inquisition, a prison, a sword, an axe, a halter, a fire; It is a syllogism, not a syllogism, whose major is this, Others, your Ancestors believed it, and the minor this, We that are your Superiors believe it, Ergo you must, or else be banisht or burnt. With such syllogismes the Arians abounded, where they prevailed in the Primitive Church, and this is the Logic of the Inquisition of Rome. But our syllogism must be a syllogism within our Authors definition, when out of some things which are agreed on all sides, other things that are controverted, are made evident and manifest. Hell is presented to us by fire, but fire without light: Heaven by light, and light without any ill effect of fire in it. Where there is nothing but an Accuser, (perchance not that) and fire, citation and excommunication, here is Satan, (who is an Accuser, but an invisible one) and here is Hell it self, a devilish and a dark proceeding. But when they, to whom this reproof belongs, take Christs way, not to tread out smoking flax, that a poor soul, mis-led by ignorant zeal, and so easily combustible and apt to take fire, be not trodden down with too much power, and passion, when they do not break a bruised reed, that is, not terrify a distracted conscience, which perchance a long ill conversation with schismatical company, and a spiritual melancholy, and over-tender sense of sin hath cast too low before, then does this reproof work aright, when it is brought in with light before fire, with convenient instruction, and not hasty condemnation.

We may well call this Viam Christi, and Viam Spiritus sancti, Christs way, and the Holy Ghosts way, for he had need be a very good Christian, and a very sanctified man, that can walk in that way; Perfectorum est, nihil in peccatore odisse praeter peccata: He that hates nothing in an Heretic, or in a Schismatique, but the Schism, or the Heresy, He that sets bounds to that sea, and hath said to his affections, and humane passions, Stay there, go no farther, hath got far in the steps of Christian perfection. The slipperiness, the precipitation is so great on the other side, that commonly we begin to hate the person first, and then grow glad, when he grows guilty of any thing worthy our hate; and we make God himself the Devils instrument, when we pretend zeal to his service, in these reproofs and corrections, and serve only our own impotent passion, and inordinate ambition. For therein Plerumque cum tibi videris odisse inimicum, fratrem odisti, & nescis; Thou thinkest or pretendst to hate an enemy, and hatest thine own brother, and knowest it not; Thou knowest not, considerest not, that he, by good usage and instruction, might have been made thy Brother, a fellow-member in the Visible Church, by outward conformity, and in the Invisible too, by inward. Etiam fictilia vasa confringere, Domino soli concessum, If thou be a vessel of gold or silver, and that other of clay, thou of a clear, and rectified, he of a dark and perverted understanding, yet even vessels of clay are only in the power of that Potters hand that made them, or bought them, to break, and no bodies else: Still, as long as it is possible, proceed we with the moderation of that blessed Father, Sic peccata Haereticorum compesce, ut sint quos poeniteat peccasse, Take not away the subject of the error, (the perverseness of the man) so, as that thou take away the subject of repentance, the man himself; If thou require fruit, leave a tree; If thou wouldst have him repent, take not away his life, says he. We see the leasurely pace that Gods Justice walks in: When Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar his danger, yea the Decree of God upon him, (as he calls it) yet he told him a way how to revoke it; by works of mercy to the poor, and breaking off his sins; And after all this, he had a years space to consider himself, before the judgement was executed upon him.

But now beloved, all that we have said, or can be said to this purpose, conduces but to this, That though this reproof, which the Holy Ghost leads us to, be rather in convincing the understanding by argument, and other persuasions then by extending our power to the destruction of the person, yet this hath a modification, how it must be, and a determination where it must end, for, there are cases in which we may, we must go farther. For, for the understanding, we know how to work upon that; we know what arguments have prevayled upon us, with what arguments we have prevailed upon others, and those we can use: so far, Vt nihil habeant contra, & si non assentiantur, That though they will not be of our mind, yet they shall have nothing to say against it. So far we can go upon that faculty, the understanding. But the will of man is so irregular, so unlimited a thing, as that no man hath a bridle upon another's will, no man can undertake nor promise for that; no Creature hath that faculty but man, yet no man understands that faculty. It hath been the exercise of a thousand wits, it hath been the subject, yea the knot and perplexity of a thousand disputations, to find out, what it is that determines, that concludes the will of man so, as that it assents thereunto. For, if that were absolutely true which some have said, (and yet perchance that is as far as any have gone) that Vltimus actus intellectus est voluntas, That the last act of the Understanding is the Will, then all our labor were still to work upon the Understanding, and when that were rectified, the Will must follow. But it is not so; As we feel in our selves that we do many sins, which our understanding, and the soul of our understanding, our conscience, tells us we should not do, so we see many others persist in errors, after manifest convincing, after all reproof which can be directed upon the understanding.

When therefore those errors which are to be reproved, are in that faculty, which is not subject to this reproof by argument, in a perverted will, because this wilful stubbornness is always accompanied with pride, with singularity, with faction, with schism, with sedition, we must remember the way which the Holy Ghost hath directed us in, If the iron be blunt, we must either put to more strength, or whet the edge. Now, when the fault is in the perverseness of the will, we can put to no more strength, no argument serves to overcome that; And therefore the holy Ghost hath admitted another way, To whet the iron; And in that way does the Apostle say, Vtinam abscindantur, I would they were even cut off which trouble you. There is an incorrigibility, in which, when the reproof cannot lead the will, it must draw blood; which is, where pretences of Religion are made, and Treasons, and Rebellions, and Invasions, and Massacres of people, and Assasinates of Princes practised. And this is a reproof (which, as we shall see of the rest in the following branches is) from the Holy Ghost, in his function in this text, as he is a Comforter; This therefore is our comfort, That our Church was never negligent in reproving the Adversary, but hath from time to time strenuously and confidently maintained her truths against all oppositions, to the satisfying of any understanding, though not to the reducing of some perverse wills. So Gregor: de Valentia professes of our arguments, I confess these reasons would conclude my understanding, Nisi didicissem captivare intellectum meum ad intellectum Ecclesiae, But that I have learnt to captivate my understanding to the understanding of the Church, and, say what they will, to believe as the Church of Rome believes; which is Maldonats profession too, upon divers of Calvins arguments, This argument would prevail upon me, but that he was an Heretic that found it. So that here is our comfort, we have gone so far in this way of Reproof, Vt nihil habeant contra, etsi nobiscum non sentiant. This is our comfort, that as some of the greatest Divines in foreign parts, so also, in our Church at home, some of the greatest Prelates, who have been traduced to favor Rome, have written the most solidly and effectually against the heresies of Rome of any other. But it must be a comfort upon them that are reproved. And this is their comfort, that the State never drew drop of blood for Religion; But then, this is our comfort still, that where their perverseness shall endanger either Church or State, both the State and Church may, by the holy Ghosts direction, and will return to those means which God allows them for their preservation, that is, To whet the edge of the Iron, in execution of the laws. And so we pass from our second consideration, The Action, Reproof, to the subject of Reproof, The world, He shall reprove the world.

It is no wonder that this word Mundus should have a larger signification then other words, for it contains all, embraces, comprehends all: But there is no word in Scripture, that hath not only not so large, but so diverse a signification, for it signifies things contrary to one another. It signifies commonly, and primarily, the whole frame of the world; and more particularly all mankind; and oftentimes only wicked men; and sometimes only good men, As Dilexit mundum, God loved the world, And Hic est verè salvator mundi, This is the Christ, the Savior of the world; And Reconciliatio mundi, The casting away of the Jews, is the reconciliation of the world: The Jews were a part of the world, but not of this world. Now in every sense, the world may well be said to be subject to the reproof of God, as reproof is a rebuke: for He rebuked the wind, and it was quiet; And, He rebuked the red Sea, and it was dried up; He rebuked the earth bitterly in that Maledicta terra, for Adams punishment, Cursed be the ground for thy sake; And for the noblest part of earth, man, and the noblest part of men, Kings, He rebuked even Kings for their sakes, and said, Touch not mine anointed. But this is not the rebuke of our Text; for ours is a rebuke of comfort, even to them that are rebuked; Whereas the angry rebuke of God carries heavy effects with it. Increpat, & fugiunt, God shall rebuke them, and they shall fly far off; He shall chide them out of his presence, and they shall never return to it. Increpasti superbos, & maledicti isti: Thou hast rebuked the proud, and thy rebuke hath wrought upon them as a Malediction, not physic, but poison; As it is in another Psalm, Increpasti, & periit, Thou hast rebuked them, and they perished. In these cases, there is a working of the holy Ghost; and that, as the holy Ghost is a Comforter; for it is a comfort to them, for whose deliverances God executes these judgements upon others, that they are executed; but we consider a rebuke, a reproof that ministers comfort even to them upon whom it falls; and so in that sense, we shall see that this Comforter reproves the world, in all those significations of the world which we named before.

As the world is the whole frame of the world, God hath put into it a reproof, a rebuke, lest it should seem eternal, which is, a sensible decay and age in the whole frame of the world, and every piece thereof. The seasons of the year irregular and distempered; the Sun fainter, and languishing; men less in stature, and shorter-lived. No addition, but only every year, new sorts, new species of worms, and flies, and sicknesses, which argue more and more putrefaction of which they are engendered. And the Angels of heaven, which did so familiarly converse with men in the beginning of the world, though they may not be doubted to perform to us still their ministerial assistances, yet they seem so far to have deserted this world, as that they do not appear to us, as they did to those our Fathers. S. Cyprian observed this in his time, when writing to Demetrianus, who imputed all those calamities which afflicted the world then, to the impiety of the Christians who would not join with them in the worship of their gods, Cyprian went no farther for the cause of these calamities, but Ad senescentem mundum, To the age and impotency of the whole world; And therefore, says he, Imputent senes Christianis, quòd minùs valeant in senectutem; Old men were best accuse Christians, that they are more sickly in their age, then they were in their youth; Is the fault in our religion, or in their decay? Canos in pueris videmus, nec aetas in senectute desinit, sed incipit à senectute; We see gray hairs in children, and we do not die old, and yet we are born old. Lest the world (as the world signifies the whole frame of the world) should glorify it self, or flatter, and abuse us with an opinion of eternity, we may admit usefully (though we do not conclude peremptorily) this observation to be true, that there is a reproof, a rebuke born in it, a sensible decay and mortality of the whole world.

But is this a reproof agreeable to our Text? A reproof that carries comfort with it? Comfort to the world it self, that it is not eternal? Truly it is; As S. Paul hath most pathetically expressed it; The creature (that is, the world) is in anearnest expectation, The creature waiteth, The whole creation groaneth, and travelleth in pain. Therefore the creature (that is, the world) receives a perfect comfort, in being delivered at last, and an inchoative comfort, in knowing now, that it shall be delivered; From what? From subjection to vanity, from the bondage of corruption; That whereas the world is now subject to mutability and corruption, at the Resurrection it shall no longer be so, but in that measure, and in that degree which it is capable of, It shall enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God, that is, be as free from corruption, or change in that state, wherein it shall be glorified, as the Saints shall be in the glory of their state; for, The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold; And there shall be new heavens, and new earth; Which is a state, that this world could not attain to, if it were eternally to last, in that condition, in which it is now, a condition subject to vanity, impotency, corruption, and therefore there is a comfort in this reproof, even to this world, That it is not eternal; This world is the happier for that.

As the world, in a second sense, signifies all the men of the world, (so it is, Wo unto the world, because of offences) There is a reproof born in every man; which reproof is an uncontrollable sense, and an unresistible remorse, and chiding of himself inwardly, when he is about to sin, and a horror of the Majesty of God, whom, when he is alone, he is forced (and forced by himself) to fear, and to believe, though he would fain make the world believe, that he did not believe in God, but lived at peace, and subsisted of himself, without being beholding to God. For, as in nature, heavy things will ascend, and light descend rather then admit a vacuity, so in religion, the devil will get into Gods room, rather then the heart of man shall be without the opinion of God; There is no Atheist; They that oppose the true, do yet worship a false god; and he that says there is no God, doth for all that, set up some God to himself. Every man hath this reproof born in him, that he doth ill, that he offends a God, that he breaks a law when he sins. And this reproof is a reproof within our Text, for it hath this comfort with it, That howsoever some men labor to overcome the natural tenderness of the conscience, and so triumph over their own ruin, and rejoice when they can sleep, and wake again without any noise in their conscience, or sense of sin, yet, in truth this candle cannot be blown out, this remorse cannot be overcome; But were it not a greater comfort to me if I could overcome it? No. For though this remorse (which is but a natural impression, and common to all men) be not grace, yet this remorse, which is the natural reproof of the soul, is that, that grace works upon. Grace doth not ordinarily work upon the stiffness of the soul, upon the silence, upon the frowardness, upon the aversness of the soul, but when the soul is soupled and mellowed, and feels this reproof, this remorse in it self, that reproof, that remorse becomes as the matter, and grace enters as the form, that becomes the body, and grace becomes the soul; and that is the comfort of this natural reproof of the world, that is, of every man: First, that it will not be quenched in it self, and then, that ordinarily it induces a nobler light then it self, which is effectual and true Repentance.

As the world, in a third sense, signifies only the wicked world (so it is, Noah in preparing an Ark, condemned the world; And so, God spared not the old world) That world, the world of the wicked suffer many reproofs, many rebukes in their hearts, which they will not discover, because they envy God that glory. We read of divers great actors in the first persecutions of the Christians, who being fearefully tormented in body and soul, at their deaths, took care only, that the Christians might not know what they suffered, lest they should receive comfort, and their God glory therein. Certainly Herod would have been more affected, if he had thought that we should have known how his pride was punished with those sudden worms, then with the punishment it self. This is a self-reproof; even in this, though he will not suffer it to break out to the edification of others, there is some kind of chiding himself for some thing mis-done. But is there any comfort in this reproof? Truly, beloved, I can hardly speak comfortably of such a man, after he is dead, that dies in such a dis-affection, loath that God should receive glory, or his servants edification by these judgements. But even with such a man, if I assisted at his death-bed, I would proceed with a hope to infuse comfort, even from that dis-affection of his: As long as I saw him in any acknowledgement (though a negligent, nay though a malignant, a despiteful acknowledgement) of God, as long as I found him loath that God should receive glory, even from that loathness, from that reproof, from that acknowledgement, That there is a God to whom glory is due, I would hope to draw him to glorify that God before his last gasp; My zeal should last as long as his wives officiousness, or his children's, or friends, or servants obsequiousness, or the solicitude of his Physicians should; as long as there were breath, they would minister some help; as long as there were any sense of God, I would hope to do some good. And so much comfort may arise even out of this reproof of the world, as the world is only the wicked world.

In the last sense, the world signifies the Saints, the Elect, the good men of the world, believing and persevering men. Of those Christ says, The world shall know that I love the Father; And, That the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And this world, that is, the godliest of this world, have many reproofs, many corrections upon them. That outwardly they are the prey of the wicked, and inwardly have that Stimulum carnis, which is the devils Solicitor, and round about them they see nothing but profanation of his word, mis-employment of his works, his creatures, mis-constructions of his actions, his judgements, blasphemy of his name, negligence and under-valuation of his Sacraments, violation of his Sabbaths, and holy convocations. O what a bitter reproof, what a manifest evidence of the infirmity, nay of the malignity of man, is this, (if it be put home, and throughly considered) That even the goodness of man gets to no higher a degree, but to have been the occasion of the greatest ill, the greatest cruelty that ever was done, the crucifying of the Lord of life! The better a man is, the more he concurred towards being the cause of Christs death; which is a strange, but a true and a pious consideration. Dilexit mundum, He loved the world, and he came to save the world; That is, most especially, and effectually, those that should believe in him, in the world, and live according to that belief, and die according to that life. If there had been no such, Christ had not died, never been crucified. So that impenitent men, mis-believing men have not put Christ to death, but it is we, we whom he loves, we that love him, that have crucified him.

In what rank then, of opposition against Christ, shall we place our sins, since even our faith and good works have been so far the cause why Christ died, that, but for the salvation of such men, Beleevers, Workers, Perseverers, Christ had not died? This then is the reproof of the world, that is, of the Saints of God in the world, that though I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, I must dwell in the tents of wickedness, That though my zeal consume me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words, I must stay amongst them that have forgotten thy words; But this, and all other reproofs, that arise in the godly, (that we may still keep up that consideration, that he that reproves us, is The Comforter) have this comfort in them, that these faults that I indure in others, God hath either pardoned in me, or kept from me: and that though this world be wicked, yet when I shall come to the next world, I shall find Noah, that had been drunk; and Lot, that had been incestuous; and Moses, that murmured at Gods proceedings; and Job, and Jeremiah, and Jonas, impatient, even to imprecations against themselves; Christs own Disciples ambitious of worldly preferment; his Apostles forsaking him, his great Apostle forswearing him; And Mary Magdalen that had been, I know not what sinner; and David that had been all; I leave none so ill in this world, but I may carry one that was, or find some that had been as ill as they, in heaven; and that blood of Christ Jesus, which hath brought them thither, is offered to them that are here, who may be successors in their repentance, as they are in their sins. And so have you all intended for the Person, the Comforter, and the Action, Reproof, and the Subject, the World; remains only (that for which there remains but a little time) the Time, Cum venerit, When the Comforter comes he will proceed thus.

We use to note three Advents, three commings of Christ. An Advent of Humiliation, when he came in the flesh; an Advent of glory, when he shall come to judgement; and between these an Advent of grace, in his gracious working in us, in this life; and this middlemost Advent of Christ, is the Advent of the Holy Ghost, in this text; when Christ works in us, the Holy Ghost comes to us. And so powerful is his comming, that whereas he that sent him, Christ Jesus himself, Came unto his own, and his own received him not; The Holy Ghost never comes to his own but they receive him; for, only by receiving him, they are his own; for, besides his title of Creation, by which we are all his, with the Father, and the Son, as there is a particular title accrewed to the Son by Redemption, so is there to the Holy Ghost, of certain persons, upon whom he sheds the comfort of his application. The Holy Ghost picks out and chooses whom he will; Spirat ubi vult; perchance me that speak; perchance him that hears; perchance him that shut his eyes yester-night, and opened them this morning in the guiltiness of sin, and repents it now: perchance him that hath been in the meditation of an usurious contract, of an ambitious supplantation, of a licentious solicitation, since he came hither into Gods house, and deprehends himself in that sinful purpose now. This is his Advent, this is his Pentecost. As he came this day with a Manifestation, so, if he come into thee this evening, he comes with a Declaration, a Declaration in operation. Pater meus usque modo operatur, & ego operor, My Father works even now, and I work, was Christs answer, when he was accused to have broken the Sabbath day; that the Father wrought that day as well as he. So also Christ assignes other reasons of working upon the Sabbath; Cujus Bos, Whose Ox is in danger, and the owner will not relieve him? Nonne legistis, Have ye not read how David ate the Show-bread? And Annon legistis, Did not the Priests break the Sabbath, in their service in the Temple? But the Sabbath is the Holy Ghosts greatest working day: The Holy Ghost works more upon the Sunday, then all the week. In other days, he picks and chooses; but upon these days of holy Convocation, I am surer that God speaks to me, then at home, in any private inspiration. For, as the Congregation besieges God in public prayers, Agmine facto, so the Holy Ghost casts a net over the whole Congregation, in this Ordinance of preaching, and catches all that break not out.

If he be come into thee, he is come to reprove thee; to make thee reprove thy self; But do that, Cum vencrit, when the Holy Ghost is come. If thou have been slack in the outward acts of Religion, and findest that thou art the worse thought of amongst men, for that respect, & the more open to some penal Laws, for those omissions, and for these reasons only beginnest to correct, and reprove thy self, this is a reproof, Antequam Spiritus vener it, before the Holy Ghost is come into thee, or hath breathed upon thee, and inanimated thine actions. If the powerfulness, and the piercing of the mercies of thy Savior, have sometimes, in the preaching thereof, entendered and melted thy heart, and yet upon the confidence of the readiness, and easiness of that mercy, thou return to thy vomit, to the re-pursuit of those half-repented sins, and thinkest it time enough to go forward upon thy death-bed, this is a reproof Postquam abierit Spiritus, After the Holy Ghost is departed from thee. If the burden of thy sins oppress thee, if thou beest ready to cast thy self from the Pinacle of the Temple, from the participation of the comforts afforded thee in the Absolution, and Sacraments of the Church, If this appear to thee in a kind of humility, and reverence to the Majesty of God, That thou darest not come into his sight, not to his table, not to speak to him in prayer, whom thou hast so infinitely offended, this is a reproof, Cum Spiritus Sanctus simulatur, when the Holy Ghost is counterfeited, when Satan is transformed into an Angel of light, and makes thy dismayed conscience believe, that that affection, which is truly a higher Treason against God, then all thy other sins, (which is, a diffident suspecting of Gods mercy) is such a reverend fear, and trembling as he looks for.

Reprove thy self; but do it by convincing, not by a down-right stupefaction of the conscience; but by a consideration of the nature of thy sin, and a contemplation of the infinite proportion between God and thee, and so between that sin and the mercy of God; for, thou canst not be so absolutely, so entirely, so essentially sinful, as God is absolutely, and entirely, and essentially merciful. Do what thou canst, there is still some goodness in thee; that nature that God made, is good still: Do God what he will, he cannot strip himself, not divest himself of mercy. If thou couldst do as much as God can pardon, thou wert a Manichaean God, a God of evil, as infinite as the God of goodness is. Do it, Cum venerit Spiritus, when the Holy Ghost pleads on thy side; not cum venerit homo, not when mans reason argues for thee, and says, It were injustice in God, to punish one for another, the soul for the body: Much less Cum venerit inimicus homo, when the Devil pleads, and pleads against thee, that thy sins are greater then God can forgive. Reprove any over-bold presumption, that God cannot forsake thee, with remembering who it was that said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Even Christ himself could apprehend a dereliction. Reprove any distrust in God, with remembering to whom it was said, Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso; Even the thief himself, who never saw him, never met him, but at both their executions, was carryed up with him, the first day of his acquaintance. If either thy cheerfulness, or thy sadness be conceived of the Holy Ghost, there is a good ground of thy Noli timere, fear neither. So the Angel proceeded with Joseph, Fear not to take Mary, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. Fear not thou, that a chearefulness and alacrity in using Gods blessings, fear not that a moderate delight in music, in conversation, in recreations, shall be imputed to thee for a fault, for, it is conceived by the Holy Ghost, and is the off-spring of a peaceful conscience. Embrace therefore his working, Qui omnia opera nostra operatus est nobis, Thou, O Lord, hast wrought all our works in us; And whose working none shall be able to frustrate in us; Operabitur, & quis avertit? I will work, and who shall let it? And as the Son concurred with the Father, and the Holy Ghost with the Son, in working in our behalf, so Operemur & nos, let us also work out our Salvation with fear and trembling, by reproving the errors in our understanding, and the perversenesses of our conversation, that way, in which the Holy Ghost is our guide, by reproving, that is, chiding and convincing the conscience, but still with comfort, that is, stedfast application of the merits of Christ Jesus.

Serm. XXXVII. Preached upon Whitsunday.

JOHN 16.8, 9, 10, 11.

And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. Of sin, because ye believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgement, because the Prince of this world is judged.

IN a former Sermon upon these words, we have established this, That the Person whom our Savior promises here, being by himself promised, in the verse before the text, in the name and quality of The Comforter, All that this Person is to do in this text, is to be done so, as the World, upon which it is to be done, may receive comfort in it. Therefore this word, Reproof admitting a double signification, one by way of authority, as it is a rebuke, an increpation, the other as it is a convincing by argument, by way of instruction, and information, because the first way cannot be applied to all the parts of this text, and to all that the Holy Ghost is to do upon the world, (for, howsoever he may rebuke the world of sin, he cannot be said to rebuke it of righteousness, and of judgement) according to S. Augustines later interpretation of these words, (for in one place of his works, he takes this word, Reproof, in the harder sense, for rebuke, but in another, in the milder) we have and must pursue the second signification of the word, That the Holy Ghost shall reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgement, by convincing the world, by making the world confess and acknowledge all that that the Holy Ghost intends in all these. And this manifestation, and this conviction in these three, will be our parts. In the first of which, That the Holy Ghost shall Reprove, that is, convince, the world of sin, we shall first look how all the world is under sin; and then, whether the Holy Ghost, being come, have convinced all the world, made all the world see that it is so; and in these two inquisitions, we shall determine that first branch.

For the first, (for, of the other two we shall reach you the boughs anon, when you come to gather the fruit, and lay open the particulars, then when we come to handle them) That all the world is under sin, and knows it not, (for this Reproof, Elenchus, is, (says the Philosopher) Syllogismus contra contraria opinantem, An argument against him that is of a contrary opinion) we condole first the misery of this Ignorance, for, Quid miserius misero, non miser ante seipsum? What misery can be so great, as to be ignorant, insensible of our own misery? Every act done in such an ignorance as we might overcome, is a new sin; And it is not only a new practise from the Devil, but it is a new punishment from God; Iussisti Domine, & sic est, ut poena sit sibi omnis inordinatus animus, Every sinner is an Executioner upon himself; and he is so by Gods appointment, who punishes former sins with future. This then is the miserable state of the world, It might know, and does not, that it is wholly under an inundation, a deluge of sin. For, sin is a transgression of some Law, which, he that sins may know himself to be bound by: For, if any man could be exempt from all Law, he were impeccable, he could not sin; And if he could not possibly have any knowledge of the Law, it were no Law to him.

Now under the transgression of what Law lyes all the World? For the positive Laws of the States in which we live, a man may keep them, according to the intention of them that made those Laws; which is all that is required in any humane Law; (to keep it, if not according to the letter, yet according to the intention of the Law-maker) Nay it is not only possible, but easy to do so; Angusta innocentia ad legem bonum esse, (says the moral mans holy Ghost, Seneca) It is but a narrow and a shallow honesty, to be no honester then the Law forces him to be. Thus then, in violating the Laws of the State, all the World is not under sin.

If we pass from Laws merely humane, (though, in truth, scarce any just Law is so, merely humane, for God, that commands obedience to humane Laws, hath a hand in the making of them) to those ceremonial, and judicial Laws, which the Jews received immediately from God, (in which respect they may be called divine Laws, though they were but local and but temporary) which were in such a number, as that, though penal Laws in some States be so many, and so heavy, as that they serve only for snares, and springs upon the people, yet they are no where equal to the ceremonial and judicial Laws, which lay upon the Jews; yet even for these Laws S. Paul says of himself, That touching that righteousness which is in the Law, he was blameless. Thus therefore (in violating ceremonial or judicial Laws) all the World is not under sin, both because all the World was not bound by that Law, and some in the World did keep it.

But in two other respects it is; first, That there is a Law of Nature that passes through all the World, a Law in the heart; and of the breach of this, no man can be always ignorant. As every man hath a devil in himself, Spontaneum Daemonem, A Devil of his own making, some particular sin that transports him, so every man hath a kind of God in himself, such a conscience, as sometimes reproves him. Carry we this consideration a little higher, and we may see herein, some verification, at least, some useful application of Origens extreme error. He thought, that at last, after infinite revolutions, (as all other substances should be) even the Devil himself should be (as it were) sucked and swallowed into God, and there should remain nothing at last, (as there was nothing else at first) but only God; (not by an annihilation of the Creature, that any thing should come to nothing, but by this absorption, by a transmigration of all Creatures into God, that God should be all, and all should be God) So in our case, That which is the sinners devil, becomes his God; That very sin which hath possessed him, by the excess of that sin, or, by some loss, or pain, or shame following that sin, occasions that reproof and remorse, that withdraws him from that sin. So all the world is under sin, because they have a Law in themselves, and a light in themselves.

And it is so in a second respect, That all being derived from Adam, Adams sin is derived upon all. Only that one man, that was not naturally deduced from Adam, Christ Jesus, was guilty of no sin; All others are subject to that malediction, Vae genti peccatrici, Wo to this sinful World. God made man Inexterminabilem, says the Wiseman, undisseisible, unexpellible; such, as he could not be thrust out of his Immortality, whether he would or no: for, that was mans first immortality, Posse non mori, That he needed not have died. When man killed himself, and threw upon all his posterity the morte morieris, that we must dye, and that Death is Stipendium peccati, The wages of sin, and that Anima quae peccaverit, ipsa morietur, that That soul, and only that soul that sins, shall dye, Since we see the punishment fall upon all, we are sure the fault cleaves to all too; all do dye, therefore all do sin. And though this Original sin that over-flows us all, may in some sense be called peccatum involuntarium, a sin without any elicite act of the Will, (for so it must needs be in Children) and so properly no sin, yet as all our other faculties were, so omnium voluntates in Adam, all our wills were in Adam, and we sinned wilfully, when he did so, and so Original sin is a voluntary sin: Our will is poisoned in the fountain; and, as soon as our will is able to exercise any election, we are willing to sin, as soon as we can, and sorry we can sin no sooner, and sorry no longer: we are willing before the Devil is willing, and willing after the Devil is weary, and seek occasions of temptation, when he presents none. And so, as the breach of the Law of Nature, and as the deluge of Original sin hath surrounded the whole world, the whole world is under sin.

That all the world is so, requires not much proof: But then, does the Holy Ghost, by his comming, reprove, that is, convince the whole world, that it is so? The Holy Ghost is able to do it, and he hath good cause to do it; But does he do it? Is this Cum venerit, when he comes, come? Is he come to this purpose, to make all the world know their sinful condition? God knows they know it not. Howsoever they may have some knowledge of the breach of the Law of Nature, yet they have no knowledge of any remedy after, and so lack all comfort; and therefore this is no knowledge from the Holy Ghost, from the Comforter. And for the knowledge of Original sin, which lies more heavy upon them then upon us, (who have the ease of Baptism, which slackens, and weakens Original sin in us) they are so far from knowing, that that sin is derived from Adam, as that they do not know, that they themselves are derived from Adam; not that there is such a sin, not that there was such an Adam. How then doth the Holy Ghost, who is come according to Christs promise, according to his promise, Reprove, that is, Convince the world of sin, since this (being to be done by the Holy Ghost) implies a knowledge of Christ, and a way of comfort in the doing thereof?

This one word Arguet, He shall reprove, convince, admits three acceptations. First, in the future, as it is here presented, He shall; and so the Cum venerit, When he comes, signifies Antequam abierit, Before he departs. He came at Pentecost, and presently set on foot his Commission, by the Apostles, to reprove, convince the world of sin, and hath proceeded ever since, by their successors, in reducing Nation after Nation; and, before the consummation of the world, before he retire, to rest eternally in the bosom of the Father and the Son, from whom he proceeded, he shall reprove the whole world of sin, that is, bring them to a knowledge, That in the breach of the law of nature, and in the guiltiness of original sin, they are all under a burden, which none of them all, of themselves, can discharge. This work S. Paul seems to hasten sooner: To convince the Jews of their infidelity, he argues thus, Have not they heard the Gospel? They, that is, the Gentiles; and if They, much more You; And that They had heard it, he proves by the application of those words, In omnem terram, Their voice is gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world, That is, the voice of the Apostles, in the preaching of the Gospel.

Hence grew that distraction, and perplexity which we find in the Fathers, Whether it could be truly said, that the Gospel had been preached over all the world in those times. If we number the Fathers, most are of that opinion, That before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, this was fulfilled. Of those that think the contrary, some proceed upon reasons ill grounded; particularly Origen; Quid de Britannis & Germanis, qui nec adhuc audierunt verbum Euangelii? What shall we say of Britanny, and Germany, who have not heard of the Gospel yet? For, before Origens time, (though Origen were 1400. years since) in what darkness soever he mistook us to be, we had a blessed and a glorious discovery of the Gospel of Christ Jesus in this Iland. S. Jerome, who denies this universal preaching of the Gospel before the destruction of the Temple, yet doubts not but that the fulfilling of that prophecy was then in action, and in a great forwardness; I am completum, aut brevi ternimus complendum; Already we see it performed, says he; Or, at least so earnestly pursued, as that it must necessarily, very soon be performed: Nec puto aliquam remanere gentem, quae Christi nomen ignor at; I do not think, (says that Father, more then 1200. years since) that there is any nation that hath not heard of Christ; Et quanquam non habuerit praedicatorem, ex viciais, &c. If they have not had express Preachers themselves, yet from their neighbours they have had some Echoes of this voice, some reflexions of this light.

The later Divines, and the School, that find not this early, and general preaching over the world, to lye in proof, proceed to a more safe way, That there was then Odor Euangelii, A sweet savor of the Gospel issued, though it were not yet arrived to all parts: As if a plentiful and diffusive perfume were set up in a house, we would say The house were perfumed, though that perfume were not yet come to every corner of the house. But not to thrust the world into so narrow a strait, as it is, when a Decree is said to have gone out from Augustus, to tax all the world, (for this was but the Roman world) Nor, That there were men dwelling at Jerusalem, devout men, of every nation under heaven, (for, this was but of nations discovered, and traded withal then) nor, when S. Paul says, That the faith of the Romans was published to the world, (for that was as far as he had gone) those words of our Savior, This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come, have evermore, by all, Ancient and Modern, Fathers and School, Preachers and Writers, Expositors and Controverters, been literally understood, that before the end of the world, the Gospel shall be actually, really, evidently, efectually preached to all nations; and so, Cum venerit, When the holy Ghost comes, that is, Antequam abierit, Before he go, he shall reprove, convince the whole world of sin, and this, as he is a Comforter, by accompanying their knowledge of sin, with the knowledge of the Gospel, for the remission of sins.

It agrees with the nature of goodness to be so diffusive, communicable to all. It agrees with the nature of God, who is goodness, That as all the fountains of the great Deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and so came the flood over all, so there should be Diluvium Spiritus, A flowing out of the holy Ghost upon all, as he promises, Effundam, I will pour it out upon all, and Diluvium gentium, That all nations should flow up unto him. For, this Spirit, Spirat ubi vult, Breathes where it pleases him; and though a natural wind cannot blow East and West, North and South together, this Spirit at once breathes upon the most contrary dispositions, upon the presuming, and upon the despairing sinner; and, in an instant can denizen and naturalize that soul that was an alien to the Covenant, Empale and inlay that soul that was bred upon the Common, amongst the Gentiles, transform that soul, which was a Goat, into a Sheep, unite that soul which was a lost sheep to the fold again, shine upon that soul that sits in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and so melt and pour out that soul that yet understands nothing of the Divine nature, nor of the Spirit of God, that it shall become partaker of the Divine nature, and be the same Spirit with the Lord. When Christ took our flesh, he had not all his Ancestors of the Covenant; he was pleased to come of Ruth, a Moabite, a poor stranger; As he came, so will the holy Ghost go to strangers also. Shall any man murmur, or draw into disputation, why this Spirit doth not breath in all nations at once? or why not sooner then it doth in some? Doth this Spirit fall and rest upon every soul in this Congregation now? May not one man find that he receives him now, and suffer him to go away again? May not another who felt no motion of him now, recollect himself at home, and remember something then, which hath been said now, to the quickening of this Spirit in him there? Since the holy Ghost visits us so, successively, not all at once, not all with an equal establishment, we may safely embrace that acceptation of this word Arguet, He shall, he will, Antequam abierit, Before the end come, Reprove, convince the whole world of sin, by this his way, the way of comfort, the preaching of the Gospel. And that is the first acceptation thereof.

The second acceptation of the word is in the present; not Arguet, He shall, but Arguit, He doth, now he doth reprove all the world. As when the Devil confessed Christ in the Gospel, as when Judas, (who was the Devils Devil, for, he had sold Christ to the Chief-Priests, Mat. 26.14. before Satan entered into him after the Sop, John 13.27.) professed this Gospel, this was not Sine omni impulsu Spiritus Sancti, Altogether without the motion of the Holy Ghost, who had his ends, and his purposes therein, to draw testimonies for Christ out of the mouths of his adversaries; so when a natural man comes to be displeased with his own actions, and to discern sin in them, though his natural faculties be the Instruments in these actions, yet the Holy Ghost sets this Instrument in tune, and makes all that is music and harmony in the faculties of this natural man. At Ephesus S. Paul found certain Disciples which were baptized, and when he asked them, Whether they had received the Holy Ghost, they said, That they had not so much as heard that there was a Holy Ghost. So certainly, infinite numbers of men, in those unconverted Nations have the Holy Ghost working in them, though they have never so much as heard that there is a Holy Ghost. When we see any man do any work well, that belongs to the hand, to write, to carve, to play, to do any mechanique office well, do we determine mine our consideration only upon the Instrument, the hand, do we only say, he hath a good, a fit, a well disposed hand for such a work, or do we not rather raise our contemplation to the soul, and her faculties, which enable that hand to do that work? So certainly when a moral man hath any reproof, any sense of sin in himself, the holy Ghost is the intelligence that moves in that sphere, and becomes the soul of his soul, and works that in him primarily, of which, natural faculties, or philosophical instructions, are but ministerial instruments and suppletory assistances after. And not only in the beginning of good actions, but in the prosecution of some evil, the holy Ghost hath an interest, though we discern him not: In the disposing of our sins, the holy Ghost hath a working thus, That when we intended some mischievous sin to morrow, a less sin, some sin of pleasure meets us, and takes hold of us, and diverts us from our first purpose, and so the holy Ghost rescues us from one sin, by suffering us to fall into another. What action soever hath any degree of good, what action soever hath any less evil in it then otherwise it would have had, hath received a working of the holy Ghost, though that man upon whom he hath wrought, knew not his working, nor his name. As we think that we have the differences of seasons, of Winter and Summer, by the natural motion of the Sun, but yet it is not truly by that natural motion, but by a contrary motion of a higher sphere, which draws the Sun against his natural course; (for, if the Sun were left to himself, we should not have these seasons) so if the soul and conscience of a mere natural man have any of these reproofs, and remorses, though perchance fear, or shame, or sickness, or penalties of law, yea though a weariness, and excess of the sin it self, may seem to him to be the thing that reproves him, and that occasions this remorse, because it is the most immediate, and therefore most discernible; yet there is Digitus Dei, The hand of God, and spiritus Spiritus sancti, The breath of the holy Ghost, in all this, who, as a liberal alms-giver sends to persons, that never know who sends, works upon persons, who never know who works. So the holy Ghost reproves all the world of sin; that is, all the reproof, which even the natural man hath, (and every man hath some at sometimes) is from the holy Ghost; and, as in the former sense, the Cum venerit, When he eomes, was Antequam abierit, before he goes, so here the Cum venerit, is Quia adest, because he is always present, and always working.

And then there is a third acceptation, where the Arguet is not in the future, That he shall do it, nor in the present, Arguit, That he doth it now in every natural man, but it is in the time past, Arguit. He hath done it, done it already. And here in this sense, it is not that the holy Ghost shall bring the Gospel before the end, to all Nations, that is, Antequam abierit, Nor that the holy Ghost doth exalt the natural faculties of every man in all his good actions, that is, Quia semper adest, but it is, that he hath infused and imprinted in all their hearts, whom he hath called effectually to the participation of the means of salvation in the true Church, a constant and infallible assurance, that all the world, that is, all the rest of the world which hath not embraced those helps, lies unrecoverably (by any other means then these which we have embraced) under sin, under the weight, the condemnation of sin. So that the comfort of this reproof (as all the reproofs of the holy Ghost in this Text, are given by him in that quality, as he is The Comforter) is not directly, and simply, and presently upon all the world indeed, but upon those whom the holy Ghost hath taken out of this world, to his world in this world, that is, to the Christian Church, them he Reproves, that is Convinces them, establishes, delivers them from all scruples, that they have taken the right way, that they, and only they, are delivered, and all the world beside are still under sin.

When the Holy Ghost hath brought us into the Ark from whence we may see all the world without, sprawling and gasping in the flood, (the flood of sinful courses in the world, and of the anger of God) when we can see this violent flood, (the anger of God) break in at windows, and there devour the licentious man in his sinful embracements, and make his bed of wantonness his death-bed; when we can see this flood (the anger of God) swell as fast as the ambitious man swells, and pursue him through all his titles, and and at last suddenly, and violently wash him away in his own blood, not always in a vulgar, but sometimes in an ignominious death; when we shall see this flood (the flood of the anger of God) over-flow the valley of the voluptuous mans gardens, and orchards, and follow him into his Arbours, and Mounts, and Terasses, and carry him from thence into a bottomless Sea, which no Plummet can sound, (no heavy sadness relieve him) no anchor take hold of, (no repentance stay his tempested and weather-beaten conscience) when we find our selves in this Ark, where we have first taken in the fresh water of Baptism, and then the Bread, and Wine, and Flesh, of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, Then are we reproved, forbidden all scruple, then are we convinced, That as the twelve Apostles shall sit upon twelve seats, and judge the twelve Tribes at the last day; So doth the Holy Ghost make us Judges of all the world now, and inables us to pronounce that sentence, That all but they, who have sincerely accepted the Christian Religion, are still sub peccato, under sin, and without remedy. For we must not weigh God with leaden, or iron, or stone weights, how much land, or metal, or riches he gives one man more then another, but how much grace in the use of these, or how much patience in the want, or in the loss of these, we have above others. When we come to say, Hi in curribus, Hi in equis, nos autem in nomine Domini Dei nostri invocabimus, Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God; Ipsi obligati sunt, & ceciderunt, nos autem surreximus, & erecti sumus, They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen, and stand upright. Obligati sunt, & ceciderunt, They are pinioned and fallen, fettered, and manacled, and so fallen; fallen and there must lie: Nos autem erecti, We are risen, and enabled to stand, now we are up. When we need not fear the mighty, nor envy the rich, Quia signatum super nos lumen vultus tui Domine, Because the light of thy countenance O Lord, is (not only shed, but) lifted up upon us, Quia dedisti laetitiam in corde nostro, Because thou hast put gladness in our heart, more then in the time that their corn and their wine increased; when we can thus compare the Christian Church with other States, and spiritual blessings with temporal, then hath the Holy Ghost throughly reproved us, that is, absolutely convinced us, that there is no other foundation but Christ, no other name for salvation but Jesus, and that all the world but the true professors of that name, are still under sin, under the guiltiness of sin. And these be the three acceptations of this word, Arguet, He shall carry the Gospel to all before the end, Arguit, He does work upon the faculties of the natural man every minute, and Arguit again, He hath manifested to us, that that they who go not the same way, perish. And so we pass to the second Reproof and Conviction, He shall reprove the world, De Iustitia, Of Rightcousness.

This word, Iustificare, To justify, may be well considered three ways; First as it is verbum vulgare, as it hath an ordinary and common use; And then as it is verbum forense, as it hath a civil and a legal use; And lastly, as it is verbum Ecclesiasticum, as it hath a Church use, as it hath been used amongst Divines. The first way, To justify, is to averre, and maintain any thing to be true, as we ordinarily say to that purpose, I will justify it; and in that sense the Psalmist says, Iustificata judicia Domini in semetipso, The judgements of the Lord justify themselves, prove themselves to be just: And in this sense men are said to justify God, The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God, but all the people, and the Publicans justified God, that is, testified for him. In the second way, as it is a judicial word, To justify is only a verdict of Not guilty, and a Judgement entered upon that, That there is not evidence enough against him, and therefore he is justified, that is, acquited. In this sense is the word in the Proverbs, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Now neither of these two ways are we justified; we cannot be averred to be just; God himself cannot say so of us; of us, as we are we: Non justificabo impium, I will not justify the wicked. God will not say it, God cannot do it; A wicked man cannot be, he cannot, by God, be said to be just; they are incompatible, contradictory things. Nor the second way neither; consider us standing in judgement before God, no man can be acquited for want of evidence; Enter not into Judgement with thy servant, for, in thy sight shall none that liveth be justified. For, if we had another soul to give the Devil, to bribe him, to give no evidence against this, if we had another iron to sear up our consciences against giving of evidence against our selves then, yet who can take out of Gods hands those examinations, and those evidences, which he hath registered exactly, as often as we have thought, or said, or done any thing offensive to him?

It is therefore only in the third sense of this word, as it is Verbum Ecclesiasticum, A word which S. Paul, and the other Scriptures, and the Church, and Ecclesiastical Writers have used to express our Righteousness, our Justification by: And that is only by the way of pardon, and remission of sins, sealed to us in the blood of Christ Jesus; that what kind of sinners soever we were before, yet that is applied to us, Such and such you were before, But ye are justified by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Now the reproof of the World, the convincing of the World, the bringing of the World to the knowledge, that as they are all sub peccato, under sin, by the sin of another, so there is a righteousness of another, that must prevail for all their Pardons, this reproof, this convincing, this instruction of the World is thus wrought: That the whole World consisting of Jews and Gentiles, when the Holy Ghost had done enough for the convincing of both these, enough for the overthrowing of all arguments, which could either be brought by the Jew for the righteousness of the Law, or by the Gentile for the righteousness of Works, (all which is abundantly done by the Holy Ghost, in the Epistles of S. Paul, and other Scriptures) when the Holy Ghost had possessed the Church of God, of these all-sufficient Scriptures, Then the promise of Christ was performed, and then, though all the world were not presently converted, yet it was presently convinced by the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost had provided in those Scriptures, of which he is the Author, that nothing could be said in the Worlds behalf, for any other Righteousness, then by way of pardon in the blood of Christ.

Thus much the Holy Ghost tells us; And if we will search after more then he is pleased to tell us, that is to rack the Holy Ghost, to over-labor him, to examine him upon such Intergatories, as belongs not to us, to minister unto him. Curious men are not content to know, That our debt is paid by Christ, but they will know farther, whether Christ have paid it with his own hands, or given us money to pay it our selves; whether his Righteousness, before it do us any good, be not first made ours by Imputation, or by Inhesion; They must know whose money, and then what money, Gold or Silver, whether his active obedience in fulfilling the Law, or his passive obedience in shedding his blood. But all the Commission of the Holy Ghost here, is, To reprove the World of righteousness, To convince all Sects in the World, that shall constitute any other righteousness, then a free pardon by the incorruptible, and invaluable, and inexhaustible blood of Christ Jesus. By that pardon, his Righteousness is ours: How it is made so, or by what name we shall call our title, or estate, or interest in his Righteousness, let us not enquire. The terms of satisfaction in Christ, of acceptation in the Father, of imputation to us, or inhesion in us, are all pious and religious phrases, and something they express; but yet none of these, Satisfaction, Acceptation, Imputation, Inhesion, will reach home to satisfy them, that will needs inquire, Quo modo, by what means Christs Righteousness is made ours. This is as far as we need go, Ad eundem modum justi sumus coram Deo, quo cor am eo Christus fuit peccator, So as God made Christ sin for us, we are made the righteousness of God in him: so; but how was that? He that can find no comfort in this Doctrine, till he find How Christ was made sin, and we righteousness, till he can express Quo modo, robs himself of a great deal of peaceful refreshing, which his conscience might receive, in tasting the thing it self in a holy and humble simplicity, without vexing his own, or other mens consciences, or troubling the peace of the Church with impertinent and inextricable curiosities.

Those questions are not so impertinent, but they are in a great part unnecessary, which are moved about the cause of our righteousness, our justification. Alas, let us be content that God is the cause, and seek no other. We must never slacken that protestation, That good works are no cause of our justification. But we must always keep up a right signification of that word, Cause. For, Faith it self is no cause; no such cause, as that I can merit Heaven, by faith. What do I merit of the King, by believing that he is the undoubted Heir to all his Dominions, or by believing that he governs well, if I live not in obedience to his Laws. If it were possible to believe aright, and yet live ill, my faith should do me no good. The best faith is not worth Heaven; The value of it grows Ex pacto, That God hath made that Covenant, that Contract, Crede & vives, only believe and thou shalt be safe. Faith is but one of those things, which in several senses are said to justify us. It is truly saîd of God, Deus solus justificat, God only justifies us; Efficienter, nothing can effect it, nothing can work towards it, but only the mere goodness of God. And it is truly said of Christ, Christus solus justificat, Christ only justifies us; Materialiter, nothing enters into the substance and body of the ransom for our sins, but the obedience of Christ. It is also truly said, Sola fides justificat, Only faith justifies us; Instrumentaliter, nothing apprehends, nothing applies the merit of Christ to thee, but thy faith. And lastly it is as truly said, Sola opera justificant, Only our works justify us; Declaratoriè, Only thy good life can assure thy conscience, and the World, that thou art justified. As the efficient justification, the gracious purpose of God had done us no good, without the material satisfaction, the death of Christ had followed; And as that material satisfaction, the death of Christ would do me no good, without the instrumental justification, the apprehension by faith; so neither would this profit without the declaratory justification, by which all is pleaded and established. God enters not into our material justification, that is only Christs; Christ enters not into our instrumental justification, that is only faiths; Faith enters not into our declaratory justification, (for faith is secret) and declaration belongs to works. Neither of these can be said to justify us alone, so, as that we may take the chain in pieces, and think to be justified by any one link thereof; by God without Christ, by Christ without faith, or by faith without works; And yet every one of these justifies us alone, so, as that none of the rest enter into that way and that means, by which any of these are said to justify us.

Consider we then our selves, as men fallen down into a dark and deep pit; and justification as a chain, consisting of these four links, to be let down to us, and let us take hold of that link that is next us, A good life, and keep a fast and inseparable hold upon that; for though in that sense of which we spoke, Fides justificat sola, Only faith do justify, yet it is not true in any sense, Fides est sola, that there is any faith, where there is nothing but faith. God comes downward to us; but we must go upward to God; not to get above him in his unrevealed Decrees, but to go up towards him, in laying hold upon that lowest link; that as the holy Ghost shall reprove, that is, convince the world, that there is no other righteousness but that of Christ, so he may enable you to pass a judgement upon your selves, and to testify to the world that you have apprehended that righteousness; Which is that that is principally intended in the third and last part, That the holy Ghost, when he comes, shall reprove the World, as of sin, & of rightcousness, so of judgment.

After those two convictions of the World, that is, Jew, and Gentile, first, that they are all under sin, and so in a state of condemnation; And secondly, that there is no righteousness, no justification to be had to the Jew by the Law, nor to the Gentile in Nature, but that there is Righteousness, and Justification enough for all the world, Jew, and Gentile in Christ; In the third place, the Holy Ghost is to reprove, that is, still to convince the world, to acquaint the world with this mystery, That there is a means settled to convey this Righteousness of Christ upon the World, and then an account to be taken of them, who do not lay hold upon this means; for, both these are intended in this word Judgement, He shall reprove them, prove to them this double signification of judgement; first, that there is a judgement of order, of rectitude, of government, to which purpose he hath established the Church; And then a judgement of account, and of sentence, and beatification upon them, who did; and malediction upon them who did not apply themselves to the first judgement, that is, to those orderly ways and means of embracing Christs righteousness, which were offered them in the Church. God hath ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight; Let all things be done decently and in order for, God is the God of order, and not of confusion. And this order, is this judgement; The Court, the Tribunal, the Judgment seat, in which all mens consciences and actions must be regulated and ordered, the Church. The perfectest order was Innocency; that first integrity in which God made all. All was disordered by sin: For, in sin, and the author of sin, Satan, there is no order, no conformity; nothing but disorder, and confusion. Though the School do generally acknowledge a distinction of orders in the ministering Spirits of Heaven, now, Angels and Archangels, and others, yet they dispute, and doubt, and (in a great part) deny that this distinction of orders was before the fall of those Angels; for, they confess this distribution into orders, to have been upon their submission, and recognition of Gods government, which recognition was their very confirmation, and after that they could not fall. And though those fallen Angels, the Devils, concur in an unan me consent to ruin us, (for, Bellum Daemonum, summa pax hominum) we should agree better, if devils did fall out, yet this is not such a peace, such an unity, as gives them any peace, or relaxation, or intermission of anguish, but, as they are the Authors of our confusion, so they are in a continual confusion themselves.

There is no order in the Author of sin; and therefore the God of order cannot, directly nor indirectly, positively nor consecutively, be the Author of sin. There is no order in sin it self. The nature, the definition of sin, is disorder. Dectum, factum, concupitum contra legem; God hath ordered a law, and sin is an act; if we cannot do that, it is a word; if we dare not do that, it is a desire against that law. Forma peccati, deformitas; we can assign sin no other form, but deformity. So that our affecting of any thing, as our end, which God hath not proposed for our end; or our affecting of true ends, by any other ways then he hath proposed, this is a disordering of Gods providence, as much as we can, and so a sin. For the School resolves conveniently, probably, that that first sin that ever was committed, (that peccatum praegnans, peccatum prolificum, That womb and matrice of all sins that have been committed since) The sin of the Angels, it was a disorder, an obliquity, a deformity, not in not going to the right end, (for, Illud quaesiverunt, ad quod pervenissent, si stetissent, says Aquinas out of S. August. They desired no more then they were made for, and should have come to, if they had stood) but their sin was in affecting a right end a wrong way, in desiring to come to their appointed perfection by themselves, to subsist of themselves, & to be independent, without any farther need of God, for that was their desire, To be like the most High, To depend upon nothing, but be all-sufficient to themselves. So they disordered Gods purpose; and when they had once broke that chain, when they had once put that harmony out of tune, then came in disorder, discord, confusion, and that is sin.

Gods work is perfect; How appears that? For all his ways are Judgement, says Moses in his victorious song. This is Perfection, That he hath established an order, a judgement. Which is not only that order which S. Augustine defines, Ordo est, per quem omnia aguntur, quae Deus constituit, The order and the judgement by which God governs the world, according to his purpose, (which judgement is Providence) But (as the same Father says in the same book) it is Ordo, quem si tenueris in vita, perdacet ad Deum, It is an order and a judgement which he hath manifested to thee, (for the order and judgement of his providence, he doth not always manifest) by obedience to which order and judgement, thou mayst be saved. The same Father speaking of this order and judgement of providence, says, Nihil ordini contrarium, Nothing can be contrary to that order; He is in a holy rapture transported with that consideration, That even disorders are within Gods order; There is in the order and judgement of his providence an admission, a permission of disorders: This unsearchable proceeding of God, carries him to that passionate exclamation, O sipossem dicere quod vellem! O that I were able to express my self! Roge, ubi ubi estis verba, suecurrite; Where, where are those words which I had wont to have at command? why do ye not serve me, help me now? Now, when I would declare this, Bona & mala sunt in ordine, That even disorders are done in order, that even our sins some way or other fall within the providence of God. But that is not the order, nor judgement which the holy Ghost is sent to manifest to the world. The holy Ghost works best upon them, which search least into Gods secret judgements and proceedings. But the order and judgement we speak of, is an order, a judgement-seat established, by which, every man, howsoever oppressed with the burden of sin, may, in the application of the promises of the Gospel by the Ordinance of preaching, and in the seals thereof in the participation of the Sacraments, be assured, that he hath received his Absolution, his Remission, his Pardon, and is restored to the innocency of his Baptism, nay to the integrity which Adam had before the fall, nay to the righteousness of Christ Jesus himself. In the creation God took red earth, and then breathed a soul into it: When Christ came to a second creation, to make a Church, he took earth, men, red earth, men made partakers of his blood; (for, Ecclesiam quaesivit, & acquisivit, He desired a Church, and he purchased a Church; but by a blessed way of Simony; Add medium acquisitionis, Sanguine acquisivit, He purchased a Church with his own blood) And when he had made this body, in calling his Apostles, then he breathed the soul into them, his Spirit, and that made up all: Quod insufflavit Dominus Apostolis, & dixit, Accipite Spiritum sanctum, Ecclesiae potestas collata est, Then when Christ breathed that Spirit into them, he constituted the Church. And this power of Remission of sins, is that order, and that judgement which Christ himself calls by the name of the most orderly frame in this, or the next world, A Kingdom, Dispono vobis regnum, I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.

Now, Faciunt favos & vespa, faciunt Ecclesias & Marcionitae, As Wasps make combs, but empty ones, so do Heretics Churches, but frivolous ones, ineffectual ones. And, as we told you before, That errors and disorders are as well in ways, as inends, so may we deprive our selves of the benefit of this judgement, The Church, as well in circumstances, as in substances, as well in opposing discipline, as doctrine. The holy Ghost reproves thee, convinces thee, of judgement, that is, offers thee the knowledge that such a Church there is; A Jordan to wash thine original leprosy in Baptism; A City upon a mountain, to enlighten thee in the works of darkness; a continual application of all that Christ Jesus said, and did, and suffered, to thee. Let no soul say, she can have all this at Gods hands immediately, and never trouble the Church; That she can pass her pardon between God and her, without all these formalities, by a secret repentance. It is true, beloved, a true repentance is never frustrate: But yet, if thou wilt think thy self a little Church, a Church to thy self, because thou hast heard it said, That thou art a little world, a world in thy self, that figurative, that metaphorical representation shall not save thee. Though thou beest a world to thy self, yet if thou have no more corn, nor oil, nor milk, then grows in thy self, or flows from thy self, thou wilt starve; Though thou be a Church in thy fancy, if thou have no more seals of grace, no more absolution of sin, then thou canst give thy self, thou wilt perish. Per solam Ecclesiam sacrificium libenter accipit Deus: Thou mayst be a Sacrifice in thy chamber, but God receives a Sacrifice more cheerfully at Church. Sola, quae pro errantibus fiducialiter intercedit, Only the Church hath the nature of a surety; Howsoever God may take thine own word at home, yet he accepts the Church in thy behalf, as better security. Join therefore ever with the Communion of Saints; Et cum membrum sis ejus corporis, quod loquitur omnibus linguis, crede te omnibus linguis loqui, Whilst thou art a member of that Congregation, that speaks to God with a thousand tongues, believe that thou speakest to God with all those tongues. And though thou know thine own prayers unworthy to come up to God, because thou liftest up to him an eye, which is but now withdrawn from a licentious glancing, and hands which are guilty yet of unrepented uncleannesses, a tongue that hath but lately blasphemed God, a heart which even now breaks the walls of this house of God, and steps home, or runs abroad upon the memory, or upon the new plotting of pleasurable or profitable purposes, though this make thee think thine own prayers uneffectual, yet believe that some honester man then thy self stands by thee, and that when he prays with thee, he prays for thee; and that, if there be one righteous man in the Congregation, thou art made the more acceptable to God by his prayers; and make that benefit of this reproof, this conviction of the holy Ghost, That he convinces thee De judicio, assures thee of an orderly Church established for thy relief, and that the application of thy self to this judgement, The Church, shall enable thee to stand upright in that other judgement, the last judgement, which is also enwrapped in the signification of this word of our Text, Judgement, and is the conclusion for this day.

As God begun all with judgement, (for he made all things in measure, number, and weight) as he proceeded with judgement, in erecting a judicial seat for our direction, and correction, the Church, so he shall end all with judgement, The final, and general judgement, at the Resurrection; which he that believes not, believes nothing; not God; for, He that cometh to God (that makes any step towards him) must believe, Deum remuner atorem, God, and God in that notion, as he is a Rewarder; Therefore there is judgement. But was this work left for the Holy Ghost? Did not the natural man that knew no Holy Ghost, know this? Truly, all their fabulous Divinity, all their Mythology, their Minos, and their Rhadamanthus, tasted of such a notion, as a judgement. And yet the first planters of the Christian Religion found it hardest to fixe this root of all other articles, That Christ should come again to judgement. Miserable and froward men! They would believe it in their fables, and would not believe it in the Scriptures; They would believe it in the nine Muses, and would not believe it in the twelve Apostles; They would believe it by Apollo, and they would not believe it by the Holy Ghost; They would be saved Poetically, and fantastically, and would not reasonably, and spiritually; By Copies, and not by Originals; by counterfeit things at first deduced by their Authors, out of our Scriptures, and yet not by the word of God himself. Which Tertullian apprehends and reprehends in his time, when he says, Praescribimus adulteris nostris, We prescribe above them, which counterfeit our doctrine, for we had it before them, and they have but rags, and those torn from us. Fabulae immissae, quae fidem infirmarent veritatis; They have brought part of our Scriptures into their Fables, that all the rest might seem but Fables too. Gehennam praedicantes & iudicium, ridemur, decachinnamur, They laugh at us when we preach of hell, and judgement, Et tamen Elysii campi fidem praeoccupaverunt, And yet they will needs be believed when they talk of their Elysian fields. Fideliora nostra, quorum imagines fidem inveniunt, Is it not safer trusting to our substance, then their shadows; To our doctrine of the judgement, in the Scriptures, then their allusions in their Poets?

So far Tertullian considers this; But to say the truth, and all the truth, Howsoever the Gentiles had some glimmering of a judgement, that is, an account to be made of our actions after this life, yet of this judgement which we speak of now, which is a general Judgement of all together, And that judgement to be executed by Christ, and to be accompanied with a Resurrection of the body, of this, the Gentiles had no intimation, this was left wholly for the holy Ghost to manifest. And of this, all the world hath received a full convincing from him, because he hath delivered to the world those Scriptures, which do so abundantly, so irrefragably establish it. And therefore, Memorare novissima & non peccabis; Remember the end, and thou shalt never do amisse. Non dicitur memorare primordia, aut media; If thou remember the first reproof, that all are under sin, that may give occasion of excusing, or extenuating, How could I avoid that, that all men do? If thou remember the second reproof, That there is a righteousness communicable to all that sin, that may occasion so bold a confidence, Since I may have so easy a pardon, what haste of giving over yet? But Memorare novissima, consider that there is a judgement, and that that judgement is the last thing that God hath to do with man, consider this, and thou wilt not sin, not love sin, not do the same sins to morrow thou didst yester-day, as though this judgement were never the nearer, but that as a thousand years are as one day with God, so thy threescore years should be as one night with thee, one continual sleep in the practise of thy beloved sin. Thou wilt not think so, if thou remember this judgement.

Now, in respect of the time after this judgement, (which is Eternity) the time between this and it cannot be a minute; and therefore think thy self at that Tribunal, that judgement now: Where thou shalt not only hear all thy sinful works, and words, and thoughts repeated, which thou thy self hadst utterly forgot, but thou shalt hear thy good works, thine alms, thy comming to Church, thy hearing of Sermons given in evidence against thee, because they had hypocrisy mingled in them; yea thou shalt find even thy repentance to condemn thee, because thou madest that but a door to a relapse. There thou shalt see, to thine inexpressible terror, some others cast down into hell, for thy sins; for those sins which they would not have done, but upon thy provocation. There thou shalt see some that occasioned thy sins, and accompanied thee in them, and sinned them in a greater measure then thou didst, taken up into heaven, because in the way, they remembered the end, and thou shalt sink under a less weight, because thou never lookedst towards him that would have eased thee of it. Quis non cogitans haec in desperationis rotetur abyssum? Who can once think of this and not be tumbled into desperation? But who can think of it twice, maturely, and by the Holy Ghost, and not find comfort in it, when the same light that shows me the judgement, shows me the Judge too? Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men; but knowing the comforts too, we importune men to this consideration, That as God preceeds with judgement in this world, to give the issue with the temptation, and competent strength with the affliction, as the Wiseman expresses it, That God punishes his enemies with deliberation, and requesting, (as our former Translation had it) and then with how great circumspection will he judge his children? So he gives us a holy hope, That as he hath accepted us in this first judgement, the Church, and made us partakers of the Word and Sacraments there, So he will bring us with comfort to that place, which no tongue but the tongue of S. Paul, and that moved by the Holy Ghost, could describe, and which he does describe so gloriously, and so pathetically, You are come unto Mount Sion, and to the City of the living God, The heavenly Jerusalem, And to an innumerable company of Angels, To the general Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things then the blood of Abel. And into this blessed and inseparable society, The Father of lights, and God of all comfort, give you an admission now, and an irremoveable possession hereafter, for his only Sons only sake, and by the working of his blessed Spirit, whom he sends to work in you, This reproof of Sin, of Righteousness, and of Judgement. Amen.

Serm. XXXVIII. Preached upon Trinity-Sunday.

2 COR. 1.3.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.

THere was never Army composed of so many several Nations, the Tore of Babel it self, in the confusion of tongues, gave not so many several sounds as are uttered and mustered against God, and his Religion. The Atheist denies God; for, though David call it a foolish thing to do so, (The fool hath said it in his heart) And though David speak it in the singular number, The fool, as though there were not many so very fools, as to say, and to say in their heart, There is no God, yet some such fools there are, that say it in their very heart, and have made shift to think so indeed; But for such fools as say it in their actions, that is, that live as though there were no God, Stultorum plena sunt omnia; We have seen fools in the Court, and fools in the Cloister, fools that take no calling, and fools in all callings that can be taken, fools that hear, and fools that preach, fools at general Councells, and fools at Council-tables, Stultorum plena sunt omnia, such fools as deny God, so far, as to leave him out, are not in Davids singular number, but super-abound in every profession: So that Davids manner of expressing it, is not so much singular, as though there were but one, or few such fools, but emphatical, because that fool, that any way denies God, is the fool, the veryest fool of all kinds of foolishness.

Now, as God himself, so his religion amongst us hath many enemies; Enemies that deny God, as Atheists; And enemies that multiply gods, that make many gods, as Idolaters; And enemies that deny those divers persons in the Godhead, which they should confess, The Trinity, as Jews and Turks: So in his Religion, and outward worship, we have enemies that deny God his House, that deny us any Church, any Sacrament, any Priesthood, any Salvation, as Papists; And enemies that deny Gods house any furniture, any stuff, any beauty, any ornament, any order, as non-Conformitans; And enemies that are glad to see Gods house richly furnished for a while, that they may come to the spoil thereof, as sacrilegious usurpers of Gods part. But for Atheistical enemies, I call not upon them here, to answer me; Let them answer their own terrors, and horrors alone at mid-night, and tell themselves whence that proceeds, if there be no God. For Papistical enemies, I call not upon them to answer me; Let them answer our Laws as well as our Preaching, because theirs is a religion mixed as well of Treason, as of Idolatry. For our refractary, and schismatical enemies, I call not upon them to answer me neither; Let them answer the Church of God, in what nation, in what age was there ever seen a Church, of that form, that they have dreamt, and believe their own dream? And for our sacrilegious enemies, let them answer out of the body of Story, and give one example of prosperity upon sacrilege.

But leaving all these to that which hath heretofore, or may hereafter be said of them, I have bent my meditations, for those days, which this Term will afford, upon that, which is the character and mark of all Christians in general, The Trinity, the three Persons in one God; not by way of subtle disputation, as to persons that doubted, but by way of godly declaration, as to persons disposed to make use of it; not as though I feared your faith needed it, nor as though I hoped I could make your reason comprehend it, but because I presume, that the consideration of God the Father, and his Power, and the sins directed against God, in that notion, as the Father; and the consideration of God the Son, and his Wisdom, and the sins against God, in that apprehension, the Son; and the consideration of God the Holy Ghost, and his Goodness, and the sins against God, in that acceptation, may conduce, as much, at least, to our edification, as any Doctrine, more controverted. And of the first glorious person of this blessed Trinity, the Almighty Father, is this Text, Blessed be God, &c.

In these words, the Apostle having tasted, having been fed with the sense of the power, and of the mercies of God, in his gracious deliverance, delivers a short Catechism of all our duties: So short, as that there is but one action, Benedicamus, Let us bless; Nor but one object to direct that blessing upon, Benedicamus Deum, Let us bless God. It is but one God, to exclude an Idolatrous multiplicity of Gods, But it is one God notified and manifested to us, in a triplicity of persons; of which, the first is literally expressed here, That he is a Father. And him we consider In Paternitate aeterna, As he is the eternal Father, Even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, says our Text; And then In Paternitate interna, as we have the Spirit of Adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father; As he is Pater miserationum, The Father of mercies; And as he expresses these mercies, by the seal and demonstration of comfort, as he is the God of comfort, and Totius consolationis, Of all comfort. Receive the sum of this, and all that arises from it, in this short Paraphrase; The duty required of a Christian, is Blessing, Praise, Thanksgiving; To whom? To God, to God only, to the only God. There is but one; But this one God is such a tree, as hath divers boughs to shadow and refresh thee, divers branches to shed fruit upon thee, divers armes to spread out, and reach, and embrace thee. And here he visits thee as a Father: From all eternity a Father of Christ Jesus, and now thy Father in him in that which thou needest most, A Father of mercy, when thou wast in misery; And a God of comfort, when thou foundest no comfort in this world, And a God of all comfort, even of spiritual comfort, in the anguishes, and distresses of thy conscience. Blessed be God, even the Father, &c.

First then, the duty which God, by this Apostle, requires of man, is a duty arising out of that, which God hath wrought upon him: It is not a consideration, a contemplation of God sitting in heaven, but of God working upon the earth; not in the making of his eternal Decree there, but in the execution of those Decrees here; not in saying, God knows who are his, and therefore they cannot fail, but in saying in a rectified conscience, God, by his ordinary marks, hath let me know that I am his, and therefore I look to my ways, that I do not fall. S. Paul out of a religious sense what God had done for him, comes to this duty, to bless him.

There is not a better Grammar to learn, then to learn how to bless God, and therefore it may be no levity, to use some Grammar terms herein. God blesses man Dativè, He gives good to him; man blesses God Optativè, He wishes well to him; and he blesses him Vocativè, He speaks well of him. For, though towards God, as well as towards man, real actions are called blessings, (so Abigail called the present which she brought to David, A blessing, and so Naaman called that which he offered to Elisha, A blessing) though real sacrifices to God, and his cause, sacrifices of Alms, sacrifices of Armes, sacrifices of Money, sacrifices of Sermons, advancing a good public cause, may come under the name of blessing, yet the word here, Εὐλογία, is properly a blessing in speech, in discourse, in conference, in words, in praise, in thanks. The dead do not praise thee, says David; The dead (men civilly dead, allegorically dead, dead and buried in an useless silence, in a Cloister, or Colledge, may praise God, but not in words of edification, as it is required here, and they are but dead, and do not praise God so; and God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, of those that delight to praise and bless God, and to declare his goodness.

We represent the Angels to our selves, and to the world with wings, they are able to fly; and yet when Jacob saw them aseending and descending, even those winged Angels had a Ladder, they went by degrees: There is an immediate blessing of God, by the heart, but God requires the tongue too, because that spreads and diffuses his glory upon others too. Calici benedictionis benedicimus, says the Apostle, The cup which we bless, is a cup of blessing; When we have blessed it, according to Christs holy institution, then it derives holy blessings upon us; and when we bless God according to his Commandment, he blesses us according to his promise, and our desire. When God employed Moses, and when he employed Jeremiah, Moses and Jeremiah had no excuse, but the unreadiness of their tongues; he that hath a tongue disposed to Gods service, that will speak all he can, and dares speak all he should to the glory of God, is fit for all. As S. James says, The tongue is but a little member, but beasteth great things; so truly, as little as it is, it does great things towards our salvation. The Son of God, is, verbum, The word; God made us with his word, and with our words we make God so far, as that we make up the mystical body of Christ Jesus with our prayers, with our whole liturgy, and we make the natural body of Christ Jesus applicable to our souls, by the words of Consecration in the Sacrament, and our souls apprehensive, and capable of that body, by the word Preached. Bless him therefore in speaking to him, in your prayers: Bless him in speaking with him, in assenting, in answering that which he says to you in his word: And bless him in speaking of him, in telling one another the good things that he hath done abundantly for you. I will bless the Lord at all times, says David. Is it at all times, says S. Augustine, Cum circumfluunt omnia, at all times, when God blesses me with temporal prosperity? Cum minus nascuntur, cum nata dilabuntur, says that Father, when thy gain ceases for the present, when that that thou hadst formerly got, wasts and perishes, and threatens penury for the future, still bless thou the Lord, Quia ille dat, ille tollit, sed seipsum à benedicente se non tollit; The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, but the Lord never takes away himself from him that delights in blessing his name. Bless, praise, speak; there is the duty, and we have done with that which was our first Part: And bless thou God, which is our second Part, and a Part derived into many Branches. Blessed be God, even, &c.

Here first we see the object of our praises, whom we must bless, Benedict us sit Deus, God. First, Solus Deus, God only, that is, God and not man, and then Deus solus, the only God, that is God, and not many Gods. God only, and not man; not that we may not bless, and wish well to one another, for there is a blessing from God, belongs to that, Benedicam benedicentibus tibi, says God to Abraham, I will bless them that bless thee: Neither is it that we may not bless, that is, give due praise to one another; for as the vices and sins of great persons are not smothered in the Scriptures, so their virtues, and good deeds are published with praise. Noahs drunkenness, and Lots incest is not disguised, Job's righteousness and holy patience is not concealed neither; Do that which is good, says the Apostle, and thou shalt have praise for the same. Neither is it that we may not bless, that is, pray for one another, of what sort soever; for we are commanded to do that, for our superiors; inferiors may bless superiors too; Nor that we should not bless, that is, pray to one another, in petitioning and supplicating our superiors for those things which are committed to their dispensation; for the importunate sutor, the widow, is not blamed in the Gospel for her importunity to the Judge; It is true, the Judge is blamed, for with-holding Justice, till importunity extorted it. But to bless, by praise, or prayer, the man without relation to God, that is, the man, and not God in the man, to determine the glory in the person, without contributing thereby to the glory of God, this is a manner of blessing accursed here, because blessing is radically, fundamentally, originally, here reserved to God, to God only, Benedictus sit Deus, God be blessed.

For, properly, truly none is to be thus blessed by us, but he upon whom we may depend and rely: and can we depend and rely upon man? upon what man? upon Princes? As far as we can look for examples, round about us, in our next neighbours, and in France, and in Spain, and farther, we have seen in our age Kings discarded, and we have seen in some of them, the discarded cards taken in again, and win the game. Upon what man wilt thou rely? upon great persons in favor with Princes? Have we not seen often, that the bed-chambers of Kings have back-doors into prisons, and that the end of that greatness hath been, but to have a greater Jury to condemn them? wilt thou rely upon the Prophet, he can teach thee; or upon thy Brother, he does love thee; or upon thy Son, he should love thee; or the Wife of thy bosom, she will say she loves thee; or upon thy Friend, he is as thine own soul? yet Moses puts a case when thou must depart from all these, not consent, no not conceal, not pardon, no not reprieve, Thou shalt surely kill him, says Moses, even this Prophet, this Brother, this Son, this Wife may incline thee to the service of other Gods; Thou canst not rely, and therefore do not bless, not with praise, not with prayer and dependance upon him, That Prophet, by what name or title soever he be called; that Brother, how willingly soever he divide the inheritance with thee; that Son, how dutiful soever in civil things; that Wife, how careful soever of her own honor, and thy children; that Friend, how free soever of his favours, and of his secrets, that inclines thee to other Gods, or to other service of the true God, then is true. Greatness is not the object of this blessing, for Greatness is often eclipsed by the way, and at last certainly extinguished in death, and swallowed in the grave. Goodness, as it is moral, is not the object of this blessing; but bless God only; God in the root, in himself, or God exemplified, and manifested in godly men; bless God in them, in whom he appears, and in them who appear for him, and so thou doest bless solum Deum, God only.

This thou must do, Bless God only, not man, and then the only God, not other gods. For, this was the wretched and penurious narrowness to which the Gentiles were reduced, that being unable to consider God entirely, they broke God in pieces, and crumbled, and scattered God into as many several gods, as there are Powers in God, nay almost into as many several gods, as there are Creatures from God; and more then that, as many gods as they could fancy or imagine in making Chimera's of their own, for not only that which was not God, but that which was not at all, was made a God. And then, as in narrow channels that cannot contain the water, the water over-flows, and yet that water that does so over flow, flies out and spreads to such a shallowness, as will not bear a Boat to any use; so when by this narrowness in the Gentiles, God had over-flown this bank, this limitation of God in an unity, all the rest was too shallow to bear any such notion, any such consideration of God, as appertained to him: They could not think him an Omnipotent God, when if one God would not, another would, nor an Infinite God, when they had appeals from one God to another; and without Omnipotence, and without Infiniteness they could not truly conceive a God. They had cantoned a glorious Monarchy into petty States, that could not subsist of themselves, nor assist another, and so imagined a God for every state and every action, that a man must have applied himself to one God when he shipped, and when he landed to another, and if he travailed farther, change his God by the way, as often as he changed coynes, or post-horses. But, Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. As though this were all that were to be heard, all that were to be learned, they are called to hear, and then there is no more said but that, The Lord thy God is one God.

There are men that will say and swear, they do not mean to make God the Author of sin; but yet when they say, That God made man therefore, that he might have something to damn, and that he made him sin therefore, that he might have something to damn him for, truly they come too near making God the Author of sin, for all their modest protestation of abstaining. So there are men that will say and swear, they do not mean to make Saints Gods; but yet when they will ask the same things at Saints hands, which they do at Gods, and in the same phrase and manner of expression, when they will pray the Virgin Mary to assist her Son, nay to command her Son, and make her a Chancellor to mitigate his common Law, truly they come too near making more Gods then one. And so do we too, when we give particular sins dominion over us; Quot vitia, tot Deos recentes, says Jerome: As the Apostle says Covetousness is Idolatry, so, says that Father, is voluptuousness, and licentiousness, and every habitual sin. Non alienum says God, Thou shalt have no other God but me, But, Quis similis, says God too, Who is like me? He will have nothing made like him, not made so like a God as they make their Saints, nor made so like a God, as we make our sins. We think one King Sovereign enough, and one friend counsellor enough, and one Wife helper enough, and he is strangely insatiable, that thinks not one God, God enough: especially, since when thou hast called this God what thou canst, he is more then thou hast said of him. Cum definitur, ipse sua definition crescit; When thou hast defined him to be the God of justice, and tremblest, he is more then that, he is the God of mercy too, and gives thee comfort. When thou hast defined him to be all eye, He sees all thy sins, he is more then that, he is all patience, and covers all thy sins. And though he be in his nature incomprehensible, and inaccessible in his light, yet this is his infinite largeness, that being thus infinitely One, he hath manifested himself to us in three Persons, to be the more easily discerned by us, and the more closely and effectually applied to us.

Now these notions that we have of God, as a Father, as a Son, as a Holy Ghost, as a Spirit working in us, are so many handles by which we may take hold of God, and so many breasts, by which we may suck such a knowledge of God, as that by it we may grow up into him. And as we cannot take hold of a torch by the light, but by the staff we may; so though we cannot take hold of God, as God, who is incomprehensible, and inapprehensible, yet as a Father, as a Son, as a Spirit, dwelling in us, we can. There is nothing in Nature that can fully represent and bring home the notion of the Trinity to us. There is an elder book in the World then the Scriptures; It is not well said, in the World, for it is the World it self, the whole book of Creatures; And indeed the Scriptures are but a paraphrase, but a comment, but an illustration of that book of Creatures. And therefore, though the Scriptures only deliver us the doctrine of the Trinity, clearly, yet there are some impressions, some obumbrations of it, in Nature too. Take but one in our selves, in the soul. The understanding of man (that is as the Father) begets discourse, ratiocination, and that is as the Son; and out of these two proceed conclusions, and that is as the Holy Ghost. Such as these there are many, many sprinkled in the School, many scattered in the Fathers, but, God knows, poor and faint expressions of the Trinity. But yet, Praemisit Deus naturam magistram, submissurus & prophetiam, Though God meant to give us degrees in the University, that is, increase of knowledge in his Scriptures after, yet he gave us a pedagogy, he sent us to School in Nature before; Vt faciliùs credas prophetiae discipulus naturae, That comming out of that School, thou mightest profit the better in that University, having well considered Nature, thou mightest be established in the Scriptures.

He is therefore inexcusable, that considers not God in the Creature, that comming into a faire Garden, says only, Here is a good Gardiner, and not, Here is a good God; and when he sees any great change, says only, This is a strange accident, and not, a strange Judgement. Hence is it, that in the books of the Platonique Philosophers, and in others, much ancienter then they, (if the books of Hermes Trismegistus and others, be as ancient as is pretended in their behalf) we find as clear expressing of the Trinity, as in the Old Testament, at least; And hence is it, that in the Talmud of the Jews, and in the Alcoran of the Turks, though they both oppose the Trinity, yet when they handle not that point, there fall often from them, as clear confessions of the three Persons, as from any of the elder of those Philosophers, who were altogether dis-interested in that Controversy.

But because God is seen Per creaturas, ut per speculum, per verbum ut per lucem, In the creature, and in nature, but by reflection, In the Word, and in the Scriptures, directly, we rest in the knowledge which we have of the plurality of the persons, in the Scriptures; And because we are not now in a Congregation that doubts it, nor in a place to multiply testimonies, we content our selves (being already possest with the belief thereof) with this illustration from the old Testament, That the name of our one God, is expressed in the plural number, in that place, which we mentioned before, where it is said, The Lord thy God is one God, that is, Elohim, unus Dii, one Gods. And though as much as that seem to be said by God to Moses, Eris Aaroni in Elohim, Thou shalt be as Gods to Aaron; Yet that was because Moses was to represent God, all God, all the Persons in God, and therefore it might as well be spoken plurally of Moses, so, as of God. But because it is said, Gods appeared unto Jacob; And again, Dii Sancti ipse est, He is the Holy Gods; And so also, Vbi Deus factors mei? Where is God my Makers? And God says of himself, Faciamus hominem, and Factus est sicut unus ex nobis, God says, Let us make man, and he says, Man is become as one of us, We embrace humbly, and thankfully, and profitably, this, shall we call it Effigiationem ansarum, This making out of handles? Or Protuberationem mammarum, This swelling out of breasts? Or Germinationem gemmarum, This putting forth of buds, and blossoms, and fruits, by which we may apprehend, and see, and taste God himself, so as his wisdom hath chosen to communicate himself to us, in the notion and manifestation of divers persons? Of which in this Text, we lay hold on him, by the first handle, by the name of Father. Blessed be God, even the Father, &c.

Now we consider in God, a two-fold Paternity, a two-fold Father-hood: One, as he is Father to others, another as to us. And the first is two-fold too: One essentially, by which he is a Father by Creation, and so the name of Father belongs to all the three Persons in the Trinity, for, There is one God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all, Which is spoken of God gathered into his Essence, and not diffused into persons. In which sense, the Son of God, Christ Jesus, is called Father, Vnto us a Son is given, and his name shall be The Everlasting Father: And to this Father, even to the Son of God, in this sense, are the faithful made sons, Son, be of good cheare, thy sins are forgiven thee, says Christ to the Paralytique, And Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, says he to the woman with the bloody issue; Thus Christ is a Father; And thus Per filiationem vestigii, By that impression of God, which is in the very being of every creature, God, that is, the whole Trinity, is the Father of every creature, as in Job, Quis pluviae Pater? Hath the rain a Father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? And so in the Prophet, Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? But the second Paternity is more mysterious in it self, and more precious to us, as he is a Father, not by Creation, but by Generation, Even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, Generationem istam quis enarrabit? who shall declare this generation? who shall tell us how it was? who was there to fee it? Since the first-born of all creatures, the Angels, who are almost six thousand years old, (and much elder in the opinion of many of the Fathers, who think the Angels to have been created long before the general Creation) since, I say, these Angels are but in their swathing clouts, but in their cradle, in respect of this eternal generation, who was present? Quis enarrabit? who shall tell us how it was? who shall tell us when it was, when it was so long before any time was, as that, when time shall be no more, and that, after an end of time, we shall have lived infinite millions of millions of generations in heaven, yet this generation of the Son of God, was as long before that immortal life, as that Immortality, and Everlastingness shall be after this life? It cannot be expressed, nor conceived how long our life shall be after, nor how long this generation was before.

This is that Father, that hath a Son, and yet is no elder then that Son, for he is à Patre, but not Post Patrem, but so from the Father, as he is not after the Father: He hath from him Principium Original, but not Initial, A root from whence he sprung, but no springtime, when he sprung out of that root. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore blessed? Quia potuit? Because he could have a Son? Non generavit potentia, sed natura; God did not beget this Son because he had always a power to do so; for then, if this Son had ever been but in Potentia, only in such a condition, as that he might have been, then this had not been an eternal generation, for if there were a time, when only he might have been, at that time he was not. He is not blessed then because cause he could, is he blessed (that is, to be blessed by us) because he would beget this Son? Non generavit voluntate, sed natura: God did not beget this Son, then when he would, that is, had a will to do so, for, if his will determined it, now I will do it, then till that, there had been no Son, and so this generation had not been eternal neither. But when it was, or how it was, Turatiocinare, ego mirer, says S. Augustine, Let others discourse it, let me admire it; Tu disputa, ego credam, Let others dispute it, let me believe it. And when all is done, you have done disputing, and I have done wondring, that that brings it nearer then either, is this, That there is a Paternity, notby Creation, by which Christ and the Holy Ghost are Fathers too, nor by generation, by which God is, though inexpressibly, the Father even of our Lord Jesus Christ, but by Adoption, as in Christ Jesus, he is Father of us all, notified in the next appellation, Pater miserationum, The Father of mercies.

In this alone, we discern the whole Trinity; here is the Father, and here is Mercy, which mercy is in the Son; And the effect of this mercy, is the Spirit of Adoption, by which also we cry, Abba, Father too. When Christ would pierce into his Father, and melt those bowels of compassion, he enters with that word, Abba, Father, All things are possible to thee; take away this Cup from me. When Christ apprehended an absence, a dereliction on Gods part, he calls not upon him by this name, not My Father, but My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But when he would incline him to mercy, mercy to others, mercy to enemies, he comes in that name, wherein he could be denied nothing, Father; Father forgive them, they know not what they do. He is the Lord of Hosts; There he scatters us in thunder, transports us in tempests, enwraps us in confusion, astonishes us with stupefaction, and consternation; The Lord of Hosts, but yet the Father of mercies, There he receives us into his own bowels, fills our emptiness, with the blood of his own Son, and incorporates us in him; The Lord of Hosts, but the Father of mercy. Sometimes our natural Fathers die, before they can gather any state to leave us, but he is the immortal Father, and all things that are, as soon as they were, were his. Sometimes our natural Fathers live to waste, and dissipate that state which was left them, to be left us: but this is the Father, out of whose hands, and possession nothing can be removed, and who gives inestimably, and yet remains inexhaustible. Sometimes our natural Fathers live to need us, and to live upon us: but this is that Father whom we need every minute, and requires nothing of us, but that poor rent of Benedictus sit, Blessed, praised, glorified be this Father.

This Father of mercies, of mercies in the plural; David calls God, Misericordiam suam, His mercy; all at once: God is the God of my mercy: God is all ours, and all mercy. Pardon this people, says Moses, Secundùm magnitudinem misericordiae, According to the greatness of thy mercy. Pardon me, says David, Have mercy upon me, Secùndum multitudinem misericordiarum, According to the multitude of thy mercies: His mercy, in largeness, in number, extends over all; It was his mercy that we were made, and it is his mercy that we are not consumed. David calls his mercy, Multiplicatam, and Mirificatam, It is manifold, and it is marvellous, miraculous: Show thy marvellous loving kindness; and therefore David in several places, carries it Super judicium, above his judgements, Super Coelos, above the heavens, Super omnia opera, above all his works. And for the multitude of his mercies, (for we are now upon the consideration of the plurality thereof, Pater miserationum, Father of mercies) put together that which David says, Vbi misericordiae tua antiquae? Where are thy ancient mercies? His mercy is as Ancient, as the Ancient of days, who is God himself, And that which another Prophet says, Omni mane, His mercies are new every morning, And put between these two, between Gods former, and his future mercies, his present mercy, in bringing thee this minute to the consideration of them, and thou hast found Multiplicatam, and Mirificatam, manifold, and wondrous mercy.

But carry thy thoughts upon these three Branches of his mercy, and it will be enough. First, that upon Adams fall, and all ours in him, he himself would think of such a way of mercy, as from Adam, to that man whom Christ shall find alive at the last day, no man would ever have thought of, that is, that to show mercy to his enemies, he would deliver his own, his only, his beloved Son, to shame, to torments, to death: That he would plant Germen Iehovae in semine mulieris, The blossom, the branch of God, in the seed of the woman: This mercy, in that first promise of that Messiah, was such a mercy, as not only none could have undertaken, but none could have imagined but God himself: And in this promise, we were conceived In visceribus Patris, In the bowels of this Father of mercies. In these bowels, in the womb of this promise we lay four thousand years; The blood with which we were fed then, was the blood of the Sacrifices, and the quickening which we had there, was an inanimation, by the often refreshing of this promise of that Messiah in the Prophets. But in the fullness of time, that infallible promise came to an actual performance, Christ came in the flesh, and so, Venimus ad partum, In his birth we were born; and that was the second mercy; in the promise, in the performance, he is Pater miserationum, Father of mercies. And then there is a third mercy, as great, That he having sent his Son, and having re-assumed him into heaven again, he hath sent his Holy Spirit to govern his Church, and so becomes a Father to us, in that Adoption, in the application of Christ to us, by the Holy Ghost; and this as that which is intended in the last word, Deus totius Consolationis, The God of all Comfort.

I may know that there is a Messiah promised, and yet be without comfort, in a fruitless expectation; The Jews are so in their dispersion. When the Jews will still post-date the commings of Christ, when some of them say, There was no certain time of his comming designed by the Prophets; And others, There was a time, but God for their sins prorogued it; And others again, God kept his word, the Messiah did come when it was promised he should come, but for their sins, he conceals himself from Manifestation; when the Jews will postdate his first comming, and the Papists will antedate his second comming, in a comming that cannot become him, That he comes, even to his Saints in torment, before he comes in glory, That when he comes to them at their dissolution, at their death, he comes not to take them to Heaven, but to cast them into one part of hell, That the best comfort which a good man can have at his death, is but Purgatory, Miserable comforters are they all. How faire a beam of the joys of Heaven is true comfort in this life? If I know the mercies of God exhibited to others, and feel them not in my self, I am not of Davids Church, not of his Quire, I cannot sing of the mercies of God: I may see them, and I may sigh to see the mercies of God determined in others, and not extended to me; but I cannot sing of the mercies of God, if I find no mercy. But when I come to that, Consolationes tua laetificaverunt, In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul, then the true Comforter is descended upon me, and the Holy Ghost hath over-shadowed me, and all that shall be born of me, and proceed from me, shall be holy. Blessed are they that mourne, says Christ: But the blessedness is not in the mourning, but because they shall be comforted. Blessed am I in the sense of my sins, and in the sorrow for them, but blessed therefore, because this sorrow leads me to my reconciliation to God, and the consolation of his Spirit. Whereas, if I sink in this sorrow, in this dejection of spirit, though it were Wine in the beginning, it is lees, and tartar in the end; Inordinate sorrow grows into sinful melancholy, and that melancholy, into an irrecoverable desperation. The Wise-men of the East, by a less light, found a greater, by a Star, they found the Son of glory, Christ Jesus: But by darkness, nothing: By the beams of comfort in this life, we come to the body of the Sun, by the Rivers, to the Ocean, by the cheerfulness of heart here, to the brightness, to the fullness of joy hereafter. For, beloved, Salvation it self being so often presented to us in the names of Glory, and of Joy, we cannot think that the way to that glory is a sordid life affected here, an obscure, a beggarly, a negligent abandoning of all ways of preferment, or riches, or estimation in this World, for the glory of Heaven shines down in these beams hither; Neither can men think, that the way to the joys of Heaven, is a joylesse severeness, a rigid austerity; for as God loves a cheerful giver, so he loves a cheerful taker, that takes hold of his mercies and his comforts with a cheerful heart, not only without grudging, that they are no more, but without jealousy and suspicion that they are not so much, or not enough.

But they must be his comforts that we take in, Gods comforts. For, to this purpose, the Apostle varies the phrase; It was The Father of mercies; To represent to us gentleness, kindness, favor, it was enough to bring it in the name of Father; But this Comfort, a power to erect and settle a tottering, a dejected soul, an overthrown, a bruised, a broken, a trodden, a ground, a battered, an evaporated, an annihilated spirit, this is an act of such might, as requires the assurance, the presence of God. God knows, all men receive not comforts, when other men think they do, nor are all things comforts to them, which we present, and mean should be so. Your Father may leave you his inheritance, and little knows he the little comfort you have in this, because it is not left to you, but to those Creditors to whom you have engaged it. Your Wife is officious to you in your sickness, and little knows she, that even that officiousness of hers then, and that kindness, aggravates that discomfort, which lyes upon thy soul, for those injuries which thou hadst formerly multiplied against her, in the bosom of strange women. Except the God of comfort give it, in that seal, in peace of conscience, Nec intus, nec subtus, nec circa te occurrit consolatio, says S. Bernard; Non subtus, not from below thee, from the reverence and acclamation of thy inferiors; Non circa, not from about thee, when all places, all preferments are within thy reach, so that thou mayst lay thy hand, and set thy foot where thou wilt; Non intus, not from within thee, though thou have an inward testimony of a moral constancy, in all afflictions that can fall, yet not from below thee, not from about thee, not from within thee, but from above must come thy comfort, or it is mistaken. S. Chrysostom notes, and Areopagita had noted it before him, Ex beneficiis acceptis nomina Deo affingimus, We give God names according to the nature of the benefits which he hath given us: So when God had given David victory in the wars, by the exercise of his power, then Fortitudo mea, and firmamentum, The Lord is my Rock, and my Castle: When God discovered the plots and practises of his enemies to him, then Dominus illuminatio, The Lord is my light, and my salvation. So whensoever thou takest in any comfort, be sure that thou have it from him that can give it; for this God is Deus totius consolationis, The God of all comfort.

Preciosa divina consolatio, nec omnino tribuitur admittentibus alienam: The comforts of God are of a precious nature, and they lose their value, by being mingled with baser comforts, as gold does with allay. Sometimes we make up a sum of gold, with silver, but does any man bind up farthing tokens, with a bag of gold? Spiritual comforts which have always Gods stamp upon them, are his gold, and temporal comforts, when they have his stamp upon them, are his silver, but comforts of our own coining, are counterfeit, are copper. Because I am weary of solitariness, I will seek company, and my company shall be, to make my body the body of a harlot: Because I am drousy, I will be kept awake, with the obscenities and scurrilities of a Comedy, or the drums and ejulations of a Tragedy: I will smother and suffocate sorrow, with hill upon hill, course after course at a voluptuous feast, and drown sorrow in excess of Wine, and call that sickness, health; and all this is no comfort, for God is the God of all comfort, and this is not of God. We cannot say with any color, as Esau said to Jacob, Hast thou but one blessing, my Father? for he is the God of all blessings, and hath given every one of us, many more then one. But yet Christ hath given us an abridgement, Vnum est necessarium, there is but one only thing necessary, And David, in Christ, took knowledge of that before, when he said, Vnum petii, One thing have I desired of the Lord, What is that one thing? All in one; That I may dwell in the house ef the Lord (not be a stranger from his Covenant) all the days of my life, (not disseised, not excommunicate out of that house) To behold the beauty of the Lord, (not the beauty of the place only) but to inquire in his Temple, (by the advancement and advantage of outward things, to find out him) And so I shall have true comforts, outward, and inward, because in both, I shall find him, who is the God of all comfort.

Jacob thought he had lost Joseph his Son, And all his Sons, and all his Daughters rose up to comfort him, Et noluit consolationem, says the Text, He would not be comforted, because he thought him dead. Rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted, because they were not. But what aylest thou? Is there any thing of which thou canst say, It is not? perchance it is, but thou hast it not: If thou hast him, that hath it, thou hast it. Hast thou not wealth, but poverty rather, not honor, but contempt rather, not health, but daily summons of Death rather yet? Non omnia possidet, cui omnia cooperantur in bonum, If thy poverty, thy disgrace, thy sickness have brought thee the nearer to God, thou hast all those things, which thou thinkest thou wantest, because thou hast the best use of them. All things are yours, says the Apostle; why? by what title? For you are Christs, and Christ is Gods. Carry back your comfort to the root, and bring that comfort to the fruit, and confess, that God who is both, is the God of all comfort. Follow God in the execution of this good purpose upon thee, to thy Vocation, and hear him, who hath left East, and West, and North, and South, in their dimness, and dumness, and deafness, and hath called thee to a participation of himself in his Church. Go on with him to thy justification, That when in the congregation one sits at thy right hand, and believes but historically (It may be as true which is said of Christ, as of William the Conqueror, and as of Julius Caesar) and another at thy left hand, and believes Christ but civilly, (It was a Religion well invented, and keeps people well in order) and thou between them beleevest it to salvation in an applying faith; proceed a step farther, to feel this fire burning out, thy faith declared in works, thy justification grown into sanctification, And then thou wilt be upon the last stair of all, That great day of thy glorification will break out even in this life, and either in the possessing of the good things of this world, thou shalt see the glory, and in possessing the comforts of this World, see the joy of Heaven, or else, (which is another of his ways) in the want of all these, thou shalt have more comfort then others have, or perchance, then thou shouldest have in the possessing of them: for he is the God of all comfort, and of all the ways of comfort; And therefore, Blessed be God, even the Father, &c.

Serm. XXXIX. Preached upon Trinity-Sunday.

1 PET. 1.17.

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.

YOu may remember, that I proposed to exercise your devotions and religious meditations in these exercises, with words which might present to you, first the several persons in the Trinity, and the benefits which we receive, in receiving God in those distinct notions of Father, Son, and holy Ghost; And then with other words which might present those sins, and the danger of those sins which are most particularly opposed against those several persons. Of the first, concerning the person of the Father, we spoke last, and of the other, concerning sins against the Father, these words will occasion us to speak now.

It is well noted upon those words of David, Have mercy upon me, O God, that the word is Elohim, which is Gods in the plural, Have mercy upon me, O Gods: for David, though he conceived not divers Gods, yet he knew three divers persons in that one God, and he knew that by that sin which he lamented in that Psalm, that peccatum complicatum, that manifold sin, that sin that enwrapped so many sins, he had offended all those three persons. For whereas we consider principally in the Father, Potestatem, Power, and in the Son Sapientiam, Wisdom, and in the holy Ghost Bonitatem, Goodness, David had sinned against the Father, in his notion, In potestate, in abusing his power, and kingly authority, to a mischievous and bloody end in the murder of Vriah: And he had sinned against the Son, in his notion, In sapientia, in depraving and detorting true wisdom into craft and treachery: And he had sinned against the holy Ghost in his notion, In bonitate, when he would not be content with the goodness and piety of Vriah, who refused to take the eases of his own house, and the pleasure of his wifes bosom, as long as God himself in his army lodged in Tents, and stood in the face of the Enemy. Sins against the Father then, we consider especially to be such as are In potestate, Either in a neglect of Gods Power over us, or in an abuse of that power which we have from God over others; and of one branch of that power, particularly of Judgement, is this Text principally intended, If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth, &c.

In the words we shall insist but upon two parts, First, A Counsel, which in the Apostles mouth is a commandment; And then a Reason, an inducement, which in the Apostles mouth is a forcible, an unresistible argument. The Counsel, that is, The commandment, is, If ye call on the Father, fear him, stand in fear of him; And the reason, that is, the Argument, is, The name of Father implies a great power over you, therefore fear him; And amongst other powers, a power of judging you, of calling you to an account, therefore fear him: In which Judgement, this Judge accepts no persons, but judges his sons as his servants, and therefore fear him: And then, he judges, not upon words, outward professions, but upon works, actions, according to every mans works, and therefore fear him: And then as on his part he shall certainly call you to judgement when you go hence, so on your part, certainly it cannot be long before you go hence, for your time is but a sojourning here, it is not a dwelling, And yet it is a sojourning here, it is not a posting, a gliding through the world, but such a stay, as upon it our everlasting dwelling depends; And therefore that we may make up this circle, and end as we begun, with the fear of God, pass that time, that is, all that time, in fear; In fear of neglecting and undervaluing, or of over-tempting that great power which is in the Father, And in fear of abusing those limnes, and branches, and beams of that power which he hath communicated to thee, in giving thee power and authority any way over others; for these, To neglect the power of the Father, or To abuse that power which the Father hath given thee over others, are sins against the Father, who is power. If ye call on the Father, &c.

First then, for the first part, the Counsel, Si invocatis, If ye call on the Father, In timore, Do it in fear, The Counsel hath not a voluntary Condition, and arbitrary in our selves annexed to it; If you call, then fear, does not import, If you do not call, you need not fear; It does not import, That if you profess a particular forme of Religion, you are bound to obey that Church, but if you do not, but have fancied a religion to your self without precedent, Or a way to salvation without any particular religion, Or a way out of the world without any salvation or damnation, but a going out like a candle, if you can think thus you need not fear, This is not the meaning of this If in this place, If you call on the Father, &c. But this If implies a wonder, an impossibility, that any man should deny God to be the Father: If the author, the inventer of any thing useful for this life be called the father of that invention, by the holy Ghost himself, Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents, and Tubal his brother the father of Music, And so Horace calls Ennius the father of one kind of Poem: how absolutely is God our Father, who (may I say?) invented us, made us, found us out in the depth, and darkness of nothing at all? He is Pater, and Pater luminum, Father, and Father of lights, of all kinds of lights. Lux lucifica, as S. Augustine expresses it, The light from which all the lights which we have, whether of nature, or grace, or glory, have their emanation. Take these Lights of which God is said to be the Father, to be the Angels, (so some of the Fathers take it, and so S. Paul calls them Angels of light; And so Nazianzen calls them Secundos splendores primi splendoris administros, second lights that serve the first light) Or take these Lights of which God is said to be the Father to be the Ministers of the Gospel, the Angels of the Church, (so some Fathers take them too, and so Christ says to them, in the Apostles, You are the light of the world) Or take these Lights to be those faithful servants of God, who have received an illustration in themselves, and a coruscation towards others, who by having lived in the presence of God, in the household of his faithful, in the true Church, are become, as John Baptist was, burning and shining lamps, (as S. Paul says of the faithful, You shine as lights in this world, And as Moses had contracted a glorious shining in his face, by his conversation with God) Or take this light to be a fainter light then that, (and yet that which S. James doth most literally intend in that place) The light of natural understanding, That which Pliny calls serenitatem animi, when the mind of man, dis-encumbered of all Eclipses, and all clouds of passion, or inordinate love of earthly things, is enlightened so far, as to discern God in nature; Or take this light to be but the light of a shadow, (for umbrae non sunt tenebrae, sed densior lux, shadows are not darknesses, shadows are but a grosser kind of light) Take it to be that shadow, that design, that delineation, that obumbration of God, which the creatures of God exhibit to us, that which Pliny calls Coelilaetitiam, when the heavens, and all that they embrace, in an openness and cheerfulness of countenance, manifest God unto us; Take these Lights of which S. James speaks, in any apprehension, any way, Angels of heaven who are ministering spirits, Angels of the Church, who are spiritual Ministers, Take it for the light of faith from hearing, the light of reason from discoursing, or the light flowing from the creature to us, by contemplation, and observation of nature, Every way, by every light we see, that he is Pater luminum, the Father of lights; all these lights are from him, and by all these lights we see that he is A Father, and Our Father.

So that as the Apostle uses this phrase in another place, Si opertum Euangelium, If the Gospel be hid, with wonder and admiration, Is it possible, can it be that this Gospel should be hid? So it is here, Si invocatis, If ye call God Father, that is, as it is certain you do, as it is impossible but you should, because you cannot ascribe to any but him, your Being, your preservation in that Being, your exaltation in that Being to a well-Being, in the possession of all temporal, and spiritual conveniencies, And then there is thus much more force in this particle Si, If, which is (as you have seen) Si concessionis, non dubitationis, an If that implies a confession and acknowledgement, not a hesitation or a doubt, That it is also Si progressionis, Si conclusionis, an If that carryes you farther, and that concludes you at last, If you do it, that is, Since you do it, Since you do call God Father, since you have passed that act of Recognition, since not only by having been produced by nature, but by having been regenerated by the Gospel, you confess God to be your Father, and your Father in his Son, in Christ Jesus: Since you make that profession, Of his own will begate he us, with the word of Truth, If you call him Father, since you call him Father, thus, go on farther, Timete, Fear him; If yee call him Father, fear him, &c.

Now, for this fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and the end of wisdom too, we are a little too wise, at least, too subtle, sometimes in distinguishing too narrowly between a filial fear, and a servile fear, as though this filial fear were nothing but a reverend love of God, as he is good, and not a doubt and suspicion of incurring those evils, that are punishments, or that produce punishments. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, It is a holy detestation of that evil which is Malum culpae, The evil of sin, and it is a holy trembling under a tender apprehension of that other evil, which we call Malum poenae, The evil of punishment for sin. God presents to us the joys of heaven often to draw us, and as often the torments of hell to avert us. Origen says aright, As Abraham had two sons, one of a Bond-woman, another of a Free, but yet both sons of Abraham; so God is served by two fears, and the later fear, the fear of future torment, is not the perfect fear, but yet even that fear is the servant, and instrument of God too. Quis tam insensatus; Who can so absolutely divest all sense, Qui non fluctuante Civitate, imminente naufragio, But that when the whole City is in a combustion and commotion, or when the Ship that he is in, strikes desperately and irrecoverably upon a rock, he is otherwise affected toward God then, then when every day, in a quietness and calm of holy affections, he hears a Sermon? Gehennae timor (says the same Father) regni nos affert coronam, Even the fear of hell gets us heaven. Upon Abraham there fell A horror of great darkness, And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And that way, towards that dejected look, does God bend his countenance; Vpon this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. As there are both impressions in security, vicious and virtuous, good and bad, so there are both in fear also. There is a wicked security in the wicked, by which they make shift to put off all Providence in God, and to think God like themselves, indifferent what becomes of this world; There is an ill security in the godly, when for the time, in their prosperity, they grow ill husbands of Gods graces, and negligent of his mercies; In my prosperity (says David himself, of himself) I said, I shall not be moved. And there is a security of the faithful, a constant persuasion, grounded upon those marks, which God, in his Word, hath set upon that state, That neither height, nor depth, nor any creature shall separate us from God: But yet this security is never discharged of that fear, which he that said that, had in himself, I keep under my body, lest when I have preached to others, I my self should be a cast-away; And which he persuades other, how safe soever they were, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, And Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.

As then there is a vicious, an evil security; and that holy security which is good, is not without fear: so there is no fear of God, though it have some servility, (so far, as servility imports but a fear of punishment) but it is good. For, Timor est amor inchoativus, The love of God begins in fear, and then Amor est timor consummatus, The fear of God ends in love; which David intends when he says, Rejoice with trembling; Conceive no such fear as excludes spiritual joy, conceive no such assurance, as excludes an humble and reverential fear. There is fear of God too narrow, when we think every natural cross, every worldly accident to be a judgement of God, and a testimony of his indignation, which the Poet (not altogether in an ill sense) calls a disease of the soul, Quo morbo mentem concusse? timore deorum; He imagines a man may be sick of the fear of God, that is, not distinguish between natural accidents, and immediate judgements of God; between ordinary declarations of his power, and extraordinary declarations of his anger. There is also a fear of God too large, too far extended, when for a false fear of offending God, I dare not offend those men, who pretend to come in his name, and so captivate my conscience to the traditions and inventions of men, as to the word, and law of God. And there is a fear of God conceived, which never quickens, but putrifies in the womb before inanimation; the fear and trembling of the Devil, and men whom he possesses, desperate of the mercies of God. But there is a fear acceptable to God, and yet hath in it, a trembling, a horror, a consternation, an astonishment, an apprehension of Gods dereliction for a time. The Law was given in thundring, and lightning, and the people were afraid. How proceeds Moses with them? Fear not, says he, for God is come to prove you, that his fear might be before your faces. Here is a fear not, that is, fear not with despair, nor with diffidence, but yet therefore, That you may fear the Law; for, in this place, the very Law it self (which is given to direct them) is called fear; As in another place, God himself is called fear, (as he is in other places called love too) Jacob swore by the Fear of his Father Isaac; that is, by him whom his Father Isaac feared, as the Chalde Paraphrase rightly expresses it.

Briefly, this is the difference between Fearfulness, and Fear, (for sow are fain to call Timiditatem and Timorem) Timidity, Fearfulness, is a fear, where no cause of fear is; and there is no cause of fear, where man and man only threatens on one side, and God commands on the other: Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, I will help thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy one of Israel. Moses Parents had overcome this fearfulness: They hid him, says the Text, Et non metucrunt Edictum Regis, They feared not the Proclamation of the King, Because it was directly, and evidently, and undisputably against the manifest will of God. Queen Esther had overcome this fearfulness; she had fasted, and prayed, and used all prescribed and all possible means, and then she entered the Kings Chamber, against the Proclamation, with that necessary resolution, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish; Not upon a disobedient, not upon a desperate undertaking, but in a rectified conscience, and well established opinion, that either that Law was not intended to forbid her, who was his Wife, or that the King was not rightly informed, in that bloody command, which he had given for the execution of all her Countrymen. And for those who do not overcome this fearfulness, that is, that fear where no cause of fear is, (and there is no cause of fear, where Gods cause is by godly ways promoved, though we do not always discern the ways, by which this is done) for those men that frame imaginary fears to themselves, to the with-drawing or discouraging of other in the service of God, we see where such men are ranked by the Holy Ghost, when S. John says, The unbeleeving, the murderer, the whore-monger, the sorcerer, the idolater, shall have their portion in the lake of brimstone, which is the second death: We fee who leads them all into this irrecoverable precipitation, The fearful, that is, he that believes not God in his promises, that distrusts God in his own cause, as soon as he seems to open us to any danger; or distrusts Gods instruments, as soon as they go another way, then he would have them go. To end this, there is no love of God without fear, no Law of God, no God himself without fear; And here, as in very many other places of Scripture, the fear of God is our whole Religion, the whole service of God; for here, Fear him, includes Worship him, reverence him, obey him. Which Counsel or Commandment, though it need no reason, no argument, yet the Apostle does pursue with an argument, and that constitutes our second Part.

Now the Apostles arguments grow out of a double root; One argument is drawn from God, another from man. From God, thus implied, If God be a Father, fear him, for naturally we acknowledge the power of a Father to be great over his children, and consequently the reverent fear of the children great towards him. The Father had Potestatem vitae & necis, A power over the life of his child, he might have killed his child; but that the child should kill his Father, it never entered into the provision of any Law, and it was long before it fell into the suspicion of any Law-maker. Romulus in his Laws, called every man-slaughter Parricidium, because it was Paris occisio, He had killed a man, a Peer, a creature equal to himself; but for Parricide in the later sense, when Parricide is Patricide, the killing of a Father, it came not into the jealousy of Romulus Law, nor into the heart or hand of any man there, in six hundred years after: Cum leg coeperunt, & facinus poena monstravit, says their Moral man: That sin began not, till the Law forbad it, and only the punishment ordained for it, showed that there might be such a thing. He that curseth Father or Mother, shall surely dye, says Moses; And he that is but stubborn towards them, shall dye too. The dutiful love of children to Parents is so rooted in nature, that Demosthenes says, it is against the impressions and against the Law of nature, for any child ever to love that man, that hath done execution upon his Father, though by way of Justice: And this natural Obligation is not conditioned with the limitations of a good or a bad Father, Natura te non bono patri, sed patri conciliavit, says that little great Philosopher, Nature hath not bound thee to thy father, as he is a good Father, but merely as he is thy Father.

Now for the power of Fathers over their children, by the Law of Nations, that is, the general practise of Civil States, the Father had power upon the life of his child; It fell away by discontinuance, in a great part, and after was abrogated by particular Laws, but yet, by a connivence admitted in some cases too. For, as in Nature man is Microcosmus, a little World, so in nature, a family is a little State, a little Commonwealth, and what power the Magistrate hath in that, the Father hath in this. Ipsum regnū suaptenatura imperium est paternum, The power of a King, if it be kept within the bounds of the nature of that Office, is only to be a Father to his people: And, Gratius est nomen pietatis, quam potestatis, Authority is presented in a more acceptable name, when I am called a Father, then when I am called a Master; and therefore, says Seneca, our Ancestors mollified it thus, Vt invidiam Dominis, contumcliam servis detraherent, That there might accrue no envy to the Master for so great a title, nor contempt upon the servant for so low a title, they called the Master Patremfamilias, The Father of a houshould, and they called the servants, familiares, parts and pieces of the family. So that in the name of Father they understand all power; and the first Law that passed amongst the Romans against Parricides, was Contra interfectores Patrum & Dominorum; They were made equal, Fathers and Soveraignes: And in the Law of God it self, Honor thy Father, we see all the honor, and fear, and reverence that belongs to the Magistrate, is conveyed in that name, in that person, the Father is all; as in the State of that people, before they came to be settled, both the Civil part of the Government, and the Spiritual part, was all in the Father, that Father was King and Priest over all that family.

Present God to thy self then as a Father, and thou wilt fear him; and take knowledge, that the Son might not sue the Father; Enter no actiō against God why he made thee not richer, nor wiser, nor fairer; no nor why he elects, or refuses, without respect of good or bad works; But take knowledge too, that when by the Law, the Father might punish the Son with death, he might not kill his Son before he was passed three years in age, before he was come to some demonstration of an ill, and rebellious nature, and disposition: Whatsoever God may do of his absolute Power, believe that he will not execute that power upon thee to thy condemnation, till thine actual sins have made thee incapable of his love: What he may do, dispute not, but be sure he will do thee no harm if thou fear him, as a Father.

Now to bring that nearer to you, which principally we intended, which is, the consideration and precaution of those sins, which violate this Power of God, notified in this name of Father, we consider a threefold emanation or exercise of Power in this Father, by occasion of a threefold repeating of this part of the Text, in the Scripture. The words are weighty, always at the bottom; for we have these words in the last of the Prophets, in Malachi, and in the last of the Evangelists, in John, And here in this Apostle, we have them of the last Judgement. In Malachi he says, A Son honoureth his Father, if then I be a Father, where is my honor? This God speaks there to the Priest, to the Levite; for, the Tribe of Levi, had before, (as Moses bade them) consecrated their hands to God, and punished by a zealous execution, the Idolatry of the golden Calfe; and for this service, God fastened the Priesthood upon them. But when they came in Malachies time, to connive at Idolatry it self, God, who was himself the root of the Priesthood, and had trusted them with it, and they had abused that trust, and the Priesthood, Then when the Prophet was become a fool, and the spiritual Man, mad, or (as S. Jerome reads it) Arreptitius, that is, possessed by others, God first of all turns upon the Priest himself, rebukes the Priest, interminates his judgement upon the Priest, for God is our high Priest. And therefore fear this Father in that notion, in that apprehension, as a Priest, as thy high Priest, that refuses or receives thy sacrifices, as he finds them conditioned; and if he look narrowly, is able to find some spot in thy purest Lambe, some sin in thy holiest action, some deviation in thy prayer, some ostentation in thine alms, some vain glory in thy Preaching, some hypocrisy in thy hearing, some concealing in thy confessions, some reservation in thy restitutions, some relapses in thy reconciliations: since thou callest him Father, fear him as thy high Priest: So the words have their force in Malachi, and they appertain Ad potestatem Sacerdotalem, To the power of the Priest, despise not that.

And then, in the second place, which is in S. John, Christ says, If God were your Father, you would love me: And this Christ speaks to the Pharisees, and to them, not as Sectaries in Religion, but as to persons in Authority, and command in the State, as to Rulers, to Governours, to Magistrates: So Christ says to Pilate, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: And so S. Paul, There is no power but of God, The powers that be, be ordained of God. Christ then charges the Pharisees, that they having the secular Power in their hands, they went about to kill him, when he was doing the will of his Father, who is the root, as of Priesthood, so of all Civil power, and Magistracy also. Fear this Father then, as the Civil Sword, the Sword of Justice is in his hand. He can open thee to the malicious prosecutions of adversaries, and submit thee to the penalties of those Laws, which, in truth, thou hast never transgressed: Thy Fathers, thy Grandfathers have sinned against him, and thou hast been but reprieved for two sessions, for two generations, and now maiest come to execution. Thou hast sinned thy self, and hast repented, and hast had thy pardon sealed in the Sacrament; but thy pardon was clogged with an Ita quòd se bene gerat, Thou wast bound to the peace by that pardon, and hast broken that peace since, in a relapse, and so fallest under execution for thine old sins: God cuts off men by unsearchable ways and means; and therefore fear this Father as a Sovereign, as a Magistrate, for that use this word in S. John may have.

In Malachi we consider him in his supreme spiritual power, and in S. John in his supreme temporal power; And in this Text, this Father is presented in a power, which includes both, in a judiciary power, as a Judge, as our Judge, our Judge at the last day, beyond all Appeal; And (as this Apostle S. Peter, is said by Clement, who is said to have been his successor at Rome, to have said) Quis peccare poterit, &c. Who could commit any sin at any time, if at all times he had his eye fixed upon this last Judgement? We have seen purses cut at the Sessions, and at Executions, but the Cutpurse did not see the Judge look upon him: we see men sin over those sins to day, for which Judgement was inflicted but yesterday, but surely they do not see then that the Judge sees them. Thou treasurest up wrath, says the Apostle, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the judgement of God: There is no Revelation of the day of Judgement, no sense of any such day, till the very day it self overtake him, and swallow him. Represent God to thy self as such a Judge, as S. Chrysostom says, That whosoever considers him so, as that Judge, and that day, as a day of irrevocable judgement, Gehennae poenam tolerare malit, quàm adverso Deo stare, He will even think it an ease to be thrown down into hell out of the presence of God, rather then to stand long in the presence, and stand under the indignation of that incensed Judge: The It maledicti will be less then the Surgite qui dormitis. And there is the miserable perplexity, Later impossibils, Apparere intolerabile, To be hid from this Judge is impossible, and to appear before him, intolerable: for he comes invested with those two flames of confusion, (which are our two next branches in the Text) first, He respects no persons, Then, He judges according to works: Without respect of persons, &c.

Nine or ten several times it is repeated in the Scriptures, and, I think, no one entire proposition so often, That God is no accepter of persons. It is spoken by Moses, that they who are conversant in the Law might see it, and spoken in the Chronicles, that they might see it who are conversant in State-affaires, and spoken in Job, that men in afflictions might not mis-imagine a partiality in God: It is spoken to the Gentiles, by the Apostle of the Gentiles, S. Paul, severally; To the Romans, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Colossians: And spoken by the chief Apostle, S. Peter, both in a private Sermon in Cornelius his house, and now in this Catholic Epistle written to all the world, that all the world, and all the inhabitants thereof might know, That God is no accepter of persons: And lest all this should not be all, it is spoken twice in the Apocryphal books; and though we know not assuredly by whom, yet we know to whom, To all that exercise any judiciary power under God, it belongs to know, That God is no accepter of persons. In divers of those places, this also is added, Nor receiver of Rewards; whether that be added as an equal thing, That it is as great a sin to accept persons, as to accept rewards, Or as a concomitancy, they go together, He that will accept persons, will accept rewards, Or as an Identity, It is the same thing to accept persons, and to accept rewards, because the preferment which I look for from a person in place, is as much a reward, as money from a person rich in treasure; whether of these it be, I dispute not: Clearly there is a Bribery in my love to another, and in my fear of another there is a Bribery too: There is a bribery in a poor mans tears, if that decline me from justice, as well as in the rich mans Plate, and Hangings, and Coach, and Horses.

Let no man therefore think to present his complexion to God for an excuse, and say, My choler with which my constitution abounded, and which I could not remedy, inclined me to wrath, and so to blood; My Melancholy inclined me to sadness, and so to Desperation, as though thy sins were medicinal sins, sins to vent humors. Let no man say, I am continent enough all the year, but the spring works upon me, and inflames my concupiscencies, as though thy sins were seasonable and anniversary sins. Make not thy Calling the occasion of thy sin, as though thy sin were a Mystery, and an Occupation; Nor thy place, thy station, thy office the occasion of thy sin, as though thy sin were an Heir-loom, or furniture, or fixed to the freehold of that place: for this one proposition, God is no accepter of persons, is so often repeated, that all circumstances of Dispositions, and Callings, and time, and place might be involved in it. Nulla descretio personarum, sed morum; God discernes not, that is, distinguishes not Persons, but Actions, for, He judgeth according to every mans works, which is our next Branch.

Now this judging according to works, excludes not the heart, nor the heart of the heart, the soul of the soul, Faith. God requires the heart, My son give me thy heart; He will have it, but he will have it by gift; and those Deeds of Gift must be testified; and the testimony of the heart is in the hand, the testimony of faith is in works. If one give me a timber tree for my house, I know not whether the root be mine or no, whether I may stub it by that gift: but if he give me a fruit tree for mine Orchard, he intends me the root too; for else I cannot transplant it, nor receive fruit by it: God judges according to the work, that is, Root and fruit, faith and work; That is the work; And then he judges according unto Thy work; The works of Other men, the Actions and the Passions of the blessed Martyrs, and Saints in the Primitive Church, works of Supererogation are not thy works. It were a strange pretence to health, that when thy Physician had prescribed thee a bitter potion, and came for an account how it had wrought upon thee, thou shouldst say, My brother hath taken twice as much as you prescribed for me, but I took none, Or if he ordained six ounces of blood to be taken from thee, to say, My Grandfather bled twelve. God shall judge according to The work, that is, The nature of the work, and according to Thy work, The propriety of the work: Thee, who art a Protestant, he shall judge by thine own work, and not by S. Stephens, or S. Peters; and thee, who art a Papist, he shall judge by thine own work, and not by S. Campians, or S. Garnets, as meritorious as thou thinkest them. And therefore if God be thy Father, and in that title have sovereign power over thee, A power spiritual, as High-priest of thy soul, that discernes thy sacrifices; A power Civil, and draws the sword of Justice against thee, when he will; A power judiciary, and judges without accepting persons, and without error in apprehending thy works, If he be a Father thus, fear him, for these are the reasons of fear, on his part, and then fear him, for this reason on thy part, That this time which thou art to stay here, first, is But a sojourning, it is no more, but yet it is a sojourning, it is no less, Pass the time of your sojourning here, &c.

When there is a long time to the Assises, there may be some hope of taking off, or of smothering Evidence, or working upon the Judge, or preparing for a pardon: Or if it were a great booty, a great possession which we had gotten, even that might buy out our peace. But this world is no such thing, neither for the extent that we have in it, It is but little that the greatest hath, nor for the time that we have in it; In both respects it is but a sojourning, it is but a pilgrimage, says Jacob, And But the days of my pilgrimage; Every one of them quickly at an end, and all of them quickly reckoned. Here we have no continuing City; first, no City, no such large being, and then no continuing at all, it is but a sojourning. The word in the Text is, we have but a parish, we are but parishioners in this world, and they that labor to purchase whole shires, usurp more then their portion; and yet what is a great Shire in a little Map? Here we are but Viatores, Passengers, way-faring men; This life is but the high-way, and thou canst not build thy hopes here; Nay, to be buried in the high way is no good mark; and therefore bury not thy self, thy labours, thy affections upon this world. What the Prophet says to thy Savior, (O the hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man, that turns aside to tarry for a night?) say thou to thy soul, Sincethou art a stranger in the land, a wayfaring man, turned aside to tarry for a night, since the night is past, Arise and depart, for here is not thy rest; prepare for another place, and fear him whom thou callest Father, and who is shortly to be thy Judge; for here thou art no more then a sojourner; but yet remember withal that thou art so much, Thou art a sojourner.

This life is not a Parenthesis, a Parenthesis that belongs not to the sense, a Parenthesis that might be left out, as well as put in. More depends upon this life then so: upon every minute of this life, depend millions of years in the next, and I shall be glorified eternally, or eternally lost, for my good or ill use of Gods grace offered to me this hour. Therefore where the Apostle says of this life, Peregrinamur à Domino, We are absent from the Lord, yet he says, We are at home in the body: This world is so much our home, as that he that is not at home now, he that hath not his conversation in heaven here, shall never get home. And therefore even in this Text, our former Translation calls it Dwelling; That which we read now, pass the time of your sojourning, we did read then, pass the time of your dwelling; for this, where we are now, is the suburb of the great City, the porch of the triumphant Church, and the Grange, or Country house of the same Landlord, belonging to his heavenly Palace, in the heavenly Jerusalem. Be it but a sojourning, yet thou must pay God something for thy sojourning, pay God his rent of praise and prayer; And be it but a sojourning, yet thou art bound to it for a time; Though thou sigh with David, Heu mihi, quia prolongatus incolatus, woe is me that I sojourn so long here, Though the miseries of thy life make thy life seem long, yet thou must stay out that time, which he, who took thee in, appointed, and by no practice, no not so much as by a deliberate wish, or unconditioned prayer, seek to be delivered of it: Because thy time here is such a sojourning as is quickly atan end, and yet such a sojourning as is never at an end, (for our endless state depends upon this) fear him, who shall so certainly, and so soon be a just Judge of it; fear him, in abstaining from those sins which are directed upon his power; which are, principally, (as we intimated at the beginning, and with which we shall make an end) first, The negligence of his power upon thee, And then, the abuse of his power communicated to thee over others.

First then, the sin directed against the Father, whom we consider to be the root and center of all power, is, when as some men have thought the soul of man to be nothing but a resultance of the temperament and constitution of the body of man, and no infusion from God, so they think that power, by which the world is governed, is but a resultance of the consent, and the tacite voice of the people, who are content, for their ease to be so governed, and no particular Ordinance of God: It is an undervaluing, a false conception, a mis-apprehension of those beams of power, which God from himself sheds upon those, whom himself calls Gods in this World. We sin then against the Father, when we undervalue God in his Priest. God hath made no step in that perverse way of the Roman Church, to prefer, so as they do, the Priest before the King; yet, speaking in two several places, of the dignity of his people, first, as Jews, then as Christians, he says in one place, They shall be a Kingdom, and a Kingdom of Priests; and he says in the other, They shall be Sacerdotium, and Regale Sacerdotium, Priests, and royal Priests: In one place, the King, in the other, the Priest mentioned first, and in both places, both involved in one another: The blessings from both are so great, as that the Holy Ghost expresses them by one another mutually. When God commands his people to be numbered in every Tribe, one moves this question, Why in all other Tribes he numbered but from twenty years upward, and in the Tribe of Levi from a moneth upward? Agnosce sacerdos, says he, quanti te Deus tuus fecerit, Take knowledge, thou who art the Priest of the high God, what a value God hath set upon thee, that whereas he takes other servants for other affaires, when they are men, fit to do him service, he took thee to the Priesthood in thy cradle, in thine infancy. How much more then, when the Priest is not Sacerdos infans, A Priest that cannot or does not speak; but continues watchful in meditating, and assiduous in uttering, powerfully, and yet modestly, the things that concern your salvation, ought you to abstain from violating the power of God the Father, in dis-esteeming his power thus planted in the Priest?

So also do we sin against the Father, the root of power, in conceiving amisse of the power of the Civil Magistrate: Whether where God is pleased to represent his unity, in one Person, in a King; or to express it in a plurality of persons, in divers Governours, When God says, Per me Reges regnant, By me Kings reign; There the Per, is not a Permission, but a Commission, It is not, That they reign by my Sufferance, but they reign by mine Ordinance. A King is not a King, because he is a good King, nor leaves being a King, as soon as he leaves being good. All is well summed by the Apostle, You must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

But then the greatest danger of sinning against the Father, in this notion of power, is, if you conceive not aright of his Judiciary power, of that judgement, which he executes, not by Priests, nor by Kings upon earth, but by his own Son Christ Jesus in heaven. For, not to be astonished at the Contemplation of that judgement, where there shall be Information, Examination, Publication, Hearing, Judgement, and Execution in a minute; where they that never believed, till they heard me, may be taken in, and I that Preached and wrought their salvation, may be left out; where those wounds which my Savior received upon earth, for me, shall be shut up against me, and those wounds which my blasphemies have made in his glorified body, shall bleed out indignation, upon sight of me, the murtherer, not to think upon, not to tremble at this judgement, is the highest sin against the Father, and his power, in the undervaluing of it.

But there is a sin against this power too, in abusing that portion of that power, which God hath deposited in thee. Art thou a Priest, and expectest the reverence due to that holy calling? Be holy in in that calling. Quomodo potest observari à populo, qui nihil habet secretum à populo? How can the people reverence him, whom they see to be but just one of them? Quid in te miretur, si sua in te recognoscit? If they find no more in thee, then in one another, what should they admire in thee? Si quae in se erubescit, in te, quem reverendum arbitratur, offendit? If they discern those infirmities in thee, which they are ashamed of in themselves, where is there any object, any subject, any exercise of their reverence? Art thou great in Civil Power? Quid gloriaris in malo, quiae potens es? Why boastest thou thy self in mischief, O mighty man? Hast thou a great body therefore, because thou shouldest stand heavy upon thine own feet, and make them ake? Or a great power therefore, because thou shouldest oppress them that are under thee? use thy power justly, and call it the voice of allegiance when the people say to thee, as to Iosua, All that thou commandest us, we will doc, and whither soever thou sendest us, we will go: Abuse that power to oppression, and thou canst not call that the voice of sedition, in which, Peter and the other Apostles joined together, We ought to obey God rather then man. Hast thou any judicial place in this world? here there belongs more fear then in the rest: Some things God hath done in Christ as a Priest in this world, some things as a King, But when Christ should have been a Judge in civil causes, he declined that, he would not divide the Inheritance, and in criminal causes he did so too, he would not condemn the Adulteresse. So that for thy example in judgement, thou art referred to that which is not come yet, to that, to which thou must come, The last, the everlasting judgement. Weigh thine affections there, and then, and think there stands before thee now, a prisoner so affected, as thou shalt be then. Weigh the mercy of thy Judge then, and think there is such mercy required in thy judgement now. Be but able to say, God be such to me at the last day, as I am to his people this day, and for that days justice in thy public calling, God may be pleased to cover many sins of infirmity. And so you have all that we intended in this exercise to present unto you, The first person of the Trinity, God the Father, in his Attribute of power, Almighty, and those sins, which, as far as this Text leads us, are directed upon him in that notion of Father. The next day the Son will rise.

Serm. XL. Preached upon Trinity-Sunday.

1 COR. 16.22.

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha.

CHrist is not defined, not designed by any name, by any word so often, as by that very word, The Word, Sermo, Speech. In man there are three kinds of speech; Sermo innatus, That inward speech, which the thought of man reflecting upon it self produces within, He thinks something; And then Sermo illatus, A speech of inference, that speech which is occasioned in him by outward things, from which he draws conclusions, and determins; And lastly, Sermo prolatus, That speech by which he manifests himself to other men. We consider also three kinds of speech in God; and Christ is all three. There is Sermo innatus; His eternal, his natural word, which God produced out of himself, which is the generatiof the second Person in the Trinity; And then there is Sermo illatus, His word occasioned by the fall of Adam, which is his Decree of sending Christ, as a Redeemer; And there is also Sermo prolatus, His speech of manifestation and application of Christ, which are his Scriptures. The first word is Christ, the second, the Decree, is for Christ, the third, the Scripture, is of Christ. Let the word be Christ, so he is God; Let the word be for Christ, for his comming hither, so he is man; Let the word be of Christ, so the Scriptures make this God and man ours. Now If in all these, if in any of these apprehensions, any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha.

By most of those, who, from the perverseness of Heretics, have taken occasion to prove the Deity of Christ, this text hath been cited; and therefore I take it now, when in my course proposed, I am to speak of the second Person in the Trinity; but, (as I said of the first Person, the Father) not as in the School, but in the Church, not in a Chair, but in a Pulpit, not to a Congregation that required proof, in a thing doubted, but edification, upon a foundation received; not as though any of us would dispute, whether Jesus Christ were the Lord, but that all of us would join in that Excommunication, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be, &c. Let this then be the frame that this exercise shall stand upon. We have three parts; The person upon whom our Religious worship is to be directed, The Lord Jesus Christ: And secondly, we have the expression and the limitation of that worship, as far as it is expressed here, Love the Lord Jesus Christ: And lastly, we have the imprecation upon them that do not, If any man do not, let him be Anathema, Maranatha. In the first we have Verbum natural, verbum innatum, As he is the essential word, The Lord, a name proper only to God; And then Verbum conceptum, verbum illatum, Gods Decree upon consideration of mans misery, that Christ should be a Redeemer, for to that intent he is Christus, Anointed to that purpose; And lastly, Verbum prolatum, verbum manifestatum, That this Christ becomes Jesus, That this Decree is executed, that this person thus anointed for this office, is become an actual Savior; So the Lord is made Christ, and Christ is made Jesus. In the second Part we shall find another argument for his Deity, for there is such a love required towards the Lord Jesus Christ, as appertains to God only; And lastly, we shall have the indeterminable, and indispensable excommunication of them, who though they pretend to love the Lord, (God in an universal notion) yet do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, God, in this apprehension of a Savior; and, If any man love not, &c.

First then, in the first branch of the first part, in that name of our Savior, The Lord, we apprehend the eternal Word of God, the Son of God, the second Person in the Trinity: for, He is Persona producta, Begotten by another, and therefore cannot be the first; And he is Persona spirans, a Person out of whom, with the Father, another Person, that is, the Holy Ghost proceeds, and therefore cannot be the last Person, and there are but three, and so he necessarily the second. Shall we hope to comprehend this by reason? Quid magni haberet Dei generatio, si angusti is intellectus tui comprehenderetur? How small a thing were this mystery of Heaven, if it could be shut in, in so narrow a piece of the earth, as thy heart? Qui tuam ipsius generation̄ vel in totum nescis, vel dicere sit pudor, Thou that knowest nothing of thine own begetting, or art ashamed to speak that little that thou doest know of it, wilt not thou be ashamed to offer to express the eternal generation of the Son of God? It is true, De modo, How it was done, our reason cannot, but De facto, that it was done, our reason may be satisfied. We believe nothing with a moral faith, till something have wrought upon our reason, and vanquished that, and made it assent and subscribe. Our divine faith requires evidence too, and hath it abundantly; for, the works of God are not so good evidence to my reason, as the Word of God is to my faith; The Sun shining is not so good a proof that it is day, as the Word of God, the Scripture is, that that which is commanded there, is a duty. The root of our belief that Christ is God, is in the Scriptures, but we consider it spread into three branches, 1 The evident Word it self, that Christ is God; 2 The real declaration thereof in his manifold Miracles; 3 The conclusions that arise to our understanding; thus illumined by the Scriptures, thus established by his miracles.

In every mouth, in every pen of the Scriptures, that delivers any truth, the Holy Ghost speaks, and therefore whatsoever is said by any there, is the testimony of the Holy Ghost, for the Deity of Christ. And from the Father we have this testimony, that he is his Son, This is my beloved Son, And this testimony that his Son is God, Vnto his Son he saith, Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The Holy Ghost testifies, and his Father, and himself; and his testimony is true, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. He testifies with his Father; and then, their Angels and his Apostles testify with him, I Jesus have sent mine Angels, to testify unto you these things in the Church, That I am the Root, and the Off-spring of David, not the off-spring only, but the root too, and therefore was before David. God and his Angels in Heaven testify it, And visible Angels upon earth, his Apostles, God hath purchased his Church, with his own blood, says S. Paul; He who shed his blood for his Church, was God; and no false God, no mortal God, as the gods of the Nations were, but, This is the true God, and cternal life; and then, no small God, no particular God, as the Gods of the Nations were too, but, We look for the glorious appearing of our great God, our Savior Christ Jesus: God, that is, God in all the Persons, Angels, that is, Angels in all their acceptations, Angels of Heaven, Angels of the Church, Angels excommunicate from both, the fallen Angels, Devils themselves, testify his Godhead, Vncleane Spirits fell down before him, and cried, Thou art the Son of God.

This is the testimony of his Word; the testimony of his Works, are his Miracles. That his Apostles did Miracles in his name, was a testimony of his Deity. His name, through faith in his Name, hath made this man strong, says S. Peter, at the raising of the Creeple. But that he did Miracles in his own Name, by his own Power, is a nearer testimony; Belssed be the Lord God of Israel, says David, Qui facit Mirabilia solus, Which doth his Miracles alone, without deriving power from any other, or without using an other instrument for his Power. For, Mutare naturam, nisi qui Dominus naturae est, non potest: Whosoever is able to change the course of nature, is the Lord of nature; And he that is so, made it; & he that made it, that created it, is God. Nay, Plus est, it is more to change the course of Nature, then to make it; for, in the Creation, there was no reluctation of the Creature, for there was no Creature, but to divert Nature out of her settled course, is a conquest upon a resisting adversary, and powerful in a prescription. The Recedat Mare, Let the Sea go back, and the Sistat Sol, Let the Sun stand still, met with some kind of opposition in Nature, but in the Fiat Mare, and Fiat Sol, Let there be a Sea, and a Sun, God met with no opposition, no Nature, he met with nothing. And therefore, Interrogemus Miracula, quid nobis de Christo loquantur, Let us ask his Miracles, and they will make us understand Christ; Habent enim si intelligantur, linguam suam, If we understand them, that is, If we would understand them, they speak loud enough, and plain enough. In his Miraculous birth of a Virgin, In his Miraculous disputation with Doctors at twelve years of age, in his fasting, in his invisibility, in his walking upon the Sea, in his re-assuming his body in the Resurrection, Christ spoke, in himself, in the language of Miracles. So also had they a loud and a plain voice, in other men; In his Miraculous curing the sick, raising the dead, dispossessing the Devil, Christ spoke, in other men, in the language of Miracles. And he did so also, as in himself, and in other men, so in other things; In the miraculous change of Water into Wine, in the drying up of the Fig-tree, In feeding five thousand with five loaves, in shutting up the Sun in darkness, and opening the graves of the Dead to light, in bringing plenty of Fish to the Net, and in putting money into the mouth of a Fish at the Angle, Christ spoke in all these Creatures, in the language of Miracles. So the Scriptures testify of his Deity, and so do his Miracles, and so do those Conclusions which arise from thence, though we consider but that one, which is expressed in this part of the Text, that he is the Lord, If any love not the Lord, &c.

We reason thus, God gives not his glory to others, and his glory is in his Essential Name, and in his Attributes; and to whomsoever he gives them, because they cannot be given from God, he who hath them, is God. Of these, none is so peculiar to him, as the name of Iehova; the name, which for reverence, the Jews forbore to sound, and in the room thereof ever sounded, Adonai, and Adonai, is Dominus, the name of this Text, The Lord; Christ by being the Lord thus, is Jehovah, and if Jehovah, God. It is Tertullians observation, Et ss Pater sit, & dicatur Dominus, & Filius sit, & dicatur Deus, That though the Father be the Lord, and be called the Lord, and though the Son be God, and be called God, yet, says he, the manner of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament, is, to call the Father God, and the Son the Lord. He is Lord with the Father, as he was Con-creator, his Collegue in the Creation; But for that Dominion and Lordship which he hath by his Purchase, by his Passion, Calcavit solus, Pl trod the Wine-press alone, not only no man, but no Person of the Trinity, redeemed us, by suffering for us, but he. For the ordinary appellation of Lord in the New Testament, which is, it is but a name of Civility, not only no name implying Divine worship, but not implying any distinction of rank or degree amongst men. Mary Magdalen speaks of Christ, and speaks to the Gardiner, (as she thought) and both in one and the same word; it is, Dominus, Lord, to both: when she says, They have taken away my Lord, meaning Christ, and when she says to the Gardiner, Sir, if thou hast born him hence, it is the same word too. But all that reaches not to the style of this Text, The Lord, for here The Lord, is God; And no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. All that was written in the Scriptures, all that was established by Miracles, all that is deduced by reason, conduces to this, determines in this, That every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is the Lord; in which essential name, the name of his nature, he is first proposed, as the object of our love.

Now this Lord, Lord for ever, is become that which he was not for ever, (otherwise then in a secondary consideration) that is, Christ, which implies a person prepared, and sitted, and anointed to a peculiar Office in this World. And can the Lord, the ever-living Lord, the Son of God, the only Son of God, God himself have any preferment? preferment by an Office in this World? Was it a preferment to Dionysius, who was before in that height over men, to become a school-master over boys? Were it a preferment to the Kings Son, to be made governor over a Be-hive, or over-seer over an Ant-hill? And men, nay Mankind is no more, not that, not a Be-hive, not an Ant-hill, compared to this Person, who being the Lord, would become Christ. As he was the Lord, we considered him as God, and that there is a God, natural reason can comprehend; As he is Christ, we consider him God and Man, and such a Person, natural reason (not rooted in the Scriptures, not illustrated by the Scriptures) cannot comprehend; Man will much easier believe the Lord, that is, God, then Christ, that is, God and Man in one Person.

Christ then is the style, the title of his Office; Non Nomen, sed Appellatio, Christ is not his Name, but his Addition. Vnctus significatur, says he, & unctus non magis nomen, quam vestitus, calceatus; Christ signifies but anointed, and anointed is no more a Name, then apparelled, or shod, is a name: So, as he was apparelled in our flesh, and his apparel died red in his own blood, so as he was shod to tread the Wine-press for us, So he was Christ. That it is Nomen Sacramenti, as S. Aug. calls it, A mystery, is easily agreed to: for all the mysteries of all the Religions in the World, are but Milk in respect of this Bone, but Catechisms in respect of this School-point, but Alphabets in respect of this hard Style, God and Man in one person. That it is Nomen Sacramenti, as Augustine says, is easy; but that it is Nuncupatio potestatis, as Lactantius calls it, is somewhat strange, that it is an office of power, a title of honor: for the Creator to become a Creature, and the Lord of life the object of death, nay the seat of death, in whom death did sojourn three days, can Lactantius call this a declaration of power? is this Nuncupatio potestatis, a title of honor? Beloved, he does, and he may; for it was so: for, it was an Annointing; Christas is unctus; and unction was the Consecration of Priests, Thou shalt take the annointing Oil, and power it upon his head. The Mitre (as you may see there) was upon his head then; but then there was a Crown upon the Mitre; There is a power above the Priest, the regal power; not above the function of the Priest, but above the person of the Priest; But Unction was the Consecration of Kings too; Samuel saluted Saul with a kiss, and all the people shouted, and said, God save the King; but, Is it not, says Samuel, because the Lord hath anointed thee, to be captain over his inheritance? Kings were above Priests; and in extraordinary cases, God raised Prophets above Kings; for there is no ordinary power above them: But Unction was the Consecration of these Prophets too; Elisha was anointed to be Prophet in Elijah room; and such a Prophet as should have use of the Sword: Him that scapes the Sword of Hazael, (Hazael was King of Syria) shall the Sword of Iehu slay, and him that scapes the Sword of Iehu (Iehu was King of Israel) shall the Sword of Elisha slay. In all these, in Priests who were above the people, in Kings, who (in matter of Government) were above the Priests, in Prophets, who (in those limited cases expressed by God, and for that time, wherein God gave them that extraordinary employment) were above Kings, The Unction imprinted their Consecration, they were all Christs, and in them all, thereby, was that Nuncupatio potestatis, which Lactantius mentions; Unction, Annointing was an addition and title of honor: Much more in our Christ, who alone was all three; A Priest after the Order of Melchizedek; A King set upon the holy hill of Sion; And a Prophet, The Lord thy God will rays up a Prophet, unto him shall yee harken: And besides all this threefold Unction, Humanitas uncta Divinitate; He had all the unctions that all the other had, and this, which none other had; In him the Humanity was Consecrated, anointed with the Divinity it self.

So then, unio unctio, The hypostatical union of the Godhead to the humane nature, is his Conception, made him Christ: for, oleo laetitia perfusus in union, Then, in that union of the two natures, did God annoint him with the oil of gladnes above his fellows. There was an addition, something gained, something to be glad of; and, to him, as he was God, The Lord, so nothing could be added; If he were glad above his fellows, it was in that respect wherein he had fellows, and as God, as The Lord, he had none; so that still, as he was made Man, he became this Christ. In which his being made Man, if we should not consider the last and principal purpose, which was to redeem man, if we leave out his part, yet it were object enough for our wonder, and subject enough for our praise and thanksgiving, to consider the dignity, that the nature of man received in that union, wherin this Lord was thus made this Christ, for, the Godhead did not swallow up the manhood; but man, that nature remained still; The greater kingdom did not swallow the less, but the less had that great addition, which it had not before, and retained the dignities and privileges which it had before too. Christus est nomen personae, non naturae, The name of Christ denotes one person, but not one nature: neither is Christ so composed of those two natures, as a man is composed of Elements; for man is thereby made a third thing, and is not now any of those Elements; you cannot call mans body fire or air, or earth or water, though all four be in his composition: But Christ is so made of God and Man, as that he is Man still, for all the glory of the Deity, and God still, for all the infirmity of the manhood: Divinum miraculis lucet, humanum contumeliis afficitur: In this one Christ, both appear; The Godhead bursts out, as the Sun out of a cloud, and shines forth gloriously in miracles, even the raising of the dead, and the humane nature is submitted to contempt and to torment, even to the admitting of death in his own bosom; sed tamen ipsius sunt tum miraculae, tum supplicia, but still, both he that raises the dead, and he that dies himself, is one Christ, his is the glory of the Miracles, and the contempt and torment is his too. This is that mysterious person, who is singularis, and yet not individuus; singularis, There never was, never shall be any such, but we cannot call him Individual, as every other particular man is, because Christitatis non est Genus, there is no genus nor species of Christs; it is not a name, which, so (as the name belongs to our Christ, that is, by being anointed with the divine nature) can be communicated to any other, as the name of Man, may to every Individual Man. Christ is not that Spectrum, that Damascene speaks of, nor that Electrum that Tertullian speaks of; not Spectrum, so as that the two natures should but imaginarily be united, and only to amaze and astonish us, that we could not tell what to call it, what to make of it, a spectre, an apparition, a phantasma, for he was a Real person. Neither was he Tertullians Electrum, a third metal made of two other metals, but a person so made of God and Man, as that, in that person, God and Man, are in their natures still distinguished. He is Germen Davidis, in one Prophet, The branch, the Off-spring of David; And he is Germen Iehovae, The Branch, the Off-spring of God, of the Lord, in another: When this Germen Davidis, the Son of Man would do miracles, then he was Germen Iehovae, he reflected to that stock into which the Humanity was engrafted, to his Godhead; And when this Germen Iehovae, the Son of God, would indure humane miseries, he reflected to that stock, to that humanity, in which he had invested, and incorporated himself. This person, this Christ died for our sins, says S. Paul; but says he, He died according to the Scriptures; Non sine onere pronunciat Christum mortuum; The Apostle thought it a hard, a heavy, an incredible thing to say that this person, this Christ, this Man and God, was dead, And therefore, Vt duritiam molliret, & scandalum auditoris everteret, That he might mollify the hardnes of that saying, and defend the hearer from being scandalized with that saying, Adjecit, secundùm scripturas, He adds this, Christ is dead, according to the Scriptures: If the Scriptures had not told us that Christ should die, and told us again, that Christ did die, it were hard to conceive, how this person, in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily, should be submitted to death. But therein principally is he Christus, as he was capable of dying. As he was Verbum natural, and innatum, The natural and essential word of God, He hath his first name in the text, He is the Lord: As he is verbum illatum, and Conceptum, A person upon whom there is a Decree and a Commission, that he shall be a person capable to redeem Man by death, he hath this second name in the text, He is Christ; As he is The Lord, he cannot die; As he is Christ (under the Decree) he cannot choose but die; But as he is Jesus, He is dead already, and that is his other, his third, his last name in this Text, If any man love not &c.

We have inverted a little, the order of these names, or titles in the Text; because the Name of Christ, is in the order of nature, before the name of Jesus, as the Commission is before the Execution of the Commission. And, in other places of Scripture, to let us see, how both the capacity of doing it, and the actual doing of it, belongs only to this person, the Holy Ghost seems to convey a spiritual delight to us, in turning and transposing the Names every way; sometimes Jesus alone, and Christ alone, sometimes Jesus Christ, and sometimes Christ Jesus, that every way we might be sure of him. Now we consider him, as Jesus, a real, an actual Savior. And this was his Name; The Angel said to his Mother, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people; And we say to you, Call upon this name Jesus, for he hath saved his people; for, Now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus: As he was verbum conceptum, and illatum, The word which the Trinity uttered amongst themselves, so he was decreed to come in that place, The Lord of the vineyard (that is, Almighty God seeing the misery of Man, to be otherwise irremediable) The Lord of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved Son; it may be, they will reverence him when they see him. But did they reverence him, when they saw him? This sending made him Christ, a person, whom, though the Son of God, they might see: They did see him; but then, says that Gospel, they drew him out and killed him. And this he knew before he came, and yet came, and herein was Jesus, a real, an actual, a zealous Savior, even of them that slew him: And in this (with piety and reverence) we may be bold to say, that even the Son of God, was filius prodigus, that poured out his blood even for his Enemies; but rather in that acclamation of the prodigal child Father, This my son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost, and is found. For, but for this desire of our salvation, why should he who was the Lord, be ambitious of that Name, the name of Jesus, which was not Tam expectabile apud Iudaeos nomen, no such name as was in any especial estimation amongst the Jews: for, we see in Ioscphus, divers men of that name, of no great honor, of no good conversation. But because the name implies salvation, Iosua, who had another name before, Cum in hujus sacramenti imagine parabatur, when he was prepared as a Type of this Jesus, to be a Savior, a Deliverer of the people, Etiam nominis Dominici inaugur atus est figurae, & Jesus cognominatus, then he was canonized with that name of salvation, and called Iosuae, which is Jesus.

The Lord then, the Son of God, had a Sitio in heaven, as well as upon the Cross; He thirsted our salvation there; and in the midst of the fellowship of the Father from whom he came, and of the Holy Ghost, who came from him and the Father, and all the Angels, who came (by a lower way) from them all, he desired the conversation of Man, for Mans sake; He that was God The Lord, became Christ, a man, and he that was Christ, became Jesus, no man, a dead man, to save man: To save man, all ways, in all his parts, And to save all men, in all parts of the world: To save his soul from hell, where we should have felt pains, and yet been dead, then when we felt them; and seen horrid spectacles, and yet been in darknes and blindnes, then when we saw them; And suffered unsufferable torments, & yet have told over innumerable ages in suffering them: To save this soul from that hell, and to fill that capacity which it hath, and give it a capacity which it hath not, to comprehend the joys and glory of Heaven, this Christ became Jesus. To save this body from the condemnation of everlasting corruption, where the worms that we breed are our betters, because they have a life, where the dust of dead Kings is blown into the street, and the dust of the street blown into the River, and the muddy River tumbled into the Sea, and the Sea remanded into all the veynes and channels of the earth; to save this body from everlasting dissolution, dispersion, dissipation, and to make it in a glorious Resurrection, not only a Temple of the holy Ghost, but a Companion of the holy Ghost in the kingdom of heaven, This Christ became this Jesus. To save this man, body and soul together, from the punishments due to his former sins, and to save him from falling into future sins by the assistance of his Word preached, and his Sacrrments administered in the Church, which he purchased by his blood, is this person, The Lord, the Christ, become this Jesus, this Savior. To save so, All ways, In soul, in body, in both; And also to save all men. For, to exclude others from that Kingdom, is a tyranny, an usurpation; and to exclude thy self, is a sinful, and a rebellious melancholy. But as melancholy in the body is the hardest humor to be purged, so is the melancholy in the soul, the distrust of thy salvation too. Flashes of presumption a calamity will quench, but clouds of desperation calamities thicken upon us; But even in this inordinate dejection thou exaltest thy self above God, and makest thy worst better then his best, thy sins larger then his mercy. Christ hath a Greek name, and an Hebrew name; Christ is Greek, Jesus is Hebrew; He had commission to save all nations, and he hath saved all; Thou givest him another Hebrew name, and another Greek, when thou makest his name Abaddon, and Apollyon, a Destroyer; when thou wilt not apprehend him as a Savior, and love him so; which is our second Part, in our order proposed at first, If any man love not, &c.

In the former part, we found it to be one argument for the Deity of Christ, That he was Jehovah, The Lord; we have another here, That this great branch, nay this very root of all divine worship due to God, is required to be exhibited to this person, That is, Love, If any man love not, &c. If any man could see Virtue with his eye, he would be in love with her: Christ Jesus hath been seen so: Quod vidimus, says the Apostle, That which we have seen with our eyes, we preach to you, and therefore If any man love not, &c. If he love him not with that love which implies a Confession, that the Lord Jesus is God, That is, if he love him not with all his heart, and all his power: What doth the Lord thy God require of thee? To love him with all thy heart, and all thy soul. God forbids us not a love of the Creature, proportionable to the good that that creature can do us: To love fire as it warms me, and meat as it feeds me, and a wife as she helps me; But because God does all this, in all these several instruments, God alone is centrically, radically, directly to be loved, and the creature with a love reflected, and derived from him; And Christ to be loved with the love due to God himself: He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter more then me, is not worthy of me, says Christ himself. If then we love him so, as we love God, entirely, we confess him to be the Lord; And if we love him so, as he hath loved us, we confess him to be Christ Jesus: And we consider his love to us (for the present) in these two demonstrations of it, first Dilexit in finem, As he loved, so he loved to the end; And then Posuit animam, Greater love there is not, then to die for one, and he did that.

Our Savior Christ forsook not Peter, when Peter forsook him: because he loved him, he loved him to the end. Love thou Christ to the end; To His end, and to Thy end. Finem Domini vidistis, says S. James, You have seen the end of the Lord; That is, says August. to what end the Lord came; His way was contempt and misery, and his end was shame and death: Love him there. Thy love is not required only in the Hosanna's of Christ, when Christ is magnified, and his Gospel advanced, and men preferred for loving it: No, nor only in the Transfiguration of Christ, when Christ appears to thee in some particular beams, and manifestation of his glory; but love him in his Crucifigatur, then when it is a scornful thing to love him, And love him in the Nunquid & tu? when thou must pass that examination, Wert not thou one of them? And in the Nonne ego te vidi? if witnesses come in against thee for the love of Christ, love him when it is a suspicious thing, a dangerous thing to love him; And love him not only in spiritual transfigurations, when he visits thy soul with glorious consolations, but even in his inward eclipses, when he withholds his comforts, and withdraws his cheerfulness, even when he makes as though he loved not thee, love him. Love him, all the way, to his end, and to thy end too, to the laying down of thy life for him.

Love him then in the laying down of the pleasures of this life for him, and love him in the laying down of the life it self, if his love need that testimony. Of the first case, of crucifying himself to the world, S. Augustine had occasion to say much to a young Gentleman, young, and noble, and rich, and (which is not, in such persons, an ordinary temptation, but where it is, it is a shrewd one) as he was young, and noble, and rich, so he was learned in other learnings, and upon that strength withdrew, and kept off from Christ. It was Licentius, to whom S. Augustine writes his 39. Epistle. He had sent to S. Augustine a handsome Elegy of his making, in which Poem he had said as much of the vanity and deceivableness of this world, as S. Augustine could have looked for, or, perchance, have said in a Homily; And he ends his Elegy thus, Hoc opus, ut jubeas, All this concerning this world I know already, Do you but tell me, do you command me, what I shall do. Iubebit Augustinus conservo suo? says that sensible and blessed Father: Shall I, shall Augustine command his fellow-servant? Et non plang at potiùs frustra juberc Dominum? Must not Augustine rather lament that the Lord hath commanded thee, and is not obeyed? Wouldst thou hear me? Canst thou pretend that? Exaudi teipsum, Durissime, Immanissime, Surdissime; Thou that art inoxorable against the persuasions of thine own soul, Hard against the tenderness of thine own heart, Deaf against the charms of thine own Verses, canst thou pretend a willingness to be led by me? Quam animam, quod ingenium non licet immolare Deo nostro? How well disposed a soul, how high pitched a wit is taken out of my hands, that I may not sacrifice that soul, that I may not direct that wit upon our God, because, with all these good parts, thou turnest upon the pleasures of this world? Mentiuntur, moriuntur, in mortem trahunt: Do not speak out of wit, nor out of a love to elegant expressions, nor do not speak in jest of the dangerous vanities of this world; Mentiuntur, they are false, they perform not their promises; Moriuntur, they are transitory, they stay not with thee; and In mortem trahunt, they dye, and they dye of the infection, and they transfuse the venom into thee, and thou dyest with them: Non dicit verum, nisi veritas, & Christus veritas, Nothing will deal truly with thee but the Truth it self, and only Christ Jesus is this Truth. He follows it thus much farther, Si calicem aureum invenisses in terrae, If thou foundest a chalice of gold in the earth, so good a heart as thine would say, Surely this belongs to the Church, and surely thou wouldst give it to the Church: Accepisti à Deo ingenium spiritualiter aureum, God hath given thee a wit, an understanding, not of the gold of Ophir, but of the gold of the heavenly Jerusalem, Et in illo, Satanae propinas teipsum? In that chalice once consecrated to God, wilt thou drink a health to the devil, and drink a health to him in thine own blood, in making thy wit, thy learning, thy good parts advance his kingdom? He ends all thus, Miserearis jam mei, si tibi viluisti, If thou undervalue thy self, if thou think not thy self worth hearing, if thou follow not thine own counsels, yet miserearis mei, Have mercy upon me, me, whose charge it is to bring others to heaven, me, who shall not be received there, if I bring no body with me; be content to go with me, that way, which by the inspiration of the holy Ghost I do show, and that way, which by the conduct of the holy Ghost I would fain go. All bends to this, First, love Christ so far as to lay down the pleasures of this life for him, and so far, as to lay down the life it self for him.

Christ did so for thee: and his blessed Servants the Martyrs, in the Primitive Church, did so for him, and thee; for his glory, for thy example. Can there be any ill, any loss, in giving thy life for him? Is it not a part of the reward it self, the honor to suffer for him? When Christ says, Whosoever loses any thing for my sake, and the Gospels, he shall have a hundred fold in houses, and lands, with persecutions, we need not limit that clause of the Promise, (with persecutions) to be, That in the midst of persecutions, God will give us temporal blessings, but that in the midst of temporal blessings, God will give us persecutions; that it shall be a part of his mercy, to be delivered from the danger of being puffed up by those temporal abundances, by having a mixture of adversity and persecutions; and then, what ill, what loss, is there in laying down this life for him? Quid hoc mali est, quod martyrialis mali, non habet timorem, pudorem, tergiversationem, poenitentiam, deplorationem? What kind of evil is this, which when it came to the highest, Ad malum martyriale, to martyrdom, to death, did neither imprint in our holy predecessors in the Primitive Church, Timorem, any fear that it would come; not Tergiversationem, any recanting lest it should come; nor Pudorem, any shame when it was come; nor Poenitentiam, any repentance that they would suffer it to come; nor Deplorationem, any lamentation by their heirs, and Executors, because they lost all, when it was come? Quid mali? What kind of evil can I call this, in laying down my life, for this Lord of life, Cujus reus gaudet, when those Martyrs called that guiltiness a joy, Cujus accusatio votum, and the accusation a satisfaction, Cujus poena foelicitas, and the suffering perfect happiness? Love thy neighbor as thy self, is the farthest of that Commandment; but love God above thy self; for, indeed, in doing so thou dost but love thy self still: Remember that thy soul is thy self; and as if that be lost, nothing is gained, so if that be gained, nothing is lost, whatsoever become of this life.

Love him then, as he is presented to thee here; Love the Lord, love Christ, love Jesus. If when thou lookest upon him as the Lord, thou findest frowns and wrinkles in his face, apprehensions of him, as of a Judge, and occasions of fear, do not run away from him, in that apprehension; look upon him in that angle, in that line awhile, and that fear shall bring thee to love; and as he is Lord, thou shalt see him in the beauty and loveliness of his creatures, in the order and succession of causes, and effects, and in that harmony and music of the peace between him, and thy foul: As he is the Lord, thou wilt fear him, but no man fears God truly, but that that fear ends in love.

Love him as he is the Lord, that would have nothing perish, that he hath made; And love him as he is Christ, that hath made himself man too, that thou mightest not perish: Love him as the Lord that could show mercy; and love him as Christ, who is that way of mercy, which the Lord hath chosen. Return again, and again to that mysterious person, Christ; And let me tell you, that though the Fathers never forbore to call the blessed Virgin Mary, Deiparam, the Mother of God, yet in Damascens time, they would not admit that name, Christiparam, that she was the Mother of Christ: Not that there is any reason to deny her that name now; but because then, that great Heretic, Nestorius, to avoid that name, in which the rest agreed, Deiparam, (for he thought not Christ to be God) invented a new name, Christiparam: Though it be true in it self, that that blessed Virgin is Christipara, yet because it was the invention of an Heretic, and a fundamental Heretic, who though he thought Christ to be anointed by the Holy Ghost above his fellows, yet did not believe him to be God, Damascene, and his Age, refused that addition to the blessed Virgin; So reverently were they affected, so jealously were they enamoured of that name, Christ, the name which implied his Unction, his Commission, the Decree, by which he was made a Person, able to redeem thy soul: And in that contemplation, say with Andrew, to his brother Peter, Invenimus Messiam; I have found the Messiah; I could find no means of salvation in my self, nay, no such means to direct God upon, by my prayer, or by a wish, as he hath taken; but God himself hath found a way, a Messiah; His Son shall be made man; And Inveni Messiam, I have found him, and found, that he, who by his Inearnation, was made able to save me, (so he was Christ) by his actual passion, hath saved me, and so I love him as Jesus.

Christ loved Stephen all the way, for all the way Stephen was disposed to Christs glory, but in the agony of death (death suffered for him) Christ expressed his love most, in opening the windows, the curtains of heaven it self, to see Stephen dye, and to show himself to Stephen. I love my Savior as he is The Lord, He that studies my salvation; And as Christ, made a person able to work my salvation; but when I see him in the third notion, Jesus, accomplishing my salvation, by an actual death, I see those hands stretched out, that stretched out the heavens, and those feet racked, to which they that racked them are foot-stools; I hear him, from whom his nearest friends fled, pray for his enemies, and him, whom his Father forsook, not forsake his brethren; I see him that clothes this body with his creatures, or else it would wither, and clothes this soul with his Righteousness, or else it would perish, hang naked upon the Cross; And him that hath, him that is, the Fountain of the water of life, cry out, He thirsts, when that voice overtakes me, in my cross ways in the world, Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold, and see, if there by any sorrow, like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger; When I conceit, when I contemplate my Savior thus, I love the Lord, and there is a reverent adoration in that love, I love Christ, and there is a mysterious admiration in that love, but I love Jesus, and there is a tender compassion in that love, and I am content to suffer with him, and to suffer for him, rather then see any diminution of his glory, by my prevarication. And he that loves not thus, that loves not the Lord God, and God manifested in Christ, Anathema, Maranatha, which is our next, and our last Part.

Whether this Anathema be denounced by the Apostle, by way of Imprecation, that he wished it so, or pronounced by way of excommunication, That others should esteem them so, and avoid them, as such persons, is sometimes debated amongst us in our books. If the Apostle say it by way of Imprecation, if it sound so, you are to remember first, That many things are spoken by the Prophets in the Scriptures, which sound as imprecations, as execrations, which are indeed but prophesies; They seem to be spoken in the spirit of anger, when they are in truth, but in the spirit of prophesy. So, in very many places of the Psalms, David seems to wish heavy calamities upon his and Gods enemies, when it is but a declaration of those judgements of God, which he prophetically foresees to be imminent upon them: They seem Imprecations, and are but Prophesies; and such, we, who have not this Spirit of Prophesy, nor foresight of Gods ways, may not venture upon. If they be truly Imprecations, you are to remember also, that the Prophets and Apostles had in them a power extraordinary, and in execution of that power, might do that, which every private man may not do: So the Prophets rebuked, so they punished Kings. So Elisha called in the Bears to devour the boys; And so Elijah called down fire to devour the Captains; So S. Peter killed Ananias, and Sapphira with his word; And so S. Paul stroke Elymas the Sorcerer with blindness. But upon Imprecations of this kind, we as private men, or as public persons, but limited by our Commission, may not adventure neither. But take the Prophets or the Apostles in their highest Authority, yet in an over-vehement zeal, they may have done some things some times not warrantable in themselves, many times many things, not to be imitated by us. In Moses his passionate vehemency, Dele me, If thou wilt not forgive them, blot me out of thy book, And in the Apostles inconfiderate zeal to his brethren, Optabam Anathema esse, I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ; In James and John's impatience of their Masters being neglected by the Samaritans, when they drew from Christ that rebuke, You know not of what spirit you are; In these, and such as these, there may be something, wherein even these men cannot be excused, but very much wherein we may not follow them, nor do as they did, nor say as they said. Since there is a possibility, a facility, a proclivity of erring herein, and so many conditions and circumstances required, to make an Imprecation just and lawful, the best way is to forbear them, or to be very sparing in them.

But we rather take this in the Text, to be an Excommunication denounced by the Apostle, then an Imprecation: So Christ himself, If he will not hear the Chruch, let him be to thee as a Heathen, or a Publican; That is, Have no conversation with him. So says the Apostle, speaking of an Angel, Anathema, If any man, if we our selves, if an Angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed. Now the Excommunication is in the Anathema, and the aggravating thereof in the other words, Maranatha. The word Anathema had two significations; They are expressed thus, Quod Deo dicatum, Quod à Deo per vitium alienatum; That which for some excellency in it, was separated from the use of man, to the service of God, or that which for some great fault in it, was separated from God and man too. Ab illo abstinebant tanquam Deo dicatum, Ab hoc recedebant, tanquam à Deo abalienatum: From the first kind, men abstained, because they were consecrated to God, and from the other, because they were aliened from God; and in that last sense, irreligious men, such as love not the Lord Jesus Christ, are Anathema, aliened from God. Amongst the Druides, with the Heathen, they excommunicated Malefactors, and no man might relieve him in any necessity, no man might answer him in any action: And so amongst the Jews, the Esseni, who were in special estimation for sanctity, excommunicated irreligious persons, and the persons so excommunicated starved in the streets and fields. By the light of nature, by the light of grace, we should separate our selves from irreligious, and from idolatrous persons; and that with that earnestness, which the Apostle expresses in the last words, Maran Atha.

In the practise of the Primitive Church, by those Canons, which we call The Apostles Canons, and those which we call The penitential Canons, we see there were different penances inflicted upon different faults, and there were, very early, relaxations of penances, Indulgences; and there were reservations of cases; in some any Priest, in some a Bishop only might dispense. It is so in our Church still; Impugners of the Supremacy are excommunicated, and not restored but by the Archbishop: Impugners of the Common prayer Book excommunicated too, but may be restored by the Bishop of the place: Impugners of our Religion declared in the Articles, reserved to the Archbishop: Impugners of Ceremonies restored when they repent, and no Bishop named: Authors of Schism reserved to the Archbishop; maintainers of Schismatiques, referred but to repentance; And so maintainers of Conventicles, to the Archbishop; maintainers of Constitutions made in Conventicles, to their repentance. There was ever, there is yet a reserving of certain cases, and a relaxation or aggravating of Ecclesiastical censures, for their weight, and for their time: and, because Not to love the Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest, the Apostle inflicts this heaviest Excommunication, Maran Atha.

The word seems to be a Proverbial word amongst the Jews after their return, and vulgarly spoken by them, and so the Apostle takes it, out of common use of speech: Maran, is Dominus, The Lord, and Athan is Venit, He comes: Not so truly, in the very exactness of Hebrew rules, and terminations, but so amongst them then, when their language was much depraved: but, in ancienter times, we have the word Mara for Dominus, and the word Atha for Venit; And so Anathema, Maran Atha will be, Let him that loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ, be as an accursed person to you, even till the Lord come. S. Jerome seems to understand this, Dominus venit, That the Lord is come; come already, come in the flesh; Superfluum, says he, odiis pertinacibus contendere adversus eum, qui jam venit; It is superabundant perverseness, to resist Christ now; Now that he hath appeared already, and established to himself a Kingdom in this world. And so S. Chrysostom seems to take it too; Christ is come already, says he, Et jam nulla potest excusatio non diligentibus eum; If any excuse could be pretended before, yet since Christ is come, none can be: Si opertum, says the Apostle, If our Gospel be hid now, it is hid from them who are lost; that is, they are lost from whom it is hid. But that is not all, that is intended by the Apostle, in this place. It is not only a censorious speech, It is a shame for them, and an inexcusable thing in them, if they do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is a judiciary speech, thus much more, since they do not love the Lord, The Lord judge them when he comes; I, says the Apostle, take away none of his mercy, when he comes, but I will have nothing to do with them, till he comes; to me, he shall be Anathema, Maran Atha, separated from me, till then; then, the Lord who shews mercy in minutes, do his will upon him. Our former Translation had it thus, Let him be had in execration, and excommunicated till death; In death, Lord have mercy upon him; till death, I will not live with him.

To end all, If a man love not the Lord, if he love not God, which is, which was, and which is to come, what will please him? whom will he love? If he love the Lord, and love not Christ, and so love a God in general, but lay no hold upon a particular way of his salvation, Sine Christo, sine Deo, says the Apostle to the Ephesians, when ye were without Christ, ye were without God; A non-Christian, is an Atheist in that sense of the Apostle. If any man find a Christ, a Savior of the World, but find not a Jesus, an actual Savior, that this Jesus hath saved him, Who is a liar, says another Apostle, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? And (as he says after) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. From the presumptuous Atheist, that believes no God, from the reserved Atheist, that believes no God manifested in Christ, from the melancholic Atheist that believes no Jesus applied to him, from him of no Religion, from him of no Christian Religion, from him that erres fundamentally in the Christian Religion, the Apostle enjoynes a separation, not till clouds of persecution come, and then join, not till beams of preferment come, and then join, not till Laws may have been slumbered some years, and then join, not till the parties grow somewhat near an equality, and then join, but Maran Atha, donec Dominus venit, till the Lord come to his declaration in judgement, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Amen.

Serm. XLI. Preached upon Trinity-Sunday.

PSAL. 2.12.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry.

WHether we shall call it a repeating again in us, of that which God had done before to Israel, or call it a performing of that in us, which God promised by way of Prophesy to Israel, that is certainly afforded to us by God, which is spoken by the Prophet of Israel, God doth draw us with the cords of a man, and with bands of love: with the cords of a man, the man Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and with the bands of love, the band and seal of love, a holy kiss, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry. No man comes to God, except the Father draw him; The Father draws no man, but by the Son; and the Son receives none, but by love, and this cement and glue, of a zealous and a reverential love, a holy kiss; Kiss the Son, &c.

The parts upon which, for the enlightening of your understandings, and assistance of your memories, we shall insist, are two: first our duty, then our danger; The first is an expression of love, Kiss the Son; the second is an impression of fear, lest he be angry. In the first we shall proceed thus: we shall consider first The object of this love, the Person, the second Person in the Trinity, The Son; The rather, because that consideration will clear the Translation; for, in no one place of Scripture, do Translations differ more, then in this Text; and the Roman Translation and ours differ so much, as that they have but Apprehendite disciplinam, Embrace knowledge, where we have, (as you heard) Kiss the Son. From the Person, The Son, we shall pass to the act, Osculamini, Kiss the Son; In which we shall see, That since this is an act, which licentious men have depraved, (carnal men do it, and treacherous men do it; Judas (and not only Judas) have betrayed by a kiss) and yet God commands this, and expresses love in this, Every thing that hath, or may be abused, must not therefore be abandoned; the turning of a thing out of the way, is not a taking of that thing away, but good things deflected to ill uses, by some, may be by others reduced to their first goodness. And then in a third branch of this first part, we shall consider, and magnify the goodness of God, that hath brought us into this distance, that we may Kiss the Son, that the expressing of this love lies in our hands, and that, whereas the love of the Church, in the Old Testament, even in the Canticle, went no farther but to the Osculetur me, O that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! now, in the Christian Church, and in the visitation of a Christian soul, he hath invited us, enabled us to kiss him, for he is presentially amongst us: And this will lead us to conclude that first part, with an earnest persuasion, and exhortation to kiss the Son, with all those affections, which we shall there find to be expressed in the Scriptures, in that testimony of true love, a holy kiss. But then, lest that persuasion by love should not be effectual, and powerful enough to us, we shall descend from that duty, to the danger, from love, to fear, Lest he be angry; And therein see first, that God, who is love, can be angry; And then, that this God who is angry here, is the Son of God, He that hath done so much for us, and therefore in Justice may be angry; He that is our Judge, and therefore in reason, we are to fear his anger: And then, in a third branch, we shall see, how easily this anger departs, a kiss removes it, Do it, lest he be angry; And then lastly, we shall inquire, what does anger him; and there consider, That as we attribute power to the Father, and so, sins against power (the undervaluing of Gods power in the Magistrate over us, or the abusing of Gods power, in our selves, over others) were sins against the Father; so wisdom being the attribute of the Son, ignorance, which is so far under wisdom, and curiosity, which carries us beyond wisdom, will be sins against the Son.

Our first branch in our first part, directs us upon him, who is first and last, and yesterday and to day, and the same for ever; The Son of God, Osculamini filium, Kiss the Son. Where the Translations differ as much, as in any one passage. The Chalde paraphrase (which is, for the most part, good evidence) and the translation of the Septuagint, (which adds much weight) and the currant of the Fathers (which is of importance too) do all read this place, Apprehendite disciplinam, Embrace knowledge, and not Osculamini filium, Kiss the son. Of the later men in the Roman Church, divers read it as we do, Osculamini, and some farther, Amplectimini, Embrace the son. Amongst the Jews, Rab. Solomon reads it, Armanini disciplina, Arm your selves with knowledge; And another modern man, reads it, Osculamini pactum, Kiss the Covenant; And, Adorate frumentum, Adore the Corn, and thereby carries it from the pacification of Christ in heaven, to the adoration of the bread in the Sacrament. Clearly, and without exception, even from Bellarmine himself, according to the Original Hebrew, it ought to be read, as we read it, Kiss the Son. Now very many, very learned, and very zealous men of our times, have been very vehement against that Translation of the Roman Church, though it be strengthened, by the Chalde, by the Septuagint, and by the Fathers, in this place. The reason of the vehemence in this place, is not because that sense, which that translation presents, may not be admitted; no, nor that it does not reach home, to that which is intended in ours, Kiss the Son: for, since the doctrine of the Son of God, had been established in the verses before, to say now, Apprehendite disciplinam, lay hold upon that Doctrine; That doctrine which was delivered before, is, in effect the same thing, as, Kiss the Son. So Luther, when he takes, and follows that translation of that Church, says, Nostra translatio, ad verbum, nihil est, ad sensum propriissima; That translation, if we consider the very words only, is far from the Original, but if we regard the sense, it is most proper. And so also Calvin admits; Take it which way you will, Idem manet sensus, the sense is all one. And therefore another Author in the Reformation says, In re dubia, malim vetustissimo interpreti crederc, since upon the whole matter it is doubtful, or indifferent, I would not depart, says he, from that Translation, which is most ancient.

The case then being thus, that that sense may be admitted, and admitted so as that it establish the same doctrine that ours does, why are our late men so very vehement against it? Truly, upon very just reason: for, when those former reverent men were so moderate as to admit that translation in this place; The Church of Rome, had not then put such a sanctity, such a reverence, such a singularity, and preeminence, and supremacy, such a Noli me tangere, upon that Translation; It had the estimation then of a very reverend Translation, and compared with any other Translations, then the best. But when in the Council of Trent they came to make it as Authentical, to prefer it before the Originals themselves, to decide all matters of Controversy by it alone, and to make the doing so, matter of faith, and heresy, in any thing to depart from that Translation, then came these later men justly to charge it with those errors, wherein, by their own confessions, it hath departed from the Original; Not that these men meant to discredit that Translation so, as that it should not still retain the estimation of a good and useful Translation, but to avoid that danger, that it should be made matter of faith, to be bound to one Translation; or that any Translation should be preferred before the Original. And so truly it is, in many other things, besides the translation. They say S. Peter was at Rome; and all moderate men went along with them; S. Peter was at Rome. But when upon S. Peters personal being at Rome, they came to build their universal supremacy over all the Church, and so to erect matter of faith upon matter of fact, then later men came to deny, that it could be proved out of Scripture, that Peter was at Rome; So the Ancients spoke of many Sacraments, so they did of Purgatory, so they did of many things controverted now; when as they, then, never suspected that so impious a sense would have been put upon their words, nor those opinions and doctrines so mischievously advanced, as they have been since. If they would have let their translation have remained such a translation, we would not have declined it; since they will have all tryals made by it, we rather accept the Original; and that is in this place, Osculamini filium, Kiss the Son.

The person then (which was our first Consideration) is the Son; The testimony of our love to this person, is this Kiss, Osculamini: where we see, that God calls upon us, and enjoyns unto us, such an outward act, as hath been diversly depraved, and vitiated before amongst men. God gives no countenance to that distempered humor, to that distorted rule; It hath been ill used, and therefore it may not be used. Sacred and secular Stories abound with examples of the treacherous Kiss; Let the Scriptures be our limits. Ioabs complement with Amasa; Art thou in health, my brother? ended in this; He took him with the right hand, as to kiss him, and killed him. Enlarge your thoughts a little upon Judas case; Judas was of those, who had tasted of the word of God, and the powers of the world to come; He had lived in the Conversation, in the Paedagogy, in the Discipline of Christ; yet he sold Christ; and sold him at a low price, as every man that is so unprovident, as to offer a thing to sale, shall do; and he stayed not till they came to him, with, What will you take for your Master? but he went to them, with, What will you give me for Christ? yet Christ admits him, admits him to supper, and after all this, calls him friend; for, after all this, Christ had done two, perchance three offices of a friend to Judas; He washed his feet; and, perchance, he gave him the Sacrament with the rest; and by assigning the sop for a particular mark, he let him see, that he knew he was a traytor, which might have been enough to have reclaimed him, It did not; but he proceeded in his treason, and in the most mischievous and treacherous performing of it, tobetray him with a kiss; He gave them a sign, whomsoever I shall kiss, the same is he: Dat signum osculi, cum veneno Diaboli, says Jerome, He kisses with a biting kiss, and conveys treason in a testimony of love. It is an Apophthegme of Luthers, Mali tyranni, haeretiei pejores, falsi fratres pessimi: A persecutor is ill; but he that persuades me to any thing, which might submit me to the persecutors rage, is worse; but he that hath persuaded me, and then betrays me, is worst of all. When all that happens, when a mans enemies are the men of his own house, when amongst our selves men arise, and draw away the Disciples, remember that Judas defamed this kiss before, he kissed his Master, and so betrayed him. Homo sum, & inter homines vivo, says S. Augustine, I am but a man my self, and I look but for men to live amongst; Nec mihi arrogare audeo, meliorem domum mem, quam Arca Noah, I cannot hope to have my house clearer than Noahs Ark, and there, in eight, there was one ill; nor then Iacobs house, and there the Son went up to the Fathers bed; nor then Davids, and there the brother forced the sister; nor then Christs, and there Judas betrayed his Master, and with a kiss: which alone does so aggravate the fact, as that for the atrocity and heinousness thereof, three of the Evangelists remember that circumstance, That he betrayed him with a kiss; and as though it might seem impossible, incredible to man, that it could be so, S. John pretermits that circumstance, That it was done with a kiss.

In Ioabs treachery, in Judas treason, is the kiss defamed, and in the carnal and licentious abuse of it, it is every day depraved. They mistake the matter much, that think all adultery is below the girdle: A man darrs out an adultery with his eye, in a wanton look; and he wraps up adultery with his fingers, in a wanton letter; and he breaths in an adultery with his lips, in a wanton kiss. But though this act of love, be so defamed both ways, by treachery, by licentiousnes, yet God chooses this Metaphor, he bids us kiss the Son. It is a true, and an useful Rule, That ill men have been Types of Christ, and ill actions figures of good: Much more, may things not ill in themselves, though deflected and detorted to ill, be restored to good again; and therefore doth God, in more then this one place, expect our love in a kiss; for, if we be truly in love with him, it will be a holy and an acceptable Metaphor unto us, els it will have a carnal and a fastidious taste. Frustra ad legendum amoris carmen, qui non amat, accedit: He that comes to read Solomons Love song, and loves not him upon whom that Song is directed, will rather endanger, then profit himself by that reading: Non capit ignitum eloquium frigidum pectus: A heart frozen and congealed with the love of this world, is not capable, not sensible of the fires of the holy Ghost; Graecè loquentes non intelligit, qui Graecè non novit, & lingua amoris ei, qui non amat, barbara; As Greek it self is barbarous to him that understands not Greek, so is the language of love, and the kiss which the holy Ghost speaks of here, to him that always groveleth, and holds his face upon the earth.

Treachery often, but licentiousness more, hath depraved this seal of love; and yet, Vt nos ad amplexus sacri amoris accendat, usque ad turpis amoris nostri verba se inclinat; God stoops even to the words of our foul and unchaste love, that thereby he might raise us to the heavenly love of himself, and his Son. Cavendum, ne machina quae ponitur ut levet, ipsa aggrevet: Take thou heed, that that ladder, or that engine which God hath given to raise thee, do not load thee, oppress thee, cast thee down: Take heed lest those phrases of love and kisses which should raise thee to him, do not bury thee in the memory and contemplation of sinful love, and of licentious kisses. Palea tegit frumentum; palea jumentorum, frumentum hominum: There is corn under the chaff; and though the chaff and straw be for cattle, there is corn for men too: There is a heavenly love, under these ordinary phrases; the ordinary phrase belongs to ordinary men; the heavenly love and the spiritual kiss, to them who affect an union to God, and him whom he sent, his Son Christ Jesus. S. Paul abhors not good and appliable sentences, because some secular Poets had said them before; nor hath the Christian Church abhorred the Temples of the Gentiles, because they were profaned before with idolatrous sacrifices. I do not conceive how that Jesuit Serarius should conceive any such great joy, as he says he did, when he came to a Church-porch, and saw an old statue of Iupiter, and another of Hercules, holding two basins of holy water; when Iupiter and Hercules were made to do Christians such services, the Jesuit is over-joyed. His Iupiter and his Hercules might well enough have been spared in the Christian Church, but why some such things as have been abused in the Roman Church, may not be preserved in, or reduced to their right use here, I conceive not; as well as (in a proportion) this outward testimony of inward love, though defamed by treachery, though depraved by licentiousness, is exacted at our hands by God himself, towards his Son, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry.

For all Ioabs and Judas treason, and carnal lovers licentiousness, kiss thou the Son, and be glad that the Son hath brought thee, in the Christian Church, within that distance, as that thou mayest kiss him. The nearest that the Synagogue, or that the Spouse of Christ not yet married came to, was, Osculetur me, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. It was but a kissing of his hand, when he reached them out their spiritual food by others; It was a marriage, but a marriage by a proxie; The personal marriage, the consummation of the marriage was in the comming of Christ, in establishing a real presence of himself in the Church. Praecepta Dei oscula sunt, says Gregory; In every thing that God says to us, he kisses us; Sed per Prophetas & Ministros, alieno ore nos osculatur, He kissed us by another mans mouth, when he spoke by the mouth of the Prophets; but now that he speaks by his own Son, it is by himself. Even his servant Moses himself was of uncircumcised lips, and with the uncircumcised there was no marriage. Even his servant Isaiah was of unclean lips, and with the unclean there was no marriage: Even his servant Jeremiah was oris infantilis, he was a child and could not speak, and with children, in infancy, there is no marriage: But in Christ, God hath abundantly performed that supply promised to Moses, there, Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet; Christ himself shall come and speak to thee, and return and speak for thee: In Christ, the Seraphim hath brought that live coal from the Altar, and touched Esays lips, and so spoken lively, and clearly to our souls; In Christ, God hath done that which he said to Jeremiah, Fear not, I am with thee; for in this Immanuel, God and man, Christ Jesus, God is with us.

In Eschines mouth, when he repeated them, they say, even Demosthenes Orations were flat, and tastlesse things; Compare the Prophets with the Son, and even the promises of God, in them, are faint and dilute things. Elishaes staff in the hand of Gehazi his servant, would not recover the Shunamites dead child; but when Elisha himself came, and put his mouth upon the child mouth, that did: In the mouth of Christs former servants there was a preparation, but effect, and consummation in his own mouth. In the Old Testament. at first, God kissed man, and so breathed the breath of life, and made him a man; In the New Testament Christ kissed man, he breathed the breath of everlasting life, the holy Ghost, into his Apostles, and so made the man a blessed man. Love is as strong as death; As in death there is a transmigration of the soul, so in this spiritual love, and this expressing of it, by this kiss, there is a transfusion of the soul too: And as we find in Gellius a Poëm of Platoes, where he says, he knew one so extremely passionate, Vt parùm affuit quin moreretur in osculo, much more is it true in this heavenly union, expressed in this kiss, as S. Ambrose delivers it, Per osculum adhaeret anima Deo, et transfunditur spiritus osculantis, In this kiss, where Righteousness and peace have kissed each other, In this person, where the Divine and the humane nature have kissed each other, In this Christian Church, where Grace and Sacraments, visible and invisible means of salvation, have kissed each other, Love is as strong as death; my soul is united to my Savior, now in my life, as in death, and I am already made one spirit with him: and whatsoever death can do, this kiss, this union can do, that is, give me a present, an immediate possession of the kingdom of heaven: And as the most mountainous parts of this kingdom are as well within the kingdom as a garden, so in the midst of the calamities and incommodities of this life, I am still in the kingdom of heaven. In the Old Testament, it was but a contract, but per verba de futuro, Sponsabo, I will marry thee; but now that Christ is come, the Bride-groom is with us for ever, and the children of the Bridechamber cannot mourne.

Now, by this, we are slid into our fourth and last branch of our first part, The persuasion to come to this holy kiss, though defamed by treachery, though depraved by licentiousness, since God invites us to it, by so many good uses thereof in his Word. It is an imputation laid upon Nero, That Neque adveniens, neqùe profisciscens, That whether comming or going he never kissed any: And Christ himself imputes it to Simon, as a neglect of him, That when he came into his house, he did not kiss him. This then was in use, first among kinsfolks; In illa simplicitate antiquorum, propinqui propinquos osculabantur: In those innocent and harmless times, persons near in blood did kiss one another: And in that right, and not only as a stranger, Jacob kissed Rachel, and told her how near of kin he was to her. There is no person so near of kin to thee, as Christ Jesus: Christ Jesus thy Father as he created thee, and thy brother as he took thy nature: Thy Father as he provided an inheritance for thee, and thy brother as he divided this inheritance with thee, and as he died to give thee possession of that inheritance: He that is Nutritius, thy Foster-father who hath nursed thee in his house, in the Christian Church, and thy Twin-brother, so like thee, as that his Father, and thine in him, shall not know you from one another, but mingle your conditions so, as that he shall find thy sins in him, and his righteousness in thee; Osculamini Filium, Kiss this Son as thy kinsman.

This kiss was also in use, as Symbolum subjectionis, A recognition of sovereignty or power; Pharaoh says to Joseph, Thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled; there the Original is, All my people shall kiss thy face. This is the Lord Paramount, the Sovereign Lord of all; The Lord Jesus; Jesus, at whose name every knee must bow, in heaven, in earth, and in hell; Jesus, into whose hands all power in heaven and in earth is given; Jesus, who hath opened a way to our Appeal; from all powers upon earth, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; Jesus, who is the Lion and the Lambe too, powerful upon others, accessible unto thee; Osculamini Filium, Kiss this Son, as he is thy Sovereign.

It was in use likewise In discessu, friends parting kissed; Laban rose up early in the morning, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and departed: And at Pauls departing, they fell on his neck, and wept, and kissed him. When thou departest to thy worldly businesses, to thy six days labor, kiss him, take leave of him, and remember that all that while thou art gone upon his errand, and though thou work for thy family, and for thy posterity, yet thou workest in his vineyard, and dost his work.

They kissed too In reditu; Esau ran to meet his brother, and fell on his neck and kissed him. When thou returnest to his house, after thy six days labor, to celebrate his Sabbath, kiss him there, and be able to give him some good account, from Sabbath to Sabbath, from week to week, of thy stewardship, and thou wilt never be bankrupt.

They kissed in reconciliation; David kissed Absalon. If thou have not discharged thy stewardship well, Restore to man who is damnified therein, Confess to God who hath suffered in that sin, Reconcile thy self to him, and kiss him in the Sacrament, in the seal of Reconciliation.

They kissed in a religious reverence even of false gods; I have, says God, seven thousand knees that have not bowed unto Baal, and mouths that have not kissed him. Let every one of us kiss the true God, in keeping his knees from bowing to a false, his lips from assenting, his hands from subscribing to an Idolatrous worship. And, as they kissed In Symbolum concordiae, (which was another use thereof; Salute one another with a holy kiss) upon which custom, Iustin Martyr says, Osculum ante Eucharistiam, before the Communion, the Congregation kissed, to testify their unity in faith in him, to whom they were then Sacramentally to be united, as well as Spiritually, And Tertullian calls it Osculum signaculum Orationis, Because they ended their public Prayers with that seal of unity and concord, Let every Congregation kiss him so; at every meeting to seal to him a new band, a new vow that they will never break, in departing from any part of his true worship. And to that purpose kiss his feet, as Mary Magdalen did: Speciosi pedes Euangelizantium; Let his feet, his Ministers, in whom he comes, be acceptable unto you; and love that, upon which himself stands, The Ordinance which he hath established for your salvation.

Kiss the Son, that is, embrace him, depend upon him all these ways; As thy kinsman, As thy Sovereign, At thy going, At thy comming; At thy Reconciliation, in the truth of religion in thy self, in a peaceable unity with the Church, in a reverent estimation of those men, and those means, whom he sends. Kiss him, and be not ashamed of kissing him; It is that, which the Spouse desired, I would kiss thee, & not be despised. If thou be despised for loving Christ in his Gospel, remember that when David was thought base, for dancing before the Ark, his way was to be more base. If thou be thought frivolous for thrusting in at Service, in the fore-noon, be more frivolous, and come again in the after-noon: Tanto major requies, quanto ab amore Iesu nulla requies: The more thou troublest thy self, or art troubled by others for Christ, the more peace thou hast in Christ.

We descend now to our second Part, from the duty to the danger, from the expressing of love to the impression of fear, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry: And first that anger and love, are not incompatible, that anger consists with love: God is immutable, and, God is love, and yet God can be angry. God stops a little upon scorn, in the fourth verse of this Psalm, When the Kings of the earth take counsel against his anointed, he laughs them to scorn, he hath them in dirision. But it ends not in a jest; He shall speak to them in his wrath, and vexe them in his sore displeasure; And that is not all; He shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel.

Lactantius reprehends justly two errors, and proposes a godly middle way in the Doctrine of the anger of God. Some say, says he, that only favor, and gentleness can be attributed to God, Quia illaesibilis, He himself cannot be hurt, and then why should he be angry? And this is, says he, Favorabilis & popularis oratio, It is a popular and an acceptable proposition, God cannot be angry, do what you will, you cannot anger him, for he is all gentleness. Others, says Lactantius, take both anger, and gentleness from God, and say he is affected neither way: And this is, says he well, Constantior error, An error that will better hold together, better consist in it self, and be better stood to; for they are inseparable things; whosoever does love the good, does hate the bad: and therefore if there be no anger, there is no love in God; but that cannot be said. And therefore, says he, we must not argue thus, Because there is no anger in God, therefore there is no love; for that indeed would follow, if the first were true; But because there is love in God, therefore there is anger: And so he concludes thus, This is Cardo Religionis, This is the hinge upon which all Religion, all the Worship of God turns and moves, Si nihil praestat colenti non debetur cultus, nec metus si non irascitur non cobenti; If God gave me nothing for my love, I should not love him, nor fear him if he were not angry at my displeasing him. It is argument enough against the Epicures, (against whom principally he argues) Si non curat, non habet potestatem: If God take no care of humane actions, he hath no power; for it is impossible to think, that he hath power, and uses it not; An idle God is as impossible an imagination, as an impotent God, or an ignorant God. Anger, as it is a passion that troubles, and disorders, and discomposes a man, so it is not in God, but anger as it is a sensible discerning of foes from friends, and of things that conduce, or disconduce to his glory, so it is in God. In a word, Hilary hath expressed it well, Poena patientis, ir a decernentis, Mans suffering is God anger; when God inflicts such punishments, as a King justly incensed would do, then God is thus angry.

Now here, our case is heavier; It is not this Great, and Almighty, and Majestical God, that may be angry; that is like enough; But even the Son, whom we must kiss, may be angry: It is not a person whom we consider merely as God, but as man; Nay, not as man neither, but a worm, and no man, and he may be angry, and angry to our ruin. But is it he? Is it the Son, that is intended here? Ask the Roman Translation, and it is not he: There it is, Ne irascatur Dominus, Lest the Lord be angry; But the Record, the Original will be against them: Though it were so, The Lord, it might be He, the Son, but it is not the Lord, but must necessarily be the Son; The Son may, the Son will be angry with us. If he could be angry, why did he not show it to the Devil that tempted him, to the Jews that crucified him? God bless us from such an anger, as works upon the Devil, in a desperate unsensibleness of any mercy, from any trade in that Sea, which environs the whole world, and makes all that, one Iland, where only the Devil can be no Merchant, The bottomelesse Sea of his blood; And God bless us from such an anger, as works upon the Jews, in an obduration, and the punishment of it, a dispersion: Are ye sure David was not angry with Shimei, because he reprieved him for a time? Are ye sure the Son is not angry now, because ye perish not yet? Do you not say, A fruit is perished, if it be bruised in one place? Is not your Religion perished, if Locusts and Ear-wigges have eaten into it, though they have not eaten it up? Is not your Religion perished, if irreligion and profaneness be entered into your manners, into your lives, though Religion have some motion in our ordinary meetings, and public exercises here?

The Son is Caput, and Corpus, as S. Augustine says often, Christ, and the Church of Christ, are Christ; And, Quis enumeret omnia, quibus corpus Christi irascitur? says the same Father; Who can reckon how many ways, this Christ, this body of Christ, the Church, is constrained to express anger? How many Excommunications, how many Censures, how many Suspensions, how many Irregularities, how many Penances, and Commutations of Penances, is the body of Christ, the Church, forced to inflict upon sinners? And how heavy would these be to us, if we did not weigh them with the weights of flesh in the Shambles, or of Iron in the Shop; if we did not consider them only in their temporal damage, how little an excommunication took from us of our goods, or worldly substance, and not how much it shut up the ordinary and outward means of our salvation. When the anger of the Body, the Church, is thus heavy, what is the anger of the Head, of Christ himself, who is Judge in his own cause? When an unjust judgement was executed upon him, how was the frame of nature shook in Eclipses, in Earth-quakes, in renting of the Temple, and cleaving the Monuments of the dead: When his pleasure is to execute a just judgement upon a Nation, upon a Church, upon a Man, in the infatuation of Princes, in the recidivation of the Clergy, in the consternation of particular consciences, Quis stabit? who shall be able to stand in that Judgement? Kiss the Son lest he be angry; But when he is angry, he will not kiss you, nor be kissed by you, but throw you into unquenchable fire, if you be cold, and if you be luke-warm, spit you out of his mouth, remove you from the benefit and comfort of his Word.

This is the anger of God, that reaches to all the world; and the anger of the Son, that comes home to us; and all this is removed with this holy and spiritual kiss: Osculamini Filium, Kiss the Son lest he be angry, implies this, If ye kiss him, he will not be angry. What this kiss is, we have seen all the way; It is to hang at his lips, for the Rule of our life, To depend upon his Word for our Religion, and to succor our selves, by the promises of his Gospel, in all our calamities, and not to provoke him to farther judgements, by a perverse and froward use of those judgements which he hath laid upon us: As it is, in this point towards man, it is towards God too; Nihil mansuetudine violentius, There is not so violent a thing as gentleness, so forcible, so powerful upon man, or upon God. This is such a saying, as one would think he that said it, should be ready to retract, by the multiplicity of examples to the contrary every day. Such Rules as this, He that puts up one wrong invites and calls for another, will shake Chrysostomes Rule shrewdly, Nihil mansuetudine violentius, That no battery is so strong against an enemy, as gentleness. Say, if you will, Nihilmelius, There is no better thing then gentleness, and we can make up that with a Comment, that is, nothing better for some purposes; Say, if you will, Nihil frugalius, There is not a thriftier thing then gentleness, It saves charges, to suffer, It is a more expensive thing to revenge then to suffer, whether we consider expense of soul, or body, or fortune; And, (by the way) that, which we use to add in this account, opinion, reputation, that which we call Honor, is none of the Elements of which man is made; It may be the air, that the Bird flies in, It may be the water, that the Fish swimmes in, but it is none of the Elements that man is made of, for those are only soul, and body, and fortune. Say also, if you will, Nihil accommodatius, Nothing conformes us more to our great pattern Christ Jesus, then mildness, then gentleness, for that is our lesson from him, Discite à me, quiamitis, Learn of me, for I am meek.

All this Chrysostom might say; but will he say, Nihil violentius, There is not so violent, so forcible a thing as mildness? That there is no such Bullet, as a Pillow, no such Action, as Passion, no such revenge, as suffering an injury? Yet, even this is true; Nothing defeats an anger so much as patience; nothing reproaches a chiding so much as silence. Reprehendis iratum? accusas indignationem? says that Father: Art thou sorry to see a man angry? Cur magis irasci vis? Why dost thou add thy anger to his? Why dost thou fuel his anger with thine? Quodigni aqua, hoc ira mansuetudo, As water works upon fire, so would thy patience upon his anger. S. Ambrose hath expressed it well too, Haec sunt armajusti, ut cedendo vincat; This is the war of the righteous man, to conquer by yeelding. It was Ezechiahs way; when Rabshakeh reviled, They held their peace, (where, the very phrase affords us this note, That silence is called holding of our peace, we continue our peace best by silence) They held their peace, says that text, and answered him not a word, for the King had commanded them not to answer. Why? S. Jerome tells us why; Ne ad majors blasphemias provocaret; Lest the multiplying of cholerique words amongst men, should have occasioned more blasphemies against God. And as it is thus with man, with God it is thus too; Nothing spends his judgements, and his corrections so soon, as our patience, nothing kindles them, exasperates them so much, as our frowardness, and murmuring. Kiss the Son, and he will not be angry; If he be, kiss the rod, and he will be angry no longer; love him lest he be, fear him when he is angry: The preservative is easy, and so is the restorative too: The Balsamum of this kiss is all; To suck spiritual milk out of the left breast, as well as out of the right, To find mercy in his judgements, reparation in his ruins, feasts in his Lents, joy in his anger. But yet we have reserved it for our last Consideration, what will make him angry: what sins are especially directed upon the second Person, the Son of God, and then we have done all.

Though those three Attributes of God, Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness, he all three in all the three Persons of the Trinity, (for they are all (as we say in the School) Coomnipotentes, they have all a joint-Almightiness, a joint-Wisdom, and a joint-Goodness) yet, because the Father is Principium, The root of all, Independent, not proceeding from any other, as both the other Persons do, and Power, and Sovereignty best resembles that Independency, therefore we attribute Power to the Father: And because the Son proceeds Per modum intellectus, (which is the phrase that passes through the Fathers, and the School) That as our understanding proceeds from our reasonable soul, so the second Person, the Son, proceeds from the Father, therefore we attribute Wisdom to the Son: And then, because the Holy Ghost is said to proceed Per modum voluntatis, That as our soul (as the root) and our understanding, proceeding from that soul, produce our will, and the object of our will, is evermore Bonum, that which is good in our apprehension, therefore we attribute to the Holy Ghost, Goodness. And therefore David forms his prayer, in that manner, plurally, Miserere mei Elohim, Be merciful unto me all, because in his sin upon Vriah, (which he laments in that Psalm) he had transgressed against all the three Persons, in all their Attributes, against the Power, and the Wisdom, and the Goodness of God.

That then which we consider principally in the Son, is Wisdom. And truly those very many things, which are spoken of Wisdom, in the Proverbs of Solomon, do, for the most part, hold in Christ: Christ is, for the most part, the Wisdom of that book. And for that book which is called altogether, The book of Wisdom, Isidore says, that a Rabbi of the Jews told him, That that book was heretofore in the Canonical Scripture, and so received by the Jews; till after Christs Crucifying, when they observed, what evident testimonies there were in that book for Christ, they removed it from the Canon. This I know, is not true; but I remember it therefore, because all assists us, to consider Wisdom in Christ, as that does also, That the greatest Temple of the Christians in Constantinople, was dedicated in that name, Sophia, to Wisdom; by implication to Christ. And in some apparitions, where the Son of God is said to have appeared, he calls himself by that name, Sapientiam Dei. He is Wisdom, therefore, because he reveals the Will of the Father to us; and therefore is no man wise, but he that knows the Father in him. Isidore makes this difference Inter sapientem & prudentem, that the first, The wise man, attends the next world, the last, The prudent man, but this world: But wisdom, even heavenly wisdom, does not exclude that prudence, though the principal, or rather the ordinary object thereof, be this world. And therefore sins against the second Person, are sins against Wisdom, in either extreme, either in affected and grosse ignorance, or in overrefined and sublimed curiosity.

As we place this Ignorance in Practical things of this world, so it is Stupidity; and as we place it in Doctrinal things, of the next world, so Ignorance is Implicite Belief: And Curiosity, as we place it upon Practical things, is Craft, and upon Doctrinal things, Subtilty; And this Stupidity and this Implicite faith, and then this Craft, and this Subtilty, are sins directed against the Son, who is true and only Wisdom.

First then, A stupid and negligent passage through this world, as though thou wert no part of it, without embarking thy self in any calling; To cross Gods purpose so much, as that, whereas he produced every thing out of nothing, to be something, thou wilt go so far back, towards nothing again, as to be good for nothing, that when as our Laws call a Calling, an Addition, thou wilt have no Addition, And when (as S. Augustine says) Musca Soli praeferenda, quia vivit, A Fly is a nobler Creature then the Sun, in this respect, because a Fly hath life in it self, and the Sun hath none, so any Artificer is a better part of a State, then any retired or contemplative man that embraces no Calling, These chippings of the world, these fragmentary and incoherent men, trespass against the Son, against the second Person, as he is Wisdom. And so do they in doctrinal things, that swallow any particular religion, upon an implicite faith. When Christ declared a very forward knowledge, in the Temple, at twelve years, with the Doctors, yet he was there, Audiens & interrogans, He heard what they would say, and he moved questions, to hear what they could say; for, Ejusdem scientiae est, scire quid interroges, quidve respondeas, It is a testimony of as much knowledge to ask a pertinent question, as to give a pertinent answer. But never to have been able to give answer, never to have asked question in matter of Religion, this is such an Impliciteness, and indifferency, as transgresses against the Son of God, who is Wisdom.

It is so too, in the other extreme, Curiosity; And this in Practical things, is Craft, in Doctrinal, Subtilty. Craft, is properly and narrowly, To go towards good ends, by ill ways: And though this be not so ill, as when neither ends, nor ways be good, yet this is ill too. The Civilians use to say of the Canonists, and Casuists, That they consider nothing but Crassam aequitatem, fat Equity, down-right Truths, things obvious and apprehensible by every natural man: and to do but so, to be but honest men, and no more, they think a diminution. To stay within the limits of a profession, within the limits of precedents, within the limits of time, is to over-active men contemptible; nothing is wisdom, till it be exalted to Craft, and got above other men. And so it is, with some, with many, in Doctrinal things too. To rest in Positive Divinity, and Articles confessed by all Churches, To be content with Salvation at last, and raise no estimation, no emulation, no opinion of singularity by the way, only to edify an Auditory, and not to amaze them, only to bring them to an assent, and to a practise, and not to an admiration, This is but home-spun Divinity, but Country-learning, but Catechistical doctrine. Let me know (say these high-flying men) what God meant to do with man, before ever God meant to make man: I care not for that Law that Moses hath written; That every man can read; That he might have received from God, in one day; Let me know the Cabal, that which passed between God and him, in all the rest of the forty days. I care not for Gods revealed Will, his Acts of Parliament, his public Proclamations, Let me know his Cabinet Counsels, his bosom, his pocket dispatches. Is there not another kind of Predestination, then that which is revealed in Scriptures, which seems to be only of those that believe in Christ? May not a man be saved, though he do not, and may not a man be damned, though he do perform those Conditions, which seem to make sure his salvation in the Scriptures? Beloved, our Country man Holkot, upon the book of Wisdom, says well of this Wisdom, which we must seek in the Book of God: After he hath magnified it in his harmonious manner, (which was the style of that time) after he had said, Cujus author nihil sublimius, That the Author of the Scripture was the highest Author, for that was God, Cujus tenore nihil solidius, That the assurance of the Scripture was the safest foundation, for it was a Rock, Cujus valore nihil locupletius, That the riches of the Scripture was the best treasure, for it defrayed us in the next World, After he had pursued his way of Elegancy, and called it Munimentum Majestatis, That Majesty and Sovereignty it self was established by the Scriptures, and Fundamentum firmitatis, That all true constancy was built upon that, and Complementum potestatis, That the exercise of all power, was to be directed by that, he reserves the force of all to the last, and contracts all to that, Emolumentum proprietatis, The profit which I have, in appropriating the power and the wisdom of the Scriptures to my self: All wisdom is nothing to me, if it be not mine: and I have title to nothing, that is not conveyed to me, by God, in his Scriptures; and in the wisdom manifested to me there, I rest. I look upon Gods Decrees, in the execution of those Decrees, and I try whether I be within that Decree of Election, or no, by examining my self, whether the marks of the Elect be upon me, or no, and so I appropriate the wisdom of the Scripture to my self. A stupid negligence in the practical things of this World, To do nothing; and an implicite credulity in doctrinal things, To believe all; and so also, a crafty preventing, and circumventing in the Practical part; and a subtle, and perplexing intricacy, in the Doctrinal part; The first on this side, The other beyond, do both transgress from that Wisdom of God, which is the Son, and, in such a respect, are sins, especially against the second Person in the Trinity.

Serm. XLII. Preached at Lincolns Inn upon Trinity-Sunday. 1620.

GEN. 18.25.

Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right?

THese words are the entrance into that prayer and expostulation, which Abraham made to and with God, in the behalf of Sodom, and the other Cities. He that is, before Abraham was, Christ Jesus himself, in that prayer, which he hath proposed to us, hath laid such a foundation, as this is, such a religious insinuation into him, to whom we make that prayer; Before we ask any thing, we say. Our Father, which art in heaven: If he be our Father, A Father when his son asks bread will not give him a stone; God hath a fatherly disposition towards us; And if he be our Father in Heaven, If evil fathers know how to give good things unto their children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask him? Shall your Father, which is in heaven, deny you any good thing? says Christ there; It is impossible: Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? says Abraham here; It is as impossible.

The history which occasioned and induced these words, I know you know. The Holy Ghost by Moses hath expressed plainly, and your meditations have paraphrased to yourselves this history, That God appeared to Abraham, in the plain of Mamre, in the persons of three men; three men so glorious, as that Abraham gave them a great respect: That Abraham spoke to those three, as to one person: That he exhibited all offices of humanity and hospitality unto them: That after they had executed the first part of their Commission, which was to ratify, and to reduce to a more certainty of time, the promise of Isaac, and consequently of the Messiah, though Abraham and Sara were past hope in one another; that they imparted to Abraham, upon their departure, the indignation that God had conceived against the sins of Sodom, and consequently the imminent destruction of that City; That this awakened Abrahams compassion, and put him into a zeal, and vehemence; for, all the while, he is said, to have been with him that spoke to him, and yet, now it is said, Abraham drew near, he came up close to God, and he says, Peradventure, (I am not sure of it) but peradventure, there may be some righteous in the City, and if there should be so, it should be absolutely unjust to destroy them; but, since it may be so, it is too soon to come to a present execution; Absit a te, says Abraham, Be that far from thee; And he repeats it twice; And upon the reason in our text, Shall not the iudge of all the Earth do right?

First then, The person who is the Judge of all the Earth, submits us to a necessity of seeking, who it is that Abraham speaks to; and so, who they were that appeared to him: whether they were three men, or three Angels, or two Angels, and the third, to whom Abraham especially addressed himself, were Christ: Or whether in these three persons, whatsoever they were, there were any intimation, any insinuation given, or any apprehension taken by Abraham, of the three blessed Persons of the glorious Trinity. And then, in the second part, in the expostulation it self, we shall see, first, The descent, and easiness of God, that he vouchfafes to admit an expostulation, an admonition from his servant, He is content that Abraham remember him, of his office: And the Expostulation lyes in this, That he is a Judge, And shall not a Judge do right? But more in this, That he is Judge of all the Earth, and, if he do wrong, there is no Appeal from him, And shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? And from thence we shall fall upon this consideration, What was that Right, which Abraham presses upon God here: And we shall find it twofold: for, first, he thinks it unjust, that God should wrap up just and unjust, righteous and unrighteous, all in one condemnation, in one destruction, Absit, be this far from God: And then, he hath a farther ayme then that, That God for the righteous sake, should spare the unrighteous, and so forbear the whole City. And though this Judge of the whole Earth, might have done right, though he had destroyed the most righteous persons amongst them, much more, though he had not spared the unrighteous, for the righteous sake, yet we shall see at last, the abundant measure of Gods overflowing mercy to have declared it self so far, as if there had been any righteous, he had spared the whole City. Our parts then are but two: but two such, as are high parts, and yet growing rich, and yet emproving, so far, as that the first is above Man, and the extent of his Reason, The mystery of the Trinity; And the other is above God so, as that it is above all his works, The infinitenes of his Mercy.

To come to the several branches of these two main parts, first, in the first, we ask, An viri, whether these three that appeared to Abraham, were men or no. Now, between Abrahams apprehension, who saw this done, and ours, who know it was done, because we read it here in Moses relation, there is a great difference. Moses who informs us now, what was done then, says expressly, Apparuit Dominus, The Lord appeared, and therefore we know they were more then ordinary men; But when Moses tells us how Abraham apprehended it, Ecce tres viri, He lift up his eyes, and he saw three men, he took them to be but men, and therefore exhibited to them all offices of humanity and curtesy: Where we note also, that even by the Saints of God, civil behavior, and faire language is conveniently exercised: A man does not therefore mean ill, because he speaks well: A man must not therefore be suspected to perform nothing, because he promises much: Such phrases of humility, and diminution, and undervaluing of himself, as David utters to Saul; such phrases of magnifying, and glorifying the Prince, as Daniel uses to the King, perchance no secular story, perchance no modern Court will afford; Neither shall you find in those places, more of that which we call Complement, then in Abigails access to David, in the behalf of her foolish husband, when she comes to intercede for him, and to deprecate his fault. Harshness, and morosity in behavior, rusticity, and coorseness of language, are no arguments in themselves, of a plain, and a direct meaning, and of a simple heart. Abraham was an hundred years old, and that might, in the general, indispose him; And it was soon after his Circumcision, which also might be a particular disabling; He was sitting still, and so not only enjoying his bodily ease, but his Meditation, (for his eyes were cast down) But as soon as he lift up his eyes; and had occasion presented him to do a curtesy, for all his age, and infirmity, and possession of rest, he runs to them, and he bows himself to them, and salutes them, with words not only of curtesy, but of reverence: Explorat itinera, says S. Ambrose, he searches and inquires into their journey, that he might direct them, or accompany, or accommodate them; A dest non quaerentibus, He prevents them, and offers before they ask; Rapit praetergressuros, when they pretended to go farther, he forced them, by the irresistible violence of curtesy, to stay with him, and he calls them, (or one amongst them) Dominum, Lord, and professes himself their servant. But Abraham did not determine his curtesy in words, and no more: We must not think, that because only man of all creatures can speak, that therefore the only duty of man is to speak; faire Apparel makes some show in a wardrobe, but not half so good as when it is upon a body: faire language does ever well, but never so well as when it apparels a real curtesy: Abraham entreated them faire, and entertained them well: he spoke kindly, and kindly performed all offices of ease, and refocillation to these way-faring strangers.

Now here is our copy, but who writes after this copy? Abraham is pater multitudinis, A father of large posterity, but he is dead without issue, or his race is failed; for, who hath this hospital care of relieving distressed persons now? Thou seest a needy person, and thou turnest away thine eye; but it is the Prince of Darkness that casts this mist upon thee; Thou stoppest thy nose at his sores, but they are thine own incompassionate bowels that stink within thee; Thou tellest him, he troubles thee, and thinkest thou hast chidden him into a silence; but he whispers still to God, and he shall trouble thee worse at last, when he shall tell thee, in the mouth of Christ Jesus, I was hungry and ye fed me not: Still thou sayest to the poor, I have not for you, when God knows, a great part of that which thou hast, thou hast for them, if thou wouldst execute Gods commission, and dispense it accordingly, as God hath made thee his steward for the poor. Give really, and give gently; Do kindly, and speak kindly too, for that is Bread, and Honey.

Abraham then took these for men, and offered curtesies proper for men: for though he called him, to whom he spoke, Dominum, Lord, yet it is not that name of the Lord, which implies his Divinity, it is not Jehovah, but Adonai; it is the same name, and the same word, which his wife Sara, after, gives him. And Mary Magdalen when she was at Christs Sepulchre, speaks of Christ, and speaks to the Gardiner (as she thought) in one and the same word: Tulerunt Dominum, she says of Christ, They have taken away my Lord, And to the Gardiner she says, Domine, si sustulisti: for, which is the word in both places, was but a name of civil curtesy, and is well enough translated by our men, in that later place, Sir, Sir if you have taken him away, &c. Abraham then, at their first appearing, had no evidence that they were other then men; but we have; for that place of the Apostle, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares, hath evermore, by all Expositors, had reference to this action of Abrahams; which proves both these first branches, That he knew it not, and That they were Angels. The Apostles principal purpose there is, to recommend to us Hospitality, but limited to such hospitality as might in likelihood, or in possibility, be an occasion of entertaining Angels, that is, of Angelical men, good and holy men. Hospitality is a virtue, more recommended by the Writers in the Primitive Church, then any other virtue: but upon this reason, That the poor flock of Christ Jesus, being by persecution then scattered upon the face of the earth, men were necessarily to be excited, with much vehemence, to succor and relieve them, and to receive them into their houses, as they travailed.

Tertullian says well, That the whole Church of God is one household: He says, every particular Church is Ecclesia Apostolica, quia soboles Apostolicarum, An Apostolical Church, if it be an off-spring of the Apostolical Churches: He does not say, quia soboles Apostolicae, because that Church is the off-spring of the Apostolical Church, as though there were but one such, which must be the mother of all: for, says he, Omnes primae, & omnes Apostolicae, Every Church is a supreme Church, and every Church is an Apostolical Church, dum omnes unam probant unitatem, as long as they agree in the unity of that doctrine which the Apostles taught, and adhere to the supreme head of the whole Church, Christ Jesus. Which S. Cyprian expresses more clearly, Episcopatus unus est, The whole Church is but one Bishoprick, Cujus, à singulis, in solidum pars tenetur, Every Bishop is Bishop of the whole Church, and no one more then another. The Church then was, and should be, as one household; And in this household, says Tertullian there, there was first Communicatio pacis, a peaceable disposition, a charitable interpretation of one another's actions: And then there was Appellatio fraternitatis, says he; That if they did differ in some things, yet they esteemed themselves sons of one Father, of God, and by one Mother, the Catholic Church, and did not break the band of Brotherhood, nor separate from one another for every difference in opinion; And lastly, says he, There was Contesseratio Hospitalitatis, A warrant for their reception and entertainment in one another's houses, wheresoever they travailed. Now, because for the benefit and advantage of this ease, and accommodation in travailing, men conterfeited themselves to be Christians that were not, the Council of Nice made such provision as was possible; (though that also were deluded after) which was, That there should be literae formatae, (as they called them) certain testimonial letters, subscribed with four characters, denoting Father, Son, and holy Ghost; and those letters should be contesseratio hospitalitatis, a warrant for their entertainment wheresoever they came. Still there was a care of hospitality, but such, as Angels, that is, Angelical, good and religious men, and truly Christians, might be received.

Beloved, Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, is this Contesseration; all that are truly baptized are of this household, and should be relieved and received: But certainly, there is a race that have not this Contesseration, not these testimonial letters, not this outward Baptism: Amongst those herds of vagabonds, and incorrigible rogues, that fill porches, and barns in the Country, a very great part of them was never baptized: people of a promiscuous generation, and of a mischievous education; ill brought into the world, and never brought into the Church. No man receives an Angel unawares, for receiving or harbouring any of these; neither have these any interest in the household of God, for they have not their first Contesseration: And as there are sins which we are not bid to pray for, so there are beggars which we are not bid to give to. God appeared by Angels in the Old Testament, and he appears by Angels in the New, in his Messengers, in his Ministers, in his Servants: And that Hospitality, and those feasts which cannot receive such Angels, those Ministers and Messengers of God, where by reason of excess and drunkenness, by reason of scurril and licentious discourse, by reason of wanton and unchaste provocations, by reason of execrable and blasphemous oaths these Angels of God cannot be present, but they must either offend the company by reprehension, or prevaricate and betray the cause of God by their silence, this is not Abrahams hospitality, whose commendation was, that he received Angels.

Those Angels came, and stood before Abraham, but till he lift up his eyes, and ran forth to them, they came not to him: The Angels of the Gospel come within their distance, but if you will not receive them, they can break open no doors, nor save you against your will: The Angel does, as he that sends him, Stand at the door, and knock, if the door be opened, he comes in, and sups with him; What gets he by that? This; He sups with me too, says Christ there; He brings his dish with him; he feeds his Host, more then his Host him. This is true Hospitality, and entertainment of Angels, both when thou feedest Christ, in his poor members abroad, or when thou feedest thine own soul at home, with the company and conversation of true and religious Christians at thy table, for these are Angels.

Abraham then, took these three for men, and no more, when as they were Angels: But were they all Angels, and no more? was not that one, to whom more particularly Abraham addressed himself, and called him Lord, The Son of God, Christ Jesus? This very many, very learned amongst the Ancients, did not only ask by way of Problem, and disputation, but affirme Doctrinally, by way of resolution. Irenaeus thought it, and expressed it so elegantly, as it is almost pity, if it be not true; Inseminatus est ubique in Scriptur is, Filius Dei, says he: The Son of God is sowed in every furrow, in every place of the Scripture, you may see him grow up; and he gives an example out of this place, Cum Abraham loquens, cum Abraham comesurus, Christ talked with Abraham, and he dined with him. And they will say, that whereas it is said in that place to the Hebrews, That Abraham received Angels, the word Angel must not be too precisely taken: For sometimes, Angel in the Scriptures, signifies less then Angel, (as John, and Malachy are called Angels) and sometimes Angel signifies more then Angel, as Christ himself is called The Angel of the great Council, according to the Septuagint: So therefore, they will say, That though Christ were there, Christ himself might be called so, An Angel; Or it may be justly said by S. Paul, That Abraham did receive Angels, because there were two, that were, without question, Angels. This led Hilary to a direct, and a present resolution, that Abraham saw Christ, and to exclaim gratulatorily in his behalf, Quanta fidei vis, ut in indiscreta assistentium specie, Christum internosceret! What a perspicacy had Abrahams faith, who, where they were all alike, could discern one to be above them all!

Make this then the question, whether Christ ever appeared to men upon earth, before his Incarnation; and the Scriptures not determining this question at all, if the Fathers shall be called to judge it, it will still be a perplexed case, for they will be equal in number, and in weight. S. Augustine (who is one of them that deny it) says first, for the general, the greatest work of all, the promulgation of the Law, was done by Angels alone, without concurrence of the Son; and for this particular, says he, concerning Abraham, they who think that Christ appeared to Abraham, ground themselves but upon this reason, That Abraham speaks to all, in the singular number, as to one person; And then, says that Father, they may also observe, that when this one Person, whom they conclude to be Christ, was departed from the other two, and that the other two went up to Sodom, there Lot speaks to those two, in the singular number, as to one person, as Abraham did before. From this argumentation of S. Augustines, this may well be raised, That when the Scriptures may be interpreted, and Gods actions well understood, by an ordinary way, it is never necessary, seldom safe to induce an extraordinary. It was then an ordinary, and familiar way for God, to proceed with those his servants by Angels; but by his Son, so extraordinary, as that it is not clear, that ever it was done; and therefore it needs not be said, nor admitted in this place.

In this place, this falls properly to be noted, that even in these three glorious Angels of God, there was an eminent difference; One of them seemed to Abraham, to be the principal man in the Commission, and to that one, he addressed himself. Amongst the other Angels, which are the Ministers in Gods Church, one may have better abilities, better faculties then another, and it is no error, no weakness in a man to desire to conferre with one rather then with another, or to hear one rather then another. But Abraham did not so apply himself to one of the three, that he neglected the other two: No man must be so cherished, so followed, as that any other be thereby either defrauded of their due maintenance, or dis-heartened for want of due incouragement. We have not the greatest use of the greatest Stars; but we have more benefit of the Moon, which is less then they, because she is nearer to us. It is not the depth, nor the wit, nor the eloquence of the Preacher that pierces us, but his nearness; that he speaks to my conscience, as though he had been behind the hangings when I sinned, and as though he had read the book of the day of Judgement already. Something Abraham saw in this Angels above the rest, which drew him, which Moses does not express; Something a man finds in one Preacher above another, which he cannot express, and he may very lawfully make his spiritual benefit of that, so that that be no occasion of neglecting due respects to others.

This being then thus fixed, that Abraham received them as men, that they were in truth no other then Angels, there remains, for the shutting up of this Part, this Consideration, whether after Abraham came to the knowledge that they were Angels, he apprehended not an intimation of the three Persons of the Trinity, by these three Angels. Whether Gods appearing to Abraham (which Moses speaks of in the first verse) were manifested to him, when Sarah laughed in her self, and yet they knew that she laughed; Or whether it were manifested, when they imparted their purpose, concerning Sodom; (for, in both these places, they are called neither men nor Angels, but by that name, The Lord, and that Lord which is Jehovah) whether, I say, when Abraham discerned them to be such Angels, as God appeared in them, and spoke and wrought by them, whether then, as he discerned the Divinity, he discerned the Trinity in them too, is the question. I know the explicite Doctrine of the Trinity was not easy to be apprehended then; as it is not easy to be expressed now. It is a bold thing in servants, to inquire curiously into their Masters Pedigree, whether he be well descended, or well allied: It is a bold thing too, to inquire too curiously into the eternal generation of Christ Jesus, or the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost. When Gregory Nazianzen was pressed by one, to assign a difference between those words, Begotten, and Proceeding, Dic tu mihi, says he, quid sit Generaty, & ego dicam tibi, quid sit Processio, ut ambo insaniamus: Do thou tell me, what this Begetting is, and then I will tell thee, what this Proceeding is; and all the world will find us both mad, for going about to express inexpressible things.

And as every manner of phrase in expressing, or every comparison, does not manifest the Trinity; so every place of Scripture, which the Fathers, and later men have applied to that purpose, does not prove the Trinity. And therefore, those men in the Church, who have cried down that way of proceeding, to go about to prove the Trinty, out of the first words of Genesis, Creavit Dii, That because God in the plural is there joined to a Verb in the singular, therefore there is a Trinity in Unity; or to prove the Trinity out of this place, that because God, who is but one, appeared to Abraham in three Persons, therefore there are three Persons in the God-head; those men, I say, who have cried down such manner of arguments, have reason on their side, when these arguments are employed against the Jews, for, for the most part, the Jews have pertinent, and sufficient answers to those arguments. But yet, between them, who make this place, a distinct, and a literal, and a concluding argument, to prove the Trinity, and them who cry out against it, that it hath no relation to the Trinity, our Church hath gone a middle, and a moderate way, when by appointing this Scripture for this day, when we celebrate the Trinity, it declares that to us, who have been baptized, and catechised in the name and faith of the Trinity, it is a refreshing, it is a cherishing, it is an awakening of that former knowledge which we had of the Trinity, to hear that our only God thus manifested himself to Abraham in three Persons.

Luther says well upon this text, If there were no other proof of the Trinity but this, I should not believe the Trinity; but yet says he, This is Singulare testimonium de articule Trinitatis, Though it be not a concluding argument, yet it is a great testimony of the Trinity. Fateor, says he, historico sensu nihil concludi praeter hospitalitatem, I confess, in the literal sense, there is nothing but a recommendation of hospitality, and therefore, to the Jews, I would urge no more out of this place: Sed non sic agendum cum auditoribus, ac cum adversariis, We must not proceed alike with friends and with enemies. There are places of Scriptures for direct proofs, and there are places to exercise our meditation, and devotion in things, for which we need not, nor ask not any new proof. And for exercise, says Luther, Rudi ligne ad formam gladii utimur, We content our selves with a foyle, or with a stick, and we require not a sharp sword. To cut off the enemies of the Trinity, we have two-edged swords, that is, undeniable arguments: but to exercise our own devotions, we are content with similitudinary, and comparative reasons. He pursues it farther, to good use: The story doth not teach us, That Sarah is the Christian Church, and Hagar the Synagogue; But S. Paul proves that, from that story; he proves it from thence, though he call it but an Allegory. It is true that S. Augustine says, Figuranihil probat, A figure, an Allegory proves nothing; yet, says he, addit lucem, & ornat, It makes that which is true in it self, more evident and more acceptable.

And therefore it is a lovely and a religious thing, to find out Vestigia Trinitatis, Impressions of the Trinity, in as many things as we can; and it is a reverent obedience to embrace the wisdom of our Church, in renewing the Trinity to our Contemplation, by the reading of this Scripture, this day, for, even out of this Scripture, Philo Iudaeus, (although he knew not the true Trinity aright) found a threefold manifestation of God to man, in this appearing of God to Abraham: for, as he is called in this Story, Iehova, he considers him, Fontem Essentiae, To be the fountain of all Being; As he is called Deus, God, he considers him, in the administration of his Creatures, in his providence; As he is called Dominus, Lord, and King, he considers him in the judgement, glorifying, and rejecting according to their merits: So, though he found not a Trinity of Persons, he found a Trinity of Actions in the Text, Creation, Providence, and Judgement. If he, who knew no Trinity, could find one, shall not we, who know the true one, meditate the more effectually upon that, by occasion of this story? Let us therefore, with S. Bernard, consider Trinitatem Creatricem, and Trinitatem Creatam, A Creating, and a Created Trinity; A Trinity, which the Trinity in Heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, hath created in our souls, Reason, Memory, and Will; and that we have super-created, added another Trinity, Suggestion, and Consent, and Delight in sin; And that God, after all this infuses another Trinity, Faith, Hope, and Charity, by which we return to our first; for so far, that Father of Meditation, S. Bernard, carries this consideration of the Trinity. Since therefore the confession of a Trinity is that which distinguishes us from Jews, and Turks, and al other professions, let us discern that beam of the Trinity, which the Church hath showed us, in this text, and with the words of the Church, conclude this part, O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons, and one God, have mercy upon us miserable sinners.

We are descended now to our second part, what past between God and Abraham, after he had thus manifested himself unto him; Where we noted first, That God admits, even expostulation, from his servants; almost rebukes and chidings from his servants. We need not wonder at Job's humility, that he did not despise his man, nor his maid, when they contended with him, for God does not despise that in us. God would have gone from Jacob when he wrestled, and Jacob would not let him go, and that prevailed with God. If we have an apprehension when we begin to pray, that God doth not hear us, not regard us, God is content that in the fervor of that prayer, we say with David, Evigila Domine, and Surge Domine, Awake O Lord, and Arise O Lord; God is content to be told, that he was in bed, and asleep, when he should hear us. If we have not a present deliverance from our enemies, God is content that we proceed with David, Eripe manum de sinu, Pluck out thy hand out of thy bosom; God is content to be told, that he is slack and dilatory when he should deliver us. If we have not the same estimation in the world, that the children of this world have, God is content that we say with Amos, Pauperem pro calceamentis, that we are sold for a pair of shoos; And with S. Paul, that we are the off-scouring of the world: God is content to be told, that he is unthrifty, and prodigal of his servants lives, and honours, and fortunes. Now, Offer this to one of your Princes, says the Prophet, and see whether he will take it. Bring a petition to any earthly Prince, and say to him, Evigila, and Surge, would your Majesty would awake, and read this petition, and so insimulate him of a former drowsiness in his government; say unto him, Eripe manum, pull thy hand out of thy bosom, and execute Justice, and so insimulate him of a former manacling and slumbering of the Laws; say unto him, we are become as old shoos, and as off-scourings, and so insimulate him of a diminution, and dis-estimation fallen upon the Nation by him, what Prince would not (and justly) conceive an indignation against such a petitioner? which of us that heard him, would not pronounce him to be mad, to ease him of a heavier imputation? And yet our long-suffering, and our patient God, (must we say, our humble and obedient God?) endures all this: He endures more; for, when Abraham came to this expostulation, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? God had said never a word, of any purpose to destroy Sodom, but he said only, He would go see, whether they had done altogether, according to that cry, which was come up against them; and Abraham comes presently to this vehemency: And might not the Supreme Ordinary, God himself, go this visitation? might not the supreme Judge, God himself, go this Circuit? But as long as Abraham kept himself upon this foundation, It is impossible, that the Judge of all the earth should not do right, God mis-interpreted nothing at Abrahams hand, but received even his Expostulations, & heard him out, to the sixth petition.

Almost such an Expostulation as this, Moses uses towards God; He asks God a reason of his anger, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people? He tells him a reason, why he should not do so, For thou hast brought them forth with a great power, and with a mighty hand: And he tells him the inconveniences that might follow, The Egyptians will say, He brought them out for mischief, to slay them in the mountain: He imputes even perjury to God himself, and breach of Covenant, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which were Feffees in trust, between God and his people, and he says, Thou sware'st to them, by thine own self, that thou wouldst not deal thus with them; And therefore he concludes all with that vehemence, Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent this evil purpose against them. But we find a prayer, or expostulation, of much more exorbitant vehemence, in the stories of the Roman Church, towards the blessed Virgin, (towards whom, they use to be more mannerly and respective then towards her Son, or his Father) when at a siege of Constantinople, they came to her statue, with this protestation, Look you to the drowning of our Enemies ships, or we will drown you: Si vis ut imaginem tuam non mergamus in mari, merge illos. The farthest that Abraham goes in this place, is, That God is a Judge, and therefore must do right: for, Far be wickedness from God, and iniquity from the Almighty; surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgement. An Usurer, an Extortioner, an Oppressor, a Libeller, a Thief, and Adulterer, yea a Traytor, makes shift to find some excuse, some flattery to his Conscience; they say to themselves; the Law is open, and if any be grieved, they may take their remedy, and I must endure it, and there is an end. But, since nothing holds of this oppressor, and manifold malefactor, but the sentence of the Judge, shall not the Judge do right? how must this necessarily shake the frame of all? An Arbitrator or a Chancellor, that judges by submission of parties, or according to the Dictates of his own understanding, may have some excuse, He did as his Conscience led him: But shall not a Judge, that hath a certain Law to judge by, do right? Especially if he be such a Judge, as is Judge of the whole earth? which is the next step in Abrahams expostulation.

Now, as long as there lies a Certiorari from a higher Court, or an Appeal to a higher Court, the case is not so desperate, if the Judge do not right, for there is a future remedy to be hoped: If the whole State be incensed against me, yet I can find an escape to another Country; If all the World persecute me, yet, if I be an honest man, I have a supreame Court in my self, and I am at peace, in being acquitted in mine own Conscience. But God is the Judge of all the earth; of this which I tread, and this earth which I carry about me; and when he judges me, my Conscience turns on his side, and confesses his judgement to be right. And therefore S. Pauls argument, seconds, and ratifies Abrahams expostulation; Is God unrighteous? God forbid; for then, says the Apostle, how shall God judge the World? The Pope may err, but then a Council may rectify him: The King may err; but then, God, in whose hands the Kings heart is, can rectify him. But if God, that judges all the earth, judge thee, there is no error to be assigned in his judgement, no appeal from God not throughly informed, to God better informed, for he always knows all evidence, before it be given. And therefore the larger the jurisdiction, and the higher the Court is, the more careful ought the Judge to be of wrong judgement; for Abrahams expostulation reaches in a measure to them, Shall not the Judge of all (or of a great part of the earth) do right?

Now what is the wrong, which Abraham dissuaded, and deprecated here? first, Ne justi cum impiis, That God would not destroy the Just with the unjust, not make both their cases alike. This is an injustice, which never any bloody men upon earth, but those, who exceeded all, in their infamous purposes, the Authors, and Actors in the Powder treason, did ever deliberately and advisedly, upon debate whether it should be so, or no, resolve, that all of both Religions should perish promiscuously in the blowing up of that house. Here the Devil would be Gods Ape; and as God had presented to S. Peter, a sheet of all sorts of Creatures, clean and unclean, and bad him take his choice, kill and eat; So the Devil would make S. Peter, in his imaginary Successor, or his instruments, present God a sacrifice of clean and unclean, Catholics and Heretics, (in their denomination) and bid him take his choice: which action, whosoever forgets so, as that he forgets what was intended in it, forgets his Religion, and whosoever forgets it so, as that he forgets what they would do again, if they had power, forgets his reason. But this is not the way of Gods justice; God is a God of harmony, and consent, and in a musical instrument, if some strings be out of tune, we do not presently break all the strings, but reduce and tune those, which are out of tune.

As gold whilst it is in the mine, in the bowels of the earth, is good for nothing, and when it is out, and beaten to the thinness of leaf-gold, it is wasted, and blown away, and quickly comes to nothing; But when it is tempered with such allay, as it may receive a stamp and impression, then it is currant and useful: So whilst Gods Justice lyes in the bowels of his own decree and purpose, and is not executed at all, we take no knowledge that there is any such thing; And when Gods Justice is dilated to such an expansion, as it overflows all alike, whole Armies with the sword, whole Cities with the plague, whole Countryes with famine, oftentimes we lose the consideration of Gods Justice, and fall upon some natural causes, because the calamity is fallen so indifferently upon just and unjust, as that, we think, it could not be the act of God: but when Gods Justice is so allayd with his wisdom, as that we see he keeps a Goshen in Egypt, and saves his servants in the destruction of his enemies, then we come to a rich and profitable use of his Justice. And therefore Abraham presses this, with that vehement word, Chalilah, Absit: Abraham serves a Prohibition upon God, as S. Peter would have done upon Christ, when he was going up to Jerusalem to suffer, Absit, says he, Thou shalt not do this. But the word signifies more properly prophanationem, pollutionem: Abraham intends, that God should know, that it would be a profaning of his holy honor, and an occasion of having his Name blasphemed amongst the Nations, if God should proceed so, as to wrap up just and unjust, righteous and unrighteous, all in one condemnation, and one execution; Absit, Be this far from thee.

But Abrahams zeal extended farther then this; his desire and his hope was, That for the righteous sake, the unrighteous might be spared, and reserved to a time of repentance. This therefore ministers a provocation to every man, to be as good as he can, not only for his own sake, but for others too. This made S. Ambrose say, Quantus murus patriae, vir bonus? An honest and religious man, is a wall to a whole City, a sea to a whole Iland. When our Savior Christ observed, that they would press him with that Proverb, Medice, cura teipsum, Physician, heal thy self, we see there, that himself was not his person, but his Country was himself; for that is it that they intend by that Proverb, Heal thy self, take care of them that are near thee, do that which thou doest here in Capernaum, at home; Preach these Sermons there; do these miracles there: cure thy Country, and that is curing thy self. Live so, that thy example may be a precedent to others; live so, that for thy sake, God may spare others; and then, and not till then, thou hast done thy duty. God spares sometimes, ob commixtionem sanguinis, for kindreds sake, and for alliance; and therefore it behoves us to take care of our allyances, and planting our children in religious families. How many judgements do we escape, because we are of the seed of Abraham, and made partakers of the Covenant, which the Gentiles, who are not so, are overwhelmed under? God spares sometimes, Ob cohabitationem, for good neighbourhood; he will not bring the fire near a good mans house: As here, in our Text, he would have done in Sodom, and as he did save many, only because they were in the same Ship with S. Paul. And therefore, as in the other Religion, the Jews have streets of their own, and the Stews have streets of their own; so let us choose to make our dwellings, and our conversation of our own, and not affect the neighbourhood, nor the commerce of them who are of evil communication. Be good then, that thou mayest communicate thy goodness to others; and consort with the good, that thou mayest participate of their goodness. Omnis sapiens stulti est redemptio, is excellently said by Philo, A wise mad is the savior and redeemer of a fool: And, (as the same man says) though a Physician when he is called, discern that the patient cannot be recovered, yet he will prescribe something, Ne ob ejus negligentiam periisse videatur, lest the world should think he died by his negligence; How incurable, how incorrigible soever the world be, be thou a religious honest man, lest some child in thy house, or some servant of thine be damned, which might have been saved, if thou hadst given good example. Gods ordinary way is to save man by man; and Abraham thought it not out of Gods way, to save man for man, to save the unjust for the just, the unrighteous for the righteous sake.

But if God do not take this way, if he do wrap up the just and the unjust in the same Judgement, is God therefore unjust? God forbid. All things come alike to all, says Solomon; One event to the righteous, and to the wicked, to the clean, and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an Oath. There is one event of all, says he; but, says he, This is an evil, that it is so: But what kind of evil? An evil of vexation; because the weak are sometimes scandalized that it is so, and the glory of God seems for a time to be obscured, when it is so, because the good are not discerned from the evil. But yet God, who knows best how to repayre his own honor, suffers it, nay appoints it to be so, that just and unjust are wrapped up in the same Judgement. The Corn is as much beaten in the threshing, as the straw is; The just are as much punished here as the unjust. Because God of his infinite goodness, hath elected me from the beginning, therefore must he provide that I have another manner of birth, or another manner of death, then the Reprobate have? Must he provide, that I be born into the world, without original sin, of a Virgin, as his Son was, or that I go out of the world, by being taken away, as Enoch was, or as Elijah? And though we have that one example of such a comming into the world, and a few examples of such a going out of the world, yet we have no example (not in the Son of God himself) of passing through this world, without taking part of the miseries and calamities of the world, common to just and unjust, to the righteous and unrighteous. If Abraham therefore should have intended only temporal destruction, his argument might have been defective: for Ezekiel, and Daniel, and other just men, were carried into Captivity, as well as the unjust, and yet God not unrighteous: God does it, and avows it, and professes that he will do it, and do it justly; Occidam in te justum & injustum, I will cut off the righteous and unrighteous together. There is no man so righteous, upon whom God might not justly inflict as heavy judgements, in this world, as upon the most unrighteous; Though he have wrapped him up in the righteousness of Christ Jesus himself, for the next world, yet he may justly wrap him up in any common calamity falling upon the unrighteous here. But the difference is only in spiritual destruction. Abraham might justly apprehend a fear, that a sudden and unprepared death might endanger them for their future state; And therefore he does not pray, that they might be severed from that judgement, because, if they died with the unrighteous, they died as the unrighteous, if they passed the same way as they, out of this world, they therefore passed into the same state as they, in the next world, Abraham could not conclude so, but because the best men do always need all means of making them better, Abraham prays, that God would not cut them off, by a sudden destruction, from a considering, and contemplating the ways of his proceeding, and so a preparing themselves to a willing and to a thankful embracing of any way, which they should so discern to be his way. The wicked are suddenly destroyed; and do not see what hand is upon them, till that hand bury them in hell; The godly may die as suddenly, but yet he sees and knows it to be the hand of God, and takes hold of that hand, and by it is carried up to heaven.

Now, if God be still just, though he punish the just with the unjust, in this life, much more may he be so, though he do not spare the unjust for the righteous sake, which is the principal drift of Abrahams expostulation, or deprecation. God can preserve still, so as he did in Egypt. God hath the same Receipts, and the same Antidotes which he had, to repel the flames of burning furnaces, to bind or stupify the jaws of hungry Lyons, to blunt the edge of Swords, and overflowing. Armyes, as he had heretofore. Christ was invisible to his enemies, when he would scape away; And he was impregnable to his enemies, when in his manifestation of himself, (I am he) they fell down before him; And he was invulnerable, and immortal to his enemies, as long as he would be so, for if he had not opened himself to their violence, no man could have taken away his soul; And where God sees such deliverances conduce more to his honor then our suffering does, he will deliver us so in the times of persecution. So that God hath another way, and he had another answer for Abrahams petition; he might have said, There is no ill construction, no hard conclusion to be made, if I should take away the just with the unjust, neither is there any necessity, that I should spare the wicked for the righteous: I can destroy Sodom, and yet save the righteous; I can destroy the righteous, and yet make death an advantage to them; which way soever I take, I can do nothing unjustly.

But yet, though God do not bind himself to spare the wicked for the righteons yet he descends to do so at Abrahams request. The jaw-bone of an Ass, in the hand of Samson, was a devouring sword. The words of man, in the mouth of a faithful man, of Abraham, are a Canon against God himself, and batter down all his severe and heavy purposes for Judgements. Yet, this comes not, God knows, out of the weight or force of our words, but out of the easiness of God. God puts himself into the way of a shot, he meets a weak prayer, and is graciously pleased to be wounded by that: God sets up a light, that we direct the shot upon him, he enlightens us with a knowledge, how, and when, and what to pray for; yea, God charges, and discharges the Canon himself upon himself; He fils us with good and religious thoughts, and appoints and leaves the Holy Ghost, to discharge them upon him, in prayer, for it is the Holy Ghost himself that prays in us. Mauz zim, whch is, The God of forces, is not the name of our God, but of an Idol; Our God is the God of peace, and of sweetness; spiritual peace, spiritual honey to our souls; His name is Deus optimus maximus; He is both; He is All Greatness, but he is All Goodness first: He comes to show his Greatness at last, but yet his Goodness begins his Name, and can never be worn out in his Nature. He made the whole world in six days, but he was seven in destroying one City, Jericho. God threatens Adam, If thou eat that fruit, in that day, Morte morieris, Thou shalt dye the death; Here is a double Death interminated in one Day: Now, one of these Deaths is spiritual Death, and Adam never died that Death; And for the other Death, the bodily Death, which might have been executed that day, Adam was reprieved above nine hundred years. To lead all to our present purpose, Gods descending to Abrahams petition, to spare the wicked for a few just, is first and principally to advance his mercy, That sometimes in abundant mercy, he does so; but it is also to declare, that there is none just and righteous. Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, (says God in the Prophet) and seek in the broad places, If yee can find a man, if there be any that executeth Judgement, that seeketh Truth, and I will pardon it. Where God does not intimate, that he were unjust, if he did not spare those that were unjust, but he declares the general flood and inundation of unrighteousness upon Earth, That upon Earth there is not a righteous man to be found. If God had gone no farther in his promise to man, then that, if there were one righteous man, he would save all, this, in effect, had been nothing, for there was never any man righteous, in that sense and acceptation; He promised and sent one who was absolutely righteous, and for his sake hath saved us.

To collect all, and bind up all in one bundle, and bring it home to your own bosoms, remember, That though he appeared in men, it was God that appeared to Abraham; Though men preach, though men remit sins, though men absolve, God himself speaks, and God works, and God seals in those men. Remember that nothing appeared to Abrahams apprehension but men, yet Angels were in his presence; Though we bind you not to a necessity of believing that every man hath a particular Angel to assist him, (enjoy your Christian liberty in that, and think in that point so as you shall find your devotion most exalted, by thinking that it is, or is not so) yet know, that you do all that you do, in the presence of Gods Angels; And though it be in it self, and should be so to us, a stronger bridle, to consider that we do all in the presence of God; (who sees clearer then they, for he sees secret thoughts, and can strike immediately, which they cannot do, without commission from him) yet since the presence of a Magistrate, or a Preacher, or a father, or a husband, keeps men often from ill actions, let this prevail something with thee, to that purpose, That the Angels of God are always present, though thou discern them not. Remember, that though Christ himself were not amongst the three Angels, yet Abraham apprehended a greater dignity, and gave a greater respect to one then to the rest; but yet without neglecting the rest too: Apply thy self to such Ministers of God, and such Physicians of thy soul, as thine own conscience tells thee do most good upon thee; but yet let no particular affection to one, defraud another in his duties, nor empaire another in his estimation. And remember too, That though Gods appearing thus in three persons, be no irrefragable argument to prove the Trinity against the Jews, yet it is a convenient illustration of the Trinity to thee that art a Christian: And therefore be not too curious in searching reasons, and demonstrations of the Trinity, but yet accustom thy self to meditations upon the Trinity, in all occasions, and find impressions of the Trinity, in the three faculties of thine own soul, Thy Reason, thy Will, and thy Memory; and seek a reparation of that thy Trinity, by a new Trinity, by faith in Christ Jesus, by hope of him, and by a charitable delivering him to others, in a holy and exemplar life.

Descend thou into thy self, as Abraham ascended to God, and admit thine own expostulations, as God did his. Let thine own conscience tell thee not only thy open and evident rebellions against God, but even the immoralities, and incivilities that thou dost towards men, in scandalizing them, by thy sins; And the absurdities that thou committest against thy self, in sinning against thine own reason; And the uncleannesses, and consequently the treachery that thou committest against thine own body; and thou shalt see, that thou hadst been not only in better peace, but in better state, and better health, and in better reputation, a better friend, and better company, if thou hadst finned less; because some of thy sins have been such as have violated the band of friendship; and some such as have made thy company and conversation dangerous, either for temptation, or at least for defamation. Tell thy self that thou art the Judge, as Abraham told God that he was, and that if thou wilt judge thy self, thou shalt scape a severer judgement. He told God that he was Judge of all the earth; Judge all that earth that thou art, Judge both thy kingdoms, thy soul and thy body; Judge all the Provinces of both kingdoms, all the senses of thy body, and all the faculties of thy soul, and thou shalt leave nothing for the last Judgement. Mingle not the just and the unjust together; God did not so; Do not think good and bad all one; Do not think alike of thy sins, and of thy good deeds, as though when Gods grace had quickened them, still thy good works were nothing, thy prayers nothing, thine alms nothing in the sight and acceptation of God: But yet spare not the wicked for the just, continue not in thy beloved sin, because thou makest God amends some other way. And when all is done, as in God towards Abraham, his mercy was above all, so after all, Miserere animae tua, Be inerciful to thine own soul; And when the effectual Spirit of God hath spoken peace and comfort, and sealed a reconciliation to God, to thy soul, rest in that blessed peace, and enter into no such new judgement with thy self again, as should overcome thine own Mercy, with new distractions, or new suspicions that thy Repentance was not accepted, or God not fully reconciled unto thee. God, because he judges all the earth, cannot do wrong; If thou judge thy earth and earthly affections so, as that thou examine clearly, and judge truly, thou dost not do right, if thou extend not Mercy to thy self, if thou receive not, and apply not cheerfully and confidently to thy soul, that pardon and remission of all thy sins, which the holy Ghost, in that blessed state, hath given thee commission to pronounce to thine own soul, and to seal with his seal.

Serm. XLIII. Preached at S. Dunstans upon Trinity-Sunday. 1624.

MAT. 3.17.

And lo, A voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

IT hath been the custom of the Christian Church to appropriate certain Scriptures to certain Days, for the celebrating of certain Mysteries of God, or the commemorating of certain benefits from God: They who consider the age of the Christian Church, too high or too low, too soon or too late, either in the cradle, as it is exhibited in the Acts of the Apostles, or bed-rid in the corruptions of Rome, either before it was come to any growth, when Persecutions nipped it, or when it was so over-grown, as that prosperity and outward splendor swelled it, They that consider the Church so, will never find a good measure to direct our religious worship of God by, for the outward Liturgies, and Ceremonies of the Church. But as soon as the Christian Church had a constant establishment under Christian Emperors, and before the Church had her tympany of worldly prosperity under usurping Bishops, in this outward service of God, there were particular Scriptures appropriated to particular days. Particular men have not liked this that it should be so: And yet that Church which they use to take for their pattern, (I mean Geneva) as soon as it came to have any convenient establishment by the labours of that Reverend man, who did so much in the rectifying thereof, admitted this custom of celebrating certain times, by the reading of certain Scriptures. So that in the pure times of the Church, without any question, and in the corrupter times of the Church, without any infection, and in the Reformed times of the Church, without any suspicion of back-sliding, this custom hath been retained, which our Church hath retained; and according to which custom, these words have been appropriated to this day, for the celebrating thereof, And lo, A voice came, &c.

In which words we have pregnant and just occasion to consider, first, the necessity of the Doctrine of the Trinity; Secondly, the way and means by which we are to receive our knowledge and understannding of this mystery; And thirdly, the measure of this knowledge, How much we are to know, or to inquire, in that unsearchable mystery: The Quid, what it is; the Quomodo, How we are to learn it; and the Quantum, How far we are to search into it, will be our three Parts. We consider the first of these, the necessity of that knowledge to a Christian, by occasion of the first Particle, in the Text, And; A Particle of Connexion, and Dependance; and we see by this Connexion, and Dependance, that this revealing, this manifestation of the Trinity, in the text, was made presently after the Baptism of Christ; and that intimates, and inferres, That the first, and principal duty of him, who hath ingrafted himself into the body of the Christian Church, by Baptism, is to inform himself of the Trinity, in whose name he is Baptized. Secondly, in the means, by which this knowledge of the Trinity is to be derived to us, in those words, (Lo, a voice came from heaven, saying) we note the first word, to be a word of Correction, and of Direction; Ecce, Behold, leave your blindness, look up, shake off your stupidity, look one way or other; A Christian must not go on implicitly, inconsiderately, indifferently, he must look up, he must intend a calling: And then, Ecce again, Behold, that is, Behold the true way; A Christian must not think he hath done enough, if he have been studious, and diligent in finding the mysteries of Religion, if he have not sought them the right way: First, there is an Ecce corrigentis, we are chidden, if we be lazy; And then, there is an Ecce dirigentis, we are guided if we be doubtful. And from this, we fall into the way it self; which is, first, A voice, There must be something heard; for, take the largest Sphere, and compass of all other kinds of proofs, for the mysteries of Religion, which can be proposed, Take it first, at the first, and weakest kind of proof, at the book of creatures, (which is but a faint knowledge of God, in respect of that knowledge, with which we must know him) And then, continue this first way of knowledge, to the last, and powerfullest proof of all, which is the power of miracles, not this weak beginning, not this powerful end, not this Alpha of Creatures, not this Omega of miracles, can imprint in us that knowledge, which is our saving knowledge, nor any other means then a voice; for this knowing is believing, And, how should they believe, except they hear? says the Apostle. It must be Vox, A voice, And Vox de coelis, A voice from heaven: For, we have have had voces de terra, voices of men, who have indeed but diminished the dignity of the Doctrine of the Trinity, by going about to prove it by humane reason, or to illustrate it by weak and low comparisons; And we have had voces de Inferis, voices from the Devil himself, in the mouths of many Heretics, blasphemously impugning this Doctrine; We have had voces de profundis, voices fetched from the depth of the malice of the Devil, Heretics; And voces de medio, voices taken from the ordinary strength of Moral men, Philosophers; But this is vox de Excelsis, only that voice that comes from Heaven, belongs to us in this mystery: And then lastly, it is vox dicens, a voice saying, speaking, which is proper to man, for nothing speaks but man; It is Gods voice, but presented to us in the ministry of man; And this is our way; To behold, that is, to depart from our own blindness, and to behold a way, that is showed us; but showed us in the word, and in the word of God, and in that word of God, preached by man. And after all this, we shall consider the measure of this knowledge, in those last words, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; For, in that word, Meus, My, there is the Person of the Father; In the Filius, there is the Person of the Son; and in the Hic est, This is, there is the Person of the Holy Ghost, for that is the action of the Holy Ghost, in that word, He is pointed at, who was newly baptized, and upon whom the Holy Ghost, in the Dove, was descended, and had tarried. But we shall take those words in their order, when we come to them.

First then, we noted the necessity of knowing the Trinity, to be pregnantly intimated in the first word, Et, And: This connects it to the former part of the history, which is Christs Baptism, and presently upon that Baptism, this manifestation of the holy Trinity. Consider a man, as a Christian, his first Element is Baptism, and his next is Catechism; and in his Catechism, the first is, to believe a Father, Son, and holy Ghost. There are in this man, this Christian, Tres nativitates, says S. Gregory, three births; one, Per generationem, so we are born of our natural mother; one Per regenerationem, so we are born of our spiritual Mother, the Church, by Baptism; and a third, Per Resurrectionem, and so we are born of the general Mother of us all, when the earth shall be delivered, not of twins, but of millions, when she shall empty her self of all her children, in the Resurrection. And these three Nativities our Savior Christ Jesus had; Of which three, Hody alter salvator is natalis, says S. Augustine, This day is the day of Christs second birth, that is, of his Baptism. Not that Christ needed any Regeneration; but that it was his abundant goodness, to sanctify in his person, and in his exemplar action, that Element, which should be an instrument of our Regeneration in Baptism, the water, for ever. Even in Christ himself, Honoratior secunda, says that Father, The second birth, which he had at his Baptism, was the more honourable birth; for, Ab illa se, Pater qui putabatur, Joseph excusat, At his first birth, Joseph, his reputed Father, did not avow him for his Son; In hac se, Pater qui non putabatur, insinuat, At this his second birth, God, who was not known to be his Father before, declares that now: Ibi labor at suspicionibus Mater, quia professioni deerat Pater, There the Mothers honor was in question, because Joseph could not profess himself the Father of the child; Hic honoratur genetrix, quia filium Divinitas protestatur, Here her honor is repaired, and magnified, because the God-head it self, proclaims it self to be the Father.

If then, Christ himself chose to admit an addition of dignity at his Baptism, who had an eternal generation in heaven, and an innocent conception without sin, upon earth, let not us undervalue that dignity, which is afforded us by Baptism, though our children be born within the Covenant, by being born of Christian Parents; for the Covenant gives them Ius ad rem, a right to Baptism; children of Christian Parents may claim Baptism, which aliens to Christ cannot do; but yet they may not leave out Baptism: A man may be within a general pardon, and yet have no benefit by it, if he sue it not out, if he plead it not; a child may have right to Baptism, and yet be without the benefit of it, if it be neglected.

Christ began at Baptism; Natural things he did before; He fled into Egypt, to preserve his life from Herods Persecution, before: And a miraculous thing he did before; He overcame in disputation, the Doctors in the Temple, at twelve years old; but yet, neither of these neither, before his Circumcision, which was equivalent to Baptism, to this purpose; but before he accepted, or instituted Baptism, he did some natural, and some miraculous things. But his ordinary work which he came for, his preaching the Gospel, and thereby raising the frame for our salvation, in his Church, he began not, but after his Baptism: And then, after that, it is expressly and immediately recorded, That when he came out of the waters, he prayed; and then, the next thing in the history is, that he fasted, and upon that, his temptation in the wilderness. I mean no more in this, but this, That no man hath any interest in God, to direct a prayer unto him, how devoutly soever, no man hath any assurance of any effect of his endeavors in a good life, how morally holy soever, but in relation to his Baptism, in that seal of the Covenant, by which he is a Christian: Christ took this Sacrament, his Baptism, before he did any other thing; and he took this, three years before the institution of the other Sacrament of his body and blood: So that the Anabaptists obtrude a false necessity upon us, that we may not take the first Sacrament, Baptism, till we be capable of the other Sacrament too; for, first in nature, Priùs nascimur, quàm pascimur, we are born before we are fed; and so, in Religion, we are first born into the Church, (which is done by Baptism) before we are ready for that other food, which is not indeed milk for babes, but solid meat for stronger digestions.

They that have told us, that the Baptism, that Christ took of John, was not the same Baptism, which we Christians take in the Church, speak impertinently; for John was sent by God to baptize; and there is but one Baptism in him. It is true, that S. Augustine calls John's Baptism, Praecursorium ministerium, as he was a fore-runner of Christ, his Baptism was a fore-running Baptism; It is true, that Iustin Martyr calls John's Baptism, Euangelicae gratiae praeludium, A Prologue to the grace of the Gospel; It is true, that more of the Fathers have more phrases of expressing a difference between the Baptism of John, and the Baptism of Christ: But all this is not De essentia, but De modo, Not of the substance of the Sacrament, which is the washing of our souls in the blood of Christ, but the difference was in the relation; John baptized In Christum morituturum, Into Christ, who was to dye, and we are baptized In Christum mortuum, Into Christ who is already dead for us. Damascene expresses it fully, Christus baptizatur suo Baptismo: Christ was baptized with his own Baptism; It was John's Baptism, and yet it was Christs too. And so we are baptized with his Baptism, and there neither is, nor was any other; And that Baptism is to us, Ianua Ecclesiae, as S. Augustine calls it, The Door of the Church, at that we enter, And Investitura Christianismi, The investing of Christianity, as S. Bernard calls it, There we put on Christ Jesus; And, (as he, whom we may be bold to match with these two floods of spiritual eloquence, for his Eloquence, that is Luther expresses it) Puerpera regni Coelorum, The Church in Baptism, is as a Woman delivered of child, and her child is the Kingdom of Heaven, and that kingdom she delivers into his armes who is truly Baptized. This Sacrament makes us Christians; this denominates us, both Civilly, and Spiritually; there we receive our particular names, which distinguish us from one another, and there we receive that name, which shall distinguish us from the Nations, in the next World; at Baptism we receive the name of Christians, and there we receive our Christian names.

When the Disciples of Christ, in general, came to be called Christians, we find. It was a name given upon great deliberation, Barnabas had Preached there; who was a good Man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, himself. But he went to fetch Paul too, a Man of great gifts, and power in Preaching; and both they continued a year Preaching in Antioch, and there, first of all, the Disciples were called Christians: Before they were called Fideles, and Fratres, and Discipuli; The Faithful, and the Brethren, and the Disciples, and (as S. Chrysostom says) De via, Men that were in the way; for, all the World besides, were beside him, who was The Way, the Truth, and the Life. But, (by the way) we may wonder, what gave S. Chrysostom occasion of that opinion or that conjecture, since in the Ecclesiastique Story (I think) there is no mention of that name, attributed to the Christians: And in the Acts of the Apostles, it is named but once; when Saul desired Letters to Damascus, to punish them, whom he found to be of That way. Where we may note also, the zeal of S. Paul, (though then, in a wrong cause) against them, who were of That way, that is, That way inclined; And our stupidity, who startle not at those men, who are not only inclined another way, a cross way, but labor pestilently to incline others, and hope confidently to see all incline that way again. Here then at Antioch, they began to be called Christians; not only out of Custom, but, as it may seem, out of decree. For, if there belong any credit to that Council, which the Apostles are said to have held at Antioch, (of which Council there was a Copy, whether true or false, in Origens Library, within two hundred years after Christ) one Canon in that Council is, Vt credentes in Iesum, quos tunc vocabant Galilaeos, vocarentur Christiani, That the followers of Christ, who, till then, were called Galileans, should then be called Christians. There, in general, we were all called Christians; but, in particular, I am called a Christian, because I have put on Christ, in Baptism.

Now, in considering the infinite treasure which we receive in Baptism, insinuated before the text, That the Heavens opened, that is, The mysteries of Religion are made accessible to us, we may attain to them; And then, The Holy Ghost descends, (And he is a Comforter, whilst we are in Ignorance, and he is a Schoolemaster to teach us all truths) And he comes as a Dove, that is, Brings peace of conscience with him, and he rests upon us as a Dove, that is, Requires simplicity, and an humble disposition in us, That not only as Elijah opened and shut Heaven, Vt pluviam aut emitteret, aut teneret, That he might pour out or withhold the rain; but (as that Father, S. Chrysostom pursues it) Ita apertum, ut ipse conscendas, & alios, si velles, tecum levares, Heaven is so opened to us in baptism, as that we our selves may enter into it, and by our good life, lead others into it too; As we consider, I say, what we have received in Baptism, so, if we be not only Dealbati Christiani, (as S. Augustine speaks) White-limed Christians, Christians on the out-side, we must consider what we are to do upon all this. We are baptized, In plena & adulta Trinitate, says S. Cyprian, not in a Father without a Son, nor in either, or both, without a Holy Ghost, but in the fullness of the Trinity: And this mystery of the Trinity, is Regula fidei, says S. Jerome, It is the Rule of our faith, this only regulates our faith, That we believe aright of the Trinity; It is Dogma nostrae Religionis, says S. Basil, As though there were but this one Article; It is, says he, the foundation, the sum, it is all the Christian Religion, to believe aright of the Trinity. By this we are distinguished from the Jews, who accept no plurality of Persons; And by this we are distinguished from the Gentiles, who make as many several persons, as there are several powers, and attributes belonging to God. Our Religion, our holy Philosophy, our learning, as it is rooted in Christ, so it is not limited, not determined in Christ alone; we are not baptized in his name alone, but our study must be the whole Trinity; for, he that believes not in the Holy Ghost, as well as in Christ, is no Christian: And, as that is true which S. Augustine says, Nec laboriosius aliquid quaeritur, nec periculosius alicubi erratur, As there is not so steepy a place to clamber up, nor so slippery a place to fall upon, as the doctrine of the Trinity; so is that also true which he adds, Nec fructuosius invenitur, There is not so fulfilling, so accomplishing, so abundant an Article as that of the Trinity, for it is all Christianity. And therefore let us keep our selves to that way, of the manifestation of the Trinity, which is revealed in this text; and that way is our second part.

We must necessarily pass faster through the branches of this part, then the Dignity of the subject, or the fecundity of the words will well admit; but the cleareness of the order must recompense the speed and dispatch. First then, in this way here is an Ecce, An awaking, an Alarum, a calling us up, Ecce, Behold. First, an Ecce correctionis, A voice of chiding, of rebuking. If thou lye still in thy first bed, as thou art merely a Creature, and thinkest with thy self, that since the Lilly labours not, nor spins, and yet is gloriously clothed, since the Fowls of the Heavens sow not, nor reap, and yet are plentifully fed, thou mayest do so, and thou shalt be so; Ecce animam, Behold thou hast an immortal soul, which must have spiritual food, the Bread of life, and a more durable garment, the garment of righteousness, and cannot be emprisoned and captivated to the comparison of a Lilly that spins not, or of a Bird that sows not. If thou think thy soul sufficiently fed, and sufficiently clothed at first, in thy baptism, That that Manna, and those clothes shall last thee all thy pilgrimage, all thy life, That since thou art once Baptized, thou art well enough, Ecce fermentum, take heed of that leaven of the Pharisees, Take heed of them that put their confidence in the very act and character of the Sacrament, and trust to that: for there is a Confirmation belongs to every mans Baptism; not any such Confirmation as should intimate an impotency, or insufficiency in the Sacrament, but out of an obligation, that that Sacrament lays upon thee, That thou art bound to live according to that stipulation and contract, made in thy behalf, at thy receiving of that Sacrament, there belongs a Confirmation to that Sacrament, a holy life, to make sure that salvation, sealed to thee at first. So also, if thou think thy self safe, because thou hast left that leaven, that is, Traditions of men, and livest in a Reformed, and Orthodox Church, yet, Ecce Paradisum, Behold Paradise it self, even in Paradise, the bed of all ease, yet there was labor required; so is there required diligence, and a laborious holiness, in the right Church, and in the true Religion. If thou think thou knowest all, because thou understandest all the Articles of faith already, and all the duties of a Christian life already, yet Ecce scalam, Behold the life of a Christian is a Iacobs Ladder, and till we come up to God, still there are more steps to be made, more way to be gone. Briefly, to the most learned, to him that knows most, To the most sanctified, to him that lives best, here is an Ecce correctionis, there is a farther degree of knowledge, a farther degree of goodness, proposed to him, then he is yet attained unto.

So it is an Ecce correctionis, an Ecce instar stimuli, God by calling us up to Behold, rebukes us because we did not so, and provokes us to do so now: It is also an Ecce directionis, an Ecce instar lucernae, God by calling us up to Behold, gives us a light whereby we may do so, and may discern our way: whomsoever God calls, to him he affords so much light, as that, if he proceed not by that light, he himself hath winked at that light, or blow out that light, or suffered that light to wast, and go out, by his long negligence. God does not call man with an Ecce, To behold him, and then hide himself from him; he does not bid him look, and then strike him blind. We are all born blind at first; In Baptism God gives us that Collyrium, that eye-salve, by which we may see, and actually by the power of that medicine, we do all see, more then the Gentiles do. But yet, Ecce trabs in oculis, says Christ; Behold there is a beam in our eye, that is, Natural infirmities. But for all this beam, when Christ bids us behold, we are able to see, by Christs light, our own imperfections; though we have that beam, yet we are able to see that we have it. And when this light which Christ gives us, (which is his first grace) brings us to that, then Christ proceeds so that which follows there, Projice trabem, Cast out the beam that is in thine eye, and so we become able by that succeeding grace, to overcome our former impediments: If Christ bid us behold, he gives us light; if he bid us cast out the beam, he gives us strength. There is an Ecce neutus, cast upon Zachary, Behold thou shalt be dumb, God punished Zacharies incredulity with dumbness; But there is never an Ecce caecus, Behold thou shalt be blind, That God should call man to see, and then blow out the candle, or not show him a candle, if he were in utter darkness; for this is an Ecce directionis, an Ecce lucernae, God calls, and he directs, and lightens our paths; never reproach God so impiously as to suspect, that when he calls, he does not mean that we should come.

Well then, with what doth he enlighten thee? Why, Ecce vox, Behold a voice, saying. Now, for this voice in the Text, by whom it was heard, as also by whom the Dove that descended was seen, is sometimes disputed, and with some perplexity amongst the Fathers. Some think it was to Christ alone, because two of the Evangelists, Mark and Luke, record the words in that phrase, Tu es filius, not as we read it in our Text, This is, but, Thou art my beloved Son: But so, there had been no use, neither of the Dove, nor of the voice; for Christ himself lacked no testimony, that he was that Son. Some think it was to Christ, and John Baptist, and not to the company; Because, say they, The mystery of the Trinity was not to be presented to them, till a farther and maturer preparation; And therefore they observe, that the next manifestation of Christ, and so of the Trinity, by a like voice, was almost three years after this, in his Transfiguration, after he had manifested this doctrine by a long preaching amongst them; And yet, even then, it was but to his Apostles, and but to a few of them neither, and those few forbidden to publish too; and how long? Till his resurrection; when by that resurrection he had confirmed them, then it was time to acquaint them with the Doctrine of the Trinity. But for the Doctrine of the Trinity, as mysterious as it is, it is insinuated and conveyed unto us, even in the first verse of the Bible, in that extraordinary phrase, Creavit Dii, Gods, Gods in the plural, created heaven and earth; There is an unity in the action, it is but Creavit, in the singular, and yet there is a plurality in the persons, it is not Deus, God, but Dij, Gods: The Doctrine of the Trinity, is the first foundation of our Religion, and no time is too early for our faith, The simplest may believe it; and all time is too early for our reason, The wisest cannot understand it. And therefore, as Chrysostom is well followed in his opinion, so he is well worthy to be followed, That both the Dove was seen, and the voice was heard by all the company: for, neither was necessary to Christ himself; And the voice was not necessary to John Baptist, because the sign which was to govern him, was the Dove; He that sent me, said, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit come down, and tarry still, it is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. But to the company, both voice and Dove were necessary: for, if the voice had come alone, they might have thought, that that testimony had been given of John, of whom they had, as yet, a far more reverend opinion, then of Christ; And therefore, God first points out the person, and by the Dove declares him to all, which was He, and then, by that voice declares farther to them all, what He was. This benefit they had by being in that company, they saw, and they heard things conducing to their salvation; for, though God work more effectually upon those particular persons in the Congregation, who, by a good use of his former graces, are better disposed then others, yet to the most gracelesse man that is, if he be in the Congregation, God vouchsafes to speak, and would be heard.

They that differ in the persons, who heard it, agree in the Reason; All they heard it, in all their opinions, to whom it was necessary to hear it; And it is necessary to all us, to have this means of understanding and believing, to hear. Therefore God gives to all that shall be saved, vocem, his voice. We consider two other ways of imprinting the knowledge of God in man; first in a dark and weak way, the way of Nature, and the book of Creatures; and secondly, in that powerful way, the way of Miracles. But these, and all between these, are uneffectual without the Word. When David says of the Creatures, There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard, (the voice of the Creature is heard over all) S. Paul commenting upon those words, says, They have heard, All the world hath heard; but what? The voice of the Creature; now that is true, so much all the world had heard then, and does hear still: But the hearing that S. Paul intends there, is such a hearing as begets faith, and that the voice of Creature reaches not to. The voice of the Creature alone, is but a faint voice, a low voice; nor any voice, till the voice of the Word inanimate it; for then when the Word of God hath taught us any mystery of our Religion, then the book of Creatures illustrates, and establishes, and cherishes that which we have received by faith, in hearing the Word: As a stick bears up, and succours a vine, or any plant, more precious then it self, but yet gave it not life at first, nor gives any nourishment to the root now: so the assistance of reason, and the voice of the Creature, in the preaching of Nature, works upon our faith, but the root, and the life is in the faith it self; The light of nature gives a glimmering before, and it gives a reflexion after faith, but the meridianal noon is in faith.

Now, if we consider the other way, the way of power, Miracles, no man may ground his belief upon that, which seems a Miracle to him. Moses wrought Miracles, and Pharaohs instruments wrought the like: we know, theirs were no true Miracles, and we know Moses were; but how do we know this? By another voice, by the Word of God, who cannot lie: for, for those upon whom those Miracles were to work on both sides, Moses, and they too, seemed to the beholders, diversly disposed to do Miracles. One Rule in discerning, and judging a Miracle, is, to consider whether it be done in confirmation of a necessary Truth: otherwise it is rather to be suspected for an Illusion, then accepted for a Miracle. The Rule is intimated in Deuteronomy, where, though a Prophets prophecy do come to pass, yet, if his end be, to draw to other gods, he must be slain. What Miracles soever are pretended, in confirmation of the inventions of Men, are to be neglected. God hath not carried us so low for our knowledge, as to Creatures, to Nature, nor so high, as to Miracles, but by a middle way, By a voice.

But it is Vox de Coelis, A voice from heaven. S. Basil applying (indeed with some wresting and derorting) those words in the 29 Psalm, vers. 3. (The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of glory maketh it to thunder) to this Baptism of Christ, he says, Vox super aquas Ioannes, The words of John at Christs Baptism, were this voice that David intends; And then that manifestation which God gave of the Trinity, (whatsoever it were) altogether, that was the Thunder of his Majesty: so this Thunder then, was vox de Coelis, A voice from heaven; And in this voice the person of the Father was manifested, as he was in the same voice at his Transfiguration. Since this voice then is from Heaven, and is the Fathers voice, we must look for all our knowledge of the Trinity from thence. For, (to speak of one of those persons, of Christ) no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; Who then, but he, can make us know him? If any knew it, yet it is an unexpressible mystery, no man could reveal it; Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven; If any could reveal it to us, yet none could draw us to believe it; No man can come to me, except the Father draw him: So that all our voice of Direction must be from thence, De Coelis, from Heaven.

We have had Voces de Inferis, voices from Hell, in the blasphemies of Heretics; That the Trinity was but Cera extensa, but as a Roll of Wax spread, or a Dough Cake rolled out, and so divided unto persons: That the Trinity was but a nest of Boxes, a lesser in a greater, and not equal to one another; And then, that the Trinity was not only three persons, but three Gods too; So far from the truth, and so far from one another have Heretics gone, in the matter of the Trinity; and Cerinthus so far, in that one person, in Christ, as to say, That Jesus, and Christ, were two distinct persons; and that into Jesus, who, says he, was the son of Joseph, Christ, who was the Spirit of God, descended here at his Baptism, and was not in him before, and withdrew himself from him again, at the time of his Passion, and was not in him then; so that he was not born Christ, nor suffered not being Christ; but was only Christ in his preaching, and in his Miracles; and in all the rest, he was but Jesus, says Cerinthus.

We have had Voces de Inferis, de profundis, from the depth of hell, in the malice of Heretics, And we have had Voces de medio, voices from amongst us, Inventions of men, to express, and to make us understand the Trinity, in pictures, and in Comparisons: All which (to contract this point) are apt to fall into that abuse, which we will only note in one; At first, they used ordinarily to express the Trinity in four letters, which had no ill purpose in it at first, but was a religious ease for their memories, in Catechisms: The letters were Π, and Υ, and Α, and Π; The Π was Πατήρ, and the Υ was Υἱός, and the two last belonged to the last person, for Α was Ἄγιον, and Π was Πνεῦμα, and so there was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as if we should express it in F, and S, and H, and G. But this came quickly thus far into abuse, as that they thought, there could belong but three letters, in that picture, to the three persons; and therefore allowing so many to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they took the last letter P, for Petrus, and so made Peter head of the Church, and equal to the Trinity. So that for our knowledge, in this mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, let us evermore rest, in voce de coelis, in that voice which came from heaven.

But yet it is Vox dicens, A voice saying, speaking, A voice that man is capable of, and may be benefited by. It is not such a voice as that was, (which came from heaven too) when Christ prayed to God to glorify his name, That the people should say, some, that it was a Thunder, some that it was an Angel that spake. They are the sons of Thunder, and they are the Ministerial Angels of the Church, from whom we must hear this voice of heaven: Nothing can speak, but man: No voice is understood by man, but the voice of man; It is not Vox dicens, That voice says nothing to me, that speaks not; And therefore howsoever the voice in the Text were miraculously formed by God, to give this glory, and dignity to this first manifestation of the Trinity in the person of Christ, yet because he hath left it for a permanent Doctrine necessary to Salvation, he hath left ordinary means for the conveying of it; that is, The same voice from heaven, the same word of God, but speaking in the ministry of man. And therefore for our measure of this knowledge, (which is our third and last Part) we are to see, how Christian men, whose office it hath been to interpret Scriptures, that is, how the Catholike Church hath understood these words, Hic est Filius, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

How we are to receive the knowledge of the Trinity, Athanasius hath expressed as far as we can go; Whosoever will be saved, he must believe it; but the manner of it is not exposed so far as to his belief. That question of the Prophet, Quis enarrabit? who shall declare this? carries the answer with it, Nemo enarrabit, No man shall declare it. But a manifestation of the Being of the Trinity, they have always apprehended in these words, Hic est Filius, This is my beloved Son. To that purpose therefore, we take, first, the words to be expressed by this Evangelist S. Matthew, as the voice delivered them, rather then as they are expressed by S. Mark, and S. Luke; both which have it thus, Tu es, Thou art my beloved Son, and not Hic est, This is; They two being only careful of the sense, and not of the words, as it falls out often amongst the Evangelists, who differ oftentimes in recording the words of Christ, and of other persons. But where the same voice spake the same words again, in the Transfiguration, there all the Evangelists express it so, Hic est, This is, and not Tu es, Thou art my beloved Son; And so it is, where S. Peter makes use by application of that history, it is Hic est, and not Tu es. So that this Hic est, This man, designs him who hath that mark upon him, that the holy Ghost was descended upon him, and tarried upon him; for so far went the sign of distinction given to John, The holy Ghost was to descend and tarry: Manet, says S. Jerome, The holy Ghost tarryes upon him, because he never departs from him, sed operatur quando Christus vult, & quomodo vult, The holy Ghost works in Christ, when Christ will, and as Christ will; and so the holy Ghost tarryed not upon any of the Prophets; They spoke what he would, but he wrought not when they would. S. Gregory objects to himself, that there was a perpetual residence of the holy Ghost upon the faithful, out of those words of Christ, The Comforter shall abide with you for ever; But as S. Gregory answers himself, This is not a plenary abiding, and secundùm omnia dona, in a full operation, according to all his gifts, as he tarried upon Christ: Neither indeed is that promise of Christs to particular persons, but to the whole body of the Church.

Now this residence of the holy Ghost upon Christ, was his unction; properly it was that, by which he was the Messiah, That he was anointed above his fellows; And therefore S. Jerome makes account, that Christ received his unction, and so his office of Messiah, at this his Baptism, and this descending of the holy Ghost upon him: And he thinks it therefore, because presently after Baptism, he went to preach in the Synagogue, and he took for his Text those words of the Prophet Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, that I should preach the Gospel to the poor. And when he had read the Text, he began his Sermon thus, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. But we may be bold to say, that this is mistaken by S. Jerome; for the unction of Christ by the holy Ghost, by which he was anointed, and sealed into the office of Messiah, was in the over-shadowing of the holy Ghost in his conception, in his assuming our nature: This Descending now at his baptism, and this Residence, were only to declare, That there was a holy Ghost, and that holy Ghost dwelt upon this person.

It is Hic, This person; And it is Hic est, This is my Son; It is not only Fuit, He was my Son, when he was in my bosom, Nor only Erit, He shall be so, when he shall return to my right hand again; God does not only take knowledge of him in Glory; But Est, He is so now; now in the exinanition of his person, now in the evacuation of his Glory, now that he is preparing himself to suffer scorn, and scourges, and thorns, and nails, in the ignominious death of the Cross, now he is the Son of the glorious God; Christ is not the less the Son of God for this eclipse.

Hic est, This is he, who for all this lowness is still as high as ever he was, and that height is, Est Filius, He is the Son. He is not Servus, The Servant of God; or not that only, for he is that also. Behold my servant, (says God of him, in the Prophet) I will stay upon him, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. But Christ is this Servant, and a Son too: And not a Son only; for so we observe divers filiations in the School; Filiationem vestigii, That by which all creatures, even in their very being, are the sons of God, as Job calls God Pluviae patrem, The father of the rain; And so there are other filiations, other ways of being the sons of God. But Hic est, This person is, as the force of the Article expresses it, and presses it, Ille Filius, The Son, That Son, which no son else is, neither can any else declare how he is that which he is.

This person then is still The Son, And Meus Filius, says God, My Son. He is the son of Abraham, and so within the Covenant; as well provided by that inheritance, as the son of man can be naturally. He is the Son of a Virgin, conceived without generation, and therefore ordained for some great use. He is the son of David, and therefore royally descended; But his dignity is in the Filius meus, that God avows him to be his Son; for, Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time, Thou art my son? But to Christ he says in the Prophet, I have called thee by thy name: And what is his name? Meus es tu, Thou art mine. Quem à me non separat Deitas, says Leo, non dividit potestas, non discernit aeternitas: Mine so, as that mine infiniteness gives me no room nor space beyond him, he reaches as far as I, though I be infinite; My Almightiness gives me no power above him, he hath as much power as I, though I have all; My eternity gives me no being before him, though I were before all: In mine Omnipotence, in mine Omnipresence, in mine Omniessence, he is equal partner with me, and hath all that is mine, or that is my self, and so he is mine.

My Son, And My beloved Son; but so we are all, who are his sons, Deliciae ejus, says Solomon, His delight, and his contentment is to be with the sons of men. But here the Article is extraordinarily repeated again, Ille dilectus, That beloved Son, by whom, those, who were neither beloved, nor Sons, became the beloved Sons of God; For, there is so much more added, in the last phrase, In quo complacui, In whom I am well pleased.

Now, these words are diversly read. S. Augustine says, some Copies that he had seen, read them thus, Ego hody genui te, This is my beloved Son, this day have I begotten him: And with such Copies, it seems, both Iustin Martyr, and Irenaeus met, for they read these words so, and interpret them accordingly: But these words are misplaced, and mis-transferred out of the second Psalm, where they are. And as they change the words, and in stead of In quo complacui, In whom I am well pleased, read, This day have I begotten thee; S. Cyprian adds other words, to the end of these, which are, Hunc audit, Hear him: Which words, when these words were repeated at the Transfiguration, were spoken, but here, at the Baptism, they were not, what Copy soever misled S. Cyprian, or whether it were the failing of his own memory. But S. Chrysostom gives an express reason, why those words were spoken at the Transfiguration, and not here: Because, says he, Here was only a purpose of a Manifestation of the Trinity, so far, as to declare their persons, who they were, and no more: At the Trans-figuration, where Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ, there God had a purpose to prefer the Gospel above the Law, and the Prophets, and therefore in that place he adds that, Hunc audit, Hear him, who first fulfills all the Law, and the Prophets, and then preaches the Gospel. He was so well pleased in him, as that he was content to give all them, that received him, power to become the Sons of God, too; as the Apostle says, By his grace, he hath made us accepted in his beloved.

Beloved, That you may be so, Come up from your Baptism, as it is said that Christ did; Rise, and ascend to that growth, which your Baptism prepared you to: And the heavens shall open, as then, even Cataractae coeli, All the windows of heaven shall open, and rain down blessings of all kinds, in abundance; And the Holy Ghost shall descend upon you, as a Dove, in his peaceful comming, in your simple, and sincere receiving him; And he shall rest upon you, to effect and accomplish his purposes in you. If he rebuke you, (as Christ, when he promises the Holy Ghost, though he call him a Comforter, says, That he shall rebuke the world of divers things) yet he shall dwell upon you as a Dove, Quae si mordet, osculando mordet, says S. Augustine: If the Dove bite, it bites with kissing, if the Holy Ghost rebuke, he rebukes with comforting. And so baptized, and so pursuing the contract of your Baptism, and so crowned with the residence of his blessed Spirit, in your holy conversation, he shall breath a soul into your soul, by that voice of eternal life, You are my beloved Sons, in whom I am well pleased.

Serm. XLIV. Preached at S. Dunstanes upon Trinity-Sunday. 1627.

REV. 4.8.

And the four Beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within; And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

THese words are part of that Scripture, which our Church hath appointed to be read for the Epistle of this day. This day, which besides that it is the Lords day, the Sabbath day, is also especially consecrated to the memory, and honor of the whole Trinity. The Feast of the Nativity of Christ, Christmas day, which S. Chrysostom calls Metropolin omnium festorum, The Metropolitan festival of the Church, is intended principally to the honor of the Father, who was glorified in that humiliation of that Son, that day, because in that, was laid the foundation, and first stone of that house and Kingdom, in which God intended to glorify himself in this world, that is, the Christian Church. The Feast of Easter is intended principally to the honor of the Son himself, who upon that day, began to lift up his head above all those waters which had surrounded him, and to shake off the chains of death, and the grave, and hell, in a glorious Reserrection. And then, the Feast of Pentecost was appropriated to the honor of the Holy Ghost, who by a personal falling upon the Apostles, that day, enabled them to propagate this Glory of the Father, and this death, and Resurrection of the Son, to the ends of the world, to the ends in Extension, to all places, to the ends in Duration, to all times.

Now, as S. Augustine says, Nullus eorum extra quemlibet eorum est, Every Person of the Trinity is so in every other person, as that you cannot think of a Father, (as a Father) but that there falls a Son into the same thought, nor think of a person that proceeds from others, but that they, from whom he, whom ye think of, proceeds, falls into the same thought, as every person is in every person; And as these three persons are contracted in their essence into one God-head, so the Church hath also contracted the honor belonging to them, in this kind of Worship, to one day, in which, the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, as they are severally, in those three several days, might be celebrated jointly, and altogether. It was long before the Church did institute a particular Festival, to this purpose. For, before, they made account, that that verse, which was upon so many occasions repeated in the Liturgy, and Church Service, (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost) had a convenient sufficiency in it, to keep men in a continual remembrance of the Trinity. But when by that extreme inundation, and increase of Arians, these notions of distinct Persons in the Trinity, came to be obliterated, and discontinued, the Church began to refresh her self, in admitting into to the forms of Common Prayer, some more particular notifications, and remembrances of the Trnity; And at last, (though it were very long first, for this Festival of this Trinity-Sunday, was not instituted above four hundred years since) they came to ordain this day. Which day, our Church, according to that peaceful wisdom, wherewithal the God of Peace, of Unity, and Concord, had inspired her, did, in the Reformation, retain, and continue, out of her general religious tenderness, and holy loathness, to innovate any thing in those matters which might be safely, and without superstition continued and entertained. For our Church, in the Reformation, proposed not that for her end, how she might go from Rome, but how she might come to the Truth; nor to cast away all such things as Rome had depraved, but to purge away those depravations, and conserve the things themselves, so restored to their first good use.

For this day then, were these words appointed by our Church; And therefore we are sure, that in the notion, and apprehension, and construction of our Church, these words appertain to the Trinity. In them therefore we shall consider, first what, these four creatures were, which are notified, and designed to us, in the names, and figures of four Beasts; And then, what these four creatures did; Their Persons, and their Action will be our two Parts of this Text. In each of which we shall have three Branches; In the first these, first, simply who they were; And then, their qualification as they are furnished with wings, Each of them had six wings; And then lastly, in that first Part, what is intended in their eyes, for, They were full of eyes within; And in these three, we shall determine that first Part, The Persons. And then in the second, our first Branch will be, Their Alacrity, their ingenuity, their free and open profession of their zeal to Gods Service; They did it, says the Text, Dicentes, Saying, Publishing, Declaring; without disguises or modifications. And our second Branch, Their Assiduity, That which they did, they did incessantly, They ceased not day nor night, says our Text; No occasional emergencies, no loss, no trouble interrupted their zeal to Gods service. And then the last is, that that which they did, first with so much ingenuity, and then with so much assiduity, first so openly, and then so constantly, was the celebration of the Trinity, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come; Which is the entire body of the Christan Religion? That they profest openly, and constantly, all the parts of their Religion, are also the three Branches, in which we shall determine our second Part, Their Action.

First then, for our first Branch, in our first Part, the Persons intended in these four creatures, the Apostle says, Whatsoever things are written afore time, are written for our learning; But yet, not so for our learning, as that we should think always to learn, or always to have a clear understanding of all that is written; for it is added there, That we, through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope; Which may well admit this Exposition, that those things which we understand not yet, we may hope that we shall, and we must have patience till we do. For there may be many places in Scripture, (especially in Prophetical Scripture) which, perchance, the Church of God her self, shall not understand, till those Prophesies be fulfilled, and accomplished. In the understanding of this place, what, or who these four creatures are, there is so much difficulty, so much perplexity, as that amongst the interpretations of very Learned, and very Reverend, and very pertinent Expositors, it is easy to collect thirty several opinions, thirty several significations of these four creatures.

The multiplicity of these Interpretations intimates thus much, that that man that believes the Trinity, can scarce turn upon any thing, but it assists, and advances, and illustrates that belief; As diverse from one another as their thirty Expositions are, they all agree, that be our four creatures what they will, that which they do, is to celebrate the Trinity; He that seeks proof for every mystery of Religion, shall meet with much darkness; but he that believes first, shall find every thing to illustrate his faith. And then, this multiplicity of Interpretations intimates thus much more, That since we cannot give Sonsum adaequatum, Any such Interpretation of these four creatures, but that another, as probable as it, may be given, it may be sufficient, and it is best, (as in all cases of like intricacy) to choose such a sense, as may most advance the general purpose, and intention of the place; which is, in this place, The celebration of the Trinity.

So therefore we shall do. And considering that amongst these manifold Expositors, some bind themselves exactly, rigidly, superciliously, yea superstitiously to the number of four, and that therefore these four Creatures must necessarily signify something, that is limited in the number of four, no more, no less, (either the four Monarchies, or the four Patriarchs, or the four Doctors of the Church, or the four Cardinal Virtues, or the four Elements, or the four Quarters of the World, into all which, and many more such, rather Allusions, then Interpretations, these various Expositors have scattered themselves) And then considering also that divers others of these Expositors out of a just observation, That nothing is more ordinary in this Book of the Revelation, then by a certain and finite number, to design and signify an uncertain and infinite, (for, otherwise when we are told, that there were twelve thousand sealed of every Tribe, we should know the certain number of all the Jews that were saved, which certainly is not S. John's purpose in that place; but in the greatness of that number, to declare the largeness of Gods goodness to that people) considering I say, that divers of these Expositors, have extended their interpretation beyond the number of four, we make accompt that we do best, if we do both; if we stop upon the number of four, and yet pass on to a greater number too. And so we shall well do, if we interpret these four Creatures, to be first and principally the four Evangelists, (and that is the most common Interpretation of the Ancients) and then enlarge it to all the Ministers of the Gospel, which is (for the most part) the Interpretation of the Later men. So then, the action being an open and a continual profession of the whole Christian Religion, in the celebration of the Trinity, which is the distinctive Character of a Christian, the persons that do this, are all they that constitute the Hierarchy, and order of the Church; All they that execute the Ministry, and dispensation of the Gospel; which Gospel is laid down, and settled and established radically in the four Evangelists; All they are these four Creatures. And farther we need not carry this first branch, which is the Notification of these persons; for, their Qualification is the larger consideration.

And before we come to their Qualification, in the text, first, as they are said to have six wings, and then as they are said to be full of eyes, we look upon them, as they are formed, and designed to us, in the verse immediately before the text; where, the first of these four Creatures hath the face of a Lion, the second of a Calfe, or an Ox, the third of a Man, and the fourth of an Eagle. Now, Quatuor animalia sunt Ecclesiae Doctors, says S. Ambrose; These four Creatures are the Preachers of the Gospel; that we had established afore; But then, we add with S. Ambrose, Eandem significationem habet primum animal, quod secundum, quod tertium, quod quartum; All these four Creatures make up but one Creature; all their qualities concur to the Qualification of a Minister; every Minister of God is to have all, that all four had; the courage of a Lion, the laboriousness of an Ox, the perspicuity and clear sight of the Eagle, and the humanity, the discourse, the reason, the affability, the appliableness of a Man. S. Dionys the Areopagite had the same consideration as S. Ambrose had, before him. He imprints it, he expresses it, and extends it thus; In Leone vis indomabilis; In every Minister, I look for such an invincible courage, as should be of proof, against Persecution, (which is a great) and against Preferment, which is a greater temptation; that neither Fears, nor Hopes shake his constancy; neither his Christian constancy, to stagger him, nor his Ministerial constancy, to silence him; For this is Vis indomabilis, the courage required in the Minister as he is a Lion. And then says that Father; In Bove vis salutaris, In every Minister, as he is said to be an Ox, I look for labor; that he be not so over-grown, nor stall-fed, that he be thereby lazy; He must labor; And then, as the labor of the Ox is, his labor must be employed upon useful and profitable things, things that conduce to the clearing, not the perplexing of the understanding; and to the collecting, the uniting, the fixing, and not the scattering, the dissolving, the pouring out of a fluid, an unstable, an irresolved conscience; things of edification, not speculation; For this is that Vis salutaris, which we require in every Minister; that he labor at the Plough, and plough the right ground; that he Preach for the saving of souls, and not for the sharpening of wits. And then again, In Aquila vis speculatrix; As the Minister is presented in the notion and quality of an Eagle, we require both an Open eye, and a Piercing eye; First, that he date look upon other mens sins, and be not fain to wink at their faults, because he is guilty of the same himself, and so, for fear of a recrimination, incurre a prevarication; And then, that he be not so dim-sighted, that he must be fain to see all through other mens spectacles, and so preach the purposes of great men, in a factious popularity, or the fancies of new men, in a Schismatical singularity; but, with the Eagle, be able to look to the Sun; to look upon the constant truth of God in his Scriptures, through his Church; For this is Vis speculatrix, the open and the piercing eye of the Eagle. And then lastly, In homine vis ratiocinatrix; As the Minister is represented in the notion and quality of a Man, we require a gentle, a supple, an applicable disposition, a reasoning, a persuasive disposition; That he do not always, press all things with Authority, with Censures, with Excommunications; That he put not all points of Religion, always upon that one issue, Quicunque vult salvus esse, If you will be saved, you must believe this, all this, & Qui non credider it, damnabitur, If you doubt of this, any of this, you are infallibly, necessarily damned; But, that he be also content to descend to mens reason, and to work upon their understanding, and their natural faculties, as well as their faith, and to give them satisfaction, and reason (as far as it may be had) in that which they are to believe; that so as the Apostle, though he had authority to command, yet did Pray them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God, So the Minister of God, though (as he is bound to do) he do tell them what they are bound to believe, yet he also tells them, why they are to believe it; for this is Vis ratiocinatrix, The holy gentleness and appliableness, implied in that forme of a Man.

And so you have this Man composed of his four Elements; this Creature made of these four Creatures; this Minister made of a Lion, an Ox, an Eagle, and a Man; For, no one of these, nor all these, but one, will serve; the Lion alone, without the Eagle, is not enough; it is not enough to have courage and zeal, without clear sight and knowledge; Nor enough to labor, except we apply our selves to the capacity of the hearer; All must have all, or else all is disordered; Zeal, Labor, Knowledge, Gentleness.

Now besides these general qualifications, laid down as the foundation of the text, in the verse before it, in the text it self these four Creatures, being first the four Evangelists, and consequently, or by a just and faire accommodation, all the Preachers of the Gospel, which limit themselves in the doctrine laid down in the four Evangelists, have also wings added unto them; Wings, first for their own behoofe and benefit, and then, wings for the benefit and behoofe of others. They have wings to raise themselves from the earth; that they do not entangle themselves in the businesses of this World; but still to keep themselves upon the wing, in a Heavenly conversation, ever remembering that they have another Element, then Sea or Land, as men whom Christ Jesus hath set apart, and in some measure made mediatours between him, and other men, as his instruments of their salvation. And then as for themselves, so have they wings for others too, that they may be always ready to succor all, in all their spiritual necessities. For as those words are well understood by many of the Ancients, To the Woman were given two wings of an Eagle, that is, to the Church were given able and sufficient Ministers, to carry and convey her over the Nations: So are those words which are spoken of God himself, applicable to his Ministers, that first, The Eagle stirreth up her nest, The Preacher stirres and moves, and agitates the holy affections of the Congregation, that they slumber not in a senselessness of that which is said, The Eagle stirreth up her nest, and then as it is added there, She fluttereth over her young; The Preacher makes a holy noise in the conscience of the Congregation, and when he hath awakened them, by stirring the nest, he casts some claps of thunder, some intimidations, in denouncing the judgements of God, and he flings open the gates of Heaven, that they may hear, and look up, and see a man sent by God, with power to infuse his fear upon them; So she fluttereth over her young; but then, as it follows there, She spreadeth abroad her wings; she over-shadows them, she enwraps them, she armes them with her wings, so as that no other terror, no other fluttering but that which comes from her, can come upon them; The Preacher doth so infuse the fear of God into his Auditory, that first, they shall fear nothing but God, and then they shall fear God, but so, as he is God; And God is Mercy; God is Love; and his Minister shall so spread his wings over his people, as to defend them from all inordinate fear, from all suspicion and jealousy, from all diffidence and distrust in the mercy of God; which is farther exprest in that clause, which follows in the same place, She taketh them and beareth them upon her wings; when the Minister hath awakened his flock by the stirring of the nest, and put them in this holy fear, by this which the Holy Ghost calls a Fluttering; and then provided, by spreading his wings, that upon this fear there follow not a desperation; then he sets them upon the top of his best wings, and shows them the best treasure that is committed to his Stewardship, he shows them Heaven, and God in Heaven, sanctifying all their crosses in this World, inanimating all their worldly blessings, rayning down his blood into their emptiness, and his balm into their wounds, making their bed in all their sickness, and preparing their seat, where he stands soliciting their cause, at the right hand of his Father. And so the Minister hath the wings of an Eagle, that every soul in the Congregation may see as much as he sees, that is, a particular interest in all the mercies of God, and the merits of Christ.

So then, these Ministers of God have that double use of their Eagles wings; first, Vt volent ad escam, (as it is in Job) that they may fly up to receive their own food, their instructions at the mouth and word of God; And then, Vt ubi cadaver sit, ibi statim adsit, (as it is in Job also) where the dead are, they also may be; That where any lie, Pro mortuis, (as S. Paul speaks) for dead, as good as dead, ready to die, upon their death-bed, they may be ready to assist them, and to minister spiritual Physic, opportunely, seasonably, proportionably to their spiritual necessities; That they may power out upon such sick souls, that name of Jesus, which is Oleum effusum, An oil, and a balm, always pouring, and always spreading it self upon all green wounds, and upon all old sores; That they may minister to one in his hot and pestilent presumptions, an Opiat, of Christs Tristis anima, A remembrance, that even Christ himself had a sad soul towards his death, and a Quare dereliquisti, some apprehension, that God, though his God, had forsaken him. And that therefore, no man, how righteous soever, may presume, or pass away without fear and trembling; And then, to minister to another, in his Lethargies, and Apoplexies, and damps, and inordinate dejections of spirit, Christs cordials, and restoratives, in his Clarifica me Pater, In an assurance, that his Father, though he have laid him down here, whether in an inglorious fortune, or in a disconsolate bed of sickness, will raise him, in his time, to everlasting glory. So these Eagles are to have wings, to fly Ad cadaver, to the dead, to those that are so dying a bodily death, and also, where any lie dead in the practise and custom of sin, to be industrious and earnest in calling them to life again, so as Christ did Lazarus, by calling aloud; Not aloud in the ears of other men, so to expose a sinner to shame, and confusion of face, but aloud in his own ears, to put home the judgments of God, thereby to plough and harrow that stubborn heart, which will not be kneaded, nor otherwise reduced to an uprightness. For these uses, to raise themselves to heavenly contemplations, and to make haste to them that need their assistance, the Ministers of God have wings; wings of great use; especially now, when there is Coluber in via, A snake in every path, a Seducer in every house; When as the Devil is busy, because he knows his time is short, so his instruments are busy, because they think their time is beginning again; therefore the Minister of God hath wings.

And then, their wings are numbered in our Text; They have six wings. For by the consent of most Expositors, those whom S. John presents in the figure of these four Creatures here, and those whom the Prophet Isaiah calls Seraphim, are the same persons; The same Office, and the same Voice is attributed unto those Seraphim there, as unto these four Creatures here; Those as well as these, spend their time in celebrating the Trinity, an in crying Holy, Holy, Holy. The Holy Ghost sometimes presents the Ministers of the Gospel, as Seraphim in glory, that they might be known to be the Ministers and dispensers of the mysteries and secrets of God, and to come A later, From his Council, his Cabinet, his Bosom. And then on the other side, that you might know, that the dispensation of these mysteries of your salvation, is by the hand and means of men, taken from amongst your selves, and that therefore you are not to look for Revelations, nor Extasies, nor Visions, nor Transportations, but to rest in Gods ordinary means, he brings those persons down again from that glorious representation, as the Seraphim, to creatures of an inferior, of an earthly nature. For, though it be by the sight, and in the quality and capacity of those glorious Seraphim, that the Minister of God receives his commission, and instructions, his orders, and his faculties, yet the execution of his commission, and the pursuing of his instructions towards you, and in your behalf, is in that nature, and in that capacity, as they have the courage of the Lyon, the laboriousness of the Ox, the perspicuity of the Eagle, and the affability of Man.

These winged persons then, (winged for their own sakes, and winged for yours) these Ministers of God, (thus designed by Isaiah, as heavenly Seraphim, to procure them reverence from you, and by S. John, as earthly Creatures, to teach you, how near to your selves, God hath brought the means of your Salvation, in his visible, and sensible, in his applicable, and apprehensible Ordinances) are, in both places, (that of Isaiah, and this in our Text) said to have six wings; And six, to this use, in Isaiah, with two they cover their face, with two their feet, and with two they fly. They cover their face; Not all over; for then, neither the Prophet there, nor the Evangelist here, could have known them to have had these likenesses, and these proportions. The Ministers of God are not so covered, so removed from us, as that we have not means to know them. We know them by their face; that is, by that declaration which the Church hath given of them to us, in giving them their orders, and their power over us; and we know them by their voice; that is, by their preaching of such doctrine, as is agreeable to those Articles which we have suckt in from our infancy. The Ministers face is not so covered with these wings, as that the people have no means to know him; For his calling is manifest, and his doctrine is open to proof and trial: But they are said to cover their face, because they dare not look confidently, they cannot look fully upon the majesty of the mysteries of God. The Evangelists themselves, and they that ground their doctrine upon them, (all which together, as we have often said, make up these four persons, whom Isaiah calls Seraphim, and S. John inferior Creatures) have not seen all that belongs to the nature and essence of God, not all in the attributes and properties of God, not all in the decrees and purposes of God, no, not all in the execution of those purposes and decrees; we do not know all that God intends to do; we do not know all that God intends in that which he hath done. Our faces are covered from having seen the manner of the eternal generation of the Son, or of the eternal proceeding of the Holy Ghost, or the manner of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament. The Ministers of God are so far open-faced towards you, as that you may know them, and try them by due means to be such; and so far open-faced towards God, as that they have seen in him and received from him, all things necessary for the salvation of your souls; But yet, their faces are covered too; somethings concerning God, they have not seen themselves, nor should go about to reveal, or teach to you.

And it is not only their faces that are covered, but their feet too. Their covered faces are especially directed to God; denoting their modesty in forbearing unrevealed mysteries: Their covered feet are especially directed to you; They should not be curious in searching into all Gods actions, nor you in searching into all theirs; Their ways, their actions, their lives, their conversations should not be too curiously searched, too narrowly pryed into, too severely interpreted by private men, as they are but such, because, in so doing, the danger and the detriment is thus far likely to fall upon your selves, that when the infirmities of the Minister, and your infirmities, that is, their faults, and your uncharitable censures of their faults, meet together, that may produce this ill effect, that personal matters may be cast upon the ministerial function, and so the faults of a Minister be imputed to the Ministry; and by such a prejudice, and conceit of one mans ill life, you may lose the taste and comfort of his, and perchance of others good Doctrine too. All that is covered shall be made manifest, says Christ; You shall know all their faults, and you shall know them then, when it shall most confound them, and least indanger you, when it shall aggravate their torment, and do you no harm; that is, at the day of Judgement. In the mean time, because it might hurt you to know their faults, God hath covered their feet so far, as that he would not have your looking upon their feet, divert you from depending upon their mouths, as long as by his permission they sit in Moses chair, and execute Gods Commission. If they employ their middle wings, which were ordained for them to fly withal, if they do their duties in breaking the bread of life, and dispensing the Word and Sacraments, and assisting the sick in body, and sick in soul, though God have, in part, covered their faces, that is, not imparted to them such gifts, or such an open sight into deep points, as perchance you desire, yet he hath covered their feet too; he hath for your sakes removed their faults from your survey, as you are but private men. Take the benefit of their two middle wings, their willingness to assist you with their labours, and in their other four wings, be not too curious, too censorious, too severe, either their face-wings, that is, the depth of their learning, or their feet-wings, that is, the holiness of their lives.

They have six wings to these several purposes; and singuli senas, says our Text, every one of them hath six wings. For, for the first couple, the face-wings, howsoever some of the Ministers of God have gifts above their fellows, howsoever they have gained the names of Doctors Seraphici, and Doctors illuminati, (with which titles they abound in the Roman Church) yet their faces are in part covered, they must not think they see all, understand all; The learnedst of all hath defects, even in matter of learning. And for the second couple, the feet-wings, howsoever some may make shift for the reputation of being more pure, more sanctified then their fellows, yet the best of them all need a covering for their feet too; All their steps, all their actions will not endure examination. But for the last couple, however there may be some intimation given of a great degree of perfection in matter of knowledge, and in matter of manners, (for in those creatures which are mentioned in the first of Ezek. (which also signify the Ministers of God) there are but four wings spoken of, so that there are no face-wings, they have an abundant measure of learning and knowledge, And the Cherubim (which may also signify the same persons) have but two wings, no covering upon face or feet; to denote, that some may be without any remarkable exception in their doctrine, and in their manners too) yet for the last couple, the two middle wings, by which they fly, and address themselves to every particular soul that needs their spiritual assistance, the Ministers of God are never in any figure but represented. Better they wanted face-wings, and feet-wings, (discretion to cover either their insufficiency in knowledge, or their infirmity in manners) then that they should want their middle-wings, that is, a disposition to apply themselves to their flock, and to be always ready to distribute the promises of God, and the seals of his promises, the Word and Sacraments, amongst them. And this may be conveniently intended in their wings.

Now as they were Alati, they were Oculati in our Text; They have eyes as well as wings; They fly, but they know whither they fly. In the doctrine of Implicite Obedience in the Roman Church, To believe as the Church believes, or as that Confessor which understands not what the Church believes, makes you believe the Church believes, In their doctrine of that which they call Blind Obedience, that is, to pursue and execute any commandment of any superior, without any consideration; In both these there are wings enow, but there are no eyes: They fly from hence to Rome, and Roman Jurisdictions, and they fly over hither again, after Statutes, after Proclamations, after Banishments iterated upon them; So that here are wings enow, but they lack those eyes by which they should discern between Religion and Rebellion, between a Traytor and a Martyr. And to take our consideration from them, and reflect upon our selves, They that fly high at matter of mystery, and leave out matter of edification, They that fly over Sea for plat-forms of discipline, and leave out that Church that bred them, They that fly close to the service of great mens affections and purposes, and do the work of God coldly, and faintly, They may be Alati, but they are not Oculati, They may fly high, and fly fast, and fly far, and fly close in the ways of preferment, but they see not their end; Not only not the end that they shall come to, but not the end that they are put upon; not only not their own ends, but not their ends whose instruments they are. Those birds whose eyes are cieled, and sowed up, fly highest; but they are made a prey: God exposes not his servants to such dangers; He gives them wings, that is, means to do their office; but eyes too, that is, discretion and religious wisdom how to do it.

And this is that which they seem to need most, for their wings are limited, but their eyes are not; Six wings, but full of eyes, says our Text. They must have eyes in their tongues; They must see, that they apply not blindly and inconsiderately Gods gracious promises to the presumptuous, nor his heavy judgements to the broken hearted. They must have eyes in their ears; They must see that they harken neither to a superstitious sense from Rome, nor to a seditious sense of Scriptures from the Separation. They must have eyes in their hands; They must see that they touch not upon any such benefits or rewards, as might bind them to any other master then to God himself. They must have eyes in their eyes; spiritual eyes in their bodily eyes; They must see that they make a charitable construction of such things as they see other men do, and this is that fullness of eyes which our Text speaks of.

But then especially, says our Text, They were full of eyes Within: The fullness, the abundance of eyes, that is, of providence and discretion in the Ministers of God, was intimated before: In the 6. verse it was said, That they were full of eyes before and behind: that is, circumspect and provident for all that were about them, and committed to them. But all is determined and summed up in this, that They were full of eyes within. For as there is no profit at all (none to me, none to God) if I get all the world and lose mine own soul, so there is no profit to me, if I win other mens souls to God, and lose mine own. All my wings shall do me no good, all mine eyes before and behind shall do me no good, if I have no prospect inward, no eyes within, no care of my particular and personal safety.

And so we have done with our first general part, the Persons denoted in these four creatures, and the duties of their ministry; in which we have therefore insisted thus long, that having so declared and notified to you our duties, you also might be the more willing to hear of your own duties, as well as ours, and to join with us in this Open, and Incessant, and Total profession of your Religion, which is the celebration of the Trinity in this acclamation, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which is, which was, and which is to come.

To come therefore now to the second Part, and taking the four Evangelists to be principally intended here, but secundarily the Preachers of the Gospel too, and not only they, but in a faire extension and accommodation the whole Church of God, first we noted their Ingenuity and openness in the profession of their Religion, they did it Dicentes, Saying, declaring, publishing, manifesting their devotion, without any disguise, any modification.

In that song of the three Children in the Fornace, O all ye works of the Lord, &c. there is nothing presented speechless: To every thing that is there, there is given a tongue; Not only all those creatures which have all a Being, but even Privations, Privations that have no Being, that are nothing in themselves, (as the Night, and Darkness) are there called upon to bless the Lord, to praise him, and magnify him for ever. But towards the end of that song, you may see that service drawn into a narrower compass; You may see to whom this speech, and declaration doth principally appertain; For after he had called upon Sun, and Moon, and Earth, and Sea, and Fowls, and Fishes, and Plants, and Night, and Darkness, to praise the Lord, to bless him, and magnify him for ever, Then he comes to O ye children of men, Primogeniti Dei, Gods beloved creatures, his eldest sons, and first-born, in his intention; And then, Domus Israel, O ye house of Israel, you whom God hath not only made men, but Christian men, not only planted in the World, but in the Church, not only indued with Reason, but inspired with Religion: And then again, O ye Priests of the Lord, O ye Servants of the Lord, those of Gods portion, not only in the Church, but of the Church, and appointed by him to deal between him and other men: And then also, O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, those whom those instruments of God had powerfully and effectually wrought upon, upon those especially, those men, those Christian men, those Priests, those sanctified men, upon those he calls to bless the Lord, to praise him, and magnify him for ever. This obligation the holy Ghost lays upon us all, that the more God does for us, the more we should declare it to other men; God would have us tell him our sins; God would have us tell other men his mercies; It was no excuse for Moses that he was of uncircumcised lips; No excuse for Jeremiah, to say, O Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child. Credidi, propterea locutus sum, is Davids forme of argument, I believed, and therefore I spake. If thou dost not love to speak of God, and of his benefits, thou dost not believe in God, nor that those benefits came from him.

Remember that when thou wast a child, and presented to God in Baptism, God gave thee a tongue in other mens mouths, and enabled thee, by them, to establish a covenant, a contract between thy soul, and him then. And therefore since God spake to thee, when thou couldst not hear him, in the faith of the Church; since God heard thee when thou couldst not speak to him, in the mouth of thy sureties; Since that God that created thee was Verbum, The Word, (for, Dixit, & facta sunt, God spake, and all things were made) Since that God that redeemed thee was Verbum, The Word, (for The Word was made flesh) Since that God that sanctified thee is Verbum, The Word, (for therefore S. Basil calls the holy Ghost Verbum Dei, quia interpres Filii, He calls the holy Ghost the Word of God, because as the Son is the Word, because he manifests the Father unto us, so the holy Ghost is the Word, because he manifests the Son unto us, and enables us to apprehend, and apply to our selves, the promises of God in him) since God, in all the three Persons, is Verbum, The Word to thee, all of them working upon thee, by speaking to thee, Be thou Verbum too, A Word, as God was; A Speaking, and a Doing Word, to his glory, and the edification of others. If the Lord open thy lips, (and except the Lord open them, it were better they were luted with the clay of the grave) let it be to show forth his praise, and not in blasphemous, not in scurrile, not in profane language. If the Lord open thy hand, (and if the Lord open it not, better it were manacled with thy winding sheet) let it be, as well to distribute his blessings, as to receive them. Let thy mouth, let thy hand, let all the Organs of thy body, all the faculties of thy soul, concur in the performance of this duty, intimated here, and required of all Gods Saints, Vt dicant, That they speak, utter, declare, publish the glory of God. For this is that Ingenuity, that Alacrity, which constitutes our first Branch. And then the second is the Assiduity, the constancy, the incessantness, They rest not day nor night.

But have the Saints of God no Vacation? do they never cease? nay, as the word imports, Requiem non habent, They have no Rest. Beloved, God himself rested not, till the seventh day; be thou content to stay for thy Sabbath, till thou mayst have an eternal one. If we understand this, of rest merely, of bodily rest, the Saints of God are least likely to have it, in this life; For, this life, is (to them especially, above others) a business, and a perplext business, a warfare, and a bloody warfare, a voyage, and a tempestuous voyage. If we understand this rest to be Cessation, Intermission, the Saints in heaven have none of that, in this service. It is a labor that never wearies, to serve God there. As the Sun is no wearier now, then when he first set out, six thousand years since; As that Angel, which God hath given to protect thee, is not weary of his office, for all thy perversenesses, so, howsoever God deal with thee, be not thou weary of bearing thy part, in his Quire here in the Militant Church. God will have low voices, as well as high; God will be glorified De profundis, as well as In excelsis; God will have his tribute of praise, out of our adversity, as well as out of our prosperity. And that is it which is intimated, and especially intended in the phrase which follows, Day and night. For, it is not only that those Saints of God who have their Heaven upon earth, do praise him in the night; according to that of S. Jerome, Sanctis ipse somnus, oratio; and that of S. Basil, Etiam somnia Sanctorum preces sunt; That holy men do praise God, and pray to God in their sleep, and in their dreams; nor only that which David speaks of, of rising in the night, and fixing stationary hours for prayer; But even in the depth of any spiritual night, in the shadow of death, in the midnight of afflictions and tribulations, God brings light out of darkness, and gives his Saints occasion of glorifying him, not only in the dark, (though it be dark) but from the dark, (because it is dark.) This is a way unconceiveable by any, unexpressible to any, but those that have felt that manner of Gods proceeding in themselves, That be the night what night it will, be the oppression of what Extension, or of what Duration it can, all this retards not their zeal to Gods service; Nay, they see God better in the dark, then they did in the light; Their tribulation hath brought them to a nearer distance to God, and God to a clearer manifestation to them. And so, to their Ingenuity, that they profess God, and their Religion openly, is added an Assiduity, that they do it incessantly; And then also, an Integrity, a Totality, that they do not depart with, nor modify in any Article of their Religion; which is entirely, and totally enwrapt in this acclamation of the Trinity, (which is our third, and last Branch in this last Part) Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

For the Trinity it self, it is Lux, but Lux inaccessibilis; It is light, for a child at Baptism professes to see it; but then, it is so inaccessible a light, as that if we will make natural reason our Medium, to discern it by, it will fall within that of David, Posuit tenebras latibulum suum, God hath made darkness his secret places; God, as God, will be seen in the creature; There, in the creature he is light; light accessible to our reason; but God, in the Trinity, is open to no other light, then the light of faith. To make representations of men, or of other creatures, we find two ways; Statuaries have one way, and Painters have another: Statuaries do it by Substraction; They take away, they pare off some parts of that stone, or that timber, which they work upon, and then that which they leave, becomes like that man, whom they would represent: Painters do it by Addition; Whereas the cloth, or table presented nothing before, they add colors, and lights, and shadows, and so there arises a representation. Sometimes we represent God by Substraction, by Negation, by saying, God is that, which is not mortal, not passible, not moveable: Sometimes we present him by Addition; by adding our bodily lineaments to him, and saying, that God hath hands, and feet, and ears, and eyes; and adding our affections, and passions to him, and saying, that God is glad, or sorry, angry, or reconciled, as we are. Some such things may be done towards the representing of God, as God; But towards the expressing of the distinction of the Persons in the Trinity, nothing.

Then when Abraham went up to the great sacrifice of his son, he left his servants, and his Ass below: Though our natural reason, and humane Arts, serve to carry us to the hill, to the entrance of the mysteries of Religion, yet to possess us of the hill it self, and to come to such a knowledge of the mysteries of Religion, as must save us, we must leave our natural reason, and humane Arts at the bottom of the hill, and climb up only by the light, and strength of faith. Dimitte me quia lucescit, says that Angel that wrastled with Jacob; Let me go, for it grows light. If thou think to see me by day-light, says that Angel, thou wilt be deceived; If we think to see this mystery of the Trinity, by the light of reason, Dimittemus, we shall lose that hold which we had before, our natural faculties, our reason will be perplext, and infeebled, and our supernatural, our faith not strengthened that way.

Those testimonies, and proofs of the Trinity, which are in the old Testament, are many, and powerful in their direct line; But they are truly, for the most part, of that nature, as that they are rather Illustrations, and Confirmations to him that believed the Trinity before, then Arguments of themselves, able to convince him that hath no such Preconception. We that have been catechized, and brought up in the knowledge of the Trinity, find much strength, and much comfort, in that we find, in the first line of the Bible, that Bara Elohim, Creavit Dii, Gods created heaven and earth; In this, that there is the name of God in the plural, joined to a Verb of the singular number, we apprehend an intimation of divers persons in one God; We that believe the Trinity before, find this, in that phrase, and form of speech; The Jews, which believe not the Trinity, find no such thing. So when we find that plural phrase, Faciamus hominem, That God says, Let us, us in the plural, make man, we are glad to find such a plural manner of expressing God, by the Holy Ghost, as may concur with that, which we believed before; that is, divers persons in one God. To the same purpose also is that of the Prophet Isaiah, where God says, Whom shall I send, or who shall go for us? There we discern a singularity, one God, (Whom shall I send?) and a plurality of persons too, (Who shall go for us?) But what man, that had not been catachized in that Doctrine before, would have conceived an opinion, or established a faith in the Trinity, upon those phrases in Moses, or in Isaiah, without other evidence? Certainly, it was the Divine purpose of God, to reserve and keep this mystery of the Trinity, unrevealed for a long time, even from those, who were, generally, to have their light, and instruction from his word; They had the Law, and the Prophets, and yet they had no very clear notions of the Trinity. For, this is evident, that in Trismegistus, and in Zoroaster, and in Plato, and some other Authors of that Air, there seem to be clearer, and more literal expressings of the Trinity, then are in all the Prophets of the old Testament. We take the reason to be, that God reserved the full Manifestation of this mystery, for the dignifying, and glorifying of his Gospel. And therefore it is enough that we know, that they of the old Testament, were saved by the same faith in the Trinity, that we are; How God wrought that faith in them, amongst whom he had established no outward means for the imprinting of such a faith, let us not too curiously inquire. Let us be content, to receive our light there, where God hath been pleased to give it; that is, in those places of the new Testament, which admit no contradiction, nor disputation. As where Christ says, Go, and teach all Nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And where it is said, There are three that bear witness in heaven; The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. There are Obumbrations of the Trinity, in Nature, and Illustrations of the Trinity, in the old Testament; but the Declaration, the Manifestation thereof, was reserved for the Gospel.

Now, this place, this Text, is in both, It is in the old, and it is in the new Testament; here, and in Isaiah; And in both places, agreed by all Expositors, to be a confession of the Trinity, in that three-fold repetition, Holy, holy, holy. Where (by the way) you may have use of this note; that in the first place, (in the Prophet Isaiah) we have a faire intimation, that that use of Subalternation in the service of God, of that, which we have called Antiphones, and Responsaries in the Church of God, (when in that service, some things are said or sung by one side of the Congregation, and then answered by the other, or said by one man, and then answered by the whole Congregation) that this manner of serving God, hath a pattern from the practise of the Triumphant Church. For there, the Seraphim cried to one another, or (as it is in the Original) this Seraphim to this, Holy, Holy, Holy; so that there was a voice given, and an answer made, and a reply returned in this service of God. And as the pattern is in the Triumphant Church for this holy manner of praising God, so in the practise thereof, the Militant prescribes; for it hath been always in use. And therefore, that religious vehemence of Damascene, (speaking of this kind of service in the Church in his time) may be allowed us, Hymnum dicemus, etsi Daemones disrumpantur; How much soever it anger the devil, or his devilish instruments of schism and sedition, we will serve God in this manner, with holy cheerfulness, with music, with Antiphones, with Responsaries, of which we have the pattern from the Triumphant, and the practise from the Primitive Church.

Now as this Totality, and Integrity of their Religion which they profess, first, with an Ingenuity (openly) & then, with an Assiduity, (incessantly) hath (as it were) this dilatation, this extension of God into three Persons, (which is the character and specification of the Christian Religion; for no Religion, but the Christian, ever inclined to a plurality of Persons in one God) so hath it also such a contracting of this infinite Power into that one God, as could not agree with any other Religion then the Christian, in either of those two essential circumstances; first, that that God should be Omnipotent, and then, that he should be Eternal; The Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

All the Heathen gods were ever subordinate to one another; That which one god could not, or would not do, another would, and could; And this oftentimes, rather to anger another god, then to please the party. And then there was a Surveyor, a Controller over them all, which none of them could resist, nor entreat, which was their Fatum, their Destiny. And so, in these subsidiary gods, these occasional gods, there could be no Omnipotence, no Almightiness. Our God is so Omnipotent, Almighty so, as that his Power hath no limitation but his own Will. Nihil impossibile nisi quod non vult, He can do whatsoever he will do; And he can do more then that; For he could have raised sons to Abraham, out of stones in the street.

And as their gods were not Omnipotent, so neither were they Eternal. They knew the history, the generation, the pedigree of all their gods; They knew where they were born, and where they went to school, (as Iustin Martyr says, that Esculapius, and Apollo their gods of Physic, learnt their Physic of Chiron; so that the Scholars were gods, and their Masters none) and they knew where their gods were buried; They knew their Parents, and their Uncles, their Wives and their Children, yea their Bastards, and their Concubines; so far were they from being eternal gods; But if we remit and slacken this consideration of Eternity (which is never to have had beginning) & consider only Perpetuity (which is never to have end) these gods were not capable of a perpetual Honor, an Honor that should never end. For, we see that of those three hundred several Iupiters, which were worshiped in the World, before Christ came, though the World abound at this day with Idolatry, yet there is not one of those Idols, not one of those three hundred Iupiters celebrated with any solemnity, no, not known in any obscure corner of the World. They were mortal before they were Gods; They are dead in their Persons: and they were mortal when they were Gods; They are dead in their Worship. In respect of Eternity (which is necessary in a God) Perpetuity is but Mobilis Imago (as Plato calls it) a faint and transitory shadow of Eternity; and Pindarus makes it less; Idolum Aeternitatis; Perpetuity is but an Idol compared to eternity; And, an Idol is nothing, says the Apostle. Our souls have a blessed perpetuity, our souls shall no more see an end, then God, that hath no Beginning; and yet our souls are very far from being eternal. But those gods are so far from being eternal, as that, considered as Gods (that is, celebrated with Divine worship) they are not perpetual. But God is our God for ever and ever; ever, without beginning; and ever, without end. My days are like a shadow that fadeth, and I am withered like grass; but thou O Lord dost remain for ever, and thy remembrance from generation to generation; It is a remaining, and it is a remembrance; which words denote a former being. So that God, our God, and only he, is eternal.

To conclude all, with that which must be the conclusion of all at last, this Eternity of our God is expressed here in a phrase which designs and presents the last Judgement, that is, which was, and is, and is to come. For, though it be Qui fuit, Which was, and Qui est, Which is, yet it is not Qui futurus, Which is to be; but Qui venturus, Which is to come; that is, to come to Judgement; as it is in divers other places of this Book, Qui venturus, Which is to come. For, though the last judiciary Power, the final Judgement of the World, be to be executed by Christ, as he is the Son of Man, visibly, apparantly in that nature, yet Christ is therein as a Delegate of the Trinity; It is in the virtue and power of that Commission, Data est mihi omnis potestas; He hath all Power, but that Power that he hath as the Son of man, is given him. For, as the Creation of the World was, so the Judgement of the World shall be the Act of the whole Trinity. For if we consider the second Person in the Trinity, in both his Natures, as he redeemed us, God and Man, so it cannot be said of him, that He was; that is, that he was eternally; for there was a time, when that God, was not that man; when that Person, Christ, was not constituted. And therefore this word, in our Text, which was, (which is also true of the rest) is not appropriated to Christ, but intended of the whole Trinity. So that it is the whole Trinity that is to come, To come to Judgement.

And therefore, let us reverently embrace such provisions, and such assistances as the Church of God hath ordained, for retaining and celebrating the Trinity, in this particular contemplation, as they are to come to Judgement. And let us at least provide so far, to stand upright in that Judgement, as not to deny, nor to dispute the Power, or the Persons of those Judges. A man may make a pety larceny high treason so; If being called in question for that lesser offence, he will deny that there is any such Power, any such Sovereign, any such King, as can call him in question for it, he may turn his whipping into a quartering. At that last Judgement, we shall be arraigned for not clothing, not visiting, not harbouring the poor; For, our not giving is a taking away; our withholding, is a withdrawing; our keeping to our selves, is a stealing from them. But yet, all this is but a pety larceny, in respect of that high treason, of infidelity, of denying or doubting of the distinct Persons of the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity. To believe in God, one great, one universal, one infinite power, does but distinguish us from beasts; For there are no men that do not acknowledge such a Power, or that do not believe in it, if they acknowledge it; Even they that acknowledge the devil to be God, believe in the devil. But that which distinguishes man from man, that which only makes his Immortality a blessing, (for, even Immortality is part of their damnation that are damned, because it were an ease, it were a kind of pardon to them to be mortal, to be capable of death, though after millions of generations) is, to conceive aright of the Power of the Father, of the Wisdom of the Son, of the Goodness of the Holy Ghost; Of the Mercy of the Father, of the Merits of the Son, of the Application of the Holy Ghost; Of the Creation of the Father, of the Redemption of the Son, of the Sanctification of the Holy Ghost. Without this, all notions of God are but confused, all worship of God is but Idolatry, all confession of God is but Atheism; For so the Apostle argues, When you were without Christ, you were without God. Without this, all moral virtues are but diseases; Liberality is but a popular baite, and not a benefit, not an alms; Chastity is but a castration, and an impotency, not a temperance, not mortification; Active valor is but a fury, whatsoever we do, and passive valor is but a stupidity, whatsoever we suffer. Natural apprehensions of God, though those natural apprehensions may have much subtilty, Voluntary elections of a Religion, though those voluntary elections may have much singularity, Moral directions for life, though those moral directions may have much severity, are all frivolous and lost, if all determine not in Christianity, in the Notion of God, so as God hath manifested and conveyed himself to us; in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, whom this day we celebrate, in the Ingenuity, and in the Assiduity, and in the Totality, recommended in this text, and in this acclamation of the text, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Serm. XLV. Preached Upon All-Saints Day.

APOC. 7.2, 3.

And I saw another Angel ascending from the East, which had the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels, to whom power was given to hurt the Earth, and the Sea, saying, Hurt yee not the Earth, neither the Sea, neither the Trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

THe solemnity and festival with which the sons of the Catholic Church of God celebrate this day, is much mistaken, even by them who think themselves the only Catholics, and celebrate this day, with a devotion, at least near to superstition in the Church of Rome. For, they take it (for the most part) to be a festival instituted by the Church, in contemplation of the Saints in heaven only; and so carry and employ all their devotions this day, upon consideration of those Saints, and invocation of them only. But the institution of this day, had this occasion. The heathen Romans, who could not possibly house all their gods in several Temples, they were so over-many, according to their Law, Deos frugi colunto, to serve God as cheap as they could, made one Temple for them all, which they called Pantheon, To all the Gods. This Temple Boniface the Pope begd of the Emperor Phocas; (And yet, (by the way) this was some hundreds of years after the Donation of the Emperor Constantine, by which the Bishops of Rome pretend all that to be theirs; surely they could not find this Patent, this Record, this Donation of Constantine, then when Boniface begd this Temple in Rome, this Pantheon of the Emperor) And this Temple, formerly the Temple of all their gods, that Bishop consecrated to the honor of all the Martyrs, of all the Saints of that kind. But after him, another Bishop of the same sea, enlarged the consecration, and accompanied it with this festival, which we celebrate to day, in honor of the Trinity, and Angels, and Apostles, and Martyrs, and Confessors, and Saints, and all the elect children of God. So that it is truly a festival, grounded upon that Article of the Creed, The Communion of Saints, and unites in our devout contemplation, The Head of the Church, God himself, and those two noble constitutive parts thereof, The Triumphant, and the Militant. And, accordingly, hath the Church applied this part of Scripture, to be read for the Epistle of this day, to show, that All-Saints day hath relation to all Saints, both living and dead; for those servants of God, which are here in this text, sealed in their foreheads, are such (without all question) as receive that Seal here, here in the militant Church. And therefore, as these words, so this festival, in their intendiment, that applied these words to this festival, is also of Saints upon Earth.

This day being then the day of the Communion of Saints, and this Scripture being received for the Epistle of this universal day, that exposition will best befit it, which makes it most universal. And therefore, with very good authority, such as the expositions of this book of the Revelation can receive, (of which book, no man will undertake to the Church, that he hath found the certain, and the literal sense as yet, nor is sure to do it, till the prophecies of this book be accomplished) (for prophetiae ingenium, ut in obscuro delitescat, donec impleatur, It is the nature of prophecy to be secret, till it be fulfilled, And therefore Daniel was bid to shut up the words, and to seal the book even to the time of the end, that is, to the end of the prophecy) with good authority, I say, we take that number of the servants of God, which are said to be sealed in the fourth verse of this Chapter, which is one hundred forty four thousand, and that multitude which none could number, of all Nations, which are mentioned in the ninth verse, to be intended of one and the same company; both these expressions denote the same persons. In the fourth verse of the fourteenth Chapter, this number of one hundred forty four thousand is applied to Virgins, but is intended of all Gods Saints; for every holy soul is a virgin. And then this name of Israel, which is mentioned in the fourth verse of this Chapter, (That there were so many sealed of the house of Israel) is often in Scriptures applied to spiritual Israelites, to Beleevers, (for every faithful soul is an Israelite) so that this number of one hundred forty four thousand Virgins, and one hundred forty four thousand Israelites, which is not a certain number, but a number expressing a numberless multitude, this number, and that numberless multitude spoken of after, of all Nations, which none could number, is all one; and both making up the great and glorious body of all Saints, import and present thus much in general, That howsoever God inflict great and heavy calamities in this world, to the shaking of the best moral and Christianly constancies and consciences, yet all his Saints being eternally known by him, shall be sealed by him, that is, so assured of his assistance, by a good using of those helps which he shall afford them, in the Christian Church, intended in this sealing on the forehead, that those afflictions shall never separate them from him, nor frustrate his determination, nor disappoint his gracious purpose upon them, all them, this multitude, which no man could number.

To come then to the words themselves, we see the safety, and protection of the Saints of God, and his children, in the person and proceeding of our Protector, in that it is in the hands of an Angel, (I saw another Angel) And an Angel of that place, that came from the East; The East, that is the fountain of all light and glory, (I saw another Angel come from the East) And as the Word doth naturally signify, (and is so rendered in this last Translation) Ascending from the East, that is, growing and increasing in strength; After that we shall consider our assurance in the commission and power of this Angel, He had the seaele of the living God; And then in the execution of this Commission; In which we shall see first, who our enemies were; They were also Angels, (This Angel cried to other Angels) able to do much by nature, because Angels; Then we shall see their number, they were four Angels, made stronger by joining (This Angel cried to those four Angels.) And besides their malignant nature, and united concord, (two shrewd disadvantages, mischievous and many) They had a power, a particular, an extraordinary power given them, at that time, to do hurt, (four Angels, to whom power was given to hurt) And to do general, universal hurt, (power to hurt the Earth, and the Sea.) After all this we shall see this Protector, against these enemies, and their Commission, execute his, first by declaring and publishing it, (He cried with a loud voice) And then lastly, what his Commission was; It was, to stay those four Angels, for all their Commission, from hurting the Earth, and the Sea, and the Trees. But yet, this is not for ever; It is but till the servants of God were sealed in the forehead; that is, till God had afforded them such helps, as that by a good use of them they might subsist; which, if they did not, for all their sealing in the forehead, this Angel will deliver them over to the other four destroying Angels. Of which sealing, that is, conferring of Grace and helps against those spiritual enemies, there is a pregnant intimation, that it is done by the benefit of the Church, & in the power of the Church, which is no singular person, in that, upon the sudden, the person and the number is varied in our text; and this Angel, which when he is said to ascend from the East, and to cry with a loud voice, is still a singular Angel, one Angel, yet when he comes to the act of sealing in the forehead, to the dispensing of Sacraments, and sacramental assistances, he does that as a plural person, he represents more, the whole Church, and therefore says here, Stay, hurt nothing, Till we, we have sealed the servants of our, our God in their foreheads. And by all these steps must we pass through this garden of flowers, this orchard of fruits, this abundant Text.

First then, Man being compassed with a cloud of witnesses of his own infirmities, and the manifold afflictions of this life, (for, Dies diei eructat verbum, Day unto day uttereth the same, and night unto night teacheth knowledge, The bells tell him in the night, and fame tells him in the day, that he himself melts and drops away piece-meal in the departing of parents, and wife, and children out of this world, yea he hears daily of a worse departing, he hears of the defection, and back-sliding of some of his particular acquaintance in matter of religion, or of their stiffness and obduration in some course of sin (which is the worse consumption) Dies diei eructat, every day makes him learneder then other in this sad knowledge, And he knows withal, Quod cuiquam accidere potest, cuivis potest, that any of their cases may be his case too) Man that is compassed with such a cloud of such witnesses, had need of some light to show him the right way, and some strength to enable him to walk safely in it. And this light and strength is here proposed in the assistance of an Angel. Which being first understood of Angels in general, affords a great measure of comfort to us, because the Angels are seduli animae pedissequae, faithful and diligent attendants upon all our steps. They do so, they do attend the service and good of man, because it is illorum optimum, It is the best thing that Angels (as Angels) can do, to do so: For evermore it is best for every thing to do that for which it was ordained and made; and they were made Angels for the service and assistance of man. Vnum tui & Angeli optimum est; Man and Angels have one and the same thing in them, which is better then any thing else that they have; Nothing hath it but they, and both they have it. Deus nihil sui optimum habet; unum optimum totus; It is not so with God; God hath nothing in him that is Best; but he is altogether one entire Best. But Man and Angels have one thing common to them both, which is the best thing that naturally either of them hath, that is, Reason, understanding, knowledge, discourse, consideration. Angels and Men have grace too, that is infinitely better then their Reason; but though Grace be the principal in the nature and dignity thereof, yet it is but accessory to an Angel, or to man; Grace is not in their nature at first, but infused by God, not to make them Angels and Men, but to make them good Angels, and good men. This very reason then, which is Illorum optimum, The best thing that Angels, as Angels, naturally have, teaches them, that the best thing that they can do, is the performance of that for which they were made. And then howsoever they were made spirits for a more glorious use, to stand in the presence of God, and to enjoy the fullness of that contemplation, yet he made his spirits Angels, for the love which he had to be with the sons of men. Sufficit illis, et pro magno habeant, Let this content the Angels, and let them magnify God for this, Quòd cum spiritus sint condition, ex gratia facti sunt Angeli, That whereas by nature they are but spirits, (and the devil is so) by favor and by office they are made Angels, messengers from God to man.

Now as the Angels are not defective in their best part, their Reason, and therefore do their office in assisting us, so also let us exalt our best part, our Reason too, to reverence them with a care of doing such actions only as might not be unfit for their presence. Both Angels and we have the Image of God imprinted in us; the Angels have it not in summo, though they have it in tuto; They have it not in the highest degree, (for so Christ only is the Image of the invisible God) but they have it in a deep impression, so as they can neither lose it, nor deface it. We have this Image of God so as that we cannot lose it, but we may, and do deface it; Vri potest, non exuri; The Devil hath this Image in him, and it cannot be burnt out in hell; for it is imprinted in the very natural faculties of the soul. But if we consider how many waters beat upon us in this world to wash off this Image, how many rusty and habitual sins gnaw upon us, to eat out this Image, how many files pass over our souls in calamities, and afflictions, in which though God have a purpose, Resculpere imaginem, to re-engrave, to refresh, to polish this Image in us, by those corrections, yet the devil hath a harsh file too, that works a murmuring, a comparing of our sins with other mens sins, and our punishments with other mens punishments, and at last, either a denying of Providence, (That things so unequally carried cannot be governed by God) or a wilful renouncing of it in Desperation, That his Providence cannot be resisted, and therefore it is all one what we do, If we consider this, we had need look for Assistants.

Let us therefore look first to that which is best in us naturally, that is, Reason; For if we lose that, our Reason, our Discourse, our Consideration, and sink into an incapable and barren stupidity, there is no footing, no subsistence for grace. All the virtue of Corn is in the seed; but that will not grow in water, but only in the earth: All the good of man, considered supernaturally, is in grace; but that will not grow in a washy soul, in a liquid, in a watery, and dissolute, and scattered man. Grace grows in reason; In that man, and in that mind, that considers the great treasure, what it is to have the Image of God in him, naturally; for even that is our earnest of supernatural perfection. And this Image of God, even in the Angels, being Reason, and the best act of rectified Reason, The doing of that for which they were made, It is that which the Angels are naturally inclined to do, to be always present for the assistance of man; for therefore they are Angels. And since they have a joy at the Conversion of a sinner, and every thing affects joy, and therefore they indeavor our Conversion, yea, since they have an increase of their knowledge by being about us, (for, S. Paul says, That he was made a Preacher of the Gospel, to the intent that Angels might know, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God) And every thing affects knowledge, these Saints of God upon earth, intended in our Text, might justly promise themselves a strong and a blessed comfort, and a happy issue in all tribulations, by this Scripture, if there were no more intended in it, but only the assistance of Angels; I saw an Angel.

But our security of deliverance is in a safer, and a stronger hand then this; not in these Ministerial, and Missive Angels only; but in his that sends them, yea in his that made them; By whom, and for whom, they, and the Thrones, and Dominions, and Principalities, and Powers, and all things were created, and in whom they consist. For, as the name of Angel is attributed to Christ, Angelus Testamenti, The Angel of the Covenant; And many of those miraculous passages in the deliverances of Israel out of Egypt, which were done by the second Person of the Trinity, by Christ, in Exodus, are by Moses there, and in the abridgement of that story, by Stephen after, attributed to Angels, So in this Text, this Angel, which doth so much for Gods Saints, is, not inconveniently, by many Expositors, taken to be our Savior Christ himself. And will any man doubt of performance of conditions in him? Will any man look for better security then him, who puts two, and two such into the band, Christ, and Jesus; An anointed King, able, an actual Savior, willing to discharge, not his, but our debt? He is a double Person, God and Man; He ingages a double pawn, the old, and the new Testament, the Law, and the Gospel; and you may be bold to trust him, that hath paid so well before; since you see a performance of the Prophesies of the old Testament, in the free and glorious preaching of the Gospel, trust also in a performance of the promises of the Gospel, in timely deliverances in this life, and an infallible, and eternal reposedness, in the life to come. He took our nature, that he might know our infirmities experimentally; He brought down a better nature, that he might recover us, restore us powerfully, effectually; and that he might be sure to accomplish his work, he brought more to our reparation, then to our first building, The God-head wrought as much in our Redemption, as in our Creation, and the Man-hood more; for it began but then. And to take from us all doubt of his power, or of his will in our deliverance, he hath taken the surest way of giving satisfaction, He hath payed beforehand; Verè tulit, He hath truly born all our infirmities, He hath, already; And with his stripes are we healed; we that are here now, are healed by his stripes received sixteen hundred years since. Nay, he was Occisus ab origin, The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; That day that the frame of the world was fully set up in the making of man, That day that the fairest piece of that frame fell down again, in the fall of Adam, That day that God repaired this ruin again, in the promise of a Messiah, (all which we take ordinarily to have fallen in one day, the sixth day) that day, in that promise, was this Lamb slain, and all the debts not only of our fore-fathers, and ours, but of the last man, that shall be found alive at the last day, were then payed, so long beforehand.

This security then, for our deliverance and protection, we have in this Angel in our Text, (I saw an Angel) as this Angel is Christ; but yet we have also another security, more immediate, and more applicable to us. As men that lend money in the course of the world, have a desire to have a servant in the band with the Master, not that they hope for the money from him, but that they know better how to call upon him, and how to take hold of him: so besides this general assistance of Angels, and besides this all-sufficiency of the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, we have, for our security, in this Text, (I saw an Angel) the servants of Christ too; This Angel is the Minister of his Word, the Administrer of his Sacraments, the Mediator between Christ and Man, He is this Angel, as S. John, so often in the Revelation, and the Holy Ghost in other places of Scripture, styles them; This Angel is indeed, the whole frame, and Hierarchy of the Christian Church. For though this Angel be called in this text The Angel, in the singular, yet, (to make use of one note by Anticipation now, though in our distribution of the Branches, we reserved it to the end, because it fits properly our present consideration) though this Angel be named in the singular, and so may seem to be restrained to Christ alone, yet, we see, the Office, when it comes to execution after, is diffused, and there are more in the Commission; for those phrases, that We, We may seal, the servants of Our, Our God, have a plurality in them, a consent, a harmony, and imply a Congregation, and do better agree with the Ministry of the Church, then with the Person of Christ alone.

So then, to let go none of our assistants, our sureties, our safety is in the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, radically, fundamentally, meritoriously; It is in the ministry of the Angels of heaven invisibly; but it is in the Church of God, and in the power of his Ministers there, manifestly, sensibly, discernibly; They should seek the Law at the Priests mouth, (They should, and therefore they are to blame that do not, but fly to private expositions.) But why should they? Quia angelus domini exercituum, (as it follows there) Because the Priest is the Angel of the Lord of Hosts. Yea, the Gospel which they preach, is above all messages, which an Angel can bring of himself; If an Angel from heaven preach otherwise unto you, then we have preached, let him be accursed. The ministry of celestial Angels is inferior to the ministry of the Ecclesiastical; The Gospel (which belongs to us) is truly Euangelium, the good Ministry of good Angels, the best ministry of the best Angels; for though we compare not with those Angels in nature, we compare with them in office; though our offices tend to the same end (to draw you to God) yet they differ in the way; and though the service of those Angels, enlighten your understanding, and assist your belief too, yet in the ministry of these Angels in the Church, there is a blessed fulfilling, and verification of those words, Now is salvation nearer, then when we believed. You believe, because those celestial Angels have wrought invisibly upon you, and disperst your clouds, and removed impediments. You believe, because the great Angel Christ Jesus, hath left his history, his action, and passion written for you; and that is a historical faith. But yet salvation is nearer to you, in having all this applied to you, by them, who are like you, men, and there, where you know how to fetch it, the Church; That as you believe by reading the Gospels at home, that Christ died for the world, So you may believe, by hearing here, that he died for you. This is Gods plenteous Redemption, Quòd linguam mem assumsit in opus suum; That having so great a work to do, as the salvation of souls, he would make use of my tongue; And being to save the world by his word, that I should speak that word. Docendo vos, quod per se faciliùs & suaviùs posset, That he calls me up hither, to teach you that which he could teach you better, and sooner, at home, by his Spirit; Indulgentia ejus est, non indigentia, It is the largeness of his mercy towards you, not any narrowness in his power that he needs me. And so have you this Angel in our text, in all the acceptations, in which our Expositors have delivered him; It is Christ, It is the Angels of heaven, It is the Ministry of the Gospel; And this Angel, whosoever, whatsoever, S. John saw come from the East, (I saw an Angel come from the East) which was our second Branch, and falls next into consideration.

This addition is intended for a particular addition to our comfort; it is a particular endowment, or enlargement of strength and power in this Angel, that he comes from the East. If we take it, (to go the same way that we went before) first of natural Angels, even the Western Angels, Qui habuere occasum, Those Angels which have had their Sun-set, their fall, they came from the East too; Quomodo cecidisti decoelo, Lucifer, filius orientis? How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, the Son of the morning? He had his begetting, his Creation in the East, in the light, and there might have stayed, for any necessity of falling, that God laid upon him. Take the Angel of the text to be the Angel of the Covenant Christ Jesus, and his name is The East; he cannot be known, he cannot be said to have any West. Ecce vir, Oriens nomen ejus, (so the Vulgate reads that place) Behold the Man, whose name is the East; you can call him nothing else; for so, the other Zachary, the Zachary of the New Testament calls him too, Per viscera misericordiae, Through the tender bowels of his mercy, Visitavit nos Oriens, The East, the day spring from on high hath visited us; And he was derived à Patre luminum, He came from the East, begotten from all eternity of the Father of lights, I came out from the Father, and came into the world. Take this Angel to be the Preacher of the Gospel, literally, really, the Gospel came out of the East, where Christ lived and died; and Typically, figuratively, Paradise, which also figured the place, to which the Gospel is to carry us, Heaven, that also was planted in the East; and therefore S. Basil assignes that for the reason, why in the Church service we turn to the East when we pray, Quia antiquam requirimus patriam, We look towards our ancient country, where the Gospel of our salvation was literally acted, and accomplished, and where Heaven, the end of the Gospel, was represented in Paradise. Every way the Gospel is an Angel of the East.

But this is that which we take to be principally intended in it, That as the East is the fountain of light, so all our illumination is to be taken from the Gospel. Spread we this a little thinner, and we shall better see through it. If the calamities of the world, or the heavy consideration of thine own sins, have benummed and benighted thy soul in the vale of darkness, and in the shadow of death; If thou think to wrastle and bustle through these strong storms, and thick clouds, with a strong hand; If thou think thy money, thy bribes shall conjure thee up stronger spirits then those that oppose thee; If thou seek ease in thy calamities, that way to shake and shipwreck thine enemies; In these cross winds, in these countermines, (to oppress as thou art oppressed) all this is but a turning to the North, to blow away and scatter these sadnesses, with a false, an illusory, and a sinful comfort. If thou think to ease thy self in the contemplation of thine honor, thine offices; thy favor, thy riches, thy health, this is but a turning to the South, the Sun-shine of worldly prosperity. If thou sink under thy afflictions, and canst not find nourishment (but poison) in Gods corrections, nor justice (but cruelty) in his judgements, nor mercy (but slackness) in his forbearance till now; If thou suffer thy soul to set in a cloud, a dark cloud of ignorance of Gods providence and proceedings, or in a darker, of diffidence of his performance towards thee, this is a turning to the West, and all these are perverse and awry. But turn to the East, and to the Angel that comes from thence, The Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus in his Church; It is true, thou mayst find some dark places in the Scriptures; and, Est silentii species obscuritas, To speak darkly and obscurely is a kind of silence, I were as good not be spoken to, as not be made to understand that which is spoken, yet fixe thy self upon this Angel of the East, the preaching of the Word, the Ordinance of God, and thine understanding shall be enlightened, and thy belief established, and thy conscience thus far unburthened, that though the sins which thou hast done, cannot be undone, yet neither shalt thou be undone by them; There, where thou art afraid of them, in judgement, they shall never meet thee; but as in the round frame of the World, the farthest West is East, where the West ends, the East begins, So in thee, (who art a World too) thy West and thy East shall join, and when thy Sun, thy soul comes to set in thy death-bed, the Son of Grace shall suck it up into glory.

Our Angel comes from the East, (a denotation of splendor, and illustration of understanding, and conscience) and there is more, he comes Ascending, (I saw an Angel ascend from the East) that is, still growing more clear, and more powerful upon us. Take the Angel here of natural Angels; and then, when the Witch of Endor (though an evil Spirit appeared to her) yet saw him appear so, Ascending, she attributes that glory to it, I see gods Ascending out of the earth. Take the Angel to be Christ, and then, his Ascension was Foelix clausula totius itinerarii, The glorious shutting up of all his progress; and though his descending from Heaven to earth, and his descending from earth to hell gave us our title, his Ascending, by which he carried up our flesh to the right hand of his Father, gave us our possession; His Descent, his humiliation gave us Ius ad rem, but his Ascension Ius in re. But as this Angel is the Ministry of the Gospel, God gave it a glorious ascent in the Primitive Church, when as this Sun Exultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam, ascended quickly beyond the reach of Heretics wits, and Persecutors swords, and as glorious an ascent in the Reformation, when in no long time, the number of them that had forsaken Rome was as great, as of them that staid with her.

Now to give way to this ascent of this Angel in thy self, make the way smooth, and make thy soul souple; find thou a growth of the Gospel in thy faith, and let us find it in thy life. It is not in thy power to say to this Angel, as Joshua said to the Sun, Siste, stand still; It will not stand still; If thou find it not ascending, it descends; If thy comforts in the Gospel of Christ Jesus grow not, they decay; If thou profit not by the Gospel, thou losest by it; If thou live not by it, (nothing can redeem thee) thou dyest by it. We speak of going up and down a stair; it is all one stair; of going to, and from the City; it is all one way; of comming in, and going out of a house; it is all one door: So is there a savor of life unto life, and a savor of death unto death in the Gospel; but it is all one Gospel. If this Angel of the East have appeared unto thee, (the light of the Gospel have shined upon thee) and it have not ascended in thee, if it have not made thee wiser and wiser, and better and better too, thou hast stopped that light, vexed, grieved, quenched that Spirit; for the natural progress of this Angel of the East is to ascend; the natural motion and working of the Gospel is, to make thee more and more confident in Gods deliverance, less and less subject to rely upon the weak helps, and miserable comforts of this world. To this purpose this Angel ascends, that is, proceeds in the manifestation of his Power, and of his readiness to succor us. Of his Power in this, That he hath the seals of the living God; (I saw an Angel ascending from the East, which had the seal of the living God) which is our next Consideration.

Of the living God. The gods of the Nations are all dead gods; either such Gods as never had life, (stones, and gold and silver) or such gods at best, as were never gods till they were dead; for men that had benefited the world, in any public and general invention, or otherwise, were made gods after their deaths; which was a miserable deification, a miserable godhead that grew out of corruption, a miserable eternity that begun at all, but especially that begun in death; and they were not gods till they died. But our Angel had the Seal of the living God, that is, Power to give life to others. Now, if we seek for this seal in the natural Angels, they have it not; for this Seal is some visible thing whereby we are assisted to salvation, and the Angels have no such. They are made keepers of this seal sometimes, but permanently they have it not. This Seal of comfort was put into an Angels hand, when he was to set a mark upon the foreheads of all them that mourned; He had a visible thing, Ink, to mark them withal. But it was not said to him, Vade & signa omnes Creaturas, Go, and set this mark upon every Creature, as it was to the Minister of the Gospel, Go, and preach to every Creature. If we seek this seal in the great Angel, the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus: It is true he hath it, for, Omnis potestas data, All power is given unto me, in Heaven, and in earth; and, Omne judicium, The Father hath committed all judgement to the Son; Christ, as the Son of man executes a Judgement, and hath a Power, which he hath not but by gift, by Commission, by virtue of this Seal, from his Father. But, because it is not only so in him, That he hath the Seal of the living God, but, He is this Seal himself, (He is the Image of the invisible God; He is the brightness of his glory, and the express Image of his Person) It is not only his Commission that is sealed, but his Nature, He himself is sealed, (Him hath God the Father sealed) since, I say, natural Angels though they have sometimes this seal, they have it not always, they have not a Commission from God, to apply his mercies to man, by any ordinary and visible means, since the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus hath it, but hath it so, as that he is it too, the third sort of Angels, the Church-Angels, the Ministers of the Gospel, are they, who most properly can be said to have this Seal by a fixed and permanent possession, and a power to apply it to particular men, in all emergent necessities, according to the institution of that living God, whose seal it is.

Now the great power which is given by God, in giving this seal to these Angels, hath a lively representation (such as a shadow can give) in the history of Joseph. Pharaoh says to him, Thou shalt be over my house, and over all the land of Egypt, (steward of the Kings house, and steward of the Kingdom) And at thy word shall all my people be armed, (Constable and Marshal too) and to invest him in all these, and more, Pharaoh gave him his ring, his seal; not his seal only to those several patents to himself, but the keeping of that seal for the good of others; This temporal seal of Pharoh was a representation of the seal of the living God. But there is a more express type of it in Exodus: Thou shalt grave (says God to Moses) upon a plate of pure gold, as Signets are graved, Holiness to the Lord; and it shall be upon the forehead of Aaron; What to do? That the people may be accepted of him. There must be a holiness to the Lord, and that presented by Aaron the Priest to God, that the people may be acceptable to the Lord; So that this seal of the living God, in these Angels of our text, is, The Sacraments of the New Testament, and the Absolution of sins, by which (when Gods people come to a Holiness to the Lord, in a true repentance, and that that holiness, that is, that repentance, is made known to Aaron, to the Priest, and he presents it to the Lord) that Priest, his Minister seals to them, in those his Ordinances, Gods acceptation of this degree of holiness, he seals this Reconciliation between God and his people. And a contract of future concurrence, with his subsequent grace. This is the power given by God to this ascending Angel; and we extend that no farther, but hasten to his haste, his readiness to succor us; in which, we proposed for the first consideration, That this Angel of light manifested and discovered to us, who our enemies were: (He cried out to them who were ready to do mischief, with a loud voice) so that we might hear him, and know them.

Though in all Court-cases it be not good to take knowledge of enemies, (many times that is better forborne) yet in all cases, it is good to know them. Especially in our case in the Text, because our enemies intended here, are of themselves, Princes of darkness; They can multiply clouds, and disguisings, their kingdom is in the darkness, Sagittant in obscuro, They shoot in the dark, (I am wounded with a temptation, as with the plague, and I know not whence the arrow came) Collocavit me in obscuris, The enemy hath made my dwelling darkness, I have no window that lets in light, but then this Angel of light shews me who they are.

But then, if we were left to our selves, it were but a little advantage to know who our enemies were, when we knew those enemies to be Angels, persons so far above our resistance. For, but that S. Paul mollifies and eases it with a milder word, Est nobis colluctatio, That we wrestle with enemies, (that thereby we might see our danger is but to take a fall, not a deadly wound, if we look seriously to our work; we cannot avoid falling into sins of infirmity, but the death of habitual sin we may: Quare moriemini domus Israel? He does not say, why would ye fall? but why will ye die, ye house of Israel?) it were a consideration enough to make us desperate of victory, to hear him say, that this (though it be but a wrestling) is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high places. None of us hath got the victory over flesh and blood, and yet we have greater enemies then flesh and blood are. Some disciplines, some mortifications we have against flesh and blood; we have S. Pauls probatum est, his medicine, (if we will use it) Castigo corpus, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; for that we have some assistance; Even our enemies become our friends; poverty or sickness will fight for us against flesh and blood, against our carnal lusts; but for these powers and principalities, I know not where to watch them, how to encounter them. I pass my time sociably and merrily in cheerful conversation, in music, in feasting, in Comedies, in wantonness; and I never hear all this while of any power or principality, my Conscience spies no such enemy in all this. And then alone, between God and me at midnight, some beam of his grace shines out upon me, and by that light I see this Prince of darkness, and then I find that I have been the subject, the slave of these powers and principalities, when I thought not of them. Well, I see them, and I try then to dispossesse my self of them, and I make my recourse to the powerfullest exorcism that is, I turn to hearty and earnest prayer to God, and I fix my thoughts strongly (as I think) upon him, and before I have perfected one petition, one period of my prayer, a power and principality is got into me again. Spiritus soporis, The spirit of slumber closes mine eyes, and I pray drousily; Or spiritus vertiginis, the spirit of deviation, and vain repetition, and I pray giddily, and circularly, and return again and again to that I have said before, and perceive not that I do so; and nescio cujus spiritus sim, (as our Savior said, rebuking his Disciples, who were so vehement for the burning of the Samaritans, you know not of what spirit you are) I pray, and know not of what spirit I am, I consider not mine own purpose in prayer; And by this advantage, this door of inconsideration, enters spiritus erroris, The seducing spirit, the spirit of error, and I pray not only negligently, but erroniously, dangerously, for such things as disconduce to the glory of God, and my true happiness, if they were granted. Nay, even the Prophet Hosea's spiritus fornicationum, enters into me, The spirit of fornication, that is, some remembrance of the wantonness of my youth, some mis-interpretation of a word in my prayer, that may bear an ill sense, some unclean spirit, some power or principality hath depraved my prayer, and slackened my zeal. And this is my greatest misery of all, that when that which fights for me, and fights against me too, sickness, hath laid me upon my last bed, then in my weakest estate, these powers and principalities shall be in their full practise against me. And therefore it is one great advancement of thy deliverance, to be brought by this Angel, that is, by the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ, to know that thou hast Angels to thine enemies; And then another is to know their number, and so the strength of their confederacy; for, in the verse before the Text, they are expressed to be four, (I saw four Angels &c.)

Four legions of Angels, four millions, nay, four Creations of Angels could do no more harm, then is intended in these four; for, (as it is said in the former verse) They stood upon the four corners of the earth, they bestrid, they cantoned the whole world. Thou hast opposite Angels enow to batter thee every where, and to cut off and defeat all succours, all supplies, that thou canst procure, or propose to thy self; absolute enemies to one another will meet and join to thy ruin, and even presumption will induce desperation. We need not be so literal in this, as S. Jerome, (who indeed in that followed Origen) to think that there is a particular evil Angel over every sin; That because we find that mention of the spirit of error, and the spirit of slumber, and the spirit of fornication, we should therefore think that Christ meant by Mammon, a particular spirit of Covetousness, and that there be several princes over several sins. This needs not; when thou art tempted, never ask that Spirits name; his name is legio, for he is many. Take thy self at the largest, as thou art a world, there are four Angels at thy four corners; Let thy four corners be thy worldly profession, thy calling, and another thy bodily refection, thy eating, and drinking, and sleeping, and a third thy honest and allowable recreations, and a fourth thy religious service of God in this place, (which two last, that is, recreation, and religion, God hath been pleased to join together in the Sabbath, in which he intended his own glory in our service of him, and then the rest of the Creature too) let these four, thy calling, thy sleeping, thy recreation, thy religion be the four corners of thy world, and thou shalt find an Angel of temptation at every corner; even in thy sleep, even in this house of God thou hast met them. The Devil is no Recusant; he will come to Church, and he will lay his snares there; When that day comes, that the Sons of God present themselves before the Lord, Satan comes also among them. Not only so, as S. Augustin confesses he met him at Church, to carry wanton glances between men and women, but he is here, sometimes to work a mis-interpretation in the hearer, sometimes to work an affectation in the speaker, and many times doth more harm by a good Sermon then by a weak, by possessing the hearers with an admiration of the Preachers gifts, and neglecting Gods Ordinance. And then it is not only their natural power, as they are Angels, nor their united power, as they are many, nor their politique power, that in the midst of that confusion which is amongst them, yet they agree together to ruin us, but (as it follows in our text) it is potestas data, a particular power, which, besides their natural power, God, at this time, put into their hands; (He cried to the four Angels, to whom power was given to hurt) All other Angels had it not, nor had these four that power at all times, which, in our distribution at first we made a particular Consideration.

It was potestas data, a special Commission that laid Job open to Satans malice; It was potestas data, a special Commission, that laid the herd of swine open to the Devils tranportation: Much more, no doubt, have the particular Saints of God in the assistances of the Christian Church, (for Job had not that assistance, being not within the Covenant) and most of all hath the Church of God her self, an ability, in some measure, to defend it self against many machinations and practises of the Devil, if it were not for this Potestas data, That God, for his farther glory, in the trial of his Saints, and his Church, doth enable the Devil to raise whole armies of persecutors, whole swarms of heretics, to sting and wound the Church, beyond that ordinary power, which, the Devil in nature hath. That place, Curse not the King, no, not in thought, for that which hath wings shall tell the matter, is ordinarily understood of Angels; that Angels shall reveal disloyal thoughts; now, naturally Angels do not understand thoughts; but, in such cases, there is Potestas data, a particular power given them to do it; and so to evil Angels, for the accomplishment of Gods purposes, there is Potestas data, a new power given, a new Commission, (that is beyond permission; for, though by Gods permission mine eye see, and mine ear hear, yet my hand could not see nor hear by Gods permission; for permission is but the leaving of a thing to the doing of that, which by nature, (if there be no hindrance interposed) it could, and would do.)

This comfort then, and this hope of deliverance hast thou here, that this Angel in our text, that is, the Ministry of the Gospel, tells thee, that that rage which the Devil uses against thee now, is but Potestas data, a temporary power given him for the present; for, if thy afflictions were altogether from the natural malice and power of the Devil, inherent in him, that malice would never end, nor thy affliction neither, if God should leave all to him. And therefore though those our afflictions be heavier, which proceed ex potestate data, when God exalts that power of the Devil, which naturally he hath, with new Commissions, besides his Permission to use his natural strength, and natural malice, yet our deliverance is the nearer too, because all these accessory and occasional Commissions are for particular ends, and are limited, how far they shall extend, how long they shall endure. Here, the potestas data, the power which was given to these Angels was large, it was general, for, (as it is in the former verse) it was a power to hold the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. What this withholding of the wind signifies, and the damnification of that, is our next Consideration.

By the Land, is commonly understood all the Inhabitants of the Land; by the Sea Ilanders, and Sea-faring men, half inhabitants of the Sea; and by the Trees, all those whom Persecution had driven away, and planted in the wilderness. The hinderance of the use of the wind, being taken by our Expositors to be a general impediment of the increase of the earth, and of commerce at Sea. But this Book of the Revelation must not be so literally understood, as that the Winds here should signify merely natural winds; there is more in this then so; Thus much more, That this withholding of the winds, is a withholding of the preaching and passage of the Gospel; which is the heaviest misery that can fall upon a Nation, or upon a man, because thereby, by the misery of not hearing, he loses all light, and means of discerning his own misery. Now as all the parts, and the style and phrase of this Book is figurative and Metaphorical, so is it no unusual Metaphor, even in other Books of the Scripture too, to call the Ministers, and Preachers of Gods Word, by the name of winds. Arise O North, and come O South, and blow on my Garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, hath always been understood to be an invitation, a compellation from Christ to his Ministers, to dispense and convey salvation, by his Gospel, to all Nations. And upon those words, Producit ventos, He bringeth winds out of his treasuries, and Educit nubes, He bringeth clouds from the ends of the earth, Puto Praedicatores & nubes & ventos, says S. Augustine, I think that the holy Ghost means both by his clouds, and by his winds, the Preachers of his Word, the Ministers of the Gospel; Nubes propter carnem, ventos propter spiritum, Clouds because their bodies are seen, winds because their working is felt; Nubes cernuntur, venti sentiuntur; as clouds they embrace the whole visible Church, and are visible to it; as winds they pierce into the invisible Church, the souls of the true Saints of God, and work, though invisibly, upon them. So also those words, God rode upon a Cherub, and did fly, He did fly upon the wings of the wind, have been well interpreted of Gods being pleased to be carryed from Nation to Nation, by the service of his Ministers.

Now this is the nature of this wind, (of the Spirit of God breathing in his Ministers) Spirat ubi vult, that it blows where it lists; and this is the malice of these evil Angels, that it shall not do so. But this Angel, which hath the seal of the living God, that is, the Ministry of the Gospel established by him, shall keep the winds at their liberty; And howsoever waking dreamers think of alterations and tolerations, howsoever men that disguise their expectations with an outward conformity to us, may think the time of declaring themselves grows on apace; howsoever the slumbering of capital laws, and reasonof State may suffer such mistakers to flatter themselves, yet God hath made this Angel of the East, this Gospel of his to ascend so far now, and to take so deep root, as that now this one Angel is strong enough for the other four, that is, The sincere preaching of the Gospel, in our settled and well disciplined Church, shall prevail against those four pestilent opposites, Atheists, and Papists, and Sectaries, and Carnal indifferent men, who all would hinder the blowing of this wind, the effect of this Gospel. And to this purpose our Angel in the Text is said to have cried with a loud voice, (He cried with a loud voice to the four Angels.)

For our security therefore that this wind shall blow still, that this preaching of the Gospel which we enjoy shall be transferred upon our posterity in the same sincerity, and the same integrity, there is required an assiduity, and an earnestness in us, who are in that service now, in which this Angel was then, in our preaching. Clamavit, our Angel cried, (it was his first act, nothing must retard our preaching) and voce magna, he cried with a loud voice; (he gave not over with one calling) What is this crying aloud in our Angel? Vocis modum, audientium necessitas definit; The voice must be so loud, as they, to whom we speak, are quick or thick of hearing. Submissa, quae ad susurrum propriè accedit, damnanda. A whispering voice was not the voice of this Angel, nor must it be of those Angels that are figured in him; for that is the voice of a Conventicle, not a Church voice. That is a loud voice that is heard by them whom it concerns. So the catechizing of children, though in a familiar manner, is a loud voice, though it be not a Sermon: So writing in defence of our Religion, is a loud voice, though in the mean time a man intermit his preaching: So the speaking by another, when sickness or other services withhold him that should, and would speak, is a loud voice even from him.

And therefore though there be no evident, no imminent danger of withholding these winds, of inhibiting or scanting the liberty of the Gospel, yet because it is wished by too many, and because we can imagine no punishment too great for our neglecting the Gospel, it becomes us, the Ministers of God, by all these loud voices, of catechizing, of preaching, of writing, to cry, and to cry, (though not with vociferations, or seditious jealousies and suspicions of the present government) yet to cry so loud, so assiduously, so earnestly, as all whom it concerns (and it concerns all) may hear it: Hurt not the earth, withhold not the winds, be you no occasions, by your neglecting the Gospel of Christ Jesus, that he suffer it to be removed from you; and know withal, that you do neglect this Gospel, (how often soever you hear it preached) if you do not practice it. Nor is that a sufficient practice of hearing, to desire to hear more, except thy hearing bring thee to leave thy sins; without that, at the last day thou shalt meet thy Sermons amongst thy sins; And when Christ Jesus shall charge thee with false weights and measures in thy shop all the week, with prevarication in judgement, with extortion in thy practice, and in thine office, he shall add to that, And besides this, thou wast at Church twice that Sunday; when he shall have told thee, Thou didst not feed me, thou didst not clothe me, he shall aggravate all with that, Yet thou heardst two Sermons that Sunday, besides thine interlineary week Lectures. The means to keep this wind awake, (to continue the liberty of the Gospel) is this loud voice, (assiduous and pertinent preaching) but Sermons unpractised are threepiled sins, and God shall turn, as their prayers, so their preaching into sin. For this injunction, this inhibition which this Angel serves upon the four Angels, That they should not hurt the world by withholding the winds, that is, not hinder the propagation & passage of the Gospel, was not perpetual; it was limited with a Donec, Till something were done in the behalf and favor of the world, and that was, Till the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads, which is our last Consideration.

The servants of God being sealed in their foreheads in the Sacrament of Baptism, when they are received into the care of the Church, all those means which God hath provided for his servants, in his Church, to refist afflictions and temptations, are intended to be conferred upon them in that seal; This sealing of them is a communicating to them all those assistances of the Christian Church: Then they have a way of prevention of sin, by hearing; a way to Absolution, by Confession; a way to Reconciliation, by a worthy receiving the body and blood of Christ Jesus: And these helps of the Christian Church, thus conferred in Baptism, keep open still, (if these be rightly used) that other seal, the seal of the Spirit; After ye heard the Gospel, and believed, ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise: and so also, God hath anointed us, and sealed us, and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts. So that besides the seal in the forehead, which is an interest and title to all the assistances and benefits of the Church, public prayer, preaching, Sacraments and sacramental helps, there is a seal of the Spirit of God, that that Spirit bears witness with my spirit, that I perform the conditions passed between God and me, under the first seal, my Baptism. But because this second seal, (the obsignation and testification of the inward Spirit) depends upon the good use of the first seal, (the participation of the helps of the Church, given me in Baptism) therefore the Donec in our Text, (Hurt them not till they be sealed) reaches but to to the first seal, the seal of Baptism, and in that, of all Gods ordinary graces, ordinarily exhibited in his Ordinances.

So then, this Angel takes care of us, till he have delivered us over to the sweet and powerful helps of that Church, which God hath purchased with his blood; when he hath placed us there, he looks that we should do something for our selves, which, before we were there, and made partakers of Gods graces in his Church by Baptism, we could not do; for in this, this Angels Commission determines, That we be sealed in the fore-heads, That we be taken from the Common, into Gods enclosures, impayled in his Park, received into his Church, where our salvation depends upon the good use of those means. Use therefore those means well; and put not God to save thee by a miracle, without means. Trust not to an irresistible grace, that at one time or other God will have thee, whether thou wilt or no. Tolle voluntatem, & non est infernus; If thou couldst quench thine own will, thou hadst quenched hell; If thou couldst be content, willing to be in hell, hell were not hell. So, if God save a man against his will, heaven is not heaven; If he be loath to come thither, sorry that he shall be there, he hath not the joy of heaven, and then heaven is not heaven. Put not God to save thee by miracle; God can save an Image by miracle; by miracle he can make an Image a man; If man can make God of bread, certainly God can make a man of an Image, and so save him; but God hath made thee his own Image, and afforded thee means of salvation: Use them. God compels no man. The Master of the feast invited many; solemnly, before hand; they came not: He sent his servants to call in the poor, upon the sudden; and they came; so he receives late commers. And there is a Compelle intrare, He sends a servant to compell some to come in. But that was but a servants work, The Master only invited; he compelled none. We the servants of God, have certain compulsories, to bring men hither; The denouncing of Gods Judgements, the censures of the Church, Excommunications, and the rest, are compulsories. The State hath compulsories too, in the penal Laws. But all this is but to bring them into the house, to Church; Compelle intrare. We can compell them to come to the first seal, to Baptism; we can compell men, to bring their children to that Sacrament; But to salvation, only the Master brings; and (in that Parable) the Master does only invite; he compells none: Though his corrections may seem to be compulsories, yet even his corrections are sweet invitations; His corrections are so far from compelling men to come to heaven, as that they put many men farther out of their way, and work an obduration, rather then an obsequiousness.

With those therefore that neglect the means, that he hath brought them to, in sealing them in the fore-head, this Angel hath no more to do, but gives them over to the power of the four destroying Angels. With those that attend those meanns, he proceeds; and, in their behalf, his Donec, (Spare them till I have sealed them) becomes the blessed Virgins Donec, she was a Virgin till she had her Child, and a Virgin after too; And it becomes our blessed Saviours Donec, He sits at his Fathers right hand, till his enemies be made his foot-stool, and after too; So these destroying Angels, that had no power over them till they were sealed, shall have no power over them after they are sealed, but they shall pass from seal to seal; after that seal on the fore-head, Ne erubeseant Euangelium, (We sign him with the sign of the Cross, in token, that hereafter he shall not be ashamed, to confess the faith of Christ Crucified) He shall come also to those seals, which our Savior recommends to his Spouse, Set me as a seal on thy heart, and as a seal on thine arm; S. Ambrose collects them, and connects them together, Signaculum Christi in corde, ut diligamus, in front, ut confiteamur, in brachio, ut operemur; God seals us in the heart, that we might love him, and in the fore-head, that we might profess it, and in the hand, that we might declare and practise it; and then the whole purpose of this blessed Angel in our Text, is perfected in us, and we our selves are made partakers of the solemnity of this day, which we celebrate, for we our selves enter in the Communion of Saints, by these three seals, Of Belief, Of Profession, Of Works and Practise.

Serm. XLVI. Preached at S. Pauls, The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL. 1624.

ACTS 9.4.

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

LEt us now praise famous Men, and our Fathers that begat us, (says the Wiseman) that is, that assisted our second generation, our spiritual Regeneration; Let us praise them, commemorate them. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them, through his power from the beginning, says he there, that is, It hath always been the Lords way to glorify himself in the conversion of Men, by the ministry of Men. For he adds, They were leaders of the people by their counsel, and by their knowledge and learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent men in their instructions; and that is, That God who gives these gifts for this purpose, looks for the employment of these gifts, to the edification of others, to his glory. There be of them, that have left a name behind them. (as it is also added in that place) that is, That though God can amply reward his servants in the next world, yet he does it sometimes in this world; and, though not with temporal happinesses, in their life, yet with honor, and commemorations, and celebrations of them, after they are gone out of this life, they leave a name behind them. And amongst them, in a high place, shines our blessed and glorious Apostle S. Paul, whose Conversion the Church celebrates now, and for the celebration thereof, hath appointed this part of Scripture from whence this text arises, to be the Epistle of the Day, And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persccutest thou me?

There are words in the text, that will reach to all the Story of S. Pauls Conversion, embrace all, involve and enwrap all; we must contract them; into less then three parts, we cannot well; those will be these; first, The Person, Saul, He, He fell to the earth; and then, his humiliation, his exinanition of himself, his devesting, putting off of himself, He fell to the earth; and lastly, his investing of Christ, his putting on of Christ, his rising again by the power of a new inanimation, a new soul breathed into him from Christ, He heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, a re-distribution, a sub-division of these parts, into their branches, we shall present to you anon, more opportunely, as we shall come in due order to the handling of the parts themselves. In the first, the branches will be but these; Sauls indisposition when Christ took him in hand, and Christs work upon him; what he found him, what he left him, will determine our first part, The person.

First then, what he was at that time, the Holy Ghost gives evidence enough against him, and he gives enough against himself. Of that which the Holy Ghost gives, you may see a great many heavy pieces, a great many applicable circumstances, if at any time, at home, you do but paraphrase, and spread to your selves the former part of this Chapter, to this text. Take a little preparation from me; Adhuc spirans, says the first verse, Saul yet breathing threatnings and slaughter, Then when he was in the height of his fury, Christ laid hold upon him. It was, for the most part, Christs method of curing. Then when the Sea was in a tempestuous rage, when the waters covered the ship, and the storm shook even that which could remove mountains, the faith of the Disciples, then Christ rebukes the wind, and commands a calm. Then when the Sun was gone out to run his race as a Giant, (as David speaks) then God by the mouth of another, of Ioshuah, bids the Sun stand still. Then when that unclean spirit foamed, and fumed, and tore, and rent the possessed persons, then Christ commanded them to go out. Let the fever alone, say our Physicians, till some fits be passed, and then we shall see farther, and discern better. The note is S. Chrysostomes, and he applies it to Christs proceeding with Saul; Non expectavit ut fatigatus debacchando mansuesceret, says he, Christ staid not till Saul being made drunk with blood, were cast into a slumber, as satisfied with the blood of Christians; Sed in media insania superavit, but in the midst of his fit, he gave him physic, in the midst of his madness, he reclaims him. So is it also part of the evidence that the Holy Ghost gives against him, Quod petiit Epistolas, that he sued to the State for a Commission to persecute Christians. When the State will put men to some kind of necessity of concurring to the endamaging or endangering of the cause of Christ, and will be displeased with them, if they do not, men make to themselves, and to their consciences some faint color of excuse: But when they themselves set actions on foot, which are not required at their hands, where is their evasion? Then when Saul sued out this Commission, That if he found any of that way, (that is, Christians) (for he had so scattered them before, that he was not sure to find any, They did not appear in any whole body, dangerous, or suspicious to the State) but, If he found any, Any man or woman, That he might have the Power of the State, so as that he need not fear men, That he might have the impartiality, and the inflexibility of the State, so as that he need not pity women, Then when his glory was to bring them bound to Jerusalem, that he might magnify his triumph and greatness in the eye of the world, Then, then says Christ, to this tempest, Be calm, to this unclean spirit, Come out, to this Sun, in his own estimation, Go no farther.

Thus much evidence the Holy Ghost gives against him; and thus much more himself, I persecuted this way unto the death; I bound and delivered into prison, both men and women; And after, more then this, I punished them, and that oft, and, in every Synagogue, and, compelled them to blaspheme, and, was exceedingly mad against them, and persecuted them even unto strange Cities. What could he say more against himself? And then, says Christ, to this tempest, Quiesce, Be still, to this glaring Sun, Siste, stand still, to this unclean spirit, Veni foras, come forth. In this sense especially doth S. Paul call himself Abertivum, a person born out of season, That whereas Christs other Disciples and Apostles, had a breeding under him, and came first ad Discipulatum, and then ad Apostolatum, first to be Disciples, and after to be Apostles; S. Paul was born a man, an Apostle, not carved out, as the rest in time; but a fusil Apostle, an Apostle poured out, and cast in a Mold; As Adam was a perfect man in an instant, so was S. Paul an Apostle, as soon as Christ took him in hand.

Now, Beloved, wilt thou make this perverse use of this proceeding, God is rich in Mercy, Therefore I cannot miss Mercy? Wouldst thou say, and not be thought mad for saying so, God hath created a West Indies, therefore I cannot want Gold? Wilt thou be so ill a Logician to thy self, and to thine own damnation, as to conclude so, God is always the same in himself, therefore he must be always the same to me? So ill a Musician as to say, God is all Concord, therefore He and I can never disagree? So ill a Historian as to say, God hath called Saul, a Persecutor, then when he breathed threatnings and slaughter, then when he sued to the State for a Commission to persecute Christ, God hath called a theife, then when he was at the last gasp; And therefore if he have a mind to me, he will deal so with me too, and, if he have no such mind, no man can imprint, or infuse a new mind in God? God forbid. It is not safe concluding out of single Instances. It is true, that if a sour, and heavy, and severe man, will add to the discomforts of a disconsolate soul, and in that souls sadness, and dejection of spirit, will heap up examples, that God hath still suffered high-minded sinners to proceed and to perish in their irreligious ways, and tell that poor soul, (as Job's company did him) It is true, you take God aright, God never pardons such as you, in these cases, these singular, these individual examples, That God hath done otherwise once, have their use. One instance to the contrary destroys any peremptory Rule, no man must say, God never doth it; He did it to Saul here, He did it to the Theife upon the Cross. But to that presumptuous sinner, who sins on, because God showed mercy to One at last, we must say, a miserable Comforter is that Rule, that affords but one example. Nay, is there one example? The Conversion of Saul a Persecutor, and of the Theife upon the Cross, is become Proverbium peccatorum, The sinners proverb, and serves him, and satisfies him in all cases. But is there any such thing? Such a story there is, and it is as true as Gospel, it is the truth of Gospel it self; But was this a late Repentance? Answer S. Cyril, Rogo te frater, Tell me, Beloved, Thou that deferrest thy Repentance, doest thou do it upon confidence of these examples? Non in fine, sed in principio conversus latro; Thou deludest thine own soul; The Theife was not converted at last, but at first; As soon as God afforded him any Call, he came; And at how many lights hast thou winked? And to how many Calls hast thou stopped thine ears, that deferrest thy repentance? Christ said to him, Hody mecum eris, This day thou shalt be with me in paradise; when thou canst find such another day, look for such another mercy; A day that cleft the grave-stones of dead men; A day that cleft the Temple it self; A day that the Sun durst not see; A day that saw the soul of God (may we not say so, since that Man was God too) depart from Man; There shall be no more such days; and therefore presume not of that voice, Hody, This day thou shalt be with me, if thou make thy last minute that day, though Christ, to magnify his mercy, and his glory, and to take away all occasion of absolute desperation, did here, under so many disadvantages call, and draw S. Paul to him.

But we say no more of that, of the danger of sinning by precedent, and presuming of mercy by example; we pass from our first Consideration, From what, to the other, To what, Christ brought this persecutor, this Saul. He brought him to that remarkable height, as that the Church celebrates the Conversion of no man but this. Many bloody Executioners were converted to Christ, even in the act of that bloody Execution; Then when they took a delight in tearing the bowels of Christians, they were received into the bowels of Christ Jesus, and became Christians. Man that road to Market, and saw an Execution upon the way; Men that opened a window to take air, and saw an Execution in the street; The Ecclesiastical Story abounds with examples of occasional Convertits, and upon strange occasions; but yet the Church celebrates no Conversion, but this. The Church doth not consider the Martyrs as born till they die; till the world see how they persevered to the end, she takes no knowledge of them; Therefore she calls the days of their deaths, Natalitia, their birth-days; Then she makes account they are born, when they die. But of S. Paul the Church makes her self assured the first minute; and therefore celebrates his Conversion, and none but his. Here was a true Transubstantiation, and a new Sacrament. These few words, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me, are words of Consecration; After these words, Saul was no longer Saul, but he was Christ: Vivit in me Christus, says he, It is not I that live, not I that do any thing, but Christ in me. It is but a little way that S. Chrysostom goes, when he speaks of an inferior Transubstantiation, of a change of affections, and says Agnus ex Lupo, that here is another manner of Lycanthropy, then when a man is made a Wolf; for here a Wolf is made a Lambe, Ex lupo Agnus. Ex vepribus racemus, says that Father, A bramble is made a vine; Ex zizaniis frumentum, Cockle and tares become wheat; Ex pirata gubernator, A Pirat becomes a safe Pilot; Ex novissimo primus, The lees are come to swim on the top, and the last is grown first; and ex abortivo perfectus, He that was born out of time, hath not only the perfection, but the excellency of all his lineaments. S. Chrysostom goes farther then this, Ex blasphemo, Os Christi, & lyraspiritus, He that was the mouth of blasphemy, is become the mouth of Christ, He that was the instrument of Satan, is now the organ of the Holy Ghost. He goes very far, when he says, In Coelis homo, in terris Angelus, Being yet but upon earth, he is an Angel, and being yet but a man, he is already in Heaven. Yet S. Paul was another manner of Sacrament, and had another manner of Transubstantiation, then all this; As he was made Idem spiritus cum Domino, The same spirit with the Lord, so in his very body, he had Stigmata, the very marks of the Lord Jesus. From such a lowness, raised to such a height, as that Origen says, many did believe, that S. Paul had been that Holy Ghost, which Christ had promised to the world, after his departing from it.

It is but a little way that S. Jerome hath carried his commendation neither, when he calls him Rugitum leonis, The roaring of a Lion, if we consider in how little a forest the roaring of a Lion is determined; but that he calls him Rugitum Leonis nostri, The roaring of our Lion, of the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda, That as far as Christ is heard, S. Paul is heard too; Quem quoties lego, non verba mihi videor audire, sed tonitrua, Wheresoever I open S. Pauls Epistles, I meet not words, but thunder, and universal thunder, thunder that passes through all the world. For, Ejus excaecatio totius or bis illuminatio, That that was done upon him, wrought upon all the world; he was struck blind, and all the world saw the better for that. So universal a Priest, (says S. Chrysostom, who loves to be speaking of S. Paul) as that he sacrificed, not sheep and goats, sed seipsum, but himself; and not only that, sed totum mundum, He prepared the whole world, as a sacrifice to God. He built an Ark, that is, established a Church; and to this day, receives, not eight, but all into that Ark: And whereas in Noahs Ark, Quem corvum recepit, corvum emisit, If he came in a Raven, he went out a Raven; S. Paul, in his Ark, Ex milvis facit columbas, as himself was, so he transubstantiates all them, and makes them Doves of Ravens. Nay, so overabsolutely did he sacrifice himself, and his state in this world, for this world, as that he sacrificed his reversion, his future state, the glory and joy of heaven, for his brethren, and chose rather to be Anathema, separated from Christ, then they should. I love thee, says S. Chrysostom to Rome, for many excellencies, many greatnesses; But I love thee so well, says he, therefore because S. Paul loved thee so well. Qualem Rosam Roma Christo, (as he pursues this contemplation) What a fragrant rose shall Rome present Christ with, when he comes to Judgement, in re-delivering to him the body of S. Paul? And though he join them both together, Iugati boves Ecclesiae, That S. Peter and S. Paul were that yoke of oxen that ploughed the whole Church, Though he say of both, Quot carceres sanctificastis? How many Prisons have you two consecrated, and made Prisons Churches? Quot catenas illustrastis? How many fetters and chains of iron have you two changed into chains of gold? Yet we may observe a difference in S. Chrysostomes expressing of persons so equal to one another, Quid Petro majus? says he, But, Quid Paulo par fuit? What can exceed Peter, or what can equal Paul? Still be all this far from occasioning any man to presume upon God, because he afforded so abundant mercy to a Persecuter: but still from this, let every faint soul establish it self in a confidence in God; God that would find nothing to except, nothing to quarrel at, in S. Paul, will not lie heavy upon thy soul, though thou must say, as he did, Quorum ego maximus, That thou art a greater sinner then thou knowest any other man to be.

We are, in our order proposed at first, devolved now to our second Part; from the person, and in that, what he was found, A vehement persecuter, And then, what he was made, A laborious Apostle, To the Manner, to his Humiliation, Cecidit super terram, He fell, and he fell to the ground, and he fell blind, as by the history, and context appears. We use to call every declination, of any kind, and in any subject, a falling; for, for our bodies, we say a man is fallen sick, And for his state, fallen poor, And for his mind, fallen mad, And for his conscience, fallen desperate; we are born low, and yet we fall every way lower, so universal is our falling sickness. Sin it self is but a falling; The irremediable sin of the Angels, The undeterminable sin of Adam, is called but so, The fall of Adam, The fall of Angels. And therefore the effectual visitation of the holy Ghost to man, is called a falling too; we are fallen so low, as that when the holy Ghost is pleased to fetch us again, and to infuse his grace, he is still said to fall upon us. But the fall which we consider in the Text, is not a figurative falling, not into a decay of estate, nor decay of health, nor a spiritual falling into sin, a decay of grace; but it is a medicinal falling, a falling under Gods hand, but such a falling under his hand, as that he takes not off his hand from him that is fallen, but throws him down therefore that he may raise him. To this posture he brings Paul, now, when he was to re-inanimate him with his spirit; rather, to pre-inanimate him; for, indeed, no man hath a soul till he have grace.

Christ, who in his humane nature hath received from the Father all Judgement, and power, and dominion over this world, hath received all this, upon that condition that he shall govern in this manner, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, says the Father; How is he to use them, when he hath them? Thus, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel. Now, God meant well to the Nations, in this bruising and breaking of them; God intended not an annihilation of the Nations, but a reformarion; for Christ asks the Nations for an Inheritance, not for a triumph; therefore it is intended of his way of governing them; and his way is to bruise and beat them; that is, first to cast them down, before he can raise them up, first to break them before he can make them in his fashion. Novit Dominus vulnerare ad amorem; The Lord, and only the Lord knows how to wound us, out of love; more then that, how to wound us into love; more then all that, to wound us into love, not only with him that wounds us, but into love with the wound it self, with the very affliction that he inflicts upon us; The Lord knows how to strike us so, as that we shall lay hold upon that hand that strikes us, and kiss that hand that wounds us. Ad vitam interficit, ad exaltationem prosternit, says the same Father; No man kills his enemy therefore, that his enemy might have a better life in heaven; that is not his end in killing him: It is Gods end; Therefore he brings us to death, that by that gate he might lead us into life everlasting; And he hath not discovered, but made that Northern passage, to pass by the frozen Sea of calamity, and tribulation, to Paradise, to the heavenly Jerusalem. There are fruits that ripen not, but by frost; There are natures, (there are scarce any other) that dispose not themselves to God, but by affliction. And as Nature looks for the season for ripening, and does not all before, so Grace looks for the assent of the soul, and does not perfect the whole work, till that come. It is Nature that brings the season, and it is Grace that brings the assent; but till the season for the fruit, till the assent of the soul come, all is not done.

Therefore God begun in this way with Saul, and in this way he led him all his life. Tot pertulit mortes, quot vixit dies, He died as many deaths, as he lived days; for so himself says, Quotidy morior, I die daily; God gave him suck in blood, and his own blood was his daily drink; He catechized him with calamities at first, and calamities were his daily Sermons, and meditations after; and to authorize the hands of others upon him, and to accustom him to submit himself to the hands of others without murmuring, Christ himself strikes the first blow, and with that, Cecidit, he fell, (which was our first consideration, in his humiliation) and then, Cecidit in terram, He fell to the ground, which is our next.

I take no farther occasion from this Circumstance, but to arm you with consolation, how low soever God be pleased to cast you, Though it be to the earth, yet he does not so much cast you down, in doing that, as bring you home. Death is not a banishing of you out of this world; but it is a visitation of your kindred that lie in the earth; neither are any nearer of kin to you, then the earth it self, and the worms of the earth. You heap earth upon your souls, and encumber them with more and more flesh, by a superfluous and luxuriant diet; You add earth to earth in new purchases, and measure not by Acres, but by Manors, nor by Manors, but by Shires; And there is a little Quillet, a little Close, worth all these, A quiet Grave. And therefore, when thou readest, That God makes thy bed in thy sickness, rejoice in this, not only that he makes that bed, where thou dost lie, but that bed where thou shalt lie; That that God, that made the whole earth, is now making thy bed in the earth, a quiet grave, where thou shalt sleep in peace, till the Angels Trumpet wake thee at the Resurrection, to that Judgement where thy peace shall be made before thou commest, and writ, and sealed, in the blood of the Lamb.

Saul falls to the earth; So far; But he falls no lower. God brings his servants to a great lowness here; but he brings upon no man a perverse sense, or a distrustful suspicion of falling lower hereafter; His hand strikes us to the earth, by way of humiliation; But it is not his hand, that strikes us into hell, by way of desperation. Will you tell me, that you have observed and studied Gods way upon you all your life, and out of that can conclude what God means to do with you after this life? That God took away your Parents in your infancy, and left you Orphanes then, That he hath crossed you in all your labours in your calling, ever since, That he hath opened you to dishonors, and calumnies, and mis-interpretations, in things well intended by you, That he hath multiplied ficknesses upon you, and given you thereby an assurance of a miserable, and a short life, of few, and evil days, nay, That he hath suffered you to fall into sins, that you your selves have hated, To continue in sins, that you your selves have been weary of, To relapse into sins, that you your selves have repented; And will you conclude out of this, that God had no good purpose upon you, that if ever he had meant to do you good, he would never have gone thus far, in heaping of evils upon you? Upon what doest thou ground this? upon thy self? Because thou shouldest not deal thus with any man, whom thou mean'st well to? How poor, how narrow, how impious a measure of God, is this, that he must do, as thou wouldst do, if thou wert God! God hath not made a week without a Sabbath; no temptation, without an issue; God inflicts no calamity, no cloud, no eclipse, without light, to see ease in it, if the patient will look upon that which God hath done to him, in other cases, or to that which God hath done to others, at other times. Saul fell to the ground, but he fell no lower; God brings us to humiliation, but not to desperation.

He fell; he fell to the ground, And he fell blind; for so it is evident in the story. Christ had said to the Pharisees, I came into the world, that they which see, might be made blind; And the Pharisees ask him, Have you been able to do so upon us? Are we blind? Here Christ gives them an example; a real, a literal, an actual example; Saul, a Pharisee, is made blind. He that will fill a vessel with wine, must take out the water; He that will fill a covetous mans hand with gold, must take out the silver that was there before, says S. Chrysostom. Christ, who is about to infuse new light into Saul, withdraws that light that was in him before; That light, by which Saul thought he saw all before, and thought himself a competent Judge, which was the only true Religion, and that all others were to be persecuted, even to death, that were not of his way. Stultus factus est omnis homo à scientia, says God in the Prophet, Every man that trusts in his own wit, is a fool. But let him become a fool, that he may be wise, says the Apostle; Let him be so, in his own eyes, and God will give him better eyes, better light, better understanding. Saul was struck blind, but it was a blindness contracted from light; It was a light that struck him blind, as you see in his story. This blindness which we speak of, which is a sober and temperate abstinence from the immoderate study, and curious knowledges of this world, this holy simplicity of the soul, is not a darkness, a dimness, a stupidity in the understanding, contracted by living in a corner, it is not an idle retiring into a Monastery, or into a Village, or a Country solitude, it is not a lazy affectation of ignorance; not darkness, but a greater light, must make us blind.

The sight, and the Contemplation of God, and our present benefits by him, and our future interest in him, must make us blind to the world so, as that we look upon no face, no pleasure, no knowledge, with such an Affection, such an Ambition, such a Devotion, as upon God, and the ways to him. Saul had such a blindness, as came from light; we must affect no other simplicity, then arises from the knowledge of God, and his Religion. And then, Saul had such a blindness, as that he fell with it. There are birds, that when their eyes are cieled, still soar up, and up, till they have spent all their strength. Men blinded with the lights of this world, soar still into higher places, or higher knowledges, or higher opinions; but the light of heaven humbles us, and lays flat that soul, which the leaven of this world had puffed and swelled up. That powerful light felled Saul; but after he was fallen, his own sight was restored to him again; Ananias says to him, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. To those men, who employ their natural faculties to the glory of God, and their own, and others edification, God shall afford an exaltation of those natural faculties; In those, who use their learning, or their wealth, or their power, well, God shall increase that power, and that wealth, and that learning, even in this world.

You have seen Sauls sickness, and the exaltation of the disease, Then when he breathed threatnings, and slaughter, Then when he went in his triumph; And you have seen his death, The death of the righteous, His humiliation, He fell to the earth; And there remains yet his Resurrection; The Angel of the great Counsel, Christ Jesus, with the Trumpet of his own mouth, raises him, with that, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

First, he affords him a call, A voice. Saul could not see; Therefore he deals not upon him by visions. He gives a voice; and a voice that he might hear; God speaks often, when we do not hear; He heard it, and heard it saying; Not a voice only, but a distinct, and intelligible voice; and saying unto him, that is, applicable to himself; and then, that that the voice said to him, was, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? We are unequal enemies, Thou seest I am too hard for thee, Curtu me? why wilt thou, thou in this weakness oppose me? And then, we might be good friends, Thou seest I offer parly, I offer treaty, Cur tu me? Why wilt thou oppose me, me that declare such a disposition to be reconciled unto thee? In this so great a disadvantage on thy part, why wilt thou stir at all? In this so great a peaceableness on my part, why wilt thou stir against me? Cur tu me? Why persecutest thou me?

First then, God speaks: For, beloved, we are to consider God, not as he is in himself, but as he works upon us: The first thing that we can consider in our way to God, is his Word. Our Regeneration is by his Word; that is, by faith, which comes by hearing; The seed is the word of God, says Christ himself; Even the seed of faith. Carry it higher, the Creation was by the word of God; Dixit, & facta sunt, God spoke, and all things were made. Carry it to the highest of all, to Eternity, the eternal Generation, the eternal Production, the eternal Procession of the second Person in the Trinity, was so much by the Word, as that he is the Word; Verbum caro, It was that Word, that was made Flesh. So that God, who cannot enter into bands to us, hath given us security enough; He hath given us his Word; His written Word, his Scriptures; His Essential Word, his Son. Our Principal, and Radical, and Fundamental security, is his Essential Word, his Son Christ Jesus. But how many millions of generations was this Word in heaven, and never spoke? The Word, Christ himself, hath been as long as God hath been: But the uttering of this Word, speaking hath been but since the Creation. Peter says to Christ, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. It is not only, Thou art the word of eternal life; (Christ is so) But thou hast it; Thou hast it, where we may come to thee for it; In thy Treasury, in thine Ordinance, in thy Church; Thou hast it, to derive it, to convey it upon us. Here then is the first step of Sauls cure, and of ours, That there was not only a word, the Word, Christ himself, a Son of God in heaven, but a Voice, the word uttered, and preached; Christ manifested in his Ordinance: He heard a voice.

He heard it. How often does God speak, and no body hears the voice? He speaks in his Canon, in Thunder, and he speaks in our Canon, in the rumor of wars. He speaks in his music, in the harmonious promises of the Gospel, and in our music, in the temporal blessings of peace, and plenty; And we hear a noise in his Judgements, and we hear a sound in his mercies; but we hear no voice, we do not discern that this noise, or this sound comes from any certain person; we do not feel them to be mercies, nor to be judgements uttered from God, but natural accidents, casual occurrencies, emergent contingencies, which as an Atheist might think, would fall out though there were no God, or no commerce, no dealing, no speaking between God and Man. Though Saul came not instantly to a perfect discerning who spoke, yet he saw instantly, it was a Person above nature, and therefore speaks to him in that phrase of submission, Quis es Domine? Lord who art thou? And after, with trembling and astonishment, (as the Text says) Domine quid me vis facere? Lord what wilt thou have me to do? Then we are truliest said to hear, when we know from whence the voice comes. Princes are Gods Trumpet, and the Church is Gods Organ, but Christ Jesus is his voice. When he speaks in the Prince, when he speaks in the Church, there we are bound to hear, and happy if we do hear. Man hath a natural way to come to God, by the eye, by the creature; So Visible things show the Invisible God: But then, God hath super-induced a supernatural way, by the ear. For, though hearing be natural, yet that faith in God should come by hearing a man preach, is supernatural. God shut up the natural way, in Saul, Seeing; He struck him blind; But he opened the super-natural way, he enabled him to hear, and to hear him. God would have us beholden to grace, and not to nature, and to come for our salvation, to his Ordinances, to the preaching of his Word, and not to any other means. Though he were blind, even that blindness, as it was a humiliation, and a diverting of his former glaring lights, was a degree of mercy, of preparative mercy; yet there was a voice, which was another degree; And a voice that he heard, which was a degree above that; and so far we are gone; And he heard it, saying, that is distinctly, and intelligibly, which is our next Circumstance.

He hears him saying, that is, He hears him so, as that he knows what he says, so, as that he understands him; for, he that hears the word, and understands it not, is subject to that which Christ says, That the wicked one comes, and catches away that that was sown. S. Augustine puts himself earnestly upon the contemplation of the Creation, as Moses hath delivered it; he finds it hard to conceive, and he says, Si esset ante me Moses, If Moses who writ this were here, Tenerem eum, & per te obsecrarem, I would hold him fast, and beg of him, for thy sake, O my God, that he would declare this work of the Creation more plainly unto me. But then, says that blessed Father, Si Hebraea voce loqueretur, If Moses should speak Hebrew to me, mine ears might hear the sound, but my mind would not hear the voice; I might hear him, but I should not hear what he said. This was that that distinguished between S. Paul, and those who were in his company at this time; S. Luke says in this Chapter, That they heard the voice, and S. Paul relating the story again, after says, They heard not the voice of him that spoke to me; they heard a confused sound, but they distinguished it not to be the voice of God, nor discerned Gods purpose in it. In the twelfth of John, there came a voice from Heaven, from God himself, and the people said, It thundered. So apt is natural man to ascribe even Gods immediate and miraculous actions to natural causes; apt to rest and determine in Nature, and leave out God. The Poet chides that weakness, (as he calls it) to be afraid of Gods judgements, or to call natural accidents judgements; Quo morbo mentem concusse? timore Deorum, says he; he says The Conscience may be over-tender, and that such timerous men, are sick of the fear of God; But it is a blessed disease The fear of God, and the true way to true health. And though there be a moral constancy that becomes a Christian well, not to be easily shook with the variations and revolutions of this world, yet it becomes him to establish his constancy in this, That God hath a good purpose in that action, not that God hath no hand in that action; That God will produce good out of it, not that God hath nothing to do in it. The Magicians themselves were forced to confess Digitum Dei, The finger of God, in a small matter. Never think it a weakness, to call that a judgement of God, which others determine in Nature; Do so, so far as works to thy edification, who seest that judgement, though not so far, as to argue, and conclude the final condemnation of that man upon whom that judgement is fallen. Certainly, we were better call twenty natural accidents judgements of God, then frustrate Gods purpose in any of his powerful deliverances, by calling it a natural accident, and suffer the thing to vanish so, and God be left unglorified in it, or his Church unedified by it. Then we hear God, when we understand what he says; And therefore, as we are bound to bless God, that he speaks to us, and hears us speak to him, in a language which we understand, and not in such a strange language, as that a stranger who should come in and hear it, would think the Congregation mad; So also let us bless him for that holy tenderness, to be apt to feel his hand in every accident, and to discern his presence in every thing that befals us. Saul heard the voice, saying; He understood what it said, and by that, found that it was directed to him, which is also another step in this last part.

This is an impropriation without sacrilege, and an enclosure of a Common without damage, to make God mine own, to find that all that God says is spoken to me, and all that Christ suffered was suffered for me. And as Saul found this voice at first, to be directed to him, so ever after he bends his eye the same way, and observes the working of God especially upon himself; As at the beginning, so in the way too: particularly there, By the grace of God I am that I am; and then, His grace was bestowed on me, And not in vain; and again, I have laboured more abundantly then all; And after all, still he considers himself, and finds himself to be the greatest sinner, Quorum ego maximus. It is called a greatness of spirit, or constancy, but it is indeed an incorrigible height of pride, when a man will not believe that he is meant in a libel, if he be not named in that libel. It is a fearful obduration, to be Sermon-proof, or not to take knowledge, that a judgement is denounced against him, because he is not named in the denouncing of that judgement. Is not thy name Simon Magus, if thou buy and sell spiritual things thy self? and is not thy servants name Gehazi, if he exact after? Is not thy name Cain, if thou rise up against thy brother? And is not thy name Zacheus, if thou multiply thy wealth by oppression? Is not thy name Dinah, if thou gad abroad, to see who will solicit thee? And is not the name of Putiphars Wife upon thee, if thou stay at home and solicit thy servants? Postdate the whole Bible, and whatsoever thou hearest spoken of such, as thou art, before, believe all that to be spoken but now, and spoken to thee. This was one happiness here, that Saul found this voice to be directed to him; And another (which is our last Consideration) is what this voice said; it said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

Here, to make sure of him, God calls him by his name, that he should not be able to transfer the summons upon any other, or say it was not he. They say that our Noctambulones, men that walk in their sleep, will wake if they be called by their names. To wake Saul out of this dream, (for, to think to oppose Christ and his cause, is, in the highest person of the world, of what power or of what counsel soever, but a vertiginous dream, and a giddy vapor) to wake him, he calls him by his name, to let him know he means him; and to wake him throughly, he calls him twice, Saul, and Saul again. The great desolation which was to fall upon that land, God intimates, God interminates, God intonates with such a vehemency, Terra, terra, terra, Earth, earth, earth hear the word of the Lord. God should be heard at first, believed at first; but such is his abundant goodness, as that he ingeminates, multiplies his warnings; And to this whole land he hath said, Terra, terra, terra, Earth, earth, earth hear the Word of the Lord; Once in an Invasion, once in a Powder-treason; and again, and again in pestilential contagions; And to every one of us, he hath said oftener then so, Dust, dust, dust why doest thou lift up thy self against thy Maker? Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me?

Here Christ calls the afflictions of those that are his, in his purpose, his afflictions. Christ will not absolutely verify his own words, to his own ease; He had said before this, upon the Cross, Consummatum est, All is finished; But though all were finished in his Person, he hath a daily passion in his Saints still. This language which the Apostle learnt of Christ here, himself practised, and spake after, Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? Since Christ does suffer in our sufferings, be this our consolation, Till he be weary, we should not be weary, nor faint, nor murmur under our burdens; and this too, That when he is weary, he will deliver us even for his own sake; for he, though he cannot suffer pain, may suffer dishonor in our sufferings; therefore attend his leisure.

We end all in this, Cur tu me? Why doest Thou persecute Me? Why Saul Christ? Put it upon a Nation, (what is any Saul, any one man to a Nation?) Put it upon all the Nations of the World, and you shall hear God ask with an indignation, Quare fremuerunt Gentes? Why do the heathen rage, why do the people imagine a vain thing? why will they do it? what can they get? He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall have them in derision. Christ came into the Temple and disputed with the Doctors; but he did not despise them, he did not laugh at them. When all the Midianites, and all the Amalekites, and all the Children of the East, were in a body against Israel, God did not laugh at them. Gideon his General, mustered two and thirty thousand against them. God would not employ so many in the day of Battle, yet he did not laugh at them, he did not whip them out of the field, he made the face of an Army, though it were but three hundred. But when God can choose his way, He can call in Nation against Nation, he can cast a damp upon any Nation, and make them afraid of one another, He can do an execution upon them by themselves, (I presume you remember those stories in the Bible, where God did proceed by such ways) or he can sit still in a scorn, and let them melt away of themselves; when he can cast down Saul to the earth, and never appear in the cause, benight his noon, frustrate his purposes, evacuate his hopes, annihilate him in the height of his glory, Cur tu me? why will any Saul, any Nation, any World of Sauls persecute Christ, any sinner tempt him, who is so much too hard for him?

Cur me? Why doest thou offer this to me, who being thus much too hard for thee, would yet fain be friends with thee? and therefore came to a parley, to a treaty? for, verba haec, non tam arguentis, quam defendentis, says S. Chrysostom: These are not so much offensive as defensive words; He would not confound Saul, but he would not betray his own honor. To many Nations God hath never spoken; To the Jews he spoke, but suffered them to mistake him; To some whole Christian Churches he speaks, but he lets them speak too; he lets them make their word equal to his; To many of us he hath spoken, and chidden, but given over before we are cured; As he says of Israel, in a manner, That she is not worth his anger, not worth his punishing, A people laden with sins, why should they any more be smitten? Why should I go about to recover them? But if God speak to thee still, and speak in a mixed voice, of Correction, and Consolation too, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Him that receives so little benefit by thee, and yet is so loath to lose thee, Him that can so easily spare thee, and yet makes thy soul more precious then his own life, Him that can resolve thee, scatter thee, annihilate thee with a word, and yet afford so many words, so many hours conferences, so many Sermons to reclaim thee, why persecutest Thou Him? Answer this question, with Sauls answer to this question, by another question, Domine quid me vis facere? Lord what wilt thou have me do? Deliver thy self over to the will of God, and God shall deliver thee over, as he did Saul to Ananias; provide thee by his Ministry in his Ordinance, means to rectify thee, in all dejection of spirit, light to clear thee in all perplexities of conscience, in the ways of thy pilgrimage, and more and more effectual seals thereof, at the hour of thy transmigration into his joy, and thine eternal rest.

Serm. XLVII. Preached at S. Pauls, The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL. 27. Ian. 1627.

ACT. 20.25.

And now, Behold, I know, that all yee among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.

WHen S. Chrysostom calls Christmas day, Metropolin omnium festorum, The Metropolitan Holyday, the principal festival of the Church, he is likely to intend only those festivals which were of the Churches later institution, and means not to enwrap the Sabbath in that comparison. As S. Augustine says of the Sacrament of Baptism, that it is Limen Ecclesiae, The threshold over which we step into the Church; so is Christmas day, Limen festorum, The threshold over which we step into the festival celebration of some other of Christs actions, and passions, and victorious overcommings of all the Acts of his Passion, such as his Resurrection, and Ascension; for, but for Christmas day, we could celebrate none of these days; And so, that day is Limen festorum, The threshold over which we pass to the rest. But the Sabbath is not only Limen, or Ianua Ecclesiae, The door by which we enter into the Church, and into the consideration what the Church hath done, but Limen mundi, The door by which we enter into the consideration of the World, how, and when the World was made of nothing, at the Creation, without which, we had been so far from knowing that there had been a Church, or that there had been a God, as that we our selves had had no being at all. And therefore, as our very being is before all degrees of well-being, so is the Sabbath, which remembers us of our being, before all other festivals, that present and refresh to us the memory of our well-being: Especially to us, to whom it is not only a Sabbath, as the Sabbath is a day of Rest, in respect of the Creation, but Dies Dominicus, The Lords day, in respect of the Redemption of the world, because the consummation of that work of Redemption, for all that was to be done in this world, which was the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, was accomplished upon that day, which is our Sabbath. But yet, as it did please God, to accompany the Great day, the Sabbath, with other solemn days too, The Passeover, and Pentecost, Trumpets, and Tabernacles, and others, and to call those other days Sabbaths, as well as the Sabbath it self; so, since he is pleased that in the Christian Church, other days of Holy Convocations should also be instituted, I make account, that in some measure, I do both offices, both for observing those particular festivals that fall in the week, and also for the making of those particular festivals to serve the Sabbath, when upon the Sabbath ensuing, or preceding such or such a festival in the week, I take occasion to speak of that festival, which fell into the compass of that week; for, by this course, that festival is not pretermitted, nor neglected, the particular festival is remembered: And then, as God receives honor in the honor of his Saints, so the Sabbath hath an honor, when the festivals, and commemorations of those Saints, are reserved to wait upon the Sabbath.

Hence is it, that as elsewhere, I often do so, that is, Celebrate some festival that falls in the week, upon the Sabbath: so, in this place, upon this very day, I have done the like, and return now, to do so again, that is, to celebrate the memory of our Apostle S. Paul to day, though there be a day past, since his day was, in the ordinary course, to have been celebrated. The last time that I did so, I did it in handling those words, And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? which was the very act of his Conversion; A period, and a passage, which the Church celebrates in none but in S. Paul; though many others were strangely converted too, she celebrates none but his. In the words chosen for this day, And now behold I know &c. we shall reduce to your memories, first, His proceeding in the Church after he was called, (I have gone preaching the kingdom of God among you) And then the ease, the reposednes, the acquiescence that he had in that knowledge, which God by his Spirit had given him, of the approach of his dissolution, and departure out of this life; (I know that all you shall see my face no more.) As those things which we see in a glass, for the most part, must be behind us, so that that makes our transmigration in death comfortable unto us, must be behind us, in the testimony of a good Conscience, for things formerly done; Now behold, I know, that all yee, among whom I have gone &c.

In handling of which words, our Method shall be this; Our general parts, being (as we have already intimated) these two, His way, and his End, His painful course, and his cheerful finishing of his course; His laborious battle, and his victorious triumph: In the first, (I have gone preaching the kingdom of God among you) we shall see, first, That there is a Transivi, as well as a Requievi acceptable to God; A discharge of a Duty, as well in going from one place to another, as in a perpetual Residence upon one; Transivi, says our Apostle, I have gone among you. But then, in a second consideration, in that first part, That that makes his going acceptable to God, is, because he goes to preach, Transivi praedicans, I have gone preaching; And then lastly in that first part, That that, that makes his Preaching acceptable, is, that he preached the kingdom of God, Transivi praedicans regnum Dei, I have gone amongst you, preaching the kingdom of God. And in these three characters of S. Pauls Ministry, first, Labor and Assiduity; And then, Labor bestowed upon the right means, Preaching; And lastly, Preaching to the right end, to edification, & advancing the kingdom of God, we shall determine our first part.

In our second part, we pass from his Transition, to his Transmigration; from his going up and down in the world, to his departing out of the world, And now, behold, I know, that yee shall see my face no more. In which, we shall look first, how S. Paul contracted this knowledge, how he knew it; And secondly, that the knowledge of it, did not disquiet him, not disorder him; he takes knowledge of it, with a confidence, and a cheerfulness. When he says, I know it, he seems to say, I am glad of it, or at least not troubled with it. And lastly, that S. Paul continues here, that way, and method, which he always uses; That is, to proceed by the understanding, to the affections, and so to the conscience of those that hear him, by such means of persuasion, as are most applicable to them, to whom he then speaks; And therefore knowing the power and efficacy of a dying, a departing mans words, he makes that impression in them, Observe, recollect, remember, practise that which I have delivered unto you, for, I know, that all yee shall see my face no more. And so we shall bring up that circle, which was begun in heaven, in our last exercise, upon this occasion, in this place, when Christ said from thence, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? up into heaven again, in that Euge bone serve, which Christ hath said since unto him, Well done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Masters joy; And our Apostle, whom, in our former Exercise, for example of our humiliation, we found fallen to the Earth, in this, to the assistance of our Exaltation, in his, we shall find, and leave, upon the last step of Iacobs ladder, that is, entering into Heaven, by the gate of death.

First then, in our first Part, our first Branch is, That there is a Transivi as acceptable to God, as a Requievi; That God was served in S. Paul, by applying his labours to many places, as well as if he had resided, and bestowed himself entirely upon any one. When Christ manifested himself at first unto him, trembling and astonished, he said, Lord what wilt thou have me to do? And when Christ had told him, That in Damascus, from Ananias, he should receive his Instructions, which were, That he should bear his name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the children of Israel, After this commission was exhibited by Ananias, and accepted by S. Paul, that Prophetical Scripture laid hold upon him, by way of acclamation, Exultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam, He rejoiced as a strong man to run a race, He laboured more abundantly then they all, He carried the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, That is, as S. Jerome survays it, à mari rubro ad oceanum, from the Red Sea (a Sea within land) to the Ocean without, from all within, to all without the Covenant, Gentiles as well as Jews, Deficiente eum prius terra, quàm studio praedicandi, He found an end of the world, but he found no end of his zeal, but preached as long as he found any to preach to. And as he exceeded in Action, so did he in Passion too; He joins both together, In labours more abundant, (There was his continual preaching) In stripes above measure, And then, In prisons more frequent, In deaths often. Who dies more then once? Yet he dies often. How often? Death that is every other mans everlasting fast, and fils him his mouth with earth, was S. Pauls Panis quotidianus, His daily bread, I protest, says he, by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ, I die daily.

Though therefore we cannot give S. Paul a greater name then an Apostle, (except there be some extraordinary height of Apostleship enwrapped in that which he says of himself, Paul an Apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, That in that place he glory in a holy exultation, that he was made an Apostle by Jesus Christ, then when Jesus Christ was nothing but Jesus Christ, then when he was glorified in heaven, and not a mortal man upon earth, as he was when he made his other Apostles; And that in his being an Apostle, there entered no such act of men, as did in the election of Matthias to that office, (though Matthias were made after the Ascension as well as he) in whose election those men presented God two names, and God directed that lot upon him, and so Matthias was reckoned amongst the eleven Apostles) Though we need not procure to him, nor imagine for him, any other name then an Apostle, yet S. Paul was otherwise an universal soul to the whole Church, then many of the other Apostles were, and had a larger liberty to communicate himself to all places, then any of them had. That is it which S. Chrysostom intends, when he extends S. Pauls dignity, Angelis diversae Gentes commissae, To particular Angels particular Nations are committed; sed nullus Angelorum, says that Father, No Angel governed his particular Nation better then S. Paul did the whole Church. S. Chrysostom carryes it so high; Isidore modifies it thus; He brings it from the Angels of heaven, to the Angels of the Church, Indeed the Archangels of the Church, the Apostles themselves, And he says, Apostolorum quisque regionem nactus unicam, Every Apostle was designed to some particular and certain compass, and did but that, in that, which S. Paul did in the whole world. But S. Chrysostom and Isidore both take their ground for that which they say, from that which S. Paul says of himself, Besides these things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, The care of all the Churches; for, says he, who is weak, and I am not weak? That is, who lacks any thing, but I am ready to do it for him? who suffers any thing, but I have compassion for him? We receive by faire Tradition, and we entertain with a faire credulity, the other Apostles to have been Bishops, and thereby to have had a more certain center, to which, naturally, that is, by the nature of their office, they were to incline. Not that nothing may excuse a Bishops absence from his Sea; for natural things, even naturally, do depart from those places to which they are naturally designed, and naturally affected, for the conservation of the whole frame and course of nature; for, in such cases, water will ascend, and air will descend; which motion is done naturally, though it be a motion from that place, to which they are naturally affected; And so may Bishops from their particular Churches; for, Episcopus in Ecclesia, & Ecclesia in Episcopo, Every Bishop hath a superintendency, and a residence in the whole Church, and the whole Church a residence, and a confidence in him. Therefore it is, that in some Decretal, and some Synodal Letters, Bishops are called Monarchae, Monarchs, not only with relation to one Diocesse, but to the whole Church; not only Regal, but Imperial Monarchs.

The Church of Rome makes Bishops every day, of Diocesses, to which they know those Bishops can never come; Not only in the Dominions of Princes of the Reformed Religion, (which are not likely to admit them) but in the Dominions of the Turk himself. And into the Council of Trent, they threw and thrust, they shoved and shoveld in such Bishops in abundance: They created (that their numbers might carry all) new Titular Bishops of every place, in the Eastern, the Greek Church, where there had ever been Bishops before, though those very places were now no Cities; Not only not within his Jurisdiction, but not at all, upon the face of the earth. But in better times then these, (though times, in which the Church was much afflicted too) S. Cyril of Alexandria mentions six thousand Bishops at once, against Nestorius. Now if the Church had six thousand Bishops at once, certainly all of them had not Diocesses to reside upon; sometimes collateral necessities enforce a departing from exact regularity, in matter of government. So it did, when S. Ambrose was chosen Bishop of Milan in the West, and Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople in the East, when they were both not only Lay-men, but unbaptized. But yet, though there be divers cases in which Bishops may justly be excused from residence, (for they are still resident upon the Church of God, if not upon the Church of that City) yet naturally, and regularly an obligation falling upon them, of Residence, the Apostles were more bound to certain limits, by being Bishops, then S. Paul was, of whom it does not appear that he was ever so. I know some later men have thought S. Paul a Bishop: And they have found some satisfaction in that, That Niger, and Lucius, and Manaen laid their hands upon Barnabas and Paul; and that Imposition of hands, say they, was a Consecration; And this reason supplyes them too, That Paul did consecrate other Bishops, as Timothy of Ephesus, and Titus of Crete. But since Niger, and Lucius, and Manaen that laid their hands upon Paul, were not Bishops themselves, Paul cannot therefore be concluded to be a Bishop, because he laid his hands upon others. Neither hath any of those few Authors, which have imagined him to be a Bishop, ever assigned or named any place of which he should be Bishop; So that S. Paul had still another manner of liberty, and universality over the Church, then the rest had, and therefore still avows his Transivi, his peregrination, I have gone among you.

So then our blessed Savior having declared this to be his way for the propagation of the Gospel, that besides the men that reside constantly upon certain places, there should be Bishops that should spread farther then to a Parish, and Apostles farther then to a Diocesse, and a Paul farther then to a Nation; As in the first Plantation Christ found this necessary, so may it be still convenient, that in some cases, some persons, at some times, may be admitted to forbear their service, in some particular place, so they do not defraud the whole Church of God by that forbearance. For so S. Paul, though he accuse himself, That he robbed other Churches, taking wages of them, and yet served the Corinthians, thinks himself excusable in this, That he did this service in some part of the Church of Christ, though not always to them in particular, from whom he received that recompense.

Now as this condemnes our Brownists abroad, that have published their opinion to be, That no particular Church, given to one mans cure, may consist of more persons then may always hear that man, all together, so neither doth this afford any favor to those men, who absent themselves from their charge, unnecessarily; and every thing is unnecessary in a Church-man, that is not done for the farther advancement of the Church of God in general, and doth prejudice, or defraud a particular Church. Therefore is S. Pauls Transivi in this Text, accompanied with a Praedicavi, I have not resided in one place, I have gone among you, but I have gone among you preaching.

Athanasius in his Epistle to Dracontius, who refused to be Bishop, says, If all men had been of your mind, who should have made you a Christian? who should have been enabled to have ministered Sacraments unto you, if there had been no Bishop? But when he saw that he refused it therefore, because men when they come to that state, give themselves more liberty then such as laboured in inferior places did, and Dracontius seemed loath to open himself to the danger of that temptation, Athanasius says, Licebit tibi in Episcopatu esurire, sitire, Fear not, I warrant you, you may be poor enough in a Bishoprick; or if you be rich, no man will hinder you from living soberly in a plentiful fortune; Novimus Episcopos jejunantes, says he, & Monachos comedentes, I have known a Bishop fast, when a Monk, or an Hermit hath made a good meal; Nec corona pro locis, sed pro factis redditur, God doth not crown every man that comes to the place, but him only that doth the duties of the place, when he is in it. And here one of the Duties that induce our crown, is Preaching, I have gone among you preaching.

Howsoever it be in practise in the Church of Rome, that Church durst not appear to the world, but in that Declaration, Praecipuum Episcoporum munus est praedicatio, The principal office of the Bishop is to preach. And as there is no Church in Christendom, (nay, let us magnify God in the fullness of an evident truth) not all the Churches of God in Christendom, have more, or more useful preaching, then ours hath, from those to whom the Cure of Souls belongs: so neither were there ever any times, in which more men were preferred for former preaching, nor that continued it more, after their preferments, then in these our times. There may be, there should be a Transiverunt, A passing from place to place, but still it is as it should be, Praedicando, A passing for Preaching, and a passing to Preaching; And then, a Preaching conditioned so, as S. Pauls was, I have gone among you, preaching the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God, is the Gospel of God; that Gospel which the Apostle calls the glorious Gospel of God. A Kingdom consists not of slaves; slaves that have no will of their own. The children of the Kingdom have so a will of their own, as that no man is damned, but for that, which he would not avoid, nor saved against his will; So we preach a Kingdom. A Kingdom acknowledges all their happiness from the King; So do we all the good use of all our faculties, will and all from the grace of the King of heaven; so we preach a Kingdom. A Kingdom is able to subsist of it self, without calling in Forrainers; The Gospel is so too, without calling in Traditions; and so we preach a Kingdom. A Kingdom requires, besides fundamental subsistence, grounded especially in offensive, and defensive power, a support also of honor, and dignity, and outward splendor; The Church of God requires also, besides unanimity in fundamental Doctrines, an equanimity, and a mildness, and a charity, in handling problematical points, and also requires order, and comeliness in the outward face, and habit thereof; And so we preach a Kingdom. So we preach a Kingdom, as that we banish from thence, all imaginary fatality, and all decretory impossibility of concurrence, and cooperation to our own salvation, And yet we banish all pride, and confidence, that any natural faculties in us, though quickened by former grace, can lead us to salvation, without a continual succession of more and more grace; And so we preach a Kingdom; So, as that we banish all spiritual treason, in setting up new titles, or making any thing equal to God, or his Word, And we banish all spiritual felony or robbery, in despoyling the Church, either of Discipline, or of Possessions, either of Order, or of Ornaments. Be the Kings Daughter all glorious within; Yet, all her glory is not within; For, Her clothing is of wrought gold, says that text. Still may she glory in her internal glory, in the sincerity, and in the integrity of Doctrinal truths, and glory too in her outward comeliness, and beauty. So pray we, and so preach we the Kingdom of God. And so we have done with our first Part.

Our second Part, to which in our order we are now come, is a passionate valediction, Now I know, that all you shall see my face no more; where first we inquire how he knew it. But why do we inquire that? They that heard him did not so: They heard it, and believed it, and lamented it. When S. Paul preached at Berea, his story says, that he was better believed there, then at Thessalonica; And the reason is given, That there were Nobler persons there; Persons of better quality, of better natures, and dispositions, and of more ingenuity; and so, as it is added, They received the word with all readiness of mind. Prejudices, and disaffections, and under-valuations of the abilities of the Preacher, in the hearer, disappoint the purpose of the Holy Ghost, frustrate the labours of the man, and injure and defraud the rest of the Congregation, who would, and would justly, like that which is said, if they were not mis-led, and shook by those hearers: And so work also such jealousies and suspicions, that though his abilities be good, yet his end upon his Auditory, is not their edification, but to work upon them, to other purposes. Though we require not an implicite faith in you, that you believe, because we say it, yet we require a holy Nobleness in you, A religious good nature, a conscientious ingenuity, that you remember from whom we come, from the King of heaven, and in what quality, as his Ambassadors; And so be apt to believe, that since we must return to him that sent us, and give him a relation of our negotiation, we dare not transgress our Commission. The Bereans are praised for this, That they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things that Paul said were so; But this begun not at a jealousy, or suspicion in them, that they doubted, that that which he said, was not so, nor proceeded not to a gladness, or to a desire, that they might have taken him in a lie, or might have found, that that which he said, was not so; But they searched the Scriptures, whether those things were so, that so, having formerly believed him when he preached, they might establish that belief, which they had received, by that, which was the infallible rock, and foundation of all, The Scriptures; They searched; but they searched for confirmation, and not upon suspicion.

In our present case, they to whom S. Paul said this, do not ask S. Paul how he knew, that they should see his face no more; they believed as we do, that he had it by revelation from God; and such knowledge is faith. Tricubitalis er at, & coelum attingit, says S. Chrysostom; S. Paul was a man of low stature; but four foot and a half high, says he; and yet his head reached to the highest heaven, and his eyes saw, and his ears heard the counsels of God. Scarce any Ambassador can show so many Letters of his Masters own hand, as S. Paul could produce Revelations; His King came to him, as often as other Kings write to their Ambassadors. He had his first calling by Revelation; He had his Commission, his Apostle-ship by Revelation; So he was directed to Jerusalem, And so to Rome; to both by Revelation; and so to Macedonia also. So he was confirmed, and comforted in the night, by Vision, by Revelation; And so he was assured of the lives of all them, that suffered shipwreck with him at Malta. All his Cate chismes in the beginning, all his Dictats in his proceeding, all his incouragements at his departing, were all Revelation.

Every good man hath his conversation in heaven, and heaven it self had a conversation in S. Paul; And so, even the book of the Acts of the Apostles, is, as it were, a first Part of the book of Revelation; Revelations to S. Paul, as the other was to S. John. This is the way that Christ promised to take with him, I will show him, how great things he must suffer for my sake. And this way Christ pursued, At Caesarea, Agabus a Prophet came from Judaea to Paul, and took Pauls girdle, and bound his own hands, and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews bind the man that owes the girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. This then was his case in our text, (for, that revelation, by Agabus his Prophesy, of his suffering was after this) he had a revelation that he should never be seen by them more; but when, or how, or where he should dye, he had not had a particular revelation then. He says, a little before our text, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem: That is, so bound by the Spirit, that if I should not go, I should resist the Spirit; But, says he, I know not the things that shall befall me there; not at Jerusalem; much less the last, and bitterest things, which were farther off; the things that should befall him at Rome, where he died. But from the very first, he knew enough of his death, to shake any soul, that were not sustained by the Spirit of God; which is another Branch in this Part, That no revelations, no apprehensions of death removed him from his holy intrepidness, and religious constancy.

We have a story in an Author of S. Hieromes time, Palladius, that in a Monastery of S. Isidors, every Monk that died in that house, was able, and ever did tell all the society, that at such a time he should die. God does extraordinary things, for extraordinary ends; but since we see no such ends, nor use of this, we are at our liberty, to doubt of the thing it self. God told Simeon, that he should not die, till he had seen Christ; but he did not tell him, that he should die as soon as he had seen him; But so much as was told him, was enough to make him content to die, when he had seen him, and to come to his Nunc dimittis, to that cheerfulness, as to sing his own Requiem. God accustomed S. Paul, no doubt, to such notifications from him, and such apprehensions in himself of death, as, because it was not new, it could not be terrible. When S. Paul was able to make that protestation, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily; And again, I am in prisons oft, and often in deaths, I die often; No Executioner could have told him, you must die to morrow, but he could have said, Alas I died yesterday, and yesterday was twelve-month, and seven year, and every year, and month, and week, and day, and hour before that. There is nothing so near Immortality, as to die daily; for not to feel death, is Immortality; and only he shall never feel death, that is exercised in the continual Meditation thereof; Continual Mortification is Immortality.

As Cordials lose their virtue and become no Cordials, if they be taken every day, so poisons do their venom too; If a man use himself to them, in small proportions at first, he may grow to take any quantity: He that takes a dram of Death to day, may take an ounce to morrow, and a pound after; He that begins with that mortification of denying himself his delights, (which is a dram of Death) shall be able to suffer the tribulations of this world, (which is a greater measure of death) and then Death it self, not only patiently, but cheerfully; And to such a man, death is not a dissolution, but a redintegration; not a divorce of body and soul, but a sending of both divers ways, (the soul upward to Heaven, the body downward to the earth) to an indissoluble marriage to him, who, for the salvation of both, assumed both, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. Therefore does S. Paul say of himself, If I be offered upon the sacrifice, and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all, that is, It is a just occasion of our common joy, on your part, and on mine too; And therefore does S. Augustine say in his behalf, whatsoever can be threatened him, Si potest vivere, tolerabile est, Whatsoever does not take away life, may be endured; for, if it could not be endured, it would take away life; and, Si non potest vivere, says he, If it do take away life, what shall he feel, when he is dead? He adds the reason of all, Opus cum fine, merces sine fine; Death hath an end, but their reward that dye for Christ, and their peace, that dye in Christ, hath no end. Therefore was not S. Paul afraid of melancholic apprehensions, by drawing his death into contemplation, and into discourse; he was not afraid to think, nor to talk of his death; But then S. Paul had another end in doing so here, (which is our last consideration) To make the deeper impression in them, to whom he preached then, by telling them, that he knew they should see his face no more.

This that S. Paul says, he says to the Ephesians; but not at Ephesus: He was departed from thence the year before: for, upon the news that Claudius the Emperor, who persecuted the Christians, was dead, he purposed to go by Jerusalem to Rome. In that peregrination and visitation of his, his way fell out after to be by Miletus, a place not far from Ephesus; He was bound in the Spirit, as he says here, to go to Jerusalem; and therefore he could not visit them at Ephesus. A man may have such obligations, even for the service of God upon him, as that it shall not be in his power, to do that service which he may owe, and desire to pay in some particular Church. It was in part S. Pauls case: But yet he did what he could; from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, to call the Elders of that Church thither; And then he preached this short, but powerful Sermon. And, as his manner ever was, (though still without prevaricating or forbearing to denounce the judgements of God upon them, in cases necessary) to make those whom he preached or writ to, as benevolent, and well-affected to him as he could, (for he was Omnia omnibus, Made all things to all men) to which purpose it is that he speaks, and pours out himself, with such a loving thankfulness to the Galatians, Ye received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus himself; pursuing, I say, this manner of a mutual endearing, and a reciprocal embowelling of himself in the Congregation, and the Congregation in him, (as, certainly, if we consider all unions, (the natural union of Parents and children, the matrimonial union of Husband and Wife) no union is so spiritual, nor so near to that, by which we are made Idem spiritus cum Domino, The same Spirit with the Lord, as when a good Pastor, and a good flock meet, and are united in holy affections to one another) to unite himself to his Ephesians inseparably, even after his separation, to be still present with them, in his everlasting absence, and to live with them even after death, to make the deeper impressions of all his past, and present instructions, he speaks to them as a dying man, I know you shall see my face no more.

Why did he so? S. Paul did not dye in eleven years after this: But he died to them, for bodily presence, now; They were to see him no more. As the day of my death is the day of Judgement to me, so this day of his departing was the day of his death to them. And for himself, from this time, when he gave this judgement of death upon himself, all the rest of his life was but a leading far off, to the place of execution. For first, very soon after this, Agabus gave him notice of manifold afflictions, in that Girdle which we spake of before. There he was bound, and emprisoned at Jerusalem; from thence sent bound to Caesarea; practised upon to be killed by the way; forced to appeal to Caesar; upon that Appeal sent prisoner to Rome; ship-wracked upon the way at Malta; Emprisoned under guard, though not close prisoner, two years after his comming thither; and, though dismissed, and so enabled to visit some Churches, yet laid hold upon again by Nero, and executed. So that as it was literally true, that the Ephesians never saw his face, after this valediction, so he may be said to have died then, in such a sense, as himself says to the Corinthians, That some men were baptized, Pro mortuis, for dead, that is, as good as dead, past all hope of recovery. So he died then.

Now beloved, who hath seen a Father, or a friend, or a neighbor, or a malefactor dye, and hath not been affected with his dying words? Nay Father Abraham, says Dives, that will not serve, That they have Moses and the Prophets; Sermons will not serve their turns; But if one went to them from the Dead, they would repent. And the nearest to this is, if one speak to them that is going to the dead. If he had been a minute in Heaven thou wouldst believe him; and wilt thou not believe him a minute before? Did not Jacob observe the Angels ascending, as well as descending upon that ladder? Trust a good soul going to God, as well as comming from God? And then, as our Casuists say, That whatsoever a man is bound to do, In articulo mortis, at the point of death, by way of Confession or otherwise, he is bound to do, when he comes to the Sacrament, or when he undertakes any action of danger, because then he should prepare himself as if he were dying: so, when you come to hear us here, who are come from God, hear us with such an affection, as if we were going to God, as if you heard us upon our death-beds. The Pulpit is more then our death-bed; for, we are bound to the same truth, and sincerity here, as if we were upon our death-bed, and then Gods Ordinance is more expressly executed here, then there. He that mingles falsehood with his last dying words, deceives the world inexcusably, because he speaks in the person of an honest man, but he that mingles false informations in his preaching, does so much more, because he speaks in the person of God himself.

They to whom S. Paul spake there, are said all to have wept, and to have fallen on Pauls neck, and to have kissed him; But it is added, they sorrowed most of all for those words, That they should see his face no more. When any of those men, to whom for their holy calling, and their religious pains in their calling, you owe and pay a reverence, are taken from you by death, or otherwise, there is a godly sorrow due to that, and in a great proportion. In the death of one Elisha, King Ioash apprehended a ruin of all; He wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the Charet of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; He lost the solicitude of a father, he lost the power and strength of the Kingdom, in the loss of one such Prophet. But when you have so sorrowed for men, upon whom your devotion hath put, and justly put such a valuation, remember that a greater loss, then the loss of a thousand such men may fall upon you. Consider the difference between the Candle and the Candlestick, between the Preacher of the Gospel, and the Gospel it self; between a religious man, and Religion it self: The removing of the Candlestick, and the withdrawing of the Gospel, and the profaning of Religion, is infinitely a greaten loss, then if hundreds of the present labourers should be taken away from us. The children of the kingdom may be cast into utter darkness; and That kingdom may be given to others which shall bring forth the fruits thereof; and, The Lord may come, and come quickly and remove our Candlestick out of his place; pray we that in our days he may not. And truly where God threatens to do so in the Revelation, it is upon a Church, of which God himself gives good testimony, The Church of Ephesus; of her Labours, that is, Preaching; of her Patience, that is, suffering; of her Impatience, her not suffering the evil, that is, her integrity and impartiality, without connivence or toleration; And of her not fainting, that is, perseverance; and of her having the Nicolaitans, that is, sincerity in the truth, and a holy animosity against all false Doctrines: And yet, says he, I have something to say against thee.

When thou hast testified their assiduity in Preaching, their constancy in suffering, their sincerity in believing, their integrity in professing, their perseverance in continuing, their zeal in hating of all error in others, when thou thy self hast given this evidence in their behalf, canst thou Lord Jesu have any thing to say against them? what then shall we, we that fail in all these, look to hear from thee? what was their crime? Because they had left their first love; Left the fullness of their former zeal to Gods cause. Now, if our case be so much worse then theirs, as that we are not only guilty of all those sins, of which Christ discharges them, and have not only left our first love, but in a manner lost all our love, all our zeal to his glory, and be come to a luke warmness in his service, and a general neglect of the means of grace, how justly may we fear, not only that he will come, and come quickly, but that he may possibly be upon his way already, to remove our Candlestick, and withdraw the Gospel from us? And if it be a sad thing to you, to hear a Paul, a holy man say, You shall see my face no more, on this side the It maledicti, Go ye accursed into hell fire, there cannot be so sad a voice, as to hear Christ Jesus say, You shall see my face no more. Facies Dei est, qua Deus nobis innotescit, says S. Augustin, That is the face of God to us, by which God manifests himself to us. God manifests himself to us in the Word, and in the Sacraments. If we see not them in their true lines and colors, (the Word and Sacraments sincerely and religiously preached and administered) we do not see them, but masks upon them; And, if we do not see them, we do not see the face of Christ; And I could as well stand under his Nescio vos, which he said to the negligent Virgins, I know you not, or his Nescivi vos, which he said to those that boast of their works, I never knew you, as under this fearful thunder from his mouth, You shall see my face no more, I will absolutely withdraw, or I will suffer profaneness to enter into those means of your salvation, Word, and Sacraments, which I have so long continued in their sincerity towards you, and you have so long abused.

Blessed God say not so to us yet; yet let the tree grow another year, before thou cut it down; And as thou hast digged about it, by bringing judgements upon our neighbours, so water it with thy former rain, the dew of thy grace, and with thy later rain, the tears of our contrition, that we may still seethy face; here and hereafter; here, in thy kingdom of Grace; hereafter in thy kingdom of Glory, which thou hast purchased for us, with the inestimable price of thine incorruptible blood. Amen.

Serm. XLVIII. Preached at S. Pauls in the Evening, Upon the day of S. Pauls Conversion. 1628.

ACTS 28.6.

They changed their minds, and said, That he was a God.

THe scene, where this canonization, this super-canonization, (for, it was not of a Saint, but of a God) was transacted, was the Ile of Malta: The person canonized, and proclaimed for a God, was S. Paul, at that time by shipwreck cast upon that Iland. And having for some years heretofore continued that custom in this place, at this time of the year, when the Church celebrates the Conversion of S. Paul, (as it doth this day) to handle some part of his Story, pursuing that custom now, I chose that part, which is knit and wound up in this Text, Then they changed their minds, and said, He is a God. S. Paul found himself in danger of being oppressed in judgement, and thereby was put to a necessity of Appealing to Caesar: By virtue of that Appeal being sent to Rome, by Sea, he was surprized with such storms, as threatened inevitable ruin; But the Angel of God stood by him, and assured him, that none of those two hundred seventy six persons, which were in the ship with him, should perish; According to this assurance, though the ship perished, all the passengers were saved, and recovered this land, Malta. Where being courteously received by the Inhabitants, though otherwise Barbarians, S. Paul doing so much for himself and for his company, as to gather a bundle of sticks to mend the fire, there flew a Viper from the heat, and fastened on his hand. They thereupon said among themselves, No doubt, this man is a murderer, whom, though he have escaped the Sea, yet Vengeance suffereth not to live. But when he shook off the Viper into the fire, and received no harm, and they had looked, that he should have swoln, and fallen down dead suddenly, after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, Then (and then enters our Text) They changed their minds, and said, He is a God. Almighty God had bred up S. Paul so; so he had catechized him all the way, with vicissitudes, and revolutions from extreme to extreme. He had taught him how to want, and how to abound; how to bear honor, and dishonor: He permitted an Angel of Satan to buffet him, (so he gave him some sense of Hell) He gave him a Rapture, an Ecstasy; and in that, an appropinquation, an approximation to himself, and so some possession of Heaven in this life. So God proceeded with him here in Malta too; He passed him in their mouths from extreme to extreme; A Viper serses him, and they condemn him for a murderer; He shakes off the Viper; and they change their minds, and say, He is a God.

The first words of our Text carry us necessarily so far back, as to see from what they changed; And their periods are easily seen; Their Terminus à quo, and their Terminus ad quem, were these; first, that he was a Murderer, Then that he was a God. An error in Morality; They censure deeply upon light evidence: An error in Divinity; They transfer the Name and estimation of a God, upon an unknown Man. Place both the errors in Divinity; (so you may justly do) And then there is an error in Charity, a hasty and inconsiderate condemning; And an error in faith, a superstitious creating of an imaginary God. Now, upon these two general Considerations will this Exercise consist; first, that it is natural Logic, an argumentation naturally imprinted in Man, to argue, and conclude thus, Great calamities are inflicted, therefore God is greatly provoked; These men of Malta were but natural men, but Barbarians, (as S. Luke calls them) and yet they argue, and conclude so; Here is a judgement executed, therefore here is evidence, that God is displeased. And so far they kept within the limits of humanity and piety too; But when they descended hastily and inconsiderately, to particular, and personal applications, This judgement upon this man is an evidence of his guiltiness in this offence, then they transgressed the bounds of charity; That because a Viper had seised Pauls hand, Paul must needs be a murderer.

And then when we shall have passed thorough those things, which belong to that first Consideration, which consists of these two Propositions, That to conclude so, God strikes, therefore he is angry, is natural, but hastily to apply this to the condemnation of particular persons, is uncharitable, we shall descend to our second Consideration, to see what they did, when they changed their minds, They said, He is a God. And, as in the former part, we shall have seen, That there is in man a natural Logic, but that strays into uncharitableness; So in this we shall see, That there is in man a natural Religion, but that strays into superstition and idolatry; Naturally man is so far from being divested of the knowledge and sense of God, from thinking that there is no God, as that he is apt to make more Gods then he should, and to worship them for Gods, whom he should not. These men of Malta were but Natural men, but Barbarians, (says S. Luke) yet they were so far from denying God, as that they multiplied Gods, and because the Viper did Paul no harm, they change their minds, and say, He is a God.

And from these two general considerations, and these two branches in each, That there is in man a Natural Logic, but that strays into Fallacies; And a Natural Religion, but that strays into Idolatry, and Superstition, we shall derive, and deduce unto you, such things as we conceive most to conduce to your edification, from this knot, and summary abridgement of this Story, Then they changed their minds, and said, He is a God.

First then for the first Proposition of our first part, That this is natural Logic, an argumentation imprinted in every man, God strikes, therefore God is angry, He, whom they that even hate his name, (our Adversaries of the Roman persuasion) do yet so far tacitely reverence, as that, though they will not name him, they will transfer, and insert his expositions of Scriptures, into their works, and pass them as their own, that as Calvin, He, Calvin, collects this proposition from this story, Passim receptum omnibus saeculis, In all ages, and in all places this hath ever been acknowledged by all men, That when God strikes, God is angry, And when God is angry, God strikes; and therefore, says he, Quoties occurrit memorabilis aliqua calamitas, simul in mentem veniat, as often as you see any extraordinary calamity, conclude that God hath been extraordinarily provoked, and hasten to those means, by which the anger and indignation of God may be appeased again. So that for this Doctrine, a man needs not be preached unto, a man needs not be catechized; A man needs not read the Fathers, nor the Councils, nor the Schoolmen, nor the Ecclesiastical story, nor Summists, nor Casuists, nor Canonists, no nor the Bible it self for this Doctrine; for this Doctrine, That when God strikes he is angry, and when he is angry he strikes, the natural man hath as full a Library in his bosom, as the Christian.

We, we that are Christians have one Author of ours, that tells us, Vindicta mihi, Revenge is mine, saith the Lord; Moses tells us so; And in that, we have a first and a second Lesson; First, that since Revenge is in Gods hands, it will certainly fall upon the Malefactor, God does not mistake his mark; And then, since Revenge is in his hands, no man must take Revenge out of his hands, or make himself his own Magistrate, or revenge his own quarrel. And as we, we that are Christians, have our Author, Moses, that tells us this, the natural man hath his secular Author, Theocritus, that tells him as much, Reperit Deus nocentes, God always finds out the guilty man. In which, the natural man hath also a first, and a second Lesson too; First, that since God finds out the Malefactor, he never scapes; And then, since God does find him at last, God sought him all the while; Though God strike late, yet he pursued him long before; and many a man feels the sting in his conscience, long before he feels the blow in his body. That God finds, and therefore seeks, That God overtakes, and therefore pursues, That God overthrows, and therefore resists the wicked, is a Natural conclusion as well as a Divine.

The same Author of ours, Moses, tells us, The Lord our God is Lord of Lords, and God of gods, and regardeth no mans person. The natural man hath his Author too, that tells him, Semper Virgines Furiae, The Furies, (they whom they conceive to execute Revenge upon Malefactors) are always Virgins, that is, not to be corrupted by any solicitations. That no dignity shelters a man from the justice of God, is a natural conclusion, as well as a Divine. We have a sweet Singer of Israel that tells us, Non dimidiabit dies, The bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days: And the natural man hath his sweet singer too, a learned Poet that tells him, that seldom any enormous Malefactor enjoys siccam mortem, (as he calls it) a dry, an un-bloody death. That blood requires blood, is a natural conclusion, as well as a Divine. Our sweet Singer tells us again, That if he fly to the farthest ends of the earth, or to the sea, or to heaven, or to hell, he shall find God there; And the natural man hath his Author, that tells him, Qui fugit, non effugit, He that runs away from God, does not scape God. That there is no sanctuary, no privileged place against which Gods Quo Warranto does not lie, is a natural conclusion, as well as a divine; Sanguis Abel, is our Proverb, That Abels blood cries for revenge, And sanguis Aesopi is the natural mans Proverb, That Esops blood cries for revenge; for Esops blood was shed upon an indignation taken at sacrifice, as Abels was. S. Pauls Deus Remunerator, That there is a God, and that that God is a just rewarder of mens actions, is a natural conclusion, as well as a Divine.

When God speaks to us, us that are Christians, in the Scriptures, he speaks as in a Primitive, and Original language; when he speaks to the natural man, by the light of nature, though speak as in a translation into another language, yet he speaks the same thing; Every where he offers us this knowledge, That where he strikes, he is angry, and where he is angry, he does strike. Therefore Calvin might, as he doth, safely and piously establish his Quoties occurrit, As often as you see an extraordinary calamity, conclude that God is extraordinarily provoked: And he might as safely have established more then that, That wheresoever God is angry, and in that anger strikes, God sees sin before; No punishment from God, where there is no sin. God may have glory in the condemnation of man; but except that man were a sinful man, God could have no glory in his condemnation. At the beginning of thy prayer, the commandment went out, says Gabriel to Daniel; But till Danicl prayed, there went out no commandment. At the beginning of the sinners sin, God bends his bow, and whets his arrows, and at last he shoots; But if there were no sin in me, God had no mark to shoot at; for God hates not me, nor any thing that he hath made.

And farther we carry not your consideration upon this first branch of our first Part, Naturally man hath this Logic, to conclude, where God strikes, God is angry; when God is angry, he will strike: But God never strikes in such anger, but with relation to sin. These men of Malta, natural men, did so, and erred not in so doing; They erred when they came to particulars, to hasty and inconsiderate applications, for that is uncharitableness, and constitutes our second branch of this part.

When one of the Consuls of Rome, Caninius, died the same day that he was made Consul, Cicero would needs pass a jest upon that accident, and say, The State had had a vigilant Conful of Caninius, a watchful Consul, because he never slept in all his Consulship; for he died before he went to bed. But this was justly thought a fault in Cicero, for calamities are not the subject of jests; They are not so casual things. But yet, though they come from a sure hand, they are not always evidences of Gods displeasure upon that man upon whom they fall. That was the issue between Job and his friends; They relied upon that, pursued that which they had laid down, Remember, who ever perished being innocent, or where were the righteous cut off? Job relied upon that, pursued that which he had laid down; If I justify my self, mine own words shall condemn me; (self-justification is a self-condemnation) If I say I am perfect, that also shall prove me perverse, says Job. (No man is so far from purity and perfection, as he that thinks himself perfect and pure) But yet, says he there, Though I were perfect, this is one thing, and therefore I say it, God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. Gods outward proceeding with a man in this world, is no evidence to another, what he intends him in the next. In no case? In no case, (on this side of Revelation) for the world to come. Till I be a Judge of that mans person and actions, and being his Judge have clear evidence, and be not mis-led by rumours from others, by passion, and prejudices in my self, I must pass no judgement upon him, in this world, nor say, This fell upon him for this crime. But whatsoever my capacity be, or whatsoever the Evidence, I must suspend my judgement for the world to come. Therefore says the Apostle, Judge nothing before the time: When is the time? When I am made Judge, and when I have clear evidence, then is the time to pass my judgement for this world; But for a final condemnation in the world to come, the Apostle expresses himself fully in that place, Judge nothing before the time, untill the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the counsels of the heart.

It was a wise and a pious counsel that Gamaliel gave that State, Abstinete, forbear a while, give God sea-room, give him his latitude, and you may find, that you mistook at first; for God hath divers ends in inflicting calamities, and he that judges hastily, may soon mistake Gods purpose. It is a remarkeable expressing which the holy Ghost hath put into the mouth of Naomi, Call not me Naomi, says she there; Naomi is lovely, and loving, and beloved; But call me Mara, says she, Mara is bitterness: But why so? For, says she, The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me: Bitterly, and very bitterly. But yet so he hath with many that he loves full well. It is true, says Naomi, but there is more in my case then so; The Almighty hath afflicted me, and the Lord hath testified against me; Testified, there is my misery; that is, done enough, given evidence enough for others to believe, and to ground a judgement upon it, that he hath abandoned me utterly, forsaken me for ever. Yet God meant well to Naomi for all this Testification, and howsoever others might mis-interpret Gods proceeding with her.

That Ostracism which was practised amongst the Athenians, and that Petalisme which was practised amongst the Syracusians, by which Laws, the most eminent, and excellent persons in those States were banished, not for any crime imputed to them, nor for any popular practises set on foot by them, but to conserve a parity, and equality in that State, this Ostracism, this Petalisme was not without good use in those governments. If God will lay heaviest calamities upon the best men, If God will exercise an Ostracism, a Petalisme in his state, who shall search into his Arcana imperii, into the secrets of his government? who shall ask a reason of his actions? who shall doubt of a good end in all his ways? Our Savior Christ hath shut up that way of rash judgement upon such occasions, when he says, Suppose ye, that those Galileans whom Herod slew, or those eighteen whom the fall of the Tore of Siloe slew, were greater sinners then the rest? It is not safely, it is not charitably concluded. And therefore he carries their thoughts, as far on the other side, That he that suffered a calamity, was not only not the greatest, but no sinner; for so Christ says, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; (speaking of the man that was born blind.) Not that he, or his Parents had not sinned; but that that calamity was not laid upon him, in contemplation of any sin, but only for an occasion of the manifestation of Christs Divinity, in the miraculous recovery of that blind man. Therefore says Luther excellently, and elegantly, Non judicandum de cruce, secundùm praedicamentum Quantitatis, sed Relationis; We must not judge of a calamity, by the predicament of Quantity, How great that calamity is, but by the predicament of Relation, to what God referres that calamity, and what he intends in it; For, Deus ultionum Deus, (as S. Jerome reads that place) God is the God of revenge, And, Deus ultionum liberè agit, This God of revenge, revenges at his own liberty, when, and where, and how it pleases him.

And therefore, as we are bound to make good constructions of those corrections that God lays upon us, so are we to make good interpretations of those judgements which he casts upon others. First, for our selves, that which is said in S. Matthew, That at the day of judgement shall appear in heaven, the sign of the Son of Man, is frequently, ordinarily received by the Fathers, to be intended of the Cross; That before Christ himself appear, his sign, the Cross shall appear in the clouds. Now, this is not literally so, in the Text, nor is it necessarily deduced, but ordinarily by the Ancients it is so accepted, and though the sign of the Son of Man, may be some other thing, yet of this sign, the Cross, there may be this good application, That when God affords thee, this manifestation of his Cross, in the participation of those crosses and calamities that he suffered here, when thou hast this sign of the Son of Man upon thee, conclude to thy self that the Son of Man Christ Jesus is comming towards thee; and as thou hast the sign; thou shalt have the substance, as thou hast his Cross, thou shalt have his Glory. For, this is that which the Apostle intends; Vnto you it is given, (not laid upon you as a punishment, but given you as a benefit) not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for Christ. Where, the Apostle seems to make our crosses a kind of assurance, as well as our faith; for so he argues, Not only to believe, but to suffer; for, howsoever faith be a full evidence, yet our suffering is a new seal even upon that faith. And an evident seal, a conspicuous, a glorious seal. Quid gloriosius, quam Collegam Christi in passion factum fuisse? What can be more glorious, then to have been made a Collegue, a partner with Christ in his sufferings, and to have fulfilled his sufferings in my flesh. For that is the highest degree, which we can take in Christs school, as S. Denys the Areopagite expresses it, A Deo doctus, non solùm divina discit, sed divina patitur, (which we may well translate, or accommodate thus) He that is throughly taught by Christ, does not only believe all that Christ says, but conformes him to all that Christ did, and is ready to suffer as Christ suffered. Truly, if it were possible to fear any defect of joy in heaven, all that could fall into my fear would be but this, that in heaven I can no longer express my love by suffering for my God, for my Savior. A greater joy cannot enter into my heart then this, To suffer for him that suffered for me. As God saw that way prosper in the hands of Absalom, he sent for Job, and Job came not, he came not when he sent a second time, but when he sent Messengers to burn up his corn, then Job came, and then he time, but when he sent Messengers to burn up his corn, then Job came, and then he complied with Absalom, and seconded and accomplished his desires: So God calls us in his own outward Ordinances, and, a second time in his temporal blessings, and we come not; but we come the sooner, if he burn our Corn, if he draw us by afflicting us.

Now, as we are able to argue thus in our own cases, and in our own behalfes, as when a vehement calamity lies upon me, I can plead out of Gods precedents, and out of his method be able to say, This will not last: David was not ten years in banishment, but he enjoyed the Kingdom forty: God will recompense my hours of sorrow, with days of joy; If the calamity be both vehement and long, yet I can say with his blessed servant Augustine; Et cum blandiris pater es, & pater es cum caedis, I feel the hand of a father upon me when thou strokest me, and when thou strikest me I feel the hand of a father too, Blandiris ne deficiam, caedis ne peream, I know thy meaning when thou strokest me, it is, lest I should faint under thy hand, and I know thy meaning when thou strikest me, it is, lest I should not know thy hand; If the weight, and continuation of this calamity testify against me, (as Naomi said) that is, give others occasion to think, and to speak ill of me, as of a man, for some secret sins, forsaken of God, still Nazianzens refuge is my refuge, Hoc mihi commentor, This is my meditation, Si falsa objicit convitiator, non me attingit, If that which mine enemy says of me, be false, it concerns not me, he cannot mean me, It is not I that he speaks of, I am no such man; And then, Si vera dicit, If that which he says betrue, it begun not to be true, then when he said it, but was true when I did it; and therefore I must blame my self for doing, not him for speaking it; If I can argue thus in mine own case, and in mine own behalf, and not suspect Gods absence from me, because he lays calamities upon me, let me be also as charitable towards another, and not conclude ill, upon ill accidents; for there is nothing so ill, out of which, God, and a godly man cannot draw good. When John Hus was at the stake to be burnt, his eye fixed upon a poor plain Country-fellow, whom he observed to be busier then the rest, and to run oftener, to fetch more and more fagots, to burn him, and he said thereupon no more but this, O sancta simplicitas! O holy simplicity! He meant that that man, being then under an invincible ignorance, mis-led by that zeal, thought he did God service in burning him. But such an interpretation will hardly be applicable to any of these hasty and inconsiderate Judges of other men, that give way to their own passion; for zeal, and uncharitableness are incompatible things; zeal and uncharitableness cannot consist together: and there was evident uncharitableness in these men of Maltas proceeding, when, because the Viper seized his hand, they condemned him for a murderer.

It is true, they saw a concurrence of circumstances, and that is always more weighty, then single evidence. They saw a man who had been near drowning; yet he scaped that. They saw he had gathered a bundle of sticks, in which the Viper was enwrapped, and yet did him no harm when it was in his hand; He scaped that. And then they saw that Viper dart it self out of the fire again, and of all the company fasten upon that man. What should they think of that man? In Gods Name, what they would, to the advancement of Gods glory. They might justly have thought that God was working upon that man, and had some great work to do upon that man. We put no stop to zeal; we only tell you, where zeal determines; where uncharitableness enters, zeal goes out, and passion counterfeits that zeal. God seeks no glory out of the uncharitable condemning of another man. And then, in this proceeding of these men, we justly note the slipperiness, the precipitation, the bottomelesness of uncharitableness, in judgement; they could consist no where, till they charged him with murder, Surely he is a murderer. Many crimes there were, and those capital, and such as would have indueed death, on this side of murder, but they stopped at none, till they came to the worst. And truly it is easy to be observed, in the ways of this world, that when men have once conceived an uncharitable opinion against another man, they are apt to believe from others, apt to imagine in themselves any kind of ill, of that man; Sometimes so much, and so falsely, as makes even that which is true, the less credible. For, when passionate men will load a man with all, sad and equitable men begin to doubt whether any be true; and a Malefactor scapes sometimes by being overcharged.

But I move not out of mine own sphere; my sphere is your edification, upon this centre, The proceeding of these men of Malta with S. Paul; upon them, and upon you I look directly, and I look only, without any glance, any reflection upon any other object. And therefore having said enough of those two Branches which constitute our first Part, That to argue out of Gods judgements, his displeasure is natural, but then that natural Logic should determine in the zeal of advancing Gods glory, and not stray into an uncharitable condemning of particular persons, because in this uncharitableness there is such a slipperiness, such a precipitation, such a bottomelesness, as that these hasty censurers could stop no where till they came to the highest charge; having said enough of this, we pass, in our order, to our second Part, to that which they did, when they changed their minds, They changed their minds, and said he was a God.

In this second part we consider first, the incongruity of depending upon any thing in this world; for, all will change. Men have considered usefully the incongruity of building the tore of Babel, in this, That to have erected a Tore that should have carried that height that they intended in that, the whole body of the earth, the whole Globe, and substance thereof would not have served for a basis, for a foundation to that Tore. If all the timber of all the forests in the world, all the quarries of stones, all the mines of Lead and Iron had been laid together, nay if all the earth and sea had been petrified, and made one stone, all would not have served for a basis, for a foundation of that Tore; from whence then must they have had their materials for all the superedifications? So to establish a trust, a confidence, such an acquiescence as a man may rely upon, all this world affords not a basis, a foundation; for every thing in this world is fluid, and transitory, and sandy, and all dependance, all assurance built upon this world, is but a building upon sand; all will change. It is true, that a faire reputation, a good opinion of men, is, though not a foundation to build upon, yet a faire stone in the building, and such a stone, as every man is bound to provide himself of. For, for the most part, most men are such, as most men take them to be; Neminem omnes, nemo omnes fefellit; All the world never joined to deceive one man, nor was ever any one man able to deceive all the world. Contemptu famae contemnuntur & virtutes, was so well said by Tacitus, as it is pity S. Augustine said it not, They that neglect the good opinion of others, neglect those virtues that should produce that good opinion. Therefore S. Jerome protests to abhor that Paratum de trivio, as he calls it, that vulgar, that street, that dunghill language, Satis mihi, as long as mine own conscience reproaches me of nothing, I care not what all the world says. We must care what the world says, and study that they may say well of us. But when they do, though this be a faire stone in the wall, it is no foundation to build upon, for, They change their minds.

Who do? our text does not tell us who; The story does not tell us, of what quality and condition these men of Malta were, who are here said to have changed their minds. Likeliest they are to have been of the vulgar, the ordinary, the inferior sort of people, because they are likeliest to have flocked and gathered together upon this occasion of Pauls shipwreck upon that Iland. And that kind of people are always justly thought to be most subject to this levity, To change their minds. The greatest Poet lays the greatest levity and change that can be laid, to this kind of people; that is, In contraria, That they change even from one extreme to another; Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus Where that Poet does not only mean, that the people will be of divers opinions from one another, for, for the most part they are not so; for the most part they think, and wish, and love, and hate together; and they do all by example, as others do, and upon no other reason, but therefore, because others do. Neither was that Poet ever bound up by his words, that he should say In contraria, because a milder, or more modified word would not stand in his verse; but he said it, because it is really true, The people will change into contrary opinions; And whereas an Angel it self cannot pass from East to West, from extreme to extreme, without touching upon the way between, the people will pass from extreme to extreme, without any middle opinion; last minutes murderer, is this minutes God, and in an instant, Paul, whom they sent to be judged in hell, is made a judge in heaven. The people will change. In the multitude of people is the Kings honor; And therefore Job made that prayer in the behalf of David, The Lord thy God add unto thy people, how many soever they be, a hundred fold. But when David came to number his people with a confidence in their number, God took away the ground of that confidence, and lessened their number seventy thousand in three days. Therefore as David could say, I will not be afraid of ten thousand men, so he should say, I will not confide in ten thousand men, though multiplied by millions; for they will change, and at such an ebb, the popular man will lye, as a Whale upon the sands deserted by the tide. We find in the Roman story, many examples (particularly in Commodus his time, upon Cleander, principal Gentleman of his Chamber) of severe executions upon men that have courted the people, though in a way of charity, and giving them corn in a time of dearth, or upon like occasions. There is danger in getting them, occasioned by jealousy of others, there is difficulty in holding them, by occasion of levity in themselves; Therefore we must say with the Prophet, Cursed be the man, that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For, They, the people, will change their minds.

But yet there is nothing in our text, that binds us to fixe this levity upon the people only. The text does not say, That there was none of the Princes of the People, no Commanders, no Magistrates present at this accident, and partners in this levity. Neither is it likely, but that in such a place as Malta, an Iland, some persons of quality and command resided about the coast, to receive and to give intelligence, and directions upon all emergent occasions of danger, and that some such were present at this accident, and gave their voice both ways, in the exclamation, and in the acclamation, That he was a murderer, and that he was a God. For, They will change their minds; All, High as well as low, will change. A good Statesman Polybius says, That the people are naturally as the Sea; naturally smooth, and calm, and still, and even; but then naturally apt to be moved by influences of Superior bodies; and so the people apt to change by them who have a power over their affections, or a power over their wills. So says he, the Sea is apt to be moved by storms and tempests; and so, the people apt to change with rumors and windy reports. So, the Sea is moved, So the people are changed, says Polybius. But Polybius might have carried his politique consideration higher then the Sea, to the Aire too; and applied it higher then to the people, to greater persons; for the Aire is shook and transported with vapours and exhalations, as much as the sea with winds and storms; and great men as much changed with ambitions in themselves, and flatteries from others, as inferior people with influences, and impressions from them. All change their minds; High, as well as low will change. But I am the Lord; I change not. I, and only I have that immunity, Immutability; And therefore, says God there, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed; Therefore, because I, I who cannot change have loved you; for they, who depend upon their love, who can change, are in a woeful condition. And that involves all; all can, all will, all do change, high and low.

Therefore, It is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in man. What man? Any man. It is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in Princes. Which David thought worth the repeating; for he says it again, Put not your trust in Princes. Not that you may not trust their royal words, and gracious promises to you; not that you may not trust their Counsels, and executions of those Counsels, and the distribution of your contributions for those executions; not that you may not trust the managing of affaires of State in their hands, without jealous inquifitions, or suspicious mis-interpretations of their actions. In these you must trust Princes, and those great persons whom Princes trust; But when these great persons are in the balance with God, there they weigh as little, as less men. Nay, as David hath ranked and disposed them, less; for thus he conveys that consideration, Surely men of low degree are vanity; that is sure enough; there is little doubt of that; men of low degree can profit us nothing; they cannot pretend or promise to do us good; But then says David there, Men of high degree are a lye; They pretend a power, and a purpose to do us good, and then disappoint us. Many times men cannot, many times men will not; neither can we find in any but God himself, a constant power, and a constant will, upon which we may rely: The men of Malta, of what rank soever they were, did; all men, low and high, will change their minds.

Neither have these men of Malta (consider them in what quality you will) so much honor afforded them, in the Original, as our translation hath given them. We say, they changed their minds; the Original says only this, they changed, and no more. Alas, they, we, men of this world, worms of this dunghil, whether Basilisks or blind worms, whether Scarabs or Silkworms, whether high or low in the world, have no minds to change. The Platonique Philosophers did not only acknowledge Animā in homine, a soul in man, but Mentem in anima, a mind in the soul of man. They meant by the mind, the superior faculties of the soul, and we never come to exercise them. Men and women call one another inconstant, and accuse one another of having changed their minds, when, God knows, they have but changed the object of their eye, and seen a better white or red. An old man loves not the same sports that he did when he was young, nor a sick man the same meats that he did when he was well: But these men have not changed their minds; The old man hath changed his fancy, and the sick man his taste; neither his mind.

The Mind implies consideration, deliberation, conclusion upon premisses; and we never come to that; we never put the soul home; we never bend the soul up to her height; we never put her to a trial what she is able to do towards discerning a temptation, what towards resisting a temptation, what towards repenting a temptation; we never put her to trial what she is able to do by her natural faculties, whether by them she cannot be as good as a Plato, or a Socrates, who had no more but those natural faculties; what by virtue of Gods general grace, which is that providence, in which he inwraps all his creatures, whether by that she cannot know her God, as well as the Ox knows his Crib, and the Stork her nest; what by virtue of those particular graces, which God offers her in his private inspirations at home, and in his public Ordinances here, whether by those she cannot be as good an hour hence, as she is now; and as good a day after, as that day that she receives the Sacrament; we never put the soul home, we never bend the soul up to her height; and the extent of the soul is this mind. When David speaks of the people, he says, They imagine a vain thing; It goes no farther, then to the fancy, to the imagination; it never comes so near the mind, as Consideration, Reflection, Examination, they only imagine, fancy a vain thing, which is but a waking dream, for the fancy is the seat, the scene, the theatre of dreams. When David speaks there of greater persons, he carries it farther then so, but yet not to the mind; The Rulers take counsel, says David; but not of the mind, not of rectified and religious reason; but, They take counsel together, says he; that is, of one another; They sit still and harken what the rest will do, and they will do accordingly. Now, this is but a Herding, it is not an Union; This is for the most part, a following of affections, and passions, which are the inferior servants of the soul, and not of that, which we understand here by the Mind, The deliberate resolutions, and executions of the superior faculties thereof.

They changed, says our Text; not their minds; there is no evidence, no appearance, that they exercised any, that they had any; but they changed their passions. Nay, they have not so much honor, as that afforded them, in the Original; for it is not They changed, but They were changed, passively; Men subject to the transportation of passion, do nothing of themselves, but are merely passive; And being possest with a spirit of fear, or a spirit of ambition, as those spirits move them, in a minute their yea is nay, their smile is a frown, their light is darkness, their good is evil, their Murderer is a God. These men of Malta changed, not their minds, but their passions, and so did not change advisedly, but passionately were changed, and in that distemper, they said, He is a God.

In this hasty acclamation of theirs, He is a God, we are come to that which was our principal intention in this part, That as man hath in him a natural Logic, but that strays into Fallacies, in uncharitable judgements, so man hath in him a natural Religion, but that strays into idolatry, and superstition. The men of Malta were but mere natural men, and yet were so far from denying God, as that they multiplied Gods to themselves. The soul of man brings with it, into the body, a sense and an acknowledgment of God; neither can all the abuses that the body puts upon the soul, whilst they dwell together, (which are infinite) divest that acknowledgement, or extinguish that sense of God in the soul. And therefore by what several names soever the old heathen Philosophers called their gods, still they meant all the same God. Chrysippus presented God to the world, in the notion and apprehension of Divina Necessitas, That a certain divine necessity which lay upon every thing, that every thing must necessarily be thus and thus done, that that Necessity was God; and this, others have called by another name, Destiny. Zeno presented God to the world, in the notion and apprehension of Divina lex; That it was not a constraint, a necessity, but a Divine law, an ordinance, and settled course for the administration of all things; And this law was Zenoes God; and this, others have called by another name, Nature. The Brachmans, which are the Priests in the East, they present God, in the notion and apprehension of Divina lux, That light is God; in which, they express themselves, not to mean the fire, (which some natural men worshipped for God) nor the Sun, (which was worshipped by more) but by their light, they mean that light, by which man is enabled to see into the next world; and this we may well call by a better Name, for it is Grace. But still Chrysippus by his Divine Necessity, which is Destiny, and Zeno by his Divine law, which is Nature, and the Brachmans by their Divine light, which is Grace, (though they make the operations of God, God) yet they all intend in those divers names, the same power.

The natural man knows God. But then, to the natural man, who is not only finite, and determined in a compass, but narrow in his compass, not only not bottomless, but shallow in his comprehensions, to this natural, this smite, and narrow, and shallow man, no burden is so insupportable, no consideration so inextrieable, no secret so inscrutable, no conception so incredible, as to conceive One infinite God, that should do all things alone, without any more Gods. That that power that establishes counsels, that things may be carried in a constancy, and yet permits Contingencies, that things shall fall out casually, That the God of Certainty, and the God of Contingency should be all one God, That that God that settles peace, should yet make wars, and in the day of battle, should be both upon that side that does, and that side that is overcome, That the conquered God, and the victorious God, should be both one God, That that God who is all goodness in himself, should yet have his hand in every ill action, this the natural man cannot digest, not comprehend. And therefore the natural man eases himself, and thinks he cases God, by diuiding the burden, and laying his particular necessities upon particular Gods. Hence came those enormous multiplications of Gods; Hesiods thirty thousand Gods; and three hundred Iupiters. Hence came it that they brought their children into the world under one God, and then put them to nurse, and then to school, and then to occupations and professions under other several Gods. Hence came their Vagitanus, a God that must take care that children do not burst with crying; and their Fabulanus, a God that must take care, that children do not stammer in speaking; Hence came their Statelinus, and their Potinus, a God that must teach them to go, and a God that must teach them to drink. So far, as that they came to make Febrem Deam, To erect Temples and Altars to diseases, to age, to death it self; and so, all those punishments, which our true God laid upon man for sin, all our infirmities they made Gods. So far is the natural man from denying God, as that he thus multiplies them.

But yet never did these natural men, the Gentiles ascribe so much to their Gods, (except some very few of them) as they of the Roman persuasion may seem to do to their Saints. For they limited their devotions, and sacrifices, and supplications, in some certain and determined things, and those, for the most part, in this world; but in the Roman Church, they all ask all of all, for they ask even things pertaining to the next world. And as they make their Saints verier Gods then the Gentiles do theirs, in asking greater things at their hands, so have they more of them. For, if there be not yet more Saints celebrated by Name, then will make up Hesiods thirty thousand, yet they have more, in this respect, that of Hesiods thirty thousand, one Nation worshiped one, another another thousand; In the Roman Church, all worship all. And howsoever it be for the number, yet, saith one, we may live to see the number of Hesiods thirty thousand equalled, and exceeded; for, if the Jesuit, who have got two of their Order into the Consistory, (they have had two Cardinalls) and two of their Order into heaven, (they have had two Saints Canonized) if they could get one of their Order into the Chayre, one Pope; As we read of one General that knighted his whole Army at once; so such a Pope may Canonize his whole Order, and then Hesiods thirty thousand would be literally fulfilled.

And, that, as we have done, in the multiplication of their gods, so, in their superstition to their created gods, we may also observe a congruity, a conformity, a concurrence between the Heathen and the Roman Religion; As the Heathen east such an intimidation, such an infatuation, not only upon the people, but upon the Princes too, as that in the Story of the Aegyptian Kings we find, that whensoever any of their Priests signified unto any of their Kings, that it was the pleasure of his God, that he should leave that kingdom, and come up to him, that King did always without any contradiction, any hesitation, kill himself; so are they come so near to this in the Roman Church, as that, though they cannot infatuate such Princes, as they are weary of to kill themselves, yet when they are weary of Princes, they can infatuate other men, to those assassinats, of which our neighbor kingdom hath felt the blow more then once, and we the offer, and the plotting more then many times.

That that I drive to, in this consideration, is this, That since man is naturally apt to multiply Gods to himself, we do with all Christian diligence shut up our selves in the belief and worship of our one and only God; without admitting any more Mediators, or Intercessors, or Advocates, in any of those Modifications or Distinctions, with which the later men have painted and disguized the Religion of Rome, to make them the more passable, and without making any one step towards meeting them, in their superstitious errors, but adhere entirely to our only Advocate, and Mediator, and Intercessor Christ Jesus; for he does no more need an Assistant, in any of those offices, then in his office of Redeemer, or Savior; and therefore, as they require no fellow Redeemer, no fellow-Savior, so neither let us admit any fellow-Advocate, fellow-Mediator, fellow-Intercessor in heaven. For why may not that reason hold all the year, which they assign in the Roman Church, for their forbearance of prayers to any Saint, upon certain days? Upon Good-Fryday, and Easter-day, and Whit sunday, say they, we must not pray to any Saint, no not to the blessed Virgin, Quia Christus, & Spiritus Sanctus, sunt tune temporis, supremi, & unici Advocati. Because upon those days, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are our principal, nay upon those days, our only Advocares. And are Christ, and the Holy Ghost out of office a week after Easter, or after Whitsontide? Since man is naturally apt to multiply Gods, let us be Christianly diligent, to conclude our selves in One.

And then, since man is also naturally apt to stray into a superstitious worship of God, let us be Christianly diligent, to preclude all ways, that may lead us into that temptation, or incline us towards superstition. In which, I do not intend, that we should decline all such things, as had been superstitiously abused, in a superstitious Church; But, in all such things, as being in their own nature indifferent, are, by a just commandment of lawful authority, become more then indifferent (necessary) to us, though not Necessitate medii, yet Necessitate praecepti, (for, though salvation consist not in Ceremonies, Obedience doth, and salvation consists much in Obedience) That in all such things, we always inform our selves, of the right use of those things in their first institution, of their abuse with which they have been depraved in the Roman Church, and of the good use which is made of them in ours. That because pictures have been adored, we do not abhor a picture; Nor sit at the Sacrament, because Idolatry hath been committed in kneeling. That Church, which they call Lutheran, hath retained more of these Ceremonies, then ours hath done; And ours more then that which they call Calvinist; But both the Lutheran, and ours, without danger, because, in both places, we are diligent to preach to the people the right use of these indifferent things. For this is a true way of shutting out superstition, Not always to abolish the thing it self, because in the right use thereof, the spiritual profit, and edification may exceed the danger, but by preaching, and all convenient ways of instruction, to deliver people out of that ignorance, which possesses people in the Roman captivity.

From which natural inclination of man, we raise this, by way of conclusion of all, That since man is naturally apt to multiply Gods to himself, and naturally apt to worship his Gods superstitiously, since there is a proneness to many Gods, and to superstition, in nature, There cannot be so unnatural a thing, no such Monster in nature, or against nature, as an Atheist, that believes no God. For, when we, we that are Christians, have reproached this Atheist, thus far, our way, Canst not thou believe one God? such a debility, such a nullity in thy faith, as not to believe one God? we require no more, and canst thou not do that, not one? when we, we that are Christians, have reproached him so far, The natural man of whose company he will pretend to be, will reproach him so much farther, as to say, Canst not thou believe one God? We, we who proceed by the same light that thou doest, believe a thousand. So that the natural man is as ready, readier then the Christian, to excommunicate the Atheist; For, the Atheist that denies all Gods, does much more oppose the natural man, that believes a thousand, then the Christian, that believes but one.

Poor intricated soul! Riddling, perplexed, labyrinthical soul! Thou couldest not say, that thou beleevest not in God, if there were no God; Thou couldest not believe in God, if there were no God; If there were no God, thou couldest not speak, thou couldest not think, not a word, not a thought, no not against God; Thou couldest not blaspheme the Name of God, thou couldest not swear, if there were no God: For, all thy faculties, how ever depraved, and perverted by thee, are from him; and except thou canst seriously believe, that thou art nothing, thou canst not believe that there is no God. If I should ask thee at a Tragedy, where thou shouldest see him that had drawn blood, lie weltering, and surrounded in his own blood, Is there a God now? If thou couldst answer me, No, These are but Inventions, and Representations of men, and I believe a God never the more for this; If I should ask thee at a Sermon, where thou shouldest hear the Judgements of God formerly denounced, and executed, re-denounced, and applied to present occasions, Is there a God now? If thou couldest answer me, No, These are but Inventions of State, to souple and regulate Congregations, and keep people in order, and I believe a God never the more for this; Be as confident as thou canst, in company; for company is the Atheists Sanctuary; I respite thee not till the day of Judgement, when I may see thee upon thy knees, upon thy face, begging of the hills, that they would fall down and cover thee from the fierce wrath of God, to ask thee then, Is there a God now? I respite thee not till the day of thine own death, when thou shalt have evidence enough, that there is a God, though no other evidence, but to find a Devil, and evidence enough, that there is a Heaven, though no other evidence, but to feel Hell; To ask thee then, Is there a God now? I respite thee but a few hours, but six hours, but till midnight. Wake then; and then dark, and alone, Hear God ask thee then, remember that I asked thee now, Is there a God? and if thou darest, say No.

And then, as there is an universal Atheist, an Athiest over all the world, that believes no God, so is he also an Atheist, over all the Christian world, that believes not Christ. That which the Apostle says to the Ephesians; Absque Christo, absque Deo, As long as you were without Christ, you were without God, is spoken (at least) to all that have heard Christ preached; not to believe God, so, as God hath exhibited, and manifested himself, in his Son Christ Jesus, is, in S. Pauls acceptation of that word, Atheism: and S. Paul, and he that speaks in S. Paul, is too good a Grammarian, too great a Critique for thee to dispute against.

And then, as there is an universal Atheist, he that denies God, And a more particular Atheist, he that denies Christ; so in a narrower, and yet large sense of the word, there is an actual Atheist, a practical Atheist, who though he do pretend to make God, and God in Christ the object of his faith, yet does not make Christ, and Christ in the holy Ghost, that is, Christ working in the Ordinances of his Church, the rule and pattern of his actions, but lives so, as no man can believe that he believes in God.

This universal Atheist, that believes no God, the heavens, and all the powers therein, shall condemn at the last day; The particular Atheist, that believes no Christ, the glorious company of the Apostles, that established the Church of Christ, shall condemn at that day; And the practical Atheist, the ungodly liver, the noble army of Martyrs, that did, and suffered so much for Christ, shall then condemn. And condemn him, not only as the most impious thing, but as the most inhumane; Not only as the most ungodly, but as the most unnatural thing: for an Atheist is not only a Devil in Religion, but a monster in nature; not only elemented and composed of Heresies in the Church, but of paradoxes, and absurdities in the world; Natural men, the men of Malta, even Barbarians, though subject to levity and changing their minds, yet make this their first act after their change, to constitute a God, though in another extreme, yet in an evident and absolute averseness from Atheism; They changed their minds, and said, he was a God. And be this enough for the Explication of the words, and their Application, and Complication to the celebration of the day.

The God of heaven rectify in us our natural Logic; That in all his Judgements we glorify God, without uncharitable condemning other men. The God of heaven sanctify to us our natural Religion, That it be never quenched nor damped in us, never blown out by Atheism, nor blown up by an Idolatrous multiplying of false, or a superstitious worship of our true God. The God of heaven preserve us in safety, by the power of the Father; In saving knowledge, by the wisdom of the Son; And in a peaceful unity of affections, by the love and goodness of the holy Ghost. Amen.

Serm. XLIX. Preached on the Conversion of S. PAUL. 1629.

ACTS 23.6, 7.

But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the Council, Men and Brethren, I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee; Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

And when he had so said, there arose a dissention between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided.

WE consider ordinarily in the old Testament, God the Father; And in the Gospels, God the Son; And in this Book, the Acts, and in the Epistles, and the rest, God the Holy Ghost, that is, God in the Government and Administration of his Church, as well in the ordinary Ministry and constant callings therein, as in the extraordinary use of general Councells; of which, we have the Model, and Platform, and precedent in the fifteenth Chapter of this Book. The Book is noted to have above twenty Sermons of the Apostles; and yet the Book is not called The Sermons, The Preaching of the Apostles, but the Practise, the Acts of the Apostles. Our actions, if they be good, speak louder then our Sermons; Our preaching is our speech, our good life is our eloquence. Preaching celebrates the Sabbath, but a good life makes the whole week a Sabbath, that is, A savor of rest in the nostrils of God, as it is said of Noahs Sacrifice, when he came out of the Ark. The Book is called The Acts of the Apostles; But says S. Chrysostom, and S. Jerome too, it might be called the Acts of S. Paul, so much more is it conversant about him, then all the rest. In which respect, at this time of the year, and in these days, when the Church commemorates the Conversion of S. Paul, I have, for divers years successively, in this place, determined my self upon this Book. Once upon the very act of his Conversion, in those words, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Once upon his valediction to his Ephesians at Miletus, in those words, Now I know that all ye shall see my face no more; And once upon the escape from the Vipers teeth, and the viperous tongues of those inconstant and clamorous beholders, who first rashly cried out, He is a murderer, and then changed their minds, and said, He is a God. And now, for the service of your devotions, and the advancement of your edification, I have laid my meditations upon this his Stratagem, and just avoiding of an unjust Judgement, When Paul percived that one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, &c.

In handling of which words, because they have occasioned a Disputation, and a Problem, whether this that Paul did, were well done, To raise a dissention amongst his Judges, we shall stop first upon that Consideration, That all the actions of holy men, of Apostles in the new Testament, of Patriarchs in the old, are not to be drawn into example and consequence for others, no nor always to be excused and justified in them that did them; All actions of holy men, are not holy; that is first. And secondly, we shall consider this action of S. Paul, in some circumstances that invest it, and in some effects that it produced in our Text, as dissention amongst his Judges, and so a reprieving, or rather a putting off of the trial for that time; and these will determine our second Consideration. And in a third, we shall lodge all these in our selves, and make it our own case, and find that we have all Sadducees and Pharisees in our own bosoms, (contrary affections in our own hearts) and find an advantage in putting these home-Sadducees, and home-Pharisees, these contrary affections in our own bosoms, in colluctation, and opposition against one another, that they do not combine, and unite themselves to our farther disadvantage; A Civil war, is, in this case, our way to peace; when one sinful affection crosses another, we scape better, then when all join, without any resistance. And in these three, first the General, How we are to estimate all actions, And then the Particular, what we are to think of S. Pauls Action, And lastly, the Individual, How we are to direct and regulate our own Actions, we shall determine all.

First then, though it be a safer way, to suspect an action to be sin that is not, then to presome an action to be no sin, that is so, yet that rule holds better in our selves, then in other men; for, in judging the actions of other men, our suspicion may soon stray into an uncharitable mis-interpretation, and we may sin in condemning that in another, which was no sin in him that did it. But, in truth, Transilire lineam, To depart from the direct and straight line, is sin, as well on the right hand, as on the left; And the Devil makes his advantages upon the over-tender, and scrupulous conscience, as well as upon the over-confident, and obdurate; and many men have erred as much, in justifying some actions of holy men, as in calumniating, or mis-condemning of others. If we had not evidence in Scripture, that Abraham received that Commandment from God, who could justify Abrahams proceeding with his son Isaac? And therefore who shall be afraid to call Noahs Drunkenness, and his undecent lying in his Tent, Or Lots Drunkenness, and his iterated Incest with his Daughters, or his inconsiderate offer to prostitute his Daughters to the Sodomites, Or to call Davids complicated and multiplied sin, a sin? When the Church celebrates Samsons death, though he killed himself, it is upon a tender & holy supposition, that he might do this not without some instinct and inspiration from the Spirit of God. But howsoever the Church interprets such actions, it is a dangerous and a fallacious way, for any private man to argue so, The Spirit of God directed this man in many actions, therefore in all; And dangerous to conclude an action to be good, either because he that did it, had a good purpose in doing it, or because some good effects proceeded from it. Bonum bene, are the two horses that must carry us to heaven; To do good things, and to do them well; To propose good ends, and to go by good ways to those good ends. The Mid-wives lie, in the behalf of the Israelites children, was a lie, and a sin, howsoever God, out of his own goodness, found something in their piety, to reward. I should not venture to say, as he said, nor to say that he said well, when Moses said, Dele me, Forgive their sin, or blot me out of thy Book; Nor when S. Paul said, Anathema pro fratribus, I could wish that my self were separated from Christ for my Brethren. I would not, I could not without sin, be content that my name should be blotted out of the Book of Life, or that I should be separated from Christ, though all the world beside were to be blotted out, and separated, if I staid in.

The benefit that we are to make of the errors of holy men, is not that, That man did this, therefore I may do it: but this, God suffered that holy man to fall, and yet loved that good soul well, God hath not therefore cast me away, though he have suffered me to fall too. Bread is mans best sustenance, yet there may be a dangerous surfeit of bread: Charity is the bread that the soul lives by; yet there may be a surfeit of charity; I may mis-lead my self shrewdly, if I say, surely my Father is a good man, my Master a good man, my Pastor a good man, men that have the testimony of Gods love, by his manifold blessings upon them; and therefore I may be bold to do whatsoever I see them do. Be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven, is perfect, is the example that Christ gives you. Be yee followers of me, as I am of Christ, is the example that the Apostle gives you. Good Examples are good Assistances; but no Example of man is sufficient to constitute a certain and constant rule; All the actions of the holiest man are not holy.

Hence appears the vanity and impertinency of that calumny, with which our adversaries of the Roman persuasion labor to oppress us, That those points in which we depart from them, cannot be well established, because therein we depart from the Fathers; As though there were no condemnation to them, that pretended a perpetual adhering to the Fathers, nor salvation to them, who suspected any Father of any mistaking. And they have thought that one thing enough, to discredit, and blast, and annihilate that great and useful labor, which the Centuriators, the Magdeburgenses took in compiling the Ecclesiastical Story, that in every age as they pass, those Authors have laid out a particular section, a particular Chapter De navis Patrum, to note the mistakings of the Fathers in every age; This they think a criminal and a heinous thing, enough to discredit the whole work; As though there were ever in any age, any Father, that mistook nothing, or that it were blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, to note such a mistaking. And yet, if those blessed Fathers, now in possession of heaven, be well affected with our celebrating, or ill, with our neglecting their works, certainly they find much more cause to complain of our adversaries, then of us. Never any in the Reformation hath spoken so lightly, nay, so heavily; so negligently, nay, so diligently, so studiously in diminution of the Fathers, as they have done. One of the first Jesuits proceeds with modesty and ingenuity, and yet says, Quaelibet aetas antiquitati detulit, Every age hath been apt to ascribe much to the Ancient Fathers; Hoc autem asserimus, says he, Iuniores Doctors perspicaciores, This we must necessarily acknowledge, that our later Men have seen farther then the elder Fathers did. His fellow Jesuit goes farther; Hoc omnes dicunt, sed non probant, says he, speaking of one person in the Genealogy of Christ, This the Fathers say, says he, and later men too; Catholics, and Heretics; All: But none of them prove it; He will not take their words, not the whole Churches, though they all agree. But a Bishop of as much estimation and authority in the Council of Trent, as any, goes much farther; Being pressed with S. Augustins opinion, he says, Nec nos tantillum moveat Augustinus, Let it never trouble us, which way S. Augustine goes; Hoc enim illi peculiare, says he, ut alium errorem expugnans, alteri ansam praebeat, for this is inseparable from S. Augustine, That out of an earnestness to destroy one error, he will establish another. Nor doth that Bishop impute that distemper only to S. Augustine, but to S. Jerome too; Of him he says, In medio positus certamine, ar dor feriendi adversarios, premit & socios, S. Jerome lays about him, and rather then miss his enemy, he wounds his friends also. But all that might better be born then this, Turpiter errarunt Patres, The Fathers fell foully into errors; And this, better then that, Eorum opinio, opinio Haereticorum, The Fathers differ not from the Heretics, concur with the Heretics. Who in the Reformation hath charged the Fathers so far? and yet Baronius hath.

If they did not oppress us with this calumny of neglecting, or undervaluing the Fathers, we should not make our recourse to this way of recrimination; for, God knows, if it be modestly done. and with the reverence, in many respects, due to them, it is no fault to say the Fathers fell into some faults. Yet, it is rather our Adversaries observation then ours, That all the Ancient Fathers were Chiliasts, Millenarians, and maintained that error of a thousand years temporal happiness upon this earth, between the Resurrection, and our actual and eternal possession of Heaven; It is their observation rather then ours, That all the Ancient Fathers denied the dead a fruition of the sight of God, till the day of Judgement; It is theirs rather then ours, That all the Greek Fathers, and some of the Latin, assigned Gods foreknowledge of mans works, to be the cause of his predestination. It is their note, That for the first six hundred years, the general opinion, and general practise of the Church was, To give the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, to Infants newly baptized, as a thing necessary to their salvation. They have noted, That the opinion of the Ancient Fathers was contrary to the present opinion in the Church of Rome, concerning the conception of the blessed Virgin without Original sin. These notes and imputations arise from their Authors, and not from ours, and they have told it us, rather then we them.

Indeed neither we nor they can dissemble the mistakings of the Fathers. The Fathers themselves would not have them dissembled. De me, says S. Jerome, ubicunque de meo sensu loquor, arguat me quilibet, For my part, wheresoever I deliver but mine own opinion, every man hath his liberty to correct me. It is true, S. Augustine does call Iulian the Pelagian to the Fathers; but it is to vindicate and redeem the Fathers from those calumnies which Iulian had laid upon them, that they were Multitudo caecorum, a herd, a swarm of blind guides, and followers of one another, And that they were Conspiratio perditorum, Damned Conspirators against the truth. To set the Fathers in their true light, and to restore them to their lustre and dignity, and to make Iulian confess what reverend persons they were, S. Aug. calls him to the consideration of the Fathers, but not to try matters of faith by them alone. For, Sapientiam sibi adimit, qui sine judicio majorum inventa probat, That man devests himself of all discretion, who, without examination, captivates his understanding to the Fathers.

It is ingenuously said by one of their later Writers, (if he would but give us leave to say so too) Sequamur Patres, tanquam Duces, non tanquam Dominos, Let us follow the Fathers as Guides, not as Lords over our understandings, as Counsellors, not as Commanders. It is too much to say of any Father that which Nicephorus says of S. Chrysostom, In illius perind at que in Dei verbis quiesco, I am as safe in Chrysostomes words, as in the Word of God; That is too much. It is too much to say of any Father that which Sophronius says of Leo, That his Epistles were Divina Scriptura, tanquam ex ore Petri prolata, & fundamentum fidei, That he received the Epistles that Leo writ, as holy writ, as written by S. Peter himself, and as the foundation of his faith; that is too much. It is too much to say of S. Peter himself that which Chrysologus says, That he is Immobile fundamentum salutis, The immoveable foundation of our salvation, & Mediator noster apud Deum, The Mediator of man to God. Their Jesuit Azorius gives us a good Caution herein; He says it is a good and safe way, in all emergent doubts, to govern our selves Per communem opinionem, by the the common opinion, by that, in which most Authors agree; But says he, how shall we know which is the common opinion? Since, not only that is the common opinion in one Age, that is not so in another, (The common opinion was in the Primitive Church, that the blessed Virgin was conceived in Original sin, The common opinion now, is that she was not) But if we consider the same Age, that is the common opinion in one place, in one country, which is not so in another place, at the same time; That Jesuit puts his example in the worship of the Cross of Christ, and says, That, at this day, in Germany and in France it is the common opinion, and Catholic Divinity, That, Divine worship is not due to the Cross of Christ; In Italy and in Spain it is the common opinion, and Catholic Divinity, that it is due. Now, how shall he govern himself, that is unlearned, and not able to try, which is the common opinion? Or how shall the learnedest of all govern himself if he have occasion to travail, but to change his Divinity, as often as he changes his Coin, and when he turns his Dutch Dollers into Pistolets, to go out of Germany, into Spain, turn his Devotion, and his religious worship according to the Clime? To end this Consideration, The holy Patriarchs in the Old Testament, were holy men, though they straid into some sinful actions; the holy Fathers in the Primitive Church, were holy men, though they strayed into some erroneous opinions; But neither are the holiest mens actions always holy, nor the soundest Fathers opinions always sound. And therefore the question hath been not impertinently moved, whether this that S. Paul did here, were justifiably done, Who, when he perceived that one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, &c. And so we are come to our second part, from the consideration of Actions in general, to this particular action of S. Paul.

In this second part we make three steps. First we shall consider, what Council, what Court this was, before whom S. Paul was convented, (He cried out in the Council, says the text) whether they were his competent Judges, and so he bound to a clear, and direct proceeding with them; And secondly, what his end and purpose was, that he proposed to himself; which was to divide the Judges, and so to put off his trial to another day; for, when he had said that, (says the text) that that he had to say, there arose a Dissention, and the multitude, All, both Judges, and spectators, and witnesses, were divided; And then lastly, by what way he went to this end; which was by a double protestation; first that, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee; And then that, Of the hope and Resurrection of the dead, I am called in question.

First then, for the competency of his Judges, Whether a man be examined before a competent Judge or no, he may not lye: we can put no case, in which it may be lawful for any man to lye to any man; not to a midnight, nor to a noon thief, that breaks my house, or assaults my person, I may not lye. And though many have put names of disguise, as Equivocations, and Reservations, yet they are all children of the same father, the father of lies, the devil, and of the same brood of vipers, they are lyes. To an Incompetent Judge, if I be interrogated, I must speak truth, if I speak; but to a Competent Judge, I must speak: With the Incompetent I may not be false, but with the Competent, I may not be silent. Certainly, that standing mute at the Bar, which, of late times hath prevailed upon many distempered wretches, is, in it self, so particularly a sin, as that I should not venture to absolve any such person, nor to administer the Sacrament to him, how earnestly soever he desired it at his death, how penitently soever he confessed all his other sins, except he repented in particular, that sin, of having stood mute and refused a just trial, and would be then content to submit himself to it, if that favor might possibly at that time be afforded him. To an incompetent Judge I must not lie, but I may be silent, to a competent I must answer.

Consider we then the competency of S. Pauls Judges, what this Council, this Court was. It was that Council, which is so often in the New Testament called, and in our Translation, the Council. The Jews speak much of their Lex Oralis, their Oral, their Traditional Law; that is, That Exposition of the Law, which, say they, Moses received from the mouth of God, without writing, in that forty days conversation which he had with God, in the Mount; for, it is not probable, say they, that Moses should spend forty days in that, which another man would have done in one or two, that is, in receiving only that Law which is written: But he received an exposition too, and delivered that to Ioshuah, and he to the principal men, and according to that exposition, they proceeded in Judgement, in this Council, in this their Synedrion. Which Council having had the first institution thereof, Numb. 11.16. where God said to Moses, Gather me seventy men of the Elders of Israel, Officers over the people, and I will take of the Spirit that is upon thee, and put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden; that is, I will impart to them that exposition of the Law, which I have imparted to thee, and by that they shall proceed in Judgement, in this Council, this Synedrion of Seventy, had continued (though with some variations) to this time, when S. Paul was now called before them. Of this Council of Seventy, this Synedrion, our blessed Savior speaks, when he says, He that says Raca, (that is, declares his anger by any opprobrious words of defamation,) shall be subject to the Council. Of this Council he speaks, when he says, for my sake, they will deliver you up to the Council; And from this Council it is, not inconveniently, thought, that those messengers were sent, which were sent to examine John Baptist, whether he were the Messiah or no; for there it is said, That Priests and Levites were sent; and this Council, says Iosephus, at first, (and for a long time) consisted of such persons, though, after, a third Order was taken in, that is, some principal men of the other Tribes. To this Council belonged the Conusance of all causes, Ecclesiastical and Civil, and of all persons; no Magistrate, no Prophet was exempt from this Court. Before this Council was Herod himself called, for an execution done by his command, which, though it were done upon a notorious malefactor, yet was done without due proceedings in law, and therefore Herod called before this Council for it.

But (by the way) this was not done when Herod was King, as Baronius doth mischievously and seditiously infer and argue, as though this Council were above the King. Herod at that time, was very far from any imagination of being King; His Father, Antipater, who then was alive, having, at that time, no pretense to the Kingdom. But Herod, though young, was then in a great place of Government, and for a misdemeanor there, was called before this Council, which had jurisdiction over all but the King. For so, in the Talmud it self, the difference is expressly put; Sacerdos magnus judicat & judicatur, The High Priest, the greatest Prelate in the Clergy, may have place in this Council, and may be called in question by this Council, Iudicat & judicatur; So, Testimonium dicit, & de eo dicitur, He may go from the Bench, and be a witness against any man, and he may be put from the Bench, and any mans witness be received against him. But then of the King, it is as expressly said, of this Council, in that Talmud, Nec judicat, nec judicatur, The King sits in Judgement upon no man, lest his presence should intimidate an accused person, or draw the other Judges from their own opinion to his; Much less can the King be judged by any; Nec testimonium dicit, nec de eo dicitur, The King descends not to be a witness against any man, neither can any man be a witness against him. It was therefore mischievously, and seditiously, and treacherously, and trayterously, and (in one comprehensive word) Papistically argued by Baronius, That this Council was above the King.

But above all other persons it was; In some cases, in the whole body of the Council; for, Matters of Religion, Innovations in points of doctrine, Imputations upon great persons in the Church, were not to be judged by any selected Committee, but by the whole Council, the entire body, the Seventy; Pecuniary matters, and matters of defamation, might be determined by a Committee of any three; Matters that induced bodily punishments, though it were but flagellation, but a whipping matter, not under a Committee of twenty three. But so were all persons, and all causes distributed, as that that Court, that Council had conusance of all. So that then S. Paul was before a competent and a proper Judge, and therefore bound to answer; Did he that? That is our next disquisition, and our second Consideration in this part, His end, his purpose in proceeding as he did.

His End was to dissolve the Council for the present. He saw a tumultuary proceeding; for, as the Text says, he was fain to cry out in the Council, before he could be heard. He saw the President of the Council, Ananias the high Priest, so ill-affected towards him, as that he commanded him extrajudicially to be smitten. He saw a great part of his Judges, and spectators, amongst whom were the witnesses, to be his declared enemies. He saw that if he proceeded to a trial then, he perished infallibly, irrecoverably, and therefore desired to put off the trial for that time. He did not deny nor decline the jurisdiction of that Court; He had no eye to any foreign Prince, nor Prelate: There are amongst us that do so; that deny that they can be traytors, though they commit treason, because they are subjects to a foreign Bishop, and not to their natural King; S. Paul did not so. He did not calumniate nor traduce the proceedings of that Court, nor put into the people ill opinions of their superiors, by laying aspersions upon them; There are that do so; S. Paul did not. But his end and purpose was only to put off the trial for that time, till he might be received to a more sober, and calm, and equitable hearing. And this certainly was no ill end, so his way were good. What was that? That is our next, our third and last Consideration in this part.

His way was by a twofold Protestation; The first this, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a sect amongst the Jews, who are ordinarily conceived to have received their Name from Division, from Separation, from departing from that liberty, which other men did take, to a stricter forme of life. Of which, amongst many others, S. Jerome gives us this evidence, that the Pharisees would fringe their long robes with thorns, that so they might cut, and tear, and mangle their heels and legs as they went, in the sight of the people. Outward mortification and austerity was a specious thing, and of great estimation amongst the Jews: you may see that in John Baptist; who was as much followed, and admired for that, as Christ for his Miracles, though John Baptist did no Miracles. For, extraordinary austerity is a continual Miracle. As S. Jerome says of Chastity, Habet servata pudicitia martyrium suum, Chastity is a continual Martyrdom; So to surrender a mans self to a continual hunger, and thirst, and cold, and watching, and forbearing all which all others enjoy, a continual mortification is a continual Miracle. This made the Pharisees gracious and acceptable to the people: Therefore S. Paul doth not make his Protestation here only so, That he had been as touching the Law, a Pharisee, nor as he makes it in this book, After the strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee, that is, heretofore I did, but now, after his Conversion, and after his Apostolical Commission, he makes it, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee.

Beloved, there are some things in which all Religions agree; The worship of God, The holiness of life; And therefore, if when I study this holiness of life, and fast, and pray, and submit my self to discreet, and medicinal mortifications, for the subduing of my body, any man will say, this is Papistical, Papists do this, it is a blessed Protestation, and no man is the less a Protestant, nor the worse a Protestant for making it, Men and brethren, I am a Papist, that is, I will fast and pray as much as any Papist, and enable my self for the service of my God, as seriously, as sedulously, as laboriously as any Papist. So, if when I startle and am affected at a blasphemous oath, as at a wound upon my Savior, if when I avoid the conversation of those men, that profane the Lords day, any other will say to me, This is Puritanical, Puritans do this, It is a blessed Protestation, and no man is the less a Protestant, nor the worse a Protestant for making it, Men and Brethren, I am a Puritan, that is, I will endeavor to be pure, as my Father in heaven is pure, as far as any Puritan.

Now of these Pharisees, who were by these means so popular, the numbers were very great. The Sadducees, who also were of an exemplary holiness in some things, but in many and important things of different opinions, even in matter of Religion, from all other men, were not so many in number, but they were men of better quality and place in the State, then, for the most part, the Pharisees were. And as they were more potent, and able to do more mischief, so had they more declared themselves to be bent against the Apostles, then the Pharisees had done. In the fourth Chapter of this Book, The Priests, and the Sadducees, (no mention of Pharisees) came upon Peter and John, being grieved, that they preached, thorough Jesus, the resurrection of the dead. And so again, The high Priest rose up, and all they that were with him, which is (says that Text expressly) the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation. And some collect out of a place in Eusebius, that this Ananias, who was high Priest at this time, and had declared his ill affection to S. Paul, (as you heard before) was a Sadduce: But, I think those words of Eusebius will not bear, at least, not enforce that, nor be well applied to this Ananias. Howsoever, S. Paul had just cause to come to this protestation, I am a Pharisee, and in so doing he can be obnoxious to nothing; if he be as safe in his other protestation, all is well, for the hope and resurrection of the dead, am I called in question; consider we that.

It is true, that he was not, at this time, called in question, directly and expressly for the Resurrection; you may see, where he was apprehended, that it was for teaching against that people, and against that law, and against that Temple. So that, he was endited upon pretense of sedition, and prophanation of the Temple. And therefore, when S. Paul says here, I am called in question for preaching the Resurrection, he means this, If I had not preached the Resurrection, I should never have been called in question, nor should be, if I would forbear preaching the Resurrection; No man persecutes me, no man appears against me, but only they that deny the Resurrection; The Sadducees did deny it; The Pharisees did believe it; and therefore this was a likely and a lawful way to divide them, and to gain time, with such a purpose, (so far) as David had, when he prayed, O Lord, divide their tongues. For it is not always unlawful to sow discord, and to kindle dissention amongst men; for men may agree too well, to ill purposes. So have yee then seen, That though it be not safe to conclude, S. Paul, or any holy man did this, therefore I may do it, (which was our first part) yet in this which S. Paul did here, there was nothing that may not be justified in him, and imitated by us, (which was our second part) Remains only the third, which is the accommodation of this to our present times, and the appropriation thereof to our selves, and making it our own case.

The world is full of Sadducees, and Pharisees, and the true Church of God arraigned by both. The Sadducees were the greater men, the Pharisees were the greater number; so they are still. The Sadducees denied the Resurrection, and Angels, and Spirits; So they do still. For, those Sadducees, whom we consider now, in this part, are mere carnal men; men that have not only no Spirit of God in them, but no soul, no spirit of their own; mere Atheists. And this Carnality, this Atheism, this Sadducisme is seen in some Countries to prevail most upon great persons, (the Sadducees were great persons) upon persons that abound in the possessions, and offices, and honours of this world; for they that have most of this world, for the most part, think least of the next.

These are our present Sadducees; and then the Pharisee hath his name from Pharas, which is Division, Separation; But Calvin derives the name (not inconveniently) from Pharash, which is Exposition, Explication. We embrace both extractions, and acceptations of the word, both Separation, and Exposition; for the Pharisee whom we consider now, in this part, is he that is separated from us, (there it is Pharas, separation) and separated by following private Expositions, (there it is Pharash, Exposition) with a contempt of all Antiquity; and not only an undervaluation, but a detestation of all opinions but his own, and his, whom he hath set up for his Idol. And as the Sadduce (our great and worldly man) is all carnal, all body, and believes no spirit: so our Pharisee is so superspiritual, as that he believes, that is, considers no body; He imagines such a Purification, such an Angelification, such a Deification in this life, as though the heavenly Jerusalem were descended already, or that God had given man but that one commandment, Love God above all, and not a second too, Love thy neighbor as thy self. Our Sadducees will have all body, our Pharisees all soul, and God hath made us of both, and given us offices proper to each.

Now of both these, the present Sadduce, the carnal Atheist, and the present Pharisee, the Separatist, that overvalues himself, and bids us stand farther off, there are two kinds. For, for the Atheist, there is Davids Atheist, and S. Pauls Atheist; Davids, that ascribes all to nature, and says in his heart, There is no God; That will call no sudden death, nor extraordinary punishment upon any enormous sinner, a judgement of God, nor any such deliverance of his servants, a miracle from God, but all is Nature, or all is Accident, and would have been so, though there had been no God: This is Natures Sadduce, Davids Atheist; And then S. Pauls Atheist is he, who though he do believe in God, yet doth not believe God in Christ; for so S. Paul says to the Ephesians, Absque Christo, absque Deo, If ye be without Christ, ye are without God. For as it is the same absurdity in nature, to say, There is no Sun, and to say, This that you call the Sun is not the Sun, this that shines out upon you, this that produces your fruits, and distinguishes your seasons is not the Sun: so is it the same Atheism, in these days of light, to say, There is no God, and to say, This Christ whom you call the Son of God, is not God, That he in whom God hath manifested himself, He whom God hath made Head of the Church, and Judge of the world, is not God. This then is our double Sadduce, Davids Atheist that believes not God, S. Pauls Atheist that believes not Christ. And as our Sadduce is, so is our Pharisee twofold also.

There is a Pharisee, that by following private expositions, separates himself from our Church, principally for matter of Government and Discipline, and imagines a Church that shall be defective in nothing, and does not only think himself to be of that Church, but sometimes to be that Church, for none but himself is of that persuasion. And there is a Pharisee that dreams of such an union, such an identification with God in this life, as that he understands all things, not by benefit of the senses, and impressions in the fancy and imagination, or by discourse and ratiocination, as we poor souls do, but by immediate, and continual infusions and inspirations from God himself; That he loves God, not by participation of his successive Grace, more and more, as he receives more and more grace, but by a communication of God himself to him, entirely and irrevocably; That he shall be without any need, and above all use of Scriptures, and that the Scriptures shall be no more to him, then a Catechism to our greatest Doctors; That all that God commands him to do in this world, is but as an easy walk down a hill; That he can do all that easily, and as much more, as shall make God beholden to him, and bring God into his debt, and that he may assign any man to whom God shall pay the arrerages due to him, that is, appoint God upon-what man he shall confer the benefit of his works of Supererogation; For in such Propositions as these, and in such Paradoxes as these, do the Authors in the Roman Church delight to express and celebrate their Pharisaical purity, as we find it frequently, abundantly in them.

In a word, some of our home-Pharisees will say, That there are some, who by benefit of a certain Election, cannot sin; That the Adulteries and Blasphemies of the Elect, are not sins: But the Rome-Pharisee will say, that some of them are not only without sin in themselves, but that they can save others from sin, or the punishment of sin, by their works of Supererogation; and that they are so united, so identified with God already, as that they are in possession of the beatifical Vision of God, and see him essentially, and as he is, in this life: (for, that Ignatius the father of the Jesuits did so, some of his Disciples say, it is, at least probable, if not certain) And that they have done all that they had to do for their own salvation, long ago, and stay in the world now, only to gather treasure for others, and to work out their salvation. So that these men are in better state in this life, then the Saints are in heaven; There, the Saints may pray for others, but they cannot merit for others; These men here can merit for other men, and work out the salvation of others. Nay, they may be said in some respect to exceed Christ himself; for Christ did save no man here, but by dying for him; These men save other men, with living well for them, and working out their salvation.

These are our double Sadducees, & our double Pharisees; & now, beloved, if we would go so far in S. Pauls way, as to set this two-fold Sadduce, Davids Atheist, without God, and S. Pauls Atheist, without Christ, against our twofold Pharisee, our home-Catharist, and our Rome-Catharist, If we would spend all our wit, and all our time, all our Ink, and our gall, in shewing them the deformities and iniquities of one another, by our preaching and writing against them, The truth, and the true Church might (as S. Paul did in our Text) scape the better. But when we (we that differ in no such points) tear, and wound, and mangle one another with opprobrious contumelies, and odious names of sub-division in Religion, our Home-Pharisee, and our Rome-Pharisee, maligners of our Discipline, and maligners of our Doctrine, gain upon ns, and make their advantages of our contentions, and both the Sadducees, Davids Atheist that denies God, and S. Pauls Atheist that denies Christ, join in a scornful asking us, Where is now your God? Are not we as well that deny him absolutely, as you that profess him with wrangling?

But stop we the floodgates of this consideration; it would melt us into tears. End we all with this, That we have all, all these, Sadducees and Pharisees in our own bosoms: Sadducees that deny spirits; carnal apprehensions that are apt to say, Is your God all Spirit, and hath bodily eyes to see sin? All Spirit, and hath bodily hands to strike for a sin? Is your soul all spirit, and hath a fleshly heart to fear? All spirit, and hath sensible sinews to feel a material fire? Was your God, who is all Spirit, wounded when you quarrelled? or did your soul, which is all spirit, drink when you were drunk? Sins of presumption, and carnal confidence are our Sadducees; and then our Pharisees are our sins of separation, of division, of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of our God; when we are apt to say, after a sin, Cares God, who is all Spirit, for my eloquent prayers, or for my passionate tears? Is the giving of my goods to the poor, or of my body to the fire, any thing to God who is all Spirit? My spirit, and nothing but my spirit, my soul, and nothing but my soul, must satisfy the justice, the anger of God, and be separated from him for ever. My Sadduce, my Presumption suggests, that there is no spirit, no soul to suffer for sin; and my Pharisee, my Desperation suggests, That my soul must perish irremediably, irrecoverably, for every sin that my body commits.

Now if I go S. Pauls way, to put a dissention between these my Sadducees, and my Pharisees, to put a jealousy between my presumption & my desperation, to make my presumption see, that my desperation lies in wait for her; and to consider seriously, that my presumption will end in desperation, I may, as S. Paul did in the Text, scape the better for that. But if, without farther troubling these Sadducees and these Pharisees, I be content to let them agree, and to divide my life between them, so as that my presumption shall possess all my youth, and desperation mine age, I have heard my sentence already, The end of this man will be worse then his beginning, How much soever God be incensed with me, for my presumption at first, he will be much more inexorable for my desperation at last. And therefore interrupt the prescription of sin; break off the correspondence of sin; unjoynt the dependency of sin upon sin. Bring every single sin, as soon as thou committest it, into the presence of thy God, upon those two legs, Confession, and Detestation, and thou shalt see, that, as, though an entire Iland stand firm in the Sea, yet a single clod of earth cast into the Sea, is quickly washt into nothing; so, howsoever thine habitual, and customary, and concatenated sins, sin enwrapped and complicated in sin, sin entrenched and barricadoed in sin, sin screwed up, and riveted with sin, may stand out, and wrastle even with the mercies of God, in the blood of Christ Jesus; yet if thou bring every single sin into the sight of God, it will be but as a clod of earth, but as a grain of dust in the Ocean. Keep thy sins then from mutual intelligence; That they do not second one another, induce occasion, and then support and disguise one another, and then, neither shall the body of sin ever oppress thee, nor the exhalations, and damps, and vapors of thy sad soul, hang between thee, and the mercies of thy God; But thou shalt live in the light and serenity of a peaceable conscience here, and die in a faire possibility of a present melioration and improvement of that light. All thy life thou shalt be preserved, in an Oriental light, an Eastern light, a rising and a growing light, the light of grace; and at thy death thou shalt be super-illustrated, with a Meridional light, a South light, the light of glory. And be this enough for the explication, and application of these words, and their complication with the day; for the justifying of S. Pauls Stratagem in himself, and the exemplifying, and imitation thereof in us. Amen.

That God that is the God of peace, grant us his peace, and one mind towards one another; That God that is the Lord of Hosts, maintain in us that war, which himself hath proclaimed, an enmity between the seed of the Woman, and the seed of the Serpent, between the truth of God, and the inventions of men; That we may fight his battels against his enemies without, and fight his battels against our enemies within, our own corrupt affections; That we may be victorious here, in our selves, and over our selves, and triumph with him hereafter, in eternal glory.

Serm. L. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 6.1.

O Lord, Rebuke me not in thine Anger, neither chasten me in thy het Displeasure.

GOD imputes but one thing to David, but one sin; The matter of Vriah the Hittite: nor that neither, but by way of exception, not till he had first established an assurance, that David stood well with him. First he had said, David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing, that he had commanded him all the days of his life: Here was rectitude, He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord; no obliquity, no departing into by-ways, upon collateral respects; Here was integrity to Gods service, no serving of God and Mammon, He turned not from any thing that God commanded him; And here was perpetuity, perseverance, constancy, All the days of his life: And then, and not till then, God makes that one, and but that one exception, Except the matter of Vriah the Hittite. When God was reconciled to him, he would not so much as name that sin; that had offended him:

And herein is the mercy of God, in the merits of Christ, a sea of mercy, that as the Sea retains no impression of the Ships that pass in it, (for Navies make no path in the Sea) so when we put out into the boundless Sea of the blood of Christ Jesus, by which only we have reconciliation to God, there remains no record against us; for God hath cancelled that record which he kept, and that which Satan kept God hath nailed to the Cross of his Son. That man which hath seen me at the sealing of my Pardon, and the seal of my Reconciliation, at the Sacrament, many times since, will yet in his passion, or in his ill nature, or in his uncharitableness, object to me the fins of my youth; whereas God himself, if I have repented to day, knows not the sins that I did yesterday. God hath raised the Record of my sin, in Heaven; it offends not him, it grieves not his Saints nor Angels there; and he hath raised the Record in hell; it advances not their interest in me there, nor their triumph over me. And yet here, the uncharitable man will know more, and see more, and remember more, then my God, or his devil remembers, or knows, or sees: He will see a path in the Sea; he will see my sin, when it is drowned in the blood of my Savior. After the Kings pardon, perchance it will bear an action, to call a man by that infamous name, which that crime, which is pardoned, did justly cast upon him before the pardon: After Gods reconciliation to David, he would not name Davids sin in the particular.

But yet for all this, though God will be no example, of upbraiding or reproaching repented sins, when God hath so far exprest his love, as to bring that sinner to that repentance, and so to mercy, yet, that he may perfect his own care, he exercises that repentant sinner with such medicinal corrections, as may inable him to stand upright for the future. And to that purpose, was no man evermore exercised then David. David broke into another's family; he built upon another's ground; he planted in another's Seminary; and God broke into his family, his ground, his Seminary. In no story, can we find so much Domestic affliction, such rapes, and incests, and murders, and rebellions, from their own children, as in Davids story. Under the heavy weight and oppression of some of those, is David, by all Expositors, conceived to have conceived, and uttered this Psalm. Some take it to have been occasioned by some of his temporal afflictions; either his persecution from Saul, or bodily sickness in himself, of which traditionally the Rabbis speak much, or Absoloms unnatural rebellion. Some others, with whom we find more reason to join, find more reason to interpret it, of a spiritual affliction; that David, in the apprehension, and under the sense of the wrath and indignation of God, came to this vehement exclamation, or deprecation, O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

In which words we shall consider, first the person, upon whom David turned for his succor, and then what succor he seeks at his hands. First his word, and then his end; first to whom, and then for what he supplicates. And in the first of these, the Person, we shall make these three steps; first that he makes his first access to God only, O Lord rebuke me not; do not thou, and though I will not say, I care not, yet I care the less who do. And secondly, that it is to God by Name, not to any universal God, in general notions; so natural men come to God; but to God whom he considers in a particular name, in particular notions, and attributes, and manifestations of himself; a God whom he knows, by his former works done upon him. And then, that name in which he comes to him here, is the name of Jehovah; his radical, his fundamental, his primary, his essential name, the name of being, Jehovah. For, he that deliberately, and considerately believes himself to have his very being from God, believes certainly that he hath his well being from him too; He that acknowledges, that it is by Gods providence that he breathes, believes that it is by his providence that he eats too. So his access is to God, and to God by name, that is by particular considerations, and then, to God in the name of Jehovah, to that God that hath done all, from his first beginning, from his Being. And in these three we shall determine our first part.

First, in this first branch of this part, David comes to God, but without any confidence in himself. Here is Reus ad rostra sine patrono, here is the prisoner at the Bar, and no Counsel allowed him. He confesses Indictments, faster then they can be read: If he hear himself indicted, that he looked upon Bathsheba, that he lusted after Bathsheba, he cries, Alas, I have done that, and more; dishonored her, and my self, and our God; and more then that, I have continued the act into a habit; and more then that, I have drowned that sin in blood, lest it should rise up to my sight; and more then all that, I have caused the Name of God to be blasphemed; and lest his Majesty, and his greatness should be a terror to me, I have occasioned the enemy to undervalue him, and speak despightfully of God himself. And when he hath confest all, all that he remembers, he must come to his Ab occultis meis, Lord cleanse me from my secret sins; for there are sins, which we have laboured so long to hide from the world, that at last, they are hidden from our selves, from our own memories, our own consciences. As much as David stands in fear of this Judge, he must entreat this Judge, to remember his sins; Remember them, O Lord, for els they will not fall into my pardon; but remember them in mercy, and not in anger; for so they will not fall into my pardon neither.

Whatsoever the affliction then was, temporal, or spiritual, (we take it rather to be spiritual) Davids recourse is presently to God. He doth not, as his predecessor Saul did, when he was afflicted, send for one that was cunning upon the Harp, to divert sorrow so. If his Subjects rebell, he doth not say, Let them alone, let them go on, I shall have the juster cause, by their rebellion, of confiscations upon their Estates, of executions upon their persons, of revocations of their laws, and customs, and privileges, which they carry themselves so high upon. If his son lift up his hand against him, he doth not place his hope in that, that that occasion will cut off his son, and that then the peoples hearts which were bent upon his son, will return to him again. David knew he could not retyre himself from God in his bedchamber; Guards and Ushers could not keep him out. He knew he could not defend himself from God in his Army; for the Lord of Hosts is Lord of his Hosts. If he fled to Sea, to Heaven, to Hell, he was sure to meet God there; and there thou shalt meet him too, if thou fly from God, to the relief of outward comforts, of music, of mirth, of drink, of cordialls, of Comedies, of conversation. Not that such recreations are unlawful; the mind hath her physic as well as the body; but when thy sadness proceeds from a sense of thy sins, (which is Gods key to the door of his mercy, put into thy hand) it is a new, and a greater sin, to go about to overcome that holy sadness, with these profane diversions; to fly Ad consolatiunculas creaturulae (as that elegant man Luther expresses it, according to his natural delight in that elegancy of Diminutives, with which he abounds above all Authors) to the little and contemptible comforts of little and contemptible creatures. And as Luther uses the physic, Job useth the Physician; Luther calls the comforts, Miserable comforts; and Job calls them that minister them, Onerosos consolatores, Miserable comforters are you all. David could not drown his adultery in blood; never think thou to drown thine in wine. The Ministers of God are Sons of Thunder, they are falls of waters, trampling of horses, and runnings of Chariots; and if these voices of these Ministers, cannot overcome thy music, thy security, yet the Angels trumpet will; That Surgite qui dermitis, Arise yee that sleep in the dust, in the dust of the grave, is a Treble that over-reaches all; That It maledicti, Go yee accursed into Hell fire, is a Base that drowns all. There is no recourse but to God, no relief but in God; and therefore David applied himself to the right method, to make his first access to God.

It is to God only, and to God by name, and not in general notions; for it implies a nearer, a more familiar, and more presential knowledge of God, a more cheerful acquaintance, and a more assiduous conversation with God, when we know how to call God by a Name, a Creator, a Redeemer, a Comforter, then when we consider him only as a diffused power, that spreads it self over all creatures; when we come to him in Affirmatives, and Confessions, This thou hast done for me, then when we come to him only in Negatives, and say, That that is God, which is nothing els. God is come nearer to us then to others, when we know his Name. For though it be truly said in the School, that no name can be given to God, Ejus essentiam adaequatè repraesentans, No one name can reach to the expressing of all that God is; And though Trismegistus do humbly, and modestly, and reverently say, Non spere, it never fell into my thought, nor into my hope, that the maker and founder of all Majesty, could be circumscribed, or imprisoned by any one name, though a name compounded and complicated of many names, as the Rabbis have made one name of God, of all his names in the Scriptures; Though Jacob seem to have been rebuked for asking Gods name, when he wrastled with him; And so also the Angel which was to do a miraculous work, a work appertaining only to God, to give a Child to the barren, because he represented God, and had the person of God upon him, would not permit Manoah to enquire after his name, Because, as he says there, that name was secret and wonderful; And though God himself, to dignify and authorize that Angel, which he made his Commissioner, and the Tutelar and National Guide of his people, says of that Angel, to that people, Fear him, provoke him not, for my Name is in him, and yet did not tell them, what that name was; Yet certainly, we could not so much as say, God cannot be named, except we could name God by some name; we could not say, God hath no name, except God had a name; for that very word, God, is his name. God calls upon us often in the Scriptures, To call upon his Name; and in the Scriptures, he hath manifested to us divers names, by which we may call upon him. Doest thou know what name to call him by, when thou callest him to bear false witness, to averre a falsehood? Hath God a name to swear by? Doest thou know what name to call him by, when thou wouldst make him thy servant, thy instrument, thy executioner, to plague others, upon thy bitter curses and imprecations? Hath God a name to curse by? Canst thou wound his body, exhaust his blood, tear off his flesh, break his bones, excruciate his soul; and all this by his right name? Hath God a name to blaspheme by? and hath God no name to pray by? is he such a stranger to thee? Dost thou know every faire house in thy way, as thou travellest, whose that is; and dost thou not know, in whose house thou standest now?

Beloved, to know God by name, and to come to him by name, is to consider his particular blessings to thee; to consider him in his power, and how he hath protected thee there; and in his wisdom, and how he hath directed thee there; and in his love, and how he hath affected thee there; and exprest all, in particular mercies. He is but a dark, but a narrow, a shallow, a lazy man in nature, that knows no more, but that there is a heaven, and an earth, and a sea; He that will be of use in this world, comes to know the influences of the heavens, the virtue of the plants, and mines of the earth, the course and divisions of the Sea. To the natural man, God gives general notions of himself; a God that spreads over all as the heavens; a God that sustains all as the earth; a God that transports, and communicates all to all as the sea: But to the Christian Church, God applies himself in more particular notions; as a Father, as a Son, as a holy Ghost; And to every Christian soul, as a Creator, a Redeemer, a Benefactor; that I may say, This I was not born to, and yet this I have from my God; this a potent adversary sought to evict from me, but this I have recovered by my God; sickness had enfeebled my body, but I have a convalescence; calumny had defamed my reputation, but I have a reparation; malice in other men, or improvidence in my self, had ruined my fortune, but I have a redintegration from my God. And then by these, which are indeed but Cognomina Dei, his sir-names, names of distinction, names of the exercise of some particular properties, and attributes of his, to come to the root of all, to my very Being, that my present Being in this world, and my eternal Being in the next, is made known to me by his name of Jehovah, which is his Essential name, to which David had recourse in this exinanition; when his affliction had even annihilated, and brought him to nothing, he fled to Jehovah, the God of all Being, which is the foundation of all his other Attributes, and includes all his other names, and is our next and last branch in this first Part.

This name then of Jehovah that is here translated Lord, is agreed by all to be the greatest name by which God hath declared and manifested himself to man. This is that name which the Jews falsely, but peremptorily, (for falsehood lives by peremptoriness, and feeds and armes it self with peremptoriness) deny ever to have been attributed to the Messiah, in the Scriptures. This is that name, in the virtue and use whereof, those Calumniators of our Saviours miracles do say, that he did his miracles, according to a direction, and schedule, for the true and right pronouncing of that name, which Solomon in his time had made, and Christ in his time had found, and by which, say they, any other man might have done those miracles, if he had had Solomons directions for the right sounding of this name, Jehovah. This is that name, which out of a superstitious reverence the Jews always forbore to found, or utter, but ever pronounced some other name, either Adonai, or Elohim, in the place thereof, wheresoever they found Jehovah. But now their Rabbis will not so much as write that name, but still express it in four other letters. So that they dare not, not only not sound it, not say it, but not see it.

How this name which we call Jehovah, is truly to be sounded, because in that language it is exprest in four Consonants only, without Vowels, is a perplext question; we may well be content to be ignorant therein, since our Savior Christ himself, in all those places which he cited out of the Old Testament, never sounded it; he never said, Jehovah. Nor the Apostles after him, nor Origen, nor Jerome; all persons very intelligent in the propriety of language; they never sounded this name Jehovah. For though in S. Ieromes Exposition upon the 8. Psalm, we find that word Jehovah, in some Editions which we have now, yet it is a clear case, that in the old Copies it is not so; in Ieroms mouth it was not so; from Ieroms hand it came not so. Neither doth it appear to me, that ever the name of Jehovah was so pronounced, till so late, as in our Fathers time; for I think Petrus Gallatinus was the first that ever called it so. But howsoever this name be to be sounded, that which falls in our consideration at this time, is, That David in his distresses fled presently to God, and to God by name, that is, in consideration and commemoration of his particular blessings; and to a God that had that name, the name of Jehovah, the name of Essence, and Being, which name carryed a confession, that all our well-being, and the very first being it self, was, and was to be derived from him.

David therefore comes to God In nomine totali; in nomine integrali; He considers God totally, entirely, altogether; Not altogether, that is, confusedly; but altogether, that is, in such a Name as comprehends all his Attributes, all his Power upon the world, and all his benefits upon him. The Gentiles were not able to consider God so; not so entirely, not altogether; but broke God in pieces, and changed God into single money, and made a fragmentary God of every Power, and Attribute in God, of every blessing from God, nay of every malediction, and judgement of God. A clap of thunder made a Iupiter, a tempest at sea made a Neptune, an earthquake made a Pluto; Fear came to be a God, and a Fever came to be a God; Every thing that they were in love with, or afraid of, came to be canonized, and made a God amongst them. David considered God as a center, into which & from which all lines flowed. Neither as the Gentiles did, nor as some ignorants of the Roman Church do, that there must be a stormy god, S. Nicholas, and a plaguie god, S. Rook, and a sheepshearing god, & a swineherd god, a god for every Parish, a god for every occupation, God forbid. Acknowledg God to be the Author of thy Being; find him so at the spring-head, & then thou shalt easily trace him, by the branches, to all that belongs to thy well-being. The Lord of Hosts, and the God of peace, the God of the mountains, and the God of the valleys, the God of noon, and of midnight, of all times, the God of East & West, of all places, the God of Princes, and of Subjects, of all persons, is all one and the same God; and that which we intend, when we say Jehovah, is all He.

And therefore hath S. Bernard a pathetical and useful meditation to this purpose: Every thing in the world, says he, can say, Creator meus es tu, Lord thou hast made me; All things that have life, and growth, can say, Pastor meus es tu, Lord thou hast fed me, increast me; All men can say, Redemptor meus es tu, Lord I was sold to death through original sin, by one Adam, and thou hast redeemed me by another; All that have fallen by infirmity, and risen again by grace, can say, Susceptor meus es tu, Lord I was fallen, but thou hast undertaken me, and dost sustain me; But he that comes to God in the name of Jehovah, he means all this, and all other things, in this one Petition, Let me have a Being, and then I am safe, for In him we live, and move, and have our Being. If we solicit God as the Lord of Hosts, that he would deliver us from our enemies, perchance he may see it fitter for us to be delivered to our enemies: If we solicit him as Proprietary of all the world, as the beasts upon a thousand mountains are his, as all the gold and silver in the earth is his, perchance he sees that poverty is fitter for us: If we solicit him for health, or long life, he gives life, but he kills too, he heals, but he wounds too; and we may be ignorant which of these, life or death, sickness or health, is for our advantage. But solicit him as Jehovah, for a Being, that Being which flows from his purpose, that Being which he knows fittest for us, and then we follow his own Instructions, Fiat voluntas tua, thy will be done upon us, and we are safe.

Now that which Jehovah was to David, Jesus is to us. Man in general hath relation to God, as he is Jehovah, Being; We have relation to Christ, as he is Jesus, our Salvation; Salvation is our Being, Jesus is our Jehovah. And therefore as David delights himself with that name Jehovah, for he repeats it eight or nine times in this one short Psalm, and though he ask things of a diverse nature at Gods hands, though he suffer afflictions, of a diverse nature, from Gods hands, yet still he retains that one name, he speaks to God in no other name in all this Psalm but in the name of Jehovah: So in the New Testament, he which may be compared with David, because he was under great sins, and yet in great favor with God, S. Paul, he delights himself with that name of Jesus so much, as that S. Jerome says, Quē superfluè diligebat, extraordinariè nominavit, As he loved him excessively, so he named him superabundantly. It is the name that cost God most, and therefore he loves it best; it cost him his life to be a Jesus, a Savior. The name of Christ, which is Anointed, he had by office; he was anointed as King, as Priest, as Prophet. All those names which he had in Isaiah, The Counsellor, The Wonderful, The Prince of Peace, and the name of Jehovah it self, which the Jews deny ever to be given to him, and is evidently given to him in that place, Christ had by nature; But his name of Jesus, a Savior, he had by purchase, & that purchase cost him his blood. And therefore, as Jacob preferred his name of Israel, before his former name of Jacob, because he had that name upon his wrastling with God, and it cost him a lameness; so is the name of Jesus so precious to him who bought it so dearly, that not only every knee bows at the name of Jesus here, but Jesus himself, and the whole Trinity, bow down towards us, to give us all those things which we ask in that name. For even of a devout use of that veryname, do some of the Fathers interpret that, Oleū effusum Nomen tuu, That the name of Jesus should be spread as an ointment, breathed as perfume, diffused as a soul over all the petitions of our prayers; As the Church concludes for the most part, all her Collects so, Grant this O Lord, for our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus sake. And so much does S. Paul abound in the use of this name, as that he repeats it thrice, in the superscription of one of his Letters the title of one of his Epistles, his first to Timothy. And with the same devotion, S. August. says, even of the name, Melius est mihi non esse, quā sine Iesu esse, I were better have no being, then be without Jesus; Melius est non vivere, quam vivere sine vita, I were better have no life, then any life without him. For as David could find no being without Jehovah, a Christian finds no life without Jesus. Both these names imply that which is in this Text, in our Translation, The Lord, Dominus; to whom only, and entirely we appertain; his we are. And therefore whether we take Dominus, to be Do minas, to threaten, to afflict us, or to be Do manus, to succor, and relieve us, (as some have pleased themselves with those obvious derivations) as David did still, we must make our recourse to him, from whom, as he is Jehovah, Being, or being our well-being, our eternal being, our Creation, Preservation, and Salvation is derived; all is from him.

Now when he hath his access to the Lord, to this Lord, the Lord that hath all, and gives all, and is all, the first part of Davids prayer, and all his prayer which falls into our Text, is but Deprecatory; he does but pray that God would forbear him. He pretends no error, he enterprises no Reversing of Judgement; no at first, he dares not sue for pardon; he only desires a Reprieve, a respite of execution, and that not absolutely neither; but he would not be executed in hot blood; Ne in ira, ne in furore, not in Gods anger, not in his hot displeasure.

First then, Deprecari, is not Refragari, to Deprecate, is not to Contend against a Judge, nor to defend ones self against an Officer, but it is only in the quality, and in the humility of a Petitioner, and Suppliant, to beg a forbearance. The Martyrs in the Primitive Church would not do that. Nihil de causa sua deprecatur, qui nihil de condition sua miratur, says Tertullian; and in that he describes a patience of Steele, and an invincible temper. He means that the Christians in those times of Persecution, did never entreat the Judge for favor, because it was not strange to them, to see themselves, whose conversation was in heaven, despised, and contemned, and condemned upon earth: Nihil mirantur de condition, They wondered not at their misery, they thought it a part of their Profession, a part of the Christian Religion, to suffer, and therefore, Nihil deprecati de causa, They never solicited the Judge for favor. They had learnt by experience of daily tribulation, the Apostles Lesson, Think it not strange, when temptations and tribulations fall; That is, make that your daily bread, and you shall never sterve, use your selves to suffering, at least to the expectation, the contemplation of suffering, acquaint your selves with that, accustom your selves to that before it come, and it will not be a stranger to you when it comes. Tertullians Method may be right, and it may work that effect in very great afflictions; a man may be so used to them, as that he will not descend to any low deprecation, or sute to be delivered of them. But Davids affliction was spiritual; and howsoever, as a natural man, nay; as a devout and religious man, (for even in rectified men there are affections of a middle nature, that participate of nature, and of grace too, and in which the Spirit of God moves, and natural affections move too; for nature and grace do not so destroy one another, as that we should conclude, He hath strong natural affections, therefore he hath no grace) David I say, that might justly wonder at his own condition, and think it strange, that he that put his trust so entirely in God, should so entirely be delivered over to such afflictions, might also justly deprecate, and boldly say, Ne facias, O Lord deal not thus with thy servant.

Our Savior Christs Transeat calix, Let this cup pass from me, was a deprecation in his own behalf; And his Pater dimitte illis, Father, forgivethem, they know not what they do, was a deprecation in the behalf of his enemies; And so was Stephens, Ne statuas illis, O Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, A deprecation in the behalf of his Executioners. And these Deprecations for others, for our selves, are proposed for our imitation. But for Moses his Dele me, Pardon this people, or blot my name out of thy Book, and for S. Pauls Anathema, rather then his brethren should not be saved, let himself be condemned, for such Deprecations for others, as were upon the matter, Imprecations upon themselves, those may not well be drawn into consequence, or practise; for in Moses and S. Paul themselves, there was, if not an irregularity, and an inordinateness, at least an inconsideration, not to be imitated by us now, not to be excused in them then; but for the Prayer that is merely deprecatory, though some have thought it less lawful then the postulatory prayer, because when God is come to the act of afflicting us, he hath then revealed, and declared, and manifested his will to be such, and against the revealed and manifested will of God we may not pray, yet because his afflictions are not peremptory, but we have ever day to show cause, why that affliction should be taken off, and because all his judgements are conditional, and the condition of every particular judgement is not always revealed to us, and this is always revealed to us, Miserationes ejus super omnia opera ejus, That his mercy is above all his judgements, therefore we may come to that Deprecation, that God will make his hand lighter upon us, and his corrections easier unto us.

As the Saints in heaven have their Vsqucquo, How long Lord, holy and true, before thou begin to execute judgement? So the Saints on earth have their Vsquequo, How long Lord, before thou take off the execution of this judgement upon us? For, our Deprecatory prayers, are not Mandatory, they are not Directory, they appoint not God his ways, nor his times; but as our Postulatory prayers are, they also are submitted to the will of God, and have all in them, that ingredient, that herb of grace, which Christ put into his own prayer, that Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thy will be fulfilled; And they have that ingredient, which Christ put into our prayer, Fiat volunt as, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven; In heaven there is no resisting of his will; yet in heaven there is asoliciting, a hastning, an accelerating of the judgement, and the glory of the Resurrection; So though we resist not his corrections here upon earth, we may humbly present to God, the sense which we have of his displeasure; for this sense, and apprehension of his corrections, is one of the principal reasons, why he sends them; he corrects us therefore, that we might be sensible of his corrections; that when we, being humbled under his hand, have said with his Prophet, I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, He may be pleased to say to his Correcting Angel, as he did to his Destroying Angel, This is enough, and so burn his rod now, as he put up his sword then.

For though David do, well for himself, and well for our example, deprecate the anger of God, exprest in those Judgements, yet we see he spends but one verse of the Psalm in that Deprecation. In all the rest he leaves God wholly to his pleasure, how far he will extend, or aggravate that Judgement; and he turns wholly upon the Postulatory part, That God would have mercy upon him, and save him, and deliver his soul. And in that one verse, he does not deprecate all afflictions, all corrections. David knows what moves God to correct us; It is not only our illness that moves him; for he corrects us when we are not ill in his sight, but made good by his pardon: But his goodness, as well as our illness, moves him to correct us; If he were not good, not only good in himself, but good to us, he would let us alone, and never correct us. But, Ideo cos qui errant corripis, quia bonus & suavis es Domine, as the Vulgate reads that place, The Lord corrects us, not only as he is good, but as he is gentle; he were more cruel, more unmerciful, if he did always show mercy; That David intends, when he says, Propitius fuisti, Thou wast a Merciful God, because thou didst punish all their inventions.

So then, our first work is to consider, that that in the Prophet, is a promise, and hath the nature of a mercy, I will correct thee in measure; where the promise does not fall only upon the measure, but upon the correction it self; and then, since this is a promise, a mercy, a part of our daily bread, we may pray as the same Prophet directs us, O Lord correct me, but with judgement, not in thine anger; Where also the petition seems to fall, not only upon the measure, but upon the correction it self; and then, when I have found some correction fit to be prayed for and afforded me by God upon my prayer, if that correction at any time grow heavy, or wearisome unto me, I must relieve my self upon that consideration, Whether God have smitten me, as he smote them that smote me, Whether it be not another manner of execution, which God hath laid upon mine enemies then that which he hath laid upon me, in having suffered them to be smitten with the spirit of sinful glory, and triumph in their sin, and my misery, and with excecation, and obdurateness, with impenitence, and insensibleness of their own case. Or at least, let me consider, as it is in the same place, Whether I be slain according to the slaughter of them that were slain by me; That is, whether my oppression, my extortion, my prevarication have not brought other men to more misery, then God hath yet brought me unto. And if we consider this, as no doubt David did, and find that correction is one loaf of our daily bread, and find in our heaviest corrections, that God hath been heavier upon our enemies, then upon us, and we heavier upon others, then God upon us too, we shall be content with any Rebuke, and any Chastisement, so it be not in anger, and in hot displeasure, which are the words that remain to be considered.

Now these two phrases, Argui in furore, and Corripi in ira, which we translate, To rebuke inanger, and to chasten in hot displeasure, are by some thought, to signify one and the same thing, that David intends the same thing, and though in divers words, yet words of one and the same signification. But with reverence to those men, (for some of them are men to whom much reverence is due) they do not well agree with one another, nor very constantly with themselves. S. Jerome says, Furor & ira maxime unum sunt, That this anger, and hot displeasure, are merely, absolutely, entirely, one and the same thing, and yet he says, that this Anger is executed in this world, and this hot Displeasure reserved for the world to come. And this makes a great difference; no weight of Gods whole hand here, can be so heavy, as any finger of his in hell; the highest exaltation of Gods anger in this world, can have no proportion to the least spark of that in hell; nor a furnace seven times heat here, to the embers there. So also S. Augustine thinks, that these two words, to Rebuke, and to Chasten, do not differ at all; or if they do, that the latter is the lesser. But this is not likely to be Davids method, first to make a prayer for the greater, and that being granted, to make a second prayer for the lesser, included in that which was asked, and granted before. A later man in the Roman Church, allows the words to differ, and the later to be the heavier, but then he refers both to the next life; that to Rebuke in anger, should be intended of Purgatory, and of a short continuance there, and to be Chastened in hot displeasure, should be intended of hell, and of everlasting condemnation there. And so David must make his first petition, Rebuke me not in thine anger, to this purpose, Let me pass at my death immediately to Heaven, without touching at any fire, and his second petition, Chasten me not in thy hot displeasure to this purpose, If I must touch at any fire, let it be but Purgatory, and not Hell.

But by the nature, and propriety, and the use of all these words in the Scriptures, it appears, that the words are of a different signification, which S. Jerome it seems did not think; and that the last is the heaviest, which S. Augustine it seems did not think; and then, that they are to be referred to this life, which Ayguanus did not think. For the words themselves, all our three Translations retain the two first words, to Rebuke and to Chasten; neither that which we call the Bishops Bible, nor that which we call the Geneva Bible, and that which we may call the Kings, depart from those two first words. But then for the other two, Anger and Hot displeasure, in them all three Translations differ. The first calls them Indignation and Displeasure, the second Anger and Wrath, and the last Anger and Hot displeasure.

To begin with the first, to be Rebuked was but to be chidden, but to be Chastened, was to be beaten; and yet David was heartily afraid of the first, of the least of them, when it was to be done in anger: This word that is here to Rebuke, Iacach, is for the most part, to Reprove, to Convince by way of argument, and disputation. So it is in Isaiah, Come now, and let us reason together, says God. The natural man is confident in his Reason, in his Philosophy; and yet God is content to join in that issue, If he do not make it appear, even to your reason, that he is God, Choose whom ye will serve, as Ioshuah speaks; If he do not make it appear, that he is a good God, change him for any other God that your reason can present to be better. In Micah, the word hath somewhat more vehemence; The Lord hath a quarrel against his people, and he will plead with Israel. This is more then a Disputation; it is a Suite. God can maintain his possession other ways; without Suite; but he will recover us, by matter of Record, openly, and in the face of the County; he will put us to a shame, and to an acknowledgement, of having disloially divested our Allegiance. Yea, the word hath sometimes somewhat more sharpness then this; for in the book of Proverbs, it comes to Correction, The Lord correcteth him whom he loveth, even as the father doth the child, in whom he delighteth. Though it be a fatherly correction, yet it is a correction; and that is more then the Reasoning or Disputing, more then the Suing or Impleading.

Now though all this, Disputing, Impleading, Correcting, in S. Augustines interpretation, amount but to an Instruction, and an Amendment, yet says he of David, In ira emendari non vult, erudiri non vult, He is loath to fall into Gods hands, loath to come into Gods fingers at all, when God is angry; he would not be disputed withal, not Impleaded, not Corrected, no, not Instructed, not Amended by God in his Anger. The Anger of God is such a Pedagogy, such a Catechism, such a way of teaching, as the Law was. Lex paedagogus; the Law is a Schoolmaster, says the Apostle; but Litera occidit, the Law is such a Schoolemaster, as brings not a rod, but a sword. Gods Anger should instruct us, but if we use it not aright, it hardens us. And therefore, Kiss the Son lest he be angry, says David, And what is the danger if he be? that which follows, Lest yee perish in the way; Though his Anger be one of his ways, yet it is such a way, as you may easily stumble in; and, as you would certainly perish without that way, so you may easily perish in that way. For when a sinner considers himself to be under the Anger of God, naturally he conceives such a horror, as puts him farther off. As soon as Adam heard the voice of God, and in an accent of Anger, or as he tuned it in his guilty conscience, to an accent of Anger, (for as a malicious man will turn a Sermon to a Satyre, and a Panegyrick to a Libel, so a despairing soul will set Gods comfortablest words, to asad tune, and force a Vae even in Gods Euge, and find Anger, and everlasting Anger in every Access, in every Action of God) when Adam heard God but walking in the Garden, but the noise of his going, and approaching towards him, (for God had then said nothing to him, not so much as called him) Adam fled from his presence and hid himself amongst the trees. When the guilty man was but spoken to, and spoken to mildly, by the Master of the Marriage feast, Amice quomodo intrasti? Friend how came you in? we see he was presently speechless, and being so, not able to speak, to come to any confessin, any excuse, he fell farther and farther into displeasure, till he was bound hand and foot, and cast irrecoverably away. For Si repente interroget, quis respondebit ei? If God surprize a Conscience with a sudden question, if God deprehend a man in the Act of his sin, and while he accomplishes and consummates that sin, say to his soul, Why dost thou this, upon which mine anger hangs? there God speaks to that sinner, but he confounds him with the question; It is not a leading Intergatory, it gives him no light to answer, till Gods anger be out of his contemplation, he cannot so much as say Domine vim patior, respond pro me, O Lord I am oppressed, do thou answer for me; do thou say to thy self for me, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is but flesh. If the Lord come in anger, if he speak in Anger, if he do but look in Anger, a sinner perishes; Aspexit & dissolvit Gentes; He did but look, and he dissolved, he melted the Nations; he poured them out as water upon the dust, and he blew them away as dust into the Sea, The everlasting mountains were broken, and the ancient hills did bow.

It is not then the disputing, not the impleading, not the correcting, which this word Iacach imports, that David declines, or deprecates here, but that Anger, which might change the nature of all, and make all the Physic poison, all that was intended for our mollifying, to advance our obduration. For when there was no anger in the case, David is a forward Scholar, to hearken to Gods Reasoning, and Disputing, and a tractable Client, and easy Defendant, to answer to Gods Suite, and Impleading, and an obsequious Patient, to take any Physic at his hands, if there were no Anger in the cup. Vr renes & cor meum, says David, he provokes God with all those emphatical words, Judge me, Prove me, Try me, Examine me, and more, Vr renes, bring not only a candle to search, but even fire, to melt me; But upon what confidence all this? For thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes. If Gods Anger, and not his loving kindness had been before his eyes, it had been a fearful apparition, and a dangerous issue to have gone upon. So also he surrenders himself entirely to God in another Psalm, Try me O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts, and consider, if there be any way of wickedness in me. But how concludes he? And lead me in the right way for ever. As long as I have God by the hand, and feel his loving care of me, I can admit any weight of his hand; any fornace of his heating. Let God mould me, and then melt me again, let God make me, and then break me again, as long as he establishes and maintains a rectified assurance in my soul, that at last he means to make me a Vessel of honor, to his Glory, howsoever he Rebuke or Chastise me, yet he will not Rebuke me in Anger, much less Chasten me in hot Displeasure, which is the last, and the heaviest thing, that David deprecates in this Prayer.

Both these words, which we translate to Chasten, and Hot displeasure, are words of a heavy, and of a vehement signification. They extend both, to express the eternity of Gods indignation, even to the binding of the soul and body in eternal chains of darkness. For the first, Iasar, signifies oftentimes in the Scriptures, Vincire, to bind, often with ropes, often with chains; to fetter, or manacle, or pinion men, that are to be executed; so that it imports a slavery, a bondage all the way, and a destruction at last. And so the word is used by Rehoboam, My Father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with Scorpions. And then, the other word, Camath, doth not only signify Hot displeasure, but that effect of Gods hot displeasure, which is intended by the Prophet Isaiah, Therefore hath he poured forth his fieree wrath, and the strength of battel, and that set him on fire round about, and he knew it not, and it burnt him up, and he considered it not; These be the fearfully conditions of Gods hot displeasure, to be in a fornace, and not to feel it; to be in a habit of sin, and not know what leads us into temptation; to be burnt to ashes, and so not only without all moisture, all holy tears, but, as ashes, without any possibility, that any good thing can grow in us. And yet this word, Camath, hath a heavier signification then this; for it signifies Poison it self, Destruction it self, for so is it twice taken in one verse, Their poison is like the poison of a Serpent; so that this Hot displeasure, is that poison of the soul, obduration here, and that extension of this obduration, a final impenitence in this life, and an infinite impenitibleness in the next, to dye without any actual penitence here, and live without all possibility of future penitence for ever hereafter.

David therefore foresees, that if God Rebuke in anger, it will come to a Chastening in hot displeasure. For what should stop him? For, If a man sin against the Lord, who will plead for him? says Eli; Plead thou my cause, says David; It is only the Lord, that can be of counsel with him, and plead for him; and that Lord, is both the Judge, and angry too. So Davids prayer hath this force, Rebuke me not in anger, for though I were able to stand under that, yet thou wilt also Chasten me in thine hot displeasure, and that no soul can bear; for as long as Gods anger lasts, so long he is going on towards our utter destruction. In that State, (it is not a State) in that Exinanition, in that annihilation of the soul, (it is not an annihilation, the soul is not so happy as to come to nothing) but in that misery, which can no more receive a name, then an end, all Gods corrections are born with grudging, with murmuring, with comparing our righteousness with others righteousness; In Job's impatience, Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi? Why hast thou set me up as a mark against thee, O Thou preserver of men? Thou that preservest other men, hast bent thy bow, and made me a mark for thine arrows, says the Lamentation: In that state we cannot cry to him, that he might answer us; If we do cry, and he answer, we cannot hear; if we do hear, we cannot believe that it is he. Cum invocantem exaudierit, says Job, If I cry, and he answer, yet I do not believe that he heard my voice. We had rather perish utterly, then stay his leisure in recovering us. Si flagellat, occidat semel, says Job in the Vulgate, If God have a mind to destroy me, let him do it at one blow; Et non de poenis rideat, Let him not sport himself with my misery. Whatsoever come after, we would be content to be out of this world, so we might but change our torment, whether it be a temporal calamity that oppresses our state or body, or a spiritual burden, a perplexity that sinks our understanding, or a guiltiness that depresses our conscience. Vt in inferno protegas, as Job also speaks, O that thou wouldst hide me, In inferno, In the grave, says the afflicted soul, but in Inferno, In hell it self, says the dispairing soul, rather then keep me in this torment, in this world!

This is the miserable condition, or danger, that David abhors, and deprecates in this Text, To be rebuked in anger, without any purpose in God to amend him; and to be chastened in his hot displeasure; so, as that we can find no interest in the gracious promises of the Gospel, no conditions, no power of revocation in the severe threatnings of the Law; no difference between those torments which have attached us here, and the everlasting torments of Hell it self. That we have lost all our joy in this life, and all our hope of the next; That we would fain die, though it were by our own hands, and though that death do but unlock us a door, to pass from one Hell into another. This is Ira tua Domine, & faror tuus, Thy anger, O Lord, and, Thy hot displeasure. For as long as it is but Ira patris, the anger of my Father, which hath dis-inherited me, Gold is thine, and silver is thine, and thou canst provide me. As long as it is but Ira Regis, some mis-information to the King, some mis-apprehension in the King, Cor Regis in manu tua, The Kings heart is in thy hand, and thou canst rectify it again. As long as it is but Furor febris, The rage and distemper of a pestilent Fever, or Furor furoris, The rage of madness it self, thou wilt consider me, and accept me, and reckon with me according to those better times, before those distempers overtook me, and overthrew me. But when it comes to be Ira tua, furor tuus, Thy anger, and, Thy displeasure, as David did, so let every Christian find comfort, if he be able to say faithfully this Verse, this Text, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure; for as long as he can pray against it, he is not yet so fallen under it, but that he hath yet his part in all Gods blessings, which we shed upon the Congregation in our Sermons, and which we seal to every soul in the Sacrament of Reconcilation.

Serm. LI. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 6.2, 3.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed: My soul is also sore vexed; But thou, O Lord, how long?

THis whole Psalm is prayer; And the whole prayer is either Deprecatory, as in the first verse, or Postulatory. Something David would have forborne, and something done. And in that Postulatory part of Davids prayer, which goes through six verses of this Psalm, we consider the Petitions, and the Inducements; What David asks, And why: of both which, there are some mingled, in these two verses, which constitute our Text. And therefore, in them, we shall necessarily take knowledge of some of the Petitions, and some of the Reasons. For, in the Prayer, there are five petitions; First, Miserere, Have mercy upon me, Think of me, look graciously towards me, prevent me with thy mercy; And then Sana me, O Lord, heal me, Thou didst create me in health, but my parents begot me in sickness, and I have complicated other sicknesses with that, Actual with Original sin, O Lord, heal me, give me physic for them; And thirdly, Convertere, Return, O Lord, Thou didst visit me in nature, return in grace, Thou didst visit me in Baptism, return in the other Sacrament, Thou doest visit me now, return at the hour of my death; And, in a fourth petition, Eripe, O Lord, deliver my soul, Every blessing of thine because a snare unto me, and thy benefits I make occasions of sin, In all conversation, and even in my solitude, I admit such temptations from others, or I produce such temptations in my self, as that, whensoever thou art pleased to return to me, thou findest me at the brink of some sin, and therefore Eripe me, O Lord, take hold of me, and deliver me; And lastly, Salvum me fac, O Lord, save me, Manifest thy good purpose upon me so, that I may never be shaken, or never overthrown in the faithful hope of that salvation, which thou hast preordained for me. These are the five petitions of the Prayer, and two of the five, The Miserere, Have mercy upon me, and the Sana, O Lord, heal me, are in these two verses. And then, the Reasons of the prayer, arising partly out of himself, and partly out of God; and some being mixed, and growing out of both roots together, some of the Reasons of the first nature, that is, of those that arise out of himself, are also in this Text.

Therefore in this Text, we shall consider, first the extent of those two petitions that are in it, Quid miserere, what David intends by this prayer, Have mercy upon me, And then, Quid sana me, what he intends by that, O Lord, heal me. And secondly, we shall consider the strength of those Reasons, which are in our text, Quia infirmus, why God should be moved to mercy with that, Because David was weak, And then Quia turbata ossa, why, Because his bones were vexed; And again, Quia turbata anima valde, Because his soul was sore vexed. And in a third Consideration, we shall also see, that for all our petitions, for mercy, and for spiritual health, and for all our Reasons, weakness, vexation of bones, And sore vexation of the soul it self, God doth not always come to a speedy remedy, but puts us to our Vsquequò, But thou, O Lord, how long? How long wilt thou delay? And then lastly, That how long soever that be, yet we are still to attend his time, still to rely upon him; which is intimated in this, That David changes not his Master, but still applies himself to the Lord; with that Name, that he begun with in the first verse, he proceeds; and thrice in these few words he calls upon him by this name of Essence, Iehova, O Lord have mercy upon me, O Lord heal me, O Lord how long wilt thou delay? He is not weary of attending the Lord, he is not inclinable to turn upon any other then the Lord; Have mercy upon me O Lord, &c.

First then in our first part, that part of Davids postulatory prayer in this Text, Have mercy upon me, This mercy that David begs here, is not that mercy of God which is above all his works; for those works which follow it, are above it; To heal him, in this Text, To return to him, To deliver his soul, To save him, in the next verses, are greater works then this, which he calls here in that general name of Mercy. For this word Chanan used in this place, is not Dele iniquitates, Have mercy upon me so, as to blot out all mine iniquities; It is not Dimitte debita, Have mercy upon me so, as to forgive all my sins; but it is only Des mihi gratiam, Lord shed some drops of grace upon me, or as Tremellius hath it, Gratiosus sis mihi, Be a gracious Lord unto me. For this word is used, where Noah is said to have found grace in the eyes of the Lord; which grace was, that God had provided for his bodily preservation in the Ark. And this word is used, not only of God towards men, but also of men towards God; when they express their zeal towards Gods house, and the compassion, and holy indignation which they had of the ruins thereof, they express it in this word, Thy servants delight in the stones of Sion, & miserti sunt pulveris ejus, They had mercy, they had compassion upon the dust and rubbish thereof. So that here this Miserere mei, which is the first groan of a sick soul, the first glance of the soul directed towards God, imports only this, Lord turn thy countenance towards me, Lord bring me to a sense that thou art turned towards me, Lord bring me within such a distance, as my soul may feel warmth and comfort in the rising of that Sun; Miserere mei, Look graciously upon me.

At the first meeting of Isaac and Rebecca, he was gone out to meditate in the fields, and she came riding that way, with his fathers man, who was employed in making that marriage; and when upon asking she knew that it was he who was to be her husband, she took a vail and covered her face, says that story. What freedom, and nearness soever they were to come to after, yet there was a modesty, and a bashfulness, and a reservedness required before; and her first kindness should be but to be seen. A man would be glad of a good countenance from her that shall be his, before he asked her whether she will be his or no; A man would be glad of a good countenance from his Prince, before he intend to press him with any particular suit: And a sinner may be come to this Miserere mei Domine, to desire that the Lord would think upon him, that the Lord would look graciously towards him, that the Lord would refresh him with the beams of his favor, before he have digested his devotion into a formal prayer, or entered into a particular consideration, what his necessities are.

Upon those words of the Apostle, I exhort you that supplications, and prayers, and Intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, S. Bernard makes certain gradations, and steps, and ascensions of the soul in prayer, and intimates thus much, That by the grace of Gods Spirit inanimating and quickening him, (without which grace he can have no motion at all) a sinner may come Ad supplicationes, which is S. Pauls first step, To supplications, which are à suppliciis, That out of a sense of some Judgement, some punishment, he may make his recourse to God; And then, by a farther growth in that grace, he may come Adorationes, which are Oris rationes, The particular expressing of his necessities, with his mouth; and a faithful assurance of obtaining them, in his prayer; And after, he may come farther, Ad Intercessiones, to an Intercession, to such an interest in Gods favor, as that he durst put himself betwixt God and other men, as Abraham in the behalf of Sodom, to intercede for them, with a holy confidence that God would do good to them, for his sake; And to a farther step then these, which the Apostle may intend in that last, Ad gratiarum actions, to a continual Thanksgiving, That by reason of Gods benefits multiplied upon him, he find nothing to ask, but his Thanksgivings, and his acknowledgements, for former blessings, possess and fill all his prayers; Though he be grown up to this strength of devotion, To Supplications, to Prayers, to Intercessions, to Thanksgivings, yet, says S. Bernard, at first, when he comes first to deprehend himself in a particular sin, or in a course of sin, he comes Verecund affectu, Bashfully, shamefastly, tremblingly; he knows not what to ask, he dares ask no particular thing at Gods hand; But though he be not come yet, to particular requests, for pardon of past sins, nor for strength against future, not to a particular consideration of the weight of his sins, nor to a comparison betwixt his sin, and the mercy of God, yet he comes to a Miserere mei Domine, To a sudden ejaculation, O Lord be merciful unto me, how dare I do this in the sight of my God?

It is much such an affection as is sometimes in a Felon taken in the manner, or in a condemned person brought to execution: One desires the Justice to be good to him, and yet he sees not how he can Baile him; the other desires the Sherif to be good to him, and yet he knows he must do his Office. A sinner desires God to have mercy upon him, and yet he hath not descended to particular considerations requisite in that business. But yet this spiritual Malefactor is in better case, then the temporal are; They desire them to be good to them, who can do them no good; but God is still able, and still ready to reprieve them, and to put off the execution of his Judgements, which execution were to take them out of this world under the guiltiness, and condemnation of unrepented sins. And therefore, as S. Basil says, In scala, prima ascensio est ab humo, He that makes but one step up a stair, though he be not got much nearer to the top of the house, yet he is got from the ground, and delivered from the foulness, and dampness of that; so in this first step of prayer, Miscrere mei, O Lord be merciful unto me, though a man be not established in heaven, yet he is stept from the world, and the miserable comforters thereof; He that committeth sin, is of the Devil: Yea, he is of him, in a direct line, and in the nearest degree; he is the Off-spring, the son of the Devil; Ex patre vestro estis, says Christ, You are of your father the Devil.

Now, Qui se à maligni patris affinitate submoverit, He that withdraws himself from such a Fathers house, though he be not presently come to means to live of himself, Quam feliciter patre suo orbatus! How blessed, how happy an Orphan is he become! How much better shall he find it, to be fatherless in respect of such a father, then masterlesse in respect of such a Lord, as he turns towards in this first ejaculation, and general application of the soul, Miserere mei, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, so much mercy, as to look graciously towards me! And therefore, as it was, by infinite degrees, a greater work, to make earth of nothing, then to make the best creatures of earth; So in the regeneration of a sinner, when he is to be made up a new creature, his first beginning, his first application of himself to God, is the hardest matter. But though he come not presently to look God fully in the face, nor conceive not presently an assurance of an established reconciliation, a fullness of pardon, a cancelling of all former debts, in an instant, Though he dare not come to touch God, and lay hold of himself, by receiving his Body and Blood in the Sacrament, yet the Evangelist calls thee to a contemplation of much comfort to thy soul, in certain preparatory accesses, and approaches. Behold, says he; that is, Look up, and consider thy pattern: Behold, a woman diseased came behind Christ, and touched the hem of his garment; for she said in her self, If I may but touch the hem of his garment only, I shall be whole. She knew there was virtue to come out of his Body, and she came as near that, as she durst: she had a desire to speak; but she went no farther, but to speak to her self; she said to her self, says that Gospel, if I may but touch, &c. But Christ Jesus supplied all, performed all on his part, abundantly. Presently he turned about, says the Text: And this was not a transitory glance, but a full sight, and exhibiting of himself to the fruition of her eye, that she might see him. He saw her, says S. Matthew: Her; he did not direct himself upon others, and leave out her; And then, he spake to her, to overcome her bashfulness; he called her Daughter, to overcome her diffidence; He bids her be of comfort, for she had met a more powerful Physician, then those, upon whom she had spent her time, and her estate; one that could cure her; one that would; one that had already; for so he says presently, Thy faith hath made thee whole. From how little a spark, how great a fire? From how little a beginning, how great a proceeding? She desired but the hem of his garment, and had all him.

Beloved in him, his power, and his goodness ended not in her; All that were sick were brought, that they might but touch the hem of his garment, and as many as touched it, were made whole. It was far from a perfect faith, that made them whole; To have a desire to touch his garment, seems not, was not much: Neither was that desire that was, always in themselves, but in them that brought them. But yet, come thou so far: Come, or be content to be brought, to be brought by example, to be brought by a statute, to be brought by curiosity, come any way to touch the hem of his garment, yea the hem of his servant, of Aarons garment, and thou shalt participate of the sweet ointment, which flows from the head to the hem of the garment. Come to the house of God, his Church; Join with the Congregation of the Saints; Love the body, and love the garments too, that is, The Order, the Discipline, the Decency, the Unity of the Church; Love even the hem of the garment, that that almost touches the ground; that is, Such Ceremonies, as had a good use in their first institution, for raising devotion, and are freed and purged from that superstition, which, as a rust, was grown upon them, though they may seem to touch the earth, that is, to have been induced by earthly men, and not immediate institutions from God, yet love that hem of that garment, those outward assistances of devotion in the Church.

Bring with thee a disposition to incorporate thy self with Gods people here; and though thou beest not yet come to a particular consideration of thy sins, and of the remedies, Though that spirit that possesses thee, that sin that governs thee, lie still a while, and sleep under all the thunders, which we denounce from this place, so that for a while thou beest not moved nor affected with all that is said, yet Appropinquas, & nescis, (as S. Augustine said, when he came only out of curiosity to hear S. Ambrose preach at Milan) Thou doest come nearer and nearer to God, though thou discern it not, and at one time or other, this blessed exorcism, this holy Charm, this Ordinance of God, the word of God in the mouth of his servant, shall provoke and awaken that spirit of security in thee, and thou shalt feel him begin to storm, and at first that spirit, thy spirit, will say to the spirit of the Preacher, Tune qui conturbas? Art thou he that troublest Israel? (as Ahab said to Elijah) Art thou he that troublest the peace of my conscience, and the security of my ways? And, when the Spirit of God shall search farther and farther, even ad occulta, to thy secretest sins, and touch upon them, and that that spirit of disobedience, when he feels this powerful Exorcism, shall say in thee, and cry as Ahab also did, Invenisti me? Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? God shall answer, Inveni te, I have found thee, and found that thou hadst sold thy self to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, And so shall bring thee to a more particular consideration of thine estate, and from thy having joined with the Church, in a Dominus miserebitur Sion, In an assurance, and acknowledgement, that the Lord will arise, and have mercy upon Sion, that is, of his whole Catholic Church, And then come to a Dominus misereatur nostri, God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, upon us that are met here, according to his Ordinance, and in confidence of his promise, upon this Congregation, of which thou makest thy self a part, thou wilt also come to this of David here, Domine miserere mei, Have mercy upon me, me in particular, and thou shalt hear God answer thee, Miserans miserebor tibi, With great mercy will I have mercy upon thee; upon thee; For, with him is plentiful Redemption; Mercy for his whole Church, mercy for this whole Congregation, mercy for every particular soul, that makes her self a part of the Congregation. Accustom thy self therefore to a general devotion, to a general application, to general ejaculations towards God, upon every occasion, and then, as a wedge of gold, that comes to be coined into particular pieces of currant money, the Lord shall stamp his Image upon all thy devotions, and bring thee to particular confessions of thy sins, and to particular prayers, for thy particular necessities. And this we may well conceive and admit, to be the nature of Davids first prayer, Miserere mei, Have mercy upon me; And then, the reason, upon which this first petition is grounded, (for so it will be fittest to handle the parts, first the prayer, and then the reason) is, Quia infirmus, Have mercy upon me, for I am weak.

First then, how imperfect, how weak soever our prayers be, yet still if it be a prayer, it hath a Quia, a Reason, upon which it is grounded. It hath in it, some implied, some interpretative consideration of ourselves, how it becomes us to ask that, which we do ask at Gods hand, and it hath some implied, and interpretative consideration of God, how it conduces to Gods glory to grant it: for, that prayer is very far from faith, which is not made so much as with reason; with a consideration of some possibility, and some conveniency in it. Every man that says Lord, Lord, enters not into heaven; Every Lord, Lord, that is said, enters not into heaven, but vanishes in the air. A prayer must be with a serious purpose to pray; for else, those fashional and customary prayers, are but false fires without shot, they batter not heaven; It is but an Interjection, that slips in; It is but a Parenthesis, that might be left out, whatsoever is uttered in the manner of a prayer, if it have not a Quia, a Reason, a ground for it. And therefore, when our Savior Christ gave us that forme of prayer, which includes all, he gave us in it a forme of the reason too, Quia tuum, For thine is the Kingdom, &c. It were not a prayer, to say Adveniat Regnum, Thy Kingdom come, if it were not grounded upon that faithful assurance, that God hath a Kingdomehere; Nor to say Sanctificetur nomen, Hallowed be thy name, If he desired not to be glorified by us; Nor to ask daily bread, nor forgiveness of sins, but for the Quia potestas, Because he hath all these in his power. We consider this first access to God, Miserere mei, Have mercy upon me, to be but a kind of imperfect prayer, but the first step; but it were none at all, if it had no reason, and therefore it hath this, Quia infirmus, Because I am weak.

This reason of our own weakness is a good motive for mercy, if in a desire of farther strength we come to that of Lazarus sisters, to Christ, Ecce, quam amas, infirmatur, Behold Lord, that soul that thou lovest, and hast died for, is weak, and languishes. Christ answered then, Non est infirmitas ad mortem, This weakness is not unto death, but that the Son of God might be glorified. He will say so to thee too; if thou present thy weakness with a desire of strength from him, he will say, Quare moriemini, domus Israel? why will ye die of this disease? Gratia mea sufficit; you may recover for all this; you may repent, you may abstain from this sin, you may take this spiritual physic, the Word, the Sacraments, if you will; Tantummodo robustus esto, (as God says to Ioshuah) Only be valiant, and fight against it, and thou shalt find strength grow in the use thereof. But for the most part, De infirmitate blandimur, says S. Bernard, we flatter our selves with an opinion of weakness; & ut liberiùs peccemus, libenter infirmamur, we are glad of this natural and corrupt weakness, that we may impute all our licentiousness to our weakness, and natural infirmity. But did that excuse Adam, (says that Father) Quòd per uxorem tanquam per carnis infirmitatem peceavit, That he took his occasion of sinning from his weaker part, from his wife? Quia infirmus, That thou art weak of thy self, is a just motive to induce God to bring thee to himself; Qui verè portavit languores tuos, who hath surely born all thine infirmities; But to leave him again when he hath brought thee, to refuse so light and easy yoke as his is, not to make use of that strength which he by his grace offers thee, this is not the affection of the Spouse, Languor amantis, when the person languishes for the love of Christ, but it is Languor amoris, when the love of Christ languishes in that person. And therefore if you be come so far with David, as to this Miserere quia infirmus, that an apprehension of your own weakness have brought you to him, in a prayer for mercy, and more strength, go forward with him still, to his next Petition, Sana me, O Lord heal me, for God is always ready to build upon his own foundations, and accomplish his own beginnings.

Acceptus in gratiam, hilariter veni ad postulationes: When thou art established in favor, thou mayst make any suit; when thou art possest of God by one prayer, thou mayst offer more. This is an encouragement which that Father S. Bernard gives, in observing the diverse degrees of praying, That though servandae humilitatis gratia, divina pietas ordinavit, To make his humility the more profitable to him, God imprints in an humble and penitent sinner, this apprehension, Vt quanto plus profecit, eo minus se reputet profecisse, That the more he is in Gods favor, the more he fears he is not so, or the more he fears to lose that favor, because it is a part, and a symptom of the working of the grace of God, to make him see his own unworthiness, the more manifestly, the more sensibly, yet, it is a religious insinuation, and a circumvention that God loves, when a sinner husbands his graces so well, as to grow rich under him, and to make his thanks for one blessing, a reason, and an occasion of another; so to gather upon God by a rolling Trench, and by a winding stair, as Abraham gained upon God, in the behalf of Sodom; for this is an act of the wisdom of the Serpent, which our Savior recommends unto us, in such a Serpentine line, (as the Artists call it) to get up to God, and get into God by such degrees, as David does here, from his Miserere, to a Sana, from a gracious look, to a perfect recovery; from the act of the Levite that looked upon the wounded man, to the act of the Samaritane that undertook his cure; from desiring God to visit him as a friend, (as Abraham was called the friend of God) to study him as a Physician. Because the Prophet Isaiah makes a Proclamation in Christs name, Ho, every one that thirsteth, &c. And because the same Prophet says of him, Verè portavit, He hath truly born upon himself (and therefore taken away from us) all our diseases, Tertullian says elegantly, that Isaiah presents Christ, Praedicatorem, & Medicatorem, as a Preacher, and as a Physician; Indeed he is a Physician both ways; in his Word, and in his Power, and therefore in that notion only, as a Physician, David presents him here.

Now Physicians say, That man hath in his Constitution, in his Complexion, a natural virtue, which they call Balsamum suum, his own Balsamum, by which, any wound which a man could receive in his body, would cure it self, if it could be kept clean from the anoiances of the aire, and all extrinsique encumbrances. Something that hath some proportion and analogy to this Balsamum of the body, there is in the soul of man too: The soul hath Nardum suam, her Spikenard, as the Spouse says, Nardus meadedit odorem suum, she had a spikenard, a perfume, a fragrancy, a sweet savor in her self. For, Virtutes germaniùs attingunt animam, quàm corpus sanitas, Virtuous inclinations, and a disposition to moral goodness, is more natural to the soul of man, and nearer of kin to the soul of man, then health is to the body. And then, if we consider bodily health, Nulla oratio, nulla doctrinae formula nos docet morbum odiisse, says that Father: There needs no Art, there needs no outward Eloquence, to persuade a man, to be loath to be sick: Ita in anima inest naturalis, & citra doctrinam mali evitatio, says he; So the soul hath a natural and untaught hatred, and detestation of that which is evil. The Church at thy Baptism doth not require Sureties at thy hands, for this: Thy Sureties undertake to the Church in thy behalf, That thou shalt forsake the flesh, the world, and the devil, That thou shalt believe all the Articles of our Religion, That thou shalt keep all the Commandments of God; But for this knowledge and detestation of evil, they are not put to undertake them then, neither doth the Church Catechize thee, in that after: for, the sum of all those duties which concern the detestation of evil, consists in that unwritten law of thy conscience which thou knowest naturally. Scis quod boni proximo faciendum, says that Father, Naturally thou knowest what good thou art bound to do to another man; Idem enim est, quod ab aliis tute tibi fieri velis; for, it is but asking thy self, What thou wouldst that that other man should do unto thee: Non ignoras quid sit ipsum malum, Thou canst not be ignorant, what evil thou shouldest abstain from offering to another, Est enim quod ab alio fieri nolis, It is but the same, which thou thinkest another should not put upon thee. So that the soul of man hath in it Balsamum suum, Nardum suam, A medicinal Balsamum, a fragrant Spikenard in her self, a natural disposition to Moral goodness, as the body hath to health. But therein lyes the souls disadvantage, that whereas the causes that hinder the cure of a bodily wound, are extrinsique offences of the Air, and putrefaction from thence, the causes in the wounds of the soul, are intrinsique, so as no other man can apply physic to them; Nay, they are hereditary, and there was no time early enough for our selves to apply any thing by way of prevention, for the wounds were as soon as we were, and sooner; Here was a new soul, but an old sore; a young child, but an inveterate disease. As S. Augustin cannot conceive any interim, any distance, between the creating of the soul, and the infusing of the soul into the body, but eases himself upon that, Creando infundit, and infundendo creat, The Creation is the Infusion, and the Infusion is the Creation, so we cannot conceive any Interim, any distance, between the infusing and the sickening, between the comming and the sinning of the soul. So that there was no means of prevention; I could not so much as wish, that I might be no sinner, for I could not wish that I might be no Child. Neither is there any means of separation now; our concupiscencies dwell in us, and prescribe in us, and will gnaw upon us, as worms, till they deliver our bodies to the worms of the grave, and our consciences to the worm that never dies.

From the dangerous effects then of this sickness, David desires to be healed, and by God himself, Sana me Domine, O Lord heal me; for that physic that Man gives, is all but drugs of the earth; Moral and Civil counsels, rather to cover then recover, rather to disguise then to avoid: They put a clove in the mouth, but they do not mend the lungs. To cover his nakedness Adam took but fig-leaves; but to recover Hezekiah, God took figs themselves. Man deals upon leaves, that cover, and shadow, God upon fruitful and effectual means, that cure, and nourish. And then, God took a lump of figs; God is liberal of his graces, and gives not over a cure, at one dressing: And they were dry figs too, says that story; you must not look for figs from the Tree, for immediate Revelations, for private inspirations from God; but the medicinal preaching of the Word, medicinal Sacraments, medicinal Absolution, are such dry figs as God hath preserved in his Church for all our diseases. S. Paul had a strong desire, and he expressed it in often prayer to God, to have this peccant humor, this malignity clean purged out, to have that Stimulus carnis, that concupiscence absolutely taken away. God would not do so; but yet he applied his effectual physic, sufficient Grace.

This then is the souls Panacaea, The Pharmacum Catholicum, the Medicina omnimorbia, The physic that cures all, the sufficient Grace, the seasonable mercy of God, in the merits of Christ Jesus, and in the love of the Holy Ghost. This is the physic; but then, there are ever Vehicula medicinae, certain syrups, and liquors, to convey the physic; water, and wine in the Sacraments; And certain Physicians to ordain and prescribe, The Ministers of the Word and Sacraments; The Father sends, The Son makes, The Holy Ghost brings, The Minister lays on the plaister. For, Medicinae ars à Deo data, ut ind rationem animae curandae disceremus, Gods purpose in giving us the science of bodily health, was not determined in the body: but his large and gracious purpose was, by that restitution of the body, to raise us to the consideration of spiritual health. When Christ had said to him, who was brought sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven thee, and that the Scribes and Pharisees were scandalized with that, as though he, being but man, had usurped upon the power of God, Christ proves to them, by an actual restoring of his bodily health, that he could restore his soul too, in the forgiveness of sins: He asks them there, Whether is it easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. Christus facit sanitatem corporalem argumentum spiritualis; Christ did not determine his doctrine in the declaration of a miraculous power exercised upon his body, but by that, established their belief of his spiritual power, in doing that, which in their opinion was the greater work. Pursue therefore his method of Curing; And if God have restored thee in any sickness, by such means, as he of his goodness hath imprinted in natural herbs, and Simples, think not that that was done only or simply for thy bodies sake, but that, as it is as easy for God to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, as Take up thy bed and walk, so it is as easy for thee, to have spiritual physic, as bodily; because, as God hath planted all those medicinal Simples in the open fields, for all, though some do tread them under their feet, so hath God deposited and prepared spiritual helps for all, though all do not make benefit of those helps which are offered. It is true, that God says of his Church, Hortus conclusus soror mea, My sister, my Spouse is a Garden enclosed, as a spring shut in, and a fountain sealęd up; But therein is our advantage, who, by being enwrapped in the Covenant, as the seed of the faithful, as the children of Christian Parents, are born if not within this walled Garden, yet with a key in our hand to open the door, that is, with a right and title, to the Sacrament of Baptism. The Church is a Garden walled in, for their better defence and security that are in it; but not walled in to keep any out, who, either by being born within the Covenant, inherit a right to it, or by accepting the grace which is offered them, acquire, and profess a desire to enter thereinto. For, as it is a Garden, full of Spikenard, and of Incense, and of all spices, (as the Text says there) so that they who are in this Garden, in the Church, are in possession of all these blessed means of spiritual health; So are these spices, and Incense, and Spikenard, of a diffusive and spreading nature, and breath even over the walls of the Garden: Oleum effusum nomen ejus; The name of Christ is unction, Ointment; but it is an Ointment poured out, an Ointment that communicates the fragrancy thereof, to persons at a good distance; And, as it is said there, Christ calls up the North and the South to blow upon his Garden, he raises up men to transport and propagate these means of salvation to all Nations, so that, in every Nation, they that fear him are acceptable to him; not that that fear of God in general, as one universal power, is sufficient in it self, to bring any man to God immediately, but that God directs the Spikenard, and Incense of this Garden upon that man, and seconds his former fear of God, with a love of God, and brings him to a knowledge, and to a desire, and to a possession, and fruition of our more assured means of salvation. When he does so, this is his method, as in restoring bodily health, he said, Surge, Tolle, Ambula, Arise, Take up thy bed, and Walk: So to every sick soul, whose cure he undertakes, he says so too, Surge, Tolle, Ambula. Our beds are our natural affections; These he does not bid us cast away, nor burn, nor destroy; since Christ vouchsafed Induere hominem, we must not Exuere hominem; Since Christ invested the nature of man, and became man, we must not pretend to divest it, and become Angels, or flatter our selves in the merit of Mortifications, not enjoined, or of a retiredness, and departing out of the world, in the world, by the withdrawing of our selves from the offices of mutual society, or an extinguishing of natural affections. But, Surge, says our Savior, Arise from this bed, sleep not lazily in an over-indulgency to these affections; but, Ambula, walk sincerely in thy Calling, and thou shalt hear thy Savior say, Non est infirmitas haec ad mortem, These affections, nay, these concupiscencies shall not destroy thee.

David then doth not pray for such an exact and exquisite state of health, as that he should have no infirmity; Physicians for our bodies tell us, that there is no such state; The best degree of health is but Neutralitas; He is well (that is, as well as Man can be) that is not dangerously sick; for, absolutely well no man can be. Spiritual Physicians will tell you so too; He that says you have no sin, or that God sees not your sin, if you be of the Elect, deceives you. It is not for an Innocency that David prays; but it is against deadly diseases, and against violent accidents of those diseases. He doth not beg, he cannot hope for an absolute peace: Nature hath put awarre upon us; True happiness, and apparent happiness fight against one another: sin hath put a war upon us; The flesh and the Spirit fight against one another: Christ Jesus himself came to put a war upon us; The zeal of his glory, and the course of this world, fight against one another. It is not against all war; nay, it is not against all victory that David prays; He cannot hope that he should be overcome by no Temptations; but against such a war, and such a victory, as should bring him to servility, and bondage to sin, That sin entering by Conquest upon him, should govern as a tyran over him, against such a sickness as should induce a consumption, it is that he directs this prayer, Sana me Domine, Not, Lord make me impeccable, but Lord make me penitent, and then heal me. And he comes not to take physic upon wantonness; but because the disease is violent, because the accidents are vehement; so vehement, so violent, as that it hath pierced Ad ossa, and Ad animam, My bones are vexed, and my soul is sore troubled, Therefore heal me; which is the Reason upon which he grounds this second petition, Heal me, because. my bones are vexed &c.

We must necessarily insist a little upon these terms, The Bones, The Soul, The Trouble, or Vexation. First, Ossa, Bones, We know in the natural and ordinary acceptation, what they are; They are these Beams, and Timbers, and Rafters of these Tabernacles, these Temples of the Holy Ghost, these bodies of ours. But Immanebimus nativae significationi? says S. Basil, Shall we dwell upon the native and natural signification of these Bones? Et intelligentia passim obvia contenti erimus? Shall we who have our conversation in heaven, find no more in these Bones, then an earthly, a worldly, a natural man would do? By S. Basils example, we may boldly proceed farther: Membra etiam animae sunt, says he: The soul hath her limbs as well as the body. Surdi audit, caeci aspicite, says God in Isaiah; If their souls had not ears and eyes, the blind could not see, the deaf could not hear, and yet God calls upon the deaf and blind, to hear and see. As S. Paul says to the Ephesians, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; so David says, Dentes peccatorum contrivisti, Thou hast broken the teeth; That is, the pride and the power, the venom and malignity of the wicked: Membra etiam animae sunt, The soul hath her Bones too; and here Davids Bones were the strongest powers and faculties of his soul, and the best actions and operations of those faculties, and yet they were shaken. For this hereditary sickness, Original sin, prevayles so far upon us, that upon our good days we have some grudgings of that Fever; Even in our best actions, we have some of the leaven of that sin. So that if we go about to comfort our selves, with some dispositions to Gods glory, which we find in our selves, with some sparks of love to his precepts, and his commandments, with some good strength of faith, with some measure of good works, yea, with having something for the Name, and glory of Christ Jesus: yet if we consider what humane and corrupt affections have been mingled in all these, Conturbabuntur ossa, our Bones will be troubled, even those that appeared to be strong works, and likely to hold out, will need a reparation, an exclamation, Sana me Domine, O Lord heal these too, or els these are as weak as the worst: Ossa non dolent; The Bones themselves have no sense, they feel no pain. We need not say, That those good works themselves, which we do, have in their nature, the nature of sin; That every good work considered alone, and in the substance of the act it self is sin; But membranae dolent; Those little membrans, those films, those thin skins, that cover, and that line some bones, are very sensible of pain, and of any vexation. Though in the nature of the work it self, the work be not sin, yet in those circumstances that invest, and involve the work, in those things which we mingle with the work, whether desire of glory towards men, or opinion of merit towards God; Whensoever those bones, those best actions come to the examination of a tender and a diligent Conscience, Si ossa non dolent, membranae dolent, If the work be not sinful, the circumstances are, and howsoever they may be conceived to be strong, as they are Ossa, Bones, works, in a moral consideration, good, yet, as they are Ossa mea, says David, as they are My bones, such good works as taste of my ill corruptions, so long they are vexed, and troubled, and cannot stand upright, nor appear with any confidence in the sight of God.

Thus far then first David needed this sanation, this health that he prays for, that his best actions were corrupt; But the corruption went farther, to the very root and fountain of those actions, Ad ipsam animam, His very soul was sore vexed. It is true, that as this word Anima, the soul, is sometimes taken in the Scriptures, this may seem to go no farther then the former, no more that his soul was vexed, then that his bones were so: for, Anima, in many places, is but Animalis Homo, The soul signifies but the natural man: And so opponitur spiritui, The soul is not only said to be a diverse thing, but a contrary thing to the Spirit. When the Apostle says to the Thessalonians, Now the very God of peace sanctify you throughout, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be kept blameless unto the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And where the same Apostle says to the Hebrews, The word of God divideth asunder the soul and the spirit; here is a difference put between corrupt nature, and the working of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost in man: for here, the soul is taken for Animalis home, The natural man, and the Spirit is taken for the Spirit of God. But besides this, these two words, Soul and Spirit, are sometimes used by the Fathers, in a sense diverse from one another, and as different things, and yet still as parts of one and the same man; Man is said by them, not only to have a body, and a soul, but to have a soul, and a spirit; not as Spirit is the Spirit of God, and so an extrinsecal thing, but as Spirit is a constitutive part of the natural man. So, in particular, amongst many, Gregory Nyssen takes the Body to be spoken De nutribili, The flesh and blood of man, And the soul De sensibili, The operation of the senses, And the Spirit De Intellectuali, The Intellectual, the reasonable faculties of man; That in the body, Man is conformed to Plants that have no sense, In the soul, to Beasts, that have no reason, In the spirit, to Angels. But so, The Spirit is but the same thing with that, which now we do ordinarily account the soul to be; for we make account, that the Image of God is imprinted in the soul, and that gives him his conformity to Angels: But divers others of the Ancients have taken Soul and Spirit, for different things, even in the Intellectual part of man, somewhat obscurely, I confess, and, as some venture to say, unnecessarily, if not dangerously. It troubled S. Jerome sometimes, how to understand the word Spirit in man: but he takes the easiest way, he dispatches himself of it, as fast as he could, that is, to speak of it only as it was used in the Scriptures: Famosa quaestio, says he, sed brevi sermone tractanda; It is a question often disputed, but may be shortly determined, Idem spiritus hic, ac in iis verbis, Nolite extinguere spiritum; When we hear of the Spirit in a Man, in Scriptures, we must understand it of the gifts of the Spirit; for so, fully to the same purpose, says S. Chrysostom, Spiritus est charisma spiritus, The Spirit is the working of the Spirit, The gifts of the Spirit: and so when we hear, The Spirit was vexed, The Spirit was quenched, still it is to be understood, The gifts of the Spirit. And so, as they restrain the signification of Spirit, to those gifts only, (though the word do indeed, in many places, require a larger extension) so do many restrain this word in our text, The Soul, only Ad sensum, to the sensitive faculties of the soul, that is, only to the pain and anguish that his body suffered; But so far, at least, David had gone, in that which he said before, My bones are vexed.

Now, Ingravescit morbus, The disease festers beyond the bone, even into the marrow it self. His Bones were those best actions that he had produced, and he saw in that Contemplation, that for all that he had done, he was still, at best, but an unprofitable servant, if not a rebellious enemy; But then, when he considers his whole soul, and all that ever it can do, he sees all the rest will be no better; The poison, he sees, is in the fountain, the Canker in the root, the rancor, the venom in the soul it self. Corpus instrumentum, anima ars ipsa, says S. Basil: The body, and the senses are but the tools, and instruments, that the soul works with. But the soul is the art, the science that directs those Instruments; The faculties of the soul are the boughs that produce the fruits; and the operations, and particular acts of those faculties are the fruits, but the soul is the root of all. And David sees, that this art, this science, this soul can direct him, or establish him in no good way; That not only the fruits, his particular acts, nor only the boughs, and armes, his several faculties, but the root it self, the soul it self, was infected. His bones are shaken, he dares not stand upon the good he hath done, his soul is so too, he cannot hope for any good he shall do: He hath no merit for the past, he hath no free-will for the future; that is his case.

This troubles his bones, this troubles his soul, this vexes them both; for, the word is all one, in both places, as our last Translators have observed, and rendered it aright; not vexed in one place, and troubled in the other, as our former Translators had it; But in both places it is Bahal, and Bahal imports a vehemence, both in the intensness of it, and in the suddenness, and inevitableness of it: And therefore it signifies often, Praecipitantiam, A headlong downfal and irrecoverableness; And often, Evanescentiam, an utter vanishing away, and annihilation. David, (whom we always consider in the Psalms, not only to speak literally of those miseries which were actually upon himself, but prophetically too, of such measures, and exaltations of those miseries, as would certainly fall upon them, as did not seek their sanation, their recovery from the God of all health) looking into all his actions, (they are the fruits) and into all his faculties, (they are the boughs) and into the root of all, the soul it self, considering what he had done, what he could do, he sees that as yet he had done no good, he sees he should never be able to do any; His bones are troubled, He hath no comfort in that which is grown up, and past, And his soul is sore troubled, (for to the trouble of the soul, there is added in the Text, that particle, Valde, It is a sore trouble that falls upon the soul, A troubled spirit who can bear?) because he hath no hope in the future; He was no surer for that which was to come, then for that which was past; But he, (that is, all, considered in that case which he proposes) he comes (as the word signifies) ad praecipitantiam, That all his strength can scarce keep him from precipitation into despair, And he comes (as the word signifies too) ad Evanescentiam, to an evaporating, and a vanishing of his soul, that is, even to a renouncing, and a detestation of his immortality, and to a willingness, to a desire, that he might die the death of other Creatures, which perish altogether, and go out as a Candle. This is the trouble, the sore trouble of his soul, who is brought to an apprehension of Gods indignation for not performing Conditions required at his hands, and of his inability to perform them, and is not come to the contemplation of his mercy, in supply thereof.

There is Turbatio Timoris, A trouble out of fear of danger in this world, Herods trouble; When the Magi brought word of another King, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. There is Turbatio confusionis, The Mariners trouble in a tempest; Their soul melteth for trouble, says David. There is Turbatio occupationis; Martha's trouble; Martha thou art troubled about many things, says Christ. There is Turbatio admirationis, The blessed Virgins trouble, When she saw the Angel, she was troubled at his saying. To contract this, There is Turbatio compassionis, Christs own trouble, When he saw Mary weep for her brother Lazarus, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled in himself. But in all these troubles, Herods fear, The Mariners irresolution, Martha's multiplicity of business, The blessed Virgins sudden amazement, Our Saviours compassionate sorrow, as they are in us, worldly troubles, so the world administers some means to extemiate, and alleviate these troubles; for, fears are overcome, and storms are appeased, and businesses are ended, and wonders are understood, and sorrows wear out; But in this trouble of the bones, and the soul, in so deep and sensible impressions of the anger of God, looking at once upon the pravity, the obliquity, the malignity of all that I have done, of all that I shall do, Man hath but one step between that state, and despair, to stop upon, to turn to the Author of all temporal, and all spiritual health, the Lord of life, with Davids prayer, Cor mundum crea, Create a clean heart within me; Begin with me again, as thou begunst with Adam, in innocency; and see, if I shall husband and govern that innocency better then Adam did; for, for this heart which I have from him, I have it in corruption; and, who can bring a clean thing out of uncleanness? Therefore Davids prayer goes farther in the same place, Renew a constant spirit in me; Present cleanness cannot be had from my self; but if I have that from God, mine own clothes will make me foul again, and therefore do not only create a clean spirit, but renew a spirit of constancy and perseverance. Therefore I have also another Prayer in the same Psalm, Spiritu principali confirma me, Sustain me, uphold me with thy free spirit, thy large, thy munificent spirit: for thy ordinary graces will not defray me, nor carry me through this valley of temptations; not thy single money, but thy Talents; not as thou art thine own Almoner, but thine own Treasurer; It is not the dew, but thy former and later rain that must water, though it be thy hand that hath planted; Not any of the Rivers, though of Paradise, but the Ocean it self, that must bring me to thy Jerusalem. Create a clean heart; Thou didst so in Adam, and in him I defiled it. Renew that heart; Thou didst so in Baptism; And thy upholding me with thy constant spirit, is thy affording me means, which are constant, in thy Church; But thy confirming me with thy principal spirit, is thy making of those means, instituted in thy Church, effectual upon me, by the spirit of Application, the spirit of Appropriation, by which the merits of the Son, deposited in the Church, are delivered over unto me.

This then is the force of Davids reason in this Petition, Ossa implentur vitiis, as one of Job's friends speaks, My bones are full of the sins of my youth, That is, my best actions, now in mine age, have some taste, some tincture from the habit, or some sinful memory of the acts of sin in my youth; Adhaeret os meum carni, as David also speaks, My bones cleave to my flesh, my best actions taste of my worst; And My skin cleaves to my bones, as Jeremiah laments, That is, My best actions call for a skin, for something to cover them: And Therefore, not Therefore because I have brought my self into this state, but because by thy grace I have power to bring this my state into thy sight, by this humble confession, Sana me Domine, O Lord heal me; Thou that art my Messiah, be my Moses, and carry these bones of thy Joseph out of Egypt; Deliver me, in this consideration of mine actions, from the terror of a self-accusing, and a jealous, and suspicious conscience: Bury my bones beside the bones of the man of God; Beside the bones of the Son of God: Look upon my bones as they are coffind, and shrowded in that sheet, the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Accedant ossa ad ossa, as in Ezekiels vision, Let our bones come together, bone to bone, mine to his, and look upon them uno intuitu, all together, and there shall come sinews, and flesh, and skin upon them, and breath upon them, and in Him, in Christ Jesus, I shall live; My bones being laid by his, though but gristles in themselves, my actions being considered in his, though imperfect in themselves, shall bear me up in the sight of God. And this may be the purpose of this prayer, this sanation, grounded upon this reason, O Lord heal me, for my bones are vexed, &c. But yet David must, and doth stop upon this step, he stays Gods leisure, and is put to his Vsquequo? But thou, O Lord, how long?

David had cried Miserere, he had begged of God to look towards him, and consider him; He had revealed to him his weak and troublesome estate, and he had entreated relief; but yet God gave not that relief presently, nor seemed to have heard his prayer, nor to have accepted his reasons. David comes to some degrees of expostulation with God; but he dares not proceed far; it is but usquequo Domine? which if we consider it in the Original, and so also in our last Translation, requires a serious consideration. For it is not there as it is in the first Translation, How long wilt thou delay? David charges God with no delay: But it is only, Et tu Domine, usquequo? But thou O Lord, how long? And there he ends in a holy abruptness, as though he had taken himself in a fault, to enterprise any expostulation with God. He doth not say, How long ere thou hear me? If thou hear me, how long ere thou regard me? If thou regard me, how long ere thou heal me? How long shall my bones, how long shall my soul be troubled? He says not so; but leaving all to his leisure, he corrects his passion, he breaks off his expostulation. As long as I have that commission from God, Dic animae tua, Salus tua sum, Say unto thy soul, I am thy salvation, my soul shall keep silence unto God, of whom cometh my salvation: Silence from murmuring, how long soever he be in recovering me; not silence from prayer, that he would come; for that is our last Consideration; David proposed his Desire, Miserere, and Sana, Look towards me, and Heal me, that was our first; And then his Reasons, Ossa, Anima, My bones, my soul is troubled, that was our second; And then he grew sensible of Gods absence, for all that, which was our third Proposition; for yet, for all this, he continues patient, and solieites the same God in the same name, The Lord, But thou O Lord, how long?

Need we then any other example of such a patience then God himself, who stays so long in expectation of our conversion? But we have Davids example too, who having first made his Deprecation, That God would not reprove him in anger, having prayed God to forbear him, he is also well content to forbear God, for those other things which he asks, till it be his pleasure to give them. But yet he neither gives over praying, nor doth he incline to pray to any body else, but still Domine miserere, Have mercy upon me O Lord, and Domine fana, O Lord heal me: Industry in a lawful calling, favor of great persons, a thankful acknowledgement of the ministry and protection of Angels, and of the prayers of the Saints in heaven for us, all these concur to our assistance; But the root of all, all temporal, all spiritual blessings, is he, to whom David leads us here, Dominus, The Lord; Lord, as he is Proprietary of all creatures; He made All, and therefore is Lord of All; as he is Jehovah, which is the name of Essence, of Being, as all things have all their being from him, their very being, and their well-being, their Creation, and their Conservation; And in that Name of Recognition and acknowledgement, that all that can be had, is to be asked of him, and him only, Him, as he is Jehovah, The Lord, does David solicit him here; for, as there is no other Name under heaven, given amongst men, whereby we must be saved, but the Name of Jesus Christ; So is there no other Name above in heaven proposed to men, whereby they should receive these blessings, but the Name of Jehovah; for Jehovah is the name of the whole Trinity, and there are no more, no Queen-mother in heaven, no Counsaylors in heaven in Commission with the Trinity.

In this Name therefore David pursues his Prayer: for, from a River, from a Cisterne, a man may take more water at once, then he can from the first spring and fountain head; But he cannot take the water so sincerely, so purely, so intemerately from the channel as from the fountain head. Princes and great persons may rays their Dependants faster then God does his; But sudden riches come like a land-water, and bring much foulness with them. We are Gods vineyard; The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant, says the Prophet. And God delights to see his plants prosper, and grow up seasonably. More then once Christ makes that profession, That he goes down into the Garden of Nuts, to see the fruits of the valley, And to see whether the Vine flourished, and whether the Pomegranet budded; And he goes up early into the vineyard, to see whether the tender grape appeared. He had a pleasure in the growth and successive increase of his plants, and did not look they should come hastily to their height and maturity. If worldly blessings, by a good industry, grow up in us, it is natural; But if they fall upon us, Pluit laqueos, God rains down springs and snares, occasions of sin in those abundances, and Pluit grandinem, He will rain down Hailstones; Hailstones as big as Talents, as in the Revelation; as big as Milstones; He will make our riches occasions of raising enemies, and make those enemies Grindstones to grind our fortunes to powder. Make not too much haste to be rich: Even in spiritual riches, in spiritual health make not too much haste. Pray for it; for there is no other way to get it. Pray to the Lord for it: For, Saints and Angels have but enough for themselves. Make haste to begin to have these spiritual graces; To desire them, is to begin to have them: But make not too much haste in the way; Do not think thy self purer then thou art, because thou seest another do some such sins, as thou hast forborne.

Beloved, at last, when Christ Jesus comes with his scales, thou shalt not be weighed with that man, but every man shall be weighed with God: Be pure as your Father in heaven is pure, is the weight that must try us all; and then, the purest of us all, that trusts to his own purity, must hear that fearful Men Tekel Vpharsin, Thou art weighed, Thou art found too light, Thou art divided, separated from the face of God, because thou hast not taken the purity of that Son upon thee, who not only in himself, but those also who are in him, in him are pure, as his, and their Father in heaven is pure. Neither make so much haste to this spiritual riches, and health, as to think thy self whole before thou art: Neither murmure, nor despair of thy recovery, if thou beest not whole so soon as thou desiredst. If thou wrastle with temptations, and canst not overcome them, If thou purpose to pray earnestly, and find thy mind presently strayed from that purpose, If thou intend a good course, and meet with stops in the way, If thou seek peace of conscience, and scruples out of zeal interrupt that, yet discomfort not thy self. God, in the Creation, before he came to make thee; yet all that while he wrought for thee. Thy Regeneration, to make thee a new creature, is a greater work then that, and it cannot be done in an instant. God hath purposed a building in thee; he hath sat down, and considered, that he hath sufficient to accomplish that building, as it is in the Gospel, and therefore leave him to his leisure.

When thou hast begun with David, with a Domine ne arguas, O Lord rebuke me not, and followed that, with a Domine miserere, O Lord look graciously towards me, and pursued that, with a Domine sana me, O Lord heal me, If thou find a Domine usqucquo? Any degree of weariness of attending the Lords leisure, arising in thee, suppress it, overcome it, with more and more petitions, and that which God did by way of Commandment, in the first Creation, do thou by way of prayer, in this thy second Creation; First he said, Piat lux, Let there be light: Pray thou, that he would enlighten thy darkness. God was satisfied with that light for three days, and then he said, Fiant luminaria, Let there be great lights; Bless God for his present light, but yet pray that he will enlarge that light which he hath given thee; And turn all those his Commandments into prayers, till thou come to his Faciamus hominem, Let us make man according to our own Image; Pray that he will restore his Image in thee, and conform thee to him, who is the Image of the invisible God, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. He did his greatest work upon thee, before time was, thine Election; And he hath reserved the confummation of that work, till time shall be no more, thy Glorification: And as forthy Vocation he hath taken his own time, (He did not call thee into the world in the time of the Primitive Church, nor, perchance, call thee effectually, though in the Church, in the days of thy youth) So stay his time for thy Sanctification, and, if the day-spring from on high have visited thee, but this morning, If thou beest come to a fiat lux but now, that now God have kindled some light in thee, he may come this day seven-night to a siant luminaria, to multiply this light by a more powerful means. If not so soon, yet still remember, that it was God that made the Sun stand still to Ioshaah, as well as to run his race as a Giant to David; And God was as much glorified in the standing still of the Sun, as in the motion thereof; And shall be so in thy Sanctification, though it seem to stand at a stay for a time, when his time shall be to perfect it, in a measure acceptable to thee. Nothing is acceptable to him, but that which is seasonable; nor seasonable, except it come in the time proper to it: And, as S. Augustine says, Natura rei est, quam indidit Deus, That is the nature of every thing, which God hath imprinted in it, So that is the time for every thing, which God hath appointed for it. Pray, and Stay, are two blessed Monosy lables; To ascend to God, To attend Gods descent to us, is the Motion, and the Rest of a Christian; And as all Motion is for Rest, so let all the Motions of our soul in our prayers to God be, that our wills may rest in his, and that all that pleases him, may please us, therefore because it pleases him; for therefore, because it pleases him, it becomes good for us, and then, when it pleases him, it becomes seasonable unto us, and expedient for us.

Serm. LII. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 6.4, 5.

Return, O Lord; Deliver my soul; O Lord save me, for thy mercies sake.

For in Death there is no Remembrance of thee; and in the Grave, who shall give thee thanks?

THe whole Psalm is Prayer; and Prayer is our whole service to God. Earnest Prayer hath the nature of Importunity; We press, we importune God in Prayer; Yet that puts not God to a morosity, to a frowardness; God flings not away from that; God suffers that importunity, and more. Prayer hath the nature of Impudency; We threaten God in Prayer; as Gregor: Nazi: adventures to express it; He says, his Sister, in the vehemence of her Prayer, would threaten God, Et honesta quadam impudentiae, egit impudentem; She came, says he, to a religious impudency with God, and to threaten him, that she would never depart from his Altar, till she had her Petition granted; And God suffers this Impudency, and more. Prayer hath the nature of Violence; In the public Prayers of the Congregation, we besiege God, says Tertul: and we take God Prisoner, and bring God to our Conditions; and God is glad to be straitned by us in that siege. This Prophet here executes before, what the Apostle counsels after, Pray incessantly; Even in his singing he prays; And as S. Basil says, Etiam somniajustorum preces sunt, A Good mans dreams are Prayers, he prays, and not sleepily, in his sleep, so Davids Songs are Prayers. Now in this his besieging of God, he brings up his works from a far off, closer; He begins in this Psalm, at a deprecatory Prayer; He asks nothing, but that God would do nothing, that he would forbear him; Rebuke me not, Correct me not. Now, it costs the King less, to give a Pardon, then to give a Pension; and less to give a Reprieve, then to give a Pardon; and less to Connive, not to call in Question, then either Reprieve, Pardon or Pension; To forbear, is not much. But then, as the Mathematician said, That he could make an Engin, a Screw, that should move the whole frame of the World, if he could have a place assigned him, to fix that Engin, that Screw upon, that so it might work upon the World: so Prayer, when one Petition hath taken hold upon God, works upon God, moves God, prevails with God, entirely for all. David then having got this ground, this footing in God, he brings his works closer; he comes from the Deprecatory, to a Postulatory Prayer; not only that God would do nothing against him, but that he would do something for him. God hath suffered man to see Arcana imperii, The secrets of his State, how he governs; He governs by Precedent; by precedents of his Predecessors, he cannot; He hath none; by precedents of other Gods, he cannot; There are none; And yet he proceeds by precedents; by his own Precedents; He does as he did before; Habenti dat, To him that hath received, he gives more, and is willing to be wrought, and prevailed upon, and prest with his own example. And, as though his doing good, were but to learn how to do good better, still he writes after his own copy; And Nulla dies sine linea, He writes something to us, that is, he doth something for us, every day. And then, that which is not often seen, in other Masters, his Copies are better then the Originals; his later mercies larger then his former: And in this Postulatory Prayer, larger then the Deprecatory, enters our Text, Return O Lord; Deliver my soul; O save me, &c.

David, who every where remembers God of his Covenant, as he was the God of Abraham, remembers also, how Abraham proceeded with God, in the behalf of Sodom; And he remembers, that when Abraham had gained upon God, and brought him from a greater, to a less number of righteous men, for whose sakes God would have spared that City, yet Abraham gave over asking, before God gave over granting; And so Sodom was lost. A little more of S. Augustines Importunity, of Nazi: Impudence, of Tertul: violence in Prayer, would have done well in Abraham; If Abraham had come to a less price, to less then ten, God knows what God would have done; for God went not away, says the text there, till he had left communing with Abraham; that is, till Abraham had no more to say to him. In memory and contemplation of that, David gives not over in this text, till he come to the utter most of all, as far as man can ask, as far as God can give; He begins at first, with a Revertere Domine, Return O Lord, and higher then that, no man can begin; no man can begin at a Veni Domine; no man can pray to God, to come, till God be come into him; Quid peto, ut venias in me, says S. August: Qui non essem, si nonesses in me? How should I pray, that God would come into me, who not only could not have the Spirit of praying, but not the Spirit of being, not life it self, if God were not in me already? But then, this prayer is, that when God had been with him, and for his sins, or his coldness, and slackness in prayer, was departed aside from him, yet he would vouchsafe to return to him again, and restore to him that light of his countenance which he had before, Revertere Domine, O Lord return. And then he passes to his second petition, Eripe animam, Deliver my soul; That when God in his return saw those many and strong snares which entangled him, those many and deep temptations and tribulations which surrounded him, God, being in his mercy thus Returned, and in his Providence seing this danger, would not now stand neutral, between them, and see him, and these temptations fight it our, but fight on his side and deliver him; Eripe animam, Deliver my soul. And then, by these two petitions, he makes way for the third and last, which is the perfection and consummation of all, as far as he can carry a Prayer or a Desire, Salvum me fac, O Lord save me; that is, Imprint in me a strong hope of Salvation in this life, and invest me in an irremoveable possession, in the life to come. Lord I acknowledge that thou hast visited me heretofore, and for my sins hast absented thy self, O Lord return; Lord, now thou art returned, and seest me unable to stand in these temptations and tribulations, Deliver thou my soul; Lord thou hast delivered me again and again, and again and again I fall back to my former danger, and therefore, O Lord save me, place me where I may be safe; safe in a constant hope, that the Savior of the World intended that salvation to me; And these three Petitions constitute our first part in Davids postulatory Prayer.

And then the second part, which is also within the words of this text, and consists of those reasons, by which David inclines God to grant his three Petitions, which are two, first, Propter misericordiam tuam, Do this O Lord, for thine own mercy sake, And then, Quia non in morte, Do it O Lord, for thine own honours sake, Because in death there is no remembrance of thee, that second part will be the subject of another exercise, for, that which belongs to the three Petitions, will employ the time allowed for this.

First then, the first step in this Prayer, Revertere, O Lord return, implies first a former presence, and then a present absence, and also a confidence for the future; Whosoever says, O Lord return, says all this, Lord thou wast here, Lord thou art departed hence, but yet, Lord thou maiest return hither again. God was with us all, before we were any thing at all; And ever since our making, hath been with us, in his general providence; And so, we cannot say, O Lord Return, because, so, he was never gone from us. But as God made the earth, and the fruits thereof, before he made the Sun, whose force was to work upon that earth, and upon the natural fruits of that earth, but before he made Paradise, which was to have the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge, he made the Sun to do those offices, of shining upon it, and returning daily to it: So God makes this earth of ours, that is our selves, by natural ways, and sustains us by general providence, before any Son of particular grace be seen to shine upon us. But before man can be a Paradise, possest of the Tree of life, and of Knowledge, this Sun is made and produced, the particular graces of God rise to him, and work upon him, and awaken, and solicit, and exalt those natural faculties which were in him; This Son fils him, and fits him, compasses him, and disposes him, and does all the offices of the Sun, seasonably, opportunely, maturely, for the nourishing of his soul, according to the several necessities thereof. And this is Gods returning to us, in a general apprehension; After he hath made us, and blest us in our nature, and by his natural means, he returns to make us again, to make us better, first by his first preventing grace, and then by a succession of his particular graces. And therefore we must return to this Returning, in some more particular considerations.

There are beside others, three significations in the Scripture, of this word Shubah, which is here translated, to Return, applicable to our present purpose. The first is the natural and native, the primary and radical signification of the word. And so, Shubah, To Return, is Redire ad locum suum, To return to that place, to which a thing is naturally affected; So heavy things return to the Center, and light things return to the Expansion; So Mans breath departeth, says David, Et redit in terr am suam, He returns into his Earth; That earth, which is so much his, as that it is he himself; Of earth he was, and therefore to earth he returns. But can God return in such a sense as this? Can we find an Vbi for God? A place that is his place? Yes; And an Earth which is his earth; Surely the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. So the Church, which is his Vineyard, is his Vbi, his place, his Center, to which he is naturally affected. And when he calls us hither, and meets us here, upon his Sabbaths, and sheds the promises of his Gospel upon the Congregation in his Ordinance, he returns to us here, as in his Vbi, as in his own place. And as he hath a place of his own here, so he hath an Earth of his own in this place. Our flesh is Earth, and God hath invested our flesh, and in that flesh of ours, which suffered death for us, he returns to us in this place, as often as he maketh us partakers of his flesh, and his blood, in the blessed Sacrament. So then, though in my days of sin, God have absented himself from me, (for God is absent when I do not discern his presence) yet if to day I can hear his voice, as God is returned to day to this place, as to his Vbi, as to his own place; so in his entering into me, in his flesh and blood, he returns to me as to his Earth, that Earth which he hath made his by assuming my nature, I am become his Vbi, his place; Delitiae ejus, His delight is to be with the sons of men, and so with me; and so in the Church, in the Sermon, in the Sacrament he returns to us, in the first signification of this word Shubah, as to that place to which he is naturally affected and disposed.

In a second signification, this word is referred, not to the place of God, not to the person of God, but (if we may so speak) to the Passion of God, to the Anger of God; And so, the Returning of God, that is, of Gods Anger, is the allaying, the becalming, the departing of his Anger; and so when God returns, God stays; his Anger is returned from us, but God is still with us. The wrath of the Lord was kindled, says the Prophet Isaiah; and He smote his people, so that the mountains trembled, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. Here is the tempest, here is the visitation, here is Gods comming to them; He comes, but in anger, and we hear of no return; nay, we hear the contrary, Et non redibat furor, For all this, his wrath, his fury did not return, that is, did not depart from them; for, as God never comes in this manner, till our multiplied sins call him, and importune him, so God never returns in this sense, in withdrawing his anger and judgements from us, till both our words and our works, our prayers and our amendment of life, join in a Revertere Domine, O Lord Return, withdraw this judgement from us, for it hath effected thy purpose upon us. And so the Original, which expresses neither signification of the word, for it is neither Return to me, nor Return from me, but plainly and only Return, leaves the sense indifferent; Lord, thou hast withdrawn thy self from me, therefore in mercy return to me, or else, Lord, thy Judgements are heavy upon me, and therefore return, withdraw these Judgements from me; which shows the ductileness, the appliableness of Gods mercy, that yeelds almost to any forme of words, any words seem to fit it.

But then, the comfort of Gods returning to us, comes nearest us, in the third signification of this word Shubah; not so much in Gods returning to us, nor in his anger returning from us, as in our returning to him, Turn us again, O Lord, says David, Et salvi erimus, and we shall be saved; There goes no more to salvation, but such a Turning. So that this Returning of the Lord, is an Operative, an Effectual returning, that turns our hearts, and eyes, and hands, and feet to the ways of God, and produces in us Repentance, and Obedience. For these be the two legs, which our conversion to God stands upon; For so Moses uses this very word, Return unto the Lord and hear his voice; There is no returning, without hearing, nor hearing without believing, nor believing, to be believed, without doing; Returning is all these. Therefore where Christ says, That if those works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, Tyre and Sidon would have repented in sackcloth and ashes; In the Syriack Translation of S. Matthew, we have this very word Shubah, They would have Returned in sack-cloth and ashes. So that the word which David receives from the Holy Ghost in this Text, being only Returned, and no more, applies it self to all three senses, Return thy self, that is, Bring back thy Mercy; Return thy Wrath, that is, Call back thy Judgements, or Return us to thee, that is, make thy means, and offers of grace, in thine Ordinance, powerful, and effectual upon us.

Now when the Lord comes to us, by any way, though he come in corrections, in chastisements, not to turn to him, is an irreverent, and unrespective negligence. If a Pursevant, if a Serjeant come to thee from the King, in any Court of Justice, though he come to put thee in trouble, to call thee to an account, yet thou receivest him, thou entertainest him, thou paiest him fees. If any Messenger of the Lord come to attach thee, whether sickness in thy body, by thine own disorder, decay in thy estate, by the oppression of others, or terror in thy Conscience, by the preaching of his Ministers, turn thou to the Lord, in the last sense of the word, and his mercy shall return to thee, and his anger shall return from thee, and thou shalt have fullness of Consolation in all the three significations of the word. If a Worm be trodden upon, it turns again; We may think, that is done in anger, and to revenge; But we know not; The Worm hath no sting, and it may seem as well to embrace, and lick his foot that treads upon him. When God treads upon thee, in any calamity, spiritual or temporal, if thou turn with murmuring, this is the turning of a Serpent, to sting God, to blaspheme him; This is a turning upon him, not a turning to him; But if thou turn like a Worm, then thou turnest humbly to kiss the rod, to lick and embrace his foot that treads upon thee, that is, to love his Ministers, which denounce his judgements upon thy sins, yea, to love them, from whom thou receivest defamation in thy credit, or detriment in thy state.

We see how it was imputed to Asa, when God trod upon him, that is, diseased him in his feet, and exalted his disease into extremity, Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the Physicians. He turned a by-way; at least, though a right way, too soon, to the Physician before the Lord. This is that, that exasperated God so vehemently, Because the people turneth not to him that smiteth them; neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts; when the Lord of Hosts lies with a heavy Army upon them. Therefore, says the Prophet there, The Lord will cut off from Israel, head and tayle, branch and rush in one day. God is not so vehement, when they neglected him in their prosperity, as when, though he afflicted them, yet they turned not to him. Measure God by earthly Princes; (for we may measure the world by a Barly corn) If the King come to thy house, thou wilt profess to take it for an honor, and thou wilt entertain him; and yet his comming cannot be without removes, and troubles, and charges to thee. So when God comes to thee, in his word, or in his actions, in a Sermon, or in a sickness, though his comming dislodge thee, remove thee, put thee to some inconvenience, in leaving thy bed of sin, where thou didst sleep securely before, yet here is the progress of the Holy Ghost, intended to thy soul, that first he comes thus to thee, and then if thou turn to him, he returns to thee, and settles himself, and dwells in thee.

This is too lovely a Prospect, to depart so soon from; therefore look we by S. Augustines glass, upon Gods comming and returning to man. God hath imprinted his Image in our souls; and God comes, says that Father, Vt videat imaginem; Where I have given my Picture, I would see how it is respected: God comes to see in what case his Image is in us; If we shut doors, if we draw Curtains between him and his Image, that is, cover our souls, and disguise and palliate our sins, he goes away, and returns in none of those former senses. But if we lay them open, by our free confessions, he returns again; that so, in how ill case soever he find his Image, he may wash it over with our tears, and renew it with his own blood, and, Vt resculpat imaginem, that he may refresh and re-engrave his Image in us again, and put it in a richer and safer Tablet. And as the Angel which came to Abraham at the promise and conception of Isaac, gave Abraham a farther assurance of his Return at Isaaes birth, I will certainly return unto thee, and thy wife shall have a Son; So the Lord, which was with thee in the first conception of any good purpose, Returns to thee again, to give thee a quickening of that blessed child of his, and again, and again, to bring it forth, and to bring it up, to accomplish and perfect those good intentions, which his Spirit, by over-shadowing thy soul, hath formerly begotten in it. So then, he comes in Nature, and he returns in Grace; He comes in preventing, and returns in subsequent graces; He comes in thine understanding, and returns in thy will; He comes in rectifying thine actions, and returns in establishing habits; He comes to thee in zeal, and returns in discretion; He comes to thee in fervor, and returns in perseverance; He comes to thee in thy peregrination, all the way, and he returns in thy transmigration, at thy last gasp. So God comes, and so God returns.

Yet I am loath to depart my self, loath to dismiss you from this air of Paradise, of Gods comming, and returning to us. Therefore we consider again, that as God came long ago, six thousand years ago, in nature, when we were created in Adam, and then in nature returned to us, in the generation of our Parents: so our Savior Christ Jesus came to us long ago, sixteen hundred years ago, in grace, and yet in grace returns to us, as often as he assembles us, in these holy Convocations. He came to us then, as the Wisemen came to him, with treasure, and gifts, and gold, and incense, and myrrhe; As having an ambition upon the souls of men, he came with that abundant treasure to purchase us. And as to them who live upon the Kings Pension, it is some comfort to hear that the Exchequer is full, that the Kings moneyes are come in: so is it to us, to know that there is enough in Gods hands, paid by his Son, for the discharge of all our debts; He gave enough for us all at that comming; But it is his returning to us, that applyes to us, and derives upon us in particular, the benefit of this general satisfaction. When he returns to us in the dispensation and distribution of his graces, in his Word and Sacraments; When he calls upon us to come to the receipt; When the greater the sum is, the gladder he is of our comming, that where sin abounds, grace might abound too; When we can pursue this Prayer, Revertere Domine, Return O Lord in grace, in more and more grace, and when we are in possession of a good measure of that grace, we can pray again, Revertere Domine, Return O Lord in glory, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly; When we are so rectified by his Ordinances here, that in a sincerity of soul, we are not only contented, but desirous to depart from hence, then have we religiously followed our example, that man according to Gods heart, David, in this prayer of his. If Christ have not been thus fully in thine heart, before, this is his comming; entertain him now: If he have been there, and gone again, this is his returning; bless him for that: And meet him, and love him, and embrace him, as often as he offers himself to thy soul, in these his Ordinances: Wish every day a Sunday, and every meal a Sacrament, and every discourse a Homily, and he shall shine upon thee in all dark ways, and rectify thee in all ragged ways, and direct thee in all cross ways, and stop thee in all doubtful ways, and return to thee in every corner, and relieve thee in every danger, and arm thee even against himself, by advancing thy work, in which thou besiegest him, that is, this Prayer, and enabling thee to prevail upon him, as in this first Petition, Revertere Domine, O Lord return, so in that which follows next, Eripe animam, Deliver my soul.

In this Prayer, we may either consider David in that affection which S. Paul had when he desired to be delivered ab angelo Satanae, from the messenger of Satan that buffeted him, that so that Stimulus carnis which he speaks of, that vexation, and provocation of the flesh, might have been utterly removed from him, whereby he might have past his life in Gods service in a religious calm, without any storm, or opposition, or contradiction arising in his flesh: Or we may consider it as a Prayer agreeable to that Petition in our Lords Prayer, Libera nos à malo, Deliver us from evil; which is not from being attempted by evil, but by being swallowed up by it. Eripe me, may be, Deliver me from rebellions, or Deliver me in rebellions; Either that they come not, or that they overcome not.

In that prayer of S. Paul, that God would remove Angelum Satanae, and take away Stimulum carnis, first, S. Paul is not easily understood, and then, it may be, not safely imitated. It is hard to know what S. Paul means in his Prayer, and it may be dangerous to pray as he prayed. For the actions of no man, how holy soever, till we come to Christ himself, lay such an obligation upon us, as that we must necessarily do as they did. Nay the actions of Christ himself lay not that obligation upon us, to fast as he fasted; no nor to pray as he prayed. A man is not bound in an Affliction, or Persecution, at least at all times, to that Prayer, Si possibile, or Transeat calix, If it be possible let this cup pass; But if God vouchsafe him a holy constancy, to go through with his Martyrdom, he may proceed in it without any such Deprecation to God, or Petition to the Judge.

But first, before we consider whether he might be imitated, if we understood him, we find it hard to understand him. S. Augustines free confession, Se nescire quid sit angelus Satanae, That he never understood what S. Paul meant by that Messenger of Satan, is more ingenuous then their interpretation, who, I know not upon what Tradition, referre it to an extreme pain in the head, that S. Paul should have, as Theophylact says; or refer it Ad morbum Iliacum, which Aquinas speaks of, or to the Gout, or pains in the Stomach, as Nazianzen, and Basil interpret it. Oecumenius understands this Angel, this Messenger of Satan, to be those Heretics, which were his Adversaries, in his preaching of the Gospel; according to that signification of the word Satan, in which Solomon uses it to Hiram, Non est mihi Satan, I have no Adversary. Others, even amongst the Fathers, understand it particularly, and literally, of that concupiscence, and those lusts of the flesh, which even the most sanctified men may have some sense of, and some attempts by. Others understand it generally of all calamities, spiritual, and temporal, incident to us in this life. But Cajetan goes farthest, who reads it not as we do, Angelum Satanae, but Angelum Satanam; not that Angel which comes from Satan, but that Angel that is Satan himself. So that he conceives it to be a prayer against all temptations and tribulations here, and hereafter, which the Devil or the Devils Instruments can frame against us.

Now, if we think we understand it aright, in understanding it so generally, then enters our second doubt, whether we may imitate S. Paul in so general a prayer. We dispute in the School, whether, if it were in his powerto do it, man might lawfully destroy any entire species of creatures in the world, though offensive, and venerhous, as Vipers, or Scorpions. For every species being a link of Gods great chain, and a limb of his great creature, the whole world, it seems not to be put into our power, to break his chain, and take out a link, to maime his great creature, and cut off a limb, by destroying any entire species, if we could. So neither does it soeme conduceable to Gods purposes in us, (which is the rule of all our prayers) to pray utterly against all temptations, as vehemently as against sins. God should lose by it, and we should lose by it, if we had no temptations; for God is glorified in those victories, which we, by his grace, gain over the Devil. Nescit Diabolus, quant a bona de illo fiunt, etiam cum saevit; Little knows the Devil, how much good he does us, when he tempts us; for by that we are excited to have our present recourse to that God, whom in our former security, we neglected, who gives us the issue with the temptation. Ego novi quid apposuerim, I know what infirmities I I have submitted thee to, and what I have laid and applied to thee. Ego novi unde aegrotes, ego novi unde saneris; I know thy sickness, and I know thy physic. Sufficit tibi gratiamea; Whatsoever the disease be, my grace shall be sufficient to cure it. For whether we understand that, as S. Chrysostom does, De gratia miraculorum, That it is sufficient for any mans assurance, in any temptation, or tribulation, to consider Gods miraculous deliverances of other men, in the like cases; or whether we understand it according to the general voice of the Interpreters, that is, Be content that there remain in thy flesh, Matter and Subject for me to produce glory from thy weakness, and Matter and Subject for thee to exercise thy faith and allegiance to me, still these words will carry an argument against the expedience of absolute praying against all temptations; for still, this Gratiamea sufficit, will import this, amount to this, I have as many Antidotes, as the Devil hath poisons, I have as much mercy as the Devil hath malice; There must be Scorpions in the world; but the Scorpion shall cure the Scorpion; there must be temptations; but temptations shall add to mine, and to thy glory, and, Eripiam, I will deliver thee.

This word is in the Original, Chalatz; which signifies Eripere in such a sense, as our language does not fully reach in any one word. So there is some defectiveness, some slackness in this word of our Translation, Delivering. For it is such a Delivering, as is a sudden catching hold, and snatching at the soul of a man, then, when it is at the brink, and edge of a sin. So that if thy facility, and that which thou wilt make shift to call Good Nature, or Good Manners, have put thee into the hands of that subtle woman, that Solomon speaks of, That is come forth to mect thee, and seek thy face; If thou have followed her, As an Ox goeth to the slaughter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Even then, when the Axe is over thy head, then when thou hast approacht so near to destruction, then is the season of this prayer, Eripe me Domine, Catch hold of me now O Lord, and Deliver my soul. When Joseph had resisted the temptations of his Masters Wife, and resisted them the only safe way, not only not to yield, but as the Text says, not to come in her company, and yet she had found her opportunity when there was none in the house but they, he came to an inward Eripe me Domine, O Lord take hold of me now, and she caught, and God caught; She caught his garment, and God his soul; She delivered him, and God delivered him; She to Prison, and God from thence. If thy curiosity, or thy considence in thine own spiritual strength, carry thee into the house of Rimmon, to Idolatry, to a Mass, trust not thou to Naamans request, Ignoscat Dominus servo in bacre, That God will pardon thee, as often as thou doest so; but since thou hast done so now, now come to this Eripe animam, O Lord deliver my soul now, from taking harm now, and hereafter, from exposing my self to the like harm. For this is the purpose of Davids prayer in this signification of this word, that howsoever infirmity, or company, or curiosity, or confidence, bring us within the distance, and danger, within the Sphere, and Latitude of a temptation, that though we be not lodged in Sodom, yet we are in the Suburbs, though we be not impailed in a sin, yet we are within the purlues, (which is not safely done; no more then it is in a State, to trust always to a Defensive War) yet when we are ingaged, and enthralled in such a temptation, then, though God be not delighted with our danger, yet then is God most delighted to help us, when we are in danger; and then, he comes not only to deliver us from that imminent, and particular danger, according to that signification of this word, but according to that Interpretation of this word, which the Septuagint have given it, in the Prophet Isaiah, Iachalitz, Pinguefaciet; He shall proceed in his work, and make fat thy soul; That is, Deliver thee now, and preserve, and establish thee after, to the fulfilling of all, that belongs to the last Petition of this prayer, Salvum me fac, O Lord save me; Though he have been absent, he shall Return; and being Returned, shall not stand still, nor stand Neutral, but deliver thee; and having delivered thee, shall not determine his love in that one act of mercy, but shall Save thee, that is, Imprint in thee a holy confidence, that his salvation is thine.

So then, in that manner is Gods Deliverance exprest, They shall cry unto him, (till we cry, he takes no knowledge at all) and then he sends to them, (there is his returning upon their cry) and then, He shall deliver them, says that Prophet; and so, the two former Petitions of this prayer are answered; but the Consummation, and Establishment of all, is in the third, which follows in the same place, He shall send them a Savior, and a great one. But who is that? what Savior? Doubtless he that is proclaimed by God, in the same Prophet, Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Behold thy salvation cometh. For, that word which that Prophet uses there, and this word, in which David presents this last Petition here, is in both places, Iashang, and Iashang is the very word, from which the name of Jesus is derived; so that David desires here, that salvation which Isaiah proclaimed there, salvation in the Savior of the world, Christ Jesus, and an interest in the assurance of his merits.

We find this name of Savior attributed to other men in the Scriptures, then to Christ. In particular distresses, when God raised up men, to deliver his people sometimes, those men were so called, Saviours. And so S. Jerome interprets those words of the Prophet, Ascendent salvatores, Saviours shall come up, on Mount Sion, of Prophets, and Preachers, and such other Instruments, as God should raise for the salvation of souls. Those, whom in other places, he calls Angels of the Church, here he calls by that higher name, Saviours. But such a Savior as is proclaimed to the ends of the world, to all the world, a Savior in the Mountains, in the height of presumptuous sins, and a Savior in the vallies, in the dejection of inordinate melancholy too, A Savior of the East, of rising, and growing men, and a Savior of the West, of withering, declining, languishing fortunes too, A Savior in the state of nature, by having infused the knowledge of himself, into some men then, before the light, and help of the Law was afforded to the world, A Savior in the state of the Law, by having made to some men then, even Types Accomplishments, and Prophesies Histories, And, as himself Calls things that are not, as though they were, So he made those men see things that were not, as though they were, (for so Abraham saw his day and rejoiced) A Savior in the state of the Gospel, and so, as that he saves some there, for the fundamental Gospels sake, that is, for standing fast in the fundamental Articles thereof, though they may have been darkened with some ignorances, or may have strayed into some errors, in some Circumstantial points, A Savior of all the world, of all the conditions in the world, of all times through the world, of all places of the world, such a Savior is no man called, but Christ Jesus only. For when it is said that Pharaoh called Joseph, Salvatorem mundi, A Savior of the world, (besides, that if it were so, that which is called all the world, can be referred but to that part of the world which was then under Pharaoh; as when it is said, that Augustus taxed the world, that is intended De orbe Romano, so much of the world, as was under the Romans) there is a manifest error in that Translation, which calls Joseph so, for that name which was given to Joseph there, in that language in which it was given, doth truly signify Revelatorem Secretorum, and no more, a Revealer, a Discoverer, a Decypherer of secret and mysterious things; according to the occasion, upon which that name was then given, which was the Decyphering, the Interpreting of Pharaohs Dream.

Be this then thus establisht, that David for our example considers, and referres all salvation, to salvation in Christ. As he does also where he says after, Notum fecit salutare tuum, The Lord hath made known his salvation. Quid est salutare tuum? says S. Basil; What is the Lords salvation? And he makes a safe answer out Simeons mouth, Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, when he had seen Christ Jesus. This then is he, which is not only Satvator populi sui, The Savior of his people, the Jews, to whom he hath betrothed himself, In Pacto salis, A Covenant of salt, an everlasting Covenant: Nor only Salvator corporis sui, The Savior of his own body, as the Apostle calls him; of that body which he hath gathered from the Gentiles, in the Christian Church: Nor only Salvator mundi, A Savior of the world, so, as that which he did, and suffered, was sufficient in it self, and was accepted by the Father, for the salvation of the world; but, as Tertullian, for the most part reads the word, he was Salutificator; not only a Savior, because God made him an instrument of salvation, as though he had no interest in our salvation, till in his flesh he died for us; but he is Salutificator, so the Author of this salvation, as that from all eternity, he was at the making of the Decree, as well as in the fullness of time he was at the executing thereof. In the work of our salvation, if we consider the merit, Christ was sole and alone, no Father, no Holy Ghost trod the Wine-press with him; And if in the work of our salvation we consider the mercy, there, though Christ were not sole, and alone, (for that mercy in the Decree was the joint-act of the whole Trinity) yet even in that, Christ was equal to the Father, and the Holy Ghost. So he is Salutificator, the very Author of this salvation, as that when it came to the act, he, and not they, died for us; and when it was in Council, he, as well as they, and as soon as they, decreed it for us.

As therefore the Church of God scarce presents any petition, any prayer to God, but it is subscribed by Christ; the Name of Christ, is for the most part the end, and the seal of all our Collects; all our prayers in the Liturgy, (though they be but for temporal things, for Plenty, or Peace, or Faire-weather) are shut up so, Grant this O Lord, for our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus sake: So David for our example, drives all his petitions in this Text, to this Conclusion, Salvum me fac, O Lord save me; that is, apply that salvation, Christ Jesus to me. Now beloved, you may know, that your selves have a part in those means, which God uses to that purpose, your selves are instruments, though not causes of your own salvation. Salvus factus es pro nihilo, non de nihilo tamen; Thou bringest nothing for thy salvation, yet something to thy salvation; nothing worth it, but yet something with it; Thy new Creation, by which thou art a new creature, that is, thy Regeneration, is wrought as the first Creation was wrought. God made heaven and earth of nothing; but he produced the other creatures, out of that matter, which he had made. Thou hadst nothing to do in the first work of thy Regeneration; Thou couldst not so much as wish it; But in all the rest, thou art a fellow-worker with God; because, before that, there are seeds of former grace shed in thee. And therefore when thou commest to this last Petition, Salvum me fac, O Lord save me, remember still, that thou hast something to do, as well as to say; that so thou mayst have a comfortable answer in thy soul, to the whole prayer, Return O Lord, Deliver my soul, and Save me. And so we have done with our first Part, which was the Prayer it self; and the second, which is the Reasons of the Prayer, we must reserve for a second exercise.

Serm. LIII. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 6.4, 5.

Return, O Lord; Deliver my soul; O Lord save me, for thy mercy sake.

For in Death there is no Remembrance of thee; and in the Grave, who shall give thee thanks?

WE come now to the Reasons of these Petitions, in Davids Prayer; For, as every Prayer must be made with faith, (I must believe that God will grant my Prayer, if it conduce to his glory, and my good to do so, that is the limit of my faith) so I must have reason to ground a likelihood, and a faire probability that that particular which I pray for, doth conduce to his glory and my good, and that therefore God is likely to grant it. Davids first Reason here is grounded on God himself, Propter misericordiam, Do it for thy mercy sake; and in his second Reason, though David himself, and all men with him, seem to have a part, yet at last we shall see, the Reason it self to determine wholly and entirely in God too, and in his glory, Quoniam non in morte, Do it O Lord, For in Death there is no remembrance of thee, &c.

In some other places, David comes to God with two reasons, and both grounded merely in God; Misericordia, & veritas, Let thy Mercy and thy Truth always preserve me. In this place he puts himself wholly upon his mercy, for mercy is all, or at least, the foundation that sustains all, or the wall that embraces all. That mercy, which the word of this text, Casad imports, is Benignitas in non promeritum; Mercy is a good disposition towards him, who hath deserved nothing of himself; For, where there is merit, there is no mercy. Nay, it imports more then so, For mercy, as mercy, presumes not only no merit in man, but it takes knowledge of no promise in God, properly; For that is the difference between Mercy and Truth, that by Mercy at first, God would make promises to man, in general; and then by Truth, he would perform those promises: but Mercy goeth first; and there David begins and grounds his Prayer, at Mercy; Mercy that can have no pre-mover, no pre-relation, but begins in it self. For if we consider the mercy of God to mankind subsequently, I mean, after the Death of Christ, so it cannot be properly called mercy. Mercy thus considered, hath a ground; And God thus considered, hath received a plentiful, and an abundant satisfaction in the merits of Christ Jesus; And that which hath a ground in man, that which hath a satisfaction from man, (Christ was truly Man) falls not properly, precisely, rigidly, under the name of mercy. But consider God in his first disposition to man, after his fall, That he would vouchsafe to study our Recovery, and that he would turn upon no other way, but the shedding of the blood of his own and innocent and glorious Son, Quid est homo, aut filius hominis? What was man, or all mankind, that God should be mindful of him so, or so merciful to him? When God promises that he will be merciful and gracious to me, if I do his Will, when in some measure I do that Will of his, God begins not then to be merciful; but his mercy was awake and at work before, when he excited me, by that promise, to do his Will. And after, in my performance of those duties, his Spirit seals to me a declaration, that his Truth is exercised upon me now, as his mercy was before. Still, his Truth is in the effect, in the fruit, in the execution, but the Decree, and the Root is only Mercy.

God is pleased also when we come to him with other Reasons; When we remember him of his Covenant; When we remember him of his holy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; yea when we remember him of our own innocency, in that particular, for which we may be then unjustly pursued; God was glad to hear of a Righteousness, and of an Innocency, and of clean and pure hands in David, when he was unjustly pursued by Saul. But the root of all is in this, Propter misericordiam, Do it for thy mercy sake. For when we speak of Gods Covenant, it may be mistaken, who is, and who is not within that Covenant; What know I? Of Nations, and of Churches, which have received the outward profession of Christ, we may be able to say, They are within the Covenant, generally taken; But when we come to particular men in the Congregation, there I may call a Hypocrite, a Saint, and think an excomunicate soul, to be within the Covenant; I may mistake the Covenant, and I may mistake Gods servants, who did, and who did not dye in his favor, What know I? We see at Executions, when men pretend to dye cheerfully for the glory of God, half the company will call them Traitors, and half Martyrs. So if we speak of our own innocency, we may have a pride in that, or some other vicious and defective respect (as uncharitableness towards our malicious Persecutors, or laying seditious aspersions upon the justice of the State) that may make us guilty towards God, though we be truly innocent to the World, in that particular. But let me make my recourse to the mercy of God, and there can be no error, no mistaking.

And therefore if that, and nothing but that be my ground, God will Return to me, God will Deliver my soul, God will Save me, For his mercy sake; that is, because his mercy is engaged in it. And if God were to sell me this Returning, this Delivering, this Saving, and all that I pray for; what could I offer God for that, so great as his own mercy, in which I offer him the Innocency, the Obedience, the Blood of his only Son. If I buy of the Kings land, I must pay for it in the Kings money; I have no Myne, nor Mint of mine own; If I would have any thing from God, I must give him that which is his own for it, that is, his mercy; And this is to give God his mercy, To give God thanks for his mercy, To give all to his mercy, And to acknowledge, that if my works be acceptable to him, nay if my very faith be acceptable to him, it is not because my works, no nor my faith hath any proportion of equivalency in it, or is worth the least flash of joy, or the least spangle of glory in Heaven, in it self, but because God in his mercy, only of his mercy, merely for the glory of his mercy, hath past such a Covenant, Crede, & fac hoc, Believe this, and do this, and thou shalt live, not for thy deed sake, not nor for thy faith sake, but for my mercy sake. And farther we carry not this first reason of the Prayer, arising only from God.

There remains in these words another Reason, in which David himself, and all men seem to have part, Quia non in morte, For in death there is no remembrance of thee, &c. Upon occasion of which words, because they seem to imply a loathness in David to dye, it may well be inquired, why Death seemed so terrible to the good and godly men of those times, as that evermore we see them complain of shortness of life, and of the nearness of death. Certainly the rule is true, in natural, and in civil, and in divine things, as long as we are in this World, Nolle meliorem, est corruptio primae habitudinis, That man is not well, who desires not to be better; It is but our corruption here, that makes us loth to hasten to our incorruption there. And besides, many of the Ancients, and all the later Casuists of the other side, and amongst our own men, Peter Martyr, and Calvin, assign certain cases, in which it hath Rationem boni, The nature of Good, and therefore is to be embraced, to wish our dissolution and departure out of this World; and yet, many good and godly men have declared this loathness to dye. Beloved, weigh Life and Death one against another, and the balance will be even; Throw the glory of God into either balance, and that turns the scale. S. Paul could not tell which to wish, Life, or Death; There the balance was even; Then comes in the glory of God, the addition of his soul to that Quire, that spend all their time, eternity it self, only in glorifying God, and that turns the scale, and then, he comes to his Cupio dissolvi, To desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. But then, he puts in more of the same weight in the other scale, he sees that it advances Gods glory more, for him to stay, and labor in the building of Gods Kingdom here, and so add more souls then his own to that state, then only to enjoy that Kingdom in himself, and that turns the scale again, and so he is content to live.

These Saints of God then when they deprecate death, and complain of the approaches of death, they are, at that time, in a charitable ecstasy, abstracted and withdrawn from the consideration of that particular happiness, which they, in themselves, might haye in heaven; and they are transported and swallowed up with this sorrow, that the Church here, and gods kingdom upon earth, should lack those means of advancement, or assistance, which God, by their service, was pleased to afford to his Church. Whether they were good Kings, good Priests, or good Prophets, the Church lost by their death; and therefore they deprecated that death, and desired to live. The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; But the living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day, says Hezekias; He was affected with an apprehension of a future barrenness after his death, and a want of propagation of Gods truth; I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, says he. He had assurance, that he should see the Lord in Heaven, when by death he was come thither; But, says he, I shall not see him in the land of the living; Well, even in the land of the living, even in the land of life it self, he was to see him, if by death he were to see him in Heaven; But this is the loss that he laments, this is the misery that he deplores with so much holy passion, I shall behold man no more, with the Inhabitants of the world; Howsoever, I shall enjoy God my self, yet I shall be no longer a means, an instrument of the propagation of Gods truth amongst others; And, till we come to that joy, which the heart cannot conceive, it is, I think, the greatest joy that the soul of man is capable of in this life, (especially where a man hath been any occasion of sin to others) to assist the salvation of others. And even that consideration, that he shall be able to do Gods cause no more good here, may make a good man loath to die. Quid facies magno nomini tuo? says Ioshuah in his prayer to God; if the Canaanites come in, and destroy us, and blaspheme thee, What wilt thou do unto thy mighty Name? What wilt thou do unto thy glorious Church, said the Saints of God in those Deprecations, if thou take those men out of the world, whom thou hadst chosen, enabled, qualified for the edification, sustentation, propagation of that Church. In a word, David considers not here, what men do, or do not in the next world; but he considers only, that in this world he was bound to propagate Gods Truth, and that that he could not do, if God took him away by death.

Consider then this horror, and detestation, and deprecation of death, in those Saints of the old Testament, with relation to their particular, and then it must be, Quia promissiones obscurae, Because Moses had conveyed to those men, all Gods future blessings, all the joy and glory of Heaven, only in the types of earthly things, and said little of the state of the soul after this life. And therefore the promises belonging to the godly after this life, were not so clear then, not so well manifested to them, not so well fixt in them, as that they could, in contemplation of them, step easily, or deliver themselves confidently into the jaws of death; he that is not fully satisfied of the next world, makes shift to be content with this; and he that cannot reach, or does not feel that, will be glad to keep his hold upon this. Consider their horror, and detestation, and deprecation of death, not with relation to themselves, but to Gods Church, and then it will be, Quia operarii pauci, Because God had a great harvest in hand, and few labourers in it, they were loath to be taken from the work.

And these Reasons might, at least, by way of excuse and extenuation, in those times of darkness, prevail somewhat in their behalf; They saw not whither they went, and therefore were loath to go; and they were loath to go, because they saw not how Gods Church would subsist, when they were gone. But in these times of ours, when Almighty God hath given an abundant remedy to both these, their excuses will not be applicable to us. We have a full clearness of the state of the soul after this life, not only above those of the old Law, but above those of the Primitive Christian Church, which, in some hundreds of years, came not to a clear understanding in that point, whether the soul were immortal by nature, or but by preservation, whether the soul could not die, or only should not die. Or (because that perchance may be without any constant clearness yet) that was not clear to them, (which concerns our case nearer) whether the soul came to a present fruition of the sight of God after death or no. But God having afforded us clearness in that, and then blest our times with an established Church, and plenty of able work-men for the present, and plenty of Schools, and competency of endowments in Universities, for the establishing of our hopes, and assurances for the future, since we have both the promise of Heaven after, and the promise that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church here; Since we can neither say, Promissiones obseurae, That Heaven hangs in a Cloud, nor say, Operarii pauci, That dangers hang over the Church, it is much more inexcusable in us now, then it was in any of them then, to be loath to die, or to be too passionate in that reason of the deprecation, Quia non in morte, Because in death there is no remembrance of thee &c.

Which words, being taken literally, may fill our meditation, and exalt our devotion thus; If in death there be no remembrance of God, if this remembrance perish in death, certainly it decays in the nearness to death; If there be a possession in death, there is an approach in age; And therefore, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. There are spiritual Lethargies, that make a man forget his name; forget that he was a Christian, and what belongs to that duty. God knows what forgetfulness may possess thee upon thy death-bed, and freeze thee there; God knows what rage, what distemper, what madness may scatter thee then; And though in such cases, God reckon with his servants, according to that disposition which they use to have towards him before, and not according to those declinations from him, which they show in such distempered sicknesses, yet Gods mercy towards them can work but so, that he returns to those times, when those men did remember him before. But if God can find no such time, that they never remembered him, then he seals their former negligence with a present Lethargy; they neglected God all their lives, and now in death there is no remembrance of him, nor there is no remembrance in him; God shall forget him eternally; and when he thinks he is come to his Consummatum est, The bell tolls, and will ring out, and there is an end of all in death, by death he comes but to his Secula Seculorum, to the beginning of that misery, which shall never end.

This then which we have spoken, arises out of that sense of these words, which seems the most literal; that is, of a natural death. But as it is well noted by divers Expositors upon this Psalm, this whole Psalm is intended of a spiritual agony, and combat of David, wrastling with the apprehension of hell, and of the indignation of God, even in this world, whilst he was alive here. And therefore S. Augustine upon the last words of this verse, in that Translation which he followed, In inferno quis consitchitur tibi? Not, In the grave, but In hell, who shall confess unto thee? puts himself upon this, In Inferne Dives confessus Domino, & oravit pro fratribus, In hell Dives did confess the name of the Lord, and prayed there for his brethren in the world. And therefore he understands not these words of a literal, and natural, a bodily death, a departing out of this world; but he calls Peccatum Mortem, and then, Caecitatem animae Infernum; He makes the easiness of sinning to be Death, and then, blindness, and obduration, and remorslesness, and impenitence, to be this Hell. And so also doth S. Jerome understand all that passionate deploring of Hezekias, (which seems literally to be spoken of natural death) of this spiritual death, of the habit of sin, and that he considered, and lamented especially his danger of that death, of a departing from God in this world, rather then of a departing out of this world. And truly many pieces and passages of Hezekias his lamentation there, will fall naturally enough into that spiritual interpretation; though perchance all will not, though S. Jerome with a holy purpose drive them, and draw them that way. But whether that of Hezekias be of natural, or of a spiritual death, we have another Author ancienter then S. Augustine, and S. Jerome, and so much esteemed by S. Iereme, as that he translated some of his Works, which is Didymus of Alexandria, who says, it is Impia opinio, not an inconvenient, or unnatural, but an impious and irreligious opinion, to understand this verse of natural death; because, says he, The dead do much more remember God then the living do. And he makes use of that place, Deus non confunditur, God is not ashamed to be called the God of the dead, for he hath prepared them a City. And therefore reading these words of our Text, according to that Translation which prevailed in the Eastern Church, which was the Septuagint, he argues thus, he collects thus, that all that David says here, is only this, Non est in morte qui memor est Dei, Not that he that is dead remembers not God, but that he that remembers God, is not dead; not in an irreparable, and irrecoverable state of death; not under such a burden of sin as devastates and exterminates the conscience, and evacuates the whole power and work of grace, but that if he can remember God, confess God, though he be fallen under the hand of a spiritual death, by some sin, yet he shall have his resurrection in this life; for, Non est in morte, says Didymus, He that remembers God, is not dead, in a perpetual death.

And then this reason of Davids Prayer here, (Do this and this, for in death there is no remembrance of thee) will have this force, That God would return to him in his effectual grace, That God would deliver his soul in dangerous temptations, That God would save him in applying to him, and imprinting in him a sober, but yet confident assurance that the salvation of Christ Jesus belongs to him; Because if God did not return to him, but suffer him to wither in a long absence, If God did not deliver him, by taking hold of him when he was ready to fall into such sins as his sociableness, his confidence, his inconsideration, his infirmity, his curiosity brought him to the brink of, If God did not save him, by a faithful assurance of salvation after a sin committed and resented, This absence, this slipperiness, this pretermitting, might bring him to such a deadly, and such a hellish state in this world, as that In death, that is, In that death, he should have no remembrance of God, In hell, In the grave, that is, In that hell, In that grave, he should not confess, nor praise God at all. There was his danger, he should forget God utterly, and God forget him eternally, if God suffered him to proceed so far in sin, that is, Death, and so far in an obduration and remorslesness, in sin, that is, Hell, The Death and the Hell of this world, to which those Fathers refer this Text.

In this lamentable state, we will only note the force, and the emphasis of this Tui, and Tibi, in this verse; no remembrance of Thee, no praise to Thee; For this is not spoken of God in general, but of that God, to which David directs the last and principal part of his Prayer, which is, To save him; It is to God, as God is Jesus, a Savior; and the wretchedness of this state is, that God shall not be remembered in that notion, as he is Jesus, a Savior. No man is so swallowed up in the death of sin, nor in the grave of impenitence, No man so dead, and buried in the custom or senselessness of sin, but that he remembers a God, he confesses a God; If an Atheist swear the contrary, believe him not; His inward terrors, his midnight startlings remember him of that, and bring him to confessions of that. But here is the depth, and desperateness of this death, and this grave, habitual sin, and impenitence in sin, that he cannot remember, he cannot confess that God which should save him, Christ Jesus his Redeemer; he shall come, he shall not choose but come to remember a God that shall damn him, but not a saving God, a Jesus.

Beloved in the bowels of that Jesus, not only the riches, and honours, and pleasures of this world, and the favor of Princes, are, as Job speaks, Onerosi consolatores, Miserable comforters are they all, all this world, but even of God himself (be it spoken with piety and reverence, and far from misconstruction) we may say, Onerosa consolatio, It is but a miserable comfort which we can have in God himself, It is but a faint remembrance which we retain of God himself, It is but a lame confession which we make to God himself, Si non Tui, Si non Tibi, If we remember not Thee, If we confess not Thee, our only Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. It is not half our work to be godly men, to confess a God in general; we must be Christians too; to confess God so, as God hath manifested himself to us. I, to whom God hath manifested himself in the Christian Church, am as much an Atheist, if I deny Christ, as if I deny God; And I deny Christ, as much, if I deny him in the truth of his Worship, in my Religion, as if I denied him in his Person. And therefore, Si non Tui, Si non Tibi, If I do not remember Thee, If I do not profess Thee in thy Truth, I am fallen into this Death, and buried in this Grave which David deprecates in this Text, For in death there is no remembrance of thee, &c.

Serm. LIV. Preached to the King at White-hall, upon the occasion of the Fast, April 5. 1628.

PSAL. 6.6, 7.

I am weary with my groaning; All the night make I my bed to swin, I water my couch with my tears.

Mine eye is consumed because of grief; It waxeth old, because of all mine-enemies.

THis is Davids humiliation; and comming after his repentance and reconciliation, Davids penance: And yet here is no Fast; It is true; No Fast named; David had had experience, that as the wisest actions of Kings, (of Kings as Kings over Subjects) so the devoutest actions of Kings, (of Kings, as humble Subjects to the King of Kings, the God of Heaven) had been misinterpreted. Of sighing, and groaning, and weeping, and languishing, (as in this Text) David speaks often, very, very often in the Psalms; and they let him sigh, and groan, and weep, and languish; they neglect his Passion, and are not affected with that; but that is all; they afflict him no farther: But when he comes to fasting, they deride him, they reproach him; Cares God whether you eat, or fast? But thrice in all the Psalms does David speak of his fasting, and in all three places, it was mis-interpreted, and reproachfully mis-interpreted; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own bosom; He did this (as he says there) for others, that needed it, and they would not thank him for it, but reproached him. When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. So also my bones are weak through fasting, and I became a reproach unto them. And therefore no wonder that David does not so often mention and publish his fasting, as his other mortifications; No wonder that in all his seven penetential Psalms, (which are the Churches Tropicks for mortification and humiliation,) there is no mention of his fasting. But for his practise, (though he speak not so much of it in the Psalms) in his history where others, not himself, speak of him, we know that when he mourned, and prayed for his sick child, he fasted too. And we doubt not, but that, when he was thus wearied, (I am weary with my groaning; All the night make I my bed to swim, I water my Couch with my tears; Mine eye is consumed because of grief; It waxeth old because of all mine enemies) he fasted too; He fasted oftener, then he tells us of it. As S. Jerome says, Iejunium non perfecta virtus, sed caeterarum virtutum fundamentum, If we must not call fasting (as fasting is but a bodily abstinence) a religious act, an act of Gods worship, yet it is a Basis, and a foundation, upon which other religious acts, and acts of Gods worship are the better advanced. It is so at all times; but it is so especially when it is enjoined by Sovereign authority, and upon manifest occasion, as now to us. Semper virtutis Cibus Iejunium fuit, It is elegantly, and usefully said: At all times, Religion feeds upon fasting, and feasts upon fasting, and grows the stronger for fasting. But, Quod pium est agere non indictum, impium est negligere praedicatum, It is a godly thing to fast uncommanded, but to neglect it being commanded, is an ungodly, an impious, a refractary perverseness, says the same Father. But then another carries it to a higher expression, Desperationis genus est, tunc manducare, cum abstinere debeas, Not to fast when the times require it, and when Authority enjoynes it, or not to believe, that God will be affected and moved with that fasting, and be the better inclined for it, is desperationis genus, a despairing of the State, a despairing of the Church, a despairing of the grace of God to both, or of his mercy upon both. And truly there cannot be a more disloyal affection then that, desper are rem publicam, to forespeak great Councils, to be witch great actions, to despair of good ends in things well intended: And in our distresses, where can we hope, but in God? and how shall we have access to God, but in humiliation? We doubt not therefore but that this act of humiliation, his fasting was spread over Davids other acts in this Text, and that as a sinner in his private person, and as a King in his public and exemplar office, he fasted also, (though he says not so) when he said he was wearied, I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim, I water my couch with my tears; mine eye is consumed because of grief; It waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

But though this fasting, and these other penal acts of humiliation, be the body that carries, and declares, yet the soul that inanimates, and quickens all, is prayer; and therefore this whole Psalm is a prayer; And the prayer is partly Deprecatory, In some things David desires that God would forbear him, as v. 1. Correct me not, for if thou correct me, others will trample upon me; Rebuke me not, for if thou rebuke me, others will calumniate me; And partly Postulatory, that some things God would give him, as Health, and Deliverance, and that which is all, Salvation, in the other verses. Both parts of the prayer are (as all prayer must be) grounded upon reasons; and the reasons are from divers roots; some from the consideration of himself, and they argue his humiliation; some from the contemplation of God, and they testify his devotion, and present recourse to him; some from both together, God, and himself jointly, which is an acknowledgement, that God works not alone in heaven, nor man lives not alone upon earth, but there is a Conversation, and a Correspondence, and a Commerce between God and Man, and Conditions, and Contracts, and Covenants, and Stipulations between them, and so a mutual interest in one another. From God himself alone, David raises a reason, v. 4. Propter misericordiam, O save me for thy mercies sake; for of the mercy of God, there is no precedent, there is no concurrent reason, there is no reason of the mercy of God, but the mercy of God: from God, and himself together, he raises a reason, v. 5. Quia non in morte, For in death there is no remembrance of thee; Destroy me not, for if I die, Quid facies magno nomini tuo? (as Ioshuah speaks) what will become of thy glory? of that glory which thou shouldest receive from my service in this world, if thou take me out of this world? But then, as he begun in reasons arising from himself, and out of the sense of his own humiliation under the hand of God, (for so he does) v. 2. Quia infirmus, Have mercy upon me, because I am weak, and cannot subsist without that mercy. And Quiaturbata ossa, his bones were vexed; Habet anima ossa sua, says S. Basil, The soul hath bones as well as the body; The bones of the soul are the strongest faculties, and best operations of the soul, and his best, and strongest actions, were but questionable actions, disputable, and suspicious actions; And Turbata anima, all his faculties, even in their very root, his very soul, was sore vexed, v. 3. As, I say, he began with reasons of that kind, arising from himself, so he returns and ends with the same humiliation, in the reasons arising from himself too, Quia laboravi in gemitu, I am weary with my groaning, all the night make I my bed to swim, &c.

As our Savior Christ entered into the house to his Disciples, Ianuis clausis, when the doors were shut: so God enters into us too, Ianuis clausis, when our eyes have not opened their doors, in any real penitent tears, when our mouths have not opened their doors, in any verbal prayers; God sees, and he hears the inclinations of the heart. S. Bernard notes well upon those words of Christ, at the raising of Lazarus, Father I thank thee, that thou hast heard me, That at that time, when Christ gave thanks to God, for having heard him, he had said nothing to his Father; but God had heard his heart. Since God does so even to us, he will much more hear us, as David, when we make outward declarations too, because that outward declaration conduces more to his glory, in the edification of his servants, therefore David comes to that declaratory protestation, Quia labor avi in gemitu, I am weary with my groaning, &c.

In which words, we shall consider, Quid factum, and Quid faciendum, What David did, and what we are to do: for David, after he had thrown himself upon the mercy of God, after he had confessed, and prayed, and done the spiritual parts of repentance, he afflicts his body besides; And so ought we likewise to do, if we will be partakers of Davids example. And therefore we may do well to consider Quid faciendum, How this Example of David binds us, how these groanings and waterings of his bed with tears, and other Mortifications assumed after repentance, and reconciliation to God, lay an obligation upon us.

But this is our part, Quid faciendum, what is to be done by us; First, Quid factum, what David did; and truly he did much: first gemuit, he came to greane, to sigh, to outward declarations of inward heaviness. And Laberauit in gemits, He laboured, he travelled in that passion, and (as the word imports, and as our later Translation hath it) he was wearied, tired with it; so far, that (as it is in the first Translation) he faimed, he languished with it. First he sighed, and sighed so; and groaned, and groaned so; passionately, vehemently, and then openly, exemplarily; and he was not ashamed of it, for he came to weeping, though he knew it would be thought childish: And that in that abundance, Natare feci, and Liqueseci lectum, He watered his bed, dissolved his bed, made his bed to swim, surrounded his bed with tears; And more, he macerated his bed with that brine: And then he continued this affliction; It was not a sudden passion, a flash of remorse; but he continued it, till his eye was consumed by reason of that anguish, and despite, and indignation; as our diverse Translations vary the expressing thereof; so long, as night and day lasted, so long, as that he was waxen old under it; and when this great affliction should have brought him safely into harbor, that he might have rested securely at last, his enemies that triumphed over him, gave him new occasions of misery, his eyes were consumed, and waxed old because of his enemies; that is, because he was still amongst enemies that triumphed over him.

Be pleased to take another Edition, another Impression of these particulars; A natural mans Moral constancy will hold out against outward declarations of grief; yet David came to that, he groaned: A groan, a sigh may break out, and the heart be at the more ease for that; But Laboravit, they grew upon him, and the more he groaned, and the more he sighed, the more he had an inclination, and not only that, but cause to do so, for he found that his sorrow was to be sorrowed for, and his repentance to be repented, there were such imperfections in all. Therefore he suffered thus till he was wearied, till he fainted with groaning, and sighing. And then this wind does not blow over the rain, he weeps; and weeps the more violently, and the more continually; extremes that seldom meet, violence, and lasting, but in his case they did. All this, all night, and all this, all this while, not amongst friends to pity him, and condole with him, but amongst enemies to affront him, and deride him: So that here are all the ingredients, all the elements of misery; Sorrow of heart, that admits no disguise, but flows into outward declarations; and such declarations as create no compassion, but triumph in the enemy. I am weary with my groaning, &c.

To proceed then to the particulars in our first Part, Quid factum, What David did, first Gemit, He comes to sigh, to groan, to an outward declaration of a sense of Gods indignation upon him, till he had perfected his repentance. She sighed, and turned backward, was Jerusalems misery. To sigh, and turn backward, to repent, and relapse, is a woeful Condition: But to sigh, and turn forward, to turn upon God, and to pursue this sorrow for our sins, then, in such sighs, The Spirit of man returns to God that gave it; As God breathed into man, so man breathes unto the nostrils of God a savor of rest, as it is said of Noah, an acceptable sacrifice, when he sighs for his sins. This fighing, this groaning, expressed in this word, Anach, Gemitus, is Vox Turturis. Turtur gemit; It is that voice, that sound which the Turtle gives; And we learn by Authors of Natural Story, and by experience, Turturis gemitus indicium veris, The voice of the Turtle is an evidence of the Spring; When a sinner comes to this voice, to this sighing, there is a Spring of grace begun in him; Then Vox Turturis audita in terra nostra, says Christ to his Spouse, The voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land; And so he says to thy soul, This voice of the Turtle, these sighs of thy penitent soul, are heard interra nostra, in our Land, in the Kingdom of heaven.

And when he hears this voice of this Turtle, these sighs of thy soul, then he puts thy name also into that List, which he gave to his Messenger, (in which Commission this very word of our Text, Anach, is used) Signabis signum super frontibus virorum suspirantium & gementium, Upon all their fore heads, that sigh and groan, imprint my mark; Which is ordinarily conceived by the Ancients to have been the letter Tau; of which though Calvin assign a useful, and a convenient reason, that they were marked with this letter Tau, which is the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, in sign, that though they were in estimation of the world, the most abject, and the out-casts thereof, yet God set his mark upon them, with a purpose to raise them; yet S. Jerome, and the Ancients for the most part assign that for the reason, why they were marked with that letter, because that letter had the forme of the Cross; Not for any such use, or power, as the Roman Church hath ascribed to that sign, but as in the Persecutions of the Primitive Church, the Martyrs at the stake, when a cry was raised, that they died for Treason, for Rebellion, for Sedition, and could not be heard, for the clamor, to clear themselves, used then in the sight of all, who, though they could not hear them, could see them, to sign themselves with the Cross, not to drive away devils, or to strengthen themselves against temptations by that sign, but by that sign to declare the cause of their death to be the profession of the Christian Religion, and not Treason, nor Sedition. And as we in our Baptism have that Cross imprinted upon us, not as a part of the Sacrament, or any piece of that armor, which we put on of spiritual strength, but as a protestation, whose Souldiers we became: so God imprinted upon them, that sighed, and mourned, that Tau, that letter, which had the forme of the Cross, that it might be an evidence, that all their crosses shall be swallowed in his Cross, their sighs in his sighs, and their agonies in his. And therefore, Beloved, these sighs are too spiritual a substance, to be bestowed upon worldly matters; All the love, all the ambitions, all the losses of this world, are not worth a sigh; If they were, yet thou hast none to spare, for all thy sighs are due to thy sins; bestow them there.

Gemit, he sighs, he groans; And then, Laboravit in gemitu, he laboured, he travailed, he grew weary, he fainted with sighing. Not to be curious, we meet with a threefold Labor in Scriptures. First there is Labor communis, the Labor which no man may avoid; Man is born unto travailt, as the sparks fly upward; Where we may note in the Comparison, that it is not a dejection, a diminution, a depressing downward, but a flying upward, the true exaltation of a Man, that he labours duly in a lawful calling; and this is Labor communis; Secondly there is Labor impii, The labor of the wicked, for, They have taught their tongues to speak lyes, says David, and take great pains to deal wickedly; As it is also in Job, The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, And (as our former Translation had it) he is continually as one travailing with Child; Indeed the labor is greater, to do ill, then well; to get hell, then Heaven; Heaven might be had with less pains, then men do bestow upon hell; and this is Labor impiorum. And lastly, there is Labor justorum, The labor of the Righteous, which is, To rise early, to lie down late, and to eat the bread of sorrow; for, though in that place, this seems to be said to be done in vain, It is in vain to rise early, in vain to lye down late, in vain to eat the bread of sorrow, yet it is with the same exception, which is there specified, that is, Except the Lord build, it is in vain to labor, Except the Lord keep the City, it is in vain to watch; So except the Lord give rest to his beloved, it is in vain torise early: In vain to travail, except God give a blessing. But when the Lord hath given thee rest, in the remission of thy sins, then comes this Labor justorum, the labor that a righteous man is bound to, that as God hath given him a good nights rest, so he gives God a good days work, as God hath given him rest and peace of conscience, for that which is past, so he take some pains for that which is to come, for such was Davids case, and Davids care, and Davids labor.

Ephrem, an ancient Deacon, and Expositor in the Christian Church, takes this labor of David, Laboravi in gemitu, to have been in gemitu, but in comprimendo gemitu, that he laboured to conceal his penance and mortification, from the sight and knowledge of others; Beloved, this concealing of those things, which we put our selves to in the ways of godliness, hath always a good use, when it is done, to avoid ostentation, and vain glory, and praise of men; And it hath otherwise, sometimes a good use, to conceal our tribulations and miseries from others, because the wicked often take occasion, from the calamities and pressures of the godly, to insult and triumph over them, and to dishonor and blaspheme their God, and to say, Where is now your God? and therefore it may sometimes concern us to labor to hide our miseries, to swallow our own spittle, as Job speaks, and to spunge up our tears in our brains, and to eat, and smother our sighs in our own bosoms. But this was not Davids case now; But as he had opened himself to God, he opened himself to the world too; and as he says in another place, Come and I will tell you, what God hath done for my soul, So here he says, Come, and I will tell you, what I have done against my God. So he sighed, and so he groaned; he laboured, he was affected bitterly with it himself; And he declated it, he made it exemplar, and catechistical, that his dejection in himself, might be an exaltation to others; And then he was not ashamed of it, but as he said of his dancing before the Ark, If this be to be vile, I will be more vile, So here, if this passion be weakness, I will yet be more weak; for this wind brought rain, These sighs brought tears, All the night make I my bed to swim, &c.

The concupiscencies of man, are naturally dry powder, combustible easily, easily apt to take fire; but tears damp them, and give them a little more leisure, and us intermission and consideration. David had laboured hard; first Ad ruborem, as Physicians advise, to a redness, to a blushing, to a shame of his sin; And now Ad sudorem, he had laboured to a sweat: for Lacrymae sudor animae moerentis, Tears are the sweat of a labouring soul, and that soul that labours as David did, will sweat, as David did, in the tears of contrition; Till then, till tears break out, and find a vent in outward declaration, we pant and struggle in miserable convulsions, and distortions, and distractions, and earthquakes, and irresolutions of the soul; I can believe, that God will have mercy upon me, if I repent, but I cannot believe that is repentance, if I cannot weep, or come to outward declarations. This is the laborious irresolution of the soul; But Lacrymae diluvium, & evehunt animam, These tears carry up our soul, as the flood carried up the Ark, higher then any hills; whether hills of power, and so above the oppression of potent adversaries, or hills of our own pride, and ambition; True holy tears carry us above all. And therefore, when the Angel rebuked the people, for not destroying Idolatry, They wept, says the text, there was their present remedy; and they called the name of the place Bochim, Tears, that there might be a permanent testimony of that expressing of their repentance; that that way they went to God, and in that way God received them; and that their Children might say to one another, Where did God show that great mercy to our Fathers? Here; here, in Bochim, that is, Here in tears. And so when at Samuels motions, and increpation, the people would testify their repentance, They drew water, says the story, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted, and said, We have sinned against the Lord. They poured water, Vt esset symbolum lacrymarum, That that might be a type, and figure, in what proportion of tears, they desired to express their repentance. For, such an effusion of tears, David may be well thought to intend, when he says, Effundite coram Deo animam vestram, Pour out your souls before God, pour them out in such an effusion, in a continual, and a contrite weeping. Still the Prophets cry out upon Idols and Idolaters, Vlulate Sculptilia; Howl ye Idols, and Howl ye Idolaters; He hath no hope of their weeping. And so the devil, and the damned are said to howl, but not to weep; or when they are said to weep, it is with a gnashing of teeth, which is a voice of Indignation, even towards God, and not of humiliation under his hand: So also says the Propher of an impenitent sinner, Induratae super petram facies, They have made their faces harder then stone; wherein? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not wept; not sorrowed. Out of a stone water cannot be drawn, but by miracle, though it be twice stricken; as Moses stroke the Rock twice, yet the water came by the miraculous power of God, and not by Moses second stroke. Though God strike this sinner twice, thrice, he will not weep: though inward terrors strike his conscience, and outward diseases strike his body, and calamities and ruin strike his estate, yet he will not confess by one tear, that these are judgements of God, but natural accidents; or if judgements, that they proceeded not from his sin, but from some decree in God, or some purpose in God, to glorify himself, by thus afflicting him, and that if he had been better, he should have fared never the better, for Gods purpose must stand. Therefore says God of such in that place, Surely they are poor, that was plain enough, and they are foolish too, says God there: And God gives the reason of it, for they know not the judgements of God; They know not his judgements to be judgements; They ascribe all calamities to other causes, and so they turn upon other ways, and other plots, and other miserable comforters. But attribute all to the Lord; never say of any thing, This falls upon me, but of all, This is laid upon me by the hand of God, and thou wilt come to him in tears. Rain water is better then River water; The water of Heaven, tears for offending thy God, are better then tears for worldly losses; But yet come to tears of any kind, and whatsoever occasion thy tears, Deus absterget omnem lacrymam, there is the largeness of his bounty, He will wipe all tears from thine eyes; But thou must have tears first: first thou must come to this weeping, or else God cannot come to this wiping; God hath not that errand to thee, to wipe tears from thine eyes, if there be none there; If thou do nothing for thy self, God finds nothing to do for thee.

David wept thus, thus vehemently, and he wept thus, thus continually; In the Night, says our Text; Not that he wept not in the day: He says of himself, My tears have been my meat, both day and night, where though he name no fast, you see his diet, how that was attenuated. And so when it is said of Jerusalem, She weepeth continually in the night, it is not that she put off her weeping till night, but that she continued her days weeping to the night, and in the night: Plorando plorabit, says the Original in the place; she does weep already, and she will weep still; she puts it not off dilatorily, (I will weep, but not yet) nor she puts it not over easily, suddenly, (I have wept, and I need no more) but as God promises to his children, the first and later rain, so must his children give to him again both raines, tears of the day, and tears of the night, by washing the sins of the day in the evening, and the sins of the night in the morning. But this was an addition to Davids affliction in this night weeping, that whereas the night was made for man to rest in, David could not make that use of the night. When he had proposed so great a part of his happiness to consist in this, That he would lay him down and sleep in peace; we see in the next Psalm but one, he that thought to sleep out the night, come to weep out the night. When the Saints of God have that security, which S. Jerome speaks of, Vt sanctis ipse somnus sit oratio, They sleep securely, for their very sleep is a glorifying of God, who giveth his beloved sleep, yet David could have none of this. But why not he? Noctem letiferam nocte compensat; First, for the place, the sin came in at those windows, at his eyes, and came in, in fire, in lust, And it must go out at those windows too, and go out in water, in the water of repentant tears; And then, for the time, as the night defiled his soul, so the sin must be expiated, and the soul washed in the night too.

And this may be some Embleme, some useful intimation, how hastily Repentance follows sin; Davids sin is placed, but in the beginning of the night, in the Evening, (In the evening he rose, and walked upon the Terase, and saw Bathsheba) and in the next part of time, in the night, he falls a weeping: no more between the sweetness of sin, and the bitterness of repentance, then between evening, and night; no morning to either of them, till the Sun of grace arise, and shine out, and proceed to a Meridional height, and make the repentance upon circumstance, to be a repentance upon the substance, and bring it to be a repentance for the sin it self, which at first was but a repentance upon some calamity, that that sin induced.

He wept then, and wept in the night; in a time, when he could neither receive rest in himself, which all men had, nor receive praise from others, which all men affect. And he wept Omni nocte; which is not only Omnibus noctibus, sometime every night, but it is Tota nocte, clean through the night; And he wept in that abundance, as hath put the Holy Ghost to that Hyperbole in Davids pen to express it, Liquefecit stratum, natare fecit stratum, it drowned his bed, surrounded his bed, it dissolved, it macerated, it melted his bed with that brine. Well; Qui rigat stratum, he that washes his bed so with repentant tears, Non potest in cogitationem ejus libidinum pompa subrepere: Temptations take hold of us sometimes after our tears, after our repentance, but seldom or never in the act of our repentance, and in the very shedding of our tears; At least Libidinum pompa, The victory, the triumph of lust breaks not in upon us, in a bed, so dissolved, so surrounded, so macerated with such tears. Thy bed is a figure of thy grave; Such as thy grave receives thee at death, it shall deliver thee up to Judgement at last; Such as thy bed receives thee at night, it shall deliver thee in the morning: If thou sleep without calling thy self to an account, thou wilt wake so, and walk so, and proceed so, without ever calling thy self to an account, till Christ Jesus call thee in the Clouds. It is not intended, that thou shouldest afflict thy self so grievously, as some over-doing Penitents, to put chips, and shells, and splints, and flints, and nayles, and rowels of spurres in thy bed, to wound and macerate thy body so. The inventions of men, are not intended here; But here is a precept of God, implied in this precedent and practise of David, That as long as the sense of a former sin, or the inclination to a future oppresses thee, thou must not close thine eyes, thou must not take thy rest, till, as God married thy body and soul together in the Creation, and shall at last crown thy body and soul together in the Resurrection, so they may also rest together here, that as thy body rests in thy bed, thy soul may rest in the peace of thy Conscience, and that thou never say to thy head, Rest upon this pillow, till thou canst say to thy soul, Rest in this repentance, in this peace.

Now as this sorrow of Davids continued day and night, (in the day for the better edification of men, and in the night for his better capitulation with God) so there is a farther continuation thereof without any weariness, expressed in the next clause, Turbatus à furore oculus meus, as the Vulgate reads it, and Mine eye is dimmed, for despight or indignation, as our former, or as this last Translation hath it, Mine eye is consumed because of grief; and to speak neerest to the Original, Erosus est oculus, Mine eye is eaten out with Indignation. A word or two shall be enough of each of these words, these three Terms, What the eye, which is the subject, what this consuming, or dimming, which is the effect, and what this Grief, or Indignation, which is the affection, imports and offers to our application. First, Oculus, the Eye, is ordinarily taken in the Scriptures, Pro aspectu, for the whole face, the looks, the countenance, the air of a man; and this air, and looks, and countenance, declares the whole habitude, and constitution of the man; As he looks, so he is: So that the Eye here, is the whole person; and so this grief had wrought upon the whole frame and constitution of David, and decayed that; though he place it in the eye, yet it had grown over all the body. Since thou wast not able to say to thy sin, The sin shall come to mine eyes, but no farther, I will look, but not lust, I will see, but not covet, thou must not say, My repentance shall come to mine eyes, and no farther, I will shed a few tears, and no more; but (with this Prophet David, and with the Apostle S. Paul) thou must beat down thy body to that particular purpose, and in that proportion, as thou findest the rebellions thereof to require: Thou couldest not stop the sin at thine eyes; stop not thy repentance there neither, but pursue it in wholesome mortification, through all those parts, in which the sin hath advanced his dominion over thee; and that is our use of the first word, the Eye, the whole frame.

For the second word, which in our Translations, is, in one dimmed, in the other consumed, and in the Vulgate troubled, a great Master in the Original, renders it well, elegantly, and naturally out of the Original, Verminavit, Tineavit, which is such a deformity, as worms make in wood, or in books; If Davids sorrow for his sins brought him to this deformity, what sorrow do they owe to their sins, who being come to a deformity by their own licentiousness, and intemperance, disguise all that by unnatural helps, to the drawing in of others, and the continuation of their former sins? The sin it self was the Devils act in thee; But in the deformity and debility, though it follow upon the sin, God hath a hand; And they that smother and suppress these by paintings, and pamperings, unnatural helps to unlawful ends, do not deliver themselves of the plague, but they hide the marks, and infect others, and wrastle against Gods notifications of their former sins.

And then the last of these three words, which is here rendered Grief, does properly signify, Indignation, and Anger: And therefore S. Augustine upon this place, puts himself to that question, If Davids constitution be shaken, if his complexion and countenance be decayed, and withered, Prae indignatione, for Indignation, for Anger, from whom proceeds this Indignation, and this Anger? says that blessed Father. If it proceed from God, says he, it is well that he is but Turbatus, and not Extinctus, that he is but troubled, and not distracted, but shaken, and not overthrown; but overthrown, and not ground to powder, not trodden as flat as durt in the streets, as the Prophet speaks. For David himself had told us but a few Psalms before, That when the Son is angry, (and when we speak of the Son, we intend a person more sensible, and so more compassionate of our miseries, then when we speak of God, of God considered in the height of his Majesty) and but a little angry, (which amounts not to this provocation of God, which David had fallen into here) we may perish; and perish in the way; perish in a half repentance, before we perfect our Reconciliation: In the way so, before we come to our end; or in the way, in these outward actions of repentance, if they be hypocritically, or occasionally, or fashionally, or perfunctorily performed, and not with a right heart towards God. Though this be the way, we may perish in the way.

Now Aquinas places this fury (as the Vulgate calls it, this indignation) in Absolom, and not in David; He takes Davids sorrow to rise out of his sons rebellion, and furious prosecution thereof; That David was thus vehemently affected for the fault of another: And truly it is a holy tenderness, and an exemplar disposition to be so sensible, and compassionate for the sins of other men; Though Absolom could not have hurt David, David would have grieved for his unnatural attempt to do it. So in Aquinas sense, it is Excandescentia pro inimicis, a sorrow for his enemies; Not for his own danger from them, but for their sin in themselves; But Gregory Nyssen takes it, de excandescentia in inimicos, for an indignation against his enemies: And that David speaks this by way of confession, and accusation of himself, as of a fault, that he was too soon transported to an impatience, and indignation against them, though enemies; And taking that sense, we see, how quickly even the Saints of God put themselves beyond the hability of making that Petition sincerely, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; How hard it is even for a good man to forgive an enemy; And how hard it is, Nihil in peccatore odisse nisi peccatum, to sever the sin from the sinner, and to hate the fault, and not the man.

But leaving Thomas and Gregory, Aquinas and Nyssen to that Exposition, in which (I think) they are singularly singular, either that this sorrow in David was a charitable and compassionate sense of others faults, which is Aquinas way, or that it was a confession of uncharitableness in himself towards others, which is Gregories way, the whole stream (for the most part) of ancient Expositors divide themselves into these two channels; Either that this indignation conceived by David, which withered and decayed him, was a holy scorn and indignation against his own sins, that such wretched things as those should separate him from his God, and from his inheritance, according to that chain of Affections which the Apostle makes, That godly sorrow brings a sinner to a care; He is no longer careless, negligent of his ways; and that care to a clearing of himself, not to clear himself by way of excuse, or disguise, but to clear himself by way of physic, by humble confession; and then that clearing brings him to an indignation, to a kind of holy scorn, and wonder, how that temptation could work so; Such an affection as we conceive to have been in the Spouse, when she said, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? I have emptied my soul by Confession, is it possible I should charge it with new transgressions? Or else they place this affection, this indignation in God; And then they say, it was an apprehension of the anger of God, to be expressed upon him in the day of Judgement; And against this Vermination, (as the Original denotes) against this gnawing of the worm, that may bore through, and sink the strongest vessel that sails in the seas of this world, there is no other varnish, no other liniment, no other medicament, no other pitch nor rosin against this worm, but the blood of Christ Jesus: And therefore whensoever this worm, this apprehension of Gods future indignation, reserved for the Judgement, bites upon thee, be sure to present to it the blood of thy Savior: Never consider the judgement of God for sin alone, but in the company of the mercies of Christ. It is but the hissing of the Serpent, and the whispering of Satan, when he surprises thee in a melancholy midnight of dejection of spirit, and lays thy sins before thee then; Look not upon thy sins so inseparably, that thou canst not see Christ too: Come not to a confession to God, without consideration of the promises of his Gospel; Even the sense and remorse of sin is a dangerous consideration, but when the cup of salvation stands by me, to keep me from fainting. David himself could not get off when he would; but (as he complains there, which is the last act of his sorrow to be considered in this, which is all his part, and all our first part) Inveteravit, He waxed old because of all his enemies.

The difference is not of much importance, whether it be Inveteravi, or Inveteravit; in the first, or in the third person. Whether Davids eyes, or David himself be thus decayed, and waxen old, imports little. But yet that which Bellarmine collects, upon this difference, imports much. For, because the Vulgate Edition, and the Septuagint, (such a Septuagint as we have now) read this in the first person of David himself, Inveteravi, and the Hebrew hath it in the third, Inveteravit, Bellarmine will needs think, that the Hebrew, the Original, is falsified and corrupted; still in advancement of that dangerous Position of theirs, That their Translation is to be preferred before the Original; and that is an unsufferable tyranny, and an Idolatrous servility. The Translation is a reverend Translation; A Translation to which the Church of God owes much; but gold will make an Idol as well as wood, and to make any Translation equal, or better then the Original, is an Idolatrous servility. It is true, that that which is said here in the third person, implies the first; And it is David, that after his sighing, and fainting with that, After his weeping, and dissolving with that, After his consuming, and withering with that, foresees no rescue, no escape, Inveteravit, he waxes old amongst his enemies. Who were his enemies, and what was this age that he speaks of? It is of best use to pursue the spiritual sense of this Psalm, and so his enemies were his sins; And David found that he had not got the victory over any one enemy, any one sin; Another's blood did not extinguish the lustful heat of his own, nor the murder of the husband, the adultery with the wife: Change of sin is not an overcomming of sin; He that passes from sin to sin, without repentance, (which was Davids case for a time) still leaves an enemy behind him; and though he have no present assault from his former enemy, no temptation to any act of his former sin, yet he is still in the midst of his enemies; under condemnation of his past, as well as of his present sins; as unworthy a receiver of the Sacrament, for the sins of his youth done forty years ago, if those sins were never repented, though so long discontinued, as for his ambition, or covetousness, or indevotion of this present day. These are his enemies; and then this is the age that grows upon him, the age that David complains of, I am waxenold; that is, grown into habits of these sins. There is an old age of our natural condition, We shall wax old as doth a garment; David would not complain of that which all men desire; To wish to be old, and then grudge to be old, when we are come to it, cannot consist with moral constancy. There is an old age expressed in that phrase, The old man, which the Apostle speaks of, which is that natural corruption and disposition to sin, cast upon us by Adam; But that old man was crucified in Christ, says the Apostle; and was not so only from that time when Christ was actually crucified, one thousand six hundred years ago, but from that time that a second Adam was promised to the first, in Paradise; And so that Lambe slain from the beginning of the world, from the beginning delivered all them, to whom the means ordained by God, (as Circumcision to them, Baptism to us) were afforded; and in that respect, David was not under that old age, but was become a new creature. Nor as the Law was called the old Law, which is another age also; for to them who understood that Law aright, the New Law, the Gospel, was enwrapped in the Old; And so David as well as we, might be said to serve God in the newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the Letter; so that this was not the age that opprest him.

The Age that oppresses the sinner, is that when he is grown old in sin, he is grown weak in strength, and become less able to overcome that sin then, then he was at beginning. Blindness contracted by Age, doth not deliver him from objects of temptations; He sees them, though he be blind; Deafness doth not deliver him from discourses of temptation; he hears them, though he be deaf: Nor lameness doth not deliver him from pursuit of temptation; for in his own memory he sees, and hears, and pursues all his former sinful pleasures, and every night, every hour sins over all the sins of many years that are passed. That which waxeth old, is ready to vanish, says the Apostle: If we would let them go, they would go; and whether we will or no, they leave us for the ability of practise; But Thesaurizamus, we treasure them up in our memories, and we treasure up the wrath of God with them, against the day of wrath; And whereas one calling of our sins to our memories by way of confession, would do us good, and serve our turns, this often calling them in a sinful delight, in the memory of them, exceeds the sin it self, when it was committed, because it is more unnatural now, then it was then, and frustrates the pardon of that sin, when it was repented. To end this branch, and this part, So humble was this holy Prophet, and so apprehensive of his own debility, and so far from an imaginary infallibility of falling no more, as that after all his agonies, and exercises, and mortifications, and prayer, and sighs, and weeping, still he finds himself in the midst of enemies, and of his old enemies; for not only temptations to new sins, but even the memory of old, though formerly repented, arise against us, arise in us, and ruin us. And so we pass from these pieces which constitute our first Part, Quid factum, what David upon the sense of his case did, to the other, Quid faciendum, what by his example we are to do, and what is required of us, after we have repented, and God hath remitted the sin.

Out of this passage here in this Psalm, and out of that history, where Nathan says to David, The Lord hath put away thy sin, and yet says after, The child that is born to thee shall surely dye, and out of that story, where David repents earnestly his sin, committed in the numbering of his people, and says; Now, now that I have repented, Now I beseech thee O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly, yet David was to indure one of those three Calamities, of Famine, War, or Pestilence; And out of some other such places as these, some men have imagined a Doctrine, that after our repentance, and after God hath thereupon pardoned our sin, yet he leaves the punishment belonging to that sin unpardoned; though not all the punishment, not the eternal, yet say they, there belongs a temporary punishment too, and that God does not pardon, but exacts, and exacts in the nature of a punishment, and more, by way of satisfaction to his Justice.

Now, Stipendium peccati mors est, There is the punishment for sin, The reward of sin is death. If there remain no death, there remains no punishment: For the reward of sin is death, And death complicated in it self, death wrapped in death; and what is so intricate, so intangling as death? Who ever got out of a winding sheet? It is death aggravated by it self, death weighed down by death: And what is so heavy as death? Who ever threw off his grave stone? It is death multiplied by it self; And what is so infinite as death? Who ever told over the days of death? It is Morte morieris, A Double death, Eternal, and Temporary. Temporal, and Spiritual death. Now, the Temporary, the Natural death, God never takes away from us, he never pardons that punishment, because he never takes away that sin that occasioned it, which is Original sin; To what Sanctification soever a man comes, Original sin lives to his last breath. And therefore, Statutum est, That Decree stands, Semel mori, that every man must dye once; but for any Bis mori, for twice dying, for eternal death upon any man, as man, if God consider him not as an impotent sinner, there is no such invariable Decree; for, that death being also the punishment for actual sin, if he take away the cause, the sin, he takes away that effect, that death also; for this death it self, eternal death, we all agree that it is taken away with the sin; And then for other calamities in this life, which we call Morticulas, Little deaths, the children, the issue, the off-spring, the propagation of death, if we would speak properly, no Affliction, no Judgement of God in this life, hath in it exactly the nature of a punishment; not only not the nature of satisfaction, but not the nature of a punishment. We call not Coyn, base Coin, till the Allay be more then the pure Metal: Gods Judgements are not punishments, except there be more anger then love, more Justice then Mercy in them; and that is never; for Miserationes ejus super omnia opera, His mercies are above all his works: In his first work, in the Creation, his Spirit, the Holy Ghost, moved upon the face of the waters; and still upon the face of all our waters, (as waters are emblemes of tribulation in all the Scriptures) his Spirit, the Spirit of comfort, moves too; and as the waters produced the first creatures in the Creation, so tribulations offer us the first comforts; sooner then prosperity does. God executes no judgement upon man in this life, but in mercy; either in mercy to that person, in his sense thereof, if he be sensible, or at least in mercy to his Church, in the example thereof, if he be not: There is no person to whom we can say, that Gods Corrections are Punishments, any otherwise then Medicinal, and such, as he may receive amendment by, that receives them; Neither does it become us in any case, to say God lays this upon him, because he is so ill, but because he may be better.

But here our consideration is only upon the godly, and such as by repentance stand upright in his favor; and even in them, our Adversaries say, that after the remission of their sins, there remains a punishment, and a punishment by way of Satisfaction, to be born for that sin, which is remitted. But since they themselves tell us, that in Baptism God proceeds otherwise, and pardons there all sin, and all punishment of sin, which should be inflicted in the next world, (for children newly baptized, do not suffer any thing in Purgatory) And that this holds not only in Baptismo fluminis, in the Sacrament of Baptism, but in Baptismo sanguinis, in the Baptism of blood too; (for in Martyrdom, as S. Augustine says, Injuriam facit Martyri, He wrongs a Martyr that prays for a Martyr, as though he were not already in Heaven; so he suspects a Martyr, that thinks that Martyr goes to Purgatory) And since they say, that he can do so in the other Sacrament too, and in Repentance, which they call, and justly, Secundam post naufragium tabulam, That whereas Baptism hath once delivered us from shipwreck, in Original sin, this Repentance delivers us after Baptism, from actual sin; Since God can pardon, without reserving any punishment, since God does so in Baptism and Martyrdom, since out of Baptism or Martyrdom, it appears often, that De facto, he hath done so, (for he enjoined no penance to the man sick of the Palsy, when he said, Son be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee, Sins, and punishments too. He intimated no such after reckoning to her, of whom he said, Many sins are forgiven her; Sins, and punishments too. He left no such future Satisfaction in that Parable upon the Publican, that departed to his house justified; Justified from sins, and punishments too. And when he declared Zacheus to be the son of Abraham, and said, This day is Salvation come unto thy house. He did not charge this blessed inheritance with any such encumbrance, that he should still be subject to old debts, to make satisfaction by bodily afflictions for former sins) since God can do this, and does so in Baptism, and Martyrdom, and hath done this very often, out of Baptism, or Martyrdom, in Repentance, we had need of clearer evidence then they have offered to preduce yet, that God does otherwise at any time; that at any time he pardons the sin, and retains the punishment, by way of satisfaction. If their Market should fail, that no man would buy Indulgences (as of late years it was brought low, when they vented ten Indulgencies in America for one in Europe; If the fire of Purgatory were quenched, or slackened, that men would not be so prodigal to buy out Fathers or friends souls, from thence; If commutation of penance, were so moderated amongst them, that those penances, and satisfactions, which they make so necessary, were not commuted to money, and brought them in no profit, they would not be perhaps so vehement in maintenance of this Doctrine.

To leave such imaginations with their Authors; We see David did enjoin himself penance, and impose upon himself heavy afflictions after he had asked, and no doubt, received assurance of the mercy of God, in the remission of his sins. Why did he so? S. Augustine observes out of the words of this Text, that because some of Davids afflictions are expressed in the Preter tense, as things already past, and some in the Future, as things to come, (for it is Laboravi, I have mourned, and it is Natare faciam, I will wash my bed with tears) so that something David confesses he had done, and something he professes that he will do, therefore David hath a special regard to his future state, and he proceeds with God, not only by that way of holy worship, by way of confession, what he had done, but by another religious worship of God too, by way of vow, what he would do. David understood his own conscience well; and was willing to husband it, to manure, and cultivate it well; He knew what ploughing, what harrowing, what weeding, and watring, and pruning it needed, and so perhaps might be trusted with himself, and he his own spiritual Physician. This is not every ones case. Those that are not so perfect in the knowledge of their own estate, (as it is certain the most are not) the Church ever took into her care; and therefore it is true, that in the Primitive Church, there were heavy penitential Canons, and there were public penances enjoined to sinners: Either Ad explorationem, when the Church had cause to be jealous, and to suspect the hearty repentance of the party, They made this trial of their obedience, to submit them to that heavy penance; Or else Ad aedificationem, to satisfy the Church which was scandalized by their sins before; Or Ad Exercitationem, to keep them in continual practise, the better to resist future temptations, and relapses; for to them this penance was an Unction, as to one that was to wrastle with himself, and as the buckling on of an Armor upon one that was to fight Gods Battells, in his own bowels.

If from some of the Fathers, there have fain sometimes, some phrases which may have seemed to some, to attribute something more to mans works, to his after-afflictions, and post-penances, some power of satisfaction to the Justice of God, Bellarmine himself hath given us one good Caution, That we must be very wary in understanding those phrases; for he finds it very inconvenient, to accept all that the Fathers have said, in their manner of expressing themselves in that point. We will add thus much more, for the better understanding of repentance in the root, and the fruits of repentance, that there is such an indissoluble knot, such an individual marriage between those parts of repentance, which we call Parts constitutivas, Essential parts of repentance, and those parts, which we call Consecutivas, which do infallibly concur, or immediately follow upon repentance, these two are so inseparable; There is not only such a contiguity, but such a continuity in them, not only such a vicinity, but such an identity, between repentance, and the fruits of repentance, that many reverend persons, in their Expositions, and Meditations have presented, and named one for the other, and have called those subsequent, and subsidiary things, by the name of Repentance it self. Hence it comes, that whereas repentance is only Cogversio, a turning, and this conversion, this turning hath only Terminum à quo, Something to turn from, and that is sin, and Terminum ad quem, Something to turn to, and that is God, Those things which are indeed but helps to hold us in that station, and in that posture when we are turned from sin upon God, they have called by the names of Repentance it self, as parts of it; And so these bodily afflictions, which we speak of, being indeed to be embraced for that use, to maintain us in that good disposition, to which our repentance hath brought us, have sometimes been called parts of repentance, even by godly, and learned Expositors; and by occasion of that easiness in them, in calling these things thus, in after-times, salvation it self, which God gives upon repentance, hath been attributed to these post-penances, and after-afflictions, which because they do always accompany repentance, have sometimes been called repentance.

The meaning of ancient and later men too therein, hath been to impose a necessity of taking these medicinal Physicks, these after-afflictions, for that use of holding us in that state, to which we are brought; but their meaning hath ever been too, to exclude satisfaction, properly so termed. Poenitentia est, mala praeterita plaengere, This is repentance says that Father, to lament and bewail our former sins; But, this is not all that he requires, but he adds, Plangenda iterum non committere, This belongs to repentance too, not to return to those sins, which we have bewailed. For, Repentance is Vindicta semper puniens, quod dolet se commisisse, says another also; a man truly penitent is a daily executioner upon himself, and punishes after, the sins which he hath committed before. Here we see that both these blessed Fathers, S. Augustine, and S. Ambrose, attribute these after-afflictions, and post-penances to Repentance, and call them by that name, Repentance. But yet, not to leave these blessed Fathers, under the danger of mis-interpretation, and ill application of words well intended, We consider the same Fathers in other places too; Lacrymas Petri lego, satisfactionem non lego, I read of Peters tears, not of his satisfaction. So if these post-penances had the nature of punishments, yet these punishments had not the nature of satisfaction. But Calamitates ante remissionem sunt supplicia, post remissionem exercitationes, says the other of those Fathers: Till God be pacified by our Repentance, his corrections have more of the nature of punishments, because considered so, we are in the state of enemies, and he may justly punish; But after God hath remitted the sin, the after-afflictions are but from a Physician, not from an executioner, and intended to keep us in our station, and not to throw us lower; So that they are neither properly satisfactions, nor punishments. For, for satisfaction to the justice of God, Nec si te excories, satis facere possis, If thou flea thy self with hair-clothes, and whips, it is nothing towards satisfaction of that infinite Majesty, which thou hast violated, and wounded by thy sin; And then for the other, that is, punishment after remission, Vbi misericordia, poenae locus non est, They are incompatible things, If God have reserved a disposition and purpose to punish, he hath not pardoned.

So that howsoever something said by them, may seem to make these after-afflictions to be necessary to repentance, and, in a large sense, parts of repentance, yet neither did they put that value upon mans act, That man should be able to satisfy God, nor that delusion upon Gods act, That God should pretend to pardon, and yet punish. We are not disposed to wrangle about words, and names; The School may admit that exercise, but not the Pulpit. If upon admittance, that these after-afflictions might be called punishments, they had not inferred a satisfaction, and thereupon super-induced a satisfaction after this life, and so a Purgatory, and so Indulgencies, and carried their Babel so many stories high, We to advance the doctrine of a necessity of these disciplines, and mortifications, even after God hath sealed to our consciences the remission of our sin, would not abhor, nor decline the name, we would not be afraid to call them Penances, nor Punishments, nor Satisfactions; for when S. Chrysostom in his time, had no occasion to be afraid of such a mis-interpretation, he was not afraid to call them so; Non remisit supplicium, says he; God hath not forgiven the punishment; And imponit poenam, God exacts a punishment at thy hands: But yet, though S. Chrysostom suspected no such mis-interpretations, the Holy Ghost who foresaw that they would come, prevents all dangerous mis-constructions, and directs S. Chrysostomes pen, thus, God does all this, says he, Non exigens supplicium de peccatis, sed corrigens ad futurum; whatsoever I have said of punishments; it is not, that in that punishment, God hath any relation to the former, but to the future sin, not to our lapse, but to our relapse, not to that which he hath seen, but to that which he foresees would fall upon us, if he did not, if we did not prevent it with these medicinal assistances: And, as long as it is but so, call them what ye will, yet here is no foundation laid, no materials, no stone brought to the building of the Roman Satisfaction, or Purgatory, or Indulgencies.

Howsoever therefore you exclude dangerous names, do not upon color of that, exclude necessary things: Howsoever you have delivered your selves to the mercy of God, and he hath delivered a seal of his mercy to you, inwardly in his Spirit, outwardly in his Sacrament, yet there are Amarae sagittae ex dulci manu Dei, (as Nazianzen calls afflictions after repentance) Sharp arrows out of the sweet hand of God; Corrections, by which God intends to establish us in that spiritual health, to which our repentance, by his grace, hath brought us: Remember still, that this which David did for the present, and that which he promised be would do for the future, both together made up the reason of his prayer to God, by which he desired God in the former verses, to return to him, to deliver his soul, and to save him; He had had no reason, no ground of his prayer, though he had done something already, if he had not proposed to himself something more to be done: There is a preparation before, and there is a preservation after required at our hands, if we study a perfect recovery, and cure of our souls. And as S. Gregory notes well, there is a great deal of force in Davids Possessive, in his word of appropriation, Meus, lectus meus, and Oculus meus, It is his bed that he washed, and they are his eyes that washed it: He bore the affliction himself, and trusted not to that which others had suffered by way of Supererogation. Sometimes, when the children of great persons offend at School, another person is whipped for them, and that affects them, and works upon a good nature; but if that person should take Physic for them in a sickness, it would do them no good: Gods corrections upon others, may work by way of example upon thee; but because thou art sick for physic, take it thy self. Trust not to the treasure of the Church; neither the imaginary treasure of the Church of Rome, which pretends an inexhaustible mine of the works of other men, to distribute and bestow; No, nor to the true treasure of the true Church, that is, Absolution, upon Confession, and Repentance; No, trust not to the merits of Christ himself, in their application to thee, without a Lectus tuus, and an Oculus tuus, except thou remember thy sins in thy bed, and pour out thy tears from thine eyes, and fulfill the sufferings of Christ in thy self. Nothing can be added to Christs merits; that is true: but something must be added to thee; a disposition in thee, for the application of that which is his: Not, that thou canst begin this disposition in thy self, till God offer it, but that thou mayst resist it, now it is offered, and reject it again, after it is received. Trust not in others, not in the Church, nor in Christ himself, so, as to do nothing for thy self; Nor trust not in that, which thou doest for thy self, so, as at any time to think, thou hast done enough and needest do no more: But when thou hast past the signet, that thou hast found the signature of Gods hand and seal, in a manifestation, that the marks of his Grace are upon thee, when thou hast past his privy Seal, That his Spirit bears witness with thy spirit, that thy repentance hath been accepted by him, When thou hast past the great Seal, in the holy and blessed Sacrament publicly administered, do not suspect the goodness of God, as though all were not done that were necessary for thy salvation, if thou wert to have thy transmigration out of this world this hour; but yet, as long as thou continuest in the vale of temptations, continue in the vale of tears too; and though thou have the seal of Reconciliation, plead that seal to the Church, (which is Gods Tribunal, and judgement seat upon earth) in a holy life, and works of example to others, and look daily, look hourly upon the Ita quod of that pardon, upon the Covenants and Conditions, with which it is given, That if by neglecting those medicinal helps, those auxiliary forces, those subsidies of the kingdom of Heaven, those after-afflictions, (choose whether you will call them by the name of Penance, or no) you relapse into former sins, your present repentance, and your present seal of that Repentance, the Sacrament, shall rise up against you at the last day, and to that sentence (you did not feed, you did not clothe, you did not harbor me in the poor) shall this be added, as the aggravation of all, you did Repent, and you did receive the Seal, but you did not pursue that repentance, nor perform the conditions required at your hands.

But we are here met, by Gods gracious goodness, in a better disposition; with a sincere repentance of all our former sins, and with a deliberate purpose, as those Israelites made their pouring out of water, a testimony of dissolving themselves into holy tears, to make this fast from bodily sustenance, an inchoation of a spiritual fast, in abstinence from all that may exasperate our God against us; That so, though not for that, yet thereby our prayers may be the more acceptable to our glorious God, in our gracious Savior, To him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lambe, first, that as he is the King of Kings, he will establish, and prosper that Crown, which he hath set upon the head of his Anointed over us here, and hereafter Crown that Crown with another Crown, a better Crown, a Crown of immarcescible glory in the Kingdom of Heaven, and in the mean time, make him his Bulwark, and his Rampart, against all those powers, which seek to multiply Miters, or Crowns, to the disquiet and prejudice of Christendom: And then, That as he is the Lord of Lords, he will inspire them, to whom he hath given Lordship over others in this world, with a due consideration, that they also have a Lord over them, even in this world; and that he, and they, and we have one Lord over us all, in the other world: That as he is the Bishop and high Priest over our Souls, he vouchsafe to continue in our Bishops, a holy will, and a competent power to super-intend faithfully over his Church, that they for their parts, when they depart from hence, may deliver it back into his hands, in the same forme, and frame, in which his blessed Spirit delivered it into their hands, in their predecessors, in the Primitive institution thereof: That as he is the Angel of the great Counsayle, he vouchsafe to direct the great Counsayle of this Kingdom, to consider still, that as he works in this world, by means, So it concerns his glory, that they expedite the supply of such means as may do his work, and may carry home the testimony of good Consciences now, and in their posterity have the thanks of posterity, for their behavior in this Parliament: That as he is the God of peace, he will restore peace to Christendom; That as he is the Lord of Hosts, he will fight our battayls, who have no other end in our wars, but his peace; and that after this fast, which in the bodily and ghostly part too, we perform to day, and vow and promise for our whole lives, he will bring us to the Marriage Supper of the Lambe, in that Kingdom which our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.

Serm. LV. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 6.8, 9, 10.

Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

THis is Davids profligation and discomfiture of his enemies; this is an act of true honor, a true victory, a true triumph, to keep the field, to make good one station, and yet put the enemy to flight. A man may perchance be safe in a Retrait, but the honor, the victory, the triumph lies in enforcing the enemy to fly. To that is David come here, to such a thankful sense of a victory; in which we shall first consider Davids thankfulness, that is, his manner of declaring Gods mercy, and his security in that mercy; which manner is, that he durst come to an open defiance, and protestation, and hostility, without modifications, or disguises, Depart from me all yee workers of iniquity. And then, secondly, we shall see his reason, upon which he grounded this confidence, and this spiritual exultation, which was a pregnant reason, a reason that produced another reason; The Lord hath heard my supplication, the Lord will hear my prayer; upon no premises doth any conclusion follow, so Logically, so sincerely, so powerfully, so imperiously, so undeniably, as upon this, The Lord hath, and therefore the Lord will. But then what was this prayer? that we may know, whether it were a prayer to be drawn into practise, and imitation, or no. It is not argument enough, that it was so, because God heard it then; for we are not bound, nay, we are not allowed to pray all such prayers, as good men have prayed, and as God hath heard. But here the prayer was this, Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and sore vexed, let them return, and be ashamed suddenly. But this is a malediction, an imprecation of mischief upon others; and will good men pray so? or will God hear that? Because that is an holy problem, and an useful intergatory, we shall make it a third part, or a conclusion rather, to enquire into the nature, and into the avowableness, and exemplariness of this, in which David seems to have been transported with some passion.

So that our parts will be three, the building it self, Davids thanksgiving in his exultation, and declaration, Depart from me all yee workers of iniquity; and then the foundation of this building, For God hath heard, and therefore God will hear; and lastly, the prospect of this building, David contemplates and looks over again the prayer that he had made, and in a clear understanding, and in a rectified Conscience, he finds that he may persist in that prayer, and he doth so: Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and sore vexed, let them return, and be ashamed suddenly.

First then we consider Davids thankfulness: But why is it so long before David leads us to that consideration? Why hath he deferred so primary a duty, to so late a place, to so low a room, to the end of the Psalm? The Psalm hath a Deprecatory part, that God would forbear him, and a Postulatory part, that God would hear him, and grant some things to him, and a Gratulatory part, a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Now the Deprecatory part is placed in the first place, Vers. 1. For if it were not so, if we should not first ground that, That God should not rebuke us in his anger, nor chasten us in his hot displeasure, but leave our selves open to his indignation, and his judgements, we could not live to come to a second petition; our sins, and judgements due to our sins, require our first consideration; therefore David begins with the deprecatory prayer, That first Gods anger may be removed: but then, that deprecatory prayer, wherein he desired God to forbear him, spends but one verse of the Psalm; David would not insist upon that long: When I have penitently confest my sins, I may say with Job, My flesh is not brass, nor my bones stones, that I can bear the wrath of the Lord; but yet I must say with Job too, If the Lord kill me, yet will I trust in him. God hath not asked me, What shall I do for thee, but of himself he hath done more, then I could have proposed to my self in a wish, or to him in a prayer. Nor will I ask God, Quousque, how long shall my foes increase? how long wilt thou fight on their side against me? but surrender my self entirely, in an adveniat regnum, and a fiat voluntas, thy kingdom come, and thy will be done. David makes it his first work, to stay Gods anger in a deprecatory prayer, but he stays not upon that long, he will not prescribe his Physician, what he shall prescribe to him, but leaves God to his own medicines, and to his own method. But then the Postulatory prayer, what he begs of God, employs six verses: as well to show us, that our necessities are many; as also that if God do not answer us, at the beginning of our prayer, our duty is still to pursue that way, to continue in prayer. And then the third part of the Psalm, which is the Gratulatory part, his giving of thanks, is, shall we say deferred, or rather reserved to the end of the Psalm, and exercises only those three verses which are our Text. Not that the duty of thanksgiving is less then that of prayer; for if we could compare them, it is rather greater; because it contributes more to Gods glory, to acknowledge by thanks, that God hath given, then to acknowledge by prayer, that God can give. But therefore might David be later and shorter here, in expressing that duty of thanks, first, because being reserved to the end, and close of the Psalm, it leaves the best impression in the memory. And therefore it is easy to observe, that in all Metrical compositions, of which kind the book of Psalms is, the force of the whole piece, is for the most part left to the shutting up; the whole frame of the Poem is a beating out of a piece of gold, but the last clause is as the impression of the stamp, and that is it that makes it currant. And then also, because out of his abundant manner of expressing his thankfulness to God, in every other place thereof, his whole book of Psalms is called, Sepher tehillim, a book of praise and thanksgiving, he might reserve his thanks here to the last place; And lastly, because natural and moral men are better acquainted with the duty of gratitude, of thanksgiving, before they come to the Scriptures, then they are with the other duty of repentance, which belongs to Prayer; for in all Solomons books, you shall not find half so much of the duty of thankfulness, as you shall in Seneca and in Plutarch. No book of Ethicks, of moral doctrine, is come to us, wherein there is not, almost in every leaf, some detestation, some Anathema against ingratitude; but of repentance, not a word amongst them all. And therefore in that duty of prayer, which presumes repentance, (for he must stand Rectus in curia that will pray) David hath insisted longest; and because he would enter, and establish a man, upon a confidence in God, he begins with a deprecation of his anger; for but upon that ground, no man can stand; and because he would dismiss him with that which concerns him most, he chooseth to end in a Thanksgiving.

Therefore at last he comes to his thanks. Now this is so poor a duty, if we proportion it to the infiniteness of Gods love unto us, our thanks, as we may justly call it nothing at all. But Amor Dei affectus, non contractus, The love of God is not a contract, a bargain, he looks for nothing again, and yet he looks for thanks, for that is nothing, because there is nothing done in it, it is but speaking; Gratias dicere, est gratias agere, To utter our thanks to God, is all our performance of thankfulness. It is not so amongst us; Vix, aut nunquam apud nos purum, & merum beneficium; Every man that gives, gives out of design, and as it conduces to his ends: Donat in hamo, There is a hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes that benefit, and draws him whither the Benefactor will. God looks for nothing, nothing to be done in the way of exact recompense, but yet, as he that makes a Clock, bestows all that labor upon the several wheels, that thereby the Bell might give a sound, and that thereby the hand might give knowledge to others how the time passes; so this is the principal part of that thankfulness, which God requires from us, that we make open declarations of his mercies, to the winning and confirming of others.

This David does in this noble and ingenuous publication, and protestation, I have strength enough, and company enough, power enough, and pleasure enough, joy enough, and treasure enough, honor enough, and recompense enough in my God alone, in him I shall surely have all which all you can pretend to give, and therefore Discedite à me, Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity; Here is then first, a valediction, a parting with his old company, but it is a valediction, with a malediction, with an imprecation of Gods Justice, upon their contempts and injuries. There was in the mouth of Christ, sometimes, such a Discede, such an Abito, as that farewell was a welcome; as when he said to the Ruler, Abito, Go thy way, thy son liveth; And when he said to the woman, Go in peace, thy saith hath saved thee. This going was a staying with him still; Here the Abite, and Venite was all one. He that goes about his worldly business, and goes about them in Gods name, in the fear and favor of God, remains in Gods presence still. When the Angels of God are sent to visit his children, in the middest of Sodom, or where they lie, and languish in sordid and nasty corners, and in the loathsomeness of corrupt and infectious diseases, or where they faint in miserable dungeons, this Commission, this Discedite, go to that Sodom, to that Spittle, to that Dungeon, puts not those Angels out of the presence of God. No descent into hell, of what kind soever you conceive that descent into hell to have been, put the Son of God out of heaven, by descending into hell; no Discede, no Leave, no Commandment that God gives us, to do the works of our calling here, excludes us from him; but as the Saints of God shall follow the Lamb, wheresoever he goes in heaven, so the Lamb of God shall follow his Saints, wheresoever they go upon earth, if they walk sincerely. Christ uses not then as yet, as long as we are in this world, this Discede of David, to bid any man, any sinner to depart from him: But there shall come a time, when Christ shall take Davids Discede, the words of this Text into his mouth, with as much and more bitterness then David does here, Nescivi nos, I never knew yee, and therefore Depart from me yee workers of iniquity.

So have you his Protestation, his Proclamation, They must avoid; but who? Who be these that David dismisses here? Take them to be those of his own house, his Servants, and Officers in near places, whose service he had used to ill purposes, (as Davids Person, and Rank, and History directs us upon that Consideration) and we shall find all such persons, wrapt up in this danger, that they dare not discharge themselves, they dare not displace, nor disgrace those men, to whom by such employments, they have given that advantage over themselves, as that it is not safe to them, to offend such a servant. Naturâ nec hostem habet, nec amicum rex, says a wise Statesman; In nature, (that is, in the nature of greatness, and, as great) great persons consider no man to be so much a friend, nor to be so much an enemy, but that they will fall out with that friend, and be reconciled to that enemy, to serve their own turn, says that Statesman. But yet when great Persons trust servants with such secret actions, as may bring them into contempt at home, or danger abroad, by those vices, if they should be published, they cannot come when they would, to this Discedite, Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity.

We have this evidently, and unavoidably, we cannot but see it, and say it, in this example which is before us, even in King David. He had employed Job in such services, as that he stood in fear of him, and indured at his hands that behavior, and that language, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants that have saved thy life, and thy sons, and daughters, and wives, and concubines, thou regardest neither thy Princes, nor servants; but come out, and speak comfortably unto them, for I swear by the Lord, except thou do come out, there will not tarry one man with thee this night. David indured all this, for he knew that Job had that letter in his Cabbinet, which he writ to him for the murder of Vriah, and he never came to this Discedite, to remove Job from him in his life, but gave it in Commandment to his Son, Let not Ioabs hoary head go down to the grave in peace: Here is the misery of David, he cannot discharge himself of that servant when he will, and here the misery of that servant, that at one time or other he will; and he is a short lived man, whose ruin a jealous Prince studies. Because the Text invited us, commanded, and constrained us to do so, we put this example in a Court, but we need not dazle our selves with that height; every man in his own house may find it, that to those servants, which have served him in ill actions, he dares not say, Discedite, Depart from me ye workers of iniquity.

Thus then it is; if those whom David dismisses here, were his own servants, it was an expressing of his thankfulness to God, and a duty that lay upon him, to deliver himself of such servants. But other Expositors take these men, to be men of another sort, men that came to triumph over him in his misery, men that Persecuted him whom God had smitten, and added to the sorrow of him whom God had wounded, as himself complains; men that pretended to visit him, yet when they came, They spoke lies, their hearts gathered iniquity to themselves, and when they went abroad they told it; Men that said to one another, When shall he dye, and his name perish? Here also was a Declaration of the powerfulness of Gods Spirit in him, that he could triumph over the Triumpher, and exorcise those evil spirits, and command them away, whose comming was to dishonor God, in his dishonor; and to argue and conclude out of his ruin, that either his God was a weak God, or a cruel God, that he could not, or would not deliver his servants from destruction.

That David could command them away, whose errand was to blaspheme God, and whose staying in a longer conversation, might have given him occasion of new sins, either in distrusting Gods mercy towards himself, or in murmuring at Gods patience towards them, or perchance in being uncharitably offended with them, and expressing it with some bitterness, but that in respect of himself, and not of Gods glory only, this Discedite, Depart from me all such men as do sin in yourselves, and may make me sin too, was an act of an heavenly courage, and a thankful testimony of Gods gracious visiting his soul, inabling him so resolutely to tear himself from such persons, as might lead him into temptation.

Neither is this separation of David, and this company, partial; he does not banish those that incline him to one sin, a sin that perchance he is a weary of, or grown unable to proceed in, and retained them that concur with him in some fresh sin, to which he hath a new appetite. David doth not banish them that suckt his Subjects blood, or their money, and retained them that solicit, and corrupt their wives, and daughters; he doth not displace them, who served the vices of his predecessor, and supply those places with instruments of new vices of his own, but it is Discedite omnes, Depart all yee workers of iniquity. Now beloved, when God begins so high as in Kings, he makes this duty the easier to thee; to banish from thee, All the workers of iniquity. It is not a Discede, that will serve to banish one, and retain the rest, Nor a Discedite, to banish the rest, and retain one, but Discedite omnes, Depart all, for that sin stays in state, that stays alone, and hath the venom, and the malignity of all the rest contracted in it. It is nothing for a sick man that hath lost his taste, to say, Discedat gula, Depart voluptuousness; nothing in a consumption to say, Discedat luxuria, Depart wantonness; nothing for a Client in Formapauperis, to say, Discedat corruptio, I will not bribe; but Discedant omnes, Depart all, and all together ye workers of iniquity.

But yet Davids general discharge had, and ours must have, a restriction, a limitation; it is not (as S. Ierom notes upon this place) Omnes qui operati, but Omnes operants, not all that have wrought iniquity, but all that continue in doing so still. David was not inexorable towards those that had offended; what an example should he have given God against himself, if he had been so? we must not despise, nor defame men, because they have committed some sin. When the mercy of God hath wrought upon their sin in the remission thereof, that leprosy of Naaman cleaves to us, their sin is but transferred to us, if we will not forgive that which God hath forgiven, for it is but Omnes operants, all they that continue in their evil ways. All these must depart: how far? first, they must be avoided, Declinate, saith S. Paul, I beseech you brethren, mark them diligently which cause division and offences, and avoid them. And this corrects our desire in running after such men, as come with their own inventions, Schismatical Separatists, Declinate, avoid them; if he be no such, but amongst our selves, a brother, but yet a worker of iniquity, If any one that is called a brother, be a Fornicator, or covetous, with such a one eat not. If we cannot starve him out, we must thrust him out; Put away from among you, that wicked man. No conversation at all is allowed to us, with such a man, as is obstinate in his sin, and incorrigible; no not to bid him God speed, For he that bid. deth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds. In this divorce, both the generality, and the distance is best exprest by Christ himself, If thine eye, thine hand, thy foot offend thee, amputandi & projiciendi, with what anguish or remorse soever it be done, they must be cut off, and being cut off, cast away; it is a divorce and no super-induction, it is a separating, and no redintegration. Though thou couldest be content to go to Heaven with both eyes, (thy self, and thy companion) yet better to go into Heaven with one, thy self alone, then to endanger thy self to be left out for thy companions sake.

To conclude this first part, David does not say, Discedam, but Discedite, he does not say, that he will depart from them, but he commands them to depart from him. We must not think to depart from the offices of society, and duties of a calling, and hide our selves in Monasteries, or in retired lives, for fear of temptations; but when a temptation attempts us, to come with that authority, and that powerful exorcism of Nazianzen, Fuge, recede, ne te cruce Christi, ad quam omnia contremiscunt, feriam, Depart from me, lest the Cross of Christ, in my hand, overthrow you. For a sober life, and a Christian mortification, and discreet discipline, are crosses derived from the Cross of Christ Jesus, and animated by it, and may be always in a readiness to cross such temptations. In the former descriptions of the manner of our behavior towards workers of iniquity, there is one Declinate, one word that implies a withdrawing of our selves; for that must be done, not out of the world, but out of that ill air, we must not put our selves in danger, nor in distance of a temptation; but all the other words, are words of a more active vehemence, Amputate, and Projicite; it is Discedite, and not Discedam, a driving away, and not a running away.

We proceed now in our second part, to the reasons of Davids confidence, and his openness, and his public declaration; why David was content to be rid of all his company; and it was, because he had better; he says, The Lord had heard him; and first, He had heard, vocem fletus, the voice of his weeping. Here is an admirable readiness in God, that hears a voice in that, which hath none. They have described God by saying he is all eye, an universal eye, that pierceth into every dark corner; but in dark corners, there is something for him to see; but he is all ear too, and hears even the silent, and speechless man, and hears that in that man, that makes no sound, histeares. When Hezekias wept, he was turned to the wall, (perchance, because he would not be seen) and yet God bad the Prophet Isaiah tell him, Vidi lacrymam; though the text say, Hezekias weptsore, yet Vidit lacrymam, God saw every single tear, his first tear, and was affected with that. But yet this is more strange; God heard his tears. And therefore the weeping of a penitent sinner, is not improperly called, Legatio lacrymarum, An embassage of tears; To Embassadours belongs an audience, and to these Embassages God gives a gracious audience; Abyssus abyssum invocat, One depth calls upon another; And so doth one kind of tears call upon one another. Tears of sorrow call upon tears of joy, and all call upon God, and bring him to that ready hearing which is implied in the words of this text, Shamang; a word of that largeness in the Scriptures, that sometimes in the Translation of the Septuagint, it signifies hearing, Shamang, is audit, God gives ear to our tears; sometimes it is believing, Shamang, is Credit, God gives faith, and credit to our tears; sometimes it is Affecting, Shamang, is Miseretur, God hath mercy upon us for our tears; sometimes it is Effecting, Shamang, is Respondet, God answers the petition of our tears; and sometimes it is Publication, Shamang, is Divulgat, God declares and manifests to others, by his blessings upon us, the pleasure that he takes in our holy and repentant tears. And therefore Lacrymae foenus, says S. Basil, Tears are that usury, by which the joys of Heaven are multiplied unto us; the preventing Grace, and the free mercy of God, is our stock, and principal; but the Acts of obedience, and mortification, fasting, and praying, and weeping, are Foenus, (says that blessed Father) the interest, and the increase of our holy joy.

That which we intend in all this, is, that when our heart is well disposed toward God, God sees our prayers, as they are comming in the way, before they have any voice, in our words. When Christ came to Lazarus house, before Mary had asked any thing at his hands, as soon as she had wept, Christ was affected, He groaned in the spirit, he was troubled, and he wept too; and he proceeded to the raising of Lazarus, before she asked him; her eyes were his glass, and he saw her desire in her tears. There is a kind of simplicity in tears, which God harkens to, and believes. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. Quid? nescimus orationem dominicam? Can we not say the Lords Prayer, says S. Augustin? Yes, we can say that; but Nescimus tribulationem prodesse, says he, we do not know the benefit, that is to be made of tribulation, and temptation, Et petimus liberari ab omni malo, we pray to be delivered from all evil, and we mean all tribulation, and all temptation, as though all they were always evil; but in that there may be much error: The sons of Zebedee prayed, but ambitionsly, and were not heard; S. Paul prayed for the taking away of the provocation of the flesh, but inconsiderately, and mist; the Apostles made a request, for fire against the Samaritans, but uncharitably, and were reproved. But when Iehosaphat was come to that perplexity by the Moabites, that he knew not what to do, nor what to say, Hoc solum residui habemus, says he, ut oculos nostros dirigamus ad te, This we can do, and we need do no more, we can turn our eyes to thee. Now whether he directed those eyes in looking to him, or in weeping to him, God hears the voice of our looks, God hears the voice of our tears, sometimes better then the voice of our words, for it is the Spirit it self that makes intercession for us, Gemitibus inenarrabilibus, In those groans, and so in those tears, which we cannot utter; Ineloquacibus, as Tertullian reads that place, devout, and simple tears, which cannot speak, speak aloud in the ears of God; nay, tears which we cannot utter; not only not utter the force of the tears, but not utter the very tears themselves. As God sees the water in the spring in the veins of the earth, before it bubble upon the face of the earth; so God sees tears in the heart of a man, before they blubber his face; God hears the tears of that sorrowful soul, which for sorrow cannot shed tears.

From this casting up of the eyes, and pouring out the sorrow of the heart at the eyes, at least, opening God a window, through which he may see a wet heart through a dry eye; from these overtures of repentance, which are as those unperfect sounds of words, which Parents delight in, in their Children, before they speak plain, a penitent sinner comes to a verbal, and a more express prayer. To these prayers, these vocal and verbal prayers from David, God had given ear, and from this hearing of those prayers was David come to this thankful confidence, The Lord hath heard, the Lord will hear. Now, Beloved, this prayer which David speaks of here, which our first translation calls a Petition, is very properly rendered in our second translation, a Supplication; for Supplications were à Suppliciis; Supplications amongst the Gentiles were such sacrifices, as were made to the gods, out of confiscations, out of the goods of those men, upon whom the State had inflicted any pecuniary or capital punishment. Supplicationes, à Suppliciis; and therefore this prayer which David made to God, when his hand was upon him, in that heavy correction, and calamity, which occasioned this Psalm, is truly and properly called a Supplication, that is, a Prayer, or Petition, that proceeds from suffering.

And if God have heard his supplication, if God have regarded him then, when he was in his displeasure, if God have turned to him, when he was turned from him, and stroakt him with the same hand that struck him, God will much more perfect his own work, and grant his prayer after; if God would endure to look upon him in his deformity, he will delight to look upon him then, when he hath shed the light and the loveliness of his own countenance upon him: It is the Apostles argument, as well as Davids, If when we were enemies, we were reconeiled to God, by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. When David found, that God had heard his Supplications, the voice of his suffering, of his punishment, he was sure he would hear his Prayer, the voice of his thankfulness too.

And this was Davids second reason, for his alacrity, and confidence, that God would never be weary of hearing, he had heard him, and he would hear him still, he had heard the Supplication, and he would hear his Prayer; for this word, which signifies Prayer here, is derived from Palal, which signifies properly Separare: As his Supplication was acceptable, which proceeded à Suppliciis, from a sense of his afflictions; so this Prayer, which came Post separationem, after he had separated, and divorced himself from his former company, after his Discedite, his discharging of all the workers of iniquity, must necessarily be better accepted at Gods hand. He that hears a Suppliant, that is, a man in misery, and does some small matter for the present ease of that man, and proceeds no farther, Ipsum quod dedit, perit, That which he gave is lost, it is drowned by that floud of misery that overflows and surrounds that wretched man, he is not the better to morrow for to days alms, Et vitam producit ad miseriam, that very alms prolongs his miserable life still; without to days alms, he should not have had a to morrow to be miserable in. Now, Christ only is the Samaritane which perfected his cure upon the wounded man: He saw him, says the text, so did the rest that passed by him; but, He had compassion on him; so he might, and yet actually have done him no good; but, He went to him; so he might too, and then out of a delicateness or fastidiousness, have gone from him again; but (to contract) he bound up his wounds, he poured in oil and wine, he put him upon his own beast, he brought him to an Inn, made provision for him, gave the Host money before-hand, gave him charge to have a care of him, and (which is the perfection of all, the greatest testimony of our Samaritans love to us) he promised to come again, and at that comming, he does not say, He will pay, but He will recompense, which is a more abundant expressing of his bounty. Christ loves not but in the way of marriage; if he begin to love thee, he tells thee, Sponsabo te mihi, I will marry thee unto me, and Sponsabo in aeternum, I will marry thee for ever. For it is a marriage that prevents all mistakings, and excludes all impediments, I will marry thee in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving kindness, and in mercies, and in faithfulness; many, and great assurances. And as it is added, Seminabo te mihi, which is a strange expressing of Gods love to us, I will sow thee unto me in the carth; when I have taken thee into my husbandry, thou shalt increase, and multiply, Seminabo te, and all that thou doest produce, shall be directed upon me, Seminabo te mihi, I will sow thee to my self: therefore thy soul may be bold to join with David in that thankful confidence, He hath heard my supplication, and therefore He will hear my prayer; He looked upon me in the dust of the earth, much more will he do so, having now laid me upon Carpets; he looked upon me in my sores, sores of mine enemies malice, and sores of mine own sins, much more will he do so now, when he hath imprinted in me the wounds of his own Son; for those that were so many wounds upon him, are so many stars upon me; He looked upon me, may David say, when I followed the Ewes great with young, much more will he do so now, now when by his directions, I lead out his people, great with enterprizes, and victories against his enemies. First David comes to that holy nobleness, he dares cast off ill instruments, and is not afraid of conspiracy; he dares divorce himself from dangerous company, and is not afraid of melancholy; he dares love God, and is not afraid of that jealousy, that he is too religious to be employed, too tender conscienced to be put upon business; he dares reprehend them that are under his charge, and is not afraid of a recrimination; he dares observe a Sabbath, he dares startle at a blasphemy, he dares forbear countenancing a profane or a scurrill jest with his praise, he dares be an honest man; which holy confidence constituted our first part, Depart from me all yee workers of iniquity; And then he grounds this confidence upon an undeceivable Rock, upon Gods seal, God hath heard me, therefore God will hear me. And when God hears, God speaks too, and when God speaks, God does too, and therefore I may safely proceed as I do, which was our second Consideration. And then the third, which remains, is, that upon this, he returns to the consideration, what that was, that he had done; he had either imprecated, or denounced, at least, heavy judgements upon his enemies; and he finds it avowable, and justifiable to have done so; and therefore persists in it, Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and sore vexed; let them return, and be ashamed suddenly.

All clean beasts had both these marks, they divided the hoof, and they chewed the cud: All good resolutions, which pass our prayer, must have these two marks too, they must divide the hoof, they must make a double impression, they must be directed upon Gods glory, and upon our good, and they must pass a rumination, a chawing of the cud, a second examination, whether that prayer were so conditioned or no. We pray sometimes out of sudden and indigested apprehensions; we pray sometimes out of custom, and communion with others; we pray sometimes out of a present sense of pain, or imminent danger; and this prayer may divide the hoof; It may look towards Gods glory, and towards our good; but it does not chew the cud too; that is, if I have not considered, not examined, whether it do so or no, it is not a prayer that God will call a sacrifice. You see Christ brought his own Prayer, Si possibile, If it be possible &c. through such a rumination, Veruntamen, yet not my will &c. As many a man swears, and if he be surprized, and asked, what did you say, he does not remember his own oath, not what he swore; so many a man prays, and does not remember his own prayer. As a Clock gives a warning before it strikes, and then there remains a sound, and a tingling of the bell after it hath stricken: so a precedent meditation, and a subsequent rumination, make the prayer a prayer; I must think before, what I will ask, and consider again, what I have asked; and upon this dividing the hoof, and chewing the cud, David avows to his own conscience his whole action, even to this consummation thereof, Let mine enemies be ashamed &c.

Now these words, whether we consider the natural signification of the words, or the authority of those men, who have been Expositors upon them, may be understood either way, either to be Imprecatoria, words of Imprecation, that David in the Spirit of anguish wishes that these things might fall upon his enemies, or els Praedictoria, words of Prediction, that David in the spirit of Prophecy pronounces that these things shall fall upon them.

If they be Imprecatoria, words spoken out of his wish, and desire, then they have in them the nature of a curse: And because Lyra takes them to be so, a curse, he referres the words Ad Daemones, To the Devil: That herein David seconds Gods malediction upon the Serpent, and curses the Devil, as the occasioner and first mover of all these calamities; and says of them, Let all our enemies be ashamed, and sore vexed &c. Others referre these words to the first Christian times, and the persecutions then, and so to be a malediction, a curse upon the Jews, and upon the Romans, who persecuted the Primitive Church then, Let them be ashamed &c. And then Gregory Nyssen referres these words to more domestical and intrinsic enemies, to Davids own concupiscences, and the rebellions of his own lusts, Let those enemies be ashamed &c. For all those who understand these words to be a curse, a malediction, are loath to admit that David did curse his enemies, merely out of a respect of those calamities which they had inflicted upon him. And that is a safe ground; no man may curse another, in contemplation of himself only, if only himself be concerned in the case. And when it concerns the glory of God, our imprecations, our maledictions upon the persons, must not have their principal relation, as to Gods enemies, but as to Gods glory; our end must be, that God may have his glory, not that they may have their punishment. And therefore how vehement soever David seem in this Imprecation, and though he be more vehement in another place, Let them be confounded, and troubled for ever, yea, let them be put to shame, and perish, yet that perishing is but a perishing of their purposes, let their plots perish, let their malignity against thy Church be frustrated; for so he expresses himself in the verse immediately before, Fill their faces with shame; but why? and how? That they may seek thy Name, O Lord; that was Davids end, even in the curse; David wishes them no ill, but for their good; no worse to Gods enemies, but that they might become his friends. The rule is good, which out of his moderation S. Augustine gives, that in all Inquisitions, and Executions in matters of Religion, (when it is merely for Religion without sedition) Sint qui poeniteant, Let the men remain alive, or else how can they repent? So in all Imprecations, in all hard wishes, even upon Gods enemies, Sint qui convertantur, Let the men remain, that they may be capable of conversion; wish them not so ill, as that God can show no mercy to them; for so the ill wish falls upon God himself, if it preclude his way of mercy upon that ill man. In no case must the curse be directed upon the person; for when in the next Psalm to this, David seems passionate, when he asks that of God there, which he desires God to forbear in the beginning of this Psalm, when his Ne arguas in ira, O Lord rebuke not in thine anger, is turned to a Surge Domine in ira, Arise O Lord in thine anger; S. Augustine begins to wonder, Quid? illum, quem perfectum dicimus, ad iram provocat Deum? Would David provoke God, who is all sweetness, and mildness, to anger against any man? No, not against any man; but Diaboli possessio peccator, Every sinner is a slave to his beloved sin; and therefore, Misericors or at, adver sus cum, quitanque or at, How bitterly soever I curse that sin, yet I pray for that sinner. David would have God angry with the Tyran, not with the Slave that is oppressed; with the sin, not with the soul that is inthralled to it. And so, as the words may be a curse, a malediction in Davids mouth, we may take them into our mouth too, and say, Let those enemies be ashamed, &c.

If this then were an Imprecation, a malediction, yet it was Medicinal, and had Rationem boni, a charitable tincture, and nature in it; he wished the men no harm, as men. But it is rather Pradictorium, a Prophetical vehemence, that if they will take no knowledge of Gods declaring himself in the protection of his servants, if they would not consider that God had heard, and would hear, had rescued, and would rescue his children, but would continue their opposition against him, heavy judgements would certainly fall upon them; Their punishment should be certain, but the effect should be uncertain; for God only knows, whether his correction shall work upon his enemies, to their mollifying, or to their obduration. Those bitter, and weighty imprecations which David hath heaped together against Judas, seem to be direct imprecations; and yet S. Peter himself calls them Prophesies; Oportet impleri Scripturam; They were done, says he, that the Scripture might be fulfilled; Not that David in his own heart did wish all that upon Judas; but only so, as fore-seeing in the Spirit of Prophesying, that those things should fall upon him, he concurred with the purpose of God therein, and so far as he saw it to be the will of God, he made it his will, and his wish. And so have all those judgements, which we denounce upon sinners, the nature of Prophesies in them; when we read in the Church, that Commination, Cursed is the Idolater, This may fall upon some of our own kindred; and Cursed is he that curseth Father or Mother, This may fall upon some of our own children; and Cursed is he that perverteth judgement, This may fall upon some powerful Persons, that we may have a dependance upon; and upon these we do not wish that Gods vengeance should fall; yet we Prophesy, and denounce justly, that upon such, such vengeances will fall; and then, all Prophesies of that kind are always conditional; they are conditional, if we consider any Decree in God; they must be conditional in all our denunciations; if you repent, they shall not fall upon you, if not, Oportet impleri Scripturam, The Scripture must be fulfilled; We do not wish them, we do but Prophesy them; no, nor we do not prophesy them; but the Scriptures have preprophesied them before; they will fall upon you, as upon Judas, in condemnation, and perchance, as upon Judas, in desperation too.

Davids purpose then being in these words to work to their amendment, and not their final destruction, we may easily and usefully discern in the particular words, a milder sense then the words seem at first to present. And first give me leave by the way, only in passing, by occasion of those words which are here rendered, Convertentur, & Erubescent, and which in the Original are Iashabu, and Ieboshu, which have a musical, and harmonious sound, and agnomination in them, let me note thus much, even in that, that the Holy Ghost in penning the Scriptures delights himself, not only with a propriety, but with a delicacy, and harmony, and melody of language; with height of Metaphors, and other figures, which may work greater impressions upon the Readers, and not with barbarous, or trivial, or market, or homely language: It is true, that when the Grecians, and the Romans, and S. Augustine himself, undervalued and despised the Scriptures, because of the poor and beggarly phrase, that they seemed to be written in, the Christians could say little against it, but turned still upon the other safer way, we consider the matter, and not the phrase, because for the most part, they had read the Scriptures only in Translations, which could not maintain the Majesty, nor preserve the elegancies of the Original.

Their case was somewhat like ours, at the beginning of the Reformation; when, because most of those men who laboured in that Reformation, came out of the Roman Church, and there had never read the body of the Fathers at large; but only such ragges and fragments of those Fathers, as were patcht together in their Decretat's, and Decretals, and other such Common placers, for their purpose, and to serve their turn, therefore they were loath at first to come to that issue, to try controversies by the Fathers. But as soon as our men that in braced the Reformation, had had time to read the Fathers, they were ready enough to join with the Adversary in that issue: and still we protest, that we accept that evidence, the testimony of the Fathers, and resuse nothing, which the Fathers unanimly delivered, for matter of faith; and howsoever at the beginning some men were a little ombrageous, and startling at the name of the Fathers, yet since the Fathers have been well studied, for more then threescore years, we have behaved our selves with more reverence to wards the Fathers, and more confidence in the Fathers, then they of the Roman persuasion have done, and been less apt to suspect or quarrel their Books, or to reprove their Doctrines, then our Adversaries have been. So, howsoever the Christians at first were fain to sink a little under that imputation, that their Scriptures have no Majesty, no eloquence, because these embellishments could not appear in Translations, nor they then read Originalls, yet now, that a perfect knowledge of those languages hath brought us to see the beauty and the glory of those Books, we are able to reply to them, that there are not in all the world so eloquent Books as the Scriptures; and that nothing is more demonstrable, then that if we would take all those Figures, and Tropes, which are collected out of secular Poets, and Orators, we may give higher, and livelier examples, of every one of those Figures, out of the Scriptures, then out of all the Greek and Latin Poets, and Orators; and they mistake it much, that think, that the Holy Ghost hath rather chosen a low, and barbarous, and homely style, then an eloquent, and powerful manner of expressing himself.

To return and to cast a glance upon these words in Davids prediction, upon his enemies, what hardness is in the first, Erubescent, Let them be ashamed: for the word imports no more, our last Translation says no more, neither did our first Translators intend any more, by their word, Confounded; for that is, confounded with shame in themselves. This is Virga desoiplinae, says S. Bernard; as long as we are ashamed of sin, we are not grown up, and hardened in it; we are under correction; the correction of a remorse. As soon as Adam came to be ashamed of his nakedness, he presently thought of some remedy; if one should come and tell thee, that he looked through the door, that he stood in a window over against thine, and saw thee do such or such a sin, this would put thee to a shame, and thou wouldst not do that sin, till thou wert sure he could not see thee. O, if thou wouldst not sin, till thou couldst think that God saw thee not, this shame had wrought well upon thee. There are complexions that cannot blush; there grows a blackness, a sootiness upon the soul, by custom in sin, which overcomes all blushing, all tend erness. White alone is paleness, and God loves not a pale soul, a soul possest with a horror, affrighted with a diffidence, and distrusting his mercy. Redness alone is anger, and vehemency, and distemper, and God loves not such a red soul, a soul that sweats in sin, that quarrels for sin, that revenges in sin. But that whiteness that preserves it self, not only from being died all over in any foul color, from contracting the name of any habitual sin, and so to be called such or such a sinner, but from taking any spot, from comming within distance of a temptation, or of a suspicion, is that whiteness, which God means, when he says, Thou art all faire my Love, and there is no spot in thee. Indifferent looking, equal and easy conversation, appliableness to wanton discourses, and notions, and motions, are the Devils single money, and many pieces of these make up an Adultery. As light a thing as a Spangle is, a Spangle is silver; and Leaf gold, that is blown away, is gold; and sand that hath no strength, no coherence, yet knits the building; so do approaches to sin, become sin, and fixe sin. To avoid these spots, is that whiteness that God loves in the soul. But there is a redness that God loves too; which is this Erubescence that we speak of; an aptness in the soul to blush, when any of these spots do fall upon it.

God is the universal Confessor, the general Penitentiary of all the world, and all dye in the guilt of their sin, that go not to Confession to him. And there are sins of such weight to the soul, and such intangling, and perplexity to the conscience, in some circumstances of the sin, as that certainly a soul may receive much ease in such cases, by confessing it self to man. In this holy shamefastness, which we intend in this outward blushing of the face, the soul goes to confession too. And it is one of the principal arguments against Confessions by Letter, (which some went about to set up in the Roman Church) that that took away one of the greatest evidences, and testimonies of their repentance, which is this Erubescence, this blushing, this shame after sin; if they should not be put to speak it face to face, but to write it, that would remove the shame, which is a part of the repentance. But that soul that goes not to confession to it self, that hath not an internal blushing after a sin committed, is a pale soul, even in the paleness of death, and senselessness, and a red soul, red in the defiance of God. And that whiteness, to avoid approaches to sin, and that redness, to blush upon a sin, which does attempt us, is the complexion of the soul, which God loves, and which the Holy Ghost testifies, when he says, My Beloved is white and ruddy. And when these men that David speaks of here, had lost that whiteness, their innocency, for David to wish that they might come to a redness, a shame, a blushing, a remorse, a sense of sin, may have been no such great malediction, or imprecation in the mouth of David, but that a man may wish it to his best friend, which should be his own soul, and say, Erubescam, not let mine enemies, but let me be ashamed with such a shame.

In the second word, Let them be sore vexed, he wishes his enemies no worse then himself had been: For he had used the same word of himself before, Ossa turbata, My bones are vexed, and Anima turbata, My soul is vexed; and considering, that David had found this vexation to be his way to God, it was no malicious imprecation, to wish that enemy the same Physic that he had taken, who was more sick of the same disease then he was. For this is like a troubled Sea after a tempest; the danger is past, but yet the billow is great still: The danger was in the calm, in the security, or in the tempest, by mis-interpreting Gods corrections to our obduration, and to a remorselesse stupefaction; but when a man is come to this holy vexation, to be troubled, to be shaken with a sense of the indignation of God, the storm is past, and the indignation of God is blown over. That soul is in a faire and near way, of being restored to a calmness, and to reposed security of conscience, that is come to this holy vexation.

In a flat Map, there goes no more, to make West East, though they be distant in an extremity, but to paste that flat Map upon a round body, and then West and East are all one. In a flat soul, in a dejected conscience, in a troubled spirit, there goes no more to the making of that trouble, peace, then to apply that trouble to the body of the Merits, to the body of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and conform thee to him, and thy West is East, thy Trouble of spirit is Tranquillity of spirit. The name of Christ is Oriens, The East; And yet Lucifer himself is called Filius Orientis, The Son of the East. If thou beest fallen by Lucifer, fallen to Lucifer, and not fallen as Lucifer, to a senselessness of thy fall, and an impenitibleness therein, but to a troubled spirit, still thy Prospect is the East, still thy Climate is heaven, still thy Haven is Jerusalem; for, in our lowest dejection of all, even in the dust of the grave, we are so composed, so layed down, as that we look to the East; If I could believe that Trajan, or Tecla, could look East-ward, that is, towards Christ, in hell, I could believe with them of Rome, that Trajan and Tecla were redeemed by prayer out of hell. God had accepted sacrifices before; but no sacrifice is call Odor quiet is, It is not said, That God smelt a savor of rest, in any sacrifice, but that which Noah offered, after he had been variously tossed and tumbled, in the long hulling of the Ark upon the waters. A troublesome spirit, and a quiet spirit, are far asunder; But a troubled spirit, and a quiet spirit, are near neighbours. And therefore David means them no great harm, when he says, Let them be troubled; For, Let the wind be as high as it will, so I sail before the wind, Let the trouble of my soul be as great as it will, so it direct me upon God, and I have calm enough.

And this peace, this calm is implied in the next word, Convertantur, which is not, Let them be overthrown, but Let them return, let them be forced to return; he prays, that God would do something to cross their purposes; because as they are against God, so they are against their own souls. In that way where they are, he sees there is no remedy; and therefore he desires that they might be Turned into another way; What is that way? This. Turn us O Lord, and we shall be turned; That is, turned the right way; Towards God. And as there was a promise from God, to hear his people, not only when they came to him in the Temple, but when they turned towards that Temple, in what distance soever they were, so it is always accompanied with a blessing, occasionally to turn towards God; But this prayer, Turn us, that we may be turned, is, that we may be, that is, remain turned, that we may continue fixed in that posture. Lots Wife turned her self, and remained an everlasting monument of Gods anger; God so turn us always into right ways, as that we be not able to turn our selves out of them. For God hath Viam rectam, & bonam, as himself speaks in the Prophet, A right way, and then a good way, which yet is not the right way, that is, not the way which God of himself would go. For his right way is, that we should still keep in his way; His good way is, to beat us into his right way again, by his medicinal corrections, when we put our selves out of his right way. And that, and that only David wishes, and we wish, That you may Turn, and Be turned; stand in that holy posture, all the year, all the years of your lives, That your Christmas may be as holy as your Easter, even your Recreations as innocent as your Devotions, and every room in the house as free free from profaneness as the Sanctuary. And this he ends as he begun, with another Erubescant, Let them be ashamed, and that Valde volociter, Suddenly: for David saw, that if a sinner came not to a shame of sin quickly, he would quickly come to a shamelesness, to an impudence, to a searedness, to an obduration in it.

Now beloved, this is the worst curse that comes out of a holy mans mouth, even towards his enemy, that God would correct him to his amendment. And this is the worst harm that we mean to you, when we denounce the judgements of God against sin and sinners, Vt erubescatis, that we might see blood in your faces, the blood of your Savior working in that shame for sin. That that question of the Prophet might not confound you, Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? nay, they were not ashamed; Erubescere nesciebāt, they were never used to shame, they knew not how to be ashamed. Therefore, says he, they shall fall amongst them that fall, they shall do as the world does, sin as their neighbours sin, and fall as they fall, irrepentantly here, and hereafter irrecoverably. And then, Vt conturbati sitis, that you may be troubled in your hearts, and not cry Peace, Peace, where there is no peace, and flatter your selves, because you are in a true Religion, and in the right way; for a Child may drown in a Font, and a Man may be poisoned in the Sacrament, much more perish, though in a true Church. And also Vt revertamini, that you may return again to the Lord, return to that state of pureness, which God gave you in Baptism, to that state, which God gave you the last time you received his body and blood so as became you. And then lastly, Vt erubescatis velociter, that you may come to the beginning of this, and to all this quickly, and not to defer it, because God defers the judgement. For to end this with S. Augustines words, upon this word Velociter, Quandocunque venit, celerrimè venit, quod desperatur esse venturum: How late soever it come, that comes quickly, if it come at all, which we believed would never come. How long soever it be, before that judgement come, yet it comes quickly, if it come before thou look for it, or be ready for it. Whosoever labours to sleep out the thought of that day, His damnation sleepeth not, says the Apostle. It is not only, that his damnation is not dead, that there shall never be any such day, but that it is no day asleep: every midnight shall be a day of judgement to him, and keep him awake; and when consternation, and lassitude lend him, or conterfait to him a sleep, as S. Basil says of the righteous, Etiam somnia justorum preces sunt, That even their Dreams are prayers, so this incorrigible sinners Dreams shall be, not only presages of his future, but acts of his present condemnation.

Serm. LVI. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.1, 2.

Blessed is he whose trangression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; Blessed is the man, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

THis that I have read to you, can scarce be called all the Text; I proposed for the Text, the first and second verses, and there belongs more to the first, then I have delivered in it; for, in all those Translators, and Expositors, who apply themselves exactly to the Original, to the Hebrew, the Title of the Psalm, is part of the first verse of the Psalm. S. Augustine gives somewhat a strange reason, why the Book of Enoch, cited by S. Iud in his Epistle, and some other such ancient Books, as that, were never received into the body of Canonical Scriptures, Vt in Authoritate apud nos non essent, nimia fecit eorum Antiquitas, The Church suspected them, because they were too Ancient, says S. Augustine. But that reason alone, is so far from being enough to exclude any thing from being part of the Scriptures, as that we make it justly an argument, for the receiving the Titles of the Psalms into the Body of Canonical Scriptures, that they are as ancient as the Psalms themselves. So then the Title of this Psalm enters into our Text, as a part of the first verse. And the Title is Davidis Erudiens; where we need not insert (as our Translators in all languages and Editions have conceived a necessity to do) any word, for the clearing of the Text, more then is in the Text it self, (And therefore Tremellius hath inserted that word, An Ode of David, we, A Psalm of David, others, others) for the words themselves yield a perfect sense in themselves, Le David Maschil, is Davidis Erudiens, that is, Davidis Eruditio, Davids Institution, Davids Catechism; And so our Text, which is the first and second verse, taking in all the first verse, in all accounts, is now Davids Catechism; Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven &c.

In these words, our parts shall be these; first, That so great a Master as David, proceeded by way of Catechism, of instruction in fundamental things, and Doctrines of edification. Secondly, That the foundation of this Building, the first lesson in this Art, the first letter in this Alphabet, is Blessedness; for, Primus actus voluntatis est Amor; Man is not man, till he have produced some acts of the faculties of that soul, that makes him man; till he understand something, and will something, Till he know, and till he would have something, he is no man; Now, The first Act of the will is love; and no man can love any thing, but in the likeness, and in the notion of Happiness, of Blessedness, or of some degree thereof; and therefore David proposes that for the foundation of his Catechism, Blessedness; The Catechism of David, Blessed is the Man. But then, in a third Consideration, we lay hold upon S. Augustins Aphorisme, Amare nisi nota non possumus, We cannot truly love any thing, but that we know; And therefore David being to proceed Catechistically, and for Instruction, proposes this Blessedness, which as it is in Heaven, and reserved for our possession there, is in-intelligible, (as Tertullian speaks) unconceivable, he purposes it in such notions, and by such lights, as may enable us to see it, and know it in this life. And those lights are in this Text, Three; for, The forgiveness of Transgressions, And then, The Covering of sins, And lastly, The not imputing of Iniquity, which three David proposes here, are not a threefold repeating of one and the same thing; But this Blessedness consisting in our Reconciliation to God, (for we were created in a state of friendship with God, our rebellion put us into a state of hostility, and now we need a Reconciliation, because we are not able to maintain a war against God, no, nor against any other enemy of man, without God) this Blessedness David doth not deliver us all at once, in three expressings of the same thing, but he gives us one light thereof, in the knowledge that there is a Forgiving of Transgressions, another, in the Covering of sins, and a third, in the not Imputing of Iniquity. But then, (that which will constitute a fourth Consideration) when God hath presented himself, and offered his peace, in all these, there is also something to be done on our part; for though the Forgiving of Transgression, The Covering of sin, The not Imputing of Iniquity, proceed only from God, yet God affords these to none but him, In whose spirit there is no guile. And so you have all that belongs to the Master, and his manner of teaching, David Catechising; And all that belongs to the Doctrine and the Catechism, Blessedness, That is Reconciliation to God, notified in those three acts of his mercy; And all that belongs to the Disciple, that is to be Catechized, A docile, an humble, a sincere heart, In whose spirit there is no guile; And to these particulars, in their order thus proposed, we shall now pass.

That then which constitutes our first part, is this, That David, then whom this world never had a greater Master for the next, amongst the sons of men, delivers himself, by way of Catechising, of fundamental and easy teaching. As we say justly, and confidently, That of all Rhetorical and Poetical figures, that fall into any Art, we are able to produce higher strains, and livelier examples, out of the Scriptures, then out of all the Orators, and Poets in the world, yet we read not, we preach not the Scriptures for that use, to magnify their Eloquence; So in Davids Psalms we find abundant impressions, and testimonies of his knowledge in all arts, and all kinds of learning, but that is not it which he proposes to us. Davids last words are, and in that Davids holy glory was placed, That he was not only the sweet Psalmist, That he had an harmonious, a melodious, a charming, a powerful way of entering into the soul, and working upon the affections of men, but he was the sweet Psalmist of Israel, He employed his faculties for the conveying of the God of Israel, into the Israel of God; The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue; Not the spirit of Rhetorique, nor the spirit of Poetry, nor the spirit of Mathematiques, and Demonstration, But, The spirit of the Lord, the Rock of Israel spake by me, says he; He boasts not that he had delivered himself in strong, or deep, or mysterious Arts, that was not his Rock; but his Rock was the Rock of Israel, His way was to establish the Church of God upon fundamental Doctrines. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, says Stephen. Likely to be so, because being adopted by the Kings daughter, he had an extraordinary education; And likely also, because he brought so good natural faculties, for his Masters to work upon, Vt Reminisci potiùs videretur, quàm discere, That whatsoever any Master proposed unto him, he rather seemed to remember it then, then to learn it but then; And yet in Moses books, we meet no great testimonies, or deep impressions of these learnings in Moses: He had (as S. Ambrose notes well) more occasions to speak of Natural philosophy, in the Creation of the world, and of the more secret, and reserved, and remote corners of Nature, in those counterfeitings of Miracles in Pharaohs Court, then he hath laid hold of. So Nebuchadnezzar appointed his Officers, that they should furnish his Court, with some young Gentlemen, of good blood and families of the Jews; And (as it is added there) well favoured youths, in whom there was no blemish, skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science; And then farther, To be taught the tongue, and the learning of the Chaldeans. And Daniel was one of these, and, no doubt, a great Proficient in all these; and yet Daniel seems not to make any great show of these learnings in his writings. S. Paul was in a higher Pedagogy, and another manner of University then all this; Caught up into the third heavens, into Paradise, as he says; and there he learnt much; but (as he says too) such things as it was not lawful to utter; That is, It fell not within the laws of preaching to publish them. So that not only some learning in humanity, (as in Moses and Daniels case) but some points of Divinity, (as in S. Pauls case) may be unfit to be preached. Not that a Divine should be ignorant of either; either ornaments of humane, or mysteries of divine knowledge. For, says S. Augustine, Every man that comes from Egypt, must bring some of the Egyptians goods with him. Quanto auro exivit suffarcinatus Cyprianus, says he, How much of the Egyptian gold and goods brought Cyprian, and Lactantius, and Optatus, and Hilary out of Egypt? That is, what a treasure of learning, gathered when they were of the Gentiles, brought they from thence, to the advancing of Christianity, when they applied themselves to it? S. Augustine confesses, that the reading of Cicero's Hortensius, Mutavit affectum meum, began in him a Conversion from the world, Et ad teipsum, Domine, mutavit preces meas, That book, says he, converted me to more fervent prayers to thee, my God; Et surgere jam coeperam ut ad te redirem, By that help I rose, and came towards thee. And so Iustin Martyr had his Initiation, and beginning of his Conversion, from reading some passages in Plato. S. Basil expresses it well; They that will dye a perfect color, dip it in some less perfect color before. To be a good Divine, requires humane knowledge; and so does it of all the Mysteries of Divinity too; because, as there are Devils that will not be cast out but by Fasting and Prayer, so there are humours that undervalue men, that lack these helps. But our Congregations are not made of such persons; not of mere natural men, that must be converted out of Aristotle, and by Cicero's words, nor of Arians that require new proofs for the Trinity, nor Pelagians that must be pressed with new discoveries of Gods Predestination; but persons embracing, with a thankful acquiescence therein, Doctrines necessary for the salvation of their souls in the world to come, and the exaltation of their Devotion in this. This way David calls his, a Catechism. And let not the greatest Doctor think it unworthy of him to Catechize thus, nor the learnedest hearer to be thus catechized; Christ enwraps the greatest Doctors in his Person, and in his practise, when he says, Sinite parvulos, Suffer little children to come unto me; and we do not suffer them to come unto us, if when they come, we do not speak to their understanding, and to their edification, for that is but an absent presence, when they hear, and profit not; And Christ enwraps the learnedest hearers, in the persons of his own Disciples, when he says, Except yee become as these little children, yee cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven; Except you nourish your selves with Catechistical, and Fundamental Doctrines, you are not in a wholesome diet. Now in this Catechism, the first stone that David lays, (and that that supports all) the first object that David presents, (and that that directs to all) is Blessedness; Davids Catechism; Blessed is the man.

Philosophers could never bring us to the knowledge, what this Summum bonum, this Happiness, this Blessedness was. For they considered only some particular fruits thereof; and it is much easier, how high soever a tree be, to come to a taste of some of the fruits, then to dig to the root of that tree: They satisfied themselves with a little taste of Health, and Pleasure, and Riches, and Honor, and never considered that all these must have their root in heaven, and must have a relation to Christ Jesus, who is the root of all. And as these Philosophers could never tell us, what this blessedness was, so Divines themselves, and those who are best exercised in the language of the Holy Ghost, the Original tongue of this Text, cannot give us a clear Grammatical understanding, of this first word, in which David expresses this Blessedness, Ashrei, which is here Translated Blessed. They cannot tell, whether it be an Adverb, (And then it is Bene viro, Well is it for that man, A pathetique, a vehement acclamation, Happily, Blessedly is that man provided for) Or whether it be a Plural Noun, (and then it is Beatitudines, such a Blessedness as includes many, all blessednesses in it) And one of these two it must necessarily be in the Rules of their Construction; That either David enters with an Admiration, O how happily is that man provided for! Or with a Protestation, That there is no particular Blessedness, which that man wants, that hath this, This Reconciliation to God.

Eusebius observes out of Plato, that he enjoined the Poets, and the Writers in his State, to describe no man to be happy, but the good men; none to be miserable, but the wicked. And his Scholar Aristotle enters into his Book of Ethiques, and Moral Doctrine, with that Contemplation first of all, That every man hath naturally a disposition to affect, and desire happiness. David who is elder then they, begins his Book of Psalms so; The first word of the first Psalm, is the first word of this Text, Blessed is the man. He comprehends all that belongs to mans knowledge, and all that belongs to mans practise, in those two, first in understanding true Blessedness, and then, in praising God for it: Davids Alpha is Beatus vir, O the Blessedness of righteous men! And Davids Omega is Laudate Dominum, O that men would therefore bless the Lord! And therefore, as he begins this Book with Gods blessing of man, so he ends it with mans praising of God: For, where the last stroak upon this Psaltery, the last verse of the last Psalm, is, Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord, Yet he adds one note more to us in particular, Praise ye the Lord; and there is the end of all. And so also our Savior Christ himself, in his own preaching, observed that Method; He begun his great Sermon in the Mount with that, Blessed are the poor inspirit, Blessed are they that mourne, Blessed are the pure in heart; Blessedness alone was an abundant recompense for all. And so the subject of John Baptists Commission before, and of his Disciples Commission after, was still the same, to preach this Blessedness, That the Kingdom of God, that is, Reconciliation to God in his Visible Church, was at hand, was forthwith to be established amongst them.

Though then the Consummation of this Blessedness be that Visio Dei, That sight of God, which in our glorified state we shall have in heaven, yet, because there is an inchoation thereof in this world, which is that which we call Reconciliation, it behooves us to consider the disposition requisite for that. It is a lamentable perverseness in us, that we are so contentiously busy, in inquiring into the Nature, and Essence, and Attributes of God, things which are reserved to our end, when we shall know at once, and without study, all that, of which all our lives study can teach us nothing; And that here, where we are upon the way, we are so negligent and lazy, in inquiring of things, which belong to the way. Those things we learn in no School so well as in adversity. As the body of man, and consequently health, is best understood, and best advanced by Dissections, and Anatomies, when the hand and knife of the Surgeon hath passed upon every part of the body, and laid it open: so when the hand and sword of God hath pierced our soul, we are brought to a better knowledge of our selves, then any degree of prosperity would have raised us to.

All creatures were brought to Adam, and, because he understood the natures of all those creatures, he gave them names accordingly. In that he gave no name to himself, it may be by some perhaps argued, that he understood himself less then he did other creatures. If Adam be our example, in the time and School of nature, how hard a thing the knowledge of our selves is, till we feel the direction of adversity, David is also another example in the time of the Law, who first said in his prosperity, He should never be moved; But, When, says he, Thou hidest thy face from me, I was troubled, and then I cried unto thee O Lord, and I prayed unto my God; Then; but not till then. The same Art, the same Grammar lasts still; and Peter is an example of the same Rule, in the time of grace, who was at first so confident, as to come to that, Si omnes scandalizati, if all forsook him, Si mori oportuit, If he must die with him, or dye for him, he was ready, and yet without any terror from an armed Magistrate, without any surprizal of a subtle Examiner, upon the question of a poor Maid he denied his Master: But then, the bitterness of his soul taught him another temper, and moderation; when Christ asked him after, Amas me? Lovest thou me? not to pronounce upon an infallible confidence, I have loved, and I do, and I will do till death, but, Domine tu scis, Lord thou knowest that I love thee; My love to thee is but the effect of thy love to me, and therefore Lord continue thine, that mine may continue. No study is so necessary as to know our selves; no School-master is so diligent, so vigilant, so assiduous, as Adversity: And the end of knowing our selves, is to know how we are disposed for that which is our end, that is this Blessedness; which, though it be well collected and summed by S. Augustine, Beatus qui habet quicquid vult, & nihil mali vult, He only is blessed, that desires nothing but that which is good for him, and hath all that, we must pursue, in those particulars, which here, in Davids Catechism, constitute this Blessedness, and constitute our third Part, and are delivered in three Branches, first, The forgiving of our transgressions, And then, The covering of our sins, And thirdly, The not imputing of our iniquities.

First then, that in this third Part, we may see in the first Branch, the first notification of this Blessedness, we consider the two terms, in which it is expressed, what this is, which is translated Transgression, and then what this Forgiving imports. The Original word is Pashang, and that signifies sin in all extensions, The highest, the deepest, the waightiest sin; It is a malicious, and a forcible opposition to God: It is when this Herod, and this Pilat (this Body, and this soul of ours) are made friends and agreed, that they may concur to the Crucifying of Christ. When not only the members of our bodies, but the faculties of our soul, our will and understanding are bent upon sin: when we do not only sin strongly, and hungerly, and thirstily, (which appertain to the body) but we sin rationally, we find reasons, (and those reasons, even in Gods long patience) why we should sin: We sin wittily, we invent new sins, and we think it an ignorant, a dull, and an unsociable thing, not to sin; yea we sin wisely, and make our sin, our way to preferment. Then is this word used by the Holy Ghost, when he expresses both the vehemence, and the weight, and the largeness, and the continuance, all extensions, all dimensions of the sins of Damascus; Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn to it, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of Iron; So then, we consider sin here, not as a stain, such as Original sin may be, nor as a wound, such as every actual sin may be, but as a burden, a complication, a packing up of many sins, in an habitual practise thereof. This is that weight that sunk the whole world under water, in the first floud, and shall press down the fire it self, to consume it a second time. It is a weight that stupifies and benums him that bears it, so, as that the sinner feels not the oppression of his own sins; Et quid miserius miscro non miserante seipsum? What misery can be greater, then when a miserable man hath not sense to commiserate his own misery? Our first errors are out of Levity, and S. Augustin hath taught us a proper ballast and weight for that, Amor Dei pondus animae, The love of God would carry us evenly, and steadily, if we would embark that: But as in great tradings, they come to ballast with Merchandise, ballast and freight is al one, so in this habitual sinner, all is sin, plots and preparations before the act, gladness and glory in the act, sometimes disguises, sometimes justifications after the act, make up one body, one freight of sin. So then Transgression in this place, in the natural signification of the word, is a weight, a burden, and carrying it, as the word requires, to the greatest extension, it is the sin of the whole World; And that sin is forgiven; which is the second Term.

The Prophet does not say here, Blessed is that man that hath no transgression, for that were to say, Blessed is that man that is no man. All people, all Nations, did ever in Nature acknowledge not only a guiltiness of sin, but some means of reconciliation to their Gods in the Remission of sins: for they had all some formal, and Ceremonial Sacrifices, and Expiations, and Lustrations, by which they thought their sins to be purged, and washed away. Whosoever acknowledges a God, acknowledges a Remission of sins, and whosoever acknowledges a Remission of sins, acknowledges a God. And therefore in this first place, David does not mention God at all; he does not say, Blessed is he whose transgression the Lord hath forgiven; for he presumes it to be an impossible temptation to take hold of any man, that there can be any Remission of sin, from any other person, or by any other means, then from and by God himself; and therefore Remission of sins includes an Act of God; But what kind of Act, is more particularly designed in the Original word, which is Nasa, then our word, forgiving, reaches to; for the word does not only signify Auferre, but ferre; not only to take away sin, by way of pardon, but to take the sin upon himself, and so to bear the sin, and the punishment of the sin, in his own person. And so Christ is the Lambe of God, Qui tollit, not only that takes away, but that takes upon himself, the sins of the world. Tulit, portavit, Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows; Those griefs, those sorrows which we should, he hath born, and carried in his own person. So that, as it is all one, never to have come in debt, and to have discharged the debt; So the whole world, all mankind, considered in Christ, is as innocent as if Adam had never sinned. And so this is the first beam of Blessedness that shines upon my soul, That I believe that the justice of God is fully satisfied in the death of Christ, and that there is enough given, and accepted in the treasure of his blood, for the Remission of all Transgressions. And then the second beam of this Blessedness, is in The covering of sins.

Now to benefit our selves by this part of Davids Catechism, we must (as we did before) consider the two terms, of which this part of this Blessedness consists, sin, and covering. Sin in this place is not so heavy a word, as Transgression was in the former; for that was sin in all extensions, sin in all forms, all sin of all men, of all times, of all places, the sin of all the world upon the shoulders of the Savior of the world. In this place, (the word is Catah, and by the derivation thereof from Nata, which is to Decline, to step aside, or to be withdrawn, and Kut, which is filum, a thread, or a line) that which we call sin here, signifies Transilire lineam, To depart, or by any temptation to be withdrawn from the direct duties, and the exact straightness which is required of us in this world, for the attaining of the next: So that the word imports sins of infirmity, such sins as do fall upon Gods best servants, such sins as rather induce a cofession of our weakness, and an acknowledgement of our continual need of pardon for some thing passed, and strength against future invasions, then that induce any devastation, or obduration of the conscience, which, Transgression, in the former branch implied. For so this word, Catah, hath that signification (as in many other places) there, where it is said, That there were seven hundred left-handed Benjamits, which would sling stones at a hairs breadth, and not fail; that is, not miss the mark a hairs breadth. And therefore when this word Catah, sin, is used in Scripture, to express any weighty, heinous, enormous sin, it hath an addition, Peccatum magnum peccaverunt, says Moses, when the people were become Idolaters, These people have sinned a great sin; otherwise it signifies such sin, as destroys not the foundation, such as in the nature thereof, does not wholly extinguish Grace, nor grieve the Spirit of God in us. And such sins God covers, says David here. Now what is his way of covering these sins?

As Sin in this notion, is not so deep a wound upon God, as Transgression in the other, so Covering here extends not so far, as Forgiving did there. There forgiving was a taking away of sin, by taking that way, That Christ should bear all our sins, it was a suffering, a dying, it was a penal part, and a part of Gods justice, executed upon his one and only Son; here it is a part of Gods mercy, in spreading, and applying the merits and satisfaction of Christ, upon all them, whom God by the Holy Ghost hath gathered in the profession of Christ, and so called to the apprehending and embracing of this mantle, this garment, this covering, the righteousness of Christ in the Christian Christ; In which Church, and by his visible Ordinances therein, the Word, and Sacraments, God covers, hides, conceals, even from the inquisition of his own justice, those smaller sins, which his servants commit, and does not turn them out of his service, for those sins. So the word (the word is Casah, which we translate Covering) is used, A wise man concealeth knowledge; that is, Does not pretend to know so much as indeed he does: So, our merciful God, when he sees us under this mantle, this covering, Christ spread upon his Church, conceals his knowledge of our sins, and suffers them not to reflect upon our consciences, in a consternation thereof. So then, as the Forgiving was Auferre ferendo, a taking away of sin, by taking all sin upon his own person, So this Covering is Tegere attingendo, To cover sin, by comming to it, by applying himself to our sinful consciences, in the means instituted by him in his Church: for they have in that language another word, Sacac, which signifies Tegere obumbrando, To cover by overshadowing, by refreshing. This is Tegere obumbrando, To cover by shadowing, when I defend mine eye from the offence of the Sun, by interposing my hand between the Sun and mine eye, at this distance, a far off: But Tegere attingendo, is when thus I lay my hand upon mine eye, and cover it close, by that touching. In the knowledge that Christ hath taken all the sins of all the world upon himself, that there is enough done for the salvation of all mankind, I have a shadowing, a refreshing; But because I can have no testimony, that this general redemption belongs to me, who am still a sinner, except there pass some act between God and me, some seal, some investiture, some acquittance of my debts, my sins, therefore this second beam of Davids Blessedness, in this his Catechism, shines upon me in this, That God hath not only sowed and planted herbs, and Simples in the world, medicinal for all diseases of the world, but God hath gathered, and prepared those Simples, and presented them, so prepared, to me, for my recovery from my disease: God hath not only received a full satisfaction for all sin in Christ, but Christ, in his Ordinances in his Church, offers me an application of all that for my self, and covers my sin, from the eye of his Father, not only obumbrando, as he hath spread himself as a Cloud refreshing the whole World, in the value of the satisfaction, but Attingendo, by comming to me, by spreading himself upon me, as the Prophet did upon the dead Child, Mouth to mouth, Hand to hand; In the mouth of his Minister, he speaks to me; In the hand of the Minister, he delivers himself to me; and so by these visible acts, and seals of my Reconciliation, Tegit attingendo, He covers me by touching me; He touches my conscience, with a sense and remorse of my sins, in his Word; and he touches my soul, with a faith of having received him, and all the benefit of his Death, in the Sacrament. And so he covers sin; that is, keeps our sins of infirmity, and all such sins, as do not in their nature quench the light of his grace, from comming into his Fathers presence, or calling for vengeance there. Forgiving of transgressions is the general satisfaction for all the world, and restoring the world to a possibility of salvation in the Death of Christ; Covering of sin, is the benefit of discharging and easing the conscience, by those blessed helps which God hath afforded to those, whom he hath gathered in the bosom, and quickened in the womb of the Christian Church. And this is the second beam of Blessedness, cast out by David here; and then the third is, The not imputing of iniquity, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.

In this also, (as in the two former we did) we consider this Imputing, and then this Iniquity, in the root and Original signification of the two words. When in this place the Lord is said, not to impute sin, it is meant, That the Lord shall not suffer me to impute sin to my self. The word is Cashab, and Cashab imports such a thinking, such a surmising, as may be subject to error, and mistaking. To that purpose we find the word, where Hannah was praying, and Eli the Priest, who saw her lips move, and heard no prayer come from her, thought she had been drunk, Imputed drunkenness unto her, and said, How long wilt thou be drunk? put away thy wine: So that this Imputing, is such an Imputing of ours as may be erroneous, that is, an Imputing from our selves, in a diffidence, and jealousy, and suspicion of Gods goodness towards us. To which purpose, we consider also, that this word, which we translate here Iniquity, Gnavah, is oftentimes in the Scripture used for punishment, as well as for sin: and so indifferently for both, as that if we will compare Translation with Translation, and Exposition with Exposition, it will be hard for us to say, whether Cain said, Mine iniquity is greater then can be pardoned, or, My punishment is greater then I can bear; and our last Translation, which seems to have been most careful of the Original, takes it rather so, My punishment, in the Text, and lays the other, My sin, aside in the Margin. So then, this Imputing, being an Imputing which arises from our selves, and so may be accompanied with error, and mistaking, that we Impute that to our selves, which God doth not impute, And this mis-imputing of Gods anger to our selves, arising out of his punishments, and his corrections inflicted upon us, That because we have crosses in the world, we cannot believe, that we stand well in the sight of God, or that the forgiving of Transgressions, or Covering of sins appertains unto us, we justly conceive, that this not Imputing of Iniquity, is that Serenitas Conscientiae, That brightness, that clearness, that peace, and tranquillity, that calm and serenity, that acquiescence, and security of the Conscience, in which I am delivered from all scruples, and all timorousness, that my Transgressions are not forgiven, or my sins not covered. In the first Act, we consider God the Father to have wrought; He proposed, he decreed, he accepted too a sacrifice for all mankind in the death of Christ. In the second, The Covering of sins, we consider God the Son to work, Incubare Ecclesiae, He sits upon his Church, as a Hen upon her Eggs, He covers all our sins, whom he hath gathered into that body, with spreading himself and his merits upon us all there. In this third, The not Imputing of Iniquity, we consider God the Holy Ghost to work, and, as the Spirit of Consolation, to blow away all scruples, all diffidences, and to establish an assurance in the Conscience. The Lord imputes not, that is, the Spirit of the Lord, The Lord the Spirit, The Holy Ghost, suffers not me to impute to my self those sins, which I have truly repented. The over-tenderness of a bruised and a faint conscience may impute sin to it self, when it is discharged; And a seared and obdurate Conscience may impute none, when it abounds; If the Holy Ghost work, he rectifies both; and, if God do inflict punishments, (according to the signification of this word Gnavah) after our Repentance, and the seals of our Reconciliation, yet he suffers us not to impute those sins to our selves, or to repute those corrections, punishments, as though he had not forgiven them, or, as though he came to an execution after a pardon, but that they are laid upon us medicinally, and by way of prevention, and precaution against his future displeasure. This is that Pax Conscientiae, The peace of Conscience, when there is not one sword drawn: This is that Serenitas Conscientiae, The Meridional brightness of the Conscience, when there is not one Cloud in our sky. I shall not hope, that Original sin shall not be imputed, but fear, that Actual sin may: not hope that my dumb sins shall not, but my crying sins may; not hope that my apparent sins, which have therefore induced in me a particular sense of them, shall not, but my secret sins, sins that I am not able to return and represent to mine own memory, may: for this Non Imputabit, hath no limitation; God shall suffer the Conscience thus rectified, to terrify it self with nothing; which is also farther extended in the Original, where it is not Non Imputat, but Non Imputabit; Though after all this we do fall into the same, or other sins, yet we shall know our way, and evermore have our Consolation in this, That as God hath forgiven our transgression, in taking the sins of all mankind upon himself, for he hath redeemed us, and left out Angels, And as he hath covered our sin, that is, provided us the Word, and Sacraments, and cast off the Jews, and left out the Heathen, So he will never Impute mine Iniquity, never suffer it to terrify my Conscience; Not now, when his Judgements, denounced by his Minister, call me to him here; Nor hereafter, when the last bell shall call me to him, into the grave; Nor at last, when the Angels Trumpets shall call me to him, from the dust, in the Resurrection. But that, as all mankind hath a Blessedness, in Christs taking our sins, (which was the first Article in this Catechism) And all the Christian Church a Blessedness, in covering our sins, (which was the second) So I may find this Blessedness, in this work of the Holy Ghost, not to Impute, that is, not to suspect, that God imputes any repented sin unto me, or reserves any thing to lay to my charge at the last day, which I have prayed may be, and therefore hoped hath been forgiven before. But then, after these three parts, which we have now, in our Order proposed at first, passed through, That David applies himself to us, in the most convenient way, by the way of Catechism, and instruction in fundamental things; And then, that he lays for his foundation of all Beatitude, Blessedness, Happiness, which cannot be had, in the consummation, and perfection thereof, but in the next world; But yet, in the third place, gives us an inchoation, an earnest, an evidence of this future and consummate Blessedness, in bringing us faithfully to believe, That Christ died sufficiently for all the world, That Christ offers the application of all this, to all the Christian Church, That the Holy Ghost seals an assurance thereof, to every particular Conscience well rectified; After all this done thus largely on Gods part, there remains something to be done on ours, that may make all this effectual upon us, Vt non sit dolus in spiritu, That there be no guile in our spirit, which is our fourth part, and Conclusion of all.

Of all these fruits of this Blessedness, there is no other root but the goodness of God himself; but yet they grow in no other ground, then in that man, In cujus spiritu non est dolus. The Comment and interpretation of S. Paul, hath made the sense and meaning of this place clear: To him that worketh, the reward is of debt, but to him that believeth, and worketh not, his faith is counted for righteousness, Even as David describeth the blessedness of Man, says the Apostle there, and so proceeds with the very words of this Text. Doth the Apostle then, in this Text, exclude the Co-operation of Man? Differs this proposition, That the man in whom God imprints these beams of Blessedness, must be without guile in his spirit, from those other propositions, Si vis ingredi, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments; And, Maledictus qui non, Cursed is he that performs not all? Grows not the Blessedness of this Text, from the same root, as the Blessedness in the 119. Psal. ver. 1. Blessed are they, who walk in the way of the Lord? Or doth Saint Paul take David to speak of any other Blessedness in our Text, then himself speaks of, If through the Spirit yee mortify the deeds of the body, yee shall live? Doth S. Paul require nothing, nothing out of this Text, to be done by man? Surely he does; And these propositions are truly all one, Tantùm credideris, Only believe, and you shall be saved; And, Fac hoc & vives, Do this, and you shall be saved; As it is truly all one purpose, to say, If you live you may walk, and to say, If you stretch out your legs, you may walk. To say, Eat of this Tree, and you shall recover, and to say, Eat of this fruit, and you shall recover, is all one; To attribute an action to the next Cause, or to the Cause of that Cause, is, to this purpose, all one. And therefore, as God gave a Reformation to his Church, in prospering that Doctrine, That Justification was by faith only: so God give an unity to his Church, in this Doctrine, That no man is justified, that works not; for, without works, how much soever he magnify his faith, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile in his spirit.

As then the Prophet Davids principal purpose in this Text, is, according to the Interpretation of S. Paul, to derive all the Blessedness of man from God: so is it also to put some conditions in man, comprehended in this, That there be no guile in his spirit. For, in this repentant sinner, that shall be partaker of these degrees of Blessedness, of this Forgiving, of this Covering, of this Not Imputing, there is required Integrapoenitentia, A perfect, and entire repentance; And to the making up of that, howsoever the words and terms may have been mis-used, and defamed, we acknowledge, that there belongs a Contrition, a Confession, and a Satisfaction; And all these (howsoever our Adversaries slander us, with a Doctrine of ease, and a Religion of liberty) we require with more exactness, and severity, then they do. For, for Contrition, we do not, we dare not say, as some of them, That Attrition is sufficient; that it is sufficient to have such a sorrow for sin, as a natural sense, and fear of torment doth imprint in us, without any motion of the fear of God: We know no measure of sorrow great enough for the violating of the infinite Majesty of God, by our transgression. And then for Confession, we deny not a necessity to confess to man; There may be many cases of scruple, of perplexity, where it were an exposing our selves to farther occasions of sin, not to confess to man; And in Confession, we require a particular detestation of that sin which we confess, which they require not. And lastly, for Satisfaction, we embrace that Rule, Condigna satisfactio malè facta corrigere, Our best Satisfaction is, to be better in the amendment of our lives: And dispositions to particular sins, we correct in our bodies by Discipline, and Mortifications; And we teach, that no man hath done truly that part of Repentance, which he is bound to do, if he have not given Satisfaction, that is, Restitution, to every person damnified by him. If that which we teach, for this entireness of Repentance, be practised, in Contrition, and Confession, and Satisfaction, they cannot calumniate our Doctrine, nor our practise herein; And if it be not practised, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile in their spirit, that pretend to any part of this Blessedness, Forgiving, or Covering, or Not imputing, without this. For, he that is sorry for sin, only in Contemplation of hell, and not of the joys of heaven, that would not give over his sin, though there were no hell, rather then he would lose heaven, (which is that which some of them call Attrition) He that confesses his sin, but hath no purpose to leave it, He that does leave the sin, but being grown rich by that sin, retains, and enjoys those riches, this man is not entire in his Repentanne, but there is guile in his spirit.

He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster; He that makes half-repentances, makes none. Men run out of their estates, as well by a negligence, and a not taking account of their Officers, as by their own prodigality: Our salvation is as much indangered, if we call not our conscience to an examination, as if we repent not those sins, which offer themselves to our knowledge, and memory. And therefore David places the consummation of his victory in that, I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them, neither did I turn again, till they were consumed: We require a pursuing of the enemy, a search for the sin, and not to stay till an Officer, that is, a sickness, or any other calamity light upon that sin, and so bring it before us; We require an overtaking of the enemy, That we be not weary, in the search of our consciences; And we require a consuming of the enemy, not a weakening only; a dislodging, a dispossessing of the sin, and the profit of the sin; All the profit, and all the pleasure of all the body of sin; for he that is sorry with a godly sorrow, he that confesses with a deliberate detestation, he that satisfies with a full restitution for all his sins but one, Dolus in spiritu, There is guile in his spirit, & he is in no better case, then if at Sea he should stop all leaks but one, and perish by that. Si vis solvi, solve omnes catenas; If thou wilt be discharged, cancel all thy Bonds; one chain till that be broke, holds as fast as ten. And therefore suffer your consideration to turn back a little upon this object, that there may be Dolus in spiritu, Guile in the spirit, in our pretence to all those parts of Blessedness, which David recommends to us in this Catechism, In the Forgiveness of transgrestions, In the Covering of sin, In the Not imputing of iniquity.

First then, in this Forgiving of transgressions, which is our Savior Christs taking away the sins of the world, by taking them, in the punishment due to them, upon himself, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile in that mans spirit, that will so far abridge the great Volumes of the mercy of God, so far contract his general propositions, as to restrain this salvation, not only in the effect, but in Gods own purpose, to a few, a very few souls. When Subjects complain of any Prince, that he is too merciful, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile and deceit in this complaint; They do but think him too merciful to other mens faults; for, where they need his mercy for their own, they never think him too merciful. And which of us do not need God for all sins? If we did not in our selves, yet it were a new sin in us, not to desire that God should be as merciful to every other sinner, as to our selves. As in heaven, the joy of every soul shall be my joy, so the mercy of God to every soul here, is a mercy to my soul; By the extension of his mercies to others, I argue the application of his mercy to my self. This contracting, and abridging of the mercy of God, will end in despair of our selves, that that mercy reaches not to us, or if we become confident, perchance presumptuous of our selves, we shall despair in the behalf of other men, and think they can receive no mercy: And when men come to allow an impossibility of salvation in any, they will come to assign that impossibility, nay to assign those men, and pronounce, for this, and this sin, This man cannot be saved. There is a sin against the Holy Ghost; and to make us afraid of all approaches towards that sin, Christ hath told us, that that sin is irremissible, unpardonable; But since that sin includes impenitibleness in the way, and actual impenitence in the end, we can never pronounce, This is that sin, or This is that sinner. God is his Father that can say, Our Father which art in heaven, And his God that can say, I believe in God; And there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile in his spirit, the craft of the Serpent, (either the poison of the Serpent, in a self-despair, or the sting of the Serpent, in an uncharitable prejudging, and precondemning of others) when a man comes to suspect Gods good purposes, or contract Gods general propositions; for, this forgiving of transgressions, is Christs taking away the sins of all the world, by taking all the sins of all men upon himself. And this Guile, this Deceit may also be in the second, in the Covering of sins, which is the particular application of this general mercy, by his Ordinances in his Church.

He then that without Guile will have benefit by this Covering, must Discover. Qui tegi vult peccata, detegat, is S. Augustines way: He that will have his sins covered, let him uncover them; He that would not have them known, let him confess them; He that would have them forgotten, let him remember them; He that would bury them, let him rake them up. There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known. It is not thy sending away a servant, thy locking a door, thy blowing out a candle, no not though thou blow out, and extinguish the spirit, as much as thou canst, that hides a sin from God; but since thou thinkest that thou hast hid it, by the secret carriage thereof, thou must reveal it by Confession. If thou wilt not, God will show thee that he needed not thy Confession; He will take knowledge of it, to thy condemnation, and he will publish it to the knowledge of all the world, to thy confusion. Tufecisti absconditè. says God to David, by Nathan, Thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the Sun. Certainly it affects, and stings many men more, that God hath brought to light their particular sins and offences, for which he does punish them, then all the punishments that he inflicts upon them; for then, they cannot lay their ruin upon fortune, upon vicissitudes, and revolutions, and changes of Court, upon disaffections of Princes, upon supplantations of Rivalls and Concurrents; but God clears all the world beside; Perditio tua ex te, God declares that the punishment is his Act, and the Cause, my sin. This is Gods way; and this he expresses vehemently against Jerusalem, Behold, I will gather all thy Lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated, and I will discover thy nakedness to all them. Those who loved us for pretended virtues, shall see how much they were deceived in us; Those that hated us, because they were able to look into us, and to discern our actions, shall then say Triumphantly, and publicly to all, Did not we tell you what would become of this man? It was never likely to be better with him. I will strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born; Howsoever thou wert covered with the Covenant, and taken into the Visible Church, howsoever thou wert clothed, by having put on Christ in Baptism, yet, If thou sin against me, (says God) and hide it from me, I am against thee, and I will show the Nations thy nakedness, and the Kingdoms thy shame.

To come to the covering of thy sins without guile, first cover them not from thy self, so, as that thou canst not see yester-days sin, for to days sin; nor the sins of thy youth, for thy present sins: Cover not thy extortions with magnifique buildings, and sumptuous furniture; Dung not the fields that thou hast purchased with the bodies of those miserable wretches, whom thou hast oppressed, neither straw thine alleys and walks with the dust of Gods Saints, whom thy hard dealing hath ground to powder. There is but one good way of covering sins from our selves, Si bona factamalis superponamus, If we come to a habit of good actions, contrary to those evils, which we had accustomed our selves to, and cover our sins so; not that we forget the old, but that we see no new.

There is a good covering of sins from our selves, by such new habits, and there is a good covering of them from other men; for, he that sins publicly, scandalously, avowedly, that teaches and encourages others to sin; That declares his sin as Sodom, and hides it not, As in a mirror, in a looking glass, that is compassed and set about with a hundred lesser glasses, a man shall see his deformities in a hundred places at once, so he that hath sinned thus shall feel his torments in himself, and in all those, whom the not covering of his sins hath occasioned to commit the same sins. Cover thy sins then from thy self, so it be not by obduration; cover them from others, so it be not by hypocrisy; But from God cover them not at all; He that covereth his sin, shall not prosper; but who so confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy; Even in confessing, without forsaking, there is Dolus in spiritus, Guile and deceit in that spirit. Noluit agnoscere, maluit ignoscere, S. Augustine makes the case of a customary sinner; He was ready to pardon himself always without any confession; But God shall invert it to his subversion, Maluit agnoscere, noluit ignoscere, God shall manifest his sin, and not pardon it.

Sin hath that pride, that it is not content with one garment; Adam covered first with fig-leaves, then with whole trees, He hid himself amongst the trees: Then he covered his sin, with the woman; she provoked him: And then with Gods action, Quam tu dedisti, The Woman whom thou gavest me; And this was Adams wardrobe. David covers his first sin of uncleanness with soft stuff, with deceit, with falsehood, with soft persuasions to Vriah, to go in to his Wife; Then he covers it with rich stuff, with scarlet, with the blood of Vriah, and of the army of the Lord of Hosts; And then he covers it with strong and durable stuff, with an impenitence, and with an insensibleness, a year together; too long for a King, too long for any man, to wear such a garment: And this was Davids wardrobe. But beloved, sin is a serpent, and he that covers sin, does but keep it warm, that it may sting the more fiercely, and disperse the venom and malignity thereof the more effectually. Adam had patched up an apron to cover him; God took none of those leaves; God wrought not upon his beginnings, but he covered him all over with durable skins. God saw that Davids several coverings did rather load him, then cover the sin, and therefore Transtulit, He took all away, sin, and covering: for the coverings were as great sins, as the radical sin, that was to be covered, was; yea greater; as the armes and boughs of a tree, are greater then the root. Now to this extension, and growth, and largeness of sin, no lesser covering serves then God in his Church. It was the prayer against them, who hindered the building of the Temple, Cover not their iniquity, neither let their sin be put out in thy presence. Our prayer is, Peccata nostra non videat, ut nos videat, Lord look not upon our sins, that thou mayst look upon us. And since amongst our selves, it is the effect of Love, to cover Multitudinem peccatorum, The multitude of sins, yea to cover Vniversa delicta, Lovè covereth all sins, much more shall God, who is Love it self, cover our sins so, as he covered the Egyptians, in a red Sea, in the application of his blood, by visible means in his Church. That therefore thou mayest be capable of this covering, Commit thy ways unto the Lord; that is, show unto him, by way of confession, what wrong ways thou hast gone, and inquire of him by prayer, what ways thou art to go, and (as it is in the same Psalm) He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noon day; And so there shall be no guile found in thy spirit, which might hinder this covering of thy sin, which is, the application of Christs merits, in the Ordinances of his Church, nor the Not imputing of thine iniquity, which is our last consideration, and the conclusion of all.

This not imputing, is that serenity and acquiescence, which a rectified conscience enjoys, when the Spirit of God bears witness with my spirit, that, thus reconciled to my God, I am now guilty of nothing. S. Bernard defines the Conscience thus, Inseparabilis gloria, vel confusio uniuscujusque, pro qualitate depositi: It is that inseparable glory, or that inseparable confusion which every soul hath, according to that which is deposited, and laid up in it. Now what is deposited, and laid up in it? Naturally, hereditarily, patrimonially, Con-reatus, says that Father, from our first Parents, a fellow-guiltiness of their sin; and they have left us sons and heirs of the wrath and indignation of God, and that is the treasure they have laid up for us. Against this, God hath provided Baptism; and Baptism washes away that sin; for as we do nothing to our selves in Baptism, but are therein merely passive, so neither did we any thing our selves in Original sin, but therein are merely passive too; and so the remedy, Baptism, is proportioned to the disease, Original sin. But original sin being thus washed away, we make a new stock, we take in a new depositum, a new treasure, Actual and habitual sins, and therein much being done by our selves, against God, into the remedy, there must enter something to be done by our selves, and something by God; And therefore we bring water to his wine, true tears of repentance to his true blood in the Sacrament, and so receive the seals of our reconciliation, and having done that, we may boldly say unto God, Do not condemn me: show me wherefore thou contendest with me. When we have said as he doth, I have sinned, what shall I do to thee? And have done that that he hath ordained, we may say also as he doth, O thou preserver of men, why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? Why doest thou suffer me to faint and pant under this sad apprehension, that all is not yet well between my soul and thee? We are far from encouraging any man to antedate his pardon; to presume his pardon to be passed before it is: But when it is truly passed the seals of Reconciliation, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile and deceit in that spirit, nay it is the spirit of falsehood and deceit it self, that will not suffer us to injoy that pardon, which God hath sealed to us, but still maintain jealousies, and suspicion, between God and us. My heart is not opener to God, then the bowels of his mercy are to me; And to accuse my self of sin, after God hath pardoned me, were as great a contempt of God, as to presume of that pardon, before he had granted it; and so much a greater, as it is directed against his greatest attribute, his Mercy. Si apud Deum deponas injuriam, ipse ultor erit, Lay all the injuries that thou sufferest, at Gods feet, and he will revenge them; Si damnum, ipse restituet; Lay all thy losses there, and he will repair them; Si dolorem, ipse medicus; Lay down all thy diseases there, and he shall heal thee; Si mortem, ipse resuscitator, Dye in his armes, and he shall breath a new life into thee; Add we to Tertullian: Si peccata, ipse sepeliet, lay thy sins in his wounds, and he shall bury them so deep, that only they shall never have resurrection: The Sun shall set, and have a to morrows resurrection; Herbs shall have a winter death, and a springs resurrection; Thy body shall have a long winters night, and then a resurrection; Only thy sins buried in the wounds of thy Savior, shall never have resurrection; And therefore take heed of that deceit in the spirit, of that spirit of deceit, that makes thee impute sins to thy self, when God imputes them not; But rejoice in Gods general forgiving of Transgressions, That Christ hath died for all, multiply thy joy in the covering of thy sin, That Christ hath instituted a Church, in which that general pardon is made thine in particular, And exalt thy joy, in the not imputing of iniquity, in that serenity, that tranquillity, that God shall receive thee, at thy last hour, in thy last Bath, the sweat of death, as lovingly, as acceptably, as innocently, as he received thee, from thy first Bath, the laver of Regeneration, the font in Baptism. Amen.

Serm. LVII. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.3, 4.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer. Selah.

ALL ways of teaching, are Rule and Example: And though ordinarily the Rule be first placed, yet the Rule it self is made of Examples: And when a Rule would be of hard digestion to weak understanding, Example concocts it, and makes it easy: for, Example in matter of Doctrine, is as Assimilation in matter of Nourishment; The Example makes that that is proposed for our learning and farther instruction, like something which we knew before, as Assimilation makes that meat, which we have received, and digested, like those parts, which are in our bodies before. David was the sweet singer of Israel; shall we say, Gods Precentor? His son Solomon was the powerful Preacher of Israel; shall we say, Gods Chaplain? Both of them, excellent, abundantly, super-abundantly excellent in both those ways of Teaching; Poet, and Preacher, proceed in these ways in both, Rule, and Example, the body and soul of Instruction. So this Psalm is qualified in the Title thereof, A Psalm of David giving Instruction. And having given his Instruction the first way, by Rule, in the two former verses, That Blessedness consisted in the Remission of sins, but that this Remission of sins was imparted to none, Cui dolus in spiritu, In whose spirit there was any deceit, he proceeds in this Text, to the other fundamental, and constitutive element of Instruction, Example; And by Example he shews, how far they are from that Blessedness, that consists in the Remission of sins, that proceed with any deceit in their spirit. And that way of Instruction, by Example, shall be our first Consideration; And our second, That he proposes himself for the Example, I kept silence, says he, and so My Bones waxed old, &c. And then, in a third part, we shall see, how far this holy Ingenuity goes, what he confesses of himself: And that third part will subdivide it self, and flow out into many branches. First, That it was he himself that was In doloso spiritu, In whose spirit there was deceit, Quia tacuit, because he held his tongue, because he disguised his sins, because he did not confess them. And yet, in the midst of this silence of his, God brought him Ad rugitum, to voices of Roaring, of Exclamation, to a sense of pain, and a sense of shame; so far he had a voice, but still he was in silence, for any matter of repentance. Secondly, he confesses the effect of this his silence, and this his Roaring, Inveteraverunt Ossa, My Bones waxed old, and, my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer. And then thirdly, he confesses the reason from whence this inveteration in his bones, and this incineration in his body proceeded, Quia aggravata manus, because the hand of God lay heavy upon him, heavy in the present weight, and heavy in the long continuation thereof, day and night. And lastly, all this he seals with that Selah, which you find at the end of the verse, which is a kind of Affidavit, of earnest asseveration, and re-affirming the same thing, a kind of Amen, and ratification to that which was said; Selah, truly, verily, thus it was with me, when I kept silence, and deceitfully smothered my sins, the hand of God lay heavy upon me, and as truly, as verily it will be no better with any man, that suffers himself to continue in that case.

First then, for the assistance, and the power, that example hath in Instruction, we see Christs Method, Quid ab initio, how was it from the beginning; Do as hath been done before. We see Gods method to Moses, for the Tabernacle, Look that thou make every thing, after thy pattern, which was showed thee in the Mount; And for the Creation it self, we know Gods method too; for though there were no world, that was elder brother to this world before, yet God in his own mind and purpose had produced, and lodged certain Idea's, and forms, and patterns of every piece of this world, and made them according to those pre-conceived forms, and Idea's. When we consider the ways of Instruction, as they are best pursued in the Scriptures, so are there no Books in the world, that do so abound with this comparative and exemplary way of teaching, as the Scriptures do; No Books, in which that word of Reference to other things, that Sicut is so often repeated, Do this, and do that, Sicut, so, as you see such and such things in Nature do; And Sicut, so as you find such and such men, in story, to have done. So David deals with God himself, he proposes him an Example; I ask no more favor at thy hands, for thy Church now, then thou hast afforded them heretofore, Do but unto these men now, Sicut Midianitis, as unto the Midianites, Sicut Siserae, as unto Sisera, as unto Iabin: Make their Nobles Sicut Oreb, like Oreb and like Zeb, and all their Princes Sicut Zeba, as Zeba and as Zalmana. For, these had been Examples of Gods justice: And to be made Examples of Gods anger, is the same thing, as to be a Malediction, a Curse. For, in that law of Jealousy, that bitter potion which the suspected woman was to take, was accompanied with this imprecation, The Lord make thee a Curse among the people; So we read it; But S. Jerome, In Exemplum, The Lord make thee an Example among the people; that is, deal with thee so, as posterity may be afraid, when it shall be said of any of them, Lord deal with this woman so, as thou didst with that Adulteresse. And so the prayer of the people is upon Boaz, Vt sit in Exemplum, (as S. Jerome also reads that place) The Lord make thee an Example of virtue in Ephrata, and in Bethlem; that is, that Gods people might propose him to themselves, conform themselves to him, and walk as he did. As on the other side, the anger of God is threatened so, God shall make thee Exemplum & stuporem, An Example and a Consternation; And Exemplum & derisum, An example and a scorn; That posterity, whensoever they should be threatened with Gods Judgements, they might presently return to such Examples, and conclude, if our sins be to their Example, our Judgements will follow their Example too, a judgement accompanied with a consternation, a consternation aggravated with a scorn, we shall be a prey to our enemies, an astonishment to our selves, a contempt to all the world; We do according to their Example, and according to their Example we shall suffer, is not a Conclusion of any Sorbon, nor a decision of any Rota, but the Logic of the universal University, Heaven it self. And so when the Prophet would be excused from undertaking the office of a Prophet, he says, Adam exemplum meum ab adolescentia, Adam hath been the example, that I have proposed to my self from my youth; As Adam did, so in the sweat of my brows, I also have eat my bread; I have kept Cattle; I have followed a Country life, and not made my self fit for the office and function of a Prophet, Adam hath been my Example from my youth. And when Solomon did not propose a Man, he proposed something els for his Example, an example he would have; He looked upon the ill husbands land, and he saw it over-grown, Et exemplo didici disciplinam, By that example I learnt to be wiser. Enter into the Armory, search the body and bowels of Story, for an answer to the question in Job, Quis periit, Who ever perished being Innocent, or where were the righteous cut off? There is not one example; no where; never. Answer but that out of Records, Quis restitit, Who hath hardened himself against the Lord, and prospered? Or that, Quis contradicet, If he cut off, who can hinder him? There is no Example; No man, by no means. So, if thou be tempted with over-valuing thine own purity, find an Example to answer that, Quis mundum, Who can bring a clean thing out of uncleanness? Or that, Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin? There is no Example; No man ever did it; No man can say it. If thou be tempted to worship God in an Image, be able to answer God something to that, To whom will yee liken God, or what likeness will yee compare unto him? There can be no example, no pattern to make God by: for, that were to make God a Copy, and the other, by which he were made, the Original. If thou have a temptation to withdraw thy self from the Discipline of that Church, in which God hath given thee thy Baptism, find an Example, to satisfy thy Conscience, and Gods people, in what age, in what place, there was any such Church instituted, or any such Discipline practised, as thou hast fancied to thy self. Believe nothing for which thou hast not a Rule; Do nothing for which thou hast not an Example; for there is not a more dangerous distemper in either Belief or Practise, then singularity; for there only may we justly call for Miracles, if men will present to us, and bind us to things that were never believed, never done before. David therefore, in this Psalm, his Psalm of Instruction, (as himself calls it) doth both; He lays down the Rule, he establishes it by Example, and that was our first Consideration, and we have done with that.

Our second is, That he goes not far for his Example; He labors not to show his reading, but his feeling; not his learning, but his compunction; his Conscience is his Library, and his Example is himself, and he does not unclaspe great Volumes, but unbutton his own breast, and from thence he takes it. Men that give Rules of Civil wisdom, and wise Conversation amongst men, use to say, that a wise man must never speak much of himself; It will argue, say they, a narrow understanding, that he knows little besides his own actions, or els that he overvalues his own actions, if he bring them much into Discourse. But the wise men that seek Christ, (for there were such wise men in the world once) Statesmen in the kingdom of heaven, they go upon other grounds, and, wheresoever they may find them, they seek such Examples, as may conduce most to the glory of God: And when they make themselves Examples, they do not rather choose themselves then others, but yet they do not spare, nor forbear themselves more then other men. David proposes his own Example, to his own shame, but to Gods glory. For, David was one of those persons, Qui non potuit solus perire, He could not sin alone, his sin authorized sin in others: Princes and Prelates, are Doctrinal men, in this sense and acceptation, that the subject makes the Princes life his Doctrine; he learns his Catechism by the eye, he does what he sees done, and frames to himself Rules out of his Superiors Example. Therefore, for their Doctrine, David proposes truly his own Example, and without disguising, tells that of himself, which no man else could have told. Christ who could do nothing but well, proposes himself for an example of humility, I have given you an example; Whom? what? That you should do as I have done. So S. Paul instructs Titus, In all things show a pattern of good works; But whom? for Titus might have showed them many patterns; but Show thy self a pattern, says the Apostle; and not only of assiduous, and laborious preaching, but of good works. And this is that, for which he recommends Timothy to the Church, He works the work of the Lord, And, not without a pattern, nor without that pattern, which S. Paul had given him in himself, He works so, as I also do. S. Paul, who had proposed Christ to himself to follow, might propose himself to others, and wish as he does, I would all men were even as my self. For, though that Apostle, by denying it in his own practise, seem to condemn it in all others, To preach our selves, (We preach not our selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord) yet to preach out of our own history, so far, as to declare to the Congregation, to what manifold sins we had formerly abandoned our selves, how powerfully the Lord was pleased to reclaim us, how vigilantly he hath vouchsafed to preserve us from relapsing, to preach our selves thus, to call up the Congregation, to hear what God hath done for my soul, is a blessed preaching of my self. And therefore Solomon does not speak of himself so much, nor so much propose and exhibit himself to the Church, in any Book, as in that which he calls the Preacher, Ecclesiastes: In that Book, he hides none of his own sins; none of those practises, which he had formerly used to hide his sins: He confesses things there, which none knew but himself, nor durst, nor should have published them of him, the King, if they had known them. So Solomon preaches himself to good purpose, and pours out his own soul in that Book. Which is one of the reasons which our Interpreters assign, why Solomon calls himself by this name, Ecclesiastes, Coheleth, which is a word of the Foeminine gender, and not Concionator, but Concionatrix, a She-preacher, because it is Anima Concionatrix, It is his soul that preaches, he pours out his own soul to the Congregation, in letting them know, how long the Lord let him run on in vanities, and vexation of spirit, and how powerfully and effectually he reclaimed him at last: For, from this Book, the Preacher, the she-Preacher, the soul-Preacher, Solomon preaching himself, rather her self, the Church raises convenient arguments (and the best that are raised) for the proof of the salvation of Solomon, of which divers doubted. And though Solomon in this Book speak divers things, not as his own opinion, but in the sense of worldly men, yet, as we have a note upon Plato's Dialogues, that though he do so too, yet whatsoever Plato says in the name and person of Socrates, that Plato always means for his own opinion, so whatsoever Solomon says in the name of the Preacher, (the Preacher says this, or says that) that is evermore Solomons own saying. When the Preacher preaches himself, his own sins, and his own sense of Gods Mercies, or Judgements upon him, as that is intended most for the glory of God, so it should be applied most by the hearer, for his own edification; for, he were a very ill natured man, that should think the worse of a Preacher, because he confesses himself to be worse then he knew him to be, before he confessed it. Therefore David thought it not enough, to have said to his Confessor, to Nathan in private, Peccavi, I have sinned; but here, before the face of the whole Church of God, even to the end of the world, (for so long these Records are to last) he proposes himself, for an Exemplary sinner, for a sinful Example, and for a subject of Gods Indignation, whilst he remained so, When I kept silence, and yet roared, Thy hand lay heavy upon me, and my moisture was turned into the drought of Summer. And so we are come to our third Part, He teaches by Example; He proposes himself for the Example; and of himself he confesses those particulars, which constitute our Text.

Three things he confesses in this Example. First, that it was he himself that was in doloso spiritu, that had deceit in his spirit, Quia tacuit, because he held his tongue, he disguised his sins, he did not confess them; And yet, in the midst of this silence of his, God brought him Ad Rugitum, to voices of Roaring, of Exclamation, To a sense of pain, or shame, or loss; so far he had a voice; But still he was in silence, for any matter of repentance. Secondly, he confesses a lamentable effect of this silence, and this roaring, Inveteraverunt ossa, His bones were consumed, waxen old, and his moisture dried up; and then he takes knowledge of the cause of all this calamity, the weight of Gods heavy hand upon him. And to this Confession he sets to that seal, which is intended in the last word, Selah.

First then, David confesses his silence; therefore it was a fault: And he confesses it, as an instance, as an example of his being In doloso spiritu, That there was deceit in his spirit; as long as he was silent, he thought to delude God, to deceive God; and this was the greatest fault. If I be afraid of Gods power, because I consider that he can destroy a sinner, yet I have his will for my Buckler; I remember, that he would not the death of a sinner. If I be afraid that his will may be otherwise bent, (for what can I tell, whether it may not be his will to glorify himself in surprizing me in my sins?) I have his Word for my Buckler, Miserationes ejus super omnia opera ejus, God does nothing, but that his Mercy is supereminent in that work, whatsoever; But if I think to scape his knowledge, by hiding my sins from him, by my silence, I am In doloso spiritu, if I think to deceive God, I deceive my self, and there is no truth in me.

When we are to deal with fools, we must, or we must not answer, as they may receive profit, or inconvenience by our answer, or our silence. Answer not a fool, according to his foolishness, lest thou be like him: But yet, in the next verse, Answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest he be wise in his own conceit. But answer God always. Though he speak in the foolishness of preaching, as himself calls it, yet he speaks wisdom, that is, Peace to thy soul. We are sure that there is a good silence; for we have a Rule for it from Christ, whose Actions are more then Examples, for his Actions are Rules. His patience wrought so that he would not speak, his afflictions wrought so that he could not. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and he was dumb; There he would not speak; My strength is dried up like a potsheard, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death, says David in the Person of Christ, and here he could not speak.

Here is a good silence in our Rule: So is there also in Examples derived from that Rule. There is Silentium reverentiae, A silence of reverence, for respect of the presence; The Lord is in his holy Temple, let all the world keep silence before him. When the Lord is working in his Temple, in his Ordinances, and Institutions, let not the wisdom of all the world dispute why God instituted those Ordinances, the foolishness of preaching, or the simplicity of Sacraments in his Church. Let not the wisdom of private men dispute, why those whom God hath accepted as the representation of the Church, those of whom Christ says, Dic Ecclesiae, Tell the Church, have ordained these, or these Ceremonies for Decency, and Uniformity, and advancing of Gods glory, and mens Devotion in the Church; Let all the earth be silent, In Sacramentis, The whole Church may change no Sacraments, nor Articles of faith, and let particular men be silent In Sacramentalibus, in those things which the Church hath ordained, for the better conveying, and imprinting, and advancing of those fundamental mysteries; for this silence of reverence which is an acquiescence in those things which God hath ordained, immediately, as Sacraments, or Ministerially, as other Ritual things in the Church, David would not have complained of, nor repented.

And to this may well be referred Silentium subjectionis, That silence which is a recognition, a testimony of subjection. Let the women keep silence in the Church, for they ought to be subject: And, Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection. As far as any just Commandment, either expressly, or tacitly reaches, in injoyning silence, we are bound to be silent: In Moral seals of secrets, not to discover those things which others upon confidence, or for our counsel, have trusted us withal; In charitable seals, not to discover those sins of others, which are come to our particular knowledge, but not by a judicial way; In religious seals, not to discover those things which are delivered us in Confession, except in cases excepted in that Canon; In secrets delivered under these seals, of Nature, of Law, of Ecclesiastical Canons, we are bound to be silent, for this is Silentium subjectionis, An evidence of our subjection to Superiors. But since God hath made man with that distinctive property, that he can speak, and no other creature; since God made the first man able to speak, as soon as he was in the world; since in the order of the Nazarites instituted in the old Testament, though they forbore wine, and outward care of their comeliness, in cutting their hair, and otherwise, yet they bound not themselves to any silence; since in the other sects, which grew up amongst the Jews, Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Esseans, amongst all their superfluous, and superstitious austerities, there was no inhibition of speaking, and Communication; since in the twilight between the Old and New Testament, that dumbness which was cast upon Zacharic, was inflicted for a punishment upon him, because he believed not that, that the Angel had said unto him, we may be bold to say, That if not that silence, which is enjoined in the Roman Church, yet that silence which is practised amongst them, for the concealing of Treasons, and those silences which are imposed upon some of their Orders, That the Carthusians may never speak but upon Thursdays, others upon other times, they are not silentia subjectionis, silences imposed by a justauthority, but they are in Doloso spiritu, there is Deceit in their spirit; if not in every one of them, who execute the commandment, not in every poor Carthusian, yet in them who imposed it, who by such an obedience in impertinent things, infatuate them, and accustom them to a blind and implicite obedience in matters of more dangerous consequence. Silence of reverence, silence of subjection meet in this, and in this they determine, That we hold our tongues from questioning any thing ordained by God, and from defaming any thing done by that power, which is established by his Ordinance. And this silence falls not under Davids complaint, nor confession.

We have not long to stay upon this silence, which we call the Good silence, because it is not the silence of our Text; This only we say, That there is a silence which is absolutely good, always good, and there is another occasionally good, sometimes good, and sometimes not so; and that is silentium Boni, or à Bono, An abstinence from speaking, or from doing some things, which of themselves, if no circumstance changed their nature, were good and requisite. Silentium bonum, that silence that is absolutely, and always good, is a quiet contentment in all that God sends, Ne, unde debueras esse dives, fias pauper, lest when God meant to make thee rich, and have indeed made thee rich, thou makethy self poor, by thinking thy self poor, and misinterpreting Gods doing: That thou have not praecordia fatui, as the same Father speaks, The bowels of an empty man, whining, and crying bowels; Sicut rota currus, foenum portans & murmur ans, As a Cart that hath a full and plentiful load, and squeaks and whines the more for that abundance. Neither murmure that thou hast minus de Bonis, not Goods enough, nor nimis de Malis, Afflictions too many, but reckon how much more good God hath showed thee, then thou hast deserved, and how much less ill. Sit alone, and keep silence, because thou hast born it, because the Lord hath laid affliction upon thee; Thine ease is within two verses, For the Lord will not for sake thee for ever. If thou murmure, and say, Quid feci, Lord what have I done to thee, that thou shouldst deal thus with me? thou shalt hear the justice of God answer thee, Verumdicis, nihil fecisti, Thou hast done nothing, and that is fault enough; Nothing for me, nothing for my sake, but all for respect of thy self, in thine own ways, and to thine own ends.

The other good silence is not always Good, but occasionally, and circumstantially so; It is a forbearing to speak Truth, which may be good then, when our speaking of Truth can do no good, and may do harm. I will keep my mouth bridled whilst the wicked is in my sight; I was dumb, and spake nothing, I kept silence even from good, and my sorrow was more stirred. Though it were a vexation to him, though he had a sense, and a remorse, that this was some degree of prevarication, to abandon the defence of Gods honor at any time, yet his religious discretion made it appear to him, that this present abstinence would, in the end, conduce more to Gods glory. It was the Wise mans rule, Kindle not the coales of sinners, when thou rebukest them, lest thou beest burnt in the fiery flames of their sins. Poison works apace upon cholerike complexions; And Physicians may catch the plague by going about to cure it. An over-vehement, and unseasonable reprehender of a sin may contract that, or a greater sin himself. I may reprehend a Blasphemer, in such a manner, and at such a time, as I could not choose but suspect, that he would multiply blasphemies upon my reprehension; and, though that take off none of his fault, yet it adds to mine, and now God hath two in the Bond; He shall answer, and I too, for these later blasphemies. The Wise man gave us the Rule, Kindle not coales, and a good King gave us the example, when Rabshakeh had blasphemed against God and the King; Let not Hezekias deceive you, saying, The Lord will deliver us, Then they kept silence, and answered him not a word, says that Text; for, (as it is added) The Kings commandment was, saying, Answer him not a word. There is a religious abstinence, in not answering our Adversaries, though their libels, and increpations, and contumelies tend to the dishonor of God. S. Ambrose observed good degrees in this Discretion. He notes in David, that, siluit à bonis, Though it troubled him, he could hold his peace, when hisreply might exasperate others: He notes in Job, (as he reads that place, according to the Septuagint) Ecce, rideo opprobrium, Behold, I laugh at their reproaches; That he could take pleasure in the goodnes of his conscience, for all their calumnies. He notes in S. Paul a higher degree then that; Maledicimur, & Benedicimus, That he when he was reviled could bless them that reviled him. Religious discretion allows us to disguise our Anger, and smother our sorrow, when either our anger would exasperate, or our sorrow encourage the Adversary, to a more vehement opposing of God, and his Church, and his Children.

But all this is rather true, in private persons, then in those whom God hath sent to do his Messages to his people. When I shall say to the wicked, (says God to the Prophet) Thou shalt surely die, and thou, The Prophet, givest him not warning, nor speakest to admonish that he may live, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hands. And, if every single sinful act, and word, and thought of mine, need the whole blood of Christ Jesus to expiate that, what blood, and what seas of that blood shall I need, when the blood of a whole Parish shall be required at my hand, because I forbore to speak plainly of their sins, and Gods judgement? It is true, which S. Bernard says, Discretio mater, & consummatrix virtutum, Discretion is the mother, and discretion is the nurse of every virtue, but yet, in this commandment which is laid upon us, for the reproof of sin, Haec omnis sit nostra Discrety, says he, ut in hoc nulla sit nobis Discretio; Let this be all our Discretion, as Discretion is wisdom, that we use no Discretion, as Discretion is Acceptation of persons. Haec omnis sapientia, ut in hac parte nulla nobis sit, Let this be all our wisdom, to proceed in this way, this foolishness of Preaching, in season, and out of season. In Gods name, let us fall within that danger, if we must needs, that if the poor man speak, they say, What fellow is this? We are fellows in this service, to Gods Angels, to the Son of God Christ Jesus, who is your High Priest, and we fellow-workmen with him, in your salvation: And, as long as we can scape that Imputation, Some man holdeth his tongue, because he hath not to answer, That either we know not what to say to a doubtful conscience, for our ignorance, or are afraid to reprehend a sin, because we are guilty of that sin our selves; how far States, and Commonwealths may be silent in connivencies, and forbearances, is not our business now; but for us, the ministers of God, Vaenobis, si non evangelizemus, Woe be unto us, if we do not preach the Gospel, and we have no Gospel put into our hands, nor into our mouths, but a conditional Gospel, and therefore we do not preach the Gospel, except we preach the Judgements belonging to the breach of those conditions: A silence in that, in us, would fall under this complaint, and confession, Because I was silent, these calamities fell upon me.

It becomes not us, to think the worst of David, that he was fallen into the deepest degree of this silence, and negligence of his duty to God: But it becomes us well to consider, that if David, a man according to Gods heart, had some degrees of this ill silence, it is easy for us, to have many. For, for the first degree, we have it, and scarce discern that we have it: for our first silence is but an Omission, a not doing of our religious duties, or an unthankfulnes for Gods particular benefits. When Moses says to his people, The Lord shall fight for you, & vos tacebit is, And you shall hold your peace, there Moses means, you shall not need to speak, the Lord will do it for his own glory, you may be silent. There it was a future thing; But the Lord hath fought many battels for us: He hath fought for our Church against Superstition, for our land against Invasion, for this City against Infection, for every soul here against Presumption, or else against Desperation, Dominus pugnavit, & nos silemus; The Lord hath fought for us, and we never thank him. A silence before, a not praying, hath not always a fault in it, because we are often ignorant of our own necessities, and ignorant of the dangers that hang over us; but a silence after a benefit evidently received, a dumb Ingratitude is inexcusable.

There is another ill silence, and an unnatural one, for it is a loud silence; It is a bragging of our good works; It is the Pharisees silence, when by boasting of his fastings, and of his alms, he forgot, he silenced his sins. This is the devils best Merchant: By this Man, the devil gets all; for, his ill deeds were his before; and now, by this boasting of them, his good works become his too. To contract this, If we have overcome this inconsideration, if we have undertaken some examination of our conscience, yet one survey is not enough; Delicta quis intelligit? Who can understand his error? How many circumstances in sin vary the very nature of the sin? And then, of how many coats, and shells, and super-edifications doth that sin, which we think a single sin, consist? When we have passed many scrutinies, many inquisitions of the conscience, yet there is never room for a silence; we can never get beyond the necessity of that Petition, Ab eccultis, Lord cleanse me from my secret sins; we shall ever be guilty of sins, which we shall forget, not only because they are so little, but because they are so great; That which should be compunction, will be consternation; and the anguish, which, out of a natural tenderness of conscience, we shall have at the first entering into those sins, will make us dispute on the sins side, and, for some present ease, and to give our heavy soul breath, we will find excuses for them; and at last slide and wear into a customary practise of them: and though we cannot be ignorant that we do them, yet we shall be ignorant that they are sins; but rather make them things indifferent, or recreations necessary to maintain a cheerfulness, and so to sin on, for fear of dispairing in our sins, and we shall never be able to shut our mouths against that Petition, Aboccultis; for, though the sin be manifest, the various circumstances that aggravate the sin, will be secret.

And properly this was Davids silence: He confesses his silence to have been Ex dolese spiritu, Out of a spirit, in which was deceit; And David did not hope, directly, and determinately to deceive God; But by endeavouring to hide his sin from other men, and from his own conscience, he buried it deeper and deeper, but still under more and more sins. He silences his Adultery, but he smothers it, he buries it under a turf of hypocrisy, of dissimulation with Vriah, that he might have gone home, and covered his sin. He silences this hypocrisy; but that must have a larger turf to cover it; he buries it under the whole body of Vriah, treacherously murdered; He silences that murder, but no turf was large enough to cover that, but the defeat of the whole army, and after all, the blaspheming of the name and power of the Lord of Hosts, in the ruin of the army. That sin, which, if he would have carried it upward towards God, in Confession, would have vanished away, and evaporated, by silencing, by suppressing, by burying multiplied, as Corn buried in the earth, multiplies into many Ears. And, though he might (perchance for his farther punishment) overcome the remembrance of the first sin, he might have forgot the Adultery, and feel no pain of that, yet still being put to a new, and new sin, still the last sin that he did to cover the rest, could not choose but appear to his conscience, and call upon him for another sin to cover that; Howsoever he might forget last years sins, yet yesterdays sin, or last nights sin will hardly be forgotten yet. And therefore, Tollite vobiscum verba, says the Prophet, O Israel return unto the Lord; But how? Take unto you words, and turn unto the Lord. Take unto you your words, words of Confession; Take unto you his word, the words of his gracious promises; break your silence when God breaks his, in the motions of his Spirit, and God shall break off his purpose of inflicting calamities upon you.

In the mean time, when David was not come so far, but continued silent, silent from Confession, God suffers not David to enjoy the benefit of his silence; though he continue his silence towards. God, yet God mingles Rugitum cum silentio, for all his filence, he comes to a voice of roaring and howling, when I was silent, my roaring consumed me; so that here was a great noise, but no music. Now Theodoret calls this Rugitum compunctionis; That it was the inchoation of his repentance, which began diffidently, and with fearful vociferations; And so some of our later men understand it; That because David had continued long in his sin, when the Ice brake, it brake with the greater noise; when he returned to speak to God, he spake with the more vehemence. And truly the word Shaag, Rugiit, though it signify properly the voice of a Lyon, yet David uses this word Roaring, not only of himself, but of himself as he was a type of Christ: for this very word is in the beginning of that Psalm, which Christ repeated upon the Cross, or, at least begun it, My God, my God, why hast thou for saken me, and why art thou so far from the voice of my Roaring? So that, Roaring, may admit a good sense, and does not always imply a distemper, and inordinateness; for, in Christ it could not; But does it not in our Text? In our former Translation it might stand in a good sense, where the two actions are distinguished in time, thus, When I held my tongue, or when I roared, whether I kept or broke silence, all was one, no more ease in one, then the other. But with the Original, and with our later Translation, it cannot be so, which is, When I held my tongue, through my roaring, this and this fell upon me: They were concomitant actions, actions intermixt, and at the same time when he was silent, he roared too; and therefore that that he calls Roaring, is not a voice of Repentance; for if he had been come to that, then he had broke his former silence, for that Silence was a not Confessing, a not Repenting.

This is then that miserable condition which is expressed in Davids case, (though God delivered David from any deadly effect of it) that he had occasion of Roaring, of howling, (as the Scripture speaks often) though he kept silence: That he was at never the more ease, for all his sins: The eases that he laid hold on, were new sins in themselves, and yet they did not ease him of his other sins; he kept silence, and yet was put to exclamations. And how many examples can we present to our selves, in our own memory, where persons which have given themselves all liberty to forge writings, to suborne witnesses, to forsweare themselves, to oppress, to murder others, to make their ways easier to their ends, and yet have, for all this, though the hand of Justice have not fallen upon them, seen their whole estates consume and moulder away? When men out of their ill-grounded plots, and perverse wisdom, think themselves safe in the silence and secrecy of their sins, God overtakes them, and confounds them, with those two fearful blows, those two Thunderbolts, He brings them to Exclamations, to Vociferations, upon Fortune, upon Friends, upon Servants, upon Rivals, and Competitors, he brings them to a Roaring for their ruin, Never man was thus dealt withal as I am, never such a conspiracy as against me.

And this they do, All day, says David here, Through my roaring all day. It was long so with David; A day as long as two of their days, that have days of six months; almost a year was David in this dark, dead silence, before he saw day, or returned to speaking. With those that continue their silence all day, the roaring continues all day too; All their lives, they have new occasions of lamentations, and yet all this reduces them not, but they are benighted, they end their life with fearful voices of desperation, in a Roaring, but still in a silence of their sins, and transgressions. And this is that that falls first under his Confession, Roaring with Silence, pain, and shame, and loss, but all without Confession, or sense of sin. And then, that which falls next under his acknowledgement, is the vehement working, the lamentable effect of this Silence and Roaring, Inveteration of Bones, incineration of his whole substance, My Bones are waxen old, and my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer.

Both these phrases, in which David expresses his own, and prophecies of other such sinners misery, have a literal, and a spiritual, a natural, and a moral sense. For first, this affliction of this silenced and impenitent finner though it proceed not from the sense of his sin, though it brought him not yet to a confession, but to a roaring, that is, an impatient repining and murmuring, yet it had so wrought upon his body, and whole constitution, as that it drunk up his natural, and vital moisture; Spiritus tristis exsiccarat, as Solomon speaks, A broken spirit had dried him up; His days were consumed like smoke, and his bones were burnt like a hearth; and that Marrow and fatness, in which, he says, he had such sat is faction, at other times, was exhausted. This is the misery of this impenitent sinner, he is beggered, but in the Devils service, he is lamed, but in the Devils wars; his moisture, his blood is dried up, but with licentiousness, with his overwatchings, either to deceive, or to oppress others; for, as the proverb is true, Plures gulae quàm gladius, The Throat cuts more throats then the sword does, and eating starves more men then fasting does, because wastefulness induces penury at last, so if all our Hospitals were well surveyed, it would be found, that the Devil sends more to Hospitals then God does, and the Stews more then the wars.

Thus his bodily moisture was wasted, literally the sinner is sooner infirmed, sooner deformed, then another man; But there is an Humidum radical of the soul too: A tenderness, and a disposition to bewayle his sins, with remorseful tears. When Peter had denied his Master, and heard the Cock crow, he did not stay to make recantations, he did not stay to satisfy them, to whom he had denied Christ, but he looked into himself first, Flevit amarè, says the Holy Ghost, He wept bitterly; His soul was not withered, his moisture was not dried up like summer, as long as he could weep. The learned Poet hath given some character, some expression of the desperate and irremediable state of the reprobate, when he calls Plutonem illacrymabilem; There is the mark of his incorrigibleness, and so of his irrecoverableness, That he cannot weep. A sinful man, an obdurate man, a stony heart may weep: Marble, and the hardest sorts of stones weep most, they have the most moisture, the most drops upon them: But this comes not out of them, not from within them; Extrinsecal occasions, pain, and shame, and want, may bring a sinner to sorrow enough, but it is not a sorrow for his sins; All this while the miserable sinner weeps not, but the miserable man, All this while, though he have winter in his eyes, his soul is turned into the drought of summer. God destroyed the first world, and all flesh with water: Tears for the want, or for the loss of friends, or of remporal blessings, do but destroy us. But God begun the new world, the Christian Church, with water too, with the Sacrament of Baptism. Pursue his Example; begin thy Regeneration with tears; If thou have frozen eyes, thou hast a frozen heart too; If the fires of the Holy Ghost cannot thaw thee, in his promises, the fire of hell will do it much less, which is a fire of obduration, not of liquefaction, and does not melt a soul, to pour it out into a new and better form, but hardens it, nails it, confirms it in the old. Christ bids you take heed, that your flight be not in winter; That your transgmigration out of this world be not in cold days of Indevotion, nor in short days of a late repentance. Take heed too, that your flight be not in such a summer as this; That your transmigration out of this world be not in such a drought of summer, as David speaks of here, that the soul have lost her Humidum radical, all her tenderness, or all expressing of that tenderness in the sense of her transgressions. So did David see himself, so did he more fore-see in others, that should farther incurre Gods displeasure, then he (by Gods good ness) had done, this exsiccatian, this incineration of body and soul; sin burns and turns body and soul to a Cinder, but not such a Cinder, but that they can, and shall both burn again, and again, and for ever.

And the dangerous effect of this silence and roaring, David expresses in another phrase too, Inveter averunt ossa, That his bones were waxen old, and consumed; for so that word Balah signifies, Your Clothes are not waxed old upon you, nor your shoos waxed old upon your feet. In the Consuming of these Bones, (as our former Translation hath it) the vehemence of the Affliction is presented, and in the waxing old, the continuance. Here the Rule fayls, Si longa levis, sigravis brevis, Calamities that last long, are light, and if they be heavy, they are short; both ways there is some intimation of some ease. But God suffers not this sinner to injoy that ease; God will lay enough upon his body, to kill another in a week, and yet he shall pant many years under it. As the way of his Blessing is, Apprehendet tritura vindemiam, Your vintage shall reach to your threshing, and your threshing to your sowing; So in an impenitent sinner, his fever shall reach to a frenzy, his frenzy to a consumption, his consumption to a penury, and his penury to a wearying and tyring out of all that are about him, and all the sins of his youth shall meet in the anguish of his body.

But that is not all; Etiam animae membra sunt, says S. Basil, The soul hath her Bones too; And those are our best actions; Those, which if they had been well done, might have been called Good works, and might have met us in heaven; But when a man continues his beloved sin, when he is in doloso spiritu, and deals with God in false measures, and false weights, makes deceitful Confessions to God, his good works shall do him no good, his Bones are consumed, not able to bear him upright in the sight of God. This David sees in himself, and foresees in others, and he sees the true reason of all this, Quia aggravata manus, Because the hand of God lyes heavy upon him, which is another branch of his Confession.

It was the safety of the Spouse, That his left hand was under her head, and that his right hand embraced her: And it might well be her safety; for, Per laevam vita pr aesens, per dextram aeterna designatur, says S. Gregory, His left hand denotes this, and his right the other life: Our happiness in this, our assurance of the next, consists in this, that we are in the hands of God. But here in our Text, Gods hand was heavy upon him; and that is an action of pushing away, and keeping down. And then when we see the great power, and the great indignation of God upon the Egyptians, is expressed but so, Digitus Dei, the finger of God is in it, how heavy an affliction must this of David be esteemed, Quando aggravata manus, when his whole hand was, and was heavy upon him? Here then is one lesson for all men, and another peculiar to the children of God. This appertains to all, That when they are in silentio, in a seared and stupid forgetting of their sins, or in Doloso spiritu, in half-Confessions, half-abjurations, half-detestations of their sins; The hand of God will grow heavy upon them. Tell you your children of it, (says the Prophet) and let your children tell their children, and let their children tell another generation, (for this belongs to all) That which is left of the Palmer worm, the Grashopper shall eat, and that that he leaves, the Canker worm shall eat, and the residue of the Canker worm, the Caterpiller. The hand of God shall grow heavy upon a silent sinner, in his body, in his health; and if he conceive a comfort, that for all his sickness, he is rich, and therefore cannot fayle of help and attendance, there comes another worm, and devours that, faithlesness in persons trusted by him, oppressions in persons that have trusted him, facility in undertaking for others, corrupt Judges, heavy adversaries, tempests and Pirats at Sea, unseasonable or ill Markets at land, costly and expensive ambitions at Court, one worm or other shall devour his riches, that he eased himself upon. If he take up another Comfort, that though health and wealth decay, though he be poor and weak, yet he hath learning, and philosophy, and moral constancy, and he can content himself with himself, he can make his study a Court, and a few Books shall supply to him the society and the conversation of many friends, there is another worm to devour this too, the hand of divine Justice shall grow heavy upon him, in a sense of an unprofitable retiredness, in a disconsolate melancholy, and at last, in a stupidity, tending to desperation.

This belongs to all, to all Non-confitents, That think not of confessing their sins at all, To all Semi-confitents, that confess them to halfs, without purpose of amendment, Aggravabitur manus, The hand of God will grow heavy upon them every way, and stop every issue, every posterne, every saly, every means of escape. But that which is peculiar to the Children of God, is, That when the hand of God is upon them, they shall know it to be the hand of God, and take hold even of that oppressing hand, and not let it go, till they have received a Blessing from it, that is, raised themselves even by that heavy and oppressing hand of his, even in that affliction. That when God shall fill their faces with shame, yet they shall seek his face; yea, when God shall kill him, yet he will trust in God, and seek him; And (as the Prophet carries it farther) Cum ingreditur putredo, when Rottenness enters into their Bones, yet they shall rest even in that day of trouble, of dissolution, of putrefaction. God shall call upon them, as he did upon Judah, Tritura mea, & filius are ae, O my threshing place, and the son of my floor, Thou whom I have beaten and bruised with my flayls, when I have threshed, and winnowed, and sifted thee by these afflictions, and by this heavy hand, still thou shalt fix thy faithful eyes in heaven, and see a room reserved there for thee, amongst those, which come out of great tribulations, and have made their long robes white in the blood of the Lambe; who shall therefore dwell in the midst of them, and govern them, and lead them to the lively fountains of waters, and wipe away all tears from their eyes. Even upon his own Children, his hand shall grow heavy, but that heaviness, that weight shall awake them, and that hand shall guide them, to, and in the ways of peace and reconciliation.

And this both day and night, as our Text says, That is, both in the day of their prosperity, and the night of their adversity. Even in prosperity, the child of God shall feel the hand of God grow heavy upon him: He shall find a guiltiness of not having employed those temporal benefits to their right use; He shall find the Pluit laqueos, a shore of snares to have been poured down upon him; occasions of sin; occasions of falling into sins himself; occasions of drawing others, and of buying those souls with his money, which Christ Jesus had a pre-emption of, and had bought them before with his blood: He shall find the hand of God in adversity, and love it, because it shall deliver him; He shall find his hand in prosperity, and be afraid of it, because that prosperity hath before, and may again lead him into temptations.

To end all; all this, the Holy Ghost by the pen of David, seals with the last word of this Text, Selah. A word of uncertain sense, and signification; for the Jews themselves do not know exactly, and certainly what it signifies; but deriving this Selah, from Selal, which signifies Attollere, To lift up, they think it to be but a Musical note, for the raising of the voice, at that part of the Psalm, where that word is used; as, indeed the word is never used in the Bible, but in the Psalms, and twice in one Chapter, in the Prophet Habakkuk, which is a Musical, a Metrical Chapter. In the Latin Translation, and in the Arabique Translation of the Psalms it is clean left out, because they were not sure how to translate it aright. But, to speak upon the best grounds in the Grammar of that language, and upon best Authority too, the word signifies a Vehement, a Pathetical, a Hyperbolical asseveration, and attestation, and ratification of something said before. Such, in a proportion, as our Saviours Amen, Amen is, Verily, verily I say unto you; Such, as S. Pauls fidelis Sermo, with which he seals so many truths, is, This is a faithful saying; Such, as that Apostles Coram Domino is, with which he ratifies many things, Before the Lord I speak it; and such, as Moses his Vivo ego, and Vivit Dominus, As I live saith the Lord, and As the Lord liveth. And therefore, though God be in all his words, Yea, and Amen, no word of his can perish in it self, nor should perish in us, that is, pass without observation, yet, in setting this seal of Selah to this Doctrine, he hath testified his will that he would have all these things the better understood, and the deeplier imprinted, That if a man conceal and smother his sins, Selah, Assuredly, God will open that mans mouth, and it shall not show forth his praise, but God will bring him, Ad rugitum, to fearful exclamations out of the sense of the affliction, if not of the sin; Selah, Assuredly, God will shiver his bones, shake his best actions, and discover their impurity; Selah, assuredly, God will suffer to be dried up all his moisture, all possibility of repentant tears, and all interest in the blood of Christ Jesus; Selah, Assuredly, Gods hand shall be heavy upon him, and he shall not discern it to be his hand, but shall attribute all to false causes, and so place all his comfort in false remedies; He shall leave out God all day, and God shall leave out him all night, all his everlasting night, in which he shall never see day more. Selah, Assuredly, Verily, Amen, Fidelis Sermo, This is a faithful, an infallible Truth, Coram Domino, Before the Lotd, Vivit Dominus, as the Lord liveth, as Moses, as Christ, as S. Paul testify their, David testifies his Doctrine, All between God and man is conditional, and where man will not be bound, God will not be bound neither; If man invest a habit and purpose of sinning, God will study a judgement against that man, and do that, even in Israel, which shall make all our ears to tingle, and all our hearts to ake; Till that man repent, God will not, and when he does, God will repent too; For, though God be not Man, that he can repent, yet that God, who for Mans sake became Man, for our sakes, and his own glory, will so far become Man again, as upon Mans true repentance, to repent the Judgements intended against that Man.

Serm. LVIII. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.5.

I acknowledged my sin unte thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

THis is the Sacrament of Confession; So we may call it in a safe meaning; That is, The mystery of Confession: for true Confession is a mysterious Art. As there is a Mystery of iniquity, so there is a Mystery of the Kingdom of heaven. And the mystery of the Kingdom of heaven is this, That no man comes thither, but in a sort as he is a notorious sinner. One mystery of iniquity is, that in this world, though I multiply sins, yet the Judge cannot punish me, if I can hide them from other men, though he know them; but if I confess them, he can, he will, he must. The mystery ofthe Kingdom of heaven, is, That only the Declaring, the Publishing, the Notifying, and Confessing of my sins, possesses me of the Kingdom of heaven; There is a case, in which the notoriety of my sins does harm; when my open sinning, or my publishing of my sin, by way of glory in that sin, casts a scandal upon others, and leads them into temptation; for so, my sin becomes theirs, because they sin my sin by example, And their sin becomes mine, because I gave the example, and we aggravate one another's sin, and both sin both. But there is a publication of sin, that both alleviates, nay annihilates my sin, and makes him that hates sin, Almighty God, love me the better, for knowing me to be such a sinner, then if I had not told him of it. Therefore do we speak of the mystery of Confession; for it is not delivered in one Rule, nor practised in one Act.

In this Confession of Davids, (I acknowledged my sin unto thee, &c.) We shall see more then so; for, though our two Parts be but the two Acts, Davids Act, and Gods Act, Confession and Absolution, yet is there more then one single action to be considered in each of them. For first, in the first, there is a reflected Act, that David doth upon himself, before he come to his Confession to God; Something David had done, before he came to say, I will confess, As he did confess, before God forgave the iniquity of his sin. Now that which he did in himself, and which preceded his Confession to God, was the Notum feci, I acknowledged my sin; which was not his bringing it to the knowledge of God by way of Confession, for, (as you see by the Method of the Holy Ghost, in the frame of the Text) it preceded his purpose of confessing, but it was the taking knowledge of his sin in himself, It was his first quickening, and inanimation, that grace gave his soul, as the soul gives the child in the Mothers womb. And then in Davids act upon himself, follows the Non operui, I have not hid mine iniquity, none of mine iniquities from mine own sight: I have displayed to my self, anatomized mine own conscience, left no corner unsearched, I am come to a perfect understanding of mine own case, Non operui, This is Davids act upon himself, the recalling, and recollecting of his sins, in his own memory. And then finding the number, the weight, and so, the oppression of those sins there, he considers where he may discharge himself of them; And Dixi, says David, which is a word that implies both Deliberation, and Resolution, and Execution too; I thought what was best to do, and I resolved upon this, and I did it; Dixi Confitebor, That I would make a true, a full, a hearty Confession to God of all those sins; for such we see the Elements and the Extent of his Confession to be; He will confess Peccata, Transgressions, Sins; Neither by an over-tenderness, and diffidence, and scrupulosity, to call things sins, that are not so, nor by indulgent flattering, and sparing of himself, to forbear those things which are truly so; He will confess Peccata, Sins, and Peccata sua, His sins; First, Sua, that is, A se perpetrata, He will acknowledge them to have proceeded, and to have been committed by himself, he will not impute them to any other cause, least of all to God; And then, Sua, non aliena, he will confess sins that are his own sins, and not meddle with the sins of other men, that appertain not to him. This is the subject of his Confession, Sins, & His sins, and then, Peccata sua Domino, His sins unto the Lord, both in that consideration, That all sins are committed against the Lord, and in that also, That Confession of all sins is to be made unto the Lord; And lastly, all this, (as S. Jerome reads this text, and so also did our former Translation) Adversum se, Against himself, that is, without any hope of relief, or reparation in himself. He begins to think of his own sinful state, and he proceeds to a particular inquisition upon his conscience, There is his preparation, Then he considers, and thereupon resolves, and thereupon proceeds to confess things that are truly sins, And then all them as his own, without imputing them to others, If they be his own, without medling with others, And these to the Lord, against whom all sin is committed, and to whom all Confession is to be directed; And all this still against himself, without any hope from himself. All this is in Davids action, preparatorily in himself, and then declaratorily towards God, and do but make up our first Part.

In the other, which is Gods Act towards David, the Absolution, the Remission, the Forgiveness, we shall consider first the fullness; for, it is both of the sin, and the punishment of the sin, for the word imports both, and our two Translations have expressed it between them, for that which one Translation calls the Iniquity of the sin, the other calls The punishment; And then we shall consider the seasonableness, the speed, the acceleration of Gods mercy, in the Absolution, for in David it is but Actus inchoatus, and Actus consummat as in God, David did but say, I will confess, and God forgave the iniquity, and the punishment of his sin. Now as this Distribution is Paraphrase enough upon the text, so a little larger Paraphrase upon every piece of the Paraphrase, will be as much as will fall into this exercise. For, as you see, he branches are many, and full of fruit, and I can but shake them, and leave every one to gather his own portion, to apply those notes, which may most advance his edification.

First then in this mystery of Confession, we consider Davids reflected act, his preparatory act, preceding his confession to God, and transacted in himself, of which the first motion is, the Notum feci, I acknowledged in my self, I came to a feeling in my self, what my sinful condition was. This is our quickening in our regeneration, and second birth; and til this come, a sinner lies as the Chaos in the beginning of the Creation, before the Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the waters, Dark, and void, and without forme; He lies, as we may conceive, out of the Authors of Natural Story, the slime and mud of the River Nilus to lie, before the Sun-beams strike upon it; which after, by the heat of those beams, produces several shapes, and forms of creatures. So till this first beam of grace, which we consider here, strike upon the soul of a sinner, he lies in the mud and slime, in the dregs and lees, and tartar of his sin. He cannot so much as wish, that that Sun would shine upon him, he doth not so much as know, that there is such a Sun, that hath that influence, and impression; But if this first beam of Grace enlighten him to himself, reflect him upon himself, notum facit, (as the Text says) if it acquaint him with himself, then, as the creatures in the Creation, then, as the new creatures at Nilus, his sins begin to take their forms, and their specifications, and they appear to him in their particular true shapes, and that which he hath in a general name, called Pleasure or Wantonness, now calls it self in his conscience, a direct Adultery, a direct Incest; and that which he hath called Frugality, and providence for family and posterity, tells him plainly, My name is Oppression, and I am the spirit of covetousness. Many times men fall into company, and accompany others to houses of riot and uncleanness, and do not so much as know their sinful companions names; nay they do not so much as know the names of the sins that they commit, nor those circumstances in those sins, which vary the very name and nature of the sin.

But then, Oculos, quos culpa claudit, poena aperit, Those eyes, which sin shut, this first beam of Grace opens, when it comes, and works effectually upon us; Till this season of grace, this sinner is blind to the Sun, and deaf to Thunder. A wild Ass, that is used to the wilderness, and snuffeth up wind at her pleasure, in her occasion who can turn her away? An habitual sinner, that doth not stumble, but tumble, as a mighty stone down a hill, in the ways of his sin, in his occasion, who can turn him? in his rage of sin, what law can withhold him? But says the Prophet there, of that wild Ass, All they that seek her, will not weary themselves; Friends, Magistrates, Preachers, do but weary themselves, and lose their labor, in endeavouring to reclaim that sinner; But in her Month they shall find her, says the Prophet; That is, say our Expositors, when she is great and unweildy. Some such Moneth, God of his goodness brings upon this sinner; Some sickness, some judgement stops him, and then we find him; God by his Ordinance, executed by us, brings him to this Notum feci, into company with himself, into an acquaintance and conversation with himself, and he sees his sins look with other faces, and he hears his sins speak with other voices, and he finds then to call one another by other names: And when he is thus come to that consideration, Lord! how have I mistaken my self, Am I, that thought my self, and passed with others, for a sociable, a pleasurable man, and good company; am I a leprous Adulterer, is that my name? Am I, that thought my self a frugal man, and a good husband; I, whom fathers would recommend to their children, and say, Mark how he spares, how he grows up, how he gathers, am I an oppressing Extortioner, is that my name? Blessed be thy name, O Lord, that hast brought me to this notum feci, to know mine own name, mine own miserable condition; he will also say, may that blessing of thine enlarge it self farther, that as I am come to this notum feci, to know that I mistook my self all this while, so I may proceed to the non operui, to a perfect sifting of my conscience, in all corners: which is Davids second motion in his act of preparation, and our next consideration, I acknowledged my sin, and I hid none, disguised none, non operui.

Sometimes the Magistrate is informed of an abuse, and yet proceeds to no farther search, nor inquisition. This word implies a sifting of the conscience. He doth not only take knowledge of his sins, then when they discover themselves; of his riot and voluptuousness, then when he burns in a fever occasioned by his surfeits; nor of his licentiousness, then when he is under the anguish and smart of corrosives; nor of his wastefulness and pride, then when he is laid in prison for debt: He doth not seek his sins in his Belly, nor in his Bones, nor in his Purse, but in his Conscience, and he unfolds that, rips up that, and enters into the privatest, and most remote corners thereof. And there is much more in this negative circumstance, non operui, I hid nothing, then in the former acknowledgement, notum feci, I took knowledge of my sins. When they sent to sift John Baptist, whether he were The Christ, because he was willing to give them all satisfaction, he expressed himself so, He confessed, and denied not, and said, I am not the Christ. So when Ioshuah pressed Achan, to confess his trespass, he presses him with this negative addition, Show me what thou hast done, and hide it not; that is, disguise nothing that belongs to it. For, the better to imprint a confidence, and to remove all suspicion, Men to to their Masters, Wives to their Husbands, will confess something, but yet operiunt, they hide more. Those words, In multitudine virtutis tua, Through the greatness of thy power, thine enemies shall submit, S. Jerome, and the Septuagint before, and Tremellius after, and all that bind themselves to the Hebrew letter, read it thus, Mentientur tibi inimici tui, when thy power is showed upon them, when thy hand lies upon them, thine enemies will lie unto thee, They will counterfeit a confession, they will acknowledge some sins, but yet operiunt, they hide, they cover others. Saul in the defeat of the Amalekites reserved some of the fattest of the spoil, and being deprehended, and reprehended, he said he intended it for sacrifice: Many times, men in great place, abuse their own souls with that imagination, or palliation, That they do God good service in some sin, and that they should more hurt the cause of God, if they should proceed earnestly to the punishment of those that oppose it, then if they let them alone, and so leave laws unexecuted, and Gods truth endangered. But Davids issue was, non iniquitas, non operui, I left none iniquity unsearched, I hid none.

But any thing serves us for a cover of sin, even from a Net, that every man sees through, to such a cloud of darkness, as none but the prince of darkness, that cast that cloud upon us, can see us in it, nor we see our selves. That we should hide lesser sins with greater, is not so strange; That in an Adultery, we should forget the circumstances in it, and the practises to come to it. But we hide greater sins with lesser, with a manifold, and multiplied throng and cloud of lesser sins, all comes to an indifferency, and so we see not great sins. Easines of conversation in a woman, seems no great harm; Adorning themselves to please those with whom they converse, is not much more; To hear them, whom they are thus willing to please, praise them, and magnify their perfections, is little more then that; To allow them to sue, and solicit for the possession of that which they have so much praised, is not much more neither; Nor will it seem much at last, to give them possession of that they sue for; nay it will seem a kind of injustice to deny it them. We hide lesser sins with greater, greater with lesser; Nay we hide the devil with God, we hide all the weeks sins with a Sabbaths solemnity: And as in the Roman Church, they poisoned God, (when they had made their Bread-god, they poisoned the Emperor with that bread) so this is a Possessing of God, a making the devil to enter into God, when we hide our sins with an outward sanctity, and call God to witness and testify to the Congregation, that we are saints, when we are devils; for this is a suborning of God, and a drawing of God himself into a perjury. We hide our sins in his house, by hypocrisy, all our lives, and we hide them at our deaths, perchance with an Hospital. And truly we had need do so, when we have impoverished God, in his children, by our extorsions, and wounded him, and lamed him, in them, by our oppressions, we had need provide God an Hospital. As men that rob houses thrust in a child at the window, and he opens greater doors for them, so lesser sins make way for greater. De minimis non curat Lex, The law is fain to pass over small faults; but De minimis cur at lux, That light of grace, by which a sinner disposes himself to confession, must discover every sin, and hide none, suffer none to hide it self, nor lie hidden under others. When God speaks so much of Behemoth, and Leviathan, the great land and seaoppressors, he calls us to the consideration of the insupportableness of great sins; but in the plains of Egypt by hail, and locusts, and lice, little and contemptible things, he calls us to the consideration of these vermine of the soul, lesser and unconsidered sins. David had not accomplished his work upon himself, his reflected, his preparatory Act, till he had made both those steps, notum feci, non operui, first I took knowledge of my sinful condition, and then I proceeded to a particular inquisition of my Conscience, I took knowledge of my sin, and mine iniquity I have not hid, and then he was fit to think of an access to God, by confession, Dixi confiteber, &c.

This word, Dixi, Amar, I said, is a word that implies first meditation, deliberation, considering, and then upon such meditation, a resolution too, and execution after all. When it is said of God, dixit, and dixit, God said this, and said that, in the first Creation, Cave ne cogites strepitum, Do not think that God uttered any sound; His speaking was inward, his speaking was thinking. So David uses this word in the person of another, Dixit insipiens, The fool hath said, that is, In corde, said in his heart, that is, thought that there is no God. There speaking is thinking; and speaking is resolving too. So Davids son Solomon uses the word, Behold I purpose to build a house unto the Lord, where the word is, I say, I will do it, Speaking is determining; and speaking is executing too, Dixi custodiam, I said I will take heed to my ways, that is, I will proceed and go forward in the paths of God. And such a premeditation, such a preconsideration, do all our approaches, and accesses to God, and all our acts in his service require. God is the Rock of our salvation; God is no Occasional God, no Accidental God; neither will God be served by Occasion, nor by Accident, but by a constant Devotion. Our communication with God must not be in Interjections; that come in by chance; nor our Devotions made up of Parentheses, that might be left out. They err equally, that make a God of Necessity, and that make a God of Contingency: They that with the Manichees, make an ill God, a God that forces men to do all the ill that they do, And they that with the Epicures, make an idle God, an indifferent God, that cares not what is done; God is not Destiny; Then there could be no reward, nor punishment: but God is not Fortune neither, for then there were no Providence. If God have given reason only to Man, it were strange that Man should exercise that reason, in all his Moral and Civil actions, and only do the acts of Gods worship casually; To go to Court, to Westminster, to the Exchange, for ends, and to come to Church, by chance, or for company, or for some collateral respects, that have no relation to God, Not to think of our Confession, till the Priest have called upon us, to say after him, We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, To come for Absolution, as Nebuchadnezzar came to Daniel, for the interpretation of his Dream, who did not only not understand his Dream, but not remember it, Somnium ejus fugit ab eo, He did not only not know what his Dream meant, but he did not know what his Dream was, Not to consider the nature of Confession, and Absolution, not to consider the nature of the sins we should confess, and be absolved of, is a stupidity against Davids practise here; Dixit, He said, he meditated, he considered, Gods service is no extemporal thing. But then Dixit, He resolved too, for so the word signifies, Consideration, but Resolution upon it; And then, that he Resolved, he Executed.

This is not only Davids dixit in corde, where speaking is thinking, nor only Solomons dixi adificabo, I resolved how I might build, but it is also the Prodigals Dixi revertar, I said I will go to my Father, A resolving and executing of that Resolution for that, that execution crowns all. How many think to come hither, when they wake, and are not ready when the hour comes? And even this mornings omission is an abridgement, or an essay of their whole lives, They think to repent every day, and are not ready when the bell tolls. It is well said of Gods speaking, in the Creation, It was Dictio practica, diffinitiva, Imperativa, It was an Actual speaking, a Definitive, an Imperative speaking; And, Dicto absolvit negotium, His saying he would do it, that is, his meaning to do it, was the very doing of it. Our Religious duties require meditations, for God is no extemporal God; Those produce determinations, for God must not be held in suspence; And they flow into executions, for God is not an illusible God, to be carried with promises, or purposes only; And all those links of this religious Chain, Consideration, Resolution, Execution, Thought, Word, and Practise, are made out of this golden word, Amar, Dixi, I said I will do it. And then, Dixi confitebor, I considered, that my best way was to confess, and I resolved to do so, and I did it; Dixi confitebor.

It is but a homely Metaphor, but it is a wholesome, and a useful one, Confessio vomitus, Confession works as a vomit; It shakes the frame, and it breaks the bed of sin; and it is an ease to the spiritual stomach, to the conscience, to be thereby disburdened. It is an ease to the sinner, to the patient; but that that makes it absolutely necessary, is that it is a glory to God; for in all my spiritual actions, Apprecations, or Deprecations, whether I pray for benefits, or against calamities, still my Alpha, and Omega, my first and last motive, must be the glory of God. Therefore Ioshuah says to Achan, My Son, give I pray thee, glory unto the Lord God of Israel, and make Confession unto him. Now, the glory of God arises not out of the Confessing; but because every true Confessing is accompanied with a detestation of the sin, as it hath separated me from God, and a sense of my re-union, and redintegration with God, in the abjuration of my former sins, (for, to tell my sin by way of a good tale, or by boasting in it, though it be a revealing, a manifesting, is not a Confession) in every true confession God hath glory, because he hath a straid soul, re-united to his Kingdom. And to advance this Glory, David confesses Peccata, sins; which is our next Consideration, I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord.

First he resents his state, All is not well; Then he examines himself, Thus and thus it stands with me; Then he considers, then he resolves, then he executes, He confesses, (so far we are gone) and now he confesses sins. For, the Pharisees, (though he pretended a Confession) was rather an exprobration, how much God had been beholden to him, for his Sabbaths, for his Alms, for his Tithes, for his Fasting. David confesses sins; first, such things as were truly sins. For, as the element of Air, that lyes between the Water, and the Fire, is sometimes condensed into water, sometimes rarified into fire: So lyes the conscience of man between two operations of the Devil; sometimes he rarifies it, evaporates it, that it apprehends nothing, feels nothing to be sin, sometimes he condenses it, that every thing falls and sticks upon it, in the nature, and takes the weight of sin, and he mis-interprets the indifferent actions of others, and of his own, and destroys all use of Christian liberty, all conversation, all recreation, and out of a false fear, of being undutiful to God, is unjust to all the world, and to his own soul, and consequently to God himself, who, of all notions, would not be received in the notion of a Cruel, or Tyrannical God. In an obdurate conscience that feels no sin, the Devil glories most, but in the over-tender conscience he practises most; That is his triumphant, but this is his militant Church; That is his Sabbath, but this is his six days labor; In the obdurate he hath induced a security, in the scriptures, which the Holy Ghost hath exprest in so many names, as Sin; Sin, Wickedness, Iniquity, Transgressions, Offences, Many, many more; And all this, that thereby we might reflect upon our selves often, and see if our particular actions fell not under some of those names; But then, lest this should over-intimidate us, there are as many names given by the Holy Ghost, to the Law of God; Law, Statutes, Ordinances, Covenants, Testimony, Precept, and all the rest, of which there is some one at least, repeated in every verse of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm; that thereby we might still have a Rule to measure, and try our actions by, whether they be sins or no. For, as the Apostle says, He had not known sin, if he had not known the Law; So there had been no sin, if there had been no Law. And therefore that soul that feels it self oppressed under the burden of a Vow, must have recourse to the Law of God, and see whether that Vow fall under the Rule of that Law; For as an over-tender conscience may call things sins, that are not, and so be afraid of things that never were, so may it also of things that were, but are not now; of such sins as were truly sins, and fearful sins, but are now dead, dead by a true repentance, and buried in the Sea of the blood of Christ Jesus, and sealed up in that Monument, under the seal of Reconciliation, the blessed Sacrament, and yet rise sometimes in this tender conscience, in a suspicion and jealousy, that God hath not truly, not fully forgiven them. And as a Ghost, which we think we see, afrights us more then an army that we do see: So these apparitions of sins, of things that are not against any Law of God, and so are not sins, or sins that are dead in a true repentance, and so have no being at all, by the Devils practise work dangerously upon a distempered conscience; for, as God hath given the Soul an Imagination, and a Fancy, as well as an Understanding, So the Devil imprints in the conscience, a false Imagination, as well as a fearful sense of true sin. David confesses sins, sins that were truly sins.

But the more ordinary danger is, in our not calling those things which are truly sins, by that name. For, as sometimes when the Baptism of a Child is deferred for State, the Child dies unbaptized: So the sinner defers the Baptism of his sin, in his tears, and in the blood of his Savior, offered in the blessed Sacrament, till he dye nameless, nameless in the book of Life. It is a Character, that one of the ancientest Poets gives of a well-bred, and well-governed Gentleman, That he would not tell such lyes as were like truths, not probable lyes; nor such truths as were like lyes, not wonderful, not incredible truths; It is the constancy of a rectified Christian, not to call his indifferent actions sins, for that is to slander God, as a cruel God; nor to call sins indifferent actions, for that is to undervalue God, as a negligent God. God doth not keep the Conscience of man upon the wrack, in a continual torture and stretching; But God doth not stupify the conscience with an Opiate, in an insensibleness of any sin. The law of God is the balance, and the Criterium; By that try thine actions, and then confess. David did so; Peccata, he confessed sins; nothing, that was not so, as such; neither omitted he any thing, that was so. And then they were Peccata sua, His sins, I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord.

First, Sua, His sins, that is, à se perpetrata, sins which he confesses to have been of his voluntary committing; He might, and did not avoid them. When Adam said, by way of alienation, and transferring his fault, The woman whom thou gavest me; And the woman said, The Serpent deceived me; God took this, by way of Information to find out the Principal, but not by way of extenuation, or alleviation of their faults; Every Adam eats with as much sweat of his brows, and every Eve brings forth her Children with as much pain in her travail, as if there had been no Serpent in the case. If a man sin against God, who shall plead for him? If a man lay his sins upon the Serpent, upon the Devil, it is no plea, but if he lay them upon God, it is blasphemy. Job finds some ground of a pious Expostulation with God, in that, My flesh is not brass, nor my strength stones; And such as I am, thou hast made me; why then doest thou set me up as a mark to shoot at? But Job never hopes for ease, in any such allegation; Thou hast made my soul a Cisterne, and then poured temptations into it; Thou hast enfeebled it with denying it thy Grace, and then put a giant, a necessity of sinning upon it. My sins are mine own; The Sun is no cause of the shadow my body casts, nor God of the sins I commit. David confesses his sins, that is, he confesses them to be His; And then he confesses His, He meddles not with those that are other mens.

The Magistrate and the Minister are bound to consider the sins of others; for, their sins become Qaodammodo nostra, in some sort ours, if we do not reprove, if the Magistrate do not correct those sins. All men are bound to confess, and lament the sins of the people. It was then when Daniel was in that exercise of his Devotion, Confessing his sin, and the sin of his people, that he received that comfort from the Angel Gabriel; And yet, even then, the first thing that fell under his Confession, was his own sin, My sin, And then, The sin of my people. When Iosephs brethren came to a sense of that sin, in having sold him, none of them transfers the sin from himself, neither doth any of them discharge any of the rest of that sin: They all take all; They said to one another, says that Text, we, all we, are verily guilty, and therefore is this distress come upon us, upon us all; National calamities are induced by general sins, and where they fall, we cannot so charge the Laity, as to free the Clergy, nor so charge the people, as to free the Magistrate. But as great sums are raised by little personal Contributions; so a little true sorrow from every soul, would make a great sacrifice to God, and a few tears from every eye, a deeper and a safer Sea, about this Iland, then that that doth wall it. Let us therefore never say, that it is Aliena ambitio, The immoderate ambition of a pretending Monarch, that endangers us, That it is Aliena perfidia, The falsehood of perfidious neighbours that hath disappointed us, That it is Aliena fortuna, The growth of others who have shot up under our shelter, that may overtop us; They are Peccata nostra, our own pride, our own wantonness, our own drunkenness, that makes God shut and close his hand towards us, withdraw his former blessings from us, and then strike us with that shut, and closed, and heavy hand, and multiply calamities upon us. What a Parliament meets at this hour in this Kingdom? How many such Committees as this? how many such Congregations stand, as we do here, in the presence of God, at this hour? And what a Subsidy should this State receive, and what a sacrifice should God receive, if every particular man would but depart with his own beloved sin? We dispute what is our own, as though we would but know what to give. Alas, our sins are our own, let us give them. Our sins are our own; that we confess; And we confess them, according to Davids Method, Domino, to the Lord; I will confess my sins to the Lord.

After he had deliberated, and resolved upon his course, what he would do, he never stayed upon the person, to whom; His way being Confession, he stayed not long in seeking his ghostly Father, his Confessor, Confitebor Domino. And first, Peccata Domino, That his sins were sins against the Lord. For, as every sin is a violation of a Law, so every violation of a Law reflects upon the Law-maker. It is the same offence to coin a penny, and a piece; The same to counterfeit the seal of a Subpoena, as of a Pardon. The second Table was writ by the hand of God, as well as the first; And the Majesty of God, as he is the Law-giver, is wounded in an adultery, and a theft, as well as in an Idolatry, or a blasphemy. It is not enough to consider the deformity and the foulness of an Action so, as that an honest man would not have done it; but so as it violates a law of God, and his Majesty in that law. The shame of men, is one bridle, that is cast upon us. It is a moral obduration, and in the suburbs, next door to a spiritual obduration, to be Voice-proof, Censure-proof, not to be afraid, nor ashamed, what the world says. He that relyes upon his Plaudo domi, Though the world hiss, I give my self a Plaudite at home, I have him at my Table, and her in my bed, whom I would have, and I care not for rumor; he that rests in such a Plaudite, prepares for a Tragedy, a Tragedy in the Amphitheater, the double Theater, this world, and the next too. Even the shame of the world should be one one bridle, but the strongest is the other, Peccata Domino, To consider that every sin is a violation of the Majesty of God.

And then Confitebor Domino, says David, I will confess my sins to the Lord; sins are not confessed, if they be not confessed to him; and if they be confessed to him, in case of necessity it will suffice, though they be confessed to no other. Indeed, a confession is directed upon God, though it be made to his Minister: If God had appointed his Angels, or his Saints to absolve me, as he hath his Ministers, I would confess to them. Ioshuah took not the jurisdiction out of Gods hands, when he said to Achan, Give glory unto the God of Israel, in making thy confession to him; And tell me now, what thou hast done, and hide it not from me. The law of the Leper, is, That he shall be brought unto the Priest; Men come not willingly to this manifestation of themselves; nor are they to be brought in chains, as they do in the Roman Church, by a necessity of an exact enumeration of all their sins: But to be led with that sweetness, with which our Church proceeds, in appointing sick persons, if they seele their consciences troubled with any weighty matter, to make a special confession, and to receive absolution at the hands of the Priest; And then to be remembered, that every comming to the Communion, is as serious a thing as our transmigration out of this world, and we should do as much here, for the settling of our Conscience, as upon our death-bed; And to be remembered also, that none of all the Reformed Churches have forbidden Confession, though some practise it less then others. If I submit a cause to the Arbitrement of any man, to end it, secundùm voluntatem, says the Law, How he will, yet still Arbitrium est arbitrium boni viri, his will must be regulated by the rules of common honesty, and general equity. So when we lead men to this holy ease of discharging their heavy spirits, by such private Confessions, yet this is still limited by the law of God, so far as God hath instituted this power by his Gospel, in his Church, and far from inducing amongst us, that torture of the Conscience, that usurpation of Gods power, that spying into the counsels of Princes, & supplanting of their purposes, with which the Church of Rome hath been deeply charged.

And this useful and un-mis-interpretable Confession, which we speak of, is the more recommended to us, in that with which David shuts up his Act, (as out of S. Jerome, and out of our former translation, we intimated unto you) that he doth all this Adversum se, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, against my self; The more I find Confession, or any religious practise, to be against my self, and repugnant to mine own nature, the farther I will go in it. For, still the Adversum me, is Cum Deo; The more I say against my self, the more I vilify my self, the more I glorify my God. As S. Chry sostome says, every man is Spontaneus Satan, a Satan to himself, as Satan is a Tempter, every man can tempt himself; so I will be Spontaneus Satan, as Satan is an Accuser, an Adversary, I will accuse my self. I consider often that passionate humiliation of S. Peter, Exi à me Domine, He fell at Jesus knees, saying, Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord; And I am often ready to say so, and more; Depart from me, O Lord, for I am sinful enough to infect thee; As I may persecute thee in thy Children, so I may infect thee in thine Ordinances; Depart, in withdrawing thy word from me, for I am corrupt enough to make even thy saving Gospel, the savor of death unto death; Depart, in withholding thy Sacrament, for I am leprous enough to taint thy flesh, and to make the balm of thy blood, poison to my soul; Depart, in withdrawing the protection of thine Angels from me, for I am vicious enough to imprint corruption and rebellion into their nature. And if I be too foul for God himself to come near me, for his Ordinances to work upon me, I am no companion for my self, I must not be alone with my self; for I am as apt to take, as to give infection; I am a reciprocal plague; passively and actively contagious; I breath corruption, and breath it upon my self; and I am the Babylon that I must go out of, or I perish. I am not only under Iacobs Non dignus, Not worthy the least of all thy mercies; nor only under the Centurions Non dignus, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, That thy Spirit should ever speak to my spirit, (which was the forme of words, in which every Communicant received the Sacrament, in the Primitive Church, Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof;) Nor only under the Prodigals Non dignus, Not worthy to be called thy son; neither in the filiation of Adoption, for I have deserved to be dis-inherited; nor in the filiation of Creation, for I have deserved to be annihilated; But Non dignus procumbere, I am not worthy to stoop down, to fall down, to kneel before thee, in thy Minister, the Almoner of thy Mercy, the Treasurer of thine Absolutions. So far do I confess Adversum me, against my self, as that I confess, I am not worthy to confess, nor to be admitted to any access, any approach to thee, much less to an act, so near Reconciliation to thee, as an accusation of my self, or so near thy acquitting, as a self-condemning. Be this the issue in all Controversies, whensoever any new opinions distract us, Be that still thought best, that is most Adversum nos, most against our selves, That that most lays flat the nature of man, so it take it not quite away, and blast all virtuous indeavours; That that most exalts the Grace and Glory of God, be that the Truth; And so have you the whole mystery of Davids Confession, in both his Acts; preparatory, in resenting his sinful condition in general, and survaying his conscience in particular; And then his Deliberation, his Resolution, his Execution, his Confession; Confession of true sins, and of them only, and of all them, of his sins, and all this to the Lord, and all that against himself. That which was proposed for the second Part, must fall into the compass of a Conclusion, and a short one, that is Gods Act, Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

This is a wide door, and would let out Armies of Instructions to you; but we will shut up this door, with these two leaves thereof, The fullness of Gods Mercy, He forgives the sin and the punishment; And the seasonableness, the acceleration of his mercy, in this expression in our text, that Davids is but Actus inchoatus, He says he will confess, And Gods is Actus consummatus, Thou forgavest, Thou hadst already forgiven the iniquity, and punishment of my sin. These will be the two leaves of this door; and let the hand that shuts them be this And, this Particle of Connection which we have in the text, I said, And thou didst. For though this Remission of sin be not presented here as an effect upon that cause of Davids Confession, (It is not delivered in a Quia, and an Ergo, Because David did this, God did that; for mans will leads not the will of God, as a cause, who does all his acts of mercy for his mercies sake) yet though it be not an effect, as from a cause, yet it is at least as a consequent from an occasion, so assured, so infallible, as let any man confess as David did, and he shall be sure to be forgiven as David was. For though this forgiveness be a flower of mercy, yet the root grows in the Justice of God; If we acknowledge our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin; It grows out of his faithfulness, as he hath vouchsafed to bind himself by a promise, And out of his Justice, as he hath received a full satisfaction for all our sins. So that this Hand, this And, in our Text, is as a ligament, as a sinew, to connect and knit together that glorious body of Gods preventing grace, and his subsequent grace; if our Confession come between and tie the knot, God, that moved us to that act, will perfect all.

Here enters the fullness of his mercy, at one leaf of this door; well expressed at our door, in that Ecce sto, & pulso, Behold, I stand at the door and knock; for, first he comes; here is no mention of our calling of him before; He comes of himself; And then he suffers not us to be ignorant of his comming, he comes so, as that he manifests himself, Ecce, Behold; And then he expects not that we should wake with that light, and look out of our selves, but he knocks, solicits us, at least, with some noise at our doors, some calamities upon our neighbours; And again he appears not, like a lightning that passes away as soon as it is seen, that no man can read by it, nor work by it, nor light a candle, nor kindle a coal by it, but he stands at the door, and expects us; all day; not only with a patience, but with a hunger to effect his purpose upon us, he would come in, and sup with us, Accept our diet, our poor endeavors; And then, would have us sup with him, (as it is there added) would feast us with his abundant Graces, which he brings even home to our doors; But those he does not give us at the door; not till we have let him in, by the good use of his former grace; And as he offers this fullness of his mercy, by these means before, so by way of Pardon, and Remission, if we have been defective in opening the door upon his standing and knocking, this fullness is fully expressed in this word of this Text, as our two Translations, (neither departing from the natural signification of the word) have rendered it.

The word is the same here, in Davids sweetness, as in Cains bitterness, Gnavon; and we cannot tell, whether Cain speak there of a punishment too great to be born, or of a sin too great to be pardoned; Nor which David means here; It fills up the measure of Gods mercy, if we take him to mean both. God, upon Confession, forgives the punishment of the sin; So that the just terror of Hell, and the imaginary terror of Purgatory, for the next World, is taken away; and for this World, what calamities and tribulations soever fall upon us, after these Confessions, and Remissions, they have not the nature of punishments, but they are Fatherly Corrections, and Medicinal assistances, against relapses, and have their main relation and prospect upon the future.

For not only the sin it self, but the iniquity of the sin, is said to be forgiven; God keeps nothing in his mind against the last day; But whatsoever is worst in the sin, the venom, The malignity of the sin, The violation of his Law, The affrontings of his Majesty residing in that Law, though it have been a winking at his light, a resisting of his light, the ill nature, the malignity, the iniquity of the sin is forgiven. Only this remains, That God extinguishes not the right of a third Person, nor pardons a Murder so, as that he barres another from his Appeal: Not that his pardon is not full, upon a full Confession, but that the Confession is no more full, if it be not accompanied with Satisfaction, that is, Restitution of all unjustly gotten, then if the Confession lacked Contrition, and true sorrow. Otherwise the iniquity of the sin, and the punishment of the sin, are both fully pardoned. And so we have shut one leaf of this door, The fullness; The other is the speed, and acceleration of his mercy, and that leaf we will clap to, in a word.

This is expressed in this, David is but at his Dixit, and God at his Remisit; David was but Saying, nay, but Thinking, and God was Doing, nay Perfecting his work. To the Lepers that cried out for mercy, Christ said, Go, show your selves to the Priest; So he put them into the way; and they went, says the text; and as they went, they were healed upon the way. No man comes into the way, but by the illumination, and direction of God, Christ put them into the way. The way is the Church; no man is cured out of the way; no man that separates himself from the Church; nor in the way neither, except he go; If he live negligently, and trust only upon the outward profession; nor though he go, except he go according to Christ bidding; except he conform himself to that worship of God, and to those means of sanctification, which God hath instituted in his Church, without singularities of his own, or Traditions of other mens inventing, and imposing. This, this submitting, and conforming our selves to God, so as God hath commanded us, the purposing of this, and the endeavouring of this, is our Dixit in the Text, our saying that we will do it, and upon this Dixit, this purposing, this endeavouring, instantly, immediately, infallibly follows the Remisit, God will, God does, God hath forgiven, the iniquity, and the punishment of the sin.

Therefore to end all, Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord. No liquor comes so clearly, so absolutely from the vessel, not oil, not milk, not wine, not honey, as that it leaves no taste behind; so may sweet sins; and therefore pour out, says the Prophet, not the liquor, but the heart it self, and take a new heart of Gods making; for thy former heart was never so of Gods making, as that Adam had not a hand in it; and his Image was in it, in Original sin, as well as Gods in the Creation. As liquors poured out leave a taste and a smell behind them, unperfected Confessions (And who perfects his Confession?) leave ill gottten goods sticking upon thine heir, and they leave a taste, and a delight to think, and speak of former sins, sticking upon thy self; But pour out thy heart like water; All ill impressions in the very root. And for the accomplishment of this great Mystery of Godliness by Confession, fixe thy Meditations upon those words, and in the strength of them, come now, (or when thou shalt be better strengthened by the Meditation of them) to the Table of the Lord, The Lord looketh upon men, And, if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit, and his life shall see light; and it is added, Loe all these things worketh God twice and thrice. Here is a fullness of consolation, first plenary, and here is a present forgiveness; If man, if any man say, I have sinned, God doth, God forgives; and here is more then that, an iteration, if thou fall upon infirmity again, God will on penitence more carefully performed, forgive again. This he will do twice, or thrice says the Hebrew, our Translation might boldly say, as it doth, This God will do often. But yet if God find dolum in spiritu, an over-confidence in this, God cannot be mocked; And therefore take heed of trusting upon it too often, but especially of trusting upon it too late. And whatsoever the Holy Ghost may mean by the twice or thrice, be sure to do it once, do it now, and receive thy Savior there, and so as he offers himself unto thee in these his Ordinances this day, once, and twice, and thrice, that is, in prayer, in preaching, in the Sacrament. For this is thy trinity upon earth, that must bring thee to the Trinity in heaven: To which Trinity, &c.

Serm. LIX. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.6.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

YOu would not be weary of reading a long conveiance, in which the land were given to your selves; nor of a long Will, in which the body of the state were bequeathed to you. Be not weary, if at any time your patience be exercised some minutes beyond the threescore, sometime beyond the hour in these exercises, for we exhibit the conveiance, in which the land, the land of Promise is made yours, and the Testament, in which even the Testator himself is bequeathed to you. But Legacies must be demanded, and oftentimes sued for; and in this text you are directed how to come by it, by prayer, (For this shall every one, &c.) And you are encouraged in the suit by the value of that you are to recover, by the effect of prayer, Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh to him: and these two, the way and the end, the manner and the matter, prayer and the benefit thereof, will be our two parts. And in the first of these, The duty of prayer, though we be elsewhere commanded To pray continually, yet for all that continual disposition, we have here certain limitations, or rather indeed preparations, lest that which we call Prayer should not be so, and these are four: For first, it is but omnis sanctus, every godly man shall pray, for the prayer of the wicked turns to sin; And then the object of prayer, to whom it must be directed, is limited, it is but ad te, unto thee he shall pray, beyond him we cannot go, and he that prays short of him, to any on this side of God, falls short in his prayer; And in a third consideration, the subject, the matter of his prayer is limited too, It is but propter hoc, for this shall he pray, that is, for that which hath been formerly expressed, not whatsoever our desires, or our anguish, and vexation, and impatience presents or suggests to us; And lastly, the time is limited too, In tempore opportuno, In a time when thou mayest be found. In these four, we shall determine that first part, the duty; and in the second the reward, the benefit, which is deliverance, (Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh him) we shall see first, that the world is diluvium aquarum, a deluge of water floods that threaten all; But yet though worldly calamities be of that spreading, and diffusive, and overflowing nature, non approximabit, there are places that it cannot come to, rocks that it cannot shake, hills that it cannot overflow; God hath so erected the godly man, that he is a non ultra, a bank to this sea; It shall not come near him; and this David establishes with that seal of infallibility, Surely, Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh him. And these be the steps by which we shall lead you to the greatest happiness, that is, deliverance from all afflictions, and that by the noblest means, and the fairest way, that is, familiar conversation with God by prayer.

Into our first part, The duty of prayer, we shall make our entry with this consideration, That our religious Duties, in their precepts, are for the most part accompanied with reasons to induce us to the performance thereof: Hoc fac & vives; Do this, says God; do it, because I command it, at least do it, because if thou do it, thou shalt live for ever. And so, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares; Here the reason of the precept is example; others have prospered that way, therefore walk thou in it. God illustrates his precepts, comments upon his own Text much by examples. First, to raise us to the best height, God makes himself our example, Sicut Pater, Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy: Then, because we cannot reach to that, he makes men like our selves (at least, such as we should be) our example, Sicut Elijah, Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed that it might not rain, and it rained not, and that it might, and it did. If we be not able to conform our selves to the singularity of one particular and transcendent man, he sends as to the whole body of good men, his servants, Sicut Prophetae, Take, my brethren, the Prophets, for an example of long patience. And because he knows our inclination, to be a declination, and that we cast those looks, which he made upward towards him, downward towards the creature, he sends us to creatures of an ignobler nature, Vade ad formicam, Go to the Ant, do as she doth, be as industrious in thy business, as she is in hers. And then, as in inclining us to good, so also for avoiding of sinful courses, he leads us by example too, Non sicut quidam eorum, Be not idolaters as some of them, nor fornicators, nor tempters of Christ, nor murmurers, as some of them. And as that Apostle begins that catalogue there, so, These are examples to us, so he ends it thus also, These things came unto them for examples: God suffers the wicked to proceed in their sin, and he powers down his judgements upon them for their sins, not only for their punishment, but therefore, that they might be examples to us. Now if God raise a glory to himself in the destruction of the wicked, if he make the wicked in their ruin, even Ministers in his Church, that is, edifiers, and instructers of others, by their own ruin, if their ruin be a sensible Catechism, and a visible Sermon for the edifying of others, how much more doth it conduce to his glory, that the righteousness, and holy conversation of his Ministers, and Prophets should be a lanterne to the feet of his people? This is all that David promises in thankfulness for that mercy which he asks of God, This is that that he asks; Restore me to the joy of thy salvation, Et confirma me spiritu principali, Establish me with thy free spirit, Spiritu munisico, says S. Jerome, with thy liberal, thy bountiful Spirit; This is much that David asks; and what will David do for God? This; I will teach thy ways unto the wicked, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. And this is that which S. Paul apprehended to have moved God, to use his service in the Church; For this cause was I received to mercy, that Jesus Christ should first show unto me all long suffering; but that was not all; But as it follows there, Vnto the example of them, which shall in time to come believe in him unto eternal life. It is an unexpressible comfort to have been Gods instrument, for the conversion of others, by the power of Preaching, or by a holy and exemplar life in any calling. And with this comfort David proceeds in the recommendation of this duty of Prayer, Day and night I have felt thy hand upon me, I have acknowledged my sin unto thee, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin; thus it stood with me, and by my example, For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou maiest be found.

First then, the person that hath any access allowed him, any title to pray, is he that is Godly, holy. Now, Omnis Sanctus, est omnis Baptismate sanctificatus: Those are the holy ones whom God will hear, who are of the household of the faithful, of the Communion of Saints, matriculated, engraffed, enrolled in the Church, by that initiatory Sacrament of Baptism; for, the house of God, into which we enter by Baptism, is the house of Prayer; And, as out of the Ark, whosoever swam best, was not saved by his swimming, no more is any moral man, out of the Church, by his praying: He that swomme in the flood, swomme but into more and more water; he that prays out of the Church, prays but into more and more sin, because he doth not establish his prayer in that, Grant this for our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus sake. It is true then, that these holy ones, whose prayer is acceptable, are those of the Christian Church; Only they; but is it all they? are all their prayers acceptable? There is a second concoction necessary too: Not only to have been sanctified by the Church in Baptism, but a sanctification in a worthy receiving of the other Sacrament too; A life that pleads the first seal, Baptism, and claims the other seal, The body and blood of Christ Jesus: We know the Wise mans counsel, concerning propitiation, Be not without fear. Though thou have received the propitiatory Sacrament of Baptism, be afraid that thou hast not all. Will the milk that thou suckedst from a wholesome Nurse, keep thee alive now? Or canst thou dine upon last years meat to day? He that hath that first holiness, The holiness of the Covenant, the holiness of Baptism, let him pray for more. For Omnis Sanctus, is Quantumcumque Sanctus, How holy soever he be, that holiness will not defray him all the way, but that holiness is a faire letter of credit, and a bill of exchange for more. When canst thou think thy self holy enough? when thou hast washed thy self in snow water? In penitent tears? (as the best purity of this life is expressed) why, even then, Abominabuntur te vestimenta tua, Thine own clothes shall make thee abominable. Is all well, when thou thinkest all well? why, All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirit. If thine own spirit, thine own conscience accuse thee of nothing, nothing unrepented, is all well? why, I know nothing by my self, yet am I not thereby justified. It is God only that is Surveyor of thy holiness, And, Behold, he found no stedfastness in his Servants, and laid folly upon his Angels; how much more in them, that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust? Sordet in conspectu aeterni Iudieis, When that eternal Judge comes to value our transitory, or imaginary, our hollow, and rusty, and rotten holiness, Sordet quod in intention fulget operantis, Even that which had a good lustre, a good speciousness, not only in the eyes of men that saw it, who might be deceived by my hypocrisy, but in the purpose of him that did it, becomes base, more allay then pure metal, more corruption then devotion.

Though Jacob, when he fled from his Father in law, Laban, were free enough himself, from the theft of Labans Idols, yet it was dangerously pronounced of him, With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: For, his own Wife, Rachel had stollen them: And Caro conjux; Thy Wife, thy flesh, thy weaker part, may insinuate much sin into thine actions, even when thy spirit is at strongest, and thou in thy best confidence. Only thus these two cases may differ; Rachel was able to cover those stollen Idols from her Fathers finding, with that excuse, The custom of Women is come upon me; But thou shalt not be able to cover thy stollen sins, with saying, The infirmity of man is come upon me, I do but as other men do; Though thou have that degree towards sanctification, that thou sin not out of presumption, but out of infirmity, though thou mayest in a modified sense fall within Davids word, Omnis sanctus, A holy man, yet every holy and godly man must pray, that even those infirmities may be removed too. Qui sanctificatur, sanctificetur adhuc: He that is holy, let him be holy still; not only so holy still, but still more and more holy. For, beloved, As in the firmament, of those stars which are reduced into Constellations, and into a certainty of shapes, of figures, and images, we observe some to be of one greatness, some of another, we observe divers magnitudes in all them, but to all those other Stars, which are not reduced into those forms, and figures, we allow no magnitude at all, no proportion at all, no name, no consideration: So for those blessed souls which are collected into their eternal dwelling in Heaven, which have their immoveable possession, position at the right hand of God, as one Star differs from another in glory, so do these Saints which are in Heaven; But whilst men are upon this earth, though they be stars, (Saints of God) though they be in the firmament, established in the true Church of God, yet they have no magnitude, no proportion, no certainty, no holiness in themselves, nor in any thing formerly done by God in their behalf, and declared to us; but their present degrees of godliness give them but that qualification, that they may pray acceptably for more; He must be so godly before he pray, and his prayer must be for more godliness; and all directed to the right object of prayer, To God, Vnto Thee shall every one that is godly pray, which is our next, the second of our four Considerations in this first part.

Ad Te, To God, because he can hear; And then Ad te, to God, because he can give. Certainly it were a strange distemper, a strange singularity, a strange circularity, in a man that dwelt at Windsor, to fetch all his water at London Bridge: So is it in him, that lives in Gods presence, (as he does, that lives religiously in his Church) to go for all his necessities, by Invocation to Saints. David was willing be our example for Prayer, but he gives no example of scattering our prayers upon any other then God. Christ Jesus was willing to give us a Rule for Prayer: but if he had intended that his Rule should have been deflected and declined to Saints, he would have taught us to say, Frater noster qui es in Coelis, and not only Pater noster; to pray to our Brethren which are there too, and not only to our Father which is in Heaven. If any man have tasted at Court, what it is to be ever welcome to the King himself, and what it is to speak to another to speak for him, he will bless that happiness, of having an immediate access to God himself in his prayers. They that come so low down the stream, as we said before, to London Bridge, they will go lower, and lower, to Gravesend too; They that come to Saints, they will come to the Images, and Reliques of Saints too; They come to a brackish water, between salt and fresh, and they come at last, to be swallowed up in that sea which hath no limit, no bottom, that is, to direct all their devotions to such Saints, as have no certainty, not only not in their ability, we know not what those Saints can do, but not in their history, we know not that such as they pray to, are Saints; nay, we know not whether they ever were at all. So that this may be Idolatry, in the strictest acceptation of the word, Idol; Idolum nihil est; let that be true, which they say, and in their sense, Our Images are not Idols, for an Idol is nothing, represents nothing, but our Images are the Images of Men that once were upon the earth. But that is not throughout true; for they worship Images of those who never were; Christophers, and other symbolical, and emblematical Saints, which never lived here, but were, and are yet nothing. But let them be true Saints, how will they make it appear to us, that those Saints can hear us? What surety can we have of it? Let us rather pray to him, who we are sure can hear, that is first, and then sure he can give that we pray for, that is next.

The prayer here, is forgiveness of sins; And can Saints give that? The Hosannaes, and the Allelujahs, and the Gloria in Excelsis, Glory in heaven, peace upon earth, good will amongst men, these are good and cheerful Notes, in which the Quire of heaven are exercised; Cherubims and Seraphims, Prophets and Apostles, Saints and Angels, bless God and benefit men by these: But the Remittuntur peccata, Thy sins are forgiven thee, is too high a note for any creature in earth or heaven, to reach to, except where it is set by Gods own hand, as it is by his Commission to his Minister, in his Church, and there only, in the absolution given by his Ordinance to every penitent sinner. We see that phrase, Dimittuntur peccata, Thy sins are forgiven thee, was a suspicious word, even in the mouth of Christ himself, amongst the Scribes that would not believe his Divinity; when Christ said to him that had the Palsy, My son be of good cheare, thy sins are forgiven thee; the Scribes cried out, he blasphemed: It strikes any man, to hear of forgiveness of sins, from any but God. It was not a harder thing to say, Fiat lux, then to say, Dimittuntur peccata: Not harder to bring light out of darkness by Creation, then to bring a clean thing out of uncleanness by Conversion; for, who can do that? And therefore when the King of Aram sent Naaman to the King of Israel, to take order for the curing of his bodily Leprosy, the King of Israel rent his Clothes, and said, Am I a God, to kill and to give life? The power even of temporal life and death, is proper to God; for, as Witches think sometimes that they kill, when they do not, and are therefore as culpable, as if they did; So a tyrannous persecutor, so a passionate Judge, so a perjured witness, so a revengeful quarreller, thinks he takes away the life of his enemy, and is guilty of that murder in the eye of God, though the blow be truly from God, whose judgements are ever just, though not ever declared. Let them never say, that they ask not these things, temporal or spiritual, at the hands of those Saints; for, expressly, literally, as the words stand, and sound, they do ask even those very things; and if the Church have any other meaning in those prayers, the mischief is, that they never teach the people, by Preaching, what that their reserved meaning is, but leave them to the very letter of the prayer, to ask those things, which, if they could hear, yet the Saints could not give. And when the prayer is made aright, directed to God himself, yet here in our Text it is limited, Propter hoc, For this, this that was spoken of before, every one that is godly shall pray unto thee. Now what is this This? for that is our third Consideration.

Si à quo petenda, sed non quae petenda petis, If thou come to the right Market, but buy unwholesome herbs there, If thou come to the Apothecaries shop, and ask for nothing but poisons, If thou come to God in thy prayer, and ask only temporal blessings, which are blessings only in their use, and may be, and are ordinarily snares and encumbrances, then is this direction of Davids, Propter hoc, for this shall he pray, transgressed. For, This, as appears in the words immediately before the Text, is, The forgiveness of the punishment, and of the iniquity of our sin; which is so inexpressible a comfort, to that soul that hath wrastled with the indignation of God, and is now refreshed and released, as whosoever should go about to describe it, should diminish it; He hath it not that thinks he can utter it. It is a blessed comfort to find my soul in that state, as when I last received the Sacrament with a good conscience: If I enjoy that peace now, that is, the peace of a religious, and of a wise conscience; for there is a wisdom of the conscience, not to run into infinite scruples and doubts, but Imponere finem litibus, to levy a fine in bar of all scruples, and diffidences, and to rest in the peace and assuredness of remission of sins, after due means for the obtaining thereof; and therefore if. I be as well now, as when I received, this is a blessed degree of blessedness. But yet there is one cloud in this case, Ab occultis, my secret sins, which even mine own narrowest inquisition extends not to. If I consider my self to be as well as I was at my Baptism, when I brought no actual sin, and had the hand of Christ to wash away the foulness of Original sin, can I pray for a better state then that? Even in that there was a cloud too, and a cloud that hath thunder and lightning in it, that Fomes peccati, that fuel and those embers of sin, that are but raked up, and not trod out, and do break forth upon every temptation that is presented, and if they be not effectually opposed, shall aggravate my condemnation, more then if I had never been baptized. But David conceives such a forgiveness here, as carries up the soul to the contemplation of that state, which it had before the fall of Adam. It is not this present sin of a cold delivering, and a drowsy hearing of the messages of God; It is not my yesterdays sin, nor my sins since my last repentance, that are forgiven me, but my sin committed six thousand years before I was born, my sin in Adam, before any promise, nay, before any apprehension of any need of a Messiah; I am so restored, that now by the application of the merits of my Redeemer, I am as well as I should have been, though there had never been any use of a Redeemer, no occasion given by me in Adam, of the incarnation and passion of Christ Jesus. The comfort of being presented to God as innocent as Adam, then when God breathed a soul into him, yea as innocent as Christ Jesus himself, when he breathed out his soul to God; oh how blessed is that soul that enjoys it, and how bold that tongue that goes about to express it! This is the blessedness which the godly attain to by prayer, but not by every sudden Lord, Lord, or every occasional holy interjection, but by serious prayer, invested, as with the former, so with that other circumstance that remains, In tempore opportuno, In a time when thou mayest be found.

This time is not those Horae stativae, Horae canonicae, those sixed hours in the Roman Church, where men are bound to certain prayers at certain hours. Not that it is inconvenient for men to bind themselves to certain fixed times of prayer in their private Exercises; and though not by such a vow, as that it shall be an impiety, yet by so solemn a purpose, as that it shall be a levity to break it. I have known the greatest Christian Prince, (in Style and Title) even at the Audience of an Ambassador, at the sound of a Bell, kneel down in our presence and pray; and God forbid, he should be blamed for doing so; But to place a merit in observing those times, as they do, is not a right understanding of this time of finding. Nor is it those transitory and interlocutory prayers, which out of custom and fashion we make, and still proceed in our sin; when we pretend to speak to God, but like Comedians upon a stage, turn over our shoulder, and whisper to the Devil. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide mine eyes; when you make many prayers, I will not hear; for your hands are full of blood. And if they be full of blood, they can take in no more; If they be full of the blood of oppression, they can lay no hold upon the blood of propitiation. Irrisor est, non poenitens, qui adhuc agit quod poeniter, He mocks God, that repents and sins over those sins every night, that every day he repents. The Apostle says so too, He makes a mock of the Son of God, and crucifies him again. This only is true Repentance, He makes a mock of the Son of God, and crucifies him again. This only is true Repentance, Plangere & plangenda non committere, To bewayle our sins, and forbear the sins we have bewayled. Neither alone will serve; which deludes many. Many think they do enough if they repent, and yet proceed in their sin; and many think they do enough, if they forbear their sin now, though they never repent that which is past; both are illusory, both deceitful distempers. Laoessit Iudicem, qui post-posita satisfaction quaerit praemiis honorari, He doth but provoke and exasperate the Judge, that solicits him for heaven, before he hath appeased his anger by repentance for former sins; for this is to call for costs before he be discharged.

These then are not the times of finding God; but what are? Generally it is Manifestatio Euangelii, The time of the Gospel is the time of finding God; now when God hath vouchsafed Induere hominem, to put on us in his Incarnation, and enabled us Induere Deum, to put on him in the Sacraments; to stay with us here upon Earth, and to carry us up with him in his Ascension to Heaven; when he is made one body with us, and hath made us one Spirit with him, how can we doubt of a fit time to find him? Christs time was always; for even under the law, God says, I have heard thee in an accepted time, and in the day of Salvation have I succoured thee; But this doth the Holy Ghost apply to the time of the Gospel, Behold now the accepted time, behold now the day of salvation.

The time then of the Gospel is the time of finding; But now, all times are not alike. Calamities are a good time. When I found trouble, and sorrow, then I called upon the name of the Lord, saying, I beseech thee O Lord, deliver my soul. This is a good time, but it is somewhat a dark time; the withdrawing of Gods countenance from us; The Egyptians when they deprehended their danger, said, We will fly from the face of Israel; But whither? The Seareturned, and the Egyptians fled against it, and perished. We may be benighted, benummed by calamities, and they may as well deject us as raise us. Job pursued Abner hotly, vehemently; Abner asks, What, Vsque ad internecionem, Shall the sword devour for ever? Job answered, (as the Vulgate reads those words) Vivit dominus, si locutus fuisses mane, As the Lord liveth, if thou hadst spoken in the morning, in the morning every man had departed. If we turn to the Lord in the morning, in the beginning of an affliction, the Lord turns his fierce wrath from us; but if we stand out long, and bend not under his corrections, he pursues Ad internecionem, even to destruction by obduration.

So then the manifestation of the Gospel, that is, the helps which God offers us, more then Jews, or Gentiles, in the Ministry of the Gospel, and the Ordinances of his Church, is the time of finding God; And woe unto us, if we seek him not whilst he affords us these helps; And then the time of affliction, when God threatens to hide his face, but hath not yet hidden it, but awakens us by a calamity, is a time of finding God. But the best and the clearest time is in the Sun-shine, then when he appears to us in the warm and cheerful splendor of temporal blessings upon us; Then when thou hast a good estate, and good children to let it descend upon; Then when thou hast good health, and a good profession to exercise thy strength, and thy labors in; Then when the dishes upon thy table are doubled, and thy cup overflows, and the hungry and thirsty souls of the poor do not only feed upon the crumbs under thy table, and lick up the overflowings of thy cup, but divide dishes with thee, and enter into the midst of thy Bolls; Then when thou hast temporal blessings, (that is Gods silver) and his grace to use those blessings well, (that is Gods gold) then is the best time of finding the Lord, for then he looks upon thee in the Sun-shine, and then thy thankful acknowledgement of former blessings is the most effectual prayer thou canst make, for the continuance, and enlargement of them.

In a word, then is a fit time of finding God, whensoever thy conscience tells thee he calls to thee; for, a rectified conscience is the word of God; If that speak to thee now this minute, now is thy time of finding God. That Now, that I named then, that minute is past; but God affords thee another Now; he speaks again, he speaks still, and if thy conscience tell thee that he speaks to thee, now is that time. This word of God, thy conscience will present unto thee, but that one condition, which Moses presented to Gods people, and that is, That thou seek the Lordwith all thy heart, and all thy soul. It is a kind of denying the Infiniteness of God, to serve him by pieces, and ragges; God is not Infinite to me, if I think a discontinued service will serve him. It is a kind of denying the Unity of God, to join other gods, Pleasure, or Profit with him; He is not One God to me, if I join other Associates, and Assistants to him, Saints or Angels. It is a kind of diffidence in Christ, as though I were not sure that he would stand in the favor of God still, as though I were afraid that there might rise a new favorite in heaven, to whom it might concern me to apply me self, If I make the balance so even, as to serve God and Mammon; if I make a complemental visit of God at his house upon Sunday, and then plot with the other faction, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, all the week after. The Lord promised a power of seeking, and an infallibility of finding; but still with this total condition, Ye shall seek me, and ye shall find me, because ye shall seek me with all your heart. This he promised for the future, that he would do; This he testified for the house of Judah, that he had done, Judah sought him with a whole desire, and he was found of them, and the Lord gave them rest round about: And the Lord shall give you rest round about; rest in your bodies, and rest in your estates; rest in your good name with others, and rest in your consciences in your selves; rest in your getting, and rest in your injoying that you have got, if you seek him with a whole heart; and to seek him with a whole heart, is not by honest industry to seek nothing else, (for God wears good clothes, silk, and soft raiment, in his religious servants in Courts, as well as Camels hair, in John Baptist in the Wilderness; and God manifests himself to man, as well in the splendor of Princes in Courts, as in the austerity of John Baptist in the Wilderness) but to seek God with the whole heart, is to seek nothing with that Primary, and Radical, and Fundamental affection, as God; To seek nothing for it self, but God: not to seek world things in excess, because I hope, if I had them, I should glorify God in them; but first to find established in my self a zealous desire to glorify God, and then a modest desire of means to be able to do it. And for this, every one that is holy shall pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayst be found.

And so we have done with our first Part, and the four pieces that constitute that, The Person, Omnis sanctus, Every godly man; that is, Sanctificatus, and Sanctificandus, He that is godly enough to pray, and prays that he may be more godly: And the Object of prayer, Ad te, God alone, for God alone can hear, and God alone can give; And then the Subject of prayer, Hoc, This, this which David expresses, forgiveness of the punishment, and of the iniquity of fin, In which respect, (that David proposes and specificates the subject of prayer) we are fairly directed rather to accustom our selves to those prayers, which are recommended to us by the Church, then to extemporal prayers of others, or of our own effusion; And lastly, the Time of finding God, that is, Then when we seek him with a whole heart, seek him as Principal, and then receive temporal things, as accessory, and conducible to his glory. Thus much hath fallen into the first Part, the duty of Prayer; A little remains to be said of the benefit here assured, Surely, in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Taking these waters, either Distributively, to every one that is godly, or Collectively, as S. Jerome does to the whole Church, the use will be all one. The Holy Ghost who is a direct worker upon the soul and conscience of man, but a Metaphorical, and Figurative expresser on himself, to the reason, and understanding of man, abounds in no Metophor more, then in calling Tribulations, Waters: particularly, He would bring in waters upon Tyrus, And, He would pour out his wrath upon his enemies, like waters. Neither doth he only intimate temporal, but spiritual afflictions too, in the name of Waters. And as S. Jerome understands this whole place of the Church, collectively, so S. Augustine understands these waters, to be Varia Doctrinae, those diverse opinions, that disquiet and trouble the Church. And though the Church of God were built upon a hill, and compassed, and environed, and fenced with the blood of him that built it, and defended and guarded by the vigilancy of the Apostles; yet into this Jerusalem did these waters break, even in the Apostles time, as we see by those several, those manifold, those contradictory Heresies, that sprung up them. Christ and his Apostles had carried two Waters about his Church: The water of Baptism, that is Limen Ecclesiae, and Ianua Sacramentorum, The first Ferry, by which we pass into the Church; and by this Water came three thousand, and five thousand at once to the Church, upon particular Sermons of S. Peter. And then Christ gave another Water, by which, they came to another Ablution, to Absolution from actual fins, the water of contrite tears, and repentance, which he had promised before, I will pour clean water upon you, and you shall be clean, And by this water came Peter himself, when his faith had failed, And by this water came Mary Magdalen, when her life had been defiled. But yet for all these Waters, other Waters soaked in, and corrupted them early; for, for Baptism, the Disciples of Simon Magus annulled Christs Baptism, and baptized in Simons name; and his Disciple Menander annulled the Baptism of Christ, and Simon, and baptized in his own name. And then, for the other Water, Repentance, the Heretics drained up that shrewdly, when they took away all benefit of repentance for sins committed after Baptism. David denies not, nay David assures us, that collectively, the whole Church shall be beaten upon with waters.

Water multiplied; Aquae multae, Many waters; so the Vulgate reads this, that we Translate here, Great waters. So multiplied Heresies. The excellency of the Christian Religion is, that it is Verbum abbreviatum, A contracted Religion; All the Credenda, all that is to be believed, reduced to twelve Articles of the Creed; All the Speranda, all that is to be hoped for, prayed for, expressed in seven Petitions, in the Lords Prayer; All the Agenda, all that is to be done in it, comprised in ten Commandments, in the Decalogue. And then our blessed Savior, though he would take away none of the burden, (for it is an easy yoke, and a light burden) yet he was pleased to bind it in a less room, and a more portable forme, when he re-abridged that Abridgement, and recontracts this contracted Doctrine, in those two, Love God, and Love thy Neighbor. And then the Devil hath opposed this Abridgement by Multiplication, by many waters, many heresies: for, it is easy to observe, that in every Article of the Creed, there have been at least a dozen Heresies. And in those Articles, which were most credible, most evident, most sensible, most of all; Many more Heresies upon the Humanity of Christ, then about his Divinity: And then, as in matters of Faith, so for matter of Manners, there was scarce any thing so foul and so obscene, which was not taught by some Heretics, to be religious and necessary; Things which cannot be excused, things which may not be named, made by the Gnostiques, essential and necessary in the Consecration of the Sacrament. And then, when these waters of death were in a good part dried up, these grosse errors in Faith and Manners were reasonably well overcome, Then came in those waters of Traditional Doctrines in the Roman Church, which are so many, as that they overflow even the water of life, the Scriptures themselves, and suppress, and surround them.

Therefore does David, in this text, call these many waters, Diluvium, A flood of great waters; many and violent. For this word Shatach, Inundans, signifies Vehemence, Eagerness, and is elegantly applied to the fierceness of a horse in Battel, Equus inundans in Bellum, A horse that overflows the Battel, that rushes into the Battel. Therefore speaks the Prophet of waters full of blood; What Seas of blood did the old Persecutions, what Seas have later times poured out, when in the Roman Church, their own Authors will boast of sixty thousand slain in a day, of them that attempted a Reformation in the times of the Waldenses!

Surely, says our Prophet, These waters shall be, Heresies there shall be. And no man may look for such a Church, as shall have no water; Evermore there will be some things raw, and unconcocted in every Church ; Evermore some waters of trouble and dissention, and a man is not to forsake a Church, in which he hath received his Baptism for that. But waiving this general, and collective application of these waters to the Church, and to take it as the letter of the Text invites us, Omnis sanctus, surely every godly man shall find these waters, many waters, floods of many waters; for affliction is our daily bread; for, we cannot live in this world a spiritual life, without some kind of affliction: for, as with long fasting we lose our stomachs, so by being long unexercised in tribulation, we come to lose our patience, and to a murmuring when it falls upon us. For that last Petition of the Lords Prayer, Liberanos à malo, Deliver us from evil, may as some interpret it, suppose that this Evil, that is Malum poenae, Affliction, will certainly fall upon us; and then we do not so much pray to be delivered from it, as to be delivered in it, not that afflictions may not come, but that they may not overcome, when they come, that they may not be ineffectual upon us. For, it was Durus sermo, A harder and an angryer speech then it seems, when God said to his people, Why should yee be smitten any more? Why should I keep you at School any longer? Why should I prepare Physic, or study your recovery by corrections any farther? When God was wearied with their afflictions, and they were not, this was a heavy case; He afflicted them forty years together in the Wilderness, and yet he says, Forty years long was I grieved with this generation: He never says, They were grieved, but he was with their stupidity; They murmured, but they sorrowed not to any amendment. So they perverted this word, Non approximabunt, They shall not come nigh thee, they shall not affect thee; That they must do; we must be sensible of Gods corrections; but yet there is a good sense, and a plentiful comfort, in this word of our Text. To the godly man, non approximabunt, the floods of great waters, though waters, though floods, though great floods, they shall not come nigh him; and that is our last word, and final conclusion.

Consider the Church of God collectively, and the Saints of God distributively, in which Babylon you will, in the Chaldean Babylon, or in the Italian Babylon, and these waters do come nigh us, touch, and touch to the quick, to the heart. But yet as David intends here, they touch not us, they come not nigh us; for we have treasures in earth-then vessels; They may touch the vessels, but not the Treasure. And this is literally expressed in the Text it self, non approximabunt, eum; not that they shall not come near his house, or his lands, or his children, or his friends, or his body, but non eum, they shall not come nigh him. For, for the Church, the peace of the Church, the plenty of the Church, the ceremonies of the Church, they are sua, but not illa, they are hers, but they are not she. And these things, riches & ceremonies, they may be washed off with onetide, and cast on with another, discontinued in one Age, and re-assumed in another, divested in one Church, and invested in another, and yet the Churches, she in her fundamental Doctrines never touched. And so for us, a wave may wash away as much as Job lost, and yet not come nigh us; for if a Heathen could say, Vix ea nostra voco, That outward things were scarce worthy to be called Ours, shall a Christian call them not only His, but Himself, so as if they be lost, he is lost? How long will a Medal, a piece of Coin lie in the water, before the stamp be washed off? and yet how soon is the Image of God, of his patience, his longanimity defaced in us by every billow, every affliction? But for the Saints of God it shall not be so; Surely it shall not. They shall stand against the waters, And the Sea shall see it, and fly, and Jordan shall be turned back: And the world shall say, What ayled thee O Sea, that thou fleddest, O Jordan that thou turnedst back? For they that know not the power of the Almighty, though they envy, yet shall wonder, and stand amazed at the deliverance of the righteous. Sto, & pulso, says God of himself, I stand at the door and knock; God will not break open doors to give thee a blessing, as well as he loves thee, and as well as he loves it, but will have thee open to him: much more will he keep Temptations at the door; They shall not break in upon thee, except thou open. This then was that, which David elsewhere apprehended with fear, The sorrows of the grave compassed me about, and the snares of death overtook me; Here they were near him, but no worse. This is that that he prays deliverance from, Let not the water flood drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up. And this is that God assures us all that are his, When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the floods that they do not overflow thee. Maintain therefore a holy patience in all Gods visitations: Accept your waters, though they come in tears; for he that sends them, Christ Jesus, had his flood, his inundation in Blood; and whatsoever thou sufferest from him, thou sufferest for him, and glorifiest him in that constancy. Upon those words, Tres sunt, There are three that bear witness, That Spirit, and water, and blood, S. Bernard taking water there, (by way of allusion) for affliction, saith, Though the Spirit were witness enough, without water, or blood, yet Vix aut nunquam inveniri arbitror Spiritum sine aqua, & sanguine; we lack one of the seals of the Spirit, if we lack Gods corrections. We consider three waters in our blessed Savior; He wept over Jerusalem; Do thou so over thy sinful soul. He sweat in the garden; Do thou so too, in eating thy bread in the sweat of thy brows, in labouring fincerely in thy Calling. And then he sent water and blood out of his side, being dead, which was, fons utriusque Sacramenti, the spring head of both Sacraments; Do thou also refresh in thy soul, the dignity which thou receivedst in the first Sacrament of Baptism, and thereby come worthily to the participation of the second, and therein the holy Ghost shall give thee, the seal of that security, which he tenders to thee in this Text, Non approximabunt, How great water floods soever come, they shall not come nigh thee, not nigh that, which is Thou, that is, thy faith, thy soul, and though it may swallow that, by which thou art a man, thy life, it shall not shake that, by which thou art a Christian, thy Religion. Amen.

Serm. LX. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.7.

Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

AS Rhetorique is said to be a fist extended and displayed into an open Hand, And Logic a Hand recollected, and contracted into a fist; So the Church of God may be said to be a soul dilated and diffused into many Congregations, and a soul may be said to be the Church contracted and condensed into one bosom. So not only the Canticle of Solomon is taken indifferently by the ancient and later Expositors, by some for an Epithalamion, and marriage Song between Christ and his Church, by others, for the celebration of the same union between every Christian soul and him, but also many other places of Scripture have received such an indifferent interpretation, and are left in suspence, whether they be to be understood of the Church in general, or of particular souls; And of this nature and number is this Text, Thou art my hiding place, &c. For S. Jerome takes these words (and the whole Psalm) to be spoken collectively, others distributively; He in the person of the Church, They of every, or at least of some particular souls. To examine their reasons is unnecessary, and would be tedious; It will ask less time, and afford more profit to consider the words both ways. In them therefore, considered twice over, we shall see a threefold state of the Christian Church, and a threefold mercy exhibited by God to every Christian soul. First, we shall see the Church under the clouds, in her low estate, in her obscurity, in her inglorious state of contempt and persecution, and yet then supported by an assurance that God overshadowed her, Tu absconsio, Tu latibulum, Thou art my hiding place; And in that first part we shall consider the state of a timorous soul, a soul that for fear of temptations dares scarce look into the world, or embrace a profession. Secondly, we shall see the Church emancipated, enfranchised, unfettered, unmanacled, delivered from her obscure and inglorious state, and brought to splendor, and beauty, and peace, blessing God in that acknowledgement, Thou shalt preserveme from trouble. And in that part, we shall consider the state of that soul exalted to a holy confidence and assurance, that though she come into the world, and partake of the dangers thereof, in opening herself to such temptations, as do necessarily and inseparably accompany every calling, yet the Lord will preserve her from trouble. And thirdly and lastly, we shall see a kind of Triumphant state in the Church in this world, a holy exultation, God shall compass her with songs of deliverance. In which part, we shall also see the blessed state of that soul which is come, not to a presumptuous security, but to modest certainty of continuing in the same state still. And these will be our three parts in these words, as they receive a public accommodation to the Church, and a more particular application to our selves.

We enter into these considerations, with this observation, That as God himself is eternal and cannot be considered in the distinction of times, so hath that language in which God hath spoken in his written word, the Hebrew, the least consideration of Time of any other language. Evermore in expressing the mercies of God to man, it is an indifferent thing to the holy Ghost whether he speak in the present, or in the future, or in the time that is past: what mercies soever he hath given us, he will give us over again; And whatsoever he hath done, and will do, he is always ready to do at the present. This verse is especially an exultation for mercies past, and yet the two last clauses are delivered in the future, Thou shalt preserve me, Thou shalt compass me, And the first is delivered without any limitation at all; The present word, Thou art, is but inserted by our Translators; In the Original it is only, Tu refugium, Thou my hiding place, There is no fuisti, nor es, nor eris, That he was, or is, or will be so, but it is an expressing of a perpetual and everlasting mercy, for his mercy endureth for ever.

First then, this is an acknowledgement of the Church, contemplating her self in her low estate; for the word Sether implies, Tu absconsio, Though I were in the dark, it was thou that didst overshadow me, Though I were in danger, it was thou that didst hide mo from them. This the Church hath had occasion to say more then once; Once in the Primitive plantation thereof, and again in her Reformation: At both times God showed mercy to her that way, in hiding her.

First then God hid the Primitive Church from the eye of envy, by keeping her poor; and from the eye of jealousy and suspicion, by keeping her in an humble devotion towards him. But yet even her poverty, and her humility hid her not so, but that persecution found her out, and raged so against her, as that those Emperors which raised the ten Persecutions against the Church, seem to have laboured to have gone beyond God in the ten Plagues of Egypt, and to have done more at Rome then he did there. All the power of the Roman world was bent against Christians; more home-Christians slain then foreign enemies. All the criminal justice of the world bent upon them; All other mens crimes, even Neroes burning of Rome, imputed to the Christians. All the wit of the world bent against them; All their Epigrammatists, & Satyrists, having their wits exalted, with rage, with wine, with rewards, to multiply libels, and calumnies, and defamations upon the Christians. All the Mechaniques of that world bent against them; All the Enginiers employed to invent racks and tortures for the Christians. Truly, if I were to work upon Heathen men, Western Americans, or Eastern Chineses, for their conversion to Christ, I should scarce adventure to propose to them the histories of the Martyrs of the Primitive Church, because to men that had no taste of Religion before, they would rather seem fables then truths; and I should as soon be believed, That a Virgin had a Son, or in any main Article of our Religion, as that man could inflict, or that man could bear such things, as we are sure the Martyrs in the Primitive Church did. Then God hid the Church; He hid her, in a great part in the Wilderness, in Ermitages, and such retirings, singlely one by one; and after in penurious and obscure Monasteries, many of these single Ermits gathering themselves together into one house; when those Monasteries were both Schools of learning, and shops of Manufactures; they taught and wrought in them; Nemo cuiquam onerosus, No man was a burden to any others, no man fed upon another's labours, nor drunk the sweat of another's brow: But, Operabantur manibus ea, quibus & corpus pasci possit, & à Deo mens impediri non possit, They laboured in such manufactures, as might sustain their bodies, and not withdraw their minds from the service of God. So God hid the Church, not that the persecution did not find and lop off many a great, and top bough, but he hid the root, and prevented the extirpation of that Tree, which his own right hand had planted.

Tu absconsio, Thou art my hiding place, says the Primitive Church, and so may the Reformed Church say too. For when the Roman Church had made this Latibulum, this hiding place, this refuge from Persecution, Ermitages and Monasteries, to be the most conspicuous, the most glorious, the most eminent, the richest and most abundant places of the World; when they had drawn these, at first remote corners in the Wilderness, first into the skirts, and suburbs, then into the body and heart of every great City; when for revenew and possession, they will confess, that some one Monastery of the Benedictan had ten thousand of our pounds of yearly rent; when they were come for their huge opulency to that height, that they were formidable to those States that harboured them, and for their numbers, (other Orders holding proportion with that one) to reckon out of one Order, fifty two Popes, two hundred Cardinals, seven thousand Archbishops and Bishops, and almost three hundred Emperors and Kings, and their children, and fifty thousand declared and approved Saints; when they were come to that over-valuation of their Religious Orders, as to say, That a Monk, a Fryer merited more in his very sleep, or meals, then any secular man, (though a Church-man too) did in his best works, That to enter into any Order of Religion was a second Baptism, and wrought as much as the first; Their revenew, their number, their dignity being come to this, And then their viciousness, their sensuality, their bestiality, to as great a height and exaltation, as that; yet in the midst of all these, Tu absconsio mea, may the Reformed Church say, The Lord was their hiding place, that mourned for this, when they could not help, and at all times, and by all means that God afforded them, endeavoured to advance Reformation. And though God exposed them as a wood to be felled, to a slaughter of twenty, of forty, of sixty thousand in a day, yet Ille absconsio, He hath been our hiding place, He hath kept the root alive all the way; And though it hath been with a cloud, yet he hath covered us.

God came unto Moses, though he came In caligine Nubis, In a thick Cloud; when the glory of the Lord is said to have filled the Tabernacle, even that glory was a Cloud; And so it was in the second place of his worship too, in Solomons Temple, that was filled with a Cloud. S. Chrysostom when he considered that Christ ascended in a Cloud, And that he shall return again in a Cloud, Paternum Currum deligere voluit, The Son would make use of his Fathers Chariot, and show mercy, nay show glory in a Cloud, as his Father had done often. The Primitive Church, the Reformed Church, must not complain of having been kept under Clouds; for Ille absconsio, God hath made those Clouds their hiding place, and wrapped up the seed, and the root safe in that Cloud. Though the Church were trodden upon like a worm of the earth, yet still she might hear God in that Cloud, Noli timere vermis Jacob, Be not afraid thou worm of Jacob, for I will keep thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel. God hid her then, and hath manifested now, that there was never any time, when he had not some of his to oppose her tyranny and her Idolatry. They can name no time, when we cannot name some such; And it would be much harder for them, to name men in every age, that have professed all the doctrines of the present Roman Church, then for us to find men that have opposed those points that we oppose. Will they say, that these were too few, to constitute or establish, or give name to a Church? They were never so few, as Elijah thought there had been in his time, when he said, I only am left; no nor so few, as God, for Elijah comfort, named to him, seven thousand; they were more then so, else they could not have found so many to kill, as they did. Howsoever, since so great Schoolemen amongst them as Alexander Ales, and so great Canonists amongst them, as Cardinal Turrecremata, with many others, (as they themselves call them) Gravissimi Theologi, of the gravest Divines, asseveranter affirmant, do dogmatically affirme, that during the time that Christ lay in the Grave, there was no faith, and consequently no Church, but only in One, in the person of the Virgin Mary; in relation to which it is, that in the Ceremonies of the Church, they put out all their Candles but one, in the Church, at that time, to denote that all the Apostles lost their faith, and one She alone retained one; If the Church were then in one person, they may well afford a Church to have consisted of such numbers, as the Lord did hide under his wings, all the stormy time of their Persecutions.

Tu absconsio, may the Primitive Church, and the Reformed Church say, Thou hast been our hiding place, And so must every timerous soul too, (for you may remember, that these words are by our Expositors ascribed to particular souls in the Church, as well as to the Church in general) every such soul, that for fear of temptations in the world, is loth to come abroad from its retiredness, and venture on the public view, must rely upon that, Tu absconsio, The Lord is able to hide them, able to cover them.

Iovinian the Heretic whom S. Jerome opposed, would needs think, or at least say, That after Baptism no man was tempted of the Devil: not only not overcome, but not tempted. But our Baptism does not drown the Devil. Pauci inter Athletas in expugnabiles, Few wrastlers that never took fall; none that may not, since we are all at best, but wrastlers. Vita hominis piraterium, says S. Ambrose, what Copy soever he followed. Others read it, Mans life is a warfare; And that is labor enough, and danger enough. But to be still upon so unconstant an element as the water, and still pursued by Pirats, or consorted with Pirates, is more; and Vita Piraterium, says he, Mans life, every mans life is spent amongst Pirats, pursued by them, or consorted with them. The Devil hath not a more subtle temptation to ensnare me with, then to bring me to think my self temptation-proof; above temptation. Nemo diu fortis est, is excellently said by the same Father: No man continues strong against temptations long. For when he sees, that some temptations have done him no harm, he grows negligent and slack towards others. Infoelix ego! victonem me puto, dum capior, Miserable mistaking man that I am! I think my self able to overcome any temptation, and I am overcome even by that temptation of thinking so. I think my self conqueror, when I am captive, and am chained to the Chariot, when I think I sit in it. Tranquillitas ista tempestas est, This calm is a storm, this security is a defeat; For, it is one of Davids heavy imprecations, Veniat illi laqueus quem ignorat, Let him be catchedin a snare, that he suspected not: Destruction come upon him unawares, so we read it. We are tempted, and it is well that we are so. Qui non est tentatus, quid scit? He is an ignorant soul, and knows nothing, that hath passed no temptations; Nothing at all; not himself; Nescit se homo, nisi tentatione discat se, Except he be taught in that School, The School of temptations, no man ever comes to know himself. So then, Laqueus est in securitate; If I be secure, and negligent, that is a snare; But Laqueus in timore too, says he; It is a snare cast by the Devils own hand, If I be over-timerous, If upon pretence of hiding my self from temptations, I withdraw my self from the offices of mutual society. Tu absconsio, The Lord will be my hiding place from temptations that attempt me in my calling, but not to hide me from a calling. Scito quod in medio laqueorum ingrederis, Know that thou walkest in the midst of snares, but yet thou must walk, walk in a calling. So S. Chrysostom reads that; and adds, He does not say, Vide, but Scito; He does not say, see them, for they are invisible; but know that there are snares, and be wary. And then, as S. Augustin says of the whole Church, (which was our first Consideration) Ecclesia Catholica inter tentationes vivit, inter tentationes crescit, The whole Church is in the midst of temptations, but lives and grows up in the midst of them: So, hear thy God say to thy soul, (which is the Consideration that we are now upon) Son of man, though bryars and thorns be with thee, though thou dwell among Scorpions, be not afraid of their words, nor dismaid with their looks. Proceed in a lawful calling, and God shall hide thee though with his Clouds: And though he cover thee with a cloud of poverty, with sickness, with disgrace, and if he see no other cover safe, cover thee with the cloud of death, and the grave, all is to cover thee from the Tempter, and thereby to preserve thee for himself, which is our second part, Thou art my hiding place, Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.

If we content our selves with that word which our Translators have chosen here, Trouble, (Thou shalt preserve me from Trouble) we must rest in one of these two senses; Either that God shall arm, and indue those that are his, with such a constancy, as those things that trouble others, shall not trouble them, but, As the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also aboundeth by Christ, As unknown, and yet well known, as dying, and behold we live, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things; For, God uses both these ways in the behalf of his servants; sometimes to suspend the working of that that should work their torment, as he suspended the rage of the Lyons for Daniel, and the heat of the fire in the furnace, for the others; Sometimes by imprinting a holy stupefaction, and unsensibleness in the person that suffers, So S. Laurence was not only patient, but merry and facetious when he lay broyling upon the fire, and so we read of many other Martyrs, that they have been less moved, less affected with their torments, then their Executioners, or their Persecutors have been, That which troubled others never troubled them; Or els the phrase must have this sense, That though they be troubled with their troubles, though God submit them so far, to the common condition of men, that they be sensible of them, yet he shall preserve them from that trouble so, as that it shall never overthrow them, never sink them into a dejection of spirit, or diffidence in his mercy; They shall find storms, but a stout and strong ship under foot; They shall feel Thunder and lightning, but garlands of triumphant bays shall preserve them; They shall be trodden into the earth with scorns and contempts, but yet as seed is buried, to multiply to more. So far this word of our Translators assist our devotion, Thou shalt preserve me from trouble, Thou shalt make me unsensible of it, or thou shalt make me victorious in it.

But the Original word Tzur hath a more peculiar sense; It signifies a strait, a narrowness, a difficulty, a distress; I am distressed for thee, my brother Ionathan, says David, in this word, when he lamented his irremediable, his irrecoverable death. So is it also, Pangs have taken hold of me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth. And so the word grows to signify, Aciem gladii, Thou hast turned the edge of the sword, and to signify the top and precipice of a rock; He clave the rocks in the wilderness. So that the word expresses Angustiam, narrowness, pressure, precipitation, inextricableness, in a word, (that will best fit us) Perplexity; and, The Lord shall preserve me from perplexity; And this may the Church, and this may every good soul comfort it self in, Thou shalt preserve me from perplexity.

Consider it first in the Church, and then in our selves; and first in the Primitive, and then in the reformed Church. When God had brought his Church, ex abscondito, from his hiding place, from poverty, and contempt, and solitariness, and glorified it in the eyes of the world, by many royal endowments and possessions, with which Princes (then become Christians) and other great persons, piously and graciously invested her, though these were temptations to aspire to greater, yet God preserved her from perplexities of all kinds; from perplexing of Princes with her claims, that they might not marry, nor make leagues, nor levy Armies, but by her permission. The Church called nothing her own, but that which God had called His, and given her, that is, Tithes: All the rest, she acknowledged to have received from the bounty of pious benefactors. This was her plea, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my strength, my buckler, and my high tower. In all this Inventory, in all this Armory, and furniture of the Church, there is never a sword; Rocks, and fortresses, and bucklers, and Towers, but no sword, no material sword in the Churches hand; Arma nostra preces & fletus; The Church fought with nothing but prayers and tears. And as God delivered her from these perplexities, from perplexing the affayres of Princes with her interest in their government; so he delivered her from any perplexities in her own government. No usurpation, no offer of any Prince that attempted to invade or violate the true right of the Church, no practise of any Heretics, how subtle, how potent soever, though they equalled, though they exceeded the Church in number, and in power, (as at some times the Arians did) ever brought the Church to a perplexity, or to an apprehension of any necessity, of yeelding to sacrilegious Princes, or to irreligious Heretics in any point, to procure their peace, or to enjoy their rest, but still they kept the dignity of Priesthood entire, and still they kept the truth of the Christian Religion entire; no perplexity how they should subsist if they were so stiff, ever brought them to go less to any prevarications, or modifications, either in matter of Religion towards Heretics, or in the execution of their religious function towards facrilegious usurpers. So God preserved the Primitive Church from perplexity; she was ever thankful and submisse towards her benefactors; she was ever erect and constant against usurpers. And this preservation from perplexity, we consider in the reformed Church also.

When the fullness of time was come, and that Church which lay in the bowels of the putative Church, the specious Church, the Roman Church, that is, those souls which groaned and panted after a Reformation, were enabled by God to effect it; when the Iniquity of Babylon was come to that height, That whereas at first they took of Alms, afterwards Monachi emunt & Nobiles vendunt, Monks bought, and Lords sold, nay Monasteries bought, and the Crown sold; when they went so far, as to forgea Donation of Constantin, by which they laid hold upon a great temporal state, and after that so much farther, as to renounce the Donation of Constantin, by which, for a long time, the Roman Church claimed all their temporal state, S. Peters patrimony, and so, at last came to say, That all the states of all Christian Princes are held of the Church, and really may be, and actually are forfeited to her, and may, at her pleasure, be re-assumed by her; when for the art and science of Divinity it self, they had buried it in the darkness of the School, and wrapped up that that should save our souls, in those perplexed and inextricable clouds of School-divinity, and their School-divinity subject to such changes, as that a Jesuit professes, that in the compass but of thirty years, since Gregory de Valentia writ, Verè dici possit, novam quodammodo Theologiam prognatam esse, We may truly say, that we have a new art of Divinity risen amongst us; The Divinity of these times, says he, is not in our Church the same that it was thirty years since; since all parts of the Christian Church were so incensed, both with their heresy, and their tyranny, as that the Greek Church, which generally they would make the world believe, is absolutely as they are, is by some of their own Authors confessed to be more averse from them, and more bitter against them, then Luther or Calvin; since upon all these provocations, God was pleased to bring this Church, the Reformed Church, not only to light, but to splendor, He hath preserved this Church from perplexities. If they say, we are perplexed with differences of opinions amongst our selves, let this satisfy them, that we do agree all, in all fundamental things: And that in things much nearer the foundation, then those in which our differences lie, they differ amongst themselves, with more acrimony and bitterness, then we do. If they think to perplex us with the Fathers, we are ready to join that issue with them; where the Fathers speak unanimously, dogmatically, in matters of faith, we are content to be tried by the Fathers. If they think to perplex us with Councils, we will go as far as they in the old ones, and as far as they for meeting in new Councils, if they may be fully, that is, Royally, Imperially called, and equally proceeded in, and the Resolutions grow and gathered there upon debatements, upon the place, and not brought thither upon commandment from Rome. If there be no way but Force and Armes, if they will admit no trial but that, God be blessed that keeps us from the necessity, but God be blessed also that he preserves us from perplexity, or not being able to defend his cause, if he call us to that trial. And therefore let them never call it a Perplexity in us, let them never say that we know not what to do, when we acknowledge the Church of Rome to be truly a Church: for the Pest-house is a house, and theirs is such a Church; But the Pest-house is not the best air to live in, nor the Roman Church the best Church to die in. Thou hast preserved me from perplexities, may the Primitive Church say, and so may the Reformed too, and so also may every particular soul say, which is a Consideration, that from the beginning we proposed for every Part, and are now come to it in this.

When we were upon this consideration in our former Part, we showed you, that no over-tender or timorous soul, might hide it self in a retired life, from the offices of society, but though every particular age bring a new sin with it, every complexion a new sin, every occupation a new sin, every friend a new sin, that must be loved for his sake, yet Para te foro, Thou art bound to come abroad, and trust upon Gods hiding thee there from temptations, and so assure thy self that he will preserve thee from perplexities. Now, we consider in the School, Perplexities, which are such only by mis-understanding; and Perplexities, which are such in the true nature of the thing. Those of the first kind, perplexities in a mis-understanding, should fall upon no man; perplexities of the second kind, in the nature of the thing it self, can fall upon no man. Of the first kind, this is an example, A man swears to conceal all his friends secrets, and he tells him of a treasonable purpose against the State; Either way he must offend; Against his oath if he reaveale it, or against his Allegiance, if he do not. This is no perplexity; for in a right understanding he must know, that such an Oath binds not. Of the second kind there was an example in Origen, who must, by the commandment of the Persecutor, either offer sacrifice to an Idol, or prostitute his body to an adominable abuse with another man. Which should he do? Neither. God gives a man an issue in such cases, by death; Et vitam potiùs finire dèbet quàm maculare, He is bound to give his life, rather then to stain his life. This timorous soul then fears where no fear is. He would hide himself, he is loath to come into the world, because he thinks he must needs sin. He needs not. Is there a necessity laid upon him, that he must die as rich as the richest of his profession, and that he cannot do without sin? That he must leave his wife such a Joynture, and his children such Portions, and all that he cannot do without sin? First, all that he may do without sin: We have seen in all Professions honest men die as rich, as dishonest. If thou do not, he that hath said, There is no man that hath left wife or children for my sake, but shall have a hundred fold here, and everlasting life, (which is a blessed Codicil to a Will that was abundant before) will also say, There is no man that hath left wife and children poor for my sake, but I will enlarge my providence upon them even in this life, and my glory in the next: And this was our second Part, considered in the Church and in our selves, Thou shalt preserve, &c.

There remains yet a third Part, that as God hides us from temptations, that they reach us not; or preserves us from intricacies, and perplexities, so that they hurt us not; so if they do, yet he compasses us with a joyful Deliverance, (as our former) or with songs of Deliverance, as this Translation hath it, that is, imprints in us a holy certitude, a faire assurance, that he will never forsake us; And this voice we may hear from the Church first, and then from every particular soul; for, to both, (as we have told you all the way) do all the parts of this Psalm appertain.

As it is an exaltation of Gods indignation, when he is said to Compass by way of siege, (so Jerusalem complains, He hath builded against me, he hath compassed me with gall and travel, he hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out; So God threatens, I will camp against thee round about, and I will lay siege against thee) for this intimates such a displeasure of God, as that he does not only leave us succourlesse, joylesse, comfortless in our selves, but cuts off those supplies which might relieve us; He compasses us, he besieges us, he camps round about us, that no relief can enter; so when his love and mercy is expressed in this phrase, that he compasses us, it signifies both an entire mercy, that no enemy shall break in in any part, whilst he doth compass us, and a permanent and durable mercy, that as no force of the enemy, so no weariness in himself, shall make him discontinue his watches, or his guard over us, but that he will compass us still.

Thy faithfulness is round about thee, says David to God; that is our first comfort, that God compasses himself with his own faithfulness, that is, is never unmindful of his own promises, and purposes; And then, He is round about our habitations; God compasses himself with his own faithfulness, and then, he compasses us with himself: That as Satan told God one day after another, Circuivi terram, & perambulavieam, I have compassed the earth, and walked it round, but could never say that he had broke into Job's quarter, for he found the impossibility in that, The Lord had made a hedge about him, Where note that Gods first care is of the man; and the soul is the man; first a hedge about him, and then, about his house, and about all that he had, on every side; So day after day we shall find arguments to establish our hearts in hope, that the Lord hath compassed us, and nothing shall break in so, as to take us from him; but God shall say to us, as to his former people, Leva in circuitu oculos tuos, Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold, (which is one great comfort, that he enables us to see and to know our enemies, to discern a temptation to be a temptation) Omnes isti congregati sunt, All these gather themselves together, and come to thee, (which is another assistance, that when we see our enemies multiply, and that there is none that fighteth for us, but only thou O God, we make a more present recourse to him) But, Vivo ego dicit Dominus, As I live saith the Lord, Velut ornamento vestieris, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a Bride doth; (which is the fullness of the mercy, That as in another place, he promises his children, Panis vester sunt, your enemies shall be your Bread, you shall feed upon your enemies; So here he makes our enemies, even our spiritual enemies; our Clothes, and more then that, our Jewels, our Ornaments, we shall be the stronger, the warmer, the richer, by tribulations, and temptations, having overcome them, as we shall, if the Lord compass us, if he continue his watchfulness over us) And that David says here, first in the Churches behalf.

God from the beginning carried a wall about his Church, in that assurance, Portae inferi, The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Gentiles, the Philosophers that were without the Church, found a party, Traitors, Conspirators within, The Heretics; and all these led and maintained by potent Princes that persecuted the Church; The gates of hell were all opened, and issued all her forces, but Non praevaluerunt, they never prevailed. The Arians were sometimes more then the true Christians in all the world: The Martyrians, a sect that affected the name of Martyrdom, could name more Martyrs then the true Church could, but Evanuerunt, yet they vanished: The Emperors of Rome persecuted the Bishops of Rome to death, yet when we look upon the reckoning, the Emperors died faster then Bishops. Thou hast compassed me, says the Primitive Church, and so says the Reformed too.

Princes that hated one another have joined in leagues against the Religion, Princes that needed their Subjects, have spent their Subjects by thousands, in Massacres, to extinguish the Religion; Personal Assasinates, Clandestine plots by poison, by fire, by water have been multiplied against Princes that favor the Religion; Inquisitions, Confiscations, Banishments, Dishonors have overflowne them that profess the true Religion; and yet the Lord compassing his Church, she enjoys a holy certainty, arising out of these testimonies of his care, that she shall never be forsaken. And this may every good soul have too.

God comes to us without any purpose of departing from us again; For the Spirit of life that God breated into man, that departs from man in death; but when God had assumed the nature of man, the God-head never parted from that nature; no, not in death; When Christ lay dead in the grave, the God-head remained united to that body and that soul, which were dis-united in themselves; God was so united to man, as that he was with man, when man was not man, in the state of death. So when the Spirit of God hath invested, compassed thy soul, and made it his by those testimonies, that Spirit establishes it in a kind of assurance that he will never leave it. Old Rome had (as every City amongst the Heathen had) certain gods which they called their Tutelar gods, gods that were affected to the preservation of that place; But they durst never call upon those gods, by their proper names, for fear of losing them; lest if their names should be known by their enemies, their enemies should win away their gods from them, by bestowing more cost, or more devotion towards them then they themselves used. So also is it said of them, that when they had brought to Rome a foreign god, which they had taken in a conquered place, Victory, they cut the wings of their new god Victory, lest he should fly from them again. This was a misery, that they were not sure of their gods when they had them. We are; If he once come to us, he never goes from us, out of any variableness in himself, but in us only; That promise reaches to the whole Church, and to every particular soul, Thy Teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more, but thine eye shall see thy Teachers, which in the Original (as is appliably to our present purpose, noted by Rabbi Moses) is, Non erunt Doctors tui alati, Thy Teachers shall have no wings, They shall never fly from thee, and so the great Translation reads it, Non avolabunt. As their great god, Victory, could not fly from Rome, so after this victory which God hath given his Church in the Reformation, none of her Teachers should fly to, or towards Rome. Every way that God comes to us, he comes with a purpose to stay, and would imprint in us an assurance that he doth so, and that Impression is this Compassing of thy soul, with songs of deliverance, in the signification and use of which word, we shall in one word conclude all.

God hath given us this certitude, this faire assurance of his perpetual residence with us, in a word of a double signification; The word is Ranan, which signifies Joy, exultation, singing; But it hath another sense too. Arise, Cry out in the night. And, Attend unto my cry, which are voices far from singing. This God means therein, That though he give us that comfort to sit and sing of our Deliverance, yet he would not have us fall asleep with that music, but as when we contemplate his everlasting goodness, we celebrate that with a constant Joy, so when we look upon our own weakness and unworthiness, we cry out, Wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from this body of death? For though we have the Spirit of life in us, we have a body of death upon us. How loving soever my soul be, it will not stay in a diseased body; How loving soever the Spirit of life be, it will not stay in a diseased soul. My soul is loath to go from my body, but sickness and pain will drive it out; so will sin, the Spirit of life from my soul. God compasses us with Songs of Deliverance, we are sure he would not leave us; But he compasses us with Cries too, we are afraid, we are sure, that we may drive him from us. Pray we therefore our Lord of everlasting goodness, That he will be our Hiding-place, That he will protect us from temptations incident to our several Callings, That he will preserve us from troubles, preserve us from them, or preserve us in them, preserve us that they come not, or preserve us that they overcome not; And that he will compass us, so as no enemy find overture unto us, and compass us with songs, with a joyful sense of our perseverance, but yet with cries too, with a solicitous fear, that that multiplicity and heinousness of our sins may weary even the incessant and indefatigable Spirit of comfort himself, and chase him from us.

Serm. LXI. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.8.

I will Instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye.

THis verse, more then any other in the Psalm, answers the Title of the Psalm. The title is, Davids Instruction; and here in the Text it is said, I will instruct thee, and teach thee, in the way thou shalt go. There are eleven Psalms that have that Title, Psalms of Instruction; The whole book is Sepher Tehillim, The book of praises; and it is a good way of praising God, to receive Instruction, Instruction how to praise him. Therefore doth the holy Ghost return so often to this Catechistical way, Instruction, Institution, as to propose so many Psalms, expressly under that Title purposely to that use. In one of those, The manner how Instruction should be given, is expressed also; It must be in a loving manner, for the Title is Canticum Amorum, A song of love for Instruction. For Absque prudentia, & benevolentia, non sunt perfecta consilia: True Instruction is a making love to the Congregation, and to every soul in it; but it is but to the soul. And so when S. Paul said, He was mad for their sakes, Insanivit Amatoriam insaniam, says Theophylact, S. Paul was mad for love of them, to whom he writ his holy love-letters, his Epistles. And thereupon do the Rabbis call this Psalm, Leb David, Cor Davidis, The opening and pouring out of Davids heart to them, whom he instructs. We have no way into your hearts, but by sending our hearts. The Poets counsel is, Vt ameris, ama, If thou wouldst be truly loved, do thou love truly; The holy Ghosts precept upon us is, Vt credaris, crede, That if we would have you believe, we believe our selves. It is not to our Eloquence that God promises a blessing, but to our sincerity, not to our tongue, but to our heart: All our hope of bringing you to love God, is in a loving and hearty manner to propose Gods love to you. The height of the Spouses love to Christ, came but to that, I am sick of love: The love of Christ went farther, To die for love. Love is as strong as death; but nothing else is as strong as either; and both, Love and Death, met in Christ. How strong and powerful upon you then should that Instruction be, that comes to you from both these, The Love and Death of Christ Jesus? and such an Instruction doth this text exhibit, I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. God so loved the world, as that he sent his Son to die: The Son being dead so loved the world, as that he returned to that world again; and being ascended; sent the holy Ghost to establish a Church, and in that Church, Vsque ad consummationem, till the end of the world, shall that holy Spirit execute this Catechistical Office, He shall instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, He shall guide thee with his eye.

Though then some later Expositors have doubted of the person, who doth this Office, To Instruct, who this I in our Text is, because the Hebrew word Le David, is as well Davidis, as Davidi, An Instruction from David, as an Instruction to David, and so the Catechist may seem to be David, and no more; yet since this Criticism upon the word, Le David, argues but a possibility that it may, and not a necessity that it must be so, we accompany S. Jerome, and indeed the whole body of the Fathers, in accepting this Instruction from God himself, it is no other then God himself that says, I will instruct thee, &c. No other then God himself can undertake so much as is promised in this text. For here is first, a rectifying of the understanding, I will instruct thee, and in the Original there is somewhat more then our Translation reaches to; It is there, Intelligere faciam te, I will moke thee understand. Man can instruct, God only can make us understand. And then it is Faciam te, I will make Thee, Thee understand; The work is the Lords, The understanding is the mans: for God does not work in man, as the Devil did in Idols, and In Pythonissis, and In Ventriloquis, in possest persons, who had no voluntary concurrence with the action of the Devil, but were merely Passive; God works so in man, as that he makes man work too, Faciam Te, I will make Thee understand; That that shall be done shall be done by me, but in Thee; the Power that rectifies the act is Gods, the Act is mans; Faciam te, says God, I will make thee, thee, every particular person, (for that arises out of this singular and distributive word, Thee, which threatens no exception, no exclusion) I will make every person, to whom I present Instruction, capable of that Instruction, and if he receive it not, it is only his, and not my fault. And so this first part is an Instruction De credendis, of such things, as by Gods rectifying of our understanding, we are bound to believe. And then in a second part, there follows a more particular Instructing, Docebo, I will teach thee, And that In via, In the way; It is not only De via, To teach thee, which is the way, that thou maiest find it, but In via, How to keep the way, when thou art in it; He will teach thee, not only Vt gradiaris, That thou maiest walk in it, and not sleep, but Quo modo gradieris, How thou mayest walk in it, and not stray; And so this second part is an Institution De agendis, of those things, which, thine understanding being formerly rectified, and deduced into a belief, thou art bound to do. And then in the last words of the text, I will guide thee with mine eye, there is a third part, an establishment, a confirmation, by an incessant watchfulness in God; He will consider, consult upon us, (for so much the Original word imports) He will not leave us to Contingencies, to Fortune, no nor to his own general Providence, by which all Creatures are universally in his protection, and administration, but he will ponder us, consider us, study us; And that with his eye, which is the sharpest, and most sensible organ and instrument, soonest feels, if any thing be amisse, and so inclines him quickly to rectify us; And so this third part is an Instruction De sperandis, it hath evermore a relation to the future, to the constancy and perseverance of Gods goodness towards us; to the end, and in the end, he will guide us with his eye: Except the eye of God can be put out, we cannot be put out of his sight, and his care. So that, both our freight which we are to take in, that is, what we are to believe concerning God; And the voyage which we are to make, how we are to steer and govern our course, that is, our behavior and conversation in the household of the faithful; And then the Haven to which we must go, that is, our assurance of arriving at the heavenly Jerusalem, are expressed in this Chart, in this Map, in this Instruction, in this Text, I will Instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. And when you have done all this, Believed aright, and lived according to that belief, and died according to that life, in the last voice Surgite, you shall find a Venite, as soon as you are called from the dust of the grave, you shall Enter into your Masters joy, and be no more called servants, but friends, no more friends, but sons, no more sons but heirs, no more heirs, but coheirs with the only Son of God, no more coheirs, but Idem Spiritus, The same Spirit with the Lord.

First then, the office which God by his blessed Spirit, through us, in his Church, undertakes, is to Instruct. And this being done so by God himself, God sending his Spirit, his Spirit working in his Ministers, his Ministers labouring in his Church, it is strange that S. Paul speaking so, in the name of God, and his Spirit, and his Ministers, and his Church, should be put to entreat his hearers, To suffer a word of exhortation. Yet he is; I besech yee, brethren, suffer a word of Exhortation. And the strangeness of the case is exalted in this, that the word there is, Solatii, and so the Vulgate reads it, and justly, Vt sufferatis verbum solatii, I bescech yee to suffer a word of Comfort. What will yee hear willingly, if yee do not willingly hear words of Comfort? With what shall we exercise your holy joy and cheerfulness, if even words of Comfort must exercise your patience? And yet we must beseech you to suffer, even our words of comfort; for, we can propose no true comfort unto you, but such as carries some irkesomeness, some bitterness with it; we can create no true joy, no true acquiescence in you, without some exercise of your patience too. We cannot promise you peace with God, without a war in your selves, nor reconciliation to him, without falling out with your selves, nor eternal joy in the next world, without a solemn remorse for the sinful abuses of this. We cannot promise you a good to morrow, without sending ye back to the consideration of an ill yesterday; for your hearing to day, is not enough, except ye repent yesterday. But yet, though with S. Paul we be put to beseech you, Vt sufferatis, That ye would suffer Instruction, though we must sometimes exercise your patience, yet it is but verbum instructionis, a word of Instruction; and though Instruction be Increpation, (for as the word is Solatium, Comfort, (so we have told you it is) it is Increpation too, for all true comfort hath Increpation in it) yet it may easily be suffered, because it is but verbum, but a word, a word and away. We would not dwell upon increpations, and chidings, and bitternesses; we would pierce but so deep as might make you search your wounds, when you come home to your Chamber, to bring you to a tenderness there, not to a paleness or blushing here. We never stay so long upon denouncing the judgements of God, but that we would, as fain as you, be at an end of that Paragraph, of that period, of that point, that we might come into a calm, and into a Lee-shore, and tell you of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus. You may suffer Instruction, though Instruction be increpation, for it is but a word of instruction, we have soon done; and you may suffer, them, because they are but Verba, not Verbera, They are but words, and not blows. It is not Traditio Satanae, a delivering you up to Satan, it is not the confusion of face, nor consternation of spirit, nor a jealousy and suspicion of Gods good purpose upon you, that we would induce by our Instruction, though it be Increpation, but only a sense of your sins, and of the Majesty of God violated by them, and so to a better capacity of this Instruction, which the Holy Ghost here presents, In credendis, in those things which you are bound to believe; of which his first degree is, Intelligere te faciam, He will make ye understand, he will work upon your understanding, for, so much (as we noted to you at first) doth that word, which we Translate here, I will Instruct thee, comprehend.

Oportet accedentem credere; The Apostle seems to make that our first step, He that comes to God, must believe. So it is our first step to God, To believe, but there is a step towards God, before it come to faith, which is, to understand; God works first upon the understanding. God proceeds in our conversion, and regeneration, as he did in our first Creation. There man was nothing; but God breathed not a soul into that nothing; but of a clod of earth he made a body, and into that body infused a soul. Man in his Conversion, is nothing, does nothing. His body is not verier dust in the grave, till a Resurrection, then his soul is dust in his body, till a resuscitation by grace. But then this grace does not work upon this nothingness that is in man, upon this mere privation; but Grace finds out mans natural faculties, and exalts them to a capacity, and a susciptibleness of the working thereof, and so by the understanding infuses faith. Therefore God begins his Instruction here at the understanding; and he does not say at first, Faciam te credere, I will make thee to believe, but Faciam te intelligere, I will make thee understand.

That then being Gods Method, To make us understand, certainly those things which belong to our Salvation, are not In-intelligibilia, not In-intelligible, un-understandable, un-conceiveavable things, but the Articles of faith are discernible by Reason. For though Reason cannot apprehend that a Virgin should have a Son, or that God should be made Man and dye, if we put our Reason primarily and immediately upon the Article single, (for so it is the object of faith only) yet if we pursue Gods Method, and see what our understanding can do, we shall see, that out of ratiocination and discourse, and probabilities, and very similitudes, at last will arise evident and necessary conclusions; such as these, That as there is a God, that God must be worshiped according to his will, That therefore that will of God must be declared and manifested somewhere, That this is done in some permanent way, in some Scripture, which is the Word of God, That this book, which we call the Bible, is, by better reasons then any others can pretend, that Scripture; And when our Reason hath carried us so far, as to accept these Scriptures for the Word of God, then all the particular Articles, A Virgins Son, and a mortal God, will follow evidently enough. And then those two Propositions, Mysteria credenda ut intelligantur, Mysteries of Religion must be believed before they be understood, and Mysteria intelligenda ut credantur, Mysteries of Religion must be understood before they can be believed, will be all one; For God exalts our natural faculty of understanding by Grace to apprehend them, and then to that submission and assent, which he by grace produces out of our understanding, by a succeeding and more powerful Grace he sets to the Seal of faith. Wait thou therefore upon God, his way; present unto him an humble and a diligent understanding; conclude not too desperately against thy self, if thou have not yet attained to all degrees of faith, but admit that preparation, which God offers to thine understanding, by an assiduous and a sedulous hearing; for a narrower faith that proceeds out of a true understanding, shall carry thee farther then a faith that seems larger, but is wrapped up in an implicite ignorance; no man believes profitably, that knows not why he believes. The subject then, that this work is wrought in, is that faculty, mans understanding; There God begins in the Instruction of this text, Thou shalt understand, Thou shalt; The act shall be thine, but yet, the power is mine, faciam te, I will make thee understand, which is another Consideration in this part.

God doth not determine his promise here, in a Faciam ut intelligas, I will cast an understanding upon thee, I will cause an understanding to fall upon thee, but it is faciam te intelligere, I will make thee to understand, Thou shalt be an Agent in thine own salvation. When God made the Ass speak under Balaam, God went not so far as this first step, (not to the faciam ut intelligas) he imprinted, infused no understanding in that Beast. When God suffers the hypocrite to praise him, he imprints no understanding; Here is a Frustra colunt, It is a worship that is no worship, when it is with the lips only, and the heart far off. So when a Papist cries Templum domini, Templum domini, Visibility of a Church, Infallibility in a Church, here is no understanding; He pretends to believe as the Church believes, but he knows not what the Church believes; no, nor he neither upon whom he relies for his Instruction, his Priest, his Confessor. They are deceived that think every Priest or Jesuit, that comes hither, knows the Tenets of that Church; it is a more reserved, a more perplexed, a more involved matter then so. To contract this Consideration, when a Preacher speaks well, and destroys as fast by his ill life, as he builds by his good doctrine, here is no understanding neither. A good understanding have all they that keep the Commandments; not all they that preach them, but that keep them: It is all they, and only they. There is no other assurance but that; Hereby we are sure that we know him, if we keep his Commandments. This is our Criterium, and only this; hereby we know it, and by nothing els. So that as he that is slothful in his work, is even the brother of him that is a great waster; So he that builds not with both hands, life and doctrine, is slothful in his work. He that preaches against sin, and doth it, Instruit dominum quomodo eum condemnet, He doth not so much teach his Auditory, how to scape condemnation, as teach God how to condemn him. In these cases there is no understanding at all; In the case of the Ass, and the hypocrite, and the blind Romanist, and the vicious Preacher. In some other cases, there is understanding given, but without any concurrence, any cooperation of man, as in those often visions, and dreams, and manifestations of God, to the Prophets, and his other servants; There was a faciam ut intelligas, God would make his pleasure known unto them, but yet not as in this Text, where God makes use of the man himself for his own salvation. But yet it is God, and God alone that does all this, that rectifies our understanding, as well as that establishes our faith. It is my soul that says to mine eye, faciam te videre, I will make thee see, and my soul that says to mine ear, faciam te audire, I will make thee hear, and without that soul, that eye and ear could no more see nor hear, then the eyes and ears of an Idol; so it is my God that says to my soul, faciam te intelligere, I will make thee understand. And therefore as thou art bound to infinite thanksgivings to God, when he hath brought thee to faith, to forget not thy tribute by the way, to bless and magnify him, if he have enlarged thy desire of understanding, and thy capacity of understanding, and thy means of understanding; for, as howsoever a man may forget the order of the letters, after he is come to read perfectly, and forget the rules of his Grammar, after he is come to speak perfectly, yet by those letters, and by that Grammar he came to that perfection; so, though faith be of an infinite exaltation above understanding, yet, as though our understanding be above our senses, yet by our senses we come to understand, so by our understanding we come to believe. And though the Holy Ghost repeat that more then once, Domine quis credidit? Lord who believes our report? And that, Shall the son of Man find faith upon earth when he comes? though he complain of want of faith, yet he multiplies infinitely that complaint for want of understanding, and there are ten Non intelligunts for one Non credunt, ten increpations, that his people did not understand, for one that they did not believe; because, though faith be a nobler operation, God takes it always worst in us, to neglect those things which are nearest us, as he doth to neglect the ordinary and necessary duties of Religion, and search curiously into the unrevealed purposes of his secret counsels. And this Instruction to the understanding, he seems in this text to extend to all, for this singular word, Te, I will make Thee, Thee to understand, includes no exclusion, but is an offer, a promise to all, which is our other and last Consideration in this first part.

In this consideration, let us stop a little upon this question, why the Scriptures of God more then any other book, do still speak in this singular person, and in this familiar person? still Tu, and Tibi, and Te; Thou must love God, God speaks to thee, God hath care of thee. Certainly in those passages, which are from lower persons to Princes, no Author is of a more humble, and reverential, and ceremonial phrase, then the phrase of the Scripture is. Who could go lower then David to Saul, that calls himself a flea, and a dead dog? Who could go higher, then Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, O King, thou art King of Kings; In all places, the children of men, the beasts of the field, the fouls of the air are given into thy hand; Thy greatness reacheth to heaven, and thy dominions to the ends of the earth. So is it also in persons nearer in nature, and nearer in rank; Jacob bows seven times to the ground, in the presence of his brother Esau, and My Lord, and My Lord, at every word. The Scripture phrase is as ceremonial and as observant of distances, as any, and yet still full of this familiar word too, Tu and Tuus, Thou and Thine. And we also, we who deal most with the Scriptures, are more accustomed to the same phrase then any other kind of speakers are. In a Parliament, who is ever heard to say, Thou must needs grant this, Thou mayest be bold to yield to this? Or who ever speaks so to a Judge in any Court? Nay, the King himself will not speak to the people in that phrase. And yet in the presence of the greatest, we say ordinarily, Amend thy life, and God be merciful to thee, and I absolve thee of all thy sins. Beloved, in the Scripture. God speaks either to the Church, his Spouse, and to his children, and so he may be bold, and would be familiar with them; Or els he speaks so, as that he would be thought to to speak singularly to thy soul in particular. Know then, that Christ Jesus hath done enough for the salvation of all; but know too, that if there had been no other name written in the book of life but thine, he would have died for Thee. Of those which were given him, he lost none; but if there had been none given him, but Thou, rather then have lost Thee, he would have given the same price for Thee, that he gave for the whole world. And therefore when thou hearest his mercies distributed in that particular, and that familiar phrase, Faciam Te, I will make Thee understand, thou knowest not whether he speak to any other in the Congregation or no; Be sure that he speak to Thee; which he does, if thou hearken to him, and answer him. If thou canst not find that he means Thee yet, that he speaks to thee now, if thou think he speak rather to some other, whose faith and good life thou preferrest before thine own, do but begin to think now of the blessedness of that man, to whom thou thinkest he speaks, and say to God, with thy Savior, Eli, Eli, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou gone to the other side, or why to the next on my right, or on my left hand, and left out me? Why speakest thou not comfortably to my soul? and he will leave the ninety nine for thee, and thou shalt find Onus amoris, such a weight, and burden, and load of his love upon thee, as thou shalt be fain almost to say with S. Peter, Exi à me Domine, O Lord go farther from me, that is, thou shalt see such an obligation of mercy laid upon thee, as puts thee beyond all possibility of comprehension, much more of retribution, or of due and competent thanksgiving. Miserere animae tua, Be but merciful to thine own soul, and God will be merciful to it too; If God had never meant to be merciful to thee, he would learn of thee; If thou couldest love thy self before God love thee, God would love thee for loving thy self; how much more for thy loving his love in thee? Love understanding, and, faciet te intelligere, he will make thee understand enough for thy pilgrimage, enough for thy transmigration, enough for thy eternal habitation. As we count them wisest, who are most provident, and foresee most, he will make thee see farther then all they, through all generations, beyond children, and children's children, (which is the prospect of the world) to all eternity, that hath no termination, and he will allow thee an understanding for this world too; He will bid thee Lift up thine eyes to heaven, and bid thee Look down to the earth too; He will make thy considerations of this world acceptable to him, as well as those of the next; He will remember thee, that Angels descended as well as ascended, that to a religious soul, this world is not out of the way to heaven; Faciet te intelligere, He will make thee understand enough for both. And so we have done with that first Part, De credendis, Things which we are bound to believe, That even for those, God works upon the understanding, That though God work all in all, yet it is the man that understands; and lastly, that in the Holy Ghosts choosing this word of singularity, Te, I will make thee understand, there is pregnant intimation of Gods large and diffusive goodness to all, This word, Thee, excludes none. And so we pass to our second Part, Instruction, De agendis, what we are to do, I will teach thee in the way thou shalt go.

If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God; and Faciet intelligere, God shall make him understand: God shall; I may study, and then, you may hear me, but God only makes us all understand; for the understanding is the door of faith, and that door he opens, and he shuts: So by understanding he brings us to believe. But then, he that truly believes, finds that he hath something to do too; And he says to himself, Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his ways? And he cannot tell himself; He asks them whom God hath sent to tell him, his Ministers, Viri, fratres, Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? And by their leading, he goes to the Spirit of God, to God himself, and says, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And that good Master will teach him what to do, which is the promise of this part of Instruction in our Text, I will teach thee in the way thou shalt go. And Plus est docere, quàm instruere, God promises more in this, that he will Teach thee in the way, then in the former, that he would make thee understand. Not that the matter or subject in this Part, is the greater, (for the former had relation to faith, and this but to good works) but that it intimates a more frequent recourse to us, and a more studious care of us, and a more provident vigilancy over us, and a more familiar conversation with us, that God accompanies us in all our way, and directs us in all our particular actions, then that by understanding he hath brought us to believe. He that horses a man well for a journey, or he that rewards a man well for a journey, does a greater work, then he that goes along with him as a guide; but yet there is aliquid magis in the guide, there is a more continual, a more incessant courtesy in him. We see in the Roman Church, they are not in their Beads, without Credoes, they believe enough; and lest that should not be enough, they have made a new Creed of more Articles then that, in the Council of Trent, and to testify a strong faith therein, they must swear they believe it: And then they have to every Creed, more Pater nosters, they petition enough, ask enough at Gods hands; They have Credoes enow, Pater nosters enow, and Ave Maries more then enow; But when we consider them in the Commandments, what we are to do, (as great Workers as they pretend to be) though they enlarge their Credoes, and multiply their Pater nosters, they contract the Commandments, and put two into one, for fear of meeting one against Images.

This then expresses Gods daily care of us, that he teaches us the way. But then, even that implies, that we are all out of our way; still all bends, all conduces to that, An humble acknowledgement of our own weakness, a present recourse to the love and power of God; The first thing I look for in the Exposition of any Scripture, and the nearest way to the literal sense thereof, is, what may most deject and vilify man, what may most exalt, and glorify God. We are all, all out of our way; but God deals not alike with all; for, for the wicked, Their way is dark and slippery, And then, The Angel of the Lord persecutes them; But for those whom he loves, He will weigh the paths of the just, (says our later Translation) And, He will make the paths of the righteous equal and even, says our former; It shall be a path often beaten by him, for it is not righteousness, to be righteous once a year, at Easter, nor once a week, upon Sunday. An Anniversary righteousness, an Hebdomadary righteousness, a Sabbatarian righteousness is no righteousness. But it is a path; and so made even, without occasions of stumbling; that is, he shall be able to walk in any profession, and to make good any station, and not be diverted by the power of any temptations incident to that calling. The Angel of the Lord, The evil Angel, distrust and diffidence, shall persecute the wicked, in his dark and slippery way; this is no teaching; but because the godly have a teaching, even their direction hath a correction too; God beats his Scholars into their way too. The difference is expressed in the Prophet, When the Lord hath given you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, (for in Gods School that is Scholars fare) yet, says God, Thy Teachers shall not be removed from thee into a corner; Still in thine affliction thou shalt have a Teacher, or even the affliction it self shall be Gods Usher; and thou shalt have evidence of it, Thy Teacher shall not be removed into a corner; thou shalt see it; and (as it follows there) Thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee; (that is, a voice arising even from that affliction that thou hast suffered) and that voice shall say, This is the way, walk ye in it; As dark as affliction is, it shall show thee the way, Haec est via, This is the way, as much as affliction enfeebles thee, yet it shall enable thee to walk in it, Ambulate in ea. God is a School-master; not as the Law was, to teach with a sword in his hand; but yet he teaches with a rod in his hand, though not with a sword.

Now in teaching us the way, he instructs us De via, and In via; which is the way, and what is to be done in it. He sees all our ways; All my ways are before thee, says David. And he sees them not so as though they belonged not to him, for he considers them, Does not he behold all my ways, and tell all my steps? He sees them, and sees our irremediable danger in them; Formido, & fovea, & laqueus, Fear, and a pit, and snares are upon thee; Upon whom? There we see the generality of this single word, Thee, that it is all; for so, it follows there, Vpon thee, O Inhabitant of the earth. The danger then is general, and the Lord knows it; Who then can teach us a better way, but he? But how doth he teach us this way? When God had promised Moses to send an Angel to show the people their way, (I will send an Angel before thee) Moses says to God, See, thou sayest, Lead this people forth, and thou hast not showed me whom thou wilt send with me; (so those Translators thought good to render it) God had told him of an Angel, but that satisfied not Moses; He must have something showed to him, he must see his guide. If thy presence go not with me, carry me not from hence, says he to God. For, wherein shall it be known, that I, and thy people have found favor in thy sight? shall it not be when thou goest up with us? And therefore God satisfies him, My presence shall go with thee. Go? but how? says Moses; Wilt thou be pleased to show me thy glory? Shall we see any thing? They did see that Pillar in which God was, and that presence, that Pillar showed the way. To us, the Church is that Pillar; in that, God shows us our way. For strength it is a Pillar, and a Pillar for firmness and fixation: But yet the Church is neither an equal Pillar, always fire, but sometimes cloud too; The Church is more and less visible, sometimes in splendor, sometimes in an eclipse; neither is it so a fixt Pillar, as that it is not in divers places. The Church is not so fixed to Rome, as that it is not communicated to other Nations, nor so limited in it self, as that it may not admit changes, in those things that appertain to Order, and Discipline. Our way, that God teaches us, is the Church; That is a Pillar; Fixed, for Fundamental things, but yet a moveable Pillar, for things indifferent, and arbitrary.

Thus he teaches, Quid via, which is the way, It is the Church, the Pillar of Truth. He teaches next, Quid in via, What is to be done in the way; for, that counsel of the Apostle, See that ye walk circumspectly, presumes a man to be in the way; else he would have cried to have stopped him, or to have turned him, and not bid him go on, how circumspectly soever. But, In my path, says David, (not making any doubt but that he was in a right path) in my path, the proud have laid a snare for me, and spread a net with cords; Ad manum orbitae, (says the Original) even at the hand of the path; That path which should (as it were) reach out a hand to lead me, hath a snare in it. And therefore, says David, with so much vehemence in the entrance of that Psalm, Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man, who purposeth to overthrow my goings; Though I go in the right way, the true Church, yet purposes to overthrow me there. This Evil man works upon us: The man of sin; in those instruments that still cast that snare in our way, in our Church, There is a minority, an invisibility, and a fallibility in your Church; you begun but yesterday in Luther, and you are fallen out already in Calvin. So also works this Evil man amongst us, in those Scismatiques, who cast that snare in our way, Your way (though it be in part mended) hath yet impressions of the steps of the Beast, and it is a circular, and giddy way, that will bring us back again to Rome. And therefore, beloved, though you be in the way, see ye walk circumspectly, for the snares that both these have cast in the way, the reproaches, and defamations that both these have cast upon our Church. But when thou hast scaped both these snares, of Papist, and Scismatique, pray still to be delivered from that Evil man, that is within thee. Non tantùm potest hominem decipere, quàm per Organum hominis, The Devil hath not so powerful an instrument, nor so subtle an engine upon thee as thy self. Quis in hoc seculo non patitur hominem malum? Who in this world (or if he go so far out of this world, as never to see man but himself) is not troubled with this evil man? When thou prayest with David, to be delivered from this evil man, if God ask thee whom thou meanest, must thou not say, thy self? Canst thou show God a worse? Qui non est malus, nihil à malo mali patitur; If a man were not evil in himself, the worst thing in the world could not hurt him; the Devil would not offer to give fire, if there were no powder in thy heart. What that evil man is, that is in another, I cannot know: I cannot always discern another's snare; for, What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Thy spirit knows what the evil man that is in thee, is. Deliver thy self of that evil man that ensnares thee in thy way; though thou come to Church; yea even when thou art there. David repeats this word A viro malo, from the evil man, twice in that Psalm. In one place, A viro malo, is in that name, Meish, which is a name of man proper only to the stronger sex, and intimates snares and temptations of stronger power, As when fear, or favor tempts a man to come to a superstitious, and idolatrous service. In the other it is but Meadam, and that is a name common to men, and women, and children, and intimates, that omissions, negligences, infirmities, may encumber us, ensnare us, though we be in the way, even in the true place of Gods service; and the eye may be ensnared as dangerously, and as damnably in this place, as the ear, or the tongue in the Chamber. As S. Jerome says, Nugae in ore Sacerdotis sunt sacrilegium, An idle word in a Church-mans mouth is sacrilege; so a wanton look in the Church, is an Adultery. Now when God hath thus taught us the way, what it is, that is, brought us to the true Church, (for till then, all is diversion, all banishment) and taught us In via, what to do in that way, To resist temptations to superstition from other imaginary Churches, temptations to particular sins from the evil men of the world, and from the worst man in the world, our self, the Instruction in our Text is carried a step farther, that is, to proceed and go forward in that way, Qua gradieris, I will teach thee to walk in that way.

When S. Augustine saith upon this place, It is via qua gradieris, & non cui haerebis, A way to walk in, not to stick upon, he doth not mean, That we should ever change this way, or depart from it, (that any cross in this, should make us hearken after another religion) It is not that we should not stick to it, but that we should not stick in it, nor loyter in the way. Thou hast been in this way (in the true Church) ever since thy Baptism: and yet, if a man that hath lived morally well all his life, and no more then so, find by Gods grace a door opened into the Christian Church, and a short turning into this right way, at the end of his life, he by the benefit of those good Moral actions, shall be before thee, who hast lived lazily, though in the right way, at his first step; For though those good Moral actions were not good works, when he did them, yet then, that grace which he lays hold upon at last, shall reflect a tincture upon them, and make them good in the eyes of God, ab initio. If thou have not been lazy in thy way, in thy Christian profession hitherto, yet except thou proceed still, except thou go from hence now, better then thou camest, (better in thy purpose) and come hither next day better then thou wentest, (better in thy practise) thou hast not learned this lesson in this Instruction, I will teach thee to walk in this way. A Christian hath no Solstice, no highest point, where he may stand still, and go no farther; much less hath he any Aequator, where days and nights are equal, that is, a liberty to spend as much time ill, as well, as many hours in sinful pleasures, as in religious exercises. Quicquid citra Deum est, via est, nec immorandum in ea; He doth not say, praeter Deum, much less contra Deum; For whatsoever is against God, nay, whatsoever is besides God, is altogether out of the way; But citra Deum, on this side of God: Till we come to God in heaven, all our best is but our way to him. All the zeal of gathering knowledge, all the growth of faith, all the practise of sanctification, is but via, the way; and non immorandum in ea; since we have here a promise of Gods assistance in it, in the way, we are sure there is an obligation upon it, as upon a duty, in this way, humbly, and patiently, and laboriously to walk towards him, without stopping upon any thing in this world, either preferments on the right, or disgraces on the left hand, (for a Cart may stop us, as well as a Coach, low things as well as high, with as much trouble, and more anoyance) Which is more especially intended in the last words of the Text, Firmabo super te oculos meos, I will settle my providence, fixe mine eye upon thee, I will guide thee with mine eye.

Thus far hath our blessed Lord assured us, That he will make us understand, which is his Instruction de credendis, what to Believe; And that he will teach us to walk in his way, which is his Instruction de agendis, what to Do, how to avoid temptations; This last is, That he will guide us with his eye, which is his Instruction de sperandis, what we are to Hope for at his hand, if in this way we do stumble, or fall into some sins of infirmities. But it is but de sperandis, not de praesumendis; when by infirmity thou art fallen, thy Hope must begin then; but if the Hope begun before, so as thou fellest upon hope that God would raise thee, then it was presumption, and there the Lords eye shuts in, and guides thee no longer. Otherwise he directs thee with his eye, (that is, with his gracious and powerful looking upon thee) to the means of thy recovery. We hear of no blows, we hear of no chiding from him towards Peter, but all that is said, is, The Lord turned back and looked upon Peter, and then he remembered his case; The eye of the Lord lightened his darkness; The eye of the Lord thawed those three crusts of Ice, which were grown over his heart, in his three denials of his Master. A Candle wakes some men, as well as a noise; The eye of the Lord works upon a good soul, as much as his hand, and he is as much affected with this consideration, The Lord sees me, as with this, The Lord strikes me.

We read in Natural story of some creatures, Qui solo oculorum aspectu fovent ova, which hatch their eggs only by looking upon them; What cannot the eye of God produce and hatch in us? Plus est quod probatur aspectu, quàm quod sermone. A man may seem to commend in words, and yet his countenance shall dispraise. His word infuses good purposes into us, but if God continue his eye upon us, it is a farther approbation, for He is a God of pure eyes, and will not look upon the wicked. This land doth the Lord thy God care for, and the eyes of the Lord are always upon it from the beginning of the year, even to the end thereof. What a cheerful spring, what a fruitful Autumn hath that soul, that hath the eye of the Lord always upon her? The eye of the Lord upon me, makes midnight noon, and S. Lucies day S. Barnabies; It makes Capricorne Cancer, and the Winters the Summers Solstice; The eye of the Lord sanctifies, nay more then sanctifies, glorifies all the Eclipses of dishonor, makes Melancholy cheerfulness, diffidence assurance, and turns the jealousy of the sad soul into infallibility. Upon his people his eye shined in the wilderness; his eye singled them in Egypt, and in Babylon they were sustained by his eye. They were, and we are; The eye of their God was upon the Elders of Israel, And, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon all them that fear him. The Proverb is not only as old as Aristotle, Oculus domini, and Pes domini, The eye of the Master fattens the horse, and the foot of the Master marles the ground, but it is as old as the Creation, God saw all that he had made, and so, it was very good; It was visio approbationis, and his approbation was the exaltation thereof.

This guiding then with the eye, we consider to be his particular care, and his personal providence upon us, in his Church; For, a man may be in the Kings presence, and yet not in his eye; and so he may in Gods. Gods whole Ordinance in his Church, is Gods face; For, that is the face of God, by which God is manifested to us; But then, that eye in that face, by which he promises to guide us, in this Text, is that blessed Spirit of his, by whose operation he makes that grace, which does evermore accompany his Ordinances, effectual upon us; The whole Congregation sees God face to face, in the Service, in the Sermon, in the Sacrament; but there is an eye in that face, an eye in that Service, an eye in that Sermon, an eye in that Sacrament, a piercing and an operating Spirit, that looks upon that soul, and foments and cherishes that soul, who by a good use of Gods former grace, is become fitter for his present.

And this guiding us with his eye, manifests it self in these two great effects; conversion to him, and union with him. First, his eye works upon ours; His eye turns ours to look upon him. Still it is so expressed with an Ecce; Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon all them that fear him; His eye calls ours to behold that; And then our eye calls upon his, to observe our cheerful readiness, Behold, as the eye of a servant looks to the hand of his Master, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, till he have mercy upon us. Where the Donec, Vntill, is an everlasting Donec, as the blessed Virgins was; A Virgin Donec, till she brought forth her first Son, and a Virgin ever after; So our eyes wait upon God, till he have mercy, that is, while he hath it, and that he may continue his mercy; for it was his merciful eye that turned ours to him, and it is the same mercy, that we wait upon him. And then, when, as a well made Picture doth always look upon him, that looks upon it, this Image of God in our soul, is turned to him, by his turning to it, it is impossible we should do any foul, any uncomely thing in his presence. Will any man solicit a Wife or a Daughter, and call the Father or Husband to look on? Will any man break open thy house in the night, and first wake thee, and call thee up? Can any man give his body to uncleanness, his tongue to profaneness, his heart to covetousness, and at the same time consider, that his pure, and his holy, and his bountiful God hath his eye upon him? Can he look upon God in that line, in that Angle, (upon God looking upon him) and dishonor him? Upon those words of David, Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord, Quasi diceretur, quid agitur depedibus? as though it were objected, Is all thy care of thine eyes? What becomes of thy feet? Non attendis ad eos? Doest thou look to thy steps, To thy life, as well as to thy faith, To please God, as well as to know God? And he answers in the words which follow, Ipse evellet, As for my feet, God shall order, that is, assist me in ordering them; If his eye be upon me, and mine upon him, (O blessed reflexion! O happy reciprocation! O powerful correspondence!) Ipse evellet, He will pluck my feet out of the net, though I be almost ensnared, almost entangled, he will snatch me out of the fire, deliver me from the temptation.

The other great effect of his guiding us with his eye, is, That it unites us to himself; when he fixes his his eye upon us, and accepts the return of ours to him, then he keeps us as the Apple of his eye, Quasi pupillam filiam oculi, (as S. Jerome reads it) as the Daughter, the issue, the off-spring of his own eye. For then, He that toucheth you, toucheth the Apple of his eye. And these are the two great effects of his guiding us by his eye, that first, his eye turns us to himself, and then turns us into himself; first, his eye turns ours to him, and then, that makes us all one with himself, so, as that our afflictions shall be put upon his patience, and our dishonors shall be injuries to him; we cannot be safer then by being his; but thus, we are not only His, but He; To every Persecutor, in every one of our behalf, he shall say, Cur me? Why persecutest thou me? And as he is all Power, and can defend us, so here he makes himself all eye, which is the most tender part, and most sensible of our pressures.

So have you then this Instruction perfected unto you. First, Decredendis, facit te intelligere, God will make you understand, you, for he will work upon your natural faculties supernaturally, and by them, convey faith. And then, De agendis, docebo in via, He will teach you which is the way, and what to do when you are in it. And after that, De sperandis, firmabo oculos, he will guide you with his eye, watch, if in that way you stumble, and restore you. That you may constantly hope for; and when you have but thus much more, you have all, That there is In omni sperando, timendum; In every hope, there is something to be feared. Hope makes us not ashamed, But yet hope, (as long as it is but hope) may make us afraid; though not with a suspicious fear, reflected upon God, yet with a solicitous fear, arising from, and returning upon our selves. There is a Hope of glory, and there is a Glory in hope; but no such Glory, as exterminates all fear: for we are bid To work out our Salvation with fear and trembling; It must be such a fear, as may still relate to my Salvation; For fear that excludes me from Salvation, is a fearful fear; but yet a fear it must be; for as there is a promise of guiding by his eye, there is also a possibility of taking his eye from thee. God is not in this, like the Sun, that makes no more haste over a dunghill, then over a Garden; over Babylon, then over Jerusalem. The eye of God is not infected with thy bleare-eye; but yet he will not stay and look upon it. And when he takes his eye from thee, he sets his face against thee; The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And thus, Ab ejus vision, quem conspicis, abs; Thou art out of Gods sight, when thou seest him only in his judgements. Nay, thou shalt not see him in them; I will hide my face from them, says God, (though it were an angry face, yet he would hide it) and I will see what their end will be. God shall look upon thy fearful end from the beginning, but thou thy self shalt not see the horror that appertains to it, till it be too late; for that is it, in which God does especially reproach that people, O that they were so wise, as to consider their latter end! To that purpose hath God continued his Instruction to us, in this text, That we might know from him, what to believe, and what to do, and how to return to God, when we have gone astray, I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, and I will guide thee with mine eye.

Serm. LXII. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.9.

Be not as the Horse, or the Mule, who have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

AS God, above whom there is nothing, looks downewards to us; So except we, below whom there is nothing that belongs to us, look upward toward him, we shall never meet. And therefore God foreseeing such a descent in man, as might make him incapable, and put him out of distance of the rich promises of this Psalm, in this Text he forewarns him, of such a Descent, such a dejection, such a diminution of himself. And first he forbids a Descent generally into a lower nature; Nolite fieri, Be not made at all, not made any other, then God hath made you. God would have man, who was his Medal at first, (when God stamped and imprinted his Image in him) And was Gods Robe, and garment at last, (when Christ Jesus invested and put on our Nature) God would have this man preserve this Dignity, Nolite fieri, Be not made any new thing. Secondly, he forbids him a Descent, into certain particular depravations, and deteriorations of our Nature, in those qualities, which are intimated and specified, in the nature and disposition of those two beasts, The Horse, and the Mule, Nolite fieri siout Equus & Mulus, Be not as the Horse, or the Mule. But principally, for that which is in the third place, Quia non intellectus, Not because they have no faith, but because they have no understanding, for then, it is impossible that ever they should have faith; And so it is a reason proportioned to our Reason; Do not so, for it will vitiate, it will annihilate your understanding, your reason, and then what are you, for supernatural, or for natural knowledge? But then there is another reason proportioned to the sense, that this Declination of ours, into these inferior natures, brings God to a necessity to bit, and bridle, and curb us, that is, to inflict afflictions upon us; And then that reason is aggravated by the greatest weight that can be laid upon it, That God will inflict all these punishments upon these perverse men, metamorphosed into these Beasts, not only Ne approximent, That they may not come near Gods Servants, to do them harm, (which seems indeed to be the most literal sense of the word) But, (as some of our Expositors have found reason to interpret them) Ne approximent, That they shall not come near him; not near God in the service of his Church, to do themselves any good; his Corrections shall harden them, and remove them farther from him, and from all benefit by his Ordinances.

First then God armes him with a pre-increpation upon Descent, Nolite fieri, Go no less, be not made lower. The first sin that ever was, was an ascending, a climing too high; when the purest Understandings of all, The Angels, fell by their ascending; when Lucifer was tumbled down, by his Similis ero Altissimo, I will be like the most High, then he tried upon them, who were next to him in Dignity, upon Man, how that clambring would work upon him. He presents to man, the same ladder; He infuses into man the same Ambition, and as he fell with a Similis ero Altissimo, I will be like the most High, So he overthrew man, with an Eritis sicut Dii, Ye shall be as Gods. It seems this fall hath broke the neck of Mans ambition, and now we dare not be so like God, as we should be. Ever since this fall, man is so far from affecting higher places, then his nature is capable of, that he is still groveling upon the ground, and participates, and imitates, and expresses more of the nature of the Beast then of his own. There is no creature but man that degenerates willingly from his natural Dignity; Those degrees of goodness, which God imprinted in them at first, they preserve still; As God saw they were good then, so he may see they are good still; They have kept their Talent; They have not bought nor sold; They have not gained nor lost; They are not departed from their native and natural dignity, by any thing that they have done. But of Man, it seems, God was distrustful from the beginning; He did not pronounce upon Mans Creation, (as he did upon the other Creatures) that He was good; because his goodness was a contingent thing, and consisted in the future use of his free will. For that faculty and power of the will, is Virtus transformativa; by it we change our selves into that we love most, and we are come to love those things most, which are below us. As God said to the Earth, (and it was enough to say so) Germinet terra juxta genus suum, Let the Earth bring forth according to her kind; So, Vive juxta genus tuum, says S. Ambrose to Man, Live according to thy kind; Non adulteres genus tuum, do not abase, do not allay, do not betray, do not abastardise that noble kind, that noble nature, which God hath imparted to thee, imprinted in thee.

Mundi moles liber est, This whole world is one Book; And is it not a barbarous thing, when all the whole book besides remains entire, to deface that leaf in which the Authors picture, the Image of God is expressed, as it is in man? God brought man into the world, as the King goes in state, Lords, and Earls, and persons of other ranks before him. So God sent out light, and Firmament, and Earth, and Sea, and Sun, and Moon, to give a dignity to mans procession; and only Man himself disorders all, and that by displacing himself, by losing his place. The Heavens and Earth were finished, Et omnis exercitus eorum, says Moses, All the Host thereof; and all this whole Army preserves that Discipline, only the General that should govern them, mis-governs himself. And whereas we see that Tygers and Wolves, Beasts of annoyance, do still keep their places and natures in the world; and so do Herbs and Plants, even those which are in their nature offensive and deadly, (for Alia esui, alia usui, Some herbs are made to eat, some to adorne, some to supply in Physic) whilst we dispute in Schools, whether if it were possible for Man to do so, it were lawful for him to destroy any one species of Gods Creatures, though it were but the species of Toads and Spiders, (because this were a taking away one link of Gods chain, one Note of his harmony) we have taken away that which is the Jewel at the chain, that which is the burden of the Song, Man himself. Partus sequitur ventrem; We verify the Law treacherously, mischievously; we all follow our Mother, we grovel upon the earth, whose children we are, and being made like our Father, in his Image, we neglect him. What is Man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of Man, that thou visitest him? David admires not so much mans littleness in that place, as his greatness; He is a little lower then Angels; A little lower then God, says our former Translation; agreeably enough to the word, and in a good sense too; Gods Lievtenant, his Vice-gerent over all Creatures; Thou hast made him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands; (and Dominion is a great, it is a supreme estate) And thou hast put all things under his feet; (as it follows there) And yet we have forfeited this Jurisdiction, this Dominion, and more, our own Essence; we are not only inferior to the Beasts, and under their annoyance, but we are our selves become Beasts. Consider the dignity of thy soul, which only, of all other Creatures is capable, susciptible of Grace; If God would bestow grace any where els, no creature could receive it but thou. Thou art so necessary to God, as that God had no utterance, no exercise, no employment for his grace and mercy, but for thee. And if thou make thy self incapable of this mercy and this grace, of which nothing but thou is capable, then thou destroyest thy nature. And remember then, that as in the Kingdom of Heaven, in those orders which we conceive to be in those glorious Spirits, there is no falling from a higher to a lower order, a Cherubim or Seraphim does not fall, and so become an Archangel, or an Angel, but those of that place that fell, fell into the bottomless pit; So, if thou depart from thy nature, from that susciptibleness, that capacity of receiving Grace, if thou degenerate so from a Man to a Beast, thou shalt not rest there in the state and nature of a Beast, whose soul breaths out to nothing, and vanishes with the life, thou shalt not be so happy, but thy better nature will remain, in despite of thee, thine everlasting soul must suffer everlasting torment.

Now as many men when they see a greater piece of coin then ordinary, they do not presently know the value of it, though they know it to be silver, but those lesser coins which are in currant use, and come to their hands every day, they know at first sight; so because this stamp, this impression of the image of God in Man, is not well and clearly understood by every Man, neither this descent and departing from the dignity thereof, being delivered but in general, (Nolite fieri, Be yee made like nothing els) Therefore the Holy Ghost brings us here to the consideration of some lesser pieces, things which are always within distance and apprehension, always in our eye, (Nolite fieri sicut, Descend not to the qualities of the Horse and the Mule. Though (as God summed up his temporal blessings to the Jews, in that total, Et profecisti in regnum, Thou didst prosper into a Kingdom) He may also sum up his spiritual blessings to us in this, Et profecisti in Ecclesiam, & in Ecclesiam credentium, (for there is Ecclesia malignantium, Odivi Ecclesiam malignantium, says David, I have hated the Congregation of evil doers) I have brought thee first from the Nations, from the Common, into a visible Church, And then from Babylon, from that Church of confusion, that makes the word of God and the word of Man equal, into an Orthodox and sincere Church, yet our sins have cast us Infra Gentes, and Infra Babylonem, Below all these again. For, for the Gentiles, The Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law; we that have the help of the Law and Gospel too, do not. And for Rome, the example of our Reformation, and their own shame, contracted thereby, hath wrought upon the Church of Rome it self; They are the better for the Reformation, (in frequent Catechizing and preaching) and we are not. Compare us with the Gentiles, and we shall fall under that increpation of the Apostle, There is such fornication amongst you, as is not once named amongst the Gentiles: We commit those things which they forbear to speak of. Compare us with Rome, and I fear that will belong to us, which God says and swears in the Prophet, As I live, saith the Lord, Sodom thy sister hath not done as thou hast done.

Where, by the way, be pleased to note, that God calls eyen Samaria, and Sodom, sisters of Jerusalem; there is a fraternity grounded in charity, which nothing must divest; If Sodom and Jerusalem were Sisters, Babylon and we may be so; uterin sisters of one womb, (for there is but one Baptism) though fornication it self, (and fornication, in the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, hath a heavy signification, and reaches even to Idolatry) have made that Church, as some think, scarce capable of the name of a Church, yet Sodom is a sister.

But be she as far degenerate as she can, our sin hath made a descent below them that are below us. It hath cast us below the Inhabitants of the Earth, Beasts, and below the Earth it self, even to Hell; for we make this life, which is the place of repentance, the place of obstinacy and obduration; and obduration is Hell. Yea, it hath cast us below the Devil himself; our state is, in this, worse then theirs; They sinned before God had given them any express law; and before God had made any examples, or taken any revenge upon any sinners; But we sin after a manifest law, and after they, and many others have been made our examples. They were never restored, we have been restored often; They proceed in their obstinacy, when God casts them from him, we proceed even when God calls us to him; They against God which turns from them, and is glorified in their destruction, we against him that comes to us, and emptied and humbled himself to the shame, to the scorn, to the pain, to the death of the Cross for us. These be the lamentable descents of sin: But the particular descent to which this text doth purposely bend it self, is, That as God said at beginning, in contempt, and in derision, Ecce Adam, quasi unus ex nobis, Behold, Man is become as one of us; So now, (as S. Bernard makes the note) the Horse and Mule may say, Quasi unus ex nobis, Behold, Man is become as one of us; and, Nolite fieri, says God in our text, Be not as the Horse or the Mule.

According to the several natures of these two Beasts, the Fathers, and other Expositors have made several interpretations; at least, several Allusions. They consider the Horse and the Mule, to admit any Rider, any burden, without discretion or difference, without debatement or consideration; They never ask whether their rider be noble or base, nor whether their load be gold for the treasure, or roots for the market. And those Expositors find the same indifferency in an habitual sinner, to any kind of sin: whether he sin for pleasure, or sin for profit, or sin but for company, still he sins. They consider the Mule to be engendered of two kinds, two species, and yet to beget, to produce neither, but to be always barren; And they find us to be composed of a double, a heavenly, and earthly nature, and thereby bound to duties of both kinds, towards God, and towards men, but to be defective and barren in both. They consider in the Mule, that one of his Parents being more ignoble then the other, he is likest the worst, He hath more of the Ass then of the Horse in him; And they find in us, that all our actions, and thoughts, taste more of the ignobler part of earth then of heaven. S. Jerome thinks fierceness and rashness to be presented in the Horse, and sloth in the Mule. And S. Augustine carries these two qualities far; He thinks that in this fierceness of the Horse, the Gentiles are represented, which ran far from the knowledge of Christianity; And by the laziness of the Mule, the Jews, who came nothing so fast, as they were invited by their former helps, to the embracing thereof. They have gone far in these allusions, and applications; and they might have gone as far farther as it had pleased them; They have Sea-room enough, that will compare a Beast, and a Sinner together; and they shall find many times, in the way, the Beast the better Man.

Here we may contract it best, if we understand Pride by the Horse, and Lust by the Mule; for, though both these, pride and lust, might have been represented in the horse, which is, (as the Philosopher notes) Animal, post hominem, salacissimum, The most intemperate, and lustful of all creatures, but man, (still man, for this infamous prerogative, must be excepted) and though the Scriptures present that sin, Lust, by the horse, (They rose in the morning like fed horses, and every man neighed after his neighbours wife) (and therefore S. Jerome delights himself with that curious note, That when a man brings his wife to that trial and conviction of jealousy, the offering that the man brings is Barley, Horseprovender in those parts, says S. Jerome) though both sins, pride and lust, might be taxed in the horse, yet pride is proper to him, and lust to the mule, both because the mule is Carne virgo, but Mente impudicus, which is one high degree of lust, to have a lustful desire in an impotent body, And then, he is engendered by unnatural mixture, which is another high degree of the same sin. And these two vices we take to be presented here, as the two principal enemies, the two chief corrupters of mankind; pride to be the principal spiritual sin, and lust, the principal that works upon the body. To avoid both, consider we both in both these beasts.

It is not much controverted in the Schools, but that the first sin of the Angels was Pride. But because (as we said before) the danger of man is more in sinking down, then in climbing up, in dejecting, then in raising himself, we must therefore remember, that it is not pride, to desire to be better. Angeli quaesiverunt id, ad quod pervenissent, si stetissent. The Angels sin was pride; but their pride consisted not in aspiring to the best degrees that their nature was capable of: but in this, that they would come to that state, by other means then were ordained for it. It could not possibly fall within so pure, and clear understandings, as the Angels were, to think that they could be God; that God could be multiplied; That they who knew themselves to be but new made, could think, not only that they were not made, but that they made all things else; To think that they were God, is impossible, this could not fall into them, though they would be Similes Altissimo, Like the most High. But this was their pride, and in this they would be like the most High, That whereas God subsisted in his Essence of himself, for those degrees of perfection, which appertained to them, they would have them of themselves; They would stand in their perfection, without any turning towards God, without any farther assistance from him; by themselves, and not by means ordained for them. This is the pride that is forbidden man; not that he think well of himself, In genere suo, That he value aright the dignity of his nature, in the Creation thereof according to the Image of God, and the infinite improvement that that nature received, in being assumed by the Son of God; This is not pride, but not to acknowledge that all this dignity in nature, and all that it conduces to, that is, grace here, and glory hereafter, is not only infused by God at first, but sustained by God still, and that nothing in the beginning, or way, or end, is of our selves, this is pride.

Man may, and must think that God hath given him the Subjicite, and Dominamini, A Majestical Character even in his person, to subdue and govern all the creatures in the world; That he hath given him a nature, already above all other creatures, and a nature capable of a better then his own is yet; (for, By his precious promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature) We are made Semen Dei, The seed of God, born of God; Genus Dei, The off-spring of God; Idem Spiritus cum Domino, The same Spirit with the Lord; He the same flesh with us, and we the same spirit with him. In Gods servants, to have said to Nebuchadnezzar, Our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us; but, if he do not, yet we will not serve thy Gods: In the Martyrs of the Primitive Church, to have contemned torments, and tormentors with personal scorns and affronts: In all calamities and adversities of this life, to rely upon that assurance, I have a better substance in me then any man can hurt, I have a better inheritance prepared for me, then any man can take from me, I am called to Triumph, and I go to receive a Crown of Immortality, these high contemplations of Kingdoms, and Triumphs, and Crowns, are not pride; To know a better state, and desire it, is not pride; for pride is only in taking wrong ways to it. So that, to think we can come to this by our own strength, without Gods inward working a belief, or to think that we can believe out of Plato, where we may find a God, but without a Christ, or come to be good men out of Plutarch or Seneca, without a Church and Sacraments, to pursue the truth it self by any other way then he hath laid open to us, this is pride, and the pride of the Angels.

Now there is also a pride, which is the Horses pride, conversant upon earthly things; To desire Riches, and Honor, and Preferment in this world, is not pride; for they have all good uses in Gods service; but to desire these by corrupt means, or to ill ends, to get them by supplantation of others, or for oppression of others, this is pride, and a Bestial pride. And this proud man is elegantly expressed in the Horse; The horse rejoyceth in his strength, he goes forth to meet the armed man, he mocks at fear, he turns upon the sword, and he swallows the ground. The River is mine, says Pharaoh, and I have made it for my self: They take all, and they mistake all; That which is but lent them for use, they think theirs; (The River is mine) That which God gave them, they think of their own getting; (I made it) And that which God placed upon them, as his Stewards for the good of others, they appropriate to themselves; (I have made it for my self) But when time is, God mounteth on high, and he mocks the horse and the rider. In that day, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness. The horse believeth not that it is the sound of the Trumpet; When the Trumpet sounds to us in our last Bell, (for the last Bell that carries us out of this world, and the Trumpet that calls us to the next, is all one voice to us, for we hear nothing between) the worldly man shall not believe that it is the sound of the Trumpet, he shall not know it, not take knowledge of it, but pass away unsensible of his own condition.

So then is Pride well represented in the Horse; and so is the other, Lust, licentiousness in the Mule. For, besides that reason of assimilation, that it desires, and cannot, and that reason, that it presents unnatural and promiscuous lust, for this reason is that vice well represented in that Beast, because it is so apt to bear any burdens. For, certainly, no man is so inclinable to submit himself to any burden of labor, of danger, of cost, of dishonor, of law, of sickness, as the licentious man is; He refuses none, to come to his ends. Neither is there any tree so loaded with boughs, any one sin that hath so many branches, so many species as this. Shedding of blood we can limit in murder, and manslaughter, and a few more; and other sins in as few names. In this sin of lust, the sex, the quality, the distance, the manner, and a great many other circumstances, create new names to the sin, and make it a sin of another kind. And as the sin is a Mule, to bear all these loads, so the sinner in this kind is so too, and (as we find an example in the Nephew of a Pope) delights to take as many loads of this sin upon him, as he could; to vary, and to multiply the kinds of this sin in one act, He would not satisfy his lust by a fornication, or adultery, or incest, (these were vulgar) but upon his own sex; and that not upon an ordinary person, but in their account, upon a Prince; And he, a spiritual Prince, A Cardinal; And all this, not by solicitation, but by force: for thus he compiled his sins, He ravished a Cardinal. This is the sin, in which men pack up as much sin as they can, and as though it were a shame to have too little, they bely their own pack, they brag of sins in this kind, which they never did, as S. Augustine with a holy and penitent ingenuity confesses of himself.

This sin then, (though one great mischief in it be, that for the most part, it destroys two together, (the Devil will have his creatures come to his Ark by couples too, two and two together) yet this sin we are able to commit without a companion, upon our own bodies, yea without bodies; (in the weakness of our bodies our minds can sin this sin) This which the Wise-man calls a pit, The mouth of a strange woman is as a deep pit, he with whom the Lord is angry, shall fall therein. And therefore he that pursues that sin, is called to a double sad consideration, both that he angers the Lord in committing that sin then; And that the Lord was angry with him before for some other sin, and for a punishment of that former sin, God suffered him to fall into this. And it is truly a fearful condition, when God punishes sin by sin; other corrections bring us to a peace with God; He will not be angry for ever, he will not punish twice, when he hath punished a sin, he hath done: But when he punishes sin by sin, we are not thereby the nearer to a peace or reconciliation by that punishment, for still there is a new sin that continues us in his displeasure. Punish me O Lord, with all thy scourges, with poverty, with sickness, with dishonor, with loss of parents, and children, but with that rod of wyre, with that scorpion, to punish sin with sin, Lord scourge me not, for then how shall I enter into thy rest?

And this is the condition of this sin; for, He with whom the Lord is angry, shall fall into it. And when he is fallen, he shall not understand his state, but think himself well; For Nathan presents Davids sin to him, in a parable of a feast, of an entertainment of a stranger: He tastes no sowrness, no bitterness in it; not because there is none, but because a carcass, a man already slain cannot feel a new wound; A man dead in the habit of a sin, hath no sense of it: This sin of which S. Augustin, who had been overcome by it, and was afraid that his case was a common case, saith in the person of all, Continua pugna, victoria rara; In a defensive war, where we are put to a continual resistance, it is hard comming to a victory; what hope then where there is no resistance, no defence, but a spontaneous and voluntary opening our selves to all provocations, yea provoking of provocations by high diet, a tempting of temptations by exposing our selves to dangerous company, when as the Angels who were safe enough in themselves, yet withdrew themselves from the uncleanness of the Sodomits. This sin will not be overcome but by a league, Job's league, Pepigi foedus, I have made a covenant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? Since I have bound my senses, why should my mind be at liberty to sin? This league should bind both; I have taken a promise of mine eyes, that they will not betray me by wanton glances, by carrying me to dangerous objects, why should not I keep covenant with them? why should my thoughts be scattered upon such temptations? The league must be kept on both parts, the mind and the senses; we must not entertain temptations from without, we must not create them within. Eloquia Domini casta, The words of the Lord are chaste words, pure words, and so must all the talk, and conversation of him, that loves God, be. And then, Castificate animas vestras, you must see that you keep your minds pure and chaste. If we have not both chaste minds, and chaste bodies, we shall have neither; And then follows the excommunication: S. Augustine saith, That according to most probability, there were no Mules in the Ark; but undisputably there are no Mules in the Church, in the triumphant Church, none of our metaphorical Mules there: The Apostle hath put it beyond a Problem, Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate persons shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven, there is the fearful excommunication: And therefore Nolite fieri sicut, Be not made like the Horse or the Mule, in pride, or wantonness especially, Quia non Intellectus, because then you lose your understanding, and so become absolutely irrecoverable, and leave God nothing to work upon: For the understanding of man is the field which God sows, and the tree in which he engraffes faith it self; and therefore take heed of such a descent, as induces the loss of the understanding, and that is the case here, (and our next consideration) Non Intellectus, They have no understanding.

This faculty of the understanding in man is not always well understood by men. The whole Psalm is a Psalm to rectify the understanding; It is in the title thereof, Davids Instruction: And that office God undertakes in the verse before our Text, I will instruct thee, which is in some Latin Copies, Faciam te intelligere, I will make thee understand, and in others, (the Vulgate) Intellectum tibi dabo, I will give thee understanding; Now though this Instruction, and this Vnderstanding, which is intended in the Title, and specified in the former verse, be not the same Vnderstanding as this in our Text, (for this is but of that natural faculty of man, wherewith God enlightneth every man that cometh into the world, till he make himself like the horse or the mule) the other is God superedification upon this, those other super-natural Graces, which God produces out of the understanding, or infuses into the understanding; yet this Vnderstanding in our Text, though it be but the natural faculty, is a considerable thing, and hath, in part, the nature of materials for God to work upon. That Instruction which is the subject of the whole Psalem, is that saving Doctrine, That there is no blessedness but in the remission of sins. That David establishes for his foundation in the first verse, and would say nothing till he had said that. But then, though this remission of sins (which only constitutes Blessedness) proceed merely from the goodness of God, yet that goodness of God, as it excites primarily, so it works still upon that act of man, penitent confession, Notum feci, I acknowledged my sin, and Dixi confitebor, I prepared my self to confess my sin, and thou forgavest all.

This then S. Jerome delivers to be the Instruction of the Psalm, Hominem, non propriis meritis, sed Dei gratia, posse salvari, si confiteatur admissa; That man of himself is irrecoverable, But yet there is a way opened to salvation in Christ Jesus: But this way is only open to them, who enter by Confession. And though S. Jerome, and S. Augustin differ often in the exposition of the Psalms, yet here they speak almost the same words. The Instruction of this Psalm is, Intelligentia, qua intelligitur, non meritis operum, sed gratia Dei hominem liberari, confitentem sua peccata, That no man is saved by his own merits, That any man may be saved by the mercy of God in the merits of Christ, That no man attains this mercy, but by confession of his sins: And that that rule, In ore duorum aut trium, may have the largest fullness, add we a third witness, Intellectus est, This is the Instruction that David promises, Nemo ante fidem, Let no man presume of merits, before faith; But in all this they all three agree, Every man must know, that he may be saved, And that by his own merits he cannot, And lastly, that the merits of Christ are applied to no man, that doth nothing for himself. Quid est Intellectus? saith he again, What is this understanding? It is, saith he, no more but this, Vt non jactes opera ante fidem, Never to take confidence in works, otherwise then as they are rooted in faith: For (as he enlarges this Meditation) if thou shouldst see a man pull at an Oar, till his eye-strings, and sinews, and muscles broke, and thou shouldst ask him, whither he rowed; If thou shouldst see a man run himself out of breath, and shouldst ask him whither he ran; If thou shouldst see him dig till his back broke, and shouldst ask him, what he sought, And any of these should answer thee, they could not tell, wouldst not thou think them mad? So are all Disciplines, all Mortifications, all whippings, all starvings, all works of Piety, and of Charity madness, if they have any other root then faith, any other title or dignity, then effects and fruits of a preceding reconciliation to God. Multi pagani, saith he, There are many Infidels that refuse to be made Christians, because they are so good already; Sibi sufficiunt de sua bona vita; They are the worse for being so good, and they think they need no faith, but are rich enough in their moral honesty. And there are Christians, that are the worse for thinking and believing that it is enough to Believe. It is not faith to believe in grosse, that I shall be saved, but I must believe, that I shall be saved by him that died for me. If I consider that, I cannot choose but love him too; And if I love him, I shall do his will; Ama & operaberis, whomsoever thou lovest, thou wilt do what thou canst to please him. Da mihi vacantem amorem; I would be glad to see an idle love, that that man, that loved any thing in this world, should not labor to compass that that he loved: But purga amorem, saith he, I do not forbid thee loving, (it is a noble affection) but purge and purify thy love; Aquam fluentem in cloacam convert in hortum; Turn that water which hath served thy stables, and sewers before, into thy gardens: Turn those tears which thou hast spent upon thy love, or thy losses, upon thy sins, and the displeasure of thy God, and Quales impetus habebas ad mundum, habebis ad Creatorem mundi, Those passions which transported thee upon the creature, will establish thee upon the Creator.

The Instruction then of the whole Psalm, is peace with God, in the merits of Christ, declared in a holy life; which being the sum of all our Christian profession, is far beyond this Vnderstanding in our Text, (They have no understanding) but yet upon this Understanding God raises that great building, and therefore we take this faculty, The Vnderstanding, into a more particular consideration. Here is the danger, He that at ripe years hath no understanding, hath no grace, A little understanding may have much grace; but he that hath none of the former, can have none of this. God therefore brings us to the consideration, not of the greatest, but of the first thing; not of his superedifications, but of his foundations, our understanding, our reason. For, though Animalis homo, The natural man perceiveth not the things that be of the Spirit of God, yet let him be what man he will, Natural or Supernatural, he must be a man, that must probare spiritum, prove and discern the spirit; let him have as much more as you will, it is requisite he have so much reason, and understanding, as to perceive the main points of Religion; not that he must necessarily have a natural explicite reason for every Article of faith, but it were fit he had reason to prove, that those Articles need not reason to prove them. If I believe upon the Authority of my Teacher, or of the Church, or of the Scripture, very expedient it were to have reason to prove to my self that these Authorities are certain, and irrefragable. And therefore, Caeteris animalibus, se ignorare, natura est, homini vitium, If a Horse or a Mule understand not it self, it is never the worse Horse nor Mule, for it is born with that ignorance; But if man, having opportunities, both in respect of his parts and calling, to be better instructed, either by a negligent and lazy and implicite relying upon the opinion of others, do but lay himself down as a leaf upon the water, to be carried along with the tide, or by a wilful drowsiness, and security in his sins, have given over the debatement, the discussing, the understanding of the main of his belief, and of his life, if either he keep not his understanding awake, or over-watch it, if he do nothing with it, or employ it too busily, too fervently, too eagerly upon the world, I would it were true of them, Facti sicut, you are like the Horse, and the Mule; but Vtinam essetis, I would you were so well, as the Horse, and the Mule, who, though they have no understanding, have no forfeiture, no loss, no abuse of understanding to answer for.

First then the Horse, The proud man, hath no understanding; He hath forgot his letters, his Alphabet; how he was spelled and put together, and made of body and soul. You may as well call him an Anatomist, that knows how to pare a nail, or cut a corn, or him a Surgeon, that knows how to cut, and curle hair, as allow him understanding, that knows how to gather riches, or how to buy an Office, or how to hurt, and oppress others, when he hath those means. That absurdity, that height of strange ignorance, that the Prophet observes in an Idolatrous Image-maker, is in this proud man; He burns half in the fire, and the residue he makes a god. He hath seen as great estates as his, burn to ashes, as great persons as himself ruined and destroyed, burn out, and vanish into sparks, and stinking smoke; He hath seen half his own time burnt out and wasted, and yet he dreams of an eternity in himself; He says, I am, and none else; he will not say so to me in express words, but does he not say so to the whole world, in his manifest actions?

The Horse then, The proud man, hath no understanding, and the Mule, the licentious man, as little. The Ancients had a purpose to express that, when they placed by their Goddess of Licentiousness, Venus, A Tortoise, A Creature that had no heart; capable of no understanding. And it is better expressed in those licentious persons, who pursued Lots guests. Their blindness brought them to an impossibility of finding the door, (They were weary in seeking the door) And if they had found it, they had sound it shut. A man that hath wallowed long in that sin, when he seeks a door to repentance, he will quickly be weary, for there lie hard conditions upon him; and he is in danger of finding the door so shut, as his understanding (and that is all his key) cannot open; He will make shift for reasons, why he should continue in that sin, and he will call it ill nature, or falsehood, or breach of promise, and inconstancy, to depart from the Conversation that nourishes that sin. The door will be shut, and his Reason cannot, nay his Reason would not open it, but rather plead in the sins behalf.

Thus far our first reason hath carried us, Do it not, least you loose your understanding, The field of that blessed seed, The tree of that fruitful graft, The materials for that glorious building, Faith; For, the understanding is the receptacle of Faith: But do it not, the rather, because if ye do it, God will be brought to a necessity, In chamo & fraeno maxillas constringere, to hold in your mouths with bit and bridle, to come to hard usage, when as he would fain have you reduced by faire and gentle means. But to this way God is often brought; and, by this way of affliction, the cure is sometimes wrought upon us. S. Augustine proposes to himself a wonder, why the first woman was called at first, and in her best state, but Isha, Virago, which was a name of diminution, as she was taken from the man, (for Isha is but a she-man) And then in her worse state, when she had sinned, she was called Eva, Mater viventium, The Mother of all living; she had a better name in her worst estate. But this was not in respect of her sin, says that Father, but in respect of her punishment. Now that she was become mortal by a sentence of death pronounced upon her, and knew that she must dye, and resolve to dust, now, says he, there was no danger in her, of growing proud by any glorious title; affliction had tamed her, and rectified her now; and to that purpose sometimes does God bit and bridle us with afflictions, that our corrupt affections might not transport us. We find that Absolom sent for Job; The Kings Son for the Kings servant; There was coldness, some driness between Absolom, and his Father, Absolom was under a cloud at Court, and so Job neglected him, he would not come; Absolom sent again, and again Job refused; But then Absolom sent his servants to burn Ioabs Corn fields, and then Job came apace. Affliction and calamity are the bit and the bridle, that God puts into our mouth sometimes to turn us to him. Behold, we put bits into the horses mouths, that they should obey us, and we turn all the body about. And to this belongs that, A whip for the Horse, a bridle for the Ass, and a rod for the fools back; When we are become fools, made like the Horse and Mule, that we have no understanding, then God bits and bridles us, he whips and scourges us, sometimes lest our desires should mislead us a wrong way, sometimes, if they have, to turn us into the right way again; But here in our text, it is, Ne approximent te, Their mouths must be held with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

When God, by their incorrigibility, have given over all care of them, yet he takes care of us, of his Servants, of his Church, and he bits and bridles his and our enemies, so, as that they shall not come near us, they shall not hurt us. So God said to Senacherib, Because thou ragest against me, (God was far enough out of Senacheribs reach, but God accounts his Jerusalem as Heaven, and his Hezekias as himself) Because thy rage is against me, I will put my hook into thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and will turn thee back, by the way by which thou camest. When man is become as the Horse, proud of his strength, In chamo, et fraeno, God shall bit him, and bridle him so, as that he shall be able to do no harm; and certainly, the godly have not a greater joy, when they are able to do good to others, then the wicked have sorrow, when having power in their hands, yet they are not able to execute their mischievous purposes upon them that they hate. Satan was glad of any Commission upon Job, because God made a hedge about him, and about his house, Ne approximaret, That Satan could not come near him; He was glad God gave him power, to annoy him any way; but sorry that he exempted his person, in that first Commission, (Only upon himself put not forth thy hand) He was glad that in a second Commission, God did lay open his person to his power, but sorry that he excepted his life, (Behold he is in thy hand, but save his life.) For, till the wicked come to an utter destruction of their enemies, they think it no approximation, They are never come near enough to them. And In chamo, & fraeno, therefore God bits & bridles them, that they shall not come near, not so near, to destroy; and certainly, Gods children have not so much sorrow for that which the wicked do inflict upon them, as the wicked have for that which they cannot inflict upon them; The wicked are more tormented that they can do no more, then the godly are, that they have done so much. And this is a comfortable, (and truly, the most literal sense of this Ne approximent) Their mouths must be held, They must, though none can hold them but God, yet God must, God himself for his own glory, and the preservation of his Church, is reduced to a necessity, he must, he will hold them in with bit and bridle, lest they come near us. But there is a sadder, and a heavier sense arising out of these words, as S. Jerome accepts and pursues the words, with which we shall end all that belongs to them.

S. Jerome reads these words so, as that when God hath said, Nolite fieri, Be not as the Horse or Mule, that have no understanding, God hath done, and says no more; and that in the rest of the words, In chamo & fraeno maxillas eorum constringe, (hold in their mouths with bit and bridle, who come not near thee) the Church speaks to God; and so, this inhibition, Ne approximent, That they come not near thee, may very well be, That they come not near God, That God bits and bridles them so, afflicts and multiplies afflictions so, that even those afflictions drive them farther from God, and seal their condemnation in their own blood. Gods Spirit shall fan them, sift them; That might do them good; purify them, cleanse them; No, it shall do them no good; for, (as it follows) God shall sift them with a sieve of vanity; In vain, to no purpose, without any amendment; And there shall be, Fraenum erroris, a bridle in their jaws causing them to err; Their impatient mis-interpretation of Gods corrections, shall turn them upon a wrong way on the left hand, and depart them farther and farther from God. And then, He that being often reproved, hardneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy; suddenly, and irrecoverably; suddenly, no time given him to deprecate his destruction, no reprieve; Irrecoverably, if he had never so much time; I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. Shall any be able to cry unto God, and not be heard? Yes, to cry, and to cry for their trouble; for all this may be done, and yet no true prayer made, nor right foundation laid; when only impatience upon affliction extorts, and presses, and vents a cry, God will not hear them. No, nor when they are thus disabled to pray for themselves, will God hear any other to pray for them. Thrice doth God chide the Prophet Jeremiah from that charitable disposition of praying for that people. Lift not up a cry nor prayer for them; Not a Cry, by way of remembering me of their pressures and afflictions, as though that should move me; Not a Prayer, by remembering me of my Covenant of mercy towards them, as though that should bind me. At other times, God sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before him for the land, that he might not destroy it, but he found none. Here Jeremiah offers himself in the gap, and God will not receive him to that Mediatorship, to that Intercession for that people. When Moses importuned God for the people, God tells him, for thy self thou shalt be no loser; whatsoever become of this people; (I will make thee a great Nation) But yet, says God, (Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against this people, that I may consume them.) O how contagious and pestilent are the sins of man, that can thus (if we may so speak) infect God himself! How violent, how impetuous, how tempestuous are the sins of man, that can thus, (if we may so speak) transport God himself, and carry him beyond himself! for himself is mercy, and there is no room for our own prayers, no room for the prayers of others to open any door, any pore of mercy to flow out, or to breath out upon us.

Truly, Beloved, it is hard to conceive, how any height of sin in man should work thus upon God, as to throw him away, without any purpose of re-assuming him again, or any possibility of returning to him again. But to impute that distemper to God, that God should thus peremptorily hate Man, thus irreparably destroy Man, before he considered that Man, as a sinner, and as a manifold sinner, and as an obdurate sinner, nay before he considered him, as a Man, as a Creature, that first he should mean to damn him, if he had him, and then mean to make him, that he might damn him; this is to impute to God, a sowrer and worse affected nature, then falls into any man. Doth any man desire that his enemy had a son, that he might kill him? Doth any man beget a son therefore, that he might dis-inherit him? Doth God hate any man therefore, because he will hate him? Deliver me, O Lord, from my sins, pardon them, and then return to thy first purposes upon me; for I am sure they were good, till I was ill; and my illness came not from thee; but may be so multiplied by my self, as that thou mayest bit me and bridle me so, as that I shall not come near thee, in any of those accesses which thou hast opened in thy Church: Prayer, Preaching, Sacraments, Absolution, all shall be unavailable upon me, ineffectual to me. And therefore, as God would have us conserve the dignity of our nature in his Image, and not descend to the qualities of these Beasts, Horse and Mule, specified by the Holy Ghost, to represent to us those two sins, which are the wombs and mothers of very many others, Pride and Lust, (the greatest spiritual, and the greatest bodily sin) because thereby we lose all understanding, which is the matter upon which Grace works; so would he have us do it for this also, that he might not be put to a necessity of bitting and bridling us, of hard usage towards us, which may turn us as well to Obduration as Contrition, and so come to lose our faith at last, as we had done our reason and understanding before.

Serm. LXIII. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 32.10, 11.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he that trusteth in the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice yee righteous; And shout for joy all yee that are upright in heart.

THe two Elements, of which Heaven is proposed to us to be composed, are Joy and Glory. That which is opposed to these, is Sorrow and Contempt: Of the sense of contempt and ingloriousness, Men are not alike capable in this world; but of the sense of sorrow, we are somewhat more equal. A man must have had some possession, or at least some hopes of glory and greatness, that apprehends contempt or ingloriousness very passionately. And besides, in the lowest and most abject contempt a man may relieve himself by conveniences of a plentiful Fortune at home, how much soever he be undervalued and despised abroad. But when it comes to a sorrow of heart, which dwells not imaginarily in the opinion of others, as contempt doth, but really in mine own bosom, it is a heavy colluctation. Therefore doth the Holy Ghost so often, so very often, blow that coal, and threaten that insupportable, that inextinguishable fire, sorrow, sorrow of heart, sorrow of soul; Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. But the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Consolation; He is a Dove that hasts to a better air, to a whiter house, to the Ark of Peace, the station of the Righteous; Joy in the mercy of God; for, He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about; Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice yee Righteous, and shout for joy all yee that are upright in heart.

Our parts are, the Persons, and their Portions; Who they Be, and what they Have. The Persons are all the Inhabitants of this world; for all are wicked, or righteous; And the Portion is all that the soul receives here, or hereafter; for all is joy or sorrow; Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he &c.

First then, here are sorrows; A passion which we cannot express, and from the understanding whereof, in this sense, God bless us all: A sorrow, that is nothing but sorrow; a sorrow that determines not in joy at last. And here are Dolores multi, his sorrows are multiplied, Many sorrows; And as the word Rabbim doth as properly import, and might be as well so translated, here are Dolores magni, Great sorrows; Great in their own weight, great in themselves, and great also in the apprehension, and tenderness, and impatience of the sufferer, great to him; And then all these heavy circumstances, as the dregs and lees of this cup of malediction, meet in the bottom, in the center of all; That these sorrows are determinable by no time; for in the Original, there is neither that which our first Translation inserted, (Shall come) Sorrows shall come to the wicked, lest the wicked might say, Let it go as it came, if I know how it came, what occasioned the sorrow, I know how to overcome it; nor is there that which our later Translation added, (Shall be) Sorrows shall be to the wicked; for though that imply a Continuance, when it comes, yet the wicked might say, It is not come yet, and why should I anticipate sorrow, or execute my self before the Executioner be sent? But it is without all limitation of time, and so includes all parts of time; Est, fuit, & erit, The wicked are not, never were, or shall be without sorrows, many sorrows, great sorrows, everlasting sorrows. This is the Portion in our first part; and then the Person, for whom this cup is thus filled there, is The wicked; Which denotes a Plurality, and a Singularity too; For it is not said, The wanton, The ambitious, The covetous, The man that is a little leavened, or soured, or discoloured with some degrees of some of these; but it is The wicked; a man whose whole complexion, and structure seems made up of wickedness; And so it is Super impium, Upon the wicked, Emphatically, The wicked; And then, Super impium, Upon the wicked, in the singular; that is, upon every such wicked person. The sorrow is not lessened by being divided amongst many; The wicked is not eased by having companions in his torments. And this is the Portion, and these be the Persons of the first kind; which will determine the first Part, Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.

And then in the second, to give all this the full weight, and to make the sorrow the more discernible, and the more terrible, God puts into the other balance, The joy of the righteous. In which, that all may be in opposition to the other, we have also the Person, Him that trusteth in the Lord; Where we have, as in the former part, a plurality intimated, and a singularity too. For it is not said, He that trusteth not in Man, He that trusteth not in Princes, He that trusteth not in this or that miserable Comforter in the world, but He that trusteth in the Lord; Whose present refuge, be the case what it will, or can be, is the Lord; Him, Emphatically Him, mercies shall compass. And then, Ille, He, every such man, is infallibly interessed in this portion, in this true cause of joy, which is not, that he shall have no affliction, but that he shall have Mercy in his afflictions, patience and ease all the way, and an end and joy at last. And then, this mercy shall Compass him; It shall not suffer his confidence to break out into a presumption in God, nor any diffidence, or distrust in God, to break in upon him; But he shall see, that only to him, who Trusts in the Lord, to him who is Righteous, to him who is Vpright in heart, (with which three Characters the Holy Ghost specifies the person, in this second Part of our Text) belong those three great privileges, those glorious beams of joy, which flow out here; first, Laetari, To be glad, that is, to conceive an inward joy; And then, Exultari, To rejoice, that is, to testify that inward joy, by outward demonstrations; And lastly, Iubilare, To be full of joy, which our last Translation hath exprest well, in that word, To shout for joy, that is, to extend our joy to others, to glorify God by drawing in of others, and to call upon them, to call upon God: Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but, &c.

First then, they shall have sorrow, and cause of sorrow. For when we conceive a sorrow in the mind, without any real, and external cause, without pain, or shame, or loss, this is but a melancholy, but an abundance of a distempered humor, but a natural thing, to which some in their constitutions are born, and to be considered but so: But when God lays his hand, and his crosses upon us, the sorrow of the wicked, conceived upon that impression, is the sorrow. For this Word, which we Translate Sorrows here, is according to the Septuagint, Scourges, and Whips; God shall scourge them, and that shall only work to a sorrow; So far, and no farther. As a startling horse, they shall avoid a shadow, and fall into a ditch; They shall sorrow, and murmure at their afflictions in this life, and fall the sooner for that into the Eternal. Amongst the Romans, condemned persons were first whipt; but that excused them not; when they were whipt, they were executed too. The wicked are scourged by God in this life; and then their temporal afflictions shall meet, and join with the everlasting, they have begun already here, that which they shall never end there. Deeis qui voluntatem Dei facere nolunt, fit voluntas Dei; It is Panis quotidianus, A loaf of that bread which is to be distributed every day; A saying of S. Augustine, worthy to be repeated in every Sermon, That upon them, who will not do the will of God, the will of God is done; And God executes his righteous sentence upon them, and he executes his justice upon others also by giving them instructions from the impatience and obduration of these. Fata fugiendo in fata ruant; They chide, and they wrangle, they wrastle, and they exclaim at their miseries in an intemperate sorrow, and this intemperate sorrow is the heaviest part of the judgement of God upon them; they are too sensible of their afflictions, that is, too tender, too impatient; and yet altogether unsensible, without all sense of Gods purpose in those afflictions. In hell it self, they know that they are in hell; And yet in this world, there are Dolores inferni, Sorrows that have begun hell here, and they that are under them, are stupefied, and divested of all sense of them. That sense that is bodily, and carnal, they abound in; They feel them impatiently; but of all spiritual sense they are absolutely destitute; They understand not them, nor Gods purpose in them at all; yet they are Many, and Great, and Eternal. For by all these heavy talents doth the Holy Ghost weigh them in these words.

They are Many. Now the pride of the wicked is to conceal their sorrows, that God might receive no glory by the discovery of them. And therefore if we should go about to number their sorrows, they would have their victory still, and still say to themselves, yet for all his cunning he hath mist; they would ever have some bosom-sorrows, which we could not light upon. Yet we shall not easily miss, nor leave out any, if we remember those men, that even this false and imaginary joy, which they take in concealing their furrow and affliction, is a new affliction, a new cause of sorrow. We shall make up the number apace, if we remember these men, that all their new sins, and all their new shifts, to put away their sorrows, are sorrowful things, and miserable comforters; if their conscience do present all their sins, the number grows great; And if their own conscience have forgotten them, if God forget nothing that they have thought, or said, or done, in all their lives, are not their occasions of sorrow the more for their forgetting, the more for Gods remembering? Indgements are prepared for the scorners, says Solomon, God foresaw their wickedness from before all times, and even then set himself on work, To prepare judgements for them; And as they are Prepared before, so affliction followeth sinners, says the same Wise King; It follows them, and it knows how to overtake them; either by the sword of the Magistrate, or by that which is nearer them, Diseases in their own bodies, accelerated and complicated by their sins. And then, as affliction is Prepared, and Follows, and Overtakes, so says that wise King still, There shall be no end of plagues to the evil man; We know the beginning of their plagues; they are Prepared in Gods Decree, as soon as God saw their sins; we know their continuance, they shall Follow, and they shall Overtake; Their end we do not know, we cannot know, for they have none. Thus they are Many.

And if we consider farther, the manifold Topiques, and places, from which the sorrows of the wicked arise, That every inch of their ground is overgrown with that venomous weed, that every place, and every part of time, and every person buddes out a particular occasion of sorrow to him, that he can come into no chamber, but he remembers, In such a place as this, I finned thus, That he cannot hear a Clock strike, but he remembers, At this hour I sinned thus, That he cannot converse with few persons, but he remembers, With such a person I sinned thus, And if he dare go no farther then to himself, he can look scarcely upon any limb of his body, but in that he sees some infirmity, or some deformity, that he imputes to some sin, and must say, By this sin, this is thus: When he can open the Bible in no place, but if he meet a judgement, he must say, Vindicta mihi, This vengeance belongs to me; and if he meet a mercy, he must say, Quid mihi? What have I to do to take this mercy into my mouth? In this deluge of occasions of sorrow, I must not say with God to Abraham, Look up to heaven, and number the Stars, (for this man cannot look up to heaven) but I must say, Continue thy dejected look, and look down to the earth, thy earth, and number the grains of dust there, and the sorrows of the wicked are more then they. Many are the sorrows; And as the word as naturally denotes, Great; Great sorrows are upon the wicked.

That Pill will choak one man, which will slide down with another easily, and work well. That sorrow, that affliction would strangle the wicked, which would purge, and recover the godly. The coare of Adams apple is still in their throat, which the blood of the Messiah hath washt away in the righteous; Adams disobedience works in them still, and therefore Gods Physic, the affliction, cannot work. So they are great to them, as Cains punishment was to him, greater then he could bear, because he could not ease himself upon the consideration of Gods purpose, in laying that punishment upon him. But it is not only their indisposition, and impatience, that makes their sorrows and afflictions great; They are truly so in themselves; as the Holy Ghost expresses it, Is not destruction to the wicked, and strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? A punishment, which we cannot tell how to measure, how to weigh, how to call, A strange punishment; Greater then former examples have presented. There the greatness is exprest in the Word; And in Isaiah it is exprest in the action; When the scourge shall run over you, and pass through you, Eritis in conculcationem, You shall be trodden to dust; Which is, as the Prophet calls it there, Flagellum inundans, An affliction that overflows, and surrounds all, as a deluge, a flood, that shall wash away from thee, even the water of thy Baptism, and all the power of that, And wash away from thee the blood of thy Savior, and all his offers of grace to worthy receivers; A flood that shall carry away the Ark it self out of thy sight, and leave thee no apprehension of reparation by Gods institution in his Church; A flood that shall dissolve, and wash thee thy self into water; Thy sorrows shall scatter thee into drops, into tears, upon a carnal sense of thy torment, And into drops, into incoherent doubts, and perplexities, and scruples, in understanding, and conscience, and into desperation at last. And this is the Greatness: Solutis doloribus inferni, In another sense then David speaks that of Christ; There it is, that the sorrows of hell were loosed, that is, were slacked, dissolved by him: But here it is that the sorrows of hell are loosed, that is, let loose upon thee; and when thou shalt hear Christ say from the Cross, Behold and see, if ever there were any sorrow like my sorrow, thou shalt find thy sorrow like his in the Greatness, and nothing like his in the Goodness: Christ bore that sorrow, that every man might rejoice, and thou wouldst be the more sorry, if every man had not as much cause of desperate sorrow, as thou hast.

Many, and great are the sorowes of the wicked, and then eternal too, which is more then intimated, in that the Original hath neither of those particles of supplement, which are in our Translations, no such (shall come) no such (shall be) nor no (shall) at all; but only, Many sorrows to the wicked, Many and great now, more and greater hereafter, All for ever, if they amend not.

It is not, They have had sorrows, but they are overblown; nor that they have them, but patience shall outweare them; nor that they shall have them, but they have a breathing time to gather strength before hand; But as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, Sorrows upon them, and upon them for ever. Whatsoever any man conceives for ease in this case, it is a false conception; You shall conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble. And this stubble is your vain hope of a determination of this sorrow; But the wicked shall not be able to lodge such a hope, though this hope, if they could apprehend it, would be but an aggravating of their sorrows in the end. It is eternal, no determination of time afforded to it. For, They shall be as the burning of lime, and as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who amongst us shall dwell with that everlasting burning? It is a devouring fire, and yet it is an everlasting burning. The Prophet asks, Who can dwell there? In that intenseness who can last? They that must, and that is, All the wicked. Fire is kindled in my wrath, saith God; Yet may not tears quench it? Tears might, if they could be had; But It shall burn to the bottom of hell, saith God there. And Dives that could not procure a drop of water to cool his tongue there, can much less procure a repentant tear in that place: There, as S. John speaks, Plagues shall come in one day; Death, and Sorrow, and Famine. But it is in a long day; Short for the suddenness of comming, for that is come already, which for any thing we know, may come this minute, before we be at an end of this point, or at a period of this sentence: So it is sudden in comming, but long for the enduring. For it is that day, when They shall be burnt with fire, for strong is the Lord God, that will condemn them. That is argument enough of the vehemence of that fire, that the Lord God, who is called the strong God, makes it a Master-piece of his strength, to make that fire.

Art thou able to dispute out this Fire, and to prove that there can be no real, no material fire in Hell, after the dissolution of all material things created? If thou be not able to argue away the immortality of thine own soul, but that that soul must last, nor to argue away the eternity of God himself, but that that must last, thou hast but little ease, in making shift to give a figurative interpretation to that fire, and to say, It may be a torment, but it cannot be a fire, since it must be an everlasting torment; nor to give a figurative signification to the Worm, and to say, It may be a pain, a remorse, but it can be no worm after the general dissolution, since that Conscience, in which that remorse, and anguish shall ever live, must live ever: If there be a figure in the names, and words, of Fire and Worms, there is an indisputable reality in the sorrow, in the torment, and in the manifoldness, and in the weightiness, and in the everlastingness thereof. For in the inchoation of these sorrows, in this life, and in the consummation of them, in the life to come, The sorrows of the wicked are many, and great, and eternal.

This then is the portion prepared here, Thy portion was with the Adulterers, as our last Translators have exprest that place in their Margin. Thy portion was with them here, in this world, and thy portion shall be with them for ever; for God expresses all kind of wickedness, carnal and spiritual, in that name of Adultery, throughout the body of the Scriptures. And therefore when you meet judgements denounced against Adulterers, never think that those judgements concern not you, if you have forborne that one sin, (and yet even that sin may have been committed in a look, in a letter, in a word, in a wish, in a dream) when S. James saith, Yee Adulterers, and Adulteresses, know you not this? Think not that S. James calls not upon you if you be but Covetous, but Ambitious, but Superstitious, and no Adulteters; for every aversion from the Creator, every converting to the creature is Adultery. Even in nature you are made for that marriage; In the covenant of God you were betrothed, and affianced for that marriage; In the Sacrament of Baptism you were actually, personally married; and in the other Sacrament there is a consummation of that marriage; And every departing from that contract which you made with God at your Baptism, and renewed at your receiving the other Sacrament, is an Adultery. Thus a Hermite is a husband, and a Nun a wife; and thus both may be adulterers, though in a Wilderness, though in a Cloister. Si deseris Deum qui te fecit, & amas illa quae fecit, adultera es; If thou turn from God that made thee, to those things that he made, this is an adultery. Therefore Christ calls them, An evil and adulterous generation, because they sought a sign; because they turned upon other ways of satisfaction, then he had ordained for them, that was adultery. And as David saith, Thy portion was with adulterers here; so, as theirs is said to be, Thy portion also shall be in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Thou art this person, if thou be this adulterer, which is intended in this emphatical word, The wicked.

So then, as these Sorrows in our Text, are an inchoative Hell, they are such wounds as induce, such pangs as precede even the second death, sorrows that flow into desperation, and impenitibleness, (and impenitibleness is hell.) As the torment is an inchoative hell, so is the person, the Wicked here, an inchoated Devil: It is S. Chrysostoms spontaneus daemon, and voluntarius daemon; He that is a devil to himself, that could be, and would be ambitious in a Spittle, licentious in a Wilderness, voluptuous in a Famine, and abound with temptations in himself, though there were no devil. Most of the names of the devil in the Scripture, denote some action of his upon us; As he is called The Prince of the power of the Air, there he is called so, because as it is added there, He works in the children of disobedience; As the air works upon our bodies, this Prince of the Air works upon our minds; how works he? he deceives; He deceived the whole world, saith S. John; from this infinuation, he hath those other names there, the great Dragon, and the old Serpent. When he hath crept in as a Serpent, then he grows A roaring Lyon; He professes his power, he disguises not a temptation; then he grows Satan an Adversary, an Enemy, he opposes all good endeavors in us; & then he grows Diabolus, an Accuser, an accuser to God, an accuser to our own conscience; and when he hath made our sin, as great as it can be in our practise, when by age, or sickness, or poverty, he cannot multiply our sins for the present, then by his multiplying glass, he multiplies the sins of our former times, and presents them greater, then even the mercies of God, or the merits of Christ Jesus. So he grows in mischievous names, according to his mischievous actions and practises upon us; but then out of himself arises the most vehement, and the most collective name that is given him in all the Scriptures, Πονηρός, and that with the emphatical article, The wicked one; One that is all wickedness, & one that is the wickedness of all; One, who if he had no object to direct his wickedness upon, no subject to exercise his wickedness in, If God should proclaim so general a Pardon, That all men, All, should effectually be saved, and so all hope to have enlarged his Kingdom be withdrawn, yet would still be as wicked, and as opposite to God as he is.

So then, by this character of Multiplicity, this emphatical note of the wicked in our Text, the person, whose portion this sorrow is, this sorrow which is a brand of Hell, at least a match, by which Hell fire it self is kindled, is not he that is an Adulterer, or that is a Murtherer; not he that hath fallen into some particular sins, though great, and continued those great sins in habits, though long, for David fell so, and yet found a holy sorrow, a medicinal sorrow: but it is the wicked, he that runs headlong into all ways of wickedness, and usque ad finem, precludes, or neglects all ways of recovery: That is glad of a temptation, and afraid of a Sermon; that is dry wood, and tinder to Satans fire, if he do but touch him, and is ashes it self to Gods Spirit, if he blow upon him; That from a love of sin, at first, because it is pleasing, comes at last to a love of sin, because it is sin, because it is liberty, because it is a deliverance of himself from the bondage, as he thinks it, of the law of God, and from the remorse and anguish of considering sin too particularly. This is the person, in whom, at first, by this emphatical note, the wicked, we design a Plurality, (as we called it) that is, a Complicated, a Multiplied, a Compact sinner, a Body, rather a Carcass of Many, of All sins, all that have fallen within his reach. And then, in the word we noted also a Singularity, That upon such a sinner, upon every such sinner, these Many, these Great, these Eternal sorrows shall fall and tarry.

As in the former Circumstance, we noted that it was the They, that aggravated it, it was not an An, an Adulterer, an Ambitious man, but a The, The wicked, whom God enwrapped in this irrecoverable, this undeterminable sorrow: so here, it is not a This, or That, This wicked, or that wicked man, but The wicked, every wicked man is surrounded with this sorrow. He can propose no comfort in a decimation, as in popular Rebellions, where nine may be spared, and the tenth man hanged; No, nor so much hope as to have nine hanged, and the tenth spared; He is not in Sodoms case, That a few righteous might have saved the wicked; But he feels a necessity of applying to himself, that, If Noah; Daniel, and Job were in the midst of them, as I live, saith the Lord God, they should deliver neither Son, nor Daughter. Iussisti Domine, & sic est, ut poena sit sibi omnis inordinatus animus; It is thy pleasure O God, and thy pleasure shall be infallibly accomplished, that every wicked person should be his own Executioner. He is Spontaneus Daemon, as S. Chrysostom speaks, an In-mate, an in-nate Devil; a bosom devil, a self-Devil; That as he could be a tempter to himself, though there were no Devil, so he could be an Executioner to himself, though there were no Satan, and a Hell to himself, though there were no other Torment. Sometimes he stays not the Assises, but prevents the hand of Justice; he destroies himself before his time. But when he stays, he is evermore condemned at the Assises. Let him sleep out as much of the morning as securelyas he can; embellish, and adorne himself as gloriously as he can; dine as largely and as delicately as he can; wear out as much of the afternoon, in conversation, in Comedies, in pleasure, as he can; sup with as much distension, and inducement of drousiness as he can, that he may scape all remorse, by falling asleep quickly, and fall asleep with as much discourse, and music, and advantage as he can, he hath a conscience that will survive, and overwatch all the company; he hath a sorrow that shall join issue with him when he is alone, and both God, and the devil, who do not meet willingly, shall meet in his case, and be in league, and be one the sorrows side, against him. The anger of God, and the malice of the devil, shall concur with his sorrow, to his farther vexation. No one wicked person, by any diversion or cunning, shall avoid this sorrow, for it is in the midst, and in the end of all his forced contentments; Even in laughing, the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.

The person is The wicked; Every wicked person; He hath no relief in a decimation, that some may scape: Nor relief in the communication of the torment; It is no ease to him, that so many bear a part with him. In some afflictions in the world, men lay hold upon such a relief, Many men are in as ill case, as I; why am I so sensible of it? and they make shift to patch up a comfort of that kind, out of some chips of Poets, and fragmentary sentences; And they that cannot find this relief ready made, will make shift to make it; when they are under the burden of a defamation, of an ill name, they will cast aspersions of the same crime, upon as many as they can, and think themselves the better, if they can make others be thought as ill as they. But all these are amongst Job's miserable comforters; It is a part of our joy in Heaven, that every mans joy shall be my joy; I shall have fullness of salvation in my self, and I shall have as many salvations, as there are souls saved: But in hell there is no one feather towards such a Pillow, no degree of ease, in the communication of the torment. Every soul shall murmure against God, and curse God, for damning every other soul, as well as for damning his: Though they would have them damned, that are damned, yet they shall reproach God, for damning them: And though they wish all the Saints in Heaven, in hell, yet they shall call it tyranny in God, to have sent a Cain, or an Achitophel, or a Judas thither. And as the person whom we consider in this text, is an embryon of the Devil, Genimina viperarum, The spawn of the Devil, a potential, and as we said, an inchoated Devil; so is the torment, this sorrow, a Lucifer, Such a Lucifer, as hell can send out; not a light of any light, but a cloud of that darkness: As sure as this man, The wicked, shall be a Devil, so sure this sorrow, shall end, not end, but reach to hell.

Yet when all this is thus said, said with a holy vehemence, with a zealous animosity, as indeed belongs to the denouncing of Gods judgements, yet may we not be asked, where is there any such person, or upon whom works there any such sorrow? Is it always true, that the wicked make no good use of afflictions? or is it always true, that they have them? The first may admit a doubt, for if God justify the ungodly, (God justifieth the ungodly) then their affliction may be a way, to prepare justification in them, as well as in them whom we call godly; And if Christ died for the ungodly, (Christ died for the Vngodly) they also may fulfill his sufferings in their flesh, and their afflictions may produce good effects. But for that, they which are called ungodly, in both those places, are only such as were ungodly before Gods justification began to work upon them, before Christs Death began to be applied to them, but did not continue in their ungodliness after; But these ungodly persons, whom afflictions supple and mollify no farther, but to an intemperate, and excruciating, and exclamatory sorrow, and continue ungodly still, are such as never have good effect of affliction or sorrow.

But then have these always affliction inflicted upon them? one would doubt it, by that in Job, The Tabernacles of robbers do prosper, and they are in safety that provoke God. Gods children are robbed and spoiled by the wicked, and the wicked show it in Gods face, they hide not their Theft, they maintain publicly their Wantonness, and their Excesses, with the spoil of the poor; They have it, and they will hold it, and they bid God bring his action, and recover how he can. This the Prophet Jeremiah saw, and was affected, and scandalized with it; O Lord, if I plead with thee, thou art righteous; I know thou canst maintain, and make good that which thou hast done; But yet, says he, Let me talk with thee of thy judgements; wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Why, their ways prosper in a just punishment of God for their former sins, that they may have a larger and a broader way to destruction; and they are happy in temporal happinesses, that they may have more occasions of smarting; If their wealth stick not to their heirs, in a third generation, call them not Rich; If their prosperity cleave not to their souls, call them not Happy; He is a poor man, whose wealth can be writ in an Inventory; That hath lockt all in such an iron Chest, in such a Cabinet, and hath sent up nothing to meet him in Heaven. As all the wealth of the wicked is but counterfeit, so is all the joy that they have in it counterfeit too. And howsoever they disguise their sorrow, yet if their torment be invisible to us, it is the liker hell; If we know not how they are afflicted, it is the liker hell; Their damnation sleepeth not, nor they neither; And when at midnight their own consciences are a thousand witnesses to them, it is but a poor ease, that other men do not know, that they are those wicked persons, and their sorrow the sorrow of this text; that they are The wicked, and their sorrows many, and great, and eternal sorrows. But I would be glad to reserve as much time as I could for the other part, The person and The portion, that is in the other scale; Mercy shall compass, &c.

In this part we will begin with the persons; For when we come to their portion, with which we must end, of that we shall be able to find no end, nay no beginning, for it begins with Mercy, (Mercy shall compass them) and mercy is as much without beginning, as eternal, as God himself, and it flows on to joy and gladness, and exultation, and this joy shall no more see an end of it self, then God himself shall see an end of himself. Upon the persons we have three characters, and in their portions we have three weights; Three degrees of goodness in their persons, three degrees of greatness in their portions. The persons first Trust in God, and then They are Righteous, and lastly, They are upright in heart; So also, the reward is first Inward joy, and then Outward declaration, and lastly, An exemplary working upon others; And then, all these are rooted in the root of all, that mercy shall compass them.

First then They trust in God. And that, first Exclusivè; They trust in him so, as that they trust in nothing else, and Inclusivè too; so, as that they do actually, and positively trust in God. Some have bin so beaten out of all confidences in this world, so evacuated of former power, so divested of former favor, so dispoiled of former treasures, as that they are brought to trust in nothing else; But then they trust not in God neither; Quia Deo non audent dare iniquitatem, auferunt ei gubernationem; Because they dare not say, that God does any thing ill, they come to say, that God does nothing at all; and to avoid the making of an unjust God, they make an idle God; which is as great an Atheism as the other. But because it goes thus with them, that they have many and great sorrows, they conclude that all have so; But The heart knoweth his own bitterness; They know their own case, the case of the godly they know not. The stranger shall not meddle with their Joy; He that is a stranger to this trust in God, understands nothing of the joy that appertains to them that have it. Let that be thy prayer, which was the prayer of Esther, Thy handmaid hath had no joy but in thee, O Lord God of Abraham; O thou mighty God, above all, hear thou the voice of them that have no other hope.

Our Adversaries of Rome charge us, that we have but a negative Religion; If that were true, it were a heavy charge, if we did only deny, and establish nothing; But we deny all their new additions, so as that we affirme all the old foundations. The Negative man, that trusts in nothing in the world, may be but a Philosopher, but an Atheist, but a stupid and dead carcass. The Affirmative man, that does acknowledge all blessings, spiritual and temporal, to come from God, that prepares himself by holiness to be fit to receive them from God, that comes for them by humble prayer to God, that returns for them humble thanks to God, this man hath the first mark of this person upon him, He trusts in God. But he that trusts not in the world, nor in God neither, is worse then he, that trusts in the world, and not in God; because he is farther removed from all humility, that attributes all to himself; He pretends to be an Atheist, and to believe in no God; and yet he constitutes a new Idolatry, he sacrifices to himself, and makes himself his God.

The second Character, and specification of this Person, is, that he is Righteous. And this word, we shall do best to contain here within a legal Righteousness; that Righteousness, in which S. Paul protested, and proclaimed himself to be unblamable. For howsoever this apparent Righteousness, Righteousness in the eyes of the world, be not enough alone, yet no other Righteousness is enough without this. The hypocrite, by being an hypocrite, may aggravate his own condemnation, when he comes to reckon with God; But to the Church, who knows him not to be an hypocrite, he does good, by his exemplar and outward Righteousness. He that does good for vain-glory, may lead another man to good upon good grounds; And the prayers of those poor souls, whom he may have benefited by his vain-glorious good work, may prevail so with God in his behalf, as that his vain-glory here, may become true glory, even in the Kingdom of Heaven.

So then we carry this word Righteous no farther, but to the doing of those honest things, which we are bound to do in the sight of men. The word is Tzadok, which is often used for the exaltation and perfection of all true holiness; But as it is very often in the old Testament taken for Verax and Aequus, when a mans word and work answer one another towards men; so in the New Testament, in the Syriake Translation, where the word is the same as in the Hebrew, it is Oportuit, It behoved Christ to suffer; and in such a sense, in very many places, to be Righteous, is to do that which it behoved us to do, became us to do, concerned us to do in the sight of men. Which can be exprest in no one thing more fully, then in this, To embrace a lawful Calling, and to walk honestly in that Calling; That is Righteousness; For, Iustus sua fide vivit, The Righteous lives by his own faith; Not without faith, nor with the faith of another; so Iustus suo sudore vescitur, The Righteous eats his Bread in the sweat of his own brows; He labours in an honest Calling, and drinks not the sweat of others labours; And this is that Righteousness in this Text, the second mark upon this Person, who is partaker of this Portion.

And the third is, that he is Rectus corde, Vpright in heart; That he direct even all the works of his Calling, all the actions of his life upon the glory of God. If you carry a Line from the Circumference, to the Circumference again, as a Diameter, it passes the Center, it flows from the Center, it looks to the Center both ways. God is the Center; The Lines above, and the Lines below, still respect and regard the Center; Whether I do any action honest in the sight of men, or any action acceptable to God, whether I do things belonging to this life, or to the next, still I must pass all through the Center, and direct all to the glory of God, and keep my heart right, without variation towards him. For as I do no good action here, merely for the interpretation of good men, though that be one good and justifiable reason of my good actions: so I must do nothing for my Salvation hereafter, merely for the love I bear to mine own soul, though that also be one good and justifiable reason of that action; But the primary reason in both, as well the actions that establish a good name, as the actions that establish eternal life, must be the glory of God. Distortum lignum semper nutat, A wry and crooked plank in the floor, will always shake and kick up, and creake under a mans foot. A wry and a crooked heart will always shake distrustfully, and kick rebelliously, and creake repiningly, under the hand of God. Non potest collineari rectitudine Dei, says the same Father, He is not paralleld with God, he is not leveld with God, if he use not his blessings, if he accept not his corrections, as God intends them. First, To trust in God, and then to deal Righteously with men, and all the way to keep the heart straight upon God; these three make up the Person; And these three his Portion, That he shall be glad, and he shall rejoice, and jubilabit, he shall shout for joy.

Now as three great sums of gold put into one bagge, these three branches of this Portion of the Righteous, are fixt in one root, raised upon one foundation, Mercy shall compass him about. But then this mercy, this Compassing mercy reaches not so far, as that thou shalt have no affliction, though thou trust in God; David had been an unfit person, to have delivered such a Doctrine, who says of himself, Daily have I been punished, and chastened every morning: He had it every day, it was his daily bread; and it was the first thing that he had, he had it in the morning. Here is mention of a morning, early sorrows, even to the godly; and mention of a Day, continuing sorrows, even to the godly; But he speaks of no Night here, the Son of grace, the Son of God, does not set in a Cloud of anger upon him. The Martyrs that abounded with this Trust in God, and this Righteousness, and this Vprightness of heart, abounded with these afflictions too. They that bestowed themselves upon God and his Church, as the Apostle expresses it, had these sorrows plentifully bestowed upon themselves. And to pass from them to the Author of their constancy, Christ himself, He is Vir dolorum, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with Grief. And now, Whom he loveth he chastneth, and he scourgeth every one that he receiveth; Flagellat omnem, He scourgeth every one; Vis audire quem omneem? Will you know how general, and yet how particular this is? Vnicus sine peccato, non tamen sine flagello, There was one Man without any sin, but even that Man was not without punishment, Christ Jesus himself. So general is correction, as that in this case, and in this sense, it is more general then sin it self.

It is not then that the godly shall no afflictions, no sorrows; But mutant fortitudinem, They that wait upon the Lord shall renue their strength, say our Translators in the body of their Translation; but in the Margin, (and nearer to the Original) They shall change their strength. They that have been strong in sinning, that have sinned with a strong hand, when they feel a judgement upon them, and find that it is Gods hand, and Gods hand for their sins, they faint not, they lose not their strength, but mutant fortitudinem, They change their strength, they grow as strong in suffering, as they were in sinning, and invest the Prophets resolution, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. The Book which God gave Ezekiel to eat, was written within and without, with Lamentations, and Mournings, and Woes; but when he eat it, he found it in his mouth as sweet as honey. When God offers the Book, which is the Register of our sins to our Consciences, or the Decree of his Judgements to our understanding, or to our sense, it is writ in gall and wormwood, and in the bitterness of sorrow; but if we can bring it to the first concoction, the first digestion, to that mastication, that rumination, which is the consideration of Gods purpose upon us in that Judgement, we shall change our taste, for we shall Taste and See, Quam suavis Dominus, How good, and how sweet the Lord is; for even this Judgement is Mercy.

Think not then thy valor sufficiently tried, if thou canst take it patiently, to have mist a fute long pursued, or failed of a Preferment long expected; no not if thou have stood in a hail of bullets without winking, or sate the searching of a wound without starting; but Muta fortitudinem, Change thy valor, and when thou commest to bear great crosses, proportionable to thy great sins, with a spiritual courage, acknowledge that courage to be the mercy of God, and not thine own moral constancy. God loves his own example, to do as he hath done; Omni quaestione severius, à te interrogari; It was said to a Roman Emperor, who examined with Wisdom, and Majesty too: It is truer of God; that it is more fearful then any rack, or torture, when he comes to search and sift a conscience: Yet God did come to that office upon Adam, before he would condemn him. He came to a worse place then Paradise; he came to Sodom, to rack and torture them, with that confession, that there could not be found ten Righteous men amongst them. But yet this he did, before he condemned them. God will visit thee in this wrack, in this furnace, in these trials, before he proceed to thy condemnation. But when God doth so, believe thou David, in his Indulgence to his Son, to have been a Type of Gods disposition to thy soul. When he sent out his Army against Absalom, he stood in the gate to survey the Muster, and to every one of the Commanders, Job, and the rest, still he said, Servate mihi puerum Absalom, Entreat the young man Absalom well for my sake. The Lord of Hosts may send forth his Army against thee, Sickness, Loss, Shame, Pain, Banishment, Imprisonment, (which are all swords of his) but he says to them all, Servate mihi Absalom, That soul that I have bought with my blood, preserve for me; Fight but against mine enemies, his Pride, his Security, his Presumption; but Servate Absalom, Preserve his soul unshaken, and un-offended. God hath said it before, and he says again to thee, in all thy afflictions, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, the thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. God said this, when a False Prophet had promised them deliverance in two years; God prorogues the time; he would do it, but he would not do it under threescore and ten years. Limit not God in his time, nor in his means; The mercy consists in relieving thee so, as that thy soul suffer not, though thou do. And if that be preserved, this mercy is a Compassing mercy, which is also another Circumstance in this Branch.

The Devil had Compast all the Earth, and he was angry that God had Compast Job. He says in indignation, Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side? God did so for Job, and he will do so for thee: He redeemeth thy life from the grave, and crowneth thee with mercy, and compassion. This is the Compassing in heaven, when we come to be crowned there. But there is a Compassing here, and an empailing of Gods children, in S. Pauls Co-operantur, When all things work together, for good, to them that love God. When Prosperity and Adversity, Honor and Disgrace, Profit and Loss, the Lords Giving and the Lords Taking, do all concur to the making up of this Pail, that must Compass us; When we acknowledge that there must be nails in the Pail, as well as stakes, there must be thorns in the hedge, as well as fruit trees; Crosses as well as Blessings; when we leer not over the Pail, neither into the Common; that is, to the Gentiles and Nations, and begin to think, that we might be saved by the light of nature, without this burden of Christianity: nor leer over into the Pastures, and Corn of our neighbours; that is, to think, that we are not well in our own Church, but must needs hearken to the Doctrine, or Discipline of another; When we see all that comes, to come from God, and are content with that, then Omnia co-operantur, Every piece serves to the making up this Pail, and his Mercy compasses us about.

This is the root of our three Branches, the foundation of our three Stories; the bagge of our three sums, in this portion, Mercy, Compassing mercy; and then the Branches themselves, Be glad, Rejoice, and Shout for joy; Which joy, is first an inward love of the Law of God, Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever, for they are the joy of my heart: It is not Dant, but Sunt, not that they Bring joy, but that they Are joy; There is no other joy but the delight in the Law of the Lord: For all other joy, the Wise King said, Of laughter, thou art mad, and of joy, what is this that thou dost? True joy is the earnest which we have of heaven, It is the treasure of the soul, and therefore should be laid in a safe place, and nothing in this world is safe to place it in: And therefore with the Spouse we say, We will be glad in thee, we will remember thy love more then wine. Let others seek their joy in wine, in society, in conversation, in music; for me, Thou hast put gladness into my heart, more then in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

Rejoice therefore in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice: Again, that is, Rejoice in the second manner of expressing it, by external declarations. Go cheerfully, and joyfully forward, in the works of your callings. Rejoice in the blessings of God without murmuring, or comparing with others. And establish thy joy so, in an honest, and religious manner of getting, that thy joy may descend to thine heir, as well as thy land. No land is so well fenced, no house so well furnished, as that, which hath this joy, this testimony of being well gotten. For, This thou knowest of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the Triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the Hypocrite but for a moment.

And then the last degree is louder then this, Iubilate, Shout for joy; Declare thy joy in the ears of other men. As the Angels said to the Shepherds, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people, So be thou a cheerful occasion of glorifying God by thy joy. Declare his loving kindness unto the sons of men; Tell them what he hath done for thy soul, thy body, thy state. Say, With this staff came I over Iordane: Be content to tell whose Son thou wast, and how small thy beginning. Smother not Gods blessings, by making thy self poor, when he who is truly poor, begges of thee, for that Gods sake, who gave thee all that thou hast. Hold up a holy cheerfulness in thy heart; Go on in a cheerful conversation; and let the world see, that all this grows out of a peace, betwixt God and thee, testified in the blessings of this world; and then thou art that Person, and then thou hast that Portion, which grows out of this root, in this Text, Mercy shall compass him about that trusteth in the Lord.

Serm. LXIV. Preached upon the Penitential Psalms.

PSAL. 51.7.

Purge me with Hyssope, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall bewhiter then snow.

IN the Records of the growth, and propagation of the Christian Church, The Ecclesiastical Story, we have a relation of one Pambo, an unlearned, but devout, and humble Ermit, who being informed of another man, more learned then himself, that professed the understanding, and teaching of the Book of Psalms, sought him out, and applied himself to him, to be his Disciple. And taking his first lesson casually, at the first verse of the thirty ninth Psalm, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue, He went away with that lesson, with a promise to return again when he was perfect in that. And when he discontinued so long, that his Master, sometimes occasionally lighting upon him, accused him of this slackness, for almost twenty years together he made several excuses, but at last professed, that at the end of those twenty years, he was not yet perfect in his first lesson, in that one verse, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. Now, that which made this lesson hard unto him, was, that it employed all his diligence, and his watchfulness upon future things; to examine and debate all his actions, and all his words; for, else he did not take heed to his ways; at least, not so, as that he would not sin with his tongue. But if he had begun with this lesson, with this Psalm, which is but a calling to our memory that which is past, The sinful employment of that time, which is gone, and shall not return, The sinful heats of our youth, which, since we wanted remorseful tears to quench them, even the sin it self, and the excess thereof hath overcome, and allayed in us, sinful omissions, sinful actions, and habits, and all those transitory passages, in which the Apostle shows us, our prodigality, our unthriftiness, our ill bargain, when he asks us that question of Confusion, What fruit had you then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? If he had begun his first lesson at this, with the presenting of all his passed sins, in the sight of the Father, and in the Mediation and merit of the Son, he would have been sonner perfect in that lesson, and would have found himself, even by laying open his disease, so purged with Hyssop as that he should have been clean, and so washed, as that he should have been whiter then snow. For, Repentance of sins past is nothing but an Audit, a casting up of our accounts, a consideration, a survey, how it stands between God and our soul. And yet, as many men run out of plentiful estates, only because they are loath to see a list of their debts, to take knowledge how much they are behind hand, or to contract their expenses: so we run out of a whole and rich inheritance, the Kingdom of heaven, we profuse and pour out even our own soul, rather then we will cast our eye upon that which is past, rather then we will present a list of our spiritual debts to God, or discover our disease to that Physician, who only can Purge us with hyssope, that we may be clean, and wash us, that we may be whiter then snow.

In the words we shall consider the Person, and the Action, who petitions, and what he asks. Both are twofold; for, the persons are two, the Physician and the Patient, God and David, Do thou purge me, do thou wash me; and the Action is twofold, Purgabis, do thou purge me, and Lavabis, do thou wash me. In which last part, and in the first branch thereof, we shall see first, the Action it self, Purgabis, Thou shalt purge me, and what that imports; And then the means, Purgabis hyssopo, Thou shalt purge me with hyssope, what that implies; and then the effect, Mundaber, I shall be made clean, and what that comprehends. And in the other branch of that second part, Lavabis, Thou shalt wash me, we shall also look upon the Action on Gods part, Lavabis, Thou shalt wash me, and the Effect on our part, Dealbabor, I shall be white, and the Degree, the Extent, the Exaltation of that Emundation, that Dealbation, that Cleansing, supra nivem, I shall be whiter then snow. And then we shall conclude all with that consideration, That though in the first part, we find two persons in action; for God works, but man prays that God would work, yet in the other part, the work it self; Though the work be divers, a purging, and then a washing of the soul, the whole work is Gods alone: David doth not say, no man can say, Do thou purge me, and then, I will wash my self; nor do thou make the Medicine, and I will bring the Hyssope; nor do thou but wash me, begin the work, and I will go forward with it, and perfect it, and make my self whiter then snow; but the entire work is his, who only can infuse the desire, and only accomplish that desire, who only gives the will, and the ability to second, and execute that will, He, He purges me, or I am still a vessel of peccant humors; His, His is the hyssope, or there is Mors in olla, Death in the cup; He, He washes me, or I am still in my blood; He, He exalts that cleanness, which his, his washing hath indued, or I return again to that red earth, which I brought out of Adams bowels; Therefore Do thou purge me with Hyssope, and I shall be clean; Do thou wash me, and I shallbe whiter then snow.

First then, for our first part, we consider the persons. Of these God is the first; Isaiah spoke boldly, saith the Apostle, when he said, God is found by them that seek him not; But still we continue in that humble boldness, to say, God is best found, when we seek him, and observe him in his operation upon us. God gives audiences, and admits accesses in his solemn and public and out-rooms, in his Ordinances: In his Cabinet, in his Bedchamber, in his unrevealed purposes, we must not press upon him. It was ill taken in the Roman State, when men enquired in Arcana Imperii, the secrets of State, by what ways, and means, public businesses were carried: Private men were to rest in the general effects, peace, and protection, and Justice, and the like, and to enquire no more; But to enquire in Arcana Domus, what was done in the Bed-chamber, was criminal, capital, inexcusable. We must abstain from enquiring De modo, how such or such things are done in many points, in which it is necessary to us to know that such things are done: As the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament, and the manner of Christs descent into Hell, for these are Arcana Imperii, secrets of State, for the manner is secret, though the thing be evident in the Scriptures. But the entering into Gods unrevealed, and bosom-purposes, are Arcana domus, a man is as far from a possibility of attaining the knowledge, as from an excuse for offering at it. That curiosity will bring a man to that blasphemy of Alfonsus King of Castile, the great Astronomer, who said, That if he had been of Gods Counsel in the creation of the world, he could have directed him to have done many things better then he did. They that look too far into Gods unrevealed purposes, are seldom content with that that they think God hath done; but stray either into an uncharitable condemning of other men, or into a jealous, a suspicious, a desperate condemning of themselves. Here, in this first branch of this first part, we seek God, and because we seek him, where he hath promised to be, we are sure to find him; Because we join with David, in an humble confession of our sins, the Lord joins us with David, in a fruition of himself. And more of that first Person, God himself, we say not, but pass to the other, to the petitioner, to the penitent, to the patient, to David himself.

His example is so comprehensive, so general, that as a well made, and well placed Picture in a Gallery looks upon all that stand in several places of the Gallery, in several lines, in several angles, so doth Davids history concern and embrace all. For his Person includes all states, between a shepherd and a King, and his sin includes all sin, between first Omissions, and complications of Habits of sin upon sin: So that as S. Basil said, he needed no other Book, for all spiritual uses, but the Psalms, so we need no other Example to discover to us the slippery ways into sin, or the penitential ways out of sin, then the Author of that Book, David. From his Example then, we first deduce this, That in the war-fare of this life, there are no Emeriti milites; none of that discipline, that after certain years spent in the wars, a man should return to ease, and honor, and security, at home. A man is not delivered from the temptation of Ambition, by having overcome the heats and concupiscences of his youth; nor from the temptation of Covetousness in his age, by having escaped ambition, and contented himself with a mean station in his middle years. David, whom neither a sudden growth into such degrees of greatness, as could not have fallen into his thought, or wish before, nor the persecution of Saul, which might have enraged him to a personal revenge, considering how many advantages, and occasions he might have made shift to think that God had put into his hands, to execute that revenge; David, whom neither the concourse and application of the people, who took knowledge of him, as of a rising Sun, nor the interest and nearness in the love and heart of Ionathan the Kings Son, which falls seldom upon a new, and a popular man; David, whom not that highest place, to which God had brought him, in making him King, nor that addition even to that highest place, that he made him Successor to a King of whom the State was weary; (for, as the Panegyrique says, Onerosum est succedere bono principi, It is a heavy thing, and binds a Prince to a great diligence, to come immediately after one, whom his subjects loved, So had David an ease, in comming after one, with whom the Kingdom was discontented) David, whom this sudden preferment, and persecutions, and popularity, did not so shake, but that we may say of him, as it is said of Job, That in all this height, David did not sin, nor in all these afflictions, He did not charge God foolishly; Though he had many victories, he came not to a Triumph; but him, whom an Army, and an armed Giant, Goliah, near hand, could not hurt, a weaker person, and naked, and far off, overthrows and ruins.

It is therefore but an imperfect comfort for any man to say, I have overcome temptations to great sins, and my sins have been but of infirmity, not of malice. For herein, more then in any other contemplation appears the greatness, both of thy danger, and of thy transgression. For, consider what a dangerous, and slippery station thou art in, if after a victory over Giants, thou mayest be overcome by Pigmees; If after thy soul hath been Canon proof against strong temptations, she be slain at last by a Pistol; And, after she hath swom over a tempestuous Sea, she drown at last, in a shallow and standing ditch. And as it shows the greatness of thy danger, so it aggravates the greatness of thy fault; That after thou hast had the experience, that by a good husbanding of those degrees of grace, which God hath afforded thee, thou hast been able to stand out the great batteries of strong temptations, and seest by that, that thou art much more able to withstand temptations to lesser sins, if thou wilt, yet by disarming thy self, by devesting thy garisons, by discontinuing thy watches, merely by inconsideration, thou sellest thy soul for nothing, for little pleasure, little profit, thou frustratest thy Savior of that purchase, which he bought with his precious blood, and thou enrichest the Devils treasure as much, with thy single money, thy frequent small sins, as another hath done with his talent; for, as God was well pleased with the widows two farthings, so is the Devil well pleased, with the negligent mans lesser sins. O who can be confident in his footing, or in his hold, when David, that held out so long, fell, and if we consider but himself, irrecoverably, where the tempter was weak, and afar off?

De longè vidit illam in qua captus est. Berseba was far off; Mulier longè, libido prope, but Davids disposition was in his own bosom. Yet David came not up into the Teras, with any purpose or inclination to that sin. Here was no such plotting as in his son Hammons case, to get his sister Tamar, by dissembling himself to be sick, to his lodging. That man post-dates his sin, and begins his reckning too late, that dates his sin at that hour, when he commits that sin. You must not reckon in sin, from the Nativity, but the Conception; when you conceived that sin in your purpose, then you sinned that sin, and in every letter, in every discourse, in every present, in every wish, in every dream, that conduces to that sin, or rises from that sin, you sin it over, and over again, before you come to the committing of it, and so your sin is an old, an inveterate sin, before it be born, and that which you call the first, is not the hundredth time, that you have sinned that sin.

It is not much that David contributed to this sin on his part: He is only noted in the Text, to have been negligent in the public business, and to have given himself too much ease in this particular, that he lay in bed all day; When it was evening, David arose out of his bed, and walked upon the Teras. And it is true, that the justice of God is subtle, as searching, as unsearchable; and oftentimes punishes sins of Omission, with other sins, Actual sins, and makes their laziness, who are slack in doing that they should, an occasion of doing that they should not.

It was not much that Bathsheba contributed to this temptation, on her part. The Vulgate Edition of the Roman Church, hath made her case somewhat the worse, by a mistranslation, Ex adverso super solarium suum, as though she had been washing her self, upon her own Teras, and in the eye of the Court; whereas indeed, it is no more, but that David saw her, he upon his Teras, not her upon hers. For her washing, it may well be collected out of the fourth verse, that it was a Legal washing, to which she was bound by the Levitical Law, being a purification after her natural infirmity, and which it had been a sin in her, to have omitted. But had it been a washing of Refreshing, or of Delicacy, even that was never imputed to Susanna for a fault, that she washed in a Garden, and in the day, and employed not only sope, but other ingredients and materials, of more delicacy, in that washing.

Certainly the limits of adorning and beautifying the body are not so narrow, so strict, as by some sore men they are sometimes conceived to be. Differences of Ranks, of Ages, of Nations, of Customs, make great differences in the enlarging, or contracting of these limits, in adorning the body; and that may come near sin at some time, and in some places, which is not so always, nor every where. Amongst the women there, the Jewish women, it was so general a thing to help themselves with aromatical Oyles, and liniments, as that that which is said by the Prophets poor Widow, to the Prophet Elisha, That she had nothing in the house but a pot of Oil, is very properly by some collected from the Original word, that it was not Oil for meat, but Oil for unction, aromatical Oil, Oil to make her look better; she was but poor, but a Widow, but a Prophets Widow, (and likely to be the poorer for that) yet she left not that. We see that even those women, whom the Kings were to take for their Wives, and not for Mistresses, (which is but a later name for Concubines) had a certain, and a long time assigned to be prepared by these aromatical unctions, and liniments for beauty. Neither do those that consider, that when Abraham was afraid to lose his wife Sara in Egypt, and that every man that saw her, would fall in love with her, Sara was then above threescore; And when the King Abimelech did fall in love with her, and take her from Abraham, she was fourscore and ten, they do not assign this preservation of her complexion, and habitude to any other thing, then the use of those unctions, and liniments, which were ordinary to that Nation. But yet though the extent and limit of this adorning the body, may be larger then some austere persons will allow, yet it is not so large, as that it should be limited only, by the intention and purpose of them that do it; So that if they that beautify themselves, mean no harm in it, therefore there should be no harm in it; for, except they could as well provide, that others should take no harm, as that they should mean no harm, they may participate of the fault. And since we find such an impossibility in rectifying and governing our own senses, (we cannot take our own eye, nor stop our own ear, when we would) it is an unnecessary, and insupportable burden, to put upon our score, all the lascivious glances, and the licentious wishes of other persons, occasioned by us, in over-adorning our selves.

And this may well have been Bathshebaes fault, That though she did not bathe with a purpose to be seen, yet she did not enough to provide against the infirmity of others. It had therefore been well if David had risen earlier, to attend the affaires of the State; And it had been well, if Bathsheba had bathed within doors, and with more caution; but yet these errors alone, we should not be apt to condemn in such persons, except by Gods permitting greater sins to follow upon these, we were taught, that even such things, as seem to us in their nature to be indifferent, have degrees of natural and essential ill in them, which must be avoided, even in the probability, nay even in the possibility that they may produce sin.

And as from this Example, we draw that Conclusion, That sins, which are but the Children of indifferent actions, become the Parents of great sins; which is the industry of sin, to exalt it self, and (as it were) ennoble it self, above the stock, from which it was derived, The next sin will needs be a better sin then the last: So have we also from David this Conclusion, that this generation of sin is infinite; infinite in number, infinite in duration; So infinite both ways, as that Luther (who seldom checks himself in any vehement expression) could not forbear to say, Si Nathan non venisset, If Nathan had not come to David, David had proceeded to the sin against the Holy Ghost. O how impossible a thing is it then, for us to condition and capitulate with God, or with our own Nature, and say to him, or to our selves, We will sin thus long and no longer, Thus far, and no farther, this sin, and no more; when not only the frailty of man, but even the justice of God provokes us (though not as Author, or cause of sin) to commit more and more sins, after we have entangled and enwrapped our selves in former! Who can doubt, but that in this years space, in which David continued in his sin, but that he did ordinarily all the external acts of the religious Worship of God? who can doubt but that he performed all the Legal Sacrifices, and all the Ceremonial Rites? Yea, we see, that when Nathan put Davids case in another name, of a rich man that had taken away a poor mans only sheep, David was not only just, but he was vehement in the execution of Justice; He was, says the text, exceeding wroth, and said, As the Lord liveth, that man shall dye; But yet, for all this external Religion, for all this Civil justice in matter of government, no mention of any repentance in all this time. How little a thing then is it, nay how great a thing, that is, how great an aggravating of thy sin, if thou think to bribe God with a Sabboth, or with an alms; And, as a criminal person would fain come to Sanctuary, not because it is a consecrated place, but because it rescues him from the Magistrate, So thou comest to Chuch, not because God is here, but that thy being here may redeem thee from the imputation of profaneness. At last Nathan came; David did not send for him, but God sent him; But yet David laid hold upon Gods purpose in him. And he confesses to God, he confesses to the Prophet, he confesses to the whole Church; for, before he pleads for mercy in the body of the Psalm, in the title of the Psalm, which is as Canonical Scripture, as the Psalm it self, he confesses himself plainly, A Psalm of David, when the Prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Audiunt male viventes, & quaerunt sibi patrocinia peccandi; We hear of Davids sin, and we justify our sins by him; Si David, cur non & ego? If David went in to a Bathsheba, why may not I? That Father tells you why, Qui facit, quia David fecit, id facit, quod David non fecit, He that does that, because David did it, does not do that which David did; Quia nullum exemplum proposuit, For David did not justify his sin, by any precedent example; So that he that sins as David did, yet sins worse then David did; and he that continues as unsensible of his sin, as David was, is more unsensible then David was; Quia ad te mittitur ipse David, For God sends Nathan to thee, with David in his hand; He sends you the Receit, his invitations to Repentance, in his Scriptures, and he sends you a Probatum est, a personal testimony how this Physic hath wrought upon another, upon David.

And so having in this first Part, which is the Consideration of the persons in our Text, God and David, brought them by Nathans mediation, together, consider we also, for a conclusion of this Part, the personal applications, that David scatters himself upon none but God, Tu me, and he repeats it, do Thou purge me, do Thou wash me.

Damascene hath a Sermon of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin, which whole Sermon is but a Dialogue, in which Eve acts the first part, and the blessed Virgin another; It is but a Dialogue, yet it is a Sermon. If I should insist upon this Dialogue, between God and David, Tu me, Tu me, Do thou work upon me, it would not be the less a profitable part of a Sermon for that. For first, when we hear David in an anhelation and panting after the mercy of God, cry out, Domine Tu, Lord do thou that that is to be done, do Thou purge, do Thou wash, and may have heard God, (thereby to excite us to the use of his means) say, Purget natura, purget lex, I have infused into thee a light and a law of nature, and exalted that light and that law, by a more particular law and a clearer light then that, by which thou knowest what is sin, and knowest that in a sinful state thou canst not be acceptable to me, Purget natura, purget lex, let the light of nature, or of the law purge thee, and rectify thy self by that; Do but as much for thy self, as some natural men, some Socrates, some Plato hath done, we may hear David reply, Domine Tu, Lord put me not over to the catechizing of Nature, nor to the Pedagogy of the Law, but take me into thine own hands, do Thou, Thou, that is to be done upon me. When we hear God say, Purget Ecclesia, I have established a Church, settled constant Ordinances, for the purging and washing of souls there; Purget Ecclesia, Let the Church purge thee, we may hear David reply, Domine Tu, Alas Lord, how many come to that Bath, and go foul out of it? how many hear Sermons, and receive Sacraments, and when they return, return to their vomit? Domine Tu, Lord, except the power of thy Spirit make thine Ordinance effectual upon me, even this thy Jordan will leave me in my leprosy, and exalt my leprosy, even this Sermon, this Sacrament will aggravate my sin. If we hear God say, Shall I purge thee? Doest thou know what thou askest, what my method in purging is, That if I purge, I shall purge thee with fire, with seven fires, with tribulations, nay, with temptations, with temporal, nay, with spiritual calamities, with wounds in thy fortune, wounds in thine honor, wounds in thy conscience, yet we may hear David reply, Tu Domine; As the people said to Ioshuah, God forbid we should forsake the Lord, we will serve the Lord; And when Ioshuah said, You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a jealous God; and if yee turn from him, he will turn and do you hurt, and consame you after he hath done you good; The people replied, Nay, but we will serve the Lord; so whatsoever God threatens David of afflictions and tribulations, and purgings in fire, we may hear David reply, Nay but Lord, do Thou do it, do it how Thou wilt, but do Thou do it: Thy corrosives are better then others somentations; Thy bitternesses sweeter then others honey; Thy fires are but lukewarm fires, nay, they have nothing of fire in them, but light to direct me in my way; And thy very frowns are but as trenches cut out, as lanes that lead me to thy grave, or Rivers or Channels, that lead me to the sea of thy blood. Let me go upon Crouches, so I go to Heaven; Lay what weight thou wilt even upon my foul, that that be heavy, and heavy unto death, so I may have a cheerful transmigration then. Domine Tu, Lord do thou do it, and I shall not wish it mended.

And then when we hear David say, Domine Me, Lord purge Me, wash Me, and return four times in this short Text, to that personal appropriation of Gods work upon himself, Purge Me, that I may be clean, wash Me, that I may be whiter then snow, if we hear God say (as the language of his mercy is, for the most part, general) As the Sea is above the Earth, so is the blood of my Son above all sin; Congregations of three thousand, and of five thousand were purged and washed, converted and baptized at particular Sermons of S. Peter, whole legions of Souldiers, that consisted of thousands, were purged in their own blood, and became Martyrs in one day. There is enough done to work upon all; Examples enow given to guide all; we may hear David reply, Domine Me, Nay but Lord, I do not hear Peter preach, I live not in a time, or in a place, where Crowns of Martyrdom are distributed, nor am I sure my Constancy would make me capable of it if I did, Lord I know, that a thousand of these worlds were not worth one drop of thy blood, and yet I know, that if there had been but one some distressed, and that soul distressed but with one sin, thou wouldst have spent the last drop of that blood for that soul; Blessed be thy Name, for having wrapped me up in thy general Covenants, and made me partaker of thy general Ordinances, but yet Lord, look more particularly upon me, and appropriate thy self to me, to me, not only as thy Creature, as a man, as a Christian, but as I am I, as I am this sinner that confesses now, and as I am this penitent that begs thy mercy now. And now, Beloved, we have said so much towards enough of the persons, God and David; The access of David to God, and the appropriation of God to David, as that we may well pass to our other general part, the petitions which David in his own and our behalf makes to God, Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter then snow.

In this, the first is a great work, That which we translate, Purge me. And yet how soon David is come to it? It is his first period. The passage of a Spirit is very quick, but it is not immediate; Not from extreme to extreme, but by passing the way between. The Evil spirit passes not so; no good soul was ever made very ill in an instant, no, nor so soon as some ill have been made good: No man can give me Examples of men so soon perverted, as I can of men converted. It is not in the power of the Devil to do so much harm, as God can do good; Nay, we may be bold to say, it is not in the will, not in the desire of the Devil to do so much harm, as God would do good; for illness is not in the nature of the Devil; The Devil was naturally good, made, created good. His first illness was but a defection from that goodness; and his present illness is but a punishment for that defection; but God is good, goodness in his nature, essentially, eternally good; and therefore the good motions of the Spirit of God work otherwise upon us, then the temptations of the evil Spirit do. How soon, and to what a height came David here? He makes his Petition, his first Petition with that confidence, as that it hath scarce the nature of a Petition: for it is in the Original, Thou wilt purge me, Thou wilt wash me, Thou hadst a gracious will, and purpose to do it, before thou didst infuse the will and the desire in me to petition it. Nay, this word may well be translated not only Thou wilt, but by the other denotation of the future, Thou shalt, Thou shalt purge me, Thou shalt wash me, Lord I do but remember thee of thy debt, of that which thy gracious promise hath made thy debt, to show mercy to every penitent sinner. And then, as the word implies confidence, and acceleration, infallibility, and expedition too, That as soon as I can ask, I am sure to be heard; so does it imply a totality, an entireness, a fullness in the work; for the root of the word is Peccare, to sin, for purging is a purging of peccant humors; but in this Conjugation in that language, it hath a privative signification, and literally signifies Expeccabis; and if in our language, that were a word in use, it might be translated, Thou shalt un-sin me; that is, look upon me as a man that had never sinned, as a man invested in the innocency of thy Son, who knew no sin. David gives no man rule nor example of other assurance in God, then in the remission of sins: Not that any precontract or Election makes our sins no sins, or makes our sins no hindrances in our way to salvation, or that we are in Gods favor at that time when we sin, nor returned to his favor before we repent our sin; It is only this expeccation, this unsinning, this taking away of sins formerly committed, that restores me; And that is not done with nothing; David assignes, proposes a means, by which he looks for it, Hyssop, Thou shalt purge me with Hyssop.

The Fathers taking the words as they found them, and fastening with a spiritual delight, as their devout custom was, their Meditations upon the figurative and Metaphorical phrase of purging by Hyssop, have found purgative virtues in that plant, and made useful and spiritual applications thereof, for the purging of our souls from sin. In this do S. Ambrose, and Augustine, and Jerome agree, that Hyssop hath virtue in it proper for the lungs, in which part, as it is the furnace of breath, they place the seat of pride and opposition against the Truth, making their use of that which is said of Saul, That he breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord. And by this interpretation, Davids disease that he must be purged of, should be pride. But except, as the Schoolemen, when they have tyred themselves in seeking out the name of the sin of the Angels, are content at last for their ease to call it Pride, both because they thought they need go no farther, for, where pride is, other sins will certainly accompany it; and because they extended the name of Pride to all refusals and resistances of the will of God, and so pride, in effect, includes all sin; Except, I say, the Fathers take Pride in so large a sense as that they would not prescribe Hyssop to purge Davids lungs, for his disease lay not properly there; They must have purged his liver, the seat of blood, the seat of concupiscence; They must have purged his whole substance, for the distemper was gone over all. And to this rectifying of his blood, by the application of better blood, and David relation in this place.

All the sacrifices of Expiation of sin, in the old Law, were done by blood, and that blood was sprinckled upon the people, by an instrument made of a certain plant, which because the word in Hebrew is Ezob, for the nearness of the sound, and for the indifferency of the matter, (for it imports us nothing to know, of what plant that Aspergillum, that Blood-sprinckler was made) the Interpreters have ever used in all languages to call this word Hyssop. And though we know no proper word for Hyssop in Hebrew, (for when they find not a word in the Bible, the Hebrew Rabbis will acknowledge no Hebrew word for any thing) yet the other languages deduced from the Hebrew, Syriaque, and Arabique, have clearly another word for Hyssop, Zus; And the Hebrew Rabbis think this word of our text, Ezob, to signify any of three or four plants, rather then our Hyssop. But be the plant what it will, the forme and the use of that Blood-sprinkler is manifest. In the institution of the Passeover, Take a bunch of Hyssop, and dip it in blood. In the cleansing of the Leper, there was to be the blood of a sparrow, and then Cedar wood, and scarlet lace, and Hyssop: And about that Cedar stick, they bound this Hyssop with this lace, and so made this instrument to sprinkle blood. And so the name of the Hyssop, because it did the principal office, was after given to the whole Instrument; all the sprinkler was called an Hyssop; As we see when they reached up a sponge of vinegar to Christ upon the Cross, They put it, says the text, upon Hyssop, that is, upon an Hyssop; not upon an Hyssop stalk, (as the old translation had it) for no Hyssop hath such a stalk, but they called such sticks of Cedar, as ordinarily served for the sprinkling of blood, Hyssops. And whether this were such a Cedar stick, or some other such thing, fit to reach up that spunge to Christ, we cannot say. For S. Matthew calls that, that S. John calls an Hyssop, a Reed.

This then was Davids petition here; first, That he might have the blood of Christ Jesus applied and sprinkled upon him; David thought of no election, he looked for no sanctification, but in the blood of Christ Jesus. And then he desired this blood to be applied to him, by that Hyssope, by that Blood-sprinkler, which was ordained by God, for the use of the Church. Home-infusions, and inward inspirations of grace, are powerful seals of Gods love; but all this is but the Privy seal, David desired to bring it to the Great seal, the public Ordinance of the Church. In a case of necessity God gave his children Manna and Quailes; In cases of necessity God allows Sermons, and Sacraments at home; But as soon as ever they came to the Land of promise, the same day both Manna and Quailes ceased: God hath given us a free and public passage of his Word, and Sacraments, the diet and the ordinary food of our souls, and he purges us with that Hyssope, with the application of his promises, with the absolution of our sins, with a redintegration into his mystical body, by the seals of reconciliation. And this reconciliation to God, by the blood of Christ, applied in the Ordinances of the Church, is that which David begs for his cleansing, and is the last circumstance of this branch, Purge me with Hyssope, and I shall be clean.

This Cleansing then implies that, which we commonly call the enwrapping in the Covenant, the breeding in the visible Church, when God takes a Nation out of the Common, and encloses it, empailes it for his more peculiar use, when God withdraws us from the impossibility, under which the Gentiles sterve, who hear not Christ preached, to live within the sound of his voice, and within the reach of our spiritual food, the Word and Sacraments. It is that state, which the holy Ghost so elegantly expresses and enlarges, That God found Jerusalem, Her father an Amorite, and her mother an Hittite, none of the seed of the faithful in her; that he found her in Canaan, not so much as in a place of true profession; that he found her in her blood, and her navel uncut, still incorporated in her former stock; And, The time was a time of love, says God, and I covered thy nakedness, and sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine. Will you say, this could not be the subject of Davids petition, this could not be the cleansing that he begged at Gods hand, to be brought into that Covenant, to be a member of that Church? for he was in possession of that before. Beloved, how many are born in this Covenant, and baptized, and catechized in it, and yet fall away? How many have taught, and wrought, and thought in their own conscience that they did well, in defence of the Covenant, and yet fell away? And from how many places, which gave light to others, hath God removed the Candlestick, and left themselves in darkness? Though David say, A day in thy Courts is better then a thousand, (then a thousand any where else) yet he expresses his desire, That he might continue in that happiness all the days of his life; It is as fearful a thing to be removed from the means of salvation, as never to have had them.

This then is Cleansing, To be continued in the distance, and working of the means of cleansing, that he may always grow under the dew, and breath in the air of Gods grace exhibited in his Ordinance. Amongst the Jews there were many uncleannesses, which did not amount to sin: They reckon in the Ceremonial law, at least fifty kinds of uncleannesses, from which if they neglected to cleanse themselves, by those ceremonies which were appropriated to them, then those uncleannesses became sins, and they were put to their sacrifices, before they could be discharged of them. Many levities, many omissions, many acts of infirmity might be prevented by consideration before, or cleansed by consideration now, if we did truly value the present grace, that is always offered us in these the Ordinances of God. What sin can I be guilty of, that is without example of mercy, in that Gospel which is preached to me here? But if you will not accept it, when God offers it, you can never have it so good cheap, because hereafter you shall have this present sin, of refusing that offer of grace, added to your burden. Because I have purged thee, & thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged any more, til I have caused my fury to light upon thee. But shall we be purged then? Then, when his fury in any calamity hath lighted upon us? Is not this donec, this untill, such a donec, as donec faciam, Till I make thine cnemis thy footstool: Such a donec as the donec peperit, she was a Virgin, Till she brought forth her first son? Is it not an everlasting donec? That we shall not be purged till Gods Judgements fall upon us, nor then neither: Physic may be ministered too late to work, and Judgements may fall too late, to souple or entender the soul: For as we may die with that Physic in our stomach, so may we be carried to the last Judgement, with that former Judgement upon our shoulders. And therefore our later Translation hath expressed it more fully, Not that that fury shall light, but shall rest upon us.

This cleansing therefore, is that disposition, which God by his grace, infuses into us, That we stand in the congregation, and Communion of Saints, capable of those mercies, which God hath by his Ordinance, annexed to these meetings; That we may so feel at all times when we come hither, such a working of his Hyssop, such a benefit of his Ordinance, as that we believe all our former sins to be so forgiven, as that if God should translate us now, this minute, to another life, this Dosis of this purging Hyssop, received now, had so wrought, as that we should be assuredly translated into the Kingdom of heaven. This cleansing applies to us those words of our Savior, My son, be of good cheare, thy sins are forgiven thee; But yet there is a farther degree of cleaneness expressed in Christs following words, Go, and sin no more; And that grace against relapses, the gift of sanctification, and perseverance, is that that David asks in his other Petition, Lava me, Wash me, and I shall be whiter then snow.

Here we proposed first the action, Lava, Wash me. This is more then a sprinkling, A total, and entire washing; More then being an ordinary partaker of the outward means, The Word, and Sacraments; more then a temporary feeling of the benefit thereof in a present sense; for it is a building up of habits of religious actions, visible to others, and it is a holy and firm confidence created in us by the Spirit of God, that we shall keep that building in reparation, and go forward with it to our lives end. It is a washing like Naamans in Jordan, to be iterated seven times, seventy seven times, daily, hourly, all our life; A washing begun in Baptism, pursued in sweat, in the industry of a lawful calling, continued in tears, for our deficiencies in the works of our calling, and perchance to be consummated in blood, at our deaths. Not such a washing, as the Washes have, which are those sands that are overflowed with the Sea at every Tide, and then lie dry, but such a washing as the bottom of the Sea hath, that is always equally wet. It is not a stillicidium, a spout, a shore, a bucket poured out upon us, when we come to Church, a Sabbath-sanctification, and no more, but a water that enters into every office of our house, and washes every action proceeding from every faculty of the soul. And this is the washing, A continual succession of Grace, working effectually to present Habits of religious acts, and constituting a holy purpose of persevering in them that induces the Whiteness, the Candor, the Dealbation that David begs here, Lava & Dealbabor.

The purging with Hyssope, which we spoke of before, which is the benefit which we have by being bred in a true Church, delivers us from that redness, which is in the earth of which we are made, from that guiltiness, which is by our natural derivation from our Parents imprinted in us; Baptism doth much upon that; but that that is not Red, is not therefore White. But this is our case: Our first color was white; God made man righteous. Our redness is from Adam, and the more that redness is washed off, the more we return to our first whiteness; And this which is petitioned here, is a washing of such perfection, as cleanses us Ab omni inquinamento, from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. Those inquinamenta, which are ordinary, are first in the flesh, Concupiscence and Carnality, and those other, of which the Apostle says, The works of the flesh are manifest; And in the spirit, they are Murmuring, Diffidence in God, and such others. But besides these, as an over-diligent cleansing of the Body, and additional beauty of the Body, is inquinamentum carnis, one of S. Pauls filthinesses upon the flesh, so an over purifying of the spirit, in an uncharitable undervaluing of other men, and in a schismatical departing from the unity of the Church, is Inquinamentum spiritus: False beauties are a foulness of the body, false purity is a foulness of the spirit. But the washing, that we seek, cleanses us Ab omni inquinamento, from all foulness of flesh and spirit. All waters will not cleanse us, nor all fires dry us, so as we may be clean, smoky fires will not do that. I will pour clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. The Sun produces sweat upon us, and it dries us too: Zeal cleanses us; but it must be zeal impermixt as the Sun, not mingled with our smoky, sooty, factious affections. Some Grammarians have noted, the word Washing here, to be derived from a word, that signifies a Lambe; we must be washed in the blood of the Lambe, and we must be brought to the whiteness, the candor, the simplicity of the Lambe; no man is pure, that thinks no man pure but himself. And this whiteness, which is Sanctification in our selves, and charitable interpretation of other men, is exalted here to that Superlative, Super Nivem, Wash me, and I shall be whiter then Snow.

Though your sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Isaiah was an Euangelical Prophet, a prophetical Evangelist, and speaks still of the state of the Christian Church. There, by the ordinary means exhibited there, our Scarlet sins are made as white as Snow; And the whiteness of Snow, is a whiteness that no art of man can reach to; So Christs garments in his Transfiguration are expressed to have been as white as Snow, so, as no Fuller on earth could white them. Nothing in this world can send me home in such a whiteness, no moral counsel, no moral comfort, no moral constancy; as Gods Absolution by his Minister, as the profitable hearing of a Sermon, the worthy receiving of the Sacrament do. This is to be as white as snow; In a good state for the present. But David begs a whiteness above Snow; for Snow melts, and then it is not white; our present Sanctification withers, and we lose that cheerful verdure, the testimony of an upright conscience; And Snow melted, Snow water, is the coldest water of all; Devout men departed from their former fervor are the coldest and the most irreducible to true zeal, true holiness. Therefore David who was metal tried seven times in the fire, and desired to be such gold as might be laid up in Gods Treasury, might consider, that in transmutation of metals, it is not enough to come to a calcination, or a liquefaction of the metal, (that must be done) nor to an Ablution, to sever dross from pure, nor to a Transmutation, to make it a better metal, but there must be a Fixion, a fettling thereof, so that it shall not evaporate into nothing, nor return to his former nature. Therefore he saw that he needed not only a liquefaction, a melting into tears, nor only an Ablution, & a Transmutation, those he had by this purging and this washing, this station in the Church of God, and this present Sanctification there, but he needed Fixionem, an establishment, which the comparison of Snow afforded not; That as he had purged him with Hyssop, and so cleansed him, that is, enwrapped him in the Covenant, and made him a member of the true Church; and there washed him so, as that he was restored to a whiteness, that is, made his Ordinances so effectual upon him, as that then he durst deliver his soul into his hands at that time: So he would exalt that whiteness, above the whiteness of Snow, so as nothing might melt it, nothing discolor it, but that under the seal of his blessed Spirit, he might ever dwell in that calm, in that assurance, in that acquiescence, that as he is in a good state this minute, he shall be in no worse, whensoever God shall be pleased to translate him.

We end all the Psalms in our service, those of Praise, and those of Prayer too, with a Gloria Patri, Glory be to the Father, &c. For our conclusion of this Prayer in this Psalm, we have reserved a Gloria Patri too, This consideration for the glory of God, that though in the first Part, The Persons, the persons were varied, God and man, yet in our second Part, where we consider the work, the whole work is put into Gods hand, and received from Gods hand. Let God be true, and every man a liar; Let God be strong and every man infirme; Let God give, and man but receive. What man that hath no propriety therein, can take a penny out of another mans house, or a root out of his Garden, but the Law will take hold of him? Hath any man a propriety in Grace? what had he to give for it? Nature? Is Nature equivalent to Grace? No man does refine, and exalt Nature to the height it would bear, but if natural faculties were exalted to their highest, is Nature a fit exchange for Grace? and if it were, is Nature our own? Why should we be loath to acknowledge to have all our ability of doing good freely from God, and immediately by his grace, when as, even those faculties of Nature, by which we pretend to do the offices of Grace, we have from God himself too? For that question of the Apostle involves all, What hast thou that thou hast not received? Thy natural faculties are no more thine own, then the grace of God is thine own; I would not be beholden to God for Grace, and I must be as much beholden to him for Nature, if Nature do supply Grace; Because he hath made thee to be a man, he hath given thee natural faculties; because he hath vouchsafed thee to be a Christian, he hath given thee means of Grace. But, as thy body, conceived in thy Mothers womb, could not claim a soul at Gods hand, nor wish a soul, no nor know that there was a soul to be had: So neither by being a man indued with natural faculties canst thou claim grace, or wish grace; nay those natural faculties, if they be not pre-tincted with some infusion of Grace before, cannot make thee know what Grace is, or that Grace is. To a child rightly disposed in the womb, God does give a soul; To a natural man rightly disposed in his natural faculties, God does give Grace; But that Soul was not due to that child, nor that grace to that man.

Therefore, (as we said at first) David does not bring the Hyssop, and pray God to make the potion, but, Do thou purge me with Hyssop, All is thine own; There was no pre-existent matter in the world, when God made the world; There is no pre-existent merit in man, when God makes him his. David does not say, Do thou wash me, and I will perfect thy work; Give me my portion of Grace, and I will trouble thee for no more, but deal upon that stock; But Qui sanctificatur, sanctificetur adhuc, Let him that is holy be more holy, but accept his Sanctification from him, of whom he had his Justification; and except he can think to glorify himself because he is sanctified, let him not think to sanctify himself because he is justified; God does all. Yet thus argues S. Augustin upon Davids words, Tuus sum Domine, Lord I am thine, and therefore safer then they, that think themselves their own. Every man can and must say, I was thine, Thine by Creation; but few can say, I am thine, few that have not changed their Master. But how was David his so especially? says S. Augustine: Quia quaesivi justificationes tuas, as it follows there; Because I sought thy Righteousness, thy Justification. But where did he seek it? He sought it, and he found it in himself. In himself, as himself, there was no good thing to be found, how far soever he had sought: But yet he found a Justification, though of Gods whole making, yet in himself.

So then, this is our Act of Recognition, we acknowledge God, and God only to do all; But we do not so make him Sovereign alone, as that we leave his presence naked, and empty; Nor so make him King alone, as that we depopulate his Country, and leave him without Subjects; Nor so leave all to Grace, as that the natural faculties of man do not become the servants, and instruments of that Grace. Let all, that we all seek, be, who may glorify God most; and we shall agree in this, That as the Pelagian wounds the glory of God deeply, in making Natural faculties joint-Commissioners with Grace, so do they diminish the glory of God too, if any deny natural faculties to be the subordinate servants and instruments of Grace; for as Grace could not work upon man to Salvation, if man had not a faculty of will to work upon, because without that will man were not man; so is this Salvation wrought in the will, by conforming this will of man to the will of God, not by extinguishing the will it self, by any force or constraint that God imprints in it by his Grace: God saves no man without, or against his will. Glory be to God on high, and on earth Peace, and Good will towards men; And to this God of Glory, the Father, and this God of Peace and reconciliation, the Son, and this God of Good will and love amongst men, the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all praise, &c.

Serm. LXV. Preached at S. Pauls, May 8. 1625.

PSAL. 62.9.

Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter then vanity.

WE consider the dignity of the Book of Psalms, either in the whole body together, or in the particular limbs and distribution thereof. Of the whole Body, it may be enough to tell you that which S. Basil saith, That if all the other books of Scripture could perish, there remained enough in the book of Psalms for the supply of all: And therefore he calls it Amuletum ad profligandum daemonem; Any Psalm is Exorcism enough to expell any Devil, Charm enough to remove any temptation, Enchantment enough to ease, nay to sweeten any tribulation. It is abundantly enough that our Savior Christ himself cites the Psalms, not only as Canonical Scripture, but as a particular, and entire, and noble limb of that Body; All must be fulfilled of me, (saith he) which is written in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. The Law alone was the Sadducees Scripture, they received no more: The Law and the Prophets were (especially) the Scribes Scripture, they interpreted that: The Christians Scripture, in the Old Testament, is especially the Psalms. For (except the Prophecy of Isaiah be admitted into the comparison) no book of the Old Testament is so like a Gospel, so particular in all things concerning Christ, as the Psalms.

So hath the Book of Psalms an especial dignity in the entire Body, all together. It hath so also in divers distributions thereof into parts. For even amongst the Jews themselves, those fifteen Psalms which follow immediately and successively after the 119. Psalm, were especially distinguished, and dignified by the name of Gradual Psalms; Whether because they were sung upon the Degrees and stairs ascending to the Altar, Or because he that read them in the Temple, ascended into a higher and more eminent place to read them, Or because the word Gradual implies a degree of excellency in the Psalms themselves, I dispute not; But a difference those fifteen Psalms ever had above the rest, in the Jewish and in the Christian Church too. So also hath there been a particular dignity ascribed to those seven Psalms, which we have ever called the Penitential Psalms; Of which S. Augustine had so much respect, as that he commanded them to be written in a great Letter, and hung about the curtains of his Death-bed within, that he might give up the ghost in contemplation, and meditation of those seven Psalms. And it hath been traditionally received, and recommended by good Authors, that that Hymne, which Christ and his Apostles are said to have sung after the Institution and celebration of the Sacrament, was a Hymne composed of those six Psalms, which we call the Allelujah Psalms, immediately preceding the hundred and nineteenth.

So then, in the whole Body, and in some particular limbs of the Body, the Church of God hath had an especial consideration of the book of Psalms. This Church in which we all stand now, and in which my self, by particular obligation serve, hath done so too. In this Church, by ancient Constitutions, it is ordained, That the whole book of Psalms should every day, day by day be rehearsed by us, who make the Body of this Church, in the ears of Almighty God. And therefore every Prebendary of this Church, is by those Constitutions bound every day to praise God in those five Psalms which are appointed for his Prebend. And of those five Psalms which belong to me, this, out of which I have read you this Text, is the first. And, by Gods grace, (upon like occasions) I shall here handle some part of every one of the other four Psalms, for some testimony, that those my five Psalms return often into my meditation, which I also assure my self of the rest of my brethren, who are under the same obligation in this Church.

For this whole Psalm, which is under our present consideration, as Athanasius amongst all the Fathers, was most curious, and most particular, and exquisite, in observing the purpose, and use of every particular Psalm, (for to that purpose, he goes through them all, in this manner; If thou wilt encourage men to a love, and pursuit of goodness, say the first Psalm, and 31. and 140, &c. If thou wilt convince the Jews, say the second Psalm; If thou wilt praise God for things past, say this, and this, And this, and this if thou wilt pray for future things) so for this Psalm, which we have in hand, he observes in it a summary abridgement of all; For of this Psalm he says in general, Adversus insidiantes, Against all attempts upon thy body, thy state, thy soul, thy fame, temptations, tribulations, machinations, defamations, say this Psalm. As he saith before, that in the book of Psalms, every man may discern motus animi sui, his own sinful inclinations expressed, and arm himself against himself; so in this Psalm, he may arm himself against all other adversaries of any kind. And therefore as the same Father entitles one Sermon of his, Contr a omnes haereses, A Sermon for the convincing of all Heresies, in which short Sermon he meddles not much with particular heresies, but only establishes the truth of Christs Person in both natures, which is indeed enough against all Heresies, and in which (that is the consubstantiality of Christ with the Father, God of God) this Father Athanasius, hath enlarged himself more then the rest (insomuch, that those heretics which grow so fast, in these our days, The Socinians, (who deny the Godhead of Christ) are more vexed with that Father, then with any other, and call him for Athanasius, Sathanasius) As he calls that Sermon, a Sermon against all Heresies, so he presents this Psalm against all Temptations, and Tribulations; Not that therein David puts himself to weigh particular temptations, and tribulations, but that he puts every man, in every trial, to put himself wholly upon God, and to know, that if man cannot help him in this world, nothing can; And, for man, Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter then vanity.

We consider in the words, The manner, and the matter, How it is spoken, And what is said. For the first, the manner, this is not absolutely spoken, but comparatively, not peremptorily, but respectively, not simply, but with relation. The Holy Ghost, in Davids mouth, doth not say, That man can give no assistance to man; That man may look for no help from man; But, that God is always so present, and so all-sufficient, that we need not doubt of him, nor rely upon any other, otherwise then as an instrument of his. For that which he had spread over all the verses of the Psalm before, he sums up in the verse immediately before the Text, Trust in God at all times, for he is a refuge for us; and then, he strengthens that with this, What would yee prefer before God, or join with God? man? what man? Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter then vanity.

Which words being our second part, open to us these steps: First, that other Doctrins, moral or civil Instructions may be delivered to us possibly, and probably, and likely, and credibly, and under the like terms, and modifications, but this in our Text, is Assuredly, undoubtedly, undeniably, irrefragably, Surely men of low degree, &c. For howsoever when they two are compared together, with one another, it may admit discourse and disputation, whether men of high degree, or of low degree do most violate the laws of God; that is, whether prosperity or adversity make men most obnoxious to sin, yet, when they come to be compared, not with one another, but both with God, this asseveration, this surely reaches to both; Surely, The man of low degree is vanity, and, as Surely, The man of high degree is a lie. And though this may seem to leave some room, for men of middle ranks, and fortunes, and places, That there is a mediocrity, that might give an assurance, and an establishment, yet there is no such thing in this case, for (as surely still) to be laid in the balance, they are all, (not all of low, and all of high degree, all rich, and all poor, but) All, of all conditions, altogether lighter then vanity.

Now, all this doth not destroy, not extinguish, not annihilate that affection in man, of hope, and trust, and confidence in any thing; but it rectifies that hope, and trust, and confidence, and directs it upon the right object: Trust not in flesh, but in spiritual things, That we neither bend our hopes downward, to infernal spirits, to seek help in Witches; nor mis-carry it upward, to seek it in Saints, or Angels, but fix it in him, who is nearer us then our own souls, our blessed, and gracious, and powerful God, who in this one Psalm is presented unto us, by so many names of assurance and confidence, My expectation, my salvation, my rock, my defence, my glory, my strength, my refuge, and the rest.

First then these words, Surely men of low degree, and men of high degree are vanity, are not absolutely, simple, unconditionally spoken; Man is not nothing: Nay, it is so far from that, as that there is nothing but man. As, though there may be many other creatures living, which were not derived from Eve, and yet Eve is called Mater viventium, The Mother of all that live, because the life of none but man, is considered; so there be so many other Creatures, and Christ sends his Apostles to preach, Omni Creaturae, to every creature, yet he means none but Man. All that God did in making all other creatures, in all the other days, was but a laying in of Materials; The setting up of the work was in the making of Man. God had a picture of himself from all eternity; from all eternity, the Son of God was the Image of the invisible God; But then God would have one picture, which should be the picture of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost too, and so made man to the Image of the whole Trinity. As the Apostle argues, Cui dixit, To whom did God ever say, This day have I begotten thee, but to Christ? so we say, for the dignity of man, Cui dixit, of what creature did God ever say, Faciamus, Let us, us make it, All, all, the Persons together, and to employ, and exercise, not only Power, but Counsel in the making of that Creature? Nay, when man was at worst, he was at a high price; man being fallen, yet then, in that undervalue, he cost God his own and only Son, before he could have him. Neither became the Son of God capable of redeeming man, by any less, or any other way, then by becoming man. The Redeemer must be better then he whom he is to redeem; and yet, he must abase himself to as low a nature as his; to his nature; else he could not redeem him. God was aliened from man, and yet God must become man, to recover man.

God joined man in Commission with himself, upon his Creation, in the Replete and Dominamini, when he gave Man power to possess the Earth, and subdue the Creature; And God hath made man so equal to himself, as not only to have a soul endless and immortal, as God himself, (though not endless and immortal as himself, yet endless and immortal as himself too, though not immortal the same way, (for Gods immortality is of himself) yet as certainly, and as infallibly Immortal as he) but God hath not only given man such an immortal soul, but a body that shall put on Incorruption and Immortality too, which he hath given to none of the Angels. In so much, that howsoever it be, whether an Angel may wish it self an Archangel, or an Archangel wish it self a Cherubin; yet man cannot deliberately wish himself an Angel, because he should lose by that wish, and lack that glory, which he shall have in his body. We shall be like the Angels, says Christ; In that wherein we can be like them, we shall be like them, in the exalting and refining of the faculties of our souls; But they shall never attain to be like us in our glorified bodies. Neither hath God only reserved this treasure and dignity of man to the next world, but even here he hath made him filium Dei, The Son of God, and Semen Dei, The seed of God, and Consortem divinae naturae, Partaker of the divine Nature, and Deos ipsos, Gods themselves, for Ille dixit Dii estis, he hath said we are Gods. So that, as though the glory of heaven were too much for God alone, God hath called up man thither, in the ascension of his Son, to partake thereof; and as though one God were not enough for the administration of this world, God hath multiplied gods here upon Earth, and imparted, communicated, not only his power to every Magistrate, but the Divine nature to every sanctified man. David asks that question with a holy wonder, Quid est homo? What is man that God is so mindful of him? But I may have his leave, and the holy Ghosts, to say, since God is so mindful of him, since God hath set his mind upon him, What is not man? Man is all.

Since we consider men in the place that they hold, and value them according to those places, and ask not how they got thither, when we see Man made The Love of the Father, The Price of the Son, The Temple of the Holy Ghost, The Signet upon Gods hand, The Apple of Gods eye, Absolutely, unconditionally we cannot annihilate man, not evacuate, not evaporate, not extenuate man to the levity, to the vanity, to the nullity of this Text (Surely men altogether, high and low, are lighter then vanity.) For, man is not only a contributary Creature, but a total Creature; He does not only make one, but he is all; He is not a piece of the world, but the world it self; and next to the glory of God, the reason why there is a world.

But we must not determine this consideration here, That man is something, a great thing, a noble Creature, if we refer him to his end, to his interest in God, to his reversion in heaven; But when we consider man in his way, man amongst men, man is not nothing, not unable to assist man, not unfit to be relied upon by man; for, even in that respect also, God hath made Hominem homini Deum, He hath made one man able to do the offices of God to another, in procuring his regeneration here, and advancing his salvation hereafter; As he says, Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion; which is the Church. Neither hath God determined that power of assisting others, in the Character of Priesthood only, (that the Priest should be a god, that is, do the offices and the work of God to the people, by delivering salvation unto them) but he hath also made the Prince, and the secular Magistrate, a god, that is able to do the offices, and the works of God, not only to the people, but to the Priest himself, to sustain him, yea, and to countenance, and favor, and protect him too, in the execution and exercise of his priestly office; As we see in the first plantation of those two great Cedars, The Secular, and the Ecclesiastical Power, (which, that they might always agree like brethren, God planted at first in those two brethren, Moses and Aaron) There, though Moses were the temporal, and Aaron the spiritual Magistrate, yet God says to Moses, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, (but not only to Pharaoh) but Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet; for, (as he had said before) Thou shalt be to him in stead of a God. So useful, so necessary is man to man, as that the Priest, who is of God, incorporated in God, subsists also by man; for, Principes hujus seculi rationem reddituri sunt, The Princes of this world must give God an account, Propter Ecclesiam, quam à Christo tuendam susceperunt, for that Church, which Christ hath committed to their protection. In spiritual difficulties, and for spiritual duties, God sends us to the Priest; but to such a Priest as is a man; and (as our comfort is expressed) A Priest which was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are: for the businesses of this world, Rights, and Titles, and Proprieties, and Possessions, God sends us still to the Judge; (Iudges and officers shalt thou make in all thy gates) Judges to try between man and man; And the sword in battle tryes between State and State, Prince and Prince; And therefore God commands and directs the levying of men to that purpose, in many places of the history of his people; particularly God appoints Gideon to take a certain proportion of the army, a certain number of Souldiers. And in another place, there goes out a press for Souldiers from Moses mouth; He presses them upon their holy allegiance to God, when he says, Who is on the Lords side, let him come unto me. So, in infirmities, in sicknesses of the body, we ask with the Prophet, Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there? God does not reprove Asa for seeking of help of the Physicians; but the increpation lyes only upon this, That he sought to the Physician, and not to the Lord. God sends man to the Priest, to the Prince, to the Judge, to the Physician, to the Souldier, and so, (in other places) to the Merchant, and to cunning Artificers, (as in the building of the Temple) that all that man needs might be communicated to man by man.

So that still, simply, absolutely, unconditionally, we cannot say, Surely men, men altogether, high or low, or mean, all are less then vanity. And surely they that pervert and detort such words as these, to such a use, and argue from thence, Man is nothing, no more then a worm or a fly, and therefore what needs this solemn consideration of mans actions, it is all one what he does, for all his actions, and himself too are nothing; They do this but to justify or excuse their own laziness in this world, in passing on their time, without taking any Calling, embracing any profession, contributing any thing to the spiritual edification, or temporal sustentation of other men. But take the words, as the Holy Ghost intends them, comparatively, what man compared with God, or what man considered without God, can do any thing for others, or for himself? When the Apostle says, That all the world is but dung, when the Prophet says, That all the Nations of the world are less then nothing, when the Apostle says even of himself, that he is nothing, all this is nothing in comparison of that expression in the same Apostle, That even the preaching of the Gospel is foolishness, That that which is the favor of life unto life, Gods own Ordinance, Preaching, is but foolishness; Let it be a Paul that plants, and an Apollo that waters, if God give not increase, all is but frivolousness, but foolishness; And therefore boldly, confidently, uncontroulably we may proceed to the propositions of our Text, which constitute our second part, Man, any man, every man, all men, collectively, distributively, considered so, (comparatiuely with God, or privatively without God) is but a lie, but vanity, less then vanity.

To make our best use of the words, (as our translation exhibits them) we make our entrance, with this word of confidence, and infallibility, which only becomes the holy Ghost, in his asseverations, and in which he establishes the propositions following; Surely, surely men of low degree, and as surely, men of high, and, surely still all men together, are lighter then vanity. Men deliver their assertions otherwise modified, and under other qualifications. They obtrude to us miraculous doctrines of Transubstantiation, and the like, upon a possibility only; It may be done, say they, It is possible, God can do it. But that is far from the assuredness of the Holy Ghost, Surely it is so; for Asylum hareticorum, est omnipotentia Dei, is excellently said, and by more then one of the Fathers, The omnipotence of God is the Sanctuary of Heretics, Thither they fly, to countenance any such error; This God can do, why should you not believe it? Men proceed in their asseverations farther then so, from this possibility to a probability; It will abide argument, it hath been disputed in the School, and therefore is probable; why should not you believe it? And so they offer us the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin without Original sin; But this probability reaches not to this assuredness of our text, surely. They will go farther then this probability, to a verisimilitude, it is more then merely possible, more then fairly probable, it is likely to be so; some of the ancient Fathers have thought so; and then, why should not you believe it? and so they offer us prayer for the dead. Farther then this verisimilitude they go too; They go to a Piè creditur, It may be piously believed, and it is fit to believe it, because it may assist and exalt devotion to think so; And then why should you not believe it? And so they offer us the worship of Images and Reliques. But still, all this comes short of our assuredness, Surely, undoubtedly, undisputably it is so.

And when the Roman Church would needs counterfeit the language of the Holy Ghost, and pronounce this sureness upon so many new Articles in the Council of Trent, it hath not prospered well with them; for we all know, they have repented that forwardness since, and wished they had not determined so many particulars to be matter of faith, because after such a determination by a Council, they have bound themselves not to recede from those doctrines, how unmaintenable soever they be in themselves, or how inconvenient soever they fall out to be to them. And therefore we see, that in all the solicitations that can be used, even by Princes, to whom they are most affected, they will not come now to pronounce so surely, to determine so positively upon divers points that rest yet in perplexity amongst them. Which hath raised so many commotions in the kingdom of Spain, and put more then one of their later Kings, to send divers Ambassages to Rome, to solicit a clear declaration in that point, but could never, nor can yet attain it, that is, The immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin without Original sin. So also, for the obligation that the laws of secular Magistrates lay upon the Conscience, so also for the Concurrence of Grace, and Free-will, and divers others; in which they will not be drawn to this, Surely, to determine and declare of either side; for, indeed that is the language of the Holy Ghost.

It hath been observed amongst Philosophers, that Plato speaks probably, and Aristotle positively; Platoes way is, It may be thus, and Aristotles, It must be thus. The like hath been noted amongst Divines, between Calvin, and Melanchton; Calvin will say, Videtur, It seems to be thus, Melanchton, It can be no otherwise but thus. But the best men are but Problematical, Only the Holy Ghost is Dogmatical; Only he subscribes this surely, and only he seals with Infallibility. Our dealings are appointed to be in yea, yea, and nay, nay, and no farther; But all the promises of God are yea, and Amen, that is, surely, verily; for that is his Name; These things saith The Amen, He that is Amen. And it is not (I hope) an impertinent note, That that Evangelist S. John, who considers the Divinity of Christ, more then the other Evangelists do, does evermore, constantly, without any change, double that which was Christs ordinary asseveration, Amen. As oft as the other Evangelists mention it in Christs mouth, still they express it with one Amen, verily I say; S. John always, Amen, Amen, verily, verily, it is thus and thus. The nearer we come to the consideration of God, the farther we are removed from all contingencies, and all inclination to Error, and the more is this Amen, verily, surely, multiplied and established unto us.

It is in doctrines and opinions, as it is in designs and purposes; Go to, (says the Prophet, by way of reprehension) Go to, you that say, we will go to such a City, and trade thus and thus there, &c. So, go to, you that pronounce upon every invention, and Tradition of your own, a Quicunque vult salvus esse, Whosoever will be saved, must believe this, and clog every problematical proposition with an Anathema, Cursed be he, Excommunicated he that thinks the contrary to this; Go to you, that make matters of faith of the passions of men. So also, go to you that proceed and continue in your sins, and say, Surely I shall have time enough to repent hereafter. Go to you that in a spiritual and irreligious melancholy and diffidence in Gods mercy, say, Surely the Lord hath locked up his mercy from me, surely I shall never see that Sun more, never receive, never feel beam of his mercy more, but pass through this darkness into a worse. This word, surely, in such cases, in such senses, is not your mothers tongue, not the language of the Christian Church. She teaches you, to condition all in Christ; In him you are enabled to do all things, and without him nothing. But absolutely, unconditionally, this surely is appropriated to the propositions, to the assertions of God himself; And some of those follow in this text.

Now that which the Holy Ghost presents here upon this assuredness, is, That men of low degree are vanity, and that men of high degree are a lie; These are both sure, and alike sure. It is true that it constitutes a Problem, that it admits a Discourse, it will abide a debatement, whether men of high degree, or of low degree be worst; whether riches or poverty, (both considered in a great measure, very rich, and very poor) Prosperity or Adversity occasion most sins. Though God call upon us in every leaf of the Scripture, to pity the poor, and relieve the poor, and ground his last Judgement upon our works of mercy, (Because you have fed and clothed the poor, inherit the kingdom) yet, as the rich and the poor stand before us now, (as it were in Judgement) as we inquire and hear evidence, which state, most obnoxious, and open to most sins, we embrace, and apply to our selves that law, Thou shalt not countenance a poor man in his cause; And (as it is repeated) Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor in Judgement.

There is then a poverty, which, without all question, is the direct way to heaven; but that is spiritual; Blessed are the poor in spirit. This poverty is humility, it is not beggary. A rich man may have it, and a beggar may be without it. The Wiseman found not this poverty, (not humility) in every poor man. He found three sorts of men, whom his soul hated; And one of the three, was a poor man that is proud. And when the Prophet said of Jerusalem in her afflictions, Paupercula es & ebria, Thou art poor, and miserable, and yet drunk, though (as he adds there) it were not with wine, (which is now, in our days an ordinary refuge of men of all sorts, in all sadnesses and crosses to relieve themselves upon wine and strong drink, which are indeed strong illusions) yet, though Jerusalems drunkenness were not with wine, it was worse; It was a staggering, a vertiginousness, an ignorance, a blindness, a not discerning the ways to God; which is the worst drunkenness, and falls often upon the poor and afflicted, That their poverty and affliction staggers them, and damps them in their recourse to God, so far, as that they know not, That they are miserable, and wretched, and poor, and blind, and raked. The Holy Ghost always makes the danger of the poor great, as well as of the rich. The rich mans wealth is his strong City. There is his fault, his confidence in that; But Pavor pauperum, The destruction of the poor is his poverty; There is his fault, Desperation under it. Solomon presents them, as equally dangerous, Give me neither poverty, nor riches. So does Boaz to Ruth, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, in as much as thou followedst not young men, whether poor, or rich. That which Boaz intended there, Incontinency, and all vices that arise immediately out of the corruption of nature, and are not induced by other circumstances, have as much inclination from poverty, as from riches. May we not say, more? I doubt we may. He must be a very sanctified man, whom extreme poverty, and other afflictions, do not decline towards a jealousy, and a suspicion, and a distrusting of God; And then, the sins that bend towards desperation, are so much more dangerous, then those that bend towards presumption, that he that presumes, hath still mercy in his contemplation, He does not think, that he needs no mercy, but that mercy is easily had; He believes there is mercy, he doubts not of that; But the despairing man imagines a cruelty, an unmercifulness in God, and destroys the very nature of God himself. Riches is the Metaphor, in which, the Holy Ghost hath delighted to express God and Heaven to us; Despise not the riches of his goodness, says the Apostle; And again, O the depth of the riches of his wisdom; And so, after, The unsearchable riches of Christ; And for the consummation of all, The riches of his Glory, Gods goodness towards us in general, our Religion in the way, his Grace here, his Glory hereafter, are all represented to us in Riches. With poverty God ordinarily accompanies his comminations; he threatens feebleness, and war, and captivity, and poverty every where, but he never threatens men with riches.

Ordinary poverty, (that is a difficulty, with all their labors, and industry to sustain their family, and the necessary duties of their place) is a shrewd, and a slippery temptation. But for that street-beggary, which is become a Calling, (for Parents bring up their children to it, nay they do almost take prentises to it, some expert beggars teach others what they shall say, how they shall look, how they shall lie, how they shall cry) for these, whom our laws call Incorrigible, I must say of them (in a just accommodation of our Saviours words, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs) It is not meet, that this vermin should devour any of that, which belongs to them who are truly poor. Neither is there any measure, any proportion of riches, that exposes man naturally to so much sin, as this kind of beggary doth. Rich men forget, or neglect the duties of their Baptism; but of these, how many are there, that were never baptized? Rich men sleep out Sermons, but these never come to Church: Rich men are negligent in the practise, but these are ignorant in all knowledge.

It would require a longer disquisition, then I can afford to it now, whether Riches, or Poverty (considered in lesser proportions, ordinary riches, ordinary poverty) open us to more, and worse sins; But consider them in the highest and in the lowest, abundant riches, beggarly poverty, and it will scarce admit doubt, but that the incorrigible vagabond is farther from all ways of goodness, then the corruptest rich man is. And therefore labor we all earnestly in the ways of some lawful calling, that we may have our portion of this world by good means. For first, the advantages of doing good to others in a real relief of their wants, is in the rich only, whereas the best way of a good poor man, to do good to others, is but an exemplary patience, to catechize others by his suffering; And then, all degrees of poverty are dangerous and slippery, even to a murmuring against God, or an invading of the possessions, and goods of other men, but especially the lowest, the desperate degree of beggary, and then especially, when we cannot say it is inflicted by the hand of God, but contracted by our own laziness, or our own wastefulness.

This is a problematical, a disputable case, Whether riches or poverty occasion most sins. And because on both sides there arise good doctrines of edification, I have thus far willingly stopped upon that disputable consideration. But now, that which we receive here, upon Davids, upon the Holy Ghosts security, Surely it is thus, It is surely so, is this, That we shall be deceived, if we put our trust in men; for, what sort of men would we trust? Surely men of low degree are vanity. And this, if it be taken of particular men, needs no proving, no illustrating, no remembering. Every man sees and acknowledges, that to rely upon a man of no power, of no place, no blood, no fortune, no friends, no favor, is a vanity, Surely men of low degree are vanity. The first younger brother that was born in the world, because he was less then another, is called by the very name of vanity; The eldest brother Cain signifies possession, but Abel is vanity.

But take it of a whole body of such men, Men of low degree, and it is so too; the Applause of the people is vanity, Popularity is vanity. At how dear a rate doth that man buy the peoples affections, that pays his own head for their hats? How cheaply doth he sell his Princes favor, that hath nothing for it, but the peoples breath? And what age doth not see some examples of so ill merchants of their own honours and lives too? How many men, upon confidence of that flattering gale of wind, the breath and applause of the people, have taken in their anchors, (that is, departed from their true, and safe hold, The right of the Law, and the favor of the Prince) and as soon as they hoysed their sails, (that is, entered into any by-action) have found the wind in their teeth, that is, Those people whom they trusted in, armed against them. And as it is in Civil, and Secular, so it is in Ecclesiastical, and Spiritual things too. How many men, by a popular hunting after the applause of the people, in their manner of preaching, and humouring them in their distempers, have made themselves incapable of preferment in the Church where they took their Orders, and preached themselves into a necessity of running away into foreign parts, that are receptacles of seditious and schismatical Separatists, and have been put there, to learn some trade, and become Artificers for their sustentation? The same people that welcomed Christ, from the Mount of Olives, into Jerusalem, upon Sunday, with their Hosannaes to the Son of David, upon Friday mocked him in Jerusalem, with their Hail King of the Jews, and blew him out of Jerusalem to Golgotha, with the pestilent breath, with the tempestuous whirlwind of their Crucifige's. And of them, who have called the Master Beelzebub, what shall any servant look for? Surely men of low degree are vanity.

And then, under the same oath, and asseveration, Surely, as surely as the other, men of high degree are a lie. Doth David mean these men, whom he calls a lie, to be any less then those whom he called vanity? Less then vanity, then emptiness, then nothing, nothing can be; And low, and high are to this purpose, and in this consideration, (compared with God, or considered without God) equally nothing. He that hath the largest patrimony, and space of earth, in the earth, must hear me say, That all that was nothing; And if he ask, But what was this whole Kingdom, what all Europe, what all the World? It was all, not so much as another nothing, but all one and the same nothing as thy dunghill was. But yet the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to vary the phrase here, and to call Men of high degree, not vanity, but a lie, because the poor, men of low degree, in their condition promise no assistance, feed not men with hopes, and therefore cannot be said to lie, but in the condition of men of high degree, who are of power, there is a tacit promise, a natural and inherent assurance of protection, and assistance, flowing from them. For, the Magistrate cannot say, That he never promised me Justice, never promised me Protection; for in his assuming that place, he made me that promise. I cannot say, that I never promised my Parish, my service; for in my Induction, I made them that promise, and if I perform it not, I am a lie; for so this word Chasab (which we translate a lie) is frequently used in the Scriptures, for that which is defective in the duty it should perform; Thou shalt be a spring of water, (says God in Isaiah) Cujus aquae non mentiuntur, whose waters never lie, that is, never dry, never fail.

So then, when men of high degree do not perform the duties of their places, then they are a lie of their own making; And when I over-magnify them in their place, flatter them, humor them, ascribe more to them, expect more from them, rely more upon them, then I should, then they are a lie of my making. But whether the lie be theirs, That they fear greater men then themselves, and so prevaricate in their duties; Or the lie be mine, that canonize them and make them my God, they, and I shall be disappointed; for, Surely men of high degree are a lie. But we are upon a Sermon, not upon a Satyr, therefore we pass from this.

And, for all this, there may seem to be room left for the Middle-state, for a mediocrity; when it is not so low as to be made the subject of oppression, nor so high as to be made the object of ambition, when it is neither exposed to scorn and contempt, nor to envy, and undermining, may we not then trust upon, not rest in such a condition? Indeed, this mediocrity seems (and justly) the safest condition; for this, and this only enjoys it self: The lazy man gets not up to it; The stirring man stays not at it, but is gone beyond it. From our first Themes at School, to our Texts in the Pulpit, we continue our praising and persuading of this mediocrity. A man may have too much of any thing; Anima saturata, A full soul will tread honey under his seete; He may take in knowledge till he be ignorant; Let the Prophet Jeremiah give the Rule, Stultus factus est omnis homo à scientia, Every man becomes a fool by knowledge, by over-weening, and over-valuing his knowledge; And let Adam be the example of this Rule, His eyes were opened by eating the fruit, and he knew so much, as he was ashamed of it; Let the Apostle be the Physician, the moderator, Sapere ad sobrietatem, not to dive into secrets, and unrevealed mysteries. There is enough of this doctrine involved in the fable, Acteon saw more then he should have seen, and perished. There is abundantly enough expressed in the Oracle of Truth, Vzza was over-zealous in an office that appertained not to him, in assisting the Ark, and suffered for that.

We may quickly exceed a mediocrity, even in the praise of Mediocrity. But all our diligence will scarce find it out. What is mediocrity? Or where is it? In the Hierarchy of the Roman Church they never thought of this mediocrity; They go very high, and very low, but there is no mean station; I mean no denomination of any Order from meanness, from mediocrity. In one degree you find embroidered shoos, for Kings to kiss, and in another degree bare feet; we find an Order of the Society of Jesus; and that is very high, for, Society implies community, partnership; And we find low descents, Minorits, men less then others, And Minims, least of all men; and lower then all them, Nullans, men that call themselves, Nothing; And truly, this Order, best of all others hath answered and justified the name, for, very soon, they came to nothing. We find all extremes amongst them, even in their names, but none denominated from this mediocrity.

But to pass from names to the thing; indeed what is Mediocrity? where is it? Is it the same thing as Competency? But what is competency? or where is that? Is it that which is sufficient for thy present degree? perchance thy present degree is not sufficient for thee; Thy charge perchance, perchance thy parts and abilities, or thy birth and education may require a better degree. God produced plants in Paradise therefore, that they might grow; God hath planted us in this world, that we might grow; and he that does not endeavor that by all lawful means, is inexcusable, as well as he that pursues unlawful. But, if I come to imagine such a mediocrity, such a competency, such a sufficiency in my self, as that I may rest in that, that I think I may ride out all storms, all dis-favours, that I have enough of mine own, wealth, health, or moral constancy, if any of these decay, this is a verier vanity, then trusting in men of low degree, and a verier lye, then men of high degree; for, this is to trust to our selves; this is a sacrificing to our own nets, our own industry, our own wisdom, our own fortune; And of all the Idolatries of the Heathen, who made Gods of every thing they saw or imagined, of every thing, in, and between Heaven and hell, we read of no man that sacrificed to himself. Indeed no man flatters me so dangerously, as I flatter my self, no man wounds me so desperately, as I wound my self; And therefore, since this which we call Mediocrity, and Competency is conditioned so, that it is enough to subsist alone, without relation to others, dependency upon others, fear from others, induces a confidence, a relying upon my self; As, that which we imagine to be the middle region of the air, is the coldest of all, So this imagined mediocrity, that induces a confidence in our selves, is the weakest rest, the coldest comfort of all, and makes me a lye to my self. Therefore may the Prophet well spread, and safely extend his asseveration, his Surely, upon all, high, and low, and mean; Surely to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter then vanity.

Here then, upon a full enumeration of all parts, the Prophet concludes upon all. If therefore thou have the favor of great ones, the applause of the people, confidence in thy self, in an instant, the power of those great ones may be overthrown, or their favor to thee withdrawn from thee, (and so, that bladder is pricked, upon which thou swommest) The applause of the people may be hushed and silenced, (either they would not, or they dare not magnify thee) And, thine own constancy may be turned into a dejection of spirit, and consternation of all thy faculties. Put all together, (which falls out seldom, that any man can do so) but if he can do that, (which is the best state of man, that can be imagined in this world, that he hath all these together, the favor of High and low, and of himself, that is, his own testimony in his conscience, (though perchance an erring, a mistaking conscience) yet, the Prophet had delivered the same assurance before (even of that state of man, which is rather imagined, then ever possest) Surely every man, at his best state, is altogether vanity; And here, he adds, lighter then vanity. Vanity is nothing, but there is a condition worse then nothing. Confidence in the things, or persons of this world, but most of all, a confidence in our selves, will bring us at last to that state, wherein we would fain be nothing, and cannot. But yet, we have a balance in our text; And all these are but put together in one balance. In the other scale there is something put to, in comparison whereof all this world is so light. God does not leave our great and noble faculty, and affection of hope, and trust, and confidence, without something to direct it self upon, and rectify it self in. He does not; for, for that he proposes himself; The words immediately before the text, are, God is a refuge; and in comparison of him, To be laid in the balance, Surely they are altogether lighter then vanity.

So then, it is not enough not to trust in the flesh (for, for that, Cursed be man, that trusted in man, or maketh flesh his arm; Their flesh cannot secure thee, neither is thine own flesh brass, that thou canst endure the vexations of this world, neither can flesh and blood reveal unto thee the things of the next world) It is not enough not to trust in flesh, but thou must trust in that that is Spirit. And when thou art to direct thy trust upon him, who is spirit, the spirit of power, and of consolation, stop not, stray not, divert not upon evil spirits, to seek advancement, or to seek knowledge from them, nor upon good spirits, the glorious Saints of GOD in Heaven, to seek salvation from them, nor upon thine own spirit, in an over-valuation of thy purity, or thy merits. For, there is a pestilent pride in an imaginary humility, and an infectious foulness in an imaginary purity; but turn only to the only invisible and immortal God, who turns to thee, in so many names and notions of power, and consolation, in this one Psalm. In the last verse but one of this Psalm, David says, God bath spoken once, and twice have I heard him. God hath said enough at once; but twice, in this Psalm, hath he repeated this, in the second, and in the sixth verse, He only is my Rock, and my Salvation, and my Defence, And, (as it is enlarged in the seventh verse) my Refuge, and my Glory. If my Refuge, what enemy can pursue me? If my Defence, what temptation shall wound me? If my Rock, what storm shall shake me? If my Salvation, what melancholy shall deject me? If my Glory, what calumny shall defame me?

I must not stay you now, to infuse into you, the several consolations of these several names, and notions of God towards you. But, go your several ways home, and every soul take with him that name, which may minister most comfort unto him. Let him that is pursued with any particular temptation, invest God, as God is a Refuge, a Sanctuary. Let him that is buffeted with the messenger of Satan, battered with his own concupiscence, receive God, as God is his Defenoe and target. Let him that is shook with perplexities in his understanding, or scruples in his conscience, lay hold upon God, as God is his Rock, and his anchor. Let him that hath any diffident jealousy or suspicion of the free and full mercy of God, apprehend God, as God is his Salvation; And him that walks in the ingloriousness and contempt of this world, contemplate God, as God is his Glory. Any of these notions is enough to any man, but God is all these, and all else, that all souls can think, to every man. We shut up both these Considerations, (man should not, (that is not all) God should be relied upon) with that of the Prophet, Trust ye not in a friend, put not your confidence in a guide, keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lies in thy bosom; (there is the exclusion of trust in man) and then he adds in the seventh verse, because it stands thus between man and man, I will look unto the Lord, I will look to the God of my Salvation, my God will hear me.

Serm. LXVI. The second of my Prebend Sermons upon my five Psalms. Preached at S. Pauls, Ianuary 29. 1625.

PSAL. 63.7.

Because thou hast been my help, Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

THe Psalms are the Manna of the Church. As Manna tasted to every man like that that he liked best, so do the Psalms minister Instruction, and satisfaction, to every man, in every emergency and occasion. David was not only a clear Prophet of Christ himself, but a Prophet of every particular Christian; He foretels what I, what any shall do, and suffer, and say. And as the whole book of Psalms is Oleum effusum, (as the Spouse speaks of the name of Christ) an Ointment poured out upon all sorts of sores, A Searcloth that souples all bruises, A Balm that searches all wounds; so are there some certain Psalms, that are Imperial Psalms, that command over all affections, and spread themselves over all occasions, Catholic, universal Psalms, that apply themselves to all necessities. This is one of those; for, of those Constitutions which are called Apostolical, one is, That the Church should meet every day, to sing this Psalm. And accordingly, S. Chrysostom testifies, That it was decreed, and ordained by the Primitive Fathers, that no day should pass without the public singing of this Psalm. Under both these obligations, (those ancient Constitutions, called the Apostles, and those ancient Decrees made by the primitive Fathers) belongs to me, who have my part in the service of Gods Church, the especial meditation, and recommendation of this Psalm. And under a third obligation too, That it is one of those five psalms, the daily rehearsing whereof, is injoyned to me, by the Constitutions of this Church, as five other are to every other person of our body. As the whole book is Manna, so these five Psalms are my Gomer, which I am to fill and empty every day of this Manna.

Now as the spirit and soul of the whole book of Psalms is contracted into this psalm, so is the spirit and soul of this whole psalm contracted into this verse. The key of the psalm, (as S. Jerome calls the Titles of the psalms) tells us, that David uttered this psalm, when he was in the wilderness of Iudab; There we see the present occasion that moved him; And we see what was passed between God and him before, in the first clause of our Text; (Because thou hast been my help) And then we see what was to come, by the rest, (Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.) So that we have here the whole compass of Time, Past, Present, and Future; and these three parts of Time, shall be at this time, the three parts of this Exercise; first, what Davids distress put him upon for the present; and that lyes in the Context; secondly, how David built his assurance upon that which was past; (Because thou hast been my help) And thirdly, what he established to himself for the future, (Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.) First, His distress in the Wilderness, his present estate carried him upon the memory of that which God had done for him before. And the Remembrance of that carried him upon that, of which he assured himself after. Fixe upon God any where, and you shall find him a Circle; He is with you now, when you fix upon him; He was with you before, for he brought you to this fixation; and he will be with you hereafter, for He is yesterday, and to day; and the same for ever.

For Davids present condition, who was now in a banishment, in a persecution in the Wilderness of Judah, (which is our first part) we shall only insist upon that, (which is indeed spread over all the psalm to the Text, and ratified in the Text) That in all those temporal calamities David was only sensible of his spiritual loss; It grieved him not that he was kept from Sauls Court, but that he was kept from Gods Church. For when he says, by way of lamentation, That he was in a dry and thirsty land, where no water was, he expresses what penury, what barrenness, what drought and what thirst he meant; To see thy power, and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary. For there, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow, and with satness, and there, my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. And in some few considerations conducing to this, That spiritual losses are incomparably heavier then temporal, and that therefore, The Restitution to our spiritual happiness, or the continuation of it, is rather to be made the subject of our prayers to God, in all pressures and distresses, then of temporal, we shall determine that first part. And for the particular branches of both the other parts, (The Remembering of Gods benefits past, And the building of an assurance for the future, upon that Remembrance) it may be fitter to open them to you, anon when we come to handle them, then now. Proceed we now to our first part, The comparing of temporal and spiritual afflictions.

In the way of this Comparison, falls first the Consideration of the universality of afflictions in general, and the inevitableness thereof. It is a blessed Meraphore, that the Holy Ghost hath put into the mouth of the Apostle, Pondus Gloriae, That our afflictions are but light, because there is an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory attending them. If it were not for that exceeding weight of glory, no other weight in this world could turn the scale, or weigh down those infinite weights of afflictions that oppress us here. There is not only Pestis valde gravis, (the pestilence grows heavy upon the Land) but there is Musca valde gravis, God calls in but the fly, to vexe Egypt, and even the fly is a heavy burden unto them. It is not only Job that complains, That he was a burden to himself, but even Absaloms hair was a burden to him, till it was polled. It is not only Jeremiah that complains, Aggravavit compedes, That God had made their fetters and their chains heavy to them, but the workmen in harvest complain, That God had made a faire day heavy unto them, (We have born the heat, and the burden of the day.) Sand is heavy, says Solomon; And how many suffer so? under a sand-hill of crosses, daily, hourly afflictions, that are heavy by their number, if not by their single weight? And a stone is heavy; (says he in the same place) And how many suffer so? How many, without any former preparatory cross, or comminatory, or commonitory cross, even in the midst of prosperity, and security, fall under some one stone, some grind-stone, some mil-stone, some one insupportable cross that ruins them? But then, (says Solomon there) A fools anger is heavier then both; And how many children, and servants, and wives suffer under the anger, and morosity, and peevishness, and jealousy of foolish Masters, and Parents, and Husbands, though they must not say so? David and Solomon have cried out, That all this world is vanity, and levity; And (God knows) all is weight, and burden, and heaviness, and oppression; And if there were not a weight of future glory to counterpoyse it, we should all sink into nothing.

I ask not Mary Magdalen, whether lightness were not a burden; (for sin is certainly, sensibly a burden) But I ask Susanna whether even chaste beauty were not a burden to her; And I ask Joseph whether personal comeliness were not a burden to him. I ask not Dives, who perished in the next world, the question; but I ask them who are made examples of Solomons Rule, of that sore evil, (as he calls it) Riches kept to the owners thereof for their hurt, whether Riches be not a burden.

All our life is a continual burden, yet we must not groan; A continual squeasing, yet we must not pant; And as in the tenderness of our childhood, we suffer, and yet are whipt if we cry, so we are complained of, if we complain, and made delinquents if we call the times ill. And that which adds weight to weight, and multiplies the sadness of this consideration, is this, That still the best men have had most laid upon them. As soon as I hear God say, that he hath found an upright man, that fears God, and eschews evil, in the next lines I find a Commission to Satan, to bring in Sabeans and Chaldeans upon his cattle, and servants, and fire and tempest upon his children, and loathsome diseases upon himself. As soon as I hear God say, That he hath found a man according to his own heart, I see his sons ravish his daughters, and then murder one another, and then rebell against the Father, and put him into straits for his life. As soon as I hear God testify of Christ at his Baptism, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, I find that Son of his led up by the Spirit, to be tempted of the Devil. And after I hear God ratify the same testimony again, at his Transfiguration, (This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased) I find that beloved Son of his, deserted, abandoned, and given over to Scribes, and Pharisees, and Publicans, and Herodians, and Priests, and Souldiers, and people, and Judges, and witnesses, and executioners, and he that was called the beloved Son of God, and made partaker of the glory of heaven, in this world, in his Transfiguration, is made now the Sewer of all the corruption, of all the sins of this world, as no Son of God, but a mere man, as no man, but a contemptible worm. As though the greatest weakness in this world, were man, and the greatest fault in man were to be good, man is more miserable then other creatures, and good men more miserable then any other men.

But then there is Pondus Gloriae, An exceeding weight of eternal glory, and that turns the scale; for as it makes all worldly prosperity as dung, so it makes all worldly adversity as feathers. And so it had need; for in the scale against it, there are not only put temporal afflictions, but spiritual too; And to these two kinds, we may accommodate those words, He that falls upon this stone, (upon temporal afflictions) may be bruised, broken, But he upon whom that stone falls, (spiritual afflictions) is in danger to be ground to powder. And then, the great, and yet ordinary danger is, That these spiritual afflictions grow out of temporal; Murmuring, and diffidence in God, and obduration, out of worldly calamities; And so against nature, the fruit is greater and heavier then the Tree, spiritual heavier then temporal afflictions.

They who write of Natural story, propose that Plant for the greatest wonder in nature, which being no firmer then a bull-rush, or a reed, produces and bears for the fruit thereof no other but an entire, and very hard stone. That temporal affliction should produce spiritual stoniness, and obduration, is unnatural, yet ordinary. Therefore doth God propose it, as one of those greatest blessings, which he multiplies upon his people, I will take away your stony hearts, and give you hearts of flesh; And, Lord let me have a fleshly heart in any sense, rather then a stony heart. We find mention amongst the observers of rarities in Nature, of hairy hearts, hearts of men, that have been overgrown with hair; but of petrified hearts, hearts of men grown into stone, we read not; for this petrefaction of the heart, this stupefaction of a man, is the last blow of Gods hand upon the heart of man in this world. Those great afflictions which are poured out of the Vials of the seven Angels upon the world, are still accompanied with that heavy effect, that that affliction hardened them. They were scorched with heats and plagues, by the fourth Angel, and it follows, They blasphemed the name of God, and repented not, to give him glory. Darkness was induced upon them by the fifth Angel, and it follows, They blasphemed the God of heaven, and repented not of their deeds. And from the seventh Angel there fell hailestones of the weight of talents, (perchance four pound weight) upon men; And yet these men had so much life left, as to blaspheme God, out of that respect, which alone should have brought them to glorify God, Because the plague thereof was exceeding great. And when a great plague brings them to blaspheme, how great shall that second plague be, that comes upon them for blaspheming?

Let me wither and wear out mine age in a discomfortable, in an unwholesome, in a penurious prison, and so pay my debts with my bones, and recompense the wastefulness of my youth, with the beggary of mine age; Let me wither in a spittle under sharp, and foul, and in famous diseases, and so recompense the wantonness of my youth, with that loath somness in mine age; yet, if God with draw not his spiritual blessings, his Grace, his Patience, If I can call my suffering his Doing, my passion his Action, All this that is temporal, is but a caterpiller got into one corner of my garden, but a mill-dew fallen upon one acre of my Corn; The body of all, the substance of all is safe, as long as the soul is safe. But when I shall trust to that, which we call a good spirit, and God shall deject, and empoverish, and evacuate that spirit, when I shall rely upon a moral constancy, and God shall shake, and enfeeble, and enervate, destroy and demolish that constancy; when I shall think to refresh my self in the serenity and sweet air of a good conscience, and God shall call up the damps and vapours of hell it self, and spread a cloud of diffidence, and an impenetrable crust of desperation upon my conscience; when health shall fly from me, and I shall lay hold upon riches to succor me, and comfort me in my sickness, and riches shall fly from me, and I shall snatch after favor, and good opinion, to comfort me in my poverty; when even this good opinion-shall leave me, and calumnies and misinformations shall prevail against me; when I shall need peace, because there is none but thou, O Lord, that should stand for me, and then shall find, that all the wounds that I have, come from thy hand, all the arrows that stick in me, from thy quiver; when I shall see, that because I have given my self to my corrupt nature, thou hast changed thine; and because I am all evil towards thee, therefore thou hast given over being good towards me; When it comes to this height, that the fever is not in the humors, but in the spirits, that mine enemy is not an imaginary enemy, fortune, nor a transitory enemy, malice in great persons, but a real, and an irresistible, and an inexorable, and an everlasting enemy, The Lord of Hosts himself, The Almighty God himself, the Almighty God himself only knows the weight of this affliction, and except he put in that pondus gloriae, that exceeding weight of an eternal glory, with his own hand, into the other scale, we are weighed down, we are swallowed up, irreparably, irrevocably, irrecoverably, irremediably.

This is the fearful depth, this is spiritual misery, to be thus fallen from God. But was this Davids case? was he fallen thus far, into a diffidence in God? No. But the danger, the precipice, the slippery sliding into that bottomless depth, is, to be excluded from the means of comming to God, or staying with God; And this is that that David laments here, That by being banished, and driven into the wilderness of Judah, he had not access to the Sanctuary of the Lord, to sacrifice his part in the praise, and to receive his part in the prayers of the Congregation; for Angels pass not to ends, but by ways and means, nor men to the glory of the triumphant Church, but by participation of the Communion of the Militant. To this note David sets his Harpe, in many, many Psalms: Sometimes, that God had suffered his enemies to possess his Tabernacle, (He for sooke the Tabernacle of Shiloh, He delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemies hands) But most commonly he complains, that God disabled him from comming to the Sanctuary. In which one thing he had summed up all his desires, all his prayers, (One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I look after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his Temple) His vehement desire of this, he expresses again, (My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?) He expresses a holy jealousy, a religious envy, even to the sparrows and swallows, (yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for her self, and where she may lay her young, Even thine Altars, O Lord of Host, my King and my God.) Thou art my King, and my God, and yet excludest me from that, which thou affordest to sparrows, And are not we of more value then many sparrows?

And as though David felt some false ease, some half-temptation, some whispering that way, That God is in the wilderness of Judah, in every place, as well as in his Sanctuary, there is in the Original in that place, a pathetical, a vehement, a broken expressing expressed, O thine Altars; It is true, (says David) thou art here in the wilderness, and I may see thee here, and serve thee here, but, O thine Altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. When David could not come in person to that place, yet he bent towards the Temple, (In thy fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple.) Which was also Daniels devotion; when he prayed, his Chamber windows were open towards Jerusalem; And so is Hezekias turning to the wall to weep, and to pray in his sick bed, understood to be to that purpose, to conform, and compose himself towards the Temple. In the place consecrated for that use, God by Moses fixes the service, and fixes the Reward; And towards that place, (when they could not come to it) doth Solomon direct their devotion in the Consecration of the Temple, (when they are in the wars, when they are in Captivity, and pray towards this house, do thou hear them.) For, as in private prayer, when (according to Christs command) we are shut in our chamber, there is exercised Modestia fidei, The modesty and bashfulness of our faith, not pressing upon God in his house: so in the public prayers of the Congregation, there is exercised the fervor, and holy courage of our faith, for Agmine facto obsidemus Deum, It is a Mustering of our forces, and a besieging of God. Therefore does David so much magnify their blessedness, that are in this house of God; (Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, for they will be still praising thee) Those that look towards it, may praise thee sometimes, but those men who dwell in the Church, and whose whole service lyes in the Church, have certainly an advantage of all other men (who are necessarily withdrawn by worldly businesses) in making themselves acceptable to almighty God, if they do their duties, and observe their Church-services aright.

Man being therefore thus subject naturally to manifold calamities, and spiritual calamities being incomparably heavier then temporal, and the greatest danger of falling into such spiritual calamities being in our absence from Gods Church, where only the outward means of happiness are ministered unto us, certainly there is much tenderness and deliberation to be used, before the Church doors be shut against any man. If I would not direct a prayer to God, to excommunicate any man from the Triumphant Church, (which were to damn him) I would not oil the key, I would not make the way too slippery for excommunications in the Militant Church; For, that is to endanger him. I know how distasteful a sin to God, contumacy, and contempt, and disobedience to Order and Authority is; And I know, (and all men, that choose not ignorance, may know) that our Excommunications (though calumniators impute them to small things, because, many times, the first complaint is of some small matter) never issue but upon contumacies, contempts, disobediences to the Church. But they are real contumacies, not interpretative, apparent contumacies, not presumptive, that excommunicate a man in Heaven; And much circumspection is required, and (I am far from doubting it) exercised in those cases upon earth; for, though every Excommunication upon earth be not sealed in Heaven, though it damn not the man, yet it dammes up that mans way, by shutting him out of that Church, through which he must go to the other; which being so great a danger, let every man take heed of Excommunicating himself. The imperswasible Recusant does so; The negligent Libertin does so; The fantastique Separatist does so; The half-present man, he, whose body is here, and mind away, does so; And he, whose body is but half here, his limbs are here upon a cushion, but his eyes, his ears are not here, does so: All these are are self-Excommunicators, and keep themselves from hence. Only he enjoys that blessing, the want whereof David deplores, that is here entirely, and is glad he is here, and glad to find this kind of service here, that he does, and wishes no other.

And so we have done with our first Part, Davids aspect, his present condition, and his danger of falling into spiritual miseries, because his persecution, and banishment amounted to an Excommunication, to an excluding of him from the service of God, in the Church. And we pass, in our Order proposed at first, to the second, his retrospect, the Consideration, what God had done for him before, Because thou hast been my help.

Through this second part, we shall pass by these three steps. First, That it behoves us, in all our purposes, and actions, to propose to our selves a copy to write by, a pattern to work by, a rule, or an example to proceed by, Because it hath been thus heretofore, says David, I will resolve upon this course for the future. And secondly, That the copy, the pattern, the precedent which we are to propose to our selves, is, The observation of Gods former ways and proceedings upon us, Because God hath already gone this way, this way I will await his going still. And then, thirdly and lastly, in this second part, The way that God had formerly gone with David, which was, That he had been his help, (Because thou hast been my help.)

First then, from the meanest artificer, through the wisest Philosopher, to God himself, all that is well done, or wisely undertaken, is undertaken and done according to pre-conceptions, fore-imaginations, designs, and patterns proposed to our selves beforehand. A Carpenter builds not a house, but that he first sets up a frame in his own mind, what kind of house he will build. The little great Philosopher Epictetus, would undertake no action, but he would first propose to himself, what Socrates, or Plato, what a wise man would do in that case, and according to that, he would proceed. Of God himself, it is safely resolved in the School, that he never did any thing in any part of time, of which he had not an eternal pre-conception, an eternal Idea, in himself before. Of which Ideas, that is, pre-conceptions, pre-determinations in God, S. Augustine pronounces, Tanta vis in Ideis constituitur, There is so much truth, and so much power in these Ideas, as that without acknowledging them, no man can acknowledge God, for he does not allow God Counsel, and Wisdom, and deliberation in his Actions, but sets God on work, before he have thought what he will do. And therefore he, and others of the Fathers read that place, (which we read otherwise) Quod factum est, in ipso vita erat; that is, in all their Expositions, whatsoever is made, in time, was alive in God, before it was made, that is, in that eternal Idea, and pattern which was in him. So also do divers of those Fathers read those words to the Hebrews, (which we read, The things that are seen, are not made of things that do appear) Ex invisibilibus visibilia facta sunt, Things formerly invisible, were made visible; that is, we see them not till now, till they are made, but they had an invisible being, in that Idea, in that pre-notion, in that purpose of God before, for ever before. Of all things in Heaven, and earth, but of himself, God had an Idea, a pattern in himself, before he made it.

And therefore let him be our pattern for that, to work after patterns; To propose to our selves Rules and Examples for all our actions; and the more, the more immediately, the more directly our actions concern the service of God. If I ask God, by what Idea he made me, God produces his Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem nostram, That there was a concurrence of the whole Trinity, to make me in Adam, according to that Image which they were, and according to that Idea, which they had pre-determined. If I pretend to serve God, and he ask me for my Idea, How I mean to serve him, shall I be able to produce none? If he ask me an Idea of my Religion, and my opinions, shall I not be able to say, It is that which thy word, and thy Catholic Church hath imprinted in me? If he ask me an Idea of my prayers, shall I not be able to say, It is that which my particular necessities, that which the forme prescribed by thy Son, that which the care, and piety of the Church, in conceiving fit prayers, hath imprinted in me? If he ask me an Idea of my Sermons, shall I not be able to say, It is that which the Analogy of Faith, the edification of the Congregation, the zeal of thy work, the meditations of my heart have imprinted in me? But if I come to pray or to preach without this kind of Idea, if I come to extemporal prayer, and extemporal preaching, I shall come to an extemporal faith, and extemporal religion; and then I must look for an extemporal Heaven, a Heaven to be made for me; for to that Heaven which belongs to the Catholic Church, I shall never come, except I go by the way of the Catholic Church, by former Idea's, former examples, former patterns, To believe according to ancient beliefs, to pray according to ancient forms, to preach according to former meditations. God does nothing, man does nothing well, without these Idea's, these retrospects, this recourse to pre-conceptions, pre-deliberations.

Something then I must propose to my self, to be the rule, and the reason of my present and future actions; which was our first branch in this second Part; And then the second is, That I can propose nothing more availably, then the contemplation of the history of Gods former proceeding with me; which is Davids way here, Because this was Gods way before, I will look for God in this way still. That language in which God spake to man, the Hebrew, hath no present tense; They forme not their verbs as our Western Languages do, in the present, I hear, or I see, or I read, But they begin at that which is past, I have seen and heard, and read. God carries us in his Language, in his speaking, upon that which is past, upon that which he hath done already; I cannot have better security for present, nor future, then Gods former mercies exhibited to me. Quis non gaudeat, says S. Augustine, Who does not triumph with joy, when he considers what God hath done? Quis non & ea, quae nondum venerunt, ventura sperat, propter illa, quae jam tanta impleta sunt? Who can doubt of the performance of all, that sees the greatest part of a Prophesy performed? If I have found that true that God hath said, of the person of Antichrist, why should I doubt of that which he says of the ruin of Antichrist? Credamus modicum quod restat, says the same Father, It is much that we have seen done, and it is but little that God hath reserved to our faith, to believe that it shall be done.

There is no State, no Church, no Man, that hath not this tie upon God, that hath not God in these bands, That God by having done much for them already, hath bound himself to do more. Men proceed in their former ways, sometimes, lest they should confess an error, and acknowledge that they had been in a wrong way. God is obnoxious to no error, and therefore he does still, as he did before. Every one of you can say now to God, Lord, Thou broughtest me hither, therefore enable me to hear; Lord, Thou doest that, therefore make me understand; And that, therefore let me believe; And that too, therefore strengthen me to the practise; And all that, therefore continue me to a perseverance. Carry it up to the first sense and apprehension that ever thou hadst of Gods working upon thee, either in thy self, when thou camest first to the use of reason, or in others in thy behalf, in thy baptism, yet when thou thinkest thou art at the first, God had done something for thee before all that; before that, he had elected thee, in that election which S. Augustine speaks of, Habet electos, quos creaturus est eligendos, God hath elected certain men, whom he intends to create, that he may elect them; that is, that he may declare his Election upon them. God had thee, before he made thee; He loved thee first, and then created thee, that thou loving him, he might continue his love to thee. The surest way, and the nearest way to lay hold upon God, is the consideration of that which he had done already. So David does; And that which he takes knowledge of, in particular, in Gods former proceedings towards him, is, Because God had been his help, which is our last branch in this part, Because thou hast been my help.

From this one word, That God hath been my Help I make account that we have both these notions; first, That God hath not left me to my self, He hath come to my succor, He hath helped me; And then, That God hath not left out my self; He hath been my Help, but he hath left some thing for me to do with him, and by his help. My security for the future, in this consideration of that which is past, lyes not only in this, That God hath delivered me, but in this also, that he hath delivered me by way of a Help, and Help always presumes an endeavor and co-operation in him that is helped. God did not elect me as a helper, nor create me, nor redeem me nor convert me, by way of helping me; for he alone did all, and he had no use at all of me. God infuses his first grate, the first way, merely as a Giver; entirely, all himself; but his subsequent graces, as a helper; therefore we call them Auxiliant graces, Helping graces; and we always receive them, when we endeavor to make use of his former grace. Lord, I believe, (says the Man in the Gospel to Christ) Help mine unbelief. If there had not been unbelief, weakness, unperfectness in that faith, there had needed no help; but if there had not been a Belief, a faith, it had not been capable of help and assistance, but it must have been an entire act, without any concurrence on the mans part.

So that if I have truly the testimony of a rectified Conscience, That God hath helped me, it is in both respects; first, That he hath never forsaken me, and then, That he hath never suffered me to forsake my self; He hath blessed me with that grace, that I trust in no help but his, and with this grace too, That I cannot look for his help, except I help my self also. God did not help heaven and earth to proceed out of nothing in the Creation, for they had no possibility of any disposition towards it; for they had no being: But God did help the earth to produce grass, and herbs; for, for that, God had infused a seminal disposition into the earth, which, for all that, it could not have perfected without his farther help. As in the making of Woman, there is the very word of our Text, Gnazar, God made him a Helper, one that was to do much for him, but not without him. So that then, if I will make Gods former working upon me, an argument of his future gracious purposes, as I must acknowledge that God hath done much for me, so I must find, that I have done what I could, by the benefit of that grace with him; for God promises to be but a helper. Lord open thou my lips, says David; that is Gods work entirely; And then, My mouth, My mouth shall show forth thy praise; there enters David into the work with God. And then, says God to him, Dilata os tuum, Open thy mouth, (It is now made Thy mouth, and therefore do thou open it) and I will fill it; All inchoations and consummations, beginnings and perfectings are of God, of God alone; but in the way there is a concurrence on our part, (by a successive continuation of Gods grace) in which God proceeds as a Helper; and I put him to more then that, if I do nothing. But if I pray for his help, and apprehend and husband his graces well, when they come, then he is truly, properly my helper; and upon that security, that testimony of a rectified Conscience, I can proceed to Davids confidence for the future, Because thou hast been my Help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice; which is our third, and last general part.

In this last part, which is, (after Davids aspect, and consideration of his present condition, which was, in the effect, an Exclusion from Gods Temple, And his retrospect, his consideration of Gods former mercies to him, That he had been his Help) his prospect, his confidence for the future, we shall stay a little upon these two steps; first, That that which he promises himself, is not an immunity from all powerful enemies, nor a sword of revenge upon those enemies; It is not that he shall have no adversary, nor that that adversary shall be able to do him no harm, but that he should have a refreshing, a respiration, In velamento alarum, under the shadow of Gods wings. And then, (in the second place) That this way which God shall be pleased to take, this manner, this measure of refreshing, which God shall vouchsafe to afford, (though it amount not to a full deliverance) must produce a joy, a rejoicing in us; we must not only not decline to a murmuring, that we have no more, no nor rest upon a patience for that which remains, but we must ascend to a holy joy, as if all were done and accomplished, In the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

First then, lest any man in his dejection of spirit, or of fortune, should stray into a jealousy or suspicion of Gods power to deliver him, As God hath spangled the firmament with stars, so hath he his Scriptures with names, and Metaphors, and denotations of power. Sometimes he sets out in the name of a Sword, and of a Target, and of a Wall, and of a Tower, and of a Rock, and of a Hill; And sometimes in that glorious and manifold constellation of all together, Dominus exercituum, The Lord of Hosts. God, as God, is never represented to us, with Defensive Armes; He needs them not. When the Poets present their great Heroes, and their Worthies, they always insist upon their Armes, they spend much of their invention upon the description of their Armes; both because the greatest valor and strength needs Armes, (Goliah himself was armed) and because to expose ones self to danger unarmed, is not valor, but rashness. But God is invulnerable in himself, and is never represented armed; you find no shirts of mayle, no Helmets, no Cuirasses in Gods Armory. In that one place of Isaiah, where it may seem to be otherwise, where God is said to have put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a Helmet of salvation upon his head; in that prophecy God is Christ, and is therefore in that place, called the Redeemer. Christ needed defensive armes, God does not. Gods word does; His Scriptures do; And therefore S. Jerome hath armed them, and set before every book his Prologum galeatum, that prologue that armes and defends every book from calumny. But though God need not, nor receive not defensive armes for himself, yet God is to us a Helmet, a Breastplate, a strong tower, a rock, every thing that may give us assurance and defence; and as often as he will, he can refresh that Proclamation, Nolite tangere Christos meos, Our enemies shall not so much as touch us.

But here, by occasion of his Metaphor in this Text, (Sub umbra alarum, In the shadow of thy wings) we do not so much consider an absolute immunity, That we shall not be touched, as a refreshing and consolation, when we are touched, though we be pinched and wounded. The Names of God, which are most frequent in the Scriptures, are these three, Elohim, and Adonai, and Jehovah; and to assure us of his Power to deliver us, two of these three are Names of Power. Elohim is Deus fortis, The mighty, The powerful God: And (which deserves a particular consideration) Elohim is a plural Name; It is not Deus fortis, but Dii fortes, powerful Gods. God is all kind of Gods; All kinds, which either Idolaters and Gentiles can imagine, (as Riches, or Justice, or Wisdom, or Valor, or such) and all kinds which God himself hath called gods, (as Princes, and Magistrates, and Prelates, and all that assist and help one another) God is Elohim, All these Gods, and all these in their height and best of their power; for Elohim, is Dii fortes, Gods in the plural, and those plural gods in their exaltation.

The second Name of God, is a Name of power too, Adonai. For, Adonai is Dominus, The Lord, such a Lord, as is Lord and Proprietary of all his creatures, and all creatures are his creatures; And then, Dominium est potestas tum utendi, tum abutendi, says the law; To be absolute Lord of any thing, gives that Lord a power to do what he will with that thing. God, as he is Adonai, The Lord, may give and take, quicken and kill, build and throw down, where and whom he will. So then two of Gods three Names are Names of absolute power, to imprint, and re-imprint an assurance in us, that he can absolutely deliver us, and fully revenge us, if he will. But then, his third Name, and that Name which he chooses to himself, and in the signification of which Name, he employs Moses, for the relief of his people under Pharaoh, that Name Jehovah, is not a Name of Power, but only of Essence, of Being, of Subsistence, and yet in the virtue of that Name, God relieved his people. And if, in my afflictions, God vouchsafe to visit me in that Name, to preserve me in my being, in my subsistence in him, that I be not shook out of him, disinherited in him, excommunicate from him, divested of him, annihilated towards him, let him, at his good pleasure, reserve his Elohim, and his Adonai, the exercises and declarations of his mighty Power, to those great puklike causes, that more concern his Glory, then any thing that can befall me; But if he impart his Jehovah, enlarge himself so far towards me, as that I may live, and move, & have my being in him, though I be not instantly delivered, nor mine enemies absolutely destroyed, yet this is as much as I should promise my self, this is as much as the Holy Ghost intends in this Metaphor, Sub umbra alarum, Vnder the shadow of thy wings, that is a Refreshing, a Respiration, a Conservation, a Consolation in all afflictions that are inflicted upon me.

Yet, is not this Metaphor of Wings without a denotation of Power. As no Act of Gods, though it seem to imply but spiritual comfort, is without a denotation of power, (for it is the power of God that comforts me; To overcome that sadness of soul, and that dejection of spirit, which the Adversary by temporal afflictions would induce upon me, is an act of his Power) So this Metaphor, The shadow of his wings, (which in this place expresses no more, then consolation and refreshing in misery, and not a powerful deliverance out of it) is so often in the Scriptures made a denotation of Power too, as that we can doubt of no act of power, if we have this shadow of his wings. For, in this Metaphor of Wings, doth the Holy Ghost express the Maritime power, the power of some Nations at Sea, in Navies, (Woe to the land shadowing with wings;) that is, that hovers over the world, and intimidates it with her sails and ships. In this Metaphor doth God remember his people, of his powerful deliverance of them, (You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on Eagles wings, and brought you to my self.) In this Metaphor doth God threaten his and their enemies, what he can do, (The noise of the wings of his Cherubims, are as the noise of great waters, and of an Army.) So also, what he will do, (He shall spread his wings over Bozrah, and at that day shall the hearts of the mighty men of Edom, be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.) So that, if I have the shadow of his wings, I have the earnest of the power of them too; If I have refreshing, and respiration from them, I am able to say, (as those three Confessors did to Nebuchadnezzar) My God is able to deliver me, I am sure he hath power; And my God will deliver me, when it conduces to his glory, I know he will; But, if he do not, be it known unto thee, O King, we will not servethy Gods; Be it known unto thee, O Satan, how long soever God deferre my deliverance, I will not seek false comforts, the miserable comforts of this world. I will not, for I need not; for I can subsist under this shadow of these Wings, though I have no more.

The Mercy-seat it self was covered with the Cherubims Wings; and who would have more then Mercy? and a Mercy-seat; that is, established, resident Mercy, permanent and perpetual Mercy; present and familiar Mercy: a Mercy-seat. Our Savior Christ intends as much as would have served their turn, if they had laid hold upon it, when he says, That he would have gathered Jerusalem, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. And though the other Prophets do (as ye have heard) mingle the signification of Power, and actual deliverance, in this Metaphor of Wings, yet our Prophet, whom we have now in especial consideration, David, never doth so; but in every place where he uses this Metaphor of Wings (which are in five or six several Psalms) still he rests and determines in that sense, which is his meaning here; That though God do not actually deliver us, nor actually destroy our enemies, yet if he refresh us in the shadow of his Wings, if he maintain our subsistence (which is a religious Constancy) in him, this should not only establish our patience, (for that is but half the work) but it should also produce a joy, and rise to an exultation, which is our last circumstance, Therefore in the shadow of thy wings, I will rejoice.

I would always raise your hearts, and dilate your hearts, to a holy Joy, to a joy in the Holy Ghost. There may be a just fear, that men do not grieve enough for their sins; but there may be a just jealousy, and suspicion too, that they may fall into inordinate grief, and diffidence of Gods mercy; And God hath reserved us to such times, as being the later times, give us even the dregs and lees of misery to drink. For, God hath not only let loose into the world a new spiritual disease; which is, an equality, and an indifferency, which religion our children, or our servants, or our companions profess; (I would not keep company with a man that thought me a knave, or a traitor; with him that thought I loved not my Prince, or were a faithless man, not to be believed, I would not associate my self; And yet I will make him my bosom companion, that thinks I do not love God, that thinks I cannot be saved) but God hath accompanied, and complicated almost all our bodily diseases of these times, with an extraordinary sadness, a predominant melancholy, a faintness of heart, a chearlesness, a joylesness of spirit, and therefore I return often to this endeavor of raising your hearts, dilating your hearts with a holy Joy, Joy in the holy Ghost, for Vnder the shadow of his wings, you may, you should rejoice.

If you look upon this world in a Map, you find two Hemisphears, two half worlds. If you crush heaven into a Map, you may find two Hemisphears too, two half heavens; Half will be Joy, and half will be Glory; for in these two, the joy of heaven, and the glory of heaven, is all heaven often represented unto us. And as of those two Hemisphears of the world, the first hath been known long before, but the other, (that of America, which is the richer in treasure) God reserved for later Discoveries; So though he reserve that Hemisphear of heaven, which is the Glory thereof, to the Resurrection, yet the other Hemisphear, the Joy of heaven, God opens to our Discovery, and delivers for our habitation even whilst we dwell in this world. As God hath cast upon the unrepentant sinner two deaths, a temporal, and a spiritual death, so hath he breathed into us two lives; for so, as the word for death is doubled, Morte morieris, Thou shalt die the death, so is the word for life expressed in the plural, Chaiim, vitarum, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, of divers lives. Though our natural life were no life, but rather a continual dying, yet we have two lives besides that, an eternal life reserved for heaven, but yet a heavenly life too, a spiritual life, even in this world; And as God doth thus inflict two deaths, and infuse two lives, so doth he also pass two Judgements upon man, or rather repeats the same Judgement twice. For, that which Christ shall say to thy soul then at the last Judgement, Enter into thy Masters joy, He says to thy conscience now, Enter into thy Masters joy. The everlastingness of the joy is the blessedness of the next life, but the entering, the inchoation is afforded here. For that which Christ shall say then to us, Venite benedicti, Come ye blessed, are words intended to persons that are comming, that are upon the way, though not at home; Here in this world he bids us Come, there in the next, he shall bid us Welcome. The Angels of heaven have joy in thy conversion, and canst thou be without that joy in thy self? If thou desire revenge upon thine enemies, as they are Gods enemies, That God would be pleased to remove, and root out all such as oppose him, that Affection appertains to Glory; Let that alone till thou come to the Hemisphear of Glory; There join with those Martyrs under the Altar, Vsquequo Domine, How long O Lord, dost thou deferre Judgement? and thou shalt have thine answer there for that. Whilst thou art here, here join with David, and the other Saints of God, in that holy increpation of a dangerous sadness, Why art thou cast down O my soul? why art thou disquieted in me? That soul that is dissected and anatomized to God, in a sincere confession, washed in the tears of true contrition, embalmed in the blood of reconciliation, the blood of Christ Jesus, can assign no reason, can give no just answer to that Interrogatory, Why art thou cast down O my soul? why art thou disquieted in me? No man is so little, as that he can be lost under these wings, no man so great, as that they cannot reach to him; Semper ille major est, quantumcumque creverimus, To what temporal, to what spiritual greatness soever we grow, still pray we him to shadow us under his Wings; for the poor need those wings against oppression, and the rich against envy. The Holy Ghost, who is a Dove, shadowed the whole world under his wings; Incubabat aquis, He hovered over the waters, he sate upon the waters, and he hatched all that was produced, and all that was produced so, was good. Be thou a Mother where the Holy Ghost would be a Father; Conceive by him; and be content that he produce joy in thy heart here. First think, that as a man must have some land, or els he cannot be in wardship, so a man must have some of the love of God, or els he could not fall under Gods correction; God would not give him his physic, God would not study his cure, if he cared not for him. And then think also, that if God afford thee the shadow of his wings, that is, Consolation, respiration, refreshing, though not a present, and plenary deliverance, in thy afflictions, not to thank God, is a murmuring, and not to rejoice in Gods ways, is an unthankfulness. Howling is the noise of hell, singing the voice of heaven; Sadness the damp of Hell, Rejoicing the serenity of Heaven. And he that hath not this joy here, lacks one of the best pieces of his evidence for the joys of heaven; and hath neglected or refused that Earnest, by which God uses to bind his bargain, that true joy in this world shall flow into the joy of Heaven, as a River flows into the Sea; This joy shall not be put out in death, and a new joy kindled in me in Heaven; But as my soul, as soon as it is out of my body, is in Heaven, and does not stay for the possession of Heaven, nor for the fruition of the sight of God, till it be ascended through air, and fire, and Moon, and Sun, and Planets, and Firmament, to that place which we conceive to be Heaven, but without the thousandth part of a minutes stop, as soon as it issues, is in a glorious light, which is Heaven, (for all the way to Heaven is Heaven; And as those Angels, which came from Heaven hither, bring Heaven with them, and are in Heaven here, So that soul that goes to Heaven, meets Heaven here; and as those Angels do not divest Heaven by comming, so these souls invest Heaven, in their going.) As my soul shall not go towards Heaven, but go by Heaven to Heaven, to the Heaven of Heavens, So the true joy of a good soul in this world is the very joy of Heaven; and we go thither, not that being without joy, we might have joy infused into us, but that as Christ says, Our joy might be full, perfected, sealed with an everlastingness; for, as he promises, That no man shall take our joy from us, so neither shall Death it self take it away, nor so much as interrupt it, or discontinue it, But as in the face of Death, when he lays hold upon me, and in the face of the Devil, when he attempts me, I shall see the face of God, (for, every thing shall be a glass, to reflect God upon me) so in the agonies of Death, in the anguish of that dissolution, in the sorrows of that valediction, in the irreversibleness of that transmigration, I shall have a joy, which shall no more evaporate, then my soul shall evaporate, A joy, that shall pass up, and put on a more glorious garment above, and be joy super-invested in glory. Amen.

Serm. LXVII. The third of my Prebend Sermons upon my five Psalms: Preached at S. Pauls, November 5. 1626. In Vesperis.

PSAL. 64.10.

And all the upright in heart shall glory.

I Have had occasion to tell you more then once before, that our Predecessors, in the institution of the Service of this Church, have declared such a reverence and such a devotion to this particular Book of Scripture, The Psalms, as that by distributing the hundred and fifty Psalms (of which number the body of this book consists) into thirty portions, (of which number the body of our Church consists) and assigning to every one of those thirty persons, his five Psalms, to be said by him every day, every day God receives from us (howsoever we be divided from one another in place) the Sacrifice of Praise, in the whole Book of Psalms. And, though we may be absent from this Quire, yet wheresoever dispersed, we make up a Quire in this Service, of saying over all the Psalms every day. This sixty fourth Psalm, is the third of my five. And when, (according to the obligation which I had laid upon my self, to handle in this place some portion of every one of these my five Psalms) in handling of those words, of the Psalm immediately before this, in the seventh verse, (Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy Wings I will rejoice) I told you, that the next world, Heaven, was (as this world is) divided into two Hemispheres, and that the two Hemispheres of Heaven, were Joy and Glory, (for, in those two notions of Joy and Glory, is Heaven often represented unto us) as in those words which we handled then, we sailed about the first Hemisphere, That of Joy, (In the shadow of thy Wings will I rejoice) So, in these which I have read to you now, our voyage lies about the Hemisphere of Glory, for, (All the upright in heart shall Glory.) As we said then of Joy, we say of Glory now; There is an inchoative joy here, though the consummative joy be reserved for Heaven; so is there also such a taste, such an inchoation of glory in this life. And as no man shall come to the joys of Heaven, that hath no joy in this world, (for, there is no peace of conscience without this joy) so no man shall come to the glory of Heaven, that hath not a holy ambition of this glory in this world; for, this glory which we speak of, is the evidence, and the reflexion of the glory from above; for, the glory of God shines through godly men, and we receive a beam and a tincture of that glory of God, when we have the approbation, and testimony, and good opinion, and good words of good men; which is the Glory of our Text, as far as this world is capable of glory. All the upright in heart shall glory, that is, They shall be celebrated and encouraged with the glory and praise of good men here, and they shall be rewarded with everlasting glory in Heaven.

In these words we propose to you but two parts; First, The disposition of the Persons, Omnes recti corde, All the upright in heart, and then, The retribution upon these Persons, Gloriabuntur, They shall Glory, or, (as it is in the Vulgate, and well) Laudabuntur, They shall be celebrated, they shall be praised. In the first, The qualification of the persons, we shall pass by these steps; First, that God in his punishments and rewardings proposes to himself Persons, Persons already made, and qualified. God does not begin at a retribution, nor begin at a condemnation, before he have Persons, Persons fit to be rewarded, Persons fit to be condemned. God did not first make a Heaven and a Hell, and after think of making man, that he might have some persons to put in them; but, first for his Glory he made Man, and for those, who by a good use of his grace preserved their state, Heaven, and for those, who by their own fault fell, he made Hell. First, he proposed Persons, Persons in being; And then, for the Persons (as his delight is for the most part to do) in this Text he expresses it; which is, rather to insist upon the Rewards, which the Good shall receive, then upon the condemnation and judgements of the wicked. If he could choose, that is, If his own Glory, and the edification of his Children would bear it, he would not speak at all of judgements, or of those persons that draw necessary judgements upon themselves, but he would exercise our contemplation wholly upon his mercy, and upon Persons qualified and prepared for his gracious retributions. So he does here; He speaks not at all of perverse, and froward, and sinister, and oblique men, men incapable of his retributions, but only of Persons disposed, ordained, prepared for them.

And, in the qualification of these Persons, he proposes first a rectitude, a directness, an uprightness; declinations downward, deviations upon the wrong hand, squint-eyed men, splay footed men, left-handed men, (in a spiritual sense) he meddles not withal. They must be direct, and upright; And then, upright in heart; for, to be good to ill ends, (as, in many cases, a man may be) God accepts not, regards not. But, let him be a person thus qualified, Vpright; upright because he loves uprightness, Vpright in heart; And then, he is infallably embraced, and enwrapped in that general rule, and proposition, that admits no exception, Omnes recti corde, All the upright in heart shall be partakers of this retribution: And in these branches we shall determine our first Part, first, That God proposes to himself Persons; Persons thus and thus qualified; he begins at them. Secondly, That God had rather dwell himself, and propose to us the consideration of good persons, then bad, of his mercies, then his judgements, for he mentions no other here, but persons capable of his retributions; And then, the goodness that God considers, is rectitude, and rectitude in the root, in the heart; And from that root grows that spreading universality, that infallibility, Omnes, All such are sure of the Reward.

And then, in our second Part, in the Reward it self, though it be delivered here in the whole bar, in the Ingot, in the Wedge, in Bulloyn, in one single word, Gloriabuntur, Laudabuntur, They shall Glory, yet it admits this Mintage, and coining, and issuing in lesser pieces, That first we consider the thing it self, The metal in which God rewards us, Glory, Praise; And then, since Gods promise is fastened upon that, (We shall be praised) As we may lawfully seek the praise of good men, so must we also willingly afford praise to good men, and to good actions. And then, since we find this retribution fixed in the future, (We shall be praised, we shall be in glory) there arises this Consolation, That though we have it not yet, yet we shall have it, Though we be in dishonor, and contempt, and under a cloud, of which we see no end our selves, yet there is a determined future in God, which shall be made present, we shall overcome this contempt, and Gloriabimur, and Laudabimur, we shall Glory, we shall be celebrated; In which future, the consolation is thus much farther exalted, that it is an everlasting future; the glory, and praise, the approbation, and acclamation, which we shall receive from good men, here, shall flow out and continue, to the Hosannaes in Heaven, in the mouth of Saints, and Angels, and to the Euge bone serve, Well done, good and faithful Servant, in the mouth of God himself.

First then, God proposes to himself, (in his Rewards and Retributions) Persons; Persons disposed and qualified. Not disposed by nature, without use of grace; that is flat and full Pelagianisme; Not disposed by preventing grace, without use of subsequent grace, by Antecedent and anticipant, without concomitant and auxiliant grace; that is Semi-pelagianisme. But persons obsequious to his grace, when it comes, and persons industrious and ambitious of more and more grace, and husbanding his grace well all the way, such persons God proposes to himself. God does not only read his own works, nor is he only delighted with that which he hath writ himself, with his own eternal Decrees in heaven, but he loves also to read our books too, our histories which we compose in our lives and actions, and as his delight is to be with the sons of men, so his study is in this Library, to know what we do. S. Paul says, That God made him a Minister of the Gospel, to preach to the Gentiles, to the intent that the Angels might know the manifold wisdom of God by the Church; That is, by that that was done in the Church. The Angels saw God; Did they not see these things in God? No; for, These things were hid in God, says the Apostle there; And the Angels see no more in God, then God reveals unto them; and these things of the Church, God reserved to a future, and to an experimental knowledge, to be known then when they were done in the Church. So there are Decrees in God, but they are hid in God; To this purpose and entendment, and in this sense, hid from God himself, that God accepts or condemnes Man Secundum allegata & Probata, according to the Evidence that arises from us, and not according to those Records that are hid in himself. Our actions and his Records agree; we do those things which he hath Decreed; but only our doing them, and not his Decreeing them, hath the nature of evidence. God does not Reward, nor Condemn out of his Decrees, but out of our actions. God sent down his Commissioners the Angels to Sodom, to inquire, and to inform him how things went. God goes down himself to inquire, and inform himself, how it stood with Adam and Eve. Not that God was ever ignorant of any thing concerning us, but that God would prevent that dangerous imagination in every man, That God should first mean to destroy him, and then to make him, that he might destroy him, without having any evidence against him. For God made man Ad imaginem suam, To his own Image. If he had made him under an inevitable, and irresistible necessity of damnation, he had made him Ad Imaginem Diabolicam, to the Image of the Devil, and not to his own. God goes not out as a Fowler, that for his pleasure and recreation, or for his commodity, or commendation, would kill, and therefore seeks out game that he may kill it; It is not God that seeks whom he may devour: But God sees the Vulture tearing his Chickens, or other birds picking his Corn, or pecking his fruit, and then when they are in that mischievous action, God takes his bowe and shoots them for that. When God condemns a man, he proposes not that man to himself, as he meant to make him, and as he did make him, but as by his sins he hath made himself. At the first Creation, God looked upon nothing; there was nothing; But ever since there have been Creatures, God hath looked upon the Creature: and as Adam gave every Creature the Name, according as he saw the Nature thereof to be; so God gives every man reward or punishment, the name of a Saint or a Devil, in his purpose, as he sees him a good or a bad user of his graces. When I shall come to the sight of the Book of life, and the Records of heaven, amongst the Reprobate, I shall never see the name of Cain alone, but Cain with his addition, Cain that killed his brother; Nor Judas name alone; but Judas with his addition, Judas that betrayed his Master. God does not begin with a morte moriendum, some body must die, and therefore I will make some body to kill; But God came to a morte morieris, yet thou art alive, and mayest live, but if thou wilt rebell, thou must die. God did not call up fevers, and pestilence, and consumptions, and fire, and famine, and war, and then make man, that he might throw him into their mouths, but when man threw down himself, God let him fall into their mouths. Had I never sinned in wantonness, I should never have had consumption; nor fever, if I had not sinned in Riot; nor death, if I had not transgressed against the Lord of life. If God be pleased to look upon me, at the last day, as I am renewed in Christ, I am safe. But if God should look upon me, (as he made me) in Adam, I could not be un-acceptable in his sight, except he looked farther, and saw me in mine own, or in Adams sin. I would never wish my self better, then God wished me at first; no, nor then God wishes me now, as manifold a sinner as he sees me now, if yet I would conform my will to his. God looks upon persons; persons so conditioned as they were, which was our first branch, in this first part; and our second is, That he delights to propose to himself Persons that are capable of his rewards; for he mentions no others in this place, All that are upright in heart.

The first thing that Moses names to have been made, was Heaven, (In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth) And infinite millions of generations before this Heaven was made, there was a Heaven, an eternal emanation of beams of glory, from the presence of God. But Moses tells us of no Hell made at the Creation; And before the Creation, such a Hell, as there was a Heaven, there could not be; for, the presence of God made Heaven; and God was equally present every where. And they who have multiplied Hells unto us, and made more Hells then God hath made, more by their two Limboes, (one for Fathers, another for Children) and one Purgatory, have yet made their new Hells, more of the nature of Heaven then of Hell. For, in one of their Limboes, (that of the Fathers) and in their Purgatory, there is in them, who are there, an infallible assurance of Heaven, They that are there, are infallibly assured to come to Heaven; And an assurance of salvation will hardly consist with Hell; He that is sure to come to Heaven, can hardly be said to be in Hell.

God was loath and late in making places of torment; He is loath to speak of Judgements, or of those that extort Judgements from him. How plentifully, how abundantly is the word Beatus, Blessed, multiplied in the Book of Psalms? Blessed, and Blessed in every Psalm, in every Verse; The Book seems to be made out of that word, Blessed, And the foundation raised upon that word, Blessed, for it is the first word of the Book. But in all the Book, there is not one Vae, not one woe, so denounced; Not one woe, upon any soul in that Book. And when this Vae, this woe is denounced in some other of the Prophets, it is very often Vox dolentis, and not Increpantis, That Vae, that woe, is a voice of compassion in him that speaks it, and not of destruction to them to whom it is spoken. God, in the person of Jeremiah, weeps in contemplation of the calamities threatened, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the Daughter of my people. It is God that was their Father, and it is God, their God that slew them; but yet, that God, their Father weeps over the slaughter. So in the person of Isaiah, God weeps again, I will bewail thee with weeping, and I will water thee with tears. And without putting on the person of any man, God himself avows his sighing, when he comes to name Judgements, Heu, vindicabor, Alas, I will revenge me of mine enemies; And he sighs, when he comes but to name their sins, Heu abominationes, Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel. As though God had contracted an Irregularity, by having to do in a cause of blood, He sighs, he weeps when he must draw blood from them. God delights to institute his discourses, and to take, and to make his Examples, from men that stand in state of grace, and are capable of his Mercies, and his Retributions, as here in this Text, he names only those, who are Recti corde, The upright in heart, They shall be considered, rewarded.

The disposition that God proposes here in those persons, whom he considers, is Rectitude, Uprightness, and Directness. God hath given Man that forme in nature, much more in grace, that he should be upright, and look up, and contemplate Heaven, and God there. And therefore to bend downwards upon the earth, to fix our breast, our heart to the earth, to lick the dust of the earth with the Serpent, to inhere upon the profits and pleasures of the earth, and to make that which God intended for our way, and our rise to heaven, (the blessings of this world) the way to hell; this is a manifest Declination from this Uprightness, from this Rectitude. Nay, to go so far towards the love of the earth, as to be in love with the grave, to be impatient of the calamities of this life, and murmur at Gods detaining us in this prison, to sink into a sordid melancholy, or irreligious dejection of spirit; this is also a Declination from this Rectitude, this Uprightness. So is it too, to decline towards the left hand, to Modifications, and Temporisings in matter or forme of Religion, and to think all indifferent, all one; or to decline towards the right hand, in an over-vehement zeal, To pardon no errors, to abate nothing of heresy, if a man believe not all, and just all that we believe; To abate nothing of Reprobation, if a man live not just as we live; this is also a Diversion, a Deviation, a Deflection, a Defection from this Rectitude, this Uprightness. For, the word of this Text, Iashar, signifies Rectitudinem, and Planiciem; It signifies a direct way; for, the Devils way was Circular, Compassing the Earth; But the Angels way to heaven upon Iacobs ladder, was a straight, a direct way. And then it signifies, as a direct and straight, so a plain, a smooth, an even way, a way that hath been beaten into a path before, a way that the Fathers, and the Church have walked in before, and not a discovery made by our curiosity, or our confidence, in venturing from our selves, or embracing from others, new doctrines and opinions.

The persons then, whom God proposes here to be partakers of his Retributions, are first Recti, (that is, both Direct men, and Plain men) and then recti corde, this qualification, this straightness, and smoothness must be in the heart; All the upright in heart shall have it. Upon this earth, a man cannot possibly make one step in a straight, and a direct line. The earth it self being round, every step we make upon it, must necessarily be a segment, an arch of a circle. But yet though no piece of a circle be a straight line, yet if we take any piece, nay if we take the whole circle, there is no corner, no angle in any piece, in any entire circle. A perfectt rectitude we cannot have in any ways in this world; In every Calling there are some inevitable temptations. But, though we cannot make up our circle of a straight line, (that is impossible to humane frailty) yet we may pass on, without angles, and corners, that is, without disguises in our Religion, and without the love of craft, and falsehood, and circumvention in our civil actions. A Compass is a necessary thing in a Ship, and the help of that Compass brings the Ship home safe, and yet that Compass hath some variations, it doth not look directly North; Neither is that starr which we call the North-pole, or by which we know the North-pole, the very Pole it self; but we call it so, and we make our uses of it, and our conclusions by it, as if it were so, because it is the neerest starr to that Pole. He that comes as near uprightness, as infirmities admit, is an upright man, though he have some obliquities. To God himself we may always go in a direct line, a straight, a perpendicular line; For God is vertical to me, over my head now, and vertical now to them, that are in the East, and West-Indies; To our Antipodes, to them that are under our feet, God is vertical, over their heads, then when he is over ours.

To come to God there is a straight line for every man every where: But this we do not, if we come not with our heart. Praebe mihi fili cor tuum, saith God, My son give me thy heart. Was he his son, and had he not his heart? That may very well be. There is a filiation without the heart; not such a filiation, as shall ever make him partaker of the inheritance, but yet a filiation. The associating our selves to the sons of God, in an outward profession of Religion, makes us so far the sons of God, as that the judgement of man cannot, and the judgement of God doth not distinguish them. Because, then when the sons of God stood in his presence, Satan stood amongst the sons of God; God doth not disavow him, God doth not excommunicate him, God makes his use of him, and yet God knew his heart was far from him. So, when God was in Council with his Angels, about Ahabs going up to Ramoth Gilead, A spirit came forth and offered his service, and God refuses not his service, but employs him, though he knew his heart to be far from him. So, no doubt, many times, they to whom God hath committed supreme government, and they who receive beams of this power by subordination, and delegation from them, they see Satan amongst the sons of God, hypocrites and impiously disposed men come into these places of holy convocation, and they suffer them, nay they employ them, nay they prefer them, and yet they know their hearts are far from them; but as long as they stand amongst the sons of God, that is, appear and conform themselves in the outward acts of Religion, they are not disavowed, they are not ejected: by us here, they are not. But howsoever we date our Excommunications against them, but from an overt act, and apparent disobedience, yet in the Records of heaven, they shall meet an Excommunication, and a conviction of Recusancy, that shall bear date from that day, when they came first to Church, with that purpose to delude the Congregation, to elude the laws in that behalf provided, to advance their treacherous designs by such disguises, or upon what other collateral and indirect occasion soever, men come to this place: for, though they be in the right way, when they are here, at Church, yet because they are not upright in heart, therefore that right way brings not them to the right end.

And that is it which David looks upon in God, and desires that God should look upon in him; (According to thine own heart, saith David to God, hast thou done all these great things unto us) (For, sometimes God doth give temporal blessings to men, upon whom he hath not set his heart) And then in the 27. Verse he says, (Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart, to pray this prayer unto thee) If he had only found it in the Liturgy, and in the manner of the Service of that Church, to which he came with an ill will, and against his heart, he would not have prayed that prayer, nay he would not have come to that Church. For, though David place a great joy in that, (That he can come to praise God in the Congregation, and in the great Congregation) And though David seem even to determine Gods presence in the Church, (for he multiplies that expostulation, that adprecation many times, When shall I come, in conspectum tuum, into thy presence? And, Restore me, O Lord, conspectui tuo, to thy presence, He was not right, not in the right way, if he came not to Church) yet there is a case in which David glories in, though (as he saith there) In corde meo abscondi eloquium tuum, Thy word have I hidden, locked up, in my heart. Though in another, in many other places, he rejoice in that, (I have not hid thy righteousness in my heart, I have not concealed thy truth from the great Congregation) yet here he glories in his Abscondi, I have hid it. Which, (as both S. Hilary, and S. Ambrose referre it to a discreet and seasonable suppressing of the mysteries of Religion, and not to cast pearls before swine) may also inferre this Instruction; That a man were better serve God at home, (though not in so right a way, if he think it right) then to come hither against his heart, and conscience. Not, but that there is better means of receiving good here, then at home in private prayer, (though made the right way) But his end in comming is not to make this means his way to that good; And therefore his very being here, (though he be thereby in the right way) because it comes not from an upright heart, as it is a greater danger to us, who are deluded by their hypocritical conformity, so is it a greater sin to them, who come so against their conscience. David prays thus, Incola sum, ne abscondas, I am a stranger, hide not thy commandments from me, (Let me not be a stranger at Church, at thy Service.) And so it behooves us to pray too, That those Doors, and those Books may always be open unto us; But yet I will say with David too, Abscondam eloquium, where I am a stranger, and in a place of strange, and superstitious worship, I will hide my religion so far, as not to communicate with others, in a service against my heart; It is not safe for us to trust our selves at a superstitious Service, though curiosity, or company, or dependency upon others draw us thither; neither is it safe to trust all that come hither, if their hearts be not here. For the Retribution of our Text, that is, Thanks and Praise, belongs only to them, who are Right, and Right of heart, and to them it is made due, and infallible, by this promise from God, and made universal, Omnes, All the upright in heart shall glory.

How often God admits into his own Name, this addition of Universality, Omne, All, as though he would be known by that especially. He is Omnipotent, There he can do All; He is Omniscient, There he can know All; He is Omnipresent, There he can direct All. Neither doth God extend himself to all, that he may gather from all, but that he may gather all, and all might meet in him, and enjoy him. So, God is all Center, as that he looks to all, and so, all circumference, as that he embraces all. The Sun works upon things that he sees not, (as Mynes in the womb of the earth) and so works the less perfectly. God sees all, and works upon all, and desires perfection in all. There is no one word so often in the Bible, as this, Omne, All. Neither hath God spread the word more liberally upon all the lines of this Book, then he hath his gracious purposes upon all the souls of men. And therefore, to withdraw Gods general goodness out of his general propositions, That he would have all repent, That he came to save all, is to contract and abridge God himself, in his most extensive Attribute, or Denotation, that is, his Mercy: And as there is a curse laid upon them, that take away any part, any proposition out of this Book, so may there be a curse, or an ill affection, and countenance and suspicion from God, that presses any of his general propositions to a narrower, and less gracious sense then God meant in it. It were as easily believed, that God looks towards no man, as that there should be any man (in whom he sees, that is, considers no sin) that he looks not towards. I could as easily doubt of the universal providence of God, as of the universal mercy of God, if man continued not in rebellion, and in opposition. If I can say, by way of confession, and accusing my self, Lord, my ways have not been right, nor my heart right, there is yet mercy for me. But, to them who have studied and accustomed themselves to this uprightness of heart, there is mercy in that exaltation, mercy in the nature of a Reward, of a Retribution; And this Retribution expressed here, in this word Glory, constitutes our second Part, All the upright in heart shall Glory.

This Retribution is expressed in the Original, in the word Halal; And Halal, to those Translators that made up our Book of Common Prayer, presented the signification of Gladness, for so it is there, They shall be glad; So it did to the Translators that came after, for there it is, They shall rejoice; And to our last Translators it seemed to signify Glory, They shall Glory, say they. But the first Translation of all into our Language (which was long before any of these three) calls it Praise, and puts it in the Passive, All men of rightful heart shall be praised. He followed S. Jerome, who reads it so, and interprets it so, in the Passive, Laudabuntur, They shall be praised. And so truly Iithhalelu, in the Original, bears it, nay requires it; which is not of a praise that they shall give to God, but of a praise, that they shall receive for having served God with an upright heart; not that they shall praise God in doing so, but that godly men shall praise them for having done so. All this will grow naturally out of the root; for, the root of this word, is Lucere, Splendere, To shine out in the eyes of men, and to create in them a holy and a reverential admiration, as it was John Baptists praise, That he was A burning, and a shining Lamp. Properly it is, by a good and a holy exemplary life, to occasion others to set a right value upon Holiness, and to give a due respect to holy men. For so, where we read, Their Maidens were not given in Marriage, we find this word of our Text, Their Maidens were not praised, that is, there was not a due respect held of them, nor a just value set upon them.

So that, this retribution intended for the upright in heart, as in the growth and extension of the word, it reaches to Joy, and Glory, and Eminency, and Respect, so in the root, it signifies Praise; And it is given them by God, as a Reward, That they shall be Praised; now, Praise (says the Philosopher) is Sermo elucidans magnitudinem virtutis; It is the good word of good men, a good testimony given by good men of good actions. And this difference we use to assign between Praise, and Honor, Laus est in ordine ad finem, Honor eorum qui jam in fine; Praise is an encouragement to them that are in the way, and so far, a Reward, a Reward of good beginnings; Honor is reserved to the end, to crown their constancy, and perseverance. And therefore, where men are rewarded with great honours at the beginning, in hope they will deserve it, they are paid beforehand. Thanks, and Grace, and good countenance, and Praise, are interlocutory encouragements, Honours are final Rewards. But, since Praise is a part of Gods retribution, a part of his promise in our text, They shall be praised, we are thereby not only allowed, but bound to seek this praise from good men, and to give this praise to good men; for, in this Coin God hath promised, that the upright in heart shall be paid, They shall be praised.

To seek praise from good men, by good means, is but the same thing which is recommended to us by Solomon, A good name is rather to be chosen, then great riches, and loving favor, then silver and Gold. For, Habent & mores colors suos, habent & odores; Our good works have a color, and they have a savor; we see their Candor, their sincerity in our own consciences, there is their color; (for, in our own consciences our works appear in their true colors; no man can be an hypocrite to himself, nor seriously, deliberately deceive himself) And, when others give allowance of our works, and are edified by them, there is their savor, their odor, their perfume, their fragrancy. And therefore S. Jerome, and S. Augustin differ little in their manner of expressing this, Non paratum habeas illud è trivio, Serve not thy self with that trivial, and vulgar saying, As long as my conscience testifies well to me, I care not what men say of me; And so says that other Father, They that rest in the testimony of their own consciences, and contemne the opinion of other men, Imprudenter agunt, & crudeliter, They deal weakly, and improvidently for themselves, in that they assist not their consciences, with more witnesses, And they deal cruelly towards others, in that they provide not for their edification, by the knowledge and manifestation of their good works. For, (as he adds well there) Qui à criminibus vitam custodit, bene facit, He that is innocent in his own heart, does well for himself, but Qui famam custodit, & in alios misericors est, He that is known to live well, he that hath the praise of good men, to be a good man, is merciful, in an exemplary life, to others, and promoves their salvation. For, when that Father gives a measure, how much praise a man may receive, and a rule, how he may receive it, when he hath first said, Nec totum, nec nihil accipiatur, Receive not all, but yet refuse not all praise, he adds this, That that which is to be received, is not to be received for our own sakes, sed propter illos, quibus consulere non potest, si nimia dejectione vilescat, but for their sakes, who would undervalue goodness it self, if good men did too much undervalue themselves, or thought themselves never the better for their goodness. And therefore S. Bernard applies that in the Proverbs to this case; Hast thou found Honey? eat that which is sufficient. Mellis nomine, favor humanae laudis, says he, By Honey, favor, and praise, and thankfulness is meant; Meritóque non ab omni, sed ab immoderato edulio prohibemur, We are not forbid to taste, nor to eat, but to surfeit of this Honey, of this praise of men. S. Augustine found this love of praise in himself, and could forbid it no man, Laudari à bene viventibus, si dicam, nolo, mentior, If I should say, that I desired not the praise of good men, I should bely my self. He carries it higher then thus; He does not doubt, but that the Apostles themselves had a holy joy, and complacency, when their Preaching was acceptable, and thereby effectual upon the Congregation. Such a love of praise is rooted in Nature; and Grace destroys not Nature; Grace extinguishes not, but moderates this love of praise in us, nor takes away the matter, but only exhibits the measure. Certainly, he that hath not some desire of praise, will be negligent in doing praise-worthy things; and negligent in another duty intended here too, that is, To praise good men, which is also another particular branch in this Part.

The hundred forty fifth Psalm is, in the Title thereof, called A Psalm of Praise; And the Rabbis call him Filium futuri Seculi, A child of the next World, that says that Psalm thrice a day. We will interpret it, by way of Accommodation, thus, that he is a child of the next World, that directs his Praise every day, upon three objects, upon God, upon himself, upon other men. Of God, there can be no question; And for our selves, it is truly the most proper, and most literal signification of this word in our Text, Iithhalelu, That they shall praise themselves, that is, They shall have the testimony of a rectified conscience, that they have deserved the praise of good men, in having done laudible service to God. And then, for others, That which God promises to Israel in their restauration, belongs to all the Israel of the Lord, to all the faithful, I will get thee praise, and fame in every land, and I will make thee a name, and a praise amongst all the people of the earth. This, God will do; procure them a name, a glory: By whom? When God binds himself, he takes us into the band with him, and when God makes himself the debtor, he makes us stewards; when he promises them praise, he means that we should give them that praise. Be all ways of flatterings, and humourings of great persons precluded with a Protestation, with a detestation; Be Philo Iudaeus his comparison received, His Coquus, and his Medicus, One provides sweetness for the present taste, but he is but a Cook, The other is a Physician, and though by bitter things, provides for thy future health; And such is the honey of Flatterers, and such is the wormwood of better Counsellors. I will not shake a Proverb, not the Ad Corvos, That we were better admit the Crows, that pick out our eyes, after we are dead, then Flatterers that blind us, whilst we live; I cast justly upon others, I take willingly upon my self, the name of wicked, (if I bless the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth) or any other whom he hath declared to be odious to him. But making my object goodness in that man, and taking that goodness in that man, to be a Candle, set up by God in that Candlestick, God having engaged himself, that that good man shall be praised, I will be a Subsidy man so far, so far pay Gods debts, as to celebrate with condigne praise the goodness of that man; for, in that, I do, as I should desire to be done to, And in that, I pay a debt to that man, And in that I succor their weakness, who, (as S. Gregory says) when they hear another praised, Si non amore virtutis, at delectatione laudis accenduntur, At first for the love of Praise, but after, for the love of goodness it self, are drawn to be good. For, when the Apostle had directed the Philippians upon things that were True, and honest, and just, and purc, and lovely, and of a good report, he ends all thus, If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. In those two says S. Augustine, he divides all, Virtue, and Praise; Virtue in our selves, that may deserve Praise; Praise towards others, that may advance and propagate Virtue. This is the retribution which God promises to all the upright in heart, Gloriabuntur, Laudabuntur, They shall Glory, they shall have, they shall give praise. And then it is so far from diminishing this Glory, as that it infinitely exalts our consolation, that God places this Retribution in the future, Gloriabuntur, If they do not yet, yet certainly they shall glory, And if they do now, that glory shall not go out, still they shall, they shall for ever glory.

In the Hebrew there is no Present tense; In that language wherein God spake, it could not be said, The upright in heart, Are praised; Many times they are not. But God speaks in the future; first, that he may still keep his Children in an expectation and dependance upon him, (you shall be, though you be not yet) And then, to establish them in an infallibility, because he hath said it, (I know you are not yet, but comfort your selves, I have said it, and it shall be.) As the Hebrew hath no Superlatives, because God would keep his Children within compass, and in moderate desires, to content themselves with his measures, though they be not great, and though they be not heaped; so, considering what pressures, and contempts, and terrors, the upright in heart are subject to, it is a blessed relief, That they have a future proposed unto them, That they shall be praised, That they shall be redeemed out of contempt. This makes even the Expectation it self as sweet to them, as the fruition would be. This makes them, that when David says, Expecta viriliter, Wait upon the Lord with a good courage; Wait, I say, upon the Lord, they do not answer with the impatience of the Martyrs under the Altar, Vsquequo, How long, Lord, wilt thou defer it? But they answer in Davids own words, Expectans expectavi, I have waited long, And, Expectabo nomen tuum, still I will wait upon thy Name; I will wait till the Lord come; His kingdom come in the mean time, His kingdom of Grace, and Patience; and for his Ease, and his Deliverance, and his Praise, and his Glory to me, let that come, when he may be most glorified in the comming thereof. Nay, not only the Expectation, (that is, that that is expected) shall be comfortable, because it shall be infallible, but that very present state that he is in, shall be comfortable, according to the first of our three Translations, They that are true of heart, shall be glad thereof; Glad of that; Glad that they are true of heart, though their future retribution were never so far removed; Nay, though there were no future retribution in the case, yet they shall find comfort enough in their present Integrity. Nay, not only their present state of Integrity, but their present state of misery, shall be comfortable to them; for this very word of our Text, Halal, that is here translated Joy, and Glory, and Praise, in divers places of Scripture, (as Hebrew words have often such a transplantation) signifies Ingloriousness, and contempt, and dejection of spirit; So that Ingloriousness, and contempt, and dejection of spirit, may be a part of the retribution; God may make Ingloriousness, and Contempt, and Dejection of spirit, a greater blessing and benefit, then Joy, and Glory, and Praise would have been; and so reserve all this Glory and Praising to that time, that David intends, The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. Though they live and die contemptibly, they shall be in an honorable remembrance, even amongst men, as long as men last, and even when time shall be no more, and men no more, they shall have it in futuro aeterno; where there shall be an everlasting present, and an everlasting future, there the upright in heart shall be praised, and that for ever, which is our conclusion of all.

If this word of our Text, Halal, shall signify Joy, (as the Service Book, and the Geneva translation render it) that may be somewhat towards enough, which we had occasion to say of the Joys of heaven, in our Exercise upon the precedent Psalm, when we say-led thorough that Hemisphere of Heaven, by the breath of the Holy Ghost, in handling those words, Vnder the shadow of thy wings I will rejoice. So that, of this signification of the word, Gaudebunt in aeterno, They shall rejoice for ever, we add nothing now. If the word shall signify Glory, (as our last translation renders it) consider with me, That when that Glory which I shall receive in Heaven, shall be of that exaltation, as that my body shall invest the glory of a soul, (my body shall be like a soul, like a spirit, like an Angel of light, in all endowments that glory it self can make that body capable of, that body remaining still a true body) when my body shall be like a soul, there will be nothing left for my soul to be like but God himself; I shall be partaker of the Divine nature, and the same Spirit with him. Since the glory that I shall receive in body, and in soul, shall be such, so exalted, what shall that glory of God be, which I shall see by the light of this glory shed upon me there? In this place, and at this time the glory of God is; but we lack that light to see it by. When my soul and body are glorified in heaven, by that light of glory in me, I shall see the glory of God. But then, what must that glory of the Essence of God be, which I shall see thorough the light of Gods own glory? I must have the light of glory upon me, to see the glory of God, and then by his glory I shall see his Essence. When S. Paul cries out upon the bottomless depth of the riches of his Attributes, (O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!) how glorious, how bottomless is the riches of his Essence? If I cannot look upon him in his glass, in the body of the Sun, how shall I look upon him face to face? And if I be dazeled to see him as he works, how shall I see him, Sicutiest, as he is, and in his Essence? But it may be some ease to our spirits, (which cannot endure the search of this glory of heaven, which shall show us the very Essence of God) to take this word of our Text, as our first translation of all took it, for one beam of this glory, that is Praise; Consider we therefore this everlasting future only so, How the upright in heart shall be praised in heaven.

First, The Militant Church shall transmit me to the Triumphant, with her recommendation, That I lived in the obedience of the Church of God, That I died in the faith of the Son of God, That I departed and went away from them, in the company and conduct of the Spirit of God, into whose hands they heard me, they saw me recommend my spirit, And that I left my body, which was the Temple of the Holy Ghost, to them, and that they have placed it in Gods treasury, in his consecrated earth, to attend the Resurrection, which they shall beseech him to hasten for my sake, and to make it joyful and glorious to me, and them, when it comes. So the Militant Church shall transmit me to the Triumphant, with this praise, this testimony, this recommendation. And then, if I have done any good to any of Gods servants, (or to any that hath not been Gods servant, for Gods sake) If I have but fed a hungry man, If I have but clothed a naked child, If I have but comforted a sad soul, or instructed an ignorant soul, If I have but preached a Sermon, and then printed that Sermon, that is, first preached it, and then lived according to it, (for the subsequent life is the best printing, and the most useful and profitable publishing of a Sermon) All those things that I have done for Gods glory, shall follow me, shall accompany me, shall be in heaven before me, and meet me with their testimony, That as I did not serve God for nothing, (God gave me his blessings with a large hand, and in overflowing measures) so I did not nothing for the service of God; Though it be as it ought to be, nothing in mine own eyes, nothing in respect of my duty, yet to them who have received any good by it, it must not seem nothing; for then they are unthankful to God, who gave it, by whose hand soever.

This shall be my praise to Heaven, my recommendation thither; And then, my praise in Heaven, shall be my preferment in Heaven. That those blessed Angels, that rejoiced at my Conversion before, shall praise my perseverance in that profession, and admit me to a part in all their Hymns and Hosannaes, and Hallelujahs; which Hallelujah is a word produced from the very word of this Text, Halal; My Hallelujah shall be my Halal, my praising of God shall be my praise. And from this testimony I shall come to the accomplishment of all, to receive from my Saviours own mouth, that glorious, that victorious, that harmonious praise, that Dissolving, and that Recollecting testimony, that shall melt my bowels, and yet fix me, power me out, and yet gather me into his bosom, that Euge bone serve, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into thy Masters joy. And when he hath sealed me with his Euge, and accepted my service, who shall stamp a Vae quod non, upon me? who shall say, Woe be unto thee, that thou didst not preach, this or that day, in this or that place? When he shall have styled me Bone & fidelis, Good and faithful servant, who shall upbraid me with a late undertaking this Calling, or a slack pursuing, or a lazy intermitting the function thereof? When he shall have entered me into my Masters joy, what fortune, what sin can cast any Cloud of sadness upon me? This is that that makes Heaven, Heaven, That this Retribution, which is future now, shall be present then, and when it is then present, it shall be future again, and present and future for ever, ever enjoyed, and expected ever. The upright in heart shall have, whatsoever all Translations can enlarge and extend themselves unto; They shall Rejoice, they shall Glory, they shall Praise, and they shall be praised, and all these in an everlasting future, for ever. Which everlastingness is such a Term, as God himself cannot enlarge; As God cannot make himself a better God then he is, because he is infinitely good, infinite goodness, already; so God himself cannot make our Term in heaven longer then it is; for it is infinite everlastingness, infinite eternity. That that we are to beg of him is, that as that state shall never end, so he will be pleased to hasten the beginning thereof, that so we may be numbered with his Saints in Glory everlasting. Amen.

Serm. LXVIII. The fourth of my Prebend Sermons upon my five Psalms: Preached at S. Pauls, 28. Ianuary, 1626.

PSAL. 65.5.

By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are a far off, upon the Sea.

GOd makes nothing of nothing now; God eased himself of that incomprehensible work, and ended it in the first Sabbath. But God makes great things of little still; And in that kind he works most upon the Sabbath; when by the foolishness of Preaching he infatuates the wisdom of the world, and by the word, in the mouth of a weak man, he enfeebles the power of sin, and Satan in the world, and by but so much breath as blows out an houreglasse, gathers three thousand souls at a Sermon, and five thousand souls at a Sermon, as upon Peters preaching, in the second, and in the fourth of the Acts. And this work of his, to make much of little, and to do much by little, is most properly a Miracle. For, the Creation, (which was a production of all out of nothing) was not properly a miracle: A miracle is a thing done against nature; when something in the course of nature resists that work, then that work is a miracle; But in the Creation, there was no reluctation, no resistance, no nature, nothing to resist. But to do great works by small means, to bring men to heaven by Preaching in the Church, this is a miracle. When Christ intended a miraculous feeding of a great multitude, he asked, Quot panes habetis? First he would know, how many loaves they had; and when he found that they had some, though they were but five, he multiplied them, to a sufficiency for five thousand persons. This Psalm is one of my five loaves, which I bring; One of those five Psalms, which by the Institution of our Ancestors in this Church, are made mine, appropriated especially to my daily meditation, as there are five other Psalms to every other person of our Church. And, by so poor means as this, (my speaking) his Blessing upon his Ordinance may multiply to the advancement, and furtherance of all your salvations. He multiplies now, farther then in those loaves; not only to feed you all, (as he did all that multitude) but to feed you all three meals.

In this Psalm (and especially in this Text) God satisfies you with this threefold knowledge: First, what he hath done for man, in the light and law of nature; Then, how much more he had done for his chosen people, the Jews, in affording them a law; And lastly, what he had reserved for man after, in the establishing of the Christian Church. The first, (in this Metaphor, and miracle of feeding) works as a break-fast; for though there be not a full meal, there is something to stay the stomach, in the light of nature. The second, that which God did for the Jews in their Law, and Sacrifices, and Types, and Ceremonies, is as that Dinner, which was spoken of in the Gospel, which was plentifully prepared, but prepared for some certain guests, that were bidden, and no more; Better means then were in nature, they had in the law, but yet only appropriated to them that were bidden, to that Nation, and no more. But in the third meal, Gods plentiful refection in the Christian Church, and means of salvation there; first, Christ comes in the visitation of his Spirit, (Behold I come, and knock, and will sup with him) (He sups with us, in the private visitation of his Spirit) And then, (as it is added there) he invites us to sup with him, he calls us home to his house, and there makes us partakers of his blessed Sacraments; And by those means we are brought at last to that blessedness, which he proclaims, (Blessed are all they which are called to the marriage Supper of the Lambe) in the Kingdom of heaven. For all these three meals, we say Grace in this Text, (By terrible things, in righteousness, wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation) for all these ways of comming to the knowledge and worship of God, we bless God in this Text, (Thou art the confidence of all the ends of the Earth, and of them that are a far off, upon the Sea.

The consideration of the means of salvation, afforded by God to the Jews in their law, inanimates the whole Psalm, and is transfused through every part thereof; and so, it falls upon this Verse too, as it doth upon all the rest; And then, for that, that God had done before in nature, and for all, is in the later part of this Verse, (Who art the confidence of all the ends of the Earth, and of them that are a far off, upon the Sea) And lastly, that that he hath reserved for the Christian Church, God hath centered, and embowelled in the womb and bosom of the Text, in that compellation, (O God of our salvation) for there the word salvation, is rooted in Iashang, which Iashang is the very Name of Jesus, the foundation, and the whole building of the Christian Church. So then our three parts will be these; What God hath done in Nature, what in the Law, what in the Gospel. And, when in our Order we shall come to that last part, which is that, that we drive all to, (The advantage which we have in the Gospel, above Nature, and the Law) we shall then propose, and stop upon the Holy Ghosts manner of expressing it in this place, (By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation) But first, look we a little into the other two, Nature, and Law.

First then, the last words settle us upon our first consideration, What God hath done for man in Nature, He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are a far off, upon the Sea, that is, of all the world, all places, all persons in the world; All, at all times, every where, have Declarations enow of his power, Demonstrations enow of his Goodness, to confide in him, to rely upon him. The Holy Ghost seems to have delighted in the Metaphor of Building. I know no figurative speech so often iterated in the Scriptures, as the name of a House; Heaven and Earth are called by that name, and we, who being upon earth, have our conversation in heaven, are called so too, (Christ hath a House, which House we are) And as God builds his House, (The Lord builds up lerusalem, saith David) so he furnishes it, he plants Vineyards, Gardens, and Orchards about it, He lays out a way to it, (Christ is the way) He opens a gate into it, (Christ is the gate) And when he hath done all this, (built his house, furnished it, planted about it, made it accessible, and opened the gate) then he keeps house, as well as builds a house, he feeds us, and feasts us in his house, as well as he lodges us, and places us in it. And as Christ professes what his own Diet was, what he fed upon, (My meat is to do the will of my Father) so our meat is to know the will of the Father; Every man, even in nature, hath that appetite, that desire, to know God. And therefore if God have made any man, and not given him means to know him, he is but a good Builder, he is no good Housekeeper, He gives him lodging, but he gives him no meat; But the eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. All, (not only we) wait upon God; and he gives them Their meat, though not our meat, (The Word and the Sacramenss) yet Their meat, such as they are able to digest and endue. Even in nature, He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are a far off, upon the Sea. That is his daily bread, which even the natural man begs at Gods hand, and God affords it him.

The most precious and costly dishes are always reserved for the last services, but yet there is wholesome meat before too. The clear light is in the Gospel, but there is light in Nature too. At the last Supper, (the Supper of the Lambe in Heaven) there is no bill of fare, there are no particular dishes named there. It is impossible to tell us what we shall feed upon, what we shall be feasted with, at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb; Our way of knowing God there cannot be expressed. At that Supper of the Lambe, which is here, here in our way homewards, that is, in the Sacramental Supper of the Lambe, it is very hard to tell, what we feed upon; How that meat is dressed, how the Body and Blood of Christ is received by us, at that Supper, in that Sacrament, is hard to be expressed, hard to be conceived, for the way and manner thereof. So also in the former meal, that which we have called the Dinner, which is The knowledge which the Jews had in the Law, it was not easy to distinguish the taste, and the nature of every dish, and to find the signification in every Type, and in every Ceremony. There are some difficulties (if curious men take the matter in hand, and be too inquisitive) even in the Gospel; more in the Law; most of all in Nature. But yet, even in this first refection, this first meal, that God sets before man, (which is our knowledge of God in Nature) because we are then in Gods House, (all this World, and the next make God but one House) though God do not give Marrow and fatness, (as David speaks) though he do not feed them with the fat of the wheat, nor satisfy them with honey out of the Rock, (for the Gospel is the honey, and Christ is the Rock) yet, even in Nature, he gives sufficient means to know him, though they come to neither of the other Meals, neither to the Jews Dinner, The benefit of the Law, nor to the Christians Supper, either when they feed upon the Lamb in the Sacrament, or when they feed with the Lamb in the possession and fruition of Heaven.

Though therefore the Septuagint, in their Translation of the Psalms, have, in the Title of this Psalm, added this, A Psalm of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when they were departing out of the Captivity of Babylon, intimating therein, that it is a Psalm made in contemplation of that blessed place which we are to go to, (as, literally, it was of their happy state in their restitution from Babylon to Jerusalem) And though the ancient Church, by appropriating this Psalm to the office of the dead, to the service at Burials, intimate also, that this Psalm is intended of that fullness of knowledge, and Joy, and Glory, which they have that are departed in the Lord, yet the Holy Ghost stops, as upon the way, before we come thither, and, since we must lie in an Inn, that is, Lodge in this World, he enables the World to entertain us, as well as to lodge us, and hath provided, that the World, the very world it self, (before we consider the Law in the World, or the Church in the World, or Glory in the next World) This very World, that is, Nature, and no more, should give such an universal light of the knowledge of God, as that he should be The confidence of all the ends of the Earth, and of them that are a far off upon the Sea.

And therefore as men that come to great places, and preferments, when they have entered by a faire and wide gate of Honor, but yet are laid down upon hard beds of trouble and anxiety in those places, (for, when the body seems in the sight of men, to go on in an easy amble, the mind is every day (if not all day) in a shrewd and diseaseful trot) As those men will sometimes say, It was better with me, when I was in a lower place, and fortune, and will remember, being Bishops, the pleasures they had when they were School-boys, and yet, for all this, intermit not their thankfulness to God, who hath raised them to that height, and those means of glorifying him: so, howsoever we abound with joy and thankfulness, for these gracious and glorious Illustrations of the Law, and the Gospel, and beams of future Glory, which we have in the Christian Church, Let us reflect often upon our beginning, upon the consideration of Gods first benefits, which he hath given to us all in Nature, That light, by which he enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World, That he hath given us a reasonable soul capable of grace, here, (that, he hath denied no man, and no other creature hath that) That he hath given us an immortal soul capable of glory hereafter, (and that, that immortality he hath denied no man, and no other creature hath that.) Consider we always the grace of God, to be the Sun it self, but the nature of man, and his natural faculties to be the Sphere, in which that Sun, that Grace moves. Consider we the Grace of God to be the soul it self, but the natural faculties of man, to be as a body, which ministers Organs for that soul, that Grace to work by. That so, as how much soever I fear the hand of a mighty man, that strikes, yet I have a more immediate fear of the sword he strikes with; So, though I impute justly my sins, and my fears of judgements for them, to Gods withdrawing, or to my neglecting his grace, yet I look also upon that which is next me, Nature, and natural light, and natural faculties, and that I consider how I use to use them; whether I be as watchful upon my tongue, that that minister no temptation to others, and upon mine eye, that that receive no temptation from others, as by the light of Nature, I might, and as some moral Men, without addition of particular Grace, have done. That so, first for my self, I be not apt to lay any thing upon God, and to say, that he starved me, though he should not bid me to the Jews dinner, in giving me the light of the Law, nor bid me to the Christians Supper, in giving me the light of the Gospel, because he hath given me a competent refection even in Nature. And then, that for others, I may first say with the Apostle, That they are without excuse, who do not see the invisible God, in the visible Creature, and may say also with him, O altitudo! The ways of the Lord are past my finding out; And therefore to those, who do open their eyes to that light of Nature, in the best exaltation thereof, God does not hide himself, though he have not manifested to me, by what way he manifests himself to them. For, God disappoints none, and he is The confidence of all the ends of the Earth, and of them who are a far off upon the Sea.

Commit thy way unto the Lord, says David; And he says more, then our Translation seems to express; The Margin hath expressed it; for, according to the Original word, Galal, it is in the Margin, not Commit, but Roll thy way upon the Lord; which may very well imply, and intend this precept, Carry thy Rolling trench up to God, and gather upon him; As Abraham, when he beat the price with God for Sodom, from fifty, to ten, rolled his Petition upon God, fo roll thy ways upon him, come up to him in a thankful acknowledgement, what he hath done for thee, in the Gospel, in the Law, and in Nature; And then, as Tertullian says of public Prayers, Obsidemus Deum, In the Prayers of the Congregation we besiege God, So this way we entrench our selves before God, so, as that nothing can beat us out of our trenches; for, if all the Canons of the Church beat upon me, so that I be by Excommunication removed from the assistances of the Church, (though I be inexcusable, if I labor not my Reconciliation, and my Absolution) yet, before that be effected, I am still in my first trench, still I am a man, still I have a soul capable of Grace, still I have the light of Nature, and some presence of God in that; though I be attenuated, I am not annihilated, though by my former abuses of Gods graces, and my contumacy, I be cast back to the ends of the earth, and a far off upon the Sea, yet even there, God is the confidence of all them; As long as I consider that I have such a soul, capable of Grace and Glory, I cannot despair.

Thus Nature makes Pearls, Thus Grace makes Saints. A drop of dew hardens, and then another drop falls, and spreads it self, and clothes that former drop, and then another, and another, and become so many shells and films that invest that first feminal drop, and so (they say) there is a pearl in Nature. A good foul takes first Gods first drop into his consideration, what he hath shed upon him in Nature, and then his second coat, what in the Law, and successively his other manifold graces, as so many shells, and films, in the Christian Church, and so we are sure, there is a Saint.

Roll thy ways upon God; And (as it follows in the same verse) Spera in eo, & ipse faciet; we translate it, Trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass; Begin at Alpha, and he shall bring it to Omega: Consider thy self but in the state of Hope, (for the state of Nature is but a state of Hope, a state of Capableness; In Nature we have the capacity of Grace, but not Grace in possession, in Nature) Et ipse faciet, says that Text, God shall do, God shall work; There is no more in the Original but so, Ipse faciet; Not God shall do it, or do this, or do that, but do all; do but consider that God hath done something for thee, and he shall do all, for, He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are a far off upon the Sea. Here is a new Mathematiques; without change of Elevation, or parallax, I that live in this Climate, and stand under this Meridian, look up and fixe my self upon God, And they that are under my feet, look up to that place, which is above them, And as divers, as contrary as our places are, we all fixe at once upon one God, and meet in one Center; but we do not so upon one Sun, nor upon one constellation, or configuration in the Heavens; when we see it, those Antipodes do not; but they, and we see God at once. How various forms of Religion soever pass us through divers ways, yet by the very light and power of Nature, we meet in one God; and for so much, as may make God accessible to us, and make us inexcusable towards him, there is light enough in this dawning of the day, refection enough in this first meal, The knowledge of God, which we have in Nature; That alone discharges God, and condemns us; for, by that, He is, that is, He offers himself to be, The confidence of all the ends of the Earth, and of them who are a far of upon the Sea; that is, of all mankind.

But then, Lunae radiis non matureseit botrus, fruits may be seen by the Mooneshine, but the Mooneshine will not ripen them. Therefore a Sun rises unto us, in the law, and in the Prophets, and gives us another manner of light, then we had in nature. The way of the wicked is as Darkness, says Solomon; Wherein? It follows, They know not at what they stumble. A man that calls himself to no kind of account, that takes no candle into his hand, never knows at what he stumbles, not what occasions his sin. But by the light of nature, if he will look upon his own infirmities, his own deformities, his own inclinations, he may know at what he stumbles, what that is that leads him into temptation. For, though S. Paul say, That by the law is the knowledge of sin, And, Sin is not imputed when there is no law; And again, I had not known sin, but by the law; in some of these places, the law is not intended only of the law of the Jews, but of the law of nature in our hearts, (for, by that law, every man knows that he sins) And then, sin is not only intended of sin produced into act, but sin in the heart; as the Apostle instances there, I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Of some sins, there is no clear evidence given by the light of nature: That the law supplied; and more then that. The law did not only show, what was sin, but gave some light of remedy against sin, and restitution after sin, by those sacrifices, which, though they were ineffectual in themselves, yet involved, and represented Christ, who was their salvation. So then, God was to the Jews, in general, as he was to his principal servant amongst them, Moses; He saw the land of promise, but he entered not into it; The Jews saw Christ, but embraced him not. Abraham saw his day, and rejoiced; They saw it, that is, they might have seen it, but winked at it. Luther says well, Iudaei habuere jus mendicandi, The Jews had a licence to beg, They had a Breve, and might gather, They had a Covenant, and might plead with God; But they did not; and therefore, though they were inexcusable for their neglect of the light of Nature, and more inexcusable for resisting the light of the law, That they and we might be absolutely inexcusable, if we continued in darkness after that, God set up another light, the light of the Gospel, which is our third and last part, wrapped up in those first words of our Text, By terrible things, in righteousness, wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation.

This word, Salvation, Iashang, is the root of the name of Jesus. In the beginning of the Primitive Church, when the followers of Christ left or discontinued their being called the Disciples, and the Faithful, and the Brethren, and the Professors, as they had been called before, and would bring the Name of their founder, Christ Jesus, into more evidence and manifestation, yet they were not called by the Name of Jesus, but from Christ; at Antioch first they were called Christians. For, it is well distinguished, That the Name of Jesus, as it signifies a Savior, first contemplates God, and the Divine nature, (which only could save us) And then hath relation to Man, and the Humane nature, without assuming of which, the Son of God could not have saved us that way, that God had proposed, The satisfaction of his Justice; And then, the Name of Christ, (as it signifies Anointed, and appointed to a certain purpose, as to die for us) first contemplates Man, and the Humane nature, which only could die, And then hath relation to God, and the Divine nature. So that Jesus is God, and Man in Him; And Christ is Man, and God in Him. So the Name Jesus seems to taste of more Mystery, and more Incomprehensibleness; And the Name of Christ, of more Humility, and Appliableness.

And with this lower Name, to be called Christians from Christ, was the Church of God contented; Whereas a later race of men in the Roman Church, will needs take their Denomination from Jesus himself; But I know not whether they mean our Jesus or no. Iosephus remembers two (at least) of that name, Jesus, that were infamous malefactors, and men of blood; and they may deduce themselves from such a Jesus. And a Jesuit teaches us, that it is the common opinion, that Barrabas the murderer, was by his proper Name called Jesus; that his name was Jesus Barrabas; and that therefore Pilate made that difference upon our Savior, Jesus Nazarenus, This is Jesus of Nazareth, and not Jesus Barrabas; and from that Jesus, Jesus Barrabas they may deduce themselves. And we know also, that that mischievous sorcerer, was called by that Name, Bar-jesu, The Son of Jesus. From which Jesus amongst these, they will make their extraction, let them choose. As amongst the Jesuits, the bloodiest of them all, (even to the drawing of the sacred blood of Kings) is, by his name, Mariana; So all the rest of them, both in that respect, of sucking blood, and occasioning massacres, and other respects too, are rather Marianits then Jesuits, Idolaters of the blessed Virgin Mary, then worshippers of Jesus.

We consist in the Humility of the Ancients; we are Christians, Jesus is merely a Savior, A name of Mystery, Christ is Anointed, A name of Communication, of Accommodation, of Imitation; And so this name, the name of Christ, is Oleum effusum, (as the Spouse speaks) An ointment, a perfume poured out upon us, and we are Christians. In the name of Jesus, S. Paul abounded, but in the Name of Christ more; for, (as a Jesuit gives us the account) he repeats the name of Jesus almost three hundred times, but the name of Christ more then four hundred, in his Epistles. In this Church then, which is gathered in the Name of Christ, (though in the power and merit of Jesus) This light which we speak of, This knowledge of God, and means of salvation, is in the highest exaltation. In the state of nature, we consider this light, as the Sun, to be risen at the Moluccae, in the farthest East; In the state of the law, we consider it, as the Sun come to Ormus, the first Quadrant; But in the Gospel, to be come to the Canaries, the fortunate Ilands, the first Meridian. Now, whatsoever is beyond this, is Westward, towards a Declination. If we will go farther then to be Christians, and those doctrines, which the whole Christian Church hath ever believed, if we will be of Cephas, and of Apollos, if we will call our selves, or endanger, and give occasion to others, to call us from the Names of men, Papists, or Lutherans, or Calvinists, we depart from the true glory and serenity, from the lustre and splendor of this Sun; This is Tabernaculum Solis, Here in the Christian Church, God hath set a Tabernacle for the Sun; And, as in nature, Man hath light enough to discern the principles of Reason; So in the Christian Church, (considered without subdivisions of Names, and Sects) a Christian hath light enough of all things necessary to salvation.

So then, still roll thy ways upon God, Gather upon him nearer and nearer; for, all these are emanations of lights from him, that he might be found, and seen, and known by thee. The looking upon God, by the first light of Nature, is, to catechize, and examine thy self, whether thou do govern, and employ thy natural faculties to his glory; whether thou do shut thine eyes at a temptation, stop thine ears at a blasphemy upon God, or a defamation upon thy neighbor; and withhold thy hand from blood and bribes, and thy feet from fellowship in sin. The looking upon God, by the second light, the light of the law, is, to discern by that, that God hath always had a peculiar people of his own, and gathered them, and contained them in his worship, by certain visible, sensible Ordinances and Institutions, Sacraments, and Sacrifices, and ritual Ceremonies, and to argue and conclude out of Gods former proceedings with them, his greatness and his goodness towards the present world. And then, to see God by that last and best light, the light of the Christian Church, is, to be content with so much of God, as God hath revealed of himself to his Church; And (as it is expressed here) to hear him answer thee, By terrible things in righteousness; for, that he does as he is the God of our salvation, that is, as he works in the Christian Church; which is our last Consideration; By terrible, &c.

In this Consideration, (Gods proceeding with us in the Christian Church) this observation meets us first, That Gods conversation with us there, is called an Answering; (He shall answer us) Now if we look that God should answer us, we must say something to God; and our way of speaking to God, is by petition, by prayer. If we present no petition, if we pray not, we can look for no answer, for we ask none. Isaiah is very bold, (saith S. Paul) when he says, That God was found of them that sought him not, and made manifest to them that asked not after him; Yet though it were boldly said, it was truly said; so early, and so powerful is Gods preventing grace towards us. So it is a very ordinary phrase amongst the Prophets, God answered, and said thus, and thus, when the Prophet had asked nothing of God. But here we are upon Gods proceeding with man in the Christian Church; and so, God answers not, but to our petitions, to our prayers. In a Sermon, God speaks to the Congregation, but he answers only that soul, that hath been with him at Prayers before. A man may pray in the street, in the fields, in a fayre; but it is a more acceptable and more effectual prayer, when we shut our doors, and observe our stationary houses for private prayer in our Chamber; and in our Chamber, when we pray upon our knees, then in our beds. But the greatest power of all, is in the public prayer of the Congregation.

It is a good remembrance that Damascene gives, Non quia gentes quaedam faciunt, à nobis linquenda; We must not forbear things only therefore, because the Gentiles, or the Jews used them. The Gentiles, particularly the Romans, (before they were Christians) had a set Service, a prescribed forme of Common prayer in their Temples; and they had a particular Officer in that State, who was Conditor precum, that made their Collects, and Prayers upon emergent occasions; And Omni lustro, every five years there was a review, and an alteration in their Prayers, and the state of things was presumed to have received so much change in that time, as that it was fit to change some of their Prayers and Collects. It must not therefore seem strange, that at the first, there were certain Collects appointed in our Church; nor that others, upon just occasion, be added.

Gods blessing here, in the Christian Church, (for, to that we limit this consideration) is, that here He will answer us; Therefore, here we must ask; Here, our asking is our communion at Prayer: And therefore they that undervalue, or neglect the prayers of the Church, have not that title to the benefit of the Sermon; for though God do speak in the Sermon, yet he answers, that is, applies himself, by his Spirit, only to them, who have prayed to him before. If they have joined in prayer, they have their interest, and shall feel their Consolation in all the promises of the Gospel, shed upon the Congregation, in the Sermon. Have you asked by prayer, Is there no Balm in Gilead? He answers you by me, Yes, there is Blame; He was wounded for your transgressions, and with his stripes you are healed; His Blood is your Balm, his Sacrament is your Gilead. Have you asked by prayer, Is there no Smith in Israel? No means to discharge my self of my fetters, and chains, of my temporal, and spiritual Encumbrances? God answers thee, Yes, there is; He bids you but look about, and you shall find your self in Peter case; The Angel of the Lord present, A light shining, and his chains falling off: All your manacles locked upon the hands, All your chains loaded upon the legs, All your stripes numbered upon the back of Christ Jesus. You have said in your prayers here, (Lord, from whom all good counsels do proceed) And God answers you from hence, The Angel of the great Counsel shall dwell with you, and direct you. You have said in your prayers, Lighten our darkness, and God answers you by me, (as he did his former people by Isaiah) The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Petition God at prayers, and God shall answer all your petitions at the Sermon. There we begin, (if we will make profit of a Sermon) at Prayers; And thither we return again, (if we have made profit by a Sermon) in due time, to prayers. For, that is S. Augustines holy Circle, in which he walks from Prayers to the Sermon, and from the Sermon, next day to Prayers again. Invocat te fides mea, says he to God; Here I stand or kneel in thy presence, and in the power of faith, to pray to thee. But where had I this faith, that makes my prayer acceptable? Dedisti mihi per ministerium Praedicatoris; I had it at the Sermon, I had it, saith he, by the ministry of the Preacher; but I had it therefore, because thy Spirit prepared me by prayer before; And I have it therefore, that is, to that end, that I might return faithfully to prayers again. As he is The God of our salvation, (that is, As he works in the Christian Church) he answers us: If we ask by prayer, he applies the Sermon; And, He answers by terrible things, in righteousness.

These two words, (Terribilia per Iustitiam) By Terrible things in Righteousness, are ordinarily by our Expositors taken, to intimate a confidence, that God imprints by the Ordinance of his Church, that by this right use of Prayer and Preaching, they shall always be delivered from their enemies, or from what may be most terrible unto them. In which exposition, Righteousness signifies faithfulness, and Terrible things signify miraculous deliverances from, and terrible Judgements upon his, and our enemies. Therefore is God called, Deus fidelis, The faithful God; for, that faithfulness implies a Covenant, made before, (and there entered his Mercy, that he would make that Covenant) and it implies also the assurance of the performance thereof, for there enters his faithfulness. So he is called, Fidelis Creator, (We commit our souls to God, as to a faithful Creator) He had an eternal gracious purpose upon us, to create us, and he hath faithfully accomplished it. So, Fidelis quia vocavit, He is faithful in having called us; That he had decreed, and that he hath done. So Christ is called, Fidelis Pontifex, A merciful and a faithful high Priest; Merciful in offering himself for us, faithful in applying himself to us. So Gods whole word is called so often, so very often Testimonium fidele, A faithful witness, an evidence that cannot deceive, nor mislead us. Therefore we may be sure, that whatsoever God hath promised to his Church, (And whatsoever God hath done upon the enemies of his Church heretofore, those very performances to them, are promises to us, of the like succours in the like distresses) he will perform, re-perform, multiply performances thereof upon us. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth; That is, whatsoever thou didst decree, was done even then, in the infallibility of that Decree; And when that Decree came to be executed, and actually done, in that very execution of that former Decree was enwrapped a new Decree, That the same should be done over and over again for us, when soever we needed it. So that then, casting up our account, from the destruction of Babel, by all the plagues of Egypt, through the depopulation of Canaan, and the massacre in Sennacheribs Army, to the swallowing of the Invincible Navy upon our Seas, and the bringing to light that Infernal, that subterranean Treason in our Land, we may argue, and assume, That the God of our salvation will answer us by terrible things, by multiplying of miracles, and ministering supplies, to the confusion of his, and our enemies, for, By terrible things in righteousness, will the God of our salvation answer us.

So then, his Judgements are these Terribilia, Terrible, fearful things; And he is faithful in his Covenant, and by terrible Judgements he will answer, that is, satisfy our expectation. And that is a convenient sense of these words. But, the word, which we translate Righteousness here, is Tzadok, and Tzadok is not faithfulness, but holiness; And these Terrible things are Reverend things; and so Tremellius translates it, and well; Per res Reverendas, By Reverend things, things to which there belongs a Reverence, thou shalt answer us. And thus, the sense of this place will be, That the God of our salvation, (that is, God working in the Christian Church) calls us to Holiness, to Righteousness, by Terrible things; not Terrible, in the way and nature of revenge; but Terrible, that is, stupendious, reverend, mysterious: That so we should not make Religion too homely a thing, but come always to all Acts, and Exercises of Religion, with reverence, with fear, and trembling, and make a difference, between Religious, and Civil Actions.

In the frame and constitution of al Religions, these Materials, these Elements have ever entered; Some words of a remote signification, not vulgarly understood, some actions of a kind of half-horror and amazement, some places of reservation and retiredness, and appropriation to some sacred persons, and inaccessible to all others. Not to speak of the services, and sacrifices of the Gentiles, and those self-manglings and lacerations of the Priests of Isis, and of the Priests of Baal, (faintly counterfeited in the scourgings and flagellations in the Roman Church) In that very discipline which was delivered from God, by Moses, the service was full of mystery, and horror, and reservation, By terrible things, (Sacrifices of blood in manifold effusions) God answered them, then. So, the matter of Doctrine was delivered mysteriously, and with much reservation, and in-intelligibleness, as Tertullian speaks. The Joy and Glory of Heaven was not easily understood by their temporal abundances of Milk, and Honey, and Oil, and Wine; and yet, in these (and scarce any other way) was Heaven presented, and notified to that people by Moses. Christ, a Messiah, a Savior of the World, by shedding his blood for it, was not easily discerned in their Types and Sacrifices; And yet so, and scarce any other way was Christ revealed unto them. God says, I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the Prophets. They were Visions, they were Similitudes, nor plain and evident things, obvious to every understanding, that God led his people by. And there was an Order of Doctors amongst the Jews that professed that way, To teach the People by Parables and dark sayings; and these were the powerfullest Teachers amongst them, for they had their very name (Mosselim) from power and dominion; They had a power, a dominion over the affections of their Disciples, because teaching them by an obscure way, they created an admiration, and a reverence in their hearers, and laid a necessity upon them, of returning again to them, for the interpretation and signification of those dark Parables. Many think that Moses cites these obscure Doctors, these Mosselim, in that place, in the book of Numbers, when he says, Wherefore they that speak in Proverbs, say thus, and thus, And so he proceeds in a way and words, as hard to be understood, as any place in all his Books. David professes this of himself often; I will open dark sayings upon my Harpe, And, I will open my mouth in a Parable. And this was the way of Solomon; for that very word is the Title of his book of Proverbs. And in this way of teaching, our Savior abounded, and excelled; for when it is said, He taught them as one having authority, And when it is said, They were astonished at his Doctrine, for his word was with Power, they refer that to this manner of teaching, that he astonished them with these reserved and dark sayings, and by the subsequent interpretation thereof, gained a reverend estimation amongst them, that he only could lead them to a desire to know, (that dark way increased their desire) and then he only satisfy them with the knowledge of those things which concerned their salvation. For these Parables, and comparisons of a remote signification, were called by the Jews, Potestates, Powers, Powerful insinuations, as, amongst the Grecians, the same things were called Axiomata, Dignities; And of Christ it is said, Without a Parable spake he not.

So that God in the Old, and Christ in the New Testament, hath conditioned his Doctrine, and his Religion (that is, his outward worship) so, as that evermore there should be preserved a Majesty, and a reverential fear, and an awful discrimination of Divine things from Civil, and evermore something reserved to be inquired after, and laid up in the mouth of the Priest, that the People might acknowledge an obligation from him, in the exposition, and application thereof. Nay, this way of answering us by terrible things, (that is, by things that imprint a holy horror, and a Religious reverence) is much more in the Christian Church, then it can have been in any other Religion; Because, if we consider the Jews, (which is the only Religion, that can enter into any comparison with the Christian, in this kind) yet, we look more directly and more immediately upon God in Christ, then they could, who saw him but by way of Prophecy, a future thing that should be done after; we look upon God, in History, in matter of fact, upon things done, and set before our eyes; and so that Majesty, and that holy amazement, is more to us then ever it was to any other Religion, because we have a nearer approximation, and vicinity to God in Christ, then any others had, in any representions of their Gods; and it is a more dazeling thing to look upon the Sun, in a direct, then in an oblique or side line. And therefore, the love of God, which is so often proposed unto us, is as often seasoned with the fear of God; nay, all our Religious affections are reduced to that one, To a reverential fear; If he be a Master, he calls for fear, and, If he be a Father, he calls for honor; And honor implies a reverential fear. And that is the Art that David professes to teach, Artem timendi, Come ye children, and hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. That you think not Divinity an Occupation, nor Church-Service a recreation; but still remember, That the God of our Salvation (God working in the Christian Church) will answer you; but yet, by terrible things; that is, by not being over-fellowly with God, nor over-homely with places, and acts of Religion; which, it may be an advancement to your Devotion and edification, to consider, in some particulars in the Christian Church.

And first, consider we it, in our manners, and conversation. Christ says, Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. But, howsoever Christ called him friend, that was come to the feast without the wedding garment, he cast him out, because he made no difference of that place from another. First then, remember by what terrible things God answers thee in the Christian Church, when he comes to that round and peremptory issue, Qui non credider it, damnabitur, He that believes not every Article of the Christian faith, & with so stedfast a belief, as that he would dye for it, Damnabitur, (no modification, no mollification, no going less) He shall be damned. Consider too the nature of Excōmunication, That it tears a man from the body of Christ Jesus; That that man withers that is torn off, and Christ himself is wounded in it. Consider the insupportable penances that were laid upon sinners, by those penitential Canons, that went through the Church in those Primitive times; when, for many sins which we pass through now, without so much as taking knowledge that they are sins, men were not admitted to the Communion all their lives, no, nor easily upon their death-beds. Consider how dangerously an abuse of that great doctrine of Predestination may bring thee to think, that God is bound to thee, and thou not bound to him, That thou maiest renounce him, and he must embrace thee, and so make thee too familiar with God, and too homely with Religion, upon presumption of a Decree. Consider that when thou preparest any unclean action, in any sinful nakedness, God is not only present with thee in that room then, but then tells thee, That at the day of Judgement thou must stand in his presence, and in the presence of all the World, not only naked, but in that foul, and sinful, and unclean action of nakedness, which thou committedst then; Consider all this and confess, that for matter of manners, and conversation, The God of thy Salvation answers thee by terrible things. And so it is also, if we consider Prayer in the Church.

God House is the house of Prayer; It is his Court of Requests; There he receives petitions, there he gives Order upon them. And you come to God in his House, as though you came to keep him company, to sit down, and talk with him half an hour; or you come as Ambassadors, covered in his presence, as though ye came from as great a Prince as he. You meet below, and there make your bargains, for biting, for devouring Usury, and then you come up hither to prayers, and so make God your Broker. You rob, and spoil, and eat his people as bread, by Extortion, and bribery, and deceitful weights and measures, and deluding oaths in buying and selling, and then come hither, and so make God your Receiver, and his house a den of Thieves. His house is Sanctum Sanctorum, The holiest of holies, and you make it only Sanctuarium; It should be a place sanctified by your devotions, and you make it only a Sanctuary to privilege Malefactors, A place that may redeem you from the ill opinion of men, who must in charity be bound to think well of you, because they see you here. Offer this to one of your Princes, (as God argues in the Prophet) and see, if he will suffer his house to be prophaned by such uncivil abuses; And, Terribilis Rex, The Lord most high is terrible, and a great King over all the earth; and, Terribilis super omnes Deos, More terrible then all other Gods. Let thy Master be thy god, or thy Mistress thy god, thy Belly be thy god, or thy Back be thy god, thy fields be thy god, or thy chests be thy god, Terribilis super omnes Deos, The Lord is terrible above all gods, A great God, and a great King above all gods. You come, and call upon him by his name here, But Magnū & terribile, Glorious and fearful is the name of the Lord thy God. And, as if the Son of God were but the Son of some Lord, that had been your School-fellow in your youth, and so you continued a boldness to him ever after, so, because you have been brought up with Christ from your cradle, and catechized in his name, his name becomes less reverend unto you, And Sanctum & terribile, Holy, and reverend, Holy and terrible should his name be.

Consider the resolution that God hath taken upon the Hypocrite, and his prayer; What is the hope of the Hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry? They have not cried unto me with their hearts, when they have howled upon their beds. Consider, that error in the matter of our prayer frustrates the prayer and makes it ineffectual. Zebedees Sons would have been placed at the right hand, and at the left hand of Christ, and were not heard. Error in the manner may frustrate our prayer, and make it ineffectual too. Ye ask, and are not heard, because ye ask amisse. It is amisse, if it be not referred to his will, (Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.) It is amisse, if it be not asked in faith, (Let not him that wavereth, think he shall receive any thing of the Lord.) It is amisse, if prayer be discontinued, intermitted, done by fits, (Pray incessantly) And it is so too, if it be not vehement; for Christ was in an Agony in his prayer, and his sweat was as great drops of blood. Of prayers without these conditions, God says, When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes, & when you make many prayers, I will not hear you. Their prayer shall not only be ineffectual, but even their prayer shall be an abomination; And not only an abomination to God, but destruction upon themselves; for, Their prayer shall be turned to sin. And, when they shall not be heard for themselves, no body else shall be heard for them; (Though these three men, Noah, Job, & Daniel, stood for them, they should not deliver thē; Though the whole Congregation consisted of Saints, they shall not be heard for him, nay, they shall be forbidden to pray for him, forbidden to mentiō, or mean him in their prayers, as Jeremiah was. When God leaves you no way of reconciliation but prayer, and then lays these heavy and terrible conditions upon prayer; Confess that though he be the God of your salvation, and do answer you, yet By terrible things doth the God of your salvation answer you. And consider this again, as in manners, and in prayer, so in his other Ordinance of Preaching.

Think with your selves what God looks for from you, and what you give him, in that Exercise. Because God calls Preaching foolishness, you take God at his word, and you think Preaching a thing under you. Hence is it, that you take so much liberty in censuring and comparing Preacher and Preacher, nay Sermon and Sermon from the same Preacher; as though we preached for wagers, and as though coin were to be valued from the inscription merely, and the image, and the person, and not for the metal. You measure all by persons; and yet, Non erubescit is faciem Sacerdotis, You respect not the person of the Priest, you give not so much reverence to Gods Ordinance, as he does. In no Church of Christendom but ours, doth the Preacher preach uncovered. And for all this good, and humble, and reverend example, (fit to be continued by us) cannot we keep you uncovered till the Text be read. All the Sermon is not Gods word, but all the Sermon is Gods Ordinance, and the Text is certainly his word. There is no salvation but by faith, nor faith but by hearing, nor bearing but by preaching; and they that think meanliest of the Keys of the Church, and speak faintliest of the Absolution of the Church, will yet allow, That those Keys lock, and unlock in Preaching; That Absolution is conferred, or with held in Preaching, That the proposing of the promises of the Gospel in preaching, is that binding and loosing on earth, which binds and looses in heaven. And then, though Christ have bid us, Preach the Gospel to every creature, yet, in his own great Sermon in the Mount, he hath forbidden us, to give holy things to dogs, or to cast pearl before swine, lest they trample them, and turn and rend us. So that if all those manifold and fearful judgements, which swell in every Chapter and blow in every verse, and thunder in every line of every Book of the Bible, fall upon all them that come hither, as well, if they turn, and rend, that is, Calumniate us, the person of the Preacher, as if they trample upon the pearls, that is, undervalue the Doctrine, and the Ordinance it self; If his terrible Judgements fall upon every uncharitable mis-interpretation of that which is said here, and upon every irreverence in this place, and in this action; Confess, that though he be the God of your salvation, and do answer you, yet, by terrible things doth the God of your salvation answer you. And confess it also, as in manners, and in prayers, and in preaching, so in the holy and blessed Sacrament.

This Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Savior, Luther calls safely, Venerabile & adorabile; for certainly, whatsoever that is which we see, that which we receive, is to be adored; for, we receive Christ. He is Res Sacramenti, The forme, the Essence, the substance, the soul of the Sacrament; And Sacramentum sine re Sacramenti, mors ost, To take the body, and not the soul, the bread, and not Christ, is death. But he that feels Christ, in the receiving of the Sacrament, and will not bend his knee, would scarce bend his knee, if he saw him. The first of that royal Family, which thinks it self the greatest in Christendom at this day, The House of Austrich, had the first marks of their Greatness, The Empire, brought into that House, for a particular reverence done to the holy and blessed Sacrament. What the bread and wine is, or what becomes of it, Damascene thinks impertinent to be inquired. He thinks he hath said enough; (and so may we do) Migrat in substantiam animae; There is the true Transubstantiation, that when I have received it worthily, it becomes my very soul; that is, My soul grows up into a better state, and habitude by it, and I have the more soul for it, the more sanctified, the more deified soul by that Sacrament.

Now this Sacrament, which as it is ministered to us, is but a Sacrament, but as it is offered to God, is a Sacrifice too, is a fearful, a terrible thing: If the sacrifices of the Law, the blood of Goats and Rammes, were so, how fearful, how terrible, how reverential a thing is the blood of this immaculate Lambe, the Son of God? And though God do so abound in goodness towards us, Vt possint injuriata Sacramenta prodesse reversis, (as S. Cyprian excellently expresses it) That that Sacrament which we have injured and abused, received unworthily, or irreverently, at one time, may yet benefit us, and be the savor and seal of life unto us, at another, yet when you hear that terrible Thunder break upon you, That the unworthy receiver eats and drinks his own damnation, That he makes Christ Jesus, who is the propitiation of all the world, his damnation; And then, That not to have come to a severe examination of the Conscience before, and to a sincere detestation of the sin, and to a formed, and fixed, and deliberate, and determinate resolution against that sin, at the receiving of the Sacrament, (which, alas, how few do? Is there one that does it? There is scorce one) That this makes a man an unworthy receiver of the Sacrament, That thus we make a mock of the Son of God, thus we tread the blood of the Covenant under foot, and despite the Spirit of grace; And that for this, at the last day, we shall be ranked with Judas, and not only with Judas, as a negligent despiser, but with Judas, as an actual betrayer of the blood of Christ Jesus. Consider well, with what fearful Conditions even this scale of your reconciliation is accompanied, and though you may not doubt, but that God, the God of your salvation does answer you, yet you must confess too, That it is by terrible things, that he does it. And, as it is so in matter of manners, and so in our prayers, and so in our preaching, and so in the Sacrament, so is it also at the hour of our Death, which is as far as we can pursue this Meditation, (for, after Death we can ask nothing at Gods hands, and therefore God makes us no answer) And therefore with that Conclusion of all, we shall conclude all, That by terrible things, the God of our salvation answers us, at the hour of our death.

Though death be but a sleep, yet it is a sleep that an Earth-quake cannot wake; And yet there is a Trumpet that will, when that hand of God, that gathered dust to make these bodies, shall crumble these bodies into dust again, when that soul that evaporated it self in unnecessary disputations in this world, shall make such fearful and distempered conclusions, as to see God only by absence, (never to see him face to face) And to know God only by ignorance, (never to know him sicuti est, as he is) (for he is All mercy) And to possess immortality, and impossibility of dying only in a continual dying; when, as a Cabinet whose key were lost, must be broken up, and torn in pieces, before the Jewel that was laid up in it, can be taken out; so thy body, (the Cabinet of thy soul) must be shook and shivered by violent sickness, before that soul can go out, And when it is thus gone out, must answer for all the imperfections of that body, which body polluted it, And yet, though this soul be such a loser by that body, it is not perfectly well, nor fully satisfied, till it be reunited to that body again; when thou remembrest, (and, oh, never forget it) that Christ himself was heavy in his soul unto Death, That Christ himself came to a Si possibile, If it be possible, let this Cup pass; That he came to a Quare dereliquisti, a bitter sense of Gods dereliction, and forsaking of him, when thou considerest all this, compose thy self for death, but think it not a light matter to dye. Death made the Lyon of Judah to roar; and do not thou think, that that which we call going away like a Lambe, doth more testify a conformity with Christ, then a strong sense, and bitter agony, and colluctation with death, doth. Christ gave us the Rule, in the Example; He taught us what we should do, by his doing it; And he pre-admitted a fearful apprehension of death. A Lambe is a Hieroglyphique of Patience, but not of stupidity. And death was Christs Consummatum est, All ended in death; yet he had sense of death; How much more doth a sad sense of our transmigration belong to us, to whom death is no Consummatum est, but an In principio; our account, and our everlasting state begins but then.

Apud te propitiatio, ut timearis; In this knot we tie up all; With thee there is mercy, that thou mightest be feared. There is a holy fear, that does not only consist with an assurance of mercy, but induces, constitutes that assurance. Pavor operantibus iniquitatem, says Solomon; Pavor, horror, and servile fear, jealousy and suspicion of God, diffidence, and distrust in his mercy, and a bosom-prophecy of self-destruction; Destruction it self, (so we translate it) be upon the workers of iniquity; Pavor operantibus iniquitatem; And yet says that wise King, Beatus qui semper Pavidus; Blessed is that man that always fears; who, though he always hope, and believe the good that God will show him, yet also fears the evils, that God might justly multiply upon him; Blessed is he that looks upon God with assurance, but upon himself with fear. For, though God have given us light, by which we may see him, even in Nature, (for, He is the confidence of all the ends of the Earth, and of them that are a far of upon the Sea) Though God have given us a clearer light in the Law, and experience of his providence upon his people throughout the Old Testament, Though God have abundantly, infinitely multiplied these lights and these helps to us in the Christian Church, where he is the God of salvation, yet, as he answers us by terrible things, (in that first acceptation of the words which I proposed to you) that is, Gives us assurances, by miraculous testimonies in our behalf, that he will answer our patient expectation, by terrible Judgements and Revenges upon our enemies, In his Righteousness, that is, In his faithfulness, according to his Promises, and according to his performances of those Promises, to his former people; So in the words, considered the other way, In his Holiness, that is, in his ways of imprinting Holiness in us, He answers us by terrible things, in all those particulars, which we have presented unto you; By infusing faith; but with that terrible addition, Damnabitur, He that believeth not, shall be damned; He answers us, by composing our manners, and rectifying our life and conversation; but with terrible additions of censures, and Excommunications, and tearings off from his own body, which is a death to us, and a wound to him; He answers us by enabling us to speak to him in Prayer; but with terrible additions, for the matter, for the manner, for the measure of our Prayer, which being neglected, our very Prayer is turned to sin. He answers us in Preaching; but with that terrible commination, that even his word may be the savor of death unto death. He answers us in the Sacrament; but with that terrible perplexity and distraction, that he that seems to be a John, or a Peter, a Loving, or a Beloved Disciple, may be a Judas, and he that seems to have received the seal of his reconciliation, may have eat and drunk his own Damnation. And he answers us at the hour of death; but with this terrible obligation, That even then I make sure my salvation with fear and trembling. That so we imagine not a God of wax, whom we can melt, and mold, when, and how we will; That we make not the Church a Market, That an over-homelines and familiarity with God in the acts of Religion, bring us not to an irreverence, nor indifferency of places; But that, as the Militant Church is the porch of the Triumphant, so our reverence here, may have some proportion to that reverence which is exhibited there, where the Elders cast their Crowns before the Throne, and continue in that holy and reverend acclamation, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive Glory, and Honor, and Power; for, (as we may add from this Text) By terrible things, O God of our salvation, doest thou answer us in righteousness.

Serm. LXIX. The fifth of my Prebend Sermons upon my five Psalms: Preached at S. Pauls.

PSAL. 66.3.

Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! Through the greatness of thy Power shall thine Enemies submit themselves unto thee.

IT is well said, (so well, as that more then one of the Fathers seem to have delighted themselves in having said it) Titulus Clavis, The Title of the Psalm, is the Key of the Psalm; the Title opens the whole Psalm. The Church of Rome will needs keep the Key of heaven, and the key to that Key, the Scriptures, wrapped up in that Translation, which in no case must be departed from. There, the key of this Psalm, (the Title thereof) hath one bar wrested, that is, made otherwise, then he that made the Key, (the Holy Ghost) intended it; And another bat inserted, that is, one clause added, which the Holy Ghost added not. Where we read, in the Title, Victori, To the chief Musician, they read, In finem, A Psalm directed upon the end. I think, they mean upon the later times, because it is in a great part, a Prophetical Psame, of the calling of the Gentiles. But after this change, they also add, Resurrectionis, A Psalm concerning the Resurrection; and that is not in the Hebrew, nor any thing in the place thereof. And, after one Author in that Church had charged the Jews, That they had raised that clause out of the Hebrew, and that it was in the Hebrew at first, A learned, and a laborious Jesuit, (for truly, Schools may confess the Jesuits to be learned, for they have assisted there; and States, and Council-tables may confess the Jesuits to be laborious, for they have troubled them there) he, I say, after he hath chidden his fellow, for saying, That this word had ever been in the Hebrew, or was razed out from thence by the Jews, concludes roundly, Vndecunque advenerit, Howsoever those Additions, which are not in the Hebrew, came into our Translation, Authoritatem habent, & retineri debent, Their very being there, gives them Authentikeness, and Authority, and there they must be. That this, in the Title of this Psalm, be there, we are content, as long as you know, that this particular, (That this Psalm by the Title thereof concerns the Resurrection) is not in the Original, but added by some Expositor of the Psalms; you may take knowledge too, That that addition hath been accepted and followed, by many, and ancient, and reverend Expositors, almost all of the Eastern, and many of the Western Church too; and therefore, for our use and accommodation, may well be accepted by us also.

We consider ordinarily three Resurrections: A spiritual Resurrection, a Resurrection from sin, by Grace in the Church; A temporal Resurrection, a Resurrection from trouble, and calamity in the world; And an eternal Resurrection, a Resurrection after which no part of man shall die, or suffer again, the Resurrection into Glory. Of the first, The Resurrection from sin, is that intended in Isaiah, Arise, and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Of the later Resurrection, is that harmonious strain of all the Apostles in their Creed intended, I believe the Resurrection of the body. And of the third Resurrection, from oppressions and calamities which the servants of God suffer in this life, some of our later men understand that place of Job, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that in my flesh I shall see God; And that place of Ezekiel all understand of that Resurrection, where God saith to the Prophet, Son of man, can these bones live? Can these men thus ruined, thus dispersed, be restored again by a resurrection in this world? And to this resurrection from the pressures and tribulations of this life, do those Interpreters, who interpret this Psalm, of a Resurrection, refer this our Text, (Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.) Consider how powerfully God hath, and you cannot doubt, but that God will give them a Resurrection in this world, who rely upon him, and use his means, whensoever any calamity hath dejected them, ruined them, scattered them in the eyes of men. Say unto the Lord, That he hath done it, and the Lord will say unto thee, that he will do it again, and again for thee.

We call Noah, Ianus, because he had two faces, in this respect, That he looked into the former, and into the later world, he saw the times before, and after the flood. David in this Text, is a Ianus too; He looks two ways, he hath a Prospect, and a Retrospect, he looks backward and forward, what God had done, and what God would do. For, as we have one great comfort in this, That Prophecies are become Histories, that whatsoever was said by the mouths of the Prophets, concerning our salvation in Christ, is effected, (so prophecies are made histories) so have we another comfort in this Text, That Histories are made Prophecies; That whatsoever we read that God had formerly done, in the relief of his oppressed servants, we are thereby assured that he can, that he will do them again; and so Histories are made Prophecies: And upon these two pillars, A thankful acknowledgement of that which God hath done, And a faithful assurance that God will do so again, shall this present Exercise of your devotions be raised; And these are our two parts. Dicite Deo, Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! (that part is Historical, of things past) In multitudine virtutis, In the greatness of thy power, shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee, (that part is Prophetical, of things to come.)

In the History we are to turn many leafs, and many in the Prophecy too, to pass many steps, to put out many branches in each. In the first, these; Dicite, say ye; where we consider first, The Person that enjoyns this public acknowledgement and thanksgiving, It is David, and David as a King; for to Him, to the King, the ordering of public actions, even in the service of God appertains. David, David the King speaks this, by way of counsel, and persuasion, and concurrence to all the world, (for so in the beginning, and in some other passages of the Psalm, it is Omnis terra, All yee lands, Verse 1. and All the earth, Verse 4.) David doth what he can, that all the world might concur in one manner of serving God. By way of Assistance he extends to all, And by way of Injunction and commandment to all his, to all that are under his government, Dicite, say you, that is, you shall say, you shall serve God thus. And as he gives counsel to all, and gives laws to all his subjects, so he submits himself to the same law; For, (as we shall see in some parts of the Psalm, to which the Text refers) he professes in his particular, that he will say and do, whatsoever he bids them do, and say; My house shall serve the Lord, says Joshua; But it is, Ego, & domus mea, I and my house; himself would serve God aright too.

From such a consideration of the persons, in the Historical part, we shall pass to the commandment, to the duty it self; That is, first Dicite, say. It is more then Cogitate, to Consider Gods former goodness; more then Admirari, to Admire Gods former goodness; speculations, and extasies are not sufficient services of God; Dicite, Say unto God, Declare, manifest, publish your zeal, is more then Cogitate, Consider it, think of it; but it is less then Facite, To come to action; we must declare our thankful zeal to Gods cause, we must not modify, not disguise that; But, for the particular ways of promoving, and advancing that cause, in matter of action, we must refer that to them, to whom God hath referred it. The Duty is a Commemoration of Benefits; Dicite, Speak of it, ascribe it, attribute it to the right Author; Who is that? That is the next Consideration, Dicite Deo, Say unto God; Non vobis, Not to your own Wisdom, or Power, Non Sanctis, Not to the care and protection of Saints or Angels, Sed nomini ejus da gloriam, Only unto his name be all the glory ascribed. And then, that which falls within this commandment, this Consideration, is Opera ejus, The works of God, (How terrible art thou in thy works!) It is not Decreta ejus, Arcana ejus, The secrets of his State, the ways of his government, unrevealed Decrees, but those things, in which he hath manifested himself to man, Opera, his works. Consider his works, and consider them so as this commandment enjoynes, that is, How terrible God is in them; Determine not your Consideration upon the work it self, for so you may think too lightly of it, That it is but some natural Accident, or some imposture and false Miracle, or illusion, Or you may think of it with an amazement, with a stupidity, with a consternation, when you consider not from whom the work comes, consider God in the work; And God so, as that though he be terrible in that work, yet, he is so terrible but so, as the word of this Text expresses this terribleness, which word is Norah, and Norah is but Reverendus, it is a terror of Reverence, not a terror of Confusion, that the Consideration of God in his works should possess us withal.

And in those plain and smooth paths, we shall walk through the first part, The historical part, what God hath formerly done, (Say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works!) from thence we descend to the other, The Prophetical part, what, upon our performance of this duty, God will surely do in our behalf; he will subdue those enemies, which, because they are ours, are his; In multitudine virtutis, In the greatness of thy power, shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Where we shall see first, That even God himself hath enemies; no man therefore can be free from them; And then we shall see, whom God calls enemies here, Those who are enemies to his cause, and to his friends; All those, if we will speak Davids language, the Holy Ghosts language, we must call Gods enemies. And these enemies nothing can mollify, nothing can reduce, but Power; faire means, and persuasion will not work upon them; Preaching, Disputing will not do it; It must be Power, and greatness of power, and greatness of Gods Power. The Law is Power, and it is Gods Power; All just Laws are from God. One Act of this Power (an occasional executing of Laws at some few times, against the enemies of Gods truth) will not serve; there must be a constant continuation of the execution thereof; nor will that serve, if that be done only for worldly respects, to raise money, and not rather to draw them, who are under those Laws, to the right worship of God, in the truth of his Religion. And yet all, that even all this, This power, this great power, his power shall work upon these, his, and our enemies, is but this, They shall submit themselves, says the text, but how? Mentientur tibi, (as it is in the Original, and as you find it in the Margin) They shall dissemble, they shall lie, they shall yield a feigned obedience, they shall make as though they were good Subjects, but not be so. And yet, even this, Though their submission be but dissembled, but counterfeited, David puts amongst Gods blessings to a State, and to a Church; It is some blessing, when Gods enemies dare not appear, and justify themselves, and their Cause, as it is a heavy discouragement, when they dare do that. Though God do not so far consummate their happiness, as that their enemies shall be truly reconciled, or throughly rooted out, yet he shall afford them so much happiness, as that they shall do them no harm.

And, Beloved, this distribution of the text, which I have given you, is rather a Paraphrase, then a Division, and therefore the rest will rather be a Repetition, then a Dilatation; And I shall only give some such note, and mark, upon every particular branch, as may return them, and fix them in your memories, and not enlarge my self far in any of them, for I know, the time will not admit it.

First then, we remember you, in the first branch of the first part, that David, in that Capacity, as King, institutes those Orders, which the Church is to observe in the public service of God. For, the King is King of men; not of bodies only, but of souls too; And of Christian men; of us, not only as we worship one God, but as we are to express that worship in the outward acts of Religion in the Church. God hath called himself King; and he hath called Kings Gods. And when we look upon the actions of Kings, we determine not our selves in that person, but in God working in that person. As it is not I that do any good, but the grace of God in me, So it is not the King that commands, but the power of God in the King. For, as in a Commission from the King, the King himself works in his Commissioners, and their just Act is the Kings Act: So in the Kings lawful working upon his Subjects, God works, & the Kings acts are Gods acts.

That abstinence therefore, and that forbearance which the Roman Church hath used, from declaring whether the Laws of secular Magistrates do bind the Conscience, or no, that is, whether a man sin in breaking a Temporal Law, or no, (for, though it have been disputed in their books, and though the Bishop of that Church were supplicated in the Trent Council, to declare it, yet he would never be brought to it) that abstinence, I say, of theirs, though it give them one great advantage, yet it gives us another. For, by keeping it still undetermined, and undecided, how far the Laws of temporal Princes do bind us, they keep up that power, which is so profitable to them, that is, To divide Kings and Subjects, and maintain jealousies between them, because, if the breach of any Law, constitute a sin, then enters the jurisdiction of Rome; for, that is the ground of their indirect power over Princes, In ordine ad spiritualia, that in any action, which may conduce to sin, they may meddle, and direct, and constrain temporal Princes. That is their advantage, in their forbearing to declare this doctrine; And then, our advantage is, That this enervates, and weakens, nay destroys and annibilates that ordinary argument, That there must be always a Visible Church, in which every man may have clear resolution, and infallible satisfaction, in all scruples that arise in him, and that the Roman Church is that Seat, and Throne of Infallibility. For, how does the Roman Church give any man infallible satisfaction, whether these or these things, grounded upon the temporal Laws of secular Princes, be sins or no, when as that Church hath not, nor will not come to a determination in that point? How shall they come to the Sacrament? how shall they go out of the world with a clear conscience, when many things lye upon them which they know not, nor can be informed by their Confessors, whether they he sins or no? And thus it is in divers other points besides this; They pretend to give satisfaction and peace in all cases, and pretend to be the only true Church for that, and yet leave the conscience in ignorance, and in distemper, and distress, and distraction in many particulars.

The Law of the Prince is rooted in the power of God. The root of all is Order, and the orderer of all is the King; And what the good Kings of Judah, and the religious Kings of the Primitive Christian Church did, every King may, nay, should do. For, both the Tables are committed to him; (as well the first that concerns our religious duties to God, as the other that concerns our Civil duties to men.) So is the Ark, where those Tables are kept, and so is the Temple, where that Ark is kept; all committed to him; and he oversees the manner of the religious service of God. And therefore it is, that in the Schools we call Sedition and Rebellion, Sacrilege; for, though the trespass seem to be directed but upon a man, yet in that man, whose office (and consequently his person) is sacred, God is opposed, and violated. And it is impiously said of a Jesuit, (I may easily be believed of that Jesuit, if any other might be excepted) Non est Regum etiam veram doctrinam confirmare, The King hath nothing to do with Religion, neither doth it belong to him to establish any forme of Religion in his Kingdom, though it be the right Religion, and though it be but by way of Confirmation.

This then David, David as a King takes to be in his care, in his office, To rectify and settle Religion, that is, the outward worship of God. And this he intimates, this he conveys by way of counsel, and persuasion to all the world, he would fain have all agree in one service of God. Therefore he enters the Psalm so, Iubilate omnes terrae, Rejoice all ye lands; and, Adoret te omnis terrae, All the earth shall worship thee; and again, Venite & audit omnes, Come and hear all ye that fear God. For, as S. Cyprian says of Bishops, That every Bishop is an universal Bishop, That is, must take into his care and contemplation, not only his own particular Dioces, but the whole Catholic Church: So every Christian King is a King of the whole Christian world, that is, must study, and take into his care, not only his own kingdom, but all others too. For, it is not only the municipal law of that kingdom, by which he is bound to see his own subjects, in all cases, righted, but in the whole law of Nations every King hath an interest. My soul may be King, that is, reside principally in my heart, or in my brain, but it neglects not the remoter parts of my body. David maintains Religion at home; but he assists, as much as he can, the establishing of that Religion abroad too.

David endeavors that, persuades that every where; but he will be sure of it at home; There he enjoyns it, there he commands it; Dicite, says he, Say; that is, This you shall say, you shall serve God thus. We cannot provide, that there shall be no Wolves in the world, but we have provided that there shall be no Wolves in this kingdom. Idolatry will be, but there needs be none amongst us. Idolaters were round about the children of Israel in the land of promise; They could not make all those Proselytes; but yet they kept their own station. When the Arian heresy had so surrounded the world, as that Vniversa fere Orientalis Ecclesia, Almost all the Eastern Church, And Cuncti pen Latini Episcopi, aut vi, aut fraud decepti, Almost all the Bishops of the Western Church, were deceived, or threatened out of their Religion into Arianisme; Insomuch, that S. Hilary gives a note of an hundred and five Bishops of note, noted with that heresy; When that one Bishop, who will needs be all alone, the Bishop of Rome, Liberius, so far subscribed to that heresy, (as S. Hieroms express words are) that Bellarmine himself does not only not deny it, but finds himself bound, and finds it hard for him to prove, That though Liberius did outwardly profess himself to be an Arian, yet in his heart he was none; yet for all this impetuousness of this flood of this heresy, Athanasius, as Bishop, excommunicated the Arians in his Dioces, And Constantine, as Emperor, banished them out of his Dominions. Athanasius would have been glad, if no other Church, Constantine would have been glad, if no other State would have received them; When they could not prevail so far, yet they did that which was possible, and most proper to them, they preserved the true worship of the true God in their own Jurisdiction.

David could not have done that, if he had not had a true zeal to Gods truth, in his own heart. And therefore, as we have an intimation of his desire to reduce the whole world, and a testimony of his earnestness towards his own Subjects, so we have an assurance, that in his own particular, he was constantly established in this truth, He calls to all, (Come and see the works of God) And more particularly to all his, (O bless our God yee people) but he proposes himself to their consideration too, (I will declare what he hath done for my soul.) Great is the Lord, and greatly to be feared, says this religious King, in another Psalm; And that is a Proclamation, a Remonstrance to all the world. He adds, One generation shall declare thy works to another; And that is a propagation to the ends of the world. But all this is rooted in that which is personal, and follows after, I will speak of the glorious honor of thy Majesly; And that is a protestation for his own particular. And to the same purpose is that which follows in the next verse, Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; They shall, that is, They should; and, I would all men would, says David; But, whether they do, or no, I will declare thy greatness, says he there; I will not be defective in my particular. And David was to be trusted with a pious endeavor amongst his Neighbours, and with a pious care over all his own subjects, as long as he nourished, and declared so pious a disposition in his own person. And truly, it is an injurious, it is a disloyal suspicion, and jealousy, it is an ungodly fascination of our own happiness, to doubt of good effects abroad, and of a blessed assurance at home, as long as the zeal of Gods truth remains so constantly in his heart, and flows out so declaratorily in his actions, in whose person God assures both our temporal safety, and our Religion.

We pass now from this consideration of the persons; which, though it be fixed here, in the highest, in Kings, extends to all, to whom any power is committed, To Magistrates, to Masters, to Fathers, All are bound to propagate Gods truth to others, but especially to those who are under their charge; And this they shall best do, if themselves be the Example. So far we have proceeded, and we come now to the Duty, as it is here more particularly expressed, Dicite, Say unto God, Publish, declare, manifest your zeal. Christ is Verbum, The Word, and that excludes silence; but Christ is also, and that excludes rashness, and impertinence in our speech. Inter caeteras Dei appellationes, Sermonem veneramur, Amongst Gods other Names, we honor that, that he is the Word; That implies a Communication, Gods goodness in speaking to us, and an obligation upon us, to speak to him. For, Beloved, That standing of the Sun and Moon, which gave occasion to the drawing of so much blood of the Amorites, is, in the Original, not Siste Sol, but Sile Sol; He does not bid the Sun and Moon stand still, but he bids them say nothing, make no noise, no motion so. Be the Sun the Magistrate, and be the Moon, the Church, Si sileant, if they be silent, command not, pray not, avow not Gods cause, the case is dangerous. The Holy Ghost fell in fiery tongues, he inflamed them, and inflamed them to speak. Divers dumb men were presented to Christ; but if they were dumb, they were deaf too, and some of them blind. Upon men that are dumb, that is, speechless in avowing him, God heaps other mischievous impediments too; Deafness, They shall not hear him in his word, and Blindness, They shall not see him in his works.

Dicite, Say, says David, Delight to speak of God, and with God, and for God; Dicite, say something. We told you, this was Magis quàm Cogitare, That there was more required then to think of God. Consideration, Meditation, Speculation, Contemplation upon God, and divine objects, have their place, and their season; But this is more then that; And more then Admiration too, for all these may determine in extasies, and in stupidities, and in useless and frivolous imaginations. Gold may be beat so thin, as that it may be blown away; And Speculations, even of divine things, may be blown to that thinness, to that subtilty, as that all may evaporate, never fixed, never applied to any use. God had conceived in himself, from all eternity, certain Idea's, certain parterns of all things, which he would create. But these Idea's, these conceptions produced not a creature, not a worm, not a weed; but then, Dixit, & facta sunt, God spoke, and all things were made. Inward speculations, nay, inward zeal, nay, inward prayers, are not full performances of our Duty. God hears willingliest, when men hear too; when we speak alowd in the cares of men, and publish, and declare, and manifest, and avow our zeal to his glory.

It is a duty, which in every private man, goes beyond the Cogitare, and the Admirari; but yet not so far as to a Facite, in the private man. Private men must think piously, and seriously, and speak zealously, and seasonably of the cause of God. But this does not authorize, nor justify such a forwardness in any private man, as to come to actions, though he, in a rectified conscience, apprehend, that Gods cause might be advantaged by those actions of his. For, matter of action requires public warrant, and is not safely grounded upon private zeal. When Peter, out of his own zeal, drew his sword for Christ, Nondum manifestè conceperat Euangelium patienty. He was not yet well instructed in the patience of the Gospel; Nay, he was submitted to the sentence of the law, out of the mouth of the supreme Judge, All they that take the sword (that take it before it be given them by Authority) shall perish by the sword. The first law, that was given to the new world, after the Flood, was against the eating of blood. God would not have man so familiar with blood. And the second commandment, was against the shedding of blood, (Who so sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed.) Nay, not only where Peter was over-forward of himself, to defend Christ by armes, but where John and James were too vehement, and importunate upon Christ, to give them leave to revenge the wrong done to him upon the Samaritans, (Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?) Christ rebukes them, and tells them, They knew not of what spirit they were; that is, of what spirit they ought to be. They knew, says S. Jerome; they had no power of their own; They go to him who had; And they do not say, Domine jube, Lord do thou do it; but, Thou shalt never appear in it, never be seen in it, only let us alone, and we will revenge thee, and consume them. Though they went no farther then this, yet this rash, and precipitate importunity in James and John, as well as that hasty comming to action in Peter, was displeasing to Christ; Dicite, speak; so far goes the duty of this Text; Speak by way of Counsel, you that are Counsellors to Princes, And, by way of Exhortation, you that are Preachers to the people; but leave the Facite, matter of action, to them in whose hearts, and by whose hands, and thorough whose commandments God works.

We are yet in our first, in our Historical part, Commemoration, and there we made it, (in our distribution and paraphrase) our next step, what we are to commemorate, to employ this Dicite, this speaking upon; and it is upon Gods works; (Say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works!) So that the subject of our speech, (let it be in holy Conferences, and Discourses, let it be in Gods Ordinance, Preaching) is not to speak of the unrevealed Decrees of God, of his internal, and eternal purposes in himself, but of his works, of those things in which he hath declared, and manifested himself to us. God gave not always to his Church, the Manifestation of the pillar of Fire, but a pillar of Cloud too; And, though it were a Cloud, yet it was a Pillar; In a holy, and devout, and modest ignorance of those things which God hath not revealed to us, we are better settled, and supported by a better Pillar, then in an over-curious, and impertinent inquisition of things reserved to God himself, or shut up in their breasts, of whom God hath said, Ye are gods. God would not show all himself to Moses, as well as he loved him, and as freely as he conversed with him, He showed him but his hinder parts. Let that be his Decrees then, when in his due time they came to execution; for then, and not till then, they are works. And God would not suffer Moses his body to be seen, when it was dead, because then it could not speak to them, it could not instruct them, it could not direct them in any duty, if they transgressed from any. God himself would not be spoken to by us, but as he speaks of himself; and he speaks in his works. And as among men, some may Build, and some may Write, and we call both by one name, (we call his Buildings, and we call his Books, his Works) so if we will speak of God, this World which he hath built, and these Scriptures which he hath written, are his Works, and we speak of God in his Works, (which is the commandment of this Text) when we speak of him so, as he hath manifested himself in his miracles, and as he hath declared himself in his Scriptures; for both these are his Works. There are Decrees in God, but we can take out no Copies of them, till God himself exemplify them, in the execution of them; The accomplishing of the Decree is the best publishing, the best notifying of the Decree. But, of his Works we can take Copies; for, his Scriptures are his Works, and we have them by Translations and Illustrations, made applicable to every understanding; All the promises of his Scriptures belong to all. And, for his Miracles, (his Miracles are also his Works) we have an assurance, That whatsoever God hath done for any, he will do again for us.

It is then his Works upon which we fix this Commemoration, and this glorifying of God; but so, as that we determine not upon the Work it self, but God in the Work, (Say unto God, (to Him) how terrible art thou, (that God) in thy Works?) It may be of use to you, to receive this note, Then when it is said in this Psalm, Come, and see the Works of God, and after, Come, and hear all yee that fear God, in both places it is not, Venite, but It, It is Lechu, not Come, but Go, Go out, Go forth, abroad, to consider God in his Works; Go as far as you can, stop not in your selves, nor stop not in any other, till you come to God himself. If you consider the Scriptures to be his Works, make not Scriptures of your own; which you do, if you make them subject to your private interpretation. My soul speaks in my tongue, else I could make no sound; My tongue speaks in English, else I should not be understood by the Congregation. So God speaks by his Son, in the Gospel; but then, the Gospel speaks in the Church, that every man may hear. It, go forth, stay not in your selves, if you will hear him. And so, for matter of Action, and Protection, come not home to your selves, stay not in your selves, not in a considence in your own power, and wisdom, but It, go forth, go forth into Egypt, go forth into Babylon, and look who delivered your Predecessors, (predecessors in Affliction, predecessors in Mercy) and that God, who is Yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever, shall do the same things, which he did yesterday, to day, and for ever. Turn always to the Commemoration of Works, but not your own; It, go forth, go farther then that, Then your selves, farther then the Angels, and Saints in heaven; That when you commemorate your deliverance from an Invasion, and your deliverance from the Vault, you do not ascribe these deliverances to those Saints, upon whose days they were wrought; In all your Commemorations, (and commemorations are prayers, and God receives that which we offer for a Thanksgiving for former Benefits, as a prayer for future) It go forth, by the river to the spring, by the branch to the root, by the work to God himself, and Dicite, say unto him, say of him, Quam terribilis Tu in Tuis, which sets us upon another step in this part, To consider what this Terribleness is, that God expresses in his works.

Though there be a difference between timer, and terror, (fear and terror) yet the difference is not so great, but that both may fall upon a good man; Not only a fear of God must, but a terror of God may fall upon the Best. When God talked with Abraham, a horror of great darkness fell upon him, says that Text. The Father of lights, and the God of all comfort present, and present in an action of Mercy, and yet, a horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham. When God talked personally, and presentially with Moses, Moses hid his face, for (says that Text) he was afraid to look upon God. When I look upon God, as I am bid to do in this Text, in those terrible Judgements, which he hath executed upon some men, and see that there is nothing between me and the same Judgement, (for I have sinned the same sins, and God is the same God) I am not able of my self to dye that glass, that spectacle, through which I look upon this God, in what color I will; whether this glass shall be black, through my despair, and so I shall see God in the cloud of my sins, or red in the blood of Christ Jesus, and I shall see God in a Bath of the blood of his Son, whether I shall see God as a Dove with an Olive branch, (peace to my soul) or as an Eagle, a vulture to prey, and to prey everlastingly upon me, whether in the deep floods of Tribulation, spiritual or temporal, I shall see God as an Ark to take me in, or as a Whale to swallow me; and if his Whale do swallow me, (the Tribulation devour me) whether his purpose be to restore me, or to consume me, I, I of my self cannot tell. I cannot look upon God, in what line I will, nor take hold of God, by what handle I will; He is a terrible God, I take him so; And then I cannot discontinue, I cannot break off this terribleness, and say, He hath been terrible to that man, and there is an end of his terror; it reaches not to me. Why not to me? In me there is no merit, nor shadow of merit; In God there is no change, nor shadow of change. I am the same sinner, he is the same God; still the same desperate sinner, still the same terrible God.

But terrible in his works, says our Text; Terrible so, as he hath declared himself to be in his works. His Works are, as we said before, his Actions, and his Scriptures. In his Actions we see him Terrible upon disobedient Resisters of his Graces, and Despisers of the means thereof, not upon others, we have no examples of that. In his word, we accept this word in which he hath been pleased to express himself, Norah, which is rather Reverendus, then Terribilis, as that word is used, I gave him life and peace, for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my Name. So that this Terribleness, which we are called upon to profess of God, is a Reverential, a Majestical, not a Tyrannical terribleness. And therefore he that conceives a God, that hath made man of flesh and blood, and yet exacts that purity of an Angel in that flesh, A God that would provide himself no better glory, then to damme man, A God who lest he should love man, and be reconciled to man, hath enwrapped him in an inevitable necessity of sinning, A God who hath received enough, and enough for the satisfaction of all men, and yet, (not in consideration of their future sins, but merely because he hated them before they were sinners, or before they were any thing) hath made it impossible, for the greatest part of men, to have any benefit of that large satisfaction. This is not such a Terribleness as arises out of his Works, (his Actions, or his Scriptures) for God hath never said, never done any such thing, as should make us lodge such conceptions of God in our selves, or lay such imputations upon him.

The true fear of God is true wisdom. It is true Joy; Rejoice in trembling, saith David; There is no rejoicing without this fear; there is no Riches without it; Reverentia Ichovae, The fear of the Lord is his treasure, and that is the best treasure. Thus far we are to go; Let us serve God with reverence, and godly fear, (godly fear is but a Reverence, it is not a Jealousy, a suspicion of God.) And let us do it upon the reason that follows in the same place, For our God is a consuming fire, There is all his terribleness; he is a consuming fire to his enemies, but he is our God; and God is love: And therefore to conceive a cruel God, a God that hated us, even to damnation, before we were, (as some, who have departed from the sense and modesty of the Ancients, have adventured to say) or to conceive a God so cruel, as that at our death, or in our way, he will afford us no assurance, that he is ours, and we his, but let us live and die in anxiety and torture of conscience, in jealousy and suspicion of his good purpose towards us in the salvation of our souls, (as those of the Roman Heresy teach) to conceive such a God as from all eternity meant to damn me, or such a God as would never make me know, and be sure that I should be saved, this is not to profess God to be terrible in his works; For, his Actions are his works, and his Scriptures are his works, and God hath never done, or said any thing to induce so terrible an opinion of him.

And so we have done with all those pieces, which in our paraphrastical distribution of the text, at beginning, did constitute our first, our Historical part, Davids retrospect, his commemoration of former blessings; In which he proposes a duty, a declaration of Gods goodness, Dicite, publish it, speak of it; He proposes Religious duties, in that capacity, as he is King; (Religion is the Kings care) He proposes, by way of Counsel to all; by way of Commandment to his own Subjects; And by a more powerful way, then either counsel or Commandment, that is, by Example, by doing that himself, which he counsels, and commands others to do. Dicite, Say, speak; It is a duty more then thinking, and less then doing; Every man is bound to speak for the advancement of Gods cause, but when it comes to action, that is not the private mans office, but belongs to the public, or him, who is the Public, David himself, the King. The duty is Commemoration, Dicite, Say, speak; but Dicite Deo, Do this to God; ascribe not your deliverances to your Armies, and Navies, by Sea, or Land; no, nor to Saints in Heaven, but to God only. Nor are ye called upon to contemplate God in his Essence, or in his Decrees, but in his works; In his Actions, in his Scriptures; In both those you shall find him terrible, that is, Reverend, majestical, though never tyrannical, nor cruel. Pass we now, according to our order laid down at first, to our second part, the Prophetical part, Davids prospect for the future; and gather we something from the particular branches of that, Through the greatness of thy power, thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee.

In this, our first consideration is, that God himself hath enemies; and then, how should we hope to be, nay, why would we wish to be without them? God had good, that is, Glory from his enemies; And we may have good, that is, advantage in the way to glory, by the exercise of our patience, from enemies too. Those for whom God had done most, the Angels, turned enemies first; vex not thou thy self, if those whom thou hast loved best, hate thee deadliest. There is a love, in which it aggravates thy condemnation, that thou art so much loved; Does not God recompense that, if there be such a hate, as that thou art the better, and that thy salvation is exalted, for having been hated? And that profit, the righteous have from enemies. God loved us then, when we were his enemies, and we frustrate his exemplar love to us, if we love not enemies too. The word Hostis, (which is a word of heavy signification, and implies devastation, and all the mischiefs of war) is not read in all the New Testament: Inimicus, that is, non amicus, unfriendly, is read there often, very very often. There is an enmity which may consist with Euangelical charity; but a hostility, that carries in it a denotation of revenge, of extirpation, of annihilation, that cannot. This gives us some light, how far we may, and may not hate enemies. God had enemies to whom he never returned, The Angels that opposed him; and that is, because they oppose him still, and are, by their own perverseness, incapable of reconciliation. We were enemies to God too; but being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.

As then actual reconciliation makes us actually friends, so in differences which may be reconciled, we should not be too severe enemies, but maintain in our selves a disposition of friendship; but, in those things, which are in their nature irreconciliable, we must be irreconciliable too. There is an enmity which God himself hath made, and made perpetual: Ponam inimicitias, says God; God puts an enmity between the seed of the Serpent, and the seed of the woman; And, those whom God joins, let no man sever, those whom God severs, let no man join. The School presents it well; we are to consider an enemy formally, or materially; that is, that which makes him an enemy, or that which makes him a man. In that which makes him a man, he hath the Image of God in him, and by that is capable of grace and glory; and therefore, that we may not hate, which excludes all personal, and all national hatred. In that which makes him an enemy he hath the Image of the Devil, infidelity towards God, perfidiousness towards man, Heresy towards God, infectious manners towards man; and, that we must always hate; for, that is Odium perfectum, A hate that may consist with a perfect man, nay, a hate that constitutes love it self, I do not love a man, except I hate his vices, because those vices are the enemies, and the destruction of that friend whom I love.

God himself hath enemies, Thine enemies shall submit, says the text, to God; There thou hast one comfort, though thou have enemies too; but the greater comfort is, That God calls thine enemies his. Nolite tangere Christos meos, says God of all holy people; you were as good touch me, as touch any of them, for, they are the apple of mine eye. Our Savior Christ never expostulated for himself; never said, why scourged you me? why spit you upon me? why crucify you me? as long as their rage determined in his person, he opened not his mouth; when Saul extended the violence to the Church, to his servants, then Christ came to that, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Cains trespass against God himself was, that he would bind God to an acceptation of his Sacrifice; And for that God comes no farther, but to Why doest thou thus? but in his trespass upon his brother, God proceeds so much farther, as to say, Now art thou cursed from the earth. Ieroboam suffered Idolatry, and God let him alone; that concerned but God himself. But when Ieroboam stretched forth his hand to lay hold on the Prophet, his hand withered. Here is a holy league, Defensive, and Offensive; God shall not only protect us from others, but he shall fight for us against them; our enemies are his enemies.

And beloved, it is well that it is so; for, if we were left to our selves, we were remedilesse. It is his mercy that we are not consumed, by his indignation, by himself; But it must be the exercise of his power, if we be not consumed by his, and our enemies; for, there is but that one way in the text, that can bring these enemies to any thing, that is, In multitudine virtutis tua, In the greatness of thy power. It must be power; Intreaty, Appliableness, Conformity, Facility, Patience does not serve. It must be Power, and His power; To assist our selves by his enemies, by Witches, or by Idolaters, is not his power. It is Power that does all; for, the name that God is manifested in, in all the making of the World, in the first of Genesis, is Elohim, and that is Deus fortis, The powerful God. It is Power, and it is His power; for, his name is Dominus tzebaoth, The Lord of Hosts. Hosts and Armies of which he is not the General, are but great insurrections, great rebellions. And then, as it is Power, and His power, so it is the greatness of his Power; His Power extended, exalted. It is in the Original, Berob, In multitudine fortitudinis, in thy manifold power, in thy multiplied power. Moses considers the assurance that they might have in God, in this, That God fought their battles (The Lord your God goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, and save you) There was his power declared, and exercised one way; and then in this, That he had afforded them particular Laws, for their direction in all their actions, Religious, and Civil; (To what Nation is God come so near? what people have Laws and Ordinances, such as we have?) So that, where God defends us by Armies, and directs us by just Laws, that is Multitudo fortitudinis, The greatness of his power, his power magnified, his power multiplied upon us.

Now, through this power, and not without this power, this double power, Law and Armes, Thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee, says our text. And then, is all the danger at an end? shall we be safe then? Not then. The word is Cacash, and Cacash is but Mendacem fieri, to be brought to lie, to dissemble, to equivocate, to modify, to temporize, to counterfeit, to make as though they were our friends, in an outward conformity. And there are enemies of God, whom no power of Armies or Laws can bring any farther then that, To hold their tongues, and to hold their hands, but to withhold their hearts from us still. So the Gibeonites deceived Joshua, in the likeness of Ambassadors; Ioshuahs power made them lie unto him. So Pharaoh deceived and deluded Moses and Aaron; Every Act of power brought Pharaoh to lie unto them. I direct not your thoughts upon public Considerations; It is not my end; It is not my way: My way and end is to bring you home to your selves, and to consider there, That we are full of weaknesses in our selves, full of enemies, sinful temptations about us; That only the power of God, his power multiplied, (that is, The receiving of his word, (that is, the power of Law) The receiving of his corrections (that is, the power of his Hosts) can make our enemies, our sinful temptations submit, and when they do so, it is but a lie, They return to us, and we turn to them again, In the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit unto thee.

But then, (which is our last step and Conclusion) even this, That these enemies shall be forced to such a submission, to any submission, though disguised and counterfeit, is, in this Text, presented for a Consolation; There is a comfort even in this, That those enemies shall be fain to lie, that they shall not dare to avow their malice, nor to blaspheme God in open professions. There is a conditional blessing proposed to Gods people; (O that my people had hearkened unto me! O that Israel had walked in my ways!) What had been their recompense? This. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto them. Should they in earnest? No truly; there is the same word, They should have lied unto them, they should have made as though they had submitted themselves; and that, God presents for a great degree of his mercy to them. And therefore, as in thy particular Conscience, though God do not take away that Stimulum carnis, and that Angelum Satanae, though he do not extinguish all lusts and concupiscencies in thee, yet if those lusts prevail not over thee, if they command not, if they divert thee not from the sense, and service of God, thou hast good reason to bless God for this, to rest in this, and to call it peace of conscience: So hast thou reason too to call it Peace in the Church, and peace in the State, when Gods enemies, though they be not rooted out, though they be not disposed to a hearty Allegiance, and just Obedience, yet they must be subject, they must submit themselves whether they will or no, and though they will wish no good, yet they shall be able to do no harm. For, the Holy Ghost declares this to be an exercise of power, of Gods power, of the greatness of Gods power, that his enemies submit themselves, though with a feigned obedience.

Serm. LXX. Preached at White-hall, April 8. 1621.

PROV. 25.16.

Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

THere is a temporal unsatiableness of riches, and there is a spiritual unsatiableness of sin. The first Covetousness, that of riches, the Apostle calls The root of all evil, but the second Covetousness, that of sin, is the fruit of all evil, for that is The treasure of Gods wrath, as the Apostle speaks, when he makes our former sins, the mother of future sins, and then our future sins the punishments of former. As though this World were too little to satisfy man, men are come to discover or imagine new worlds, several worlds in every Planet; and as though our Fathers heretofore, and we our selves too, had been but dull and ignorant sinners, we think it belongs to us to perfect old inventions, and to sin in another height and excellency, then former times did, as though sin had had but a minority, and an infancy till now. Though the pride of the Prince of Tyrus were ever in some Tyrans, who says there, I am a god, and sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the Seas, and am wiser then Daniel; Yet there is a Sea above these seas, a power above this power, a spiritual pride above this temporal pride, one so much wiser then Daniel, as that he is as wise as the Holy Ghost. The world hath ever had levities and inconstancies, and the fool hath changed as the Moon; the same men that have cried Hosanna, are ready to cry Crucifige; but, as in Job's Wife, in the same mouth, the same word was ambiguous, (whether it were bless God, or curse God, out of the word we cannot tell) so are the actions of men so ambiguous, as that we cannot conclude upon them; men come to our Prayers here, and pray in their hearts here in this place, that God would induce another manner of Prayer into this place; and so pray in the Congregation, that God would not hear the prayers of the Congregation; There hath always been ambiguity and equivocation in words, but now in actions, and almost every action will admit a diverse sense. And it was the Prophets complaint of old, You have multiplied your fornications, and yet are not satisfied; but we wonder why the Prophet should wonder at that, for the more we multiply temporally or spiritually, the less we are satisfied. Others have thought, that our souls sinned before they came into the world, and that therefore they are here as in a prison; but they are rather here, as in a School; for, if they had studied sin in another world before, they practise it here, If they have practised it before, they teach it now, they lead and induce others into sin.

But this consideration of our insatiableness in sin, in my purpose I seposed for the end of this hour; But who knows whether your patience, that you will hear, or who knows whether yours, or my life, that you can hear, shall last to the end of this hour? and therefore it is an excusable anticipation, to have begun with this spiritual covetousness of sin, though our first payment be to be made in the literal sense of the text, A reprehension, and in it, a Counsel, against our general insatiableness of the temporal things of this world. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

In which words, there being first a particular Compellation, Tu, hast thou found it? it remembers thee, that there be a great many, that have not found it, but lack that which thou aboundest in; And Invenisti, thou hast not inherited it, nor merited it, thou hast but found it; and for that which thou hast found, it is Honey, sweetness, but it is but Honey, which easily becomes choler, and gall, and bitterness. Such as it is, Comede, thou mayst eat it, and eat it safely, it is not unwholesome; but Comede sufficientiam, eat no more then is sufficient; And in that, let not the servant measure himself by his Master, nor the subject by the King, nor the private man by the Magistrate, but Comede sufficientiam tuam, eat that which is sufficient for thee, for more then that will fill thee, over-fill thee; perchance not so full as thou wouldst be, yet certainly so full, as that there will be no room in thee for better things; and then thou wilt vomit, nay perchance thou must vomit, the malice and plots of others shall give thee a vomit, And such a vomit shall be Evacuans, an exinanition, leave thee empty; and Immundum, an uncleanness, leave thee in scorn and contempt; and Periculosum, a danger, break a vein, a vein at the heart, break thy heart it self, that thou shalt never recover it. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

First then, for that Compellation Tu, hast thou found it? It is a word first of familiarity, and then a word of particularity. It is a degree of familiarity, that God hath notified himself to us in several Persons; that he hath come so near to our comprehension, as to be considered not only as an universal, and infinite God, but as a Father, and as a Son, and opened himself unto us in these Notions, Tu Pater, Tu Fili, Thou O Father, and Thou O Son, have mercy upon us. A Constable, or Beadle will not be spoke to so, to be thou'd, and any Person in the Trinity, the whole Trinity together is content with it; Take God altogether, and at highest, Tu altissimus, Thou Lord art most high for evermore; Take him from before any beginning, Tu à seculo, Thy throue is established of old, and thou art from everlasting; Take him from beyond all ending, Tu autem permanes, Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

In which, we go not about to condemn, or correct the civil manner of giving different titles, to different ranks of men; but to note the slipperiness of our times, where titles flow into one another, and lose their distinctions; when as the Elements are condensed into one another, air condensed into water, and that into earth, so an obsequious flatterer, shall condense a yeoman into a Worshipful person, and the Worshipful into Honorable, and so that which duly was intended for distinction, shall occasion confusion. But that which we purpose, in noting this Tu, is rather the singularity, the particularity, then the familiarity; That the Holy Ghost in this collects Man, abridges Man, sums up Man in an unity, in the consideration of one, of himself. Oportet hominem fieri unum, Man must grow in his consideration, till he be but one man, one individual man. If he consider himself in Humanitate, in the whole mankind, a glorious creature, an immortal soul, he shall see this immortal soul, as well in Goats at the left hand, as in Sheep at the right hand of Christ, at the Resurrection; Men on both sides: If he consider himself in Qualitate, in his quality, in his calling, he shall hear many then plead their Prophetavimus, we have prophesied, and their Ejecimus, we have exercised, and their Virtutes secimus, we have done wonders, and all in thy Name, and yet receive that answer, Nunquam cognovi, I do not know you now, I never did know you. Oportet unum fieri, he must consider himself in individuo, that one man, not that man in nature, not that man in calling, but that man in actions. Origen makes this use of those words, as he found them, Erat vir unus, There was one man; (which was Elkanah) He adds, Nomen ejus possessio Dei, this one man, says he, was, in his Name, Gods possession; Nam quem Daemones possident, non unus sed mulii, for he whom the Devil possesses, is not one. The same sinner is not the same thing; still he clambers in his ambitious purposes, there he is an Eagle; & yet lies still groveling, and trodden upon at any greater mans threshold, there he is a worm. He swells to all that are under him, there he is a full Sea; and his dog that is above him, may wade over him, there he is a shallow, an empty River. In the compass of a few days, he neighs like a horse in the rage of his lust over all the City, and groans in a corner of the City, in an hospital. A sinner is as many men, as he hath vices; he that is Elkanah, Possessio Dei, possessed by God, and in possession of God, he is unus homo, one and the same man. And when God calls upon man so particularly, he intends him some particular good. It is S. Hieromes note, That when God in the Scriptures speaks of divers things in the singular number, it is ever in things of grace; And it is S. Augustins note, that when he speaks of any one thing in the plural Number, it is of heavy and sorrowful things; as Ieptha was buried In civitatibus Gilead, in the Cities, but he had but one grave; And so that is, they made Aureos vitulos, Golden Calves, when it was but one Calfe.

When Gods voice comes to thee in this Text, in particular, Tu, Hast thou found, he would have thee remember, how many seek and have sought, with tears, with sweat, with blood, and lack that, that thou aboundest in. That whereas his Evidence to them whom he loves not, in the next world shall be, Esurivi, I was hungry, and yee gave me no meat; And his proceeding with them whom he loves not in this world, is, Si esuriero, If I be hungry, I will not tell thee, I will not awaken thee, not remember thy conscience, wherein thou mayest do me a service; He does call upon thee in particular, and ask thee, Nonne tu, Hast thou not fortune enough, to let fall some crumbs upon him that starves? and, Nonne tu, hast not thou favor enough, to shed some beams upon him that is frozen in disgrace? There is a squint eye, that looks side-long; to look upon riches, and honor, on the left hand, and long life here, on the right, is a squint eye. There is a squint eye, that looks upwards and downwards; to look after God and Mammon, is a squint eye. There are squint eyes, that look upon one another; to look upon ones own beauty, or wisdom, or power, is a squint eye. The direct look is to look inward upon thine own Conscience; Not with Nabuchadnezzar, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by the might of my power, and for the honor of my Majesty? But with David, Quid retribuam? for if thou look upon them with a clear eye, thou wilt see, that though thou hast them, thou hast but found them, which is our next step.

Now, if you have but found them, thou hast them but by chance, by contingency, by fortune. The Emperor Leo, he calls money found, Dei beneficium, It is a benefit derived from God; but the great Lawyer; Triphonius, calls it, Donum fortunae too, An immediate gift of fortune. They consist well enough together, God and fortune. S. Augustine in his Retract: makes a conscience of having named her too oft, lest other men should be scandalized; and so the Prophet complains of that, (as the Vulgate reads it) Ponitis mensam fortunae, You sacrifice to fortune, you make fortune a god; that you should not do; but yet you should acknowledge that God hath such a servant, such an instrument, as fortune too. Gods ordinary working is by Nature, these causes must produce these effects; and that is his common Law; He goes sometimes above that, by Prerogative, and that is by miracle, and sometimes below that, as by custom, and that is fortune, that is contingency; Fortune is as far out of the ordinary way, as miracle; no man knows in Nature, in reason, why such, or such persons grow great; but it falls out so often, as we do not call it miracle, and therefore rest in the Name of Fortune. We need not quarrel the words of the Poet, Tu quamcunque Deus tibi fortunaverit horam, Grata sum manu, Thank God for any good fortune, since the Apostle says too, that Godliness hath the promise of this life; The godly man shall be fortunate, God will bless him with good fortune here; but still it is fortune, and chance, in the sight and reason of man, and therefore he hath but found, whatsoever he hath in that kind. It is intimated in the very word which we use for all worldly things; It is Inventarium, an Inventory; we found them here, and here our successors find them, when we are gone from hence. Iezabel had an estimation of beauty, and she thought to have drawn the King with that beauty, but she found it, she found it in her box, and in her wardrope, she was not truly fayre. Achitophel had an estimation of wisdom in Counsel, I know not how he found it; he counselled by an example, which no man would follow, he hanged himself. Thou wilt not be drawn to confess, that a Man that hath an office, is presently wiser then thou, or a man that is Knighted, presently valianter then thou. Men have preferment for those parts, which other men, equal to them in the same things, have not, and therefore they do but find them; And to things that are but found, what is our title? Nisi reddantur, rapina est, says the Law, If we restore not that which we find, it is robbery. S. Augustine hath brought it nearer, Qui alienum negat, si posset, tolleret, He that confesseth not that which he hath found of another mans, if he durst, he would have taken it by force. For that which we have found in this world, our ealling is the owner, our debts are the owner, our children are the owner; our lusts, our superfluities are no owners: of all the rest, God is the owner, and to this purpose, the poor is God.

S. Augustine puts a case to the point: He says when he was at Milan, a poor Usher of a Grammar School found a bag of money, 200 Solidorum; let it be but one hundreth pounds; he set up bills; the owner came, offered him his tithe, ten pounds; he would none; he pressed him to five, to three, to two; he would none: and then he that had lost it, in an honorable indignation, disclaimed it all; Nihil perdidi, says he, it is all your own, I lost nothing: Quale certamen! Theatrum mundus, spectator Deus, Out of importunity, he that found it, took it all, and out of conscience, that it was not his, gave it all to the poor.

The things of this world we do but find, and of the things which we find, we are but Stewards for others. This finding is not so merely casual, as that it implies no manner of seeking; We must put our selves into the way, into a calling. The word is Matza, and that word is allowed us; but a word like it, is not allowed us; Matza is, but Matzah is not; if there be an H added, an H, as it is an aspiration, a breathing, a panting after the things of this world, or an Ache, as it is a pain, that it make our bones ake, or our hearts ake, or our conscience ake, it is a seeking, and a finding, not intended in this word. Our prosecution and seeking must be moderate, our title and interest is but a finding; and what hath the most fortunate found? Honey; it is true, but yet but Honey.

That which Solomon may justly seem to intend, especially by Honey in this Text, is that which the Poets, and other Masters of language, have called Magnas amicitias, and Magnas Clientelas, dependance, and interest, and favor in great persons. It appears by the next verse, which depends upon this, and paraphrases it; Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house. Where that which we read, Withdraw, is in the Original Hokar, which is Fac pretiosum, make not thy self cheap, not vulgar, have some respect to thy self, to thine own ingenuity, but principally to the other, to thy great friend: be not importune and troublesome by any indiscreet assiduity, to them who are possessed with business, though at sometimes they descend to thee; This is this Honey, where thou hast access, yet do not push open every door, fling up every hanging, but use thy favor modestly.

But in this Honey is wrapped up also all that is delightful in this life; and Solomon carries us often to that Comparison; In the Chapter before this, for Wisdom; My Son, eat thou Honey, because it is good; so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to thy soul; and in the seven and twentieth verse of this Chapter, he uses it for Glory; It is not good to eat much honey; so for men to search their own glory, is not glory. In the sixth Chapter of this book, when Solomon had sent us to the Ant, to learn wisdom, between the eight verse and the ninth, he sends us to another school, to the Be: Vade ad Apem & disc quomodo operationem vener abilem facit, Go to the Be, and learn how reverend and mysterious a work she works. For, though S. Jerome acknowledge, that in his time, this verse was not in the Hebrew Text, yet it hath ever been in many Copies of the Septuagint, and though it be now left out in the Complutense Bible, and that which they call the Kings, yet it is in that still, which they value above all, the Vatican. S. Jerome himself takes it into his exposition, and other Fathers into theirs. So far therefore we may hearken to that voice, as to go to the Be, and learn to work by that Creature.

Both S. Basil, and S. Chrysostom put this difference in that place, between the labor of the Ant, and the Be, That the Ants work but for themselves, the Be for others: Though the Ants have a Common-wealth of their own, yet those Fathers call their labor, but private labor; because no other Common-wealths have benefit by their labor, but their own. Direct thy labours in thy calling to the good of the public, and then thou art a civil, a moral Ant; but consider also, That all that are of the household of the faithful, and profess the same truth of Religion, are part of this public, and direct thy labours, for the glory of Christ Jesus, amongst them too, and then thou art a religious and a Christian Be, and the fruit of thy labor shall be Honey. The labor of the Ant is sub Dio, open, evident, manifest; The labor of the Be is sub Tecto, in a house, in a hive; They will do good, and yet they will not be seen to do it; they affect not glory, nay, they avoid it. For in experience, when some men curious of natural knowledge, have made their Hives of glass, that by that transparency, they might see the Bees manner of working, the Bees have made it their first work to line that Glass-hive, with a crust of Wax, that they might work and not be discerned. It is a blessed sincerity, to work as the Ant, professedly, openly; but because there may be cases, when to do so, would destroy the whole work, though there be a cloud and a curtain between thee, and the eyes of men, yet if thou do them clearly in the sight of God, that he see his glory advanced by thee, the fruit of thy labor shall be Honey.

Pliny names one Aristomachum Solensem, that spent threescore years in the contemplation of Bees; our whole time for this exercise is but threescore minutes; and therefore we say no more of this, but Vade ad Apem, practife the sedulity of the Be, labor in thy calling, And the community of the Be, believe that thou art called to assist others, And the secresy of the Be, that the greatest, and most authorized spy see it not, to supplant it, And the purity of the Be, that never settles upon any foul thing, that thou never take a foul way to a faire end, and the fruit of thy labor shall be Honey; God shall give thee the sweetness of this world, honor, and ease, and plenty, and he shall give thee thy honey-combe, with thy honey, that which preserves thy honey to thee, that is, a religious knowledge, that all this is but honey; And honey in the dew of the flores, whence it is drawn, is but Coeli sudor, a sweaty excrement of the heavens, and Siderum saliva, the spettle, the fleame of the stars, and Apum vomitus, the casting, the vomit of the Be. And though honey be the sweetest thing that we do take into the body, yet there it degenerates into gall, and proves the bitterest; And all this is honey in the Anti-type, in that which it signifies, in the temporal things of this world; In the temporal things of this world there is a bitterness, in our use of them; But in his hand, and his purpose that gives them, they have impressions of sweetness; and so Comede, Eat thy honey, which is also a step farther.

Here is libery for any man to eat Honey, if he have found it, and Ionathan the Kings son found honey upon the ground, and did but dip his staff in it, and put it to his mouth, and he must die for it. Of forbidden honey the least dramme is poison, how sweet soever any collateral respect make it. But Ionathan knew not that it was forbidken by the King: Ignorance is no plea in any subject against the Kings laws; and there is a King, in breach of whose laws, no King, no Kings son can excuse themselves by ignorance, if they do but dip their Scepter in forbidden honey, in any unlawful delight in this world; For they do, or they may know the unlawfulness of it. But for the honey which God allows us, whether God give it in that plenty, Terram fluentem, that the land flow with milk and honey, nay Torrentes mellis, rivers and streams of honey, that great fortunes flow into men, in this world; or whether God put us to suck honey out of the Rock, that that which we have, we dig, and plough, and thresh for, yet when thou hast found that, Comede, use it, enjoy it, eat it; He that will not work, shall not eat; He that shuts himself up in a Cloister, till the honey find him, till meat be brought to him, should not eat.

Christ himself are Honey, but after his Resurrection; when his body needed not refection; when our principal end in worldly things, is not for the body, nor for the world, but that we have had a spiritual resurrection, that we can see Gods love in them, and show Gods glory by them, then Invenisti, thou hast found; (for Invenire, est in rem venire, id est in usum) to find a thing is to make the right use of it, and Invenisti mel, thou hast found Honey, that which God intends for sweetness, for necessities, conveniences, abundances, recreations, and delights; and therefore Comede, eat it, enjoy it; but to thee also belongs that Caveat, Comede ad sufficientiam, Eat but enough.

That great Moral man Seneca, could see, that Nihil agere, to pass this life, and intend no Vocation, was very ill; and that Aliud agere, to profess a Vocation, and be busier in other mens callings, then his own, was worse; but the Super-agere, to over-do, to do more then was required at his hands, he never brought into comparison, he never suspected; and yet that is our most ordinary fault. That which hath been ordinarily given by our Physicians, by way of counsel, That we should rise with an appetite, hath been enough followed by worldly men; They always lie down, and always rise up with an appetite to more, and more in this world. An Office is but an Anti-past, it gets them an appetite to another Office; and a title of Honor, but an Anti-past, a new stomach to a new Title. The danger is, that we cannot go upward directly; If we have a stair, to go any height, it must be a winding stair; It is a compassing, a circumventing, to rise: A Ladder is a straight Engin of it self, yet if we will rise by that, it must be set a slope; Though our means be direct in their own nature, yet we put them upon crooked ways; It is but a poor rising, that any man can make in a direct line, and yet it is, Ad sufficientiam, high enough, for it is to heaven. Have yee seen a glass blown to a handsome competency, and with one breath more, broke? I will not ask you, whether you haue seen a competent beauty made worse, by an artificial addition, because they have not thought it well enough before; you see it every day, and every where. If Paul himself were here, whom for his Eloquence the Lystrians called Mercury, he could not persuade them to leave their Mercury; It will not easily be left; for how many of them that take it outwardly at first, come at last to take it inwardly? Since the saying of Solomon, Be not over righteous, admits many good senses, even in Moral virtues, and in religious duties too, which are naturally good, it is much more applicable in temporal things, which are naturally indifferent; Be not over faire, over witty, over sociable, over rich, over glorious; but let the measure be Sufficientia tua, So much as is sufficient for thee.

But where shall a man take measure of himself? At what age, or in what calling shall he say, This is sufficient for me? Jeremiah says, Puer sum, I am a child, and cannot speak at all; S. Paul says, Quando puer, When I was a child, no bigger, I spake like a child; this was not sufficientia sua, sufficienr for him; for since he was to be a man, he was to speak like a man: The same clothes do not serve us throughout our lives, nay not the same bodies, nay not the same virtues, so there is no certain Gomer, no fixed Measure for worldly things, for every one to have. As Clemens Alexandrinus saith, Eadem Drachma data Nauclero, est Naulum, The same piece of Money given to a Water-man, is his Fare; Publicano Vectigal, given to a Farmer of Custom, it is Impost; Mercatori pretium, to a Merchant it is the price of his Ware; Operario Merces, Mendico Eleemosyna, To a Labourer it is Wages, to a Begger it is Alms; So on the other side, this which we call sufficiency, as it hath relation to divers states, hath a different measure. I think the rule will not be inconveniently given, if we say, That whatsoever the world doth justly look for at our hands, we may justly look for at Gods hands: Those outward means, which are requisite for the performance of the duties of your calling to the world, arising from your birth, or arising from your place, you are to pray for, you are to labor for; For that is Sufficientia tua, so much is sufficient for you, and so much Honey you may eat; but eat no more, says the Text, Ne satieris, Lest you be filled.

He doth not say yet, lest thou be satisfied; there is no great fear, nay there is no hope of that, that he will be satisfied. We know the receipt, the capacity of the ventricle, the stomach of man, how much it can hold; and we know the receipt of all the receptacles of blood, how much blood the body can have; so we do of all the other conduits and cisterns of the body; But this infinite Hive of honey, this insatiable whirlpool of the covetous mind, no Anatomy, no dissection hath discovered to us. When I look into the larders, and cellars, and vaults, into the vessels of our body for drink, for blood, for urine, they are pottles, and gallons; when I look into the furnaces of our spirits, the ventricles of the heart and of the brain, they are not thimbles; for spiritual things, the things of the next world, we have no room; for temporal things, the things of this world, we have no bounds. How then shall this over-eater be filled with his honey? So filled, as that he can receive nothing else. More of the same honey he can; Another Mannor, and another Church, is but another bit of meat, with another sauce to him; Another Office, and another way of Extortion, is but another garment, and another lace to him. But he is too full to receive any thing else; Christ comes to this Bethlem, (Bethlem which is Domus panis) this house of abundance, and there is no room for Christ in this Inn; there are no crumbs for Christ under this table; There comes Boanerges, (Boanerges, that is, filius Tonitrui, the son of Thunder) and he thunders out the Vae's, the Comminations, the Judgements of God upon such as he; but if the Thunder spoil not his drink, he sees no harm in Thunder; As long as a Sermon is not a Sentence in the Starr-chamber, that a Sermon cannot fine and imprison him, he hath no room for any good effect of a Sermon. The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Comfort comes to him, and offers him the consolation of the Gospel; but he will die in his old religion, which is to sacrifice to his own Nets, by which his portion is plenteous; he had rather have the God of the Old Testament, that pays in this world with milk and honey, then the God of the New Testament, that calls him into his Vineyard in this World, and pays him no wages till the next: one Iupiter is worth all the three Elohims, or the three Iehovahs (if we may speak so) to him. Iupiter that can come in a shore of gold, out weighs Iehova, that comes but in a shore of water, but in a sprinkling of water in Baptism, and sells that water so dear, as that he will have shores of tears for it, nay shores of blood for it, when any Persecutor hath a mind to call for it. The voice of God whom he hath contemned, and wounded, The voice of the Preacher whom he hath derided, and impoverished, The voice of the poor, of the Widow, of the Orphans, of the prisoner, whom he hath oppressed, knock at his door, and would enter, but there is no room for them, he is so full. This is the great danger indeed that accompanies this fullness, but the danger that affects him more is that which is more literally in the text, Evomet, he shall be so filled as that he shall vomit; even that fullness, those temporal things which he had, he shall cast up.

It is not a vomiting for his ease, that he would vomit; but he shall vomit; he shall be forced to vomit. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his belly; But by what hand? whether by his right hand, by the true way of justice, or his left hand, by malice, under color of justice, his money shall be his Antimony, his own riches shall be his vomit. Solomon says, he saw a sore evil under the Sun; but if he had lived as long as the Sun, he might have seen it every course of the Sun, Riches reserved to their owners for their own hurt; Richmen perish, that should not have perished, or not so soon, or not so absolutely, if they had not been rich. Their confidence in their riches provokes them to some unjustifiable actions, and their riches provoke others to a vehement persecution. And in this vomit of theirs, if we had time to do so, we would consider first, The sordidness, and the contempt and scorn that this evacuated Man comes to in the world, when he hath had this vomit of all his honey; That because there can be no vacuity, he shall be filled again, but Saturabitur ignominia, He shall be filled with shame for glory, and shameful spuing shall be upon his glory. He magnified himself against the Lord, and therefore was made drunk, and shall wallow in his vomit, and be had in derision. His honey was his soul, and that being vomited, he is now but a rotten and abhorred carcass; At best he was but a bag of money, and now he is but the bag it self, which scarce any man will stoop to take up: And as in a vomit in a bason, the Physician is able to show the world, what cold meat, and what raw meat, and what hard and indigestible meat he had eaten; So when such a person comes by justice, or malice to this vomit, every man becomes a Physician, every man brings Inditements, and evidence against him, and can show all his falsehoods, and all his extortions in particular.

In these particulars we would consider the scorn upon this vomit; and then the danger of it in these, That nothing weakens the eyes more then vomiting; when this worldly man hath lost his honey, he hath lost his sight; he was dim sighted at beginning, when he could see nothing but worldly things, things nearest to him, but when he hath vomited thē, he hath lost his spectacles; through his riches he saw some glimmering, some color of comfort, now he sees no comfort at all: And a greater danger in vomiting is, that often times it breaks a vein within, and that is most commonly incurable; This man that vomits without, bleeds within; his fortune is broke, and his heart is broke; and he bleeds better blood then his own, he bleeds out the blood of Christ Jesus himself; the blood of Christ Jesus poured into him heretofore in the consolation of the Gospel, and in the Cup of Salvation in the Sacrament (for so much as concerns him) is but spilt upon the ground; as though his honey, his worldly greamesse, were his Father, and Mother, and Wife, and Children, and Prince, and friends, and all, when that is lost by this vomit, he mourns for all, in a sad and everlasting mourning, in such a disconsolate dejection of spirit as ends either in an utter inconsideration of God, or in a desperation of his mercies. This is that Incipiamte evomere (as the Vulgate reads it) in this vomit of worldly things, God does begin to vomit him out of his mouth; and then God does not return to his vomit, but leaves this impatient patient to his impenitibleness. But we must not lanch into these wide Seas now, to consider the scorn, or the danger of this vomit, but rather draw into the harbor, and but repeat the text, transferred from this world to the text, from temporal to spiritual things.

Thus far we have been In melle, In honey, upon honey; but now Super mel, above honey. The judgements of the Lord are Dulcia prae melle, Sweeter then honey, and the honey combe; And the judgements of the Lord are that, by which the Lord will judge us, and this world; it is his word. His word, the sincerity of the Gospel, the truth of his Religion is our honey and honey combe; our honey, and our wax, our Covenant, and our Seal; we have him not, if we have not his truth, if we require other honey; and we trust him not, if we require any other Seal, if we think the word of God needs the traditions of men. And Invenisti tu, Hath God manifested to thee the truth of his Gospel? Bless thou the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever, whose day-spring from an high hath visited thee, and left so many Nations in darkness, who shall never hear of Christ, till they hear himself, nor hear other voice from him then, then the It maledicti; Pity them that have not this honey, and confess for thy self, that though thou have it, thou hast but found it; couldst thou bespeake Christian Parents beforehand, and say, I will be born of such Parents as shall give me a title to the Covenant, to Baptism? or couldst thou procure Sureties, that should bind themselves for thee, at the entering into the Covenant in Baptism? Thou foundest thy self in the Christian Church, and thou foundest means of salvation there; thou broughtest none hither, thou boughtest none here; the Title of S. Andrew, the first of the Apostles that came to Christ, was but that, Invenimus Mesiam, We have found the Mesias. It is only Christ himself that says of himself, Comedi mel meum, I have eat my honey, his own honey. We have no grace, no Gospel of our own, we find it here.

But since thou hast found it, Comede, Eat it; do not drink the cup of Babylon, lest thou drink the cup of Gods wrath too: but make this Honey (Christs true Religion) thy meat; digest that, assimilate that, incorporate that: and let Christ himself, and his merit, be as thy soul; & let the clear and outward profession of his truth, Religion, be as thy body: If thou give away that body, (be flattered out of thy Religion, or threatened out of thy Religion) If thou sell this body, (be bought and bribed out of thy Religion) If thou lend this body, (discontinue thy Religion for a year or two, to see how things will fall out) if thou have no body, thou shalt have no Resurrection, and the clear and undisguised profession of the truth, is the body.

Eat therefore this honey Ad sufficientiam; so much as is enough. To believe implicitly as the Church believes, and know nothing, is not enough; know thy foundations, and who laid them; Other foundations can no man lay, then are laid, Christ Jesus; neither can other men lay those foundations otherwise then they are laid by the Apostles, but eat Ad sufficientiam tuam, that which is enough for thee, for so much knowledge is not required in thee in those things, as in them, whose profession it is to teach them; be content to leave a room stil for the Apostles, Aemulamini charismata meliora, desire better gifts; and ever think it a title of dignity which the Angel gave Daniel, to be Vir desideriorum; To have still some farther object of thy desires. Do not think thou wantest all, because thou hast not all; for at the great last day, we shall see more plead Catechisms for their salvation, then the great volumes of Controversies, more plead their pockets, then their Libraries. If S. Paul so great an Argosy held no more, but Christum crucifixum, what can thy Pinnace hold? Let humility be thy ballast, and necessary knowledge thy freight: for there is an over-fullness of knowledge, which forces a vomit; a vomit of opprobrious and contumelious speeches, a belching and spitting of the name of Heretic and Schismatique, and a loss of charity for matters that are not of faith; and from this vomiting comes emptiness, The more disputing, the less believing: but Saturasti nos benignitate tua, Domine, Thou hast satisfied us early with thy mercy, Thou gavest us Christianity early, and thou gavest us the Reformation early: and therefore since in thee we have found this honey, let us so eat it, and so hold it, That the land do not vomit her Inhabitants, nor spew us out, as it spewed out the Nations that were before us, but that our days may be long in this land, which the Lord our God hath given us, and that with the Ancient of days, we may have a day without any night in that land, which his Son our Savior hath purchased for us with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To which glorious Son of God, &c.

Serm. LXXI. At the Haghe Decemb. 19. 1619. I Preached upon this Text. Since in my sickness at Abrey-hatch in Essex, 1630. revising my short notes of that Sermon, I digested them into these two.

MAT. 4.18, 19, 20.

And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galile saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the Sea, (for they were fishers.) And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

SOLOMON presenting our Savior Christ, in the name and person of Wisdom, in the book of Proverbs, puts, by instinct of the Holy Ghost, these words into his mouth, Deliciae mea esse cum filiis hominum, Christs delight is to be with the children of men; And in satisfaction of that delight, he says in the same verse, in the person of Christ, That he rejoiced to be in the habitable parts of the Earth, (that is, where he might converse with men) Ludens in orbe terrarum, (so the Vulgate reads it) and so our former Translation had it, I took my solace in the compass of the Earth. But since Christs adversary Satan does so too, (Satan came from compassing the Earth to and fro, and from walking in it;) since the Scribes and Pharisees do more then so, They compass Land and Sea, to make one of their own profession, the mercy of Christ is not less active, not less industrious then the malice of his adversaries, He preaches in populous Cities, he preaches in the desart wilderness, he preaches in the tempestuous Sea: and as his Power shall collect the several dusts, and atoms, and Elements of our scattered bodies at the Resurrection, as materials, members of his Triumphant Church; so he collects the materials, the living stone, and timber, for his Militant Church, from all places, from Cities, from Desarts, and here in this Text, from the Sea, (Jesus walking by the Sea, &c.)

In these words we shall only pursue a twofold consideration of the persons whom Christ called here to his Apostleship, Peter and Andrew; What their present, what their future function was, what they were, what they were to be; They were fishermen, they were to be fishers of men. But from these two considerations of these persons, arise many Circumstances, in and about their calling; and their preferment for their cheerful following. For first, in the first, we shall survey the place, The Sea of Galile; And their education and conversation upon that Sea, by which they were naturally less fit for this Church-service. At this Sea he found them casting their Nets; of which act of theirs, there is an emphatical reason expressed in the text, For they were fishers, which intimates both these notes, That they did it because they were fishers; It became them, it behoved them, it concerned them to follow their trade; And then they did it as they were fishers, If they had not been fishers they would not have done it, they might not have usurped upon another's Calling; They cast their Nets into the Sea, for they were fishers) And then, in a nearer consideration of these persons, we find that they were two that were called; Christ provided at first against singularity, He called not one alone; And then they were two Brethren, persons likely to agree; He provided at first against schism; And then, they were two such as were nothing of kin to him, (whereas the second pair of brethren, whom he called, James and John, were his kinsmen) He provided at first, against partiality, and that kind of Simony, which prefers for affection. These men, thus conditioned naturally, thus disposed at this place, and at this time, our blessed Savior calls; And then we note their readiness, they obeyed the call, they did all they were bid, They were bid follow, and they followed, and followed presently; And they did somewhat more then seems expressly to have been required, for, They left their Nets, and followed him. And all these substantial circumstances invest our first part, these persons in their first estate. For those that belong to the second part, Their preferment upon this obedience, (Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men) it would be an impertinent thing, to open them now, because I do easily foresee, that this day we shall not come to that part.

In our first part, The consideration of these persons then, though in this Text Peter be first named, yet we are to note, that this was not the first time of their meeting; when Christ and they met first, which was, when John Baptist made that declaration upon Christs walking by him, Behold the Lamb of God, Peter was not the first that applied himself to Christ, nor that was invited by Christs presenting himself to him, to do it; Peter was not there; Peter was not the second; for, Andrew, and another, who were then John Baptists Disciples, and saw Christ declared by him, were presently affected with a desire to follow Christ, and to converse with him, and to that purpose press him with that question, Magister, ubi habitas? They profess that they had chosen him for their Master, and they desire to know where he dwelt, that they might wait upon him, and receive their instructions from him. And in Andrews thus early applying himself to Christ, we are also to note, both the fecundity of true Religion; for, as soon as he had found Christ, he sought his brother Peter, Et duxit ad Iesum, he made his brother as happy as himself, he led him to Jesus; (And that other Disciple, which came to Christ as soon as Andrew did, yet because he is not noted to have brought any others but himself, is not named in the Gospel) And we are to observe also, the unsearchable wisdom of God in his proceedings, that he would have Peter, whom he had purposed to be his principal Apostle, to be led to him by another, of inferior dignity, in his determination. And therefore Conversus convert, Think not thy self well enough preached unto, except thou find a desire, that thy life and conversation may preach to others, And Edoctus disc, think not that thou knowest any thing, except thou desire to learn more; neither grudge to learn of him, whom thou thinkest less learned then thy self; The blessing is in Gods Calling, and Ordinance, not in the good parts of the man; Andrew drew Peter, The lesser in Gods purpose for the building of the Church, brought in the greater. Therefore doth the Church celebrate the memory of S. Andrew, first of any Saint in the year; and after they have been altogether united in that one festival of All-Saints, S. Andrew is the first that hath a particular day. He was Primogenitus Testamenti novi, The first Christian, the first begotten of the new Testament; for, John Baptist, who may seem to have the birthright before him, had his conception in the old Testament, in the womb of those prophecies of Malachy, and of Isaiah, of his comming, and of his office, and so cannot be so entirely referred to the new Testament, as S. Andrew is. Because therefore, our adversaries of the Roman heresy distill, and rack every passage of Scripture, that may drop any thing for the advantage of S. Peter, and the allmightines of his Successor, I refuse not the occasion offered from this text, compared with that other, Joh. 1. to say, That if that first comming to Christ were but (as they use to say) Ad notitiam & familiaritatem, and this in our Text, Ad Apostolatum, That they that came there, came but to an acquaintance, and conversation with Christ, but here, in this text, to the Apostleship, yet, to that conversation, (which was no small happiness) Andrew came clearly before Peter, and to this Apostleship here, Peter did not come before Andrew; they came together.

These two then our Savior found, as he walked by the Sea of Galile. No solitude, no tempest, no bleakness, no inconvenience averts Christ, and his Spirit, from his sweet, and gracious, and comfortable visitations. But yet this that is called here, The Sea of Galile, was not properly a Sea; but according to the phrase of the Hebrews, who call all great meetings of waters, by that one name, A Sea, this, which was indeed a lake of fresh water, is called a Sea. From the root of Mount Libanus, spring two Rivers, Jor, and Dan; and those two, meeting together, joining their waters, join their names too, and make that famous river Jordan; a name so composed, as perchance our River is, Thamesis, of Thame, and Isis. And this River Jordan falling into this flat, makes this Lake, of sixteen miles long, and some six in breadth. Which Lake being famous for fish, though of ordinary kinds, yet of an extraordinary taste and relish, and then of extraordinary kinds too, not found in other waters, and famous, because divers famous Cities did engirt it, and become as a garland to it, Capernaum, and Chorazim, and Bethsaida, and Tiberias, and Magdalo, (all celebrated in the Scriptures) was yet much more famous for the often recourse, which our Savior (who was of that Country) made to it; For this was the Sea, where he amazed Peter, with that great draught of fishes, that brought him to say, Exi à me Domine, Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man; This was the Sea, where himself walked upon the waters; And where he rebuked the tempest; And where he manifested his Almighty power many times. And by this Lake, this Sea, dwelt Andrew and Peter, and using the commodity of the place, lived upon fishing in this Lake; and in that act our Savior found them, and called them to his service. Why them? Why fishers?

First, Christ having a greater, a fairer Jerusalem to build then Davids was, a greater Kingdom to establish then Juda's was, a greater Temple to build then Solomons was, having a greater work to raise, yet he begun upon a less ground; He is come from his twelve Tribes, that afforded armies in swarms, to twelve persons, twelve Apostles; from his Iuda and Levi, the foundations of State and Church, to an Andrew and a Peter fisher-men, sea-men; and these men accustomed to that various, and tempestuous Element, to the Sea, less capable of Offices of civility, and sociableness, then other men, yet must be employed in religious offices, to gather all Nations to one household of the faithful, and to constitute a Communion of Saints; They were Sea-men, fisher-men, unlearned, and indocil; Why did Christ take them? Not that thereby there was any scandal given, or just occasion of that calumny of Iulian the Apostat, That Christ found it easy to seduce, and draw to his Sect, such poor ignorant men as they were; for Christ did receive persons eminent in learning, (Saul was so) and of authority in the State, (Nicodemus was so) and of wealth, and ability, (Zacheus was so, and so was Joseph of Arimatliea) But first he chose such men, that when the world had considered their beginning, their insufficiency then, and how unproper they were for such an employment, and yet seen that great work so far, and so fast advanced, by so weak instruments, they might ascribe all power to him, and ever after, come to him cheerfully upon any invitation, how weak men soever he should send to them, because he had done so much by so weak instruments before: To make his work in all ages after prosper the better, he proceeded thus at first. And then, he chose such men for another reason too; To show that how insufficient soever he received them, yet he received them into such a School, such an University, as should deliver them back into his Church, made fit by him, for the service thereof. Christ needed not mans sufficiency, he took insufficient men; Christ excuses no mans insufficiency, he made them sufficient.

His purpose then was, that the work should be ascribed to the Workman, not to the Instrument; To himself, not to them; Nec quaesivit per Oratorem piscatorem, He sent not out Orators, Rhetoricians, strong or faire-spoken men to work upon these fisher-men, Sed de piscatore lucratus est Imperatorem, By these fisher-men, he hath reduced all those Kings, and Emperors, and States which have embraced the Christian Religion, these thousand and six hundred years. When Samuel was sent with that general Commission, to anoint a son of Ishai King, without any more particular instructions, when he came, and Eliab was presented unto him, Surely, says Samuel, (noting the goodliness of his personage) this is the Lords Anointed. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, nor the height of his stature, for I have refused him; for, (as it followeth there, from Gods mouth) God seeth not as man setth; Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord beholdeth the heart. And so David, in appearance, less likely was chosen. But, if the Lords arm be not shortened, let no man impute weakness to the Instrument. For so, when David himself was appointed by God, to pursue the Amalekites, the Amalekites that had burnt Ziklag, and done such spoil upon Gods people, as that the people began to speak of stoning David, from whom they looked for defence, when David had no kind of intelligence, no ground to settle a conjecture upon, which way he must pursue the Amalekites, and yet pursue them he must, in the way he finds a poor young fellow, a famished, sick young man, derelicted of his Master, and left for dead in the march, and by the means and conduct of this wretch, David recovers the enemy, recovers the spoil, recovers his honor, and the love of his people.

If the Lords arm be not shortened, let no man impute weakness to his Instrument. But yet God will always have so much weakness appear in the Instrument, as that their strength shall not be thought to be their own. When Pete and John preached in the streets, The people marvelled, (says the Text) why? for they had understood that they were unlearned. But beholding also the man that was healed standing by, they had nothing to say, says that story. The insufficiency of the Instrument makes a man wonder naturally; but the accomplishing of some great work brings them to a necessary acknowledgement of a greater power, working in that weak Instrument. For, if those Apostles that preached, had been as learned men, as Simon Magus, as they did in him, (This man is the great power of God, not that he had, but that he was the power of God) the people would have rested in the admiration of those persons, and proceeded no farther. It was their working of supernatural things, that convinced the world. For all Pauls learning, (though he were very learned) never brought any of the Conjurers to burn his books, or to renounce his Art; But when God wrought extraordinary works by him, That sicknesses were cured by his napkins, and his handkerchiefs, (in which cures, Pauls learning had no more concurrence, no more cooperaton, then the ignorance of any of the fisher-men Apostles) And when the world saw that those Exorcists, which went about to do Miracles in the Name of Jesus, because Paul did so, could not do it, because that Jesus had not promised to work in them, as in Paul, Then the Conjurers came, and burnt their books, in the sight of all the world, to the value of fifty thousand pieces of silver. It was not learning, (that may have been got, though they that hear them, know it not; and it were not hard to assign many examples of men that have stolen a great measure of learning, and yet lived open and conversable lives, and never been observed, (except by them, that knew their Lucubrations, and night-watchings) to have spent many hours in study) but it was the calling of the world to an apprehension of a greater power, by seeing great things done by weak Instruments, that reduced them, that convinced them. Peter and John's preaching did not half the good then, as the presenting of one man, which had been recovered by them, did. Twenty of our Sermons edify not so much, as if the Congregation might see one man converted by us. Any one of you might out-preach us. That one man that would leave his beloved sin, that one man that would restore ill-gotten goods, had made a better Sermon then ever I shall, and should gain more souls by his act, then all our words (as they are ours) can do.

Such men he took then, as might be no occasion to their hearers, to ascribe the work to their sufficiency; but yet such men too, as should be no examples to insufficient men to adventure upon that great service; but men, though ignorant before, yet docil, and glad to learn. In a rough stone, a cunning Lapidary will easily foresee, what his cutting, and his polishing, and his art will bring that stone too. A cunning Statuary discerns in a Marble-stone under his feet, where there will arise an Eye, and an Ear, and a Hand, & other lineaments to make it a perfect Statue. Much more did our Savior Christ, who was himself the Author of that disposition in them, (for no man hath any such disposion but from God) foresee in these fisher-men, an inclinableness to become useful in that great service of his Church. Therefore he took them from their own ship, but he sent them from his Cross; He took them weatherbeaten with North and South winds, and rough-cast with foam, and mud; but he sent them back soupled, and smoothed, and levigated, quickened, and inanimated with that Spirit, which he had breathed into them from his own bowels, his own eternal bowels, from which the Holy Ghost proceeded; He took fisher-men, and he sent fishers of men. He sent them not out to preach, as soon as he called them to him; He called them ad Discipulatum, before he called them ad Apostolatum; He taught them, before they taught others. As S. Paul says of himself, and the rest, God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament; Idoneos, fit Ministers, that is, fit for that service. There is a fitness founded in Discretion; a Discretion to make our present service acceptable to our present Auditory; for if it be not acceptable, agreeable to them, it is never profitable.

As God gave his children such Manna as was agreeable to every mans taste, and tasted to every man like that, that that man like best: so are we to deliver the bread of life agreeable to every taste, to fit our Doctrine to the apprehension, and capacity, and digestion of the hearers. For as S. Augustine says, That no man profits by a Sermon that he hears with pain, if he do not stand easily; so if he do not understand easily, or if he do not assent easily to that that he hears, if he be put to study one sentence, till the Preacher have passed three or four more, or if the doctrine be new and doubtful, and suspicious to him, this fitness which is grounded in discretion is not showed. But the general fitness is grounded in learning, S. Paul hath joined them safely together, Rebuke and exhort with all long suffering, and learning. Show thy discretion in seasonable Rebuking; show thy learning in Exhorting. Let the Congregation see that thou studiest the good of their souls, and they will digest any wholesome increpation, any medicinal reprehension at thy hands, Dilige & dic quod voles. We say so first to God, Lord let thy spirit bear witness with my spirit, that thou lovest me, and I can endure all thy Prophets, and all the vae's, and the woes that they thunder against me and my sin. So also the Congregation says to the Minister, Dilige & dic quod voles, show thy love to me, in studying my case, and applying thy knowledge to my conscience, speak so, as God and I may know thou meanest me, but not the Congregation, lest that bring me to a confusion of face, and that to a hardness of heart; deal thus with me, love me thus, and say what thou wilt; nothing shall offend me. And this is the Idoneity, the fitness which we consider in the Minister, fitness in learning, fitness in discretion, to use and apply that learning. So Christ fits his.

Such men then Christ takes for the service of his Church; such as bring no confidence in their own fitness, such as embrace the means to make them fit in his School, and learn before they teach. And to that purpose he took Andrew and Peter; and he took them, when he found them casting their net into the Sea. This was a Symbolical, a Prophetical action of their future life; This fishing was a type, a figure, a prophesy of their other fishing. But here (in this first part) we are bound to the consideration of their real and direct action, and exercise of their present calling; They cast their Net, for they were Fishers, says the Text. In which, for, (as we told you at first) there is a double reason involved.

First, in this For is intimated, how acceptable to God that labor is, that is taken in a calling. They did not forbear to cast their nets because it was a tempestuous Sea; we must make account to meet storms in our profession, yea and temptations too. A man must not leave his calling, because it is hard for him to be an honest man in that calling; but he must labor to overcome those difficulties, and as much as he can, vindicate and redeem that calling from those aspersions and calumnies, which ill men have cast upon a good calling. They did not forbear because it was a tempestuous Sea, nor because they had cast their nets often and caught nothing, nor because it was uncertain how the Market would go when they had catched. A man must not be an ill Prophet upon his own labours, nor bewitch them with a suspicion that they will not prosper. It is the slothful man that says, A Lion in the way, A Lion in the street. Cast thou thy net into the Sea, and God shall drive fish into thy net; undertake a lawful Calling, and clog not thy calling with murmuring, nor with an ill conscience, and God shall give thee increase, and worship in it, They cast their nets into the Sea, for they were fishers; it was their Calling, and they were bound to labor in that.

And then this For hath another aspect, looks another way too, and implies another Instruction, They cast their nets into the Sea, for they were fishers, that is, if they had not been fishers, they would not have done it; Intrusion into other mens callings is an unjust usurpation; and, if it take away their profit, it is a theft. If it be but a censuring of them in their calling, yet it is a calumny, because it is not in the right way, if it be extrajudicial. To lay an aspersion upon any man (who is not under our charge) though that which we say of him be true, yet it is a calumny, and a degree of libelling, if it be not done judiciarily, and where it may receive redress and remedy. And yet how forward are men that are not fishers in that Sea, to censure State Councils, and Judiciary proceedings? Every man is an Absolom, to say to every man, Your cause is good, but the King hath appointed none to hear it; Money brings them in, favor brings them in, it is not the King; or, if it must be said to be the King, yet it is the affection of the King and not his judgement, the King misled, not rightly informed, say our seditious Absoloms, and, Oh that I were made Judge in the land, that every man might come unto me, and I would do him justice, is the charm that Absolom hath taught every man. They cast their nets into a deeper Sea then this, and where they are much less fishers, into the secret Councils of God. It is well provided by your Laws, that Divines and Ecclesiastical persons may not take farms, nor buy nor sell, for return, in Markets. I would it were as well provided, that buyers and sellers, and farmers might not be Divines, nor censure them. I speak not of censuring our lives; please your selves with that, till God be pleased to mend us by that, (thought that way of whispering calumny be not the right way to that amendment) But I speak of censuring our Doctrines, and of appointing our doctrines; when men are weary of hearing any other thing, then Election and Reprobation, and whom, and when, and how, and why God hath chosen, or cast away. We have liberty enough by your Law, to hold enough for the maintenance of our bodies, and states; you have liberty enough by our Law, to know enough for the salvation of your souls; If you will search farther into Gods eternal Decrees, and unrevealed Councils, you should not cast your nets into that Sea, for you are not fishers there. Andrew and Peter cast their nets, for they were fishers, (therefore they were bound to do it) And again, for they were fishers, (if they had not been so, they would not have done so.)

These persons then thus disposed, unfit of themselves, made fit by him, and found by him at their labor, labor in a lawful Calling, and in their own Calling, our Savior Christ calls to him; And he called them by couples, by pairs; two together. So he called his Creatures into the world at the first Creation, by pairs. So he called them into the Ark, for the reparation of the world, by pairs, two and two. God loves not singularity; The very name of Church implies company; It is Concio, Congregatio, Coetus; It is a Congregation, a Meeting, an assembly; It is not any one man; neither can the Church be preserved in one man. And therefore it hath been dangerously said, (though they confess it to have been said by many of their greatest Divines in the Roman Church) that during the time that our blessed Savior lay dead in the grave, there was no faith left upon the earth, but only in the Virgin Mary; for then there was no Church. God hath manifested his will in two Testaments; and though he have abridged and contracted the doctrine of both in a narrow room, yet he hath digested it into two Commandments, Love God, love thy neighbor. There is but one Church; that is true, but one; but that one Church cannot be in any one man; There is but one Baptism; that is also true, but one; But no man can Baptize himself; there must be Sacerdos & competens, (as our old Canons speak) a person to receive, and a Priest to give Baptism. There is but one faith in the remission of sins; that is true too, but one; But no man can absolve himself; There must be a Priest and a penitent. God calls no man so, but that he calls him to the knowledge, that he hath called more then him to that Church, or else it is an illusory, and imaginary calling, and a dream.

Take heed therefore of being seduced to that Church that is in one man; In scrinio pectoris, where all infallibility, and assured resolution is in the breast of one man; who (as their own Authors say) is not bound to ask the counsel of others before, nor to follow their counsel after. And since the Church cannot be in one, in an unity, take heed of bringing it too near that unity, to a paucity, to a few, to a separation, to a Conventicle. The Church loves the name of Catholic; and it is a glorious, and an harmonious name; Love thou those things wherein she is Catholic, and wherein she is harmonious, that is, Quod ubique, quod semper, Those universal, and fundamental doctrines, which in all Christian ages, and in all Christian Churches, have been agreed by all to be necessary to salvation; and then thou art a true Catholic. Otherwise, that is, without relation to this Catholic and universal doctrine, to call a particular Church Catholic, (that she should be Catholic, that is, universal in dominion, but not in doctrine) is such a solecisme, as to speak of a white blackness, or a great littleness; A particular Church to be universal, implies such a contradiction.

Christ loves not singularity; he called not one alone; He loves not schism neither between them whom he calls; & therefore he calls persons likely to agree, two brethren, (He saw two brethren, Peter and Andrew, &c. So he began to build the Synagogues, to establish that first government, in Moses and Aaron, brethren; So he begins to build the Church, in Peter and Andrew, brethren. The principal fraternity and brotherhood that God respects, is spiritual; Brethren in the profession of the same true Religion. But Peter and Andrew whom he called here to the true Religion, and so gave them that second fraternity and brotherhood, which is spiritual, were natural brethren before; And that God loves; that a natural, a secular, a civil fraternity, and a spiritual fraternity should be joined together; when those that profess the same Religion, should desire to contract their alliances, in marrying their Children, and to have their other dealings in the world (as much as they can) with men that profess the same true Religion that they do. That so (not medling nor disputing the proceedings of States, who, in some cases, go by other rules then private men do) we do not make it an equal, an indifferent thing, whether we marry our selves, or our children, or make our bargains, or our conversation, with persons of a different Religion, when as our Adversaries amongst us will not go to a Lawyer, nor call a Physician, no, nor scarce a Taylor, or other Tradesman of another Religion then their own, if they can possibly avoid it. God saw a better likelihood of avoiding Schism and dissention, when those whom he called to a new spiritual brotherhood in one Religion, were natural brothers too, and tied in civil bands, as well as spiritual.

And as Christ began, so he proceeded; for the persons whom he called were Catechistical, instructive persons; persons, from whose very persons we receive instruction. The next whom he called, (which is in the next verse) were two too; and brethren too; John and James; but yet his own kinsmen in the flesh. But, as he chose two together to avoid singularity, and two brethren to avoid Schism, so he preferred two strangers before his own kindred, to avoid partiality, and respect of persons. Certainly every man is bound to do good to those that are near him by nature; The obligation of doing good to others lies (for the most part) thus; Let us do good to all men, but especially unto them which are of the household of the faithful; (They of our own Religion are of the Quorum) Now, when all are so, (of the household of the faithful, of our own Religion) the obligation looks home, and lie thus, He that provideth not for his own, denieth the faith, and is worse then an Infidel. Christ would therefore leave no example, nor justification of that perverse distemper, to leave his kindred out, nor of their disposition, who had rather buy new friends at any rate, then relieve or cherish the old. But yet when Christ knew how far his stock would reach, that no liberality, howsoever placed, could exhaust that, but that he was able to provide for all, he would leave no example nor justification of that perverse distemper, to heap up preferments upon our own kindred, without any consideration how Gods glory might be more advanced by doing good to others too; But finding in these men a fit disposition to be good labourers in his harvest, and to agree in the service of the Church, as they did in the band of nature, he calls Peter and Andrew, otherwise strangers, before he called his Consins, James and John.

These Circumstances we proposed to be considered in these persons before, and at their being called. The first, after their calling, is their cheerful readiness in obeying, Continuò sequuti, They were bid follow, and forthwith they followed. Which present obedience of theirs is exalted in this, that this was freshly upon the imprisonment of John Baptist, whose Disciple Andrew had been; And it might easily have deterred, and averted a man in his case, to consider, that it was well for him that he was got out of John Baptists school, and company, before that storm, the displeasure of the state fell upon him; and that it behoved him to be wary to apply himself to any such new Master, as might draw him into as much trouble; which Christs service was very like to do. But the contemplation of future persecutions, that may fall, the example of persecutions past, that have fallen, the apprehension of imminent persecutions, that are now falling, the sense of present persecutions, that are now upon us, retard not those, upon whom the love of Christ Jesus works effectually; They followed for all that. And they followed, when there was no more persuasion used to them, no more words said to them, but Sequere me, Follow me.

And therefore how easy soever Iulian the Apostate might make it, for Christ to work upon so weak men, as these were, yet to work upon any men by so weak means, only by one Sequere me, Follow me, and no more, cannot be thought easy. The way of Rhetorique in working upon weak men, is first to trouble the understanding, to displace, and discompose, and disorder the judgement, to smother and bury in it, or to empty it of former apprehensions and opinions, and to shake that belief, with which it had possessed it self before, and then when it is thus melted, to power it into new molds, when it is thus mollified, to stamp and imprint new forms, new images, new opinions in it. But here in our case, there was none of this fire, none of this practise, none of this battery of eloquence, none of this verbal violence, only a bare Sequere me, Follow me, and they followed. No eloquence inclined them, no terrors declined them: No dangers withdrew them, no preferment drew them; they knew Christ, and his kindred, and his means; they loved him, himself, and not any thing they expected from him. Minùs te amat, qui aliquid tuum amat, quod non propter te amat, That man loves thee but a little, that begins his love at that which thou hast, and not at thy self. It is a weak love that is divided between Christ and the world; especially, if God come after the world, as many times he does, even in them, who think they love him well; that first they love the riches of this world, and then they love God that gave them. But that is a false Method in this art of love; The true is, radically to love God for himself, and other things for his sake, so far, as he may receive glory in our having, and using them.

This Peter and Andrew declared abundantly; they did as much as they were bid; they were bid follow, and they followed; but it seems they did more, they were not bid leave their nets, and yet they left their nets, and followed him: But, for this, they did not; no man can do more in the service of God, then is enjoined him, commanded him. There is no supererogation, no making of God beholden to us, no bringing of God into our debt. Every man is commanded to love God with all his heart, and all his power, and a heart above a whole heart, and a power above a whole power, is a strange extension. That therefore which was declared explicitly, plainly, directly by Christ, to the young man in the Gospel, Vade, & vend, & sequere, Go and sell all, and follow me, was implicitly implied to these men in our text, Leave your nets, and follow me. And, though to do so, (to leave all) be not always a precept, a commandment to all men, yet it was a precept, a commandment to both these, at that time; to the young man in the Gospel, (for he was as expressly bid to sell away all, as he was to follow Christ) and to these men in the text, because they could not perform that that was directly commanded, except they performed that which was implied too; except they left their nets, they could not follow Christ. When God commands us to follow him, he gives us light, how, and in which way he will be followed; And then when we understand which is his way, that way is as much a commandment, as the very end it self, and not to follow him that way, is as much a transgression, as not to follow him at all. If that young man in the Gospel, who was bid sell all, and give to the poor, and then follow, had followed, but kept his interest in his land; If he had divested himself of the land, but let it fall, or conveyed it to the next heir, or other kinsmen; If he had employed it to pious uses, but not so, as Christ commanded, to the poor, still he had been in a transgression: The way when it is declared, is as much a command, as the end.

But then, in this command, which was implicitly, and by necessary consequence laid upon Peter and Andrew, to leave their nets, (because without doing so, they could not forthwith follow Christ) there is no example of forsaking a calling, upon pretence of following Christ; no example here, of devesting ones self of all means of defending us from those manifold necessities, which this life lays upon us, upon pretence of following Christ; It is not an absolute leaving of all worldly cares, but a leaving them out of the first consideration; Primùm quaerite regnum Dei, so, as our first business be to seek the kingdom of God. For, after this leaving of his nets, for this time, Peter continued owner of his house, and Christ came to that house of his, and found his mother in law sick in that house, and recovered her there. Upon a like commandment, upon such a Sequere, Follow me, Matthew followed Christ too; but after that following, Christ went with Matthew to his house, and sate at meat with him at home. And for this very exercise of fishing, though at that time when Christ said, Follow me, they left their nets, yet they returned to that trade, sometimes, upon occasions, in all likelihood, in Christs life; and after Christs death, clearly they did return to it; for Christ, after his Resurrection, found them fishing.

They did not therefore abandon and leave all care, and all government of their own estate, and dispose themselves to live after upon the sweat of others; but transported with a holy alacrity, in this present and cheerful following of Christ, in respect of that then, they neglected their nets, and all things else. Perfecta obedientia est sua imperfocta relinquere, Not to be too diligent towards the world, is the diligence that God requires. S. Augustine does not say, sua relinquere, but sua imperfecta relinquere, That God requires we should leave the world, but that we should leave it to second considerations; That thou do not forbear, nor defer thy conversion to God, and thy restitution to man, till thou have purchased such a state, bought such an office, married, and provided such and such children, but imperfecta relinquere, to leave these worldly things unperfected, till thy repentance have restored thee to God, and established thy reconciliation in him, and then the world lyes open to thy honest endeavors. Others take up all with their net, and they sacrifice to their nets, because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. They are consident in their own learning, their own wisdom, their own practise, and (which is a strange Idolatry) they sacrifice to themselves, they attribute all to their own industry. These men in our text were far from that; they left their nets.

But still consider, that they did but leave their nets, they did not burn them. And consider too, that they left but nets; those things, which might entangle them, and retard them in their following of Christ. And such nets, (some such things as might hinder them in the service of God) even these men, so well disposed to follow Christ, had about them. And therefore let no man say, Imitari vellem, sed quod relinquam, non habeo, I would gladly do as the Apostles did, leave all to follow Christ, but I have nothing to leave; alas, all things have left me, and I have nothing to leave. Even that murmuring at poverty is a net; leave that. Leave thy superfluous desire of having the riches of this world; though thou mayest flatter thy self, that thou desirest to have only that thou mightest leave it, that thou mightest employ it charitably, yet it might prove a net, and stick too close about thee to part with it. Multa relinquitis, si desideriis renunciatis, You leave your nets, if you leave your over-earnest greediness of catching; for, when you do so, you do not only fish with a net, (that is, lay hold upon all you can compass) but, (which is strange) you fish for a net, even that which you get proves a net to you, and hinders you in the following of Christ, and you are less disposed to follow him, when you have got your ends, then before. He that hath least, hath enough to weigh him down from heaven, by an inordinate love of that little which he hath, or in an inordinate and murmuring desire of more. And he that hath most, hath not too much to give for heaven; Tantum valet regnum Dei, quantum tu vales, Heaven is always so much worth, as thou art worth. A poor man may have heaven for a penny, that hath no greater store; and, God looks, that he to whom he hath given thousands, should lay out thousands upon the purchase of heaven. The market changes, as the plenty of money changes; Heaven costs a rich man more then a poor, because he hath more to give. But in this, rich and poor are both equal, that both must leave themselves without nets, that is, without those things, which, in their own Consciences they know, retard the following of Christ. Whatsoever hinders my present following, that I cannot follow to day, whatsoever may hinder my constant following, that I cannot follow to morrow, and all my life, is a net, and I am bound to leave that.

And these are the pieces that constitute our first part, the circumstances that invest these persons, Peter, and Andrew, in their former condition, before, and when Christ called them.

LXXX Sermons (1640) - Serm. LXXII.

MAT. 4.18, 19, 20.

And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galile saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the Sea, (for they were fishers.) And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

WE are now in our Order proposed at first, come to our second part, from the consideration of these persons, Peter and Andrew, in their former state and condition, before, and at their calling, to their future estate in promise, but an infallible promise, Christs promise, if they followed him, (Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.) In which part we shall best come to our end, (which is your edification) by these steps. First, that there is an Humility enjoined them, in the Sequere, follow, come after. That though they be brought to a high Calling, that do not make them proud, nor tyrannous over mens consciences; And then, even this Humility is limited, Sequere me, follow me; for there may be a pride even in Humility, and a man may follow a dangerous guide; Our guide here is Christ, Sequere me, follow me. And then we shall see the promise it self, the employment, the function, the preferment; In which there is no new state promised them, no Innovation, (They were fishers, and they shall be fishers still) but there is an emprovement, a bettering, a reformation, (They were fisher-men before, and now they shall be fishers of men;) To which purpose, we shall find the world to be the Sea, and the Gospel their Net. And lastly, all this is presented to them, not as it was expressed in the former part, with a For, (it is not, Follow me, for I will prefer you) he will not have that the reason of their following; But yet it is, Follow me, and I will prefer you; It is a subsequent addition of his own goodness, but so infallible a one, as we may rely upon; Whosoever doth follow Christ, speeds well. And into these considerations will fall all that belongs to this last part, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

First then, here is an impression of Humility, in following, in comming after, Sequere, follow, press not to come before; And it had need be first, if we consider how early, how primary a sin Pride is, and how soon it possesses us. Scarce any man, but if he look back seriously into himself, and into his former life, and revolve his own history, but that the first act which he can remember in himself, or can be remembered of by others, will be some act of Pride. Before Ambition, or Covetousness, or Licentiousness is awake in us, Pride is working; Though but a childish pride, yet pride; and this Parents rejoice at in their children, and call it spirit, and so it is, but not the best. We enlarge not therefore the consideration of this word sequere, follow, come after, so far, as to put our meditation upon the whole body, and the several members of this sin of pride; Nor upon the extent and diffusiveness of this sin, as it spreads it self over every other sin; (for every sin is complicated with pride, so as every sin is a rebellious opposing of the law and will of God) Nor to consider the weighty hainousnes of pride, how it aggravates every other sin, how it makes a musket a Canon bullet, and a peble a Milstone; but after we have stopped a little upon that useful consideration, That there is not so direct, and Diametral a contrariety between the nature of any sin and God, as between him and pride, we shall pass to that which is our principal observation in this branch, How early and primary a sin pride is, occasioned by this, that the commandment of Humility is first given, first enjoined in our first word, Sequere, follow.

But first, we exalt that consideration, That nothing is so contrary to God, as Pride, with this observation, That God in the Scriptures is often by the Holy Ghost invested, and represented in the qualities and affections of man; and to constitute a commerce and familiarity between God and man, God is not only said to have bodily lineaments, eyes and ears, and hands, and feet, and to have some of the natural affections of man, as Joy, in particular, (The Lord will rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy Fathers) And so, pity too, (The Lord was with Joseph, and extended kindness unto him) But some of those inordinate and irregular passions and perturbations, excesses and defects of man, are imputed to God, by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures. For so, laziness, drowsiness is imputed to God; (Awake Lord, why sleepest thou?) So corruptibleness, and deterioration, and growing worse by ill company, is imputed to God; (Cum perverso perverteris, God is said to grow froward with the froward, and that he learns to go crookedly with them that go crookedly) And prodigality and wastefulness is imputed to God; (Thou sellest thy people for naught, and doest not increase thy wealth by their price) So sudden and hasty choler; (Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish Inira brevi, though his wrath be kindled but a little) And then, illimited and boundless anger, a vindicative irreconciliableness is imputed to God; (I was but a little displeased, (but it is otherwise now) I am very sore displeased) So there is Ira devorans; (Wrath that consumes like stubble) So there is Ira multiplicata, (Plagues renewed, and indignation increased) So God himself expresses it, (I will fight against you in anger and in fury) And so for his inexorableness, his irreconciliableness, (O Lord God of Hosts, Quousque, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?) Gods own people, Gods own people praying to their own God, and yet their God irreconciliable to them. Scorn and contempt is imputed to God; which is one of the most enormious, and disproportioned weakenesses in man; that a worm that crawls in the dust, that a grain of dust, that is hurried with every blast of wind, should find any thing so much inferior to it self as to scorn it, to deride it, to contemne it; yet scorn, and derision, and contempt is imputed to God, (He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision) and again, (I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock you when your fear cometh.) Nay beloved, even inebriation, excess in that kind, Drunkenness, is a Metaphor which the Holy Ghost hath mingled in the expressing of Gods proceedings with man; for God does not only threaten to make his enemies drunk, (and to make others drunk is a circumstance of drunkenness)(so Jerusalem being in his displeasure complains, Inebriavit absynthio, (He hath made me drunk with wormwood) and again, (They shall be drunk with their own blood, as with new Wine) Nor only to express his plentiful mercies to his friends and servants, does God take that Metaphor, (Inebriabo animam Sacerdotis, I will make the soul of the Priest drunk; fill it, satiate it) and again, (I will make the weary soul, and the sorrowful soul drunk) But not only all this, (though in all this God have a hand) not only towards others, but God in his own behalf complains of the scant and penurious Sacrificer, Non inebriasti me, Thou hast not made me drunk with thy Sacrifices. And yet, though for the better applying of God to the understanding of man, the Holy Ghost impute to God these excesses, and defects of man (laziness and drowsiness, deterioration, corruptibleness by ill conversation, prodigality and wastefulness, sudden choler, long irreconciableness, scorn, inebriation, and many others) in the Scriptures, yet in no place of the Scripture is God, for any respect said to be proud; God in the Scriptures is never made so like man, as to be made capable of Pride; for this had not been to have God like man, but like the devil.

God is said in the Scriptures to apparel himself gloriously; (God covers him with light as with a garment) And so of his Spouse the Church it is said, (Her clothing is of wrought gold, and her raiment of needle work) and, as though nothing in this world were good enough for her wearing, she is said to be clothed with the Sun. But glorious apparel is not pride in them, whose conditions require it, and whose revenews will bear it. God is said in the Scriptures to appear with greatness and majesty, (A stream of fire came forth before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.) And so Christ shall come at Judgement, with his Hosts of Angels, in majesty, and in glory. But these outward appearances and acts of greatness are not pride in those persons, to whom there is a reverence due, which reverence is preserved by this outward splendor, and not otherwise. God is said in the Scriptures to triumph over his enemies, and to be jealous of his glory; (The Lord, whose name is Iealous, is a jealous God) But, for Princes to be jealous of their glory, studious of their honor, for any private man to be jealous of his good name, careful to preserve an honest reputation, is not pride. For, Pride is Appetitus celsitudinis perversus, It is an inordinate desire of being better then we are.

Now there is a lawful, nay a necessary desire of being better and better; And that, not only in spiritual things, (for so every man is bound to be better and better, better to day then yesterday, and to morrow then to day, and he that grows not in Religion, withers, There is no standing at a stay, He that goes not forward in godliness, goes backward, and he that is not better, is worse) but even in temporal things too there is a liberty given us, nay there is a law, an obligation laid upon us, to endeavor by industry in a lawful calling, to mend and improve, to enlarge our selves, and spread, even in worldly things. The first Commandment that God gave man, was not prohibitive; God, in that, forbad man nothing, but enlarged him with that Crescite, & multiplicamini, Increase and multiply, which is not only in the multiplication of children; but in the enlargement of possessions too; for so it follows in the same place, not only Replete, but Dominamini, not only replenish the world, but subdue it, and take dominion over it, that is, make it your own. For, Terram dedit filiis hominum, As God hath given sons to men, so God gives the possession of this world to the sons of men. For so when God delivers that commandment, the second time, to Noah, for the reparation of the world, Crescite & multiplicamini, Increase and multiply, he accompanies it with that reason, The fear of you, and the dread of you shall be upon all, and all are delivered into your hands; which reason can have no relation to the multiplying of Children, but to the enlarging of possessions. God planted trees in Paradise in a good state at first; at first with ripe fruits upon them; but Gods purpose was, that even those trees, though well then, should grow greater. God gives many men good estates from their parents at first; yet Gods purpose is that they should increase those estates. He that leaves no more, then his father left him, (if the fault be in himself) shall hardly make a good account of his stewardship to God; for, he hath but kept his talent in a handkercheif. And the slothful man is even brother to the waster. The holy Ghost in Solomon, scarce prefers him that does not get more, before him that wasts all. He makes them brethren; almost all one. Cursed be he that does the work of God negligently; that does any Commandment of God by halves; And this negligent and lazy man, this in-industrious and illaborious man that takes no pains, he does one part of Gods Commandment, He does multiply, but he does not the other, he does not increase; He leaves Children enow, but he leaves them nothing; not in possessions and maintenance, nor in vocation and calling.

And truly, howsoever the love of money be the root of all evil, (He cannot mistake that told us so) Howsoever they that will be rich (that resolve to be rich by any means) shall fall into many temptations, Howsoever a hasty desire of being suddenly and prematurely rich, be a dangerous and an obnoxious thing, a pestilent and contagious disease, (for what a perverse and inordinate anticipation and prevention of God and nature is it, to look for our harvest in May, or to look for all grainst at once? and such a perverseness is the hasty desire of being suddenly and prematurely rich, yet, to go on industriously in an honest calling, and giving God his leisure, and giving God his portion all the way, in Tithes, and in Alms, and then, still to lay up something for posterity, is that, which God does not only permit and accept from us, but command to us, and reward in us. And certainly, that man shall not stand so right in Gods eye at the last day, that leaves his Children to the Parish, as he that leaves the Parish to his Children, if he have made his purchases out of honest gain, in a lawful Calling, and not out of oppression.

In all which, I would be rightly understood; that is, that I speak of such poverty as is contracted by our own laziness, or wastefulness. For otherwise, poverty that comes from the hand of God, is as rich a blessing as comes from his hand. He that is poor with a good conscience, that hath laboured and yet not prospered, knows to whom to go, and what to say, Lord, thou hast put gladness into my heart, more then in the time when corn and wine increased; (more now, then when I had more) I will lay me down and sleep, for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety. Does every rich man dwell in safety? Can every rich man lye down in peace and sleep? no, nor every poor man neither; but he that is poor with a good conscience, can. And, though he that is rich with a good conscience may, in a good measure, do so too, (sleep in peace) yet not so out of the sphere and latitude of envy, and free from the machinations, and supplantations, and underminings of malicious men, that feed upon the confiscations, and build upon the ruins of others, as the poor man is.

Though then S. Chrysostom call riches Absurditatis parents, the parents of absurdities, That they make us do, not only ungodly, but inhumane things, not only irreligious, but unreasonable things, uncomely and absurd things, things which we our selves did not suspect that we could be drawn to, yet there is a growing rich, which is not covetousness, and there is a desire of honor and preferment, which is not Pride. For, Pride is, (as we said before) Appetitus perversus, A perverse and inordinate desire, but there is a desire of honor and preferment, regulated by rectified Reason; and rectified Reason is Religion. And therefore, (as we said) how ever other affections of man, may, and are, by the Holy Ghost, in Scriptures, in some respects ascribed to God, yet never Pride. Nay, the Holy Ghost himself seems to be straitned, and in a difficulty, when he comes to express Gods proceedings with a proud man, and his detestation of him, and aversion from him. There is a considerable, a remarkable, indeed a singular manner of expressing it, (perchance you find not the like in all the Bible) where God says, Hini that hath a high look, and a proud heart, I will not, (in our last) I cannot, (in our former translation) Not what? Not as it is in those translations, I cannot suffer him, I will not suffer him; for that word of Suffering, is but a voluntary word, supplied by the Translators; In the Original, it is as it were an abrupt breaking off on Gods part, from the proud man, and, (if we may so speak) a kind of froward departing from him. God does not say of the proud man, I cannot work upon him, I cannot mend him, I cannot pardon him, I cannot suffer him, I cannot stay with him, but merely I cannot, and no more, I cannot tell what to say of him, what to do for him; (Him that hath a proud heart, I cannot) Pride is so contrary to God, as that the proud man, and he can meet in nothing. And this consideration hath kept us thus long, from that which we made our first and principal collection, That this commandment of Humility, was imprinted in our very first word, Sequere, follow, be content to come after, to denote how early and primary a sin Pride is, and how soon it entered into the world, and how soon into us; and that consideration we shall pursue now.

We know that light is Gods eldest child, his first born of all Creatures; and it is ordinarily received, that the Angels are twins with the light, made then when light was made. And then the first act, that these Angels that fell, did, was an act of Pride. They not thank nor praise God; for their Creation; (which should have been their first act) They did not solicit, nor pray to God for their Sustentation, their Melioration, their Confirmation; (so they should have proceed) But the first act that those first Creatures did, was an act of pride, a proud reflecting upon themselves, a proud overvaluing of their own condition, and an acquiescence in that, in an imaginary possibility of standing by themselves, without any farther relation, or beholdingness to God. So early, so primary a sin is Pride, as that it was the first act of the first of Creatures.

So early, so primary a sin, as that whereas all Pride now is but a comparative pride, this first pride in the Angels was a positive, a radical pride. The Pharisee is but proud, that he is not as other men are; that is but a comparative pride. No King thinks himself great enough, yet he is proud that he is independant, sovereign, subject to none. No subject thinks himself rich enough, yet he is proud that he is able to oppress others that are poorer, Et gloriatur in malo, quia potens est, He boasteth himself in mischief, because he is a mighty man. But all these are but comparative prides; and there must be some subjects to compare with, before a King can be proud, and some inferiors, before the Magistrate, and some poor, before the rich man can be proud. But this pride in those Angels in heaven, was a positive pride; There were no other Creatures yet made, with whom these Angels could compare themselves, and before whom these Angels could prefer themselves, and yet before there was any other creature but themselves, any other creature, to undervalue, or insult over, these Angels were proud of themselves. So early, so primary a sin is Pride.

So early, so primary, as that in that ground, which was for goodness next to heaven, that is, Paradise, Pride grew very early too. Adams first act was not an act of Pride, but an act of lawful power and jurisdiction, in naming the Creatures; Adam was above them all, and he might have called them what he would; There had lain no action, no appeal, if Adam had called a Lyon a Dog, or an Eagle an Owl. And yet we dispute with God, why he should not make all us vessels of honor, and we complain of God, that he hath not given us all, all the abundances of this world. Comparatively Adam was better then all the world beside, and yet we find no act of pride in Adam, when he was alone. Solitude is not the scene of Pride; The danger of pride is in company, when we meet to look upon another. But in Adams wife, Eve, her first act (that is noted) was an act of Pride, a hearkening to that voice of the Serpent, Ye shall be as Gods. As soon as there were two, there was pride. How many may we have known, (if we have had any conversation in the world) that have been content all the week, at home alone, with their worky day faces, as well as with their worky day clothes, and yet on Sundays, when they come to Church, and appear in company, will mend both, their faces as well as their clothes. Not solitude, but company is the scene of pride; And therefore I know not what to call that practise of the Nuns in Spain, who though they never see man, yet will paint. So early, so primary a sin is Pride, as that it grew instantly from her, whom God intended for a Helper, because he saw that it was not good for man to be alone. God sees that it is not good for man to be without health, without wealth, without power, and jurisdiction, and magistracy, and we grow proud of our helpers, proud of our health and strength, proud of our wealth and riches, proud of our office and authority over others.

So early, so primary a sin is pride, as that, out of every mercy, and blessing, which God affords us, (and, His mercies are new every morning) we gather Pride; we are not the more thankful for them, and yet we are the prouder of them. Nay, we gather Pride, not only out of those things, which mend and improve us, (Gods blessings and mercies) but out of those actions of our own, that destroy and ruin us, we gather pride; sins overthrow us, demolish us, destroy and ruin us, and yet we are proud of our sins. How many men have we heard boast of their sins; and, (as S. Augustine confesses of himself) bely themselves, and boast of more sins then ever they committed? Out of every thing, out of nothing sin grows. Therefore was this commandment in our text, Sequere, Follow, come after, well placed first, for we are come to see even children strive for place and precedency, and mothers are ready to go to the Heralds to know how Cradles shall be ranked, which Cradle shall have the highest place; Nay, even in the womb, there was contention for precedency; Jacob took hold of his brother Esaus heel, and would have been born before him.

And as our pride begins in our Cradle, it continues in our graves and Monuments. It was a good while in the primitive Church, before any were buried in the Church; The best contented themselves with the Churchyards. After, a holy ambition, (may we call it so) a holy Pride brought them ad Limina, to the Church-threshold, to the Church-door, because some great Martyrs were buried in the Porches, and devout men desired to lie near them, as one Prophet did to lie near another, (Lay my bones besides his bones.) But now, persons whom the Devil kept from Church all their lives, Separatists, Libertines, that never came to any Church, And persons, whom the Devil brought to Church all their lives, (for, such as come merely out of the obligation of the Law, and to redeem that vexation, or out of custom, or company, or curiosity, or a perverse and sinister affection to the particular Preacher, though they come to Gods house, come upon the Devils invitation) Such as one Devil, that is, worldly respect, brought to Church in their lives, another Devil, that is, Pride and vain-glory, brings to Church after their deaths, in an affectation of high places, and sumptuous Monuments in the Church. And such as have given nothing at all to any pious uses, or have determined their alms and their dole which they have given, in that one day of their funeral, and no farther, have given large annuities, perpetuities, for new painting their tombs, and for new flags, and scutcheons, every certain number of years.

O the earliness! O the lateness! how early a Spring, and no Autumn! how fast a growth, and no declination, of this branch of this sin Pride, against which, this first word of ours, Sequere, Follow, come after, is opposed! this love of place, and precedency, it rocks us in our Cradles, it lies down with us in our graves. There are diseases proper to certain things, Rots to sheep, Murrain to cattle. There are diseases proper to certain places, as the Sweat was to us. There are diseases proper to certain times, as the plague is in divers parts of the Eastern Countryes, where they know assuredly, when it will begin and end. But for this infectious disease of precedency, and love of place, it is run over all places, as well Cloysters as Courts, And over all men, as well spiritual as temporal, And over all times, as well the Apostles as ours. The Apostles disputed often, who should be greatest, and it was not enough to them, that Christ assured them, that they should sit upon the twelve thrones, and judge the twelve Tribes; it was not enough for the sons of Zebedee, to be put into that Commission, but their friends must solicit the office, to place them high in that Commission; their Mother must move, that one may sit at Christs right hand, and the other at his left, in the execution of that Commission. Because this sin of pride is so early and primary a sin, is this Commandment of Humility first enjoined, and because this sin appears most generally in this love of place, and precedency, the Commandment is expressed in that word, Sequere, Follow, Come after. But then, even this Humility is limited, for it is Sequere me, follow me, which was proposed for our second Consideration, Sequere me.

There may be a pride in Humility, and an over-weaning of our selves, in attributing too much to our own judgement, in following some leaders; for so, we may be so humble as to go after some man, and yet so proud, as to go before the Church, because that man may be a Schismatike. Therefore Christ proposes a safe guide, himself, Sequere me, follow me. It is a dangerous thing, when Christ says, Vade post me, Get thee behind me; for that is accompanied with a shrewd name of increpation, Satan, Get thee behind me Satan; Christ speaks it but twice in the Gospel; once to Peter, who because he then did the part of an Adversary, Christ calls Satan, and once to Satan himself, because he pursued his temptations upon him; for there is a going behind Christ, which is a casting out of his presence, without any future following, and that is a fearful station, a fearful retrogradation; But when Christs says, not Vade retro, Get thee behind me, see my face no more, but Sequere me, follow me, he means to look back upon us; so the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter wept bitterly, and all was well; when he bids us follow him, he directs us in a good way, and by a good guide.

The Carthusian Friers thought they descended into as low pastures as they could go, when they renounced all flesh, and bound themselves to feed on fish only; and yet another Order follows them in their superstitious singularity, and goes beyond them, Foliantes, the Fueillans, they eat neither flesh, nor fish, nothing but leafs, and roots; and as the Carthusians in a proud humility, despise all other Orders that eat flesh, so do the Fueillans the Carthusians that eat fish. There is a pride in such humility. That Order of Friers that called themselves Ignorantes, Ignorant men, that pretended to know nothing, sunk as low as they thought it possible, into an humble name and appellation; And yet the Minorits, (Minorits that are less then any) think they are gone lower, and then the Minimes, (Minimes that are less then all) lower then they. And when one would have thought, that there had not been a lower step then that, another Sect went beyond all, beyond the Ignorants, and the Minorits, and the Minimes, and all, and called themselves, Nullanos, Nothings. But yet, even these Diminutives, the Minorits, and Minimes, and Nullans, as little, as less, as least, as very nothing as they profess themselves, lie under this disease, which is opposed in the Sequere me, follow, come after, in our Text; For no sort nor condition of men in the world are more contentious, more quarrelsome, more vehement for place, and precedency, then these Orders of Friers are, there, where it may appear, that is, in their public Processions, as we find by those often troubles, which the Superiors of the several Orders, and Bishops in their several Dioces, and some of those Councils, which they call General, have been put to, for the ranking, and marshalling of these contentious, and wrangling men. Which makes me remember the words, in which the eighteenth of Queen Elizabeths Injunctions is conceived, That to take away fond Curtesy, (that is, needless Complement) and to take away challenging of places, (which it seems were frequent and troublesome then) To take away fond curtesy, and challenging of places, Processions themselves were taken away, because in those Processions, these Orders of Friers, that pretended to follow, and come after all the world, did thus passionately, and with so much scandalous animosity pursue the love of place, and precedency. Therefore is our humility here limited, Sequere me, follow me, follow Christ. How is that done?

Consider it in Doctrinal things first, and then in Moral; First how we are to follow Christ in believing, and then how in doing, in practising. First in Doctrinal things, There must have gone some body before, else it is no following; Take heed therefore of going on with thine own inventions, thine own imaginations, for this is no following; Take heed of accompanying the beginners of Heresies and Schisms; for these are no followings where none have gone before: Nay, there have not gone enow before, to make it a path to follow in, except it have had a long continuance, and been much trodden in. And therefore to follow Christ doctrinally, is to embrace those Doctrins, in which his Church hath walked from the beginning, and not to vexe thy self with new points, not necessary to salvation. That is the right way, and then thou art well entered; but that is not all; thou must walk in the right way to the end, that is, to the end of thy life. So that to profess the whole Gospel, and nothing but Gospel for Gospel, and profess this to thy death, for no respect, no dependance upon any great person, to slacken in any fundamental point of thy Religion, nor to be shaken with hopes or fears in thine age, when thou wouldst fain live at ease, and therefore thinkest it necessary to do, as thy supporters do; To persevere to the end in the whole Gospel, this is to follow Christ in Doctrinal things.

In practical things, things that belong to action, we must also follow Christ, in the right way, and to the end. They are both (way and end) laid together, Sufferentiam Job audiistis, & finem Domini vidistis; You have heard of the patience of Job, and you bave seen the end of the Lord; and you must go Job's way to Christs end. Job hath beaten a path for us, to show us all the way; A path that affliction walked in, and seemed to delight in it, in bringing the Sabaean upon his Oxen, the Chaldean upon his Camels, the fire upon his Sheep, destruction upon his Servants, and at last, ruin upon his Children. One affliction makes not a path; iterated, continued calamities do; and such a path Job hath showed us, not only patience, but cheerfulness; more, thankfulness for our afflictions, because they were multiplied. And then, we must set before our eyes, as the way of Job, so the end of the Lord; Now the end of the Lord was the cross: So that to follow him to the end, is not only to bear afflictions, though to death, but it is to bring our crosses to the Cross of Christ. How is that progress made? (for it is a royal progress, not a pilgrimage to follow Christ to his Cross) Our Savior saith, He that will follow me, let him take up his cross, and follow me. You see four stages, four resting, baiting places in this progress. It must be a cross, And it must be my cross, And then it must be taken up by me, And with this cross of mine, thus taken up by me, I must follow Christ, that is, carry my cross to his.

First it must be a Cross, Tollat crucem; for every man hath afflictions, but every man hath not cross. Only those afflictions are crosses, whereby the world is crucified to us, and we to the world. The afflictions of the wicked exasperate them, enrage them, stone and pave them, obdurate and petrify them, but they do not crucify them. The afflictions of the godly crucify them. And when I am come to that conformity with my Savior, as to fulfill his sufferings in my flesh, (as I am, when I glorify him in a Christian constancy and cheerfulness in my afflictions) then I am crucified with him, carried up to his Cross: And as Elisha in raising the Shunamits dead child, put his mouth upon the child mouth, his eyes, and his hands, upon the hands, and eyes of the child; so when my crosses have carried me up to my Saviours Cross, I put my hands into his hands, and hang upon his nails, I put mine eyes upon his, and wash off all my former unchaste looks, and receive a sovereign tincture, and a lively verdure, and a new life into my dead tears, from his tears. I put my mouth upon his mouth, and it is I that say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and it is I that recover again, and say, Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Thus my afflictions are truly a cross, when those afflictions do truly crucify me, and souple me, and mellow me, and knead me, and roll me out, to a conformity with Christ. It must be this Cross, and then it must be my cross that I must take up, Tollat suam.

Other mens crosses are not my crosses; no man hath suffered more then himself needed. That is a poor treasure which they boast of in the Roman Church, that they have in their Exchequer, all the works of supererogation, of the Martyrs in the Primitive Church, that suffered so much more then was necessary for their own salvation, and those superabundant crosses and merits they can apply to me. If the treasure of the blood of Christ Jesus be not sufficient, Lord what addition can I find, to match them, to piece out them! And if it be sufficient of it self, what addition need I seek? Other mens crosses are not mine, other mens merits cannot save me. Nor is any cross mine own, which is not mine by a good title; If I be not Possessor bonae fidei, If I came not well by that cross. And Quid habeo quod non accepi? is a question that reaches even to my crosses; what have I that I have not received? not a cross; And from whose hands can I receive any good thing, but from the hands of God? So that that only is my cross, which the hand of God hath laid upon me. Alas, that cross of present bodily weakness, which the former wantonnesses of my youth have brought upon me, is not my cross; That cross of poverty which the wastefulness of youth hath brought upon me, is not my cross; for these, weakness upon wantonness, want upon wastefulness, are Natures crosses, not Gods, and they would fall naturally, though there were (which is an impossible supposition) no God. Except God therefore take these crosses in the way, as they fall into his hands, and sanctify them so, and then lay them upon me, they are not my crosses; but if God do this, they are. And then this cross thus prepared, I must take up; Tollat.

Foreign crosses, other mens merits are not mine; spontaneous and voluntary crosses, contracted by mine own sins, are not mine; neither are devious, and remote, and unnecessary crosses, my crosses. Since I am bound to take up my cross, there must be a cross that is mine to take up; that is, a cross prepared for me by God, and laid in my way, which is temptations or tribulations in my calling; and I must not go out of my way to seek a cross; for, so it is not mine, nor laid for my taking up. I am not bound to hunt after a persecution, nor to stand it, and not fly, nor to affront a plague, and not remove, nor to open my self to an injury, and not defend. I am not bound to starve my self by inordinate fasting, nor to tear my flesh by inhumane whippings, and flagellations. I am bound to take up my Cross; and that is only mine which the hand of God hath laid for me, that is, in the way of my Calling, temptations and tribulations incident to that.

If it be mine, that is, laid for me by the hand of God, and taken up by me, that is, voluntarily embraced, then Sequatur, says Christ, I am bound to follow him, with that cross, that is, to carry my cross to his cross. And if at any time I faint under this cross in the way, let this comfort me, that even Christ himself was eased by Simon of Cyrene, in the carrying of his Cross; and in all such cases, I must fly to the assistance of the prayers of the Church, and of good men, that God, since it is his burden, will make it lighter, since it is his yoke, easier, and since it is his Cross, more supportable, and give me the issue with the temptation. When all is done, with this cross thus laid for me, and taken up by me, I must follow Christ; Christ to his end; his end is his Cross; that is, I must bring my cross to his; lay down my cross at the foot of his; Confess that there is no dignity, no merit in mine, but as it receives an impression, a sanctification from his. For, if I could dye a thousand times for Christ, this were nothing, if Christ had not died for me before. And this is truly to follow Christ, both in the way, and to the end, as well in doctrinal things as in practical. And this is all that lay upon these two, Peter and Andrew, Follow me. Remains yet to be considered, what they shall get by this; which is our last Consideration.

They shall be fishers; and what shall they catch? men. They shall be fishers of men. And then, for that the world must be their Sea, and their net must be the Gospel. And here in so vast a sea, and with so small a net, there was no great appearance of much gain. And in this function, whatsoever they should catch, they should catch little for themselves. The Apostleship, as it was the fruitfullest, so it was the barrennest vocation; They were to catch all the world; there is their fecundity; but the Apostles were to have no Successors, as Apostles; there is their barrenness. The Apostleship was not intended for a function to raise houses and families; The function ended in their persons; after the first, there were no more Apostles.

And therefore it is an usurpation, an imposture, an illusion, it is a forgery, when the Bishop of Rome will proceed by Apostolical authority, and with Apostolical dignity, and Apostolical jurisdiction; If he be S. Peters Successor in the Bishoprick of Rome, he may proceed with Episcopal authority in his Dioces. If he be; for, though we do not deny that S. Peter was at Rome, and Bishop of Rome; though we receive it with an historical faith, induced by the consent of Ancient writers, yet when they will constitute matter of faith out of matter of fact, and, because S. Peter was (de facto) Bishop of Rome, therefore we must believe, as an Article of faith, such an infallibility in that Church, as that no Successor of S. Peters can ever err, when they stretch it to matter of faith, then for matter of faith, we require Scriptures; and then we are confident, and justly confident, that though historically we do believe it, yet out of Scriptures (which is a necessary proof in Articles of faith) they can never prove that S. Peter was Bishop of Rome, or ever at Rome. So then, if the present Bishop of Rome be S. Peters Successor, as Bishop of Rome, he hath Episcopal jurisdiction there; but he is not S. Peters Successor in his Apostleship; and only that Apostleship was a jurisdiction over all the world. But the Apostleship was an extraordinary office instituted by Christ, for a certain time, and to certain purposes, and not to continue in ordinary use. As also the office of the Prophet was in the Old Testament an extraordinary Office, and was not transferred then, nor does not remain now in the ordinary office of the Minister.

And therefore they argue impertinently, and collect and infer sometimes seditiously that say, The Prophet proceeded thus and thus, therefore the Minister may and must proceed so too; The Prophets would chide the Kings openly, and threaten the Kings publicly, and proclaim the fault of the Kings in the ears of the people confidently, authoritatively, therefore the Minister may and must do so. God sent that particular Prophet Jeremiah with that extraordinary Commission, Behold I have this day set thee over the Nations, and over the Kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, to destroy and throw down, and then to build, and to plant again; But God hath given none of us his Ministers, in our ordinary function, any such Commission over Nations, and over Kingdoms. Even in Ieremies Commission there seems to be a limitation of time; Behold this day I have set thee over them, where that addition (this day) is not only the date of the Commission, that it passed Gods hand that day, but (this day) is the term, the duration of the Commission, that it was to last but that day, that is, (as the phrase of that language is) that time for which it was limited. And therefore, as they argue perversely, frowardly, dangerously that say, The Minister does not his duty that speaks not as boldly, and as publicly too, and of Kings, and great persons, as the Prophets did, because theirs was an Extraordinary, ours an Ordinary office, (and no man will think that the Justices in their Sessions, or the Judges in their Circuits may proceed to executions, without due trial by a course of Law, because Marshals, in time of rebellion and other necessities, may do so, because the one hath but an ordinary, the other an extraordinary Commission) So do they deceive themselves and others, that pretend in the Bishop of Rome an Apostolical jurisdiction, a jurisdiction over all the world, whereas howsoever he may be S. Peters Successor, as Bishop of Rome, yet he is no Successor to S. Peter as an Apostle; upon which only the universal power can be grounded, and without which that universal power falls to the ground: The Apostolical faith remains spread over all the world, but Apostolical jurisdiction is expired with their persons.

These twelve Christ calls Fishers; why fishers? because it is a name of labor, of service, and of humiliation; and names that taste of humiliation, and labor, and service, are most properly ours; (fishers we may be) names of dignity, and authority, and command are not so properly ours, (Apostles we are not in any such sense as they were) Nothing inflames, nor swells, nor puffs us up, more then that leaven of the soul, that empty, aery, frothy love of Names and Titles. We have known men part with ancient lands for new Titles, and with old Mannors for new Honours; and as a man that should bestow all his money upon a faire purse, and then have nothing to put into it; so whole Estates have melted away for Titles and Honours, and nothing left to support them. And how long last they? How many winds blast them? That name of God, in which, Moses was sent to Pharaoh, is by our Translators and Expositors ordinarily said to be I Am that I Am, (Go and say, I Am hath sent me, says God there) But in truth, in the Original, the name is conceived in the future, it is, I shall be. Every man is that he is; but only God is sure that he shall be so still. Therefore Christ calls them by a name of labor and humiliation. But why by that name of labor and humiliation, Fishers?

Because it was Nomen primitivum, their own, their former name. The Holy Ghost pursues his own way, and does here in Christ, as he does often in other places, he speaks in such forms, and such phrases, as may most work upon them to whom he speaks. Of David, that was a shepherd before, God says, he took him to feed his people. To those Magi of the East, who were given to the study of the Stars, God gave a Star to be their guide to Christ at Bethlem. To those which followed him to Capernaum for meat, Christ took occasion by that, to preach to them of the spiritual food of their souls. To the Samaritan woman, whom he found at the Well, he preached of the water of Life. To these men in our Text accustomed to a joy and gladness, when they took great, or great store of fish, he presents his comforts agreeably to their taste, They should be fishers still. Beloved, Christ puts no man out of his way, (for sinful courses are no ways, but continual deviations) to go to heaven. Christ makes heaven all things to all men, that he might gain all: To the mirthful man he presents heaven, as all joy, and to the ambitious man, as all glory; To the Merchant it is a Pearl, and to the husbandman it is a rich field. Christ hath made heaven all things to all men, that he might gain all, and he puts no man out of his way to come thither. These men he calls Fishers.

He does not call them from their calling, but he mends them in it. It is not an Innovation; God loves not innovations; Old doctrines, old disciplines, old words and forms of speech in his service, God loves best. But it is a Renovation, though not an Innovation, and Renovations are always acceptable to God; that is, the renewing of a mans self, in a consideration of his first estate, what he was made for, and wherein he might be most serviceable to God. Such a renewing it is, as could not be done without God; no man can renew himself, regenerate himself; no man can prepare that work, no man can begin it, no man can proceed in it of himself. The desire and the actual beginning is from the preventing grace of God, and the constant proceeding is from the concomitant, and subsequent, and continual succeeding grace of God; for there is no conclusive, no consummative grace in this life; no such measure of grace given to any man, as that that man needs no more, or can lose or frustrate none of that. The renwing of these men in our text, Christ takes to himself; Faciam vos, I will make yee fishers of men; no worldly respects must make us such fishers; it must be a calling from God; And yet, (as the other Evangelist in the same history expresses it) it is Faciam fieri vos, I will cause yee to be made fishers of men, that is, I will provide an outward calling for you too. Our calling to this Man-fishing is not good, Nisi Dominus faciat, & fieri faciat, except God make us fishers by an internal, and make his Church to make us so too, by an external calling. Then we are fishers of men, and then we are successors to the Apostles, though not in their Apostleship, yet in this fishing. And then, for this fishing, the world is the Sea, and our net is the Gospel.

The world is a Sea in many respects and assimilations. It is a Sea, as it is subject to storms, and tempests; Every man (and every man is a world) feels that. And then, it is never the shallower for the calmness, The Sea is as deep, there is as much water in the Sea, in a calm, as in a storm; we may be drowned in a calm and flattering fortune, in prosperity, as irrecoverably, as in a wrought Sea, in adversity; So the world is a Sea. It is a Sea, as it is bottomless to any line, which we can sound it with, and endless to any discovery that we can make of it. The purposes of the world, the ways of the world, exceed our consideration; But yet we are sure the Sea hath a bottom, and sure that it hath limits, that it cannot overpass; The power of the greatest in the world, the life of the happiest in the world, cannot exceed those bounds, which God hath placed for them; So the world is a Sea. It is a Sea, as it hath ebbs and floods, and no man knows the true reason of those floods and those ebbs. All men have changes and vicissitudes in their bodies, (they fall sick) And in their estates, (they grow poor) And in their minds, (they become sad) at which changes, (sickness, poverty, sadness) themselves wonder, and the cause is wrapped up in the purpose and judgement of God only, and hid even from them that have them; and so the world is a Sea. It is a Sea, as the Sea affords water enough for all the world to drink, but such water as will not quench the thirst. The world affords conveniences enow to satisfy Nature, but these increase our thirst with drinking, and our desire grows and enlarges it self with our abundance, and though we sail in a full Sea, yet we lack water; So the world is a Sea. It is a Sea, if we consider the Inhabitants. In the Sea, the greater fish devour the less; and so do the men of this world too. And as fish, when they mud themselves, have no hands to make themselves clean, but the current of the waters must work that; So have the men of this world no means to cleanse themselves from those sins which they have contracted in the world, of themselves, till a new flood, waters of repentance, drawn up, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, work that blessed effect in them.

All these ways the world is a Sea, but especially it is a Sea in this respect, that the Sea is no place of habitation, but a passage to our habitations. So the Apostle expresses the world, Here we have no continuing City, but we seek one to come; we seek it not here, but we seek it whilst we are here, els we shall never find it. Those are the two great works which we are to do in this world; first to know, that this world is not our home, and then to provide us another home, whilst we are in this world. Therefore the Prophet says, Arise, and depart, for this is not your rest. Worldly men, that have no farther prospect, promise themselves some rest in this world, (Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry, says the rich man) but this is not your rest; indeed no rest; at least not yours. You must depart, depart by death, before yee come to that rest; but then you must arise, before you depart; for except yee have a resurrection to grace here, before you depart, you shall have no resurrection to glory in the life to come, when you are departed.

Now, in this Sea, every ship that sayles must necessarily have some part of the ship under water; Every man that lives in this world, must necessarily have some of his life, some of his thoughts, some of his labours spent upon this world; but that part of the ship, by which he sayls, is above water; Those meditations, and those endeavors which must bring us to heaven, are removed from this world, and fixed entirely upon God. And in this Sea, are we made fishers of men; Of men in general; not of rich men, to profit by them, nor of poor men, to pierce them the more sharply, because affliction hath opened a way into them; Not of learned men, to be over-glad of their approbation of our labours, Nor of ignorant men, to affect them with an astonishment, or admiration of our gifts: But we are fishers of men, of all men, of that which makes them men, their souls. And for this fishing in this Sea, this Gospel is our net.

Eloquence is not our net; Traditions of men are not our nets; only the Gospel is. The Devil angles with hooks and bayts; he deceives, and he wounds in the catching; for every sin hath his sting. The Gospel of Christ Jesus is a net; It hath leads and corks; It hath leads, that is, the denouncing of Gods judgements, and a power to sink down, and lay flat any stubborn and rebellious heart, And it hath corks, that is, the power of absolution, and application of the mercies of God, that swim above all his works, means to erect an humble and contrite spirit, above all the waters of tribulation, and affliction. A net is Res nodosa, a knotty thing; and so is the Scripture, full of knots, of scruple, and perplexity, and anxiety, and vexation, if thou wilt go about to entangle thy self in those things, which appertain not to thy salvation; but knots of a fast union, and inseparable alliance of thy soul to God, and to the fellowship of his Saints, if thou take the Scriptures, as they were intended for thee, that is, if thou beest content to rest in those places, which are clear, and evident in things necessary. A net is a large thing, past thy fadoming, if thou cast it from thee, but if thou draw it to thee, it will lie upon thine arm. The Scriptures will be out of thy reach, and out of thy use, if thou cast and scatter them upon Reason, upon Philosophy, upon Morality, to try how the Scriptures will fit all them, and believe them but so far as they agree with thy reason; But draw the Scripture to thine own heart, and to thine own actions, and thou shalt find it made for that; all the promises of the old Testament made, and all accomplished in the new Testament, for the salvation of thy soul hereafter, and for thy consolation in the present application of them.

Now this that Christ promises here, is not here promised in the nature of wages due to our labor, and our fishing. There is no merit in all that we can do. The wages of sin is Death; Death is due to sin, the proper reward of sin; but the Apostle does not say there, That eternal life is the wages of any good work of ours. (The wages of sin is death, but eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord) Through Jesus Christ, that is, as we are considered in him; and in him, who is a Savior, a Redeemer, we are not considered but as sinners. So that Gods purpose works no otherwise upon us, but as we are sinners; neither did God mean ill to any man, till that man was, in his sight, a sinner. God shuts no man out of heaven, by a lock on the inside, except that man have clapped the door after him, and never knocked to have it opened again, that is, except he have sinned, and never repented. Christ does not say in our text, Follow me, for I will prefer you; he will not have that the reason, the cause. If I would not serve God, except I might be saved for serving him, I shall not be saved though I serve him; My first end in serving God, must not be my self, but he and his glory. It is but an addition from his own goodness, Et faciam, Follow me, and I will do this; but yet it is as certain, and infallible as a debt, or as an effect upon a natural cause; Those propositions in nature are not so certain; The Earth is at such a time just between the Sun, and the Moon, therefore the Moon must be Eclipsed, The Moon is at such time just between the Earth and the Sun, therefore the Sun must be Eclipsed; for upon the Sun, and those other bodies, God can, and hath sometimes wrought miraculously, and changed the natural courses of them; (The Sun stood still in Joshua, And there was an unnatural Eclipse at the death of Christ) But God cannot by any Miracle so work upon himself, as to make himself not himself, unmerciful, or unjust; And out of his mercy he makes this promise, (Do this, and thus it shall be with you) and then, of his justice he performs that promise, which was made merely, and only out of mercy, If we do it, (though not because we do it) we shall have eternal life.

Therefore did Andrew, and Peter faithfully believe, such a net should be put into their hands. Christ had vouchsafed to fish for them, and caught them with that net, and they believed that he that made them fishers of men, would also enable them to catch others with that net. And that is truly the comfort that refreshes us in all our Lucubrations, and night-studies, through the course of our lives, that that God that sets us to Sea, will prosper our voyage, that whether he six us upon our own, or send us to other Congregations, he will open the hearts of those Congregations to us, and bless our labours to them. For as S. Pauls Vaesi non, lies upon us wheresoever we are, (Wo be unto us if we do not preach) so, (as S. Paul says to) we were of all men the most miserable, if we preached without hope of doing good. With this net S. Peter caught three thousand souls in one day, at one Sermon, and five thousand in another. With this net S. Paul fished all the Mediterranean Sea, and caused the Gospel of Christ Jesus to abound from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum. This is the net, with which if yee be willing to be caught, that is, to lay down all your hopes and affiances in the gracious promises of his Gospel, then you are fishes reserved for that great Marriage-feast, which is the Kingdom of heaven; where, whosoever is a dish, is a ghest too; whosoever is served in at the table, sits at the table; whosoever is caught by this net, is called to this feast; and there your souls shall be satisfied as with marrow, and with fatness, in an infallible assurance, of an everlasting and undeterminable term, in inexpressible joy and glory. Amen.

Serm. LXXIII. Preached to the King in my Ordinary wayting at White-hall, 18. April 1626.

JOH. 14.2.

In my Fathers House are many Mansions; If it were not so, I would have told you.

THere are occasions of Controversies of all kinds in this one Verse; And one is, whether this be one Verse or no; For as there are Doctrinal Controversies, out of the sense and interpretation of the words, so are there Grammattical differences about the Distinction, and Interpunction of them: Some Translations differing therein from the Original, (as the Original Copies are distinguished, and interpuncted now) and some differing from one another. The first Translation that was, that into Syriaque, as it is expressed by Tremellius, renders these words absolutely, precisely, as our two Translations do; And, as our two Translations do, applies the second clause and proposition, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you, as in affirmation, and confirmation of the former, In domo Patris, In my Fathers house there are many Mansions, For, If it were not so I would have told you. But then, as both our Translations do, the Syriaque also admits into this Verse a third clause and proposition, Vado parare, I go to prepare you a place. Now Beza doth not so; Piscator doth not so; They determine this Verse in those two propositions which constitute our Text, In my Fathers house, &c. and then they let fall the third proposition, as an inducement, and inchoation of the next Verse, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again. Divers others do otherwise, and diversly; For some do assume (as we, and the Syriaque do) all three propositions into the Verse, but then they do not (as we, and the Syriaque do) make the second a proof of the first, In my Fathers house are many Mansions, For, If it were not so, I would have told you, But they refer the second to the third proposition, If it were not so, I would have told you, For, I go to prepare you a place, and being to go from you, would leave you ignorant of nothing. But we find no reason to depart from that Distinction and Interpunction of these words, which our own Church exhibits to us, and therefore we shall pursue them so; and so determine, though not the Verse, (for into the Verse, we admit all three propositions) yet the whole purpose and intention of our Savior, in those two propositions, which accomplish our Text, In my Fathers house, &c.

This Interpunction then offers and constitutes our two parts. First, A particular Doctrine, which Christ infuses into his Disciples, In domo Patris, In my Fathers house are many Mansions; And then a general Rule and Scale, by which we are to measure, and weigh all Doctrines, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you. In the order of nature, the later part falls first into consideration, The rule of all Doctrines; which in this place is, The word of God in the mouth of Christ, digested into the Scriptures; In which, we shall have just, more then just, necessary occasion to note both their distempers, both theirs, that think, That there are other things to be believed, then are in the Scriptures, and theirs that think, That there are some things in the Scriptures, which are not to be believed: For when our Savior says, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you, he intends both this proposition, I have told you all that is necessary to be believed; and this also, All that I have told you, is necessary to be believed, so as I have told it you. So that this excludes both that imaginary insufficiency of the Scriptures, which some have ventured to averre, (for God shall never call Christian to account for any thing not notified in the Scriptures) And it excludes also those imaginary Dolos bonos, and fraudes pias, which some have adventured to averre too, That God should use holy Illusions, holy deceits, holy frauds, and circumventions in his Scriptures, and not intend in them, that which he pretends by them; This is his Rule, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you, If I have not told you so, it is not so, and if I have, it is so as I have told you: And in these two branches we shall determine the first part, The Rule of Doctrines, the Scripture.

The second part, which is the particular Doctrine which Christ administers to his Disciples here, will also derive and cleave it self into two branches; For first we shall inquire, whether this proposition in our Text, In my Fathers house are many Mansions, give any ground, or assistance, or countenance to that pious opinion, of a disparity, and difference of degrees of Glory in the Saints in heaven; And then, if we find the words of this Text to conduce nothing to that Doctrine, we shall consider the right use of the true, and natural, the native and genuine, the direct, and literal, and uncontrovertible sense of the words; because in them, Christ doth not say, that in his Fathers house there are Divers Mansions, divers for seat, or lights, or fashion, or furniture, but only that there are Many, and in that notion, the Plurality, the Multipliciry, lies the Consolation.

First then, for the first branch of our first part, The general Rule of Doctrines, our Savior Christ in these words involves an argument, That he hath told them all that was necessary; He hath, because the Scripture hath, for all the Scriptures which were written before Christ, and after Christ, were written by one and the same Spirit, his Spirit. It might then make a good Problem, why they of the Roman Church, not affording to the Scriptures that dignity which belongs to them, are yet so vehement, and make so hard shift, to bring the books of other Authors into the rank, and nature, and dignity of being Scriptures: What matter is it, whether their Maccabees, or their Tobies be Scripture or no? what get their Maccabees, or their Tobies by being Scripture, if the Scripture be not full enough, or not plain enough, to bring me to salvation? But since their intention and purpose, their aim, and their end is, to under-value the Scriptures, that thereby they may over-value their own Traditions, their way to that end may be to put the name of Scriptures upon books of a lower value, that so the unworthiness of those additional books, may cast a diminution upon the Canonical books themselves, when they are made all one: as in some foreign States we have seen, that when the Prince had a purpose to erect some new Order of Honor, he would disgrace the old Orders, by conferring and bestowing them upon unworthy and incapable persons.

But why do we charge the Roman Church with this undervaluing of the Scriptures, when as they pretend, (and that cannot well be denied them) That they ascribe to all the books of Scripture this dignity, That all that is in them is true. It is true; they do so; But this may be true of other Authors also, and yet those Authors remain profane and secular Authors. All may be true that Livy says, and all that our Chronicles say, may be true; and yet our Chronicles, nor Livy become Gospel: for so much they themselves will confess and acknowledge, that all that our Church says is true, that our Church affirmes no error; and yet our Church must be a heretical Church, if any Church at all, for all that. Indeed it is but a faint, but an illusory evidence or witness, that pretends to clear a point, if, though it speak nothing but truth, yet it does not speak all the truth. The Scriptures are our evidence for life or death; Search the Scriptures, says Christ, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. Where, ye think so, is not, ye think so, but mistake the matter, but ye think so, is ye think so upon a well-grounded and rectified faith and assurance. Now if this evidence, the Scripture, shall acquit me in one Article, in my belief in God, (for I do find in the Scripture, as much as they require of me to believe, of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) And then this evidence, the Scripture, shall condemn me in another Article, The Catholic Church, (for I do not find so much in the Scripture, as they require me to believe of their Catholic Church) If the Scripture be sufficient to save me in one, and not in the rest, this is not only a defective, but an illusory evidence, which though it speak truth, yet does not speak all the truth.

Fratres sumus, quare litigamus? says S. Augustine, We are all Brethren, by one Father, one Almighty God, and one Mother, one Catholic Church, and then why do we go to Law together? At least, why do we not bring our Suits to an end? Non intestatus mortuus est Pater, says he, Our Father is dead; for, Is not he your Father that bought you? is Moses question; he that bought us with himself, his blood, his life, is not dead intestate, but hath left his Will and Testament, and why should not that Testament decide the cause? Silent Advocati, Suspensus est populus, Legant verba testamenti: This that Father notes, to be the end in other causes, why not in this? That the Counsel give over pleading, That the people give over murmuring, That the Judge calls for the words of the Will, & by that governs, and according to that establishes his Judgement. I would at last contentious men would leave wrangling, and people to whom those things belonged not, leave blowing of coales, and that the words of the Will might try the cause, since he that made the Will, hath made it thus clear, Si quo minus, If it were not thus, I would have told you, If there were more to be added then this, or more clearness to be added to this, I would have told you.

In the fifth of Matthew, Christ puts a great many cases, what others had told them, but he tells them, that is not their Rule. Audivistis, & ab antiquis, says he, you have heard, & heard by them of old, but now I tel you otherwise. So Audivimus, & ab antiquis, we have heard, and heard by them of old, That the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is so absolutely necessary, as that Children were bound to receive it, presently after Baptism, and that no man could be saved without it, more then without Baptism: This we have heard, and heard by them of old; for we have heard S. Augustin to have said so, and the practise of the Church for some hundreds of years to have said so. So Audivimus, & ab antiquis, We have heard, and heard by them of old, That the Saints of God departed out of this life, after their resurrection, and before their ascension into heaven, shall enjoy all worldly prosperity and happiness upon the earth, for a thousand years: This we have heard, and heard by them of old, for we have heard Tertullian say so, and Ireneus, and Lactantius, and so many more as would make the balance more then even. So also Audivimus, & ab antiquis, We have heard, and heard by them of old, That in how good state soever they dye, yet the souls of the departed do not see the face of God, nor enjoy his presence, till the day of Judgement, This we have heard, and from so many of them of old, as that the voice of that part is louder, then of the other. And amongst those reverend and blessed Fathers, which strayed into these errors, some were hearers and Disciples of the Apostles themselves, as Papias was a Disciple of S. John, and yet Papias was a Millenarian, and expected his thousand years prosperity upon the earth after the Resurrection: some of them were Disciples of the Apostles, and some of them were better men then the Apostles, for they were Bishops of Rome; Clement was so; and yet Clement was one of them, who denied the fruition of the sight of God, by the Saints, till the Judgement.

And yet our Adversaries will enjoy their liberty to depart from all this which they have heard, and heard from them of old, in the mouths of these Fathers. And where the Fathers are divided in two streams, where all the Fathers, few, scarce any excepted, till S. Augustine, placed the cause of our Election in Gods foresight, and fore-knowledge of our faith and obedience, and, as generally after S. Augustin, they placed it in the right Center, that is, only in the free goodness and pleasure of God in Christ, half the Roman Church goes one way, and half the other; (for we may be bold to call the Jesuits half that Church) And in that point the Jesuits depart from that which they had heard, and heard of old, from the Primitive Fathers, and adhere to the later; And their very heavy, and very bitter adversaries, the Dominicans, apply themselves to that which they have heard of old, to the first opinion. In that point in the Roman Church they have Fathers on both sides; but, in a point, where they have no Father, where all the Fathers are unanimously and diametrally against them, in the point of the Conception of the most blessed Virgin, Etsi omnes Sancti uno ore asseverent, says a wise Author of theirs, Though all the Ancient Fathers with one entire consent affirme that she was conceived in Original sin, Etsi nullus Author contravenerit, says he, Though no one ancient Author ever denied it, yet says he, Infirmum est ex omnium patrum consensu argumentum, Though our opinion have no ground in Scriptures (that, says he, I confess) Though it be no Apostolical Tradition, (that, says he, I confess) yet it is but a weak argument, says he, that is concluded out of all the Fathers against it, because, It was a doctrine manifested to the Church but about five hundred years since, and now for two hundred years hath been well followed and embraced: As the Jesuit Maldonat says in such another case, whatsoever the ancient Fathers have thought, or taught, or said, or writ, that the marriage of Priests after Orders taken, and chastity professed, was a good marriage, Contrarium nunc verum est, whatsoever was true then, the contrary is true now.

If then these men who take to themselves this liberty, will yet say to me, in some other points, Si quo minus, Surely if you were in the right, some of the ancient Fathers would have told you so; And then, if I assist my self by the Fathers, they will say, Si quo minus, If it were not otherwise, some general Council would have told you so; And again, if I support my self by a Council, Si quo minus, if that Council were to be followed, some Pope would have confirmed that Council, And if I show that to have been done, yet they will say, that that Confirmation reaches not to that Session of the Council, or not to that Canon of that Session, or not to that period in that Canon, or not to that word in that period; And then, of every Father, and Council, and Session, and Canon, and period, and word, Ejus interpretatio est sensus Spiritus Sancti, His sense and interpretation must be esteemed the Interpretation, and the Sense of the Holy Ghost, as Bellarmine hath concluded us, why will they not allow me a juster liberty, then that which they take? That when they stop my prayers in their way to God, and bid me turn upon Saints, when they stop my faith in the way to Christ, and bid me turn upon mine own, or others merits, when they stop my hopes of Heaven upon my death-bed, and bid me turn upon Purgatory, That when, as yet it is in debatement and disputation, whether man can perform the Law of God or no, they will multiply their Laws, above the proportion of Moses Tables, And when we have Primogenitum Ecclesiae, The eldest son by the Primitive Church, The Creed of the Apostles, they will super-induce another son, by another venter, by a step-mother, by their sick and crazy Church, and (as the way of step-mothers is) will then make the portion of the later, larger then the elders, make their Trent-Creed larger then the Apostles, That in such a case, they will not allow me, neither in my studies in the way, nor upon my death-bed at mine end, to hearken unto this voice of my Savior, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you, this is not only to preclude the liberty, but to exclude the duty of a Christian.

But the mystery of their Iniquity is easily revealed, their Arcana Imperii, the secrets of their State easily discovered. All this is not because they absolutely oppose the Scriptures, or stiffly deny them to be the most certain and constant rule that can be presented, (for whatsoever they pretend for their own Church, or for the Super-sovereign in that Church, their transcendent and hyperbolical supreme Head, they will pretend to deduce out of the Scriptures) But because the Scriptures are constant, and limited, and determined, there can be no more Scriptures, And they should be shrewdly prejudiced, and shrewdly disadvantaged, if all emergent cases arising in the Christian world, must be judged by a Law, which others may know before-hand, as well as they; Therefore being wise in their own generation, they choose rather to lay up their Rule in a Cupboard, then upon a Shelf, rather in Scrinio pectoris, in the breast and bosom of one man, then upon every desk in a study, where every man may lay, or whence every man may take a Bible. Therefore have so many sad and sober men amongst them, repented, that in the Council of Trent, they came to a final resolution in so many particulars; because how incommodious soever some of those particulars may prove to them, yet they are bound to some necessity of a defence, or to some aspersion if they forsake such things as have been solemnly resolved in that manner.

Therefore it was a prudent, and discreet abstinence in them, to forbear the determination of some things, which have then, and since, fallen into agitation amongst them. Be pleased to take one in the Council, and one after for all. Long time it had, and then it did, and still it doth, perplex the Consciences of penitents that come to Confession, and the understandings of Confessors, who are to give Absolution, how far the secular Laws of temporal Princes bind the Conscience of the Subject, and when, and in what cases, he is bound to confess it as a sin, who hath violated and transgressed any of those Laws; And herein, says an Author of theirs, who hath written learnedly De legibus, of the hand and obligation of Laws, The Pope was solicited and supplicated from the Council, in which it was debated, that he would be pleased to come to a Determination; but because he saw it was more advantage to him, to hold it undetermined, that so he might serve others turns, and his own especially, it remains undetermined, and no Confessor is able to un-entangle the Conscience of his penitent yet. So also in another point, of as great consequence, (at least for the peace of the Church, if not for the profit) which is, those differences, which have arisen between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, about the concurrence of the Grace of God, and the free will of man, Though both sides have come to that vehemence, that violence, that virulency, as to call one another's opinion heretical, (which is a word that cuts deep, and should not be passionately used) yet he will not be brought to a decision, to a determination in the point, but only forbids both sides to write at all in that point; and in that inhibition of his, we see how he suffers himself to be deluded, for still they write with protestation, that they write not to advance either opinion, but only to prepare the way against such time, as the Pope shall be pleased to take off that inhibition, and restore them to their liberty of writing; for this way hath one of their last Authors, Arriba, taken to vent himself. In a word, if they should submit themselves to try all points and cases of Conscience by Scripture, that were to govern by a known, and constant Law; but as they have imagined a Monarchy in their Church, so have they a prerogative in their Monarchy, a secret judgement in one breast, however, he who gives them all their power, make this protestation, Si quo minus, If it were not thus, and thus, I would have told you so.

So then this proposition in our Text falls first upon them, who do not believe All things to be contained in the Scriptures; And it falls also upon them, who do not believe All persons to be intended in the Scriptures, who seem to be concerned therein. The first sort dishonor God in his Scriptures, in that kind, That there is not enough in the Scriptures for any mans salvation; And the other in this kind, That that that is, is not intended, as it is pretended, not in that largeness and generality, as it is proposed, but that God hath set a little Diamond in a great deal of gold, a narrow purpose in large promises; and thereupon they impute to God (in their manner of expressing themselves) Dolos bonos, and Fraudes pias, holy deceits, holy falsehoods, holy illusions, and circumventions, and over-good husbands of Gods large and bountiful Grace, contract his general promises. I dispute not, but I am glad to hear the Apostle say, That as all were dead, so one died for all; and to put the force of his argument there, in that, That except we can say, That one died for all, we cannot say, that all were dead. I argue not, but I am glad to hear another Apostle say, That Christ is the propitiation for the sins of all the world; for if any man had been left out, how should I have come in?

I am not exercised, nor would I exercise these Auditories with curiosities, but I hear the Apostle say, Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died; And I hear him say, Through thy knowledge may thy weak brother perish, for whom Christ died: and, me thinks, he means, That though they might be destroyed, though they might perish, yet Christ died for them. Only to deliver God from all aspersions, and to defend particular Consciences from being scandalized with dangerous phrases, and in a pious detestation of those impious Doli, and Fraudes, holy deceits, holy falsehoods, I only say, God forbid, that when our Savior Christ called the Pharisee hypocrite, that Pharisee should have been able to recriminate that upon Christ, and to have said, So are you, for you pretend to offer salvation where you mean it not: God forbid, that when Christ had made that the mark of a true Israelite in the person of Nathaniel, In quo non est dolus, In whom there is no deceit, any man should have been able to have said to Christ, Then Nathaniel is a better Israelite then you, for you pretend to offer salvation, where you mean it not. David hath joined those two words together, The words of their mouth, are Iniquity and Deceit; If there be Deceit, there is Iniquity too. Our Savior hath joined all these together, Adulteries, Murders, Blasphemies, and Deceit; where there is Deceit, all mischief is justly presumed. The Apostle S. Paul discharges himself of nothing with more earnestness then that, Have I deceived you? have I circumvented you with fraud? Neither doth he charge him, whom he calls, The child of the Devil, Elymas the sorcerer, farther then so, O plene omni dolo, That he was full of all Deceit. And therefore they that think to gild and enamel deceit, and falsehood, with the additions of good deceit, good falsehood, before they will make deceit good, will make God bad: For, even in the Law, an action De Dolo, will not lie against a Father, nor against a Master, and shall we emplead God De Dolo?

In the last foreign Synod, which our Divines assisted, with what a blessed sobriety, they delivered their sentence, That all men are truly, and in earnest called to eternal life, by Gods Minister; And that whatsoever is promised or offered out of the Gospel by the Minister, is to the same men, and in the same manner promised and offered by the Author of the Gospel, by God himself. They knew whose breasts they had sucked; and that that Church, our Church had declared, That we must receive Gods promises so, as they be generally set forth to us in the Scriptures; And that for our actions and manners, for our life and conversation, we follow that will of God, which is expressly declared to us in his Word: And that is, That conditional salvation is so far offered to every man, as that no man may preclude himself from a possibility of such a performance of those Conditions which God requires at his hands, as God will accept at his hands, if either he do sincerely endeavor the performing, or sincerely repent the not performing of them. For all this is fayrly implied in this proposition, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you; That all that is necessary to salvation, is comprehended in the Scriptures, which was our first branch; And then, That all that is in the Scriptures, is intended so as it is proposed, which was our second; And these two constitute our first part, The general Rule of Doctrines, and farther we enlarge not that part, but descend to the other, The particular Doctrine, which Christ gives to his Disciples, in the other Proposition, In domo patris, In my Fathers house there are many Mansions.

This second part, you may also be pleased to remember, derives it self into two branches; first to inquire, whether this proposition assist that Doctrine of Disparity and Degrees of Glory in the Saints in heaven; And then the right use which is to be made of the right sense of these words, In domo patris, In my Fathers house there are many Mansions. The occasion of the words will be the foundation of all; Our Savior Christ had said to his Disciples in the Chapter before, That he was to stay with them but a little while; That when he was gone, they should seek him, and not find him; And that whither he went, they could not follow: And when, upon that, Peter, who was always forwardest, and soonest scandalized, had pressed him with that question, Lord, whither goest thou? and received that answer, whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but hereafter thou shalt follow me, lest the rest of the Disciples, who were troubled with that which was formerly said, should be more affected with this, to hear that Peter should come, whither none of them might, to establish them all, as well as Peter, he says to them all, in the first verse of this Chapter, Let not your hearts be troubled, for, (And here enters this proposition of our Text, for their general establishment) In my Fathers house are many Mansions. So that, that these are words of Consolation is certain, but whether the consolation be placed in the disparity, and difference of degrees of Glory in Heaven, or no, is not so certain.

That there are degrees of Glory in the Saints in heaven, scarce any ever denied. Heaven is a Kingdom, and Christ a King, and a popular parity agrees not with that State, with a Monarchy. Heaven is a Church, and Christ a High-Priest, and such a parity agrees as ill with the Triumphant, as with the Militant Church. In the Primitive Church Iovinian denied this difference, and degrees of glory; and S. Jerome was so incensed, so inflamed for this, as if foundations had been shaken, and the common cause endangered. Indeed it was thus far the common cause, that all the Fathers followed this chase, (if we may use that Metaphor) and were never at a default: No one of the Fathers, whom I have observed to touch upon this point, did ever deny this difference of degrees of Glory. And therefore, as in the Primitive Church, when that one man Iovinian, came to deny it, S. Jerome was vehement upon him, so when in the Reformation, one man (for I never found more then that one, one Schoufeldius) denies it too, I wonder the less, that another (of the Reformation also) grows somewhat sharp towards him.

We deny not then this difference of degrees of glory in Heaven; But that frame, and that scale of these degrees, which they have set up in the Roman Church, we do deny. We must continue, and return often to that complaint against them, That they shake and endanger things near foundations, by their enormous super-edifications, by their incommodious upper-buildings: That many things, which might be well enough accepted, and would be agreed by all, become justly suspicious, and really dangerous to the Church, by their manifold consequences which they super-induce upon them: That many things, which in the sincerity of their beginning, and institution, were pious, and conduced to the exaltation of Devotion, by their additions are become impious, and destroy Devotion so far, as to divert it upon a wrong object. In this point which we have in hand, it is so; In these degrees of glory in Heaven, That Church, which treads all sovereign Crowns in this world, under her feet, pretends to impart, and distribute Crowns in Heaven also of her own making: We find Coronam auream, a Crown of gold upon the head of that Son of Man, who is also the Son of God, Christ Jesus, in the Revelation. And we find Coronas aureas, particular Crowns of gold, upon the heads of all the Saints that stand about the Throne, in the same Book. And these Crowns upon the Saints are the emanations, and effluences of that Crown which is upon Christ; The glory of the Saints is the communication of his glory. But then, because in their Translation, in the Vulgate Edition of the Roman Church, they find in Exodus that word Aureolam, Facies Coronam aureolam, Thou shalt make a lesser Crown of gold; out of this diminutive, and mistaken word, they have established a Doctrine, that besides those Coronae aureae, Those Crowns of gold, which are communicated to all the Saints from the Crown of Christ, some Saints have made to themselves, and produced out of their own extraordinary merits certain Aureolas, certain lesser Crowns of their own, whereas indeed the word in the Original in that place of Exodus is Zer zehab, which is a Crown of gold, without any intimation of any such lesser crowns growing out of themselves. This then is their new Alchymy; that whereas old Alchymists pretend to make gold of courser Metals, these will make it of Nothing; Out of a supposititious word, which is not in the Text, they have hammered and beat out these Aureolas, these lesser crowns. And these Aureolaes they ascribe only to three sorts of persons, to Virgins, to Martyrs, to Doctors.

Are then all the other Saints without Crowns? They must make shift with that beam which they have from the Crown of Christ; for, for these additional crowns proceeding from themselves, they have none. And yet, say they, there are Saints which have some additions growing out of themselves, though not Aureolas, little crowns, and those they call Fructus, peculiar fruits growing out of themselves; And for these fruits they distrain upon that place of Matthew, where Christ saith, That some brought forth fruit a hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty; And the greater measure they ascribe to Virgins, the sixty to Widows, and the thirty to Married persons, but only such married persons, as have lived continently in marriage. So then, to make this Riddle of theirs as plain as the matter will admit, They place salvation it self, Blessedness it self, (if a man will be content with that.) in that union with God, which is common to all the Saints: But then they conceive certain Dotes, as they call them, certain dispositions in this life, by which some have made themselves fitter to be united to God, in a nearer distance then an ordinary Saint; And these Dotes, these endowments, and dispositions here, produce those Aureolas, and those Fructus, those lesser crowns, and those measures of fruits, which are a particular Joy, not that they are united to God, (for so every Saint is) but that they had those Dotes, those dispositions to take that particular way of being united to God, The way of Virginity, the way of Martydome, and the way of Preaching; for by this, they become Sancti Majors, as they call them, Saints in favor, Saints in office, and fitter to receive our petitions, and mediate between God and us, then those whom they call Mediocres, and Inferiores, Saints of a middle forme, or of an inferior rank. Yet these are so far provided for, by them too, that we must pray also to these Inferior Saints, either because I may have had a more particular interest in this life in that Saint, then in a greater, and so the readiness, and the assiduity of that Saint may recompense his want of power, Or else, Ad tollendum fastidium, lest a great Saint should grow weary of me, if I trouble him every day, and for every trifle in heaven; And some other such reasons, it pleases them to assign, why though some Saints have more power with God then others, yet we are bound to pray to all.

And thus they play with Divinity, as though after they had troubled all States with political Divinity, with their Bulls, and Breves of Rebus sic stantibus, That as long as things stood thus, this should be Catholic Doctrine, and otherwise, when otherwise, And in this political Divinity, Machiavel is their Pope; And after they had perplexed understandings with Philosophical Divinity in the School, and in that Divinity, Aristotle is their Pope; They thought themselves in courtesy, or conscience bound, to recreate the world with Poetical Divinity, with such a Heaven, and such a Hell as would stand in their Verses, and in this Divinity, Virgil is their Pope. And so, as Melancthon said, when he furthered the Edition of the Alcoran, that he would have it printed, Vt videamus quale poema sit, That the world might see what a piece of Poetry the Alcoran was; So I have stopped upon this point, that you might see what a piece of Poetry they have made of this Problematical point of Divinity, The disparity, and degrees of Glory in the Saints in Heaven.

Be this then thus settled; In the matter, The difference of degrees of Glory, we will not differ; In the manner, we would not differ so, as to induce a Schism, if they would handle such points Problematically, and no farther. But when upon matter of fact they will induce matter of faith, when they will extend Problematical Divinity to Dogmatical, when they will argue and conclude thus, It may be thus, therefore it must be thus, A man may be saved, though he believe this, therefore he cannot be saved except he believe this, when (in this point in hand) out of our acknowledgement of these degrees of Glory in the Saints they will establish the Doctrine of Merits, and of Invocation of Saints, then we must necessarily call them to the Rule of all Doctrines, the Scriptures. When they tell us Historically, and upon a Historical Obligation, and for a Historical certitude, that Peter was at Rome, and that he was Bishop of Rome, we are not so froward as to deny them that: But when upon his Historical and personal being at Rome, they will build that mother Article, of an universal Supremacy over all the Church, then we must necessarily call them to the Rule, to the Scriptures, and to require them to prove both his being there, and his being Bishop there, by the Scriptures, and either of these would trouble them; As it would trouble them, in our present case, to assign evident places of Scripture, for these degrees of Glory in the Saints of Heaven. For though we be far from denying the Consentaneum est, That it is reasonable it should be, and likely it is so, and far from denying the Piè creditur, That it may advance Devotion, and exalt Industry to believe that it is so, Though we acknowledge a possibility, a probability, a very similitude, a very truth, and thus far a necessary truth, that our endeavors may flag and slacken, except we do embrace that help, that there are degrees of Glory in Heaven, yet if we shall press for places of Scriptures, so evident, as must constitute an Article of faith, there are perchance none to be found, to which very learned, and very reverend Expositors have not given convenient Interpretations, without inducing any such necessity.

At least, however other places of Scripture may seem to contribute more, this proposition of our text, In my Fathers house are many mansions (though it have been applied to the proof of that) hath no inclination, no inclinableness that way. For in this text, our Savior applies himself to his Disciples, in that wherein they needed comfort, That Christ would go away, That they might not go too, That Peter had got a Non-obstante, He might, and they might not, and Christ gives them that comfort, that all might, In my Fathers house are many mansions. When the Apostle presents a great part of our Christian Religion together, so as that he calls it a Mystery, and a great mystery, yet he calls it a mystery without controversy; Without controversy great is the mystery of God manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, preached to the Gentiles, believed in the world, received into glory. When he presents matter of consolation, he would have it without controversy; To establish a disconsolate soul, there is always Divinity enough, that was never drawn into Controversy. I would pray? I find the Spirit of God to dispose my heart, and my tongue, and mine eyes, and hands, and knees to pray; Do I doubt to whom I should pray? To God, or to the Saints? That prayer to God alone was sufficient, was never drawn into controversy. I would have something to rely and settle and establish my assurance upon; Do I doubt whether upon Christ, or mine own, or others merits? That to rely upon Christ alone was sufficient, was never drawn into Controversy. At this time, Christ disposed himself to comfort his Disciples in that wherein they needed comfort; now their discomfort, and their fear lay not in this, whether there were different degrees of glory in Heaven, but their fear was, that Christ being gone, and having taken Peter, and none but him, there should be no room for them, and thereupon Christ says, Let not that trouble you, for, In my Fathers house are many mansions. And so we have done with the former branch of this last part, That it is piously done to believe these degrees of glory in Heaven; That they have inconsiderately extended this problem in the Roman Church, That no Scriptures are so evident as to induce a necessity in it, That this Scripture conduces not at all to it; and therefore we pass to our last Consideration, The right use of the right sense of these words.

First then, Christ proposes in these words Consolation; A work, then which none is more divine, nor more proper to God, nor to those instruments, whom he sends to work upon the souls and consciences of others. Who but my self can conceive the sweetness of that salutation, when the Spirit of God says to me in a morning, Go forth to day and preach, and preach consolation, preach peace, preach mercy, And spare my people, spare that people whom I have redeemed with my precious Blood, and be not angry with them for ever; Do not wound them, do not grind them, do not astonish them with the bitterness, with the heaviness, with the sharpness, with the consternation of my judgements. David proposes to himself, that he would Sing of mercy, and of judgement; but it is of mercy first; and not of judgement at all, otherwise then it will come into a song, as joy and consolation is compatible with it. It hath fallen into disputation, and admitted argument, whether ever God inflicted punishments by his good Angels; But that the good Angels, the ministerial Angels of the Church, are properly his instruments, for conveying mercy, peace, consolation, never fell into question, never admitted opposition.

How heartily God seems to utter, and how delightfully to insist upon that, which he says in Isaiah, Consolamini, consolamini populum meum, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, And Loquimini ad cor, Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and tell her, Thine iniquities are pardoned? How glad Christ seems that he had it for him, when he gives the sick man that comfort, Fili confide, My son be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee? What a Coronation is our taking of Orders, by which God makes us a Royal Priesthood? And what an inthronization is the comming up into a Pulpit, where God invests his servants with his Ordinance, as with a Cloud, and then presses that Cloud with a Vaesi non, woe be unto thee, if thou do not preach, and then enables him to preach peace, mercy, consolation, to the whole Congregation. That God should appear in a Cloud, upon the Mercy Seat, as he promises Moses he will do, That from so poor a man as stands here, wrapped up in clouds of infirmity, and in clouds of iniquity, God should drop, rain, pour down his dew, and sweeten that dew with his honey, and crust that honied dew into Manna, and multiply that Manna into Gomers, and fill those Gomers every day, and give every particular man his Gomer, give every soul in the Congregation, consolation by me; That when I call to God for grace here, God should give me grace for grace, Grace in a power to derive grace upon others, and that this Oil, this Balsamum should flow to the hem of the garment, even upon them that stand under me; That when mine eyes look up to Heaven, the eyes of all should look up upon me, and God should open my mouth, to give them meat in due season; That I should not only be able to say, as Christ said to that poor soul, Confide fili, My son be of good comfort, but Fratres & Patres mei, My Brethren, and my Fathers, nay Domini mei, and Rex meus, My Lords, and my King be of good comfort, your sins are forgiven you; That God should seal to me that Patent, It praedicate omni Creaturae, Go and preach the Gospel to every Creature, be that creature what he will, That if God lead me into a Congregation, as into his Ark, where there are but eight souls, but a few disposed to a sense of his mercies, and all the rest (as in the Ark) ignobler creatures, and of brutal natures and affections, That if I find a licentious Goat, a supplanting Fox, an usurious Wolf, an ambitious Lion, yet to that creature, to every creature I should preach the Gospel of peace and consolation, and offer these creatures a Metamorphosis, a transformation, a new Creation in Christ Jesus, and thereby make my Goat, and my Fox, and my Wolf, and my Lion, to become Semen Dei, The seed of God, and Filium Dei, The child of God, and Participem Divinae Naturae, Partaker of the Divine Nature it self; This is that which Christ is essentially in himself, This is that which ministerially and instrumentally he hath committed to me, to shed his consolation upon you, upon you all; Not as his Almoner to drop his consolation upon one soul, nor as his Treasurer to issue his consolation to a whole Congregation, but as his Ophir, as his Indies, to derive his gold, his precious consolation upon the King himself.

What would a good Judge, a good natured Judge give in his Circuit, what would you, in whose breasts the Judgements of the Star-chamber, or other criminal Courts are, give, that you had a warrant from the King, to change the sentence of blood into a pardon, where you found a Delinquent penitent? How rufully do we hear the Prophets groan under that Onus visionis, which they repeat so often, O the burden of my vision upon Judah, or upon Mob, or Damascus, or Babylon, or any place? Which is not only that that judgement would be a heavy burden upon that place, but that it was a heavy burden to them to denounce that judgement, even upon Gods enemies. Our errand, our joy, our Crown is Consolation: for, if we consider the three Persons of the holy, blessed and glorious Trinity, and their working upon us, a third part of their work (if we may so speak) is consolation; the Father is Power, the Son Wisdom, and the Holy Ghost Consolation: for the Holy Ghost is not in a Vulture, that hovers over Armies, and infected Cities, and feeds upon carcasses, But the Holy Ghost is in a Dove, that would not make a Congregation a slaughter-house, but feeds upon corn, corn that hath in nature a disposition to a reviviscence, and a repullulation, and would imprint in you al, the consolation and sense of a possibility of returning to a new, and a better life. God found me nothing, and of that nothing made me; Adam left me worse then God found me, worse then nothing, the child of wrath, corrupted with the leaven of Original sin; Christ Jesus found me worse then Adam left me, not only soured with Original, but spotted, and gangrened, and dead, and buried, and putrefied in actual and habitual sins, and yet in that state redeemed me; And I make my self worse then Christ found me, and in an inordinate dejection of spirit, conceive a jealousy and suspicion, that his merit concerns not me, that his blood extends not to my sin; And in this last and worst state, the Holy Ghost finds me, the Spirit of Consolation, And he sends a Barnabas, a son of Consolation unto me, A Barnabas to my sick bed side, A Physician that comforts with hopes, and means of health, A Barnabas to my broken fortune, A potent and a loving friend, that assists the reparation, and the establishing of my state, A Barnabas into the Pulpit, that restores and rectifies my conscience, and scatters, and dispels all those clouds that invested it, and infested it before. That un-imaginable work of the Creation were not ready for a Sabbath, though I be a Creature, and a man, I could have no Sabbath, no rest, no peace of conscience; That un-expressible work of the Redemption were not ready for that Seal, which our Savior set to it upon the Cross, in the Consummatum est; All were not finished that concerned me, if the Holy Ghost were not ready to deliver that which Christ sealed, and to witness that which were so delivered, that that Spirit might ever testify to my spirit, That all that Christ Jesus said, and did, and suffered, was said, and done, and suffered for my soul. Consolation is not all, if we consider God, but if I consider my self, and my state, Consolation is all.

Christs meaning then in this place, was to establish in his Disciples this Consolation; but thus, Si quo minus, If it were not thus, I would tell you; If this were not true consolation, I would not delude you, I would not entertain you with false: for he is Deus omnium miserationum, The God of all mercies, and yet he will not show mercy to them, who sin upon presumption; So he is Deus omnium Consolationum, The God of all Comforts, and yet will not comfort them, who rely upon the false, and miserable comforts of this world. How many, how very many of us do otherwise? Otherwise to others, otherwise to our own Consciences? Delude all with false Comforts? They would not suffer Christ himself to sleep upon a pillow in a storm, but they waked him with that, Master, carest not thou, though we perish? When will we wake any Master, any upon whom we depend, and say, Master, carest not thou, though thou perish? We suffer others, whom we should instruct, and we suffer our selves to pass on to the last gasp, and we never rebuke our Consciences, till our Consciences rebuke us at last, Alas, it is otherwise, and you never told us.

Christ comforts then, he disputes not, that is not his way; He ministers true comfort, he flatters not, that is not his way; And in this true comfort, the first beam is, That that state which he promises them is a House, In my Fathers House, &c. God hath a progress house, a removing house here upon earth, His house of prayer; At this hour, God enters into as many of these houses, as are opened for his service at this hour: But his standing house, his house of glory, is that in Heaven, and that he promises them. God himself dwelt in Tents in this world, and he gives them a House in Heaven. A House, in the design and survey whereof, the Holy Ghost himself is figurative, the Fathers wanton, and the School-men wild. The Holy Ghost, in describing this House, fills our contemplation with foundations, and walls, and gates, of gold, of precious stones, and all materials, that we can call precious. The Holy Ghost is figurative; And the Fathers are wanton in their spiritual elegancies, such as that of S. Augustins, (if that book be his) Hiems horrens, Aestas torrens, And, Virent prata, vernant sata, and such other harmonious, and melodious, and mellifluous cadences of these waters of life. But the School-men are wild; for as one Author, who is afraid of admitting too great a hollowness in the Earth, lest then the Earth might not be said to be solid, pronounces that Hell cannot possibly be above three thousand miles in compass, (and then one of the torments of Hell will be the throng, for their bodies must be there, in their dimensions, as well as their souls) so when the School-men come to measure this house in heaven, (as they will measure it, and the Master, God, and all his Attributes, and tell us how Allmighty, and how Infinite he is) they pronounce, that every soul in that house shall have more room to it self, then all this world is. We know not that; nor see we that the consolation lyes in that; we rest in this, that it is a House, It hath a foundation, no Earth-quake shall shake it, It hath walls, no Artillery shall batter it, It hath a roof, no tempest shall pierce it. It is a house that affords security, and that is one beam; And it is Domus patris, His Fathers house, a house in which he hath interest, and that is another beam of his Consolation.

It was his Fathers, and so his; And his, and so ours; for we are not joint purchasers of Heaven with the Saints, but we are co-heirs with Christ Jesus. We have not a place there, because they have done more then enough for themselves, but because he hath done enough for them and us too. By death we are gathered to our Fathers in nature; and by death, through his mercy, gathered to his Father also. Where we shall have a full satisfaction, in that wherein S. Philip placed all satisfaction, Ostend nobis patrem, Lord, show us thy Father, and it is enough. We shall see his Father, and see him made ours in him.

And then a third beam of this Consolation is, That in this house of his Fathers, thus by him made ours, there are Mansions; In which word, the Consolation is not placed, (I do not say, that there is not truth in it) but the Consolation is not placed in this, That some of these Mansions are below, some above stairs, some better seated, better lighted, better vaulted, better fretted, better furnished then others; but only in this, That they are Mansions; which word, in the Original, and Latin, and our Language, signifies a Remaining, and denotes the perpetuity, the everlastingness of that state. A state but of one Day, because no Night shall over-take, or determine it, but such a Day, as is not of a thousand years, which is the longest measure in the Scriptures, but of a thousand millions of millions of generations: Qui nec praeceditur hesterno, nec excluditur crastino, A day that hath no pridy, nor postridy, yesterday doth not usher it in, nor to morrow shall not drive it out. Methusalem, with all his hundreds of years, was but a Mushrome of a nights growth, to this day, And all the four Monarchies, with all their thousands of years, And all the powerful Kings, and all the beautiful Queens of this world, were but as a bed of flowers, some gathered at six, some at seven, some at eight, All in one Morning, in respect of this Day. In all the two thousand years of Nature, before the Law given by Moses, And the two thousand years of Law, before the Gospel given by Christ, And the two thousand of Grace, which are running now, (of which last hour we have heard three quarters strike, more then fifteen hundred of this last two thousand spent) In all this six thousand, and in all those, which God may be pleased to add, In domo patris, In this House of his Fathers, there was never heard quarter clock to strike, never seen minute glass to turn. No time less then it self would serve to express this time, which is intended in this word Mansions; which is also exalted with another beam, that they are Multa, In my Fathers House there are many Mansions.

In this Circumstance, an Essential, a Substantial Circumstance, we would consider the joy of our society, and conversation in heaven, since society and conversation is one great element and ingredient into the joy, which we have in this world. We shall have an association with Christ himself; for where he is, it is his promise, that we also shall be. We shall have an association with the Angels, and such a one, as we shall be such as they. We shall have an association with the Saints, and not only so, to be such as they, but to be they: And with all who come from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Where we shall be so far from being enemies to one another, as that we shall not be strangers to one another: And so far from envying one another, as that all that every one hath, shall be every others possession: where all souls shall be so entirely knit together, as if all were but one soul, and God so entirely knit to every soul, as if there were as many Gods as souls.

Be comforted then, says Christ to them, for This, which is a House, and not a Ship, not subject to storms by the way, nor wrecks in the end, My Fathers House, not a strangers, in whom I had no interest, A House of Mansions, a dwelling, not a sojourning, And of many Mansions not an Abridgement, a Model of a House, not a Monastery of many Cells, but an extension of many Houses, into the City of the living God, This house shall be yours, though I depart from you. Christ is nearer us, when we behold him with the eyes of faith in Heaven, then when we seek him in a piece of bread, or in a sacramental box here. Drive him not away from thee, by wrangling and disputing how he is present with thee; unnecessary doubts of his presence may induce fearful assurances of his absence: The best determination of the Real presence is to be sure, that thou be really present with him, by an ascending faith: Make sure thine own Real presence, and doubt not of his: Thou art not the farther from him, by his being gone thither before thee.

No, nor though Peter be gone thither before thee neither, which was the other point, in which the Apostles needed consolation; They were troubled that Christ would go, and none of them, and troubled that Peter might go, and none but he. What men soever God take into heaven before thee, though thy Father that should give thee thy education, though thy Pastor that should give thee thy instruction, though these men may be such in the state, and such in the Church, as thou mayest think the Church and state cannot subsist without them, Discourage not thy self, neither admit a jealousy or suspicion of the providence and good purpose of God; for, as God hath his panier full of Manna, and of Quailes, and can power out to morrow, though he have poured them out plentifully upon his friends before; so God hath his Quiver full of arrows, and can shoot as powerfully, as heretofore, upon his Enemies. I forbid thee not S. Pauls wish, Cupio dissolvi, To desire to be dissolved, therefore, that thou mayest be with Christ; I forbid thee not Davids sigh, Hei mihi, Woe is me that I must dwell so long with them that love not peace! I only enjoin thee thy Saviours Veruntamen, Yet not mine, but thy will, O Father, be done; That all thy wishes may have relation to his purposes, and all thy prayers may be inanimated with that, Lord manifest thy will unto me, and conform my will unto thine. So shalt thou not be afrighted, as though God aymed at thee, when he shoots about the mark, and thou seest a thousand fall at thy right hand, and ten thousand at thy left; Nor discouraged as though God had left out thee, when thou seest him take others into garrison, and leave thee in the field, assume others to Triumph, and leave thee in the Battel still. For as Christ Jesus would have come down from heaven, to have died for thee, though there had been no soul to have been saved but thine; So is he gone up to heaven, to prepare a place for thee, though all the souls in this world were to be saved as well as thine. Trouble not thy self with dignity, and priority, and precedency in Heaven, for Consolation and Devotion consist not in that, and thou wilt be the less troubled with dignity, and priority, and precedency in this world, for Rest and Quietness consist not in that.

Serm. LXXIV. Preached at White-hall, the 30. April 1620

PSAL. 144.15.

Being the first Psalm for the day.

Blessed are the People that be so; Yea blessed are the People, whose God is the Lord.

THe first part of this Text hath relation to temporal blessings, Blessed is the people that be so: The second part to spiritual, Yea blessed is the people, whose God is the Lord. His left hand is under my head, saith the Spouse; That sustains me from falling into murmuring, or diffidence of his Providence, because out of his left hand he hath given me a competency of his temporal blessings; But his right hand doth embrace me, saith the Spouse there; His spiritual blessings fill me, possess me, so that no rebellious fire breaks out within me, no outward temptation breaks in upon me. So also says Solomon again, In her left hand is riches and glory, (temporal blessings) and in her right hand length of days, all that accomplishes and fulfils the eternal joys of the Saints of heaven. The person to whom Solomon attributes this right and left hand is Wisdom; And a wise man may reach out his right and left hand, to receive the blessings of both sorts. And the person whom Solomon represents by Wisdom there, is Christ himself. So that not only a worldly wiseman, but a Christian wiseman may reach out both hands, to both kinds of blessings, right and left, spiritual and temporal. And therefore, Interrogo vos, filios regni coelorum, saith S. Augustine, Let me ask you, who are sons and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, Progeniem Resurrectionis in aeternum, You that are the off-spring of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and have your resurrection in his, Membra Christi, Templa Spiritus Sancti, You that are the very body of Christ, you that are the very temples of the Holy Ghost, Interrogo vos, Let me ask you, for all your great reversion hereafter, for all that present possession which you have of it, in an apprehensive faith, and in a holy conversation in this life, for all that blessedness, Non est isba saelicitas? Is there not a blessedness in enjoying Gods temporal blessings here too? Sit licèt, sed sinistra, saith that Father; It is certainly a blessedness, but a left handed blessedness, a weaker, a more imperfect blessedness, then spiritual blessings are.

As then there is dextra, and sinistrabeatitudo, a right handed, and a left handed blessedness in the Text: so there is dextra and sinistra Interpretatio, a right and a left Exposition of the Text. And as both these blessednesses, temporal and spiritual, are seals and testimonies of Gods love, though not both of equal strength, and equal evidence; so both the Interpretations of these words are useful for our edification, though they be not both of equal authority. That which we call Sinistram Interpreiationem, is that sense of these words, which arises from the first Translators of the Bible, the Septuagint, and those Fathers which followed them; which, though it be not an ill way, is not the best, because it is not according to the letter; and then, that which we call Dextram Interpretationem, is that sense which arises pregnantly, and evidently, liquidly, and manifestly out of the Original Text it self.

The Authors and followers of the first sense read not these words as we do, Beatus populus, That people is blessed, but Beatum dixerunt populum, That people was esteemed blessed; and so they referre this and all the temporal blessings mentioned in the three former Verses to a popular error, to a general mistaking, to the opinions, and words of wicked and worldly men, that only they desire these temporal things, only they taste a sweetness, and apprehend a blessedness in them; whereas they who have truly their conversation in heaven, are swallowed up with the contemplation of that blessedness, without any reflection upon earth or earthly things. But the Author of the second sense, which is God himself, and his direct word, presents it thus, Beatus populus, That people is truly blessed, there is a true blessedness in temporal things; but yet, this is but sinistra beatitudo, a less perfect blessedness; For the followers of both Interpretations, and all Translators, and all Expositors meet in this, That the perfect, the accomplishing, the consummatory blessedness is only in this, That our God be the Lord.

First then, to make our best use of the first sense, That temporal things conduce not at all to blessedness, S. Cyprians wonder is just, Deum nobis solis contentum esse, nobis non sufficere Deum; That God should think man enough for him, and man should not be satisfied with God; That God should be content with Fili da mihi cor, My son give me thy heart, and man should not be content with Pater da mihi Spiritum, My God, my Father, grant me thy Spirit, but must have temporal additions too. Non est castum cor, saith S. Augustine, si Deum ad mercedem colit; as he saith in another place, Non est castauxor, quae amat quia dives, She is never the honester woman, nor the lovinger wife, that loves her husband in contemplation of her future joynture, or in fruition of her present abundancies; so he says here, Nonest castum cor, That man hath not a chaste, a sincere heart towards God, that loves him by the measure end proportion of his temporal blessings. The Devil had so much color for that argument, that in prosperity there can be no trial, whether a man love God or no, as that he presses it even to God himself, in Job's case: Doth Job serve God for nought? hast not thou hedged him in, and blessed the works of his hands, and increased his substance? How canst thou tell whether he will love thee, or fear thee, if thou shouldst take away all this from him? thou hast had no trial yet. And this argument descended from that father to his children, from the Devil there, to those followers of his whom the Prophet Malachy reprehends for saying, It is in vain to serve God, for what profit is it, that we have kept his commandments? When men are willing to prefer their friends, we hear them often give these testimonies of a man; He hath good parts, and you need not be ashamed to speak for him; he hath money in his purse, and you need not be sorry to speak for him; he understands the world, he knows how things pass, and he hath a discreet, a supple, and an applicable disposition, and he may make a fit instrument for all your purposes, and you need not be afraid to speak for him. But who ever casts into this scale and valuation of a man, that weight, that he hath a religious heart, that he fears God? what profit is there in that, if we consider this world only?

But what profits it a man, if he get all the world, and lose his own soul? And therefore that opinion, That there was no profit at all, no degree towards blessedness in those temporal things, prevailed so far, as that it is easy to observe in their Expositions upon the Lords Prayer, that the greatest part of the Fathers do ever interpret that Petition, Da nobis hody, Give us this day our daily bread, to be intended only of spiritual blessings, and not of temporal; So S. Jerome saith, when we ask that bread, Illum petimus, qui panis vivus est, & descendit de coelo; we make our petition for him, who is the bread of life, and descended from the bosom of the Father; and so he refers it to Christ, and in him, to the whole mystery of our Redemption. And Athanasius and S. Augustine too (and not they two alone) refer it to the Sacramental bread; That in that Petition, we desire such an application of the bread of life, as we have in the participation of the body and blood of Christ Jesus in that Communion. S. Cyprian insists upon the word Nostrum, Our bread; For, saith he, temporal blessings cannot properly be called Ours, because they are common to the Saints, and to the reprobates; but in a prayer ordained by Christ for the faithful, the petition is for such things as are proper, and peculiar to the faithful, and that is for spiritual blessings only. If any man shall say, Ideo quaerenda, quia necessaria, We must pray, and we must labor for temporal things, because they are necessary for us, we cannot be without them, Ideo non quaerenda quia necessaria, says S. Chrysostom, so much of them, as is necessary for our best state, God will give us, without this laborious anxiety, and without eating the bread of sorrow in this life, Non speran dum de superfluis, non desperandum de necessariis, says the same Father; It is a suspicious thing to doubt or distrust God in necessary things, and it is an unmannerly thing to press him in superfluous things. They are not necessary before, and they are not ours after: for those things only are ours, which no body can take from us: and for temporal thing, Auferre potest inimicus homo, invito: Let the inimicus homo be the devil, and remember Job's case, Let the inimicus homo be any envious and powerful man, who hath a mind to that that thou hast, and remember Naboths case, and this envious man can take any temporal thing from thee against thy will. But spiritual blessings cannot be taken so, Fidem nemo perdidit, nisi qui spreverit, says S. Augustin, No man ever lost his faith, but he that thought it not worth the keeping.

But for Job's temporal estate says S. Augustine, all was lost. And lest any man should say, Vxor relicta erat, Job had not lost all, because his Wife was left, Misericordem putatis diabolum, says that Father, qui ei reliquit Vxorem? do you think that Job lighted upon a merciful and good natured devil, that the devil did this out of pity and compassion to Job, or that Job was beholding to the devil for this, that he left him his Wife? Noverat per quam deceperat Adam, says he, The devil knew by what instrument he had deceived the first man, and by the same instrument he practises upon Job; Suam reliquit adjutricem, non mariti consolatricem, He left Job a helper, but a helper for his own ends, but for her Husband a miserable comforter. Caro conjux, says the same Father in another place, This flesh, this sensual part of ours, is our wife: and when these temporal things by any occasion are taken from us, that wife, that flesh, that sensuality is left to murmure and repine at Gods corrections, and that is all the benefit we have by that wife, and all the portion we have with that wife.

Though therefore S. Jerome, who understood the Original Language, the best of his time, in his Translation of the Psalms, do give the true, the right sense of this place, yet in his own Commentaries upon the Psalms, he takes this first sense, and beats upon that doctrine, that it is but a popular error, a general mistaking, to make worldly blessings any degree of happiness: he saw so good use of that doctrine, as that he would not see the right interpretation of the words: he saw well enough, that according to the letter of the text, temporal things were blessings, yet because they were but left-handed blessings, remembering the story in the book of Judges, of 700. left-handed Benjamites, that would sling stones at a hairs breadth, and were better mark-men then the right-handed, and considering the left-handed men of this world, those who pursue temporal blessings only, went with most earnestness, and best success to their works, to correct that general distemper, that general vehemence upon temporal things, S. Jerome, and so many of the Fathers as accompany him in that interpretation, were content to embrace that sense, which is not truly the literal sense of this place, that it should be only Beatum dixerint, and not Beatus populus, a popular error, and not a truth, that any man, for any people, were blessed in temporal things; and so we have done with the first sense of these words, and the reason why so many follow it.

We are come now to the second Interpretation: where there is not Beatitudo falsa and vera, for both are true, but there is dextra and sinistra, a right-handed and left-handed blessedness; there is Inchoativa and perfectiva, there is an introductory, and a consummatory blessedness: and in the first of these, in the left-handed, in the less perfect blessedness, we must consider three things. First, Beatitudinem ipsam, That there is a blessedness proposed: and secondly, In quibus, in what that blessedness is placed in this text, Quibus sic, blessed are they that are so, that is, so, as is mentioned in the three former verses: and thirdly, another In quibus, not in what things, but in what persons this first blessedness is placed, Beatus populus, It is when all the people, the whole body, and not some ranks of men, nor some particular men in those ranks, but when all the people participate of these blessings.

Now first, for this first blessedness, As no Philosophers could ever tell us amongst the Gentiles, what true blessedness was, so no Grammarian amongst the Jews, amongst the Hebrews, could ever tell us, what the right signification of this word is, in which David expresses blessedness here; whether Asherei, which is the word, be a plural Noun, and signify Beatitudines, Blessednesses in the plural, and intimate thus much, that blessedness consists not in any one thing, but in a harmony and consent of many; or whether this Asherei be an Adverb, and signify beatè, and so be an acclamation, O how happily, how blessedly are such men provided for that are so; they cannot tell. Whatsoever it be, it is the very first word, with which David begins his book of Psalms; Beatus vir: as the last word of that book is, Laudate Dominum; to show, that all that passes between God and man, from first to last, is blessings from God to man, and praises from man to God; and that the first degree of blessedness is, to find the print of the hand of God, even in his temporal blessedness, and to praise and glorify him for them, in the right use of them.

A man that hath no land to hold by it, nor title to recover by it, is never the better, for finding, or buying, or having a faire piece of evidence, a faire instrument, fairly written, duly sealed, authentically testified; A man that hath not the grace of God, and spiritual blessings too, is never the nearer happiness, for all his abundances of temporal blessedness. Evidences are evidences to them who have title. Temporal blessings are evidences to them, who have a testimony of Gods spiritual blessings in the temporal. Otherwise as in his hands, who hath no Title, it is a suspicious thing to find evidences, and he will be thought to have embeazeled and purloyned them, he will be thought to have forged and counterfeited them, and he will be called to an account for them, how he came to them, and what he meant to do with them: so to them, who have temporal blessings without spiritual, they are but useless blessings, they are but counterfeit blessings, they shall not purchase a minutes peace of conscience here, nor a minutes refreshing to the soul hereafter; and there must be a heavy account made for them, both how they were got, and how they were employed.

But when a man hath a good title to Heaven, then these are good evidences: for, Godliness hath a promise of the life to come, and of the life that now is; and if we spend any thing in maintenance of that title, give, or lose any thing for his glory and making sure this salvation, We shall inherit everlasting life, says the best surety in the world; but we shall not stay so long for our bill of charge, we shall have A hundred fold in this life. S. Augustine seems loath to take Christ at that large word, he seems to think it too great usury, to take a hundred fold for that which we have laid out for Christ: And therefore he reads that place, Accipiet septies tantum, He shall receive seven times as much, in this life. But in both the Evangelists, Matthew and Mark, the overflowing bounty and retribution of God is so expressed, Centuplum accipiet. God repaired Job so, as he had been impaired; God recompensed him in specie, in the same kind as he had been damnified. And Christ testifies of himself, that his comming to us is not only, Vt vitam habeatis, sed habeatis abundantiùs; More abundantly; that is, as diverse of the Fathers interpret it, that you might have eternal life sealed to you, in the prosperity and abundancies of this life. I am the door, says Christ, in the same Chapter: we must not think to fly over walls, by sudden and undeserved preferments, nor to sap and undermine, and supplant others; we must enter at that door, by faire and Christian means: And then, By me if any man enter, says Christ there, he shall be saved; there is a rich and blessed inheritance; but before he come to that salvation, He shall go in and out, and find pasture, says that text. Now, in Heaven there is no going in and out; but in his way to Heaven, in this life, he shall find his interest in the next, conveyed and sealed to him in temporal blessings here.

If Plato found and acknowledged a happiness in that, Quòd natus homo, that he was born a man, and not a beast, (Lactantius adds in Platoes behalf, when he cites that place out of him, Quòd natus vir, that he was born a man and not a woman) if he found a farther happiness, Quòd Graecus, that he was born a Grecian, and not a Barbarian; quòd Atheniensis, that he was born in the Town which was the receptacle, and dwelling of all wisdom; and quòd tempore Socratis, and that he was born in Socrates his time, that so he might have a good example, as well as a good rule for his life: As all we owe to God an acknowledgement of blessedness, that we are born in a Christian Church, in a Reformed Church, in a Monarchy, in a Monarchy composed of Monarchies, and in the time of such a Monarch, as is a Peace-maker, and a peace-preserver both at home and abroad; so let all them who are born of Nobility, or born up to Nobility upon the two faire wings of merit and of favor, all that are born to riches, and born up and born out by their riches, all whom their industry, and wisdom, and usefulness to the State, hath or may any way prefer, take heed of separating the Author and the means; of separating God and the King, in the ways of favor; of separating God and their riches, in the ways of purchase; of separating God and their wisdom, in the ways of preferment; but let them always discern, and always acknowledge, the hand of God, the Author, in directing and prospering the hand of his instrument in all these temporal things, and then, these temporal things are truly blessings unto them, and they are truly blessed in them.

This was our first Consideration, our first branch in this part, that temporal things were seals and testimonies of blessedness; The second is, to what particular evidence this seals is annexed in this text, upon what things this blessedness is placed here; which are all involved in this one little particle, this monasyllable So, Blessed are they that are so; that is, so, as a prayer is made in the three former verses, that they might be. Now as the maledictions which were threatened to David, were presented to him by the Prophet in three forms, of war, of famine, of pestilence; so these blessings which are comprized in those three verses, may well be reduced to three things contrary to those three maledictions; To the blessing of peace, contrary to Davids war, That there may be no invasion; To the blessing of plenty, contrary to Davids famine, That our barns may abound with all sorts of Corn; To the blessing of health, contrary to Davids destroying sickness, That our sons may grow up as plants in their youth.

For the first temporal blessing of peace, we may consider the loveliness, the amiableness of that, if we look upon the horror and gastliness of war: either in Effigy, in that picture of war, which is drawn in every leaf of our own Chronicles, in the blood of so many Princes, and noble families, or if we look upon war it self, at that distance where it cannot hurt us, as God had formerly kindled it amongst our neighbours, and as he hath transferred it now to remoter Nations, whilst we enjoy yet a Goshen in the midst of all those Egypts. In all Cities, disorderly and facinorous men, covet to draw themselves into the skirts and suburbs of those Cities, that so they may be the nearer the spoyle, which they make upon passengers. In all Kingdoms that border upon other Kingdoms, and in Islands which have no other border but the Sea, particular men, who by dwelling in those skirts and borders, may make their profit of spoil, delight in hostility, and have an adverseness and detestation of peace: but it is not so within: they who till the earth, and breed up cattle, and employ their industry upon Gods creatures, according to Gods ordinance, feel the benefit and apprehend the sweetness, and pray for the continuance of peace.

This is the blessing, in which God so very very often expresses his gracious purpose upon his people, that he would give them peace; and peace with plenty; O that my people had hearkened unto me! says God, I would soon have humbled their enemies, (there is their peace) And I would have fed them with the fat of wheat, and with the honey out of the Rock, and there is their plenty. Persons who are preferred for service in the war, prove often suspicious to the Prince. Ioabs confidence in his own merit and service, made him insolent towards the King, and the King jealous of him. But no man was more suddenly nor more safely preferred then Joseph, for his counsel to resist penury, and to preserve plenty and abundance within the Land. See Basil in an Homily which he made in a time of dearth and drought, in which he expresses himself with as much elegancy, as any where, (and every where I think with as much as any man) where he says, there was in the sky, Tristis severitas & ipsa puritate molesta, That the air was the worse for being so good, and the fouler for being so faire; and where he inverts the words of our Savior, Messis magna, operarii pauci, says Christ, Here is a great harvest, but few workmen; but Operarii multi, messis parva, says Basil, Here are workmen enow, but no harvest to gather, in that Homily; He notes a barrenness in that which used to be fruitful, and a fruitfulness in that which used to be barren; Terra sterilis & aurum foecundum, He prophesied of our times; when not only so many families have left the Country for the City, in their persons, but have brought their lands into the City, they have brought all their Evidences into Scriveners shops, and changed all their renewing of leases every seven years, into renewing of bonds every six months: They have taken a way to inflict a barrenness upon land, and to extort a fruitfulness from gold by usury. Monsters may be got by unnatural mixtures, but there is no race, no propagation of monsters: money may be raised by this kind of use; but, Non haerebit, It is the sweat of other men, and it will not stick to thine heir. Nay, commonly it brings not that outward blessing of plenty with it; for, for the most part, we see no men live more penuriously, more sordidly, then these men do.

The third of these temporal blessings is health, without which both the other are no more to any man, then the Rainbow was to him who was ready to drown; Quid mihi, si peream ego? says he, what am I the better, that God hath past his word, and set to his seal in the heavens, that he will drown the world no more, if I be drowned my self? What is all the peace of the world to me, if I have the rebellions and earth-quakes of shaking and burning Fevers in my body? What is all the plenty of the world to me, if I have a languishing consumption in my blood, and in my marrow? The Heathens had a goddess, to whom they attributed the care of the body, deam Carnam: And we that are Christians, acknowledge, that Gods first care of man, was his body, he made that first; and his last care is reserved for the body too, at the Resurrection, which is principally for the benefit of the body. There is a care belongs to the health, and comeliness of the body. When the Romans canonized Pallorem and Febrim, Paleness and Fevers, and made them gods, they would as fain have made them Devills, if they durst; they worshipped them only, because they stood in fear of them. Sickness is a sword of Gods, and health is his blessing. For when Hezekias had assurance enough, that he should recover and live, yet he had still a sense of misery, in that he should not have a perfect state of health. What shall I say, says he, I shall walk weakly all my years, in the bitterness of my soul. All temporal blessings are insipid and tastlesse, without health.

Now the third branch of this part, is the other In quibus, not the things, but the persons, in whom these three blessings are here placed: And it is Beatus populus, when this blessedness reaches to all, dilates it self over all. When David places blessedness in one particular man, as he does in the beginning of the first Psalm, Beatus vir, Blessed is that man, there he pronounces that man blessed, If he neither walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. If he do not all, walk, and stand, and sit in the presence and fear of God, he is not blessed. So, if these temporal blessings fall not upon all, in their proportions, the people is not blessed. The City may be blessed in the increase of access; And the Lawyer may be blessed in the increase of suits; and the Merchant may be blessed in the increase of means of getting, if he be come to get as well by taking, as by trading; but if all be not blessed, the people is not blessed: yea, if these temporal blessings reach not to the Prince himself, the people is not blessed. For in favorabilibus Princeps è populo, is a good rule in the Law; in things beneficial, the King is one of the people. When God says by David, Let all the people bless the Lord, God does not exempt Kings from that duty; and when God says by him too, God shall bless all the people, God does not exempt, not exclude Kings from that benefit; And therefore where such things as conduce to the being, and the well-being, to the substance and state, to the ceremony and majesty of the Prince, be not cheerfully supplied, and seasonably administered, there that blessing is not fully fallen upon them, Blessed is that people that are so; for the people are not so, if the Prince be not so.

Nay, the people are not blessed, if these blessings be not permanent; for, it is not only they that are alive now, that are the people; but the people is the succession. If we could imagine a blessing of health without permanency, we might call an intermitting ague, a good day in a fever, health. If we could imagine a blessing of plenty without permanency, we might call a full stomach, and a surfeit, though in a time of dearth, plenty. If we could imagine a blessing of peace without permanency, we might call a nights sleep, though in the midst of an Army, peace; but it is only provision for the permanency and continuance, that makes these blessings blessings. To think of, to provide against famine, and sickness, and war, that is the blessing of plenty, and health, and peace. One of Christs principal titles was, that he was Princeps pacis, and yet this Prince of peace says, Non veni mittere pacem, I came not to bring you peace, not such a peace as should bring them security against all war. If a Ship take fire, though in the midst of the Sea, it consumes sooner, and more irrecoverably, then a thatched house upon Land: If God cast a fire-brand of war, upon a State accustomed to peace, it burns the more desperately, by their former security.

But here in our Text we have a religious King, David, that first prays for these blessings, (for the three former Verses are a prayer) and then praises God in the acknowledgement of them; for this Text is an acclamatory, a gratulatory glorifying of God for them. And when these two meet in the consideration of temporal blessings, a religious care for them, a religious confessing of them, prayer to God for the getting, praise to God for the having, Blessed is that people, that is, Head and members, Prince and subjects, present and future people, that are so; So blessed, so thankful for their blessings.

We come now, Ad dextram dextrae, to the right blessedness, in the right sense and interpretation of these words, to spiritual blessedness, to the blessedness of the soul. Estne Deo cura de bobus? is the Apostles question, and his answer is pregnantly implied, God hath care of beasts: But yet God cared more for one soul then for those two thousand hoggs which he suffered to perish in the Sea, when that man was dispossessed. A dram of spiritual is worth infinite talents of temporal. Here then in this spiritual blessedness (as we did in the former) we shall look first, Quid beatitudo, what it is; and then, In quibus, in what it is placed here, Vt Deus eorum sit Dominus, That their God be the Lord; And lastly, the extent of it, That all the people be made partakers of this spiritual blessedness.

This blessedness then, you see is placed last in the Text; not that it cannot be had till our end, till the next life; In this case, the Nemo ante obitum fails, for it is in this life, that we must find our God to be the Lord, or else, if we know not that here, we shall meet his Nescio vos, he will not know us; But it is placed last, because it is the waightiest, and the uttermost degree of blessendness, which can be had, To have the Lord for our God. Consider the making up of a natural man, and you shall see that he is a convenient Type of a spiritual man too.

First, in a natural man we conceive there is a soul of vegetation and of growth; and secondly, a soul of motion and of sense; and then thirdly, a soul of reason and understanding, an immortal soul. And the two first souls of vegetation, and of sense, we conceive to arise out of the temperament, and good disposition of the substance of which that man is made, they arise out of man himself; But the last soul, the perfect and immortal soul, that is immediately infused by God. Consider the blessedness of this Text, in such degrees, in such proportions. First, God blesses a man with riches, there is his soul of vegetation and growth, by that he grows in estimation, and in one kind of true ability to produce good fruits, for he hath wherewithal. And then, God gives this rich man the blessing of understanding, his riches, how to employ them according to those moral and civil duties, which appertain unto him, and there is his soul of sense; for many rich men have not this sense, many rich men understand their own riches no more then the Oaks of the Forrest do their own Akorns. But last of all, God gives him the blessing of discerning the mercy, and the purpose of God in giving him these temporal blessings, and there is his immortal soul. Now for the riches themselves, (which is his first soul) he may have them ex traduce, by devolution from his parents; and the civil wisdom, how to govern his riches, where to purchase, where to sell, where to give, where to take, (which is his second soul) this he may have by his own acquisition, and experience, and conversation; But the immortal soul, that is, the discerning of Gods image in every piece, and of the seal of Gods love in every temporal blessing, this is infused from God alone, and arises neither from Parents, nor the wisdom of this world, how worldly wise so ever we be in the governing of our estate.

And this the Prophet may very well seem to have intimated, when he saith, The generation of the righteous shall be blessed; Here is a permanent blessedness, to the generation. Wherein is it expressed? thus; Riches and treasure shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth for ever. He doth not say, that Simony, or Usury, or Extortion shall be in his house; for riches got so are not treasure; Nor he doth not say, that Riches well got, and which are truly a blessing, shall endure for ever, but his righteousness shall endure for ever. The last soul, the immortal soul endures for ever. The blessedness of having studied, and learnt, and practised the knowledge of Gods purpose in temporal blessings, this blessedness shall endure for ever; When thou shalt turn from the left to the right side, upon thy death bed, from all the honours, and riches of this world, to breath thy soul into his hands that gave it, this righteousness, this good conscience shall endure then, and then accompany thee: And when thine eyes are closed, and in the twinkling of his eye that closed thine, thy soul shall be gone an infinite way from this honor, and these riches, this righteousness, this good conscience shall endure then, and meet thee in the gates of heaven. And this is so much of that righteousness, as is expressed in this Text, (because this is the root of all) That our God be the Lord.

In which, first we must propose a God, that there is one, and then appropriate this God to our selves, that he be our God, and lastly, be sure that we have the right God, that our God be the Lord. For, for the first, he that enterprises any thing, seeks any thing, possesses any thing without recourse to God, without acknowledging God in that action, he is, for that particular, an Atheist, he is without God in that; and if he do so in most of his actions, he is for the most part an Atheist. If he be an Atheist every where, but in his Catechism, if only then he confess a God when he is asked, Doest thou believe that there is a God, and never confess him, never consider him in his actions, it shall do him no good, to say at the last day, that he was no speculative Atheist, he never thought in his heart, that there was no God, if he lived a practique Atherst, proceeded in all his actions without any consideration of him. But accustom thy self to find the presence of God in all thy gettings, in all thy preferments, in all thy studies, and he will be abundantly sufficient to thee for all. Quantumlibet sis avarus, saith S. Augustine, sufficit tibi Deus, Be as covetous as thou wilt, be as ambitious as thou canst, the more the better; God is treasure, God is honor enough for thee. Avaritia terram quaerit, saith the same Father, add & Coelum; wouldst thou have all this world? wouldst thou have all the next world too? Plus est, qui fecit coelum & terram, He that made heaven and earth is more then all that, and thou mayest have all him.

And this appropriates him so near to us, as that he is thereby Deus noster. For, it is not enough to find Deum, a God; a great and incomprehensible power, that sits in luce, in light, but in luce inaccessibili, in light that we cannot comprehend. A God that enjoys his own eternity, his own peace, his own blessedness, but respects not us, reflects not upon us, communicates nothing to us. But it is a God, that is Deus noster; Ours, as we are his creatures; ours, as we are like him, made to his image; ours, as he is like us, in assuming our nature; ours, as he hath descended to us in his Incarnation; and ours, as we are ascended with him in his glorification: So that we do not consider God, as our God, except we come to the consideration of God in Christ, God and man. It is not enough to find Deum, a God in general, nor to find Deum meum, a God so particularly my God, as that he is a God of my making: That I should seek God by any other motions, or know God by any other notions, or worship God in any other fashions, then the true Church of God doth, for there he is Deus noster, as he is received in the unanime consent of the Catholic Church. Sects are not bodies, they are but rotten boughs, gangrened limbs, fragmentary chips, blown off by their own spirit of turbulency, fallen off by the weight of their own pride, or hewen off by the Excommunications and censures of the Church. Sects are no bodies, for there is Nihil nostrum, nothing in common amongst them, nothing that goes through them all; all is singular, all is meum and tuum, my spirit and thy spirit, my opinion and thy opinion, my God and thy God; no such apprehension, no such worship of God, as the whole Church hath evermore been acquainted withal, and contented with.

It is true, that every man must appropriate God so narrowly, as to find him to be Deum suum, his God; that all the promises of the Prophets, and all the performances of the Gospel, all that Christ Jesus said, and did, and suffered, belongs to him and his soul; but yet God is Deus meus, as he is Deus noster, my God, as he is our God, as I am a part of that Church, with which he hath promised to be till the end of the world, and as I am an obedient son of that Mother, who is the Spouse of Christ Jesus: For as S. Augustine saith of that Petition, Give us this day our daily bread, Vnd dicimus Da nostrum? How come we to ask that which is ours, Quomodo nostrum, quomodo da? if we be put to ask it, why do we call it ours? and then answers himself, Tuum confitendo, non eris ingratus, It is a thankful part to confess that thou hast some, that thou hast received some blessings; and then, Ab illo petendo, non eris vacuus, It is a wise and a provident part, to ask more of him, whose store is inexhaustible; So if I feel God, as he is Deus meus, as his Spirit works in me, and thankfully acknowledge that, Non sum ingratus; But if I derive this Pipe from the Cistern, this Deus meus, from Deus noster, my knowledge and sense of God, from that knowledge which is communicated by his Church, in the preaching of his Word, in the administration of his Sacraments, in those other means which he hath instituted in his Church, for the assistance and reparation of my soul that way, Non er o vacuus, I shall have a fuller satisfaction, a more abundant refection then if I rely upon my private inspirations: for there he is Deus noster.

Now, as we are thus to acknowledge a God, and thus to appropriate that God; so we must be sure to confer this honor upon the right God, upon him who is the Lord. Now this name of God, which is translated the Lord here, is not the name of God, which presents him with relation to his Creatures: for so it is a problematical, a disputable thing, Whether God could be called the Lord, before there were any Creatures. Tertullian denies absolutely that he could be called Lord till then; S. Augustin is more modest, he says, Non audeo dicere, I dare not say that he was not; but he does not affirme that he was; Howsoever the name here, is not the name of Relation, but it is the name of his Essence, of his Eternity, that name, which of late hath been ordinarily called Iebovah. So that we are not to trust in those Lords, Whose breath is in their nostrils, as the Prophet says, For, wherein are they to be esteemed? says he; we are less to trust in them, whose breath was never in their nostrils, such imaginary Saints, as are so far from hearing us in Heaven, as that they are not there: and so far from being there, as that they were never here: so far from being Saints, as that they were never men, but are either fabulous illusions, or at least, but symbolical and allegorical allusions. Our Lord is the Lord of life and being, who gave us not only a well-being in this life, (for that, other Lords can pretend to do, and do indeed, by preferments here) nor a beginning of a temporary being in this life, (for that our Parents pretend, and pretend truly to have done) nor only an enlarging of our being in this life, (for that the King can do by a Pardon, and the Physicians by a Cordial) but he hath given us an immortal being, which neither our Parents began in us, nor great persons can advance for us, nor any Prince can take from us. This is the Lord in this place, this is Iehova, and Germen Iehovae, The Lord, and the off-spring of the Lord; and none is the off-spring of God, but God, that is, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So that this perfect blessedness consists in this, the true knowledge and worship of the Trinity.

And this blessing, that is, the true Religion and profession of Christ Jesus, is to be upon all the people; which is our last Confideration. Blessed is the Nation, whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his Inheritance. And here again (as in the former Consideration of temporal blessedness) The people includes both Prince and people; and then, the blessing consists in this, that both Prince and people be sincerely affected to the true Religion; And then, the people includes all the people; and so, the blessing consists in this, that there be an unanimity, a consent in all, in matter of Religion; And lastly, the people includes the future people; and there, the blessing consists in this, that our posterity may enjoy the same purity of Religion that we do. The first temptation that fell amonst the Apostles carried away one of them: Judas was transported with the temptation of money; and how much? For thirty pieces, and in all likelihood he might have made more profit then that, out of the privy purse; The first temptation carried one, but the first persecution carried away nine, when Christ was apprehended, none was left but two, and of one of those two, S. Jerome says, Vtinàm fugisset & non negasset Christum, I would Peter had fled too, and not scandalized the cause more by his stay, in denying his Master: for, a man may stay in the outward profession of the true Religion, with such purposes, and to such ends, as he may thereby damnify the cause more, and damnify his own soul more, then if he went away to that Religion, to which his conscience (though ill rectified) directs him. Now, though when such temptations, and such persecutions do come, the words of our Savior Christ will always be true, Fear not little flock, for it is Gods pleasure to give you the Kingdom, though God can lay up his seedcorne in any little corner, yet the blessing intended here, is not in that little seed-corn, nor in the corner, but in the plenty, when all the people are blessed, and the blessed Spirit blows where he will, and no door nor window is shut against him.

And therefore let all us bless God, for that great blessing to us, in giving us such Princes, as make it their care, Nebona caducasint, ne mala recidiva, That that blessedness which we enjoy by them, may never depart from us, that those miseries which we felt before them, may never return to us. Almighty God make always to us all, Prince and people, these temporal blessings which we enjoy now, Peace, and Plenty, and Health, seals of his spiritual blessings, and that spiritual blessedness which we enjoy now, the profession of the only true Religion, a seal of it self, and a seal of those eternal blessings, which the Lord the righteous Judge hath laid up for his, in that Kingdom which his Son, our Savior hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. In which glorious Son of God, &c.

Serm. LXXV. Preached to the King at White-hall, April 15. 1628.

ISAIAH 32.8.

But the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

BY two ways especially hath the Gospel been propagated by men of letters, by Epistles, and by Sermons. The Apostles pursued both ways; frequent in Epistles, assiduous in Sermons. And, as they had the name of Apostles, from Letters, from Epistles, from Missives, (for, the Certificates, and Testimonials, and safe-conducts, and letters of Credit, which issued from Princes Courts, or from Courts that held other Jurisdiction, were in the formularies and terms of Law called Apostles, before Christs Apostles were called Apostles) so they executed the office of their Apostleship so too, by Writing, & by Preaching. This succession in the Ministry of the Gospel did so too. Therefore it is said of S. Chrysostom, Vbique praedicavit, quia ubique lectus, He preached every where, because he was read every where. And, he that is said to have been S. Chrysostomes disciple, Isidore, is said to have written ten thousand Epistles, and in them to have delivered a just, and full Commentary upon all the Scriptures. In the first age of all, they scarce went any other way, (for writing) but this, by Epistles. Of Clement, of Ignatius, of Polycarpus, of Martial, there is not much offered us, with any probability, but in the name of Epistles.

When Christians gathered themselves with more freedom, and Churches were established with more liberty, Preaching prevailed; And there is no exercise, that is denoted by so many names, as Preaching. Origen began; for, (I think) we have no Sermons, till Origens. And though he began early, (early, if we consider the age of the Church, (a thousand four hundred years since) and early, if we consider his own age, for, Origens. preached by the commandment, and in the presence of Bishops, before he was a Churchman) yet he suffered no Sermons of his to be copied, till he was sixty years old. Now, Origen called his Homilies; And the first Gregory, of the same time with Origen, that was Bishop of Neocesaria, hath his called Sermons. And so names multiplied; Homilies, Sermons, Conciones, Lectures, S. Augustins Enarrations, Dictiones, that is, Speeches, Damascens and Cyrils Orations (nay, one excercise of Caesareus, conveyed in the forme of a Dialogue) were all Sermons. Add to these Church-exercises, (Homilies, Sermons, Lectures, Orations, Speeches, and the rest) the Declamations of Civil men in Courts of Justice, the Tractates of Moral men written in their Studies, nay go back to your our own times, when you went to School, or to the University; and remember but your own, or your fellows Themes, or Problems, or Commonplaces, and in all these you may see evidence of that, to which the Holy Ghost himself hath set a Seal in this text, that is, the recommendation of Bounty, of Munificence, of Liberality, The Liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

That which makes me draw into consideration, the recommendation of this virtue, in civil Authors, and exercises, as well as in Ecclesiastical, is this, That our Expositors, of all the three ranks, and Classes (The Fathers and Ancients, The later men in the Roman Church, and ours of the Reformation) are very near equally divided, in every of these three ranks; whether this Text be intended of a moral and a civil, or of a spiritual and Ecclesiastical liberality; whether this prophecy of Isaiah, in this Chapter, beginning thus, (Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness, and Princes shall rule in judgement) be to be understood of an Hezekias, or a Iosias, or any other good King, which was to succeed, and to induce virtuous times in the temporal State, and government, Or whether this were a prophecy of Christs time, and of the exaltation of all virtues in the Christian Religion, hath divided our Expositors in all those three Classes. In all three, (though in all three some particular men are peremptory and vehement upon some one side, absolutely excluding the other exposition, as, amongst our Authors in the Reformation, one says, Dubium non est, It can admit no doubt, but that this is to be understood of Hezekias, and his reign, And yet another of the same side, says too, Qui Rabbinos secuti, They that adhere too much to the Jewish Rabbis, and will needs interpret this prophecy of a temporal King, obscure the purpose of the Holy Ghost, and accommodate many things to a secular Prince, which can hold in none, but Christ himself) yet, I say, though there be some peremptory, there are in all the three Classes, Ancients, Romans, Reformed, moderate men, that apply the prophecy both ways, and find that it may very well subsist so, That in a faire proportion, all these blessings shall be in the reigns of those Hezekiasses, and those Iosiasses, those good Kings which God affords to his people; But the multiplication, the exaltation of all these blessings, and virtues, is with relation to the comming of Christ, and the establishing of his Kingdom: And this puts us, if not to a necessity, yet with conveniency, to consider these words both ways; What this civil liberality is, that is here made a blessing of a good Kings reign; And what this spiritual liberality is, that is here made a testimony of Christs reign, and of his Gospel. And therefore, since we must pass twice thorough these words, it is time to begin; The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

From these two armes of this tree, that is, from the civil, and from the spiritual accommodation of these words, be pleased to gather, and lay up these particular fruits. In each of these, you shall taste first, what this Liberality thus recommended is; And secondly, what this devising, and studying of liberal things is; And again, how this man is said to stand by liberal things; The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand. And because in the course of this Prophecy, in this Chapter, we have the King named, and then his Princes, and after, persons of lower quality and condition, we shall consider these particulars; This Liberality, this Devising, this Standing; First, in the first accommodation of the words, In the King, in his Princes, or great persons, the Magistrate, and lastly, in his people. And in the second accommodation, the spiritual sense, we shall consider these three terms, (Liberality, Devising, Standing) First, in the King of Kings, Christ Jesus, And then, in his Officers, the Ministers of his Gospel, And lastly, in his people gathered by this Gospel; In all which persons, in both sorts, Civil and Spiritual, we shall see how the liberal man deviseth liberal things, and how by liberal things he stands.

First then, in our first part, In the civil consideration of this virtue, Liberality, It is a communication of that which we have to other men; and it is the best character of the best things, that they are communicable, diffusive. Light was Gods first child; Light opened the womb of the Chaos; born heir to the world, and so does possess the world; and there is not so diffusive a thing, nothing so communicative, and self-giving as light is. And then, Gold is not only valued above all things, but is it self the value of all things; The value of every thing is, Thus much gold it is worth; And no metal is so extensive as gold; no metal enlarges it self to such an expansion, such an attenuation as gold does, nor spreads so much, with so little substance. Sight is the noblest, and the powerfullest of our Senses; All the rest, (Hearing only excepted) are determined in a very narrow distance; And for Hearing, Thunder is the farthest thing that we can hear, and Thunder is but in the air; but we see the host of Heaven, the stars in the firmament. All the good things that we can consider, Light, Sight, Gold, all are accompanied with a liberality of themselves, and are so far good, as they are dispensed and communicated to others; for their goodness is in their use. It is Virtus prolifica, a generative, a productive virtue, a virtue that begets another virtue; another virtue upon another man; Thy liberality begets my gratitude; and if there be an unthankful barrenness in me, that thou have no children by me, no thankfulness from me, God shall raise thee the more children for my barrenness, Thy liberality shall be the more celebrated by all the world, because I am unthankful. God hath given me a being, and my liberal Benefactor hath given me such a better being, as that, without that, even my first being had been but a pain, and a burden unto me. He that leaves treasure at his death, left it in his life; Then, when he locked it up, and forbad himself the use of it, be left it. He that locks up, may be a good Jaylor; but he that gives out, is his Steward: The saver may be Gods chest; The giver is Gods right hand. But the matter of our Liberality (what we give) is but the body of this virtue. The soul of this Liberality, that that inanimates it, is the manner, intended more in the next word, He deviseth, He studieth, The liberal deviseth liberal things.

Here the Holy Ghosts word is Iagnatz, and Iagnatz carries evermore with it a denotation of Counsel, and Deliberation, and Conclusions upon premisses. He Devises, that is, Considers what liberality is, discourses with himself, what liberal things are to be done, And then, upon this, determines, concludes, that he will do it, and really, actually does it. Therefore, in our first Translation, (the first since the Reformation) we read this Text thus, The liberal man imagineth honest things; Though the Translator have varied the word, (Liberal and Honest) the Original hath not. It is the same word in both places; Liberal man, Liberal things; but the Translator was pleased to let us see, that if it be truly a liberal, it is an honest action. Therefore the liberal man must give that which is his own; for els, the receiver is but a receiver of stollen goods; And the Curse of the oppressed may follow the gift, not only in his hands, through which it passed, but into his hands, where it remains. We have a convenient Embleme of Liberality in a Torch, that wasts it self to enlighten others; But for a Torch to set another mans house on fire, to enlighten me, were no good Embleme of Liberality. But Liberality being made up of the true body, and true soul, true matter, and true forme, that is, just possession for having, and sober discretion for giving, then enters the word of our Text, literally, The liberal man deviseth liberal things; He devises, studies, meditates, casts about, where he may do a noble action, where he may place a benefit; He seeks the man with as much earnestness, as another man seeks the money; And as God comes with an earnestness (as though he thought it nothing, to have wrought all the week) to his Faciamus hominem, Now let us make man; So comes the liberal man to make a man, and to redeem him out of necessity and contempt; (the upper and lower Milstone of poverty) And to return to our former representations of Liberality, Light, and Sight; As light comes thorough the glass, but we know not how, and our sight apprehends remote objects, but we know not how; so the liberal man looks into dark corners, even upon such as are loath to be looked upon, loath to have their wants come into knowledge, and visits them by his liberality, when sometimes they know not from whence that shore of refreshing comes, no more then we know, how light comes thorough the glass, or how our sight apprehends remote objects. So the liberal man deviseth liberal things; And then, (which is our third term, and consideration in this civil and moral acceptation of the words) By liberal things he shall stand.

Some of our later Expositors admit this phrase, (The liberal man shall stand) to reach no further, nor to signify no more, but that The liberal man shall stand, that is, will stand, will continue his course, and proceed in liberal ways. And this is truly a good sense; for many times men do some small actions, that have some show and taste of some virtue, for collateral respects, and not out of a direct and true virtuous habit. But these Expositors (with whose narrowness our former Translators complied) will not let the Holy Ghost be as liberal as he would be. His liberality here is, That the liberal man shall stand, that is, Prosper and Multiply, and be the better established for his liberality; He shall sow silver, and reap gold; he shall sow gold, and reap Diamonds; sow benefits, and reap honor; not honor rooted in the opinion of men only, but in the testimony of a cheerful conscience, that powers out Acclamations by thousands; And that is a blessed and a loyal popularity, when I have a people in mine own bosom, a thousand voices in mine own conscience, that justify and applaud a good action. Therefore that Translation which we mentioned before, reads this clause thus, The liberal man imagineth honest things, and cometh up by honesty; still that which he calls Honesty, is in the Original Liberality, and he comes up, he prospers, and thrives in the world, by those noble, and virtuous actions. It is easy for a man of any largeness in conversation, or in reading, to assign examples of men, that have therefore lost all, because they were loath to part with any thing. When Nazianzen says, That man cannot be so like God in any thing, as in giving, he means that he shall be like him in this too, that he shall not be the poorer for giving. But keeping the body, and soul of liberality, Giving his own, and giving worthily, in soul and body too, (that is, in conscience and fortune both) By liberal things he shall stand, that is, prosper.

Now these three terms, (Liberality, the virtue it self, the studying of Liberality, this devising; and the advantage of this Liberality, this standing) (being yet in this first part, still upon the consideration of civil, and moral Liberality) we are to consider, (according to their Exposition, that bind this Prophecy to an Hezckias, or a Iosias, in which Prophecy we find mention of all those persons) we are, I say, to consider them, in the King, in his Officers, the Magistrate, and in his Subjects. For the King first, this virtue of our Text, is so radical, so elementary, so essential to the King, as that the Vulgate Edition in the Roman Church reads this very Text thus, Princeps verò ea quae principe digna sunt, cogitabit, The King shall exercise himself in royal Meditations, and Actions; Him, whom we call a Liberal man, they call a King, and those actions that we call Liberal, they call Royal. A Translation herein excusable enough; for the very Original word, which we translate, Liberal, is a Royal word, Nadib, and very often in the Scriptures hath so high, a Royal signification. The very word is in that place, where David prays to God, to renew him spiritu Principali; And this, (spiritus Principalis) as many Translators call a Principal, a Princely, a Royal spirit, as a liberal, a free, a bountiful spirit; If it be Liberal, it is Royal. For, when David would have bought a threshingfloore, to erect an Altar upon, of Araunah, and Araunah offered so freely place, and sacrifice, and instruments, and all, the Holy Ghost expresses it so, All these things did Araunah, as a King, offer to the King; There was but this difference between the Liberal man, and David, A King, and The King. Higher then a King, for an example and comparison of Liberality, on this side of God, he could not go. The very forme of the Office of a King, is Liberality, that is Providence, and Protection, and Possession, and Peace, and Justice shed upon all.

And then, this Prophecy (considered still the first way, morally, civilly) carries this virtue, not only upon the King, but upon the Princes too, upon those persons that are great, great in blood, great in power, great in place, and office, They must be liberal of that, which is deposited in them. The Sun does not enlighten the Stars of the Firmament, merely for an Omament to the Firmament, (though even the glory, which God receives from that Ornament, be one reason thereof) but that by the reflection of those Stars his beams might be cast into some places, to which, by a direct Emanation from himself, those beams would not have come. So do Kings transmit some beams of power into their Officers, not only to dignify and illustrate a Court, (though that also be one just reason thereof, for outward dignity and splendor must be preserved) but that by those subordinate Instruments, the royal Liberality of the King, that is, Protection, and Justice might be transferred upon all. And therefore, S. Jerome speaking of Nebridius, who was so gracious with the Emperor, that he denied him nothing, assignes that for the reason of his largeness towards him, Quòd sciebat, non uni, sed pluribus indulgeri, Because he knew, that in giving him, he gave to the Public; He employed that which he received, for the Public.

And lastly, our Prophecy places this Liberality upon the people. Now, still this Liberality is, that it be diffusive, that the object of our affections be the Public. To depart with nothing which we call our own, Nothing in our goods, nothing in our opinions, nothing in the present exercise of our liberty, is not to be liberal. To press too far the advancing of one part, to the depressing of another, (especially where that other is the Head) is not liberal dealing. Therefore said Christ to James, and John, Non est meum dare vobis, It is not mine to give, to set you on my right, and on my left hand; Non vobis, quia singuli separatim ab aliis rogatis, not to you, because you consider but your selves, and petition for your selves, to the prejudice, and exclusion of others. Therefore Christ bad the Samaritan woman call her husband too, when she desired the water of life, Ne sola gratiam acciperet, saith S. Chrysostom, That he might so do good to her, as that others might have good by it too. For, Adpatriam quâitur? Which way think you to go home, to the heavenly Jerusalem? Per ipsum mare, sed in ligno, You must pass through Seas of difficulties, and therefore by ship; and in a ship, you are not safe, except other passengers in the same ship be safe too. The Spouse saith, Trahe me post te, Draw me after thee. When it is but a Me, in the singular, but one part considered, there is a violence, a difficulty, a drawing; But presently after, when there is an uniting in a plural, there is an alacrity, a concurrence, a willingness; Curremus post te, We, We will run after thee; If we would join in public considerations, we should run together. This is true Liberality in Gods people, to depart with some things of their own, though in goods, though in opinions, though in present use of liberty, for the public safety. These Liberal things, these Liberal men, (King, Magistrate, and People) shall devise, and by Liberal things they shall stand.

The King shall devise Liberal things, that is, study, and propose Directions, and commit the execution thereof to persons studious of the glory of God, and the public good; And that is his Devising of Liberal things. The Princes, Magistrates, Officers, shall study to execute aright those gracious Directions received from their royal Master, and not retard his holy alacrity in the ways of Justice, by any slackness of theirs, nor by casting a damp, or blasting a good man, or a good cause, in the eyes, or ears of the King; And that is their Devising of Liberal things. The people shall divest all personal respects, and ill affections towards other men, and all private respects of their own, and spend all their faculties of mind, of body, of fortune, upon the Public; And that is their Devising of Liberal things.

And by these Liberal things, these Liberal men shall stand. The King shall stand; stand in safety at home, and stand in triumph abroad. The Magistrate shall stand; stand in a due reverence of his place from below, and in safe possession of his place from above; neither be contemned by his Inferiors, nor suspiciously, and guiltily inquired into by his Superiors; neither fear petitions against him, nor commissions upon him. And the People shall stand; stand upon their right Basis, that is, an inward feeling, and an outward declaration, that they are safe only in the Public safety. And they shall all stand in the Sunshine, and serenity of a clear conscience, which serenity of conscience is one faire beam, even of the glory of God, and of the joy of heaven, upon that soul that enjoys it.

This is Esays Prophecy of the times of an Hezekias, of a Iosias, the blessing of this civil and moral Liberality, in all these persons. And it is time to pass to our other general part, from the civil, to the spiritual, and from applying these words, to the good times of a good King, to that, (which is evidently the principal purpose of the Holy Ghost) That in the time of Christ Jesus, and the reign of his Gospel, this, and all other virtues, should be in a higher exaltation, then any civil, or moral respect can carry them to.

As an Hezekias, a Iosias is a Type of Christ, but yet but a Type of Christ; so this civil Liberality, which we have hitherto spoken of, is a Type, but yet but a Type of our spiritual Liberality. For, here we do not only change terms, the temporal, to spiritual, and to call that, which we called Liberality in the former part, Charity in this part; nor do we only make the difference in the proportion & measure, that that which was a Benefit in the other part, should be an Alms in this. But we invest the whole consideration in a mere spiritual nature; and so that Liberality, which was, in the former acceptation, but a relieving, but a refreshing, but a repairing of defects, and dilapidations in the body or fortune, is now, in this second part, in this spiritual acceptation, the raising of a dejected spirit, the redintegration of a broken heart, the resuscitation of a buried soul, the re-consolidation of a scattered conscience, not with the glues, and cements of this world, mirth, and inusique, and comedies, and conversation, and wine, and women, (miserable comforters are they all) nor with that Meteor, that hangs between two worlds, that is, Philosophy, and moral constancy, (which is somewhat above the carnal man, but yet far below the man truly Christian and religious) But this is the Liberality, of which the Holy Ghost himself is content to be the Steward, of the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, and to be notified, and qualified by that distinctive notion, and specification, The Comforter.

To find a languishing wretch in a sordid corner, not only in a penurious fortune, but in an oppressed conscience, His eyes under a diverse suffocation, sinothered with smoke, and smothered with tears, His ears estranged from all salutations, and visits, and all sounds, but his own sighs, and the storms and thunders and earthquakes of his own despair, To enable this man to open his eyes, and see that Christ Jesus stands before him, and says, Behold and see, if ever there were any sorrow, like my sorrow, and my sorrow is overcome, why is not thine? To open this mans ears, and make him hear that voice that says, I was dead, and am alive, and behold, I live for evermore, Amen; and so mayest thou; To bow down those Heavens, and bring them into his sad Chamber, To set Christ Jesus before him, to out-sigh him, out-weep him, out-bleed him, out-dye him, To transferre all the fasts, all the scorns, all the scourges, all the nails, all the spears of Christ Jesus upon him, and so, making him the Crucified man in the sight of the Father, because all the actions, and passions of the Son, are appropriated to him, and made his so entirely, as if there were never a soul created but his, To enrich this poor soul, to comfort this sad soul so, as that he shall believe, and by believing find all Christ to be his, this is that Liberality which we speak of now, in dispensing whereof, The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall stand.

Now you may be pleased to remember, that when we considered this word, in our former part, (he shall Devise) we found this Devising Originally to signify a studying, a deliberation, a concluding upon premisses; upon which, we inferred pregnantly and justly, that as to support a mans expense, he must Vivere de proprio, Live upon his own; so to relieve others, he must Dare de suo, Be liberal of that which is his. Now, what is ours? Ours, that are Ministers of the Gospel? As we are Christs, so Christ is ours. Puer datus nobis, filius natus nobis, There is a Child given unto us, a Son born unto us; Even in that sense, Christ is given to us, that we might give him to others. So that in this kind of spiritual liberality, we can be liberal of no more but our own; we can give nothing but Christ; we can minister comfort to none, farther then he is capable, and willing to receive and embrace Christ Jesus.

When therefore some of the Fathers have said, Ratio pro fide Graecis & Barbaris, Rectified reason was accepted at the hands of the Gentiles, as faith is of the Christians; Philosophia per se justificavit Graecos, Philosophie alone (without faith) justified the Grecians; Satis fuit Gentibus abstinuisse ab Idololatria, It was enough for the Gentiles, if they did not worship false Gods, though they knew not the true truly; when we hear Andradius in the Roman Church pour out falvation to all the Gentiles, that lived a good moral life, and no more; when we hear their Tostatus sweep away, blow away Original sin so easily from all the Gentiles, In prima operation bona in charitate, In the first good Moral work that they do, Original sin is as much extinguished in them by that, as by Baptism in us; When we see some Authors in the Reformation afford Heaven to persons that never professed Christ, this is spiritual prodigality, and beyond that liberality which we consider now; for, Christ is ours; and where we can apply him, we can give all comforts in him; But none to others. Not that we manacle the hands of God, or say, God can save no man without the profession of Christ, But, that God hath put nothing else into his Churches hands to save men by, but Christ delivered in his Scripture, applied in the preaching of the Gospel, and sealed in the Sacraments. And therefore, if we should give this comfort, to any but those that received him, and received him so, according to his Ordinance in his Church, we should be over-liberal, for we should give more then our own. But to all that would be comforted in Christ, we devise liberal things, that is, we spend our studies, our lucubrations, our meditations, to bring Christ Jesus home to their case, and their conscience, And, by these liberal things we shall stand.

In our former part, in that Civil liberality, we did not content our selves with that narrow signification of the word, which some gave, That the liberal man would stand to it, abide by it, that is, continue liberal still habitually, but that he should stand by it, and prosper the better for it. If this Liberality which we consider now in this second Part, were but that branch of Charity, which is bodily relief by bountiful Alms, and no more, yet, we might be so liberal in Gods behalf, as to pronounce that the charitable man should stand by it, prosper for it, and have a plentiful harvest for any sowing in that kind. The Holy Ghost in the 112. Psalm, and 9. verse, hath taken a word, which may almost seem to taste of a little inconsideration in such a charitable person, a little indiscretion, in giving, in flinging, in casting away; for it is, He hath dispersed; Dispersed; A word that implies a careless scattering. But that which follows, justifies it; He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor. Let the manner, or the measure be how it will, so it be given to the poor, it will not be without excuse, not without thanks. And therefore we have this liberal charity expressed by S. Paul in the same word too, He hath dispersed; but dispersed as before, Dispersed by giving to the poor. For there is more negligence, more inconsideration allowed us, in giving of Alms, then in any other expense; Neither are we bound to examine the condition, and worthiness of the person to whom we give too narrowly, too severely. He that gives freely, shall stand by doing so; for, He that pitieth the poor, lendeth to the Lord; And the Lord is a good Debtor, and never puts Creditor to sue. And, if that be not comfort enough, S. Hicrom gives more, in his-translation of that place, foeneratur Domino, he that pitieth the poor, puts his money to use to God, and shall receive the debt, and more. But, the liberality which we consider here, in this part, is more then that, more then any charity, how large soever, that is determined, or conversant about bodily relief; for, (as you have heard) it is consolation applied in Christ, to a distressed soul, to a disconsolate spirit. And how a liberal man shall stand by this liberality, (by applying such consolation to such a distressed soul) I better know in my self, then I can tell any other, that is not of mine own profession; for this knowledge lyes in the experience of it.

For the most part, men are of one of these three sorts; Either inconsiderate men; (and they that consider not themselves, consider not us, they ask not, they expect not this liberality from us) or else they are over-confident, and presume too much upon God; or diffident, and distrust him too much. And with these two we meet often; but truly, with seven diffident, and dejected, for one presuming soul. So that we have much exercise of this liberality, of raising dejected spirits: And by this liberality we stand. For, when I have given that man comfort, that man hath given me a Sacrament, he hath given me a seal and evidence of Gods favor upon me; I have received from him, in his receiving from me; I leave him comforted in Christ Jesus, and I go away comforted in my self, that Christ Jesus hath made me an instrument of the dispensation of his mercy; And I argue to my self, and say, Lord, when I went, I was sure, that thou who hadst received me to mercy, wouldst also receive him, who could not be so great a sinner as I; And now, when I come away, I am sure, that thou who art returned to him, and hast re-manifested thy self to him, who, in the diffidence of his sad soul, thought thee gone for ever, wilt never depart from me, nor hide thy self from me, who desire to dwell in thy presence. And so, by this liberality I stand; by giving I receive comfort.

We follow our text, in the Context, our Prophet, as he places this liberality in the King, in the Magistrate, in the People. Here, the King is Christ, The Magistrate the Minister, The People the people, whether collectively, that is, the Congregation, or distributively, every particular soul. Afford your devotions a minute to each of these, and we have done. When we consider the liberality of our King, the bounty of God, to man in Christ, it is Species ingratitudinis, It is a degree of ingratitude, nay, it is a degree of forgetfulness, to pretend to remember his benefits so, as to reckon them, for they are innumerable. Sicut in visibilibus est Sol, in intelligibilibus est Deus; As liberal as the Sun is in Nature, God is in grace. Bonitas Dei ad extra, liberalitas est; It is the expressing of the School, and of much use; That God is Essential Goodness, within doors, in himself; But, Ad extra, when he comes abroad, when this interior Goodness is produced into action, then all Gods Goodness is Liberality. Deus est voluntas Omnipotens, is excellently said by S. Bernard; God is all Almightiness, all Power; but he might be so and we never the better. Therefore he is Voluntas omnipotens, A Power digested into a Will, as Willing, as Able to do us all, all good. What good? Receive some drops of it in S. Bernards own Manna, his own honey; Creans mentes ad se participandum, So good, as that he hath first given us souls capable of him, and made us so, partakers of the Divine Nature; Vivificans ad sentiendum, So good as that he hath quickened those souls, and made them sensible of having received him; for, Grace is not grace to me, till it make me know that I have it Alliciens ad appetendum, So good as that he hath given that soul an appetite, and a holy hunger and thirst to take in more of him; for I have no Grace, till I would have more; and then, Dilatans ad capiendum, So good, as that he hath dilated and enlarged that soul, to take in as much of God as he will. And lest the soul should lose any of this by unthankfulness, God is kind even to the unthankful, says God himself; which is a degree of goodness, in which God seldom is, nay, in which God scarce looks to be imitated, To be kind to the unthankful.

But if the whole space to the Firmament were filled with sand, and we had before us Clavius his number, how many thousands would be; If all that space were filled with water, and so joined the waters above with the waters below the Firmament, and we had the number of all those drops of water; And then had every single sand, and every single drop multiplied by the whole number of both, we were still short of numbering the benefits of God, as God; But then, of God in Christ, infinitely, super-infinitely short. To have been once nothing, and to be now co-heir with the Son of God, is such a Circle, such a Compass, as that no revolutions in this world, to rise from the lowest to the highest, or to fall from the highest to the lowest, can be called or thought any Segment, any Arch, any Point in respect of this Circle; To have once been nothing, and now to be co-heirs with the Son of God: That Son of God; who if there had been but one soul to have been saved, would have died for that; nay, if all souls had been to be saved, but one, and that that only had sinned, he would not have contented himself with all the rest, but would have died for that. And there is the goodness, the liberality of our King, our God, our Christ, our Jesus.

But we must look upon this liberality, as our Prophet leads us, in the Magistrate too, that is, in this part, The Minister. As I have received mercy, I am one of them, as S. Paul speaks. And why should I deliver out this mercy to others, in a scanter measure, then I have received it my self from God? Why should I deliver out his Talents in single farthings? Or his Gomers in narrow and shallow thimbles? Why should I defalke from his general propositions, and against all Grammar, and all Dictionaries, call his Omnes, his All, a few? Why should I lie to the Holy Ghost, (as S. Peter charges Ananias) Soldest thou the land for so much? Yea, for so much. Did God make heaven for so few? yes, for so few. Why should I say so? If we will constitute a place for heaven above, and a place for hell below, even the capacity of the place will yield an argument, that God, (as we can consider him in his first meaning) meant more should be saved then cast away. As oft as God tells us, of painful ways, and narrow gates, and of Camels, and needles, all that is done to sharpen an industry in all, not to threaten an impossibility to any. If God would not have all, why took he me? And if he were sorry he had taken me, or were wearied with the sins of my youth, why did he not let me slide away, in the change of sins in mine age, or in my sinful memory of old sins, or in my sinful sorrow that I could not continue in those sins, but still make his mercies new to me every morning? My King, my God in Christ, is liberal to all; He bids us, his Officers, his Ministers, to be so too; and I am; even thus far; If any man doubt his salvation, if any man think himself too great a sinner to attain salvation, let him repent, and take mine for his; with any true repentant sinner, I will change states; for, God knows his repentance, (whether it be true or no) better then I know mine.

Therefore doth the Prophet here, promise this liberality, as in the King, in Christ, and in the Magistrate, the Minister; so in the people too, in every particular soul. He cries to us, his Ministers, Consolamini, Consolamini, Comfort, O Comfort my people, and he cries to every one of you, Miscrere animae tua. Have mercy upon thine own soul, and I will commiserate it too; Be liberal to thy self, and I will bear thee out in it. God asks, Quid potui, What could have been done more to my Vineyard? Do but tell him, and he will do that. Tell him, that he can remove this damp from thy heart; Tell him, as though thou wouldst have it done, and he will do it. Tell him, that he can bring tears into thine eyes, and then, wipe all tears from thine eyes; and he will do both. Tell him, that he did as much for David, as thou needest; That he came later to the Thief upon the Cross, then thou putst him to; And Davids Transtulit peccatum, shall be transferred upon thee, And that thiefs Hody mecum eris, shall waft, and guard, and convey thy soul thither. Think not thy God a false God, that bids me call thee, and means not that thou hear; nor an impotent God, that would save thee, but that there is a Decree in the way; nor a cruel God, that made thee, to damn thee, that he might laugh at thy destruction. Thy King, thy Christ, is a liberal God; His Officers, his Ministers, by his instructions, declare plentiful redemption; Be liberal to thy self, in the apprehension and application thereof, and by these liberal things, we shall all stand.

The King himself stands by it, Christ himself. It destroys the nature, the office, the merit of Christ himself, to make his redemption so penurious, so illiberal. We, his officers, his Ministers stand by it. It overthrows the credit, and evacuates the purpose of our employment, and our Ministry, if we must offer salvation to the whole Congregation, and must not be believed, that he that sends it, means it. The people, every particular soul stands by it. For, if he cannot believe God, to have been more liberal to him, then he hath been to any other man, he is in an ill case, because he knows more ill by himself, then he can know by any other man. Believe therefore liberal purposes in thy God; Accept liberal propositions from his Ministers; And apply them liberally, and cheerfully to thine own soul; for, The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

Serm. LXXVI. Preached to the Earle of Carlile, and his Company, at Sion.

MARK. 16.16.

He that believeth not, shall be damned.

THe first words that are recorded in the Scriptures, to have been spoken by our Savior, are those which he spoke to his father and mother, then when they had lost him at Jerusalem, How is it that you sought me? knew yee not that I must be about my Fathers business? And the last words, which are in this Evangelist recorded to have been spoken by him, to his Apostles, are then also, when they were to lose him in Jerusalem, when he was to depart out of their presence, and set himself in the heavenly Jerusalem, at the right hand of his Father: of which last words of his, this Text is a part. In his first words, those to his father and mother, he doth not rebuke their care in seeking him, nor their tenderness in seeking him, (as they told him they did) with heavy hearts: But he lets them know, that, if not the band of nature, nor the reverential respect due to parents, then no respect in the world should hold him from a diligent proceeding in that work which he came for, the advancing the kingdom of God in the salvation of mankind. In his last words to his Apostles, he doth not discomfort them by his absence, for he says, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world: But he incourageth them to a cheerful undertaking of their great work, the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations, by many arguments, many inducements, of which, one of the waightiest is, That their preaching of the Gospel was not like to be uneffectual, because he had given them the sharpest spur, and the strongest bridle upon mankind; Praemium & poenam, Authority to reward the obedient, and authority to punish the rebellious and refractary man; he put into their hands the double key of Heaven, and of Hell; power to convey to the believer Salvation, and upon him that believed not, to inflict eternal condemnation; He that believeth not, shall be damned.

That then which man was to believe upon pain of damnation, if he did not, being this Commission which Christ gave to his Apostles, we shall make it our first part of this Exercise, to consider the Commission it self, the subject of every mans necessary belief; And our second part shall be, The penalty, the inevitable, the irreparable, the intolerable, the inexpressible penalty, everlasting condemnation, He that believeth not, shall be damned. In the first of these parts, we shall first consider some circumstantial, and then the substantial parts of the Commission; (for though they be essential things, yet because they are not of the body of the Commission, we call them branches circumstantial) First, An sit, whether there be such a Commission or no; secondly, the Vbi, where this Commission is; and then the Vnd, from whence this Commission proceeds; And lastly the Quò, how far it extends, and reaches; And having passed through these, we must look back for the substance of the Commission; for in the Text, He that believeth not, is implied this particle, this, this word this, He that believeth not this, that is, that which Christ hath said to his Apostles immediately before the Text, which is indeed the substance of the Commission, consisting of three parts, It praedicate, go and preach the Gospel, It Baptizate, go and baptize them, Itedocete, go and teach them to do, and to practise all that I have commanded; And after all these which do but make up the first part, we shall descend to the second, which is the penalty; and as far as the narrowness of the time, and the narrowness of your patience, and the narrowness of my comprehension can reach, we shall show you the horror, the terror of that fearful intermination, Damnabitur, He that believeth not, shall be damned.

First then, it is within this Credererit, that is, It is matter of faith to believe, that such a Commission there is, that God hath established means of salvation, and propagation of his Gospel here. If then this be matter of faith, where is the root of this faith? from whence springs it? Is there any such thing writ in the heart of man, that God hath proceeded so? Certainly as it is in Agendis, in those things which we are bound to do, which are all comprehended in the Decalogue, in the Ten Commandments, that there is nothing written there, in those stone Tables, which was not written before in the heart of man, (exemplify it in that Commandment which seems most removed from natural reason, which is the observing of the Sabbath, yet even for that, for a Sabbath, man naturally finds this holy impression, and religious instinct in his heart, That there must be an outward worship of that God, that hath made, and preserved him, and that is the substance, and moral part of that Commandment of the Sabbath) And it is in Agendis, that all things, that all men are bound to do, all men have means to know; And as it is in Sperandis, in Petendis, of those things which man may hope for at Gods hand, or pray for, from him, there is a knowledge imprinted in mans heart too; (for the Lords Prayer is an abridgement of all those, and exemplify also this in that Petition of the Lords Prayer, which may seem most removed from natural reason, That we must forgive those who have trespassed against us, yet even in that, every natural man may see, That there is no reason for him, to look for forgiveness from God, who can, and may justly come to an immediate execution of us, as soon as we have offended him, if we will not forgive another man, whom we cannot execute our selves, but must implore the Law, and the Magistrate to revenge our quarrel) As it is in Agendis, in all things which we are bound to do; As it is in Petendis, in all things which we may pray for, so it is in Credendis, all things that all men are bound to believe, all men have means to know.

This then, that God hath established means of salvation, being Inter credenda, one of those things which he is bound to believe, (for he that believeth not this, shall be damned) Man hath thus much evidence of this in nature, that by natural reason we know, that that God which must be worshipped, hath surely declared how he will be worshipped, and so we are led to seek his revealed and manifested will, and that is no where to be found but in his Scriptures. So that when all is done, the Ten Commandments, which is the sum of all that we are to do; The Lords Prayer, which is the sum of all that we are to ask; and the Apostles Creed, which is the sum of all that we are to believe, are but declaratory, not introductory things; The same things are first written in mans heart, though dimly and sub-obscurely, and then the same things are extended, shed in a brighter beam, in every leaf of the Scripture; And the same things are recollected again, into the Ten Commandments, into the Lords Prayer, and into the Apostles Creed, that we might see them al together, and so take better view and hold of them. The knowledge which we have in nature, is the substance of all, as all matter, Heaven and earth were created at once, in the beginning; and then the further knowledge which we have in Scripture, is as that light which God created after; for as by that light, men distinguished particular creatures, so by this light of the Scripture, we discern our particular duties. And after this, as in the Creation, all the light was gathered into the body of the Sun, when that was made; so all that is written in our hearts radically, and diffused in the Scriptures more extensively, is reamassed, and reduced to the Ten Commandments, the Lords Prayer, and to the Creed.

The heart of man is hortus, it is a garden, a Paradise, where all that is wholesome, and all that is delightful grows, but it is hortus conclusus, a garden that we our selves have walled in; It is fons, a fountain, where all knowledge springs, but fons signatus, a fountain that our corruption hath sealed up. The heart is a book, legible enough, and intelligible in it self; but we have so interlined that book with impertinent knowledge, and so clasped up that book, for fear of reading our own history, our own sins, as that we are the greatest strangers, and the least conversant with the examination of our own hearts. There is then Myrrhe in this garden, but we cannot smell it; and therefore, All thy garments smell of Myrrhe, saith David, that is, Gods garments; those Scriptures in which God hath apparelled, and exhibited his will, they breath the Balm of the East, the savor of life, more discernably unto us. But after that too, there is fasciculus Myrrhae, a bundle of Myrrhe together, fasciculus Agendorum, a whole bundle of those things which we are bound to do, in the Ten Commandments; fasciculus Petendorum, a whole bundle of those things, which we are bound to pray for, in the Lords Prayer; and fasciculus Credendorum, a whole bundle of those things, which we are bound to believe, in the Apostles Creed; And in that last bundle of Myrrhe, in that Creed, is this particular, Vt credamus hoc, That we believe this, this, that God hath established means of salvation here, and He that believeth not this, that such a Commission there is, shall be damned.

In that bundle of Myrrhe then, where lies this that must necessarily be believed, This Commission? In that Article of that Creed, Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam, I believe the holy Catholic Church; For till I come to that grain of Myrrhe, to believe the Catholic Church, I have not the savor of life; Let me take in the first grain of this bundle of Myrrhe, the first Article, Credo in Deum Patrem, I believe in God the Father, by that I have a being, I am a creature, but so is a contemptible worm, and so is a venemous spider as well as I, so is a stinking weed, and so is a stinging nettle, as well as I; so is the earth it self, that we tread under our feet, and so is the ambitious spirit, which would have been as high as God, and is lower then the lowest, the devil himself is a creature as well as I; I am but that, by the first Artiele, but a creature; and I were better, if I were not that, if I were no creature, (considering how I have used my creation) if there were no more Myrrhe in this bundle then that first grain, no more to be got by believing, but that I were a creature: But take a great deal of this Myrrhe together, consider more Articles, That Christ is conceived, and born, and crucified, and dead, and buried, and risen, and ascended, there is some savor in this; But yet, if when we shall come to Judgement, I must carry into his presence, a menstruous conscience, and an ugly face, in which his Image, by which he should know me, is utterly defaced, all this Myrrhe of his Merits, and his Mercies, is but a savor of death unto death unto me, since I, that knew the horror of my own guiltiness, must know too, that whatsoever he be to others, he is a just Judge, and therefore a condemning Judge to me; If I get farther then this in the Creed, to the Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, I believe in the Holy Ghost, where shall I find the Holy Ghost? I lock my door to my self, and I throw my self down in the presence of my God, I divest my self of all worldly thoughts, and I bend all my powers, and faculties upon God, as I think, and suddenly I find my self scattered, melted, fallen into vain thoughts, into no thoughts; I am upon my knees, and I talk, and think nothing; I deprehend my self in it, and I go about to mend it, I gather new forces, new purposes to try again, and do better, and I do the same thing again. I believe in the Holy Ghost, but do not find him, if I seek him only in private prayer; But in Ecclesia, when I go to meet him in the Church, when I seek him where he hath promised to be found, when I seek him in the execution of that Commission, which is proposed to our faith in this Text, in his Ordinances, and means of salvation in his Church, instantly the savor of this Myrrhe is exalted, and multiplied to me; not a dew, but a shower is poured out upon me, and presently follows Communio Sanctorum, The Communion of Saints, the assistance of Militant and Triumphant Church in my behalf; And presently follows Remissio peceatorum, The remission of sins, the purifying of my conscience, in that water, which is his blood, Baptism, and in that wine, which is his blood, the other Sacrament; and presently follows Carnis resurrectio, A resurrection of my body; My body becomes no burden to me; my body is better now, then my soul was before; and even here I have Goshen in my Egypt, incorruption in the midst of my dunghill, spirit in the midst of my flesh, heaven upon earth; and presently follows Vita aeterna, Life everlasting; this life of my body shall not last ever, nay the life of my soul in heaven is not such as it is at the first. For that soul there, even in heaven, shall receive an addition, and access of Joy, and Glory in the resurrection of our bodies in the consummation.

When a wind brings the River to any low part of the bank, instantly it overflows the whole Meadow; when that wind which blows where he will, The Holy Ghost, leads an humble soul to the Article of the Church, to lay hold upon God, as God hath exhibited himself in his Ordinances, instantly he is surrounded under the blood of Christ Jesus, and all the benefits thereof; The communion of Saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, are poured out upon him. And therefore of this great work, which God hath done for man, in applying himself to man, in the Ordinances of his Church, S. Augustine says, Obscuriùs dixerunt Prophetae de Christo, quàm de Ecclesia, The Prophets have not spoken so clearly of the person of Christ, as they have of the Church of Christ; for though S. Jerome interpret aright those words of Adam and Eve, Erunt duo in carnem unam, They two shall be one flesh, to be appliable to the union which is between Christ and his Church, (for so S. Paul himself applies them) that Christ and his Church are all one, as man and wife are all one, yet the wife is (or at least, it had wont to be so) easier found at home, then the husband; we can come to Christs Church, but we cannot come to him; The Church is a Hill, and that is conspicuous naturally; but the Church is such a Hill, as may be seen every where. S. Augustine asks his Auditory in one of his Sermons, do any of you know the Hill Olympus? and himself says in their behalf, none of you know it; no more says he, do those that dwell at Olympus know Giddabam vestram, some Hill which was about them; trouble not thy self to know the forms and fashions of foreign particular Churches; neither of a Church in the lake, nor a Church upon seven hills; but since God hath planted thee in a Church, where all things necessary for salvation are administered to thee, and where no erroneous doctrine (even in the confession of our Adversaries) is affirmed and held, that is the Hill, and that is the Catholic Church, and there is this Commission in this text, means of salvation sincerely executed; So then, such a Commission there is, and it is in the Article of the Creed, that is the ubi.

We are now come in our order, to the third circumstantial branch, the Vnd, from whence, and when this Commission issued, in which we consider, that since we receive a deep impression from the words, which our friends spake at the time of their death, much more would it work upon us, if they could come and speak to us after their death; You know what Dives said, Si quis ex mortuis, If one from the dead might go to my Brethren, he might bring them to any thing. Now, Primitiae mortuorum, The Lord of life, and yet the first born of the dead, Christ Jesus, returns again after his death, to establish this Commission upon his Apostles; It hath therefore all the formalities of a strong and valid Commission; Christ gives it, Ex mero motu, merely out of his own goodness; He foresaw no merit in us that moved him; neither was he moved by any mans solicitations; for could it ever have fallen into a mans heart, to have prayed to the Father, that his Son might take our Nature and dye, and rise again, and settle a course upon earth, for our salvation, if this had not first risen in the purpose of God himself? Would any man ever have solicited or prayed him to proceed thus? It was Ex mero motu, out of his own goodness, and it was Ex certa scientia, He was not deceived in his grant, he knew what he did, he knew this Commission should be executed, in despight of all Heretics, and Tyrans that should oppose it; And as it was out of his own Will, and with his own knowledge, so it was Ex plenitudine potestatis, He exceeded not his Power; for Christ made this Commission then, when (as it is expressed in the other Evangelist) he produced that evidence, Data est mihi, All power is given to me in Heaven and in earth; where Christ speaks not of that Power, which he had by his eternal generation, (though even that power were given him, for he was Deus de Deo, God of God) nor he speaks not of that Power which was given him as Man, which was great, but all that, he had in the first minute of his conception, in the first union of the two Natures, Divine and Humane together; but that Power, from which he derives this Commission, is that, which he had purchased by his blood, and came to by conquest; Ego vici mundum, says Christ, I have conquered the world, and comming in by conquest, I may establish what forme of Government I will; and my will is, to govern my Kingdom by this Commission; and by these Commissioners, to the Worlds end; to establish these means upon earth, for the salvation of the world.

And as it hath all these formalities of a due Commission, made without suite, made without error, made without defect of power: so had it this also, that it was duly and authentically testified; for, though this Evangelist name but the eleven Apostles to have been present, and they in this case might be thought Testes domestici, Witnesses that witness to their own, or to their Masters advantage; Yet, the opinion which is most embraced is, That this appearing of Christ, which is intended here, is that appearing, which is spoken of by S. Paul, when he appeared to more then five hundred at once; Christ rests not in his Test meipso, That himself was his witness, as Princes use to do, (and as he might have done best of any, because there were always two more that testified with him, the Father, and the Holy Ghost) he rests not in calling some of his Council, and principal Officers, to witness, as Princes have used too; but in a Parliament of all States, Upper and Common house, Spiritual and Temporal Apostles, Disciples and five hundred Brethren, he testifies this Commission.

Who then can measure the infinite mercy of Christ Jesus to us? which mercy became not when he began, by comming into this world; for we were elected in him before the foundations of the world; nor ended it when he ended, by going out of this world, for he returned to this world again, where he had suffered so much contempt and torment, that he might establish this object of our faith, this that we are therefore bound to believe, a Commission, a Church, an outward means of Salvation here; such a Commission there is, it is grounded in the Creed, and it was given after his Resurrection.

In which Commission (being now come to the last of the circumstantial Branches, the extent and reach of this Commission) we find, that it is Omni Creaturae, before the Text, Preach to every Creature, that is, Means of salvation offered to every Creature; and that is large enough, without that wild extent that their S. Francis gives it, in the Roman Church, whom they magnify so much for that religious simplicity, as they call it, who thought himself bound literally by this Commission, To preach to all Creatures, and so did, as we see in his brutish Homilies, Frater Asine, and Frater Bos, Brother Ox, and brother Ass, and the rest of his spiritual kindred; But in this Commission, Omnis Creatura, Every Creature, is every man; and to every man this Commission extends; Man is called Omnis Creatura, Every creature, as Eve is called Mater omnium viventium, though she were but the Mother of men, she is called the Mother of all living, and yet all other creatures live, as well as Man; Man is called Every creature, as it is said, Omnis caro, All flesh had corrupted his ways upon earth, though this corruption were but in man, and other creatures were flesh as well as man; Man is every creature, says Origen, because in him, Tanquam in officina, omnes Creaturae conflantur, Because all creatures were as it were melted in one forge, and poured into one mold, when man was made. For, these being all the distinctions which are in all creatures, first, a mere being which stones and other inanimate creatures have; and then life & growth, which trees and plants have; and after that, sense and feeling, which beasts have; and lastly, reason and understanding, which Angels have, Man hath them all; and so in that respect is every creature, says Origen: He is so too, says Gregory, Quia omnis creaturae differentia in homine, Because all the qualities and properties of all other creatures, how remote and distant, how contrary soever in themselves, yet they all meet in man; In man, if he be a flatterer, you shall find the groveling and crawling of a Snake; and in a man, if he be ambitious, you shall find the high flight and piercing of the Eagle; in a voluptous sensual man, you shall find earthliness of the Hog; and in a licentious man, the intemperance, and distemper of the Goat; ever lustful, and ever in a fever; ever in sicknesses contracted by that sin, and yet ever in a desire to proceed in that sin; and so man is every creature in that respect, says Gregory. But he is especially so, says S. Augustine, Quia omnis creatura propter hominem, All creatures were made for man, man is the end of all, and therefore man is all, says Augustine. So that the two Evangelists have expressed one another well; for those whom this Evangelist S. Mark calls all creatures, S. Matthew calls Omnes Gentes, All Nations; And so, that which is attributed to Christ by way of Prophecy, It is a small matter, that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribe of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel, I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou maiest be my salvation unto the end of the earth; That which is attributed to Christ there, is fulfilled in this Commission, given by Christ here; That he should be preached to all men; In which, we rather admire then go about to express his unexpressible mercy, who had that tenderness in his care, that he would provide man means of salvation in a Church, and then that largeness in his care, as that he would in his time impart it to all men; for els, how had it ever come to us? And so we pass from the Circumstances of the Commission, That it is, And where it is, And whence it comes, And whither it goes, to the Substance it self.

This is expressed in three actions; first, It praedicate, Go and preach the Gospel; And then, Baptizate, Baptize in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; And Docete servare, Teach them to observe all those things which I have commanded you; for that Hoc, Qui non crediderit hos, He that believes not this, (which is implied in this Text) reaches to all that; as well, Qui non fecerit hoc, He that does not do all this, as Qui non crediderit hoc, He that believes not this, is within the penalty of this Text, Damnabitur: The first of these three, is the ordinance and institution of preaching the Gospel; The second is the administration of both Sacraments; (as we shall see anon) And the third is the provocation to a good life, which is in example as well as in preaching; first preach the Gospel, that is, plant the root, faith; then administer the Sacraments, that is, water it, cherish it, fasten and settle it with that seal; and then procure good works, that is, produce the blessed fruit of this faith, and these Sacraments: Qui non crediderit hoc, He that does not believe all this, shall be damned.

First then, Qui non crediderit, He that hath this Apostleship, this ministry of reconciliation, he that is a Commissioner for these new buildings, to erect the kingdom of God by the Gospel, and does not believe, and show by his practise that he does believe himself to be bound to preach, he is under the penalty of this Text. When therefore the Jesuit Maldonat pleases himself so well, that, as he says, he cannot choose but laugh, when the Calvinists satisfy themselves in doing that duty, that they do preach; for, says he, Docetis, sed nemo misit, You do preach, but you have no calling; if it were not too serious a thing to laugh at, would he not allow us to be as merry, and to say too, Missi estis, sed non docetis, Perchance you may have a calling, but I am sure you do not preach? for if we consider their practise, their secular Clergy, those which have the care of souls in Parishes, they do not preach; and if we consider their Laws, and Canons, their Regular Clergy, their Monks and Fryers should not preach abroad, out of their own Cloysters. And preaching was so far out of use amongst them, as that in these later ages, under Innocentius the third, they instituted Ordinem praedicantium, An order of Preachers; as though there had been no order for preaching in the Church of God, till within these four hundred years. And we see by their Patent for preaching, what the cause of their institution was; It was because those who only preached then, that is, the Humiliati, (which was another Order) were unlearned, and therefore they thought it not amisse, to appoint some learned men to preach: The Bishops took this ill at that time, that any should have leave to preach within their Diocesses; and therefore they had new Patents, to exempt them from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops; and they had liberty to preach every where; Modò non vellicent Papam, As long as they said nothing against the Pope, they might preach. It is therefore but of late years, and indeed, especially since the Reformation began, that the example of others hath brought them in the Roman Church to a more ordinary preaching; whereas the penalty of this Text lies upon all them who have that calling, and do it not; and so it does upon them too, who do not believe, that they are bound to seek their salvation from preaching, from that ordinance and institution.

I cannot remember that in any History, for matter of fact, nor in the framing or institution of any State, for matter of Law, there hath ever been such a Law, or such a practise, as that of Preaching. Every where amongst the Gentiles, (particularly amongst the Romans, where there was a public Office, to be Conditor Precum, according to emergent occasions, to make Collects and Prayers for the public use) we find some resemblance, some representation of our common Prayer, our Liturgy; and in their ablutions, and expiations, we find some resemblance of our Sacraments; but no where any resemblance of our Preaching. Certain anniversary Panegyriques they had in Rome, which were Coronation Sermons, or Adoption Sermons, or Triumph Sermons, but all those, upon the matter, were but civil Commemorations. But this Institution, of keeping the people in a continual knowledge of their religious duty, by continual preaching, was only an ordinance of God himself, for Gods own people; For, after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, It pleased God (says the Apostle) by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe.

What was this former wisdom of God, that that could not save man? it was twofold; First, God in his wisdom manifests a way to man, to know the Creator by the creature, That the invisible things of him might be seen by the visible. And this gracious and wise purpose of God took not effect, because man being brought to the contemplation of the creature, rested and dwelt upon the beauty and dignity of that, and did not pass by the creature to the Creator; and then, Gods wisdom was farther expressed, in a second way, when God manifested himself to man by his Word, in the Law, and in the Prophets; and then, man resting in the letter of the Law, and going no farther, and resting in the outside of the Prophets, and going no farther, not discerning the Sacrifices of the Law to be Types of the death of Christ Jesus, nor the purpose of the Prophets to be, to direct us upon that Messiah, that Redeemer, Ipsa, quae per Prophetas locuta est, sapientia, says Clement, the wisdom of God, in the mouth of the Prophets, could not save man; and then, when the wisdom of Nature, and the wisdom of the Law, the wisdom of the Philosophers, and the wisdom of the Scribes, became defective and insufficient, by mans perverseness, God repayred, and supplied it by a new way, but a strange way, by the foolishness of preaching; for it is not only to the subject, to the matter, to the doctrine, which they were to preach, that this foolishness is referred. To preach glory, by adhering to an inglorious person, lately executed for sedition and blasphemy; to preach salvation from a person, whom they saw unable to save himself from the Gallows; to preach joy from a person whose soul was heavy unto death, this was Scandalum Iudaeis, says the Apostle, even to the Jews, who were formerly acquainted by their Prophets, that some such things as these should befall their Messiah, yet for all this preparation, it was Scandalum, the Jews themselves were scandalized at it; it was a stumbling block to the Jews; but Graecis stultitia, says the Apostle there, the Gentiles thought this doctrine mere foolishness. But not only the matter, but the manner, not only the Gospel, but even preaching was a foolishness in the eyes of man; For if such persons as the Apostles were, heirs to no reputation in the State, by being derived from great families, bred in no Universities, nor sought to for learning, persons not of the civilest education, Sea-men, Fishermen, not of the honestest professions, (Matthew but a Publican) if such persons should come into our streets, and porches, and preach, (I do not say, such doctrine as theirs seemed then) but if they should preach at all, should not we think this a mere foolishness; did they not mock the Apostles, and say they were drunk, as early as it was in the morning? Did not those two sects of Philosophers, who were as far distant in opinions, as any two could be, the Stoiques, and the Epicureans, concur in defaming S. Paul for preaching, when they called him Seminiverbium, a babling and prating fellow? But the foolishness of God is wiser then men, said that Apostle; and out of that wisdom, God hath shut us all, under the penalty of this Text, If we that are peachers, and you that are hearers, do not believe, that this preaching is the ordinance of God, for the salvation of souls.

This then is matter of faith, That preaching is the way, and this is matter of faith too, that that which is preached, must be matter of faith; for the Commission is, Praedicate Euangelium, Preach, but preach the Gospel; And that is, first, Euangelium solum, Preach the Gospel only, add nothing to the Gospel, and then Euangelium totum, Preach the Gospel entirely, defalke nothing, forbear nothing of that; First then, we are to preach, you are to hear nothing but the Gospel; And we may neither postdate our Commission, nor interline it; nothing is Gospel now, which was not Gospel then, when Christ gave his Apostles their Commission; And no man can serve God and Mammon; no man can preach those things, which belong to the filling of Angels rooms in heaven, and those things which belong to the filling of the Popes Coffers at Rome, with Angels upon earth: For that was not Gospel, when Christ gave this commission. And did Christ create his Apostles, as the Bishop of Rome creates his Cardinals, Cum clausura oris? He makes them Cardinalls, and shuts their mouths; they have mouths, but no tongues; tongues, but no voice; they are Judges, but must give no Judgement; Cardinalls, but have no interest in the passages of businesses, till by a new favor he open their mouths again: Did Christ make his Apostles his Ambassadors, and promise to send their instructions after them? Did he give them a Commission, and presently a Supersedeas upon it, that they should not execute it? Did he make a Testament, a will, and referre all to future Schedules and Codicills? Did he send them to preach the Gospel, and tell them, You shall know the Gospel in the Epistles of the Popes and their Decretals hereafter? You shall know the Gospel of deposing Princes, in the Council of Lateran hereafter; and the Gospel in deluding Heretics, by safe conducts, in the Gospel of Constance hereafter; and the Gospel of creating new Articles of the Creed, in the Council of Trent hereafter? If so, then was some reason for Christs Disciples to think, when Christ said, Verily, I say unto you, there are some here, who shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man come in glory; that he spake and meant to be understood literally, that neither John nor the rest of the Apostles should ever die, if they must live to preach the Gospel, and the Gospel could not be known by them, till the end of the world: And therefore it was wisely done in the Roman Church, to give over preaching, since the preaching of the Gospel, that is, nothing but the Gospel, would have done them no good to their ends: When all their preaching was come to be nothing, but declamations of the virtue of such an Indulgence, and then a better Indulgence then that, to morrow, and every day a new market of fuller Indulgences, when all was but an extolling of the tenderness, and the bowels of compassion in that mother Church, who was content to set a price, and a small price upon every sin; So that if David were upon the earth again, and then when the persecuting Angel had drawn his sword, would but send an appeal to Rome, at that price, he might have an inhibition against that Angel, and have leave to number his people, let God take it as he list; Nay, if Sodom were upon the earth again, and the Angel ready to set fire to that Town, if they could send to Rome, they might purchase a Charter even for that sin (though perchance they would be loath to let that sin pass over their hills:) But not to speak any thing, which may savor of jest, or levity, in so serious a matter, and so deplorable a state, as their preaching was come to, with humble thanks to God that we are delivered from it, and humble prayers to God, that we never return to it, nor towards it, let us cheerfully and constantly continue this duty of preaching and hearing the Gospel; that is, first the Gospel only, and not Traditions of men; And the next is, of all the Gospel, nothing but it, and yet all it, add nothing, defalke nothing; for as the Law is, so the Gospel is, Res integra, a whole piece; and as S. James says of the integrity of the Law, Whosoever keeps the whole Law, and offends in one point, he is guilty of all; So he that is afraid to preach all, and he that is loath to hear all the Gospel, he preaches none, he hears none. And therefore, if that imputation, which the Roman Church lays upon us, were true, That we preach no falsehood, but do not teach all the truth, we did lack one of the true marks of the true Church, that is, the preaching of the Gospel; for it is not that, if it be not all that; take therefore the Gospel, as we take it from the School, that it is historia, and usus, (the Gospel is the history of the Gospel, the proposing to your understanding all that Christ did, and it is the appropriation of the Gospel, the proposing to your faith, that all that he did he did for you) and then, if you hearken to them who will tell you, that Christ did that which he never did (that he came in, when the doors were shut, so that his body passed thorough the very body of the Tymber, thereby to advance their doctrine of Transubstantiation) or that Christ did that which he did, to another end then he did it, (that when he whipt the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, he exercised a secular power and sovereignty over the world, and thereby established a sovereignty over Princes, in his Vicar the Pope) These men do not preach the Gospel, because the Gospel is Historia & usus, The truth of the History, and of the application; and this is not the truth of the History; So also if you hearken to them, who tell you, that though the blood of Christ be sufficient in value for you, and for all, yet you have no means to be sure, that he meant his blood to you, but you must pass in this world, and pass out of this world in doubt, and that it is well if you come to Purgatory, and be sure there of getting to heaven at last; these men preach not the Gospel, because the Gospel is the history, and the use; and this is not the true use.

And thus it is, if we take the Gospel from the School; but if we take it from the School master, from Christ himself, the Gospel is repentance, and remission of sins; For he came, That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name; If then they will tell you, that you need no such repentance for a sin, as amounts to a contrition, to a sorrow for having offended God, to a detestation of the sin, to a resolution to commit it no more, but that it is enough to have an attrition, (as they will needs call it) a servill fear, and sorrow, that you have incurred the torments of hell; or if they will tell you, that when you have had this attrition, that the clouds of sadness, and of dejection of spirit have met, and beat in your conscience, and that the allision of those clouds have brought forth a thunder, a fearful apprehension of Gods Judgements upon you; And when you have had your contrition too, that you have purged your soul in an humble confession, and have let your soul blood with a true and sharp remorse, and compunction, for all sins past, and put that bleeding soul into a bath of repentant tears, and into a bath of blood, the blood of Christ Jesus in the Sacrament, and feel it faint and languish there, and receive no assurance of remission of sins, so as that it can levy no fine that can conclude God, but still are afraid that God will still incumber you with yesterdays sins again to morrow; If this be their way, they do not preach the Gospel, because they do not preach all the Gospel; for the Gospel is repentance and remission of sins; that is, the necessity of repentance, and then the assuredness of remission, go together.

Thus far then the Crediderit is carried, we must believe that there is a way upon earth to salvation, and that Preaching is that way, that is, the manner, and the matter is the Gospel, only the Gospel, and all the Gospel, and then the seal is the administration of the Sacraments, as we said at first, of both Sacraments; of the Sacrament of Baptism there can be no question, for that is literally and directly within the Commission, Go and Baptize, and then Qui non crediderit, He that believes not, not only he that believes not, when it is done, but he that believes not that this ought to be done, shall be damned; we do not join Baptism to faith, tanquam dimidiam solatii causam, as though Baptism were equal to faith, in the matter of salvation, for salvation may be had in divers cases by faith without Baptism, but in no case by Baptism without faith; neither do we say, that in this Commission to the Apostles, the administration of Baptism is of equal obligation upon the Minister as preaching, that he may be as well excusable if he never preach, as if he never Baptize; We know S. Peter commanded Cornelius and his family to be Baptized, we do not know if he Baptized any of them with his own hand; So S. Paul says of himself, that Baptizing was not his principal function; Christ sent not me to Baptize, but to preach the Gospel, saith he; In such a sense as God said by Jeremiah, I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them concerning burnt offerings, but I said, obey my voice, so S. Paul saith, he was not sent to Baptize; God commanded our fathers obedience rather then sacrifice, but yet sacrifice too; and he commands us preaching rather then Baptizing, but yet Baptizing too; For as that is true, In adultis, in persons which are come to years of discretion, which S. Jerome says, Fieri non potest, It is impossible to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, except the soul have received Sacramentum fidei, the Sacrament of faith, that is the Word preached, except he have been instructed and chatechized before, so there is a necessity of Baptism after, for any other ordinary means of salvation, that God hath manifested to his Church; and therefore Quos Deus conjunxit, those things which God hath joined in this Commission, let no man separate; Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven; Let no man read that place disjunctively, Of Water or the Spirit, for there must be both; S. Peter himself knew not how to separate them, Repent and be baptized every one of you, saith he; for, for any one that might have been, and was not Baptized, S. Peter had not that seal to plead for his salvation.

The Sacrament of Baptism then, is within this Crediderit, it must necessarily be believed to be necessary for salvation: But is the other Sacrament of the Lords Supper so too? Is that within this Commission? Certainly it is, or at least within the equity, if not within the letter, pregnantly implied, if not literally expressed: For thus it stands, they are commanded, To teach all things that Christ had commanded them; And then S. Paul says, I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus took bread, &c. (and so he proceeds with the Institution of the Sacrament) and then he adds, that Christ said, Do this in remembrance of me; which is, not only remember me when you do it, but do it that you may remember me; As well the receiving of the Sacrament, as the worthy receiving of it, is upon commandment.

In the Primitive Church, there was an erroneous opinion of such an absolute necessity in taking this Sacrament, as that they gave it to persons when they were dead; a custom which was grown so common, as that it needed a Canon of a Council, to restrain it. But the giving of this Sacrament to children newly baptized was so general, even in pure times, as that we see so great men as Cyprian and Augustine, scarce less then vehement for the use of it; and some learned men in the Reformed Church have not so far declined it, but that they call it, Catholicam consuetudinem, a Catholic, an universal custom of the Church. But there is a far greater strength both of natural and spiritual faculties required for the receiving of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper, then the other of Baptism. But for those who have those faculties, that they are now, or now should be able, to discern the Lords body, and their own souls, besides that inestimable and inexpressible comfort, which a worthy receiver receives, as often as he receives that seal of his reconciliation to God, since as Baptism is Tessera Christianorum, (I know a Christian from a Turk by that Sacrament) so this Sacrament is Tessera orthodoxorū ) I know a Protestant from a Papist by this Sacrament) it is a service to God, and to his Church to come frequently to this Communion; for truly (not to shake or afright any tender conscience) I scarce see, how any man can satisfy himself, that he hath said the Lords Prayer with a good conscience, if at the same time he were not in such a disposition as that he might have received the Sacrament too; for, if he be in charity, he might receive, and if he be not, he mocked Almighty God, and deluded the Congregation, in saying the Lords Prayer.

There remains one branch of that part, Docete servare, Preach the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, and teach them to practise and do all this: how comes matter of fact to be matter of faith? Thus; Qui non crediderit, he that does not believe, that he is bound to live aright, is within the penalty of this text. It is so with us, and it is so with you too; Amongst us, he that says well, presents a good text, but he that lives well, presents a good Comment upon that text. As the best texts that we can take, to make Sermons upon, are as this text is, some of the words of Christs own Sermons: so the best arguments we can prove our Sermons by, is our own life. The whole weeks conversation, is a good paraphrase upon the Sundays Sermon; It is too soon to ask when the clock stroke eleven, Is it a good Preacher? for I have but half his Sermon then, his own life is the other half; and it is time enough to ask the Saterday after, whether the Sundays Preacher preach well or no; for he preaches poorly that makes an end of his Sermon upon Sunday; He preaches on all the week, if he live well, to the edifying of others; If we say well, and do ill, we are so far from the example of Gods children, which built with one hand, and fought with the other, as that, if we do build with one hand, in our preaching, we pull down with the other in our example, and not only our own, but other mens buildings too; for the ill life of particular men reflects upon the function and ministry in general.

And as it is with us, if we divorce our words and our works, so it is with you, if you do divorce your faith and your works. God hath given his Commission under seal, Preach and Baptize; God looks for a return of this Commission, under seal too; Believe, and bring forth fruits worthy of belief. The way that Jacob saw to Heaven, was a ladder; It was not a faire and an easy stair case, that a man might walk up without any holding. But manibus innitendum, says S. Augustine, in the way to salvation there is use of hands, of actions, of good works, of a holy life; Servate omnia, do then all that is commanded, all that is within the Commission: If that seem impossible, do what you can, and you have done all; for then is all this done, Cum quod non fit ignoscitur, When God forgives that which is left undone; But God forgives none of that which is left undone, out of a wilful and vincible ignorance. And therefore search thy conscience, and then Christs commandment enters, Scrutamini Scripturas, then search the Scriptures; for till then, as long as thy conscience is foul, it is but an illusion to apprehend any peace, or any comfort in any sentence of the Scripture, in any promise of the Gospel: search thy conscience, empty that, and then search the Scriptures, and thou shalt find abundantly enough to fill it with peace and consolation; for this is the sum of all the Scriptures, Qui non crediderit hoc, He that believes not this, that he must be saved by hearing the word preached, by receiving the Sacraments, and by working according to both, is within the penalty of this text, Damnabitur, He shall be damned.

How know we that? many persons have power to condemn, which have not power to pardon; but Gods word is evidence enough for our pardon and absolution, whensoever we repent we are pardoned, much more then for our condemnation; & here we have Gods word for that; if that were not enough we have his oath; for it is in another place, God hath sworn, that there are some, which shall not enter into his rest, and to whom did he swear that, says S. Paul, but to them that believed not? God cannot lye, much less be forsworne, and God hath said and sworn, Damnabitur, he that believeth not, shall be damned. He shall be; but when? does any man make hast? though that be enough that S. Chrysostom says, It is all one, when that begins, which shall never end, yet the tense is easily changed in this case, from damnabitur to damnatur; for he that believeth not, is condemned already. But why should he be so? condemned for a negative? for a privative? here is no opposition, no affirming the contrary, no seducing or disswading other men that have a mind to believe, that is not enough; for, He that believeth not God, hath made God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. Here is the condemnation we speak of, as S. John says, Light was presented, and they loved darkness; so that howsoever God proceed in his unsearchable judgements with the Heathen, to whom the light and name of Christ Jesus was never presented, certainly we, to whom the Gospel hath been so freely, and so fully preached, fall under the penalty of this text, if we believe not, for we have made God a liar in not believing the record he gives of his Son.

That then there is damnation, and why it is, and when it is, is clear enough; but what this damnation is, neither the tongue of good Angels that know damnation by the contrary, by fruition of salvation, nor the tongue of bad Angels who know damnation by a lamentable experience, is able to express it; A man may sail so at sea, as that he shall have laid the North Pole flat, that shall be fallen out of sight, and yet he shall not have raised the South Pole, he shall not see that; So there are things, in which a man may go beyond his reason, and yet not meet with faith neither: of such a kind are those things which concern the locality of hell, and the materiality of the torments thereof; for that hell is a certain and limited place, beginning here and ending there, and extending no farther, or that the torments of hell be material, or elementary torments, which in natural consideration can have no proportion, no affection, nor appliableness to the tormenting of a spirit, these things neither settle my reason, nor bind my faith; neither opinion, that it is, or is not so, doth command our reason so, but that probable reasons may be brought on the other side; neither opinion doth so command our faith; but that a man may be saved, though he think the contrary; for in such points, it is always lawful to think so, as we find does most advance and exalt our own devotion, and Gods glory in our estimation; but when we shall have given to those words, by which hell is expressed in the Scriptures, the heaviest significations, that either the nature of those words can admit, or as they are types and representations of hell, as fire, and brimstone, & weeping, and gnashing, and darkness, and the worm, and as they are laid together in the Prophet, Tophet, (that is, hell) is deep and large, (there is the capacity & content, room enough) It is a pile of fire and much wood, (there is the durableness of it) and the breath of the Lord to kindle it, like a stream of Brimstone, (there is the vehemence of it:) when all is done, the hell of hels, the torment of torments is the everlasting absence of God, and the everlasting impossibility of returning to his presence; Horrendum est, says the Apostle, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yet there was a case, in which David found an ease, to fall into the hands of God, to scape the hands of men: Horrendum est, when Gods hand is bent to strike, it is a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the living God; but to fall out of the hands of the living God, is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination.

That God should let my soul fall out of his hand, into a bottomless pit, and roll an unremoveable stone upon it, and leave it to that which it finds there, (and it shall find that there, which it never imagined, till it came thither) and never think more of that soul, never have more to do with it. That of that providence of God, that studies the life of every weed, and worm, and ant, and spider, and toad, and viper, there should never, never any beam flow out upon me; that that God, who looked upon me, when I was nothing, and called me when I was not, as though I had been, out of the womb and depth of darkness, will not look upon me now, when, though a miserable, and a banished, and a damned creature, yet I am his creature still, and contribute something to his glory, even in my damnation; that that God, who hath often looked upon me in my foulest uncleanness, and when I had shut out the eye of the day, the Sun, and the eye of the night, the Taper, and the eyes of all the world, with curtains and windows and doors, did yet see me, and see me in mercy, by making me see that he saw me, and sometimes brought me to a present remorse, and (for that time) to a forbearing of that sin, should so turn himself from me, to his glorious Saints and Angels, as that no Saint nor Angel, nor Christ Jesus himself, should ever pray him to look towards me, never remember him, that such a soul there is; that that God, who hath so often said to my soul, Quare morier is? Why wilt thou die? and so often sworn to my soul, Vivit Dominus, As the Lord liveth, I would not have thee dye, but live, will nether let me dye, nor let me live, but dye an everlasting life, and live an everlasting death; that that God, who, when he could not get into me, by standing, and knocking, by his ordinary means of entering, by his Word, his mercies, hath applied his judgements, and hath shook the house, this body, with agues and palsies, and set this house on fire, with fevers and calentures, and frighted the Master of the house, my soul, with horrors, and heavy apprehensions, and so made an entrance into me; That that God should frustrate all his own purposes and practises upon me, and leave me, and cast me away, as though I had cost him nothing, that this God at last, should let this soul go away, as a smoke, as a vapor, as a bubble, and that then this soul cannot be a smoke, a vapor, nor a bubble, but must lie in darkness, as long as the Lord of light is light it self, and never spark of that light reach to my soul; What Tophet is not Paradise, what Brimstone is not Amber, what gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worm is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God? Especially to us, for as the perpetual loss of that is most heavy, with which we have been best acquainted, and to which we have been most accustomed; so shall this damnation, which consists in the loss of the sight and presence of God, be heavier to us then others, because God hath so graciously, and so evidently, and so diversly appeared to us, in his pillar of fire, in the light of prosperity, and in the pillar of the Cloud, in hiding himself for a while from us; we that have seen him in all the parts of this Commission, in his Word, in his Sacraments, and in good example, and not believed, shall be further removed from his sight, in the next world, then they to whom he never appeared in this. But Vincenti & credenti, to him that believes aright, and overcomes all temptations to a wrong belief, God shall give the accomplishment of fullness, and fullness of joy, and joy rooted in glory, and glory established in eternity, and this eternity is God; To him that believes and overcomes, God shall give himself in an everlasting presence and fruition, Amen.

Serm. LXXVII. Preached at S. Pauls, May 21. 1626.

1 COR. 15.29.

Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?

I Entered into the handling of these words, upon Easter day; for, though the words have received divers Expositions, good and pervers, yet all agreed, that the words were an argument for the Resurrection, and that invited me to apply them to that Day. At that Day I entered into them, with Origens protestation, Odit Dominus, qui festum ejus unum putat diem, God hates that man, that thinks any holy-day of his lasts but one day, that never thinks of the Resurrection, but upon Easter day: And therefore I engaged my self willingly, according to the invitation, and almost the necessity of the words, which could not conveniently, (scarce possibly) be determined in one day, to return again and again to the handling thereof. For, they are words of a great extent, a great compass: The whole Circle of a Christian is designed and accomplished in them; for, here is first the first point in that Circle, our Birth, our spiritual birth, that is, Baptism, Why are these men thus baptized? says the Text; And then here is the point, directly and diametrally opposed to that first point, our Birth, that is, Death, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead? says the Text; And then the Circle is carried up to the first point again, to our Birth, in another Birth, in the Resurrection, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead, if there be no Resurrection? So that if we consider the Militant and the Triumphant Church, to be (as they are) all one House, and under one roof, here is first Limen Ecclesiae, (as S. Augustine calls Baptism) The Threshold of the Church, we are put over the Threshold, into the Body of the Church, by Baptism, and here we are remembered of Baptism, Why are these men thus baptized? And then here is Chorus Ecclesiae, The Quire, the Chancel of the Church, in which all the service of God is officiated and executed; for we are made not only hearers, and spectators, but actors in the service of God, when we come to bear a part in the Hymnes and Anthems of the Saints, by our Death, and here we are remembered of Death, Why are these men thus baptized for the Dead? And then, here is Sanctum Sanctorum, The innermost part of the Church, The Holy of Holyes, that is, the manifestation of all the mysterious salvation, belonging to soul and body, in the Resurrection, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead, if there be no Resurrection?

Our first days work in handling these words, was to accept, and then to apply that, in which all agreed, that these words were an argument for the Resurrection; And we did both those offices; we did accept it, and so show you, how the assurance of the Resurrection accrues to us, and what is the office of Reason, and what is the office of Faith, in that affayre; And then we did apply it, and so show you divers resemblances, and conformities between natural Death, and spiritual Death, and between the Resurrection of the body to glory at last, and the Resurrection of the soul by grace, in the way; and wherein they induced, and assisted, and illustrated one another; And those two miles made up that Sabbath days journey. When we shall return to the handling of them, the next day, (which will be the last) we shall consider how these words have been misapplyed by our Adversaries of the Roman Church, and then the several Expositions which they have received from sound and Orthodoxal men, that thence we may draw a conclusion, and determination for our selves; And in those two miles, we shall also make up that Sabbath Days journey, when God shall be pleased to bring us to it. This days Exercise shall be, to consider that very point, for the establishment whereof, they have so detorted, and mis-applied these words, which is their Purgatory, That this Baptism for the Dead must necessarily prove Purgatory, and their Purgatory.

So then this Days Exercise will be merely Polemical, the handling of a Controversy; which though it be not always pertinent, yet neither is it always unseasonable. There was a time but lately, when he who was in his desire and intension, the Peace-maker of all the Christian world, as he had a desire to have slumbered all Field-drums, so had he also to have slumbered all Pulpit-drums, so far, as to pass over all impertinent handling of Controversies, merely and professedly as Controversies, though never by way of positive maintenance of Orthodoxal and fundamental Truths; That so there might be no slackning in the defence of the truth of our Religion, and yet there might be a discreet and temperate forbearing of personal, and especially of National exasperations. And as this way had piety, and peace in the work it self, so was it then occasionally exalted, by a great necessity; He, who was then our hope, and is now the breath of our nostrils, and the Anointed of the Lord, being then taken in their pits, and, in that great respect, such exasperations the fitter to be forborne, especially since that course might well be held, without any prevarication, or cooling the zeal of the positive maintenance of the religion of our Church. But things standing now in another state, and all peace, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, with these men, being by themselves removed, and taken away, and he whom we feared, returned in all kind of safety, safe in body, and safe in soul too, whom though their Church could not, their Court hath chatechised in their religion, that is, brought him to a clear understanding of their Ambition, (for Ambition is their Religion, and S. Peters Ship must sail in their Fleets, and with their winds, or it must sink, and the Catholic and Militant Church must march in their Armies, though those Armies march against Rome it self, as heretofore they have done, to the sacking of that Town, to the holding of the Pope himself in so sordid a prison, for six months, as that some of his nearest servants about him died of the plague, to the treading under foot Priests, and Bishops, and Cardinals, to the dishonouring of Matrons, and the ravishing of professed Virgins, and committing such insolencies, Catholics upon Catholics, as they would call us Heretics for believing them, but that they are their own Catholic Authors that have written them) Things being now, I say, in this state, with these men, since we hear that Drums beat in every field abroad, it becomes us also to return to the brasing and beating of our Drums in the Pulpit too, that so, as Adam did not only dress Paradise, but keep Paradise; and as the children of God, did not only build, but build with one hand, and fight with another; so we also may employ some of our Meditations upon supplanting, and subverting of error, as well as upon the planting, and watering of the Truth. To which purpose I shall prepare this day, for the vindicating and redeeming of these words from the Adversary, (which will be the work of the next day) by handling to day that point, for which they have misapplied them, which is Purgatory, and the mother, and the off-spring of that; for what can that generation of vipers suck from this Text, which is not, If there be no such Purgatory, but, If there be no such Resurrection, why then are these men baptized for the dead? Heaven and earth shall pass away, saith Christ, but my word shall not pass away. But rather then Purgatory shall pass away, his word must admit such an Interpretation, as shall pass away, and evacuate the intention and purpose of the Holy Ghost therein. How much of the earth is passed away from them, we know, who acknowledge the mercy, and might, and miracle of Gods working, in withdrawing so many Kingdoms, so many Nations of the earth, in so short time, from the obedience, and superstition of Rome, as that if Controversies had been to have been tried by number, they would have found as many against them, as with them; so much of the earth is passed from them. How much of heaven is passed from them, that is, how much less interest and claim to heaven they can have now, when God hath afforded them so much light, and they have resisted it, then when they were in so great a part, under invincible ignorance, God only, who is the only Judge in such causes, knows; and he, of his goodness, enlarge their title to that place, by their conversion towards it. But how much soever of earth or heaven pass away, they will not lose an acre, an inch of Purgatory; For, as men are most delighted with things of their own making, their own planting, their own purchasing, their own building, so are these men therefore inamoured of Purgatory: Men that can make Articles of faith of their own Traditions, (And as men to elude the law against new Buildings, first build sheds, or stables, and after erect houses there, as upon old foundations, so these men first put forth Traditions of their own, and then erect those Traditions into Articles of faith, as ancient foundations of Religion) Men that make God himself of a piece of bread, may easily make Purgatory of a Dream, and of Apparitions, and imaginary visions of sick or melancholike men.

It may then be of use to insist upon the survey of this building of theirs, in these three considerations. First, to look upon the foundation, upon what they raise it, and that is Prayer for the Dead, and that is the Grand-mother Error; And then upon the Building it self, Purgatory it self, and that is the Mother; And lastly upon the out-houses, or the furniture of this Building, and that is Indulgences, which are the children, the issue of this mother, and not such children as draw their parents dry, but support and maintain their parents; for, but for these Indulgences, their prayer for the Dead, and their Purgatory would starve; And starve they must all, if they can draw their maintenance from no other place but this, Why are these men baptized for the dead?

First then for the first of these three parts, The foundation, the Grand-mother, Prayer for the Dead; The most tender Mother, the most officious Nurse, cannot have a more particular care, how a new-born child shall be washed, or swathed, or fed, when they consider every drop of water, every clout, every pin that belongs to it, then God had of his Infant Church, when he delivered it over to her foster-fathers, her nursing-fathers, her god-fathers, Moses and Aaron, and bound them by his instructions, in every particular, as he prescribed them. How many directions he gave, what they should eat, what they should wear, how often they should wash, what they should do, in every religious, in every civil action, and yet never, never any mention, any intimation, never any approach, any inclination, never any light, no nor any shadow, never any color, any colourableness of any command of prayer for the Dead. In all the Law, no precept for it; And this might imply a weakness in Gods government, in so particular a law no precept of so important a duty: In all the History no example; And this might imply ill luck at least, in so large a story no Precedent of an Office so necessary: In all the Gospel no promise annexed to it; And this doth not imply, but manifest a conclusion against it, an exclusion of it. There being then no precept, no precedent, no promise for it, how came it into use and practise amongst the Jews?

After the Jews had been a long time conversant amongst the Gentiles, and that as fresh water approaching the Sea, contracts a saltish, a brackish taste, so the Jews received impressions of the customs of the Gentiles, who were ever naturally inclined to this mis-devotion, and left-handed piety, of praying for the Dead, In the faintness, and languishing of their Religion, when they were much declined from the exact observation thereof, then, in the time of the Maccabees entered that one example, which hath raised such a dust, and blinded so many eyes. We have mention of many funerals before that, and after that of many too, even in the time when Christ was upon the earth, and yet never mention of prayer for the dead, but in this one place of this book; I do not say, in this one story, (for in this story reported by Iosephus, there is no mention of it) but in this one book. That is true that I have read, that after Christs time, the Rabbis laid hold upon it, and brought it into custom; And that is true which I have seen, that the Jews at this day continue it in practise; For when one dies, for some certain time after, appointed by them, his son or some other near in blood or alliance, comes to the Altar, and there saith and doth some thing in the behalf of his dead father, or grandfather respectively. But all this they have drawn into practise, from this one place, from this book, from which book the same Rabbis draw a justification of a mans killing himself, because in this book they find an example of that in Razis: The Rabbis took no better a ground for their prayer for the dead, then for self-homicide, only matter of fact, out of a Historical book, which themselves did not believe to be Canonical. But how took this hold of Christians?

That which wrought upon the Jews, prevailed upon the new Christians too; for the greatest part of them, by much, being Gentiles, (for few amongst the Jews, in comparison, were converted to the Christian religion) they which came from Gentilisme, retained still many impressions of such things as they had been formerly accustomed unto. And as the Fathers of the Church then, out of an indulgence to these new Convertits, did suffer and tolerate the practise of many things, which these Gentiles brought with them; (as indeed a great part of the ceremonies of the Christian Church are of that nature, and of such an admission, Things, which rather then avert their new Convertits from comming to them, by an utter abolishing of all parts of their former religion, and worship of their gods, those blessed Fathers thought fitter to retain, and turn to some good use, then altogether to take them away) As in other things, so also in this prayer for the dead, to which they, as Gentiles, had been formerly accustomed, the Fathers did not oppose it with any peremptory earnestness, with any vehement diligence, partly because the thing it self argued and testified a good, and tender, and pious affection; (and though God do not ground his Decrees upon any disposition in mans nature, yet in the execution of his Decrees, God as he works in his Church, loves to work upon a good natured man) and partly also, because this practise, being but a practise only, and no Dogmatical constitution, might be (as it was in the first practise thereof) without shaking any foundation, or wounding any Article of the Christian Religion; And lastly, (that we may speak truth, with that holy boldness which belongs to the truth) because it was a long time before the Fathers came to a clear understanding of the state of the soul, departed out of this life: for though they never doubted of the certain performance of Gods promises, That all that die in him, do rest in him, yet where, and how this rest was communicated to them, admitted more clouds then they could at all times dispel and scatter, some arising from Philosophers, some from Heretics, some from ignorance, some from heat of Disputation.

So then, at first it was a weed that grew wild in the open field, amongst the Gentiles; Then because it bore a pretty flower, the testimony of a good nature, it was transplanted into some Gardens, and so became a private opinion, or at least a practise amongst some Christians; And then it spread it self so far, as that Tertullian, and he first of any takes knowledge of it, as of a custom of the Church; And truly this of Tertullian is very early, within little more then two hundred years after Christ. But as Tertullian shews us an early birth of it, so he tells us enough, to show us, that it should not have been long lived, when he acknowledges that it had no ground in Scripture, but was only a custom popularly, and vulgarly taken up. But Tertullian speaks of more then Prayer; he speaks of oblations and sacrifices for the dead; It is true, he does so; but it is of oblations and sacrifices far from the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, for Tertullian makes a woman the Priest in his sacrifice: Offert uxor, says he, annuis diebus dormitionis mariti, The wife offers every year upon the day of her husbands death; that is, every year upon that day, she gives a dole and alms to the poor, as the custom was to do in memory of dead friends.

This being then but such a custom, and but so induced, why did none oppose it? Why it was not sufficiently opposed, I have intimated some reasons before: The affection of those that did it, who were (though mistaken in the way) piously affected in the action, And then the harmlesness in the thing it self at first, And then partly a loathness in the Fathers to deter the Gentiles from becoming Christians, And partly a cloud and darkness of the state of the soul after death. Yet some did oppose it; But some not early enough, and some not earnestly enough; And some not with much success, because they were not otherwise Integrae famae, They were not thought sound in all things, and therefore they were believed in nothing; which was Aerius his case, who did oppose it; but because Aerius did not come home to all truths, he was not hearkened unto, in opposing any error. Otherwise at that time, Epiphanius had a faire occasion offered, to have opposed this growing custom, and to have rectified the Church in a good measure therein, about an hundred years after Tertullian: For then Aerius opposed it directly; but because he proceeded upon false grounds, That since it was come to that, That the most vicious man, the most enormous sinner, might be saved after his death, by the prayers and devotions of another man, there remained no more for a Christian to do, but to provide such men in his life, to do those offices for him after his death, and so he might deliver himself from all the disciplines, and mortifications, and from the anguishes, and remorses, and vexations of conscience which the Christian Religion induces and requires, Epiphanius discerning the advantage that Aerius had given, by imputing things not throughly true, he places his glory, and his triumph, only in overthrowing Aerius his ill grounded arguments, and takes the question it self, and the danger of the Church, no farther to heart then so. And therefore when Aerius asks, Can prayers for the dead be of any use? Epiphanius says, Yes, they may be of use, to awaken and exercise the piety and charity of the living; and never speaks to that which was principally intended, whether they could be of any use to the dead. So when Aerius asks, Is it not absurd to say, That all sins may be remitted after death? Epiphanius says, No man in the Church ever said, That all sins may be remitted after death, and never clears the main, whether any sin might. And yet with all advantages, and modifications, Epiphanius lodges it at last, but upon custom, Nec enim praeceptum Patris, sed institutum matris habemus, says he, For this which we do, we have no commandment from God our Father, but only an Institution, implied in this Custom, from the Church our Mother.

But then it grew to a farther height; from a wild flower in the field, and a garden flower in private grounds, to be more generally planted, and to be not only suffered by many Fathers, but cherished and watered by some, and not above forty years after Epiphanius, to be so far advanced by S. Chrysostom, as that he assignes, though no Scripture for it, yet that which is nearest to Scripture, That it was an Apostolical Constitution. And truly, if it did clearly appear to have been so, A thing practised, and prescribed to the Church, by the Apostles, the holy Ghost were as well to be believed in the Apostles mouths, as in their pens; An Apostolical Tradition, that is truly so, is good evidence. But because those things do hardly lie in proof, (for that which hath been given for a good Rule of Apostolical Traditions, is very defective, that is, That whatsoever hath been generally in use in the Church, of which no Author is known, is to be accepted for an Apostolical Tradition, for so that Ablutio pedum, The washing of one another's feet after Christs example, was in so general use, that it had almost gained the dignity of being a Sacrament; And so was also the giving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood to children newly baptized, and yet these, though in so general use, and without any certain Author, are not Apostolical Traditions) Therefore we must apply S. Augustines words to S. Chrysostom, Leg ex Leg, ex Prophetis, ex Psalmis, ex Euangelio, ex Apostolicis literis, & credemus, Read us any thing out of the Law, or Prophets, or Psalms, or Gospel, or Epistles, and we will believe it. And we must have leave to return S. Augustines words upon S. Augustine himself, who hath much assisted this custom of praying for the dead, Leg ex Leg, &c. Read it out of the Scriptures, and we will believe it; for S. Augustine does not pretend any other place of Scripture, then this of the Maccabees, and (not disputing now what credit that Book had with S. Augustine) certainly it fell not within this enumeration of his, The Maccabees are neither Law, nor Prophets, nor Psalms, nor Gospel, nor Epistle.

Beloved, it is a wanton thing for any Church, in spiritual matters, to play with small errors; to tolerate, or wink at small abuses, as though it should be always in her power to extinguish them when she would. It is Christs counsel to his Spouse, that is, the Church, Capite vulpes parvulas, Take us the little foxes, for they destroy the Vine; though they seem but little, and able to do little harm, yet they grow bigger and bigger every day; and therefore stop errors before they become heresies, and erroneous men before they become formal heretics. Capite, says Christ, Take them, suffer them not to go on; but then, it is Capite nobis, Take us those foxes, Take them for us, The bargain is between Christ and his Church. For it is not Capite vobis, Take them to your selves, and make your selves Judges of such doctrinal matters, as appertain not to your cognizance; Nor it is not Cape tibi, Take him to thy self, spy out a Recusant, or a man otherwise not conformable, and take him for thy labor, beg him, and spoil him, and, for his Religion, leave him as you found him; Neither is it Cape sibi, Take him for his ease, that is, compound with him easily, and continue him in his estate and errors, but Cape nobis, Take him for us, so detect him, as he may thereby be reduced to Christ and his Church.

Neither only this counsel of Christ to his Church, but that commandment of God in Levit. is also appliable to this, Non misereber is pauperis in judicio, Thou shalt not countenance a poor man in his cause, Thou shalt not pity a poor man in judgement. Though a new opinion may seem a poor opinion, able to do little harm, though it may seem a pious and profitable opinion, and of good use, yet in judicio, if it stand in judgement, and pretend to be an article of faith, and of that holy obligation, matter necessary to salvation, Non misereberis, Thou shalt not spare, thou shalt not countenance this opinion upon any collateral respect, but bring it to the only trial of Doctrines, the Scriptures. In the beginning of the Reformation in Germany, there arose a sect, whom they called Intermists, and Adiaphorists, who, upon a good pretence, were like to have done a great deal of mischief: They said, Since all the hope of a Reformation that we can promise our selves, must come from a general Council, and of such a Council we can have no hope but by the Pope, it were impertinent, and dis-conducing to our own ends, to vexe or exasperate the Pope, in this Interim, till the Council be settled, and so the Reformation put into a way; and in the Interim, for this short time till the Council, these Adiaphora, the indifferent things, (in which mild word they involved all the abuses, and all the grievances that were complained of) may be well enough continued. But if they had continued so long, they had continued yet; If they had spared their little foxes then, they had destroyed their vines; If they had pitied the poor in judgement, the cause had been judged against them; If they had reprieved those abuses for a time, they had got a pardon for ever: And therefore blessed were they in taking those children, and dashing them against the stones, In taking those new-born opinions, and bringing them to the true touch-stone of all Doctrines, An ab initio, whether they had been from the beginning, or could consist with the Scriptures.

Neither doth this counsel of Christs, Take us these little foxes, nor this commandment of God, Thou shalt not pity the poor in judgment, determine it self in the Church, or in the public only, but extends it self (rather contracts it self) to every particular soul and conscience. Capite vulpeculas, Take your little foxes, watch your first inclinatiōs to sins, for if you give them suck at first, if you feed them with the milk and honey of the mercy of God, it shall not be in your power to wean them when you would, but they will draw you from one to another extreme, from a former presumption to a future desperation in Gods mercy. So also Non misereberis; Thou shalt not pity the poor in judgement; now that thou callest thy self to judgement, and thy conscience to an examination, thou shalt not pity any sin, because it pretends to be a poor sin, either poor so, that it cannot much endanger thee, not much encumber thee, or poor so, as that it threatens thee with poverty, with penury, with disability to support thy state, or maintain thy family, if thou entertain it not. Many times I have seen a suitor that comes in forma pauperis, more trouble a Court, and more importune a Judge, then greater causes, or greater persons: And so may such sins as come in forma pauperis, either way, That they plead poverty, That they can do little harm, or threaten poverty if they be not entertained. Those sins are the most dangerous sins, which pretend reason why they should be entertained: for sins which are done merely out of infirmity, or out of the surprisal of a temptation, are (in comparison of others) done as sins in our sleep; but in sins upon deliberation, upon counsel, upon pretence of reason, we do see the wisdom of God, but we set our wisdom above his, we do see the law of God, but we insert and interline non obstantes of our own, into Gods Law.

If therefore thou wilt corruptly and viciously, and sinfully love another, out of pity, because they love thee so; If thou wilt assist a poor man in a cause, out of pretence of pity, with thy countenance and the power of thy place, that that poor man may have something, and thou the rest that is recovered in his right; If thou wilt embrace any particular sin out of pity, lest thy Wife and Children should be left unprovided; If thou have not taken these little foxes, that is, resisted these temptations at the beginning, yet Nunc in judicio, now that they appear in judgement, in examination of thy conscience, Non misereberis, Thou shalt not pity them, but (as Moses speaks of false Prophets, and by a faire accommodation of all bewitching sins, with pleasure or profit) If a Dreamer of Dreams have given thee a sign, and that sign be come to pass; If a sin have told thee, it would make thee rich, and it have made thee rich; yet if this Dreamer draw thee to another God, If this profit draw thee to an Idolatrous, that is, to an habitual love of that sin, (for Tot habemus recentes Deos, quot vitiae, says S. Jerome, Every man hath so many Idols in him, as he hath habitual sins) yet, Though this dreamer (as God proceeds there) be thy brother, or thy son, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, How near, how dear, how necessary soever this sin be unto thee, Non misereberis, says Moses, Thine eye shall not pity that Dreamer, thou shalt not keep him secret, but thine own hand shall be upon him to kill him; And so of this pleasurable, or profitable sin, Non misereberis, Thou shalt not hide it, but pour it out in Confession; Non misereberis, Thou shalt not pardon it, no nor reprieve it, but destroy it, for the practise presently; Non misereberis, Thou shalt not turn out the Mother, and retain the Daughter, not leave the sin, and retain that which was sinfully got, but divest all, root, and body, and fruits, by confession to God, by contrition in thy self, by restitution to men damnified; Else, that will fall upon thee and thy soul, which fell upon the Church, That because they did not take their little foxes, they endangered the whole vine; Because they did pity the poor in judgement, that is, (as S. Augustine says) they were loath to wrastle with the people, or force them from dangerous customs, they came from that supine negligence, in tolerating prayer for the Dead, to establish a doctrinal point of Purgatory; and for both, prayer for the Dead, and Purgatory, they detort this text, Else, that is, if no Purgatory, why then are these men baptized for the Dead?

As in the Old Testament there is no precept, no precedent, no promise for prayer for the Dead, So in the Old Testament they confess, there was no Purgatory; no such place, as could purify a soul to that cleanness, as to deliver it up to Heaven; For thither, to Heaven, no soul, say they, had access, till after Christs ascension. But as the first mention of prayer for the dead was in time of the Maccabees, so much about the same time was the first stone of Purgatory laid; and laid by the hands of Plato. For, Hareticorum Patriarchae, Philosophi, says Tertullian, The Philosophers were the Patriarchs of Heretics, evermore they had recourse to them. And then, Plato being the Author of Purgatory, we cannot deny, but that the Greek Church did acknowledge Purgatory, that is, that Greek Church, of which Plato is a Patriarch; for, for the Christian Greek Church, that never acknowledged Purgatory, so as the Roman, that is, A place of torment, from which our prayers here, might deliver souls there. But yet Platoes invention, or his manner of expressing it, took such root and such hold, as that Eusebius, when he comes to speak of Purgatory, delivers it in the very words of Plato, and makes Platoes words his words, and Plato his Patriarch, for the Greek Church. The Latin Church had Patriarchs too for this Doctrine; though not Philosophers, yet Poets; for of that which Virgil says of Purgatory, Lactantius says, propemodum vera, Virgil was very near the truth, Virgil was almost a Catholic, but then later men say, Haec prorsus vera, This is absolutely true that Virgil says, and Virgil is a perfect, a down-right Catholic; for an upright Catholic, in the point of Purgatory, were hard to find.

These then are the first Patriarchs of the Greek and Latin Church, Philosophers, and Poets; And when it came farther, to Christians, it gained not much at first; for the first mention of Purgatory amongst Christians hath this double ill luck, that first it is in a Book which no side believes, the Book called Pastor, whose Author is said to be Hermes, and he fancied to be S. Pauls Disciple; And then that which is said of Purgatory in that Book, is put into an old womans mouth, and so made an old wives tale; she tells that she had a vision, of stones fallen from a tore, and then mended after they were fallen, and laid in the building again: And this Tore must be the Church, and these fallen stones must be souls in Purgatory, and then they must be made fit to be placed in the uppermost part of the building, in the Triumphant Church.

But to consider this plant in better grounds, then Philosophers, or Poets, or old wives tales, or supposititious books, amongst men of more weight and gravity; Clement of Alexandria, within little more then two hundred years after Christ, spake doubtfully, uncertainly, suspiciously, disputably of Purgatory; And within twenty years after him, Origen, who was evermore transported beyond the letter, upon mysteries, somewhat directly. But yet when all is done, Origens Purgatory is a purgatory, that would do them no good; for it would bring them in no money; and they could be as well content that there were none, as that it were nothing worth; except they may have the letting and setting of Purgatory at their price, they care not though it were pulled down. And Origens Purgatory is such a purgatory as the best men must come into it, even Martyrs themselves, that are re-baptized in their own blood, (and will this purgatory serve their turns?) And it is such a purgatory, as the worst of all, even the Devil himself may, and shall get out of it; And will this purgatory serve their turns? Neither is this an error peculiar to Origen, That all souls must pass through Purgatory, but common with others of the Fathers too; Sive Paulus, sive Petrus, says Origen, whether it be S. Paul, or S. Peter, thither he must come, And sive Petrus, sive Iohannes, says S. Ambrose, whether it be the Disciple that loved Christ, S. Peter, or the Disciple whom Christ loved, S. John, thither he must come; And S. Hilary extends it farther, he draws in the blessed Virgin Mary her self into purgatory. And that we may see clearly, that that Purgatory which the Fathers intended, is not the Purgatory now erected in the Roman Church, S. Ambrose consigns to his Purgatory, even the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testaments; Igne filii Levi, igne Ezekiel, igne Daniel, The holiest generation, the Sons of Levi, and the greatest of the Prophets must pass through this fire: And will such a purgatory serve their turns, as was kindled in the Old Testament?

Well; They are very loath to be put to their special plea, very loath to answer, what Purgatory of the Fathers they will stand to; They would not be put to answer; They choose rather to interrogate us; and they ask us, Since the Fathers are so pregnant, so frequent in the name of Purgatory, one Purgatory or other, will you believe none? None, upon the strength of that argument, that the Fathers mention Purgatory, except they will assign us a Purgatory, in which those Fathers agree, and agree it to be matter of faith, to believe it; for from how many things, which pass through the Fathers, by way of opinion, and of discourse, are they in the Roman Church departed, only upon that, That the Fathers said it, but said it not Dogmatically, but by way of discourse, or opinion. But then they ask us again, Since it is clear that they did use prayer for the dead, what could they mean by those prayers, but a Purgatory, a place of torment, where those souls needed help, and from whence those prayers might help them? What could they mean els? Certainly, we cannot tell them, what they meant; If they should ask them, who made those prayers, they could hardly tell them. If a man should have surprized S. Ambrose at his prayers, and stood behind him, and heard him say, Non dubitamus, etiam Angelorum testimoniis credimus, Lord, I cannot doubt it, for thou by thine Angels hast revealed it unto me, Fide ablutum, aeterna voluptate perfrui, That my dead Master the Emperor, was baptized in his faith, and is now in possession of all the joys of heaven, and yet have heard S. Ambrose say, sometimes to God, sometimes to his dead Master, Si quid preces, if my prayers may prevail with thee O God, and then, Oblationibus vos frequentabo, I will wait upon you daily with my Oblations, I will accompany you daily with my Sacrifices; And for what? Vt des, Domine, requiem, That thou, O Lord, wouldst afford rest, and peace, and salvation to that soul, And if this man after all this, should have asked S. Ambrose, What he meant to pray for him, of whose present being in heaven he was already assured? surely S. Ambrose could have given no such answer, as would have implied a confession, or an argument for Purgatory; But S. Ambrose is likely to have said to him, as he does say there, Est in piis affectibus quaedam stendi voluptas, In tender hearts, and in good natures, there is a kind of satisfaction, and more then that, a holy voluptuousness in weeping, in lamenting, in deploring the loss of a friend; In commemoratione amissi acquiescimus, Let me alone, give me leave to think of my lost Master some way, by speaking with him, by speaking of him, by speaking for him, any way, I find some ease, some satisfaction in commemorating and celebrating of him; But all this would not have amounted to an argument for Purgatory. So also if a man should have found S. Augustine in his Meditations after his Mothers death, and heard him say, Pro peccatis Matris mea deprecor te, Lord, I am a suiter now for my Mothers sins; Exaudi Domine, propter medicinam vulnerum tuorum, Hear me, O Lord, who acknowledge no other Balsamum, then that which drops out of thy wounds, Dimitte Domine, Domine obsecro, Pardon her, O Lord, O Lord pardon her all her sins; And then should have heard S. Augustine, with the same breath, and the same sigh, say, Credo quòd jam feceris, quae rogo, Lord, I am faithfully assured, that all this is already done, which I pray for; and then should have asked S. Augustine, What he meant to pray for that which was already done? S. Augustine could but have said to him, as he does to God there, Voluntaria oris mei accipe Domine, Accept O Lord, this voluntary, though not necessary Devotion. But if a man would have pressed either of them for a full reason of those prayers, it would have been hard for him to have received it. They prayed for the Dead, and they meant no ill, in doing so; but what particular good they meant, they could hardly give any farther account, but that it was, if not an inordinate, yet an inconsiderate piety, and a Devotion, that did rather transport them, then direct them.

These then prayed for the dead, and yet confessed those whom they prayed for, to be then in heaven; S. Chrysostom prays for others, and yet believes them to be in Hell; Potest infideles de Gehenna dimittere, says he, sed fortè non faciet, God can deliver an unbeleeving soul out of hell, perchance he will not, says he, but I cannot tell, and therefore I will try. And yet S. Gregory absolutely forbids all prayer for the dead, where they died in notorious sin; As generally their whole School doth at this day, either for such sinners, as dying in impenitency, are presumed to be already in Hell, or such as died so well, that they are already presumed to be in possession of as much as can be asked in their behalf.

If then they will still press and pursue us with that question, What could those Fathers mean by their prayer for the Dead, but Purgatory? We must send them to those Fathers, (and I pray God they may get to them) to ask what they meant. So much as any of those Fathers have told us, we can tell them; and amongst those Fathers, S. Dionyse the Areopagite hath told us most; He hath told us the manner, and the Ceremonies used at the funerals of Christians; and amongst them the offices, and liturgies, and services said and read at such funerals; and expressed them so, as that we may easily see, That first the Congregation made a declaration of their religious and faithful assurance, that they that die in the Lord, rest in him; And then a protestation in the behalf of that dead brother, that he did die in that faith, and that expectation, and therefore was then in possession of that rest, which was promised to them who died so. And this testimony for themselves in general, and this application thereof to that dead man, says he, the Church then expressed in the forme of prayer, and so seemed to ask and beg at Gods hands, that which indeed they did but acknowledge to have received before; they gave that the forme of a prayer, as of a future thing, which was indeed but a recognition of that which was present, and past, That they did then, and that that dead brother had before embraced that belief.

This answer to their question, (What could they mean but Purgatory, by those prayers?) they may have from those of those ancient times; And thus much more from daily practise, That every man who prostrates himself in his chamber, and powers out his soul in prayer to God; though he have said, O Lord, enter not into judgement with thy servant; forgive me the sins of my youth, O Lord; O Lord blot out all mine iniquities out of thy remembrance, though his faith assure him, that God hath granted all that he asked upon the first petition of his prayer, yea before he made it, (for God put that petition into his heart and mouth, and moved him to ask it, that thereby he might be moved to grant it) yet as long as the Spirit enables him, he continues his prayer, and he solicits, and he importunes God for that which his conscience assures him, God hath already granted: He hath it, and yet he asks it; and that second asking it implies and amounts but to a thanksgiving for that mercy, in which he hath granted it. So those Fathers prayed for that which they assured themselves was done before, and therefore, though it had the forme of a prayer, it might be a commemoration of Gods former benefits; it might be a protestation of their present faith, or an attestation in the behalf of their dead friend, whose first obsequies, or yearly anniversary they did then celebrate.

Add to this the general disposition in the nature of every man, to wish well to the dead, And the darkness in which men were then, in what kind of state the dead were, and we shall the less wonder, that they declined to this custom in those times, especially if we consider, that even in the Reformation of Religion, in these clearer times, Luther himself, and after him, (if perchance Luther may be thought not to have been enough fined and drawn from his lees) The Apology for the Confession of Auspourg, which was written after all things were sufficiently debated, and had siftings, and cribrations, and alterations enow, allows of such a forme of prayer for the dead, as that of the primitive Fathers may justly seem to have been. All ends in this, that neither those prayers of those Fathers, nor these of these Lutherans, (though neither be in themselves to be justified) did necessarily imply, or presuppose any such Purgatory, as the Roman Church hath gone about to evict or conclude out of them; Men might pray for the dead as those Fathers did, and as the Lutherans do, safely enough without assisting the doctrine of Purgatory, if that were all that were to be said against such prayers.

Be then that thus settled, The Fathers did not intend any such building upon that foundation, not a Purgatory, which should be a place of torment, upon those prayers for the dead; but then, what did they mean by that Purgatory, and that fire, which is so frequent amongst them? In the confession of our Adversaries, the greatest part of the Fathers that mention a Purgatory fire, intend it of the general fire of conflagration at the last day: They thought the souls of the Dead to have been kept in Abditis, and in Receptaculis till the day of Judgement, and that then that fire which was to take hold of all creatures to the purifying of them, should also take hold of all souls, and burn out all that might be unacceptable to God in those souls, and that this was their Purgatory. Others of the Fathers have called that severe judgement, and examination which every soul is to pass under, from the hand of God at that time, (because it hath much of the nature of fire, and many of the properties and qualities of fire in it) a fire, a purging fire, and made that their Purgatory. If others of the Fathers have spoken of a purging fire after this life, so as it will not fall within these two acceptations, of the fire of conflagration, or of the fire of examination, we must say in their behalf, as Sextus Senensis does, That they are not the less holy, nor the less reverend, for having strayed into some of these mistakings, because it is a fire without light.

In those sub-obscure times, S. Augustine might be excusable, though he proceeded doubtfully and said, Non incredibile, It is not incredible that some such thing there may be, and Quaeri potest, It is not amisse to inquire, (where such things are to be inquired after, that is, in the Scriptures) whether any such thing be or no, and Vtrum later, an inveniri, whether any such thing will be found there, or no, I cannot tell: he may be excusable in his proceeding farther in his doubt, Sive ibi tantum, whether all our Purgatory be reserved for the next world, Sive hic & ibi, or whether God divide our Purgatory, some here, and some there, Sive hic ut non ibi, or whether God exalt and multiply our Purgatory here, that we may have none hereafter. Of these things, I say, howsoever S. Augustine might be excusable for doubting in those dark times, we should be inexcusable, if we should not deny them in these times, in which God hath afforded us so much light and cleareness; And rest in that acknowledgement, that we have in this life Purgationem, & purgatorium, A purging, and a Purgatory; A purging in this, That Christ Jesus, Whom God hath made the heir of all things, by whom also he made the world, who was the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person; That he, by himself hath purged our sins: There is our purging; But then, because after this general purging, which is wrapped up in the general nature, as Christ died for mankind, for all men, and after that nearer application thereof, as it is wrapped up in the Covenant, as he died more effectually for all Christians, still our own clothes defile us, our own evil habits, our own flesh pollutes us, therefore God sends us a Purgatory too in this life, Crosses, Afflictions, and Tribulations, and to burn out these infectious stains and impressions in our flesh, Ipse sedet tanquam ignis conflans, God sits as a fire, and with fullers soap, to wash us, and to burn us clean with afflictions from his own hand.

Let no man think himself sufficiently purified, that hath not passed this Purgatory; Irascaris mihi Domine, saith S. Bernard, Lord let me see that thou art angry with me; I know I have given thee just cause of anger; and if thou smother that anger, and declare it not by corrections here, thou reservest thine anger to undeterminable times, and to unsupportable proportions. Propitius fuisti, says David, Thou wast a merciful God to thy people; for, saith he, Thou didst punish all their Inventions; In this consisted his mercy, that he did punish; for if he had been more merciful, he had been unmerciful; If he had begun with no Judgements, they had ended in Judgements without end; Affliction is a Christians daily bread, and therefore in that petition, Da nobis hody, Give us this day our daily bread, not only patience in affliction, but affliction it self, so far as it conduces to our mortification is asked at Gods hand. It is an over-presumptuous confidence, for which they glorify one in the Roman Church, that he was put often to his Decede à me, Domine, O Lord, withdraw thy self, and thy grace farther from me, for by mine own sanctity, or diligence, I am able to wrastle with, and to overcome all the temptations, and tribulations of this life, Decede à me, withdraw thy self, and thy grace, and put not thy self to this trouble, nor this cost with me, but leave me to my self: This was too much confidence; but that was more, which we find in another, That he begged of God, by prayer, that he might be possessed with the Devil for some months, because all the temptations of the flesh, and all the crosses of the world, were not enough for his victory, and his triumph. But it is an humble and a requisite prayer, to ask such a measure of affliction, as may ballast us, and carry us steddily, through all the storms, and tempests of this life. As he that hath had no rub in his fortune, in his temporal state, is in most danger to fall, (to fall into murmuring) at the first stumble he makes, As he that hath had no sickness till his age, hardly recovers then; So he that hath not born his yoke in his youth, that hath not been accustomed to crosses and afflictions, hath a wanton soul all the way, and a froward and impatient soul towards the end.

This is our true Purgatory; And in this Purgatory, we do need the prayers of others; and upon this Purgatory, we may build Indulgences, which are those testimonies of the remission of sins, which God hath enabled his Church to imprint and conferre upon us, in the absolution thereof; which are nothing of kin to those Indulgences of the Roman Church, which are the children of this mother of Purgatory, and to the maintenance of which, they have also detorted our Text, Else, If there be no such Indulgences, If the works of Supererogation done by other men, may not be applied to the souls that are in Purgatory, If there be no such use of Indulgences, why are then these men baptized for the dead?

Against the popular opinion of the Sphere, or Element of Fire, some new Philosophers have made this an argument, that it is improbable, and impertinent, to admit an Element that produceth no Creatures; A matter more subtle then all the rest, and yet work upon nothing in it; A region more spacious then all the rest, and yet have nothing in it, to work upon. All the other three Elements, Earth, and Water, and Air abound with inhabitants proper to each of them, only the Fire produces nothing. Here is a fire that recompences that defect; The fire of the Roman Purgatory hath produced Indulgences, and Indulgences are multiplied to such a number, as that no herds of Cattle upon earth can equal them, when they meet by millions at a Jubile, no shoals, no spawn of fish at Sea, can equal them, when they are transported in whole Tuns to the West Indies, where of late years their best Market hath been; No flocks, no flights of birds in the Air can equal them, when as they say of S. Francis, at every prayer that he made, a man might have seen the Air as full of souls flying out of Purgatory, as sparkles from a Smiths Anvil, beating a hot Iron. The Apostle complains of them, that made Mercaturam animarum, Merchandise of mens souls; but these men make Ludibrium animarum, a Jest of mens souls: For, if that sad and serious consideration, that this doctrine concerns that part of man, which nothing but the incorruptible blood of the Son of God could redeem, the soul, did not cast a devout and a religious bridle upon it, it were impossible to speak of these Indulgences, otherwise then merrily: They do make merchandise of souls, and yet they make a jest of them too.

These then, these Indulgences, are the children, the generation of that Viper, the Salamanders of that fire, Purgatory; And then, Inter omnia venenata, says Pliny, Of all the venemous creatures in the world, the Salamander is Maximi sceleris, the most mischievous; for whereas others, singulos feriunt, (as the same Author says) they sting but one at once, the Salamander destroys whole families, whole Cities together, for all that eat the fruit of any tree, that he hath touched, perish. We need not apply this; Our fathers did, and our neighbours do feel the manifold mischiefs that these mercenary Indulgences work in the world, and to what desperate and bloody actions men are induced, and animated by them; what knives these Indulgences have whet in Courts, and what Armies they have payed in the open field; A cheap discharge, and easy Subsidy; we have seen Copper coined, and we have read of leather coined, but here they coin paper, and in an Indulgence, which require but as much paper as a Ballad, they send a man more salvation, then the whole Bible can give them. Men that will not see light, or not watch by the light, will not see this; Men that delight to wallow still in the mire, can digest this; Etiam Salamandra à suibus manditur, says Pliny, As venemous as a Salamander is, a Sow will eat a Salamander; As the citizens of the lowest fire, of hell it self, entered into the heard of swine, so these children of this other fire, of Purgatory, these Indulgences, enter into swinish men, that consider not their own foulness, but think themselves clean when they have eaten a Salamander, that is, bought an Indulgence. But though they have had a spurious generation, and yet have lasted longer then spurious generations use to do, (for they have spread into three generations, Prayer for the dead begot Purgatory, and Purgatory Indulgences) yet they have had a viperous generation too, for they have eaten out the womb of their own Mother, and these Salamanders, these Indulgences retain still the nature of Plinies Salamanders, Non gignunt, They beget no more, they proceed no farther; For in this enormous excess of Indulgences, the Roman Church took her deaths wound; from this extreme abuse of Indulgences, arose the occasion of the Reformation, which God advanced and prospered so miraculously in the hands of Luther, upon the indignation that the world took upon these Indulgences.

How they rose, how they grew, how they fell, is a historical knowledge, and not much necessary to be insisted upon here though indeed our danger be greater from these Indulgences, then either from prayer for the Dead, or from Purgatory; though all three be equally erroneous in matter of doctrine, yet for matter of fact, and danger, Indulgences are the most pernicious, because that opinion of an immediate passing to Heaven thereupon, animates men to any undertakings. But as the Christians in abolishing the Idolatry of the Gentiles, in some places, some times, left some of their Idols standing, lest the Gentiles should come to deny, that ever they had worshipped such monsters: So it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to hover over the Authors and Writers in the Roman Church, so as that they have left some impressions of the iniquity of these Indulgences in their books. From them we are able to declare, That Indulgencies in the Primitive Church were nothing but relaxations, moderations of those severe penances, which the Canons, called Penitential, inflicted upon particular sins, which Canons were for the most part the Rule of the whole Church, and which penances, enjoined by those Canons, every Bishop in his own Dioces, might according to his holy discretion moderate, according to the bodily infirmity, or the spiritual amendment of the penitent sinner; That in time, the Bishops of Rome drew into their hands all this power of remitting penances, reserving to themselves, and shedding upon other Bishops, as much, and as little as they were pleased; That after they had extended this overflowing power over this world, they enlarged it farther to the next world too, to Purgatory. And this, not long since, Postquam aliquandiu ad Purgatorium trepidatum est, coepere indulgentiae, says a good Author of theirs, of our Nation, that Bishop of Rochester, whose service they recompensed with a Cardinals Hat, (but somewhat late, for his head was off before his hat came) After the vapours of Purgatory had blinded mens eyes, after men had been made afraid of those fires, for a good while, says that Bishop, then they began to set on foot their Indulgencies; This beginning was not above three hundred years since, and within one hundred they came to that height, that though in their Schools they make the pains of Purgatory to be so violent, that they say no soul is likely to remain there above ten years, yet they give Indulgencies for infinite thousands of years; They give one day Plenam, and the next pleniorem, and after plenissimam, They forgive all to day, and to morrow the rest, and then they find something beyond that, which was beyond all: So that as Seneca says, of the excess in Libraries in his time, That they had Bibliothecas pro Supellectile, No man thought his house well furnished, if he had not a Library, though he understood never an Author, So no man thought his house well furnished, if he had not Indulgencies for every season, if he bought not all that came to market, if he had not Indulgence upon Indulgencies, present and successive Indulgences, possessory and reversionary Indulgences, total and supernumerary, current and concurrent Indulgences, to delude the justice of God withal.

Well; to our true Purgatory which we spake of before, Those crosses which God is pleased to lay upon us, belong true Indulgencies, The constant promises of our faithful God, that he will give us the issue with the temptation, and that as the Apostle says, No temptation shall befall us, Si non humana, but that which appertains to man: Now for this Humana tentatio, temptation or affliction that appertains to man, it is not only affliction that appertains to man so, as that other men do inflict it, when wicked men revile and calumniate and oppress the godly; it is not only that, though so S. Chrysostom interprets it; Nor is this affliction appertaining to man, because man himself inflicts it upon himself, our own inherent corruption being become Spontaneus Daemon, a Devil in our own bosom; it is not only that, though so S. Jerome interpret it; nor is this affliction appertaining to man, so called Humana, as humanum is opposed Daemoniaco, That all torments falling upon the Devil, work in him more and more obduration, but the corrections inflicted by God upon man, work a reconciliation; it is not only this, though so S. Gregory interpret it; But this affliction appertains so to a Christian man, as the soul it self, and as reason appertains to a natural man: He is not a man, that is without a reasonable soul, he is not a Christian that is without correction; It appertains unto man so, as that it is convenient, more, that it is expedient, more then that, that it is necessary, and more then all that, that it is essential to a Christian: As when the spirit returns to him that gave it, there is a dissolution of the man, So when God withdraws his visitation, there is a dissolution of a Christian; for so God expresses the spiritual Death, and the height of his anger, in the Prophet, I will make my wrath towards thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; That is, I will look no more after thee, I will study thy recovery and thine amendment no farther.

Have ye forgot the Consolation? says the Apostle; what is that Consolation? Is it that you shall have no affliction? No; This is the Consolation, That whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is general to all sons, for, If ye be without correction, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons; And then, to show us how this Purgatory and these Indulgencies accompany on another, how Gods crosses, and his deliverances do ever concur together, we see the Holy Ghost hath so ordered and disposed these two, Mercy and Correction, in this one verse, as that we cannot say which is first, the Correction or the Mercy, the Purgatory or the Indulgence: For first the Indulgence is before the Purgatory, The Mercy before the Correction, in one place, Whom he loveth, he chasteneth, first God loves, and then he chastneth; and then after, The Purgatory is before the Indulgence, the Correction is before Mercy, He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; first he scourges him, and then he receives him; They are so disposed, as that both are made first, and both last, we cannot tell whether precede, or succeed, they are always both together, they are always all one; As long as his love lasts, he corrects us, and as long as he corrects us, he loves us.

And so we have a justifiable prayer for the Dead, that is, for our souls, dead in their sins, Cor novum, O Lord create a new heart in me; And we have a justifiable Purgatory, Purgabit aream, If we be Gods floor, he hath his fan in his hand, and he will make us clean; And we have justifiable Indulgences, Indulsisti genti Domine, indulsisti genti, Thou hast been indulgent to thy people, O Lord, thou hast been indulgent to us; We cannot complain, as they begin, rather to murmur, then to complain, Ah Lord God, surely thou hast deceived thy people, saying, you shall have peace, and the sword pierceth to the heart; For when this sword of Gods corrections shall pierce to the heart, that very sword shall be but as a Probe to search the wound, nay that very wound shall be but as an issue to drain, and preserve the whole body in health; for his mercies are so above all his works, as that the very works of his Justice are mercy.

And so, not the Prayer for the Dead, not the Purgatory, not the Indulgences of the Roman Church, but we, who have them truly, do truly receive a benefit from this Text, which Text is a proof of the Resurrection. Because we feel a Resurrection by grace now, because we believe a Resurrection to glory hereafter, therefore we can give an account of this Baptism for the dead in our Text: The particular sense of which words, will be the Exercise of another day. This day we end, both with our humble thanks, for all Indulgences which God hath given us in our Purgatories, for former deliverances in former crosses, and with humble prayer also, that he ever afford us such a proportion of his medicinal corrections, as may ever testify his presence and providence upon us in the way, and bring us in the end, to the Kingdom of his Son Christ Jesus. Amen.

Serm. LXXVIII. Preached at S. Pauls, June 21. 1626.

1 COR. 15.29.

Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?

WE are now come at last, to that which was first in our intention, How these words have been detorted, and misapplied by our Adversaries of the Roman Church, for the establishing of those heresies, which we have formerly opposed, And then, the divers ways, which sounder and more Orthodoxal Divines have held in the Exposition thereof; that so from the first Part, we may learn what to avoid and shun, and from the second, what to embrace and follow.

Of all the places of Scripture which Bellarmine brings for the maintenance of Purgatory (excepting only that one place of the Maccabees) (And of that place we must say, as it was said of that jealous husband, which set a watch and spy upon his Wife, Quis custodit custodes? Who shall watch them that watch her? So when they prove matters of faith out of the Maccabees, we say Quis probat probantem, who shall prove that book to be Scripture, by which they prove that doctrine to be true?) But of all other places, there is scarce one, to which Bellarmine himself doth not, by way of objection against himself, give some better sense and interpretation then that, which himself sticks to; and such a sense, as when the matter of Purgatory is not in question, his fellows often times in their writings, and himself sometimes in his writings doth accept, and adhere to.

I offer it for a note of good use, and in the observing whereof, I have used a constant diligence in reading the Roman Writers, That those Writers which write by way of Exposition, and Commentaries upon the Scriptures, and are not engaged in the professed handling of Controversies, do very often content themselves with the true sense of those places which they handle, and hunt after no curious, nor forced, nor foreign, nor unnatural senses: But if the same Authors come to handle Controversies, they depart from that singleness of heart, and that holy ingenuity, and stray aside, or soar up into other senses of the same places. I look no farther for a reason of this, then this, That almost all the Controversies, between Rome, and the rest of the Christian world, are matters of profit to them, and rays money, and advance their Revenue: So that, as they are but Expositors, they may have leave to be good Divines, and then, and in that capacity, they may give the true sense of that Scripture; But as they are Controverters, they must be good Subjects, good Statesmen, good Exchequer men, and then, and in that capacity, they must give such senses as may establish and advance their profit: As an Expositor, he may interpret this place of the Resurrection, as it should be; but as a Controverter, he must interpret it of Purgatory, for so it must be, when profit is their end: And as our Alchymists can find their whole art and work of Alchymy, not only in Virgil and Ovid, but in Moses and Solomon; so these men can find such a transmutation into gold, such a foundation of profit, in extorting a sense for Purgatory, or other profitable Doctrines, out of any Scripture.

So Bellarmine does upon this place, and upon this place principally he relyes, in this he triumphs, when he says, Hic locus apertè convincit quod volumus, Here needs no wresting, no disguising, here Purgatory is clearly and manifestly discovered. Now certainly, if we take the words as they are, and as the Holy Ghost hath left them to us, we find no such manifestation of this Doctrine, no such clear light, no such bonfire, no such beacon, no beam at all, no spark of any such fire of Purgatory: That because S. Paul says, That no man would be baptized Pro mortuis, for Dead, or, for the Dead, except he did assure himself of a Resurrection, that this should be Aperta convictio, an evident Conviction of Purgatory, is, if it be not a new Divinity, certainly a new Logic.

But it is not the word, but the sense that they ground their assurance upon. Now, the sense which should ground an assurance in Doctrinal things, should be the literal sense: And yet here, in so important a matter of faith as Purgatory, it must not be a literal, a proper, a natural and genuine sense, but figurative, and metaphorical; for, in this place, Baptism must not signify literally the Sacrament of Baptism, but it must signify, in a figurative sense, a Baptism of tears. And then that figure must be a pregnant figure, a figure with child of another figure, for as this Baptism must signify tears, so these tears must signify all that they use to express by the name of Penance, and discipline, and mortification; Weeping, and fasting, and alms, and whipping, all must be comprehended in these tears; And then, as there was a mother figure, and a daughter figure, so there is a grand-child too; for here is a Prosopopoeia, an imagining, a raising up of a person that is not; That all this must be done by some man alive, with relation, and in the behalf of a dead person, that these afflictions which he takes upon himself in this world, may accrew, in the benefit thereof, to a man in another world. Now if any of this Evidence be defective, if it be not evident, that this is a figurative speech, but that the literal sense is very proper to the place, if it be not evident, that this figure of Baptism is meant for tears, and other penances; If it be not evident, that this penance is more then that man needed to have undergone for his own salvation, but that God became indebted to him for that penance so sustained, and if it be not evident, that this penance and supererogation may be applied and communicated to a dead man, it is a little too forwardly, and too couragiously pronounced, Hic locus apertè convincit quod volu mus, We desire no more then this place, for the proof of Purgatory.

Yet he pursues his triumph, Vera & genuina interpretatio, says he; As though he might waive the benefit, of making it a figurative sense, and have his ends, by maintaining it to be the literal sense; This is, says he, the true and natural sense of the place. But it will be hard for him, to persuade us, either that this is the literal sense of the place, or that this place needs any other, then a literal sense. Since he will not allow us a figurative sense, in that great mystery, in the Sacrament, in the Hoc est Corpus meum, but bind us punctually in the letter, without any figure, not only in the thing, (for in the thing, in the matter, we require no figure, we believe the body of Christ to be in the Sacrament as literally, as really as they do) but even in the words, and phrase of speech, He should not look that we should allow him a figurative sense in that place, which must be Apertissimus locus, his most evident place for the proof of so great an article of faith, as Purgatory is with them. We have a Rule, by which that sense will be suspicious to us, which is, Not to admit figurative senses in interpretation of Scriptures, where the literal sense may well stand; And he himself hath a Rule, (if he remember the Council of Trent) by which that sense cannot be admitted by himself, which is, That they must interpret Scriptures according to the unanime consent of the Fathers; and he knows in his conscience, that he hath not done so, as we shall remember him anon.

Not to founder by standing long in this puddle, he makes no other argument, that Baptism must here be understood of afflictions voluntarily sustained, but that that word Baptism is twice used, and accepted so in the Scriptures by Christ himself; It is taken so there, therefore it must be taken so here. But not to speak at all, of the weakness of that Consequence, (the word hath been taken figuratively, therefore it must never return to a literal sense) which will hold as well, that because Christ is called Porta, A Gate, therefore when Samson is said to have carried a Gate, Samson must be a Christopher, and carry Christ; And because Christ is a vine, and a way, and water, and bread, wheresoever any of these words are, they must be intended of Christ; not to stand upon the argument and inconsequence, I say, this word Baptism, hath not that signification, which he would have it have here, in any of those other places of Scripture, which he cites to this purpose.

They are but two, and may quickly be considered; The first is, when Christ asks the ambitious Apostles, Are yee able to drink of the Cup, that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism, that I shall be baptized with? The second is in S. Luke, I must be baptized with a Baptism, and how am I grieved, till it be ended? In both which places, Christ doth understand by this word Baptism, his Passion; That is true: And so ordinarily in the Christian Church, as the days of the death of the Martyrs were called Natalitia Martyrum, The Birth-days of the Martyrs; so Martyrdom it self, was called a Baptism, Baptisma sanguinis, The Baptism of Blood; That is also true; but what then? was the Passion of Christ himself, such an affliction, as Bellarmine speaks of here, and argues from in this place, that is, an affliction so inflicted upon himself, and undertaken by himself, as that then when he did bear it, he might have forborne it, and refused to bear it? Though nothing were more voluntary then Christs submitting himself to that Decree of dying for man, yet when that Decree was passed, to which he had a privity, nothing was more necessary, nor unavoidable to any man, then the Death of the Cross was to Christ, neither could he not only not have saved us, but not have been exalted in his humane nature himself, if he had not died that death; for all that was wrapped up in the Decree, and from that grew out, the propterea exaltatus, and the oportuit pati, That all those things Christ ought to suffer, And therefore, therefore because he did suffer all that, he was exalted. And will Bellarmine say, that the Martyrdom of the Martyrs in the primitive Church was so voluntarily sustained, as that they might have forsaken the cause of Christ, and refused Martyrdom, and yet have been saved, and satisfied the purpose, or the commandment of God upon them?

If from us Bellarmine will not hear it, let him hear a man of his own profession; not only of his own Religion, but so narrowly of his own profession, as to have been a public Reader of Divinity in a great University as well as he; And he says, Sunt aliqui recentiores, qui baptizari interpretantur affligi; There are some, says he, not all, nor the most, and therefore it is not so manifest a place; Sunt aliqui recentiores, There are some of the later men, says he, not of the Fathers, or Expositors in the primitive Church, and therefore it is not so reverend, and uncontrolable an opinion; But only some few later men there are, says he, that think that Baptism in this place is to be understood of Affliction. But, says the same Doctor, It is an Interpretation valde figurata, & rara, wholly relying upon a figure, and a figure very rarely used; so rarely, says he, Vt non ab alio, quam à Christo usurpetur, That never any but Christ, in the Scriptures, called Affliction, Baptism.

So that it lacks thus much of being a manifest proof for Purgatory, as Bellarmine pretends, That it is neither the common sense, but of a few; nor the ancient sense, but of a few later men; nor a sense obvious, and ordinary, and literal, but figurative, and that figure not communicated to others, but only applied by Christ, and appropriated to his Passion, which was not a passion so undergone, as that then when he suffered it, he might have refused it, which is necessary for that Doctrine, which Bellarmine would evict from it.

But because Bellarmine, in whom, perchance, the Spirit of a Cardinal hath not overcome the Spirit of a Jesuit, will admit no competition, nor diversity of opinion, except it be from one of his own Order, we have Iustinian, a man refined in that Order, a Jesuit as well as he, an Italian, and so hath his natural and national refining as well as he, and one, whose books are dedicated to the Pope as well as his, and so hath had an Oraculous refining, by an allowance Oraculo vivae vocis, by the breath of life, the Oracle of truth, the Popes approbation, as well as he, and thus much better, That Iustinians never were, but Bellarmines books have been threatened by the Inquisition, And Iustinian never was, but Bellarmine hath been put to his Retractations; And he says only this of this place, Aliqui referunt ad corporis vexationes, pro Mortuis, Some men refer these words to bodily afflictions, sustained by men alive, for the Dead; Et haec sententia multis vehementer probatur, says he, This interpretation hath much delighted, and satisfied many men: Sed potest dici, says he, By their leaves, this may be said, If S. Paul ask, Why do men afflict themselves, in the behalf of them that are dead? it may be answered, says he, That if they do so, they are fools in doing so. S. Paul intends certainly, to prove the Resurrection by these words; neither, says he, could the Resurrection of the body be proved by all S. Pauls argument, if that were admitted to be the right sense of the place; for what were all this to the Resurrection of the body, which is S. Pauls scope, and purpose in the place, If men were baptized, that is, (as Bellarmine would have it) if they did suffer voluntarily, and unnecessarily affliction for the Dead, that is, to deliver their souls out of Purgatory; what would all this conduce to the proof of the Resurrection of the body?

But that we may have a witness against him, in all his capacities, as we have produced one, as he is a Jesuit, and another equal to him, as he was public Professor, so to consider him as a Cardinal, (for, as a Cardinal, Bellarmine hath changed his opinion in some things that he held, before he was hood-wincked with his Hat) to consider him therefore so, we have a witness against him, in the Consistory, Cardinal Cajetan, who finds no baptism of tears, nor penance in these words, no application of any affliction sustained voluntarily by the living, in the behalf and contemplation of the dead, but adhering to that, which is truly the purpose of the Apostle, to prove the resurrection of the body, he says, In hoc quòd merguntur sub aqua, mortuos gerunt, When in Baptism, they are, as it were, buried under the water, (as the forme of Baptizing was then by Immersion of the whole body, and not only by Aspersion upon the face) they are, says he, buried for dead, presented by the Church, as dead in Christ; Et in hoc, quòd ad hoc merguntur, ut emergant, agunt mortuorum resurrectionem; In this, that they are therefore buried under water, because they may be raised above water again, in this they represent the resurrection of the dead. So in the act of Baptism literally, and Sacramentally taken, that Cardinal hath found an evident argument, and proof of the Resurrection. And then, in the next words, he hath found, that that which is done in this action, is done for him, that doth it, and not with relation to any other; In hoc quòd se profitentur mortuos mundo, agunt mortuos, In this, that in the act of Baptism, they profess themselves to be dead to the world, they are baptized for dead, And in this, says he, that they profess themselves to be dead to the world in Baptism, therefore that by that Baptism they may rise to a newness of life, Profitentur resurrectionem mortuorum, They profess the Resurrection of the dead: And this destroys utterly the purpose of Bellarmine in these words, because the Baptism spoken of here, be it a Sacramental Baptism literally, or a Disciplinary Baptism, metaphysically, yet is a Baptism determined, for the benefit thereof, upon him that is baptized, and not extended to the dead in Purgatory.

Since then it is the Exposition of a few only, Alii dicunt, Aliqui dicunt, Others have said so, Some few have said so, and those few are late men, new men, and of those new men, Jesuits, and Readers, and Cardinalls have differed from that opinion, this Jesuit, and Reader, and Cardinal Bellarmine needed not to have made that victorious acclamation, Hic locus, we desire no more then this place, for the evident proof of Purgatory. Much less did it become that lesser man, that Minorite Frier, Feuardentius, who for names sake, (it seems, for his name is Burning fire) is so over-vehement for this place, in defence of Purgatory, to pronounce so peremptorily, for this interpretation of this Text, Qui huic sententiae concordat, Catholicus, qui discordat, Haereticus est; He that interprets these words thus, is a Catholic, and he is an Heretike that interprets them otherwise. For thus, he leaves out the Fathers themselves out of the Ark, and makes them Heretics; And howsoever they pretend peace amongst themselves, he proclaims, at least discovers a war amongst themselves, for they are of themselves, whom he calls Heretics. Indeed, Quis restitit Domino, & pacem habuit? who ever resisted the truth of Gods word, and brought in Expositions to serve turns, and had peace amongst themselves? When they went about this building of Purgatory, they thought not of that counsel, When you build, sit down before, and count the cost, lest men mock you; They never considered how they were provided of Materials, what they had from the Prophets, what from the Evangelists, what from the Apostles, for the building of this Purgatory: They had the disease of our times; If they might build, they thought it a profitable course; If they could raise a Purgatory, they were sure they should gain by it; but neither had they leave to build, that is, to erect new Articles of faith, neither had they wherewithal; And therefore being destitute of the foundation of all, the Scriptures of God, and having raked together some straws, and sticks, ends of Poetry, and Philosophy, and some rubbish of the Manichees, they have made such a work under ground, as their Predecessors made above ground, in the Tore of Babel, in which they understand not one another, but are in a confusion amongst themselves, Quia restiterunt Domino, And who ever resisted the Lord, and had peace?

Thus far we have proceeded in rescuing these words, from their captivity, from the enemy, that enforced them to testify for Purgatory. And, according to my understanding of S. Hieromes rule, who says, That in interpreting of Scriptures, he ever proposed to himself Necessitatem, & perspicuitatem, The necessity being (as I take it) the redeeming of the words from the ill interpretation of Heretics, which we have now done; For the perspicuity, and clearness, you shall see first, how the Ancients, before they suspected any ill use of them for Purgatory, received them, and then how the later men, after they had been mis-applied for Purgatory, interpret them: All which I shall propose with as much clearness as I can, as taking my self bound thereunto, by that other rule of the same Father, Qui per me intellecturus est Apostolum, nolo ut ad Interpretem cognoscendum, alium quaerat Interpretem, I would not have them, who come hither to understand the Apostle from me, be put to seek help from others, to understand me; when I must tell them what S. Paul meant, I would not have them put to ask what I meant; and therefore as far as the matter will bear it, I would speak plainly to every capacity.

First then, for Tertullian, he seems to understand this Baptism for the dead, De vicario baptismate, of Baptism by an Atturney, by a Proxy, which should not be such a God-father, as should be a witness or surety for me, when I am baptized alive, but such a God-father, as should be baptized for me when I am dead. For, that perverse and heretical custom was then come into practise, that out of a false opinion, (though grounded, or coloured with a zeal of reverence to the Sacrament) that Baptism was so absolutely necessary, as that none could possibly be saved, that were not actually baptized; When any man died without Baptism, his friends used to baptize another in his name; The dead body was laid under the bed, and another man that was laid in the bed, to represent him, answered to all those questions which the Priest should ask, concerning Baptism, in the behalf of him that lay under the bed, (as the Sureties do now in the Church for a child, that perchance understands no more then that dead man did) and then that person in the bed, was baptized for him who lay under the bed. Now Tertullian thinks, that the Apostle argues out of that custom, and disputes thus, If there were no Resurrection, why do you thus provide for them that are dead, by baptizing others for them? To what purpose do ye this, if they for whom you do it have no Resurrection? But, besides that it is not much probable, that S. Paul would take an Heretical action, and practise, for the ground of his Argument, to prove so great a mystery of our faith, as the Resurrection is, and besides that, it doth not appear that this Heretical practise (which is attributed to the Marcionits) was entered into the Church in S. Pauls time, and therefore he could not take knowledge of it; Besides all this, all this, if it were granted, did nothing at all conduce to S. Pauls ends, who had undertaken the proof of the Resurrection of the body, and the answer was easy, and obvious, We do not baptize living men in the name, and in the behalf of the dead, for any other respect, then for the salvation of their souls, and what is that to the resurrection of the body? So that this sense of Tertullians, of Baptism by a Proxy, by an Atturney, seems not to be the sense of this place; and yet because it savours of charity to the dead, though it were an heretical custom, Bellarmine prefers this interpretation of Tertullian, before any other but his own, which we handled before.

Theodoret interprets this Baptism for the dead to be a baptism of Representation; That in baptism, by being put under the water, and raised up again, we represent the death and resurrection of Christ; for the dead, is for Christ, for the testimony of Christ: And therefore that baptizing by immersion, by covering the party with water, was so exactly observed in those times, as it came to be thought, that no man was well baptized, except he had received it so, by Immersion, as by many Treatises, and many Consultations amongst the Fathers, by way of Letters, and the Acts of some Councils, we perceive. And of this representation of the death of Christ, in our Baptism, administered in that manner, by Immersion, S. Paul is thought by some to have spoken, when he says, Know ye not that all we that have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have been baptized into his death? That is, say they, by that representation of his death, in Immersion. Neither is any thing more evident, then that Theodoret was so far in the right, that our baptism (and the rather in that forme of Immersion) is a representation of the death, and burial, and resurrection of Christ; but yet to call this Baptism therefore, because it was a representation of Christ, who was dead, a Baptism for the dead, is a phrase somewhat more hard and unusual, then may be easily admitted, in such a matter of faith as this is. And besides, that Baptism, which is this Representation, is a Baptism common to all; all that are baptized, are baptized so; But the Apostle in this place makes his argument from a particular kind of Baptism, which some did, and some did not use, Quid de illis, says he, what shall become of them? and Quid illi, what do they mean that are baptized in this peculiar manner? So that, as not Tertullians baptism by an Atturney, so neither Theodorets baptism by Representation, seems to be the sense of this place.

S. Chrysostom, much about the same time with Theodoret, and long after them both, (at least six hundred years) Theophylact, meet in a third sense; That because at the taking of Baptism, they did usually rehearse the Creed, which Creed concluded with those articles, The resurrection of the body, and life everlasting, therefore this baptism for the dead should only signify a baptism for the hope of the Resurrection. But since they rehearsed all the articles of the Christian belief, as well as that, at Baptism, it might as properly be said, that they were baptized for Christ; baptized for the holy Ghost, baptized for the descent into hell, as for the dead: And besides that, this was also a baptism common to all, all rehearsed the Articles of the Creed; it was not such a peculiar baptism, as the Apostle hath respect to here, in his Quid de illis, and Quid illi, what shall become of them, and what do they mean by this their Baptism? And therefore this seems not to be the sense. That this Baptism for the dead should only be a profession of that article of the Resurrection of the dead, though S. Chrysostom, and Theophylact concur in, or derive from, or upon one other that interpretation.

To come lower, and to a lower rank of witnesses, from the Fathers to the School, Aquinas hath another sense; and certainly an useful, a devout, and an applicable interpretation; which is, That Mortui here are peccata, Those that are called Dead here, are Dead works, sins, and so to be baptized for the dead, is to be baptized for our sins, for the washing away our sins, in an acknowledgement, That although we did contract a leprous sin, even in our conception, That we were subject to the wrath and indignation of God, before we were able to conceive that there was a God, That before our bones were hardened, the canker and rust of Adams sin was in our bones, That before we were a minute old, we have a sin in us that is six thousand years old, That though we be as blind after we come out of our mothers bellies, as we were there, Though we pass over our time, without ever asking our own consciences, why we were sent hither, Though our sins have hardened us against God, and done a harder work then that, in hardening God against us, yet though we have turned God into a Rock, there is water in that rock, if we strike it, if we solicit it, affect it with our repentance. As in the stone font in the Church, there is water of Baptism, so in the Corner stone of the Church, Christ Jesus, whom we have hardened against us, there is a tenderness, there is a Well of water springing up into everlasting life. As we have changed this water into stone, petrified Gods tenderness towards us, so convertit petram in stagna aquarum, says David, He hath turned that rock into a standing water, (water, and water that stays with us, in his Church) and the flint into a fountain of waters; that is, says S. Augustine, seipsum, & suam quandam duritiam liquefecit, ad irrigandos fideles, At the beams of his own mercy, God hath thawed that ice, and dissolved that stone, into which we had hardened him, and he hath let in a River of Jordan into his Church, the Sacrament of Baptism, in the present act, and subsequent efficacy whereof, we are washed from original, and from actual sins. All these sins are the fruits of death, as they are opposed against the Lord of life, and pro hisce mortuis baptizamur, says Aquinas; for the dead, that is, for these dead works, we are baptized.

And certainly, for a second sense, to exalt our devotion by, I should prefer this before any other; But the principal and literal sense of this place, this cannot be, because it is a figurative sense; and though the figure be not in the word Baptism, where Bellarmine places it, (for Aquinas speaks literally of a Sacramental Baptism) yet it is in the other word In mortuis, (Aquinas doth not speak literally, but metaphorically of the Dead) and that may as ill be admitted, in a matter of faith, of so great importance, as the other. And besides, this seems to conclude nothing necessarily for the resurrection of the body, that we are washed from our sins; And lastly, this is still a Baptism common to all, all that are baptized, are baptized from their sins; And therefore this of Aquinas, not reaching to S. Pauls Quid de illis, and Quid illi, to these men thus baptized, is not that sense neither, which we seek.

But the time will not permit us to pursue the several interpretations of those, whom directly, or comparatively we call Ancients; Neither truly, though there be many other Interpreters then we have named, are there many other interpretations then we have touched upon, or then may be reduced to them. And therefore to end here this consideration of the Fathers, and those whom they esteem Pillars of their Church, we are thus much at our liberty for all them, That first there is no unanime consent in the interpretation of this place, and that which they bind themselves to follow, is the unanime consent of the Fathers; And then though the Fathers had unanimously consented in one, and that one had been the exposition which Bellarmine pursues, yet we might, by their example, have departed from it; for in the Roman Church, Fathers, and Fathers Fathers, Popes themselves, (And howsoever the Fathers may be Fathers, in respect of us, yet in respect of the Pope, who is S. Peter himself, and always sits in his person, the Fathers are but children, says Bellarmine) were of opinion, That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was absolutely necessary for children, to their salvation, and this opinion lasted in force and in use for divers hundreds of years, neither was it ever repressed by Authority, till the other day, in the Council of Trent, but wore out of it self long before, because it had no foundation; So the opinion of the Millenarians, That Christ with his Saints should have a thousand years of a temporal reign here upon earth, after his second comming, had possessed the Fathers, in a very great party. The Fathers, in a great party denied, that the souls of good men departed were to enjoy the sight of God, till the Resurrection. And the Fathers affirmed, That the cause of Gods election was the foresight of the faith and obedience of the Elect. These errors are so noted, even by the Authors of the Roman Church, (for I depart not herein from their own words, and observations) as that they still present them so, Omnes, plurimi, All the Fathers, Most of the Fathers, were of this and this opinion; And yet for all these Fathers, no man in the Roman Church is so childish now, as to give his child that Sacrament, or to accompany those Fathers in those other mistakings.

This hath been done in fact, they have departed from the Fathers; And then for a Rule, Cardinal Cajetan tells us, That if a new sense of any place of Scripture, agreeable to other places, and to the analogy of faith, arise to us, it is not to be refused, Quia torrens patrum, because the stream of the Fathers is against it. For they themselves have told us, why we may suspect the Fathers, and by what means the Fathers have fallen into many mis-interpretations. First they say, Quia glaciem sciderunt, because the Fathers broke the Ice, and undertook the interpretation of many places, in which they had no light, no assistance from others, and so might easily turn into a sinister way: And then Rhetoricati sunt, say they, The Fathers often applied themselves in figurative, and Hyberbolical speeches, to exalt the devotions, and stir up the affections of their auditory, and therefore must not be called to too severe, and literal an account, for all that they uttered in that manner: And again, Plebi indulserunt, as S. Augustine says of himself, sometimes out of a loathness to offend the ignorant, and sometimes the holy and devout, and that he might hold his auditory together, and avert none from comming to him, he was unwilling to come to such an exact truth, in the explication and application of some places, as that for the sharpness and bitterness thereof, weaker stomachs might forbear. So also, they confess too, that ex vehementia declinarunt, In heat of disputation, and argument, and to make things straight, they bent them too much on the other hand, and to oppose one Heresy, they endangered the inducing of another, as in S. Augustines disputations against the Pelagians, who over-advanced the free will of man, and the Manicheans, who by admitting Duo principia, two Causes, an extrinsique cause of our evil actions, as well as of our good, annihilated the free will of man, we shall find sometimes occasions to doubt whether S. Augustine were constant in his own opinion, and not transported sometimes with vehemency against his present adversary, whether Pelagian, or Manichean.

Which is a disease that even some great Councils in the Church, and Church-affaires have felt, that for collateral and occasional, and personal respects, which were risen after they were met, the main doctrinal points, and such as have principally concerned the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, and were indeed the principal and only. cause of their then meeting there, have been neglected. Men that came thither with a fervent zeal to the glory of God, have taken in a new fire of displeasure against particular Heretics, or Schismatiques, and discontinued their holy zeal towards God, till their occasional displeasure towards those persons might be satisfied, and so those Heresies, and Heretics against whom they met, have got advantage by that passion, which hath overtaken and overswayed them, after they were met. And whatsoever hath fallen into Councils of that kind, Ecclesiastical Councils, may possibly be imagined, or justly be feared, or at least, without offence be pre-dissuaded, and deprecated, in all Civil Consultations, and Councils of State, That Occasional things may not divert the Principal: for as in the Natural body, the spleen may suffocate the heart, and yet the spleen is but the sewar of the body, and the heart is the strength and the Palais thereof; so in politique bodies, and Councils of State, an immature and indigested, an intempestive and unseasonable pressing of present remedies against all inconveniencies, may suffocate the heart of the business, and frustrate and evacuate the blessed and glorious purpose of the whole Council. The Basiliske is very sharp-sighted, but he sees therefore, and to that end, that he may kill: So is, so does passion. Who would wish to be sharper sighted then the Eagle? And his strength of sight is in this, that he looks to the Sun; To look to things that are evident, The evident danger of the State and the Church, The evident malice and power of the enemy, The evident storm upon our peace and Religion, To look that God be not tempted by us, nor his Lieutenant and Vicegerent wearied, and hardened towards us, This is the object of the Eagles eye, and this is wisdom high enough. Where men see a great foundation laid, they will think, that all that is not only to raise a Spittle to cure, or a Church-yard to bury a few diseased persons. Great Councils are great foundations; and the super-edifications fit for them, are the safety of the State, and the good of the Church: And, as in comming to such Councils, every man puts off his own person, and leaves himself at home, so neither when he is there, should he so seek out, or hunt after any particular person, as that that should retard public business. God forbid that my praying that things may not be so, should be interpreted for a suspicion in me, that things are so; God forbid, that invocation upon God, should imply a crimination upon men; The Spirit of God, in sense of whom, and in whose presence I speak, knows that my prayer is but a prayer, and not an Increpation, not an Insimulation; And therefore may God be pleased to hear, and good men be pleased to join in this prayer, That God will so be satisfied, with having laid his own hand upon us, in the late pestilence, as neither to make any foreign hand, nor one another's hand, his instrument to destroy, or farther to punish us. And so, having been invited by this Consideration, that Fathers and Councils have deflected into error, to say so much of Civil Councils too, we depart from this Point thus, that though the Fathers had consented in Bellarmines Exposition, that had laid no obligation upon us; how much less, when we find scarce any of them to agree with one another, nor any one of them to agree with him; and therefore we pass to the Consideration of the later men.

And amongst the later men, we will give the first place to a Jesuit, because they love Primos accubitus, as our Savior says of the Pharisees, To be placed highest, and they love to be called, if not Rabbi, Master, yet Abba, Father; (for that is a name which the youngest Jesuit will challenge to himsellfe, to be called Father; and amongst us, I am afraid, they come to that name, the name of Father, a little too literally, they are fathers indeed, where they should not be so) Next to the true Fathers, we place then a imaginary Father, the Jesuit Maldonate, who interprets this place thus, That to be baptized for the dead, when the Apostle spake, was to suffer Martyrdom, or affliction for the testimony of the resurrection of the Dead: for we see, that the doctrine of the Resurrection especially was inquired upon, and given in charge, and made criminal and odious, by that which the Apostle says in the Acts, Of the hope, and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question. Now, I will not say of Maldonat, as Maldonat does of us, who, when sometimes he cites the interpretation of our Authors, will say, This is the likeliest and the probablest sense, and I should believe it to be the true sense, but that an Heretic said it; I will not say, I would admit Maldonats sense, but that a Jesuit says it; for, for all that, I would receive it, so far as it may stand, but yet not for the primary and principal sense; for so, we cannot receive it, because it is grounded upon a figure, for he takes not Baptism, for the Sacrament of Baptism, but for the Metaphorical Baptism, the Baptism of blood. And then Bellarmine will not accept his sense, because though they agree in the figure, that Baptism signifies affliction, yet they differ in these two important points, That first Bellarmin takes it for affliction voluntarily sustained, (for that only constitutes Supererogation, which is necessary to Bellarmines sense) and Maldonate takes it for affliction inflicted by a Persecutor, for a testimony of his faith, in which case to decline the penalty, were to deny the faith, and therefore is no more then, being so called by God, he is bound to suffer: And then Bellarmine takes it for affliction sustained in the behalf, and for the benefit of another dead friend, and Maldonat determines it in him that does it, for an outward testimony of his constancy in the faith of the Resurrection. So that this Jesuit hath brought no stone to Bellarmines building from this place, he works not in his harvest, he conduces not to his end, he goes not his way.

But to contract our selves in this last Part, we find amongst our own men (Expositors since the Reformation) two senses of these words, of which either may be taken, for both come home to the purpose and intention of the Apostle, which is, to prove the Resurrection, and to all the other circumstances, in which we have observed the other Interpretations to be deficient. The first is, that this was a Baptism of those men, Qui ad testandam certissiman spem de Resurrectione, which for a more especial testimony of their faith in the Resurrection, did (according to the use of many, in those first times) administer, or receive Baptism, upon the tombs and graves of other Christians, formerly departed this life, and thereby declared both their charitable opinion, that those who were there buried, should receive a resurrection, And that themselves were baptized into the same faith, and so made up the Communion of Saints. And in this sense is the Original best preserved, which seems not to be so properly translated, Pro mortuis, as Super mortuos, not for the Dead, but upon the Dead, upon the graves of the Dead: If there be no resurrection of the Dead, why do some of you choose to be baptized upon the Dead, upon the graves of the Dead, rather then in other places?

And this is the Exposition of him, who is evermore powerful in the Exposition of those Scriptures which he undertakes, Luther. And Melancton, a man of more learning and temperance then perchance have met in any one, in our perverse and froward times, follows the same Interpretation, and adds, That he that was to be Baptized, was brought to the bones of them that were buried there, and that there he was asked, whether he did believe that that body which lay so scattered there, should be restored again, and made capable of a glorious Resurrection, and upon confession of that faith he received his Baptism: And this, says Melancton (a man freest of any from contention) is Interpretatio simplex, nativa, & vera, The plain, the natural, and the true signification of the place. Neither is this Interpretation subject to that calumny, which our Adversaries use to object, that in any Interpretation of Luthers, or Melanctons, the rest who profess them their Disciples, follow as Sheep, but others, though of the Reformation too, do not so: for we have another, esteemed in his Division, a learned and narrow searcher into the literal sense of Scripture, who though he be very far from communion (in opinion) with them, whom, for distinction, the world calls Lutherans, though he be none of those sheep, which run after Luther, yet out of a holy ingenuity, and inclination to truth, he professes this interpretation of the place, to be Omnium simplicissimam, the most sincere and natural interpretation, and that it doth not wound, nor violate the purpose and intention of the Apostle, as, says he, all the other interpretations, which Beza produces, do. And yet Beza himself, as well as Piscator, in their translatitions, retain the Super, which is in Luther, and make it so, a baptism upon the dead, and not for the dead.

To be baptized then for the dead, or upon the dead, is, in their understanding, an expectation of a Resurrection for themselves, together with them, in sight of whose dead bodies they were baptized. Here is no figurative speech, but the words taken in their proper, and present, and first signification. And this is not of a general baptism, common to all, but of a custom taken up by some in the Church of Corinth, out of special devotion, and testification of the Resurrection. And lastly, this had reference, not only to the immortality of the soul, but to the resurrection of the body also, which was then in their contemplation, in which Circumstance, most of the former interpretations of the Ancients were defective, for still it might have been answered to S. Pauls question, Quid illi, Quid de illis? What mean they, and what becomes of them? We do all this for the salvation of souls, though we do not bind our selves to believe a resurrection of bodies; So that all the particulars that S. Paul proposed to himself, meet fully, and strongly, in this interpretation. Nothing can be opposed against it, if the history be true; if the matter of fact be clear and evident, if it appear fully, that this was a custom in the Apostles time, that those Christians did use to receive baptism upon the graves of the dead. I doubt not but Luther had ground for it; I doubt not but Melancton had Authors; for he says, Aliqui scribunt, some have written it. They may have seen Authors, whom I have not; for my part, I confess, I never found this Custom in the Ecclesiastique Story, to my remembrance. And when the Centuriators, who gathered the Story of the Church, with some diligence, and who were of the persuasion whom the world calls Lutherans, when they say, Constat, It is manifest, that in the Church of Corinth, they did baptize in that manner, upon the graves of the dead, they never cite any testimony of History for their Constat, nor for their evidence of this matter of fact, but only this very place of Scripture, this text; and the directer and the fuller way had been, to have proved the text from the story, then the story from the text. The Exposition is very faire, and very likely, if the matter of fact be proved; and the fact may be proved by some, whom those reverend persons have read, and I have not.

There is one Interpretation more, which is open to no imputation, spotted with no aspersion, subject to no objection, and therefore fittest to be embraced, which is also grounded upon a Custom, which came very early into the Church of God, (so early as that we can assign no beginning) and of which Custom for the matter of fact, we are sure it was in practise: which was, that upon an opinion, that at the time of Baptism, there was an absolute washing away, and a deliverance from all sins, men did ordinarily, or very often, defer their baptism till their death-bed, that so they might have their transmigration, and passage out of this world, in that purity, that baptism restored them to, without contracting any more sins after baptism. This we are too sure was in use; for we see the Ecclesiastical Story full of Examples of it, in great persons; great in power and authority, for Constantine the Emperor deferred his baptism, long after his resolution to be a Christian; And great in estimation, and merit, and knowledge; for S. Augustine remembers it with much compunction, That in an extreme sickness, Flagitavi baptismum à Matre, he begged at his Mothers hands, that he might be baptized, and obtained it not, because he was a person, (in her observation) like enough to fall into more sins, after he had been delivered of those by baptism. He notes the general disposition of his time, Sonat undique, It is every mans voice, every mans saying, Sine eum, faciat quid vult, nondum baptizatus est, Let him alone yet, let him do what he will yet, for yet he is not baptized: But, says that blessed Father there, would they say to a man that lay wounded and weltering in his blood, Sine eum, vulneretur ampliùs, nondum enim sanatus est, Let him lie, or give him two or three wounds more, for the Surgeon is not come yet to cure him? And yet, says he, his and my case is all one.

Before his time, which was after four hundred years, we may see, that this custom of late baptizing, was not only tolerated, but advised and counselled in the Church, when Tertullian, two hundred years before S. Augustine, chides away young children, from comming to Baptism, so soon, before, says he, they need it; Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum? Why are they brought to the washing away of sins, which as yet have committed no sin? And he makes Baptism so occasional a thing, and subject to so many Circumstances, that very many other occasions might put off Baptism. Innuptis procrastinandus baptismus, says Tertullian, quia eis praeparata tentatio; He would not have them baptized, that meant to marry soon after, because they were to wrastle with a great temptation, as long as their fancy and imagination was full of their future marriage. So soon, and so deeply was this opinion rooted, (that it was to little purpose to baptize till towards our death) that S. Basil was fain to oppose it expressly in the Eastern Church, And both the Gregories, Nazianzen and Nyssen, and then S. Ambrose, and others, in the Western, all arguing against it, as a custom long before in use, and none assigning any beginning of it.

Upon this custom then S. Paul argues; If men upon their death-bed, when they are esteemed pro Mortuis, as good as dead, no better then dead, (for so the phrase is ordinarily used, pro derelicto, pro perdito, when we esteem a man forsaken, or a thing lost) If men desire baptism, when they are held pro mortuis, no other then dead, given over for dead, and are to have no fellowship with themilitant Church here in this life, do they not in this care of this act to be done upon their bodies, imply a confession of the Resurrection? These were they, whom those times called Clinicos, Bed-baptists, Bed-Christians, which either deferred their baptism, upon the reasons mentioned before, that they might be sure to have a pure transmigration, presently after Baptism; Or els they were Catechumeni, such Convertits to the Christian faith, as the Church had undertaken to instruct and catechize, but did not baptize till a certain time, (Easter, and Whitsontyde) except they were surprized with sudden sickness, and then they were baptized in their death-bed: And both ways the sense stands well, That they were baptized pro Mortuis, that is, pro Derelictis, where they were given over for dead, when there was no hope of life, Or els pro Mortuis, that is, pro statu Mortuorum, only with respect to their state after this life, because they were going to the dead. And these be Divina Compendia, as S. Cyprian calls them, Gods Abridgements, who can give his grace in a minute; for, as he says in the end of that Epistle, Clinici, an peripatetici, whether they be walking, or bed-rid Christians, Sacramenti majestas & sanctitas non derogetur, The Sacrament hath the same power, whether they be baptized for the living, or for the dead, that is, to remain with us in this world, or to depart to them of the next.

And this Exposition is not so much the Exposition of later men, as that it is destitute of the honor of Antiquity; for Epiphanius, the eldest whom we have named yet, but Tertullian, opposes this sense and interpretation of these words, to that sense which Tertullian laid hold of, De baptismate vicario, of his Baptism, by Proxy, and Atturney. It is so reasonable, that we need no better approbation of it, but that, (though it be especially pursued by Calvin) that great professor, and reader in Divinity, whom we spake of before, hath given of it, that it is Sensus apertus, & simplicissimus, omnibus aliis anteponendus, & ad probandum id quod Apostolus instituit aptissimus, It is the directest sense, and the plainest, a sense to be preferred before all the rest, as being fittest to establish all that the Apostle proposed in this place; To be baptized, says he, jamjam moriturus, when he is ready to die, is to be baptized pro mortuis, for the dead, with respect only to the state of the dead; and therefore in this interpretation which even the adversary hath approved, and justified for us, we may safely rest our selves, and the rather, because our translations have relation to this sense, either as it is in our first Edition, pro Mortuis, for Dead, that is, as good as dead, or as it is in the second, pro Mortuis, for the Dead, for the state of the dead, and the hope of the resurrection.

Thus, beloved, S. Paul hath made an argument here, to prove the Resurrection of the body; One of the hardest bones in the body, one of the darkest corners in the mysteries of our Religion, and yet all the Religions of the Heathens had ever some impressions of it: Seculum, resurrectionem mortuorum, nec cum errat, ignorat, says Tertullian, The world knew that there was some resurrection, though they were not come to know, what it was; For he remembers, that at their funerals, they prepared great feasts upon the graves of the dead, and cried out to them, Resurgite, comedite, bibite, Arise, and come to us, and eat and drink with us, They imagined some bodily being, and some possibility of conversation with the living, in the Dead. You have understood S. Pauls Argument, and yet perchance, you have not understood S. Paul. Quocumque respexer is fulmina sunt, says, S. Chrysostom. All S. Pauls words work as lightning, Et capit omne quod tetigerit, It affects, and it leaves some mark upon every thing that it touches; And if he have touched thee now, his effect is not only to make thee believe a future resurrection of thy body, but to feel a present resurrection in thy soul, and to make me believe that thou feelest it, by expressing it in thy life and conversation: Ad intelligendum Paulum vita pura opus est; To understand S. Paul, a man must be an honest man; he must mend his life, that will be believed to have comprehended S. Paul; For if he be only the wiser, and the learneder, and not the better, and the honester, he hath but half understood S. Paul. S. Paul condemnes Hymenaeus, and Philetus for saying The Resurrection was past already; That is, as S. Augustine interprets it, that all the Resurrection which we are to have, is nothing but a resurrection from sin.

If S. Paul say so bitterly, that this doctrine doth fret as a canker, because it is not enough, what will he say, if thou beest not come so far, as to a Resurrection from sin? We fall away into manifold, and miserable dejections, but Qui cadit, non resurget? Shall we fall, and not arise? shall we turn away, and not turn again? Shall not God be able to multiply our resurrections as well as the Devil our falls from God? We are dejected when we see the wicked prosper; when God seems to behave himself, as a Prince that were not well settled in his government, and durst not offend nor displease any party, nor take knowledge of their insolent and rebellious proceedings. When men that tempt God, and never pray for any thing before hand, nor thank him for it, when they have it, and yet sweat in their abundances, when the children of God starve for their crummes, we are dejected. But David found a resurrection in this cafe, and a strange one, which was, that he could by down and steep in peace; his resurrection was, Dedisti laetitiam in corde, Thou hast put gladness into my heart, more then in the time that their corn, and their wine increased. If all Gods promifes be not presently performed unto us, temporal supplies in all temporal wants, spiritual supplies in all spiritual distresses presently administered, we are dejected. But Abraham had a resurrection in this case; when God had said to him, In Isaac vocabitur semen tuum, In Isaac shall all Nations be blessed, and then had commanded him to stop up that fountain, to dig up that foundation, to pull up that root of all this universal blessing, to sacrifice that very Isaac, yet Abraham erected himself, only with considering, That God was able to raise Isaac from the dead. He left God to his own will when he would do it, it was resurrection enough to him, to establish himself in the assurance that God could do it.

If thou be dejected and depressed with the weight of thy sins, if the malediction, and curses, and denunciations of Gods judgements against sinners lie heavy upon thee, make hast to thy resurrection, raise thy self from it as fast as thou canst, for it is a grave that putrifies, and corrupts, and molders away a soul apace. Laetetur cor quaerentium Dominum, says David; Thou art not in the right way of finding the Lord, if thou do not find a joy in the seeking of him; Though thou canst not settle thy self in a sense that thou hast found him, yet thou hast, if thou canst find a holy melting, and joy in thy seeking of him. If the Angels be come down to destroy Sodom, If Jonas be come to proclaim destruction to Nineveh, wilt thou make thy self believe that thou art a Citizen of Sodom, an inhabitant of Nineveh, and must necessarily be wrapped up in that destruction? If David say, Non sic impii, non sic, The wicked shall not stand in judgement, wilt thou needs be one of them? As a wise, and a discreet man will never believe that he that writes a Satyr, means him, though he touch upon his vices, so whatsoever the Prophets say, of an aversion, and obduration in God, against sinners, yet they mean not thee, nor do thou assume it, in an inevitableness upon thy self. The Angel of God, the Spirit of God shall deal with thee, as he did with Lot in Sodom; He told Lot overnight, that he would burn the City, and bad him prepare; God shall give thee some grudgings, before he exalt thy fever, and warn thee to consider thy state, and consult with thy spiritual Physician; The Angel called him up in the morning, and then hastened him, and when he prolonged, says the Text, The Angel caught him, and carried him forth, and set him without the City. Because, though there was no cooperation in Lot, yet there was no resisting neither, God was pleased to do all; So in this death of diffidence, and sense of Gods fearful judgements, God opens thy grave now, and now he calls to thee, Lazar veni for as, Come forth Lazarus, and he offers his hand to pull thee out now, Only Comfortare & esto robustus, as God said to Ioshuah, Be strong and have a good courage, and as God adds there, Comfortare & esto robustus valde, Multiply thy courage, and God shall multiply thy strength, in all dejections have a cheerful apprehension of thy resurrection, and thou shalt have it, nay thou hast it.

But this death of desperation, or diffidence in Gods mercy, by Gods mercy hath swallowed none of us, but the death of sin hath swallowed us all, and for our own customary sins we all need a resurrection: And what is that? Resurrectio à peccato, & cessatio à peccato, non est idem; Every cessation from sin, is not a resurrection from sin. A man may discontinue a sin, intermit the practise of a sin, by infirmity of the body, or by satiety in the sin, or by the absence of that person, with whom he hath used to communicate in that sin. But Resurrectio, est secunda ejus, quod interiit, statio. A Resurrection is such an abstinence from the practise of the sin, as is grounded upon a repentance, and a detestation of the sin, and then it is a setling, and an establishing of the soul in that state, and disposition: It is not a sudden and transitory remorse, nor only a reparation of that which was ruined, and demolished, but it is a building up of habits contrary to former habits, and customs, in actions contrary to that sin, that we have been accustomed to. Else it is but an Intermission, not a Resurrection; but a starting, not a waking; but an apparition, not a living body; but a cessation, not a peace of conscience.

Now this Resurrection is begun, and well advanced in Baptismate lachrymarum, In the baptism of true and repentant tears. But, Beloved, as S. Paul in this place, hath a relation Ad baptismum clinicorum, to death-bed-baptists, death-bed-Christians, to them that defer their Baptism to their death, but he gives no allowance of it; So this Baptisma clinicorum, this repentance upon the death-bed, is a dangerous delay. Even of them, I will say with S. Paul here, If there were no Resurrection, no need to rise from sin by repentance, why are they then thus baptized, pro mortuis? why do they repent, when they are as good as dead, and have no more to suffer in this world? But if there be such a resurrection, a necessity of such a Baptism by repentance, why come they no sooner to it? For is any man sure to have it, or sure to have a desire to it then? It is never impertinent to repeat S. Augustines words in this case, Etiam hac animadversione percutitur peccator, ut moriens obliviscatur sui, qui dum viveret, oblitus est Dei; God begins a dying mans condemnation at this, That as he forgot God in his life, so he shall forget himself at his death. Compare thy temporal, and thy spiritual state together, and consider how they may both stand well at that day. If thou have set thy state in order, and made a Will before, and have nothing to do at last, but to add a Codicil, this is soon dispatched at last; But if thou leave all till then, it may prove a heavy business. So if thou have repented before, and settled thy self in a religious course before, and have nothing to do then, but to wrastle with the power of the disease, and the agonies of death, God shall fight for thee in that weak estate; God shall imprint in thee a Cupio dissolvi, S. Pauls, not only contentedness, but desire to be dissolved; And God shall give thee a glorious Resurrection, yea an Ascension into Heaven before thy death, and thou shalt see thy self in possession of his eternal Kingdom, before thy bodily eyes be shut. Be therefore S. Cyprians Peripatetique, and not his Clinique Christian; A walking, and not a bed-rid Christian; That when thou hast walked with God, as Enoch did, thou mayst be taken with God, as Enoch was, and so walk with the Lamb, as the Saints do in Jerusalem, and follow him whithersoever he goes; That even thy death-bed may be as Elijah Chariot, to carry thee to heaven; And as the bed of the Spouse in the Canticles, which was Lectus floridus, a green and flourishing bed, where thou mayst find by a faithful apprehension, that thy sickness hath crowned thee with a crown of thorns, by participation of the sufferings of thy Savior, and that thy patience hath crowned thee with that crown of glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall impart to thee that day.

Serm. LXXIX. Preached at S. Pauls.

PSAL. 90.14.

O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

THey have made a Rule in the Council of Trent, that no Scripture shall be expounded, but according to the unanime consent of the Fathers: But in this Book of the Psalms, it would trouble them to give many examples of that Rule, that is, of an unanime consent of the Fathers, in the interpretation thereof. In this Psalm, Bellarmine in his Exposition of the Psalms, finds himself perplexed; He says (and says truly) Hieronymus constanter affirmat, Augustinus constanter negat, S. Jerome doth confidently and constantly affirme, and S. Augustine with as much confidence, and constancy deny, that this Psalm, and all that follow to the hundredth Psalm, are Moses Psalms, and written by him. And this diverse constancy in these two Fathers, S. Jerome and S. Augustine, shake the constancy of that Canon, which binds to a following of an unanime consent, for that cannot be found. Bellarmine expedites himself herein, that way, which is indeed their most ordinary way amongst their Expositors, which is, where the Fathers differ, to adhere to S. Augustine. So he doth in this point; though most of the Ancients of the Christian Church, most of the Rabbis of the Jews, most of the Writers in the Reformation, take it to be Moses Psalm, and that way runs the greatest stream, and nearest to a concurrence. And thus far I have stopped upon this consideration, Whether this be Moses Psalm or no, That when it appears to be his Psalm, and that we see, that in the tenth verse of this Psalm, mans life is limited to seventy years, or at most to eighty, and then remember, that Moses himself, then when he said so, was above eighty, and in a good habitude long after that, we might hereby take occasion to consider, that God does not so limit, and measure himself in his blessings to his servants, but that for their good and his glory he enlarges those measures. God hath determined a day, from Sun to Sun, yet when God hath use of a longer day, for his glory, he commands the Sun to stand still, till Joshua have pursued his victory. So God hath given the life of man, into the hand of sickness; and yet for all that deadly sickness, God enlarges Hezekiah's years: Moses was more then fourscore, when he told us, that our longest term was fourscore.

If we require exactly an unanime consent, that all agree in the Author of this Psalm, we can get no farther, then that the holy Ghost is the Author. All agree the words to be Canonical Scripture, and so from the holy Ghost; and we seek no farther. The words are his, and they offer us these considerations; First, That the whole Psalm being in the Title thereof called a Prayer, A Prayer of Moses the man of God, it puts us justly, and pertinently upon the consideration of the many dignities and prerogatives of that part of our worship of God, Prayer; for there we shall see, That though the whole Psal me be not a Prayer, yet because there is a Prayer in the Psalm, that denominates the whole Psalm, the whole Psalm is a Prayer. When the Psalm grows formally to be a Prayer, our Text enters, O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days: And in that there will be two Parts more, The Prayer it self, O satisfy us early with thy mercy, And the effect thereof, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. So that our Parts are three; First Prayer, Then this Prayer, And lastly the benefit of all Prayer.

For the first, which is Prayer in general, I will thrust no farther then the Text leads me in, that is, That Prayer is so essential a part of Gods worship, as that all is called Prayer. S. Jerome upon this Psalm says, Difficillimum Psalmum aggredior, I undertake the exposition of a very hard Psalm, and yet, says he, I would proceed so in the exposition thereof, ut interpretatio nostra aliena non egeat interpretation, That there should not need another Comment upon my Comment, that when I pretend to interpret the Psalm, they that hear me, should not need another to interpret me: which is a frequent infirmity amongst Expositors of Scriptures, by writing, or preaching, either when men will raise doubts in places of Scripture, which are plain enough in themselves, (for this creates a jealousy, that if the Scriptures be every where so difficult, they cannot be our evidences, and guides to salvation) Or when men will insist too vehemently, and curiously, and tediously in proving of such things as no man denies; for this also induces a suspicion, that that is not so absolutely, so undeniably true, that needs so much art, and curiosity, and vehemence to prove it. I shall therefore avoid these errors; and because I presume you are full of an acknowledgment of the duties, and dignities of Prayer, only remember you of thus much of the method, or elements of Prayer, That whereas the whole Book of Psalms is called Sepher Tehillim, that is, Liber Laudationum, The Book of Praise, yet this Psalm, and all that follow to the hundredth Psalm, and divers others besides these, (which make up a faire limb of this body, and a considerable part of the Book) are called Prayers; The Book is Praise, the parts are Prayer. The name changes not the nature; Prayer and Praise is the same thing: The name scarce changes the name; Prayer and Praise is almost the same word; As the duties agree in the heart and mouth of a man, so the names agree in our ears; and not only in the language of our Translation, but in the language of the holy Ghost himself, for that which with us differs but so, Prayer, and Praise, in the Original differs no more then so, Tehillim, and Tephilloth.

And this concurrence of these two parts of our devotion, Prayer and Praise, that they accompany one another, nay this co-incidence, that they meet like two waters, and make the stream of devotion the fuller; nay more then that, this identity, that they do not only consist together, but constitute one another, is happily expressed in this part of the Prayer, which is our Text; for that which in the Original language is expressed in the voice of Prayer, O satisfy us, &c. in the first Translation, that of the Septuagint, is expressed in the voice of praise, Saturasti, Thou hast satisfied us; The Original makes it a Prayer, the Translation a Praise. And not to compare Original with Translation, but Translation with Translation, and both from one man, we have in S. Hieroms works two Translations of the Psalms; one, in which he gives us the Psalms alone; another, in which he gives them illustrated with his notes and Commentaries. And in one of these Translations he reads this as a Prayer, Reple nos, O fill us early with thy mercy, and in the other he reads it as a Praise, Repleti sumus, Thou hast filled us, &c. Nay, not to compare Original with Translation, nor Translation with Translation, but Original with Original, the holy Ghost with himself, In the Title of this Psalm, (and the Titles of the Psalms are Canonical Scripture) the holy Ghost calls this Psalm a Prayer, and yet enters the Psalm, in the very first verse thereof, with praise and thanksgiving, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. And such is the constitution and frame of that Prayer of Prayers, That which is the extraction of all prayers, and draws into a sum all that is in all others, That which is the infusion into all others, sheds and shores whatsoever is acceptable to God, in any other prayer, That Prayer which our Savior gave us, (for as he meant to give us all for asking, so he meant to give us the words by which we should ask) As that Prayer consists of seven petitions, and seven is infinite, so by being at first begun with glory and acknowledgement of his reigning in heaven, and then shut up in the same manner, with acclamations of power and glory, it is made a circle of praise, and a circle is infinite too, The Prayer, and the Praise is equally infinite. Infinitely poor and needy man, that ever needst infinite things to pray for; Infinitely rich and abundant man, that ever hast infinite blessings to praise God for.

Gods house in this world is called the house of Prayer; but in heaven it is the house of Praise: No surprisal with any new necessities there, but one even, incessant, and everlasting tenor of thanksgiving; And it is a blessed inchoation of that state here, here to be continually exercised in the commemoration of Gods former goodness towards us. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, says David. What voice? the voice of his prayer; it is true; In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, says David there. And not only then, but at noon and at night he vows that Sacrifice; Evening and morning, and at noon will I pray, and cry unto thee. But Davids devotion began not, when his prayers began; one part of his devotion was before morning; At midnight will I rise, to give thanks unto thee O Lord, says he. Doubtless when he lay down and closed his eyes, he had made up his account with God, and had received his Quietus est then: And then the first thing that he does when he wakes again, is not to importune God for more, but to bless God for his former blessings. And as this part of his devotion, Praise, began all, so it passes through all, I will bless the Lord at all times, and his praise shall be continually in my mouth. He extends it through all times, and all places, and would fain do so through all persons too, as we see by that adprecation which is so frequent with him, O that men would therefore praise the Lord, and declare the wondrous works that he doth for the children of men!

If we compare these two incomparable duties, Prayer, and Praise, it will stand thus, Our Prayers besiege God, (as Tertullian speaks, especially of public Prayer in the Congregation, Agmine facto obsidemus Deum) but our praises prescribe in God, we urge him, and press him with his ancient mercies, his mercies of old: By Prayer we incline him, we bend him, but by Praise we bind him; our thanks for former benefits, is a producing of a specialty, by which he hath contracted with us for more. In Prayer we sue to him, but in our Praise we sue him himself; Prayer is as our petition, but Praise is as our Evidence; In that we beg, in this we plead. God hath no law upon himself, but yet God himself proceeds by precedent: And whensoever we present to him with thanksgiving, what he hath done, he does the same, and more again. Neither certainly can the Church institute any prayers, more effectual for the preservation of Religion, or of the State, then the Collects for our deliverances, in the like cases before: And when he hears them, though they have the nature of Praise only, yet he translates them into Prayers, and when we our selves know not, how much we stand in need of new deliverances, he delivers us from dangers which we never suspected, from Armies and Navies which we never knew were prepared, and from plots and machinations which we never knew were brought into Consultation, and diverts their forces, and dissipates their counsels with an untimely abortion. And farther I extend not this first part of Prayer in general, in which, to that which you may have heard often, and usefully of the duty and dignity of Prayer, I have only added this, of the method and elements thereof, that prayer consists as much of praise for the past, as of supplication for the future.

We pass now to our second Part, To this particular Prayer, and those limbs that make up this body, those pieces that constitute this Part. They are many; as many as words in it: Satisfy, and satisfy Vs, and do that early, and do that with that which is thine, and let that be mercy. So that first it is a prayer for fullness and satisfaction, Satura, satisfy; And then it is a prayer not only of appropriation to our selves, Satisfy me, But of a charitable dilatation and extension to others, Satisfy us, all us, all thy servants, all thy Church; And then thirdly, it is a prayer of dispatch and expedition, Satura nos mane, Satisfy us early; and after that, it is a prayer of evidence and manifestation, Satisfy us with that which is, and which we may discern to be thine; And then lastly, it is a prayer of limitation even upon God himself, that God will take no other way herein, but the way of mercy, Satisfy us early with thy mercy.

And because these are the land-marks that must guide you in this voyage, and the places to which you must resort to assist your memory, be pleased to take another survey and impression of them. I may have an apprehension of a conditional promise of God, and I may have some faire credulity and testimony of conscience, of an endeavor to perform those conditions, and so some inchoations of thoses promises, but yet this is not a fullness, a satisfaction, and this is a prayer for that, Satura, satisfy: I may have a full measure in my self, find no want of temporal conveniencies, or spiritual consolation even in inconveniencies, and so hold up a holy alacrity and cheerfulness for all concerning my self, and yet see God abandon greater persons, and desert some whole Churches, and States, upon whom his glory and Gospel depends much more then upon me, but this is a prayer of charitable extension, Satura nos, not me, but us, all us that profess thee aright: This also I may be sure that God will do at last, he will rescue his own honor in rescuing or establishing his Servants, he will bring Israel out of Egypt, and out of Babylon, but yet his Israel may lye long under the scourge and scorn of his and their enemies, 300. years before they get out of Egypt, seventy years before they get out of Babylon, and so fall into temptations of conceiving a jealousy, and suspicion of Gods good purpose towards them, and this is a Prayer of Dispatch and Expedition, Satura nos mane, Satisfy us early, O God make speed to save us, O Lord make hast to help us: But he may derive help upon us, by means that are not his, not avowed by him, He may quicken our Counsels by bringing in an Achitophel, he may strengthen our Armies by calling in the Turk, he may establish our peace and friendships, by remitting or departing with some parts of our Religion; at such a dear price we may be helped, but these are not his helps, and this is a prayer of manifestation, that all the way to our end he will be pleased to let us see, that the means are from him, Satura nos tua, Satisfy us with that, which is thine, and comes from thee, and so directs us to thee: All this may be done too, and yet not that done which we pray for here; God may send that which is his, and yet without present comfort therein; God may multiply corrections, and judgements, and tribulations upon us, and intend to help us that way, by whipping and beating us into the way, and this is his way; but this is a Prayer of limitation even upon God himself, That our way may be his, and that his way may be the way of mercy, Satisfy us early with thy mercy.

First then, the first word Satura, implies a fullness, and it implies a satisfaction, A quietness, a contentedness, an acquiescence in that fullness; Satisfy is, let us be full, and let us feel it, and rest in that fullness. These two make up all Heaven, all the joy, and all the glory of Heaven, fullness and satisfaction in it. And therefore S. Jerome refers this Prayer of our Text, to the Resurrection, and to that fullness, and that satisfaction which we shall have then, and not till then. For though we shall have a fullness in Heaven, as soon as we come thither, yet that is not fully a satisfaction, because we shall desire, and expect a fuller satisfaction in the reunion of body and soul. And when Heaven it self cannot give us this full satisfaction till then, in what can we look for it in this world, where there is no true fullness, nor any satisfaction, in that kind of fullness which we seem to have? Pleasure and sensuality, and the giving to our selves all that we desire, cannot give this; you hear God reproaches Israel so, You have multiplied your fornications, & yet are not satisfied. Labor for profit, or for preferment, cannot do it; you see God reproaches Israel for that too, Ye have sown much, and bring in little, ye eat, but have not enough, ye drink, but are not filled, ye cloth you, but are not warm, and he that earneth wages, putteth it into a broken bag; that is, it runs out as fast as it comes in, he finds nothing at the years end, his Midsommer will scarce fetch up Michaelmas, and if he have brought about his year, and made up his Circle, yet he hath raised up nothing, nothing appears in his circle. If these things could fill us, yet they could not satisfy us, because they cannot stay with us, or not we with them: He hath devoured substance, and he shall vomit it. He devoured it by bribery, and he shall vomit it by a fine; He devoured it by extortion, and he shall vomit it by confiscation; He devoured it in other Courts, and shall vomit it in a Star-chamber. If it stay some time, it shall be with an anguish and vexation; When he shall be filled with abundance, it shall be a pain to him, as it is in the same place. Still his riches shall have the nature of a vomit, hard to get down, and hard to keep in the stomach when it is there; hardly got, hardly kept when they are got. If all these could be overcome, yet it is clogged with a heavy curse, Wo be unto you that are full, for ye shall be hungry: Where, if the curse were only from them, who are poor by their own sloth, or wastefulness, who for the most part delight to curse and malign the rich, the curse might be contemned by us, and would be thrown back by God into their own bosoms; but Os Domini locutum, The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, Christ himself hath denounced this curse upon worldly men, That they shall be hungry, not only suffer impairement and diminution, but be reduced to hunger.

There is a spiritual fullness in this life, of which S. Jerome speaks, Ebrietas foelix, satietas salutaris, A happy excess, and a wholesome surfeit; quae quanto copiosiùs sumitur, majorem donat sobrietatem, In which the more we eat, the more temperate we are, and the more we drink, the more sober. In which, (as S. Bernard also expresses it, in his mellifluence) Mutuâ, interminabili, inexplicabili generation, By a mutual and reciprocal, by an undeterminable and unexpressible generation of one another, Desiderium generat satietatem, & satietas parit desiderium, The desire of spiritual graces begets a satiety, if I would be, I am full of them, And then this satiety begets a farther desire, still we have a new appetite to those spiritual graces: This is a holy ambition, a sacred covetousness, and a wholesome Dropsy. Napthalies blessing, O Napthali satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord; S. Stephens blessing, Full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; The blessed Virgins blessing, Full of Grace; Dorcas blessing, Full of good works, and of Alms-deeds; The blessing of him, who is blessed above all, and who blesseth all, Christ Jesus, Full of wisdom, Full of the Holy Ghost, Full of grace and truth. But so far are all temporal things from giving this fullness or satisfaction, as that even in spiritual things, there may be, there is often an error, or mistaking.

Even in spiritual things, there may be a fullness, and no satisfaction, And there may be a satisfaction, and no fullness; I may have as much knowledge, as is presently necessary for my salvation, and yet have a restless and unsatisfied desire, to search into unprofitable curiosities, unrevealed mysteries, and inextricable perplexities: And, on the other side, a man may be satisfied, and think he knows all, when, God knows, he knows nothing at all; for, I know nothing, if I know not Christ crucified, And I know not that, if I know not how to apply him to my self, Nor do I know that, if I embrace him not in those means, which he hath afforded me in his Church, in his Word, and Sacraments; If I neglect this means, this place, these exercises, howsoever I may satisfy my self, with an over-valuing mine own knowledge at home, I am so far from fullness, as that vanity it self is not more empty. In the Wilderness, every man had one and the same measure of Manna; The same Gomer went through all; for Manna was a Meat, that would melt in their mouths, and of easy digestion. But then for their Quailes, birds of a higher flight, meat of a stronger digestion, it is not said, that every man had an equal number: some might have more, some less, and yet all their fullness. Catechistical divinity, and instructions in fundamental things, is our Manna; Every man is bound to take in his Gomer, his explicite knowledge of Articles absolutely necessary to salvation; The simplest man, as well as the greatest Doctor, is bound to know, that there is one God in three persons, That the second of those, the Son of God, took our nature, and died for mankind; And that there is a Holy Ghost, which in the Communion of Saints, the Church established by Christ, applies to every particular soul the benefit of Christs universal redemption. But then for our Quails, birds of higher pitch, meat of a stronger digestion, which is the knowledge how to rectify every straying conscience, how to extricate every entangled, and scrupulous, and perplexed soul, in all emergent doubts, how to defend our Church, and our Religion, from all the mines, and all the batteries of our Adversaries, and to deliver her from all imputations of Heresy, and Schism, which they impute to us, this knowledge is not equally necessary in all; In many cases a Master of servants, and a Father of children is bound to know more, then those children and servants, and the Pastor of the parish more then parishioners: They may have their fullness, though he have more, but he hath not his, except he be able to give them satisfaction.

This fullness then is not an equality in the measure; our fullness in heaven shall not be so; Abraham died, says the text, Plenus dierum, full of years; It is not said so in the text of Methusalem, that he died full of years, and yet he had another manner of Gomer, another measure of life then Abraham, for he lived almost eight hundred years more then he; But he that is best disposed to die, is fullest of years; One man may be fuller at twenty, then another at seventy. David lived not the tithe of Methusalems years, not ten to his hundred, he lived less then Abraham, and yet David is said to have died Plenus dierum, full of years; he had made himself agreeable to God, and so was ripe for him. So David is said there to have died full of honor; God knows David had cast shrowd aspersions upon his own, and others honor; but, as God says of Israel, Because I loved thee, thou wast honorable in my sight; so because God loved David, and he persevered in that love to the end, he died full of honor. So also it is said of David, that he died full of Riches; for, though they were very great additions, which Solomon made, yet because David intended that which he left, for Gods service, and for pious uses, he died full of Riches; fullness of riches is in the good purpose, and the good employment, not in the possession. In a word, the fullness that is inquired after, and required by this prayer, carry it upon temporal, carry it upon spiritual things, is such a proportion of either, as is fit for that calling, in which God hath put us; And then, the satisfaction in this fullness is not to hunt and pant after more worldly possessions, by undue means, or by macerating labor, as though we could not be good, or could do no good in the world, except all the goods of the world passed our hands, nor to hunt and pant after the knowledge of such things, as God by his Scriptures hath not revealed to his Church, nor to wrangle contentiously and uncharitably about such points, as do rather shake others consciences, then establish our own, as though we could not possibly come to heaven, except we knew what God meant to do with us, before he meant to make us. S. Paul expresses fully what this fullness is, and satisfies us in this satisfaction, Vt sitis pleni in omni voluntate Dei, That yee may be filled according to the will of God: What is the will of God? How shall I know the will of God upon me? God hath manifested his will in my Calling; and a proportion, competent to this Calling, is my fullness, and should be my satisfaction, that so God may have Odorem quietis, (as it is said in Noahs sacrifice, after he came out of the Ark, that God smelt a savor of rest) a sacrifice, in which he might rest himself; for God hath a Sabbath in the Sabbaths of his servants, a fullness in their fullness, a satisfaction when they are satisfied, and is well pleased when they are so.

So then this Prayer is for fullness, and fullness is a competency in our calling, And a prayer for satisfaction, and satisfaction is a contentment in that competency; And then this prayer is not only a prayer of appropriation to our selves, but of a charitable extension to others too, Satura nos, Satisfy us, All us, all thy Church. Charity begins in our selves, but it does not end there, but dilates it self to others; The Saints in heaven are full, as full as they can hold, and yet they pray; Though they want nothing, they pray that God would power down upon us graces necessary for our peregrination here, as he hath done upon them, in their station there. We are full; full of the Gospel; present peace and plenty in the preaching thereof, and faire apparances of a perpetual succession; we are full, and yet we pray; we pray that God would continue the Gospel where it is, restore the Gospel where it was, and transfer the Gospel where it hath not yet been preached. Charity desires not her own, says the Apostle; but much less doth charity desire no more then her own, so as not to desire the good of others too. True love and charity is to do the most that we can, all that we can for the good of others; So God himself proceeds, when he says, What could I do, that I have not done? And so he seems to have begun at first; when God bestowed upon man, his first and greatest benefit, his making, it is expressed so, Faciamus hominem, Let us, All us, make man; God seems to summon himself, to assemble himself, to muster himself, all himself, all the persons of the Trinity, to do what he could in the favor of man. So also when he is drawn to a necessity of executing judgement, and for his own honor, and consolidation of his servants, puts himself upon a revenge, he proceeds so too; when man had rebelled, and began to fortify in Babel, then God says, Venite, Let us, All us come together, And Descendamus, & confundamus, Let us, all us, go down, and confound their language, and their machinations, and fortifications. God does not give patterns, God does not accept from us acts of half-devotion, and half-charities; God does all that he can for us; And therefore when we see others in distress, whether national, or personal calamities, whether Princes be dispossest of their natural patrimony, and inheritance, or private persons afflicted with sickness, or penury, or banishment, let us go Gods way, all the way; First, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram, Let us make that Man according unto our image, let us consider our selves in him, and make our case his, and remember how lately he was as well as we, and how soon we may be as ill as he, and then Descendamus & confundamus, Let us, us, with all the power we have, remove or slacken those calamities that lie upon them.

This only is charity, to do all, all that we can. And something there is which every man may do; There are Armies, in the levying whereof, every man is an absolute Prince, and needs no Commission, there are Forces, in which every man is his own Muster-master, The force which we spoke of before, out of Tertullian, the force of prayer; In public actions, we obey God, when we obey them to whom God hath committed the public; In those things which are in our own power, the subfidies and contributions of prayer, God looks that we should second his Faciamus, with our Dicamus, That since he must do all, we would pray him that he would do it, And his Descendamus, with our Ascendamus, That if we would have him come down, and fight our battayls, or remove our calamities, we should first go up to him, in humble and fervent prayer, That he would continue the Gospel where it is, and restore it where it was, and transfer it where it was never as yet heard; Charity is to do all to all; and the poorest of us all can do this to any.

I may then, I must pray for this fullness, (and fullness is sufficiency) And for this satisfaction, (and satisfaction is contentment) And that God would extend this, and other his blessings, upon others too, And if God do leave us in an Egypt, in a Babylon, without relief, for sometime I may proceed to this holy importunity, which David intimates here, Satura nos mane, O Lord, make haste to help us, Satisfy us early with thy mercy, and God will do so. Weeping may endure for a night, says David. David does not say, It must indure for a night, that God will by no means shorten the time; perchance God will wipe all tears from thine eyes, at midnight, if thou pray; Try him that way then. If he do not, If weeping do indure for a night, all night, yet joy cometh in the morning, faith David; And then he doth not say, Joy may come in the morning, but it cometh certainly, infallibly it comes, and comes in the morning. God is an early riser; In the Marning-watch, God looked upon the host of the Egyptians. He looked upon their counsels to see what they would do, and upon their forces to see what they could do. He is not early up, and never the nearer; His going forth is prepared as the Morning, (there is his general Providence, in which he visits every creature) And he shall come to us, in the former, and later rain upon the earth; He makes haste to us in the former, and seconds his former mercies to us, in more mercies. And as he makes hast to refresh his servants, so goes he the same pace, to the ruin of his enemies, In matutina interficiam, I will early destroy all the wicked of the land: It is not a weakening of them, It is a destruction; It is not of a squadron or regiment, It is all; It is not only upon the Land, but the wicked of any band, he will destroy upon the Sea too. This is his promise, this is his practise, this is his pace. Thus he did in Sennacherib's Army, When they arose early in the Morning, behold they were all dead carcasses; They rose early that saw it, but God had been up earlier, that had done it. And that story, God seems to have had care to have recorded almost in all the divisions of the Bible, for it is in the Historical part, and it is in the Prophetical part too; and because God foresaw, that mens curiosities would carry them upon Apocryphal Books also, it is repeated almost in every Book of that kind, in Ecclesiasticus, in Tobit, in the Maceabees in both Books, That every where our eye might light upon that, and every soul might make that Syllogism, and produce that conclusion to it self, If God be thus forward, thus early in the ways of Judgement, much more is he so in the ways of mercy; with that he will satisfy us Mane, early, and as Tremellius reads this very Text, unoquoque mane, betimes in the morning, and every morning.

Now if we look for this early mercy from God, we must rise betimes too, and meet God early. God hath promised to give Matutinam stellam; the Morning-star; but they must be up betimes in the morning, that will take the Morning-star. He himself who is it, hath told us who is this Morning star; I Jesus am the bright and Morning starr. God will give us Jesus; Him, and all his, all his tears, all his blood, all his merits; But to whom, and upon what conditions? That is expressed there, Vincenti dab, To him that overcommeth I will give the Morning-star. Our life is a warfare, our whole life; It is not only with lusts in our youth, and ambitions in our middle years, and indevotions in our age, but with agonies in our body, and temptations in our spirit upon our death-bed, that we are to fight; and he cannot be said to overcome, that fights not out the whole battel. If he enter not the field in the morning, that is, apply not himself to Gods service in his youth, If he continue not to the Evening, If he faint in the way, and grow remisse in Gods service, for collateral respects, God will overcome his cause, and his glory shall stand fast, but that man can scarce be said to have overcome.

It is the counsel of the Wise man, Prevent the Sun to give thanks to God, and at the day-spring pray unto him. You see still, how these two duties are marshalled, and disposed; First Praise, and then Prayer, but both early: And it is placed in the Lamentations, as though it were a lamentable negligence to have omitted it, It is good for a man, that he bear his yoke in his youth. Rise as early as you can, you cannot be up before God; no, nor before God raise you: Howsoever you prevent this Sun, the Sun of the Firmament, yet the Son of Heaven hath prevented you, for without his preventing Grace you could not stir. Have any of you slept out their Morning, resisted his private motions to private Prayer at home, neglected his callings so? Though a man do sleep out his forenoone, the Sun goes on his course, and comes to his Meridional splendor, though that man have not looked towards it. That Son which hath risen to you at home, in those private motions, hath gone on his course, and hath shined out here, in this house of God, upon Wednesday, and upon Friday, and upon every day of holy Convocation; All this, at home, and here, yee have slept out and neglected. Now, upon the Sabbath, and in these holy Exercises, this Son shines out as at noon, the Grace of God is in the Exaltation, exhibited in the powerfullest and effectuallest way of his Ordinance, and if you will but awake now, rise now, meet God now, now at noon, God will call even this early. Have any of you slept out the whole day, and are come in that drowsiness to your evening, to the closing of your eyes, to the end of your days? Yet rise now, and God shall call even this an early rising; If you can make shift to deceive your own souls and say, We never heard God call us; If you neglected your former callings so, as that you have forgot that you have been called; yet, is there one amongst you, that denies that God calls him now? If he neglect this calling now, to morrow he may forget that he was called to day, or remember it with such a terror, as shall blow a damp, and a consternation upon his soul, and a lethargy worse then his former sleep; but if he will wake now, and rise now, though this be late in his evening, in his age, yet God shall call this early. Be but able to say with Isaiah this night, My soul hath desired thee in the night, and thou mayst be bold to say with David to morrow morning, Satura nos mane, Satisfy us early with thy mercy, and he shall do it.

But yet no prayer of ours, howsoever made in the best disposition, in the best testimony of a rectified conscience, must limit God his time, or appoint him, in what morning, or what hour in the morning, God shall come to our deliverance. The Son of man was not the less the Son of God, nor the less a beloved Son, though God hid from him the knowledge of the day of the general Judgement. Thou art not the less the servant of God, nor the less rewarded by him, though he keep from thee the knowledge of thy deliverance from any particular calamity. All Gods deliverances are in the morning, because there is a perpetual night, and an invincible darkness upon us, till he deliver us. God is the God of that Climate, where the night is six Months long, as well as of this, where it is but half so many hours. The highest Hill hinders not the roundness of the earth, the earth is round for all that hill; The lowest vaults, and mines hinder not the solidness of the earth, the earth is solid for all that; Much less hath a year, or ten years, or all our threescore and ten, any proportion at all to eternity; And therefore God comes early in a sort to me, though I lose abundance of my reward by so long lingring, if he come not till he open me the gate of heaven, by the key of death. There are Indies at my right hand, in the East; but there are Indies at my left hand too, in the West. There are testimonies of Gods love to us, in our East, in our beginnings; but if God continue tribulation upon us to our West, to our ends, and give us the light of his presence then, if he appear to us at our transmigration, certainly he was favourable to us all our peregrination, and though he show himself late, he was our friend early. The Prayer is, that he would come early, but it is, if it be rightly formed, upon both these conditions; first, that I rise early to meet him, and then that I magnify his hour as early, whensoever he shall be pleased to come.

All this I shall do the better, if I limit my prayer, and my practise, with the next circumstance in Davids prayer, Tuâ, Satisfy us early with that which is thine, Thy mercy: For there are mercies, (in a faire extent and accommodation of the word, that is Refreshings, Eases, Deliverances) that are not his mercies, nor his satisfactions. How many men are satisfied with Riches (I correct my self, few are satisfied; but how many have enough to satisfy many?) and yet have never a penny of his money? Nothing is his, that comes not from him, that comes not by good means. How many are there, that are easy to admit scruples, and jealousies, and suspicions in matter of Religion: Easy to think, that that Religion, and that Church, in which they have lived ill, cannot be a good Religion, nor a true Church; In a troubled, and distempered conscience, they grow easy to admit scruples, and then as over-easy to admit false satisfactions, with a word whispered on one side in a Conventicle, or a word whispered on the other side in a Confession, and yet have never a dram of satisfaction from his word, whose word is preached upon the house top, and avowed, and not in corners? How many men are anguished with torturing Diseases, racked with the conscience of ill-spent estates, oppressed with inordinate melancholies, and irreligious dejections of spirit, and then repair, and satisfy themselves with wine, with women, with fools, with comedies, with mirth, and music, and with all Job's miserable comforters, and all this while have no beams of his satisfaction, it is not Misericordia ejus, his mercy, his satisfaction? In losses of worldly goods, in sicknesses of children, or servants, or cattle, to receive light or ease from Witches, this is not his mercy. It is not his mercy, except we go by good ways to good ends; except our safety be established by allyance with his friends, except our peace may be had with the perfect continuance of our Religion, there is no safety, there is no peace. But let me feel the effect of this Prayer, as it is a Prayer of manifestation, Let me discern that, that that is done upon me, is done by the hand of God, and I care not what it be: I had rather have Gods Vinegar, then mans Oil, Gods Wormwood, then mans Manna, Gods Justice, then any mans Mercy; for, therefore did Gregory Nyssen call S. Basil in a holy sense, Ambidextrum, because he took every thing that came, by the right handle, and with the right hand, because he saw it to come from God. Even afflictions are welcome, when we see them to be his: Though the way that he would choose, and the way that this Prayer intreats, be only mercy, Satisfy us early with thy mercy.

That rod and that staff with which we are at any time corrected, is his. So God calls the Assyrians, The rod of his anger, and he says, That the staff that is in their hand, is his Indignation. He comes to a sharper execution, from the rod, and the staff to the sword, and that also is his, It is my sword, that is put into the hands of the King of Babylon, and he shall stretch out my sword upon the whole land; God will beat down, and cut off, and blow up, and blow out at his pleasure; which is expressed in a phrase very remarkeable by David, He bringeth the wind out of his Treasuries; And then follow in that place, all the Plagues of Egypt: storms and tempests, ruins and devastations, are not only in Gods Armories, but they are in his Treasuries; as he is the Lord of Hosts, he fetches his judgements from his Armories, and casts confusion upon his enemies, but as he is the God of mercy, and of plentiful redemption, he fetches these judgements, these corrections out of his treasuries, and they are the Money, the Jewels, by which he redeems and buys us again; God does nothing, God can do nothing, no not in the way of ruin and destruction, but there is mercy in it; he cannot open a door in his Armory, but a window into his Treasury opens too, and he must look into that.

But then Gods corrections are his Acts, as the Physician is his Creature, God created him for necessity. When God made man, his first intention was not that man should fall, and so need a Messiah, nor that man should fall sick, and so need a Physician, nor that man should fall into rebellion by sin, and so need his rod, his staff, his scourge of afflictions, to whip him into the way again. But yet says the Wiseman, Honor the Physician for the use you may have of him; slight him not, because thou hast no need of him yet. So though Gods corrections were not from a primary, but a secondary intention, yet, when you see those corrections fall upon another, give a good interpretation of them, and believe Gods purpose to be not to destroy, but to recover that man: Do not thou make Gods Rheubarbe thy Ratsbane, and poison thine own soul with an uncharitable misinterpretation of that correction, which God hath sent to cure his. And then, in thine own afflictions, fly evermore to this Prayer, Satisfy us with thy mercy; first, Satisfy us, make it appear to us that thine intention is mercy, though thou enwrap it in temporal afflictions, in this dark cloud let us discern thy Son, and though in an act of displeasure, see that thou art well pleased with us; Satisfy us, that there is mercy in thy judgements, and then satisfy us, that thy mercy is mercy; for such is the stupidity of sinful man, That as in temporal blessings, we discern them best by wanting them, so do we the mercies of God too; we call it not a mercy, to have the same blessings still: but, as every man conceives a greater degree of joy, in recovering from a sickness, then in his former established health; so without doubt, our Ancestors who indured many years Civil and foreign wars, were more affected with their first peace, then we are with our continual enjoying thereof, And our Fathers more thankful, for the beginning of Reformation of Religion, then we for so long enjoying the continuance thereof. Satisfy us with thy mercy, Let us still be able to see mercy in thy judgements, lest they deject us, and confound us; Satisfy us with thy mercy, let us be able to see, that our deliverance is a mercy, and not a natural thing that might have happened so, or a necessary thing that must have happened so, though there had been no God in Heaven, nor providence upon earth. But especially since the way that thou choosest, is to go all by mercy, and not to be put to this way of correction, so dispose, so compose our minds, and so transpose all our affections, that we may live upon thy food, and not put thee to thy physic, that we may embrace thee in the light, and not be put to seek thee in the dark, that we come to thee in thy Mercy, and not be whipped to thee by thy Corrections. And so we have done also with our second Part, The pieces and petitions that constitute this Prayer, as it is a Prayer for Fullness and Satisfaction, a Prayer of Extent and Dilatation, a Prayer of Dispatch and Expedition, and then a Prayer of Evidence and Declaration, and lastly, a Prayer of Limitation even upon God himself, Satisfy, and satisfy us, and us early, with that which we may discern to be thine, and let that way be mercy.

There remains yet a third Part, what this Prayer produces, and it is joy, and continual joy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. The words are the Parts, and we invert not, we trouble not the Order; the Holy Ghost hath laid them fitliest for our use, in the Text it self, and so we take them. First then, the gain is joy. Joy is Gods own Seal, and his keeper is the Holy Ghost; we have many sudden ejaculations in the forme of Prayer, sometimes inconsiderately made, and they vanish so; but if I can reflect upon my prayer, ruminate, and return again with joy to the same prayer, I have Gods Seal upon it. And therefore it is not so very an idle thing, as some have mis-imagined it, to repeat often the same prayer in the same words; Our Savior did so; he prayed a third time, and in the same words; This reflecting upon a former prayer, is that that sets to this Seal, this joy, and if I have joy in my prayer, it is granted so far as concerns my good, and Gods glory. It hath been disputed by many, both of the Gentiles, with whom the Fathers disputed, and of the Schoolemen, who dispute with one another, An sit gaudium in Deo, de semet, Whether God rejoice in himself, in contemplation of himself, whether God be glad that he is God: But it is disputed by them, only to establish it, and to illustrate it, for I do not remember that any one of them denyes it. It is true, that Plato dislikes, and justly, that salutation of Dionysius the Tyran to God, Gaude, & servato vitam Tyranni jucundam; that he should say to God, Live merrily, as merrily as a King, as merrily as I do, and then you are God enough; to imagine such a joy in God, as is only a transitory delight in deceivable things, is an impious conceit. But when, as another Platonique says, Deus est quod ipse semper voluit, God is that which he would be, If there be something that God would be, and he be that, If Plato should deny, that God joyed in himself, we must say of Plato as Lactantius does, Deum potius somniaver at, quàm cognoverat, Plato had rather dreamed that there was a God, then understood what that God was. Bonum simplex, says S. Augustine, To be sincere Goodness, Goodness it self, Ipsa est delectatio Dei, This is the joy that God hath in himself, of himself; And therefore says Philo Iudaeus, Hoc necessarium Philosophiae sodalibus, This is the tenent of all Philosophers, (And by that title of Philosophers, Philo always means them that know and study God) Solum Deum verè festum agere, That only God can be truly said to keep holy day, and to rejoice.

This joy we shall see, when we see him, who is so in it, as that he is this joy it self. But here in this world, so far as I can enter into my Masters sight, I can enter into my Masters joy. I can see God in his Creatures, in his Church, in his Word and Sacraments, and Ordinances; Since I am not without this sight, I am not without this joy. Here a man may Transilire mortalitatem, says that Divine Moral man; I cannot put off mortality, but I can look upon immortality; I cannot depart from this earth, but I can look into Heaven. So I cannot possess that final and accomplished joy here, but as my body can lay down a burden or a heavy garment, and joy in that ease, so my soul can put off my body so far, as that the concupiscencies thereof, and the manifold and miserable encumbrances of this world, cannot extinguish this holy joy. And this inchoative joy, David derives into two branches, To rejoice, and to be glad.

The Holy Ghost is an eloquent Author, a vehement, and an abundant Author, but yet not luxuriant; he is far from a penurious, but as far from a superfluous style too. And therefore we do not take these two words in the Text, To rejoice, and to be glad, to signify merely one and the same thing, but to be two beams, two branches, two effects, two expressings of this joy. We take them therefore, as they offer themselves in their roots, and first natural propriety of the words. The first, which we translate To rejoice, is Ranan; and Ranan denotes the external declaration of internal joy; for the word signifies Cantare, To sing, and that with an extended and loud voice, for it is the word, which is oftnest used for the music of the Church, and the singing of Psalms; which was such a declaration of their zealous alacrity in the primitive Church, as that, when to avoid discovery in the times of persecution, they were forced to make their meetings in the night, they were also forced to put out their Candles, because by that light in the windows they were discovered; After that this meeting in the dark occasioned a scandal and ill report upon those Christians, that their meetings were not upon so holy purposes, as they pretended, they discontinued their vigils, and night-meetings, yet their singing of Psalms, when they did meet, they never discontinued, though that, many times, exposed them to dangers, and to death it self, as some of the Authors of the secular story of the Romans have observed and testified unto us. And some ancient Decrees and Constitutions we have, in which such are forbidden to be made Priests, as were not perfect in the Psalms. And though S. Jerome tell us this, with some admiration, and note of singularity, That Paula could say the whole book of Psalms without book, in Hebrew; yet he presents it as a thing well known to be their ordinary practise; In villula Christi Bethlem, extrapsalmos silentium est, In the village where I dwell, says he, where Christ was born, in Bethlem, if you cannot sing Psalms, you must be silent, here you shall hear nothing but Psalms; for, (as he pursues it) Arator stivam tenens, The husbandman that follows the plough, he that sows, that reaps, that carries home, all begin and proceed in all their labours with singing of Psalms. Therefore he calls them there, Cantiones amatorias, Those that make or entertain love, that seek in the holy and honorable way of marriage, to make themselves acceptable and agreeable to one another, by no other good parts, nor conversation, but by singing of Psalms. So he calls them, Pastorum sibilum, and Arma culturae, Our shepherds, says S. Jerome, here, have no other Eclogues, no other Pastoralls; Our labourers, our children, our servants no other songs, nor Ballads, to recreate themselves withal, then the Psalms.

And this universal use of the Psalms, that they served all for all, gives occasion to one Author, in the title of the Book of Psalms, to depart from the ordinary reading, which is, Sepher Tehillim, The book of Praise, and to read it, Sepher Telim, which is Acervorum, The book of Heaps, where all assistances to our salvation are heaped and treasured up. And our Countryman Bede found another Title, in some Copies of this book, Liber Soliloquiorum de Christo, The Book of Meditations upon Christ; Because this book is (as Gregory Nyssen calls it) Clavis David, that key of David, which lets us in to all the mysteries of our Religion; which gave the ground to that which S. Basil says, that if all the other Books of Scripture could be lost, he would ask no more then the Book of Psalms, to catechize children, to edify Congregations, to convert Gentiles, and to convince Heretics.

But we are launched into too large a Sea, the consideration of this Book of Psalms. I mean but this, in this, That if we take that way with God, The way of prayer, prayer so elemented and constituted, as we have said, that consists rather of praise and thanksgiving, then supplication for future benefits, God shall infuse into us, a zeal of expressing our consolation in him, by outward actions, to the establishing of others; we shall not disavow, nor grow slack in our Religion, nor in any parts thereof; God shall neither take from us, The Candle and the Candlestick, The truth of the Gospel, which is the light, And the cheerful, and authorized, and countenanced, and rewarded Preaching of the Gospel, which is the Candlestick that exalts the light; nor take from us our zeal to this outward service of God, that we come to an indifferency, whether the service of God be private or public, sordid or glorious, allowed and suffered, by way of connivency, or commanded and enjoined by way of authority. God shall give us this Ranan, this rejoicing, this extern all joy, we shall have the public preaching of the Gospel continued to us, and we shall show that we rejoice in it, by frequenting it, and by instituting our lives according unto it.

But yet this Ranan, this Rejoicing, this outward expressing of our inward zeal, may admit interruptions, receive interceptions, intermissions, and discontinuances; for, without doubt, in many places there live many persons, well affected to the truth of Religion, that dare not avow it, express it, declare it, especially where that fearful Vulture, the Inquisition, hovers over them. And therefore the Holy Ghost hath added here another degree of joy, which no law, no severe execution of law, can take from us, in another word of less extent, Shamach, which is an inward joy, only in the heart, which we translate here, to be Glad. How far we are bound to proceed in outward declarations of Religion, requires a serious and various consideration of Circumstances. You know how far Daniel proceeded; The Lords had extorted a Proclamation from the King, That no man should pray to any other God, then the King, for certain days; Daniel would not only not be bound by this Proclamation, and so continue his set and stationary hours of private prayer in his chamber, but he would declare it to all the world; He would set open his chamber windows, that he might be seen to pray; for, though some determine that act of Daniel, in setting open his windows at prayer, in this, That because the Jews were bound by their law, wheresoever they were, in war, in captivity, upon the way, or in their sick beds, to turn towards Jerusalem, and so towards the Temple, whensoever they prayed, according to that stipulation, which had passed between God and Solomon, at the Dedication of the Temple, When thy servants pray towards this house, hear them in it; Therefore as Hezekias, in his sick bed, when he turned towards the wall to pray, is justly thought, to have done so, therefore that he might pray towards the Temple, which stood that way; so Daniel is thought to have opened his windows to that purpose too, that he might have the more free prospect towards Jerusalem from Babylon; though some, I say, determine Daniels act in that, yet it is by more, and more usefully extended, to an expressing of such a zeal, as, in so apparent a dishonor to his God, could not be suffocated nor extinguished with a Proclamation.

In which act of his, which was a direct and evident opposing and affronting of the State, though I dare not join with them, who absolutely and peremptorily condemn this act of Daniel, because Gods subsequent act in a miraculous deliverance of Daniel seems to imply some former particular revelation from God to Daniel, that he should proceed in that confident manner, yet dare I much less draw this act of Daniels into consequence, and propose it for an Example and precedent to private men, least of all, to animate seditious men, who upon pretence of a necessity, that God must be served in this, and this, and no other manner, provoke and exasperate the Magistrate with their schismatical conventicles and separations. But howsoever that may stand, and howsoever there may be Circumstances which may prevail either upon humane infirmity, or upon a rectified Conscience, or howsoever God in his Judgements, may cast a cloud upon his own Sun, and darken the glory of the Gospel, in some place, for some time, yet, though we lose our Ranan, our public Rejoicing, we shall never lose our Shamach, our inward gladness, that God is our God, and we his servants for all this. God will never leave his servants without this internal joy, which shall preserve them from suspicions of Gods power, that he cannot maintain, or not restore his cause, and from jealousies, that he hath abandoned or deserted them in particular. God shall never give them over to an indifferency, nor to a stupidity, nor to an absence of tenderness, and holy affections, that it shall become all one to them, how Gods cause prospers, or suffers. But if I continue that way, prayer, and prayer so qualified, if I lose my Ranan, my outward declarations of Rejoicing; If I be tied to a death-bed in a Consumption, and cannot rejoice in comming to these public Congregations, to participate of their prayers, and to impart to them my Meditations; If I be ruined in my fortune, and cannot rejoice in an open distribution to the relief of the poor, and a preaching to others, in that way, by example of doing good works; If at my last minute, I be not able to edify my friends, nor Catechize my children, with any thing that I can do or say; if I be not able so much, as with hand or eye to make a sign, though I have lost my Ranan, all the Eloquence of outward declaration, yet God shall never take from me, my Shamach, my internal gladness and consolation, in his undeceivable and undeceiving Spirit, that he is mine, and I am his; And this joy, this gladness, in my way, and in my end, shall establish me; for that is that which is intended in the next, and last word, Omnibus diebus, we shall Rejoice and be Glad all our days.

Nothing but this testimony, That the Spirit bears witness with my spirit, that upon my prayer, so conditioned, of praise, and prayer, I shall still prevail with God, could imprint in me, this joy, all my days. The seals of his favor, in outward blessings, fayle me in the days of shipwreck, in the days of fire, in the days of displacing my potent friends, or raising mine adversaries; In such days I cannot rejoice, and be glad. The seals of his favor, in inward blessings, and holy cheerfulness, fayle me in a present remorse after a sin newly committed. But yet in the strength of a Christian hope, as I can pronounce out of the grounds of Nature, in an Eclipse of the Sun, that the Sun shall return to his splendor again, I can pronounce out of the grounds of Gods Word, (and Gods Word is much better assurance, then the grounds of Nature, for God can and does shake the grounds of Nature by Miracles, but no Jod of his Word shall ever perish) that I shall return again on my hearty penitence, if I delay it not, and rejoice and be glad all my days, that is, what kind of day soever overtake me. In the days of our youth, when the joys of this world take up all the room, there shall be room for this holy Joy, that my recreations were harmelesse, and my conversation innocent; and certainly to be able to say, that in my recreations, in my conversation, I neither ministered occasion of temptation to another, nor exposed my self to temptations from another, is a faire beam of this rejoicing in the days of my youth. In the days of our Age, when we become incapable, insensible of the joys of this world, yet this holy joy shall season us, not with a sinful delight in the memory of our former sins, but with a re-juveniscence, a new and a fresh youth, in being come so near to another, to an immortal life. In the days of our mirth, and of laughter, this holy joy shall enter; And as the Sun may say to the stars at Noon, How frivoulous and impertinent a thing is your light now? So this joy shall say unto laughter, Thou art mad, and unto mirth, what dost thou? And in the mid-night of sadness, and dejection of spirit, this joy shall shine out, and chide away that sadness, with Davids holy charm, My soul, why art thou cast down, why art thou disquieted within me? In those days, which Job speaks of, Praevenerunt me dies afflictionis mea, Miseries are come upon me before their time; My intemperances have hastened age, my riotousness hath hastened poverty, my neglecting of due officiousness and respect towards great persons hath hastened contempt upon me, Afflictions which I suspected not, thought not of, have prevented my fears; and then in those days, which Job speaks of again, Possident me dies afflictionis, Studied and premeditated plots and practises swallow me, possess me entirely, In all these days, I shall not only have a Zoar to fly to, if I can get out of Sodom, joy, if I can overcome my sorrow; There shall not be a Goshen bordering upon my Egypt, joy, if I can pass beyond, or besides my sorrow, but I shall have a Goshen in my Egypt, nay my very Egypt shall be my Goshen, I shall not only have joy, though I have sorrow, but therefore; my very sorrow shall be the occasion of joy; I shall not only have a Sabbath after my six days labor, but Omnibus diebus, a Sabbath shall enlighten every day, and inanimate every minute of every day: And as my soul is as well in my foot, as in my hand, though all the weight and oppression lie upon the foot, and all action upon the hand, so these beams of joy shall appear as well in my pillar of cloud, as in theirs of fire; in my adversity, as well as in their prosperity; And when their Sun shall set at Noon, mine shall rise at midnight; they shall have damps in their glory, and I joyful exaltions in my dejections.

And to end with the end of all, In die mortis, In the day of my death, and that which is beyond the end of all, and without end in it self, The day of Judgement, If I have the testimony of a rectified conscience, that I have accustomed my self to that access to God, by prayer, and such prayer, as though it have had a body of supplication, and desire of future things, yet the soul and spirit of that prayer, that is, my principal intention in that prayer, hath been praise and thanksgiving, If I be involved in S. Chrysostoms Patent, Orantes, non natura, sed dispensatione Angeli fiunt, That those who pray so, that is, pray by way of praise, (which is the most proper office of Angels) as they shall be better then Angels in the next world, (for they shall be glorifying spirits, as the Angels are, but they shall also be glorified bodies, which the Angels shall never be) so in this world they they shall be as Angels, because they are employed in the office of Angels, to pray by way of praise, If, as S. Basil reads those words of that Psalm, not spiritus meus, but respiratio mea laudet Dominum, Not only my spirit, but my very breath, not my heart only, but my tongue, and my hands be accustomed to glorify God, In die mortis, in the day of my death, when a mist of sorrow, and of sighs shall fill my chamber, and a cloud exhaled and condensed from tears, shall be the curtains of my bed, when those that love me, shall be sorry to see me die, and the devil himself that hates me, sorry to see me die so, in the favor of God; And In die Iudicii, In the day of Judgement, when as all Time shall cease, so all measures shall cease; The joy, and the sorrow that shall be then, shall be eternal, no end, and infinite, no measure, no limitation, when every circumstance of sin shall aggravate the condemnation of the unrepentant sinner, and the very substance of my sin shall be washed away, in the blood of my Savior, when I shall see them, who sinned for my sake, perish eternally, because they proceeded in that sin, and I my self, who occasioned their sin received into glory, because God upon my prayer, and repentance had satisfied me early with his mercy, early, that is, before my transmigration, In omnibus diebus, In all these days, the days of youth, and the wantonnesses of that, the days of age, and the tastlesness of that, the days of mirth, and the sportfulness of that, and of inordinate melancholy, and the disconsolateness of that, the days of such miseries, as astonish us with their suddenness, and of such as aggravate their own weight with a heavy expectation; In the day of Death, which pieces up that circle, and in that day which enters another circle that hath no pieces, but is one equal everlastingness, the day of Judgement, Either I shall rejoice, be able to declare my faith, and zeal to the assistance of others, or at least be glad in mine own heart, in a firm hope of mine own salvation.

And therefore, beloved, as they, whom lighter affections carry to Shows, and Masks, and Comedies; As you your selves, whom better dispositions bring to these Exercises, conceive some contentment, and some kind of Joy, in that you are well and commodiously placed, they to see the Show, you to hear the Sermon, when the time comes, though your greater Joy be reserved to the comming of that time; So though the fullness of Joy be reserved to the last times in heaven, yet rejoice and be glad that you are well and commodiously placed in the mean time, and that you sit but in expectation of the fullness of those future Joys: Return to God, with a joyful thankfulness that he hath placed you in a Church, which withholds nothing from you, that is necessary to salvation, whereas in another Church they lack a great part of the Word, and half the Sacrament; And which obtrudes nothing to you, that is not necessary to salvation, whereas in another Church, the Additional things exceed the Fundamental; the Occasional, the Original; the Collateral, the Direct; And the Traditions of men, the Commandments of God. Maintain and hold up this holy alacrity, this religious cheerfulness; For inordinate sadness is a great degree and evidence of unthankfulness, and the departing from Joy in this world, is a departing with one piece of our Evidence, for the Joys of the world to come.

Serm. LXXX. Preached at the funerals of Sir William Cokayne Knight, Alderman of London, December 12. 1626.

JOH. 11.21.

Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

GOd made the first Marriage, and man made the first Divorce; God married the Body and Soul in the Creation, and man divorced the Body and Soul by death through sin, in his fall. God doth not admit, not justify, not authorize such Super-inductions upon such Divorces, as some have imagined; That the soul departing from one body, should become the soul of another body, in a perpetual revolution and transmigration of souls through bodies, which hath been the giddiness of some Philosophers to think; Or that the body of the dead should become the body of an evil spirit, that that spirit might at his will, and to his purposes inform, and inanimate that dead body; God allows no such Super-inductions, no such second Marriages upon such divorces by death, no such disposition of soul or body, after their dissolution by death. But because God hath made the band of Marriage indissoluble but by death, farther then man can die, this divorce cannot fall upon man; As far as man is immortal, man is a married man still, still in possession of a soul, and a body too; And man is for ever immortal in both; Immortal in his soul by Preservation, and immortal in his body by Reparation in the Resurrection. For, though they be separated à Thoro & Mensa, from Bed and Board, they are not divorced; Though the soul be at the Table of the Lambe, in Glory, and the body but at the table of the Serpent, in dust; Though the soul be in lecto florido, in that bed which is always green, in an everlasting spring, in Abrahams Bosom; And the body but in that green-bed, whose covering is but a yard and a half of Turf, and a Rug of grass, and the sheet but a winding sheet, yet they are not divorced; they shall return to one another again, in an inseparable re-union in the Resurrection. To establish this assurance of a Resurrection in us, God does sometimes in this life, that which he hath promised for the next; that is, he gives a Resurrection to life, after a bodily death here. God hath made two Testaments, two Wills; And in both, he hath declared his Power, and his Will, to give this new life after death, in this world. To the Widows son of Zarephtha, he bequeaths new life; and to the Shunamites son, he gives the same legacy, in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, to the widow of Naims son, he bequeaths new life; And to Iairus daughter he gives the same legacy: And out of the surplusage of his inexhaustible estate, out of the overflowing of his Power, he enables his Executors to do as he did; for Peter gives Dorcas this Resurrection too. Divers examples hath he given us, of the Resurrection of every particular man, in particular Resurrections; such as we have named; And one of the general Resurrection, in the Resurrection of Christ himself; for, in him, we all rose; for, he was All in All; Con-vivificavit, says the Apostle; and Consider nos fecit, God hath quickened us, (all us; not only S. Paul, and his Ephesians, but all) and God hath raised us, and God hath made us to sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. They that are not fallen yet by any actual sin, (children newly baptized) are risen already in him; And they that are not dead yet, nay, not alive yet, not yet born, have a Resurrection in him, who was not only the Lambe slain from the beginning, but from before all beginnings was risen too; and all that shall ever have part in the second Resurrection, are risen with him from that time. Now, next to that great Prophetical action, that type of the general Resurrection, in the Resurrection of Christ, the most illustrious Evidence, of the Resurrection of particular men, is this Resuscitation of Lazarus; whose sister Martha, directed by faith, and yet transported by passion, seeks to entender and mollify, and supple him to impressions of mercy and compassion, who was himself the Mold, in which all mercy was cast, nay, the substance, of which all mercy does consist, Christ Jesus, with this imperfect piece of Devotion, which hath a tincture of Faith, but is deeper died in Passion, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

This Text which you Hear, Martha's single words, complicated with this Text which you See, The dead body of this our Brother, makes up between them this body of Instruction for the soul; first, That there is nothing in this world perfect; And then, That such as it is, there is nothing constant, nothing permanent. We consider the first, That there is nothing perfect, in the best things, in spiritual things; Even Martha's devotion and faith hath imperfections in it; And we consider the other, That nothing is permanent in temporal things; Riches prosperously multiplied, Children honorably bestowed, Additions of Honor and Titles, fairly acquired, Places of Command and Government, justly received, and duly executed; All testimonies, all evidences of worldly happiness, have a Dissolution, a Determination in the death of this, and of every such Man: There is nothing, no spiritual thing, perfect in this world; Nothing, no temporal thing, permanent and durable; And these two Considerations shall be our two parts; And then, these the branches from these two roots; First, in the first, we shall see in general, The weakness of Mans best actions; And secondly, more particularly, The weaknesses in Martha's Action; And yet, in a third place, the easiness, the propenseness, the largeness of Gods goodness towards us, in the acceptation of our imperfect Sacrifices; for, Christ does not refuse, nor discourage Martha, though her action have these imperfections; And in this largeness of his Mercy, which is the end of all, we shall end this part. And in our second, That as in spiritual things nothing is perfect, so in tempoporal things nothing is permanent, we shall, by the same three steps, as in the former, look first upon the general consideration, the fluidness, the transitoriness of all such temporal things; And then, consider it more particularly, in Gods Master-piece, amongst mortal things, the body of man, That even that flows into putrefaction; And then lastly, return to that, in which we determined the former part, The largeness of Gods goodness to us, in affording even to mans body, so dissolved into putrefaction, an incorruptible and a glorious state. So have you the frame set up, and the rooms divided; The two parts, and the three branches of each; And to the furnishing of them, with meditations fit for this Occasion, we pass now.

In entering upon the first branch of our first part, That in spiritual things nothing is perfect, we may well afford a kind of spiritual nature to knowledge; And how imperfect is all our knowledge? What one thing do we know perfectly? Whether we consider Arts, or Sciences, the servant knows but according to the proportion of his Masters knowledge in that Art, and the Scholar knows but according to the proportion of his Masters knowledge in that Science; Young men mend not their sight by using old mens Spectacles; and yet we look upon Nature, but with Aristotles Spectacles, and upon the body of man, but with Galens, and upon the frame of the world, but with Ptolomies Spectacles. Almost all knowledge is rather like a child that is embalmed to make Mummy, then that is nursed to make a Man; rather conserved in the stature of the first age, then grown to be greater; And if there be any addition to knowledge, it is rather a new knowledge, then a greater knowledge; rather a singularity in a desire of proposing something that was not known at all before, then an emproving, an advancing, a multiplying of former inceptions; and by that means, no knowledge comes to be perfect. One Philosopher thinks he is dived to the bottom, when he says, he knows nothing but this, That he knows nothing; and yet another thinks, that he hath expressed more knowledge then he, in saying, That he knows not so much as that, That he knows nothing. S. Paul found that to be all knowledge, To know Christ; And Mahomet thinks himself wise therefore, because he knows not, acknowledges not Christ, as S. Paul does. Though a man knew not, that every sin casts another shovel of Brimstone upon him in Hell, yet if he knew that every riotous feast cuts off a year, and every wanton night seven years of his seventy in this world, it were some degree towards perfection in knowledge. He that purchases a Mannor, will think to have an exact Survey of the Land: But who thinks of taking so exact a survey of his Conscience, how that money was got, that purchased that Mannor? We call that a mans means, which he hath; But that is truly his means, what way he came by it. And yet how few are there, (when a state comes to any great proportion) that know that; that know what they have, what they are worth? We have seen great Wills, dilated into glorious uses, and into pious uses, and then too narrow an estate to reach to it; And we have seen Wills, where the Testator thinks he hath bequeathed all, and he hath not known half his own worth. When thou knowest a wife, a son, a servant, a friend no better, but that that wife betrays thy bed, and that son thine estate, and that servant thy credit, and that friend thy secret, what canst thou say thou knowest? But we must not insist upon this Consideration of knowledge; for, though knowledge be of a spiritual nature, yet it is but as a terrestrial Spirit, conversant upon Earth; Spiritual things, of a more rarified nature then knowledge, even faith it self, and all that grows from that in us, falls within this Rule, which we have in hand, That even in spiritual things, nothing is perfect.

We consider this therefore in Credendis, In things that we are bound to Believe, there works our faith; And then, in Petendis, In things that we are bound to pray for, there works our hope; And lastly, in Agendis, In things that we are bound to do, and there works our charity; And there is nothing in any of these three perfect. When you remember who they were, that made that prayer, Domine adauge, That the Apostles themselves prayed, that their faith might receive an increase, Lord increase our faith, you must necessarily second that consideration with a confession, That no mans faith is perfect. When you hear Christ so often upbraid, sometimes whole Congregations, with that, Modicae fidei, O yee of little faith; And sometimes his Disciples alone, with the same reproach, Modicae fidei, O yee of little faith; when you may be perplexed with the variety of opinions amongst the ancient Interpreters, whether Christ spoke but to the incredulous Jews, or to his own Disciples, when he said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? (for many Interpreters go one way, and many the other) And when you may be cleared without any color of perplexity, that to whom soever Christ spoke in that place, he spoke plainly to his own Disciples, when he said, Because of your unbelief you cannot do this; In which Disciples of his, he denies also, that there is such a proportion of faith, as a grain of Mustardseed, can ye place a perfectness of faith in any? When the Apostle takes knowledge of the good estate and condition of the Thessalonians, and gave God thanks for their Works of faith, for their labours of love, for their patience of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ: does he conclude them to be perfect? No; for after this he says, Night and day we pray exceedingly, that we may perfect that which is lacking in your faith. And after this, he sees the fruit of those prayers, We are bound to thank God always, because your faith groweth exceedingly; still, at the best, it is but a growing faith, and it may be better. There are men that are said to be Rich in faith; men that are come from the weak and beggarly elements of Nature, or of the Law, to the knowledge of the precious and glorious Gospel, and so are Rich in faith, enriched, emproved by faith. There are men that Abound in faith; that is, in comparison of the emptiness of other men, or of their own emptiness before they embraced the Gospel, they abound now; But still it is, As God hath given the measure of faith to every man; Not as of his Manna, a certain measure, and an equal measure, and a full measure to every man; no man hath such a measure of faith, as that he needs no more, or that he may not lose at least some of that. When Christ speaks so doubtfully, When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon earth? Any faith in any man? If the Holy Ghost be come into this presence, into this Congregation, does he find faith in any? A perfect faith he does not.

Deceive not your selves then, with that new charm and flattery of the soul, That if once you can say to your selves you have faith, you need no more, or that you shall always keep that alive; The Apostle says, All boasting, that is, all confidence, is excluded; By what Law? says he, by the Law of faith, Not by faith, but by the Law of faith; There is a Law of faith; a rule that ordinates, and regulates our faith; by which law and rule, the Apostle calls upon us, To examine our selves whether we be in the faith, or no; not only by the internal motions, and private inspirations of his blessed Spirit, but by the Law and the Rule, which he hath delivered to us in the Gospel. The Kings pardon flows from his mere grace, and from his brest; but we must have the writing and the Seal, that we may plead it: So does faith from God; But we must see it our selves, and show it to others, or else we do not observe the Law of faith. Abraham received the Seal of the righteousness of faith, says the Apostle; He had an outward testimony to proceed by; And then, Abraham became an outward testimony and Rule to the faithful, Walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham, says that Apostle in that place; Not a faith conceived only, but a faith which you saw, The faith of Abraham; for, so the Apostle proposing to us the example of other men says, Their faith follow you, Not faith in general, but their faith. So that it is not enough to say, I feel the inspiration of the Spirit of God, He infuses faith, and faith infused cannot be withdrawn; but, as there is a Law of faith, and a practise of faith, a Rule of faith, and an example of faith, apply thy self to both, Regulate thy faith by the Rule, that is, the Word, and by Example, that is, Believe those things which the Saints of God have constantly and unanimously believed to be necessary to salvation: The Word is the Law, and the Rule, The Church is the Practise, and the Precedent that regulates thy faith; And if thou make imaginary revelations, and inspirations thy Law, or the practise of Sectaries thy Precedent, thou doest but call Fancy and Imagination, by the name of Reason and Understanding, and Opinion by the name of Faith, and Singularity, and Schism, by the name of Communion of Saints. The Law of thy faith is, That that that thou beleevest, be Universal, Catholic, believed by all; And then, that the Application be particular, To believe, that as Christ died sufficiently for all, so he died effectually for thee. And of this effectual dying for thee, there arises an evidence from thy self, in thy conformity to him; Thy conformity consists in this, That thou art willing to live according to his Gospel, and ready to dye for him, that died for thee. For, till a man have resisted unto blood, he cannot know experimentally what degrees towards perfection his faith hath: And though he may conceive in himself a holy purpose to dye for Christ, yet till he have died for Christ, or died in Christ, that is, as long as we are in this valley of temptations, there is nothing, no not in spiritual things, not in faith it self, perfect.

It is not In credendis, in our embracing the object of faith; we do not that perfectly; It is not In petendis, in our directing our prayers faithfully neither; we do not that; our faith is not perfect, nor our hope is not perfect; for, so argues the Apostle, Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amisse; you cannot hope constantly, because you do not pray aright: And to make a Prayer a right Prayer, there go so many essential circumstances, as that the best man may justly suspect his best Prayer: for, since Prayer must be of faith, Prayer can be but so perfect, as the faith is perfect; and the imperfections of the best faith we have seen. Christ hath given us but a short Prayer; and yet we are weary of that. Some of the old Heretics of the Primitive Church abridged that Prayer, and some of our later Schismatiques have annihilated, evacuated that Prayer: The Cathari then, left out that one Petition, Dimitte nobis, Forgive us our trespasses, for they thought themselves so pure, as that they needed no forgiveness, and our new men leave out the whole Prayer, because the same Spirit that spake in Christ, speaks in their extemporal prayers, and they can pray, as well as Christ could teach them. And (to leave those, whom we are bound to leave, those old Heretics, those new Schismatiques) which of us ever, ever says over that short Prayer, with a deliberate understanding of every Petition as we pass, or without deviations, and extravagancies of our thoughts, in that half-minute of our Devotion? We have not leisure to speak of the abuse of prayer in the Roman Church; where they will antedate and postdate their prayers; Say to morrows prayers to day, and to days prayers to morrow, if they have other uses and employments of the due time between; where they will trade, and make merchandise of prayers by way of exchange, My man shall fast for me, and I will pray for my man; or my Atturney, and Proxy shall pray for us both, at my charge; nay, where they will play for prayers, and the loser must pray for both; To this there belongs but a holy scorn, and I would fain pass it over quickly. But when we consider with a religious seriousness the manifold weaknesses of the strongest devotions in time of Prayer, it is a sad consideration. I throw my self down in my Chamber, and I call in, and invite God, and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a Fly, for the ratling of a Coach, for the whining of a door; I talk on, in the same posture of praying; Eyes lifted up; knees bowed down; as though I prayed to God; and, if God, or his Angels should ask me, when I thought last of God in that prayer, I cannot tell: Sometimes I find that I had forgot what I was about, but when I began to forget it, I cannot tell. A memory of yesterdays pleasures, a fear of to morrows dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an any thing, a nothing, a fancy, a Chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer. So certainly is there nothing, nothing in spiritual things, perfect in this world.

Not In credendis, In things that belong to Faith; not In petendis, In things that belong to Hope; nor In agendis, In things that belong to Action, to Works, to Charity, there is nothing perfect there neither. I would be loath to say, That every good work is a sin; That were to say, That every deformed, or disordered man were a beast, or that every corrupt meat were poison; It is not utterly so; not so altogether; But it is so much towards it, as that there is no work of ours so good, as that we can look for thanks at Gods hand for that work; no work, that hath not so much ill mingled with it, as that we need not cry God mercy for that work. There was so much corruption in the getting, or so much vain glory in the bestowing, as that no man builds an Hospital, but his soul lies, though not dead, yet lame in that Hospital; no man mends a high-way, but he is, though not drowned, yet mired in that way; no man relieves the poor, but he needs relief for that relief. In all those works of Charity, the world that hath benefit by them, is bound to confess and acknowledge a goodness, and to call them good works; but the man that does them, and knows the weaknesses of them, knows they are not good works. It is possible to Art, to purge a peccant humor out of a sick body; but not possible to raise a dead body to life. God, out of my Confession of the impurity of my best actions, shall vouchsafe to take off his eyes from that impurity, as though there were none; but no spiritual thing in us, not Faith, not Hope, not Charity, have any purity, any perfection in themselves; which is the general Doctrine we proposed at first; And our next Consideration is, how this weakness appears in the Action, and in the Words of Martha in our Text, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

Now lest we should attribute this weakness, only to weak persons, upon whom we had a prejudice, to Martha alone, we note to you first, that her sister Mary, to whom in the whole Story very much is ascribed, when she comes to Christ, comes also in the same voice of infirmity, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. No person so perfect, that hath not of these imperfections; Both these holy Sisters, howsoever there might be differences of degrees in their holiness, have imperfections in all three, in the consideration of their Faith, and their Hone, and their Charity; though in all three they had also, and had both, good degrees towards perfection. Look first upon their Faith; they both say, Lord, if thou hadst been here, our brother had not died. We cannot say so to any Consultation, to any Colledge of Physicians; not to a Chiron, to an Esculapius, to a God of Physic, could any man say, If you had been here, my friend had not died? though surely there be much assistance to be received from them, whom God hath endowed with knowledge to that purpose. And yet there was a weakness in these Sisters, in that they said but so, and no more to Christ. They thought Christ to be the best amongst good men; but yet they were not come to the knowledge that he was God. Martha says, I know, that even now, whatsoever thou askest of God, God will give it thee; but she does not know him to be God himself. I do not here institute a confutation, but here, and every where I lament the growth, and insinuation of that pestilent Heresy of Socinianisme; That Christ was a holy, a thrice-holy man, an unreproachable, an irreprehensible, an admirable, an incomparable man; A man, to whom, he that should equal any other man, were worse then a Devil; A man worthy to be called God, in a far higher sense then any Magistrate, any King, any Prophet; But yet he was no God, say they, no Son of God; A Redemer, by way of good example; but no Redeemer, by way of equivalent satisfaction, say those Heretics. S. Paul says, He is an Atheist, that is without Christ; And he is as much an Atheist still, that pretends to receive Christ, and not as God; For if the receiving of Christ must redeem him from being an Atheist, there can no other way be imagined, but by receiving him as God, for that only, and no other good opinion of Christ, overcomes, and removes his Atheism. After the last day, whatsoever is not Heaven, is Hell; He that then shall be where the Sun is now, (if he be not then in heaven) shall be as far from heaven, as if he were where the Center of the earth is now; He that confesses not all Christ, confesses no Christ. Horribile dictu, dicam tamen, says S. Augustine in another case; There belongs a holy trembing to the saying of it, yet I must say it, If Christ were not God, he was a devil that durst say he was God. This then was one weakness in these Sisters faith, that it carried them not up to the consideration of Christ as God; And then another rose out of that, That they insisted so much, relied so much, upon his corporal, and personal presence, and promised themselves more from that, then he had ever given them ground for; which was that which Christ diverted Mary from, when after his Resurrection manifesting himself to her, and she flying unto him with that impatient zeal, and that impetuous devotion, Rabboni, Master, My Master, Christ said to her, Touch me not, for I am not ascended to my Father; that is, Dwell not upon this passionate consideration of my bodily, and personal presence, but send thy thoughts, and thy reverence, and thy devotion, and thy holy amorousness up, whither I am going, to the right hand of my Father, and consider me, contemplate me there. S. Peter had another holy distemper of another kind, upon the personal presence of Christ; He was so astonished at his presence in the power of a Miracle, that he fell down at his feet, and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. These Sisters longed for him, and S. Peter longed as much to be delivered of him; both out of weakness and error. So is it an error, and a weakness to attribute too much, or too little to Christs presence in his Sacraments, or other Ordinances. To imprison Christ in Opere operato, to conclude him so, as that where that action is done, Christ must necessarily be, and necessarily work, this is to say weakly with these Sisters, Lord, if thou hadst been here, our brother had not died. As long as we are present at thine Ordinance, thou art present with us. But to banish Christ from those holy actions, and to say, That he is no otherwise present, or works no otherwise in those actions, then in other times, and places, this is to say with Peter, in his astonishment, Exi à me Domine, O Lord depart from me; It is enough that thy Sacrament be a sign; I do not look that it should be a Seal, or a Conduit of Grace; This is the danger this is the distemper, to ascribe too much, or too little to Gods visible Ordinances, and Institutions, either to say with those holy Sisters, Lord, if thou hadst been here, our brother had not died, If we have a Sacrament, if we have a Sermon all is well, we have enough; or else with Peter, Exi à me, Leave me to my self, to my private motions, to my bosom inspirations, and I need no Church-work, no Sermons, no Sacraments, no such assistances.

So there was weakness in their Faith, there was so too in their Hope, in their confidence in Christ, and in their manner of expressing it. For, they did not go to him, when their brother was sick, but sent. Nicodemus came in person for his sick soul; And the Centurion in person, for his sick servant; And Iairus in person, for his sick daughter; And the woman with the bloody Issue in person, for her sick-self. These sisters did but send, but piously, and reverendly; Their Messenger was to say to Christ, not Lazarus, not Our Brother, but He whom thou lovest, is sick; And they left this intimation to work upon Christ; But that was not enough, we must bring Christ and our necessities nearer together then so. There is good instruction in the several expressings of Christs curings of Peters mother in the Evangelists. S. Mark says, They told him of her; And S. Luke says, They brought him up to her; And S. Matthew says, He saw her, and took her by the hand. I must not wrap up all my necessities in general terms in my prayers, but descend to particulars; For this places my devotion upon particular considerations of God, to consider him in every Attribute, what God hath done for me in Power, what in Wisdom, what in Mercy; which is a great assistance, and establishing, and propagation of devotion. As it is a degree of unthankfulness, to thank God too generally, and not to delight to insist upon the weight, and measure, and proportion, and the goodness of every particular mercy: so is it an irreverent, and inconsiderate thing, not to take my particular wants into my thoughts, and into my prayers, that so I may take a holy knowledge, that I have nothing, nothing but from God, and by prayer. And as God is an accessible God, as he is his own Master of Requests, and is ever open to receive thy Petions, in how small a matter soever: so is he an inexhaustible God, he can give infinitely, and an indefatigable God, he cannot be pressed too much. Therefore hath Christ given us a Parable of getting Bread at midnight by Importunity, and not otherwise; And another of a Judge that heard the widows cause by Importunity, and not otherwise; And, not a Parable, but a History, and a History of his own, of a woman of Canaan, that overcame him in the behalf of her daughter, by Importunity; when, but by importunity, she could not get so much as an answer, as a denial at his hands. Pray personally, rely not upon dead nor living Saints; Thy Mother the Church prays for thee, but pray for thy self too; She can open her bosom, and put the breast to thy mouth, but thou must draw, and suck for thy self. Pray personally, and pray frequently; David had may stationary times of the day, and night too, to pray in. Pray frequently, and pray fervently; God took it not ill, at Davids hands, to be awaked, and to be called up, as though he were asleep at our prayers, and to be called upon, to pull his hand out of his bosom, as though he were slack in relieving our necessities. This was a weakness in those Sisters, that they solicited not Christ in person; still get as near God as you can; And that they declared not their case particularly; It is not enough to pray, nor to confess in general terms; And, that they pursued not their prayer earnestly, thoroughly; It is not enough to have prayed once; Christ does not only excuse, but enjoine Importunity.

And then a weakness there was in their Charity too, even towards their dead brother. To lament a dead friend is natural, and civil; and he is the deader of the two, the verier carcass, that does not so. But inordinate lamentation implies a suspicion of a worse state in him that is gone; And if I do believe him to be in heaven, deliberately, advisedly to wish him here, that is in heaven, is an uncharitable desire. For, for me to say, He is preferred by being where he is, but I were better, if he were again where I am, were such an indispofition, as if the Princes servant should be loath to see his Master King, because he should not hold the same place with him, being King, as he did when he was Prince. Not to hope well of him that is gone, is uncharitableness; and at the same time, when I believe him to be better, to wish him worse, is uncharitableness too. And such weaknesses were in those holy and devout Sisters of Lazarus; which establishes our Conclusion, There is nothing in this world, no not in spiritual things, not in knowledge, not in faith, not in hope, not in charity perfect. But yet, for all these imperfections, Christ doth not refuse, nor chide, but cherish their piety, which is also another circumstance in that Part.

There is no forme of Building stronger then an Arch, and yet an Arch hath declinations, which even a flat-roof hath not; The flat-roof lies equal in all parts; the Arch declines downwards in all parts, and yet the Arch is a firm supporter. Our Devotions do not the less bear us upright, in the sight of God, because they have some declinations towards natural affections: God doth easier pardon some neglectings of his grace, when it proceeds out of a tenderness, or may be excused out of good nature, then any presuming upon his grace. If a man do depart in some actions, from an exact obedience of Gods will, upon infirmity, or humane affections, and not a contempt, God passes it over often times. For, when our Savior Christ says, Be pure as your Father in heaven is pure, that is a rule for our purity, but not a measure of our purity; It is that we should be pure so, not that we should be so pure as our Father in heaven. When we consider that weakness, that went through the Apostles, even to Christs Ascension, that they looked for a temporal Kingdom, and for preferment in that; when we consider that weakness in the chief of them, S. Peter, at the Transfiguration, when, as the Text says, He knew not what to say; when we consider the weakness of his action, that for fear of death, he renounced the Lord of Life, and denied his Master; when in this very story, when Christ said that Lazarus was asleep, and that he would go to awake him, they could understand it so impertinently, as that Christ should go such a journey, to come to the waking of a man, asleep at that time when he spoke; All these infirmities of theirs, multiply this consolation upon us, That though God look upon the Inscription, he looks upon the metal too, Though he look that his Image should be preserved in us, he looks in what earthen vessels this Image is put, and put by his own hand; and though he hate us in our rebellions, yet he pities us in our grievances; though he would have us better, he forsakes us not for every degree of illness. There are three great dangers in this consideration of perfectness, and purity; First to distrust of Gods mercy, if thou find not this purity in thy self, and this perfectness; And then to presume upon God, nay upon thine own right, in an overvaluing of thine own purity, and perfectness; And again, to condemn others, whom thou wilt needs think less pure, or perfect then thy self. Against this diffidence in God, to think our selves so desperately impure, as that God will not look upon us; And this presumption in God, to think our selves so pure, as that God is bound to look upon us; And this uncharitableness towards others, to think none pure at all, that are not pure our way; Christ armes us by his Example, He receives these sisters of Lazarus, and accomplishes as much as they desired, though there were weaknesses in their Faith, in their Hope, in their Charity, expressed in that unperfect speech, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died: for, there is nothing, not in spiritual things perfect. This we have seen out of the Text we have Heard; And now out of the Text, which we See, we shall see the rest, That as in spiritual things, there is nothing Perfect, so in temporal, there is nothing Permanent.

I need not call in new Philosophy, that denies a settledness, an acquiescence in the very body of the Earth, but makes the Earth to move in that place, where we thought the Sun had moved; I need not that help, that the Earth it self is in Motion, to prove this, That nothing upon Earth is permanent; The Assertion will stand of it self, till some man assign me some instance, something that a man may rely upon, and find permanent. Consider the greatest Bodies upon Earth, The Monarchies; Objects, which one would think, Destiny might stand and stare at, but not shake; Consider the smallest bodies upon Earth, The hairs of our head, Objects, which one would think, Destiny would not observe, or could not discern; And yet, Destiny, (to speak to a natural man) And God, (to speak to a Christian) is no more troubled to make a Monarchy ruinous, then to make a hair gray. Nay, nothing needs be done to either, by God, or Destiny; A Monarchy will ruin, as a hair will grow gray, of it self. In the Elements themselves, of which all sub-elementary things are composed, there is no acquiescence, but a vicissitudinary transmutation into one another; Air condensed becomes water, a more solid body, And Air rarified becomes fire, a body more disputable, and in-apparent. It is so in the Conditions of men too; A Merchant condensed, kneaded and packed up in a great estate, becomes a Lord; And a Merchant rarified, blown up by a perfidious Factor, or by a riotous Son, evaporates into air, into nothing, and is not seen. And if there were any thing permanent and durable in this world, yet we got nothing by it, because howsoever that might last in it self, yet we could not last to enjoy it; If our goods were not amongst Moveables, yet we our selves are; if they could stay with us, yet we cannot stay with them; which is another Consideration in this part.

The world is a great Volume, and man the Index of that Book; Even in the body of man, you may turn to the whole world; This body is an Illustration of all Nature; Gods recapitulation of all that he had said before, in his Fiat lux, and Fiat firmamentum, and in all the rest, said or done, in all the six days. Propose this body to thy consideration in the highest exaltation thereof; as it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost: Nay, not in a Metaphor, or comparison of a Temple, or any other similitudinary thing, but as it was really and truly the very body of God, in the person of Christ, and yet this body must wither, must decay, must languish, must perish. When Goliah had armed and fortified this body, And Iezabel had painted and perfumed this body, And Dives had pampered and larded this body, As God said to Ezekiel, when he brought him to the dry bones, Fili hominis, Son of Man, doest thou think these bones can live? They said in their hearts to all the world, Can these bodies die? And they are dead. Iezabels dust is not Ambar, nor Goliahs dust Terra sigillata, Medicinal; nor does the Serpent, whose meat they are both, find any better rellish in Dives dust, then in Lazarus. But as in our former part, where our foundation was, That in nothing, no spiritual thing, there was any perfectness, which we illustrated in the weaknesses of Knowledge, and Faith, and Hope, and Charity, yet we concluded, that for all those defects, God accepted those their religious services; So in this part, where our foundation is, That nothing in temporal things is permanent, as we have illustrated that, by the decay of that which is Gods noblest piece in Nature, The body of man; so we shall also conclude that, with this goodness of God, that for all this dissolution, and putrefaction, he affords this Body a Resurrection.

The Gentiles, and their Poets, describe the sad state of Death so, Nox una obeunda, That it is one everlasting Night; To them, a Night; But to a Christian, it is Dies Mortis, and Dies Resurrectionis, The day of Death, and The day of Resurrection; We die in the light, in the sight of Gods presence, and we rise in the light, in the sight of his very Essence. Nay, Gods corrections, and judgements upon us in this life, are still expressed so, Dies visitationis, still it is a Day, though a Day of visitation; and still we may discern God to be in the action. The Lord of Life was the first that named Death; Morte morieris, says God, Thou shalt die the Death. I do the less fear, or abhorre Death, because I find it in his mouth; Even a malediction hath a sweetness in his mouth; for there is a blessing wrapped up in it; a mercy in every correction, a Resurrection upon every Death. When Iezabels beauty, exalted to that height which it had by art, or higher then that, to that height which it had in her own opinion, shall be infinitely multiplied upon every Body; And as God shall know no man from his own Son, so as not to see the very righteousness of his own Son upon that man; So the Angels shall know no man from Christ, so as not to desire to look upon that mans face, because the most deformed wretch that is there, shall have the very beauty of Christ himself; So shall Goliahs armor, and Dives fullness, be doubled, and redoubled upon us, And every thing that we can call good, shall first be infinitely exalted in the goodness, and then infinitely multiplied in the proportion, and again infinitely extended in the duration. And since we are in an action of preparing this dead Brother of ours to that state, (for the Funeral is the Easter-eve, The Burial is the depositing of that man for the Resurrection) As we have held you, with Doctrine of Mortification, by extending the Text, from Martha to this occasion; so shall we dismiss you with Consolation, by a like occasional inverting the Text, from passion in Martha's mouth, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my Brother had not died, to joy in ours, Lord, because thou wast here, our Brother is not dead.

The Lord was with him in all these steps; with him in his life; with him in his death; He is with him in his funerals, and he shall be with him in his Resurrection; and therefore, because the Lord was with him, our Brother is not dead. He was with him in the beginning of his life, in this manifestation, That though he were of Parents of a good, of a great Estate, yet his possibility and his expectation from them, did not slacken his own industry; which is a Canker that eats into, nay that hath eat up many a family in this City, that relying wholly upon what the Father hath done, the Son does nothing for himself. And truly, it falls out too often, that he that labours not for more, does not keep his own. God imprinted in him an industrious disposition, though such hopes from such parents might have excused some slackness, and God prospered his industry so, as that when his Fathers estate came to a distribution by death, he needed it not. God was with him, as with David in a Dilatation, and then in a Repletion; God enlarged him, and then he filled him; He gave him a large and a comprehensive understanding, and with it, A public heart; And such as perchance in his way of education, and in our narrow and contracted-times, in which every man determines himself in himself, and scarce looks farther, it would be hard to find many Examples of such largeness. You have, I think, a phrase of Driving a Trade; And you have, I know, a practise of Driving away Trade, by other use of money; And you have lost a man, that drove a great Trade, the right way in making the best use of our home-commodity. To fetch in Wine, and Spice, and Silk, is but a drawing of Trade; The right driving of trade, is, to vent our own outward; And yet, for the drawing in of that, which might justly seem most behoofeful, that is, of Arts, and Manufactures, to be employed upon our own Commodity within the Kingdom, he did his part, diligently, at least, if not vehemently, if not passionately. This City is a great Theater, and he Acted great and various parts in it; And all well; And when he went higher, (as he was often heard in Parliaments, at Council tables, and in more private accesses to the late King of ever blessed memory) as, for that comprehension of those businesses, which he pretended to understand, no man doubts, for no man lacks arguments and evidences of his ability therein, So for his manner of expressing his intentions, and digesting and uttering his purposes, I have sometimes heard the greatest Master of Language and Judgement, which these times, or any other did, or do, or shall give, (that good and great King of ours) say of him, That he never heard any man of his breeding, handle businesses more rationally, more pertinently, more elegantly, more perswasively; And when his purpose was, to do a grace to a Preacher, of very good abilities, and good note in his own Chappel, I have heard him say, that his language, and accent, and manner of delivering himself, was like this man. This man hath God accompanied all his life; and by performance thereof seems to have made that Covenant with him, which he made to Abraham, Multiplicabote vehementer, I will multiply thee exceedingly. He multiplied his estate so, as was fit to endow many and great Children; and he multiplied his Children so, both in their number, and in their quality, as they were fit to receive a great Estate. God was with him all the way, In a Pillar of Fire, in the brightness of prosperity, and in the Pillar of Clouds too, in many dark, and sad, and heavy crosses: So great a Ship, required a great Ballast, So many blessings, many crosses; And he had them, and sailed on his course the steadier for them; The Cloud as well as the Fire, was a Pillar to him; His crosses, as well as his blessings established his assurance in God; And so, in all the course of his life, The Lord was here, and therefore our Brother is not dead; not dead in the evidences and testimonies of life; for he, whom the world hath just cause to celebrate, for things done, when he was alive, is alive still in their celebration.

The Lord was here, that is, with him at his death too. He was served with the Process here in the City, but his cause was heard in the Country; Here he sickened, There he languished, and died there. In his sickness there, those that assisted him, are witnesses, of his many expressings, of a religious & a constant heart towards God, and of his pious joining with them, even in the holy declaration of kneeling, then, when they, in favor of his weakness, would dissuade him from kneeling. I must not defraud him of this testimony frōmy self, that into this place where we are now met, I have observed him to enter with much reverence, & compose himself in this place with much declaration of devotion. And truly it is that reverence, which those persons who are of the same rank that he was in the City, that reverence that they use in this place, when they come hither, is that that makes us, who have now the administration of this Quire, glad, that our Predecessors, but a very few years before our time, (and not before all our times neither) admitted these Honourable and worshipful Persons of this City, to sit in this Quire, so, as they do upon Sundays: The Church receives an honor in it; But the honor is more in their reverence, then in their presence; though in that too: And they receive an honor, and an ease in it; and therefore they do piously towards God, and prudently for themselves, and gratefully towards us, in giving us, by their reverent comportment here, so just occasion of continuing that honor, and that ease to them here, which to less reverend, and unrespective persons, we should be less willing to do. To return to him in his sickness; He had but one days labor, and all the rest were Sabbaths, one day in his sickness he converted to business; Thus; He called his family, and friends together; Thankfully he acknowledged Gods manifold blessings, and his own sins as penitently: And then, to those who were to have the disposing of his estate, jointly with his Children, he recommended his servants, and the poor, and the Hospitals, and the Prisons, which, according to his purpose, have been all taken into consideration; And after this (which was his Valediction to the world) he seemed always loath to return to any worldly business, His last Commandment to Wife and Children was Christs last commandment to his Spouse the Church, in the Apostles, To love one another. He blest them, and the Estate devolved upon them, unto them: And by Gods grace shall prove as true a Prophet to them in that blessing, as he was to himself, when in entering his last bed, two days before his Death, he said, Help me off with my earthly habit, & let me go to my last bed. Where, in the second night after, he said, Little know ye what pain I feel this night, yet I know, I shall have joy in the morning; And in that morning he died. The forme in which he implored his Savior, was evermore, towards his end, this, Christ Jesus, which died on the Cross, forgive me my sins; He have mercy upon me: And his last and dying words were the repetition of the name of Jesus; And when he had not strength to utter that name distinctly and perfectly, they might hear it from within him, as from a man a far off; even then, when his hollow and remote naming of Jesus, was rather a certifying of them, that he was with his Jesus, then a prayer that he might come to him. And so The Lord was here, here with him in his Death; and because the Lord was here, our Brother is not dead; not dead in the eyes and ears of God; for as the blood of Abel speaks yet, so doth the zeal of Gods Saints; and their last prayers (though we hear them not) God continues still; and they pray in Heaven, as the Martyrs under the Altar, even till the Resurrection.

He is with him now too; Here in his Funerals. Burial, and Christian Burial, and Solemn Burial are all evidences, and testimonies of Gods presence. God forbid we should conclude, or argue an absence of God, from the want of Solemn Burial, or Christian Burial, or any Burial; But neither must we deny it, to be an evidence of his favor and presence, where he is pleased to afford these. So God makes that the seal of all his blessings to Abraham, That he should be buried in a good age; God established Jacob with that promise, That his Son Joseph should have care of his Funerals: And Joseph does cause his servants, The Physicians, to embalm him, when he was dead. Of Christ it was Prophesied; That he should have a glorious Burial; And therefore Christ interprets well that profuse, and prodigal piety of the Woman that poured out the Ointment upon him, That she did it to Bury him; And so shall Joseph of Arimathea be ever celebrated, for his care in celebrating Christs Funerals. If we were to send a Son, or a friend, to take possession of any place in Court, or foreign parts, we would send him out in the best equipage: Let us not grudge to set down our friends, in the Anti-chamber of Heaven, the Grave, in as good manner, as without vain-gloriousness, and wastefulness we may; And, in inclining them, to whom that care belongs, to express that care as they do this day, The Lord is with him, even in this Funeral; And because The Lord is here, our brother is not dead; Not dead in the memories and estimation of men.

And lastly, that we may have God present in all his Manifestations, He that was, and is, and is to come, was with him, in his life and death, and is with him in this holy Solemnity, and shall be with him again in the Resurrection. God says to Jacob, I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again. God goes down with a good man into the Grave, and will surely bring him up again. When? The Angel promised to return to Abraham and Sarah, for the assurance of the birth of Isaac, according to the time of life; that is, in such time, as by nature a woman may have a child. God will return to us in the Grave, according to the time of life; that is, in such time, as he, by his gracious Decree, hath fixed for the Resurrection. And in the mean time, no more then the God-head departed from the dead body of our Savior, in the grave, doth his power, and his presence depart from our dead bodies in that darkness; But that which Moses said to the whole Congregation, I say to you all, both to you that hear me, and to him that does not, All ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God, are alive, every one of you, this day; Even he, whom we call dead, is alive this day. In the presence of God, we lay him down; In the power of God, he shall rise; In the person of Christ, he is risen already. And so into the same hands that have received his soul, we commend his body; beseeching his blessed Spirit, that as our charity inclines us to hope confidently of his good estate, our faith may assure us of the same happiness, in our own behalf; And that for all our sakes, but especially for his own glory, he will be pleased to hasten the consummation of all, in that kingdom which that Son of God hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649)

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Serm. I.

MATTH. 22. 30. For, in the Resurrection, they neither mary nor are given in Marriage, but are as the Angels of God in heaven.

OF all Commentaries upon the Scriptures, Good Examples are the best and the livelyest; and of all Examples those that are nearest, and most present, and most familiar unto us; and our most familiar Examples, are those of our own families; and in families, the Masters of families, the fathers of families, are most conspicuous, most applicable, most considerable. Now, in exercises upon such occasions as this, ordinarily, the instruction is to be directed especially upon those persons, who especially give the occasion of the exercise; that is, upon the persons to be united in holy wedlock: for, as that's a difference between Sermons and Lectures, that a Sermon intends Exhortation principally and Edification, and a holy stirring of religious affections, and then matters of Doctrine, and points of Divinity, occasionally, secondarily, as the words of the text may invite them; But Lectures intend principally Doctrinal points, and matter of Divinity, and matter of Exhortation but occasionally, and as in a second place: so that's a difference between Christening sermons, and Marriage sermons, that the first, at Christnings, are especially directed upon the Congregation, and not upon the persons who are to be christened; and these, at marriages, especially upon the parties that are to be united; and upon the congregation, but by reflexion. When therefore to these persons of noble extraction, I am to say something of the Duties, and something of the Blessing, of Marriage, what God Commands, and what God promises in that state, in his Scriptures, I lay open to them, the best exposition, the best Commentaries upon those Scriptures, that is, Example, and the neerest example, that is, example in their own family, when, with the Prophet Isaiah, I direct them, To look upon the Rock, from whence they are hewen, to propose to themselves their own parents, and to consider there the performance of the duties of marriage imposed by God in S. Paul, and the blessings proposed by God in David, Thy Wife shall be a fruitful Vine by the sides of thy House, The children like olive plants round about the table; For, to this purpose of edifying children by example, such as are truly religious fathers in families, are therein truly learned fathers of the Church; A good father at home, is a S Augustin, and a S. Ambrose in himself; and such a Thomas may have governed as, as shall, by way of example, teach children, and children's children more to this purpose, then any Thomas Aquinas can. Since therefore these noble persons have so good a glass to dress themselves in, the useful, as the powerful example of Parents, I shall the less need to apply my self to them, for their particular instructions, but may have leave to extend my self upon considerations more general, and such as may be appliable to all, who have, or shall embrace that honourable state, or shall any way assist at the solemnizing thereof; that they may all make this union of Marriage, a Type, or a remembrancer of their union with God in Heaven. That as our Genesis is our Exodus, (our proceeding into the world, is a step out of the world) so every Gospel may be a Revelation unto us: All good tydings (which is the name of Gospel) all that ministers any joy to us here, may reveal, and manifest to us, an Interest in the joy and glory of heaven, and that our admission to a Marriage here, may be our invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb there, where in the Resurrection, we shall neither mary, nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven.

These words our blessed Savior spake to the Sadducees; who not believing the Resurrection of the Dead, put him a Case, that one woman hath had seven husbands, and then whose wife, of those seven should she be in the Resurrection? they would needs suppose, and prefume, that there could be no Resurrection of the body, but that there must be to all purposes, a Bodily use of the Body too, and then the question had been pertinent, whose wife of the seven shall she be? But Christ shews them their error, in the weakness of the foundation, she shall be none of their wives, for, In the Resurrection, they neither mary, &c. The words give us this latitude, when Christ says, In the Resurrection they mary not, &c. The words give us this latitude, when Christ says, In the Resurrection they mary not, &c. from thence flows out this concession, this proposition too; Till the Resurrection they shall mary, and be given in marriage; no inhibition to be laid upon persons, no imputation, no aspersion upon the state of marriage. And when Christ says, Then they are as the Angels of God in heaven, from this flows this concession, this proposition also, Till then we must not look for this Angelical state, but, as in all other states and conditions of life, so in all marriages there will be some encumbrances, betwixt all married persons, there will arise some unkindnesses, some mis-interpretations; or some too quick interpretations may sometimes sprinkle a little sourness, and spread a little, a thin, a dilute and washy cloud upon them; Then they mary not, till then they may; then their state shall be perfect as the Angels, till then it shall not; These are our branches, and the fruits that grow upon them, we shall pull in passing, and present them as we gather them.

First then, Christ establishes a Resurrection, A Resurrection there shall be, for, that makes up Gods circle. The Body of Man was the first point that the foot of Gods Compass was upon: First, he created the body of Adam: and then he carries his Compass round, and shuts up where he began, he ends with the Body of man again in the glorification thereof in the Resurrection. God is Alpha and Omega, first, and last: And his Alpha and Omega, his first, and last work is the Body of man too. Of the Immortality of the soul, there is not an express article of the Creed: for, that last article of The life everlasting, is rather de proemio, & poena, what the soul shall suffer, or what the soul shall enjoy, being presumed to be Immortal, then that it is said to be Immortal in that article; That article may, and does presuppose an Immortality, but it does not constitute an Immortality in our soul, for there would be a life everlasting in heaven, and we were bound to believe it, as we were bound to believe a God in heaven, though our souls were not immortal. There are so many evidences of the immortality of the soul, even to a natural mans reason, that it required not an Article of the Creed, to fix this notion of the Immortality of the soul. But the Resurrection of the Body is discernible by no other light, but that of Faith, nor could be fixed by any less assurance then an Article of the Creed. Where be all the splinters of that Bone, which a shot hath shivered and scattered in the Air? Where be all the Atoms of that flesh, which a Corrasive hath eat away, or a Consumption hath breathed, and exhaled away from our arms, and other Limbs? In what wrinkle, in what furrow, in what bowel of the earth, ly all the grains of the ashes of a body burnt a thousand years since? In what corner, in what ventricle of the sea, lies all the jelly of a Body drowned in the general flood? What cohaerence, what sympathy, what dependence maintains any relation, any correspondence, between that arm that was lost in Europe, and that legge that was lost in Afrique or Asia, scores of years between? One humor of our dead body produces worms, and those worms suck and exhaust all other humor, and then all dies, and all dries, and molders into dust, and that dust is blowen into the River, & that puddled water tumbled into the sea, and that ebs and flows in infinite revolutions, and still, still God knows in what Cabinet every seed-Pearl lies, in what part of the world every grain of every mans dust lies; and, sibilat populum suum, (as his Prophet speaks in another case) he whispers, he hisses, he beckens for them of his Saints, and in the twinkling of an eye, that body that was fcattered over all the elements, is sate down at the right hand of God, in a glorious resurrection. A Dropsy hath extended me to an enormous corpulency, and unwieldiness; a Consumption hath attenuated me to a feeble macilency and leanness, and God raises me a body, such as it should have been, if these infirmities had not intervened and deformed it. David could go no further in his book of Psalms, but to that, Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord; ye, says he, ye that have breath, praise ye the Lord, and that ends the book: But, that my Dead body should come to praise the Lord, this is that New Song, which I shall learn, and sing in heaven; when, not only my soul shall magnify the Lord, and my Spirit rejoice in God my Savior; but I shall have mine old eyes, and ears, and tongue, and knees, and receive such glory in my body my self, as that, in that body, so glorified by God, I also shall glorify him. So very a body, so perfectly a body shall we have there, as that Mahomet, and his followers, could not consist in those heavenly functions of the body, in glorifying God, but mis-imagine a feasting and banqueting, and all carnal pleasures of the body in heaven too. But there Christ stoppes; A Resurrection there shall be, but, in the Resurrection we shall not mary, &c.

They shall not mary, because they shall have none of the uses of marriage; not as marriage is physic against inordinate affections; for, every soul shall be a Consort in itself, and never out of tune: not as marriage is ordained for mutual help of one another; for God himself shall be entirely in every soul; And what can that soul lack, that hath all God? Not as marriage is a second and a suppletory eternity, in the continuation and propagation of Children; for they shall have the first Eternity, individual eternity in themselves. Therefore does S. Luke assign that reason why they shall not mary, Because they cannot dy. Because they have an eternity in themselves, they need not supply any defect, by a propagation of children.

But yet, though Christ exclude that, of which there is clearly no use in Heaven, Marriage, (because they need no physic, no mutual help, no supply of children, yet he excludes, not our knowing, or our loving of one another upon former knowledge in this world, in the next; Christ does not say expressly we shall, yet neither does he say, that we shall not, know one another there. Neither can we say, we shall not, because we know not how we should. Adam, who was asleep when Eve was made, and neither saw, nor felt any thing that God had done, knew Eve upon the very first sight, to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. By what light knew he this? And in the transfiguration of Christ, Peter, and James, and John knew Moses and Elijah, and by what light knew they them, whom they had never seen? Nor can we, or they, or any, be imagined to have any degree of knowledge of persons, or actions, though but occasionally, and transeuntly, in this life, which we shall not have inherently, and permanently in the next. In the Types of the general Resurrection, which were particular Resuscitations of the dead in this world, the Dead were restored to the knowledge of their friends: when Christ raised the son of the widow of Naim, he delivered him to his Mother; when Peter raised Tabitha, he called the Saints and the Widows, and presented her alive unto them. So God says to Abraham, Ibis ad patres, thou shalt go to thy fathers; he should know that they were his fathers: so to Moses, Iungeris populis tuis, Thou shalt dy, and be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died, and was gathered to his people. John Baptist had a knowledge of Christ, though they were both in their mothers wombs; and Dives of Lazarus, though in Hell; and it is not easily told, by what light these saw these. Whatsoever conduces to Gods glory, or our happiness, we shall certainly know in heaven: And he that in a rectified conscience believes that it does so, may piously believe that he shall know them there. In things of this nature, where no direct place of Scripture binds up thy faith, believe so, as most exalts thine own Devotion; yet with this Caution too, not to condemn uncharitably, and peremptorily, those that believe otherwise. A Resurrection there shall be: In the Resurrection there shall be no Marriage, because it conduces to no end; but, if it conduce to Gods glory, and my happiness, (as it may piously be believed it does) to know them there, whom I knew here, I shall know them.

Now from this, In the Resurrection they mary not, flows this also, Till the Resurrection they do, they may, they shall mary. Nay, in Gods first purpose and institution, They must: For God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. Every man is a natural body, every congregation is a politik body; The whole world is a Catholik, an universal body. For the sustentation and aliment of the natural body, Man, God hath given Meat; for the Politik, for societies, God hath given Industry, and several callings; and for the Catholik body, for the sustentation, and reparation of the world, God hath given Marriage. They that scatter themselves in various lusts, commit wast, and shall undergo at last, a heavy condemnation upon that Action of wast in their souls, as they shall feel it before in their bodies which they have wasted. They that mary not, do not keep the world in reparation; And the common law, the law of nature, and the general law of God binds man in general to that reparation of the world, to Marriage: for Continency is Privilegtum, a Privilege; that is, Privata lex; when it is given, it becomes a law too; for he to whom God gives the gift of Continency, is bound by it: it is Privata lex, a Law, an Obligation upon that particular man; And then Privilegium, is Privatio Legis, it is a dispensation upon that Law, which without that privilege, and dispensation would bind him; so that all those, who have not this privilege, this dispensation, this continency, by immediate gift from God, or other medicinal Disciplines, and Mortifications, (which Disciplines and Mortifications, every state and condition of life is not bound to exercise, because such Mortifications as would overcome their Concupiscences, would also overcome all their natural strength, and make them unable to do the works of their callings) all such are bound by the general law to mary. For, from Nature, and her Law, we have that voice, ut gignamus geniti; Man is born into the world, that others might be born from him: And from Gods general Law, we have that voice, Crescite & Multiplicamini: Therefore God placed man here, that he might repair and furnish the world. He is gone at Common Law, that maries not: Not but that he may have relief; but it is only in Conscience, and by way of Equity, and as in Chancery; that is, If in a rectified Conscience he know, that he should be the less disposed to religious Offices, for marriage, he does well to abstain: otherwise he must remember that the world is one Body, and Marriage the aliment, that the world is one Building, and Marriage the Reparation. Therefore the Emperor Augustus did not only increase the rewards, and privileges which former Laws had given to married persons, but he laid particular penalties upon them, that lived unmaryed. And though that State seem to have countenanced single life, because they afforded dignities to certain Vestal Virgins, yet the number of those Vestals was small, not above six, and then the dignities and privileges, which those Vestals had, were no other, but that they were made equal in the state to married Wives; They were preferred before all that lived unmaryed, but not before married persons.

This fortification and rampart of the World, Marriage, hath the Devil battered with most artillery, opposed with most instruments: for, as an Army composed of many Nations, more sects of Heretiks have concurred in the condemning of Marriage, then in any one Heresy. The Adamites, the Tatians, and those whom Irenaeus calls the Encratites; all within two thousand years after Christ; and more after. And yet God kept such a hook in the nostril of this Leviathan, such a bridle in the jaws of these sects of Heretiks, as that never any of them so opposed Marriage, as that they justified Incontinency, or various lust, or Indifferency, or Community in that kind. Now as in the Pelagian Heresy, those that came to modify and mollify that Heresy, and to be Semi-Pelagians, were in some points worse then those that were full Pelagians, (as truly, in many Cases, the half-papist may do more harm, and be more dangerous, then the whole Papist that declares himself) so the Semi-Adamites, the Semi-Tatians, and Semi-Encratites of the Roman Church, who, though they do not as those whole Heretiks did, condemn marriage entirely, yet they condemn it in Certain persons, and in so many as constitute a great part of the Body of mankind, that is, in all their Clergy, exceed those very heretiks, in favor of incontinency, and fornication, and various lusts, which those Heretiks who absolutely condemned Marriage, condemned too, as absolutely; whereas in the Roman Church a Jesuit tells us; that there are divers Catholiks of that opinion, That it is not Heresy to say, that Fornication is no deadly sin: And yet it is Heresy to say, that Marriage in some persons, (only disabled by their Canons) is not deadly sin. And when they erect and justify their Academies of Incontinency, and various lust, (various even in the sex) if some Authors among themselves have not injured them) when they maintain public stews, and maintain their dignity by them, and make that a part of the Revenue of the Church, what Advocate of theirs can deny, but that these Semi-Adamites, Semi-Tatians, Semi-Encratites, are worse then those Heretiks themselves, that did absolutely oppose Marriage? We depart absolutely from those old Heretiks, who did absolutely condemn Marriage; and from those latter men, who though they be but Semi-Heretiks in respect of them, because they limit their forbidding of Marriage, to certain persons, yet they are sequi-Heretiks in this, that they countenance Incontinency, and Fornication, which those very heretiks abhorred; And we must have leave too, (which we are always loath to do) to depart from the rigidness of some of those blessed Fathers of the Primitive Church, who found some necessities in their times, to speak so very highly in praise of Continency and Chastity, as reflected somewhat upon marriage it self, and may seem to emply some under-valuation of that. Many such things were so said by Tertullian, many by S. Jerome, as being crudely, and nudely taken, not decocted and boiled up with the circumstances of those times, not invested with the knowledge of those persons, to whom they were written, might diminish and dishonor marriage. But Tertullian in his most vehement persuasion of Continency, writes to his own wife, and S. Jerome, for the most part, to those Ladies, whom he had taken into his own discipline, and with one of which, he had so near a conversation, as that (as himself says) the world was scandalized with it. and that the world thought him fit to have been made Pope, but for that misconstruction which had been made of that his conversation with that Lady. Tertullian writing to his Wife, S. Jerome to those Ladies, may either have had particular reasons of this vehement proceeding of theirs in advancing Continency, or they may have conceived that way of persuasion of continency to those persons, to have been a fit way to convey down to posterity the love thereof. As Dionysius the Areopagite says, That the Church in those times at funerals, did convey their thanks to God, for the party deceased, by way of Prayer: they seemed to pray that those dead persons might be saved; and, indeed, they did but praise God, that they were saved. So Tertullian and S. Jerome, when they seem to persuade Continency to those persons, they do but tell us, how continent those persons were. But howsoever it be for that, no such magnifying of Virginity before, as should diminish the honor and dignity of Marriage, no such magnifying of Continency after, as should frustrate the purpose of Marriage after, or the returning to a second Marriage after a true dissolution of the first, can subvert, or contract the Apostles Nubant in Domino, Let them mary in the Lord; where the In Domino, in the Lord, is not to mary for matter of Title and place; nor, In Domino, In the Lord, is not to mary for matter of Lordships, and possessions, and worldly preferment; nor, In Domino, In the Lord, is not in hope to exercise a Dominion and a Lordship over the other party: but In the Lord, is in the fear of the Lord, In the love of the Lord, In the Law, that is, in the true Religion of the Lord; for this is that that makes the marriages of Christians, Contracts of another kind, then the marriages of other people are; with all people of the world, marriage is as fully the same Real, and Civil, and Moral Contract, as with us Christians. The same Obligations of mutual help, of fidelity and loyalty to one another, and of communication of all their possessions, lies upon marriage in Turky, or China, as with us. But for Marriage amongst Christians, Sacramentum hoc magnum est, says the Apostle, This is a great secret, a great mystery. Not that it is therefore a Sacrament, as Baptism, and the Lords Supper are Sacraments. For, if they will make marriage such a sacrament, because it is expressed there in that word, Magnum sacramentum, they may come to give us an eight sacrament after their seven; They may translate that name which is upon the mother of Harlots, and abominations of the earth, sacrament, if they will, for it is the same word, in that place of the Revelation, which they translate Sacrament in the other place to the Ephesians; And in the next verse but one, they do translate it so there; I will tell thee, says the Angel, Sacramentum mulieris, the Sacrament of Babylon. Now if all the mysteries and secrets of Antichrist, all the confused practises of that Babylon, all the emergent and occasional articles of that Church, and that State-religion, shall become Sacraments, we shall have a Sacrament of Equivocation, a Sacrament of Invasion, a Sacrament of Powder, a Sacrament of dissolving allegiance, sacraments in the Element of Baptism, in the water, in navies, and Sacraments in the Elements of the Eucharist, in Blood, in the sacred blood of Kings. But Marriage amongst Christians, is herein Magnum mysterium, A Sacrament in such a sense; a mysterious signification of the union of the soul with Christ, when both persons profess the Christian Religion, in general, there arises some signification of that spiritual union: But when they both profess Christ in one forme, in one Church, in one Religion, and that, the right; then, as by the Civil Contract, there is an union of their estates, and persons, so, as that they two are made one, so by this Sacramental, this mysterious union, these two, thus made one, between themselves, are also made one with Christ himself; by the Civil union, common to all people, they are made Eadem caro; The same flesh with one another, By this mysterious, this Sacramental, this significative union, they are made Idem Spiritus cum Domino; The same Spirit with the Lord. And therefore, though in the Resurrection, they shall not mary, because then all the several uses of marriage cease, yet till the Resurrection; that is, as long as this world lasts, for the sustentation of the world, which is one Body, and Marriage the food, and aliment thereof; for the reparation of the world, which is one Building, and Marriage the supply thereof, to maintain a second eternity, in the succession of children, and to illustrate this union of our souls to Christ; we may, and in some Cases, must marry.

We are come, in our order proposed at first, to our second Part, Erimus sicut Angeli, we shall be as the Angels of God in heaven; where we consider, first, what we are compared to, those Angels; And then in what that Comparison lies, wherein we shall be like those Angels; And lastly, the Proposition that flows out of this proposition, In the Resurrection we shall be like them, Till the Resurrection we shall not, and therefore, in the mean time, we must not look for Angelical perfections, but bear with one another's infirmities. Now when we would tell you, what those Angels of God in heaven, to which we are compared, are, we can come no nearer telling you that, then by telling you, we cannot tell. The Angels may be content with that Negative expressing, since we can express God himself in no clearer terms, nor in terms expressing more Dignity, then in saying we cannot express him. Only the Angels themselves know one another; and, one good point, in which we shall be like them then, shall be, that then we shall know what they are; we know they are Spirits in Nature, but what the nature of a spirit is, we know not: we know they are Angels in office, appointed to execute Gods will upon us; but, How a spirit should execute those bodily actions, that Angels do, in their own motion, and in the transportation of other things, we know not: we know they are Creatures; but whether created with this world, (as all our later men incline to think) or long before, (as all the Greek, and some of the Latin Fathers thought) we know not: we know that for their number, and for their faculties also, there may be one Angel for every man; but whether there be so, or no, because not only amongst the Fathers, but even in the Reformed Churches, in both sub-divisions, Lutheran, and Calvinist, great men deny it, and as great affirme it, we know not: we know the Angels know, they understand, but whether by that way, which we call in the School, Cognitionem Matutinam, by seeing all in God, or that which we call Verspertinam, by a clearer manifestation of the species of things to them, then to us, we know not: we know they are distinguished into Orders; the Apostle tells us so: but what, or how many their Orders are, (since S. Gregory, and S. Bernard differ from that Design of their nine orders, which S. Denis the Areopagite had given before, in placing of those nine, and Athanasius adds more to those nine,) we know not; But we are content to say with S. Augustine, Esse firmissimè credo, quaenam sint nescio; that there are distinct orders of Angels, assuredly I believe; but what they are, I cannot tell; Dicant qui possunt; si tamen probare possunt quod dicunt, says that Father, Let them tell you that can, so they be able to prove, that they tell you true. They are Creatures, that have not so much of a Body as flesh is, as froth is, as a vapor is, as a sigh is, and yet with a touch they shall molder a rock into less Atoms, then the sand that it stands upon; and a milstone into smaller flower, then it grinds. They are Creatures made, and yet not a minute elder now, then when they were first made, if they were made before all measure of time began; nor, if they were made in the beginning of Time, and be now six thousand years old, have they one wrinckle of Age in their face, or one sob of weariness in their lungs. They are primogeniti Dei, Gods eldest sons; They are superelementary meteors, they hang between the nature of God, and the nature of man, and are of middle Condition; And, (if we may offencelessely express it so) they are anigmata Divina, The Riddles of Heaven, and the perplexities of speculation. But this is but till the Resurrection; Then we shall be like them, and know them by that assimilation. We end this branch with this consideration, If by being like the Angels, we shall know the Angels, we are more then like ourselves, we are our selves, why do we not know our selves? Why did not Adam know, that he had a Body, that might have been preserved in an immortality, and yet submitted his body, and mine, and thine, and theirs, who by this union are to be made one, and all, that by Gods goodness shall be derived from them, to certain, to inevitable Death? Why do not we know our own Immortality, that dwells in us still, for all Adams fall, and ours in him; that immortality which we cannot divest, but must live for ever, whether we will or no? To know this immortality, is to make this immortality, which otherwise is the heaviest part of our Curse, a Blessing unto us, by providing to live in Immortal happiness: whereas now, we do so little know our selves, as that if my soul could ask one of those Worms which my dead body shall produce, Will you change with me? that worm would say, No; for you are like to live eternally in torment; for my part, I can live no longer, then the putrid moisture of your body will give me leave, and therefore I will not change; nay, would the Devil himself change with a damned soul? I cannot tell; As we argue conveniently, that the Devil is tormented more then man, because the Devil fel from God, without any other Tempter, then himself, but man had a Tempter, so may it be not inconveniently argued too, that man may be more tormented then he, because man continued and relapsed, in his rebellions to God, after so many pardons offered and accepted, which the Devil never had. Howsoever, otherwise their torments may be equal, as the Devil is a Spirit, and a condemned soul a spirit, yet that soul shall have a Body too, to be tormented with it, which the Devil shall not. How little we know our selves, which is the end of all knowledge! But we hast to the next branch, In the Resurrection we shall be like to the Angels of God in Heaven; But in what lies this likeness?

In how many other things soever this likeness may ly, yet in this Text, and in our present purpose, it lies only in this, Non nubent, In the Resurrection they shall not mary. But did Angels never mary, or, as good, or, at least, as ill, as mary? How many of the ancients take those words, That the sons of God saw the daughters of Men that they were faire, and they took them wives of all which they chose, to be intended of Angels? They offer to tell us how many these married Angels were; Origen says, sixty, or seventy. They offer to tell us some of their names; Aza, was one of these married Angels, and Azael was another. But then all those, who do understand these words, The sons of God, to be intended of Angels, who being sent down, to protect Men, fell in love with Women, and married them, all, I say, agree, that those Angels that did so, never returned to God again, but fell, with the first fallen, under everlasting Condemnation. So that still, the Angels of God in Heaven, those Angels to whom we shall be like in the Resurrection, do not mary, not so much as in any such mistaking; they do not, because they need not; they need not, because they need no second Eternity, by the continuation of children; for, says S. Luke, they cannot die. Adams first immortality was but this, Posse non mori, that he needed not to have died, he should not have died; The Angels immortality, and ours, when we shall be like them, in the Resurrection, is, Non posse mori, that we cannot die, for, whosoever dies, is Homicida sui, says Tertullian; he kills himself, and sin is his sword: In heaven there shall no such sword be drawn; we need not say, that the Angels in heaven have, that we when we shall be like them, in the Resurrection, shall so invest an immortality in our nature, as that God could not inflict Death upon them, or us there, if we sinned: But because no sin shall enter there, no Death shall enter there neither, for, Death is the wages of sin. Not that no sin could enter there, if we were left to our selves; for, in that place, Angels did sin; (And, fatendum est Angelos natura mutabiles, says S. Augustine, Howsoever Angels be changed in their Condition, they retain still the same nature, and by nature they are mutable) But that God hath added another prerogative, by way of Confirmation, to that state; so, as that that Grace which he gives us here, which is, that nothing shall put a necessity of sinning upon us, or that we must needs sin, God multiplies upon us so there, as that we can conceive no inclination to sin. Therein we shall be like the Angels, that we cannot die; And the nearer we come to that state in this life, the liker we are to those Angels here. Now, beloved, only he that is Dead already, cannot die. He that in a holy mortification is Dead the Death of the righteous, dead to sin, he lives, (shall we dare to say so? yes, we may) he lives a blessed Death, for such a Death is true life: And by such a heavenly Death, Death of the righteous, Death to sin, he is in possession of a heavenly life here, in an inchoation, though the consummation, and perfection be reserved for the next world; which is our last circumstance, and the Conclusion of all, At the Resurrection we shall be like the Angels; Till then we shall not; and therefore must not look for Angelical perfections here, but bear one another's infirmities.

It is as yet but in Petition, fiat voluntas, Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven: And as long as there is an Earth it will be but in Petition; His will will not be done in Earth as it is in Heaven; when all is Heaven, to his Saints, all will be well; but not all till then. In the mean time, remember all, (especially you, whose Sacramental, that is, Mysterious, and significative union now is a Type of your union with God in as near, and as fast a band, as that of Angels, for, you shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven) That the office of the Angels in this world, is to Assist, and to supply Defects. You are both of noble extraction; there's no defect in that; you need not supply one another with Honor: you are both of religious Education; there's no defect in that; you need not supply one another with fundamental instructions. Both have your parts in that testimony which S. Gregory gave of your Nation, at Rome, Angli Angeli, you have a loveliness fit for one another. But, though I cannot Name, no nor Think any thing, wherein I should wish that Angelical disposition of supporting, or supplying defects, yet, when I consider, that even he that said Ego & pater unum sumus, I and the Father are one, yet had a time to say, utquid dereliquisti? My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? I consider thereby, that no two can be so made one in this world, but that that unity may be, though not Dissolved, no nor Rent, no nor Endangered, yet shook sometimes by domestic occasions, by Matrimonial encumbrances, by perverseness of servants, by impertinencies of Children, by private whisperings, and calumnies of Strangers. And therefore, to speak not Prophetically, that any such thing shall fall, but Provisionally, if any such thing should fall, my love, and my duty, and my Text, bids me tell you, that perfect happiness is to be staid for, till you be as the Angels of God in heaven; here, it is a faire portion of that Angelical happiness, if you be always ready to support, and supply one another in any such occasional weaknesses. The God of Heaven multiply the present joy of your parents, by that way, of making you joyful parents also; and recompense your obedience to parents, by that way, of giving you obedient Children too. The God of heaven so join you now, as that you may be glad of one another all your life; and when he who hath joined you, shall separate you again, establish you with an assurance, that he hath but borrowed one of you, for a time, to make both your joies the more perfect in the Resurrection. The God of Heaven make you always of one will, and that will always conformable to his; conserve you in the sincere truth of his Religion; feast you with the best feast, Peace of conscience; and carry you through the good opinion, and love of his Saints in this world, to the association of his Saints, and Angels, and one another, in the Resurrection, and everlasting possession of that kingdom, which his Son, our Savior, Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible Blood, Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon II.

GEN. 2. 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good, that the man should be alone; I will make him a Help, meet for him.

Preached at a Marriage.

IN the Creation of the world, when God stocked the Earth, and the Sea, with those creatures, which were to be the seminary, and foundation and root of all that should ever be propagated in either of those elements, and when he had made man, to rule over them, he spoke to man, and to other creatures, in one and the same phrase, and forme of speech, Crescite, & Multiplicamini, Be fruitful and multiply; and thereby imprinted in man, and in other creatures, a natural desire to conserve, and propagate their kind by way of Generation. But after God had thus imprinted in man, the same natural desire of propagation, which he had infused into other creatures too, after he had communicated to him that blessing, (for so it is said, God blessed them, and said, Be fruitful, and multiply) till an ability and a desire of propagating their kind, was infused into the creature, there is no mention of any blessing in the creation; after God had made men partakers of that blessing, that natural desire of propagation, he takes a farther care of man, in giving him a proper and peculiar blessing, in contracting and limiting that natural desire of his: He leaves all other creatures to the general use and execution of that Commission, Crescite et multiplicamini, the Male was to take the Female when and where their natural desire provoked them; but, for man, Adduxit Deus ad Adam; God left not them to go to one another, but God brought the woman to the man: and so this conjunction, this desire of propagation, though it be natural in man, as in other creatures, by his creation, yet it is limited by God himself, to be exercised only between such persons, as God hath brought together in marriage, according to his Institution, and Ordinance. Though then societies of men do grow up, and spread themselves into Towns, and into Cities, and into Kingdoms, yet the root of all societies is in families, in the relation between man and wife, parents and children, masters and servants: so though the state of the children of God, in this world be dignified by the name of a Kingdom, (for, so we pray by Christs own institution, Thy kingdom come, and so Christ says, Ecce Regnum, The kingdom of God is amongst you) and though the state of Gods children here, be called a City, a new Jerusalem, comming down from heaven, and in David, Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God, yet for all these glorious titles of City and Kingdom, we must remember, that it is called a family too. The Household of the faithful: And so the Apostle says, in preferring Christ before Moses, That Christ as the son was over Gods house, whose house we are. So that, both of Civil and of Spiritual societies, the first root is a family; and of families, the first root is Marriage; and of marriage, the first root, that grows out into words, is in this Text; And the Lord God said, It is not good &c.

If we should employ this exercise only upon these two general considerations, first, that God puts even his care and his study to find out what is good for man, and secondly, that God doth provide and furnish whatsoever he finds to be necessary, faciam, I will make him a Helper, though they be common places we are bound to thank God that they are so; that it is a common place to good, that he ever does it towards us, that it is a common place to us, that we ever acknowledge it in him. But you may be pleased to admit a more particular distribution. For, upon the first, will be grounded this consideration, that in regard of the public good, God pretermits private, and particular respects; for, God doth not say, Non bonum homini, it is not good for man to be alone, man might have done well enough so; nor God does not say, non bonum hunc hominem, it is not good for this, or that particular man to be alone; but non bonum, Hominem, it is not good in the general, for the whole frame of the world, that man should be alone, because then both Gods purposes had been frustrated, of being glorified by man here, in this world, and of glorifying man, in the world to come; for neither of these could have been done, without a succession, and propagation of man; and therefore, non bonum hominem, it was not good, that man should be alone. And then upon the second consideration, will arise these branches; first, that whatsoever the defect be, there is no remedy, but from God; for it is, faciam, I will do it. Secondly, that even the works of God, are not equally excellent; this is but faciam, it is not faciamus; in the creation of man, there is intimated a Consultation, a Deliberation of the whole Trinity; in the making of women, it is not expressed so; it is but faciam. And then, that that is made here, is but Adjutorium, but an accessory, not a principal; but a Helper First the wife must be so much, she must Help; and then she must be no more, she must not Govern. But she cannot be that, except she have that quality, which God intended in the first woman, Adjutoriam simile sibi, a helper fit for him: for otherwise he will ever return, to the bonum esse solum, it had been better for him, to have been alone, then in the likeness of a Helper, to have had a wife unfit for him.

First then, that in regard of the public good, God pretermits private respects, if we take examples upon that stage, upon that scene, the face of Nature, we see that for the conservation of the whole, God hath imprinted in the particulars, a disposition to depart from their own nature: water will clamber up hills, and air will sink down into vaults, rather then admit Vacuity. But take the example nearer, in Gods bosom, and there we see, that for the public, for the redemption of the whole world, God hath (shall we say, pretermitted?) derelicted, forsaken, abandoned, his own, and only Son. Do you so too? Regnum Dei intra nos; the kingdom of God is within you; planted in your election; watered in your Baptism; fatned with the blood of Christ Jesus, ploughed up with many calamities, and tribulations; weeded with often repentances of particular sins; The kingdom of God is within you; and will ye not depart from private affections, from Ambition and Covetousness, from Excess, and voluptuousness, from chambring and wantonness, in which the kingdom of God doth not consist, for the conservation of this kingdom? will ye not pray for this kigdome, in your private, and public devotions? will ye not fast for this kingdom, in cutting off superfluities? will ye not fight for this kingdom, in resisting suggestions? will ye not take Counsel for this kingdom, in consulting with religious friends? will ye not give subsidies for this kingdom, in relieving their necessities, for whom God hath made you his stewards? weigh and measure your selves, and spend that, be negligent of that, which is least, and worst in you. Is your soul less then your body, because it is in it? How easily lies a letter in a Box, which if it were unfolded, would cover that Box? unfold your soul, and you shall see, that it reaches to heaven; from thence it came, and thither it should pretend; whereas the body is but from that earth, and for that earth, upon which it is now; which is but a short, and an inglorious progress. To contract this, the soul is larger then the body, and the glory, and the joys of heaven, larger then the honours, and the pleasures of this world: what are seventy years, to that latitude, of continuing as long as the Ancient of days? what is it, to have spent our time, with the great ones of this time; when, when the Angels shall come and say, that Time shall be no more, we shall have no being with him, who is yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever? we see how ordinarily ships go many leagues out of their direct way, to fetch the wind. Spiritus spirat ubi vult, says Christ; the spirit blows where he will; and, as the Angel took Habakkuk by the hair, and placed him where he would, this wind, the spirit of God, can take thee at last, by thy gray hairs, and place thee in a good station then. Spirat ubi vult, he blows where he will, and spirat ubi vis, he blows where thou wilt too, if thou beest applicable to his inspirations. They are but hollow places that return Ecchoes; last syllables: It is but a hollowness of heart, to answer God at last. Be but as liberal of thy body in thy mortifications as in thy excess, and licentiousness, and thou shalt in some measure, have followed Gods example, for the public to pretermit the private, for the larger, and better, to leave the narrower, and worser respects.

To proceed, when we made that observation, that God pretermitted the private for the public, we noted, that God did not say, non bonum Homini, It was not good for man to be alone; man might have done well enough in that state, so, as his solitariness might have been supplied with a farther creation of more men. In making the inventaries of those goods which man possesseth in the world, we see a great Author says, In possessionibus sunt amici, & inimici, not only our friends, but even our enemies, are part of our goods, and we may raise as much profit from these, as from those, It may be as good a lesson to a mans son, Study that enemy, as Observe that friend. As David says, propitius fuisti, & ulciscens, Thou heardst them ô Lord our God, and wast favor able unto them, and didst punish all their inventions: it was part of his mercy, part of his favor, that he did correct them. So we may say to our enemy, I owe you my watchfulness upon my self, and you have given me all the goodness that I have; for you have calumniated all my indifferent actions, and that kept me; from committing enormous ill ones. And if then our enemies be in possessionibus, to be inventaried amongst our goods, might not man have been abundantly rich in friends, without this addition of a woman? Quanto congruentius, says S. Augustine; how much more conveniently might two friends live together, then a man and a woman?

God doth not then say, non bonum homini, man got not so much by the bargain, (especially if we consider how that wife carried her self towards him) but that for his particular, he had been better alone. nor he does not say now, non bonum hunc hominem esse solum, It is not good for any man to be alone; for, Qui potest capere capiat, says Christ: he that is able to receive it, let him receive it. What? That some make themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven: that is, the better to un-entangle themselves from those impediments, which hinder them in the way to heaven, they abstain from marriage; and let them that can receive it, receive it. Now certainly few try whether they can receive this, or no. Few strive, few fast, few pray for the gift of continency; few are content with that incontinency which they have, but are sorry they can express no more incontinency. There is a use of marriage now, which God never thought of in the first institution of marriage; that it is a remedy against burning. The two main uses of marriage, which are propagation of Children, and mutual assistance, were intended by God, at the present, at first; but the third, is a remedy against that, which was not then; for then there was no inordinateness, no irregularity in the affections of man. And experience hath taught us now, that those climates which are in reputation, hottest, are not uninhabitable; they may be dwelt in for all their heat. Even now, in the corruption of our nature, the clime is not so hot, as that every one must of necessity, mary. There may be fire in the house, and yet the house not on fire: there may be a distemper of heat, and yet no necessity to let blood. The Roman Church injures us, when they say, that we prefer marriage before virginity: and they injure the whole state of Christianity, when they oppose marriage and chastity, as though they were incompatible, and might not consist together. They may; for marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled; and therefore it may be so. S. Augustine observes in marriage, Bonuam fidei, a trial of one another's truth; and that's good; And bonum prolis, a lawful means of propagation; and that's good; and bonum Sacramenti, a mystical representation of that union of two natures in Christ, and of him to us, and to his Church; and that's good too. So that there are divers degrees of good in marriage. But yet for all these goodnesses, God does not say, non bonum, it is not good for any man to be alone, but Qui capere potest capiat; according to Christs comment, upon his Fathers text, He that can contain and continue alone, let him do so.

But though God do not say, non homini, It is not good for the man, that he be alone, nor quemvis hominem, it is not good for every man to be alone, yet, considering his general purpose upon all the world, by man, he says non bonum; for that end, it is not good, that man should be alone, because those purposes of God could not consist with that solitude of man. In that production, and in that survey, which God made of all that he had made, still he gives the testimony, that he saw all was good, excepting only in his Second days work, and in his making of Man. He forbore it in the making of the firmament, because the firmament was to divide between waters and waters; it was an embleme of division, of disunion. He forbore it also in the making of man, because though man was to be an embleme of Gods union to his Church, yet because this embleme, and this representation, could not be in man alone, till the woman were made too, God does not pronounce upon the making of man, that the work was good: but upon Gods contemplation, that it was not good, that man should be alone, there arose a goodness, in having a companion. And from that time, if we seek bonum, quia licitum, if we will call that good, which is lawful, marriage is that, If thou takest a wife thou sinnest not, says God by the Apostle. If we seek bonum, quia bonus autor, if we call that good whose author is good, marriage is that; Adduxit ad Adam, God brought her to man. If we seek such a goodness, as hath good witness, good testimony, marriage is that; Christ was present at a marriage, and honoured it with his first miracle. If we seek such a goodness, as is a constant, and not a temporary, an occasional goodness, Christ hath put such a cement upon marriage, What God hath joined, let no man put as under. If we seek such a goodness, as no man, (that is, no sort nor degree of men) is the worse for having accepted, we see the holiecst of all, the High Priest, in the old Testament is only limited, what woman he shall not mary, but not that he shall not mary; and the Bishop in the new Testament what kind of husband he must have been, but not that he must have been no husband. To contract this, as marriage in good, in having the best author, God, the best witness, Christ, the logest term, Life, the largest extent, even to the highest persons, Priests, and Bishops; as it is, all these ways, Positively good, so it is good in Comparison of that, which justly seems the best state, that is, Virginity, in S. Augustines opinion, Non impar meritum Iohannis & Abrahae: If we could consider merit in man, the merit of Abraham, the father of nations, and the merit of John, who was no father at all, is equal. But that wherein we consider the goodness of it here, is, that God proposed this way, to receive glory from the sons of men here upon earth, and to give glory to the sons of men in heaven.

But what glory can God receive from man, that he should be so careful of his propagation? what glory more from man, then from the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, which have no propagation? why this, that S. Augustine observes; Musca Soli praeferenda, quia vivit, A Fly is a nobler creature then the Sun, because a fly hath life, and the Sun hath not; for the degrees of dignity in the creature are esse, vivere, and intelligere: to have a being, to have life, and to have understanding: and therefore man, who hath all three, is much more able to glorify God, then any other creature is, because he only can choose whether he will glorify God or no; the glory that the others give, they must give, but man is able to offer to God a reasonable sacrifice. When ye were Gentiles, says the Apostle, ye were caryed away unto dumb Idols, even as ye were led. This is reasonable service, out of Reason to understand, and out of our willingness to do God service. Now, when God had spent infinite millions of millions of generations, from all un-imaginable eternity, in contemplating one another in the Trinity, and then (to speak humanly of God, which God in his Scriptures abhors not) out of a satiety in that contemplation would create a world for his glory, and when he had wrought the first day, and created all the matter, and substance of the future creatures, and wrought four days after, and a great part of the sixth, and yet nothing produced, which could give him any glory (for glory is rationabile obsequium, reasonable service; and nothing could give that but a creature that understood it, and would give it,) at last, as the knot of all, created man; then, to perpetuate his glory, he must perpetuate man: and to that purpose, non bonum, it was not good for man to be alone; as without man God could not have been glorified, so without woman man could not have been propagated.

But, as there is a place cited by S. Paul out of David, which hath some perplexity in it, we cannot tell, whether Christ be said to have received gifts from men, or for men; or to have given gifts to men, (for so S. Paul hath it) so it is not esse for us to discern, whether God had a care to propagate man, that he might receive glory from man, or that he might give glory to man. When God had taken it into his purpose to people heaven again, depopulated in the fall of Angels, by the substitution of man in their places, when God had a purpose to spend as much time with man in heaven after, as he had done with himself before, (for our perpetuity after the Resurrection, shall no more have an end, then his Eternity before the Creation had a beginning:) And when God to prevent that time of the Resurrection, as it were to make sure of man before, would send down his own Son to assume our nature here; and, as not sure enough so, would take us up to him, and set us, in his Son, at his own right hand, whereas he never did, nor shall say to any of the Angels, Sit thou there: That God might not be frustrated of this great, and gracious, and glorious purpose of his, non bonum, it was not good that man should be alone; for without man God could not give this glory, and without woman there could be no propagation of man. And so, though it might have been Bonum homini, man might have done well enough alone; and Bonum hunc hominem, some men may do better alone, yet God, who ever, for our example, prefers the public before the private, because it conduced not to his general end, of Having, and of Giving glory, saw, and said, Non bonum hominem, it was not good that man should be alone. And so we have done with the branches of our first part.

We are come now to our second general part: In which, as we saw in the former, that God studies man, and all things necessary for man, we shall also see, that wherein soever man is defective, his only supply, and reparation is from God, Faciam, I will do it. Saul wanted counsel, he was in a perplexity, and he sought to the Witch of Endor, and not to God; and what is the issue? he Hears of his own, and of his son Ionathans death the next day. Asa wants health, and he seeks to the Physician, and not to God, and what is the issue? He dies. Do not say, says S. Chrysost. Quaero necessaria, I desire nothing but that which is necessary for my birth, necessary for my place: Quod non dat Deus, non est necessarium: God hath made himself thy Steward, thy Bayliffe; and whatsoever God provides not for thee, is not necessary to thee. It was the poor way that Mahomet found out in his Alchoran, that in the next life all women should have eyes of one bigness, and a stature of one size; he could find no means to avoid contention, but to make them all alike: But that is thy complexion, that is thy proportion which God hath given thee. It may be true that S. Jerome notes, who had so much conversation amongst women, that it did him harm, Mult as insognis pudicitiae, quamvis nulli virorum, sibi scimus ornari; I know, says he, as honest women as are in the world, that take a delight in making themselves handsomely ready, though for no other bodies sake but for their own. That may be; but, manus Deo inferunt, they take the pencil out of Gods hand, who go about to mend any thing of his making. Quod nascitur Dei est, quod mutatur Diaboli, says the same Father; God made us according to his image, and shall he be put to say to any of us, Non imago mea, this picture was not taken by the life, not by me, but is a Copy of the present distemper of the time? All good remedies are of God; none but he would ever have conceived such an invention as the Ark, without that model, for the reparation of the world; and he hath provided that means for the conservation of the world, marriage, the association of one to one: Plures costae Ada, nec fatig at a manus Dei: Adam had more ribs then one, neither were Gods hands wearied with making one; and yet he made no more. For him who first exceeded that, Lamech, who had two wives, the first was Adah, and Adah signifies Coetum, congregationem; there is company enough, society enough in a wife: His other wife was but Zillah, and Zillah is but umbra, but a shadow, but a ghost, that will terrify at last.

To proceed; Though God always provide remedies, and supplies of defects, it is not always in the greatest measure, nor in the presentest manner, that we conceive to our selves. So much may be intimated even in this, that in this remedy of Gods provision, the woman, God proceeded not, as he did in the making of man; it is not Faciamus, with such a counsel, such a deliberation as was used in that case. When the Creation of all the substance of the whole world is expressed, it is Creavit Dit, Gods created, as though more Gods were employed; and in the making of him, who was the abridgement of all, of man, it is faciamus, let us make him, as though more persons were employed: it is not so in the woman, for though the first Translation of the Bible that ever were and the Translation of the Roman Church have it in the plural, yet it is not so in the Original; it is but faciam. I press no more upon this, but one lesson to our selves, That if God exercise us with temporal afflictions, narrowness in our fortunes, infirmities in our constitutions, or with spiritual afflictions, ignorance in our understandings, scruples in our conscience, if God come not altogether in his faciamus, to power down with both hands abundance of his worldly treasures, or of his spiritual light and clearness, let us content our selves with one hand from him, with that manner and that measure that he gives, and that time and that leisure which he takes. And then one lesson also to the other sex, That they will be content, even by this form and change of phrase, to be remembered, that they are the weaker vessel, and that Adam was not deceived but the woman was. For whether you will ease that with Theodorets exposition, Adam was not deceived first, but the woman was first deceived; Or with Chrysostoms exposition, Adam was not deceived by a Serpent, a creature loathsom, & unacceptable, but by a lovely person, with whom he was transported: Or with Oecumenius his exposition; Adam was not deceived, because there is no charge laid upon him in the Scriptures, no mention that he was deceived in them, as it is said, that Melchisedek had no Father nor Mother, because there is no record of his pedigree in the Scriptures: Or in Ambrose his exposition; That Adam was not deceived in praevaricationem, not so deceived as that he deceived any body else: Take it any way, and it implies a weakness in the woman, and an occasion of soupling her to that just estimation of her self, That she will be content to learn in sitence with all subjection That as she is not a servant, but a Mother in the house, so she is but a Daughter, and not a Mother of the Church.

This is presented more fully in the next, that she is but Adjutorium, but a Help: and no body values his staff, as he does his legs. It is not an ordinary disease now, to be uxorious that needs no great disswasion. But if any one man in a congregation be obnoxious to any one infirmity, one note is not ill spent: And let S. Jerome give this note, Sapiens judicio amat, non affectu, Discretion is the weight of love in a wise mans hand, and not affection. S. Hierome cannot stay there; he adds thus much more, Nihil foedius, quàm uxorem amare adulteram, There is not a more uncomely, a poorer thing, then to love a wife like a Mistress. S. Augustine makes that comparison, That whensoever the Apostles preached, they were glad when their auditory liked their preaching, Non aviditate consequendae laudis, sed charitate seminand virtutis; not that they affected the praise of the people, but that thereby they saw, that they had done more good upon the people. And in another place he makes that comparison, That a righteous man desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, & yet this righteous man dines, and sups, takes ordinary refections and ordinary recreations: So, for marriage, says he, in temperate men, officiosum, non libidinesum, it is to pay a debt, not to satisfy appetite; lest otherwise she prove in Ruinam, who was given in Adjutorium, and he be put to the first mans plea, Mulier quam dedisti, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me my death.

So much then she should be, A Helper; for, for that she was made. She is not so, if she remember not those duties which are intimated in the stipulation and contract which she hath made. Call it Conjugium, and that is derived a Iuge, it is an equal patience in bearing the incommodities of this life. Call it Nuptias, and that is derived à Nube, a vail, a covering; and that is an estranging, a withdrawing her self from all such conversation as may violate his peace, or her honor. Call it Matrimonium, and that is derived from a Mother, and that implies a religious education of her children. De later sumpta, nor-discedat à later, says Aug. Since she was taken out of his side, let her not depart from his side, but show her self so much as she was made for, Adjutorium, a Helper.

But she must be no more; If she think her self more then a Helper, she is not so much. He is a miserable creature, whose Creator is his Wife. God did not stay to join her in Commission with Adam, so far as to give names to the creatures; much less to give essence; essence to the man, essence to her husband. When the wife thinks her husband owes her all his fortune, all his discretion, all his reputation, God help that man himself, for he hath given him no helper yet. I know there are some glasses stronger then some earthen vessels, and some earthen vessels stronger then some wooden dishes; some of the weaker sex, stronger in fortune, and in counsel too, then they to whom God hath given them, but yet let them not impute that in the eye nor ear of the world, nor repeat it to their own hearts, with such a dignifying of themselves, as exceeds the quality of a Helper. S. Jerome shall be her Remembrancer, She was not taken out of the foot; to be trodden upon, nor out of the head, to be an overseer of him; but out of his side, where she weakens him enough, and therefore should do all she can, to be a Helper.

To be so, so much, and no more, she must be as God made Eve, fimilis ei, meet and fit for her husband. She is fit for any if she have those virtues, which always make the person that hath them good; as chastity, sobriety, taciturnity, verity, and such; for, for such virtues as may be had, and yet the possessor not the better for them, as wit; learning, eloquence, music, memory, cunning, and such, these make her never the fitter. There is a Harmony of dispositions, and that requires particular consideration upon emergent occasions; but the fitness that goes through all, is a sober continency; for without that, Matrimonium jurata fornicatio, Marriage is but a continual fornication, sealed with an oath: And marriage was not instituted to prostitute the chastity of the woman to one man, but to preserve her chastity from the temptations of more men. Bathsheba was a little too fit for David, when he had tried her so far before; for there is no fitness where there is not continency. To end all, there is a Moral fitness, consisting in those moral virtues, of which we have spoke enough; And there is a Civil fitness, consisting in Discretion, and accommodating her self to him; And there is a Spiritual fitness, in the unanimity of Religion, that they be not of repugnant professions that way. Of which, since we are well assured in both these, who are to be joined now, I am not sorry, if either the hour, or the present occasion call me from speaking any thing at all, because it is a subject too mis-interpretable, and unseasonable to admit an enlarging in at this time. At this time therefore, this be enough, for the explication and application of these words.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon III.

HOSEA 2. 19. And I will mary thee unto me for ever.

Preached at a Marriage.

THE word which is the hinge upon which all this Text turns, is Erash, and Erash signifies not only a betrothing, as our later Translation hath it, but a marriage; And so it is used by David, Deliver me my wife Michal whom I married; and so our former Translation had it, and so we accept it, and so shall handle it, I will mary thee unto me for ever.

The first marriage that was made, God made, and he made it in Paradise: And of that marriage I have had the like occasion as this to speak before, in the presence of many honourable persons in this company. The last marriage which shall be made, God shall make too, and in Paradise too; in the Kingdom of heaven: and at that marriage, I hope in him that shall make it, to meet, not some, but all this company. The marriage in this Text hath relation to both those marriages: It is it self the spiritual and mystical marriage of Christ Jesus to the Church, and to every mariageable soul in the Church: And it hath a retrospect, it looks back to the first marriage; for to that the first word carries us, because from thence God takes his metaphor, and comparison, sponsabo, I will mary; And then it hath a prospect to the last marriage, for to that we are carried in the last word, in aeternum, I will mary thee unto me for ever. Be pleased therefore to give me leave in this exercise, to shift the scene thrice, and to present to your religious considerations three objects, three subjects: first, a secular marriage in Paradise; secondly, a spiritual marriage in the Church; and thirdly, an eternal marriage in heaven. And in each of these three we shall present three circumstances; first the Persons, Me and Tibi, I will mary thee; And then the Action, Sponsabo, I will mary thee; And lastly the Term, In aeternam, I will mary thee to me for ever.

In the first acceptation then, in the first, the secular marriage in Paradise, the persons were Adam and Eve: Ever since they are he and she, man and woman: At first, by reason of necessity, without any such limitation, as now: And now without any other limitation, then such as are expressed in the Law of God: As the Apostles say in the first general Council, We lay nothing upon you but things necessary, so we call nothing necessary but that which is commanded by God. If in heaven I may have the place of a man that hath performed the Commandments of God, I will not change with him that thinks he hath done more then the Commandments of God enjoined him. The rule of marriage for degrees and distance in blood, is the Law of God; but for conditions of men, there is no Rule given at all. When God had made Adam and Eve in Paradise, God did not place Adam in a Monastery on one side, and Eve in a Nunnery on the other, and so a River between them. They that built walls and cloysters to frustrate Gods institution of marriage, advance the Doctrine of Devils in forbidding marriage. The Devil hath advantages enow against us, in bringing men and women together: It was a strange and super-devilish invention, to give him a new advantage against us, by keeping men and women asunder, by forbidding marriage. Between the heresy of the Nicolaitans, that induced a community of women, any might take any; and the heresy of the Tatians that forbad all, none might take any, was a fair latitude. Between the opinion of the Manichean heretics, that thought women to be made by the Devil, and your Colliridian heretics that sacrificed to a women, as to God, there is a fair distance. Between the denying of them souls, which S. Ambrose is charged to have done, and giving them such souls, as that they may be Priests, as your Pepution heretics did, is a faire way for a moderate man to walk in. To make them Gods is ungodly, and to make them Devils is devilish; To make them Mistresses is unmanly, and to make them servants is unnoble; To make them as God made them, wives, is godly and manly too. When in your Roman Church they dissolved marriage in natural kindred, in degrees where God forbids it not, when they dissolve marriage upon spititual kindred, because my Grandfather Christened that womans Father; when they dissolve marriage upon legal kindred, because my Grandfather adopted that womans Father: they separate those whom God hath joined so, as to give leave to join in lawful marriage. When men have made vows to abstain from marriage, I would they would they would be content to try a little longer then they do, whether they could keep that vow or no: And when men have consecrated themselves to the service of God in his Church, I would they would be content to try a little farther then they do, whether they could abstain or no: But to dissolve marriage made after such a Vow, or after Orders, is still to separate those whom God hath not separated. The Persons are he and she, man and woman; they must be so much; he must be a man, she must be a woman; And they must be no more; not a brother and a sister, not an unckle and aneece; Adduxit od eum, was the cause between Adam and Eve, God brought them together; God will not bring me a precontracted person, he will not have me defraud another; nor God will not bring me a mis-believing, a superstitious person, he will not have me drawn from himself: But let them be persons that God hath made, man and woman, and persons that God hath brought together, that is, not put asounder by any Law of his, and all such persons are capable of this first, this secular marriage.

In which our second Consideration is the Action, Sponsabe; where the Active is a kind of Passive, I will mary thee, is, I will be married unto thee, for we mary not our selves. They are somewhat hard driven in the Roman Church, when making marriage a Sacrament, and being prest by us with this question, If it be a Sacrament, who administers it, who is the Priest? They are fain to answer, the Bridegroom and the Bride, he and she are the Priest in that Sacrament. As marriage is a civil Contract, it must be done so in public, as that it may have the testimony of men; As marriage is a religious Contract, it must be so done, as that it may have the benediction of the Priest: In a marriage without testimony of men they cannot claim any benefit of the Law; In a marriage without the benediction of the Priest they cannot claim any benefit of the Church: for how Matrimonially foever such persons as have married themselves may pretend to love, and live together, yet all that love, and all that life is but a regulated Adultery, it is not marriage.

Now this institution of marriage had three objects: first, In ustionem, it was given for a remedy against burning; And then, In prolem, for propagation, for children; And lastly, In adjutorium, for mutual help. As we consider it the first way, In ustionem, every heating is not a burning; every natural concupiscence does not require a marriage; may every flaming is not a burning; though a man continue under the flame of carnal temptation, as long as S. Paul did; yet it needs not come presently to a Sponsabo, I will mary. God gave S. Paul other Physic, Gratia mea sufficit, grace to stand under that temptation; And S. Paul gave himself other Physic, Contundo corpus, convenient disciplines to tame his body. These will keepa man from burning; for Vriest desideriis vinci, desideria pati, illustris est, & perfecti; To be overcome by our concupiscences, that is to burn, but to quench the fire by religious ways, that is a noble, that is a perfect work. When God at the first institution of marriage had this first use of marriage in his contemplation, that it should be a remedy against burning, God gave man the remedy, before he had the disease; for marriage was instituted in the state of innocency, when there was no inordinateness in the affections of man, and so no burning. But as God created Reubarb in the world, whose quality is to purge choler, before there was any choler to purge, so God according to his abundant forwardness to do us good, created a remedy before the disease, which he foresaw comming, was come upon us. Let him then that takes a wife in this first and lowest sense, In medicinam, but as his Physic, yet make her his cordial Physic, take her to his heart, and fill his heart with her, let her dwell there, and dwell there alone, and so they will be mutual Antidotes and Preservatives one to another, against all foreign temptations. And with this blessing, bless thou, ô Lord, these whom thou hast brought hither for this blessing: make all the days of their life like this day unto them; and as thy mercies are new every morning, make them so to one another; And if they may not die together, sustain thou the survivor of them in that sad hour with this comfort, That he that died for them both, will bring them together again in his everlastingness.

The second use of marriage was In prolificationem, for children: And therefore as S. August. puts the case, To contract before, that they will have no children, makes it no marriage but an adultery: To deny themselves to another, is as much against marriage as to give themselves to another. To hinder it by Physic, or any other practise; nay to hinder it so far, as by a deliberate wish, or prayer against children, consists not well with this second use of marriage. And yet in this second use, we dòe not so much consider generation as regeneration; not so much procreation as education, nor propagation as transportation of children. For this world might be filled full enough of children, though there were no marriage; but heaven could not be filled, nor the places of the fallen Angels supplied, without that care of children's religious education, which from Parents in lawful marriage they are likeliest to receive. How infinite, and how miserable a circle of sin do we make, if as we sinned in our Parents loins before we were born, so we sin in our children's actions when we are dead, by having given them, either example, or liberty of sinning. We have a fearful commination from God upon a good man, upon Eli, for his not restraining the licentiousness of his sons; I will do a thing in Israel, says God there, at which every mans ears that hears it shall single: And it was executed, Eli fell down and broke his neck. We have also a consolation to women for children, She shall be saved in Child-bearing, says the Apostle; but as Chrysostom and others of the Ancients observe and interpret that place (which interpretation arises out of the very letter) it is, Si permanserint, not if she, but if they, if the children continue in faith, in charity, in holiness, and sobriety: The salvation of the Parents hath so much relation to the children's goodness, as that if they be ill by the Parents example, or indulgence, the Parents are as guilty as the children. Art thou afraid thy child should be stung with a Snake, and wilt thou let him play with the old Serpent, in opening himself to all temptations? Art thou afraid to let him walk in an ill aire, and art thou content to let him stand in that pestilent aire that is made of nothing but oaths, and execrations of blasphemous mouths round about him? It is S. Chrysostomes complaint, Perditionem magno pretio emunt; Salutem nec done accipere volunt; we pay dear for our children's damnation, by paying at first for all their childish vanities, and then for their sinful insolencies at any rate; and we might have them saved, and our selves to the bargain, (which were a frugal way, and a debt well hedged in) for much less then ours, and their damnation stands us in. If you have a desire, says that blessed Father, to leave them certainly rich, Deumiis relinque Debitorem, Do some such thing for Gods service, as you may leave God in their debt. He cannot break; his estate is inexhaustible; he will not break promise, nor break day; He will show mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keep his Commandments. And here also may another shore of his benedictions fall upon them whom he hath prepared and presented here; Let the wife be as a fruitful Vine, and their children like Olive plants: To thy glory, let the Parents express the love of Parents, and the children, to thy glory, the obedience of children, till they both loose that secular name of Parents and Children, and meet all alike, in one new name, all Saints in thy Kingdom, and fellow servants there.

The third and last use in this institution of secular marriage, was, In adjutorium, for mutual help. There is no state, no man in any state, that needs not the help of others. Subjects need Kings, and if Kings do not need their Subjects, they need alliances abroad, and they need Counsel at home. Even in Paradise, where the earth produced all things for life without labor, and the beasts submitted themselves to man, so that he had no outward enemy; And in the state of innocency in Paradise, where in man all the affections submitted themselves to reason, so that he had no inward enemy, yet God in this abundant Paradise, and in this secure innocency of Paradise, even in the survey of his own work, saw, that though all that he had made was good, yet he had not made all good; he found thus much defect in his own work, that man lacked a helper. Every body needs the help of others; and every good body does give some kind of help to others. Even into the Ark it self, where God blessed them all with a powerful and an immediate protection, God admitted only such as were fitted to help one another, couples. In the Ark, which was the Type of our best condition in this life, there was not a single person. Christ saved once one theef at the last gasp, to show that there may be late repentances; but in the Ark he saved none but married persons, to show, that he eases himself in making them helpers to one another. And therefore when we come to the Posui Deum adjutorium meum, to rely upon God primarily for our Help, God comes to the faciam tibi adjutorium, I will make thee a help like thy self: not always like in complexion, nor like in years, nor like in fortune, nor like in birth, but like in mind, like in disposition, like in the love of God, and of one another or else there is no helper. It was no kind of help that Davids wife gave him, when she spoke by way of counsel, but in truth, in scorn and derision, to draw him from a religious act, as the dancing before the Ark, at that time was: It is no help for any respect, to slacken the husband in his Religion. It was but a poor help that Nabals wife was fain to give him by telling David, Al as my husband is but a fool, like his name, and what will you look for at a fools hand? It is the worst help of all to raise a husband by dejecting her self, to help her husband forward in this world, by forfeiting sinfully, and dishonourably her own interest in the next. The husband in the Helper in the nature of a foundation, to sustain and uphold all; The wife in the nature of the roof, to cover imperfections and weaknesses: The husband in the nature of the head from whom all the sinews flow; The wife in the nature of the hands into which those sinews flow, and enable them to do their offices. The husband helps as legs to her, she moves by his motion; The wife helps as a staff to him, he moves the better by her assistance. And let this mutual help be a part of our present benediction too; In all the ways of fortune let his industry help her, and in all the crosses of fortune let her patience help him; and in all emergent occasions and dangers spiritual, or temporal, O God make speed to save them, O Lord, make haste to help them.

We have spoken of the persons, man and woman, him and her; And of the action, first as it is Physic, but cordial Physic; and then for children, but children to be made the children of God; and lastly for help, but true help and mutual help; There remains yet in this secular marriage, the Term, how long, for ever, I will mary thee for ever. Now though there be properly no eternity in this secular marriage, nor in any thing in this world, (for eternity is that only which never had beginning, nor ever shall have end) yet we may consider a kind of eternity, a kind of circle without beginning, without end, even in this secular marriage: for first, marriage should have no beginning before marriage; no half-marriage, no lending away of the mind, in conditional precontracts before, no lending away of the body in unchaste wantonness before. The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; and when two bodies, by marriage are to be made one temple, the wife is not as the Chancel, reserved and shut up, and the man as the walks below, indifferent and at liberty for every passenger. God in his Temple looks for first fruits from both, that so on both sides, marriage should have such a degree of eternity, as to have had no beginning of marriage before marriage. It should have this degree of eternity too, this quality of a circle to have no interruption, no breaking in the way by unjust suspicions and jealousies. Where there is Spiritus immunditei, as S. Paul calls it, a spirit of uncleanness, there will necessarily be Spiritus zelotypiae, as Moses calls it, a spirit of jealousy. But to raise the Devil in the power of the Devil, to call up one spirit by another spirit, by the spirit of jealousy and suspicion, to induce the spirit of uncleanness where it was not, if a man conjure up a Devil so, God knows who shall conjure it down again, As jealousy is a care and not a suspicion, God is not ashamed to protest of himself that he is a jealous God. God commands that no idolatry be committed, Thou shalt not bow down to a graven Image; and before he accuses any man to have bowed down to a graven Image, before any Idolatry was committed, he tells them that he is a jealous God; God is jealous before there is any harm done. And God presents it as a curse, when he says, My jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and no more angry; that is, I will heave thee to thy self, and take no more care of thee. Jealousy that implies care, and honor, and counsel, and tenderness, is rooted in God, for God is a jealous God, and his servants are jealous servants, as S. Paul professes of himself, I am jealous over you with a gedly jealousy. But jealousy that implies diffidence and suspicion, and accusation, is rooted in the Devil, for he is the Accuser of the brethren.

So then, this secular marriage should be in aeternum, eternal, for ever, as to have no beginning before, and so too, as to have no jealous interruption by the way; for it is so eternal, as that it can have no end in this life: Those whom God hath joined, no man, no Devil, can separate so, as that it shall not remain a marriage so far, as that if those separated persons will live together again, yet they shall not be new married; so far, certainly, the band of marriage continues still. The Devil makes no marriages; He may have a hand in drawing conveyances; in the temporal conditios there may be practice, but the marriage is made by God in heaven. The Devil can break no marriages neither, though he can by sin break off all the good uses, and take away all the comforts of marriage. I pronounce not now whether Adultery dissolves marriage or no; It is S. Augustines wisdom to say, Where the Scripture is silent, let me be silent too: And I may go lower then he, and say, Where the Church is silent, let me be silent too; and our Church is so far silent in this, as that it hath not said, That Adultery dissolves marriage. Perchance then it is not the death of marriage, but surely it is a deadly wound. We have Authors in the Romanc Church that think fornicationem non vagam, that such an incontinent life as is limited to one certain person, is no deadly sin, But there is none even amongst them that diminish the crime of Adultery. Habere quasi non haberes, is Christs counsel, To have a wife as though thou hadst none, that is continency, and temperance, and forbearance and abstinency upon some occasions; But non habere quasi haberes, is not so; not to have a wife, and yet have her, to have her, that is another's, that is the Devils counsel. That falutation of the Angle to the blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed art thou amongst memen, we may make even this interpretation, not only that she was blessed amongst women, that is, above women, but that she was Benedicta, blessed amongst women, that all women blest her, that no woman had occasion to curse her: And this is the eternity of this secular marriage as far as this world admits any eternity; that it should have no beginning before, no interruption of jealousy in the way, no such approach towards dissolution, as that incontinency, in all opinions, and in all Churches is agreed to be. And here also without any scruple of fear, or of suspicion of the contrary, there is place for this benediction, upon this couple; Build, ô Lord, upon thine own foundations, in these two, and establish thy former graces with future; that no person ever complain of either of them, nor either of them of one another, and so he and she are married in aeternum for ever.

We are now come in our order proposed at first, to our second Part; for all is said that I intended of the secular marriage. And of this second, the spiritual marriage, much needs not to be said: There is another Priest that contracts that, another Preacher that celebrates that, the Spirit of God to our spirit. And for the third marriage, the eternal marriage, it is a boldness to speak any thing of a thing so inexpressible as the joys of heaven; it is a diminution of them to go about to heighten them; it is a shadowing of them to go about to lay any colors or light upon them. But yet your patience may perchance last to a word of each of these three Circumstances, The Persons, the Action, the Term, both in this spiritual, and in the eternal marriage.

First then, as in the former Part, the secular marriage, for the persons there, we considered first Adam and Eve, and after every man and woman, and this couple in particular; so in this spiritual marriage we consider first Christ and his Church, for the Persons, and more particularly Christ and my soul. And can these persons meet? in such a distance, and in such a disparagement can these persons meet? the Son of God and the son of man? When I consider Christ to be Germen Iehovae, the bud and blossom, the fruit and off-spring of Jehovah, Jehovah himself, and my self before he took me in hand, to be, not a Potters vessel of earth, but that earth of which the Potter might make a vessel if he would, and break it if he would when he had made it: When I consider Christ to have been from before all beginnings, and to be still the Image of the Father, the same stamp upon the same metal, and my self a piece of rusty copper, in which those lines of the Image of God which were imprinted in me in my Creation are defaced and worn, and washed and burnt, and ground away, by my many, and many, and many fins: When I consider Christ in his Circle, in glory with his Father, before he came into this world, establishing a glorious Church when he was in this world, and glorifying that Church with that glory which himself had before, when he went out of this world; and then consider my self in my circle, I came into this world washed in my own tears, and either out of compunction for my self or compassion for others, I pass through this world as through a valley of tears, where tears settle and swell, and when I pass out of this world I leave their eyes whose hands close mine, full of tears too, can these persons, this Image of God, this God himself, this glorious God, and this vessel of earth, this earth it self, this inglorious worm of the earth, meet without disparagement?

They do meet and make a marriage; because I am not a body only, but a body and s,oul there is a marriage, and Christ maries me. As by the Law a man might mary a captive woman in the Wars, if he shaved her head, and pared her nails, and changed her clothes: so my Savior having fought for my soul, fought to blood, to death, to the death of the Cross for her, having studied my soul so much, as to write all those Epistles which are in the New Testament to my soul, having presented my soul with his own picture, that I can see his face in all his temporal blessings, having shaved her head in abating her pride, and pared her nails in contracting her greedy desires, and changed her clothes not to fashion her self after this world, my soul being thus fitted by himself, Christ Jesus hath married my soul, married her to all the three intendments mentioned in the secular marriage; first, in ustionem, against burning; That whether I burn my self in the fires of temptation, by exposing my self to occasions of temptation, or be reserved to be burnt by others in the fires of persecution and martyrdom, whether the fires of ambition, or envy, or lust, or the everlasting fires of hell offer at me in an apprehension of the judgements of God, yet as the Spirit of God shall wipe all tears from mine eyes, so the tears of Christ Jesus shall extinguish all fires in my heart, and so it is a marriage, In ustionem, a remedy against burning.

It is so too, In prolificationem, for children; first, vae soli, woe unto that single soul that is not married to Christ; that is not come into the way of having issue by him, that is not incorporated in the Christian Church, and in the true Church, but is yet in the wilderness of Idolatry amongst the Gentiles, or in the Labyrinth of superstition amongst the Papists, vae soli, woe unto that single man that is not married unto Christ in the Sacraments of the Church; and vae sterili, woe unto them that are barren after this spiritual marriage, for that is a great curse in the Prophet Jeremiah, Scribe virum istum sterilem, write this man childless, that implied all calamities upon him; And assoon as Christ had laid that curse upon the Fig-tree, Let no fruit grow upon thee for ever, presently the whole tree withered; no fruit, no leafs neither, nor body left. To be incorporated in the body of Christ Jesus, and bring forth no fruits worthy of that profession, is a woeful state too. Vae soli, woe unto the Gentiles not married unto Christ; and vae sterili, woe unto inconsiderate Christians, that think not upon their calling, that conceive not by Christ; but there is a vae praegnanti too, wo unto them that are with child, and are never delivered; that have good conceptions, religious dispositions, holy desires to the advancement of Gods truth, but for some collateral respects dare not utter them, nor bring them to their birth, to any effect. The purpose of his marriage to us, is to have children by us: and this is his abundant and his present fecundity, that working now, by me in you, in one instant he hath children in me, and grand children by me. He hath married me, in ustionem, and in prolem, against burning, and for children; but can he have any use of me, in adjutorium, for a helper? Surely, if I be able to feed him, and clothe him, and harbor him, (and Christ would not condemn men at the last day for not doing these, if man could not do them) I am able to help him too. Great persons can help him over sea, convey the name of Christ where it hath not been preached yet; and they can help him home again; restore his name, and his truth where superstition with violence hath disseised him: And they can help him at home, defend his truth there against all machinations to displant and dispossesse him. Great men can help him thus; and every man can help him to a better place in his own heart, and his own actions, then he hath had there; and to be so helped in me and helped by me, to have his glory thereby advanced, Christ hath married my soul: And he hath married it in aeternum, for ever; which is the third and last Circumstance in this spiritual, as it was in the secular marriage.

And here the aeternum is enlarged; in the secular marriage it was an eternity considered only in this life; but this eternity is not begun in this world, but from all eternity in the Book of life, in Gods eternal Decree for my election, there Christ was married to my soul. Christ was never in minority, never under years; there was never any time when he was not as ancient as the Ancient of Days, as old as his Father. But when my soul was in a strange minority, infinite millions of millions of generations, before my soul was a soul, did Christ mary my soul in his eternal Decree. So it was eternal, it had no beginning. Neither doth he interrupt this by giving me any occasion of jealousy by the way, but loves my soul as though there were no other soul, and would have done and suffered all that he did for me alone, if there had been no name but mine in the Book of life. And as he hath married me to him, in aeternum, for ever, before all beginnings, and in aeternum, for ever, without any interruptions, so I know, that whom he loves he loves to the end, and that he hath given me, not a presumptuous impossibility, but a modest infallibility, that no sin of mine shall divorce or separate me from him, for, that which ends the secular marriage, ends not the spiritual: not death, for my death does not take me from that husband, but that husband being by his Father preferred to higher titles, and greater glory in another state, I do but go by death where he is become a King, to have my part in that glory, and in those additions which he hath received there. And this hath led us to our third and last marriage, our eternal marriage in the triumphant Church.

And in this third marriage, the persons are, the Lamb and my soul; The marriage of the Lamb is come, and blessed are they that are called to the marriage Supper of the Lamb, says S. John speaking of our state in the general Resurrection. That Lamb that was brought to the slaughter and opened not his mouth, and I who have opened my mouth and poured out imprecations and curses upon men, and execrations and blasphemies against God upon every occasion; That Lamb who was slain from the beginning, and was slain by him who was a murderer from the beginning; That Lamb which took away the sins of the world, and I who brought more sins into the world, then any sacrifice but the blood of this Lamb could take away: This Lamb and I (these are the Persons) shall meet and mary; there is the Action.

This is not a clandestine marriage, not the private seal of Christ in the obsignation of his Spirit; and yet such a clandestine marriage is a good marriage: Nor it is not such a Parish marriage, as when Christ married me to himself at my Baptism, in a Church here, and yet that marriage of a Christian soul to Christ in that Sacrament is a blessed marriage: But this is a marriage in that great and glorious Congregation, where all my fins shall be laid open to the eyes of all the world, where all the blessed Virgins shall see all my uncleanness, and all the Martyrs see all my tergiversations, and all the Consessors see all my double dealings in Gods cause; where Abraham shall see my faithlesness in Gods promises; and Job my impatience in Gods corrections; and Lazarus my hardness of heart in distributing Gods blessings to the poor; and those Virgins, and Martyrs, and Confessors, and Abraham, and Job, and Lazarus, and all that Congregation, shall look upon the Lamb and upon me, and upon one another, as though they would all forbid those banes, and say to one another, Will this Lamb have any thing to do with this soul? and yet there and then this Lamb shall mary me, In aeternum, for ever, which is our last circumstance.

It is not well done to call it a circumstance, for the eternity is a great part of the essence of that marriage. Consider then how poor and needy a thing, all the riches of this world, how flat and tastlesse a thing, all the pleasures of this world, how pallid, and faint, and dilute a thing, all the honours of this world are, when the very Treasure, and Joy, and glory of heaven it self were unperfect, if it were not eternal, and my marriage shall be too, In aeternum, for ever.

The Angels were not married so; they incurred an irreparable Divorce from God, and are separated for ever, and I shall be married to him, in aeternum, for ever. The Angels fell in love, when there was no object presented, before any thing was created; when there was nothing but God and themselves, they fell in love with themselves, and neglected God, and so fell in aeternum, for ever. I shall see all the beauty, and all the glory of all the Saints of God, and love them all, and know that the Lamb loves them too, without jealousy, on his part, or theirs, or mine, and so be married in aeternum, for ever, without interruption, or diminution, or change of affections. I shall see the Sun black as sackcloth of hair, and the Moon become as blood, and the Stars fall as a Fig-tree casts her untimely Figges, and the heavens rolled up together as a Scroll. I shall see a divorce between Princes and their Prerogatives, between nature and all her elements, between the spheres, and all their intelligences; between matter it self, and all her forms, and my marriage shall be, in aeternum, for ever. I shall see an end of faith, nothing to be believed that I do not know; and an end of hope, nothing to be wisht that I do not enjoy, but no end of that love in which I am married to the Lamb for ever. Yea, I shall see an end of some of the offices of the Lamb himself; Christ himself shall be no longer a Mediator, an Intercessor, an Advocate, and yet shall continue a Husband to my soul for ever. Where I shall be rich enough without Joynture, for my Husband cannot die; and wise enough without experience, for no new thing can happen there; and healthy enough without Physic, for no sickness can enter; and (which is by much the highest of all) safe enough without grace, for no temptation that need particular grace, can attempt me. There, where the Angels, which cannot die, could not live, this very body which cannot choose but die, shall live, and live as long as that God of life that made it. Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, ô Lord, that in thy light we may see light: Illustrate our understandings, kindle our affections, pour oil to our zeal, that we may come to the marriage of this Lamb, and that this Lamb may come quickly to this marriage: And in the mean time bless these thy servants, with making this secular marriage a type of the spiritual, and the spiritual an earnest of that eternal, which they and we, by thy mercy, shall have in the Kingdom which thy Son our Savior hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom, &c.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon IV.

REVEL. 7. 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throns, shall govern them, and shall lead them unto the lively furnteins of matters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Preached at a Christening.

IF our conversation be in heaven, as the Apostle says his was, and if that conversation be, (as Testullian reads that place) Municipatus noster, our City, our dwelling, the place from whence only we receive our Laws, to which only we direct our services, in which only we are capable of honours, and offices, where even the office of a door-keeper was the subject of a great Kings ambition; if our conversation be there, even there, there cannot be better company met, then we may see and converse withal in this Chapter. Upon those words, doth the Eagle mount up at the Cominandement, or make his nest on high; S. Gregory says, Videamus aquilam, nidum sibi, in arduis construentem; Then we say an Eagle make his nest on high, when we heard S. Petter say so, Our conversation is in heaven; and then doth an Eagle mount up at our commandment, when our soul, our devotion, by such a conversation in heaven, associates itself with all this blessed company that are met in this Chapter, that our fellow ship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and with all the Court and Quire of the Triumphant Church. If you go to feasts, if you go to Comedies, sometimes only to meet company, nay if you come to Church sometimes only upon that errand, to meet company, (as though the House of God, were but as the presence of an earthly Prince, which upon solemn Festival days must be filled and furnished, though they that come, come to do no service there) command year Eagle to mount up, and to build his nest on high, command your souls to have their conversation in heaven by meditation of this Scripture, and you shall meet company, which no stranger shall interrupt, for they are all of a knot, and such a knot as nothing shall untie, as inseparably united to one another, as that God, with whom they are made one Spirit, is inseparable in himself.

Here you shall see the Angel that comes from the East, (yea, that Angel which is the East, from whence all beams of grace and glory arise, for so the Prophet calls Christ Jesus himself, (as S. Jerome reads that place) Eccevir, Oriens nomen ejus, Behold him, whose name is the East) you shall see him come with the seal of the living God, and hold back those Angels which had power given them to hurt the Sea, and the Earth, and you shall her him say, Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in the forecheads. And as you shall see him forward, so you shall see him large, and bountiful in imprinting that Seal, you shall see an hundred and forty four thousand of the Tribes of the Children of Israel, and you shall see a great multitude, which no man can number, of al Nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stand before the Throne, and before the Lamb, and cry out, and say, Salvation cometh of our God, that sitteth upon the Throne, and of the Lamb: and you shall see all the Angels stand round about the Throne, and about the Elders, and the four Beasts, all falling upon their faces, and worshipping God, saying, Amen, praise, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God, for evermore, Amen. And this is good company, and good Music.

And lest you should lose any of the Joy of this conversation, of this society, by ignorance what they were, one of the Elders prevents you; and (as the Text says) answers you, saying, what are these that are araid in white? he answers by a question, which is some what strange; but he answers before any question, which is more strange: but God fees questions in our hearts before he hears them from our lips; and as soon as our hearts conceive a desire to be informed, he gives a full and a present satisfaction; he answers before we ask; but yet he answers by a question, that thereby he may give us occasion of farther discourse, of farther questioning with him. There, this Elder shall tell thee, that those are they which are come out of the Tribulations of this world, and have made their Robes white in the blood of the Lamb, that therefore they are in the presence of the Throne of God, that they serve him day and night in the Temple, that they shall hunger no more, thrist no more, nor be offended with heat, or Sun; That is, as many as are appointed to receive this Seal of the living God upon their foreheads, though they be not actually delivered from all the incommodities of this life, yet nothing in this life shall deprive them of the next. For as you see the Seal given in this Chapter, and the promise of all these blessings annexed to it, so you see in this Text the reason of all this, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall govern them, and shall lead them unto the lively fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

In which words, we shall consider for order and distincton, first the matter, and then the form: by the matter we mean the purpose and intention of the Holy Ghost in these words; and by the form, the declaring, the proving, the illustrating, and the heightning of that purpose of his. For the matter; we take this imprinting or the Seal of the living God in the forehead of the Elect, and this washing in the blood of the Lamb, to be intended of the Sacrament of Baptism: In that which we call the form, which is the illustrating of this, we shall first look upon the great benefits and blessings which these servants of God so sealed, and so washed, are made partakers of; for those blessings which are mentioned in the verses before, are rooted and enwrapped in this particular of this Text, Quoniam, for; they are blessed; for the Lamb shall dòe this and this for them; And then we shall consider what that is which this Lamb will do for them; first, Reget illos, He shall govern them, take them into his care, make them heirs of the Covenant, breed them in a visible Church: secondly, Deducet eos, He shall lead them to the lively fountains of waters; give them outward and visible means of Sanctification; thirdly, Absterget omnem lachtymam, He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; even in this life he shall settle and establish a heavenly joy in the faithful appreliension of the joys of heaven here.

First then to speak of the matter, that is of the purpose and intention of these words, it is true, they are diversly understood: They have been understood of the state of the Martyrs, which are now come to the possesion of their Crown in heaven, because they are said to have made their long Robes white in the blood of the Lamb; And so S. August. and S. Gregory (when, by occasion of the subject which they were then in hand with, they were full of the contemplation of Martyrdom, and encouragements to that) do seem to understand these words, of Martyrs. But since it is not said, that they washed their robes in their own blood, which is proper to Martyrs, but in the blood of the Lamb, which is communicated to all that participate of the merit of Christ, the words seem larger then so, and not to be restrained only to Martyrs. Others have enlarged them farther then so, beyond Martyrs: but yet limit them to the Triumphant Church; that because it is said, that they are come out of great tribulation, and that they are in the presence of the Throne of God, and that they shall hunger no more, they see no way of admitting these perfections, in this life. But S. Paul saw a way, when he said of the Elect, even in this life, God which is rich in mercy, Convivificavit, conresuscitavit, consider fecit, he hath quickened us, he hath raised us, he hath made us fit together in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: That is, as he is our Head, and is there himself, and we with Christ Jesus, as we are his Members; we are with him there too. In the same place where the Apostle says, That we look for our Savior from heaven, (there is our future, our expectation) he says also, our conversation is in heaven, there is our present, our actual possession. That is it which S. Augustine intends, Dilexisti me Domine plusquam te; Lord thou hast loved me more then thou hast loved thy self: Not only that thou gavest thy self for me, that thou didst neglect thy self to consider me, but whereas thou hadst a glory with the Father, before the world was made, thou didst admit a cloud, and a slumber upon that glory, and staiedst for thy glory till thy death, yet thou givest us, (naturally inglorious, and miserable creatures) a real possession of glory, and of inseparableness from thee, in this life. This is that Copiosa redemptio, there is with the Lord plentiful redemption; though that were Matura redemptio, a seasonable redemption, if it should meet me upon my deathbed, and that the Angels then should receive my soul, to lay it in Abrahams bosom, yet this is my Saviours plentiful redemption, that my soul is in Abrahams bosom now whilst it is in this body, and that I am already in the presence of his Throne, now when I am in your sight, and that I serve him already day and night in his Temple, now when I meditate, or execute his Commission, in this service, in this particular Congregation.

Those words are not then necessarily restrained to Martyrs, they are not restrained to the state of the Triumphant Church, they are spoken to all the Children of righteousness, and of godlines; and godliness hath the promises of the life present, and that, that is to come. That which involves all these promises, that which is the kernel, and seed, and marrow of all, the last clause of the text, God shall wipe all tears from their eyes, those words, that clause, is thrice repeated entirely in the Scriptures: When it is spoken here, when it is spoken in the one and twentieth Chapter of the Revelation, and at the fourth verse, in both places, it is derived from the Prophet Isaiah, which is an Eacharistical chapter, a Chapter of thanksgiving for Gods deliverance of his children, even in this world, from the afflictions, and tribulations thereof, and therefore this text belongs also to this world.

This imprinting then of the seal in the forehead, this washing of the robes in the blood of the Lambe, S. Ambrose places conveniently to be accomplished in the Sacrament of Baptism: for this is Copiosissima Redemptio, this is the most plentiful redemption, that that be applied to us, not only at last in Heaven, nor at my last step towards heaven, at my death, nor in all the steps that I make in the course of my life, but in my first step into the Church, nay before I can make any step, when I was carried in another's armes thither, even in the beginning of this life; and so do divers of the later Men, and of those whom we call ours, understand all this, of baptism; because if we consider this washing away of tears, as Saint Cyprian says, young children do most of all need this mercy of God and this assistance of Man, because as soon as they come into this world Plorantes, ac flentes, nihil aliud faciunt, quam deprecantur, they beg with tears something at our hands, and therefore need this abstersion, this wiping. For though they cannot tell us, what they aile, though (if we will enter into curiosities) we cannot tell them what they aile, that is, we cannot tell them what properly, and exactly Original sin is, yet they aile something, which naturally disposes them, to weep, and beg, that something might be done, for the wiping away of tears from their eyes. And therefore though the other errors of the Anabaptist be ancient, 1000. year old, yet the denying of baptism to children, was never heard of till within 100. years, and less. The Arrians, and the Donatists did rebapsize those who were baptized by the true Christians, whom they counted Heretics; but yet they refused not to baptize children: The Pelegians denied original sin in children; but yet they baptized them. All Churches, Greek, and Russian, and Ethiopique, howsoever they differ in the body of the Church, yet they meet, they agree in the porch, in Limine Ecclesiae, in the Sacrament of baptism, and acknowledge that it is communicable to all children, and to all Men; from the child new born to the decrepit old Man, from him that is come out of one mothers womb, to him that is going into another, into his grave, Sicut nullus prohibendus à baptism, it a nullus est qui non peccate moritur in baptismo, As baptism is to be denied to none, so neither is it to be denied, that all, that are rightly baptized, are washed from sin. Let him that will contentiously say, that there are some children, that take no profit by baptism, show me which is one of them, and qui testatur de scientia, testetur de mode scientiae; If he say he knows it, let him tell us how he knows that which the Church of God doth not know.

We come now to the second part; in which we consider first, this firstword, quoniam, for, which is verbum praegnans, a word that includes all those great blessings, which God hath ordained for them, whom in his eternal decree, he hath prepared for this sealing and this washing. Those blessings, which are immediately before the text, are, that in Gods purpose, they are already come out of great tribulations, they have already received a whitens by the blood of the Lambe, they are already in the presence of the threne of the Lambe, they have already overcome all hunger, and thirst, and heat. Those particular blessings we cannot insist upon; that requires rather a Comment upon the Chapter, then a Sermon upon the text. But in this word of inference, for, we only will observe this: That though all the promises of God in him, are Yea, and Amen, certain, and infallible in themselves, though his Name, that makes them be Amen, (Thus saith Amen, the faithful and true witness) and therefore there needs no better security, then his word, for all those blessings, yet God is pleased to give that abundant satisfaction to Man, as that his reason shall have something to build upon, as well as his faith, he shall know why he should believe all these blessings to belong to them who are to have these Seals, and this washing. For God requires no such faith, nay he accepts, nay he excuses no such faith, as believes without reason; believes he knows not why. As faith without fruit, without works, is no faith; to faith without a roct, without reason, is no faith, but an opinion. All those blessings by the Sacrament of Baptism, & all Gods other promises to his children, and all the mysteries of Christrian Religion, are therefore believed by us, becuase they are grounded in the Scriptures of God; we believe them for that reason; and then it is not a work of my faith primarily, but it is a work of my reason, that assures me, that these are the Scriptures, that these Scriptures are the word of God. I can answer other Mens reasons, that argue against it, I can convince other men by reason, that my reasons are true: and therefore it is a work of reason, that I believe these to be Scriptures.

To prove a beginning of the world, I need not the Scriptures, reason will evict it forceibly enough against all the world; but, when I come beyond all Philosophy, that for Adams fault six thousand year ago, I should be condemned now, because that fault is naturally in me, I must find reason, before I believe this, and my reason is, because I find it in the Scrpiture; Nascimur filii Ira, and therefore, nifi renatus, we are born children of wrath, and therefore must be born again. That a Messiah should come to deliver Mankind from this sin, and all other fins, my reason is, the Semen mulieris, the seed of the woman, for the promise, and the Ecce agnus Dei, Behold the Lambe of God, for the performance. That he should come, I rest in that, The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head; And that he is come, I rest in this, that John Baptist showed the Lambs of God that taketh away the sins of the world. That this merit of his should be applied to certain Men, my reason is in the Semini two, Gods Covenant, to Abraham, and to his seed; That we are of that number, included in that Covenant to Abraham, my reason is, in spiritu adoptionis, the spirit of adoption hath ingraffed us, inserted us into the same Covenant. When my reason tells me that the Seal of that Covenant, Circumcision is gone, (I am not circumcised, and therefore might doubt) my reason tells me too, that in the Scriptures, there is a new Seals, Baptism: when my reason tells me, that after that regeneration, I have degenerated again, I have fallen from those graces which I received in Baptism, my reason leads me again to those places of Scripture, where God hath established a Church for the remession and absolution of sins. If I have been negligent of all these helps, and now my reason begins to work to my prejudice, that I begin to gather and heap up all those places of the Law, and Prophets, and Gospel, which threaten certain condemnation unto such sinners, as I find my self to be, yet if my reason can see light at the Nolo mortem peccatoris, at the Quandocunque resipiscct; That God would not the death of any sinner, That no time is unseasonable for repentance: That scatters the clands of witnesses again; and to till my reason can tell me (which it can never do) that it hath found places in Scripture, of a measure, and finiteness in God, (that his mercy can go no farther) and then of an infiniteness in Man (that his sin can go beyond God) my reason will defend me from desperation; I mean the reason, that is grounded upon the Scripture; still I shall find there, that Quia, which David delighted in so much, as that he repears it almost thirty times, in one Psalm, For his mercy endureth for ever.

God leaves no way of satisfaction unperformed unto us; sometimes he works upon the phantasy of Man; as in those often visions, which he presented to his Prophets in dreams; sometimes he works upon the senses, by preparing objects for them; So he filled the Mountain round about with horses, and chariots, in defense of Elisha; but always he works upon our reason; he bids us fear no judgment, he bids us hope for no mercy, except it have a Quia, a reason, a foundation, in the Scriptures. For God is Logos, speech and reason He declares his will by his Word, and he proved it, he confirms it, he is Logos, and he proceeds Logically. It is true, that we have a Sophistry, which as far as concerns our own destruction, frustrates his Logic; If Peter make a Quia, a reason why his fellows could not be drunk, Because it was but nine a Clock, we can find Men that can overthrow that reason, and rise drunk out of their beds; If Christ make a Quia, a reason against fashional, and Circumstantial christians, that do sometimes some offices of religion, out of custom, or company, or neighborhood, or necessity, because no man peecethan old garment with new cloth, nor puts new wine into old vessels, yet since S. Augustine says well, Carnalitas vetustas, gratia novitas, our carnal delights, are our old garments, and those degrees and beams of grace, which are shed upon us, are the new, we do piece this old with this new, that is, long habits of sin, with short repentances; flames of concupiscence, with little sparks of remorse; and into old vessels, (our sin-worn bodies) we put in once a year, some drops, of new wine, of the blood of our Savior Christ Jesus, in the Sacrament, (when we come to his table, as to a vintage, because of the season, and we receive by the Almanack, because it is Easter) and this new wine so taken in, breaks the vessels, (as Christ speaks in that similitude) And his breaking shall be, as the breaking of a Potters pot, which is broken without pity, and in the breaking thereof is not found a shard, to take fire at the hearth, nor to take water out of the pit; No way in the Church of God, to repair that Man, because he hath made either a Mockery, or at best, but a Civil action of Gods institution in the Church. To conclude this, all sin is but fallacy and Sophistry; Religion is reason and Logic; The devil hides, and deludes, Almighty God demonstrates and proves: That fashion of his goes through all his precepts, through all his promises, which is in Isaiah, Come now, and let us reason together; that which was in Job, is a bundantly in God, That he did not contemne the judgment of his servant, nor of his maid, when they did contend with him. Nec decet Dei judicium quicquid habere affine tyrannidi, we may not think that here is any thing in God, like a Tyran; and it is a Tyrannical proceeding, as to give no reason of his cruelties, so to give no assurance of his benefits; and therefore God seals his promises with a Quia, a reason, an assurance.

Now much of the strength of the assurance, consists in the person, whose seal it is; and therefore as Christ did, we ask next, Cujus inscriptio, whose Image, whose inscription is upon his seal, who gives this assurance? And it is the Lambe that is in the midst of the throne; If it werethe Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Iuda, is able to perform his promises: but there are more then Christ, out of this world, that bear the Lion; The devil is a Lion too, that seeketh whom he may devour: but he never seals with that Lambe, with any impression of humility; to a Lambe he is never compared; in the likeness of a lambe, he is never noted to have appeared, in all the Legends.

It is the Lambe, that is in the midst, thereby disposed to shed, and dispense his spiritual benefits on all sides; The Lambe is not immured in Rome, not coffined up in the ruins, and tubbidge of old walls, nor thrust into a corner in Conventicles. The Lambe is in the midst; & he is in the midst of the throne; though al his great, & glorious company be round about him, one hundred and forty four thousand Israelites, innumerable multitudes of all Nations, Angels, and Elders, yet it is the Lambe, that is in the midst of them, and not they that are about him, that sheds down these blessings upon us; And it is the Lambe, that is there still, in the midst of the throne; not kneaded into an Agnus Dei, of wax, or wafer here, not called down from heaven, to an Altar, by every Priests charm, to be a witness of secrecy in the Sacrament, for every bloody, and feditious enterprise, that they undertake; It is Agnus qui est in medio Throni, the Lambe that is there, and shall be so, till he come at last, as a Lion also, to devour them, who have made false opinions of him to serve their mischievous purposes here.

This is the person then, that gives the assurance, that all these blessings belong to them who are ordained to be so sealed, and so washed; this is he that assures us, and approves to us, that all this shall be, first, Quia reget, because he shall govern them, secondly, Quia deducet, because he shall lead them to the fountains of waters; thirdly, Quia absterget, because he shall wipe all tears from their eyes.

First, he shall govern them; he shall establish a spiritual Kingdom for them in this world; for to govern, which is the word, of the first translation, and to feed, which is in the second, is all one in Scriptures. Dominabitur gentium, he shall be Lord of the Gentiles; but Rex Israelis, he shall govern his people Israel, as a King, by a certain, and a clear law; So that, as we shall have interest in the Covenant, as well as the Israclites, so we shall have interest in that glorious acclamation of theirs; Unto what nation are their Gods come so near unto them, as the Lord our God, is come near unto us; what nation hath Laws, and ordinances so righteous as we have? for in that Paul & Barnabas express the heaviest indignation of God upon the Gentiles, that God suffered the Gentiles to walk in their own ways; he showed them not his ways, he settled no church, no kingdom, amongst them, he did not govern them. Except one of those Eight persons whom God preserved in the Ark, were here to tell us, the unexpressible comfort, that he conceived in his safety, when he saw that flood wash away Princes from their thrones, misers from their bagges, lovers from their embracements, Courtiers from their wardrobes, no man is able to express that true comfort, which a Christian is to take, even in this, That God hath taken him into his Church, and not left him in that desperate, and irremediable inundation of Idolatry, and paganisace that overflows all the world beside. For beloved, who can express, who can conceive that strange confusion, which shall overtake, and oppress those infinite multitudes of Souls, which shall be changed at the last day, and shall meet Christ Jesus in the clouds, and shall receive an irrevocable judgment, of everlasting condemnation, dut of his mouth, whose name they never heard of before, that must be condemned by a Judge, of whom they knew nothing before, and who never had before any apprehension of torments of Hell, till by that lamentable experience they began to learn it? What blessed means of preparation against that fearful day doth he afford us, even in this, that he governs us by his law, delivered in his Church.

The first thing, that the housholder in the parable, is noted to have done for his Vineyard was, Sepe circumdedit, he hedged it in. That, God hath done for us, in making us his Church; he hath inlaid us, he hath hedged us in. But he that breaketh the hedge, a Serpent shall bite him, he that breaketh this hedge, the peace of the Church, by his Schism, the old Serpent hath bitten, and poisoned him, and shall bite worse hereafter: and if God, having thus severed us, and hedged us in, have expected grapes, and we bring none, though we break no hedge here amongst our selves, that is, no Papist breaks in upon us, no Separatist breaks out from us, we enjoy security enough, yet even for our own barrennes, Godwill take away the hedge, and it shall be eaten up, he will break the wall, and it shall be trodden down. Surely, says the Prohet there, The Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the Men of Indah are his pleasant plans: Surely we are the Church, which God hath hedged in; but yet if we answer not his expectation, certainly the confusion of the Gentiles, at the last day, (when they shall say to themselves of Christ Nescivi te, dost thou condemn us, and we know thee not?) shall not be so great, as out confusion shall be, when we shall hear Christ say to us, whom he bred in his Church, Nesiciovos, I know not whence you are. Even this, that the ill use of this mercy of having been bred in his Church, shall aggravate our condemnation then, shows the great benefit, which we may receive now by this Quod regit nos, that he takes care of us in his Church; for how many in the world would have lived ten times more christianly then we do, if they had but half that knowledge of Christ, which we have?

When he hath then brought us into his kingdom, that we are his subjects, (for all the heathen are in the condition of slaves) he brings us nearer, into his service; he gives us outward distinctions, liveries, badges, names, visible marks in Baptism: yea he incorporates us more inseparably to himself, then that which they imagine to be done in the Church of Rome, where their Canonists, say; that a Cardinal is to incorporated in the Pope, he is so made one flesh, and blood with him, as that he may not let blood without his leave, because he bleeds not his own, but the Popes blood: But of us it is true, that by this Sacramēs we are so incorporated into Christ, that in all our afflictions after we fulfill the sufferings of Christ in our flesh, and in all afflictions, which we lay upon any of our Christian brethren, our consciences hear Christ crying to us, Quid me persequerts? why persecutest thou me? Christs body is wounded in us, when we suffer, Christs body is wounded by us, when we violate the peace of the Church, or offend the particular members thereof.

First then deducet, he shall lead them, it is not he shall force them, he shall thrust them, he shall compell them; it implies a gentle, and yet an effectual way, he shall lead them. Those which come to Christianity, from Iudaisme, or Gentisme, when they are of years of discreation, he shall lead them by instruction, by Catechism, by preaching of his word, before they be baptized, for they that are of years & are baptized, without the word, that is, without understanding, or considering the institution, & virtue of baptisime, expressed in Gods word, and so receive baptism only for temporal, and natural respects, they are not led to the waters, but they fall into them: and so, as a Man may be drowned in a wholesome bath, so such a Man, may perish eternally in baptism, if he take it, for satisfaction of the State, or any other by respect, to which that Sacrament is not ordained, in the word of God. He shall lead Men of years, by Instruction; and he shall lead young children in good company, and with a strong guard, he shall lead them by the faith of his Church, by the faith of their Parents, by the faith of their sureties and undertakers.

He shall lead them; and then, when he hath taken them into his government; for first it is Reget, he shall govern them, and then Deducet, that is, he shall lead them, in his Church; and therefore they that are led to baptism, any other way then by the Church, they are misled; nay they are miscarried, misdriven, Spiritu vertiginis, with the spirit of giddiness. They that join any in commission with the Trinity, though but as an asstsant, (for so they say in the Church of Rome, baptism may be administered, in the name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, and the virgin Mary) they follow not, as Christ led in his Church, Non fuit sic ab initio, it was not so from the beginning: for quod extra hos tres est, totum Conservum est; though much dignity belong to the memory of the Saints of God, yet whosoever is none of the three Persons, Conservus est, he is our fellow-servant: though his service lie above stairs, and ours below, his in the triumphant, ours in the militant Church, Conservus est, yet he, or she, is in that respect, but our fellow-servant, and not Christs fellow-redeemer. So also, if we be led to Marah, to the waters of bitterness, that we bring a bitter taste, of those institutions of the Church for the decency, and signification in Sacramental things, things belonging to Baptism, if we bring a misinterpretation of them, an indisposition to them, an aversness from them, and so nourish a bitterns, and uncharitableness towards one another, for these Ceremonies, if we had rather cross one another, and cross the Church, then, cross the child, as God showed Moses, a tree, which made those waters in the wilderness sweet, when it was cast in, so remember that there is the tree of life, the cross of Christ Jesus, and his Merits, in this water of baptism, & when we all agree in that, that all the virtue proceeds from the cross of Christ, the God of unity and peace and concord, let us admit any representation of Christs cross, rather then admit the true cross of the devil, which is a bitter and schismatical crossing of Christ in his Church: for it is there in his Church, that he leads us to these waters.

Well then, they to whom these waters belong, have Christ in his Church to lead them; and therefore they need not stay, till they can come alone, till they be of age and years of discretion, as the Anabaptists say: for it is Deducet, and Deducet cos; generally, universally; all that are of this government, all that are appointed for the Seal, all the one hundred and forty four thousand, all the Innumerable multitudes of all Nations Christ leads them all. Be Baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; for the promise is made unto you, and your children. Now all promises of God, are sealed in the holy Ghost; To whom soever any promise of God belongs, he hath the holy Ghost; and therefore Nunquid aquam quis prohibere potest? Can any Man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which havereceived the holy Ghost, as well as we? says S. Peter. And therefore the Children of the Covenant which have the promise, have the holy Ghost, & all they are in this Regiment, Deducet cos, Christ shall lead them all.

But whither? unto the lively, (says our first edition) unto the living, (says our last edition) fountains of waters; In the original, unto the fountains of the water of life; now in the Scriptures nothing is more ordianry, then by the name of waters to design and mean tribulations: so, amongst many other, God says of the City of Tyre, that he would make it a desolate: City, and bring the deep upon it, and great waters should cover it. But then there is some such addition, as leads to that sense; either they are called Aqua multae, great waters, or Profunda aquarum, deep waters, or Absorbebit aqua, whirlepooles of waters, or Tempestas aquae, tempestuous waters, or Aqua Fellis, bitter water, (God bath mingled gall in our water:) but we shall never read fontes aquarum, fountains of waters, but it hath a gracious sense, and presents Gods benefits. So, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters; So, the water, that I shall give, shall be in him, a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life; and so, every where else, when we are brought to the fountains, to this water, in the fountain, in the institution, howsover we puddle it with impertinent questions in disputation, however we soul it with our sins, and all conversation, the fountain is pure; Baptism presents, and offers grace, and remission of sins to all.

Nay not only, this fountain of water, but the greatest water of all, the flood it self, Saint Basil understands, and applies to Baptism, as the Apostle himself does, Baptism was a figure, of the flood, and the Ark, for upon that place, The Lord sitseth upon the flood, and the Lord doth remain King for ever, he says, Baptismi gratiam Diluvium nominat, nam deles & purgat; David calls Baptism the flood, because it destroys all that was sinful in us; and so also he referrs to Baptism, those words, (when David had confessed his sins) I thought I would confess against my self my wickedness, unto the Lord; and when it is added, Surely in the flood of great waters, they shall not come near him, peccato non appropinquabunt; says he, original sin shall not come near him, that is truly baptized; nay all the actual sins in his future life, shall be drowned in this baptism, as often, as he doth religiously, and repentantly consider, that in Baptism, when the merit of Christ was communicated to him, he received an Antidote against all poison, against all sin, if he applied them together, sin and the merit of Christ; for so also he says, of that place, God will subdue all our iniquities, and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea, Hoc est, in mare Baptismi, says Basil, into the Sea of Baptism; There was a Brasen Sea in the Temple; and there is a golden Sea in the Church of Christ, which is Baptistrisum, the font, the Sea, into which God flings all their sins, who rightly, and effectually receive that Sacrament.

These fountains of waters then in the text, are the waters of baptisime: and if we should take them also, in that sense, that waters signify tribulations, and afflictions, it is true too, that in baptism, (that is, in the profession of Christ,) we are delivered over to many tribulations; The rule is general, Castigat omnes, he chastiseth all; The example, the precedent is peremptory, Opertuit pati, Christ ought to suffer, and so enter into glory: but howsoever waters be affictions, they are waters of life, too, says the text; Though baptism imprint a cross upon us, that we should not be ashamed of Christ cross, that we should not be afraid of our own crosses, yet by all these waters, by all these Cross ways, we go directly to the eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, for they are lively fountains, fountains of life.

And this is intended, and promised, in the last words, Absterget omnem Lachrymam, God shall wipe all tears from our eyes; God shall give us a joyful apprehension of heaven, here in his Church in this life. But is this a way to wipe tears from the childes face, to sprinkle water upon it. Is this a wiping away, to power more on? It is the powerful, and wonderful way of his working; for as his red blood, makes our red souls, white, that his redness, gives our redness a candor, so his water, his baptisime, and the powerful effect thereof; shall dry up, and wipe away Omnem lachrymam, all tears from our Eyes, howsoever occasioned. This water shall dry them up; Christ had many occassion of tears; we have more; some of our own, which he had not: we must weep because we are not so good, as we should be: we cannot perform the law. We must weep, because we are not so good, as we could be; our free will is lost; but yet every Man finds, he might be better, if he would: but the sharpest, and saltest, and smartest occasion of our tears, is from this, that we must not be so good, as we would be; that the prosaneness of the Libertine, the reproachful slanders, the contumelious scandalls, the seornful names, that the wicked lay upon those, who in their measure desire to express their zeal to Gods glory, makes us afraid, to profess our selves so religious as we could find in our hearts to be, and could truly be if we might. Christ went often in contemplation of others; foreseeing the calamities of Ierualem, he wept over the City. comming to the grave of Lazarus, he wept with them, but in his own Agony in the garden, it is not said that he weps; If we could stop the stood of tears, in our afflictions, yet there belongs an excessive grief to this, that the ungodly disposion of other Men, is slacking of our godliness, of our sanctification too. Christ Jesus for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross; we for the joy of this promise, that God will wipe all tears from our eyes; must suffer all this, whether they be tears of Compunction, or tears of Compassion, tears for our selves, or tears for others; whether they be Magdalens tears, or Peters tears; tears for sins of infirmity of the flesh, or tears for weakness of our faith; whether they be tears for thy parents; because they are improvident towards thee, or tears for thy children, because they are disobedient to thee, whether they be tears for Church, because our Sermons, or our Censures pinch you, or tears for the State, that penal laws, pecuniary, or bloody, lie heavy upon you, Deus absterget omneni lachryman, here's your comfort; that as he hath promised inestimable blessings to them, that are sealed, and washed in him, so he hath given you security, that these blessings belong to you: for, if you find, that he hath govened you, (bred you in his visible Church) and led you to his fountain of the water of lifein baptism, you may be sure, that he will in his due time, wipe all tears from your eyes, establish the kingdom of heaven upon you, in this life, in a holy, and modest infallibility.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon V.

EPHES. 5. 25, 26, 27. Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctisy it, and cleanse it, by the washing of water, through the Word: That he might make it unto himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, on any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blame.

Preached at a Christening.

ALmighty God ever loved unity, but he never loved singularity; God was always alone in heaven, there were no other Gods, but he; but he was never singular, there was never any time, when there were not three persons in heaven; Pater & ego unum summi; The father and I are one, says Christ: one in Esseuct, and one in Consent; our substance is the same, and our will is the same; but yet, Tecum fui ab initio, says Christ, in the person of Wisdom, I was with thee, disposing all things, at the Creation, As then God seems to have been eternally delighted, with this eternal generation, (with persons that had ever a relation to one another, Father, and Son) so when he came to the Creation of this lower world, he came presently to those three relations, of which the whole frame of this world consists; of which, (because the principal foundation, and preservation of all States that are to continue, is power) the first relation was between Prince and Subject, when God said to Man, Subjecite & dominamini, subdue and govern all Creatures; The second relation was between husband and wife, when Adam said, This now is house of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; And the third relation was between parents and children, when Eve said, that she had obtained a Man by the Lord, that by the plentiful favor of God, she had conceived and born a son: from that time, to the dissolution of that frame, from that beginning to the end of the world, these three relations, of Master and Servant, Mans and Wife, Father and Children, have been, and ever shall be the materials, and the elements of all society, of families, and of Cities, and of Kingdoms. And therefore it is a large, and a subtle philosophy which S. Paul professes in this place, to show all the qualities, and properties of these several Elements, that is, all the duties of these several callings; but in this text, he handles only the mutual duties of the second couple, Man, and Wife, and in that consideration, shall we determine this exercise, because a great part of that concerns the education of Children, (which especially occasions our meeting now.)

The general duty, that goes through all these three relations, is expressed, Subditi estate invicevs, Submit your selves to one another, in the fear of God; for God hath given no Master such imperiousness, no husband such a superiority, no father such a soverainty, but that there lies a burden upon them too, to consider with a compassionate sensibleness, the grievances, that oppress the other part, which is coupled to them. For if the servant, the wife, the son be oppressed, worn out, annihilated, there is no such thing left as a Master, or a husband, or a father; They depend upon one another, and therefore he that hath not care of his fellow, destroys himself.

The wife is to submit herself; and so is the husband too: They have a burden both, There is a greater subjection lies upon her, then upon the Man, in respect of her transgression towards her husband at first: Eyen before there was any Man in the world, to sollicite, or tempt her chastity, she could sind another way to be salfe and treacherous to her husband: both the husband, and the wife offended against God, but the husband offended not towards his wife, but rather eat the Apple, Ne contristaretur delicias suas, as S. Jerome assignes the cause, left by refusing to cate, when she had done so, he should deject her into a desperate sense of her sin. And for this fault of hers, her Subjection was so much aggravated, Thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee, But if she had not committed that fault, yet there would have been a mutual subjection between them; as there is even in Nature, between both the other couples; for if Man had continued in innocency, yet it is most probably thought, that as there would certainly have been Marriage, and so children, so also there would have been Magistracy, and propriety, and authority, and so a mutual submitting, a mutual assisting of one another, in all these three relations.

Now, that submitting, of which the Apostle speaks of here; is a submitting to one another, a bearing of one another's burdens: what this submission is on the wives part, is expressed in the two former verses; And I forbear that, because husbands at home, are likely enough to remember them of it; but in the duty, in the submitting of the husband, we shall consider first, what that submitting is, and that is love, Husbands love your wives; Even the love of the husband to the wife, is a burden, a submitting, a descent; and secondly, the pattern and example of this love, Even as Christ loved his Church.

In which second part, as sometimes the accessory is greater then the principal, the Symptom, the accident, is greater then the disease, so that from which the comparison is drawn in this place, is greater then that which is illustrated by it; the love of Christ to his Church requires more consideration, then the love of the husband to the wife; and therefore it will become us to spend most of our thoughts upon that; and to consider in that, Quod factum, and Quis sinis; what Christ did for his Church; and that was, a bounty, which could not be exceeded, seipsum tradidit, he gave, he delivered himself for it; And then, secondly, what he intended that should work; and that was, first, that he might make it to himself a glorious Church, and without spot and wrinkle, in the Triumphant state of the Church at last; And then, that whilst it continues in a Militant state upon Earth, it might have preparations to that glory, by being sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water, through his Word; he provides the Church means of sanctification here, by his Word, and Sacraments.

First then De Amoremaritali, of this contracting a Mans love to the person of a wife, of one woman, as we find an often exclamation in the Prophets, Onus visionis, The burden of my prophecy upon Nineveh, and Onus verbi Domini, The burden of the word of God upon Israel, so there is Onus amoris, a burden of love, when a Man is appointed whom he shall love. When Onan was appointed by his father Judah, to go in to his brothers widow, and to do the office of a kinsman to her, he conceived such an unwillingness to do so, when he was bid, as that he came to that detestable act, for which God slew him. And therefore the Panegyrique, that raised his wit as high as he could, to praise the Emperor Constantine, and would express it, in praising his continence, and chastity, he expressed it by saying that he waried young; that as soon as his years endangered him, formavit animum maritalem, nihil de concessu atati voluptatibus admittens: he was content to be a husband, and accepted not that freedom of pleasure, which his years might have excused. He concludes it thus, Novum jam tum miraculum, Iuvenis uxorius; Behold a miracle, such a young Man, limiting his affections, in a wife. At first the heats and lusts of youth overflow all, as the waters overflowed all at the beginning; and when they did so, the Earth was not only barren, (there were no Creatures, no herbs produced in that) but even the waters themselves, that did overflow all, were barren too; there were no fishes, no fowls produced out of that; as long as a Mans affections are scattered, there is nothing but accursed barrenness; but when God says, and is heard, and obeyed in it, Let the waters be gathered into one place, let all thy affections be settled upon one wife, then the earth and the waters became fruitful, then God gives us a type, and figure of the eternity of the joys of heaven, in the succession, and propagation of children here upon the earth. It is true, this contracting of our affections is a burden, it is a submitting of our selves; All States that made Laws, and proposed rewards for married Men, conceived it so; that naturally they would be loth to do it. God married his first couple, as soon as he made them; he dignified the state of Marriage, by so many Allegories, and figures, to which he compares the uniting of Christ to his Church, and the uniting of our souls to Christ, and by directing the first Miracle of Christ, to be done at a Marriage. Many things must concur to the dignifying of Marriage, because in our corrupt nature, the apprehension is general, that it is burdenous, and a submitting, and a descending thing, to mary. And therefore Saint Jerome argues truly out of these words, Husbands love your Wifes, Audiant Episcopi, audiant presbyteri, audiant doctors, subjectis suis se esse subjectos, let Bishops, and Priests, and Doctors learn in this, that when they have married themselves to a charge, They are become subject to their Subjects. For by being a husband, I become subject, to that sex which is naturally subject to Man, though this subjection be no more in this place, but to love that one woman.

Love then, when it is limited by a law, is a subjection, but it is a subjection commanded by God; Nihil majus à te subjecti animo factum est, quam quod imper are coepisti A Prince doth nothing so like a subject as when he puts himself to the pain to consider the profit, and the safety of his Subjects; and such a subjection is that of a Husband, who is bound to study his wife, and rectify all her infirmites; Her infirmities he must bear; but not her sins; if he bear them they become his own. The pattern, the example goes not so far; Christ married himself to our Nature, and he bare all our infirmities, hunger, and weariness, and sadness, and death, actually in his own person; but so, he contracted no sin in himself, nor encouraged us to proceed in sin. Christ was Salvator corporis, A Savior of his body, of the Church, to which he married himself, but it is a tyranny, and a devastation of the body, to whom we mary our selves, if we love them so much, as that we love their Sin too, suffer them to go on in that, or if we love them so little, as to make their sin our way to profit, or preferment, by prostituting them, and abandoning them to the solicitation of others. still we must love them so, as that this love be a subjection; not a neglecting, to let them do, what they will, nor a tyrannizing, to make them do what we will.

You must love them then, first, Quia vestrae, because they are yours; As we said at first, God loves Couples; He suffers not our body to be alone, nor our soul alone, but he maries them together; when that's done, to remedy the vae soli, left this Man should be alone, he maries him to a help meet for him, and to avoid fornication, (that is, if fornication cannot be avoided otherwise) Every Man is to have his wife, and every woman her own husband. When the love comes to exceed these bounds, that it departs à vestris, from a Mans own wife, and settles upon another, though he may think he discharges himself of some of his subjection which he was in before, yet he becomes much more subject, subject to household and foreign Iealousies, subject to ill grounded quarrels, subject to blasphemous protestations, to treacherous misuse of a confident friend, to ignoble an unworthy disguises, to base satisfactions; subject, lastly, either to a clamorous Conscience, or that which is worse slavery, to a seared and obdurate, and stupefied Conscience, and to that Curse, which is the heavier because it hath a kind of scorn in it, Be not deceived, (as though we were cosened of our souls) Be not deceived, for no adulterer shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. All other things, that are ours, we may be the better for leaving; Vade & vend, which Christ said to the young Man, that seemed to desire perfection, reached to all his goods; Go and sell them says Christ, and thou shalt follow me the better. But there is no selling, nor giving, nor lending, nor borrowing of wives; we must love them Quia nostrae, because they are ours; and if that be not a ty, and obligation strong enough, that they are Nostrae, ours, we must love them Quia nos, because they are our selves; for no man yet ever hated his own flesh.

We must love them then, Quia nostrae, because they are ours, those whom God hath given us, and Quia uxores, because they are our wives. Saint Paul does not bid us love them here, Quanquam uxores, but Quia, not though they be, but because they are our wives; Saint Paul never thought of that indisposition, of that disaffection, of that impotency, that a Man should come to hate her, whom he could love well enough, but that she is his wife. Were it not a strange distemper, if upon consideration of my soul, finding it to have some seeds of good dispositions in it, some compassion of the miseries of others, some inclination of the glory of God, some possibility, some interest in the kingdom of heaven, I should say of this soul, that I would fast, and pray, and give, and suffer any thing for the salvation of this Soul if it were not mine own soul, if it were any bodies else, and now abandon it to eternal destruction, because it is mine own? If no Man have felt this barbarous inhumanity towards his own soul, I pray God no man have felt it towards his own wife neither, That he loves her the less, for being his own wife. For we must love them, not Quanquam, says Saint Paul, though she be so; That was a Caution, which the Apostle never thought he needed, but Quia, because in the sight of God, and all the Triumphant Church, we have bound our selves, that we would do so. Here Marriages are sometimes clandestine, and witnesses dye, and in that case no Man can bind me to love her, Quia uxor, because she is my wife, because it lyes not in proof, that she is so; Here sometimes things come to light, which were concealed before, and a Marriage proves no Marriage, Decepta est Ecclesia, The Church was deceived, and the poor woman loses her plea, Quia uxor, because she is his wife, for it falls out that she is not so; but, if thou have married her, in the presence of God, and all the Court, and Quire of heaven, what wilt thou do to make away all these witnesses? who shall be of thy Council to assign an Error in Gods judgement? whom wilt thoubribe to embezill the Records of heaven? It is much that thou are able to do in heaven; Thou art able, by thy sins, to blot thy name out of the book of life, but thou are not able to blot thy wifes name out of the Records of heaven, but there remains still the Quia uxor, because she is thy wife. And this Quia uxor is Quamdiu uxor; since thou art bound to love her because she is thy wife, it must be as long as she is so. You may have heard of that quinquennium Neronis; The worst tyran that ever was, was the best Emperor that ever was for five years; the most corrupt husbands may have been good at first: but that love may have been for other respects: satisfaction of parents, establishing of hopes, and sometimes Ignorance of evil; that ill company had not taught them ill conditions; it comes not to be Quia uxor, because she is thy wife, to be the love which is commanded in this text, till it bring some subjection, some burden. Till we love her then, when we would not love her, except she were our wife, we are not sure, that we love her Quia uxor, that is, for that, and for no other respect. How long that is, how long she is thy wife, never ask wrangling Controverters, that make Gypsy-knots of Marriages; ask thy Conscience, and that will tell thee that thou wast married till death should depart you. If thy marriage were made by the Devil (upon dishonest Conditions) the Devil may break it by sin; if it were made by God, Gods way of breaking of Marriages, is only by death.

It is then a Subjection, and it is such a subjection, as is a love; and such a love, as is upon a Reason, (for love is not always so.) This is; Quiauxor, because our wife, and that implies these three uses; God hath given Man a wife, Ad adjutorium, ad sobolem, ad medicinam; for a Help, for Children, and for a Remedy, and Physic. Now the first, Society, and increase, we love naturally; we would not be banished, we would not be robbed, we would not be alone, we would not be poor; Society and increase, every Man loves; but doth any Man love Physic? he takes it for necessity; but does he love it; Husbands therefore are to love wives Ad Sobolem, as the Mothers of their Children; Ad adjutorium, as the comforters of their lives; but for that, which is Ad medicinam, for physic, to avoid burning, to avoid fornication, that's not the subject of our love, our love is not to be placed upon that; for so it is a love, Quia mulier, because she is a woman, and not Quia uxor, because she is my wife. A Man may be a drunkard at home, with his own wine, and never go out to Taverns; A man may be an adulterer in his wives bosom, though he seek not strange women.

We come now to the other part, the pattern of this love, which is Christ Jesus: we are commanded to be holy, and pure, as our Father is holy, and pure; but that's a proportion of which we are incapable; And therefore we have another Commandment, from Christ, Discite à me, learn of me; there is no more looked for, but that we should still be Scholars, and learners how to love; we can never love so much as he hath loved: It is still Discite; still something to be learnt, and added; and this something is, Quia mitis, learn of me, make me your pattern, because I am meek, and gentle; not suspicious, not forward, not hard to be reconciled; not apt to discomfort my spouse, my Church; not with a sullen silence, for I speak to her always in my Word; not apt to leave her unprovided of apparel, and decent ornaments, for I have allowed her such Ceremonies, as conduce to edification; not apt to pinch her in her diet; she hath her two Courses, the first, and the second Sacrament: And whensoever she comes to a spiritual hunger and thirst under the heat, and weight of sin, she knows how, and where there is plentiful refreshing and satisfaction to be had, in the absolution of sin. Herein consists the substance of the Comparison, Husbands love your wives, as Christ did his Church: that is, express your loves in a gentle behavior towards them, and in a careful providence of Conveniencies for them. The comparison goes no farther, but the love of Christ to his Church goes farther. In which we consider first, Quid factum, what Christ did for his spouse, for his Church.

It were pity to make too much hast, in considering so delightful a thing, as the expressing of the love of Christ Jesus to his Church. It were pity to ride away so fast from so pleasant, so various a prospect, where we may behold our Savior, in the Act of his liberality, Giving; in the matter of his liberality, Giving himself; and in the poor exchange that he took, a few Contrite hearts, a few broken spirits, a few lame, and blind, and leprous sinners, to make to himself, and his Spirit a Church, a house to dwell in; no more but these, and glad if he can get these.

First then, Ille dedit, He gave, it was his own act; as it was he, that gave up the ghost, he that laid down his soul, and he that took it again; for no power of Man had the power, or disposition of his life. It was an insolent, and arrogant question in Pilate to Christ, Nescis, quia potestatem habeo, Knowest not thou that I have power to Crucify thee, and have power to loose thee? If Pilate thought that his power extended to Christ, yet Tua damnaris sententia qui potestate latronem absolvis, autorem vitae interficis. His own words and actions condemned him, when having power to condemn and absolve, he would condemn the Innocent, and absolve the guilty. A good Judge does nothing, says he. Domestico proposito voluntatis, according to a resolution taken at home; Nihil meditatum deme defert, he brings not his judgement from his chamber to the bench, but he takes it there according to the Evidence. If pilate thought he had power, his Conscience told him he misused that power; but Christ tells him he could have none, Nisi datum desuper, Except it had been given him from above; that is, except Christ had given him power over himself: for Christ speaks not in that place of Pilates general power and Jurisdiction, (for so, also, all power is Desuper, from above) but for this particular power that Pilate boasts to have over him, Christ tells him that he could have none over him, except himself had submitted himself to it. So, before this passage with Pilat, Iudas had delivered Christ; and there arose a sect of Heretics, Iudaists, that magnified this act of Iuds, and said that we were beholden to him for the hastning of our salvation, because when he was come to the knowledge that God had decreed the Crucifying of Christ for Mankind, Judas took compassion of Mankind, and hastened their Redemption, by delivering up of Christ to the Jews. But Judas had no such good purpose in his hast; though our Jesus permitted Judas to do it, and to do it quickly, when he said Quod facis fac citò. For out of that ground in the Schools, Missia in divinis est motivo operacio in Creatura, When any person of the Trinity, is said to be sent, that only denotes an extraordinary manner of working of that person: Saint Augustine says truly, that as Christ Misit seipsum, he sent himself, and Sanitificavit seipsum, he sanctified himself, so tradidit seipsum; Judas could not have given him, if he had not given himself, Pilate could not give him, Judas could not give him; nay, if we could consider several wills in the several Persons of the Trinity, we might be bold to say, That the Father could not have given him, if he had not given himself. We consider the unexpressible mercy of the Father, in that he would accept any satisfaction at all for all our Sins. We consider the unexpressible working of the Holy Ghost that brings this satisfaction and our souls together; for without that, without the application of the Holy Ghost, we are as far from Christ's love now, as we were from the Father's before Christ suffered. But the unexpressible and unconceiveable love of Christ is in this, that there was in him a willingness, a propenseness, a forwardness to give himself to make this great peace and reconciliation, between God and Man; It was himself that gave himself; Nothing inclined him, nothing wrought upon him, but his own goodness.

It was then his Deed; and it was his gift; it was his Deed of gift: and it hath all the formalities and circumstances that belong to that; for here is a seal in his blood; and here is a delivering, pregnantly implied in this word, which is not only Dedit, he gave, but Tradidit, he delivered. First, Dedit, he gave himself for us to his Father, in that eternal Decree, by which he was Agnus occisus ab origin mundi, The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. And then Tradidit, he delivered possession of himself to Death, and to all humane infirmities, when he took our Nature upon him, and became one of us. Yea this word implies a further operativeness, and working upon himself, then all this; for the word which the Apostle uses here, for Christ giving of himself, is the same word, which the Evangelists use still, for Judas betraying of him: so that Christ did not only give himself to the will of the Father, in the eternal Decree; nor only deliver himself to the power of death in his Incarnation, but he offered, he exhibited, he exposed, (we may say) he betrayed himself to his enemies; and all this, for worse enemies; to the Jews, that Crucified him once, for us, that make sin our sport, and so make the Crucifying of the Lord of life a Recreation.

It was a gift then, free, and absolute; He keeps us not in fear of Resumption; of ever taking himself from the Church again; nay he hath left himself no power of Revocation: I am with you, says he, to the end of the world. To particular men, he comes, & he knocks, and he enters, and he stays, and hesups, and yet for their unworthiness goes away again; but with the Church he is usque ad consummationem, till the end; It is a permanent gift; Dedit, and Dedit seipsum; It was he that did it; That which he did was to give; and that which he gave, was himself. Now since the Holy Ghost, that is the God of unity and peace, hath told us at once, that the satisfaction for our sins is Christ himself, and hath told us no more, Christ entirely, Christ altogether, let us not divide and mangle Christ, or tear his Church in pieces, by froward and frivolous difputations, whether Christ gave his divinity for us, or his humanity; whether the divine Nature, or the humane Nature redeemed us; for neither his divinity nor his humanity, is Ipse, He himself, and Dedit seipsum, He gave himself: Let us not subdivide him into less pieces, then those, God, and Man; and enquire contentiously, whether he suffered in soul, as well as in body, the pains of Hell, as well as the sting of Death; the Holy-Ghost hath presented him unite, and knit together. For neither soul nor body was Ipse. He himself, and Dedit seipsum, He gave himself; let us least of all shred Christ Jesus into less scruples and atoms then these, Soul, and body; and dispute whether consisting of both, it were his active, or his passive obedience that redeemed us; whether it were his death and passion only, or his innocency, and fulfilling of the Law too; let us only take Christ, himself, for only that is said, he gave himself, It must be an Innocent person, and this Innocent person must die for us; seperate the Innocency, and the Death, and it is not Ipse, it is not Christ himself: and Dedit seipsum, it was himself. Let us abstain from all such curiosities, which are all but forced dishes of hot brains, and not sound meat, that is, from all perverse wranglings, whether God, or Man redeemed us; and then, whether this God, and Man suffered in soul, or in body; and then whether this person, consisting of soul and body, redeemed us, by his action, or by his passion only; for as there are spiritual wickednesses, so there are spiritual wantonnesses, and unlawful and dangerous dallyings with mysteries of Divinity. Money that is changed into small pieces is easily lost; gold that is beat out into leaf-gold, cannot be coined, nor made currant money: we know the Heathens lost the true God, in a thrust; they made so many false gods, of every particular quality, and attribute of God, that they scattered him, and evacuated him, to an utter vanishing; so doth true, and sound, and nourishing Divinity vanish away, in those impertinent Questions. All that the wit of Man adds to the Word of God, is all quicksilver, and it evaporates easily. Beloved, Custodi Depositum, says the Apostle, keep that which God hath revealed to thee; for that God himself calls thy Talent; it hath weight and substance in it. Depart not from thy old gold; leave not thy Catechism-divinity, for all the Schooldivinity in the world; when we have all, what would we have more? if we know that Christ hath given himself for us, that we are redeemed, and not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ Jesus, we care for no other knowledge but that, Christ, and Christ crucified for us; for this is another, and a more peculiar and profitable giving of himself for thee, when he gives himself to thee, that is, when he gives thee a sense, and apprehension, and application of the gift, to thy self, that Christ hath given himself, to thy self.

We are come now to his exchange; what Christ had for himself when he gave himself; And he had a Church. So this Apostle, which in this place, writes to the Ephesians, when he preached personally to the Ephesians, he told them so too, The Church is that Quam acquisivit sanguine suo, which he purchased with his blood. Here Christ bought a Church, but I would there were no worse Simony then this. Christ received no profit from the Church, and yet he gave himself for it; and he stays with it to the end of the world; Here is no such Non-residency, as that the Church is left unserved: other men give enough for their Church, but they withraw themselves, and necessary provision; And if we consider this Church that Christ bought, and paid so dearly for, it was rather an Hospital, then a Church: A place where the blind might recover sight; that is, Men born in Paganisme, or Superstition, might see the true God, truly worshipped: and where the lame might be established; that is, those that Halted between two Religions, might be rectified in the truth: where the Deaf might receive so quick a hearing, as that they might discern Music in his Thunder, in all his fearful threatnings; that is, mercy in his Judgments, which are still accompanied with conditions of repentance; and they might find Thunder, in his Music, in all his promises; that is, threatnings of Judgements, in our misuse of his mercies. Where the hereditary Leper, the new born Child, into whose marrow, his fathers transgression, cleaves in original sin, and he that hath enwrapped Implicatos morbos, one disease in another, in Actual sins, might not only come, if he would but be intreated to come, yea compelled to come, as it is expressed in the Gospel, when the Master of the feast sends into the streets, and to the hedges to compell blind and lame to come in to his feast. A fountain breaks out in the wilderness, but that fountain cares not, whether any Man come to fetch water, or no; A fresh, and fit gale blows upon the Sea, but it cares not whether the Mariners hoise sail or no; A rose blows in your garden, but it calls you not to smell to it. Christ Jesus hath done all this abundantly; he hath bought an Hospital, he hath stored it with the true balm of Palestine, with his blood, which he shed there, and he calls upon you all to come for it, Hoe every one that thirsteth; you that have no money, come buy Wine, and Milk without money: eat that which is good, and let your souls delight in fatness, and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. This Hospital, this way, and means to cure spiritual diseases, was all that Christ had for himself: but he improved it, he makes it a Church, and a glorious Church: which is our last consideration, Quis sinis, to what end, he bestowed all this cost.

His end was, that he might make it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle; but that end, must be in the end of all; here it cannot be: Cum tot a dicat ecclesia, quamdiu hîc est, Dimitte debita nostra, non utique hîc est sine macula et ruga, Since as yet the whole Church says, forgive us our Trespasses, the Church as yet is not without spots or wrinkles. The wrinkles are the Testimonies of our age; that is, our sin derived from Adam; and the spots are the sins, which we contract our selves; and of these spots, and wrinkles, we cannot be delivered in this world. And therefore the Apostle says here, that Christ hath bestowed all this cost on this purchase, ut sisteret sibi Ecclesiam, that he might settle such a glorious, and pure Church to himself: first, ut sisteret, that he might settle it; which can only be done in heaven; for here in Earth, the Church will always have earthquakes. Opartet haereses esse; storms, and schisms must necessarily be; the Church is in a warfare, the Church is in a pilgrimage, and therefore here is no setling. And then he doth it, ut sisteret sibi, to settle it to himself; for, in the tyranny of Rome, the Church was in some sort settled, things were carried quietly enough; for no Man durst complain; but the Church was settled all upon the Vicar, and none upon the Parson: the glory of the Bishop of Rome, had eclipsed, and extinguished the glory of Christ Jesus. In other places we have seen the Church settled, so as that no man hath done or spoken any thing against the government thereof; but, this may have been a setling by strong hand, by severed discipline, and heavy Laws; we see where Princes have changed the Religion, the Church may be settled upon the Prince, or settled upon the Prelates, that is, be serviceable to them, and be ready to promote and further any purpose of theirs, and all this while, not be settled upon Christ: this purpose, ut sisteret sibi, to settle such a glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, holy to himself, is reserved for the Triumphant time when she shall be in possession of that beauty, which Christ foresaw in her, long before when he said, Thou art all faire my love, and there is no spot in thee; and when we that shall be the Children of the Marriage Chamber shall be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him, because the Marriage of the Lambe is come, and his wife hath made her self ready; that is, we that are of that Church, shall be so clothed, as that our own clothes shall not defile us again; as Job complains that they do, as long as we are in this world; for, though I make me never so clean, yet mine own clothes defile me again, as it is in that place.

But yet, Beloved, Christ hath not made so improvident a bargain, as to give so great a rate, himself, for a Church, so far in reversion, as till the day of Judgement: That he should enter into bonds for this payment, from all eternity, even in the eternal decree between the Father, and him, that he should really pay this price, his precious blood, for this Church, one thousand six hundred years ago, and he should receive no glory by this Church till the next world. Here was a long lease, here were many lives; the lives of all the men in the world, to be served before him; But it is not altogether so; for he gave himself, that he might settle such a Church then, a glorious, and a pure Church: but all this while, the Church is building in heaven, by continual access of holy Souls, which come thither, and all the way he works to that end, He sanctifies it, and cleanses it, by the washing of water, through the word, as we find in our Text.

He therefore stays not so long, for our Sanctification, but that we have means of being sanctified here; Christ stays not so long for his glory, but that he hath here a glorious Gospel, his Word, and mysterious Sacraments here. Here then is the writing, and the Seal, the Word, and the Sacrament; and he hath given power, and commandment to his Ministers to deliver both writing, and Seal, the Word and Baptism to his children. This Sacrament of Baptism is the first; It is the Sacrament of inchoation, of Initiation; The Sacrament of the Supper, is not given but to them, who are instructed and presumed to understand all Christian duties, and therefore the Word, (if we understand the Word, for the Preaching of the Word) may seem more necessary at the administration of this Sacrament, then at the other. Some such thing seems to be intimated in the institution of the Sacraments. In the institution of the Supper, it is only said, Take, and eat and drink, and do that in remembrance of me; and it is only said that they sand a Pslame, and so departed. In the institution of Baptism there is more solemnity, more circumstance; for first, it was instituted after Christs Resurrection, and then Christ proceeds to it, with that majestical preamble, All power is given unto me in heaven, and in earth and therefore, upon that title he gives power to his Apostles, to join heaven and earth by preaching, and by baptism: but here is more then singing of a Psalm; for Christ commands them first to teach, and then to baptize, and then after the commandment of Baptism, he refreshes that commandment again of teaching them, whom they baptized, to observe all things, that he had commanded them. I speak not this, as though Baptism were uneffectual without a Sermon; S. Angustines words, Accedat yerbum, & fiat Sacramentum, when the Word is joined to the element, or to the Action, then there is a true Sacrament, are ill understood by two sorts of Men, first by them, that say that it is not verbum Deprecatorium, nor verbum Concionatorium, not the word of Prayer, nor the word of preaching, but verbum Consecratorium, and verbum Sacramentale, that very phrase, and forme of words, by which the water is sanctified, and enabled of it self to cleanse our Souls; and secondly, these words are ill understood by them, who had rather their children died unbaptized, then have them baptized without a Sermon; whereas the use of preaching at baptism is, to raise the whole Congregation, to a consideration, what they promised by others, in their baptism; and to raise the Father and the Sureties to a consideration, what they undertake for the child, whom they present then to be baptized; for therefore says Saint Augustine, Accedat verbum, there is a necessity of the word, Non quia dicitur, sed quia creditur, not because the word is preached, but because it is believed; and That, Beleese, faith, belongs not at all to the incapacity of the child, but to the disposition of the rest; A Sermon is useful for the congregation, not necessary for the child, and the accomplishment of the Sacrament.

From hence then arises a convenience, little less, then necessary, (in a kind) that this administration of the Sacrament be accompanied with preaching; but yet they that would evict an absolute necessity of it, out of these words, force them too much, for here the direct meaning of the Apostle is, That the Church is cleansed by water, through the word, when the promises of God expressed in his word, are sealed to us by this Sacrament of Baptism: for so Saint Augustine answers himself in that objection, which he makes to himself, Cum per Baptismum fundati sint, quare sermoni tribuit radicem. He answers, In Sermone intelligendus Baptismus, Quia sine Sermone non perficitur. It is rooted, it is grounded in the word; and therefore true Baptism, though it be administered, without the word, that is, without the word preached, yet it is never without the word, because the whole Sacrament, and the power thereof is rooted in the word, in the Gospel. And therefore since this Sacrament belongs to the Church, as it is said here (that Christ doth cleanse his Church by Baptism) as it is argued with a strong probability, That because the Apostles did baptize whole families, therefore they did baptize some children, so we argue with an invincible certainty, that because this Sacrament belongs generally to the Church as the initiatory Sacrament, it belongs to children, who are a part, and for the most part, the most innocent part of the Church.

To conclude, As all those Virgins which were beautiful, were brought into Susan, Ad domum mulierum, to be anointed, and persumed, and prepared there for Assuerus delight, and pleasure, though Assuerus took not delight, and pleasure in them all, so we admit all those children which are within the Covenant made by God, to the elect, and their seed, In domum Sanctorum, into the household of the faithful, into the communion of Saints: whom he chooseth for his Marriage day, that is, for that Church which he will settle upon himself in heaven, we know not; but we know that he hath not promised, to take any into that glory, but those upon whom he hath first shed these fainter beams of glory, and sanctification, exhibited in this Sacrament: Neither hath he threatened to exclude any but for sin after. And therefore when this blessed child derived from faithful parents, and presented by sureties within the obedience of the Church, shall have been so cleansed, by the washing of water, through the word, it is presently sealed to the possession of that part of Christs purchase, for which he gave himself, (which are the means of preparing his Church in this life) with a faithful assurance, I may say of it and to it, Iam mundus es, Now you are clean. through the word, which Christ hath spoken unto you: The Seal of the promises of his Gospel hath sanctified, and cleansed you; but yet, Mandatus mundandus, says Saint Augustine upon that place, It is so sanctified by the Sacrament, here, that it may be farther sanctified by the growth of his graces, and be at last a member of that glorious Church, which he shall settle upon himself, without spot, or wrinkle; which was the principal, and final purpose of that great love of his, whereby he gave himself for us, and made that love, first a pattern of Mens loves to their wives here, and then a means to bring Man, and wife, and child, to the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon VI.

1 JOHN 5. 7, 8. For there are three which bear record in heaven; The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one: And there are three which bear record in the Earth; The Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one.

Preached at a Christening.

IN great and enormous offences, we find that the law, in a well governed State, expressed the punishment upon such a delinquent, in that form, in that curse, Igni & aqua interdicitor; let him have no use of fire, and water, that is, no use of any thing, necessary for the sustentation of life. Beloved, such is the miserable condition of wretched Man, as that we come all into the world under the burden of that curse; Aqua, & igni interdicimur; we have nothing to do, naturally, with the spiritual water of life, with the fiery beams of the holy Ghost, till he that hath wrought our restitution from this banishment, restore us to this water, by pouring out his own blood, and to this lively fire, by laying himself a cold, and bloodless carcass in the bowels of the Earth: till he who haptized none with water, direct his Church to do that office towards us; and he without whom, none was baptized with fire, perfect that Ministerial work of his Church with the effectual seals of his grace; for this is his testimony, the witness of his love.

Yea, that law, in cases of such great offences, expressed it self in another Malediction, upon such offenders, applicable also to us, Intestabiles sunte, let them be Intestable. Now, this was a sentence, a Condemnation so pregnant, so full of so many heavy afflictions, as that he, who by the law was made intestable, was all these ways intestable: First, he was able to make no Testament of his own, he had lost all his interest in his own estate, and in his own will; Secondly, he could receive no profit by any testament of any other Man, he had lost all the effects of the love, and good disposition of other Men to him; Thirdly, he was Intestable, so, as that he could not testify, he should not be believed in the behalf of another; and lastly the testimony of another could do him no good, no Man could be admitted to speak for him. After that first, and heavy curse of Almighty God upon Man, Morte morieris, If thou eat, thou shalt die, and die twice, thou shall die a bodily, thou shalt die a spiritual death (a punishment which no sentence of any law, or law-maker could ever equal, to deterre Men from offending, by threatening to take away their lives twice, and by inflicting a spiritual death eternally upon the Soul,) after we have all incurred that malediction, Morte moriemur, we shall die both death, we cannot think to scape any less malediction of any law, and therefore we are all Intestabiles we are all intestable, in all these senses, and apprehensions, which we have touched upon.

We can make no testament of our own; we have no good thing in us to dispose; we have no good inclination, no good disposition, in our Will; we can make no use of another's testament; not of the double testaments of Almighty God; for in the Old testament, he gives promises of a Messiah, but we bring into the world no Faith, to apprehend those promises; and in the New testament, he gives a performance, the Messiah is come, but he is communicable to us, no way but by baptism, and we cannot baptize our selves; we can profit no body else by our testimony, we are not able to endure persecution, for the testimony of Christ, to the edification of others, we are not able to do such works, as may shine before Men, to the glorifying of our God. Neither doth the testimony of others do us any good; for neither the Martyrdom of so many Millions, in the primitive Church, nor the execution of so many judgments of God, in our own times, do restify any thing to our Consciences; neither at the last day, when those Saints of God, whom we have accompanied in the outward worship of God here in the visible Church, shall be called to the right hand, and we detruded to the left, shall they dare to open their mouths for us, or to testify of us, or to say, Why Lord, these Men, when they were in the world, did as we did, appeared, and served thee in thy house, as we did, they seemed to go the same way that we did upon Earth, why go they a sinister way now in heaven? We are utterly intestable; we can give nothing; we can take nothing; nothing will be believed from us, who are all falsehood it self; nor can we be releeved by any thing, that any other will say for us. As long, as we are considered under the penalty of that law, this is our case; Interdicti, intestabiles, we are accursed, and so, as that we are intestable.

Now as this great malediction, Morte marieris, in volves all other punishments, (upon whom that falls, all fall) so when our Savior Christ Jesus hath a purpose to take away that, or the most dangerous part of that, the spiritual death, when he will reverse that judgment, Aqua & igni interdicitur, to make us capable of his water, and his fire; when he will reverse the intestabiles, the intestability, and make us able to receive his graces by faith, and declare them by works; then, as he that will reedify a demolished house, begins not at the top but at the bottom, so Christ Jesus, when he will make this great preparation, this great reedification of mankind, he begins at the lowest step, which is, that we may have use of the testimony of others, in our behalf: and he proceeds strongly, and effectually; he produces three witnesses from heaven, so powerful, that they will be heard, they will be believed; and three witnesses on earth, so near us, so familiar so domestic as that they will not be denied, they will not be discredited; Three are three that bear Record in heaven, and three that bear record in earth.

Since then Christ Jesus makes us all our own Iury, able to conceive, and judge upon the Evidence, and testimony of these three heavenly, and three earthly witnesses, let us draw near, and hearken to the evidence, and consider three things; Testimonium esse. Quid sit, and Qui testes. That God descends to means proportionable to Man; he affords him witness; and secondly, the matter of the proof, what all these six witnesses testify, what they establish; Thirdly, the quality, and value of the witnesses, and whether the matter be to be believed, for their sakes, and for their reasons. God requires nothing of us, but Testimony: for Martyrdom is but that; A Martyr is but a witness. God offers us nothing without testimony: for his Testament, is but a witness. Test ipso, is shrewd evidence; when God says, I will speak, and I will testify against thee; I am God, even thy God: when the voice of God testifies against me in mine own conscience. It is more pregnant evidence then this, when his voice testifies against me in his word, in his Scriptures: The Lord testified against Israel, by all the Prophets and by all the Seers. When I can never be alone, but that God speaks in me, but speaks against me; when I can never open his book, but the first sentence mine eye is upon, is a witness against me, this is fearful evidence. But in this text, we are not in that storm, for he hath made us Testabiles, that is, ready to testify for him, to the effusion of our blood; and Testabiles, that is, fit to take benefit by the testament, that he hath made for us, The effusion of his blood; which is our second branch: what is testified for us, what these witnesses establish.

First then, that which a sinner must be brought to understand, and believe, by the strength of these witnesses, is Integritas Christi; not the Integrity, as it signifies the Innocency of Christ: but integrity, as it signifies Entireness, not as it is Integer vitae, but Integra vita; not as he kept an integrity in his life, but as he only, is entirely our life. That Christ was a person composed of those two Natures, divine, and humane, whereby he was a fit, and a full satisfaction for all our sins, and by death could be our life: for when the Apostle writ this Epistle, it seems there had been a schism, not about the Mystical body of Christ, the Church, but even about the Natural; that is to say, in the person of Christ, there had been a schism, a separation of his two natures: for, as we see certainly before the death of this Apostle, that the Heresy of Ebion and of Cerinthus, (which denied the divine nature of Christ) was set on foot, (for against them purposely was the Gospel of Saint John written) so by Epiphanius his ranking of the Heresies, as they arose, where he makes Basilides his Heresy, (which denied that Christ had any natural body) to be the fourth herefy, and Ebions, to be the tenth, it seems, that they denied his humanity, before they denied his Divinity. And therefore it is well collected, that this Epistle of Saint John, being written long before his Gospel, was written principally, and purposely against the opposers of Christs humanity, but occasionally also, in defence of his divine nature too. Because there is Solutio Iesu, a dissolving of Jesus, a taking of Jesus in pieces, a dividing of his Natures, or of his Offices, which overthrows all the testimonies of these six great witnesses when Christ said, Solvite templum hoc, destroy, dissolve this temple, and in three days I will raise it, he spoke that but of his natural body; there was Solutio corporis, Christs body and soul were parted, but there was not Solutio Iesu; the divine nature parted not from the humane, no not in death, but adhered to, and accompanied the soul, even in hell, and accompanied the body in the grave.

And therefore, says the Apostle, Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum, ex deo non est; (for so Irenaeus, and Saint Augustine, and Saint Cyrill with the Grecians, read those words) That spirit which receives not Jesus entirely, which dissolves Jesus and breaks him in pieces, that spirit is not of God. All this then is the subject of this testimony; first that Christ Jesus is come in the flesh; (there is a Recognition of his humane nature) And then that this Jesus is the son of God; (there is a subscription to his divine nature:) he that separates these, and thereby makes him not able, or not willing to satisfy for Man, he that separates his Nature, or he that separates the work of the Redemption, and says, Christ suffered for us only as Man, and not as God, or he that separates the manner of the work, and says that the passive obedience of Christ only redeemed us, without any respect at all, to his active obedience, only as he died, and nothing as he died innocently, or he that separates the perfection, and consummation of the work, from his work, and finds something to be done by Man himself, meritorious to salvation, or he that separates the Prince, and the Subject, Christ and his members, by nourishing Controversies in Religion, when they might be well reconciled, or he that separates himself from the body of the Church, and from the communion of Saints, for the fashion of the garments, for the variety of indifferent Ceremonies, all these do Solvere Iesum, they slacken, they dissolve that Jesus, whose bones God provided for, that they should not be broken, whose flesh God provided for, that it should not see Corruption, and whose garments God provided, that they should not be divided.

There are other luxations, other dislocations, of Jesus, when we displace him for any worldly respect, and prefer preforment before him; there are other woundings of Jesus, in blasphemous oaths, and exerations; there are other maimings of Jesus, in pretending to serve him entirely, and yet retain one particular beloved sin still; there are other rackings, and extendings of Jesus when we delay him and his patience to our death-bed, when we stretch the string so far, that it cracks there, that is, appoint him to come then, and he comes not; there are other dissolutions of Jesus, when men will melt him, and power him out, and mold him up in a water Cake, or a piece of bread; there are other annihilations of Jesus when Men will make him, and his Sacraments, to be nothing but bare signs; but all these will be avoided by us, if we be gained by the testimony of these six witnesses to hold fast that integrity, that intirensse of Jesus, which is here delivered to us by this Apostle.

In which we believe first Iesum, a Savior; which implies his love, and his will to save us; and then we believe Christum, the anointed, that is God and man, able, and willing to do this great work, and that he is anointed, and sealed for that purpose; and this implies the decree, the contract, and bargain, of acceptation by the Father, that Pactum salis, that eternal covenant which seasons all, by which, that which he meant to do, as he was Jesus, should be done, as he was Christ. And then as the entireness of Jesus is expressed, in the verse before the text, we believe, Quod venit, that as all this might be done, if the Father and Son would agree, as all this must be done, because they had agreed it, so all this was done, Quia venit, because this Jesus is already come; and that, for the father entireness, for the perfection, and consummation, and declaration of all, venit per aquam & sanguinem, He came by water, and blood.

Which words Saint Bernard understands to imply but a difference between the comming of Christ, and the comming of Moses; who was drawn out of the water, and therefore called by that name of Moses. But before Moses came to be a leader of the people, he passed through blood too, through the blood of the Egyptian, whom he slew; and much more when he established all their bloody sacrifices, so that Mass came not only by water. Neither was the first Testament ordained without blood. Others understand the words only to put a difference between John Baptist, and Christ: because John Baptist is still said to baptize with water Because he should be declared to Israel; therefore am I come, baptizing with water: but yet John Baptists baptism had not only a relation to blood, but a demonstration of it, when still he pointed to the Lambe, Ecce Agnus, for that Lambe was slain from the beginning of the world. So that Christ, which was this Lambe, came by water, and blood, when he came, in the risual types, and figures of Moses; and when he came in the baptism of John: for in the Law of Moses, there was so frequent use of water, as that we reckon above fifty several Immunditi as uncleannesses, which might receive their expiation by washing, without being put to their bloody sacrifies for them: And then there was so frequent use of blood, that almost all things are by the Law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood, is no Remission, But this was such water, and such blood, as could not perfect the work, but therefore was to be renewed every day. The water that Jesus comes by, is such a water, as he that arinketh of it, shall thirst no more; nay there shall spring up in him a well of water; that is, his example shall work to the satisfaction of others; (we do not say to a satisfaction for others.) And then this is that blood, that perfected the whole work at once, By his own blood entered he once into the holy place, and obtained eternal Redemption for us. So that Christ came by water, and blood, (according to the old ablutions, and old sacrifices) when he wept, when he sweat, when he poured out blood; precious, incorruptible, inestimable blood, at so many channels, as he did, all the while that he was upon the altar, sacrificing himself in his passion. But after the immolation of this sacrifice, after his Consummatum est; when Christ was come and gone for so much as belonged to the accomplishing of the types of the old law, then Christ came again to us by water and blood, in that wound, which he received upon his side, from which there flowed out miraculously true water, & true blood. This wound Saint Augustine calls Ianuam utriusque Sacramenti, the door of both sacraments; where we see he acknowledges but two, and both presented in this water, and blood and so certainly do most of the fathers, make this wound if not the foundation, yet at least a sacrament of both the sacraments. And to this water and blood doth the Apostle here, without doubt, aim principally; which he only of all the Evangelists hath recorded; and with so great asseveration, and assuredness in the recording thereof, He that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith truth, that yee might believe it. Here then is the matter which these six witnesses must be believed in, here is Integritas Iesu, quae non solvenda, the entireness of Christ Jesus, which must not be broken, That a Savior, which is Jesus, appointed to that office, that is Christ, figured in the law, by ablutions of water, and sacrifices of blood, is come, and hath perfected all those figures in water, and blood too; and then, that he remains still with us in water, and blood, by means instituted in his Church, to wash away our uncleannesses, and to purge away our iniquities, and to apply his work unto our Souls; this is Integritas Iesu, Jesus the son of God in heaven, Jesus the Redeemer of man, upon earth, Jesus the head of a Church to apply that to the end, this is Integritas Iesu; all that is to be believed of him.

Take thus much more, that when thou comest to hearken what these witnesses shall say to this purpose, thou must find something in their testimony, to prove him to be come not only into the world, but into thee; He is a mighty prince, and hath a great train; millions of ministering spirits attend him, and the whole army of Martyrs follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes: Though the whole world be his Court, thy soul is his bedchamber; there thou mayst contract him, there thou mayst lodge, and entertain Integrum Iesum, thy whole Savior. And never trouble thy self, how another shall have him, if thou have him all; leave him, and his Church to that; make thou sure thine own salvation. When he comes to thee, he comes by water and by blood; If thy heart, and bowels have not yet melted in compassion of his passion for thy soul, if thine eyes have not yet melted, in tears of repentance and contrition, he is not yet come by water into thee; If thou have suffered nothing for sin, nor found in thy self a cheerful disposition to suffer, if thou have found no wresting in thy self, no resistance of Concupiscences, he that comes not to set peace, but to kindle this war, is not yet come into thee, by blood. Christ can come by land, by purchases, by Revenues, by temporal blessings, for so he did still convey himself to the Jews, by the blessing of the land of promise, but here he comes by water, by his own passion, by his sacraments, by thy tears: Christ can come in a marriage and in Music, for so he delivers himself to the spouse in the Canticles; but here he comes in blood; which comming in water, and blood (that is, in means for the salvation of our souls, here in the militant Church) is the comming that he stands upon and which includes all the Christian Religion; and therefore he proves that comming to them, by these three great witnesses in heaven, and three in earth. For there are three which bear record in heaven. The Father, the word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three which bear record in the earth; The spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one.

By the mouth of two, or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed, says Christ out of the law. That's as much as can be required, in any Civil, or Criminal business; and yet Christ gives more testimony of himself, for here he produces not Duos testes, but Duas Classes; two ranks of witnesses; and the fullest number of each, not two, but three in heaven, and three in earth. And such witnesses upon earth, as are omni exception majors, without all exception. It is not the testimony of earthly men; for when Saint Paul produces them in abundance, (The Patriarch, the Iudges, the Prophets, the elders of the old times; of whom he exhibits an exact Catalogue,) yet he calls all them but Nubes testium clouds of witnesses; for though they be clouds in Saint Chrysostomes sense, (that they invest us, and enwrap us, and so defend us from all diffidence in God,) (we have their witness what God did for them, why should we doubt of the like?) though they be clouds in Athanasius sense, they being in heaven, shore down by their prayers, the dew of Gods grace upon the Church; Though they be clouds, they are but clouds; some darkness mingled in them, some controversies arising from them; but his witnesses here, are Lux inaccessibilis, that light, that no eye can attain to, and Pater Luminum, the father of lights, from whom all these testimonies are derived. When God employed a man, to be the witness of Christ, because men might doubt of his testimony, God was content to assign him his Compurgators; when John Baptist must preach, that the kingdom of God, was at hand, God fortifies the testimony of his witness, then, Hic enim est, for this is he of whom that is spoken by the prophet Isaiah; and lest one were not enough, he multiplies them, as it is written, in the prophets. John Baptist might be thought to testify as a man, and therefore men must testify for him; but these witnesses are of a higher nature; these of heaven are the Trinity, and those of earth, are the sacraments and seals of the Church. The prophets were full of favor with God, Abraham full of faith, Stephen full of the Holy Ghost, many full of grace, and John Baptist a prophet, and more then a prophet, yet never any prophet, never any man, how much soever interessed in the favor of Almighty God was such an instrument of grace, as a sacrament or as Gods seals and institutions in his Church: and the least of these six witnesses, is of that nature, and therefore might be believed without more witnesses.

To speak then first of the three first, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, it was but a poor plot of the devil, to go about to rob us, of their testimony; for as long as we have the three last, the spirit, the water, and blood, we have testimony enough of Christ, because God is involved in his ordinance; and though he be not tied to the work of the Sacrament, yet he is always present in it. Yet this plot, the devil had upon the Church: And whereas this first Epistle of Saint John was never doubted to be Canonical, (whereas both the other have been called into some question) yet in this first Epistle, the first verse of this text, was for a long time removed, or expunged, whether by malice of Heretics, or negligence of transcribers. The first Translation of the new testament, (which was into Syriaque) hath not this verse; That which was first called Vulgata editio, had it not, neither hath Luther it in his Germane translation: very many of the Latin Fathers have it not; and some very ancient Greek Fathers want it, though more ancient then they, have it; for Athanasius in the Council of Nice cites it, and makes use of it; and Cyprian, beheaded before that Council, hath it too. But now, he that is one of the witnesses himself, the Holy Ghost hath assured the Church, that this verse belongs to the Scripture; and therefore it becomes us to consider thankfully, and reverently, this first rank of witnesses, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.

The Father then hath testified De integritate Christi, of this entireness, that Christ should be all this and do all this, which we have spoken of, abundantly: he begun before Christ was born; in giving his name, Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from sin. Well; how shall this person be capable to do this office of saving his people from sin? Why, in him say God the father, (in the representation of an Angel) shall be fulfilled that prophecy, A virgin shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emanuel, which is by interpretation God with us: This seems somewhat an incertain testimony, of a Man, with an Aliàs dictus, with two names. God says he shall be called Jesus, that the prophecy may be fulfilled which says he shall be called Emanuel: but therein consists, Integritas Christi, this entireness; he could not be Jesus, not a Savior, except he were Emanuel, God with us, God in our nature. Here then is Jesus, a Savior, a Savior that is God, and Man, but where is the Testimony De Christo; that he was anointed, and prepared for this sacrifice; that this work of his was contracted between the Father, and him, and acceptable to him? It is twice testified by the Father; both in Christs act of humiliation, when he would be Baptized by John; when he would accept an ablution, who had no uncleanness, then God says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, he was well pleased in his person, and he was well pleased, in his act, in his office. And he testifies it again in his first act of glory, in his transfiguration; where the Father repeats the same words with an addition, Hear him: God is pleased in him, and would have Men pleased in him too. He testified first, only for Iosephs sak that had entertained, and lodged some scrupulous suspicion against his wife, the Blessed Virgin; His second testimony at the baptism, had a farther extent; for that was for the confirmation of John Baptist, of the preacher himself, who was to convey his doctrine to many others; His third testimony in the transfiguration, was larger then the Baptism; for that satisfied three, and three such as were to carry it far, Peter, and James, and John: All which no doubt made the same use of his testimony, as we see Peter did, who preached out of the strength of his manifestation, we followed not deceivable fables, but with our own eyes we saw his Majesty; for he received of God the Father, honor, and glory, when there came such a voice to him, from the Excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But yet the Father gave a more free, a more liberal testimony of him, then this, at his Conception, or Baptism, or Transfiguration: when upon Christs prayer, Father glorify thy Name, there came a voice from heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. For this all the people apprehended; some imputed it to Thunder, some to an Angel; but all heard it; and all heard Christs comment upon it, That that voice came not for him, but for their sakes; so that when the Father had testified of a Jesus, a Savior, and a Christ, a Savior sent to that purpose, and a Son in whom he is pleased, and whom we must hear, when it is said of him, moreover, Gratificavit nos in Dilecto, he hath made us accepted in his beloved, this is his way of comming in water, and blood, that is, in the sacraments of the Church, by which we have assurance of being accepted by him; and this is this Integritas Christi, the entireness of Christ, testified by our first witness, that bears record in heaven. The father.

The second witness in heaven, is verbum, The Word: and that is a welcome message, for it is Christ himself: It is not so when the Lord sends a word; The Lord sent a word unto Jacob, and it lighted upon Israel there the word is a judgement, and an execution of the Judgement: for that word, that signifies, 2 word there, in the same letters exactly signifies, a pestilence, a Calamity; It is a word, and a blow; but the word here, is verbum cara, that Word which for our sakes was made our selves. The word then in this place, is the second person in the Trinity, Christ Jesus, who in this Court of heaven, where there is no corruption, no falsification, no passion, but fair and just proceeding, is admitted to be a witness in his own cause; It is Jesus, that testifies for Jesus now, when he was upon earth, and said, If I should bear witness of my self, my witness were not true, whether we take those words to be spoken, per Conniventiam, by an allowance, and concession, (It is not true, that is, I am content that you should not believe my witness of my self to be true) (as Saint Cyrill understand them) or whether we take them, Humana mare, that Christ as a man, acknowledged truly, and as he thought, that inlegal proceeding a mans own testimony ought not to be believed in his own behalf, (as Athanasius and Saint Ambrose understand them) yet Christ might safely say as he did, Though I bear a record of my self, yet my record is true; why? because I know whence I come, and whither I go. Christ could not be Singularis testis, a single witness. He was always more then one witness, because he had always more then one; God and man; and therefore Christ instructing Nicodemus, speaks plurally, we speak, that know, we testify that we have seen, and you receive not Testimonium nostrum, our witness, he does not say my witness, but ours, because although a singular, yet he was a plural person too.

His testimony then was credible, but how did he testify Integritatem, this entireness, all that belonged to our faith. All consists in this, that he was Jesus, capable in his nature, to be a Savior, that he was Christus, ordained, and sent for that office, and then Quod venit, that be was come, and come, in aqus & sanguine, in water and blood, in sacraments, which might apply him to us. That he was Jesus a person capable, his miracles testified aloud and frequently: that he was Christ, anointed, and sent for that, his reference of all his actions to his Father testified; both these were enwrapped in that, that he was the Son of God; and that he professed himself upon the earth to be so; for so it appears plainly, that he had plainly done: We have a law, say the Jews to Pilate, and by our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. And for the last part, that he came In aqua & sanguine, in water, and blood, in such means, as were to continue in the Church, for our spiritual reparation, and sustentation, he testified that, in preaching so piercing Sermons, in instituting so powerful Sacraments, in assuring us, that the love of God expressed to mankind in him, extended to all persons, and all times, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoseever believeth in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting. And so the words bear record, De Integritate, of this Entireness, of the whole work of our Redemption: and therefore, Christ is not only truly called a Martyr, in that sense, as Martyr signifies a witness, but he is truly called a Martyr, in that sense, as we use the word ordinarily; for he testified this truth, and suffered for the testimony of it: and therefore he is called Jesus Christ, Martyr, a faithful witness. And there is Martyrium, a Martyrdom attributed to him, where it is said, Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession; so he was a speaking, and a doing, and a suffering witness.

Now for the third witness in heaven, which is the holy Ghost; we may contract our selves in that; for the whole work was his; Before Joseph and Mary came together, she was found with Child of the holy Ghost: which (if we take it, as Saint Basil, and divers others of the Fathers do) that Joseph found it, by the holy Ghost, that is, the holy Ghost informed him of it, then here the holy Ghost was a witness to Joseph, of this Conception: but we rather take it (as it is most ordinarily taken) that the Angel intimated this to Joseph, That that which was conceived in her, was of the holy Ghost; and then the holy Ghost did so primarily testify, this decree of God, to send a Jesus, and a Christ, for our Redemption, that himself was a blessed and bountiful actor in that Conception, he was conceived by him, by his overshadowing. So that the holy Ghost did not only testify his comming, but he brought him: And then, for his comming in Aqua & sanguine, in water and blood, that is, in Sacraments, in means, by which he might be able to make his comming useful, and applicable to us, first the holy Ghost, was a pregnant witness of that, at his Baptism; for the holy Ghost had told John Baptist before-hand, That upon whomsoever he should descend, and tarry still, that should be he, that should baptize with the holy Ghost: and then according to those Marks, he did descend, and tarry still upon Christ Jesus, in his baptism. And after this falling upon him, and tarrying upon him, (which testified his power) in all his life, expressed in his doctrine, and in his Sermons, after his death, and Resurrection, and Ascension, the holy Ghost gave a new testimony, when he fell upon the Apostles in Cloventongues, and made them spiritual channels, in which this water and blood, the means of applying Christ to us, should be conveyed to all Nations; and thus also the third witness in heaven, testified De integritate, of this entireness of Jesus.

Of these three witnesses then, which are of heaven, we shall need to add no more, but that which the text adds, that is, That these three are one; that is, not only one in Consent, (they all testify of one point, they all speak to one Intergatory; Ad integritatem Christi, to prove this entireness of Christ;) but they are Vnum Essentia, The Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost are all one Godhead, and so meant and intended to be in this place. And therefore as Saint Jerome complained, when some Copies were without this seventh verse, that thereby we had lost a good argument for the unity of the three Persons, because this verse said plainly that the three witnesses were all one, so I am sorry, when I see any of our later expositors deny, that in this place, there is any proof, of such an unity, but that this Vnum sunt, (They are one) is only an unity of consent, and not of essence. It is an unthrifty prodigality (howsoever we be abundantly provided with arguments, from other places of Scriptures, to prove this Vnity in Trinity) to cast away so strong an argument, against Jew, and Turk, as is in these words, for that, and for the consubstantiality of Christ, which was the Tempest, and the Earthquake of the Primitive Church, raised by Arius; and his followers then, and (God knows) not extinguished yet.

Thus much I add of these three witnesses, that though they be in heaven, their testimony is upon the earth; for they need not to testify to one another, this matter of Jesus: The Father hears of it every day, by the continual intercession of Christ Jesus: The Son feels it every day; in his new crucifying by our sins, and in the perfecution of his Mystical body here: The holy Ghost hath a bitter sense of it, in our sins against the holy Ghost, and he hath a loving sense of it, in those abundant seas of graces, which flow continually from him upon us; They need no witnesses in heaven; but these three witnesses testify all this, to our Consciences. And therefore the first author, that is observed to have read, and made use of this seventh verse (which was one of the first Bishops of Rome) he reads the words thus, Tres in nobis, there are three in us, which bear witness in heaven; they testify for our sakes, and to establish our assurance, De Integritate Iesu; that Jesus is come, and come with means, to save the world, and to save us. And therefore upon these words, Saint Bernard collects thus much more, that there are other witnesses in heaven, which restify this work of our Redemption, Angels, and Saints, all the Court, all the Quire of heaven testify it; but catera nobis occults, says he, what all they do we know not: but (according to the best dispositions here in this world) we acquaint our selves, and we choose to keep company with the best, and so not only the poor Church s the earth, but every poor soul in the Church, may hear all these three witnesses testifying to him, Integrum Iesum suum, that all, which Christ Jesus hath done, and suffered, appertains to him: but yet, to bring it nearer him, in visible and sensible things, There are, tres de terra, three upon earth too.

The first of these three upon earth, is the Spirit: which Saint Augustine understands of the spirit, the soul of Christ: for when Christ commended his spirit, into the hands of his Father, this was a testimony, that he was Verus hemo, that he had a soul; and in that he laid down his spirit, his soul, (for no Man could take it from him) and took it again, at his pleasure, in his resurrection, this was a testimony, that he was Verus Deus, true God; And so says Saint Augustine, Spiritus, The spirit, that is anima Christi, the soul of Christ, did testify De integritate Iesu, all that belonged to Jesus, as he was God, and as he was Man. But this makes the witnesses in heaven, and the witnesses in earth all one; for the personal testimony of Christs preaching, and living, and dying, the testimony which was given by these three Persons of the Trinity, was all involved in the first rank of witnesses: Those three which are in heaven. Other later Men understand by the Spirit here the Spirit of every Regenerate Man; and that in the other heavenly witnesses, the spirit is Spiritus sanctus, the spirit that is holy in it self, the holy Ghost, and here it is Spiritus sanctificatus, that spirit of Man, which is made holy by the holy Ghost, according to that, The same spirit, beareth witness, with our spirit, that we are the children of God. But in this sense, it is too particular a witness, too singular, to be intended here; for that speaks but to one Man, at once; The spirit therefore here is; Spiritus oris, the word of God, the Gospel; and the preaching, and ministration thereof. We are made Ministers of the New testament of the spirit, that giveth life: And if the ministration of death were glorious, how shall not the ministration of the spirit, be more glorious? It is not therefore the Gospel merely, but the preaching of the Gospel, that is this spirit. Spiritus sacerdotis vehioulum Spiritus Dei; The spirit of the Minister, is not so pure, as the spirit of God, but it is the chariot, the means, by which God will enter into you. The Gospel is the Gospel, at home, at your house; and there you do well to read it, and reverence it, as the Gospel: but yet it is not Spiritus, it is not this Spirit, this first witness upon earth, but only there, where God hath blessed it with his institution, and ordinance, that is, in the preaching thereof. The stewardship, and the dispensation of the graces of God, the directing of his threatnings against refractary, and wilful sinners, the directing of his promises to simple, and supple, and contrite penitents, the breaking of the bread, the applying of the Gospel according to their particular indigences, in the preaching thereof, this is the first witness.

The second witness here is The water, and I know there are some Men which will not have this to be understood of the water of Baptism; but only of the natural effect of water; that as the abtutions of the old law, by water did purge us, so we have an inward testimony, that Christ doth likewise wash us clean; so the water here, must not be so much as water; but a metaphorical, and figurative water. These men will not allow water, in this place, to have any relation to the sacrament; and Saint Ambrose was so far from doubting that water in this place belonged to the sacrament, that he applies all these three witnesses to the Sacrament of Baptism: Spiritus mentem renovat, All this is done in Baptism, says he; The Spirit renews and disposes the mind; Aqua perficit ad Lavacrum; The water is applied to cleanse the body; Sanguis Spectat ad pretium; and the blood intimates the price, and ransom, which gives force, and virtue to this sacrament: And so also (says he in another place) In sanguine mors, in the blood there is a representation of death, in the water, of our burial, and in the spirit, of our own life. Some will have none of these witnesses on earth to belong to baptism, not the water; and Ambrose will have all, spirit, and water, and blood to belong to it.

Now both Saint Ambrose, who applies all the three witnesses to Baptism, and those later men which deny any of the witnesses to belong to baptism, do both depart from the general acceptation of these words, that water here, and only that, signifies the Sacrament of baptism. For as in the first creation, the first thing, that the spirit of God, is noted to have moved upon, was the waters, so the first creature, that is sanctified by Christs institution, to our Salvation, is this element of water. The first thing that produced any living sensible creature was the water; Primus liquor qnod viveret edidit; ne mirum sit quod in Baptismo, aquae animare noverunt; water brought forth the first creatures, says Tertullian; That we should not wonder, that water should bring forth Christians. The first of Gods afficting miracles in Egypt, was the changing of water into blood; and the first miracle of grace, in the new Testament, was the changing of water into wine at the marriage. So that water hath still been a subject, and instrument of Gods conversation with man: So then Aqua janua ecclesiae, we cannot come into the Church, but by water, by baptism: for though the Church have taken knowledge of other Baptismes, (Baptisma sanguinis, which is Martyrdom, and Baptisma Flaminis, which is a religious desire to be baptized when no means can be got) yet there is no other sacrament of Baptism, but Baptisma Fluminis, the Baptism of water; for the rest, Conveniunt in causando, sed non in significando, says the School; that is, God doth afford a plentiful retribution to the other baptismes Flaminis and Sanguinis, but God hath not ordained them, to be outward seals, and significations of his grace, and to be witnesses of Jesus his comming upon earth, as this water is. And therefore they that provide not duly to bring their children to this water of life, (not to speak of the essential necessity thereof) they take from them one of the witnesses, that Jesus is come into them; and (as much as they can) they shut the Church dor against them, they leave them out of the Ark, and for want of this water, cast them into that general water, which overflows all the rest of the world, which are not brought within the Covenant, by this water of baptism. For, though in the first Translation of the new Testament, into Syriaque, that be said in the sixth verse, that Jesus is come per manus aquarum, by the power of waters, many waters, and in this verse, this witness is delivered in the plural, spirit and waters, (and so, waters in that signification, (which signification they have often in the Scriptures) that is, affliction, and tribulation, be good testimonies that our Lord Jesus doth visit us) though the waters of Contrition, and repentant tears be another good testimony of that too, yet that water, which testifies the presence of Jesus so, as that it doth always infallibly bring Jesus with it, (for the Sacraments are never without Grace) whether it be accepted or no, there it is)That water which is made equal with the preaching of the Word, (so far as to be a fellow-witness with the Spirit) that is only the Sacrament of baptism, without which (in the ordinary dispensation of God) no soul can be surer that Jesus is come to him, then if he had never heard the Word preached; he mistakes the spirit, the first witness; if he refuse the water the second.

The third witness upon earth, is blood: and that is briefly the Communion of the body, and blood of Jesus, in the Lords Supper. But how is that blood upon earth? I am not ashamed to confess, that I know not how, but the blood of Christ is a witness upon earth, in the Sacrament, and therefore, upon the earth it is. Now this Witness being made equal with the other two, with preaching, and with baptism, it is as necessary, that he that will have an assurance, that Jesus is come into him, do receive this Sacrament, as that he do hear Sermonem, and that he be baptized. An over vehement urging of this necessity, brought in an erroneous custom in the Primitive Church: That they would give the Sacrament of the body of Christ to Children, as soon as they were baptized; yea, and to dead man too. But because this Sacrament is accompanied with precepts, which can belong only to Men of understanding, (for they must do it in Remembrance, and they must discern the Lords body) therefore the necessity lies only upon such, as are come to those graces, and to that understanding. For they that take it, and do not discern it, (not know what they do) they take it dangerously. But else, for them, to whom this Sacrament belongs, if they take it not, their hearing of Sermons, and their baptism doth them no good; for what good can they have done them, if they have not prepared themselves for it? And therefore, as the Religion of the Church holds a stubborn Recusant at the table, at the Communion bord, as far from her, as a Recusant at the Pew, that is, a Non-communicant as ill, as a not commer, or a not hearer, so I doubt not but the wisdom of the state weighs them in the same balance; For these three agree in one, says the text: that is, first they meet in one Man, and then they testify the same thing, that is, Integritatem Iesu, that Jesus is come to him in outward Means, to save his soul. If his conscience find not this testimony, all these avail him nothing. If we remain vessels of anger, and of dishonor still, we are under the Vae vobis Hypocritis: woe unto you Hypocrites, that make clean only the outside of your cuppes and Platters. That baptize, and wash your own, and your children's bodies, but not their minds with instructions. When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis, we have heard thee preach in our streets, we have continued our hearing of thy Word, when we say Manducavimus coram te, we have eat in thy presence, at thy table, yea Manducavimus te, we have eaten thee thy self, yet for all this outward show of these three witnesses, of Spirit, and Water, and blood, Preaching, and Baptism and Communion, we shall hear that fearful disclaiming from Christ Jesus, Nescio vos, I know not whence you are. But these witnesses, he will always hear, if they testify for us, that Jesus is come unto us; for the Gospel, and the preaching thereof, is as the deed that conveys Jesus unto us; the water, the baptism, is as the Seal, that assures it; and the blood, the Sacrament, is the delivery of Christ into us; and this is Integritas Iesu, the entire, and full possession of him.

To this purpose therefore, as we have found a Trinity in heaven, and a Trinity in earth, so we must make it up a Trinity of Trinities, and find a third Trinity in our selves. God created one Trinity in us; (the observation, and the enumeration is Saint Bernards) which are those three faculties of our soul, the reason, the memory, the will; That Trinity in us, by another Trinity too, (by suggestion towards sin, by delight in sin, by consent to sin) is fallen into a third Trinity; The memory into a weakness, that that comprehends not God, it glorifies him not for benefits received; The reasen to a blindness, that that discernes not what is true; and the will to a perverseness, that that wishes not what's good; But the goodness of God, by these three witnesses on earth regenerates, and reestablishes a new Trinity in us, faith, and hope, and charity; Thus far that devout Man carries it; And if this new Trinity, faith, and hope, and charity, witness to us Integritatem Christi, all the work of Christ, If my faith testify to me, that Christ is sealed to my soul; and my hope, testify, that at the Resurection, I shall have a perfect fruition in soul, and body, of that glory which he purchased for every believer; and my charity testifies to the world, that I labor to make sure that salvation, by a good life, then there's a Trinity of Trinities, and the six are made nine witnesses: There are three in heaven that testify that this is done for all Mankind, Three in the Church that testify, this may be done for me, and three in my soul, that testify, that all this is applied to me; and then the verdict, and the Judgement must necessarily go for me. And beloved, this Judgement will be grounded upon this entireness of Jesus, and therefore let me dismiss you with this note, That Integritas is in continuitate, not in contignitate; It is not the touching upon a thing, nor the comming near to a thing, that makes it entire; a fagot, where the sticks touch, a piece of cloth, where the threds touch, is not entire; To come as near Christ as we can conveniently, to try how near we can bring two Religions together, this is not to preserve Integritatem Iesu: In a word, Entireness excludes deficiency, and redundancy, and discontinuance; we preserve not entireness, if we preserve not the dignity of Christ, in his Church, and in his discipline, and that excludes the defective Separatist; we do not preserve that entireness if we admit traditions, and additions of Men, in an equality to the word of God, and that excludes the redundant Papist; neither do we preserve the entireness, if we admit a discontinuance, a slumbering of our Religion for a time, and that excludes the temporisers, the Statist, the Politician. And so, beloved, I recommend unto you Integritatem Iesu, Jesus, and his truth, and his whole truth, and this whole Truth, in your whole lives.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon VII.

GAL. 3. 27. For, all yee that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

Preached at a Christening.

THis text is a Reason of a Reason; an Argument of an Argument; The proposition undertaken by the Apostle to prove, is, That after faith is come, we are no longer under the Schoolmaster, the law. The reason, by which he proves that, is: For yee are all the Sons of God by faith, in Christ Jesus; And then the reason of that, is this text, for all yee that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

Here then is the progress of a sanctified Man, and here is his standing house; here is his journey, and his Lodging; his way, and his end. The house, the lodging, the end of all is faith; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin. To be sure that you are in the right way to that, you must find your selves to be the Sons of God; And you can prove that, by no other way to your selves, but because you are baptized into Christ.

So that our happiness is now at that height, and so much are we preferred before the Jews, that whereas the chiefest happiness of the Jews was to have the law, (for without the law they could not have known sin, and the law was their Schoolmaster to find out Christ) we are admitted to that degree of perfection, that we are got above the law; It was their happiness to have had the law, but it is ours, not to need it: They had the benefit of a guide, to direct them, but we are at our journeys end; They had a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ; but we have proceeded so far, as that we are in possession of Christ. The law of Moses therefore, binds us not at all, as it is his Law; Whatsoever binds a Christian, in that law, would have bound him, though there had been no law given to Moses. The Ceremonial part of that law, which was in the institution, Mortale, (it was mortal, It might die) and by Christs determination of those Typical things, Mortuum, (It did die) is now also Mortiferum, (deadly) so that it is sin to draw any part of that law, into a necessity of observation; because the necessary admission of any Type, or figure, implies a confession, that that which was signified, or figured, is not yet come; So that that law, and Christ cannot consist together. The Iudicial law of Moses, was certainly the most absolute, and perfect law of government, which could have been given to that people, for whom it was given; but yet to think, that all States are bound to observe those laws, because God gave them, hath no more ground, then that all Men are bound to go clothed in beasts skins, because God apparelled Adam, and Eve in that fashion.

And for the moral part of that law, and the abridgement of that moral part, the decalogue, that begun not to have force, and efficacy then, when God writ it in the tables; but was always, and always shall be written in the hearts of Men; And though God of his goodness, was pleased to give that declaration of it, and that provocation to it, by so writing it, yet if he had not written it, or if (which is impossible) that writing could perish, yet that moral law, those commandments, would bind us, that are Christians, after the expiration of that law, which was Moses law, as it did (de Iure) bind all those which lived, before any written law was. So that he that will perfectly understand, what appertains to his duty in any of the ten Commandments; he must not consider that law, with any limitation, as it was given to the Jews, but consider what he would have done, if he had lived before the Tables had been written. For certainly, even in the Commandment of the Sabbath, which was accompanied with so many Ceremonies amongst the Jews, that part only is moral, which had bound us, though that Commandment had never been given; and he that performs that part, keeps the Sabbath; the Ceremonial part of it, is not only not necessary; but when it is done with an opinion of necessity, it is erroneous, and sinful. For neither that Commandment nor any other of the ten, began to bind them, when they were written, nor doth bind now, except it bound before that.

Thus far then we are directed by this Text, (which is as far, as we can go in this life) To prove to our selves, that we have faith, we must prove, that we need not the law; To prove that emanecipation, and liberty, we must prove, that we are the sons of God; To prove that ingraffing, and that adoption, we must prove, that we have put on Christ Jesus; And to prove that apparelling of our selves, our proof is, that we are baptized into him.

All proofs must either arrest, and determine in some things confessed, and agreed upon, or else they proceed in infinitum. That which the Apostle takes to be that which is granted on all sides, and which none can deny, is this, that to be baptized is to put on Christ: And this putting on of Christ, doth so far carry us to that Infinitissimum, to God himself, that we are thereby made Semen Dei, the seed of God; The field is the world, and the good seed are the Children of the kingdom; And we are translated even into the nature of God, By his precious promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature; yea, we are discharged of all bodily, and earthly incombrances, and we are made all spirit, yea the spirit of God himself, He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit with him. All this we have, if we do put on Christ: and we do put on Christ, if we be baptized into him.

These then are the two actions which we are now to consider: Baptizari, To be washed. Induere, To be clothed.

Induere, is to cover so far, as that Covering can reach; A hat covers the head; a glove the hand; and other garments, more; But Christ, when he is put on, Covers us all. If we have weak heads, shallow brains, either a silexce, and a reservednes, which make the fool and the wise equal, or the good interpretation of friends, which put good Constructions upon all that we say, or the dignity of autority, and some great place, which we hold, which puts an opinion in the people, that we are wise, or else we had never been brought thither, these cover our heads, and hide any defect in them. If we have foul hands, we can cover them, with excuses; If they be foul with usurious Extortion, we can put on a glove, an excuse, and say, He that borrowed my money, got more by it, then I that lent it; If, with bribery in an office, we can cover it and say, He that knew, that I bought my office, will be content to let me be a saver by it; If our hands be foul with shedding of innocent blood, as Saint Jerome says that Adam eat the Apple, Ne contristaretur Delicias suas, left he should over grieve his wife, by refusing it, Ne contristaremur Delicias nostras, either because we would not displease another, or because our beloved sin, to which we had married our selves, did sollicite us to it. Particular excuses cover our particular defects, from the sight of men, but to put on Christ, covers us all over, even from the sight of God himself. So that how narrowly so ever he search into us, he sees nothing but the whiteness of his Sons innocency, and the redness of his Sons blood.

When the prodigal child returned to his father, his father clothed him entirely, and all at once; he put a robe upon him, to cover all his defects: which Robe, when God puts upon us, in clothing us with Christ, that robe is not only Dignitaes quam perdidit Adam, as Augustine says, but it is Amictus sapientiae, as Ambrase enlarges it, It does not only make us aswell, as we were in Adam, but it enables us better, to preserve that state; It does not only cover us, that is, make us excusable, for our past, and present sins, but it indues us with grace; and wisdom to keep that robe still, and never to return to our former foulnesses, and deformities.

Our first parents Adam and Eve were naked all over; but they were not sensible of all their nakedness, but only of those parts whereof they were ashamed. Nothing but the shame of the world makes us discern our deformities; And only for those faults, which shame makes us take knowledge of, we go about to provide; And we provide nothing but short Aprons, as that word signified; and those but of fig-leaves; That which comes first to hand, and that which is withered before it is made, that do we take for an excuse, for an aversion of our own conscience, when she begins to cast an eye, or to examine the nakedness, and deformities of our souls.

But when God came to cloth them, their short aprons were extended to coats, that covered them all over, and their fig-leaves to strong skins; for God saw that not only those parts, of which they were already ashamed, needed covering, but that in all their other parts, if they continued, naked, and still exposed to the Injury, and violence of the weather, they would contract diseases, and infirmities; and therefore God covers them so throughly, as he doth not only provide for reparation of former inconveniences, but prepare against future.

And so perfect effects doth this garment, Christ Jesus, work upon us, if we put him on; He doth not only cover Original sins, (which is the effect of those disobedient Members, which derive sin, upon us, in the sinful generation of our parents) but he covers all our actual sins, which we multiply every day: and not only those, which the world makes us ashamed of, but which we hide from the world; yea which we hide from our selfs; that is, sins, which by a long custom of practise, we commit so habitually, and so indifferently, as that we have forgot, that they are sins.

But as it was in Adams Clothing there, so must it be in our spiritual putting on of Christ. The word used there, Labash, doth not signify that God clothed Adam, nor that Adam clothed himself; but as the Grammarians call it, it is in Hiphil, and it signified Induere fecit eos; God caused them to be clothed, or God caused them to cloth themselves; which is also intimated, nay evidently expressed in the words of this text; we are our selves poor, and impotent creatures, we cannot make our selves ready; we are poor and beggarly creatures, we have nothing to put on; Christ is that garment; and then Christ is the very life, by which we stretch out our armes and our legs, to put on that garment; yea he puts it on upon us, he doth the whole work: but yet he doth not thrust it on: He makes us Able to put it on: but if we be not willing, then he puts no necessity upon our will: but we remain naked still.

Induere then, to put on, is an extension, a dilatation over all; And sometimes it signifies an abundant, and overflowing, and overwhelming measure of Gods judgements upon us, Princeps Induetur desolatione, The prince shallbe with desolation and with astonishment: But most commonly, the rich and all-sufficient proportion of his mercies and spiritual benefits: as he expressed it to his Apostles, at his ascension, Stay you in the Citty, quousque Induamini virtute ex alto; till ye be indued (so we translate it) that is, clothed with power from on high. And this was per fidem ei innitends, and per opera cum declar ando, says Saint Augustine, He only hath pat on Christ, which hath Christ in himself by faith, and shows him to others by his works, which is Lucerna ardens, (as Christ said of John Baptist) a burning lamp, and a shining lamp, profitable to others, as well as to himself.

There is a degree of vanity, and pride, whereby some Men delight to wear their richest clothes innermost, and most out of sight; But in this double garment of a Christian, it is necessarily so; for faith is the richest, and most precious part of this garment; an this, which is our Holy-day garment, is worn innermost; for that (our faith) is only seen by God; but our outward garment, of works, which is our workyday garment, that is our sanctification is seen of all the world. And that also must be put on, or else we have not put on Christ: and it must cover us all over; that is, our sanctification must go through our whole life in a constant, and an even perseverance; we must not only be Hospital, and feed the poor at Christmas, be sober, and abstinent, the day that we receive, repent, and think of amendment of life, in the day of visitation, and sickness; but as the garment, which Christ wore, was seamless, and entire, so this garment, which is Christ Jesus, that is, our sanctification, should be entire, and uninterrupted, in the whole course of our lives, we must remember, that at the Marriage which figured the kingdom of heaven, the master of the feast reprehended, and punished him, that was come in, not expressly because he had not a wedding garment, but Quomodo intrasti, says he, how camest thou in not having on thy wedding garment? So that (if it could be possible) though we had put on the inside of this garment, which is Christ, that is, if we had faith, yet if we have not the outside too, that is sanctification, we have not put on Christ, as we should; for this is Indui virtute ex alto; to have both inside, faith, and outside, sanctification: and to put it on so, that it may cover us all over, that is all our life; because it is not in our power, if we put it off, by new sins, to put it on again, when we will. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on, was the doubt of the spouse, in the Canticles, even when Christ had called her: So hard a thing is it, if we divest the righteousness of Christ, after we have put it on, to cloth our selves again in that garment.

As then this word, Induere, to put on, to be clothed, signifies a largeness, and an abundance, according to that, The pastures are clothed with sheep, and the vallies with corn: So is this garment, Christ Jesus, such a garment, as is alone so all sufficient, as that if we do put on that, we need no other; Put yee on the Lord Jesus Christ, and take no thought for the flesh; if ye have put on that, you are clothed, and armed, and adorned sufficiently.

In the first creation, in the Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem nostrûm, when God seems to have held a consultation about the making of Man, man put on all the Trinity, all God; & in the redemption God put on all Man; not only all the nature of Mankind in general, but in particular, every Man. But as the spirit of God, is said to have put on a particular Man, Spiritus Domini induit Gideon, the spirit of the Lord, clothed, or put on Gideon, when he selected him for his service, so must the spirit of every particular Man, put on Christ, he must not be content, to be under the general cover, (either under his general providence, because he is a Creature, or a member of his Mystical body, because he adheres to a visible Church) he must not say, I am as warm clothed, as another, I have as much of Christ in me, as a great many, that do well enough in the world, but he must so inwrap himself in Christ, and in his Merits, as to make all that to be his own. No man may take the frame of Christs merit in pieces; no Man may take his forty days fasting and put on that, and say, Christ hath fasted for me, and therefore I may surfeit; No man may take his Agony, and pensiveness, and put on that, and say, Christ hath been sad for me, and therefore I may be merry. He that puts on Christ, must put him on all and not only find, that Christ hath died, nor only that he hath died for him, but that he also hath died in Christ, and that whatsoever Christ suffered, he suffered in Christ.

For, as Christs merit, and satisfaction, is not too narrow for all the world, so is it not too large for any one Man; Infinite worlds might have been saved by it, if infinite worlds had been created; And, if there were no more Names in the book of life, but thine, all the Merit of Christ were but enough to save thy one sinful soul, which could not have been redeemed, though alone, at any less price, then his death.

All that Christ did, and suffered, he did and suffered for thee, as thee; not only as Man, but as that particular Man, which bears such, or such a name; and rather, then any of those, whom he loves, should appear naked before his Father, and so discover to his confusion, those scarres, and deformities, which his sins have imprinted upon him, (as his love is devoutly, and plously extended by the Schools and some contemplative Men) Christ would be content to do, and suffer, as much as he hath done, for any one particular Man yet: But beyond Infinite, there is no degree: and his merit was infinite, both because an infinite Majesty resided in his person, and because an infinte Majesty accepted his sacrifice for infinite.

But this act of Christ, this redemption makes us only servants; servi à servando, we are servants to him, that preserved, and saved us, is the derivation of the Law. But the application of this redemption (which is the putting on of Christ,) makes us sons; for we are not to put on Christ, only as a Livery, to be distinguished by external marks of Christianity; but so, as the son puts on his father; that we may be of the same nature and substance as he; and that God may be in us, Non tanquam in denario, not as the King is in a piece of coin, or a medal, but tanquam in filio, as he is in his son, in whom the same nature both humane, and Royal doth reside.

There is then a double Induere, a twofold clothing; we may Induere, 1. Vestem, put on a garment; 2. Personam, put on a person. We may put on Christ so, as we shall be his, and we may put him on so, as we shall be He. And even to put him on as a garment is also twofold; The first is to take only the outward name, and profession of Christians upon us; and this doth us no good; yee cloth ye, but are not warm, says the Prophet, of this kind of putting on of Christ. For this may be done only to delude others; which practise God discovered, and threatened, in the false Prophets, The Prophets shall not wear a rough garment to deceive; As God himself cannot be deluded, so for the encouragement of his Church, he will take off this garment of the Hypocrite, and discover his nakedness, and expose him to the open shame of the world; He shall not wear arough garment to deceive.

For this is such an affront and scorn to Christ, as Hanun cutting off of Davids servants clothes at the middle, was; we make this garment of what stuff, and what fashion we list; As Hanun did, we cut it off in the middle; we will be Christians till noon, (in the outward acts of Religion) and Liberties in the after-noon, in putting off that garment again; we will be Christians all day, and return to wantonnesse, and licentiousness at night; we do that which Christ says, no Man doth, (that is, no Man should do) we put new pieces to an old garment; and to that habit of sin, which covers us as a garment, we put a few new patches of Religion, a few flashes of repentance, a few shreds of a Sermon, but we put not on, that entire and feamlesse garment Christ Jesus.

And can we hope, that these disguises, these half coats, these imperfect services will be acceptable to God, when we our selves would not admit this, at our children, or at our servants hands? It is the argument by which the Prophet convinces the Israelites, about their unclean sacrifices; offer this now unto the Prince; will he be content with thee, and accept thy person? If thou shouldest wear the princes Livery, in a scantler proportion, or in a different fashion, or in a courset stuff, then belongs to thy place, would he accept it at thy hands? No more will Christ if thou put him on, (that is, take his profession upon thee) either in a coarser stuff, (Traditions of Men, in stead of his word) or in scantler measure, (not to be always a Christian, but then, when thou hast use of being one) or in a different fashion, (to be singular and Schismatical in thy opinion) for this is one, but an ill manner of putting on of Christ as a garment.

The second, and the good way is, to put on his righteousness, and his innocency, by imitation, and conforming our selves to him. Now when we go about earnestly to make our selves Temples, and Altars, and to dedicate our selves to God, we must change our clothes; As when God bad Jacob, to go up to Bethel, to make an Altar, he commanded all his family to change their clothes; In which work, we have two things, to do; first, we must put off those clothes which we had; and appear naked before God, without presenting any thing of our own; (for when the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and that he prophesied, his first act was, to strip himself naked: And then secondly, we come to our transfiguration, and to have those garments of Christ communicated to us which were as white, as the light; and we shall be admitted into that little number, of which it is said, Thou hast a few Names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white.

And from this (which is Induere vestem,) from this putting on Christ as a garment, we shall grow up to that perfection, as that we shall Induere personam, put on him, his person; That is, we shall so appear before the Father, as that he shall take us for his own Christ; we shall bear his name and person; and we shall every one be so accepted, as if every one of us were all Mankind; yea, as if we were he himself. He shall find in all our bodies his wounds, in all our minds, his Agonies; in all our hearts, and actions his obedience. And as he shall do this by imputation, so really in all our Agonies, he shall send his Angels to minister unto us, as he did to Elijah; In all our temptations he shall furnish us with his Scriptures to confound the Tempter, as be in person, did in his temptation, and in our heaviest tribulation, which may extort us the voice of diffidence, My God, My God, why hast forsaken me? He shall give us the assurance to say, In manus tuas &&c. Into thy hands O Lord have I commended my spirit, and there I am safe; He shall use us in all things, as his son; and we shall find restored in us, the Image of the whole Trinity, imprinted at our creation; for by this Regeneration, we are adopted by the Father in the blood of the Son by the sanctification of the holy Ghost.

Now this putting on of Christ, whereby we stand in his place at Gods Tribunal, implies, as I said, both our Election, and our sanctification; both the eternal purpose of God upon us, and his execution of that purpose in us. And because by the first (by our Election) we are members of Christ, in Gods purpose, before baptism, and the second, (which is sanctification) is expressed after baptism, in our lives, and conversation, therefore Baptism intervenes, and comes between both, as a seal of the first, (of Election) and as an instrument, and conduit of the second, Sanctification.

Now, Abscendita Domino, Dea nostro, quae manifesta sumus nobis; let no Man be too curiously busy, to search what God does in his hedchamber; we have all enough to answer, for that, which we have done in our bedchamber. For Gods eternal decree, himself is master of those Rolls; but out of those Rolls he doth exemplify those decrees in the Sacrament of baptism; by which Copy, and exemplification of his invisible and unsearchable decree, we plead to the Church, that we are Gods children, we plead to our own consciences, that we have the Spirit of adoption, and we plead to God himself, the obligation of his own promise, that we have a right to this garment, Christ Jesus, and to those graces, which must sanctify us; for from thence comes the reason of this text, for all yee that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

As we cannot see the Essence of God, but must see him in his glasses, in his Images, in his Creatures, so we cannot see the decrees of God, but must see them in their duplicats, in their exemplification, in the sacraments. As it would do him no good, that were condemned of treason, that a Bedchamber man should come to the Judge, and swear he saw the king sign the prisoners pardon, except he had it to plead: so what assurance soever, what privy mark soever, those men, which pretend to be so well acquainted, and so familiar with the decrees of God, to give thee to know, that thou art elect to eternal salvation, yea if an Angel from heaven comedowne and tell thee, that he saw thy name in the book of life, if thou have not this Exemplification of the decree, this seal, this Sacrament, if thou beest not baptized, never delude thy self with those imaginary assurances.

This Baptism then is so necessary, that first, as Baptism (in a large acceptation) signifies our dying, and burial with Christ, and all the acts of our regeneration, so in that large sense, our whole life is a baptism: But the very sacrament of Baptism, the actual administration, and receiving thereof, was held so necessary, that even for legal and Civil uses, (as in the law, that child, that died without circumcision, had no interest in the family, no participation of the honor, nor name thereof) So that we see in the reckning of the Genealogy, and pedigree of David, that first son of his, which he had by Bathshebae, which died without circumcision is never mentioned, nor toucht upon.) So also, since the time of Moses law, in the Imperial law, by which law, a posthume child, born after the fathers death, is equal with the rest in division of the state, yet if that child dye before he be baptized, no person which should derive a right from him, (as the mother might, if he died) can have any title by him; because he is not considered to have been at all, if he dye unbaptized. And if the State will not believe him to be a full Man, shall the Church believe him to be a full Christian, before baptism? Yea, the apprehension of the necessity of this Sacrament, was so common, and so general, even in the beginning of the Christian Church, that out of an excessive advancing of that trnth, they came also to a falsehood, to an error, That even they that died without baptism, might have the benefit of baptism, if another were baptized in their name, after their death. And so, out of a mistaking of those words, Else what shall they do, Qui baptizantur pro mortuis (which is, that are ready to dye, when they are baptized) the Marcionites induced a custom, to lay one under the dead bodyes bed, that he, in the name of the dead man, might answer to all the questions usually asked, in administring of Baptism.

But this was a corrupt effect of pure, and sincere doctrine, which doctrine is, That Baptism is so necessary, as that God. hath placed no other ordinary scale, nor conveyance of his graces in his Church, to them that have not received that, then buptisme. And they, who do not provide duly, for the Baptism of their children, if their children die, have a heavier accompt to make to God for that child, then if they had not provided a Nurse, and suffered the child to starve. God can preserve the child without Milk; and he can save the child without a sacrament; but as that mother that throws out, and forsakes her child in the field, or wood, is guilty before God of the Temporal murder of that child, though the child die not, so are those parents of a spiritual murder, if their children, by their fault die unbaptized, though God preserve that child out of his abundant, and miraculous mercy, from spiritual destruction.

When the custom of the Christian Church was to baptize but twice in the year, at Easter, and Whitsontide, for the greater solemnity of that action, yea when that ill custom was grown (as it was even in the Primitive Church) that upon an opinion, that all sins were absolutely forgiven in Baptism, Men did defer their Baptism, till their death-bed, (as we see the Ecclesiastical histories full of such examples, even in some of the Christian Emperors: and according to this ill custom, we see Tertullian chides away young children for comming so soon to Baptism, quid festinat innocens aetas, ad remissionem peccatorum, why should this child, that as yet hath done no sin, make such hast to be washed from sinnce?) which opinion had got so much strength, that Saint Basil was fain to oppose it, in the Eastern Church, and both the Gregories, Nazianzen and Nissen, and Saint Ambrose in the Western; yet, in the height of both their customs, of seldom baptizing, and of late baptizing, the case of insants, that might be in danger of dying without baptism, was ever excepted, So that none of those old customs, (though some of them were extreamly ill) went ever so far, as to an opinion, that it were all one, whether the child were baptized or no.

I speak not this, as though the state of children that died without baptism were desperate; God forbid, for who shall shorten the Arm of the Lord? God is able to rain down Manna and Quailes into the souls of these children, though negligent parents turn them out into the wilderness, and put God to that extraordinary work. They may have Manna, and Quailes, but they have not the Milk, and Honey, of the Land of promise; They may have salvation from God, but they have not those graces, so sealed, and so testified to them, as God hath promised they should be in his Sacraments. When God in spiritual offences, makes Inquisition of blood, he proceeds not, as Man proceeds; for we, till there appear a Man to be dead, never inquire who killed him; but in the spiritual Murder, of an unbaptized child, though there be no child spiritually dead, (though Gods mercy have preserved the child from that) yet God imputes this as such a murder to them, who endangered the child, as far as they could, by neglecting his ordinance of baptism.

This is then the necessity of this Sacrament; not absolutely necessary, but necessary by Gods ordinary institution; and as it is always necessary, so is it always certain; whosoever is baptized according to Christs institution, receives the Sacrament of baptism; and the truth is always infallibly annexed with the sign; Nec fieri potest visio hominis, ut non sit Sacramentum quod figurat; Though the wicked may feel no working by the Sacrament, yet the Sacrament doth offer, and present grace as well to the unworthy as to the worthy Receiver: Nec fallaciter promittit; The wicked may be a cause, that the Sacrament shall do them no good; but that the Sacrament, become no Sacrament, or that God should be false in his promises, and offer no grace, where he pretends to offer it, this the wicked cannot do; baptism doth truly, and without collusion, offer grace to all; and nothing but baptism, by an ordinary institution, and as an ordinary means, doth so: for when baptism is called a figure, yet both that figure is said there to save us, (The figure that now saveth us, baptism; and it is a figure of the Ark; it hath relation to it, to that Ark which did save the world, when it is called a figure; So it may be a figure; but if we speak of real salvation by it, baptism is more then a figure.

Now as our putting on of Christ was double, by faith, and by sanctification, so by this Sacrament also, we are baptized in Nomen Christi, into the Name of Christ, and in mortem Christi, into the death of Christ: we are not therefore baptized into his Name, because names are imposed upon us in our baptism: for that was not always permanently accustomed, in the Christian Church, to give a name at baptism. To men who were of years, and well known in the world already by their name, if they were converted to the Christian faith, the Church did not use to give new names at their baptism: neither to Children always; but sometimes as an indifferent thing, they left them to the custom of that country, or of that family, from which they were derived. When Saint Augustine says, that he came to Milan, to S. Ambrose, at that time, quaedam nomina oportuit, when Names were to be given, it is true, that he speaks of a time, when Baptism was to be administered, but that phrase of Giving of Names, was not a receiving of Names at Baptism, (for neither Ambrose, nor Augustine, received any new name at their Baptism) but it was a giving up of their Names, a Registring, a Matriculating of their Names in the book of the profession of the Christian Religion, and a public declaration of that profession.

To be baptized therefore into the name of Christ, is to be translated into his Family, by this spiritual adoption, in which adoption (when it was legal) as they that were adopted, had also the name of the family into which they were adopted, as of octavius Octavianus, and the rest, so are we so baptized, into his name, that we are of Christus Christiani; and therefore to become truly Christians, to live Christianly, this is truly to be baptized into his name.

No other name is given under heaven, whereby we can be saved; nor must any other name accompany the name of God, in our Baptism. When therefore they teach in the Roman Church, that it is a good Baptism, which is administered in this forme, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and Son, and holy Ghost, and the virgin Mary, if he which baptizes so, do not mean in his intention, that the virgin Mary is equal to the Trinity, but only an assistant, this is not only an impertinent, but an impious addition to that God, that needs no assistant. And as in our baptism, we take no other name necessarily, but the name of Christ: So in our Christian life, we accept no other distinctions of Iesuits, or Franciscans; but only Christians: for we are baptized into his name, and the whole life of a regenerate man is a Baptism. For as in putting on Christ, sanctification doth accompany faith, so in baptism, the imitation of his death (that is, mortification) and the application of his passion, (by fulfilling the sufferings of Christ in our flesh) is that baptism into his death. Which do so certainly follow one another, (that he that is truly baptized into the name of Christ, is also baptized into his death) as that Saint Paul couples them together, Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized into the name of Paul? If you were not baptized into his name, then you have no interest, no benefit by his death, nor by any thing which he suffered, that his merits, or his works of supereragation should be applied to you: And if he did not suffer for you, (if all that any Paul (much less any Ignatins) could do, were but enough, and too little for himself) then you are not baptized into his name, nor to be denominate by him.

This is then to be Baptized into Christs death, Habere, & reddere testimonium, Christam pro me mortuum, to be sure that Chirst died for me; and to be ready to dye for him; so that I may fulfill his sufferings, and may think that all is not done, which belongs to my Redemption, except I find a mortification in my self. Not that any mortification of mine, works any thing, as a cause of my redemption, but as an assurance and testimony of it; sit pignus & sigillum redemptionis; It is a pledge, and it is a Seal, of my redemption.

Christ calls his death a Baptism; So Saint Augustine calls our Baptism a death, Quod crux Christo, & Sepulcrum, id nobis Baptisma; Baptism to us, says he, is our Croffe, and our passion, and our burial; that is, in that, we are conformed to Christ as he suffered, died, and was buried. Because if we be so baptized into his Name, and into his death, we are thereby dead to sin, and have died the death of the righteous.

Since then Baptism is the death of sin, and there cannot be this death, this conquest, this victory over sin, without faith, there must necessarily faith, concur with this baptism; for if there be not faith, (none in the child, none in the parents, none in the sureties, none in the Church) then there is no baptism performed; Now, in the Child there is none actually; In the sureties, we are not sure, there is any; for their infidelity cannot impeach the sacrament; The child is well baptized though they should be misbeleevers; for, when the Minister shall ask them, Doest thou believe in God? dost thou renounce the Devil? perchance they may ly in their own behalfes; perchance they do not believe, they do not renounce, but they speak truth in the behalf of the child, when they speak in the voice of the Church who receives this child for her child, and binds her self to exhibit, and reach out to that child, her spiritual paps, for her future nourishment thereof. How comes it to pass, says Saint Augustine, that when a man presents another mans child at the font, to be baptized, if the Minister should ask him, Shall this man child be a valiant man, or a wise man, shall this woman child, be a chaste, and a continent woman? the surety would answer, I cannot tell, and yet, if he be asked, of that child, of so few days old, Doth that child believe in God now, will he renounce the Devil hereafter? the surety answers confidently, in his behalf, for the belief, and for the renouncing: How comes this to pass, says Saint Augustine? He answers to this, that as Sacramentum Corporis Christi, est secundum modum Corpus Christi, so Sacramentum fidei est fides; As the Sacrament of the body, and blood of Christ is, in some sense, and in a kind, the body, and blood of Christ, says Augustine, so in the sacrament of faith, says he, (that is, Baptism) there is some kind of faith. Here is a child born of faithful parents; and there is the voice of God, who hath sealed a Covenant to them, and their seed; Here are sureties, that live (by Gods gracious spirit) in the unity, and in the bosom of the Church: and so, the parents present it to them, they present it to the Church, and the Church takes it into her care; It is still the natural child, of her parents, who begot it, it is the spiritual child of the Sureties that present it; but it is the Christian child of the Church, who in the sacrament of Baptism, gives it a new inanimation, and who, if either parents, or sureties, should neglect their parts, will have a care of it, and breed it up to a perfection, and full growth of that faith, whereof it hath this day, an inchoation and beginning.

As then we have said, that Baptism is a death, a death of sin, and as we said before, sin dies not without faith, so also can there be no death of sin, without sorrow, and contrition, which only washes away sin: as therefore we see the Church, and Christs institution, furnishes this child, with faith, which it hath not of it self, so let us bring to this action, that sorrow and that condoling, that we produce into the world such miserable wretches, as even by peccatum involuntarium, by that sin, to which no act, nay no will of theirs concurred, that is, Original sin, are yet put into the state of damnation.

But let us also rejoice, in our own, and this childes behalf, that as we that have been baptized, so this child, that shall be, have, and shall put on Christ Jesus in Baptism. Both as a garment, for Sacramenta sunt vestimenta, As Christ is a garment, so the Sacraments are Christs garment, and as such a garment; as Ornat militem, and convincit desertores, It gives him, that continues in Gods battles, a dignity, and discovers him that forsakes Gods tents, to be a fugitive; Baptism is a garland, in which two ends are brought together, he begins aright, and perseveres, so, Ornat militem, It is an honor to him, that fights out in Gods battle, but Convincit Desertorem, Baptism is our prest-money, and if we forsake our colors, after we have received that, even that forfaits our lives; our very having been baptized, shall aggravate our condemnation. Yea it is such a garment, as those of the children of Israel in the wilderness, which are (by some expositors) thought to have grown all the forty years, with their bodies; for so by Gods blessed provision, shall grace grow with this infant, to the lives end. And both we and it, shall not only put on Christ, as a garment, but we shall put on his person, and we shall stand before his Father, with the confidence, and assurance of bearing his person, and the dignity of his innocence.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon VIII.

CANT. 5. 3. I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?

Preached at Essex house, at the Churching of the Lady Doncaster.

ALL things desire to go to their own place, and that's but the effect of Nature; But if Man desires to go the right way, that's an effect of grace, and of Religion. A stone will fall to the bottom naturally, and a flame will go upwards naturally; but a stone cares not whether it fall through clean water, or through Mud; a flame cares not whether it pass through pure aire, or cloudy; but a Christian, whose end is heaven, will put himself into a faire way towards it, and according to this measure, be pure as his father in heaven is pure. That which is our end, salvation, we use to express in Schools by these two terms, we call it visionem Dei, the sight of God, and we call it unionem, an union with God; we shall see God, and we shall be united to God: for our seeing, we shall see him Sicuti est, as he is; which we cannot express, till we see him; Cognoscam ut cognitus, I shall know as I am known, which is a knowledge reserved for that School, and a degree for that Commencement, and not to be had before. Moses obtained a sight of God here, that he might see, Posterior a, Gods hinder parts; and if we consider God in posterioribus, in his later works, in the fulfilling of all his Prophecies, concerning our Redemption, how he hath accomplished in novissimis, in the later times, all that which he spake ab initio, by the mouth of his Prophets, which have been since the world began, if we see God in them, it is a great beam of that visio beatifica, that beautifical sight of God in heaven; for herein we see the whole way of our salvation, to be in Christ Jesus; all promise, all performance, all prophecy, all history concern us, in and by him. And then for that union with God, which is also our salvation (as this vision is) when we shall be so united, as that we shall follow the Lambe whither soever he goes, though that union be unexpressible here, yet here, there is an union with God, which represents that too. Such an union, as that the Church of which we are parts, is his spouse, and that's Eadem care, the same body with him; and such an union as that the obedient children of the Church, are Idem spiritus cum Domino, we are the same body, and the same spirit: So united, as that by being sowed in the visible Church, we are Semen Dei, the seed of God, and by growing up there in godliness, and holiness, we are participes Divinae naturae, partakers of the divine Nature it self. Now these two unions, which represent our eternal union with God (that is, the union of the Church to him, and the union of every good soul in the Church to him) is the subject of this Song of songs, this heavenly Poem, of Solomons; and our baptism, at our entrance into this world, is a Seal of this union; our marriage, in the passage of this world, is a Sacrament of this union; and that which seems to be our dissolution, (our death) is the strongest band of this union, when we are so united, as nothing can disunite us more. Now, for uniting things in this world, we are always put to employ baser, and courser stuff, to unite them together, then they themselves; If we lay Marble upon Marble, how well soever we polish the Marble, yet we must unite them with morter: If we unite riches to riches, we temper a morter (for the most part) of our own covetousnesse, and the loss, and opressing of some other Men; if we unite honours to honours, titles to titles, we temper a morter, (for the most part) of our own Ambition, and the supplanting, or excluding of some other Men; But in the uniting of a Christian soul to Christ Jesus, here is no morter, all of one Nature; Nothing but spirit, and spirit, and spirit, the soul of Man to the Lord Jesus, by the holy Ghost. Worldly unions have some corrupt foulnesses in them, but for this spiritual union, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?

Which words, though in the rigor of the coherence, and connexion of this Scripture, they imply a delay in the spouse of Christ, and so in every soul too, that when Christ called here, the soul was not ready to come forth to him, but made her excuses, that she had put off her coat, and was loath to rise to put it on, that she had washed her feet, and was loath to rise, and foul them again, yet because the excuse it self, (if it were an excuse) hath a piety, and a Religious care in it, the Fathers for the most part, pretermit that weakness that produced an excuse, and consider in their expositions, the care that the soul had, not to defile her self again, being once washed. Saint Gregory says, that the soul had laid off, Omnia externa, quae non tam ornant quàm onerant, all outward ornaments, which are rather encumbrances, then ornaments; And Saint Ambrose says, Pedes lavi, dum egrederer de corporis contubernio, when I departed from the confederation of my body, and then, I washed my feet, Quomodo in tenebrosum carcerem reverterer? And I return into that dark, and durty prison, again, the love of mine own body ensuing therefore their pious acceptation of these words, we have in them, two festivals of the soul, a Resurrection, and an ascension of it; This soul hath raised it self, from the durt and Mud of this world, Lavit pedes, she hath washed her feet, and then she hath ascended to a resolution, of keeping herself in that state, Quomodo inquinabo illos, how shall I defile them? Call these two parts a Gratulation of the soul, and an Indignation; first she congratulates with her good, and gracious God, that she is cleansed from worldly corruptions, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet and then she conceives a Religious scorn and indignation, of setting her foot in the same foul way again. Quomodo, how, how is it possible that I should descend, to so low a disposition, as to foul them again? This Resurrection then of the soul, and gratulation, & this Ascension of the soul & Indignation, will be our two parts. And in the first, we shall stop a little, upon every one of these five branches; There is ablutio necessaria; There is a washing, that is necessary to all; for we enter in foulness, and corruption into this world; and that we have in Baptism for Original sin; Secondly, there is ablutio pedum, a washing of our feet, of our steps, and walks in this world, and that's by repentance, sealed in the other Sacrament, and properly, that is for actual sins; Thirdly, in this ablution, there is an Ego lavi, there is a washing, and I my self do something towards this cleansing of my self; And fourthly, it is Lavi, it is, I have washed, not Lavabo, it is not, I will wash; it is already done, it is not put off to mine age, nor to my death bed, but Lavi, I have washed; And lastly, it is Pedes meas, I have washed mine own feet; for if by my teaching, I cleanse others, and remain, by my bad life, in foul ways my self, I am not within this text, Lavi pedes meos; I have not washed my feet; But if we have sincerely performed the first part, we shall perform the other too, Quomodo, we shall come into a religious detestation, and indignation of falling into the same foulness again.

To pass then through all these (for of all these that's true which Saint Basil says of all words in the Scriptures, Habent minutissime particulae suae mysteria, Every word hath force and use, as in Pearl, every seed Pearl is as medicinal, as the greatest, so there is a restorative nature in every word of the Scriptures, and in every word, the soul finds a rise, and help for her devotion,) To begin with the first, the necessity of washing, consider us in our first beginning, Concepti in peccatis, our Mothers conceived us in sin; and being wrapped up in uncleanness there, can any Man bring a clean thing out of filthiness? There is not one; for as we were planted, in our Mothers womb, in conception, so we were transplanted from thence into this world, in our Baptism, Nascimur filii ira, for we are by nature the children of wrath, as well as others. And as in the bringing forth, and bringing up, of the best, and most precious, and most delicate plants, Men employ most dung, so the greatest persons, where the spirit and grace of God, doth not allay that intemperance, which naturally arises, out of abundance, and provocation, and out of vanity, and ambitious glory, in outward oftentations; there is more dung, more uncleanness, more sin in the conception, and birth of their children, then of meaner and poorer parents; It is a degree of uncleanness, to fixe our thoughts too earnestly upon the uncleanness of our conception, and of our birth: when we call that a testimony of a right comming, if we come into the world with our head forward, in a head-long precipitation; and when we take no other testimony of our being alive, but that we were heard cry; and for an earnest, and a Prophecy, that we shall be viri sanguinum, et dolosi, bloody, and deceitful Men, false and treacherous, to the murdering of our own souls we come into this world, as the Egyptians went out of it, swallowed, and smothered in a red sea, Pueri sanguinum, & infirmi, weak, and bloody infants at our birth. But to carry our thoughts from material, to sptritual uncleannesses, In peccato concepti, we were conceived in sin, but who can tell us how? That flesh in our mothers womb, which we are, having no sin in it self, (for that mass of flesh could not be damned, if there never came a soul into it) and that soul, which comes into that flesh from God, having no sin in it neither, (for God creates nothing infected with sin, neither should that soul be damned, if it came not into that body) The body, being without sin, and the soul being without sin, yet in the first minute, that this body and soul meet, and are united, we become in that instant, guilty of Adams sin, committed six thousand years before. Such is our sin and uncleanness, in Original sin, as the subtillest Man in the Schools, is never able to tell us, how, or when we contracted that sin, but all have it; And therefore if there be any, any any-where, of that generation, that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness, as Solomon speaks, Erubesce vas stercorum, says good Saint Bernard, If it be a vessel of gold, it is but a vessel of excrements, if it be a bed of curious plants, it is but a bed of dung; as their tombs hereafter shall be but glorious covers of rotten carcasses, so their bodies are now, but pampered covers of rotten souls; Erubescat vas stercorum, let that vessel of uncleanness, that barrel of dung, confess a necessity of washing, and seek that, and rejoice in that, for thus far, (that is, to the pollution of Original sin,) in peccato concepti, and nascimur filii ira, we are conceived in sin, first, and then we are born the children of wrath.

But where's our remedy? Why for this, for this original uncleanness, is the water of Baptism. Oportet nos renasci; we must be born again; we must; There is a necessity of Baptism: As we are the children of Christian parents, we have Ius ad rem, a right to the Covenant, we may claim baptism, the Church cannot deny it us; And as we are baptized in the Christian Church, we have Ius in re, a right in the Covenant, and all the benefits thereof, all the promises of the Gospel: we are sure that we are conceived in sin, and sure that we are born children of wrath, but not sure that we are cleansed, or reconciled to God, by any other means then that, which he hath ordained, Baptism. The Spirit of God moved first upon the water; and the spirit of life grew first in the water; Primus liquor, quod viveret edidit: The first living creatures in the first creation, were in the waters; and the first breath of spiritual life, came to us, from the water of baptism. In the Temple there was Mare aeneum, a brasen sea; In the Church there is Mare aureum, a golden sea, which is Baptisterium, the font, in which we discharge our selves, of all our first uncleannesses, of all the guiltiness of Original sin; but because we contract new uncleannesses, by our unclean ways here; therefore there must be Ablutio pedum, a washing of our feet, of our ways, of our actions, which is our second branch.

Cecidimus in lutum, & super acervum lapidum, says Saint Bernard; we fell by Adams fall, into the durt; but from that, we are washed in baptism; but we fell upon a heap of sharp stones too; and we feel those wounds, and those bruises, all our lives after; Impingimus meridy, we stumble at noon day; In the brightest light of the Gospel, in the brightest light of grace, in the best strength of Repentance, and our resolutions to the contrary, yet we stumble, and fall again. Duo nobis pedes, says that Father, Natura, & Consuetudo; we stand, says he, upon two feet, Nature, and Custom; and we are lame of one foot hereditarily, we draw a corrupt Nature from our parents; and we have lamed the other foot, by crooked, and perverse customs. Now, as God provided a liquor in his Church, for Original sin, the water of Baptism, so hath he provided another for those actual sins; that is, the blood of his own body, in the other Sacrament. In which Sacrament, besides the natural union, (that Christ hath taken our Nature,) and the Mystical union, (that Christ hath taken us into the body of his Church) by a spiritual union, when we apply faithfully his Merits to our souls, and by a Sacramental union, when we receive the visible seals thereof, worthily, we are so washed in his blood, as that we stand in the sight of his Father, as clean, and innocent, as himself, both because he and we are thereby become one body, and because the garment of his righteousness covers us all. But, for a preparation of this washing in the blood of Christ, in that Sacrament, Christ commended to his Apostles, and in them, to all the world, by his practise, and by his precept too, ablutionem pedam, a washing of their feet; before they came to that Sacrament he washed their feet; And in that exemplary action of his, his washing of their feet, he poured water into a Bason, says the text: Aqua spiritus sanctus, pelvis Ecclesia,; These preparatory waters are the gift of the holy Ghost, the working of his grace in repentance; but pelvis Ecclesia, the bason is the Church; that is, these graces are distributed, and dispensed to us, in his institution, and ordinance in the Church: No Man can wash himself at first, by Baptism; no Man can baptize himself; no Man can wash in the second liquor, no Man, (that is but a Man) can administer the other Sacrament to himself: Pelvis ecclesia, the Church is the bason, and Gods Minister in the Church, washes in both these cases. And, in this ablutione pedum, in the preparatory washing of our feet, by a survey of all our sinful actions and repentance of them, no Man can absolve himself, but pelvis ecclesia, the bason of this water of absolution, is in the Church and in the Minister thereof.

First then this washing of the feet, which prepares us for the great washing, in the blood of Christ, requires a stripping of them, a laying of them naked; covering of the feet in the Scriptures, is a phrase, that denotes a foul, and an unclean action; Saul was said to cover his feet, in the Cave, and Eglon was said to cover his feet in his Parler; and we know the unclean action, that is intended here: but for this clean action, for washing our feet, we must discover all our sinful steps, in a free and open confession to almighty God. This may be that which Solomon calls, sound wisdom; My son keep sound wisdom, and discretion. There is not a more silly folly, then to think to hide any sinful action from God. Nor sounder wisdom then to discover them to him, by an humble, and penitent confession; This is sound wisdom, and then, discretion is, to wash, and discern, and debate, and examine all our future actions, and all the circumstances, that by this spirit of discretion we may see, where the sting, and venom of every particular action lies: My son keep sound wisdom, and discretion, says he, And then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble; If thy discretion be not strong enough, (if thou canst not always discern, what is, and what is not sin) he shall give his Angells charge over thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone; and that's good security; and if all these fail, though thou do fall, thou shalt not be utterly cast down, for the Lord shall uphold thee with his hand, says David; God shall give that Man, that loves this found wisdom, (humble confession of sins past) this spiritual discretion, the spirit of discerning spirits, that is, power to discern a temptation, and to overcome it; confess that which is past with true sorrow, that is sound wisdom, and God shall enlighten thee for the future, and that's holy discretion.

The washing of our feet then, being a clean, and pure and sincere examination of all our actions, we are to wash all the instruments of our actions, in repentance; Lavanda facies, we are to wash our face, as Joseph did, after he had wept, before he looked upon his brethren again: If we have murmured, and mourned, for any cross, that God hath laid upon us, we must return to a cheerful countenance towards him, in embracing whatsoever he found best for us; we must wash our Intestina, our bowels, (as it is after commanded in the law) when our bowels, which should melt at the relation, and contemplation, and application of the passion of our Savior, do melt at the apprehension, or expectation, or fruition of any sinful delight, Lavanda intestina, we must wash those bowels▪ Lavanda vestimenta, we must wash our clothes; when we apparel and palliate our sins with excuses, of our own infirmity, or of the example of greater Men, these clothes must be washed, these excuses; Lavanda currus & arma, as Ahabs chariot and armor were washed; If the power of our birth or of our place, or of our favor, have armed us against the power of the law, or against the clamor of Men justly incensed, Lavandi currus, these chariots, and armes, this greatness must be washed; Lavanda retia; what Nets soever we have fished with, by what means soever we raise, or sustain our fortune, Lavanda retia, These nets must be washed. Saint Bernard hath drawn a great deal of this heavenly water together, for the washing of all, when he presents, (as he calls it) Martyrium, sine sanguine, triplex, a threefold Martyrdom, & all without blood; and that is, Largitas in paupertate, a bountiful disposition, even in a low fortune; parcitas in ubertate, a frugal disposition in a full fortune; and Castitas in Iuventute, a pure, and chaste disposition, in the years, and places of temptation. These are Martyrdoms, without blood, but not without the water that washes our feet; This is sound wisdom, and discretion, to strip, and lay open our feet, our sinful actions, by Confession; To cover them, and wrap them up by precaution, from new uncleanness; and then to tye and bind up all safe, by participation of the blood of Christ Jesus, in the Sacrament; for that's the seal of all; And Christ in the washing of his disciples feet, took a towel to dry them, as well, as water to wash them; so when he hath brought us to this washing of our feet, to a serious consideration of our actions, and to repentant tears, for them, Absterget omnem lachrymam, he will wipe all tears from our eyes; all tears of confusion towards Men, or of diffidence towards him; Absterget omnem lachrymam, and deliver us over to a settled peace of conscience.

There is a washing then, absolutely, generally necessary, the water of Baptism; and a washing occasionally necessary, because we fall into actual sins, the blood of our Savior in the Sacrament; and there is a washing between these, preparatory to the last washing, the water of Contrite, and repentant tears, in opening our selves to God, and shutting up of our selves against future temptations: of the two first, the two Sacraments, sons in Ecclesia, the whole spring, and river is in the Church, there is no baptism, no blood of Christ, but in the Church; And of this later, which is most properly ablutio pedum, the washing of the feet, that is, tears shed in repentance of our sinful lives, of this water, there is Pelvis in Ecclesia, the Bason is in the Church; for our best repentance (though this repentance be at home in our own hearts) doth yet receive a Seal, from the absolution of Gods Ministers in the Church. But yet though there be no cleansing, but from the spirit of God, no ordinary working of Gods spirit, but in the Church, and his ordinances there, yet we our selves are not so left out, in this work, but that the spouse here, and every careful soul here says, truly, Ego lavi, I my self have washed my feet; which is our third branch.

It is said often in Philosophy, Nihil in intellectu, quod non prius in sensu; till some sense apprehend a thing, the Iudgment cannot debate it, nor discourse it; It may well be said in Divinity too, Nihil in gratia, quod non prius in natura, there is nothing in grace, that was not first in nature, so far, as that grace always finds nature, and natural faculties to work on; though that nature be not disposed to the receiving of grace, when it comes, yet that nature, and those faculties, which may be so disposed by grace, are there, before that grace comes. And the grace of God doth not work this cleansing, but where there is a sweet, and souple, and tractable, and ductile disposition wrought in that soul. This disposition is no cause why God gives his grace; for there is no cause, but his own meer, and unmeasurable goodness; But yet, without such a disposition, God would not give that; and therefore let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness, says the Apostle; There is something, which we ourselves may do. A Man that had poured out himself in a vehement, and corrupt solicitation of the chastity of any woman, if he found himself surprized by the presence of a husband, or a father, he could give over in the midst of a protestation; A Man that had set one foot into a house of dangerous provocations, if he saw a of the plague, upon the door, he could go back; A Man that had drawn his sword to rob a passenger, if he saw a hue and cry come, could give over that; and all this is upon the Ego lavi, I have washed; without use of grace, his own natural reason declines him from that sin then. How long shall we make this bad use, of this true doctrine, that, because we cannot do enough, for our salvation, therefore we will do nothing? Shall I see any Man shut out of heaven, that did what he could upon earth? Thou that canst mourne for any worldly loss, mourne for thy sin; Thou that lovest meetings of company for society, and conversation, love the meeting of the Saints of God, in the Congregation, and communion of Saints; Thou that lovest the Rhetorique, the Music, the wit, the sharpness, the eloquence, the elegancy, of other authors, love even those things in the Scriptures, in the word of God, where they abound more, then in other authors. Put but thy affections out of their ordinary sinful way, and then Lavasti pedes, thou hast washed thy feet; and God will take thy work in hand, and raise a building far beyond the compass, and comprehension of thy foundation; that which the soul began, but in good nature, shall be perfected in grace.

But do it quickly; for the glory of this soul here was in the Lavi; It is not Lavabo; that she had already; not that she would wash her feet; since thou art come to know thy natural uncleanness, and baptism for that, and thine actual uncleanness; and that for that, there is a River, that brings thee into the main Sea, (the water of repentance leads thee to the bottomelesse Sea of the blood of thy Savior, in the Sacrament) continue not in thy foulness, in confidence that all shall be drowned in that at last, whensoever thou wilt come to it. It was a common, but an erroneous practise, even in the Primitive Church, to defer their baptism, till they were old; because an opinion prevailed upon them, that baptism discharged them of all sins, they used to be baptized then, when they were past sinning, that so they might pass out of this world, in that innocency, which their baptism imprinted in them: And out of this custom; Men grew to be the more careless all their lives, because all was done at once in baptism. But says Saint Augustine in that case, (and it was his own case) It were uncharitably said, Vulneretur amplius, that if we saw a Man welter in his blood, and wounded in divers places, it were uncharitably said, Vulneretur amplius, give him two or three wounds more, for the Surgeon is not come yet; It is uncharitably said to thine own soul, Vulneretur amplius, take thy pleasure in sin yet, when I come to receive the Sacrament, I will repent altogether, do not think to put off all to the washing week; all thy sins, all thy repentance, to Easter, and the Sacrament then; There may be a washing then, and no drying; thou mayst come to weep the tears of desperation, to seek mercy with tears, and not find it; tears for worldly losses, tears for sin, tears for bodily anguish, may overflow thee then; and whereas Gods goodness to those, that are his, is, ut abstergat omnem Lachrymam, to wipe all tears from their eyes; absterget nullam Lachrymam, he may leave all unwiped upon thee, he may leave thy soul to sink, and to shipwreck, under this tempest, and inundation, and current of divers tides; tears of all kinds, and ease of none: for those of whom it is said, Deus absterget omnem lachrymam, God shall wipe all tears from their eyes, are they Qui laverunt Stolas, (as we see there) who have already washed their long robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lambe: who have already by tears of repentance, become worthy receivers of the seal of reconciliation, in the Sacrament of his body, and blood; To them, God shall wipe all tears from their eyes; but to the unrepentant sinner, he shall multiply tears; from tears, for the loss, of a horse, or of a house, to tears for the loss of a soul, and wipe no tear from his eyes.

But yet though this Lavi, exclude the Lavabo, as it is dilatory, that is, I will wash, but not yet, yet it excludes not the Lavabo, I will wash, as it is an often washing; I must come to that, Lavi, I have washed, but yet I will wash again: for till our feet be so washed, as that they be wrapped up in our last linen, and so raised from the ground, as that they be laid upon other Mens shoulders, our feet will touch the ground again and need new washing. When Christ washed his disciples feet, there is agreat difference amongst the Fathers, where he began, whose feet he washed first: Saint Augustine, and Saint Bernard think he began with Peter; they think Christ respected the dignity of his person: origen, and Chrysostom think he began with Judas; they think Christ respected the necessity of the Patient, and applied the Physic soonest, where the disease was most malignant, and venemous. None of them say he began with John, whom it is clear he loved most. If any soul have apprehended that Christ came late to her washing, not till now, let her not argue, to her own danger, that he loved her the less for that: if he have suffered sin to abound, that grace might abound, what Patient shall dare to appoint, that Physician his Dosis, or his times; whomsoever he washed first of his Apostles, he washed them all; and to him that was forwardest ever in his own strength, to Peter, he said, Non habebis partem, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me; If we come not to this washing of our feet, this preparatory washing by tears of repentance, we can have no part in him, that is, in the participation of his body, and his blood; but when he hath brought us to this Jordan, which is Fluvius Iudicii, the water of Judgment, and that we have judged, and condemned our selves of this Leprosy of sin, Lavemur septies, let us often call our selves to account, implore the council often, often accept the absolution of Gods Minister, and often settle our souls, in a true peace, by a worthy receiving of the seal thereof, in the Sacrament: And as in that we come to the Lavi, (a peaceful testimony, that we have washed our consciences) so let us pursue it with a Lavabo, with an humble acknowledgment, that we fall every day, and every day need a new washing; for as from poor tenants, Landlords are not content to receive their rent at the years end, but quarterly, or in shorter terms, so from such beggarly and bankrupt souls as ours are, God is not content with an anniversary repentance once a year, at Easter; but we shall find our rent, our payment heavy enough, if we pay every day, and wash our feet every night, for the uncleannesses of that one day.

To shut up this part then; This washing of the feet, is the spirit of discerning, and censuring particular actions: but it is pedes meos, a discerning, and censuring of my actions, not only, or not principally the actions of other Men; Quàm speciosi pedes Evangelizantium, how beautiful are the feet of them, that preach peace, says Saint Paul, out of the mouth of two witnesses, two Prophets, that had said so before. If we will preach peace, that is, relieve the consciences of others, by presenting them their sins, we must have speciosos pedes, clean ways, and a clean life of our own; so it is with us, and our profession; But Gens sancta, regale Sarcerdotium, as the Apostle joins them, If you be a holy people, you are also a royal preisthood; If you be all Gods Saints, you are all Gods Preists; and if you be his preists, it is your office to preach too; as we by words, you by your holy works; as we by contemplation, you by conversation; as we by our doctrine, so you by your lives, are appointed by God to preach to one another: and therefore every particular Man, must wash his own, feet, look that he have speciosos pedes, that his example may preach to others, for this is truly Regale Sacerdotium, a regal preisthood, not to work upon others by words, but by actions. If we love one another, as Christ loved us, we must wash one another's feet, as he commanded his Apostles; There is a preistly duty lies upon every Man, brotherly to reprehend a brother, whom he sees trampling in foul ways, wallowing in foul sins; but I may preach to others and be my self a reprobate (as Saint Paul speaks with terror to Men of our coat) in his own person, I may bring others to heaven, and be shut out my self; And thou mayst preach that a Man should not steal, and steal, That a Man should not commit adultery, and commit it; And in these cases, Non speciosi pedes, here are no clean, no faire feet, and therefore no edifying. Nay if, in either kind, we, or you, abhor Idols, and yet commit sacrilege, that is, reprehend a sin in another, which we are free from our selves, but yet are guilty our selves, of another sin as great, here's no clean feet no profitable preaching; And therefore the only way to do God service, is, to wash and to censure the feet, (that is, particular actions) but principally, our own feet, that which we do our selves.

There remains yet a second part: and perchance but a little time for it; and I shall proportion, and fit my self to it. It is, That as this soul had a Resurrection, she hath an Ascension; As she had vocem gratulantis, a thanksgiving, that she hath washed her feet, so she hath vocem indignantis, a religious scorn and indignation, to fall into those foul ways again. For this holy indignation, is one link in the Apostles chain of Repentance, where, upon Godly sorrow, depends care, and upon that, cleansing of our selves, and upon that indignation, and so fear, and so desire, and so zeal, and so punishments of our selves: every link worthy of a longer consideration; but here we consider only this indignation; when that soul that is washed, and thereby sees, to what a faire conformity with her Savior she is come, is come also to a scorn, to a disdain to compare any beauty in this world, to that face, which Angells desire to look upon; any nearness to great persons in this world, to the following of the Lambe wheresoever he goes; any riches of this world, to that riches wherewith the poverty of Christ Jesus hath made us rich; any length of life in this world, to that union which we shall have, to the Antient of days; where even the everliving God, shall not overlive us, but carry out our days to the unmeasured measure of his own, to eternity. This indignation, this soul expresses here, in this question, Quomodo, how shall I defile them? First then, this voice of indignation, hath this force; Quomodo, how shall I defile them, is, how is it possible, that I should defile them? I have washed my feet, repented my sins and taken the seal of my Reconciliation, the Sacrament, and that hath this effect, ut sensum minuat in minimis, & toliat consensum in magnis peccatis, That grace, that God gives in the Sacrament, makes us less sensible of small temptations, (they move us not) and it makes us resist, and not yeild to the greatest temptations; since I am in this state, Quomodo inquinubo? How shall I defile them? The difference will be, of whom thou askest this question: If thou ask the world, the world will tell thee, well enough. Quomodo, How; It will tell thee, that it is a Melancholy thing, to sit thinking upon thy sins; That it is an unsociable thing, to seek him, who cannot be seen, an invisible God; That it is poor company, to pass thy time with a Priest; Thou maiest defile thy self again, by forgetting thy sins, and so doing them over again: And thou mayst defile thy self again by remembering thy sins, and so sin over thy sins again, in a sinful delight of thy passed sins, and a desire that thou couldst commit them again. There are answers enough to this Quomodo, How, how should I defile them, if thou ask the world: but ask thy Savior, and he shall tell thee, That whosoever hath this water, shall never thirst more, but that water shall be in him an everlasting spring; that is, he shall find means to keep himself in that cleanness, to which he is come; and neither things present, nor things to come shall separate him from the love of God.

Thus the voice of this religious indignation, Quomodo, is, how is it possible, but it is also, Quomodo, how, that is, why should I? The first is, how should I be so base, the other, how should I be so bold? Though I have my pardon, written in the blood of my Savior; sealed to me in his Sacrament, brought home to me in the testimony of the holy Ghost, pleaded for me, at the tribunal of the Father, yet as Princes pardons have, so Gods pardons have too, this clause, It a quod se bene gerat; He that is pardoned must continue of good behavior; for whensoever he breaks the peace, he forfeits his pardon; When I return to my repented sins again, I am under the burden of all my former sins, and my very repentance, contracts the nature of a sin: and therefore Quomodo, how should I, that is, why should I defile them? To restore you to your liberty, and to send you away with the meditation, which concerns you most, consider, what an astonishment this would be, that when Christ Jesus shall lay open the great volumes of all your sins, to your sight, who had forgot them, and to their sight, from whom you had disguised them, at the last judgement, when you shall hear all the wantonnesses of your youth, all the Ambitions of your middle years, all the covetous desires of your age, published in that presence, and think then, this is the worst that can be said, or laid to my charge, this is the last indictment, and the last evidence, there shall follow your very repentances in the list of your sins, and it shall be told you, and all the world then, Here, and here you deluded that God, that forbore to inflict his Judgements, upon new vows, new contracts, new promises, between you and him; even your repentances shall bind up that book, and tye your old sins, and new relapses into one body. And let this meditation bring you ad vocem gratulantis, to rejoice once again in this Lavi pedes, that you have now washed your feet, in a present sorrow, and ad vocem indignantis, to a stronger indignation, and faster resolution, then heretofore you have had, never to defile them again.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon IX.

MICAH 2. 10. Arise and depart, for this is not your Rest.

Preached at a Churching.

ALL that God asks of us, is, that we love him with all our heart: All that he promises us, is, that he will give us rest, round about us; Judah sought the Lord with a whole desire, and he gave her rest, round about her. Now a Man might think himself well disposed for Rest, when he lies down, I will lay me down, and sleep in peace, says David; but it is otherwise here; Arise, and depart; for here, (that is, in lying, and sleeping) is not your Rest, says this Prophet. These words have a three-fold acceptation, and admit a three-fold exposition; for, first, they are a Commination, the Prophet threatens the Jews; Secondly, they are a Commonition, the Prophet instructs all future ages; Thirdly, they are a Consolation, which hath reference to the Consummation of all, to the rising at the general Judgement. First, he foretels the Jews of their imminent captivity; Howsoever you build upon the pactum salis, the Covenant of salt, the everlasting Covenant, that God will be your God, and this land your land, yet since that confidence sears you up in your sins, Arise and depart, for this is not your rest, your Jerusalem must be changed into Babylon; there's the Commination: Secondly, he warns us, who are bedded and bedrid in our sins; howsoever you say to your selves, Soul take thy rest, enjoy the honors, the pleasures, the abundances of this world, Tush the Lord sees it not, The Master will not come, we may ly still safely, and rest in the fruition of this Happiness, yet this Rest will betray you, this rest will deliver you over to eternal disquiet: And therefore arise and depart, for this is not your Rest, and that's the Commonition. And in the third acceptation of the words as they may have relation to the Resurrection, they may well admit a little inversion; Howsoever you feel a Resurrection by grace from the works of death, and darkness in this life, yet in this life, there is no assuredness, that he that is risen, and thinks he stands, shall not fall; here you arise and depart, that is, rise from your sins, and depart from your sinful purposes, but you arise, and depart so too, that you fall, and depart again into your sinful purposes, after you have risen; and therefore Depart and arise, for here is not your rest; till you depart altogether out of this world, and rise to Judgement, you can have no such rest, as can admit no disquiet no perturbation; but then you shall; and that's the Consolation.

First then, as the words concern the Jews; Here is first an increpation, a rebuke, that they are fallen from their station, and their dignity, implied in the first word, Arise, for then they were fallen; Secondly, here is a demonstration in the same word, That though they liked that state into which they were fallen, which was a security, and stubbornness in their sins, yet they should not enjoy even that security, and that stubbornness, that fall of theirs, but they should lose that; though it were but a false contentment, yet they should be rous'd out of that, Arise; first arise, because you are fallen, and then, arise, though you think your selves at ease by that fall. And then thirdly, here is a continuation of Gods anger, when they are risen; for they are not raised to their former state and dignity, from which they were fallen, they are not raised to be established, but it is arise, and depart; And in all this (which is a fourth Consideration) God precludes them from any hope by solicitation, he reveals his purpose his Decree, and consequently his inexorableness evidently, in that word, for; never murmur, never dispute, never entreat, you must depart, For it is determined, it is resolved, and here is not your Rest; In which also the Commination is yet more and more aggravated; first, in that they lose their Rest, which God hath sold them so dearly, by so many battles, and so many afflictions, and which God had sworn to them so solemnly by so many ratifications; they must lose their Rest, they must have no Rest, Here; not there; not in the Land of Promise it self; And then lastly, as they are denied all rest there; There, where was the womb, and Center of their Rest, so there is no intimation, no hope given, that they should have rest any where else, for as they were to rise, only to depart, so they were to depart into Captivity.

The first is an increpation, they were fallen; but from whence? It was once said, Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat, but he that is earth it self, whither can he fall? whither can Man, derived from earth before his life, enamored of the earth, embracing it, and married to it in his life, destined to the earth, betrothed to it for a second marriage after this life, whither can he fall? It is true of us all, I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my Mother, and my sister; and can we fall into worse company, contract an alliance with a more base, and beggarly kindred then this? Not if we were left there; then we could not: but when we consider a nation, of whom God hath said, sponsabo te mihi, I will mary thee, without any respect of disparagement in thy lowness, I will not refuse thee for it, I will not upbraid thee with it, I will mary thee for ever, and without any purpose of divorce (sponsabo in aeternum,) of this nation thus assumed, thus contracted, thus endowed, thus assured, why may not we wonder as vehemently, as the Prophet did, of the fallen Angels, Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer filius Orientis, how did this nation fall out of Gods armes, out of Gods bosom? Himself tells us how; what he had done to exalt them, what they had done to divest his favours: for their natural lownes, he says, In thy nativity when thou wast born, thy Navel was not cut, thou wast not washed, thou wast not salted, thou wast not swadled; No eye pitied thee, but thou wast cast into the open fields in contempt, I passed by, and saw thee in thy blood, and said thou shalt live; I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine; I washed thee, anointed thee, and adorned thee: and thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I set upon thee; well then, in this state, Quomodo cecidisti de caelo; how fell she out of Gods armes, out of his bosom? thus; Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, because of thy renown, and so playedst the harlor. When that nation was in massa damnata, a loaf of Adams dow, through all which the infectious leaven of sin had passed without difference, when that nation had no more title, nor pretence to Gods mercy, then any of their fellow worms, when God had heaped, and accumulated his tempor all blessings upon them, and above all, dwelt with them, in the alliance, and in the familiarity of a particular Religion, which contracted God and them, and left out all the world beside, when God had imprinted this beauty in them, and that they had a renown, and reputation for that, they trusted to their own beauty, (to worship whom they would, and how they would) they followed their own invention; yea they trusted in beauty, which was not their own, in borrowed beauty, in painted beauty, and so took in, and applied themselves to all the spiritual fornications, to all the Idolatries of the nations about them; some that were too absurd to be hearkened to; some too obscene, and foul to be named now by us, though the Prophets, (to their farther reproach, and confusion) have named them; some, too ridiculous to fall into any Mans consideration, that could seriously think of a Majesty, in a God, which should be worshipped; yet all these, absurd, and obscene, and ridiculous Idolatries, they prostituted them selves unto.

Take them in their lowness, for any disposition towards the next world, and this was their state, Their navel was not cut; that is, they were still incorporated into their mother, to earth, and to sin; and they were not one step higher, then all the world beside, in Iacobs ladder, whose top is in heaven. Take them in their dignity in this world, and then we find them in Egypt, where they were not Personae, but Res, they were not their Masters Men, but their Masters goods; they were their cattle, to vex, and wear out, with their labours spent upon the delights of others; They must go far for straw; a great labor, for a little matter; and they must burn it, when they had brought it; they must make brick, but others must build houses, with their materials, and they perish in the fields; they must beget children, but only for the slaughter, and to be murdered as soon as were born; what nation, what Man, what beast, what worm, what weed, if it could have understood their state, would have changed with them then?

This was their dejection, their exinanition in Egypt, if we shall begin there to consider, what he did for them: As after, in the Christian Church, he made the blood of the Martyrs, the seed of the Church, so in Egypt, he propagated, and multiplied his Children, in the midst of their cruel oppressions, and slaughters, as though their blood had been seed to increase by; under the weight of their depressions, he gave them growth, and stature, and strength, as though their wounds had been playsters, and their vexations cordials; when he had made Egypt as a Hell, by kindling all his plagues, in her bosom, yet Non dereliquit in Inferno, he left not his beloved in this Hell, he paled in a Paradise in this Hell, a Goshen in Egypt, and gave his servants security; briefly, those whom the sword should have lessened, whom labor should have creepled, whom contempt should have beggered, he brought out, numerous, and in multitudes, strong, and in courage, rich, and in abundance; and he opened the Red-sea, as he should have opened the book of life, to show them their Names, their security, and he shut the sea, as that book, upon the Egyptians, to show them their irrecoverable exclusion. If we consider, what he did for them, what he suffered from them, in their way, the battles, that he fought for them, in an out-stretched arm, the battles, that they fought against him, in the stiffness of their necks, and their murmuring, we must, to their confusion, acknowledge, that at a great deal a less price, then he paid for them, he might have gained all the people of the earth; all the Nations of the earth, (in appearance) would have come in to his subjection, upon the thousand part of that which he did for the Israelites in their way. But for that which he did for them, at home, when he had planted them in the Land of Promise, as it were an ungrateful thing, not to remember those blessings, so it is some degree of ingratitude, to think them possible to be numbered. Consider the narrowness of the Land, (scarce equal to three of our shires) and their innumerable armies; consider the barrenness of many parts of that Country, and their innumerable sacrifices of Cattle; consider their little trade, in respect, and their innumerable treasures; but consider especially, what God had done for their souls, in promising, and ratifying so often a Messiah unto them, and giving them Law and Prophers, in the mean time, and there you see their true height; and then consider the abominations, and Idolatries, in which they had plunged, and buried themselves, and there you see their lowness, how far they were fallen.

This then was their descent; and as Saint Paul says (when he describes this descent of the Jews, into all manner of abominations) one step of this stayre, of this descent, is, unnatural affection, they were unnatural to themselves; that is, not sensible of their own misery, but were proud of their fall, and thought themselves at ease in their ruin; and another stayre in this fall is, that God had delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to suffer them to think so still. And then for their farther vexation, God would take from them, even that false, that imaginary comfort of theirs. Surgite, says God, since you have made that perverse shift, to take comfort in your fall, Arise from that, from that security, from that stupidity, for you shall not choose but see your misery; when all the people were descended to that baseness, (as nothing is more base, then to court the world, and the Devil, for poor and wretched delights, when we may have plentiful, and rich abundance in our confidence in God) when the people were all of one mind, and one voice, omnes unius labii, their hearts, and tongues spoke all one language, and, (populus tanto deterior, quanto in deterioribus concors, Men are the worse, the more they are, and the more unanime, and constant they are in ill purposes) when they were all come to that Venite comburamus, Come, and let us burn brick, and trust in our own work, and Venite, aedificemus, Come, and let us build a tower, and provide a safety for our selves; since they would descend from their dignity, (which dignity consists in the service of God, whose service is perfect freedom) God would descend with them, Venite descendamus, says God; but what to do? Descendamus, ut confundamus, let us go down to confound their language, and to scatter them upon the earth. Ascensio mendax, descensio crudelis, says holy Bernard, A false ascending, is a cruel descending: when we lye weltering in our blood, secure in our sins, and can flatter our selves, that we are well, and where we would be, this deceitful ascension, is a cruel descent into hell; we lye still, we feel no pain, but it is because we have broke our necks; we do not groan, we do not sigh, but it is, because our breath is gone, the spirit of God is departed from us. They were descended to a flatness of taste, Egyptian Onions had a better savor, then the Manna of heaven; They were descended to a new-fangledness in Civil government, they liked the form of government amongst their neighbours, better then that of Iudges, which God had established for them then; They were descended to a newfangledness in matter of Religion, to the embracing of a foreign, and a frivolous, and an Idolatrous worship of God: but then being in their descent, when they delighted in it, as Sea-sick men, who had rather be trodden upon, then rise up, then God frustrate that false joy and false ease of theirs, he rouses them from all that, which they had proposed to themselves, Surgite, arise, arise from this security, because you are fallen, you should rise, but because you love your misery, you shall rise, you shall come to a sense, and knowledge of it, you shall not enjoy the ease of an ignorance.

But he raised them not, to reestablish them, to restore them to their former dignity; there was no comfort in that Surgite, which was accompanied with an It, arise and depart: and depart into captivity. If we compare the captivity, which they were going into, (that of Babylon) with the other bondage, which they had been delivered from, (that of Egypt) it is true, there were many, and real, and important differences. That of Egypt was Ergastulum, a prison; and it was fornax ferrea, an Iron fornace; but in Babylon, they were not slaves, as they were in Egypt, but they were such a kind of prisoners, as only had not liberty, to return to their own country. But yet, if we consider their state in Egypt in their root, in Jacob, and in his sons, they came for food thither in a time of necessity; and consider them in that branch that overshadowed, and refreshed them, in Joseph, he came thither as a bondman, in a servile condition. So that they were but few persons, and not so great, as that their pressures could be aggravated, or taste much more the bitterly, by comparing it, with any greatness which they had before; Though they were fallen into great misery, they were not fallen from any remarkeable greatness. But between the two captivities of Egypt, and Babylon, they were come to that greatness, and reputation, as that they had the testimony of all the world, Only this people is wise, and of understanding, and a great nation. Now wherein? In that which follows; what nation is so great, as to have the Lord come so near unto them; so great, as to have Laws, and Ordinances, so righteous, as they had? Now this peculiar greatness, they lost in this captivity; whether they lost absolutely the books of the Law, or not, and that they were reinspired, and redictated again by the holy Ghost to Esdras, or whether Esdras did but recollect them, and recompile them, Saint Jerome will not determine: He will not say whether Moses, or Esdras, be author of the first five books of the Bible; but it is clear enough, that they were out of that ordinary use wherein they had been before: and though they kept their Circumcision, and their Sabbaths in Babylon, yet being cast thither for their sins, they had lost all ordinary expiations of their sins, for they had no sacrifices there; (as the Jews, which are now in dispersion, are everywhere without their sacrifices) They were to rise, but not to stay, Arise and depart; And they were to depart, both from their Imaginary comforts, which they had framed, and proposed to themselves (when they were fallen from God, they should be deceived in their trust in themselves) and they were to depart even with the law, and ordinances, in which their preeminence, and prerogative above all nations consisted: when Man comes to be content with this world, God will take this world from him: when Man frames to himself imaginary pleasures, God will inflict real punishments; when he would lie still, he shall not sleep; but God will take him and raise him, but to a farther vexation.

And this vexation hath another heavy weight upon it, in this little word, for; for this draws a Curtain between the face of God, and them: this locks a dor between the Court of mercy, and them, when God presents his judgements with such an assuredness, such a resolution, as leaves no hope in their heart, that God will alter it, no power in themselves to solicit God to a pardon, or a reprieve; but as he was led as a fool to the stocks, when he hearkened to pleasant sins before, so he is led as an ox to the slaughters, when he hears of Gods Judgements now; his own Conscience prevents God, and tells him, there is a for, a reason, a necessity, an irrecoverableness in his condemnation. God had iterated, and multiplied this Quia, this for, oftentimes in their ears: This Prophet was no upstart, no sudden, no transitory Man, to pass through the streets with a Vae, Vae, Wo, wo unto this City, and no more; but he prophesied constantly, during the reign of three Kings, of Iotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah: He was no suspicious Man out of his singularity; but he prophesied jointly with Isaiah, without separation, and he held the communion of his fellow-Prophets; He was no particular man, (as many Interpreters have taken it) so, as that he addressed his prophecies upon Judah only; but he extended it to all, to all the Tribes. It is not a prophecy limited to Idolatry, and the sins against the first Table, but to robbery, and murder, and fornication, and oppression, and the sins between Man, and Man: It is not a timorous prophecy, directed only to persons, whom a low fortune, and a miserable estate, or a sense of sin, and a wounded Conscience, had depressed, and dejected, but principally bent upon rulers and Magistrates, and great persons. So that no Man hath a Quia against this Quia, a for against this for, to say, we need not heed him, for he is an upstart, a singular person, and all these his threatnings are rather Satyrical, then Prophetical, or Theological; but this thunderbolt, this Quia, this reason, why these judgements must necessarily fall upon them, fell upon them with so much violence, as that it stupefied with the weight, and precluded all ways of escape. These be the heaviest Texts that a Man can light upon in the Scriptures of God, and these be the heaviest Commentaries, that a Man can make upon these Texts, that when God wakens him and raises him from his dream, and bed of sin, and pleasure, and raises him with the voice of his judgements, he suffers him to read to the Quia, but not to come to the Tamen; He comes to see reason why that Judgement must fall, but not to see any remedy. His inordinate Melancholy, and half desperate sadness carries his eye, and mind upon a hundred places of Commination, of threatening in the Prophets, and in them all he finds quickly that Quia, This curse must fall upon me, for I am fallen into it; but he comes not to the Tamen, to that relief, yet turn to the Lord, and he will turn to thee. This was a particular step in their misery, that when they were awaked, and risen, that is, taken away from all taste, and comfort, in their own imaginations, and pleasures, when God was ready to give fire to all that artillery, which he had charged against them, in the service of all the Prophets, they could see no refuge, no sanctuary, nothing but a quia, an irresistibleness, an irremediableness, a necessity of perishing; a great while there was no such thing, as Judgement, (God cannot see us) Now, there is no such thing as Mercy, (God will not see us.)

What then is this heavy Judgement, that is threatened. It is the deprivation of Rest. Though there be no war, no pestilence, no new positive calamity, yet privative calamities are heavy Judgements; to lose that Gospel, that Religion, which they had, is a heavy loss; Deprivations are heavy Calamities; and here they are deprived of Rest; Here is not your Rest: Now, besides that betwixt us and heaven, there is nothing that rests, (all the Elements, all the planets, all the spheres are in perpetual motion, and vicisitude) and so the Joys of heaven are expressed unto us, in that name of Rest; Certainly this blessing of Rest was more precious, more acceptable to the Jews, then to any other Nation; and so they more sensible of the loss of it, then any other. For as Gods first promise, and the often ratification of it, had ever accustomed them to a longing for that promised rest, as their long, and laborious peregrinations, had made them ambitious, and hungry of that Rest, so had they (which no other Nation had but they) a particular feast of a Sabhath, appointed for them, both for a all cessation and rest from bodily labours, and for a figurative expressing of the eternal Rest, their imagination, their understanding, their faith, was filled with this apprehension of Rest. When the contentment and satisfaction, which God took in a, after he came out of the Ark, is expressed, it is expressed thus, The Lord, a savor of Rest; our services to God, are a Rest to him; he rests in our devotions; And when the Idolatrous service, and forbidden sacrifices of the people are expressed, they are expressed thus, When I had brought them into the Land, Posuerunt ibi odorem quieturn suarum, they placed there the sweet savors of their own Rest; not of Gods Rest, (his true Religion) but their own Rest, a Religion, which they, for collaterll respects, rested in. And therefore when God threatens here, that there shall be no rest, that is, none of his rest, he would take from them their Law, their Sacrifices, their Religion, in which he was pleased, and rested gracious towards them, he will change their Religion: And when he says, Here is not your Rest, he threatens to take from them, that Rest, that Peace, that Quiet which they had proposed, and imagined to themselves; when they say to themselves, Why, 'tis no great matter; we may do well enough for all that, though our Religion be changed; he will impoverish them, he will disarm them, he will infatuate them, he will make them a prey to their enemies, & take away all true, and all imaginary rest too.

Briefly, it is the mark of all men, even natural men, Rest: for though Tertullian condemn that, to call Quietis Magisterium Sapientiam, The act of being, and living at quiet, wisdom, therein seeming to exclude all wisdom, that conduces not to rest, as though there were no wisdom, in action, and in business; Though in the person of Epicurus he condemn that, and that saying, Nemo alii nascitur, moriturus sibi, It is no reason, that any Man should think himself born for others, since he cannot live to himself, or to labor for others, since himself cannot enjoy rest, yet Tertullian leaving the Epicures, that placed felicity in a stupid, and unsociable retiring, says in his own person, and in his own opinion, almost as much, Vnicum mihi negotium, nec aliud curo, quam ne curem, All that I care for, is that I might care for nothing; and so, even Tertullian, in his Christian Philosophy, places happiness in rest; Now, he speaks not only of the things of this world, they must necessarily be cared for, in their proportion; we must not decline the businesses of this life, and the offices of society, out of an aëry, and imaginary affection of rest: our principal rest is, in the testimony of our Conscience, and in doing that which we were sent to do; And to have a Rest, and peace, in a Conscience of having done that religiously, and acceptably to God, is our true Rest: and this was the rest, which the Jews were to lose in this place, the testimony of their consciences, that they had performed their part, their Conditions, so, that they might rely upon Gods promises, of a perpetual rest in the Land of Canaan; and that rest they could not have; not that peaceful testimony of their Consciences.

They could not have that rest, no Rest, not there, not in Canaan; which was the highest degree of the misery, because they were confident in their term, their state in that Land, that it should be perpetual; and they were confident in the goodness of the Land, that it should evermore give them all conveniencies in abundance, conducing to all kind of rest: for, this Land, God himself calls by the name of rest, and of his rest; I sware they should not enter into my rest; So that, rest was proper to this Land, and this Land was proper to them. For, (as St. Augustine notes well) though God recovered this Land for them, and reestablished miraculously their possession, yet they came but in their Remitter, and in postliminio, the inheritance of that Land, was theirs before: for, Sem the son of Neah, was in possession of this Land; and the sons of Cham, the Canaanites, expelled his race out of it; and Abraham of the race of Sem, was restored unto it again: So that, as the goodness of the Land promised rest, so the goodness of the title promised them the Land; and yet they might have no rest there.

They had a better title then that; Those often oaths, which God had sworn unto them, that that land should be theirs forever, was their evidence; If then that land were Requies Domini, the rest of the Lord, that is, the best, and the safest Rest, and that land were their land, why should they not have that rest here, when the Lord had sworn they should? Why, because he swore the contrary after; but will God swear contrary things? why, solus securus jurat, qui falli non potest, says Saint Augustine, only he can swear a thing safely, that sees all circumstances, and foresees all occurrances; only God can swear safely, because nothing can be hid from him. God therefore that knew upon what conditions he had taken the first oath, and knew again how contemptuously those conditions were broken, he takes knowledge that he had sworn, he denies not that, but he swears again, and in his anger, I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. Those Men (says he) which have seen my glory and my Miracles, and have tempted me tenne times, and not obeyed my voice, certainly they shall not see the land whereof I sware unto their fathers; neither shall any that provoke me see it; He pleads not Non est factum, but he pleads conditions performed; he denies not that he swore but he justifies himself, that he had done as much as he promised; for his promise was conditional. The Apostle seems to assign but one reason of their exclusion, from this Land, and from this rest, and yet he expresses that one Reason so, as that it hath two branches; He says, we see that they could not enter, because of unbeleef and yet he asks the question; To whom sware he, that they should not enter into his Rest, but unto them, that obeyed not? Vnbeleef is assigned for the cause, and yet they were shut out for disobedience; now, if the Apostle make it all one, whether want of faith, or want of works, exclude us from the Land of Rest, let not us be too curious enquirers, whether faith or works bring us thither; for neither faith, nor works bring us thither, as a full cause; but if we consider mediate causes, so they may be both causes; faith, instrumental, works, declaratory; faith may be as evidence, works as the scale of it; but the cause is only, the free election of God. Nor ever shall we come thither, if we leave out either; we shall meet as many Men in heaven, that have lived without faith, as without works.

This then was the case; God had sworn to them an inheritance permanently there, but upon condition of their obedience; If they had not had a privity in the condition, if they had not had a possibility to perform the condition, their exclusion might haveseemed unjust: and it had been so; for though God might justly have forborne the promise, yet he could not justly break the promise, if they had kept the conditions; therefore he expressed the condition without any disguise, at first, If thy heart turn away,I pronounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish you shall not prolong your days in the land. And then, when those conditions were made, and made known, and made easy, and accepted, when they so rebelliously broke all conditions, his first oath lay not in his way, to stop him from the second, As I live, saith the Lord, I will surely bring mine oath that they have broken, and my covenant that they have despised upon their head, shall they break my covenant, and he delivered, says God there. God confesses the oath and the covenant, to be his covenant and his oath, but the breach of the oath, and covenant, was theirs, and not his.

He expresses his promise to them, and his departing from them together, in another Propher; God says to the Propher, Buy thee a girdle, bury it in the ground, and fetch it again; And then it was rotten, and good for nothing: for says he, as the girdle cleaveth to the loins, so have I tied to me the house of Israel, and Judah, that they might be my people, that they might have a name and a praise, and a glory, but they would not hear; Therefore, say unto them, Every bottle shall be filled with wine; (Here was a promise of plenty:) and they shall say unto thee, Do not we know, that every bottle shall be filled with wine(that God is bound to give us this plenty?) because he hath tied himself by oath, and covenunt, and promise.) But behold, I fill all the inhabitants with drunkenness; (since they trust in their plenty, that shall be an occasion of sin to them) and I will dash them against one another, even the father, and sons together; I will not spare, I will not pity, I will not have compassion, but destroy them. God could not promise more, then he did in this place at first; he could not depart farther from that promise, then by their occasion, he came to at last. Gods promise goes no farther with Moses himself; My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest; If we will steal out of Gods presence, into dark and sinful corners, there is no rest promised. Receive my words, says Solomon, and the years of thy life shall be many; Trust in the Lord, says David, and do good, (perform both, stand upon those two legs, faith, and works; not that they are alike; there is a right, and a left legge: but stand upon both; upon one in the sight of God; upon the other in the sight of Man;) Trust in the Lord, and do good, and then shall dwell in the land, and be fed assuredly. That paradise, that peace of Conscience, which God establishes in thee, by faith, hath a condition, of growth, and increase, from faith to faith; heaven it self, in which the Angells were, had a condition; they might, they did fall from thence; The land of Canaan, was their own land, and the rest of that land, their Rest by Gods oath, and covenant; and yet here was not their rest: not here; nor for any thing expressed, or intimated in the word, any where else. Here was a Nunc dimittis, but not in pace; The Lord lets them depart, and makes them depart, but not in peace, for their eyes saw no salvation; they were sent away to a heavy captivity. Beloved, we may have had a Canaan, an inheritance, a comfortable assurance in our bosoms, in our consciences, and yet hear that voice after, that here is not our rest, except, as Gods goodness at first moved him to make one oath unto us, of a conditional rest, as our sins have put God to his second oath, that he sware we should not have his rest, so our repentance bring him to a third oath, as I live I would not the death of a sinner, that so he do not only make a new contract with us, but give us withal an ability, to perform the conditions, which he requires.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon X.

Preached at the Churching of the Countess of Bridgewater. MICAH 2. 10.. [second Sermon.]

THus far we have proceeded in the first acceptation of these words, according to their principal, and literal sense, as they appertained to the Jews, and their state; so they were a Commination; As they appertain to all succeeding Ages, and to us, so they are a Commonition, an alarm, to raise us from the sleep, and death of sin: And then in a third acceptation, they are a Consolation, that at last we shall have a rising, and a departing into such a state, in the Resurrection, as we shall no more need this voice, Arise, and depart, because we shall be no more in danger of falling, no more in danger of departing from the presence, and contemplation; and service, and fruition of God; And in both these latter senses, the words admit a just accommodation to this present occasion, God having raised his honorable servant, and hand-maid here present, to a sense of the Curse, that lyes upon women, for the transgression of the first woman, which is painful, and dangerous Child-birth; and given her also, a sense of the last glorious resurrection, in having raised her, from that Bed of weakness, to the ability of coming into his presence, here in his house.

First then to consider them, in the first of these two latter senses, as a Commonition to them, that are in the state of sin, first there is an increpation implied in this word Arise; when we are bid arise, we are told, that we are fallen: sin is an unworthy descent, and an ignoble fall; Secondly, we are bid to do something, and therefore we are able to do something, God commands nothing impossible so, as that that degree of performance, which he will accept, should be impossible, to the man, whom his grace hath affected; That which God will accept, is possible to the godly; And thirdly, that which he commands here, is derived into two branches; We are bidden to rise that is, to leave our bed, our habit of sin; and then not to be idle, when we are up, but to depart; not only to depart from the Custom, but from temptations of Recidivation; and not only that but to depart into another way, a habit of Actions, contrary to our former Sins. And then, all this is pressed, and urged upon us, by a Reason; The Holy Ghost appears not like a ghost in one sudden glance, or glimmering, but he testifies his presence, and he presses the business, that he comes for; And the reason that he uses here, is, Quia non requies, because otherwise we lose the Pondus animae, the weight, the ballast of our soul, rest, and peace of Conscience: for however there may be some rest, some such show of Rest, as may serve a carnal man a little while, yet, says our Text, it is not your Rest, it conduces not to that Rest, which God hath ordained for you, whom he would direct to a better Rest. That Rest, (your Rest) is not here; not in that, which is spoken of here; not in your lying still, you must rise from it; not in your standing still, you must depart from it; your Rest is not here: but yet, since God sends us away, because our Rest is not here, he does tacitly directs thereby, where there is Rest; And that will be the third acceptation of these words; to which we shall come anon.

For that then, which rises first; the increpation of our fall implied in the word, Arise, there is nothing, in which, that which is the mother of all virtues, discretion, is more tried, then in the conveying, and imprinting profitably a rebuke, an increpation, a knowledge, and sense of sin, in the conscience of another. The rebuke of sin, is like the fishing of Whales; the Mark is great enough; one can scars miss hitting; but if there be not sea room and line enough, & a dexterity in letting out that line, he that hath fixed his harping Iron, in the Whale, endangers himself, and his boat; God hath made us fishers of Men; and when we have struck a Whale, touched the conscience of any person, which thought himself above rebuke, and increpation, it struggles, and strives, and as much as it can, endeavors to draw fishers, and boat, the Man and his fortune into contempt, and danger. But if God tye a sickness, or any other calamity, to the end of the line, that will wind up this Whale again, to the boat, bring back this rebellious sinner better advised, to the mouth of the Minister, for more counsel, and to a better soupleness, and inclinableness to conform himself, to that which he shall after receive from him; only calamity makes way for a rebuke to enter. There was such a tenderness, amongst the orators, which were used to speak in the presence of the people, to the Roman Emperors, (which was a way of Civil preaching) that they durst not tell them then their duties, nor instruct them, what they should do, any other way then by saying, that they had done so before; They had no way to make the Prince wise, and just, and temperate, but by a false praising him, for his former acts of wisdom, and justice, and temperance, which he had never done; and that served to make the people believe, that the Princes were so; and it served to teach the Prince, that he ought to be so. And so, though this were an express, and a direct flattery, yet it was a collateral increpation too; And on the other side, our later times have seen, another art, another invention, another workmanship, that when a great person hath so abused the favor of his Prince, that he hath grown subject to great, and weighty increpations, his own friends have made Libells against him, thereby to lay some light aspersions upon him, that the Prince might think, that this comming with the malice of a Libel, was the worst that could be said of him: and so, as the first way to the Emperors, though it were a direct flattery, yet it was a collater all Increpation too, so this way, though it were a direct increpation, yet it was a collater all flattery too. If I should say of such a congregation as this, with acclamations and shows of much joy, Blessed company, holy congregation, in which there is no pride at all, no vanity at all, no prevarication at all, I could be thought in that, but to convey an increpation, and a rebuke mannerly, in a wish that it were so altogether. If I should say of such a congregation as this, with exclamations and show of much bitterness, that they were sometimes somewhat too worldly in their own business, sometimes somewhat too remisse, in the businesses of the next world, and add no more to it, this were but as a plot, and a faint libelling, a publishing of small sins to keep greater from being talked of: slight increpations are but as whisperings, and work no farther, but to bring men to say, Tush, no body hears it, no body heeds it, we are never the worse, nor never the worse thought of for all that he says. And loud and bitter increpations, are as a trumpet, and work no otherwise, but to bring them to say, Since he hath published all to the world already, since all the world knows of it, the shame is past, and we may go forward in our ways again: Is there then no way to convey an increpation profitably? David could find no way; Vidi praevaricatores & tabescebam, says he, I saw the transgressors, but I languished and consumed away with grief, because they would not keep the law; he could not mend them, and so impaired himself with his compassion: but God hath provided a way here, to convey, to imprint this increpation, this rebuke, sweetly, and succesfully; that is, by way of counsel: by bidding them arise, he chides them them for falling, by presenting the exaltation and exultation of a peaceful conscience, he brings them to a foresight, to what miserable distractions, and distortions of the soul, a habit of sin will bring them to. If you will take knowledge of Gods fearful judgements no other way, but by hearing his mercies preached, his Mercy is new every morning, and his dew falls every evening; and morning, and evening we will preach his mercies unto you. If you will believe a hell no other way, but by hearing the joys of heaven presented to you, you shall hear enough of that; we will receive you in the morning, and dismiss you in the evening, in a religious assurance, in a present inchoation of the joys of heaven. It is Gods way, and we are willing to pursue it; to show you that you are Enemies to Christ, we pray you in Christs stead, that you would be reconciled to him: to show you, that you are fallen, we pray you to arise, and si audieritis, if you hear us so, if any way, any means, convey this rebuke, this sense into you, Si audieritis, lucrati sumus fratrem, If you hear, we have gained a brother; and that's the richest gain, that we can get, if you may get salvation by us.

Gods rebukes and increpations then are sweet, and gentle, to the binding up, not to the scattering of a Conscience; And the particular Rebuke in this place, conveyed by way of counsel, is, That they were fallen; and worse could not be said, how mild, and easy soever the word be. The ruin of the Angels in heaven, the ruin of Adam in Paradise, is still called by that word, it is but the fall of Angels, and the fall of Adam; and yet this fall of Adam cost the blood of Christ, and this blood of Christ, did not rectify the Angels after their fall. Inter objectos, objectissimus peccator; amongst them that are fallen, he falls lowest, that continues in sin: for (says the same Father,) Man is a king in his Creation; he hath that Commission, Subjicite, & dominamini; the world, and himself, (which is a less world, but a greater dominion) are within his Jurisdiction; and then servilly, he submits himself, and all, to that, Qua nihil magis barbarum, then which nothing is more tyrannous, more barbarous. All persons have naturally, all Nations ever had, a detestation of falling into their hands who were more barbarous, more uncivil then themselves, & peccato nihil magis barbarum; (says that Father) sin doth not govern us by a rule, by a Law, but tyrannically, impetuously, and tempestuously; It hath been said of Rome, Romae regulariter malè agitur; There a man may know the price of a sin, before he do it; and he knows what his dispensation will cost; whether he be able to sin at that rate, whether he have wherewithal, that if not, he may take a cheap sin. Thou canst never say that of thy soul, Intus regulariter malè agitur; Thou canst never promise thy self to sin safely, and so to elude the Law, for the Law is in thy heart; nor to sin wisely, and so to escape witnesses, for the testimony is in thy Conscience; nor to sin providently, and thriftily, and cheaply, and compound for the penalty, and stall the fine, for thy soul, that is the price, is indivisible, and perishes entirely, and eternally at one payment, and yet ten thousand thousand times over and over. Thou canst not say: Thou wilt sin, that sin, and no more; or so far in that sin, and no farther; If thou fall from an high place, thou mayst fall through thick clouds, and through moist clouds, but yet through nothing that can sustain thee, but thou fall'st to the earth; If thou fall from the grace of God, thou mayst pass through dark Clouds, oppression of heart, and through moist Clouds, some compunction, some remorseful tears; but yet, (of thy self) thou hast nothing to take hold of, till thou come to that bottom, which will embrace thee cruelly, to the bottomless bottom of Hell it self. Our dignity, and our greatest height, is in our interest in God, and in the world, and in our selves; and we fall from all, either non utendo, or abutendo; either by neglecting God, or by over-valuing the world; our greatest fall of all is, into Idolatry; and yet Idolatry is an ordinary fall; for tot habemus Deas recentes, quot habemus vitia, As many habitual sins as we embrace, so many Idols we worship; If all sins could not be called so, Idols, yet for those sins, which possess us most ordinarily, and most strongly, we have good warrant to call them so; which sins are Licentiousness in our youth, and Covetousness in our age, and voluptuousness in our middle time. For, for Licentiousness, Idolatry, and that, are so often called by one another's names in the Scriptures, as many times we cannot tell, when the Propehts mean spiritual Adultery, and when Carnal; when they mean Idolatry, and when Fornication. For Covetousness, that is expressly called Idolatry by the Apostle: and so is voluptuousness too, in those men, whose belly is their God. We fall then into that desperate precipitation of Idolatry, by lust, when by fornication, we profane the temple of the Holy Ghost, and make even his temple, our bodies, a Stews: And we fall into Idolatry by Covetousness, when we come to be, tam putidi minutíque animi, of so narrow, and contracted a soul; and of so sick, and dead, and buried, and putrefied a soul, as to lock up our soul, in a Cabinet where we lock up our money, to ty our soul in the corner of a handkerchief, where we ty our money, to imprison our soul, in the imprisonment of those things, Quae te ad gloriam abvecturae, the dispensation, and distribution whereof, would carry thy soul to eternal glory. And when by our voluptuousness, we raise the prices of necessary things, Et eorum vulnera, qui à Deo flagris caeduntur, adangemus; and thereby scourge them with deeper lashes of famine, whom God hath scourged with poverty before, we fall into Idolatry by voluptuousness; Numismatis inscriptiones inspicuis, & non Christi in sratre, thou takest a pleasure, to look upon the figures, and Images of Kings in their several coins; and thou despisest thine own Image in thy poor brother, and Gods Image in thy ruinous, and defaced soul, and in his Temple, thy body, demolished by thy Licentiousness, and by all these Idolatries. This is the fall, when we fall so far into those sins, which have naturally a tyranny in them, and that that sin becomes an Idol to us; which fall of ours, God intimates unto us, and rebukes us for, by so mild a way, as to bid us rise from it.

Now when God bids us rise, as the Apostle says, Be not deceived, Non irridetur Deus, God cannot be mocked by any man, so we may boldly say, Be not afraid, Non irridet Deus; God mocks no man; God comes not to a miserable bedrid man, as a man would come in scorn to a prisoner, and bid him shake off his fetters, or to a man in a Consumption, and bid him grow strong; when God bids us arise, he tells us, we are able to rise; God bad Moses go to Pharaoh; Moses said he was Incircumcisus labiis, heavy, and slow of tongue; but he did not deny, but he had a tongue: God bade him go, and I will be with thy mouth, says he; He does not say, I will be thy mouth; but, thou hast a mouth, and I will be with thy Mouth. It was Gods presence, that made that mouth serviceable, and useful, but it was Moses mouth; Moses had a mouth of his own; we have faculties, and powers of our own, to be employed in Gods service. So when God employed Jeremiah, the Prophet says, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child; but God replies, say not thou, I am a child; for whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak: When God bids thee rise from thy sin, say not thou it is too late, or that thou art bedrid in the custom of thy sin, and so canst not rise; when he bids thee rise, he enables thee to rise; and thou mayst rise, by the power of that will which only his mercy, and his grace, hath created in thee; for as God conveys a rebuke in that counsel, Surgite, arise, so he conveys a power in it too; when he bids thee rise, he enables thee to rise.

That which we are to do then, is to rise; to leave our bed, our sleep of Sin. Saint Augustine takes knowledge of three ways, by which he escaped sins; first, occasionis substractione; and that's the safest way, not to come within distance of a temptation; secondly, resistendi data virtute, That the love, and the fear of God, imprinted in him, made him strong enough for the sin; Can I love God, and love this person thus? thus, that my love to it, should draw away my love from God? Can I fear God, and fear any Man, (who can have power but over my body) so, as for fear of him, to renounce my God, or the truth, or my Religion? Or affectionis sanitate, that his affections, had, by a good diet, by a continual feeding upon the Contemplation of God, such a degree of health, and good temper, as that some sins he did naturally detest, and, though he had not wanted opportunity, and had wanted particular grace, yet he had been safe enough from them. But, for this help, this detestation, of some particular sins, that will not hold out; We have seen men infinitely prodigal grow infinitely Covetous at last. For the other way, (the assistance of particular grace) that we must not presume upon; for, he that opens himself to a temptation, upon presumption of grace to preserve him, forfaits by that, even that grace, which he had. And therefore there is no safe way, but occasionis substractio, the forbearing of those places, and that Conversation, which ministers occasion of temptation to us. First therefore, let us find, that we are in our bed, that we are naturally unable to rise; We are not born Noble: Saint Paul considers himself, and his birth, and his Title to grace, at best; That he was a Jew, and of the Tribe of Benjamin, and of holy parents, and within the Covenant; yet all this raised him not out of his bed, for, says he, we were by nature the Children of wrath, as well as others. But where then was the rising? that is, in the true receiving of Christ. To as many as received him, he gave, Potestatem praerogativae, to be the sons of God; yea, power to become the sons of God, as it is in our last Translation. Christianus non de Christiano nascitur, nec facit generatio, sed regeneratio Christianum; A Christian Mother does not conceive a Christian; only the Christian Church conceives Christian Children. Iudaeus circumcisus generat filium incircumcisum, A Jew is circumcised, but his child is born uncircumcised: The Parents may be up, and ready, but their issue abed, and in their blood, till Baptism have washed them, and till the spirit of Regeneration have raised them, from that bed, which the sins of their first Parents have laid them in, and their own continuing sins continued them in. This rising is first, from Original sin, by baptism, and then from actual sin, best, by withdrawing from the occasions of temptation to future sins, after repentance of former.

But it is not, Arise, and stand still: But Surgite, & it, arise, and depart; But whither? Into actions, contrary to those sinful actions, and habits contrary to those habits. Let him that is righteous, be righteous still, and him that is holy, be holy still; and that cannot be, without this; for it is but a small degree of Convalescence, and reparation of health, to be able to rise out of our bed, to be able to forbear sin: Qui febri laborat, post morbum infirmior est; though the fever be off, we are weak after it; though we have left a sin, there is a weakness upon us, that makes us reel, and lean towards that bed, at every turn; decline towards that sin, upon every occasion. And therefore according to that example, and pattern, of Gods proceeding at the creation, who first made all, and then digested, and then perfected them; Primò faciamus, deind venustemus, says Saint Ambrose; first let us make us up a good body, a good habitude, a good constitution, by leaving our beds, our occasions of temptations; and then venustemus, let us dress our selves, adorne our selves, yea, arm our selves, with the whole armor of God, which is faith in Christ Jesus, and a holy and sanctified conversation. Memento peregisse te aliquid, restare aliquid: Remember, (and do not deceive thy self, to remember that, which was never done) but remember truly, that thou hast done something, towards making sure thy salvation already, and that thou hast much more to do; Divertisse te ad Refectionem, non ad defectionem, that God hath given thee a bayting place, a resting place; peace in conscience, for all thy past sins, in thy present repentance; but it is, to refresh thy self with that peace; it is not to take new courage, and strength to sin again. Let not the ease which thou hast found in the remission of sins now embolden thee to commit them again; not to trust to that strength which thou hast already recovered; but arise and depart; avoid old temptations, and apply thy self to a new course in the world, and in a calling; for there may be as much sin, to leave the world, as to cleave to the world: and he may be as inexcusable at the last day, that hath done Nothing in the world, as he that hath done some ill.

Now, we noted it to be a particular degree of Gods mercy, that he insisted upon it, that he pressed it, that he urged it with a reason; do thus, says God, for, it stands thus with you. It is always a boldness, to ask a reason of those decrees of God, which were founded, and established only in his own gracious will, and pleasure; In those cases, Exitiales vaculae, our & quomodo; to ask, why God elected some, and how it can consist with his goodness, to leave out others there the how, and why are dangerous, and deadly Monosyllables. But of Gods particular purposes upon us, and revealed to us, which are so to be wrought and executed upon us, as that we our selves have a fellow-working, and co-operation with God, of those, it becomes us to ask, and to know the reason. When the Angel Gabriel promised such unexpected blessings to Zachary, Zachary asks, whereby shall I know this? and the Angel does not leave him unsatisfied. When that Angel promises a greater miracle to the blessed Virgin Mary, she says also, Quomodo, how shall this be? and the Angel settles, and establishes the assurance in her: Whatsoever we are bid to believe, whatsoever we are bid to do, God affords us a reason for it, and we may try it by reason, but because that sinner, whom in this text, he speaks to, to arise and depart, is likely to stand upon false reasons, against his rising, to murmur, and ask Cur or quomodo, why should I arise, since me thinks I lye at my ease, how shall I arise, that am already at the top of my wishes? God who is loath to lose any soul, that he undertakes, follows him with this reason. Quia non requies, Arise, and depart, for here is not your rest.

Now this rest, is in it self, so grateful, so acceptable a thing, as all the service, which David, and Solomon, could express towards God, in the dedication of the Temple, (which was then in intention, and project) is described in that phrase, Arise O Lord, and come into thy rest, thou and the Ark of thy strength; God himself hath a Sabbath, in our Sabbaths; It is welcome to God, and it is so welcome to Man, as that Saint Augustine preaching upon those words, Qui posuit fines tuos pacem, He maneth peace in thy borders, (as we translate it) he observed such a passion, such an alteration in his auditory, as that he took knowledge of it in his Sermon; Nihil dixeram, nihil exposuerans, verbum pronunciavi & exclamastis, says he; I have entered into no part of my text; I have scarce read my text; I did but name the word, Rest, and Peace of conscience, and you are all transported, affected, with an exultation, with an acclamation, in the hunger, and ambition of it; That, that the natural, that, that the supernatural Man affects, is Rest; Inquire pacem, & persequere eam; it is not only sequere, but persequere; seek peace & ensue it; follow this rest, this peace so, as if it fly from you, if any interruption, any heaviness of heart, any warfare of this world, come between you, and it, yet you never give over the pursuit of it, till you overtake it. Persquere, follow it, but first Inquire, says David, seek after it, find where it is, for here is not your rest.

Vnaquaeque res in sua patria fortior; If a Starr were upon the Earth, it would give no light; If a tree were in the Sea, it would give no fruit; every tree is fastest rooted, and produces the best fruit, in the soil, that is proper for it. Now, here we have no continuing City, but we seek one; when we find that, we shall find rest. Here how shall we hope for it? for our selves, Intus pugnae, foris timores; we feel a war of concupiscencies within, aand we fear a battery of temptations without: Si dissentiunt in domo uxor & maritus: periculosa molestia, says Saint Augustine; If the Husband, and wife agree not at home, it is a troublesome danger; and that's every mans case; for Care conjux, our flesh is the wife, and the spirit is the husband, and they two will never agree. But si dominetur uxor, perversa pax, says he, and that's a more ordinary case, then we are aware of, that the wife hath got the Mastery, that the weaker vessel, the flesh, hath got the victory; and then, there is a show of peace, but it is a stupidity, a security, it is not peace. Let us depart out of our selves, and look upon that, in which most ordinarily we place an opinion of rest, upon worldly riches; They that will be rich, fall into temptations, and snares, and into many foolish, and noysome lusts, which drown Men in perdition, and in destruction, for the desire of money is the root of evil; Not the having of Money, but the desire of it; for it is Theophylacts observation, that the Apostle does not say this, of them that are rich, but of them, that will be made rich; that set their heart upon the desire of riches, and will be rich, what way soever. As the Partridge gathereth the young, which she hath not brought forth, so he that gathereth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool; (he shall not make a wise will) But shall his folly end, at his end, or the punishment of his folly? We see what a restless fool he is, all the way; first, because he wants room, he says, he will pull down his barns, and build new; (thus far there's no rest; in the Diruit, and adificat, in pulling down, and building up;) Then he says to his soul, live at ease; he says it, but he gives no ease; he says it as he shall say to the Hills, fall down, and cover us but they shall stand still; and his soul shall hear God say, whilst he promises himself this case, O fool, this night, they shall fetch away thy soul; God does not only not tell him, who shall have his riches, but he does not tell him, who shall have his soul. He leaves him no affurance, no ease, no peace, no rest, Here.

This rest is not then in these things; not in their use; for they are got with labor, and held with fear; and these, labor and fear, admit no rest; not in their nature; for they are fluid, and transitory, and moveable, and these are not attributes of rest. If that word do not reach to Land, (the land is not movable,) yet it reaches to thee; when thou makest thine Inventory, put thy self amongst the moveables, for thou must remove from it, though it remove not from thee. So that, what rest foever may be imagined in these things, it is not your rest, for howsoever the things may seem to rest, yet you do not. It is not here at all: not in that Here, which is intimated in this Text; not in the falling, that is Here; for sin is a stupidity, it is not a rest; not in the rising that is Here, for this remorse, this repentance, is but as a surveying of a convenient ground, or an emptying of an inconvenient ground, to erect a building upon; not in the departing that is here, for in that, is intimated a building of new habits, upon the ground so prepared, and so a continual, and laborious travail, no rest; falling, and rising, and departing, and surveying, and building, are no words of rest, for give these words their spiritual sense, that this sense of our fall, (which is remorse after sin) this rising from it, (which is repentance after sin) this departing into a safer station, (which is the building of habits contrary to the former) do bring an ease to the conscience, (as it doth that powerfully, and plentifully) yet, as when we journey by Coach, we have an ease in the way, but yet our rest is at home, so in the ways of a regenerate Man, there is an unexpressible ease, and consolation here, but yet even this is not your rest; for, as the Apostle says, If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am unto you, so what rest soever others may propose unto themseleves, for you, whose conver sation is in heaven, (for this world to the righteous is Atrium templi, and heaven is that Temple it self, the Militant Church, is the porch, the Triumphant, is the Sanctum Sanctorum, this Church and that Church are all under one roof, Christ Jesus) for you, who appertain to this Church, your rests is in heaven; And that consideration brings us to the last of the three interpretations of these words.

The first was a Commination, a departing without any Rest, proposed to the Jews: The second was a Commonition, a departing into the way towards Rest, proposed to repentant sinners; And this third is a Consolation, a departing into Rest it self, proposed to us, that believe a Resurrection. It is a consolation, and yet it is a funeral; for to present this eternal Rest, we must a little invert the words, to the departing out of this world, by death, and so to arise to Judgement; Depart, and arise; for, &c.

This departing then, is our last Exodus, our last passeover, our last transmigration, our departing out of this life. And then, the Consolation is placed in this, that we are willing, and ready for this departing; Qua gratia breve nobis tempus praescripsit Deus? How mercifully hath God proceeded with Man, in making his life short? for by that means he murmurs the less at the miseries of this life, and he is the less transported upon the pleasures of this life, because the end of both is short. It is a weakness, says Saint Ambrose, to complain, De immaturitate mortis, of dying before our time; for we were ripe for death at our birth; we were born mellow: Secundum aliquem modum, immortalis dici posset homo, si esset tempus intra quod mori non posset, is excellently said by the same Father; If there were any one minute in a mans life, in which he were safe from death, a man might in some sort be said to be immortal, for that minute; but Man is never so; Nunquam ei vicinius est, posse vivere, quàm posse mori: That proposition is never truer, This man may live to morrow, then this proposition is, This man may dy this minute. Though then shortness of life be a malediction to the wicked, (The bloody and deceitful men shall not live half their days) there's the sentence, the Judgement, the Rule, (And they were cut down before their time) there's the execution, the example, God hath threatened, God hath inflicted, shortness of days to the wicked, yet the Curse consists in their indisposition, in their over-loving of this world, in their terrors concerning the next world, and not merely in the shortness of life; for this It, depart out of this world, is part of the Consolation. I have a Reversion upon my friend, and (though I wish it not) yet I am glad, if he die; Men that have inheritances after their fathers, are glad when they dye; though not glad that they die, yet glad when they die: I have a greater, after the death of this body, and shall I be loath to come to that? Yet, it is not so a Consolation, as that we should by any means, be occasions to hasten our own death; Multi Innocentes ab aliis occiduntur, à seipso nemo; Many men get by the malice of others, if thereby, they dy the sooner; for they are the sooner at home, and dy innocently: but no man dies innocently, that dies by his own hand, or by his own hast. We may not do it, never; we may not wish it, always, nor easily. Before a perfect Reconciliation with God, it is dangerous to wish death. David apprehended it so, I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. In an over tender sense, and impatience of our own Calamities, it is dangerous to desire death too. Very holy men have transgressed on that hand: Elijah in his persecution came inconsiderately to desire that he might die; It is enough, ô Lord, take away my soul; He would tell God how much was enough. And so says Job, My soul chuseth rather to be strangled and to die, then to be in my bones; He must have that that his soul chuses. But to omit many cases wherein it is not good, nor safe to wish Death, certainly, when it is done primarily in respect of God, for his glory, and then, for the respect which is of our selves, it is only to enjoy the sight, and union of God, and that also with a Conditional submission to his will, and a tacite, and humble reservation of all his purposes, we may think David's thought, and speak David's words, My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God, when shall I come, and appear before the presence of my Living God? Saint Paul had David's example for it, when he comes to his Cupio dissolvi, to desire to be dissolved; And Saint Augustine had both their examples, when he says so affectionately, Eia Domine videam, ut hîc moriar, O my God, let me see thee in this life, that I may die the death of the Righteous, dy to sin; & moriar ut te videam, let me dy absolutely, that I may see thee essentially. Here we may be in his Presence, we see his state; there we are in his Bedchamber, and see his eternal and glorious Rest. The Rule is good, given by the same Father, Non injustum est justo optare mortem, A righteous man, may righteously desire death. Si Deus non dederit, injustum erit, non tolerare vitam amarissimam, but if God affords not that ease, he must not refuse a laborious life; So that, this departing, is not a going before we be called: Christ himself stayed for his ascension, till he was taken up. But when these comes a Lazar veni foras, that God calls us, from this putrefaction, which we think life, let us be not only obedient, but glad to depart.

For without such an It, there is no such Surgite, as is intended here; without this departing there is no good rising, without a joyful Transmigration, no joyful Resurrection; He that is loth to depart, is afraid to rise again; and he that is afraid of the Resurrection, had rather there were none; and he that had rather there were none, aut caecitate, aut animositate, says S. Augustine, either he will make himself believe, that there is none, or if he cannot overcome his Conscience so absolutely, he will make the world believe, that he believes there is none: and truly to lose our sense of the Resurrection, is as heavy a loss, as of any one point of Religion; It is the knot of all, and hath this privilege, above all, that though those Joys of heaven, which we shall possess immediately after our death, be infinite, yet even to these infinite Joys, the Resurrection given an addition, and enlarges even that which was infinite. And therefore is Job so passionately desirous, that this doctrine of the Resurrection, might be imparted to all, imprinted in all; Oh that my words more now written, Oh that they were written in a book; and graven with an Iron pen in lead, and stone, for ever: what is all this, that Job recommends with so much devotion to all? I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and be shall stand the last on Earth, and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet I shall see God in my flesh; whom I my self shall see; and mine eyes shall behold, and none either for me. This doctrine of the Resurrection, had Job, so vehement, and so early a care of. Neither could the malicious, and pestilent inventions of man, no not of Satan himself, abolish this doctrine of the Resurrection: for, as Saint Jerome observes, from Adrian's time, to Constantin's, for 180 years, in the place of Christs birth, they had set up an Idol, a statue of Adonis: In the place of his Crucifying, they had set up an Idol of Venus; and in the place of his Resurrection, they had erected a Iupiter: in opinion, that these Idolatrous provisions of theirs, would have abolished the Mysteries of our Religion; but they have outlived all them, and shall outlive all the world, eternally beyond all Generations. And therefore doth Saint Ambrose apply well, and usefully to our Death, and Resurrection, to our departing, and rising, these words, Come my people, enter then into thy Chambers, and shut thy dors after thee; Hide thy self for a very little while, untill the Indignation passeover thee; that is, Go quietly, to your graves, attend your Resurrection, till God have executed his purpose upon the wicked of this world; Murmur not to admit the dissolution of body, and soul, upon your death-beds, nor the resolution, and putrefaction of the body alone in your graves, till God be pleased to repair all, in a full consummation, and reuniting of body and soul, in a blessed Resurrection. It & Surgite, depart so, as you may desire to rise; Depart with an In manus tuas, and with a Veni Domine Iesu; with a willing surrendering of your souls, and a cheerful meeting of the Lord Jesus.

For else, all hope of profit, and permanent Rest is lost: for, as Saint Jerome interprets these very words; Here we are taught that there is no rest, in this life, Sed quasi e mortuis resurgentes; ad sublime tender, & ambulare post Daminum Iesum; we depart when we depart from sin, and we rise, when we raise our selves to a conformity with Christ: And not only after his example, but after his person, that is, to hasten thither, whither he is gone to prepare us a Room. For, this Rest, in the Text, though it may be understood of the Land of Promise; and of the Church, and of the Ark, and of the Sabbath, (for, if we had time to pursue them, we might make good use of all these acceptations) yet we accept Chrysostome's acceptation best, Requies est ipse Christus, our rest is Christ himself. Not only that rest that is in Christ, (peace of conscience in him) but that Rest, that Christ is in; eternal rest in his kingdom, There remaineth a Rest, to the people of God; besides that inchoation of Rest, which the godly have here, there remains a fuller Rest. Jesus is entered into his Rest, says the Apostle there; his Rest was not here, in this world; and, Let us study to enter into that Rest, says he; for no other can accomplish our peace. It is righteousness with God, is recompense tribulation to them, that trouble you, and, to you, which are troubled, Rest; but, when? in this world? no: when the Lord Jesus shall shew himself from heaven, with his mighty Angels, then comes your Rest; for, for the grave, the body lies still, but it is not a Rest, because it is not sensible of that lying still; In heaven the body shall rest, rest in the sense of that glory.

This Rest then is not here, Not only not Here, at this Here was taken in the first interpretation, Here in the Earth; but not Here in the second interpretation, not in Repentance it self; for all the Rest of this life, even the spiritual Rest, is rather a Truce, then a peace, rather a Cessation, then an end of the war. For when these words, (I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, Every one shall fight against his brother, and every one against his neighbor, City against City, and Kingdom against Kingdom) may be interpreted, and are so interpreted of the time of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, when Christ himself says, Nolite putare quod venerim mittere pacem in terrâ, Never think that I came to settle peace, or Rest in this world; Nay, when Christ says, None of them that were bidden shall come to his supper, and that may be verified of any Congregation, none of us that are called now, shall come to that Rest, a Man may be at a security in an opinion of Rest, and be far from it; A man may be nearer Rest in a troubled Conscience, then in a secure.

Here we have often Resurrections, that is, purposes to depart from sin: but they are such Resurrections, as were at the time of Christs Resurrection: when (as the strongest opinion is) Resurrexerunt iterum morituri, Many of the dead rose, but they died again; we rise from our sins here, but here we fall again; Monumenta aperta sunt; (it is Saint Jerome's note,) The graves were opened, presently upon Christs death; but yet the bodies did not arise, till Christs Resurrection: The godly have an opening of their graves, they see some light, some of their weight, some of their Earth is taken from them, but a Resurrection to enter into the City, to follow the Lamb, to come into an established security, that they have not, till they be united to Christ in heaven. Here we are still subject to relapses, and to looking back; Memento uxoris Lot, Ipsa in loco manet, transeuntes monet, She is fixed to a place, that she might settle those, that are not fixed; Vt quid in statuam salis conversa, si non homines, ut sapiant, condiat? to teach us the danger of looking back, till we be fixed, she is fixed. When the Prophet Elijah was at the dor of Desperation, an Angel touched him, and said, Vp, and eat: and there was bread, and water provided, and he did eat; but he slept again; and we have some of these excitations, and we come, and eat, and drink, even the body, and blood of Christ, but we sleep again, we do not perfect the work. Our Rest Here then, is never without a fear of losing it: This is our best state, To fear lest at any time, by forsaking the promise of entering into his rest, we should seem to be deprived. The Apostle disputes not, (neither do I) whether we can be deprived or no; but he assures us, that we may fall back so far, as that to the Church, and to our own Consciences we may seem to be deprived; and that's argument enough, that here is no Rest. To end all, though there be no Rest in all this world, no not in our sanctification here, yet this being a Consolation, there must be rest some where; And it is, In superna Civitate, unde amicus non exit, quâ inimicus non intrat, In that City, in that Hierusalem, where there shall never enter any man, whom we do not love, nor any go from us, whom we do love. Which, though we have not yet, yet we shall have: for upon those words, (because I live, ye shall live also) Saint Augustine says, that because his Resurrection was to follow so soon, Christ takes the present word, because I do live. But because their life was not to be had here, he says, Vivetis, you shall live, in heaven; not Vivitis; for here, we do not live. So, as in Adam we all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; says the Apostle: All our deaths are here, present now; now we dy; our quickening is reserved for heaven, that's future. And therefore let us attend that Rest, as patiently as we do the things of this world, and not doubt of it therefore, because we see it not yet: even in this world we consider invisible things, more then visible; Vidimus pelagus, non autem mercedem, The Merchant sees the tempestuous Sea, when he does not see the commodities, which he goes for: Videmus terram, non autem messem, The Husbandman sees the Earth, and his labor, when he sees no harvest; and for these hopes, that there will be a gain to the Merchant, and a harvest to the Labourer, Naturae fidimus, we rely upon Creatures; for our Resurrection, fide uxorem habemus Coranatum; Not Nature, not Sea, nor Land, is our surety, but our surety is one, who is already crowned, with that Resurrection. Num in hominibus terrae regenerat, quae omnia regenerat, says Saint Ambrose, will the earth, that gives a new life to all Creatures, fail in us, and hold us in an everlasting winter, without a spring, and a Resurrection? Certainly no; but if we be content so to depart into the womb of the Earth, our grave, as that we know that, to be but the Entry into glory, as we depart contentedly, so we shall arise gloriously, to that place, where our eternal Rest shall be, though here there be not our Rest; for he that shoots an arrow at a mark, yet means to put that arrow into his Quiver again; and God that glorifies himself, in laying down our bodies in the grave, means also to glorify them, in reaffirming them to himself, at the last day.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XI.

GEN. 28. 16, 17. Then Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware. And he was afraid, and said, Now fearful us this place! This is none other but the House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.

Preached at Lincolns Inn, preparing them to build their Chappel.

IN these verses Jacob is a Surveyor, he considers a fit place for the house of God; and in the very next verse, he is a Builder, he erects Bethel, the house of God it self. All was but a drowsiness, but a sleep, till he came to this Consideration; as soon as he awoke, he took knowledge of a fit place; as soon as he found the place, he went about the work. But to that we shall not come yet. But this Text, being a preparation for the building of a house to God, though such a house as Jacob built then, require no contribution, yet because such Churches, as we build now, do, we shall first say a little, of that great virtue of Charity; and then somewhat of that virtue, as it is exercised by advancing the house of God, and his outward worship; And thirdly we shall consider Jacob's steps, and proceedings, in this action of his.

This virtue then, Charity, is it, that conducts its in this life, and accompanies us in the next. In heaven, where we shall know God, there may be no use of faith; In heaven, where we shall see God, there may be no use of hope; but in heaven, where God the Father, and the Son, love one another in the Holy Ghost, the bond of charity shall everlastingly unite us together. But Charitas in patria, and Charitas in via, differ m this, That there we shall love one another because we shall not need one another, for we shall all be full. Here the exercise of our charity is, because we do stand in need of one another. Dives & pauper duo sunt sibi contraria; sed iterum duo sunt sibi necessaria; Rich, and poor are contrary to one another, but yet both necessary to one another; They are both necessary to one another; but the poor man is the more necessary; because though one man might be rich, though no man were poor, yet he could have no exercise of his charity, he could send none of his riches to heaven, to help him there, except there were some poor here.

He that is too fat, would fain divest some of that, though he could give that to no other man, that lacked it; And shall not he that is wantonly pampered, nay, who is heavily laden, and encumbered with temporal abundances, be content to discharge himself of some of that, wherewith he is over-straighted, upon those poor souls, whom God hath not made poor for any sin of theirs, or of their fathers, but only to present rich men exercise of their charity, and occasions of testifying their love to Christ; who having given himself, to convey salvation upon thee, if that conveyance may be sealed to thee, by giving a little of thine own, is it not an easy purchase? When a poor wretch beggs of thee, and thou givest, thou dost but justice, it is his. But when he begs of God for thee, and God gives thee, this is mercy; this was none of thine.

When we shall come to our Redde rationem villicationis, to give an accompt of our Stewardship, when we shall not measure our inheritance by Acres, but all heaven shall be ours, and we shall follow the Lamb, wheresoever he goes, when our estate, and term shall not be limited by years, and lives, but, as we shall be in the presence of the Ancient of days, so our days shall be so far equal to his, as that they shall be without end; Then will our great Merchants, great practisers, great purchasers, great Contracters, find another language, another style, then they have been accustomed to, here. There no man shall be called a prodigal, but only the Covetous man; Only he that hath been too diligent a keeper, shall appear to have been an unthrift, and to have wasted his best treasure, the price of the blood of Christ Iesue, his own soul. There no man shall be called good security, but he that hath made sure his salvation. No man shall be called a Subsidy man, but he that hath relieved Christ Jesus; in his sick, and hungry Members. No man shall be called a wise Steward, but he that hath made friends of the wicked Mammon; Nor provident Merchant, but he that sold all to buy the pearl; Nor a great officer, but he that desires to be a dor-keeper in the kingdom of Heaven.

Now, every man hath a key to this dor of heaven. Every man hath some means to open it; every man hath an oil to anoint this key, and make it turn easily; he may go with more case to Heaven, then he doth to Hell. Every man hath some means to pour this oil of gladness and comfort into another's heart; No man can say, Quid retribuam tibi Domine; Lord what have I to give thee? for every man hath something to give God: Money, or labor, or counsel, or prayers. Every man can give, and he gives to God, who gives to them that need it, for his sake. Come not to that expostulation, When did we see thee hungry, or sick, or imprisoned, and did not minister? Nor to that, Quid retribuam, What can I give, that lack my self: lest God come also to that silence, and weariness of asking at thy hands, to say, as he says in the Psalm, If I be hungry, I will not tell thee; That though he have given thee abundance, though he lack himself in his children, yet he will not tell thee, he will not ask at thy hands, he will not enlighten thine understanding, he will not awaken thy charity, he will not give thee any occasion of doing good, with that which he hath given thee.

But God hath given thee a key: yea as he says to the Church of Philadelphia, Behold I set before thee an open dor, and no man can shut it. Thou hast a gate into Heaven in thy self; If thou beest not sensible of others mens poverties, and distresses, yet Miserere animae tua, have mercy on thine own soul; thou hast a poor guest, an Inmate, a sojourner, within these mudwals, this corrupt body of thine; be merciful and compassionate to that Soul; cloth that Soul, which is stripped and left naked, of all her original righteousness; feed that Soul, which thou hast starved; purge that Soul, which thou hast infected; warm, and thaw that Soul; which thou hast frozen with indevotion; cool, and quench that Soul which thou hast inflamed with licentiousness; Miserere animae tua, begin with thine own Soul; be charitable to thy self first, and thou wilt remember, that God hath made of one blood, all Mankind, and thou wilt find out thy self, in every other poor Man, and thou wilt find Christ Jesus himself in them all.

Now of those divers gates, which God opens in this life, those divers exercises of charity, the particular which we are occasioned to speak of here, is not the clothing, nor feeding of Christ, but the housing of him, The providing Christ a house, a dwelling; whether this were the very place, where Solomons Temple was after built, is perplexedly, and perchance, impertinently controverted by many; but howsoever, here was the house of God, and here was the gate of Heaven. It is true, God may be devoutly worshipped any where; In omni loco dominationis ejus benedic anima mea Domino; In all places of his dominion, my Soul shall praise the Lord, says David. It is not only a concurring of men, a meeting of so many bodies that makes a Church; If thy soul, and body be met together, an humble preparation of the mind, and a reverent disposition of the body, if thy knees be bent to the earth, thy hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, if thy tongue pray, and praise, and thine ears hearken to his answer, if all thy senses, and powers, and faculties, be met with one unanime purpose to worship thy God, thou art, to this intendment, a Church, thou art a Congregation, here are two or three met together in his name, and he is in the midst of them, though thou be alone in thy chamber. The Church of God should be built upon a Rock, and yet Job had his Church upon a Dunghill; The bed is a scene, and an embleme of wantonness, and yet Hezekiah had his Church in his Bed; The Church is to be placed upon the top of a Hill, and yet the Prophet Jeremiah had his Church in Luto, in a miry Dungeon; Constancy, and setledness belongs to the Church, and yet Jonah had his Church in the Whales belly; The Lyon that roars, and seeks whom he may devour, is an enemy to this Church, and yet Daniel had his Church in the Lions den; Aquae quietudinum, the waters of rest in the Psalm, were a figure of the Church, and yet the three children had their Church in the fiery furnace; Liberty & life appertain to the Church, and yet Peter, & Paul had their Church in prison, and the thief had his Church upon the Cross. Every particular man is himself Templum Spiritus sancti, a Temple of the holy Ghost; yea, Solvite templum hoc, destroy this body by death, and corruption in the grave, yet there shall be Festum encaeniorum, a renuing, a reedifying of all those Temples, in the general Resurrection: when we shall rise again, not only as so many Christians, but as so many Christian Churches, to glorify the Apostle, and High-priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, in that eternal Sabbath. In omni loco dominationis ejus, Every person, every place is fit to glorify God in.

God is not tied to any place; not by essence; Implet & continendo implet, God fills every place, and fills it by containing that place in himself; but he is tied by his promise to a manifestation of himself, by working in some certain places. Though God were long before he required, or admitted a sumptuous Temple, (for Solomons Temple was not built, in almost five hundred years after their return out of Egypt) though God were content to accept their worship, and their sacrifices, at the Tabernacle, (which was a transitory, and moveable Temple) yet at last he was so careful of his house, as that himself gave the model, and platform of it; and when it was built, and after repaired again, he was so jealous of appropriating, and confining all his solemn worship to that particular place, as that he permitted that long schism, and dissention, between the Samaritans, and the Jews, only about the place of the worship of God; They differed not in other things: but whether in Mount Sion, or in Mount Garizim. And the feast of the dedication of this Temple, which was yearly celebrated, received so much honor, as that Christ himself vouchsafed to be personally present at that solemnity; though it were a feast of the institution of the Church, and not of God immediately, as their other festivals were, yet Christ forbore not to observe it, upon that pretence, that it was but the Church that had appointed it to be observed. So that, as in all times, God had manifested, and exhibited himself in some particular places, more then other, (in the Pillar in the wilderness, and in the Tabernacle, and in the pool, which the Angel troubled) so did Christ himself, by his own presence, ceremoniously, justify, and authorise this dedication of places consecrated to Gods outward worship, not only once, but anniversarily by a yearly celebration thereof.

To descend from this great Temple at Jerusalem, to which God had annexed his solemn, and public worship, the lesser Synagogues, and Chappells of the Jews, in other places, were ever esteemed great testimonies of the sanctity and piety of the founders, for Christ accepts of that reason which was presented to him, in the behalf of the Centurion, He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him, for he loveth our Nation; And how hath he testified it? He hath built us a Synagogue. He was but a stranger to them, and yet he furthered, and advanced the service of God amongst them, of whose body he was no member. This was that Centurions commendation; Et quanto commedatior qui adificat Ecclesiam, How much more commendation deserve they, that build a Church for Christian service? And therefore the first Christians made so much haste to the expressing of their devotion, that even in the Apostles time, for all their poverty, and persecution, they were come to have Churches: as most of the Fathers, and some of our later Expositors, understand these words, (Have ye not houses to eat and drink, or do ye despise the Church of God?) to be spoken, not of the Church as it is a Congregation, but of the Church as it is a Material building. Yea, if we may believe some authors, that are pretended to be very ancient, there was one Church dedicated to the memory of Saint John, and another by Saint Mark, to the memory of Saint Peter, whilst yet both Saint John, and Saint Peter were alive. Howsoever, it is certain, that the purest and most innocent times, even the infancy of the Primitive Church, found this double way of expressing their devotion, in this particular of building Churches, first that they built them only to the honor, and glory of God, without giving him any partner, and then they built them for the conserving of the memory of those blessed servants of God, who had sealed their profession with their blood, and at whose Tombs, God had done such Miracles, as these times needed, for the propagation of his Church. They built their Churches principally for the glory of God, but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs; for so says he, (who as he was Peters successor, so he is the most sensible feeler, and most earnest, and powerful promover and expresser, of the dignities of Saint Peter, of all the Fathers) speaking of Saint Peters Church, Beato Petri Basilica, quae uni Deo vero & vivo dicata est, Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the only living God; They are things compatible enough to bear the name of a Saint, and yet to be dedicated to God. There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs, did peacefully attend their glorification; There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation, for their example, and imitation; There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the public prayers, and liturgies, by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation to God, for having raised so profitable men in the Church; and there the Church did present their prayers to God, for those Martyrs, that God would hasten their glory, and final consummation, in reuniting their bodies, and souls, in a joyful resurrection. But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God, in the house of God, Non Martyres ipsi, sed Deus eorum, nobis est Deus, only God, and not those Martyrs, is our God; we and they serve all one Master; we dwell all in one house; in which God hath appointed us several services; Those who have done their days work, God hath given them their wages, and hath given them leave to go to bed; they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there, till the Sun rise again; till the Sun of grace and glory, Christ Jesus, appear in judgment; we that are yet left to work, and to watch, we must go forward in the services of God in his house, with that moderation, and that equality, as that we worship only our Master, but yet despise not our fellow servants, that are gone before us: That we give to no person, the glory of God, but that we give God the more glory, for having raised such servants: That we acknowledge the Church to be the house only of God, and that we admit no Saint, no Martyr, to be a lointenant with him; but yet that their memory may be an encouragement, yea and a seal to us, that that peace, and glory, which they possess, belongs also unto us in reversion, and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their present happiness, by a devout commemoration of them, with such a temper, and evenness, as that we neither dishonor God, by attributing to them, that which is inseparably his, nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs, in removing their Names out of the Collects, and prayers of the Church, or their Monuments, and memorialls out of the body of the Church: for, those respects to them, the first Christian founders of Churches did admit in those pure times, when Illa obsequia, ornamenta memoriarum, non sacrificia mortuorum, when those devotions in their names, were only commemorations of the dead, not sacrifices to the dead, as they are made now in the Roman Church: when Bellarmine will needs falsify Chrysostom, to read Adoramus monumenta, in stead of Adornamus; and to make that which was but an Adorning, an adoring of the Tombs of the Martyrs.

This then was in all times, a religious work, an acceptable testimony of devotion, to build God a house; to contribute something to his outward glory. The goodness, and greatness of which work, appears evidently, and shines gloriously, even in those several names, by which the Church was called, and styled, in the writings, and monuments of the Ancient Fathers, and the Ecclesiastique story. It may serve to our edification (at least) and to the axalting of our devotion, to consider some few of them: First then the Church was called Ecclesia, that is, a company, a Congregation; That whereas from the time of John Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and every violent Man, that is, every earnest, and zealous, and spiritually valiant Man, may take hold of it, we may be much more sure of doing so, in the Congregation, Quando agmine facti Deum obsidemus, when in the whole body, we Muster our forces, and besiege God. For, here in the congregation, not only the kingdom of heaven, is fallen into our hands, The kingdom of heaven is amongst you, (as Christ says) but the King of heaven is fallen into our hands; When two, or three are gathered together in my Name, I will be in the midst of you; not only in the midst of us, to encourage us, but in the midst of us, to be taken by us, to be bound by us, by those hands, those covenants, those contracts, those rich, and sweet promises, which he hath made, and ratified unto us in his Gospel.

A second name of the Church in use, was Dominicum: The Lords possession; It is absolutely, it is entirely his; And therefore, as to shorten, and contract the possession and inheritance of God, the Church, so much, as to confine the Church only within the obedience of Rome, (as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique) or to change the Landmarks of Gods possession, and inheritance, which is the Church; either to set up new works, of outward prosperity, or of personal, and Local succession of Bishops, or to remove the old, and true marks, which are the Word, and Sacraments, as this is Injuria Dominico mystico, a wrong to the mystical body of Christ, the Church, so is it Injuria Dominico materiali, an injury to the Material body of Christ sacrilegiously to dilapidate, to despoile, or to demolish the possession of the Church, and so far to remove the marks of Gods inheritance, as to mingle that amongst your temporal revenues, that God may never have, nor ever distinguish his own part again.

And then (to pass faster over these names) It is called Domus Dei, Gods dwelling house. Now, his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei; they are but chariots, which convey God, and bring him to our sight; The Tabernacle it self was but Mobilis domus, and Ecclesia portatilis, a house without a foundation; a running, a progress house: but the Church is his standing house; there are his offices fixed: there are his provisions, which fat the Soul of Man, as with marrow and with fatness, his precious blood, and body: there work his seals; there beats his Mint; there is absolution, and pardon for past sins, there is grace for prevention of future in his Sacraments. But the Church is not only Domus Dei, but Basilica; not only his house, but his Court: he doth not only dwell there, but reign there: which multiplies the joy of his household servants: The Lord reigneth, let all the earth rejoice, yea let the multitude of the Islands be glad thereof. That the Church was usually called Martyrium, that is, a place of Confession, where we open our wounds and receive our remedy, That it was called Oratorium, where we might come, and ask necessary things at Gods hands, all these teach us our several duties in that place, and they add to their spiritual comfort, who have been Gods instruments, for providing such places, as God may be glorified in, and the godly benefited in all these ways.

But of all Names, which were then usually given to the Church, the name of Temple seems to be most large, and significant, as they derive it à Tuendo; for Tueri signifies both our beholding, and contemplating God in the Church: and it signifies Gods protecting, and defending those that are his, in his Church: Tueri embraces both; And therefore, though in the very beginning of the Primitive Church, to depart from the custom, and language, and phrase of the Jews, and Gentiles, as far as they could, they did much abstain from this name of Temple, and of Priest, so that till Ireneus time, some hundred eighty years after Christ, we shall not so often find those words, Temple, or Priest, yet when that danger was overcome, when the Christian Church, and doctrine was established, from that time downward, all the Fathers did freely, and safely call the Church the Temple, and the Ministers in the Church, Priests, as names of a religious, and pious signification; where before out of a loathness to do, or say any thing like the Jews, or Gentiles, where a concurrence with them, might have been misinterpretable, and of ill consequence, they had called the Church by all those other names, which we passed through before; and they called their Priests, by the name of Elders, Presbyteros: but after they resumed the use of the word Temple again, as the Apostle had given a good pattern, who to express the principal holiness of the Saints of God, he chooses to do it, in that word, ye are the Temples of the holy Ghost: which should incline us to that moderation, that when the danger of these ceremonies which corrupt times had corrupted, is taken away, we should return to a love of that Antiquity, which did purely, and harmelesly induce them: when there is no danger of abuse, there should be no difference for the use of things, (in themselves indifferent) made necessary by the just commandment of lawful authority.

Thus then you see as far (as the narrowness of the time will give us leave to express it) the general manner of the best times, to declare devotion towards God, to have been in appropriating certain places to his worship; And since it is so in this particular history of Iacobs proceeding in my text, I may be hold to invert these words of David, Nisi Deus aedificaverit domum, unless the Lord do build the house, in vain do the labourers work, thus much, as to say, Nisi Domino aedificaveritis domum, except thou build a house for the Lord, in vain dost thou go about any other buildings, or any other business in this world. I speak not merely literally of building Material Chappells; (yet I would speak also to further that;) but I speak principally of building such a Church, as every man may build in himself: for whensoever we present our prayers, and devotions deliberately, and advisedly to God, there we consecrate that place, there we build a Church. And therefore, beloved, since every master of a family, who is a Bishop in his house, should call his family together, to humble, and power out their souls to God, let him consider, that when he comes to kneel at the side of his table, to pray, he comes to build a Church there; and therefore should sanctify that place, with a due, and penitent consideration how voluptuously he hath formerly abused Gods blessings at that place, how superstitiously, and idolatrously he hath flattered and humoured some great and useful ghests invited by him to that place, how expensively, he hath served his own ostentation and vain-glory, by excessive feasts at that place, whilst Lazarus hath lien panting, and gasping at the gate; and let him consider what a dangerous Mockery this is to Christ Jesus, if he pretend by kneeling at that table, fashionally to build Christ a Church by that solemnity at the table side, and then crucify Christ again, by these sins, when he is sat at the table. When thou kneelest down at thy bed side, to shut up the day at night, or to begin it in the morning, thy servants, thy children, thy little flock about thee, there thou buildest a Church too: And therefore sanctify that place; wash it with thy tears, and with a repentant consideration; That in that bed thy children were conceived in sin, that in that bed thou hast turned marriage which God afforded thee for remedy, and physic to voluptuosness, and licenciousness; That thou hast made that bed which God gave thee for rest, and for reparation of thy weary body, to be as thy dwelling, and delight, and the bed of idleness, and stupidity. Briefly, you that are Masters, continue in this building of Churches, that is, in drawing your families to pray, and praise God, and sanctify those several places of bed, and board, with a right use of them; And for you that are servants, you have also foundations of Churches in you, if you dedicate all your actions, consecrate all your services principally to God, and respectively to them, whom God hath placed over you. But principally, let all of all sorts, who present themselves at this table, consider, that in that receiving his body, and his blood, every one doth as it were conceive Christ Jesus anew; Christ Jesus hath in every one of them, as it were a new incarnation, by uniting himself to them in these visible signs. And therefore let no Man come hither, without a search, and a privy search, without a consideration, and re-consideration of his conscience. Let him that began to think of it, but this morning, stay till the next. When Moses pulled his hand first out of his bosom, it was white as snow, but it was leprous; when he pulled it the second time, it was of the color of flesh, but it was sound. When thou examinest thy conscience but once, but slightly, it may appear, white as snow, innocent; but examine it again, and it will confess many fleshly infirmities, and then it is the sounder for that; though not for the infirmity, yet for the confession of the infirmity. Neither let that hand, that reaches out to this body, in a guiltiness of pollution, and uncleanness, or in a guiltiness of extortion, or undeserved see, ever hope to sign a conveyance, that shall fasten his inheritance upon his children, to the third generation, ever hope to assign a will that shall be observed after his death; ever hope to lift up it self for mercy to God, at his death; but his case shall be like the case of Judas, if the devil have put in his heart, to betray Christ, to make the body and blood of Christ Jesus false witnesses to the congregation of his hypocritical sanctity, Satan shall enter into him, with this sop, and seal his condemnation. Beloved, in the bowels of that Jesus, who is coming into you, even in spiritual riches, it is an unthrifty thing, to anticipate your monies, to receive your rents, before they are due: and this treasure of the soul, the body, and blood of your Savior, is not due to you yet, if you have not yet passed, a mature, and a severe examination, of your conscience. It were better that your particular friends, or that the congregation, should observe in you, an abstinence and forbearing to day, and make what interpretation, they would of that forbearing then that the holy Ghost should deprehend you, in an unworthy receiving; lest, as the Master of the feast said to him that came without his wedding garment, then when he was set, Amice quomodo intrâsti, friend how came you in? so Christ should say to thee, then when thou art upon thy knees, and hast taken him into thy hands, Amice quomodo intrabo, friend how can I enter into thee, who hast not swept thy house, who hast made no preparation for me? But to those that have, he knocks and he enters, and he sups with them, and he is a supper to them. And so this consideration of making Churches of our houses, and of our hearts, leads us to a third part, the particular circumstances, in Iacobs action.

In which there is such a change, such a dependence, whether we consider the Metal, or the fashion, the several doctrines, or the sweetness, and easiness, of raising them, as scarce in any other place, a fuller harmony. The first link is the Tunc Jacob, then Jacob; which is a Tunc consequentiae, rather then a Tunc temporis; It is not so much, at what time Jacob did, or said this, as upon what occasion. The second link is, Quid operatum, what this wrought upon Jacob; It awaked him out of his sleep, A third is Quid ille, what he did, and that was, Et dixit, he came to an open profession of that, which he conceived, he said; and a fourth is, Quid dixit, what this profession was; And in that, which is a branch with much fruit, a pregnant part, a part containing many parts, thus much is considerable, that he presently acknowledged, and assented to their light which was given him, the Lord is in this place; And he acknowledged his own darkness, till that light came upon him, Et ego nesciebam, I knew it not; And then upon this light received, he admitted no scruple, no hesitation, but came presently to a confident assurance, Verè Dominus, surely, of a certainty, the Lord is in this place; And then another doctrine is, Et timuit, he was afraid; for all his confidence he had a reverential fear; not a distrust, but a reverent respect to that great Majesty; and upon this fear, there is a second, Et dixit, he spoke again; this fear did not stupify him, he recovers again and discerned the manifestation of God, in that particular place, Quam terribilis, how fearful is this place; And then the last link of this chain is, Quid ind, what was the effect of all this; and that is, that he might erect a Monument, and mark for the worship of God in this place, Quia non nisi domus, because this is none other then the house of God, and the gate of heaven. Now I have no purpose to make you afraid of enlarging all these points: I shall only pass through some of them, paraphrastically, and trust them with the rest, (for they insinuate one another) and trust your christianly meditation with them all.

The first link then is, the Tunc Jacob, the occasion, (then Iocob did this) which was, that God had revealed to Iocob, that vision of the ladder, whose foot stood upon earth, and whose top reached to heaven, upon which ladder God stood, and Angels went up and down. Now this ladder is for the most part, understood to be Christ himself; whose foot, that touched the earth, is his humanity, and his top that reached to heaven, his Divinity; The ladder is Christ, and upon him the Angels, (his Ministers) labor for the edifying of the Church; And in this labor, upon this ladder, God stands above it, governing, and ordering all things, according to his providence in his Church. Now when this was revealed to Jacob, now when this is revealed to you, that God hath let fall a ladder, a bridge between heaven, and earth, that Christ, whose divinity departed not from heaven, came down to us into this world, that God the father stands upon this ladder, as the Original hath it, Nitzab, that he leans upon this ladder, as the vulgar hath it, Innixus scalae, that he rests upon it, as the holy Ghost did, upon the same ladder, that is, upon Christ, in his baptism, that upon this ladder, which stretches so far, and is provided so well, the Angels labor, the Ministers of God do their offices, when this was, when this is manifested, then it became Jacob, and now it becomes every Christian, to do something for the advancing of the outward glory, and worship of God in his Church: when Christ is content to be this ladder, when God is content to govern this ladder, when the Angels are content to labor upon this ladder, which ladder is Christ, and the Christian Church, shall any Christian Man forbear his help to the necessary building, and to the sober and modest adorning of the material Church of God? God studies the good of the Church, Angels labor for it; and shall Man, who is to receive all the profit of this, do nothing? This is the Tunc Jacob; when there is a free preaching of the Gospel, there should be a free, and liberal disposition, to advance his house.

Well; to make haste, the second link is Quid operatum, what this wrought upon Jacob: and it is, Jacob awoke out of his sleep. Now in this place, the holy Ghost imputes no sinful sleep to Jacob; but it is a natural sleep of lassitude and weariness after his travel, there is an ill sleep, an indifferent, and a good sleep, which is that heavenly sleep, that tranquillity, which that soul, which is at peace with God, and divided from the storms, and distractions of this world, enjoys in it self. That peace, which made the blessed Martyrs of Christ Jesus sleep upon the rack, upon the burning coales, upon the points of swords, when the persecutors were more troubled to invent torments, then the Christians to suffer. That sleep, from which, ambition, not danger, no nor when their own house is on fire, (that is, their own concupiscences) cannot awaken them; not so awaken them, that it can put them out of their own constancy, and peaceful confidence in God. That sleep, which is the sleep of the spouse, Ego dormio, sed cor meum vigilat, I sleep, but my heart is awake; It was no dead sleep when she was able to speak advisedly in it, and say she was asleep, and what sleep it was: It was no stupid sleep, when her heart was awake. This is the sleep of the Saints of God, which Saint Gregory describes, Sancti non torpore; sed virtute sapiuntur; It is not sluggishness, but innocence, and a good conscience, that casts them asleep. Laboriosius dormium, they are busier in their sleep, nay, Vigilatius, dormiunt; they are more awake in their sleep, then the watchful men of this world; for when they close their eyes in meditation of God, even their dreams are services to him, Somniant se dicere Psalmos, says Saint Ambrose; they dream that they sing psalms; and they do more then dream it, they do sing.

But yet even from this holy, and religious sleep (which is a departing from the allurements of the world, and a retiring to the only contemplation of heaven, and heavenly things) Jacob may be conceived to have awaked, and we must awake; It is note enough to shut our selves in a cloister, in a Monastery, to sleep out the temptations of the world, but since the ladder is placed, the Church established, since God, and the Angels are awake in this business, in advancing the Church, we also must labor, in our several vocations, and not content our selves with our own spiritual sleep; the peace of conscience in our selves; for we cannot have that long, if we do not some good to others. When the storm had almost drowned the ship, Christ was at his ease in that storm, asleep upon a pillow. Now Christ was in no danger himself; All the water of Noahs flood, multiplied over again by every drop, could not have drowned him. All the swords of an Army could not have killed him, till the hour was come, when he was pleased to lay down his soul. But though he were safe, yet they awaked him, and said, Master car'st thou not though we perish? So though a man may be in a good state, in a good peace of conscience, and sleep confidently in it, yet other mens necessities must awaken him, and though perchance he might pass more safely, if he might live a retired life, yet upon this ladder some Angels ascended, some descended, but none stood still but God himself. Till we come to him, to sleep an eternal Sabbath in heaven, though this religious sleep of enjoying or retiring and contemplation of God, be a heavenly thing, yet we must awake even out of this sleep, and contribute our pains, to the building, or furnishing, or serving of God in his Church.

Out of a sleep (conceive it what sleep soever) Jacob awaked; and then, Quid ille? what did he? Dixit, he spoke, he entered presently into an open profession of his thoughts, he smothered nothing, he disguised nothing. God is light, and loves clearness; thunder, and wind, and tempests, and chariots, and roaring of Lyons, and falling of waters are the ordinary emblems of his messages, and his messengers in the Scriptures. Christ who is Sapientia Dei, the wisdom of God, is Verbum, Sermo Dei, the word of God, he is the wisdom, and the uttering of the wisdom of God, as Christ is expressed to be the word, so a Christians duty is to speak dearly, and profess his religion. With how much scorn and reproach Saint Cyprian fastens the name of Libellatices upon them, who in time of persecution durst not say they were Christians, but under-hand compounded with the State, that they might live unquestioned, undiscovered, for though they kept their religion in their heart, yet Christ was defrauded of his honor. And such a reproach, and scorn belongs to them, who for fear of losing wordly preferments, and titles, and dignities, and rooms at great Tables, dare not say, of what religion they are. Beloved, it is not enough to awake out of an ill sleep of sin, or of ignorance, or out of a good sleep, out of a retiredness, and take some profession, if you wink, or hide your selves, when you are awake, you shall not see the Ladder, not discern Christ, nor the working of his Angels, that is, the Ministry of the Church, and the comforts therein, you shall not hear that Harmony of the quire of heaven, if you will bear no part in it; an inward acknowledgment of Christ is not enough, if you forbear to profess him, where your testimony might glorify him. Si sufficeret fides cordis, non creasset tibi Deus os, If the heart were enough, God would never have made a mouth; And to that, we may add, Si sufficeret os, non creasset manus, if the mouth were enough, God would never have made hands; for as the same Father says, Omni tuba clarior est per opera, no voice more audible, none more credible, then when thy hands speak as well as thy heart or thy tongue; Thou art then perfectly awaked out of thy sleep, when thy words and works declare, and manifest it.

The next is, Quid dixit; be spake, but what said he, first, he assented to that light which was given him. The Lord is in his place. He resisted not this light, he went not about to blow it out, by admitting reason, or disputation against it. He imputed it not to witchcraft, to illusion of the Devil; but Dominus est in loco isto, The Lord is in this place; O how many heavy sins, how many condemnations might we avoid, if we would but take knowledge of this, Dominus in loco isto, That the Lord is present, and sees us now, and shall judge hereafter, all that we do, or think. It keeps a man sometimes from corrupting, or solliciting a woman, to say, Peter, Maritus in loco, the Father, or the Husband is present; it keeps a man from an usurious contract to say, Lex in loco, the Law will take knowledge of it; it keeps a man from slandering or calummating another, to say, Testis in loco, here is a witness by; but this is Catholica Medicina, and Omni morbia, an universal medicine for all, to say, Dominus in loco, The Lord is in this place, and sees, and hears, and therefore I will say, and think, and do, as if I were now summoned by the last Trumpet, to give an account of my thoughts, and words, and deeds to him.

But the Lord was there and Jacob knew it not. As he takes knowledge by the first light of Gods presence, so he acknowledges that he had none of this light, of himself, Ego nesciebam, Jacob a Patriarch and dearly beloved of God, knew not that God was so near him. How much less shall a sinful man, that multiples sins, like clouds between God and him, know, that God is near him? As Saint Augustine said, when he came out of curiousty to hear Saint Ambrose preach at Milan, without any desire of profiting thereby, Appropinquavi, & vesciebam, I came, God, but knew it not; So the customary and habitual sinners, may say, Elongavi, & nesciebam, I have eloyned my self, I have gone farther, and farther from my God, and was never sensible of it; It is a desperate Ignorance, not to be sensible of Gods absence; but to acknowledge with Jacob, that we cannot see light, but by that light, that we cannot know Gods presence but by his revealing of himself, is a religious, and a Christian humility. To know it by Reason, by Philosophy, is a dim and a faint knowledge, but only by the testimony of his own spirit, and his own revealing, we come to that confidence, Verè Domine, Surely the Lord is in this place.

Est apud malos, sed dissimulans, God is with the wicked, but he dissembles his being there, that is, conceals it, he will not be known of it; Et, malorum dissimulatio quodammodo Veritas non est, when God winks at mens sins, when he dissembles, or disguises his knowledge, we may almost say, says Saint Bernard, Veritas non est, Here is not direct dealing, here is not entire truth, his presence is scarce a true presence. And therefore as the same Father proceeds, Si dicere licet, if we may be bold to express it so, Apud impios est, sed in dissimulatione, he is with the wicked, but yet he dissembles, he disguises his presence, he is there to no purpose, to no profit of theirs; but Est apud justos in veritate, with the righteous he is in truth, and in clearness. Est apud Angelos in foelicitate, with the Angels and Saints in heaven, he is in an established happiness, Est apud inferos in feritate, he is in Hell in his fury, in an irrevocable, and undeterminable execution of his severity: God was surely, and truly with Jacob, and with all them, who are sensible of his approaches, and of his gracious manifestation of himself. Verè non erat apud eos quibus dixit, quid vocatis me Dominum, & non facitis qua dixi vobis? God is not truly with them, whom he rebukes for saying; Why call ye Lord, and do not my Commandments? but ubi in ejus nomive Angeli simul & homines congregantur, When Angels and men, Priest and people, the Preacher and the congregation labor together upon this Ladder, study the advancing of his Church (as by the working of Gods gracious Spirit we do at this time) verèè est & ibi verè Dominus est, surely he is in this place, and surely he is Lord in this place, he possesses, he fills us all, he governs us all: and as, though we say to him, Our Father which art in heaven, yet we believe that he is within these walls, so though we say Adveniat regnum tuum, thy kingdom come, we believe that his kingdom is come, and is amongst us in grace now, as it shall be in glory hereafter.

When he was now throughly awake, when he was come to an open profession, when he acknowledged himself to stand in the sight of God, when he confessed his own ignorance of Gods presence, and when after all he was come to a settled confidence, Verè Dominus, surely the Lord is here, yet it is added, Et timuit, and he was afraid. No man may think himself to be come to that familiar acquaintance with God, as that it should take away that reverential fear which belongs to so high and supreme a Majesty. When the Angel appeared to the wife of Manoah, foretelling Samsons birth, she says to her husband, the fashion of him was like the fashion of the Angel of God; what's that? Exceeding fearful. When God appears to thy soul, even in mercy, in the forgivenes of thy sins, yet there belongs a fear even to this apprehension of mercy: Not a fearful diffidence, not a distrust, but a fearful consideration, of that height, and depth; what a high Majesty thou hast offended, what a desperate depth thou wast falling into, what a fearful thing it had been, to have fallen into the hands of the living God, and what an irrecoverable wretch thou hadst been, if God had not manifested himself, to have been in that place, with thee And therefore though he have appeared unto thee in mercy, yet be afraid, lest he go away again; As Manoab prayed, and said, I beseech thee my Lord, let the Man of God, whom thou sentest, come again unto us, and teach us, what we shall do with the child; when he is born, so when God hath once appeared to thy soul in mercy, pray him to come again, and tell thee what thou shouldest do with that mercy, how thou shouldest husband those first degrees of grace and of comfort, to the farther benefit of thy soul, and the farther glory of his name, and be afraid that thy dead flyes may putrefy his ointment; those reliques of sin, (though the body of sin, be crucified in thee) which are left in thee, may overcome his graces: for upon those words, Pavor tenuit me & tremor, & omnia ossa mea perterrita sunt, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake, Saint Gregory says well, Quid percussa nisi fortia act a designantur, our good deeds, our strongest works and those which were done in the best strength of grace, are meant by our bones, and yet ossa perterrita our strongest works tremble at the presence and examination of God. And therefore to the like purpose (upon those words of the Psalm) the same Father says, Omnia ossa mea dicent, Domine quis similis tibi, all my bones say, Lord who is like unto thee? Carnes mea, verba non habent, (my fleshly parts, my carnal affections) Infirma mea funditus silent, my sins; or my infirmities dare not speak at all, not appear at all, Sed ossa mea, quae fortia credidi, sua consideration tremiscunt, my very bones shake, there is no degree, no state neither of innocence, nor of repentance, nor of faith, nor of sanctification, above that fear of God: and he is least acquainted with God, who things that he is so familiar, that he need not stand in fear of him.

But this fear hath no ill effect. It brings him to a second profession, Et dixit; and he spoke again. He waked, and then he spoke, as soon as he came out of ignorance; He was afraid, and then he spoke again that he might have an increase of grace. The earth stands still: and earthly Men may be content to do so: but he whose conversation is in heaven, is as the heavens are in continual progress. For Inter profectum, & defectum & defectum, medium in hac vita non datur. A Christian is always in a proficiency, or deficiency: If he go not forward, he goes backward. Nemo dicat, satis est, sic manere volo; Let no man say, I have done enough, I have made my profession already, I have been catechized, I have been thought fit to receive the Communion, sufficit mihi esse sicut heri & nudiustertius; though he be in the way, in the Church, yet he sleeps in the way, he is got no farther in the way, then his godfathers carried him in their armes, to engraffe him in the Church by Baptism: for this man, says he, In via residet, in scala subsistit, quod nemo angelorum fecit, he stands still upon the ladder, and so did none of the Angels. Christ himself, increased in wildome, and in stature, and in favor with God, and Man; so must a Christian also labor to grow and to increase, by speaking and speaking again, by asking more, and more questions, and by farther, and farther informing his understanding, and enlightening his faith; per transiit benefaciendo, & sanavit omnes, says Saint Peter of Christ; He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil; and it was prophesied of him, Exultavit ut Gigas ad currendam vim, He went forth as a Gyant, to run a race; If it be Christs pace, it must be a Christians pace too. Currentem non apprehendit, nisi qui & pariter currit; There is no overtaking of him that runs, without running too. Quid prodest Christum sequi, si non consequamur? and to what purpose do we follow Christ, if not to overtake him, and lay hold upon him? Sic currite, ut comprehendatis, fig Christiane cursus & profectus metam ubi Christus suum; run so as ye may obtain; and if thou beest a Christian, propose the same end of thy course, as Christ did; factus est obediens usque ad mortem; and the end of his course was, to be obedient unto death.

Speak then, and talk continually of the name, and the goodness of God; speak again, and again; It is no tautology, no babling, to speak, and iterate his praises: Who accuses Saint Paul for repeating the sweet name of Jesus so very many times in his Epistles? Who accuses David for repeating the same phrase, the same sentence [for his mercy endureth for ever] so many times, as he doth in his Psalms? nay, the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm is scarce any thing else, then an often repetition of the same thing. Thou spokest assoon as thou wast awake, as soon as thou wast born, thou spokest in Baptism. So proceed to the farther knowledge of Religion, and the mysteries of Gods service in his house; and conceive a fearful reverence of them in their institution, and speak again, enquire what they mean, what they signify, what they exhibit to thee. Conceive a reverence of them, first, out of the authority that hath instituted them, and then speak, and inform thy self of them. God spent a whole week in speaking for thy good; Dixit Deus, God spake that there might be light, Dixit Deus, God spake that there might be a firmament; for immediately upon Gods speaking, the work followed: Dixit & factum, he spake the word, and the world was created. As God did, a godly man shall do; If he delight to talk of God, to mention often upon all occasions, the greatness, and goodness of God, to prefer that discourse, before obscene, and scurrile, and licentious, and profane, and defamatory, and ridiculous, and frivolous talk; If he delight in professing God with his tongue, out of the abundance of his heart, his works shall follow his words, he will do as he says. If God had given over, when he had spake of Light, and a Firmament, and Earth, and Sea, and had not continued speaking till the last day, when he made thee, what hadst thou got by all that? what hadst thou been at all for all that? If thou canst speak when thou awakest, when thou beginnest to have an apprehension of Gods presence, in a remorse, if then, that presence, and Majesty of God, make thee afraid, with the horror and greatness of thy sins, if thou canst not speak again then, not go forward with thy repentance; thy former speech is forgotten by God, and unprofitable to thee. Jacob at first speaking confessed God to be in that place; but so he might be every where; but he conceived a reverential fear at his presence; and then he came to speak the second time, to profess, that that was none other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven; that there was an entrance for him in particular, a fit place for him to testify and exercise his Devotion; he came to see, what it was fit for him to do, towards the advancing of Gods house.

Now whensoever a man is proceeded so far with Jacob, first to sleep, to be at peace with God, and then to wake, to do something for the good of others, and then to speak, to make profession, to publish his sense of Gods presence, and then to attribute all this only to the Light of God himself, by which light he grows from faith to faith, and from grace to grace, whosoever is in this disposition, he may say in all places, and in all his actions, This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. He shall see heaven open, and dwell with him, in all his undertakings: and particularly, and principally in his expressing of a care, and respect, both to Christs Mystical, and to his material body; both to the sustentation of the poor, and to the building up of Gods house. In both which kinds of Piety, and Devotion, (non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam; Not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be given the glory;) As to the confusion of those shameless slanderers, who place their salvation in works, and accuse us to avert men from good works, there have been in this Kingdom, since the blessed reformation of Religion, more public charitable works performed, more Hospitals and Celleges erected, and endowed in threescore, then in some hundreds of years, of superstition before, so may God be pleased to add one example more amongst us, that here in this place, we may have some occasion to say, of a house erected, and dedicated to his service, This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven: and may he vouchsafe to accept at our hands, in our intention, and in our endeavor to consummate that purpose of ours, that thanksgiving, that acclamation which he received from his Royal servant Solomon, at the Consecration of his great Temple, when he said, Is it true indeed, that God will dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain thee, how much more unable shall this house be, that we intend to build? But have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord, my God, to hear the cry & the prayer that thy servant shall make before thee that day; That thine eye may be open towards that house night and day, that thou mayst hear the supplications of thy servants, and of thy people, which shall pray in that place, and that thou mayst hear them in the place of thy habitation even in heaven, and when thou hearest, mayst have mercy. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XII.

JOHN 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement to the Son.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

When our Savior forbids us to cast pearl before swine, we understand ordinarily in that place, that by pearl, are understood the Scriptures, and when we consider the natural generation and production of Pearl, that they grow bigger and bigger, by a continual succession, and devolution of dew, and other glutinous moisture that falls upon them, and there condenses and hardens, so that a pearl is but a body of many shells, many crusts, many films, many coats enwrapped upon one another. To this Scripture which we have in hand, doth that Metaphor of pearl very properly appertain, because our Savior Christ in this Chapter undertaking to prove his own Divinity and God-head to the Jews, who acknowledged, and confessed the Father to be God, but denied it of him, he folds and wraps up reason upon reason, argument upon argument, that all things are common between the Father and him, That whatsoever the Father does, he does, whatsoever the Father is, he is; for first, he says, he is a partner, a cooperator with the Father, in the present administration and government of the world, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work; well, if the Father do ease himself upon instruments now, yet was it so from the beginning? had he a part in the Creation? Yes; What things soever the Father doth, those also doth the Son likewise. But do those extend to the work properly, and naturally belonging to God, to the remission, to the effusion of grace, to the spiritual resurrection of them that are dead in their iniquities? Yes, even to that too, For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them, even to the Son quickneth whom he will. But hath not this power of his a determination, or expiration? shall it not end, at least when the world ends? no, not then, for God hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Is there then no Supersedeas upon this commission? Is the Son equal with the Father in our eternal election, in our creation, in the means of our salvation, in the last judgement, in all? In all, Omne judicium, God hath committed all judgement to the Son; And here is a pearl made up, the dew of Gods grace sprinkled upon your souls, the beams of Gods Spirit shed upon your souls, that effectual and working knowledge; That he who died for your salvation is perfect God, as well as perfect man, fit, as willing to accomplish that salvation.

In handling then this Judgement, which is a word that embraces and comprehends all, All from our Election, where no merit or future actions of ours were considered by God to our fruition and possession of that election, where all our actions shall be considered and recompensed by him, we shall see first that Judgment belongs properly to God; And secondly, that God the Father whom we consider to be the root and foundation of the Deity, can no more divest his Judgment then he can his Godhead, and therefore in the third place we consider, what that committing of Judgment, which is mentioned here imports, and then to whom it is committed, To the Son: and lastly the largness of that which is committed, Omne, all Judgment, so that we cannot carry our thoughts so high, or so far backwards, as to think of any Judgment given upon us in Gods purpose or decree without relation to Christ; Nor so far forward, as to think that there shall be a Judgment given upon us, according to our good, moral dispositions or actions, but according to our apprehension and imitation of Christ. Judgment is a proper and inseparable Character of God; that's first, the Father cannot divest himself of that; that's next. The third is that he hath committed it to another; And then the person that is his delegate, is his only Son, and lastly his power is everlasting; And that Judgment day that belongs to him, hath, and shall last from our first Election, through the participation of the means prepared by him in his Church, to our association and union with him in glory, and so the whole circle of time, and before time was, and when time shall be no more, makes up but one Judgment day to him, to whom the Father who judgeth no man hath committed all Judgment.

First then Judgment appertains to God, It is his in Criminal causes,Vindicta mihi, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord; It is so in civil things too; for God himself is proprietary of all, Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus, The earth is the Lords, and all that is in, and on the earth; Your silver is mine, and your gold is mine, says the Prophet, and the beasts on a Thousand hills are mine, says David, you are usufructuaries of them, but I am proprietary; No attribute of God is so often iterated in the Scriptures, no state of God so often incultated, as this Judge, and Judgment: no word concerning God so often repeated, but it is brought to the height, where in that place of the Psalm, where we read, God judgeth among the Gods, the Latin Church ever read it, Deus dijudicat Deos, God judgeth the Gods themselves, for though God say of Judges and Magistrats, Ego dixi dii estis; I have said ye are Gods, (and if God say it, who shall gainsay it?) yet he says too, Moriemini, sicut homines, The greatest Gods upon earth shall die like men; And if that be not humiliation enough, there is more threatened in that which follows, yee shall fall like one of the Princes, for the fall of a Prince involves the ruin of many others too, and it fills the world with horror for the present, and ominous discourse for the future; but the farthest of all is Deus dijudicat Deos, even these Judges must come to Judgment, and therefore that Psalm which begins so, is concluded thus, Surge Domine, arise ô God, and judge the earth: If he have power to judge the earth, he is God, and even in God himself it is expressed as a kind of rising, as some exaltation of his power, that he is to Judge; And that place in the beginning of that Psalm many of the antients read in the future Dijudicabit, God, shall judge the Gods, because the frame of the Psalm seems to referre it to the last Judgment; Turtullian reads it Dijudicavit, as a thing past, God hath judged in all times; and the letter of the text requires it to be in the present, Dijudicat. Collect all, and Judgment is so essential to God, as that it is coeternal with him, he hath, he doth, and he will judge the world, and the Judges of the world, other Judges die likemen, weakly, and they fall, that's worse ignominiously, and they fall like Princes, that's worst, fearfully, and yet scornfully, and when they are dead and fallen, they rise no more to execute Judgment, but have Judgment executed upon them the Lord dies not, nor he falls not, and if he seem to slumber, the Martyrs under the Altar awake him with their Vsque quo Domine, how long O Lord before thou execute Iudgment? And he will arise and Judge the world, for Judgment is his; God putteth down one, and setteth up another, says David; where hath he that power? Why, God is the Judge, not a Judge, but the Judge, and in that right he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

Now for this Judgment, which we place in God, we must consider in God three notions, three apprehensions, three kinds of Judgment. First, God hath Iudicium detestationis, God doth naturally know, and therefore naturally detest evil; for no man in the extreamest corruption of nature is yet fallen so far, as to love or approve evil at the same time that he knows, and acknowledges it to be evil. But we are so blind in the knowledge of evil, that we needed that great supplement, and assistance of the law it self to make us know what was evil; Moses magnifies (and justly) the law, Non appropinquavit, says Moses, God came not so near to any nation as to the Jews; Non taliter fecit, God dealt not so well with any nation, as with the Jews, and wherein? because he had given them a law, and yet we see the greatest dignity of this law, to be, That by the law is the knowledge of sin; for though by the law of nature written in our hearts, there be some condemnation of some sins, yet to know that every sin was Treason against God, to know that every sin hath the reward of death, and eternal death annexed to it; this knowledge we have only by the law. Now if man will pretend to be a Judge, what an exact knowledge of the law is required at his hand? for some things are sin to one nation, which are not to another, as where the just authority of the lawful Magistrate, changes the nature of the thing, and makes a thing naturally indifferent, necessary to them, who are under his obedience; some things are sins at one time, which are not at another, as all the ceremonial law, created new sins which were not sins before the law was given, nor since it expired; some things are sins in a man now, which will not be sins in the same man to morrow, as when a man hath contracted a just scruple, against any particular action, it is a sin to do it during the scruple, and it may be sin in him to omit it, when he hath divested the scruple; only God hath Iudicium detestationis, he knows, and therefore detests evil, and therefore flatter not thy self with a Tush, God sees it not, or, Tush, God cares not, Doth it disquiet him or trouble his rest in heaven that I break his Sabbath here? Doth it wound his body, or draw his blood there, that I swear by his body and blood here? Doth it corrupt any of his virgins there, that I sollicit the chastity of a woman here? Are his Martyrs withdrawn from their Allegiance, or retarded in their service to him there, because I dare not defend his cause, nor speak for him, nor fight for him here? Beloved, it is a degree of superstition, and an effect of an undiscreet zeal, perchance, to be too forward in making indifferent things necessary, and so to imprint the nature, and sting of sin where naturally it is not so: certainly it a more slippery and irreligious thing to be too apt to call things merely indifferent, and to forget that even in eating and drinking, waking and sleeping, the glory of God is intermingled, as if we knew exactly the prescience and foreknowledge of God, there could be nothing contingent or casual, (for though there be a contingency in the nature of the thing, yet it is certain to God) so if we considered duly, wherein the glory of God might be promoved in every action of ours, there could scarce by any action so indifferent, but that the glory of God would turn the scale and make it necessary to me, at that time; but then private interests, and private respects create a new indifferency to my apprehension, and calls me to consider that thing as it is in nature, and not as it is considered with that circumstance of the glory of God, and so I lose that Iudicium detestationis, which only God hath absolutely and perfectly to know, and therefore to detest evil, and so he is a Judge.

And as he is a Judge, so Iudicat rem, he judges the nature of the thing, he is so too, as he hath Iudicium discretionis, and so Iudicat personam, he knows what is evil, and he discernes when thou committest that evil. Here you are fain to supply defects of laws, that things done in one County may be tried in another; And that in offences of high nature, transmarine offences may be inquired and tried here; But as the Prophet says; Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or meted the heavens with a span, who comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, or weighed the mountains in a scale? So I say, who hath divided heaven into shires or parishes, or limited the territories and Jurisdictions there, that God should not have Iudicium discretionis, the power of discerning all actions, in all places? When there was no more to be seen, or considered upon the whole earth but the garden of Paradise, for from the beginning Deliciae ejus esse cum filiis hominum, Gods delight was to be with the sons of men, and man was only there, shall we not deminish God nor speak too vulgarly of him to say, that he hovered like a Falcon over Paradise, and that from that height of heaven, the piercing eye of God, saw so little a thing, as the forbidden fruit, and what became of that, and the reaching ear of God heard the hissing of the Serpent, and the whispering of the woman, and what was concluded upon that? Shall we think it little to have seen to have things done in Paradise when there was nothing else to divert his eye, nothing else to distract his counsels, nothing else done upon the face of the earth? Take the earth now as it is replenished, and take it either as it is torn and crumbled into rags, and shivers, not a kingdom, not a family, not a man agreeing with himself; Or take it in that concord which is in it, as All the Kings of the earth set themselves, and all the Rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord; take it in this union, or this division, in this concord, or this discord, still the Lord that sitteth in the heavens discernes all, looks at all, laughs at all, and hath them all in derision. Earthly Judges have their distinctions, and so their restrictions, some things they cannot know, what mortal man can know all? Some things they cannot take knowledge of, for they are bound to evidence: But God hath Iudicium discretionis, no mist, no cloud, no darkness, no disguise keeps him from discerning, and judging all our actions, and so he is a Judge too.

And he is so lastly, as he hath Iudicium retributionis, God knows what is evil, he knows when that evil is done, and he knows, how to punish and recompense that evil: for the office of a Judge who judges according to a law, being not to contract, or extend that law, but to declare what was the true meaning of that Law-maker when he made that law, God hath this judgement in perfection, because he himself made that law by which he judges, and therefore when he hath said, Morte morieris; If thou do this, thou shalt die a double death, where he hath said, Stipendium peccati mors est, every sin shall be rewarded with death; If I sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for me? Who shall give any other interpretation, any modification, any Non obstante upon his law in my behalf, when he comes to judge me according to that law which himself hath made? Who shall think to delude the Judge, and say, Surely this was not the meaning of the Law-giver, when he who is the Judge was the Law-maker too?

And then as God is Judge in all these respects, so is he a Judge in them all, Sine Appellatione, and Sine judiciis, man cannot appeal from God, God needs no evidence from man; for, for the Appeal first, to whom should we appeal from the Soveraigne. Wrangle as long as ye will who is Chief Justice, and which Court hath Jurisdiction over another; I know the Chief Justice, and I know the Soveraigne, the King of heaven and earth shall send his ministering Spirits, his Angels to the, and bowels of the Earth, and to the bosom, and bottom of the Sea, and Earth must deliver, Corpus cum causâ, all the bodies of the dead, and all their actions, to receive a judgement in this Court: when it will be but an erroneous, and frivolous Appeal, to call to the Hills to fall down upon us, and the Mountains to cover, and hide us from the wrathful judgment of God. He is a Judge then Sine appellatione, without any Appeal, from him, he is so too Sine judiciis, without needing any evidence from us. Now if I be wary in my actions here, incarnate Devils, detractors, and informers cannot accuse me; If my sin come not to action, but lye only in my heart, the Devil himself who is the accuser of the brethren, hath no evidence against me, but God knows my heart; doth not he that pondereth the heart, understand it? where it is not in that faint word, which the vulgar Edition hath expressed it in, inspector cordium, That God sees the heart; but the word is Tochen, which signifies every where to weigh, to number, to search, to examine, as the word is used by Solomon again, The Lord weigheth the spirits, and it must be a ready hand, and exact scales that shall weigh spirits. So that though neither man, nor Devil, nay nor my self give evidence against me, yea, though I know nothing by my self, I am not thereby justified, why? where is the farther danger? In this which follows there in Saint Paul, He that judges me is the Lord, and the Lord hath means to know my heart better then my self: And therefore, as Saint Augustine makes use of those words, Abyssus Abyssum invocat, one depth calls upon another, The infinite depth of my sins must call upon the more infinite depth of Gods mercy, for if God, who is Judge in all these respects, judicio detestationis, he knows, and abhors evil, and judicio discretionis, he discerns every evil person, and every evil action, judicio retributionis, he can, and will recompense evil with evil; And all these Sine Appellatione, we cannot appeal from him, & Sine judiciis, he needs no evidence from us; If this judgement enter into judgement with me, not only not I, but not the most righteous man, no, nor the Church whom he hath washed in his blood, that she might be without spot or wrinckle, shall appear righteous in his sight.

This being then thus, that Judgement is an unseparable character of God the Father, being Fons Deitatis, the root and spring of the whole Deity, how is it said, that the Father judgeth no man? Not that we should conceive a weariness, or retiring in the Father, or a discharging of himself upon the shoulders, and labours of another, in the administration, and judging of this world; for as it is truly said, that God rested the seventh day, that is, he rested from working in that kind, from creating, so it is true that Christ says here; My Father worketh yet, and I work, and so as it is truly said here, The Father judgeth no man, it is truly said by Christ too, of the Father, I seek not mine own glory, there is one that seeketh, and judgeth; still it is true, that God hath Iudicium detestationis, Thy eyes are pure eyes O Lord, and cannot behold iniquity, says the Prophet, still it is true, that he hath Iudicium discretionis (because they committed villany in Israel, and I know it, saith the Lord;) still it is true, that he hath Iudicium retributionis, The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up; still it is true, that he hath all these sine appellatione; for go to the Sea, or Earth, or Hell, as David makes the distribution, and God is there; and he hath them sine judiciis, for our witness is in heaven, and our record is on high: All this is undeniably true, and besides this, that great name of God, by which he is first called in the Scriptures Elohim, is not inconveniently derived from Elah, which is Iurare to swear, God is able as a Judge to minister an oath unto us, and to draw evidence from our own consciences against our selves, so that then, the Father he judges still, but he judges as God, and not as the Father. In the three great judgements of God, the whole Trinity judges, In the first judgement, before all times, which was Gods Judiciary separating of vessels of honor, from vessels of dishonor, in our Election, and Reprobation; In his second judgement, which is in execution now, which is Gods judiciary separating of servants from enemies, in the seals, and in the administration of the Christian Church; and in the last judgement, which shall be Gods Judiciary separating of sheep from goats, to everlasting glory, or condemnation; in all these three judgements, all the three Persons of the Trinity are Judges. Consider God altogether, and so in all outward works, all the Trinity concurres, because all are but one God; but consider God in relation, in distinct Persons, and so the several Persons do something in which the other Persons are not interessed; The Son hath not a generation from himself, so, as he had from the Father, and from the holy Ghost, as a distinct person, he had none at all; the holy Ghost had a proceeding from the Father and Son, but from the Son as a person, who had his generation from another, but not so from the Father. Not to stray into clouds, or perplexities in this contemplation, God, that is, the whole Trinity, judges still, but so as the Son judgeth, the Father judgeth not, for that Judgment he hath committed.

That we may husband our hour well, and reserve as much as we can for our two last considerations, the Cui, & Quid, to whom, and that's to the Son, and what he hath committed, and that's all Judgement, we will not stand much upon this, more needs not then this; That God in his wisdom foreseeing, that man for his weakness would not be able to settle himself upon God and his judgments, as they are merely heavenly, and spiritual, out of his abundant goodness hath established a judgement, and ordained a Judge upon earth like himself, and like our selves too, That as no man hath seen God, so no man should go about to see his unsearchable decrees, and judgements, but rest in those sensible, and visible means which he hath afforded, that is, Christ Jesus speaking in his Church, and applying his blood unto us in the Sacraments to the worlds end: God might have suffered Abraham to rest in the first general promise, Semen mulieris, the Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head, but he would bring it nearer to a visible, to a personal Covenant, In semine tuo, In thy Seed shall all nations be blessed; he might well have let him rest in that appropriation of the promise to his race, but he would proceed farther, and seal it with a sensible seal in his flesh with Circumcision; he might have let him rest in that ratification, that a Messiah should come by that way, but he would continue it by a continual succession of Prophets, till that Messiah should come; and now that he is come and gone, still God pursues the same way; How should they believe, except they hear? and therefore God evermore supplies his Church with visible and sensible means, and knowing the natural inclination of man, when he cannot have, or cannot comprehend the original, and prototype, to satisfy, and refresh himself with a picture, or representation; So, though God hath forbidden us that slippery, and frivolous, and dangerous use of graven Images, yet he hath afforded us his Son, who is the image of the invisible God, and so more proportional unto us, more apprehensible by us; And so this committing is no more but that God in another form, then that of God, hath manifested his power of judging, and this committing, this manifestation is in Filio, in his Son.

But in the entrance into the handling of this, we ask only this question, Cui filio, to which Son of God is this commission given? Not that God hath more Sons then one; but because that Son is his Son by a two-fold filiation; by an eternal, and inexpressible generation, and by a temporary, but miraculous incarnation, in which of these rights is this commission derived upon him? doth he judge as he is the Son of God? or as he is the Son of man? I am not ordinarily bold in determining points (especially if they were fundamental) wherein I find the Fathers among themselves, and the School in it self, and the reverend Divines of the Reformation amongst themselves to differ; But yet neither am I willing to raise doubts, and leave the auditory unsatisfied, and unsetled; we are not upon a Lecture, but upon a Sermon, and therefore we will not multiply variety of opinions; sum up the Fathers upon one side in Saint Ambrose mouth, and they will say with him, Huic dedit ubique generundo, non largiendo, God gave his Son this commission then (and when was that then?) then when he begot him, and then he must have it by his eternal generation, as the Son of God: sum up the Fathers on the other side, in Saint Augustines mouth, and there they will say with him, that it is so clear, and so certain, that whatsoever is said in the Scripture to be committed, and given to Christ, belongs to Christ as the Son of man, and not as the Son of God, as that th'other opinion cannot be maintained; and at this distance we shall never bring them to meet, but take in this rule, Iudicium convenit ei ut homo, causa ut Deus, God hath given Christ this commission as man, but Christ had not been capable of this commission if he had not been God too, and so it is easily reconciled: If we shall hold simply to the letter of the text, Pater dedit, then it will seem to have been committed to him in his eternal generation, because that was a work of the Fathers only, and in that generation the holy Ghost had no part; But since in this judgement, which is now committed to him, the holy Ghost hath a part, (for as we said before, the Judgement is an act of the whole Trinity) we must look for a commission from the whole Trinity, and that is as he is man, for, tota Trinitas univit humanitatem, The hypostatical union of God and man in the person of Christ, was a work of the whole Trinity.

Taking it then so settled, that the capacity of this Judgment, and (if we may say so) the future title to it, was given to him, as God by his essence, in his eternal generation, by which non vitae particeps, sed vitae naturaliter est, we cannot say that Christ hath life, but that he is life, for whatsoever the Father is, he is, excepting only the name and relation of Father, the capacity, the ability is in him, eternally before any imaginable, any possible consideration of time; But the power of the actual execution of this Judgement, which is given, and is committed, is in him as man: because as the same Father says, Ad heminem dicitur, Quid habes quod non accepisti? When Saint Past says, What hast thou that thou hast not received? he asks that question of a man, that which is received, is received as man, For as Bellarmine in a place where he disposes himself to quarrel, at some few words of Calvins, though he confess the matter to be true, and (as he calls it there) Catholic, says, Essentiam genitam negamus, we confess that Christ hath not his essence from his Father by generation, the relation, the filiation, he hath from his Father, he hath the name of Son, but he hath not this execution of this judgement by that relation, by that filiation, still as the Son of God, he hath the capacity, as the Son of man, he hath the execution; And therefore Prosper that follows S. Augustine limits perchance too narrowly to the very flesh, to the humanity, Ipsa (not Ipsae)erit Iudex, quae sub Iudice stetit, and ipsa judicabit, quae judicatae est, where he places not this Judgement upon the mixed person (which is the safest way) of God and man, but upon man alone, God hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness; But by whom? By that man whom he hath ordained God will judge still; but still in Christ; and therefore says S. Augustine upon those words: Arise O Lord, and judge the earth, Cui Deo dicitur surge, nisi ei qui dormivit? What God doth David call upon to arise, but that God who lay down to sleep in the grave? as though he should say (says August.) Dormivisti judicatus à terra, surge & judica terram. So that to collect all, though judgement be such a character of God as he cannot divest, yet the Father hath committed such a Judgement to the Son, as none but he can execute.

And what is that? Omne judicium, all judgement, that is, omne imperium, omnem potestatem; It is presented in the name of Judgement, but it involves all, It is literally, and particularly Judgement in S. John, The Father hath given him authority to execute judgement, It is extended unto power in Saint Matthew, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; And it is enlarged as far farther, as can be expressed or conceived in another place of Saint Matthew, All things are delivered to me of my Father. Now all things our Savior Christ Jesus exercises, either per carnem, or at least in carne, whatsoever the Father does, the Son does too, In carne, because now there is an unseparable union betwixt God and the humane nature: The Father creates new souls every day in the inanimation of Children, and the Son creates them with him; The Father concurs with all second causes as the first moving cause of all natural things, and all this the Son does too; but all this in carne; Though he be in our humane flesh, he is not the less able to do the acts belonging to the Godhead, but per carnem, by the flesh instrumentally, visibly, he executes judgement, because he is the Son of man, God hath been so indulgent to man, as that there should be no judgement given upon man, but man should give it; Christ then having all Judgment, we refresh to your memory those three Judgements which we toucht upon before; first, the Judgement of our Election, severing of vessels of honor and dishonor; next, the Judgement of our Justification here severing of friends from enemies; and then the Judgment of our Glorification, severing sheep from goats; and for the first, of our Election, As if I were under the condemnation of the Law, for some capital offence, and going to execution, and the Kings mercy expressed in a sealed pardon were presented me, I should not stand to enquire what moved the King to do it, what he said to any body else, what any body else said to him, what he saw in me, or what he look't for at my hands, but embrace that mercy cheerfully, and thankfully, and attribute it only to his abundant goodness: So, when I consider my self to have been let fall into this world, in massa Damnata, under the general condemnation of mankind, and yet by the working of Gods Spirit, I find at first a desire, and after a modest assurance, that I am delivered from that condemnation, I enquire not what God did in his bed-chamber, in his cabinet counsel, in his eternal decree, I know that he hath made Iudicium electionis in Christ Jesus: And therefore that I may know, whether I do not deceive my self, in presuming my self to be of that number, I come down, and examine my self whether I can truly tell my conscience, that Christ Jesus died for me, which I cannot do, if I have not a desire and an endeavor to conform my self to him; And if I do that, there I find my Predestination, I am a Christian, and I will not offer to go before my Master Christ Jesus, I cannot be saved before there was a Savior, In Christ Jesus is Omne judicium, all judgement, and therefore the judgment of Election, the first separation of vessels of honor and dishonor in Election and Reprobation was in Christ Jesus.

Much more evidently is the second judgement of our Justification by means ordained in the Christian Church, the Judgement of Christ, it is the Gospel of Christ which is preacht to you there, There is no name given under heaven whereby you should be saved, there are no other means wherby salvation should be applied in his name given, but those which he hath instituted in his Church; So that when I come to the second judgement, to try whether I stand justified in the sight of Christ, or no, I come for that Judgement to Christ in his Church; Do I remember what I contracted with Christ Jesus, when I took the name of a Christian at my entrance into his Church by Baptism? Do I find I have endeavoured to perform those Conditions? Do I find a remorse when I have not performed them? Do I feel the remission of those sins applied to me when I hear the gracious promises of the Gospel shed upon repentant sinners by the mouth of his Minister? Have I a true and solid consolation, (without shift, or disguise, or flattering of my conscience) when I receive the seal of his pardon in the Sacrament? Beloved, not in any moral integrity, not in keeping the conscience of an honest man, in general, but in using well the means ordained by Christ in the Christian Church, am I justified. And therefore this Judgement of Justification is his too. And then the third and last judgement, which is the judgment of Glorification, that's easily agreed by all to appertain unto Christ, Idem Jesus, The same Jesus that ascended, shall come to judgement, Videbunt quem pupugerant, Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierc't him; Then the Son of man shall come in glory, and he, as man, shall give the judgement, for things done, or omitted towards him as man, for not feeding, for not clothing, for not harbouring, for not visiting. The sum of all is, that this is the overflowing goodness of God, that he deals with man by the son of man; and that he hath so given all judgement to the Son, as that if you would be tried by the first judgement; are you elected or no? The issue is, do you believe in Christ Jesus, or no? If you would be tried by the second judgement, are you justified or no? The issue is, do you find comfort in the application of the Word, and Sacraments of Christ Jesus, or no? If you would be tried by the third Judgement, do you expect a Glorification, or no? The issue is, Are you so reconciled to Christ Jesus now, by hearty repentance for sins past, and by detestation of occasion of future sin, that you durst welcome that Angel which should come at this time, and swear that time should be no more, that your transmigration out of this world should be this minute, and that this minute you might say unfeignedly and effectually, Veni Domine Iesu; come quickly, come now; if this be your state, then are you partakers of all that blessedness, which the Father intended to you, when for your sake, he committed all Judgment to the Son.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XIII.

JOHN 8. 15. I judge no man.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

THe Rivers of Paradise did not all run one way, and yet they flowed from one head; the sentences of the Scripture flow all from one head, from the holy Ghost, and yet they seem to present divers senses, and to admit divers interpretations; In such an appearance doth this Text differ from that which I handled in the forenoon, and as heretofore I found it a useful and acceptable labor, to employ our Evening exercises, upon the vindicating of some such places of Scripture, as our adversaries of the Roman Church had detorted in some point of controversy between them and us, and restoring those places to their true sense, (which course I held constantly for one whole year) so I think it a useful and acceptable labor, now to employ for a time those Evening exercises to reconcile some such places of Scripture, as may at first sight seem to differ from one another; In the morning we saw how Christ judged all; now we are to see how he judges none; I judge no man.

To come then to these present words, here we have the same person Christ Jesus, and hath not he the same Office? Is not he Judge? certainly though he retained all his other Offices, though he be the Redeemer, and have shed his blood in value satisfactory for all our sins, though he be our Advocate and plead for us in heaven, and present our evidence to that Kingdom, written in his blood, sealed in his wounds, yet if he be not our Judge, we cannot stand in judgement; shall he be our Judge, and is he not our Judge yet? Long before we were he was our Judge at the separation of the Elect and Reprobate, in Gods eternal Decree. Was he our Judge then, and is he not so still? still he is present in his Church, and clears us in all scruples, rectifies us in all errors, erects us in all dejections of spirit, pronounces peace and reconciliation in all apprehensions of his Judgements, by his Word and by his Sacraments, was he, and is he, and shall he not be our Judge still? I am sure my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on earth. So that Christ Jesus is the same to day, and yesterday, and for ever, before the world begun, and world without end, Sicut erat in principio, as he was in the beginning, he is, and shall be ever our Judge.

So that then these words are not De tempore, but De modo, there was never any time when Christ was not Judge, but there were some manner of Judgements which Christ did never exercise, and Christ had no commission which he did not execute; for he did all his Fathers will. 1. In secularibus, in civil, or criminal businesses, which belong merely to the Judicatures, and cognisance of this world, Iudicat neminem, Christ judges no man. 2. Secundum carnem, so as they to whom Christ spake this; who judged, as himself says here, according to fleshly affections, Iudicat neminem, he judges no man: and 3. Ad internecionem, so as that upon that Judgement, a man should despair of any reconciliation, any redintegration with God again, and be without hope of pardon, and remission of sins in this world, Iudicat neminem, he judges no man; 1. Christ usurps upon no mans Jurisdiction, that were against justice. 2. Christ imputes no false things to any man, that were against charity. 3. Christ induces no man to desperation, that were against faith; and against Justice, against charity, against faith, Iudicat neminem.

First then, Christ judgeth not in secular judgements, and we note his abstinence therein; first, in civil matters, when one of the company said to him, Master, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me, as Saint Augustine says, the Plaintiff thought his cause to be just, and he thought Christ to be a competent Judge in the cause, and yet Christ declines the judgement, disavows the authority, and he answers, Homo, quis me constituit Iudicem, Man, who made me a Judge between you? To that General, which we had in the morning, Omne judicium, the Son hath all judgement; here is an exception of the same Judges own making, for in secular judgements, Nemo constituit, he had no commission, and therefore Iudicat neminem, he judges no man; he forbore in criminal matters too, for when the woman taken in adultery, was brought before him, he condemned her not; It is true, he absolved her not, the evidence was pregnant against her, but he condemned her not, he undertook no office of a Judge, but of a sweet and spiritual Counsellor, Go, and sin no more, for this was his Element, his Tribunal.

When then Christ says of himself, with such a pregnant negative, Quis me constituit Iudicem, may not we say so too, to his pretended Vicar, the Bishop of Rome, Quis te? Who made you Judge of Kings, that you should depose them, in criminal causes? Or who made you proprietary of Kingdoms, that you should dispose of them, as of civil inheritances? when to countenance such a pretence, they detort places of Scripture, not only perversly, but senselesly, blasphemously, ridiculously, (as ridicolously as in their pasquils, wh̄ in an undiscreet shamlesnes, to make their power greater then it is, they make their fault greater then it is too, & fil their histories with examples of Kings deposed by Popes, which in truth were not deposed by them, for in that they are more innocent then they will confess themselves to be) when some of their Authors say, that the Primitive Church abstained from deposing Emperors, only because she was not strong enough to do it, when some of them say, That all Christian Kingdoms of the earth, may fall into the Church of Rome, by faults in those Princes, when some of them say, that De facto, the Pope hath already a good title to every Christian Kingdom, when some of them say, that the world will never he well governed, till the Pope put himself into possession of all (all which several propositions are in several Authors of good credit amongst them) will be not endure Christs own question, Quis te constituit? Who made you Judge of all this? If they say Christ did; did he it in his Doctrine? It is hard to pretend that, for such an institution as that must have very clear, very pregnant words the carry in; did he do it by his example and practice? we see he abstained in criminal causes, when they come to their last shift, that is, that Christ did exercise Judiciary Authority, when he whipped Merchants out of the Temple, when he cursed the fig-tree, and damnified the owner thereof, and when he destroyed the Heard of Swine, (for there, say they, the Devil was but the Executioner, Christ was the Judge) to all these, and such as these, it is enough to say, All these were miraculous, and not ordinary; and though it might seem half a miracle how that should exercise so much authority as he hath done over the world, yet when we look nearer, and see his means, that he hath done all this by Massacres of millions, by withdrawing Subjects from their Allegiance, by assasinating and murthering of Princes, when we know that miracles are without means, and we see the means of his proceedings, the miracle ceases, howsoever that Bishop as Christs Vicar can claim no other power, then was ordinary in Christ, and so exercised by Christ, and so Iudicavit neminem; In secular judgement, Christ judges no man, and therefore that Bishop as his Vicar should not.

Secondly, Christ judges no man by calumny, by imputing, or laying false aspersions upon him, nor truths extrajudicially, for that's a degree of calumny; We enter into a large field, when we go about to speak against calumny, and slander, and detraction, so large a field, as that we may fight out the last drop of our blood, preach out the last gasp of our breath, before we overcome it, those to whom Christ spake here, were such as gave perverse judgments, caluminiating censures upon him, and so he judges no man, we need not insist upon that, for it is manifestè verum; but that we may see our danger, and our duty, what calumny is, and so how to avoid it actively, and how to bear it passively, I must by your leave stop a little upon it.

When then we would present unto you that monster Slander, and Calumny, though it be hard to bring it within any compass of a division, yet to take the largeness of the school, and say, that every calumny is either direct, or indirect, that will comprehend all, and then a direct calumny, will have three branches, either to lay a false and unjust imputation, or else to aggravate a just imputation, with unnecessary, but heavy circumstances, or thirdly to reveal of fault which in it self was secret and I by no duty bound to discover it, and then the indirect calumny will have three branches too, either to deny expressly some good that is in another, or to smother it in silence, when my testimony were due to him, and might advantage him, or lastly to diminish his good parts, and say they are well, but not such as you would esteem them to be; collect then again, for that's all, that we shall be able to do, that he is a calumniator directly, that imputes a false crime, that aggravates a true crime, that discovers any crime extrajudicially; That he is an indirect calumniator, that denies another mans sufficiencies, that conceals them, that diminishes them; Take in some of Saint Bernards examples of these rules, that it is a calumny to say, Doles vehementer, I am sorry at the heart for such a man because I love him, but I could never draw him from such and such a vice, or to say, per me nunquam innotuisset, I would never have spoken of it, yet since all the world talks of it, the truth must not be disguised, and so take occasion to discover a fault which no body knew before, and thereby (as the same Father says) cum gravitate et tarditate aggredi maledictionem, to cut a mans throat gravely, and soberly, and so much the more perswasively; because he seems, and pretends to do it all against his will; This being the rule, and this the exumple, who amongst us is free from the passive calumny? Who amongst us hath not some other man calumniated? Nay who is free from the active part? Which of us in some of these degrees hath not calumniated some other? But those to whom Christ makes his exception here, that he judges no man as they judge, were such calumniators, as David speaks of, Sedens adversus fratrem tuum loquebaris, Then sittest and speakest against thy neighbor, as Saint Augastin notes upon that place, Non transitoriè, non surreptionis passion, sed quasi ad hoc vacans, not by chance, & unawares, not in passion because he had offended thee, not for company, because thou wouldst be of their minds, but as though thy profession would bear thee out in it, to leave the cause and lay aspersion upon the person, so thou art a calumniator, They up my people as bread, as David says in Gods person: And upon those words of the same Prophet, says the same Father, De caeteris, when we eat of any thing else, we taste of this dish, and we taste of that, non semper holus, says he we do not always eat one sallet, one meat, one kind of fruit, sed semper panem, whatsoever we eat else we always eat bread, howsoever they implored their thoughts, or their wits otherways, it was always one exercise of them to calumniate Christ Jesus, and in that kind of calumny, which is the bitterest of all, they abounded most, which is in scorn and derision, David, and Job, who were slander proof, in a good measure, yet every where complain passionately that they were made a scorn, that the wits made libells, that drunkards sung songs, that fools, and the children of fools derided them; And when Saul was in his last, and worst agony, and had abandoned himself to a present death, and prayed his armourbearer to kill him, it was not because the uncircumcised should not kill him (for he desired death, and he had their deadly arrows already in his bosom) but it was (as it is expressed there) lest the uncircumcised should come and abuse him, he was afraid of scorn when he had but a few minutes of life. Since then Christ judges no man (as they did) secundum carnem ejus, according to the outward appearance, for they thought no better of Christ then he seemed to be, (as Fathers take that phrase, nor secundum carnem suam, according to his own fleshly passions, (as some others take it) judge not you so neither, first judge not that ye be not judged, that is, as Saint Ambrose interprets it well enough, Nolite judicare de judiciis Dei, when you see Gods judgments fall upon a man, when you see the tower of Silo fall upon a man, do not you judge that that man had sinned more then you, when you see another born blind, do not you think that he or his Father had sinned, and that you only are derived from a pure generation, especially non maledices surdo, speak not evil of the deaf that hears not; That is, (as Gregory interprets it if not literally, yet appliably, and usefully) calumniate not him who is absent, and cannot defend himself, it is the devills office to be Accusator fratrum, and though God do not say in the law, Non erit, yet he says, Non erit criminator, it is not plainly, there shall be no Informer: (for as we dispute, and for the most part affirme in the School, that though we could, we might destroy no entire species of those creatures, which God made at first, though it be a Tyger, or a viper, because this were to take away one link of Gods chain out of the world, so such vermine as Informers may not, for some good use that there is of them, be taken away) though it be not non erit, there shall be none, yet it is at least by way of good counsel to thee, non eris, thou shalt not be the man, thou shalt not be the Informer, and for resisting those that are, we are bound, not only not to harm our neighbours house, but to help him, if casually his house fall on fire, we are bound where where we have authority to stop the mouths of other calumniators where we have no authority, yet since as the North wind driveth away rain, an angry countenance driveth away a back-biting tongue, at least deal so with a libeller, with a calumniator, for he that looks pleasantly, and hearkens willingly to one libel, makes another, occasions a second; always remember Davids case, when he thought that he had been giving judgment against another he was more severe, more heavy, then the law admitted; The law was, that he that had stolen the sheep should return fourefold, and Davids anger was kindled says the text, and he said, and he swore, As the Lord liveth, that man shall restore fourfold, Et filius mortis, and he shall surely dies O judicis superfluentem justitiam, O superabundant and overflowing Justice, when we judge another in passion; But this is judicium secundum carnem, according to which Christ judges no man, for Christ is love, and that non cogitat malum, love thinks no evil any way; The charitable man neither meditates evil against another, nor believes not easily any evil to be in another, though it be told him.

Lastly, Christ judges no man Ad internecionem, he judges no man so, in this world, as to give a final condemnation upon him here; There is no error in any of his Judgments, but there is an appeal from all his Judgments in this world; There is a verdict against every man, every man may find his case recorded, and his sin condemned in the law, and in the Prophets, there is a verdict, but before Judgment, God would have every man saved by his book, by the apprehension, and application of the gracious promises of the Gospel, to his case, and his conscience, Christ judges no man so, as that he should see no remedy, but to curse God, and die, not so, as that he should say, his sin is greater then God could forgive, for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Do not thou then give malicious evidence against thy self, do not weaken the merit, nor lessen the value of the blood of thy Savior, as though thy sin were greater then it; Doth God desire thy blood now, when he hath abundantly satisfied his justice with the blood of his Son for thee? what hast thou done? hast thou come hypocritically to this place upon collateral reasons, and not upon the direct service of God? not for love of Information, of Reformation of thy self? If that be thy case, yet if a man hear my words, says Christ, and believe not, I judge him not, he hath one that judgeth him, says Christ, and who is that? The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him; It shall, but when? It shall judge him, says Christ, at that last day, for till the last day, the day of his death, no man is past recovery, no man's salvation is impossible: Hast thou gone farther then this? Hast thou admitted scruples of diffidence, and distrust in Gods mercy, and so tasted of the lees of desperation? It is true, perpetrare flagitium est mors anima, sed desper are est descensus ad inferos, In every sin the soul dies, but in desperation it descends into hell, but yet portae inferi non praevalebunt, even the gates of this hell shall not prevail against thee; Assist thy self, argue thine own case, desperation it self may be without infidelity; desperation aswell as hope is rooted in the desire of happiness; desperation proceeds out of a fear and a horror of sin, desperation may consist with faith thus far, that a man may have a true, and faithful opinion in the general, that there is a remission of sin, to be had in the Church, and yet have a corrupt imagination in the particular, that to him in this sinful state that he is in, this remission of sins shall not be applied, so that the resolution of the School is good, Desperatio potest esse solo excessu boni; desperation may proceed from an excess of that which is good in it self, from an excessive over fearing of Gods justice, from an excessive over hating thine own sins, Et virtute quis malè utitur? Can any man make so ill use of so great virtues, as the fear of God and the hare of sin? yes they may, so froward a weed is sin, as that it can spring out of any root, and therefore if it have done so in thee, and thou thereby have made thy case the harder, yet know stil, that Objectum spei est arduum, et possibile, the true object of hope is hard to come by, but yet possible to come by, and therefore as David said, By my God have I leaped over a wall, so by thy God mayst thou break through a wall, through this wall of obduration, which thou thy self hast begun to build about thy self. Feather thy wings again, which even the flames of hell have touched in these beginnings of desperation, feather them again with this text Neminem judicat, Christ judges no man, so as a desperate man judges himself, do not make thy self believe, that thou hast sinned against the holy Ghost; for this is the nearest step thou hast made to it, to think that thou hast done it; walk in that large field of the Scriptures of God, and from the first flower at thy entrance, the flower of Paradise, Semen mulieris, the general promise of the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head, to the last word of that Messiah upon the Cross, Consummatum est, that all that was promised for us is now performed, and from the first to the last thou shalt find the savor of life unto life in all those flowers; walk over the same alley again and consider the first man Adam in the beginning who involved thee in original sin; and the thief upon the Cross who had continued in actual sins all his life, and sealed all with the sin of reviling Christ himself a little before his expiration, and yet he recovered Paradise, and Paradise that day, and see if thou canst make any shift to exclude thy self, receive the fragrancy of all these Cordialls, Vivit Dominus, as the Lord liveth I would not the death of a sinner, Quandocunque, At what time soever a sinner repenteth, and of this text Neminem judieat, Christ judgeth no man to destruction here, and if thou find after all these Antidotes a suspicious air, a suspicious working in that Impossibile est, that it is impossible for them, who were once inlightened if they fall away, to renew them again by repentance, sprinkle upon that worm wood of Impossibile est, that Manna of Quorum remiseritis, whose sins yee remit, are remitted, and then it will have another taste to thee, and thon wilt see that that impossibility lies upon them only, who are utterly fallen away into an absolute Apostasy, and infidelity, that make a mock of Christ, and crucify him again, as it is expressed there, who undervalue, and despise the Church of God, & those means which Christ Jesus hath instituted in his Church for renewing such as are fallen. To such it is impossible, because there are no other ordinary means possible, but that's not thy case, thy case is only a doubt, that those means that are shall not be applied to thee, and even that is a slippery state to doubt of the mercy of God to thee in particular, this goes so near making thy sin greater then Gods mercy, as that it makes thy sin greater then daily adulteries, daily murders, daily blasphemies, daily prophanings of the Sabbath could have done, and though thou canst never make that true in this life that thy sins are greater then God can forgive, yet this is a way to make them greater, then God will forgive.

Now to collect both our Exercises, and to connexe both Texts, Christ judgeth all men and Christ judgeth no man, he claims all judgment, and he disavows all judgement, and they consist well together, he was at our creation, but that was not his first sense; the Arians who say, Erat quando non erat, there was a time when Christ was not, intimating that he had a beginning, and therefore was a creature, yet they will allow that he was created before the general creation, and so assisted at ours, but he was infinite generations before that, in the bosom of his Father, at our election, and there in him was executed the first judgment of separating those who were his, the elect from the reprobate, and then he knows who are his by that first Judgment: And so comes to his second Judgment, to seal all those in the visible Church with the outward mark of his baptism, and the inward mark of his Spirit, and those whom he calls so, he justifies, and sanctifies, and brings them to his third Judgment, to an established and perpetual glory. And so all Judgment is his. But then to judge out of humane affections, and passions, by detraction, and calumny, as they did to whom he spoke at this time, so he judges no man, so he denies judgment: To usurpe upon the jurisdiction of others, or to exercise any other judgment, then was his commission, as his pretended Vicar doth so he judges no man, so he disavows all judgment: To judge so as that our condemnation should be irremediable in this life, so he judges no man, so he forswears all judgment, As I live, saith the Lord of hosts, and as I have died, saith the Lord Jesus, so I judge none. Acknowledge his first Judgment, thy election in him, Christ his second Judgment, thy justification by him, breath and pant after his third Judgement, thy Crown of glory for him; intrude not upon the right of other men, which is the first, defame not, calumniate not other men, which is the second, lay not the name of reprobate in this life upon any man, which is the third Judgement, that Christ disavows here, and then thou shalt have well understood, and well practised both these texts, The Father hath committed all Iudgment to the Son, and yet The Son judges no man.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XIIII.

JOB 19. 26. And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

AMongst those Articles, in which our Church hath explained, and declared her faith, this is the eight Article, that the three Creeds, (that of the council of Nice, that of Athanasius, and that which is commonly known by the name of the Apostles Creed) ought throughly to be received, and embraced. The meaning of the Church is not, that only that should be believed in which those three Creeds agree; (for, the Nicen Creed mentions no Article after that of the holy Ghost, not the Catholic Church, not the Communion of Saints, not the Resurrection of the flesh; Athanasius his Creed does mention the Resurrection, but not the Catholic Church, nor the communion of Saints,) but that all should be believed, which is in any of them, all which is summed up in the Apostles Creed. Now, the reason expressed in that Article of our Church, why all this is to be believed, is; Because all this may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scriptures. The Article does not insist upon particular places of Scripture; not so much as point to them. But, they who have enlarged the Articles, by way of explanation, have done that. And when they come to cite those places of Scripture, which prove the Article of the Resurrection, I observe that amongst those places they forbear this text; so that it may seem, that in their opinion, this Scripture doth not concern the Resurrection. It will not therefore be impertinent, to make it a first part of this exercise, whether this Scripture be to be understood of the Resurrection, or no; And then, to make the particular handling of the words, a second part. In the first, we shall see, that the Jews always had, and have still, a persuasion of the Resurrection. We shall look after, by what light they saw that; whether by the light of natural reason; And, if not by that, by what light given in other places of Scripture; and then, we shall shut up this inquisition with a unanime consent, (so unanime, as I can remember but one that denies it, and he but faintly) that in this text, the doctrine of the resurrection is established. In the second part, the doctrine it self comprised in the words of the text, (And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God) we shall see first, that the Saints of God themselves, are not privileged from the common corruption and dissolution of the body; After that curse upon the Serpent, super pectus gradieris, upon thy belly shalt thou go, we shall as soon see a Serpent go upright, and not craule, as, after that Judgment, In pulverem revertêris, to dust thou shalt return, see a man, that shall not see death, and corruption in death. Corruption upon our skin, says the text, (our outward beauty;) corruption upon our body, (our whole strength, and constitution.) And, this corruption, not a green paleness, not a yellow jaundise, not a blue lividness, not a black morpheu upon our skin, not a bony leanness, not a sweaty faintness, not an ungratious decrepitness upon our body, but a destruction, a destruction to both, After my skin my body shall be destroyed. Though not destroyed by being resolved to ashes in the fire, (perchance I shall not be burnt) not destroyed by being washed to slime, in the sea, (perchance I shall not be drowned) but destroyed contemptibly, by those whom I breed, and feed, by worms; (After my skin worms shall destroy my body.) And thus far our case is equal; one event to the good and bad; worms shall destroy all in them all. And farther then this, their case is equal too, for, they shall both rise again from this destruction. But in this lies the future glory, in this lies the present comfort of the Saints of God, that, after all this, (so that this is not my last act, to dye, nor my last scene, to lie in the grave, nor my last exit, to go out of the grave) after, says Job; And indefinitely, After, I know not how soon, nor how late, I press not into Gods secrets for that; but, after all this, Ego, I, I that speak now, and shall not speak then, silenced in the grave, I that see now, and shall not see then, ego videbo, I shall see, (I shall have a new faculty) videbo Deam, I shall see God (I shall have a new object) and, In carne, I shall see him in the flesh, (I shall have a new organ, and a new medium) and, In carne mea, that flesh shall be my flesh, (I shall have a new propriety in that flesh) this flesh which I have now, is not mine, but the worms; but that flesh shall be so mine, as I shall never divest it more, but in my flesh I shall see God for ever.

In the first part then, which is an inquiry, whether this text concern the Resurrection, or no, we take knowledge of a Crediderunt, and of a Credunt in the Jews, that the Jews did believe a Resurrection, and that they do believe it still. That they do so now, appears out of the doctrine of their Talmud, where we find, that only the Jews shall rise again, but all the Gentiles shall perish, body and soul together, as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed all at once, body, and soul into hell. And to this purpose, (for the first part thereof, that the Jews shall rise) they abuse that place of Isaiah; Thy dead men shall live; awake and sing, yee that dwell in the dust. And, for the second part, that the Gentiles shall not rise, they apply the words of the same Prophet before, They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise. The Jews only, say they shall rise; but, not all they; but only the righteous amongst them. And, to that purpose, they abuse that place of the Prophet Zachary, two parts shall be cut off, and dye, but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring that third part, through the fire, and will refine them, as silver is refined, and try them, as gold is tried. The Jews only of all men, the good Jews only of all Jews, and of these good Jews, only they who were buried in the land of promise shall have this present, and immediate resurrection; And to that purpose they force that place in Genesis where Jacob, upon his death-bed, advised his son Joseph, to bury him in Canaan, and not in Egypt, and to that purpose, they detort also, that place of Jeremiah, where the Prophet lays that curse upon Pashur, That he should dye in Babylon, and be buried there. For, though the Jews do not absolutely say, that all that are buried out of Canaan, shall be without a resurrection, yet, they say, that even those good and righteous Jews, which are not buried in that great Churchyard, the land of promise, must, at the day of judgment, be brought through the hollow parts of the earth into the land of promise at that time, and only in that place, receive their resurrection, wheresoever they were buried. But yet, though none but Jews, none but righteous Jews, none but righteous Jews in that place, must be partakers of the Resurrection, yet still a Resurrection there is in their doctrine.

It is so now; it was so always. We see, in that time, when Christ walked upon the earth, when he came to the raising of Lazarus, and said to his sister Martha, Thy brother shall rise again, she replies to Christ, Alas, I know he shall rise again, at the Resurrection of the last day, I make no doubt of that, we all know that. So also, when Christ put forth that parable, that in placing of benefits, we should rather choose such persons, as were able to make no recompense, he gives that reason, Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. The Resurrection was a vulgar doctrine, well known to the Jews then, and always. For, even Herod, when Christ preached and did miracles, was apt to say, John Baptist is risen from the dead; And when it is said of those two great Apostles, (the loving, and the beloved Apostle, Peter, and John) that as yet they knew not the Scripture, that Christ must rise from the dead, this argues no more, but that as Peters compassion before Christs death, made him dissuade Christ from going up to Jerusalem, to suffer, so their extreme passion after Christs death, made them the less attentively to consider those particular Scriptures, which spoke of the Resurrection. For, the Jews in general, (much more, they) had always an apprehension, and an acknowledgment of the Resurrection of the dead. By what light they saw this, and how they came to this knowledge, is our next consideration.

Had they this by the common notions of other men, out of natural Reason? Melanothon, (who is no bold, nor rash, nor dangerous expressor of himself) says well, Articulus resurrectionis propria Ecclesiaevox; It is the Christian Church, that hath delivered to us the article of the resurrection. Nature says it not, Philosophy says it not; it is the language and the Idiotisme of the Church of God, that the resurrection is to be believed as an article of faith. For, though articles of faith be not facta Ecclesiae, they are dicta Ecclesiae, though the Church do not make articles, yet she declares them. In the Creation, the way was, Dixit & facta sunt, God spake, and so things were made; In the Gospel, the way is, Fecit, & dicta sunt, God makes articles of faith, and the Church utters them, presents them. That's manifestè verum, evidently, undeniably true, that Nature, and Philosophy say nothing of articles of faith. But, even in Nature, and in Philosophy, there is some preparation A prior, and much illustration A posterior, of the Resurrection. For, first, we know by natural reason, that it is no such thing, as God cannot do; It implies no contradiction in it self, as that new article of Transubstantiation does; It implies no defectiveness in God, as that new article, The necessity of a perpetual Vicar upon earth, does. For, things contradictory in themselves, (which necessarily imply a falsehood) things arguing a defectiveness in God, (which implies necessarily a derogation, to his nature, to his natural goodness, to that which we may justly call even the God of God, that which makes him God to us, his mercy) such things God himself cannot do, not things which make him an unmerciful, a cruel, a precondemning God. But, excepting only such things, God, who is that, Quod cum dicitur, non potest dici, whom if you name you cannot give him half his name; for, if you call him God, he hath not his Christen name, for he is Christ as well as God, a Savior, as well as a Creator; Quod cum astimatur, non potest aestimari, If you value God, weigh God, you cannot give him half his weight; for, you can put nothing into the balance, to weight him withal, but all this world; and, there is no single sand in the sea, no single dust upon the earth, no single atome in the air, that is not likelyer to weigh down all the world, then all the world is to compose pose God; What is the whole world to a soul? says Christ; but what are all the souls of the world, to God? What is man, that God should be mindful of him, that God should ever think of him, and not forget that there is such a thing, such a nothing? Quod cum definitur, ipsa definition crescit, says the same Father; If you limit God with any definition, he grows larger by that definition; for even by that definition you discern presently that he is something else then that definition comprehends. That God, Quem omnia nesciunt, & metuendo sciunt, whom no man knows perfectly, yet every man knows so well, as to stand in fear of him, this incomprehensible God, I say, that works, and who shall let it? can raise our bodies again from the dead, because, to do so, implies no derogation to himself, no contradiction to his word.

Our reason tells us, he can do it; doth our reason tell us as much of his will, that he will do it? Our reason tells us, that he will do, whatsoever is most convenient for the Creature, whom, because he hath made him, he loves, and for his own glory. Now this dignity afforded to the dead body of man, cannot be conceived, but, as a great addition to him. Nor can it be such a diminution to God, to take man into heaven, as it was for God to descend, and to take mans nature upon him, upon Earth. A King does not diminish himself so much, by taking an inferior person into his bosom at Court, as he should do by going to live with that person, in the Country, or City; and this God did, in the incarnation of his Son. It cannot be thought inconvenient, it cannot be thought hard. Our reason tells us, that in all Gods works, in all his material works, still his latter works are easier then his former. The Creation, which was the first, and was a meer production out of nothing, was the hardest of all. The specific ation of Creatures, and the disposing of them, into their several kinds, the making of that which was made something of nothing before, a particular thing, a beast, afowle, a fish, a plant, a man, a Sun or Moon, was not so hard, as the first production out of nothing. And then, the conservation of all these, in that order in which they are first created, and then distinguished, the Administration of these creatures by a constant working of second causes, which naturally produce their effects, is not so hard as that. And so, accordingly, and in that proportion, the last work is easiest of all; Distinction and specification easier then creation, conservatio, and administration easier then that distinction, and restitution by resurrection, easiest of all. Tertullian hath expressed it well, Plus est fecisse quam refecisse, & dedisse quam reddidisse; It is a harder work to make, then to mend, and, to give thee that which was mine, then to restore thee that which was thine. Et institutio carnis quàm destitutio; It is a less matter to recover a sick man, then to make a whole man. Does this trouble thee, says Iustin Martyr, (and Athenagor as proceeds in the same way of argumentation too, in his Apology) does this trouble thee, Quòd homo à piscibus, & piscis ab homine comeditar, that one man is devoured by a fish, and then another man that eats the flesh of that fish, eats, and becomes the other man? Id nec hominem resolvit in piscem, nec piscem in hominem, that first man did not become that fish that eat him, nor that fish become that second man, that eat it; sed utriusque resolutio fit in elementa, both that man, and that fish are resolved into their own elements, of which they were made at first. Howsoever it be, if thine imagination could carry thee so low, as to think, not only that thou wert become some other thing, a fish, or a dog that had fed upon thee, and so, thou couldst not have thine own body, but therewithal must have his body too, but that thou wert infinitely farther gone, that thou wert annihilated, become nothing, canst thou choose but think God as perfect now, at least as he was at first, and can he not as easily make thee up again of nothing, as he made thee of nothing at first? Recogita quid fueris, antequam esses; Think over thy self; what wast thou before thou wast any thing? Meminisses utique, si fuisses; If thou hadst been any thing then, surely thou wouldst remember it now. Qui non eras, factus es; Cum iterum non eris, fies; Thou that wast once nothing, wast made this that thou art now, and when thou shalt be nothing again, thou shalt be made better then thou art yet. And, Redderationem quâ factus es, & ego reddam rationem quâ fies; Do thou tell me, how thou wast made then, and I will tell thee how thou shalt be made hereafter. And yet as Solomon sends us to creatures, & to creatures of a low rank & station, to Ants & Spiders, for instruction, so Saint Gregory sends us to creatures, to learn the Resurrection. Lux quotidy moritur, & quotidy resurgit; That glorious creature, that first creature, the light, dies every day, and every day hath a resurrection. In arbustis folia resurrectione erumpunt; from the Cedar of Libanus, to the Hyssop upon the wall, every leaf dies every year, and every year hath a Resurrection. Vbi in brevitate seminis, tam immensa arbor latuit? (as he pursues that meditation.) If thou hadst seen the bodies of men rise our of the grave, at Christs Resurrection, could that be a stranger thing to thee, then, (if thou hadst never seen, nor hard, not imagined it before) to see an Oak that spreads so far, rise out of an Akorne? Or if Churchyards did vent themselves every spring, and that there were such a Resurrection of bodies every year, when thou hadst seen as many Resurrections as years, the Resurrection would be no stranger to thee, then the spring is. And thus, this, and many other good and reverend men, and so the holy Ghost himself sends us to Reason, and to the Creature, for the doctrine of the Resurrection; Saint Paul allows him not the reason of a man, that proceeds not so; Thou fool, says he, that which thou sowest, is not quickened except it dye; but then it is. It is truly harder to conceive a translation of the body into heaven, then a Resurrection of the body from the earth. Num in hominibus terra degenerat, quae omnia regenerare consuevit? Do all kinds of earth regenerate, and shall only the Churchyard degenerate? Is there a yearly Resurrection of every other thing, and never of men? Omnia pereund servantur, All other things are preserved, and continued by dying; Tu homo solus ad hoc morieris, ut pereas? And canst thou, O man, suspect of thy self, that the end of thy dying is an end of thee? Fall as low as thou canst, corrupt and putresy as desperately as thou canst, sis nihil, think thy self nothing; Ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum, even that nothing is as much in his power, as the world which he made of nothing; And, as he called thee when thou wast not, as if thou hadst been, so will he call thee again, when thou art ignorant of that being which thou hast in the grave, and give thee again thy former, and glorify it with a better being.

The Jews then, if they had no other helps, might have, (as natural men may) preparations a Prior, and illustrations a Posterior, for the doctrine of the Resurrection. The Jews had seen resuscitations, from the dead in particular persons, and they had seen miraculous cures done by their Prophets. And Gregory Nyssen says well, that those miraculous cures which Christ wrought, with a Tolle grabatum, and an Est sanus, and no more, they were praeludia resurrectionis, half-resurrections, prologues, and inducements to the doctrine of the resurrection, which shall be transacted with a Surgite mortui, and no more. So these natural helps in the consideration of the creature, are praeludia resurrectionis, they are half-resurrections, and these natural resurrections carry us half way to the miraculous resurrection. But certainly, the Jews, who had that, which the Gentiles wanted, The Scriptures, had from them, a general, though not an explicite knowledge of the resurrection. That they had it, we see by that practise of Judas the Maccabee, in gathering a contribution to send to Jerusalem, which is therefore commended, because he was therein mindful of the Resurrection. Neither doth Christ find any that opposed the doctrine of the Resurrection, but those, who though they were tolerated in the State, because they were otherwise great persons, were absolute Heretics, even amongst the Jews, The Sadducees. And Saint Paul, when, finding himself to be oppressed in Judgement, he used his Christian wisdom, and to draw a strong party to himself, protested himself to be of the sect of the Pharisees; and that, as they, and all the rest, in general, did, he maintained the Resurrection, he knew it would seem a strange injury, and an oppression, to be called in question for that, that they all believed; Though therefore our Savior Christ, who disputed then, only against the Sadducees, argued for the doctrine of the Resurrection, only from that place of the Scripture, which those Sadducees acknowledged to be Scripture, (for they denied all but the books of Moses) and so insisted upon those words, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yet certainly the Jews had established that doctrine, upon other places too, though to the Sadducees who accepted Moses only, Moses were the best evidence. It is evident enough in that particular place of Daniel, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And in Daniel, that word many, must not be restrained to less then all; Daniel intends by that many, that how many soever they are, they shall all arise; as Saint Paul does, when he says, By one mans disobedience, many were made sinners; that is, All, for, death passed over all men, for all have sinned. And Christ doth but paraphrase that place of Daniel, who says, Multi, many, when he says, Omnes, all; All that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth; They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. This then being thus far settled, that the Jews understood the resurrection, and more then that, they believed it, and therefore, as they had light in nature, they had assurance in Scripture, come we now, to that which was our last purpose in this first part, whether in this text, in these words of Job, (though after my skin, worms destroy my body) there be any such light of the Resurrection given.

It is true, that in the new Testament, where the doctrine of the resurrection is more evidently, more liquidly delivered, then in the old, (though it be delivered in the old too) there is no place cited out of the book of Job, for the resurrection; and so, this is not. But it is no marvaile; both upon that reason which we noted before, that they who were to be convinced, were such as received only the books of Moses, and therefore all citations from this book of Job, or any other had been impertinently and frivolously employed, and, because in the new Testament, there is but one place of this book of Job cited at all. To the Corinthians the Apostle makes use of those words in Job, God taketh the wise in their own craft; And more then this one place, is not, (I think) cited out of this book of Job in the new Testament. But, the authority of Job is established in another place; you have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, says Saint James. As you have seen this, so you have heard that; seen and heard one way, out of the Scripture; you have hard that out of the book of Job, you have seen this out of the Gospel. And further then this, there is no naming of Job's person, or his book in the new Testament. Saint Jerome confesses, that both the Greek, and Latin Copies of this book, were so defective in his time, that seven or eight hundred verses of the original were wanting in the book. And, for the original it self, he says, Obliquus totus liber fertur, & lubricus, it is an uncertain and slippery book. But this is only for the sense of some places of the book; And that made the authority of this book, to be longer suspended in the Church, and oftener called into question by particular men, then any other book of the Bible. But, in those who have, for many ages, received this book for Canonical, there is an unanime acknowledgement, (at least, tacitely) that this piece of it, this text, (When, after my skin, worms shall destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God) does establish the Resurrection.

Divide the expositors into three branches; (for, so, the world will needs divide them) The first, the Roman Church will call theirs; though they have no other title to them, but that they received the same translation that they do. And all they use this text for the resurrection. Verba viri in gentilitate positi erubescamus; It is a shame for us, who have the word of God it self, (which Job had not) and have had such a commentary, such an exposition upon al the former word of God, as the real, and actual, and visible resurrection of Christ himself, Erubescamus verba viri in gentilitate positi, let us be ashamed and confounded, if Job, a person that lived not within the light of the covenant, saw the resurrection more clearly, and professed it more constantly then we do. And, as this Gregory of Rome, so Gregory Nyssen understood Job too. For, he considers Job's case thus; God promised Job twofold of all that he had lost; And in his sheep and camels, and oxen, and asses, which were utterly destroyed, and brought to nothing, God performs it punctually, he had all in a double proportion. But Job had seven sons; and three daughters before, and God gives him but seven sons; and three daughters again; And yet Job had twofold of these too; for Postnati cum prioribus numerantur, quia omnes deo vivunt; Those which were gone, and those which were new given, lived all one life, because they lived all in God; Necquicquam aliud est mors nisi viti, ositatis expiatio; Death is nothing else, but a devesting of those defects, which made us less fit for God. And therefore, agreeably to this purpose, says Saint Cyprian, Scimus non amitti, sed praemitti; thy dead are not lost, but lent. Non recedere, sed praecedere; They are not gone into any other womb, then we shall follow them into; nec acquirendae, atrae vestes, pro iis qui albis induuntur, neither should we put on blacks, for them that are clothed in white, nor mourne for them, that are entered into their Masters joy. We can enlarge our selfs no farther in this consideration of the first branch of expositors, but that all the ancients took occasion from this text to argue for the resurrection.

Take into your Consideration the other two branches of modern expositors, (whom others sometimes contumeliously, and themselves sometimes perversly have called Lutherans and Calvinists, and you may know, that in the first rank, Osiander, and with him, all his interpret these words so; And in the other rank, Tremellius, and Pellicanus, heretofore, Polanus lately, and Piscator, for the present; All these, and all the Translators into the vulgar tongues of all our neighbours of Europe, do all establish the doctrine of the Resurrection by these words, this place of Job. And therefore, though one, (and truly for any thing I know, but one) though one, to whom we all owe much, for the interpretation of the Scriptures, do think that Job intends no other resurrection in this place, but that, when he shall be reduced to the miserablest estate that can be in this life, still he will look upon God, and trust in him for his restitution, and reparation in this life; let us with the whole Christian Church, embrace and magnify this Holy and Heroical Spirit of Job; Scio, says he; I know it, (which is more in him, then the Credo is in us, more to know it then, in that state, then to believe it now, after it hath been so evidently declared, not only to be a certain truth, but to be an article of faith) Scio Redemptorem, says he; I know not only a Creator, but a Redeemer; And, Redemptorem meum, My Redeemer, which implies a confidence, and a personal application of that Redemption to himself. Scio vivere, says he; I know that he lives; I know that he begun not in his Incarnation, I know he ended not in his death, but it always was, and is now, and shall for ever be true, Vivit, that he lives still. And then, Scio venturum, says he too; I know he shall stand at the last day to Judge me and all the world; And after that, and after my skin and body is destroyed by worms, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And so have you as much as we proposed for our first part; That the Jews do now, that they always did believe a Resurrection; That as natural men, and by natural reason they might know it, both in the possibility of the thing, and in the purpose of God, that they had better helps then natural reason, for they had divers places of their Scripture, and that this place of Scripture, which is our text, hath evermore been received for a proof of the Resurrection. Proceed we now, to those particulars which constitute our second part, such instructions concerning the Resurrection, as arise out of these words, Though after my skin, worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

In this second part, the first thing that was proposed, was, That the Saints of God, are not privileged from this, which fell upon Job, This Death, this dissolution after death. Upon the Morte morieris, that double death, interminated by God upon Adam, there is a Non obstante; Revertere, turn to God, and thou shalt not dy the death, not the second death. But upon that part of the sentence, In pulverem reverteris, To dust thou shalt return, there is no Non obstante; though thou turn to God, thou must turn into the grave; for, he that redeemed thee from the other death, redeemed not himself from this. Carry this consideration to the last minute of the world, when we that remain shall be caught up in the clouds, yet even that last fire may be our fever, those clouds our winding sheets, that rapture our dissolution; and so, with Saint Augustine, most of the ancients, most of the latter men think, that there shall be a sudden dissolution of body and soul, which is death, and a sudden re-uniting of both, which is resurrection, in that instant; Quis Homeo, is Davids question; What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Let us add, Quis Deoram? What god is he amongst the Gentiles, that hath not seen death? Which of their three hundred Iupiters, which of their thousands of other gods, have not seen death? Mortibus morjuntur; we may add to that double death in Gods mouth, another death; The gods of the Gentiles have died thrice; In body, in soul, and in fame; for, though they have been glorified with a Deification, nor one of all those old gods, is, at this day, worshipt, in any part of the world, but all those temporary, and transitory Gods, are worn out, and dead in all senses. Those gods, who were but men, fall under Davids question, Quis Home? And that man who was truly God, falls under it too, Christ Jesus; He saw death, though he saw not the death of this text, Corruption. And, if we consider the effusion of his precious blood, the contusion of his sacred flesh, the extension of those sinews, and ligaments which tied heaven, and earth together, in a reconciliation, the departing of that Intelligence from that sphere, of that high Priest from that Temple, of that Dove from that Ark, of that soul from that body, that dissolution (which, as an ordinary man he should have had in the grave, but that the decree of God, declared in the infallibility of the manifold prophesies, preserved him from it) had been but a slumber, in respect of these tortures, which he did suffer; The Godhead staid with him in the grave, and so he did not corrupt, but, though our souls be gone up to God, our bodies shall.

Corruption in the skin, says Job; In the outward beauty, These be the Records of velim, these be the parchmins, the endictments, and the evidences that shall condemn many of us, at the last day, our own skins; we have the book of God, the Law, written in our own hearts; we have the image of God imprinted in our own souls; we have the character, and seal of God stamped in us, in our baptism; and, all this is bound up in this velim, in this parchmin, in this skin of ours, and we neglect book, and image, and character, and feal, and all for the covering. It is not a clear case, if we consider the original words properly, That Isabel did paint; and yet all translators, and expositors have taken a just occasion, out of the ambiguity of those words, to cry down that abomination of painting. It is not a clear case, if we consider the propriety of the words, That Absolon was hanged by the hair of the head; and yet the Fathers and others have made use of that indifferency, and verisimilitude, to explode that abomination, of cherishing and curling hair, to the enveagling, and ensnaring, and entangling of others; Iudicium patietur aeternum, says Saint Jerome, Thou art guilty of a murder, though no body die; Quia vinum attulisti, si faisset qui bibisset; Thou hast poisoned a cup, if any would drink, thou hast prepared a temptation, if any would swallow it. Tertullian thought he had done enough, when he had writ his book De Habitu muliebri, against the excess of women in clothes, but he was fain to add another with more vehemence, De cultu foeminarum, that went beyond their clothes to their skin. And he concludes, Illud ambitionis crimen, there's vain-glory in their excess of clothes, but, Hoc prostitutionis, there's prostitution in drawing the eye to the skin. Pliny says, that when their thin silk stuffs were first invented at Rome, Excogitatum ad faeminas denudandas, It was but an invention that women might go naked in clothes, for their skins might be seen through those clothes, those thin stuffs: Our women are not so careful, but they expose their nakedness professedly, and paint it, to cast bird-lime for the passengers eye. Beloved, good diet makes the best Complexion, and a good Conscience is a continual feast; A cheerful heart makes the best blood, and peace with God is the true cheerfulness of heart, Thy Savior neglected his skin so much, as that at last, he scars had any; all was torn with the whips, and scourges; and thy skin shall come to that absolute corruption, as that, though a hundred years after thou art buried, one may find thy bones, and say, this was a tall man, this was a strong man, yet we shall soon be past saying, upon any relique of thy skin, This was a fair man; Corruption seises the skin, all outward beauty quickly, and so it does the body, the whole frame and constitution, which is another consideration; After my skin, my Body.

If the whole body were an eye, or an ear, where were the body, says Saint Paul; but, when of the whole body there is neither eye nor ear, nor any member left, where is the body? And what should an eye do there, where there is nothing to be seen but loathsomness; or a nose there, where there is nothing to be smelt, but putrefaction; or an ear, where in the grave they do not praise God? Doth not that body that boasted but yesterday of that privilege above all creatures, that it only could go upright, lie to day as flat upon the earth as the body of a horse, or of a dog? And doth it not to morrow lose his other privilege, of looking up to heaven? Is it not farther removed from the eye of heaven, the Sun, then any dog, or horse, by being covered with the earth, which they are not? Painters have presented to us with some horror, the sceleton, the frame of the bones of a mans body; but the state of a body, in the dissolution of the grave, no pencil can present to us. Between that excremental jelly that thy body is made of at first, and that jelly which thy body dissolves to at last; there is not so noysome, so putrid a thing in nature. This skin, (this outward beauty) this body, (this whole constitution) must be destroyed, says Job in the next place.

The word is well chosen, by which all this is expressed, in this text, Nakaph, which is a word of as heavy a signification, to express an utter abolition, and annihilation, as perchance can be found in all the Scriptures. Tremellius hath mollifyed it in his translation; there it is but Confodere, to pierce. And yet it is such a piercing, such a sapping, such an undermining, such a demolishing of a fort of Castle, as may justly remove us from any high valuation, or any great confidence, in that skin, and in that body, upon which this Confoderint must fall. But, in the great Bible it is Contriverint, Thy skin, and thy body shall be ground away, trod away upon the ground. Ask where that iron is that is ground off of a knife, or axe; Ask that marble that is worn off of the threshold in the Church-porch by continual treading, and with that iron; and with that marble, thou mayst find thy Fathers skin, and body; Contrita sunt, The knife, the marble, the skin, the body are ground away, trod away, they are destroyed, who knows the revolutions of dust? Dust upon the Kings high-way, and dust upon the Kings grave, are both, or neither, Dust Royal, and may change places; who knows the revolutions of dust? Even in the dead body of Christ Jesus himself, one dram of the decree of his Father, one sheet, one sentence of the prediction of the Prophets preserved his body from corruption, and incineration, more then all Iosephs new tombs, and fine linen, and great proportion of spices could have done. O, who can express this inexpreffible mystery? The foul of Christ Jesus, which took no harm by him, contracted no Original sin, in coming to him, was guilty of no more sin, when it went out, then when it came from the breath and bosom of God, yet this soul left this body in death. And the Divinity, the Godhead, incomparably better then that soul, which soul was incomparably better then all the Saints, and Angels in heaven, that Divinity, that God-head did not forsake the body, though it were dead If we might compare things infinite in themselves, it was nothing so much, that God did assume mans nature, as that God did still cleave to that man, then when he was no man, in the separation of body and soul, in the grave. But full we from incomprehensible mysteries; for, there is mortification enough, (and mortification is vivification, and aedification) in this obvious consideration; skin and body, beauty and substance must be destroyed; And, Destroyed by worms, which is another descent in this humiliation, and exanition of man, in death; After my skin, worms shall destroy this body.

I will not insist long upon this, because it is not in the Original, In the Original there is no mention of worms. But because in other places of Job there is, (They shall lye down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them) (The womb shall forget them, and the worm shall feed sweetly on them; & because the word Destroying is presented in that form & number, Contriverint, when they shall destroy, they and no other persons, no other creatures named) both our later translations, (for indeed, our first translation hath no mention of worms) and so very many others, even Tremellus that adheres most to the letter of the Hebrew, have filled up this place, with that addition, Destroyed by worms. It makes the destruction the more contemptible; Thou that wouldst not admit the beams of the Sun upon thy skin, and yet hast admitted the pollutions of sin; Thou that wouldst not admit the breath of the air upon thy skin, and yet hast admitted the spirit of lust, and unchaste solicitations to breath upon thee, in execrable oaths, and blasphemies, to vicious purposes; Thou, whose body hath (as far as it can) putrefyed and corrupted even the body of thy Savior, in an unworthy receiving thereof, in this skin, in this body, must be the food of worms, the prey of destroying worms. After a low birth thou mayst pass an honourable life, after a sentence of an ignominious death, thou mayst have an honourable end; But, in the grave canst thou make these worms silk worms? They were bold and early worms that eat up Herod before he died; They are bold and everlasting worms, which after thy skin and body is destroyed, shall remain as long as God remains, in an eternal gnawing of thy conscience; long, long after the destroying of skin and body, by bodily worms.

Thus far then to the destroying of skin and body by worms, all men are equal; Thus far all's Common law, and no Prerogative, so is it also in the next step too; The Resurrection is common to all. The prerogative lies not in the Rising, but in the rising to the fruition of the sight of God; in which consideration, the first beam of comfort is the Postquam, After all this, destruction before by worms; ruinous misery before; but there is something else to be done upon me after. God leaves no state without comfort. God leaves some inhabitants of the earth, under longer nights then others, but none under an everlasting night; and, those, whom he leaves under those long nights, he recompenses with as long days, after. I were miserable, if there were not an Antequam in my behalf; if before I had done well or ill actually in this world, God had not wrapped me up, in his good purpose upon me. And I were miserable again, if there were not a Postquam in my behalf; If, after my sin had cast me into the grave, there were not a lod trumpet to call me up, and a gracious countenance to look upon me, when I were risen. Nay, let my life have been as religious, as the infirmities of this life can admit, yet, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are, of all men, most miserable. For, for the worldly things of this life, first, the children of God have them in the least proportions of any; and besides that, those children of God, which have them in larger proportion, do yet make the least use of them, of any others, because the children of the world, are not so tender conscienced, nor so much afraid, lest those worldly things should become snares, and occasions of temptation to them, if they open themselves to a full enjoying thereof, as the children of God are. And therefore, after my wanting of many worldly things, (after a penurious life) and, after my not daring to use those things that I have, so freely as others do, after that holy and conscientious forbearing of those things that other men afford themselves, after my leaving all these absolutely behind me here, and my skin and body in destruction in the grace, After all, there remains something else for me. After; but how long after? That's next.

When Christ was in the body of that flesh, which we are in, now, (sin only excepted) he said, in that state that he was in then, Of that day and hour, no man knoweth, not the Angels, not the Son. Then, in that state, he excludes himself. And when Christ was risen again, in an uncorruptible body, he said, even to his nearest followers, Non est vestrum, it is not for you, to know times, and seasons. Before in his state of mortality, ignorantibus antibus, he pretended to know no more of this, then they that knew nothing. After, when he had invested immortality, per sui exceptionem, (says that Father) he excepts none but himself; all the rest, even the Apostles, were left ignorant thereof. For this non est vestrum, (it is not for you) is part of the last sentence that ever Christ spake to them. If it be a convenient answer to say, Christ knew it not, as man, how bold is that man that will pretend to know it? And, if it be a convenient interpretation of Christs words, that he knew it not, that is, knew it not so, as that he might tell it them, how indiscreet are they, who, though they may seem to know it, will publish it? For, thereby they fill other men with scruples, and vexations, and they open themselves to scorn and reproach, when their predictions prove false, as Saint Augustine observed in his time, and every age hath given examples since, of confident men that have failed in these conjectures. It is a poor pretence to say, this intimation, this impression of a certain time, prepares men with better dispositions. For, they have so often been found false, that it rather weakens the credit of the thing it self. In the old world they knew exactly the time of the destruction of the world; that there should be an hundred & twenty years, before the flood came; And yet, upon how few, did that prediction, though from the mouth of God himself, work to repentance? Noah found grace in Gods eyes; but it was not because he mended his life upon that prediction, but he was grations in Gods sight before. At the day of our death, we write Pridie resurrectioni, the day before the resurrection; It is Vigilia resurectionis; Our Easter Eve. Adveniat regnum tuum, possess my soul of thy kingdom then: And, Fiat voluntas tua, my body shall arise after, but how soon after, or how late after, thy will be done then; by thy self, and thy will be known, till then, to thy self.

We pass on. As in Massa damnata, the whole lump of mankind is under the condemnation of Adams sin, and yet the good purpose of God severs some men from that condemnation, so, at the resurrection, all shall rise; but not all to glory. But amongst them, that do, Ego, says Job, I shall. I, as I am the same man, made up of the samebody, and the same soul. Shall I imagine a difficulty in my body, because I have lost an Arm in the East, and a leg in the West? because I have left some blood in the North, and some bones in the South? Do but remember, with what ease you have sate in the chair, casting an account, and made a shilling on one hand, a pound on the other, or five shillings below, ten above, because all these lay easily within your reach. Consider how much less, all this earth is to him, that sits in heaven, and spans all this world, and reunites in an instant armes, and legs, blood, and bones, in what corners so ever they be scattered. The greater work may seem to be in reducing the soul; That that soul which sped so ill in that body, last time it came to it, as that it contracted Original sin then, and was put to the slavery to serve that body, and to serve it in the ways of sin, not for an Apprentiship of seven, but seventy years after, that that soul after it hath once got loose by death, and lived God knows how many thousands of years, free from that body; that abused it so before, and in the sight and fruition of that God, where it was in no danger, should willingly, nay desirously. ambitiously seek this scuttered body; this Eastern, and Western, and Northern, and Southern body, this is the most inconsiderable consideration, and yet, Ego, I, I the same body, and the same soul, shall be recompact again, and be identically, numerically, individually the same man. The same integrity of body, and soul, and the same integrity in the Organs of my body, and in the faculties of my soul too; I shall be all there, my body, and my soul, & all my body, & all my soul I am not all here, I am here now preaching upon this text, and I am at home in my Library considering whether S. Gregory, or S. Jerome, have said best of this text, before. I am here speaking to you, and yet I consider by the way, in the same instant, what it is likely you will say to one another, when I have done, you are not all here neither; you are here now, hearing me, and yet you are thinking that you have heard a better Sermon somewhere else, of this text before, you are here, and yet you think you could have heard some other doctrine of down-right Predestinations and Reprobation roundly delivered somewhere else with more edification to you, you are here, and you remember your selves that now yee think of it. This had been the fittest time, now, when every body else is at Church, to have made such and such a private visit; and because you would be there, you are there. I cannot say, you cannot say so perfectly, so entirely now, as at the Resurrection, Ego, I am here; I, body and soul; I, soul and faculties: as Christ said to Peter, Noli timere, Ego sum, Fear nothing, it is I; so I say to my self, Noli timere; My soul, why art thou so sad, my body, why dost thou languish: Ego, I, body and soul, soul and faculties, shall say to Christ Jesus, Ego sum, Lord, it is I, and he shall not say, Nescio te, I know thee not, but avow me, and place me at his right hand. Ego sum, I am the man that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath; Ego sum, and I the same man, shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade.

Ego, I, the same person; Ego videbo, I shall see; I have had no looking-glass in my grave, to see how my body looks in the dissolution; I know not how. I have had no hour-glass in my grave to see how my time passes; I know not when: for, when my eylids are closed in my death-bed, the Angel hath said to me, that time shall be no more; Till I see eternity, the ancient of days, I shall see no more; but then I shall: Now, why is Job gladder of the use of this sense of seeing, then of any of the other? He is not; He is glad of seeing, but not of the sense, but of the Object. It is true that is said in the School, Viciniùs se habent potentiae sensitivae ad animam quàm corpus; Our sensitive faculties have more relation to the soul, then to the body; but yet to some purpose, and in some measure, all the senses shall be in our glorified bodies, In actu, or in potentiâ, say they; so as that we shall use them, or so as that we might. But this sight that Job speaks of, is only the fruition of the presence of God, in which consists eternal blessedness. Here, in this world, we see God per speculum, says the Apostle, by reflection, upon a glass; we see a creature; and from that there arises an assurance that there is a Creator; we see him in aenigmate, says he; which is not ill rendered in the margin, in a Riddle, we see him in the Church; but men have made it a riddle; which is the Church, we see him in the Sacrament, but men have made it a riddle; by what light, and at what window: Do I see him at the window of bread and wine; Is he in that; or do I see him by the window of faith; and is he only in that? still it is in a riddle. Do I see him à Prior, (I see that I am elected, and therefore I cannot sin to death.) Or do I see him à Posterior, (because I see my self careful not to sin to death, therefore I am elected) I shall see all problematical things come to be dogmatical, I shall see all these rocks in Divinity, come to be smooth alleys; I shall see Prophecies untied, Riddles dissolved, controversies reconciled; but I shall never see that, till I come to this sight which follows in out text, Videbo Deum, I shall see God.

No man ever saw God and lived; and yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen him I shall never dye. What have I ever seen in this world, that hath been truly the same thing that it seemed to me? I have seen marble buildings, and a chip, a crust, a plaster, a face of marble hath pilld off, and I see brick-bowels within. I have seen beauty, and a strong breath from another, tells me, that that complexion is from without, not from a sound constitution within. I have seen the state of Princes, and all that is but ceremony; and, I would be loath to put a Master of ceremonies to define ceremony, and tell me what it is, and to include so various a thing as ceremony, in so constant a thing, as a Definition. I see a great Officer, and I see a man of mine own profession, of great revenues, and I see not the interest of the money, that was paid for it, I see not the pensions, nor the Annuities, that are charged upon that Office, or that Church. As he that fears God, fears nothing else, so, he that sees God, sees every thing else: when we shall see God, Sicuti est, as he is, we shall see all things Sicuti sunt, as they are; for that's their Essence, as they conduce to his glory. We shall be no more deluded with outward appearances: for, when this sight, which we intend here comes, there will be no delusory thing to be seen. All that we have made as though we saw, in this world, will be vanished, and I shall see nothing but God, and what is in him; and him I shall see in carne, in the flesh, which is another degree of Exaltation in mine Exinanition.

I shall see him, In carne suâ, in his flesh: And this was one branch in Saint Augustines great wish, That he might have seen Rome in her state, That he might have heard S. Paul preach, That he might have seen Christ in the flesh: Saint Augustine hath seen Christ in the flesh one thousand two hundred years; in Christs glorified flesh; but, it is with the eyes of his understanding, and in his soul. Our flesh, even in the Resurrection, cannot be a spectacle, a perspective glass to our soul. We shall see the Humanity of Christ with our bodily eyes, then glorified; but, that flesh, though glorified, cannot make us see God better, nor clearer, then the soul alone hath done, all the time, from our death, to our resurrection. But as an indulgent Father, or as a tender mother, when they go to see the King in any Solemnity, or any other thing of observation, and curiosity, delights to carry their child, which is flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, with them, and though the child cannot comprehend it as well as they, they are as glad that the child sees it, as that they see it themselves, such a gladness shall my soul have, that this flesh, (which she will no longer call her prison, nor her tempter, but her friend, her companion, her wife) that this flesh, that is, I, in in the re-union, and redintegration of both parts, shall see God; for then, one principal clause in her rejoicing, and acclamation, shall be, that this flesh is her flesh; In carne meâ, in my flesh I shall see God.

It was the flesh of every wanton object here, that would allure it in the petulancy of mine eye. It was the flesh of every Satyrical Libeller, and defamer, and calumniator of other men, that would call upon it, and tickle mine ear with aspersions and slanders of persons in authority. And in the grave, it is the flesh of the worm; the possession is transfered to him. But, in heaven, it is Caro mea, My flesh, my souls flesh, my Saviours flesh. As my meat is assimilated to my flesh, and made one flesh with it; as my soul is assimilated to my God, and made partaker of the divine nature, and Idem Spiritus, the same Spirit with it; so, there my flesh shall be assimilated to the flesh of my Savior, and made the same flesh with him too. Verbum caro factum, ut caro resurgeret; Therefore the Word was made flesh, therefore God was made man, that that union might exalt the flesh of man to the right hand of God. That's spoken of the flesh of Christ; and then to facilitate the passage for us, Reformat ad immortalitatem suam participes sui; those who are worthy receivers of his flesh here, are the same flesh with him; And, God shall quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit is that dwelleth in you. But this is not in consummation, in full accomplishment, till this resurrection, when it shall be Caro mea, my flesh, so, as that nothing can draw it from the allegiance of my God; and Caro mea, My flesh, so, as that nothing can divest me of it. Here a bullet will ask a man, where's your arm; and a Wolf will ask a woman, where's your breast. A sentence in the Star-chamber will ask him, where's your ear, and a mouths close prison will ask him, where's your flesh? A fever will ask him, where's your Red, and a morphew will ask him, where's your white? But when after all this, when after my skin worms shall destroy my body, I shall see God, I shall see him in my flesh, which shall be mine as inseparably, (in the effect, though not in the manner) as the Hypostatical union of God, and man, in Christ, makes our nature and the God-head one person in him. My flesh shall no more be none of mine, then Christ shall not be man, as well as God.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XV.

1 COR. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

SAint Gregory hath delivered this story; That Eutychius, who was Bishop of Constantinople, having written a book of the Resurrection, and therein maintained that error, That the body of Christ had not, that our bodies, in the Resurrection should not have any of the qualities of a natural body, but that those bodies were, in subtilitatem redacta, so rarifyed, so refined, so attenuated, and reduced to a thinness, and subtleness, that they were aery bodies, and not bodies of flesh and blood. This error made a great noise, and raised a great dust, till the Emperor, to avoid scandal, (which for the most part arises out of public conferences) was pleased to hear Eutychius, and Gregory dispute this point privately before himself, and a small company; And, that upon conference, the Emperor was so well satisfied, that he commanded Eutychius his books to be burnt. That after this, both Gregory and Eutychius fell sick; but Eutychius died; and died with this protestation, In hâc carne, in this flesh, (taking up the flesh of his hand in the presence of them that were there) in this flesh, I acknowledge, that I, and all men shall arise at the day of Judgement. Now, the principal place of Scripture, which in his book, and in that conference Eutychius stood upon, was this Text, these words of Saint Paul; (This I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.) And the directest answer that Gregory gave to it was, Caro secundum culpam non regnabit, sed Caro secundum naturam; sinful flesh shall not, but natural flesh, that is, flesh indued with all qualities of flesh, all such qualities as imply no defect, no corruption, (for there was flesh before there was sin) such flesh, and such blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

As there have been more Heresies about the Humanity of Christ, then about his Divinity, so there have been more heresies about the Resurrection of his body, and consequently of ours, then about any other particular article, that concerns his Humiliation, or Exaltation. Simon Magus strook deepest at first, to the root; That there was no Resurrection at all; The Gnosticks, (who took their name from knowledge, as though they knew all, and no body else any thing, which is a pride transferred through all Heretickes: for, as that sect in the Roman Church, which call themselves Ignorantes, and seem to pretend to no knowledge, do yet believe that they know a better way to heaven, then all other men do, so that sect amongst them, which called themselves Nullanos, Nothings, thought themselves greater in the Kingdom of God, then either of the other two sects of diminution, the Minorits, or the Minims did) These Gnosticks acknowledged a Resurrection, but they said it was of the soul only, and not of the body, for they thought that the soul lay dead (at least, in a dead sleep) till the Resurrection. Those Heretickes that are called the Arabians, did (as the Gnosticks did) affirm a temporary death of the soul, as well as of the body, but then they allowed a Resurrection to both soul, and body, after that death, which the Gnostickes did not, but to the soul only. Hymeneus and Philetus, (of whom Saint Paul speaks) they restrained the Resurrection to the soul, but then they restrained this Resurrection of the soul to this life, and that in those who were baptized, the Resurrection was accomplished already. Eutychius, (whom we mentioned before) enlarged the Resurrection to the body, as well as to the soul, but enlarged the qualities of the body so far, as that it was scarce a body. The Armenian heretics said; that it was not only Corpus humanum, but Corpus masculinum, That all should rise in the perfecter sex, and none, as women. Origen allowed a Resurrection, and allowed the Body to be a natural body; but the contracted the time; he said, that when we rose we should enjoy the benefits of the resurrection, even in bodily pleasures, for a thousand years, and then be annihilated, or absorpted and swallowed up into the nature, and essence of God himself; (for, it will be hard to state Origens opinion in this point; Origen was not, herein, well understood in his own time; not do we understand him now, (for the most part) but by his accusers, and those that have written against him.) Divers of these Heretics, for the maintenance of their several heresies, perverted this Scripture, (Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God) and that occasioned those Fathers who opposed those heresies, so diverse from one another, to interpret these words diversly, according to the heresy they opposed. All agree, that they are an argument for the resurrection, though they seem at first, to oppose it. For, this Chapter hath three general parts; first, Resurrectionem esse, that there shall be a Resurrection, which the Apostle proves by many and various arguments to the thirty fifth verse. And then Quati corpore, the body shall rise, but some will say, How are the dead raised, and with what body, do they come? in that thirty fifth verse: And lastly, Quid de superstitibus, what shall become of them, who shall be found alive, at the day? We shall all be changed, verse fifty one. Now, this text is the knot, and corollary or all the second part, concerning the qualities of the bodies in the resurrection; Now, says the Apostle, now that I have said enough to prove that a resurrection there is, now, now that I have said enough what kind of bodies shall arise, now, I show you as much in the Negative as I have done in the Affirmative, now I teach you what to avoid, as well as I have done what to affect, now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, though those words be primarily, principally intended of the last Resurrection, yet in a secondary respect, they are applicable in themselves, and very often applied by the ancients, to the first Resurrection, our resurrection in this life. Tertullian hath intimated, and presented both together, elegantly, when he says of God, Nobis arrhabonem spiritus reliquit, & arrhabonem à nobis accepit, God hath given us his earnest, and a pawn from him upon earth, in giving us the holy Ghost, and he hath received our earnest, and a pawn from us into heaven, by receiving our nature, in the body of Christ Jesus there. Flesh and blood, when it is conformed to the flesh and blood of Christ now glorified, and made like his, by our resurrectien, may inherit the kingdom of God, in heaven. Yea flesh and blood being conformed to Christ by the sanctification of the holy Ghost, here, in this world, may inherit the kingdom of God, here upon earth; for, God hath a kingdom here; and there is a Communion in Armes, as well as a communion in Triumph. Leaving then that acceptation of flesh and blood, which many think to be intended in this text, that is, Animalis caro, flesh and blood that must be maintained by eating, and drinking, and preserved by propagation and generation, that flesh, and that blood cannot inherit heaven, where there is no marying, nor giving in marriage, but Erimus sicut Angeli, we shall be as the Angels, (though such a heaven, in part, Mahomet hath proposed to his followers, a heaven that should abound with worldly delights, and such a heaven the Disciples of Origen, and the Millenarians, that look for one thousand years of all temporal felicity, proposed to themselves; And, though amongst our latter men, Cajetan do think, that the Apostle in this text, bent himself upon that doctrine, non caro, non Animalis caro, flesh and blood, that is, no carnal, no worldly delights are to be looked for, in heaven,) leaving that sense, as too narrow, and too shallow for the holy Ghost, in this place, in which he hath a higher reach, we shall determine our selves at this time, in these too acceptations of this phrase of speech; first, non caro, that is, non caro corrupta, flesh and blood cannot, sinful flesh, corrupt flesh, flesh not discharged of sinful corruption here, by repentance, and Sanctification, and the operation of Gods spirit, such flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God here. Secondly, noncaro, is non caro, is non caro, flesh and blood cannot, that is, flesh that is yet subject to corruption, and dissolution, and natural passions and impressions, tending to defectiveness, flesh that is still subject to any punishment that God lays upon flesh, for sin, such flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God hereafter; for our present possession of the kingdom of God here, our corrupt flesh must be purged by Sanctification here, for the future kingdom, our natural Corruptibleness must be purged by glorification there. We will make the last part first, as this flesh, and this blood, by devesting the corruptibleness it suffers here, by that glorification, shall inherit that kingdom; and, not stay long upon it neither. For, of that we have spoken conveniently before, of the resurrection it self. Now we shall look a little into the qualities of bodies in the resurrection; and that, not in the intricacies, and subtilties of the School, but only in that one pattern, which hath been given us of that glory, upon earth, which is the Transfiguration of Christ; for, that Transfiguration of his, was a representation of a glorified body in a glorified state. And then in the second place, we shall come to our first part, what that flesh and blood is that is denied to be capable of the inheritance of that kingdom here, that is, that earnest of heaven, and that inchoation of heaven which may be had in this world; and, in that part we shall see, what this inheritance, what this title to heaven here, and what this kingdom of God, that heaven which is proposed to us here, is.

First then, for the first acceptation, (which is of the later resurrection) no man denies that which Melancthon hath collected and established to be the sum of this text, Statuit resurrectionem in corpore, sed non quale jam corpus est; The Apostle establishes a resurrection of the body, but yet not such a body as this is. It is the same body, and yet not such a body; which is a mysterious consideration, that it is the same body, and yet not such as it self, nor like any other body of the same substance. But, what kind of body then? We content ourselves with that, Transfiguratio specimen appositissimum Resurrectionis, the Transfiguration of Christ, is the best glass to see this resurrection, and state of glory in. But how was that transfiguration wrought? We content our selves with Saint Hieromes expressing of it, non pristinam amisit veritatem, vel formam corporis; Christ had still the same ture, and real body, and he had the same forme, and proportion, and lineaments, and dimensions of his body, in it self. Transfiguratio non faciem subtraxit, sed splendorem ad didit, says he; It gave him not another face, but it super-immitted such a light, such an illustration upon him, as, by that irradiation, that coruscation, the beams of their eyes were scattered, and disgregated, dissipated so, as that they could not collect them, as at other times, nor constantly, and confidently discern him. Moses had a measure, a proportion of this; but yet when Moses came down with his shining face, though they were not able to look long upon him, they knew him to be Moses. When Christ was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and John, yet they knew him to be Christ. Transfiguration did not so change him, nor shall glorification so change us, as that we shall not be known. There is nothing to convince a man of error, nothing in nature, nothing in Scriptures, if he believe that he shall know those persons in heaven, whom he knew upon earth; and, if he conceive soberly, that it were a less degree of blessedness, not to know them, then to know them, he is bound to believe that he shall know them, for he is bound to believe, that all that conduces to blessednes shall be given him. The School resolves, that at the Judgement, all the sins of all, shall be manifested to all; even those secret sinful thoughts that never came out of the heart. And, when any in the School differs or departs from this cōmon opinion, they say only, that those sins which have been, in particular, repented, shall not be manifested: all others shall. And therefore it is a deep uncharitablenes, to reproach any man, of sins formerly repented; and a deep uncharitableness not to believe, that he whom thou seest at the Communion, hath repented his former sins; Reproach no man, after thou hast seen him receive, with last years sins; except thou have good evidence of his Hypocrisy then, or of his Relapsing after; For, in those two cases, a man remains, or becomes again guilty of his former sins. Now, if in heaven they shall know the hearts of one another, whose faces they never knew before, there is less difficulty in knowing them, whom we did know before. From this transfiguration of Christ, in which, the mortal eye of the Apostles, did see that representation of the glory of Christ, the Schools make a good argument, that in heaven we shall do it much more. And though in this case of the Transfiguration, in which the eyes of mortal men could have no proportion with that glory of heaven, this may be well said to have been done, either Moderando lumen, (that God abated that light of glory) or Confortando visum, (that God exalted their sense of seeing supernaturally) no such distinctions, or modifications will be needful in heaven, because how highly soever the body of my Father, or of my friend shall be glorified there, mine eyes shall be glorified as much, and we are both kept in the same proportion there, as we had towards one another here; here my natural eye could see his natural face, and there mine eye is as much mended, as his body is, and my sense as much exalted as mine object; And as well, as I may know, that I am I; I may know, that He is He; for, I shall not know my self, nor that state of glory which I am then in, by any light of Nature which I brought thither, but by that light of Glory which I shall receive there. When therefore a man finds, that this consideration does him good in his conversation, and retards him towards some sins; how shall I stand then, when all the world shall see, that my solicitation hath brought such a woman to the stews, to the Hospital, to hell, who had scaped all this, if I had not corrupted her at first, (which no man in the world knew before, and all shall know then.) Or that my whispering, and my calumny hath overthrown such a man in his place, in his reputation, in his fortune (which he himself knew not before, and all shall know then.) Or, that my counsel, or my example hath been a furtherance to any mans spiritual edification here. He that in rectified reason, and a rectified conscience finds this, in Gods name let him believe; yea, for Gods sake let him take heed of not believing that we shall know one another, Actions and Persons, in the Resurrection, as the Apostles did know Christ at the Transfiguration, which was a Type of it.

This Transfiguration then upon earth; was the same glory, which Christ had after, in heaven. Qualis venturus, talis apparuit; such as all eyes shall see him to be, when he comes in glory at last, those Apostles saw him then, but of the particular circumstances, even of this transfiguration upon earth, there is but little said to us. Let us modestly take that which is expressed in it, and not search over-curiously farther into that which is signified, and represented by it; which is, the state of glory in the Resurrection. First, his face shone as the Sun, says that Gospel, he could not take a higher comparison, for our Information, and for our admiration in this world, then the Sun. And then, the Saints of God in their glorified state are admitted to the same comparison. The righteous shall shine out as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father; the Sun of the firmament which should be their comparison, will be gone; But the Sun of grace and of glory, the Son of God shall remain; and they shall shine as he; that is, in his righteousness.

In this transfiguration, his clothes were white, says the text; but how white, the holy Ghost does not tell us at once, as white as snow, says Saint Mark, as white as light, says Saint Matthew. Let the garments of the glorified Saints of God be their bodies, and then, their bodies are as white as snow, as snow that fall's from heaven, and hath touched no pollution of the earth. For, though our bodies have been upon earth, and have touched pitch, and have been defiled, yet that will not lye in proof, not be given in evidence; Though he that drew me, and I that was drawn too, know, in what unclean places, and what unclean actions, this body of mine hath been, yet it lyes not in proof, it shall not be given in evidence, for, Accusator fratrum, The accuser of the brethren is cast down, the Devil shall find nothing against me; And if I had spontaneum Daemonem, as Saint Chrysostom speaks, a bosom Devil, and could tempt my self, though there had been no other tempter in this world, so I have spontaneum Demonem, a bosom accuser, a conscience that would accuse me there, if I accuse my self there, I reproach the mercy of God, who hath sealed my pardon, and made even my body, what sins soever had discoloured it, as white as snow.

As white as snow, and as white as light, says that Gospel. Light implies an active power, Light is operative, and works upon others. The bodies of the Saints of God; shall receive all impressions of glory in themselves, and they shall do all that is to be done, for the glory of God there. There, they shall stand in his service, and they shall kneel in his worship, and they shall fall in his reverence, and they shall sing in his glory, they shall glorify him in all positions of the body; They shall be glorified in themselves passively, and they shall glorify God actively, sicut Nix, sicut Lux, their being, their doing shall be all for him; Thus they shall shine as the Sun; Thus their garments shall be white, white as snow, in being glorified in their own bodies, white as light, in glorifying God in all the actions of those bodies.

Now, there is thus much more considerable, and appliable to our present purpose, in this tranfiguration of Christ, that there was company with them. Be not apt to think heaven in an Ermitage, or a Monastery, or the way to heaven a sullen melancholy; Heaven, and the way to it, is a Communion of Saints, in a holy cheerfulness. Get thou thither; make sure thine own salvation; but be not too hasty to think, that no body gets thither, except he go thy way in all opinions, and all actions.

There was company in the transfiguration; but no other company then Moses, and Elijah, and Christ, and the Apostles; none but they, to whom God had manifested himself otherwise then to a meer natural man, otherwise then as a general God. For, in the Law, and in the Padagogy, and Schoolmastership, and instruction thereof, God had manifested himself particularly by Moses, In Elijah and the Prophets, whom God sent in a continual succession, to refresh that manifestation which he had given of himself in the Law, before, in the example of these rules, in him, who was the consummation of the Law, and the Prophets, Christ Jesus; And then, in the Application of all this, by the Apostles, and by the Church established by them, God had more particularly manifested himself, then to natural men. Moses, Elijah, Christ, and the Apostles, make up the household of the faithful; and none have interest in the Resurrection, but in, and by these; These, to whom, and by whom, God hath exhibited himself, to his Church, by other notions, then as one universal God; For, nothing will save a man, but to believe in God; so as God hath proposed himself, in his Son, in his Scriptures, in his Christ.

These were with him in the transfiguration, and they talked with him, says that text. As there is a Communion of Saints, so there is a Communication of Saints. Think not heaven a Charter-house, where men, who only of all creatures, are enabled by God to speak, must not speak to one another. The Lord of heaven is Verbum, The word, and his servants there talk of us here, and pray to him for us.

They talked with him; but of what? They talked of his Decease, (says the text there) which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, all that they talked of, was of his Passion. All that we shall say, and sing in heaven, will be of his Passion, accomplished at Jerusalem, in that Hymn, This Lamb hath redeemed as to God, by his blood; Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing, Amen. Even our glory in heaven, at last, is not principally for our selves, but to contribute to the glory of Christ Jesus. If we inquire further then this, into the state of our glorified bodies, remember that in this real Parable, in this Type of the Resurrection, the transfiguration of Christ, it is said, that even Better himself wist not what to say; and remember too, That even Christ himself forbad them to say any thing at all of it, till his Resurrection. Till our Resurrection, we cannot know clearly, we should not speak boldly, of the glory of the Saints of God, nor of our blessed endowments in that state.

The sum of all is, Fiducis Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum; My faith directs it self first upon that which Christ hath done, he is dead, he is risen; and my hope directs it self upon that which shall be done, I shall rise again. And yet says Luther, Papa, Cardinals & primarii viri, I know the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops are Ingenio, doctrinâ, ratione, prudentiâ excellentes, they abound in natural parts, in reading, in experience, in civil wisdom: yet says he, si tres sunt, qui hunc articulum indubitanter credunt, If there be three amongst them. that do faithfully and undoubtedly believe this article of the Resurrection of the body, three are more then I look for amongst them. Beloved, as no things are liker one another, then Court and Court, the same ambitions, the same underminings in one Court as in another, so Church and Church is alike too; All persecured Churches are religious, all peaceable Churches are dissolute, when Luther said that of the Church of Rome, (That few of them believed the Resurrection) the Roman Church wall owed in all abundances, and dissoluteness, and scarce a man, (in respect) opened his mouth against her, otherwise then that the holy Ghost, to make his continual, and to interrupt their prescription, in every age raised up some to declare their impieties and usurpations. But then, when they bent all their thoughts entirely, and prosperously upon possessing this world, they thought they might spare the Resurrection well enough; As he that hath a plentiful fortune in Europe, cares not much though there be no land of perfumes in the East, nor of gold, in the West-Indies; God in our days, hath given us, and our Church, the fat of the glory of this world too, and we also neglect the other: But when men of a different religion from them, (for they will needs call a differing from their errors, a different Religion, as though all their religion were errors, for (excepting errors) we differ in no point) when, I say, such men came to enquire into them, to discover them, and to induce or to attempt in divers parts of their government a reformation, then they shut themselves up closer, then they grew more careful of their manners, and did reform themselves somewhat, though not thoroughly, and are the better for that reformat on which was offered to them, and wrought more effectually upon others? As we say in the School, that even the Devil is somewhat the better for the death of Christ, so the Roman Church is somewhat the better for the Reformation. Our assiduity of preaching hath brought them to another manner of frequency in preaching, then before the Reformation they were accustomed to, and our answers to their books have brought them to a more reserved manner of writing, then they used before. Let us therefore by their example, make as good use of our enemies, as our enemies have done of us. For, though we have no military enmity, no hostility with any nation, though we must all, and do, out of a true sense of our duty to God, pray ever for the continuance of peace amongst Christian Princes, and to withhold the effusion of Christian blood, yet to that intendment, and in that capacity as they were our enemies in 88. when they provoked by their Excommunications, dangerous invasions, and in that capacity as they were our enemies in 603. when they bent their malice even against that place, where the Laws for the maintenance of our religion were enacted, so they are our enemies still, if we be still of the same religion. He that by Gods mercy to us, leads us, is as sure that the Pope is Antichrist, now, as he was then; and we that are blessedly led by him, are as sure, that their doctrine is the doctrine of Devils, now, as we were then. Let us therefore make use of those enemies, and of their aery insolences, and their frothy confidences, as thereby to be the firmer in our selves, and the carefuller of our children, and servants, that we send not for such a Physician as brings a Roman Priest for his Apothecary, nor entertain such a School-master, as brings a Roman Priest for his Vsher, nor such a Mercer, as brings a Priest for his Tayler;) for, in these shapes they have, and will appear.) But in true faith to God, true Allegiance to our Prince, true obedience to the Church, true dealing with all men, make our selves sure of the Resurrection in the next life; In carne incorruptibili, in flesh that shall be capable of no corruption, by having that resurrection in this life, in carne incorruptâ, in devesting or correcting the corruptions which cleave to our flesh here, that we be not corrupted spiritually, (not disputed out of our Religion, nor jeasted out, nor threatened out, nor bought out, nor beat out of the truth of God) nor corrupted carnally by the pleasures or profits of this world, but that we may conform our selves to the purity of Christ Jesus, in that measure, which we are able to attain to, which is our spiritual Resurrection, and constitutes our second part, That Kingdom of God, which flesh and blood may inherit in this life.

From the beginning we settled that, That the primary purpose of the Apostle in these words, was to establish the doctrine of the last Resurrection. But in Tertullians exposition, Arrabonem dedit, & arrabonem accepit; That God hath left us the earnest of his Spirit upon earth, and hath taken the earnest of our flesh into heaven, it grew indifferent, of which Resurrection, spiritual, or bodily, first, or last, it be accepted. but take Tertullian in another place, upon the verse immediately preceding our Text (Sicut portavimus, portemus, (for so Tertullian reads that place, and so does the Vulgate) As we have born the image of the earthly, so let us bear the Image of the heavenly) there from Tertullian it must necessarily be referred to the first Resurrection, the Resurrection by grace in this life, for, says he there, Non refertur ad substantiam resurrectionis, sed ad praesentis temporis disciplinam; the Apostle does not speak of our glorious resurrection at last, but of our religious resurrection now. Portemus, non portabimus, Let us bear his image, says the Apostle; Let us now, not that we shall bear it at the last day. Praeceptive dictum, non promissive; The Apostle delivers it as a duty, that we must, not as a reward, that we shall bear that image. And therefore in Tertullian construction, it is not only indifferent, and probable, but necessary to refer this Text to the first Resurrection in this life; where it will be fittest, to pursue that order, which we proposed at first, first to consider Quid regnum, what Kingdom it is, that is pretended to; And then, Quid haeredetas, what estate and term is to be had in it: It is an Inheritance. And lastly, Quid care, & sanguis, what flesh and blood it is, that is excluded out of this Kingdom. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

First, for this kingdom of God in this world, let us be glad that it is a kingdom, that it is so much, that the government is taken out of the hands of Saints, and Angels and re-united, re-annexed to the Crown, restoted to God, to whom we may come immediately, and be accepted. Let us be glad that it is a kingdom, so much, and let us be glad that it is but a kingdom, and no more, not a Tyranny; That we come not to a God that will damn us, because he will damn us, but a God that proposes Conditions, and enables us to perform those conditions, in such a measure as he will vouchsafe to accept from us; A God that governs us by his word, for in his word is truth, and by his law, for in his law is clearness. Will you ask what this kingdom of God is? What did you take it to be, or what did you mean by it, when, even now, you said with me, in the Lords prayer, Thy kingdom come? Did you deliberately, and determinately pray for the day of Judgment, and for his comming in the kingdom of glory, then? Were you all ready for that, when you said so? Purae conscientiae, & grandis audaciae est, It is a very great confidence, and (if it be not grounded upon a very pure conscience) it must have a worse name, Regnum Dei postul are, & judicium non timeo; To call upon God for the day of Judgment, upon confidence of our own righteousness, is a shrewd distemper; To say, Veni Domine Iesu, come Lord Iesu, come and take us, as thou findst us, is a dangerous issue. But Adveniat regnum, and then veniat Rex, let his kingdom of grace come upon us, in this life, and then let himself come too, in his good time, and when his good pleasure shall be, in the kingdom of Glory: Sive velimus sive nolimus, regnum Dei utique veniet, what need we hasten him, provoke him? says Saint Augustine; whether we will or no, his kingdom, his Judgment will come. Nay, before we called for it, even his kingdom of grace was come. Christ said to the Scribe, Non longè, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God; And to the Pharisees themselves he said; Intra vos, the kingdom of God is among you, within you. But, where there is a whole Hospital of three hundred blind men together, (as there is at Paris) there is as much light, amongst them there, as amongst us here, and yet all they have no light, so this kingdom of God is amongst us all, and yet God knows whether we see it, or no. And therefore Adveniat ut manifestetur Deus, says S. Augustine, his kingdom come, that we may discern it is come, that we may see that God offers it to us; and, Adveniat regnum, ut manefestemur Deo, his kingdom come so, that he may discernus in our reception of that Kingdom, and our obedience to it. He comes when we see him, and he comes again, when we receive him: Quid est, Regnum ejus veniat, quàm ut nos bonos inveniat? Then his Kingdom comes, when he finds us willing to be Subjects to that Kingdom. God is a King in his own right. By Creation, by Redemption, by many titles, and many undoubted claims. But, Aliud est Regem esse, aliud regnare, It is one thing to be a King, another to have Subjects in obedience; A King is not the less a King, for a Rebellion; But, Verè justum regnum est, (says that Father) quando & Rex vult homines habere sub se, & cupiunt homines esse sub eo, when the King would wish no other Subjects, nor the Subjects other King, then is that Kingdom come, come to a durable, and happy state. When God hath showed himself in calling us, and we have showed our willingness to come, when God shows his desire to preserve us, and we adhere only to him, when there is a Dominus regnat, Latetur terra, When our whole Land is in possession of peace, and plenty, and the whole Church in possession of the Word and Sacraments, when the Land rejoyces because the Lord reigns; and when there is a Dominus regnat, Laetentur Insulae, Because the Lord reigneth, every Island doth rejoice; that is, every man; that every man that is encompassed within a Sea of calamities in his estate, with a Sea of diseases in his body, with a Sea of scruples in his understanding, with a Sea of transgressions in his conscience, with a Sea of sinking and swallowing in the sadness of spirit, may yet open his eyes above water, and find a place in the Ark above all these, a recourse to God, and joy in him, in the Ordinances of a well established, and well governed Church, this is truly Regnum Dei, the Kingdom of God here; God is willing to be present with us, (that he declares in the preservation of his Church) And we are sensible of his presence, and residence with us, and that we declare in our frequent recourses to him hither, and in our practise of those things which we have learnt here, when we are gone hence.

This then is the blessed state that we pretend to, in the Kingdom of God in this life; Peace in the State, peace in the Church, peace in our Conscience: In this, that we answer the motions of his blessed Spirit here in his Ordinance, and endeavor a conformity to him, in our life, and conversation; In this, he is our King, and we are his Subjects, and this is this Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Grace. Now the title, by which we make claim to this Kingdom, is in our text Inheritance: Who can, and who cannot inherit this Kingdom of God. I cannot have it by purchase, by mine own merits and good works; It is neither my former good disposition, nor Gods fore-sight of my future cooperation with him, that is the cause of his giving me his grace. I cannot have this by Covenant, or by the gift, or bequeathing of another, by works of Supererogation, (that a Martyr of the primitive Church should send me a violl of his blood, a splinter of his bone, a Collop of his flesh, wrapped up in a half sheet of paper, in an imaginary six-penny Indulgence from Rome, and bid me receive grace; and peace of Conscience in that.) I cannot have it by purchase, I cannot have it by gift, I cannot have it by Curtesy, in the right of my wife, That if I will let her live in the obedience of the Roman Church, and let her bring up my children so, for my self, I may have leave to try a Court, or a worldly fortune, and be secure in that, that I have a Catholic wife, or a Catholic child to pray, and merit for me; I have no title to this Kingdom of God. but Inheritance, whence grows mine Inheritance? Ex semine Dei; because I am propagated of the seed of God, I inherit this peace. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for, his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God: That is, he cannot desire to sin; He cannot antedate a sin, by delighting in the hope of a future sin, and sin in a praefruition of his sin, before the act; He cannot post-date a sin, delight in the memory of a pastsinne, and sin it over again, in a post-fruition of that sin; He cannot boast himself of sin, much less bely himself in glorying in sins, never done; He cannot take sins diet, therefore, that he may be able to sin again next Spring; He cannot hunger and thirst, and then digest and sleep quietly after a sin; and to this purpose, and in this sense Saint Bernard says, Praedestinati non possunt peccare, That the Elect cannot sin; And in this also, That when the sins of the Elect, are brought to trial, and to judgement, there their sins are no sins; not because they are none in themselves, but because the blood of Jesus covering them, they are none in the eyes of God. I am Heir then as I am the Son of God, born of the seed of God. But, what is that seed? Verbum Dei, the seed is the word of God, Of his own will beg at he us, (says that Apostle) with the word of truth; And our Savior himself speaks very clearly in expounding the Parable; The seed is the word of God. We have this Kingdom of God, as we have an inheritance, as we are Heirs; we are Heirs as we are Sons; we are Sons as we have the seed, and the seed is the Word. So that all ends in this; We inherit not this Kingdom if we possess not the preaching of the Word; if we profess not the true religion still: for, the word of this text which we translate to inherit, for the most part, in the translation of the Septuagint, answers the Hebrew word, Nachal; and Nachal is Haereditas cum possession; not an inheritance in reversion, but in possession. Take us O Lord for thine inheritance, says Moses; Et possideas nos, as Saint Hierome translates that very place; Inherit us, and Possess us; Et erimus tibi, whatsoever we are, we will be thine, says the Septuagint: You see then how much goes to the making up of this Inheritance of the Kingdom of God in this world, First, Vt habeamus verbum, That we have this seed of God, his word; (In the Roman Church they have it not; not that that Church hath it not, not that it is not there; but they, the people that have it not) and then, Vt possideamus, That we possess it, or rather that it possess us; that we make the Word the only rule of our faith, and of our actions; (In the Roman Church they do not so, they have not pure wheat, but mestlin, other things joined with this good seed, the word of God) and lastly, Vt simus Deo, That we be his, that we be so still, that we do not begin with God, and give over, but that this seed of God, of which we are born, may (as Saint Peter says) be incorruptible, and abide for ever; that we may be his so entirely, and so constantly, as that we had rather have no being, then for any time of suspension, or for any part of his fundamental truth, be without it, and this the Roman Church cannot be said to do, that expunges and interlines articles of faith, upon Reason of State, and emergent occasions. God hath made you one, says the Prophet, who be the parties whom God hath married together, and made One, in that place? you and your religion; (as our expositors interpret that place.) And why One, says the Prophet there; That God might have a godly seed, says he, that is, a continuation, a propagation, a race, a posterity of the same religion; Therefore says he, Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Let none divorce himself from that religion, and that worship of God, which God put into his armes, and which he embraced in his Baptism. Except there be error in fundamental points, such as make that Church no Church, let no man depart from that Church, and that religion, in which he delivered himself to the service of God at first. Wo be unto us, if we deliver not over our religion to our posterity, in the same sincerity, and the same totality in which our Fathers have delivered it us; for that, that continuation, is that, that makes it an inheritance: for, (to conclude this) every man hath an inheritance in the Law, and yet if he be hanged, he is hanged by the Law, in which he had his inheritance: so we have our inheritance in the Word of God, and yet, if we be damned, we are damned by that Word; If thy heart turn away, so as that thou worship other Gods, I denounce unto you this day, that you shall surely perish. So then, we have an inheritance in this Kingdom, if we preserve it, and we incurre a forfeiture of it, if we have not this seed, (The Word, the truth of Religion) so as that we possess it; that is, conform our selves to him, whose Word it is, by it, and possess it so, as that we persevere in the true profession of it, to our end; for, Perseverance, as well as Possession, enters into our title, and inheritance to this Kingdom.

You see then, what this Kingdom of God is; It is, when he comes, and his welcome, when he comes in his Sacraments, and speaks in his Word; when he speaks and is answered; knocks and is received, (he knocks in his Ordinances, and is received in our Obedience to them, he knocks in his example, and most holy conversation, and is received in our conformity, and imitation.) So have you seen what the Inheritance of this Kingdom is, it is a Having, and Holding of the Gospel, a present, and a permanent possession, a holding fast, lest another (another Nation, another Church) take our Crown. There remains only that you see, upon whom the exclusion falls; and for the clearing of that, This I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

It is fully expressed by Saint Paul, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not a coldness, a slackness, an omission, a preterition of some duties towards God, but it is Enmity, and that's an exclusion out of the Kingdom; for, (says the Apostle there) it is not subject to the Law of God; and no subjection, no Kingdom; it is not, says he, neither can it be; It is not, that excludes the present; It cannot be, that excludes the future; so that it is only this incorrigible, this desperate state that constitutes this flesh, and blood, that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; for this implies impenitableness, which is the sin against the holy Ghost. Take the word flesh, so literally, as that it be either the adorning of my flesh in pride, or the polluting of my flesh in wantonnes, whether it be a pampering of my flesh with voluptuous provocations, or a withering, a shriveling of my flesh with superstitious and meritorious fastings, or other macerations, and lacerations by inhumane violence upon my body; Take the word Blood so literally, as that it be either an admiring and adoring of honourable blood, in a servile flattering of great persons, or an insinuating of false and adulterous blood, in a bastardizing a race, by supposititious children, whether it be the inflaming the blood of young persons by lascivious discourse, or shedding the blood of another in a murderous quarrel, whether it be in blaspheming the blood of my Savior, in execrable oaths, or the profaning of his blood in an unworthy receiving thereof, all these ways, and all such, doth this flesh and blood exclude from the Kingdom of God; It is summarily, all those works which proceed merely out of the nature of man, without the regeneration of the Spirit of God; all that is flesh and blood, and enmity against God, says the Apostle in that place.

But in another place, that Apostle leads us into other considerations; to the Galatians he says, The works of the flesh are manifest: And amongst those manifest works of the flesh, he reckons not only sins of wantonness, and sins of anger, not only sins in concupiscibili, and in irascibili, but in intelligibili, sins and errors in the understanding, particularly Heresy, and Idolatry are works of the flesh, in Saint Pauls inventory, in that place, Heresy and Idolatry, are that flesh and blood which shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Bring we this consideration home to our selves. The Church of Rome does not charge us with affirming any Heresy, nor does she charge us with any Idolatry in our practise. So far we are discharged from the works of the flesh. If they charge us with Doctrine of flesh and blood because we prefer Marriage before Chastity, it is a charge ill laid, for Marriage and Chastity consist well together; The bed undefiled is chastity. If they charge us that we prefer Marriage before Continency, they charge us unjustly, for we do not so: Let them contain that can, and bless God for that heavenly gift of Continency, and let them that cannot, mary, and serve God, and bless him for affording them that Physic for that infirmity. As Marriage was ordained at first, for those two uses, Procreation of children, and mutual assistance of man, and wife, so Continency was not preferred before Marriage. As there was a third use of Marriage added after the fall, by way of Remedy, so Marriage may well be said to be inferior to continency, as physic is in respect of health. If they charge us with it, because our Priests mary, they do it frivolously, and impertinently, because they deny that we are Priests. We charge them with Heresy in the whole new Creed of the Council of Trent, (for, if all the particular doctrines be not Heretical, yet, the doctrine of inducing new Articles of faith is Heretical, and that doctrine runs through all the Articles, for else they could not be Articles.) And we charge them with Idolatry, in the peoples practise, (and that practise is never controld by them) in the greatest mystery of all their Religion, in the Adoration of the Sacrament; And Heresy and Idolatry are manifest works of the flesh. Our Kingdom is the Gospel; our Inheritance is our holding that; our exclusion is flesh and blood, Heresy and Idolatry. And therefore let us be able to say with the Apostle, when God had called us, and separated us, immediately we conferred not with flesh and blood. Since God hath brought us into a fair prospect, let us have no retrospect back; In Canaan, let us not look towards Egypt, nor towards Sodom being got to the Mountain; since God hath settled us in a true Church, let us have no kind of byas, and declination towards a false; for that is one of Saint Pauls manifest works of the flesh, and I shall lose all the benefit of the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus, if I do so, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

We have done; Add we but this, by way of recollecting this which hath been said now, upon these words, and that which hath been formerly said upon those words of Job, which may seem to differ from these, (In my flesh I shall see God) Omne verum omni vero consentiens, whatsoever is true in it self agrees with every other truth. Because that which Job says, and that which Saint Paul says, agree with the truth, they agree with one another. For, as Saint Paul says, Non omnis caro eadem caro, there is one flesh of man, another of beasts, so there is one flesh of Job, another of Saint Paul; And Job's flesh can see God, and Pauls cannot; because the flesh that Job speaks of hath overcome the destruction of skin and body by worms in the grave, and so is mellowed and prepared for the sight of God in heaven; And Pauls flesh is overcome by the world. Job's flesh triumphes over Satan, and hath made a victorious use of Gods corrections, Pauls flesh is still subject to temptations, and carnalities. Job's argument is but this, some flesh shall see God, (Mortified men here, Glorified men there shall) Pauls argument is this, All flesh shall not see God, (Carnal men here, Impenitent men there, shall not.) And therefore, that as our texts answer one another, so your resurrections may answer one another too, as at the last resurrection, all that hear the sound of the Trumpet, shall rise in one instant, though they have passed thousands of years between their burialls, so do all ye, who are now called, by a lower and infirmer voice, rise together in this resurrection of grace. Let him that hath been buried sixty years, forty years, twenty years, in covetousness, in uncleanness, in indevotion, rise now, now this minute, and then, as Adam that died five thousand before, shall be no sooner in heaven, in his body, then you, so Abel that died for God, so long before you, shall be no better, that is, no fuller of the glory of heaven, then you that dye in God, when it shall be his pleasure to take you to him.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XVI.

COLOS. 1. 24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies sake which is the Church.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

WE are now to enter into the handling of the doctrine of Evangelical counsels; And these words have been ordinarily used by the writers of the Roman Church, for the defence of a point in controversy between them and us; which is a preparatory to that which hereafter is to be more fully handled upon another Text. Out of these words, they labor to establish works of supererogation, in which (they say) men do or suffer more then was necessary for their own salvation; and then the superfluity of those accrues to the Treasury of the Church, and by the Stewardship, and dispensation of the Church may be applied to other men living here, or suffering in Purgatory by way of satisfaction to Gods justice; But this is a doctrine which I have had occasion heretofore in this place to handle; And a doctrine which indeed deserves not the dignity to be too diligently disputed against; And as we will not stop upon the disproving of the doctrine, so we need not stay long, nor insist upon the vindicating of these words, from that wresting and detortion of theirs, in using them for the proof of that doctrine. Because though at first, they presented them with great eagerness and vehemence, and assurance, Quicquid haeretici obstrepunt, illustris hic locus, say the Heretics what they can, this is a clear and evident place for that doctrine, yet another after him is a little more cautelous and reserved, Negari non potest quin ita expeni possint, it cannot be denied, but that these words may admit such an exposition; And then another more modified then both says, Primò & propriè non id intendit Apostolus; the Apostle had no such purpose in his first and proper intention to prove that doctrine in these words. Sed innuitur ille sensus; qui et si non genuinus, tamen à pari deduci potest: some such sense (says that author) may be implied and intimated, because, though it be not the true and natural sense, yet by way of comparison, and convenience, such a meaning may be deduced. Generally their difference in having any patronage for that corrupt doctrine out of these words, appears best in this, that if we consider their authors who have written in controversies, we shall see that most of them have laid hold upon these words for this doctrine; because they are destitute of all Scriptures, and glad of any, that appear to any, any whit that way inclinable; But if we consider those authors, who by way of commentary and exposition (either before, or since the controversies have been stirred) have handled these words, we shall find none of their own authors of that kind, which by way of exposition of these words doth deliver this to be the meaning of them, that satisfaction may be made to the justice of God by the works of supererogation one man for another.

To come then to the words themselves in their true sense, and interpretation, we shall find in them two general considerations. First, that to him that is become a new creature, a true Christian, all old things are done away, and all things are made new: As he hath a new birth, as he hath put on a new man, as he is going towards a new Jerusalem, so hath he a new Philosophy, a new production, and generation of effects out of other causes, then before, he finds light out of darkness, fire out of water, life out of death, joy out of afflictions, Nunc gaudeo, now I rejoice in my sufferings &c. And then in a second consideration he finds that this is not by miracle, that he should hope for it but once, but he finds an express, and certain, and constant reason why it must necessarily be so, because I still up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ &c. It is strange that I should conceive joy out of affliction, but when I come to see the reason that by that affliction, I fill up the sufferings of Christ &c. it is not strange, it cannot choose but be so. The parts then will be but two, a proposition, and a reason; But in the first part it will be sit to consider first, the person, not merely who it is, but in what capacity, the Apostle conceives this joy; And secondly, the season, Now, for joy is not always seasonable, there is a time of mourning, but now rejoicing; And then in a third place we shall come to the affection it self, Joy, which when it is true, and truly placed, is the nearest representation of heaven it self to this world. From thence we shall descend to the production of this joy, from whence it is derived, and that is out of sufferings, for this phrase in passionibus, in my sufferings, is not in the middest of my sufferings, it is not that I have joy and comfort, though I suffer, but in passionibus is so in suffering as that the very suffering is the subject of my joy, I had no joy, no occasion of joy, if I did not suffer. But then these sufferings which must occasion this joy, are thus conditioned, thus qualified in our text; That, first, it be passio mea, my suffering, and not a suffering cast by my occasion upon the whole Church, or upon other men, mea, it is determined and limited in my self, and mea, but not prome, not for my self, not for mine own transgressions, and violating of the law, but it is for others, pro vobis, says the Apostle, for out of that root springs the whole second part why there appertains a joy to such sufferings, which is that the suffering of Christ being yet, not unperfect, but unperfected, Christ having not yet suffered all, which he is to suffer to this purpose, for the gathering of his Church, I fill up that which remains undone; And that in Carne, not only in spirit and disposition, but really in my flesh, And all this not only for making sure of mine own salvation, but for the establishing and edifying a Church, but yet, his Church, for men seduced, and seducers of men have their Churches too, and suffer for those Churches; but this is for his Church, and that Church of his which is properly his body, and that is the visible Church: and these will be the particular branches of our two general parts, the proposition, Gaudeo in afflictionibus &c. And the reason, Quiae adimpleo &c.

To begin then with the first branch of the first part, The person; we are sure it was Saint Paul, who we are sure was an Apostle, for so he tells the Colossians in the beginning of the Epistle; Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, but yet he was not properly, peculiarly their Apostle, he was theirs as he was the Apostle of the Gentiles; but he was not theirs, as he was the Apostle of the Corinthians; If I be not an Apostle to others (says he) yet doubtless I am to you; for amongst the Corinthians he had laid the foundations of a Church, Are ye not my work in the Lord? (says he there) but for the Colossians, he had never preached to them, never seen them; Epaphras had laid the foundation amongst them; And Archippus was working, now at the writing of this Epistle, upon the upper buildings, as we may see in the Epistle it self; Epaphras had planted, and Archippus watered; How entered Paul? First as an Apostle, he had a general jurisdiction, and superintendency over them, and over all the Gentiles, and over all the Church; And then, as a man whose miraculous conversion, and religious conversation, whose incessant preaching, and whose constant suffering, had made famous, and reverend over the whole Church of God, all that proceeded from him had much authority, and power, in all places to which it was directed; As himself says of Andronicas and Iunia his kinsmen; that they were Nobiles in Apostolis, Nobly spoken of amongst the Apostles, so Saint Paul himself was Nobilis Apostolus in Discipulis, reverendly esteemed amongst all the Disciples, for a laborious Apostle; Saint Augustine joined his desire to have heard Saint Paul preach, with his other two wishes, to have seen Christ in the flesh, and to have seen Rome in her glory; And Saint Chrysostom admires Rome, so much admired for other things, for this principally, that she had heard Saint Paul preach; And that, Sicut corpus magnum & validum, ita duos haberet illustres oculos, as she was a great and glorious body, so she had two great and glorious eyes; The presence and the memories of Saint Peter, and Saint Paul; he writes not to them then merely as an Apostle not in that capacity, for he joins Timothy with himself at the beginning of the Epistle, who was no Apostle, properly; though upon that occasion, of Pauls writing in his own, and in Timothies name, Saint Chrysostame say, in a larger sense, Ergo Timotheus Apostolus, if Timothy be in commission with Paul, Timothy is an Apostle too: But Saint Paul by his name and estimation, having justly got a power and interest in them, he cherishes that by this salutation, and he binds them the more to accept his instructions, by giving them a part in all his persecutions, and by letting them see, how much they were in his care, even in that distance; A servile application of himself to the humors of others, becomes not the ministers of God; It becomes him not to depart from his ingenuity, and freedom, to a servile humoring, but to be negligent of their opinion of him, with whom he is to converse, and upon whose conscience he is to work, becomes him not neither. It is his doctrine that must bear him out; But if his discretion do not make him acceptable too, his doctrine will have the weaker root when; Saint Paul and the Colossians thought well of one another, the work of God was likely to go forward amongst them; And where it is not so, the work prospers not.

This was then the person; Paul, as he had a calling, and an authority by the Apostleship, and Paul as he had made his calling, and authority, and Apostleship acceptable to them, by his wisdom and descreet behavior towards them, and the whole Church. The season follows next, when he presents this doctrine to them Nunc Gaudeo, now I rejoice, and there is a Nunc illi, and a Nunc illis to be considered, one time it hath relation to Saint Paul himself, and another that hath relation to the Colossians.

His time, the Nunc illis, was nunc in vinculis, now when he was in prison at Rome, for from thence he writ this Epistle; Ordinarily a prisoner is the less to be believed for his being in prison and in fetters, if he speak such things as conduce to his discharge of those fetters, or his deliverance from that imprisonment, it is likely enough that a prisoner will lye for such an advantage; But when Saint Paul being now a prisoner for the preaching of the Gospel, speaks still for the advancement of the Gospel, that he suffers for, and finds out another way of preaching it by letters and by epistles, when he opens himself to more danger, to open to them more doctrine, then that was very credible which he spake, though in prison; There is in all his epistles impetus Spiritus Christi, as Irenaeus says, a vehemence of the holy Ghost, but yet amplius habent quae è vinculis, says Chrisostome, Those epistles which Saint Paul writ in prison, have more of this vehemency in them: a sentence written with a cole upon a wall by a close prisoner, affects us when we come to read it; Stolen letters, by which a prisoner adventers the loss of that liberty which he had, come therefore the more welcome, if they come; It is not always a bold and veliement reprehension of great persons, that is argument enough of a good and a rectified zeal, for an intemperate use of the liberty of the Gospel, and sometimes the impotency of a satyrical humor, makes men preach freely, and over-freely, offensively, scandalously; and so exasperate the magistrate; God forbid that a man should build a reputation of zeal, for having been called in question for preaching of a Sermon; And then to think it wisdom, redimere se quo queat minimo, to sink again and get off as good cheap as he can; But when the malignity of others hath slandred his doctrine, or their galled consciences make them kick at his doctrine, then to proceed with a Christian magnanimity, and a spiritual Nobility in the maintenance of that doctrine, to prefer then before the greatness of the their persons and the greatness of his own danger, the greatness of the glory of God, and the greatness of the loss which Gods Church should suffer by his lenity and prevarication: To edify others by his constancy, then when this building in apparence and likelihood must be raised upon his own ruin, then was Saint Pauls Nunc, concerning himself, then was his season to plant and convey this doctrine to these Colossians, when it was most dangerous for him to do so.

Now to consider this season and fitness as it concerned them; The Nunc illis, It was then, when Epaphras had declrared unto him their love, and when upon so good testimony of their disposition, he had a desire that they might be fulfilled with knowledge of Gods will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, as he says verse 9. when he knew how far they had proceeded in mysteries of the Christian Religion, and that they had a spiritual hunger of more, then it was seasonable to present to them this great point, that Christ had suffered throughly, sufficiently, aboundantly, for the reconciliation of the whole world, and yet that there remained some sufferings, (and those of Christ too) to be fulfilled, by us; That all was done; and yet there remained more to be done, that after Christs consummatum est, which was all the text, there should be an Adimplendum est, interlined, that after Christ had fulfilled the Law, and the Prophets by his sufferings, Saint Paul must fulfill the residue of Christs sufferings, was a doctrin unseasonably taught, till they had learnt much, and showed a desire to learn more; In the Primitive Church men of ripe understandings were content to think two or three years well spent in learning of Catechisms and rudiments of Christian Religion; and the greatest Bishops were content to think that they discharged their duties well, if they catechized ignorant men in such rudiments, for we know from Gennadius an Ecclesiastical author, that the Bishops of Greece, and of the Eastern Church, did use to con S. Cyrils sermons (made at Easter and some other Festivals) without book, and preached over those Sermons of his making, to Congregations of strong understanding, and so had more time for their Catechizing of others; Optatus thinks, that when Saint Paul says, Ego plantavi, Apollos rigavit, I planted the faith, and Apollos watered, he intended in those words, Ego de pagano feci catechumenum, ille de catechumeno Christianum, That Saint Paul took ignorant persons into his charge, to catechize them at first, and when they were instructed by him, Apollos watered them with the water of Baptism, Tertullian thought he did young beginners in Christianity no wrong, when he called them catulos infantiae recentis, nec perfectis luminibus reptantes, Young whelps which are not yet come to a perfect use of their eyes, in the mysteries of Religion. Now God hath delivered us in a great measure from this weakness in seeing, because we are catechized from our cradles, and from this penury in preaching, we need not preach others Sermons, nor feed upon cold meat, in Homilies, but we are fallen upon such times too, as that men do not think themselves Christians, except they can tell what God meant to do with them before he meant they should be Christians; for we can be intended to be Christians, but from Christ; and we must needs seek a Predestination, without any relation to Christ; a decree in God for salvation, and damnation, before any decree for the reparation of mankind, by Christ, every Common-placer will adventure to teach, and every artificer will pretend to understand the purpose, yea, and the order too, and method of Gods eternal and unrevealed decree, Saint Paul required a great deal more knowledge then these men use to bring, before he presented to them, a great deal, a less point of Doctrin then these men use to ask.

This was then the Nunc illis their season, when they had humbly received so much of the knowledge of the fundamental points of Religion. Saint Paul was willing to communicate more and more, stronger and stronger meat unto them; That which he presents here is, that which may seem least to appertain to a Christian, (that is loy) because a Christian is a person that hath surrendered himself over to a sad and serious, and a severe examination of all his actions, that all be done to the glory of God; but for all this, this joy, true joy is truly, properly, only belonging to a Christian; because this joy is the Testimony of a good conscience, that we have received God, so as God hath manifested himself in Christ, and worshipt God, so God hath ordained: In a true Church there are many tesserae externae, outward badges and marks, by which others may judge, and pronounce me to be a true Christian; But the tessera interna, the inward badge and mark, by which I know this in my self, is joy; The blessedness of heaven it self, Salvation, and the fruits of Paradise, (that Paradise which cannot be expressed, cannot be comprehended) have yet got no other name in the subtilty of the Schools, nor in the fullness of the Scriptures, but to be called the joys of heaven; Essential blessedness is called so, Enter into thy Masters joy, that is, into the Kingdom of heaven; and accidental happiness added to that essential happiness is called so too: There is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner; and so in the Revelation, Rejoice ye heavens, and yee that dwell in them, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down There is now joy even in heaven, which was not there before; Certainly as that man shall never see the Father of Lights after this, to whom the day never breaks in this life: As that man must never look to walk with the Lamb wheresoever he goes in heaven, that ran away from the Lamb whensoever he came towards him, in this life; so he shall never possess the joys of heaven hereafter, that feels no joy here; There must be joy here, which Tanquam Cellulae mellis (as Saint Bernard says in his mellifluous language) as the honey-comb walls in, and prepares, and preserves the honey, and is as a shell to that kernel; so there must be a joy here, which must prepare and preserve the joys of heaven it self, and be as a shell of those joys. For heaven and salvation is not a Creation, but a Multiplication; it begins not when we dye, but it increases and dilates it self infinitely then; Christ himself, when he was pleased to feed all that people in the wilderness, he asks first, Quot panes habetis, how many loafs have you? and then multiplied them abundantly, as conduced most to his glory; but some there was before. When thou goest to eat that bread, of which whosoever eats shall never dye, the bread of life in the Land of life, Christ shall consider what joy thou broughtest with thee out of this world, and he shall extend and multiply that joy unexpressibly; but if thou carry none from hence, thou shalt find none there. He that were to travel into a far country, would study before, somewhat the map, and the manners, and the language of the Country; He that looks for the fullness of the joys of heaven hereafter, will have a taste, an insight in them before he go: And as it is not enough for him that would travail, to study any language indifferently (were it not an impertinent thing for him that went to lye in France, to study Dutch?) So if we pretend to make the joys of heaven our residence, it is a madness to study the joys of the world; The Kingdom of heaven is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, says Saint Paul; And this Kingdom of heaven is Intra nos, says Christ, it is in us, and it is joy that is in us; but every joy is not this Kingdom, and therefore says the same Apostle, Rejoice in the Lord; There is no other true joy, none but that; But yet says he there, Rejoice, and again, I say rejoice; that is, both again we say it, again, and again we call upon you to have this spiritual joy, for without this joy ye have not the earnest of the Spirit; And it is again rejoice, bring all the joys ye have, to a second examination, and see if you can rejoice in them again; Have you rejoiced all day in Feasts, in Musickes, in Conversations? well, at night you must be alone, hand to hand with God. Again, I say rejoice, sleep not, till you have tried whether your joy will hold out there too. Have you rejoiced in the contemplation of those temporal blessings, which God hath given you? 'tis well, for you may do so: But yet again I say Rejoice; call that joy to an accompt, and see whether you can rejoice again, in such a use of those blessings as he that gave them to you, requires of you. Have you rejoiced in your zeal of Gods service? that's a true rejoicing in the Lord; But yet still rejoice again, see that this joy be accompanied with another joy; that you have zeal with knowledge: Rejoice, but rejoice again, refine your joy, purge away all dross, and lees from your joy, there is no false joy enters into heaven, but yet no sadness neither.

There is a necessary sadnes in this life, but even in this life necessary only so, as Physic is necessary, Tristitia data, ut peccata deleamus, It is Data, a gift of God, a sadnes and sorrow infused by him, & not assumed by our selves upon the crosses of this world; And so it is physic, and it is Morbi illius peccati, it is proper and peculiar physic for that disease for sin; But, (as that Father pathetically enlarges that consideration) Remedium lippitudinis non tollit alios morbos, water for fore eyes, will not cure the tooth-ach, sorrow and sadness which is prescribed for sin, will not cure, should not be applied to the other infirmities and diseases of our humane condition; Pecunia mulctatus est, (says that Father still) Doluit, non emendavit, A man hath a decree passed against him in a Court of Justice, or lost a Ship by tempest, and he hath grieved for this, hath this reversed the decree, or repaired the shipwreck? Filium amisit, doluit, non resuscitavit. His Son, his eldest Son, his only Son, his towardly Son is dead, and he hath grieved for this; hath he raised his Son to life again? Infirmatur ipse, doluit, abstulit morbum? Himself is fallen into a consumption, and languishes, and grieves, but doth it restore him? Why no, for sadness, and sorrow is not the physic against decrees, and shipwracks, and consumptions, and death: But then Peccavit quis (says he still) & deluit? peccata delevit; Hath any man sinned against his God, and come to a true sorrow for that sin? peccata delevit he hath wash't away that sin, from his soul; for sorrow is good for nothing else, intended for nothing else, but only for our sins, out of which sadness first arose: And then, considered so, this sadness is not truly, nor properly sadness, because it is not so entirely; There is health in the bitterness of physic; There is joy in the depth of this sadness; Saint Basil inforces those words of the Apostle, 2 Cor. 6. 10. Quasi tristes, semper autem gandentes, usefully to this point; Tristitia nostra habet quasi, gaudium non habet, Our sorrow, says he, hath a limitation, a modification, it is but as it were sorrow, and we cannot tell whether we may call it sorrow or no, but our joy is perfect joy, because it is rooted in an assurance: Est in sp certa, our hope of deliverance is in him that never deceived any; for says he then, our sadness passes away as a dream, Et qui insomnium judicat, addit quasi, quasi dicebam, quasi equitabam, quasi cogitabam, he that tells his dream, tells it still in that phrase, me thought I spoke, me thought I went, and me thought I thought, so all the sorrow of Gods children is but a quasi tristes, because it determines in joy, and determines soon. To end this, because there is a difference inter delectationem & gaudium, between delight and joy (for delight is in sensual things, and in beasts, as well as in men, but joy is grounded in reason, and in reason rectified, which is, conscience (therefore we are called to rejoice again; to try whether our joy be true joy, and not only a delight, and when it is found to be a true joy, we say still rejoice, that is, continue your spiritual joy till it meet the eternal joy in the kingdom of heaven, and grow up into one joy, but because sadness and sorrow have but one use, and a determined and limited employment, only for sin, we do not say, be sorry, and again be sorry, but when you have been truly sorry for your sins, when you have taken that spiritual physic, believe your self to be well, accept the seal of the holy Ghost, for the remission of your sins, in Christ Jesus, and come to that health which that physic promises, peace of conscience.

This joy then which Saint Paul found to be so essential, so necessary for man, he found that God placed within mans reach; so near him as that God afforded man this joy where he least looked for it, even in affliction; And of this joy in affliction, we may observe three steps, three degrees; one is indeed but half a joy; and that the Philosophers had; A second is a true joy, and that all Christians have; but the third is an overflowing, and aboundant joy, to which the Apostle was come, and to which by his example, he would rouse others, that joy, of which himself speaks again; I am filled with comfort and am exceeding joyful, in all our tribulations; The first of these, which we call a half joy, is but an indolency, and a forced unsensibleness of those miseries which were upon them; a searing up, a stupefaction, is not of the senses, yet of the affections; That resolution which some moral men had against misery, Non facies ut te dicam malam, no misery should draw them to do misery that honor, as to call it misery; And, in respect of that extreme anguish which out of an over tenderness, ordinary men did suffer under the calamities of this life, even this poor indolency and privation of grief, was a joy, but yet but a half joy; the second joy, which is a true joy, but common to all Christians, is that assurance, which they have in their tribulations, that God will give them the issue with the temptation; not that they pretend not to feel that calamity, so the Philosophers did, but that it shall not swallow them, this is natural to a Christian, he is not a Christian without this; Think it not strange, says the Apostle, as though some strange thing were come unto you, (for we must accustom our selves to the expectation of tribulation) but rejoice, says he, and when his glory shall appear, yee shall be made glad and rejoice; He bids us rejoice, and yet all that he promises, is but rejoicing at last, he bids us rejoice, all the way; though the consummate, aud determinable joy come not till the end, yet God hath set bounds to our tribulations, as to the sea, and they shall not overflow us; But this perfect joy (to speak of such degrees of perfection, as may be had in this life) this third joy, the joy of this text, is not a collateral joy, that stands by us in the tribulation, and sustains us, but it is a fundamental joy, a radical joy, a visceral, a gremial joy, that arises out of the bosom and womb and bowels of the tribulation it self. It is not that I rejoice, though I be afflicted, but I rejoice because I am afflicted; It is not because I shall not sink in my calamity, and be buried in that valley, but because my calamity raises me, and makes my valley a hill, and gives me an eminency, and brings God and me nearer to one another, then without that calamity I should have been, when I can depart rejoicing, and that therefore, because I am worthy to suffer rebuke for the name of Christ, as the Apostles did, when I can feel that pattern proposed to my joy, and to my tribulation, which Christ gives, Rejoice and be glad, for so persecuted they the Prophets, when I can find that seal printed upon me, by my tribulation, If ye be railed on for the name of Christ, blessed are ye, for the spirit of God and of glory resteth on you, that is, that affliction fixes the holy Ghost upon me, which in prosperity, falls upon me but as Sun-beams; Briefly if my soul have had that conference, that discourse with God, that he hath declared to me his purpose in all my calamities, (as he told Ananias that he had done to Paul, he is a chosen vessel unto me, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my sake) If the light of Gods Spirit show us the number, the force, the intent of our tribulations, then is our soul come to that highest joy, which she is capable of in this life, when as cold and dead water, when it comes to the fire, hath a motion and dilatation and a bubling and a kind of dancing in the vessel, so my soul, that lay asleep in prosperity, hath by this fire of Tribulation, a motion, a joy, an exaltation.

This is the highest degree of suffering; but this suffering hath this condition here, that it be passio mea; And this too, that it be mea, and not pro me, but pro aliis: that it be mine, and no bodies else, by my occasion; That it be mine without any fault of mine, that I be no cause that it fell upon me, and that I be no occasion, that it fall upon others. And first, it is not mine, if I borrow it; I can have no joy in the sufferings of Martyrs and other Saints of God, by way of applying their sufferings to me, by way of imitation and example I may, by way of application and satisfaction I cannot, borrowed sufferings are not my sufferings: They are not mine neither, if I steal them, if I force them; If my intemperate, and scandalous zeal, or pretence of zeal, extort a chastisement from the State, if I exasperate the Magistrate and draw an affliction upon my self, this stolen suffering, this forced suffering is not passio mea, it is not mine, if it should not be mine; Natura cujusque rei est, quam Deus indidit, That only is the nature of every thing which God hath imprinted in it: That affliction only is mine, which God hath appointed for me, and what he hath appointed we may see by his exclusions: Let none of you suffer as a murtherer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy-body in other mens matters, (and that reaches far:) I am not possessor bonae fidei, I come not to this suffering by a good title, I cannot call it mine; I may find joy in it, that is, in the middest of it, I may find comfort in the mercy of Christ, though I suffer as a malefactor; But there is no joy in the suffering it self, for it is not mine, it is not I, but my sin, my breach of the law, my disobedience that suffers. It is not mine again, if it be not mine in particular, mine, and limited in me. To those sufferings that fall upon me for my conscience, or for the discharge of my duty, there belongs a joy, but when the whole Church is in persecution, and by my occasion especially, or at all, woe unto them, by whom the first offence comes; this is no joyful matter, and therefore vae illis per quos scandalum, they who by their ambition of preferment, or indulgence to their present case, or indifferency how things fall out, or presumptuous confidence in Gods care, for looking well enough to his own, how little soever they do, give way to the beginnings of superstition, in the times of persecution; when persecutions come, either they shall have no sufferings, that is, God shall suffer them to fall away, and refuse their testimony in his cause, or they shall have no joy in their sufferings, because they shall see this persecution is not theirs, it is not limited in them, but induced by their prevarication upon the whole Church; And lastly, this suffering is not mine, if I stretch it too far; if I over-value it, it is not mine; A man forfeits his privilege, by exceeding it; There is no joy belongs to my suffering, if I place a merit in it; Meum non est cujus nomine nulla mihi superest actio, says the Law; That's none of mine for which I can bring no action; and what action can I bring against God, for a reward of my merit? Have I given him any thing of mine? Quid habeo quod non accepi? what have I that I received not from him? Have I given him all his own? how came I to abound then, and see him starve in the streets in his distressed members? Hath he changed his blessings unto me in single money? Hath he made me rich by half pence and farthings; and yet have I done so much as that for him? Have I suffered for his glory? Am not I vas figuli, a potters vessel, and that Potters vessel; and whose hand soever he employs, the hand of sickness, the hand of poverty, the hand of justice, the hand of malice, still it is his hand that breaks the vessel, and this vessel which is his own; for, can any such vessel have a propriety in it self, or be any other bodies primarily then his, from whom it hath the being? To recollect these, if I will have joy in suffering it must be mine, mine, and not borrowed out of an imaginary treasure of the Church; from the works of others Supererogation: mine, and not stollen or enforced by exasperating the Magistrate to a persecution: mine by good title and not by suffering for breach of the Law, mine in particular, and not a general persecution upon the Church by my occasion; And mine by a stranger title then all this, mine by resignation, mine by disavowing it, mine by confessing that it is none of mine; Till I acknowledge, that all my sufferings are even for Gods glory, are his works, and none of mine, they are none of mine, and by that humility they become mine, and then I may rejoice in my sufferings.

Through all our sufferings then, there must pass an acknowledgement that we are unprofitable servants; towards God utterly unprofitable; So unprofitable to our selves, as that we can merit nothing by our sufferings; but still we may and must have a purpose to profit others by our constancy; it is Pro vobis, that Saint Paul says he suffers for them, for their souls; I will most gladly bestow, and be bestowed for your souls, (says he. ) But Numquid Paulus crucifixus pro vobis, was Paul crucified for you? is his own question, as he suffered for them here, so we may be bold to say he was crucified for them; that is, that by his crucifying and suffering, the benefit of Christs sufferings, and crucifying might be the more cheerfully embraced by them, and the more effectually applied to them; Pro vobis, is Pro vestro commodo, for your advantage, and to make you the more active in making sure your own salvation; We are afflicted (says he) for your consolation; that's first, that you might take comfort, and spiritual courage by our example, that God will no more forsake you, then he hath done us, and then, he adds salvation too; for your consolation and salvation; for our sufferings beget this consolation; and then, this consolation facilitates your salvation; and then, when Saint Paul had that testimony in his own conscience, that his purpose in his sufferings, was Pro illis, to advantage Gods children, and then saw in his experience so good effect of it, as that it wrought, and begot faith in them, then the more his sufferings increased, the more his joys increased; Though (says he) I be offered up, upon the service, and sacrifice of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all; And therefore he calls the Philippians, who were converted by him, Gaudium, & Coronam, his Joy and his Crown; not only a Crown, in that sense, as an auditory, a congregation that compasses the Preacher, was ordinarily called a Crown, Corona. (In which sense that Martyr Cornelius answered the Judge, when he was charged to have held intelligence, and to have received Letters from Saint Cyprian against the State, Ego de Corona Domini, (says he, from Gods Church, 'tis true, I have, but Contra Rempublicam, against the State, I have received no Letters.) But not only in this sense, Saint Paul calls those whom he had converted, his Crown, his Crown, that is, his Church; but he calls them his Crown in heaven, What is our hope, our joy, our Crown of rejoicing, are not even you it? and where? even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, says the Apostle; And therefore not to stand upon that contemplation of Saint Gregories, that at the Resurrection Peter shall lead up his converted Jews, and Paul his converted Nations, and every Apostle his own Church; Since you, to whom God sends us, do as well make up our Crown, as we do yours, since your being wrought upon, and our working upon you conduce to both our Crowns, call you the labor, and diligence of your Pastors, (for that's all the suffering they are called to, till our sins together call in a persecution) call you their painfulness your Crown, and we shall call your applyableness to the Gospel, which we preach, our Crown, for both conduce to both; but especially children's children, are the Crown of the Elders, says Solomon: If when we have begot you in Christ, by our preaching, you also beget others by your holy life and conversation, you have added another generation unto us, and you have preached over our Sermons again, as fruitfully as we our selves; you shall be our Crown, and they shall be your Crowns, and Christ Jesus a Crown of everlasting glory to us all. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XVII.

MATTH. 18. 7. We unto the world, because of offences.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

THe Man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth. The man Moses was so; but the Child Jesus was meeker then he. Compare Moses with men, and Moses will scarce be paralleled; Compare him with him, who being so much more then man, as that he was God too, was made so much less then man, as that he was a worm and no man, and Moses will not be admitted. If you consider Moses his highest expression, what he would have parted with for his brethren, in his Dele me, Pardon them, or blot my name out of thy book, yet Saint Pauls zeal will enter into the balance, and come into comparison with Moses in his Anathema pro fratribus, in that he wished himself to be separated from Christ, rather then his brethren should be. But what comparison hath a sudden, a passionate, and indigested vehemence of love, expressed in a phrase that tastes of zeal, but is not done, (Moses was not blotted out of the book of life, nor Saint Paul was not separated from Christ for his brethren) what comparison hath such a love, that was but said, and perchance should not have been said (for, we can scarce excuse Moses, or Saint Paul, of all excess and inordinateness, in that that they said) with a deliberate and an eternal purpose in Christ Jesus conceived as soon as we can conceive God to have known that Adam would fall, to come into this world, & dye for man, and then actually and really, in the fullness of time, to do so; he did come, and he did dye. The man Moses was very meek, the child Jesus meeker then he. Moses his meekness had a determination, (at least an interruption, a discontinuance) when he revenged the wrong of another upon that Egyptian whom he slew. But a bruised reed might have stood unbroken, and smoking flax might have lien unquenched for ever, for all Christ. And therefore though Christ send his Disciples to School, to the Scribes and Pharisees, because they sate in Moses seat, for other lessons, yet for this, he was their School-master himself, Discite à me, learn of me, for I am meek. In this Chapter he gives them three lessons in this doctrine of meekness; He gives them foundations, and upperbuildings, The Text, and a Comment, all the Elements of true instruction, Rule and Example. First, he finds them contending for place, Quis maximus, who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The disease which they were sick of, was truly an ignorance what this kingdom was; For, though they were never ignorant that there should be an eternal kingdom in heaven, yet they thought not that the kingdom of Christ here should only be a spiritual kingdom, but they looked for a temporal inchoation of that kingdom here. That was their disease, and a dangerous one. But as Physicians are forced to do sometimes, to turn upon the present cure of some vehement symptom, and accdient, and leave the consideration of the main disease for a time, so Christ leaves the doctrine of the kingdom for the present, and does not rectify them in that yet, but for this pestilent symptom, this malignant accident of precedency, and ambition of place, he corrects that first, and to that purpose gives them the example of a little child, and tells them, that except they become as humble, as gentle, as supple, as simple, as seely, as tractable, as ductile, as careless of place, as negligent of precedency, as that little child, they could not only not be great, but they could not at all enter into the kingdom of heaven. He gives them a second lesson in this doctrine of meekness against scandals, and offences, against an easiness in giving or an easiness in taking offences. For, how well soever we may seem to be in our selves, we are not well, if we forbear not that company, and abstain not from that conversation, which by ill example may make us worse, or if we forbear not such things, as, though they be indifferent in themselves, and can do us no harm, yet our example may make weaker persons then we are, worse, because they may come to do as we do, and not proceed upon so good ground as we do; They may sin in doing those things by our example, in which we did not sin, because we knew them to be indifferent things, and therefore did them, and they did them though they thought them to be sins. And for this Doctrine, Christ takes an example very near to them, If thy hand, or foot, or eye offend thee, cut it off, pull it out. His third lesson in this doctrine of meeknes is against hardness of heart, against a loathness, a weariness in forgiving the offences of other men, against us, occasioned by Peters question, Quoties remittam, How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? and the example in this rule Christ hath wrapped up in a parable, The Master forgave his servant ten thousand Talents, (more money then perchance any private man is worth) and that servant took his fellow by the throat, and cast him into prison, because he did not presently pay an hundred pence, perchance fifty shillings, not three pound of our money: in such a proportion was Christ pleased to express the Masters inexhaustible largeness and bounty, (which is himself,) and the servants inexcusable cruelty, and penuriousness, (which is every one of us.) The root of all Christian duties is Humility, meekness, that's violated in an ambitious precedency, for that implies an over-estimation of our selves, and an undervalue of others; And it is violated in scandals, and offences, for that implies an unsetledness and irresolution in our selves, that we can be so easily shook, or a neglecting of weaker persons, of whom Christ neglected none; and it is violated in an unmercifulness, and inexorableness, for that implies an indocileness, that we will not learn by Christs doctrine; & an ungratefulness, that we will not apply his example, and do to his servants, as he, our Master, hath done to us: And so have you some Paraphrase of the whole Chapter, as it consists of Rules and Examples in this Doctrine of meeknes, endangered by pride, by scandal, by uncharitablenes. But of those two, pride & uncharitabenes (though they deserve to be often spoken of,) I shall have no occasion from these words of my text, to speak, for into the second of these three parts, The Doctrine of scandals, our text falls, and it is a Doctrine very necessary, and seldom touched upon.

As the words of our Text are, our parts must be three. First, that heavy word Vae, woe; Secondly, that general word, Mundo, Woe be unto the world; And lastly, that mischievous word, A scandalis, Woe be unto the, world because of scandals, of offences. each of these three words will receive a twofold consideration; for the first, Vae, is first Vox dolentis, a voice of condoling and lamenting, Christ laments the miseries imminent upon the world, because of scandals, and then it is Vox minantis, a voice of threatening, and intermination, Christ threatens, he interminates heavy judgements upon them, who occasion and induce these miseries by these scandals; This one Vae denotes both these; sorrow, and yet infallibility; They always go together in God; God is loath to do it, and yet God will certainly inflict these judgements. The second word, Mundo, Woe be unto the world, looks two ways too; Vae malis, woe unto evil men that raise scandals, vae bonis, woe unto them who are otherwise good in themselves, if they be so various, as to be easily shook and seduced by scandals. And then upon the last word A scandalis, Woe be unto the world, because of scandals, of offences, we must look two ways also; first, as it denotes Scandalum activum, a scandal given by another, and then, as it denotes Scandalum passivum, a scandal taken by another.

First then, our first word, in the firrst acceptation thereof, is Vae dolentis, the voice of condoling and lamentation; God laments the necessity that he is reduced to, and those judgements which the sins of men have made inevitable. In the person of the Prophets which denounced the judgements of God, it is expressed so, Onus Babylonis, Onus Egypti, Onus Damasci? O the burden of Damascus, the burden of Egypt, the burden of Babylon; And not only so, but Onus visionis, Not only that that judgment would be a heavy burden, when it fell upon that Nation, but that the very pre-contemplation, and pre-denunciation of that judgement upon that people, was a burden and a distasteful bitterness, to the Prophet himself, that was sent upon that message. In reading of an Act of Parliament, or of any Law that inflicts the heaviest punishment that can be imagined upon a delinquent, and transgressor of that Law, a man is not often much affected, because he needs not, when he does but read that law, consider that any particular man is fallen under the penalty, and bitterness thereof. But if upon evidence and verdict he be put to give judgement upon a particular man that stands before him, at the bar, according to that Law, That that man that stands there that day, must that day be no man; that that breath breathed in by God, to glorify him, must be suffocated and strangled with a halter, or evaporated with an Axe, he must be hanged or beheaded, that those limbs which make up a Cabinet for that precious Jewel, the image of God, to be kept in, must be cut into quarters, or torn with horses; that that body which is a consecrated Temple of the Holy Ghost, must be chained to a stake, and burnt to ashes, he that is not affected in giving such a judgment, upon such a man, hath no part in the bowels of Christ Jesus, that melt in cō passion, when our sins draw and extort his Judgements upon us in the mouth of those Prophets, those men whom God sends, it is so, and it is so in the mouth of God himself that sends them. Heu vindicabor, (says God) Alas, I will revenge me of mine enemies; Alas, I will, is Alas, I must, his glory compels him to do it, the good of his Church, and the sustentation of his Saints compell him to it, and yet he comes to it with a condolency, with a compassion, Heu vindicabor, Alas, I will revenge me of mine enemies: so also in another Prophet, Heu abominationes, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for (as it is added there) they shall fall, (that is, they will fall) by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, and (as it follows) I will accomplish my fury upon them; Though it were come to that height, fury, and accomplishment, consummation of fury, yet it comes with a condolency, and compassion, Heu abominationes, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, I would they were not so ill, that I might be better to them. Men sent by God do so, so does God that sends those men, & he that is both God and man, Christ Jesus does so too: We have but two clear records in the Scriptures of Christs weeping, and both in compassion for others, when Mary wept for her dead brother Lazarus, and the Jews that were with her wept too, Jesus also wept, and he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled. This was but for the discomfort of one family, (it was not a mortality over the whole Country) It was but for one person in that family, (it was not a contagion that had swept, or did threaten the whole house) it was but for such a person in that family, as he meant forthwith to restore to life again, and yet Jesus wept, & groaned in the Spirits, & was trobled; he would not lose that opportunity of shewing his tenderness, and compassion in the behalf of others. How vehement, how passionate then, must we believe his other weeping to have been, when he had his glorious and beloved City Jerusalem in his sight, and wept over that City, and with that stream of tears poured out that Sea, that tempestuous Sea, those heavy judgements, which, (though he wept in doing it) he denounced upon that City, that glorious, that beloved City, which City (though Christ charge, to have stoned them that were sent to her, and to be guilty of all the righteous blood shed upon the earth) the holy Ghost calls the holy City for all that, not only at the beginning of Christs appearance, (The Devil took him up into the holy City) (for at that time she was not the unholyer for any thing that she had done upon the person of Christ,) but when they had exercised all their cruelty, even to death, the death of the Cross upon Christ himself, the Holy Ghost calls still the holy City; Many bodies of Saints, which slept, arose, and went into the holy City. When the Fathers take into their contemplation and discourse, that passionate exclamation of our Savior upon the Cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? those blessed Fathers, that never thought of any such sense of that place, that Christ was, at that time, actually in the real torments of hell, assign no fitter sense of those words, then that the foresight of those insupportable, and inevitable, and imminent judgements upon his City, and his people, occasioned that passionate exclamation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That as, after he was ascended into heaven, he said to Saul, Cur me persequeris? He called Sauls persecuting of his Church, a persecuting of him, so when he considered that God had forsaken his people, his City, his Jerusalem, he cried out, that God had forsaken him. God that sent the Prophets; the Prophets that were sent; Christ who was both, the person sent, and the sender, came to the inflicting and denouncing of judgements, with this Vae dolentis, a heart, and voice of condoling and lamentation.

Grieve not then the holy Spirit of God, says the Apostle; extort not from him those Judgements, which he cannot in justice forbear, and yet is grieved to inflict. How often do we use that motive, to divert young men from some ill actions, and ill courses, How will this trouble your friends, how will this grieve your Mother, this will kill your Father? The Angels of heaven who are of a friendship and family with us, as they rejoice at our conversion, so are they sorry and troubled at our aversion from God. Our sins have grieved our Mother; that is, made the Church ashamed, and blush that he hath washed us, and clothed us, in the whiteness and innocency of Christ Jesus in our baptism, and given us his blood to drink in the other Sacrament. Our sins have made our mother the Church ashamed in her self, (we have scandalized and offended the Congregation) and our sins have defamed and dishonoured our mother abroad, that is, imprinted an opinion in others, that that cannot be a good Church, in which we live so dissolutely, so falsely to our first faith, and contract, and stipulation with God in Baptism. We have grieved our brethren, the Angels, our mother, the Church, and we have killed our Father: God is the father of us all; and we have killed him; for God hath purchased a Church with his blood, says Saint Paul. And, oh, how much more is God grieved now, that we will make no benefit of that blood which is shed for us, then he was for the very shedding of that blood! We take it not so ill, (pardon solow a comparison in so high a mystery; for, since our blessed Savior was pleased to assume that metaphor, and to call his passion a Cup, and his death a drinking, we may be admitted to that Comparison of drinking too) we take it not so ill, that a man go down into our Cellar, and draw, and drink his fill, as that he go in, and pierce the vessels, and let them run out, in a wasteful wantonneste. To satisfy the thirst of our souls, there was a necessity that the blood of Christ Jesus, should be shed; To satisfy Christs own sitto, that thirst which was upon him, when he was upon the Cross, there was a necessity too, that Christ should bleed to death. On our part there was an absolute and a primary necessity; God in his justice requiring a satisfaction, nothing could redeem us, by way of satisfaction, but the blood of his Son. And though there were never act more voluntary, more spontaneous, then Christs dying for man, nor freer from all coaction, and necessity of that kind, yet after Christ had submitted himself to that Decree and contract that passed between him, and his Father, that he, by shedding his blood, should redeem Mankind, there lay a necessity upon Christ himself to shed his blood, as himself says first to his Disciples that went with him to Emans, Nonne oportuit, ought not Christ to suffer all these things? do ye not find by the prophets that he was bound to do it? and then to his Apostles at Jerusalem, Sic opertuit, Thus it behoved Christ to suffer. There was then an absolute necessity upon us, an obediential necessity upon Christ, that his blood must be shed; But to let him dye in a wantonness, to let out all that precious liquor, and taste no drop of it, to draw out all that immaculate and unvaluable blood, and make no balsamum, no antidote, no plaister, no fomentation in the application of that blood, to labor still under a burning fever of lust, and ambition, and presumption, and find no cooling julips there, in the application of that blood, to labor under a cold damp of indevotion, and under heartless desperation, and find no warming Cordialls there, to be still as far under judgements and executions for sin, as if there had been no Messiah sent, no ransom given, no satisfiaction made, not to apply this blood thus shed for us, by those means which God in his Church presents to us, this puts Christ to his woeful Interjection, to cast out this wo upon us, (which he had rather have left out) wo be unto the world, which, though it begin in a vae dolentis, a voice of condoling and lamenting, yet it is also vae minantis, a voice of threatening, and intermination, denoting the infallibility of Judgements, and that's our next consideration.

I think we find no words in Christs mouth so often, as vae, and Amen. Each of them hath two significations; as almost all Christs words, and actions have; consolation, and commination. For, as this vae signifies (as before) a sorrow, (wo, that is, wo is me, for this will fall upon you) and signifies also a Judgment inevitable and infallible, (wo, that is, wo be unto you, for this Judgement shall fall upon you) so Amen is sometimes vox Asserentis, and signifies verè, verily, Verily I say unto you, when Christ would confirm, and establish a belief in some doctrine, or promise of his, (as when he says Amen, Amen, verily verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works then these shall he do) so it is vox Asserentis, a word of assertion, and it is also vox Deserentis, a word of desertion, when God denounces an infallibility, an unavoydableness, an inevitableness in his judgements, Amen dico, verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing; so this Amen signifies Fiat, this shall certainly be thus done. And this seal, this Amen, as Amen is Fiat, is always set to his vae, as his vae is vox minantis; whensoever God threatens any Judgement, he means to execute that Judgement as far as he threatens it; God threatens nothing in terrorem only, only to frighten us; every vae hath his Amen, every Judgement denounced, a purpose of execution. This then is our woeful case; every man may find upon record, in the Scriptures, a vae denounced upon that sin, which he knows to be his sin; and if there be a vae, there is an Amen too, if God have said it shall, it shall be executed, so that this is not an execution of a few condemned persons, but a Massacre of all: It is not a Decimation, as in a rebellion, to spare nine, and hang the tenth, but it is a washing, a sweeping away of all: every man may find a Judgement upon record against him. It doth not acquit him that he hath not committed an adultery; and yet, is he sure of that? He may have done that in a look, in a letter, in a word, in a wish: It doth not acquit him, that he hath not done a murder; and yet, is he sure of that? He may have killed a man, in not defending him from the oppression of another, if he have power in his hand, and he may have killed in not relieving, if he have a plentiful fortune. He may have killed in not reprehending him who was under his charge, wh̄ he saw him kil himself in the sinful ways of death. As they that write of Poisons, and of those creatures that naturally malign and would destroy man, do name the Flea, as well as the Viper, because the Flea sucks as much blood as he can, so that man is a murderer that stabs as deep as he can, though it be but with his tongue, with his pen, with his frown; for a man may kill with a frown, in withdrawing his countenance from that man, that lives upon so low a pasture as his countenance, nay he may kill with a smile, with a good look, if he afford that good look with a purpose to delude him. And, beloved, how many dye of this disease; how many dye laughing, dye of a tickling; how many are overjoyed with the good looks, and with the familiarity of greater persons then themselves, and led on by hopes of getting more, wast that they have? An adultery, a murder may be done in a dream, if that dream were an effect of a murderous, or an adulterous thought conceived before. The Apostle says, I know nothing by my self, yet am I not thereby justified, we sin some sins, that all the world sees, and yet we see not, but then, how many more, which none in the world sees but our selves? Scarce any man scapes all degrees of any sin; scarce any man some great degree of some great sin; no man escapes so, but that he may find upon record, in the Scriptures, a vae, and an Amen, a Judgment denounced, and an execution sealed against him. And, if that be our case, where is there any room for this milder signification of these two words, vae, and Amen, which we spoke of before, as they are words of Consolation? If because God hath said Stipendium peccati mors est, the wages of sin is death, because I have sinned, I must dye, what can I do in a Prayer? can I flatter God? what can I do in an Alms? Can I bribe God, or frustrate his purpose? Can I put an Euge upon his vae, a vacat upon his Fiat, a Nonobstante upon his Amen. God is not man, not a false man that he can lie, nor a weak man that he can repent. Where then is the restorative, the consolatory nature of these words? In this, beloved, consists our comfort, that all Gods vae's and Amens, all judgments, and all his executions are Conditional; There is a Crede & vives, Believe and thou shalt live; there is a Fac hoc & vives, do this and thou shalt live; If thou have done otherwise, there is a Convert & vives, turn unto the Lord and thou shalt live; If thou have done so, and fallen off, there is a Revertere & vives, return again unto the Lord, and thou shalt live. How heavy so ever any of Gods judgements be, yet there is always room for Davids question, Quis scit, who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me? What better assurance could one have, then David had? The Prophet Nathan had told David immediately from the mouth of God, this child shall surely dye, and ratified it by that reason, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, this child shall surely dye, yet David fasted, and wept, and said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious unto me, that the child may live? There is always room for Davids question, Quis scit, who can tell? Nay there is no room for it, as it is a question of diffidence and distrust; every man may and must know, that whatsoever any Prophet have denounced against any sin of his, yet there are conditions, upon which the Lord will be gracious and thy soul shall live. But if the first condition, that is Innocency, and the second, that is Repentance, be rebelliously broken, then every man hath his vae, and every vae hath his Amen, the judgements are denounced against him; and upon him they shall be executed; for God threatens not to fright children, but the Mountains melt, and Powers, and Thrones, and Principalities tremble at his threatening. And so have you the doubled signification of the first word vae, as it is vox Dolentis, and as it is Vox minantis, God is loath, but God will infallibly execute his judgement, and we proceed to the extension of this vae, over all, vae mundo, woe unto the world, and the double signification of that word.

I have wondered sometimes that that great Author, and Bishop in the Roman Church, Abulensis, is so free, as to confess that some Expositors amongst them, have taken this word in our Text, Mundo, adjectivè, not to signify the world, but a clean person, a free man, that it should be vae immuni, woe unto him that is free from offences, that hath had no offences; perchance they mean from crosses. And so, though it be a most absurd, and illiterate, and ungrammatical construction of the place that they make, yet there is a doctrine to be raised from thence, of good use. As God brought light out of darkness, and raises glory out of sin, so we may raise good Divinity out of their ill Grammar; for vae mundo, indeed, vae immuni, woe be unto him that hath had no crosses. There cannot be so great a cross as to have none. I lack one loaf of that daily bread that I pray for, if I have no cross; for afflictions are our spiritual nourishment; I lack one limb of that body I must grow into, which is the body of Christ Jesus, if I have no crosses; for, my conformity to Christ, (and that's my being made up into his body) must be accomplished in my fulfilling his sufferings in his flesh. So that, though our adversaries out of their ignorance mislead us in a wrong sense of the place; the Holy Ghost leads us into a true, and right use thereof. But there is another good use of their error too, another good doctrine out of their ill Grammar; Take the word mundo, adjectivè, for an adjective, and vae mundo, vae immuni, wo unto him that is so free from all offences, as to take offence at nothing; to be indifferent to any thing, to any Religion, to any Discipline, to any form of Gods service; That from a glorious Mass to a sordid Conventicle, all's one to him, all one to him whether that religion, in which they meet, and light candles at Noon; or that, in which they meet, and put out candles at midnight; what innovations, what alterations, what tolerations of false, what extirpations of true Religion soever come, it shall never trouble, never offend him; 'Tis true, Vae mundo indeed, wo unto him that is so free, so unsensible, so unaffected with any thing in this kind; for, as to be too inquisitive into the proceedings of the State, and the Church, out of a jealousy and suspicion that any such alterations, or tolerations in Religion are intended or prepared, is a seditious disaffection to the government, and a disloyal aspersion upon the persons of our Superiors, to suspect without cause, so, not to be sensible that the Catterpillars of the Roman Church, do eat up our tender fruit, that the Jesuites, and other enginiers of that Church, do seduce our forwardest and best spirits, not to be watchful in our own families, that our wives and children and servants be not corrupted by them, for the Pastor to slacken in his duty, (not to be earnest in the Pulpit) for the Magistrate to slacken in his, (not to be vigilant in the execution of those Laws as are left in his power) vae mundo, vae immuni, woe unto him that is unsensible of offences. Jealously, suspiciously to mis-interpret the actions of our Superiors, is inexcusable, but so is it also not to feel how the adversary gains upon us, and not to wish that it were, and not to pray that it may be otherwise; vae mundo, vae immuni, wo to him that is un-offended unsensible, thus. But as I have wondered that that Bishop would so easily confess, that some of their Expositors were so very unlearned, so barbarously ignorant, so enormously stupid, as to take this vae mundo adjective, so do I wonder more, that after such confessions, and acknowledgements of such ignorances and stupidities amongst them, they will not remedy it in the cause, but still continue so rigid, so severe in the maintenance of their own Translation, their Vulgate Edition, as in places, and cases of doubt, not to admit recourse to the Original, as to the Supreme Judge, nor to other Translations: for, by either of those ways, it would have appeared, that this vae mundo could not be taken adjectivè, but is a cloud cast upon the whole world, a woe upon all, no place, no person, no calling free from these scandals, and offences, from temptations, and tribulations; when there was a vae Sodom, that God reigned fire and brimstone upon Sodom, yet there was a Zoar, where Let might be safe. When there was a vae Egypto, wo and wo upon wo upon Egypt, there was a Goshen a Sanctuary for the children of God in Egypt. When there is a vae inhabitantibus, a persecution in any place, there is a Fuge in aliam, leave to fly into another City. But in such an extension, such an expansion, such an exaltation, such an inundation of woe, as this in our text, Vae mundo, woe to the world, to all the world, a tide, a flood without any ebb, a Sea without any shore, a dark sky without any Horizon; That though I do withdraw my self from the woeful uncertainties, and irresolutions and indeterminations of the Court, and from the snares and circumventions of the City; Though I would divest, and shake off the woes and offences of Europe in Afrique, or of Asia in America, I cannot, since wheresoever, or howsoever I live, these woes, and scandals, and offences, temptations, and tribulations will pursue me, who can express the wretched condition, the miserable station, and prostration of man in this world? vae mundo.

Take the word, World, in as ill a sense as you will, as ill as when Christ says, I pray not for the world, (and they are very ill, for whom Christ Jesus who prayed for them that crucified him, would not pray:) Take the word world, in as good a sense as you will, as good as when Christ says, I give my flesh for the life of the world, (and they are very good that are elemented, made up with his flesh, and alimented and nursed with his blood:) Take it for the Elect, take it for the Reprobate, the Reprobate and the Elect too are under this vae, wo to the world, from temptations, and tribulations, scandals, and offences.

So it is if the world be persons, and it is so also, if it be times; Take the world for the times we live in now, and it is Novissima hora, this is the last time, and the Apostle hath told us, that the last times are the worst. Take the world for the Old world, Originalis mundus, as Saint Peter call's it; the Original world, of which, this world; since the flood, is but a copy, and God spared not the Old world, says that Apostle. Take it for an elder world then that, the world in Paradise, when one Adam, the Son of God, and one Eve produced by God, from him, made up the world: or take it for an elder world then that, the world in heaven, when only the Angels, and no other creatures made up the world; Take it any of these ways, we in this latter world do, Noah in the old world did, so did Adam in the world in Paradise, and so did the Angels in the oldest world of all, find these woes from offences, and scandals, temptations, and tribulations.

So it is in all persons, in all men, so it is in all times, in all ages, and so it is in all places too; for he that retires into a Monastery upon pretence of avoiding temptations, and offences in this world, he brings them thither, and he meets them there; He sees them intramittendo, and extramittendo, he is scandalized by others, and others are scandalized by him. That part of the world that sweats in continual labor in several vocations, is scandalized with their laziness, and their riches, to see them anoint themselves with other mens sweat, and lard themselves with other mens fat; and then these retired and cloistral men are scandalized with all the world, that is out of their walls. There is no sort of men more exercised with contentious and scandalous wranglings, then they are: for, first, with all eager animosity they prefer their Monastical life before all other secular callings, yea, before those Priests, whom they call Secular Priests, such as have care of souls, in particular parishes, (as though it were a Diminution, and an inferior state to have care of souls, and study and labor the salvation of others.) And then as they undervalue all secular callings, (Mechaniques, and Merchants, and Magistrates too) in respect of any Regular order, (as they call them) so with the same animosity do they prefer their own Order, before any other Order. A Carthusian is but a man of fish, for one Element, to dwell still in a Pond, in his Cell alone, but a Jesuit is a useful ubiquitary, and his Scene is the Court, as well as the Cloister. And howsoever they pretend to be gone out of the world, they are never the farther from the Exchange for all their Cloister; they buy, and sell, and purchase in their Cloister. They are never the farther from Westminster in their Cloister, they occasion and they maintain suits from their Cloister; and there are the Courts of Justice noted to abound most with suits, where Monasteries abound most. Nay, they are never the farther from the field for all their Cloister; for they give occasions of armies, they raise armies, they direct armies, they pay armies from their Cloister. Men should not retire from the mutual duties of this world, to avoid offences, temptations, tribulations, neither do they at all avoid them, that retire thus, upon that pretence.

Shall we say then, as the Disciples said to Christ; If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to mary? If the world be nothing but a bed of Adders, a quiver of poisoned arrows, from every person, every time, every place, woes by occasion of offences, and scandals, it had been better God had made no world, better that I had never been born into the world, better, if by any means I could get out of the world quickly, shall we say so? God forbid. As long as Job charged not God foolishly, it is said, in all this Job sinned not; but when he came to curse his birth, and to loath his life, then Job charged God foolishly. When one Prophet (Elijah) comes to proportion God the measure of his corrections, Satisest, Lord, this is enough; Thou hast done enough, I have suffered enough, now take away my life. When another Prophet comes to wish his own death in anger, and to justify his anger, and dispute it out with God himself, for not proceeding with the Ninivites, as he would have had him do; nay for the withering of his gourd that shadowed him, in all these, they did, in all such, we do charge God foolishly; And shall we that are but worms, but silk-worms, but glow-worms at best, chide God that he hath made slow-worms, and other venomous creeping things? shall we that are nothing but boxes of poison in our selves, reprove God for making Toads and Spiders in the world? shall we that are all discord, quarrel the harmony of his Creation, or his providence? Can an Apothecary make a Sovereign triacle of Vipers, and other poisons, and cannot God admit offences, and scandals into his physic? scandals, and offences, temptations, and tribulations, are our leaven that ferment us, and our lees that preserve us. Use them to Gods glory, and to thine own establishing, and then thou shall be a particular exception to that general Rule, the Vae mundo à scandalis, shall be an Euge tibi à scandalis, thou shalt see that it was well for thee, that there were scandals and offences in the world, for they shall have exercised thy patience, they shall have occasioned thy victory, they shall have assured thy triumph.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XVIII.

The second Sermon on MATTH. 18. 7. Wo unto the world, because of offences.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

We have seen in the first word the vae, as it is vox Dolentis, the voice of condoling and lamenting, that it is accompanied with a Heu; Gods judgements come against his will, he had rather they might be forborn, he had rather those easy conditions had been performed; And as it is vox minantis, a voice of threatening and intermination, it is accompanied with an Amen; if conditions be rebelliously broken, Gods judgements do come infallibly, inevitably; And we have seen in the second word, vae mundo, and the twofold signification of that, that these offences, and scandals fall upon all the world; the wicked embrace temptations, and are glad of them, and sorry when they are but weak; the godly meet temptations, and wrastle with them, and sometimes do overcome them, and are sometimes overcome by them; but all have them, and yet we must not break out of the world by a retired life, nor break out of the world by a violent death, but take Gods ways, and stay Gods leisure. In this our third part, we are to consider the root from which this over-spreading vae, this woe proceeds, A scandalis, from scandals, from offences, and the double signification of that word, first, Scandalum activum, the active scandal, which is a malice, or at least an indiscretion in giving offence, and Scandalum passivum, the passive scandal, which is a forwardness, at least an easiness in taking offence; To know the nature of the thing, look we to the derivation, the extraction, the Origination of the word. The word from which scandal is derived (scazein) signifies claudicare, to halt; and thence, a scandal is any trap, or Engin, any occasion of stumbling, and laming, hid in the way that I must go, by another person; and as it is transferred to a spiritual use, appropriated to an Ecclesiastical sense, it is an occasion of sinning. It hath many branches; too many to be so much as named; but some fruits from some of them we shall gather, and present you. First, in our first, the Active Scandal, to do any thing that is naturally ill, formally sin, whereby another may be occasioned or encouraged by my example to do the like, this is the active scandal most evidently, and most directly, and this is morbus complicatus, a disease that carries another disease in it, a fever exalted to a frenzy; It is Peccatum pragnans, peccatum gravidum, a spauning sin, a sin of multiplication, to sin purposely, to lead another into temptation. But there is a less degree then this, and it is an active scandal too; To do any thing that in it self is indifferent, (and so no sin in me, that do it) in the sight of another that thinks it not indifferent, but unlawful, and yet because he hath a real, or a reverential dependence upon me, (my Son, my Servant, my Tenant) and thinks I would be displeased if he did it not, does it against his conscience by my example, though the sin be formally his, radically it is mine, because I gave the occasion, And there is a lower degree then this; and yet is an active scandal. If I do an indifferent thing in the sight and knowledge of another, that thinks it unlawful, though he do not come to do it, out of my example, by any dependence upon me, yet if he come to think uncharitably of me, or to condemn me for doing it, though this uncharitableness in him be his sin, yet the root grew in me, and I gave the scandal. And there is a lower degree then this, and yet is an Active scandal too. Origen hath expressed it thus, Scandalum est quo scandentium pedes offenduntur; To hinder the feet of another, that would go farther, or climb higher in the ways of godliness; but for me, to say to any man, What need you be so pure, so devout, so godly, so zealous, will this make you rich, will this bring you to preferment? this is an active scandal in me, though he that I speak to, be not damnified by me. Of which kind of scandal, there is an evident, and an illustrious example, between Saint Peter, and Christ; Christ calls Peter a scandal unto him, when Peter rebuked Christ for offering to go up to Jerusalem in a time of danger. Christ was to accomplish the work of our salvation at Jerusalem, by dying, and Peter disswades, discounsels that journey; and for this, Christ lays that heavy name upon his indiscreet zeal, and that heavy name upon his person, Vade retro, Get thee behind me Satan, thou art a scandal unto me. This is Scandalum oppositionis, the scandal of opposing, disswading, discounselling, discountenancing, and consequently the frustrating of Gods purpose in man; This is but by word, and yet there is a less then this, which is Scandalum timoris, when he that hath power in his hand, in a family, in a parish, in a City, in a Court, intimidates them who depend upon him, (though nothing be expressly done or said that way) and so slackens them in their religious duties to God; and in their constancy in Religion it self; And vae illis, woe unto them that do so, and vae mundo ab illis; woe unto the world, because there are so many that do so. And yet there is another scandal which seems less then this, Scandalum amoris, the scandal of love; as Saul gave David his daughter Michal, ut esset ei in scandalum, that she might be a snare unto him; that is, that David being over-uxorious, and over-indulgent to his wife, might thereby lye the more open to Sauls mischievous purposes upon him, and vae illis, woe unto them that do so; and vae mund ab illis, woe unto the world, because there are so many that do so, that study the affections, and dispositions, and inclinations of men, and then, minister those things to them, that affect them most, which is the way of the instruments of the Roman Church, to promise preferments to discontented persons, and is indeed, his way, whose instrument the Roman Church is, The Devil; for this is all that the Devil is able to do, in the ways of temptation, Applicare passivis activa, To find out what will work upon a man, and to work by that. The Devil did not create me, nor bring materials to my creation; The Devil did not infuse into me, that choler, that makes me ignorantly and indiscreetly zealous, nor that flegm that chokes me with a stupid indevotion; He did not infuse into me that blood, that inflames me in licentiousness, nor that melancholy that dampes me in a jealousy and suspicion, a diffidence and distrust in God. The Devil had no hand in composing me in my constitution. But the Devil knows, which of these govern, and prevail in me, and ministers such temptations, as are most acceptable to me, and this is Scandalum amoris, the scandal of Love.

So have ye then the Name, and Nature, and extent of the Active Scandal; against which, the inhibition given in this Text is general, we are forbidden to scandalize any person by any of these ways, The scandal of Example, or the scandal of Persuasion, The scandal of Fear, or the scandal of Love. For, there is scarce any so free to himself, so entirely his own, so independent upon others, but that Example, or Persuasion, or Fear, or Love may scandalize him, that is, Lead him into temptation, and make him do some things against his own mind. Our Savior Christ had spoken, De pusillis, of little children, of weak persons, easy to be scandalized, before this Text, and he returns, ad pusillos, to the consideration of little children, persons easy to be scandalized again; this Text is not of them, or not of them only, but of all; say not thou of any man, aetatem habet, he is old enough, let him look to himself, he hath reason as other men have, he hath had a learned and a religious education, ill example can do him no harm; but give no ill example to any, study the setling, and the establishing of all; for, scarce is there any so strong, but may be shook by some of these scandals, Example, Persuasion, Fear, or Love. And he that employs his gift of wit, and Counsel to seduce and mislead men, or his gift of Power, and Authority to intimidate, and affright men, or his gift of other graces, loveliness of person, agreeableness of Conversation, powerfulness of speech, to ensnare and entangle men by any of these scandals, may draw others into perdition, but he falls also with them, and shall not be left out by God in the punishments inflicted upon them that fall by his occasion.

The Commandment is general, scandalize none, scarce any but may be overthrown, by some of these ways; And then the Apostles practise was general too, we give no occasion of offence in any thing. As he requires that we should eat and drink to the glory of God, so he would have us study to avoid scandalizing of others, even in our eating and drinking; If meat make my brother to offend, (offend either in eating against his own conscience, or offend in an uncharitable mis-interpretation of my eating) In aeternum, says the Apostle there, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth; Nor, destroy my brother with my meat, for whom Christ died. That's the Apostles tenderness in things; (He would give no occasion of offence in any thing) And it is as general in contemplation of persons, he would have no offence given, neither to the Jew, nor to the Grecian, nor to the Church of God: He was as careful not to scandalize, not to give just occasion of offence to Jew, not Gentile, as not to the Church of God; so must we be towards them of a superstitions religion amongst us, as careful as towards one another, not to give any scandal, any just cause of offence. But what is to be called a just cause of offence towards those men? Good ends, and good ways, plain, and direct, and manifest proceedings, these can be called no scandal, no just cause of offence, to Jew, nor Gentile, to Turk, nor Papist; nor does Saint Paul intend that we should forbear essential and necessary things, for fear of displeasing perverse and peevish men. To maintain the doctrinal truths of our religion, by conferences, by disputations, by writing, by preaching, to avow, and to prove our religion to be the same, that Christ Jesus and his Apostles proposed at beginning, the same that the general Councils established after, the same that the blessed Fathers of those times, unanimously, and dogmatically delivered, the same that those glorious Martyrs quickened by their death, and carryed over all the world in the rivers, in the seas of their blood, to avow our religion by writing, and preaching, to be the same religion, an then to preserve and protect that religion which God hath put into our hearts, by all such means as he hath put into our hands, in the due execution of just Laws, this is no scandal, no just cause of offence to Jew not Gentile, Turk nor Papists. But when leaving fundamental things, and necessary truths, we wrangle uncharitably about Collateral impertinencies, when we will refuse to do such things as conduce to the exaltation of Devotion, or to the order, and peace of the Church, not for any harm in the things, but only therefore because the Papists do them, when, because they kneel in the worship of the bread in the Sacrament, we will not kneel in Thanksgiving to God for the Sacrament; when because they pray to Saints, we will reproach the Saints, or not name the Saints, when because they abuse the Cross, we will abhor the Cross; This is that that Saint Paul protests against, and in that protestation Catechizes us, that as he would give no just occasion of offence to the true Church of God, so neither would he do it to a false or infirme Church. He would not scandalize the true Church of God, by any modifications, any inclinations towards the false; nor he would not scandalize the false and infirme Church, by refusing to communicate with them, in the practise of such things, as might exalt our Devotion, and did not endanger nor shake any foundation of religion: which was the wisdom of our Church, in the beginning of the Reformation, when the Injuctions of our Princes forbad us to call one another by the odious names of Papist, or Papistical Heretic, or Schismatique, or Sacramentary, or such convitions (as the word of the Injunction is) and reproachful names; but cleaving always entirely, and inseparably to the fundamental truths of our own religion, as far as it is possible we should live peaceably with all men. Saint Paul would give no offence to the true Church of God, he would not prevaricate, nor to the Jew nor Gentile neither, he would not exasperate. And this may be enough to have been said of the active scandal, and pass we now, in our order, to the Passive.

It is no wonder to see them who put all the world, into differences, (the Jesuits) to differ sometimes amongst themselves. And therefore though the Jesuit Maldonat say of this Text, That Christ did not here intend to warn, or to arm his Disciples against scandals, as scandals occasions of sin, but only from offering injury to one another, That scandal in this text is nothing but wrong, yet another Jesuit, (Vincemius Rhegius) is not only of another opinion himself, but thinks that opinion (as he calls it) absurd; It is absurd, says he, to interpret it so; for, can a mans own hand or foot, or eye, be said to injure him? And yet, in this place, they are often said to scandalize him, to offend him. The interpretation that Maldonat departs from, himself acknowledges to be the interpretation of Saint Chrysostom, of Euthymius, of Theophylact, of others of the Fathers; and, by the council of Trent, he is bound to interpret Scriptures according to the Fathers, and he is angry with us, if at any time we do not so; and here he departs from them, where, not only his reverence to them, but the frame, and the evidence of the place should have kept them to him; for here Christ utters his vae, as it is vae Dolentis, as he laments their miseries, and as it is vae Minantis, as he threatens his judgements, not only upon them that offend and scandalize others, but upon them also that are easily scandalized by others, and put from their religion, and Christian constancy with every rumor. Parum distat scandalizare, & scandalizari; It is almost as great a sin to be shook by a scandal given, as to give it. Christ intends both in this Text; the Active, and the Passive scandal; but the latter, meliùs quadrat, says a later Divine, worthy to be compared to the Ancients, for the exposition of Scriptures, it fits the scope and purpose of Christ best, to accept and interpret this vae, (Woe be unto the world) of the Passive scandal, the scandal taken.

In that, we consider the working of this Vae, three ways; first, vae quia illusiones fortes, woe unto the world because these scandals and offences, temptations, and tribulations are so strong in their nature; and then vae quia infirmi vas, woe because you are so weak in your nature; and again, vae quia Pravaricatores, woe because we prevaricate in our own case, and make our selves weaker then we are, and are scandalized with things which are not in their nature scandalous, nor were scandalously intended. The two first, are woe because we shall be scandalized, for scandals are truly strong, and you are truly weak; The other is woe because ye will be scandalized, when, and where you might easily unentangle the snare, and divest the scruple. First, for the vehemence, the violence, the unavoydableness and impetuousness of these scandals, temptations, and tribulations under which we all suffer in this world, it may be enough to consider that one saying of our Saviours, They shall seduce, Si possibile, even the elect, where (by the way, it is not merely, not altogether, as we have translated it, If it were possible, for that sounds, as if Christ had positively, and dogmatically determined, that it is not possible for the elect to be seduced; but Christ says only, Si possibile, if it be possible, as being willing to leave it in doubt, and in suspense how far, in so great scandals, so very great temptations, even the elect might be seduced. Ista Dominici sermonis dubitatto, trepidationem mentis in electis relinquit; this doubtfulness in Christs speech, makes the very elect stand in fear of falling, in the midst of such temptations, for, howsoever the elect shall rise again, the elect may fall by these scandals, and though they may be reduced, they may be seduced. We are to consider men, as they are delivered in the approbation, and testimony of the Church, that judges secundum allegata & probata, according to the evidence that she sees and hears, and not as they are wrapped up in the infallible knowledge of God; and so, our election admits an outward trial, that is, Sanctification: so S. Peter writes, to the strangers elect through sanctification. They were strangers, strangers to the Covenant, and yet Elect; for, as all of the household, all within the Covenant, all children of the faithful, are not elect, (for to be born of Christian parents within the Covenant, gives us a title to the Sacrament of Baptism, so as that we may claim it, and the Church cannot deny it us; but this birth doth not give us that title to heaven, which Baptisin it self does) so all strangers, all that are without the Covenant, are not excluded in the election. S. Peter admits stragers to election, but yet no otherwise then through sanctification; when we are come to that hill, to sanctification, we have a fair prospect to see our election; in: so, God hath elected you to salvation, says S. Paul, to the Thes. but how? To salvation through sanctification; that's your hill, there opens your prospect. Agreeably to these two great Astles, says the beloved Apostle, the Elder unto the elect Lady, and her children; but still, how elect? as he tells you, elect if she walk in the Commandments of God, elect if she lose not her former good works, that she may receive a full reward; elect, if she abide in the doctrine of Christ. Always from that mount of sanctification arises our prospect to election; and sanctification were glorification, if it were impossible to fall from it. If a temptation of money made Judas an Apostle fall from his Master, how easily will such a temptation make men fall with their Master, that is, run into dangerous and ruinous actions with them? How easily will our children, our servants, our tenants fall form the truth of God, if they have both the example of their superiors to countenance them, and their purse to reward them for it? That scandal, that temptation is a Giant, and an armed Gyant, a Goliah, and a Goliah with a spear like a weavers beam, that marches upon those two legs, Example to do it, and Preferment for doing it.

This is the vae, in the consideration of the passive scandal, as it arises out of the vehemence of the scandal, and temptation, Quia illusiones fortes, because they are so strong in themselves. It arises also out of our weakness, Quia infirmi nos, because we are so weak, even the strongest of us. And for this, it may also be enough to consider those words of our Savior; That a man may receive the word, and receive it with joy, and yet, Temporalis est, says Christ, it may be but for a while, he may be but a time-server, for, assoon as persecution comes, Illico continuò scandalizatur, by and by, instantly, forthwith he is scandalized and shook. He stays not to give God his leisure, whether God will succor his cause to morrow, though not to day. He stays not to give men their Law, to give Princes, and States time to consider, whether it may not be fit for them to come to leagues, and alliances, and declarations for the assistance of the Cause of Religion next year, though not this. But continuò scandalizatur, as soon as a Catholic army hath given a blow, and got a victory of any of our forces, or friends, or as soon as a crafty Iesuit hath forged a Relation, that that Army hath given such a blow, or that such an Army there is, (for many times they intimidate weak men, when they shoot nothing but Paper, when they are only Paper-Armies, and Pamphlet-Victories, and no such in truth) Illico scandalizatur, yet with these forged rumours, presently he is scandalized, and he comes apace to those dangerous conclusions, Non potens Deus, (for any thing I see, God is not so powerful a God, as they make him, for his enemies Armies prevail against his) Non sapiens Deus, (for any thing I see, God does not take so wise courses for his glory, of which he talks so much, and pretends to be so jealous, for his enemies Counsels prevail against his;) And he comes at last to the Non est Deus, to labor to over-rule his own Conscience, and make himself bebeleeve, or (at least) to wish, though he cannot believe it, that there were no God.

Now to correct, or to repair this weakness, you see our Saviours physic here; If thy foot, thy hand, thine eye, scandalize thee, offend thee, abscind & projice, erue & projice, Cut it off, pull it out, and then cast it away. You see Christs method in his physic, It determines not in a preparative, that does but stir the humours, (for every remorse, and every compunction, and every sense that a man hath, that such, and such company leads him into temptation, does that, it works in the nature of such a preparative, as stirres the humours, affects the soul,) Christs physic determines not in a blood-letting, no not in cutting off the gangrened part, for it is not only Cut off, and pull out, but, Cast away, it is an absolute evacuation and purging out of the peccant humor. It is not a halting with the foot, nor a shifting with the hand, it is not a winking with the eye, but abscind, and erue, Cut off, pull out; and, after that, Though he be the foot upon which thou standest, thy Master, thy Patron, thy Benefactor; Though he be thy hand by which thou gettest thy living, thy means, the instrument of thy maintenance, or preferment; Though he be thine eye, the man from whom thou receivest all thy Light, and upon whose learning thou engagest thy Religion, abscindatur, & projice, if he scandalize thee, shake thee in thy Religion at the heart, or in the ways of godliness in thine actions, Cut him off; that is, cut off thy self from that conversation, and cast him away, return no more within distance of that temptation: for, as sin hath that quality of a worm, that it gnaws, (it gnaws the conscience) so hath it also that quality of a worm, that if you cut it into pieces, yet if those pieces come together again, they will re-unite again; sin, though discontinued, will find his old pieces, if they keep not far asunder. And since it is said of God himself by David, Cum perverso perverteris, That God will grow froward with the froward, and since God says of himself, That with them that go crookedly, he will go crookedly too, that the behavior of other men are said to make impressions upon God himself, cosider the slipperiness of our corrupt nature, how easily the vices of other men insinuate and infuse themselves into us, and how much need we have of all Christs physic, abscind, erue, projice, Cut off, pull out, and cast away.

But to come to our last note, Besides the woe arising from the strength of the scandal, and the woe from the corruptness of our weak nature, there is a woe upon our wilfulness, upon our easiness in being scandalized by an over-jealousy, and suspicious mis-interpretations of the actions of other men. And for this, in the highest consideration, as it hath relation to our Savior himself, and his Gospel, it may be enough to consider that which himself says, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. But, Quis homo, What man is he that is not offended in him, and his Gospel? Qui non crubescit, aut timet, what man is he that is not ashamed of the Gospel, or afraid of it; that does not desire that the religion that he professes, were a religion of more liberty & of less threatnings? We see, that though the Cross of Christ, that is, Christ crucified, were daily represented to the Jews in their sacrifices, & preached to the in the succession of their Prophets, yet this Cross of Christ was Scandalum Iudais, a scandal to the Jews; It was, (as the Apostle says there) Stultitia Gracis, to the Gentiles, that had no such preparation to the Gospel, as the Jews had in their Law, and Sacrifices, the Gospel was meer foolishnes, a religion unconformable to nature, and to reason, but even to the Jews themselves, it was a scandal, a stumbling block; they grudged that that religion left them so narrow a way open to pleasure, and to profit, and that it referred all to a spiritual Kingdom, whereas the Jews looked for a temporal Kingdom in their Messiah. And so truly Christ and his Gospel will be a scandal to all them that will needs set Christ a price, at which he shall sell his Gospel. If Tithes, or some some small matter in lieu of Tithes, will serve his turn, and now and then a groat to a Brief, and sometimes an extraordinary contribution, when extraordinary knowledge may be taken of it, if this will serve his turn he shall have it. But if it must come to a Non pacem, that Christ profess he comes not to settle peace, but to kindle a war, if we must maintain armies for his Gospel, if it come to an Odisse vitam, to hate Father, and Mother, and Wife, and Children, and our own lives for his Gospel, this is too high a price, Nolumus hunc regnare, now the Gospel grows a Tyran, and we will not be under a tyrannous government; If he will govern by his Law, that he be content with our coming to Church every Sunday, and our receiving every Easter, we will live under his Law; but if he come to exercise his Prerogative, and press us to extraordinary duties, in watching all our particular actions, and calling our selves to an account, for words and thoughts, then Christ and his Gospel become a scandal, a stumbling block unto us, and lye in our way, and retard our ends, our pleasures, and our profits. But if we can overcome this one scandal of the Gospel, that we be not ashamed nor afraid of that, (that is, well satisfied in the sufficiency of that Gospel for our salvation, and then content to suffer for that Gospel) if we can divest this scandal, no other shall trouble us. Great peace have they which love thy Law, says David; To love it, is to prefer it before all things; and great peace have they that do so, says he; Wherein consists this peace? In this, Et non est illis scandalum, Great peace have they that love thy Law, for they have no scandals; nothing shall offend them. There shall no evil happen to the just, says his son Solomon; not that the just shall feel no worldly misery, but that that misery shall not make them miserable; how evil so ever it be in it self, it shall not be evil to them, but Omnia in bonum, All things work together for good, to them that love God. Who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of God? says Saint Peter, The wicked will not follow you in that strange Country; their conversation is not in heaven; if yours be, they will not follow you thither. They will do, as he, whose instruments they are, do, the Devil; and Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. A religious constancy blunts the edge of any sword, dampes the spirits of any counsel, benums the strength of any arm, opens the corners of any Labyrinth, and brings the subtilest plots against God and his servants, not only to an invalidness, an ineffectualness, but to a derision; not only to a Dimicatum de coelis, that the world shall see, that the Lord fights for his servants from heaven, but to an Irridebit in coelis, that he that sits in heaven, shall laugh them to scorn; he shall ruin them, and ruin them in contempt. That prayer that David makes, Libera me Domine ab homine malo, deliver me O Lord, from the evil man, is a large, an extensive, an indefinite prayer; for, there is an evil man (occasion of temptation) in every man, in every woman, in every action; there is Coluber in via, a snake in every path, danger in every calling. But Saint Augustine contracts that prayer, and fixes it, Liberet te Deus à temes, noli tibi esse malius; God bless me from my self, that I be not that evil man to my self, that I lead not my self into temptation, and nothing shall scandalize me. To which purpose it concerns us to divest that natural, but corrupt easiness of uncharitable mis-construing that which other men do, especially those whom God hath placed in his own place, for government over us; that we do not come to think that there is nothing done, if all be not done; that no abuses are corrected, if all be not removed; that there's an end of all Protestants, if any Papists be left in the world. Upon those words of our Savior, speaking of the last day of Judgement, The son of man shall send forth his Angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom, Omnia scandala, All things that might offend: Calvin says learnedly and wisely, Qui ad extirpandum quicquid displicet praepostere festinant, They that make too much haste to mend all at once, antevertunt Christi judicium, & ereptum Angelis officium sibi temereusurpant, They prevent Christs judgment, and rashly, and sacrilegiously they usurp the Angels office. Christ hath reserved the cleansing and removing of all scandals, all offences to the last day; the Angels of the Church, the Minister, the Angels of the State, the Magistrate, cannot do it; not the Angels of heaven themselves, till the day of judgement. All scandals cannot be removed in this life; but a great many more might be then are, if men were not so apt to suspect, and mis-constru, and imprint the name of scandal upon every action, of which they see not the end, nor the way; for from this jealousy and suspicion; and misconstruction of the Angels of Church and State (our Superiors in those sphears) we shall become jealous, and suspicious of God himself, that he hath neglected us, abandoned us, if he do not deliver us, and establish us, at those times, and by those means, which we prescribe him; we shall come to argue thus against God himself, Surely, if God meant any good to us, he would not put us into their hands, who do us no good. Reduce all to the precious mediocrity; To be unsensible of any declination, of any diminution of the glory of God, or his true worship and religion, is an irreligious stupidity; But to be so ombragious, so startling, so apprehensive, so suspicious, as to think every thing that is done, is done to that end; this is a seditious jealousy, a Satyr in the heart, and an unwritten Libel; and God hath a Star-chamber, to punish unwritten Libels before they are published; Libels against that Law, Curse not, or speak not ill of the King, no not in thy thought. Not to mourn under the sense of evils, that may fall upon us, is a stony disposition; Nay, the hardest stone, marble, will weep towards foul weather. But, to make all Possible things Necessary, (this may fall upon us, therefore it must fall upon us,) and to make contingent, and accidental things, to be the effects of counsels, (this is fallen upon us, therefore it is fallen by their practise that have the government in their hands) this is a vexation of spirit in our selves, and a defacing, a casting of durt in the face of Gods image, of that representation, and resemblance of God, which he hath imprinted in them, of whom he hath said, They are Gods. In divine matters there is principally exercise of our faith, That which we understand not, we believe. In civil affairs, that are above us, matters of State, there is exercise of our Hope; Those ways which we see not, we hope are directed to good ends. In Civil actions amongst our selves, there is exercise of our Charity, Those hearts which we see not, let us charitably believe to be disposed to Gods service. That when as Christ hath shut up his woe only in those two, Va quia fortes illusiones, Woe because scandals and offences are so strong in their nature; and Va quia infirmivos, woe because you are so weak in yours, we do not create a third Woe, Va quia praevaricatores, in an uncharitable jealousy, and mis-interpretation of him, (that we are not in his care) nor of his Ministers (that they do not execute his purposes,) nor of one another; that when as God hath placed us in a Land, where there are no wolfs, we do not think Hominem homini Lupum, imagine every man to be a wolf to us, or to intend our destruction. But as in the Ark there were Lions, but the Lion shut his mouth, and clincht his paw, (the Lion hurt nothing in the Ark) and in the Ark there were Vipers and Scorpions, but the Viper showed no teeth, nor the Scorpion no tail, (the Viper bit none, the Scorpion stung none in the Ark) (for, if they had occasioned any disorder there, their escape could have been but into the Sea, into irreparable ruin) so, in every State, (though that State be an Ark of peace, and preservation) there will be some kind of oppression in some Lions, some that will abuse their power; but Vae si scandalizemur, woe unto us if we be scandalized with that, and seditiously lay aspersions upon the State and Government, because there are some such in every Church, (though that Church be an Ark, for integrity and sincerity) there will be some Vipers, Vipers that will gnaw at their Mothers belly, men that will shake the articles of Religion; But Vae si scandalizemur, woe if we be so scandalized at that, as to defame that Church, or separate our selves from that Church which hath given us our Baptism, for that. It is the chasing of the Lion, and the stirring of the Viper, that aggravates the danger; The first blow makes the wrong, but the second makes the fray; and they that will endure no kind of abuse in State or Church, are many times more dangerous then that abuse which they oppose. It was only Christ Jesus himself that could say to the Tempest, Tace,obmutesce, peace, be still, not a blast, not a sob more; only he could becalm a Tempest at once. It is well with us, if we can ride out a storm at anchor, that is, lie still and expect, and surrender ourselves to God, and anchor in that confidence, till the storm blow over. It is well for us if we can beat out a storm at sea, with boarding to and again; that is, maintain and preserve our present condition in Church, and State, though we increase not, that though we gain no way, yet we lose no way whilst the storm lasts. It is well for us, if, though we be put to take in our sayls, and to take down our masts, yet we can hull it out; that is, if in storms of contradiction, or persecution, the Church, or State, though they be put to accept worse conditions then before, and to depart with some of their outward splendor, be yet able to subsist and swim above water, and reserve it self for Gods farther glory, after the storm is past; only Christ could becalm the storm; He is a good Christian that can ride out, or board out, or hull out a storm, that by industry, as long as he can, and by patience, when he can do no more, over-lives a storm, and does not forsake his ship for it, that is not scandalized with that State, nor that Church, of which he is a member, for those abuses that are in it. The Ark is peace, peace is good dispositions to one another, good intepretations of one another; for, if our impatience put us from our peace, and so out of the Ark, all without the Ark is sea; The bottomless and boundless Sea of Rome, will hope to swallow us; if we dis-unite our selves, in uncharitable mis-interpretations of one another; The peace of God is the peace that passeth all understanding; That men should subdue and captivate even their understanding to the love of this peace, that when in their understanding they see no reason why this or this thing should be thus or thus done, or so and so suffered, the peace of God, that is, charity, may pass their understanding, and go above it; for, howsoever the affections of men, or the vicissitudes and changes of affairs may vary, or apply those two great axioms, and aphorisms of ancient Rome, Salus populi suprema lex est, The good of the people is above all Law, and then, Quod Principi places, lex esto, The pleasure of the Prince is above all Law, howsoever I say, various occasions may vary their Laws, adhere we to that Rule of the Law, which the Apostle prescribes, that we always make, Finem praecepti charitatem, The end of the Commandment charity; for, no Commandment, (no not those of the first Table) is kept, if, upon pretence of keeping that Commandment, or of the service of God, I come to an uncharitable opinion of other men. That so first, Fundemur & radicemur in charitate, that we be planted, and take root in that ground, in charity, (so we are, by being planted in that Church, that thinks charitably even of that Church, that uncharitably condemns us) And then, Vt multiplicetur, That Grace and peace may be multiplied in us, (so it is, if to our outward peace, God add the inward peace of conscience in our own bosoms) and lastly, Vt abundemus, that we may not only increase, (as the Apostle says there) but (as he adds) abound in charity towards one another, and towards all men, for this abundant and overflowing charity, (as long as we can, to believe well, for the present, and where we cannot do so, to hope well of the future) is the best preservative and antidote against the woe of this Text, Woe unto the world because of scandals and offences; which, though it be spoken of the Active, is more especially intended of the Passive scandal; and though it be pressed upon us, first, Quia Illusiones fortes, because those scandals are so strong, and then, Quia inferi nos, because we are so weak, do yet endanger us most, in that respect, Quia praevaricatores, because we open ourselves, nay offer our selves to the vexation of scandals, by an easy, a jealous, a suspicious, an uncharitable interpreting of others.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XIX.

PSAL. 38. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

ALmost every man hath his Appetite, and his taste disposed to some kind of meates rather then others; He knows what dish he would choose, for his first, and for his second course. We have often the same disposition in our spiritual Diet; a man may have a particular love towards such or such a book of Scripture, and in such an affection, I acknowledge, that my spiritual appetite carries me still, upon the Psalms of David, for a first course, for the Scriptures of the Old Testament: and upon the Epistles of Saint Paul, for a second course, for the New, and my meditations even for these public exercises to Gods Church, return oftnest to these two. For, as a hearty entertainer offers to others, the meat which he loves best himself, so do I oftnest present to Gods people, in these Congregations, the meditations which I feed upon at home, in those two Scriptures. If a man be asked a reason why he loves one meat better then another, where all are equally good, (as the books of Scripture are) he will at least, find a reason in some good example, that he sees some man of good taste, and temperate withal, so do: And for my Diet, I have Saint Augustines protestation, that he loved the Book of Psalms, and Saint Chrysostomes, that he loved Saint Pauls Epistles; with a particular devotion, I may have another more particular reason, because they are Scriptures, written in such forms, as I have been most accustomed to; Saint Pauls being Letters, and Davids being Poems: for, God gives us, not only that which is merely necessary, but that which is convenient too; He does not only feed us, but feed us with marrow, and with fatness; he gives us our instruction in cheerful forms, not in a sore, and sullen, and angry, and unacceptable way, but cheerfully, in Psalms, which is also a limited, and a restrained form; Not in an Oration, not in Prose, but in Psalms; which is such a from as is both curious, aud requires diligence in the making, and then when it is made, can have nothing, no syllable taken from it, nor added to it: Therefore is Gods will delivered to us in Psalms, that we might have it the more cheerfully, and that we might have it the more certainly, because where all the words are numbered, and measured, and weighed, the whole work is the less subject to falsification, either by substraction or addition. God speaks to us in or atione strictâ, in a limited, in a diligent form; Let us speak to him in or atione solutâ; not pray, not preach, not hear, flackly, suddenly, unadvisedly, extemporally, occasionally, indiligently; but let all our speech to him, be weighed, and measured in the weights of the Sanctuary, let us be content to preach, and to hear within the compass of our Articles, and content to pray in those forms which the Church hath meditated for us, and recommended to us.

This whole Psalm is a Prayer, and recommended by David to the Church; And a Prayer grounded upon Reasons. The Reasons are multiplied, and dilated from the second to the 20. verse. But as the Prayer is made to him that is Alpha, and Omega, first, and last; so the Prayer is the Alpha and Omega of the Psalm; the Prayer possesses the first and the last verse thereof; and though the Reasons be not left out, (Christ himself settles that Prayer, which he recommended to our daily use, upon a Reason, Quia tuum est Regnum, for thine is the Kingdom,) yet David makes up his Circle, he begins, and ends in prayer. But our text falls within his Reasons; He prays in the first verse that God would forbear him, upon the Reasons that follow; of which some are extrinsecal, some arising out of the power, some out of the malice, some out of the scorn of other men; And some are intrinsecal, arising out of himself, and of his sense of Gods Judgements upon him; and our Text begins the Reasons of that last kind, which because David enters, with that particle, not only of Connexion, but of Argumentation too, For, (Rebuke me not O Lord, for it stands thus and thus with me) we shall make it a first short part, to consider, how it may become a godly man, to limit God so far, as to present and oppose Reasons against his declared purpose, and proceedings. And then in those calamities which he presents for his Reasons in this Text, For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore, we shall pass by these steps, first, we shall see in what respect, in what allusion, in what notification he calls them arrows: And therein first, that they are alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man shoots not an arrow at himself; And then, that they are Veloces, swift in coming, he cannot give them their time; And again, they are Vix visibiles, though they be not altogether invisible in their coming, yet there is required a quick eye, and an express diligence, and watchfulness to discern and avoid them; so they are arrows in the hand of another; not his own; and swift as they come, and invisible before they come. And secondly, they are many arrows; The victory lies not in scaping one or two; And thirdly, they stick in him; they find not David so good proof, as to rebound back again, and imprint no sense; And they stick fast; Though the blow be felt, and the wound discerned, yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; Infixae sunt; And then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in his body, and soul; in him, in his thoughts, and actions; in him, in his sins and in his good works too; Infixae mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty in him, in which they stick not: for, (which may well be another consideration) That hand, which shot them, presses him: follows the blow, and presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet, (which will be our conclusion) Sagittaetuae, and manus tua, These arrows that are shot, and this hand that presses them so sore, are the arrows, and is the hand of God; and therefore, first, they must have their Effect, they cannot be dis-appointed; But yet they bring their comfort with them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his hand, comes without that Balsamum of mercy, to heal as fast as he wounds. and of so many pieces will this exercise consist, this exercise of your Devotion, and perchance Patience.

First then, this particle of connexion and argumentation, For, which begins our text, occasions us, in a first part, to consider, that such an impatience in affliction, as brings us toward a murmuring at Gods proceedings, and almost to a calling of God to an account, in inordinate expostulations, is a leaven so kneaded into the nature of man, so innate a tartar, so inherent a sting, so inseparable a venim in man, as that the holyest of men have scarce avoided it in all degrees thereof. Job had Gods testimony of being an upright man; and yet Job bent that way, O that I might have my request, says Job, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for. Well, if God would, what would, Job ask? That God would destroy me, and cut me off. Had it not been as easy, and as ready, and as useful a prayer, That God would deliver him? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh of brass? says he, in his impatience. What though it be not? Not stones, not brass; is there no remedy, but to wish it dust? Moses had Gods testimonies of a remarkable and exemplar man, for meekness. But did God always find it so? was it a meek behavior towards God, to say, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? Have I conceived all this people, have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom? Elijah had had testimonies of Gods care and providence in his behalf; and God was not weary of preserving him, and he was weary of being preserved; He desired that he might dye, and said, Sufficit Domine, It is enough O Lord, now take my soul. Ionas, even then, when God was expressing an act of mercy, takes occasion to be angry, and to be angry at God, and to be angry at the mercy of God. we may see his fluctuation and distemper, and irresolution in that case, and his transportation; He was angry, says the text; very angry; And yet, the text says, He prayed, but he prayed angerly; O Lord take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to dye, then to live. Better for him, that was all he considered; not what was best for the service and glory of God, but best for him. God asks him, If he do well to be angry? And he will not tell him there; God gives him time to vent his passion, and he asks him again after: Doest thou well to be angry? And he answers more angerly, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Jeremiah was under this temptation too. Jonas was angry because his Prophesy was not performed; because God would not second his Prophesy in the destruction of Nineveh. Jeremiah was angry because his Prophesy was like to be performed; he preached heavy Doctrin, and therefore his Auditory hated him; Woe is me, my Mother, says he, that thou hast born me a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I preach but the messages of God; and (vae mihi si non, wo be unto me if I preach not them) I preach but the sense of Gods indignation upon mine own soul, in a conscience of mine own sins, I impute nothing to another, that I confess not of my self, I call none of you to confession to me, I do but confess my self to God, and you, I rack no mans memory, what he did last year, last week, last night, I only gather into my memory, and pour out in the presence of my God, and his Church, the sinful history of mine own youth, and yet I am a contentious man, says Jeremiah, a worm, and a burden to every tender conscience, says he, and I strive with the whole earth, I am a bitter, and satyrical preacher; This is that that wearies me, says he, I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent me on usury, yet, as though I were an oppressing lender, or a fraudulent borrower, every one of them doth curse me.

This is a natural infirmity, which the strongest men, being but men, cannot divest, that if their purposes prosper not, they are weary of their industry, weary of their lives; But this is Summa ingratitude in Deum, mall non esse, quàm miserum esse: There cannot be a greater unthankfulness to God then to desire to be Nothing at all, rather then to be that, that God would have thee to be; To desire to be out of the world, rather then to glorify him, by thy patience in it. But when this infirmity overtakes Gods children, Patiuntur ut homtines, sustinent ut Dei amici; They are under calamities, as they are rei, but yet they come to recollect themselves and to beat those calamities, as the valiant Souldiers, as the faithful servants, as the bosom friends of almighty God: Si vis discere, qualis esse debes, disc post gratiam, says the same Father; Learn patience, not from the stupidity of Philosophers, who are but their own statues, men of stone, without sense, without affections, and who placed all their glory, in a Non facies ut te dicam analum, that no pain should make them say they were in pain; nor from the pertinacy of Heretics, how to bear a calamity, who gave their bodies to the fire, for the establishing of their Disciples, but take out a new lesson in the times of Grace; Consider the Apostles there, Gaudentes & Gloriantes, They departed from the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy, to suffer rebuke for his name. It was Joy, and all Joy, says S. James; It was Glory, and all Glory, says S. Paul, Absit mihi, God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; And if I can glory in that, (to glory in that, is to have a conscience testifying to me, that God receives glory by my use of his correction) I may come to God, reason with God, plead with God, wrastle with God, and be received and sustained by him. This was Davids case in our Text: therefore he doth not stray into the infirmities of these great, and good Men, Moses, Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, and Jonah; whose errors, it is labor better bestowed carefully to avoid, then absolutely to excuse, for that cannot be done. But David presents only to God the sense of his corrections, and implies in that, that since the cure is wrought, since Gods purpose, which is, by corrections, to bring a sinner to himself, and so to God, is effected in him, God would now be pleased to remember all his other gracious promises too; and to admit such a zealous prayer as as he doth from Isaiah after, Be not angry, O Lord, above measure; (that is, above the measure of thy promises to repentant souls, or the measure of the strength of our bodies) Neither remember iniquities for ever; But, loe, we beseech thee, Behold, we are thy people. To end this first part, (because the other extends it self in many branches.) Then when we are come to a sense of Gods purpose, by his corrections, it is a seasonable time to fly to his mercy, and to pray, that he would remove them from us; and to present our Reasons, to spare us, for thy corrections have wrought upon us; Give us this day, our daily bread, for thou hast given us stones, and scorpions, tribulations and afflictions, and we have fed upon them, found nourishment even in those tribulations and afflictions, and said thee grace for them, blessed and glorified thy name, for those tribulations, and afflictions; Give us our Cordials now, and our Restoratives, for thy physic hath evacuated all the peccant humor, and all our natural strength; shine out in the light of thy countenance now, for this long cold night hath benumbed us; since the drosse is now evaporated, now withdraw thy fire; since thy hand hath anew cast us, now imprint in us anew thine Image; since we have not disputed against thy corrections, all this while, O Lord open thou our lips now, and accept our remembering of thee, that we have not done so; Accept our Petition, and the Reason of our Petition, for thine Arrows stick fast in us, and thy hand presseth us sore.

David in a rectified conscience finds that he may be admitted to present reasons against farther corrections, And that this may be received as a reason, That Gods Arrows are upon him; for this is phrase or a Metaphor, in which Gods indignation is often expressed in the Scripture. He sent out his Arrows, and scattered them; says David; magnifying Gods goodness in his behalf, against his enemies. And so again, God will ordain his Arrrowes for them that persecute me. Complebo sagittas, says God, I will heap mischiefs upon them, and I will spend mine arrows upon them: yea, Inebriabo sanguine, I will make mine Arrows drunk in their blood. It is Idiotismus Spiritus sancti, a peculiar character of the holy Ghosts expressing Gods anger, in that Metaphor of shooting Arrows. In this place, some understand by these Arrows, foul and infectious diseases, in his body, derived by his incontinence. Others, the sting of Conscience, and that fearful choice, which the Prophet offered him, war, famine, and pestilence. Others, his passionate sorrow in the death of Bethsheba's first child; or in the Incest of Amnon upon his sister, or in the murder upon Amnon by Absolon; or in the death of Absolen by Job; or in many other occasions of sorrow, that surrounded David and his family, more, perchance, then any such family in the body of story. But these Psalms were made, not only to vent Davids present holy passion, but to serve the Church of God, to the worlds end. And therefore, change the person, and we shall find a whole quiver of arrows. Extend this Man, to all Mankind; carry Davids History up to Adams History, and consider us in that state, which we inherit from him, and we shall see arrows fly about our ears, A Deo prosequente, the anger of God hanging over our heads, in a cloud of arrows; and à conscientia remordente, our own consciences shooting poisoned arrows of desperation into our souls; and ab Homine Contemnente, Men multiplying arrows of Detraction, and Calumny, and Contumely upon our good name, and estimation. Briefly, in that wound, as we were all shot in Adam, we bled out Impassibilitatem, and we sucked in Impossibilitatem; There we lost our Immortality, our Impassibility, our assurance of Paradise, and then we lost Possibilitatem boni, says S. August: all possibility of recovering any of this by our selves. So that these arrows which are lamented here, are all those miseries, which sin hath cast upon us; Labor, and the child of that, Sickness, and the off-spring of that, Death; And the security of conscience, and the terror of conscience; the searing of the conscience, and the over-tenderness of the conscience; Gods quiver, and the Devils quiver, and our own quiver, and our neighbours quiver, afford, and furnish arrows to gall, and wound us. These arrows then in our Text, proceeding from sin, and sin proceeding from temptations, and inducing tribulations, it shall advance your spiritual edification most, to fixe your consideration upon those fiery darts, as they are temptations, and as they are tribulations. Origen says, he would wish no more, for the recovery of any soul, but that she were able to see Cicatrices suas, those scars which these fiery darts have left in her, the deformity which every sin imprints upon the soul, and Contritiones suas, the attenuating and wearing out, and consumption of the soul, by a continual succession of more, and men wound,upon the same place. An ugly thing in a Consumption, were a fearful spectacle, And such Origen imagins a soul to be, if she could see Cicatrices, and Contritiones, her ill-favouredness, and her leanness in the deformity, and consumption of sin. How provident, how diligent a patience did our blessed Savior bring to his Passion, who foreseeing that that would be our case, our sickness, to be first wounded with single temptations, and then to have even the wounds of our soul wounded again, by a daily reiterating of temptations in the same kind, would provide us physic agreeable to our Disease, Chyrurgery conformable to our wound, first to be scourged so, as that his holy body was torn with wounds, and then to have those wounded again, and often, with more violatings. So then these arrows, are those temptations and those tribulations, which are accompanied with these qualities of arrows shot at us, that they are alienae, shot from others, not in our power; And veloces, swift and sudden, soon upon us; And vix visibiles, not discernible in their coming, but by an exact diligence.

First then, these temptations are dangerous arrows, as they are alienae, shot from others, and not in our own power. It was the Embleme, and Inscription, which Darius took for his coin, Insculpere sagittarium, to show his greatness, that he could wound afar off, as an Archer does. And it was the way, by which God declared the deliverance of Israel from Syria; Elisha bids the King open the window East-ward, and shoot an arrow out. The King does shoot: And the Prophet says, Sagitta salutis Domini, The arrow of the Lords deliverance: He would deliver Israel, by shooting vengeance into Syria. One danger in our arrows, as they are temptations, is, that they come unsuspectedly; they come, we know not, from whence; from others; that's a danger; But in our temptations, there is a greater danger then that, for a man cannot shoot an arrow at himself; but we can direct temptations upon our selves; If we were in a wilderness, we could sin; and where we are, we tempt temptations, and wake the Devil, when for any thing that appears, he would sleep. A certain man drew a bow at a venture, says that story; He had no determinate mark, no express aim, upon any one man; He drew his bow at a venture, and he hit, and he flew the King Ahab. A woman of temptation, Tendit areum in incertum, as that story speaks; she paints, she curls, she sings, she gazes, and is gazed upon; There's an arrow shot at randon; she aimed at no particular mark; And thou puttest thy self within shot, and meetest the arrow; Thou soughtest the temptation, the temptation sought not thee. A man is able to oppress others; Et gloriatur in malo quia potens, He boasts himself because he is able to do mischief; and tendit arcum in incertum, he shoots his arrow at randon, he lets it be known, that he can prefer them, that second his purposes, and thou putt'st thy self within shot, and meet'st the arrow, and mak'st thy self his instrument; Thou sought'st the temptation, the temptation sought not thee; when we expose our selves to temptations, temptations hit us, that were not expressly directed, nor meant to us. And even then, when we begin to fly from temptations, the arrow overtakes us. Iehoram fled from Iehu, and Iehu shot after him, and shot him through the heart. But this was after Iehoram had talked with him. After we have parted with a temptation, debated whether we should embrace it or no, and entertained some discourse with it, though some tenderness, some remorse, make us turn our back upon it, and depart a little from it, yet the arrow overtakes us; some reclinations, some retrospects we have, a little of Lots wife is in us, a little sociableness, and conversation, a little point of honor, not to be false to former promises, a little false gratitude, and thankfulness, in respect of former obligations, a little of the compassion and charity of Hell, that another should not be miserable, for want of us, a little of this, which is but the good nature of the Devil, arrests us, stops us, fixes us, till the arrow, the temptation shoot us in the back, even when we had a purpose of departing from that sin, and kills us over again. Thus it is, when we meet a temptation, and put our selves in the arrows way; And thus it is when we fly not fast enough, nor far enough from a temptation. But when we do all that, and provide as safely as we can to get, and do get quickly out of distance, yet, The wicked bend their bows, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart; In occulto; It is a work of Darkness, Detraction; and they can shoot in the dark; they can wound, and not be known. They can whisper Thunder, and pass an arrow through another mans ear, into mine heart; Let a man be zealous, and fervent in reprehension of sin, and there flies out an arrow, that gives him the wound of a Puritan. Let a man be zealous of the house of God, and say any thing by way of moderation, for the repairing of the ruins of that house, and making up the differences of the Church of God, and there flies out an arrow, that gives him the wound of a Papist. One shoots East, and another West, but both these arrows meet in him, that means well, to defame him. And this is the first misery in these arrows, these temptations, Quia alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in our own quiver, not in our own government.

Another quality that temptations receive from the holy Ghosts Metaphor of arrows is, Quia veloces, because this captivity to sin, comes so swiftly, so impetuously upon us. Consider it first in our making; In the generation of our parents, we were conceived in sin; that is, they sinned in that action; so we were conceived in sin; in their sin. And in our selves, we were submitted to sin, in that very act of generation, because then we became in part the subject of Original sin. Yet, there was no arrow shot into us then; there was no sin in that substance of which we were made; for if there had been sin in that substance, that substance might be damned, though God should never infuse a soul into it; and that cannot be said well then; God, whose goodness, and wisdom will have that substance to become a Man, he creates a soul for it, or creates a soul in it, (I dispute not that) he sends a light, or he kindles a light, in that lanthorn; and here's no arrow shot neither; here's no sin in that soul, that God creates; for there God should create something that were evil; and that cannot be said; Here's no arrow shot from the body, no sin in the body alone; None from the soul, no sin in the soul alone; And yet, the union of this soul and body is so accompanied with Gods malediction for our first transgression, that in the instant of that union of life, as certainly as that body must die, so certainly the whole Man must be guilty of Original sin. No man can tell me out of what Quiver, yet here is an arrow comes so swiftly, as that in the very first minute of our life, in our quickening in our mothers womb, we become guilty of Adams sin done 6000 years before, and subject to all those arrows, Hunger, Labor, Grief, Sickness, and Death, which have been shot after it. This is the fearful swiftness of this arrow, that God himself cannot get before it. In the first minute that my soul is infused, the Image of God is imprinted in my soul; so forward is God in my behalf, and so early does he visit me. But yet Original sin is there, as soon as that Image of God is there. My soul is capable of God, as soon as it is capable of sin; and though sin do not get the start of God, God does not get the start of sin neither. Powers, that dwell so far asunder, as Heaven, and Hell, God and the Devil, meet in an instant in my soul, in the minute of my quickening, and the Image of God, and the Image of Adam, Original sin, enter into me at once, in one, and the same act. So swift is this arrow, Original sin, from which, all arrows of subsequent temptations, are shot, as that God, who comes to my first minute of life, cannot come before death.

And then, a third, and last danger, which we noted in our temptations, as they are represented by the holy Ghost, in this Metaphor of arrows, is, that they are vix visibiles, hardly discernible. 'Tis true, that temptations do not light upon us, as bullets, that we cannot see them, till we feel them. An arrow comes not altogether so: but an arrow comes so, as that it is not discerned, except we consider which way it comes, and watch it all the way. An arrow, that finds a man asleep, does not wake him first, and wound him after; A temptation that finds a man negligent, possesses him, before be sees it. In gravtssimis criminibus, confinia virtutum ladunt; This is it that undoes us, that virtues and vices are contiguous, and borderers upon one another; and very often, we can hardly tell, to which action the name of vice, and to which the name of virtue appertains. Many times, that which comes within an inch of a noble action, falls under the infamy of an odious treason; At many executions, half the company will call a man an Heretic, and half, a Martyr. How often, an excess, makes a natural affection, an unnatural disorder? Vtinam aut sororem non amasset, Hamon, aut non vindicasset Absolon; Hamon loved his sister Tamar; but a little too well; Absolon hated his brothers incest, but a little too ill. Though love be good, and hate be good, respectively, yet, says S. Ambrose, I would neither that love, nor that hate had gone so far. The contract between Ionathan and David, was, If I say, The arrow on this side of thee, all is well; If I say, The arrow is beyond thee, thou art in an ill case. If the arrow, the temptation, be yet on this side of thee, if it have not lighted upon thee, thou art well; God hath directed thy face to it, and thou may'st, if thou wilt, continue thy diligence, watch it, and avoid it. But if the arrow be beyond thee, and thou have cast it at thy back, in a forgetfulness, in a security of thy sin, thy case is dangerous. In all these respects, are these arrows, these infirmities, derived from the sin of Adam, dangerous, as they are alienae, in the hand of others, as they are veloces, swift in seising us, and as they are vix visibiles, hardly discerned to be such; And these considerations fell within this first branch of this second part, Thine arrows, temptations, as they are arrows, stick fast in me.

These dangers are in them, as they are sagittae, arrows; and would be so, if they were but single arrows; any one temptation would endanger us, any one tribulation would encumber us; but they are plural, arrows, and many arrows. A man is not safe, because one arrow hath mist him; nor though he be free from one sin. In the execution of Achan, all Israel threw stones at him, and stoned him. If Achan had had some brother, or cousin amongst them, that would have flung over, or short, or weakly, what good had that done him, when he must stand the mark for all the rest? All Israel must stone him. A little disposition towards some one virtue, may keep thee from some one temptation; Thou mayst think it pity to corrupt a chaste soul, and forbear soliciting her; pity to oppress a submitting wretch, and forbear to vex him; and yet practise, and that with hunger and thirst, other sins, or those sins upon other persons. But all Israel stones thee; arrows fly from every corner; and thy measure is not, to thank God, that thou art not as the Publican, as some other man, but thy measure is, to be pure and holy, as thy father in heaven is pure, and holy, and to conform thy self in some measure, to thy pattern, Christ Jesus. Against him it is noted, that the Jews took up stones twice to stone him. Once, wh̄ they did it, He went away and hid himself. Our way to scape these arrows, these temptations, is to go out of the way, to abandon all occasions, and conversation, that may lead into temptation. In the other place, Christ stands to it, and disputes it out with them, and puts them from it by the scriptum est; and that's our safe shield, since we must necessarily live in the way of temptations, (for coluber in via, there is a snake in every path, temptation in every calling) still to receive all these arrows, upon the shield of faith, still to oppose the scriptum est, the faithful promises of God, that he will give us the issue with the temptation, when we cannot avoid the temptation it self. Otherwise, these arrows are so many, as would tire, and wear out, all the diligence, and all the constancy of the best moral man. We find many mentions in the Scriptures of filling of quivers, and emptying of quivers, and arrows, and arrows, still in the plural, many arrows. But in all the Bible, I think, we find not this word, (as it signifies temptation, or tribulation) in the singular, one arrow, any where, but once, where David calls it, The arrow that flies by day; And is seen, that is, known by every man; for, for that, the Fathers, and Ancients run upon that Exposition, that that one arrow common to all, that day-arrow visible to all, is the natural death; (so the Chalde paraphrase calls it there expressly, Sagitta mortis, The arrow of death) which every man knows to belong to every man; (for, as clearly as he sees the Sun set, he sees his death before his eyes.) Therefore it is such an arrow, as the Prophet does not say, Thou shalt not feel, but, Thou shalt not fear the arrow that flies by day. The arrow, the singular arrow that flies by day, is that arrow that falls upon every man, death. But every where in the Scriptures, but this one place, they are plural, many, so many, as that we know not whence, nor what they are. Nor ever does any man receive one arrow alone, any one temptation, but that he receives another temptation, to hide that, though with another, and another sin. And the use of arrows in the war, was not so much to kill, as to rout, and disorder a battle; and upon that routing, followed execution. Every temptation, every tribulation is not deadly. But their multiplicity disorders us, discomposes us, unsetles us, and so hazards us. Not only every periodical variation of our years, youth and age, but every day hath a divers arrow, every hour of the day, a divers temptation. An old man wonders then, how an arrow from an eye could wound him, when he was young, and how love could make him do those things which he did then; And an arrow from the tongue of inferior people, that which we make shift to call honor, wounds him deeper now; and ambition makes him do as strange things now, as love did then; A fair day shoots arrows of visits, and comedies, and conversation, and so we go abroad: and a foul day shoots arrows of gaming, or chambering, and wantonness, and so we stay at home. Nay, the same sin shoots arrows of presumption in God, before it be committed, and of distrust and diffidence in God after; we do not fear before, and we cannot hope after: And this is that misery from this plurality, and multiplacity of these arrows, these manifold temptations, which David intends here, and as often as he speaks in the same phrase of plurality, vituli multi, many buls, canes multi, many dogs, and bellantes multi, many warlike enemies, and aquae multae, many deep waters compass me. For as it is said of the spirit of wisdom, that it is unicus multiplex, manifoldly one, plurally singular: so the spirit of temptation in every soul is unicus multiplex, singularly plural, rooted in some one beloved sin, but derived into infinite branches of temptation.

And then, these arrows stick in us; the rain falls, but that cold sweat hangs not upon us; Hail beats us, but it leaves no pock-holes in our skin. These arrows do not so fall about us, as that they miss us; nor so hit us, as they rebound back without hurting us: But we complain with Jeremiah, The sons of his quiver are entered into our reins. The Roman Translation reads that filias, The daughters of his quiver; If it were but so, daughters, we might limit these arrows in the signification of temptations, by the many occasions of temptation; arising from that sex. But the Original hath it filios, the sons of his quiver, and therefore we consider these arrows in a stronger signification, tribulations, as well as temptations; They stick in us; Consider it but in one kind, diseases, sicknesses. They stick to us so, as that we are not sure, that any old diseases mentioned in Physicians books are worn out, but that every year produces new, of which they have no mention, we are sure. We can scarce express the number, scarce sound the names of the diseases of mans body; 6000 year hath scarce taught us what they are, how they affect us, how they shall be cured in us, nothing, on this side the Resurrection, can teach us. They stick to us so, as that they pass by inheritance, and last more generations in families, then the inheritance it self does; and when no land, no Manor, when no title, no honor descends upon the heir, the stone, or the gout descends upon him. And as though our bodies had not naturally diseases, and infirmities enow, we contract more, inflict more, (and that, out of necessity too) in mortifications, and macerations, and Disciplines of this rebellious flesh. I must have this body with me to heaven, or else salvation it self is not perfect; And yet I cannot have this body thither, except as S. Paul did his, I beat down this body, attenuate this body by mortification; Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I have not body enough for my body, and I have too much body for my soul; not body enough, not blood enough, not strength enough, to sustain my self in health, and yet body enough to destroy my soul, and frustrate the grace of God in that miserable, perplexed, riddling condition of man; sin makes the body of man miserable, and the remedy of sin, mortification, makes it miserable too; If we enjoy the good things of this world, Duriorem carcerem praeparamus, we do but carry an other wall about our prison, an other story of unwieldy flesh about our souls; and if we give our selves as much mortification as our body needs, we live a life of fridays, and see no Sabbath, we make up our years of Lents, and see no other Easters, and whereas God meant us Paradise, we make all the world a wilderness. Sin hath cast a curse upon all the creatures of the world, they are all worse then they were at first, and yet we dare not receive so much blessing, as is left in the creature, we dare not eat or drink, and enjoy them. The daughters of Gods quiver, and the sons of his quiver, the arrows of temptation, and the arrows of tribulation, do so stick in us, that as he lives miserably, that lives in sicknes, and he as miserably, that lives in physic: so plenty is a misery, and mortification is a misery too; plenty, if we consider it in the effects, is a disease, a continual sicknes, for it breeds diseases; And mortification, if we should consider it without the effects, is a disease too, a continual hunger, and fasting; and if we consider it at best, and in the effects, mortification is but a continual physic, which is misery enough.

They stick, and they stick fast; altè infixae; every syllable aggravates our misery. Now for the most part, experimentally, we know not whether they stick fast or no, for we never go about to pull them out: these arrows, these temptations, come, and welcome: we are so far from offering to pull them out, that we fix them faster and faster in us; we assist our temptations: yea, we take preparatives and fomentations, we supple our selves by provocations, lest our flesh should be of proof against these arrows, that death may enter the surer, and the deeper into us by them. And he that does in some measure, soberly and religiously, go about to draw out these arrows, yet never consummates, never perfects his own work; He pulls back the arrow a little way, and he sees blood, and he feels spirit to go out with it, and he lets it alone: He forbears his sinful companions, a little while, and he feels a melancholy take hold of him, the spirit and life of his life decays, and he falls to those companions again. Perchance he rushes out the arrow with a sudden, and a resolved vehemence, and he leaves the head in his body: He forces a divorce from that sin, he removes himself out of distance of that temptation; and yet he surfeits upon cold meat, upon the sinful remembrance of former sins, which is a dangerous rumination, and an unwholesome chawing of the cud; It is not an ill derivation of repentance, that poenitere is poenam tenere; that's true repentance, when we continue in those means, which may advance our repentance. When Ioash the King of Israel came to visit Elisha upon his sick bed, and to consult with him about his war, Elisha bids the King smite the ground, and he smites it thrice, and ceases: Then the man of God was angry, and said, Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times, and so thou shouldst have smitten thine enemies, till thou hadst consumed them. Now, how much hast thou to do, that hast not pulled at this arrow at all yet? Thou must pull thrice and more, before thou get it out; Thou must do, and leave undone many things, before thou deliver thy self of that arrow, that sin that transports thee. One of these arrows was shot into Saint Paul himself, and it stuck, and stuck fast; whether an arrow of temptation, or an arrow of tribulation, the Fathers cannot tell; And therefore, we do now, (not inconveniently) all our way, in this exercise, mingle these two considerations, of temptation, and tribulation. Howsoever Saint Paul pulled thrice at this arrow, and could not get it out; I besought the Lord thrice, says he, that it might depart from me. But yet, Ioash his thrice striking of the ground, brought him some victory; Saint Pauls thrice praying, brought him in that provision of Grace, which God calls sufficient for him. Once pulling at these arrows, a slight consideration of thy sins will do no good. Do it thrice; testify some true desire by such a diligence; Do it now as thou sitt'st, do it again at the Table, do it again in thy bed; Do it thrice, do it in thy purpose, do it in thine actions, do it in thy constancy; Do it thrice, within the walls of thy flesh, in thy self, within the walls of thy house in thy family, and in a holy and exemplar conversation abroad, and God will accomplish thy work, which is his work in thee; And though the arrow be not utterly pulled out, yet it shall not fester, it shall not gangrene; Thou shalt not be cut off from the body of Christ, in his Church here, nor in the Triumphant Church hereafter, how fast soever these arrows did stick upon thee before. God did not refuse Israel for her wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores, though from the sole of the foot, to the crown of the head, but because those wounds were not closed, nor bound up, nor suppled with ointments, therefore he refused her. God shall not refuse any soul, because it hath been shot with these arrows; Alas, God himself hath set us up for a mark, says Job, and so says Jeremiah, against these arrows. But that soul that can pour out floods of tears, for the loss, or for the absence, or for the unkindnes, or imagination of an unkindness of a friend, mis-beloved, beloved a wrong way, and not afford one drop, one tear, to wash the wounds of these arrows, that soul that can squeaze the wound of Christ Jesus, and spit out his blood in these blasphemous execrations, & shed no drop of this blood upon the wounds of these arrows, that soul, and only that soul, that refuses a cure, does God refuse; not because they fell upon it, and stook, and stook fast, and stook long, but because they never, never went about to pull them out; never resisted a temptation, never lamented a transgression, never repented a recidivation.

Now this is more put home to us in the next addition, Infixae mihi, they stick, and stick fast, in me, that is, in all me. That that sin must be saved or damned; That's not the soul alone, nor body alone, but all, the whole man. God is the God of Abraham, as he is the God of the living; Therefore Abraham is alive; And Abraham is not alive, if his body be not alive; Alive actually in the person of Christ; alive in an infallible assurance of a particular resurrection. Whatsoever belongs to thee, belongs to thy body and soul; and these arrows stick fast in thee; In both. Consider it in both; in things belonging to the body and to the soul; We need clothing; Baptism is Gods Wardrobe; there Induimur Christo; In Baptism we put on Christ; there we are invested, apparelled in Christ; And there comes an arrow, that cuts off half our garment, (as Hammon did Davids servants) A temptation that makes us think, it is enough to be baptized, to profess the name of Christ; for Papist, or Protestant, it is but the train of the garment, matter of civility, and policy, and government, and may be cut off, and the garment remain still. So we need meat, sustenance, and then an arrow comes, a temptation meets us, Edit, & bibite, Eat and drink, tomorrow you shall die; That there is no life, but this life, no blessedness but in worldly abundances. If we need physic, and God offer us his physic, medicinal corrections, there flies an arrow, a temptation, Medice cura teipsum, that he whom we make our Physician, died himself, of an infamous disease, that Christ Jesus from whom we attend our salvation, could not save himself. In our clothing, in our diet, in our physic, things which carry our consideration upon the body, these arrows stick fast in us, in that part of us. So in the more spiritual actions of our souls too. In our alms there are trumpets blown, there's an arrow of vain-glory; In our fastings, there are disfigurings, there's an arrow of Hypocrisy; In our purity, there is contempt of others; there's an arrow of pride; In our coming to Church, there is custom and formality; In hearing Sermons, there is affection to the parts of the Preacher. In our sinful actions these arrows abound; In our best actions they lie hid; And as thy soul is in every part of thy body, so these arrows are in every part of thee, body, and soul; they stick, and stick fast, in thee, in all thee.

And yet there is another weight upon us, in the Text, there is still a Hand that follows the blow, and press it, Thy hand presses me sore; so the Vulgate read it, Confirmasti super me manum tuam, Thy hand is settled upon me; and the Chalde paraphrase carries it farther then to man, Sit super me vulnus manus tua; Thy hand hath wounded me, and that hand keeps the wound open. And in this sense the Apostle says, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But as God leaves not his children without correction, so he leaves them not without comfort, and therefore it behoves us to consider his hand upon these arrows, more then one way.

First, because his hand is upon the arrow, it shall certainly hit the mark; Gods purpose cannot be disappointed. If men, and such men, left-handed men, and so many 700 left-handed men, and so many of one Tribe, 700 Benjamites, could sling stones at a hairs breadth, and not fail, God is a better Mark-man then the left-handed Benjamites; his arrows always hit as he intends them. Take them then for tribulation, his hand is upon them; Though they come from the malice of men, his hand is upon them. S. Ambrose observes, that in afflictions, Gods hand, and the Devils are but one hand. Stretch out thy hand, says Satan to God, concerning Job; And, all that he hath is in thy hand, says God to Satan. Stretch out thy hand, and touch his bones, says Satan again to God; And again, God to Satan, He is in thy hand, but touch not his life. A difference may be, that when Gods purpose is but to punish, as he did Pharaoh, in those several veral premonitory plagues, there it is Digitus Dei; It was but a finger, and Gods finger. When Balshazzar was absolutely to be destroyed, there were Digiti, and Manus hominis, mens fingers, and upon a mans hand. The arrows of men are ordinary, more venomous, and more piercing, then the arrows of God. But as it is in that story of Elisha, and Ioash, The Prophet bade the King shoot, but Elisha laid his hand upon the Kings hand; So from what instrument of Satan soever, thy affliction come, Gods hand is upon their hand that shoot it, and though it may hit the mark according to their purpose, yet it hath the effect, and it works according to his.

Yea, let this arrow be considered as a temptation, yet his hand is upon it; at least God sees the shooting of it, and yet lets it fly. Either he tries us by these arrows, what proof we are; Or he punishes us by those arrows of new sins, for our former sins; and so, when he hath lost one arrow, he shoots another. He shoots a sermon, and that arrow is lost; He shoots a sickness, and that arrow is lost; He shoots a sin; not that he is author of any sin, as sin; but as sin is a punishment of sin, he concurs with it. And so he shoots arrow after arrow, permits sin after sin, that at last some sin, that draws affliction with it, might bring us to understanding; for that word, in which the Prophet here expresses this sticking, and this fast sticking of these arrows, which is Nachath, is here, (as the Grammarians in that language call it) in Niphal, figere factae, they were made to stick; Gods hand is upon them, the work is his, the arrows are his, and the sticking of them is his, whatsoever, and whosesoever they be.

His hand shoots the arrow, as it is a tribulation, he limits it, whosoever inflict it. His hand shoots it, as it is a temptation; He permits it, & he orders it, whosoever offer it. But it is especially from his hand, as it hath a medicinal nature in it; for in every temptation, and every tribulation, there is a Catechism, and Instruction; nay, there is a Canticle, a love-song, an Epithalamion, a marriage song of God, to our souls, wrapped up, if we would open it, and read it, and learn that new tune, that music of God; So when thou hearest Nathans words to David, The child that is born unto thee, shall surely die, (let that signify, the children of thy labor, and industry, thy fortune, thy state shall perish) so when thou hear'st Gods word to David, Choose famine, or war, or pestilence, for the people, (let that signify, those that depend upon thee, shall perish) so when thou hear'st Esays words to Hezekiah, Put thy house in order, for thou shalt die; (let that signify, thou thy self in person shalt perish) so when thou hear'st all the judgements of God, as they lie in the body of the Scriptures, so the applications of those judgements, by Gods Ministers, in these services, upon emergent occasions, all these are arrows shot by the hand of God, and that child of God, that is accustomed to the voice, and to the ear of God, to speak with him in prayer, when God speaks to him, in any such voice here, as that to David, or Hezekiah, though this be a shooting of arrows, Non sugabit eum vir sagittarius, The arrow, (as we read it) The Archer, (as the Roman Edition reads it) cannot make that child of God afraid, afraid with a distrustful fear, or make him loth to come hither again to hear more, how close soever Gods arrow, and Gods archer, that is, his word in his servants mouth, come to that Conscience now, nor make him mis-interpret that which he does hear, or call that passion in the Preacher, in which the Preacher is but sagittarius Dei, the deliverer of Gods arrows; for Gods arrows, are sagitta Compunctionis, arrows that draw blood from the eyes; Tears of repentance from Mary Magdalen, and from Peter; And when from thee? There is a probatum est in S. Aug. Sagittaveras cor meum, Thou hast shot at my heart; and how wrought that? To the withdrawing of his tongue, à nundinis loquacitatis, from that market in which I sold my self, (for S. Aug. at that time taught Rhetorique) to turn the stream of his eloquence, and all his other good parts, upon the service of God in his Church. You may have read, or heard that answer of a General, who was threatened with that danger; that his enemies arrows were so many, as that they would cover the Sun from him; In umbra pugnabimus; All the better, says he, for then we shall fight in the shadow. Consider all the arrows of tribulation, even of temptation, to be directed by the hand of God, and never doubt to fight it out with God, to lay violent hands upon heaven, to wrastle with God for a blessing, to charge and press God upon his contracts and promises, for in umbra pugnabis, though the clouds of these arrows may hide all suns of worldly comforts from thee, yet thou art still under the shadow of his wings. Nay, thou art still, for all this shadow, in the light of his countenance. To which purpose there is an excellent use of this Metaphor of arrows, Habak. 3. 11. where it is said, that Gods servants shall have the light of his arrows, and the shining of his glittering spear: that is, the light of his presence, in all the instruments, and actions of his corrections.

To end all, and to dismiss you with such a re-collection, as you may carry away with you; literally, primarily, this text concerns David: He by temptations to sin, by tribulations for sin, by comminations, and increpations upon sin, was bodily, and ghostly become a quiver of arrows of all sorts; they stook, and stook fast, and stook full in him, in all him. The Psalm hath a retrospect too, it looks back to Adam, and to every particular man in his loins, and so, Davids case is our case, and all these arrows stick in all us. But the Psalm and the text hath also a prospect, and hath a prophetical relation from David to our Savior Christ Jesus. And of him, and of the multiplicity of these arrows upon him in the exinanition, and evacuation of himself, in this world for us, have many of the Ancients interpreted these words literally, and as in their first and primary signification; Turn we therefore to him, before we go, and he shall return home with us. How our first part of this text is appliable to him, that our prayers to God, for ease in afflictions, may be grounded upon reasons, out of the sense of those afflictions, Saint Basil tells us, that Christ therefore prays to his Father now in heaven, to spare mankind, because man had suffered so much, and drunk so deep of the bitter cup of his anger, in his person and passion before: It is an avoidable plea, from Christ in heaven, for us, Spare them O Lord in themselves, since thou didst not spare them in me. And how far he was from sparing thee, we see in all those several weights which have aggravated his hand, and these arrows upon us: If they be heavy upon us, much more was their weight upon thee, every dram upon us was a Talent upon thee, Non dolor sicut dolor tuus, take Rachel weeping for her children, Mary weeping for her brother Lazarus, Hezekiah for his health, Peter for his sins, Non est delor sicut dolor tuus. The arrows that were shot at thee, were Alienae, Afflictions that belonged to others; and did not only come from others, as ours do; but they were alienae so, as that they should have fallen upon others; And all that should have fallen upon all others, were shot at thee, and lighted upon thee. Lord, though we be not capable of sustaining that part, this passion for others, give us that, which we may receive, Compassion with others. They were veloces, these arrows met swiftly upon thee; from the sin of Adam that induced death, to the sin of the last man, that shall not sleep, but be changed, when thy hour came they came all upon thee, in that hour. Lord put this swiftness into our fins, that in this one minute, in which our eyes are open towards thee, and thine ears towards us, our sins, all our sins, even from the impertinent frowardness of our childhood, to the unsufferable frowardness of our age, may meet in our present confessions, and repentances, and never appear more. They were (as ours are too) Invisibiles; Those arrows which fell upon thee, were so invisible, so undiscernible, as that to this day, thy Church, thy School cannot see, what kind of arrow thou tookest into thy soul, what kind of affliction it was, that made thy soul heavy unto death, or dissolved thee into a gelly of blood in thine agony. Be thou O Lord, a Father of Lights unto us, in all our ways and works of darkens; manifest unto us, whatsoever is necessary for us to know, & be a light of understanding and grace before, and a light of comfort and mercy after any sin hath benighted us. These arrows were, as ours are also, plures, plural, many, infinite; they were the sins of some that shall never thank thee, never know that thou borest their sins, never know that they had any such sins to be horn. Lord teach us to number thy corrections upon us, so, as still to see thy torments suffered for us, and our own sins, to be infinitely more that occasioned those torments, then those corrections that thou layst upon us. Thine arrows stook and stook fast in thee; the weight of thy torments, thou wouldst not cast off, nor lessen, when at thy execution they offered thee, that stupesying drink, (which was the civil charity of those times to condemned persons, to give them an easier passage, in the agonies of death) thou wouldst not taste of that cup of ease. Deliver us, O Lord, in all our tribulations, from turning to the miserable comforters of this world, or from wishing or accepting any other deliverance, then may improve and make better our Resurrection. These arrows were in thee, in all thee: from thy Head torn with thorns, to thy feet pierced with nayls; and in thy soul so as we know not how, so as to extorta Si possibile, If it be possible let this cup pass, and an Vt quid dereliquisti, My God, my God, why half thou forsaken me? Lord, whilst we remain entire here, in body and soul, make us, and receive us an entire sacrifice to thee, in directing body and soul to thy glory, and when thou shalt be pleased to take us in pieces by death, receive our souls to thee, and lay up our bodies for thee, in consecrated ground, and in a Christian buryal. And lastly, thine arrows were followed, and pressed with the hand of God; The hand of God pressed upon thee, in that eternal decree, in that irrevocable contract, between thy Father and thee, in that Oportuit pati, That all that thou must suffer, and so enter into our glory. Establish us, O Lord, in all occasions of diffidences here; and when thy hand presses our arrows upon us, enable us to see, that that very hand, hath from all eternity written, and written in thine own blood, a decree of the issue, as well, and as soon, as of the temptation. In which confidence of which decree, as men, in the virtue thereof already in possession of heaven, we join with that Quire in that service, in that Anthem, Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever, and ever, Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XX.

PSAL. 38. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

IN that which is often reported to you, out of Saint Jerome, Titulus clavis, that the title of the Psalm, is the key of the Psalm, there is this good use, That the book of Psalms is a mysterious book; and, if we had not a lock, every man would thrust in, and if we had not a key, we could not get in our selves. Our lock is the analogy of the Christian faith; That we admit no other sense, of any place in any Psalm, then may consist with the articles of the Christian faith; for so, no Heretic, no Schismatique, shall get in by any countenance of any place in the Psalms; and then our key is, that intimation which we receive in the title of the Psalm, what duty that Psalm is principally directed upon; and so we get into the understanding of the Psalm, and profiting by the Psalm. Our key in this Psalm, given us in the title thereof, is, that it is Psalmus ad Recordationem, a Psalm of Remembrance; The faculty that is awakened here, is our Memory. That plural word nos, which was used by God, in the making of Man, when God said Faciamus, Let us, us make man, according to our image, as it intimates a plurality, a concurrence of all the Trinity in our making, so doth it also a plurality in that image of God, which was then imprinted in us; As God, one God created us, so we have a soul, one soul, that represents, and is some image of that one God; As the three Persons of the Trinity created us, so we have, in our one soul, a threefold impression of that image, and, as Saint Bernard calls it, A trinity from the Trinity, in those three faculties of the soul, the Vnderstanding, the Will, and the Memory. God calls often upon the first faculty, O that this people would but understand; But understand? Inscrutabilia judicia tua; Thy judgements are unsearchable, and thy ways past finding out; And, oh that this people would not go about to understand those unrevealed decrees, and secrets of God. God calls often upon the other faculty, the Will too, and complains of the stiff perverseness, and opposition of that. Through all the Prophets runs that charge, Noluerunt, and Noluerunt, they would not, they refused me, Noluerunt audire, says God in Isaiah; They are rebellious children, that will not hear. Domus Israel noluit, says God to Ezekiel, The house of Israel will not hear thee; not Thee, not the minister; That's no marvail; it is added by God there, Noluit me, they will not hear me. Noluerunt erubescere, says God to Jeremiah, They will not be ashamed of their former ways, And therefore Noluerunt reverti, They will not return to better ways: He that is past shame of sin, is past recovery from sin. So Christ continues that practise, and that complaint in the Gospel too; He sends forth his servants, (us) to call them, that were bidden, Et noluerunt venire, and they would not come upon their call; He comes himself, and would gather them, as hen her chickens, and they would not; Their fault is not laid in this, that they had no such faculty, as a will, (for then their not coming were not their fault) but that they perverted that will. Of our perverseness in both faculties, understanding, and will, God may complain, but as much of our memory; for, for the rectifying of the will, the understanding must be rectified; and that implies great difficulty: But the memory is so familiar, and so present, and so ready a faculty, as will always answer, if we will but speak to it, and ask it, what God hath done for us, or for others. The art of salvation, is but the art of memory. When God gave his people the Law, he proposes nothing to them, but by that way, to their memory; I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt; Remember but that. And when we express Gods mercy to us, we attribute but that faculty to God, that he remembers us; Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And when God works so upon us, as that He makes his wonderful works to be had in remembrance, it is as great a mercy, as the very doing of those wonderful works was before. It was a seal upon a seal, a seal of confirmation, it was a sacrament upon a sacrament, when in instituting the sacrament of his body and his blood, Christ presented it so, Do this in remembrance of me. Memorare novissima, remember the last things, and fear will keep thee from sinning; Memorare praeterita, remember the first things, what God hath done for thee, and love, (love, which, mis-placed, hath transported thee upon many sins) love will keep thee from sinning. Plato placed all learning in the memory; we may place all Religion in the memory too: All knowledge, that seems new to day, says Plato, is but a remembering of that, which your soul knew before. All instruction, which we can give you to day, is but the remembering you of the mercies of God, which have been new every morning. Nay, he that hears no Sermons, he that reads no Scriptures, hath the Bible without book; He hath a Genesis in his memory; he cannot forget his Creation; he hath an Exodus in his memory; he cannot forget that God hath delivered him, from some kind of Egypt, from some oppression; He hath a Leviticus in his memory; he cannot forget, that God hath proposed to him some Law, some rules to be observed. He hath all in his memory, even to the Revelation; God hath revealed to him, even at midnight alone, what shall be his portion, in the next world; And if he dare but remember that nights communication between God and him, he is well-near learned enough. There may be enough in remembering our selves; but sometimes, that's the hardest of all; many times we are farthest off from our selves; most forgetful of our selves. It was a narrow enlargement, it was an addition that diminished the sense, when our former Translators added that word, themselves; All the world shall remember themselves; there is no such particularity, as themselves, in that text; But it is only, as our later Translators have left it, All the world shall remember, and no more; Let them remember what they will, what they can, let them but remember thoroughly, and then as it follows there, They shall turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship him. Therefore David makes that the key into this Psalm; Psalmus ad Recordationem, A Psalm for Remembrance. Being locked up in a close prison, of multiplied calamities, this turns the key, this opens the door, this restores him to liberty, if he can remember. Non est sanitas, there is no soundness, no health in my flesh; Doest thou wondet at that? Remember thy self, and thou wilt see, that thy case is worse then so; That there is no rest in thy bones. That's true too; But doest thou wonder at that? Remember thy self, and thou wilt see the cause of all that, The Lord is angry with thee; Find'st thou that true, and wondrest why the Lord should be angry with thee? Remember thy self well, and thou wilt see, it is because of thy sins, There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin. So have I let you in, into the whole Psalm, by this key, by awaking your memory, that it is a Psalm for Remembrance: And that that you are to remember, is, that all calamities, that fall upon you, fall not from the malice or power of man, but from the anger of God; And then, that Gods anger falls not upon you, from his Hate, or his Decree, but from your sins, There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin.

Which words we shall first consider, as they are our present object, as they are historically, and literally to be understood of David; And secondly, in their retrospect, as they look back upon the first Adam, and so concern Mankind collectively, and so you, and I, and all have our portion in these calamities; And thirdly, we shall consider them in their prospect, in their future relation to the second Adam, in Christ Jesus, in whom also all mankind was collected, and the calamities of all men had their Ocean and their confluence, and the cause of them, the anger of God was more declared, and the cause of that anger, that is sin, did more abound; for the sins of all the world were his, by imputation, for this Psalm, some of our Expositors take to be a historical, and personal Psalm, determined in David; some, a Catholic, and universal Psalm, extended to the whole condition of man, and some a Prophetical, and Evangelical Psalm, directed upon Christ. None of them inconveniently; for we receive help and health, from every one of these acceptations; first, Adam was the Patient, and so, his promise, the promise that he received of a Messiah, is our physic; And then David was the Patient, and there, his Example is our physic; And lastly, Christ Jesus was the Patient, and so, his blood is our physic. In Adam we shall find the Scriptum est, the medicine is in our books, an assurance of a Messiah there is; In David we shall find the Probatum est, that this medicine wrought upon David; and in Christ we find the deceit it self; Thus you may take this physic, thus you may apply it to your selves. In every acceptation, as we consider it in David, in our selves, in Christ, we shall consider first, That specification of humane misery and calamity, expressed here, sickness, and an universal sickness; No soundness in the flesh: And more then that, trouble, and an universal trouble; No peace, no rest, not in the bones. And then in a second branch, we shall see, that those calamities proceed from the anger of God; we cannot discharge them, upon Nature, or Fortune, or Power, or Malice of Men or Times; They are from the anger of God, and they are, as the Original Text hath it, à facie ira Dei, from the face of the anger of God, from that anger of God that hath a face, that looks upon something in us, and grows not out of a hate in God, or decree of God against us. And then lastly, this that Gods anger looks upon is sin; God is not angry till he see sin; nor with me, till it come to be my sin; and though Original sin be my sin, and sickness, and death would follow, though there were no more but Original sin, yet God comes not to this, Non sanitas, No soundness in my flesh, nor to this, Non pax, No rest in my bones, till I have made sin, my sin, by act, and habit too, by doing it, and using to do it. But then, though it be but Peccatum in the singular, (so the Text hath it) One sin, yet for that one beloved sin, especially when that my sin comes to have a face, (for so, the Original phrase is in this place too, à facie peccati, from the face of my sin) when my sin looks big, and justifies it self, then come these calamities, No soundness in the flesh,no rest in the bones, to their height, because the anger of God which exals them, is in the exaltation: There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither any rest in my bones, because of my sin.

All these particulars will best arise to us in our second consideration, when we consider, Hamanitatem, not Hominem, our humane condition, as we are all kneaded up in Adam, and not this one person David. But because we are in the consideration of health, and consequently of physic, (for the true and proper use of physic, is to preserve health, and, but by accident to restore it) we embrace that Rule, Mediocrum theoria experientia est, Practise is a Physicians study; and he concludes out of events: for, says he, He that professes himself a Physician, without experience, Chronica de future scribit, He undertakes to write a Chronicle of things before they are done, which is an irregular, and a perverse way. Therefore, in this spiritual physic of the soul, we will deal upon Experience too, and see first, how this wrought upon this particular person, upon David.

David durst not presume, that God could not, or would not be angry. Anger is not always a Defect, nor an inordinateness in man; Be angry, and sin not: anger is not utterly to be rooted out of our ground, and cast away, but transplanted; A Gardiner does well to grub up thorns in his garden; there they would hinder good herbs from growing; but he does well to plant those thorns in his hedges, there they keep bad neighbours from entering. In many cases, where there is no anger, there is not much zeal. David himself came to a high exaltation in this passion of anger. He was ordinarily so meek, as that that which we translate afflictions, the Vulgate Edition translates meckness, and patience in his afflictions. Remember David and all his afflictions, says our translation; and Memento David & omnis mansuetudinis ejus, say they, Remember David, and all his mildness. How mildly he endured Ioabs insultation; Thou lovest, says Job, thine enemies, and thou hatest thy friends. Bitterly spoken; Come out, and speak comfortably, says Job, or, I swear by the Lord, there will not tarry a man with thee this night; Seditiously spoken; And David obeyed him. How mildly he endured Shimei's cursing? He cast stones at him and at all his servants; He charges him with murder; and, that which is heaviest of all, he calls Absolons rebellion, a judgement of God; and David accepts it so, and says, The Lord hath bidden him to curse David. And yet this exemplar mild man, David himself, upon a scorn offered to him by Hanun in the abuse of his Ambassadors, goes himself in person, into a dangerous war, against the Ammonites, assisted with 32000 chariots of their neighbours the Aramites, and there he destroys those great numbers, which are mentioned in that story: and after this defeat, in cold blood, he goes out against them, that had assisted them; He takes the City Rabbah, and the people he cuts with Saws, and with Harrows of iron, and with Axes; David saw that a mild man can grow angry, and that a fire that is long kindling, burns most vehemently. That which is an Adage, and Proverb now, was ever true in substance, Ab inimico flegmatico libera me Domine; from him that is long before he be angry, for he is long before he be reconciled again. Gods goodness hath that disposition, to be long suffering; mans illness and abuse of that, is able to inflame God. So Davids sin had inflamed him; and the fire of Gods anger produced the calamities of this text upon him: which our Expositors ordinarily take to have been historically this, that when David had provoked God, with that sinful confidence in numbering his people, when Gods anger was executed in that devouring plague, and David saw the persecuting Angel, then à facie ira Domini, from that face, that manifestation of Gods anger, he fell into that damp, and dead cold, that howsoever they covered him, they could never get heat in him: And this was the sin, say our Expositors, and this was the anger, and this was the manifestation, and this was the disease that David complains of here. And be this enough of the personal acceptation of these words; There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there rest in my bones, because of my sin; for in their second acceptation as they are referred to the miserable condition of all mankind by sin, the particulars which we laid down before, will fall into more particular consideration.

In this second part, first we contemplate man, as the Receptacle, the Ocean of all misery. Fire and Aire, Water and Earth, are not the Elements of man; Inward decay, and outward violence, bodily pain, and sorrow of heart may be rather styled his Elements; And though he be destroyed by these, yet he consists of nothing but these. As the good qualities of all creatures are not for their own use, (for the Sun sees not his own glory, nor the Rose smells not her own breath: but all their good is for man) so the ill conditions of the creature, are not directed upon themselves, (the Toad poisons not it self, nor does the Viper bite it self) but all their ill pours down upon man. As though man could be a Microcosm, a world in himself, no other way, except all the misery of the world fell upon him. Adam was able to decypher the nature of every Creature in the name thereof, and the Holy Ghost hath decyphered his in his name too; In all those names that the Holy Ghost hath given man, he hath declared him miserable, for, Adam, (by which name God calls him, and Eve too) signifies but Redness, but a Blushing: and whether we consider their low materials, as it was but earth, or the redness of that earth, as they stained it with their own blood, and the blood of all their posterity, and as they drew another more precious blood, the blood of the Messiah upon it, every way both may be Adam, both may blush. So God called that pair, our first Parents, man in that root, Adam: But the first name, by which God called man in general, mankind, is Ish, Therefore shall a man leave his Father, &c. And Ish, is but à sonitu, à rugitu: Man hath his name from crying, and the occasion of crying, misery, testified in his entrance into the world, for he is born crying; and our very Laws presume, that if he be alive, he will cry, and if he be not heard cry, conclude him to be born dead. And where man is called Gheber, (as he is often) which is derived from Greatness, man is but great so, as that word signifies; It signifies a Giant, an oppressor, Great in power, and in a delight to do great mischiefs upon others, or Great, as he is a Great mark, and easily hit by others. But man hath a fourth name too in Scripture, Enosh, and that signifies nothing but misery. When David says, Put them in fear O Lord, that the Nations may know they are but men; there's that name Enosh, that they are but miserable things. Adam is Blushing, Ish is lamenting, Geber is oppressing, Enosh is all that; but especially that which is especially notified for the misery in our Text, Enosh is Homo aeger, a man miserable, in particular, by the misery of sickness, which is our next step, Non sanitas, There is no soundness, no health in me.

God created man in health, but health continued but a few hours, and sickness hath had the Dominion 6000 years. But was man impassible before the fall? Had there been no sickness, if there had been no sin? Secundum passions perfectivas, we acknowledge in the School, man was passible before: Every alteration is in a degree a passion, a suffering; and so, in those things which conduced to his well-being, eating, and sleeping, and other such, man was passible: that is, subject to alteration, But, Secundum passions destructivae, to such sufferings, as might frustrate the end for which he was made, which was Immortality, he was not subject, and so, not to sickness. Now he is; and put all the miseries, that man is subject to, together, sickness is more then all. It is the immediate sword of God. Phalaris could invent a Bull, and others have invented Wheels and Racks; but no persecutor could ever invent a sickness or a way to inflict a sickness upon a condemned man: To a galley he can send him, and to the gallows, and command execution that hour; but to a quartane fever, or to a gout, he cannot condemn him. In poverty I lack but other things; In banishment I lack but other men; But in sickness, I lack my self. And, as the greatest misery of war, is, when our own Country is made the seat of the war; so is it of affliction, when mine own Body is made the subject thereof. How shall I put a just value upon Gods great blessings of Wine, and Oil, and Milk, and Honey, when my cast is gone, or of Liberty, when the gout fetters my feet? The King may release me, and say, Let him go whither he will, but God says, He shall not go till I will. God hath wrapped up all misery, in that condemnation, Morte morietur, That the sinner shall die twice: But if the second death did not follow, the first death were an ease, and a blessing in many sicknesses. And no sickness can be worse, then that which is intended here, for it is all over, Non sanitas, no soundness, no health in any part.

This consideration arises not only from the Physicians Rule, that the best state of Mans body is but a Neutrality, neither well nor ill, but Nulla sanitas, a state of true and exquisit health, say they, no man hath. But not only out of this strictness of Art, but out of an acknowledgment of Nature, we must say, sanitas hujus vitae, bene intelligentibus, sanitas non est; It is but our mistaking, when we call any thing Health. But why so? fames naturalis morbus est; Hunger is a sickness; And that's naturally in us all. Medicamentum famis cibus, & potus sitis, & fatigationis somnus; when I eat, I do but take Physic for Hunger, and for thirst, when I drink, and so is sleep my physic for weariness. Detrahe medicamentum, & interficient; for bear but these Physiques, and these diseases, Hunger, and thirst, and weariness, will kill thee. And as this sickness is upon us all, and so non sanitas, there is no Health, in none of us, so it is upon us all, at all times, and so Non sanitas, there is never any soundness in us: for, saemper deficimus; we are Born in a Consumption, and as little as we are then, we grow less from that time. Vita cursus ad mortem, Before we can craule, we run to meet death; & urgemur owns pari passu: Though some are cast forward to death, by the use, which others have of their ruin, and so throw them, through Discontents, into desperate enterprises, and some are drawn forward to death, by false Marks, which they have set up to their own Ambitions, and some are spurred forward to death, by sharp Diseases contracted by their own intemperance and licentiousness; and some are whipped forward to death, by the Miseries, and penuries of this life, take away all these accidental furtherances to death, this drawing, and driving, and spurring, and whipping, pari paessu urgemur omnes, we bring all with us into the world, that which carries us out of the world, a natural, unnatural consuming of that radical virtue, which sustains our life. Non sanitas, there is no health in any, so universal is sickness, nor at any time in any, so universal; and so universal too, as that not in any part of any man, at any time. As the King was but sick in his feet, and yet it killed him: It was but in his fact, yet it flew up into his head, it affected his head; as our former translation observed it in their margin; that the disease did not only grow to a great height in the disease, but to the highest parts of the body: It was at first but in the feet, but it was presently all over. Josiah the King was shot with an arrow at the battle of Megiddo; One book that reports the story says he was carried out of the field alive & died at Jerusalem and another, that he was carried out of the field dead. Deadly wounds & deadly sicknesses spread themselves all over, so fast, as that the holy Ghost, in relating it, makes it all one, to tell the beginning, and the end thereof. If a man do but prick a finger, and bind it above that part, so that the Spirits, or that which they call the Balsamum of the body, cannot descend, by reason of that ligature, to that part, it will gangrene; And, (which is an argument, and an evidence, that mischiefs are more operative, more insinuating, more penetrative, more diligent, then Remedies against mischiefs are) when the Spirits, and Balsamum of the body cannot pass by that ligature to that wound, yet the Gangrene will pass from that wound, by that ligature, to the body, to the Heart, and destroy. In every part of the body death can find a door, or make a breach; Mortal diseases breed in every part. But when every part at once is diseased, death does not bsy ge him, but inhabit him. In the day, when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall how themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and those that look out at the windows, he darkened, when age of Gods making, age grown by many years, or age of the Devills making, age grown by many sins, hath spread an universal debility upon me, that all sicknesses are in me, & have all lost their names, as all simples have in Triacle, I am sick of sickness, and not of a Fever, or any particular distemper, then is the misery of this Text fallen upon me, Non sanitas, no health, none at any time, none in any part, non in Carne, not in my flesh, not in my whole substance, which is also another circumstance of exaltation in humane misery.

Take flesh in the largest extent and signification, that may be, as Moses calls God, The God of the spirits of all flesh, that is, of the Being of all Creatures, and take all these Creatures to be ours in that Donation, Subjicite & dominamini, subdue, and rule all Creatures, yet there is no soundness in our flesh, for, all these Creatures are corrupted, and become worse then they were, (to us) by the sin of Adam. Bring flesh to a nearer signification, to our own, there was Caro juxta naturam, and there is Caro juxta culpam. That flesh which was natural, to man, that which God gave man at first, that had health and soundness in it; but yet not such a degree of soundness, as that it needed no more, then it then had. That had been naturally enough, (if that had been preserved to carry that flesh it self to heaven, but even that flesh if it had not sinned, though it had an Immortality in it self, yet must have received a glorification in heaven; as well, (though in another measure) as those bodies, which shall be alive at the last day, and shall be but changed, and not dissolved in the dust, must receive a glorification there, besides that preservation from dissolution. Now this Caro juxta culpam, sinful flesh, is farther from that Glorification; Our natural flesh, when it was at best, had some thing to put on; but our sinful flesh hath also something to put off, before it can receive glory. So then, for flesh in general, the body of Creatures, though that flesh be our flesh, because all Creatures are ours, in that flesh there is no soundness, because they are become worse; for that flesh, which we call natural Adams first flesh, besides that it was never capable of glory in it self, but must have received that, by receiving the light of Gods presence, there is none of that flesh remaining now; now universa caro, all flesh is corrupted; and that curse is gone upon it, The glory of Jacob shall be empoverished, and the fatness of his flesh shall be made lean. Quia elatum sumpsimus spiritum, because we have raised our spirits in pride, higher then God would, Ecce defluens quotidy portamus lutum, Behold God hath walled us with mud walls, and wet mud walls, that waste away faster, then God meant at first, they should. And by sins, this flesh, that is but the loam and plaster of thy Tabernacle, thy body, that, all, that, that in the entire substance is corrupted. Those Gummes, and spices, which should embalm thy flesh, when thou art dead, are spent upon that diseased body whilst thou art alive: Thou seemest, in the eye of the world, to walk in silks, and thou doest but walk in searcloth; Thou hast a desire to please some eyes, when thou hast much to do, not to displease every Nose; and thou wilt solicit an adulterous entrance into their beds, who, if they should but see thee go into thine own bed, would need no other mortification, nor answer to thy solicitation. Thou pursuest the works of the flesh, and hast none, for thy flesh is but dust held together by plaisters; Dissolution and putrefaction is gone over thee alive; Thou hast over lived thine own death, and art become thine own ghost, and thine own hell; No soundness in all thy flesh; and yet beyond all these, beyond the general miserable condition of man, and the highest of humane miseries, sickness, and sickness over all the parts, and so over them all, as that it hath putrefied them all, there is another degree, which follows in our Text, and David calls Trouble, There is no soundness in my flesh, nor rest in my bones.

That which such a sick man most needs, this sick soul shall not have, Rest. The Physician goes out, and says, he hath left him to Rest, but he hath left no Rest to him. The anguish of the disease, nay, the officiousness of visitors, will not let him rest. Such send to see him as would fain hear he were dead, and such weep about his sick-bed, as would not weep at his grave. Mine enemies speak evil of me, (says David) and say, When shall he die, and his name perish? And yet these evil-speaking enemies come there to see him. They say, an evil disease cleaveth fast unto him; and that they say is true, but they say it not out of compassion, for they add, And now that he lyeth, let him rise no more. He shall not get to that good trouble, to that holy disquiet of a conscientious consideration, how his state was got; and, it shall be a greater trouble then he can overcome, how to dispose it: He shall not only not make a religious restitution, but he shall not make a discreet Will. He shall suspect his wifes fidelity, and his children's frugality, and clog them with Executors, and them with Over-seers, and be, or be afraid he shall be over-seen in all. And yet a farther trouble then all this, is intended in the other word, which is the last and highest of these vexations, Non in ossibus, no rest in my bones.

Saint Basil will needs have us leave the obvious, and the natural signification of this, Bones; for, Habet & anima ossa sua, says he, The soul hath Bones, as well as the body, and there shall be no Rest in those Bones. Such a signification is appliable to the Flesh, as well as the Bones; The flesh may signify the lower faculties of the soul, or the weaker works of the higher faculties thereof; There may be a Carnality in the understanding; a concupiscence of disputation, and controversy in unnecessary points. Requirit quod sibi respondere nequit, The mind of a curious man delights to examine it self upon Interrogatories, which, upon the Rack, it cannot answer, and to vexe it self with such doubts as it cannot resolve. Sub eo ignara deficit, quod prudenter requirit; We will needs show wit in moving subtle questions, and the more ignorance, in not being able to give our selves satisfaction. But not only seditions, and contentions, but Heresies too, are called works of the flesh; howsoever men think themselves witty, and subtle, and spiritual in these wranglings, yet they have carnal respects, they are of the flesh, and there is no soundnes in them. But beyond this carnality in matters of Opinions, in points of a higher nature, this diseased man in our Text, comes to trouble in his Bones, S. Basils spiritual bones: He shall suspect his Religion, suspect his Repentance, suspect the Comforts of the Minister, suspect the efficacy of the Sacrament, suspect the mercy of God himself. Every fit of an Ague is an Earth-quake that swallows him, every fainting of the knee, is a step to Hell; every lying down at night is a funeral; & every quaking is a rising to judgment; every bell that distinguishes times, is a passing-bell, and every passing-bell, his own; every singing in the ear, is an Angels Trumpet; at every dimness of the candle, he hears that voice, Fool, this night they will fetch away thy soul; and in every judgement denounced against sin, he hears an lto maledicte upon himself, Go thou accursed into hell fire. And whereas such meditations as these, might sustain a rectified soul, as Bones in this sinner, despair shall have sucked out all the marrow of these Bones, and so there shall be no soundness in his flesh, no rest in his bones. And so have you this sick sinner dissected and anatomized; He hath not only his portion in misery that lies upon all mankind, which was our first branch, but in the heavyest of all, sickness, which was a second, and then a third sickness spread over all, no soundness, nor rest in that sickness, which was a fourth consideration, No soundness in his flesh, in his weaker faculties and operations, No rest in his bones, no acquiescence in his best actions, with which we end this first part. In which, we consider sinful man, in himself, and so all is desperate; But in the second, where we find him upon the consideration of the cause of all these distresses, That it is from the Contemplation of the anger of God, There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine Anger, there we shall find a way offered to him, that may, if he pursue it aright, bring him to a Reparation, to a Redintegration; for, if he look upon the Anger of God in a right line, it will show him, that as that Anger is the cause of his Calamities, so his sins are the cause of that Anger.

May we not piously apply that Proverbial speech, Corruptio optimi pessima, (that when good things take in another nature then their own, they take it in the highest exaltation) thus, that when God, who is all mercy, grows angry, he becomes all anger? The Holy Ghost himself seems to have given us leave to make that application, when expressing God in the height of his anger, he calls God then, in that anger, a Dove; we read it the fierceness of an oppressor, but Saint Jerome reads it, The anger of a Dove. And truly there is no other word then that, in that tongue, (the word is Jonah,) that signifies a Dove, and that word does signify a Dove, in many other places of Scripture; And that Prophet which made his flight from God, when he sent him to Nineveh, is called by that name, Jonah, a Dove; And the Fathers of the Latin Church, have read, and interpreted it so, of a Dove. Some of them take Nebuchadnezzar to be this angry Dove, because he left his own Dove-coat to feed abroad, to prey upon them; and some, because the Dove was the Armes and Ensign of the Assyrians from the time of Semiramis; But the rest take this Dove to be God himself, and that the sins of men had put a Gall into a Dove, Anger into God. And then, to what height that anger grows, is expressed in the Prophet Hosea; I will meet them, says God, (when he is pleased, he says, he will wait for them) as a Bear, (no longer a Dove) as a Bear robbed of her whelps, (sensible of his injuries) and I will rent the caule of their hearts, (shiver them in pieces with a dispersion, with a discerption) And I will devour them as with a Lyon, (nothing shall re-unite them again But I will break them as a Potters vessel, that cannot be made whole again.) Honor not the malice of thine enemy so much, as to say, thy misery comes from him: Dishonor not the complexion of the times so much, as to say, thy misery comes from them; justify not the Deity of Fortune so much, as to say, thy misery comes from her; Find God pleased with thee, and thou hast a hook in the nostrils of every Leviathan, power cannot shake thee, Thou hast a wood to cast into the waters of Marah, the bitterness of the times cannot hurt thee, thou hast a Rock to dwell upon, and the dream of a Fortunes wheel, can not overturn thee. But if the Lord be angry, he needs no Trumpets to call in Armies, if he do but sibilare muscam, hiss and whisper for the fly, and the Be, there is nothing so little in his hand, as cannot discomfort thee, discomfit thee, dissolve and powrout, attenuate and annihilate the very marrow of thy soul. Every thing is His, and therefore every thing is He; thy sickness is his sword, and therefore it is He that strikes thee with it, still turn upon that consideration, the Lord is angry; But then look that anger in the face, take it in the right line, as the Original phrase in this text directs, à facieirae Dei, There is no soundness in my flesh, from the face of thine anger.

As there is a Manifestation of Gods anger in this phrase, The face of Gods anger, so there is a Multiplication, a plurality too, for it is indeed, Mippenei à faciebus, the faces, the divers manifestations of Gods anger; for, the face of God, (and so of every thing proceeding from God) is that, by which God, or that work of God is manifested to us. And therefore since God manifests his anger so many useful, and medicinal ways unto thee, take heed of looking upon his anger, where his anger hath no face, no manifestation; take heed of imagining an anger in God, amounting to thy Damnation, in any such Decree, as that God should be angry with thee in that height, without looking upon thy sins, or without any declaration why he is angry. He opens his face to thee in his Law, he manifests himself to thee in the Conditions, by which he hath made thy salvation possible, and till he see thee, in the transgression of them, he is not angry. And when he is angry so, be glad he shews it in his face, in his outward declarations; that fire smothered, would consume all Gods anger reserved till the last day, will last as long as that day, as that undeterminable day, for ever. When should we go about to quench that fire, that never bursts out, or to seek reconciliation, before a hostility be declared? Therefore Saint Bernard begs this anger at Gods hands, Irascaris mihi Domine, O Lord, be angry with me; And therefore David thanks God, in the behalf of that people, for his anger, Thou forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. The fires of hell, in their place, in hell, have no light; But any degrees of the fires of Hell, that can break out in this life, have, in Gods own purpose, so much light, as that through the darkest smother of obduration; or desperation, God would have us see him. Therefore Saint Jerome makes this milder use of this phrase, that God shows faciem ira, but non iram, that his face of anger is rather a telling us, that he will be angry, then that he is angry yet; the corrections that God inflicts to reduce us, if we profit not by them, were anger Ab initio, we shall suffer for the sins, from which those corrections should have reduced us, and for that particular sin, of not being reduced by them; but if they have their effect, there was not a drop of gall, there was not a dramme of anger in the anger. Now that that God intends in them is, that as we apprehend our calamities to proceed from Gods anger, and to discharge Destiny, and Fortune, so we apprehend that anger to proceed from our own sins, and so discharge God himself; There is no rest in my bones because of my sin.

As we are the sons of Dust, (worse, the sons of Death) we must say to Corruption, Thou art my Father, and to the worm, Thou art my Mother, so we may say to the anger of God, it is our grandfather, that begot these miseries, but we must say too, to our sin, Thou art my great-grandfather, that begot Gods anger upon us: and here is our woeful pedigree, howsoever we be otherwise descended. 'Tis true, there is no soundness, there is misery enough upon thee; and true, that God is angry, vehemently angry; But, Expone juststiam ira Dei, deal clearly with the world, and clear God, and confess it is because of thy sin. When Cain says, My sin is greater then can be forgiven, that word Gnavon is ambiguous, it may be sin, it may be punishment, and we know not whether his impatience grew out of the horror of his sin, or the weight of his punishment. But here we are directed by a word that hath no ambiguity; Kata signifies sin, and nothing but sin; Here the holy Ghost hath fixed thee upon a word, that will not suffer thee to consider the punishment, nor the cause of the punishment, the anger, but the cause of that anger, and all, the sin. We see that the bodily sickness, and the death of many is attributed to one kind of sin, to the negligent receiving of the Sacrament, For this cause many are weak and sick amongst you, and many sleep. Imaginem judicii ostenderat, God had given a representation of the day of Judgement in that proceeding of his, for then we shall see many men condemned for sins, for which we never suspected them: so we think men dye of Fevers, whom we met lately at the Sacrament, and God hath cut them off perhaps for that sin of their unworthy receiving the Sacrament. My miseries are the fruits of this Tree; Gods anger is the arms that spreads it; but the root is sin. My sin, which is another consideration.

We say of a Possession, Transit cum onere, It passes to me, with the burden that my Father laid upon it; his debt is my debt: so does it, with the sin too; his sin, by which he got that possession, is my sin, if I know it: and, perchance, the punishment mine, though I know not the sin. Adams sin, 6000 years ago, is my sin; and their sin, that shall sin by occasion of any wanton writings of mine, will be my sin, though they come after. Woeful riddle; sin is but a privation, and yet there is not such another positive possession: sin is nothing, and yet there is nothing else; I sinned in the first man that ever was; and, but for the mercy of God, in something that I have said or done, might sin, that is, occasion sin, in the last man that ever shall be. But that sin that is called my sin in this text, is that that is become mine by an habitual practise, or mine by a wilful relapse into it. And so my sin may kindle the anger of God, though it be but a single sin, One sin, as it is delivered here in the singular, and no farther, Because of my sin.

Every man may find in himself, Peccatum complicatum, sin wrapped up in sin, a body of sin. We bring Elements of our own; earth of Covetousness, water of unsteadfastness, air of putrefaction, and fire of licentiousness; and of these elements we make a body of sin; as the Apostle says of the Natural body, There are many members, but one body, so we may say of our sin, it hath a wanton eye, a griping hand, an itching ear, an insatiable heart, and feet swift to shed blood, and yet it is but one body of sin; It is all,and yet it is but One. But let it be simply, and singularly but One, (which is a miracle in sin, truly I think an impossibility in sin, to be single, to be but One) (for that unclean Spirit, which possessed the man that dwelt amongst the tombs, carryed it at first, as though he had been a single Devil, and he alone in that man, I, I adjure thee, says he to Christ, and torment not me, not me, so far in the singular, but when Christ puts him to it, he confesses, we are many, and my name is legion: So though thy sin, slightly examined, may seem but One, yet if thou dare press it, it will confess a plurality, a legion) if it be but One, yet if that One be made thine, by an habitual love to it, as the plague needs not the help of a Consumption to kill thee, so neither does Adultery need the help of Murder to damn thee. For this making of any One sin, thine, thine, by an habitual love thereof, will grow up to the last and heaviest weight, intimated in that phrase, which is also in this clause of the Text, In facie paccati; that this sin will have a face, that is, a confidence, and a devesting of all our disguises.

There cannot be a heavier punishment laid upon any sin, then Christ lays upon scandal: It were better for him a mil-stone were hanged about his neck, and he drowned in the Sea. If something worse, then such a death, belong to him, surely it is eternal Death. And this, this eternal death, is interminated by Christ, in cases, where there is not always sin, in the action which we do, but if we do any action, so, as that it may scandalize another, or occasion sin in him, we are bound to study, and favor the weakness of other men, and not to do such things, as they may think sins. We must prevent the mis-interpretation, yea the malice of other men; for though the fire be theirs, the fewel, or at least, the bellows, is ours; The uncharitableness, the malice is in them, but the awaking, and the stirring thereof, is in our carelesness, who were not watchful upon our actions. But when an action comes to be sin indeed, and not only occasionally sin, because it scandalizes another, but really sin in it self, then even the Poet tells you, Maxima debetur pueris reverentia, si quid Turpe paras, Take heed of doing any sin, in the sight of thy Child: for, if we break through that wall, we shall come quickly to that faciem Sacerdotis non erubuerunt, they will not be afraid, nor ashamed in the presence of the Priest, they will look him in the face, nay receive at his hands, and yet sin their sin, that minute, in their hearts; and to that also, faciem seniorum non erubuerunt, they will not be afraid, nor ashamed of the Office of the Magistrate; but sin for nothing, or sin at a price, bear out, or buy out all their sins. They sin as Sodom, and bide it not, is the highest charge that the Holy Ghost could lay upon the sinner. When they come to say, Our lips are ours, who is Lord ever us? They will say so of their hands, and of all their bodies, They are ours, who shall forbid us, to do what we will with them? And what lack these open sinners of the last judgement, and the condemnation thereof? That judgement is, that men shall stand naked in the sight of one another, and all their sins shall be made manifest to all, and this open sinner, does so, and chuses to do so, even in this world. When David prays so devoutly, to be cleansed from his secret sins; and Saint Paul glories so devoutly, in having renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, how great a burden is there, in these open and avowed sins; sins that have put on so brasen a face, as to out-face the Minister, and out-face the Magistrate, and call the very Power, and Justice of God in question, whether he do hate or can punish a sin? for, they do what they can to remove that opinion out of mens hearts. Truly, as an Hypocrite at Church, may do more good, then a devout man in his Chamber at home, be cause the Hypocrites outward piety, though counterfeit, imprints a good example upon them, who do not know it to be counterfeit, and we cannot know, that he that is absent from Church now, is now at his prayers in his Chamber: so a lesser sin done with an open avowment, and confidence, may more prejudice the Kingdom of God, then greater in secret. And this is that which may be principally intended, or, atleast, usefully raised our of this phrase of the Holy Ghost in David, A facie peccati, that the habitual sinner comes to sin, not only with a negligence, who know it, but with a glorious desire, that all the world might know it; and with a shame, that any such Judge as feared not God nor regarded man, should be more fearless of God, or regardless of man, then he.

But now, beloved, when we have laid man thus low, Miserable, because Man, and then Diseased, and that all over, without any soundness, even in his whole substance, in his flesh, and in the height of this disease, Restless too, and Restless even in his bones, diffident in his strongest assurances; And when we have laid him lower then that, made him see the Cause of all this misery to be the Anger of God, the inevitable anger of an incensed God, and such an anger of God as hath a face, a manifestation, a reality, and not that God was angry with him in a Decree, before he showed man his face in the Law, and saw Mans face in the transgression of the law; And laid him lower then that too, made him see the cause of this anger, as it is sin, so to be his sin, sin made his by an habitual love thereof, which, though it may be but one, yet is become an out-facing sin, a sin in Contempt and confidence, when we have laid Man, laid you, thus low, in your own eyes, we return to the Canon and rule of that Physician whom they call Evangelist a medicinae, the Evangelist of Physic, Sit intentio prima in omni medicina comfortare, whether the physician purge, or lance, or sear, his principal care, and his end, is to comfort and strengthen: so though we have insisted upon Humane misery, and the cause of that, the anger of God, and the cause of that anger, sin in that excess, yet we shall dismiss you with that Consolation, which was first in our intention, and shall be our conclusion, that as this Text hath a personal aspect upon David alone, and therefore we gave you hit case, and then a general retrospect upon Adam, and all in him, and therefore we gave you your own case, so it hath also an Evangelical prospect upon Christ, and therefore, for your comfort, and as a bundle of Myrrhe in your bosoms, we shall give you his case too, to whom these words belong, as well as to Adam, or David, or you; There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin.

If you will see the miseries of Man, in their exaltation, and in their accumulation too, in their weight, and in their number, take them in the Ecce home, when Christ was presented from Pilate, scourged and scorned, Ecce home, behold man, in that man, in the Prophets; They have reproched the feetsteps of thine Anointed, says David, slandred his actions, and conversation; He hath no form, nor comliness, nor beauty, that we should desire to see him, says Isaiah; Despised, rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs. And Ecce homo, behold man, in that man, in the whole history of the Gospel. That which is said of us, of sinful men, is true in him, the salvation of men, from the sole of the foot, even unto the Head, there is no soundness, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. That question will never receive answer, which Christ asks, Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Never was, never will there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow, because there can never be such a person, to suffer sorrow. Affliction was upon him, and upon all him; for, His soul was heavy unto death; Even upon his Bones; fire was sent into his bones, and it prevailed against him. And the highest cause of this affliction was upon him, the anger of God; The Lord had afflicted him, in the day of his fierce anger. The height of Gods anger, is Dereliction; and he was brought to his Vt quid dereliquisti, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? We did esteem him striken of the Lord, says Isaiah; And we were not deceived in it; Percutiam pastorem, says Christ himself of himself, out of the Prophet, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered; And then, the cause of this anger, sin, was so upon him, as that, though in one consideration, the rain was upon all the world, and only this fleece of Gideon dry, all the world surrounded with sin, and only He innocent, yet in another line we find all the world dry, and only Gedeons fleece wet, all the world innocent, and only Christ guilty. But, as there is a Verè tulit, and a Verè portavit, surely he bore those griefs, and surely he carried those sorrows, so they were Verè nostri, surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows, he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquitles; The Chastisement of our peace was upon him;therefore it must necessarily follow, (as it does follow there) with his stripes we; for, God will not exact a debt twice; of Christ for me, and of me too.And, Quare moriemini Domus Israel? since I have made ye of the household of Israel, why will ye die? since ye are recovered of your former sicknesses, why will die of a new disease, of a suspicion, or jealousy, that this recovery, this redemption in Christ Jesus belongs not to you? Will ye say, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands, Dei viventis, of the living God? 'Tis so; a fearful thing; But if Deus mortuus, the God of life be but dead for me, be fallen into my hands, applied to me, made mine, it is no fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Non sat is est medicum fecisse suum officium, nisi agrotus, & adstantes sua; It is not enough for Christ Jesus to have prepared you the balm of his blood, not enough for us, to minister it to you, except every one of you help himself, in a faithful application, and help one another, in a holy and exemplar conversation. Quàm exactè, & accuratè usus dictionibus? How exact and curious was the holy Ghost, in David, in choice of words? he does not say, Non sanitas mihi, sed non in car ne; not that there is no health for me, but none in me; non in carne mea, not in my flesh, but in carne ejus, in the flesh and blood of my Savior, there is health, and salvation. In ossibus ejus, in his bones, in the strength of his merits, there is rest, and peace, à facie peccati, what face soever my sin have had, in my former presumptions, or what face soever they put on now, in my declination to desperation. The Lord waiteth that he may have mercy upon you; He stays your leisure; and therefore will he be exalted, (says that Prophet there) that he may have mercy upon you; He hath chosen that for his way of honor, of exaltation, that he may have mercy upon you. And then, Quare moriemini? If God be so respective towards you, as to wait for you, if God be so ambitious of you, as to affect a kingdom in you, why will ye die? since he will not let ye die of Covetousness, of adultery, of ambition, of profaneness in your selves, why will yee die of jealousy, of suspicion in him? It was a merciful voice of David; Is there yet any man left of the house of Saul, that I may show mercy for Jonathans sake? It is the voice of God to you all, Is there yet any man of the house of Adam, that I may show mercy for Christ Jesus sake? that takes Christ Jesus in his arms, and interposes him, between his sins, and mine indignation, and non morietur, that man shall not die. We have done; Est ars sanandorum morborum medicina, non rhetorica; Our physic is not eloquence, not directed upon your affections, but upon your consciences; To thus we present this for physic, The whole need not a Physician, but the sick do. If you mistake your selves to be well, or think you have physic enough at home, knowledge enough, divinity enough, to save you without us, you need no Physician; that is, a Physician can do you no good; but then is this Gods physic, and Gods Physician welcome unto you, if you be come to a remorseful sense, and to an humble, and penitent acknowledgement, that you are sick, and that there is no soundness in your flesh, because of his anger, nor any rest in your bones, because of your sins, till you turn upon him, in whom this anger is appeased, and in whom these sins are forgiven, the Son of his love, the Son of his right hand, at his right hand Christ Jesus. And to this glorious Son of God, &c.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXI.

PSALM 38. 4. For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

DAvid having in the former verses of this Psalm assigned a reason, why he was bound to pray, because he was in misery, (O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, for thine arrows stick fast in me) And a reason why he should be in misery, because God was angry, (Thy hand presseth v. 2. And, there is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger. And a reason, why God should be angry, because he had finned, (There is no, my bones, because of my sin, in the same verse) He proceeds to a reason, why this prayer of his must be vehement, why these miseries of his are so violent, and why Gods anger is permanent, and he finds all this to be, because in his sins, all these venomous qualities, vehemence, violence, and continuance, were complicated, and enwrapped; for, he had sinned vehemently, in the rage of lust, and violently, in the effusion of blood, and permanently in a long, and senseless security. They are all contracted in this Text, into two kinds, which will be our two parts, in handling these words; first, the supergressa super, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, there's the multiplicity, the number, the succession, and so the continuation of his sin: and then, the Gravatae super, My sins are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me, there's the greatness, the weight, the insupportableness of his sin. S. Augustine calls these two distinctions, or considerations of sin, Ignorantiam, & Difficultatem; first, that David was ignorant, that he saw not the Tide, as it swelled up upon him, Abyssus Abyssum, Depth called upon Depth; and, all thy waters, and all thy billows are gone ever me, (says he in another place) he perceived them not coming till they were over him, he discerned not his particular sins, then when he committed them, till they came to the supergressae super, to that height, that he was overflowed, surrounded, his iniquities were gone over his head, and in that S. Aug. notes Ignorantiam, his in-observance, his inconsideration of his own case; and then he notes Difficultatem, the hardness of recovering, because he that is under water, hath no aire to see by, no aire to hear by, he hath nothing to reach to, he touches not ground, to push him up, he feels no bough to pull him up, and therein that Father notes Difficultatem, the hardness of recovering. Now Moses expresses these two miseries together, in the destruction of the Egyptians, in his song, after Israels deliverance, and the Egyptians submersion, The Depths have covered them, (there's the supergressa super, their iniquities, in that punishment of their iniquities, were gone over their heads) And then, They sank into the bottom as a stone (says Moses) there's the gravata super, they depressed them, suppressed them, oppressed them, they were under them, and there they must lie.

The Egyptians had, David had, we have too many sins, to swim above water, and too great sins to get above water again, when we are sunk; The number of sins then, and the greatness of sin, will be our two parts; the dangers are equal, to multiply many lesser sins, or to commit a few, more heinous: except the danger be greater, (as indeed it may justly seem to be) in the multiplication, and custom, and habit of lesser sins; but how great is the danger then, how desperate is our state, when our sins are great in themselves, and multiplied too?

In his many sins, we shall touch thus many circumstances: First, they were peccata, sins, iniquities; and then peccata sua, his sins, his iniquities, which intimates actual sins; for though God inflict miseries for original sin, (death, and that, that induces it, sickness, and the like) yet those are miseries common to all, because the sin is so too; But these, are his punishments, personal calamities, and the sins are his own sins; And then, (which is a third circumstance) they are sins in the plural, God is not thus angry for one sin; And again, they are such sins, as have been long in going, and are now got over, supergressae sunt, they are gone, gone over; And then lastly, for that first part, supergressae Caput, they are gone my head. In which exaltation, is intimated all this; first, sicut tectum, sicut fornix, they are over his head, as a roof, as a cieling, as an Arch, they have made a wall of separation, betwixt God and us, so they are above our head; And then sicut clamor, they are ascended as a noise, they are got up to heaven, and cry to God for vengeance, so they are above our head; And again sicut aquae, they are risen and swollen as waters, they compass us, they smother us, they blind us, they stupefy us, so they are above our head; But lastly and principally, sicut Dominus, they are got above us, as a Tyran, and an usurper, for so they are above our head too: And in these we shall determine our first part. When from thence we come to our second part, in which, (as in this we shall have done their number) we shall consider their greatness, we find them first heavy sin is no light matter; And then, they are too heavy, a little weight would but ballast us, this sinks us; Too heavy for me, even for a man equal to David; and where is he? when is that man? for, says our text, they are as heavy, Burden; And the nature, and incovenience of a Burden is, first to Crooken, and bend us downward from our natural posture, which is erect, for this incurvation implies a declination in the inordinate love of the Creature, Incurvat. And then the nature of a burden is, to Tyre us; our very sin becomes fulsome, and wearisome to us, fatigat; and it hath this inconvenience too, ut retardet, it slackens our pace, in our right course though we be not tried, yet we cannot go so fast, as we should in any way towards godliness; and lastly, this is the inconvenience of a burden too, ut praecipitet, it makes us still apt and ready to stumble, and to fall under it: It crookens us, it deprives us of our rectitude; it tires us, extinguishes our alacrity; It slackens us, enfeebles and intepidates our zeal; It occasions our stumbling, opens and submits us, to every emergent temptation. And these be the dangers, and the mischievous inconveniences, notified to us, in those two Elegancies of the holy Ghost, the supergressae, the multiplicity of sins, They are gone over my head, and the gravatae, They are a heavy burden, too heavy for me.

First then, all these things are literally spoken of David; By application, of us; and by figure, of Christ. Historically, David; morally, we; Typically, Christ is the subject of this text. In Davids person, we shall insist no longer upon them, but only to look upon the two general parts, the multiplicity of his sin, and the weight and greatness thereof: And that only in the matter of Vriah, as the Holy Ghost, (without reproching the adultery or the murder, after Davids repentance) vouchsafes to mollify his manifold, and his heinous sin. First, he did wrong to a loyal and a faithful servant; and who can hope to be well served, that does so? He corrupted that woman, who for ought appearing to the contrary, had otherwise preserved her honor, and her Conscience entire; It is a sin, To run with a theife when thou seest him, or to have thy portion with them that are adulterers already; to accompany them in their sin, who have an inclination to that sin before, is a sin; but to solicit them, who have no such inclination, nor, but for thy solicitation, would have had, is much more inexcusable. In Davids sin, there was thus much more, he defrauded some, to whom his love was due, in dividing himself with a strange woman. To steal from another man, though it be to give to the poor, and to such poor, as would otherwise sterve, if that had not been stollen, is injustice, is a sin. To divide that heart, which is entirely given to a wife, in marriage, with another woman, is a sin, though she, to whom it is so given, pretend, or might truly suffer much torment and anguish if it were not done. Davids sin flew up to a higher sphere; He drew the enemy to blaspheme the name of God, in the victory over Israel, where Vriah was slain: God hates nothing more in great persons, then that prevarication, to pretend to assist his cause, and promove his Religion, and yet underhand give the enemies of that Religion, way to grow greater. His sins, indeed, were too many to be numbered; too great too, to be weighed in comparison with others. Vriah was innocent towards him, and faithful in his employment, and, at that time, in an actual, and in a dangerous service, for his person, for the State, for the Church. Him David betrays in his letter to Job; Him David makes the instrument of his own death, by carrying those letters, the warrants of his own execution; And he makes Job, a man of honor, his instrument for a murder to cover an adultery. Thus many sins, and these heavy degrees of sin, were in this one; and how many, and how weighty, were in that, of numbering of his people, we know not. We know, that Satan provoked him to do it; and we know, that Job, who seconded and accomplished his desire in the murder of Vriah, did yet dissuade, and dis-counsel this numbering of the people, and not out of reason of State, but as an express sin. Put all together, and less then all, we are sure David belied not himself, His iniquities were gone over his head, and as a heavy burden, they were too heavy for him; Though this will be a good rule, for the most part, in all Davids confessions and lamentations, that though that be always literally true of himself, for the sin, or for the punishment, which he says, personally David did suffer, that which he complains of in the Psalms, in a great measure, yet David speaks prophetically, as well as personally, and to us, who exceed him in his sins, the exaltation of those miseries, which we find so often in this book, are especially intended; That which David relates to have been his own case, he foresees will be ours too, in a higher degree. And that's our second, and our principal object of all those circumstances, in the multiplicity, and in the heinousness of sin; And therefore, to that second part, these considerations in our selves, we make thus much hast.

First then, they were peccata, sins, iniquities. And we must not think to ease our selves in that subtilty of the School, Peccatum nihil; That sin is nothing, because sin

We are not all Davids, amabiles, lovely and beloved in that measure that David was, men according to Gods heart: But we are all Adams, terrestres, and lutosi, earth, and durty earth, red, and bloody earth, and therefore in our selves, as derived from him, let us find, and lament all these numbers, and all these weights of sin. Here we are all born to a patrimony, to an inheritance; an inheritance, a patrimony of sin; and we are all good husbands, and thrive too fast upon that stock, upon the increase of sin, even to the treasuring up of sin, and the wrath of God for sin. How naked soever we came out of our mothers womb, otherwise, thus we came all apparelled, apparelled and invested in sin; And we multiply this wardrobe, with new habits, habits of customary sins, every day. Every man hath an answer to that question of the Apostle, What hast thou, that thou hast not received from God? Every man must say, I have pride in my heart, wantonness in mine eyes, oppression in my hands; and that I never received from God. Our sins are our own; and we have a covetousness of more; a way, to make other mens sins ours too, by drawing them to a fellowship in our sins. I must be beholden to the loyalty and honesty of my wife, whether my children be mine own, or no; for, he whose eye waiteth for the evening, the adulterer, may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to the protection of the Law, whether my goods shall be mine, or no; A potent adversary, a corrupt Judge may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to my Physician, whether my health, and strength shall be mine, or no; A garment negligently left off, a disorderly meal may rob me of that propriety. But without asking any man leave, my sins will be mine own. When the presumptuous men say, Our lips are our own, and our tongues are our own, the Lord threatens to cut off those lips, and those tongues. But except we do come to say, Our sins are our own, God will never cut up that root in us, God will never blot out the memory in himself, of those sins. Nothing can make them none of ours, but the avowing of them, the confessing of them to be ours. Only in this way, I am a holy lier, and in this the God of truth will reward my lie; for, if I say my sins are mine own, they are none of mine, but, by that confessing and appropriating of those sins to my self, they are made the sins of him, who hath suffered enough for all, my blessed Lord, and Savior Christ Iesus. Therefore that servant of God, S. August. confesses those sins, which he never did, to be his sins, and to have been forgiven him: Peccata mihi dimissa a fateor & quae med sponte feci, & quae te duce non feci; Those sins which I have done, and those, which, but for thy grace, I should have done, are all, my sins. Alas, I may die here, and die under an everlasting condemnation of fornication with that woman, that lives, and dies a Virgin, and be damned for a murderer of that man, that out-lives me, and for a robbery, and oppression, where no man is damnified, nor any penny lost. The sin that I have done, the sin that I would have done, is my sin. We must not therefore transfer our sins upon any other. We must not think to discharge our selves upon a Peccata Patris; To come to say, My father thrived well in this course, why should not I proceed in it? My father was of this Religion, why should not I continue in it? How often is it said in the Scriptures, of evil Kings, he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in via Patris, in the way of his father? father in the singular; It is never said plurally, In via Patrum; in the way of his fathers. Gods blessings in this world, are expressed so, in the plural, thou gavest this land patribus, to their fathers, says Solomon, in the dedication of the Temple; And, thou brought'st Patres, our Fathers out of Egypt; And again, Be with us, Lord, as thou wast with our Fathers; So; in Ezekiel, where your Fathers dwelt, you, their children, shall dwell too, and your children, and their children's children for ever. His blessings upon his Saints, his holy ones in this world, are expressed so, plurally, and so is the transmigration of his Saints out of this world also; Thou shalt sleep cum patribus, with thy fathers, says God to Moses; And David slept cum patribus, with his fathers; And Jacob had that care of himself, as of that in which consisted, or in which, was testified the blessing of God, I will lie cum patribus, with my fathers, and be buried in their burying place, says Jacob to his son Joseph Good ways, and good ends are in the plural, and have many examples; else they are not good, but sins are in the singular, He walked in the way of his father, is in an ill way: But carry our manners, or carry our Religion high enough, and we shall find a good rule in our fathers: Stand in the way, says God in Jeremiah, and ask for the old way, which is the good way. We must put off veterem hominem, but not antiquum; We may put off that Religion, which we think old, because it is a little elder then our selves, and not rely upon that, it was the Religion of my Father. But Antiquissimum dierum, Him, whose name is, He that is, and was, and is for ever, and so involves, and enwraps in himself all the Fathers, him we must put on. Be that our issue with our adversaries at Rome, By the Fathers, the Fathers in the plural, when those fathers unanimously deliver any thing dogmatically, for matter of faith, we are content to be tried by the Fathers, the Fathers in that plural. But by that Father, who begers his children, not upon the true mother, the Church, but upon the Court, and so produces articles of faith, according as State businesses, and civil occasions invite him, by that father we must refuse to be tried: for, to limit it in particular, to my father, we must say with Nehemiah, Eg & domus patris mei, If I make my fathers house my Church, my father my Bishop, I, and my fathers house have sinned, says he; and with Mordecai to Esther, Thou, and thy fathers house shall be destroyed.

They are not mala patris, I cannot excuse my sins, upon the example of my father: nor are they Temporis, I cannot discharge my sins upon the Times, and upon the present ill disposition that reigns in men now, and do ill, because every body else does so. To say, there is a rot, and therefore the sheep must perish, Corruptions in Religion are crept in, and work in every cornet, and therefore Gods sheep, simple souls, must be content to admit the infection of this rot. That there is a murrain, and therefore cattle must die, superstition practised in many places and therefore the strong servants of God, must come to sacrifice their obedience to it, or their blood for it. Then no such rot, no such murrain, no such corruption of times, as can lay a necessity, or can afford in excuse so them who are corrupted with the times. As it is not pax temporis, such a State-peace, us takes away honor, that secures a Nation, nor such a Church-peace, as takes away zeal, that secures a conscience, so neither is it peccatum temporis, an observation what other men incline to, but what truth, what integrity thou declin'st from, that appertains to thy consideration.

It is not peccatum patris; not the sin of thy father, not the sin of the times, not the sin of thine own years. That thou shouldest say in thy old age, in excuse of thy Covetousness, All these things have I observed from my youth, I have lived temperately, continently all my life, and therefore may be allowed one sin for mine case in mine age. Or, that thou shouldest say in thy youth, I will retire my self in mine age, and live contentedly with a little then, but now, how vain were it to go about to keep out a tide, or to quench the heats, and imperuous violence of youth? But fuge iuvenilis desideria, also youthful lusts; And left God hear not thee at last, when thou comost with that petition, Remember not the sins of my youth, Remember thou thy Creator, now in the days of thy youth: for, if thou think it enough to say, I have but lived as other men have lived, wantonly, thou wilt find some examples to die by too, and die, as other old men, old in years, and old in sins, have died too, negligently, or fearfully; without any sense at all, or all their sense turned into fearful apprehensions, and desperation.

They are not peccata et atis, such sins, as men of that age must needs commit, nor peccata artis, such sins as men of thy calling, or thy profession, cannot avoid; that thou should'st say, I shall not be believed to understand my profession, as well as other men, if I live not by it, as well as other men do. Is there no being a Carpenter, but that after he hath warmed him by the chips, and baked, and roasted by it, he must needs make an idol of his wood, & worship it? Is there no being a Silver-smith, but he must needs make shrines for Diana of the Ephesians, as Demetrius did? No being a Lawyer, without serving the passion of the Client? no being a Divine, without sowing pillows under great mens elbows? It is not the sin of thy Calling that oppresses thee; As a man may commit a massacre, in a single murder and kill many in one man, if he kill one, upon whom many depended, so is that man a general libeller, that defames a lawful Calling, by his abusing thereof; that lives so scandalously in the Ministry, as to defame the Ministry it self, or so imperiously in the Magistracy, as to defame the Magistracy it self, as though it were but an engine, and instrument of oppression, or so unjustly in any Calling, as his abuse dishonors the Calling it self. God hath institured Calling, for the conservation of order in general, not for the justification of disorders in any particular. For he that justifies his faults by his calling, hath not yet received that calling from above, whereby he must be justified, and sanctified in the way, and glorified in the end. There is no lawful calling, in which, a man may not be an honest man.

It is not peccatum Magistratus, thou canst not excuse thy self upon the unjust command of thy superior; that's the blind and implicite obedience practised in the Church of Rome; Nor peccatum Pastoris, the ill example of thy Pastor, whose life counter-preaches his doctrine, for, that shall aggravate his, but not excuse thy sin; Nor Peccata Coeli, the influence of Stars, concluding a fatality, amongst the Gentiles, or such a working of a necessary, and inevitable, and unconditioned Decree of God, as may shut up the ways of a Religious walking in this life, or a happy resting in the life to come; It is none of these, not the sin of thy Father, not the sin of the present times, not the sin of thy years, and age, nor of thy calling, nor of the Magistrate, nor of thy Pastor, nor of Destiny, nor of decrees, but it is peccatum tuum, thy sin, thy own sin. And not only thy sin so, as Adams sin is communicated to thee, by propagation of Original sin; for, so thou mightest have some color to discharge thy self upon him, as he did upon Eve, and Eve upon the Serpent; Though in truth it make no difference, in this spiritual debt, of that sin, who is first in the bond: Adam may stand first, but yet thou art no surety but a Principal, and for thy self; and he, and thou are equally subject to the penalty. For though Saint Augustine confess, that there are many things concerning Original sin, of which he is utterly ignorant, yet of this he would have no man ignorant, that to the guiltiness of original sin, our own wills concur as well as to any actual sin: An involuntary act, cannot be a sinful act; and though our will work not now, in the admitting of original sin, which enters with our soul in our conception, or in our inanimation and quickening, yet, at first, Sicut ominium natura, ita omnium voluntates erant in Adam, as every man was in Adam, so every faculty of every man, and consequently the will of every man concurred to that sin, which therefore lies upon every man now: So that that debt, Original sin, is as much thine as his; And for the other debts, which grow out of this debt, (as nothing is so generative, so multiplying, as debts are, especially spiritual debts, sins) for actual sins, they are thine, out of thine own choice; Thou mightest have left them undone, and wouldst needs do them; for God never induces any man into a perplexity, that is, into a necessity of doing any particular sin. Thou couldest have dissuaded a Son, or a friend, or a servant, from that sin, which thou hast embraced thy self: Thou hast been so far from having been forced to those sins, which thou hast done, as that thou hast been sorry, thou couldest not do them, in a greater measure. They are thine, thine own, so, as that thou canst not discharge thy self upon the Devil; but art, by the habit of sin, become Spontaneus Damon, a Devil to thy self, and wouldst minister temptations to thy self, though there were no other Devil. And this is our propriety in sin; They are our own.

This is the propriety of thy sin; The next is the Plurality, the multiplicity, iniquitates; Not only the committing of one sin often; and yet, he deceives himself in his account dangerously, that reckons but upon one sin, because he is guilty but of one kind of sin. Would a man say he had but one wound, if he were shot seven times in the same place? Could the Jews deny, that they fled Christ, with their second or third or twentieth blow, because they had torn skin, and flesh, with their former scourges, and had left nothing but bones to wound? But it is not only that, the repeating of the same sin often, but it is the multiplicity of divers kinds of sins, that is here lamented in all our behalfes. It is not when the conscience is tender, and afraid of every sin, and every appearance of sin. When Naaman desired pardon of God by the Prophet, for sustaining the King upon his knees, in the house of Rimmon, the Idol, and the Prophet bad him go in peace, it is not that he allows him any peace under the conscience, and guiltiness of a sin; That was indispensable. Neither is their any dispensation in Naamans case, but only a rectifying of a tender and timoruos conscience, that thought that to be a sin, which was not, if it went no further, but to the exhibiting of a Civil duty to his Master, in what place soever, Religious, or profane, that service of kneeling were to be done. Naamans service was truly no sin; but it had been a sin in him to have done it, when he thought it to be a sin. And therefore the Prophets phrase, Go in peace, may well be interpreted so, set thy mind at rest, for all that, that thou requirest, may be done without sin. Now that tenderness of conscience is not in our case in the Text. He that proceeds so, to examine all his actions, may meet scruples all the way, that may give him some anxiety and vexation, but he shall never come to that overflowing of sin, intended in this plurality, and multiplicity here. For, this plurality, this multiplicity of sin, hath found first a spunginess in the soul, an aptness to receive any liquor, to embrace any sin, that is offered to it, and after a while, a hunger and thirst in the soul, to hunt, and pant and draw after a temptation, and not to be able to endure any vacuum, any discontinuance, or intermission of sin: and he will come to think it a melancholic thing, still to stand in fear of Hell; a sordid, a yeomanly thing, still to be plowing, and weeding, and worming a conscience; mechanical thing, still to be removing logs, or filing iron, still to be busied in removing occasions of temptation, or filing and clearing particular actions: and, at last he will come to that case, which S. Augustine out of an abundant ingenuity, and tenderness, and compunction, confesses of himself, Ne vituperarer; vitiosior fiebam, I was fain to sin, left I should lose my credit, and be under-valued; Et ubi non suberat, quo admisso, aquarer perditis, when I had no means to do some sins, whereby I might be equal to my fellow, Fingebam me fecisse quod non feceram, ne viderer abjectior, quo innocentior, I would bely my self, and say I had done that, which I never did, lest I should be under-valued for not having done it. Audiebam eos exaltantes flagitia, says that tender blessed Father, I saw it was thought wit, to make Sonnets of their own sins, Et libebat facere, non libidine facti, sed libidine laudis, I sinned, not for the pleasure I had in the sin, but for the pride that I had to write feelingly of it. O what a Leviathan is sin, how vast, how immense a body! And then, what a spawner, how numerous! Between these two, the denying of sins, which we have done, and the bragging of sins, which we have not done, what a space, what a compass is there, for millions of millions of sins! And so have you the nature of sin, which was our first; The propriety of sin, which was our second; and the plurality, the multiplicity of sin, which was our third branch; And follows next, the exaltation thereof; supergressae sunt, My sins are gone over my head.

They are, that is, they are already got above us; for in that case we consider this plural, this manifold sinner, that he hath slipt his time of preventing, or resisting his sins; His habits of sins are got, already got above him. Elisha bids his man look towards the Sea, and he saw nothing; He bids him look again, and again to a seventh time, and he saw nothing. After all, he sees but a little cloud, like a mans hand; and yet, upon that little appearance, the Prophet warns the King, to get him into his Chariot, and make good hast away, lest the rain stopped his passage, for, instantly the heaven was black, with clouds, and rain. The sinner will see nothing, till he can see nothing; and, when he sees any thing, (as to the blindest conscience something will appear) he thinks it but a little cloud, but a melancholic fit, and, in an instant, (for 7 years make but an instant to that man, that thinks of himself, but once in 7 years) Supergresae sunt, his sins are got above him, and his way out is stopped. The Sun is got over us now, though we saw none of his motions, and so are our sins, though we saw not their steps. You know how confident our adversaries are in that argument, Why do ye oppugne our doctrine of prayer for the dead, or of Invocation of Saints, or of the fire of Purgatory, since you cannot assign us a time, when these doctrines came into the Church, or that they were opposed or contradicted, when they entered? When a conscience comes to that inquisition, to an iniquitates supergressae, to consider that our sins are gone over our head, in any of those ways, which we have spoken of if we offer to awaken that conscience farther, it startles, & it answers us drowsily, or frowardly, like a new waked man, Can you remember when you sinned this sin first, or did you resist it then, or since? whence comes this troublesome singularity now? pray let me sleep still, says this startled conscience. Beloved, if we fear not the wetting of our foot in sin, it will be too late, when we are over head and ears. Gods deliverance of his children, was sicco pede, he made the sea dry land, and they wet not their foot. At first, in the creation, subjecit omnia sub pedibus, God put all things under their feet; In mans ways, in this world, his Angels bear us up in their hands; why? Ne impingamus pedem, that we should not hurt our foot against a stone, but have a care of every step we make. If thou have defiled thy feet, (strayed into any unclean ways) wash them again, and stop there, and that will bring thee to the consideration of the Spouse, I have washed my feet, how shall I then defile thē again? I have found mercy for my former sins, how shall I dare to provoke God wth more? stil God appoints us a permanēt means to tread sin under our feet here, in this life; The woman, that is, the Church, hath the Moon, that is, all transitory things, (& so, all tentatiōs) under her feet; As Christ himself expressed his care of Peter, to consist in that, That if his feet were washed, all was clean; And as in his own person he admitted nails in his feet, as well as in his hands, so crucify thy hands, abstain frō unjust actions but crucify thy feet too, make not one step towards the way of Idolaters, or other sinners. If we watch not the ingressus sum, we shall be insensible of the supergressae sunt; If we look not to a sin, when it comes towards us, we shall not be able to look towards it, when it is got over us: for, if a man come to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, he will come to fit in the seat of the scornful; for, that's the sinners progress, in the first warning that David gives in the beginning of his 1t Psal. If he give himself leave to enter into sinful ways, he will sit & sin at ease, & make a jest of sin; & he that loveth danger, shall perish therein. So have you then the nature of sin; it was sin; it was sin that oppressed him; and the propriety of sin, it was his sin, actual sin; and the plurality of sin, habitual, customary sin and the victory of sin, they had been long climing, and were now got up to a height; and this height & exaltation of theirs, is expressed thus, super caput, Mine iniquities are got above my head.

S. Augustine, (who truly had either never true copy of the Bible, or else cited sometimes, as the words were in his memory, and not as they were in the Text) he reads not these words so, supergressae super caput, but thus, sustulerunt caput; And so he interprets the words, not that his sins had got over his head, and depressed his head, subdued and subjugated his head, but that they had extolled his head, made him life his head high, and say, Who is the Lord? Sursum tellitur, says he upon this place cui erigitur caput contra Deum, his head is exalted, who is set against God. And certainly, that's a desperate state in sin, when a man thinks himself the wiser, or the better, or the more powerful for his sin; That he can the better stand upon his own legs, or the less needs the assistance of God, because he hath prospered in the world, by the ways of sin. S. August is an useful mistaking, but it is a mistaking. But to pursue the right word, and the true meaning of this metaphorical expressing, supergressae caput, My sins are got above my head, sin may be got to our foot, & yet not to the eye. A man may stray into company of temptations, & yet not be tempted; A man may make a covenant with his eye, that he will not see a maid. Sin may come to the eye, & yet the hand be above water; we may look, & lust, & yet, by Gods watchful goodnes, & studious mercy, escape action. But if it be above our head, then the brain is drowned that is, our reason, and understanding, which should dispute against it, and make us ashamed of it, or afraid of it; And our memory is drowned, we have forgot that there belongs a repentance to our sins, perchance forgot that there is such a sin in us; forgot that those actions are sins, forgot that we have done those actions; and forgot that there is a law, even in our own hearts, by which we might try, whether our actions were sins, or no. If they be above our heads, they are so, in many dangerous acceptations. Of which, the first is, that they cover our heads sicut tectum, sicut fornix, as a roof, as an arch, as a separation between God and us.

Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, says the Prophet. A wall of separation between man and man, even in the service of God, there was always; a wall of Gods making; that is, the Ceremonial Law, by which God enclosed the Jews from the Gentiles. But this was but a side wall, and Christ threw it down; He is our peace, says the Apostle, and hath made of both one, and hath broken the stop of the partition wall; This he did when he opened the Gentiles a way into his religion. This wall was the distinction between the Jew, & Gentile, when the Jew called the ignominiously Incircumcisos, uncircumcised, and they called the Jews, with as much scorn, Recutitos, & Apellas; when the Jew wondered at the Gentises eating of unclean things, and the Gentiles wondered to hear them call things, of as good nourishment, as their clean meats, unclean; when the Jew placed his holiness in singularity, and ceremonies of distinction, and the Gentiles called that but a pride in them, and a scorneful detestation of their neighbours. And truly it is a lamentable thing, when ceremonial things in matter of discipline, or problematical things in matter of doctrine, come so far, as to separate us from one another, in giving ill names to one another. Zeal is directed upon God, and charity upon our brethren, but God will not be seen, but by that spectacle; not accept any thing for an act of zeal to himself, that violates charity towards our brethren, by the way. Neither should we call any man Lutheran, or Calvinist, or by any other name, ignominiously, but for such things, as had been condemned in Luther, or Calvin, and condemned by such, as are competent Judges between them, and us; that is, by the universal, or by our own Church. This wall then, between the Jew and Gentile, (as it was the ceremony it self, and not the abuse of it) God built, and Christ threw down. There are outward things, Ceremonial things, in the worship of God, that are temporary, and they did serve God that brought them in, and they do serve God also, that have driven them out of the Church, because their undeniable abuse had clogged them with an impossibility of being restored to that good use, which they were at first ordained for; of which, the brazen serpent is evidence enough. God set up a wall, which God himself meant should be demolished again. Such another wal, (as well as the Devil can imitate Gods workmanship) the Devil hath built now in the Christian Church; and hath mortered it in the brains & blood of men, in the sharp and virulent contentions arisen, and fomented in matters of Religion. But yet, says the Spouse, My well beloved stands behind the wall, shewing himself through the grates: he may be seen on both sides. For all this separation, Christ Jesus is amongst us all, and in his time, will break down this wall too, these differences amongst Christians, & make us all glad of that name, the name of Christians, without affecting in our selves, or inflicting upon others, other names of envy, and subdivision. But besides this wall of Gods making, the Ceremonial law, & this wall of the Devils making, dissention in Christian Churches, there is a wall of our own making, a roof, an arch above our heads, by which our continual sins have separated God and us. God had covered himself with a cloud, so that prayer could not pass thorough; That was the misery of Jerusalem. But in the acts and habits of sin, we cover our selves, with a roof, with an arch, which nothing can shake, nor remove, but Thunder, and Earthquakes, that is, the execution of Gods fiercest judgments; And whether in that fall of the roof, that is, in the weight of Gods judgments upon us, the stones shall not brain us, overwhelm and smother, and bury us, God only knows. How his Thunders, and his Earthquakes, when we put him to that, will work upon us, he only knows, whether to our amendment, or to our destruction. But while'st we are in the consideration of this arch, this roof of separation, between God and us, by sin, there may be use in imparting to you, an observation, a passage of mine own. Lying at Aix at Aquisgrane, a well known Town in Germany, and fixing there some time, for the benefit of those Baths, I found my self in a house, which was divided into many families, & indeed so large as it might have been a little Parish, or, at least, a great lim of a great one; But it was of no Parish: for when I asked who lay over my head, they told me a family of Anabaptists; And who over theirs? Another family of Anabaptists; and another family of Anabaptists over theirs; and the whole house, was a nest of these boxes; several artificers; all Anabaptists; I asked in what room they met, for the exercise of their Religion; I was told they never met: for, though they were all Anabaptists, yet for some collateral differences, they detested one another, and, though many of them, were near in blood & alliance to one another yet the son would excommunicate the father, in the room above him, and the Nephew the Uncle. As S. John is said to have quitted that Bath, into which Cerinthus the Heretic came, so did I this house; I remembered that Hezekiah in his sickness, turned himself in his bed, to pray towards that wall; that looked to Jerusalem; And that Daniel in Babylon, when he prayed in his chamber, opened those windows that looked towards Jerusalem; for, in the first dedication of the Temple, at Jerusalem, there is a promise annext to the prayers made towards the Temple: And I began to think, how many roofs, how many floors of separation, were made between God and my prayers in that house. And such is this multiplicity of sins, which we consider to be got over us, as a roof, as an arch, many arches, many roofs: for, though these habitual sins, be so of kin, as that they grow from one another, and yet for all this kindred excommunicate one another, (for covetousness will not be in the same room with prodigality) yet it is but going up another stair, and there's the tother Anabaptist; it is but living a few years, and then the prodigal becomes covetous. All the way, they separate us from God, as a roof, as an arch, & then, an arch will bear any weight; An habitual sin got over our head as an arch will stand under any sickness, any dishonor, any judgement of God, and never sink towards any humiliation.

They are above our heads, sicus tectum, as a roof, as an arch, and they are so to sicut clamor, as a voice ascending, & not stopping, till they come to God. O my God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up mine eyes to there, O my God; why not thine eyes? there is a cloud, a clamor in the way; for as it follows, Our iniquities are increased over our heads, and our trespass is grown up to the heaven. I think to retain a learned man of my counsel, and one that is sute to be heard in the Court, and when I come to instruct him, I find mine adversaries name in his book before, and he is all ready for the other party. I think to find an Advocate in heaven, when I will, and my sin is in heaven before me. The voice of Abels blood, and so, of Cains sin, was there: The voice of Sodomes transgression was there. Bring down that sin again from heaven to earth: Bring that voice that cries in heaven, to speak to Christ here in his Church, upon earth, by way of confession; bring that clamorous sin to his blood, to be washed in the Sacrament; for, as long as thy sin cries in heaven, thy prayers cannot be heard there. Bring thy sin under Christs feet there, when he walks amongst the Candlesticks, in the light, and power of his Ordinances in the Church, and then, thine absolution will be upon thy head, in those seals which he hath instituted, and ordained there, and thy cry will be silenced. Till then, supergresse, caput, thine iniquities will be over thy head, as a roof, as a cry, and, in the next place, sicut aqua, as the overflowing of waters.

We consider this plurality, this multiplicity of habitual sins, to be got over our heads, as waters, especially in this, that they have stupefied us, and taken from us all sense of reparation of our sinful condition. The Organ that God hath given the natural man, is the eye; he sees God in the creature. The Organ that God hath given the Christian, is the ear; he hears God in his Word. But when we are under water, both senses, both Organs are vitiated, and depraved, if not defeated. The habitual, and manifold sinner, sees nothing aright; He sees a judgement, and calls it an accident. He hears nothing aright; He hears the Ordinance of Preaching for salvation in the next world, and he calls it an invention of the State, for subjection in this world. And as under water, every thing seems distorted and crooked, to man, so does man himself to God, who sees not his own Image in that man, in that form as he made it. When man hath drunk iniquity like water, then, The floods of wickadness shall make him afraid; The water that he hath swum in, the sin that he hath delighted in, shall appear with horror unto him. As God threatens the pride of Tyrus, I shall bring the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee, That, God will execute upon this sinner; And then, upon every drop of that water, upon every affliction, every tribulation, he shall come to that fearfulness, Waters flowed over my head; then said I, I am cast off; Either he shall see nothing, or see no remedy, no deliverance from desperation. Keep low these waters, as waters signify sin, and God shall keep them low, as they signify punishments; And his Dove shall return to the Ark with an Olive leaf, to show thee that the waters are abated; he shall give thee a testimony of the return of his love, in his Oil, and Wine, and Milk, and Honey, in the temporal abundances of this life. And, si impleat Hydrias aqua, if he do fill all your vessels with water, with water of bitterness, that is, fill and exercise all your patience, and all your faculties with his corrections, yet he shall do that, but to change your water into wine, as he did there, he shall make his very Judgements, Sacraments, conveyances and seals of his mercy to you, though those manifold sins be got over your heads, as a roof, as a noise, as an overflowing of waters: And, that, which is the heaviest of all, and our last consideration, sicut Dominus, as a Lord, as a Tyran, as an Usurper.

Pretio empti estis, nolite fieri servi, says the Apostle, you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God. There he shews you, your own value, and then, Ne dominetur peccatum, Let not sin have dominion over you; there he shews you the insolency of that Tyran. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, says Christ to the Jews. Well; They stood not much upon the truth, but for the freedom, We were Abrahams seed, and were never bound to any; but Christ replies, Whosoever committesh sin, is the servant of sin; And, of whomsoever a man is overcome, to the same he is in bondage. Now we are slaves to sin, not only as we have been overcome by sin for he that is said to be overcome by sin, is presumed to have made some resistance) but as we have sold our selves to sin, which is a worse, and a more voluntary act. There was none like him, like Ahab; (says the holy Ghost) wherein was his singularity above all? He had sold himself, to work wickedness, in the fight of the Lord. Now, how are we sold to sin? By Adam? That's true; Ejus praevaricatione, & ut it a dicam, Negotiatione, demnoso, & frandulento commercio venditi sumus: We were all sold under hand, fraudulently sold, and sold under foot, cheaply sold by Adam. But thus, we might seem to be sold by others; so Joseph was, and no fault in himself; But we have sold our selves since. Did not Adam sell himself too? Did God sell him by any secret Decree, or contract, between the Devil and him? Was God of counsel in that bargain? God forbid. Thus faith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mothers divorce, whom I have put away? or, which of my creditours is it, to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have sold your selves; and for your transgressions, is your mother put away. In Adam we were sold in grosse; in our selves we are sold by retail, In the first, and general sale, we all passed, even the best of us. We know the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin, says the Apostle, even of himself. But when does the Apostle say this? in what state was he, when he accuses himself of this mancipation, and sale under sin? Says he this only with relation to his former times, when he was a Jew, and under the Law? Or, but then when he was newly come to the light of the Gospel, and not to a clear sight of it? It is true, that most of the Eastern Fathers, and it is true, that S. Augustine himself was of that opinion, that S. Paul said of himself, that he was sold under sin, respecting himself before his regeneration. Non qui vult esse sapiens, statim fit sapiens, says Origen; A man is not presently learned, because he hath a good desire to be learned; nor hath he that hath begun a conversion, presently accomplished his regeneration; nor is he discharged of his bargain of being sold under sin, as soon as he sees that he hath made an ill bargain. But when he grows up in grace, (say they) as S. Paul had done, when he said this, then he is discharged. But, as S. Augustine ingenuously retracts that opinion, which, (as he says) he had held, when he was a young Priest at Carthage, so is there nothing clearer, by the whole purpose of the Apostle in that place, then that he in his best state, was still sold under sin. As David speaks of himself being then regenerated, In thy sight shall no man living be justified. So S. Paul speaks of himself in his best state, still he was sold under sin, because still, that concupiscence, under which he was sold in Adam, remains in him. And that concupiscence is sin, Quia inest ei inobedientia contra dominum mentis. Because it is a rebellion against that sovereignty which God hath instituted in the soul of man, and an ambition of setting up another Prince; so it is peccatum, sin in it self; And it is poena peccati, says that Father, Quia reddita est meritis inobedientis; Because it is laid upon us for that disobedience, it hath also the nature of a punishment of sin, as well as so sin it self; And then it is Causa peccati too, Defectione consentientis, because man is so enfeebled by this inherence, and invisceration of Original sin, as that thereby he is exposed to every emergent temptation, to any actual sin. So, Original sin, is called by many of the Ancients, the cause of sin, and the effect of sin, but not so, exclusively, as that it is not sin, really sin in it self too. Now, as Original sin causes Actual, in that consideration (as we sell our selves over again in our acts of recognition, in ratifying our first sale, by our manifold sins here) so is sin gone over our heads, by this dominion, as a Tyran, as an usurper. Hoc lex posuit, Non concupisces; This is the Law, Thou shalt not covet: Non quod sic valcamus, sed ad quod persiciendo tendamus; Not that we can perform that Law, but that that Law might be a rule to direct our endeavors: Multum boni facit, qui facit quod scriptum est, Post concupiscentias tuas non es; He does well, and well in a fair measure, that fulfils that Commandment, Thou shalt not walk in the concupiscences of thine own heart; sed non perficit, quia non implet quod scriptum est, Non concupisces, But yet, says he, he does not all that is commanded, because he is commanded not to covet at all: Vt sciat, quò debeat in hac mortalitate conari, That that commandment might teach him, what he should labor for in this life, Et quò possit in illa immortalitate pervenire, to what perfection we shall come in the life to come, but not till then. Though therefore we did our best, yet we were sold under sin, that is, sold by Adam; but because we do not, but consent to that first sale, in our sinful acts, and habits, we have sold our selves too, and so sin is gone over our heads; in a dominion, and in a tyrannical exercise of that dominion. If we would go about to express, by what customs of sin this dominion is established, we should be put to a necessity of entering into every profession, and every conscience. And the moral man says usefully, Si tantum irasci vis sapientem, quantum exigit indignitas scelerum, (we will translate it in the Church tongue, and make his morality divinity) If we would have a zealous Preacher, cry out as fast, or as loud, as sins are committed, non irascendum, sed in santiendum, says he, you would not call that man an angry man, but a mad man, you would not call that Preacher, a zealous preacher, but a Puritan. Touch we but upon one of his reprehensions, because that may have the best use now; he considers the iniquities, and injustices, admitted, and committed in Courts of justice; and he says, Turpes lites, turpiores Advocati; Ill sutes are set on foot, and worse advocates defend them. Delator est criminis qui manifestior reus, even in criminal matters, he informs against another, that should be but defendant in that crime; And (as he carries it higher) Iudex damnaturus quae fesit, eligitur, the Judge himself condemns a man for that, which himself is far more guilty of, then the prisoner. Nullus nisi ex alieno damno quaestus, and one man grows rich, by the empoverishing of many. But then it is so in all other professions too. And this Tyranny, and dominion is justly permitted by God upon us, ut qui noluit superior obedire, nec et obediat inferior caro, we have been rebellious to our Sovereign, to God, and therefore our subject, the flesh, is first rebellious against us, and then Tyrannical over us. But he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; yea, Christ hath led captivity it self captive, and given gifts to men; that is, he hath established his Church, where, by a good use of those means which God hath ordained for it, the most oppressed soul, may raise it self above those exaltations, and supergressions of sin; And so we have done with our first part, and with all that will enter into this time, where David in his humble spirit feels in himself, but much more in his prophetical spirit, foresees, and foretells in others, the infectious nature of sin; It is a mortal wound, and in a strange consideration; for, it is a wound upon God, and mortal upon man; And then the propriety of sin, that sin is not at all from God, nor it is not all from the Devil, but our sin is our own; Our sins in a Plurality; our sins of one kind, determine not in one sin, we sin the same sin often, and then we determine not in one kind, but slide into many. And after this multiplication of sin, the continuation thereof, to an irrecoverableness, supergressae sunt, we think not of them, till it be too late to think of them, till they produce no thought but despair; for supergressae Caput, they are got above our Heads, above our strongest faculties; Above us, in the nature of an arched roof, they keep Gods grace in a separation from us, and our prayers from him, so they have the nature of a roof, and then, they feel no weight, they bend not under any judgement, which he lays upon us, so they have the nature of an Arch. Above us, as a voice, as a cry; Their voice is in possession of God, and so prevents our prayers; above us as waters, they disable our eyes, and our ears, from right conceiving all apprehensions; And above us, as Lords, and Tyrans, that came in by conquest, and so put what Laws they list upon us. And these instructions have arisen from this first, the Multiplicity, Mine iniquities are gone over my Head, and more will from the other, the weight and burden, They are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXII.

Second Sermon on PSAL. 38. 4. For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

AS the Philosopher says, if a man could see virtue, he would love it, so if a man could see sin, he would hate it. But as the eye sees every thing but it self, so does sin, too. It sees Beauty, and Honor, and Riches, but it sees not it self, not the sinful coveting and compassing of all these. To make, though not sin, yet the sinner to see himself, for the explication, and application of these words, we brought you these two lights; first, the Multiplicity of sin, in that elegancy of the holy Ghost, supergressae sunt, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, and the weight, and oppression of sin, in that, Gravatae nimis, As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me; In the first, how numerous, how manifold they are, in the other, how grievous, how insupportable; first, how many hands, then how fast hold sin lays upon me. The first of these two, was our exercise the last day, when we proposed and proceeded in these words, in which we presented to you, the dangerous multiplicity of sin, in those pieces, which constituted that part. But because, as men, how many soever, make but a Multitude, or a Throng, and not an Army, if they be unarmed, so sin, how manifold, and multiform so ever, might seem a passable thing, if it might be easily shook off, we come now to imprint in you a sense of the weight and oppression thereof, As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me; The particular degrees whereof, we laid down the last day, in our general division of the whole Text, and shall now pursue them, according to our order proposed then.

First then, sin is heavy. Does not the sinner find it so? No marvail, nothing is heavy in his proper place, in his own Sphere, in his own Center, when it is where it would be, nothing is heavy. He that lies under water finds no burden of all that water that lies upon him; but if he were out of it, how heavy would a small quantity of that water seem to him, if he were to carry it in a vessel? An habitual sinner is the natural place, the Center of sin, and he feels no weight in it, but if the grace of God raise him out of it, that he come to walk, and walk in the ways of godliness, not only his watery Tympanies, and his dropsies, those waters which by actual and habitual sins he hath contracted, but that water, of which he is properly made, the water that is in him naturally, infused from his parents, Original sin, will be sensible to him, and oppress him. Scarce any man considers the weight of Original sin; And yet, as the strongest temptations fall upon us when we are weakest, in our death-bed, so the heavyest sin seises us, when we are weakest; as soon as we are any thing, we are sinners, and there, where there can be no more temptations ministered to us, then was to the Angels that fell in heaven, that is, in our mothers womb, when no world, nor flesh, nor Devil could present a provocation to sin to us, when no faculty of ours is able to embrace, or second a provocation to sin, yet there, in that weakness, we are under the weight of Original sin. And truly, if at this time, God would vouchsafe me my choice, whether he should pardon me all those actual and habitual sins, which I have committed in my life, or extinguish Original sin in me, I should choose to be delivered from Original sin, because, though I be delivered from the imputation thereof, by Baptism, so that I shall not fall under a condemnation for Original sin only, yet it still remains in me, and practises upon me, and occasions all the other sins, that I commit: now, for all my actual and habitual sins, I know God hath instituted means in his Church, the Word, and the Sacraments, for my reparation; But with what a holy alacrity, with what a heavenly joy, with what a cheerful peace, should I come to the participation of these means and seals of my reconciliation, and pardon of all my sins, if I knew my self to be delivered from Original sin, from that snake in my bosom, from that poison in my blood, from that leaven and tartar in all my actions, that casts me into Relapses of those sins which I have repented? And what a cloud upon the best serenity of my conscience, what an interruption, what a dis-continuance from the sincerity and integrity of that joy, which belongs to a man truly reconciled to God, in the pardon of his former sins, must it needs be still to know, and to know by lamentable experiences, that though I wash my self with Soap, and Nitre, and Snow water, mine own clothes will defile me again, though I have washed my self in the tears of Repentance, and in the blood of my Savior, though I have no guiltiness of any former sin upon me at that present, yet I have a sense of a root of sin, that is not grubbed up, of Original sin, that will cast me back again. Scarce any man considers the weight, the oppression of Original sin. No man can say, that an Akorn weighs as much as an Oak; yet in truth, there is an Oak in that Akorn: no man considers that Original sin weighs as much as Actual, or Habitual, yet in truth, all our Actual and Habitual sins are in Original. Therefore Saint Pauls vehement, and frequent prayer to God, to that purpose, could not deliver him from Original sin, and that stimulus carnis, that provocation of the flesh, that Messenger of Satan, which rises out of that, God would give him sufficient grace, it should not work to his destruction, but yet he should have it: Nay, the infinite merit of Christ Jesus himself, that works so upon all actual and habitual sins, as that after that merit is applied to them, those sins are no sins, works not so upon Original sin, but that, though I be eased in the Dominion, and Imputation thereof, yet the same Original sin is in me still; and though God do deliver me from eternal death, due to mine actual and habitual sins, yet from the temporal death, due to Original sin, he delivers not his dearest Saints.

Thus sin is heavy in the seed, in the grain, in the akorn, how much more when it is a field of Corn, a barn of grain, a forest of Oaks, in the multiplication, and complication of sin in sin? And yet we consider the weight of sin another way too, for as Christ feels all the afflictions of his children, so his children will feel all the wounds that are inflicted upon him; even the sins of other men; as Lots righteous soul was grieved with sins of others. If others sin by my example & provocation, or by my connivence and permission, when I have authority, their sin lies heavier upon me, then upon themselves; for they have but the weight of their own sin; and I have mine, and theirs upon me; and though, I cannot have two souls to suffer, and though there cannot be two everlastingnesses in the torments of hell, yet I shall have two measures of those unmeasurable torments upon my soul. But if I have no interest in the sins of other men, by any occasion ministered by me, yet I cannot choose but feel a weight, a burden of a holy anguish, and compassion and indignation, because every one of these sins inflict a new wound upon my Savior, when my Savior says to him, that does but injure me, Why persecutest thou me, and feels the blow upon himself, shall not I say to him that wounds my Savior, Why woundest thou me, and groan under the weight of my brothers sin, and my Fathers, my Makers, my Saviours wound? If a man of my blood, or allyance, do a shameful act, I am affected with it; If a man of my calling, or profession, do a scandalous act, I feel my self concerned in his fault; God hath made all mankind of one blood, and all Christians of one calling, and the sins of every man concern every man, both in that respect, that I, that is, This nature, is in that man that sins that sin; and I, that is, This nature, is in that Christ, who is wounded by that sin. The weight of sin, were it but Original sin, were it but the sins of other men, is an insupportable weight.

But if a sinner will take a true balance, and try the right weight of sin, let him go about to leave his sin, and then he shall see how close, and how heavily it stook to him. Then one sin will lay the weight of seeliness, of falsehood, of inconstancy, of dishonor, of ill nature, if you go about to leave it: and another sin will lay the weight of poverty, of disestimation upon you, if you go about to leave it. One sin will lay your pleasures upon you, another your profit, another your Honor, another your Duty to wife and children, and weigh you down with these. Go but out of the water, go but about to leave a sin, and you will find the weight of it, and the hardness to cast it off. Gravatae sunt, Mine iniquities are heavy, (that was our first) and gravatae nimis, they are too heavy, which is a second circumstance.

Some weight, some balast is necessary to make a ship go steady; we are not without advantage, in having some sin; some concupiscence, some temptation is not too heavy for us. The greatest sins that ever were committed, were committed by them, who had no former sin, to push them on to that sin: The first Angels sin, and the sin of Adam are noted to be the most desperate and the most irrecoverable sins, and they were committed, when they had no former sin in them. The Angels punishment is pardoned in no part; Adams punishment is pardoned in no man, in this world. Now such sins as those, that is, sins that are never pardoned, no man commits now; not now, when he hath the weight of former sins to push him on. Though there be a heavy guiltiness in Original sin, yet I have an argument, a plea for mercy out of that, Lord, my strength is not the strength of stones, nor my flesh brass; Lord, no man can bring a clean thing out of uncleanness; Lord, no man can say after, I have cleansed my heart, I am free from sin, I could not be born clean, I could not cleanse my self since. It magnifies Gods glory, it amplifies mans happiness, that he is subject to temptation. If man had been made impeccable, that he could not have sinned, he had not been so happy; for then, he could only have enjoyed that state, in which he was created, and not have risen to any better; because that better estate, is a reward of our willing obedience to God, in such things, as we might have disobeyed him in. Therefore when the Apostle was in danger, of growing too light, lest he should be exalted out of measure, through the abundance of revelation, (says that Scripture) he had a weight hung upon him; There was something given him, therefore it was a benefit, a gift; And it was Angelus, an Angel, that was given him; But it was not a good Angel, a Tutelar, a Gardian Angel, to present good motions unto him, but it was Angelus Satane, a messenger of Satan, sent, as he says, to buffet him; and yet this hostile Angel, this messenger of Satan was a benefit, a gift, and a fore-runner, and some kind of Inducer of that Grace, which was sufficient for him; and it would not have appeared to us, no nor to himself, that he had had so much of that grace, if he had not had this temptation. God is as powerful upon us when he delivers us from temptation, that it do not overtake us; but not so apparent, so evident, so manifest, as when he delivers us in a temptation, that it do not overcome us: some weight does but ballast us, as some enemies never do us more harm, but occasion us, to arm and to stand upon our gard. Therefore, this weight that is complained of here, is not In carne, in our natural flesh; (though in that be no goodness) it is nothing that God from the beginning hath imprinted in our nature, not that peceability, and possibility of sinning; nor it is not in stimule carnis, in these accessary temptations, and provocations which awaken, and provoke the malignity of this flesh, and put a sting into it; we do not consider this heavy weight to be the natural possibility which was in man, before Original sin entered, nor to be that natural proneness to sin, which is original sin it self. But it is, when we our selves whet that sting, when we labor to break hedges, and to steal wood, and gather up a stick out of one sin, and stick out of another, and to make a fagot to load us, in this life, and burn us in the next, in multiplying sins, and aggravating circumstances, so it is Heavy, so it is too heavy, It is too heavy for me, (for that's also another circumstance) for David himself, for any man even in Davids state.

Though this consideration might be enlarged, and usefully carried into this expostulation, can sin be too heavy for me, any burden of sin sink me into a dejection of spirit, that am wrapped up in the Covenans, born of Christian Parents, that am bred up in an Orthodox, in a Reformed Church, that can persuade my self sometimes, that I am of the number of the elect; Can any sin be too heavy for me, can I doubt of the execution of his first purpose upon me, or doubt of the efficacy of his ordinances here in the Church, what sin soever I commit, can any sins be too heavy for me? yet it is enough that in this Sea, God holds no man up by the chin so, but that if he sin in confidence of that sustentation, he shall sink. But in this personal respect in our text we consider only with what weights David weighed his sins, when he found here that they were too heavy for him. He weighed his sin with his punishment, and in his punishment he saw the anger, and indignation of God, and when we see sin through that spectacle, through an angry God, it appears great, and red, and fearful unto us; when David came to see himself in his infirmity, in his deformity, when his body could not hear the punishment here in this world, he considered how insupportable a weight the sin, and the anger of God upon that sin, would be in the world to come. For me that rise to preferment by my sin, for me that come to satisfy my carnal appetites by my sin, my sin is not too heavy; But for me that suffer penury in the bottom of a plentiful state exhausted by my sin, for me that languish under diseases and putrefaction contracted by my sin, for me upon whom the hand of God lies heavy in any affliction for my sin, for me, my sins are too heavy. Till I come to hear that voice, Come unto me all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you, till I come to consider my sin in the mercy of God, and not only in his justice, in his punishments, my sins will be too heavy for me; for, though that be a good way, to consider the justice of God, yet it is not a good end; I must stop, but not stay at it, I must consider my sin in his justice, how powerful a God I have provoked; but I must pass through his justice to his mercy; his justice is my way, but his mercy is my ledging; for we cannot tell by the construction and origination of the words, whether Cain said, My sin is greater then can be pardoned, or, my punishment is greater then can be born: But it needs not be disputed; for it is all one; He that considers only the anger of God in the punishment, will think his sin unpardonable, his sin will be see heavy for him. But as a fever is well spent, when the patient is fit to take physic, so if God give me physic, if I take his corrections as medicines, and not as punishments, then my disease is well spent, my danger is well overcome; If I have buried my sins in the wounds of my Savior, they cannot be too heavy for me, for they are not upon me at all; But if I take them out again, by relapsing into them, or imagine them to rise again, by a suspicion and jealousy in God, that he hath not forgiven them, because his hand lies still upon me, in some afflictions, so, in such a relapse, so, in such a jealous mis-interpretation of Gods proceeding with me, my sins are too heavy for me; for me, because I do not sustain my self by those helps that God puts into my hands.

It is heavy, too heavy, too heavy for me, says David; if you consider the elect themselves, their election will not bear them out in their sins. But here we consider the insupportableness, in that, wherein the holy Ghost hath presented it, Quia onus, because it lies upon me, in the nature and quality of a Burden, Mine iniquities are as a burden, too heavy for me. When all this is packed up upon me, that I am first under a Calamity, a sickness, a scorn, an imprisonment, a penury, and then upon that calamity, there is laid the anger and indignation of God, and then upon that, the weight of mine own sins; this is too much to settle me, it is enough to sink me, it is a burden, in which the danger arises from the last addition, in that, which is last laid on: for, as the sceptique Philosopher pleases himself in that argumentation, that either a penny makes a man rich, or he can never be rich, for says he, if he be not rich yet, the addition of a penny more would make him rich: or if not that penny, yet another, or another, so that at last it is the addition of a penny that makes him rich; so without any such fallacious or facetious circumvention in our case, it is the last addition, that that we look on last, that makes our burden insupportable, when upon our calamity we see the anger of God piled up, and upon that, our sin, when I come to see my sin, in that glass, in that glass, not in a Savior bleeding for me, but in a Judge frowning upon me; when my sins are so far off from me, as that they are the last thing that I see; for, if I would look upon my sins, first, with a remorseful, a tearful, a repentant eye, either I should see no anger, no calamity; or it would not seem strange to me, that God should be angry, nor strange, that I should suffer calamities, when God is angry; Therefore is sin heavy as a burden, because it is the last thing that I lay upon my self, and feel not that till a heavy load of calamity and anger be upon me before. But then, as when we come to be unloaded of a burden, that that was last laid on, is first taken off, so when we come, by any means, though by the sense of a calamity, or of the anger of God, to a sense of our sin, before the calamity it self be taken off, the sin is forgiven. When the Prophet found David in this state, the first act that the Prophet came to was the Transtulit peccatum, God hath taken away thy sin, but the calamity was not yet taken away. The child begot in sin shall surely die, though the sin be pardoned. The fruit of the tree may be preserved and kept, after the tree it self is cut down and burnt; The fruit, and off spring of our sin, calamity, may continue upon us, after God hath removed the guiltiness of the sin from us. In the course of civility, our parents go out before us, in the course of Mortality, our parents die before us; In the course of Gods mercy, it is so too; The sin that begot the calamity, is dead, and gone, the calamity, the child, and off spring of that sin, is alive and powerful upon us. But for the most part, as if I would lift an iron chain from the ground, if I take but the first link, and draw up that, the whole chain follows, so if by my repentance, I remove the uppermost weight of my load, my sin, all the rest, the declaration of the anger of God, and the calamities that I suffer, will follow my sin, and depart from me. But still our first care must be to take off the last weight, the last that comes to our sense, The sin.

You have met, I am sure, in old Apophtbegms, an answer of a Philosopher celebrated, that being asked, what was the heaviest thing in the world, answered, Senex Tyrannus, An old Tyran; For a Tyran, at first, dares not proceed so severely; but when he is established, and hath continued long, he prescribes in his injuries, and those injuries become Laws. As sin is a Tyran, so he is got over our head, in Dominy, as we showed you in the supergressaesunt, in our former part; As he is an, old Tyran, so he is the heaviest burden that can be imagined; An inveterate sin, is an inveterate sore, we may hold out with it, but hardly cure it; we may slumber it, but hardly kill it. Weigh sin in heaven; heaven could not bear it, in the Angels; They fell: In the waters; The Sea could not bear it in Jonas; He was cast in: In the earth; That could not bear it in Dathan, and Abiram; They were swallowed: And because all the inhabitants of the earth are sin it self, The earth it self shall reel to and fro, as a Drunkard, and shall be removed like a Cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and notrise again; There's the total, the final fall, proper to the wicked; they shall fall; so shall the godly; And fall every day; and fall seven times a day; but they shall rise again and stand in judgement; The wicked shall not do so; They shall rise, rise to judgement; and they shall stand, stand for judgement, stand to receive judgement; and then not fall, but be cast out, out of the presence of God, and cast down, down into an impossibility of rising, for ever, for ever, for ever. There is a lively expressing of this deadly weight, this burden in the Prophet Zechary. First, there was a certain vessel, a measure showed, and the Angel said, Hic est oculus, This is the sight, (says our first translation) This is the resemblance through all the earth, (says our second.) That is, to this measure, and to that that is figured in it, every man must look, this every man must take into his consideration; what is it? In this measure sate a woman whose name was Wickedness; At first, this woman, this wickedness, sate up in this vessel, she had not filled the measure, she was not laid securely in it, she was not prostrate, not groveling, but her nobler part, her head, was yet out of danger, she sate up in it. But before the Vision departs, she is plunged wholly into that measure; (into darkness, into blindness) and not for a time; for, then, there was a cover, (says the text) and agreat cover, and a great cover of Lead put upon that vessel; and so, a perpetual imprisonment, no hope to get out; and heavy fetters, no ease to be had within; Hard ground to tread upon, and heavy burdens to carry; first a cover, that is, an excuse; a great cover, that is, a defence, and a glory; at last, of Lead; all determines in Desperation. This is when the multiplicity and indifferency to lesser sins, and the habitual custom of some particular sin, meet in the aggravating of the burden: for then, they are heavier then the sand of the Sea, says the holy Ghost: where he expresses the greatest weight by the least thing; Nothing less then a grain of sand, nothing heavier then the sands of the Sea, nothing easier to resist then a first temptation, or a single sin in it self, nothing heavier, nor harder to divest, then sins complicated in one another, or then an old Tyran, and custom in any one sin. And therefore it was evermore a familiar phrase with the Prophets, when they were to declare the sins, or to denounce the punishments of those sins upon the people, to call it by this word, Onus visionis, Onus Babylonis, Onus Ninives, O the burden of Babylon, the burden of Niniveh. And because some of those woes, those Judgements, those burdens, did not always fall upon that people presently, they came to mock the Prophets, and say to them, New, what is the burden of she Lord, What Burden have you to preach to us, and to talk of now. Say unto them, says God to the Prophet there; This is the Burden of the Lord, I will even forsake you. And, as it is elegantly, emphatically, vehemently added, Every mans word shall be his burden; That which he says, shall be that that shall be laid to his charge; His scorning, his idle questioning of the Prophet, What burden now, what plague, what famine, what war now? Is not all well for all your crying The burden of the Lord? Every mans word shall be his burden, the deriding of Gods Ordinance, and of the denouncing of his Judgements in that Ordinance shall be their burden, that is, aggravate those Judgements upon them, Nay, there is a heavier weight then that, added; Ye shall say no more (says God to the Prophet) the burden of the Lord, that is, you shall not bestow so much care upon this people, as to tell them, that the Lord threatens them. Gods presence in anger, and in punishments, is a heavy, but Gods absence, and dereliction, a much heavier burden; As (if extremes will admit comparison) the everlasting loss of the fight of God in hell, is a greater torment, then any lakes of inextinguishable Brimstone, then any gnawing of the incessant worm, then any gnashing of teeth can present unto us.

Now, let no man ease himself upon that fallacy, sin cannot be, nor sin cannot induce such burdens as you talk of, for many men are come to wealth, and by that wealth, to honor, who, if they had admitted a tenderness in their consciences, and forborn some sins. had lost both; for, are they without burden, because they have wealth, and honor? In the Original language, the same word, that is here, a burden, Chabad, signifies honor, and wealth, as well as a burden. And therefore says the Prophet, Woe unto him that loadeth himself with thick clay. Non densantur nisi per laborem; There goes much pains to the laying of it thus thick upon us; The multiplying of riches is a laborious thing; and then it is a new pain to bleed out those riches for a new office, or a new title; Et tamen lutum, says that Father, when all is done, we are but roughcast with durt; All those Riches, all those Honours are a Burden, upon the just man, they are but a multiplying of fears, that they shall lose them; upon the securest man, they are but a multiplying of duties & obligations; for the more they havet, he more they have to answer; and upon the unjust, they are a multiplying of everlasting torments. They possess months of vanity, and wearisom nights are appointed them. Men are as weary of the day, upon Carpets and Cushions, as at the plough. And the labourers weariness, is to a good end; but for these men, They weary themselves to commit iniquity. Some do, and some do not; All do. The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them; Why? Because he knows not how to go to the City. He that directs not his labours to the right end, the glory of God, he goes not to Jerusalem, the City of holy peace, but his sinful labours shall be a burden to him; and his Riches, and his Office, and his Honor he shall not be able to put off, then when he puts off his body in his death-bed; He shall not have that happiness, which he, till then, thought a misery, To carry nothing out of this world, for his Riches, his Office, his Honor shall follow him into the next world, and clog his soul there. But we proposed this consideration of this Metaphor, That sin is a burden, (as there is an infinite sweetness, and infinite latitude in every Metaphor, in every elegancy of the Scripture, and therefore I may have leave to be loath to depart from it) in some particular inconveniences, that a burden brings, and it is time to come to them.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXIII.

The third Sermon on PSAL. 38. 4. For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy Burden, they are too heavy for me.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

AS a Torch that hath been lighted, and used before, is easier lighted then a new torch, so are the branches, and parts of this Text, the easier reduced to your memory, by having heard former distributions thereof. But as a Torch that hath been lighted & used before, will not last so long as a new one, so perchance your patience which hath already been twice exercised with the handling of these words, may be too near the bottom to afford much. And therefore much I have determined not to need. God did his greatest work upon the last day, and yet gave over work betimes. In that day he made man, and, (as the context leads us, most probably, to think) he made Paradise, and placed man in Paradise that day. For the variety of opinions amongst our Expositors, about the time when God made Paradise, arises from one error, an error in the Vulgate Edition, in the translation of the Roman Church, that reads it Plantaver at, God had planted a garden, as though God had done it before. Therefore some state it before the Creation, which Saint Jerome follows, or at least relates, without disapproving it; and others place it, upon the third day, when the whole earth received her accomplishment; but if any had looked over this place with the same ingenuity as their own great man Tyr: (an active man in the Council of Trent) hath done over the Book of Psalms, in which one Book he hath confessed 6000 places, in which their translation differs from the Original, they would have seen this difference in this place, that it is not Plantaver at, but Plantavit, not that God had before, but that he did then, then when he had made man, make a Paradise for man. And yet God made an end of all this days work betimes; in that day, He walked in the garden in the cool of the Evening. The noblest part of our work, in handling this Text falls upon the conclusion, reserved for this day; which is, the application of these words to Christ. But for that, I shall be short, and rather leave you to walk with God in the cool of the Evening, to meditate of the sufferings of Christ, when you are gone, then pretend to express them here. The Passion of Christ Jesus is rather an amazement, an astonishment, an ecstasy, a consternation, then an instruction. Therefore, though something we shall say of that anon. First, we pursue that which lies upon our selves, the Burden, in those four mischievous inconveniences wrapped up in that Metaphor.

Of them, the first was, Inclinat; That a Burden sinks a man, declines him, crookens him, makes him stoop. So does sin. It is one of Saint Augustines definitions of sin, Conversio ad creaturam, that it is a turning, a withdrawing of man to the creature. And every such turning to the creature, let it be upon his side, to her whom he loves, let it be upwards, to honor that he affects, yet it is still down-ward, in respect of him, whom he was made by, and should direct himself to. Every inordinate love of the Creature is a descent from the dignity of our Creation, and a disavowing', a disclaiming of that Charter, Subjicite & dominamini, subdue, and govern the Creature. Est quoddam bonum, quod si diligat anima rationalis, peccat. There are good things in the world, which it is a sin for man to love, Quia infra illam ordinantur, because though they be good, they are not so good as man; And man may not decline, and every thing, except God himself, is inferior to man, and so, it is a declination, a stooping in man, to apply himself to any Creature, till he meet that Creature in God; for there, it is above him; And so, as Beauty and Riches, and Honor are beams that issue from God, and glasses that represent God to us, and idea's that return us into him, in our glorifying of him, by these helps, so we may apply our selves to them; for, in this consideration, as they assist us in our way to God, they are above us, otherwise, to love them for themselves, is a declination, a stooping under a burden; And this declination, this incurvation, this descent of man, in the inordinate love of the Creature, may very justly seem to be forbidden in that Commandment, that forbids Idolatry, Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them; If we bow down to them, we do worship them; for it is in the love of all Creatures, as it is in money; Covetousness, that is, the love of money, is Idolatry, says the Apostle; and so is all other inordinate love of any, Idolatry. And then, as we have seen some grow crooked, by a long sitting, a lying in one posture, so, by an easy resting in these descents and declination of the soul, it comes to be a fashion to stoop, and it seems a comely thing to be crooked; and we become, infruniti, that is, quibus nemo frui velit, such as no body cares for our conversation, or company, except we be ill company, sociable in other sins, Et viliores quò castiores, if we affect Chastity, or any other virtue, we disaffect and distast other men; for one mans virtue chides, and reproaches a whole vicious company. But if he will needs be in fashion, Cum perverso perverti, to grow crooked with the crooked, His iniquities shall take him, and he shall be holden with the cards of his sin; that is, in that posture that he puts himself, he shall be kept; kept all his life; and then, (as it follows there) He shall die without instruction; Die in a place, where he can have no Absolution, no Sacrament, or die, in a disposition, that he shall receive no benefit by them, though he receive them. He hath packed a burden upon himself, in habitual sin, he hath chosen to stoop under this burden, in an Idolatrous love of those sins, and nothing shall be able to erect him again, not Preaching, not Sacraments, no not judgements. And this is the first inconvenience, and mischief, implied in this Metaphor which the holy Ghost hath chosen, Mine iniquities are as a burden, Inclinant, they bend down my soul, created straight, to an incurvation, to a crookedness.

A second inconvenience intimated in this Metaphor, a burden, is the fatigat, a burden wearies us, tires us: and so does our sin, and our best beloved sin. It hath wearied us, and yet we cannot divest it. We would leave that sin, and yet there is one talent more to be added, one child more to be provided for, one office, or one title more to be compassed, one temptation more to be satisfied. Though we grumble, not out of remorse of conscience, but out of a bodily weariness of the sin, yet we proceed in it. How often men go to Westminster, how often to the Exchange, called by unjust suits, or called by corrupt bargains to those places, when their case, or their health persuades them to stay at home? How many go to forbidden beds, then when they had rather stay at home, if they were not afraid of an unkind interpretation? We have wearied our selves in the ways of wickedness; Plus miles in uno torneamento, quam sanctus Monachus in decem annis, says our Holkot, upon that place, a soldier suffers more in one expedition, then a Monk does, in ten years, says he, and perchance he says true, and yet no commendation to his Monk neither; for that soldier may do even the cause of God, more good, in that one expedition, then that Monk in ten years: But it is true as Holkot intended it, (though perchance his example do not much strengthen it) vicious men are put to more pains, and to do more things against their own minds, then the Saints of God are in the ways of holiness. We have wearied our selves in the ways of wickedness, says he, that is, in doing as other wicked men have done, in ways which have been beaten out to us, by the frequent practise of other men; but he adds more, We have gone the rough Deserts, where there lay no way; that is, through sins, in which, we had no example, no precedent, the inventions of our hearts. The covetous man lies still, and attends his quarter days, and studies the endorsements of his bonds, and he wonders that the ambitious man can endure the shuttings and thrustings of Courts, and can measure his happiness by the smile of a greater man: And, he that does so, wonders as much, that this covetous man can date his happiness by an Almanack, and such revolutions, and though he have quick returns of receipt, yet scarce affords himself bread to live till that day come, and though all his joy be in his bonds, yet dems himself a candles end to look upon them. Hilly ways are wearisome ways, and tire the ambitious man; Carnal pleasures are dirty ways, and tire the licentious man; Desires of gain, are thorny ways, and tire the covetous man; Aemulations of higher men, are dark and blind ways, and tire the envious man, Every way, that is out of the way, wearies us; But, lassi sumus; sed non datur requires, we labor, and have no rest, when we have done; we are wearied with our sins, and have no satisfaction in them; we go to bed to night, weary of our sinful labours, and we will rise freshly to morrow, to the same sinful labours again; And when a sinner does so little remember yesterday, how little does he consider to morrow? He that forgets what he hath done, foresees not what he shall suffer: so sin is a burden, it crookens us, it wearies us; And those are the two first inconveniences.

And then a third is Retardat. Though a man can stand under a burden, that he do not sink, but be able to make some steps, yet his burden slackens his pace, and he goes not so fast, as without that burden he could have gone. So it is an habitual sins; though we do not sink into desperation, and stupefaction, though we do come to the participation of outward means, and have some sense, some feeling thereof, yet, as long as any one beloved and habitual sin hangs upon us, it slackens our pace in all the ways of godliness. And we come not to such an appropriation of the promises of the Gospel, in hearing Sermons, nor to such a re-incarnation, and invisceration of Christ and his merits into our selves, in the Sacrament; as if we were altogether divested of that sin, and not only at that time, we should do. Quis ascendes, says David; who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? It is a painful clambring; up a hill. And Saint August. makes use of the answer, Innocens manibus, He that hath clean hands; first, he must have hands, as well as feet; He must do something for himself; And then, Innocent hands; such as do no harm to others, such as hold, and carry no hurtful thing to himself; Either he must have the first Innocence, Abstinence from ill getting, or the second Innocence, Restitution of that which was ill gotten, or he shall never get up that hill; for, it is a steep hill, and there is no walking up, but he must crawl, hand and foot. Therefore, says the Apostle, Deponamus pondus, Let us lay aside every weight; He does not say, sin in general, but every weight, every circumstance that may aggravate our sin, every conversation that may occasion our sin; And, (as he adds, particularly and emphatically) The sin, that does so easily beset us; Easily, because customarily, habitually; And then, says that Apostle, in that place, Let us run; when we have laid down the sin, that does so easily beset us, our beloved and habitual sin, and laid down every weight, every circumstance that aggravates that sin, then we may be able to run, to proceed with a holy cheerfulness and proficiency in the ways of sanctification; but till that we cannot, how due observers soever we be of all outward means; for, sin is a burden, in perverting us, in tyring us, in retarding us.

And last of all, it is a burden, quaetenus praecipitat, as it gives him ever new occasion of stumbling; He that hath not been accustomed to a sin, but exercised in resisting it, will find many temptations, but as a wash way that he can trot thorough, and go forward religiously in his Calling for all them;) for though there be coluber in via, A snake in every way, temptations in every calling, yet, In Christo omnia possumus, In Christ, we can do all things, and therefore, in him, we can bruise the Serpents head) and spurn a temptation out of his way. But he that hath been long under the custom of a sin, evermore meets with stones to stumble at, and bogges to plunge in. It is S. Chrysostomes application; He that hath had fever, though he have cast it off, yet he walks weakly, and he hath an inclination to the beds side, or to a chair, at every turn that he makes about his chamber. So hath he to relapses, that hath been under the custom of an habitual sin, though he have discontinued the practise of that sin. And these be the inconveniences, the mischiefs, represented to us in this metaphor, A burden, Mine iniquities are as a burden too heavy for me, Because they sink me down, from the Creator to the creature; Because they tire and weary me, and yet I must bear them; Because when they do not absolutely tire me, yet they slacken my pace; and because, though I could lay off that burden, leave off that sin, for the present practise, yet the former habit hath so weakened me, that I always apt to stumble, and fall into relapses.

Thus have you the mischievous inconveniences of habitual sin laid open to you, in these two elegancies of the holy Ghost, supergressae, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, and the gravatae, As a burden they are too heavy for me. But as a good Emperor received that commendation, that no man went ever out of his presence discontented, so our gracious God never admits us to his presence in this his Ordinance, but with a purpose to dismiss us in heart, and in comfort; for, his Almoner, he that distributeth his mercies to Congregations, is the God of comfort, of all comfort, the holy Ghost himself. Nay, they whom he admits to his presence here, go not out of his presence, when they go from hence; He is with them, whilst they stay here, and he goes home with them, when they go home. Princes out of their Royal care call Parliaments, and graciously deliver themselves over to that Representative Body; God out of his Fatherly love calls Congregations, and does not only deliver himself over, in his ordinance, to that Representative Body, the whole Church there, but when every man is become a private man again, when the Congregation is dissolved, and every man restored to his own house, God, in his Spirit, is within the doors, within the bosoms of every man that received him here. Therefore we have reserved for the conclusion of all, the application of this Text to our blessed Savior; for so our most ancient Expositors direct our meditations, first, historically, and literally, upon David, and that we did at first; Then morally, and by just application to our selves, and that we have most particularly insisted upon; And lastly, upon our Savior Christ Jesus himself; and that remains for our conclusion and consolation; for, even from him, groaning under our burden, we may hear these words, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, and, &c.

First then, that that lay upon Christ, was sin, properly sin. Nothing could estrange God from man, but sin; and even from this Son of man, though he were the Son of God too, was God far estranged; therefore God saw sin in him. Non novit peccatum, He knew no sin; not by any experimental knowledge, not by any perpetration; for, Non fecit peccatum, He did no sin, be committed no sin. What though? we have sin upon us, sin to condemnation, Original sin before we know sin, before we have committed any sin. They esteemed him stricken, and smitten of God; and they mistook not in that; He was stricken and smitten of God; It pleased the Lord to bruile him, and to put him to grief; And the Lord proceeds not thus, where he sees no sin. Therefore the Apostle carries it to a very high expression, God made him to be sin for our sakes; not only sinful, but sin it self. And as one cruel Emperor wished all mankind in one man, that he might have beheaded mankind at one blow, so God gathered the whole nature of sin into one Christ, that by one action, one passion, sin, all sin, the whole nature of sin might be overcome. It was sin that was upon Christ, else God could not have been angry with him, nor pleased with us.

It was sin, and his own sin; Mine iniquities, says Christ, in his Type, and figure, David; and in his body, the Church; and, (we may be bold to add) in his very person; Mine iniquities. Many Heretics denied his body, to be his Body, they said it was but an airy, an imaginary, an illusory Body; and denied his Soul to be his Soul, they said he had no humane soul, but that his divine nature supplied that, and wrought all the operations of the soul. But we that have learnt Christ better, know, that he could not have redeemed man, by that way that was contracted between him and his Father, that is, by way of satisfaction, except he had taken the very body, and the very soul of man: And as verily as his humane nature, his body and soul were his, his sins were his too. As my mortality, and my hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and all my natural infirmities are his, so my sins are his sins. And now when my sins are by him thus made his sins, no Hell-Devil, not Satan, no Earth-Devil, no Calumniator, can any more make those sins my sins, then he can make his divinity, mine. As by the spirit of Adoption, I am made the child of God, the seed of God, the same Spirit with God, but yet I am not made God, so by Christs taking my sins, I am made a servant of my God, a Beads-man of my God, a vassal, a Tributary debtor to God, but I am no sinner in the sight of God, no sinner so, as that man or the Devil can impute that sin unto me, then when my Savior hath made my sins his. As a Soldier would not part with his scars, Christ would not.

They were sins, that lay upon him, part with our sins; And his sins; and, as it follows in his Type, David, sins in a plurality, many sins. I know nothing in the world so manifold, so plural, so numerous, as my sins; And my Savior had all those. But if every other man have not so many sins, as I, he owes that to Gods grace, and not to the Devils forbearance, for the Devil saw no such parts, nor no such power in me to advance or hinder his kingdom, no such birth, no such education, no such place in the State or Church, as that he should be gladder of me, then of other men. He ministers temptations to all; and all are overcome by his temptations; And all these sins, in all men, were upon Christ at once. All twice over; In the root, and in the fruit too; In the bullein, and in the coin too; In grosse, and in retail; In Original, and in Actual sin. And, howsoever the sins of former ages, the sins of all men for 4000 years before, which were all upon him, when he was upon the Cross, might possibly be numbered, (as things that are past, may easier fall within a possibility of such an imagination) yet all those sins, which were to come after, he himself could not number; for, he, as the Son of man, though he know how long the world hath lasted, knows not how long this sinful world shall last, and when the day of Judgement shall be; And all those future sins, were his sins before they were committed; They were his before they were theirs that do them. And lest this world should not afford him sins enow, he took upon him the sins of heaven it self; not their sins, who were fallen from heaven, and fallen into an absolute incapacity of reconciliation, but their sins, which remained in heaven; Those sins, which the Angels that stand, would fall into, if they had not received a confirmation, given them in contemplation of the death and merits of Christ, Christ took upon him, for all things, in Earth, and Heaven too, were reconciled to God by him: for, if there had been as many worlds, as there are men in this, (which is a large multiplication) or as many worlds, as there are sins in this, (which is an infinite multiplication) his merit had been sufficient to all.

They were sins, his sins, many sins, the sins of the world; and then, as in his Type, David, Supergressae, his sins, these sins were got above him. And not as Davids, or ours, by an insensible growth, and swelling of a Tide in Course of time, but this inundation of all the sins of all places, and times, and persons, was upon him in an instant, in a minute; in such a point as admits, and requires a subtle, and a serious consideration; for it is eternity; which though it do infinitely exceed all time, yet is in this consideration, less then any part of time, that it is indivisible, eternity is so; and though it last for ever, is all at once, eternity is so. And from this point, this timeless time, time that is all time, time that is no time, from all eternity, all the sins of the world were gone over him.

And, in that consideration, supergressae caput, they were gone over his head. Let his head be his Divine nature, yet they were gone over his head: for, though there be nothing more voluntary, then the love of God to man, (for, he loves us, not only for his own sake, or for his own glories sake, but he loves us for his loves sake, he loves us, and loves his love of us, and had rather want some of his glory, then we should not have, nay, then he should not have so much love towards us) though this love of his be an act simply voluntary, yet in that act of expressing this love, in the sending a Savior, there was a kind of necessity contracted on Christs part; such a contract had passed between him and his Father, that as himself says, there was an oportuit pati, a necessity that he should suffer all that he suffered, and so enter into glory, when he was come; so there was an oportuit venire a necessity, (a necessity induced by that contract) that he should come in that humiliation, and smother, and suppress the glory of the divine nature, under a cloud of humane, of passible, of inglorious flesh.

So, be his divine nature this head, his sins, all our sins made his, were gone above his head; And over his head, all those ways, that we considered before, in our selves; Sicut tectum, sicut fornix, as a roof, as an arch, that had separated between God, and him, in that he prayed, and was not heard; when in that Transeat Calix, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, the Cup was not only not taken out of his hands, but filled up again as fast, as he, in obedience to his Father, drank of it, more and worse miseries succeeding, and exceeding those which he had born before. They were above him in clamore, in that voice, in that clamor which was got up to heaven, and in possession of his Fathers ears, before his prayer came, Father, forgive them, for they are not forgiven that sin of crucifying the Lord of life, yet. They were above his head, tanquam aquae, as an inundation of waters, then when he swet water and blood, in the Agony, when he, who had formerly passed his Israel thorough the Red Sea, as though that had not been love large enough, was now himself overflowed with a Red Sea of his own blood, for his Israel again. And they were over his head in Dominio, in a Lordship, in a Tyranny, then when those marks of sovereign honor, a robe, and a scepter, and a Crown of thorns were added to his other afflictions. And so is our first part of this Text, the supergressae sunt, the multiplicity of sin, applicable to Christ, as well as to his Type, to David, and to us, the members of his body.

And so is the last part, that which we handled to day, too, the gravata sunt, the weight and insupportableness of sin. They were heavy, they weighed him down from his Fathers bosom, they made God Man. That one sin could make an Angel a Devil, is a strange consideration; but that all the sins of the world, could make God Man, is stranger. Yet sin was so heavy; Too heavy, says the Text. It did not only make God Man; in investing our nature by his birth, but it made him no Man, by devesting that body, by death; and, (but for the virtue, and benefit of a former Decree) submitting that body, to the corruption, and putrefaction of the grave; But this was the peculiar, the miraculous glory of Christ Jesus. He had sin, all our sin, and yet never felt worm of conscience; He lay dead in the grave, and yet never felt worm of corruption. Sin was heavy; It made God Man; Too heavy; It made Man no Man; Too heavy for him, even for him, who was God and Man together; for, even that person, so composed, had certain velleitates, (as we say in the School) certain motions arising sometimes in him, which required a veruntamen, a review, a re-consideration, Not my will, O Father, but thine be done; and such, as in us, who are pushed on by Original sin, and drawn on by sinful concupiscences in our selves, would become sins, though in Christ they were far from it. Sin was heavy, even upon him, in all those inconveniences, which we noted in a burden; Incurvando, when he was bowed down, and gave his back to their scourges; Fatigando, when his soul was heavy unto death; Retardando, when they brought him to think it long, Viquid dereliquisti, Why hast thou forsaken me? And then, praecipitando, to make that haste to the Consummatum est, to the finishing of all, as to die before his fellows that were crucified with him, died; to bow down his head, and to give up his soul, before they extorted it from him.

Thus we burdened him; And thus he unburdned us; Et cum exonerat nos onerat, when he unburdens us, he burdens us even in that unburdening: Onerat beneficio, cum exonerat peccato. He hath taken off the obligation of sin, but he hath laid upon us, the obligation of thankfulness, and Retribution. Quid retribuam? What shall I render to the Lord, for all his benefits to me? is vox onerati, a voice that grones under the burden, though not of sin, yet of debt, to that Savior, that hath taken away that sin. Exi à me Domine, that which Saint Peter said to Christ, Lord depart from me, for I am a sinful man, is, says that Father, vox onerati, the voice of one oppressed with the blessings and benefits of God, and desirous to spare, and to husband that treasure of Gods benefits, as though he were better able to stand without the support of some of those benefits, then stand under the debt, which so many, so great benefits laid upon him: Truly he that considers seriously, what his sins have put the Son of God to, cannot but say, Lord lay some of my sins upon me, rather then thy Son should bear all this; that devotion, that says after, Spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, would say before, spare that Son, that must die, spare that precious blood, that must be shed to redeem us. And rather then Christ should truly, really bear the torments of hell, in his soul, (which torments cannot be severed from obduration, nor from everlastingness) I would, I should desire, that my sins might return to me, and those punishments for those sins; I should be ashamed to be so far exceeded in zeal, by Moses, who would have been blotted out of the book of life, or by Paul, who would have been separated from Christ for his brethren, as that I would not undertake as much, to redeem my redeemer, and suffer the torments of Hell my self, rather then he should; But it is an insupportable burden of debt, that he hath laid upon me, by suffering that which he suffered, without the torments of Hell. Those words, Vis sanus fieri, hast thou a desire to be well, and a faith that I can make thee well? are vox exonerantis, the words of him that would take off our burden; But then, the Tolle grabatum & ambula, Take up thy bed and walk, this is vox oncrantis, the voice of Christ, as he lays a new burden upon us; ut quod prius suave, jam onerosum sit, that bed which he had ease in before, must now be born with pain; that sin which was forgotten with pleasure, must now be remembered with Contrition Christ speaks not of a vacuity, nor of a levity; when he takes off one burden, he lays on another; nay, two for one. He takes off the burden, of Irremediableness, of irrecoverableness, and he reaches out his hand, in his Ordinances, in his Word and Sacraments, by which we may be disburdened of all our sins; but then he lays upon us, Onus resipiscentiae, the burden of Repentance for our selves, and Onus gratitudinis, the burden of retribution, and thankfulness to him, in them who are his, by our relieving of them, in whom he suffers. The end of all, (that we may end all in endless comfort) is, That our word, in the original, in which the holy Ghost spoke, is Iikkebedu, which is not altogether, as we read them, graves sunt, but graves fieri; not that they are, but that they were as a burden, too heavy for me; till I could lay hold upon a Savior to sustain me, they were too heavy for me: And by him, I can run through a troop (through the multiplicity of my sins,) and by my God I can leap over a wall; Though mine iniquities be got over my head, as a wall of separation, yet in Christo omnia possum, In Christ I can do all things; Mine iniquities are got over my head; but my head is Christ; and in him, I can do whatsoever he hath done, by applying his sufferings to my soul for all; my sins are his, and all his merit is mine: And all my sins shall no more hinder my ascending into heaven, nor my sitting at the right hand of God, in mine own person, then they hindered him, who bore them all in his person, mine only Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, blessed for ever.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXIV.

EZEK. 34. 19. And as for my flock, they eat that, which yee have troen with your feet, and they drink that which yee have foulded with your feet.

Preached at White-Hall.

THose four Prophets, whom the Church hath called the great Prophets, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, are not only therefore called great, because they writ more, then the lesser Prophets did, (for Zecbary, who is amongst the lesser, writ more then Daniel who is amongst the greater) but because their Prophecies are of a larger comprehension, and extent, and, for the most part, speak more of the comming of Christ, and the establishing of the Christian Church, then the lesser Prophets do, who were more conversant about the temporal deliverance of Israel from Babylon, though there be aspersions of Christ, and his future government in those Prophets too, though more thinly shed. Amongst the four great ones, our Prophet Ezekiel is the greatest. I compare not their extraction and race; for, though Ezekiel were de genere sacerdotali, of the Levitical and Priestly race; (And, as Philo Iudaeus notes, all nations having some marks of Gentry, some calling that ennobled the professors thereof, (in some Armes, and Merchandize in some, and the Arts in others) amongst the Jews, that was Priesthood, Priesthood was Gentry) though Ezekiel were of this race, Isaiah was of a higher, for he was of the extraction of their Kings, of the blood royal. But the extraordinary greatness of Ezekiel, is in his extraordinary depth, and mysteriousness, for this is one of those parts of Scripture, (as the beginning of Genesis, and the Canticles of Solomon, also are) which are forbid to be read amongst the Jews, till they come to be thirty years old, which was the Canonical age to be made Priests; In so much, that Saint Gregory says, when he comes to expound any part of this Prophet, Noctunum iter ago, that he travelled by night, and did but ghesse at his way. But, besides that many of the obscure places of the Prophets are more open to us, then they were to the ancients, because many of those prophecies are now fulfilled, and so that which was Prophecy to them, is History to us, in this place, which we have now undertaken, there never was darkness, not difficulty, neither in the first emanation of the light thereof, nor in the reflection; neither in the Literal, nor in the Figurative sense thereof; for the literal sense is plainly that, that amongst the manifold oppressions, under which the Children of Israel languished in Babylon, this was the heaviest, that their own Priests joined with the State against them, and infused pestilent doctrines into them, that so themselves might enjoy the favor of the State, and the people committed to their charge, might slacken their obedience to God, and surrender themselves to all commandments of all men; This was their oppression, the Church joined with the Court, to oppress them; Their own Priests gave these sheep grass which they had trodden with their feet, (doctrines, not as God gave them to them, but as they had tampered, and tempered them, and accommodated them to serve turns, and fit their ends; whose servants they had made themselves, more then Gods) And they gave them water to drink which they had troubled with their feet, that is, doctrines mudded with other ends then the glory of God; And that therefore God would take his sheep into his own care, and reduce them from that double oppression of that Court, and that Church, those Tyrannous officers, and those over-obsequious Priests. This is the literal sense of our text, and context, evident enough in the letter thereof. And then the figurative and Mystical sense is of the same oppressions, and the same deliverance over again in the times of Christ, and of the Christian Church; for that's more then figurative, fully literal, soon after the Text, I will set up one shepherd, my servant David, And I will raise up for them a plant of renoune, which is the same that Isaiah had called A rod out of the stem of Iesse, and Jeremiah had called A righteous branch, a King thus should reign, and prosper. This prophecy then comprehending the kingdom of Christ, it comprehends the whole kingdom of Christ, not only the oppressions, and deliverances of our forefathers, from the Heathen, and the Heretics in the Primitive Church, but that also which touches us more nearly, the oppressions and deliverance of our Fathers, in the Reformation of Religion, and the shaking off of the yoke of Rome, that Italian Babylon, as heavy as the Chaldean. We shall therefore at this time fix our meditations upon that accommodation of the Text, the oppression that the Israel of God was under, then, when he delivered them by that way, the Reformation of Religion, and consider how these metaphors of the holy Ghost, The treading with their feet the grass that the sheep were to ea, and the troubling with their feet the water that the sheep were to drink, do answer and set out the oppressions of the Roman Church then, as lively as they did in the other Babylon. And so, having said enough of the primary sense of these words, as they concern Gods Israel, in the first Babylon, and something by way of commemoration, and thankfulness, for Gods deliverance of his Israel, from the persecutions in the Primitive Church, insist we now, upon the several metaphors of the Text, as the holy Ghost continues them to the whole reign of Christ, and so to the Reformation.

First, the greatest calamity of those sheep in Babylon, was that their own shepherds concurred to their oppression. In Babylon they were a part, but in Rome they were all; In Babylon they joined with the State, but in Rome they were the State. Saint Jerome notes out of a Tradition of the Jews, that those loafs which their priests were to offer to the Lord, were to be of such corn as those Priests had sowed, and reaped and threshed, and ground, and baked all with their own hands. But they were so far from that at Babylon, and at Rome, as that they ploughed iniquity, and sowed wickedness, and reaped the same; and (as God himself complains) trod his portion under foot; That is, first, neglected his people, (for Gods people are his portion) And then whatsoever pious men had given to the Church, is his portion too, and that portion they had trodden under foot; not neglected it, not despised it, for they collected it, and audited it providently enough, but they trod it under foot, when that which was given for the sustentation of the Priest, they turned upon their own splendor, and glory, and surfeit: Christ will be fed in the poor that are hungry, and he will be clothed in the poor that are naked, so he would be enriched in those poor Ministers that serve at his Altar; when Christ would be so fed, he desires not feasts and banquets; when he would be so clothed, he desires not soft rayment fit for Kings houses, nor embroyderies, nor perfumes; when he would be enriched in the poor Church-man, he desires not that he should be a spunge, to drink up the sweat of others, and live idly; but yet, as he would not be starved in the hungry, nor submitted to cold and unwholesome air in the naked, so neither would he be made contemptible, nor beggarly in the Minister of his Church. Nor, was there in the world, (take in Turky, and all the heathen) (for they also have their Clergy) a more contemtible & more beggarly Clergy then that of Rome; I speak of the Clergy in the most proper sense, that is, they that minister, they that officiate, they that execute, they that personally & laboriously do the service of the Church. The prelacies, and Dignities of the Church, were multiplied in the hands of them, who under pretext of Government, took their ease, and they that labored, were attenuated & macerated, with lean, & penurious pensions. In the best governed Churches there are such Dignities, & supplies without Cure of souls, or personal service; but they are intended for recompense of former labours, and sustentation of their age, of whose youth, and stronger days, the Church had received benefit. But in the Roman Church these preferments are given almost in the womb; and children have them not only before they can merit them, but before they can speak for them; and they have some Church-names, Dean, or Bishop, or Abbat, as soon almost as they have any Christian names. Yea, we know many Church dignities, entailed to noble families, and, if it fall void, whilst the child is so incapable, it must be held for him, by some that must resign it, when it may, by any extent of dispensation, be asked for him. So then the Church joined with the State, to defraud the people; The Priest was poorly maintained, and so the people poorly instructed. And this is the first conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean and the Italian.

Pursue we then the holy Ghosts purpose and manner of implying, and expressing it the food ordained for sheep, Grass. In which make we only these two stops, that the sheep are to eat their grass super terram, upon the ground; And they are to eat it sinerore, when the dew is off. First, upon the ground; that is, where the hand of God hath set it; which for spiritual food is the Church. In hard winters we give sheep hay, but in open times open grass. In persecutions of Tyrans, in Interdicts of Antichristian Bishops, who sometimes out of passion, or some secular respect shut up Church dors and forbid service, and Sacraments, to whole Cities, to whole nations, sheep must live by hay, Gods Children must relieve themselves at home, by books of pious and devout meditation; But when God affords abundant pastures, and free entrance thereunto, Gods sheep are to take their grass upon the ground, Gods grace at the Church. Impossibile est eum corrigere, qui omnia scit, Chrysost: It is an impossible thing to correct him, that thinks he knows all things already. As long as he will admit counsel from another, he acknowledges the other, to know more then he; but if he thinks, he knows all before, he hath no room for farther instruction, nor love to the place where it is to be had. We read in the Eastern Histories, of a navigable River, that afforded all the inhabitants exportation, and importation, and all commerce. But when every particular man, to serve his own curiosity, for the offices of his house, for the pleasures of his gardens, and for the sumptuousness of Grots and aqueducts, and such waterworks, drew several channels, infinite channels our of this great River, this exhausted the main channel, and brought it to such a shallowness, as would bear no boats, and so, took from them the great and common commodities that it had afforded them. So if every man think to provide himself Divinity enough at home, for himself and his family, and out of laziness and singularity, or state, or disaffection to the preacher leave the Church unfrequented, he frustrates the Ordinance of God, which is, that his sheep should come to his pastures, and take his grass upon his ground, his instructions at his house at Church. And this we could not do in the Roman Church, where all our prayers, and all Gods service of that kind, were in a language, not only not understood by him that heard it, but for the most part, not by him that spoke it, It is not of their manifold, and scornful, and ridiculous and histrionical Ceremonies in their service, nor of the dangerous poisons, the direct Idolatries (in the practise of the people) in their service, that we complain of now, but of this, that though it had been never so wholesome grass, it was not so to those sheep, they could not know it to be their proper aliment, for certainly they ask without faith, that ask without understanding; nor can I believe or hope that God will give me that I ask, if I know not what I asked. And what a miserable supply had they for this in their Legends; for many of those Legends were in vulgar tongues and understood by them. In which Legends, the Virgin Mary was every good mans wife, and every good womans mid-wife, by a neighborly, and familiar, and ordinary assistant in all household offices, as we see in those Legends, and revelations. In which Legends, they did not only fain actions, which those persons never did, but they feigned persons which never were; and they did not only mis-canonize men, made Devils Saints, but they mis-christened men, put names to persons, and persons to names that never were. And these legends being transferred into the Church, the sheep lack their grass upon the ground, that is, the knowledge of Gods will, in his house, at Church. And this is another conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean, and the Italian Babylon, that the sheep lacked due food in the due place.

So is it also, that the sheep eat their grass, whilst the Dew was upon it, which is found by experience to be unwholesome. The word of God is our grass, which should be delivered purely, simply, sincerely, and in the natural verdure thereof. The Dews which we intend, are Revelations, Apparitions, Inspirations, Motions, and Interpretations of the private spirit. Now, though we may see the natural dew to descend from heaven, yet it did first ascend from the earth, and retains still some such earthly parts, as sheep cannot digest. So howsoever these Revelations and Inspirations seem to fall upon us from heaven, they arise from the earth, from our selves, from our own melancholy, and pride, or our too much homeliness and familiarity in our accesses, and conversation with God, or a facility in believing, or an often dreaming the same thing. And with these Dews of Apparitions and Revelations, did the Roman Church make our fathers drunk and giddy; And against these does S. Augustine devoutly pray, and praise God, that he had delivered him from the curiosity of sipping these dews, of hearkening after these apparitions and revelations. But so ordinary were these apparitions then, as that any son, or nephew, or friend, could discern his fathers, or uncles, or companions soul, ascending out of Purgatory into heaven, and know them as distinctly, as if they kept the same hair, and beard, and bodily lineaments, as they had upon earth. And as a ship which hath struck Sail, will yet go on with the wind it had before, for a while, so now, when themselves are come to acknowledge, That it was the unanime opinion of the Fathers, that the souls of the dead did not appear after death, but that it was still the Devil, howsoever sometimes that that he proposed were holy & religious, yet we see a great Author of theirs attribute so much to these apparitions, and revelations, that when he pretends to prove all controversies by the Fathers of the Church, he every where intermingles that reverend Book, of Brigids Revelations, that they might also have some Mothers of the Church too; which is not disproportional in that Church; if they have had a woman Pope, to have Mothers of the Church too. I speak not this, as though God might not, or did not manifest his will by women; The great mystery of the Resurrection of Christ was revealed to women before men; and to the sinfullest woman of company, first. But I speak of that bold injury done to the mysteries of the Christian Religion, by pouring out that dew upon the grass, the Revelations of S. Brigid, upon the controversies of Religion. A book of so much blasphemy, and impertinency, and incredibility, that if a Heathen were to be converted, he would sooner be brought to believe Ovids Metamorphoses, then Brigids Revelations, to conduce to Religion. And this is also another conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean, and the Italian Babylon, that we could not receive our grass pure, but infected, and dewed with these frivolous, nay pernicious apparitions, and Revelations.

But press we a little closer to the very steps, & metaphor of the holy Ghost, who here lays the corrupting of the sheeps grass in this, That the shepherds had trodden it down. And this treading down will be pertinently considered two ways. Tertullian in his Book De habitu muliebri, notes two excesses in womens dressing; One he calls Ornatum, the other cultum; One mundum muliebrem, the other, (according to the liberty that he takes in making words) Immundum muliebrem; the first is a superfluous diligence in their dressing, but the other an unnatural addition to their complexion; the first he pronounces to be always ad ambitionem, for pride, but the other, ad prostitutionem, for a worse, for the worst purpose. These two sorts of Excesses do note these two kinds of treading down the grass, which we intend; of which one is, the mingling of too much humane ornament, and secular learning in preaching, in presenting the word of God, which word is our grass; The other is of mingling humane Traditions, as of things of equal value, and obligation, with the Commandments of God. For the first, humane ornament, if in those pastures, which are ordained for sheep, you either plant rare and curious flowers, delightful only to the eye, or fragrant and odoriferous herbs delightful only to the smell, nay, be they medicinal herbs, useful, and behoveful for the preservation, and restitution of the health of man, yet if these specious and glorious flowers, and fragrant, and medicinal herbs, be not proper nourishment for sheep, this is a treading down of the grass, a pestering and a suppressing of that which appertained to them. So if in your spiritual food, our preaching of the Word, you exact of us more secular ornament, then may serve, as Saint Augustine says, Ad ancillationem, to convey, and usher the true word of life into your understandings, and affections, (for both those must necessarily be wrought upon) more then may serve ad vehiculum, for a chariot for the word of God to enter, and triumph in you, this is a treading down of the grass, a filling of that ground which was ordained for sheep, with things improper, and impertinent to them. If you furnish a Gallery with stuff proper for a Gallery, with Hangings and Chairs, and Couches, and Pictures, it gives you all the conveniencies of a Gallery, walks and prospect, and ease; but if you pester it with improper and impertinent furniture, with Beds, and Tables, you lose the use, and the name of a Gallery, and you have made it a Wardrobe; so if your curiosity extort more then convenient ornament, in delivery of the word of God, you may have a good Oration, a good Panegyrique, a good Encomiastique, but not so good a Sermon. It is true that Saint Paul applies sentences of secular Authors, even in matters of greatest importance; but then it is to persons that were accustomed to those authors, and affected with them, and not conversant, not acquainted at all, with the phrase and language of Scripture amongst us now, almost every man (God be blessed for it) is so accustomed to the text of Scripture, as that he is more affected with the name of David, or Saint Paul, then with any Seneca or Plutarch. I am far from forbidding secular ornament in divine exercises, especially in some Auditories, acquainted with such learnings. I have heard men preach against witty preaching; and do it with as much wit, as they have; and against learned preaching, with as much learning, as they could compass. If you should place that beast, which makes the Bezoar stone, in a pasture of pure, but only grass, it is likely, that out of his natural faculty, he would petrify the juice of that grass, and make it a stone, but not such a medicinal stone, as he makes out of those herbs which he feeds upon. Let all things concur in the name of God, to the advancing of his purpose, in his ordinance, which is, to make his will acceptable to you, by his word; only avoid excess in the manner of doing it. Saint Augustines is an excellent rule, when after in his book De Doctrina Christiana, he had taught a use of all Arts in Divinity, he allows them only thus far, ut cum ingenia his reddantur exercitatiora, cavendum ne reddantur maligniora, that when a man by these helps is the more ful, and the more ready & the more able for Church service, he be not also thereby made the more bold and the more confident; Nec ament decipere verisimili sermone, lest because he is able to make any thing seem probable and likely to the people, by his eloquence, he come to infuse paradoxical opinions, or schismatical, or (which may be believed either way) problematical opinions, for certain and constant truths, and so be the less conversant, and the less diligent in advancing plain, and simple, and fundamental doctrines and catechistical, which are truly necessary to salvation, as though such plain, and ordinary, and catechistical doctrines were not worthy of his gifts and his great parts. In a word, in sheep-pastures you may plant fruit trees in the hedge-rows; but if you plant them all over, it is an Orchard; we may transfer flowers of secular learning, into these exercises; but if they consist of those, they are but Themes, and Essays. But why insist we upon this? Was there any such conformity between the two Babylons as that the Italian Babylon can be said to have trodden down the grass in that kind, with overcharging their Sermons with too much learning. Truly it was far, very very far from it; for when they had prevailed in that Axiom, and Aphorisme of theirs, that it was best to keep the people in ignorance, they might justly keep the Priest in ignorance too; for when the people needed no learned instruction, what needed the Church a learned instructer? And therefore I laid hold of this consideration, the treading down of grass, by oppressing it with secular learning, there by to bring to your remembrance, the extreme ignorance that damped the Roman Church, at that time; where Aristotles Metaphysicks were condemned for Heresy, and ignorance in general made not only pardonable, but meritorious. Of which times, if at any time, you read the Sermons, which were then preached, and after published, you will excuse them of this treading down the grass, by oppressing their auditories with over-much learning, for they are such Sermons as will not suffer us to pity them, but we must necessarily scorn, and contemne, and deride them; Sermons, at which the gravest, and saddest man could not choose but laugh; not at the Sermon, God forbid; nor at the plainness, and homeliness of it; God forbid; but at the Soloecismes, the barbarismes, the servilities, the stupid ignorance of those things which fall within the knowledge of boys of the first forme in every School. This was their treading down of grass, not with over-much learning, but with a cloud, a damp, an earth of ignorance. After an Ox that oppresseth the grass, after a Horse that devours the grass, sheep will feed; but after a Goose that stanches the grass, they will not; no more can Gods sheep receive nourishment from him that puts a scorn upon his function, by his ignorance.

But in the other way of treading down grass, (that is, the word of God) by the Additions and Traditions of men, the Italian Babylon Rome abounded, superabounded, overflowed, surrounded all. And this is much more dangerous then the other; for this mingling of humane additions, and traditions, upon equal necessity, and equal obligation as the word of God it self, is a kneading, an incorporating of grass and earth together, so, as that it is impossible for the weak sheep, to avoid eating the meat of the Serpent, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Now man upon his transgression, was not accursed, nor woman; The sheep were not accursed; But the earth was, and the Serpent was; and now this kneading, this incorporating of earth with grass, traditions with the word, makes the sheep to eat the cursed meat of the cursed Serpent, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

Now, in this treading down this grass, this way, this suppressing it by traditions, be pleased to consider these two applications; some traditions do destroy the word of God, extirpate it, annihilate it, as when a Hog doth root up the grass; In which case, not only that turf withers, and is presently useless, and unprofitable to the sheep, but if you dig never so low after, down to the Center of the earth, it is impossible ever to find any more grass under it: so some traditions do utterly oppose the word of God, without having under them, any mysterious signification, or any occasion or provocation of our devotion, which is the ordinary pretext of traditions, and Ceremonial additions in their Church. And of this sort was that amongst the Jews, of which our blessed Savior reproches them, that whereas by the law, children were to relieve decayed parents, they had brought in a tradition, of Commutation, of Compensation, that if those children gave a gift to the Priest, or compounded with the Priest, they were discharged of the former obligation. And of this sort are many traditions in the Roman Church; where, not only the doctrines of men but the doctrine of Devills, (as the Apostle calls the forbidding of Marriage, and of meats) did not only tread down, but root up the true grass.

The other sort of Traditions, and Ceremonies, do not as the Hog, root up the grass, but as a Mole, cast a slack, and thin earth upon the face of the grass. Now, if the shepherd, or husbandman be present to scatter this earth again, the sheep receive no great harm, but may safely feed upon the wholesome grass, that is under; but if the sheep, who are not able to scatter this earth, nor to find the grass that lies under, be left to their own weakness, they may as easily starve in this case, as in the other; the Mole may damnify them as much as the Hog. And of this sort, are those traditions, which induce Ceremonies into the Church, in vestures, in postures of the body, in particular things, and words, and actions, in Baptism or Marriage, or any other thing to be transacted in the Church. These ceremonies are not the institutions of God immediately, but they are a kind of light earth, that hath under it good and useful significations, which when they be understood conduce much to the increase and advancement of our devotion, and of the glory of God. And this is the iniquity that we complain of in the Roman Church, that when we accuse them of multiplying impertinent, and insupportable ceremonies, they tell us, of some mysterious and pious signification, in the institution thereof at first; They tell us this, and it is sometimes true; But neither in Preaching nor practise, do they scatter this earth to their own sheep, or show them the grass that lies under, but suffer the people, to inhere, and arrest their thoughts, upon the ceremony it self, or that to which that ceremony mis-leads them; as in particular, (for the time will not admit many examples) when they kneel at the Sacrament, they are not told, that they kneel because they are then in the act of receiving an inestimable benefit at the hands of God, (which was the first reason of kneeling then) And because the Priest is then in the act of prayer in their behalf, that that may preserve them, in body and soul, unto eternal life. But they are suffered to go one, in kneeling in adoration of that bread, which they take to be God. We deny not that there are Traditions, nor that there must be ceremonies, but that matters of faith should depend of these, or be made of these, that we deny; and that they should be made equal to Scriptures; for with that especially doth Tertullian reproch the Heretics, that being pressed with Scriptures, they fled to Traditions, as things equal or superior to the word of God. I am loth to depart from Tertullian, both because he is every where a Pathetical expresser of himself, and in this point above himself. Nobis curiositate opus non est, post Iesum Christum, nec Inquisitione, post Evangelium. Have we seen that face of Christ Jesus here upon earth, which Angels desired to see, and would we see a better face? Traditions perfecter then the word? Have we read the four Evangelists, and would we have a better Library? Traditions fuller then the word? Cum credimus nihil desideramus ultra credere; when I believe God in Christ, dead, and risen again according to the Scriptures, I have nothing else to believe; Hoc enim prius credimus, non esse quod ultra credere debeamus; This is the first Article of my Faith, that I am bound to believe nothing but articles of faith in an equal necessity to them. Will we be content to be well, and thank God, when we are well? Hilary tells us, when we are well; Bene habet quod iis, quae scripta sunt, contentus sis; then thou art well, when thou satisfiest thy self with those things, which God hath vouchsafed to manifest in the Scriptures. Si aliquis aliis verbis, quàm quibus à Deo dictum est, demonstrare velit, if any man will speak a new language, otherwise then God hath spoken, and present new Scriptures, (as he does that makes traditions equal to them) Aut ipse non intelligit, aut legentibus non intelligendum relinquit, either he understands not himself, or I may very well be content not to understand him, if I understand God without him. The Fathers abound in this opposing of Traditions, when out of those traditions, our adversaries argue an insufficiency in the Scriptures. Solus Christus audiendus, says Saint Cyprian, we hearken to none but Christ; nec debemus attendere quid aliquis ante nos faciendum putarit, neither are we to consider what any man before us thought fit to be done, sed quid qui ante emnes est, fecerit; but what he, who is before all them, did; Christ Jesus and his Apostles, who were not only the primitive but the pre-primitive Church, did and appointed to be done. In this treading down of our grass then in the Roman Church, first by their supine Ignorance, and barbarisme, and then by traditions, of which, some are pestilently iufectious and destroy good words, some cover it so, as that not being declared to the people in their signification, they are useless to them, no Babylon could exceed the Italian Babylon, Rome, in treading down their grass.

Their oppression was as great in the other, In troubling their water, My sheep drink that which you have troubled. When the Lord is our shepherd, he leadeth us ad aquas quietudinum, to the waters of rest, of quietness; of these, in the plural, quietudinum, quietness of body, and quietness of Conscience too. The endowments of heaven are Joy, and Glory; joy, and glory are the two Elements, the two Hemispheres of Heaven; And of this Joy, and this Glory of heaven, we have the best earnest that this world can give, if we have rest; satisfaction and acquiescence in our religion, for our belief, and for our life and actions, peace of Conscience. And where the Lord is our shepherd he leads us, and ad aquas quietudinum, to the waters of rest, multiplied rest; all kind of rest. But the shepherds, in our text, troubled the waters; and more then so; for we have just cause to note the double signification of this word, which we translate Trouble, and to transfer the two significations to the two Sacraments, as they are exhibited in the Roman Babylon; The word is Mirpas; and it denotes not only Conturbationem, a troubling, a mudding, but Obturationem too, an interception, a stopping, as the Septuagint translates it, Prov. 35. and in these two significations of the word, a troubling, and a stopping of the waters, hath the Roman Church exercised her tyranny, and her malignity, in the two Sacraments. For, in the Sacrament of Baptism, they had troubled the water, with additions of Oil, and salt, and spittle, and exorcismes; But in the other Sacrament of they came Ad obturationem, to a stopping, to an intercision, to an interruption of the water, the water of life, Aquae quietudinum, the water of rest to our souls, and peace to our consciences, in withholding the Cup of salvation, the blood of Christ Jesus from us. So that if thou come to Davids holy expostulation, Quid retribuam, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me; And pursue it to Davids holy resolution, Accipiam Calicem, I will take the Cup of salvation, you shall be told, Sir you must take Orders first, or you cannot take that Cup. But water is as common as Aire; And as that Element Aire, in our spiritual food, that is preaching, (which is Spiritus Domini, the breath of God) is common to all, It, praedicate omni Creaturae, go preach the Gospel to every Creature, so is this water of life in the Sacrament, common to all, Bibite ex eo omnes, Drink yee all of this; and thereby do the names of Communion, and participation accrew to it, because all have an interest in it. This is that blood, of which Saint Chrysostom says, Hic sanguis facit, ut Imago Dei in nobis floreat; That we have the Image of God in our souls, we have by the benefit of the same nature, by which we have our souls; There cannot be a humane soul without the Image of God in it. But, ut floreat, that this Image appear to us, and be continually refreshed in us, ut non Languescat animae nobilitas, that this holy nobleness of the soul do not languish not degenerate in us, we have by the benefit of this blood of Christ Jesus the seal of our absolution in that blessed and glorious Sacrament; And that blood they deny us. This is that blood of which they can make as much as they will, with a thought, with an intention; so, as they pretend a power, of changing a whole vintage at once, all the wine of all the nations in the world, into the blood of Christ, if the Priest have an intention to do so, in the time of his Consecration; And yet, as easily as they come by it, they will givesus none. They have told us, that we had it per Concomitantiam, by a necessary concomitancy; That because we had the body in the bread, and that body could not be without the blood, that therefore we had the blood also. But if the bread alone be enough, if the Cup be impertinent, why did Christ give it? If we have no loss in their detaining it from us, what gain have they in retaining it to themselves, let all have it, or none? It is true that they can perform all the ill, that they would do, by the bread alone. They can work the spiritual ill, of inducing adoration to a Creature, by the bread alone; And they could work the temporal ill, of poisoning an Emperor in the Sacrament, by the bread alone. They can come to all their purposes, to all their ill, by the bread alone, but we have not all our good, because we have not Christs entire Institution. And so in this troubling, and in this stopping of these waters, in these confusions, we challenge any Babylon, in the behalf of this Italian Babylon, Rome.

All these oppressions are aggravated by the last, and (as weightiest things sink to the bottom) so is this in the bottom the heaviest pressure, that they did this with their feet, they corrupted the grass with their feet, and troubled the waters with their feet. Now in the Scriptures, when this word, feet, doth not signify that part of mans body which is ordinarily so called, but is transferred to a Metaphorical signification, (as in our text it is) it does most commonly signify Affections, or Power. So the Lord will keep the feet of his Saints; that is, direct their desires, and affections in the ways of holiness. And then for Power, (which is the more frequent acceptation of the word) he will not suffer thy foot to be moved, that is, thy power to be shook; And all such places, qui festinus, he hath hasteth with his feet sinneth, our interpreters expound of a hasty abuse of Power; And those, they have not refrained their feet, and then, thy feet are sunk in the mire, are still interpreted of Power, of a wonton abuse of Power, or of a withdrawing this Power from man, by God; feet signifies Affections, and them corrupted and depraved, and power, and that abused. David seems to have joined them, (as when they are joined, they must necessarily be the most heavy) in that prayer, Let not the foot of pride come against me. The hand of pride, nay the sword of pride, affects not a tender soul so much, as the foot of pride; to be oppressed, and that with scorn; not so much in an anger, as in a wantonness. Rehoboams people were more confounded, with that scornful answer of his to them, when they were come, (My little finger shall be thicker then my Fathers loins; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with Scorpions) then they were with the grievances themselves, for which they came; when the King would not only be cruelly sharp, but wittily sharp upon them, this cut on every side, and pierced deep. And so do the Rabbis, the Jewish expositors expound this text, literally, that in the captivity of Babylon, the great men of their Synagogues, compounded with the State, and for certain tributes, had commissions, by which they governed their people at their pleasure, and so milked them to the last drop, the last drop of blood, and sheared them to the naked skin, & then fled off that, & al this while laughed at them, contemned them, because they had no where, to appeal, nor relieve themselves: And this we complain to have been the proceeding in the Italian Babylon, Rome, with our Fathers, They oppressed them, with their feet, that is, with Power, and with scorn.

First, for their illimited and enormous Power, they had so slumbered, so intoxicated the Princes of the Earth, the weaker by intimidations, the stronger by communicating the spoil, and suffering those Princes to take some fleecs, from some of the sheep in their dominions, as there was no relief any way. They record, nay they boast, gloriously, triumphantly, of three score thousand of the Waldenses, slain by them in a day, in the beginning of the Reformation; and Possevine the Jesuit will not lose the glory of recording the five hundred thousand, slain in a very few years, only in France, and the low Country, for some declarations of their desire of a Reformation. Let all those innumerable numbers of wretches, (but now victorious Saints in the Triumphant Church) who have breathed out their souls in the Inquisition (where even the solicitations of Kings, and that for their own sons, have not prevailed) confess the power, the immensness of that power, then, when as under some of the Roman Emperors, it was treason to weep, treason to sigh, treason to look pale, treason to fall sick, and all these were made arguments of discontent, and ill affection, to the present government: so in Rome, there were Heretical sighs, Heretical tears, paleness, and Heretical sickness; every things was interpreted to be an accusation of the present times, and an anhelation after a Reformation, and that was formal heresy, three piled, deep-died heresy: so that a man durst scarce have prayed for the enlarging of Gods blessings to the Church, because to with it better, seemed a kind of accusing of it, that it was not well already; and it was heresy to think so. Let those Israelites, which found no way from this Egypt, but by the red sea, no way out of Idolatry, but by Martyrdom, as they have testified for Christ, so testify against Antichrist, how heavy his feet, as feet signify Power, trod upon the necks of Princes and people.

But that that affected and afflicted most, was the scorn and the contempt, that accompanied their oppressions. To bring Kings to Kiss his feet, was a scorn; but that scorn determined in man; but it was a scorn to God himself, to say that he had said, it should be so, to apply Scripture to the justification thereof, Kings and Queens shall bow down to thee, their faces towards the Earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet. But limit we all considerations of their scorn in one; In this, that they did these wrongs professedly, and without any disguise. Great men will oppress and ruin others, a great while before they will be content to be seen and known to do it. There is such a kind of reverence, not only to Law, but even to honor, and opinion, as that men are lothe to publish their evil actions; To sin as Sodom did, and not to hide it, is an evidence, of neglecting, and scorning of all the world. And therefore the Roman Historiographers would not forbear to note the insolency of that young gallant, who knowing what any man whom he strook could recover by action against him, would strike every poor soul or inferior person, whom he met in the street and then bid his man give him so much money, as the Law would for damages. And this oppressing with scorn, this proceeding without any respect of fame, we note (for hast) but in two things, in the Italian Babylon Rome; first, in that Book, their Taxa Camerae, and then in that doctrine, their Reservatio Casuum, that they durst compose, and divulge such a book, as their, Taxa Camerae, which is an Index, a Repertory for all sins, and in which every man may see beforehand, how much money, an Adultery, an Incest, a Murder, a Parricide, or any other sin, whose name he would never have thought of, but by that Remembrancer, that book will cost him, that so, he may sin, and not undoe himself, sin according to his means, and within his compass, that they durst let the world see such a book, was argument enough that they were feared up, and scorned all that all men could think, or say, or do in opposition.

So also is their Reservation of Cases; that though all Priests have an equal power of remitting all sins, yet are some sins reserved only to Prelates, some only to the Popes Legats, some only to the Pope himself. Is not this a scornful spurning and kicking of the world, a plain telling them that all is done for money, and shall be so, say all the world what it can. They have a national custom in civil curtesies in that place in Italy, to offer entertainments and lendings of money, and the like, but it must not be accepted. It is a discurtesy, to take their courteous offers in earnest. Will they play so with the great Seal of heaven, the remission and absolution of sins, and send out their Priests with that commission, whose sins yee forgive, are forgiven, but see you forgive none upon which we have set a higher price, and reserved to our selves. They had such a fashion in old Rome, whilst the Republique stood; He that was admitted to Triumph must invite the Consuls to the feast, and the Consuls must promise to come, but they must forbear, lest their presence should diminish the glory of the Triumpher. So the Priest must profess that he hath (as he hath indeed) power to remit all sins, but there are a great many, that he must not meddle withal. They practise this reservation upon higher persons then their ordinary Priests, upon Cardinals. A Cardinal is created, and by that creation he hath a voice in all the great affairs of the world, but at his creation Os clauditur à Papa, he that made him, makes him dumb, and he that out of the nature of his place is duly to be heard over all the world, must not be heard in the Consistory, the Pope gives him an universal voice, and then shuts his mouth; He makes him first a Giant, and then a dwarf in an hour; He makes him thunder, and speechless, all at once; fearful to the Kings of the earth, if he might speak, but he must not. They were not content to make Merchandize of our souls, but they make plays, jests, scorns, of matter of salvation, and play fast and loose with that sovereign Balsamum of our souls, the absolution and remission of sins. Though, no doubt, many of them confess in their own bosoms, that which one of them professes ingenuously, and publicly, Diffiteri non possumus abusum Reservationum, & stragem animarum in iis; we cannot deny the abuse of reservations, even to the butchery of those poor souls, who, by reason of these reservations, want their absolution, Dolendum, deflendum, pecuniâ numeratâ, omnia dispensare; This deserves all our tears, all our sighs, that for money, and not without it, all sins are dispensed withal; but there are fixed seasons for salvation, (some remissions and pardons are reserved to certain times of the year) and there are fixt shops of salvation, (some remissions and pardons are appropriated to certain Fairs and Markets, and cannot be given (that is sold) at any other time, or place. And farther we cannot (we need not) extend this accommodation of the words of our text, literally intended of the condition of Gods Children in Babylon, but pregnantly applicable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon, Rome. But having at this time seen the oppressions that those shepherds inflicted there, for the rest which are many and important considerations, as first that they staid, that they eat that grass, that yet they remained Gods sheep, and remained his flock, his Church, though a Church under a greater Church; And then the behavior of the sheep, whilst they staid there, their obedience to Gods call in comming from them when he called them, and made them way; And lastly the little ground that our Separatists can have, for their departing from us either by Israels departing from Babylon, or our Fathers departing from Rome, must be the exercise of your devotion another day.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXV.

The second Sermon on EZEK. 34. 19. And as for my flock, they eat that, which yee have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which yee have fouled with your feet.

Preached at White-Hall.

AS by way of accommodation, we have considered these words, as they concern the iniquity and oppression of the shepherds, (that is, the chief rulers amongst the Jews) in the Chaldean Babylon, and as they are applicable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon, Rome, so now in this exercise are we to consider, the behavior of the sheep, their nature, and their demeanor under all these pressures; in which we have many steps to go; All these; first, Manebant, that for all this ill usage there they did stay, they did not break out, not scatter themselves, manebant; And then Edebant, though their grass were trodden, and their water troubled, yet they did eat that grass, and they did drink that water, Edebant; And doing so, Manebant Oves, they continued sheep, they lost not the nature, nor property of sheep, Manebant Oves, and Oves Dei, they continued Gods sheep; (for the Devil hath his sheep too) my sheep, says God; not those which bad been mine, when they eat fresh grass, and drunk pure water, but then, when they eat trodden grass, and drunk troubled water, they were Gods sheep; And more then that, they were Grex Dei, Gods flock; for those whom our former translation calls my sheep, the latter calls my flock; God hath single sheep in many corners of the heathen, but these, though thus fed, were his flock, his Church. But then, though they staid Gods leisure, and lived long upon this ill diet, yet when God was pleased to call them out of Babylon, out of Babylon they went, when God was pleased to lead our Fathers out of Rome, they left it. And justly, howsoever our Adversaries load us with contumelious names for that departure; in which branch, we shall see the vanity of their criminations, and imputations to us for that secession from them. And then lastly, by way of condoling and of instructing, we shall make it appear to our weak brethren, that our departing from Rome, can be no example, no justification of their departing from us. Our branches then, from whence we are to gather our fruit, being thus many, it is time to lay hold upon the first, which is Manebant, Though these sheep were thus ill fed, yet they did stay.

Optimis ovibus pedes breves; The best sheep have-shortest legs; Their commendation is, not to make hast in straying away. He that hasteth with his feet sinneth; that is, from the station in which God hath placed him. Si innumera bona fecerimus, If we have abounded in good works, and done God never so good service, Non minors Poenas dabimus, quàm qui Christi corpus proscindebant, si integritatem Ecclesiarum discerpserimus, we are as guilty in the eyes of God, as they that crucified the Lord of life himself, if we violate his spouse, or rent the entireness of his Church. Vir quidam sanctus dixit, (says the same father of another, Chrysostom of Cyprian) A certain holy man hath ventured to say, Quod audaciùs sapere videtur, attamen dixit, That which perchance may seem bodily said, but yet he said it; what was it? This, peccatum istud nec martyrio deleri; That this sin of schism, of renting the unity of the Church, cannot be expiated no not by Martyrdom it self. When God had made but a hedge about Job, yet that hedge was such a fence as the Devil could not break in: when God hath carryed Murum aeneum a wall of brass, nay Murum igneum, a wall of fire about his Church, wilt thou break out through that wall, that brass, that fire? Paradise was not walled, nor hedged; and there were serpents in Paradise too; yet Adam offered not to go out of Paradise, till God drove him out; and God saw that he would have come in again, if the Cherubims and the flaming sword had not been placed by God to hinder him. Charm the Charmer never so wisely, (as David speaks) he cannot utter a sweeter, nor a more powerful charm,then that, Ego te baptizo, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; And, Nos admittimus, we receive this child, into the congregation of Christs slock; There is a sweet and a powerful charm, in the Ego te absolvo, I absolve thee from all thy sins; But this blessed charm I may hear from another, if I stray into another Church. But the Ego te baptizo I can hear but once; and to depart from that Church, in which I have received my baptism, and in which I have made my Contracts and my stipulations with God, and pledged and engaged my sureties there, deserve a mature consideration; for I may mistake the reasons upon which I go, and I may find after, that there are more true errors in the Church I go to, then there were imaginary in that that I left. Truly I have been sorry to see some persons converted from the Roman Church, to ours; because I have known, that only temporal respects have moved them, and they have lived after rather in a nullity, or indifferency to either religion, then in a true, and established zeal. Of which kind, I cannot forbear to report to you so much of the story of a French gentleman, who though he were of good parts, and learned, yet were not worthy to be mentioned in this place, but that he soared so high, as to write against the learnedst King, that any age hath produced, our incomparable King James. This man, who was turned from the Reformed to the Roman religion, being asked, half in jest; Sir, which is the best religion, you must needs know, that have been of both? answered, Certainly, the religion I left, the reformed religion, must needs be the best religion, for when I changed, I had this religion, the Romans religion, for it, and three hundred Crowns a year to boot; which was a pension given him, upon his conversion. Neither truly doth any thing more loosen a mans footing, nor slacken his hold upon that Church in which he was baptized, nor open him more to an undervaluation of all Churches, then when he gives himself leave, to think irreverently, slightly, negligently of the Sacraments, as of things, at best, indifferent, and, many times, impertinent. I should think I had no bowels, if they had not earned and melted, when I heard a Lady, whose child of five or six days, being ready to die every minute, she being moved often that the child might be christened, answered, That, if it were Gods will, that the child should live to the Sabbath, that it might be baptized in the Congregation, she should be content, otherwise, Gods will be done upon it, for God needs no Sacrament. With what sorrow; with what holy indignation did I hear the Son of my friend, who brought me to that place, to minister the Sacrament to him, then upon his death-bed, and almost at his last gasp, when my service was offered him in that kind, answer his Father, Father, I thank God, I have not lived so in the sight of my God, as that I need a Sacrament. I name a few of these, because our times abound with such persons as undervalue, not only all ritual, and ceremonial assistances of devotion, which the wisdom, and the piety of the Church hath induced, but even the Sacraments themselves, of Christs own immediate institution, and are always open to solicitations to pass to another Church, upon their own surmises of errors in their own. Whereas there belongs much consideration, and a well grounded assurance, of fundamental errors in one Church, and that those errors are repayred, and no other, as great as those, admitted, in the other Church, before, upon any collateral pretences, we abandon that Church, in which God hath sealed us to himself in Baptism. Our Fathers stayed in Rome; Manebant, They stayed, and Edebant, they eat that grass, and they drunk that water, which was trodden and troubled.

Alas, what should they have eaten, what should they have drunk? should a man strangle himselse rather then take in an ill air? Or forbear a good table, because his stomach cannot digest every dish? We do not call money, base money, till the Allay exceed the pure metal; and if it do so, yet it may be currant, and serve to many offices; Those that are skilful in that art, know how to sever the base from the pure, the good parts of the religion from the bad; and those that are not, will not cast it away, for all the corrupt mixture. It is true, they had been better to have stayed at home and served God in private, then to have communicated in a superstitious service. Domum vestram Christi Ecclesian deputamus, I shall never doubt to call your House the Church of Christ. But this was not permitted to our Fathers; to serve God at home; to Church they must come, and there, all their grass was trodden, and all their water troubled. What should they do? God never brings us to a perplexity, so as that we must necessarily do one sin to avoid another. Never. It seems that the Apostles had been traduced, and insimulated of teaching this Doctrine, That in some cases evil might be done that good might follow; and therefore doth S. Paul with so much diligence discharge himself of it. And yet, long after this, when those men, who attempted the Reformation, whom they called Pauperes de Lugduno, taught that Doctrine, That no less sin might he done, to escape a greater, this was imputed to them, then, by the Roman Church, for an Heresy; That that was Orthodox in Saint Paul, was Heresy in them that studied a Reformation. But the Doctrine stands like a rock against all waves, That nothing that is naturally ill, intrinsecally sin, may upon any pretence be done, not though our lives, nor the lives of all the Princes in the world, though the frame, and being of the whole world, though the salvation of our souls lay upon it; no sin, naturally, intrinsecally sin might be done, for any respect. Christus peccatum factus est, sed non fesit peccatum, Though Christ pursued our redemption with hunger, and thirst, yet he would have left us unredeemed, rather then have committed any sin. Of this kind therefore, naturally, intrinsecally sin, and so known to be to them that did it, certainly our Fathers coming to the superstitious service in the Church of Rome, was not: for had it been, naturally sin, and so known to them, when they did it, they could not have been saved, otherwise then by repentance after, which we cannot presume in their behalf, for there are not testimonies of it. If any of them had invested at any time a scruple, a doubt whether they did well or no, alas how should they divest and overcome that scruple? To whom durst they communicate that doubt? They were under an invincible ignorance, and sometimes under an indevestible scruple. They had heard that Christ commanded to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and so of the Herodians; that is, of the doctrines of those particular sects; of affirming Fate, and Destiny, and Stoical necessity, with the Pharisees; of denying Spirits, and Resurrection with the Sadducees; of mis-applying the prophesies concerning the Messiah, to the person of Herod, or any earthly King; But yet, after all this, he commands them to observe, and perform the doctrine of the Pharisees, because they sate in Moses chair; Though with much vehemence and bitterness, he call them Hypocrites, though with many ingeminations upon every occasion, he reiterate that name, though he aggravate that name with other names of equal reproach, Fools, blind guides, painted tombs, and the like, yet he commands to obey them; and, which is most remarkable, this is said, not only to the common sort, but even to his own disciples too; Christ had begun his work of establishing a Church, which should empty their Synagogues; but because that work was not yet perfected, he would not withdraw the people from their Synagogues; for there wrought Gods Ordinance, (though corrupted by the workmen) which Ordinance was, that the law should be publicly expounded to the people; and so it was there; There God was present; And though the Devil (by their corruption) were there too, yet, the Devil came in at the window, God at the dor; the Devil by stealth, God by his declared Ordinance, and Covenant. And this was the case of our Fathers in the Roman Church; They must know that all that hath passed between God and man hath passed Ex pacto, by way of contact and covenant.

The best works of the best man have no proportion with the kingdom of heaven, for I give God but his own: But I have it Ex pacto, God hath covenanted so, Fac, hoc & vives, Do this and thou shalt live; and at the last judgement, Christ shall ground his Venite benedicti, Come ye blessed, and his It maledicti, Go ye accursed, upon the Quia, and upon the Quia non, Because you have, and Because you have not done this and this. Faith, that is of infinite value above works, hath yet no proportion to the kingdom of heaven; Faith saves me, as my hand feeds me; It reaches the food, but it is not the food; but faith saves Ex pacto, by virtue of that Covenant; which Christ hath made, Tantummodo crede, Only believe. To carry it to the highest, the merit of Christ Jesus himself, though it be infinite so, as that it might have redeemed infinite worlds, yet the working thereof is safeliest considered in the School to be Ex pacto, by virtue of that contract which had passed between the Father and him, that all things should thus and thus be transacted by Christ, and so man should be saved; for, if we shall place it merely, only in the infiniteness of the merit, Christs death would not have needed; for his first drops of blood in his Circumcision, nay his very Incarnation (that God was made man) and every act of his humiliation after, being taken singly, yet, in that person, God and man, were of infinite merit; and also, if it wrought merely by the infinitness of the merit, it must have wrought, not only upon all men, but to the salvation of the Devil; for, certainly there is more merit in Christ then there is sin in the Devil. But the proceeding was Ex pacto, according to the contract made, and to the conditions given; Ipse conteret caput tuum, That the Messiah should bruise the Serpents head for us, included our redemption, That the Serpents head should be bruised, excluded the Serpent himself. This contract, then between God and man, as it was able to put the nature of a great fault, in a small offence, if we consider only the eating of an apple, and so to make even a Trespass High-Treason, (because it was so contracted) so does this contract, the Ordinance of God, infuse a great virtue & efficacy, in the instruments of our reconciliation, how mean in gifts, or how corrupt in manners soever they be. Circumcision in it self a low thing, yea obscene, & subject to mis-interpretation, yet by reason of the covenant, He that is not circumcised, that person shall be cut off from my people. So also Baptism, considered in it self, a vulgar, and a familiar thing; yet, except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven. The Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, a domestic, a daily thing; if we consider only the breaking of the bread and participation of the Cup, but if we ascend up to the contract in the institution, it is to every worthy receiver, the seal, and the Conduit of all the merits of Christ, to his soul. God threw down the walls of Jericho, with the sound of Horns, not of Trumpets. A homely sound; yet it did the work; so neither is the weakness, no, nor the corruptness of the instruments always to be considered in the Church of God. Our Fathers knew there had passed a contract between God and man, A Church there should be Ad consummationem, to the end of the world, therefore they might safely make their recourse thither; and Porta Inferi, the gates of hell should not prevail against it, therefore they might confidently dwell there; They knew there was a Dic Ecclesiae a bill to be exhibited to the Church, upon any disorder, and a Si noluerit, an excommunication upon disobedience, If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man, and as a Publican. This Church they saw, and Gods contract upon them sealed in Baptism, they knew, God had revealed no other Church, nor contract to them. And therefore, though they did not eat their trodden grass, with that ridiculous temptation, as the Fryar is boasted to have eaten a Toad which was set upon the Table, because he had read, whatsoever is set before you eat; Nor, as their Dorotheus, who when his man had reachd him rats-bane, in stead of honey, which he called for, refused it not, because said he, If Gods will had been, that I should have had honey, he would have directed thy hand to the honey, but being under an invi ciblenignorance, and indevestible scruples, and having this contract, and this Church, to give them some satisfaction and acquiescence, they were partakers of that blessing, That though Serpents and Scorpions lurked in their grass, they had power to tread on scorpions and on serpents, and nothing could hurt them, and That if they drink any deadly thing, it shall do them no harm. And so our Fathers with a good conscience, Manebant, stayed there, and Edebant, they eat trodden grass, and drunk troubled water, and yet Manebantoves, they continued sheep still.

Sheep, that is, without Barking, or biting. Some faint and humble bleatings there were always in the days of our Fathers; In every age there arose some men, who did modestly, and devoutly, but yet couragiously and confidently appear, and complain against those treadings, and those troublings. Every age, every nation had some such bleatings, some men who by writing or preaching against those abuses, interrupted the tyrannical prescriptions of that Church, and made their continual claim, to their Christian liberty; But still they continued sheep, without denying either their fleece or their throats to those Pastors. We read in Natural story of divers pastures, and divers waters, which will change the color of cattle, or sheep, but none that changes the forme, and makes them no such cattle, or no sheep. Some waters change sheep of any color to white. And these troubled waters, temporal or spiritual afflictions, may bring Gods children to a faint and lean, and languishing paleness. If it do, as Daniel and his fellows, appeared fairer, and fatter in flesh, with their pults and water, which they desired rather then the Kings polluted delicates, then others that sed voluptuously: so the hearts of Gods children shall be filled, as with marrow and with fatness, when others shall have all their hearts desire, but leanness in their souls. There are waters that change all coloured sheep to black. So may these troubled waters, afflictions, effect that upon Gods children, The enemy shall come, and before him all faces shall gather blackness; as Jerusalem complains, That their faces were blacker then coals. If it do, yet as long as they stay, and continue sheep, members of the body, as long as they partake of the body, they shall partake of the complexion of the Church, who says of her self, I am black, O daughters of Jerusalem, but comely, (acceptable in the sight of my Christ) and that shall be verified in them, which Solomon says, By the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better; that is, by the occasion of the sadness, Gods correction. But the strangest change is, that some waters change sheep into red, the most unlikely, most extraordinary, most unproper color for sheep, of any other. Yet there is one redness natural to our sheep in the Text, the redness of blushing, and modesty, and self-accusing; And there is another redness, which is not improper, the redness of zeal and godly anger. The worst redness that can befall them, is the redness of sin, and yet, lest that should deject them, God proceeds familiarly with them, Come now, and let us reason together, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. Yea, to show, that where sin abounds, grace also may abound, to show that that whiteness of Gods mercy doth pursue and overtake this redness of sin, it pleases the Holy Ghost to use such a phrase as expresses a redness in whiteness it self; He says, that the religious men of the Jews before that time, were whiter then milk, and redder then pearl: Mippeninim is the original word, which the Rabbis translate pearl; And the Vulgate Edition hath it, Rubicundiores ebore antiquo, redder then the oldest yvory, which is the whitest thing, that can be presented. Perchance to intimate thus much, that there is neither in the holiest actions, of the holiest man, any such degree of whiteness, but that it is always accompanied with some rednes, some tincture, some aspersion of sin, nor any such deep redness in sin, any sin so often, and deeply died in grain, but that it is capable of whiteness, in the application of the candor, and pureness, and innocency of Christ Jesus: Therefore may the Holy Ghost have wrapped up this whiteness in redness, redder then Pearl. Our Fathers were not discouraged, when they were discolored; what paleness, what blackness, what redness soever, these troubled waters induced upon them, still they were sheep; They become not Foxes, to delude the State with equivocations; nor Wolves, to join with the State to the oppression of the rest; nor Horses, to suffer themselves to be ridden by others, and so made instruments of their passions; no nor Vnicorns, to think to purge and purify the waters for all the forest, to think to reform all abuses in State, and Church at once; but they continued sheep; opened not their mouths in biting, nor barking, in murmuring, or reproaching the present government. So our Fathers staid, Manebant, so they eat that grass, so they continued sheep, and, as it follows next, Oves Dei, Gods sheep, my sheep have eaten, my sheep have drunken.

Gods sheep; for nature hath her sheep; some men by natural constitution, are lazy, drowsy, frivolous, unactive, sheepish men. And States have their sheep; timorous men, following men, speechless men, men, who because they abound in a plentiful State, are loth to stire. Nay the Devil hath his sheep too; Men whom he possesses so entirely, that, as the Law says, Domintum est potestas, tum utendi, tum abutendi, Only he is truly Lord of any thing, who may do what he will with it, he does what he will with those men, even to their own ruin. And from these folds and flocks did the Devil always serve his shambles, in his false Martyrdoms in the Primitive Church; when (as Eusebius notes) envying the honor which the Orthodox Christians had in their thousands of Martyrs, the Heretics studied ways of equalling them in that. And though within four hundred years after Christ, the Church, (who could not possibly take knowledge of all) was come to celebrate, by name, five thousand Martyrs (as some books have the account) for every day in the year, yet the Heretics went so far towards equalling them, as that they had some whole sects, (particularly the Euphemitae) which called themselves Martyrians, men exposed to the slaughter. One limbe of the Donatists, the Circumcelliones, might have furnished their shambles; They would provoke others to kill them; and if they failed in that, they would kill themselves. And this was, as Saint Augustine says, Ludus quotidianus, their daily sport, they plaid at no other game. And left all these means should not have provided Martyrs enow, Petilian, against whom Saint Augustine writes, invented a new way of Martyrdom, when he taught, that if a man were guilty in his Conscience of any great offence to God, and only to punish that fault, did kill himself, he was by that act of Justice a Martyr. The Devil had his sheep then; He hath so still; Those Emissarii papae, those whom the Bishop of Rome sends hither into this kingdom; whom Baronius calls Candidates Martyrii, pretenders to Martyrdom, suters for Martyrdom; Men, who (as he adds there) do sacramento spondere sanguinem, take an oath at Rome that they will be hanged in England; and, in whose behalf he complains de sterilitate Martyrii, that there is such a dearth of Martyrdom, that they find it hard to be hanged; and therefore, (perchance) they find it necessary to enter into Powder plots, and actual Treasons, because they see that for Religion merely, this State would never draw drop of blood, & sacramento sanguinem, they have taken an oath to be hanged, and are loth to be forsworne. But the sheep of our text, were not Natures sheep, men naturally lazy, and unactive, nor State sheep, men loth to adventure, by stirring, nor the Devills sheep, men headlong to their own ruin, even by way of provocation; But they were Gods sheep, men, who, out of a rectified conscience, would not prevaricate, not betray nor forsake God, if his glory required the expense of their lives, and yet would not exasperate nor provoke their superiors, how corrupt soever, by unseasonable, and unprofitable complaints: so our Fathers staied in Rome, so they eat trodden grass, and drunk troubled waters, so they continued harmless sheep towards others, and the sheep of God, such as though they staid there and fed upon an ill diet, God had distinguished from Goats, and reserved for his right hand, at the day of separation. And they were more then so; they were not only his sheep, but his flock; for so, this translation reads it, my flock hath eaten, my flock hath drunk.

God had single sheep in many nations; Job's, and Naamans, and such; servants, and yet not in the Covenants, sheep, and yet not brought into his flock. For though God have revealed no other way of salvation to us, but by breeding us in his Church, yet we must be so far, from straitning salvation, to any particular Christian Church, of any subdivided name, Papist or Protestant, as that we may not straiten it to the whole Christian Church, as though God could not, in the largeness of his power, or did not, in the largeness of his mercy, afford salvation to some, whom he never gathered into the Christian Church. But these sheep in our text, were his flock, that is, his Church. Though they durst not communicate their sense of their miseries, and their desires to one another, yet they were a flock. When Elijah complained, I, even I only am left, and God told him, that he had seven thousand besides him, perchance Elijah knew none of this seven thousand, perchance none of this seven thousand and knew one another, and yet, they were his flock, though they never met. That timber that is in the forest, that stone that is in the quarry, that Iron, that Lead that is in the mine, though distant miles, Counties, Nations, from one another, meet in the building of a material Church; So doth God bring together, living stones, men that had no relation, no correspondence, no intelligence together, to the making of his Mystical body, his visible Church. Who ever would have thought, that we of Europe, and they of the Eastern, or Western Indies, should have met to the making of Christ a Church? And yet, before we knew, on either side, that there was such a people, God knew there was such a Church. He that lies buried, in the consecrated dust under your feet, knows not who lies next him; but one Trumpet at last shall raise them both together, and show them to one another, and join them, (by Gods grace) in the Triumphant Church. These that knew not one another, that knew not of one another, were yet Gods flock, the Church in his eye; for there, (and only there) the Church is always visible. So were our Fathers in Rome, though they durst not meet, and communicate their sorrows, nor fold themselves so in the fold of Christ Jesus, that is in open, and free Confessions. They therefore that ask now, Where was your Church before Luther, would then have asked of the Jews in Babylon, Where was your Church before Esdras; that was in Babylon, ours was in Rome.

Now, beloved, when our Adversaries cannot deny us this truth, that our Church was enwrapped, (though smothered) in theirs, that as that Balsamum natural, which Paracelsus speaks of, that natural Balm which is in every body, and would cure any wound, if that wound were kept clean, and recover any body, if that body were purged, as that natural balm is in that body, how diseased soever that body be, so was our Church in theirs, they vexe us now, with that question, Why, if the case stood so, if your Fathers, when they eat our trodden grass, and drunk our troubled waters, were sound and in health, and continued sheep, and Gods sheep, and Gods flock, his Church with us, why went they from us? They ought us their residence, because they had received their Baptism from us. And truly, it is not an impertinent, a frivolous reason, that of Baptism, where there is nothing but conveniency, and no necessity in the case. But, if I be content to stay with my friend in an aguish aire, will he take it ill, if I go when the plague comes? Or if I stay in town till 20 die of the plague, shall it be lookd that I should stay when there die 1000? The infection grew hotter and hotter in Rome; & their may, came to a must, those things which were done before de facto, came at last to be articles of Faith, and de jure, must be believed and practised upon salvation. They chide us for going away, and they drove us away; If we abstained from communicating with their poisons, (being now growen to that height) they excommunicated us; They gave us no room amongst them but the fire, and they were so forward to burn Heretics, that they called it heresy, not to stay to be burnt.

Yet we went not upon their driving, but upon Gods calling. As the whole prophecy of the deliverance of Israel, from Babylon, belongs to the Christian Church, both to the Primitive Church, at first, and to the Reformed since, so doth that voice, spoken to them, reach unto us, Egredimini de Babylone, Go ye out of Babylon with a voice of singing, declare, show to the ends of the earth, that the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. For, that Rome is not Babylon, they have but that one half-comfort, that one of their own authors hath ministered, that Romae regulariter male agitur; that Babylon is Confusion, disorder, but at Rome all sins are committed in order, by the book, and they know the price, and therefore Rome is not Babylon. And since that many of their authors confess, that Rome was Babylon, in the time of the persecuting Emperors, and that Rome shall be Babylon again, in the time of Antichrist, how they will hedge in a Jerusalem, a holy City, between these two Babylons, is a cunning piece of Architecture. From this Babylon then were our Fathers called by God; not only by that whispering sibilation of the holy Ghost, sibilabo populum, I will hiss for my people, and so gather them, for I have redeemed them, and they shall increase, not only by private inspirations, but by general acclamations; every where principal writers, and preachers, and Princes too, (as much as could stand with their safety) crying out against them before Luther, howsoever they will needs do him that honor, to have been the first mover, in this blessed revolution.

They reproach to us our going from them, when they drove us, and God drew us, and they discharge themselves for all, by this one evasion; That all that we complain of, is the fault of the Court of Rome, and not of the Church; of the extortion in the practise of their Officers, not of error in the doctrine of their Teachers. Let that be true, (as in a great part it is) for, almost all their errors proceed from their covetousness and love of money) this is that that we complain most of, and in this especially lies the conformity of the Iewish Priests in the Chaldean Babylon, and these Prelates in the Roman Babylon, that the Court, and the Church, joined in the oppression. But since the Court of Rome, and the Church of Rome are united in one head, I see no use of this distinction, Court and Church. If the Church of Rome be above the Court, the Church is able to amend these corruptions in the Court. If the Court be got above the Church, the Church hath lost, or sold away, her supremacy.

To oppress us, and ease themselves, now, when we are gone from them, they require Miracles at out hands; when indeed it was miracle enough, how we got from them. But, magnum charitatis argumentum, credere absque pignoribus miraculorum, He loves God but a little that will not believe him without a miracle. Miracles are for the establishing of new religions; All the miracles of, and from Christ and his Apostles, are ours, because their Religion is ours. Indeed it behooves our adversaries to provide new miracles every day, because they make new articles of Faith every day. As Esop therefore answered in the Market, when he that sold him was asked what he could do, that he could do nothing, because his fellow had said, that he could do all, so we say, we can do no miracles, because they do all; all ordinary cures of Agues, and toothach being done by miracle amongst them. We confess that we have no such tye upon the Triumphant Church, to make the Saints there do those anniversary miracles, which they do by their reliques here, upon their own holy days, ten days sooner every year, then they did before the new computation. We pretend not to raise the dead, but to cure the sick; and that but by the ordinary Physic, the Word, and Sacraments, and therefore need no miracles. And we remember them of their own authors, who do not only say, that themselves do no miracles, in these latter times, but assign diligently strong reasons, why it is that they do none. If all this will not serve, we must tell them, that we have a greater miracle, then any that they produce; that is, that in so few years, they that forsook Rome, were become equal, even in number, to them that adhered to her. We say, with Saint Augustine, That if we had no other miracle, hoc unum stupendum & potentissimum miraculum esse, that this alone were the most powerful, and most a mazing miracle, ad hanc religionem, totius orbis amplitudinem, sine miraculis subjugatam, that so great a part of the Christian world, should become Protestants of Papists, without any miracles.

They pursue us still, being departed from them, and they ask us, How can ye pretend to have left Babylon confusion, Dissention, when you have such dissentions, & confusions amongst your selves? But neither are our differences in so fundamental points, as theirs are, (for a principal author of their own, who was employed by Clement the eight, to reconcile the differences between the Iesuits and the Dominicans, about the concurrence of the grace of God, and the free will of man, confesses that the principal articles, and foundations of faith were shaken between them, between the Iesuits, and Dominicans) neither shall we find such heat, and animosity, and passion between any persons amongst us, as between the greatest amongst them; The succeeding Pope mangling the body of his predecessor, casting them into the river for burial, disannulling all their decrees, and ordinations; their Ordinations; so that no man could be sure who was a Priest, nor whether he had truly received any Sacrament, or no. Howsoever, as in the narrowest way there is most justling, the Roman Church going that broad way, to believe as the Church believes, may scape some particular differences, which we that go the narrower way, to try every thing by the exact word of God, may fall into. Saint Augustine tells us of a City in Mauritania Caesarea, in which they had a custom, that in one day in the year, not only Citizens of other parishes, but even neighbours, yea brethren, yea Fathers, did fling stones dangerously, and furiously at one another in the streets, and this they so solemnized, as a custom received from their ancestors; which was a licentious kind of Carnaval. If any amongst us have fallen into that disease, to cast stones, or dirt at his friends, it is an infection from his own distemper, not from our doctrine; for, if any man list to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Church of God. We departed not from them then, till it was come to a hot plague, in a necessity of professing old opinions to be new articles of Faith; not till we were driven by them, and drawn by the voice of God, in the learnedest men of all nations; when they could not discharge themselves by the distinction of the Court of Rome, and the Church of Rome, because, if the abuses had been but in the Court, it was the greatest abuse of all, for that Church, which is so much above that Court, not to mend it. Nor can they require Miracles at our hands, who do none themselves, and yet need them, because they induce new articles of Religion; neither can they reproach to us our Dissentions amongst our selves; because they are neither in so fundamental points, nor pursued with so much uncharitableness, as theirs. So we justify our secession from them; but all this justifies in no part, the secession of those distempered men, who have separated themselves from us, which is our next, and our last consideration.

When the Apostle says, study to be quiet, (1 Thes. 4. 11. me thinks he intimates something towards this, that the less we study for our Sermons, the more danger is there to disquiet the auditory; extemporal, unpremeditated Sermons, that serve the popular care, vent, for the most part, doctrines that disquiet the Church. Study for them, and they will be quiet; consider ancient and fundamental doctrines, and this will quiet and settle the understanding, and the Conscience. Many of these extemporal men have gone away from us, and vainly said, that they have as good cause to separate from us, as we from Rome. But can they call our Church, a Babylon; Confusion, disorder? All that offends them, is, that we have too much order, too much regularity, too much binding to the orderly, and uniform service of God in Church. It affects all the body, when any member is cut off; Cum dolore amputatur, etiam quae putruit, pars corporis; and they cut off themselves, and feel it not; when we lose but a mystical limbe, and they lose a spiritual life, we feel it and they do not. When that is pronounced sit tibi sicut ethnicus, if he hear not the Church, let him be to thee as a Heathen, gravius est quàm si gladio feriretur, flammis absumeretur, feris subigeretur, it is a heavier sentence, then to be beheaded, to be burnt, or devoured with wild beasts; and yet these men, before any such sentence pronounced by us, excommunicate themselves. Of all distempers, Calvin falls oftenest upon the reproof of that which he calls Morositatem, a certain peevish frowardness, which, as he calls in one place, deterrimam pestem, the most infectious pestilence, that can fall upon a man, so, in another, he gives the reason, why it is so, semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa, that this peevish frowardness, is always accompanied with a pride, and a singularity, and an ambition to have his opinions preferred before all other men, and to condemn all that differ from him. A civil man will depart with his opinion at a Table, at a Council table, rather then hold up an argument to the vexation of the Company; so will a peaceable man do, in the Church, in questions that are not fundamental. That reverend man whom we mentioned before, who did so much in the establishing of Geneva, professes, that it was his own opinion, that the Sacrament might be administered in prisons, and in private houses; but because he found the Church of Geneva, of another opinion, and another practise before he came, he applied himself to them and departed, (in practise) from his own opinion, even in so important a point, as the ministration of the Sacrament. Which I present to consideration the rather, both because thereby it appears, that greater matters then are now thought fundamental, were then thought but indifferent, and arbitrary, (for, surely, if Calvin had thought this a fundamental thing, he would never have suffered any custom to have prevailed against his conscience) and also, because divers of those men, who trouble the Church now, about things of less importance, and this of private Sacraments in particular) will needs make themselves believe, that they are his Disciples, and always conclude that whatsoever is practised at Geneva was Calvins opinion. Saint Augustine saith excellently, and appliably, to a holy Virgin, who was ready to leave the Church, for the ill life of Church-men, Christus nobis imperavit Congregationem, sibi servavit separationem; Christ Jesus hath commanded us to gather together, and recommended to us the Congregation; as for the separation, he hath reserved it to himself, to declare at the last day, who are Sheep and who are Goats. And he wrought that separation which our Fathers made from Rome, by his express written Word, and by that which is one word of God too, Vox populi, The invitation and acclamation of Doctors, and People, and Princes; but have our Separatists any such public, and concurrent authorising of that which they do, since of all that part from us, scars a dozen meet together in one confession? When you have heard the Prophet say, Can two walk together, except they be agreed, when you have heard the Apostle say, I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same things, and that there be no divisions among you, (for, if preachers speak one one way, another another, there will be divisions among the people) And then, it is not only, that in obedience to authority, they speak the same things; But, Be perfectly joined in the same mind, and in the same judgement, you had need make haste to this union, this pacification; for when we are come thither, to agree among our selves, we are not come to our journeys end.

Our life is a warfare; other wars, in a great part, end in marriages: Ours in a divorce, in a divorce of body and soul in death. Till then, though God have brought us, from the First Babylon, the darkness of the Gentiles, and from the Second Babylon, the superstitions of Rome, and from the third Babylon, the confusion of tongues, in bitter speaking against one another, after all this, every man shall find a fourth Babylon, enough to exercise all his forces, The civil war, the rebellious disorder, the intestine confusion of his own Concupiscencies. This is a transmigration, a transportation laid upon us all, by Adams rebellion, from Jerusalem to Babylon, from our innocent State in our Creation, to this confusion of our corrupt nature. God would have his children first brought to Babylon, before he would be glorified in their deliverance, Venies usque ad Babylonem; Ibi liberaberis; To Babylon thou shalt come; there I will deliver thee; but not till then; that is, till you come to a holy sense of the miseries you are in, and what hath brought you to them.

Though then you have suffered the calamities of all these Babylons in some proportions, though you be not Incolae but Indigenae, not naturalized but born Babylonians, (Original sin makes you so) yet since you are within the Covenant, hear him, that said to you in Abrahams ears, Egredere de terrâ tuâ, Get thee out of thy Country, and from thy kindred, unto the land I will show thee; Come out of Babylon to Jerusalem; since ye are within his Adoption, and may cry Abba father, hear that voice, Egredimini filiae Sion, Come forth ye daughters of Sion, come to Jerusalem. Though ye be dead, and buried, and putrefyed in this corrupted, and corrupting flesh, yet since he cries with a loud voice, (as it is said in that Text) Lazar veni for as, Lazarus come forth, come forth of your Tombs in Babylon, to this Jerusalem, come from your troubled waters, your waters of contention, of anxiety, of envy, of solicitude, and vexation for worldly encumbrances, and come Ad aquas quietudinum, to the waters of rest, the application of the merits of Christ, in a true Church: Vinum non habetis? have ye no wine to refresh your hearts; no merits of your own to take comfort in? Implete Hydrias aquâ, fill all your vessels with water, that water of life, remorseful tears, perchance he will change your water into wine, as he did in that place; perchance he will give you abundance of temporal blessings; perchance he will change that water into blood, as in Egypt; that is, into persecutions, into afflictions, into Martyrdom, for his sake, for he will accept our water for blood, our tears of repentance and contrition for Martyrdom, ut cum desit Martyrium sanguinis, habeamus Martyrium aquae, that we may be Martyrs in his sight, and shed no blood; Martyrs of a new die, white Martyrs. That our waters of sorrow for sin may answer our Saviours tears over Lazarus and over Jerusalem; and the sweat of our brows in a lawful calling may answer our Saviours sweat of water and blood in his agony; and that our reverent and profitable receiving of the Sacrament, may answer the water and blood that issued from his side, which represented omnia Sacramenta, all the Sacraments; That, as we do, we may still feed upon grace that is not trodden, and drink water, that is not troubled, with the feet of others, or our own; that we be never shook in the sincerity nor in the integrity of Religion with their power, nor our own distempers of fears or hopes. But that our meat may be, to do the will of him that sent us, and to finish his work, Joh. 4. 2.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXVI.

ISAIAH. 65. 20. For the child shall die a hundred years old; But the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be accursed.

Preached to the King, at White-Hall, the first Sunday in Lent.

PEace is in Sion; Gods whole Quire is in tune; Nay, here is the music of the Sphears; all the Sphears (all Churches) all the Stars in those Sphears (all Expositours in all Churches) agree in the sense of these words; and agree the words to be a Prophesy, of the Distillation, nay Inundation, of the largeness, nay the infiniteness of the blessings, and benefits of Almighty God, prepared and meditated before, and presented, and accomplisht now in the Christian Church. The Sun was up betimes, in the light of nature, but then the Sun moved but in the winter Tropic, short and cold, dark and cloudy days; A Diluculum and a Crepusculum, a Dawning and a Twilight, a little Traditional knowledge for the past, and a little Conjectural knowledge for the future, made up their day. The Sun was advanced higher to the Jews in the Law; But then the Sun was but in Libra; as much day as night: There was as much Baptism, as Circumcision in that Sacrament; and as much Lamb as Christ, in that Sacrifice; The Law was their Equinoctial, in which, they might see both the Type, and that which was figured in the Type: But in the Christian Church the Sun is in a perpetual Summer Solstice; which are high degrees, and yet there is a higher, the Sun is in a perpetual Meridian and Noon, in that Summer solstice. There is not only a Surge Sol, but a Siste Sol: God hath brought the Sun to the height, and fixt the Sun in that height in the Christian Church, where he in his own Son by his Spirit hath promised to dwell, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world. Here is Manna; and not in Gomers, but in Barns; and Quails; and not in Heaps, but in Hills; the waters above the Firmament, and not in drops of Dew, but in showers of former and latter Rain; and the Land of Canaan; not in Promise only, nor only in performance, and Possession, but in Extension, and Dilatation. The Graces, and blessings of God, that is, means of salvation, are so aboundantly poured upon the Christian Church, as that the triumphant Church if they needed means, might fear they should want them. And of these means and blessings, long life, as it is a Model and abridgement of Eternity, and a help to Eternity, is one, and one in this Text, The Child shall die 100. years old. But shall we receive good from God, and not receive evil too? shall I shed upon you Lumen visionis, the light of that vision, which God hath afforded me in this Prophecy, the light of his countenance, and his gracious blessings upon you, and not lay upon you Onus visionis, as the Prophetts speak often, The burden of that vision which I have seen in this Text too? It was a scorn to David, that his servants were half clothed; The Samaritane woman believed, that if she might see Christ, he would tell her all things: Christ promises of the Holy Ghost, that he should lead them into all Truth: And the Apostles discharge in his office was, that he had spoken to them all Truth: And therefore lest I should be defective in that integrity, I say with Saint Augustine, Non vos fallo, non praesumo, non vos fallo; I will not be so bold with you as flatter you, I will not presume so much upon your weakness, as to go about to deceive you, as though there were nothing but blessing in God, but show you the Commination, and judgement of this Text too, that though the child should die a hundred years old, yet the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. If God had not lengthened his childes life, extended my days, but taken me in the sins of my youth, where had I been, may every soul here say? And where would you be too; if no man should tell you, that though The child should die a hundred years old, yet the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed? What can be certain in this world, if even the mercy of God admit a variation? what can be endless here, if even the mercy of God receive a determination? and sin doth vary the nature, sin doth determine even the infiniteness of the mercy of God himself, for though The child shall die a hundred years old, yet the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. Disconsolate soul, dejected spirit, bruised and broken, ground and trodden, attenuated, evaporated, annihilated heart come back; hear thy reprieve, and sue for thy pardon; God will not take thee away in thy sins, thou shalt have time to repent, The child shall die a hundred years old. But then lame and decrepit soul, gray and inveterate sinner, behold the full ears of corn blasted with a mildew, behold this long day shutting up in such a night, as shall never see light more, the night of death; in which, the deadliest pang of thy Death will be thine Immortality: In this especially shalt thou die, that thou canst not die, when thou art dead; but must live dead for ever: for The sinner being a hundred years old, shall be accursed, he shall be so for ever.

In this discovery from this Red Sea, to this dead Sea; from the mercy of God, in the blood of his Son, to the malediction of God, in the blood of the sinner, be pleased to make these the points of your Compass, and your Land-marks by the way, in those, the two parts of this exercise. First, in the first, consider the precedency, and primogeniture of Mercy; God begins at Mercy, and not at Judgement: God's method here, is not, The sinner shall be accursed, but The child shall have long life: but first, the blessing, and then the malediction. And then secondly, we shall see, in what form the particular blessing is given here; In long life; The child shall die a hundred years old. And then also, because we find it in the company of Mercies, in the region of Mercies, in this first part of the Text, which is the Sphere of Mercy; we shall look also how this very dying is a Mercy too: The mercy is especially placed in the long life: The child shall live a hundred years; but the Holy Ghost would not leave out that, that he should die; The child shall die a hundred years old. And in these three, first the precedency, and primogeniture of God's mercy, and then the specification of that mercy in long life, and lastly, the association of mercy, that death as well as life is a blessing to the Righteous; we shall determine that first part. And in the second, But the sinner being a hundred years old, shall be accursed, we shall see first, that the malediction of God hath no object but a sinner: God antidates no malediction: Till there be a sinner, there is no malediction; nay not till there be an inveterate sinner; A sinner of a hundred years, at least, such a sinner, as would be so, if God would spare him a hundred years here. And upon such a sinner, God thunders out this Prosternation, this Consternation, in this one word of our Text, which involves and inwraps all kinds of miseries, feebleness in body, infatuation in mind, evacuation of power, dishonor in name, eclipses in favor, ruin in fortune, dejection in spirit, He shall be accursed. Where, because in this second part we are in the Region and Sphere of maledictions, we cannot consider this future, He shall be, as a future of favor, a prorogation, a deferring of the malediction: He shall be, is not, he shall be hereafter, but not yet: but it is a future of continuation; He shall be accursed, that is, he shall be so for ever. And so have you the frame, and partitions of this Bethel, this House of God in which he dwells, which is both Iosuah's Beth-hagla, the house of Joy, and John's Bethania, his house of affliction too; and we pass now to the furnishing of these rooms, with such stuff as I can have laid together.

First, in our first part, we consider the precedency, and primogeniture of Mercy. It is a good thing to be descended of the eldest Brother; To descend from God, to depend upon God, by his eldest Son, the Son of his love, the Son of his right hand, Mercy, and not to put God to his second way, his sinister way, his way of judgement. David prophesies of God's exaltation of Solomon so, Ponam in Primogenitum, I will make him my first-born: Though Solomon were not so, God would make him so. And in that Title, the Wiseman makes his prayer for Israel; Quem coaequasti Primogegenito, whom thou hast named thy first-born; for so God had in Exod. Israel is my Son, even my first-born: and in Job, the fiercest terror of death is exprest so, Primogenitus mortis, the first-born of Death shall devour his strength: Still the exaltation, the Superlative is called so; The first-born. And in such a sense; if we could think of more degrees of goodness in God, of an exaltation of God himself in God, of more God in God, of a Superlative in God, we must necessarily turn upon his mercy, for that Mercy must be the Superlative: So is it too, if we consider Gods first action, or God's first thought towards Man; Mercy was the first-born by every Mother; by that Understanding, by that Will, by that Power, which we conceive in God; Mercy was the first-born, and first-mover in all. We consider a preventing Grace in God; and that preventing Grace is before all; for that prevents us so, as to Visit us when we sit in darkness. And we consider an Antecedent-Will in God, and that Antecedent Will is before all; for by that Will, God would have all men saved. And when we call Gods Grace by other names then Preventing, whether Assisting Grace, that it stand by us and sustain us, or Concomitant Grace, that it work with us, and inanimate our action, when it is doing, or his Subsequent Grace, that rectifies or corrects an action, when it is done; when all is done, still it is the Preventing Power, and quality of that Grace, that did all that in me: If I stand by his Assisting Grace, if I work with his Concomitant Grace, if I rectify my error by his Subsequent Grace, that that moves upon me in all these, is still the preventing power of that Grace. For as all my Natural actions of life are done by the power of that Soul, which was in me before, so all the Supernatural actions of that Soul, are done by that power of that Grace, that prevents and preinanimates that action; and all my co-operation is but a post-operation, a working by the Power of that All-preventing Grace. I moved not at first by the Tide, by the strength of natural faculties, nor do I move after by that wind which had formerly filled my sails: I proceed not now by the strength of that Grace which God gave me heretofore. But as God infuseth a Soul into every man, and that Soul elicites a new Act in it self, before that man produce any action; so God infuses a particular Grace into every good work of mine, and so prevents me, before I co-operate with him. For as Nature in her highest exaltation, in the best Moral man that is, cannot flow into Grace, Nature cannot become Grace; so neither doth former Grace flow into future Grace, but I need a distinct influence of God, a particular Grace, for every good work I do, for every good word I speak, for every good thought I conceive.

When God gives me access into his Library, leave to consider his proceedings with man, I find the first book of Gods making to be the Book of Life. The Book where all their names are written that are elect to Glory. But I find no such Book of Death: All that are not written in the Book of Life, are certainly the sons of Death: To be pretermitted there, there to be left out, wraps them up, at least leaves them wrapt up, in death. But God hath not wrought so positively, nor in so primary a consideration in a book of Death, as in the Book of Life. As the aftertimes made a Book of Wisdom out of the Proverbs, of Solomon, and out of his Ecclesiastes; but yet it is not the same Book, nor of the same certainty: so there is a Book of Life here, but that is not the same book that is in Heaven, nor of the same certainty: For in this Book of Life, which is the Declaration and Testimony which the Church gives of our Election, by those marks of the Elect, which she seeth in the Scriptures, and believeth that she seeth in us, a man may be Blotted out of the Book of the living, as David speaketh; and as it is added there, Not written with the Righteous: Intimating that in some cases, and in some Book of Life, a man may have been written in, and blotted out, and written in again. The Book of Life in the Church, The Testimony of our Election here, admits such expunctions, and such redintegrations: but Gods first Book, his Book of Mercy; (for this Book in the Church, is but his Book of Evidence) is inviolable in it self, and all the names of that Book indelible.

In Gods first Book, the Book of Life, Mercy hath so much a precedency, and primogeniture, as that there is nothing in it, but Mercy. In Gods other Book, his Book of Scripture, in which he is put often to denounce judgements, as well as to exhibit mercies, still the Tide sets that way, still the Bias leads on that hand, still his method directs us ad Primogenitum, to his first-born, to his Mercy. So he began in that Book: He made man to his Image, and then he blest him. Here is no malediction, no intermination mingled in Gods first Act, in Gods first purpose upon man: In Paradise there is, That if he eat the forbidden fruit, if he will not forbear that, that one Tree, He shall die. But God begins not there: before that, he had said, of every tree in the Garden thou mayst freely eat; neither is there more vehemency in the punishment, then in the liberty. For as in the punishment there is an ingemination, Morte morieris, Dying thou shalt die; that is, thou shalt surely die; so in the liberty, there was an ingemination too, Comedendo comedes, Eating thou shalt eat; that is, thou mayst freely eat. In Deut. we have a fearful Chapter of Maledictions; but all the former parts of that Chapter, are blessings in the same kind: And he that reads that Chapter, will begin at the beginning, and meet Gods first-born, his Mercy first. And in those very many places of that Book where God divides the condition, If you obey you shall live, if you rebell you shall die, still the better Act, and the better condition, and the better reward, is placed in the first place, that God might give us possession, In jure Primogeniti, in the right of his first-born, his mercy. And where God pursues the same method, and first dilates himself, and expatiates in the way of mercy, I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him; when after that he is brought to say, If his children forsake my Law, I will visit their transgression with the rod; where first he puts it off for one Generation from himself, to his Children, which was one Mercy: And then he puts it upon a forsaking, an Apostasy, and not upon every sin of infirmity, which was another Mercy; when it comes to a correction, it is but a mild correction, with the rod: And in that, he promises to visit them; to manifest himself, and his purpose to them in the correction; all which are higher and higher degrees of Mercy: yet because there is a spark of anger, a tincture of judgement mingled in it, God remembers his first-born, his Mercy, and returns where he begun: Nevertheless my Covenant will I not break, nor alter the things that is gone out of my lips; once have I sworn by my Holiness, that I will not lie unto David. There are elder pictures in the world of Water, then there are any of oil; but those of oil have got above them, and shall outlive them. Water is a frequent embleme of Affliction, in the Scriptures; and so is oil of Mercy; If at any time in any place of Scripture, God seemed to begin with water, with a judgement, yet the oil will get to the top: in that very judgement, you may see that God had first a merciful purpose in inflicting that medicinal judgement; for his mercy is his first-born. His Mercy is new every morning, saith the Prophet; not only every day, but as soon as it is day.

Trace God in thy self, and thou shalt find it so. If thou beest drowzy now, and unattentive, curious or contentious, or quarrelsome now, now God leaves thee in that indisposition, and that is a judgement: But it was his Mercy that brought thee hither before. In every sin thou hast some remorse, some reluctation, before thou do that sin; and that pre-reluctation, and pre-remorse was Mercy. If thou hadst no such remorse in thy last sin, before the sin, and hast it now, this is the effect of Gods former mercy, and former good purpose upon thee, to let thee see that thou needest the assistance of his Minister, and of his Ordinance, to enable thee to lay hold on Mercy when it is offered thee. Can any calamity fall upon thee, in which thou shalt not be bound to say, I have had blessings in a greater measure then this? If thou have had losses, yet thou hast more, out of which God took that. If all be lost, perchance thou art but where thou begunst at first, at nothing. If thou begunst upon a good height, and beest fallen from that, and fallen low, yet as God prepared a Whale to transport Jonas, before Jonas was cast into the Sea, God prepared thee a holy Patience, before he reduced thee to the exercise of that Patience. If thou couldest apprehend nothing done for thy self, yet all the mercies that God hath exhibited to others, are former mercies to thee, in the Pattern, and in the Seal, and in the Argument thereof: They have had them, therefore thou shalt. All Gods Prophecies, are thy Histories: whatsoever he hath promised others, he hath done in his purpose for thee: And all Gods Histories are thy Prophesies; all that he hath done for others, he owes thee. Hast thou a hardness of heart? knowest thou not that Christ hath wept before to entender that hardness? hast thou a paleness of soul, in the apparition of God in fire, and in judgement? knowest thou not, that Christ hath bled before, to give a vigor, and a vegetation, and a verdure to that paleness? is thy sin Actual sin? knowest thou not, that there is a Lamb bleeding before upon the Altar, to expiate that? Is thy terror from thy inherence, and encombrance of Original sin? knowest thou not, that the effect of Baptism hath blunted the sting of that sin before? art thou full of sores, putrid and ulcerous sores? full of wounds, through and through piercing wounds? full of diseases, nameless and complicate diseases? knowest thou not that there is a holy Charm, a blessed Incantation, by which thou art, though not invulnerable, yet invulnerable unto death, wrapt up in the eternal Decree of thine Election? that's thy pillar, the assurance of thine Election: If thou shake that, if thou cast down that Pillar, if thou distrust thine Election, with Samson, who pulled down pillars in his blindness, in thy blindness thou destroyest thy self. Begin where thou wilt at any Act in thy self, at any act in God, yet there was mercy before that, for his mercy is eternal, eternal even towards thee. I could easily think that that, that past between God and Moses in their long conversation; that that, that past between Christ and Moses in his trans-figuration; that that, that past between Saint Paul and the Court of Heaven in his ecstasy was instruction and manifestation on one part, and admiration and application on the other part of the mercy of God. Earth cannot receive, Heaven cannot give such another universal soul to all: all persons, all actions, as Mercy. And were I the child of this Text, that were to live a hundred years, I would ask no other marrow to my bones, no other wine to my heart, no other light to mine eyes, no other art to my understanding, no other eloquence to my tongue, then the power of apprehending for my self, and the power of deriving and conveying upon others by my Ministry, the Mercy, the early Mercy, the everlasting Mercy of yours, and my God. But we must pass to the consideration of this immense Light, in that one Beam, wherein it is exhibited here, that is, long life: The child shall die a hundred years old.

Long life is a blessing, as it is an image of eternity: as Kings are blessings, because they are Images of God. And as to speak properly, a King that possest the whole earth, hath no proportion at all to God, (he is not a dramme, not a grain, not an atome to God) so neither if a thousand Methusalems were put in one life, had that long life any proportion to eternity; for Finite and Infinite have no proportion to one another. But yet when we say so, That the King is nothing to God, we speak then between God and the King; and we say that; only to assist the Kings Religious humiliation of himself in the presence of God. But when we speak between the King and our selves his Subjects, there we raise our selves to a just reverence of him, by taking knowledge that he is the Image of God to us. So though long life be nothing to eternity, yet because we need such Glasses and such Images, as God shews us himself in the King, so he shows us his eternity in a long life. In this, that the Patriarchs complain every where of the shortness of life, and nearness of death; (Jacob at a hundred and thirty years tells Pharaoh, that his days were few,) In this, that God threatens the shortness of life for a punishment to Eli, God says, There shall not be an old man in thy house for ever: In this, that God brings it into Promise, and enters it, as into his Audit, and his revenue, (With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation,) That God would give him long life, and make that long life a Type of Eternity; In this, that God continues that promise into performance, and brings it to execution, in some of his chosen servants; at a hundred and twenty Moses his eyes were not dim, nor his natural force abated; and Caleb saith of himself, I am this day 85. years old, and as my strength was at first, for war, so is my strength now; In all these and many others, we receive so many testimonies that God brings long life out of his Treasury, as an immediate blessing of his. And therefore, as such his blessing, let us pray for it, where it is not come yet, in that apprecation and acclamation of the antient general Councells, Multos annos Caesari, Aeternos annos Caesari, Long life to our Cesar in this world, everlasting life to our Cesar in the world to come: and then let us reverence this blessing of long life, where it is come, in honouring those Ancient heads, by whose name, God hath been pleased to call himself, Antiquum dierum, the ancient of days: and let us not make this blessing of long life, impossible to our selves, by disappointing Gods purpose of long life upon us, by our surfeits, our wantonness, our quarrels, which are all Goths, and Vandals, and Giants, called in by our selves to fight with God against us. But yet, so receive we long life, as a blessing, as that we may also find a blessing in departing from this life: For so manifold, and so multiforn are his blessings, as even death it self hath a place in this Sphere of blessings, The child shall live a hundred years, but yet The child shall die.

When Paradise should have extended, as man should have multiplied, and every holy family, every religious Colony have constituted a new Paradise, that as it was said of Egypt, when it abounded with Hermitages in the Primitive persecutions, That Egypt was a continual City of Hermitages; so all the world should have been a continual Garden of Paradises, when all affections should have been subjects, and all creatures servants, and all wives helpers, then life was a sincere blessing. But, but a mixed blessing now, when all these are so much vitiated; only a possible blessing; a disputable, a conditionable, a circumstantial blessing now. If there were any other way to be saved and to get to Heaven, then by being born into this life, I would not wish to have come into this world. And now that God hath made this life a Bridge to Heaven; it is but a giddy, and a vertiginous thing, to stand long gazing upon so narrow a bridge, and over so deep and roaring waters, and desperate whirlpools, as this world abounds with: So teach us to number our days, saith David, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom: Not to number them so, as that we place our happiness, in the increase of their number. What is this wisdom? he tells us there; He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him: But was that this life? It was Length of days for ever and ever, the days of Heaven.

As houses that stand in two Shires, trouble the execution of Justice, the house of death that stands in two worlds, may trouble a good mans resolution. As death is a sordid Postern, by which I must be thrown out of this world, I would decline it: But as death is the gate, by which I must enter into Heaven, would I never come to it? certainly now, now that Sin hath made life so miserable, if God should deny us death, he multiplied our misery. We are in this Text, upon blessings appropriated to the Christian Church, and so to these times. And in theseTimes, we have not so long life, as the Patriarchs had before. They were to multiply children for replenishing the world, and to that purpose had long life. We multiply sins, and the children and off-spring of sins, miseries, and therefore may be glad to get from this generation of Vipers. God gave his Children Manna and Quails, in the Wilderness, where nothing else was to be had; but when they came to the Land of Promise, that Provision ceased: God gave them long life in the times of Nature, and long, (though shorter then before) in the times of the Law; because in nature especially, but in the Law also, it was hard to discern, hard to attain the ways to Heaven. But the ways to Heaven are made so manifest to us in the Gospel, as that for that use, we need not long life; and that is all the use of our life here. He that is ready for Heaven, hath lived to a blessed age; and to such an intendment, a child newly baptized may be elder then his Grandfather. Therefore we receive long life for a blessing, when God is pleased to give it; though Christ entered it into no Petition of his Prayer, that God would give it: and so though we enter it into no Petition, nor Prayer, we receive it as a blessing too, when God will afford us a deliverance, a manumission, an emancipation from the miseries of this life. Truly I would not change that joy and consolation, which I proposed to my hopes, upon my Death-bed, at my passage out of this world, for all the joy that I have had in this world over again. And so very a part of the Joy of Heaven is a joyful transmigration from hence, as that if there were no more reward, no more recompense, but that I would put my self to all that belongs to the duty of an honest Christian in the world, only for a joyful, a cheerful passage out of it. And farther we shall not exercise your patience, or your devotion, upon these three pieces which constitute our first part: The Primogeniture of Gods Mercy, which is first in all; The specification of Gods Mercy, long Life, as it is a figure of, and a way to eternity; and then the association of Gods Mercy; that Death, as well as Life, is a blessing to the Righteous.

So then we have brought our Sun to his Meridianal height, to a full Noon, in which all shadows are removed: for even the shadow of death, death it self is a blessing, and in the number of his Mercies. But the Afternoon shadows break out upon us, in our second part of the Text. And as afternoon shadows do, these in our Text do also; they grow greater and greater upon us, till they end in night, in everlasting night, The sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. Now of shadows it is appliably said, Vmbrae non sunt tenebrae sed densior lux, shadows are not utter darkness, but a thicker light; shadows are thus much nearer to the nature of light then darkness is, that shadows presume light, which darkness doth not; shadows could not be, except there were light. The first shadows in this dark part of our Text, have thus much light in them, that it is but the sinner, only the sinner that is accursed. The Object of Gods malediction, is not man, but sinful man. If God make a man sin, God curses the man; but if sin make God curse, God curses but the sin. Non talem Deum tuum puts, qualis nec tu debes esse, Never propose to thy self such a God, as thou wert not bound to imitate: Thou mistakest God, if thou make him to be any such thing, or make him to do any such thing, as thou in thy proportion shouldst not be, or shouldst not do. And shouldst thou curse any man that had never offended, never transgrest, never trespast thee? Can God have done so? Imagine God, as the Poet saith, Ludere in humanis, to play but a game at Chess with this world; to sport himself with making little things great, and great things nothing: Imagine God to be but at play with us, but a gamester, yet will a gamester curse, before he be in danger of losing any thing? Will God curse man, before man have sinned? In the Law there are denuntiations of curses enjoined and multiplied: There is maledictus upon maledictus; but it is maledictus homo, cursed be the man; He was not curst by God, before he was a man; nor curst by God, because he was a man; but if that man commit Idolatry, Adultery, Incest, Bestiality, Bribery, Calumny, (as the sins are reckoned there) there he meets a particular curse, upon his particular sin. The book of Life is but names written in Heaven; all the Book of Death, that is, is but that in the Prophet, when names are written in the Earth. But whose names are written in the Earth there? They that depart from thee, shall be written in the Earth: They shall be, when they depart from thee. For saith he, They have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of Living water; They did not that, because their names were written in the Earth, but they were written there, because they did that. Our Savior Christ came hither to do all his Fathers will; and he returned cheerfully to his Father again, as though he had done all, when he had taken away the sins of the world by dying for all sins, and all sinners. But if there were an Hospital of miserable men, that lay under the reprobation and malediction of Gods decree, and not for sin; the blood of that Lamb is not sprinkled upon the Postills of that door. Forgive me O Lord, O Lord forgive me my sins, the sins of my youth, and my present sins, the sin that my Parents cast upon me, Original sin, and the sins that I cast upon my children, in an ill example; Actual sins, sins which are manifest to all the world, and sins which I have so laboured to hide from the world, as that now they are hid from mine own conscience, and mine own memory; Forgive me my crying sins, and my whispering sins, sins of uncharitable hate, and sins of unchaste love, sins against Thee and Thee, against thy Power O Almighty Father, against thy Wisdom, O glorious Son, against thy Goodness, O blessed Spirit of God; and sins against Him and Him, against Superiors and Equals, and Inferiors; and sins against Me and Me, against mine own soul, and against my body, which I have loved better then my soul; Forgive me O Lord, O Lord in the merits of thy Christ and my Jesus, thine Anointed, and my Savior; Forgive me my sins, all my sins, and I will put Christ to no more cost, nor thee to more trouble, for any reprobation or malediction that lay upon me, otherwise then as a sinner. I ask but an application, not an extension of that Benediction, Blessed are they whose sins are forgiven; Let me be but so blessed, and I shall envy no mans Blessedness: say thou to my sad soul, Son be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee, and I shall never trouble thee with Petitions, to take any other Bill off of the fyle, or to reverse any other Decree, by which I should be accurst, before I was created, or condemned by thee, before thou saw'st me as a sinner; For the object of malediction is but a sinner, (which was our first) and an Inveterate sinner, A sinner of a hundred years, which is our next consideration.

First, Quia centum annorum, because he is so old; so old in sin, He shall be accur sed. And then, Quamvis centum annorum, though he be so old, though God have spared him so long, he shall be accursed. God is not a Lion in his house, nor frantic amongst his servants, saith the Wiseman; God doth not rore, nor tear in pieces for every thing that displeaseth him. But when God is prest under us, as a cart is prest that is full of sheaves; the Lord will groan under that burden a while, but he will cast it off at last. That which is said by David, is, if it be well observed, spoken of God himself, Cum perverso pervertêris; from our frowardness God will learn to be froward: But he is not so, of his own nature. If you walk contrary unto me, I will walk contrary unto you, saith God. But this is not said of one, first, wry step; but it is a walking, which implies a long, and a considerate continuance. And if man come to sin so, and will not walk with God, God will walk with that man in his own pace, and overthrow him in his own ways. Nay, it is not only in that place, If you walk contrary to me, In occursu, as Calvin hath it, ex adverso, as the vulgate hath it, which implies an Actual Opposition against the ways of God: but the word is but Chevi, and Chevi is but In accident, in contingente; if you walk negligently, inconsiderately; if you leave out God, pretermit, and slight God; if you come to call Gods Providence Fortune, to call Gods Judgements Accidents, or to call the Mercies of a God, favours of great Persons, if you walk in this neglect of God, God shall proceed to a neglect of you; and then though God be never the worse for your leaving him out, (for if it were in your power to annihilate this whole world, God were no worse, then before there was a World) yet if God neglect you, forget, pretermit you, it is a miserable annihilation, a fearful malediction. But God begins not before sin, nor at the first sin. God did not curse Adam and Eve for their sin; it was there first, and God foresaw they would not be sinners of a hundred years. But him that was in the Serpent, that inveterate sinner, him, who had sinned in Gods Court, in Heaven, before, and being banished from thence, fell into this transmarine treason, in another land, to seduce Gods other Subjects there, him God accursed. Who amongst us can say, that he had a Fever upon his first excess, or a Consumption upon his first wantonness, or a Commission put upon him for his first Bribery? Till he be a sinner of a hundred years, till he have brought age upon himself, by his sin, before the time, and thereby be a hundred years old at fourty, and so a sinner of a hundred years, till he have a desire that he might, and a hope that he shall be able to sin to a hundred years; and so be a sinner of a hundred years; Till he sin hungerly and thirstily, and ambitiously, and swiftly, and commit the sins of a hundred years in ten, and so be a sinner of a hundred years; till he infect and poison that age, and spoil that time that he lives in by his exemplary sins, till he be Pestis secularis, the plague of that age, peccator secularis, the proverbial sinner of that age, and so be a sinner of a hundred years, till in his actions he have been, or in his desires be, or in the fore-knowledge of God would be a sinner of a hundred years, an inveterate, an incorrigible, an everlasting sinner, God comes not to curse him.

But then Quamvis centum annorum, though he have lived a hundred years, though God have multiplied upon him Evidences, and Seals, and Witnesses, and Possessions, and Continuances, and prescriptions of his favor, all this hath not so riveted God to that man, as that God must not depart from him. God was crucified for him, but will not be crucified to him; still to hang upon this Cross, this perverseness of this habitual sinner, and never save himself and come down, never deliver his own Honor, by delivering that sinner to malediction. It is true, that we can have no better Title to Gods future Blessings, then his Blessings formerly exhibited to us; God former blessings are but his marks set up there, that he may know that place, and that man the better against another time, when he shall be pleased to come thither again with a supply of more Blessings: God gives not Blessings as payments, but as obligations; and becomes a debtor by giving. If I can produce that, Remember thy mercies of old, I need ask no new; for even that is a Specialty by which God hath bound himself to me for more. But yet not so, if I abuse his former Blessings, and make them occasions of sin. How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens, saith Christ, I know not how often; surely very often; for many hundreds of years: But yet, how often soever, God left them open to the Eagle, the Roman Eagle at last. God gives thee a recovery from sickness, that doth not make thee Immortal. God gives thee a good interpretation of thine actions from a gracious Prince, this doth not make thee impeccable in thy self. God gives thee titles of Honor upon thy self, this doth not always give thee honor, and respect from others. For as it is God that Raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with Princes; so it is God that Cuts off the spirit of Princes, and is terrible to the Kings of the Earth. It is God that maketh the devices of the People of none effect, and it is God that destroys the Counsels of Egypt. It is God that maketh their Nobles like Oreb, and like Zeb, and like them that perisht at Endor, and became as dung for the Earth; that is, profitable only in their ruin, and conculcation. And so with the same unwillingness, that God comes to the execution, we come to the denunciation of this malediction. They, They, these inveterate, incorrigible sinners, Quamvis centum annorum, though God have spared them so long, yet Quia centum annorum, because they have employed all that time in sin, They shall be accursed.

Accursing is malediction, malediction is literally but maledicence; and that is but evil speaking. Now all kinds of evil speaking do not inwrap a man within the curse of this Text; For, though it be a shrewd degree of this curse of God, to be generally ill spoken of by sad, sober, and discreet, and dis-passioned, and dis-interessed Men, yet we are fallen into times, when men will speak ill of men, in things which they do not know, nor should not know, and out of credulity and easy believing of men, whom they should not believe; men distempered and transported with passion: So men speak evil out of passion, and out of compassion; out of humor, and out of rumor. But malediction in our Text, is an Imprecation of evil, by such men as would justly inflict it if they could, and because they cannot, they pray to God that he would, and he doth: When God seconds the Imprecations of good men, that is this curse. The Person that is curst here is Peccator centum annorum; an habitual, an incorrigible sinner. If you put me to assign, in what rank of men, Magistrates or Subjects, rich or poor, Judges or prisoners, All. If you put me to assign, for what sins, sins of complexion and constitution, sins of society and conversation, sins of our profession, and calling, sins of the particular place, or of the whole times, that we live in, sins of profit, or sins of pleasure, or sins of glory; (for we all do some sins which are sins merely of glory; sins that we make no profit by, nor take much pleasure in, but do them only out of a mis-imagined necessity, left we should go too much less, and sink in the estimation of the World, if we did them not;) if I must say which of these sins put us under this curse, All; If he be centum annorum, Inveterate, Incorrigible, He is accursed. But then who curses him? God put an extraordinary spirit, and produced extraordinary effects from curses, in the mouths of his Prophets which have been since the World began. So Elisha curses, and two Bears destroy fourty two persons. These curses are deposited by God, in the Scriptures, and then inflicted by the Church, in her ordinary jurisdiction, by excommunications, and other censures. But this may be but matter of form in the Church, or matter of indignation in the Prophet. Not so, but as God saith, That the rod in Ashurs hand is his rod, and the sword in Babylons hand his sword, so the curse deposited in the Scripture, and denounced by the Church, is his curse. For as the Prophet saith, Non est malum, all the evil (that is, all the penal ill, all plagues, all war, all famine,) that is done in the World, God doth; so all the evil that is spoken, all the curses deposited in the Scriptures, and denounced by the Church, God speaks. But be all this so; there is a curse deposited, denounced, seconded by God; yet, all this is but malediction, but a speaking, here is no execution spoken of: yes, there is, for as the sight of God is Heaven, and to be banisht from the sight of God, is Hell in the World to come, so the blessing of God, is Heaven, and the curse of God is Hell and damnation, even in this Life. The Hieroglyphique of silence, is the hand upon the mouth; If the hand of God be gone from the mouth, it is gone to strike. If it be come to an Os Domini locutum, that the mouth of the Lord have spoken it, it will come presently to an Immittam manum, That God will lay his hand upon us, in which one Phrase, all the plagues of Egypt are denounced. Solomon puts both hand and tongue together; In manibus linguae, saith he, Death and Life are in the hand of the tongue: Gods Tongue hath a hand; where his Sentence goeth before, the execution followeth. Nay, in the execution of the last sentence, we shall feel the Hand, before we hear the Tongue, the execution is before the sentence; It is, It maledicti, go ye accursed: First, you must Go, go out of the presence of God; and by that being gone, you shall know, that you are accursed; Whereas in other proceedings, the sentence denounces nounces the execution, here the execution denounces the sentence. But be all this allowed to be thus; There is a malediction deposited in the Scriptures, denounced by the Church, ratified by God, brought into execution, yet it may be born, men do bear it. How men do bear it, we know not; what passes between God and those men, upon whom the curse of God lieth, in their dark horrours at midnight, they would not have us know, because it is part of their curse, to envy God that glory. But we may consider in some part the insupportableness of that weight, if we proceed but so far, as to accommodate to God, that which is ordinarily said of natural things. Corruptio optimi pessima; when the best things change their nature, they become worst. When God, who is all sweetness, shall have learned frowardness from us, as David speaks; and being all rectitude, shall have learned perverseness and crookedness from us, as Moses speaks; and being all providence, shall have learned negligence from us: when God who is all Blessing, hath learned to curse of us, and being of himself spread as an universal Honey-combe over All, takes in an impression, a tincture, an infusion of gall from us, what extraction of Wormwood can be so bitter, what exaltation of fire can be so raging, what multiplying of talents can be so heavy, what stiffness of destiny can be so inevitable, what confection of gnawing worms, of gnashing teeth, of howling cries, of scalding brimstone, of palpable darkness, can be so, so insupportable, so inexpressible, so in-imaginable, as the curse and malediction of God? And therefore let not us by our works provoke, nor by our words teach God to curse. Lest if with the same tongue that we bless God, we curse Men; that is, seem to be in Charity in our Prayers here, and carry a ranckerous heart, and venemous tongue home with us God come to say, (and Gods saying is doing) As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he clothed himself with cursing, as with a garment, so let it be as a girdle, wherewith he is girded continually: When a man curses out of Levity, and makes a loose habit of that sin, God shall so gird it to him, as he shall never divest it. The Devils grammar is Applicare Activa Passivis, to apply Actives to Passives; where he sees an inclination, to subminister a temptation; where he seeth a froward choler, to blow in a curse. And Gods grammar is to change Actives into Passives: where a man delights in cursing, to make that man accursed. And if God do this to them who do but curse men, will he do less to them, who blaspheme himself? where man wears out Aeternum suum, (as Saint Gregory speaketh) his own eternity, his own hundred years; that is, his whole life, in cursing and blaspheming, God shall also extend his curse, In aeterno suo, in his eternity, that is, for ever. Which is that, that falls to the bottom, as the heaviest of all, and is our last consideration; that all the rest, that there is a curse deposited in the Scriptures, denounced by the Church, avowed by God, reduced to execution, and that insupportable in this life, is infinitely aggravated by this, that he shall be accursed for ever.

This is the Anathema Maran-atha, accursed till the Lord come; and when the Lord cometh, he cometh not to reverse, nor to alleviate, but to ratify and aggravate that curse. As soon as Christ curst the fig-tree, it withered, and it never recovered: for saith that Gospel, he curst it Inaeternum, for ever. In the course of our sin, the Holy Ghost hath put here a number of years, a hundred years: We sin long, as long as we can, but yet sin hath an end. But in this curse of God in the Text, there is no number; it is an indefinite future; He shall be accursed: A mile of cyphers or figures, added to the former hundred, would not make up a minute of this eternity. Men have calculated how many particular grains of sand, would fill up all the vast space between the Earth and the Firmament: and we find, that a few lines of cyphers will design and express that number. But if every grain of sand were that number, and multiplied again by that number, yet all that, all that inexpressible, inconsiderable number, made not up one minute of this eternity; neither would this curse, be a minute the shorter for having been indured so many Generations, as there were grains of sand in that number. Our Esse, our Being, is from Gods saying, Dixit & facti, God spoke, and we were made: our Bene esse, our well-being, is from Gods saying too; Bene-dicit God blesses us, in speaking graciously to us. Even our ill-being, our condemnation is from Gods saying also: for Malediction is Damnation. So far God hath gone with us that way, as that our Being, our well-being, our ill-being is from his saying: But God shall never come to a Non esse, God shall never say to us, Be nothing, God shall never succor us with an annihilation, nor give us the ease of resolving into nothing, for this curse flows on into an everlasting future, He shall be accurst, he shall be so for ever. In a true sense we may say, that Gods fore-knowledge grows less and less every day; for his fore-knowledge is of future things, and many things which were future heretofore are past, or present now; and therefore cannot fall under his fore-knowledge: His fore-knowledge in that sense, grows less, and decaieth. But his eternity decayeth in no sense; and as long as his eternity lasts, as long as God is God, God shall never see that soul, whom he hath accurst, delivered from that curse, or eased in it.

But we are now in the work of an hour, and no more. If there be a minute of sand left, (There is not) If there be a minute of patience left, hear me say, This minute that is left, is that eternity which we speak of; upon this minute dependeth that eternity: And this minute, God is in this Congregation, and puts his ear to every one of your hearts, and hearkens what you will bid him say to your selves: whether he shall bless you for your acceptation, or curse you for your refusal of him this minute: for this minute makes up your Century, your hundred years, your eternity, because it may be your last minute. We need not call that a Fable, but a Parable, where we hear, That a Mother to still her froward child told him, she would cast him to the Wolf, the Wolf should have him; and the Wolf which was at the door, and within hearing, waited, and hoped he should have the child indeed: but the child being stilled, and the Mother pleased, then she saith, so shall we kill the Wolf, the Wolf shall have none of my child, and then the Wolf stole away. No metaphor, no comparison is too high, none too low, too trivial, to imprint in you a sense of Gods everlasting goodness towards you. God bids your Mother the Church, and us her Servants for your Souls, to denounce his judgements upon your sins, and we do it; and the executioner Satan, believes us, before you believe us, and is ready on his part. Be you also ready on your part, to lay hold upon those conditions, which are annext to all Gods maledictions, Repentance of former, preclusion against future sins, and we shall be always ready, on our part to assist you with the Power of our Intercession, to deliver you with the Keies of our Absolution, and to establish you with the seals of Reconciliation, and so disappoint that Wolf, that roaring Lion, that seeks whom he may devour: Go in Peace, and be this your Peace, to know this, Maledictus qui pendet in Cruce, God hath laid the whole curse belonging to us upon him, that hangs upon the Cross; But Benedictus qui pendet in pendentem; To all them that hang upon him, that hangeth there, God offereth now, all those blessings, which he that hangeth there hath purchased with the inestimable price of his Incorruptible blood; And to this glorious Son of God, who hath suffered all this, and to the most Almighty Father, who hath done all this, and to the blessed Spirit of God, who offereth now to apply all this, be ascribed by us, and by the whole Church, All power, praise, might, majesty, glory, and dominion, now and for evermore Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXVII.

MARK. 4. 24. Take heed what you hear.

Preached to the King, at White-Hall, the first of April, 1627.

WHether that which is recorded by this Evangelist, in, and about this Chapter, be one entire Sermon of our Saviours, preached at once, or Notes taken and erected from several Sermons of his, we are no further curious to inquire, then may serve to ground this Note, that if it were one entire Sermon our Savior preached methodically, and eased his hearers with certain landmarks by the way, with certain divisions, certain transitions, and callings upon them, to observe the points as they arose: For as he beginneth so, Hearken, Behold, so he returneth to that refreshing of their considerations, Et dixit illis, He said unto them; and, Again, he said unto them, seven or eight times, in this Chapter; so many times he calleth upon them, to observe his passing from one point to another. If they be but Notes of several Sermons, we only note this from that, That though a man understand not a whole Sermon, or remember not a whole Sermon, yet he doth well, that layeth hold upon such Notes therein as may be applicable to his own case, and his own conscience, and conduce to his own edification. The widow of Sarepta had no Palaces to build, and therefore she went not out to survey Timber; she had only a poor cake to bake to save her own and her child life, and she went out to gather a few sticks, two sticks as she told the Prophet Elijah, to do that work. Every man that cometh to hear here, every man that cometh to speak here, cometh not to build Churches, nor to build Common-wealths; to speak only of the duties of Kings, and of Prelates, and of Magistrates; but that poor soul that gathers a stick or two, for the baking of her own cake, that layeth hold upon any Note for the rectifying of her own perverseness hath performed the commandment of this Text, Take heed what ye hear. He that is drowning, will take hold of a bulrush; and even that bulrush may stay him, till stronger means of succor come. If you would but feel, that you are drowning in the whirlepooles of sin, and Gods judgements for sin, and would lay hold upon the shallowest man, (be that man dignified with Gods Character, the Character of Orders,) and lay hold upon the meanest part of his speech, (be that speech dignified with Gods Ordinance, be it a Sermon) even I, and any thing that I say here, and say thus, (spoken by a Minister of God, in the house of God, by the Ordinance of God) might stop you till you heard better, and you might be the fitter for more, if you would but take heed now what you heard; Take heed what you hear.

These words were spoken by Christ, to his Apostles upon this occasion. He had told them before, That since there was a candle lighted in the world, it must not be put under a bushel, nor under a bed, verse 21. That all that is hid, should be made manifest; That all that was kept secret, should come abroad, verse 22. That if any man had ears to hear, he might hear, verse 23. That is, that the Mystery of salvation, which had been hid from the world till now, was now to be published to the world, by their Preaching, their Ministry, their Apostleship: And that therefore, since he was now giving them their Commission, and their instructions; since all that they had in charge for the salvation of the whole world, was only that, that he delivered unto them, that which they heard from him, they should take heed what they heard; Take heed what you hear. In which he layeth a double obligation upon them: First, All that you hear from me, you are to preach to the world; and therefore Take heed what you hear; forget none of that; And then, you are to preach no more then you hear from me; and therefore Take heed what you hear; add nothing to that. Be not over-timorous so to prevaricate and forbear to preach that, which you have truly heard from me; But be not over-venturous neither, to pretend a Commission when you have none, and to preach that for my word, which is your own passion, or their purpose that set you up. And when we shall have considered these words in this their first acceptation, as they were spoken literally, and personally to the Apostles, we shall see also, that by reflexion they are spoken to us, the Ministers of the Gospel; and not only to us, of the Reformation, but to our Adversaries of the Roman persuasion too; and therefore, in that part, we shall institute a short comparison, whether they or we do best observe this commandment, Take heed what you hear; Preach all that, preach nothing but that, which you have received from me. And having passed through these words, in both those acceptations, literally to the Apostles, and by reflexion to all the Ministers of the Gospel, the Apostles being at this time, when these words were spoken, but Hearers, they are also by a fair accommodation applicable to you that are Hearers now, Take heed what you hear: And since God hath extended upon you that glorification, that beatification, as that he hath made you regale Sacerdotium, a royal Priesthood, since you have a Regality and a Priesthood imprinted upon you, since by the prerogative which you have in the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ Jesus, and the co-inheritance which you have in that Kingdom with Christ Jesus himself, you are Regum genus, and Sacerdotum genus, of kin to Kings, and of kin to Priests, be careful of the honor of both those, of whose honor, you have the honor to participate, and take heed what you hear of Kings, take heed what you hear of Priests, take heed of hearkening to seditious rumours, which may violate the dignity of the State, or of schismatical rumours, which may cast a cloud, or aspersion upon the government of the Church; Take heed what you hear.

First then as the words are spoken, in their first acceptation, literally to the Apostles, the first obligation that Christ lays upon them, is the publication of the whole Gospel. Take heed what you hear; for, all that, which you hear from me, the world must hear from you; for, for all my death and resurrection the world lies still surrounded under sin, and Condemnation, if this death and resurrection, be not preached by you, unto them. Therefore the last words that ever our Savior spoke unto them, were a ratification of this Commission, You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. God proceeds legally; Publication before Judgement. God shall condemn no man, for not believing in Christ, to whom Christ was never manifested. 'Tis true, that God is said to have come to Elijah in that still small voice, and not in the strong wind, not in the Earth-quake, not in the fire. So God says, Sibilabo populum meum, I will but kiss, I will but whisper for my people, and gather them so. So Christ tells us things in darkness; And so Christ speaks to us in our Ear; And these low voices, and holy whisperings, and half-silences, denote to us, the inspirations of his Spirit, as his Spirit bears witness with our spirit; as the Holy Ghost insinuates himself into our souls, and works upon us so, by his private motions. But this is not Gods ordinary way, to be whispering of secrets. The first thing that God made, was light; The last thing, that he hath reserved to do; is the manifestation of the light of his Essence in our Glorification. And for Publication of himself here, by the way, he hath constituted a Church, in a Visibility, in an eminency, as a City upon a hill; And in this Church, his Ordinance is Ordinance indeed; his Ordinance of preaching batters the soul, and by that breach, the Spirit enters; His Ministers are an Earth-quake, and shake an earthly soul; They are the sons of thunder, and scatter a cloudy conscience; They are as the fall of waters, and carry with them whole Congregations; 3000 at a Sermon, 5000 at a Sermon, a whole City, such a City as Niniveh at a Sermon; and they are as the roaring of a Lion, where the Lion of the tribe of Juda, cries down the Lion that seeks whom he may devour; that is, Orthodoxal and fundamental truths, are established against clamorous, and vociferant innovations. Therefore what Christ tells us in the dark, he bids us speak in the light; and what he says in our ear, he bids us preach on the house top. Nothing is Gospel, not Evangelium, good message, if it be not put into a Messengers mouth, and delivered by him; nothing is conducible to his end, nor available to our salvation, except it be avowable doctrine, doctrine that may be spoke alowd, though it awake them, that sleep in their sin, and make them the more froward, for being so awaked.

God hath made all things in a Roundness, from the round superficies of this earth, which we tread here, to the round convexity of those heavens, which (as long as they shall have any being) shall be our footstool, when we come to heaven, God hath wrapped up all things in Circles, and then a Circle hath no Angles; there are no Corners in a Circle. Corner Divinity, clandestine Divinity are incompatible terms; If it be Divinity, it is avowable. The heathens served their Gods in Temples, sub dio, without roofs or coverings, in a free openness; and, where they could, in Temples made of Specular stone, that was transparent as glass, or crystal, so as they which walked without in the streets, might see all that was done within. And even nature it self taught the natural man, to make that one argument of a man truly religious, Aperto vivere voto, That he durst pray aloud, and let the world hear, what he asked at Gods hand; which duty is best performed, when we join with the Congregation in public prayer. Saint Augustine, hath made that note upon the Donatists, That they were Clancularii, clandestine Divines, Divines in Corners. And in Photius, we have such a note almost upon all Heretics; as the Nestorian was called Coluber, a snake, because though he kept in the garden, or in the meadow, in the Church, yet he lurked and lay hid, to do mischief. And the Valentinian was called a Grashopper, because he leaped and skipped from place to place; and that creature, the Grashopper, you may hear as you pass, but you shall hardly find him at his singing; you may hear a Conventicle Schismatick, hear him in his Pamphlets, hear him in his Disciples, but hardly surprize him at his exercise. Publication is a fair argument of truth. That tastes of Luthers holy animosity, and zealous vehemency, when he says, Audemus gloriari Christum à nobis primo vulgatum; other men had made some attempts at a Reformation, and had felt the pulse of some persons, and some Courts, and some Churches, how they would relish a Reformation; But Luther rejoyces with a holy exultation, That he first published it, that he first put the world to it. So the Apostles proceeded; when they came in their peregrination, to a new State, to a new Court, to Rome it self, they did not enquire, how stands the Emperor affected to Christ, and to the preaching of his Gospel; Is there not a Sister, or a Wife that might be wrought upon to further the preaching of Christ? Are there not some persons, great in power and place, that might be content to hold a party together, by admitting the preaching of Christ? This was not their way; They only considered who sent them; Christ Jesus: And what they brough; salvation to every soul that embraced Christ Jesus. That they preached; and still begun with a Vae si non; Never tell us of displeasure, or disgrace, or detriment, or death, for preaching of Christ. For, woe be unto us, if we preach him not: And still they ended with a Qui non crediderit, Damnabitur, Never deceive your own souls, He, to whom Christ hath been preached, and believes not, shall be damned. All Divinity that is bespoken, and not ready made, fitted to certain turns, and not to general ends; And all Divines that have their souls and consciences, so disposed, as their Libraries may be, (At that end stand Papists, and at that end Protestants, and he comes in in the middle, as near one as the other) all these have a brackish taste; as a River hath that comes near the Sea, so have they, in comming so near the Sea of Rome. In this the Prophet exalts our Consolation, Though the Lord give us the bread of Adversity, and the water of Affliction, yes shall not our Teachers be removed into corners; (They shall not be silenced by others, they shall not affect of themselves Corner Divinity. But (says he there) our eyes shall see our Teachers, and our ears shall hear a word, saying, This is the way, walk in it. For so they shall declare, that they have taken to heart this Commandment of him that sent them, Christ Jesus. All that you receive from me, you must deliver to my people; therefore, Take heed what you hear; forget none of it. But then you must deliver no more then that; and therefore in that respect also, Take heed what you hear; add nothing to that, and that is the other obligation which Christ lays here upon his Apostles.

That reading of those words of Saint John, Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum, Every spirit that dissolves Jesus, that takes him asunder, in pieces, and believes not all, is a very ancient reading of that place. And upon that Ancient reading, the Ancients infer well, That not only that spirit that denies that Christ being God, assumed our flesh, not only he that denies that Christ consists of two natures, God and Mam, but he also that affirmes this Christ, thus consisting of two natures, to consist also of two persons, this man dissolves Jesus, takes him asunder, in pieces, and slackens the band of the Christian faith, which faith is, That Christ consisting of two natures, in one person, suffered for the salvation of man. So then, not only to take from Jesus, one of his natures, God or man, but to add to him, another person, this addition is a Diminution, a dissolution, an annihilation of Jesus. So also to add to the Gospel, to add to the Scriptures, to add to the articles of faith, this addition is a Diminution, a Dissolution, an Annihilation of those Scriptures, that Gospel, that faith, and the Author, and finisher thereof. Jesus grew in stature, says the Gospel; But he grew not to his lives end; we know to, how many feet he grew. So the Scriptures grew to; the number of the books grew; But they grow not to the worlds end, we know to how many books they grew. The body of man and the vessels thereof, have a certain, and a limited capacity, what nourishment they can receive and digest, and so a certain, measure and stature to extend to. The soul, and soul of the soul, Faith, and her faculties, hath a certain capacity too, and certain proportions of spiritual nourishments exhibited to it, in certain vessels, certain measures, so many, these Books of Scriptures. And therefore as Christ says, Which of you can add one Cubit to your stature? (how plentifully, and how delicately soever you feed, how discreetly, and how providently soever you exercise, you cannot do that) so may he say to them who pretend the greatest power in the Church, Which of you can add another book to the Scriptures, A Codicill to either of my Testaments? The curse in the Revelation falls as heavy upon them that add to the book of God, as upon them that take from it: Nay, it is easy to observe, that in all those places of Scripture which forbid the taking away, or the adding to the Book of God, still the commandment that they shall not, and still the malediction if they do, is first placed upon the adding, and after upon the taking away. So it is in that former place, Plagues upon him, that takes away: but first, Plagues upon him, that adds: so in Deut. you shall not diminish, but first, you shall not add: So again in that Book, whatsoever I command you observe to do it: Thou shalt not diminish from it; but first, Thou shalt not add to it. And when the same commandment seems to be given in the Proverbs, there is nothing at all said of taking away, but only of adding, as though the danger to Gods Church consisted especially in that; Every word of God, is pure, saith Solomon there: Add thou not unto his word, lest thou be reproved and found a lyer. For, though heretofore some Heretics have offered at that way, to clip Gods coin in taking away some book of Scripture, yet for many blessed Ages, the Church hath enjoyed her peace in that point: None of the Books are denied by any church, there is no substraction offered; But for addition of Apocryphal Books to Canonical, the Church of God is still in her Militant state, and cannot triumph: and though she have victory, in all the Reasons, the cannot have peace. You see Christs way, to them that came to hear him; Audiistis, and Audiistis, This, and that you have heard others say; Ego autem dico; your Rule is, what I say; for Christ spoke Scripture; Christ was Scripture. As we say of great and universal Scholars, that they are viventes Bibliothecae, living, walking, speaking Libraries; so Christ was loquens Scriptura; living, speaking Scripture. Our Sermons are Text and Discourse; Christ Sermons were all Text: Christ was the Word; not only the Essential Word, which was always with God, but the very written word too; Christ was the Scripture, and therefore, when he refers them to himself, he refers them to the Scriptures, for though here he seem only, to call upon them, to hearken to that which he spoke, yet it is in a word, of a deeper impression; for it is Videte; See what you hear. Before you preach any thing for my word, see it, see it written, see it in the body of the Scriptures. Here then lies the double obligation upon the Apostles, The salvation of the whole world lies upon your preaching of that, of All That, of only That, which you hear from me now, And therefore, take heed what you hear. And farther we carry not your consideration, upon this first acceptation of the words as they are spoken personally to the Apostles, but pass to the second, as by reflexion, they are spoken to us, the Ministers of the Gospel.

In this consideration, we take in also our Adversaries; for we all pretend to be successors of the Apostles; though not we, as they, in the Apostolical, yet they as well as we in the Evangelical, and Ministerial function: for, as that which Christ said to Saint Peter, he said in him, to all the Apostles, Vpon this Rock will I build my Church, so in this which he saith to all the Apostles, he saith to all us also, Take heed what you hear. Be this then the issue between them of the Roman distemper, and us; whether they or we, do best perform this commandment, Take heed what you hear, conceal nothing of that which you have heard, obtrude nothing but that which you have heard: Whether they or we do best apply our practise to this rule, Preach all the Truth, preach nothing but the Truth, be this lis contestata, the issue joined between us, and it will require no long pleading for matter of evidence; first, our Savior saith, Man liveth by every word, that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And this Christ saith from Moses also: so that in the mouth of two unreproachable witnesses, Moses, and Christ, the Law, and the Gospel, we have this established, Mans life is the Word of God, the Word is the Scripture. And then our Savior saith further, The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance: and here is the Latitude, the Totality, the Integrality of the means of salvation; you shall have Scriptures delivered to you, by them the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things; and then you shall be remembered of all, by the explication and application of those Scriptures, at Church, where lies the principal operation of the Holy Ghost. Now, is this done in the Roman Church? Are the Scriptures delivered, and explicated to them? To much of the Scriptures as is read to them, in their Lessons and Epistles, and Gospels, is not understood when it is read, for it is in an unknown language; so that, that way, the Holy Ghost teaches them nothing. Neither are all the Scriptures distributed into these Lessons and Epistles, and Gospels which are read: so that if they did understand all they heard, yet they did not hear all they were bound to understand. And for remembering them by the way of preaching, though it be true, that the Reformation (by way of example, though not by Doctrine) have so much prevailed upon them, as that they have now twenty Sermons in that Church, for one that they had before Luther, yet if a man could hear six Sermons a day, all the days of his life, he might die without having heard all the Scriptures explicated in Sermons: But when men have a Christian liberty afforded to them to read the Scriptures at home, and then are remembered of those things at Church, and there taught to use that liberty modestly, to establish their faith upon places of Scripture that are plain, and to suspend their judgment upon obscurer places, till they may, by due means, preaching or conference, receive farther satisfaction therein, from them, who are thereunto authorized by God in his Church, there certainly is this Rule of our Saviours, Take heed what you hear, preach all that you have received from me, likelyer to be observed then there, where the body of the conveyance, the Scripture it self is locked up from us; and the soul of the conveyance, the sense, and interpretation of the Scriptures, is locked into one mans brest; and the Great Seal of that conveyance, the Sacrament of our Reconciliation, is broken, and mutilated, and given us but by half.

But they do not only stray on that hand, in not giving all that the Scripture gives; (They do not give the liberty of meates, nor the liberty of marriage, which the Scripture gives; Nay, they do not give the liberty of trying, whether the Scripture give it or no; for they do not give the liberty of reading the Scriptures) But on the other hand, they stray too, and further, That they deliver more then the Scriptures do, and make other Rules and Canons equal to Scriptures. In which excess, they do not only make the Apocryphal Books, (Books that have always had a favourable aspect, and benigne countenance from the Church of God) equal to Canonical Scriptures, But they make their decretal Epistles of their Popes and of their Extravagants, (as they call them) and their occasional Bulls, nay their Bull-baitings, their Buls fighting, and crossing and contradicting one another, equal to Canonical Scripture. So that these men have put the salvation of the world, upon another science, upon another profession; It is not the Divine, that is the Minister of salvation, but the Canonist. I must not determine my belief in the Apostles Creed, nor in Athanasius, nor in that of the Nicen Fathers; not only not the Scriptures, but not the Councils, nor Fathers must give the Materials, and Elements of my faith, but the Canon law; for so they rule it: Gratian that hath collected the sentences of Fathers and Councils, and digested them into heads of Divinity, he is no rule of our belief, because, say they, he is no part of the body of the Canon law; But they that first compiled the Decretals, and the Extravagants, and they who have since recompiled more Decretals, and more Extravagants, the Clementins, and the Sextins, and of late years the Septims, with those of John the 22. these make up the body of the Canon law, and these must be our Rule; what to believe. How long? Till they fall out with some State, with whom they are friends yet, or grown friends with some State, that they are fallen out with now; and then upon a new Decretal, a new Extravagant, I must contract a new, or enlarge, or restrain my old belief. Certainly, as in natural things, the assiduity takes off the admiration, (The rising, and the setting of the sun, would be a miracle to him, that should see it but once) and as in civil things, the profuseness, and the communication, and the indifferency takes off the Dignity, (for, as gold is gold still, the heaviest metal of all, yet if it be beat into leaf gold, I can blow it away; so Honor is honor still, the worthyest object of the worthyest spirits, and the noblest reward of the greatest Princes, yet the more have it, the less every one hath of it) So in the Roman Church, they have not found a better way to justify their blasphemy of the insufficiency of the Scriptures, then by making contemptible writings, as sufficient as Scriptures, equal to Scripture. If they could make me believe, the Scriptures were no more sufficient then their Decretals, and Extravagants, I should easily confess there were no Scriptures sufficient for salvation. And farther we press not this evidence, how far they depart from this rule, Take heed what you hear, How much less, and how much more then Christ gave, they give, but pass to the third acceptation of these words, as, in a fair accommodation, they are spoken to you, who are now as the Apostles were then, Hearers, Take heed what you hear.

And into this part I enter with such a protestation, as perchance may not become me: That this is the first time in all my life, (I date my life from my Ministry; for I received mercy, as I received the ministry, as the Apostle speaks) this is the first time, that in the exercise of my Ministry, I wished the King away; That ever I had any kind of loathness that the King should hear all that I said. Here, for a little while, it will be a little otherwise; because in this branch, I am led, to speak of some particular duties of subjects; and in my poor way, I have thought it somewhat an Eccentrique motion, and off of the natural Poles, to speak of the Duties of subjects before the King, or of the duties of Kings, in public and popular Congregations. As every man is a world in himself, so every man hath a Church in himself; and as Christ referred the Church for hearing to the Scriptures, so every man hath Scriptures in his own heart, to hearken to. Obedience to Superiors, and charity to others, are In-nate Scriptures; Obedience and Charity, are the Natural mans, the Civil mans, the Moral mans Old and New Testament. Take heed, that is, observe what you hear from them, and they will direct you well. And first, Take heed what you hear, is, take heed that you hear; That you do hearken to them, whom you should hear. Our Savior saith, He that is of God, heareth his words; ye therefore hear them not, because you are not his. Transferre this to a civil application; to obedience to Superiors. Christ makes account that he hath argued safely so; If you hear him not, you are none of his. If you hear him not in his Laws, hear him not in his Proclamations, hear him not in the Declarations of his wants and necessities, you are none of his, that is, you had rather you were none of his: There is a Nolumus hunc regnare smothered in our breasts, if we will not hear, and we had rather we might divest our Allegiance, rather we might be no subjects. By the Law, he that was willing to continue in the service of his Master, was willing to be bored in the ear, willing to testify a readiness of hearing and obedience. And when David describes the refractary man so, He is like the deaf Adder, that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of Charmers, charming never so wisely, that word Charmer, signifies an eloquent, a persuasive man, a powerful speaker; this Viper will not hear such. And for the sins of a Nation, when those sins come to the height, God will first inflict that punishment in the Prophet Jeremiah, I will send Serpents, Cockatrices amongst you, which will not be charmed, that is, venomous, and mutinous, and seditious spirits, upon whom, no language, no reason, no counsel, no persuasion can prevail; And then, he will second, and aggravate that punishment, with that in Isaiah, The Lord shall take from Jerusalem, the man of war, and the Judge, and the Prophet, and the honourable man, and the Counseller, and the eloquent Orator. As when they will not embrace religious duties, God shall take away their Preachers, so when they will not believe their Civil dangers, God shall take from them the spirit of persuasibility, and the power of perswasiveness towards them, from them who should work upon them; and leave them a miserable example of that fearful rule, whom God will destroy, he will infatuate first; from that Nation from whom God will depart, as he is the Lord of hosts, and not fight their battels, he will depart first, as he is the Angel of the great counsel, and not enlighten their understandings, that they might see their dangers. The Potion of jealousy, was a bitter potion, and a putrefying potion, where it was to be ministered; and it was to be ministered to them, who gave the occasion of the jealousy. Now not to have brought Saul presents, not to have contributed to his present wars, and his present wants, this occasioned the jealousy; for so, says the text, They despised Saul, and brought him no presents; This was evidence enough of their contempt, That they brought him no presents. And where jealousies are so occasioned, much bitterness may follow; many bitter potions may be administered; many bitter pills may be swallowed. And therefore, take heed that you hear, and hear so, as may in one act testify your obedience to Superiors, and charity towards others, who are already enwrapped in the same miseries, that may reach you; for obedience and charity are an Old, and a New Testament.

Take heed that you hear them whom God hath appointed to speak to you; But, when you come abroad, take heed what you hear; for, certainly, the Devil doth not cast in more snares at the eye of man, then at the ear. Our Savior Christ proposes it as some remedy against a mischief, That if the eye offend thee, thou mayst pull it out, and if thy hand or foot offend thee, thou mayst cut it off, and thou art safe from that offence. But he does not name nor mention the ear: for, if the ear betray thee, though thou do cut it off, yet thou art open to that way of treason still, still thou canst hear. Where one man libels with the tongue, or hand, a hundred libel with the ear; One man speaks, or writes, but a hundred applaud and countenance a calumny. Therefore sepi aures tuas spinis, as the Vulgate reads that place, hedge thine ears with thorns; that he that would whisper a calumny in thine ear, against another man, may be pricked with those thorns, that is, may discern from thee, that he is not welcome to thee, and so forbear; or if he will press upon thee, those thorns may prick thee, and warn thee that there is an uncharitable office done which thou shouldest not countenance.

Neither only may thy charity towards another, be violated by such a whisperer, but thine own safety endangered; And therefore, Take heed what you hear. There are two dangerous sorts of men, whom we call Auricularios, Earwigs transformed into men. And certainly there is no Lycanthropy so dangerous, not when men are changed into devouring wolfs, as when these Earwigs are metamorphosed into men. The first sort is of those, who take us into their ears; the other, that put themselves into ours. The first are they, that receive Auricular confessions; in which a man will propose to his Confessar, treasonable and bloody purposes; and if he allow them, then it is no longer a confession, but a consultation, and he may disclose it to any, whom he may thereby draw in; But if his Confessar disallow it, then it retains the nature of a confession still, and being delivered under that Seal, it may not be revealed, though the concealing cost Christendom, or, (as they express it) all the souls, that Christ hath died for. And of these Earwigs, of these Auricular men, we had shrewd experience in the carriage of that treason, the Emphatical Treason, in respect of which, all other Treasons are but Trespasses, all Rebellions but Ryots, all Battayls but Frays. But then, the more frequent, and the more dangerous Earwig is he, that upon pretence of trusting thee with a secret, betrays thee, and therefore Take heed what you hear. Bartelus that great Lawyer, had delivered it for law, that whosoever hears treason, and reveals it not, is a Traitor. And though Baldus, a great Lawyer, and one between whom, and Bartolus, the scales are even, say, That Bartolus his soul, and all their souls that follow him in that opinion, burn in hell for that uncharitableness, yet, to verify that, that the most do go to hell, the most do follow Bartolus, and so thy danger, that huntest after the knowledge of great secrets, is the greater, and therefore, Take heed what you hear. Arridet tibi homo, & instar privati sermones occupat, says the little great Epictetus, or Arrian upon him, a man will put himself into thy company, and speak in the confidence of a dear friend, and then, De Principe inclementer loquitur, he comes to speak boldly and irreverently of the greatest persons; and thou thinkest thou hast found Exemplum & monumentum fidei, a rare, a noble, an ingenuous, a free, and confident Spirit, Et pertexis, quod prior inceperat; Thou doest but say on that which he was saying, and make up his sentence, or doest but believe him, or doest but not say, that thou doest not believe him, and thy few words, thy no words, may cost thee thy life. Per ornamenta ferit, says the Patriarch, and Oracle of Moral men, Seneca; This whisperer wounds thee, and with a stilletta of gold, he strangles thee with scarfs of silk, he smothers thee with the down of Phoenixes, he stifles thee with a perfume of Ambar, he destroys thee by praising thee, overthrows thee by exalting thee, and undoes thee by trusting thee; By trusting thee with those secrets that bring thee into a desperate perplexity, Aut alium accusare in subsidium tui, (as the Patriarch, and Oracle of States-men, Tacitus, says) Either to betray another, that pretends to have trusted thee, or to perish thy self, for the saving of another, that plotted to betray thee. And therefore, if you can hear a good Organ at Church, and have the music of a domestic peace at home, peace in thy walls, peace in thy bosom, never hearken after the music of sphears, never hunt after the knowledge of higher secrets, then appertain to thee; But since Christ hath made you Regale Sacerdotium, Kings and Priests, in your proportion, Take heed what you hear, in derogation of either the State, or the Church.

In declaring ill affections towards others, the Holy Ghost hath imprinted these steps. First, he begins at home, in Nature, He that curseth Father or Mother shall surely be put to death; and then, as families grow out into Cities, the Holy Ghost goes out of the house, into the consideration of the State, and says, Thou shalt not curse the Ruler of the people, no Magistrate. And from thence he comes to the highest upon earth, for in Samuel, it comes to a cursing of the Lords Anointed; and from thence to the highest in heaven, Whosoever curseth his God, shall bear his sin; and as though both those grew out of one another, The cursing of the King, and the cursing of God, the Prophet Isaiah hath joined them together, They shall be hungry, says he, (indigent, poor, penurious) and they shall fret, (be transported with ungodly passion) and they shall curse their King and their God: If they do one, they will do the other. The Devil remembers from what height he is fallen, and therefore still clambers upward, and still directs all our sins, in his end, upon God: Our end, in a sin, may be pleasure, or profit, or satisfaction of affections, or passions; but the Devils end in all is, that God may be violated and dishonoured in that sin: And therefore by casting in ill conceptions and distasts, first, against Parents and Masters at home, and then against subordinate Magistrates abroad, and so against the Supreme upon earth, He brings us to ill conceptions and distasts against God himself; first, to think it liberty to be under no Governor, and then, liberty to be under no God; when as, only those two services, of a gracious God, and of a good King, are perfect freedom. Therefore the wise King Solomon meets with this distemper in the root, at first ebullition, in the heart; Curse not the King, no not in thy thought; for, that Thought hath a tongue, and hath spoken, and said Amen in the ears of God; That which thy heart hath said, though the Law have not, though the Jury have not, though the Peers have not, God hath heard thee say. The word which Solomon uses there, is Iadung; and that our Translators have in the margin called Conscience; Curse not the King, no not in thy conscience; Do not thou pronounce, that whatsoever thou dislikest, cannot consist with a good conscience; never make thy private conscience the rule of public actions; for to constitute a Rectitude, or an Obliquity in any public action, there enter more circumstances, then can have fallen in thy knowledge. But the word that Selomon takes there, Iadang, signifies properly all ways of acquiring knowledge, and Hearing is one of them, and therefore, Take heed what you hear: Come not so near evil speaking, as to delight to hear them, that delight to speak evil of Superiors. A man may have a good breath in himself, and yet be deadly infected, if he stand in an ill air; a man may stand in a cloud, in a mist, in a fog of blasphemers, till, in the sight of God, himself shall be dissolved into a blasphemous wretch, and in that cloud, in that mist, God shall not know him, that endured the hearing, from him, that adventured the speaking of those blasphemies. The ear, in such cases, is as the clift in the wall, that receives the voice, and then the Echo is below, in the heart; for the most part, the heart affords a return, and an inclination to those things that are willingly received at the ear; The Echo returns the last syllables; The heart concludes with his conclusions, whom we have been willing to hearken unto. We make Satyrs; and we look that the world should call that wit; when God knows, that that is in a great part, self-guiltiness, and we do but reprehend those things, which we our selves have done, we cry out upon the illness of the times, and we make the times ill: so the calumniator whispers those things, which are true, no where, but in himself. But thy greater danger, is that mischievous purpose, (which we spake of before) to endanger thee by hearing, and to entangle thee in that Dilemma, of which, an ingenuous man abhors one part, as much as a conscientious man does the other, That thou must be a Delinquent, or an Accuser, a Traitor or an Informor: God hath imprinted in thee characters of a better office, and of more dignity, of a Royal Priesthood; as you have sparks of Royalty in your souls, Take heed what you hear of State-government; as you have sparks of holy fire, and Priesthood in your souls, Take heed what you hear of Church-government, which is the other consideration.

The Church is the spouse of Christ: Noble husbands do not easily admit defamations of their wives. Very religious Kings may have had wives, that may have retained some tincture, some impressions of error, which they may have sucked in their infancy, from another Church, and yet would be loth, those wives should be publikely traduced to be Heretics, or passionately proclaimed to be Idolaters for all that. A Church may lack something of exact perfection, and yet that Church should not be said to be a supporter of Antichrist, or a limb of the beast, or a thirster after the cup of Babylon, for all that. From extream to extream, from east to west, the Angels themselves cannot come, but by passing the middle way between; from that extream impurity, in which Antichrist had damped the Church of God, to that intemerate purity, in which Christ had constituted his Church, the most Angelical Reformers cannot come, but by touching, yea, and stepping upon some things, in the way. He that is come to any end, remembers when he was not at the middle way; he was not there as soon as he set out. It is the posture reserved for heaven, to sit down, at the right hand of God; Here our consolation is, that God reaches out his hand to the receiving of those who come towards him; And nearer to him, and to the institutions of his Christ, can no Church, no not of the Reformation, be said to have come, then ours does. It is an ill nature in any man, to be rather apt to conceive jealousies, and to suspect his Mothers honor, or his sisters chastity, then a strange womans. It is an irreverent unthankfulness, to think worse of that Church, which hath bred us, and fed us, and led us thus far towards God, then of a foreign Church, though Reformed too, and in a good degree. How often have I heard our Church condemned abroad, for opinions, which our Church never held? And how often have I heard foreign Churches exalted and magnified at home, for some things in the observation of the Sabbath, and in the administration of the Sacrament, which, indeed, those Churches do not hold, nor practise? Take heed what you hear; And that ill, which you hear of your own Church, at home, by Gods abundant goodness to it, is not true; And, I would all that good, which you hear of Churches abroad, were true; but I must but wish, that it were so, and pray that it may be so, and praise God, for those good degrees towards it, which they have attained; But no Church in the world, gives us occasion of emulation towards them, or of undervaluing Gods blessings upon ours. And therefore, as to us, who pretend an ambassage from him, if we make our selves unworthy of that employment, God shall say, What hast thou to do, to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee? So to them, that hearken greedily after defamations of the persons and actions of his Church, God shall say, Why takest thou mine Ordinance into thy construction, or my servants into thy consideration, since thou hatest my yoke, and proposest to thy self no other end, in defaming others, then a licentious liberty, and an uncontrolled impunity in thy self? As you are Christians, God hath given you a Royal Priesthood; be so Noble, be so Holy, as to take heed what you hear, of State and Church, and of those persons, whom God hath called Gods, in both those firmaments. And, for conclusion of all, Take heed what you hear of yourselves.

Men speak to you, and God speaks to you, and the Devil does speak to you too; Take heed what you hear of all three. In all three the words look two ways; for, in them, there is both a Videte, and a Cavete, first see that you do hear them, and then take heed what you hear from them. Men will speak; and they will speak of you: Men will discourse, and you must be their subject; Men will declame, and you must be their Theme. And truly you should desire to be so: As only man can speak, so only man can desire to be spoken of. If gold could speak, if gold could wish, gold would not be content to lie in the dark, in the mine, but would desire to come abroad, to entertain Armies, or to erect, or endow Civil, or Ecclesiastical buildings. He that desires to Print a book, should much more desire, to be a book; to do some such exemplar things, as men might read, and relate, and profit by. He that hath done nothing worth the speaking of, hath not kept the world in reparations, for his Tenement and his Term. Videte, see that you do hear, That you do give occasion to be spoken of, that you do deserve the praise, the thanks, the testimony, the approbation of the good men of your own times, for that shall deliver you over fairly to posterity. But then, Cavete, Take heed what you hear, that you suffer not these approbations to swerve, or swell into flattery: for, it is better to hear the Rebuke of the wise, then to hear the songs of fools, says the wise King: And, when the flatterer speaks thee faire, says he, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; And, (by the way) the Holy Ghost at any time, had as lieve say seventy millions, as seven; for seven is the holy Ghosts Cyphar of infinite; There are infinite abominations, in the flatterers heart. And of these flatterers, these wasps, that swarm in all sweet, and warm places, and have a better outside then the Be, (the Wasp hath a better shape, and a better shape, and a better appearance then the Be, but a sharper and a stronger sting, and, at last, no honey) of these, no authors of any books of the Bible, have warned us so much, and armed us so well, as those two Royal Authors, those two great Kings, David, and Solomon; In likelihood because they, as such, had been most offered at by them, and could best give a true character of them, as David does, Their words are smoother then butter, but war is in their hearts, and softer then oil, and yet they are naked swords. Videte, Cavete, see that you do hear, that you give good men occasion to speak well of you; But take heed what you hear, that you encourage not a flatterer, by your over easy acceptation of his praises.

Man speaks; and God speaks too; and first Videte, see that you do hear him; for, as he that fears God, fears nothing else, so he that hears God hears nothing else, that can terrify him. Ab Auditione mala non timebit, says David, a good man shall not be afraid of evil tydings, for his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. A rumor shall come one year, says Jeremiah, and next year another rumor; new inventions from Satan, for new intimidations; but still he is at home, for he dwells in God. Videte, see that you hear him; But then Cavete, take heed what you hear, even from God himself, that you mistake not what God says, for as all Gods pardons have an Ita quòd se bene gerat; He whom God pardons, for that that is past, is bound to the good behavior for the future, so all Gods promises have a Si audiertis, si volueritis, if I hearken, if I obey, I shall eat the good things of the land; otherwise I shall sterve, body, and soul. There is a Vives proposed to me, I may conceive justly an infallibility of eternal life, but still it is; fac hoc & vives, this I must do, and then I shall live; otherwise, moriar, and morte moriar, I shall dy both ways, body and soul. There is not much asked of Joshua, but something there is; It is but a Tantummodo hoc, only this; but a Tantummodo hoc, an only this there is, Only be thou valiant, and of a good courage; forsake not the cause of God, and God will never forsake thee. There is not much asked of Iairus, for the resuscitation of his dead daughter, but something there is, it is Tantummodo hoc, but only this; but an only this there is, Tantummodo crede, & non metuas; do not mistrust Christ, do not disable Christ, from doing a miracle, in thy behalf, by not believing; as, in one place, where he came, it is said that Christ could not do much, by reason of their unbeleefe. Hear God there, where God speaks to thee, and then thou shalt hear, that, that he speaks to thee. Above, in heaven, in his decrees, he speaks to himself, to the Trinity: In the Church, and in the execution of those decrees, he speaks to thee. Climb not up, to the search of unsearchable things, to the finding out of investigable things, as Tertullian speaks; but look to that which is near thee; not so much to those Decrees which have no conditions, as to be able to plead conditions performed, or, at least, a holy sorrow, that thou hast not performed them. Videte, Cavete; see that you do hear God, else every rumor will scatter you; But take heed what you hear, else you may come to call conditional things absolute.

And lastly, since Satan will be speaking too, Videte, be sure you do hear him, be sure you discern it to be his voice, and know what leads you into temptation. For, you may hear a voice that shall say, youth must have pleasures, and greatness must have State, and charge must have support. And this voice may bring a young man to transfer all his wantoness upon his years, when it is the effect of high diet, or licentious discourse, or wanton Images admitted, and cherished in his fancy; and this voice may bring great officers, to transfer their inaccessibleness, upon necessary State, when it is an effect of their own laziness, or indulgence to their pleasures; and this voice may bring rich landlords to transfer all their oppression of tenants, to the necessity of supporting the charge of wives and children, when it is an effect of their profuseness and prodigality. Nay you may hear a voice, that may call you to this place, and yet be his voice; which is that, which Saint Augustine confesses and laments, that even to these places persons come to look upon one another, that can meet no where else. Videte; see you do hear, that you do discern the voice; for, that is never Gods voice that puts upon any man, a necessity of sinning, out of his years and constitution, out of his calling and profession, out of his place, and station, out of the age, and times that he lives in, out of the pleasure of them, that he lives upon, or out of the charge of them, that live upon him. But then, Cavete, take heed what you hear from him too, especially then, when he speaks to thee upon thy death-bed, at thy last transmigration; then when thine ears shall be deaf, with the cries of a distressed, and a distracted family, and with the found, and the change of the found of thy last bell; then when thou shalt hear a hollow voice in thy self, upbraiding thee, that thou hast violated all thy Makers laws, worn out all thy Saviours merits, frustrated all the endeavors of his blessed Spirit upon thee, evacuated all thine own Repentances, with relapses; then when thou shalt see, or seem to see his hand turning the stream of thy Saviours blood into another channel, and telling thee, here's enough for Jew and Turk, but not a drop for thee; then when in that multiplying glass of Despair, which he shall present, every sinful thought shall have the proportion of an Act, and every Act, of a Habit, when every Circumstance of every sin, shall enter into the nature of the sin it self, and vary the sin, and constitute a particular sin; and every particular sin, shall be a sin against the holy Ghost; Take heed what you hear; and be but able to say to Satan then, as Christ said to Peter, in his name, Vade retro Satan, come after me Satan, come after me tomorrow; come a minute after my soul is departed from this body, come to me, where I shall be then, and when thou seest me washed in the blood of my Savior, clothed in the righteousness of my Savior, lodged in the bosom of my Savior, crowned with the merits of my Savior, confess, that upon my death-bed, thou wast a lyer, and wouldst have been a murderer, and the Lord shall, and I, in him, shall rebuke thee. See that yee refuse not him, that speaketh, says the Apostle; not any that speaks in his name; but especially not him, whom he names there, that speaks better things, then the blood of Abel; for, the blood of Abel speaks but by way of example, and imitation; the blood of Christ Jesus, by way of Ransom, and satisfaction. Hear what that blood says for you, in the ears of the Father, and then no singing of the flatterer, no lisping of the tempter, no roaring of the accuser, no thunder of the destroyer shall shake thy holy constancy. Take heed what you hear, remember what you have heard; and the God of heaven, for his Son Christ Jesus sake, by the working of his blessed Spirit, prosper and emprove both endeavors in you. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXVIII.

GEN. 1. 26. And God said, Let us make man, in our Image, after our likeness.

Preached to the King, at the Court in April, 1629.

NEver such a frame, so soon set up, as this, in this Chapter. For, for the thing it self, there is no other thing to compare it with. For it is All, it is the whole world. And for the time, there was no other time to compare it with, for this was the beginning of time, In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth. That Earth, which in some thousands of years, men could not look over, nor discern what form it had: (for neither Lactantius, almost three hundred years after Christ, nor Saint Augustine, more then one hundred years after him, would believe the earth to be round) that earth, which no man, in his person, is ever said to have compassed, till our age; That earth which is too much for man yet, (for, as yet, a very great part of the earth is unpeopled) that earth, which, if we will cast it all but into a Mappe, costs many Months labor to grave it, nay, if we will cast but a piece of an acre of it, into a garden, costs many years labor to fashion, and furnish it: All that earth, and then, that heaven, which spreads so far, as that subtle men have, with some appearance of probability, imagined, that in that heaven, in those manifold Sphears of the Planets, and the Stars, there are many earths, many worlds, as big as this, which we inhabite; That earth and that heaven, which spent God himself, Almighty God, six days in furnishing; Moses sets up in a few syllables, in one line, In principio, in the beginning God created heaven and earth. If a Livy or a Guicciardine, or such extensive and voluminous authors, had had this story in hand; God must have made another world, to have made them a Library to hold their Books, of the making of this world. Into what Wire would they have drawn out this earth? Into what leaf-gold would they have beat out these heavens? It may assist our conjecture herein to consider, that amongst those men, who proceed with a sober modesty, and limitation in their writing, and make a conscience not to clog the world with unnecessary books; yet the volumes which are written by them, upon this beginning of Genesis, are scarce less then infinite, God did no more but say, let this and this be done; And Moses does no more but say, that upon Gods saying it was done. God required not nature to help him to do it: Moses required not reason to help him to be believed. The holy Ghost hovered upon the waters, and so God wrought: The holy Ghost hovered upon Moses too, and so he wrote. And we believe these things to be so, by the same Spirit in Moses mouth, by which they were made so, in Gods hand. Only, beloved, remember, that a frame may be thrown down in much less time, then it was set up. A child, an Ape can give fire to a Canon: And a vapor can shake the earth: And these fires, and these vapours can throw down cities in minutes. When Christ said, Throw down this Temple, and in three days I will raise it; they never stopped upon the consideration of throwing it down; they knew, that might be soon done; but they wondered at the speedy raising of it. Now, if all this earth were made in that minute, may not all come to the general dissolution in this minute? Or may not thy acres, thy miles, thy Shires shrink into feet, and so few feet, as shall but make up thy grave? When he who was a great Lord, must be but a Cottager; and not so well; for a Cottager must have so many acres to his Cottage; but in this case, a little piece of an acre, five foot, is become the house it self; The house, and the land; the grave is all: lower then that; the grave is the Land, and the Tenement, and the Tenant too: He that lies in it, becomes the same earth, that he lies in. They all make but one earth, and but a little of it. But then raise thy self to a higher hope again. God hath made better land, the land of promise; a stronger city, the new Jerusalem; and, inhabitants for that everlasting city, Vs; whom he made, not by saying, let there be men, but by consultation, by deliberation, God said, Let us make Man in our Image, after our likeness.

We shall pursue our great examples; God in doing, Moses in saying; and so make hast in applying the parts. But first receive them. And since we have the whole world in contemplation, consider in these words, the four quarters of the world, by application, by fair, and just accommodation of the words. First, in the first word, that God speaks here, Faciamus, Let us, us in the plural, (a denotation of divers Persons in one Godhead) we consider our East where we must begin, at the knowledge and confession of the Trinity. For, though in the way to heaven, we be travelled beyond the Gentiles, when we come to confess but one God, (The Gentiles could not do that) yet we are still among the Jews, if we think that one God to be but one Person. Christs name is Oriens the East, if we will be named by him, (called Christians) we must look to this East, the confession of the Trinity. There's then our East, in the Faciamus; Let us, us make man: And then our West is in the next word, Faciamus Hominem. Though we be thus made, made by the counsel, made by the concurrence, made by the hand of the whole Trinity; yet we are made but men: And man, but in the appellation, in this text: and man there, is but Adam: and Adam is but earth, but red earth, earth died red in blood, in Soul-blood, the blood of our own souls. To that west we must all come, to the earth. The Sun knoweth his going down: Even the Sun for all his glory, and height, hath a going down, and he knows it. The highest cannot divest mortality, nor the discomfort of mortality. When you see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway you say there cometh a storm, says Christ. When out of the region of your west, that is, your later days, there comes a cloud, a sickness, you feel a storm, even the best moral constancy is shook. But this cloud, and this storm, and this west there must be; And that's our second consideration. But then the next words design a North, a strong, and powerful North, to scatter, and dissipate these clouds: Ad imaginem, & similitudinem; That we are made according to a pattern, to an image, to a likeness, which God proposed to himself for the making of man. This consideration, that God did not rest, in that praeexistent matter, out of which he made all other creatures, and produced their forms, out of their matter, for the making of man; but took a forme, a pattern, a model for that work, this is the North wind, that is called upon to carry out of the perfumes of the garden, to spread the goodness of God abroad. This is that which is intended in Job; faire weather cometh out of the North. Our West, our declination is in this, that we are but earth, our North, our dissipation of that darkness, is in this, that we are not all earth; Though we be of that matter, we have another forme, another image, another likeness. And then, whose image and likeness it is, is our Meridional height, our noon, our south point, our highest elevation. In Imagine nostra, Let us make man in our Image. Though our Sun set at noon, as the Prophet Amos speaks; though we die in our youth, or fall in our height: yet even in that Sunset, we shall have a Noon. For this Image of God shall never depart from our soul; no, not when that soul departs from our body. And that's our South, our Meridional height and glory. And when we have thus seen this East, in the faciamus, That I am the workmanship and care of the whole Trinity; And this West in the Hominem, That for all that, my matter, my substance, is but earth: But then a North, a power of overcomming that low and miserable state, In Imagine; That though in my matter, the earth, I must die; yet in my forme, in that Image which I am made by, I cannot die: and after all a South, a knowledge, That this Image is not the Image of Angels, to whom we shall be like, but it is by the same life, by which those Angels themselves were made; the Image of God himself: When I am gone over this east, and west, and north, and south, here in this world; I should be as sorry as Alexander was, if there were no more worlds. But there is another world, which these considerations will discover, and lead us to, in which our joy, and our glory shall be, to see that God essentially, and face to face, after whose Image, and likeness we were made before. But as that Pilot which had harbored his ship so far within land, as that he must have change of Winds, in all the points of the Compass, to bring her out, cannot hope to bring her our in one day: So being to transport you, by occasion of these words, from this world to the next; and in this world, through all the Compass, all the four quarters thereof; I cannot hope to make all this voyage to day. To day we shall consider only our longitude, our East, and West; and our North and South at another tyde, and another gale.

First then we look towards our East, the fountain of light, and of life. There this world began; the Creation was in the east. And there our next world began too. There the gates of heaven opened to us; and opened to us in the gates of death; for, our heaven is the death of our Savior, and there he lived, and died there, and there he looked into our west, from the east, from his Terasse, from his Pinacle, from his exaltation (as himself calls it) the Cross. The light which arises to us, in this east, the knowledge which we receive in this first word of our text, Faciamus, Let us, (where God speaking of himself, speaks in the Plural) is the manifestation of the Trinity; the Trinity, which is the first letter in his Alphabet, that ever thinks to read his name in the book of life; The first note in his Gammut, that ever thinks to sing his part, in the Quire of the Triumphant Church. Let him him have done as much, as all the Worthies; and suffered as much as all Natures Martyrs, the penurious Philosophers; let him have known as much, as they that pretend to know, Omne scibile, all that can be known nay, and in-intelligibilia, In-investigabilia, (as Turtullian speaks) un-understandable things, unrevealed decrees of God; Let him have writ as much, as Aristotle writ, or as is written upon Aristotle, which is, multiplication enough: yet he hath not learnt to spel, that hath not learnt the Trinity; not learnt to pronounce the first word that cannot bring three Persons into one God. The subject of natural philosophy, are the four elements, which God made, the Subject of supernatural philosophy, Divinity, are the three elements, which God is; and (if we may so speak) which make God, that is, constitute God, notify God to us, Father, Son, and holy Ghost. The natural man, that hearkens to his own heart, and the law written there; may produce Actions that are good, good in the nature and matter, and substance of the work. He may relieve the poor, he may defend the oppressed. But yet, he is but as an open field; and though he be not absolutely barren, he bears but grass. The godly man; he that hath taken in the knowledge of a great, and a powerful God, and enclosed, and hedged in himself with the fear of God, may produce actions better then the mere natural man, because he referres his actions to the glory of his imagined God. But yet this man, though he be more fruitful, then the former, more then a grassy field; yet he is but a ploughed field, and he bears but corn, and corn, God knows, choked with weeds. But that man, who hath taken hold of God, by those handles, by which God hath delivered, and manifested himself in the notions of Father, Son, and holy Ghost; he is no field, but a garden, a Garden of Gods planting, a Paradise in which grow all things good to eat, and good to see, (spiritual resection, and spiritual recreation too) and all things good to cure. He hath his being, and his diet, and his physic, there, in the knowledge of the Trinity; his being in the mercy of the Father; his physic in the merits of the Son; his diet, his daily bread, in the daily visitations of the holy Ghost. God is not pleased, not satisfied, with our bare knowledge, that there is a God. For, it is impossible to please God, without faith: and there is no such exercise of faith, in the knowledge of a God, but that reason, and nature will bring a man to it. When we profess God, in the Creed, by way of belief, Credo in Deum, I believe in God, in the same article we profess him to be a Father too, I believe in God the father Almighty: And that notion, the Father, necessarily implies, a second Person, a Son: And then we profess him to be maker of heaven, and earth: And in the Creation, the holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, is expressly named. So that we do but exercise reason, and nature, in directing our selves upon God. We exercise not faith, (and without faith it is impossible to please God) till we come to that, which is above nature, till we apprehend a Trinity. We know God, we believe in the Trinity. The Gentiles multiplied Gods. There were almost as many Gods as men, that believed in them. And I am got out of that thrust, and out of that noise, when I am come into the knowledge of one God: But I am got above stairs, got in the Bedchamber, when I am come to see the Trinity, and to apprehend not only, that I am in the care of a great, and a powerful God, but that there is a Father, that made me, a Son that Redeemed me, a holy Ghost, that applies this good purpose of the Father, and Son, upon me, to me. The root of all is God. But it is not the way to receive fruits, to dig to the root, but to reach to the boughs. I reach for my Creation to the Father, for my Redemption to the Son, for my sanctification to the holy Ghost: and so I make the knowledge of God, a Tree of life unto me; and not otherwise. Truly it is a sad Contemplation, to see Christians scratch and wound & tear one another, with the ignominious invectives, and uncharitable names of of Heretic, and Schismatique, about Ceremonial, and Problematical, and indeed but Critical, verbal controversies: and in the mean time, the foundation of all, the Trinity, undermined by those numerous, those multitudinous Anthills of Socinians, that overflow some parts of the Christian world, and multiply every where. And therefore the Adversaries of the Reformation, were wise in their generation, when to supplant the credit of both those great assistants of the Reformation, Luther, and Calvin, they impute to Calvin fundamental error, in the Divinity of the second Person of the Trinity, the Son; And they impute to Luther, a detestation of the very word Trinity, and an expunction thereof, in all places of the Liturgy, where the Church had received that word. They knew well, if that slander could prevail against those persons, nothing that they could say, could prevail upon any good Christians. But though in our doctrine, we keep up the Trinity aright; yet, God knows, in our practice we do not. I hope it cannot be said of any of us, that he believes not the Trinity, but who amongst us thinks of the Trinity, considers the Trinity? Father, and Son do naturally imply, and induce one another; and therefore they fall oftener into our consideration. But for the holy Ghost, who feels him, when he feels him? Who takes knowledge of his working, when he works? Indeed our Fathers provided not well enough, for the worship of the whole Trinity, nor of the holy Ghost in particular, in the endowments of the Church, and Consecrations of Churches, and possessions in their names. What a spiritual dominion, in the prayers, and worship of the people, what a temporal dominion in the possessions of the world had the Virgin Mary, Queen of heaven, and Queen of earth too? She was made joint purchaser of the Church with her Son, and had as much of the worship thereof as he, though she paid her fine in milk, and he in blood. And, till a new Sect came in her Sons name; and in his name, the name of Jesus, took the regency so far out of that Queen Mothers hands, and sued out her Sons Livery so far, as that though her name be used, the Virgin Mary is but a feoffee in trust, for them; all was hers. And if God oppose not these new usurpers of the world, posterity will soon see Saint Ignatius worth all the Trinity in possessions and endowments, as that sumptuous, and splendid foundation of his first Temple at Rome, may well create a conjecture, and suspicion. Travail no farther; Survey but this City; And of their not one hundred Churches, the Virgin Mary hath a dozen; The Trinity hath but one; Christ hath but one; The holy Ghost hath none. But not to go into the City, nor out of our selves; which of us doth truly, and considerately ascribe the comforts, that he receives in dangers, or in distresses, to that God of all comfort, the comforter, the holy Ghost? We know who procured us, our Presentation, and our dispensation: you know who procured you, your offices, and your honours. Shall I ever forget who gave me my comfort in sickness? Who gave me my comfort, in the troubles, and perplexities, and diffidencies of my conscience? The holy Ghost brought you hither. The holy Ghost opens your ears, and your hearts here. Till in all your distresses, you can say, Veni Creator Spiritus, come holy Ghost, and that you feel a comfort in his comming: you can never say Veni Domine Iesu, come Lord Jesus, come to Judgement. Never to consider the day of Judgement, is a fearful thing. But to consider the day of Judgement, without the comfort of the holy Ghost, is a thousand times more fearful.

This Seal then, this impression, this notion of the Trinity being set upon us, in the first Creation, in this first plural word of our text, Faciamus; Let us, (for Father, Son, and holy Ghost made man) and this seal being re-imprinted upon us, in our second Creation, our Regeneration, in Baptism, (Man is Baptized In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the holy Ghost) This notion of the Trinity being our distinctive Character, from Jew and Gentile; This being our specifique forme: why does not this our forme, this soul of our Religion denominate us? why are we not called Trinitarians, a name that would embrace the profession of all the Persons, but only Christians, which limits, and determines us upon one? The first Christians, amongst whose manifold Persecutions, scorn, and contempt, was not the least, in contempt and scorn, were called Nazarai, Nazarites in the mouth of the Vulgar; and Galilaei, Galilaeans in the mouth of Iulian; and Iudaei, Jews in the mouth of Nero, when he imputed the burning of Rome (his own act) to them; and Christiani; (as Tertullian says) that they could accuse Christians of nothing, but the name of Christians; and yet they could not call them by their right name, but Chrestians, (which was gentle, quiet, easy patient men, made to be trodden upon) They gave them divers names in scorn, yet never called them Trinitarians. Christians themselves amongst themselves were called by divers names in the Primitive Church, for distinction; Fideles, the faithful, and Fratres, the Brethren, and Discipuli, Disciples; And, after, by common custom at Antioch, Christians. And after that, (they say) by a council which the Apostles held, at the same city, at Antioch, there passed an express Canon of the Church, that they should be called so, Christians. And before they had this name at Antioch, first by common usage, after by a determinate Canon, to be called Christians, from Christ, at Alexandria, they were called (most likely from the name of Jesus) Iesseans. And so Philo Iudaeus, in that book, which he writes De Iessenis, intends by his Iessenis, Christians; and in divers parts of the world, into which Christians travel now, they find some elements; some fragments, some reliques of the Christian Religion, in the practice of some religious Men, whom those Countreys call, Iesseans, doubtlesly derived, and continued from the name of Jesus. So that the Christians took many names to themselves for distinction, (Brethren, Disciples, faithful) And they had many names put upon them in scorn, (Nazarites, Galilaeans, Jews, Chrestians,) and yet they were never, never by Custom amongst themselves, never by commandment from the Church, never in contempt from others, called Trinitarians, the profession of the Trinity being their specifique forme, and distinctive Character; why so? Beloved, the name of Christ involved all: not only, because it is a name, that hath a dignity in it, more then the rest; (for Christ is an anointed person, a King, a Messiah, and so the profession of that Name, conferrs an Unction, a regal and a holy Unction upon us) (for we are thereby a royal Priesthood) but because in the profession of Christ, the whole Trinity is professed. How often doth the Son say, that the Father sent him? And how often that the Father will, and that he will send the Holy Ghost? This is life eternal, says he, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent; And sent, with all power, in heaven, and in earth. This must be professed, Father, and Son; And then, no man can profess this; no man can call Jesus the Lord, but by the holy Ghost. So that, as in the persecutions, in the primitive Church, the Martyrs which were hurried to tumultuary executions, and could not be heard for noise, in excusing themselves of Treason, and sedition, and crimes imputed to them, to make their cause odious, did use in the sight of the people, (who might see a gesture, though they could not hear a protestation) to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, to let them know, for what profession they died, so that the sign of the Cross, in that use thereof, in that time, was an abridgement, and a Catechism of the whole Christian Religion, so is the professing of the name of Christ, the professing of the whole Trinity. As he that confesses one God, is got beyond the meer natural man; And he that confesses a Son of God, beyond him: So is neither got to the full truth, till he confess the holy Ghost too. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. The fool, says David, The emphatical fool, in the highest degree of folly. But though he get beyond that folly, he is a fool still, if he say there is no Christ; For Christ is the wisdom of the Father: And a fool still, if he deny the holy Ghost: for who shall apply Christ to him, but the holy Ghost? Etiam Christiani Nomen superficies est, is excellently said by Tertullian, the name, and profession of a Christian, is but a superficial outside, sprinckled upon my face in Baptism, or upon mine outward profession, in actions: if I have not in my heart, a sense of the holy Ghost, that he applies the mercies of the Father, and the merits of the Son to my soul. As Saint Paul said, Whilst you are without Christ, you are without God. It is an Atheism, with Saint Paul, to be no Christian. So whilst you are without the holy Ghost, you are without Christ. It is Antichristian, to deny, or not to confess the holy Ghost. For as Christ is the manifestation of the Father, so the holy Ghost is the application of the Son. Therein only are we Christians, that in the profession of that name of Christ, we profess all the three Persons: In Christ is the whole Trinity; because, as the Father sent him, so he sent the holy Ghost. And that's our specifique forme, that's our distinctive Character, from Jew, and Gentile, the Trinity.

But then, is this specifique forme, this distinctive Character, the notion of the Trinity, conveyed to us, exhibited, imprinted upon us, in our Creation, in this word, this plural word, in the mouth of our one God, Faciamus, Let us, us. It is here, and here first. This is an intimation, and the first intimation, of the Trinity, from the mouth of God, in all the Bible. It is true, that though the same faith, which is necessary to salvation now, were always necessary, and so in the old Testament, they were bound to believe in Christ, as well, as in the new, and consequently in the whole Trinity; yet not so explicitly, nor so particularly as now. Christ calling upon God, in the name of Father, says; I have manifested thy name unto the men, thou gavest me out of the world. They were men appropriated to God, men exempt out of the world; yet they had not a clear manifestation of Father, and Son, the doctrine of the Trinity, till Christ manifested it to them. I have manifested thy name, thy name of Father. And therefore the Jewish Rabbis say that the Septuagint, the first translators of the Bible, did disguise some places of the Scriptures, in their translation, lest Ptolomee, for whom they translated it, should be scandalized wh those places, & that this textwasone of those places, which say they though it be otherwise in the Copies of the Septuagint, which we have now, they translated Faciam, and not Faciamus, that God said here, I will make, in the singular; and not, Let us make man, in the plural, lest that plural word, might have misled King Ptolomee to think, that the Jews had a plural Religion, and worshipped divers Gods. So good an evidence do they confess this text to be, for some kind of plurality in the Godhead.

Here then God notified the Trinity; and here first, for though we accept an intimation of the Trinity, in the first line of the Bible, where Moses joins a plural name, Elohim, with a singular Verbe, Bara; and so in construction, it is, Creavit Dii, Gods created heaven, and earth: yet, besides that, that is rather a mysterious collection, then an evident conclusion of a plurality of Persons, though we read that in that first verse, before this in the twenty sixth, yet Moses writ that, which is in the beginning of this chapter, more then two thousand years after God spake this, that is in our text. So long was Gods plural, before Moses his plural; Gods Faciamus, before Moses Bara Elohim. So that in this text, begins our Catechism. Here we have, and here first the saving knowledge of the Trinity.

For, when God spake here, to whom could God speak but to God? Non cum rebus Creandis, nox cum re nihili, says, Athanasius, speaking of Gods first speaking, when he said, of the first creature, Let there be light. God spake not then to future things, to things that were not. When God spake first, there was no creature at all, to speak to. When God spake of the making of man, there were creatures. But were there any creatures able to create, or able to assist him, in the creation of man? Who? Angels? Some had thought so in Saint Basils time; and to them Saint Basil says, Súntne Illi? God says, let us make man to our Image, And could he say so to Angels? Are Angels and God all one? Or is that that is like an Angel, therefore like God? It was Sua Ratio, Suum verbum, Sua sapientia, says that Father, God spake to his own word, and wisdom, to his own purpose, and goodness. And the Son is the word and wisdom of God: and the holy Ghost is the goodness, and the purpose of God; that is, the administration, the dispensation of his purposes. 'Tis true, that when God speaks this over again in his Church, as he does every day, now, this minute then God speaks it to Angels; to the Angels of the Church, to his Ministers, he says Faciamus, Let us, us both together, you, and we make a man; join mine Ordinance (your preaching) with my Spirit, (says God to us) and so make man. Preach the oppressor, and preach the wanton, and preach the calumniator into another nature. Make the ravening Wolf a Man, that licentious Goat a man, that insinuating Serpent a man, by thy preaching. To day if you will hear his voice, hear us. For here he calls upon us, to join with him for the making of man. But for his first Faciamus, which is in our text; it is excellently said, Dictum in senatu, & soliloquio; It was spoken in a Senat, and yet in a solitariness; spoken in private, and yet publicly spoken; spoken where there were divers, and yet but one; one God, and three Persons.

If there were no more intended in this plural expression, us, but, (as some have conceived) that God spake here in the person of a Prince, and Sovereign Lord, and therefore spake as Princes do, in the plural, We command, and We forbid, yet Saint Gregories caution would justly fall upon it, Reverenter pensandum est, it requires a reverend consideration, if it be but so. For, God speaks so, like a King, in the plural, but seldom, but five times, (in my account) in all the Scriptures; and in all five, in cases of important consequence. In this text first, where God creates man, whom he constitutes his Viceroy in the World: here he speaks in his royal plural. And then in the next Chapter, where he extends mans term in his Vicegerency to the end of the world, in providing man, means of succession; Faciamus, Let us, us make him a helper; There he speaks in his royal plural. And then also in the third Chapter, in declaring the heinousness of mans fault, and arraigning him, and all us, in him, God says, Sicut unus ex nobis, Man is become as one of us, not content to be our Viceroy, but our selves; There's his royal plural too. And again in that declaration of his Justice, in the confusion of the builders of Babel, Descendamus, confundamus, Let us do it: And then lastly, in that great work of mingling mercy with justice, which (if we may so speak) is Gods master-piece, when he says, Quis ex nobis, who will go for us, and publish this? In these places, and these only, (and not all these neither, if we take it exactly according to the original; for in the Second, the making of Eve, though the Vulgate have it in the plural, it is indeed but singular in the Hebrew) God speaks as a King in his royal plural still. And when it is but so, Reverenter pensandum est, says that Father; it behoves us to hearken reverently to him, for Kings are Images of God; such Images of God, as have ears, and can hear; and hands and can strike. But I would ask no more premeditation at your hands, when you come to speak to God in this place, then if you sued to speak with the King: no more fear of God here, then if you went to the King, under the conscience of a guiltiness towards him; and a knowledge that he knew it. And that's your case here; Sinners, and manifest sinners. For even midnight is noon in the sight of God, and when your candles are put out, his Sun shines still. Nec quid absconditum à calcre ejus, says David, there is nothing hid from the heat thereof: not only, no sin, hid from the light thereof, from the sight of God; but not from the heat thereof, not from the wrath & indignation of God. If God speak plurally only in the Majesty of a sovereign Prince, still Reverenter pensandum, that calls for reverence. What reverence? There are national differences in outward worships, and reverences. Some worship Princes, and Parents, and Masters, in one, some in another fashion. Children kneel to ask blessing of Parents in England, but where else? Servants attend not with the same reverence upon Masters, in other nations, as with us. Accesses to their Princes are not with the same difficulty, nor the same solemnity in France, as in Turkey. But this rule goes thorough all nations, that in that disposition, and posture, and action of the body which in that place is esteemed most humble, and reverend, God is to be worshipped. Do so then here, God is your Father: ask blessing upon your knees; pray in that posture. God is your King: worship him with that worship, which is highest in our use, and estimation. We have no Grandees that stand covered to the King; where there are such, though they stand covered in the Kings presence, they do not speak to him, for matters of Grace; they do not sue to him: so ancient Canons make differences of Persons in the presence of God; where, and how, these, and these shall dispose of themselves in the Church, dignity, and age, and infirmity will induce differences. But for prayer there is no difference, one humiliation is required of all; As when the King comes in here; howsoever, they sate diversly before, all return to one manner of expressing their acknowledgement of his presence. So at the Oremus, Let us pray, let us all fall down, and worship, and kneel before the Lord our maker.

So he speaks in our text; not only as the Lord our King, intimating his providence, and administration; but as the Lord our maker, and then a maker so, as that he made us in a council, Faciamus, Let us; and that that he speaks, as in council, is another argument for reverence. For what interest, or freedom soever I have, by his favor, with any Counseller of State: yet I should surely use another manner of behavior towards him, at the Council Table, then at his own Table. So does there belong another manner of consideration to this plurality in God, to this meeting in Council, to this intimation of a Trinity, then to those other actions in which God is presented to us, singly, as one God, for so he is presented to the natural man, as well, as to us. And here enters the necessity of this knowledge, Oportet denuo nasci; without a second birth no salvation; And no second birth without Baptism; no Baptism, but in the name of Father, Son, and holy Ghost. It was the entertainment of God himself, his delight, his contemplation, for those infinite millions of generations, when he was without a world, without Creatures, to joy in one another, in the Trinity, as Gregory Nazianz: (a Poet, as well as a Father, as most of the Fathers were) expresses it: ille suae splendorem cernere formae, Gaudebat: It was the Fathers delight, to look upon himself in the Son; Numenque suum triplicique parique Luce nitens, and to see the whole Godhead, in a threefold, and an equal glory. It was Gods own delight, and it must be the delight of every Christian, upon particular occasions to carry his thoughts upon the several persons of the Trinity. If I have a bar of Iron, that bar in that forme will not nail a door; If a Sow of Lead, that Lead in that forme will not stop a leak; If a wedge of Gold, that wedge will not buy my bread. The general notion of a mighty God, may less fit my particular purposes. But I coin my gold into currant money, when I apprehend God, in the several notions of the Trinity. That if I have been a prodigal Son, I have a Father in heaven, and can go to him, and say, Father I have sinned, and be received by him. That if I be a decayed Father, and need the sustentation of mine own children; there is a Son in heaven, that will do more for me, then mine own, of what good means or what good nature so ever they be, can or will do. If I be dejected in spirit, there is a holy Spirit in heaven, which shall bear witness to my spirit, that I am the child of God. And if the ghosts of those sinners, whom I made sinners, haunt me after their deaths, in returning to my memory, and reproaching to my conscience, the heavy judgements that I have brought upon them: If after the death of mine own sin, when my appetite is dead, to some particular sin, the memory and sinful delight of passed sins, the ghosts of those sins haunt me again; yet there is a holy Ghost in heaven, that shall exorcise these, and shall overshadow me, the God of all Comfort and Consolation. God is the God of the whole world, in the general notion, as he is so, God; but he is my God, most especially, and most applyably, as he receives me in the several notions of Father, Son, and holy Ghost.

This is our East, here we see God, God in all the persons, consulting, concurring to the making of us. But then my West presents it self, that is, an occasion to humble me in the next words. He makes but Man; A man that is but Adam, but Earth. I remember four names, by which man is often called in the Scriptures: and of those four, three do absolutely carry misery in their significations: Three to one against any man, that he is miserable. One name of Man is Ish; and that they derive à Sonitu; Man is but a voice, but a sound, but a noise, he begins the noise himself, when he comes crying into the world, and when he goes out; perchance friends celebrate, perchance enemies calumniate him, with a diverse voice, a diverse noise. A melancholic man, is but a groaning; a sportful man, but a song; an active man, but a Trumpet; a mighty man, but a thunderclap. Every man but Ish, but a found, but a noise. Another name is Enosh. is meer Calamity, misery, depression. It is indeed most properly Oblivion. And so the word is most elegantly used by David, Quid est homo? where the name of man, is Enosh: And so, that which we translate What is man, that thou art mindful of him; is indeed, What is forgetfulness, that thou shouldest remember it; That thou shouldest think of that man, whom all the world hath forgotten? First, man is but a voice, but a sound. But because fame, and honor may come within that name of a sound, of a voice; therefore he is overtaken, with another damp: man is but oblivion: his fame, his name shall be forgotten. One name man hath, that hath some taste of greatness, and power in it, Gheber. And yet, I that am that man, says the Prophet, (for there that name of man Gheber is used) I am the man, that hath seen affliction, by the rod of Gods wrath. Man, Ish, is so miserable, as that he afflicts himself, cries, and whines out his own time. And man, Enosh, so miserable, as that others afflict him, and bury him, in ignominious oblivion; And man, that is Gheber, the greatest, and powerfullest of men, is yet, but that man, that may possibly, nay that may justly see affliction by the rod of Gods wrath, and from Gheber be made Adam, which is the fourth name of man, indeed the first name of man, the name in this text, and the name to which every man must refer himself, and call himself by, Earth, and red Earth.

Now God did not say of man, as of other creatures; Let the earth bring forth herbs, and fruits, and trees as upon the third day; nor let the earth bring forth cattle, and worms, as upon the sixth day, the same day that he made man; Non imperiali verbo, sed familiari manu, says Tertullian, God calls not man out with an imperious Command, but he leads him out, with a familiar, with his own hand. And it is not Fiat homo, but Faciamus; not let there be, but let us make man. Man is but an earthen vessel. 'Tis true, but when we are upon that consideration, God is the Potter. If God will be that, I am well content to be this. Let me be any thing, so that that I am be from my God, I am as well content to be a sheep, as a Lion, so God will be my Shepherd: and the Lord is my shepherd: To be a Cottage, as a Castle, so God will be the builder; And the Lord builds, and watches the City, the house, this house this City, me, To be Rye, as Wheat, so God will be the husbandman; And the Lord plants me: and waters, and weeds, and gives the increase: and to be clothed in leather, as well, as in silk, so God will be the Merchant: and he clothed me in Adam, and assures me of clothing, in clothing the Lillies of the field, and is fitting the robe of Christs righteousness to me now, this minute. Adam is as good to me as Ghebaer, a clod of earth, as a hill of earth; so God be the Potter.

God made man of earth, not of air, not of fire. Man hath many offices, that appertain to this world, and whilst he is here, must not withdraw himself, from those offices of mutual society, upon a pretence of zeal, or better serving God in a retired life. A ship will no more come to the harbor without Ballast, then without Sails; a man will no more get to heaven, without discharging his duties to other men, then without doing them to God himself. Man liveth not by bread only, says Christ; But yet he liveth by bread too. Every man must do the duties; every man must bear the incumbrances of some calling.

Pulvises: Thou art earth, he whom thou treadest upon is no less; and he that treads upon thee is no more. Positively it is a low thing, to be but earth; and yet thy low earth, is the quiet Center. There may be rest, acquiescence, content in the lowest Condition. But comparatively earth is as high as the highest. Challenge him, that magnifies himself above thee, to meet thee in Adam. There bid him, if he will have more Nobility, more Greatness, then thou, take more original sin then thou hast. If God have submitted thee, to as much sin, and penalty of sin, as him; he hath afforded thee as much, and as noble earth as him. And if he will not try it in the root, in your equality in Adam; yet, in another Test, another Furnace, in the grave he must. There all dusts are equal. Except an Epitaph tell me, who lies there, I cannot tell by the dust; nor by the Epitaph, know which is the dust it speaks of, if another have been laid before, or after in the same grave. Nor can any Epitaph be confident in saying here lies; but here was laid. For, so various, so vicissitudinary is all this world, as that even the dust of the grave hath revolutions. As the motions of an upper Sphere, imprint a motion in a lower Sphere, other then naturally it would have: So the changes of this life work after death. And, as envy supplants, and removes us alive; a shovel removes us, and throws us out of our grave, after death. No limbeque, no weights can tell you, this is dust Royal, this Plebeian dust: no Commission, no Inquisition can say, this is Catholic, this is Heretical dust. All lie alike; and all shall rise alike: alike, that is, at once, and upon one Command. The Saint cannot acclerate; The Reprobate cannot retard the Resurrection. And all that rise to the right hand, shall be equally Kings: and all at the left, equally, what? The worst name we can call them by, or affect them with, is Devil. And then they shall have bodies to be tormented in, which Devills have not. Miserable, unexpressible, unimaginable. Miserable condition, where the sufferer would be glad to be but a Devil; where it were some happiness, and some kind of life, to be able to dye; and a great preferment, to be nothing.

He made us all of earth, and all of red earth. Our earth was red, even when it was in Gods hands: a redness that amounts to a shamefastness, to a blushing at our own infirmities, is imprinted in us, by Gods hand. For this redness, is but a Conscience, a guiltiness of needing a continual supply, and succession of more, and more grace. And we are all red, red so, even from the beginning, and in our best state. Adam had, the Angells had thus much of this infirmity, that though they had a great measure of grace, they needed more. The prodigal child grew poor enough, after he had received his portion: and he may be wicked enough, that trusts upon former, or present grace, and seeks not more. This redness, a blushing, that is, an acknowledgement, that we could not subsist, with any measure of faith, except we pray for more faith; nor of grace, except we seek more grace, we have from the hand of God: And another redness from his hand too, the blood of his Son, so that blood was effused by Christ, in the value of the ransom for All, and accepted by God, in the value thereof for All: and this redness, is, in the nature thereof, as extensive, as the redness derived from Adam is; Both reach to all. So we were red earth in the hands of God, as redness denotes our general infirmities, and as redness denotes the blood of his Son, our Savior, all have both. But that redness, which we have contracted from blood shed by our selves, the blood of our own souls by sin, was not upon us, when we were in the hands of God. That redness is not his tincture, not his complexion. No decree of his is writ in any such red ink. Our sins are our own, and our destruction is from ourselves. We are not as accessaries, and God as principal in this soul-murder. God forbid, we are not as executioners of Gods sentence, and God the Malefactor, in this soul-damnation. God forbid. Cain came not red in his brothers blood, out of Gods hands; nor David red with Vriahs blood; nor Achitophel with his own; nor Judas with Christs, or his own. That that Pilat did illusorily, God can do truly; wash his hands from the blood of any of these men. It were a weak Plea to say, I killed not that man; but 'tis true, I commanded one, who was under my command to kill him. It is rather a prevarication, then a justification of God to say, God is not the author of sin in any man, but tis true, God makes that man sin, that sin. God is Innocency; and the beams that flow from him are of the same nature, and color. Christ when he appeared in heaven, was not red but white. His head and hairs were white, as white wool, and as snow; not head only, but hairs too. He, and that that grows from him; he, and we, as we come from his hands are white too. His Angels that provoke us to the Imitation of that pattern, are so; in white. Two men, two Angels stood by the Apostles in white apparel. The imitation is laid upon us by precept too: At all times let thy garments be white; Those actions in which thou appearest to the world, innocent. It is true, that Christ is both. My beloved is white and ruddy, says the Spouse. But the white was his own: his redness is from us. That which Zipporah said to her husband Moses in anger; the Church may say to Christ in thankfulness, Verè sponsus Sanguinum, thou art truly a bloody husband to me; Damim, sanguinum, of bloods, bloods in the plural; for all our bloods are upon him. This was a mercy to the Militant Church, that even the Triumphant Church wondered at it. They knew not Christ, when he came up to heaven in red. Who is this that cometh in red garments? Wherefore is thy apparel red, like him that treadeth in the winepress? They knew he went down in white, in entire innocency: and they wondered to see him return in red. But he satisfies them; Calcavi, you think I have trodden the winepress, and you mistake it not: I have trodden the winepress; and Calcavi solus, I have trodden it alone, all the redness, all the blood of the whole world is upon me. And as he adds Non vir de gentibus, of all people there was none with me, with me so, as to have any part in the Merit; So, of all people there was none without me; without me so, as to be excluded by me, without their own fault, from the benefit of my merit. This redness he carried up to heaven: for, by the blood of his Cross came peace, both to the things in earth, and the things in heaven. For that peccability, that possibility, of sinning, which is in the Nature of the Angels of heaven, would break out into sin, but for that confirmation, which those Angels have received in the blood of Christ. This redness he carried to heaven; and this redness he hath left upon earth, that all we miserable clods of earth, might be tempered with his blood; that in his blood exhibited in his holy and blessed Sacrament, our long robes might be made white in the blood of the Lambe: that though our sins be robes, habits of sin; though long robes, habits of long continuance in sin: yet through that redness, which our sins have cast upon him, we might come to participate of that whiteness, that righteousness, which is his own. We, that is, all we; for, as to take us in, who are of low condition, and obscure station, a cloud is made white by his sitting upon it, He sate upon a great white cloud, so to let the highest see, that they have no whiteness, but from him, he makes the Throne white by sitting upon it. He sate upon a great white Throne. It had not been great, if it had not been white. White is the color of dilatation; goodness only enlarges the Throne. It had not been white, if he had not sate upon it. That goodness only, which consists in glorifying God, and God in Christ, and Christ in the sincerity of his truth, is true whiteness. God hath no redness in himself, no anger towards us, till he considers us as sinners. God cast no redness upon us; inflicts no necessity, no constraint of sinning upon us. We have died ourselves in sins, as red as Scarlet: we have drowned our selves in such a red Sea. But as a garment, that were washed in the red Sea, would come out white, (so wonderful works hath God done at the red Sea, says David) so doth his whiteness work through our red, and makes this Adam, this red earth, Calculum candidum, that white stone, that receives a new name, not Ish, not Enosh, not Gheber, no name that tastes of misery or of vanity; but that name, renewed, and manifested, which was imprinted upon us, in our elections, the Sons of God; the irremoveable, the undisinheritable Sons of God.

Be pleased to receive this note at parting, that there is Macula Alba, a spot, and yet white, as well as a red spot: a whiteness, that is an indication of a Leprosy, as well as a redness. Whole-pelagianisme, to think nature alone sufficient; Half-pelagianisme, to think grace once received to be sufficient; Super-pelagianisme, to think our actions can bring God in debt to us, by merit, and supererogation, and Catarisme, imaginary purity, in Canonizing our selves, as present Saints, and condemning all, that differ from us, as reprobates. All these are white spots, and have the color of goodness; but are indications of leprosy. So is that that God threatens, Decorticatio ficus & albi rami, that the figtree shall be barked, and the boughs thereof left white: to be left white without bark, was an indication of a speedy withering. Ostensa candescunt, & arescunt, says Saint Gregory of that place, the bough that lies open without bark looks white, but perishes: the good works that are done openly to please men have their reward, says Christ, that is, shall never have reward. To pretend to do good, and not mean it; To do things, good in themselves, but not to good ends; to go towards good ends, but not by good ways; to make the deceiving of men, thine end; or the praise of men, thine end: all this may have a whiteness, a color of good: but all this, is a barking of the bough, and an indication of a mischievous leprosy. There is no good whiteness, but a reflection from Christ Jesus, in an humble acknowledgement that we have none of our own, and in a consident assurance, that in our worst estate we may be made partakers of his. We are all red earth. In Adam we would not, since Adam we could not, avoid sin, and the Concomitants thereof, miseries; which we have called our West, our cloud, our darkness. But then we have a North that scatters these clouds, in the next word, Ad imaginem; that we are made to another pattern, in another likeness, then our own. Faciamus hominem; so far are we gone, East, and West; which is half our Compass, and all this days voiage. For we are stroke upon the sand; and must stay another Tyde, and another gale for our North, and South.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXIX.

The second Sermon on GEN. 1. 26. And God said, Let us make man, in our Image, after our likeness.

Preached to the King, at the Court.

BY fair occasion from these words, we proposed to you the whole Compass of mans voyage, from his lanching forth in this world, to his Anchoring in the next; from his hoysing sail here, to his striking sail there. In which Compass we designed to you his four quarters; first, his East, where he must begin, the fundamental knowledge of the Trinity (for, that we found to be the specification, and distinctive Character of a Christian) where, though that be so, we showed you also, why we were not called Trinitarians, but Christians: and we showed you, the advantage, that man hath, in laying hold upon God, in these several notions; that the Prodigal son hath an indulgent Father; that the decayed Father hath an abundant Son; that the dejected spirit hath a Spirit of comfort, to fly to in heaven. And, as we showed you from Saint Paul, that it was an Atheism to be no Christian, (without God, says he, as long as without Christ) so we lamented the slackness of Christians, that they did not seriously, and particularly, consider the persons of the Trinity, and especially the holy Ghost, in their particular actions. And then we came to that consideration, whether this doctrine were established, or directly insinuated, in this plural word of our text, Faciamus, Let us, us make man: and we found that doctrine, to be here, and here first of any place in the Bible. And finding God to speak in the plural, we accepted (for a time) that interpretation, which some had made thereof; that God spake in the Person of a Sovereign Prince; and therefore (as they do) in the plural, We. And thereby having established reverence to Princes, we claimed in Gods behalf the same reverence to him: That men would demeane themselves, here, when God is spoken to in prayer, as reverently, as when they speak to the King. But after this, we found God to speak here, not only as our King; but as our maker; as God himself; and God in Counsel, Faciamus: and we applied thereunto, the difference of our respect to a Person of that honorable rank, when we came before him at the Counsel Table, and when we came to him at his own Table: and thereby advanced the seriousness of this consideration, God in the Trinity. And farther we failed not, with that our Eastern wind. Our West we considered in the next word, Hominem; that though we were made by the whole Trinity, yet the whole Trinity made us but men, and men, in this name of our text, Adam; and Adam is but earth, and that's our West, our declination, our Sunset. We passed over the four names, by which man is ordinarily expressed in the Scriptures; and we found necessary misery in three of them; and possible, nay likely misery in the fourth, in the best name. We insisted upon the name of our text, Adam, earth; and had some use of these notes; First, that if I were but earth, God was pleased to be the Potter; If I but a sheep, he a shepherd; If I but a cottage, he a builder. So he work upon me, let me be what he will. We noted that God made us earth, not air, not fire: That man hath bodily, and worldly duties to perform; and is not all Spirit in this life. Devotion, is his soul; but he hath a body of discretion, and usefulness to invest in some calling. We noted too, that in being earth, we are equal. We tried that equality, first in the root, in Adam; There if any man will be nobler earth then I, he must have more original sin then I: for that was all Adams patrimony, all that he could give. And we tried this equality in another furnace, in the grave; where there is no means to distinguish Royal from Plebeian, nor Catholic from Heretical dust. And lastly we noted, that this our earth, was red earth: and considered in what respect it was red, even in Gods hands, but found that in the blood-redness of sin, God had no hand: but sin, and destruction for sin, was wholly from our selves: which consideration, we ended with this, that there was Macula alba, a white spot of leprosy, as well, as a red; and we found the overvaluation of our own purity, and the uncharitable condemnation of all that differ from us, to be that white spot. And so far we sayled, with that Western wind. And are come to our third point in this our Compass, our North.

In this point, the North, we place our first comfort. The North is not always the comfortablest clime: nor is the North always a type of happines in the Scriptures. Many times God threatens storms from the North. But even in those Northern storms, we consider that action, that they scatter, they dissipate those clouds, which were gathered, and so induce a serenity: And so, fair weather comes from the North. And that's the use which we have of the North in this place. The consideration of our West, our low estate; that we are but earth, but red earth, died red by our selves: and that imaginary white, which appears so to us, is but a white of leprosy. This West enwraps us in heavy clouds of murmuring, in this life; that we cannot live so freely as beasts do; and in clouds of desperation for the next life; that we cannot dye so absolutely as beasts do, we dye all our lives, and yet we live after our deaths. These are our clouds; And then the North shakes these clouds. The North Wind driveth away the rain, says Solomon. There is a North in our text, that drives all those tears from our eyes. Christ calls upon the North, as well as the South, to blow upon his Garden, and to diffuse the perfumes thereof. Adversity, as well as prosperity, opens the bounty of God unto us: and oftentimes better. But that's not the benefit of the North in our present consideration. But this is it, that first our sun sets in the West. The Eastern dignity, which we received in our first Creation, as we were the work of the whole Trinity, falls under a Western cloud, that that Trinity made us but earth. And then blows our North, and scatters this cloud. That this earth hath a nobler forme, then any other part or limbe of the world. For, we are made by a fairer pattern, by a nobler Image, by a higher likeness. Faciamus; Though we make but a man, Let us make him, in our Image, after our likeness.

The variety which the holy Ghost uses here, in the pen of Moses, hath given occasion to divers, to raise divers observations, upon these words, which seem divers, Image and likeness; as also in the variety of the pharse. For it is thus conceived, and laid, in our Image and then after our likeness. I know it is a good rule, that Damascene gives, Parva, parva non sunt, ex quibus magna proveniunt: Nothing is to be neglected as little, from which great things may arise. If the consequence may be great, the thing must not be thought little. No Jod in the Scripture shall perish; therefore no Jod is superfluous. If it were superfluous, it might perish. Words, and less particles then words have busied the whole Church. In the Council of Ephesus, where Bishops in a great number excommunicated Bishops in a greater, Bishop, against Bishop, and Patriarch, against Patriarch; in which case, when both parties had made strong parties in Court, and the Emperor forbare to declare himself, on either side for a time, he was told, that he refused to assent to that, which six thousand Bishops had agreed in: the strife was but for a word, whether the blessed Virgin might be called Deipara, the mother of God, for Christipara, the mother of Christ, (which Christ all agree to be God) Nestorius, and all his party agreed with Cyrill, that she might be. In the Council of Chalcedon, the difference was not so great, as for a word composed of syllables. It was but for a syllable, whether Ex, or In. The Heretics condemned then, confessed Christ, to be Ex duabus naturis, to be composed of two natures, at first; but not to be in duabus naturis, not to consist of two natures after: and for that In, they were thrust out. In the council of Nice, it was not so much as a syllable made of letters. For it was but for one letter; whether Homoousion, or Homousion, was the issue. Where the question hath not been of divers words, nor syllables, nor letters, but only of the place of words; what tempestuous differences have risen? How much Sola fides and fides sola, changes the case? Nay where there hath been no quarrel for precedency, for transposing of words, or syllables, or letters; where there hath not been, so much as a letter in question; how much doth an accent vary a sense? An interrogation, or no interrogation will make it directly contrary. All Christian expositors read those words of Cain, My sin is greater then can be pardoned, positively; and so they are evident words of desperation. The Jews read them with an interrogation, Are my sins greater, then can be pardoned? And so they are words of compunction, and repentance. The Prophet Micah says, that Bethlehem is a small place; the Evangelist Saint Matthew says no small place. An interrogation in Micahs mouth reconciles it; Art thou a small place? amounts to that, thou art not. Sounds, voices, words must not be neglected. For, Christs forerunner John Baptist qualified himself no otherwise: He was but a voice. And Christ himself is Verbum; the Word, is the name, even of the Son of God. No doubt but Statesmen and magistrates find often the danger of having suffered small abuses to pass uncorrected. We that see State business but in the glass of story, and cannot be shut out of Chronicles, see there, upon what little objects, the eye, and the jealousy of the State is oftentimes forced to bend it self. We know in whose times in Rome a man might not weep; he might not sigh; he might not look pale; he might not be sick; but it was informed against, as a discontent, as a murmuring against the present government, and an inclination to change. And truly many times upon Damascens true ground, though not always well applied, Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. In our own Sphere, in the Church, we are sure it is so. Great inconveniencies grew upon small tolerations. Therefore in that business, which occasioned all that trouble, which we mentioned before, in the Council of Ephesus, when Saint Cyrill writ to the Clergy of his Dioces about it; at first, he says prastiterat abstinere, it had been better, these questions had not been raised. But says he, Si his nugis nos adoriantur, if they vex us with these impertinencies these trifles; And yet these which were but trifles at first, came to occasion Councells; and then to divide Council, against Council; and then to force the Emperor to take away the power of both Councells, and govern in Council, by his Vicar general, a secular Lord, sent from Court. And therefore did some of the Ancients, (particularly Philastrius) cry down some opinions for Heresies, which were not matters of faith, but of Philosophy; and even in Philosophy truly held by them, who were condemned for heretics, and mistaken by their Judges, that condemned them. Little things were called in question, left great things should pass unquestioned. And some of these upon Damascens true ground, (still true in the rule, but not always in the application) Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may be great. Descend we from those great Spheres, the State, and the Church, into a lesser, that is, the Conscience of particular men, and consider the danger of exposing those vines to little Foxes; of leaving small sins unconsidered, unrepented, uncorrected. In that glistring circle in the firmament, which we call the Galaxy, the milky way, there is not one Star of any of the six great magnitudes, which Astronomers proceed upon, belonging to that circle. It is a glorious circle, and possesses a great part of heaven: and yet is all of so little stars, as have no name, no knowledge taken of them. So certainly are there many Saints in heaven, that shine as stars; and yet are not of those great magnitudes, to have been Patriarchs, or Prophets, or Apostles, or Martyrs, or Doctors, or Virgins: but good and blessed souls, that have religiously performed the duties of inferior callings, and no more. And, as certainly are there many souls tormented in hell, that never sinned sin of any of the great magnitudes, Idolatry, Adultery, Murder, or the like; but inconsiderately have slid, and insensibly continued in the practise, and habit of lesser sins. But Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. When our Savior said, that we shall give an account of every Idle word, in the day of Judgement; what great hills of little sands will oppress us then? And, if substances of sin were removed, yet what circumstances of sin would condemn us? If idle words have this weight, there can be no word thought idle, in the Scriptures. And therefore I blame not in any, I decline not in mine own practise, the making use of the variety, and copiousness of the holy Ghost, who is ever abundant, and yet never superfluous in expressing his purpose, in change of words. And so no doubt we might do now, in observing a difference between these words in our text, Image, and likeness; and between these two forms of expressing it, in our Image, and after our likeness. This might be done: but that that must be done, will possess all our time; that is, to declare, (taking the two words for this time to be but a farther illustration of one another, Image, and likeness, to our present purpose, to be all one) what this Image, and this likeness imparts; and how this North scatters our former cloud, what our advantage is, that we are made to an Image, to a pattern; and our obligation to set a pattern before us, in all our actions.

God appointed Moses to make all that he made according to a pattern. God himself made all that he made according to a pattern. God had deposited, and laid up in himself certain forms, patterns, Idea's of every thing that he made. He made nothing of which he had not preconceived the forme, and predetermined in himself, I will make it thus. And when he had made any thing, he saw it was good; good because it answered the pattern, the Image; good, because it was like to that. And therefore, though of other creatures, God pronounced they were good, because they were presently like their pattern, that is, like that forme, which was in him for them, yet of man, he forbore to say that he was good because his conformity to his pattern was to appear after in his subsequent actions. Now, as God made man after another pattern, and therefore we have a dignity above all, that we had another manner of creation, then the rest: so have we a comfort above all, that we have another manner of Administration then the rest. God exercises another manner of Providence upon man, then upon other creatures. A Sparrow falls not without God, says Christ: yet no doubt God works otherwise in the fall of eminent persons, then in the fall of Sparrows. For yee are of more value then many Sparrows, says Christ there of every man; and some men single, are of more value then many men. God does not thank the Ant for her industry, and good-husbandry in providing for her self. God does not reward the Foxes, for concurring with Sampson in his revenge. God does not fee the Lion, which was the executioner upon the Prophet, which had disobeyed his commandment: nor those two she-Bears, which slew the petulant children, who had caluminated and reproached Elisha. God does not fee them before, nor thank them after, not take knowledge of their service. But for those men, that served Gods execution upon the Idolaters of the Goden Calfe, it is pronounced in their behalf, that therein they consecrated themselves to God; and for that service God made that tribe, the tribe of Levi his portion, his Clergy, his consecrated Tribe. So, Quiae fecisti hoc, says God to Abraham, by my self I have sworn; because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy Son thine only son: in blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thee. So neither is God angry with the dog that turns to his vomit, nor with the sow, that after her washing wallows in the mire. But of Man in that case he says; It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, if they fall away, to renew them again by repentance. The creatures live under his law; but a law imposed thus, This they shall do, this they must do. Man lives under another manner of law; This you shall do; that is, this you should do, this I would have you do: And fac hoc, do this, and you shall live; disobey, and you shall die. But yet, the choise is yours: Choose ye this day life, or death. So that this is Gods administration in the Creature, that he hath imprinted in them an Instinct, and so he hath something to preserve in them: In man his administration is this, that he hath imprinted in him a faculty of will, and election; and so hath something to reward in him. That instinct in the creature God leaves to the natural working thereof in it self: But the free will of man God visits, and assists with his grace to do supernatural things. When the creature does an extraordinary action above the nature thereof, (as, when Balaams Ass spake) the creature exercises no faculty, no will in it self; but God forced it to that it did. When man does any thing conducing to supernatural ends; though the work be Gods, the will of man is not merely passive. The will of man is but Gods agent; but still an agent it is: And an agent in another manner, then the tongue of the beast. For, the will considered, as a will, (and grace never destroys nature, nor, though it make a dead will a live will, or an ill will a good will, doth it make the will, no will) might refuse or omit that that it does. So that because we are created by another pattern, we are governed by another law, and another providence.

Go thou then the same way. If God wrought by a pattern, and writ by copy, and proceeded by a precedent, do thou so too. Never say, there is no Church without error: therefore I will be bound by none; but frame a Church of mine own, or be a Church to my self. What greater injustice, then to propose no Image, no pattern to thy self to imitate; and yet propose thy self for a pattern, for an Image to be adored? Thou wilt have singular opinions, and singular ways differing from all other men; and yet all that are not of thy opinion must be heretics; and all reprobates, that go not thy ways. Propose good patterns to thy self; and thereby become a fit pattern for others. God, we see, was the first, that made Images; and he was the first, that forbad them. He made them for imitation; he forbad them in danger of adoration. For, Qualis dementiae est id colere, quod melius est? What a drowziness, what a laziness, what a cowardliness of the soul is it, to worship that, which does but represent a better thing then it self? Worship belongs to the best, know thou thy distance, and thy period, how far to go, and where to stop. Dishonor not God by an Image in worshiping it; and yet benefit thy self by it, in following it. There is no more danger out of a picture, then out of a history, if thou intend no more in either, then example. Though thou have a West, a dark and a sad condition, that thou art but earth, a man of infirmities, and ill counsailed in thy self: yet thou hast herein a North, that scatters and dispells these clouds that God proposes to thee in his Scriptures, and otherwise; Images, patterns, of good and holy men to go by. But beyond this North this assistance of good examples of men; thou hast a South, a Meridional height, by which thou seest thine Image, they pattern, to be no copy; no other man, but the original it self, God himself: Faciamus ad nostram, Let us make man in our Image, after our likeness.

Here we consider first, where this Image is, and then what it does: first, in what part of man God hath imprinted this his Image; And then what this Image confers, and derives upon man; what it works in man. And, as when we seek God in his essence, we are advised to proceed by negatives, God is not mortal, not passible: so when we seek the Image of God in man, we begin with a negative; This Image is not in his body. Teriullian declined to think it was; nay Tertullian inclined others to think so. For he is the first, that is noted, to have been the author of that opinion, that God had a body. Yet Saint Augustine excuses Tertullian from heresy: because (says he) Tertullian might meance, that it was so sure, that there is a God; and that that God was a certain, though not a finite Essence; that God was so far from being nothing, as that he had rather a body. Because it was possible to give a good interpretation of Tertullian, that charitable Father Saint Augastine, would excuse him of heresy. I would Saint Augustines charity might prevail with them, that pretend to be Augustinianissimi, and to adore him so much in the Roman Church, not to cast the name of Heresy upon every problem; nor the name of Heretic, upon every inquirer of Truth. Saint Augustine would deliver Tertullian from heresy in a point concerning God, and they will condemn us of heresy, in every point that may be drawn to concern not the Church, but the Court of Rome; not their doctrine, but their profit. Malo de Misericordia Deo rationem reddere, quàm de crudelitate, I shall better answer God for my mildeness, then for my severity. And, though anger towards a brother, or a Raca, or a fool, will bear an action: yet he shall recover less against me at that bar, whom I have called weak, or mislead, (as I must necessary call many in the Roman Church) then he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called heretic. For, I dare call an opinion heresy for the matter, a great while before I dare call the man that holds it an heretic. For that consists much in the manner. It must be matter of faith, before the matter be heresy. But there must be pertinacy after convenient instruction, before that man be an heretic. But how excusable so ever Tertullian be herein in Saint Augustines charity: there was a whole sect of heretics, one hundred years after Tertullian, the Audiani, who over literally taking those places of Scripture, where God is said to have hands, and feet, and eyes, and ears, believed God to have a body like ours; and accordingly interpreted this text; that in that Image, and that likeness, a bodily likeness, consisted this Image of God in man. And yet even these men, these Audians, Epiphanius, who first takes knowledge of them, calls but Schismatiques, not Heretics: so loth is charity to say the worst of any. Yet we must remember them of the Roman persuasion, that they come too near giving God a body in their pictures of God the Father. And they bring the body of God, that body which God the Son hath assumed, the body of Christ too near, in their Transubstantiation: not too near our faith, (for so it cannot be brought too near; so, it is as really there as we are there) too near to our sense: not too near in the Vbi; for so it is there: There, that is, in that place to which the Sacrament extends it self. For the Sacrament extends as well to heaven, from whence it fetches grace, as to the table, from whence it delivers Bread and Wine: but too near in modo. For it comes not thither that way. We must necessarily complain, that they make Religion too bodily a thing. Our Savior Christ corrected Mary Magdalens zeal, where she flew to him, in a personal devotion; and he said, Touch me not: for I am not yet ascended to my Father. Fix your meditations upon Christ Jesus so, as he is now at the right hand of his Father in heaven, and entangle not your selves so with controversies about his body, as to lose real charity, for imaginary zeal; nor enlarge your selves so far in the pictures and Images of his body, as to worship them, more then him. As Damdscen says of God, that he is Super-principal principium, a beginning, before any beginning we can conceive; and prae-aeterna aeternitas, an eternity infinitely elder then any eternity we can imagine: so he is Super-spiritualis Spiritus, such a Super-spirit, as that the soul of man, and the substance of Angels is but a body, compared to this Spirit. God hath no body, though Tertullian disputed it; though the Audians preached it; though the Papists paint it. And therefore this Image of God is not in the body of man, that way.

Nor that way neither, which some others have assigned, that God, who hath no body as God, yet in the creation did assume that forme, which man hath now, and so made man in his Image, that is, in that forme, which he had then assumed. Some of the Ancients thought so; and some other men of great estimation in the Roman Church have thought so too; In particular, Oleaster, a great officer in the Inquisition of Spain. But great inquirers into other men, are easy neglecters of themselves. The Image of God is not in mans body this way. Nor that third way, which others have imagined; that is, that when God said, Let us make man after our likeness, God had respect to that forme, which in the fullness of time, his Son was to take upon him, upon earth. Let us make him now, (says God at first) like that which I intend hereafter, my Son shall be. For, though this were spoken before the fall of man, and so before any occasion of decreeing the sending of Christ: yet in the School a great part of great men adhered to that opinion, that God from all eternity had a purpose that his Son should become man in this world, though Adam had not fallen: Non ut Medicus, sed ut Dominus ad nobilitandum genus humanum, say they: though Christ had not come as a Redeemer, if man had not needed him by sin, but had kept his first state; yet as a Prince that desired to heap honor upon him whom he loves, to do man an honor, by his assuming that nature, Christ, say they, should have come, and to that Image, that forme, which he was to take then was man made in this text, say these imaginers. But alas, how much better were wit, and learning bestowed to prove to the Gentiles; that a Christ must come; (that they believe not) to prove to the Jews, that the Christ is come; (that they believe not) to prove to our own Consciences, that the same Christ may come again this minute to Judgment, (we live as though we believed not that) then to have filled the world, and torn the Church, with frivolous disputations, whether Christ should have come, if Adam had not fallen? Wo unto fomentors of frivolous disputations. None of these ways, not because God hath a body; not because God assumed a body, not because it was intended, that Christ should be born, before it was intended, that man should be made, is this Image of God in the body of man. Nor hath it in any other relation, respect to the body, but as we say in the School, Arguitivè, and Significativè that because God hath given man a body of a nobler forme, then any other creature; we inferre, and argue, and conclude from thence, that God is otherwise represented in man, then in any other creature. So far is this Image of God in the body, that as you see some Pictures, to which the very tables are Jewells; some. Watches, to which the very cases are Jewells, and therefore they have outward cases too; and so the Picture, and the Watch is in that outward case, of what meaner stuff soever that be: so is this Image in this body as in an outward case; so, as that you may not injure, nor enfeeble this body, neither by sinful intemperance and licentiousness, nor by inordinate fastings or other disciplines of imaginary merits, while the body is alive; (for the Image of God is in it) nor to defraud thy body of decent burial, and due solemnities after death; for the Image of God is to return to it. But yet the body is but the out-cafe, and God looks not for the gilding, or enamelling, or painting of that: but requires the labor, and cost therein to be bestowed upon the Tablet it self, in which this Image is immediately, that is the soul. And that's truly the Vbi, the place where this Image is: And there remains only now, the operation thereof, how this Image of God in the soul of man works.

The Sphere then of this intelligence, the Gallery for this Picture, the Arch for this Statue, the Table, and frame and shrine for this Image of God, is properly immediately the soul of man. Not immediately so, as that the soul of man is a part of the Essence of God: For so effentially, Christ only is the Image of God. Saint Augustine at first thought so: Putaham te Deus, Corpus Lucidum, & me frustum de illo Corpore; I took thee, ô God, (says that Father) to be a Globe of fire, and my soul a spark of that fire; thee to be a body of light, and my soul to be a beam of that light. But Saint Augustine does not only retract that in himself, but dispute against it, in the Manichees. But this Image is in our soul, as our soul is the wax, and this Image the seal. The Comparison is Saint Cyrills, and he adds well, that no seal but that, which printed the wax at first, can fit that wax, and fill that impression after. No Image, but the Image of God can fit our soul. Every other seal is too narrow, too shallow for it. The magistrate is sealed with the Lion; The woolf will not fit that seal: the Magistrate hath a power in his hands, but not oppression. Princes are sealed with the Crown; The Miter will not fit that seal. Powerfully, and graciously they protect the Church, and are supreame heads of the Church; But they minister not the Sacraments of the Church. They give preferments; but they give not the capacity of preferment. They give order who shall have; but they give not orders, by which they are enabled to have, that have. Men of inferior and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the Cross; a Rose, or a bunch of Grapes will not answer that seal. Ease, and plenty in age, must not be looked for without Crosses and labor and industry in youth. All men, Prince, and People; Clergy, and Magistrate, are sealed with the Image of God, with the profession of a conformity to him: and worldly seals will not answer that, nor fill up that seal. We should wonder to ss a Mother in the midst of many sweet Children passing her time in making babies and puppets for her own delight. We should wonder to see a man, whose Chambers and Galleries were full of curious master-pieces, thrust in a Village Fair to look upon six-penny pictures, and three farthing prints. We have all the Image of God at home, and we all make babies, fancies of honor, in our ambitions. The master-piece is our own, in our own bosom; and we thrust in country Fairs, that is, we endure the distempers of any unseasonable weather, in night-journeys, and watchings: we indure the oppositions, and scorns, and triumphs of a rival, and competitor, that seeks with us, and shares with us: we indure the guiltiness, and reproach of having deceived the trust, which a confident friend reposes in us, and solicit his wife, or daughter: we endure the decay of fortune, of body, of soul, of honor, to possess lower Pictures; pictures that are not originalls, not made by that hand of God, nature; but Artificial beauties. And for that body, we give a soul, and for that drugge, which might have been bought, where they bought it, for a shilling, we give an estate. The Image of God is more worth then all substances; and we give it, for colors, for dreams, for shadows.

But the better to prevent the loss, let us consider the having of this Image: in what respect, in what operation, this Image is in our soul. For, whether this Image, be in those faculties, which we have in Nature; or in those qualifications, which we may have in Grace; or in those super-illustrations, which the blessed shall have in Glory; hath exercised the contemplation of many. Properly this Image is in Nature; in the natural reason, and other faculties of the immortal Soul of man. For, thereupon does Saint Bernard say, Imago Dei uri potest in Gehenna, non exuri: Till the soul be burnt to ashes, to nothing, (which cannot be done no not in hell) the Image of God cannot be burnt out of that soul. For it is radically, primarily, in the very soul it self. And whether that soul be infused into the Elect, or into the Reprobate, that Image is in that soul, and as far, as he hath a soul by nature, he hath the Image of God by Nature in it. But then the seal is deeper cut, or harder pressed, or better preserved in some, then in others; and in some other considerations, then merely natural. Therefore we may consider Man who was made here to the Image of God; and of God, in three Persons, to have been made so, in Gods intendment, three ways: Man had this Image in Nature, and does deface it; he hath it also in Grace here, and so does refresh it; and he shall have it in Glory hereafter, and that shall fix it, establish it. And in every of these three, in this Trinity in man, Nature, Grace, and Glory, man hath not only the Image of God, but the Image of all the Persons of the Trinity, in every of the three capacities. He hath the Image of the Father, the Image of the Son, the Image of the holy Ghost in Nature; and all these also in Grace; and all in Glory too. How all these are in all, I cannot hope to handle particularly; not though I were upon the first grain of our sand, upon the first dram of your patience, upon the first flash of my strength. But a clear repeating of these many branches, that these things are thus, that all the Persons of the heavenly Trinity, are (in their Image) in every branch of this humane Trinity, in man, may, at least must suffice.

In Nature then, man, that is, the soul of man hath this Image, of God, of God considered in his Unity, entirely, altogether, in this, that this soul is made of nothing, proceeds of nothing. All other creatures are made of that pre-existent matter, which God had made before, so were our bodies too; But our souls of nothing. Now, not to be made at all, is to be God himself: Only God himself was never made. But to be made of nothing; to have no other parent but God, no other element but the breath of God, no other instrument but the purpose of of God, this is to be the Image of God. For this is nearest to God himself, who was never made at all, to be made of nothing. And then man, (considered in nature) is otherwise the nearest representation of God too. For the steppes, which we consider are four; First, Esse, Being; for some things have only a being, and no life, as stones: Secondly, Vivere, Living; for some things have life, and no sense; as Plants: and then, thirdly, Sentire Sense; for some things have sense, and no understanding. Which understanding and reason, man hath with his Being, and Life, and Sense; and so is in a nearer station to God, then any other creature, and a livelier Image of him, who is the root of Being, then all they, because man only hath all the declarations of Beings. Nay if we consider Gods eternity, the soul of man hath such an Image of that, as that though man had a beginning, which the original, the eternal God himself had not; yet man shall no more have an end, then the original, the eternal God himself shall have. And this Image of eternity, this past Meridian, this after-noon eternity, that is, this Perpetuity and after everlastingness is in man merely as a Natural man, without any consideration of grace. For the Reprobate can no more die, that is, come to nothing, then the Elect. It is but of the natural man, that Theodoret says, a King built a City, and erected his statue in the midst of the City; that is, God made man, and imprinted his Image in his soul. How will this King take it, (says that Father) to have his statue thrown down? Every man does so, if he do not exalt his natural faculties; If he do not hearken to the law written in his heart; if he do not as much as Plato, or as Socrates in the ways of virtuous actions, he throws down the Statue of this King; he defaces the Image of God. How would this King take it (says he) if any other Statue, especially the Statue of his enemy, should be set up in this place? Every man does so too, that embraces false opinions in matter of doctrine, or false appearances of happiness in matter of conversation. For these a natural man may avoid in many cases, without that addition of grace, which is offered to us as Christians. That comparison of other creatures to man, which is intimated in Ib, is intended but of the natural man. There speaking of Behemoth, that is, of the greatest of Creatures, he says, in our translation, that he is the chief of the ways of God: Saint Jerome hath it, Principium; and others before him, Initium viarum Dei: That when God went that progress over all the world, in the Creation thereof, he did but begin, he did but set out at Behemoth, at the best of all such Creatures; he, all they were but Initium viarum, the beginning of the ways of God. But Finis viarum, the end of his journey, and the Eve, the Vespers of his Sabbath was the making of man, even of the natural man. Behemoth, and the other creatures were Vestigia, (says the School) in them we may see, where God hath gone, for all being is from God, and so every thing that hath a being hath filiationem vestigii a testimony of Gods having passed that way, and called in there. But man hath filiationem Imaginis, an expression of his Image; and does the office of an Image or Picture, to bring him, whom it represēts, the more lively to our memory. Gods abridgement of the whole world was man. Reabridge man into his least volume, in pura naturalia, as he is but meer man, & so he hath the Image of God in his soul.

He hath it, as God is considered in his Unity, (for as God is, so the soul of man is, indivisibly, impartibly one, entire) and he hath it also, as God is notified to us in a Trinity. For as there are three Persons in the Essence of God: so there are three faculties in the Soul of man. The Attributes, and some kind of specification of the Persons of the Trinity are, Power to the Father, Wisdom to the Son, and Goodness to the holy Ghost. And the three faculties of the Soul have the Images of these three. The Understanding is the Image of the Father, that is, Power. For no man can exercise power, no man can govern well without understanding the natures and dispositions of them whom he governs. And therefore in this consists the power, which man hath over the creature, that man understands the nature of every creature, For so Adam did, when he named every creature according to the nature thereof. And by this advantage of our understanding them, and comprehending them, we master them, and so obliviscuntur quod nata sunt, says Saint Ambrose; the Lion, the Bear, the Elephant have forgot what they were born to. Induuntur quod jubentur; they invest and put on such a disposition, and such a nature, as we enjoine them, and appoint to them. Serviunt ut famuli; (as that Father pursues it elegantly) and verberantur, ut timidi: they wait upon us as servants; who, if they understood us as well, as we understand them, might be our Masters: and they receive correction from us, as though they were afraid of us; when, if they understood us, they would know, that we were not able to stand in the teeth of the Lion, in the horne of the Bull, in the heels of the Horse. And adjuvantur ut infirmi; they counterfeit a weakness, that they might be beholden to us for help: and they are content to thank us, if we afford them any rest, or any food; who, if they understood us, as well, as we do them, might tear our meat out of our throats; nay tear out our throats for their meat.

So then in this first natural faculty of the soul, the Understanding, stands the Image of the first Person, the Father, Power: and in the second faculty which is the Will, is the Image, the Attribute of the second Person the Son, which is Wisdom: for wisdom is not so much in knowing, in understanding, as in electing, in choosing, in assenting. No man needs go out of himself, nor beyond his own legend, and the history of his own actions for examples of that, that many times we know better, and choose ill ways. Wisdom is in choosing in Assenting. And then, in the third faculty of the soul, the Memory, is the Image of the third person, the holy Ghost, that is, Goodness. For to remember, to recollect our former understanding, and our former assenting, so far as to do them, to Crown them with action, that's true goodness. The office, that Christ assignes to the holy Ghost, and the goodness, which he promises in his behalf is this, that he shall bring former things to our remembrance. The wiseman places all goodness in this faculty, the memory, properly nothing can fall into the memory, but that which is past, and yet he says, Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt never do amisse. The end cannot be yet come, and yet we are bid to remember that. Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, says Saint Augustine. As all senses are called fight, in the Scriptures, (for there is Gustate Dominum, and Audit, and Palpate; Taste the Lord, and hear the Lord, and feel the Lord, and still the Videte, is added, taste, and see the Lord) so all goodness is in remembering, all goodness, (which is the Image of the holy Ghost) is in bringing our understanding and our assenting into action. Certainly beloved, if a man were like the King but in countenance, and in proportion, he himself would think somewhat better of himself, and others would be the less apt to put scorns, or injuries upon him, then if he had a Vulgar, and course aspect. With those, who have the Image of the Kings power, (the Magistrate) the Image of his Wisdom, (the Counsel) the Image of his Goodness, (the Clergy) it should be so too. There is a respect due to the Image of the King in all that have it. Now, in all these respects man, the meer natural man, hath the Image of the King of Kings. And therefore respect that Image in thy self, and exalt thy natural faculties. Aemulate those men, and be ashamed to be outgone by those men, who had no light but nature. Make thine understanding, and thy will, and thy memory (though but natural faculties) serviceable to thy God; and auxiliary and subsidiary for thy salvation. For, though they be not naturally instruments of grace; yet naturally they are susceptible of grace, and have so much in their nature, as that by grace they may be made instruments of grace: which no faculty in any creature, but man, can be. And do not think that because a natural man cannot do all, therefore he hath nothing to do for himself.

This then is the Image of God in man, the first way, in nature; and most literally this is the intention of the text. Man was this Image thus; and the room furnished with this Image was Paradise. But there is a better room then that Paradise for the second Image, (the Image of God in man by grace) that is, the Christian Church. For though for the most part this text be understood De naturalibus, of our natural faculties: yet Origen, and not only such Allegorical Expositors, but Saint Basil, and Nyssen and Ambrose, and others, who are literal enough, assign this Image of God, to consist in the gifts of Gods grace, exhibited to us here in the Church. A Christian then in that second capacity, as a Christian, and not only as a man, hath this Image of God; of God first considered entirely. And those expressions of this impression, those representations of this Image of God, in a Christian by grace, which the Apostles have exhibited to us; that we are the sons of God; the feed of God; the off-spring of God; and partakers of the divine nature, (which are high and glorious exaltations) are enlarged, and exalted by Damascene to a farther height, when he says; Sicut Deus homo, it a ego Deus; As God is man, so I am God, says Damascene. I, taken in the whole mankind, (for, so Damascene takes it out of Nazianzen; and he says, Sicut verbum caro, ita caro verbum, as God was made man, man may become God) but especially I; I, as I am wrought upon by grace, in Christ Jesus. So a Christian is made the Image of God entirely. To which expression Saint Cyrill also comes near, when he calls a Christian Deiformem hominem, man in the forme of God; which is a mysterious, and a blessed metamorphosis, and transfiguration: that, whereas it was the greatest trespass, of the greatest trespasser in the world, the Devil, to say Similis ero Altissimo, I will be like the Highest: it would be as great a trespasle in me, not to be like the Highest, not to conform my self to God, by the use of his grace, in the Christian Church. And whereas the humiliation of my Savior is in all things to be imitated by me: yet herein I am bound to depart, from his humiliation; that whereas he being in the forme of God, took the forme of a servant; I being in the forme of a servant, may, nay must take upon me the forme of God, in being Deiformis homo, a man made in Christ, the Image of God. So have I the Image of God entirely, in his unity, because I profess that faith, which is but one faith; and under the seal of the Baptism, which is but one Baptism. And then, as of this one God; so I have also the Image of the several persons of the Trinity, in this capacity, as I am a Christian, more then in my natural faculties.

The Attributes of the first Person, the Father, is Power, and none but a Christian hath power over those great Tyrants of the world, Sin, Satan, Death, and Hell. For thus my Power accrues and grows unto me. First, Possum Iudicare, I have a Power to Judge; a judiciary, a discretive power; a power to discern between a natural accident; and a Judgement of God, and will never call a Judgement, an accident; and between an ordinary occasion of conversation and atentation of Satan, Possum judicare, and then Possum resistere, which is another act of power. When I find it to be a temptation, I am able to resist it: and Possum stare, (which is another) I am able, not only to withstand, but to stand out this battel of temptations to the end; And then Possum capere, that which Christ proposes for a trial of his Disciples, Let him, that is able to receive it, receive it, I shall have power to receive the gift of continency, against all temptations of that kind. Bring it to the highest act of power, that with which Christ tried his strongest Apostles, Possum bibere calicem, I shall be able to drink of Christs Cup; even to drink his blood, and be the more innocent for that, and to power out my blood, and be the stronger for that. In Christo omnia possum, there's the fullness of Power, in Christ I can do all things, I can want, or I can abound, I can live, or I can die. And yet there is an extension of Power, beyond all this, in this Non possum peccare, being born of God in Christ, I cannot sin. This that seems to have a name of impotence, Non possum, I cannot, is the fullest omnipotence of all, I cannot sin; not sin to death; not sin with a desire to sin; not sin, with a delight in sin; but that temptation, that overthrows another, I can resist, or that sin, which being done, casts another into desperation, I can repent. And so I have the Image of the first Person, the Father, in Power.

The Image of the second Person, whose Attribute is Wisdom, I have in this, that Wisdom being the knowledge of this world, and the next, I embrace nothing in this world, but as it leads me to the next. For, thus my wisdom, my knowledge grows. First, Scio cui credidi, I know whom I have believed in: I have not mislaid my foundation; my foundation is Christ; and then Scio non moriturum; my foundation cannot sink, I know that Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more; again Scio quod desideret Spiritus, I know what my spirit, enlightened by the Spirit of God, desires; I I am not transported with illusions, and singularities of private spirits. And as in the Attribute of Power, we found an omnipotence in a Christian, so in this, there is an omniscience, Scimus, quia omnem Scientiam habemus; there's all together; we know that we have all knowledge, for all Saint Pauls universal knowledge was but this, Iesum Crucifixum, I determine not to know any thing, save Jesus Christ, and him Crucified; and then, the way by which he would proceed, and take degrees in this Wisdom, was Sultitia praedicandi, the way that God had ordained, when the world by Wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. These then are the steps of Christian Wisdom, my foundation is Christ, of Christ I enquire no more, but fundamental doctrines, him Crucified, and this I apply to my self, by his ordinace of Preaching. And in this wisdom, I have the Image of the second Person.

And then, of the third also in this, that his Attribute being Goodness, I as a true Christian, call nothing good, that conduces not to the glory of God in Christ Jesus, nor any thing ill, that draws me not from him. Thus I have an express Image of his Goodness, that Omnia cooperantur in bonum, all things work together for my good, if I love God. I shall thank my fever, bless my poverty, praise my oppressor, nay thank, and bless, and praise, even some sin of mine, which by the consequences of that sin, which may be shame, or loss, or weakness, may bring me to a happy sense of all my former sins; and shall find it to have been a good fever, a good poverty, a good oppression, yea a good sin. Vertit in bonum, says Joseph to his brethren, you thought evil, but God meant it unto good; and I shall have the benefit of my sin, according to his transmutation, that is, though I meant ill, in that sin, I shall have the good, that God meant in it. There is no evil in the City, but the Lord does it; But, if the Lord do it, it cannot be evil to me. I believe that I shall see Bona Dei, the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living, that's in heaven; but David speaks also of Signum in bonum, show me a token of good, and God will show me a present token of future good, an inward infallibility, that this very calamity shall be beneficial, and advantageous unto me. And so, as in Nature I have the Image of God, in my whole soul, and of all the three Persons, in the three faculties thereof, the Understanding, the Will, and the Memory, so in Grace, in the Christian Church, I have the same Images, of the Power of the Father, of the Wisdom of the Son, of the Goodness of the holy Ghost, in my Christian profession: And all this we shall have in a better place, then Paradise, where we considered it in nature, and a better place then the Church, as it is Militant, where we considered it in grace, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, where we consider this Image in glory; which is our last word.

There we shall have this Image of God in perfection; for, if Origen could lodge such a conceit, that in heaven, at last, all things should ebb back into God, as all things flowed from him, at first, and so there should be no other Essence but God, all should be God, even the Devil himself, how much more may we conceive an unexpressible association, (that's too far off) an assimilation, (that's not near enough) an identification, (the School would venture to say so) with God in that state of glory. Where, as the Sun by shining upon the Moon, makes the Moon a Planet, a Star, as well, as it self, which otherwise would be but the thickest, and darkest part of that Sphere, so those beams of Glory which shall issue from my God, and fall upon me, shall make me, (otherwise a clod of earth, and worse, a dark Soul, a Spirit of darkness) an Angel of Light, a Star of Glory, a something, that I cannot name now, not imagine now, nor to morrow, nor next year, but, even in that particular, I shall be like God, that as he, that asked a day to give a definition of God, the next day asked a week, and then a moneth, and then a year, so undeterminable would my imaginations be, if I should go about to think now, what I shall be there: I shall be so like God, as that the Devil himself shall not know me from God, so far, as to find any more place, to fasten a temptation upon me, then upon God, nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdom, then of Gods being driven out of it; for, though I shall not be immortal as God, yet I shall be as immortal, as God. And there's my Image of God; of God considered altogether, and in his unity, in the state of Glory.

I shall have also then; the Image of all the three Persons of the Trinity. Power is the Fathers; and a greater Power, then he exercises here, I shall have there: here he overcomes enemies; but yet here he hath enemies; there, there are none; here they cannot prevail, there they shall not be. So Wisdom is the Image of the Son; And there I shall have better Wisdom, then spiritual Wisdom it self is here: for, here our best Wisdom is, but to go towards our end, there it is rest in our end; here it is to seek to be Glorified by God, there it is, that God may be everlastingly glorified by me. The Image of the holy Ghost is Goodness, here our goodness is mixed with some ill; faith mixed with scruples and good works mixed with a love of praise, and hope of better, mixed with fear of worse. There I shall have sincere goodness, goodness impermixt, intemerate, and indeterminate goodness; so good a place, as no ill accident shall annoy it; so good company, as no impertinent, no importune person shall disorder it; so full a goodness, as no evil of sin, no evil of punishment for former sins, can enter; so good a God, as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger, nor in need of his mercy, but shall fill us first, and establish us in that fullness in the same instant; and give us a satiety, that we can with no more, and an infallibility, that we can lose none of that, and both at once. Where, as the Cabalists express our nearness to God, in that state, in that note, that the name of man, and the name of God, Adam, and Jehovah; in their numeral letters, are alike, and equal, so I would have leave, to express that inexpressible state, so far, as to say, that if there can be other world imagined besides this that is under our Moon, and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds, besides this God, to whose Image we are thus made, in Nature, in Grace, in Glory; I had rather be one of these Saints in this heaven, then of those Gods in those other worlds; I shall be like the Angels in a glorified Soul, and the Angels shall not be like me in a glorified body. The holy nobleness, and the religious ambition, that I would imprint in you, for attaining of this Glory, makes me medismiss you with this note, for the fear of missing that Glory; that as we have taken just occasion, to magnify the goodness of God, towards us, in that he speaks plurally, Faciamus, Let us, All us do this, and so powers out the blessings of the whole Trinity upon us, in this Image of himself, in every Person of the three, and in all these ways, which we have considered: so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us, God collects himself, summons himself assembles himself, musters himself, and threatens plurally too: for, of those four places in Scripture, in which only (as we noted before) God speaks of himself in a Royal plural, God speaks in anger, and in a preparation to destruction, in one of those four, entirely; as entirely, he speaks of mercy, but in one of them, in this text; here he says, merely out of mercy, Faciamus, Let us, us, all us, make man, and in the same plurality, the same universality, he says after, Descendamus & confundamus, Let us, us, all us, go down to them, and confound them, as merely out of indignation, and anger, as here out of mercy. And in the other two places where God speaks plurally, he speaks not merely in mercy, nor merely in justice, in neither; but in both he mingles both. So that God carries himself so equally herein, as that no Soul, no Church, no State, may any more promise it self patience in God, if it provoke him, then suspect anger in God, if we conform our selves to him. For, from them, that set themselves against him, God shall withdraw his Image, in all the Persons, and all the Attributes; the Father shall withdraw his Power, and we shall be enfeebled in our forces, the Son his Wisdom, and we shall be infatuated in our counsels, the holy Ghost his Goodness, and we shall be corrupted in our manners, and corrupted in our Religion, and be a prey to temporal, and spiritual enemies, and change the Image of God into the Image of the Beast: and as God loves nothing more then the Image of himself, in his Son, and then the Image of his Son Christ Jesus, in us, so he hates nothing more, then the Image of Antichrist, in them, in whom he had imprinted his Sons Image, that is, declinations towards Antichrist, or concurrencies with Antichrist in them, who were born, and baptized, and catechised, and blessed in that profession of his truth. That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause, or color of jealousies, or suspicions thereof, in them, whom he hath placed over us, to conform us to his Image, in a holy life, that sins continued, and multiplied by us against him, do not so provoke him against us, that those two great helps, the assiduity of Preaching, and the personal, and exemplary piety and constancy in our Princes, be not by our sins made unprofitable to us. For that's the height of Gods malediction upon a Nation, when the assiduity of preaching, and the example of a Religious Prince, does them no good, but aggravates their fault.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXX.

JOB 13. 15. Loe, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.

Preached to the Countess of Bedford, then at Harrington house. January 7. 1620.

THe name, by which God notified himself, to all the world, at first, was, Qui sum, I am; this was his style, in the Commission, that he gave to Moses to Pharaoh; say, that he whose name is, I am, hath sent thee, forthere, God would have it made known, that all Essence, all Being, all things, that fall out, in any time, past, or present, or future, had their dependece upon him, their derivation from him, their subsistence in him. But then, when God contracts himself into a narrower consideration, not to be considered as God, which implies the whole Trinity, but as Christ, which is only the second Person, and when he does not so much notify himself to the whole world, as to the Christian Church, then he contracts his name too, from that spacious and extensive Qui sum, I am, which includes all time, to Alpha and Omega, first and last, which are pieces of time, as we see, in several places of the Revelation, he styles himself: when God speaks to the whole world, his name is, Qui sum, I am, that all the world may confess, that all that is, is nothing, but with relation to him; when he speaks to a Christian, his name is Alpha and Omega, first and last, that a Christian may, in the very name of God, fixe his thoughts upon his beginning, and upon his end, and ever remember, that as a few years since, in his Cradle, he had no sense of that honor, those riches, those pleasures, which possesses his time now, so, God knows how few days hence, in his grave, he shall have no sense, no memory of them. Our whole life is but a parenthesis, our receiving of our soul, and delivering it back again, makes up the perfect sentence; Christ is Alpha and Omega, and our Alpha and Omega is all we are to consider.

Now, for all the letters in this Alphabet of our life, that is, for all the various accidents in the course thereof, we cannot study a better book, then the person of Job. His first letter, his Alpha, we know not, we know not his Birth; His last letter, his Omega, we know not, we know not his Death: But all his other letters, His Children, and his riches, we read over and over again, How he had them, how he lost them, and how he recovered them. By which though it appear that those temporal things do also belong to the care and provision of a godly man, yet it appears too, that neither his first care, nor his last care appertains to the things of this world, but that there is a Primùm quaerite, something to be sought for before, The kingdom of God; And there is a Memorare novissima, something to be thought on after, The Ioyes of heaven; And then, Catera adjicientur, says Christ, All other cares are allowable by way of Accessary, but not as principal. And therefore, though this History of Job, may seem to spend it self, upon the relation of Job's temporal passages, of his wealth, and poverty, of his sickness, and recovery, yet, if we consider the Alpha and Omega of the book it self, the first beginning, and the later end thereof, we shall see in both places, a care of the Holy ghost, to show us first Job's righteousness, and then his riches, first his Goodness, and then his Goods; in both places, there is a Catechism, a Confession of his faith before, and then an Inventory, and Catalogue of his wealth; for, in the first place, it is said, He was an upright and just man, and feared God, and eschewed evil, and then, his Children, and his substance follow; And in the last place, it is said, That Job was accepted by God, and that he prayed for those friends, which had vext him, and then it is, that his former substance was doubled unto him.

This world then is but an Occasional world, a world only to be used; and that but so, as though we used it not: The next world is the world to be enjoyed, and that so, as that we may joy in nothing by the way, but as it directs and conduces to that end; Nay, though we have no Joy at al, though God deny us all conveniencies here, Etiamsi occiderit, though he end a weary life, with a painful death, as there is no other hope, but in him, so there needs no other, for that alone is both abundant, and infallible in it self.

Now, as no History is more various, then Job's fortune, so is no phrase, no style, more ambiguous, then that in which Job's history is written; very many words so expressed, very many phrases so conceived, as that they admit a diverse, a contrary sense; for such an ambiguity in a single word, there is an example in the beginning, in Job's wife; we know not (from the word it self) whether it be Benedicas, or maledicas, whether she said Bless God, and die or Curse God: And for such an ambiguity, in an entire sentence, the words of this text are a pregnant, and evident example, for they may be directly, and properly thus rendered out of the Hebrew, Behold he will kill me, I will not hope; and this seems to differ much from our reading, Behold, though he kill me, yet will I trust in him. And therefore to make up that sense, which our translation hath, (which is truly the true sense of the place) we must first make this paraphrase, Behold he will kill me, I make account he will kill me, I look not for life at his hands, his will be done upon me for that; And then, the rest of the sentence (I will not hope) (as we read it in the Hebrew,) must be supplied, or rectified rather, with an Interrogation, which that language wants, and the translators use to add it, where they see the sense require it: And so reading it with an Interrogation, the Original, and our translation will constitute one and the same thing; It will be all one sense to say, with the Original, Behold he will kill me, (that is, let him kill me) yet shall not I hope in him? and to say with our translation, Behold though he kill me, yet will I hope in him: And this sense of the words, both the Chaldee paraphrase, and all translations (excepting only the Septuagint) do unanimously establish.

So then, the sense of the words being thus fixed, we shall not distract your understandings, or load your memories, with more then two parts: Those, for your ease, and to make the better impression, we will call propositum, and praepositum; first, the purpose, the resolution of a godly man, which is, to rely upon God; and then the consideration, the inducement, the debatement of this beforehand, That no Danger can present it self, which he had not thought of before, He hath carried his thoughts to the last period, he hath stirred the potion to the last scruple of Rheuharb, and Wormewod, which is in it, he hath digested the worst, he hath considered Death it self, and therefore his resolution stands unshaken, Etiamsi occiderit, Though he dy for it, yet he will trust in God.

In the first then, The Resolution, the purpose it self, we shall consider, Quem, and Quid; The Person, and the Affection: To whom Job will bear so great, and so reverent a respect; and then, what this respect is, I will trust in him. I would not stay you, upon the first branch, upon the person, as upon a particular consideration (though even that, The person upon whom, in all cases, we are to rely, be entertainement sufficient for the meditation of our whole life) but that there arises an useful observation, out of that name, by which Job delivers that person, to us, in this place: Job says, though He kill me, yet he will trust in him; but he tells us not in this verse, who this He is. And though we know, by the frame, and context, that this is God, yet we must have recourse to the third verse, to see, in what apprehension, and what notion, in what Character, and what Contemplation, in what name, and what nature, what Attribute, and what Capacity, Job conceived and proposed God to himself, when he fixed his resolution so entirely to rely upon him; for, as God is a jealous God, I am sure I have given him occasion of jealousy, and suspicion, I have multiplied my fornications, and yet am not satisfied, as the prophet speaks: As God is a Consuming fire, I have made my self fuel for the fire, and I have brought the fires of lust, and of ambition, to kindle that fire: As God visits the sins of fathers upon Children, I know not what sins my fathers and grandfathers have laid up in the treasure of Gods indignation: As God comes to my notion, in these forms, Horrendum, it were a fearful thing to flesh and blood, to deliver ones self over to him, as he is a jealous God, and a Consuming fire; But in that third verse, Job sets before him, that God, whom he conceives to be Shaddai, that is, Omnipotens, Allmighty; I will speak to the Allmighty, and I desire to dispute with God. Now, if we propose God to our selves, in that name, as he is Shaddai, we shall find that word in so many significations in the scriptures, as that no misery or calamity, no prosperity or happiness can fall upon us, but we shall still see it (of what kind so ever it be) descend from God, in this acceptation, as God is Shaddai. For, first, this word signifies Dishoner, as the Septuagint translate it in the Proverbs, He that Dishonoreth his parents, is a shameless child; There's this word; Shaddai is the name of God, and yet Shaddai signifies Dishonor. In the prophet Isaiah it signifies Depredation, a forcible and violent taking away of our goods; vae praedanti, says God in that place, woe to thee that spoyledst, and wast not spoiled; Shaddai is the name of God, and yet Shaddai is spoyle, and violence and depredation. In the prophet Jeremiah, the word is carried farther, there it signifies Destruction, and an utter Devastation; Devastati sumus, says he, we unto us, for we are Destroyed; The word is Shaddai, and is Destruction, though Shaddai be the name of God: yea, the word reaches to a more spiritual affection, it extends to the understanding, and error in that, and to the Conscience, and sin in that; for so the Septuagint makes use of this word in the Proverbs, To deceive, and to ly; and in one place of the Psalms, they interpret the word, of the Devil himself. So that, (recollecting all these heavy significations of the word) Dishonor and Disreputation, force and Depredation, Ruin and Devastation, Error and Illusion, the Devil and his Temptations, are presented to us, in the same word, as the name and power of God is, that, when so ever any of these do fall upon us, in the same instant when we see and consider the name and quality of this calamity that falls, we may see and consider the power and the purpose of God which inflicts that Calamity; I cannot call the calamity by a name, but in that name, I name God; I cannot feel an affliction, but in that very affliction I feel the hand (and, if I will, the medicinal hand) of my God. If therefore our Honor and Reputation decay, all honor was a beam of him, and if he have sucked that beam into himself, let us follow it home, let us labor to be honorable in him, glorified in him, and our honor is not extinguished in this world, but grown too glorious for this world to comprehend. If spoyle and Depredation come upon us, that we be covered with wrath, and persecuted, slain and not spared, That those that fed delicately perish in the streets, and they that were brought up in scarlet embrace the Dunghill, and that the hands of pitiful women have sodden their own children, as the prophet complains in the Lamentations; if there be such an irreparable Devastation upon us, as that we be broken as an Earthern vessel, in the breaking whereof there remains not a sheard to fetch fire from the hearth, nor water from the pit, That our estate be ruined so, as that there is nothing left, not only for future posterity, but not for the present family, yet still God and the calamity are together; God does not send it, but bring it, he is there as soon as the calamity is there, and calling that calamity by his own name, Shaddai, he would make that very calamity a candle to thee, by which thou mightst see him; that, if thou wert not so puffed up before, as that thou forgotst to say, Dominus dedit, It was the Lord that gave all, thou shouldst not be so dejected, so rebellious now, as not to say Dominus tulit, It is the Lord that hath taken, and committed to some better steward, those treasures of his, which he saw, thou dost employ to thine own danger.

Yea, if those spiritual afflictions, which reach to the understanding, and are intimated and involved in this word, in this name of God, do fall upon us, That we call for our lovers, and they deceive us (as we told you, the word did signify deceit) that is, we come to see how much we mistook the matter, when we fell in love with wordly things, (as certainly, once in our lives, though it be but upon our Death beds, we do come to discover that deceit) yea, when the deceit is so spiritual, as that it reaches not only to the understanding, but to the Conscience, that that have been deceived either with security at one time, or with anxieties, and unnecessary scruples, and impertinent perplexities at another; if this spiritual deceit have gone so high, as that we came to think our selves to be amongst them, of whom the prophet says, Ah Lord God, surely thou hast deceived thy people, and Jerusalem, that we come to suspect, that God hath misled us in a false religion all this while, and that there is a better then this, if we would look to it; if God to punish our negligence, and surfeit of his word, should suffer the prophet to prophecy lyes, That the prophet should be a fool, and the spiritual man mad, (that is, as Saint Jerome reads that place, Arreptitius, possessed, possessed with the spirit of ambition, and flattery, and temporizing, to preach to their appetites, who govern the times, and not to his instructions, who sent them to preach) yea, where this word is carried the highest of all, that this word, which is the name of God, is used for the Devil, (as we noted before, out of the Psalms) That Satan was let loose, and polluted the kingdom, and the princes thereof, with false worships, yet to what height to ever, this violence, or this deceit, or this temptation should come, God comes with it; and, with God, there is strength and wisdom, He discerns our Distresses, and is able to succor us in them; And, (as it is added there) He that is deceived, and he that deceives are his; The deceiver is his, because he catcheth the crafty in their own nets, and the deceived are his, that he may rectify and unbeguile them. So then the children of God, are the Marble, and the Ivory, upon which he works; In them his purpose is, to re-engrave, and restore his Image; and affliction, and the malignity of man, and the deceits of Heretics, and the temptations of the Devil him self, are but his instruments, his tools, to make his Image more discernible, and more dnrable in us. Job will speak to God, he will dispute with God, he will trust in God, therefore, because he is Shaddai, because neither dishonor, nor Devastation, of fortune, or understanding, or Conscience, by deceit of treacherous friends, by backsliding of false teachers, by illusion of the Devil himself, can be presented him, but the name and power of God accompanies that calamity, and he sees that they came from God, and therefore he should be patient in them, and how impatient so ever he be, he sees he must bear them, because they came from him.

But Job hath another hold too, another assurance, for his Confidence in God, from this name Shaddai; It is not only because all Calamity comes from him, and therefore should be born, or therefore must be born; but all Restitution, all Reparation of temporal, or spiritual detriment, is included in that name too, for Shaddai is Omnipotens, Almighty, He can do all things; And the consolation is brought nearer then so, in one place, it is Omnia faciens, That, not only for the future he can, but for the present, he does study, and he does accomplish my good; even then, when his hand is upon me, in a calamity, his hand is under me, to raise me up again; as he that flings a ball to the ground, or to a wall, intends in that action, that that ball should return back, so even now, when God does throw me down, it is the way that he hath chosen to return me to himself. Since therefore this name Shaddai assured Job, that all which we call Good; and all which we call Evil, that is, prosperity, and adversity, proceed from God; that God (who in the signification of this name) is able to shatter, and scatter, to devastate and depopulate, not only our estate, but our Conscience, in an instant, with the horror of his Judgements; and then is able to bind up, and consolidate all this again, with his temporal, and spiritual Comforts, since he can destroy in an instant that Temple, which was so long in building, that is, overthrow that fortune, which employed the industry of man, the favor of princes, and the ruin and supplantations of other men, for many years, to the making thereof, and then can raise this ruined Temple, this overthrown man, in three days, or hours, or minutes, as it pleaseth him, to measure his own purposes since good and bad, peace and anguish, life and death proceed from him, who is Shaddai, the Almighty God, Job had good reasons, to trust in him, in that God, though he, that God, should kill him; which Emphatical, and appliable significations of the name, hath occasioned me (though it be obvious and present to every apprehension, that God is the person, who in this text, is to be relied upon) to insist upon this, as a particular part of branch; And so we pass to that, which we proposed for a second branch, from the person, (God, and God in this notion, Shaddai, Almighty) to the respect, which he promises, Trust, Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him.

It is a higher degree of Reverence and Confidence, to trust in one, then to trust one. we see it so expressed in the Articles of our Creed; Credimus in Deum, we believe in God, and in Christ, and in the Holy Ghost; And then Credimus Ecclesiam Catholicam, we believe the Catholic Church. We will believe a honest man, that he will do as he says, we believe God much more, that he will perform his promises; we will trust God, that he will do as he says; But then, Job will trust in God, That though God have not spoken to his soul as yet, though he have not interessed him in his promises, and in his Covenant, (for Job is not conceived to be within the Covenant made by God to his people) yet he will trust in him, that in his due time, he will visit him, and will apply him those mercies, and those means, which no man, that had interest in them, can doubt, or distrust. And therefore Job professes his trust in God, in that word, which hath in the use thereof in Scriptures, ordinarily three acceptations; The word is Iakal, and Iakal signifies Expectavit Deum, his eye, his expectation was upon nothing but God; And then it signifies speravit, he Hoped for him, As he looked for nothing else, so he doubted not of him; And then it is Moratus est, As he was sure of him, so he prescribed him not a time, but humbly attended his Ieasure, and received his temporal, or spiritual blessings thankefully, whensoever it should be his pleasure to afford them.

First then, Expectavit, He trusted in him, that is, he trusted in nothing but him. For, beloved, as we have in the Schools, a short and a round way, to prove that the world was made of nothing, which is, only to ask that man, who will need deny the world to be made of nothing, of what it was made; and, if he could find a preexistent matter, of which he thought the world was made, yet we must ask him again, of what, that preexistent matter was made, and so upwards stil, till at last it must necessarily come to nothing: so we must ask that man, that will not be of Job's mind, to trust in God, in what he would trust; would he trust in his riches? who shall preserve them to him? The Law? Then he trusts in the Law. But who shall preserve the Law? The King? Then his trust is in him. And who shall preserve him? Almighty God; and therefore his trust must be at last in him. To what nation is their God come so near to them as the Lord our God is come near unto us? what nation hath laws, and ordinances, so righteous as we have? Moses said this historically of the Jew, and prophetically of us; Tis true, we are governed by a peaceable, and a just law; Moses his prophecy is fulfilled upon us, and so is Esays too, Reges nutricii, Kings shall be thy nursing fathers; It is true to us, The law is preserved to us, by a just, and a peaceful prince; but how often have the sins of the people, and their unthankfulness especially, induced new laws, and new princes? The prince, and the law, are the two most reverend, and most safe things, that man can rely upon; but yet (in other nations at least) sacred, and secular story declares, that for the iniquity of the people the law hath been perverted by princes, and for the sin of the people, the prince hath been subverted by God. Howsoever there may be some collateral, and transitory trust in by things, the radical, the fundamental trust, is only in God.

Job trusted in him, that is, in nothing but him: but then, speravit, he hoped for something at his hands; none can give but God; but God will give to none that do not hope for it, and that do not express their hope, by asking, by prayer; God scatters not his blessings, as Princes do money, in Donatives at Coronations or Triumphes, without respect upon whom they shall fall. God rained down Manna and Quailes, plentifully, abundantly; but he knew to what hand every bird, and every grain belonged. To trust in nothing else, is but half way; it is but a stupid neglecting of all; It is an ill affection to say, I look for nothing at the worlds hands, nor at Gods neither. God only hath all, and God hath made us capable of all his gifts; and therefore we must neither hope for them, any where else, nor give over our hope of them, from him, by intermitting our prayers, or our industry in a lawful calling; for we are bound to suck at those breasts which God puts out to us, and to draw at those springs, which flow from him to us; and prayer, and industry, are these breasts, and these springs; and whatsoever we have by them, we have from him. Expectavit, Job trusted not in the means, as in the fountain, but yet speravit, he doubted not, but God, who is the fountain, would, by those means, derive his blessings, temporal and spiritual, upon him.

He Hoped; now Hope is only, or principally of invisible things, for Hope that is seen, is not hope, says the Apostle. And therefore, though we may hope for temporal things, for health, wealth, strength, and liberty, and victory where Gods enemies oppress the Church, and for execution of laws, where Gods enemies undermine the Church; (for, whatsoever we may pray for, we may hope for, and all those temporal blessings are prayed for, by Christs appointment, in that petition, Give us this day our daily bread) yet our Hope is principally directed upon the invisible part, and invisible office of those visible and temporal things; which is, that by them, we may be the better able to perform religious duties to God, and duties of assistance to the world. When I expect a friend, I may go up to a window, and wish I might see a Coach; or up to a Cliff, and wish I might see a ship, but it is because I hope, that that friend is in that Coach, or that ship: so I wish, and pray, and labor for temporal things, because I hope that my soul shall be edified, and my salvation established, and God glorified by my having them: And therefore every Christian hope being especially upon spiritual things, is properly, and purposely grounded, upon these stones; that it be sps veniae, a hope of pardon, for that which is past, and then sps gratiae, a hope of Grace, to establish me in that state with God, in which, his pardon hath placed me, and lastly sps gloriae, a hope that this pardon, and this grace, shall lead me to that everlasting glory, which shall admit no night, no eclipse, no cloud.

First, for the first object of this hope, pardon, we are to consider sin, in two aspects, two apprehensions; as sin is an injury, a treason; yea a wound to God; And then as sin is a Calamity, a misery fallen inevitably upon man. Consider it the first way, and there is no hope of pardon, Nectalem Deum tuum puts, qualis nec tu debes esse, is excellently said by Saint Augustine: never imagine any other quality to be in Christ, then such, as thou, as a Christian, art bound to have in thy self. And, if a Snake have stung me, must I take up that Snake, and put it into my bosom? If so poor a snake, so poor a worm as I, have stung my Maker, have crucified my Redeemer, shall he therefore, therefore take me into his bosom, into his wounds, and save me, and glorify me? No, if I look upon sin, in that line, in that angle, as it is a wound to God, I shall come to that of Cain, Major iniquitas, my sin is greater, then can be forgiven, and to that of Judas, Peccavi tradens, I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood, that is, in Crucifying him again, who was crucified for me, in betraying his righteous blood, as much, by my unworthy receiving, as Judas did, in an unjust delivering of it. But if I look upon sin, as sin is now, the misery and calamity of man, the greater the misery appears, the more hope of pardon I have; Abyssus Abyssum, as David speaks, One Depth calls upon another; Infinite sins call for infinite mercy; and where sin did abound, grace, and mercy shall much more. First David presents the greatness of his sins, and then follows the Miserere mei, have mercy upon me, according to the greatness of thy mercy. Is there any little mercy in God? Is not all his mercy infinite, that pardons a sin done against an infinite majesty? yes; but herein the greatness appears to us, that it delivers us from a great calamity. Quia infirmus, Because I am weak, (born weak, and subject to continual infirmities) Quia oss a conturbata, Because my bones are troubled, (my best repentances, and resolutions are shook) Quia vexata anima, because my soul is in anguish, when after such resolutions, and repentances; and vows, I relapse into those sins, these miseries of his, were Davids inducements why God should pardon him, because it is thus with me, have mercy upon me. And so God himself seems to have had a diverse, a two-fold apprehension of our sins, when he says, that because all the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart, were only evil continually, therefore he would spare none, he would destroy all, and after he says, that because the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart, were evil from his youth, he would no more smite all things living, as he had done; for sin, he would destroy them, and yet for sin, he would spare them: when we examine our sins, and find them to be out of infirmity, and not out of rebellion, we may conclude Gods corrections, to be by way of Medicin, and not of poison, to be for our amendment, and not for our annihilation, and in that case, there is sps veniae, just hope of pardon.

Another degree of hope is, sps gratiae, hope of subsequent grace; for, as Saint Paul builds his argument, If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life: in like manner, every sinner may build his trust, and hope in God, He that hath pardoned us, the sins we have done, will much more assist us with his grace, that we may be able to stand in that state with him, to which he hath brought us. He that succoured us, when there was nothing in us, but his enemies, will much more send new supplies, when the town is held for him, and by his friends. And this hope of pardon, for that which is past, and of grace for the present, continues to the hope of glory to come: of which glory we apprehend strong and effectual beams here, by conforming our selves, to that Gospel, which the Apostle calls the glorious Gospel of the blessed God; and for the consummation of this glory, we do with patience abide for it, says the Apostle: which is the last of those three senses, in which we noted, this word, in which Job expresses his trust in God, to be used in the Scriptures, Iakal, moratus est; he did trust in nothing else, did trust in him, and then, he staied his leisure.

Jacob makes a solemn prayer to God, in Genesis, 32. O God of my Fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, then he remembers God of his promise, (Thou saydst unto me return, and I will do thee good) he tells him his danger, (I fear my brother Esau, will come and smite me) he makes his petition, (Deliver me from the hand of my brother) And yet, for all this, though he trusted in God, yet God infuses not that confidence into him, as to go on: He sent his present to his brother, but himself tarried there all night, says the text. Yea, God was so far, from giving him present means of deliverance, that he made him worse able to deliver himself, he wrastled with him, and lamed him: but after all, in Gods appointed time, he and his brother were reconciled. If thou pray to Almighty God, in temporal, in spiritual calamities, if God do not presently enlighten thine understanding in every controversy of Religion, in every scruple of Conscience, if he do not rectify thine estate, when it is decayed, thy reputation, when thou art reproached, yea if he wrastle with thee, and lame thee, that is, bring all to a greater impotency, and improbability of amendment then before, yet thou hast thy Rule from Job, thou hast thy example from Jacob, that to trust in God, is not only to trust in nothing else, nor only to hope particularly, for pardon, for grace, for glory from him, but it is to stay his leisure, for the outward, and inward seals of all his mercies, and his benefits, which he shall, in his time, bestow upon thee. The ambitious man must stay, till he, whose office he expects, be dead: the Covetous man must stay, till the six months be run, before his use come in. Though thou have a religious ambition, a holy covetousness even at Gods graces, thou must stay his time. Os aperui, & attraxi, says David, I opened my mouth, and panted, because I loved thy Commandments; He loved them, and he longed for them, yet he had not presently a full satisfaction. Domine labia mea aperies, says he also first it must be the Lord that must open our lippes, in all our petitions; It must not be the anguish of the calamity only, nor the desire of that which thou prayest for only, that must open thy lippes, but the Lord, that is, the glory of God: when the Lord hath opened thy lips in a rectified prayer, then follows the Aperuit manus, the eyes of all things wait upon him, & he gives them their meat in due season; he opens his hand, & filles every living thing, at his good pleasure: Here's plentiful opening, and filling, and filling every thing, but still in due season, & that due season expressed, At his pleasure: for, as that is the Nature of every thing, which God hath imprinted in it, so that is the season of every thing, which God hath appointed for it. Thou wouldst not pray for harvest at Christmas; seek not unseasonable comforts, out of Music, or Comedies, or Conversation, or Wine in thy distresses, but seek it at the hand of God, and stay his leisure, for else thou doest not trust in him.

We have now passed over all those branches, which constituted our first part, that which we called Propositum, what is the purpose and resolution of a godly man, in Job: that he would not scatter his thoughts in trusting upon Creatures, and yet he would not suffer his thoughts to vanish and evaporate, he would rest them upon something, and not leave all to fortune, he would rest upon God, and yet stay his time for the execution of his gracious purposes. There remains yet, that which we called praepositum, in which we intended, the foundation, and ground of that purpose and resolution; which seems in Job, to have been, a debatement in himself, a contemplation of all dangers, the worst was death, and yet, Si occiderit, if I dye for it, and dye at his hands, Though he kill me, yes will I trust in him. For when the children of God take that resolution, to suffer any affliction, which God shall lay upon them, patiently, and cheerfully, it must not be a sudden, a rash, an undebated resolution, but they must consider why they undertake it, and in whose strength, they shall be able to do it: They must consider what they have done for God, before they promise themselves the glory of suffering for him. When they which enterprised the building of Babel, did no more but say to one another, Come let us make brick, go to, let us build a tore, whose top may reach to heaven, how quickly they were scattered over the earth? The way is, if you mind to build, to sit down and count the cost; if you purpose to suffer for Christ, to look to your stock, your strength, and from whence it comes. The King that intends a war, in that Gospel, takes counsel, whether he be able with his tenne thousand to meet the enemy with twenty thousand. We are too weak for our enemy; the world, the flesh, and the Devil, are mustered against us; but yet, with our ten thousand, we may meet their twenty thousand, if we have put on Christ, and be armed with him, and his holy patience, and constancy; but from whom may we derive an assurance, that we shall have that armor, that patience, that constancy? First, a Christian must purpose to Do, and then in cases of necessity, to suffer: And give me leave to make this short note by the way, no man shall suffer like a Christian, that hath done nothing like a Christian: God shall thank no man, for dying for him, and his glory, that contributed nothing to his glory, in the actions of his life: very hardly shall that man be a Martyr in a persecution, that did not what he could, to keep off persecution.

Thus then Job comes first, to the Si occiderit; If he should kill me; If Gods anger should proceed so far, as so far, it may proceed. Let no man say in a sickness, or in any temporal calamity, this is the worst; for a worse thing then that may fall: five and thirty years sickness may fall upon thee; and, (as it is in that Gospel) a worse thing then that; Distraction, and desperation may fall upon thee: let no Church, no State, in any distress say, this is the worst, for only God knows, what is the worst, that God can do to us. Job does not deny here, but that this Si occiderit, if it come to a matter of life, it were another manner of trial, then either the si irruerent Sabaei, if the Sabaeans should come, and drive his Cattle, and slay his servants; more, then the si ignis caderet; if the fire of God should fall from heaven, and devout all; more, then the si ventus concuteret, if the wind of the wilderness, should shake down his house, and kill and all his children. The Devil in his malice saw, that if it came to matter of life, Job was like enough to be shook in his faith; Skin for skin, and all that ever a man hath will he give for his life. God foresaw that, in his gracious providence too; and therefore he took that clause out of Satans Commission, and inserted his veruntamen animam ejus servae, medle not with his life. The love of this life, which is natural to us, and imprinted by God in us, is not sinful: Few and evil have the days of my pilgrimage been, says lacob to Pharaeoh: though they had been evil, (which makes our days seem long) and though he were no young man, when he said so, yet the days which he had past, he thought few, and desired more. When Elijah was fled into the wilderness, and that in passion, and vehemence he said to God, Sufficit Domine, tolle animam mem, It is enough O Lord, now take away my life, if he had been heartily, thoroughly weary of his life, he needed not to have fled from Isabel, for he fled but to save his life. The Apostle had a Cupy dissolvi, a desire to be dissolved; but yet a love to his brethren corrected that desire, and made him find that it was far better for him to live. Our Savior himself, when it came to the pinch, and to the agony, had a Transeat Calix, a natural declining of death. The natural love of our natural life is not ill: It is ill, in many cases, not to love this life: to expose it to unnecessary dangers, is always ill; and there are overtures to as great sins, in hating this life, as in loving it; and therefore Job's first consideration is, si occideret, if he should kill me, if I thought he would kill me, this were enough to put me from trusting in any.

But Job's consideration went farther, then to the si occideret, Though he should kill me, for it comes to an absolute assurance that God will kill him; for so it is in the Original, Ecce occidet, Behold, I see he will kill me; I have, I can have no hope of life, at his hands. Tis all our cases; Adam might have lived, if he would, but I cannot. God hath placed an Ecce, a mark of my death, upon every thing living, that I can set mine eye upon; every thing is a remembrancer, every thing is a Judge upon me, and pronounces, I must dye. The whole frame of the world is mortal, Heaven and Earth pass away: and upon us all, there is an irrecoverable Decree past, statutum est, It is appointed to all men, that they shall once dye. But when? quickly; If thou look up into the aire, remember that thy life is but a wind; If thou see a cloud in the aire, ask St. James his question, what is your life? and give St. James his answer, It is a vapor that appeareth and vanisheth away. If thou behold a Tree, then Job gives thee a comparison of thy self; A Tree is an embleme of thy self; nay a Tree is the original, thou art but the copy, thou art not so good as it: for, There is hope of a tree (as you read there) if the root wax old, if the stock be dead, if it be cut down, yet by the sent of the waters, it will bud, but man is sick, and dyeth, and where is he? he shall not wake again, till heaven be no more. Look upon the water, and we are as that, and as that spilt upon the ground: Look to the earth, and we are not like that, but we are earth it self: At our Tables we feed upon the dead, and in the Temple we tread upon the dead: and when we meet in a Church, God hath made many echoes, many testimonies of our death, in the walls, and in the windows, and he only knows, whether he will not make another testimony of our mortality, of the youngest amongst us, before we part, and make the very place of our burial, our deathbed. Job's contemplation went so far; not only to a Si occideret, to a possibility that he might dye, but to an Ecce occidet, to an assurance that he must dye; I know there is an infallibleness in the Decree, an inevitableness in nature, an inexorableness in God, I must dye. And the word bears a third interpretation beyond this; for si occiderit, is not only, if he should kill me, as he may, if he will, and it may be he will; nor only, that I am sure he will kill me, I know I must dye, but the word may very well be also, though he have killed me. So that Job's resolution that he will trust in God, is grounded upon all these considerations, That there is exercise of our hope in God, before death, in the agony of death, and after death. First, in our good days, and in the time of health, Memorare novissima, says the wise man, we must remember our end, our death. But that we cannot forget, every thing presents that to us; But his counsel there, is, in omnibus operibus, In all thine undertakings, in all thine actions, remember thine end; when thou art in any worldly work, for advancing thy state, remember thy natural death, but especially when thou art in a sinful work, for satisfying thy lusts, remember thy spiritual death: Be afraid of this death, and thou wilt never fear the other: Thou wilt rather sigh with David, My soul hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace: Thou wilt be glad when a bodily death may deliver thee from all farther danger of a spiritual death: And thou wilt be ashamed of that imputation, which is laid upon worldly men, by St. Cyprian, Ad nostros navigamus, & ventos contrarios optamus, we pretend to be sayling homewards, and yet we desire to have the wind against us; we are travelling to the heavenly Jerusalem, and yet we are loath to come thither. Here then is the use of our hope before death, that this life shall be a gallery into a better room, and deliver us over to a better Country: for, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable.

Secondly, in the agony of death; when the Sessions are come, and that as a prisoner may look from that Tower, and see the Judge that must condemn him to morrow, come in to night; so we lye upon our death-bed, and apprehend a present judgement to be given upon us, when, if we will not plead to the Indictment, if we will stand mute, and have nothing to say to God, we are condemned already, condemned in our silence; and if we do plead, we have no plea, but guilty; nothing to say, but to confess all the Indictment against our selves; when the flesh is too weak, as that it can perform no office, and yet would fain stay here, when the soul is laden with more sins then she can bear, and yet would fain contract more; in this agony, there is this use of our hope, that as God shall then, when our bodily ears are deaf, whisper to our souls, and say, Memento homo, Remember, consider man, that thou art but dust, and art now returning into dust, so we, in our hearts, when our bodily tongues are speechless, may then say to God, as it is in Job, Memento quaeso, Remember thou also, I beseech thee, O God, that it is thou that hast made me as clay, and that it is thou that bringest me to that state again; and therefore come thou, and look to thine own work; come and let thy servant depart in peace, in having seen his salvation. My hope before death is, that this life is the way; my hope at death is, that my death shall be a door into a better state.

Lastly, the use of our hope, is after death, that God by his promise, hath made himself my debter, till he restore my body to me again, in the resurrection: My body hath sinned, and he hath not redeemed a sinner, he hath not saved a sinner, except he have redeemed and saved my body, as well as my soul. To those souls that lye under the Altar, and solicit God, for the resurrection, in the Revelation, God says, That they should rest for a little season, untill their fellow-servants, and their brethren, that should be killed, even as they were, were fulfilled. All that while, while that number is fulfilling, is our hopes exercised after our death. And therefore the bodies of the Saints of God, which have been Temples of the Holy Ghost, when the soul is gone out of them, are not to be neglected, as a sheath that had lost the knife, as a shell that had spent the kernel; but as the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus, then when that body lay dead in the grave, so the power of God, and the merit of Christ Jesus, doth not depart from the body of man, but his blood lives in our ashes, and shall in his appointed time, awaken this body again, to an everlasting glory.

Since therefore Job had, and we have this assurance before we dye, when we dye, after we are dead, it is upon good reason, that he did, and we do trust in God, though he should kill us, when he doth kill us, after he hath killed us. Especially since it is Ille, He who is spoken of before, he that kills, and gives life, he that wounds, and makes whole again. God executes by what way it pleases him; condemned persons cannot choose the manner of their death; whether God kill by sickness, by age, by the hand of the law, by the malice of man, si ille, as long as we can see that it is he, he that is Shaddai, Vastator, & Restaurator, the destroyer, and the repairer, howsoever he kill, yet he gives life too, howsoever he wound, yet he heals too, howsoever he lock us into our graves now, yet he hath the keys of hell, and death, and shall in his time, extend that voice to us all, Lazar veni for as, come forth of your putrefaction, to incorruptible glory. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXI.

JOE 36. 25. Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off.

Preached at Hanworth, to my Lord of Carlile, and his company, being the Earls of Northumberland, and Buckingham, &c. Aug. 25. 1622.

THe words are the words of Elihu; Elihu was one of Job's friends, and a meer natural man: a man not captivated, not fettered, not enthralled, in any particular forme of Religion, as the Jews were; a man not macerated with the fear of God; not infatuated with any preconceptions, which Nurses, or Godfathers, or Parents, or Church, or State had infused into him; not dejected, not suppled, not matured, not entendred, with crosses in this world, and so made apt to receive any impressions, or follow any opinions of other men, a meer natural man; and in the meer use of meer natural reason, this man says of God in his works, Every man may see it, Man may behold it afar off. It is the word of a natural man; and the holy Ghost having canonized it, sanctified it, by inserting it into the book of God, it is the word of God too. Saint Paul cites sometimes the words of secular Poets; and approves them; and then the words of those Poets, become the word of God; Elihu speaks, a natural man, and God speaks, in canonizing his words; and therefore when we speak to godly men, we are sure to be believed, for God says it; if we were to speak to natural men only, we might be believed, for Elihu, a natural man, and wise in his generation, says it, that for God in his works, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off.

Be pleased to admit, and charge your memories with this distribution of the words; Let the parts be but two, so you will be pleased to stoop, and gather, or at least to open your hands to receive some more (I must not say flowers, for things of sweetness, and of delight grow not in my ground) but simples rather, and medicinal herbs; of which as there enter many into good cordials, so in this supreme cordial, of bringing God into the eyes of man, that every man may see it, men may behold it afar off, there must necessarily arise many particulars to your consideration. I threaten you but with two parts; no farther tediousness; but I ask room for divers branches; I can promise no more shortness. The first part is a discovery, a manifestation of God to man; though that be undeniably true, Posuit tenebra s latibulum, God hath made darkness his secret place, yet it is as true, which proceeds from the same mouth, and the same pen, Amictus tanquam pallio, God covers himself with light as with a garment, he will be seen through his works: As we shall stand naked to one another, and not be ashamed of our scars, or morphews, in the sight of God, so God stands naked to the eyes of man, and is not ashamed of that humiliation, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. This proposition, this discovery, will be the first part; and the other will be a tacite answer, to a likely objection, is not God far off, and can man see at that distance? yes, he may. Man may behold that afar off. Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off.

God is the subject of both parts; God alone; one God. But in both parts there is a Trinity too; three branches in each part; for in each, there is an object, something to be apprehended; there is a means of apprehending it, it is to be seen; there is a person enabled to see it, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. But these three are not alike in each part; for in the first, that object is determined, limited; it is illud; it; God in his works. In the second, there is no object limited, for it is not illud, but there is more left to be seen; not only God in his works, as here below, but God in his glory above; Man may behold, but he does not offer to tell us what; there is an object, but another object. In the second there is a difference too, in the means of apprehending: It is but Casah in the first, it is Nibbat in the second; in that, every man may see, in the other, man may behold. And in the third, there is also a difference, the man, that may see God, is Adam; Adam is a man, made of earth, the weakest man, even in nature may see God; but the man that must behold afar off, is Enoch, and Enoch is homo aeger, a miserable man, a man that hath tasted affliction, and calamity, for that man looks after God in the next world, and as he feels God with a rod in his hand here, so he beholds God with a crown in his hand there. And of those sticks of sweet wood, of those drops of sweet gums, shall we make up this present sacrifice.

In our first part, the manifestation of God to man, the first branch is the object, the limited object, illud, Every man may see it; what is that? That which was proposed in the verse immediately before, Remember that thou magnify his work which men behold; First, it is a work, and therefore it is made, it hath an author, a creator; and then it is his work, the work of God, and therefore manifests him. It is a work, a deliberate, not a casual matter, this frame, this world. It is a work, it was begun, and made up, not an eternal matter, this frame, this world. Epiphanius says well, Omnis error à caecitate ad vanitatem; that's the progress of error; every error begins in blindness, and ignorance, but proceeds, and ends, in absurdity, in frivolousness. If men had not put out the light of nature, they might discern a creation in the world, that that was made, it is a work; but when they do put out that light, and deny a creation, into what frivolous opinions they scatter themselves; what contradictory things, men that seem constant, say; what childish, what ridiculous things, men that seem grave, and sober fathers in Philosophy, say of this world? when they have said all, this one thing will destroy all, if the world be eternal, it is God; for whatsoever had no beginning, whatsoever needed nothing to give it a being, whatsoever was always of it self, is God. So that to build up their opinions in one part, they destroy it in another; and to overthrow our Hall, they build up our Chappel; by denying that the world was made, they imply, they confess a God; for if it had no Creator, it is no Creature, it is God; so that they lose more then they gain, and they seek damnation, unthriftily, and perish prodigally; they deny the Creation, left by the Creation, we should prove God, and their very denial of a Creation, their making of the world eternal, constitutes it to be God. They deny any God, and then make a worse God.

This world then is a work, a limited, a determined, a circumscribed work; and it is Opus ejus, his work, says Elihu there. But whose? Will you lay hold upon that? upon that, that Elihu only says, Remember his work, but names none? But two verses before, (with which this verse hath connexion) he does name God. But let the work be whose it will, whosoever be this He, this He must be God, whosoever gave the first being to Creatures, must be the Creator. If you will think, that Chance did it, and fortune, then fortune must be your God; and destiny must be your God, if you think destiny did it; and therefore you were as good attribute it to the right God, for a God it must have; if it be a work, it was made, if it be a Creature, there is a Creator; and if it be his work, that He, must be God, and there are no more Gods, but one. Every man hath a delight, and complacency in knowledge, and is ashamed of ignorance, even in booklearning: a man would have a Library pro supellectile; even for a part of furniture, a man would read for Ornament: His house is not well furnished, he is not well furnished, without books. Many a man, who lets the Bible dust, and rust, because the Bible hath a kind of majesty and prerogative, and command over a man; it will not be jested withal, it will not be disputed against; a man can very hardly divest the reverence, that appertains to that book, and therefore he had rather deal with his fellows, more humane Authors, that will hear reason, and not bind his faith; many a man can let the Fathers stand, because they write out of a pious credulity, and such anticipations, and preconceptions, as the Bible hath submitted them under, and captivated them to; But if thou let the Bible, and Fathers alone, and yet love books, what book (what kind of book) canst thou take into thy hand, that proves not this world to be Opus, a work, made, and opus ejus, his work made by him, by God? Dost thou love learning, as it is expounded, dilated, by Orators? The Father of Orators testifies, Nihil tam perspicuum, there is nothing so evident, as that there is a sovereign power, that made, and governs all. Dost thou love learning, as it is contracted, brought to a quintessence, wrought to a spirit, by Philosophers? the eldest of all them in that whole book, Quod Deus latens, simul & patens est, testifies all that, and nothing but that, that as there is nothing so dark, so there is nothing so clear, nothing so remote, nothing so near us, as God. Dost thou love learning, as it is sweetened and set to music by Poets? the King of the Poets testifies the same, Mens agitat molem, & magno se corpore miscet; that is, a great, an universal spirit, that moves, a general soul, that inanimates, and agitates every piece of this world. But Saint Paul is a more powerful Orator, then Cicero, and he says, The invisible things of God, are seen by things which are made; and thereby man is made inexcuseable: Moses is an ancienter Philosopher, then Trismegistus; and his picture of God, is the Creation of the world. David is a better Poet then Virgil; and with David, Coeli enarrant, the heavens declare the glory of God; The power of oratory, in the force of persuasion, the strength of conclusions, in the pressing of Philosophy, the harmony of Poetry, in the sweetness of composition, never met in any man, so fully as in the Prophet Isaiah, nor in the Prophet Isaiah more, then where he says, Levate Oculos, Lift up your eyes, on high, and behold who hath created these things; behold them, therefore, to know that they are created, and to know who is their creator. All other authors we distinguish by tomes, by parts, by volumes; but who knows the volumes of this Author; how many volumes of Spheres involve one another, how many tomes of Gods Creatures there are? Hast thou not room, hast thou not money, hast thou not understanding, hast thou not leisure, for great volumes, for the books of heaven, (for the Mathematiques) nor for the books of Courts, (the Politiques) take but the Georgiques, the consideration of the Earth, a farm, a garden, nay seven foot of earth, a grave, and that will be book enough. Goel lower; every worm in the grave, lower, every weed upon the grave, is an abridgement of all; nay lock up all doors and windows see nothing but thy self; nay let thy self be locked up in a close prison, that thou canst not see thy self, and do but feel thy pulse; let thy pulse be intermitted, or stupefied, that thou feel not that, & do but think, and a worm, a weed, thy self, thy pulse, thy thought, are all testimonies, that All, this All and all the parts thereof, are opus, a work made, and opus ejus, his work, made by God. He that made a Clock or an Organ, will be sure to ingrave his Me fecit, such a man made me; he that builds a faire house, takes it ill, if a passenger will not ask, whose house is it; he that bred up his Son to a capacity of noble employments, looks that the world should say, he had a wise and an honourable Father; Can any man look upon the frame of this world, and not say, there is a powerful, upon the administration of this world, and not say, there is a wise and a just hand over it? Thus is the object, 'tis but Illud, the world; but such a world, as may well justify Saint Hieromes translation, who renders it Illum; not only that every man may see it, the work, the world; but may see him; God in that work.

That's the object, not only the work, but the workman, God in the work; and the means is, that man may see it; that is, by that spectacle, he may see God; what of God? how much of God? Is it his essence? For that, the resolution of the School is sufficient; Nulla visio naturalis in terris; no man can see God in this world, and live, but no man can see God in the next world, and dye, there visio is beatitudo, sight is salvation. Yet, Nulla visio corporalis in Coelis: These bodily eyes, even then, when they are glorified, shall not see the Essence of God: our mortal eyes do not see bodies here; they see no substance, they see only quantities, and dimensions; our glorified bodily eyes, shall see the glory shed out of God, but the very essence of God, those glorified bodily eyes shall not see: but the eyes of our soul, shall be so enlightened, as that they shall see God Sicuti est, even in his essence, which the best illumined & most sanctified men are very far from in this life. Now the sight of God in this text, is the knowledge of God, to see God, is but to know, that there is a God. And can man as a natural man, do that? See God so, as to know that there is a God? Can he do it? Nay can he choose but do it? The question hath divided the School; those two great, and well known families of the School, whom we call, Thomists, and Scotists: the first say, that this proposition, Deus est, is per se nota, evident in it self, and the others deny that. But yet they differ, but thus far, that Thomas thinks that it is so evident, that man cannot choose but know it, though he resist it; The other thinks, in it self, it is but so evident, as that a man may know it, if he employ his natural faculties, without going any farther; thus much, indeed, thus little, they differ. Now the holy Ghost is the God of Peace, and doth so far reconcile these two, in this text, as that first in our reading, it is, That man may see God; and that Scotus does not deny; but in the Original, in the Hebrew, it is Casu, and Casu is, viderunt: not, every man may, but every man hath seen God: Though it go not absolutely, so far, as Thomas, every man must, no man can choose but see God, yet it goes so far further then Scotus, (who ends in every man may) as that it says, every man hath seen God. So that our labor never lies in this, to prove to any man, that he may see God, but only to remember him that he hath seen God: not to make him believe that there is a God, but to make him see, that he does believe it. Quid habes, quod non accepisti? And hast thou received any thing and not seen, not known him that gave it? Who hath infused comfort into thee, into thy distresses? Thine own Moral constancy? Who infused that? Who hath imprinted terrors in thee? A damp in thine own heart? Who imprinted it? Swear to me now that thou beleevest not in God, and before midnight, thou wilt tell God, that thou dost; Miserable distemper! not to see God in the light, and see him in the dark: not to see him at noon, and see him fearfully at midnight: not to see, where we all see him, in the Congregation, and to see him with terror, in the Suburbs of despair, in the solitary chamber.

Man may, says Scotus, man must, he cannot choose, says Thomas, man hath seen God, says the holy Ghost. Man, that is, every man; and that's our last branch in this first part. The inexcusableness goes over man, over all men: Because they would not see invisible things in visible, they are inexcusable, all. Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. All sinners, all dead. Is Gods right hand shorter then his left? his mercy shrunk, and his justice stretched? no certainly; certainly every man may see him. Man cannot hide himself from God; God does not hide himself from man: not from any man. Col-Adam, Omnis home; even in that low name, that lowest acceptation of man, as he is but derived from earth, as he is but earth, he may see God. We have divers names for man in Hebrew, at least four; This that makes him but earth, Adam, is the meanest, and yet Col-Adam, Every man may see God. David calls us to the contemplation of the heavens, Coeli enarrant, and Job to the contemplation of the firmament, of the Pleiades, and Orion, and Arcturus, and the ordinances of heaven; but it is not only the Mathematician, that sees God, Demini terra, the earth is the Lords, and all that dwell therein; all, in all corners of the earth, may see him. David tells us, They that go down to the sea, in ships, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep: but it is not only the Mariner, the discoverer, that discovers God: but he that puts his hand to the plough, and looks not back, may see God there. Let him be filius terra, the son of the earth, without noble extraction, without known place, of uncertain parents, (even Melchisedeck was so) Let him be filius percussionis, the son of affliction, a man that hath inward heavy sentences, and heavy executions of the law; Let him be filius mortis, the son of death (as Saul said to Ionathan of David) a man designed to dye; nay let him be filius Belial, the son of iniquity, and of everlasting perdition, there is no lowness, no natural, no spiritual dejection so low, but that that low man may see God. Let him be filius terrae, the son of the earth, and of no body else, let him be Dominus terrae, Lord of the earth, busied upon the earth, and nothing else, let him be hospes terrae, a guest, a tenant, an inmate of the earth, half of him in the earth, and the rest no where else, this poor man, this worldly man, this dying man, may see God. To end this, you can place the sphere in no position, in no station, in which the earth can eclipse the Sun; you can place this clod of earth, man, in no ignorance, in no melancholy, in no oppression, in no sin, but that he may, but that he does see God. The Marrigold opens to the Sun, though it have no tongue to say so, the Atheist does see God, though he have not grace to confess it.

We have past through our first part, and the three branches of that; The object, God in his works, and the faculty that apprehends, seeing, that is knowing, and the person indued with the faculty, every man, even Adam. In our second part, which is a tacite answer to a likely objection, (Is not God in the highest heaven, afar off? yes; but man may see afar off) we have the same three branches too, and yet not the same; the same object, God, but in another manifestation, then in his work, in glory; the same faculty, seeing, but with other manner of eyes, glorified eyes; the same person, man, but not man, as he is Adam, a mere natural and earthly man, but man, as he is Enosh, who by having tasted Gods corrections, or by having considered the miseries of this world, is prepared for the joy and glory of the next. And in this part we will begin with the person, man; Man may behold it afar off.

How different are the ways of God, from the ways of man? the eyes of God from the eyes of man? and the ways, and eyes of a godly man, from the eyes, and ways of a man of this world? We look still upon high persons, and after high places, and from those heights, we think, we see far; but he that will see this object, must lye low; it is best discerned in the dark, in a heavy, and a calamitous fortune. The natural way is upward; I can better know a man upon the top of a steeple, then if he were half that depth in a well; but yet for higher objects, I can better see the stars of heaven, in the bottom of a well, then if I stood upon the highest steeple upon earth. If I twist a cable of infinite fadomes in length, if there be no ship to ride by it, nor anchor to hold by it, what use is there of it? If Mannor thrust Mannor, and title flow into title, and bags power out into chests, if I have no anchor, (faith in Christ) if I have not a ship to carry to a haven, (a soul to save) what's my long cable to me? If I add number to number, a span, a mile long, if at the end of all that long line of numbers, there be nothing that notes, pounds, or crowns, or shillings, what's that long number, but so many millions of millions of nothing? If my span of life become a mile of life, my penny a pound, my pint a gallon, my acre a sheer; yet if there be nothing of the next world at the end, so much peace of conscience, so much joy, so much glory, still all is but nothing multiplied, and that is still nothing at all. 'Tis the end that qualifies all; and what kind of man I shall be at my end, upon my death-bed, what trembling hands, and what lost legs, what deaf ears, and what gummy eyes, I shall have then, I know; and the nearer I come to that disposition, in my life, (the more mortified I am) the better I am disposed to see this object, future glory. God made the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, glorious lights for man to see by; but mans infirmity requires spectacles; and affliction does that office. Gods meaning was, that by the sun-shine of prosperity, and by the beams of honor, and temporal blessings, a man should see far into him; but I know not how he is come to need spectacles; scars any man sees much in this matter, till affliction show it him. God made the balance even; riches may show God, and poverty may show God; let the two Testaments, the old and the new, be the balance, and so they are even; the blessedness of the old Testament runs all upon temporal blessings, and worldly riches; Blessed in the city, and in the field; blessed in the fruit of thy cattle, and of thy womb; In the new Testament utterly otherwise; Blessed are the poor, Blessed are they that mourne, Blessed are they that are persecuted, and reviled; but the blessedness of the old Testament, temporal blessings, are temporary, as the old Testament was; that's expired. The blessedness of the Gospel, is as the Gospel, everlasting: and therefore the low way is the best way; adversity will be the best way to see God by. I speak not of mere beggary, of having nothing; but of having less then we had; the loss of some of that possession, or honor, or wealth, or health, which we had, conduces more to this sight of God, then the additions of any of these. Extreme want may put a man out of his way to God, as far as abundance and superfluity; as we say in civil things, the mid men ais the Subsidy, not the great men, nor the beggars; so the middle men see farthest into God, and serve him best; not the abounding, not the wanting man. Solomon prays against both; against riches, and against poverty too; but yet not as though the danger were equal, if the words be well considered; the danger of his poverty is, lest he steal, and take the Name of God in vain; that is, forsweare the theft; a great fault, two great faults; but these two amount not to that one, which arises out of abundance, Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? And that Proverb, that Solomon speaks of, Saint Jerome calls not, paupertatem, but mendicitatem; and that is often indeed, the mother and nurse of many enormous mischiefs. Saint Bernard takes the word, poverty, in that place, but he multiplies it, Paupertates ne dederis, Give me not, O Lord, a double poverty; poverty indeed, and poverty in opinion; poverty, and a murmurning with my poverty; for that also is the mother, and nurse of many enormous mischiefs. I know how to abound, and how to want; It is the harder work, ferre abundantiam; aboundance is a burden, want is but a weakness; and it is a greater torment, to be pressed under a great weight, then to lye bed-rid. To end this, the person in our Text is Enosh, man; but not every man, as before, Adam; but that man upon whom Gods hand hath been in the loss of something, that he had before. As the body of man is mellowed in the grave, and made fit for glory in the resurrection, so the mind of man by suffering is suppled; Adam is made Enosh; and he may see.

The person is the same, and yet changed; man, but another kind of man; The means of apprehending is the same, and yet changed too, seeing, but another kind of seeing. This man, thus disposed, thus matured, thus mellowed, thus suppled, thus entendred by Gods easy corrections, he whom God hath not left to himself, nor yet put him beyond himself, not fulfilled all, but yet not frustrated all his desires neither, laid his hand upon him, so as to keep him down from swelling up against him, but yet so too, as to keep him up, from sinking, or falling from him, that man, that Enosh may see the hand of God, and take God by the hand, and bid him welcome, and find a rich, and a sweet advantage in that correction; it is a seeing of God, not as before, in his works abroad, but in his working upon himself, at home. Such a man God strikes so, as that when he strikes, he strikes fire, and lights him a candle, to see his presence by; we do not find that Job came to his Dominus dedit, to his confession, The Lord giveth, till he came to the Dominus abstulit; to the sense of Gods taking away, not to express his sense of Gods blessings to him, till he felt his corrections upon him; and then they came together, Dominus dedit, and abstulit, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Darkness is that, by which the holy Ghost himself hath chosen to express hell; hell is darkness; and the way to it, to hell, is Excacation in this life, blindness in our spiritual eyes. Eternal life hereafter is Visio Dei, the sight of God, and the way to that here, is to see God here: and the eye-salve for that is, to be crossed in our desires in this world, by the hand of God. When Christ presents things necessary for his service, he proposes them thus; this is his Inventary; Gold against poverty, white clothes against nakedness, and collyrium, eye-salve to see by. Now for the two first he bids us buy them; buy-gold, buy clothes, that is, labor, endeavor to get thm; he does not say, buy the eye-salve, that is, affliction; no man is to thrust himself into unnecessary dangers, or persecutions, and call his indiscretion Martyrdom; It is to be presumed, that every man, how high or how abundant soever, hath eye salve enough, affliction and crosses enough, if he do apply them: and therefore Christ does not say, buy them; hunt after them, expose thy self to them; but he says only, Anoint thy eyes with them, I will give thee the physic, (crosses and calamities here) do thou apply them according to the nature of the medicine, and to the purpose of the physician, and by them thou shalt see God.

Our translation carries this word no farther in this part of the Text, then the other in the former; There it was, every man may see; here it is, man, that is, this man may behold. But as we showed you, that the former was in the original Casu, viderunt, every man, (let him say what he will to the contrary) yet he hath seen God, so in this part, the word in the original, is Iabbit, and that is videbit, in the future, he shall see, This sight of God is not in him, naturally, that we can be sure he hath seen him, but it is reserved to the future; let him be thus wrought upon by Gods hand, and videbit, in the future, he shall see. Now, you remember what designs the future; he shall see; is a note of the future, and so is, he will see. This man, this Enosh, thus moulded, thus kneaded, by the hand of God, he shall see God, he shall (in a manner) whether he will or no, a holy, and a heavenly violence shall be offered him, it shall not be in the power of the world, the flesh or the devil, to blind him, he shall see God; and then he will see God, his will shall be inclined, and disposed to it, and every first beam of Gods grace, every influence of the Spirit of God, shall open his eyes; God shall be so jealous of him, as that he shall see God, he shall be so watchful upon God, and his motions, as that he will see him.

And more then see him; for Iabbit, is Intuebitur, he will behold him, contemplate God, ruminate, meditate upon God. Man sees best in the light, but meditates best in the dark; for our sight of God, it is enough, that God gives the light of nature; to behold him so, as to fixe upon him in meditation, God benights us, or eclipses us, or casts a cloud of medicinal afflictions, and wholesome corrections upon us. Naturally we dwell longer upon the consideration of God, when we see the Sun eclipsed, then when we see it rise, we pass by that as an ordinary thing; and so in our afflictions we stand, and look upon God, and we behold him. A man may see God, and forget that ever he saw him; When saw we thee hungry, or naked, or sick, or in prison, say those merciless men; they forgot; but Christ remembers that they did see him, but not behold him, see him, and look off, see him so as aggravated their sin, more then if they had never seen him. But that man, who through his own red glass, can see Christ, in that color too, through his own miseries, can see Christ Jesus in his blood, that through the calumnies that have been put upon himself, can see the revilings that were multiplied upon Christ, that in his own imprisonment, can see Christ in the grave, and in his own enlargement, Christ in his resurrection, this man, this Enosh, beholds God, and he beholds him é longinquo, which is another step in this branch, he sees him afar off.

Now this seeing afar off, is not a phrase of diminution, a circumstance of extenuation, as though it were less, to see God afar off, and more to see him nearer. This far off, is far from that; it is a power of seeing him so, as wheresoever I am, or wheresoever God is, I can see him at any distance. Being established in my foundation upon God, being built up by faith, in that notion of God, in which he hath manifested himself to me in his Son, being mounted, and raised by dwelling in his Church, being made like unto him, in suffering, as he suffered, I can see round about me, even to the Horizon, and beyond it, I can see both Hemispheres at once, God in this, and God in the next world too. I can see him, in the Zenith, in the highest point, and see how he works upon Pharaoh, on the Throne, and I can see him in the Nadir, in the lowest dejection, and see how he works upon Joseph in the prison; I can see him in the East, see how mercifully he brought the Christian Religion amongst us, and see him in the West, see how justly he might remove that again, and leave us to our own inventions; I can see him in the South, in a warm, and in the North, in a frosty fortune: I can see him in all angles, in all postures; Abraham saw God coming to him, as he fate at the door of his Tent; and though (as the Text says there) God stood by him, (yet says the Text too) Abraham ran to meet God; I can see God in the visitation of his Spirit come to me; and when he is so, he is already in me; but I must run out to meet him; that is, labor to hold him there, and to advance that manifestation of himself in me. Abraham saw God comming; Moses saw God going, his glory passing by; he saw posteriora, his hinder parts; so I can see God in the memory of his blessings formerly conferred upon me; And Moses saw him too, in a burning bush, in thorns and fire: And had I no other light, but the fire of a pile of faggots, in that light I could see his light, I could see himself. Let me be the man of this Text, this Enosh, to say with Jeremiah, I am the man that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath, Let me have had this third concoction, that as I am Adam, a man of earth, (wrought upon that wheel) and, as I am a Christian, a vessel in his house, a member of his Church (wrought upon that wheel) so let me be vir dolorum, a man of affliction, a vessel baked in that furnace, fitted by Gods proportion, and dosis of his corrections, to make a right use of his corrections, and I can see God, E longinquo, afar off, I can see him writing down my name in the book of life, before I was born, and I can see him giving his Angels, The Angel of the great Counsel, Christ Jesus himself, and his spirit, charge of my preservation, all the way, and of my transmigration upon my death-bed, and that is E longinquo, from before I was, to after I shall be no more.

There remains a word more; 'Tis scarce well said; for there remains not a word more. There is not another word, and yet there is another branch in the Text. This man, (not every man, as before) this Enosh, (not every Adam as before) he sees not only as before, but he beholds afar off; and so far we are gone; but what beholds he afar off? That the Text tells us not. Before there was an illud, Every man may see that, ask what is that, and I can tell you, I have told you out of the coherence of the Text, It is Gods works, manifesting himself even to the natural man. But this man, this Enosh, raised by his dejection, rectified by humiliation, may behold, what? here is no illud, no such word as that, no object limited, and therefore it is that which no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived, it is God in the glory, and assembly of his immortal Saints in heaven. How many times go we to Comedies, to Masques, to places of great and noble resort, nay even to Church only to see the company? If I had no other errand to heaven, but the communion of Saints, the fellowship of the faithful, Lo see that flock of Lambs, Innocent, unbaptized children, recompensed with the twice-baptized Martyrs, (baptized in water, and baptized in their own blood) and that middle sort, the children baptized in blood, and not in the water, that rescued Christ Jesus, by their death, under Herod; to see the Prophets and the Evangelists, and not know one from the other, by their writings, for they all write the same things (for prophecy is but antidated Gospel, and Gospel but postdated prophecy;) to see holy Matrons saved by the bearing, and bringing up of children, and holy Virgins, saved by restoring their bodies in the integrity, that they received them, sit all upon one seat; to see Princes, and Subjects crowned all with one crown, and rich and poor inherit one portion; to see this scene, this Court, this Church, this Catholic Church, not only Eastern and Western, but Militant and Triumphant Church, all in one room together, to see this Communion of Saints, this fellowship of the faithful, is worth all the paynes, that that sight costs us in this world.

But then to see the head of this Church, the Sun, that shed all these beams, the God of glory face to face, to see him sicuti est, as he is, to know him, at cognitus, as I am known, what dark, and inglorious fortune would I not pass through, to come to that light, and that glory? How then hath God doubled his mercies upon those persons to whom he hath afforded two great lights, a Sun to rule their day, honor and prosperity, and a Moon to rule their night, humiliation and adversity, to whom he hath given both Types, in themselves, to see this future glory by, that is, Titles and places of honor in this world, and spectacles in themselves to see this glory by afflictions, and crosses in this world. And therefore since God gives both these no where so plentifully, as in Courts the place of Honor, and the place of Crosses too, the place of rising and the place of falling too, you, you especially, who by having your station there, in the Court it self, are in the Court exemplified, and copied in your own noble house, you that have seen God characterized in his Types, in titles of greatness, you that have beheld God presented in his spectacle of Crosses and afflictions, the daily bread of Courts, Bless ye the Lord; praise him, and magnify him for ever, and declare the wondrous works that he hath done for the Sons of men; for certainly many woes, and invincible darkness attend those, to whom neither the hand of God in his works, nor the hand of God upon themselves, neither the greatness of this world, nor the crosses of this world, can manifest God; for what picture of God would they have, that will neither have him in great, nor little?

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXII.

APOC. 7. 9. After this, I beheld, and loe, a great Multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lambe, clothed with white robes, and Palms in their hands.

Preached to the Earl of Exeter, and his company, in his Chappel at Saint John's; 13. Iun. 1624.

WE shall have occasion by and by, to say something of the danger of Curiosity, and something of the danger of the broad way, in which, too many walk: we will not therefore fall into either of these faults, at first, we will not be over curious, nor we will not stray, nor cast our selves into that broad, and boundless way, by entering into those various, and manifold senses, which Expositors have multiplied, in the handling of this place, and this part of this book; but we take the plainest way, and that in which, the best meet, and concur, that these words are spoken of the Ioyes, and Glory, reserved for them, who overcome the fraud, and the fury, the allurements, and the violences of Antichrist; in whom, in that name, and person of Antichrist, we consider all supplanters, and all seducers, all opposers of the kingdom of Christ, in us; for, as every man hath spontaneum daemonem, (as S. Chrysostom speaks) a devil of his own making, (which is, some customary, and habitual sin in him) so every man hath spontaneū Antichristum, an Antichrist of his own making, some objections in the weakness of his faith, some oppositions in the perverseness of his manners, against the kingdom of Christ in himself; & as, if God would suspend the devil, or slumber the devil a day, I am afraid we should be as ill that day, as if the devil were awake, and in action, so if those disputed, & problematical Antichrists, Eastern & Western Antichrist, Antichrist of Rome, and Antichrist of Constantinople, Turk and Pope, were removed out of the world, we should not for all that be delivered of Antichrist, that is, of that opposition to the kingdom of Christ, which is in our selves. This part of the book of the Revelation, is literally, and primarily, the glorious victory of them, who, in the later end of the world, having stood out the persecutions of the Antichrist, enter into the triumph of heaven: And it extends it self to all, by way of fair accommodation, who after a battel with their own Antichrists, and victory over their own enemies, are also made partakers of those triumphs, those joys, those glories, of which S. John, in this prophetical glass, in this perspective of visions, saw A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations &c.

We are then upon the contemplation of the joys of heaven, which are everlasting, & must we wring them into the discourse of an hour? of the glory of heaven which is entire, and must we divide it into parts? we must; we will; we do; into two parts; first, the number, the great number of those that shall be saved; And then, the glorious qualities, which shall be imprinted on them, who are saved: first, that salvation is a more extensive thing, & more communicable, then sullen cloystral, that have walled salvation in a monastery, or in an ermitage, take it to be; or then the over-valuers of their own purity, and righteousness, which have determined salvation in themselves, take it to be; for, It is a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations &c. And then, in the second place, salvation is the possession of such endowments, as naturally invite all, to the prosecution of that, which is exposed and offered to all; that we all labor here, that we may all stand hereafter, before the Throne, and before the Lambe, clothed in white robes &c.

In the first of these, we shall pass by these steps; first, we shall consider the sociableness, the communicableness of God himself, who gives us the earth, and offers us heaven, and desires to have his kingdom well peopled; he would have many, he would have all, he would have every one of them have all. And then, the first word of the text, (After this) will carry us to the consideration of that which was done before; which was, first, that they which were of this number, were sealed, and then they which were so sealed before, were a great number, one hundred forty four thousand; but they who were made partakers of all this after, were innumerable, After this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number; And therefore we shall shut up that first part with this consideration, what sense, what interpretation may belong unto those places, where Christ says, that the way to heaven is narrow, and the gate straight: of these pieces we shall make up our first part; And for the particulars belonging to the second, we shall fitliest open them, then, when we come to the handling of them.

Our first step then in this first part, is, the sociableness, the communicableness of God; He loves holy meetings, he loves the communion of Saints, the household of the faithful: Deliciae ejus, says Solomon, his delight is to be with the Sons of men, and that the Sons of men should be with him: Religion is not a melancholy; the spirit of God is not a damp; the Church is not a grave: it is a fold, it is an Ark, it is a net, it is a city, it is a kingdom, not only a house, but a house that hath many mansions in it: still it is a plural thing, consisting of many: and very good grammarians amongst the Hebrews, have thought, and said, that that name, by which God notifies himself to the world, in the very beginning of Genesis, which is Elohim, as it is a plural word there, so it hath no singular: they say we cannot name God, but plurally: so sociable, so communicable, so extensive, so derivative of himself, is God, and so manifold are the beams, and the emanations that flow out from him.

It is a garden worthy of your walking in it: Come into it, but by the gate of nature: The natural man had much to do, to conceive God: a God that should be but one God: and therefore scattered his thoughts upon a multiplicity of Gods: and he found it, (as he thought) reasonable, to think, that there should be a God of Iustice, a God of Wisdom, a God of Power, and so made the several Attributes of God, several Gods, and thought that one God might have enough to do, with the matters of Iustice, another with the causes that belonged to power, and so also, with the courts of Wisdom: the natural man, as he cannot conceive a vacuity, that any thing should be empty, so he cannot conceive that any one thing, though that be a God, should fill all things: and therefore strays upon a pluralty of Gods, upon many Gods, though, in truth, (as Athanasius expresses it) ex multitudine numinum, nullitas numinum, he that constitutes many Gods destroys all God; for no God can be God, if he be not all-sufficient; yet naturally, (I mean in such nature, as our nature is) a man does not easily conceive God to be alone, to be but one; he thinks there should be company in the Godhead.

Bring it farther then so. A man that lies in the dregs of obscured, and vitiated nature, does not easily discern, unicum Deum, a God that should be alone, a God that should be but one God. Reason rectified, (rectified by the word of God) can discern this, this one God. But when by that means of the Scripture, he does apprehend Deum unicum, one God; does he find that God alone? are there not three Persons, though there be but one God? 'Tis true the Romās mis-took infinitely, in making 300 Iupiters; Varro mis-took infinitely, in making, Deos terrestres, and Deos caelestes, sub-lunary, and super-lunary, heavenly, and earthly Gods, and Deus marinos, and fluviatiles, Sea Gods, and River Gods, salt, and freshwater Gods, and Deos mares, and faeminas, he Gods, and she Gods, and (that he might be sure to take in all) Deos certos & incertos, Gods, which they were sure were Gods, & Gods which might be Gods, for any thing they knew to the contrary. There is but one God; but yet was that one God ever alone? There were more generations (infinitely infinite) before the world was made, then there have been minutes, since it was made: all that while; there were no creasures; but yet was God alone, any one minute of al this? was there not alwais a Father and a Son, & a holy Ghost? And had not they, always an acquiescence in one another, an exercise of Affection, (as we may so say) a love, a delight, and a complacency towards one another? So, as that the Father could not be without the Son and the holy Ghost, so as neither Son, nor holy Ghost could be without the Father, nor without one another; God was from all eternity collected into one God, yet from all eternity he derived himself into three persons: God could not be so alone, but that there have been three persons, as long as there hath been one God.

Had God company enough of himself; was he satisfied in the three Persons? We see he proceeded further; he came to a Creation; And as soon as he had made light, (which was his first Creature) he took a pleasure in it; he said it was good; he was glad of it; glad of the Sea, glad of the Earth, glad of the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, and he said of every one, It is good; But when he had made All, peopled the whole world, brought all creatures together, then he was very glad, and then he said, not only, that it was good, but that it was very good: God was so far from being alone, as that he found not the fullness of being well, till all was made, till all Creatures met together, in an Host, as Moses calls it, then the good was extended into very good.

Did God satisfy himself with this visible and discernible world; with all on earth, and all between that, and him? were those four Monarchies, the four Elements, and all the subjects of those four Monarchies, (if all the four Elements have Creatures) company enough for God? was that Heptarchie, the seven kingdoms of the seven Planets, conversation enough for him? Let every Starr in the firmament, be (so some take them to be) a several world, was all this enough? we see, God drew persons nearer to him, then Sun, or Moon, or Stars, or any thing, which is visible, and discernible to us, he created Angels; How many, how great? Arithmetique lacks numbers to to express them, proportion lacks Dimensions to figure them; so far was God from being alone.

And yet God had not shed himself far enough; he had the Leviathan, the Whale in the Sea, and Behemoth and the Elephant upon the land; and all these great heavenly bodies in the way, and Angels in their infinite numbers, and manifold offices, in heaven; But, because Angels, could not propagate, nor make more Angels, he enlarged his love, in making man, that so he might enjoy all natures at once, and have the nature of Angels, and the nature of earthly Creatures, in one Person. God would not be without man, nor he would not come single, not alone to the making of man; but it is Faciamas hominem, Let us, us, make man; God, in his whole counsel, in his whole Colledge, in his whole society, in the whole Trinity, makes man, in whom the whole nature of all the world should meet.

And still our large, and our Communicable God, affected this association so, as that having three Persons in himself, and having Creatures of divers natures, and having collected all natures in man, who consisted of a spiritual nature, as well as a bodily, he would have one liker himself, then man was; And therefore he made Christ, God and Man, in one person, Creature and Creator together; One greater then the Seraphim, and yet less then a worm; Sovereign to all nature, and yet subject to natural infirmities; Lord of life, life, it self, and yet prisoner to Death; Before, and beyond all measures of Time, & Born at so many months, yet Circumcised at so many days, Crucified at so many years, Rose again at so many Hours; How sure did God make himself of a companion in Christ, who united himself, in his godhead, so inseparably to him, as that that godhead left not that body, then when it lay dead in the grave, but staid with it then, as closely, as when he wrought his greatest miracles.

Beyond all this, God having thus married soul and body in one man, and man and God, in one Christ, he maries this Christ to the Church. Now, consider this Church in the Type and figure of the Church, the Ark; in the Ark there were more of every sort of clean Creatures reserved, then of the unclean; seven of those, for two of these: why should we fear, but that in the Church, there are more reserved for salvation then for destruction? And into that room (which was not a Type of the Church, but the very Church it self) in which they all met upon whitsunday, the holy Ghost came so as that they were enabled, by the gift of tongues, to convey, and propagate, and derive God, (as they did) to every nation under heaven: so much does God delight in man, so much does God desire to unite and associate man unto him; and then, what shall disappoint, or frustrate Gods desires and intentions so far, as that they should come to him, but singly, one by one, whom he calls, and woos, and draws by thousands, and by whole Congregations?

Be pleased to carry your considerations, upon another testimony of Gods love to the society of man, which is, his dispatch in making this match, his speed in gathering and establishing this Church; for, forwardness is the best argument of love, and dilatory interruptions by the way, argue no great desire to the end; disguises before, are shrewd prophecies of jealousies after: But God made hast to the consummation of this Marriage, between Christ and the Church. Such words as those to the Colosrians, (and such words, that is, words to such purpose, there are divers) The Gospel is come unto you, as it is into all the world; And again; It bringeth forth fruit, as it doth in you also; And so likewise, The Gospel which is preached to every creature which is under heaven; such words, I say, a very great part of the Antients have taken so literally, as thereupon to conclude, That in the life of the Apostles themselves, the Gospel was preached, and the Church established over all the world.

Now will you consider also, who did this, what persons? cunning and crafty persons are not the best instruments in great businesses, if those businesses be good, as well as great. Here God employed such persons, as would not have persuaded a man, that grass was green, that blood was red, if it had been denied unto them: Persons that could not have bound up your understanding, with a Syllogism, nor have entendred, or mollified it with a verse: Persons that had nothing but that which God himself calls the foolishness of preaching, to bring Philosophers that argued, Heretics that wrangled, Lucians, and Iulians, men that whet their tongues, and men that whet their swords against God, to God.

Unbend not this bowe, blacken not these holy thoughts, till you have considered, as well, as how soon, and by what persons, so to what Doctrine, God brought them. We ask but St. Augustins question, Quis tantam multitudinem, ad legem, carni & sanguini centrariam, induceret, nisi Deus? Who but God himself, would have drawn the world to a Religion so contrary to flesh and blood? Take but one piece of the Christian Religion, but one article of our faith, in the same Fathers mouth; Res incredibilis resurrectio; That this body should be eaten by fishes in the sea, and then those fishes eaten by other men, or that one man should be eaten by another man, and so become both one man, and then that for all this assimilation, and union, there should arise two men, at the resurrection, Res incredibilis, says he, this resurrection is an incredible thing, Sed magis incredibile, totum mundum credidisse rem tam incredibilem, That all the world should so soon believe a thing so incredible, is more incredible, then the thing it self. That any should believe any, is strange, but more that all such believe all, that appertains to Christianity. The Valentinians, and the Marcionites, pestilent Heretics, grew to a great number, Sed vix duo vel tres, de iisdem, eadem docebant, says Irenaeus, scarce any two or three amongst them, were of one opinion. The Acatians, the Eunomians, and the Macedonians, omnes Arium parentem agnoscunt, says the same Father, they all call themselves Arians, but they had as many opinions, not only as names, but as persons. And that one Sect of Mahomet, was quickly divided, and sub-divided into 70 sects. But so God loved the world, the society and company of good souls, ut quasi una Domus Mundus, the whole world was as one well governed house; similiter credunt quasi una anima, all believed the same things, as though they had all but one soul; Constanter praedicabant, quasi unum os, At the same hour there was a Sermon at Jerusalem, and a Sermon at Rome, and both so like, for fundamental things, as if they had been preached out of one mouth.

And as this Doctrine, so incredible in reason, was thus soon, and by these persons, thus uniformly preached over all the world, so shall it, as it doth, continue to the worlds end; which is another argument of Gods love to our company, and of his loathness to lose us. All Heresies, and the very names of the Heretics, are so utterly perished in the world, as that if their memories were not preserved in those Fathers which have written against them, we could find their names no where. Irenaeus, about one hundred and eighty years after Christ, may reckon about twenty heresies: Tertullian, twenty or thirty years after him, perchance twenty seven; and Epiphanius, some a hundred and fifty after him, sixty; and fifty year after that, St. Augustine some ninety: yet after all these, (and but a very few years, after Augustine) Theodoret says, that in his time, there was no one man alive, that held any of those heresies: That all those heresies should rot, being upheld by the sword, and that only the Christian Religion should grow up, being mowed down by the sword, That one grain of Corn should be cast away, and many ears grow out of that, (as Leo makes the comparison) That one man should be executed, because he was a Christian, and all that saw him executed, and the Executioner himself, should thereupon become Christians, (a case that fell out more then once, in the primitive Church) That as the flood threw down the Courts of Princes, and lifted up the Ark of God, so the effusion of Christian blood, should destroy heresies, and advance Christianity it self; this is argument abundantly enough, that God had a love to man, and a desire to draw man to his society, and in great numbers to bring them to salvation.

I will not dismiss you from this consideration, till you have brought it thus much nearer, as to remember a later testimony of Gods love to our company, in the reformation of Religion; A miracle scarce less, then the first propagation thereof, in the primitive Church. In how few years, did God make the number of learned writers, the number of persons of all qualities, the number of Kings, in whose Dominions the reformed Religion was exercised, equal to the number of them, who adhered to the Roman Church?

And yet, thou must not depart from this contemplation, till thou have made thy self an argument of all this; till thou have concluded out of this, that God hath made love to thy soul, thy weak soul, thy sick, and foul, and sinful soul, That he hath written to thee, in all his Scriptures, sent Ambassage to thee, in all his preachers, presented thee, in all his temporal, and spiritual blessings, That he hath come to thee, even in actions of uncle anness, in actions of unfaithfulness towards men, in actions of distrustfulness towards God, and hath checked thy conscience, and delivered thee from some sins, even then when thou wast ready to commit them, as all the rest, (That that God, who is but one in himself, is yet three persons, That those three, who were allsufficient to themselves, would yet make more, make Angels, make man, make a Christ, make him a Spouse, a Church, and first propagate that, by so weak men, in so hard a doctrine, and in so short a space, over all the world, and then reform that Church again, so soon, to such a height) as these, I say, are to all the world, so be thou thy self, and Gods exceeding goodness to thee, an argument, That that God who hath showed himself so loath to lose thee, is certainly loath to lose any other soul; but as he communicates himself to us all here, so he would have us all partake of his joy, and glory hereafter; he that fils his Militant Church thus, would not have his Triumphant Church empty.

So far we consider the accessibleness, the communicableness, the conversation of our good, and gracious God to us, in the general. There is a more special manner intimated, even in the first word of our Text, After this; After what? After he had seen the servants of God sealed; sealed: This seal seals the contract between God and Man: And then consider how general this seal is: First, God sealed us, in imprinting his Image in our souls, and in the powers thereof, at our creation; and so, every man hath this seal, and he hath it, as soon as he hath a soul: The wax, the matter, is in his conception; the seal, the forme, is in his quickening, in his inanimation; as, in Adam, the wax was that red earth, which he was made of, the seal was that soul, that breath of life, which God breathed into him. Where the Organs of the body are so indisposed, as that this soul cannot exercise her faculties, in that man, (as in natural Idiots, or otherwise) there, there is a curtain drawn over this Image, but yet there this Image is, the Image of God, is in the most natural Idiot, as well as in the wisest of men: worldly men draw other pictures over this picture, other images over this image: The wanton man may paint beauty, the ambitious may paint honor, the covetous wealth, and so deface this image, but yet there this image is, and even in hell it self it will be, in him that goes down into hell: uri potest in gehenna, non exuri, says St. Bernard, The image of God may burn in hell, but as long as the soul remains, that image remains there too; And then, thou who wouldst not burn their picture, that loved thee, wilt thou betray the picture of the Maker, thy Savior, thy Sanctifier, to the torments of hell? Amongst the manifold and perpetual interpretations of that article, He descended into hell, this is a new one, that thou sendest him to hell in thy soul: Christ had his Consummatum est, from the Jews; he was able to say at last, All is finished, concerning them; shall he never have a Consummatum est from thee; never be at an end with thee? Never, if his Image must burn eternally in thy soul, when thou art dead, for everlasting generations.

Thus then we were sealed; all sealed; all had his image in our creation, in the faculties of our souls: But then we were all sealed again, sealed in our very flesh, our mortal flesh, when the image of the invisible God, Christ Jesus, the only Son of God, took our nature: for, as the Tyrant wished, that all mankind were but one body, that he might behead all mankind at a blow, so God took into his mercy, all mankind in one person: As entirely, as all mankind was in Adam, all mankind was in Christ; and as the seal of the Serpent is in all, by original sin, so the seal of God, Christ Jesus, is on us all, by his assuming our nature. Christ Jesus took our souls, and our bodies, our whole nature; and as no Leper, no person, how infectiously soever he be diseased in his body, can say, surely Christ never took this body, this Leprosy, this pestilence, this rottenness, so no Leprous soul must say, Christ never took this pride, this adultery, this murder upon himself; he sealed us all in soul and body, when he took both, and though both dye, the soul in sin daily, the body, in sickness, perchance this day, yet he shall afford a resurrection to both, to the soul here, to the body hereafter, for his seal is upon both.

These two seals then hath God set upon us all, his Image in our souls, at our making, his Image, that is his Son, upon our bodies and souls, in his incarnation; And both these seals he hath set upon us, then when neither we our selves, nor any body else knew of it: He sets another seal upon us, when, though we know not of it, yet the world, the congregation does, in the Sacrament of Baptism, when the seal of his Cross, is a testimony, not that Christ was born, (as the former seal was) but that also he died for us; there we receive that seal upon the forehead, that we should conform our selves to him, who is so sealed to us. And after all these seals, he offers us another, and another seal, Set me as a seal upon thy heart, and as a seal upon thine arm, says Christ to all us, in the person of the spouse; in the Heart, by a constant faith, in the Arm, by a declaratory works; for then are we sealed, and delivered, and witnessed; that's our full evidence, then have we made sure our salvation, when the works of a holy life, do daily refresh the contract made with God there, at our Baptism, and testify to the Church, that we do carefully remember, what the Church promised in our behalf, at that time: for, otherwise beloved, without this seal upon the arm, that is, a stedfast proceeding in the works of a holy life, we may have received many of the other seals, and yet deface them all. Grieve not the holy Ghost, whereby you are sealed, unto the day of Redemption, says the Apostle: they were sealed, and yet might resist the Spirit, and grieve the Spirit, and quench the Spirit, if by a continual watchfulness over their particular actions, they did not refresh those seals (formerly received in their Creation, in Christs incarnation, in their Baptism, and in their beginnings of faith) to themselves, and plead them to the Church, and to the world, by such a declaration of a holy life. But these seals being so many, and so univesal, that argues still, that which we especially seek to establish, that is, the Accessibleness, the communicableness, the sociableness, the affection, (shall I say) the Ambition, that God hath, to have us all.

Now how is this extensiveness declared here, in our text? It is declared in the great number of those who were sealed, both before, and after; to the consideration of both which, we are invited, by this phrase, which begins the text, After this: for, before that John saw this, there were one hundred forty four thousand sealed; Is that then, (that one hundred forty four thousand) intended for a small number? If it had been so, it would rather have been said, of such a Tribe but twelve thousand, and but twelve thousand of such a Tribe; but God as expressing a joy, that there were so many, repeats his number of twelve thousand, twelve times over, of Iuda twelve thousand, of Levi twelve thousand, and twelve thousand of every Tribe. So that then, we may justly take this number of twelve and twelve thousand, for an indefinite, and uncertain number; and as Saint Augustine does, wheresoever he finds that number of twelve, (as the twelve Thrones, where the Saints shall judge the world, and divers such) we may take that number of twelve, and twelve, pro universitate salvandorum, that that number signifies, all those who shall be saved. If we should take the number to be a certain and exact number, so many, and no more, yet this number hath relation to the Jews only; And of the Jews, it is true, that there is so long a time of their exclusion, so few of them do come in, since Christ came into the world, as that we may, with Saint Augustine, interpret that place of Genesis, where Abrahams seed is compared both to the Stars of heaven, and to the dust of the earth, that the Stars of heaven signify those that shall be saved in heaven, and the dust of the earth, those that perish; and the dust of the earth may be more then the Stars of heaven; though (by the way) there are an infinite number of Stars more then we can distinguish, and so, by Gods grace, there may be an infinite number of souls saved, more then those, of whose salvation, we discern the ways, and the means. Let us embrace the way which God hath given us, which is, the knowledge of his Son, Christ Jesus: what other way God may take with others, how he wtought upon Job, and Naaman, and such others as were not in the Covenant, let us not inquire too curiously, determine too peremptorily, pronounce too uncharitably: God be blessed, for his declaring his good-will towards us, & his will be done his way upon others. Truly, even those places, which are ordinarily understood of the paucity of the Jews, that shall be saved, will receive a charitable interpretation, and extension. God says, in Jeremiah, I will take you, one out of a City, & two out of a family; yet he says, he will do this therefore, because he is married to them; so that this seems to be an act of his love; And therefore, I had rather take it, that God would take a particular care of them, one by one, then that he would take in but one and one: As it is in that place of Isaiah, In that day ye shall be gathered one by one, o yee children of Israel; that is, in the day of Christ, of his comming to and toward Judgement; Howsoever they come in but thinly yet, by the way, yet the Apostle pleads in their behalf thus, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. At this present, says he, there is a Remnant; then when they had newly crucified Christ, God had a care of them. God hath given them the spirit of slumber, says he also; it is but a slumber, not a death, not a dead sleep. Have they stumbled that they should fall? Fall utterly? God forbid. But says he, as concerning the Gospel, they are enemies, for your sakes; (that is, that room might be made for you the Gentiles) but, as touching election, they are beloved for their Fathers sakes; that is, they have interest by an ancient title, which God will never disannull. And therefore a great part, of the ancient, and later men too, do interpret divers passages of Saint Paul, of a general salvation of the Jews, that all shall be effectually wrought upon, to salvation, before the second comming of Christ. I end this, concerning the Jews, with this note, that in all these Tribes, which yielded to this sealing, twelve thousand a piece, the Tribe of Dan is left out, it is not said, that any were sealed of the Tribe of Dan; many have enquired the reason, and satisfied themselves over easily with this, that because Antichrist was to come of that Tribe, that Tribe is forsaken. It is true, that very many of the Fathers, Irenaeus, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, (and more then these) have thought so, that Antichrist must be of that Tribe; but yet for all that profession, which they make in the Roman Church, of adhering to the Fathers, one amongst them, says, Incertum, be the Fathers as clear, and as unanimous as they will in it, it is a very uncertain, a very disputable thing; and another says, fabulosum est, be the Fathers as earnest, as they will, it is but a poetical and a fabulous thing, that Antichrist must come of the Tribe of Dan. But he that hath most of the works of Antichrist upon him, of any person in the world now, is thus far of the Tribe of Dan; Dan signifies Judgement; And he will needs be the Judge of all faith, and of all actions too, and so severe a Judge, as to give an irrevocable Judgement of Damnation, upon all that agree not with them, in all points. Certainly this Tribe of Dan, that is, of such uncharitable Judges of all other men, that will afford no salvation to any but themselves, are in the greatest danger to be left out, at this general seal; nothing hinders our own salvation more, then to deny salvation, to all but our selves.

This then which was done before, though it concern but the Jews, was in a great number, and was a great argument, of Gods sociable application of himself to man, but that which was after, was more, A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations &c. Gods mercy was not confined, nor determined upon the Jews; Other sheep have I, which are not of this fold, says Christ, them also I must bring in: I must; it is expressed, not only as an act of his good will, but of that eternal decree, to which, he had, at the making thereof, submitted himself: I must bring them; who are they? Many shall come from the east, and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isacc, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; from the Eastern Church, and from the WesterN Church too, from the Greek Church, and from the Latin too, and, (by Gods grace) from them that pray not in Latin too, from every Church, (so it be truly, and fundamentally a Church) Many shall come; How many? a multitude that no man can number: For, the new Jerusalem, in the Revelation, (which is heaven) hath twelve gates, three to every corner of the world; so that no place can be a stranger, or lack access to it: Nay, it hath (says that Text) twelve foundations, Other foundation can no man lay, then that which is laid, Christ Jesus: But that first foundation-stone being kept, though it be not hewed, nor laid alike in every place, though Christ be not preached, nor presented in the same manner, for outward Ceremonies, or for problematical opinions, yet the foundation may remain one, though it be, in such a sort, varied; and men may come in at any of the twelve gates, and rest upon any of the twelve foundations, for they are all gates, and foundations of one and the same Jerusalem; and they that enter, are a multitude that no man can number.

If then there be this sociable, this appliable nature in God, this large and open entrance for man, why does Christ call it a strait gate, and a narrow way? Not that it is strait in it self, but that we think it so, and, indeed, we make it so. Christ is the gate, and every wound of his admits the whole world. The Church is the gate; And in omnem terram, says David, she hath opened her mouth, and her voice is gone over all the world. His word is the gate; And, thy Commandment is exceeding broad, says David too; His word and his light reaches to all cases, and all distresses. Lata porta Diabolus; saith Saint Chrysostom, The Devil is a broad gate; but he tells us how he came to be so, Mon magnitudine potestatis extensus, sed superbiae licentia dilatatus; not that God put such a power into his hands, at first, as that we might not have resisted him, but that he hath usurped upon us, and we have given way to his usurpations: so, says that Father, Angusta porta Christus, Christ is a narrow gate, but he tells us also wherein, and in what respect, Non parvitate potestatis exiguus, sed humilitatis ratione collectus; Christ is not a narrow gate, so as that the greatest man may not come in, but called narrow, because he fits himself to the least child, to the simplest soul, that will come in: not so strait, as that all may not enter, but so strait as that there can come in but one at once, for he that will not forsake Father and Mother, and wife, and children for him, cannot enter in. Therefore we call the Devils way broad, because men walk in that, with all their equipage, all their sumpters, all their state, all their sins; and therefore we call Christs way strait, because a man must strip himself of all inordinate affections, of all desires of ill getting, and of all possessions that are ill gotten. In a word, it is not strait to a mans self, but if a man will carry his sinful company, his sinful affections with him, and his sinful possessions, it is strait, for then he hath made himself a Camel, and to a Camel Heaven gate is as a needles eye: But it is better comming into heaven with one eye, then into hell with two; Better comming into heaven without Master, or Mistress, then into hell for over-humouring of either. There, The gates are not shut all day; says the Prophet, and, there is no night there; And here, if we shut the door, yet Christ stands at the door and knocks; Be but content to open thy door, be but content to let him open it, and he will enter, and be but thou content to enter into his, content to be led in by his preaching, content to be drawn in by his benefits, content to be forced in by his corrections, and he will open his: since thy God would have died for thee, if there had been no man born but thou, never imagine, that he who lets in multitudes, which no man can number, of all Nations, &c. would ever shut out thee, but labor to enter there; ubi non intrat inimicus, ubi non exit amicus, where never any that hates thee, shall get to thee, nor any that loves thee, part from thee.

We have but ended our first part, The assurance which we have from Gods manner of proceeding, that Religion is not a sullen, but a cheerful Philosophy, and salvation not cast into a corner, but displayed as the Sun, over all. That which we called at first, our second part, must not be a Part, admit it for a Conclusion; It is that, and beyond that; It is beyond our Conclusion, for it is our everlasting endowment in heaven: and if I had kept minutes enough for it, who should have given me words for it? I will but paraphrase the words of the Text, and so leave you in that, which, I hope, is your gallery to heaven, your own meditations: The words are, You shall stand before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white Fobs, and palms in their hands.

First, stabitis, you shall stand; which is not, that you shall not sit, for the Saints shall sit & judge the world; & they shall sit at the right hand of God It is not, that you shall not sit, nor that you shall not lie, for you shall lye in Abraham bosom: But yet you shall stand, that is, you shall stand sure, you shall never fall, you shall stand, but yet you shall but stand, that is, remain in a continual disposition and readiness to serve God, and to minister to him. And therefore account no abundance, no height, no birth, no place here, to exempt you from standing and labouring in the service of God, since even your glorious state in heaven is but a station, but a standing in readiness to do his will, and not a posture of idleness: you shall stand, that is, stand sure, but you shall but stand, that is, still be bound to the service of God.

Stabitis ante Thronum; you shall stand, and stand before the Throne; Here in the militant Church, you stand, but you stand in the porch, there, in the triumphant, you shall stand in Sancto sanctorum, in the Quire, and the Altar. Here you stand, but you stand upon Ice, perchance in high and therefore in slippery places; And at the judgement you shall stand, but stand at the bar; But when you stand before the Throne, you stand, (as it is also added in this place) before the Lamb: who having not opened his mouth, to save his own fleece, when he was in the shearers hand, nor to save his own life, when he was in the slaughterers hand, will much less open his mouth to any repentant sinners condemnation, or upbrayd you with your former crucifyings of him, in this world, after he hath nailed those sins to that cross, to which those sins nayled him.

You shall stand amicti stolis, (for so it follows) covered with Robes, that is, covered all over: not with Adams fragmentary rags of fig-leafs, nor with the half-garments of Davids servants: Though you have often offered God half-confessions, and halferepentances, yet if you come at last, to stand before the Lambe, his fleece covers all; he shall not cover the sins of your youth, and leave the sins of your age open to his justice, nor cover your sinful actions, and leave your sinful words and thoughts open to justice, nor cover your own personal sins, and leave the sins of your Fathers before you, or the sins of others, whose sins your temptations produced and begot, open to justice; but as he hath enwrapped the whole world in one garment, the firmament, & so clothed that part of the earth, which is under our feet, as gloriously as this, which we live, and build upon: so those sins which we have hidden from the world, and from our own consciences, and utterly forgotten, either his grace shall enable us, to recollect, and to repent in particular, or (we having used that holy diligence, to examine our consciences so) he shall wrap up even those sins, which we have forgot, and cover all, with that garment of his own righteousness, which leaves no foulness, no nakedness open.

You shall be covered with Robes, All over; and with white Robes; That as the Angels wondered at Christ coming into heaven, in his Ascension, Wherefore art thou red in thine Apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine fat? They wondered how innocence it self should become red, so shall those Angels wonder at thy coming thither, and say, Wherefore art thou white in thine apparel? they shall wonder how sin it self shall be clothed in innocence.

And in thy hand shall be a palm, which is the last of the endowments specified here. After the waters of bitterness, they came to seventy (to innumerable) palms; even the bitter waters were sweetened, with another wood cast in: The wood of the Cross of Christ Jesus, refreshes all tears, and sweetnes all bitterness, even in this life: but after these bitter waters, which God shall wipe from all our eyes, we come, to the seventy, to the seventy thousand palms; infinite seals, infinite testimonies, infinite extensions, infinite durations of infinite glory: Go in, beloved, and raise your own contemplations, to a height worthy of this glory; and chide me for so lame an expressing of so perfect a state, and when the abundant spirit of God hath given you some measure, of conceiving that glory here, Almighty God give you, and me, and all, a real expressing of it, by making us actual possessors of that Kingdom, which his Son, our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXIII.

CANT. 3. 11. Go forth ye Daughters of Sion, and behold King Solomon, with the Crown, wherewith his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

Preached at Denmark house, some few days before the body of King James, was removed from thence, to his burial, Apr. 26. 1625.

IN the Creation of man, in that one word, Faciamus, let Vs make man, God gave such an intimation of the Trinity, as that we may well enlarge, and spread, and paraphrase that one word, so far, as to hear therein, a council of all the three Persons, agreeing in this gracious design upon Man, faciamus, let us make him; make and him, mend him, and make him sure: I, the Father, will make him by my power; if he should fall, Thou the Son shalt repayr him, re-edify him, redeem him; if he should distrust, that this Redemption belonged not to him, Thou, the Holy Ghost, shalt apply to his particular soul, and conscience, this mercy of mine, and this merit of the Sons; and so let us make him. In our Text there is an intimation of another Trinity. The words are spoken but by one, but the persons in the text, are Three; For first, The speaker, the Director of all, is the Church, the spouse of Christ, she says, Go forth ye daughters of Sion; And then the persons that are called up, are, as you see, The Daughters of Sion, the obedient children of the Church, that hearken to her voice: And then lastly, the persons upon whom they are directed, is Solomon crowned, That is, Christ invested with the royal dignity of being Head of the Church; And in this, especially, is this appliable to the occasion of our present meeting (All our meetings now, are, to confess, to the glory of God, and the rectifying of our own consciences, and manners, the uncertainty of the prosperity, and the assuredness of the adversity of this world) That this Crown of Solomons in the text, will appear to be Christs crown of Thorns, his Humiliation, his Passion; and so these words will dismiss us in this blessed consolation, That then we are nearest to our crown of Glory, when we are in tribulation in this world, and then enter into full possession of it, when we come to our dissolution and transmigration out of this world: And these three persons, The Church, that calls, The children that hearken, and Christ in his Humiliation, to whom they are sent, will be the three parts, in which we shall determine this Exercise.

First then, the person that directs us, is The Church; no man hath seen God, and lives; but no man lives till he have heard God; for God spake to him, in his Baptism, and called him by his name, then. Now, as it were a contempt in the Kings house, for any servant to refuse any thing, except he might hear the King in person command it, when the King hath already so established the government of his house, as that his commandments are to be signified by his great Officers: so neither are we to look, that God should speak to us mouth to mouth, spirit to spirit, by Inspiration, by Revelation. for it is a large mercy, that he hath constituted an Office, and established a Church, in which we should hear him. When Christ was baptized by John, it is said by all those three Evangelists, that report that story, in particular circumstances, that there was a voice heard from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: and it is not added in any of those three Evangelists, that that voice added, Hear him: for, after that Declaration, that he, who was visibly and personally come amongst them, was the Son of God, there was no reason to doubt of mens willingness to hear him, who went forth in person, to preach unto them, in this world; As long as he was to stay with them, it was not likely that they should need provocation, to hear him, therefore that was not added at his Baptism, and entrance into his personal ministry: But when Christ came to his Transfiguration, which was a manifestation of his glory, in the next world, and an intimation of the approaching of the time of his going away, to the possession of that glory, out of this world, there that voice from heaven says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him: When he was gone out of this world, men needed a more particular solicitation to hear him; for how, and where, and in whom should they hear him, when he was gone? In the Church, for the same testimony that God gave of Christ, to authorize and justify his preaching, hath Christ given of the Church, to justify her power: The holy Ghost fell upon Christ, at his Baptism, and the holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles, (who were the representative Church) at Whitsontide: The holy Ghost tarried upon Christ then, and the holy Ghost shall tarry with the Church, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world, And therefore, as we have that institution from Christ, Dic Ecclesiae, when men are refractary and perverse, to complain to the Church, so have they who are complained of to the Church, that institution from Christ also, Audi Ecclesiam, Hearken to the voice of God, in the Church; and they have from him that commination, If you disobey them, you disobey God; in what fetters soever they bind you, you shall rise bound in those fetters; and, as he who is excommunicated in one Diocese, should not be received in another; so let no man presume of a better state, in the Triumphant Church, then he holds in the Militant, or hope for communion there, that despises excommunication here. That which the Scripture says, God says, (says St. Augustine) for the Scripture is his word; and that which the Church says, the Scriptures say, for she is their word, they speak in her; they authorize her, and she explicates them; The Spirit of God inanimates the Scriptures, and makes them his Scriptures, the Church actuates the Scriptures, and makes them our Scriptures: Nihil salubrius, says the same Father, There is not so wholesome a thing; no soul can live in so good an aire, and in so good a diet, Quàm ut Rationem praecedat authoritas, Then still to submit a mans own particular reason, to the authority of the Church expressed in the Scriptures: For, certainly it is very truly (as it is very usefully) said by Calvin, Semper nimia morositas, est ambitiosa, A frowardness, and an aptness to quarrel at the proceedings of the Church, and to be delivered from the obligations, and constitutions of the Church, is ever accompanied with an ambitious pride, that they might enjoy a licentious liberty; It is not because the Church doth truly take too much power, but because they would be under none; it is an ambition, to have all government in their own hands, and to be absolute Emperors of themselves, that makes them refractary: But, if they will pretend to believe in God, they must believe in God so, as God hath manifested himself to them, they must believe in Christ; so if they will pretend to hear Christ, they must hear him there, where he hath promised to speak, they must hear him in the Church.

The first reason then in this Trinity, the person that directs, is the Church; the Trumpet in which God sounds his Judgements, and the Organ, in which he delivers his mercy; And then the persons of the second place, the persons to whom the Church speaks here, are Filiae Sion, The daughters of Sion, her own daughters. We are not called, Filii Ecclesiae, sons of the Church: The name of sons may imply more virility, more manhood, more sense of our own strength, then becomes them, who profess an obedience to the Church: Therefore, as by a name, importing more facility, more suppleness, more application, more tractableness, she calls her children, Daughters. But then, being a mother, and having the dignity of a Parent upon her, she does not proceed supplicatorily, she does not pray them, nor entreat them, she does not say, I would you would go forth, and I would you would look out, but it is Egredimini, & videte, imperatively, authoritatively, Do it, you must do it: So that she shows, what, in important and necessary cases, the power of the Church is, though her ordinary proceedings, by us, and our Ministry, be, To pray you, in Christs stead, to be reconciled to God. In your baptism, your souls became daughters of the Church; and they must continue so, as long as they continue in you; you cannot divest your allegiance to the Church, though you would; no more then you can to the State, to whom you cannot say,will be no subject. A father may dis-inherit his son, upon reasons, but even that dis-inherited child cannot renounce his father. That Church which conceived thee, in the Covenant of God, made to Christians, and their seed, and brought thee forth in baptism, and brought thee up in catechizing, and preaching, may yet, for thy misdemeanor to God in her; separate thee, à Mensa & Toro, from bed and board; from that sanctuary of the soul, the Communion Table, and from that Sanctuary of the body, Christian burial, and even that Christian burial gives a man a good rise, a good help, a good advantage, even at the last resurrection, to be laid down in expectation of the Resurrection, in holy ground, and in a place accustomed to Gods presence, and to have been found worthy of that Communion of Saints, in the very body, is some earnest, and some kind of first-fruits, of the joyful resurrection, which we attend: God can call our dead bodies from the sea, and from the fire, and from the air, for every element is his; but consecrated ground is our element. And therefore you daughters of Sion, holy and religious souls, (for to them only this indulgent mother speaks here) hearken ever to her voice; quarrel not your mothers honor, nor her discretion: Despise not her person, nor her apparel; Do not say, she is not the same woman, she was heretofore, nor that she is not so well dressed, as she was then; Dispute not her Doctrine, Despise not her Discipline; that as you sucked her breasts in your Baptism, & in the other Sacrament, when you entered, and whilst you stayed in this life, so you may lie in her bosom, when you go out of it. Hear her; & a good part of that, which you are to hear from her, is envolved & inwrapped in that which we have proposed to you, for our third part, Go forth, & behold Solomon, &c.

Here are two duties enjoined; at least two steps, two degrees; Egredimini, Go forth, and then, Videte, Behold, contemplate; And, after the duty, or wrapped in the duty, we have the Object, which we are to look upon, & in that, divers things to be considered; as we shall see in their order. First, when we are bid to Go forth, it is not to go so far, as out of that Church, in which God hath given us our station; for, as Moses says, That the word of God is not beyond Sea; so the Church of God, is not so beyond Sea, as that we must needs seek it there, either in a painted Church, on one side, or in a naked Church, on another; a Church in a Dropsy, overflowne with Ceremonies, or a Church in a Consumption, for want of such Ceremonies, as the primitive Church found useful, and beneficial for the advancing of the glory of God, and the devotion of the Congregation. That which Christ says to the Church it self, the Church says to every soul in the Church: Go thy way forth, by the footsteps of the flock; Associate thy self to the true shepherd, and true sheep of Christ Jesus, and stray not towards Idolatrous Chappels, nor towards schismatical Conventicles, but go by the footsteps of the flock; there must be footsteps, some must have gone that way before, take heed of Opinions, that begin in thy self; and the whole flock must have gone that way, take heed of opinions vented by a few new men, which have not had the establishment of a Church. And truly the best way to discern footsteps, is Daniels way, Daniels way was to straw ashes, and so their footsteps that had been there, were easily discerned: Walk in thine own ashes, in the meditation of thine own death, or in the ashes of Gods Saints, who are dead before thee, in the contemplation of their example, and thou wilt see some footsteps of the flock, some impressions, some directions, how they went, and how thou art to follow, to the heavenly Jerusalem. In conversing evermore, with them which tread upon Carpets, or upon Marbles, thou shalt see no footsteps, Carpets and Marbles receive no impressions; Amongst them that tread in ashes, in the ways of holy sorrow, and religious humiliation, thou shalt have the way best marked out unto thee. Go forth, that is, go farther then thy self, out of thy self; at least out of the love of thy self, for that is but a short, a giddy, a vertiginous walk how little a thing is the greatest man? If thou have many rooms in thy self, many capacities to contemplate thy self in, if thou walk over the consideration of thy self, as thou hast such a title of Honor, such an Office of Command, such an Inheritance, such a pedigree, such a posterity, such an Allyance, if this be not a short walk, yet it is a round walk, a giddy, a vertiginous proceeding. Get beyond thine own circle; consider thy self at thine end, at thy death, and then Egredere, Go further then that, Go forth and see what thou shalt be after thy death.

Still that which we are to look upon, is especially our selves, but it is our selves, enlarged & extended into the next world; for till we see, what we shall be then, we are but short-sighted. Wouldst thou say, thou knew'st a man, because thou hadst seen him in his Cradle? no more canst thou be said, to have known thy self, because thou knowest the titles, and additions, which thou hast received in this world; for all those things which we have here, are but swadling clouts, & all our motions, & preferments, from place, to place, are but the rocking of a cradle. The first thing that Christ says to his spouse in the Canticles, is, If thou know not thy self, (for so all the Ancients read it, and so the Original bears it) If thou know not thy self, O thou fairest of women; she might know, that she was the fairest of women, and yet not know her self; Thou mayst know, that thou art the happyest of men, in this world, and yet not know thy self. All this life is but a Preface, or but an Index and Repertory to the book of life; There, at that book begins thy study; To grow perfect in that book, to be daily conversant in that book, to find what be the marks of them, whose names are written in that book, and to find those marks, ingenuously, and in a rectified conscience, in thy self, To find that no murmuring at Gods corrections, no disappointing of thy hopes, no interrupting of thy expectations, no frustrating of thy possibilities in the way, no impatience in sickness, and in the agony of death, can deface those marks, this is to go forth, and see thy self, beyond thy self, to see what thou shalt be in the next world. Now, we cannot see our own face, without a glass: and therefore in the old Temple, In, or about that laver of brass, where the water, for the uses of the Church was reserved, Moses appointed looking-glasses to be placed; that so, at the entering into the Temple, men might see themselves, and make use of that water, if they had contracted any foulness, in any part about them. Here, at your coming hither now, you have two glasses, wherein you may see your selves from head to foot; One in the Text, your Head, Christ Jesus, represented unto you, in the name and person of Solomon, Behold King Solomon crowned, &c. And another, under your feet, in the dissolution of this great Monarch, our Royal Master, now laid lower by death then any of us, his Subjects and servants.

First then, behold your selves in that first glass, Behold King Solomon; Solomon the son of David, but not the Son of Bathsheba, but of a better mother, the most blessed Virgin Mary. For, Solomon, in this text, is not a proper Name, but an Appellative; a significative word: Solomon is pacificus, the Peacemaker, and our peace is made in, and by Christ Jesus: and he is that Solomon, whom we are called upon to see here. Now, as Saint Paul says, that he would know nothing but Christ, (that's his first abridgement) and then he would know nothing of Christ, but him crucified, (and that's the re-abridgement) so we seek no other glass, to see our selves in, but Christ, nor any other thing in this glass, but his Humiliation. What need we? Even that, his lowest humiliation, his death, is expressed here, in three words of exaltation, It is a Crown, it is a Marriage, it is the gladness of heart: Behold King Solomon crowned, &c.

The Crown, which we are called to see him crowned with, his mother put upon him; The Crown which his Father gave him, was that glory, wherewith he was glorified, with the Father, from all eternity, in his divine nature: And the Crown wherewith his Father crowned his Humane nature, was the glory given to that, in his Ascension. His Mother could give him no such Crown: she her self had no Crown, but that, which he gave her. The Crown that she gave him, was that substance, that he received from her, our flesh, our nature, our humanity; and this, Athanasius, and this, Saint Ambrose, calls the Crown, wherewith his Mother crowned him, in this text, his infirm, his humane nature. Or, the Corwn wherewith his Mother corwned him, was that Crown, to which, that infirme nature which he took from her, submitted him, which was his passion, his Crown of thorns; for so Tertullian, and divers others take this Crown of his, from her, to be his Crown of thorns: Woe to the Crown of pride, whose beauty is a fading flower, says the Prophet; But blessed be this Crown of Humiliation, whose flower cannot fade. Then was there truly a Rose amongst Thorns, when through his Crown of Thorns, you might see his title, Jesus Nazarenus: for, in that very name Nazarenus, is involved the signification of a flower; the very word signifies a flower. Isaiah's flower in the Crown of pride fades, and is removed; This flower in the Crown of Thorns fades not, nor could be removed; for, for all the importunity of the Jews, Pilate would not suffer that title to be removed, or to be changed; still Nazarenus remained, and still a rose amongst thorns. You know the curse of the earth, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee; It did so to our Solomon here, it brought forth thorns to Christ, and he made a Crown of those thorns, not only for himself, but for us too, Omnes aculei mortis, in Dominici Corporis tolerantia,obtusi sunt, All the thorns of life and death, are broken, or blunted upon the head of our Solomon, and now, even our thorns, make up our Crown, our tribulation in life, our dissolution in death, conduce to our glory: Behold him crowned with his Mothers Crown, for even that brought him to his Fathers Crown, his humiliation to exaltation, his passion to glory.

Behold your Solomon, your Savior again, and you shall see another beam of Comfort, in your tribulations from his; for even this Humiliation of his, is called his Espousals, his marriage, Behold him crowned in the day of his Espousals. His Spouse is the Church, His marriage is the uniting of himself to this Spouse, in his becoming Head of the Church. The great City, the heavenly Jerusalem, is called The Bride, and The Lambs wife, in the Revelation: And he is the Head of this body, the Bridegroom of this Bride, the Head of this Church, as he is The first-born of the Dead; Death, that dissolves all ours, made up this marriage. His Death is his Marriage, and upon his Death flowed out from his side, those two Elements of the Church, water and blood; The Sacraments of Baptism, and of the Communion of himself. Behold then this Solomon crowned and married; both words of Exaltation, and Exultation, and both by Death and trust him for working the same effects upon thee; That thou (though by Death) shalt be crowned with a Crown of Glory, and married to him, in whose right and merit thou shalt have that Crown.

And Behold him once again, and you shall see not a beam, but a stream of comfort; for this day, which is the day of his death, he calls here The day of the gladness of his heart. Behold him crowned in the day of the gladness of his heart. The fullness, the compass, the two Hemispheres of Heaven, are often designed to us, in these two names, Joy and Glory: If the Cross of Christ, the Death of Christ, present us both these, how near doth it bring, how fully doth it deliver Heaven it self to us in this life? And then we hear the Apostle say, We see Jesus, for the suffering of Death, crowned with Honor and Glory: There is half Heaven got by Death, Glory. And then, for the joy that was set before him, he indured the Cross; There is the other half, Joy; All Heaven purchased by Death. And therefore, if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, saith the Apostle; but let him glorify God, In isto Nomine, as the vulgate read it; In that behalf, as we translate it. But, In isto Nomine, saith S. August: Let us glorify God, in that Name; Non solum in nomine Christiani, sed Chriani patientis, not only because he is a Christian in his Baptism, but a Christian in a second Baptism, a Baptism of blood; not only as he hath received Christ, in accepting his Institution, but because he hath conformed himself to Christ, in fulfilling his sufferings. And therefore, though we admit natural and humane sorrow, in the calamities which overtake us, and surround us in this life: (for as all glasses will gather drops and tears from external causes, so this very glass which we look upon now, our Solomon in the Text, our Savior, had those sadnesses of heart toward his Passion, and Agonies in his passion) yet count it all Joy when you fall into temptations, saith the Apostle: All Joy, that is, both the interest, and the principal, hath the earnest and the bargain; for if you can conceive joy in your tribulations in this world, how shall that joy be multiplied unto you, when no tribulation shall be mingled with it? There is not a better evidence, nor a more binding earnest of everlasting Joy in the next world, then to find Joy of heart in the tribulations of this; fixe thy self therefore upon this first glass, this Solomon, thy Savior, Behold King Solomon crownd, &c. and by conforming thy self to his holy sadness, and humiliation, thou shalt also become like him, in his Joy, and Glory.

But then the hand of God, hath not set up, but laid down another Glass, wherein thou mayst see thy self; a glass that reflects thy self, and nothing but thy self. Christ, who was the other glass, is like thee in every thing, but not absolutely, for sin is excepted; but in this glass presented now (The Body of our Royal, but dead Master and Sovereign) we cannot, we do not except sin. Not only the greatest man is subject to natural infirmities, (Christ himself was so) but the holiest man is subject to Original and Actual sin, as thou art, and so a fit glass for thee, to see thy self in. Ieat shows a man his face, as well as Crystal; nay, a Crystal glass will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkened on the backside: Christ as he was a pure Crystal glass, as he was God, had not been a glass for us, to have seen our selves in, except he had been steeled, darkened with our humane nature; Neither was he ever so throughly darkened, as that he could present us wholly to our selves, because he had no sin, without seeing of which we do not see our selves. Those therefore that are like thee in all things, subject to humane infirmities, subject to sins, and yet are translated, and translated by Death, to everlasting Joy, and Glory, are nearest and clearest glasses for thee, to see thy self in; and such is this glass, which God hath proposed to thee, in this house. And therefore, change the word of the Text, in a letter or two from Egredimini, to Ingredimini; never go forth to see, but Go in and see a Solomon crowned with his mothers crown, &c. And when you shall find that hand that had signed to one of you a Patent for Title, to another for Pension, to another for Pardon, to another for Dispensation, Dead: That hand that settled Possessions by his Seal, in the Keeper, and rectified Honours by the sword, in his Marshal, and distributed relief to the Poor, in his Almoner, and Health to the Diseased, by his immediate Touch, Dead: That Hand that ballanced his own three Kingdoms so equally, as that none of them complained of one another, nor of him, and carried the Keys of all the Christian world, and locked up, and let out Armies in their due season, Dead; how poor, how faint, how pale, how momentany, how transitory, how empty, how frivolous, how Dead things, must you necessarily think Titles, and Possessions, and Favours, and all, when you see that Hand, which was the hand of Destiny, of Christian Destiny, of the Almighty God, lie dead? It was not so hard a hand when we touched it last, nor so cold a hand when we kissed it last: That hand which was wont to wipe all tears from all our eyes, doth now but press and squeaze us as so many spunges, filled one with one, another with another cause of tears. Tears that can have no other bank to bound them, but the declared and manifested will of God: For, till our tears flow to that Height, that they might be called a murmuring against the declared will of God, it is against our Allegiance, it is Disloyalty, to give our tears any stop, any termination, any measure. It was a great part of Annaes prays, That she departed not from the Temple, day nor night; visit Gods Temple often in the day, meet him in his own House, and depart not from his Temples, (The dead bodies of his Saints are his Temples still) even at midnight; at midnight remember them, who resolve into dust, and make them thy glasses to see thy self in. Look now especially upon him whom God hath presented to thee now, and with as much cheerfulness as ever thou heardst him say, Remember my Favours, or remember my Commandments; hear him say now with the wise man, Remember my Judgement, for thine also shall be so; yesterday for me, and to day for thee; He doth not say to morrow, but to Day, for thee. Look upon him as a beam of that Sun, as an abridgement of that Solomon in the Text; for every Christian truly reconciled to God, and signed with his hand in the Absolution, and sealed with his blood in the Sacrament, (and this was his case) is a beam, and an abridgement of Christ himself. Behold him therefore Crowned with the Crown that his Mother gives him: His Mother, The Earth. In ancient times, when they used to reward Souldiers with particular kinds of Crowns, there was a great dignity in Corona graminea, in a Crown of Grass: That denoted a Conquest, or a Defence of that land. He that hath but Coronam Gramineam, a turf of grass in a Church yard, hath a Crown from his Mother, and even in that burial taketh seisure of the Resurrection, as by a turf of grass men give seisure of land. He is crowned in the day of his Marriage; for though it be a day of Divorce of us from him, and of Divorce of his body from his soul, yet neither of these Divorces break the Marriage: His soul is married to him that made it, and his body and soul shall meet again, and all we, both then in that Glory where we shall acknowledge, that there is no way to this Marriage, but this Divorce, nor to Life, but by Death. And lastly, he is Crowned in the day of the gladness of his heart: He leaveth that heart, which was accustomed to the half joys of the earth, in the earth; and he hath enlarged his heart to a greater capacity of Joy, and Glory, and God hath filled it according to that new capacity. And therefore, to end all with the Apostles words, I would not have you to be ignorant, Brethren, concerning them, which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, as others that have no hope; for if ye believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so, them also, which sleep in him, will God bring with him. But when you have performed this Ingredimini, that you have gone in, and mourned upon him, and performed the Egredimini, you have gone forth, and laid his Sacred body, in Consecrated Dust, and come then to another Egredimini, to a going forth in many several ways: some to the service of their new Master, and some to the enjoying of their Fortunes conferred by their old; some to the raising of new Hopes, some to the burying of old, and all; some to new, and busy endeavors in Court, some to contented retirings in the Country; let none of us, go so far from him, or from one another, in any of our ways, but that all we that have served him, may meet once a day, the first time we see the Sun, in the ears of almighty God, with humble and hearty prayer, that he will be pleased to hasten that day, in which it shall be an addition, even to the joy of that place, as perfect as it is, and as infinite as it is, to see that face again, and to see those eyes open there, which we have seen closed here. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXIIII.

LUKE 23. 34. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

THe word of God is either the co-eternal and co-essential Son, our Savior, which took flesh (Verbum Caro factum est) or it is the spirit of his mouth, by which we live, and not by bread only. And so, in a large acceptation, every truth is the word of God; for truth is uniform, and irrepugnant, and indivisible, as God Omne verum est omni vero consentiens. More strictly the word of God, is that which God hath uttered, either in writing, as twice in the Tables to Moses; or by ministry of Angels, or Prophets, in words; or by the unborne, in action, as in John Baptists exultation within his mother; or by new-born, from the mouths of babes and sucklings; or by things unreasonable, as in Balaams Ass; or insensible, as in the whole book of such creatures, The heavens declare the glory of God, &c. But nothing is more properly the word of God to us, then that which God himself speaks in those Organs and Instruments, which himself hath assumed for his chiefest work, our redemption. For in creation God spoke, but in redemption he did; and more, he suffered. And of that kind are these words. God in his chosen man-hood saith, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

These words shall be fitliest considered, like a goodly palace, if we rest a little, as in an outward Court, upon consideration of prayer in general; and then draw near the view of the Palace, in a second Court, considering this special prayer in general, as the face of the whole palace. Thirdly, we will pass through the chiefest rooms of the palace it self; and then insist upon four steps: 1. Of whom he begs, (Father) 2. What he asks, (forgive them.) 3. That he prays upon reason, (for.) 4. What the reason is, (they know not.) And lastly, as into the backside of all, we will cast the objections: as why only Luke remembers this prayer: and why this prayer, (as it seems by the punishment continuing upon the Jews to this day) was not obtained at Gods hands.

So therefore prayer is our first entry, for when it is said, Ask and it shall be given, it is also said, Knock and it shall be opened, showing that by prayer our entrance is. And not the entry only, but the whole house: My house is the house of prayer. Of all the conduits and conveyances of Gods graces to us, none hath been so little subject to cavillations, as this of prayer. The Sacraments have fallen into the hands of flatterers and robbers. Some have attributed too much to them, some detracted. Some have painted them, some have withdrawn their natural complexion. It hath been disputed, whether they be, how many they be, what they be, and what they do. The preaching of the word hath been made a servant of ambitions, and a shop of many mens newfangled wares. Almost every means between God and man, suffers some adulteratings and disguises: But prayer least: And it hath most ways and addresses. It may be mental, for we may think prayers. It may be vocal, for we may speak prayers. It may be actual, for we do prayers. For deeds have voice; the vices of Sodom did cry, and the Alms of Toby. And if it were proper for St. John, in the first of the Revelations to turn back to see a voice, it is more likely God will look down, to hear a work. So then to do the office of your vocation sincerely, is to pray. How much the favourites of Princes, and great personages labor, that they may be thought to have been in private conference with the Prince. And though they be forced to wait upon his purposes, and talk of what he will, how fain they would be thought to have solicited their own, or their Dependants business. With the Princes of Princes, this every man may do truly; and the sooner, the more begger he is: for no man is heard here, but in forma pauperis.

Here we may talk long, welcomely, of our own affaires, and be sure to speed. You cannot whisper so low alone in your Chamber, but he hears you, nor sing so lod in the Congregation, but he distinguishes you. He grudges not to be chidden and disputed with, by Job. The Arrows of the Almighty are in me, and the venim thereof hath drunk up my spirit. Is my strength, the strength of stones, or is my flesh of brass, &c. Not to be directed and counselled by Jonas: who was angry and said; Did not I say, when I was in my Country, thou wouldst deal thus? And when the Lord said, Doest thou well to be angry? He replied, I do well to be angry to the death. Nor almost to be threatened and neglected by Moses: Do this, or blot my name out of thy book. It is an Honor to be able to say to servants, Do this: But to say to God, Domine fac hoc, and prevail, is more; And yet more easy. God is replenishingly every where: but most contractedly, and workingly in the Temple. Since then every rectified man, is the temple of the Holy Ghost, when he prays; it is the Holy Ghost it self that prays; and what can be denied, where the Asker gives? He plays with us, as children, shows us pleasing things, that we might cry for them, and have them. Before we call, he answers, and when we speak, he hears: so Isaiah 65. 24. Physicians observe some symptoms so violent, that they must neglect the disease for a time, and labor to cure the accident; as burning fevers, in Dysenteries. So in the sinful consumption of the soul, a stupidity and indisposition to prayer, must first be cured. For, Ye lust, and have not, because ye ask net, Jam. 4. 2. The adulterous Mother of the three great brothers, Gratian, Lombard, and Comestor, being warned by her Confessor, to be sorry for her fact, said, she could not, because her fault had so much profited the Church. At least, said he, be sorry that thou canst not be sorry. So whosoever thou be, that canst not readily pray, at least pray, that thou mayst pray. For, as in bodily, so in spiritual diseases, it is a desperate state, to be speechless.

It were unmannerliness to hold you longer in the Entry. One turn in the inner Court, of this special prayer in general, and so enter the Palace. This is not a prayer for his own ease, as that in his Agony seems. It hath none of those infirmities, which curious schismatikes find in that. No suspicion of ignorance, as there, (If it be possible.) No tergiversation nor abandoning the noble work which he had begun, as there, (Let this cup pass.) It is not an exemplar, or forme, for us to imitate precisely, (otherwise then in the Doctrine) as that Prayer, Mat. 6. which we call the Lords Prayer, not because he said it, for he could never say, forgive us our trespasses, but because he commanded us to say it. For though by Matthew, which saith, After this manner pray, we seem not bound to the words, yet Luke sayth, When you pray, say, Our Father which art, &c. But this is a prayer of God, to God. Not as the Talmudists Jews fain God to pray to himself, Sit voluntas mea, ut misericordia mea superet iram mem; But as when foreign merchandise is mis-ported, the Prince may permit, or inhibit his Subjects to buy it, or not to buy it. Our blessed Savior arriving in this world fraited with salvation, a thing which this world never had power to have without him, except in that short time, between mans Creation and fall, he by this prayer begs, that even to these despisers of it, it may be communicable, and that their ignorance of the value of it, may not deprive them of it. Teaching that by example here, which he gave in precept before, Mat. 5. 44. Pray for them which persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, doing so now, he might well say, Father, forgive them, which is the first room in this glorious Palace. And in this contemplation, my unworthy soul, thou art presently in the presence. No passing of guards, nor ushers. No examination of thy degree or habit. The Prince is not asleep, nor private, nor weary of giving, nor refers to others. He puts thee not to prevail by Angels nor Archangels. But lest any thing might hinder thee, from coming into his presence, his presence comes into thee. And lest Majesty should dazel thee, thou art to speak but to thy Father. Of which word, Abba, the root is, To will; from which root, the fruit also must be willingness, and propenseness to grant. God is the Father of Christ, by that mystical and eternal unexpressible generation, which never began nor ended. Of which incomprehensible mystery, Moses and the ancient Prophets spake so little, and so indirectly, that till the dawning of the day of Christ, after Esdras time, those places seem not to be intended of the Trinity. Nay, a good while after Christ, they were but tenderly applied to that sense. And at this day, the most of the writers in the reformed Churches, considering that we need not such far fetcht, and such forced helps, and withal, weighing how well the Jews of these times are provided with other expositions of those places, are very sparing in using them, but content themselves modestly herein, with the testimonies of the New Testament. Truly, this mystery is rather the object of faith then reason; and it is enough that we believe Christ to have ever been the Son of God, by such generation, and our selves his sons by adoption. So that God is Father to all; but yet so, that though Christ say, John 10. My Father is greater then all, he adds, I and my Father are all one, to show his eternal interest: and John 20. He seems to put a difference, I go to my Father, and your Father, my God, and your God. The Roman stories have, that when Claudius saw it conduce to his ends, to get the tribuneship, of which he was incapable, because a Patrician, he suffered himself to be adopted. But against this Adoption, two exceptions were found; one, that he was adopted by a man of lower rank, a Plebeian; which was unnatural; and by a younger man then himself, which took away the presentation of a Father. But our Adoption is regular. For first, we are made the sons of the Most High, and of the ancient of days, there was no one word, by which he could so nobly have maintained his Dignity, kept his station, justified his cause, and withal expressed his humility and charity, as this, Father. They crucified him, for saying himself to be the Son of God. And in the midst of torment, he both professes the same still, and lets them see, that they have no other way of forgiveness, but that he is the Son of that Father. For no man cometh to the Father but by the Son.

And at this voice (Father) O most blessed Savior, thy Father, which is so fully thine, that for thy sake, he is ours too, which is so wholly thine, that he is thy self, which is all mercy, yet will not spare thee, all justice, yet will not destroy us. And that glorious Army of Angels, which hitherto by their own integrity maintained their first and pure condition, and by this work of thine, now near the Consummatum est, attend a confirmation, and infallibility of ever remaining so; And that faithful company of departed Saints, to whom thy merit must open a more inward and familiar room in thy Fathers Kingdom, stand all attentive, to hear what thou wilt ask of this Father. And what shall they hear? what doest thou ask? Forgive them, forgive them? Must murderers be forgiven? Must the offended ask it? And must a Father grant it? And must he be solicited, and remembered by the name of Father to do it? Was not thy passion enough, but thou must have compassion? And is thy mercy so violent, that thou wilt have a fellow-feeling of their imminent afflictions, before they have any feeling? The Angels might expect a present employment for their destruction: the Saints might be out of fear, that they should be assumed or mingled in their fellowship. But thou wilt have them pardoned. And yet doest not out of thine own fullness pardon them, as thou didst the theef upon the Cross, because he did already confess thee; but thou tellest them, that they may be forgiven, but at thy request, and if they acknowledge their Advocate to be the Son of God. Father, forgive them. I that cannot revenge thy quarrel, cannot forgive them. I that could not be saved, but by their offence, cannot forgive them. And must a Father, Almighty, and well pleased in thee, forgive them? Thou art more charitable towards them, then by thy direction we may be to our selves. We must pray for our selves limitedly, forgive us, as we forgive. But thou wilt have their forgivenes illimited and unconditioned. Thou seemest not so much as to presume a repentance; which is so essential, and necessary in all transgressions, as where by mans fault the actions of God are diverted from his appointed ends, God himself is content to repent the doing of them. As he repented first the making of man, and then the making of a King. But God will have them within the armes of his general pardon. And we are all delivered from our Debts; for God hath given his word, his co-essential word, for us all. And though, (as in other prodigal debts, the Interest exceed the Principal) our Actual sins exceed Original, yet God by giving his word for us, hath acquitted all.

But the Affections of our Savior are not inordinate, nor irregular. He hath a For, for his Prayer: Forgive them, for, &c. And where he hath not this For, as in his Prayer in his agony, he quickly interrupts the violence of his request, with a But, Father, let this cup pass; but not my will: In that form of Prayer which himself taught us, he hath appointed a for, on Gods part, which is ever the same unchangeable: For thine is the Kingdom; Therefore supplications belong to thee: The power, Thou openest thy hand and fillest every living thing: The Glory, for thy Name is glorified in thy grants. But because on our part, the occasions are variable, he hath left our for, to our religious discretion. For, when it is said, James 4. You lust and have not, because you ask not; it followeth presently, You ask and miss, because you ask amisse. It is not a fit for, for every private man, to ask much means, for he would do much good. I must not pray, Lord put into my hands the strength of Christian Kings, for out of my zeal, I will employ thy benefits to thine advantage, thy Souldiers against thine enemies, and be a bank against that Deluge, wherewith thine enemy the Turk threatens to overflow thy people. I must not pray, Lord fill my heart with knowledge and understanding, for I would compose the Schisms in thy Church, and reduce thy garment to the first continual and seemlesse integrity; and redress the deafnesses and oppressions of Judges, and Officers. But he gave us a convenient scantling for our fors, who prayed, Give me enough, for I may else despair, give me not too much, for so I may presume. Of Schoolmen, some affirm Prayer to be an act of our will; for we would have that which we ask. Others, of our understanding; for by it we ascend to God, and better our knowledge, which is the proper aliment and food of our understanding; so, that is a perplexed case. But all agree, that it is an act of our Reason, and therefore must be reasonable. For only reasonable things can pray; for the beasts and Ravens, Psalm 147. 9. are not said to pray for food, but to cry. Two things are required to make a Prayer. 1. Pius affectus, which was not in the Devills request, Matth. 8. 31. Let us go into the Swine; nor Job 1. 2. Stretch out thy hand, and touch all he hath; and, stretch out thy hand, and touch his bones; and therefore these were not Prayers. And it must be Rerum decentium: for our government in that point, this may inform us. Things absolutely good, as Remission of sins, we may absolutely beg: and, to escape things absolutely ill, as sin. But mean and indifferent things, qualified by the circumstances, we must ask conditionally and referringly to the givers will. For 2 Cor. 8. when Paul begged stimulum Carnis to be taken from him, it was not granted, but he had this answer, My grace is sufficient for thee.

Let us now (not in curiosity, but for instruction) consider the reason: They know not what they do. First, if Ignorance excuse: And then, if they were ignorant.

Hast thou, O God, filled all thy Scriptures, both of thy Recorders and Notaries, which have penned the History of thy love, to thy People; and of thy Secretaries the Prophets, admitted to the foreknowledge of thy purposes, and instructed in thy Cabinet; hast thou filled these with praises and persuasions of wisdom and knowledge, and must these persecutors be pardoned for their ignorance? Hast thou bid Isaiah to say, 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them, shall not have compassion of them. And Hosea 4. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: and now dost thou say, Forgive them because they know not? Shall ignorance, which is often the cause of sin, often a sin it self, often the punishment of sin, and ever an infirmity and disease contracted by the first great sin, advantage them? Who can understand his faults, saith the man according to thy heart, Psalm 19. 12. Lord cleanse me from my secret faults: He durst not make his ignorance the reason of his prayer, but prayed against ignorance. But thy Mercy is as the Sea: both before it was the Sea, for it overspreads the whole world; and since it was called into limits: for it is not the less infinite for that. And as by the Sea, the most remote and distant Nations enjoy one another, by traffic and commerce, East and West becoming neighbours: so by mercy, the most different things are united and reconciled; Sinners have Heaven; Traytors are in the Princes bosom; and ignorant persons are in the spring of wisdom, being forgiven, not only though they be ignorant, but because they are ignorant. But all ignorance is not excusable; nor any less excusable, then not to know, what ignorance is not to be excused. Therefore, there is an ignorance which they call Nescientiam, a not knowing of things not appertaining to us. This we had had, though Adam had stood; and the Angels have it, for they know not the latter day, and therefore for this, we are not chargeable. They call the other privation, which if it proceed merely from our own sluggishness, in not searching the means made for our instruction, is ever inexcusable. If from God, who for his own just ends hath cast clouds over those lights which should guide us, it is often excusable. For 1 Tim. 1. 13. Paul saith, I was ablasphemer, and a persecutor, and an oppressor, but I was received to mercy, for I did it ignorantly, through unbelief. So, though we are all bound to believe, and therefore faults done by unbelief cannot escape the name and nature of sin, yet since belief is the immediate gift of God, faults done by unbelief, without malicious concurrences and circumstances, obtain mercy and pardon from that abundant fountain of grace, Christ Jesus. And therefore it was a just reason, Forgive them, for they know not. If they knew not, which is evident, both by this speech from truth it self, and by 2 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; and Acts 3. 17. I know that through ignorance ye did it. And though after so many powerful miracles, this ignorance were vincible, God having revealed enough to convert them, yet there seems to be enough on their parts, to make it a perplexed case, and to excuse, though not a malicious persecuting, yet a not consenting to his Doctrine. For they had a Law, Whosoever shall make himself the son of God, let him dye: And they spoke out of their Laws, when they said, We have no other King but Caesar. There were therefore some among them reasonably, and zealously ignorant. And for those, the Son ever-welcome, and well-heard, begged of his Father, ever accessible, and exorable, a pardon ever ready and natural.

We have now passed through all those rooms which we unlockt and opened at first. And now may that point, Why this prayer is remembered only by one Evangelist, and why by Luke, be modestly inquired: For we are all admitted and welcomed into the acquaintance of the Scriptures, upon such conditions as travellers are into other Countries: if we come as praisers and admirres of their Commodities and Government, not as spies into the mysteries of their State, nor searchers, nor calumniators of their weaknesses. For though the Scriptures, like a strong rectified State, be not endangered by such a curious malice of any, yet he which brings that, deserves no admittance. When those great Commissioners which are called the Septuagint, sent from Hierusalem, to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, had perfected their work, it was, and is an argument of Divine assistance, that writing severally, they differed not. The same may prove even to weak and faithless men, that the holy Ghost super-intended the four Evangelists, because they differ not; as they which have written their harmonies, make it evident: But to us, faith teacheth the other way. And we conclude not, because they agree, the holy Ghost directed; for heathen Writers and Malefactors in examinations do so; but because the holy Ghost directed, we know they agree, and differ not. For as an honest man, ever of the same thoughts, differs not from himself, though he do not ever say the same things, if he say not contraries; so the four Evangelists observe the uniformity and sameness of their guide, though all did not say all the same things, since none contradicts any. And as, when my soul, which enables all my limbs to their functions, disposes my legs to go, my whole body is truly said to go, because none stays behind; so when the holy Spirit, which had made himself as a common soul to their four souls, directed one of them to say any thing, all are well understood to have said it. And therefore when to that place in Matth. 27. 8. where that Evangelist cites the Prophet Jeremiah, for words spoken by Zachary, many medicines are applied by the Fathers; as, That many copies have no name, That Jeremiah might be binominous, and have both names, a thing frequent in the Bible, That it might be the error of a transcriber, That there was extant an Apocryph book of Jeremiah, in which these words were, and sometimes things of such books were vouched, as Iannes and Iambres by Paul; St. Augustine insists upon, and teaches rather this, That it is more wonderful, that all the Prophets spake by one Spirit, and so agreed, then if any one of them had spoken all those things; And therefore he adds, Singula sunt omnium, & omnia sunt singulorum, All say what any of them say; And in this sense most congruously is that of St. Jerome appliable, that the four Evangelists are Quadriga Divina, That as the four Chariot wheels, though they look to the four corners of the world, yet they move to one end and one way, so the Evangelists have both one scope, and one way.

Yet not so precisely, but that they differ in words: For as their general intention, common to them all begat that consent, so a private reason peculiar to each of them, for the writing of their Histories at that time, made those diversities which seem to be for Matthew, after he had preached to the Jews, and was to be transplanted into another vineyard, the Gentiles, left them written in their own tongue, for permanency, which he had preached transitorily by word. Mark, when the Gospel fructified in the West, and the Church enlarged her self, and grew a great body, and therefore required more food out of Peters Dictates, and by his approbation published his Evangile. Not an Epitome of Matthews, as Saint Jerome (I know why) imagines, but a just and entire History of our blessed Savior. And as Matthews reason was to supply a want in the Eastern Church, Marks in the Western; so on the other side Lukes was to cut off an excess and superfluity: for then many had undertaken this Story, and dangerously inserted and mingled uncertainties and obnoxious improbabilities: and he was more curious and more particular then the rest, both because he was more learned, and because he was so individual a companion of the most learned Saint Paul, and did so much write Pauls words, that Eusebius thereupon mistaketh the words 2 Tim. 2. 1. Christ is raised according to my Gospel, to prove that Paul was author of this Gospel attributed to Luke. John the Minion of Christ upon earth, and survivor of the Apostles, (whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven, and writ with the hand which ingraved the stone Tables, then a mans work) because the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus were rooted, who upon this true ground, then evident aud fresh, that Christ had spoke many things which none of the other three Evangelists had Recorded, uttered many things as his, which he never spoke: John I say, more diligently then the rest handleth his Divinity, and his Sermons, things specially brought into question by them. So therefore all writ one thing, yet all have some things particular. And Luke most, for he writ last of three, and largeliest for himself, 1 Act. 1. saith, I have made the former Treatise of all that Jesus began to do and teach, untill the Day that he was taken up; which speech, lest the words in the last of John, If all were written which Jesus did, the world could not contain the Books, should condemn, Ambrose and Chrysostom interpret well out of the words themselves, Scripsit de omnibus, non omnia, He writ of all, but not all: for it must have the same limitation, which Paul giveth his words, who saith, Acts 20. in one verse, I have kept nothing back, but have showed you all the counsel of God; and in another, I kept back nothing that was profitable. It is another peculiar singularity of Lukes, that he addresseth his History to one man, Theophilus. For it is but weakly surmised, that he chose that name, for all lovers of God, because the interpretation of the word suffereth it, since he addeth most noble Theophilus. But the work doth not the less belong to the whole Church, for that, no more then his Masters Epistles do though they be directed to particulars.

It is also a singularity in him to write upon that reason, because divers have written. In humane knowledge, to abridge or suck, and then suppress other Authors, is not ever honest nor profitable: We see after that vast enterprise of Iustinian, who distilled all the Law into one vessel, and made one Book of 2000. suppressing all the rest, Alciate wisheth he had let them alone, and thinketh the Doctors of our times, would better have drawn useful things from those volumes, then his Trebonian and Dorothea did. And Aristotle after, by the immense liberality of Alexander, he had ingrossed all Authors, is said to have defaced all, that he might be in stead of all: And therefore, since they cannot rise against him, he imputes to them errors which they held not: vouches only such objections from them, as he is able to answer; and propounds all good things in his own name, which he ought to them. But in this History of Lukes, it is otherwise: He had no authority to suppress them, nor doth he reprehend or calumniate them, but writes the truth simply, and leaves it to outweare falsehood: and so it hath: Moses rod hath devoured the Conjurers rods, and Lukes Story still retains the majesty of the maker, and theirs are not.

Other singularities in Luke, of form or matter, I omit, and end with one like this in our Text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Savior, all the Evangelists record, that Peter cut off Malchus ear, but only Luke remembers the healing of it again: (I think) because that act of curing, was most present and obvious to his consideration, who was a Physician: so he was therefore most apt, to remember this Prayer of Christ, which is the Physic and Balsamum of our Soul, and must be applied to us all, (for we do all Crucify him, and we know not what we do) And therefore Saint Jerome gave a right Character of him, in his Epistle to Paulinus, Fuit Medicus, & pariter omnia verba illius, Animae languentis sunt Medicinae, As he was a Physician, so all his words are Physic for a languishing soul.

Now let us dispatch the last consideration, of the effect of this Prayer. Did Christ intend the forgiveness of the Jews, whose utter ruin God (that is, himself) had foredecreed? And which he foresaw, and bewaild even then hanging upon the Cross? For those Divines which reverently forbear to interpret the words Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me? of a suffering hell in his soul, or of a departing of the Father from him; (for Joh. 16. it is, I am not alone, for the Father is with me) offer no exposition of those words more convenient, then that the foresight of the Jews imminent calamities, expressed and drew those words from him: In their Afflictions, were all kinds, and all degrees of Misery. So that as one writer of the Roman Story saith elegantly, He that considereth the Acts of Rome, considereth not the Acts of one People, but of Mankind: I may truly of the Jews Afflictions, he that knoweth them, is ignorant of nothing that this world can threaten. For to that which the present authority of the Romans inflicted upon them, our Schools have added upon their posterities; that they are slaves to Christians, and their goods subject to spoil, if the Laws of the Princes where they live, did not out of indulgency defend them. Did he then ask, and was not heard? God forbid. A man is heard, when that is given which his will desired; and our will is ever understood to be a will rectified, and concurrent with God. This is Voluntas, a discoursed and examined will. That which is upon the first sight of the object, is Velleit as, a willingness, which we resist not, only because we thought not of it. And such a willingness had Christ, when suddenly he wished that the cup might pass: but quickly conformed his will to his Fathers. But in this Prayer his will was present, therefore fulfilled. Briefly then, in this Prayer he commended not all the Jews, for he knew the chief to sin knowingly, and so out of the reach of his reason, (for they know not.) Nor any, except they repented after: for it is not ignorance, but repentance, which deriveth to us the benefit of Gods pardon. For he that sins of Ignorance, may be pardoned if he repent; but he that sins against his Conscience, and is thereby impenitible, cannot be pardoned. And this is all, which I will say of these words, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

O eternal God, look down from thy Throne to thy footstool: from thy blessed Company of Angels and Saints, to us, by our own faults made more wretched and contemptible, then the worms, which shall eat us, or the dust which we were, and shall be. O Lord, under the weight of thy Iustice we cannot stand. Nor had any other title to thy mercy, but the Name of Father, and that we have forfeited. That name of Sons of God, thou gavest to us, all at once in Adam; and he gave it away from us all by his sin. And thou hast given it again to every one of us, in our regeneration by Baptism, and we have lost it again by our transgressions. And yet thou was not weary of being merciful, but diddest choose one of us, to be a fit and worthy ransom for us all; and by the death of thy Christ, our Jesus, gavest us again the title and privilege of thy Sons; but with conditions, which though easy, we have broke, and with a yoke, which though light, and sweet, we have cast off. How shall we then dare to call thee Father? Or to beg that thou wilt make one trial more of us? These hearts are accustomed to rebellions, and hopeless. But, O God, create in us new hearts, hearts capable of the love and fear, due to a Father. And then we shall dare to say, Father, and to say, Father forgive us. Forgive us O Father, and all which are engaged, and accountable to thee for us: forgive our Parents, and those which undertook for us in Baptism. Forgive the civil Magistrate, and the Minister. Forgive them their negligences, and us our stubbornnesses. And give us the grace that we may ever sincerely say, both this Prayer of Example and Counsel, Forgive our enemies, and that other of Precept, Our Father which art in Heaven, &c.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXV.

MATTHEW 21. 44. Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Preached February 21. 1611.

ALmighty God made us for his glory, and his glory is not the glory of a Tyrant, to destroy us, but his glory is in our happiness. He put us in a faire way towards that happiness in nature, in our creation, that way would have brought us to heaven, but then we fell, and (if we consider our selves only) irrecoverably. He put us after into another way, over thorny hedges and ploughed Lands, through the difficulties and incumbrances of all the Ceremonial Law; there was no way to heaven then, but that; after that, he brought us a cross way, by the Cross of Jesus Christ, and the application of his Gospel, and that is our way now. If we compare the way of nature, and our way, we went out of the way at the Towns end, as soon as we were in it, we were out of it. Adam died as soon as he lived, and fell as soon as he was set on foot; If we compare the way of the Law, and ours, the Jews and the Christians, their Synagogue was but as Gods farm, our Church is as his dwelling house; to them locavit vineam, he let out his Vine to husbandmen, and then peregrè profectus, he went into a far Country, he promised a Messiah, but deferred his coming a long time; but to us Dabitur Regnum, a Kingdom is given; the Vineyard is changed into a Kingdom, here is a good improvement, and the Lease into an absolute deed of gift, here is a good enlargement of the Term. He gives, therefore he will not take away again. He gives a Kingdom, therefore there is a fullness and all-sufficiency in the gift; and he does not go into any far Country, but stays with us, to govern us, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world; here therefore God takes all into his own hands, and he comes to dwell upon us himself, to which purpose he ploughs up our hearts, and he builds upon us; Vos Dei agricultura, & Dei aedificium, Ye are Gods husbandry, and Gods building: Now of this, this husbandry God speaks familiarly and parabolicaly many times in Scriptures: of this building particularly and principally in this place, where having intimated unto us the several benefits we have received from Christ Jesus in that appellation, as he is a stone; he tells us also our dangers in mis-behaving our selves towards it, Whosoever shall fall on this &c.

Christ then is a stone, and we may run into two dangers: first, we may fall upon this stone, and then this stone may fall upon us; but yet we have a great deal of comfort presented to us, in that Christ is presented to us as a stone, for there we shall find him, first, to be the foundation stone, nothing can stand which is not built upon Christ; Secondly, to be Lapis Angularis, a corner stone, that unites things most dis-united; and then to be Lapis Jacob, the stone that Jacob slept upon; fourthly, to be Lapis Davidis, the stone that David flew Golih withal; And lastly, to be Lapis Petra, such a stone as is a Rock, and such a Rock as no Waters nor Storms can remove or shake, these are benefits: Christ Jesus is a stone, no firmness but in him; a fundamental stone, no building but on him; a corner stone, no piecing nor reconciliation, but in him; and Iacobs stone, no rest, no tranquillity, but in him; and Davids stone, no anger, no revenge, but in him; and a rocky stone, no defence against troubles and tribulations, but in him; And upon this stone we fall and are broken, and this stone may fall on us, and grind us to powder.

First in the metaphor, that Christ is called a stone, the firmness is expressed: Forasmuch as he loved his own which were in the world, In finem dilexit eos, says St. John, He loved them to the end; and not to any particular end, for any use of this own, but to their end; Qui erant in mundo, says Cyrill, ad distinctionem Angelorum, he loved them in the world, and not Angels; he loved not only them who were in a confirmed estate of mutual loving him too, but even them who were themselves conceived in sin, and then conceived all their purposes in sin too, them who could have no cleansing but in his blood, and when they were cleansed in his blood, their own clothes would defile them again, them who by nature are not able to love him at all, and when by grace they are brought to love him, can express their love no other way, but to be glad that he was betrayed, and scourged, and scorned, and nayled, and crucified; and to be glad, that if all this were not already done, it might be done yet, to long, and wish, that if Christ were not crucified, he might be crucified now, (which is a strange manner of expressing love) those men he loved, and loved unto the end; Men and not Angels; and then men, Ad distinctionem mortuorum, says Chrysostom, not only the Patriarchs, who were departed out of the world, who had loved him so well, as to take his word for their salvation, and had lived and died in the faithful contemplation of a future promise, which they never saw performed; but those who were partakers of the performance of all those promises, those into the midst of whom he came in person, those upon whom he wrought with his piercing Doctrine, and his powerful miracles, those who for all this loved not him, he loved: Et in finem, he loved them to the end: It is much that he should love them in fine, at their end, that he should look graciously on them at last, that when their sun sets, their eyes faint, his sun of grace should arise, and his East be brought to their West, that then in the shadow of death, the Lord of life should quicken and inanimate their hearts: that when their last bell tolls, and calls them to their first Judgement, (and first and last Judgement to this purpose is all one) the passing bell, and Angels trump sound all but one note, Surgite qui dormitis in pulvere, Arise ye that sleep in the dust, which is the voice of the Angels, and Surgite qui vigilatis in plumis, Arise ye that cannot sleep in feathers, for the pangs of death, which is the voice of the bell, is but one voice; for God at the general Judgement, shall never reverse any particular Judgement, formerly given; that God should then come to the beds side, ad sibilandum populum suum, as the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, to hiss softly for his child, to speak comfortably in his ear, to whisper gently to his departing soul, and to drown and overcome with this soft Music of his, all the danger of the Angels Trumpets, all the horror of the ringing Bell, all the cries, and vociferations of a distressed, and distracted, and scattering family, yea all the accusations of his own conscience, and all the triumphant acclamations of the Devil himself; that God should love a man thus in fine, at his end, and return to him then, though he had suffered him to go astray from him before, it is a great testimony of an unspeakable love: but his love is not only in fine, at the end, but in finem, to the end, all the way to the end. He leaves them not uncalled at first, he leaves them not unaccompanied in the way, he leaves them not unrecompensed at the last, that God who is Almighty, Alpha and Omega, first and last, that God is also love it self, and therefore this love is Alpha and Omega, first and last too; Consider Christs proceeding with Peter in the ship, in the storm; first he suffered him to be in some danger, but then he visits him with that strong assurance, Noli timere, Be not afraid, it is I, any testimony of his presence rectifies all. This puts Peter into that spiritual knowledge and confidence, Iube me venire, Lord bid me come to thee; he hath a desire to be with Christ, but yet stays his bidding; he puts not himself into an unnecessary danger, without a commandment; Christ bids him, and Peter comes, but yet, though Christ were in his sight, and even in the actual exercise of his love to him, yet as soon as he saw a gust, a storm, timuit, he was afraid, and Christ letteth him fear, and letteth him sink, and letteth him cry; But he directeth his fear, and his cry to the right end. Domine salvum me fac, Lord save me, and thereupon he stretcheth out his hand and saved him: God doth not raise his children to honor, and great estates, and then leave them, and expose them to be subjects, and exercises of the malice of others, nor he doth not make them mighty, and then leave them, ut glorietur in malo qui potens est, that he should think it a glory to be able to do harm. He doth not impoverish and dishonor his children, and then leave them; leave them unsensible of that Doctrine, that patience is as great a blessing as aboundance: God giveth not his children health, and then leaveth them to a boldness in surfetting; nor beauty, and leave them to a confidence of opening themselves to all sollicitations; nor valor, and then leaveth them to a spirit of quarrelsomness: God maketh no patterns of his works, no modells of his houses, he maketh whole pieces, he maketh perfect houses, he putteth his children into good ways, and he directeth and protecteth them in those ways: For this is the constancy and the perseverance of the love of Christ Jesus, as he is called in this Text a stone. To come to the particular benefits; the first is that he is lapis fundamentalis, a foundation stone; for other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now where Saint Augustine saith, (as he doth in two or three places) that this place of Saint Pauls to the Corinthians, is one of these places of which Saint Peter saith Quaedam difficilia, There are some things in Saint Paul hard to be understood: Saint Augustines meaning is, that the difficulty is in the next words, how any man should build hay or stubble upon so good a foundation as Christ, how any man that pretendeth to live in Christ, should live ill, for in the other there can be no difficulty, how Christ Jesus to a Christian, should be the only foundation: And therefore to place salvation or damnation in such an absolute Decree of God, as should have no relation to the fall of man, or reparation in a Redeemer; this is to remove this stone out of the foundation, for a Christian may be well content to begin at Christ: If any man therefore have laid any other foundation to his Faith, or any other foundation to his Actions, possession of great places, alliance in great Families, strong parties in Courts, obligation upon dependants, acclamations of people; if he have laid any other foundations for pleasure, and contentment, care of health, and complexion, appliableness in conversation, delightfulness in discourses, cheerfulness in disportings, interchanging of secrets, and such other small wares of Courts and Cities as these are: whosoever hath laid such foundations as these, must proceed as that General did, who when he received a besieged Town to mercy, upon condition that in sign of subjection they should suffer him to take off one row of stones from their walls, he took away the lowest row, the foundation, and so ruined and demolished the whole walls of the City: So must he that hath these false foundations, (that is, these habits) divest the habit, root out the lowest stone, that is, the general, and radical inclination to these disorders: For he shall never be able to watch and resist every particular temptation, if he trust only to his Moral Constancy; No, nor if he place Christ for the roof to cover all his sins, when he hath done them; his mercy worketh by way of pardon after, not by way of Non obstante, and privilege to do a sin before hand; but before hand we must have the foundation in our eye; when we undertake any particular Action, in the beginning, we must look how that will suite with the foundation, with Christ; for there is his first place, to be Lapis fundamentalis.

And then, after we have considered him, first, in the foundation (as we are all Christians) he grows to be Lapis Angularis, the Corner stone, to unite those Christians, which seem to be of divers ways, divers aspects, divers professions together; as we consider him in the foundation, there he is the root of faith, As we consider him in the Corner, there he is the root of charity, In Isaiah he is both together, A sure foundation and a Corner stone, as he was in the place of Isaiah, Lapis probatus, I will lay in Sion a tried stone; and in the Psalm, Lapis reprobatus, a stone that the builders refused, In this consideration, he is Lapis approbatus, a stone approved by all sides, that unites all things together: Consider first, what divers things he unites in his own person; That he should be the son of a woman, and yet no son of man, That the son of a woman should be the son of God, that mans sinful nature, and innocency should meet together, a man that should not sin, that Gods nature and mortality should meet together, a God that must die; Briefly, that he should do and suffer so many things impossible as man, impossible as God. Thus he was a Corner stone, that brought together natures, naturally incompatible. Thus he was Lapis Angularis, a Corner stone in his Person, Consider him in his Offices, as a Redeemer, as a Mediator, and so, he hath united God to man; yea, rebellious man to jealous God: He is such a Corner stone, as hath united heaven, and earth, Jerusalem and Babylon together.

Thus in his Person, and thus in his Offices, Consider him in his power, and he is such a Corner stone, as that he is the God of Peace, and Love, and Union, and Concord. Such a Corner stone as is able to unite, and reconcile (as it did in Abrahams house) a Wife, and a Concubine in one bed, a covetous Father, and a wasteful Son in one family, a severe Magistrate, and a licentious people in one City, an absolute Prince, and a jealous People in one Kingdom, Law, and Conscience in one Government, Scripture, and tradition in one Church. If we would but make Christ Jesus and his peace, the life and soul of all our actions, and all our purposes; if we would mingle that sweetness and suppleness which he loves, and which he is, in all our undertakings; if in all controversies, book controversies, and sword controversies, we would fit them to him, and see how near they would meet in him, that is, how near we might come to be friends, and yet both sides be good Christians; then we placed this stone in his second right place, who as he is a Corner stone reconciling God and man in his own Person, and a Corner stone in reconciling God and mankind in his Office, so he desires to be a Corner stone in reconciling man and man, and setling peace among our selves, not for worldly ends, but for this respect, that we might all meet in him to love one another, not because we made a stronger party by that love, not because we made a sweeter conversation by that love, but because we met closer in the bosom of Christ Jesus; where we must at last either rest altogether eternally, or be altogether eternally thrown out, or be eternally separated and divorced from one another.

Having then received Christ for the foundation stone, (we believe aright) and for the Corner stone (we interpret charitably the opinions, and actions of other men) The next is, that he be Lapis Jacob, a stone of rest and security to our selves. When Jacob was in his journey, he took a stone, and that stone was his pillow, upon that he slept all night, &c. resting upon that stone, he saw the Ladder that reached from heaven to earth; it is much to have this egresse and regresse to God, to have a sense of being gone from him, and a desire and means of returning to him; when we do fall into particular sins, it is well if we can take hold of the first step of this Ladder, with that hand of David, Domine respice in Testamentum, O Lord, consider thy Covenant, if we can remember God of his Covenant, to his people, and to their seed, it is well; it is more, if we can clamber a step higher on this ladder to a Domine labia mea aperies, if we come to open our lips in a true confession of our wretched condition and of those sins by which we have forfeited our interest in that Covenant, it is more; and more then that too, if we come to that inebriabo me lacrymis, if we overflow and make our selves drunk with tears, in a true sense, and sorrow for those sins, still it is more; And more then all this, if we can expostulate with God in an Vsque quo Domine, How long, O Lord, shall I take counsel in my self, having weariness in my heart? These steps, these gradations towards God, do well; war is a degree of peace, as it is the way of peace; and these colluctations and wrestlings with God, bring a man to peace with him; But then is a man upon this stone of Jacob, when in a faire, and even, and constant religious course of life, he enters into his sheets every night, as though his neighbours next day were to shrowd and wind him in those sheets; he shuts up his eyes every night, as though his Executors had closed them; and lies down every night, not as though his man were to call him up next morning, or to the next days sport, or business, but as though the Angels were to call him to the resurrection; And this is our third benefit, as Christ is a stone, we have security and peace of conscience in him.

The next is, That he is Lapis David, the stone with which David slew Goliah, and with which we may overcome all our enemies; Sicut baculus crucis, ita lapis Christi habuit typum; Davids sling was a type of the Cross, and the stone was a type of Christ, we will choose to insist upon spiritual enemies, sins; And this is that stone that enables the weakest man to overthrow the strongest sin, if he proceed as David did: David says to Goliah, Thou comest to me with a spear and a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the God of the hosts of Israel, whom thou hast railed upon,) if thou watch the approach of any sin, any giant sin that transports thee most; if thou apprehend it to rayle against the Lord of Hosts, (that is, that there is a loud and active blasphemy against God, in every sin) if thou discern it to come with a sword, or a spear, (that is, persuasions of advancement if thou do it, or threatings of dishonor, if thou do it not,) if it come with a shield, (that is, with promises to cover and palliate it, though thou do it,) If then this David, (thy attempted soul) can put his hand into his bag (as David did) (for quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei? a mans heart is that bag in which God lays up all good directions) if he can but take into his consideration his Jesus, his Christ, and sling one of his works, his words, his commandments, his merits, This Goliah, this Giant sin, will fall to the ground, and then, as it is said of David, that he slew him when he had no sword in his hand, and yet in the next verse, that he took his sword and slew him with that: so even by the consideration of what my Lord hath done for me, I shall give that sin the first deaths wound, and then I shall kill him with his own sword, that is, his own abomination, his own foulness shall make me detest him. If I dare but look my sin in the face, if I dare tell him, I come in the name of the Lord, if I consider my sin, I shall triumph over it, Et dabit certam victoriam qui dedit certandi audaciam, That God that gave me courage to fight, will give me strength to overcome.

The last benefit which we consider in Christ, as he is a stone, is, That he is Petra, a Rock; The Rock gave water to the Israelites in the wilderness; and he gave them honey out of the stone, and oil out of the hard Rock: Now when Saint Paul says, That our Fathers drank of the same Rock as we, he adds that the same Rock was Christ; So that all Temporal, and all Spiritual blessings to us, and to the Fathers, were all conferred upon us in Christ; but we consider not now any miraculous production from the Rock, but that which is natural to the Rock; that it is a firm defence to us in all tempests, in all afflictions, in all tribulations; and therefore, Laudate Dominum habitatores petrae, says the Prophet, You that are inhabitants of this Rock, you that dwell in Christ, and Christ in you, you that dwell in this Rock, Prays ye the Lord, bless him, and magnify him for ever. If a son should ask bread of his father, will he give him a stone, was Christs question? Yes, O blessed Father, we ask no other answer to our petition, no better satisfaction to our necessity, then when we say, Da nobis panem, Give us this day our daily bread, that thou give us this Stone, this Rock, thy self in thy Church, for our direction, thy self in the Sacrament, for our refection; what hardness soever we find there, what corrections soever we receive there, all shall be easy of digestion, and good nourishment to us. Thy holy spirit of patience shall command, That these stones be made bread; And we shall find more juice, more marrow in these stones, in these afflictions, then worldly men shall do in the softness of their oil, in the sweetness of their honey, in the cheerfulness of their wine; for as Christ is our foundation, we believe in him, and as he is our corner-stone, we are at peace with the world in him; as he is Iacobs stone, giving us peace in our selves and Davids stone, giving us victory over our enemies, so he is a Rock of stone, (no affliction, no tribulation shall shake us.) And so we have passed through all the benefits proposed to be considered in this first part, As Christ is a stone.

It is some degree of thankfulness, to stand long in the contemplation of the benefit which we have received, and therefore we have insisted thus long upon the first part. But it is a degree of spiritual wisdom too, to make haste to the consideration of our dangers, and therefore we come now to them, We may fall upon this stone, and be broken. This stone may fall upon us, and grind us to powder, and in the first of these, we may consider, Quid cadere, what the falling upon this stone is: and secondly, Quid frangi, what it is to broken upon it: and then thirdly, the latitude of this unusquisque, that whosoever falls so, is so broken; first then, because Christ loves us to the end, therefore will we never put him to it, never trouble him till then; as the wiseman said of Manna, that it had abundance of all pleasure in it, and was meat for all tastes, that is, (as Expositors interpret it) that Manna tasted to every one, like that which every one liked best: so this stone Christ Jesus, hath abundance of all qualities of stone in it, and is all the way such a stone to every man, as he desires it should be. Unto you that believe saith, Saint Peter, it is a precious stone, but unto the disobedient, a stone to stumble at: for if a man walk in a gallery, where windows, and tables, and statues, are all of marble, yet if he walk in the dark, or blindfold, or carelesly, he may break his face as dangerously against that rich stone, as if it were but brick; So though a man walk in the true Church of God, in that Jerusalem which is described in the Revelation, the foundation, the gates, the walls, all precious stone, yet if a man bring a mis-belief, a mis-conceipt, that all this religion is but a part of civil government and order; if a man be scandalized, at that humility, that patience, that poverty, that lowliness of spirit which the Christian Religion inclines us unto; if he will say, Si Rex Israel, If Christ will be King, let him come down from the Cross, and then we will believe in him, let him deliver his Church from all crosses, first, of doctrine, and then of persecution, and then we will believe him to be King; if we will say, Nolumus hunc regnare, we will admit Christ, but we will not admit him to reign over us, to be King; if he will be content with a Consulship, with a Collegueship, that he & the world may join in the government, that we may give the week to the world, and the Sabbath to him, that we may give the day of the Sabbath to him and the night to our licentiousness, that of the day we may give the forenoon to him, and the afternoon to our pleasures, if this will serve Christ, we are content to admit him, but Nolumus regnare, we will none of that absolute power, that whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we must be troubled to think on him, and respect his glory in every thing. If he will say, Praecepit Angelis, God hath given us in charge to his Angels, and therefore we need not to look to our own ways, He hath locked us up safely, and lodged us softly under an eternal election, and therefore we are sure of salvation, if he will walk thus blindly, violently, wilfully, negligently in the true Church, though he walk amongst the Saphires, and Pearls, and Chrysolytes, which are mentioned there, that is, in the outward communion and fellowship of Gods Saints, yet he may bruise and break, and batter himself, as much against these stones, as against the stone Gods of the heathen, or the stone Idols of the Papists; for first, the place of this falling upon this stone, is the true Church; Qui jacet in terra, he that is already upon the ground, in no Church, can fall no lower, till he fall to hell; but he whom God hath brought into his true Church, if he come to a confident security, that he is safe enough in these outward acts of Religion, he falls, though it be upon this stone, he erreth, though in the true Church. This is the place then, the true Church; the falling it self (as far as will fall into our time of consideration now) is a falling into some particular sin, but not such as quenches our faith; we fall so, as we may rise again. Saint Jerome expresseth it so, Qui cadit, & tamen credit, he that falls, but yet believes, that falls and hath a sense of his fall, reservatur per paenitentiam ad salutem, that man is reserved by Gods purpose, to come by repentance, to salvation; for this man that falls there, falls not so desperately, as that he feels nothing between hell and him, nothing to stop at, nothing to check him by the way, Cadit super, he falls upon some thing; nor he falls not upon flowers, to wallow and tumble in his sin, nor upon feathers, to rest and sleep in his sin, nor into a cooling river, to disport, and refresh, and strengthen himself in his sin; but he falls upon a stone, where he may receive a bruise, a pain upon his fall, a remorse of that sin he is fallen into: And in this fall, our infirmity appears three ways: The first is Impingere in lapidem, To stumble, for though he be upon the right stone in the true Religion, and have light enough, yet Impingimus meredy, as the Prophet saith, even at noon we stumble; we have much more light, by Christ being come, then the Jews had, but we are sorry we have it: when Christ hath said to us for our better understanding of the Law, He that looketh and lusteth hath committed Adultery, He that coveteth hath stollen, He that is angry hath murdered, we stumble at this, and we are scandalized with it; and we think that other Religions are gentler, and that Christ hath dealt hardly with us, and we had rather Christ had not said so, we had rather he had left us to our liberty and discretion, to look, and court, and to give a way to our passions, as we should find it most conduce to our ease, and to our ends. And this is Impingere, to stumble, not to go on in an equal and even pace, not to do the will of God cheerfully. And a second degree is calcitrare, to kick, to spur at this stone; that is, to bring some particular sin, and some particular Law into comparison: To debate thus, if I do not this now, I shall never have such a time; if I slip this, I shall never have the like opportunity; if I will be a fool now, I shall be a begger all my life: and for the Law of God that is against it, there is but a little evil for a great deal of good; and there is a great deal of time to recover and repent that little evil. Now to remove a stone which was a landmark, and to hide and cover that stone, was all one fault in the Law; to hide the will of God from our own Consciences with excuses and extenuatious, this is, calcitrare, as much as we can to spurn the stone, the landmark out of the way; but the fullness and accomplishment of this is in the third word of the Text, Cadere, to fall; he falls as a piece of money falls into a river; we hear it fall, and we see it sink, and by and by we see it deeper, and at last we see it not at all: So no man falleth at first into any sin, but he hears his own fall. There is a tenderness in every Conscience at the beginning, at the entrance into a sin, and he discerneth a while the degrees of sinking too: but at last he is out of his own sight, till he meet this stone; (this stone is Christ) that is, till he meet some hard reprehension, some hard passage of a Sermon, some hard judgement in a Prophet, some cross in the World, some thing from the mouth, or some thing from the hand of God, that breaks him: He falls upon the stone and is broken.

So that to be broken upon this stone, is to come to this sense, that though our integrity be lost, that we be no more whole and entire vessels, yet there are means of piecing us again: Though we be not vessels of Innocency, (for who is so?) (and for that enter not into judgement with thy servants O Lord) yet we may be vessels of repentance acceptable to God, and useful to his service: for when any thing falls upon a stone, the harm that it suffereth, is not always (or not only) according to the proportion of the hardness of that which it fell upon, but according to the height that it falleth from, and according to that violence that it is thrown with: If their fall who fall by sins of infirmity, should referre only to the stone they fall upon, (the Majesty of God being wounded and violated in every sin) every sinner would be broken to pieces, and ground to powder: But if they fall not from too far a distance, if they have lived within any nearness, any consideration of God, if they have not fallen with violence, taken heart and force in the way, grown perfect in the practise of their sin, if they fall upon this stone, that is, sin, and yet stop at Christ, after the sin, this stone shall break them; that is, break their force, and confidence, break their presumption, and security, but yet it shall leave enough in them, for the Holy Ghost to unite to his Service; yea, even the sin it self, cooperabitur in bonum, as the Apostle saith, the very fall it self shall be an occasion of his rising: And therefore though Saint Augustine seem to venture far, it is not too far, when he saith, Audeo dicere, it is boldly said, and yet I must say it, utile est ut caderem in aliquod manifestum peccatum; A sinner falleth to his advantage, that falleth into some such sin, as by being manifested to the World, manifesteth his own sinful state, to his own sinful Conscience too: It is well for that man that falleth so, as that he may thereby look the better to his footing ever after; Dicit Domino Susceptor meus es tu, says St. Bernard, That man hath a new Title to God, a new name for God; all creatures (as St. Bernard enlarges this meditation) can say, Creator meus es tu, Lord thou art my Creator; all living creatures can say, Pastor meus es tu, Thou art my shepherd, Thou givest me meat in due season; all men can say, Redemptor meus es tu, thou art my Redeemer; but only he which is fallen, and fallen upon this stone, can say, Susceptor meus es tu, only he which hath been overcome by a temptation, and is restored, can say, Lord thou hast supported me, thou hast recollected my shivers, and reunited me; only to him hath this stone expressed, both abilities of stone; first to break him with a sense of his sin, and then to give him peace and rest upon it.

Now there is in this part this circumstance, Quicunque cadit, whosoever falleth; where the quicunque is unusquisque, whosoever falls, that is, whosoever he be, he falls; Quomodo de coelo cecidisti Lucifer? says the Prophet, the Prophet wonders how Lucifer could fall, having nothing to tempt him (for so many of the Antiens interpret that place of the fall of the Angels, and when the Angels fell, there were no other creatures made,) but Quid est homo aut filius hominis? since the Father of man, Adam, could not, how shall the sons of him, that inherit his weakness, and contract more, and contribute their temptations to one another, hope to stand? Adam fell, and he fell à longè, far off, for he could see no stone to fall upon, for when he fell, there was no such Messiah, no such means of reparation proposed, nor promised when he fell, as now to us; The blessed Virgin, and the forerunner of Christ, John Baptist, fell too, but they fell propè, nearer hand, they fell but a little way, for they had this stone (Christ Jesus) in a personal presence, and their faith was always awake in them; but yet he, and she, and they all fell into some sin. Quicunque cadit is unusquisque cadit, whosoever falls, is, whosoever he be, he falls, and whosoever falls, (as we said before) is broken; If he fall upon something, and fall not to an infinite depth; If he fall not upon a soft place, to a delight in sin, but upon a stone, and this stone, (no harder, sharper, ruggedder then this, not into a diffidence, or distrust in Gods mercy) he that falls so, and is broken so, that comes to a remorseful, to a broken, and a contrite heart, he is broken to his advantage, left to a possibility, yea brought to a nearness of being pieced again, by the Word, by the Sacraments, and other medicinal institutions of Christ in his Church.

We must end only with touching upon the third part, upon whom this stone falls, it will grind him to powder; where we shall only tell you first, Quid conteri, what this grinding is; and then, Quid cadere, what the falling of this stone is; And briefly this grinding to powder, is to be brought to that desperate and irrecoverable estate in sin, as that no medicinal correction from God, no breaking, no bowing, no melting, no moulding can bring him to any good fashion; when God can work no cure, do no good upon us by breaking us; not by breaking us in our health, for we will attribute that to weakness of stomach, to surfeit, to indigestion; not by breaking us in our states, for we will impute that to falsehood in servants, to oppression of great adversaries, to inquity of Judges; not by breaking us in our honor, for we will accuse for that, factions, and practises, and supplantation in Court; when God cannot break us with his corrections, but that we will attribute them to some natural, to some accidental causes, and never think of Gods judgements, which are the true cause of these afflictions; when God cannot break us by breaking our backs, by laying on heavy loads of calamities upon us, nor by breaking our hearts, by putting us into a sad, and heavy, and fruitless sorrow and melancholy for these worldly losses, then he comes to break us by breaking our necks, by casting us into the bottomless pit, and falling upon us there, in this wrath and indignation, Comminuam eos in pulverem, sayth he, I will beat them as small as dust before the wind, and tread them as flat as clay in the streets, the breaking thereof shall be like the breaking of a Potters vessel, which is broken without any pity. (No pity from God, no mercy, neither shall any man pity them, no compassion, no sorrow:) And in the breaking thereof, saith the Prophet, there is not found a sheard to take fire at the hearth, nor to take water at the pit: that is, they shall be incapable of any beam of grace in themselves from heaven, or any spark of zeal in themselves, (not a sheard to fetch fire at the hearth) and incapable of any drop of Christs blood from heaven, or of any tear of contrition in themselves, not a sheard to fetch water at the pit, I will break them as a Potters vessel, quod non potest instaurari, says God in Jeremiah, There shall be no possible means (of those means which God hath ordained in his Church) to recompact them again, no voice of Gods word to draw them, no threatnings of Gods judgements shall drive them, no censures of Gods Church shall fit them, no Sacrament shall cement and glue them to Christs body again; In temporal blessings, he shall be unthankful, in temporal afflictions, he shall be obdurate: And these two shall serve, as the upper and nether stone of a mill, to grind this reprobate sinner to powder.

Lastly, this is to be done, by Christs falling upon him, and what is that? I know some Expositors take this to be but the falling of Gods judgements upon him in this world; But in this world there is no grinding to powder, all Gods judgements here, (for any thing that we can know) have the nature of Physic in them, & may, & are wont to cure; & no man is here so absolutely broken in pieces, but that he may be re-united: we choose therefore to follow the Ancients in this, That the falling of this stone upon this Reprobate, is Christs last & irrecoverable falling upon him, in his last judgment; that when he shall wish that the Hills might fall and cover him, this stone shall fall, & grind him to powder; He shall be broken, and he no more found, says the Prophet, yea, he shall be broken and no more sought: No man shall consider him what he is now, nor remember him what he was before: For, that stone, which in Daniel, was cut out without hands (which was a figure of Christ, who came without ordinary generation) when that great Image was to be overthrown, broke not an arm or a leg, but brake the whole Image in pieces, and it wrought not only upon the weak parts, but it brake all, the clay, the iron, the brass, the silver, the gold; so when this stone falls thus, when Christ comes to judgement, he shall not only condemn him for his clay, his earthly and covetous sins, nor for his iron, his revengeful oppressing, and rustly sins, nor for his brass, his shining, and glittering sins, which he hath filed and polished, but he shall fall upon his silver and gold, his religious and precious sins, his hypocritical hearing of Sermons, his singular observing of Sabbaths, his Pharisaical giving of alms, and as well his subtle counterfeiting of Religion, as his Atheistical opposing of religion, this stone, Christ himself, shall fall upon him, and a shore of other stones shall oppress him too. Sicut pluit laqueos, says David, As God rained springs and snares upon them in this world (abundance of temporal blessings to be occasions of sin unto them:) So plus grandinem, he shall rain such hail-stones upon them, as shall grind them to powder; there shall fall upon him the natural Law, which was written in his heart, and did rebuke him, then when he prepared for a sin; there shall fall upon him the written Law, which cried out from the mouths of the Prophets in these places, to avert him from sin; there shall fall upon him those sins which he hath done, and those sins which he hath not done, if nothing but want of means & opportunity hindered him from doing them; there shall fall upon him those sins which he hath done after another's dehortation, and those, which others have done after his provocation; there the stones of Nineveh shall fall upon him, and of as many Cities as have repented with less proportions of mercy and grace, then God afforded him; there the rubbage of Sodom and Gomorrah shall fall upon him, and as many Cities as in their ruin might have been examples to him. All these stones shall fall upon him, and to add weight to all these, Christ Jesus himself shall fall upon his conscience, with unanswerable questions, and grind his soul to powder. But he that overcometh, shall not be hurt by the second death, he that feels his own fall upon this stone, shall never feel this stone fall upon him, he that comes to a remorse, early, and earnestly after a sin, and seeks by ordinary means, his reconcileation to God in his Church, is in the best state that man can be in now; for howsoever we cannot say that repentance is as happy an estate as Innocency, yet certainly every particular man feels more comfort and spiritual joy, after a true repentance for a sin, then he had in that degree of Innocence which he had before he committed that sin; and therefore in this case also we may safely repeat those words of Augustine, Audeo dicere, I dare be bold to say, that many a man hath been the better for some sin.

Almighty God, who gives that civil wisdom, to make use of other mens infirmities, give us also this heavenly wisdom, to make use of our own particular sins, that thereby our own wretched conditions in our selves, and our means of reparation in Jesus Christ, may be the more manifested unto us; To whom with the blessed Spirit, &c.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXVI.

JOHN 1. 8. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

Preached at Saint Pauls upon Christmas day, 1621.

IT is an injury common to all the Evangelists, (as Irenaeus notes) that all their Gospels were severally refused by one Sect of Heretics or other. But it was proper to Saint John alone, to be refused by a Sect, that admitted all the other three Evangelists, (as Epiphanius remembers) and refused only Saint John. These were the Alogiani, a limb and branch of the Arians, who being unable to look upon the glorious Splendor, the divine Glory, attributed by Saint John to this Logos, (which gave them their name of Alogiani) this Word, this Christ, not comprehending this Mystery, That this Word was so with God, as that it was God; they took a round way, and often practised, to condemn all that they did not understand, and therefore refuse the whole Gospel. Indeed his whole Gospel is comprehended in the beginning thereof. In this first Chapter is contracted all that which is extensively spread, and dilated through the whole Book. For here is first, the Foundation of all, the Divinity of Christ, to the 15. verse. Secondly, the Execution of all, the Offices of Christ, to the 35. verse. And then the Effect, the Working, the Application of all, that is, who were to Preach all this, to the ends of the world, the calling of his Apostles, to the end of the Chapter: for the first, Christs Divinity, there is enough expressed in the very first verse alone: for, there is his Eternity, intimated in that word, In principio, in the beginning. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, and the last book, (that is, that which was last written) this Gospel, begin both with this word, In the beginning. But the last beginning was the first, if Moses beginning do only denote the Creation, which was not 6000. years since, and Saint John's, the Eternity of Christ, which no Millions, multiplied by Millions, can calculate. And then, as his Eternity, so his distinction of Persons, is also specified in this 1. verse, when the Word, (that is, Christ) is said to have been apud Deum, with God. For, therefore, (saith Saint Basil) did the Holy Ghost rather choose to say apud Deum, then in Deo, with God, then in God, ne auferenda Hypostaseos occasionem daret, lest he should give any occasion of denying the same Nature, in divers Persons; for it doth more clearly notify a distinction of Persons, to say, he was with him, then to say, he was in him; for the several Attributes of God, (Mercy and Iustice, and the rest) are in God, and yet they are not distinct Persons. Lastly, there is also expressed in this 1. verse Christs Equality with God, in that it is said, &

Verbum erat Deus, and this Word was God. As it was in the beginning, and therefore Eternal, and as it was with God, and therefore a distinct Person, so it was God, and therefor equal to the Father; which phrase doth so vexe and anguish the Arians, that being disfurnished of all other escapes, they corrupted the place, only with a false interpunction, and broke of the words, where they admitted no such pause; for, they read it thus, Verbum erat apud Deum; (so far, well) Et Deus erat. There they made their point; and then followed in another sentence: Verbum hoc erat in principio, &c.

The first part then of this Chapter, (and indeed of the whole Gospel) is in that 1. verse the manifestation of his Divine Nature, in his Eternity, in the distinction of Persons, in the equality with the Father. The second part of the Chapter layeth down the Office of Christ, his Prophetical, his Priestly, his Royal Office. For the first, the Office of a Prophet consisting in three several exercises, to manifest things past, to foretell things to come, and to expound thing present, Christ declared himself to be a Prophet in all these three: for, for the first, he was not only a Verbal, but an Actual manifester of former Prophecies, for all the former Prophecies were accomplished in his Person, and in his deeds, and words, in his actions and Passion. For the second, his foretelling of future things, he foretold the state of the Church, to the end of the world. And for the third (declaring of present things) He told the Samaritan woman, so exquisitely, all her own History, that she gave presently that attestation, Sir, I see that thou art a Prophet: so his Prophetical Office, is plainly laid down. For his second Office, his Priesthood, that is expressed in the 36. verse, Behold the Lambe of God; for, in this, he was our Priest, that he was our Sacrifice; he was our Priest, in that he offered himself for our sins. Lastly, his Royal Office was the most natural to him of all the rest. The Office of a Prophet was Natural to none; none was born a Prophet. Those who are called the children of the Prophets, and the sons of the Prophets, are but the Prophets Disciples. Though the Office of Priesthood, by being annexed to one Tribe, may (in some sense) be called Natural, yet in Christ it could not be so, for he was not of that Tribe of Levi: so that he had no interest in the legal Priesthood, but was a Priest according to the Order of Melchisedec. But his Title to be King, was natural, by descent, he was of the blood Royal, and the nearest in succession; so that he, and only he, had, De Iure, all the three unctions upon him. David had two; he was both a Prophet, and a King; he had those two capacities; Melchisedec had two too; he was both a King and a Priest; he had two: Only Christ had all three, both a Prophet, and Priest, and King.

In the third part of the Chapter, which is the calling of four of his Apostles, we may observe that the first was called, was not Peter, but Andrew; that there might be laid at first some interruption, some stop to their zealous fury, who will still force, and heap up every action which any way concerns Saint Peter, to the building up of his imaginary primacy, which primacy, they cared not though Peter wanted, if they could convey that primacy to his Successor, by any other Title; for which Successours sake it is, and not for Saint Peters own, that they are so over diligent in advancing his prerogative. But, it was not Peter, that was called, but Andrew. In Andrews present and earnest application of himself to Christ, we may note, (and only so) divers particulars, fit for use and imitation. In his first question, Master, where dwellest thou? there is not only, (as Cyrill observes) a reverent ascribing to him a power of instructing in that compellation, Master, but a desire to have more time afforded to hearken to his instructions, Where dwellest thou, that I may dwell with thee? And as soon as ever he had taken in some good portion of knowledge himself, he conceives presently a desire to communicate his happiness with others; and he seeks his brother Peter, and tells him, Invenimus Messiam, we have found the Messiah; which is, (as Saint Chrysostom notes) vox quaerentis: In this, that he rejoyces in the finding of him, he testifies that he had sought him, and that he had continued in the expectation of a Messiah before. Invenit Messiam, he had found the Messiah; but, saith the Text, Duxit ad Iesum, he brought his brother the glorious news of having found a King, the King of the Jews, but he led him to Jesus, to a Savior; that so, all kinds of happiness, temporal and spiritual, might be intimated in this discovery of a King, and of a Savior; What may not his servants hope for at his hands, who is both those, a King and a Savior, and hath worldly preferments, and the Glory of Heaven in his power?

Now, though the words of this Text, (He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light) are placed in the first part of the Chapter, that which concerns Christs Divine nature, yet they belong, and they have a respect to all three; To his Divine nature, to his Offices, and to his Calling of his Apostles: For, first, light denotes his Divine nature; secondly, the testimony that is given of him by John Baptist, (of whom the words of our Text are spoken) declares him to be the Messiah, and Messiah, (which signifies anointed) involves all his Offices, are his three Offices, are his three vocations; and thirdly, the Application of this testimony, given by John Baptist here, by the Apostles and their Successors after, intimates or brings to our memory this their first vocation, in this Chapter. So that the Gospel of Saint John contains all Divinity, this Chapter all the Gospel, and this Text all the Chapter. Therefore it is too large to go through at this time; at this time we shall insist upon such branches as arise out of that consideration, what, and who this light is, (for, we shall find it to be both a personal light, (it is some body) and, otherwise too, a real light, (it is some thing) therefore we inquire, what, this light is, (what thing) and who this light is, (what person) which John Baptist is denied to be. Hereafter we shall consider, the Testimony which is given of this light; in which part in due time, we shall handle, the person of the witness John Baptist, in whom we shall find many considerable, and extraordinary circumstances: and then, his Citation, and calling to this testimony; and thirdly, the testimony it self that he gave: and lastly, why any testimony was requisite to so evident a thing as light. But the first part, who, and what this light is, belongs most properly to this day, and will fill that portion of the day, which is afforded us for this exercise. Proceed we therefore to that, John Baptist was not that light, who was, what was?

Though most expositors, as well ancient, as modern agree with one general, and unanime consent, that light in this verse is intended and meant of Christ, Christ is this light, yet in some precedent and subsequent passages in this Chapter, I see other senses have been admitted of this word, light, then perchance those places will bear; certainly other then those places need: particularly, in the fourth verse (In it was life, and that life was the light of men) there they understand life, to be nothing but this natural life which we breath, and light to be only that natural life, natural reason, which distinguishes us men, from other creatures. Now, it is true that they may have a pretence for some ground of this interpretation in antiquity it self, for, so says Saint Cyrill, Filius Dei Creativè illuminat, Christ doth enlighten us, in creating us. And so some others of the Fathers, and some of the Schools, understand by that light natural Reason, and that life, conservation in life. But this interpretation seems to me subject to both these dangers, that it goes so far, and yet reaches not home. So far, in wresting in divers senses into a word, which needs but one, and is of it self clear enough, that is light, and yet reaches not home, for it reaches not to the essential light, which is Christ Jesus, nor to the supernatural light, which is Faith and Grace, which seems to have been the Evangelists principal scope, to declare the comming of Christ, (who is the essential light) and his purpose in comming, to raise and establish a Church, by Faith and Grace, which is the supernatural light: For, as the holy Ghost himself interprets life to be meant of Christ, (He that hath the Son hath life) so we may justly do of light too, he that sees the Son, the Son of God hath light. For, light is never, (to my remembrance) found in any place of the Scripture, where it must necessarily signify the light of nature, natural reason; but wheresoever it is transferred from the natural to a figurative sense, it takes a higher signification then that; either it signifies Essential light, Christ Jesus, (which answers our first question, Quis lux, who is this light, it is Christ, personally) or it signifies the supernatural light of Faith and Grace, (which answers our second question, Quid lux, what is this light, for it is the working of Christ, by his Spirit, in his Church, in the infusion of Faith and Grace, for belief, and manners) And therefore though it be ever lawful, and often times very useful, for the raising and exaltation of our devotion, and to present the plenty, and abundance of the holy Ghost in the Scriptures, who satisfies us as with marrow, and with fatness, to induce the diverse senses that the Scriptures do admit, yet this may not be admitted, if there may be danger thereby, to neglect or weaken the literal sense it self. For there is no necessity of that spiritual wantonness of finding more then necessary senses; for, the more lights there are, the more shadows are also cast by those many lights. And, as it is true in religious duties, so is it in interpretation of matters of Religion, Necessarium & Satis convertuntur; when you have done that you ought to do in your calling, you have done enough; there are no such Evangelical counsels, as should raise works of supererogation, more then you are bound to do, so when you have the necessary sense, that is the meaning of the holy Ghost in that place, you have senses enow, and not till then, though you have never so many, and never so delightful.

Light therefore, is in all this Chapter fitliest understood of Christ; who is noted here, with that distinctive article, Illa lux, that light. For, non sic dicitur lux, sicut lapis; Christ is not so called Light, as he is called a Rock, or a Cornerstone; not by a metaphor, but truly, and properly. It is true that the Apostles are said to be light, and that with an article, the light; but yet with a limitation and restriction, the light of the world, that is, set up to convey light to the world. It is true that John Baptist himself was called light, and with large additions, Lucerna ardens, a burning, and a shining lamp, to denote both his own burning zeal, and the communicating of this his light to others. It is true, that all the faithful are said to be light in the Lord; but all this is but to signify that they had been in darkness before; they had been beclouded, but were now illustrated; they were light, but light by reflexion, by illustration of a greater light. And as in the first creation, vesper & mane dies unus, The evening and the morning made the day, evening before morning, darkness before light, so in our regeneration, when we are made new Creatures, the Spirit of God finds us in natural darkness, and by him we are made light in the Lord. But Christ himself, and he only, is Illa lux, vera lux; that light, the true light. Not so opposed to those other lights, as though the Apostles, or John Baptist, or the faithful, who are called lights, were false lights; but that they were weak lights. But Christ was fons lucis, the fountain of all their light; light so, as no body else was so; so, as that he was nothing but light. Now, neither the Apostles, nor John Baptist, nor the Elect, no nor the virgin Mary (though we should allow all that the Roman Church ask in her behalf) for the Roman Church is not yet come to that searedness, that obdurateness, that impudency, as to pronounce that the virgin Mary was without original sin, (though they have done many shrewd acts towards it, to the prejudice of the contrary opinion) yet none of these were so light, as they were nothing but light. Moses himself who received and delivered the law, was not so; and to intimate so much, there was an illustration, and irradiation upon his face, but not so of all his body. Nay, Christ Jesus himself, who fulfilled the law, as man, was not so; which he also intimated in the greatest degree of glorification which he accepted upon earth, which was his transfiguration, for, though it be said in that, That the fashion of his Countenance was changed, and his garment was white, and glistered, yet, lineamenta Petro agnoscibilia servavit, he kept that former proportion of body, that Peter could know him by it. So that this was not a glorifying of the body, and making it thorough light; but he suffered his Divine nature to appear and shine thorough his flesh, and not to swallow, or annihilate that flesh. All other men, by occasion of this flesh, have dark clouds, yea nights, yea long and frozen winter nights of sin, and of the works of darkness. Christ was incapable of any such nights, or any such clouds, any approaches towards sin; but yet Christ admitted some shadows, some such degrees of humane infirmity, as by them, he was willing to show, that the nature of man, in the best perfection thereof, is not vera lux, tota lux, true light, all light, which he declared in that Si possible, and that Transeat calix, If it he possible, let this cup pass; words, to which himself was pleased to allow so much of a retractation, and a correction, Veruntamen, yet Father, whatsoever the sadness of my soul have made me say, yet, not my will but thine be done; not mine, but thine; so that they were not altogether, all one; humane infirmity made some difference. So that no one man, not Christ, (considered but so as man) was tota lux, all light, no cloud. No not mankind, consider it collectively, can be light so, as that there shall be no darkness. It was not so, when all mankind was in one person, in Adam. It is said sometimes in School, that no man can keep the commandments, yet man, collectively, may keep them. They intend no more herein, but that some one man may abstain from doing any act against worshipping of Images, another from stealing, another from adultery, and others from others. But if it were possible to compose a man of such elements, as that the principallest virtues, and eminencies of all other men, should enter into his composition, and if there could be found a man, as perfect in all particular virtues, as Moses was in meekness, (who was a meek man, above all the men that were upon the earth) yet this man would not be vera lux, tota lux, true light, all light. Moses was not so meek, but that he slew the Egyptian, nor so meek, but that he disputed and expostulated with God many times, passionately. Every man is so far from being tota lux, all light, as that he hath still within him, a dark vapor of orginal sin, and the cloud of humane flesh without him.

Nay not only no man, (for so we may consider him in the whole course of his life) but noon act, of the most perfect, and religious man in the world, though that act employ but half a minute in the doing thereof, can be vera lux, true light, all light, so perfect light, as that it may serve another, or thy self, for a lanthorne to his, or thy feet, or a light to his, or thy steps, so that he or thou may think it enough to do so still. For, another man may do so good works, as it may justly work to thy shame, and confusion, and to the aggravating of thy condemnation, that thou livest not as well as he, yet, it would not perchance serve thy turn, to live but so well; for, to whom God gives more, of him he requires more. No man hath veram lucem, true light, thorough light; no man hath meridiem, Augem, that high point that casts no shadow, because, besides original sin, that ever smokes up, and creates a foot in the soul, and besides natural infirmities, which become sins, when we consider Grace, no man does carry his good actions to that height as, by that grace, which God affords him, he might do. Slacker men have a declination even in their mornings; a West even in their East; coolings, and faintnesses and after-noons, as soon as they have any dawnings, any break of day, any inchoation of any spiritual action or purpose. Others have some farther growth, and increasing, and are more diligent in the observation of spiritual duties; but yet they have not their meridiem, their Augem, their noon, their south point, no such height, as that they might not have a higher, by that grace which they have received. In the best degree of our best actions, particularly in this service, which we do to God at this hour, if we brought with us hither a religious purpose to sanctify this festival, if we answer to the callings of his most blessed Spirit, whilst we are here, if we carry away a detestation of our sins, and a holy purpose of amendment of life, this is a good degree of proficiency, and God be blessed, if any of us all arrive to that degree; but yet, this is not vera lux, true light, all light; for, who amongst us can avoid the testimony of his conscience, that since he begun this present service to God, his thoughts have not strayed upon pleasures and vanities or profit, and leapt the walls of this Church, yea, perchance within the walls of this flesh, which should be the Temple of the holy Ghost? Besides, to become vera lux, tota lux, true light, thorough light, requires persebrrance to the end. So that till our natural light go out, we cannot say that we have this light; for, as the darkness of hell fire is, so this light of this heavenly fire, must be everlasting. If ever it go clean out, it was never throughly kindled, but kindled to our farther damnation; it was never vera lux, true light, for, as one office of the law is, but to show sin, so all the light of grace may end in this, to show me my desperate estate, from the abuse of grace. In all Philosophy there is not so dark a thing as light; As the sun, which is fons lucis naturalis, the beginning of natural light, is the most evident thing to be seen, and yet the hardest to be looked upon, so is natural light to our reason and understanding. Nothing clearer, for it is clearness it self, nothing darker, it is enwrapped in so many scruples. Nothing nearer, for it is round about us, nothing more remote, for we know neither entrance, nor limits of it. Nothing more easy, for a child discerns it, nothing more hard, for no man understands it. It is apprehensible by sense, and not comprehensible by reason. If we wink, we cannot choose but see it, if we stare, we know it never the better. No man is yet got so near to the knowledge of the qualities of light, as to know whether light it self be a quality, or a substance. If then this natural light be so dark to our natural reason, if we shall offer to pierce so far, into the light of this text, the Essential light Christ Jesus, (in his nature, or but in his offices) or the supernatural light of faith and grace, (how far faith may be had, and yet lost, and how far the freewill of man may concur and cooperate with grace, and yet still remain nothing in it self) if we search farther into these points, then the Scripture hath opened us a way, how shall we hope to unentangle, or extricate our selves? They had a precious composition for lamps, amongst the ancients, reserved especially for Tombs, which kept light for many hundreds of years; we have had in our age experience, in some casual openings of ancient vaults, of finding such lights, as were kindled, (as appeared by their inscriptions) fifteen or sixteen hundred years before; but, as soon as that light comes to our light, it vanishes. So this eternal, and this supernatural light, Christ and faith, enlightens, warms, purges, and does all the profitable offices of fire, and light, if we keep it in the right sphere, in the proper place, (that is, if we consist in points necessary to salvation, and revealed in the Scripture) but when we bring this light to the common light of reason, to our inferences, and consequencies, it may be in danger to vanish it self, and perchance extinguish our reason too; we may search so far, and reason so long of faith and grace, as that we may lose not only them, but even our reason too, and sooner become mad then good. Not that we are bound to believe any thing against reason, that is, to believe, we know not why. It is but a slack opinion, it is not Belief, that is not grounded upon reason. He that should come to a Heathen man, a mere natural man, uncatechized, uninstructed in the rudiments of the Christian Religion, and should at first, without any preparation, present him first with this necessity; Thou shalt burn in fire and brimstone eternally, except thou believe a Trinity of Persons, in an unity of one God, Except thou believe the Incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, Except thou believe that a Virgin had a Soon, and the same Son that God had, and that God was Man too, and being the immortal God, yet died, he should be so far from working any spiritual cure upon this poor soul, as that he should rather bring Christian Mysteries into scorn, then him to a belief. For, that man, if you proceed so, Believe all, or you burn in Hell, would find an easy, an obvious way to escape all; that is, first not to believe Hell it self, and then nothing could bind him to believe the rest.

The reason therefore of Man, must first be satisfied; but the way of such satisfaction must be this, to make him see, That this World, a frame of so much harmony, so much concinnity and conveniency, and such a correspondence, and subordination in the parts thereof, must necessarily have had a workeman, for nothing can make it self: That no such workeman would deliver over a frame, and work, of so much Majesty, to be governed by Fortune, casually, but would still retain the Administration thereof in his own hands: That if he do so, if he made the World, and sustain it still by his watchful Providence, there belongeth a worship and service to him, for doing so: That therefore he hath certainly revealed to man, what kind of worship, and service, shall be acceptable to him: That this manifestation of his Will, must be permanent, it must be written, there must be a Scripture, which is his Word and his Will: And that therefore, from that Scripture, from that Word of God, all Articles of our Belief are to be drawn.

If then his Reason confessing all this, ask farther proof, how he shall know that these Scriptures accepted by the Christian Church, are the true Scriptures, let him bring any other Book which pretendeth to be the Word of God, into comparison with these; It is true, we have not a Demonstration; not such an Evidence as that one and two, are three, to prove these to be Scriptures of God; God hath not proceeded in that manner, to drive our Reason into a pound, and to force it by a peremptory necessity to accept these for Scriptures, for then, here had been no exercise of our Will, and our assent, if we could not have resisted. But yet these Scriptures have so orderly, so sweet, and so powerful a working upon the reason, and the understanding, as if any third man, who were utterly discharged of all preconceptions and anticipations in matter of Religion, one who were altogether neutral, disinteressed, unconcerned in either party, nothing towards a Turk, and as little toward a Christian, should hear a Christian plead for his Bible, and a Turk for his Alcoran, and should weigh the evidence of both; the Majesty of the Style, the punctual accomplishment of the Prophecies, the harmony and concurrence of the four Evangelists, the consent and unanimity of the Christian Church ever since, and many other such reasons, he would be drawn to such an Historical, such a Grammatical, such a Logical belief of our Bible, as to prefer it before any other, that could be pretended to be the Word of God. He would believe it, and he would know why he did so. For let no man think that God hath given him so much ease here, as to save him by believing he knoweth not what, or why. Knowledge cannot save us, but we cannot be saved without Knowledge; Faith is not on this side Knowledge, but beyond it; we must necessarily come to Knowledge first, though we must not stay at it, when we are come thither. For, a regenerate Christian, being now a new Creature, hath also a new faculty of Reason: and so believeth the Mysteries of Religion, out of another Reason, then as a mere natural Man, he believed natural and moral things. He believeth them for their own sake, by Faith though he take Knowledge of them before, by that common Reason, and by those humane Arguments, which work upon other men, in natural or moral things. Divers men may walk by the Sea side, and the same beams of the Sun giving light to them all, one gathereth by the benefit of that light pebbles, or speckled shells, for curious vanity, and another gathers precious Pearl, or medicinal Ambar, by the same light. So the common light of reason illumins us all; but one employs this light upon the searching of impertinent vanities, another by a better use of the same light, finds out the Mysteries of Religion; and when he hath found them, loves them, not for the lights sake, but for the natural and true worth of the thing it self. Some men by the benefit of this light of Reason, have found out things profitable and useful to the whole world; As in particular, Printing, by which the learning of the whole world is communicacable to one another, and our minds and our inventions, our wits and compositions may trade and have commerce together, and we may participate of one another's understandings, as well as of our Clothes, and Wines, and Oyles, and other Merchandize: So by the benefit of this light of reason, they have found out Artillery, by which wars come to quicker ends then heretofore, and the great expence of blood is avoided: for the numbers of men slain now, since the invention of Artillery, are much less then before, when the sword was the executioner. Others, by the benefit of this light have searched and found the secret corners of gain, and profit, wheresoever they lie. They have found wherein the weakness of another man consisteth, and made their profit of that, by circumventing him in a bargain: They have found his riotous, and wasteful inclination, and they have fed and fomented that disorder, and kept open that leak, to their advantage, and the others ruin. They have found where was the easiest, and most accessible way, to sollicite the Chastity of a woman, whether Discourse, Music, or Presents, and according to that discovery, they have pursued hers, and their own eternal destruction. By the benefit of this light, men see through the darkest, and most impervious places, that are, that is, Courts of Princes, and the greatest Officers in Courts; and can submit themselves to second, and to advance the humours of men in great place, and so make their profit of the weakenesses which they have discovered in these great men. All the ways, both of Wisdom, and of Craft lie open to this light, this light of natural reason: But when they have gone all these ways by the benefit of this light, they have got no further, then to have walked by a tempestuous Sea, and to have gathered pebbles, and speckled cockle shells. Their light seems to be great out of the same reason, that a Torch in a misty night, seemeth greater then in a clear, because it hath kindled and inflamed much thick and grosse Air round about it. So the light and wisdom of worldly men, seemeth great, because he hath kindled an admiration, or an applause in Aiery flatterers, not because it is so in deed.

But, if thou canst take this light of reason that is in thee, this poor snuff, that is almost out in thee, thy saint and dim knowledge of God, that riseth out of this light of nature, if thou canst in those embers, those cold ashes, find out one small coal, and wilt take the pains to kneel down, and blow that coal with thy devout Prayers, and light thee a little candle, (a desire to read that Book, which they call the Scriptures, and the Gospel, and the Word of God;) If with that little candle thou canst creep humbly into low and poor places, if thou canst find thy Savior in a Manger, and in his swathing clouts, in his humiliation, and bless God for that beginning, if thou canst find him flying into Egypt, and find in thy self a disposition to accompany him in a persecution, in a banishment, if not a bodily banishment, a local banishment, yet a real, a spiritual banishment, a banishment from those sins, and that sinful conversation, which thou hast loved more then thy Parents, or Country, or thine own body, which perchance thou hast consumed, and destroyed with that sin; if thou canst find him contenting and containing himself at home in his fathers house, and not breaking out, no not about the work of our salvation, till the due time was come, when it was to be done. And if according to that example, thou canst contain thy self in that station and vocation in which God hath planted thee, and not, through a hasty and precipitate zeal, break out to an imaginary, and intempestive, and unseasonable Reformation, either in Civil or Ecclesiastical business, which belong not to thee; if with this little poor light, these first degrees of Knowledge and Faith, thou canst follow him into the Garden, and gather up some of the droppes of his precious Blood and sweat, which he shed for thy soul, if thou canst follow him to Jerusalem, and pick up some of those tears, which he shed upon that City, and upon thy soul; if thou canst follow him to the place of his scourging, and to his crucifying, and provide thee some of that balm, which must cure thy soul; if after all this, thou canst turn this little light inward, and canst thereby discern where thy diseases, and thy wounds, and thy corruptions are, and canst apply those tears, and blood and balm to them, (all this is, That if thou attend the light of natural reason, and cherish that, and exalt that, so that that bring thee to a love of the Scriptures, and that love to a belief of the truth thereof, and that historical faith to a faith of application, of appropriation, that as all those things were certainly done, so they were certainly done for thee) thou shalt never envy the lustre and glory of the great lights of worldly men, which are great by the infirmity of others, or by their own opinion, great because others think them great, or because they think themselves so, but thou shalt find, that howsoever they magnify their lights, their wit, their learning, their industry, their fortune, their favor, and sacrifice to their own nets, yet thou shalt see, that thou by thy small light hast gathered Pearl and Amber, and they by their great lights nothing but shells and pebbles; they have determined the light of nature, upon the book of nature, this world, and thou hast carried the light of nature higher, thy natural reason, and even humane arguments, have brought thee to read the Scriptures, and to that love, God hath set to the seal of faith. Their light shall set at noon; even in their height, some heavy cross shall cast a damp upon their soul, and cut off all their succours, and divest them of all comforts, and thy light shall grow up, from a faire hope, to a modest assurance and infallibility, that that light shall never go out, nor the works of darkness, nor the Prince of darkness ever prevail upon thee, but as thy light of reason is exalted by faith here, so thy light of faith shall be exalted into the light of glory, and fruition in the Kingdom of heaven. Before the sun was made, there was a light which did that office of distinguishing night and day; but when the sun was created, that did all the offices of the former light, and more. Reason is that first, and primogenial light, and goes no farther in a natural man; but in a man regenerate by faith, that light does all that reason did, and more; and all his Moral, and Civil, and Domestic, and indifferent actions, (though they be never done without Reason) yet their principal scope, and mark is the glory of God, and though they seem but Moral, or Civil, or domestic, yet they have a deeper tincture, a heavenly nature, a relation to God, in them.

The light in our Text then, is essentially and personally Christ himself, from him flows the supernatural light of faith and grace, here also intended; and because this light of faith, and grace flowing from that fountain of light Christ Jesus, works upon the light of nature, and reason, it may conduce to the raising of your devotions, if we do (without any long insisting upon the several parts thereof) present to you some of those many and divers lights, which are in this world, and admit an application to this light in our Text, the essential light, Christ Jesus; and the supernatural light, faith and grace.

Of these lights we shall consider some few couples; and the first pair, Lux Essentiae, and Lux Gloriae, the light of the Essence of God, and the light of the glory of his Saints. And though the first of these, be that essential light, by which we shall see God face to face, as he is, and the effluence and emanation of beams, from the face of God, which make that place Heaven, of which light it is said, That God who only hath Immortality, dwells in luce inaccessibili, in the light that none can attain to, yet by the light of faith, and grace in sanctification, we may come to such a participation of that light of Essence, or such a reflection of it in this world, that it shall be true of us, which was said of those Ephesians, You were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord; he does not say enlightened, nor lightsome, but light it self, light essentially, for our conversation is in heaven; And as God says of Jerusalem, and his blessings here in this world, Calceavit Ianthino, I have shod thee, with Badgers skin, (some translate it) (which the Antients take for some precious stuff) that is, I have enabled thee to tread upon all the most estimable things of this world, (for as the Church it self is presented, so every true member of the Church is endowed, Luna sub pedibus, the Moon, and all under the Moon is under our feet, we tread upon this world, even when we are trodden upon in it) so the precieus promises of Christ, make us partakers of the Divine Nature, and the light of faith, makes us the same Spirit with the Lord; And this is our participation of the light of essence, in this life. The next is the light of glory.

This is that Glorification which we shall have at the last day, of which glory, we consider a great part to be in that Denudation, that manifestation of all to all; as, in this world, a great part of our inglorious servitude is in those disguises, and palliations, those colors, and pretences of public good, with which men of power and authority apparel their oppressions of the poor; In this are we the more miserable, that we cannot see their ends, that there is none of this denudation, this laying open of ourselves to one another, which shall accompany that state of glory, where we shall see one another's bodies, and souls, actions and thoughts. And therefore, as if this place were now that Tribunal of Christ Jesus, and this that day of Judgement, and denudation, we must be here, as we shall be there, content to stand naked before him; content that there be a discovery, a revealing, a manifestation of all our sins, wrought upon us, at least to our own consciences, though not to the congregation; If we will have glory, we must have this denudation. We must not be glad, when our sins scape the Preacher. We must not say, (as though there were a comfort in that) though he have hit such a mans Adultery, and another's Ambition, and another's extortion, yet, for all his diligence, he hath missed my sin; for, if thou wouldst fain have it mist, thou wouldst fain hold it still. And then, why camest thou hither? What camest thou for to Church, or to the Sacrament? Why doest thou delude God, with this complemental visit, to come to his house, if thou bring not with thee, a disposition to his honor, and his service? Camest thou only to try whether God knew thy sin, and could tell thee of it, by the Preacher? Alas, he knows it infallibly; And, if he take no knowledge of his knowing it, to thy conscience, by the words of the Preacher, thy state is the more desperate. God sends us to preach forgiveness of sins; where we find no sin, we have no Commission to execute; How shall we find your sins? In the old sacrifices of the law, the Priest did not fetch the sacrifice from the herd, but he received it from him that brought it, and so sacrificed it for him. Do thou therefore prevent the Preacher; Accuse thyself before he accuse thee; offer up thy sin thy self; Bring it to the top of thy memory, and thy conscience, that he finding it there, may sacrifice it for thee; Tune the instrument, and it is the fitter for his hand. Remember thou thine own sins, first and then every word that falls from the preachers lipsshal be a drop of the dew of heaven, a dram of the balm of Gilead, a portion of the blood of thy Savior, to wash away that sin, so presented by thee to be so sacrificed by him; for, if thou only of all the congregation find that the preacher hath not touched thee, nor hit thy sins, know then, that thou wast not in his Commission for the Remission of sins, and be afraid, that thy conscience is either gangrend, and unsensible of all incisions, and cauterizations, that can be made by denouncing the Judgements of God, (which is as far as the preacher can go) or that thy whole constitution, thy complexion, thy composition is sin; the preacher cannot hit thy particular sin, because thy whole life, and the whole body of thy actions is one continual sin. As long as a man is alive, if there appear any offence in his breath, the physician will assign it to some one corrupt place, his lungs, or teeth, or stomach, and thereupon apply convenient remedy thereunto. But if he be dead, and putrefied, no man asks from whence that ill aire and offence comes, because it proceeds from thy whole carcass. So, as long as there is in you a sense of your sins, as long as we can touch the offended and wounded part, and be felt by you, you are not desperate, though you be froward, and impatient of our increpations. But when you feel nothing, whatsoever we say, your soul is in an Hectique fever, where the distemper is not in any one humor, but in the whole substance; nay, your soul it self is become a carcass. This then is our first couple of these lights, by our Conversation in heaven here, (that is, a watchfulness, that we fall not into sin) we have lucem essentiae, possession and fruition of heaven, and of the light of Gods presence; and then, if we do, by infirmity, fall into sin, yet, by this denudation of our souls, this manifestation of our sins to God by confession, and to that purpose, a gladness when we hear our sin spoken of by the preacher, we have lumen gloriae, an inchoation of our glorified estate; and then, an other couple of these lights, which we propose to be considered, is lumen fidei, and lumen naturae, the light of faith, and the light of nature.

Of these two lights, Faith and Grace, first, and then Nature and Reason, we said something before, but never too much, be cause contentious spirits have cast such clouds upon both these lights, that some have said, Nature doth all alone, and others, that Nature hath nothing to do at all, but all is Grace: we decline wranglings, that tend not to edification, we say only to our present purpose, (which is the operation of these several couples of lights) that by this light of Faith, to him which hath it, all that is involved in Prophecies, is clear, and evident, as in a History already done; and all that is wrapped up in promises, is his own already in performance. That man needs not go so high, for his assurance of a Messiah and Redeemer, as to the first promise made to him in Adam, nor for the limitation of the stock and race from whence this Messiah should come: so far as to the renewing of this promise in Abraham: nor for the description of this Messiah who he should be, and of whom he should be born, as to Isaiah; nor to Micheas, for the place; nor for the time when he should accomplish all this, so far as to Daniel; no, nor so far, as to the Evangelists themselves, for the History and the evidence, that all this that was to be done in his behalf by the Messiah, was done 1600. years since. But he hath a whole Bible, and an abundant Library in his own heart, and there by this light of Faith, (which is not only a knowing, but an applying, an appropriating of all to thy benefit) he hath a better knowledge then all this, then either Prophetical, or Evangelical; for though both these be irrefragable, and infallible proofs of a Messiah, (the Prophetical, that he should, the Evangelical, that he is come) yet both these might but concern others: this light of Faith brings him home to thee. How sure so ever I be, that the world shall never perish by water, yet I may be drowned; and how sure so ever that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sins of the world, I may perish, without I have this applicatory Faith. And as he needs not look back to Isaiah, nor Abraham, nor Adam, for the Messiah, so neither needs he to look forward. He needs not stay in expectation of the Angels Trumpets, to awaken the dead; he is not put to his usquequo Domine, How long, Lord, wilt thou defer our restitution? but he hath already died the death of the righteous; which is, to die to sin; He hath already had his burial, by being buried with Christ in Baptism, he hath had his Resurrection from sin, his Ascension to holy purposes of amendment of life, and his Judgement, that is, peace of Conscience, sealed unto him, and so by this light of applying Faith, he hath already apprehended an eternal possession of Gods eternal Kingdom. And the other light in this second couple is Lux naturae, the light of Nature.

This, though a fainter light, directs us to the other, Nature to Faith: and as by the quantity in the light of the Moon, we know the position and distance of the Sun, how far, or how near the Sun is to her, so by the working of the light of Nature in us, we may discern, (by the measure and virtue and heat of that) how near to the other greater light, the light of Faith, we stand. If we find our natural faculties rectified, so as that that free will which we have in Moral and Civil actions, be bent upon the external duties of Religion, (as every natural man may, out of the use of that free will, come to Church, hear the Word preached, and believe it to be true) we may be sure, the other greater light is about us. If we be cold in them, in actuating, in exalting, in using our natural faculties so far, we shall be deprived of all light; we shall not see the Invisible God, in visible things, which Saint Paul makes so inexcusable, so unpardonable a thing, we shall not see the hand of God in all our worldly crosses, nor the seal of God in all our worldly blessings; we shall not see the face of God in his House, his presence here in the Church, nor the mind of God in his Gospel, that his gracious purposes upon mankind, extend so particularly, or reach so far, as to include us. I shall hear in the Scripture his Vinite omnes, come all, and yet I shall think that his eye was not upon me, that his eye did not becken me and I shall hear the Deus vult omnes salves, that God would save all, and yet I shall find some perverse reason in my self, why it is not likely that God will save me. I am commanded scrutari Scripturas, to search the scriptures; now, that is not to be able to repeat any history of the Bible without book, it is not to ruffle a Bible, and upon any word to turn to the Chapter, and to the verse; but this is exquisit a scrutatio, the true searching of the Scriptures, to find all the histories to be examples to me, all the prophecies to induce a Savior for me, all the Gospel to apply Christ Jesus to me. Turn over all the folds, and plaits of thine own heart, and find there the infirmities, and waverings of thine own faith, and an ability to say, Lord, I believe, help mine unbeleefe, and then, though thou have no Bible in thy hand, or though thou stand in a dark corner, nay though thou canst not read a letter, thou hast searched that Scripture, thou hast turned to Mark 9. ver. 24 Turn thine ear to God, and hear him turning to thee, and saying to thy soul, I will marry thee to my self for ever; and thou hast searched that Scripture, and turned to Hos. 2. ver. 19. Turn to thine own histery, thine own life, and if thou canst read there, that thou hast endeavoured to turn thine ignorance into knowledge, and thy knowledge into Practice, if thou find thy self to be an example of that rule of Christs, If you know these things, blessed are you, if you do them, then thou hast searched that Scripture, and turned to Io. 13. ver. 14. This is Scrutari Scripturas, to Search the Scriptures, not as though thou wouldst make a concordance, but an application; as thou wouldst search a wardrobe, not to make an Inventory of it, but to find in it something fit for thy wearing. John Baptist was not the light, he was not Christ, but he bore witness of him. The light of faith, in the highest exaltation that can be had, in the Elect, here, is not that very beatifical vision, which we shall have in heaven, but it bears witness of that light. The light of nature, in the highest exaltation is not faith, but it bears witness of it. The lights of faith, and of nature, are subordinate John Baptists: faith bears me witness, that I have Christ, and the light of nature, that is, the exalting of my natural faculties towards religious uses, bears me witness, that I have faith. Only that man, whose conscience testifies to himself, and whose actions testify to the world, that he does what he can, can believe himself, or be believed by others, that he hath the true light of faith.

And therefore, as the Apostle saith, Quench not the Spirit, I say too, Quench not the light of Nature, suffer not that light to go out; study your natural faculties; husband and improve them, and love the outward acts of Religion, though an Hypocrite, and though a natural man may do them. Certainly he that loves not the Militant Church, hath but a faint faith in his interest in the Triumphant. He that cares not though the material Church fall, I am afraid is falling from the spiritual. For, can a man be sure to have his money, or his plate, if his house be burnt? or to preserve his faith, if the outward exercises of Religion fail? He that undervalues outward things, in the religious service of God, though he begin at ceremonial and ritual things, will come quickly to call Sacraments but outward things, and Sermons, and public prayers, but outward things, in contempt. As some Platonique Philosophers, did so over-refine Religion, and devotion, as to say, that nothing but the first thoughts and ebullitions of a devout heart, were fit to serve God in. If it came to any outward action of the body, kneeling, or lifting up of hands, if it came to be but invested in our words, and so made a Prayer, nay if it passed but a revolving, a turning in our inward thoughts, and thereby were mingled with our affections, though pious affections, yet, say they, it is not pure enough for a service to God; nothing but the first motions of the heart is for him. Beloved, outward things apparel God; and since God was content to take a body, let not us leave him naked, nor ragged; but, as you will bestow not only some cost, but some thoughts, some study, how you will clothe your children, and how you will clothe your servants, so bestow both cost and thoughts, think seriously, execute cheerfully in outward declarations, that which becomes the dignity of him, who evacuated himself for you. The zeal of his house needs not eat you up, no nor eat you out of house and home; God asks not that at your hands. But, if you eat one dish the less at your feasts for his house sake, if you spare somewhat for his relief, and his glory, you will not be the leaner, nor the weaker, for that abstinence. John Baptist bore witness of the light, outward things bear witness of your faith, the exalting of our natural faculties bear witness of the supernatural. We do not compare the master and the servant, and yet we thank that servant that brings us to his master. We make a great difference between the treasure in the chest, and the key that opens it, yet we are glad to have that key in our hands. The bell that calls me to Church, does not catechise me, nor preach to me, yet I observe the sound of that bell, because it brings me to him that does those offices to me. The light of nature is far from being enough; but, as a candle may kindle a torch, so into the faculties of nature, well employed, God infuses faith. And this is our second couple of lights, the subordination of the light of nature, and the light of faith. And a third pair of lights of attestation, that bear witness to the light of our Text, is Lux aeternorum Corporum, that light which the Sun and Moon, and those glorious bodies give from heaven, and lux incensionum, that light, which those things; that are naturally combustible, and apt to take fire, do give upon earth; both these bear witness of this light, that is, admit an application to it. For, in the first of these, the glorious lights of heaven, we must take nothing for stars, that are not stars; nor make Astrological and fixed conclusions out of meteors, that are but transitory; they may be Comets, and blazing stars, and so portend much mischief, but they are none of those aeterna corpora, they are not fixed stars, not stars of heaven. So is it also in the Christian Church, (which is the proper sphere in which the light of our text, That light the essential light Christ Jesus moves by that supernatural light of faith and grace, which is truly the Intelligence of that sphere, the Christian Chruch) As in the heavens the stars were created at once, with one Fiat, and then being so made, stars do not beget new stars, so the Christian doctrine necessary to salvation, was delivered at once, that is, entirely in one sphere, in the body of the Scriptures. And then, as stars do not beget stars, Articles of faith do not beget Articles of faith; so, as that the Council of Trent should be brought to bed of a new Creed, not conceived before by the holy Ghost in the Scriptures, and, (which is a monstrous birth) the child greater then the Father, as soon as it is born, the new Creed of the Council of Trent to contain more Articles, then the old Creed of the Apostles did. Saint Iud writing of the common salvation (as he calls it) (for, Saint Iud, it seems, knew no such particular salvation, as that it was impossible for any man to have, salvation is common salvation) exhorts them to contend earnestly for that faith, which was once delivered unto the Saints. Semel, once; that is; at once, semel, simul, once altogether. For this is also Tertullians note; that the rule of faith is, that it be una, immobilis, irreformabilis; it must not be deformed, it cannot be Reformed; it must not be mard, it cannot be mended; whatsoever needs mending, and reformation, cannot be the rule of faith, says Tertullian. Other foundation can no man lay then Christ; not only no better, but no other; what other things soever are added by men, enter not into the nature and condition of a foundation. The additions, and traditions, and superedifications of the Roman Church, they are not lux aeternorum corporum, they are not fixed bodies, they are not stars to direct us; they may be meteors, and so exercise our discourse, and Argumentation, they may raise controversies; And they may be Comets, and so exercise our fears, and our jealousies, they may raise rebellions and Treasons, but they are not fixed and glorious bodies of heaven, they are not stars. Their non-communions, (for, communions where there are no communicants, are no communions) when they admit no bread at all, no wine at all, all is transubstantiated, are no communions; their semi-communions, when they admit the bread to be given, but not the wine; their sesqui-communions, Bread and Wine to the taste, and to all other trials of bread and wine, and yet that bread and wine, the very body, and the very blood of Christ; their quotidian miracles, which destroy and contradict even the nature of the miracle, to make miracles ordinary, and fixed, constant and certain; (for, as that is not a miracle which nature does, so that's not a miracle which man can do certainly, constantly, infallibly every day, and every day, every Priest can miraculously change bread into the body of Christ, and besides they have certain fixed shops, and Marts of miracles, in one place a shop of miracles for barrenness, in another, a shop for the tooth-ache) To contract this, their occasional Divinity, doctrines to serve present occasions, that in eighty eight, an Heretical Prince must necessarily be excommunicated, and an Heretical Prince excommunicated must necessarily be deposed, but at another time it may be otherwise, and conveniencies, and dispensations may be admitted, these, and such as these, traditional, occasional, Almanack Divinity, they may be Comets, they may be Meteors, they may rain blood, and rain fire, and rain hailestones, hailstones as big as Talents, (as it is in the Revelation) milstones, to grind the world by their oppressions, but they are not lux aeternorum corporum, the light of the stars and other heavenly bodies, for, they were made at once, and diminish not, increase not. Fundamental articles of faith, are always the same. And that's our application of this lux aeternorum corporum, the light of those heavenly bodies, to the light of our Text, Christ working in the Church.

Now, for the consideration of the other light in this third couple, which is lux incensionum, the light of things, which take, and give light here upon earth, if we reduce it to application and practise, and contract it to one Instance, it will appear that the devotion and zeal of him, that is best affected, is, for the most part, in the disposition of a torch, or a knife, ordained to take fire, and to give light. If it have never been lightened, it does not easily take light, but it must be bruised, and beaten first; if it have been lighted and put out; though it cannot take fire of it self, yet it does easily conceive fire, if it be presented within any convenient distance. Such also is the soul of man towards the fires of the zeal of Gods glory, and compassion of others misery. If there be any that never took this fire, that was never affected with either of these, the glory of God, the miseries of other men, can I hope to kindle him? It must be Gods work to bruise and beat him, with his rod of affliction, before he will take fire. Paulus revelatione compulsus ad fidem, St. Paul was compelled to believe; not the light which he saw, but the power which he felt wrought upon him; not because that light shined from heaven, but because it stroke him to the earth. Agnoscimus Christum in Paulo prius cogentem, deind docentem; Christ begun not upon St. Paul, with a catechism, but with a rod. If therefore here be any in Pauls case, that were never kindled before, Almighty God proceed the same way with them, and come so near to a friendship towards them, as to be at enmity with them; to be so merciful to them, as to seem unmerciful; to be so well pleased, as to seem angry; that so by inflicting his medicinal afflictions, he may give them comfort by discomfort, and life by death, and make them seek his face, by turning his face from them; and not to suffer them to continue in a stupid inconsideration, and lamentable senselessness of their miserable condition, but bruise and break them with his rod, that they may take fire. But for you, who have taken this fire before, that have been enlightened in both Sacraments, and in the preaching of the word; in the means, and in some measure of practise of holiness heretofore, if in not supplying oil to your Lamps, which God by his ordinance had kindled in you, you have let this light go out by negligence or inconsideration, or that storms of worldly calamities have blown it out, do but now at this instant call to mind, what sin of yesterday, or t'other day, or long ago, begun, and practised, and prevailed upon you, or what future sin, what purpose of doing a sin to night, or to morrow, possesses you; do but think seriously what sin, or what cross hath blown out that light, that grace, which was formerly in you, before that sin, or that cross invaded you, and turn your soul, which hath been enlightened before, towards this fire which Gods Spirit blows this minute, and you will conceive new fire, new zeal, new compassion. As this Lux incensionum, kindles easily, when it hath been kindled before, so the soul accustomed to the presence of God in holy meditations, though it fall asleep in some dark corner, in some sin of infirmity, a while, yet, upon every holy occasion, it takes fire again, and the meanest Preacher in the Church, shall work more upon him, then the four Doctors of the Church should be able to do, upon a person who had never been enlightened before, that is, never accustomed to the presence of God in his private meditations, or in his outward acts of Religion. And this is our third couple of lights, that bears witness, that is, admit an application to the light of our Text; and then the fourth and last couple, which we consider, is Lux Depuratarum Mixtionum, the light and lustre of precious stones, and then Lux Repercussionum, the light of Repercussion, and Reflexion, when one body, though it have no light in it self, casts light upon other bodies.

In the application of the first of these lights, Depuratarum Mixtionum, precious stones, we shall only apply their making and their value. Precious stones are first drops of the dew of heaven, and then refined by the sun of heaven. When by long lying they have exhaled, and evaporated, and breathed out all their grosse matter, and received another concoction from the sun, then they become precious in the eye, and estimation of men: so those actions of ours, that shall be precious or acceptable in the eye of God, must at first have been conceived from heaven, from the word of God, and then receive another concoction, by a holy deliberation, before we bring those actions to execution, lest we may have mistaken the root thereof. Actions precious, or acceptable in Gods eye, must be holy purposes in their beginning, and then done in season; the Dove must lay the egg, and hatch the bird; the holy Ghost must infuse the purpose, and sit upon it, and overshadow it, and mature and ripen it, if it shall be precious in Gods eye. The reformation of abuses in State or Church, is a holy purpose, there is that drop of the dew of heaven in it; but if it be unseasonably attempted, and have not a farther concoction, then the first motions of our own zeal, it becomes ineffectual. Stones precious in the estimation of men, begin with the dew of Heaven, and proceed with the sun of Heaven; Actions precious in the acceptation of God, are purposes conceived by his Spirit, and executed in his time to his Glory, not conceived out of Ambition, nor executed out of sedition. And this is the application of this Lux depuratarum mixtionum, of precious stones, out of their making, we proposed another out of their valuation; which is this, That whereas a Pearl or Diamond of such a bigness, of so many Carats, is so much worth, one that is twice as big, is ten times as much worth. So, though God vouchsafe to value every good work thou dost, yet as they grow greater he shall multiply his estimation of them infinitely, When he hath prized at a high rate, the chastity and continency of thy youth, if thou add to this, a moderation in thy middle age, from Ambition, and in thy latter age from covetousness and indevotion, there shall be no price in Gods treasure (not the last drop of the blood of his Son) too dear for thee, no room, no state in his Kingdom (not a Iointenancy with his only Son) too glorious for thee. This is one light in this Couple; The lustre of precious stones: the other the last is Lux Repercussionum, The light of Repercussion, of Reflexion.

This is, when Gods light cast upon us, reflecteth upon other men too, from us; when God doth not only accept our works for our selves, but employs those works of ours upon other men. And here is a true, and a Divine Supererogation; which the Devil, (as he doth all Gods Actions, which fall into his compass) did mischievously counterfeit in the Roman Church, when he induced their Doctrine of Supererogation, that a man might do so much more then he was bound to do for God, as that that superplusage might save whom he would; and that if he did not direct them in his intention, upon any particular person, the Bishop of Rome, was general Administrator to all men, and might bestow them where he would. But here is a true supererogation; not from Man, or his Merit, but from God; when our good works shall not only profit us, that do them, but others that see them done; and when we by this light of Repercussion, of Reflexion, shall be made specula divinae gloriae, quae accipiunt & reddunt, such looking glasses as receive Gods face upon our selves, and cast it upon others by a holy life, and exemplary conversation.

To end all, we have no warmth in our selves; it is true, but Christ came even in the winter: we have no light in our selves; it is true, but he came even in the night. And now, I appeal to your own Consciences, and I ask you all, (not as a Judge, but as an Assistant to your Consciences, and Amicus Curiae,) whether any man have made a good use of this light, as he might have done. Is there any man that in the compassing of his sin, hath not met this light by the way, Thou shouldest not do this? Any man, that hath not only as Balaam did, met this light as an Angel, (that is, met Heavenly inspirations to avert him,) but that hath not heard as Balaam did, his own Ass; that is , those reasons that use to carry him, or those very worldly respects that use to carry him, dispute against that sin, and tell him, not only that there is more soul and more heaven, and more salvation, but more body, and more health, more honor, and more reputation, more cost, and more money, more labor, and more danger. spent upon such a sin, then would have carried him the right way.

They that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunk, are drunk in the night. But to you the Day starr, the Sun of Righteousness, the Son of God is risen this day. The day is but a little longer now, then at shortest; but a little it is. Be a little better now, then when you came, and mend a little at every coming, and in less then seven years apprentissage, which your occupations cost you, you shall learn, not the Mysteries of your twelve companies, but the Mysteries of the twelve Tribes, of the twelve Apostles, of their twelve Articles, whatsoever belongeth to the promise, to the performance, to the Imitation of Christ Jesus. He, who is Lux una, light and light alone, and Lux tota, light and all light, shall also, by that light, which he sheddeth from himself upon all his, the light of Grace, give you all these Attestations, all these witnesses of that his light; he shall give you Lucem essentiae, (really, and essentially to be incorporated into him, to be made partakers of the Divine Nature, and the same Spirit with the Lord, by a Conversation in Heaven, here) and lucem gloriae, (a gladness to give him glory in a donudation of your souls, and your sins, by humble confession to him, and a gladness to receive a denudation and manifestation of your selves to your selves, by his messenger, in his medicinal and musical increpations, and a gladness to receive an inchoation of future glory, in the remission of those sins.) He shall give you lucem fidei, ) (faithful and unremovable possession of future things, in the present, and make your hereafter, now, in the fruition of God.) And Lucem naturae (a love of the outward beauty of his house, and outward testimonies of this love, in inclining your natural faculties to religious duties.) He shall give you Lucem aeternorum Corporum, (a love to walk in the light of the stars of heaven, that never change, a love so perfect in the fundamental articles of Religion, without impertinent additions.) And Lucem incensionum, )(an aptness to take holy fire, by what hand, or tongue, or pen soever it be presented unto you, according to Gods Ordinance, though that light have formerly been suffered to go out in you.) He shall give you Lucem depuratarum Mixtionum, (the lustre of precious stones, made of the dew of heaven, and by the heat of heaven, that is, actions intended at first, and produced at last, for his glory; and every day multiply their value, in the sight of God, because thou shalt every day grow up from grace to grace.) And Lucem Repercussionum, (he shall make you able to reflect and cast this light upon others, to his glory, and their establishment.)

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, with all these lights; that in thy light we may see light; that in this Essential light, which is Christ, and in this Supernatural light, which is grace, we may see all these, and all other beams of light, which may bring ut to thee, and him, and that blessed Spirit which proceeds from both. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXVII.

JOHN 1. 8. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

Preached at St. Pauls on Midsommer day. 1622.

OF him, who was this light, which John Baptist is here denied to be, I spoke out of these words, and out of this place, the first time that I ascended to it, upon the great Epiphany, (as the first Church used to call it) the manifestation of Christ Jesus in the flesh, Christmas day; I reserved the rest of the Text, which concerns John Baptist himself, and his office, for this day, in which the Church celebrates his memory, who, though he were not that light, was sent to bear witness of that light.

We shall make our parts but two, Testem, and Testimonium, the person, and the Office; first, who the witness is, and then what he witnesses. In the first, we shall consider first, the dignity, the fitness of the person, implied in the first word of this part of our Text, but; he was not that light; that is true, but yet he was something towards it; he was nothing considered with Christ, but he was much considered with any other man. And then we shall see his title to his office, Missus est, as he was fit in himself, so he was sent by him that had power to give Commission; and from these two, in which we shall determine our first part, the consideration of his person, we shall descend to the other, his office; and therein stop but upon two steps neither; first, why any testimony was required to so clear a thing as light, and such a light, that light; and then, what kind of testimony John Baptist did give to that light. So have you the design, and frame of our building, and the several partitions, the rooms; pass we now to a more particular survey, and furnishing of them.

The first branch of the first part, is the Idoneus, that he was fit to be a witness. If we should insist upon the nobility of his race, his father and mother, (his father a Priest, and his mother also descended of Aaron) (and, as all Nations have some notes and marks of nobility, (Merchandize, or Arms, or Letters, amongst the Jews Priesthood was that, the Priesthood enobled men) in all well policed States, caeteris paribus, if they were not otherwise defective, they have ever thought it fittest to employ persons of good families, and of noble extraction, as well because, in likelihood they had had the best education, from their parents, and the best knowledge of things that concern the public, by having had their conversation with the best, and most intelligent persons; as also, because they have for the most part, more to lose them inferior persons have, and therefore are likelier to be careful and vigilant in their employment; And again, because they draw a better respect from those to whom they are employed, (which is of great importance in such negotiations, to send persons acceptable to them to whom they are sent) and yet, do not lye so open to the temptations and corruptions of their Ministers, as men of needy fortunes, and obscure extractions do.

This fitness John Baptist had, he was of a good family and extraction. It adds to him, that as he had a noble, he had a miraculous birth, for, to be born of a Virgin, is but a degree more, then to be born of a barren woman. A birth, which only of all others the Church celebrates; for, though we find the days of the Martyrs still called, Natalitia Martyrum, their birth-days, yet that is always intended of the days of their death; only in John Baptist it is intended literally of his natural birth; for, his spiritual birth, his Martyrdom, is remembered by another name, Decollatio Ioannis, John Baptists beheading. If we should enlarge all concerning him, as infinitely, as infinite Authors have done, or contract all as summarily, as Christ hath done, (Amongst those that are born of women, there is not a greater Prophet then John the Baptist) yet we should find that Saint Augustine had done all this before, Non est quod illi adjiciat homo, cui Deus contulit totum, What man can add more, where God said all, and he hath said of John Baptist, Spiritu Sancto replebitur, He shall be filled with the holy Ghost.

Two things especially make a man a competent witness: First, that he have in himself a knowledge of the thing that he testifies; else he is an incompetent witness: And then, that he have a good estimation in others, that he be reputed an honest man; else he is an unprofitable witness. If he be ignorant, he says truth, but by chance; if he be dishonest, and say truth, it is but upon design, and not for the truths sake; for, if those circumstances did not lead him, he would not say truth. John Baptist had both, knowledge and estimation.

He knew, per scientiam infusam, by infused knowledge; as he was a Prophet; for so Christ testifies that he was. But all Prophets knew not all things; therefore he was more then a Prophet, which is also testified by Christ, in his behalf. More then any former Prophet. And yet, the Prophet Esaiah was (even in his Prophecy) an Evangelist, his Prophecy of Christ was so clear, so particular, as that it was rather Gospel, and History, then Prophecy. John Baptist was more then that; for, he did not only declare a present Christ, (in that, Isaiah may seem to come neer him) but he was Propheta Prophetatus, A Prophet that was prophesied of; even Isaiah himself bore witness of this witness; (A voice cried in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord.) And the Prophet Malachi bore witness of this witness too, (Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.) So he hath the restimony of the first and last of the Prophets; and of him too, who was the first and the last, the cause and the effect, the moving and fulfilling of all prophecy, of Christ himself, (This is he, of whom it is written,) and so he cites those words of Malachi concerning John Baptist. John Baptist then had this competency, by knowledge infused by God, declared in former Prophecies, he knew the matter, which he was to testify. Which is so essential, so substantial a circumstance in matter of testimony, in what way soever we will be witnesses to God, as that no man is a competent witness for God, not in his preaching, not in his living, not in his dying, (though he be a witness in the highest sense, that is, a Martyr) if he do not know, upon what ground, he says, or does, or suffers that, which he suffers, and does, and says. Howsoever he pretend the honor of God in his testimony, yet, if the thing be materially false, (false in it self, though true in his opinion) or formally false, (true in it self, but not known to be so, to him that testifies it) both ways he is an incompetent witness. And this takes away the honor of having been witnesses for Christ, and the consolation and style of Martyrs, both from them, who, upon such evidence, as can give no assurance (that is, traedi tions of men) have grounded their faith in God, and from them, who take their light in corners, and conventicles, and not from the City set upon the top of a hill, the Church of God. Those Roman Priests who have given their lives, those Separatists which have taken a voluntary banishment, are not competent witnesses for the glory of God; for a witness must know; and qui testatur de scientia, testetur de modo scientiae, says the Law, He that will prove any thing by his knowledge, must prove how he came by that knowledge; The Papist hath not the knowledge of his Doctrine from any Scripture, the Separatist hath not the knowledge of his Discipline from any precedent, any example in the primitive Church.

How far then is that wretched and sinful man, from giving any testimony or glory to Christ in his life, who never comes to the knowledge, and consideration, why he was sent into this life? who is so far from doing his errand, that he knows not what his errand was; not whether he received any errand or no. But, as though that God, who for infinite millions of ages, delighted himself in himself, and was sufficient in himself, and yet at last did bestow six days labor for the creation, and provision of man, as though that God, who when man was soured in the lump, poisoned in the fountain, withered in the root, in the loins of Adam, would then ingage his Son, his beloved Son, his only Son to be man, by a temporary life, and to be no man, by a violent and a shameful death, as though that God, who when he was pleased to come to a creation, might have left out thee, amongst privations, amongst nothings, or might have shut thee up, in the close prison, of a bare being, and no more, (as he hath done earth and stones) or, if he would have given thee life, might have left thee a Toad, or, if he would have given thee a humane soul, might have left thee a heathen, without any knowledge of God, or, if he had afforded thee a Religion, might have left thee a Jew, or, though he had made thee a Christian, might have left thee a Papist; as though that God that hath done so much more, in breeding thee in his true Church, had done all this for nothing, thou passest thorough this world, like a flash, like a lightning, whose beginning or end no body knows, like an Ignis fatuus in the aire, which does not only not give light for any use, but not so much as portend or signify any thing; and thou passest out of the world, as thy hand passes out of a basin of water, which may be somewhat the fouler for thy washing in it, but retains no other impression of thy having been there; and so does the world for thy life in it. When God placed Adam in the world, he bad him fill it, and subdue it, and rule it; and when he placed him in paradise, he bad him dress, and keep paradise; and when he sent his children into the over-flowing Laud of promise, he bad them fight, and destroy the Idolaters; to every body some task, some errand for his glory; And thou comest from him, into this world, as though he had said nothing unto thee, but Go and do as you see cause, Go, and do as you see other men do.

Thou knowest not, that is, considerest not, what thou wast sent to do, what thou shouldest have done, but thou knowest much less, what thou hast done. The light of nature hath taught thee to hide thy sins from other men, and thou hast been so diligent in that, as that thou hast hid them from thy self, and canst not find them in thine own conscience, if at any time the Spirit of God would burn them up, or the blood of Christ Jesus wash them out; thou canst not find them out so, as that a Sermon or Sacrament can work upon them. Perchance thou canst tell, when was the first time, or where was the first place, that thou didst commit such or such a sin; but as a man can remember when he began to spell, but not when he began to read perfectly, when he began to join his letters, but not when he began to write perfectly, so thou remembrest when thou wentest timorously and bashfully about sin, at first, and now perchance art ashamed of that shamefastness, and sorry thou beganst no sooner. Poor bankrupt! that hast sinned out thy soul so profusely, so lavishly, that thou darest not cast up thine accounts, thou darest not ask thy self whether thou have any soul left; how far art thou, from giving any testimony to Christ, that darest not testify to thy self, nor hear thy conscience take knowledge of thy transgressions, but haddest rather sleep out thy days, or drink out thy days, then leave one minute for compunction to lay hold on; and doest not sin always for the love of that sin, but for fear of a holy sorrow, if thou shouldest not fill up thy time, with that sin. God cannot be mocked, saith the Apostle, nor God cannot be blinded. He seeth all the way, and at thy last gasp, he will make thee see too, through the multiplying Glass, the Spectacle of Desperation. Canst thou hope that that God, that seeth this dark Earth through all the vaults and arches of the several spheres of Heaven, that seeth thy body through all thy stone walls, and seeth thy soul through that which is darker then all those, thy corrupt flesh, canst thou hope that that God can be blinded with drawing a curtain between thy sin and him? when he is all eye, canst thou hope to put out that eye, with putting out a candle? when he hath planted legions of Angels about thee, canst thou hope that thou hast taken away all Intelligence, if thou have corrupted, or silenced, or sent away a servant? O bestow as much labor, as thou hast done, to find corners for sin to find out those sins, in those corners where thou hast hid them. As Princes give pardons by their own hands, but send Judges to execute Justice, come to him for mercy in the acknowledgement of thy sins, and stay not till his Justice come to thee, when he makes inquisition for blood; and do not think, that if thou feel now at this present a little tenderness in thy heart, a little melting in thy bowels, a little dew in thine eyes, that if thou beest come to know, that thou art a sinner, thou dost therefore presently know thy sins. Thou wouldst have so much tendernes, so much compassion, if thou knewest that he that fits next thee, were in this danger of Gods heavy indignation; thou wouldst commiserate thy neighbours wretched condition so much. But proceed with thy self further, bring this dawning and break of day to a full light, and this little spark to a perfect acknowledgement of thy sins. Go home, with this spark of Gods Spirit in you, and there look upon your Rentalls, and know your oppressions, and extorsions; look upon your shop-books, and know your deceits and falsifications; look upon your ward-robes, and know your excesses; look upon your children's faces, and know your fornications. Till then, till you come to this scrutiny, this survey, this sifting of the Conscience, if we should cry peace, peace, yet there were no peace. The Orator said, Imposuimus populo, & Oratores visi sumus; we have cousened the people, and they say we are excellent Oratours, powerful, well spoken men. We might flatter you, and you would say, we were sweet, and smooth, and comfortable Preachers, and we might perish together. But if you study your selves, read your own History, if you get to the knowledge of your errand hither, and the ill discharge of those duties here, the sorrow and compunction which will grow from thence, is a faire degree of Martyrdom, (for as Saint Jerome saith of Chastity, Habet pudicitia servata, Martyrium suum, Chastity preserved is a continual Martyrdom, so a true remorse, if that Chastity have not been preserved, and likewise a true remorse for every sin, is a fair degree of Martyrdom) for, Martyr is Testis, the very name of Martyr signifieth a Witness; and this Martyrdom, this true remorse and sorrow, and compunction for your sins, becomes a witness to your selves of your reconciliation to God in the merits of Christ Jesus. But we may carry this branch no further, that John Baptist being a competent witness therefore, because he understood the matter he testified, before we can be competent witnesses to our own Consciences, of our Reconciliation to God, we must understand, (and therefore search into our particular sins) not only that we are sinners, but sinners in such and such kinds, such times, such places, such persons; for that Soul, that is content to rest in generalls, would but deceive it self. John Baptists other qualification was, That as he knew the matter about which he was sent, so he had, (and justly) a good estimation amongst them, to whom he was employed.

If I have a prejudice against a Man, and suspect his honesty, I shall not be much moved with his Testimony. The Devil testified for Christ; but, if there were no other Testimony but his, I should demurre upon the Gospel, I should not die for that Faith. John Baptist was a credible person amongst them. How was this credit acquired? It seemeth John Baptist did no Miracles; Whether he did or no, is not a clear Case; for that which is said, (John Baptist did no miracles) is not said by the Evangelist himself; Saint John doeth not say, that John Baptist did no miracles; but those that resorted to him at that place, said that (He doth no miracles) for they had seen none. If he did none, that reason may be good enough, ne aequalis Christo putaretur, it was forborne in him, that he might appear to be inferior to Christ. And, if he did none, yet there were miracles done by him. The reformation of manners, and bringing men to repentance, is a miracle. It is a less miracle to raise a man from a sick bed, then to hold a man from a wanton bed, a litentious bed; less to overcome and quench his fever, then to quench his lust. Joseph that refused his mistris was a greater miracle then Lazarus raised from the dead. Of these resurrections, we have divers examples, Iosephs case, (I think) is singular. There were miracles done so, by John Baptist preaching to others; and there were miracies done upon himself; & early; for, his springing in his mothers womb, was a miracle; and a miracle done for others: Significatio rei à majoribus cognoscend, non à minori cognitae; The child catechized his elders, in that which himself understood not; that is, the presence of his Savior, in the virgin then present, Divinitus in infante, non humanitus ab infante, says the same Father; it was not a joy, and exultation in the child, but an institution, an instruction to the rest. But miracle or no miracle is not our issue; witnesses for Christ, require not wonder, but belief; we pretend not miracles, but propose Gods ordinary means, we look not for Admiration, but Assent. And therefore forbear you acclamations and expectations of wonderful good preachers, and admirable good Sermons. It was enough for John Baptist that even they confessed, that all that he said was true. Content thy self with truths evident truths, fundamental truths, let matter of wonder and admiration alone.

He was a witness competent to them for his truth, and integrity, and he was so also for the outward holiness of his life; which, for the present, we consider only in the strict and austere manner of living, that he embraced. For, certainly, he that uses no fasting, no discipline, no mortification, exposes himself to many dangers in himself, and to a cheap and vulgar estimation amongst others. Caro mea jumentum meum, says S. Augustine, my body is the horse I ride; iter ago in Jerusalem, my business lies at Jerusalem; thither I should ride; De via conatur excutere, my horse over pampered casts me upon the way, or carries me out of the way; non cohibebo jejunio, says he; must not that be my way, to bring him to a gentler riding, & more command, by lessening his proportions of provender? S. Augustine means the same that S. Paul preached, I beat down my body, says he, and bring it in subjection; And, (as Paulinus reads that place) Lividum reddo, I make my body black and blue; white and red were not Saint Pauls colors. Saint Paul was at this time departed, (in outward profession) from the sect of the Pharisees, and from their ostentations of doing their disciplines in the sight and for the praise of man; but yet, being become a Christian he left not his austerity; And it is possible for us, to leave the leaven of the Papist, the opinion of merit, and supererogation, and doing more then we are bound to do in the ways of godliness, and yet nourish our souls, with that wholesome bread of taming our bodies. Saint Paul had his Disciplines, his mortifications; he tells us so, but he does not tell us what they were; lest perchance a reverence to his person, and example, might bind mis-devout men, to do punctually as Saint Paul did. The same Rule cannot serve all; but the same Reason may.

The institution of friars under a certain Rule, that all of them, just at this time, shall do just thus, cannot be a rule of Iustice; but the general doctrine, that every body needs at some times, some helps, some means, is certainly true. Shall the riotous, the voluptuous man stay till this something be a surfeit or a fever? 'Tis true, this surfeit and this fever, will subdue the body, but then thou doest it not. Shall a lascivious wanton stay, till a consumption or such contagious diseases as shall make him unsociable, and so, unable to exercise his sin, subdue his body? These can do it, but this is Perimere, non subjugare, not a subduing of the body alone, but a destroying of body and soul together. Moderate disciplines subdue the body, as under the government of a King, a father of his people, that governs them by a law. But when the body comes to be subdued, by pains, and anguish, and loathsome diseases, this becomes a tyranny, a conquest; and he that comes in by conquest, imposes what laws he will; so that these subduings of the body brought in by sin, may work in us, an obduration; we shall feel them, but not discern the hand of God in them; or, if his hand, yet not his hand to that purpose, to relieve us, but to seal our condemnation to us. Beloved, because our Adversaries of the Roman heresy, have erroneously made a pattern for their Eremitical and Monastical life in John Baptist, and coloured their idleness, by his example; some of the Reformation have bent a little too far the other way, and denied, that there was any such austerity in the life of St. John, as is ordinarily conceived: They say that his conversation in the Desert, may well be understood to have been but a withdrawing of himself from public and civil businesses, home to his fathers house; for, his father dwelt in that Desert, and thither went Mary to salute Elizabeth. And Job had his house in this Desert; and in this Desert are reckoned five or fixe good Towns; so that indeed it was no such savage solitude as they fancy. But yet, for a Son of such Parents, an only Son, a Son so miraculously afforded them, to pass on with that apparel, and that diet, is certainly remarkable, and an evidence of an extraordinary austerity, and an argument of an extraordinary sanctity.

Especially to the Jews it was so; amongst them this austerity of life, and abstaining from those things which other men embraced, procured ordinarily a great estimation; We know that amongst them, the Essaei a severe Sect, had a high reverence: They did not marry, they did not eat flesh, they did not ease themselves by servants, but did all their own work, they used no propriety, they possessed nothing, called nothing their own; Vicatim habitant, & urbes fugiunt, they forsake all great Towns, and dwell in Villages; And yet, flying the world, they drew the world so much after them, as that it is noted with wonder, per saeculorum Milia gens aeterna, in qua nemo nascitur; that there was an eternal Nation, that had lasted many Generations, and yet never any born amongst them; I am foecunda illis aliorum vitae poenitentia, for, every man that was crossed or wearied in his own course of life, applied himself to their Sect and manner of living, as the only way to Heaven. And Iosephus writing his own life and forwardness, and pregnancy, (perchance a little too favourably or gloriously in his own behalf, to be throughly believed; for he saith, that when he was but fourteen years old, the greatest Doctours of the Law, came to him to learn penitiorem sensum juris, the secretest Mysteries of the Law; and their Law, was Divinity) thought himself unperfect till he had spent some time, in the strictness of all the three Sects of the Jews; and after he had done all that, he spent three years more, with one Bannus an Ermit, who lived in the wilderness, upon herbs and roots, John Baptists austerity of life made him a competent and credible witness to them, who had such austerity in estimation.

And truly, he that will any way be a witness for Christ, that is, glorify him, he must endeavor, even by this outward holiness of life, to be acceptable to good men. Vox Populi, vox Dei, the general voice is seldom false; so also Oculi populi, Oculi Dei, In this case God looketh upon man, as man doth; Singuli decipi & decipere possunt, One man may deceive another, & be deceived by another; Nemo omnes, neminem omnes fefellerunt, no man ever deceived all the world, nor did all the world ever join to deceive one man. The general opinion, the general voice, is for the most part, good evidence, with, or against a man. Every one of us is ashamed of the prays and attestation of one, whom all the world besides, taketh to be dishonest; so, will Christ be ashamed of that witness, that seeketh not the good opinion of good men.

When I see a Iesuit solicit the chastity of a daughter of the house, where he is harboured, and after knowledge taken by the Parents, upon her complaint, excuse it with saying, that he did it but to try her, and to be the better assured of her religious constancy; when I see a Iesuit conceal and foment a powder Treason, and say he had it but in Confession, and then see these men to proclaim themselves to be Martyrs, witnesses for Christ in the highest degree; I say still, the Devil may be a witness, but I ground not my Faith upon that Testimony: A competent witness must be an honest man. This competency John Baptist had, the good opinion of good men; And then, he had the seal of all, Missus est, he had his Commission, He was sent to bear witness of that Light.

Though this word Missus est, He was sent, be not literally in the Text here, yet it is necessarily implied, and therefore providently supplied by the Translatours in this verse, and before in the sixth verse, it is literally expressed, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The Law saith, concerning witnesses, Qui se ingerunt & offerunt, suspecti habentur, those that offer their testimony before they be cited, are suspicious witnesses. Therefore they must have a Mission, a sending. For, by Saint Pauls rule, How can they preach except they be sent? Preach they may; but how? with what success, what effect, what blessing? So that the good success of John Bapstists preaching, (For, the multitudes, The people came to him; and not light people carried about with every wind of rumor and noise, and novelty, but Pharises, and Sadducees, men of learning, of sadness and gravity; and not only Scholars affected with subtilties, but, Publicans too, men intent upon the world; and other men, whose very profession submits them to many occasions of departing from the strict rules, which regularly bind other men, and therefore may be in some things, (which taste of injustice) more excusable then other men; The souldiers likewise came to him, and said, What shall we do?) This his working upon all sorts of men, the blessing that accompanied his labours, was a subsequent argument of his Mission, that he was sent by God. God himself argues against them, that were not sent, so, They were not sent, for they have done no good. I have not sent those Prophets, saith the Lord, yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, and yet they prophesied; but, if they had stood in my counsel, then they should have turned the people from their evil ways, and from the wickedness of their inventions. This note God lays upon them, to whom he affords this vocation of his internal Spirit, that though others which come without any calling, may gather men in corners, and in Conventicles, and work upon their affections and passions, to singularity, to schism, to sedition: and though others which come with an outward, and ordinary calling only, may advance their own Fortunes, and increate their estimation, and draw their Auditory to an outward reverence of their Persons, and to a delight in hearing them rather then other men, yet, those only who have a true inward Calling from the Spirit, shall turn the people from their evil ways, and from the wickedness of their inventions. To such mens planting and watering God gives an increase; when as others which come to declame, and not to preach, and to vent their own gifts, or the purposes of great men for their gifts, have only a proportionable reward, wind for wind, Acclamation for Declamation, popular praise for popular eloquence: for, if they do not truly believe themselves, why should they look that others should believe them? Qui loquitur ad cor, loquatur ex corde; he that will speak to the heart of another, must find that that he saith in his own heart first.

Whether the Mission of the Church of Rome of Priests and Jesuites hither, be sufficient to satisfy their consciences who are so sent, and sent (in intendment of the Law) to inevitable loss of life here, hath been laboriously enough debated, and safely enough concluded, that such a Mission cannot satisfy a rectified conscience. What are they sent for? To defend the Immunities of the Church: that is, to take away the inherent right of the Crown, the supremacy of the King: What seconds them? what assures them? That which is their general Tenent, that into what place so ever the Pope may send Priests, he may send Armies for the security of those Priests; and (as another expresses it) in all Cases, where the Pope may injoyne any thing, he may lawfully proceed by way of War against any that hinder the execution thereof. That these Missions from the Bishop of Rome are unlawful, is safely enough concluded, A priori, in the very nature of the commandment and Mission. For, it is to a place, in which he that sends hath no power, for it is into the Dominions of another absolute King; and it is of Persons; in whom he hath no interest, for they are the subjects of another Prince; and my neighbours setting his mark upon my sheep, doth not make my sheep his. Now, beloved, if that which they cannot make lawful A priori, in the Nature of the thing, you will make lawful in their behalf, A posteriori, in the effect and working thereof; that is, if when these men are thus sent hither, you will run after them to their Masses, though you pretend it be but to meet company, and to see who comes, and to hear a Church-Comedy; if, though you abstain your self, you will lend them a wife, or a child, or a servant to be present there, A posteriori, by this effect, by this their working upon you, you justify their unjust Mission, and make them think their sending and coming lawful. So also, (to return to our former consideration) If you depart not from your evil ways, and from the wickedness of your own inventions: If for all our preaching you proceed in your sins, you will make us afraid, that our Mission, our Calling is not warrantable, for thereby you take away that consolation, which is one seal of our Mission, when we see a good effect of our preaching in your lives. It lyes much in you, to convince them, and to establish us, by that way, which is Gods own way of arguing, à posteriori, by the effect, by our working upon you. If you say God is God, we are sent; if you say Baal is God, you justify their sending. Missus est, John Baptist was sent, it appeared by the effect of his preaching; but it appears too, by a divers and manifold citation, which he had received, upon some of which, there may be good use to insist a little.

First, he was cited, called, before he was at all; and called again before he was born; called a third time, out of the desert, into the world; and called lastly out of this world into the next; and by all these callings, these citations, these missions, he was a competent witness. His first citation was before he was any thing, before his conception. Out of the dead embers of Zacharies aged loins, and Elizabeths double obstacle, age and barrenness, when it was almost as great a work as a creation, to produce a child out of the corners, and inwardest bowels of all possibility, and with so many degrees of improbability, as that Zachary, who is said to have been just before God, and to have walked in all his commandments without reproof, and had, without doubt, often considered the like promise of such a child, made and performed to Abraham, was yet incredulous of it, and asked, how he should know it. Out of this nothing, or nothing naturally disposed to be such a thing, a child, did God excite, and cite this Io. Baptist to bear witness of this light, and so made the son of him, who, for his incredulity, was stroke with dumbness, all voice. And, beloved, such a citation as this, when thou wast merely nothing, hast thou had too, to bear witness of this light, that is, to do something for the glory of God. When thy free will is as impotent and as dead as Zacharies loins, when thou art under Elizabeths double obstacle of age and barrenness,(barrenness in good works, age in ill) then when thou thinkest not of God, then when thou art walking for air, or sitting at a feast, or slumbering in a bed, God opens these doors, he rings a bell, he shows thee an example in the concourse of people hither, and here, he sets up a man, to present the prayer of the Congregation to him, and to deliver his messages to them; and whether curiosity, or custom, or company, or a loathness to incurre the penalties of Laws, or the censures and observations of neighbours, bring thee hither, though thou hadst nothing to do with God, in comming hither, God hath something to do with thee, now thou art here, even this is a citation, a calling, by being personally here at these exercises of Religion, thou art some kind of witness of this light. For, in how many places of the world hath Christ yet never opened such doors for his ordinary service, in all these 1600. years? And in how many places hath he shut up these doors, of his true worship, within these three or four years? Quod citaris huc, That thou art brought hither, within distance of his voice, within reach of his food, intra sphaeram Activitatis, within the sphere and latitude of his ordinary working, that is, into his house, into his Church, this is a citation, a calling, answerable to John Baptists first calling, from his fathers dead loins, and his mothers barren womb; and his second citation was before he was born, in his mothers womb.

When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, the child sprang in her belly, as soon as Maries voice sounded in her ears. And though naturally, upon excess of joy in the mother, the child may spring in her; yet the Evangelist means to tell an extraordinary and supernatural thing; and whether it were an anticipation of reason in the child, (some of the Fathers think so, though St. Augustine do not, that the child understood what he did) or that this were a fulfilling of that prophecy, That he should be filled with the holy Ghost from his mothers womb, all agree that this was an exciting of him to this attestation of his Saviours presence, whether he had any sense of it, or no. Exultatio significat, says St. Augustine, This springing declared, that his mother, whose forerunner that child should be, was come. And so both Origen, and St. Cyrill, refer that commendation, which our Savior gives him, Inter natos Mulierum, Among those that were born of women, there was not a greater Prophet; that is, none that prophesied before he was born, but he. And such a citation, beloved, thou mayest have, in this place, and at this time. A man may upon the hearing of something that strikes him, that affects him, feel this springing, this exultation, this melting, and colliquation of the inwardest bowels of his soul; a new affection, a new passion, beyond the joy ordinarily conceived upon earthly happinesses; which, though no natural Philosopher can call it by a name, no Anatomist assign the place where it lyes, yet I doubt not, through Christ jesus, but that many of you who are here now, feel it, and understand it this minute. Citaris huc, thou wast cited to come hither, whether by a collateral, and oblique, and occasional motion, or otherwise, hither God hath brought thee, and Citaris hîc, here thou art cited to come nearer to him. Now both these citations were before John Baptist was born; both these affections, to come to this place, and to be affected with a delight here, may be before thy regeneration, which is thy spiritual birth; a man is not born, not born again, because he is at Church, nor because he likes the Sermon, John Baptist had, and thou must have a third citation; which was in him, from the desert into the public, into the world, from contemplation to practice.

This was that mission, that citation, which most properly belongs to this Text, when the word came to the voice, (The word of God came to John in the wilderness, and he came into all the Country preaching the Baptism of repentance.) To that we must come, to practise. For, in this respect, an Vniversity is but a wilderness, though we gather our learning there, our private meditation is but a wilderness, though we contemplate God there, nay our being here, is but a wilderness, though we serve God here, if our service end so, if we do not proceed to action, and glorify God in the public. And therefore Citaris huc, thou art cited hither, here thou must be, and Citaris hîc, thou art cited here, to lay hold upon that grace which God offers in his Ordinance; and Citaris hinc, thou art cited from hence, to embrace a calling in the world. He that undertakes no course, no vocation, he is no part, no member, no limbe of the body of this world; no eye, to give light to others; no ear to receive profit by others. If he think it enough to be excremental nayles, to scratch and gripe others by his lazy usury, and extortion, or excremental hayre, made only for ornament, or delight of others, by his wit, or mirth, or delightful conversation, these men have not yet felt this third citation, by which they are called to glorify God, and so to witness for him, in such public actions, as Gods cause for the present requires, and comports with their calling.

And then John Baptist had a fourth citation to bear witness for Christ, by laying down his life for the Truth; and this was that that made him a witness, in the highest sense, a Martyr. God hath not served this citation upon us, nor doth he threaten us, with any approaches towards it, in the fear of persecution for religion. But remember that John Baptists Martyrdom, was not for the fundamental rock, the body of the Christian religion, but for a moral truth, for matter of manners. A man may be bound to suffer much, for a less matter then the utter overthrow, of the whole frame and body of religion. But leaving this consideration, for what causes a man is bound to lay down his life, consider we now, but this, that a man lays down his life for Christ, and bears witness of him, even in death, when he prefers Christ before this world, when he desires to be dissolved, and be with him, and obeys cheerfully that citation, by the hand of death, whensoever it comes; and that citation must certainly be served upon you all; whether this night in your beds, or this hour, at the door, no man knows. You who were cited hither, to hear, and cited here, to consider, and cited hence, to work in a calling in the world, must be cited from thence too, from the face to the bosom of the earth, from treading upon other mens, to a lying down in your own graves. And yet that is not your last citation, there is fifth.

In the grave, John Baptist does, and we must attend a fifth citation, from the grave to a Judgement. The first citation hither to Church, was served by Example of other men, you saw them come, and came. The second citation, here, in the Church, was served by the Preacher, you heard him and believed. The third, from hence, is served by the law, and by the Magistrate, they bind you to embrace a profession, and a calling, and you do so. The fourth, which is from thence, from this, to the next world, is served by nature in death, he touches you, and you sink. This fifth to Judgement shall be by an Angel, by an Archangel, by the Lord himself, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise. This citation is not served by a bell, that tolls to bring you hither; not by a man that speaks to instruct you here; not by a law, that compells you to live orderly in the world; not by a bell, that rings out to lay thee in thy grave; but by the great shout of the Lord descending from heaven, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God, to raise the dead in Christ. It is not the Apeperire fores, That the Levites have charge to open these doors every day to you, that you may come in, (that is your first citation, hither) it is not the Domine labia mea aperies, That God opens our mouth, the mouth of the Preacher, to work upon you, (that is your second citation, here,) it is not that aperuimus saccos, The opening of your sack of Corn, and finding that, and your money too, that is, your trading in this world, in a calling, (that is your third citation from hence) nor it is not the Aperuit terra os situm, That the earth opens her mouth, and swallows all in the grave, (that is your fourth citation from thence,) it is none of these Apertions, these openings; but it is the Aperta monumenta, The grave it self shall be open again; and Aperti coeli, The heavens shall be open, and I shall see the Son of man, the Son of God, and not see him at that distance, that Stephen saw him there, but see him, and sit down with him. I shall rise from the dead, from the dark station, from the prostration, from the prosternation of death, and never miss the sun, which shall then be put out, for I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of glory, and shine my self, as that sun shines. I shall rise from the grave, and never miss this City, which shall be no where, for I shall see the City of God, the new Jerusalem. I shall look up, and never wonder when it will be day, for, the Angel will tell me that time shall be no more, and I shall see, and see cheerfully that last day, the day of judgement, which shall have no night, never end, and be united to the Antient of days, to God himself, who had no morning, never began. There I shall bear witness for Christ, in ascribing the salvation of the whole world, to him that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, and Christ shall bear witness for me, in ascribing his righteousness unto me, and in delivering me into his Fathers hands, with the same tenderness, as he delivered up his own soul, and in making me, who am a greater sinner, then they who crucified him on earth for me, as innocent, and as righteous as his glorious self, in the Kingdom of heaven. And these occasions of advancing your devotion, and edification, from these two branches of this part, first, the fitness of John Baptist to be sent, and then his actual sending, by so divers callings, and citations in him, applicable, as you have seen, to us. More will be ministered, in due time, out of the last part, and the two branches of that; first, why this light required any witness, and then, what witness John Baptist gave to this light. But those, because they lead us not to the celebration of any particular Festival, (as these two former parts have done, to Christmas and Midsommer) I may have leave to present to you at any other time. At this time let us only beg of God a blessing upon this that hath been said &c.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXVIII.

JOHN 1. 8. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

Preached at Saint Pauls 13. Octob. 1622.

THis is the third time that I have entertained you (in a business of this nature, intended for Gods service, and your edification, I must not say, troubled you) with this Text. I begun it at Christmas, and in that dark time of the yer told you who, and what was this light which John Baptist is denied to be. I pursued it at Midsommer, and upon his own day, insisted upon the person of John Baptist, who, though he were not this light, was sent to bear witness of this light. And the third consideration, which (as I told you then) was not tied nor affected to any particular Festival, you shall (by Gods grace) have now, the office of John Baptist, his testimony; and in that, these two parts; first, a problematical part, why so evident a thing as light, and such a light, that light, required testimony of man: and then a dogmatical part, what testimony this man gives of this light. And in the first of these we shall make these two steps, first, why any testimony at all, then why, after so many others, this of John.

First then God made light first, ut innotescerent omnia, that man might glorify God in seeing the creature, and him in it; for, frustra fecisset, (says the same Father) it had been to no purpose to have a world, and no light. But though light discover and manifest every thing else to us, and it self too, if all be well disposed, yet, in the fifth verse of this chapter, there is reason enough given, why this light in our text, requires testimony; that is, the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not; and therefore, Propter non intelligentes, propter incredulos, propter infirmos, Sol lucernas quaerit; for their sakes that are weak in their understanding, and not enlightened in that faculty, the Gentiles; for their sakes who are weak in their faith, that come, and hear, and receive light, but believe not; for their sakes that are perverse in their manners, and course of life, that hear, and believe, but practise not, sol lucernas quaerit, this light requires testimony. There may be light then and we not know it, because we are asleep; and asleep so, as Iairus daughter was, of whom Christ says, the maid is not dead but asleep. The maid was absolutely dead; but because he meant forthwith to raise her, he calls it a sleep. The Gentiles, in their ignorance, are dead; we, in our corrupt nature, dead, as dead as they, we cannot hear the voice, we cannot see the light; without Gods subsequent grace, the Christian can no more proceed, then the Gentile can begin without his preventing grace. But, because, amongst us, he hath established the Gospel, and in the ministry and dispensation thereof, ordinary means for the conveyance of his farther grace, we noware but asleep and may wake. A sudden light brought into a room doth awaken some men; but yet a noise does it better, and a shaking, and a pinching. The exalting of natural faculties, and good moral life, inward inspirations, and private meditations, conferences, reading, and the life, do awaken some; but the testimony of the messenger of God, the preacher, crying according to Gods ordinance, shaking the soul, troubling the conscience, and pinching the bowels, by denouncing of Gods Judgements, these bear witness of the light, when otherwise men would sleep it out; and so propter non intelligentes, for those that lye in the suddes of nature, and cannot, or of negligence, and will not come to hear, sol lucernas, this light requires testimony.

These testimonies, Gods ordinances, may have wakened a man, yet he may wink, and covet darkness, and grow weary of instruction, and angry at increpation; And, as the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, so, the ear of this fastidious and impatient man, longeth for the end of the Sermon, or the end of that point in the Sermon, which is a thorn to his conscience; But as, if a man wink in a clear day, he shall for all that discern light thorough his eylids, but not light enough to keep him from stumbling: so the most perverse man that is, either in faith or manners, that winks against the light of nature, or light of the law, or light of grace exhibited in the Christian Church, the most determined Atheist that is, discernes through all his stubbornness, though not light enough to rectify him, to save him, yet enough to condemn him, though not enough to enable him, to read his own name in the book of life, yet so much, as makes him afraid to read his own story by, and to make up his own Audit and account with God. And doth not this light to this man need testimony, That as he does see, it is a light, so he might see, that there is warmth and nourishment in this light, and so, as well see the way to God by that light, as to see by it, that there is a God; and, this he may, if he do not sleep nor wink; that is, not forbear comming hither, nor resist the grace of God, always offered here, when he is here. Propter incredulos, for their sakes, who though they do hear, hear not to believe, sol lucernas, this light requires testimony; and it does so too, propter infirmos, for their sakes, who though they do hear, and beleeue, yet do not Practise.

If he neither sleep, nor wink, neither forbear, nor resist, yet how often may you surprise and deprehend a man, whom you think directly to look upon such an object, yet if you ask him the quality or color of it, he will tell you, he saw it not? That man sees as little with staring, as the other with winking. His eye hath seen, but it hath returned nothing to the common sense. We may pore upon books, stare upon preachers, yet if we reflect nothing, nothing upon our conversation, we shall still remain under the increpation and malediction of Saint Paul, out of Isaiah, Seeing yee shall see, and shall not perceive; seeing and hearing shall but aggravate our condemnation, and it shall be easier at the day of Judgement, for the deaf and the blind that never saw Sacrament, never heard Sermon, then for us, who have frequented both, propter infirmos, for their sakes, whose strength though it serve to bring them hither, and to believe here, doth not serve them to proceed to practise, sol lucernas, this light requires testimony.

Yet, if we be neither dead, nor asleep, nor wink, nor look negligently, but do come to some degrees of holiness in practise for a time, yet if at any time, we put our selves in such a position and distance from this light, as that we suffer dark thick bodies to interpose, and eclipse it, that is, sadness and dejection of spirit, for worldly losses; nay, if we admit inordinate sadness for sin it self, to eclipse this light of comfort from us, or if we suffer such other lights, as by the corrupt estimation of the world, have a greater splendor to come in; (As the light of Knowledge and Learning, the light of Honor and Glory, of popular Applause and Acclamation) so that this light which we speak of, (the light of former Grace) be darkened by the access of other lights, worldly lights, then also you shall find that you need more and more Testimony of this light. God is light in the Creature, in nature; yet the natural Man stumbles and falls, and lies in that ignorance, Christ bears witness of this light, in establishing a Chrishian Church; yet many Christians fall into Idolatry and Superstition, and lie and die in it. The Holy Ghost hath born further witness of this light, and, (if we may take so low a Metaphor in so high a Mystery) hath snuffed this candle, mended this light, in the Reformation of Religion; and yet there is a damp, or a cloud of uncharitableness, of neglecting, of defaming one another; we deprave even the fiery, the claven tongues of the Holy Ghost: Our tongues are fiery only to the consuming of another, and they are cloven, only in speaking things contrary to one another. So that still there need more witnesses, more testimonies of this light. God the Father is Pater Luminum the Father of all Lights; God the Son, is Lumen de lumine, Light of light, of the Father; God the Holy Ghost is Lumen de luminibus, Light of lights, proceeding both from the Father, and the Son; and this light the Holy Ghost kindles more lights in the Church, and drops a coal from the Altar upon every lamp, he lets fall beams of his Spirit upon every man, that comes in the name of God, into this place; and he sends you one man to day, which beareth witness of this light ad ignaros, that bends his preaching to the convincing of the natural man, the ignorant soul, and works upon him. And another another day, that bears witness ad incredulos, that fixeth the promises of the Gospel, and the merits of Christ Jesus, upon that startling and timorous soul, upon that jealous and suspicious soul, that cannot believe that those promises, or those merits appertain to him, and so bends all the power of his Sermon to the binding up of such broken hearts, and faint beleevers. He sendeth another to bear witness ad infirmos, to them who though they have shook off their sickness, yet are too weak, to walk, to them, who though they do believe, are intercepted by temptations from preaching, and his Sermon reduces them from their ill manners, who think it enough to come, to hear, to believe. And then he sendeth another ad Relapsos, to bear witness of this light to them who have relapsed into former sins, that the merits of Christ are inexhaustible, and the mercies of God in him indefatigable: As God cannot be deceived with a false repentance, so he cannot resist a true, nor be weary of multiplying his mercies in that case. And therefore think not that thou hast heard witnesses enow of this light, Sermons enow, if thou have heard all the points preached upon, which concern thy salvation. But because new Clouds of Ignorance, of Incredulity, of Infirmity, of Relapsing, rise every day and call this light in question, and may make thee doubt whether thou have it or no, every day, (that is, as often as thou canst) hear more and more witnesses of this light; and bless that God, who for thy sake, would submit himself to these Testimonia ab homine, these Testimonies from men, and being all light himself, and having so many other Testimonies, would yet require the Testimony of Man, of John; which is our other branch of this first part.

Christ, (who is still the light of our Text, That light, the essential light) had testimony enough without John. First, he bore witness of himself. And though he say of himself, (If I bear witness of my self, my witness is not true) yet that he might say either out of a legal and proverbial opinion of theirs, that ordinarily they thought, That a witness testifying for himself, was not to be believed, whatsoever he said; Or, as Man, (which they then took him to be) he might speak it of himself out of his own opinion, that, in Iudicature it is a good rule, that a man should not be believed in his own case. But, after this, and after he had done enough to make them see, that he was more then man, by multiplying of miracles, then he said, though I bear witness of my self, my witness is true. So the only infallibility and unreproachable evidence of our election, is in the inward word of God, when his Spirit bears witness with our Spirit, that we are the Sons of God; for, if the Spirit, (the Spirit of truth) say he is in us, he is in us. But yet the Spirit of God is content to submit himself to an ordinary trial, to be tried by God and the Country; he allows us to doubt, and to be afraid of our regeneration, except we have the testimony of sanctification. Christ bound them not to his own testimony, till it had the seal of works, of miracles; nor must we build upon any testimony in our selves, till other men, that see our life, testify for us to the world.

He had also the testimony of his Father, (the Father himself which hath sent me, beareth witness of me.) But where should they see the Father, or hear the Father speak? That was all which Philip asked at his hands, (Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.) He had the testimony of an Angel, who came to the shepherds so, as no where in all the Scriptures, there is such an Apparition expressed, (the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them) but where might a man talk with this Angel, and know more of him? As Saint Augustine says of Moses, Scripsit & abiit, he hath written a little of the Creation, and he is gone; Si hîc esset, tenerem & rogarem, if Moses were here, says he, I would hold him fast, till I had got him to give me an exposition of that which he writ. For, beloved, we must have such witnesses, as we may consult farther with. I can see no more by an Angel, then by lightning. A star testified of him, at his birth. But what was that star? was it any of those stars that remain yet? Gregory Nissen thinks it was, and that it only then changed the natural course, and motion for that service. But almost all the other Fathers think, that it was a light but then created, and that it had only the forme of a star, and no more; and some few, that it was the holy Ghost in that forme. And, if it were one of the fixed stars, and remain yet, yet it is not now in that office, it testifies nothing of Christ now. The wise men of the East testified of him, too; But what were they, or who, or how many, or from whence, were they; for, all these circumstances have put Antiquity it self into more distractions, and more earnest disputations, then circumstances should do. Simeon testified of him, who had a revelation from the holy Ghost, that he should not see death, till he had seen Christ. And so did the Prophetess Anna, who served God, with fasting and prayer, day and night. Omnis sexus & aetas, both sexes, and all ages testified of him; and he gives examples of all, as it was easy for him to do. Now after all these testimonies, from himself, from the Father, from the Angel, from the star, from the wise men, from Simeon, from Anna, from all, what needed the testimony of John? All those witnesses had been thirty years before John was cited for a witness, to come from the wilderness and preach. And in thirty years, by reason of his obscure and retired life, in his father Iosephs house, all those personal testimonies of Christ might be forgotten; and, for the most part, those witnesses only testified that he was born, that he was come into the world, but for all their testimony, he might have been gone out of the world long. Before this, he might have perished in the general flood, in that flood of innocent blood, in which Herod drowned all the young children of that Country. When therefore Christ came forth to preach, when he came to call Apostles, when he came to settle a Church, to establish means for our ordinary salvation, (by which he is the light of our text, the Essential light shining out in his Church, by the supernatural light of faith and grace) then he admitted, then he required Testimonium ab homine, testimony from man. And so, for our conformity to him, in using and applying those means, which convey this light to us, in the Church, we must do so too; we must have the seal of faith, and of the Spirit, but this must be in the testimony of men; still there must be that done by us, which must make men testify for us.

Every Christian is a state, a common-wealth to himself, and in him, the Scripture is his law, and the conscience is his Judge. And though the Scripture be inspired from God, and the conscience be illumined and rectified by the holy Ghost immediately, yet, both the Scriptures and the Conscience admit humane arguments. First, the Scriptures do, in all these three respects; first that there are certain Scriptures, that are the revealed will of God. Secondly, that these books which we call Canonical, are those Scriptures. And lastly, that this and this is the true sense and meaning of such and such a place of Scripture. First, that there is a manifestation of the will of God in certain Scriptures, if we who have not power to infuse Faith into men, (for that is the work of the Holy Ghost only) but must deal upon the reason of men, and satisfy that, if we might not proceed, per testimonia ab homine, by humane Arguments, and argue, and infer thus, That if God will save man for worshipping him, and damn him for not worshipping him, so as he will be worshipped, certainly God hath revealed to man, how he will be worshipped, and that in some visible, in some permanent manner in writing, and that that writing is Scripture, if we had not these testimonies, these necessary consequences derived even from the natural reason of man to convince men, how should we convince them, since our way is not to create Faith, but to satisfy reason? And therefore let us rest in this testimony of men, that all Christian men, nay Jews and Turks too, have ever believed, that there are certain Scriptures, which are the revealed will of God, and that God hath manifested to us, in those Scriptures, all that he requires at our hands for Faith or Manners. Now, which are those Scriptures?

As for the whole body entirely together, so for the particular limbs and members of this body, the several books of the Bible, we must accept testimonium ab homine, humane Arguments, and the testimony of men. At first, the Jews were the Depositaries of Gods Oracles; and therefore the first Christians were to ask the Jews, which books were those Scriptures. Since the Church of God is the Master of those Rolls, no doubt but the Church hath Testimonium à Deo, The Spirit of God to direct her, in declaring what Books make up the Scripture; but yet even the Church, which is to deal upon men, proceedeth also per testimonium ab homine, by humane Arguments, such as may work upon the reason of man, in declaring the Scriptures of God. For the New Testament, there is no question made of any Book, but in Conventicles of Anabaptists; and for the Old, it is testimony enough that we receive all that the Jews received. This is but the testimony of man, but such as prevails upon every man. It is somewhat boldly said, (not to permit to our selves any severer, or more bitter animadversion upon him) by a great man in the Romam Church, that perchance the book of Enoch, which S. Iud cites in his Epistle, was not an Apocryphal book, but Canonical Scripture in the time of the Jews. As though the holy Ghost were a time-server, and would sometimes issue some things, for present satisfaction, which he would not avow nor stand to after; as though the holy Ghost had but a Lease for certain years, a determinable estate in the Scriptures, which might expire, and he be put from his evidence; that that book might become none of his, which was his before. We therefore, in receiving these books for Canonical, which we do, and in post-posing the Apochryphal, into an inferior place, have testimonium ab homine, testimony from the People of God, who were, and are the most competent, and unreproachable witnesses herein: and we have Testimonium ab inimico, testimony from our adversary himself, Perniciosius est Ecclesiae librum recipere pro sacro, qui non est, quàm sacrum rejicere, It is a more pernicious danger to the Church, to admit a book for Canonical, which is not so, then to reject one that is so. And therefore, ne turberis novity, (saith another great Author of theirs) Let no young student in Divinity be troubled, si alicubi repererit, libros istos supputari inter Canonicos, if he find at any time, any of these books reckned amongst the Canonical, nam ad Hiero. limam, verba Doctorum & Concilio rum reducenda, for saith he, Hieroms file must pass over the Doctors, and over the Councils too, and they must be understood, and interpreted according to S. Hier. now this is but testimonium ab homine, S. Hier. testimony, that prevailed upon Cajetan, and it was but testimonium ab homine, the testimony of the Jews, that prevailed upon S. Jerome himself.

It is so for the whole body, The bible; it is so for all the limbs of this body, every particular book of the Bible; and it is so, for the soul of this body, the true sense of every place, of very book thereof; for, for that, (the sense of the place) we must have testimonium ab homine, the testimony, that is, the interpretation of other men. Thou must not rest upon thy self, nor upon any private man. John was a witness that had witnesses, the Prophets had prophesied of John Baptist. The men from whom we are to receive testimony of the sense of the Scriptures, must be men that have witnesses, that is, a visible and outward calling in the Church of God. That no sense be ever admitted, that derogateth from God, that makes him a false, or an impotent, or a cruel God, That every contradiction, and departing from the Analogy of Faith, doth derogate from God, and divers such grounds, and such inferences, as every man confesses, and acknowledges to be naturally and necessarily consequent, these are Testimonia ab homine, Testimonies that pass like currant money, from man to man, obvious to every man, suspicious to none. Thus it is in the general; but then, when it is deduced to a more particular trial, (what is the sense of such or such a place) when Christ saith, Scrutamini Scripturas, search the Scriptures, non mittit ad simplicem lectionem, sed ad scrutationem exquisitam, It is not a bare reading, but a diligent searching, that is enjoined us. Now they that will search, must have a warrant to search; they upon whom thou must rely for the sense of the Scriptures, must be sent of God by his Church. Thou art robbed of all, divested of all, if the Scriptures be taken from thee; Thou hast no where to search; bless God therefore, that hath kept thee in possession of that sacred Treasure, the Scriptures; and then, if any part of that treasure ly out of thy reach, or ly in the dark, so as that thou understandest not the place, search, that is, apply thy self to them that have warrant to search, and thou shalt lack no light necessary for thee. Either thou shalt understand that place, or the not understanding of it shall not be imputed to thee, nor thy salvation hindered by that Ignorance.

It is but to a woman that Saint Jerome saith, Ama Scripturas, & amabit te Sapientia, Love the Scriptures, and Wisdom will love thee: The weakness of her Sex must not avert her from reading the Scriptures. It is instruction for a Child, and for a Girl, that the same Father giveth, Septem annorum discat memoriter Psalterium, As soon as she is seven years old, let her learn all the Psalms without book; the tenderness of her age, must not avert her from the Scriptures. It is to the whole Congregation, consisting of all sorts and sexes, that Saint Chrysostom saith, Hortor, & hortari non desinam, I always do, and always will exhort you, ut cum domi fueritis, assiduae lectioni Scripturarum vacetis, that at home, in your own houses, you accustom your selves to a daily reading of the Scriptures. And after, to such men as found, or forced excuses for reading them, he saith with compassion, and indignation too, O homo, non est tuum Scripturas evolvere, quia innumeris curis distraheris? Busy man, belongeth it not to thee to study the Scriptures, because thou art oppressed with worldly business? Imòmagis tuum est, saith he, therefore thou hadst the more need to study the Scriptures; Illi non tam egent, &c. They that are not disquieted, nor disordered in their passions, with the cares of this world, do not so much need that supply from the Scriptures, as you that are, do. It is an Author that lived in the obedience of the Roman Church, that saith, the Council of Nice did decree, That every man should have the Bible in his house. But another Author in that Church saith now, Consilium Chrysostomi Ecclesiae nunc non arridet; The Church doth not now like Chrysostomes counsel, for this general reading of the Scriptures, Quia etsi ille locutus ad plebem, plebs tunc non erat haeretica; Though Saint Chrysostom spoke that to the people, the people in his time were not an Heretical people: And are the people in the Roman Church now an Heretical people? If not, why may not they pursue Saint Chrystomes counsel, and read the Scriptures? Because they are dark? It is true, in some places they are dark; purposely left so by the Holy Ghost, ne semel lectas fastidiremus, lest we should think we had done when we had read them once; so saith S. Gregory too, In plain places, fami occurrit, he presents meat for every stomach; In hard and dark places, fastidia detergit, he sharpens the appetite: Margarita est, & undique perforari potest; the Scripture is a Pearl, and might be bored through every where. Not every where by thy self; there may be many places, which thou of thy self canst not understand; not every where by any other man; no not by them, who have warrant to search, Commission from God, by their calling, to interpret the Scriptures, not every where by the whole Church, God hath reserved the understanding of some places of Scripture, till the time come for the fulfilling of those Prophecies; as many places of the Old Testament were not understood, till Christ came, in whom they were fulfilled. If therefore thou wilt needs know, whether, when Saint Paul took his information of the behavior of the Corinthians, from those of Chloe, whether this Chloe, were a woman, or a place, the Fathers cannot satisfy thee, the latter Writers cannot satisfy thee, there is not Testimonium ab homine, no such humane Arguments as can determine thee, or give thee an Acquittance; the greatest pillars whom God hath raised in his Church, cannot give a satisfaction to thy curiosity. But if the Doctrine of the place will satisfy thee, (which Doctrine is, that S. Paul did not give credit to light rumors against the Corinthians, nor to clandestine whisperers, but tells them who accused them, and yet, as well as he loved them, he did not stop his ears against competent witnesses, (for he tells them, they stood accused, and by whom) then thou mayst bore this pearl thorough, and make it fit for thy use, and wearing, in knowing so much of Saint Pauls purpose therein, as concerns thy edification, though thou never know, whether Chloe were a Woman, or a Place. Tantum veritati obstrepit adulter sensus; quam corruptor stylus; a false interpretation may do thee as much harm, as a false translation, a false Commentary, as a false copy; And therefore, forbearing to make any interpretation at all, upon dark places of Scripture, (especially those, whose understanding depends upon the future fulfilling of prophecies) in places that are clear, & evident thou mayst be thine own interpreter; In places that are more obscure, go to those men, whom God hath set over thee, and either they shall give thee that sense of the place, which shall satisfy thee, by having the sense thereof, or that must satisfy you, that there is enough for your salvation, though that remain uninterpreted. And let this Testimonium ab homine, this testimony of man establish thee for the Scripture, that there is a Scripture, a certain book, that is the word; and the revealed will of God; That these books which we receive for Canonical, make up that book; And then, that this and this is the true sense of every place, which the holy Ghost hath opened to the present understanding of his Church.

We said before, that a Christian being a Common-wealth to himself, the Scripture was his law, (and for that law, that Scripture, he was to have Testimonium ab homine, the testimony of man) And then, his Conscience is his Judge, and for that he is to have the same testimony too. Thou must not rest upon the testimony and suggestions of thine own conscience; Nec illud de trivio paratum habere, thou must not rest in that vulgar saying, sufficit mihi &c. As long as mine own Conscience stands right, I care not what all the world say. Thou must care what the world says, and study to have the approbation and testimony of good men. Every man is enough defamed in the general depravation of our whole naturē: Adam hath cast an infamy upon us all: And when a man is defamed, it is not enough that he purge himself by oath, but he must have compurgators too: other men must swear, that they believe he swears a truth. Thine own conscience is not enough, but thou must satisfy the world, and have Testimonium ab homine, good men must think thee good. A conscience that admits no search from others, is cauterizata, burnt with a hot Iron; not cured, but seared; not at peace, but stupefied. And when in the verse immediately before our text, it is said, That John came to bear witness of that light, it is added, that through him, (that is, through that man, through John, not through it, through that light) that through him all men believe. For though it be efficiently the operation of the light it self, (that is, Christ himself) that all men believe yet the holy Ghost directs us to that that is nearest us, to this testimony of man, that instrumentally, ministerially works this belief in men. If then for thy faith, thou must have testimonium ab homine, the testimony of men, and mayst not believe as no man but thy self believes, much more for thy manners, and conversation. Think it not enough to satisfy thy self, but satisfy good men; nay weak men; nay malicious men: till it come so far, as that for the desire of satisfying man, thou leave God unsatisfied, endeavor to satisfy all. God must weigh down all; thy self and others; but as long as thy self only art in one balance, and other men in the other, let this preponderate; let the opinion of other men, weigh down thine own opinion of thy self. 'Tis true, (but many men flatter themselves too far, with this truth) that it is a sin, to do any thing in Conscientiâ dubiâ, when a man doubts whether he may do it, or no, and in Conscientiâ scrupulosâ, when the conscience hath received any single scruple, or suspicion to the contrary, and so too in conscientiâ opinante, in a conscience that hath conceived, but an opinion, (which is far from a debated, and deliberate determination) yea in conscientiâ errante, though the conscience be in an error, yet it is sin to do aright against the conscience; but then, as it is a sin, to do against the conscience labouring under any of these infirmities, so is it a greater sin, not to labor to recover the conscience, and divest it of those scruples, by their advise, whom God hath indued with knowledge, and power, for that purpose. For, (as it is in civil Iudicature) God refers causes to them, and according to their reports, Gods ordinary way is to decree the cause, to loose where they loose, to bind where they bind. Their imperfections, or their corruptions God knows how to punish in them; but thou shalt have the recompense of thy humility and thy obedience to his ordinance, in hearkening to them, whom he hath set over thee, for the rectifying of thy conscience. Neither is this to erect a parochial popacy, to make every minister a Pope in his own parish, or to re-enthrall you to a necessity of communicating all your sins, or all your doubtful actions to him; God forbid. God of his goodness hath delivered us, from that bondage, and butchery of the conscience, which our Fathers suffered from Rome, and Anathema, and Anathema Maran-atha, cursed be he till the Lord comes, and cursed when the Lord comes, that should go about to bring us in a relapse, in an eddy, in a whirlepoole, into that disconsolate estate, or into any of the pestilent errors of that Church. But since you think it no diminution to you, to consult with a Physician for the state of your body, or with a Lawyer for your Lands, since you are not born, nor grown good Physicians, and good Lawyers, why should you think your selves born, or grown so good Divines, that you need no counsel, in doubtful cases, from other men? And therefore, as for the Law that governs us, that is, the Scripture, we go the way that Christ did, to receive the testimony of man, both for the body, that Scriptures there are, and for the limbs of that body, that these books make up those Scriptures, and for the soul of this body, that this is the sense of the holy Ghost in that place; so, for our Judge, which is the conscience, let that be directed before hand, by their advise whom God hath set over us, and settled, and quieted in us, by their testimony, who are the witnesses of our conversation. And so we have done with our Problematical part; we have asked and answered both these questions, Why this light requires any testimony, (and that is because exhalations, and damps, and vapours arise, first from our ignorance, then from our incredulity, after from our negligence in practising, and lastly, from our slipperiness in relapsing, and therefore we need more and more attestations, and remembrances of this light) and the other question, Why after so many other testimonies, (from himself, from his Father, from the Angel, from the Star, from the Magi, from Simeon, from Anna, from many, many, very many more) he required this testimony of John; and that is, because all those other witnesses had testified long before, and because God in all matters belonging to Religion here, or to salvation hereafter, refers us to man, but to man sent, and ordained by God, for our direction, that we may do well; and to the testimony of good men, that we have done well. And so we pass to our dogmatical part, what his testimony was; what John Baptist and his successors in preaching, and preparing the ways of Christ, are sent to do; he was sent to bear witness of that light.

Princes which send Ambassadors, use to give them a Commission, containing the general scope of the business committed to them, and then Instructions, for the fittest way to bring that business to effect. And upon due contemplation of both these, (his Commission, and his Instructions) arises the use of the Ambassadors judgement and discretion, in making his Commission, and his Instructions, (which do not always agree in all points, but are often various, and perplext) serve most advantagiously towards the ends of his negotiation. John Baptist had both; therefore they minister three considerations unto us; first, his Commission, what that was; and then his Instructions, what they were; and lastly, the execution, how he proceeded therein.

His Commission was drawn up, and written in Isaiah, and recorded and entered into Gods Rolls by the Evangelists. It was, To prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight his paths, that therefore every valley should be exalted, every mountain made law; and all this he was to cry out, to make them inexcusable, who contemne the outward Ministry, and rely upon private inspirations. This Commission lasts during Gods pleasure; and Gods pleasure is, that it should last to the end of the world; Therefore are we also joined in Commission with John, and we cry out still to you to all those purposes.

First, that you prepare the way of the Lord. But when we bid you do so, we do not mean, that this preparing or pre-disposing of your selves, is in your selves, that you can prevent Gods preventing grace, or mellow, or supple, or fit your selves for the entrance of that grace, by any natural faculty in your selves. When we speak of a co-operation, a joint working with the grace of God, or of a post-operation, an after working upon the virtue of a former grace, this co-operation, & this post-operation must be mollified with a good concurrent cause with that grace. So there is a good sense of co-operation, and post-operation, but praeoperation, that we should work, before God work upon us, can admit no good interpretation. I could as soon believe that I had a being before God was, as that I had a will to good, before God moved it. But then, God having made his way into you, by his preventing grace, prepare that way, not your way, but his way, (says our Commission) that is, that way that he hath made in you, prepare that by forbearing and avoiding to cast new hinderances in that way. In sadness and dejections of spirit, seek not your comfort in drink, in music, in comedies, in conversation; for, this is but a preparing a way of your own. To prepare the Lords way, is to look, and consider, what way the Lord hath taken, in the like cases, in the like distresses with other servants of his, and to prepare that way in thy self, and to assure thy self, that God hath but practised upon others, that he might be perfect when he comes to thee, and that he intends to thee, in these thy tribulations, all that he hath promised to all, all that he hath already performed to any one. Prepare his way; apply that way, in which he hath gone to others, to thy self.

And then, by our Commission we cry out to you, to make straight his paths. In which we do not require, that you should absolutely rectify all the deformities and crookedness, which that Tortuositas Serpentis, the winding of the old Serpent hath brought you to; for, now the stream of our corrupt nature, is accustomed to that crooked channel, and we cannot divert that, we cannot come to an absolute directness, and streightness, and profession in this life; and, in this place, the holy Ghost speaks but of a way, a path; not of our rest in the end, but of our labor in the way. Our Commission then is not to those sinlesse men, that think they have nothing for God to forgive; But, when we bid you make straight his paths, (as before we directed you, to take knowledge what his ways towards others had been) so here we intend, that you should observe, which is the Lords path into you, by what way he comes oftnest into you, who are his Temple, and do not lock that door, do not pervert, do not cross, do not deface that path. The ordinary way, even of the holy Ghost, for the conveying of faith, and supernatural graces, is (as the way of worldly knowledge is) by the senses: where his way is by the care, by hearing his word preached; do not thou cross that way of his, by an inordinate delight, in hearing the eloquence of the preacher; for, so thou hearest the man, and not God, and goest thy way, and not his. God hath divers ways into divers men; into some he comes at noon, in the sunshine of prosperity; to some in the dark and heavy clouds of adversity. Some he affects with the music of the Church, some with some particular Collect or Prayer; some with some passage in a Sermon, which takes no hold of him, that stands next him. Watch the way of the Spirit of God, into thee; that way which he makes his path, in which he comes oftnest to thee, and by which thou findest thy self most affected, and best disposed towards him, and pervert not that path, foul not that way. Make straight his paths, that is, keep them straight; and when thou observest, which is his path in thee, (by what means especially he works upon thee) meet him in that path, embrace him in those means, and always bring a facile, a fusil, a ductile, a tractable soul, to the offers of his grace, in his way.

Our Commission reaches to the exalting of your valleys, Let every valley be exalted; In which, we bid you not to raise your selves in this world, to such a spiritual height, as to have no regard to this world, to your bodies, to your fortunes, to your families. Man is not all soul, but a body too; and, as God hath married them together in thee, so hath he commanded them mutual duties towards one another; and God allows us large uses of temporal blessings, and of recreations too. To exalt valleys, is not to draw up flesh, to the height of spirit; that cannot be, that should not be done. But it is to draw you so much towards it, as to consider (and consider with an application) that the very Law, which was but the schoolmaster to the Gospel, was given upon a mountain; That Moses could not so much as see the Land of promise, till he was brought up into a mountain; That the inchoation of Christ glory, which was his transfiguration, was upon a mountain; That his conversation with God in prayer; That his return to his eternal Kingdom by his ascension, was so too, from a mountain; even his exinanition, his evacuation, his lowest humiliation, his crucifying was upon a mountain; and he calls, even that humiliation, an exaltation, Si exaltatus, If I be exalted, lifted up, says Christ signifying what death he should die. Now, if our depressions, our afflictions be exaltations, (so they were to Christ, so they are to every good Christian) how far doth God allow us, an exalting of our vallies, in a considering with a spiritual boldness, the height and dignity of mankind, and to what glory God hath created us. Certainly man may avoid as many sins, by this exalting his vallies, this considering the height and dignity of his nature, as by the humblest meditations in the world. For, upon those words of Job, Manus tua fecerunt me, Saint Gregory says, Misericordiae judicis, dignitatem suae conditionis opponit; Job presents the dignity of his creation, by the hand of God, as an inducement why God should regard him; It is not his valley, but his mountains, that he brings into Gods sight; not that dust which God took into his hands, when he made him, but that person which the hands of God had made of that dust. Man is an abridgement of all the world; and as some Abridgements are greater, then some other authors, so is one man of more dignity, then all the earth. And therefore exalt thy vallies, raise thy self above the pleasures that this earth can promise. And above the sorrows, it can threaten too. A painter can hardly diminish or contract an Elephant into so little a forme, but that that Elephant, when it is at the least, will still be greater then an Ant at the life, and the greatest. Sin hath diminished man shrowdly, and brought him into a narrower compass; but yet, his natural immortality, (his soul cannot dye) and his spiritual possibility, even to the last gasp, of spending that immortality in the kingdom of glory, and living for ever with God, (for otherwise, our immortality were the heaviest part of our curse) exalt this valley, this cold of earth, to a noble height. How ill husbands then of this dignity are we by sin, to forfeit it by submitting our selves to inferior things? either to gold, then which every worm, (because a worm hath life, and gold hath none) is in nature, more estimable, and more precious; Or, to that which is less then gold, to Beauty; for there went neither labor, nor study, nor cost to the making of that; (the Father cannot diet himself so, nor the mother so, as to be sure of a faire child) but it is a thing that happened by chance, wheresoever it is; and, as there are Diamonds of divers waters, so men enthrall themselves in one clime to a black, in another to a white beauty. To that which is less then gold or Beauty, voice, opinion, fame, honor, we sell our selves. And though the good opinion of good men, by good ways, be worth our study, yet popular applause, and the voice of inconsiderate men, is too cheap a price to set our selves at. And yet, it is hardly got too; for as a ship that lies in harbor within land, sometimes needs most of the points of the Compass, to bring her forth: so if a man surrender himself wholly to the opinion of other men, and have not his Criterium, his touchstone within him, he will need both North and South, all the points of the Compass, the breath of all men; because, as there are contrary Elements in every body, so there are contrary factions in every place, and when one side cries him up, the other will depresse him, and he shall, (if not shipwreck) lie still. But yet we do forfeit our dignity, for that which is less then all, then Gold, then Beauty, then Honor; for sin; sin which is but a privation, (as darkness is but a privation) and privations are nothing. And therefore exalt every valley, consider the dignity of man in his nature, and then, in the Son of God his assuming that nature, which gave it a new dignity, and this will beget in thee a Pride that God loves, a valuing of thy self above all the temptations of this world.

But yet exalt this valley temperately, consider and esteem this dignity modestly, for our Commission goes farther, not only to the exalting of every valley, but, Omnis mons humiliabitur, every mountain must be made low: which is not to bring our mountainous, and swelling affections, and passions, to that flatness, as that we become stupid, and insensible. Mortification is not to kill nature, but to kill sin. Bring therefore your Ambition to that bent, to covet a place in the kingdom of heaven, bring your anger, to flow into zeal, bring your love to enamor you of that face, which is fairer then the children of men, that face, on which the Angels desire to look, Christ Jesus, and you have brought your mountains to that lowness, which is intended, and required here.

Now, this Commission, John Baptist was, and we are, to publish in deserto, in the Desert, in the wilderness; that is, as Saint Jerome notes, not in Jerusalem, in a tumultuary place, a place of distraction, but in the Desert, a place of solitude, and retiredness. And yet this does not imply an abandoning of society, and mutual offices, and callings in the world, but only informs us, that every man is to have a Desert in himself, a retiring into himself, sometimes of emptying himself of worldly businesses, and that he spend some hours in such solitudes, and lay aside, (as one would lay aside a garment) the Lawyer, the Physician, the Merchant, or whatsoever his profession be, and say, Domine hîe sum, Lord, I am here, I, he whom thou madest, and such as thou madest him, not such as the world hath made me, Hî sum, I am here, not where the affairs of the world scatter me, but here, in this retiredness, Lord, I am here, command what thou wilt; in this retiredness, in this solitude, (but is not a Court, is not an Army, is not a Fair a solitude, in respect of this association, when God and a good soul are met?) but in this home solitude, in this home Desert, are we commanded to publish this Commission, as the fittest time to make impressions of all the parts thereof, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path, exalt your vallies, and bring down your mountains. And this was John Baptists Commission, What to do, And then he had Instructions with his Commission, how to do it; which is another consideration.

His Commission was long before in Isaiah, so he was Legatus natus, born an Ambassador; his Instructions were delivered to him by God immediately, when The Word of God came unto John, in the wilderness. Princes oftentimes vary their Instructions from their Commissions, and to perplex their Ambassadors, God proceeded with John Baptist, and doth with us directly. Our Commission is to conform you to him, our Instructions are to do that, that way, By preaching the Baptism of Repentance, for the remission of sins. It is, in a word, by the Word and Sacraments. First, he sends us not as Spies, to lie, and learn, nor to learn and lie; but to deal apertly, manifestly, to publish, to preach; which as it forbids forcible and violent pressing the Conscience by secular or Ecclesiastical authority, so it forbids clandestin and whispering Conventicles; It is a Preaching, a working by instructing and informing the understanding; it is a Preaching a public avowing of Gods Ordinance, in a right Calling. He gives us not our Instructions to offer Peace and reconciliation to all, and yet he not mean it to all; He bids us preach unto all; he bids all hearers repent, and he allows us to set to his seals of reconciliation, to all that come as penitents. He knows who will, and who will not repent, we do not; but both he knows, and so do we, that all may, so far as that, if they do not, they find enough in themselves to condemn themselves, and to discharge God and us. Our Instructions are to preach, that is our way, and to preach Repentance; there begin you in your own bosoms: He that seeks upwards to a River, is sure to find that head; but he that upon every bubling spring, will think to find a River, by that may err many ways. If thou repent truly, thou art sure to come up to Gods Decree for thy salvation; but if thou begin above at the Decree, and say, I am saved, therefore I shall repent, thou mayest miss both. Repent, and you shall have the Seals; the Seals are the Sacraments; John's was Baptism; but to what? He baptized to the amendment of life. This then is the chain; we preach, you repent; then we give you the Seals, the Sacraments, and you plead them, that is, declare them in a holy life; for, till that (Sanctification) come, Preaching, and Repentance, atd Seals, are ineffectual. A good life inanimates all. And so, having done with his Commission, what he was to do, and his Instructions, how he was to do it, we pass to our last branch, in this last part, The execution of his Commission, and Instructions, what, and how he did it, what Testimony he gave of this light.

First, he testified, se non esse, that he was not this light, this Christ, this Messiah. And secondly, Christum esse, that this light, this Christ, this Messiah was come into the world, there was no longer expectation: And lastly, hunc esse, that this particular person whom he designed and specified in the Ecce Agnus, behold the Lambe of God, was this Light, this Christ, this Messiah. He was not, One was, Christ was; In these three consists his Testimony. First, he testified that himself was not the Messiah, he confessed and denied not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ. Therefore, lest I. Baptist might be overvalued, and their devotions fixed and determined in him, S. Augstine enlarges this consideration, Erat Mons illustratus, non ipse Sol; John Baptist was a hill, and a hill gloriously illustrated by the Sun, but he was not that Sun; Mirare, mirare, sed tanquam montem; John Baptist deserves a respect, and a regard; but regard him, and respect him but as an hill, which though high, lis but the same earth; and mons non est, nisi luce vestiatur, A hill hath no more light in it self, then the valley, till the light invest it; Si montem esse lucem putas, in monte naufragium facies; If you take the hill, because it shines, to be the light it self, you shipwreck upon the top of a hill. If we rest in the person, or in the gifts of any man, to what height soever this hill be raised in opinion, or in the Church, still we mistake; John Baptist, men of the greatest endowments, and goodness too, are but instruments, they are not the workman himself. And therefore as they are most inexcusable, that put an infallibility in the breast of one man, (our adversaries of Rome) so do they transgress too far that way, that run, and pant, and thrust after strange preachers, and leave their own Church deserted, and their own Pastor discouraged; for some one family, by the greatness thereof, or by the estimation thereof, may induce both those inconveniences. Truly, though it may seem boldly said, it may be said safely, that we were better hear some weaknesses from our own Pastor, then some excellencies from another; go farther, some mistakings from our own, then some truths from another; for, all truths are not necessary; nor all mistakings pernicious; but obedience to order is necessary, and all disorder pernicious. Now what a way had John Baptist open to him, if he had been popularly disposed. Amongst a people, that at that time expected their Messiah, (for, all the Prophecies preceding his comming were then fulfilled) and such a Messiah as should be a Temporal King, and had invested an opinion, that he, John Baptist, was that Christ, what rebellions, what earth-quakes, what inundations of people might he have drawn after him, if he would have countenanced and cherished their error to his advantage? They would have lacked no Scriptures, to authorize their actions. They would have found particular places of the Prophets, to have justified any act of theirs, in advancing their Messiah, then expected. Therein he is our pattern; not to preach our selves, but Christ Jesus; not to preach for admiration, but for edification; not to preach to advance civil ends, without spiritual ends; to promote all the way the peace of all Christian Kingdoms, but to refer all principally to the Kingdom of peace, and the King of peace, the God of heaven. He confessed, and denied not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ; That was his Testimony; we confess, and deny not, and say plainly, That our own parts, our own passions, the purpose of great persons, the purpose of any State, is not Christ; we preach Christ Jesus, and him crucified; and whosoever preaches any other Gospel, or any other thing for Gospel, let him be accursed.

I am not the man, says John Baptist, for, that man is God too; but yet that man, that God, that Messiah consisting of both, is come, though I be not he. There is one amongst you, whom you know not, whose shoo-latchet I am not worthy to loose. In which, he says all this; There is one among you; you need seek no farther; all the promises, and Prophecies, (the Semen mulieris, That the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head; the appropriation to Abraham, In semine tuo, In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed: the fixation upon David, Donec Shiloh, till Shiloh come; Isaiah's Virgo concipiet, Behold a Virgin shall conceive; Micah's & tu Bethlem, that Bethlem should be the place, Daniels seventy Hebdomades, that that should be the time,) all promises, all prophecies, all computations are at an end, the Messiah is come.

Is he come, and amongst you, and do you not know him? what will make you know him? You believe you need a Messiah; you cannot restore your self. You believe this Messiah must come at a certain time, specified by certain marks; were all these marks upon any other? or lacks there any of these in him? Do you thus magnify me, and neglect a person, whose shoo-latchet I am not worthy to loose. John Baptist was a Prophet, more then a Prophet, The greatest of the sons of women: Who could be so much greater then he, and not the Messiah? we must necessarily enwrap all these three in one another, and into one another they do easily and naturally fall: He testifies that he was not the man, (he preaches not himself) he testifies that that man is come; (future expectations are frivolous) and he testifies, that the characters and marks of the expected Messiah, can fall upon none but this man, and therefore he delivers him over to them with that confidence, Ecce Agnus Dei, Behold the Lambe of God, there you may see him; and this is his Testimony.

These three, we, we to whom John Baptists Commission is continued, testify too. First, we tell you, what is not Christ; austerity of life, and outward sanctity is not he; John Baptist had them abundantly, but yet permitted not, that they should have that opinion of him. But yet, much less is chambring and wantonness, and persevering in sin, that Christ, or the way to him. We tell you, stetit in medio, he hath been amongst you, you have heard him preached in your ears; yea yee have heard him knock at your hearts, and for all that, we tell you that you have not known him. Which, though it be the discomfortablest thing in the world, (not to have known Christ in those approaches) yet we tell it you somewhat to your comfort; and to your excuse, for, had you known it, you would not have crucified the Lord of glory, as we do all, by our daily sins. And though God have winked at these times of ignorance, (pretermitted your former inconsiderations) now, he commandeth all men every where to repent. And therefore, that thou mayst know, even thou, (as Christ iterates it) at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy Peace, we tell you who he is, and where he is; Ecce agnus Dei, Behold the lambe of God, Here, here in this his ordinance he supplicates you, when the Minister, how mean soever, prays you, in his stead, be yee reconciled to God. Here he proclaims, and cries to you, Venite omnes, come all that are weary and heavy laden. Here he bleeds in the Sacrament, here he takes away the sins of the world, in deriving a jurisdiction upon us, to bind and loose upon earth, that which he will bind and loose in heaven. This we testify to you; Do you but receive this testimony. Till you hear that voice of consummation in heaven, Venite benedicti, come yee blessed, you shall never hear a more comfortable Gospel then this, which was preached by Christ himself, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the acceptable year of the Lord: for, this was not a deliverance from their brick-making in Egypt, nor from their scorns and contempts in Babylon, but a deliverance from that unexpressible, that unconceivable bondage of sin, and death, not by the hand of a Moses, but a Messiah, Opt as dare qui praecipit peter, he that commands us to ask, would fain give: Cupit largiri, qui desider at postulari, he that desires us to pray to him, hath that ready, and a readiness to give that, that he bids us pray for. If the King give a general pardon, will any man be so suspiciously trecherous in his own behalf, as to say, for all this large extent of his mercy, he meant not me, and therefore I will sue out no pardon? If the King cast a donative, at his Coronation, will any man lie still and say, he meant none of that money to me? When the master of the feast sent his servants for guests, had it become those poor, and maimed, and halt, and blind, to have stood and disputed with the steward, and said, Surely sir, you mistook your Master, your Master did not mean us? Why should any man think that God means not him? When he offers grace, and salvation to all, why not to him? Should God exclude him as a man? Why, God made him good, and, as a man and his creature, he is good still. But, non Deus Esan hominem odit, fed odit Esau peccatorem? God did not hate Esau, as he was a man, but as he was a sinner. Should he exclude him as a sinner? Why then he should receive none, for we are all so; and he came for none but such, but sinners. Perfectiorum est nihil in peccatore odiisse praeter peccata, To hate nothing in a sinner, but his sin, is a great degree of perfection; God is that perfection; he hates nothing in thee but thy sin; and that sin he hath taken upon himself, and sees it not in thee. Should he exclude thee because thou art impenitent, because thou hast not repented? Do it now. Peccasti, paenitere, Hast thou sinned? repent. Millies peccasti? millies poenitere? Hast thou multiplied thy sins by thousands? multiply thy penitent tears so too. Should he exclude thee, because thou art impenitible, thou canst not repent; how knowest thou thou canst not repent? Doest thou try, doest thon endeavor, doest thou strive? why, this, this holy contention of thine is repentance. Discredit not Gods evidence; he offers thee Testimonium ab homine, the testimony of man, of the man of God, the Minister, that the promises of the Gospel belong to thee. Judge not against that evidence; confess that there is no other name given under heaven, to be saved, but the name of Jesus, and that that is. And then, when thou hast thus admitted his witnesses to thee, that his preaching hath wrought upon thee, be thou his witness to others, by thy exemplar life, and holy conversation. In this chapter, in the calling of the Apostles some such thing is intimated, when of those two Disciples, which, upon John's testimony, followed Christ, one is named, (Andrew) and the other is not named. No doubt, but the other is also written in the book of life, and long since enjoys the blessed fruit of that his forwardness. But in the testimony of the Gospel, written for posterity, only Andrew is named, who sought out his brother Simon, and drew him in, and so propagated the Church, and spread the Glory of God. They who testify their faith by works, give us the better comfort, and posterity the better example. It will be but Christs first question at the last day, What hast thou done for me? If we can answer that, he will ask, What hast thou suffered for me? and if we can answer that, he will ask, at last, Whom hast thou won to me, what soul hast thou added to my Kingdom? Our thoughts, our words, our doings, our sufferings, if they bring but our selves to Heaven, they are not Witnesses; our example brings others; and that is the purpose, and the end of all we have said, John Baptist was a witness to us, we are so to you, be you so to one another.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XXXIX.

PHILIP. 3. 2. Beware of the Concision.

Preached at Saint Pauls.

THis is one of those places of Scripture, which afford an argument for that, which I find often occasion to say, That there are not so eloquent books in the world, as the Scriptures. For there is not only that non refugit, which Calvin speaketh of in this place, (Non refugit in Organis suis Spiritus Sanctus leporem & facetias, The Holy Ghost in his Instruments, (in those whose tongues or pens he makes use of) doth not forbid, nor decline elegant and cheerful, and delightful expression; but as God gave his Children a bread of Manna, that tasted to every man like that that he liked best, so hath God given us Scriptures, in which the plain and simple man may hear God speaking to him in his own plain and familiar language, and men of larger capacity, and more curiosity, may hear God in that Music that they love best, in a curious, in an harmonious style, unparalleled by any. For, that also Calvin adds in that place, that there is no secular Author, Qui jucundis vocum allusionibus, & figuris magis abundat, which doth more abound with persuasive figures of Rhetorique, nor with musical cadences and allusions, and assimilations, and conformity, and correspondency of words to one another, then some of the Secretaries of the Holy Ghost, some of the authours of some books of the Bible do. Of this Rule, this Text is an example. These Philippians, amongst whom Saint Paul had planted the Gospel in all sincerity, and impermixt, had admitted certain new men, that preached Traditional, and Additional Doctrines, the Law with the Gospel, Moses with Christ, Circumcision with Baptism. To these new Convertites, these new Doctors inculcated often that charm, You are the Circumcision, you are they whom God hath sealed to himself by the Seal of Circumcision; They whom God hath distinguished from all Nations, by the mark of Circumcision; They in whom God hath imprinted, (and that in so high a way, as by a Sacrament) an internal Circumcision, in an external; and will you break this Seal of Circumcision? will you deface this mark of Circumcision? will you depart from this Sacrament of Circumcision? You are the Circumcision. Now Saint Paul meets with these men upon their haunt; and even in the sound of that word which they so often pressed; he says they press upon you Circumcision, but beware of Concision, of tearing the Church of God, of Schisms, and separations from the Church of God, of aspersions and imputations upon the Church of God, either by imaginary superfluities, or imaginary defectiveness, in that Church: for, saith the Apostle, We are the Circumcision, we who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. If therefore they will set up another Circumcision beyond this Circumcision, if they will continue a significative, a relative, a preparative figure, after the substance, the body, Christ Jesus is manifested to us, a legal Circumcision in the flesh, after the spiritual Circumcision in the heart is established by the Gospel, their end is not Circumcision, but Concision: they pretend Reformation, but they intend Destruction, a tearing, a renting, a wounding the body, and frame, and peace of the Church, and by all means, and in all cases Videte Concisionem, Beware of Concision.

First then, we shall from these words consider, the loathness of God to lose us. For, first, he leaves us not without a Law, he bids and he forbids, and then he does not surprise us with obsolete laws, he leaves not his laws without proclamations, he refreshes to our memories, and represents to us our duties, with such commonefactions as these in our Text, Videte, Cavete, this and this I have commanded you, Videte, see that ye do it, this and this will hinder you, Cavete, beware ye do it not, Beware of Concision.

And this, thus derived, and digested into these three branches: first, Gods loathness to lose us; and then his way of drawing us to him, by manifestation of his will in a law; and lastly his way of holding us with him, by making that law effectual upon us, by these his frequent commonefactions, Videte, Cavete, look to it, beware of it, this will be our first part. And then our second will be the thing it self that falls under this inhibition, and caution, which is Concision, that is, a tearing, a renting, a shredding in pieces that which should be entire. In which second part, we shall also have, (as we had in the former) three branches; for, we shall consider, first, Concisionem corporis, the shredding of the body of Christ into fragments, by unnecessary wrangling in Doctrinal points; and then, Concisionem vestis, the shredding of the garment of Christ into rags, by unnecessary wrangling in matter of Discipline, and ceremonial points; and lastly, Concisionem spiritus, (which will follow upon the former two) the concision of thine own spirit, and heart, and mind, and soul, and conscience, into perplexities, and into sandy, and incoherent doubts, and scruples, and jealousies, and suspicions of Gods purpose upon thee, so as that thou shalt not be able to recollect thy self, nor reconsolidate thy self, upon any assurance, and peace with God, which is only to be had in Christ, and by his Church. Videte Concisionem, beware of tearing the body, the Doctrine; beware of tearing the Garment, the Discipline; beware of tearing thine own spirit, and conscience, from her adhaesion, her agglutination, her cleaving to God, in a holy tranquillity, and acquiescence in his promise, and mercy, in the merits of his Son, applied by the holy Ghost, in the Ministry of the Church.

For our first consideration, of Gods loathness to lose us, this is argument enough. That we are here now, now at the participation of that grace, which God always offers to al such Congregations as these, gathered in his name. For, I pray God there stand any one amongst us here now, that hath not done something since yesterday, that made him unworthy of being here to day; and who, if he had been left under the damp, and mist of yesterdays sin, without the light of new grace, would never have found way hither of himself. If God be weary of me, and would fain be rid of me, he needs not repent that he wrapped me up in the Covenant, and derived me of Christian parents, (though he gave me a great help in that) nor repent that he bred me in a true Church, (though he afforded me a great assistance in that) nor repent that he hath brought me hither now, to the participation of his Ordinances, (though thereby also I have a great advantage) for, if God be weary of me, and would be rid of me, he may find enough in me now, and here, to let me perish. A present levity in me that speak, a present formality in you that hear, a present Hypocrisy spread over us all, would justify God; if now, and here, he should forsake us. When our blessed Savior says, When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith upon earth? we need not limit that question so, if he come to a Westminster, to an Exchange, to an Army, to a Court, shall he find faith there? but if he come to a Church, if he come hither, shall he find faith here? If (as Christ speaks in another sense, That Judgement should begin at his own house,) the great and general judgement should begin now at this his house, and that the first that should be taken up in the clouds, to meet the Lord Jesus, should be we, that are met now in this his house, would we be glad of that acceleration, or would we thank him for that haste? Men of little faith, I fear we would not. There was a day, when the Sons of God presented themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also amongst them; one Satan amongst many Sons of God. Blessed Lord, is not our case far otherwise? do not we, (we, who, as we are but we, are all the Sons of Satan) present our selves before thee, and yet, thou Lord art amongst us? Is not the spirit of slumber and weariness upon one, and the spirit of detraction, and mis-interpretation upon another; upon one the spirit of impenitence for former sins, and the spirit of recidivation into old, or of facility and openness to admit temptations into new upon another? We, as we are but we, are all the Sons of Satan, and thou Lord, the only Son of God, only amongst us. If thou Lord wert weary of me, and wouldst be rid of me, (may many a soul here say) Lord thou knowest, and I know many a midnight, when thou mightest have been rid of me, if thou hadst left me to my self then. But vigilavit Doninus, the Lord vouchsafed to watch over me, and deliciae ejus, the delight of the Lord was to be with me; And what is there in me, but his mercy? but then, what is there in his mercy, that that may not reach to all, as well as to me? The Lord is loth to lose any, the Lord would not the death of any; not of any sinner; much less if he do not see him, nor consider him so; the Lord would not lose him, though a sinner, much less make him a sinner, that he might be lost: Vult omnes, the Lord would have all men come unto him, and be saved, which was our first consideration, and we have done with that, and our second is, The way by which he leads us to him, that he declares and manifests his will unto us, in a Law, he bids, and he forbids.

The laborers in the Vine-yard took it ill at the Stewards hand, and at his Masters too, that those which came late to the labor, were made equal with them, who had born the heat, and the burden of the day. But if the Steward, or the Master had never meant, or actually never had given any thing at all, to them that had born the heat and the burden of the day, there had been much more cause of complaint, because there had passed a contract between them. So hath there passed a contract between God, and us, Believe, and thou shalt live, Do this and thou shalt live. And in this especially hath God expressed his love to us, and his lotheness to lose us, that he hath passed such a contract with us, and manifested to us a way, to come to him. We say, every day, in his own prayer, Fiat voluntas tua, thy will be done; that is, done by us, as well as done upon us. But this petition presumes another; the Fiat suposes a Patefiat voluntas, if it must be done, it must be known. If man were put into this world, & under an obligation of doing the will of God, upon damnation, and had no means to know that will which he was bound to do, of all creatures he were the most miserable. That which we read, Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him? the Vulgate edition; and the Fathers following the Septuagint, read thus, Quia innotuisti ei, Lord what is man that he should have any knowledge of thee, that thou shouldest make thy self known to him? This is the height of the mercy of God, this innotescence, this manifestation of himself to us. Now what is this innotescence, this manifestation of God to us? It is, say our old Expositors, the law. That's that, which is so often called the face of God, and the light of his Countenance; for, facies Dei est, qua nobis innotescit, that's Gods face, by which God is known to us, and that's his law, the declaration of his will to me, and my way to him. When Christ reproaches those hard-hearted men, that had not fed him, when he was hungry, nor clothed him, when he was naked, and that they say, Lord when did we see thee naked, or see thee hungry? (inconsiderate men, or men loth to give, the penurious and narrow soul, shall not see an occasion of charity, when it is presented, which is a heavy blindness, and obcaecation, not to see occasions of doing good) yet those men do not say, when did we see thee at all, as though they had never seen him? The blindest man that is, hath the face of God so turned towards him, as that he may be seen by him; even the natural man hath so; for, therefore does the Apostle make him inexcusable, if in the visible work, he do not see the invisible God. But all sight of God, is by the benefit of a law; the natural man sees him by a law written in his heart, the Jew, by a law given by Moses, the Christian, in a clearer glass, for, his law is the Gospel. But there is more mercy, that is, more manifestation in this text, then all this. For, besides the natural mans seeing God, in a law, in the faculties of his own nature, (which we consider to be the work of the whole Trinity, in that Faciamus hominē, Let us make man in our own Image, let us shine out in him, so as that he may be a glass, in which he may see us, in himself) and besides the Jews seeing of God in the law written in the stone tables, (which we consider to be the work of the Father) And besides the Christians seeing of God, in the law written in blood, (in which we consider especially the Son) there is in this text an operation, a manifestation of God, proper to the holy Ghost, and wrought by his holy suggestions and inspirations, That God does not only speak to us, but call upon us; not only give us a Law, but Proclamations upon that law, that he refreshes to our memories, general duties, by such particular warnings, and excitations, and commonefactions, as in this text, Videte, Beware, which is the last branch of this part, though it be the first word of our text, Videte, Beware.

Nothing exalts Gods goodness towards us, more then this, that he multiplies the means of his mercy to us, so, as that no man can say, once I remember I might have been saved, once God called unto me, once he opened me a door, a passage into heaven, but I neglected that, went not in then, and God never came more. No doubt, God hath come often to that door since, and knocked, and staid at that door; And if I knew who it were that said this, I should not doubt to make that suspicious soul see, that God is at that door now. God hath spoken once, and twice have I heard him; for the foundation of all. God hath spoken but once, in his Scriptures. Therefore doth Saint Iud call that fidem semel traditam, the faith once delivered to the Saints; once, that is, at once; not at once so, all at one time, or in one mans age; the Scriptures were not delivered so; for, God spoke by the mouth of the Prophets, that have been, since the world began; But, at once, that is, by one way, by writing, by Scriptures; so, as that after that was done, after God had declared his whole will, in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Gospel, there was no more to be added. God hath spoken once, in his Scriptures, and we have heard him twice, at home, in our own readings, and again and again here, in his Ordinances. This is the height of Gods goodness, that he gives us his Law, and a Comment upon that Law, Proclamations, declarations upon that Law. For, without these subsequent helps, even the law it self might be mistaken; as you see it was, when Christ was put to rectify them, with his Audiistis, and Audiistis, this you have heard, and this hath been told you, Ego autem dico, but this I say, ab initio, from the beginning it was not so, the foundations were not thus laid, and upon the foundations laid by God in the Scriptures, and not upon the superedifications of men, in traditional additions, must we build. In storms and tempests at sea men come sometimes to cut down Galleries, and tear up Cabins, and cast them overboard to ease the ship, and sometimes to hew down the Mast it self, though without that Mast the ship can make no way; but no soul weather can make them tear out the keel of the ship, upon which the ship is built. In cases of necessity, the Church may forbear her Galleries, and Cabinets, means of ease and conveniency; yea, and her Mast too, means of her growth, and propagation, and enlarging of her self, and be content to hull it out, and consist in her present, or a worse state, during the storm. But to the keel of the ship, to the fundamental articles of Religion, may no violence, in any case, be offered.

God multiplies his mercies to us, in his divers ways of speaking to us. Caeli enarrant, says David, The heavens declare the glory of God; and not only by showing, but by saying; there is a language in the heavens; for it is enarrant, a verbal declaration; and, as it follows literally, Day unto day uttereth speech. This is the true harmony of the Spheres, which every man may hear. Though he understand no tongue but his own, he may hear God in the motions of the same, in the seasons of the year, in the vicissitudes and revolutions of Church, and State, in the voice of Thunder, and lightnings, and other declarations of his power. This is Gods English to thee, and his French, and his Latin, and Greek, and Hebrew to others. God once confounded languages; that conspiring men might not understand one another, but never so, as that all men might not understand him. When the holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles, they spoke so, as that all men understood them, in their own tongues. When the holy Ghost fell upon the waters, in the Creation, God spoke so, in his language of Works, as that all men may understand them. For, in this language, the language of works, the Eye is the ear, seeing is hearing. How often does the holy Ghost call upon us, in the Scriptures, Ecce, quia os Domini locutum, Behold, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it? he calls us to behold, (which is the office of the eye) and that that we are to behold, is the voice of God, belonging to the ear; seeing is hearing, in Gods first language, the language of works. But then God translates himself, in particular works; nationally, he speaks in particular judgments, or deliverances to one nation; &, domestically, he speaks that language to a particular family; & so personally too; he speaks to every particular soul. God will speak unto me, in that voice, and in that way, which I am most delighted with, & hearken most to. If I be covetous, God will tel me that heaven is a pearl, a treasure. If cheerful and affected with mirth, that heaven is all Joy. If ambitious, and hungry of preferment, that it is all Glory. If sociable, and conversable, that it is a communion of Saints. God will make a Fever speak to me, and tell me his mind, that there is no health but in him, God will make the disfavor, and frowns of him I depend upon, speak to me, and tell me his mind, that there is no safe dependence, no assurance but in him; God will make a storm at Sea, or a fire by land, speak to me, and tell me his mind, that there is no perpetuity, no possession but in him; nay, God will make my sin speak to me, and tell me his mind; even my sin shall be a Sermon, and a Catechism to me; God shall suffer me me to fall into some such sin, as that by some circumstances in the sin, or consequences from the sin, I shall be drawn to hearken unto him; and whether I hear Hosannaes, acclamations, and commendations, or Crucifiges, exclamations and condemnations from the world, I shall still find the voice and tongue of God, though in the mouth of the Devil, and his instruments. God is a declaratory God. The whole year, is, to his Saints, a continual Epiphany, one day of manifestation. In every minute that strikes upon the Bell, is a syllable, nay a syllogism from God. And, and in my last Bell, God shall speak too; that Bell, when it tolls, shall tell me I am going, and when it rings out, shall tell you I am gone into the hands of that God, who is the God of the living and not of the dead, for, they dye not that depart in him. Dives pressed Abraham to send a preacher from the dead, to his brethren. This was to put God to a new language, when he had spoken sufficiently by Moses, and the Prophets. And yet, even in this language, the tongue of the dead, hath God spoken too. Saint Jerome says, that that Prophet Jonas, who was sent to Niniveh, was the same man, whom, being then a child, and dead in his mothers house, the widow of Zarepta's house, Elijah the Prophet raised to life again; and so, God spoke to Niniveh in that language, in the tongue of the dead. But be that but Problematical, wrapped up in a Traditional, and Historical faith, this is Dogmatical, and irrefragable, that God hath spoken to the whole world in the tongue of the dead, in his Son Christ Jesus, the Lord of life, and yet the first born of the dead. God is lothe to lose us, at worst, and therefore, did not, surely, reject us, before we were ill, (And that was our first) God hath drawn us to him, by manifesting his will, and our way in a law, and therefore, will not judge us at last, by any thing never revealed to us, (And that was our second) God holds us to him by these remembrances, these common manifestations in our text, Videte, Cavete, and therefore let no man that does not hear God speaking to him, in this present voice, despair that he shall never hear him, but hearken still, and in one language or other, perchance a sickness, perchance a sin, he shall hear him, for these are several Dialects in Gods language, several instruments in Gods Consort; And this is our third consideration, and the end of this first part, the Prohibition, the Commonefaction, Videte, Cavete; And we pass to our second general part, and the three branches of that, that that falls under this Prohibition, Videte Concisionem, Beware the Concision.

Saint Paul embraces here, that elegancy of language familiar to the holy Ghost, They pretend Circumcision, they intend Concision; there is a certain elegant and holy delicacy, a certain holy juvenility in Saint Pauls choosing these words of this musical cadence and agnomination, Circumcision, and Concision; But then this delicacy, and juvenility presents matter of gravity and soundness. Language must wait upon matter, and words upon things. In this case, (which indeed makes it a strange case) the matter is the forme; The matter, that is, the doctrine that we preach, is the forme, that is, the Soul, the Essence; the language and words we preach in, is but the Body, but the existence. Therefore, Saint Paul, who would not allow Legal figures, not Typical figures, not Sacramental figures, not Circumcision it self, after the body, Christ Jesus, was once exhibited, does not certainly allow Rhetorical figures, nor Poetical figures, in the preaching, or hearing of Christ preached, so, as that that should be the principal leader of hearer, or speaker. But this Saint Paul authoriseth in his own practise, and the holy Ghost in him, That in elegant language, he incorporates, and invests sound and important Doctrine; for, though he choose words of musical sound, Circumcision and Concision, yet it is a matter of weighty consideration that he intends in this Concision. Saint Chrysostom, and Saint Jerome both agree in this interpretation, That whereas Circumcision is an orderly, a useful, a medicinal, a beneficial pruning and paring off, that which is superfluous, Conciditur quod temere, & inutiliter decerpitur, Concision is a hasty and a rash plucking up, or cutting down, and an unprofitable tearing, and renting into shreds and fragments, such, as the Prophet speaks of, The breaking of a Potters vessel, that cannot be made up again. Concision is, at best, Solutio Continui, The severing of that, which should be kept entire. In the State, the aliening of the head from the body, or of the body from the head, is Concision; and videte, it is a fearful thing to be guilty of that. In the Church, (which Church is not a Monarchy, otherwise then as she is united in her head, Christ Jesus) to constitute a Monarchy, an universal head of the Church, to the dis-inherison, and to the tearing of the Crowns of Princes, who are heads of the Churches in their Dominions, this is Concision; and videte, it is a fearful thing to be guilty of that, to advance a foreign Prelate. In the family, where God hath made man and wife, one, to divide with others, is Concision; and videte, it is a fearful thing to be guilty of that. Generally, the tearing of that in pieces, which God intended should be kept entire, is this Concision, and falls under this Commonefaction, which implies an increpation, videte, beware. But because thus, Concision would receive a concision into infinite branches, we determined this consideration, at first, into these three; first, Concisio Corporis, the concision of the body, dis-union in Doctrinal things; and Concisio vestis, the Concision of the garment, dis-union in Ceremonial things; and then Concisio Spiritus, the Concision of the Spirit, dis-union, irresolution, unsetledness, diffidence, and distrust in thine own mind and conscience.

First, for this Concision of the body, of the body of Divinity, in Doctrinal things, since still Concision is Solutio continui, the breaking of that which should be entire, consider we first, what this Continuum, this that should be kept entire, is; and it is, says the Apostle, Jesus himself. Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum, (so the Antients read that place) Every spirit which dissolveth Jesus, that breaks Jesus in pieces, that makes Religion serve turns, that admits so much Gospel as may promove and advance present businesses, every such spirit is not of God. Not to profess the whole Gospel, Totum Iesum, not to believe all the Articles of faith, this is Solutio continui, a breaking of that which should be entire; and this is truly concision. Now with concision in this kind, our greatest adversaries, they of the Roman heresy, and mis-persuasion, do not charge us. They do not charge us that we deny any article of any antient Creed: nor may they deny, that there is not enough for salvation in those antient Creeds. This is Continuitas universalis, a continuity, an entireness that goes through the whole Church; a skin that covers the whole body; the whole Church is bound to believe all the articles of faith. But then, there is Continuitas particularis, Continuitas modi, a continuity, a harmony, an entireness, that does not go through the whole Church; the whole Church does not always agree in the manner of explication of all the articles of faith; but this may be a skin that covers some particular limbe of the body, and not another; one Church may expound an article thus, and some other some other way, as, in particular, the Lutheran Church expounds the article of Christs descent into hell, one way, and the Calvinist another. Now, in cases, where neither exposition destroys the article, in the substance thereof, it is Concision, that is, Solutio continui, a breaking of that which should be kept entire, for any man to break the peace of that Church, in which he hath received his baptism, and hath his station, by advancing the exposition of any other Church, in that. And as this is Concision, Solutio continui, a breaking of that which is entire, to break the peace of the Church, where we were baptized, by teaching otherwise then that Church teaches, in these things De modo, of the manner of expounding such or such articles of faith, so is there another dangerous Concision too. For, to inoculate a foreign bud, or to engraffe a foreign bough, is concision, as well as the cutting off an arm from the tree; to inoculate, cleaves the rind, the bark; and to engraffe, cleaves the tree: it severs that which should be entire. So, when a particular Church, in a holy, and discreet modesty, hath abstained from declaring her self in the exposition of some particular Articles, or of some Doctrines, by faire consequence deducible from those Articles, and contented her self with those general things which are necessary to salvation, (As the Church of England hath, in the Article of Christs descent into Hell) it is Concision, it is solution Continui, a breaking of that which should be entire, to inoculate a new sense, or engraffe a new exposition, which howsoever it may be true in it self, it cannot be truly said, to be the sense of that Church; not perchance because that Church was not of that mind, but because that Church finding the thing it self to be no fundamental thing, thought it unnecessary to descend to particular declarations, when as in such declarations she must have departed from some other Church of the Reformation, that thought otherwise, and in keeping her self within those general terms that were necessary, and sufficient, with a good conscience she conserved peace and unity with all. David, in the person of every member of the Church, submits himself to that increpation, Let my right hand forget her cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem before my chiefest joy. Our chiefest joy, is, for the most part, our own opinions, especially when they concur with other learned and good men too. But then, Jerusalem is our love of the peace of the Church; and in such things as do not violate foundations, let us prefer Jerusalem before our chiefest Joy, love of peace before our own opinions, though concurrent with others. For, this is that, that hath misled many men, that the common opinion in the Church is necessarily the opinion of the Church. It is not so; not so in the Roman Church : There the cōmon opinion is, That the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin: But cannot be said to be the opinion of that Church; nor may it be safely concluded in any Church : Most Writers in the Church have declared themselves this way, therefore the Church hath declared her self, for the declarations of the Church are done publicly, & orderly, and at once. And when a Church hath declared her self so, in all things necessary and sufficient, let us possess our souls in peace, and not say that that Church hath, or press that that Church would proceed to further declarations in less necessary particulars. When we are sure we have believed & practised, all that the Church hath recōmended to us, in these generals, then, and not till then, let us call for more declarations; but in the mean time prefer Jerusalem before our chiefest joy, love of peace by a general forbearance on all sides, rather then victory by wrangling, and uncharitableness. And let our right hand forget her cunning, (let us never set pen to paper to write) Let our tongue cleave to the roof of our mouth, (let us never open our mouth to speak of those things) in which Silence was an Act of Discretion, and Charity before, but now is also an Act of Obedience, and of Allegiance and Loyalty. But that which David said to the Lord, (Psalm 65. 1.) Let us also accommodate to the Lords anointed, Tibi laus silentium, our best sacrifice to both, is to be silent in those things. So then, this is Concisio corporis, that Concision of the body, which you are to beware in Doctrinal things, first, non solvere Iesum, not to dissolve, not to break Jesus in pieces, not to depart, in any respect, with any fundamental Article of faith, for that is a skin that covers the whole body, an obligation that lies upon the whole Church, and then for that particular Church, in which you have your station, first, to conform your self to all that, in which she had evidently declared herself, and then not to impute to her, not to call such articles hers, as she never avowd. And our next consideration is Concisio vestis, the tearing of the garment, matter of discipline, and government.

To a Circumcision of the garment, that is, to a paring, and taking away such Ceremonies, as were superstitious, or superfluous, of an ill use, or of no use, our Church came in the beginning of the Reformation. To a Circūcision we came; but those Churches that came to a Concision of the garment, to an absolute taking away of all ceremonies, neither provided so safely for the Church it self in the substance thereof, nor for the exaltation of Devotion in the Church. Divide the law of the Jews into 2 halfs, and the Ceremonial will be the greater; we cannot cal the Moral law, the Jews law; that was ours as well as their, peculiar to none; but of that law which is peculiar to the Jews▪ judicial & Ceremonial, the Ceremonial is far the greater part. So great a care had God, of those thing, which though they be not of the revenue of Religion, yet are of the subsidy of Religion, and, though they be not the soul of the Church, yet are they those Spirits that unite soul and body together. H's man did but shave the beards of Davids servants, he did not cut off their heads; He did not cut their clothes so, as that he stripped them naked. Yet, for that that he did, (says that story) he stank in Davids sight, (which is a phrase of high indignation in that language) and so much, as that it cost him forty thousand of his horsemen in one battel. And therefore as this Apostle enters this Caveat in another place, If yee bite one another, cavete, take heed yee be not consumed of one another, so cavete, take heed of this concision of the garment, lest if the garment be torn off, the body wither, and perish. A shadow is nothing, yet, if the rising or falling Sun shine out, and there be no shadow, I will pronounce there is no body in that place neither. Ceremonies are nothing; but where there are no Ceremonies, order, and uniformity, and obedience, and at last, (and quickly) Religion it self will vanish. And therefore videte concisionem, beware of tearing the body, or of tearing the garment, which will induce the other, and both will induce the third, concisionem spiritus, the tearing of thine own spirit, from that rest which it should receive in God; for, when thou hast lost thy hold of all those handles which God reaches out to thee, in the Ministry of his Church, and that thou hast no means to apply the promises of God in Christ to thy soul, which are only applied by Gods Ordinances in his Church, when anything falls upon thee, that overcomes thy moral constancy (which moral constancy, God knows, is soon spent, if we have lost our recourse to God) thou wilt soon sink into an irrecoverable desperation, which is the fearfullest concision of all; and videte, beware of this concision.

When God hath made himself one body with me, by his assuming this nature, and made me one spirit with himself, and that by so high a way, as making me partaker of the divine nature, so that now, in Christ Jesus, he and I are one, this were solutio Jesus, a tearing in pieces, a dissolving of Jesus, in the worst kind that could be imagined, if I should tear my self from Jesus, or by any jealousy or suspicion of his mercy, or any horror in my own sins, come to think my self to be none of his, none of him. Who ever comes into a Church to denounce an excommunication against himself? And shall any sad soul come hither, to gather arguments, from our preaching, to excommunicate it self, or to pronounce an impossibility upon her own salvation? God did a new thing, Says Moses, a strange thing, a thing never done before, when the earth opened her mouth (and Dathan, and Abiram went down quick into the pit. Wilt thou do a stranger thing then that? To tear open the jaws of Earth, and Hell, and cast thy self actually and really into it, out of mis-imagination, that God hath cast thee into it before? Wilt thou force God to second thy irreligious melancholy, and to condemn thee at last, because thou hadst precondemned thy self, and renounced his mercy? Wilt thou say with Cain, My sin is greater then can be pardoned? This is Concisio potestatis, a cutting off the power of God, and Treason against the Father, whose Attribute is Power. Wilt thou say, God never meant to save me? this is Concisio Sapientiae, a cutting off the Wisdom of God, to think, that God intended himself glory in a kingdom, and would not have that kingdom peopled, and this is Treason against the Son whose Attribute is wisdoms? Wilt thou say, I shall never find comfort in Praying, in Preaching, in Receiving? This is Concisio consolationis, the cutting off consolation, and treason against the holy Ghost, whose office is comfort. No man violates the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, the Goodness of the holy Ghost, so much as he, who thinks himself out of their reach, or the latitude of their working. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted; but why? Because they were not. If her children had been but gone for a time from her, or but sick with her, Rachel would have been comforted; but, they were not. Is that thy case? Is not thy soul, a soul still? It may have gone from thee, in sins of inconsideration; it may be sick within thee, in sins of habit and custom; but is not thy soul, a soul still? And hath God made any species larger then himself? is there more soul, then there is God, more sin then mercy? Truly Origen was more excusable, more pardonable, if he did believe, that the Devil might possibly be saved, then that man, that believes that himself must necessarily be damned. And therefore, videte concisionem, beware of cutting off thy spirit from this spirit of comfort, take heed of shreading Gods general promises; into so narrow propositions, as that they will not reach home to thee, cover thee, invest thee; beware of such distinctiōs, & such subdivisiōs, as may make the way to heaven too narrow for thee, or thegate of heaven too strait for thee. 'Tis true, one drop of my Saviours blood would save me, if I had but that, one tear from my Saviours eye, if I had but that; but he hath none that hath not all; A drop, a tear, would wash away an Adultery, a murder, but less then the whole sea of both, will not wash away a wanton look, an angry word. God would have all, and gives all to all. And for Gods sake, let God be as good as he will; as merciful, and as large, as liberal, and as general as he will. Christ came to save sinners; thou are sure thou art one of them; At what time soever a sinner repents, he shall be heard; be sure to be one of them too. Believe that God in Christ proposes conditions to thee; endeavor the performing, repent the not performing of those conditions, and be that the issue between God and thy soul; And lest thou end in this concision, the concision of the Spirit, beware of the other two concisions, of the body, and of the garment, by which only, all heavenly succors are applicable to thee.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XL.

2 Cor. 5. 20. We pray yee in Christs stead, Be ye reconciled to God.

Preached at Saint Pauls.

IN bestowing of Benefits, there are some Circumstances, that vitiate and deprave the nature of the benefit (as when a man gives only in contemplation of Retribution, for then he is not Dator, but Mercator, this is not a giving, but a Merchandising, a permutation, or when he is Cyminibilis Dator, (as our Canons speak) one that gives Mint and Cumin, so small things, and in so small proportions, as only keeps him alive that receives, and so Ipsum quod dat, perit, & vitam producit ad miseriam, that that is given is lost, and he that receives it, is but continued in misery, and so the benefit, hath almost the nature of an injury, because but for that poor benefit, he might have got out of this life. And then there are circumstances, that do absolutely annihilate a benefit, amongst which, one is, if the giver take so express, so direct, so public knowledge of the wants of the receiver, as that he shall be more ashamed by it, then refreshed with it; for in many courses of life, it does more deject a man, in his own heart, and in the opinion of others too, and more retard him in any preferment, to be known to be poor, then to be so indeed; And he that gives so, does not only make him that receives, his Debtor, but his Prisoner, for he takes away his liberty of applying himself to others, who might be more beneficial to him, the he that captivated, and ensnared him, with that small benefit. And therefore many times in the Scripture, the phrase is such in doing a curtesy, as though the receiver had done it, in accepting it; so when Jacob made a present to his brother Esau, I beseech thee, says he, to take my blessing that I may find favor in thy sight; so he compelled him to take it. So when Christ recommends here to his people, the great, and inestimable benefit in our text, Reconciliation to God, he delivers that benefit of all those accidents, or circumstances, that might vitiate it; and amongst those, of this, that we should not be confounded with the notice taken of our poverty, and indigence; for he proceeds with man, as though man might be of some use to him, and with whom it were fit for him to hold good correspondence, he sends to him by Ambassadors, (as it is in the words immediately before the text) and by those Ambassadors he prays him, that he would accept the benefit of Reconciliation. To us, who are his Creatures, and therefore might be turned and wound by his general providence, without employment of any particular messengers, he sends particular messengers; to us that are his enemies, and fitter to receive denunciations of a war, by a Herald, then a Message, by Ambassadors, he sends Ambassadors, to us, who are indeed Rebells, and not enemies, and therefore rather to be reduced and reclaimed by Executioners, then by Commissioners, he sends Commissioners, not to article, not to capitulate, but to pray, and to entreat, and not to entreat us to accept Gods reconciliation to us, but, as though God needed us, to entreat us to be reconciled to him; We pray you in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God.

In these words, our parts will be three: Our Office towards you; yours towards us; and the Negotiation it self, Reconciliation to God. In each of these three, there is a rederivation into three branches: for, in the two first (besides the matter) there are two kinds of persons, we and you, The Priest and the People (we pray you.) And in the last there are two kinds of persons too, you and God; Be ye reconciled to God. But because all these kinds of persons, God, and we, and you, fall frequently into our consideration, there is the less necessity laid upon us to handle them, as distinct branches, otherwise then as they fall into the Negotiation it self. Therefore we shall determine our selves in these three: First, our office towards you, and our stipulation and contract with you, We pray you; we come not as Lords or Commanders over you, but in humble, in submissive manner, We pray you. And then your respect to us, because in what manner soever we come, we come in Christs stead, and though dimly, yet represent him. And lastly, the blessed effect of this our humility to you, and this your respect to us, Reconciliation to God. Humility in us, because we are sent to the poorest soul; respect in you, because we are sent to represent the highest King, work in you this reconciliation to God, and it is a Text well handled; practice makes any Sermon a good Sermon.

First, then, for our office towards you, because you may be apt to say, You take too much upon you, you sons of Levi; We the sons of Levi, open unto you our Commission, and we pursue but that we profess, that we are sent but to pray, but to entreat you; and we accompany it with an outward declaration, we stand bare, and you sit covered. When greater power seems to be given us, of treading upon Dragons and Scorpions, of binding and loosing, of casting out Devills, and the like, we confess these are powers over sins, over Devills that do, or endeavor to possess you, not over you, for to you we are sent to pray and entreat you. Though God sent Jeremiah with that large Commission, Behold this day, I have set thee over the Nations, and over the Kingdoms, to pluck up, and to rout out, to destroy and to throw down; and though many of the Prophets had their Commissions drawn by that precedent, we claim not that, we distinguish between the extraordinary Commission of the Prophet, and the ordinary Commission of the Priest, we admit a great difference between them, and are far from taking upon us, all that the Prophet might have done; which is an error, of which the Church of Rome, and some other over-zealous Congregations have been equally guilty, and equally opposed Monarchy and Sovereignty, by assuming to themselves, in an ordinary power, whatsoever God, upon extraordinary occasions, was pleased to give for the present, to his extraordinary Instruments the Prophets; our Commission is to pray, and to entreat you. Though upon those words, Ascendunt salvatores in Montem Sion, there shall arise Saviours in Mount Sion, in the Church of God, Saint Jerome saith, That as Christ being the light of the world, called his Apostles the light of the world too; so, Ipse Salvator Apostolas voluit esse Salvatores, The Savior of the world communicates to us the name of Saviours of the world too, yet howsoever instrumentally and ministerially that glorious name of Savior may be afforded to us, though to a high hill, though to that Mount Sion, we are led by a low way, by the example of our blessed Savior himself; and since there was an Oportuit pati, laid upon him, there may well be an Oportet Obsecrare laid upon us; since his way was to be dumb, ours may well be to utter no other voice but Prayers; since he bled, we may well sweat in his service, for the salvation of your souls. If therefore our selves, who are sent, be under contempt, or under persecution, if the sword of the Tongue, or the sword of the Tyrant be drawn against us, against all these, Arma nostra, preces & fletus, we defend with no other shield, we return with no other sword, but Tears and Prayers, and blessing of them that curse us. Yea, if he that sent us suffer in us, if we see you denounce a war against him, nay, triumph over him, and provoke him to anger, and because he shows no anger, conclude our of his patience, an impotency, that because he doth not, he cannot, when you scourge him, and scoff him, and spit in his face, and crucify him, and practise every day all the Jews did to him once, as though that were your pattern, and your business were to exceed your pattern, and crucify your Savior worse then they did, by tearing & mangling his body, now glorified, by your blasphemous oaths, and execrable imprecations, when we see all this, Arma nostra preces & fletus, we can defend our selves, nor him, no other way, we present to you our tears, and our prayers, his tears, and his prayers that sent us, and if you will not be reduced with these, our Commission is at an end. I bring not a Starchamber with me up into the Pulpit, to punish a forgery, if you counterfeit a zeal in coming hither now; nor an Exchequer, to punish usurious contracts, though made in the Church; nor a high Commission, to punish incontinencies, if they be promoted by wanton interchange of looks, in this place. Only by my prayers, which he hath promised to accompany and prosper in his service, I can diffuse his overshadowing Spirit over all the corners of this Congregation, and pray that Publican, that stands below afar off, and dares not lift up his eyes to heaven, to receive a cheerful confidence, that his sins are forgiven him; and pray that Pharisee, that stands above, and only thanks God, that he is not like other men, to believe himself to be, if not a rebellious, yet an unprofitable servant. I can only tell them, that neither of them is in the right way of reconciliation to God, Nec qui impugnant gratiam, nec qui superbè gratias agunt, neither he who by a diffidence hinders the working of Gods grace, nor he that thanks God in such a fashion, as though all that he had received, were not of meer mercy, but between a debt and a benefit, and that he had either merited before, or paid God after, in pious works, for all, and for more then he hath received at Gods hand.

Scarce any where hath the Holy Ghost taken a word of larger signification, then here; for, as though it were hard, even to him, to express the humility which we are to use, rather then lose any soul for which Christ hath died, he hath taught us this obsecration, this praying, this intreating in our Text, in a word, by which the Septuagint, the first Translators into Greek, express divers affections, and all within the compass of this Obsecramus, We pray you. Some of them we shall present to you.

Those Translators use that word for Napal. Napal is Ruere, Postrare, to throw down, to deject our selves, to admit any undervalue, any exinanition, any evacuation of our selves, so we may advance this great work. I fell down before the Lord, says Moses of himself; and Abraham fell upon his face, says Moses of him, and in no sense is this word oftener used, by them, then in this humiliation. But yet, as it signifies to need the favor of another, so does it also to be favourable, and merciful to another; for so also, the same Translators use this word for Chanan, which is to oblige and bind a man by benefits, or to have compassion upon him; Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me; there is our word repeated. So that, whether we profess to you, that as Physicians must consider excrements, so we must consider sin, the leprosy, the pestilence, the ordure of the soul, there is our dejection of our selves, or make you see your poverty and indigence, and that that can be no way supplied, but by those means, which God conveys by us, both ways we are within our word, Obsecramus, we pray you, we entreat you.

They use this word also for Calah, and Calah is Dolere, to grieve within our selves, for the affliction of another; But it signifies also vulnerare, to wound, and afflict another; for so it is said in this word, Saul was sore wounded. So that, whether we express our grief, in the behalf of Christ, that you will not be reconciled to God, or whether we wound your consciences, with a sense of your sins, and his judgements, we are still what in the word of our Commission, Obsecramus, we pray, we entreat.

To contract this consideration, they use this word for Cruciare, to vex, and for Placare too, to appease, to restore to rest and quiet. Therefore will I make thee sick in smiting thee; there it is vexation; And then, They sent unto the House of the Lord, Placare Dominum, to appease the Lord, as we translate it, and well, To pray. And therefore, if from our words proceed any vexation to your consciences, you must not say, Transeat calix, let that Cup pass, no more of that matter, for it is the physic that must first stir the humor, before it can purge it; And if our words apply to your consciences, the soverain balm of the merits of your Savior, and that thereupon your troubled consciences find some rest, be not too soon secure, but proceed in your good beginnings, and continue in hearing, as we shall continue in all these manners of praying and intreating, which fall into the word of our Text, Obsecramus, by being beholden to you for your application, or making you beholden to us, for our ministration, which was the first use of the words, of grieving for you, or grieving you for your fins, which was the second, of troubling your consciences, and then of setling them again, in a calm reposedness, which was the third signification of the word in their Translation.

Yet does the Holy Ghost carry our office, (I speak of the manner of the execution of our office, for, for the office it self, nothing can be more glorious, then the ministration of the Gospel, into lower terms then these. He suffered his Apostles to be thought to be drink; They were full of the Holy Ghost, and they were thought full of new wine. A dramme of zeal more then ordinary, against a Patron, or against a great Parishioner, makes us presently scandalous Ministers. Truly, beloved, we confess, one sign of drunkenness is, not to remember what we said. If we do not in our practise, remember what we preached, and live as we teach, we are dead all the week, and we are drunk upon the Sunday. But Hannah prayed, and was thought drunk, and this grieved her heart; so must it us, when you ascribe our zeal to the glory of God, and the good of your souls, to any inordinate passion, or sinister purpose in us.

And yet hath the Holy Ghost laid us lower then this. To be drunk is an alienation of the mind, but it is but a short one; but S. Paul was under the imputation of madness. Nay, our blessed Savior himself did some such act of vehement zeal, as that his very friends thought him mad. S. Paul, because his madness was imputed to a false cause, to a pride in his much learning, disavowed his madness, I am not mad, O noble Festus. But when the cause was justifiable, he thought his madness justifiable too; If we be besides our selves, it is for God; and so long well enough. Insaniebat amatoriam insaniam Paulus, S. Paul was mad for love; S. Paul did, and we do take into our contemplation, the beauty of a Christian soul; Through the ragged apparel of the afflictions of this life; through the scarres, and wounds, and paleness, and morphews of sin, and corruption, we can look upon the soul it self, and there see that incorruptible beauty, that white and red, which the innocency and the blood of Christ hath given it, and we are mad for love of this soul, and ready to do any act of danger, in the ways of persecution, any act of diminution of our selves in the ways of humiliation, to stand at her door, and pray, and beg, that she would be reconciled to God.

And yet does the Holy Ghost lay us lower then this too. Mad men have some flashes, some twilights, some returns of sense and reason, but the fool hath none; And, we are fools for Christ, says the Apostle; And not only we, the persons, but the ministration it self, the function it self is foolishness; It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Anger will bear an action, and Racah will bear an action, but to say Fool, was the heaviest imputation; and we are fools for Christ, and pretend nothing to work by, but the foolishness of preaching. Lower then this, we cannot be cast, and higher then this we offer not to climb; Obsecramus, we have no other Commission but to pray, and to entreat, and that we do, in his words, in his tears, in his blood, and in his bowels who sent us, we pray you in Christs stead, which is that that constitutes our second Part, with what respect you should receive us.

In mittendariis servanda dignitas mittentis. To diminish the honor of his Master, is not an humility, but a prevarication in any Ambassador; and that is our quality, expressed in this verse. God is the Lord of Hosts, and he is the Prince of peace; He needs neither the Armies of Princes, nor the wisdom of Council Tables, to come to his ends. He is the Proprietary and owner of all the treasures in the world; Ye have taken my silver and my gold; and, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. All that you call yours, all that you can call yours, is his; your selves are but the furniture of his house, and your great hearts are but little boxes in his cabinet, and he can fill them with dejection, and sadness, when he will. And does any Prince govern at home, by an Ambassador? he sends Pursuivants, and Serjeants; he sends not Ambassadors; God does, and we are they; and we look to be received by you, but as we perform those two laws which bind Ambassadors, First, Reisuae ne quis legatus esto, Let no man be received as an Ambassador, that hath that title, only to negotiate for himself, and do his own business in that Country; And then, Nemini credatur sine principal mandato, Let no man be received for an Ambassador; without his Letters of Credence, and his Masters Commission. To these two we submit our selves.

First, we are not Rei nostrae legati, we come not to do our own business; what business of ours is it, what is it to us, that you be reconciled to God? Vae mihi si non, Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me, if I preach not the Gospel; but if I do, I have nothing to glory in; nay, I may be a reprobate my self. I can claim no more at Gods hand, for this service, then the Sun can, for shining upon the earth, or the earth for producing flowers, and fruits; and therefore we are not Rei nostrae legati, Ambassadors in our own behalfs, and to do our own business.

Indeed where men are sent out, to vent and utter the ware and merchandises of the Church and Court of Rome, to proclaim, and advance the value, and efficacy of uncertain reliques, and superstitious charms, and incantations, when they are sent to sell particular sins at a certain price, and to take so much for an incest, so much for a murder, when they are sent with many summs of Indulgencies at once, as they are now to the Indies, and were heretofore to us, when these Indulgencies are accompanied with this Doctrine, that if the Indulgence require a certain piece of money to be given for it, (as for the most part they do) if all the spiritual parts of the Indulgence be performed by the poor sinner, yet if he give not that money, though he be not worth that money, though that Merchant of those Indulgencies, do out of his charity give him one of those Indulgencies, yet all this doth that man no good, in these cases, they are indeed Rei suae Legati, Ambassadors to serve their own turns, and do their own business. When that Bishop sends out his Legatos à later, Ambassadors from his own chair and bosom into foreign Nations, to exhaust their treasures, to alien their Subjects, to infect their Religion; these are Rei suae Legati, Ambassadors that have businesses depending in those places, and therefore come upon their own errand. Nor can that Church excuse it self, (though it use to do so) upon the mis-behavior of those officers) when they are employed; for, they are employed to that purpose: And, Tibi imputae quicquid pateris ab eo, qui sine te, nihil potest facere: Since he might mend the fault, it is his fault, that it is done; he cannot excuse himself, if they be guilty, and with his privity: for, as the same devout man saith, to Eugenius, then Pope, Ne te dixeris sanum dolentem latera; If thy sides ake, (if thy Legats à later, be corrupt) call not thy self well, nec bonum malis innitentem, nor call thy self good, if thou rely upon the counsel of those that are ill; They, those Legats à later, are, (as they use to express it) incorporated in the Pope, and therefore they are Rei sui Legati, Ambassadors that ly to do their own business. But when we seek to raise no other war in you, but to arm the spirit against the flesh, when we present to you no other holy water, but the tears of Christ Jesus, no other reliques, but the commemoration of his Passion in the Sacrament, no other Indulgencies, and acquittances, but the application of his Merits to your souls, when we offer all this without silver, and without gold, when we offer you that Seal which he hath committed to us, in Absolution, without extortion or fees, wherein are we Rei nostrae Legati, Ambassadors in our own behalfs, or advancers of our own ends?

And as we are not so, so neither are we in the second danger, to come sine Principali Mandato, without Commission from our Master. Christ himself would not come of himself, but acknowledged and testified his Mission, The Father which sent me, he gave me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. Those whom he employed produced their Commissions, Neither received I it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. How should they preach except they be sent? is a question which Saint Paul intended for a conclusive question, that none could answer, till in the Roman Church they excepted Cardinals, Quibus sine literis creditur, propter personarum solennitatem, who for the dignity inherent in their persons, must be received, though they have no Commission.

When our adversaries do so violently, so impetuously cry out, that we have no Church, no Sacrament, no Priesthood, because none are sent, that is, none have a right calling, for Internal calling, who are called by the Spirit of God, they can be no Judges, and for External calling, we admit them for Judges, and are content to be tried by their own Canons, and their own evidences, for our Mission and vocation, or sending and our calling to the Ministry. If they require a necessity of lawful Ministers to the constitution of a Church, we require it with as much earnestness as they; Ecclesia non est quae now habet sacerdotem, we profess with Saint Jerome, It is no Church that hath no Priest. If they require, that this spiritual power be received from them, who have the same power in themselves, we profess it too, Nemo dat quod non habet, no man can confer other power upon another, then he hath himself. If they require Imposition of hands, in conferring Orders, we join hands with them. If they will have it a Sacrament; men may be content to let us be as liberal of that name of Sacrament, as Calvin is; and he says of it, Institut. l. 4. c. 14. § 20. Non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum, it a inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero, I am not loth, it should be called a Sacrament, so it be not made an ordinary, that is, a general Sacrament; and how ill hath this been taken at some of our mens hands, to speak of more such Sacraments, when indeed they have learnt this manner of speech, and difference of Sacraments, not only from the ancient Fathers, but from Calvin himself, who always spoke with a holy wariness, and discretion. Whatsoever their own authors, their own Schools, their own Canons do require to be essentially and necessarily requisite in this Mission in this function, we, for our parts, and as much as concerns our Church of England, admit it too, and profess to have it. And whatsoever they can say for their Church, that from their first Conversion, they have had an orderly derivation of power from one to another, we can as justly and truly say of our Church, that ever since her first being of such a Church, to this day, she hath conserved the same order, and ever hath had, and hath now, those Ambassadors sent, with the same Commission, and by the same means, that they pretend to have in their Church. And being herein convinced, by the evidence of undeniable Record, which have been therefore showed to some of their Priests, not being able to deny that such a Succession and Ordination, we have had, from the hands of such as were made Bishops according to their Canons, now they pursue their common beaten way, That as in our Doctrine, they confess we affirm no Heresy, but that we deny some Truths, so in our Ordination, and sending, and Calling, when they cannot deny, but that from such a person, who is, by their own Canons, able to confer Orders, we, in taking our Orders, (after their own manner) receive the Holy Ghost, and the power of binding and loosing, yet, say they, we receive not the full power of Priests, for, we receive only a power in Corpus mysticum, upon the mystical body of Christ, that is, the persons that constitute the visible Church, but we should receive it in Corpus verum, a power upon the very natural body, a power of Consecration, by way of Transubstantiation. They may be pleased to pardon, this, rather Modesty, then Defect, in us, who, so we may work fruitfully, and effectually upon the mystical body of Christ, can be content that his real, and true body work upon us. Not that we have no interest to work upon the real body of Christ, since he hath made us Dispensers even of that, to the faithful, in the Sacrament; but for such a power, as exceeds the Holy Ghost, who in the incarnation of Christ, when he overshadowed the blessed Virgin, did but make man of the woman, who was one part disposed by nature thereunto, whereas these men make man, and God too of bread, naturally wholly indisposed to any such change, for this power we confess it is not in our Commission; and their Commission, and ours was all one; and the Commission is manifest in the Gospel; and, since they can charge us with no rasures, no expunctions, we must charge them with interlinings, and additions, to the first Commission. But for that power, which is to work upon you, to whom we are sent, we are defective in nothing, which they call necessary thereunto.

This I speak of this Church, in which God hath planted us, That God hath afforded us all that might serve, even for the stopping of the Adversaries mouth, and to confound them in their own way: which I speak, only to excite us to a thankfulness to God, for his abundant grace in affording us so much, and not to disparage, or draw in question any other of our neighbor Churches, who, perchance, cannot derive, as we can, their power, and their Mission, by the ways required, and practised in the Roman Church, nor have had from the beginning a continuance of Consecration by Bishops, and such other concurrences, as those Canons require, and as our Church hath enjoyed. They, no doubt, can justly plead for themselves, that Ecclesiastical positive Laws admit dispensation in cases of necessity; They may justly challenge a Dispensation, but we need none; They did what was lawful in a case of necessity, but Almighty God preserved us from this necessity. As men therefore, Qui nec jussi renuunt, nec non jussi affectant, which neither neglect Gods calling, when we have it, nor counterfeit it, when we have it not, Qui quod verecundè excusant, obstinatiùs non recusant, who though we confess our selves altogether unworthy, have yet the seals of God, and his Church upon us, Nec rei nostrae legati, not to promove our own ends, but your reconciliation to God, Nec sine principali mandate, not without a direct and published Commission, in the Gospel, we come to you in Christs stead, and so should be received by you. As for our Mission, that being in the quality of Ambassadors, we submitted our selves to those two obligations, which we noted to lie upon Ambassadors, so here in our Reception, we shall propose to you two things, that are, for the most part, practised by Princes, in the reception of Ambassadors. One is, that before they give audience, they endeavor, by some confident servant of theirs, to discern and understand the inclination of the Ambassador, and the general scope, and purpose of his negotiation, and of the behavior that he purposeth to use in delivering his Message; left for want of thus much light, the Prince might either be unprepared in what manner to express himself, or be surprised with some such message, as might not well comport with his honor to hear. But in these Ambassages from God to man, no man is made so equal to God, as that he may refuse to give Audience, except he know before hand that the message be agreeable to his mind. Only he that will be more then man, that Man of sin, who esteemeth himself to be joined in Commission with God, only he hath a particular Officer to know before hand, what message Gods Ambassadors bringeth, and to peruse all Sermons to be preached before him, and to expunge, correct, alter, all such things as may be disagreeable to him. It cannot therefore become you to come to these Audiences upon conditions; to inform your selves from others first, what kind of messages, such or such an Ambassador useth to deliver; whether he preach Mercy or Judgement; that if he preach against Vsury, you will hear Court-sermons, where there is less occasion to mention it; If he preach against Incontinency, you will go; whither? Is there any place that doth not extort from us, reprehensions, exclamations against that sin? But if you believe us to come in Christs stead, what ever our message be, you must hear us.

Do that, and for the second thing that Princes practise in the Reception of Ambassadors, which is, to referre Ambassadors to their Council, we are well content to admit from you. Whosoever is of your nearest Council, and whose opinion you best trust in, we are content to submit it to. Let natural reason, let affections, let the profits or the pleasures of the world be the Council Table, and can they tell you, that you are able to maintain a war against God, and subsist so, without being reconciled to him? Deceive not your selves, no man hath so much pleasure in this life, as he that is at peace with God.

What an Organ hath that man tuned, how hath he brought all things in the world to a Consort, and what a blessed Anthem doth he sing to that Organ, that is at peace with God? His Rye-bread is Manna, and his Beef is Quailes, his day-labours are thrustings at the narrow gate into Heaven, and his night watchings are extasies and evocations of his soul into the presence and communion of Saints, his sweat is Pearls, and his blood is Rubies, it is at peace with God. No man that is at suite in himself, no man that carrieth a Westminster in his bosom, and is Plaintiff and Defendant too, no man that serveth himself with Process out of his own Conscience, for every nights pleasure that he taketh, in the morning, and for every days pound that he getteth, in the evening, hath any of the pleasure, or profit, that may be had in this life; nor any that is not at peace with God. That peace we bring you; how will you receive us?

That vehemence of zeal which the Apostle found, we hope not for; you received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. And, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Consider the zeal of any Church to their Pastor, it will come short of the Pastor to the Church. All that Saint Paul saith of the Galatians towards him, is far short of that which he said to the Romans, That he could wish himself separated from Christ, for his brethren; or that of Moses, that he would be blotted out of the Book of Life, rather then his charge should. When we consider the manner of hearing Sermons, in the Primitive Church, though we do not wish that manner to be renewed, yet we cannot deny, but that though it were accompanied with many inconveniences, it testified a vehement devotion, and sense of that that was said, by the preacher, in the hearer; for, all that had been formerly used in Theaters, Acclamations and Plaudites, was brought into the Church, and not only the vulgar people, but learned hearers were as loud, and as profuse in those declarations, those vocal acclamations, and those plaudites in the passages, and transitions, in Sermons, as ever they had been at the Stage, or other recitations of their Poets, or Orators. S. Jerome charges Vigilantius, that howsoever he differed from him in opinion after, yet when he had heard him preach of the Resurrection before, he had received that Doctrine with Acclamation and Plaudites. And as Saint Jerome saith of himself, that he was thus applauded in his Preaching; he saith it also of him whom he called his Master, Gregory Nazianzen, a grave and yet a facetious man, of him he telleth us this Story. That he having intreated Nazianzen, to tell him the meaning of that place, What that second Sabbath after the first was? he played with me, he jested at me, saith he, Eleganter lusit, and he bad me be at Church next time he preached, and he would preach upon that Text, Et toto acclamante populo, cogeris invitus scire quod nescis, and when you see all the Congregation applaued me, and cry out that they are satisfied, you will make your self believe you understand the place, as they do, though you do not; Et si solus tacueris, solus ab omnibus stultitiae condemnaberis, And if you do not join with the Congregation in those Plaudites, the whole Congregation will think you the only ignorant person in the Congregation; for, as we may see in Saint Augustin, the manner was, that when the people were satisfied in any point which the Preacher handled, they would almost tell him so, by an acclamation, and give him leave to pass to another point; for; so saith that Father, Vidi in voce intelligentes, plures video in silentio requirentes, I hear many, to whom, by this acclamation, I see, enough hath been said, but I see more that are silent, and therefore, for their sakes, I will say more of it, Saint Agustine accepted these acclamations more willingly, at least more patiently, then some of the Fathers before had done; Audistis, laudastis; Deo gratias; you have heard that hath been said, and you have approved it with your praise; God be thanked for both; Et laudes vestrae foliae sunt arborum, sed fructus quaero; Though I look for fruit from you, yet even these acclamations are Leafs, and Leafs are Evidences that the tree is alive. Saint Chrysostom was more impatient of them, yet could never overcome them. To him, they came a little closer; for it was ordinary, that when he began to speak, the people would cry out, Audiamus tertiumdecimum Apostolum; Let us hearken to the thirteenth Apostle. And he saith, Si placet, hanc nunc legem firmabimus, I pray let us now establish this for a Law, between you and me, Ne quis auditor plaudat, quamdiu nos loquimur; That whilst I am speaking, I may speaking, I may hear no Plaudate; yet he saith in a Sermon preached after this, Animo cogitavi Legem ponere, I have often purposed to establish such a Law, Vt decore, & cum silentio audiatis, that you would be pleased to hear with silence, but he could never prevail.

Sidonius Apollinaris, (a Bishop himself, but whether then or no, know not) saith of another Bishop, that hearing even praedicationes repentinas, his extemporal Sermons raucus plausor audivi, I poured my self out in loud acclamations, till I was hoarse: And, to contract this consideration, we see evidently, that this fashion continued in the Church, even to Saint Bernards time. Neither is it left yet in some places, beyond the Seas, where the people do yet answer the Preacher, it his questions be appliable to them, and may induce an answer, with these vocal acclamations, Sir, we will, Sir, we will not. And truly we come too near re-inducing this vain glorious fashion, in those often periodical murmurings, and noises, which you make, when the Preacher concludeth any point; for those impertinent Interjections swallow up one quarter of his hour, and many that were not within distance of hearing the Sermon, will give a censure upon it, according to the frequency, or paucity of these acclamations.

These fashions then, howsoever, in those times they might be testimonies of Zeal, yet because they occasioned vain glory, and many times, faction, (as those Fathers have noted) we desire not, willingly we admit not. We come in Christs stead; Christ at his comming met Hosann' as and Crucifige's; A Preacher may be aplauded in his Pulpit, and crucified in his Barn: but there is a worse crucifying then that, a piercing of our hearts, Because we are as a very lovely song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an Instrument, and you hear our words, and do them not. Having therefore said thus much to you, first of our manner of proceeding with you, Obsecramus, of all those ways of humiliation, which we insisted upon, and ingaged our selves in, we pray, & entreat you, and the respect which should come from you, because we come in Christs stead, if, as the Eunuch said to Philip, Here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? so you say to us, we acknowledge that you do your duties, and we do receive you in Christs stead; what is it that you would have us do? it is but this, We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God; which is our third, and last part, and that to which all that we have said of a good Pastor and a good people; (which is the blessedest union of this world) bendeth, and driveth, what, and how blessed a thing it is to be reconciled to God.

Reconciliation is a redintegration, a renewing of a former friendship, that hath been interrupted and broken. So that this implyeth a present enmity, and hostility with God; and then a former friendship with God, and also a possibility of returning to that former friendship; stop a little upon each of these, and we have done.

Amongst natural Creatures, because howsoever they differ in bigness, yet they have some proportion to one another, we consider that some very little creatures, contemptible in themselves, are yet called enemies to great creatures, as the Mouse is to the Elephant.(For the greatest Creature is not Infinite, nor the least is not Nothing.) But shall man, between whom and nothing, there went but a word, Let us make Man, That Nothing, which is infinitely less then a Mathematical point, then an imaginary Atome, shall this Man, this yesterdays Nothing, this to morow worse then Nothing, be capable of that honor, that dishonor able honor, that confounding honor, to be the enemy of God, of God who is not only a multipled Elephant, millions of Elephants multiplied into one, but a multiplied World, a multiplied All, All that can be conceived by us, infinite many times over; Nay, (if we may dare to say so,) a multiplied God, a God that hath the Millions of the Heathens gods in himself alone, shall this man be an enemy to this God? Man cannot be allowed so high a sin, as enmity with God. The Devil himself is but a slave to God, and shall Man be called his enemy? It is true, if we consider the infinite disproportion between them, he cannot; but to many sad purposes, and in many heavy applications Man is an enemy to God. Job could go no higher in expressing his misery, Why hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? and again, Behold, he findeth occassions against me, and counteth me for his enemy. So man is an enemy to God; And then to adhere to an enemy, is to become an enemy; for Man to adhere to Man, to ascribe any thing to the power of his natural faculties, to think of any beam of clearness in his own understanding, or any line of rectitude in in his own will, this is to accumulate and multiply enmities against God, and to assemble and muster up more, and more man, to fight against God.

A Reconciliation is required, therefore there is an enmity; but it is but a reconciliation, therefore was a friendship; There was a time when God and Man were friends, God did not hate man from all Eternity, God forbid. And this friendship God meant not to break; God had no purpose to fall out with man, for then he could never have admitted him to a friendship. Net hominem amicum quisquam potest fidelitter amare, cui se noverit futurum inimicum: No man can love another as a friend this year, and mean to be his enemy next. Gods foreknowledge that man and he should fall out, was not a foreknowledge of any thing that he meant to do to that purpose, but only that Man himself would become incapable of the continuation of this friendship. Man might have persisted in that blessed amity; and, since if he had done so, the cause of his persisting had been his own will, I speak of the next and immediate Cause, (As the cause why the Angels that did persist, was Bona ipsorum Angelorum voluntas; the good use of their own free-will) much more was the cause of their defection and breaking this friendship(in their own will; God therefore, having made man, that is Mankind, in a state of love, and friendship, God having not by any purpose of his done any thing toward the violation of this friendship, in man, in any man, God continueth his everlasting goodness towards man, towards mankind still, in inviting him to accept the means of Reconciliation, and a return to the same state of friendship, which he had at first, by our Ministry. Be ye reconciled unto God.

You see what you had, and how you lost it. If it might not be recovered, God would not call you to it. It was piously declared in a late Synod, That in the offer of this Reconciliation, God means, as the Minister means; and I am sure I mean it, and desire it to you all; so does God. Nec Deus est qui inimicitias gerit, sed vos, it is not God, but you, that oppose this Reconciliation; O my people what have I done unto thee, or wherein have I grieved thee, testify against me; testify if I did any thing towards inducing an enmity, ot do any thing towards hindring this Reconciliation; which reconciliation is, to be restored to as good an estate in the love of God, as you had in Adam, and our estate is not as good, if it be not as general, if the merit of Christ be not as large, as the sin of Adam; and if it be not as possible for you to be saved by him, as it is impossible for you to be saved without him.

It is therefore but praying you in Christs stead, that you be reconciled to God. And, if you consider what God is, The Lord of hosts, and therefore hath means to destroy you, or what he is not, He is not man that he can repent, and therefore it belongs to you, to repent first, If you consider what the Lord doth, He that dwells in the heavens doth laugh them to scorn, and hath them in derision, or what he doth not, He doth not justify the wicked balance, nor the bag of deceitful weights, If you consider what the Lord would do, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as the Hen gathereth her Chickens, and yee would not, or what he would not do, As I live, sayeth the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, if yee consider all this, any of this, dare you, or can you if you durst, or would you if you could, stand out in an irreconciliable war against God? Especially if you consider, that that is more to you, then what God is, and does, and would do, and can do, for you or against you, that is, what he hath done already; that he who was the party offended, hath not only descended so low, as to be reconciled first, and to pay so dear for that, as the blood of his own, and only Son, but knowing thy necessity better then thy self, he hath reconciled thee to him, though thou knewest it not; God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, as it is in the former verse; there the work is done, thy reconciliation is wrought; God is no longer angry so, as to withhold from thee the means; for, there it follows, He hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation; That we might tell you the instrument of Reconciliation is drawn between God and you, and, as it is written in the history of the Council of Nice, that two Bishops who died before the establishing of the Canons, did yet subscribe and set their names to those Canons, which to that purpose were left upon their graves all night, so though you were dead in your sin and enemies to God, and Children of wrath, (as all by nature are) when this Reconciliation was wrought, yet the Spirit of God may give you this strength, to dip your pennes in the blood of the Lambe, and so subscribe your names, by acceptation of this offer of Reconciliation. Do but that, subscribe, accept, and then, Caetera omnia, all the rest that concerns your holy history, your Iustification and Sanctification, nonne scripta sunt, are they not written in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, says the Holy Ghost, in another case; Are they not written in the books of the Chronicles of the God of Israel? Shalt thou not find an eternal Decree, and a Book of life in thy behalf, if thou look for it by this light, and reach to it with this Hand, the acceptation of this Reconciliation? They are written in those reverend and sacred Records, and Rolls, and Parchments, even the skin and flesh of our Blessed Savior; written in those his stripes, and those his wounds, with that blood, that can admit to Index expurgatorius, no expunction, no satisfaction; But the life of his death lies in thy acceptation, and though he be come to his, thou art not come to thy Consummatum est, till that be done.

Do that, and then thou hast put on thy wedding garment. A man might get into that feast, without his wedding garment; so a man may get into the Church, to be a visible part of a Christian Congregation, without this acceptation of reconciliation, that is the particular apprehension, and application of Christ; but he is still subject to a remove, and to that question of confusion, Quomodo intrasti, How came you in? That man in the Gospel could have answered to that question, directly, I came in by the invitation, and conduct of thy servants, I was called in, I was led in; So they that come hither without this wedding garment, they may answer to Christs Quomodo intrasti, How camest thou in? I came in by faithful parents, to whom, and their seed thou hast sealed a Covenant; I was admitted by thy Servants and Ministers in Baptism, and have been led along by them, by comming to hear them preach thy word, and doing the other external offices of a Christian. But there is more in this question; Quomodo intrasti, is not only how didst thou come in, but how durst thou come in? If thou camest to my feast, without any purpose to eat, and so to discredit, to accuse either my meat, or the dressing of it, to quarrel at the Doctrine, or at the Discipline of my Church, Quomodo intrasti, How didst thou, how durst thou come in? If thou camest with a purpose to poison my meat, that it might infect others, with a determination to go forward in thy sin, whatsoever the Preacher say, and so to encourage others by thy example, Quomodo intrasti, How durst thou come in? If thou camest in with thine own provision in thy pocket, and didst not rely upon mine, and think that thou canst be saved without Sermons, or Sacraments, Qvmodo intrasti, How durst thou come in? Him that came in there, without this Wedding garment, the Master of the Feast calls Friend; but scornfully, Friend how camest thou in? But he cast him out. God may call us Friends, that is, admit, and allow us the estimation and credit of being of his Church, but at one time or other, he shall minister that Interrogatory, Friend, how came you in? and for want of that Wedding garment, and for want of wearing it in the sight of men, (for it is not said that that man had no such Wedding garment at home, in his Wardrobe, but that he had none on) for want of Sanctification in a holy life, God shall deliver us over to the execution of our own consciences, and eternal condemnation.

But be ye reconciled to God, embrace this reconciliation in making your use of those means, and this reconciliation shall work thus, it shall restore you to that state, that Adam had in Paradise. What would a soul oppressed with the sense of sin give, that she were in that state of Innocency, that she had in Baptism? Be reconciled to God, and you have that, and an elder Innocency then that, the Innocency of Paradise. Go home, and if you find an over-burden of children, negligence in servants, crosses in your tradings, narrowness, penury in your estate, yet this penurious, and this encumbered house shall be your Paradise. Go forth, into the Country, and if you find unseasonableness in the weather, rots in your sheep, murrains in your cattle, worms in your corn, backwardness in your rents, oppression in your Landlord, yet this field of thorns and brambles shall be your Paradise. Lock thy self up in thy self, in thine own bosom, and though thou find every room covered with the soot of former sins, and shook with that Devil whose name is Legion, some such sin as many sins depend upon, and are induced by, yet this prison, this rack, this hell in thine own conscience shall be thy Paradise. And as in Paradise Adam at first needed no Savior, so when by this reconciliation, in apprehending thy Savior, thou art restored to this Paradise, thou shalt need no sub-Savior, no joint-Savior, but Caetera adjicientur, no other Angel, but the Angel of the great Council, no other Saint, but the Holy One of Israel, he who hath wrought this reconciliation for thee, and brought it to thee, shall establish it in thee; For, if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. This is the sum and the end of all, That when God sends humble and laborious Pastors, to souple and applicable Congregations; That we pray, and you receive us in Christs stead, we shall not only find rest in God, but, (as it is said of Noahs sacrifice) God shall find the savor of rest in us; God shall find a Sabbath to himself in us, and rest from his jealousies, and anger towards us, and we shall have a Sabbatary life here in the rest and peace of conscience, and a life of one everlasting Sabbath hereafter, where to our Rest there shall be added Joy, and to our Joy Glory, and this Rest, and Joy, and Glory superinvested with that which crowns them all, Eternity.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLI.

HOSEA 3. 4. For, the Children of Israel shall abide many days, without a King, and without a Prince, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Image, and without an Ephod, and without Teraphim.

Preached at Saint Pauls Cross. 6 May. 1627.

SOme Cosmographers have said, That there is no land so placed in the world, but that from that land, a man may see other land. I dispute it not, I defend it not; I accept it, and I apply it; there is scarce any mercy expressed in the Scriptures, but that from that mercy you may see another mercy. Christ sets up a candle now here, only to lighten that one room, but as he is lumen de lumine, light of light, so he would have more lights lighted at every light of his, and make every former mercy an argument, an earnest, a conveyance of more. Between land and land you may see seas, and seas enraged with tempests; but still, say they, some other land too. Between mercy, and mercy, you may find Comminations, and Judgements, but still more mercy. For this discovery let this text be our Mappe. First we see land, we see mercy in that gracious compellation, Children, (the Children of Israel) Then we see sea, then comes a Commination,a that shall last some time, (many days shall the Children of Israel suffer) But there they may see land too, another mercy, even this time of Judgement shall be a day, they shall not be benighted, not left in darkness in their Judgement; (many days, all the while, it shall be day) Then the text opens into a deep Ocean, a spreading Sea, (They shall be without a King, and without a Prince, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Image, and without an Ephod, and without Teraphim.) But even from this Sea, this vast Sea, this Sea of devastation, we see land; for, in the next verse follows another mercy, (The Children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their King, and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the later days.) And beyond this land, there is no more Sea; beyond this mercy, no more Judgement, for with this mercy the Chapter ends.

Consider our text then, as a whole Globe, as an entire Sphere, and then our two Hemispheres of this Globe, our two parts of this text, will be, First, that no perverseness of ours, no rebellion, no disobedience puts God beyond his mercy, nor extinguishes his love; still he calls Israel, rebellious Israel his Children; nay his own anger, his own Judgements, then, when he is in the exercise thereof, in the execution thereof, puts him not beyond his mercy, extinguishes not his love; he hides not his face from them then, he leaves them not then, in the dark, he accompanies their calamity with a light, he makes that time, though cloudy, though overcast, yet a day unto them; (the Children of Israel shall abide many days in this case.) But then, as no disobedience removes God from himself, (for he is love, and mercy) so no interest of ours in God, doth so privilege us, but that he will execute his Judgements upon his Children too, even the Children of Israel shall fall into these Calamities. And from this first part, we shall pass to the second; from these general considerations, (That no punishments should make us desperate, that no favours should make us secure) we shall pass to the particular commination, and judgements upon the children of Israel in this text, without King, without Prince &c.

In our first part, we stop first, upon this declaration of his mercy, in this fatherly appellation, Children, (the children of Israel) He does not call them children of Israel, as though he disavowed them, and put them off to another Father; but therefore, because they are the Children of Israel, they are his Children, for, he had married Israel; and married her to himself for ever. Many of us are Fathers; and, from God, here may learn tenderness towards children. All of us are children of some parents, and therefore should hearken after the name of Father, which is nomen pietatis & potestatis, a name that argues their power over us, and our piety towards them; and so, concerns many of us, in a double capacity, (as we are children, and parents too) but all of us in one capacity, as we are children derived from other parents. God is the Father of man, otherwise then he is of other creatures. He is the Father of all Creatures; so Philo calls all Creatures sorores suas, his sisters; but then, all those sisters of man, all those daughters of God are not alike married. God hath placed his Creatures in divers ranks, and in divers conditions; neither must any man think, that he hath not done the duty of a Father, if he have not placed all his Sons, or not matched all his daughters, in a condition equal to himself, or not equal to one another. God hath placed creatures in the heavens, and creatures in the earth, and creatures in the sea, and yet, all these creatures are his children, and when he looked upon them all, in their divers stations, he saw, omnia valde bora, that all was very well; And that Father that imploies one Son in learning; another to husbandry, another to Merchandise, pursues Gods example, in disposing his children, (his creatures) diversly, and all well. Such creatures as the Rain, (though it may seem but an imperfect, and ignoble creature, fallen from the womb of a cloud) have God for their Father; (God is the Father of the Rain.) And such creatures as light, have but God for their Father. God is Pater luminum, the Father of lights. Whether we take lights there to be the Angels, created with the light, (some take it so) or to be the several lights set up in the heavens, Sun, and Moon and Stars, (some take it so) or to be the light of Grace in infusion by the Spirit, or the light of the Church, in manifestation, by the word, (for, all these acceptations have convenient. Authors, and worthy to be followed) God is the Father of lights, of all lights; but so he is of rain, and clouds too. And God is the Father of glory; (as Saint Paul styles him) of all glory; whether of those beams of glory which he sheds upon us here, in the blessings, and preferments of this life, or that weight of glory which he reserves for us, in the life to come. From that inglorious drop of rain, that falls into the dust, and rises no more, to those glorious Saints who shall rise from the dust, and fall no more, but, as they arise at once to the fullness of Essential joy, so arise daily in accidential joys, all are the children of God, and all alike of kin to us. And therefore let us not measure our avowing, or our countenancing of our kindred, by their measure of honor, or place, or riches in the world, but let us look how fast they grow in the root, that is, in the same worship of the same God, who is ours, and their Father too. He is nearest of kin to me, that is of the same religion with me; as they are creatures, they are of kin to me by the Father, but, as they are of the same Church, and religion, by Father and mother too.

Philo calls all creatures his sisters, but all men are his brothers. God is the Father of man in a stronger and more peculiar, and more masculine sense, then of other Creatures. Filius particeps & con-dominus cum patre: as the law calls the Son, the partner of the Father, and fellow-Lord, joint-Lord with the Father, of all the possession that is to descend, so God hath made man his partner, and fellow-Lord of all his other creatures in Moses his Dominamini, when he gives man a power to rule over them, and in Davids Omnia subjecisti, when he imprints there, a natural disposition in the creature to the obedience of man. So high, so very high a filiation, hath God given man, as that, having another Son, by another filiation, a higher filiation then this, by an eternal generation, yet he was content, that that Son should become this Son, that the Son of God should become the Son of Man.

God is the Father of all; of man otherwise then of all the rest; but then, of the children of Israel, otherwise then of all other men. For he bought them; and, is not be thy Father that hath bought thee? says God by Moses. Not to speak of that purchase, which he made by the death of his Son, (for that belongs to all the world) he bought the Jews in particular, at such a price, such silver, and such gold, such temporal, and such spiritual benefits, such a Land, and such a Church, such a Law, and such a Religion, as, certainly, he might have had all the world at that price. If God would have manifested himself, poured out himself to the Nations, as he did to the Jews, all the world would have swarmed to his obedience, and herded in his pale. God was their father, and, as S. Chrysostome, (that he might be sure to draw in all degrees of tender affection) calls him, Their Mother too. For, Matris nutrire, Patris erudire; It was a Mothers part to give them suck, and to feed them with temporal blessings; It was a Fathers part to instruct them, and to feed them with spiritual things; and God did both abundantly. Therefore doth God submit himself to the comparison of a Mother in the Prophet Isaiah, Can a woman forget her sucking child? But then, he stays not in that inferior, in that infirmer sex, but returns to a stronger love, then that of a Mother, (yes, (says he) she may forget, yet will not I forget thee.) And therefore, when David says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; David expresses that, which we translate in a general word, Benefits, in this word, Gamal, which signifies Ablactationes; forget not that God nursed thee as a Mother, and then, Ablactavit, we and thee, and provided thee stronger food, out of the care of a father. In one word, all creatures are Gods children; man is his son; but then, Israel is his first-born son; for that is the addition, which God gives Israel by Moses to Pharaoh, (Say unto Pharaoh, Israel is my son, even my first-born.) Why God adopted Israel into this siliation, into this primogeniture, before all the people of the world, we can assign no reason, but his love only. But why he did not before this Text, dis-inherit this adopted son, is a higher degree, and exercise of his love, then the Adoption it self, if we consider, (which is a useful consideration) their manifold provocations to such an exhaeredation, and what God suffered at their hands.

The ordinary causes of Exhaeredation, for which, a man might dis-inherit his son, are assigned and numbered in the law, to be fourteen. But divers of them grow out of one root, (Vndutifulness, Inofficiousness towards the father) and as, by that reason, they may be extended to more, so they may be contracted to sewer, to two. These two, Ingratitude, and Irreligion. Vnthankfulness, and Idolatry were ever just causes of Exhaeredation, of Dis-inheriting. And with these two, did the Jews more provoke Almighty God, then any children, any father. Stop we a little our Consideration upon each of these.

He is not always ungrateful, that does not recompense a benefit, but he only that would not, though he could make, and though the Benefactor needed a recompense. When Furnius, upon whom Augustus had multiplied benefits, told him, that in one thing he had damnified him, in one thing he had undone him, Effecisti at viverem & morerer ingratus, You have done so much for me, (says he) that I must live, and die unthankful, that is, without shewing my thankfulness by equivalent recompenses: This which he calls unthankfulness, was thankfulness enough. There are men, (says the Moral man) Qui quo plus debent, magis oderant, that hate those men most, who have laid most obligations upon them. Leve as alienum debitorem facit, grave inimicum; for a little debt he will be content to look towards me, but when it is great, more then he can pay, or as much as he thinks he can get from me, then he would be glad to be rid of me. Acknowledgement is a good degree of thankfulness. But, ingratitude at the highest, (and the Jews ingratitude was at the highest) involves even a concealing, and a denying of benefits, and even a hating, and injuring of Benefactors. And so, Res peremptoria ingratitudo, says Bernard significantly, Ingratitude is a peremptory sin; it does Perimere, that is, destroy, not only all virtues, but it destroys, that is, overflows all other particular Vices; no vice can get a name, where ingratitude is; it swallows all, devours all, becomes all; Ingratum dicas, omnia dixisti, If you have called a man unthankful, you have called him by all the ill names that are: for this complicated, this manifold, this pregnant vice, Ingratitude, the holy language, the Hebrew, lacks a word. The nearest root that they can draw Ingratitude into, is Caphar, and Caphar is but Tegere, to hide, to conceal a benefit; but to deny a benefit, or to hate or injure a Benefactor, they have not a word. And therefore, as S. Jerome found not the word in the Hebrew, so in all Saint Hieromes translation of the Old Testament, (or in that which is reputed his, the Vulgate Edition) you have not that Latin word, Ingratus; Curious sinners, subtle self-damners; they could not name Ingratitude, and in all the steps of Ingratitude, they exceeded all men, all Nations. From the Ingratitude of murmuring, upon which, God lays that woe, (Woe unto him that says to his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? A dog murmures not that he is not a Lion, nor a blind-worm without eyes, that he is not a Basilisk to kill with his eyes; Dust murmures not that it is not Amber, nor a Dunghill that it is not a Mine, nor an Angel that he is not of the Seraphim; and every man would be something else then God hath made him,) from this murmuring for that which he hath not, to another degree of Ingratitude, The appropriation of that which he hath, to himself, Vti Datis tanquam Innatis, (as S. Bernard speaks in his music) To attribute to our selves that which we have received from God, to think our selves as strong in Nature as in Grace, and as safe in our own free-will, as in the love of God; as God says of Jerusalem, (That he had given her her beauty, and then she plaid the harlot, as if it had been her own) by these steps of Ingratitude to the highest of all which is, rather then to confess her self beholden to God, to change her God, and so to slide from Ingratitude to Idolatry, Jerusalem came, and over-went all the Nations upon the earth.

Their Ingratitude induced Idolatry in an instant. As soon as they came to that ungrateful murmuring, (As for Moses we cannot tell what is become of him) they came presently to say to Aaron, (Vp and make us Gods that may go before us) which is an impotency, a leprosy, that derives it self far, spreads far, that as soon as our sins induce any worldly cross, any clamity upon us, we come to think of another Church, another Religion, and conclude, That that cannot be a good Church, in which we have lived in. Now, against this impious levity, of facility in changing our Religion, God seems to express the greatest indignation, when he says, They sacrificed unto gods whom they knew not, to new gods. Men, amongst us, that have been baptized, and catechized in the truth, and in the knowledge thereof, fall into ignorant falsehood, and embrace a Religion which they understand not, nor can understand, because it lies in the breast of one man, and is therefore subject to alterations. They sacrifice to gods whom they know not, (says God) and those gods new gods too; The more suspicious, for their newness; and, (as it is added there) unto gods whom their fathers feared not. Men, that fall from us, (whose fathers were of that Religion) put themselves into more bondage and slavery to the Court of Rome now, then their fathers did to the Church of Rome then; They sacrifice to gods, whom they know not, and whom their fathers feared not, so much as they do. But, they have corrupted themselves; (as God charges them farther) They are fallen from us, whom no example of their fathers led that way; fathers have left their former superstition, which they were born and bred in, and the sons, which were born, and bred in the truth, have embraced those superstitions; Their spot is not the spot of children, (so it follows in the same place) a weakness that might have that excuse, that they proceeded out of a reverential respect to their fathers, and followed their example; (for their fathers have stood, and they are fallen. (Their spot is not the spot of children.) And, because Kings are pictures of God, when they trun upon new gods, they turn to new pictures of God too, and with a foreign Religion, invest a foreign Allegiance. Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, says God, and from the Ammonites. and from the Amorites, and Philistims? from a succession of enemies, at times, and from a league of enemies at once, Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods, says God there; And therefore, (to that resolution God comes) Therefore, I will deliver you no more. And yet, how often did God deliver them after this? Ingratitude, Idolatry, are just causes of Exhaeredation; Israel abounded in both these, and yet, after all these, in this Text, he calls them Children, The Children of Israel, and therefore his children.

God is kind even to the unthankful, saith christ himself, and himself calls Jerusalem, The holy City, even when she was defiled with many and manifold uncleannesses, because she had been holy, and had the outward help of holiness remaining in her still. Christ doth not disavow, not disinherit those children which gave most just cause of exheredation; much less doth he justify, by his example, final and total disinheriting of children, occasioned by single and small faults in the children, and grounded in the Parents, upon sudden, and passionate, and intemperate, and imaginary vows, They have vowed to do it, therefore they will do it; for, so they put a pretext of Religion upon their impiety, and make God accessary to that which he dislikes, and upon color of a vow, do that which is far from a service to God, as the performance of every lawful, and discreet vow is. God calls them his Children, (which is one) and then, though as a Father he correct them, yet he shows them his face, in that correction, (which is another beam of his mercy) He calls their calamity, their affliction, Not a night, but a day, (many days shall the children of Israel suffer this.)

We find these two words often joined together in the Scriptures, Dies visitationis, The day of visitation; though as it is a visitation, it be a sad, a dark contemplation, yet as it is a day, it hath always a cheerfulness in it. If it were called a night, I might be afraid, that this night, They (I am not told who) would fetch away my soul; but, being a day, I have assurance, that the Sun, the Sun of Righteousness will arise to me. At the light of thine Arrows, they went forward, saith the Prophet Habakkuk. Though they be Arrows, yet they are Torches too, though they burn, yet they give light too; though God shoot his Arrows at me, even by them, I shall have light enough to see that it is God that shoots. As there is a heavy commination in that of Amos, (I will cause the Sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth, in clear day) so is there a gracious promise, and a constant practise in God, That he will (as he hath done) command light of darkness, and inable thee to see a clear day, by his presence, in the darkest night of tribulation. For, truly, such a sense, (I think) belongs to those words in Hosea, That when God had said, The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come, God adds that, as an aggravating of the calamity; yea, woe also to them, when I depart from them; as though the oppression of the affliction, the peremptoriness of the affliction, were not in the affliction it self, hut in Gods departing from them, when he afflicted them; they should be visited, but see no day in their visitations, afflicted from God, but see no light from him, receive no consolation in him. In this place we take it, (for the exaltation of your devotion) as a particular beam of his mercy) That though the Children of Israel were afflicted many days, yet still he affords them the name of Children, and still their dark and cloudy days were accompanied with the light, and presence of God, still they felt the Hand of God under them, the Face of God upon them, the Heart of God towards them.

Those then, which have this filiation, God doth not easily disinherit; because they were his Children, after unnatural disobediencies, he avows them, and continues that name to them. But yet, this must not imprint a security, a presumption; for, even the children here, are submitted to heavy and dangerous calamities; when Christ himself saith, The children of the kingdom shall be cast into utter darkness, who can promise himself a perpetual, or unconditioned station? we have in the Scriptures two especial Types of the Church, Paradise, and the Ark. But, in that Type, the Ark, we are principally instructed, what the Church in general shall do, and in that in Paradise, what particular men in the Church should do. For, we do not read, that in the Ark Noah, or his company, did weigh any anchor, hoist any sail, ship any oar, steare any rudder; but, the Ark, by the providence of God, who only was Pilot, rode safe upon the face of the waters. The Church it self, (figured by the Ark) cannot shipwreck; though men sleep, though the Devil wake, The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church. But in the other Type of the Church, where every man is instructed in his particular duty therein, Paradise, Adam himself was commanded to dress Paradise, and to keep Paradise. And when he did not that which he was injoyned to do in that place, he forfeited his interest in it, and his benefit by it. Though we be born and bred in Gods house, as Children Baptized, and Catechized in the true Church, if we slacken our holy industry in making fare our salvation, we, though Children of the Kingdom, may becast out, and all our former helps, and our proceedings by the benefit of those helps, shall but aggravate our condemnation. Alpha and Omega make up the Name of Christ; and, between Alpha and Omega, are all the letters of the Alphabet included. A Christian is made up of Alpha and Omega, and all between. He must begin well, (embrace the true Church) and live well according to the profession of that true Church, and die well, according to that former holy life, and practise. Truth in the beginning, Zeal all the way, and Constancy in the end make up a Christian. Otherwise for all this filiation, children may be disinherited, or submitted to such calamities as these which are interminated upon the children of Israel, which constitute our second part, They shall be without a King, and without a Prince, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Ephod, and without a Teraphim.

Disobedient children are not cast off; but yet disobedience is not left uncorrected. Be merciful, but merciful so, as your Father in Heaven is merciful; Be not so merciful upon any private respect, as to be thereby cruel to the public. And be Iust; but, just, as your Father in Heaven is just; Hate not the vice of a man so, as thereby to hate the man himself. God hath promised to be an enemy to our enemies, an adversary to our adversaries; but, God is no irreconciliable enemy, no implacable, no inexorable Adversary. For, that hatred which David calls Odium perfectum, (I have hated them with a perfect hatred) is not only a vehement hatred, but (as Saint Hilary calls it) Odium religiosum, a hatred that may consist with religion: That I hate not another man, for his religion, so as that I lose all religion in my self, by such a hating of him. And Saint Augustine calls it Odium Charitativum, a hate that may consist with Charity; that I hate no man for his peremptory uncharitableness towards my religion, so as to lose mine own Charity; for, I am come to one point of his religion, if I come to be as uncharitable as he. God and Kings are at a near distance, All gods; Magistrates, and inferior persons are at a near distance, all dust. As God proceeds with a King, with Iehosaphat, in that temper, that moderation, (Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord?) So men with men, Magistrates with inferior men, learned men with ignorant men, should proceed with Saint Pauls moderation, If any man obey not (but be refractary, unconformable) note that man (saith the Apostle) and have no company with him, but yet count him not as an enemy. The union of the two Natures in Christ, give us a faire example, that Divinity and Humanity may consist together. No Religion induces Inhumanity; no Piety, no Zeal destroys nature; and since there is a time to hate, and a time to love, then is love most seasonable, when other civil contracts, civil alliances, civil concurrences, have soupled and intenerated the dispositions of persons, or nations, formerly farther asunder, to a better possibility, to a fairer probability, to a nearer propinquity of hearkening to one another, That Christ might reconcile both unto God, in one body, by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Civil Offices may work upon religions too; and where that may follow, (That our mildness in civil things, may prevail upon their obduration in religion) there is the time to love. But in cases, where civil peace and religious foundations are both shook, that the State and the Church, as they are both in one bottom, so they are chased by one Pirate, I hate not with a perfect hatred, not perfect towards God, except I declare, and urge, and press home, the truth of God, against their errors in my Ministry, nor perfect towards man, except I advance, in my place, the execution of those Laws against their practises, without which, they are enabled, nay incouraged, nay persuaded, nay intreated to go forward in those practises. God himself proceeds against his own children so far, (and dearer then those children were to God, can no friends be to us, no allies to any Prince) That they should be without King, without Prince, without Sacrifice, without Image, without Ephod, without Teraphim; that is, without Temporal, without Ecclesiastical Government.

First, then, we presume, we presuppose, (and that necessarily) every piece of this part of our Text, to fall under the Commination; they were threatened with the loss of every particular, and therefore they were the worse for every particular loss. Not the worse only because they thought themselves the worse, because they had fixed their love and their delight upon these things, but because they were really the better for having them, it was really a curse, a Commination, that they should lose them; as well that they should lose their Ephod, and their Image, and their Teraphim, as that they should lose their Sacrifices. But first,(though that other fall also within the Commination, that they should be without a settled form of Religion, without Sacrifice, and Ephod, and the rest) the first thing that the Commination falls upon, is, That they should be without a Civil form of government, without King, and without Prince. For, though our Religion prepare us to our Bene esse, our well-being, our everlasting happiness, yet it is the State, the civil and peaceable government, which preserves our very Esse, our very Being; and there cannot be a Bene esse, without an Esse, a well and a happy Being, except there be first a Being established. It is the State, the Law, that constitutes Families and Cities, and Propriety, and Magistracy, and Jurisdiction. The State, the Law preserves and distinguishes, not only the Meum & Tuum, the Possessions of men, but the Me & Te, the very persons of men; The Law tells me, not only whose land I must call every Acre, but whose son I must call every man. Therefore God made the Body before the Soul; Therefore there is in man a vegetative, and a sensitive soul, before an immortal, and reasonable soul enter. Therefore also, in this place, God proposes first the Civil State, the temporal Government, (what it is, to have a King and a Prince) before he proposes the happiness of a Church, and a Religion; not but that our Religion conduces to the greater happiness, but that our Religion cannot be conserved, except the Civil State, and temporal Government be conserved too.

The first thing then that the Commination falls upon, is the loss of their Temporal State. But the Commination doth not fall so fully upon the exclusion of all forms of Government, as upon the exclusion of Monarchy; It does not so expressly threaten an Anarchy, that they should have no Government, no Governours; It is not sine Regimine, but sine Rege, If they had any, they should not have the best, They should be without a King. Now, if with S. Jerome, and others that accompany him in that interpretation, we take the Prophecy of this Text, to be fulfilled in that Dispersion which hath continued upon the Jews, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews have been so far from having had any King, as that they have not had a Constable of their own, in any part of the world; no interest at all, in any part of the Magistracy and Jurisdiction of the world, any where, but they are a whole Nation of Cains, fugitives, and vagabonds. But howsoever it be, the heat, and the vehemency of this Commination falls upon this particular, sine Rege, they shall be without a King. It was long before God afforded the Jews a King; and he did not easily do it, then when he did it. Not, that he intended not that form of Government for them, but because they would extort it from him, before his time, and because they asked it only in that respect, That they might be like their neighbours, to whom God would not have had them too like: And also, because God, to keep their thankfulness still awake, would reserve, and keep back some better thing, then he had given them yet, to give them at last. For, so he says, (as the Coronation of all his benefits to Israel, of which there is a glorious Inventary in that Chapter) Thou didst prosper into a Kingdom; Till the Crown of glory be presented, in the comming of the Messiah, thou canst not be happier. Those therefore that allow but a conditional Sovereignty in a Kingdom, an arbitrary, a temporary Sovereignty, that may be transferred at the pleasure of another, they oppose the Nolumus hoc, we would not have, we would not live under this form of Government, not under a temporal Monarchy, Nolumus hoc. Those that determine Allegiance, and civil obedience only by their own religion, and think themselves bound to obey none, that is of another persuasion, they oppose the Nolumus hunc, We will not have this man to reign over us; and so, make their relations, and fix their dependencies upon foreign hopes, Nolumus hunc. Those that fix a super-Sovereignty in the people, or in a Presbytery, they oppose the Nolumus sic, we would not have things carried thus; They pretend to know the happiness of living under that form, A Kingdom, and to acknowledge the person of the King, but they would be governed every man according to his own mind. And all these, the Nolumus hoc, (they that desire not the continuance of that form, of a Kingdom in an Independency, but would have a dependency upon a foreign power;) And the Nolumus hunc, (they that are disaffected to the person of him that governs for the present;) And the Nolumus sic, (they that will prescribe to the King, ends, and ways to those ends:) all these assist this malediction, this commination, which God interminates here, as the greatest calamity, sine Rege, They shall be without a King; for this is to Canton out a Monarchy, to Ravel out a Kingdom, to Crumble out a King.

There is another branch in this Part, which is of Temporal calamities, That they shall be sine Principe, Without a King, and without a Prince. The word in the original is Sar; and take it, as it sounds most literally in our Translation, The Prince is the Kings Son; so, this very word is used in Isaiah; Sar Salem; The Son of God, is called the Prince of Peace. And so, the commination upon the Jews is thus far aggravated, That they shall be without a Prince, that is, without a certain heir; and Successor; which uncertainty, (more then any thing else) slackens the industry of all men at home, and sharpens the malice of all men abroad; fears at home, and hopes abroad, discompose and disorder all, where they are sine Principe, without a certain heir. But the word enlarges it self farther; for, Sar signifies a Judge; when Moses rebuked a Malefactor, he replies to Moses, Who made thee a Judge? And in many, very many places, Sar signifies a Commander in the Wars. So that where the Iustice of the State, or the Military power of the State fail, (and they fail, where the men who do, or should execute those places, will not, or dare not do, what appertains to their places) there this Commination falls, They are without a Prince, that is, without future assurance, without present power, or Justice.

But we pass to the spiritual Commination; that is, They shall be without Sacrifice, without Ephod, without Image, without Teraphim. It is not that their understanding shall be taken away, no, nor that the tenderness of their conscience, or their zeal shall be taken away; It is not that they shall come to any impiety, or ill opinion of God; They may have religious, and well-disposed hearts, and yet be under a curse, if they have not a Church, an outward Discipline established amongst them. It is not enough for a man to believe aright, but he must apply himself to some Church, to some outward form of worshipping God; It is not enough for a Church, to hold no error in doctrine, but it must have outward assistances for the devotion of her children, and outward decency for the glory of her God. Both these kinds are intended in the particulars of this Text, Sacrifice and Ephod, Image and Teraphim.

First, it is a part of the curse, to be without Sacrifice. Now, if according to S. Hieromes interpretation, this Text be a Prophecy upon the Jews, after Christs time, and that the Malediction consist in this, That they shall not embrace the Christian Religion, nor the Christian Church entertain them; if the Prophet drive to this, They shall be without Sacrifices, because they shall not be of the Christian Church, certainly the Christian Church is not to be without Sacrifice. It is a miserable impotency, to be afraid of words; That from a former holy and just detestation of real errors, we should come to an uncharitable detestation of persons, and to a contentious detestation of words. We dare not name Merit, nor Penance, nor Sacrifice, nor Altar, because they have been abused. How should we be disappointed, and disfurnished of many words in our ordinary conversation, if we should be bound from all words, which blasphemous men have prophaned, or unclean men have defiled with their ill use of those words? There is Merit, there is Penance, there is Sacrifice, there are Altars, in that sense, in which those blessed men, who used those words first, at first used them. The Communion Table is an Altar; and in the Sacrament there is a Sacrifice. Not only a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, common to all the Congregation, but a Sacrifice peculiar to the Priest, though for the People. There he offers up to God the Father, (that is, to the remembrance, to the contemplation of God the Father) the whole body of the merits of Christ Jesus, and begges of him, that in contemplation of that Sacrifice so offered, of that Body of his merits, he would vouchsafe to return, and to apply those merits to that Congregation. A Sacrifice, as far from their blasphemous over-boldness, who constitute a propitiatory Sacrifice, in the Church of Rome, as from their over-tenderness, who startle at the name of Sacrifice. We do not, (as at Rome) first invest the power of God, and make our selves able to make a Christ, and then invest the malice of the Jews, and kill that Christ, whom we have made; for, Sacrifice, Immolation, (taken so properly, and literally as they take it) is a killing; But the whole body of Christs actions and passions; we sacrifice, we represent, we offer to God. Calvin alone, hath said enough, Non possumus, except we be assisted with outward things, we cannot fixe our selves upon God. Therefore is it part of the malediction here, that they shall be sine Sacrificio, without Sacrifice; so is it also in inferior helps, sine Ephod, they shall be without an Ephod.

The Ephod amongst the Jews, was a garment, which did not only distinguish times, (for it was worn only in time of divine Service) but, even in time of divine Service, it distinguished persons too. For, we have a Pontifical Ephod, peculiar only to the high Priest; And we have a Levitical Ephod, belonging to all the Levites; (Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen Ephod.) And we have a common Ephod, which, any man, that assisted in the service of God might wear; That linen Ephod, which David put on, in that Procession, when he danced before the Ark. But all these Ephods were bound under certain Laws, to be worn by such men, and at such times. Christs garment was not divided; nay, the Soldiers were not divided about it, but agreed in one way; And shall we, (the Body of Christ) be divided about the garment, that is, vary in the garment, by denying a conformity to that Decency which is prescribed? When Christ divested, or supprest the Majesty of his outward appearance, at his Resurrection, Mary Magdalen took him but for a Gardiner. Ecclesiastical persons in secular habits, lose their respect. Though the very habit be but a Ceremony, yet the distinction of habits is rooted in nature, and in morality; And when the particular habit is enjoined by lawful Authority, obedience is rooted in nature, and in morality too. In a Watch, the string moves nothing, but yet, it conserves the regularity of the motion of all. Ritual, and Ceremonial things move not God, but they exalt that Devotion, and they conserve that Order, which does move him. Therefore is it also made a part of the Commination, that they shall be sine Ephod, without these outward Ritual, and Ceremonial solemnities of a Church; first, without Sacrifices, which are more substantial and essential parts of Religion, (as we consider Religion to be the outward worship of God, and then, without Ephod, without those other assistances, which, though they be not of Gods Revenue, yet they are of his Subsidies, and though they be not the soul, yet are the breath of Religion. And so also is it of things of a more inferior nature then Sacrifice or Ephod, that is of Image and Teraphim, which is our next, and last Consideration.

Both these words, (that which is translated, and called Image, and that which is not translated, but kept in the original word, Teraphim) have sometimes a good, sometimes a bad sense in the Scriptures. In the First, Image, there is no difficulty; good and bad significations of that word, are obvious every where. And for the other, though when Rachel stole her fathers Teraphim, (Images) though when the King of Babylon consulted with Teraphim, (Images) the word Teraphim have an ill sense, yet, when Michal, Davids wife, put an Image into his bed, to elude the fury of Saul, there the word hath no ill sense. Accept the words in an Idolatrous sense, yet, because they fall under the commination, and that God threatens it, as a part of their calamity, that they should be without their Idols, it hath been, not inconveniently, argued from this place, that even a Religion mixed with some Idolatry, and superstition, is better then none, as in Civil Government a Tyranny is better then an Anarchy. And therefore we must not bring the same indisposition, the same disaffection towards a person mis-led, and soured with some leaven of Idolatry, as towards a person possest with Atheism. And yet, how ordinarily we see, zealous men start, and affected, and troubled at the presence of a Papist, and never moved, never forbear the society and conversation of an Atheist: Which is an argument too evident, that we consider our selves more then God, and that peace which the Papist endangers, more then the Atheist, (which is, the peace of the State, and a quiet enjoying our ease) above the glory of God, which the Atheist wounds, and violates more then the Papist; The Papist withdraws some of the glory of God, in ascribing it to the Saints, to themselves, and their own merits, but the Atheist leaves no God to be glorified. And this use we have of these words, Images, and Teraphim, if they should have an ill sense in this place, and signify Idols.

But Saint Jerome, and others with him, take these words, in a good sense; to be the Cherubim, and Palms, and such other representations, as God himself had ordained in their Temple; and that the Commination falls upon this, That in some cases, it may be some want, to be without some Pictures in the Church. So far as they may conduce to a reverend adoring of the place, so far as they may conduce to a familiar instructing of unlettered people, it may be a loss to lack them. For, so much Calvin, out of his religious wisdom, is content to acknowledge, Fateor, ut res se habet hodiè, &c. I confess, as the case stands now, (says he) (speaking of the beginning of the Reformation) there are many that could not be without those Books, (as he calls those Pictures) because then they had no other way of Instruction; but, that that might be supplied, if those things which were delivered in picture, to their eyes, were delivered in Sermons to their ears. And this is true, that where there is a frequent preaching, there is no necessity of pictures; but will not every man add this, That if the true use of Pictures be preached unto them, there is no danger of an abuse; and so, as Remembrancers of that which hath been taught in the Pulpit, they may be retained; And that was one office of the Holy Ghost himself, That he should bring to their remembrance those things, which had been formerly taught them. And since, by being taught the right use of these pictures, in our preaching, no man amongst us, is any more inclined, or endangered to worship a picture in a Wall or Window of the Church, then if he saw it in a Gallery, were it only for a reverent adorning of the place, they may be retained here, as they are in the greatest part of the Reformed Church, and in all that, that is properly Protestant. And though the Injunctions of our Church, declare the sense of those times, concerning Images, yet they are wisely and godly conceived; for the second is, That they shall not extoll Images, (which is not, that they shall not set them up) but, (as it followeth) They shall declare the abuse thereof. And when in the 23 Injunction, it is said, That they shall utterly extinct, and destroy, (amongst other things) pictures, yet it is limited to such things, and such pictures, as are monuments of feigned miracles; and that Injuction reaches as well to pictures in private houses, as in Churches, and forbids nothing in the Church, that might be retained in the house. For those pernicious Errors, which the Roman Church hath multiplied in this point, not only to make Images of men, which never were, but to make those Images of men, very men, to make their Images speak, and move, and weep, and bleed; to make Images of God who was never seen, and to make those Images of God, very gods; to make their Images do daily miracles; to transferre the honor due to God, to the Image, and then to encumber themselves with such ridiculous riddles, and scornful distinctions, as they do, for justifying unjustifiable, unexcusable, uncolourable enormities, Va Idololatris, woe to such advancers of Images, as would throw down Christ, rather then his Image: But Vae Iconeclastis too, woe to such peremptory abhorrers of Pictures, and to such uncharitable condemners of all those who admit any use of them, as had rather throw down a Church, then let a Picture stand. Laying hold upon S. Hieromes exposition, that falls within the Vae, the Commination of this Text, to be without those Sacrifices, those Ephods, those Images, as they are outward helps of devotion. And, laying hold, not upon S. Jerome, but upon Christ himself, who is the God of love, and peace, and unity, yet falls under a heavy, and insupportable Vae, to violate the peace of the Church, for things which concern it not fundamentally. Problematical things are our silver, but fundamental, our gold; problematical out sweat, but fundamental our blood. If our Adversaries would be bought in, with our silver, with our sweat, we should not be difficult in meeting them half way, in things, in their nature, indifferent. But if we must pay our Gold, our Blood, our fundamental points of Religion, for their friendship, A Fortune, a Liberty, a Wife, a Child, a Father, a Friend, a Master, a Neighbor, a Benefactor, a Kingdom, a Church, a World, is not worth a dramme of this Gold, a drop of this Blood. Neither will that man, who is truly rooted in this foundation, redeem an Empoverishing, an Emprisoning, a Dis-inheriting, a Confining, an Excommunicating, a Deposing, with a dramme of this Gold, with a drop of this Blood, the fundamental Articles of our Religion. Blessed be that God, who, as he is without change or color of change, hath kept us without change, or color of change, in all our foundations; And he in his time bring our Adversaries to such a moderation as becomes them, who do truly desire, that the Church may be truly Catholic, one stock, in one fold, under one Shepherd, though not all of one color, of one practise in all outward and disciplinarian points. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLII.

PROV. 14. 31. He that oppresseth the poor, reprocheth his Maker, but he that honoureth him, hath mercy on the poor.

A Sermon Preached in Saint Pauls in the Evening, November 23. 1628.

Part of the first Lesson, for that Evening Prayer.

THese are such words, as if we were to consider the words only, might make a Grammar Lecture, and a Logic Lecture, and a Rhetoric and Ethic, a Philosophy Lecture too; And of these four Elements might a better Sermon then you are like to hear now, be well made. Indeed they are words of a large, of an extensive comprehension. And because all the words of the Word of God, are, in a great measure, so, that invites me to stop a little, as upon a short first part before the rest, or as upon a long entry into the rest, to consider, not only the powerfulness of the matter, but the sweetness and elegancy of the words of the Word of God in general, before I descend to the particular words of this Text, He that oppresseth the poor, &c.

We may justly accommodate those words of Moses, to God the Father, What God is there in Heaven, or in Earth, that can do according to thy works? And those words of Jeremiah, to God the Son, Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow; And those to the Holy Ghost which are in Isaiah, Loquimini, ad Cor, speak to the heart, speak comfortably to my People, And those of Saint John too, A voice of Thunder, and after, A voice of seven Thunders talking with me: for, who can do, like the Father, who can suffer like the Son, who can speak like the Holy Ghost? Eloquia Domini, eloquia casta, saith David, The words of the Lord are chaste words, sincere, pure words, no dross, no profaneness, no such allay mingled with them; for, as it followeth there, They are as silver tried and purified seven times in the fire. They are as that silver, that is so tried, and they are as that fire that trieth it. It is Castum, a Pure Word in it self, and then it is powerful upon the Hearer too; Ignitum Eloquium tuum vehementer, saith he, Thy word hath the vehement operation of fire; and therefore, thy servant loveth it well, as it followeth there; Therefore, because it pierces; But therefore especially, because it carrieth a sweetness with it. For, the sting of the Serpent pierces, and the tooth of the Viper pierces, but they carry venenosam salivam, a venomous and mischievous liquor with them. But Dulcia faucibus super Mel, Thy words are sweeter to my mouth, then Honey; then Honey it self. For, verba composita, saith Solomon, chosen words, studied, premeditated words, pleasing words, (so we translate it) are as a Honycombe. Now, in the Honey combe, the Honey is collected and gathered, and dispensed, and distributed from the Honey-combe, And of this Honey-combe is wax, wax apt for sealing, derived too. The distribution of this Honey to the Congregation, The sealing of this Honey to the Conscience, is in the outward Ordinance of God, and in the labor of the Minister, and his conscionable fitting of himself for so great a service. But the Honey-Combe is not the Honey, The gifts of the man, is not the Holy Ghost. Jacob laid this blessing upon his son Naphtali, Dabit Eloquia pulchritudinis; That he should be a well-spoken, and a persuasive man. For, of a defect in this kind, Moses complained, and so did Isaiah, and Jeremiah did so too, when they were to be employed in Gods service, Moses that he was of uncircumcised; Isaiah that he was of unclean lips, and Jeremiah that he was a Child, and could not speak; and therefore this was a Blessing upon Naphtali, that he should be a well-spoken, and a persuasive man. For so, Moses, after God had farther enabled him, saith, Give ear, O yee Heavens, and I will speak; Hear O Earth, the words of my mouth, My mouth, saith Moses; The Minister of God, that cometh with convenient gifts, and due preparation, may speak such things, as Earth, and Heaven it self may be content to hear. For, when Saint Paul saith, That to the Principalities, and Powers in Heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God, is made known by the Church, that is, by the Ministry, and Service of the Church, and by that which is done here, we may congruously and piously believe, that even those Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places, The Angels of Heaven do hear our Sermons, and hearken how the glory of God is communicated, and accepted, and propagated through the Congregation; and as they rejoice at the conversion of a Sinner, so rejoice also at the means of their Conversion, the powerful, and the congruous preaching of the Word of God. And therefore, let no man, though an Angel of the Church, though an Archangel of the Church, Bishop or Archbishop, refuse to hear a man of imerior place, or inferior parts to himself; neither let any man be discouraged by the fewness or meanness of his Hearers: For, as the Apostle saith, with relation to Abraham, Entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares, so, preach to all, and that seat that thou thinkest empty, may have Angels in it: To them is the manifold Wisdom of God made known by the Church, and Angels are here; here, for the augmentation of their own Joy, in their fresh knowledge of the propagation of the Kingdom of God, in this Congregation, and they are here, for their Accusation that are not here, but frivolously and causelessely absent, or negligently, absently present, if they be here. Therefore Moses might say, Give ear O yee Heavens, though it be but I, that speak; And he might add, as he doth there, My Doctrine shall drop as the rain, and my speech shall distll as the dew. And why? Because I will publish the Name of the Lord, saith Moses there; because I will deliver the Messages of my God to his People.

What though you do, must this be ascribed unto you? no, Moses claimeth not that; for when he had said, Give ear, O yee Heavens, (let no man think himself too high, or too wise to hear me) and called it his Doctrine, and his speech, because he published the Name of the Lord, yet he transferreth all upon God himself, He establisheth their attentions with that Ascribe yee Greatness unto our God. It becommeth me to make my self as acceptable a messenger as I can, and to infuse the Word of God into you, as powerfully as I can, but all that I can do, is but a small matter, the greatness of the work lieth in your Application, and that must proceed from the Word of God it self, quickened by his Spirit, and therefore Ascribe all Greatness unto our God, for that is the Honey, whatsoever, or whosoever be the Honycombe. Truly, when I read a Sermon of Chrysostom, or of Chrysologus, or of Ambrose, Men, who carry in the very signification of their Names, and in their Histories, the attributes of Honey mouthed, and Golden-mouthed Men, I find my self oftentimes, more affected, with the very Citation, and Application of some sentence of Scripture, in the middest or end of one of their Sermons, then with any witty, or forcible passage of their own. And that is it, which Saint Jerome doth especially magnify in Saint Paul. After he had said, Quotiescunque lego, non verba mihi videor, sed tonitrua audire, wheresoever I open Saint Pauls Epistles, it is not a word or a sentence, but a clappe of Thunder, that flieth out; he addeth moreover, Legatis, do but use your selves to the reading of Saint Pauls Epistles, Videbitis, in testimoniis quae sumit, ex veteri Testamento, quàm Artifex sit, quàm prudens, you will easily see how artificially, how dexterously, how cunningly, and how discreetly he makes his use of those places which he citeth out of the Old Testament; Videntur verba Innocontis, & rusticani; you would take them saith he, sometimes for words of some plain Country-man, (as some of the Prophets were no other;) But before Saint Paul have done with those words, Fulmina sunt, & capiunt omne quod tangunt, he maketh you see, that they are flashes of lightning, and that they possess, and melt, affect and dissolve every soul they touch. And hence it is, Beloved, that I return so often at home in my private Meditations, that I present so often to Gods People in these Exercises, this Consideration, That there are not so exquisite, so elegant Books in the World, as the Scriptures; neither is any one place a more pregnant example thereof, for the purity and elegancy, for the force and power, for the largeness and extension of the words, then these which the Holy Ghost hath taken in this Text, He that oppresseth the poor, reproaches his Master, &c. And so we pass from this first Consideration, The power and Elegancy of the whole word of God, in general, to the same consideration in these particular words.

The Matter, which in the general is but this, That the poor must be relieved, being a Doctrine obvious to all; The Manner will rather be our object, at this time: How the Holy Ghost, by Solomons hand, hath enwrapped this Doctrine, in these words, How the Omission of this Duty is aggravated, how the performance thereof is celebrated in this Text, and in the force and elegancies thereof. Mans perverseness hath changed Gods method; God made man good, but in a possibility of being ill; Now, God finds man ill, but in a possibility of being good. When man was good, and enabled to continue so, God began with him, with affirmative Commandments; Commandments that implied liberty and Sovereignty; such as that, Subjicite & Dominamini, Subdue the Creature, and rule over the Creature; and he comes not till after, to Negative, to Prohibitive Commandments, Commandments that imply infirmity, and servility; such as this, Of this Tree thou shalt not eat, upon thy life; this life, and the next, thou shalt not. But now, because God finds man ill, and prone to be worse, God is fain to change his method, and to begin, and stop him at first with negative, and prohibitive Commandments. So he does in the thirty fourth Psalm, ver. 14. (which is also again repeated) first, Depart from evil, and then, Do good. For man brings with him something into the world now, to forget, and to unlearn, before he can take out any new lesson: Man is so far from being good of himself, as that he must forget himself, divest himself, forsake himself, before he can be capable of any good. And such is the method of our Text; Because God sees a natural declination in man, to abuse his power, to the oppression of inferiors, he begins with that Prohibition, Oppress not the poor; And then when he hath brought them to that moderation, and that temper, then he carries them farther towards perfection, to an honouring of God in shewing mercy to the poor.

In which method, so disposed into two parts, the fault first, and then the duty, we shall proceed by these steps; First, in the first, we shall consider the fault it self, Oppression; which, in general, is an unjust damnifying of others. And secondly, the specification of the Persons, the Poor; for others, our Superiors, we may unjustly damnify too; but that is a fault of another nature; I should rather call it envy, or emulation, or ambition, or supplantation, then oppression; and therefore that second branch will fairly admit a little disquisition, a short comparison of those two kinds of sins, Whether emulation of superiors, or oppression of inferiors, be in the nature, and root thereof, the greater sin. In which latter sin, which is properly the sin of our Text, that is, oppression of the poor, we shall see, (in a third branch) the iniquity, and heinousness thereof aggravated in this, that it is said to be a Reproach, a Contumely; and Contumely, and Reproach, against whomsoever it be bent; hath always a venemous, and a mischievous Nature. But much more here, where it is bent against God himself; and against God in that supreme, and primary notion, as a Creator, as a Maker, He reproaches the Maker; But then whose Maker? If I should say I cannot tell, the words themselves, and the construction thereof, in the variety of the Hebrew Grammars, would justify mine ignorance, for they will not admit it to be easily determined, whether it be Factorem ejus, or Factorem suum, whether he that oppresses the poor, be said to reproach his Maker that is made poor, or his own Maker: And therefore we shall make our use of both; for both meet to aggravate the fault; If I oppress the poor, I reproach him that made that poor man, and made that man poor, and I reproach him that made me. And in these circumstances, The fault, Oppression; the specification of the Persons, the Poor; the Problem, the Comparison of the two sins; the Aggravation, as it is a Reproach, a reproach against God, and God as a Creator, as his Creator, as my Creator, we shall determine that first part. And when in our order thus proposed, we shall come to our second Part, which is the recommendation, and celebration of the Duty it self, To honor God, by shewing mercy to the poor, we shall first consider the persons, the poor; and then the act, to show mercy to the poor; and lastly the effect, and benefit thereof; for, as the omission of the duty was aggravated with that, that it was a reproaching of God, the performance thereof is exalted by this, That it is an honouring of God. After all which we shall conclude all, with the consideration of that which is indeed the poorest of all, the sickest, and forest, and saddest, the feeblest and faintest, the wretchedest, and miserablest thing in the world, your own souls; and lead you to see, how you do reproach God in oppressing, how you might honor God in shewing mercy to those poor souls of yours. And this will be the compass, in which I shall lead your devotions for this hour; this will be the circle, which from this center, relief of the poor, (which is the sum, and resultance of the Text) and by these poles, the heinousness of the fault, the happiness of the duty, I shall design unto you.

We proposed at first, to consider our two parts, the fault, and the duty, in the elegancy of the words chosen by the holy Ghost here, according to their origination, and extraction, in the nature of the words, and their latitude and extension, in their use, in other places of Scripture. That we shall do; and in that way, our first word is oppression; Gnashak in the Original; and Gnashak, as it does oftentimes signify vim, violence, and force, so does it often signify dolum, deceit and fraud also: so that violence and deceit concur in this oppression. And more then they. For Solomon does not depart from that which he means, when he says here, He that oppresses the poor, reproaches his Maker, when he says in another place, He that macks the poor, reproaches his Maker. So that now these three, violence, and deceit, and scorn are the elements, the ingredients that make up this oppression. There is not a more brutish thing then violence; amongst beasts all goes by force. There is not a more devilish thing then deceit; the Serpent destroyed us all by that. But man hath raised a degree of oppression, beyond beasts, and their violence, and beyond the devil, and his falsehood, that is, scorn. For, though the devil oppress man, and hate man, he does not scorn man; he finds man a considerable enemy. For when he hath thrown a man into the world, oppressed with original sin, that man is not therefore his; the Sacrament of Baptism frustrates him of that Title. When he hath oppressed him in the world, by actual and habitual sins, that man is not therefore his, for a worthy receiving of the body and blood of Christ Jesus frustrates him of that Title. And how weak soever man be in himself, yet, in Christo omnia possumus, There is one man (and in that one man are all men, that is, all mankind, enwrapped) who lye open to the Serpent only in his heel, and the Serpent to him, in his head; and in him, Omnia possumus, in Christ, the weakest man can do any thing. The Devil could oppress Job with violence; fire, and sword, and ruin upon his goods, and cattle, and servants, and children, and himself too. The Devil could oppress him with deceit, corrupt the wife of his bosom, to tempt him to desperation; but he never came to scorn Job; for he saw Job did not serve God for nought; Job had good wages, and God had hedged him, enclosed him, for himself. Scorn is an affection, that implies such a height above another, as cannot be justified in any but God himself. Man can oppress by deceit; The Kings of the earth take counsel together; they study how to circumvent; and man can oppress with violence; there they break bands asunder, and cast away cords; they will be bound by no laws. But then, it is only God, who there laughs them to scorn, and hath them in derision. Now here, the oppressor practises the beasts part, he comes to violence, and the Devils part, he comes to deceit, and he usurps upon Gods part, he comes to that height, as to think he may scorn and contemne. And whom? for that is our next consideration; he oppresseth the poor, he treads down the poor; him that was dust before, he treads into dirt, macerated with his own sweat, his own tears, his own blood. He oppresses him with deceit; the credulous and confident wretch, who, because he is harmless in himself, is fearelesse of others, he betrays, he circumvents. And he oppresses with scorn; him whom poverty hath made the subject of pity and of prayers, he makes the anvil of scorn and of jeasts. For, so far, our first word, Gnashak, carries his signification and our meditation, he oppresses by violence, by deceit, by scorn, brutishly, devillishly, and more, (which is the qualification of the fault, and was our first consideration) and all this upon the poor, (which is the specification of the persons, and is our second.)

You see who this oppressor is, and how you may know him; you have his marks; Violence, deceit, scorn. But who is this poor man, and how shall you know him? How shall you know, whether he that asks be truly poor or no? Truly, beloved, there is scarce any one thing, in which our ignorance is more excusable then in this, To know whether he to whom we give, be truly poor, or no: In no case is our inconsideration more pardonable, then in this. God will never examine me very strictly, why I was no stricter in examining that mans condition to whom I gave mine alms. If I give to one that is poor in my sight, I shall find that alms upon Gods score, amongst them, who were poor in Gods sight: And my mistaking the man, shall never make God mistake my meaning. Where I find undeniable, unresistible evidence to the contrary, when I see a man able in his limbs live in continual idleness, when I see a man poor in his means, and oppressed with his charge, spend in continual drunkenness, in this case, I were the oppressor of the poor, if I should give to that man, for this were to give the children's bread to dogs. And that is not a name too bad for them; for, foris Canes, they are dogs that are without, that is, without the Church: And how few of these, who make beggary an occupation from their infancy, were ever within Church, how few of them ever Christened, or ever married? Foris Canes, they are dogs, that are without; and the Children's bread must not be given to Dogs. But to pursue our first intention, and so to find out these poor in the origination of the words chosen by the holy Ghost here, we have in this text two words for the poor. One is Ebion; and Ebion is a begger. It was the name given to one of those first heretics who occasioned the writing of St. John's Gospel; he was called Ebion. So that it may well be imagined, that those first Heretics were Mendicants: Men that professed begging, and lived upon the labours, and sweat of other men. For the Ebionit is a begger; not only he that needs, but he that declares his need, that asks, that craves, that begs: for, the root of Ebion is Ahab; which is not only to desire, but to declare that desire, to ask, to crave, to beg. Now, this poor man must be relieved. The charity that God required in Israel, was, that no man should be put to this necessity, but provided for otherwise; There shall be no begger amongst you; for, there is our very word, no Ebionite; that is, no poor man shall be put to beg. But yet in the Prophet Jeremiah, that man is well spoken of, that did good even to the Ebionit, to the begger; he that is brought to a necessity of asking, must be relieved. Not that we are not bound to give, till another ask, or never to open our hand, till another open his mouth; for, as Saint John did, in the beginning of the Revelation, a man may see a sound, see a voice. A sad aspect, a pale look, a hollow cheek, a bloodless lip, a sonke eye, a trembling hand, speak so lod, as that if I will not hear them from him, God will hear them against me. In many cases, and with many persons, it is a greater anguish to ask, then to want; and easier to starve, then to beg; therefore I must hearken after another voice, and with another organ; I must hearken with mine eye. Many times I may see need speak, when the needy man says nothing, and his case may cry aloud, when he is silent. Therefore I must lay mine ear to the ground, and hearken after them that lie in the dust, and enquire after the distresses of such men; for this is an imitation of Gods preventing grace, that grace, then which we can conceive no higher thing in God himself, (that God should be found of them, that seek him not) if I relieve that man, that was ashamed to tell me he wanted. The Ebionit the begger, but not he only, must be relieved: for our word, in this part of the text, is not Ebion, but a word derived from Dalal; and Dalal, in this word, signifies Exhaustum, attenuatum, a man whose former estate is exhausted, and gone, or whose present labours do not prosper, but that God, for ends best known to himself, exercises him with continual poverty; the word signifies also a man enfeebled, and decrepit with age; and more then that, the word signifies sickness too: for this very word we have in Hezekiahs mouth, The Lord will cut me off with sickness. So that now you have the specification of the person, who is the poor man, that is most properly the object of your charity, he whose farmer estate is wasted, and not by his vices, but by the hand of God, He whose present industry does not prosper, He who is overtaken with Age, and so the less able to repair his wants, and in his age, afflicted with sickness, and so the less able to indure his wants. And this poor man, this labouring man, this decayed man, this aged man, this sickly man, this oppressor in our text pursues; and pursues with violence, with deceit, with scorn. And so have you the qualification of the fault, (which was our first) and the specification of the persons, which was our second consideration.

But before we depart from this branch, I remember, I asked leave at first, only to stir this consideration, only to propound this Problem, only to ask this question, whether Envy, and Emulation, and supplantation of Superiors, or this oppression, and conculcation of Inferiors in this kind, were in the nature, and root thereof, the greater sin; and surely the sentence, and the Judgement will be against this oppressor of the poor. For, Envy, conceived against a man in place, hath evermore some emulation of those gifts, which enable a man for that place. Whosoever labours to supplant another, that he may succeed, will in some measure endeavor to be fit for that succession. So that, though it be but a squint-eye, and not a direct look, yet some eye, some aspect, the envious man hath upon virtue. Besides, he that envies a higher person, he does not practise (as the Poet says) sine talione; He deals with a man that can be at full even with him, and can deal as ill with him. But he that oppresses the poor, digs in a dunghill for worms; And he departs from that posture, which God, in nature gave him, that is, erect, to look upward; for his eye is always down, upon them, that lie in the dust, under his feet. Certainly, he that sears up himself, and makes himself insensible of the cries, and curses of the poor here in this world, does but prepare himself for the howlings, & gnashings of teeth, in the world to come. It is the Serpents taste, the Serpents diet, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and he feeds but on dust, that oppresses the poor. And as there is evidently, more inhumanity, more violation of nature, in this oppression, then in emulation, so may there well seem to be more impiety, and more violation of God himself, by that word, which the holy Ghost chooses in the next place, which is Reproach, He that oppresses the poor, reproaches his Maker.

This word, which we translate to Reproach, Theodotion translates to Blaspheme: And blasphemy is an odious thing, even towards men. For, men may be blasphemed. The servant of God, Moses, is blasphemed, as well as God: And Goliah blasphemed the Israel of God, as well as the God of Israel; and, for the most part, where we read Reviling, the word is Blaspheming. Our word here, (that we may still pursue our first way, a reverent consideration of the elegancy of the Scriptures, in the origination of the words) is Charak; and this word Job uses, as it is used in our text, for reproach, My heart shall not reproach me, so long as I live. And this, this reproaching of the heart, is, in many cases, a Blaspheming, and a strange one, a self-blaspheming. When I have had, by the goodness of Gods Spirit, a true sense of my sins, a true remorse, and repentance of those sins, true Absolution from those sins, true seals of reconciliation after those sins, true diligence, and preclusion of occasions of relapsing into those sins, still to suspect my state in Gods favor, and my full redintegration with him, still to deny my self that peace, which his Spirit, by these means, offers me, still to call my repentance imperfect, and the Sacramental seals ineffectual, still to accuse my self of sins, thus divested, thus repented, this is to reproach, this is to to blaspheme mine own soul. If I will say with Job, My heart shall reproach me of nothing, this is not, that I will accuse my self of no sin, or say, the elect of God cannot sin, no, nor that God sees not the sins of the elect, nor that God is not affected, or angry with those sins, and those sinners, as long as they remain unrepented, but after I have accused my self of those sins, and brought them into Judgement, by way of Confession, and received my pardon under seal, in the Sacrament, and pleaded that pardon, to the Church, by a subsequent amendment of life, then I reproach my self of nothing, for this were a self-blaspheming, and a reproaching of mine own soul. Now, the word of our text, in the root thereof, Charak, is manifestare; prostituere; It is to publish the fault, or to prostitute the fame of any man, extrajudicially, not in a right forme of Judgement, and amongst those men, who are not to be his Judges. So to fill itching ears with rumours, and whisperings, so to minister matter and fuel to fiery tongues, so to lay imputations, and aspersions upon men, though that which we say, of those men, be true, is a libelling, is a calumny, is a blaspheming and a reproach, in the word of this text: for it is manifestare, prostituere, to publish a mans faults, and to prostitute a mans fame, there, where his faults can receive no remedy, if they be true, nor his fame Reparation, if they be false. It is properly, to speak ill of a man, and not before a competent Judge. And in such a sense, a man may reproach God himself.

But is there then a Judge between God and man? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? is Abrahams question; but there, that Judge of all the earth, is God himself. But is there a Judge of heaven too? A Judge between God and man, for Gods proceeding there? There is. The Scripture is a Judge, by which God himself will be tried. As the Law is our Judge, and the Judge does but declare what is Law, so the Scripture is our Judge, and God proceeds with us according to those promises and Judgements, which he hath laid down in the Scripture. When God says in Isaiah, Judge between me and my Vineyard, certainly, God means that there is something extant, some contract, some covenant, something that hath the nature of a Law, some visible, some legible thing, to judge by. And Christ tells us what that is; Search the Scriptures. says he; for, by them we must be tried for our lives. So then, if I come to think that God will call me in question for my life, for my eternal life, by any way that hath not the Nature of a Law, (And, by the way, it is of the Nature and Essence of a Law, before it come to bind, that it be published) if I think that God will condemn me, by any unrevealed will, any reserved purpose in himself, this is to reproach God, in the word of this Text, for it is prostituere, to prostitute, to exhibit God, otherwise then he hath exhibited himself, and to charge God with a proceeding upon secret and unrevealed purposes, and not rest in his Scriptures. God will try us at last, God himself will be tried all the way by his Scriptures; And to charge God with the damnation of men, otherwise then by his Tantummodo Crede, I have commanded thee to believe, and thou hast not done that, And by his Fac hoc & vives, I have commanded thee, to live well, and thou hast not done that, which are conditions evidently laid down in the Scriptures, and not grounded upon any secret purpose, is a reproaching of God, in the word of this Text.

This, this Oppressor of the poor is said to do here; He reproaches the Maker; God, in that notion, as he is the Creator. Now this is the clearest notion, and fastest apprehension, and first handle that God puts out to man, to lay hold upon him by, as he is The Creator. For though God did elect me, before he did actually create me, yet God did not mean to elect me, before he meant to create me; when his purpose was upon me, to elect me, surely his purpose had passed upon me, to create me; for when he elected me, I was I. So that this is our first notion of God towards us, as he is The Creator. The School will receive a pregnant child from his parents, and work upon him; The Vniversity will receive a grounded Scholar from the School, and work upon him; The State, or the Church, will receive a qualified person from the University, and work by him. But still the State, and the Church, and the University, and the first School it self, had something to work upon; But God, in the Creation, had nothing at all: He called us when we were not, as though we had been. Now, here is this world, we make our selves; that is, we make one another: Kings make Iudges, and Iudges make Officers: Bishops make Parsons, and Parsons make Curats: But when we consider our Creation, It is he that hath made us, and not we our selves; we did not only not do any thing, but we could not do so much as wish any thing to be done, towards our Creation, till we were created. In the Application of that great work, The Redemption of mankind, that is, in the conversion of a sinner, and the first act of that conversion, though the grace of God work all, yet there is a faculty in man, a will in man, which is in no creature but man, for that grace of God to work upon; But in the Creation there was nothing at all. I honor my Physician, upon the reasons that the Wise man assignes; because he assists my health, and my well-being; But I honor not my Physician with the same honor as my Father, who gave me my very Being. I honor my God in all those notions, in which he hath vouchsafed to manifest himself to me; Every particular blessing of his is a Remembrancer; but my Creation is a holy wonder, and a mysterious amazement. And therefore, as David, the Father, wraps up all stubborn ignorance of God, in that, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; so Solomon, the Son, wraps up all knowledge of God in that, Remember thy Creator; still contemplate God in that notion, as he made thee of nothing, for, upon that, all his other additions depend. And when thou comest to any post-Creations, any after-makings in this world, to be made rich, made wise, made great, Praise thou the Lord, bless him, and magnify him for ever, for those Additions, and bless him for having made thee capable of those Additions, by something conferred upon thee before, That he gave thee a patrimony from thy parents, and thine industry working upon that, made thee rich; That he raised thee to Riches, and the Eye of the State looking upon that, made thee Honourable; But still return to thy first making, thy Creation, as thou wast made of nothing, nothing; so low, as that not sin it self, not sin against the holy Ghost himself can cast thee so low again; nothing can make thee nothing; nothing that thou canst do here, nothing that thou canst suffer hereafter, can reduce thee to nothing. And in this notion, this supreme, and Majestical notion, does this oppressor of the poor reproach God; He reproaches the Maker. But then, whose Maker? for that is also another branch, another Disquisition.

Here we accept willingly, and entertain usefully their doubt, that will not resolve, whether our Gnoshehu in the Text, be Factor̄ Ejus, or Factor̄ Suum; whether this oppressor of the poor be said here to reproach his Maker, that is made poor, or his own Maker. Let them enjoy their doubt; Be it either; Be it both. First, let it be the poor Mans Maker, And then, does this oppressor consider, that it is God that hath made that poor man, or that hath made that man poor, and will he oppress him then? If a man of those times, had heard a song of Nero's making, & had been told that it was his, (as that Emperor delighted in compositions of that kind) he would not, he durst not have said, that it was a harsh, an untunable song. If a man saw a Clock or a Picture of his Princes making, (as some Princes have delighted themselves with such manufactures) he would not, he durst not say, it was a disorderly Clock, or a disproportioned picture. Wise Fathers have foolish children, and beautiful, deformed; yet we do not oppress, nor despise those children, if we loved their parents; nor will we any poor man, if we truly love that God, that made him poor; And, if his poverty be not of Gods making, but of the Devils, induced by his riot and wastefulness, howsoever the poverty may be the Devils, still the Man is of Gods making.

Probris afficit factorem ejus, He reproaches Him that made that man poor, and Probris afficit factorem suum, He reproaches that God who made him rich, his own Maker. Now, doth he consider, that the Devil hath super-induced a half-lycantropy upon him, The Devil hath made him half a wolf, so much a wolf as that he would tear all that fall into his power, And half a spider, so much a spider, as that he would entangle all that come near him, And half a Viper, so much a Viper, as that he would envenome all that any way provoke him. Does he consider that the Devil hath made him half a wolf, half a spider, half a viper, and doth he not consider that that God that is his Maker, could have made him a whole Wolf, a whole Spider, a whole Viper, and left him in that rank of ignoble, and contemptible, and mischievous creatures? Does he not consider, that that God that made him richer then others, can make him a prey to others, & raise up enemies, that shall bring him to confusion, though he had no other crimes, Therefore, because he is so rich? God can make his very riches the occasion of his ruin here, and the occasion of his everlasting ruin hereafter, by making those riches snares and occasions of sin. God who hath made him, could have left him unmade; or made him what he would; and he reproaches God, as though God could have done nothing less for him, then he hath done, nor could not undone him now. But, before we depart from this branch, consider we wherein this offender, this oppressor, sins so very heinously, as to deserve so high an increpation, as to be said to Reproach, and to Reproach God, and God in that supream Notion, A Maker, His Maker, and his own Maker. If his fault be but neglecting or oppressing a poor man, why should it deserve all this? In all these respects.

First, The poor are immediately in Gods protection. Rich and poor are in Gods administration, in his government, in his providence; But the poor are immediately in his protection. Tibi derelictus est pauper, says David, The poor commits himself unto thee. They are Orphans, Wards, delivered over to his tuition, to his protection. Princes have a care of all their Allies, but a more especial care of those that are in their protection. And the poor are such; And therefore God more sensible in their behalf. And so, he that oppresses the poor, Reproaches God, God in his Orphans.

Again, rich and poor are Images, Pictures of God; but, (as Clement of Alexandria says wittily and strongly) The poor is Nuda Imago, a naked picture of God, a picture without any drapery, any clothes about it. And it is much a harder thing, & there is much more art showed in making a naked picture, then in all the rich attire that can be put upon it. And howsoever the rich man, that is invested in Power, and Greatness, may be a better picture of God, of God considered in himself, who is all Greatnes, all Power, yet, of God considered in Christ, (which is the contemplation that concerns us most) the poor man is the better picture, and most resembles Christ who lived in continual poverty. And so, he that oppresses the poor, reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Picture.

Saint Augustine carries this consideration farther, then that the poor is more immediately Gods Orphan, and more perfectly his picture, That he is more properly a member of himself, of his body. For, contemplating that head, which was not so much crowned as hedged with thorns, that head, of which, he whose it was, says, The Son of man hath not where to lay his head, Saint Augustine says, Ecce caput Panperum, Behold that head, to which, the poor make up the body, Ob eam tantùm causam venerabiles, says that Father, Therefore venerable, therefore honourable, because they are members suitable to that head. And so, all that place, where the Apostle says, That upon those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, we bestow most honor, that Father applies to the poor, that therefore most respect and honor should be given to them, because the poor are more suitable members to their head Christ Jesus, then the rich are. And so also, he that oppresses the poor reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own body.

Saint Chrysostom carries this consideration farther then this of Saint Augustine. That whereas every creature hath filiationem vestigii, that because God hath imparted a being, an essence, from himself, who is the root, and the fountain of all essence, and all being, therefore every creature hath a filiation from God, and is the Son of God so, as we read in Job, God is the father of the rain; and whereas every man hath filiationem imaginis, as well Pagan as Christian, hath the Image of God imprinted in his soul, and so hath a filiation from God, and is the Son of God, as he is made in his likeness; and whereas every Christian hath filiationem Pacti, by being taken into the Covenant made by God, with the Elect, and with their seed, he hath a filiation from God, and is the Son of God, as he is incorporated into his Son Christ Jesus, by the Seals of the Christian Church; besides these filiations, of being in all creatures, of the Image in all men, of the Covenant in all Christians, The poor, says that Father, are not only filii, but Haeredes, and Primogeniti, Sons and eldest Sons, Sons, and Sons and Heirs. And to that purpose he makes use of those words in St. James, Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and Heirs of that Kingdom? Heirs, for, Ipsorum est, says Christ himself, Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven; And upon those words of Christ, Saint Chrysostom comments thus, Divites ejus regnitantum habent, quantum à pauperibus, eleemosynis coemerunt, The rich have no more of that Kingdom of heaven, then they have purchased of the poor, by their alms, and other erogations to pious uses. And so he that oppresses the poor reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own Body, God in his Sons, and Heirs of his Kingdom.

But then Christ himself carries his consideration, beyond all these resemblances, and conformities, not to a proximity only, but to an identity, The poor are He. In as much as you did it unto these, you did it unto me; and, In as much as you did it not unto these, you did it not unto me. And after his ascension, and establishing in glory, still he avowed them, not only to be his, but to be He, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? The poor are He, He is the poor. And so, he that oppresseth the poor, reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own Body, God in the Heirs of his Kingdom, God in himself, in his own person. And so we have done with all those pieces, which constitute our first part, the heinousness of the fault, in the elegancy of the words chosen by the holy Ghost, in which you have seen, The fault it self, Oppression, and the qualification thereof, by the marks, Violence, Deceit, and Scorn. And then the specification of the persons, The poor, as he is the Ebionite, the very vocal begger, and as the word is Dalal, a decayed, an aged, a sickly man; And in that branch, you have also had that Problem, Whether aemulation of higher, or oppression of lower, be the greater sin: And then, the aggravation of this sin, in those weights, That it is a reproach, a reproach of God, of God as The Maker, as His Maker whom he oppresses, and as his own Maker; And lastly, in what respects especially this increpation is laid upon him. And farther we have no occasion to carry that first part, the fault.

In passing from that first part, the fault, to the duty, and the celebration thereof, in those words of choice elegancy, He that hath mercy on the poor, honours God, though we be to look upon the persons, the poor, and the act, shewing mercy to the poor, and the benefit, honouring of God, yet, of the persons, (who are still the same poor, poor, made poor by God, rather then by themselves) more needs not be said, then hath been said already. And of the act, showing of mercy to the poor, only thus much more needs be said, that the word, in which, the holy Ghost expresses this act here, is the very same word, in which, he expresses the free mercy of God himself, Miserebor cujus miserebor, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. So that God hath made the charitable man partaker with himself, in his own greatest attribute, his power of showing mercy. And then, left any man should think, that he had no interest in this great dignity, that God had given him no means to partake of this attribute of God, this power of shewing mercy to the poor, because he had left him poor too, and given him nothing to give, the same word, which the holy Ghost uses in this text, and in Exodus, for mercy, which is Canan, he uses in other places, particularly in the dedication of the Temple, for prayer. So that he, who being destitute of other means to relieve the poor, prays for the poor, is thereby made partaker of this great attribute of Gods, this power of showing mercy. He hath showed mercy to the poor, if, having nothing to give, he have given mild and confortable words, and have prayed to his abundant, and inexhaustible God, to relieve that poor man, whom he hath not made him able to relieve.

So then, no more being needful to be said, of the persons, the poor, nor of the Act, showing of mercy to the poor, there remains no more in this last part, but according to our way, all the way, to consider the origination and latitude of this last word, Cahad, this honouring of God. The word does properly signify Augere, ampliare, To enlarge God, to amplify, to dilate God; to make infinite God, shall I dare to say, more God? certainly, God to more, then he was before. O who can express this abundant, this superabundant largeness of Gods goodness to man, that there is a power put into mans hands, to enlarge God, to dilate, to propagate, to amplify God himself! I will multiply this people, says God, and they shall not be few, I will glorify them, and they shall not be small; there's the word of our text. God enables me to glorify him, to amplify him, to increase him, by my mercy, my alms. For this is not only that increase, that Saint Jerome intends, that he that hath pity on the poor, Foeneratur Domino, he lends upon use to the Lord, for, this, though it be an increase, is but an increase to himself; but he that shows mercy to the poor, increases God, says our text, dilates, enlarges God. How? Corpus aptasti mihi; when Christ comes into the world, (says Saint Paul) he says to his Father, Thou hast prepared and fitted a body for me. That was his natural body, that body which he assumed in the bowels of the blessed Virgin. They that pretend to enlarge this body by multiplication, by making millions of these bodies in the Sacraments, by the way of Transubstantiation, they do not honor this body, whose honor is to sit in the same dimensions, and circumscriptions, at the right hand of God. But then, as at his comming into this world, God had fitted him a body, so in the world, he had fitted himself another body, a Mystical body, a Church purchased with his blood. Now this body, this Mystical body I feed, I enlarge, I dilate, and amplify, by my mercy, and my charity. For, as God says to Jerusalem, Thou wast in thy blood, thou wast not salted, nor swadled, no eye pityed thee, but thou wast cast out into the open field, and I loved thee, I washed thee, I apparelled and adorned thee, & prosperataes in regnum, I never gave thee over, till I saw thee an established kingdom: so may all those Saints of God say to God himself, to the Son of God invested in this body, this mystical body, the Church, thou was cast out into the open field, all the world persecuted thee, and then we gave thee suck with our blood, we clothed thee with our bodies, we built thee houses and adorned and endowed those houses to thine honor, & prosperatus es in regnum, we never gave over spending, and doing, and suffering for thy glory, till thou hadst an established kingdom, over all the earth. And so thou, thy body, thy mystical body, the Church, is honoured, that is, amplified, dilated, enlarged, by our mercy. Magnificat Anima mea Dominum, was the exultation of the blessed Virgin; My soul doth magnify the Lord. When the meditations of my heart, digested into writing, or preaching, or any other declaration of Gods glory, carry, or advance the knowledge of God, in other men, then My soul doth magnify the Lord, enlarge, dilate, amplify God. But when I relieve any poor wretch, of the household of the faithful, with mine alms, then my mercy magnifies the Lord, occasions him that receives, to magnify the Lord by this thanksgiving, and them that see it to magnify the Lord by their imitation, in the like works of mercy. And so far, do these two elegant words chosen here by the holy Ghost, carry our meditation: in the first, Canan, God makes the charitable man partaker of his own highest power, mercy; and in the other Cabad, God enables us, by this mercy, to honor him so far, as to dilate, to enlarge, to amplify him, that is that body, which he in his Son, hath invested by purchase, his Church.

We have done; If you will but clasp up all this in your own bosoms, if you will but lay it to your own hearts, you may go. A poorer thing is not in the world, nor a sicker, (which you may remember to have been one signification of this word poor) then thine own soul. And therefore the Chalde paraphrase renders this text thus, He that oppresses the poor reproaches his own soul; for, his own soul is as poor, as any whom he can oppress. To a begger, that needs, and asks but bodily things, thou wilt say, Alas poor soul; and wilt thou never say Alas poor soul to thy self, that needest spiritual things? If thy affections, thy pleasures, thy delights, beg of thee, and importune thee so far, to bestow upon them, say unto them, I have those that are nearer me then you, Wife and Children, and I must not empoverith them, to give unto you, I must not sterve my family, to feed my pleasures. But if this Wife and Children beg, and importune so far, say unto them too, I have one that is nearer me, then all you, a soul; and I must not endanger that, to satisfy you; I must not provide Ioyntures, and Portions with the damnifying, with the damning of mine own soul. It is a miserable Alchimy and extracting of spirits, that stills away the spirit, the soul it self; and a poor Philosophers Stone, that is made with the coales of Hell-fire; a lamentable purchase, when the soul is payed for the land. And therefore show mercy to this soul. Do not oppress this soul; not by Violence, which was the first signification of this word Oppression: Do not violate, do not smother, not strangle, not suffocate the good motions of Gods Spirit in thee, for, it is but a woeful victory, to triumphe over thine own conscience, and but a servile greatness to be able to silence that. Oppress not thy soul by Fraud, which was the second signification of this word Oppression. Defraud not thy soul of the benefit of Gods Ordinances; frequent these exercises; come hither; And be not here like Gideons fleece, dry when all about it was wet; parched in a remorselesness when all the Congregation about thee is melted into holy tears; Be not as Gideons fleece dry, when all else is wet, nor as that fleece, wet when all about it was dry: Be not jealous of God, stand not here as a person unconcerned, disinteressed; as though those gracious promises, which God is pleased to shed down upon the whole Congregation, from this place, appertained not to thee, but that all those Judgements denounced here, over which, they that stand by thee, are able, by a faithful and cheerful laying hold of Gods offers, though they stand guilty of the same sins that thou doest, to lift up their heads, must still necessarily overflow and surround thee. Oppress not that soul, by violence, by Fraud, nor by Scorn, which was the other signification of this word Oppression. Hoc nos perdit, quod divina quoque eloquia in facetias, in dicteria vertamus. Damnation is a serious thing, and this aggravates it, that we slight and make jests at that which should save us, the Scriptures, and the Ordinances of God. For by this oppression of thy poor soul, by this Violence, this Fraud, this Scorn, thou wilt come to Reproach thy Maker, to impute that loss of thy soul, which thou hast incurred by often breach of Laws evidently manifested to thee; to his secret purpose, and un-revealed will; then which, thou canst not put a greater Reproach, a greater Contumely, a greater Blasphemy upon God. For, God cannot be God, if he be not innocent, nor innocent if he draw blood of me, for his own Act. But if thou show mercy to this soul, mercy in that signification of the word, as it denotes an actual performance of those things that are necessary for the making sure of thy salvation, or, if thou canst not yet attain to those degrees of Sanctification, mercy in that signification of the word, as the word denotes hearty and earnest Prayer, that thou couldest, Lord I believe, Lord help mine unbelief, Lord I stand yet, yet Lord raise me when I fall, Honorabis Deum, thou shalt honor God, in the sense of the word in this Text, thou shalt enlarge God, amplify, dilate God, that is, the Body of God, the Church, both here, and hereafter. For, thou shalt add a figure to the number of his Saints, and there shall be a Saint the more for thee; Thou shalt add a Theme of Joy, to the Exultation of the Angels; They shall have one occasion of rejoicing the more from thee: Thou shalt add a pause, a stop to that Vsquequo of the Martyrs, under the Altar, who solicit God for the Resurrection, for, Thou shalt add a step to the Resurrection it self, by having brought it so much nearer, as to have done thy part for the filling up of the number of the Saints, upon which fullness the Resurrection shall follow. And thou shalt add a Voice, to that Old, and ever-new Song, that Catholic Hymne, in which, both Churches, Militant and Triumphant, shall join, Blessing, Honor, Glory, and Power, be unto him, that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lambe, for ever, and ever. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLIII.

LAMENT. 4. 20. The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits.

A Sermon upon the fist of Novemb. 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason. Intended for Pauls Cross, but by reason of the weather, Preached in the Church.

The Prayer before the Sermon.

O LORD open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise; for thou, O Lord, didst make haste to help us, Thou, O Lord, didst make speed to save us. Thou that sittest in heaven, didst not only look down, to see what was done upon the Earth, but what was done in the Earth; and when the bowels of the Earth, were, with a key of fire, ready to open and swallow us, the bowels of thy compassion, were, with a key of love, opened to succor us; This is the day, and these are the hours, wherein that should have been acted: In this our Day, and in these hours, We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee, to be the Lord; All our Earth doth worship thee; The holy Church throughout all this Land, doth knowledge thee, with commemorations of that great mercy, now in these hours. Now, in these hours, it is thus commemorated, in the Kings House, where the Head and Members praise thee; Thus, in that place, where it should have been perpetrated, where the Reverend Judges of the Land do now praise thee; Thus, in the Universities, where the tender youth of this Land, is brought up to praise thee, in a detestation of their Doctrines, that plotted this; Thus it is commemorated in many several Societies, in many several Parishes, and thus, here, in this Mother Church, in this great Congregation of thy Children, where, all, of all sorts, from the Lievtenant of thy Lievtenant, to the meanest son of thy son, in this Assembly, come with hearts, and lippes, full of thanksgiving: Thou Lord, openest their lippes, that their mouth may show forth thy prays, for, Thou, O Lord, diddest make haste to help them, Thou diddest make speed to save them. Accept, O Lord, this Sacrifice, to which thy Spirit giveth fire; This of Praise, for thy great Mercies already afforded to us, and this of Prayer, for the continuance, and enlargement of them, upon the Catholic Church, by them, who pretend themselves the only sons thereof; dishonoured this Day; upon these Churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, shook and threatened dangerously this Day; upon thy servant, our Sovereign, for his Defence of the true Faith, designed to ruin this day; upon the Prince, and others derived from the same root, some but Infants, some not yet Infants, enwrapped in dust, and annihilation, this day; upon all the deliberations of the Counsel, That in all their Consultations, they may have before their eyes, the Record and Registers of this Day; upon all the Clergy, That all their Preaching, and their Governement, may preclude, in their several Iurisdictions, all re-entrances of that Religion, which, by the Confession of the Actours themselves, was the only ground of the Treason of this day; upon the whole Nobility, and Commons, all involved in one Common Destruction, this Day; upon both our Universities, which though they lack no Arguments out of thy Word, against the Enemies of thy Truth, shall never leave out this Argument out of thy Works, The History of this Day; And upon all those, who are any ways afflicted, That our afflictions be not multiplied upon us, by seeing them multiplied amongst us, who would have diminished thee, and annihilated us, this Day; And lastly, upon this Auditory assembled here, That till they turn to ashes in the Grave, they may remember, that thou tookest them, as fire-brands out of the fire, this Day.

Hear us, O Lord, and hearken to us, Receive our Prayers, and return them with Effect, for his sake, in whose Name and words, we make them:

Our Father which art, &c.

The SERMON.

OF the Author of this Book, I think there was never doubt made; but yet, that is scarce safely done, which the Council of Trent doth, in that Canon, which numbers the Books of Canonical Scriptures, to leave out this Book of Lamentations. For, though I make no doubt, but that they had a purpose to comprehend, and involve it, in the name of Jeremiah, yet that was not enough; for so they might have comprehended and involved, Genesis, and Deuteronomy, and all between those two, in one name of Moses; and so they might have comprehended, and involved, the Apocalypse, and some Epistles in the name of John, and have left out the Book it self in the number. But one of their own Iesuits, though some, (whom in that Canon they seem to follow) make this Book of Lamentations, but an Appendix to the Prophecy of Jeremiah, determines, for all that Canon, that it is a distinct Book. Indeed, if it were not, the first Chapter would have been called, the 53 of Jeremiah, and not the first of the Lamentations. But that which gives most assuredness, is, That in divers Hebrew Bibles, it is placed otherwise, then we place it, and not presently, and immediately after the Prophecy of Jeremiah, but discontinued from him, though he were never doubted to be the Author thereof.

The Book is certainly the Prophet Ieremies, and certainly a distinct book, But whether the Book be a history, or a Prophecy, whether Jeremiah lament that which he had seen, or that which he foresees, calamities past, or future calamities, things done, or things to be done, is a question which hath exercised, and busied divers Expositors. But, as we say of the Parable of Dives, and Lazarus, that it is a Historical parable, and a Parabolical history, some such persons there were, and some such things were really done, but some other things were figuratively, symbolically, parabolically added: So we say of Ieremies Lamentation, It is a Prophetical history, and a Historical prophecy; Some of the sad occasions of these Lamentations were past, when he writ, and some were to come after: for, we may not despise the testimony of the Chalde Paraphrasts, who were the first that illustrated the Bible, in that Nation, nor of S. Jerome, who was much conversant with the Bible, and with that Nation, nor of Iosephus, who had justly so much estimation in that Nation, nor of those later Rabbis, who were the learnedest of that Nation; who are all of opinion, that Jeremiah writ these Lamentations, after he saw some declinations in that State, in the death of Josiah, and so the Book is Historical, but when he only foresaw their transportation into Babylon, before that calamity fell upon them, and so it is Prophetical. Or, if we take the exposition of the others, That the whole Book was written after their transportation into Babylon, and to be, in all parts, Historical, yet it is Prophetical still; for the Prophet laments a greater Desolation then that, in the utter ruin, and devastation of the City, and Nation, which was to fall upon them, after the death of Christ Jesus. Neither is any piece of this Book, the less fit to be our Text, this day, because it is both Historical, and Prophetical, for, they, from whom, God, in his mercy, gave us a Deliverance, this day, are our Historical Enemies, and our Prophetical Enemies; historically we know, they have attempted our ruin heretofore, and prophetically we may be sure, they will do so again, whensoever any new occasion provokes them, or sufficient power enables them.

The Text then is as the Book presented to Ezckiel; In it are written Lamentations, and Mournings, and Woe; and all they are written within, and without, says the Text there; within, as they concern the Jews, without, as they are applicable to us: And they concern the Jews, Historically (attempts upon that State Jeremiah had certainly seen,) and they concern them prophetically, for farther attempts Jeremiah did certainly foresee. They are applicable to us both ways too: Historically, because we have seen, what they would have done, And Prophetically, because we foresee what they would do. So that here is but a difference of the Computation; here is stilo veteri, and stilo nov; here is the Jews Calendar, and the Papists Calendar; In the Jews Calendar, one Babylon, wrought upon the people of God, and in the Papists Calendar, another Babylon: Stilo veteri, in the Jews Calendar, 700 year before Christ came, there were pits made, and the breath of their nostrils, The anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits: Stilo nov, in the Papists Calendar, 1600 year after Christ came in all fullness, in all clearness, There were pits made again, and The breath of our nostrils, The anointed of the Lord, was almost taken in those pits.

It is then Ieremies, and it is a distinct Book; It concerns the Jews, and it concerns us too; And it concerns us both, both wages, Historically, and Prophetically. But whether Jeremiah lament here the death of a good King, of Josiah, (for so Saint Jerome, and many of the Ancients, and many of the Jews themselves take it, and think that those words in the Chronicles, have relation to these Lamentations, And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the people speak of him, in their Lamentations,) Or whether he lament the transportation and the misery of an ill King, of Zedekiah, (as is more ordinarily, and more probably held by the Expositours) we argue not, we dispute now; we embrace that which arises from both. That both good Kings, and bad Kings, Josiah, and Zedekiah, are the anointed of the Lord, and the breath of the nostrils, that is, The life of the people; and therefore both to be lamented, when they fall into dangers, and consequently both to be preserved by all means, by Prayer from them who are private persons, by counsel from them, who have that great honor and that great charge, to be near them in that kind, and by support and supplly, from all, of all sorts, from falling into such dangers.

These considerations will, I think, have the better impression in you, if we proceed in the handling of them thus: First, the main cause of the Lamentation was the Ruin, or the dangerous declination of the Kingdom of that great and glorious State, The Kingdom; But then they did not seditiously sever the King, and the Kingdom, as though the Kingdom could do well, and the King ill, That safe, and he in danger, for they see cause to lament, because misery was fallen upon the Person of the King; perchance upon Josiah, a good, a religious King; perchance but upon Zedekiah, a worse King; yet which soever it be, they acknowledge him to be Vnctus Domini, The anointed of the Lord, and to be Spiritus narium, The breath of their nostrils: When this person therefore, was fallen into the pits of the Enemy, the Subject laments; but this lamenting because he was fallen, implies a deliverance, a restitution, he was fallen, but he did not ly there: so the Text, which is as yet but of Lamentation, will grow an hour hence to be of Congratulation; and then we shall see, That whosoever, in rectified affections, hath lamented a danger, and then congratulated a deliverance, he will provide against a relapse, a falling again into that or any other danger, by all means of sustaining the Kingdom and the King, in safety and in honor.

Our first step then in this Royal progress, is, That the cause of this Lamentation, was, the declination, the diminution of the Kingdom. If the Center of the world should be moved but one inch out of the place, it cannot be reckoned, how many miles, this Island, or any building in it, would be thrown out of their places; A declination in the Kingdom of the Jews, in the body of the Kingdom, in the soul of the State, in the form of Government, was such an Earth-quake, as could leave nothing standing. Of all things that are, there was an Idea in God; there was a model, a platform, an examplar of every thing, which God produced and created in Time, in the mind and purpose of God before: Of all things God had and Idea, a preconception; but of Monarchy, of Kingdom, God, who is but one, is the Idea; God himself, in his Unity, is the Model, He is the Type of Monarchy. He made but one World; for, this, and the next, are not two Worlds; This is but the Morning, and that the everlasting Noon, of one and the same Day, which shall have no Night: They are not two Houses; This is the Gallery, and that the Bed-chamber of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no ruin. He made this one World, but one Eye, The Sun; The Moon is not another Eye, but a Glass; upon which, the Sun reflects. He made this one World, but one Ear, The Church; He tells not us, that he hears by a left Ear, by Saints, but by that right Ear, the Church he doth. There is One God, One Faith, One Baptism, and these lead us to the love of one Sovereign, of Monarchy, of Kingdom. In that Name, God hath conveyed to us the state of Grace, and the state of Glory too; and he hath promised both, in injoining that Petition, Adveniat Regnum, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Kingdom of Grace here, Thy Kingdom of Glory hereafter. All forms of Government have one and the same Soul, that is, Sovereignty; That resides somewhere in every form; and this Sovereignty is in them all, from one and the same Root, from the Lord of Lords, from God himself, for all Power is of God: But yet this form of a Monarchy, of a Kingdom, is a more lively, and a more masculin Organ, and Instrument of this Soul of Sovereignty, then the other forms are: We are sure Women have Souls as well as Men, but yet it is not so expressed, that God breathed a Soul into Woman, as he did into Man; All forms of Government have this Soul, but yet God infuseth it more manifestly, and more effectually, in that forme, in a Kingdom: All places are alike near to Heaven, yet Christ would take a Hill, for his Ascension; All governments may justly represent God to me, who is the God of Order, and fountain of all government, but yet I am more eased, and more accustomed to the contemplation of Heaven, in that notion, as Heaven is a kingdom, by having been born, and bred in a Monarchy: God is a Type of that, and that is a Type of Heaven.

This form then, in nature the noblest, in use the profitablest of all others; God always intended to his best-beloved people, God always meant that the Jews should have a King, though he prepared them in other forms before; As he meant them peace at last, though he exercised them in War, and meant them the land of promise, though he led them through the Wilderness; so he meant them a King, though he prepared them by Iudges. God intended it in himself, and he declared it to them, 400 years before he have them a King, he instructed them, what kind of King they should set over them, when they came to that kind of government: And long before that he made a promise, by Jacob to Judah of a Kingdom, and that the Scepter should not depart from him, till Siloh came. And when God came near the time, in which he intended to them that government, in the time of Samuel, who was the immediate predecessor to their first King, Saul, God made way for a Monarchy; for Samuel had a much more absolute authority, in that State, then any of the Judges had; Samuel judged them, and in their petition for a King, they ask but that, Make us a King to judge us; Samuel was little less then a King; and Sauls reign, and his, are reckoned both in one number, and made as the reign of one man; when it is said in the Acts, that Saul reigned 40 years, Samuels time is included in that number, for all the years, from the death of Eli,to the beginning of David, are but 40 years. God meant them a Kingdom in himself, promised them a kingdom in Judah, made Laws for their kingdom in Deuteronomy, made way for the kingdom in Samuel, and why then was God displeased with their petition for a Kingdom?

It was a greater fault in them, then it could have been in any other people, to ask a King; not that it was not the most desirable form of government, but that God governed them, so immediately, so presentially himself, as that it was an ingrateful intemperance in them, to turn upon any other means; God had ever performed that which he promised them, in that which comprehended all, Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people; And therefore Iosephus hath expressed it well; All other people are under the forme of Democratie, or Aristocratie, or such other forms, composed of men; Sed noster Legislator, Theocratiam instituit, The Jews were only under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God, he judged them himself, and he himself fought their battels: And therefore God says to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, Thou wast not King, But they have rejected me, I was. To be weary of God, is it enough to call it a levity? But if they did only compare forme with forme, and not God himself with any forme, if they did only think Monarchy best, and believe that God intended a Monarchy to them, yet yet to limit God his time, and to make God perform his promise before his day, was a fault, and inexcusable. Daniel saw, that the Messiah should come within seventy weeks: Daniel did not say, Lord, let it be within fifty weeks, or let it be this week: The Martyrs under the Altar, cry Vsqueque Domine, How long Lord, but then, they leave it there, Even as long as pleaseth thee: Their petition should have been, Adveniat regnum tuum, Let us have that Kingdom, which because thou knowest it is good for us, thou hast promised to us; But yet Fiat voluntas tua, Let us have it then, when thy Wisdom sees it best for us: You said to me (says Samuel, by way of Reproof and Increpation) You said, Nay but a King shall reign over us; Now, that was not their fault; but that which follows, The unseasonablesse and inconsideration of their clamorous Petition, You said a King shall reign over us, when the Lord your God, was your King; They would not trust Gods means, there was their first fault: And then, though they desired a thing good in it self, and a good intended to them, yet they fixed God his time, and they would not stay his leisure; And either of these, To ask other things then God would give, or at other times, then God would give them, is displeasing to him: Use his means, and stay his leisure.

But yet, though God were displeased with them, he executed his own purpose; he was angry with their manner of asking a King, but yet he gave them a King: Howsoever God be displeased with them, who prevaricate in his cause, who should sustain it, and do not, Gods cause shall be sustained, though they do it not. We may distinguish the period of the Jewish State well enough, thus, that they had Infantiam, or pueritiam, their infancy, their minority, in Adam, and the first Patriarchs till the flood: that they had Adolescentiam, A growing time, from Noah, through the other Patriarchs, till Moses: and that they had Iuventutem, a youth and strength from Moses, through the Judges, to Saul: but then they had Virilitatom, virilem, atatem, their established vigor, under their Kings; and after them, they fell in senectutem, into a wretched and miserable decay of old age, and decrepitness: their kingdom was their best State; and so much, God in the Prophet, intimates pregnantly, when refreshing to their memories, in a particular Inventory, and Catalogue, all his former benefits to them, how he clothed Jerusalem, how he fed, her; how he adorned her, he summed up all, in this one, & profecisti in regnum, I have advanced thee, to be a kingdom: there was the Tropique, there was the Solstice, farther then that, in this world, we know not how God could go; a kingdom was really the best State upon Earth, and Symbolically, the best figure, and Type of Heaven. And therefore, when the Prophet Jeremiah, historically beheld the declination of this kingdom, in the death of Iosiah, and prophetically foresaw the ruins thereof, in the transportition of Zedekiah, or, if he had seen that historically too, yet prophetically he foresaw the utter devastation, and depopulation, and extermination, which scattered that nation, soon after Christ, to this day, (and God and no man knows, for how long,) when they, who were a kingdom, are now no where a village, and they who had such Kings, have now no where a Constable of their own, historically, prophetically, Jeremiah had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that kingdom.

We had so also, for this our kingdom, this day; God hath given us a kingdom, not as other kingdoms, made up of divers Cities, but of divers kingdoms, and all those kingdoms were destined to desolation, in one minute. It was not only the destruction of the persons present, but of the kingdom for to submit the kingdom to the government of a foreign Prelate, was to destroy the Monarchy, to annihilate the Supremacy, to ruin the very forme of a kingdom; a kingdom under another head, besides the King, is not a kingdom, as ours is. The oath that the Emperor takes to the Pope, is by their authours called Iuramentum Sidelitatis, an oath of Allegiance; and if they had brought our Kings, to take an oath of Allegiance so, this were no kingdom. Pope Nicolas the second, went about to create two kingdoms, that of Tuscan, and that of Lombardy; his successors have gone about to destroy more; for to make it depend upon him, were to destroy our kingdom. That they have attempted historically; and as long as these Axioms, and Aphorismes remain in their Authors, that one shall say, that De jurs? by right all Christian kingdoms do hold of the Pope, and De facto, are forfeited to the Hope, and another shall say, that Christendom would be better governed if the Pope would take the forfeiture, and so bring all these Royal farms, into his own demesne, we see also, their prophetical desire, their prophetical intention, against this kingdom, what they would do: In their Actions we have their history, in their Axioms we have their prophecy.

Jeremiah lamented the desolation of the kingdom, but that, expressed in the death, and destruction of the King. He did not divide the King and the kingdom, as if the kingdom could do well, and the King in distress: Umnipotentia Dei, Asylum haereticorum; it is well said, by more then one of the ancients, that the Omnipotence of God, is the Sanctuary of Heretics: when they would establish any heresy, they fly to Gods Almightiness. God can do All, therefore he can do this. So, in the Roman Church, they establish their heresy of Transubstantiation; And so, their deliverance of souls not from Purgatory only, but from Hell it self. They think to stop all mouths with that, God can do it, no man dares deny that; when as, if that were granted, (which, in such things, as naturally imply contradiction in themselves, or contradiction to Gods word, cannot be granted, for God cannot do that, God cannot lye,) yet though God can do it, concludes not that God will do it, or hath done it: Omnipotentia Dei Asylum haereticorum, The omnipotency of God, is the Sanctuary of Heretics, and so, Salus Regni, is Asylum proditorum, Greater Treasons, and Seditions, and Rebellions have never been set on foot, then upon color, and pretence, of a care of the State, and of the good of the Kingdom. Every where, the King is Sponsus Regni, the husband of the Kingdom; and to make love to the Kings wife, and undervalue him, must necessarily make any King jealous: The King is Anima Regni, The soul of the Kingdom; and to provide for the health of the body, with the detriment of the soul, is perverse physic: The King is Caput Regni, The head of the Kingdom; and to cure a Member, by cutting off the head, is ill surgery: Man and wife, soul and body, head and members, God hath joined, and those whom God hath joined, let no man sever. Salus Regni, Asylum Proditorum, To pretend to uphold the Kingdom, and overthrow the King, hath ever been the temptation before, and the excuse after, in the greatest Treasons. In that action of the Jews, which we insisted upon before, in their pressing for a King, The Elders of Israel were gathered together, and so far they were in their way, for this was no popular, no seditious Assembly of light and turbulent men, but The Elders; And then, they came to Samuel, And so far they were in their right way too, for they held no counsels apart, but came to the right place, for redress of grievances, to their then highest Governor, to Samuel: When they were thus lawfully met, they forbear not to lay open unto him, the injustice of his greatest Officers, though it concerned the very Sons of Samuel; and thus far they kept within their convenient limits; But when they would press Samuel to a new way of remedy, to an inconvenient way, to a present way, to their own way, and referre nothing to him, what care soever they pretended of the good of the State, it is evident, that they had no good opinion of Samuel himself, and even that displeased God, That they were ill affected to that person, whom he had set over them. To sever the King, and the Kingdom, and pretend the weale of the one, without the other, is to shake and discompose Gods building.

Historically this was the Jews case, when Jeremiah lamented here, if he lamented the declination of the State, in the death of the King Josiah, And if he lamented the transportation of Zedekiah, and that that cross were not yet come upon them; Or if he lamented the future devastation of that Nation, occasioned by the death of the King of Kings Christ Jesus, when he came into the world, this was their case prophetically: Either way, historically, or prophetically, Jeremiah looks upon the Kingdom, but yet through that glass, through the King.

The duty of the Day, and the order of the Text, invites us to an application of this branch too. Our adversaries did not come to say to themselves, Nolumus Regnum hoc, we will not have this Kingdom stand, the material Kingdom, the plenty of the Land, they would have been content to have, but the formal Kingdom, that is, This forme of Government, by a Sovereign King, that depends upon none but God, they would not have. So that they came implicitly, Nolumus Regnum hoc, we will not have this Kingdom governed thus, and they came explicitly to a Nolumus Regem hunc (as the Jews were resolved of Christ) We will not have this King to govern at all. Non hunc? Will you not have him? you were at your Nolumus hanc long before; Her, whom God had set over you, before him, you would not have. Your, not Anniversary, but Hebdomadary Treasons, cast upon her a necessity of drawing blood often, and so your Nolumus hanc, your desire that she were gone, might have some kind of ground, or color: But for your Nolumus hunc, for this King who had made no Inquisition for blood, who had forborne your very pecuniary penalties, who had (as himself witnesses of himself) made you partakers with his Subjects of his own Religion, in matters of grace, and in real benefits, and in Titles of Honor, Quare fremuerant, Why did these men rage, and imagine a vain thing? What they did historically, we know; They made that house, which is the hive of the Kingdom, from whence all her honey comes; that house where Iustice her self is conceived, in their preparing of Laws, and inanimated, and quickened and born by the Royal Assent, there given; they made that whole house one Murdring piece, and charged that piece with Peers, with People, with Princes, with the King, and meant to discharge it upward at the face of heaven, to shoot God at the face of God, Him, of whom God hath said, Dii estis, You are Gods, at the face of God, that had said so, as though they would have reproached the God of heaven, and not have been beholden to him for such a King, but shoot him up to him, and bid him take his King again, with a nolumus hunc regnare, we will not have this King to reign over us. This was our case Historically, and what it is Prophetically, as long as that remains to be their doctrine, which he, against whom that attempt was principally made, found by their examination; to be their doctrine, That they, and no Sect in the world, but they, did make Treason an article of Religion, That their Religion bound them to those attempts, so long they are never at an end; Till they dis-avow those Doctrines, that conduce to that, prophetically they wish, prophetically they hope for better success in as ill attempts.

It is then the kingdom that Jeremiah laments; but his nearest object is the King; He laments him. First, let it be, (as with S. Jerome, many of the Ancients, and with them, many of the later Rabbis will have it) for Josiah, for a good King, in whose death, the honor, and the strength of the kingdom took that deadly wound, to become tributary to a foreign Prince: for, to this lamentation they refer those words of the Prophet, which describe a great sorrow, In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddon; which was the place, where Josiah was slain; There shall be such a lamentation (says the Prophet, in this interpretation) as was for the death of Josiah. This then was for him; for a good King. Wherein have we his goodness expressed? Abundantly. He did that which was right in Gods fight; (And whose Eye need he fear, that is right in the Eye of God?) But how long did he so? To the end; for, Nero, who had his Quinquennium, and was a good Emperor for his first five years, was one of the worst of all: He that is ill all the way, is but a Tyran, He that is good at first, and after ill, an Angels face, and a Serpents tail make him a Monster; Josiah began well, and persevered so, He turned not aside to the right and, nor to the left. That is, (if we apply it to the Josiah of our times) neither to the fugitive, that leaves our Church, and goes to the Roman, nor to the Separatist, that leaves our Church, and goes to none. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah undertook the reparation of Gods house; If we apply this to the Josiah of our times, I think, in that year of his reign, he visited this Church, and these walls, and meditated, and persuaded the reparation thereof. In one word, Like unto Josiah, there was no King before, nor after. And therefore there was just cause of lamentation for this King, for Josiah; historically for the very loss of his person, prophetically for the misery of the State, after his death.

Our errand is to day, to apply all these branches to the day; Those men who intended us, this cause of lamentation this day, in the destruction of our Josiah, spared him not, because he was so, because so, because he was a Josiah, because he was good; no, not because he was good to them, his benefits to them, had not mollified them, towards him: for that is not their way; Both the French Henries were their own, and good to them; but did that rescue either of them, from the knife? And was not that Emperor, whom they poisoned in the Sacrament, their own, and good to them? and yet was that, any Antidote against their poison? To so reprobate a sense hath God given them over herein, as that, though in their Books, they ly heaviest upon Princes of our Religion, yet truly they have destroyed more of their own, then of ours. Thus it is Historically in their proceedings past: And Prophetically it can be but thus, since no King is good, in their sense, if he agree not to all points of Doctrine with them: And when that is done, not good yet, except he agree in all points of Iurisdiction too; and that, no King can do, that will not be their Farmer of his Kingdom. Their Authours have disputed Auferibilitatem Papae, whether the Church of God might not be without a pope, they have made a problematical, a disputable matter, and some of their Authours have diverted towards an affirmation of it; but Aufleribilitas potestatis, to imagine a King without Kingly Sovereignty, never came into problem, into disputation. We all lamented, and bitterly, and justly, the loss of our Deborah, though then we saw a Josiah succeeding: but if they had removed our Josiah, and his Royal children, and so, this form of government, where, or who, or what had been an object of Consolation to us?

The cause of lamentation in the loss of a good King, is certainly great, and so it was, if Jeremiah lamented Josiah; but if it were but for zedekiah, an ill King, (as the greater part of Expositors take it) yet the lamentation you see, is the same. How ill a King was Zedekiah? As ill, as Josiah was good, that's his measure. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Iehoiakim had done; Here is his sin, sin by precedent; and what had Iehoiakim done? He had done evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his Fathers had done. It is a great, and a dangerous wickedness, which is done upon pretext of Antiquity; The Religion of our Fathers, the Church of our Fathers, the Worship of our Fathers, is a pretext that colors a great deal of Superstition. He did evil, as his Fathers; there was his comparative evil: And his positive evil, (I mean, his particular sin) was, That he humbled not himself to Gods Prophets, to Jeremiah speaking from the mouth of the Lord; there was irreligiousness; And then, He broke the Oath which he had sworn by God, there was perfidiousness, faithlesnsse; And lastly, He stiffned his neck, and hardened his heart, from turning to the Lord of Israel, there was impenitibleness: Thus evil was Zedekiah, irreligious to God, treacherous to man, impenitible to himself, and yet the State, and men truly religious in the State, the Prophet lamented him; not his spiritual defections, by sin; for, they did not make themselves Judges of that; but they lamented the calamities of the Kingdom, in the loss even of an evil King.

That man must have a large comprehension, that shall adventure to say of any King, He is an ill King; he must know his Office well, and his actions well, and the actions of other Princes too, who have correspondence with him, before he can say so. When Christ says, Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatsoever is more then this, (that is, when it comes to swearing) that cometh of evil, Saint Augustine does not understand that, of the evil disposition of that man that swears, but of them, who will not believe him, without wearing; Many times a Prince departs from the exact rule of his duty, not out of his own indisposition to truth, and clearness, but to countermine underminers. That which David says in the eighteenth Psalm, David speaks, not of man, but of God himself; Cum perverso perveriêris, With the froward, thou wilt show thy self froward; God, who is of no froward nêature, may be made froward; with crafty neighbours, a Prince will be crafty, and perchance false with the false. Alas, (to look into no other profession but our own) how often do we excuse Dispensations, and pluralities, and non-residencies, with an Omnes faciunt, I do, but as other men of my profession, do? Allow a King but that, That he does but as other Kings do, Nay, but this, He does but as other Kings put him to a necessity to do, and you will not hastily call a King an ill King. When God gives his people for old shoes, and sells them for nothing, and, at the same time, gives his and their enemies abundance, when God commands Abraham, to sacrifice his own and only Son, and his enemies have Children at their pleasure, as David speaks, To give your selves the liberty of humane affection, you would think God an ill God; but yet, for all this, his children are to him, a Royal Priesthood, and a holy Nation; and all their tears are in his bottles, and registered in his book, for all this. When Princes pretermit in some things, the present benefit of their Subjects, and confer favours upon others give your selves the liberty to judge of Princes actions, with the affections of private men, and you may think a King an ill King: But yet, we are to him, as David says, His brethren, his bone, his flesh, and so reputed by him. God himself cannot stand upright in a natural mans interpretation, nor any King in a private mans. But then, how soon our adversaries come to call Kings, ill Kings, we see historically, when they boast of having deposed Kings, Quia minus utiles, Because some other hath seemed to them, fitter for the Government; and we see it prophetically, by their allowing those Indictments, and Attainders of Kings, which stand in their books De Syndicatu, That that King which neglects the duties of his place (and they must prescribe the duty, and judge the negligence too) That King that exercises his Prerogative, without just cause (and they must prescribe the Prerogative, and judge the cause,) That that King that vexes his Subjects, That that King that gives himself to intemperate hunting (for in that very particular they instance) that in such cases, (and they multiply these cases infinitely) Kings are in their mercy, and subject to their censures, and corrections. We proceed not so, in censuring the actions of Kings; we say, with St. Cyrill, Impium est dicere Regi, Iniquè agis; It is an impious thing, (in him, who is only a private man, and hath no other obligations upon him) to say to the King, or of the King, He governs not as a King is bound to do: we remit the judgement of those their actions, which are secret to God; and when they are evident, and bad, yet we must endeavor to preserve their persons; for there is a danger in the loss, and a lamentation due to the loss, even of Zedekiah, for even such are uniti Domini, The anointed of the Lord, and the breath of our nostrils.

First, (as it lies in our Text) The King is spiritus narium, the breath of our uostrills. First, Spiritus, is a name, most peculiarly belonging to that blessed Person of the glorious Trinity, whose Office it is to convey, to insinuate, to apply to us the Mercies of the Father, and the Merits of the Son: He is called by this Name, by the word of this Text, Ruach, even in the beginning of the Creation, God had created Heaven and Earth, and then The Spirit of God, susurabat, saith Pagnins translation, (and so saith the Chalde Paraphrase too) it breathed upon the waters, and so induced, or deduced particular forms. So God hath made us, a little World of our own, This Iland; He hath given us Heaven and Earth, The truth of his Gospel, which is our earnest of Heaven, and the abundance of the Earth, a fruitful Land; but then he, who is the Spirit of the Lord, he who is the breath of our nostrils, Incubat aquis, (as it is said there in the Creation) he moves upon the waters, by his royal and warlike Navy at Sea, (in which he hath expressed a special and particular care) And by the breath and influence of his providence throughout the Land, he preserves, he applies, he makes useful those blessings unto us.

If this breath, that is, this power, be at any time sourd in the passage, and contract an il savor by the pipes that convey it, so, as that his good intentions are ill executed by inferior Ministers, this must not be imputed to him; That breath that comes from the East, the bed and the garden of spices, when it is breathed out there, is a persume, but by passing over the beds of Serpents and putrefied Lakes, it may be a breath of poison in the West: Princes purpose some things for ease to the people, (and as such, they are sometimes presented to them) and if they prove grievances, they took their putrefaction in the way, that is, their corruption, from corrupt executors of good and wholesome intentions; The thing was good in the root, and the ill cannot be removed in an instant.

But then, we carry not this word Ruach, Spirit, so high; though since God hath said that Kings are Gods, the Attribute of the Holy Ghost and his Office, which is, to apply to man the goodness of God, belongs to Kings also; for, God gives, but they apply all blessings to us. But here, we take the word literally, as it is in the Text; Ruach, spirit, is the Breath that we breath, the Life that we live; The King is that Breath, that Life, and therefore that belongs to him. First our Breath, that is, serme, our speech belongs to him; Be faithful unto him, and speak good of his Name, is commanded by David of God. To Gods Anointed, we are not faithful, if we do not speak good of his Name. First, there is an internal, speech in the heart, and God looks to that; the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; though he say it but in his heart, yet he is a fool: for, as wise as a Politician would think him, for saying it in his heart, and comming no further, yet even that is an overt act with God, for God seeth the heart. It is the fool that saith in his heart, there is no God, and it is the fool that saith in his heart, I would there were no King. That enormous, that infamous Tragedy of the Levites Concubins, and her murder, of which it is said there, There was no such thing seen, nor done before, (and many things are done, which are never seen) with that emphatical addition, Consider of it, advise, and say your mind, hath this addition too, In those days there was no King in Israel; If there had been any King, but a Zedekiah, it could not have been so: Curse not the King, not in thy thoughts: for, they are sins that tread upon the heels of one another, and that induce one another, to conceive ill of Gods Lievtenant, and of God himself; for so the Prophet joyneth them, They shall fret themselves, and curse their King, and their God: He that beginneth with the one, will proceed to the other.

Thus then he is our Breath; our Breath is his; our speech must be contained, not expressed in his dishonor; not in misinterpretations of his Actions; jealousies have often made women ill; incredulity, suspiciousness, jealousy in the Subject, hath wrought ill effects upon Princes, otherwise not ill. We must not speak ill; but our duty is not accomplished in that abstinence, we must speak well: And in those things, which will not admit a good interpretation, we must be apt to remove the perverseness and obliquity of the act from him, who is the first mover to those who are inferior instruments. In these divers opinions which are ventilated in the School, how God concurreth to the working of second and subordinate causes, that opinion is I think, the most antient, that denies that God works in the second cause, but hath only communicated to it, a power of working, and rest himself. This is not true; God does work in every Organ, and in every particular action; but yet though he do work in all, yet he is no cause of the obliquity, of the perverseness of any action. Now, earthly Princes are not equal to God; They do not so much as work in particular actions of instruments; many times, they communicate power to others, and rest wholly themselves; and then, the power is from them, but the perverseness of the action is not. God does work in ill actions, and yet is not guilty, but Princes do not so much as work therein, and so may be excusable; at least, for any cooperation in the evil of the action, though not for countenancing, and authorising an evil instrument; but that is another case.

They are our breath then; Our breath is theirs, in good interpretations of their actions; and it is theirs especially, in our prayers to Almighty God, for them. The Apostle exhorts us to pray; for whom? first, for all men in general; but in the first particular, that he descends to, for Kings. And both Theodoret, and Theophylact, make that the only reason, why the Apostle did not name Kings first, Vt non videatur adulari, lest he should seem to flatter Kings: Whether mankind it self, or Kings, by whom mankind is happy here, be to be preferred in prayer, you see both Theodoret, and Theophylact, make it a problem. And those prayers, there enjoined, were for Infidel Kings, and for persecuting Kings; for even such Kings, were the breath of their nostrils; their breath, their speech, their prayers were due to them. But then, beloved, a man may convey a Satir into a Prayer; a man may make a prayer a Libel; If the intention of the prayer be not so much, to incline God to give those graces to the King, as to tell the world, that the King wants those graces, it is a Libel. We say sometimes in scorn to a man, God help you, and God send you wit; and therein, though it have the sound of a prayer, we call him fool. So we have seen of late, some in obscure Conventicles, institute certain prayers, That God would keep the King, and the Prince in the true Religion; The prayer is always good, always useful; but when that prayer is accompanied with circumstances, as though the King and the Prince were declining from that Religion, then even the prayer it self is libellous, and seditious; Saint Paul, in that former place, apparels a Subjects prayer well, when he says, Let prayers be given with thanks; Let our prayers be for continuance of the blessings, which we have, and let our acknowledgement of present blessings, be an inducement for future: pray, and praise together; pray thankfully, pray not suspiciously: for, beloved in the bowels of Christ Jesus, before whose face I stand now, and before whose face, I shall not be able to stand amongst the righteous, at the last day, if I lie now, and make this Pulpit my Shop, to vent sophisticate Wares, In the presence of you, a holy part, I hope, of the Militant Church, of which I am, In the presence of the whole Triumphant Church, of which , by him, by whom I am that I am, I hope to be, In the presence of the Head of the whole Church, who is All in all, I, (and I think I have the Spirit of God,) (I am sure, I have not resisted it in this point) I, (and I may be allowed to know something in Civil affaires) (I am sure I have not been stupefied in this point) do deliver that, which upon the truth of a Moral man, and a Christian man, and a Church man, believe to be true, That he, who is the Breath of our nostrils, is in his heart, as far from submitting us to that Idolatry, and superstition, which did heretofore oppress us, as his immediate Predecessor, whose memory is justly precious to you, was: Their ways may be divers, and yet their end the same, that is, The glory of God; And to a higher Comparison, then to her, I know not how to carry it.

As then the Breath of our nostrils, our breath, is his, that is, our speech, first, in containing it, not to speak in his diminution; then in uttering it amongst men; to interpret fairly, and loially, his proceedings; and then in uttering it to God, in such prayers for the continuing thereof, as imply a thankful acknowledgement of the present blessings, spiritual and temporal, which we enjoy now by him; So far, Breath is speech; but Breath is life too, and so our life is his. How willingly his Subjects would give their lives for him, I make no doubt, but he doubts not. This is argument enough for their propenseness and readiness, to give their lives, for his honor, or for the possessions of his children; That though not contra voluntatem, not against his will, yet Praeter voluntatem, without any Declaration of his will, or pleasure, by any Command, they have been as ready voluntarily, as if a Press had commanded them. But these ways, which his wisdom hath chosen for the procuring of peace, have kept off much occasion of trial, of that, how willingly his Subjects would have given their lives for him. Yet, their lives are his, who is the breath of their nostrils: And therefore, though they do not leave them for him, let them lead them for him; though they be not called to die for him, let them live so, as that may be for him; to live peaceably, to live honestly, to live industriously, is to live for him; for, the sins of the people endanger the Prince, as much as his own. When that shall be required at your hand, then die for him; In the mean time, live for him; live so, as your living do not kindle Gods anger against him, and that is a good Confession, and acknowledgement, That he is the breath of your nostrils, That your life is his.

As then the breath of our nostrils, is expressed by this word in this Text, Ruach, spiritus, speech, and life, so it is his. When the breath of life was first breathed into man, there is called by another word, Neshamah, and that is the soul, the immortal soul: And is the King the breath of that life? Is he the soul of his Subjects so, as that their souls are his; so, as that they must sin towards men, in doing unjust actions, or sin towards God, in forsaking, and dishonouring him, if the King will have them? If I had the honor to ask this question, in his royal presence, I know he would be the first man, that would say No, No; your souls are not mine, so. And, as he is a most perfect Text-man, in the Book of God, (and by the way, I should not easily fear his being a Papist, that is a good Text-man) I know he would cite Daniel, saying, Though our God do not deliver us, yet know, O King, that we will not worship thy Gods; And I know he would cite S. Peter, We ought to obey God, rather then men; And he would cite Christ himself, Fear not them, (for the soul) that cannot hurt the soul. He claims not your souls so: It is Ruach here, it is not Neshamah; your life is his, your soul is not his, in that sense. But yet, beloved, these two words are promiscuously used in the Scriptures; Ruach is often the soul; Neshamah; is often the temporal life; And thus far, the one, as well as the other, is the Kings, That he must answer for your souls; so they are his; for he is not a King of bodies, but a King of men, bodies and souls; nor a King of men only, but of Christian men; so your Religion, so your souls are his; his, that is, appertaining to his care, and his account. And therefore, though you owe no obedience to any power under heaven, so as to decline you from the true God, or the true worship of that God, and the fundamental things thereof, yet in those things, which are, in their nature but circumstantial, and may therefore, according to times, and places, and persons, admit alterations, in those things, though they be things appertaining to Religion, submit your selves to his directions; for here, the two words meet, Ruach, and Neshamah, your lives are his, and your souls are his too; His end being to advance Gods truth, he is to be trusted much, in matters of indifferent nature, by the way.

He is the word of our Text, Spiritus, as Spiritus is the Holy Ghost, so far, by accommodation, as that he is Gods instrument to convey blessings upon us; and as spiritus is our breath, of speech, and as it is our life, and as it is our soul too, so far, as that in those temporal things which concern spiritual, (as Times of meeting, and much of the manner of proceeding when we are met) we are to receive directions from him: So he is the breath of our nostrils, our speech, our lives, our souls, in that limited sense, are his.

But then, did those subjects of his (And I charge none but his subjects, with this plot, for, I judge not them who are without) from whom God deliverd us this day, did they think so of him, That he was the breath of our nostrils? If the breath be sour, if it be tainted and corrupt, (as they would needs think, in this case) is it good Physic for an ill breath, to cut off the head, or to suffocate it, to smother, to strangle, to murder that man? He is the breath of their nostrils; They owe him their speech, their thanks, their prayers, and how have these children of fools made him their song, and their by-word? How have these Drunkards, (men drunk with the Babylonian Cup) made Libels against him? How have those Seminatores verborum, word-scatterers, defamed him, even with contrary defamations. Heretofore, that he persecuted their Religion, when he did not; now, that he hath left his own Religion. He is their breath, they owe him their tongues, and how foully do they speak; and they owe him their lives, and how prodigally do they give away their lives to others, that they might take away His? He is their breath, (as breath is the soul) that is, Accomptant for their souls, and how have they raised themselves out of his Audit, and withdrawn themselves from his Allegiance? This they have done historically, and to say prophetically, what they would do, first, their Extenuation of this fact, when they call it an enterprise of a few unfortunate Gentlemen. And then their Exaltation of this fact, when they make the principal person in it, a Martyr, this is prophecy enough, that since they are not ashamed of the Original, they will not be afraid to copy it often, and pursue the same practises, to the same end.

Let it be Josiah then, let it be Zedekiah, he was the Breath, the life of his Subjects, (and that was the first attribute) and he was The Anointed of the Lord, which is the other. Vnction it self always separated that which was anointed from profane, and secular use; unction was a religious distinction. It had that signification in practise, before any Law was given for it; when Jacob had had that vision upon the stone, which made him see, that that place was the house of God, and the gate of heaven, then he took up that stone which he had stept upon, and set it up for a pillar, and anointed it. This was the practise in nature; and then the precept in the Law, was, as for the Altar it self, so for many other things. belonging to the service of God in the Temple, Thou shalt anoint them, to sanctify them. Thus it was for things; and then, if we consider persons, we see the dignity that anointing gave; for it was given but to three sorts of persons, to Kings, to priests, and to Prophets: Kings, and Priests had it, to testify their ordinary, and permanent, and indelible jurisdiction, their power is laid on in Oil; And Prophets had it, because they were extraordinarily raised to denounce, and to execute Gods Judgements, upon persons that were anointed, upon Priests, and upon Kings too, in those cases, for which, they were then particularly employed. Thus then it is, anointed things could not be touched, but by anointed persons, and then anointed persons could not be touched, but by persons anointed; The Priest not directed, but by the King; The King, as King, not corrected, but by the prophet: And this was the State, that they lamented so compassionately, That their King, thus anointed, thus exempted, was taken prisoner, saw his Sons slain in his presence, and then had his own eyes pulled out, was bound in chains, and carried to Babel.

And less then this, in himself, and in his Son, and in all, was not intended this day, against our, not Zedekiah, but Josiah: for death (speaking in nature) hath all particular miseries in it. An anointed King (and many Kings anointed there are not) and he that is anointed prae Consortibus suis, above his fellow Kings, (for, I think, no other King of his Religion, is anointed) The anointed of the Lord, who in this Text hath both those great names, Meshiach Jehovah, Christus Domini, as though he had been but the Bramble anointed for King of the Trees, and so made the fitter fuel for their fire, as though (as Davids lamentation is for Saul) He had not been anointed with Oil, This eye of God, he by whom God looks upon us, This hand of God, he by whom God protects us, This foot of God, he by whom, in his due time, (and Vsquequo Domine, How long, O Lord, before that time come?) God shall tread down, his own, and our enemies, was swallowed and devoured by them, in their confidence of their own plot, and their infallible assurance of his perishing. So it was historically; And how it stands prophetically, that is, What such as they were, would do for the future; as long as they write, (not in Libels clandestinely and subreptitiously stollen out, but avowed by public Authority) That our Priests are no Priests, but the Priests of Baal, for so they write, That the conspiracy of this day, being against him, who oppressed Religion, was as just, as that against Caesar, who did but oppress the State, And that they write, That those who were the actors herein, are therefore saved, because at their execution, they submitted all to the Roman Church, and were content, if the Church condemned it, then to repent the Fact, for so they write also, That the Religion of our present King, is no better, then the Religion of Ieroboam, or of Numa Pompilius, for so they write too, that the last Queen, though an Heretic, yet because she was Anointed, did cure that disease, The Kings evil, but because, in scorn thereof, the King refused to be anointed at his Coronation, therefore he cannot cure that disease, and so non dicendus unctus Domini, he is not to be called the Anointed of the Lord, says that Author, (for all these are the words of one man, and one, who had no other provocation to say all this but only the Kings Apology for the oath of Allegiance) by retaining in their avowed books, and by relying upon such Authors, and Authorities as these, which remain for their future instruction, we see their dispositions for the future, and judge of them prophetically, as well as historically.

Now the misery which is here lamented, the declination of the kingdom, in the person of the King, is thus expressed, He was taken in their pits; taken, and taken in pits, and taken in their pits, are so many stairs, so many descents, so many gradations (rather degradations) in this calamity. Let it be Josiah, let it be Zedekiah; They were taken; taken, and never returned; Let it be our Josiah, and will it hold in that application? Was he taken? He was plotted for, but was he Taken? When he himself takes public knowledge, that both at home and abroad, those of the Roman persuasion, assured themselves, of some especial work, for the advancement of their cause, at that time, when they had taken that assurance, he was so taken, taken in that their assurance, infallibly taken in their opinion; so, as this kingdom was taken in their opinion, who thought their Navy invincible; so this King was taken in their assurance, who thought this plot infallible.

He was taken, and in fovea, in a pit, says the Text; If our first translation would serve, the sorrow were the less, for there it is, he was taken in their net; now, a man that flattereth, spreadeth a net, and a Prince that discerns not a flatterer, from a Counsellor, is taken in a net; but that's not so desperate, as in a pit: In Iosiahs case, it was a pit, a Grave; in Zedekiahs case, it was a pit, a prison: in our Iosiahs case, it was fully, as it is in the Text, not in fovea, but in foveis, plurally, in their pits, in their divers pits; death in the mine where they began, death in the Cellar where they pursued their mischief.

And then it was in foveis Illorum, in their pits, says the Text; but the Text does not tell us, in whose; in the verse before, it is said, our persecutors did this, and this, then it follows, He was taken in their pits; In the persecutors pits certainly; but yet, who are they? If it were Josiah that was taken, the persecutor was Necho, King of Egypt, for from his army, Josiah received his deaths wound: If it were Zedekiah, the persecutor was Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, for he carried Zedekiah into captivity. Certainly the holy Ghost knew well enough, and could have spoken plain, whose these pits were, but it pleased him to forbear names. Certainly our Josiah knows well enough, whose, those pits, which were digged for him, were; but, according to his natural sweetness, to decline the drawing of more blood, then necessarily he must, or the laying of imputations and aspersions upon more, then necessarily he must, he hath forborne names. The holy Ghost knows better then all the expositors, in all our Libraries, who digged those pits, our Josiah knows, better then all we, who come but to celebrate, and solemnize the deliverance, whose hands, and whose counsels were in the digging of these pits too. He was taken, says our Text: fuit, he Was. Fix that in Josiah, who was taken, and never taken back: fix it in Zedekiah, who was taken, and never taken back; they both perished; in both them, there is just cause, of perpetual, and permanent lamentation, and no room left, for the exercise of any other affection. But transfer it to our Josiah, and then, He was taken, is, He was but taken; God did not suffer his holy one to see Correction, nor God did not suffer his Anointed, to perish in this taking; And so the lamentation is become (as we said at first) a Congratulation, so our Vae is an Euge, our exclamation turned to acclamation; and so our De profundis, is a Gloria in excelsis, The pit, the vault is become a hill, from whence we may behold the power of our great God; this Sepher kinoth, the book of Lamentations, is become Sepher tehillim, the book of Psalms, and thanksgivings; And Davids Bonus es omnibus, Lord thou art good to all, is come to Moses non taliter, Lord thou hast not done so well, with any nation, as with us; for when we might have feared a dereliquisti, that God had forsaken us, we had S. August appropinquavi & nesciebam, we came nearer & nearer to God, and knew it not, we knew not our danger, and therefore knew not his special Protection. It was one particular degree of his mercy, to proceed so: As it is an ease to a man, not to hear of his friends sickness, till he hear it, by hearing of his recovery, so God did not shake us, with the knowledge of the danger, till he established us, with the deliverance: And by making his servant, and our Sovereign, the blessed means of that discovery, and that deliverance, he hath directed us, in all apprehensions of dangers, to rely upon that Wisdom, in civil affaires, affaires of State, and upon that Zeal, in causes of Religion, which he hath imprinted in that soul. Historically, God hath done great things for us, by him; Prophetically, God hath great things to do for us, and all the Christian world, and will make him, his Instrument to do them.

Now, we reserved at first, for the last gasp, and for the knot to tie up all, this Consideration: That he that was truly affected in the sad sense of such a danger, and the pious sense of such a deliverance, would also use all means in his power, to secure the future, that that Kingdom, in that King, might always be safe, from the like dangers. No doubt, our Josiah doth that, in that which appertaineth unto him; and all, that is, The care of all, appertaineth unto him. If God had made him his Rod, to scourge others with Wars and Armies, we might be afraid, that when God had done his work by him, he would cast the rod in the fire, God doth not always bless those Instruments, who love blood, though they pretend his Glory. But since God hath made him his Dove, to fly over the world, with the Olive branch, with indevours of Peace, in all places, as the Dove did, so he shall ever bring his Olive branch to the Ark, that is, endeavor only such peace, as may advance the Church of God, and establish peace of Conscience in himself.

That care, on his part, shall preserve him: And for his preservation, and ours in him, these things are to be done on our part: First, let us return to God, so, as God may look upon us, clothed in the righteousness of Christ; who will not be put on, as a fair gown, to cover course clothes; but first put off your sins, and then put on him; sins of the Time, sins of your Age, sins of your Sex, sins of your Complexion, sins of your Profession; put off all; for your Time, your Age, your Sex, your Complexion, your Profession, shall not be damned; but you, you your selves shall Do not think that your Sundays zeal once a week, can burn our all your extortions, and oppressions, and usury, and butchery, and simony, and chambering and wantonness practised from Monday to Saterday. Do not think it to be so with the Spiritual man, as with the Natural: In a Natural body, a great proportion of Choler will rectify a cold, or old, phlegmatique man, he is the better, for having so much choler; but a vehement zeal on Sunday, doth not rectify the six days sinner: To cry out then, I am sterved for want of an afternoon Sermon, and to fast all the week long, so as never to taste how sweet the Lord is, in thy cleansing thy heart, and withdrawing thy hand from sin, this is no good diet; Not only upon you Allegiance to God, but upon your Allegiance to the King, be good: No Prince can have a better guard, then Subjects truly religious. Quantus patriae est vir justus, is S. Ambrose his holy exclamation, What a wall to a City, what a Sea, what a Navy to an Iland, is a holy man? The sins of former times, the sins and provocations of Manasseh, lay heavy upon Josiah, as well as God loved him. The sins of our days, our sins, may open any Prince to Gods anger. This is the first way of preserving our Josiah, to turn away the wrath of God, by our abstinence from future sins, after our repentance of former.

A second is, to uphold his honor and estimation with other men; especially amongst strangers that live with us, who for the most part, value Princes so, as they find their subjects to value them. Ambassadors have ever been sacred persons, and partakers of great privileges. A Prince, that lives as ours, in the eye of many Ambassadors, is not as the children of Israel, in the midst of Canaanites, and Iebusites, and Ammonites, who all watched the destruction of Israel; but he is in the midst of Tutelar Angels, National Angels, who study (by Gods grace, & as it becomes us to hope) the peace and welfare of the Christian State. But then all strangers in the land, are not noble, and candid, and ingenuous Ambassadors; & even Ambassadors themselves may be trifled to an undervalue of the Prince, by rumours, and by disloyal, and by negligent speaches, from the Subject; we have not yet felt Solomons whippes; but our whinings and repinings, and discontents may bring us to Rehoboams Scorpions. This way hath a part, in the Kings safety, and in our safety, to hold in our selves, and to convey to strangers, a good estimation of that happy government, which is truly good in it self.

And then a third, and very important way towards his preservation, is, a cheerful disposition, to supply, and to support, and to assist him, with such things as are necessary for his outward dignity. When God himself was the immediate King of the Israelites, and governed them, by himself, he took it ill, that they would depart from him, who needed nothing of theirs, for there could be no other King, but must necessarily be supplied by them: And yet, consider, Beloved, what God, who needed nothing, took: The sacrifices of the Jews, were such, as would have kept divers Royal houses: Take a bill of them, but in one Passeover, that Josiah kept, and compare that and other the like, with the smalness of the land, that they possessed, and you will see, that that they gave, was a very great proportion. Now, it is the service of God, to contribute to the King as well as to the Priest: He that gives to a Prophet, shall have a Prophets reward; he that gives to the King, shall have a Kings reward, a Crown: in those cases, where to give to your King, is to give to God, that is, where the peace of the State, and the glory of God in his Gospel depends much, upon the sustentation of the estimation, and outward honor and splendor of the King: preserve him so, and he shall the less be subject to these dangers, of such falling into their pits.

But lastly, and especially, let us preserve him, by preserving God amongst us, in the true, and sincere profession of our Religion. Let not a mis-grounded, and disloyal imagination of coolness in him, cool you, in your own families. Omnis spiritus, qui solvit Iesum, says the Apostle, in the Vulgate, every spirit that dissolves Jesus, that embraces not Jesus entirely, All Jesus, and All his, All his Truth, and all that suffer for that Truth, is not of God. Do not say, I will hold as much of Jesus, as shall be necessary, so much as shall distinguish me from a Turk, or a Jew, but if I may be the better, for parting with some of the rest, why should I not? Do not say, I will hold All, my self, but let my wife, or my son, or one of my sons, go the other way, as though Protestant, and Papist were two several callings; and, as you would make one son a Lawyer, another a Merchant, you will make one son a Papist, another a Protestant. Excuse not your own levity, with so high a dishonor to the Prince; when have you heard, that ever he thanked any man, for becoming a Papist? Leave his dors to himself; The dors into his kingdom, The Ports, and the dors in his kingdom, The prisons; Let him open and shut his dors, as God shall put into his mind: look thou seriously to thine own dors, to thine own family, and keep all right there. A Thief that is let out of New-gate is not therefore let into thy house; A Priest that is let out of prison, is not therefore let into thy house neither: still it may be felony, to harbor him, though there were mercy in letting him out. Cities are built of families, and so are Churches too; Every man keeps his own family, and then every Pastor shall keep his flock, and so the Church shall be free from schism, and the State from sedition, and our Josiah preserved, Prophetically for ever, as he was Historically this day, from them, in whose pits, the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLIV.

MAT. 11. 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

Preached at St. Pauls Cross, Novemb. 22. 1629.

THese are words spoken by our Blessed Savior, to two Disciples, sent by John Baptist, then a prisoner, to inform themselves of some particulars concerning Christ. Christ, who read Hearts, better then we do faces, and heard Thoughts clearer then we do words, saw in the thoughts, and hearts of these men, a certain perverseness, an obliquity, an irregularity towards him, a jealousy and suspicion of him, and according to that indisposition of theirs he speaks to them, and tells them, This, and This only is true Blessedness, not to be scandalized in me, not to be offended in me; I see you are; but, as you love Blessedness, (and there is no other object of true love, but Blessedness) establish your selves in me, maintain in your selves a submission, and an acquiescence to me, in my Gospel, suspect not me, be not jealous of me, nor press farther upon me, then I open and declare my self unto you, for, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me.

The words have in them an Injunction, and a Remuneration; A Precept, and a Promise; The Way, and the End of a Christian. The Injunction, The Precept, The way is, As you love blessedness, be not offended in me, Be satisfied with me, and mine Ordinances; It is an Acquiescence in the Gospel of Christ Jesus: And the Remuneration, the Promise, the End, is Blessedness; That, which, in it self, hath no end, That, in respect of which, all other things are to no end, Blessedness, everlasting Blessedness, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me. In the first, Christ gives them first, if not an Increpation, yet an Intimation of our facility in falling into the Passive scandal, the mis-interpreting of the words or actions of other men, which is that which our Savior intends, by being offended in another; And Blessed are they, in general, who are not apt to fall into this Passive scandal, not subject to this facility of mis-interpreting other men. In a second branch in this first part, Christ appropriates this to himself, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me; In which branch, we shall see, that the general scandal, and offence that the world took at Christ, and his Gospel, was, that he induced a Religion that opposed the Honours, and the Pleasures, and the Profit of this world: And these three being the Triangle within our circle, the three corners, into which Satan, that compasses the world, leads us, (all is Honor, or Pleasure, or Profit) because the Christian Religion seemed to the world to withdraw mens affections from these, the world was scandalized, offended in Christ. But then, in a third consideration, we shall see, that Christ discerned in these two persons, these Disciples of John, a Passive scandal of another kind; Not that Christs Gospel, and the Religion that he induced, was too low, too base, too contemptible, as the world thought, but that it was not low enough, not humble enough, and therefore John's Disciples would do more then Christs Disciples, and bind themselves to a greater strictness and austerity of life, then Christ in his Gospel required. In which third branch, we shall take knowledge of some Disciples of John's Disciples, in the world yet; and, (as for the most part it falls out in Sectaries) of divers kinds and ways; for, we shall find some, who in an over-valuation of their own purity, condemn, and contemne other men, as unpardonable Reprobates; And these are scandalized, and offended in Christ, that is, not satisfied with his Gospel, in that they will not see, that it is as well a part of the Gospel of Christ, to rely upon his Mercy, if I have departed from that purity, which his Gospel enjoined me, as it is, to have endeavoured to have preserved that purity; And a part of his Gospel, as well to assist with my prayers, and my counsel, and with all mildeness, that poor soul that hath strayed from that purity, as it is to love the Communion of those Saints, that have in a better measure preserved it; Not to believe the Mercy of God in Christ, after a sin, to be a part of the Gospel, as well as the Grace of God for prevention before, not to give favourable constructions, and conceive charitable hopes of him, who is fallen into some sin, which I may have escaped, this is to be scandalized, to be offended in Christ, not to be satisfied with his Gospel; And this is one Sect of the off-spring of John's Disciples. And the other is this, that other men thinking the Gospel of Christ to be too large a Gospel, a Religion of too much liberty, will needs undertake to do more, then Christ, or his Disciples practised, or his Gospel prescribed: for, this is to be offended in Christ, not to believe the means of salvation ordained by him, to be sufficient for that end, which they were ordained to, that is, salvation. And then, after all this, in a fourth branch we shall see, the way, which our Savior takes to reclaim them, and to divest them of this Passive scandal, which hindered their Blessedness, which was, to call them to the contemplation of his good works, and of good works in the highest kind, his Miracles; for in the verse immediately before the text, (which verse induces the Text) he says to them, you see the blind receive their sight, the lame go, the leapers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life. Christ does not propose, at least, he does not put all, upon that external purity, and austerity of life, in which, these Disciples of John pretended to exceed all others, but upon doing good to others; the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk. Which miracles, and great works of his, our blessed Savior sums up with that, which therefore seems the greatest of all, Pauperes Evangelizantur, The poor have the Gospel preached unto them. Beloved, the greatest good that we, (we to whom the dispensation of the word of reconciliation is committed) can do, is, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to assist the poor, to apply our selves by all ways, to them, whether they be poor in estate, and fortune, or poor in understanding and capacity, or poor in their accounts and dis-estimation of themselves, poor and dejected in spirit. And all these considerations, which, as you see, are many, and important, (first our general easiness to fall into the passive scandal, to be offended in others, to mis-interpret others; And then the general passive scandal and offence that the world took at Christ, That he induced a Religion incapable of the honours, or the pleasures, or profits of this world; And thirdly, the particular passive scandal that dis-affected these Disciples of John towards Christ, which was, That his Gospel enjoined not enough, and therefore they would do more, in which kind, we find two sects in the world yet, the offspring, and Disciples of those Disciples; And then lastly, the way that Christ took to reclaim and satisfy them, which was, by good works, and the best works that they that did them, could do, (for in himself it was by doing miracles, for the good of others) and preferring in his good and great works, the assisting of the poor) All these considerations, I say, will fall into our first part, As you love blessedness, be not scandalized, be not offended in me, which is the injunction, the precept, the way. And, when in our due order, we shall come to our second part, The remuneration, the promise, the end, Blessedness, everlasting blessedness, I may be glad, that the time will give me some color, some excuse of saying little of that, as I can foresee already, by this distribution, that we shall be forced to thrust that part into a narrow conclusion. For, if I had Methusalems years, and his years multiplied by the minutes of his years, (which were a faire term) if I could speak till the Angels Trumpets blew, and you had the patience of Martyrs, and could be content to hear me, till you heard the Surgite Mortui, till you were called to meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, all that time would not make up one minute, all those words would not make up one syllable, towards this Eternity, the period of this blessedness. Reserving our selves therefore for that, to those few minutes which may be left, or borrowed, when we come to the handling thereof, pursue we first, those considerations which fall more naturally into our comprehension, the several branches of our first part; As you love blessedness, Be not scandalized, be not offended in me.

First then our Saviours answer to these Disciples of John, gives us occasion to consider our inclination, our propenseness to the passive scandal, to be offended in others, to mis-interpret the words and actions of others, and to lament that our infirmity, or perverseness, in the words of our Savior, Vae Mundo à scandalis, Wo to the world by reason of scandals, of offences: For, that is both a Vae Dolentis, The voice of our Savior lamenting that perverseness of ours, and Vae Minantis, his voice threatening punishments for that perverseness. For, Parum distat scandalizare, & scandalizari, says St. Jerome excellently; It is almost all one to be scandalized by another, as to scandalize another; almost as great a sin, to be shook in our constancy, in our selves, or in our charity towards others, as to offer a scandal to others. For, this Vae, this intermination of wo from our Savior, is bent upon us, from three batteries; for, it is Vae quia Illusiones fortes, wo, because scandals are so strong in their nature, as that they shall seduce, if it be possible, the Elect; And then, Vae quia infirmi vos, Woe because you are so weak in your nature, as that, though you receive the word, and receive it with joy, yet Temporales estis, you may be but Time servers for all that, for, as soon as persecution comes, ilico, continuò, scandalizamini, Instantly, presently, you are scandalized, offended; But especially Vae quia Praevaricatores, Woe be unto you, not because the scandals are so strong, not because you are so weak, but because you prevaricate against your own souls, because you betray your selves, and make your selves weaker than you are, you open your selves too easily to a scandal, you assist a scandal, create a scandal, by your aptness to mis-interpret other mens proceedings. Great peace have they that love thy Law, says David: Wherein consists this great peace? In this, Non est illis scandalum, nothing scandalises, nothing offends them, nothing puts them off from their Kings, their Constancy in themselves, their Charity towards others. And therefore upon that prayer of David, Liberet te Deus ab Homine malo, The Lord deliver thee from the evil man, Saint Augustin retires himself into himself, he sends every man home into himself, and says, Liberette Deus à te, ne sis tibi homo malus, the Lord deliver thee from thy self, that thou be not that evil man to thy self; God bless me from my self, that I lead not my self into temptation, by a wilful misinterpreting of other men, especially my superiors; that I cast not aspersions or imputations upon the Church, or the State, by my mistakings. And thus much being said of this general facility of falling into the Passive scandal, and being offended in others, (which is a great interruption of blessedness, for Blessed is he, and he only, that is not so scandalised, offended so) pass we now to the second branch of this first part, our Saviours, appropriating of this more particularly to himself, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalised, not offended in me.

Christ Crucified, that is, the Gospel of Christ, is said by the Apostle, to be scandalum Iudaeis, a scandal, a stumbling block to the Jews, but Graecis stultitia, to the Grecians, to the Gentiles, meer foolishness. So that one scandal & offence that was taken at Christ, & his Gospel, was by the wisemen, the learned, the Philosophers of the world; they thoght that Christ induced a religion improbable to Reason, a silly and a foolish religion. But these learned men, these Philosophers, were sooner convinced & satisfied, then others. For, when we have considered Iustin Martyr, and Minutius Felix, and Arnobius, and Origen, and Lactantius, and some things of Theodoret, & perchance one or two more, we have done with those Fathers, that did any thing against the Gentiles, and their Philosophers, and may soon come to that question of the Apostle, Vbi sapiens, where is the wiseman, where is the Philosopher, where is the disputer of the world? Indeed, al that the Fathers writ against thē, would not amount to so much, as may be found at one mart, of papists against Protestants, or of Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists, against one another. The reason is, Reason will be satisfied, Passion will not. And therefore, when it came to that issue between the Christian and the Natural man, which Religion was most comfortable to Reason, it soon resolved into these two, whether it were more conformable to Reason to believe One God, as the Christian does, or many, as the Gentiles; and then, being brought to the belief of one God, whether it were more conformable to reason, to believe three Persons in that one God, as we, or but one, as they do. Now, for the first of these, the Multiplicity of Gods, it involved so many, so evident, so ridiculous absurdities, as not only those few Fathers soon disputed them, but some of themselves, such as Lucian, soon laughed them, out of it; and so reason prevailed soon for the unity of the Godhead, that there is but one God, and that question was not long in suspence, nor agitation. And for the other, three persons in this one God, the Trinity, though we cannot so immediately prove that by Reason, nor so entirely, altogether, yet, by these steppes we can: first, that there is nothing in the doctrine of the Trinity against Reason; the doctrine of the Trinity implies no contradiction; It may be so; and then, that it is so, if we have the word of God, for it, Reason it self will conclude, that we have Reason on our side; And that we have the word of God for it, we proceed thus, that for this Book, which we call the Bible, which book delivers us the Doctrine of the Trinity, we have far better reasons, and stronger arguments to satisfy any natural man, that this book is the word of God, then the Turk, or any professors of any other Religion have, that those books which they pretend to be so, are so. So that positively for the first, that there is but one God, & Comparatively for the other, that there are three persons, Reason it self, (if we were bound to submit all Religion to Reason) may receive a satisfaction, a calm, and peaceable acquiescence. And so, the scandal that the Philosophers took, was, with no great difficulty, overcome. But then the scandals that worldly and carnal men took, lasted longer. They were offended in Christ, that he induced an inglorious, a contemptible Religion, a Religion that opposed the Honours of this world; and a sooty, and Melancholic Religion, a Religion that opposed the Pleasures, and delights of this world; and a fordid, and beggarly Religion, a Religion that opposed the Gain, and the Profit of this world. But were this enough to condemn the Christian Religion, if it did oppose worldly honor, or pleasure, or profit? Or does our Religion do that? Be pleased to stop a little upon both these Problems; whether that were enough to their ends, if it were so, and then, whether there be any such thing in our Religion; and begin we with their first offence at Christ, The point of Honor.

The Apostle speaks of an Eternal weight of Glory; Glory, A weight of Glory, An eternal weight of Glory; But where? In heaven, not in this world. The Honours of this world, are far from being weights, or fraights, or ballast to carry us steady; they are but light froths, but leaven, but fermentation, that puffs and swells us up. And they are as far from being eternal; for, in every family, we know, in which father, or grandfather the Honor began, and we know not how soon, or how ignominiously it may end; but such ends of worldly Honours, we see every day. When a Lord meets a man that honours him, makes him curtesy, and curses him withal, what hath his Lordship got by that Honor? when popular acclamations cast him into insolent actions, and into the net of the Law, where is the ease, the benefit, the consolation of his Honor? But especially, if worldly Honor must be had upon those conditions here, as shall hinder my eternal weight of Glory hereafter, I should honor any dishonor, glorify any inglorious state, embrace any Dunghill, call any poverty Treasure, rather then bring the Honours of this world into the Balance, into competition, into comparison with that eternal weight of Glory in heaven. So that if the Christian Religion did oppose worldly Honor, it were not to be opposed for that: But it is far from that; for, as no Religion imprints more honor, more reverence, more subjection in the hearts of men, towards their Superiors of all sorts, Natural, or Civil, or Ecclesiastical, Parents, or Magistrates, or Prelates, then the Christian Religion does (for, we bind even the conscience it self) so never was there any form of Religion upon the face of the earth, in which persons were capable of greater Titles, and styles of dignity, then in the Christian Church. Never any Moscovite, any Turk, received such titles, as the world hath, and does give to the Bishop of Rome; so great, as that some of the greatest later Emperors, have had an ambition of that dignity, and endeavoured to have been elected Popes too, being Emperors. If Religion opposed Honor, that should not diminish it; but it does not that, nor Pleasure neither, which was another thing, in which, the world was offended in Christ.

As when we compared the Honor of this world, with the Glory of Heaven, we found it nothing, so should we do the Pleasures of this world, if we compared them with the Joys of heaven. And therefore if my religion did enwrap me in a continual cloud, damp me in a continual vapor, smoke me in a continual soureness, and joylesness in this life, yet I have an abundant recompense in that Reversion, which the Lord, the righteous Judge hath laid up for me, That I shall drink è torrente valuptatis, of the Rivers of his pleasures; pleasures, His pleasures, Rivers, ever-flowing, overflowing Rivers of his pleasures. So that if my Religion denied me pleasure here, I would not deny my Religion, nor be displeased with my Religion for that; But it does not that; for what Christian is denied a care of his health, or of a good habitude of body, or the use of those things, which may give a cheerfulness to his heart, or a cheerfulness to his countenance? What Christian is denied such Garments, or such Ornaments, as his own rank, and condition, in particular requires, or as the National and general custom of his times hath induced and authorised? What Christian is denied Conversation, or Recreation, or honest Relaxation of Body or Spirit? Excess of these pleasures, as well in the Heathen, as in the Christian, falls under Solomons Vanity, and Vexation of spirit. But with the right use of these pleasures, the Christian hath that, which none but he, hath, That the Lord puts gladness into my heart, That the Lord enables me to lay me down in peace, and sleep, That the Lord assures me that he will keep me in safety. If Religion excluded worldly pleasure, that were no cause of scandal or offence; but it does not that; no nor Profit neither, which is a third consideration.

What is a man profited, says our Savior, (he saw all the world was carried upon profit, and he goes along with them, that way) What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? If a man have an answer to that question, that question of Confusion, and Consternation, that Christ asks, Cujue erunt, fool this night they shall fetch away thy soul, and then, Cujus erunt, whose shall all those things be, that thou hast provided? if a man can answer, Haeredis erunt, They shall be mine heirs, mine heir shall have them; Besides that, though thy bell toll first, his may ring out first; though thou beest old, and crasy, and sickly, Though they do fetch away thy soul this night, they may fetch away his before thine, thine heir may die before thee, and there's that assurance disappointed; If thine heir do enjoy all this, will all that distill one drop of cold water upon thy tongue in hell? And so is he, (says Christ, in the conclusion of that parable) that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God. So that if Riches might not consist with Religion, it would not hurt our cause; but they may, they do. Godliness hath the promise of this life, and of the next; of both, but of this first. The seed of the righteous, shall be mighty upon earth, and wealth and riches shall be in his house. Many places of Scripture tell us that the wicked may be rich, and that they are rich; but in no place does God promise that they shall be rich. So says Davids son, Solomon, too, The Crown of the wise is their riches; we all know what men Solomon means by wise men; Godly men, Religious men; And their Crown is Riches. Beloved, there is an inward Joy, there is an outward dignity and reverence, that accompanies Riches, and the Godly, the righteous man is not incapable of these; Nay, they belong rather to him, then to the ungodly: Non decent stultum divitiae, (as the Vulgate reads that place) Riches do not become a fool. But because, for all that, though Riches do not become a fool, yet fools do become rich; our Translations read that place thus: joy, pleasure, delight, is not seemly for a fool; Though the fool, the ungodly man, may be rich, yet a right joy, a holy delight in riches, belongs only to the wise, to the righteous. The Patriarchs in the Old Testament, many examples in the New, are testimonies to us of the compatibility of riches, and righteousness; that they may, that they have often met in one person. For, is fraud, and circumvention so sure a way, of attaining Gods blessings, as industry, and conscientiousness is? Or is God so likely to concur with the fraudulent, the deceitful man, as with the laborious, and religious? Was not Ananias, with his disguises, more suddenly destroyed, then Job, and more irrecoverably? And cannot a Star-chamber, or an Exchequer, leave an ungodly man as poor, as a storm at sea, in a ship-wrack, or a fire at land, in a lightning, can do the godly? Murmure not, be not scandalized, nor offended in him, if God, for reasons reserved to himself, keep thee in poverty; but know, that God hath exposed the riches of this world, as well, rather to the godly, then the wicked. And so have you the second branch of this first part, The scandals which, for the most part, were taken at Christ, and his Gospel, by the Philosophers, that it was a Religion contrary to Reason, by worldly, and carnal men, that it was a Religion contrary to the honours, to the pleasures, to the profits of this world; which, if it were so, were no impeachment to it, but it is not: And so we are come to the third branch, The particular passive scandal, which our Savior deprehended in these two Disciples of John, diverse from the rest.

That, which mis-affected them towards Christ, was not that he induced a Religion too low, too sordid, too humble, but not low enough, not humble enough; and therefore they would out-bid Christ, and undertake more, then his Disciples practised, or himself prescribed. Their Master, John Baptist, discerned this distemper in them, then when they said to him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, baptizes as fast as thou, and all the world comes to him. John Baptist deals plainly with them, and he tells them, that they must not be offended in that, for so it must be, He must increase, and I must decrease. This troubled them; and because it did so, John sends them personally to Christ, to receive farther satisfaction. When they come at first to him, they say, Sir, we fast, and, even the Pharisees fast, why do not you, and your Disciples fast too? And then our blessed Savior enlarges himself to them, in that point of fasting, and they go home satisfied. Now they return again, and they continue their wonder, that Christ should continue his greatness, and his estimation in the world, they exceeding him so far in this outward austority of life, which was so specious, and so winning a thing amongst the Jews. But duo Discipuli fortasse duo populi, These two Disciples of John may have their Disciples in the world to this day; And therefore forbearing their persons, we shall consider their off-spring; Those men, who in an over-valuation of their own purity, despise others, as men whom nothing can save; & those men, who in an over-valuation of their own merits, think to save themselves and others too, by their supererogations.

Begin we with the first, The over-pure despisers of others; Men that will abridge, and contract the large mercies of God in Christ, and elude, and frustrate, in a great part, the general promises of God. Men that are loth, that God should speak so loud, as to say, He would have all men saved, And loth that Christ should spread his armes, or shed his blood in such a compass, as might fall upon all. Men that think no sin can hurt them, because they are elect, and that every sin makes every other man a Reprobate. But with the Lord there is Copiosa redemptio plentiful redemption, and an overflowing cup of mercy. Aquae quae non mentiuntur, As the holy Ghost says more then once, more then many times, in the Prophets, Waters that will not lye, that will not dry, not deceive, not disappoint any man. The wisdom that is from above, is first pure, & then peaceable. Purity, Sincerity, Integrity, Holiness, is a skirt of Christs garment; It is the very livery that he puts upon us; we cannot serve him without it, (we must serve him in holiness and pureness) we cannot see him without it, without holiness no man shall see God. But then to be pure, and not peaceable, to determine this purity in our selves, and condemn others, this is but an imaginary, but an illusory purity Not to have relieved that poor wretch, that lay wounded, and weltering in his blood in the way to Iericho, was the uncharitableness of the Levite, and the Priest, in that parable. But that parable presents no man so uncharitable, as would have hindered the Samaritan, from pouring his oyle, and his Wine into the wounds of that distressed wretch. To hinder the blood of Christ Jesus, not to suffer that blood to flow as far, as it will, to deny the mercy of God in Christ, to any sinner, whatsoever, upon any pretence, whatsoever, this is to be offended in Christ, to be scandalized with his Gospel; for, that's his own precept, Have salt in your selves, (be it, purity, the best preservative of the soul) And then, Have peace with one another, Deny no man the benefit of Christ; Bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him, for that which hoe hath done for thee, and believe, that he means as well to others, as to thee. And these are one Sect of the Disciples of John's Disciples, That think there are men, whom Christ cannot save, And the other is of men that think they can save other men.

Ignatius, who is so ancient, as that we have letters from him to S. John, and from him to the Blessed Virgin, and if the copies be true) from her to him, as ancient as he is, says, Monet quisquam antiquorum, One of the Ancients hath given us this caution, Vt nemo bonus dicatur qui malum bono permiscuerit, That we call no man good, that is good to ill ends, nor believe any man to speak truth, that speaks truth at some times, to make his future lies the more credible. And much this way does the Roman Church proceed with us, in this behalf. They magnify sanctification, and holiness of life well; well do they propose many good means, for the advancement, and exaltation thereof; fasting, and prayer, and alms, and other Medicinal Disciplines, and Mortifications. But all this to a wrong end; Not to make them the more acceptable to God, but to make God the more beholden to them; To merit, and over-merit; To satisfy, and super-satisfy the justice of God for their own, and for others sins. Now, God will be served with all our power; But, say they, we may serve God, with more then all our power. How? Because I may have more power, more grace, more help, to day, then I had yesterday? But does not the same Commandment, of serving God, with all my power, lye upon me, to day, as did yesterday? If yesterday, when I had less power, less grace, less help, all was but Duty and service that could be done, is it the less a service and a duty now, because God hath enlarged my capacity with more grace, and more helps then before? Do I owe God the less, because he hath given me more? All that my Savior hath taught me, in this, to pray for, is but this, Dimitte debita, Lord forgive me the not-endevouring to keep thy Commandments: But for not doing more then thy Commandments, I ask no forgiveness, by any prayer, or precept recommended to me by him. Ad Evangelii impletionem conscendat nostra religio, nec transcendats says the learnedest Nun, and the best Matriarch, and Mother of that Church, I think, that ever writ, Heloyssa; I pray God, our Order may get so far, as the Gospel enjoyns, and not press beyond that; Nec quid amplius, quàm ut Christianae simus, appetamus, That we desire to be no more, then good Christians. And farther we extend not this third consideration, The particular passive scandal, which Christ found in these Disciples of John, and which we have noted in their progeny, and off-spring but go on to the fourth, The way that Christ took to divest them thereof, by calling them to the contemplation of his works, Consider what you have seen done, The blind see, The lame go, The deaf hear, and then you will not endanger your blessedness, by being offended in me.

The evidence that Christ produces, and presses, is good works; for, if a man offer me the root of a tree to taste, I cannot say this is such a Pear, or Apple, or Plum; but if I see the fruit, I can. If a man pretend Faith to me, I must say to him, with Saint James, Can his Faith save him? such a Faith, as that the Apostle declares himself to mean, A dead Faith, as all Faith is that is inoperative, and works not. But if I see his works, I proceed the right way in Judicature, I judge secundum allegata & probata, according to my evidence: And if any man will say, those works may be hypocritical, I may say of any witness, He may be perjured; but as long as I have no particular cause to think so, it is good evidence to me, as to hear that mans Oath, so to see this mans works. Cum in Coelis sedentem in Crucem agere non possum, Though I cannot crucify Christ, being now set at the right hand of his Father in Heaven, yet there is Odium impietatis, saith that Father, A crucifying by ungodliness; An ungodly life in them that profess Christ, is a daily crucifying of Christ. Therefore here Christ refers to good works; And there is more in this then so: It is not only good works, but good works in the highest proportion, The best works, that he that doth them, can do: Therefore, in his own case he appeals to Miracles. For if fasting were all, or wearing of Camells hair, all, or to have done some good to some men, by Baptizing them, were all, these Disciples and their Master might have had as much to plead as Christ. Therefore he calls them to the consideration of works of a higher nature, of Miracles; for, God never subscribes nor testifies a forged Deed; God never seals a falsehood with a Miracle. Therefore, when the Jews say of Christ, He hath a Devil, and is mad, why hear ye him? some of the other Jews said, These are not the words of one that hath a Devil: But though by that it appear, that some evidence, some argument may be raised in a mans behalf, from his words, from that he saith, from his Preaching, yet Christs friends who spoke in his favor, do not rest in that, That those are not the words of one that hath a Devil, but proceed to that, Can the Devil open the eyes of the blind? He doth more then the Devil can do; They appeal to his works, to his good works, to his great works, to his Miracles. But doth he put us to do miracles? no; Though, in truth those sumptuous and magnificent buildings, and endowments, which some have given for the sustentation of the poor, are almost Miracles, half Miracles, in respect of those penurious proportions, that Myut and Cumin, and those half-ounces of broken bread, which some as rich as they, have dropped, and crumbled out; Truly, he that doth as much as he can, is almost a Miracle; And when Christ appeals to his Miracles he calls us therein, to the best works we can do. God will be loved with the whole heart, and God will have that love declared with our whole substance. I must not think I have done enough, if I have built an Alms-house; As long as I am able to do more, I have done nothing. This Christ intimates in producing his greatest works, Miracles; which Miracles he closeth up with that, as with the greatest, Pauperes evangelizantur, The poor have the Gospel preached unto them.

In this our Blessed Savior doth not only give an instruction to John's Disciples, but therein also derives and conveys a precept upon us, upon us, who as we have received mercy, have received the Ministry, and indeed, upon all you, whom he hath made Regale Sacerdotium, A royal Priesthood, and Reges & Sacerdotes, Kings and Priests unto your God, and bound you therby, as well as us to preach the Gospel to the poor, you, by an exemplar life, and a Catechizing conversation, as well as us, by our words and meditations. Now beloved, there are Poor, that are literally poor, poor in estate and fortune; and poor, that are naturally poor, poor in capacity, and understanding; and poor, that are spiritually poor, dejected in spirit, and insensible of the comforts, which the Holy Ghost offers unto them; and to all these poor, are we all bound to preach the Gospel. First then for them which are literally poor, poor in estate, how much do they want of this means of salvation, Preaching, which the rich have? They cannot maintain Chaplains in their houses; They cannot forbear the necessary labours of their calling, to hear extraordinary Sermons; They cannot have seats in Churches, whensoever they come; They must stay, they must stand, they must thrust, they must overcome that difficulty, which Saint Augustine makes an impossibility, that is, for any man to receive benefit by that Sermon, that he hears with pain: They must take pains to hear. To these poor therefore, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospel; That Gospel, The Lord knoweth thy poverty, but thou art rich; That Gospel, Be content with such things as thou hast, for the Lord hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee; And that Gospel, God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of that Kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him; And this is the Gospel of those poor, literally poor, poor in estate. To those that are naturally poor, poor in understanding, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospel too; That Gospel, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God; Solomon himself had none, till he asked it there. And that Gospel where John went bitterly, because there was a Book preseated, but no man could open it, It were a sad consideration, if now, when the Book of God, the Scripture is afforded to us, we could not open that Book, not understand those Scriptures. But there is the Gospel of those poor; That Lambe, which is spoken of there, That Lambe, which in the same place is called a Lion too, That Lambe-Lion hath opened the Book for us. The humility of the Lambe gathereth the strength of the Lion; come humbly to the reading and hearing of the Scriptures, and thou shalt have strength of understanding. The Scriptures were not written for a few, nor are to be reserved for a few; All they that were present at this LambLions opening of the Book, that is, All they that come with modesty and humility, to the search of the Scriptures, All they, (and they are no small number, for there they are said to be ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands) All they say there, We are all made Kings and Priests unto our God. Begin a Lambe, and thou will become a Lion; Read the Scriptures modestly, humbly, and thou shalt understand them strongly, powerfully; for hence is it that Saint Chrysostome, more then once, and Saint Gregory after him, meet in that expression, That the Scriptures are a Sea, in which a Lambe may wade, and an Elephant may swim. And this is the Gospel of those poor, poor in understanding. To those that are spiritually poor, wrung in their souls, stung in their Consciences, fretted, galled, exulcerated viscerally, even in the bowels of their Spirit, insensible, inapprehensive of the mercies of God in Christ, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospel also, That Gospel, Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs it the Kingdom of Heaven; and to recollect, and redintegrate that broken and scattered heart, by enabling him to expostulate, and chide his own soul, with those words of comfort, which the Holy Ghost offereth him, once, and again, and again, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God; and, yet praise him for the light of his countenance. Words of inexpresible comfort, yet praise him for the light of his countenance; Though thou sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, yet praise him for the light of his Countenance. Whatsoever thy darkness be, put not out that candle, The light of his Countenance. Maintain that light, discern that light, and whatsoever thy darkness seemed, it shall prove to be but an over shadowing of the Holy Ghost. And so beloved, if you have sufficiently considered, first, our general easiness of falling into the Passive scandal, of being offended in others, by misinterpreting their proceedings, and then the general scandals which the world took at Christ, and his Gospel, The Philosophers, that it was an ignorant religion, (where you saw, That the learneder the adversary is, the sooner he is satisfied) And the worldly and carnal man, that it was a dishonourable, an unpleasurable, an unprofitable Religion, (where you saw, that it were no Diminution to our Religion, if it were all that, but it is none of it) If you have also considered the particular passive scandal that Christ deprehended in those two Disciples of John, That they would do more then Christ practised or prescribed, (where you saw also the distemper of those, that are derived from them, both those that think there are some sinners whom Christ cannot save, and those who think there are no sinners whom they cannot save, by their Supererogations) And considered lastly, the way that Christ took, to divest these men of this offence, and passive scandal, which was to call them to the consideration of good works, and of the best works, which he that doth them, can do, (where you have also seen, that Christ makes that our best work, To preach the Gospel to the poor, both because the poor are destitute of other comforts, and because their very poverty hath soupled them, and mellowed them, and macerated, and matured, and disposed them, by corrections to instructions) If you have received all this, you have received all that we proposed for the first part the injunction, the precept, the way, Be not sandalized, be not offended in me. And now, that which I suspected at first, is fallen upon me, that is to thrust our other part into a narrow conclusiō, though it be blessedness it self, everlasting blessedness; so we must; so we shall; blessed is he, (there's the remuneration, the promise, the end) whosoever is not offended in me. Blessed.

The Heathen, who saw by the light of nature, that they could have no Being, if there were no God, (for it is from one of themselves, that Saint Paul says, in him we live, and move, and have our Being, and Genus cjus sumus, we are the off-spring of God) saw also by the same light of nature, that they could have no well-being, if there were no Blessedness. And therefore, as the Heathen multiplied Gods to themselves, so did they also multiply blessedness. They brought their Iupiters to three hundred, says Varro; And from the same author, from Varro, does Saint Augustin collect almost three hundred several opinions of Blessedness. But, In multitudine nullitas, says Tertullian excellently; as where there are many Gods, there is no God, so where there are many blessednesses imagined, there is no blessedness possessed. Not but that, as the Sun which moves only in his own Sphere in heaven, does yet cast down beams and influences into this world, so that blessedness which is truly, only in heaven, does also cast down beams and influences hither, and gild, and enamel, yea inanimate the blessings of God here, with the true name, the true nature of blessedness. For, though the Vulgate edition do read that place, thus, Beatum dixerant populum, the world thought that people blessed that were so, that is, Temporally blessed, as though that were but an imaginary, and not a true blessedness; and howsoever it have seemed good to our Translators, to insert into that verse a discretive particle, a particle of difference, Yea, (Blessed are the people that are so,) that is, Temporally blessed, Yea, blessed are the people whose God is the Lord, yet in truth, in the Original, there is no such discretive particle, no word of difference, no yea, in the text, but both the clauses of that verse are carried in one and the same tenor, Blessed are the people that are so, Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord; that is, that people whom the Lord hath blessed so, with Temporal blessings, is bound to believe those temporal blessings, to be seals and evidences to them that the Lord is their God. So then there is a Viatory, a preparatory, an initiatory, an inchoative blessedness in this life. What is that? All agree in this definition, that blessedness is that in quo quiescit animus, in which the mind, the heart, the desire of man hath settled, and rested, in which it found a Centrical reposedness, an acquiescence, a contentment. Not that which might satisfy any particular man; for, so the object would be infinitely various; but that, beyond which no man could propose any thing; And is there such ablessedness in this life? There is. Fecisti nos Domine ad te, & inquietum est Cor nostrum, donec quiescat in te; Lord thou hast made us for thy self, and our heart cannot rest, till it get to thee. But can we come to God here? We cannot. Where's then our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory, our in choative blessedness. Beloved, though we cannot come to God here, here God comes to us; Here, in the prayers of the Congregation God comes to us; here, in his Ordinance of Preaching, God delivers himself to us; here in the administration of his Sacraments, he seals, ratifies, confirms all unto us; And to rest in these his seals and means of reconciliation to him, this is not to be scandalised, not to be offended in him; and, not to be offended in him, not to suspect him or these means which he hath ordained, this is our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory and inchoative Blessedness, beyond which, nothing can be proposed in this life. And therefore, as the Needle of a Sea-compass, though it shake long, yet will rest at last, and though it do not look directly, exactly to the North Pole, but have some variation, yet, for all that variation, will rest, so, though thy heart have some variations, some deviations, some aberrations from that direct point, upon which it should be bent, which is an absolute conformity of thy will to the will of God, yet, though thou lack something of that, afford thy soul rest: settle thy soul in such an infallibility, as this present condition can admit, and believe, that God receives glory as well in thy Repentance, as in thine Innocence, and that the mercy of God in Christ, is as good a pillow to rest thy soul upon after a sin, as the grace of God in Christ is a shield, and protection for thy soul, before. In a word, this is our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory, and inchoative blessedness, beyond which there can be no blessedness proposed here, first to receive a satisfaction, an acquiescence, that there are certain and constant means ordained by Christ, for our reconciliation to God in him, in all cases, in which a Christian soul can be distressed, that such a treasure there is deposited by him, in the Church, And then, the testimony of a rectified Conscience, that thou hast sincerely applied those general helps to thy particular soul. Come so far, and then, as the Suburbs touch the City, and the Porch the Church, and deliver thee into it, so shall this Viatory, this preparatory, this initiatory and inchoative blessedness deliver thee over to the everlasting blessedness of the Kingdom of heaven. Of which everlasting blessedness, I would ask leave, not so much of you; (yet of you too, for with you, I would not be over-bold) but I would ask leave of the Angels of heaven, leave of the holy Ghost himself, to venture to say a little, of this everlasting blessedness: The tongues of Angels cannot, the tongues of the holy Ghost, the Authors of the books of Scripture have not told us, what this blessedness is; And what then shall we say, but this?

Blessedness it self, is God himself; our blessedness is our possession; our union with God. In what consists this? A great limbe of the School with their Thomas, place this blessedness, this union with God, In vision, in this, That in heaven I shall see God, see God essentially, God face to face, God as he is. We do not see one another so, in this world; In this world we see but outsides; In heaven I shall see God, and God essentially. But then another great branch of the School, with their Scotus, place this blessedness, this union with God, in Amore, in this, that in heaven, I shall love God. Now love presumes knowledge; for, Amari nisi nota new possunt, we can love nothing, but that which we do, or think we do understand. There, in heaven, I shall know God, so, as that I shall be admitted, not only to an Adoration of God, to an admiration of God, to a prosternation, and reverence before God, but to an affection, to an office, of more familiarity towards God, of more equality with God, I shall love God. But even love it self, as noble a passion as it is, is but a pain, except we enjoy that we love; and therefore another branch of the School, with their Aureolus, place this blessedness, this union of our souls with God, in Gaudio, in our joy, that is, in our enjoying of God. In this world we enjoy nothing; enjoying presumes perpetuity; and here, all things are fluid, transitory: There I shall enjoy, and possess for ever, God himself. But yet, every one of these, to see God, or to love God, or to enjoy God, have seemed to some too narrow to comprehend this blessedness, beyond which, nothing can be proposed; and therefore another limbe of the School, with their Bonaventure, place this blessedness in all these together. And truly, if any of those did exclude any of these, so, as that I might see God, and not love him, or love God, and not enjoy him, it could not well be called blessedness; but he that hath any one of these, hath every one, all: And therefore the greatest part concur, and safely, In vision, That vision is beatification, to see God, as he is, is that blessedness.

There then, in heaven, I shall have continuitatem Intuendi; It is not only vision, but Intuition, not only a seeing, but a beholding, a contemplating of God, and that in Continuitate, I shall have an un-interrupted, an un-intermitted, an un-discontinued sight of God, I shall look, and never look off; not look, and look again, as here, but look, and look still, for that is, Continuitas intuendi. There my soul shall have Inconcussam quietem; we need owe Plato nothing; but we may thank Plato for this expression, if he meant so much by this Inconcussa quies, That in heaven my soul shall sleep, not only without trouble, and startling, but without rocking, without any other help, then that peace, which is in it self; My soul shall be thoroughly awake, and thoroughly asleep too; still busy, active, diligent, and yet still at rest. But the Apostle will exceed the Philosopher, St. Paul will exceed Plato, as he does when he says, I shall be unus spiritus cum Deo, I shall be still but the servant of my God, and yet I shall be the same spirit with that God. When? Dies quem tanquam supremum reformidas, aterni natalis est, says the Moral mans Oracle, Seneca. Our last day is our first day, our Saturday is our Sunday, our Eve is our Holyday, our sun-setting is our morning, the day of our death, is the first day of our eternal life. The next day after that, which is the day of judgement, Veniet dies, quae me mihi revelabit; comes that day that shall show me to my self; here I never saw my self, but in disguises: There, Then, I shall see my self, and see God too. Totam lucem, & Totus lux aspiciam; I shall see the whole light; Here I see some parts of the air enlightened by the Sun, but I do not see the whole light of the Sun; There I shall see God entirely, all God, totam lutem, and totus lax, I my self shall be al light to see that light by. Here, I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness: mine uuderstanding sometimes cleared, my will, at the same time perverted. There, I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory. How glorious is God, as he looks down upon us, through the Sun? How glorious in that glass of his? How glorious is God, as he looks out amongst us through the king? How glorious in that Image of his? How glorious is God, as he calls up our eyes to him, in the beauty, and splendor, and service of the Church? How glorious in that spoufe of his? But how glorious shall I conceive this light to be, cum sub loco viderim, when I shall see it, in his own place. In that Sphere, which though a Sphere, is a Center too; In that place, which, though a place, is all, and every where. I shall see it, in the face of that God, who is all face, all manifestration, all all Innotescence to me, (for, facies Deiest, qua Deus nobis innotescit, that's Gods face to us, by which God manifests himself to us) I shall see this light in his face, who is all face, and yet all hand, all application, and communication, and delivery of all himself to all his Saints. This is Beatitudo in Aug, blessedness in the Meridional height, blessedness in the South point, in a perpetual Sommer solstice, beyond which nothing can be proposed, to see God so, Then, There. And yet the farmers of heaven and hell, the merchants of souls, the Roman Church, make this blessedness, but an under degree, but a kind of apprentiship; after they have beatified, declared a man to be blessed in the fruition of God in heaven, if that man, in that inferior state do good service to that Church, that they see much profit will rise, by the devotion, and concurrence of men, to the worship; of that person, then they will proceed to a Canonization; and so, he that in his Novitiat, and years of probation was but blessed Ignatius, and blessed Xavier, is lately become Saint Xavier, aud Saint Ignatius. And so they pervert the right order, and method, which is first to come to Sanctification, and then to Beatification, first to holiness, and then to blessedness. And in this method, our blessed God be pleased to proceed with us, by the operation of his holy Spirit, to bring us to Sanctification here, and by the merits and intercession of his glorious Son, to Beatification hereafter. That so not being offended in him, but resting in those means and seals, of reconciliation, which thou hast instituted in thy Church, we may have life, and life more abundantly, life of grace here, and life of glory there, in that kingdom, which thy Son, our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLV.

DEUT. 25. 5. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no Child, the Wife of the dead shall not mary without, unto a stranger: her husbands brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husbands brother unto her.

Preached at Saint Dunstans April 11. 1624. The first sermon in that Church, as Vicar thereof.

FRom the beginning God intimated a detestation, a dislike of singularity; of being Alone. The first time that God himself is named in the Bible, in the first verse of Genesis, he is named plurally, Creavit Dit, Gods, Gods in the plural, Created Heaven and Earth. God, which is but one, would not appear, nor be presented so alone, but that he would also manifest more persons. As the Creator was not Singular, so neither were the creatures; First, he created heaven and earth; both together; which were to be the general parents, and out of which were to be produced all other creatures; and then, he made all those other creatures plurally too; Male, and female created he them; And when he came to make him, for whose sake (next to his own glory) he made the whole world, Adam, he left not Adam alone, but joined an Eve to him; Now, when they were married, we know, but we know not when they were divorced; we hear when Eve was made, but not when she died; The husbands death is recorded at last, the wives is not at all. So much detestation hath God himself, and so little memory would he have kept of any singularity, of being alone. The union of Christ to the whole Church is not expressed by any metaphor, by any figure, so oft in the Scripture, as by this of Marriage and there is in that union with Christ to the whole Church, neither husband, nor wife can ever die; Christ is immortal as he is himself, and immortal, as he is the head of the Church, the Husband of that wife: for that wife, the Church is immortal too; for as a Prince is the same Prince, when he fights a battle, and when he triumphs after the victory: so the militant, and the triumphant Church is the same Church. There can be no widower, There can be no Dowager, in that case; He cannot, she cannot die. But then this Metaphor, this spiritual Marriage, holds not only between Christ and the whole Church, in which case thee can be no Widow, but in the union between Christs particular Ministers, and particular Churches; and there, in that case, the husband of that wife may die; The present Minister may die, and so that Church be a Widow; And in that case, and for provision of such Widows, we consider the accommodation of this Law. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not mary without, unto a stranger, &c.

This law was but a permissive law; rather a dispensation, then a law: as the permitting of usury to be taken of strangers, and the permitting of divorces in so many cases, were. At most it was but a Iudicial law, and therefore lays no obligation, upon any other nation, then them, to whom it was given, the Jews. And therefore we enquire not the reasons of that law, (the reasons were determined in that people) we examine not the conveniences of the law; (the conveniences were determined in those times) we lay hold only upon the Typique signification, and appliableness of the law, as that secular Marriage there spoken of, may be applicable to this spiritual Marriage, the Marriage of the Minister to the Church: If brethren dwell together, &c.

From these words then, we shall make our approaches, and application, to the present occasion, by these steps; First, there is a marriage, in the case. The taking, and leaving of a Church, is not an indifferent, an arbitrary thing; It is a Marriage, and Marriage implies, Honor: It is an honourable estate, and that implies charge, it is a burdensome state; There is Honos, and Onus, Honor, and labor, in Marriage; You must be content to afford the honor, we must be content to endure the labor. And so in that point, as our Incumbency upon a Church, is our Marriage to that Church, we shall as far, as the occasion admits, see what marriage includes, and what it excludes; what it requires, what it forbids. It is a marriage, and a marriage after the death of another: If one dye, says the Text; Howsoever the Roman Church in the exercise of their Tyranny, have forbidden Church-men to mary, then when they have orders, and forbidden orders to be given to any, who have formerly been married, if they married Widows, God is pleased here, to afford us, some intimation, some adumbration, a Typical and exemplar knowledge of the lawfulness of such marriages, he maries after the death of a former husband; and then farther, a brother maries the wife of his deceased brother; Now into the reasons of the law, literally given, and literally accepted, we look not; It is enough, that God hath a care of the preservation of names and families and inheritances in those distinctions, and in those Tribes; where he laid them then; but for the accommodation of the law to our present application, it must be a brother, a spiritual brother, a professor of the same faith, that succeeds in this marriage, in this possession, and this government of that widow Church. It must be a brother, and Frater cohabitans, says our Text, a brother that dwelt together, with the former husband; he must be of the same household of the faithful, as well as profess the same faith; he must dwell in the house of God, not separate himself, or encourage others to do so, for matter of Ceremonies, and discipline; Idolaters must not, Separaists must not be admitted to these marriages, to these widow churches. And then it is a surrendering to a brother dead without children: In this spiritual procreation of children, we all dye without children of our own; Though by our labours, when God blesses them, you become children, yet you are Gods children, not ours; we nurse you by his word, but his Spirit begets you by the same word; we must not challenge to us, that which God only can do. And then being thus married to this widow, taking the charge of this Church, he must, says our text, perform the duty of a husbands brother. He must, it is a personal service, not to be done always by Proxy, and Delegates; He must; and he must perform; not begin well, and not persist, commence and not consummate, but perform the work, and perform the work, as it is a duty; It is a meer mercy in God, to send us to you, but it is a duty in us, to do that which we are sent for, by his Word, and his Sacraments, to establish you in his holy obedience, and his rich, and honourable service. And then our duty consists in both these, that we behave our selves, as your husband, which implies a power, an authority; but a power and authority rooted in love, and exercised with love; and then that we do all as brothers to the former husband, that as one intentation of this law was, that inheritances, and temporal proprieties might be preserved, so our care might be through predecessor, and successor, and all, that all rights might be preserved to all men, that nothing not due, or due only in rigor, be extorted from the people, nothing that is in truth, or in equity due, be with-held from the Minister; but that the true right of people, and Pastor, and Patron be preserved, to the preservation of love, and peace, and good opinion of one another.

First then, that which we take upon us, is a Marriage. Amongst the Jews, it was almost an ignominious, an infamous thing, to die unmaried, at least to die without children, being married. Amongst the gentiles it was so too all well governed States ever enlarged themselves, in giving places of command and profit, to married men. Indeed such men are most properly said to keep this world in reparations, that provide a succession of children; and for the next world, though all that are born into this world, do not enter into the number of Gods Saints, in heaven, yet the Saints of heaven can be made out of no other materials, but men born into this world. Every stone in the quarry is not sure to be employed in the building of the church, but the Church must be built out of those stones; and therefore they keep this world, they keep heaven it self in reparation, that mary in the fear of God, and in the same fear bring up the children of such a marriage. But I press not this too literally, nor over perswasively, that every man is bound to Mary; God is no accepter of persons, nor of conditions. But being to use these words in their figurative application, I say, every man is bound to marry himself to a profession, to a calling: God hath brought him from being nothing, by creating him, but he resolves himself into nothing again, if he take no calling upon him. In our Baptism we make our contract with God, that we will believe all those Articles there recited; there's our contract with him; and then, pursuing this contract, in the other Sacrament, when we take his body and his blood, we are married to him. So at the same time, at our Baptism, we make a contract in the presence of God, and his congregation with the world; that we will forsake the covetous desires of the world, that is, the covetous proprieting of all things to our selves, the covetous living only for our selves, there's our contract with the world, that we will mutually assist, and serve our brethren in the world; and then, when we take particular callings, by which we are enabled to perform that former contract, then we are married to the world; so every man is duly contracted to the world, in Baptism, and lawfully married to the world in accepting a profession. And so this service of ours to the Church is our marriage.

Now in a Matrionial state, there is onus and Honos, a burden to be born, an Honor to be received. The burden of the sins of the whole world, was a burden only for Christs shoulders; but the sins of this Parish, willy upon my shoulders, if I be silent, or if I be indulgent, and denounce not Gods Judgement upon those sins. It will be a burden to us, if we do not, and God knows it is a burden to us, when be do denounce those Judgements. Isaiah felt, and groned under this burden, when he cried Onus Babylonis Onus Mob, and Onus Damasci, O the burden of Babylon, and the burden of Damscus, and so the other Prophets groan often under this burden, in contemplation of other places: It burdened, it troubled, it grieved the holy Prophets of God, that they must denounce Gods judgements, though upon Gods enemies. We read of a compassionate General, that looking upon his great Army, from a hill, fell into a bitter weeping, upon this consideration, that in fifty or sixty years hence, there will not be a man of these that fight now, alive upon the earth. What Sea could furnish mine eyes with tears enough, to pour out, if I should think, that of all this Congregation, which looks me in the face now, I should not meet one, at the Resurrection, at the right hand of God! And for so much as concerns me, it is all one, if none of you be saved, as if none of you be saved by my help, my means, my assistance, my preaching. If I put you upon miraculous ways, to be saved without hearing, or upon extraordinary ways to be saved by hearing others, this shall aggravate my condemnation, though you be saved: How much more heavy must my burden be, if by my negligence both I and you perish too? So then this calling, this marriage, is a burden every way. When at any midnight I hear a bell toll from this steeple, must not I say to my self, what have I done at any time for the instructing or rectifying of that mans Conscience, who lieth there now ready to deliver up his own account, and my account to Almighty God? If he be not able to make a good account, he and I are in danger, because I have not enabled him; and though he be for himself able, that delivers not me, if I have been no instrument for the doing of it. Many, many burdens lie upon this calling, upon this marriage; but our recompense is, that marriage is as well an honourable as a painful calling.

If be a Father, where is mine Honor, faith God: If you can answer God, why, you have it in your Prophets, They have it, that satisfieth him, that dischargeth you. For, he that receiveth them, receiveth him: But if Christ, who repeats that complaint, in every one of us, That a Prophet hath no honor in his own Country, that a Pastor is least respected of his own stock, you have not your Quctus est, for the honor due to God; God never discharges the honor due to him, if it be not paid into their hands, whom he sendeth for it, to them upon whom he hath directed it. Would the King believe that man, to honor him, that violateth his Image, or that calumniateth his Ambassador? Every man is the Image of God; every Creature is the Ambassador of God; The Heavens, (and as well as the Heavens, the Earth) declare the glory of God; but the Civil Magistrate, and the Spiritual Paster, who have married the two Daughters of God, The state and the Church, are the Images and Ambassadors of God, in a higher and more peculiar sense, and for that marriage are to be honoured. And then Honor implieth that, by which Honor subsisteth, maintenance; and they which withdraw that injuriously, or with-hold that contentiously, dishonor God, in the dishonor of his servants, and so make this marriage, this calling only burdensome and not honourable.

So then the interest of your particular Minister, and the particular Church, being such as between Man and Wife, a marriage, we consider the uses of marriage in Gods first intention, and apply them to this marriage. Gods first intentions in marriage were two. In adjutorium, for mutual helpers, and in prolem, for procreation, and education of Children. For both these are we made Husbands of Churches; in prolem, to assist in the regeneration of Children, for the inheritance of Heaven; and in adjutorium, to be helpers to one another. And therefore if the husband, the Pastor, put the wife, his flock in a circumcision, to pare themselves to the quick, to take from their necessary means to sustain their families, to satisfy him; the wife will say as Zipporah said to Moses, sponsus sanguinum, a bloody husband art thou, that exactest and extortest more then is due, In that case the Husband is no helper. But if we be always ready to help your children over the threshold, (as Saint Augustine calls Baptism, Limen Ecclesiae) always ready to Baptize the Children; if we be always ready to help you in all your spiritual diseases, to that Cordial, that Balsamum, the body and blood of Christ Jesus; If we be always ready to help you in all your bodily distresses, ready even at your last gasp to open your eyes then, when your best friends are ready to close them; ready to deliver your souls into the hands of God, when all the rest about you are ready to receive into their hands, that which you leave behind you, and then ready to lay up the garments of your souls, your bodies, in the wardrobe the grave, till you call for them, and put them on again, in the resurrection, then are we truly helpers, true husbands; and then if the Wife will say, as Job's wife to the husband, Curse God and die, be sorry, that thou hast taken this Profession upon thee, and live in penury, and die in poverty. In a word, if he press too much, if she withdraw too much, this frustrates Gods purpose in making that a marriage; they are not mutual helpers to one another. These were Gods two principal intentions in marriage, in adjutorium, in prolem. But then mans fall induced a third, in remedium, That for a remedy against burning, and to avoid fornication, every man should have his own wife, every woman her own husband. And so in remedium, for a remedy against spiritual fornication, of running after other men in other places, out of disaffection to their own Pastor, or over affecting another, God hath given every wife, her own husband, Every Church her own Pastor. And to all these purposes, our function is a marriage.

It is a marriage, it deserves the honor, it undertakes the burden of that state; and then it is a marriage of a widow, of a Church left in widow-hood by the death of her former husband. In the Law literally God forbad the High Priest to marry a widdow. The Roman Church continues that literally, and more; they extend it; that which was in figure, enjoined to the High Priest only, they in fact extend to all Priests; no man that ever married a widow, may be a priest, though she be dead, when he desires orders. There is no question but there is a more exemplary sanctity required in the Priest, then in other persons, and more in those, who are in high places in the Church, then in those of inferior Jurisdictions, and the name and title of Virginity, hath ever been exhibited as an Embleme, as a Type of especial Sanctity. And as such the Apostle uses it when he saith, That he would present the Church of Corinth, as a chaste Virgin to Christ; That is, as chaste as a Virgin, though married, for so he saith in the words immediately before, That he had espoused them to a husband: As marriage is an honourable state, though in poverty, so is the bed undefiled with strange lust, a chaste bed even in marriage. And in the accommodation of the Figure to the present occasion, our marriage to several Churches, If we might marry no widows, (no Churches, which had been wives to former husbands) we should find few Virgins, that is, Churches newly erected for us. But when the wife of a former husband is left a widow, Nubat in Domino, saith the Apostle, In Gods name let her marry.

But the former husband must be dead: The husbands absence makes not the wife a widow; nor doth the necessary, and lawful absence of the Pastor, make the Church vacant. The sickness of the husband makes not a widow; The bodily weakness nay the spiritual weaknes of the Pastor in case that his parts and abilities, and faculties, be grown but weak, do not make his Church vacant. If the Pastor be suspended, or otherwise censured, this is but as a separation, or as a divorce; and as the wife is not a widow, upon a divorce, so neither is the Church vacant, upon such censures. And therefore for them that take advantages upon the weaknesses, or upon the disgrace, or upon the poverty of any such incumbent, and so insinuate themselves into his Church, this is intrusion, this is spiritual adultery, for the husband is not dead, though he be sick. Nay if they would remove him by way of preferment, yet that is a supplantation; when Jacob had Esau by the heel, whether he kept him in, till he might be strong enough to go out before him, or whether he pushed him out, before he would have gone, Jacob was a supplanter. Some few cases are put when a wife becomes as a widow, her husband living; but regularly it is by death. In some few cases, Churches may otherwise be vacant, but regularly it is by death. And then Esto vidua in Domo Patris, saith Judah to Thamar, Remain a widow at thy fathers house: Then the Church remaineth in the house, in the hands of her Father, the Bishop of that Diocese, till a new husband be lawfully tendered unto her: And till that time, as our Savior Christ recommended his most blessed Mother, to Saint John, but not as a wife, so that Bishop delivers that Church, to the care and administration of some other during her widowhood, till by due course she become the wife of another.

Thus our calling is a marriage; It should have honor; It must have labor; and it is a lawful marriage upon a just and equitable vacancy of the place, without any supplantation; upon death; And then it is upon death of a brother, If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife, &c. Aswell Saint Gregory, as Saint Augustine before, interpret this of our elder, our eldest brother Christ Jesus. That he being dead, we mary his wife, the Church, and become husbands to her. But Christ, in that capacity, as he is head of the Church, cannot die. That to which, the application of this law, leads us, is, That predecessor, and successor, be brethren of the same faith, and the same profession of faith. The Sadducees put a case to Christ of a woman married successively to seven men; let seven signify infinite; still those seven were brethren. How often soever any wife change her husband, any Church, her Pastor, God sends us still a succession of brethren, sincere, and unfeigned Preachers of the same truth, sons of the same father; Who is that father? God is our Father; Have we not all one Father, says the Prophet? Yes, we have, and so a worm, and we, are brethren, by the same father, and mother, the same God, the same Earth. Hath not the rain a father? The rain hath; and the same that we have. More narrowly, and yet very largely, Christ is our father; One of his names is, The everlasting Father; And then after these, after God, after Christ, the King is our father; See, my father, the skirt of thy robe, in my hand, says David to his King Saul; Now if any husband should be offered to any widow, any Pastor to any vacant Church, who were not our brother by all these fathers, in a right belief in God, the Father of all men, in a right profession of Christ Jesus, the Father of all Christians, in a right affection, and allegiance to the King, the Father of all Subjects, Any that should incline to a foreign father, an imaginary universal father, he of whom his Vice-fathers, his Junior fathers, the Iesuites (for all the Jesuits are Fathers) says, That the Fathers of the Church are but sons, and not fathers, to him; They that say to a stock, to the Image of the beast) Thou art my father, who, (not in a sense of humiliation, as Job speaks the words) but of pride, say to corruption, Thou art my father, that is, that prostrate themselves to all the corruptions of a prostitute Church: If any so inclined of himself, or so inclinable if occasion should invite him, or rather tempt him, be offered for husband to any widow, for a Pastor to any vacant Church, he is not within the accommodation of this law, he is not our brother, by the whole blood, who hath not a brotherhood rooted in the same religion, and in the allegiance to the same Sovereign.

He must be a brother, and Frater Cohabitans, a brother dwelling with the former brother. As he is a brother, we consider the unity of faith: As he dwells in the same house, we consider the unity of discipline; That as he believes, and professes the same articles of faith, so by his own obedience, and by his instructing of others, he establish the same government; A Schismatique is no more a brother to this purpose, then an Heretic. If we look well, we shall see, that Christ provided better for his garments, then for his flesh; he suffered his flesh to be torn, but not his seamless garment. There may be, in many cases, more mischief, in disobeying the uniformity of the discipline of the Church then in mistaking in opinion, some doctrine of the Church. We see in Gods institution of his first Church, whom he called brethren: Those who were instructed, and cunning in the songs of the Church, they are called brethren; To oppose the orders of the Church solemnly ordained, or customarily admitted, for the advancement of Gods glory, and the devotion of the Congregation, forfeits this brotherhood, or at least discontinues the purpose and use of it; for, howsoever they may be in a kind, brothers, if they succeed in the profession of the same faith, yet we see where the blessedness is settled, Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; And we see, where the goodness, and the pleasantness is settled, Behold, how good, and how pleasant a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity: So that, if they be not brothers in the same faith, and brothers in the same household of the faithful, and brothers in the same allegiance, If they advance not the truth of the Church, and the peace of the Church, and the head of the Church, fomentors of Error, and of Schism, and Sedition, are not husbands for these widows, Pastors for these Churches.

He must be a brother; A brother dwelling in the same house of Christ, and then brother to one dead without children, as Tertullian expresses it in his particular elegancy Illiberis; that is, content to be his brother, in that sense, in that capacity, to claim no children, no spiritual children of his own begetting; not to attribute to himself that holy generation of the Saints of God, as though his learning, or his wit, or his labor, had saved them; but to content himself to have been the foster father, and to have nursed those children, whom the Spirit of God, by over-shadowing the Church, hath begot upon her, for, though it be with the word of truth, in our preaching, yet of his own will begot he us, though by the word, says the Apostle. Saint Paul might say to the Corinthians, Though you have tenne thousand instructors in Christ, yet have yee not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel; And he might say of his spiritual son Onesimus, That he begot him in his bonds; Those, to whom he first of any presented the Gospel, That had not heard of a Christ, nor a holy Ghost, before, They, into whom, he infused a new religion, new to them, might well enough be called his children, and he their father; But we have no new doctrine to present, no new opinion to infuse, or miracles to amaze, as in the Roman Church, they are full of all these: we have no children to beget of our own: Paul was not crucified for you, nor were you baptized in the name of Paul, says Paul himself; as he says again, who is Paul? but a Minister by whom ye believed, and that also not by him, but as the Lord gave to every man; Not as Paul preached to every man, for he preached alike to every man; but as the Lord gave to every man; I have planted, says he, it is true, but he that planteth is nothing, says he also; Only they that proceed, as they proceed in the Roman Church Ex opere operato, to tye the grace of God, to the action of the man, will venter to call Gods children, their children in that sense. My prayer shall be against that commination, That God will not give us a miscarrying womb, nor dry breasts; that you may always suck pure milk from us, and then not cast it up, but digest it, to your spiritual growth; And I shall call upon God with a holy passion, as vehement as Rachels to Jacob, Da mihi liberos, give me children, or I die: That God would give me children, but his children; that he by his Spirit, may give you an inward regeneration, as I, by his ordinance shall present to you, the outward means, that so being begot by himself, the father of life, and of light, you may be nursed, and brought up, in his service by me. That so, not attributing the work to any man, but to Gods Ordinances, you do not tye the power of God, nor the breath of life, to any one mans lips, as though there were no regeneration, no begetting, but by him; but acknowledging the other to be but an instrument, and the weakest to be that, you may remember also, That though a man can cut deeper with an Axe, then with a knife, with a heavy, then with a lighter instrument; yet God can pierce as far into a conscience, by a plain, as by an exquisite speaker.

Now this widow being thus married, This Church thus undertaken, He must perform the duty of a husbands brother: First, it is a personal office, he must do it himself. When Christ shall say, at the Judgement, I was naked, and ye clothed me not, sick, and ye visited me not, it shall be no excuse to say, When saw we thee naked, when saw we thee sick? for we might have seen it, we should have seen it. When we shall come to our accompt, and see them, whose salvation was committed to us, perish, because they were uninstructed, and ignorant, dare we say then, we never saw them, show their ignorance, we never heard of it? That is the greatest part of our fault, the heaviest weight upon our condemnation, that we saw so little, heard so little, conversed so little amongst them, because we were made watchmen, and bound to see, and bound to hear, and bound to be heard; not by others, but by our selves; My sheep may be saved by others; but I save them not, that are save so, nor shall I my self be saved by their labor, where mine was necessarily required.

The office is personal, I must do it, and it is perpetual, I must perform it, says the text, go through with it. Lots wife looked back, and God never gave her leave to look forward again. That man who hath put his hand to the plow, and looks back, Christ disables him for the kingdom of God. The Galatians who had begun in the spirit, and then relapsed, before whose eyes Christ Jesus had been evidently set forth, as the Apostle speaks, fall under that reproach of the Apostle, to be called, and called again, fools, and men bewitched. If I begin to preach, amongst you, and proceed not, I shall fall under that heavy increpation from my God, you began, that you might for your own glory, show that you were in some measure, able to serve the Church, and when you had done enough for your own glory, you gave over my glory, and the salvation of their souls, to whom I sent you. God hath set our eyes in our foreheads, to look forward, not backward, not to be proud of that which we have done, but diligent in that which we are to do. In the Creation, if God had given over his work, the third, or fifth day, where had man been? If I give over my prayers, due to the Church of God, as long as God enables me to do it service, I lose my thanks, nay, I lose the testimony of mine own conscience for all. My office is personal, and it is perpetual, and then it is a duty. He must perform the duty of a husbands brother unto her.

It is not of curtesy, that we preach, but it is a duty, it is not a bounty given, but it is a debt paid: for, though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for a necessity is laid upon me, says Saint Paul himself. It is true, that as there is Vae si non, Wo be unto me, if I do not preach the Gospel, so there is an Euge bone serve, Well done, good and faithful servant, to them that do. But the Vae, is of Iustice, the Euge is of Mercy; If do it not, I deserve condemnation from God; but if, I do it, I deserve not thanks from him. Nay, it is a debt, not only to God, but to Gods people, to you: and indeed there is more due to you, then you can claim, or can take knowledge of. For the people can claim but according to the laws of that State, and the Canons of that Church, in which God hath placed them; such preaching, as those Laws, and those Canons enjoyn, is a debt which they can call for: but the Pastor himself hath another Court, another Bar in himself, by which he tries himself, and must condemn himself, if he pay not this debt, perform not this duty, as often, as himself, knows himself, to be fit, and able to do it.

It is a duty, and it is the duty of an husbands brother. Now the husband hath power, and authority over the wife. The head of the woman is the Man; and when the office of this spiritual husband is particularly expressed, thus, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort, you see, for one word of familiarity, that is, Exhort, there are two of authority, Reprove, and Rebuke. But yet, all the authority of the husband, secular, or ecclesiastical, temporal, or spiritual husband, is grounded, rooted in love: for, the Apostle seems to delight himself, in the repeating of that Commandment, to the Ephesians, and to the Colossians, Husbands love your wives. Moses extends himself no farther, in expressing all the happinesses, that Isaak and Rebecca enjoyed in one another, but this, she become his wife, and he loved her. If she had not been his wife, Moses would never have proposed that love for an example; for so it is also between Elkanah, and his wife Hannah. 1 Sam. 1. 5. Vnto Hannah he gave a double portion, for (says the Text) he loved Hannah. If the Pastor love, there will be a double labor; if the People love, there will be double respect. But being so, he thought he said all, when he said they loved one another; For where the Congregation loves the Pastor, he will forbear bitter reproofs, and wounding increpations, and where the Pastor loves his Congregation, his Rebukes, because they proceed our of love, will be acceptable, and well interpreted by them.

It is a duty, and personal, and perpetual; a duty, of a husband, and lastly, of a husband that is brother to the former husband; In which last circumstance, we have time to mark but this one note, that the reason of that law, which drew the brother to this marriage, was the preservation of the temporal inheritance, in that family. Even in our spiritual marriages to widow Churches, we must have a care to preserve the temporal rights of all persons; That the Parish be not oppressed with heavy extortions, nor the Pastor defrauded with unjust substraction, nor the Patron damnified by usurpations, nor the Ordinary neglected by disobediences; but that people, and Pastor, and Patron, and Ordinary, continuing in possession of their several rights, love being the root of all, the fruit of all may be peace, love being the soul of all, the body of all may be unity; which the Lord of unity, and concord, grant to us all, for his Son Christ Jesus sake, Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLVI.

PSAL. 34. 11. Come ye children, Hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

The second Sermon Preached by the Author after he came to St. Dunstanes, 25 Apr. 1624.

THE Text does not call children simply, literally, but such men, and women, as are willing to come in the simplicity of children; such children, as Christ spoke of, Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven; Come ye children come such children. Nor does the Text call such as come, and would fain be gone again; it is Come and Hearken; not such as wish themselves away, nor such as wish another man here; but such as value Gods ordinance of Preaching, though it be, as the Apostle says, but the foolishness of Preaching, and such, as consider the office, and not the person, how mean soever; Come ye children; And, when ye are come, Hearken, And, though it be but I, Hearken unto me; And, I will teach you the fear of the Lord; the most noble, the most couragious, the most magnanimous, not affection, but virtue, in the world; Come ye children, Hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

To every Minister and Dispenser of the word of God, and to every Congregation belong these words; Divisio. And therefore we will divide the Text between us; To you one, to us appertains the other part. You must come, and you must hearken; we must teach, and teach to edification; There is the Meum & Tuum, your part, and our part. From each Part, these branches flow out naturally; In yours, first, the capacity, as children; Then the action, you Come; Then your Disposition here, you hearken; And lastly, your submission to Gods Ordinance, you hearken even unto me, unto any Minister of his sending. In our Part, there is first a Teaching; for, else, why should you come, or hearken unto me, or any? It is a Teaching, it is not only a Praying; And then, there is a Catholic doctrine, a circular doctrine, that walks the round, and goes the compass of our whole lives, from our first, to our last childhood, when age hath made us children again, and it is the Art of Arts, the root, and fruit of all true wisdom, The true fear of the Lord. Come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

First then, the word, in which, in the first branch of the first part, your capacity is expressed, filii, pueri, children, is, from the Original, which is Banim, often accepted in three notions, and so rendered; Three ways, men are called children, out of that word Banim, in the Scriptures. Either it is servi, servants; for, they are filii familiares; as the Master is Pater familias, Father of the family, (and that he is, though there be no natural children in the family) the servants are children of the family, and are very often in Scriptures called so, Pueri, children; Or it is Alumni, Nurse-children, foster-children, filii mammillares, children of the breasts; whether we minister to them, temporal or spiritual nourishment, they are children; Or else it is filii viscerales, children of our bowels, our natural children. And in all these three capacities, as servants, as sucking children, as sons, are you called upon in this appellation, in this compellation, children.

First, as you are servants, you are children; for, without distinction of age, servants are called so, frequently, ordinarily, in the Scriptures, Pueri. The Priest asks David, before he would give him the holy bread, An vasa puerorum sancta, Whether those children, (speaking of Davids followers) were clean from women; Here were children that were able to get children. Nay, Davids Soldiers are often called so, pueri, children. In the first of the Kings, he takes a Muster, recenset pueros; Here were children that were able to kill men. You are his children, (of what age soever) as you are his servants; and in that capacity he calls you. You are unprofitable servants; but it is not an unprofitable service, to serve God; He can get nothing by you, but you can have nothing without him. The Centurions servants came, when he said, Come; and was their wages like yours? Had they their being, their ever-lasting well-being for their service? You will scarce receive a servant, that is come from another man, without testimony; If you put your selves out of Gods service, whither will ye go? In his service, and his only, is perfect freedom. And therefore as you love freedom, and liberty, be his servants; and call the freedom of the Gospel, the best freedom, and come to the Preaching of that.

He calls you children, as you are servants, (filii familiares) and he calls you children, as you are Alumni, nurse-children, filii mammillares, as he requires the humility, and simplicity of little children in you. For, Cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus, (as the Vulgate reads that place) Gods secret discourse is with the single heart. The first that ever came to Christ, (so as he came to us, in blood) they that came to him so, before he came so to us, that died for him, before he died for them, were such sucking children, those whom Herod slew. As Christ thought himself bound to thank his Father, for that way of proceeding, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed these things unto babes; so Christ himself pursues the same way, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven. Of such; not only of those who were truly, literally children, (children in age) but of such as those, (Talium est regnum coelorum) such as come in such a disposition, in the humility, in the simplicity, in the singleness of heart, as children do. An habitual sinner is always in minority, always an Infant; an Infant to this purpose, All his acts, all the bands of an Infant, are void all the outward religious actions, even the band and contract of Baptism in an habitual sinner is void, and ineffectual. He that is in the house, and favor of God, though he be a child, (a child to this purpose, simple, supple, tractable, single-hearted) is, as Adam was in the state of Innocency, a man the first minute, able to stand upright in the sight of God. And out of one place of Isaiah, our Expositors have drawn, conveniently enough, both these conclusions; A child shall die 100 years old, says the Prophet; that is, (say some) a sinner though he live 100 years, yet he dies a child, in ignorance; And then, (say others, and both truly) He that comes willingly, when God calls, though he die a child in age, he hath the wisdom of 100 years upon him. There is not a graver thing, then to be such a child; to conform his will to the will of God. Whether you consider temporal or spiritual things, you are Gods children. For, for temporal, if God should take off his hand, withdraw his hand of sustentation, all those things, which assist us temporally, would relapse to the first feeble, and childish estate, and come to their first nothing. Armies would be but Hospitals, without all strength; Council-tables but Bedlams, without all sense; and Schools and Universities, but the wrangling of children, if God, and his Spirit did not inanimate our Schools, and Armies, and Councils. His adoption makes us men, therefore, because it makes us his children. But we are his children in this consideration especially, as we are his spiritual children, as he hath nursed us, fed us with his word. In which sense, the Apostle speaks of those who had embraced the true Religion, (in the same words that the Prophet had spoken before) Behold, I, and the children that God hath given me; And in the same sense, the same Prophet, in the same place, says of them who had fallen away from the true Religion, They please themselves in the children of strangers, In those men, who have derived their Orders, and their Doctrine from a foreign Jurisdiction. In that State where Adoptions were so frequent, (in old Rome) a Plebeian could not adopt a Patrician, a Yeoman could not adopt a Gentleman, nor a young man could not adopt an old. In the new Rome, that endeavors to adopt all, in an imaginary filiation, you that have the perfect freedom of Gods service, be not adopted into the slavery, and bondage of mens traditions; you that are in possession of the ancient Religion, of Christ, and his Apostles, be not adopted into a yonger Religion. Religio à religando; That is Religion, that binds; that binds, that is necessary to salvation. That which we affirm, our adversaries deny not; that which we profess, they confess was always necessary to salvation. They will not say, that all that they say now, was always necessary; That a man could not be saved without believing the Articles of the Council of Trent, a week before that Council shut up. You are his children, as children are servants; and, If he be your Lord, where is his fear? you are his children, as he hath nursed you, with the milk of his word; and if he be your Father so, (your foster Father) where is his love?

But he is your Father otherwise; you are not only Filii familiares, children because servants, nor only Filii mammillares, children because noursed by him, but you are also Filii viscerales, children of his bowels. For, we are otherwise allied to Christ, then we can be to any of his instruments, though Angels of the Church, Prophets, or Apostles; and yet, his Apostle says, of one whom he loved, of Onesimus, Receive him, that is mine own bowels; my Son, says he, whom I have begotten in my hands. How much more art thou bound to receive and refresh those bowels from which thou art derived, Christ Jesus himself; Receive him, Refresh him. Carry that, which the wiseman hath said, Miserere animae tua, be merciful to thine own soul, higher then so; and Miserere salvatoris tui, have mercy upon thine own Savior, put on the bowels of mercy, and put them on even towards Christ Jesus himself, who needs thy mercy, by being so tome, and mangled, and embowelled, by blasphemous oaths, and execrations. For, beloved, it is not so absurd a prayer, as it is conceived, if Luther did say upon his death bed, Oremus pro Domino nostro Iesu Christo, Let us pray for out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Had we not need pray for him? If he complain that Saul persecutes him, had we not need pray for him? It is a seditious affection in civil things, to divide the King and the kingdom; to pray, to fight for the one, and leave out the other, is seditiously done. If the kingdom of Christ need thy prayers, and thy assistance, Christ needs it; If the Body need it, the Head needs it; If thou must pray for his Gospel, thou must pray for him; Nay, thou canst not pray for thy self, but thou must pray for him, for, thou art his bowels; when thou in thy forefathers, the first Christians in the Primitive Church, wast persecuted, Christ cried out, why persecutest thou me? Christ made thy case his, because thou wast of his bowels. When Christ is disseised, and dispossest, his truth profligated, and thrown out of a nation, that professed it before, when Christ is wounded by the blasphemies of others, and crucified by thee, in thy relapses to repented sins, wilt thou not say to Them, to Thy self, in the behalf of Christ, why persecute yee me? Wilt thou not make Christs case thine, as he made thine his? Art not thou the bowels of Christ? If not, (and thou art not, if thou have not this sense of his suffering) thou hast no interest in his death, by thy Baptism, nor in his Resurrection, by thy feeble half repentances. But in the duty of a child, as thou art a servant, in the simplicity of a child, as thou hast sucked from him, in the interest and inheritance of a child, as thou art the Son of his bowels, in all these capacities, (and with all these we have done) God calls thee, come ye children; and that is our next step, the Action, Come.

Passing thus from the Persons to the action, Venite, Come, we must ask first, what this comming is? The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the Apostle in this word, venit, that Christ Jesus is come into the world. All that thou hast to do, is to come to, and to meet him. Where is he? At home; in his own house, in the Church. Which is his house, which is his Church? That to thee, in which he hath given thee thy Baptism, if that do still afford thee, as much as is necessary for thy salvation. Come thither, to the participation of his ordinances, to the exercises of Religion there. The gates of heaven shall be opened to you, at last in that word, Venite benedicti, come ye blessed, the way to those gates is opened to you now, in the same word, Venite filii, come ye children, come. Christ can come, and does often, into thy bed-chamber, in the visitation of his private Spirit, but, here, he calls thee out into the congregation, into the communion of Saints. And then the Church celebrates Christs coming in the flesh, a moneth before he comes, in four Sundays of Advent, before Christmas. When thou comest to meet him in the Congregation, come not occasionally, come not casually, not indifferently, not collaterally; come not as to an entertainment, a show, a spectacle, or company, come solemly, with preparation, with meditation. He shall have the less profit, by the prayer of the Congregation, that hath not been at his private prayer before he came. Much of the mystery of our Religion lay in the venturus, that Christ was to come, all that the law and Prophets undertook for, was that venturus, that Christ was to come; but the consummation of all, the end of the law and the Prophets, is in the venit, he is come. Do not clog thy coming with future conditions, and contingencies, thou wilt come, if thou canst wake, if thou canst rise, if thou canst be ready, if thou like the company, the weather, the man. We find one man who was brought in his bed to Christ; but it was but one. Come, come actually, come earnestly, come early, come often; and come to meet him, Christ Jesus and no body else. Christ is come into the world; and therefore thou needest not go out of the world to meet him; He doth not call thee from thy Calling, but in thy Calling. The Dove went up and down, from the Ark, and to the Ark, and yet was not disappointed of her Oliveleafe, Thou maiest come to this place at due times, and maiest do the businesses of the world, in other places too, and still keep thy Olive, thy peace of Conscience. If no Heretical recusancy, (thou dost like the Doctrine) no schismatical recusancy, (thou dost like the Discipline) no lasy recusancy, (thou forbearest not because thou canst not sit at thine ease) no proud recusancy, (that the company is not good enough for thee) if none of these detain thee, thou mayst be here, even when thou art not here; God may accept thy desire, as, in many cases, thou mayst be away, when thou art here; as, in particular thou art, if being here, thou do not hearken to that which is said here; for that is added to the coming, and follows in a third consideration, after the capacity, Children, and the Action, Come, The disposition, Hearken: Come ye children & hearken.

Upon those words of David, Conturbata sunt ossa mea. St. Basil faith well, Habet & anima ossa sua, The soul hath bones as well as the body. And in this Anatomy, and dissection of the soul, as the bones of the soul, are the constant and strong resolutions thereof, and as the seeing of the soul is understanding (The eyes of your understanding being opened) so the Hearing of the soul is hearkening in these religious exercises, we do not htar, except we hearken; for hearkening is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons, out of some stories of some credit, to imprint a belief of ecstasy, and raptures; That the body remaining upon the floor, or in the bed, the soul may be gone out to the contemplation of heavenly things. But it were a strange and a perverse ecstasy, that the body being here, at a religious exercise, and in a religious posture, the soul should be gone out to the contemplation, and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world. You come hither but to your own funerals, if you bring nothing hither but your bodies; you come but to be enterred, to be laid in the earth, if the ends of your comming be earthly respects, prays, and opinion, and observation of men, you come to be Canonized, to grow Saints, if your souls be here, and by grace here always diffused, grow up to a sanctification. Bonus es Domine animae quaerenti te, Thou art good, O Lord, to that soul that seeks thee; It is St. Augustines note, that it is put in the singular, Animae, to that soul: Though many come, few come to him. A man may thread Sermons by half dozens a day, and place his merit in the nūber, a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching, and yet have receivd none of the savor of life unto life. Some things an Ape can do as well as a Man; some things an Hypocrite as well as a Saint. We cannot see now, whether thy soul be here now, or no; but, to morrow, hereafter, in the course of thy life, they which are near thee, & know whether thy former faults be mended, or no, know whether thy soul use to be at Sermons, as well as thy body uses to go to Sermons. Faith comes by hearing, saith the Apostle; but it is by that hearing of the soul, Hearkening, Considering. And then, as the soul is infused by God, but diffused over the whole body, & so there is a Man, so Faith is infused from God, but diffused into our works, and so there is a Saint. Practise is the Incarnation of Faith, Faith is incorporated and manifested in a body, by works; and the way to both, is that Hearing, which amounts to this Hearkening, to a diligent, to a considerate, to a profitable Hearing. In which, one essential circumstance is, that we be not over affectionately transported with an opinion of any one person, but apply our selves to the Ordinance, Come, and hearken unto me, To any whom God sends with the Seal and Character of his Minister, which is our fourth and last branch in your part.

David doth not determine this in his own person, that you should hearken to him, and none but him, but that you should hearken to him in that capacity and qualification, which is common to him with others, as we are sent by God upon that Ministry; Me. that you say to all such, Blessed art thou that comest in the Name of the Lord. St. Augustine, and not he alone, interprets this whole Psalm of Christ, that it is a thanksgiving of Christ to his Father, upon some deliverance received in some of his Agonies, some of his persecutions; and that Christ calleth us to hearken unto him. To him, so, as he is present with us, in the Ministry of his Church, He is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment, except he have it immediately from his Masters mouth; so is he too, that pretendeth to rest so wholly in the Word of God, the Scriptures, as that he seeks no interpretation, no exposition, no preaching, All is in the Scriptures, but all the Scriptures are not always evident to all understandings. He also is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment by any Officer of his Masters, except he like the man, or, if his Master might, in his opinion, have chosen a fitter man, to serve in that place. And such a perverseness is in those hearers who more respect the man, then the Ministry, and his manner of delivering it, then the message that he delivers. Let a man so account of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the mysteries of God. That is our Classis, our rank, our station, what names soever we brought into the world by our extraction from this or that family, what name soever we took in our baptism, and contract between God and us, that name, in which we come to you, is that, The Ministers of Christ, The Stewards of the Mysteries of God, And so let men account of us, says the Apostle. Invention, and Disposition, and Art, and Eloquence, and Expression, and Elocution, and reading, and writing, and printing, are secondary things, accessory things, auxiliary, subsidiary things; men may account us, and make account of us, as Orators in the pulpit, and of Authors, in the shop; but if they account of us as of Ministers and Stewards, they give us our due; that's our name to you. All the Evangelists mention John Baptist and his preaching; but two of the four say never a word of his austerity of life, his Locusts, nor his Camels hair; and those two that do, Matthew and Mark, they insist, first, upon his calling, and then upon his actual preaching, how he pursued that Calling, And then upon the Doctrine that he preached, Repentance, and Sanctification, and after that, they come to these secondary and subsidiary things, which added to his estimation, and assisted the passage of his Doctrine, His good life. Learning, and other good parts, and an exemplar life fall into second places; They have a first place, in their consideration who are to call them, but in you, to whom they are sent, but a second; fixe you, in the first place, upon the Calling. This Calling circumcised Moses uncircumcised lips; This made Jeremiah able to speak, though he called himself a child; This is Esays coal from the Altar, which takes away even his sin, and his iniquity. Be therefore content to pass over some infirmities, and rest your selves upon the Calling. And when you have thus taken the simplicity of Children, (they are the persons, which was our first step) and are come to the Congregation, (that is your Action, and was our second) and have conformed your selves to hearken, (that also is the Disposition here, which was our third) And all this with a reverence to the Calling before an affection to the man, (that is your submission to Gods Ordinance, and was our fourth and last step) you have then built up our first part in your selves, & laid together all those pieces which constitute your Duty, Come ye Children, and hearken unto me; And from hence we pass, to our duty, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

In this second part, we made two steps; first, The manner, Docebo, I will teach; And then the Matter, Timorem Domini, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Upon the first, we will stay no longer, but to confess, That we are bound to teach, and that this teaching is to preach; And Vae si non, Woe be unto us, if we do not preach. Wo to them, who out of ease, or state, silence themselves; And woe to them too, who by their distemper, and Schismatical and seditious manner of preaching, occasion and force others to silence them; and think, (and think it out of a profitable, and manifold experience) That as forbidden books sell best, so silence Ministers thrive best. It is a Duty, Docendum, we must teach, Preach; but a duty that excludes not Catechizing; for cateching seems especially to be intended here, where he calls upon them who are ot be taught, by that name, Children. It is a duty that excludes not Praying; but Praying excludes not it neither. Prayer and Preaching may consist, nay they must meet in the Church of God. Now, he that will teach, must have learnt before, many years before; And he that eill preach, must have thought of it before, many days before. Extemporal Ministers, that resolve in day what they will be, Extemporal Preachers , that resolve in a minute, what they will say, outgo Gods Spirit, and make too much hast. It was Christs way;He took first Disciples to learn, and then out of them, he took Apostles to teach; an those Apostles made more Disciples. Though your first consideration be upon the Calling, yet our consideration must be for our fitness to that Calling. Our Prophet David hath put them both together, well, O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; (you see what was his Vniversity; Moses was his Aristotle; he had studied Divinity from his youth) And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works, says he there. Hitherto? How long was that? It follows in the next verse, Now am I old, and gray headed, and yet he gave not over. Then Gods work goes well forward, when they whom God hath taught, teach others, He that can say with David, Docnistime, O God thou hast taught me, may say with him too, Docebo vos, I will teach you But what? that remains only, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

There is a fear, which needs no teaching, a fear that is naturally imprinted in us. We need not teach men to be sad, when a mischief is upon them, nor to fear it is coming towards them; for, fear respects the future, so as sadness does the present; feal looks upon Danger, and sadness upon Detriment; fear upon a sick friend, and sadness upon as dead. And as these need not be taught us, because they are natural, so, because they are natural, they need nor be untaught us, they need not be forbidden, nor dissuaded. Our Savior Christ had them both, fear, and sadness; and that man lacks Christian wisdom, who is without a provident fear of future dangers, and without Christian charity, who is without a compassionate sadness in present calamities. Now this fear, thought but imprinted in nature, is Timor Domini, Tha fear of the Lord, because the Lord is the Lord of Nature, He is the Nature of Narture, Lord of all endowments and impressions in Nature. And therefore, though for this natural fear, you go no farther then nature, (for it is born with you, and it lives in you) yet the right use even of this natural fear, is from Grace, though in the root it be a fear of nature, yet in the government thereof, in the degrees, and practise thereof, it is the fear of the Lord; Not only as he is Lord of Nature, (for so, you have the fear it self from the Lord) but as this natural fear produces good or had effects, as it is regulated and ordered, or as it is deserted, and abandoned, by the Spirit of the Lord; And therefore you ae called hither, Come, that you may learn the fear of the Lord, that is, the right use of natural fear, and natural affections, from the Law of God; For, as it is a wretched condition, to be without natural a affections, so is it a dangerous dereliction, if our natural affections be left to themselves, and not regulated, not inanimated by the Spirit of God; for then my sadness will sink into Desperation, and my fear will betray the succours which reason offereth. This I gain by letting in the fear of the Lord, into my natural fear; that whereas the natural object of my natural fear is malum, something that I apprehend sub ratione mali, as it is ill for me, (for, if I did not conceive it to be ill, I would not fear it) yet when I come to thaw this Ice, when I come to discuss this cloud, and attenuate this damp, by the light and heat of Grace, and the illustration of the Spirit of God, breathing in his word, I change my object, or at least, I look upon it in another line, in another angle, I look not upon that evil which my natural fear presented me, of an affliction, or a calamity, but I look upon the glory that God receives by my Christian constancy in that afflicton, but I look upon that everlasting blessednes, which I should have lost, if God had not laid that affliction upon me. So that though fear look upon evil, (for affliction is malum poenae, evil as it hath the nature of punishment) yet when the fear of the Lord is entered into my natural fear, my fear is more conversant, more exercised upon the contemplation of Good, then Evil, more upon the glory of God, and the joys of heaven, then upon the afflictions of this life, how malignant, how manifold soever. And therefore, that this fear, and all your natural affections, (which seem weakness in man, and are so indeed, if they be left to themselves, now in our corrupt and depraved estate) may advance your salvation, (which is the end why God hath planted them in you) Come and learn the fear of the Lord, Learn from the Word of God, explicated by his minister, in his Ordinance upon occasions leading him thereunto, the limits of this natural fear, & where if may become sin, if it be not regulated, and inanimated by a better fear, then it self.

There is a fear, which grows out of a second nature, Custom, and so is half-natural, to those men that have it. The custom of the palce we live in, or of the times we live in, or of the company we live in. Topical customs of such a place, Chronical customs of such an Age, Personal customs of such a company. The time, or the place, or the persons in power have advanced, & drawn into fashion and reputation, some vices, & such men as depend upon them, are afraid, not to concur with them in their vices; for, amongst persons, & in times, & places, that are vicious, and honest man is a rebel; he goes against that State, & that Government, which is the kingdom of sin, Amongst drunkards, a sober man is a spy upon thē; Amongst blasphemers, a prayer is a libel against them; And amongst dissolute and luxurious persons, a chaste man is a Bridewel, his person, his presence is a house of Correction. In vicious times and companies, a good man is unacceptable, and cannot prosper. And, because as amongst Merchants, men trade half upon stock, and half upon credit, so, in all other courses, because men rise according to the opinion & estimation which person in power have of them, as well as by real goodness, therefore to build up, or to keep up this opinion and estimation in them upon whom they depend, they are afraid to cross the vices of the Time, so far, as by being virtuous in their own paticular. They are afraid it will be called a singularity, and a schismatical and seditious disposition, and taken for a Reproach, and a Rebuke laid upon their betters, if they be not content to be as ill, as those their betters are, Now, the fear of the Lord brings the Quo Warranto against all these privileged sins, and privileged places, and persons, and overthrows all these Customs, and Prescriptions. The fear of the Lord is not a Topical, not a Chronical, ot a Personal, but a Catholic, a Canonical, a Circular, an Vniversal fear; It goes through all, and over all; and when this half-natural fear, this fear grown out of Custom, suggests to me, That if I be thus tender-conscienced, if I startle at an oath, if I be sick at a Health, if I cannot conform my self to the vices of my betters, I shall lose my Master, my Patron, my Benefactor, This fear of the Lord enters, and presents the infallible loss of a far greater Master, and Patron, & Benefactor, if I comply with to other. And therefore as you were called hither, (that is to the explication of the Word of God) to learn how to regulate the natural fear, that that fear do not deject you into a diffidence of Gods mercy, so come hither ot learn the fear of God, against this half-natural fear, that is, be guided by the Word of God, how far you are to serve the turns of those persons, upon whom ye depend, and when to leave their commandments unperformed.

Well; what will this fear of the Lord teach us? Valor, fortitude; fear teach valor? yes; And nothing but fear; True fear. As Moses his Serpents devoured the false serpents, so doth true fear all false fear. There is nothing so contrary to God, as false fear; neither in his own nature, nor in his love to us. Therefore Gods first Name in the Bible, and the Name which he sticks to, in all the work of the Creation, is his Name of Power, Elohim; El, is fortis Deus, The God of Power; and it is that Name in the plural, multiplied power, All Power; And what can he fear? God descends to many other humane affections; you shall read that God was Angry, and sorry. and weary; But non timuit Deus, God was never afraid. Neither would God that man should be. So his first blessing upon man, was to fill the earth, and to subdue the creatures, and to rule over them, and to eat what he would upon the earth; All Acts of Power, and of Confidence. As soon as he had offended God, the first impotency that he found in himself, was fear: I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, says he. He had heard the voice of Lions, and was not afraid. There is not a greater commination of a curse, then that, They shall be in a great fear, where no fear is; Which is more vehemently expressed in another place, I will set my face against you, and yu shall fly, when none pursues you; I will send a faintness into their hearts, and the sound of a shaken leaf, shall chase them, as a sword. Flase fear is a fearful curfe. To fear that all favours, and all preferments, will go the wrong way, and that therefore I must clap on a byasse, and go that way too, this inordinate fear is the curse of God. Davids last counsel to Solomon (but reflecting upon us all) was, Be thou strong therefore, and show thy self a man. E Culmine corruens, ad gyrum laboris venit, The Davill fell from his place in heaven, and now is put to compass the earth. The fearful man that falls from his moral and his Christian constancy, from the fundamental rules of his religion, falls into labyrinths, of incertitudes, and impertinencies, and ambiguities, and anxieties, & irresolutions. Militia, vita; our whole life is a warfare; God would not choose Cowards; he lad rather we were valiant in the fighting of his battels; for battels, and exercise of valor, we are sure to have. God sent a Cain into the world before an Abel; An Enemy, before a Champion. Abel non suspicor qui non habet Cain; Gregor. we never hear of an Abel, but there is a Cain too. And therefore think it not strange, concerning the fiery trial, as though some strange thing happened unto you; Make account that this world is your Scene, your Theater, and that god himself sits to see the combat, the wrestling. Vetuit Deus mortem Job; Job was Gods Champion, and God forbad Satan the taking away of Job's life; for, if he die, (says God in the mouth of that Father)Theatrum nobis non amplius plaeudetar, My Theater will ring with no more Plaudites, I shall be no more glorified in the valor and constancy of my Saints, my Champions. God delights in the constant and valiant man, and therefore a various, a timorous man frustrates, disappoints God.

My errand then is to teach you valor; and must my way be to intimidate you, to teach you fear? yes, still there is no other fortitude, but the fear of the Lord. We told you before, sadness and fear differ but in the present, and future. And as for the present, Nihil aliud triste quàm Deum offendere, There is no just cause of sadness, but to have sinned against God, (for, sudden sadness arising in a good Conscience, is a spark of fire in the Sea, it must go out;) so there is no just cause of fear, but in Gods displeasure. Mens in timore Domini constituta, non invenit extra quod metuat. God is all; and if I be established in him, what thing can I fear, when there is nothing without him? nothing simply, at least nothing that can hurt me; Quae sunt in mundo non nocentiis qui extra mundum sunt, This world cannot hurt him that made it, nor them that are laid up in him. Jonas did but change his vessel, his ship, when he entered the Whale, he was not shipwracked, God was his Pilot there, as well as in the ship, and therefore he as confident there. It is meant of Christ, which is spoken in the person in Wisdom, Who so hearkneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and be quiet from the fear of evil. And therefore; when you hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; these things must come to pass, but the end is not by and by; Imaginations, and temptations, and alienations, and tribulations must come: But this is not the end; the end that God looks for, is, that by the benefit of his fear we should stand out all these.

So thē to teach you the fear of the Lord, is to teach you what it doth, that you may love it, and what it is, that you may know it. That which it doth, is that it makes you a constant, a confident, a valiant man, That which God, who is always the same, loves. How doth it that? Thus. As he that is fallen into tha Kings hand for debt to him, is safe from other creditors, so is he, that fears the Lord, form other fears. He that loves the Lord, loves him witl all his love; he that fears the Lord, fears him withal his fear too; God takes no half affections. Upon those words, Be not high-minded, but fear, Clement of Alexandria, hath another reading; super-time, over-fear; that is, carry thy fear to the highest place; place thy fear there, where it may be above all other fears. In the multitude of dreams, there are divers vanities, but fear thou the Lord. All fearful things pass away as dreams, as vanities, to him that fears the Lord; They offer at him, but in vain, if he be established with that fear. In Christ there was no bone broken; In him that fears the Lord, no constant purpose is ever shaken. Of Job it is said, that he was perfect and upright; That is a rare wonder, but the wonder is qualified in the addition, He feared God. So are they put together in Simeon, Iustus & timoratus, he was a just man; how should he be otherwise? He feared God. Consider your enemies, and be not deceived with an imagination of their power, but see whether they be worthy of your fear, if you fear God. The World is your enemy; sed vicit mundum, be of good cheare, for I have overcome the world, saith Christ. If it were not so, yet we are none of it; ye are not of the world, for I have chosen you out of the that world. Howsoever, the world would do us no harm, the world would be good enough of it self, but that the Prince of the world, the Devil, is anima mundi, the soul of this lower world, he inanimates, he actuates, he exalts, the malignity of the world against us; and he is our second enemy. It was not the Apple, but the Serpent that tempted; Eve. no doubt, had looked upon the fruit before, and yet did not long. But even this enemy is not so dangerous, as he is conceived. In the life of St. Basil, we have a story, that the Devil appeared to a penitent sinner at his praiers, and told him, If you will let me alone, I will let you alone, meddle not with me, and I will not meddle with you, He found that by this good souls prayers to God, God had weakened his power, not only upon that man the prayed, but upon others too; and therefore he was content, to come to a cessation of armes with him, that he might turn his forces another way. Truly he might say to many of us, in a worse sense, Let me alone, and I will let you alone; tempt not me, & I will not tempt you: Our idlenes, our high diet, our wanton discours, our exposing our selves to occasion of sin, provoke and call in the Devil, when he seeks not us. The Devil possesses the world, and we possess the Devil. But then, if the fear of the Lord possess us, our own Concupiscencies, (though they be indeed our greatest enemies) because the war that they maintain is a civil war) shall do us no harm, for as the Septuagins in their Translation, diminish the power of the Devil, in that name Myrmecaleon, (a disproportioned Creature, made up of a Lion and an Ant, because as St. Gregory saith upon that place) formicis leo est, volatilibus formica, The Devil is a Lion. to Ants, dasheth whole hills of them with his paw, that creep under him, but he is but an Ant to birds; they prey upon him, that fly above him. If we fear the Lord, our concupiscencies, our carnal affections, our selves, may prove our best friends, because, as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men, but it burnt off those bands, that fettered and manacled them, (for they were loose, and walked in the furnace) so our concupiscencies, if we resist them, shall burn off themselves, and file off their own rust, and our salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations. We may prevent mortem mortificatione, everlasting death, by a disciplinary life. Mori, ne moriamur, is his rule too, To die to the fires of lust here, lest we die in unquenchable fires hereafter; to die daily, (as S. Paul speaks of himself) lest we die at the last day. To end this, this is the working of the fear of the Lord, it devours all other fears; God will have no half-affections, God will have no partners; He that fears God fears nothing else.

This then is the operation of the fear of the Lord, this is his working; remains only to consider what this fear of the Lord is: And, beloved in him, be not afraid of it; for, this fear of God, is the love of God. And, howsoever there may be some amongst us, whom the height of birth, or of place, or of spirit hath kept from fear, They never feared any thing, yet, I think, there is none, that never loved any thing. Obligations of Matrimony, or of friendship, or of blood, or of alliance, or of conversation, hath given every one of us, no doubt, some sense in our selves, what it is to love, and to enjoy that which we do love; And the fear of God, is the love of God. The love of the Lord passeth all things, saith the Wise man: The love, what is that to fear? It follows, The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of his love. As they that build Arches, place centers under the Arch, to bear up the work, till it be dried, and settled, but, after, all is Arch, and there is no more center, no more support; so to lie at the Lords feet a while delivers us into his arms, to accustom our selves to his fear, establishes us in his love. Be content to stop a little, even at the lowest fear, the fear of hell. When Saul was upon an expedition, and did not find himself well followed, he took a yoke of Oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and proclaimed, that whosoever came not to the supply, all his Oxen should be so served; and upon this, (says the Text there) The fear of the Lord fell upon all the people, and they came out, as one man, three hundred and thirty thousand. If Sauls threatening of their worldly goods, wrought so; let Gods threatening of thy self, thine inwardest self, thy soul, with hell, make thee to stop even upon thy fear of the Lord, the fear of Torment. Stop upon the second fear too, the fear of privation, and loss of the sight of God in heaven; That when all we have disputed, with a modest boldness, and wondered with a holy wonder, what kind of sight of God we shall have in heaven, then when thou shouldst come to an end, and to an answer of all these doubts, in an experimental trial, how he shall be seen, (seen thus) thou shalt see then that thou shalt never see him. After thou hast used to hear, all thy life, blessedness summed up into that one act, We shall see God, thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge, thou shalt never see him; fear the Lord therefore in this second fear, fear of privation. And fear him in a third fear, the fear of the loss of his grace here in this world, though thou have it now. S. Chrysostom serves himself and us, with an ordinary comparison, A Tyler is upon the top of the house, but he looks to his footing, he is afraid of falling. A righteous man is in a high place in Gods favor, but he may lose that place. Who is higher then Adam, higher then the Angels? and whither fell they. Make not thou then thy assurance of standing, our of their arguments, that say it is impossible for the righteous to fall, The sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God; but built thy assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience, that thou usest all diligence, and holy industry, that thou mayst continue in Gods favor, and fearest to lose it; for, he that hath no fear of losing, hath no care of keeping. Accustom thy self to these fears, and these fears will flow into a love. As love, and jealousy may be the same thing, so the fear and love of God will be all one; for, jealousy is but a fear of losing. Brevissima differentia Testamentorum, Timor & Amor; This distinguishes the two Testaments, The Old is a Testament of fear, the New of love; yet in this they grow all one, That we determine the Old Testament, in the New, and that we prove the New Testament by the Old; for, but by the Old, we should not know, that there was to be a New, nor, but for the New, that there was an Old; so the two testaments grow one Bible; so in these two Affections, if there were not a jealousy, a fear of losing God, we could not love him; nor can we fear to lose him, except we do love him. Place the affection, (by what name soever) upon the right object, God, and I have, in some measure, done that which this Text directed, (Taught you the fear of the Lord) if I send you away in either disposition, Timorous; or amorous, possessed with either, the fear, or the love of God; for, this fear is inchoative love, and this love is consummative fear; The love of God begins in fear, and the fear of God ends in love; and that love can never end, for God is love.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLVII.

GEN. 3. 24. And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

An Anniversary Sermon preached at St. Dunstans, upon the commemoration of a Parishioner, a Benefactor to that Parish.

THis is Gods malediction upon the Serpent in Paradise, There in the Region, in the Store-house of all plenty, he must starve; This is the Serpents perpetual fast, his everlasting Lent, (Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.) There is a generation derived from this Serpent, Progenies viperarum, a generation of Vipers, that will needs in a great, and unnecessary measure, keep this Serpents Lent, and bind themselves to perform his fact; for, the Carthusian will eat no flesh, (and yet, I never saw better bodied men, men of better habitudes and constitution, howsoever they recompense their abstinence from flesh) and the Fueillans will eat neither flesh nor fish, but roots, and fallets, (and yet amongst them, amongst men so enfeebled by roots, was bred up that man, who was both malicious courage, and bodily strength, to kill the last King, who was killed amongst them) They will be above others in their fasts, Fish, and Roots will they eat, all the days of their life, but their Master will be above them in his fast, (Dust must he eat all the days of his life.)

It is Luthers observation upon this place, That in all Moses his Books, God never spoke so long, so much together, as here, upon this occasion. Indeed the occasion was great; It was the arraignment of all the world, and more; of mankind, and of Angels too; of Adam, and Eve, (and there were no more of them) and then of the Serpent, and of Satan in that, and of all the fallen Angels in him. For the sentence which God, as Judge gave upon them, upon all these Malefactors, of that part which fell upon the woman, all our mothers are experimental witnesses; they brought forth us in sorrow and in travail. Of that part of the sentence which fell upon man, every one of us is an experimental witness, for in every calling, in the sweat of our face, we eat our bread. And of that part of the Judgement, which was inflicted upon the Serpent, and Satan in him, this dead brother of ours who lyes in this consecrated earth, is an experimental witness, who being by death reduced to the state of dust, for so much of him, as is dust, that is, for his dead body, and then, for so long time, as he is to remain in that state of dust, is in the portion, and jurisdiction, and possession of the Serpent, that is, in the state which the Serpent hath induced upon man, and dust must he eat all the days of his life.

In passing thorough these words, we shall make but these two steps; first, What the Serpent lost, by this judgement inflicted upon him; and secondly, What man gained by it; for these two considerations embrace much, involve much; first, That Gods anger is so intensive, and so extensive, so spreading, and so vehement, as that in his Justice, he would not spare the Serpent, who had no voluntary, no innate, no natural ill disposition towards man, but was only made the instrument of Satan, in the overthrow of man. And then, that Gods mercy is so large, so overflowing, so super-abundant, as that even in his Judgement upon the Serpent, he would provide mercy for man. For, as it is a great weight of judgement upon the Serpent, that the Serpent must eat dust, so is it a great degree of mercy to man, that the Serpent must eat but dust, because mans best part is not subject to be served in at his table, the soul cannot become dust, (and dust must he eat all the days of his life. O, in what little sin, though but a sin of omission, though but a sin of ignorance, in what circumstance of sin, may I hope to scape Judgement, if God punished the Serpent who was violently, and involuntarily transported in this action? And in what depth, in what height, in what heinousness, in what multiplicity of sin can I doubt of the mercy of my God, who makes judgement it self the instrument, the engin, the Chariot of his mercy? What room is there left for presumption, if the Serpent, the passive Serpent were punished? What room for desperation, if in the punishment, there be a manifestation of mercy? The Serpent must eat dust, that is his condemnation, but he shall eat no better meat, he shall eat but dust, there is mans consolation.

First then, as it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, so is it an impossible thing to scape it. God is not ashamed of being jealous; he does not only pronounce that he is a jealous God, but he desires to be known by none other name, (The Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God) so jealous, as that he will not have his name uttered in vain; not only not blasphemed, not sworn by, but not used indifferently, transitorily, not Proverbially, occasionally, not in vain. And if it be, what then? Even for this, he will visit to the third, and fourth generation; and three and four are seven, and seven is infinite. So jealous, as that in the case of the Angels, not for looking upon any other Creatures, or trusting in them, (for, when they fell, (as it is ordinarily received) there were no other creatures made) but for not looking immedidiately, directly upon God, but reflecting upon themselves, and trusting in their own natural parts, God threw those Angels into so irrecoverable, and bottomelesse a depth, as that the merits of Christ Jesus, though of infinite, super-infinite value, do not boy them up; so jealous a God, is God, so jealous, as that in Adams case, for over-loving his own wife, for his over tender compassion of her, foreating the forbidden fruit, ne contristaretur delicias suas, (as Saint Jerome lays his fault) left he should deject her into an inordinate and desperate malancholy, and so make her incapable of Gods mercy, God threw the first man, and in him, all, out of Paradise, out of both Paradises, out of that of rest, and plenty here, and that of Joy, and Glory hereafter. Consider Balaams sin about cursing Gods people, or Moses sin about striking the rock, and wouldst not thou be glad to change sins, with either of them? Are not thy sins greater, heavier sins; And yet, wouldst thou not be sorry, to undergo their punishments? are not thy punishments less? Hast thou found honey, says the holy Ghost in Solomon; and, he says it promiscuously, and universally, to every body; eat, as much as is sufficient. Every man may. And then, Ionathan found that honey, and knew not that it was forbidden by Sauls proclamation, and did but taste it, and that in a case of extreme necessity, and Ionathan must die. Any man might eat enough, He did but taste, and he must die. If the Angels, if Adam, if Balaam, if Moses, if Ionathan did, if the Serpent in the text, could consider this, how much cheaper God hath made sin to thee, then to them, might they not have color in the eye of a natural man, to expostulate with God? Might not Ananias, and Saphira, who only withheld a little of that, which, but a little before, was all their own, and now must die for that, have been excusable if they had said at the last gasp, How many direct Sacrileges hath God forborne, in such and such, and we must die? Mighty not Er, and Onan, after their unclean act upon themselves only, for which they died, have been excusable, if they had said at the last gasp, How many direct adulteries, how many unnatural incests hath God forborne in such and such, and we must die? How many loads of miserable wretches mayst thou have seen suffer at ordinary executions, when thou mightest have said with David, Lord I have done wickedly, but these sheep what have they done? What had this Serpent done?

The Serpent was more subtle then any other beast. It is a dangerous thing to have a capacity to do evil; to be fit to be wrought upon, is a dangerous thing. How many men have been drawn into danger, because they were too rich? How many women into solicatation, and temptation, because they were too beautiful? Content thy self with such a mediocrity in these things, as may make thee fit to serve God, and to assist thy neighbor, in a calling, and be not ambitious of extraordinary excellency in any kind; It is a dangerous thing, to have a capacity to do evil. God would do a great work; and he used the simplicity of the Ass; he made Balaams Ass speak; But the Devil makes use of the subtilty, of the craft of the Serpent; The Serpent is his Instrument; no more but so, but so much he is, his instrument. And then, says S. Chrysostom, Pater noster execuratur gladium, as a natural father would, so our heavenly father does hate, that which was the instrument of the ruin of his children. Wherein hath he expressed that hate? not to bind our selves to Iosephus his opinion, (though some of the ancients in the Christian Church have seconded that opinion, too) that at that time the Serpent could go upright, and speak, and understand, and knew what he did, and so concurred actually and willingly to the temptation and destruction of man, though he were but another's instrument, he became odious to God. Our bodies, of themselves, if they had no souls, have no disposition to any evil; yet, these bodies which are but instruments, must burn in hell. The earth was accursed for mans sin, though the earth had not been so much as an instrument of his sin; Only because it was, after, to conduce to the punishment of his children, it was accursed, God withdrew his love from it. And in the law, those beasts with which men committed bestiality, were to be stoned, as well as the men. How poor a plea will it be, to say, at the last day, I got nothing by such an extortion, to mine own purse, it was for my master; I made no use of that woman whom I had corrupted, it was for a friend. Miserable instrument of sin, that hadst not the profit, nor the pleasure, and must have the damnation! As the Prophet calls them, that help us towards heaven, Saviours, (Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion) so are all that concur instrumentally to the damnation of others, Devils. And, at the last day, we shall see many sinners saved, and their instruments perish. Adam, and Eve both God interrogated, and, gave them time, to meditate and to deprecate; To Adam, he says, Where art thou, and, who told thee that thou wast naked? And to Eve, What is this that thou hast done? But to the Serpent no such breathing; The first words is, Quia fecisti; no calling for evidence whether he had done it or no, but, Because thou hast done it, thou art accursed. Sin is Treason against God; and in Treason there is no Accessory; The instrument is the Principal.

We pass from that first Part, the consideration of heavy Judgements upon faults, in appearance but small, derived from the punishment of the Serpent, though but an Instrument. Let no man set a low value upon any sin; let no man think it a little matter to sin some one sin, and no more; or that one sin but once, and no oftener; or that once but a little way in that sin, and no father; or all this, to do another a pleasure, though he take none in it himself (as though there were charity in the society of sin, and that it were an Alms to help a man to the means of sinning.) The least sin cost the blood of the Son of God, and the least sinner may lose the benefit of it, if he presume of it. No man may cast himself from a Pinnacle, because an Angel may support him; no man may kill himself, because there is a Resurrection of the body; nor wound his soul to death by sin, because there may be a resurrection of that, by grace. Here is no room for presumption upon God; but, as little for desperation in God; for, in the punishment of the Serpent, we shall see, that his Mercy, and Justice are inseparable; that, as all the Attributes of God, make up but one God (Goodness, and Wisdom, and Power are but one God) so Mercy and Justice make up but one act; they do not only duly suceed, and second one another, they do not only accompany one another, they are not only together, but they are all one. As Manna, though it tasted to one man like one thing, to another like another, (for it tasted to every man like that, that that man liked best) yet still was the same Manna; so, for Gods corrections, they have a different taste in different persons; and howsoever the Serpent found nothing but Judgement, yet we find mercy even in that Judgement. The evening and the morning make up the day, says Moses; as soon as he had named evening comes in morning, no interposing of the mention of a dark, and sad night between. As soon as I hear of a Judgement, I apprehend Mercy, no interposing of any dark or sad suspicion, or diffidence, or distrust in God, and his mercy; and to that purpose we consider the Serpents punishment, and espcially as it is heightened, and aggravated in this Text, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

There are three degrees in the Serpents punishment; First, Super pectus, He must creep upon his belly; And secondly, Inimicitias ponam, I will put enmity, God will raise him an enemy. And thirdly, Pulverem comedes, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And, in all these three, though they aggravate the judgement upon the Serpent, there is mercy to us; For, for the first, that the Serpent now does but creep upon his belly, S. Augustine, and S. Gregory understands this belly to be the seat of our affections, and our concupiscencies; That the Serpent hath no power upon our heart, nor upon our brain, for, if we bring a temptation to consideration, to deliberation, that we stop at it, think of it, study it, and forsee the consequences, this frustrates the temptation. Our nobler faculties are always assisted with the grace of God to resist him, though the belly, the bowels of sin, in sudden surprisals, and ebullitions, and foamings of our concupiscencies, be subject to him: for, though it may seem, that if that be the meaning, (which, from S. Augustine and S. Gregory we have given you) That the Serpent hath this power over our affections, and that is intended by that, The belly, it should rather have been said, super pectus vestrum, He shall creep upon your belly, then upon his own, yet, indeed, all that is his own, which we have submitted and surrendered to him, and he is upon his own, because we make our selves his; (for, to whom ye yield your servants to obey, his servants you are. ) So that if he be super pectus nostrum, if he be upon our belly, he is upon his own. But he does but creep; He does not fly; He is not presently upon you, in a present possession of you; you may discern the beginning of sin, and the ways of sin, in the approaches of the Serpent, if you will. The Serpent leaves a slime that discovers him, where he creeps; At least behind him, after a sin, you may easily see occasion of remorse, and detestation of that sin, and thereby prevent relapses, if you have not watched him well enough in his creeping upon you. When he is a Lion, he does not devour all whom he finds; He seeks whom he may devour; He may not devour all, nor any but those, who cast themselves into his jaws, by exposing themselves to temptations to sin.

He does but creep; why, did he any more before? was his forme changed in this punishment? Many of the Ancients think literally that it was; and that before the Serpent did go upon feet; we are not sure of that; nor is it much probable. That may well be true, which Luther says, fuit suavissima bestiola, till then it was a creature more lovely, more sociable, more conversable with man, and, (as Calvin expresses the same) Minus odiosus, man did less abhor the Serpent before, then after. Beloved, it is a degree of mercy, if God bring that, which was formerly a temptation to me, to a less power over me, then formerly it had; If deformity, if sickness, if age, if opinion, if satiety, if inconstancy, if any thing have worn out a temptation in that face, that transported me heretofore, it is a degree of mercy. Though the Serpent be the same Serpent, yet if he be not so acceptable, so welcome to me, as heretofore, it is a happy, a blessed change. And so, in that respect, there was mercy.

It was a punishment to the Serpent, that, though he were the same still as before, yet he was not able to insinuate himself as before, because he was not so welcome to us. So, the having of the same form, which he had, might be a punishment, as nakedness was to man after his fall; He was naked before, but he saw it not, he felt it not, he needed no clothes before; Now, nakedness brings shame, and infirmities with it. So, God was so sparing towards the Serpent, as that he made him not worse in nature, then before, and so merciful to us, as that he made us more jealous of him, and thereby more safe against him, then before. Which is also intimated pregnantly, in the next step of his punishment, Inimicitias ponam, That God hath kindled a war between him and us. Peace is a blessed state, but it must be the peace of God; for, simeon and Levi are brethren, they agree well enough together; but they are instruments of evil; and, in that case, the better agreement, the worse. So, war is a fearful state; but not so, if it be the war of God, undertaken for his cause, or by his Word. Many times, a State suffers by the security of a Peace, and gains by the watchfulness of a War. Wo be to that man is so at peace, as that the spirit fights not against the flesh in him; and wo to them too, who would make them friends, or reconcile them, between whom, God hath perpetuated an everlasting war, The seed of the woman, and the seed of the Serpent, Christ and Belial, Truth and Superstition. Till God proclaimed a war between them, the Serpent did easily overthrow them, but therefore God brought it to a war, that man might stand upon his guard. And so it was a Mercy.

But the greatest mercy is in the last, and that which belongs most directly, (though all conduce pertinently and usefully) to our present occasion;) Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. He must eat dust, that is, our bodies, and carnal affections; He was at a richer diet, he was in better pasture before; before, he fed upon souls too; But for that his head was bruised, in the promise of a Messiah, who delivers our souls from his tyranny; But the dust, the body, that body, which for all the precious ransom, and the rich, and large mercy of the Messiah, must die, that dust is left to the Serpent, to Satan, that is, to that dissolution, and that putrefaction, which he hath induced upon man, in death. He eats but our dust, in our death, when he hath brought us to that; that is a mercy; nay he eats up our dust before our death, which is a greater mercy; our carnal affections, our concupiscencies are eaten up, and devoured by him; and so, even his eating is a sweeping, a deansing, a purging of us. Many times we are the better for his temptations. My discerning a storm, makes me put on a cloak. My discerning a temptation, makes me see my weakness, and fly to my strength. Nay, I am sometimes the safer, and the readier for a victory, by having been overcome by him. The sense, and the remorse of a sin, after I have fallen into it, puts me into a better state, and establishes better conditions between God and me then were before, when I felt no temptations to sin. He shall eat up my dust, so, as that it shall fly into mine eyes; that is, so work upon my carnal affections, as that they shall not make me blind, nor unable to discern that it is he that works. It is said of one kind of Serpent, that because they know, by an instinct they have, that their skin is good for the use of man, (for the falling sickness) out of Envy, they hide their skin, when they cast it. The Serpent is loth we should have any benefit by him; but we have; even his temptations arm us, and the very falling exalts us, when after a sin of infirmity, we come to a true, and scrutiny of our conscience. So he hath nothing to eat but our dust, and he eats up our dust so, as that he contributes to our glory, by his malice. The Whale was Jonas Pilot; The Crows were Elijah caters; The Lions were Daniels sentinels; The Viper was Pauls advocate; it pleaded for him, & brought the beholders in an instant, from extreme to extreme, from crying out that Paul was a murderer, to cry that he was a god. Though at any time, the Serpent having brought me to a sin, cry out, Thou art a murderer, that is, bring me to a desperate sense of having murdered mine own soul, yet in that darkness I shall see light, & by a present repentance, & effectual application of the merits of my Savior, I shall make the Serpent see, I am a God, thus far a God, that by my adhering to Christ, I am made partaker of the Divine Nature. For, that which S. Chrysost. says of Baptism; is true too in the second Baptism, Repentance, Deposui terram, & coelum indui; then I may say to the Serpent, Your meat is dust; and I was dust; but Deposui terram, I have shook off my dust, by true repentance, for I have shook off my self, and am a new creature, and am not now meat for your Table. Iam terra non sum, sed sal, says the same Father, I am not now unsavoury dust, but I am salt; And, Sal ex aqua & vento says he; Salt is made of water and wind; I am made up of the water of Baptism, of the water of Repentance, of the water that accompanies the blood of Christ Jesus, and of that wind that blows where it list, and hath been pleased to blow upon me, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, and I am no longer meat for the Serpent, for Dust must he eat all the days of his life. I am a branch of that Vine, (Christ is the Vine, and we are the branches) I am a leaf of that Rose of Sharon, and of that Lilly of the valleys; I am a plant in the Orchard of Pomegranats, and that Orchard of Pomegranats is the Church; I am a drop of that dew, that dew that lay upon the head of Christ. And this Vine, and this Rose, and Lilly, and Pomegranats, of Paradise, and this Dew of heaven, are not Dust, And dust must thou eat all the days of thy life.

So then, the Prophecy of Isaiah fulfils it self, That when Christ shall reign powerfully over us, The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, (Saul and Ananias shall meet in a house, (as S. Jerome expounds that) and Ananias not be afraid of a Persecutor.) The Lion shall eat straw like the Bullock, says that Prophet in that place, Tradent se rusticitati Scripturarum, says the same Father, The strongest understandings shall content themselves with the homeliness of the Scriptures, and feed upon plain places, and not study new dishes, by subtilties, and perplexities, and then, Dust shall be the Serpents meat, says the Prophet there, The power of Satan shall reach but to the body, and touch a soul wrapt up in Christ. But then, it is Totâ vitâ, all his life. His diet is impaired, but it is not taken away; He eats but dust, but he shall not lack that, as long as he lives. And how long lives the Serpent, this Serpent? The life of this Serpent is to seduce man, to practise upon man, to prevail upon man, as far, and as long as man is dust. And therefore we are not only his dust, whilst we live (all which time we serve in our carnal affections, for him to feed upon) but when we are dead, we are his dust still. Man was made in that state, as that he should not resolve to dust, but should have passed from this world to the next, without corruption, or resolution of the body. That which God said to Adam, Dust thou art, belonged to all, from the beginning, he, and all we were to be of dust, in his best integrity; but that which God adds there, & in terram revertêris, (dust thou art, and to it thou shalt return) that the Serpent brought in, that was induced upon man by him, and his temptation. So that when we are living dust here he eats us, and when we are dead dust too, in the grave, he feeds upon us, because it proceeds from him both that we die, and that we are detained in the state of exinanition, and ingloriousness, in the dust of the earth, and not translated immediately to the joys of heaven, as but for him, we should have been. But as, though he do feed upon our living dust, that is, induce sicknesses, and hunger, and labor, and cold, and pain upon our bodies here, God raises even that dust out of his hands, and redeems it from his jaws, in affording us a deliverance, or a restitution from those bodily calamities here, as he did abundantly to his servant, and our example Job, so, though he feed upon our dead dust and detain our bodies in the disconsolate state of the grave, yet, as the Godhead, the divine nature did not depart from the body of Christ when it lay dead in the grave, so neither doth the love and power of God, depart from the body of a Christian, though resolved to dust in the grave, but, in his due time, shall recollect that dust, and recompact that body, and reunite that soul, in everlasting joy and glory. And till then, the Serpent lives; till the Judgement, Satan hath power upon that part of man; and that's the Serpents life, first to practise our death, and then to hold us in the state of the dead. Till then we attend with hope, and with prayers Gods holy pleasure upon us, and then begins the unchangeable state in our life, in body and soul together, then we begin to live, and then ends the Serpents life, that is, his earnest practise upon us in our life, and his faint triumph in continuing over our dust. That time, (the time of the general Resurrection) being not yet come, the devills thought themselves wronged, and complained that Christ came before the time to torment them; and therefore Christ yielded so much to their importunity, as to give them leave to enter into the swine. And therefore, let not us murmur nor over-mourne for that, which as we have induced it upon our selves, so God shall deliver us from, at last, that is, both death, and corruption after death, and captivity in that comfortless state, but for the resurection. For, so long we are to be dust, and so long lasts the Serpents life, Satans power over man; dust must he eat all the days of his life.

In the mean time, (for our comfort in the way) when this Serpent becomes a Lyon, yet there is a Lyon of the Tribe of Judah, that is too strong for him. so, if he who is Serpens serpens humi, the Serpent condemned to creep upon the ground, do transform himself into a flying Serpent, and attempt our nobler faculties, there is Serpens exaltatus, a Serpent lifted up in the wilderness, to recover all them that are stung, and feel that they are stung with this Serpent, this flying Serpent, that is, these high and continued sins. The creeping Serpent, the groveling Serpent, is Craft; the exalted Serpent, the crucified Serpent, is Wisdom. All you worldly cares, all your crafty bargains all your subtle matches, all your diggings into other means estates, all your hedgings, in of debts, all your planting of children in great allyances; all these diggings, and hedgings and plantings savor of the earth, and of the craft of that Serpent, that creeps upon the earth: But crucify this craft of yours, bring all your worldly subtilty under the Cross of Christ Jesus, husband your farms so, as you may give a good account to him, press your debts so, as you would be pressed by him, market and bargain so, as that you would give all, to buy that field, in which his treasure, and his pearl is hid, and then you have changed the Serpent, from the Serpent of perdition creeping upon the earth, to the Serpent of salvation exalted in the wilderness. Creeping wisdom, that still looks downward, is but craft; Crucified wisdom, that looks upward, is truly wisdom. Between you and that ground Serpent God hath kindled a war; and the nearer you come to a peace with him, the farther ye go from God, and the more ye exaspetate the Lord of Hosts, and you whet his sword against your own souls. A truce with that Serpent, is too near a peace; to condition with your conscience for a time, that you may continue in such a sin, till you have paid for such a purchase, married such a daughter, bought such an annuity. undermined and eaten out such an unthrift, this truce, (though you mean to end it before you die) is too near a peace with that Serpent, between whom and you, God hath kindled an everlasting war. A cessation of Arms, that is, not to watch all his attempts and temptations, not to examine all your particular actions, A Treaty of Peace, that is, to dispute and debate in the behalf and favor of a sin, to palliate, to disguise, to extenuate that sin, this is too near a peace with this Serpent, this creeping Serpent. But in the other Serpent, the crucified Serpent, God hath reconciled to himself, all things in heaven, and earth, and hell. You have peace in the assistance of the Angels of heaven, Peace in the contribution of the powerful prayers, and of the holy examples of the Saints upon earth, peace in the victory and triumph over the power of hell, peace from sins towards men, peace of affections in your selves, peace of conscience towards God. From your childhood you have been called upon to hold your peace; To be content is to hold your peace; murmure not at God, in any corrections of his, and you do hold this peace. That creeping Serpent, Satan, is war, and should be so; The crucified Serpent Christ Jesus is peace, and shall be so for ever. The creeping Serpent eats our dust, the strength of our bodies, in sicknesses, and our glory in the dust of the grave: The crucified Serpent hath taken our flesh, and our blood, and given us his flesh, and his blood for it; And therefore, as David, when he was thought base, for his holy freedom in dancing before the Ark, said he would be more base; so, since we are all made of red earth, let him that is red, be more red; Let him that is red with the blood of his own soul, be red again in blushing for that redness, and more red in the Communion of the blood of Christ Jesus; whom we shall eat all the days of our life, and be mystically, and mysteriously, and spiritually, and Sacramentally united to him in this life, and gloriously in the next.

In this state of dust, and so in the territory of the Serpent, the Tyrant of the dead, lies this dead brother of ours, and hath lien some years, who occasions our meeting now, and yearly upon this day, and whose soul, we doubt not, is in the hands of God, who is the God of the living. And having gathered a good Gomer of Manna, a good measure of temporal blessings in this life, and derived a fair measure thereof, upon them, whom nature and law directed it upon, (and in whom we beseech God to bless it) hath also distributed something to the poor of this Parish, yearly, this day, and something to a meeting for the conserving of neighbourly love, and something for this exercise. In which, no doubt, his intention was not so much to be yearly remembered himself, as that his posterity, and his neighbours might be yearly remembered to do as he had done. For, this is truly to glorify God in his Saints, to sanctify our selves in their examples; To celebrate them, is to imitate them. For, as it is probably conceived, and agreeably to Gods Justice, that they that write wanton books, or make wanton pictures, have additions of torment, as often as other men are corrupted with their books, or their pictures: so may they, who have left permanent examples of good works, well be believed, to receive additions of glory and joy, when others are led by that to do the like: And so, they who are extracted, and derived from him, and they who dwelt about him, may assist their own happiness, and enlarge his, by following his good example in good proportions. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLVIII.

LAMENT. 3. 1. I am the man, that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath.

Preached at St. Dunstans.

YOU remember in the history of the Passion of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, there was an Ecce homo, a shewing, an exhibiting of that man, in whom we are all blessed. Pilat presented him to the Jews so, with that Ecce homo, Behold the man. That man upon whom the wormwood and the gall of all the ancient Prophecies, and the venom and malignity of all the cruel instruments thereof, was now poured out; That man who was left as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, without forme, or beauty, or comeliness, that we should desire to see him, as the Prophet Isaiah exhibits him; That man who upon the brightness of his eternal generation in the bosom of his Father, had now cast a cloud of a temporary and earthly generation in the womb of his mother, that man, who, as he entered into the womb of his first mother, the blessed Virgin, by a supernatural way, by the overshadowing of the holy Ghost, so he vouchsafed to enter into the womb of her, whom he had accepted for his second mother, the earth, by an unnatural way, not by a natural, but by a violent, and bitter death, that man so torn and mangled, wounded with thorns, oppressed with scorns and contumelies, Pilite presents and exhibits so, Ecce homo, Behold the man, But in all this depression of his, in all his exinanition, and evacuation yet he had a Crown on, yet he had a purple garment on, the emblems, the Characters of majesty were always upon him. And these two considerations, the miseries that exhaust, and evacuate, and annihilate man in this life, and yet, those sparks, and seeds of morality, that lie in the bosom, that still he is a man, the affilictions that depresse and smother, that suffocate and strangle their spirits in thier bosoms, and yet that unsmotherable, that unquenchable Spirit of Adoption, by which we cry Abba Father, that still he is a Christian, these Thorns, and yet these Crowns, these contumelies, and yet this Purple, are the two parts of this text, I am the man, that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. For, here is an Ecce, behold; Jeremiah presents a map, a manifestation of as great affliction, as the rod of Gods wrath could infflict; But yet it is Ecce homo, Behold the man, I am the man, he is not demolished, he is not incinerated so, not so annihilated, but that he is still a man; God preserves his children from departing from the dignity of men, and from the sovereign dignity of Christian men, in the deluge, and inundation of all afflictions.

And these two things, so considerable in that Ecce homo, in the exhibiting of Christ, that then when he was under those scorns, and Crosses, he had his Crowns, his purples, ensigns of majesty upon him, may well be parts of this text; for, when we come to consider who is the person of whom Jeremiah says, I am the man, we find many of the ancient Expositors take these words prophetically of Christ himself; and that Christ himself who says, Behold and see if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow, says here also, I am the man, that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath. But because there are some other passages in the Chapter, that are not conveniently applicable to Christ, (it is not likely that Christ would say of himself; That his Father shut out his prayer, even then when he cried and shouted; not likely that Christ would say of himself, That his Father was to him, as a Bear in the way, and as a Lion in secret places; not likely that Christ would say of himself, That his Father had removed his soul far from peace) therefore this chapter, and this person cannot be so well understood of Christ. Others therefore have understood if of Jerusalem it self; but then it would not be expressed in that Sex, it would not be said of Jerusalem, I am the man. Others understand if of any particular man, that had his part, in that calamity, in that captivity; that the affliction was so universal upon all of that nation of what condition soever, that every man might justly say, Ego vir, I am the man that have seen affliction. But then all this chapter must be figurative, and still, where we can, it becomes, it behooves us to, maintain a literal sense and interpretation of all Scriptures. And that we shall best do in this place, if we understand these words literally of Iermy himself, that the Minister of God, the Preacher of God, the Prophet of God, Jeremiah himself, was the man; the Preacher is the text, Ego vir, I am the man: As the Ministers of God are most exposed to private contumelies, so should they be most affected with public calamities, & soonest come to say with the Apostle, Quis infirmatur who is weak, and I am not weak too, who is offended, and I am not affected with it? when the people of God are distressed with sickness, with dearth, with any public calamity, the Minister is the first man, that should be compassionate, that should be compassionate, and sensible of it.

In these words then, (I am the man &c.) these are our two parts; first the Burden, and then the Ease, first the weight, and then the Alleviation, first the Discomfort, and then the Refreshing, the sea of afflictions that overflow, and surround us all and then our emergency and lifting up our head above that sea. In the first we shall consider, first, the Generality of afflictions; and that first in their own nature, And then secondly in that name of man. upon whom they fall here, Gheber, Ego vir, I am the man, which is that name of man, by which the strongest, the powerfullest of men are denoted in the Scriptures; They, the strongest, the mightiest, they that thought themselves safest, and sorrow-proof, are afflicted. And lastly, in the person, upon whom these afflictions are fastened here, Jeremiah the Prophet, of whom literally we understand this place: The dearliest beloved of God, and those of whose service God may have use in his Church, they are subject to be retarded in their service, by these afflictions. Nothing makes a man so great amongst men, nothing makes a man so necessary to God, as that he can escape afflictions. And when we shall have thus considered the generality thereof, these three ways, In the nature of affliction it self, In the signification of that name of exaltation Gheber, And in the person of Jeremiah, we shall pass to the consideration of the vehemency and intensness thereof, in those circumstances that are laid down in our Text, First, that these afflictions are Ejus, His, The Lords, And then they are in virga, in his rod, And again, In virga ira, in the rod of his wrath. And in these two branches, the extent and the weight of afflictions, and in these few circumstances, that illustrate both, we shall determine our first part, the burden, the discomfort. When we shall come at last, to our last part, of comfort, we shall find that also to grow out into 2 branches; for, first, Vidit, he saw his affliction, (I am the Man that hath seen affliction) Affliction did not blind him, not stupefy him, affliction did not make him unsensible of affliction, (which is a frequent, but a desperate condition) vidit, he saw it; that is first; And then, Ego vir, I am the man that saw it, he maintained the dignity of his station, still he played the man, still he survived to glorify God, and to be an example to other men, of patience under Gods corrections, and of thankfulness in Gods deliverance. In which last part, we shall also see, that all those particular that did aggravate the affliction, in the former part, (That they were from the Lord, from his Rod, from the Rod of his wrath) do all exalt our comfort in this, That it is a particular comfort that our afflictions are from the Lord, Another that they are from his Rod, and another also, that they are from the Rod of his wrath.

First then in our first art, and the first branch thereof, The Generality of affliction, considered in the nature thereof: We met all generally, in the first Treason against our selves; without exception all; In Adams rebellion, who was not in his loins? And in a second Treason, we met all too; in the Treason against Christ Jesus, we met all; All our sins were upon his shoulders. In those two Treasons we have had no exception, no exemption. The penalty for our first Treason, in Adam, in a great part, we do all undergo; we do all die, though not without a loathness and colluctation at the time, yet without a deliberate desire to live in this world for ever. How loth soever any man be to die, when death comes, yet I think, there is no man that ever formed a deliberate Prayer, or wish, that he might never die. That penalty for our first Treason in Adam, we do bear. And would any be excepted from bearing any thing deduced from his second Treason, his conspiracy against Christ, from imitation of his Passion, and fulfilling his sufferings in his body, in bearing cheerfully the afflictions and tribulations of this life? Omnis caro corruper at; and thou art within that general Indictment, all flesh had corrupted his way upon Earth. Statutum est omnibus mori; and thou art within that general Statute, It is appointed unto all men once to die. Anima quae peccaverit, ipsa morietur: and thou art within that general Sentence, and Judgement, Every soul that sinneth shall die, The death of the soul. Out of these general Propositions thou canst not get; And when in the same universality there cometh a general pardon, Deus vult omnes slavos, God will have all men to be saved, Because that Pardon hath in it that Ita quod, that condition, Omnem filium, He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, wouldst thou lose the benefit of that Adoption, that Filiation, that Patrimony and Inheritance, rather then admit patiently his Fatherly chastisements in the afflictions and tribulations in this life? Beloved, the death of Christ is given to us, as a Hand-writing: for, when Christ naild that Chirographum, that first hand-writing, that had passed between the Devil and us, to his Cross, he did not leave us out of debt, nor absolutely discharged, but he laid another Chirographum upon us, another Obligation arising out of his death. His death is delivered to us, as a writing, but not a writing only in the nature of a piece of Evidence, to plead our inheritance by, but a writing in the nature of a Copy, to learn by; It is not only given us to read, but to write over, and practise; Not only to tell us what he did, but how we should do so too.

All the evils and mischiefs that light upon us in this world, come (for the most part) from this, Quia fruimur utendis, because we think to injoy those things which God hath given us only to use. God hath given us a use of things, and we set our hearts upon them. And this hath a proportion, an assimilation, an accommodation in the death of Christ. God hath proposed that for our use, in this world, and we think to enjoy it; God would have us do it over again, and we think it enough to know that Christ hath done it already; God would have us write it, and we do only read it; God would have us practise the death of Christ, and we do but understand it. The fruition, the enjoying of the death of Christ, is reserved for the next life; To this life belongs the use of it; that use of it, to fulfill his sufferings in our bodies, by bearing the afflictions and tribulations of this life. For, Priùs Trophaeum Crucis erexit, deind Martyribus tradidit erigendum; first Christ set up the victorious Trophee of his Cross himself, and then he delivered it over to his Martyrs to do as he had done. Nor are they only his Martyrs that have actually died for him, but into the signification of that name, which signifies a Witness, fall all those, who have glorified him, in a patient and constant bearing the afflictions and tribulations of this life. All being guilty of Christs death, there lies an obligation upon us all, to fulfill his sufferings. And this is the generality of afflictions, as we consider them in their own nature.

Now, this generality is next expressed, in this word of exaltation, Gheber, Ego vir, I am the man; It was that man, that is denoted and signified in that name, that hath lien under affliction, and therefore no kind of man was likely to scape. There are in the Original Scriptures, four words, by which man is called; four names of man; and any of the others, (if we consider the origination of the words) might better admit afflictions to insult upon him, then this, Gheber, vir, I am the man. At first, man is called Ish; a word, which their Grammarians derive à sonitu, from a sound, from a voice. Whether mans excellency be in that, that he can speak, which no other creature can do; or whether mans impotency be in that, that he comes into the world Crying, in this denomination, in this word, man is but a sound, but a voice, and that is no great matter. Another name of man is Adam, and Adam is no more but earth, and red earth, aud the word is often used for blushing. When the name of man imports no more but so, no more but the frailty of the earth, and the bashful acknowledgement and confession of that frailty, in infinite infirmities, there is no great hope of scaping afflictions in this name, Adam. Less in his third name, Enosh: for Enosh signifies aegrum, calamitosum, a person naturally subject to, and actually possest with all kinds of infirmities. So that this name of man, Enosh, is so far from exempting him, as that it involves him, it overflows him in afflictions: He hath a miserable name, as well as a miserable nature, Put them in fear, O Lord, (says David) that they may know they are but men; but such men, as are denoted in that name of man, Enosh, (for there that name is expressed) weak and miserable men. Now, (to collect these) as man is nothing but a frivolous, an empty, a transitory sound, or but a sad and lamentable voice, (he is no more in his first name Ish) As man is nothing but red earth, a moldring clod of infirmities, and then, blushing, that is, guilty, sensible, and ashamed of his own miserable condition, (and man is no more, as he is but Adam) As man is nothing but a receptacle of diseases in his body, of crosses in his estate, of immoderate griefs for those crosses in his mind, (and man is no more as he is but Enosh) so there is no wonder, why man in general should be under affliction, for these names import, these names inforce it: As Adam gave names to the creatures according to their natures, so God hath given names to man, according to his nature, miserable names, to miserable wretches. But when man is presented in this Text, in this fourth and great name, Gheber, which denotes excellency, Excellency in virtue, (his mind rectified) Excellency in wealth, (his estate enlarged) Excellency in power, (his authority extended) Excellency in favor, (all seas calm on the top, and foordable at the bottom to him) when man is expressed in that word, which Isaac used to Jacob, in his abundant blessing, Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mothers sons bow down to thee: And then, in this height, this height of virtue and merit, of wealth and treasure, of command and power, of favor and acclamation, is thrown down into the pit of misery, and submitted to all afflictions, what man can hope to be exempted? Man carries the spawn and seed and eggs of affliction in his own flesh, and his own thoughts make haste to hatch them, and to bring them up. We make all our worms snakes, all our snakes vipers, all our vipers dragons, by our murmuring. And so have you this generality of affliction, considered in this name of Exaltation Gheber.

Now, in our third consideration of this extent of affliction, in that this person, this Prophet Jeremiah, (for, of him literally we understand these words, Ego vir, I am the man) is thus submitted to these extraordinary afflictions, we see first, that no man is so necessary to God, as that God cannot come to his ends without that man; God can lack, and leave out any man in his service. If Christ had revealed to his Apostles, before he called them to be Apostles, or qualified them for that service, that he had a purpose to subdue and convert the whole world, by the labor and the means of twelve men, would it ever have fallen or entered into their imaginations, that any of them, should have been any of those twelve? Men of low rank, and estimation, men disfurnished, not only of all helps of learning, but of all experience in Civil or in Ecclesiastical affairs? And as Christ infused new abilities into these men that had none, so can he effect his purposes without them, who think they have all. And therefore, when he had chosen his twelve Apostles, and had endowed and qualified them for that service, when in their sight some of his Disciples forsook him, because he preached Duros sermones, Doctrines hard to flesh and blood, Christ was not afraid to say to the twelve, Numquid & vos vultis abire, Will ye also go away? He says it to the twelve; and he does not say, Will any of you, but will you, you twelve, all, go away? I can do my work without you. And therefore let no man go about to promove or advance his own fancies, his own singularities, his own Schismatical opinions, because he hath done God service before, because he hath possessed himself of the love of that Congregation, because no mans preaching is so acceptable there, as his, and that the Church cannot be without him; for, no man hath made God beholden to him, so far, as that he should be afraid to offend him. So also let no man be disheartened nor discouraged, if he have brought a good conscience, and faithful labor to the service of God. Let him not think his wages the worse paid, if God do mingle bodily sickness, temporal losses, personal disgraces, with his labours; Let him not think that God should not do thus to them that wear out themselves in his service; for the best part of our wages is adversity, because that gives us a true fast, and a right value of our prosperity. Jeremiah had it; the best of his rank must.

In his example, we have thus much more, that no man is excused of subsequent afflictions, by precedent, nor of falling into more, by having born some already. Elijah reckoned too hastily, when he told God, Satis est, now it is enough, Lord take away my life; God had more to lay upon him. A last years fever prevents not this, nor a sickness in the fall, another in the Spring. Men are not as such Copises, as being felled now, stand safe from the Axe for a dozen year after; But our Afflictions are as beggars, they tell others, and send more after them; Sickness does but usher in poverty, and poverty contempt, and contempt dejection of spirit, And a broken spirit who can bear? No man may refuse a privy seal, because he hath lent before. And, though Afflictions be not of Gods revenue, for, Afflictions are not real services to God) yet they are of his Subsidies, and he hath additional glory out of our Afflictions; and, the more, the more. Jeremiah had been scornfully and despitefully put in the stocks by Pashur, before; He had been imprisoned in the Kings house, before; He had been put in the dungeon, & almost starved in the mire, before; And yet he was reserved to this farther calamity. Affliction is truly a part of our patrimony, of our portion. If, as the prodigal did, we wast our portion, (that is, make no use of our former affliction) it is not the least part of Gods bounty and liberality towards us, if he give us a new stock, a new feeling of new calamities, that we may be better emproved by them, then by the former; Ieremies former afflictions were but preparatives for more; no more are ours.

And, in his example we have this one note more, That when the hand of God had been upon him, he declared, he published Gods hand-writing: not only to his own conscience, by acknowledging that all these afflictions were for his sins, but by acknowledging to the world, that God had laid such and such afflictions upon him. There is not a nearer step to obduration, nor a worse defrauding of God of his glory, then to be loth to let the world know, what God hath laid upon us. Say to your selves, These afflictions are for my sins, and say to one another, Ego vir, I am the man whom God hath thus, and thus afflicted. For, as Executions in Criminal justice, are done as much for example of others, as for punishment of delinquents, so would God fain proceed that cheap way, to make those afflictions which he lays upon thee, serve another too; as they will, if thou be content to glorify God, in letting others know, how he hath afflicted thee. Shut we up this first branch of this first part (The extent and universality of afflictions) which we have considered first in the nature of the case, (we have all contributed to the afflictions of Christ, and therefore must all fulfill his sufferings in our flesh) And then secondly, in this name of Exaltation, Gheber, (man, in the highest consideration of man, is the subject of affliction) And lastly, in the person of Jeremiah, in whom we have made our use of those three observations; First, That no man is so necessary to God, as that God cannot be without him, Then, That no man is excused of future calamities, by former, And lastly, That he whom God hath exercised with afflictions, is bound to glorify God in the declaration thereof; shut we up this branch, with that story of S. Ambrose, who, in a journey from Milan to Rome, passing sometime in the evening with his Host, and hearing him brag that he had never had any cross in his life, S. Ambrose presently removed from thence to another house, with that protestation, That either that man was very unthankful to God, that would not take knowledge of his corrections, or that Gods measure was by this time full, and he would surely, and soundly, and suddenly pour down all together. And so we pass to our other branch of this first part, from the extent and generality of afflictions, to the weight and vehemence of them, expressed in three heavy circumstances, That they are His, the Lords, That they are from his Rod, That they are from the Rod of his wrath: I am the man, that have seen afflictions, by the rod of his mouth.

First, they are aggravated in that they are Ejus, His, The Lords. It is ordinary in the Scriptures, that when the Holy Ghost would express a superlative, or the highest degree of any thing, to express it, by adding to it, the name of God. So, in many places, fortitudo Domini, and timor Domini, The power of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord, do not import that power which is in the Lord, nor that fear which is to be conceived by us of the Lord, but the power of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord denote the greatest power, and the greatest fear that can be conceived. As in particular, when Saul and his company were in such a dead sleep, as that David could enter in upon them, and take his spear, and his pot of water from under his head, this is there called sopor Domini, the sleep of the Lord was upon him, the heaviest, the deadliest sleep that could be imagined. so may these Afflictions in our Text be conceived to be exalted to a superlative height, by this addition, that They, and the Rod, and the wrath, are said to be His, The Lords. But this cannot well be the sense, nor the direct proceeding, and purpose of the Holy Ghost, in this place, because where the addition of the name of God constitutes a superlative, that name is evidently and literally expressed in that place, as fortitudo Det, sopor Dei, and the rest; But here, the name of God is only by implication, by illation, by consequence; All necessary, but yet but illation, but implication, but consequence. For, there is no name of God in this verse; but, because in the last verse of the former chapter, the Lord is expressly named, and the Lords Anger, and then, this which is the first verse of this chapter, and connected to that, refers these afflictions, and rods, and wrath to Him, (The rod of his wrath) it must necessarily be to him who was last spoken of, The Lord, They are Ejus, His, and therefore heavy.

Then is an Affliction properly Gods Affliction, when thou in thy Conscience canst impute it to none but God. When thou disorderest thy body with a surfeit, nature will submit to sickness; When thou wearest out thy self with licentiousness, the sin it self will induce infirmities; when thou transgressest any law of the State, the Iustice of the State will lay hold upon thee. And for the Afflictions that fall upon thee in these cases, thou art able to say to thy self, that they would have fallen upon thee, though there had been no God, or though God had had no rod about him, no anger in him; Thou knowest in particular, why, and by whose, or by what means, these Afflictions light upon thee. But when thou shalt have thy Conscience clear towards such and such men, and yet those men shall go about to oppress thee, when thou labourest uprightly in thy calling, and yet doest not prosper, when thou studiest the Scriptures, hearkenest to Sermons, observest Sabbaths, desirest conferences, and yet receivest not satisfaction, but still remainest under the torture of scruples and anxieties, when thou art in S. Pauls case, Nihili conscius, That thou knowest nothing by thy self, and yet canst not give thy self peace, Though all Afflictions upon Gods Children, be from him, yet, take knowledge that this is from him, more entirely, and more immediately, and that God remembers something in thee, that thou hast forgot; And, as that fit of an Ague, or that pang of the Gout, which may take thee to day, is not necessarily occasioned by that which thou hast eaten to day, but may be the effect of some former disorder, so the affliction which lights upon thee in thine age, may be inflicted for the sins of thy youth. Thy affliction is his, The Lords; And the Lord is infinite, and comprehends all at once, and ever finds something in thee to correct, something that thou hast done, or something that thou wouldst have done, if the blessing of that correction had not restrained thee. And therefore, when thou canst not pitch thy affliction upon any particular sin, yet make not thy self so just, as that thou make God unjust, whose Judgements may be unsearchable, but they cannot be unjust.

This then is the first weight that is laid upon our afflictions, that they are His, The Lords; and this weight consists in this, That because they are his, they are inevitable, they cannot be avoided, And because they are His, they are certainly just, and cannot be pleaded against, nor can we ease our selves with any imagination of an innocency, as though they were undeserved. And the next weight that is laid upon them, is that they are, In virga ejus, in his rod. For, though this Metaphor, the Rod, may seem to present but an easy correction, such as that, If thou beat thy child with a rod, be shall not dye, (It will not kill him) yet there is more weight then so in this Rod; for the word here is Shebet, and Shebet is such a Rod as may kill; If a man smite his servant with a Rod, so that he dye under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Beloved, whether Gods Rod, and his correction, shall have the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death, consists much in the hand, that is to receive it, and in the stomach that is to digest it. As in Gods Temporal blessings that he raines down upon us, it is much in our gathering, and inning, and spending them, whether it shall be frumenti, or laqueorum, whether this shall prove such a shower, as shall nourish our soul spiritually, in thankfulness to God, and in charitable works towards his needy Servants, or whether it shall prove a shower of snares, to minister occasions of temptations; so when he raines afflictions upon us, it is much in our gathering, whether it shall be Roris, or Grandinis, whether it shall be a shower of fatning dew upon us, or a shower of Fgyptian hail-stones, to batter us in pieces, as a Potters Vessel, that cannot be renewed. Our murmuring makes a rod a staff, and a staff a sword, and that which God presented for physic, poison. The double effect and operation of Gods Rod, and Corrections, is usefully and appliably expressed in the Prophet Zachary: where God complains, That he had fed the sheep of slaughter, that he had been careful for them, who would needs dye, say he what he could. Therefore he was forced to come to the Rod, to correction. So he does; And I took unto me, says he there, two Staves, the one I called Beauty, the other Bands; Two ways of correction, a milder, and a more vehement. When his milder way prevailed not, Then said I, I will not feed you; I will take no more care of you; That which dyeth let it dye, (says he) and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; And I took my staff of Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my Covenant, which I had made with them. Beloved, God hath made no such Covenant with any State, any Church, any soul, but that, being provoked, he is at liberty to break it. But then, upon this, when the stubborn, and the refractory, the stiff-necked and the rebellious were cut off, The poor of the sheep (says God) that waited upon me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. It is not every mans case, to mend by Gods corrections; only the poor of the sheep, the broken hearted, the contrite spirit, the discerner of his own poverty and infirmity, could make that good use of affliction, as to find Gods hand, and then Gods purpose in it. For, this Rod of God, this Shebet, can kill; Affliction can harden, as well as mollify, and entender the heart. And there is so much the more danger, that it should work that effect, that obduration, because it is Virga Ira, The rod of his wrath, which is the other weight that aggravates our afflictions.

In all afflictions that fall upon us from other instruments, there is Digitus Dei, The finger of God leads their hand that afflicts us; Though it be sickness, by our intemperance, though it be poverty, by our wastefulness, though it be oppression, by the malice, or by our exasperation of potent persons, yet still the finger of God is in all these. But in the afflictions which we speak of here, such as fall upon us, when we think our selves at peace with God, and in state of grace, it is not Digitus, but Manus Dei, the whole work is his, and man hath no part in it. Whensoever he takes the Rod in hand, there is a correction towards; but yet, it may be but his Rod of Beauty, of his Correction, not Destruction. But, if he take his Rod in anger, the case is more dangerous; for, though there be properly no anger in God, yet then is God said to do a thing in anger, when he does it so, as an angry man would do it. Upon those words of David, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, Saint Augustine observes, that David knew Gods rebukes and corrections were but for his amendment; but yet, In Ira corrigi noluit, in Ira emendari noluit, David was loth, that God should go about to mend him in anger; afraid to have any thing to do with God, till his anger were over-passed. Beloved, to a true anger, and wrath, and indignation towards his children, God never comes; but he comes so near it, as that they cannot discern, whether it be anger, or no. A Father takes a Rod, and looks as angerly, as though he would kill his child, but means nothing but good to him. So God brings a soul to a sad sense of an angry countenance in God, to a sad apprehension of an angry absence, to a sad jealousy and suspicion that God will never return to it again; And this is a heavy affliction, whilst it lasts. Our Savior Christ, in that case, came to expostulate it, to dispute it with his Father, Vt quid dereliquisti, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do but tell me why. For, if God be pleased to tell us, why he is angry, his anger is well allayd, and we have a faire overture towards our restitution. But, in our infirmity, we get not easily so far; we apprehend God to be angry; we cannot find the cause, and we sink under the burden; we leave the disease to concoct it self, and we take no Physic. And this is truly the highest extent, and exaltation of affliction, That in our afflictions we take God to be angryer then he is. For, then is God said to take his Rod in anger, when he suffers us to think that he does so, and when he suffers us to decline, and sink so low towards diffidence, and desperation, that we dare not look towards him, because we believe him to be so angry. And so have you all those pieces which constitute both the branches of this first part, The generality and extent of afflictions, considered in the nature of the thing, in the nature of the word, this name of man, Gheber, and in the person of Jeremiah, the Prophet of God, And then the intensenesse, and weight and vehemency of afflictions, considered in these three particulars, That they are His, The Lords, That they are from His Rod, And from the Rod of his anger. But to weigh down all these, we have comforts ministered unto us, in our Text, which constitute our other part.

Of these the first is Vidi, I have seen these afflictions, for this is an act of particular grace and mercy, when God enables us to see them: for, naturally this is the infirmity of our spiritual senses, that when the eyes of our understanding should be enlightened, our understanding is so darkened, as that we can neither see prosperity, nor adversity, for, in prosperity our light is too great, and we are dazeled, in adversity too little, none at all, and we are benighted, we do not see our afflictions. There is no doubt, but that the literal sense of this phrase, To see afflictions, is to feel, to suffer afflictions. As, when David says, What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death, and when Christ says, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption, to see death, and to see corruption, is to suffer them. But then, the literal sense being thus duly preserved, That the children of God shall certainly see, that is, certainly suffer afflictions, receive we also that sweet odor and fragrancy which the word breaths out, That they shall see it, that is, understand it, consider it: For, as when the wicked come to say, The Lord does not see it, it is presently added, Neither doth the God of Jacob regard it, (It is a seeing that induces a regarding) so when the godly come to see their afflictions, they come to regard them, to regard Gods purpose in them. Vidisti Domine, ne sileas, says David, All this thou hast seen, O Lord, Lord do not hold thy peace. David presumed, that if God saw his afflictions, he would stir in them; when we come to see them, we stir, we wake, we rise, we look about us, from whence, and why these afflictions come; and therein lyes this comfort, Vidi, I have seen afflictions, I have been content to look upon them, to consider them.

The Prophets in the Old Testament, do often call those sights, and those prenotions which they had of the misery and destruction of others, Onus visionis, Onus verbi Domini, O the burden of this sight, O the burden of this message of God. It was a burden to them, to see Gods judgements directed upon others; how much more is it a burden to a man, to see his own affliction, and that in the cause thereof? But this must be done, we must see our affliction in the Cause thereof. No man is so blind, so stupid, as that he doth not see his affliction, that is, feel it; but we must see it so, as to see through it, see it to be such as it is, so qualified, so conditioned, so circumstanced, as he that sends it, intends it. We must leave out the malice of others in our oppressions, and forgive that; leave out the severity of the Law in our punishments, and submit to that; and look entirely upon the certainty of Gods judgement, who hath the whole body of our sins written together before him, and picks out what sin it pleaseth him, and punisheth now an old, now a yesterdays sin, as he findeth it most to conduce to his glory, and our amendment, and the edification of others, We must see the hand of God upon the wall as Belshazzar did, (for even that was the hand of God) though we cannot read that writing, no more then Belshazzar could. We must see the affliction, so as we must see it to be the hand of God, though we cannot presently see, for what sin it is, nor what will be the issue of it. And then when we have seen that, then we must turn to the study of those other particulars, for, till we see the affliction to come from God, we see nothing; There is no other light in that darkness, but he. If thou see thy affliction, thy sickness, in that glass, in the consideration of thine own former licentiousness, thou shalt have no other answer, but that sour remorse, and increpation, you might have lived honestly. If thou see thy affliction, thy poverty, in that glass, in the malice & oppression of potent adversaries, thou wilt get no farther, then to that froward and churlish answer, The Law is open, mend your self as you can. But Iactate super Dominum, saith David, Lay all thy burden upon the Lord, and he will apply to thee that Collyrium, that sovereign eye-salve, whereby thou shalt see thy afffiction, (it shall not blind thee) And see from whence it cometh, (from him, who, as he liveth, would not the death of a sinner) And see why it cometh, (that thou mightest see and taste the goodness of God thy self, and declare his loving kindness to the Children of Men.) And this is the comfort deduced from this word Vidi, I have seen affliction.

And this leadeth us to our other Comfort, That though these Afflictions have wrought deep upon thee, yet thou canst say to thy soul, Ego vir, I am that man; Thy Morality, thy Christianity is not shook in thee. It is the Mercy of God, that we are not conumed, saith Jeremiah here; And it is a great degree of his mercy, to let us feel that we are not consumed, to give us this sense, that our case is not desperate, but that Ego vir, I am the man, that there remaineth still strength enough to gather more; That still thou remainest a man, a reasonable man, and so art able to apply to thy self; all those medicines and reliefs, which Philosophy and natural reason can afford. For, even these helps, deduced from Philosophy and natural reason, are strong enough against afflictions of this world, as long as we can use them, as long as these helps of reason and learning are alive, and awake, and actuated in us, they are able to sustain us from sinking under the afflictions of this world, for, they have sustained many a Plato, and Socrates, and Seneca in such cases. But when part of the affliction shall be, that God worketh upon the Spirit it self, and damps that, enfeebles that, that he casts a sooty Cloud upon the understanding, and darkens that, that he doth Exuere hominem, divest, strip the man of the man, Eximere hominem, take the man out of the man, and withdraw and frustrate his natural understanding so, as that, to this purpose, he is no man, yet even in this case, God may mend thee, in marring thee, he may build thee up in dejecring thee, he may infuse another, Ego vir, another Manhood into thee, and though thou canst not say Ego vir, I am that Moral man, safe in my Natural Reason and Philosophy, that is spent, yet Ego vir, I am that Christian man, who have seen this affliction in the Cause thereof, so far off, as in my sin in Adam, and the remedy of this affliction, so far off, as in the death of Christ Jesus I am the Man, that cannot repine, nor murmure, since I am the Cause; I am the man that cannot despair, since Christ is the remedy. I am that man, which is intended in this Text, Gheber. Not only an Adam, a man amongst men, able to convince me, though they speak eloquently against me, and able to prove that God hath forsaken me, because he hath afflicted me, but able to prevail with God himself, as Jacob did, and to wrastle out a blessing out of him, &, though I do halt, become infirm with manifold afflictions, yet they shall be so many seals of my infallibility in him. Now this comfort hath three gradations in our text, three circumstances, which, as they aggravated the discomfort in the former, so they exalt the comfort in this part, That they are His, The Lords, That they are from his rod, That they are from the rod of his wrath.

We may compare our afflictions that come immediately from God, with those that come instrumentally from others, by considering the choice and election which David made, and the choice which Susanna made in her case. The Prophet Gad offers David his choice of three afflictions, War, Famine, or pestilence. It does not appear, it is not expressed, that David determined himself, or declared his choice of any of the three. He might conceive a hope, that God would forbear all three. As, when another Prophet Nathan had told him, The child shall surely die, yet David said, for all that determined assurance, Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live, and he fasted a fast, and mourned and prayed for the childes life; Beloved, no commination of God, is unconditioned, or irrevocable. But in this case David intimates some kind of election, Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are exceeding great, and not into the hands of men. Susanna, when she was surprised, (and in a straight too, though of another kind) she resolves that it is better for her to fall into the hands of men, (let men defame her, let men accuse her, condemn her, execute her) rather then sin in the sight of God, and so fall into his hands. So that, if we compare offences, we were better offend all the Princes of the earth, then offend God, because he is able to cast body and soul into hell fire. But when the offence is done, for the punishment which follows, God forgives a treason, sooner then thy neighbor will a trespass; God seals thee a Quietus est, in the blood of his Son, sooner then a Creditor will renue a bond, or withdraw an Action; and a Scandalum magnatum, will lie longer upon thee here, then a blasphemy against God, in that Court. And therefore, as it is one degree of good husbandry, in ill husbands, to bring all their debts into one hand, so doest thou husband thy afflictions well, if thou put them all upon thy debts to God, and leave out the consideration of Instruments; And he shall deal with thee, as he did with David there, that plague, which was threatened for three days, he will end in one; In that trouble, which, if men had had their will upon thee, would have consumed thee, thou shalt stand unconsumed. For, if a man wound thee, it is not in his power, though he be never so sorry for it, whether that wound shall kill thee, or no; but if the Lord wound thee to death, he is the life, he can redeem thee from death, and if he do not, he is thy resurrection, and recompenses thee with another, and a better life. And so lies our first comfort, that it is Ejus, His, The Lords, And a second is, that it is In virga ejus, In his rod.

Job would fain have come to a cessation of arms, before he came to a treaty with God; Let the Lord take away his rod from me, says he, and let not his fear terrify me; Them would I speak. As long as his rod was upon him, and his fears terrified him, it was otherwise; he durst not. But truly his fears should not terrify us, though his rod be upon us; for herein lies our comfort, That all Gods rods are bound up with that mercy, which accompanied that rod that God threatened David, to exercise upon his son Solemon, If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men; (I will let him fall into the hands of men) This was heavy; Therefore it is eased with that Cordial, But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul. But for this mercy, the oppressions of men were merciless; But all Gods rods are bound up with this mercy; and therein lies our comfort. And for the rods of other men, O my people be not afraid of the Assyrian, says God. Why, blessed Lord, shall the Assyrian do thy people no harm? yes, says God there, He shall smite them with a rod, and he shall lift up his staff against them; Some harm he shall do; (He shall smite them with a rod) And he shall threaten more, offer at more (he shall lift up his staff) where then is the peoples relief, and comfort? In this; The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him. God shall appear in that notion of power, The Lord of Hosts, and he shall encounter his enemies, and the enemies of his friends, with a scourge upon them, against their rod upon us. Gods own rods are bound up in mercy, (they end in mercy) And, for the rods of other men, God cuts them in pieces, and their owners, with his sword. Gods own rods, even towards his own Children, are sometimes, as that rod which he put into Moses hand was, changed into Serpents. Gods own rods have sometimes a sting, and a bitterness in them; but then, they are changed from their own nature; Naturally Gods roddes towards us, are gentle, and harmless: When Gods rod in Moses hand, was changed to a Serpent, it did no harm, that did but devour the other Serpents: when Gods rods are heaviest upon us, if they devour other rods, that is, enable us to put off the consideration of the malice and oppression of other Men, and all displeasure towards them, and lay all upon God, for our sins, these serpentine rods have wrought a good effect: When Moses his Rod was a Serpent, yet it returned quickly to a Rod again; how bitter so ever Gods corrections be, they return soon to their natural sweetness, and though the correction continue, the bitterness does not: with this Rod Moses tamed the Sea, and divided that; but he drowned none in that Sea, but the Aegyptians. Gods rod will cut, and divide between thy soul, and spirit, but he will destroy nothing in thee, not thy Morality, not thy Christianity, but only thine own Aegyptians, thy Persecutors, thy concupiscencies.

But all this while, we have but deduced a comfort out of thy Word, Quia Virga, though that be a rod; but this is a comfort Quia Virga, therefore, because that is a Rod: for, this word which is here a Rod, is also, in other places of Scriptures, an Instrument, not of correction, but direction: Feed thy sheep with thy Rod, says God; and there it is a Pastoral Rod, the direction of the Church; Virga rectitudinis virgaregni tui, says David; The Scepter of thy kingdom is a right Scepter; and there its a royal rod, the protection of the state: so that all comforts that are derived upon us, by the direction of the Church, and by the protection of the State, are recommended to us, and conferred upon us in this His Rod. Nor is it only a Rod of comfort, by implication, and consequence; but expressly and literally it is so: Though I should walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; Thy rod, and thy staff, they comfort me. He had not only a comfort, though he had the rod, but he had not had so much comfort, except he had had it; we have not so good evidence of the joys of the next life, except we have the sorrows of this.

The discomfort then lies not in this, That the affliction is ejus, his, the Lords, (for we have an ease in that) nor, that it is In Virga ejus, in his rod, (for we have a benefit by that) but it is In virga ira, in that it is the rod of his wrath, of his anger. But truly, beloved, there is a blessed comfort ministered unto us, even in that word; for that word Gnabar, which we translate Anger, wrath, hath another ordinary signification in Scripture, which, though that may seem to be an easier, would prove a heavier sense for us to bear, than this of wrath and anger; this is, preteritio, conniventia, Gods forbearing to take knowledge of our transgressions; when God shall say of us, as he does of Israel, Why should ye be smitten any more? when God leaves us to our selves, and studies our recovery no farther, by any more corrections; for, in this case, there is the less comfort, because there is the less anger showed. And therefore S. Bernard, who was heartily afraid of this sense of our word, heartily afraid of this preterition, that God should forget him, leave him out, affectionately, passionately embraces this sense of the word in our Text, Anger; and he says, Irascaris mihi Domine, Domine mihi irascaris, Be angry with me ô Lord, O Lord be angry with me, lest I perish! for, till we have a sense of such an anger in God, towards us, as Children have from their Parents, that not only they correct them, but deny them some things that they ask, and keep them some time from their sight and presence, till we be made Partakers of this blessed anger of God, (for we do not pray, that God would not be angry, but that he would not be angry with us for ever) till then we come not to see an affliction, that is, to discern, what, and whence, and why that comes: Nor we see that not like Men, like such Men, like Christian Men, not with a faithful and constant assurance, that all will have an end in him who suffered infinitely more for us, than he hath laid upon us.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon XLIX.

GEN. 17. 24. Abraham himself was ninety nine years old, when the foreskin of his flesh was Circumcised.

A Sermon Preached at Saint Dunstan's upon New-years-day, 1624.

THis is the place where Circumcision began, and this is the Day, when Circumcision ended; in this Scripture it was Instituted, in the person of Abraham; and upon this Day it was perfected and consummated in the person of Christ Jesus: for, though Circumcision were admitted in a few cases, in the Apostles time, after Christ, yet that was, as dead berbs are re-admitted into medicines in the winter, when fresh and green herbs cannot be had of that kind: So Circumcision was sometimes admitted for peace, and to avoid scandal, and the better to propagate the Church, after the virtue thereof was extinguished in Christ. In the Institution thereof in this Text, we will consider Abrahams ready, and exact obedience: In the Consummation thereof, in the person of Christ, we will consider that, to which, this Circumcision had relation, that is, the spiritual Circumcision of our hearts. It is a Text well handled, and it is a Day well spent, if the Text teach us to obey God readily, and immediately, what inconveniences soever present themselves in the way, and if the celebration of the Day, teach us to come this Day, to that which is the true Circumcision, the Circumcision of the Heart. In the first, in Abraham's example, we shall pass by these steps: First, that though there be allowed to us an Omnia Probate, a Trial of all things, and a spirit to discern spirits; yet when once it appears to us, to be a comman dement of God, there's a fine levied, all Titles concluded, no more claim to be made by our under standing, our reason, but a present, and an exact obedience must be given to it. Secondly, that in particular Men, and in particular cases, there may arise temptations, objections, reasons, why a Man might forbear altogether, or at least differ the execution of such a commandment, as there may have done in Abraham's case, as we shall see anon. Thirdly, that though such temptations do arise in us out of our infirmities, yet God gives his Children strength to overcome those difficulties, and to oppose stronger reasons against those reasons, and so to come to a willing obedience to his will. And then lastly, the triumph that belongs to this victory; which we shall find, in considering what benefit Abraham received by this obedience in his Circumcision: And these will be the branches of out first part, rising out of the Institution of Circumcision, in the person of Abraham at that great age, First, that Gods manifest will must not be disputed, nor reasoned upon: Secondly, that Mans corrupt nature will offer reasons against it: Thirdly, that God will give the issue with the temptation, reason above that reason: And lastly, he will accompany that victory, with other blessings too.

First then, for our exact obedience to that which God exacts of us, it is well said by Luther, Depuerascendum est, cum agitur de obedientia Dei: when the question is, whether this, or this be commanded by God or no, when traditions and additions of men, are imposed upon us, as commandments of God, here's no Depuerascendum in this case, this is no Child-play; then viriliter agendum, (as the Apostle speaks) we must quit our selves like men, we must dispute like Men, (like learned men) preach like Men, (like Zealous Men) pray like Men (like devout Men) resist like Men, (like valiant Men) or at least, (in cases where we may not resist) suffer like Men, (like constant Christian Men.) But when the question is, De obedientia Dei, that this is agreed to be the will of God, and all the question is, whether God might not be content to accept an obedience to some part of it, or to all of that hereafter, but not now, whether God would not forgive the debt, or at least give day for the payment of it; either when we are old, or by legacies to pious uses, when we die, when this is the question, Depuerascendum est, we must grow Children again; we must not only, not argue, not dispute against it (which are acts of men, of strong & able understandings) but we must return to the first weakness of Children, to be speechless, to be thoughtless; we must not utter a word, not conceive a thought against it, Periculosa & pestilens quaestio, Quare; says Luther also, It is a Dangerous and Infectious Monasillable, How or Why: If I will ask a reason, why God commands such a thing; first, Periculosum est, It is Dangerous; for, I have nothing to answer me, but mine own reason, and that affords not Lead enough, nor Line enough, to sound the depth of Gods proceedings, nor length enough, nor strength enough to reach so far, and therefore I may mistake the reason, and go upon false grounds. So, Periculosum est, It is a Dangerous question, and a lost question, because I can have no certain answer; and it is an infectious question too, for here is one coal of the Devils fire, of his pride, kindled in me; as the Devil said, Similis ere Altissimo, I will be like the Highest, and see whether I may not stand by my self, without any Influence from God, without any Dependance upon God: so, in our case, I will be so far equal to God, as that I will measure his actions by my reason, and nor do his Commandments till I know why he commanded them: And then, when the infection is got into a House, who can say, it shall end here in this Person, and kill no more; or it shall end this week, and last no longer? So if that infectious inquisition, that Quare, (Why should God command this or this perticular? be entered into me, all my Humility is presently infected, and I shall look for a reason, why God made a world, or why he made a world no sooner then 6000. years ago, and why he says some, and why but some, and I shall examine God upon all the Interrogatories that I can frame, upon the Creed (why I should believe a Son of a Virgin without a Man, or believe the Son of God to descend into Hell) Or frame upon the Pater Noster, (why I should worship such a God, that must be prayed to, not to lead me into temptation) Or frame upon the Ten Commandments, why after all is done and heapt, for any sinful action, yet I should be guilty of all, for covering in my heart another mans horse or house. And therefore Luther pursues it farther, with words of more vehemence, Odiosa & exitialis vocule, Quare, It is an Execrable and Damnable Monasillable, Why; it exasperates God, it ruins us: For, when we come to ask a reason of his actions, either we doubt of the goodness of God, that he is not so careful of us, as we would be; or of his power, that he cannot provide for us, so well as we could do; or of his wisdom, that he hath not grounded his Commandments so well as we could have advised him: whereas Saint Augustine says justly, Qui rationem quaerit voluntatis Dei, aliquid majus Deo quaerit, He that seeks a reason of the will of God, seeks for something greater then God. It was the Devil that opened our eyes in Paradise, it is our parts to shut them so far, as not to gaze upon Gods secret purposes. God guided his Children as well by a Pillar of Cloud, as by a Pillar of Fire, and both, Cloud and Fire, were equally Pillars: There is as much strength in, and as safe relying upon some ignorances, as some knowledges; for God provided for his people, as well in this, that he did Moses body from them, as that he revealed other Mysteries to them, by him. All is well summed and collected by Saint Augustine, Dominus cur jusserit, viderit; faciendum est à serviente, quod jusserit: Why God commands any thing, God himself knows; our part is, not to enquire why, by to do what he commands.

This is the Rule: 'Tis true, there should not be: but yet is there not sometimes, in the minds and mouths of good and godly men, a Quare, a reasoning, a disputing against that which God hath commanded or done? The murmuring of the Children in the Desert, had still this Quare, Quare eduxisti, Wherefore have you brought us hither to die here, in this miserable place, where there is no Seed, no Figges, no Vines, no Pomegrantes, no Water? Saul had this Quare, this rebellious inquisition, upon that Commandment of God against the Amalekites, Slay both Man and Woman, Infant and Suckling, Ox and Sheep, Camel and Ass: And from this Quare, from this disputation of his, arose that conclusion, That it were better to spare some for Sacrifice, then to destroy all: But though his pretence had a religious color, that would not justify a slackness in obeying the manifested will of God; for, for this, God repented that he made him King, and told him that he had more pleasure in Obedience, then in Sacrifice. But, to come to better men then the Israelites in the Wilderness, or Saul in his Government, Job, though he, and his Friends held out long, (They sate upon the ground even days and seven nights, and none spoke a word) yet at last fell into these Quares, Why did I not die in the birth? or, why sucked I the breast? Peter himself had this reluctation; and though that were out of piety, yet he was chidden for it, Quare lavas, says he, Lord, doest thou wash my feet? thou shalt never wash my feet: till Christ was fain to say, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me.

Upon this common infirmity; inherent in the best men that may (and not unlikely) be, that when God commanded Abraham, at that great age to circumcise himself, there might arise such Quares, such scruples and doubts, as there, in Abrahams mind, (for, as Saint Paul says of himself, If any man think he hath whereof to trust in the flesh, much more I, Circumcised, an Hebrew, an Israelite, a Pharisee, a Zealous Servant in the persecution, and in righteousness unblameable: So if any man might have taken this liberty to have disputed with God, upon his precepts, Abraham might have done it; for, when God called him out to number the Stars, (which was, even to Art, impossible) and promised him, that his seed should equal them, (which was, in Nature, incredible) for all this Incredibility and Impossibility, Abraham believed, and this was accounted to him for Righteousness: And Abraham had declared his easy, and forward, and implicit faith in God, when God called him, and he went out, not knowing whither he went: And therefore when God offered him a new seal, Circumcision, Abraham might have said, Quare sigillum? What needs a seal between thee and me? I have used to take thy word before, and thou hast tried me before: But Abraham knew that Obedience was better then wit or disputation; for, though Obedience and good works, do not beget faith, yet they nurse it; Per ea augescit fidei, & pinguescit, says Luther, Our faith grows into a better state, and into a better liking, by our good works.

Again, when Abraham considered, that it was, Mandatum in re turpi, That this Circumcision, in it self, was too frivolous a thing; and, in that part of the Body, too obscene a thing, to be brought into the fancy of so many Women, so many young Men, so many Strangers to other Nations, as might bring the Promise and Covenant it self into scorn, and into suspicion, that should require such a seal to it as that was, he might have come to this, Quare tam turpe, quare tam sordidum? why does God command me so base and unclean a thing, so scornful and mis-interpretable a thing, as Circumcision, and Circumcision in that part? Again, when he considered, that to Circumcise all his family in one day, (as by the Commandment he must) which could not be (in likelihood) of less then 400. (for he went out before, to the rescue of Lot, with 318. born and brought up in his House) he must make his House a Spittle of so many impotent Persons, unable to help one another for many days, (for such was the effect of Circumcision, as we see in their Story, when Simeon and Levi came upon the Sichemites three days after they had been, by their persuasion, circumcised, the Sichemites were unable to resist or defend themselves, and so were slain: Yea the soreness and incommodity upon Circumcision was so great, as that the very Commandment it self of Circumcision, was forborne in the Wilderness, because they were then put to sudden removes, which presently after a Circumcision, they could not have performed) Might not Abraham have come to his Quare tam molestum? Why will God command me so troublesome and incommodious a thing as this? And (to contract this) when he considered, That one principal reason of the Commandment of Circumcision, was, that that mark might be always a remembrance to them against intemperance and incontinency. Might not Abraham have come to his Quare mihi? What use is there of this, in my Body, which is now dried up and withered by 99. years? What Quares, what reluctations Abraham had, or whether he had any or no, is not expressed; but very religious and good men, sometimes, out of humane infirmities, have them: But then, God brings them quickly about to Christ's Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thine be done; and he delivers them from the temptation, and brings them to an entire obedience to his will, which is that which we proposed for the next Branch in this part.

Tu qui vas figuli, says the Apostle; whensoever any disputation against a commandment of God, arises in Gods children, the Spirit of God smothers that spirit of Rebellion with that, Tu qui vas figuli, wilt thou who art but the vessel, dispute with the potter, that fashioned thee? If Abraham had any such doubts, of a frivolousness in so base a seal, of an obscenity in so foul a seal, of an incommodiousness in so troublesome a seal, of a needlesness in so impertinent a seal; if he had these doubts, no doubt but his forwardness in obeying God, did quickly oppose these reasons to those, and overcome them: That that part of the body is the most rebellious part; and that therefore, only that part Adam covered, out of shame, for all the other parts he could rule: Ad hominis inobedientiam redarguendam, suâ inobedientiâ quodammodo caro testimonium perhibet, to reproach Mans rebellion to God, God hath left one part of Mans body, to rebell against him; for though the seeds of this rebellion be dispersed through all the body, yet, In illa parte magis regnat additamentum Leviathan, says Saint Bernard, the spawns of Leviathan, the seed of sin, the leven of the Devil, abound and reigns most in that part of the body; it is sentiva peccati, says the same Father, the Sewar of all sin; not only because all sin is derived upon us, by generation, and so implied, and involved in original sin; but because, almost all other sins have relation to this: for, Gluttony is a preparation to this sin in our selves; Pride and excess is a preparation to it, in others, whom we would enveigle and assure, by our bravery; Anger and malice inclines us to pursue this sinful and inordinate love, quarrelsomly, so, as, that then, we do not quarrel for ways, and walls in the street, but we quarrel for our way to the Devil; and when we cannot go fast enough to the Devil, by wantonness in the chamber, we will quarrel with him, who hinders us of our Damnation, and find a way, to go faster in the field, by Duells, and unchristian Murder, in so foul a cause, as unlawful lust. In this rebellious part, is the root of all sin, and therefore did that part need this stigmatical mark of Circumcision, to be imprinted upon it. Besides, (for the Jews in particular) they were a Nation prone to Idolatry, and most, upon this occasion, if they mingled themselves with Women of other Nations: And therefore, Dedit eft signum, ut admoverentnr de generation pura, says Saint Chrysostom, God would be at the cost even of a Sacrament, (which is the greatest thing that passes between God and Man next to his Word) to defend them thereby against dangerous alliances, which might turn their hearts from God; God imprinted a mark in that part, to keep them still in mind of that law, which forbade them foreign Marriages, or any company of strange Women: Custodia pietati servandae, ne macularent paternam Nobilitatem, left they should degenerate from the Nobility of their race, God would have them carry this memorial about them, in their flesh. And God foresaw that extreme Idolatry, that grosse Idolatry, which that Nation would come to, and did come to, when Maachah the Mother of Asa worshipped that Idol, which Saint Jerome calls Belphegor, and is not fit to be named by us; and therefore, in foresight of that Idolatry, God gave this mark, and this mutilation upon this part. If Abraham were surprized with any suggestions, any half reasons against this commandment, he might quickly recollect himself, and see, that Circumcision was first, Signum memorativum, & monimentum isti faederis, it was a sign of the Covenant between God and Abraham; the Covenant was the Messiah, who being to come, by a carnal continuance of Abrahams race, the sign and seal was conveniently placed in that part. And that was, secondly, Signum representativum, it represented Baptism, In Christ you are circumcised, says the Apostle, in that you are buried with him, through Baptism: And then, that was Signum Distinctivum; for, besides that it kept them from Idolatry, as the Greeks called all Nations, whom they despised, Barbares, Barbarians, so did the Jews, Incircumcisos, Uncircumcised: And that was a great threatening in the Prophet, Thou shalt die the death of the Uncircumcised; that is, without any part in the everlasting promise, and Covenant. But yet, the principal dignity of this Circumcision, was, that it was Signum figurativum, it prefigured, it directed to that Circumcision of the heart; Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, for the Lord your; God is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords. And for all the other reasons that could be assigned, of Remembrance, of Representation, of Distinction, Caret ubique ratione Iudaica carnis Circumcisio, (says Lactantius) Nisi quod est Circumcisionis figura, quae est Cor Mundum: The Jewish Circumcision were an absurd and unreasonable thing, if it did not intimate and figure the Circumcision of the heart: And that is our Second part of this Exercise: But before we come to that, we are to say a word of the fourth branch of this part, That as there is no Quaere to be made nor admitted against God, (which was our first part) If Man, out of his infirmity, do fall into that, (which was our Second) God provides and furnishes them with Reasons against those Reasons, (which was our third.) And then, God rewards their fighting of that battle, (which is his own work) with victories, and crowns, and blessings here; (which must be our fourth branch.)

Of Examples of this, the Book of God is full: but we contract our selves only to that, which God did to Abraham at this time, in contemplation of this obedience. We consider Abraham at the end of one Age, he was almost one hundred, ninety nine when he was Circumcised; and now was entering into another age, (for he lived seventy five years after this:) this therefore was as the Eve of his New-years-day, and God presents him thus many New-years-gifts: First, he gives him a new Name; in which change of his Name, from Abram, to Abraham, (besides that he was changed from Pater Magnus, to Pater Multudinis, from the Father of a great possession and family, to the Father of a great successession and posterity, for that diminishes any Greatness, to have no posterity to leave that to) this also arises to be noted, that Gods Name Jehovah, having in that two Letters of one kind, two H H, God divides with his Servant, God affords one of those letters to the dignifying of Abrahams name, he adds an H of his own Name to his: Jehovah is his essential name; and in communicating any beam of that Essence, any letter of that Name, we become semen Dei, the seed of God; and filii Dei, the Sons of God; and participes divinae naturae, Partakers of the Divine nature; and idem spiritus cum Domino, the same spirit with the Lord; and Hearers of that voice; Ego dixi Dii estis, I have said you are Gods: If we were careful to answer our old name, the name of Christians, in our conformity to Christ, and performance of Christianly duties, that were well, and other Names needed not, as remembrancers unto us: But God does give us new Names and additions of Offices, and Titles in School, or Court, or Common-wealth, as new testimonies of his love, and rebukes of our former negligences, and Remembrancers of our present Duties in those places, and Encouragers to a more careful proceeding in them. Secondly, God gave Abraham a new Wife: in which, the blessing was, that he took not from him that virtuous and obedient Wife which he had before, Sara, but now he made her a Wife unto him, and he supplied that only defect which was in her, Barrenness, and so made her fully a Wife, a Mother. Thirdly, he gave him a new Son; for, God who purposed to bless all Nations in Abraham's seed, would not only repair and furnish his old house, (that is, bless Ismael with temporal blessings) but he would build him a new house, raise him up a new Son, Isaac: He would not only fulfill that petition of Abrahams, Oh that Ismael might live in thy sight! not only preserve Ismael, which signifies, Exauditionem Domini, that the Lord had heard that prayer, in the behalf of Ismael; but he would give him an Isaac, which signifies, Risum, laetitiam, that is, he would give him a new, and true occasion of joy. Fourthly, he gave him a new promise; that as in Adam he had promised a Messiah, in semine mulieris, in the seed of the Woman; now he contracts that promise to Abraham, in semine tuo, in thy seed shall all Nations be blessed; and so makes Abraham, not only a Partner with his other Children, in the Salvation of that Messiah, but he makes Abraham a means to derive that Salvation upon others also, In semine tuo, thou shalt not only be blessed in the Seed of the Woman, but all Nations shall be blessed in thy seed. And lastly, he gives him a new seal; not only that seal, under which he was wont to deal with him, not only an inward seal in his heart, but he gives him a new seal, a visible seal, the seal of Circumcision. This being then the Dignity of Gods precepts, that they require a present, and an exact obedience, without any counter-disputing; this being the infirmity of mans nature, that he is ever ready to object and oppose reasons, according to flesh and blood, against Gods precepts; this being the overflowing measure of Gods mercy to his Children, to give them the issue with the temptation; Reason above that Reason, victory at last, and alacrity in the performance of that precept; and this being his infinite bounty, to give us such rewards and retributions for those victories, of which, only his goodness, and his strength, was the Author in us, when we do perform those duties, (all which we have seen in Abrahams obedience to a fleshly Circumcision) that Circumcision being come to an end in the Circumcision of Christ, performed this day: Let us come to this Circumcision, of which, that was but a Figure, a Spiritual Circumcision, the Circumcision of the heart, and God shall give us new Names (new Demonstrations, that our names are written in the Book of life) and new Marriages (refresh his promise in the Prophet, that he will marry himself to us for ever) and new Sons, new Isaacks (assurance of new Ioyes, Essential and Accidental, in the Kingdom of Heaven, and inchoative here in the way) and new promises, and new seals (new obligations of his Blessed Spirit) that that Infallibility of salvation which we have conceived, is well grounded.

We have done with our first part, with that which was occasioned by the Institution of Circumcision in Abraham; we pass to that, which is occasioned by the celebrating of this Day, in which this legal Circumcision taking an end, in the Person of Christ, we come aptly to consider Spiritual Circumcision, by which only we can be made conformable to our pattern and example, Christ Jesus: In which, we will charge your memory but with these two considerations; First, Quid sit, what this spiritual Circumcision is, (for in that is implied the Quomodo, how this Circumcision is to be wrought and effected) And Secondly, the Ubi, what part of a Man is to be circumcised in this Circumcision, for that implies Integritatem, that it is the whole Man in every part.

Briefly then, Spiritual Circumcision is to walk in the spirit; for then, says the Apostle, ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; no Circumcision can bring us to this, that we shall not have them, for they are born in us, and they will live in us, whilst we live; but this is this Circumcision, not to fulfill them. Neither was Abraham's race, which was to be circumcised, more numerous, more plentiful, more manifold, then is this issue of the flesh, Sin: How sudden, and how large a pedigree! A Child, at the first minute, when the soul enters, is as good a Sinner, that is, as absolute a Sinner, and hath as good title to Damnation, by being conceived in sin, as the eldest man; nay, he is as old a Sinner as the eldest man that is; nay, as the eldest man that ever was; for, he sinned in Adam, and, though conceived but this night, sinned 6000 years ago. In young Men, vanity begets excess; excess; licentiousness; licentiousness, envy, hatred, quarrels, murders; so that here is generation upon generation, here are risen Grandfather and Great-grandfather-sins quickly, a forward generation: And then they grow suddenly to be habits, and they come to prescribe in us: Prescription is, when there is no memory to the contrary; and we cannot remember when that sinful custom begun in us: yea, our sins come to be reverenced in us, and by us; our sins contract a majesty, and a state, and they grow sacred to us; we dare not trouble a sin, we dare not displace it, nor displease it; we dare not dispute the prerogative of our sin, but we come to think it a kind of sedition, a kind of innovation, and a troubling of the state, if we begin to question our Conscience, or change that security of sin which we sleep in, and we think it an easier Reformation to repent a sin once a year, at Easter, when we must needs Receive, then to watch a sin every Day.

There is scarce any sin, but that in that place of the Apostle to the Galatians, it comes within the name of works of the flesh; for, though he names divers sins, which are litterally and properly works of the flesh, (as Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, wantonness) yet those sins that are against a mans own self, (as Gluttony and Drunkenness) those that are against other men, (as Contentions and Murders) those that are directed upon new Gods (as Idolatry) those that are Contracts with the Devil (as Witchcraft) those that are offences to the Church (as Heresy) are all called by Saint Paul in that place, works of the flesh: So that the object of this Spiritual Circumcision is all that concerns the flesh, the world, the Devil, or God, or man, or the Church; in every one of these we may find somewhat to circumcise. But because abundance and superfluity begets these works of the flesh, (for though we carry the Serpent about us, yet he does not sting, nor hiss, till he be warm: As long as poverty and vvretchedness freezes our Concupiscences, they are not so violent) therefore spiritual Circumcision is well expressed by Saint Bernard; Moralis Circumcisio est, victum & vestitum habentem, esse contentum; A cutting off of these superfluities, is this moral, that is, this spiritual Circumcision.

Nov for some understanding of these superfluities, we must consider, that sometimes a poor man, that hath no superfluity in his estate, is yet vvastful in his mind, and puts himself to superfluous expences, in his diet, in his apparel, and in all things of outward shevv and ostentation: And on the other side, a covetous man, that hath a superfluous estate, yet starves him self, and denies himself all conveniences for this life: Here's a superfluous confidence in the one, that he cannot want, though he throw away money; and here's a superfluous fear in the other, that he shall want, if he give himself bread; and here's vvorke for this spiritual Circumcision on both sides: But then the Circumcision is not necessarily to be applied to the riches of the rich man, so as that every rich man must necessarily cast away his riches (a Godly man may be rich) nor necessarily applied so to all outward expences of the free and liberal minded man, as that he should shut up dors, and wear ragges; for, a Godly man may fare in his diet, and appear in his garments, according to that Degree which he holds in that state: But the superfluity is, and (consequently the Circumcision is to be) in the Affection, in our Confidence, that whatsoever we wast, by one means or other, we shall have more; or in our diffidence, that if we lay not up all, we shall never have enough. These be the inordinate affections that must be Circumcised: But how? for that's intended in this part. We need enquire no farther, for the means of this spiritual Circumcision, then to the very word which the Holy Ghost hath chosen for Circumcision here, which is Mul and Namal; for that word hath in other places of Scripture, three significations, that express much of the manner, how this Circumcision is to be wrought: It signifies, Purgare, to purge, to discharge the Conscience: (and that is, by Confession of our sins) It signifies, Mundare, to cleanse and purify the Conscience: (and that is, by Contrition and Detestation of that sin) And it signifies, Succidere, to cut down, to weed and root out whatsoever remains in our possession, that is unjustly got (and that is) by Destitution.

Now for the first of these, the purging; the proper use and working of purging Physic, is, not that that Medicine pierces into those parts of the Body, where the peccant humor lies, and from which parts, Nature, of her self, is not able to expell it: the substance of the Medicine does not go thither, but the Physic lies still, and draws those peccant humours together; and being then so come to an unsupportable Mass, and burden, Nature her self, and their own weight expels them out. Now, that which Nature does in a natural body, Grace does in a regenerate soul, for Grace is the nature and the life of a regenerate man. As therefore the bodily Physic goes not to that part of the body that is affected; we must not stay till out Spiritual Physic (the Judgements of God) work upon that particular sin, that transports us: That God should weaken me with a violent sickness, before I will purge my self of my licentiousness; Or strike me with poverty, and loss of my stock, before I will purge my self of my usury; or lay me flat with disgraces and dis-favours of great Persons, before I will purge my self of my Ambition; or evict my land from me, by some false title, that God, in his just Judgement, may give way to, to punish my sins, before I will purge my self of my oppression, and racking of Tenants: But before these violent Medicines come, if thou canst take Gods ordinary Physic, administered in the Word and Sacraments; if thou canst but endure that qualme of calling thy self to an account, and an examination; if thou canst draw all thy sins together, and present them to thine own Conscience, then their own weight will find a vent, and thou wilt utter them in a full and free Confession to thy God, and that is Circumcision; as Circumcision consists in the purging of the Conscience, to be moved upon hearing the Word preached, and the denouncing of his Judgements in his Ordinance, before those Judgements surprize thee, to recollect thy sins in thine own memory, and pour them out in a true Confession.

The next step in this Circumcision, (as they are intimated in that word, which the Holy Ghost uses here) is Mundare, to cleanse; and this is a Contrition for those sins, and a Detestation of those sins, which I have thus gathered in my Memory, and poured out in my Confession. A house is not clean, though all the Dust be swept together, if it lie still in a corner, within Dors; A Conscience is not clean, by having recollected all her sins in the Memory, for they may fester there, and Gangreen even to Desperation, till she have emptied them in the bottomless Sea of the blood of Christ Jesus: and the mercy of his Father, by this way of Confession. But a house is not clean neither, though the Dust be thrown out, if there hang Cobwebs about the Walls, in how dark corners soever. A Conscience is not clean, though the sins, brought to our memory by this Examination, be cast upon Gods mercy, and the merits of his Son, by Confession, if there remain in me, but a Cobweb, a little, but a sinful de light in the Memory of those sins, which I had formerly committed. How many men sin over the sins of their youth again, in their age, by a sinful Delight in remembering those sins, and a sinful Desire, that their Bodies were not past them? How many men sin over some sins, but imaginarily, (and yet Damnably) a hundred times, which they never sinned actually at all, by filling their Imaginations, with such thoughts as these, How would I be revenged of such an Enemy, if I were in such a place of Authority? How easily could I overthrow such a wasteful young Man, and compass his Land, if I had but Money, to seed his humours? Those sins which we have never been able to do actually, to the harm of others, we do as hurtfully to our own Souls, by a sinful Desire of them, and a sinful Delight in them. Therefore is there a cleansing required in this Circumcision; such a cleansing as God promises, I will cleanse their blood, that is, the fountain, the work of all corrupt Desires, and sinful Delights. Now there is no clensing of our blood, but by his blood; and the infusion, and application of his blood, is in the seal of the Sacrament; so that that soul only is so clensed, as is required in this spiritual circumcision, that preserves it self always, or returns speedily, to a disposition of a worthy receiving of that holy and blessed Sacrament: He that is now in that disposition, as that, in a rectified Conscience, he durst meet his Savior at that Table, and receive him there, (which cannot be done without Contrition, and Detestation of former sins) hath admitted this spiritual Circumcision, so far, as is intended in the second signification of this word, which is, To clense.

But then there is a third action, which is, succidere, to cut up, to root out all, from whence this sin may grow up again, as the word is used in Job 18. His root shall be dried beneath, and all his branches shall be cut down. In this Circumcision, we must cut the root, the mother-sin, that nourishes all our sins, and the branches too, that if one sin have begot another, there be a fall of all our woods, of our timber wood, (our grown and habitual sins) and of our under-woods, (those lesser sins which grow out of them.) It is a cutting down, and a stubbing up, which is not done, till we have shook off all, that we have gotten by those Sins: It is not the Circumcision of an Excessive use of that sin, that will serve our turn, but such a Circumcision, as amounts to an Excession, a cutting off the root, and branch, the sin, and the fruits, the profits of that sin. I must not think to bribe God, by giving him some of the profit of my sin, to let me enjoy the rest: for, was God a venturer with me in my sin? Or did God set me to Sea, that is, put me into this world, to see what I could get by Usury, by Oppression, by Extortion, and then give him a part to charitable uses? As this word signifies Excedere, to cut of all that is grown out of sin, so from this word Namal, comes Nemâla, which is Formicae, an Ant, which the Hebrews derive from this word, out of this reason, That as an Ant doth gnaw all the Corn it lays up, upon one side, so that it may never grow again, so this spiritual Circumcision must provide, that that sin take no new root: but as long as thou makest profit, or takest pleasure in any thing sinfully gotten, thy sin grows; so that this Circumcision is not perfected but by restitution and satisfaction of all formerly damnified. These then be all the ways that are presented in these significations and use of this word, which the holy Ghost hath chosen here, purging by Consideration and Confessing, clensing by Contrition and Detesting, preventing of future growth by Satisfaction in Restoring. A little remains to be said (though it be also implied in that which hath been said) of the Ubi, the place where this Circumcision is to be applied. The Scripture speaks of uncircumcised hearts, and uncircumcised lips, and uncircumcised ears; And our eyes in looking, and coveting, and our hands in reaching to that which is not ours, are as far uncircumcised as ears, or lips, or hearts: Therefore we are to carry this Circumcision all over; we must Circumcise, says Saint Bernard, In carne, peccatum, the flesh, the body, the substance of the sin, in cute, operimentum, in the skin, all covers, and palliations, and disguises, and extenuations of the sin; and, in sanguine incentivum, in the blood all somentations and provocations to that sin: the sin it self, the circumstances of the sin, the relapses to or towards that sin must be circumcised: Iudaeus ut parvulus, congruum accepit mandatum, exiguae Circumcisionis, says the same Father, The Jew was but in an infancy, in a minority, and God did not look for so strong a proceeding from the Jew, as from us, but led him by the armes, by the help of Ceremonies and Figures, and accordingly required but a Circumcision in one part of the body: but God looks for more, at the hands of Christians, to whom he hath fully manifested and applied himself. As Christ said to the Jews, Except your righteousness exeeed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, it is nothing: So except our righteousness exceed them that exceeded the Scribes, it is nothing; and therefore, Toto corpore baptizamur (says Bernard) quia totius hominis integra Circumcisio; to show, that it is the whole man that is to be circumcised; we are baptized, we are washed all over, (for so long, even to Bernards time, it seems, that manner of Baptizing, by Immersion of the whole body, and not by Aspersion upon the face only, continued in the general practice of the Church.) So that if it be not an entire Circumcision of the whole man, that will fall upon us, which God threatens in the Prophet, I will visit all them which are circumcised, with them which are not circumcised; If we circumcise in part, leave some sins, and cleave to others, we shall be, in the sight of God, altogether uncircumcised; Adam was not the less naked in Gods sight, for his Fig-leaf; half-repentances are no repentances; either we are in a privation, or in a habit; covered over with righteousness, or naked.

When therefore the Lord and his Spirit calls thee to this spiritual Circumcision, remember that Abraham did not say when he was called, Lord, I have followed thy voice, in leaving my Country; Lord, I have built thee an Altar, what needs more demonstration of my obedience? Say not thou, Lord, I have built an Hospital; Lord, I have fed the poor at Christmas; Lord, I have made peace amongst thy people at home; I have endowed an Alms-house; but persevere in doing good still, for, God takes not the Tree, where it grows, but where it falls; for the most part, the death of a man is such, as his life was; but certainly the life of a man, that is, his everlasting life, is such as his death is. Again, Abraham did not say of this, that it was a Commandment in a flight, and frivolous, and uncivil matter; do not thou say, that it is an impertinent thing in this spiritual Circumcision, to watch thy eating and drinking, and all such indifferent actions, and to see that all they be done to the glory of God; for, as the Apostle says, That the foolishness of God is wiser then the wisdom of man; so we may piously say, that the levity of God is graver then the gravity of all the Philosophers and Doctors of the world; as we may see in all his Ceremontal Laws, where the matter seems very light in many places, but yet the signification very important; and therefore apply this Circumcision, even in thy least, and most familiar action. So also Abraham was not diverted from obeying God, by the inconvenience of having all his family diseased at once; he did not say, I am content to circumcise my Son, but would spare my Servants yet, for necessary uses; do not thou say, thou art content to circumcise thine eldest Son, to abate somewhat of that sin which thou beganst with in thy youth, but wouldst fain spare some serviceable and profitable sins for a time, and circumcise them hereafter. To pursue this example, Abraham did not say, Cras Domine, Lord, I will do all this to morrow; but, as the Commandment was given in that phrase of expedition, Circumcidendo circumcides, In Circumcising thou shalt circumcise; which denoted a diligent and a present dispatch; so Abraham did dispatch it diligently and presently that day. Do not thou say, Cras Domine, to morrow, some other day, in the day of mine age, or of my Death, or of affliction and tribulation; I will circumcise all, for age, and sickness, and tribulations, are Circumcisions of themselves; a Fever circumcises thee then, or an Apoplexy, and not thy Devotion; and incapacity of sinning is not sanctification: If any man put off his Repentance till death, Fateor non negamus quod petit, says Saint Augustine, I dare not deny that man, whatsoever God may be pleased to grant him; Sed non presumimus, quod bene erit; I dare not presume to say, that that man died well, Non presumo, non vas fallo, non presumo, says that Father, with some vehemency, I dare not warrant him, let me not deceive you with saying that I dare, for I dare not: And, Beloved, that is but a suspicious state in any man, in which another Christian hath just reason to doubt of his salvation, as Saint Augustine doth shrewdly doubt of these late Repenters, Sicut ejus damnatio inoerta, it a remissio dubia; As I am not sure he is damned, so I am not sure he is saved, no more sure of one then of the other. It is true, we have the example of the Crucified Thief, but it is but a hard case, when a Thief must guide us and be our Example; we suspect wills that are made of temporal goods in that state, at the last gasp, and shall we think a Man to be compos mentis, of a perfect understanding for the bequeathing of his Soul at his last gasp? non presumo, non nos fallo, non presumo, I should deceive you, if I should say it, I dare not say it, says that Father. Come therefore to this Circumcision betimes, come to it, this Day, come this Minute: This Day thy Savior was Circumcised in the flesh, for thee; this Day Circumcise thy heart to him, and all thy senses, and all thy affections. It is not an utter destroying of thy senses, and of thy affections, that is enjoined thee; but, as when a Man had taken a beautiful Woman captive in the wars, he was not bound to kill her, but he must shave her head, and pare her nails, and change her garments, before he might marry her; so captivate, subdue, change thy affections, and that's the Destruction which makes up this Circumcision: change thy choler into Zeal, change thy amorousness into devotion, change thy wastefulness into Alms to the poor, and then thou hast circumcised thy affections, and mayest retain them, and mayest confidently say with the Apostle, we are the Circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Do this to day; as God this day gives thee a New year, and hath not surprized thee, nor taken thee away in the sins of last year; as he gives thee a new year, do thou give him a New-years-gift, Cor novum, a new and a Circumcised heart, and Canticum novum, a new Song, a delight to magnify his name, and speak of his glory, and declare his wondrous works to the Sons of men, and be assured that whether I, or any other of the same Ministry, shall speak to you from this place, this day twelve month, and shall ask your consciences then, whether those things which you heard now, have brought you to this Circumcision, and made you better this year than you were the last, and find you under the same uncircumcision still, be assured that God will not, God cannot be mocked, but as he will receive us, with an Euge bone serve, Well done my good and faithful Servant; so he will say to you, Perditio tua ex te, Your destruction is from your selves: Enough hath been done for you by me, enough hath been said to you by my Servants, Quare moriemini, Why will you die ô house of Israel? And after a long despising of his graces, he will come to a final separation; you shall come to say, Nolumus hunc regnare, we will not have Christ Jesus to reign over us; and Christ Jesus shall come to say, Nescio vos, I know you not, nor whence you are. Hody si vocem ejus, If you will hear his voice this day, Hody eritis, This day you shall be with him in Paradise, and dwell in it all the year, and all the years of an Everlasting life, and of infinite generations. Amen.

Fifty Sermons (1649) - Sermon L.

1 THES. 5. 16. Rejoice evermore.

A Sermon Preached in Saint Dunstans.

WE read in the natural Story, of some floating Islands, that swim and move from place to place; and in them a Man may sow in one place, and reap in another: This case is so far ours, as that in another place we have sowed in tears, and by his promise, in whose tears we sowed then, when we handled those two words, Jesus wept, we shall reap in Joy: That harvest is not yet; it is reserved to the last Resurrection: But the Corn is above ground, in the Resurrection of our head, the first fruits of the Dead, Christ Jesus, and that being the first visible steppe of his exaltation, begins our exultation, who in him are to rejoice evermore. The heart knoweth his own bitterness; he and none but he; others feel it not, retain it not, pity it not; and therefore says the Text, A Stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy: He shall have a Joy which no stranger, not he himself whilst he was a stranger to God, and to himself, could conceive. If we ask, as Christs Disciples asked of him, Quod signum? what shall be the sign of thy comming, of this Joy in the midst of thy bitterness? Ipsae lachrymae laetitiae testes, & nuncii: The tears themselves shall be the sign, the tears shall be Ambassadors of Joy; a present gladness shall consecrate your sorrow, and tears shall baptize, and give a new name to your passion, for your Wormwood shall be Manna; even then when it is Wormwood, it shall be Manna, for, Gaudebitis semper, you shall Rejoice evermore.

But our Text does more then imply a promise to us, for it lays a precept upon us: It is not, Gaudebitis, you shall Rejoice, by way of Comfort, but it is, Gaudete, Rejoice, see that you do Rejoice, by way of Commandment, and that shall be our first part. Cadit sub praecepto; It hath the nature of a commandment. Angels pass not from extreme to extreme, but by the way between; Man passes not from the miseries of this life, to the joys of Heaven, but by joy in this life too; for he that feels no joy here, shall find none hereafter. And when we pass from the substance of the precept, to the extent thereof (which will be our second part) from the first word, Rejoice, to the other, Rejoice always; we shall cleave that into two periods, Gaudete in bonis, Rejoice in your prosperity, and Gaudete in malis, Rejoice in your adversity too. But because it is in sempiternum, that must be in sempiterno, because it is alway, it must be in him who is always, yesterday and to day, and the same for ever, Joy in God, Joy in the Holy Ghost, which will be another branch in that second part; of which Joy, though there be a preparatory, and inchoative participation and possession in this life, yet the consummation being reserved to our entrance into our Masters Joy, not only the Joy which he gives, that's here, but the Joy which he is, that's only there, we shall end in that, beyond which none can go, no not in his thoughts, in some dim contemplation, and in some faint representation of the Joys of Heaven, and in that Contemplation we shall dismiss you.

First then it is presented in the nature of a Commandment, and lays an Obligation upon all, at all times to procure to our selves, and to cherish in our selves, this Joy, this Rejoicing. What is Joy? Comparatur ad desiderium sic ut quies admotum; As Rest in the end of motion, every thing moves therefore that it may rest, so Joy is the end of our desires, whatsoever we place our desires, our affections upon, it is therefore, that we may enjoy it; and therefore, Quod est in brutis in parte sensitiva Delectatio, in hominibus in parte intellectiva est gaudium: Beasts and carnal men, who determine all their desires in the sensual parts, come no farther then to a delight: but men, who are truly men, and carry them to the intellectual part, they, and only they, come to Joy. And therefore says Solomon, It is the joy of the just to do judgment; to have lain still, and done no wrong occasions, is not this Joy; Joy is not such a Rest, as the Rest of the Earth, that never moved; but as the Sun rejoyceth to run his race, and his circuit is unto the end of heaven; so this Joy is the rest and testimony of a good conscience, that we have done those things which belong to our calling, that we have moved in our Sphere. For, if men of our profession, whose Function it is, to attend the service of God, delight our selves in having gathered much in this world; if a Souldier shall have delighted himself, in giving rules of Agriculture, or a Architecture; if a Counsellor of State, who should assist with his counsel upon present emergencies, delight himself in writing Books of good counsel for posterity, all this occasions not this joy; because though there have been motion, and though there be Rest, yet that is not Rest after the Motion proper to them. A Man that hath been out of his way all the day, may be glad to find a good Inn at night; but yet 'tis not properly Joy, because he is never the nearer home. Joy is peace for having done that which we ought to have done: And therefore it is well expressed, Optima conjectura an homo sit in gratia est gaudere; The best evidence that a Man is at peace, and in favor with God, is, that he can rejoice. To try whether I be able by Argument and disputation to prove all, that I believe, or to convince the Adversary, this is Academia animae, the souls University, where some are Graduats, and all are not: To try whether I be able to endure Martyrdom for my belief, this is Gehenna animae, the rack, the torture of the Soul, and some are able to hold it out, and all are not: But to try whether I can rejoice in the peace, which I have with God, this is but Catechismus animae, the Catechism of the Soul, and every Man may examine him self, and every Man must; for it is a Commandment, Gaudete semper, Rejoice evermore.

It is, we cannot say the Office, but the Essence of God to do good; and when he does that, he is said to rejoice: The Lord thy God will make thee plenteous; (there is his goodness) and he will Rejoice again over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy Fathers. The Lord will love thee, there is his goodness; and rejoice in thee, and he will rest in his love. Such a joy as is a rest, a complacency in that good which he hath done, we see is placed in God himself. It is in Angels too: Their office is to minister to Men, (for by nature they are Spirits, but by office they are Angels) and when they see so good effect of their service, as that a Sinner is converted, There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God. Christ himself had a spiritual office and employment, To give light to the blind, and to inflict blindness upon those who thought they saw all. And when that was done, Exultavit in spiritu, in that hour Christ rejoiced in the Spirit, and said, I thank thee ô Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, &c. To have something to do, to do it, and then to Rejoice in having done it, to embrace a calling, to perform the Duties of that calling, to joy and rest in the peaceful testimony of having done so; this is Christianly done, Christ did it; Angelically done, Angels do it; Godly done, God does it. As the Bridegroom rejoyceth in his Bride, so doth thy God rejoice in thee. Example, as well as the Rule, repeats it to you, Gaudete semper.

But how far may we carry this joy? To what outward declarations? To laughing? Saint Basil makes a round answer to a short question. An in Universum rider non licet? May a Man laugh in no case? Admodum perspicuum est, It is very evident, that a Man may not, because Christ says, Vae vobis, Wo be unto you that laugh; And yet Saint Basil himself in another place says (which we are rather to take in explanation, than in contradiction, of himself) that that woe of Christ is cast in obstreperum Sonum, non in sinceram hilaritatem: upon a dissolute and undecent, and immoderate laughting, not upon true inward joy, howsoever outwardly expressed. At the promise of a Son, Abraham fell on his face and laughed; a religious Man, and a grave Man, 100 years old, expressed this joy of his heart, by this outward declaration. Jerome's Translation reads it, Risit in Corde, he laughed within himself, because Saint Jerome thought that was a weakness, a declination towards unbelief, to laugh at Gods promise, as he thinks Abraham did. But Saint Paul is a better Witness in his behalf; Against hope he believed in hope; he was not weak in faith; he staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief. Quòd risit, non incredulitatis, sed exultation is indicium fuit, his laughing was no ebb of faith, but a flood of joy. It is not as S. Jerome takes it, Risit in Corde putans celare deum, apertè rider non ausus; he kept-in his laughing, and durst not laugh out; But as St. Ambrose says well, Risus non irrisio diffidentis, sed exultatio gratulantis; he laughed not in a doubtful scorn of Gods promise, but in an overflowing of his own joy: It is well expressed, and, well concluded, O virum aeterno risu vere dignum, & sempiternae jueunditati bene praeparatum, This was good evidence, that he was a man well disposed for the joys of heaven; that he could conceive joy in the temporal blessings of God, and that he thought nothing mis-becoming him, that was an outward declaration of this joy. It is a dangerous weakness, to forbear outward declarations of our sense of Gods goodness, for fear of mis-interpretations; to smother our present thankfulness, for fear that some should say it was a levity to thank God so soon, till God had done the whole work. For God does sometimes leave half his work undone, because he was not thanked for it. When David danced and leaped, and shouted before the Ark; if he laughed too, it mis-became him not. Not to feel joy is an argument against religious tenderness, not to show that joy, is an argument against thankfulness of the heart: that is a stupidity, this is a contempt. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. If it be within, it will be without too. Except I hear thee say in thine actions, Gaudeo, I do rejoice, I cannot know that thou hast heard the Apostle say, Gaudete.

Joy for Gods blessings to us, joy for Gods glory to himself, may come ad Risum, and farther: Not only ad Ridendum, but ad Irridendum, not only to laugh in our own prosperity, but to laugh them to scorn that would have impeached it. They are put both together in God himself, Ridebo, and Irridebo, I will laugh at your calamities, and I will mock when your fear cometh. And this being in that place intended of God, is spoken in the person of Wisdom; It mis-becomes not wisdom and gravity to laugh in Gods deliverances, not to laugh to scorn those that would have blown up Gods Servants, when it is carried so high as to the Kings of the Earth, and the Rulers that take counsel against the Lord, and against his Anointed, we may come Ad Gaudium, to joy in Gods goodness, but because their place, and persons are sacred, we leave the Rider and the Irridere to God: who says, ver. 4. That he will laugh at them, and hold them in derision. But at lower instruments, lower persons may laugh, when they fill the world with the Doctrine of killing of Kings, and mean that that should animate men against such Kings as they call Heretics, and then find in experience that this hath wrought only to the killing of Kings of their own Religion, we lament justly the event, but yet we forbear our Rider and our Irridere, at the crossing and the frustrating of their plots and practises. Pharaohs Army was drowned, Et Cecinit Moses, Moses sung, Sisera was slain Et Cecinit Deborah, Deborah sung. Thus in the disappointing of Gods enemies, Gods servants come to outward manifest signs of joy. Not by a libellous and scurrill prophanation of persons that are sacred, but in fitting Psalms and Sermons, and Prayers, and public Writings to the occasion, to proceed to a Rider and Irridere, and as Saint Augustine reads that place of the Proverbs, Superridere, to laugh Gods Enemies into a confusion to see their Plots so often, so often, so often frustrated. For so far extends Gaudete, Rejoice evermore.

Joy then, and cheerfulness, is Sub praecepto, it hath the nature of a commandment, and so he departs from a commandment that departs, and abandons himself into an inordinate sadness. And therefore David chides his soul, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, why art thou disquiesed within me? And though he come after to dispute against this sadness of the soul, which he had let in, Hope yet in God, and yet the Lord will command his loving kindness, and my prayer shall be unto the God of my life, yet he could not put it off, but he imagines that he hears his enemies say, Where is thy God? and when he hath wrestled himself weary, he falls back again in the last verse, to his first faintness, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, why art thou disquieted within me? For, As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, so is he that singeth Songs to a heavy heart: That heaviness makes him uncapable of Natural, of Moral, of Civil, of Spiritual comforts, charm the Charmer never so wisely. Heli heard that the Battel was lost, and that his Sons were slain, and admitted so much sorrow for those, that when the last was added, The Ark was taken by the Enemy, he was too weak for that, and fell down and brake his neck. It was his daughter in Laws case too; she overcharged her soul with sadness for her husbands death, and her fathers death, and when the report of the Ark came, she fell into labor and died; and though the women told her, Fear not, thou hast born a Son, yet she answered not. Though the Ark of God, the worship of his Name, be at any time transferred from where it was, despair not thou of Gods reducing it; for this despairing of others, may bring thee to despair in some accident to thy self: Accustom thy self to keep up the consideration of Gods mercy at the highest, lodge not a sad suspicion in any public, in any private business, that Gods powerful mercy can go but thus far: he that determineth Gods Power and his Mercy, and faith here it must end, is as much an Atheist, as he that denieth it altogether. The Key of David openeth and no man shutteth; The Spirit of Comfort shineth upon us, and would not be blown out. Monastery, and Ermimitage, and Anchorate, and such words of singularity are not Synonyma with those plural words Concio, Coetus, Ecclesia, Synagoga & Congregatio, in which words God delivereth himself to us. A Church is a Company, Religion is Religation, a binding of men together in one manner of Worship; and Worship is an exterior service; and that exterior service is the Venite exultemus, to come and rejoice in the presence of God.

If in any of these ways God cast a Cloud upon our former joys, yet to receive good at Gods hand, and not to receive evil; to rejoice in the calm, and not in the storm; this is to break at least half of the Commandment, which is, Gaudete semper. And so from the first part, which is the substance which we have passed by these steps, That this rejoicing hath the nature of a Commandment, it must be maintained, And that inward joy must be outwardly expressed, even to the disgrace and confusion of Gods enemies, and to the upholding of a joyful constancy in our selves: We pass now to the extent of the Commandment, Gaudete semper, Evermore.

Did God mean that we should rejoice always; when he made six days for labor, and but one for rest? Certainly he did. Six days we are to labor, and to do all that we have to do: And part of that which we have to do, is to rejoice in our labor. Adam in the state of Innocency had abundant occasion of continual rejoicing; but yet even in that joyful state he was to labor, to dress and to keep the Garden. After the fall, when God made the labor of man more heavy in sudore vultus, that he should not eat, but in the sweat of his brow, yet God gave him not that penalty, that occasion of sadness, till he had first imprinted the root of true Joy, the promise of a Messiah; that promise he made before he came to denounce the penalty, first came the Ipse conteret, and then in sudore vultus: upon those words, Thou shalt eat the labor of thy hand; Debuit dicere fructum, non laborem, saith Augustine, David should have said, he shall eat the fruit, not the labor of his hands. Sed ipsi labores non sunt sine gaudio, but the very labours, the very afflictions of good men, have joy in them. Si labor potest manducari & jucundari, manducatus fructus laboris qualis erit? And if labor it self, affliction it self, minister Joy, what a manner, what a measure of joy is in the full possession thereof in Heaven? And as the consideration of the words immediately after the Text, hath made more then one of the Fathers say, Etiam Somnia justorum preces sunt, Even the sleep of the righteous is a service to God, and their very Dreams are Prayers and Meditations, so much more properly, may we call the sleep, and the bodily rest, nay, the bodily torments of the righteous, joy, rejoicing. So that neither week day, nor Sabbath day nor night, labor nor rest interrupteth this continual Joy: We may, we must rejoice evermore.

Gaudete in bonis, Rejoice when God giveth you the good things of this world; First, in Temporalibus when God giveth you the good Temporal things of this world. Gaudete in Terra, Rejoice that God hath placed you in so fertill, in so fruitful a Land. Gaudete in pace, Rejoice that God hath afforded you peace to till the Land, Gaudete de Temporibus, Rejoice that God giveth good seasons, that the Earth may give her increase, and that Man may joy in the increase of the Earth: And Gaudete de amicitiis, Rejoice that God giveth you friendship with such Nations, as may take of your superfluities, and return things necessary to you. There is a joy required for Temporal things; for he that is not joyful in a benefit, is not thankful. Next to that detestable assertion (as Saint Augustine calleth it) That God made any man to to damn him, it is the perversest assertion, That God gives man temporal things to ensnare him. Was that Gods primary intention in prospering Noahs Vineyard, That Noah should be drunken? God forbid.

Doth God give any man honor or place, Vt glorietur in malo, qui potens est, that his power might be an occasion of mischief and oppression? God forbid. God made light at first; but we know not what that light was: but God gathered all light into the Sun, and all the world sees it. God infuses grace and spiritual blessings into a mans heart, and no man sees that, but the Spirit that is in that man; but the Evidence, the great Seal, that he pleads in the Eye of the world, is Gods temporal blessings. When Assuerus put the Royal Vesture and Ring, and Crown upon Mordecas, it was to show that he was in his favor; in the same intention proceeds God too, when he gives riches, or honor, or favor, or command; he would have that soul rejoice in these, as in testimonies of his favor. God loves hilarem datorem, a cheerful giver, but he that is not a cheerful receiver, is a worse natured man, and more dishonors, nay, reproaches his benefactor. They then disobey this Commandment, of rejoicing in temporal things, that employ not their industry, that use not all good means to attain them. Every man is therefore planted in the world, that he may grow in the world, and as venomous herbs delight in the shade, so a sullen retiring argues a murmuring and venomous disposition; To contemn Gods temporal blessings, or to neglect or undervalue those instruments, those persons, by whom God sheds such blessings upon us, is to break that branch of this Commandment Gaudete semper, Rejoice evermore; for he does not rejoice in bonis temporalibus. So is it also, as not to seek them before, so not to use them when we have them. When in a fear of growing poor, makes us think God to be poor too, that if we spend this, God can give us no more, when for fear of lacking at our end, we lack all the way, when we abound and yet will pay no debts, not to our own bellies, our own backs, our own respect, and the decency that belongs to our rank, these men so sordid, so penurious, & suspicious of Gods Providence, break this branch of this Commandment too, because they do not rejoice in bonis temporalibus. And as the not-seeker, and the not-user, so the abuser of these temporal blessings is in the same transgression. He that thinks all the world as one Jewel, and himself the Cabinet, that all was made for him, and he for none, forgets his own office, his Stewardship, by which he is enabled and bound to the necessities of others: to collect, he that seeks not, he that denies all to himself, he that denies all but himself, break this branch, for they do not rejoice in bonis temporalibus.

This we must do; but in bonis spiritualibus, in the spiritual good things of this world, much more we call those the spiritual good things of this world, which advance our devotion here, and consequently our salvation hereafter. The ritual and ceremonial, the outward worship of God, the places, the times, the manner of meetings, which are in the disposition of Christian Princes, and by their favours of those Churches, which are in their government: and not to rejoice in the peaceful exercise of those spiritual helps, not to be glad of them, is a transgression. Now the Prophet expresses this rejoicing thus, Venite exultemus, let us come and rejoice. We must do both. And therefore they who out of a thraldome to another Church abstain from these places of these exercises, that do not come, or if they do come, do not rejoice, but though they be here brought by necessity of law, or of observation, yet had rather they were in another Chappel, or that another kind of service then in this: and they also who abstain out of imaginary defects in this church, & think they cannot perform Davids De profundis, they cannot call upon God out of the depth, except it be in a Conventicle in a cellar, nor acknowledge Solomons Excelsis Excelsior, that God is higher then the highest, except it be in a Conventicle in a garret, & when they are here wink at the ornaments, & stop their ears at the music of the Church, in which manner she hath always expressed her rejoicing in those helps of devotion; or if there be a third sort who abstain, because they may not be here at so much case, and so much liberty, as at their own houses, all these are under this transgression. Are they in the Kings house at so much liberty as in their own? and is not this the King of Kings house? Or have they seen the King in his own house, use that liberty to cover himself in his ordinary manner of covering, at any part of Divine Service? Every Preacher will look, and justly, to have the Congregation uncovered at the reading of his Text: and is not the reading of the Lesson, at time of Prayer, the same Word of the same God, to be received with the same reverence? The service of God is one entire thing; and though we celebrate some parts with more, or with less reverence, some kneeling, some standing, yet if we afford it no reverence, we make that no patr of Gods service. And therefore I must humbly entreat them, who make this Quire the place of their Devotion, to testify their devotion by more outward reverence there; we know our parts in this place, and we do them; why any stranger should think himself more privileged in this part of Gods House, then we, I know not. I presume no man will mis-interpret this that I say here now; nor, if this may not prevail, mis-interpret the service of our Officers, if their continuing in that unreverent manner give our Officers occasion to warn them of that personally in the place, whensoever they see them stray into that uncomely negligence. They should not blame me now, they must not blame them then, when they call upon them for this reverence in this Quire; neither truly can there be any greater injustice, then when they who will not do their duties, blame others for doing theirs.

But that we are bound to a thankful rejoicing in all that falls well to us, In bonis, admits less doubt, and therefore requires less proof: But the semper of our Text extends farther, Gandete in malis, we do not rejoice always, except we rejoice in evil days, in all our crosses and calamities. Now, if we be not affected with Gods judgements, if we conceive not a sorrow for them, or the cause of them, our sins, God is angry; will he be angry too, if we be not glad of them, if we do not rejoice in them? Can this sorrow and this joy consist together? very well. The School in the mouth of Aquinas gives instances; If an Innocent man be condemned, Simul placet ejus justitia, & displices afflictio, I congratulate his innocency, and I condole his death both at once. So Displicet mihi quod peccavi, & placet quod displicet; I am very sorry that I have sinned, but yet I am glad that I am sorry. So that, Ipsatristitia materia gaudii; Some sorrow is so far from excluding joy, as that naturally it produces it. S. Augustine hath sealed it with this advice, Semper doleat poenitens, Let him who hath sinned always lament; But then where is the Gaudete semper? he tells us too, Semper gaudeat de dolore, Let him always rejoice, that God hath opened him a way to mercy, by sorrow. Lacrymae Seminium quoddam sunt & foenus, quibus increscit gaudium; Sorrow is our Seminary, from whence we are transplanted into a larger Orchard, into the dilatation of the heart, Joy; sorrow, says he, Seminium est, & foenus est; It is our interest, our use; And if we have sorrow upon sorrow, it is use upon use, it doubles the principal, which is joy, the sooner. Cordae cum distenduntur, it is S. Augustines musical comparison, when the strings of an instrument are set up, the musical sound is the clearer; if a mans sinew be stretcht upon the rack, his joy is not the less perfect. Not that a man must seek out occasion of sorrow; provoke the Magistrate by seditious intemperance, and call it zeal; or macerate the body with fastings, or mangle it with whippings, and call that merit; Non ut quaerant materiam quam non habent, sed at inveniant cam quam nescients habent; This is the way of joy, not to seek occasions of sorrow, which they have not, but to find out those which they have, and know not; that is, their secret sins, the causes of Gods judgements in themselves. To discern that that correction that is upon me, is from God, and not a natural accident, this is a beam of joy, for I see that he would cure me, though by corosives. To discern that God is not unjust, nor cruel, and therefore it is something in me, and not in him, that brings it to this sharpness, this is a beam of joy too; for I see how to discharge God, and to glorify him, and how to accuse my self; and that is a good degree of repentance.

But to perfect my repentance, Non sufficit dolere de peccatis, sed requiritur gaudium de dolore, It is not enough to come to a sorrow in my sin, that may flow out into despair, but I must come to a joy in my sorrow, for that fixes me upon the application of Christ, and such a joy a man must suscitate and awaken in himself by these steps, In malis temporalibus, in all worldly crosses; Else he does not Gaudere semper.

No nor except he find this joy, In malis Spiritualibus, in Spiritual afflictions too. When I fall into new sorrow, after my former joy, relapse into those sins which I have repented (and beloved, the dangerous falling in any man, is to fall backward, he that falls forward, hath his eyes to help him, and his hands to help him, but he that falls backward lacks much) yet even out of these relapses we must find joy too. For when Saint James says, Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, as he speaks of all joy, so he intends, or may justly be extended to all temptations, not only temptations, that is, trials, when God proves a man by affliction, where moral constancy is exercised, but even in trial of religious constancy; in temptations to sin, still there is fresh occasion of joy in discerning Gods deliverance from the falling into the sin, or from lying in the sin. Ipsa tentatio sal animae, as salt preserves flesh, so temptations preserve the Soul: not the sinning, but the discerning that it is, nay that that was a temptation to sin, preserves the soul. And therefore, he calls tentationes custodes; he makes even the evil Angells, our Guardians, our Tutelar Angells, because by their temptations they bring us up in the fear of God, and in the ways of joy. And therefore though it be a joyful thing to have overcome a temptation, yet determine not your Joy in that; that if that temptation had overcome you, you might have no more Joy, but (as Christ says) In this rejoice not, that is, not only in this, that the Spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice not in this, that is, determine not, conclude not your joy in this, that you have overcome that temptation, but rather in this; that God does not forsake you after a sin, nor after a relapse into sin; but manifests your election by continual returning to you: But that this may be the joy of the text, true Joy, not a joy that induces presumption, for that will fail, that it may be Semper, it must be in Sempiterno, a Joy rightly conceived, and rightly placed. Gaudium in Domino: and that is our next step.

Rejoice in the Lord always, says the Apostle; and left it should admit any interruption, he repeats it, Iterum dico gaudete, Again I say rejoice, But still in the Lord. For, Quasi locus quidam, iustorum capax est Dominum: though God be in no place, God is the place, in whom all good men are. God is the Court of every just King: God is the Church of every holy Priest: God is the field of every valiant man; and the bed of every sickly man: whatsoever is done in Domino, in the Lord, is done at home in the right place. He that is settled in God, centered in God, Laetitiae fontem, voluptatis radicem lucratus est. They are all considerable words; Lucratus est, he hath purchased something which he did not inherit, he hath acquired something which was not his before, and what? Fontem laetitiae; 'tis joy, else it were nothing: for what is wealth if sickness take away the joy of that? Or what is health, if imprisonment take away the joy of that? Or what is liberty, if poverty take away the joy of that? but he hath joy, and not a Cistern but a fountain, the fountain of joy, that rejoyces in God: He carries it higher in the other Metaphor; he hath radicem voluptatis; a man may have Flores, flowers of joy, and have no fruit, a man may have some fruit, and not enough, but if he have joy in God, he hath radicem voluptatis; if we may dare to translate it so, (and in a spiritual sense we may) it is a voluptuous thing to rejoice in God. In rejoicing in another thing Saint Bernards harmonious charm will strike upon us, Rara hora, brevis mora, they are joys that come seldom, and stay but a little while when they come. Call it joy, to have had that thou lovest, in thine eye, or in thine armes, remember what oaths, what false oaths, it did cost thee before it came to that? And where is that joy now, is there a Semper in that? Call it joy to have had him whom thou hatest, in thine hands or under thy feet, what ignoble disguises to that man, what servile observations of some greater, then either you, or he, did that cost you before you brought him into your power? and where is that joy, if a Funeral or a bloody conscience benight it? Currus Domini, says David, the Chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand, thousands of Angels, says our translation; Millia laetantium, says the Vulgate; thousands of them that rejoice. How comes it to be all thing Angells and Reioycers? Ne miremur illos laetari continuò subiecit, Dominus in illis, Saint Augustine saith, to take away all wonder, it is added, the Lord is in the midst of them, and then, be what they will, they must rejoice; For if he be with them they are with him, and he is Joy. The name of Isaac signifies joy; and the trial of Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac: Immola Isaac tuum, sacrifice all thy Joy in this world, to God, Et non mactatus sed sanctificatus Isaac tuus, thy Joy shall not be destroyed, but sanctified, so far from being made none, that it shall be made better, better here, but not, better then that hereafter; which is our last steppe, beyond which there is nothing, that even true Joy, rightly placed, is but an inchoative, a preparatory Joy in this world. The consummation is for the next; Gaudebimus semper.

Sicut laetantium omnium habitatio est int, as Saint Jerome reads those words, speaking of the Christian Church here, It is the house of all them, who do as it were rejoice; who come nearest to true joy. And so, when the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion, Facti sumus sicut consolati, We were as it were comforted. Quare sicut, says that Father, Why is it so modified with that diminution, as it were? Quia hic etiam in Sanctis non perfecta consolatio; Because; says he, in this world, even the Saints themselves have no perfect joy. Where the Apostle compares the sorrow and the joy of this world, then the Quasi lyes upon the sorrows side; it is but a half sorrow; Quasi tristes, We are as it were sorrowful, but indeed rejoicing; but compare the best joy of this world, with the next, and the Quasi will fall upon the joy of the world. For though we be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, (and this is the Tropique of Joy, the farthest that Spiritual Joy goes in this Zodique, in this world) yet this carries us no farther, but Vt ex arrabone aestimetur haereditas; That by the proportion of the earnest, we might value the whole bargain: For what a bargain would we presume that man to have, that would give 20000 l. for earnest? what is the Joy of heaven hereafter, if the earnest of it here, be the Seal of the holy Ghost? God proceeds with us, as we do with other men. Operariis in Saeculo, cibus in opere, merces in fine datur: In this world, we give labourers meat and drink by the way, but wages at the end of their work. God affords us refreshing here, but joy hereafter. The best Seal is the holy Ghost, and the best matter that the holy Ghost seals in, is in blood; in the dignity of Martyrdom; and even for that, for Martyrdom, we have a rule in the Apostle, Rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings; That as he suffered for you, so you suffer for him: but in what contemplation? That when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be made glad with exceeding Joy; not with exceeding Joy, till then; For till then, the Joys of Heaven may be exceeded in the addition of the body. There is the rule, and the example is Christ himself, Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross; in contemplation of the Propterea exaltatus, that therefore he should be exalted above all in heaven. Rejoice and be glad; why? for great is your reward: but where? in heaven. And therefore Ask and you shall receive; Pray and you shall have answer: but what answer: but what answer? That your joy shall be full. It shall be; in heaven. For Quis sic delectat quam ille, qui fecit omnia quae delectant: In whom can we fully rejoice, but him, who made all things in which we rejoice by the way, In thy Name shall we rejoice all the day, says David; Si in nomine suo, non tota die. St. Augustine says not that to any particular person, nor any particular calling but to any man, to every man; Any Prince, any Counsellor, any Prelate, any General, any Discoverer, any that goes in any way of joy, and glory, Si nomine suo, non tota die, If they rejoice in their own names, their own wisdom, their own strength, they shall not rejoice all the day, but they shall be benighted with dark sadness, before their days end; And their sun shall set at noon too, as the Prophet Amos speaks. And therefore that shall be Christs expressing of that joy, at the last day, Enter into thy Master Joy, and leave the joy of Servants (though of good Servants) behind thee; for thou shalt have a better Joy then that, Thy Masters Joy.

It is time to end; but as long as the glass hath a gasp, as long as I have one, I would breath in this air, in this perfume, in this breath of heaven, the contemplation of this Joy. Blessed is that man, qui scit jubilationem, says David, that knows the joyful sound: For, Nullo modo beatus, nisi scias unde gaudeas; For though we be bound to rejoice always, it is not a blessed joy, if we do not know upon what it be grounded: or if it be not upon everlasting blessedness. Comedite amici, says Christ, bibite & inebriamini. Eat and drink, and be filled. Joy in this life, Vbi in sudore vescimur, where grief is mingled with joy, is called meat, says Saint Bernard, and Christ calls his friends to eat in the first word. Potus in future, says he, Joy in the next life, where it passes down without any difficulty, without any opposition, is called drink; and Christ calls his friends to drink: but the overflowing, the Ebriet as animae, that is reserved to the last time, when our bodies as well as our souls, shall enter into the participation of it: Where, when we shall love every one, as well as our selves, and so have that Joy of our own salvation multiplied by that number, we shall have that Joy so many times over, as there shall be souls saved, because we love them as our selves, how infinitely shall this Joy be enlarged in loving God, so far above our selves, and all them. We have but this to add. Heaven is called by many precious names; Life Simply and absolutely there is no life but that. And Kingdom; Simply, absolutely there is no Kingdom, that is not subordinate to that. And Sabbatum ex Sabbate, A Sabbath flowing into a Sabbath, a perpetual Sabbath: but the Name that should enamor us most, is that, that it is Satietas gaudiorum; fullness of Joy. Fullness that needeth no addition; Fullness, that admitteth no leak. And then though in the School we place Blessedness, in vision, in the sight of God, yet the first thing that this sight of God shall produce in us (for that shall produce the Reformation of the Image of God, in us, and it shall produce our glorifying of God) but the first thing that the seeing of God shall produce in us, is Joy. The measure of our seeing of God is the measure of Joy. See him here in his Blessings, and you shall joy in those blessings here; and when you come to see him Sicuti est, in his Essence, then you shall have this Joy in Essence, and in fullness; of which, God of his goodness give us such an earnest here, as may bind to us that inheritance hereafter, which his Son our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.

FINIS.

XXVI Sermons (1661)

A Lent-Sermon Preached at White-Hall, February 20. 1617. Sermon I. Serm. 1.

Luc. 23.40.

Fearest not thou God, being under the same condemnation?

THe Text it self is a Christening-Sermon, and a Funeral-Sermon, and a Sermon at a Consecration, and a Sermon at the Canonization of himself that makes it. This Thief, whose words they are, is Baptized in his blood; there's his Christening: He dies in that profession; there's his Funeral: His Diocess is his Cross, and he takes care of his soul, who is crucified with him, and to him he is a Bishop; there's his Consecration: and he is translated to heaven; there's his Canonization. We have sometimes mention in Moses his book of Exodus, according to the Roman Translation, Operis Plumarii, of a kind of subtle and various workmanship, employed upon the Tabernacle, for which it is hard to find a proper word now; we translate it sometimes Embroidery, sometimes Needle-work, sometimes otherwise. It is evident enough, that it was Opus variegatum, a work compact of divers pieces, curiously inlaid, and varied for the making up of some figure, some representation: and likelyest to be that which in sumptuous buildings, we use to call now Mosaic work: for that very word originally signifies, to vary, to mingle, to diversify. As the Tabernacle of God was, so the Scriptures of God are of this Mosaic work: The body of the Scriptures hath in it limbs taken from other bodies; and in the word of God, are the words of other men, other authors, inlaid & inserted. But, this work is only where the Holy Ghost is the Workman: It is not for man to insert, to inlay other words into the word of God. It is a gross piece of Mosaic work, to insert whole Apocryphal books into the Scriptures. It is a sacrilegious defacing of this Mosaic work, to take out of Moses Tables, such a stone as the second Commandment; and to take out of the Lords Prayer, such a stone as is the foundation-stone, the reason of the prayer, Quia Tuum, For thine is the kingdom, &c. It is a counterfeit piece of Mosaic work, when having made up a body of their Canon-Law, of the rags and fragments torn from the body of the Fathers, they attribute to every particular sentence in that book, not that authority which that sentence had in that Father from whom it is taken, but that authority which the Canonization (as they call it) of that sentence gives it; by which Canonization, and placing it in that book, it is made equal to the word of God. It is a strange piece of Mosaic work, when one of their greatest authors pretending to present a body of proofs, for all controverted points, from the Scriptures, and Councils, and Fathers (for, he makes no mention in his promise of the Mothers of the Church) doth yet fill up that body with sentences from women, and obtrude to us the Revelations of Brigid, and of Katherine, and such She-fathers as those. But when the Holy Ghost is the workman, in the true Scriptures, we have a glorious sight of this Mosaic, this various, this mingled work; where the words of the Serpent in seducing our first parents, The words of Balaams Ass in instructing the rider himself, The words of profane Poets, in the writings and use of the Apostle, The words of Caiaphas prophesying that it was expedient that one should dye for all, The words of the Divel himself (Jesus I know, and Paul I know) And here in this text, the words of a Thief executed for the breach of the Law; do all concur to the making up of the Scriptures, of the word of God.

Now, though these words were not spoken at this time, when we do but begin to celebrate by a poor and weak imitation, the fasting of our Savior Jesus Christ, but were spoken at the day of the crucifying of the Lord of life and glory; yet as I would be loath to think, that you never fast but in Lent, so I would be loath to think that you never fulfill the sufferings of Christ Jesus in your flesh, but upon Goodfriday, never meditate upon the passion, but upon that day. As the Church celebrates an Advent, a preparation to the Incarnation of Christ, to his coming in the flesh, in humiliation: so may this humiliation of ours in the text, be an Advent, a preparation to his Resurrection, and coming in glory: And, as the whole life of Christ was a passion, so should the whole life (especially the humiliation) of a Christian, be a continual meditation upon that. Christ began with some drops of blood in his infancy, in his Circumcision; though he drowned the sins of all mankind, in those several channels of Blood, which the whips, and nails, and spear, cut out of his body in the day of his passion. So though the effects of his passion be to be presented more fully to you, at the day of his passion, yet it is not unseasonable now, to contemplate thus far the working of it upon this condemned wretch, whose words this text is, as to consider in them, First, the infallibility, and the dispatch of the grace of God upon them, whom his gracious purpose hath ordained to salvation: how powerfully he works; how instantly they obey. This condemned person who had been a thief, execrable amongst men, and a blasphemer, execrating God, was suddenly a Convertite, suddenly a Confessor, suddenly a Martyr, suddenly a Doctor to preach to others. In a second consideration, we shall see what doctrine he preaches; not curiosities, not unrevealed Mysteries, not Matter of State, nor of wit, nor of carnal delight, but only the fear of God: Nonne times Deum? And for a third part, we shall see his Auditory, the Church that he preached to: he contented himself with a small Parish; he had most care of their souls, that needed him most: he applies himself to the conversion of his fellow-Thief. He works upon those sins which he knew to have been in himself. And he works upon him by all these steps: First, Nonne Tu? howsoever the rest do revile Christ, because they stay behind, and look for a temporal Messiah, to make this life sweet, and glorious unto them; yet what's that to thee? thou art to have no part in it; howsoever they be, art not thou affected? Nonne Tu times? If the bitterness of thy torment cannot let thee love, though thy stomach will not come down to kiss the rod and embrace correction, yet Nonne Tu times? Doth it not imprint a fear in thee? Nonne times Deum? Though the Law have done the worst upon thee, Witnesses, Advocates, Judges, Executioners can put thee in no more fear; yet, Nonne times Deum? Fearest not thou God? who hath another Tribunal, another execution for thee; especially when thou knowest thy condemnation, and such a condemnation; Eandem, the same condemnation; And that this condemnation is not imminent, but now upon thee: when thou art now under the same condemnation, fearest thou not God?

The first thing then is, the powerfulness and the dispatch of the grace of God in the conversion of them, who are ordained unto it. In Judas, the Devil entered into him when Christ gave him the Sop; but the Devil had put the treason in his heart before. The temptation had an Inchoation, and it had a Meditation, and it had a Consummation. In Saint Paul, in his conversion, God wrought upon him all at once, without any discontinuance; He took him at as much disadvantage for grace to work, upon as could be; breathing threatnings and slaughters against the disciples, and provided with Commissions for that persecution. But suddenly there came a light, and suddenly a stroke that humbled him, and suddenly a voice, and suddenly a hand that led him to Damascus. After God had laid hold upon him, he never gave him over, till he had accomplished his purpose in him.

Whether this grace, which God presents so, be resistible or no, whether man be not perverse enough to resist this grace, why should any perverse or ungracious man dispute? Hath any man felt a temptation so strong upon himself, but that he could have given another man reason enough to have kept him from yeilding to that temptation? Hath any man felt the grace of God work so upon him at any time, as that he hath concurred fully, entirely with that grace, without any resistance, any slackness? Now fashions in men, make us doubt new manners; and new terms in Divinity were ever suspicious in the Church of God, that new Doctrines were hid under them. Resistibility, and Irresistibility of grace, which is every Artificers wearing now, was a stuff that our Fathers wore not, a language that pure antiquity spake not. They knew Gods ordinary proceeding. They knew his Common Law, and they knew his Chancery. They knew his chief Justice Moses, that denounced his Judgements upon transgressors of the Law; and they knew his Chancellor Christ Jesus, into whose hands he had put all Judgements, to mitigate the rigor and condemnation of the Law. They knew Gods law, and his Chancery: But for Gods prerogative, what he could do of his absolute power, they knew Gods pleasure, Nolumus disputari: It should scarce be disputed of in Schools, much less served in every popular pulpit to curious and itching ears; least of all made table-talk, and household-discourse. Christ promises to come to the door, and to knock at the door, and to stand at the door, and to enter if any man open; but he does not say, he will break open the door: it was not his pleasure to express such an earnestness, such an Irresistibility in his grace, so. Let us cheerfully rely upon that; His purpose shall not be frustrated; his ends shall not be prevented; his ways shall not be precluded: But the depth of the goodness of God, how much good God can do for man; yea the depth of the illness of man, how much ill man can do against God, are such seas, as, if it be not impossible, at least it is impertinent, to go about to sound them.

Now, what God hath done, and will do for the most haynous offenders, we consider in this man: First, as he was execrable to men, a Thief; and then, as he execrated God, a Blasphemer. Now this Thief is ordinarily taken, and so, in all probability, likely to have been a bloody thief, a Murderer: for, for theft only, their laws did not provide so severe an execution as hanging upon the Cross. We find that Judas, who was a thief, made it a law upon himself, by executing himself, to hang a thief; but it was not the ordinary justice of that country. First, then, he had been an enemy to the well-being of mankind, by injuring the possession, and the propriety, which men have justly in their goods, as he was a thief; and he had been an enemy to the very being of mankind, if he were a Murderer.

And certainly, the sin of theft alone would be an execrable, a detestable sin to us all, but that it is true of us all, Si videbas furem, currebas cum eo: we see that all men are thieves in their kinds, in their courses; but yet we know, that we our selves are so too. We may have heard of Princes that have put down Stews, and executed severe Laws against Licentiousness; but that may have been to bring all the Licentiousness of the City into the Court. We may have heard Sermons against Usury; and this may have been, that they themselves might put out their money the better. We may cry out against Theft, that we may steal the safelier. For we steal our preferment, if we bring no labor, nor learning to the Service; and we steal our Learning, if we forsake the Fountains, and the Fathers, and the Schools, and deal upon Rhapsoders, and Common placers, and Method-mongers. Let him that is without sin, cast the first stone; let him that hath stolen nothing, apprehend the thief: rather, let him that hath done nothing but steal, apprehend the thief, and present himself there, where this thief found mercy, at the Cross of Christ. Every man hath a sop in his mouth; his own robberies will not let him complain of the theft of excessive Fees in all professions; of the theft of preventing other mens merit with their money; (which is a robbing of others, and themselves too;) of the theft of stealing Affections, by unchaste sollicitations; or of the great theft of stealing of Hearts from Princes, and Souls from God, by insinuations of Treason, and Superstition, in a corrupt Religion in every corner. No man dares complain of others thefts, because every man is felo de se; not only that himself hath stolen, but that he hath stolen away himself. Yea, he is Homicida sui, a Murderer of himself. Omnis peccator homicida, Every sinner is a Murderer. Quaeris quem Occiderit? doth he plead Not guilty, or doth he put me to prove whom he hath murdered? Si quid ad Elogii ambitionem faciat, non inimicum, non extraneum, sed seipsum. It he think it an honor to him, let him know, it is not an enemy, it is not a stranger, that he hath murdered, but himself, and his own soul. And such a Thief, such a Murderer was this; but not only such, but a public Malefactor too; and so execrable to men: which is his first Indisposition.

He had also execrated God; he had reviled Christ. This Evangelist Saint Luke does not say so, that both the Thieves reviled Christ: but that acquits not this thief, that Saint Luke does not say't, no more then it acquits them both, that S. John does not say, that either of them reviled Christ. And then both the other Evangelists, Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, charge them both with it. The same (that is, those reviling words which others had used) the thieves that were crucified cast in his teeth. And, they also that were crucified with him, reviled him. Athanasius in his Sermon Contra omnes haereses, makes no doubt of it: Duo Latrones; altero execrante, altero dicente, quid execramur? One Thief said to the other, Why do we revile Christ? so that de facto, he imputes it to them both; both did it. Origen says, Conveniens est, inprimis ambos blasphemasse; not only that that is the most convenient Exposition, but that it was the most convenient way to God, for expressing Mercy, and Justice too, that both should have reviled him. Origen admits a conveniency in it. Chrysostom implies a necessity, Ne quis composito rem factam putaret: lest the world should think it a plot, and that this Thief had been well disposed and affected towards Christ before, therefore, says he, first he declares himself to be his enemy, in reviling him, and then was suddenly reconciled unto him. Hilary raises and builds a great point of Divinity upon it; that since both the Thieves, of which one was elect to salvation, did upbraid Christ with the ignominy of the Cross, Universis etiam fidelibus scandalum Crucis futurum ostendit: This shews, says he, that even the faithful and elect servants of God, may be shook, and scandalized, and fall away for a time, in the time of persecution. He raises positive and literal Doctrine. And Theophylact raises mystical and figurative Doctrine out of it; Duo latrones figura Gentilium & Judaeorum: both Jews and Gentiles did reproach Christ, Sicut & primo ambo latrones improperabant, as at first both the Thieves that were crucified did. S. Jerome inclines to admit a figure in S. Matthews words: and he saith, that S. Matthew imputes that to both, which was spoken by one: But S. Jerome had no use of a figure here; for himself says, that Matthew, which imputes this to both; and Luke, which imputes it to one, differ not: for, saith he, both reviled Christ at first; and then, one, Visis miraculis credidit, upon the evidence of Christs Miracles, changed his mind, and believed in him. Only S. Augustine is confident in it, that this Thief never reviled Christ; but thinks, that that phrase of Matthew, and of Mark, who impute it to both, is no more, but as if one should say, Rusticani insultant; mean men, base men, do triumph over me: which, says he, might be said, if any one such person did so. Now, this might be true, if it had been said, Thieves and Malefactors reviled Christ: But, when it is expressly said, The Thieves that were crucified, I take it to be a way of deriving the greater comfort upon us, and the greater glory upon Christ, and the greater assurance upon the Prisoner, to leave him to the mercy of God, rather then to the wit of Man; and rather to suffer Christ Jesus to pardon him, being guilty, then to dispute for his innocence. For, perchance, we shall lack an example of a notorious Blasphemer, and reviler of Christ, to be effectually converted to salvation (of which example, considering how our times abound and overflow with this sin, we stand much in need) except this thief be our example; that though he were execrable to men, and execrated God, yet Christ Jesus took him into those bowels which he had ripped up, and into those wounds which he had opened wider by his execrations, and had mercy upon him, and buried him in them. And this was his second Indisposition.

Now, for the speed and powerful working of this Grace, to his Conversion; we must not insist long upon it, lest we be longer in expressing it, then it was in doing. We have no impression, no direction of the time, when his conversion was wrought. None of the Evangelists mention when nor how it was done: None, but this Evangelist, that it was done at all. But he mentions it in the clearest and safest demonstration of all; that is, in the effects of his conversion, his desire to convert others. And therefore we may discern, Impetum Gratiae, in impetu poenitentis: the force, the vehemence of Gods grace, in the vehemence of his zeal. Christ himself was silent, when this thief reviled him: and yet this thief comes presently to a zealous impatience, he cannot hear his companion revile. Christ had estated his Apostles in heaven; he had given them Reversions of Judiciary places in heaven, twelve Seats, to judge the twelve Tribes: and yet Facit fides innocentes Latrones, facit perfidia Apostolos criminosos: he infuses so much faith into this thief, as justifies him; and leaves his Apostles so far to their infirmity, as endangers them. To the chief of these Apostles (in some services) to Peter himself, he says, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; and to this thief he says, Hody mecum eris, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. So soon did he bring this thief, Cui damnari ad tempus expedivit, that had a good bargain of death, that scaped by being condemned, and was the better, and longer lived for being hanged; (for he was thereby, Collega Martyrii, and particeps Regni, partaker of Christs Martyrdom, and partner of his Kingdom; he brought him so soon to that height of faith, that even in that low state upon the Cross, he prayed for a spiritual Kingdom: whereas the Apostles themselves, in that exaltation, when Christ was ascending, talked to him of a temporal Kingdom. He came to know those Wounds which were in Christs Body, Non esse Christi, sed Latronis, & amare caepit; then he began to love him perfectly, when he found his own wounds in the body of his Savior. So he came to declare perfect faith, in professing Christs innocence, This man hath done nothing; and perfect Hope, in the Momento Mei, Remember me in thy Kingdom; and perfect Charity, in this increpation and rebuking of his companion. He was, as S. Augustine says, Latro Laudabilis & miraculis; such a thief as deserved praise, and afforded wonder: but the best is the last, that he was imitabilis; that he hath done nothing, but that we may do so too, if we will apprehend that grace that he did. Assumamus vocem Latronis, si non volumus esse Latrones: If we will not steal our selves out of the number, to whom God offers his saving grace. Ut sedeamus a dextris, pendeamus a dextris; let us be content to suffer, but to suffer in the right. Suffering as Malefactors, is somewhat too much on the left hand; though even that suffering do bring many to the right hand too. But suffering for Schism in pretence of Zeal, suffering for Treason in pretence of Religion; this is both to turn out of this world on the left hand, and to remain on that hand for ever after in the world to come. This thief hung on the right hand, and was suddenly made a Confessor for himself, a Martyr to witness for Christ, a Doctor to preach to his fellow. If the favor of a Prince can make a man a Doctor, per saltum, much more the mercy of Christ Jesus, which gives the Sufficiency as well as the Title: as he did in this Thief, this new Doctor, whose Doctrine it self is our next consideration.

This doctrine was the fear of God, which was a pregnant and a plentiful common place for him to preach upon. And upon such an occasion, and such abundance of matter, we have here one example of an extemporal Sermon; This Thief had premeditated nothing. But he is no more a precedent for extemporal preaching, then he is for stealing. He was a Thief before, and he was an extemporal preacher at last: But he teaches no body else to be either. It is true, that if we consider the Sermons of the Ancient Fathers, we shall find some impressions, some examples of sudden and unpremeditated Sermons. Saint Augustine some times eases himself upon so long Texts, as needed no great preparation, no great study; for a meer paraphrase upon this Text, was enough for all his hour, when he took both Epistle and Gospel, and Psalm of the day for his Text. We may see often in S. Bern. (Heri diximus, and Hesterno die fecimus mentionem) that he preached divers days together. In the second of those Sermons of Saint Basil, which were upon the beginning of Genesis, it seems that Basil preached twice in a day; and in his Sermon de Baptismo, it seems that he trusted upon the Holy Ghost, and his present inspiration: Loquemar prout Sermo nobis dabitur in apertione oris: I intend to speak so, as the Holy Ghost shall give me utterance for the present. But as S. Augustine says in another case, Da mihi Paulum; so Da mihi Basilios, and Augustinos; bring such preachers as Basil and Augustine were, and let them preach as often as they will; and let every man whose calling it is, preach as often as he can; but let him not think that he can preach as often as he can speak. An inordinate opinion of purity, brought some men to keep two Sabbaths a week, and others two Lents every year; and an opinion of a necessity of two Sermons every Sabbath, and two hours every Sermon, may bring them to an opinion, that the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in the patience of hearing.

Here was an extemporal Sermon, but a short one: he preaches nothing but the fear of God. It is not De arcanis Imperii, matter of State: nor De arcanis Dei, of the unrevealed decrees of God. The Thief does not say to Christ, Perage quod decreveris; Thou hast decreed my conversion, and therefore that decree must be executed, that must necessarily be performed, which thou hadst determined in thy Kingdom before thou camest from thence; but he says, Memento mei, cum veneris; Take such a care of me, for my salvation, and preservation, and perseverance, as that I may follow thee into that Kingdom, into which thou art now going; for our salvation is opened to us in that way, which Christ hath opened by his death: and without him, we understand no assurance of election; without his second going into his Kingdom, we know nothing of that which he did, before he came from thence. This is then the fear of God, which those royal Doctors of the old Testament, David and Solomon, both preached, and which this Primitive Doctor of the Primitive Church, this new Convertite preached too, That no man may be so secure in his election, as to forbear to work out his salvation with fear and trembling: for God saves no man against his will, nor any man that thinks himself beholding for nothing, after the first decree. There is a name of force, of violence, of necessity attributed to a God, which is Mauzzim: but it is the name of an Idol, not of a true God. The name of the true God is Dominus tzebaoth, the Lord of Hosts; a name of power, but not of force. There is a fear belongs to him; his purposes shall certainly be executed, but regularly and orderly; he will be feared, not because he forces us, imprints a necessity, a coaction upon us; but because, if we be not led by his orderly proceeding, there he hath power to cast body and soul into hell fire; therefore he will be feared, not as a wilful Tyrant, but as a just Judge; not as Mauzzim, the god of Violence, but as Dominus tzebaoth, the Lord of Hosts.

This then is his Doctrine; and what's his Auditory? He is not reserved for Courts, nor for populous Cities; it is but a poor Parish that he hath; and yet he thinks of no change, but means to dye there: and there he visits the poorest, the sickest, the wretchedest person, the Thief. He had seen divers other of divers sorts, revile Christ as deeply as this Thief: They that passed by reviled him: Praetereuntes, they that did not so much as consider him, reviled him. They that know not Christ, yet will blaspheme him: if we ask them when, and where, and how, and why Christ Jesus was born, and lived, and died, they cannot tell it in their Creed; and yet they can tell it in their Oaths: they know nothing of his Miraculous Life, of his Humble Death, of his Bitter Passion, of the Ransom of his Blood, of the Sanctuary of his Wounds; and yet his Life, and Death, and Passion, and Blood, and Wounds, is oftener in their mouths in execrations, then in the mouth of the most religious man in his prayers. They revile Christ Praetereuntes, as they pass along: not only as Origen says here, Non incedentes recte, blasphemant, they did not go perversly, crookedly, wilfully, and so blaspheme: nor as Jerome, Non ambulantes in vero itinere Scripturarum, blasphemant; they did not misinterpret places of Scripture, to maintain their errors, and so blaspheme; but they blasphemed Praetereuntes, out of negligent custom and habit; they blaspheme Christ, and never think of it; that they may be damned obiter, by the way, collaterally, occasionately damned.

But it was not only they, Praetereuntes, but the people that stood, and beheld, reviled Christ too: men that do understand Christ, even then when they dishonor him, do dishonor him to accompany some greater persons upon whom they depend, in their errors. The Priests, who should have called the Passengers, with that, Have ye no regard, all ye that pass by the way? the Scribes, who should have applied the ancient Prophesies to the present accomplishment of them in the death of Christ: the Pharisees, who should have supplied their imperfect fulfilling of the Law, in that full satisfaction, the death of Christ: the Elders, the Rulers, the Souldiers, are all noted to have reviled Christ: they all concur to the performance of that Prophesy in the person of Christ; and yet they will not see that the Prophesy is performed in him: All they that see me have me in derision: they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they add unto the sorrows of him whom thou hast wounded: Our Fathers trusted in thee, they trusted in thee, and were delivered; but I am a worm and no man, a shame to men, and the contempt of the people. Pilate had lost his plot upon the people, to mollify them towards Christ; he brought him out to them, Flagellatum & illusum, scourged and scorned, thinking that that would have reduced them. But this Preacher leaves all the rest, either to their farther obduration, or their fitter time of repentance, if God had ordained any such time for them: & he turns to this one, whose disposition he knew to have been like his own, and therefore hoped his conversion would be so too; for nothing gives the faithful servants of God a greater encouragement that their labors shall prosper upon others, then a consideration of their own case, & an acknowledgement what God hath done for their souls. When the fear of God had wrought upon himself, then he comes to his fellow, Nonne tu times? fearest not thou? First, Nonne tu? We have not that advantage over our auditory, which he had over his, to know that in every particular man, there is some reason why he should be more afraid of Gods judgements then another man. But every particular man, who is acquainted with his own history, may be such a Preacher to himself, and ask himself Nonne tu, hast not thou more reason to stand in fear of God then any other man, for any thing that thou knowest? Knowest thou any man so deeply indebted to God, so far behind-hand with God, so much in danger of his executions as thou art? Thou knowest not his colluctations before he fell, nor his Repentances since: when thou hearest S. Paul say, Quorum maximus, hadst not thou need say, Nonne tu? Dost not thou fear, who knowest more by thy self, then S. Pauls History hath told thee of S. Paul? for in all his History thou never seest any thing done by him against his conscience: and is thy case as good as that? But to this thief, this thief presses this no farther, but this, what hope soever of future happiness in this life, by the coming of a Messiah, those that stay in the world can expect, what's all that to thee, who art going out of the world? Quid mihi, says that man, who looked upon the Rainbow when he was ready to drown; though God have promised not to drown the world, what's that to me, if I must drown? I must be bold to say to thee, Quid tibi? if God by his omnipotent power will uphold his Gospel in the world, he owes thee no thanks, if thou do nothing in thy calling towards the upholding of it. Nonne tu? Dost not thou fear, that though that stand, Gods judgement will fall upon thee for having put no hand to the staying of it?

Nonne tu times? It had been unreasonable to have spoken to him of the love of God first now, when those heavy judgements were upon him. The Fear of God is always the beginning of Wisdom; most of all in calamity, which is properly Vehiculum timoris, the Chariot to convey, and the Seal to imprint this fear in us. Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; therefore I said Sarah was my sister. Where there is not the fear of God in great persons, other men dare not proceed clearly with them, but with disguises and Modifications: they dare not attribute their prosperity, and good success to the goodness of God, but must attribute it to their wisdom: they dare not attribute their crosses and ill success to the justice of God, but must attribute it to the weakness or falsehood of servants and ministers: where there is not this fear of God, there is no directness. Beloved, there is love enough at all hands; it is a loving age every where, love enough in every corner, such as it is; but scarce any fear amongst us. Great men are above fear, no envy can reach them: Miserable men are below fear, no change can make them worse: and for persons of middle rank, and more public fears, of plagues, of famines, or such, the abundant and over-flowing goodness of God hath so long accustomed us to miraculous deliverances, that we fear nothing, but think to have miracles in ordinary, and neglect ordinary remedies.

But what should this man fear now? his Glass was run out, his Bell was rung out, he was a dead man, condemned, and judged, and executed; what should he fear? In Rome, as the Vestal Virgins which died, were buried within the city, because they died innocent: so persons which were executed by Justice, were buried there too, because they had satisfied the Law, and thereby seemed to be restored to their innocence. So that condemned persons might seem least of all to fear. But yet, Nonne times Deum? fearest not thou God, for all that? Have not the laws of Men, Witnesses, Judges, and Executioners, all men, brought fearful things upon thee already? and is it not a fearful thing, if all those real torments, be but Types and Figures of those greater, which God will inflict upon thee after death? How easily hath a cunning malefactor sometimes deluded and circumvented a mild Justice at home, that lives neighbourly by him, and is almost glad to be deceived in favor of life! but how would this man be confounded, if he came to be examined at the Council-table, or by the King? Omni severius quaestione a te interrogari, was said by one of the Panegyricks to one of the Roman Emperors, That it was worse then the rack, to be examined by him. When we come to stand naked before God, without that apparel which he made for us, without all righteousness, and without that apparel which we made for our selves; not a fig-leaf, not an excuse to cover us; if we think to deal upon his affections, he hath none; if we think to hide our sins, he was with us when we did them, and saw them: we shall see then by his examination, that he knows them better then we our selves.

And to this purpose, to show Gods particular judgement upon all men, and all actions then, it is, that S. Augustine (if that Sermon which is the 130. de Tempore, be his, for it is in the copies of Chrysostom too) reads those words thus: Nonne times Deum tuum? fearest not thou thy God? that if a man would go about to wrap up all in Gods general providence (all must be as God hath appointed it) he might be brought to this particular consideration, that he is Deus tuus; not only God of the world, and God of mankind, but thy God: so far thine, as he shall be thy Judge: In all senses, and to all intendments, that may make him the heavier to thee, he is thy God: he shall be thy God in his severe examinations, as he is Scrutator Renum, as he searches thy reins: thy God, in putting off all respect of persons, in renouncing kindred, Mater & frater; they are of kin to him, that do his will: and in renouncing acquaintance at the last day, Nescio vos, I know not whence you are: and thy God in pronouncing judgement then, It maledicti, go ye accursed. He shall be still Deus tuus, thy God, till it come to Jesus tuus, till it come to the point of redemption and salvation; he shall be thy God, but not thy Redeemer, thy Savior. And therefore it is well urged in this place by Saint Augustine, Nonne times Deum tuum? Fearest not thou thy God?

Especially this great calamity being actually upon thee now. Saint Peter when he would have converted Agrippa and all the company, he wishes they were all like him, in all things, Exceptis vinculis, excepting his bands. This new convert deals upon his fellow with that argument, Quia in iisdem vinculis; since thou art under the same condemnation, thou shouldest have the same affections. Now the general condemnation, which is upon all mankind, that they must dye, this alone scarce frights any man, scarce averts any man from his purposes. He that should first put to Sea in a tempest, he might easily think, it were in the nature of the Sea to be rough always. He that sees every Church-yard swell with the waves and billows of graves, can think it no extraordinary thing to dye, when he knows he set out in a storm, and he was born into the world upon that condition, to go out of it again. But when Nathan would work upon David, he puts him a particular case, applicable to himself; and when he had drawn from him an implicite condemnation of himself, then he applies it. When David had said, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this shall surely dye; and Nathan upon that had said, Thou art the man: Then David came to his Peccavi coram Domino, I have sinned against the Lord; and Nathan to his Transtulit Dominus, The Lord hath taken away thy sin. And so this preacher, Qui clavis confixus non habuit sensum confixum, who though he were crucified in body, had his spirit and his charity at liberty, he presses his fellow to this fear, therefore, because he is under a particular condemnation; not because he must dye, but because he must dye thus: and every man may find some such particular condemnation in himself, and in his own crosses, if he will but read his own history in a true copy.

It is sub eadem, the same condemnation. If this identity be intended, in comparison with Christs condemnation, the comparison holds only in this: judgment is given upon you both, execution begun upon you both, both equally ignominious, equally miserable in the eye of the world: why doest thou insult upon him, revile him, who art in as ill state as he? thou seest him, who (though thou knowest it not, hath other manner of assurances, then thou canst have) in Agonies, in Fears, in Complaints, in Lamentations: Why fearest not thou, being under the same condemnation? If this eadem condemnatio be intended in comparison of himself that speaks, then the comparison holds only thus, Thou hast no better a life then I, thou art no farther from thy death then I; and the consideration of my condemnation, hath brought me to fear God: why shouldst not thou fear, being under the same condemnation? especially there being no adjourning of the Court, no putting off the Sizes, no Reprieve for Execution: Thou art now under the same condemnation, the same Execution: why shouldst thou not fear now? why shouldst thou not go so far towards thy conversion this minute? To end all, it is all our cases; we are all under the same condemnation: what condemnation? under the same as Adam, the same as Cain, the same as Sodom, the same as Judas. Quod cuiquam accidit, omnis potest; what sin soever God hath found in any, he may find in us; either that we have fallen into it, by our misuse of his grace, or should fall into it, if he should withdraw his grace. In those that are damned before, we are damned in Effigy; such as we are, are damned; and we might be, but that he which was Medius inter personas divinas, in his glory, in heaven; and Medius inter prophetas, in his Transfiguration in Mount Thabor; and Medius inter Latrones, in his Humiliation in this text, is Medius inter nos, in the midst of the Christian Church, in the midst of us, in this Congregation, & takes into his own mouth now, the words which he put into the thiefs mouth then, and more: Since I have been made a man, and no man; been born, and died; since I have descended, and descended to the earth, and below the earth; since I have done and suffered so much to rescue you from this condemnation, Nonne timetis? will ye not fear the Lord, but choose still to be under the same condemnation?

A Lent-Sermon Preached at White-Hall, February 12. 1618. Sermon II. Serm. 2.

Ezek. 33.32.

And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely Song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an Instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

AS there lies always upon Gods Minister, a vae si non, Wo be unto me, if I preach not the Gospel, if I apply not the comfortable promises of the Gospel, to all that groan under the burden of their sins; so there is Onus visionis, (which we find mentioned in the Prophets) it was a pain, a burden to them, to be put to the denunciation of Gods heavy judgements upon the people: but yet those judgements, they must denounce, as well as propose those mercies: wo be unto us, if we bind not up the broken hearted; but wo be unto us too, if we break not that heart that is stubborn: wo be unto us, if we settle not, establish not the timorous and trembling, the scattered, and fluid, and distracted soul, that cannot yet attain, entirely and intensely, and confidently and constantly, to fix it self upon the Merits and Mercies of Christ Jesus; but wo be unto us much more, if we do not shake, and shiver, and throw down the refractory and rebellious soul, whose incredulity will not admit the History, and whose security in presumptuous sins will not admit the working and application of those Merits and Mercies which are proposed to him. To this purpose, therefore, God makes his Ministers speculatores; I have set thee for their watchman, says God to this Prophet; that so they might see and discern the highest sins of the highest persons, in the highest places: they are not only to look down towards the streets, & lanes, and alleys, and cellears, and reprehend the abuses and excesses of persons of lower quality there; all their service lies not below stairs, nor only to look into the chamber, and reprehend the wantonnesses and licentiousness of both sexes there; nor only unto the house top and tarras, and reprehend the ambitious machinations and practises to get thither; but still they are speculatores, men placed upon a watch-tower, to look higher then all this, to look upon sins of a higher nature then these, to note and reprehend those sins, which are done so much more immediately towards God, as they are done upon color and pretence of Religion: and upon that station, upon the Execution of that Commission, is our Prophet in this Text, Thou art unto them a very lovely song, &c. for they shall hear thy words, but they do them not. Through this whole chapter, he presents matter of that nature, either of too confident, or too diffident a behavior towards God. In the tenth verse, he reprehends their diffidence and distrust in God: This they say (says the Prophet) If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we live? How should you live? says the Prophet: thus you should live, by hearing what the Lord of Life hath said, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. In the 25 verse he reprehends their confidence; they say, Abraham was one, and he inherited this land; we are many, this land is given us for our inheritance: but say unto them, says God to the Prophet there, You lift up your eyes to Idols, and you shed blood, and shall you possess the land? Ye defile one another's wife, and ye stand upon the sword, and shall ye possess the land? We were but one, and are many; 'tis true: God hath testified his love, in multiplying Inhabitants, and in uniting Kingdoms; but if there be a lifting up of eyes towards Idols, a declination towards an Idolatrous Religion; if there be a defiling of one another's wife, and then standing upon the sword, that it must be matter of displeasure, or of quarrel, if one will not betray his wife, or sister, to the lust of the greatest person; shall we possess the land? shall we have a continuance of Gods blessing upon us? we shall not. And as he thus represents their over-confident behavior towards God; God is bound by his promise, and therefore we may be secure: And their over-diffident behavior; God hath begun to show his anger upon us, & therefore there is no recovery: he reprehends also that distemper, which ordinarily accompanies this behavior towards God, that is, an Expostulation, and a Disputing with God, and a censuring of his actions: in the 20 ver. they come to say, The way of the Lord is not equal; that is, we know not how to deal with him, we know not where to find him; he promises Mercies, and lays Afflictions upon us; he threatens judgements upon the wicked, and yet the wicked prosper most of all; The ways of the Lord are equal. But, to this also God says by the Prophet, I will judge every one of you after his own ways. The ways of the Lord are unsearchable; look ye to your own ways, for according to them, shall God judge you. And then after these several reprehensions, this watchman raises himself to the highest pinacle of all, to discover the greatest sin of all, treason within doors, contemning of God in his own house, and in his presence; that is, a coming to Church to hear the word of God preached, a pretence of cheerfulness and alacrity, in the outward service of God, yea a true sense and feeling of a delight in hearing of the word; and yet for all this, an unprofitable barrenness, and (upon the whole matter) a despiteful and a contumelious neglecting of Gods purpose and intention, in his Ordinance: for, Our voice is unto them but as a song to an instrument; they hear our words, but they do them not.

Though then some Expositors take these words to be an increpation upon the people, that they esteemed Gods ablest Ministers, indued with the best parts, to be but as music, as a jest, as a song, as an entertainment; that they under-valued and disesteemed the whole service of God in the function of the Ministry, and thought it either nothing, or but matter of State and Government, as a civil ordinance for civil order, and no more: yet I take this increpation to reach to a sin of another nature; that the people should attribute reverence enough, attention enough, credit enough to the preacher, and to his preachings, but yet when all that is done, nothing is done: they should hear willingly, but they do nothing of that which they had heard.

First then, God for his own glory promises here, that his Prophet, his Minister shall be Tuba, as is said in the beginning of this Chapter, a Trumpet, to awaken with terror. But then, he shall become Carmen musicum, a musical and harmonious charmer, to settle and compose the soul again in a reposed confidence, and in a delight in God: he shall be musicum carmen, music, harmony to the soul in his matter; he shall preach harmonious peace to the conscience: and he shall be musicum carmen, music and harmony in his manner; he shall not present the messages of God rudely, barbarously, extemporally; but with such meditation and preparation as appertains to so great an employment, from such a King as God, to such a State as his Church: so he shall be musicum carmen, music, harmony, in re & modo, in matter and in manner: And then musicum so much farther (as the text adds) as that he shall have a pleasant voice, that is, to preach first sincerely (for a preaching to serve turns and humors, cannot, at least should not please any) but then it is to preach acceptably, seasonably, with a spiritual delight, to a discreet and rectified congregation, that by the way of such a holy delight, they may receive the more profit. And then he shall play well on an instrument; which we do not take here to be the working upon the understanding and affections of the Auditory, that the congregation shall be his instrument; but as S. Basil says, Corpus hominis, Organum Dei, when the person acts that which the song says; when the words become works, this is a song to an instrument: for, as S. August. pursues the same purpose, Psallere est ex preceptis Dei agere; to sing, and to sing to an instrument, is to perform that holy duty in action, which we speak of in discourse: And God shall send his people preachers furnished with all these abilities, to be Tubae, Trumpets to awaken them; and then to be carmen musicum, to sing Gods mercies in their ears, in reverent, but yet in a diligent, and thereby a delightful manner; and so to be music in their preaching, and music in their example, in a holy conversation: Eris, says God to this prophet, such a one thou shalt be, thou shalt be such a one in thy self; and then eris illis, thou shalt be so to them, to the people: To them thou shalt be Tuba, a Trumpet, Thy preaching shall awaken them, and so bring them to some sence of their sins: To them thou shalt be carmen musicum, music and harmony; both in re, in thy matter, they shall conceive an apprehension or an offer of Gods mercy through thee; and in modo, in the manner; they shall confess, that thy labors work upon them, and move them, and affect them, and that that unpremeditated, and drowsy, and cold manner of preaching, agrees not with the dignity of Gods service: they shall acknowledge (says God to this Prophet) thy pleasant voice; confess thy doctrine to be good, and confess thy playing upon an Instrument, acknowledge thy life to be good too; for, in testimony of all this, Audient (says the text) They shall hear this. Now, every one that might come, does not so; businesses, nay less then businesses, vanities, keep many from hence; less then vanities, nothing; many, that have nothing to do, yet are not here: All are not come that might come; nor are all that are here, come hither; penalty of law, observation of absences, invitation of company, affection to a particular preacher, collateral respects, draw men; and they that are drawn so, do not come; neither do all that are come, hear; they sleep, or they talk: but Audient, says our text, They shall be here, they shall come, they shall hear; they shall press to hear: every one that would come, if he might sit at ease, will not be troubled for a Sermon: but our case is better, Audient, they shall rise earlier then their fellows, come hither sooner, indure more pains, hearken more diligently, and conceive more delight then their fellows: Audient, they will hear: but then, after all (which is the height of the malediction, or increpation, Non facient, they will not do it; Non facient quae dixeris, They will do nothing of that which thou hast said to them; nay, non facient quae dixerunt, they will do nothing of that, which during the time of the Sermons, they had said to their own souls, they would do; so little hold shall Gods best means, and by his best instruments, take of them; They shall hear thy words, and shall not do them.

These then are our parts that make up this increpation: First, the Prophet shall do his part fully: Secondly, the people shall do some of theirs: But then lastly, they shall fail in the principal, and so make all uneffectual. First, God will send them Prophets that shall be Tubae, Trumpets; and not only that, but speculatores; not only Trumpets which sound according to the measure of breath that is blown into them, but they themselves are the watchmen that are to sound them: not Trumpets to sound out what airs the occasion of the present time, or what airs the affections of great persons infuse into them; for so they are only Trumpets, and not Trumpetors; but God hath made them both: And, as in civil matters, Angusta innocentia est, ad legem bonum esse, That's but a narrow, but a faint honesty, to be no honester then a man must needs be, no honester then the law, or then his bodily sickness constrains him to be; so are these Trumpets short-winded Trumpets, if they sound no oftener then the Canons enjoyn them to sound; for, they must preach in season and out of season: If the Canonical season be but once a month, the preaching between, is not so unseasonable, but that it is within the Apostles precept too. If that be done, if the watchman sound the Trumpet, says the beginning of this Chapter (when you see it is the watchman himself that sounds, and not another to sound him; he is neither to be an instrument of others, nor is he to sound always by others, and spare his own breath) but if the watchman do duly sound, then there is an Euge bone serve, belongs to him; Well done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Masters joy: And if he be not heard, or be not followed, then there is a vae Betsaida, a wo belonging to that City, and to that house; for, if those works had been done in Sodom, if all this preaching had been at Rome, Rome would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. I set watchmen over you, says God in another Prophet, Et dixi, Audit, I said unto you, Hearken to them: so far God addresses himself to them, speaks personally to them, super vos, and Audit vos; I sent to you, and hear you: but when they would not hear, then he changes the person, Et dixerunt, says that text, And they said, We will not hear: after this stubbornness, God does not so much as speak to them: it is not Dixistis, you said it; God will have no more to do with them; but it is Dixerunt, they said it; God speaks of them as of strangers. But this is not altogether the case in our text: God shall send Prophets, Trumpets, and Trumpetors, that is, preachers of his word, and not the word of men; and they shall be heard willingly too; for as they are Tubae, Trumpets, so they shall be musicum carmen, acceptable music to them that hear them.

They shall be so, first In re, in their matter, in the doctrine which they preach. The same trumpets that sound the alarm (that is, that awakens us from our security) and that sounds the Battle (that is, that puts us into a colluctation with our selves, with this world, with powers and principalities, yea into a wrastling with God himself and his Justice) the same trumpet sounds the Parle too, calls us to hearken to God in his word, and to speak to God in our prayers, and so to come to treaties and capitulations for peace; and the same trumpet sounds a retreat too, that is, a safe reposing of our souls in the merit, and in the wounds of our Savior Christ Jesus. And in this voice they are musicum carmen, a love-song (as the text speaks) in proposing the love of God to man, wherein he loved him so, as that he gave his only begotten Son for him. God made this whole world in such an uniformity, such a correspondency, such a concinnity of parts, as that it was an Instrument, perfectly in tune: we may say, the trebles, the highest strings were disordered first; the best understandings, Angels and Men, put this instrument out of tune. God rectified all again, by putting in a new string, semen mulieris, the seed of the woman, the Messiah: And only by sounding that string in your ears, become we musicum carmen, true music, true harmony, true peace to you. If we shall say, that Gods first string in this instrument, was Reprobation, that Gods first intention, was, for his glory to damn man; and that then he put in another string, of creating Man, that so he might have some body to damn; and then another of enforcing him to sin, that so he might have a just cause to damn him; and then another, of disabling him to lay hold upon any means of recovery: there's no music in all this, no harmony, no peace in such preaching. But if we take this instrument, when Gods hand tuned it the second time, in the promise of a Messiah, and offer of the love & mercy of God to all that will receive it in him; then we are truly musicum carmen, as a love-song, when we present the love of God to you, and raise you to the love of God in Christ Jesus: for, for the music of the Sphears, whatsoever it be, we cannot hear it; for the decrees of God in heaven, we cannot say we have seen them; our music is only that salvation which is declared in the Gospel to all them, and to them only, who take God by the right hand, as he delivers himself in Christ.

So they shall be music in re, in their matter, in their doctrine; and they shall be also in modo, in their manner of presenting that doctrine. Religion is a serious thing, but not a sullen; Religious preaching is a grave exercise, but not a sordid, not a barbarous, not a negligent. There are not so eloquent books in the world, as the Scriptures: Accept those names of Tropes and Figures, which the Grammarians and Rhetoricians put upon us, and we may be bold to say, that in all their Authors, Greek and Latin, we cannot find so high, and so lively examples, of those Tropes, and those Figures, as we may in the Scriptures: whatsoever hath justly delighted any man in any mans writings, is exceeded in the Scriptures. The style of the Scriptures is a diligent, and an artificial style; and a great part thereof in a musical, in a metrical, in a measured composition, in verse. The greatest mystery of our Religion, indeed the whole body of our Religion, the coming, and the Kingdom of a Messiah, of a Savior, of Christ, is conveyed in a Song, in the third chapt. of Habakkuk: and therefore the Jews say, that that Song cannot yet be understood, because they say the Messiah is not yet come. His greatest work, when he was come, which was his union and marriage with the Church, and with our souls, he hath also delivered in a piece of a curious frame, Solomons Song of Songs. And so likewise, long before, when God had given all the Law, he provided, as himself says, a safer way, which was to give them a heavenly Song of his own making: for that Song, he says there, he was sure they would remember. So the Holy Ghost hath spoken in those Instruments, whom he chose for the penning of the Scriptures, and so he would in those whom he sends for the preaching thereof: he would put in them a care of delivering God messages, with consideration, with meditation, with preparation; and not barbarously, not suddenly, not occasionally, not extemporarily, which might derogate from the dignity of so great a service. That Ambassador should open himself to a shrewd danger and surprisal, that should defer the thinking upon his Oration, till the Prince, to whom he was sent, were reading his letters of Credit: And it is a late time of meditation for a Sermon, when the Psalm is singing. Loquere Domine, says the Prophet; speak, O Lord: But it was when he was able to say, Ecce paratus, Behold I am prepared for thee to speak in me: If God shall be believed, to speak in us, in our ordinary Ministry, it must be, when we have, so as we can, fitted our selves, for his presence. To end this, then are we Musicum carmen in modo, music to the soul, in the manner of our preaching, when in delivering points of Divinity, we content our selves with that language, and that phrase of speech, which the Holy Ghost hath expressed himself in, in the Scriptures: for to delight in the new and bold terms of Heretics, furthers the Doctrine of Heretics too. And then also, are we Musicum carmen, when, according to the example of men inspired by the Holy Ghost, in writing the Scriptures, we deliver the messages of God, with such diligence, and such preparation, as appertains to the dignity of that employment.

Now these two, to be Music both these ways, in matter and in manner, concur and meet in the next, which is, to have a pleasant voice: Thou art a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice. First, A Voice they must have, they must be heard: if they silence themselves, by their ignorance, or by their laziness; if they occasion themselves to be silenced, by their contempt and contumacy, both ways they are inexcusable; for a voice is essential to them, that denominates them: John Baptist hath other great names; even the name of Baptist, is a great name, when we consider whom he baptized; him, who baptized the Baptist himself, and all us, in his own blood. So is his name of Preacher, the fore-runner of Christ (for in that name he came before him, who was before the world;) so is his Propheta, that he was a Prophet, and then, more then a Prophet; and then, the greatest among the sons of women; these were great names, but yet the name that he chose, is Vox clamantis, The voice of him that cries in the wilderness. What names and titles soever we receive in the School, or in the Church, or in the State; if we lose our voice, we lose our proper name, our Christian name. But then, John Baptists name is not A voice, Any voice, but The voice: in the Prophesy of Isaiah, in all the four Evangelists, constantly, The voice. Christ is verbum, The word; not A word, but The word: the Minister is Vox, voice; not A voice, but The voice, the voice of that word, and no other; and so, he is a pleasing voice, because he pleases him that sent him, in a faithful executing of his Commission, and speaking according to his dictate; and pleasing to them to whom he is sent, by bringing the Gospel of Peace and Reparation to all wounded, and scattered, and contrite Spirits.

They shall be Music both ways, in matter, and in manner; and pleasing both ways, to God, and to men: but yet to none of these, except the Music be perfect, except it be to an Instrument, that is, as we said at first, out of S. Basil, and S. Augustine, except the Doctrine be expressed in the life too: Who will believe me when I speak, if by my life they see I do not believe my self? how shall I be believed to speak heartily against Ambition and Bribery in temporal and civil places, if one in the Congregation be able to jog him that sits next him, and tell him, That man offered me money for spiritual preferment? To what a dangerous scorn shall I open my self, and the service of God, if I shall declaime against Usury, and look him in the face that hath my money at use? One such witness in the Congregation, shall out-preach the Preacher: and God shall use his tongue (perchance his malice) to make the service of that Preacher uneffectual. Quam speciosi pedes Evangelicantium! says S. Paul, (and he says that out of Isaiah, and out of Nahum too, as though the Holy Ghost had delighted himself with that phrase in expressing it) How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel! Men look most to our feet, to our ways: the power that makes men admire, may lie in our tongues; but the beauty that makes men love, lies in our feet, in our actions. And so we have done with all the pieces that constitute our first part: God, in his promise to that Nation, prophesied upon us, that which he hath abundantly performed, a Ministry, that should first be Trumpets, and then Music: Music, in fitting a reverent manner, to religious matter; and Music, in fitting an instrument to the voice, that is, their Lives to their Doctrine. Eris, said God here, to this Prophet, All this thou shalt be: and that leads us into our second part.

Now, in this second part, there is more; for it is not only Eris, thou shalt be so in thy self, and as thou art employed by me; but Eris illis, thou shalt be so unto them, they shall receive thee for such, acknowledge thee to be such: God provides a great measure of ability in the Prophet, and some measure of good inclination in the people. Eris illis Tuba, thou shalt be to them, they shall feel thee to be a Trumpet: they shall not say in their hearts, There is no God; they shall not say, Tush, the Lord sees us not, or he is a blind, or an indifferent God, or, the Lord is like one of us, he loves peace, and will be at quiet; but they shall acknowledge, that he is Dominus Exercituum, the Lord of Hosts, and that the Prophet is his Trumpet, to raise them up to a spiritual battel. Eris illis Tuba, thou shalt be to them a Trumpet, they shall not be secure in their sins; and Eris illis carmen musicum, by thy preaching they shall come to confess, That God is a God of harmony, and not of discord; of order, and not of confusion; and that, as he made, so he governs all things, in weight, and number, and measure; that he hath a Succession, and a Hierarchy in his Church; that it is a household of the Faithful, and a Kingdom of Saints, and therefore regularly governed, and by order, and that in this government no man can give himself Orders, no man can baptize himself, nor give himself the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, nor preach to himself, nor absolve himself; and therefore they shall come to thee, whom they shall confess to be appointed by God, to convey these graces unto them: Eris illis carmen musicum: from thee they shall accept that music, the orderly application of Gods mercies, by visible and outward means in thy Ministry in the Church. Eris illis vox suavis, they shall confess thou preachest true Doctrine, and appliest it powerfully to their consciences; and Eris illis vox ad Citharam, thou shalt be a voice to an Instrument; they shall acknowledge thy life to be agreeable to thy Doctrine; they shall quarrel thee, challenge thee in neither, not in Doctrine, not in Manners.

Such as God appoints thee to be, Eris, thou shalt be; and Eris illis, they shall respect thee as such, and reward thee as such: and they shall express that, in that which follows, Audient, they shall hear thy word. The worldly man, though it trouble him to hear thee, though it put thorns and brambles into his conscience, yet though it be but to beget an opinion of holiness in others, Audiet, he will hear thee. The fashional man, that will do as he sees great men do, if their devotion, or their curiosity, or their service and attendance, draw him hither, Audiet, he will come with them, and he will hear. He that is disaffected in his heart, to the Doctrine of our Church, rather then incur penalties of Statutes and Canons, Audiet, he will come, and hear: yea, there is more then that, intended, Audient, they shall hear willingly; and more then that too, Audient, they shall hear cheerfully, desirously. Here is none of that action which was in S. Stephens persecutors, Continuerunt aures, they withheld their ears, they withdrew themselves from hearing, they kept themselves out of distance; here is no such Recusancy intended; neither is there any of their actions, Qui obturant aures, as the Psalmist says, the Serpent does, who (as the Fathers note often) stops one ear with laying it close to the ground, and the other with covering it with his tail: here is none of their action, Qui in durant, nor qui declinant; none that turneth away his ear (for even his prayer shall be an abomination, says Solomon; his very being here is a sin) here, in our case, in our Text, is none of these indispositions; but here is a ready, a willing, and (in appearance) a religious coming to hear: Expectation, Acceptation, Acclamation, Congratulation, Remuneration, in a fair proportion; we complain of no want in any of these now. Sumus, God hath authorized us, and God hath exalted us, in some measure, to deliver his messages; and Sumus vobis, you do not deny us to be such; you do not refuse, but you receive us, and his messages by us; you do hear our words. And that's all that belonged to our second part.

Now in both these former parts, who can discern, who would suspect any foundation to be laid for an Increpation, any preparation for a Malediction or Curse? God will send good Preachers to the people, and the people shall love their preaching; and yet, as he said to Samuel, he will do a thing, at which, both the ears of him that hears it shall tingle. Now, what is that in our case? This; he will aggravate their condemnation, therefore, because they have been so diligent herein, Et non fecerunt, they have done nothing of that which they have heard. As our very Repentance contracts the nature of sin, if we persevere not in that holy purpose; but, as though we had then made even with God, sin on again upon a new score: so this hearing it self is a sin, that is, such an aggravating circumstance, as changes the very nature of the sin, to them that hear so much, and do nothing. This is not a preparation of that curse in Ezekiel; whether they will hear or forbear, yet they shall know, that a Prophet hath been among them; that is, hear, or hear not, subsequent judgements shall bring them to see, that they might have heard: but here God accompanies them with a stronger grace, then so; Audient, they will hear. There are Vipers in the Psalm that will not hear, how wisely soever the charmers charm; But there is a Generation of Vipers which do hear, and yet depart with none of their viperous nature: O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come! says John Baptist, there to the Pharisees and Sadducees, that came to his baptism. They had apprehended Tubam, a warning, and they did come; but when they were come, he found them in their Non faciunt, without any purpose of bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance.

Here then is S. Paul's Judaeus in abscondito, a Jew inwardly. Here is the true Recusant, and the true Non-conformitan; Audiunt, sed non faciunt: he comes to hear, but never comes to do; there's Recusancy: he confesses that he hath received good instruction, but he refufes to conform himself unto it; there's Non-conformity. First, Non facient quae dixeris, they will not do those things which thou hast said; and yet, that's strange, since they confess thou saist true: but yet that's not so strange; for they may be Duri sermones; though it be true that we say, it may be hard, and it may trouble them, and perchance damnify them in their Profit, or mortify them in their Pleasures. It may be we may say, that thy relapsing into a sin formerly repented, submits thee again to all the punishment due to the former sin; and that's Durus sermo, a hard saying: It may be we may say, that a repentance which hath all other formal parts of a true repentance, if it reach not to all the branches, and to all the specifying differences and circumstance of thy sins, so far as a diligent examination of thy conscience can carry thee, is a void repentance; and that's Durus sermo, a hard saying. It may be we may say, That though thou hast truly & entirely repented, though thou do leave the practice of the sin, yet if thou do not also leave that which thou hast corruptly got by the ways of that sin, the sin it self lies upon thee still; and that's Durus sermo, a hard saying: And Christs own Disciples forsook him, and forsook him for ever, Quia durus sermo, because that which Christ said, seemed to them a hard saying. This we may say; and they may come to hear, and come to say we say true, and yet Non facient quae dixeris, never do any of that which we say, Quia duri sermones, because we press things hardly upon them.

But yet that's not so strange, as Non facere quae dixerint, not to do those things which they have said themselves. That when, as the Apostle says of the Corinthians, Vos estis, you are our Epistle, not written with ink, but with the spirit of the living God: so a man, by hearing, is become Evangelium sibi, a Gospel to himself; and by the preaching of the Gospel, is come to say, Non amplius, I will go, and sin no more, left a worse thing fall unto me: yet he goes and sins again, fall what will, or can fall; and Non facit quae dixerit, he does not perform his own promise to himself. He is affected with some particular passage in a Sermon, and then he comes to David's Secundum innocentiam; O Lord, deal with me according to my future innocence; show thy mercy to me, as I keep my self from that sin hereafter; and then, abominantur eum vestimenta ejus, his old clothes defile him again, his old rags cast vermin upon him, his old habits of sin threw new dirt upon him. He goes out of the Church as that mans son went from his father, who sent him to work in the Vineyard, with that word in his mouth, Eo Domine, Sir, I go; but he never went, he turns another way, Non facit quae dixerat, he keeps not his own word, with his own soul: when he is gone out of his right way, a Sickness, a Disgrace, a Loss, overtakes him, the arrows of the Almighty stick in him, and the venom thereof drinks up his spirit; temporal afflictions, and spiritual afflictions meet in him, like two clouds, and beat out a thunder upon him, like two currents, and swallow him like two milstones, and grind him, and then he comes to his Domine quid retribuam? Lord, what shall I give thee, to deliver me now? & non facit quae dixerat, he pays none of those vows, performs no part of that which he promised then. Christ had his Consummatum est, and this sinner hath his: Christ ends his passion, and he ends his action; Christ ends his affliction, and he ends his affection: Distulit securim, attulit securitatem, says S. Augustine of this case; as soon as the Danger is removed, his Devotion is removed too. The end of all is, that what punishment soever God reserves for them, who never heard of the Name of his Son Christ Jesus at all, or for them who have pretended to receive him, but have done it Idolatrously, superstitiously; we that have heard him, we that have had the Scriptures preached and applied to us sincerely, shall certainly have the heavier condemnation, for having had that which they wanted: Our multiplicity of Preachers, and their assiduity in preaching; our true interpretation of their labours, when we do hear, and our diligent coming, that we may hear, shall leave us in worse state then they found us, si non fecerimus, If we do not do that which we hear. And to do the Gospel, is to do what we can for the preservation of the Gospel. I know what I can do, as a Minister of the Gospel, and of Gods Word; out of his Word I can preach against Linsey-woolsey garments; out of his Word I can preach against plowing with an Ox, and with an Ass, against mingling of Religions. I know what I can do, as a Father, as a Master; I can preserve my Family from attempts of Jesuits. Those that are of higher place, Magistrates, know what they can do too: They know they can execute laws; if not to the taking of Life, yet to the restraining of Liberty: And it is no seditious saying, it is no sauciness, it is no bitterness, it is no boldness, to say, that the spiritual death of those souls, who perish by the practise of those seducers, whom they might have stopped, lies upon them. And how knows he, who lets a Jesuit scape, whether he let go but a Fox, that will deceive some simple soul in matter of Religion; or a Wolf, who, but the protection of the Almighty, would adventure upon the person of the highest of all? Non facient quae dixeris, is as far as the Text goes; they will not do that we say: but Quae dixerint, is more; they will not do that which themselves have said: But, Quae juraverint, is most of all; If they will not do that, which for the preservation of the Gospel, they have taken an Oath to do, The Increpation, the Malediction, intended by God, in this Text, that all our preaching, and all our hearing shall aggravate our condemnation, will fall upon us: And therefore, this being the season, in which, especially, God affords you the performance of that part of this Prophecy, assiduous, and laborious, and acceptable, and useful preaching; where all you, of all sorts, are likely to hear the Duties of Administration towards others, and of Mortification in your selves, powerfully represented unto you, this may have been somewhat necessarily said by me now, for the removing of some stones out of their way, and the chafing of that wax, in which they may thereby make the deeper and clearer impressions; that so, we may not only be to you, as a lovely song, sung to an Instrument; nor you only hear our words, but do them.

AMEN.

A Lent-Sermon Preached at White-Hall, Serm. 3. February 20. 1628. Sermon III.

James 2.12.

So speak ye, and so Do, as they that shall be Judged by the law of Liberty.

THis is one of those seven Epistles, which Athanasius and Origen called Catholic; that is, universal; perchance because they are not directed to any one Church, as some others are, but to all the Christian world: And S. Jerome called them Canonical; perchance because all Rules, all Canons of holy Conversation are comprized in these Epistles: And Epiphanius, and Oecumenius called them Circular; perchance, because as in a Circle, you cannot discern which was the first point, nor in which, the compass begun the Circle; so neither can we discern in these Epistles, whom the Holy Ghost begins withal, whom he means principally, King or Subject, Priest or People, Single or Married, Husband or Wife, Father or Children, Masters or Servants; but Universally, promiscuously, indifferently, they give All rules, for All actions, to All persons, at All times, and in all places; As in this Text, in particular, which is not, by any precedent, or subsequent relation, by any connexion or coherence, directed upon any company, or any Degree of Men: for the Apostle does not say, Ye Princes, nor ye people; but ye, ye in general, to all, So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty: So these Epistles are Catholic, so they are Canonical, and they Circular so. But yet, though in a Circle we know not where the compass began, we know not which was the first point; yet we know, that the last point of the Circle returns to the first, and so becomes all one; and as much as we know the last, we know the first point. Since then the last point of that Circle, in which God hath created us to move, is a kingdom (for it is the kingdom of heaven) and it is a Court (for it is that glorious Court, which is the presence of God, in the communion of his Saints) it is a fair and a pious conception, for this Congregation, here present now in this place, to believe, that the first point of this Circle of our Apostle here, is a Court too; and that the Holy Ghost, in proposing these duties in his general Ye, does principally intend, ye that live in Court, ye whom God brings so neer to the sight of himself, and of his Court in heaven, as that you have always the picture of himself, and the pourtraiture of his Court in your eyes: for a Religious King is the Image of God, and a Religious Court is a Copy of the Communion of Saints. And therefore be you content to think, that to you especially our Apostle says here, Ye, ye who have a nearer propinquity to God, a more assiduous conversation with God, by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford (for though God be seen in a weed, in a worm, yet he is seen more clearly in the sum) So speak ye, and so Do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

Now, as the first Devils were in heaven (for it was not the punishment which they feel in Hell, but the sin which they committed in heaven, which made them Devils) and yet the fault was not in God, nor in the place; so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts (as even in Rome, where they will needs have an Innocent Church, yet they confess a guilty Court) the faults are personal, theirs that do them, and there is no higher author of their sin. The Apostle does not bid us say, that it is so in Courts; but lest it should come to be so, he bids us give these rules to Courts, So speak ye, and so Do, as they that shall be judged by a law of liberty. First then, here is no express precept given, no direct commandment, to speak: The Holy Ghost saw, there would be speaking enough in Courts; for, though there may be a great sin in silence, a great prevarication in not speaking in a good cause, or for an oppressed person; yet the lowest voice in a Court, whispering it self, speaks a loud, and reaches far; and therefore, here is only a rule to regulate our speech, Sic loquimini, So speak ye. And then, as here is no express precept for speaking, so here is no express precept for Doing; The Holy Ghost saw, there would be Doing enough, business enough in Court: for, as silence, and half silence, whispering, may have a loud voice; so, even undoing may be a busy Doing; and therefore, here's only a Rule to regulate our Doings too, Sic facite, So do ye. And lastly, as there is speaking enough, even in silence, and Doing enough, even in undoing, in Court; So the Court is always under judgement enough. Every discontented person that hath missed his preferment, though he have not merited it; every drunkard that is over-heat, though not with his own wine; every conjecturing person, that is not within the distance to know the ends, or the ways of great Actions, will Judge the highest Counsels, and Executions of those Councils. The Court is under judgement enough, and they take liberty enough; and therefore here is a rule to regulate our liberty, A law of liberty: So speak ye, and, &c. But though for the more benefit of the present congregation, we fix the first point of this Circle, that is, the principal purpose of the Holy Ghost, upon the Court; yet our Text is an Amphitheater. An Amphitheater consists of two Theaters: Our Text hath two parts, in which, all men, all may fit, and see themselves acted; first, in the obligation that is laid upon us, upon us all, Sic loquimini, sic facite: And then in the Reason of this Holy diligence, and religious cautelousness, Quia judicandi, Because you are all to be judged, by, &c. which two general parts, the Obligation, and the Reason, flowing into many sub-divided branches, I shall, I think, do better service, both to your understandings, and to your memory, and to your Affections, and Consciences, to present them as they shall arise anon, in their order, then to pour them out, all at once now.

First then, in our first part, we look to our Rule, in the first Duty, our speaking; Sic loquimini, So speak ye. The Comique Poet gives us a good Caution, Si servus semper consuescat silentio, fit nequam; That servant that says nothing, thinks ill. As our Nullifidians, Men that put all upon works, and no faith; and our Solisidians, Men that put all upon faith and no works, are both in the wrong; So there is a danger in Multi loquio, and another in Nulli loquio: He that speaks over-freely to me, may be a Man of dangerous conversation; And the silent and reserved Man, that makes no play, but observes, and says nothing, may be more dangerous then he: As the Roman Emperor professed to stand more in fear of one pale man, and lean man, then of twenty that studied and pursued their pleasures, and loved their ease, because such would be glad to keep things in the state they then were, but the other sort affected changes: so for the most part, he that will speak, lies as open to me, as I to him; speech is the Balance of conversation. Therefore, as God is not Merx, but pretium; Gold is not ware, but the price of all ware; So speaking is not Doing, but yet fair speaking prepares an acceptation before, and puts a value after, upon the best actions. God hath made other Creatures Gregalia, sociable, besides man; Sheep, and Deer, and Pigeons, will flock, and herd, and troup, and meet together; but when they are met, they are not able to tell one another why they meet. Man only can speak; silence makes it but a Herding: That that makes Conversation, is speech, Qui datum deserit, respuit datorem, says Tertullian. He that uses not a benefit, reproaches his Benefactor. To declare Gods goodness, that hath enabled us to speak, we are bound to speak: speech is the Glue, the Cyment, the soul of Conversation, and of Religion too.

Now, your conversation is in heaven; and therefore loquimini Deo, first speak to him that is in heaven, speak to God. Some of the Platonique Philosophers thought it a profanation of God, to speak to God; They thought, that when our Thoughts were made Prayers, and that the Heart flowed into the Tongue, and that we had invested and appareled our Meditations with words, this was a kind of Painting, and Dressing, and a superfluous diligence, that rather tasted of humane affections, then such a sincere service, as was fit for the presence of God; Only the first conceptions, the first ebullitions and emanations of the soul, in the heart, they thought to be a fit sacrifice to God, and all verbal prayer to be too homely for him. But God himself, who is all spirit, hath yet put on bodily lineaments, Head, and Hands, and Feet, yea and Garments too, in many places of Scripture, to appear, that is, to manifest himself to us: And when we appear to God, though our Devotion be all spiritual, as he is all spirit, yet let us put on lineaments and apparel upon our Devotions, and digest the Meditations of the heart, into words of the mouth. God came to us in verbo, In the word; for Christ is, The word that was made flesh. Let us, that are Christians, go to God so, too, That the words of our mouth, as well as the Meditations of our heart, may be acceptable to him. Surely, God loves the service of Prayer, or he would never have built a house for Prayer; And therefore we justly call Public prayer, the Liturgy, Service: Love that place, and love that service in that place, Prayer. They will needs make us believe, that S. Francis preached to Birds, and Beasts, and Stones; but they will not go about to make us believe that those Birds, and Beasts, and Stones joined with S. Francis in Prayer. God can speak to all things; that's the office of Preaching, to speak to others: But, of all, only Man can speak to God; and that's the office of Prayer. It is a blessed conversation, to spend time in Discourse, in Communication with God. God went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham. When we leave praying, God leaves us: But God left not Abraham, as long as he had any thing to say to God; And we have always something to say unto him. He loves to hear us tell him, even those things which he knew before; his Benefits in our Thankfulness, And our sins in our Confessions, And our necessities in our Petitions. And therefore having so many Occasions to speak to God, and to speak of God, David ingeminates that, and his ingemination implies a wonder, O that men would (And it is strange if Men will not) O that men would, says he more then once or twice, O that men would praise the Lord, and tell the wondrous works that he hath done for the sons of Men! for, David determines not his precept in that, Be thankful unto him; for a Tnankfulness may pass in private, But Be Thankful unto him, and speak good of his name. Glorify him in speaking to him, in speaking of him, in speaking for him.

Loquimini Deo, speak to God; And loquimini Diis, speak to them whom God hath called Gods. As Religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer; so those who have that sacred office, and those that have that Honorable office to do so, are bound to speak to Kings by way of Counsel. God hath made all good men partakers of the Divine Nature; They are the sons of God, The seed of God; But God hath made Kings partakers of his Office, and Administration. And as between man and himself, God hath put a Mediator, that consists of God and Man; so between Princes and People, God hath put Mediators too, who considered in themselves, retain the nature of the people (so Christ did of man) but considered in their places, have fair and venerable beams of his power, and influences of him upon them. And as our Mediator Christ Jesus found always his Fathers ears open to him; so do the Church and State enter blessedly and successfully, by these Mediators, into the ears of the King. Of our Mediator Christ himself, it is said, That he offered up prayers, and strong cries, and Tears; Even Christ was put to some difficulties in his Mediation for those that were his; But he was heard, says that text, in that he feared. Even in those things, wherein, in some emergent difficulties, they may be afraid they shall not, these Mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too, in the due discharge of their offices. That which was Davids prayer, is our possession, our happiness, Let not the foot of Pride come against us: we know there is no Pride in the Head; and because there is no fault in the Hands neither, that is, in them, into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed, by the great places of power, and Council, which they worthily hold; the foot of pride, foreign, or home-oppression, does not, shall not tread us down. And for the continuation of this happiness, let me have leave to say, with Mordicai's humility, and earnestness too, to all such Mediators, that which he said to Esther, Who knows, whether thou beest not brought to this place for this purpose, To speak that, which his sacred and gracious ears, to whom thou speakest, will always be well pleased to hear, when it is delivered by them, to whom it belongs to speak it, and in such humble and reserved manner, as such sovereign persons as owe an account but to God, should be spoke too? Sic loquimini Deo, So let Kings speak to God, (that was our first) Sic loquimini Diis, So let them, whom Kings trust, speak to Kings, whom God hath called Gods, (that was our second.) And then, a third branch in this rule of our first duty, is, Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei, So speak you to Gods Images, to Men of condition inferior to your selves; for they also are Images of God, as you are.

And this is truly, most literally the purpose of the Apostle here, That you under-value no Man for his outward appearance; That your over-value no man for his goodly apparel, or Gold Rings; That you say not to a poor man, Stand thou there; or if you admit him to sit, Sit here under my footstool. But it is a precept of Accessibleness, and of Affability; Affability, that is, A civility of the City of God, and a Courtship of the Court of heaven, to receive other Men, the Images of God, with the same easiness that God receives you. God stands at the Door, and knocks, and stays our leisure, to see if we will open, and let him in: Even at the door of his Beloved, he stood, and knocked, till his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night. But God puts none of us to that, to which he puts himself, and his Christ: But, Knock, says he, and it shall be opened unto you; No staying at the door, opened as soon as you knock. The nearest that our Expositors can come, to find what it was that offended God, in Moses striking of the Rock for water, is, that he strook it twice; that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking. God is no in-accessible God, that he may not be come to; nor inexorable, that he will not be moved, if he be spoken to; nor dilatory, that he does not that he does, seasonably. Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum, as an Old Man; but that is as a Reverend, not as a froward person. Mens in sermonibus nostris habitat, & gubernat verba: The soul of man is incorporate in his word; As he speaks, we think he thinks: Et bonus paterfamilias, in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur, says the same Father. As we believe that to be a free house, where there is an easy entrance; so we doubt the less of a good heart, if we find charitable and courteous language. But yet there is an excess in this too, in this self-effusion, this pouring of a mans self out, in fair, and promising language. Inaccessibleness is the fault, which the Apostle aims at here: and truly the most inaccessible Man that is, is the over-liberal, and profuse promiser: He is therefore the most inaccessible, because he is absent, when I am come to him, and when I do speak with him. To a retired, to a reserved man, we do not easily get; but when we are there, he is there too: To an open and liberal promiser we get easily; but when we are with him, he is away, because his heart, his purpose is not there. But, sic loquimini Deo, so speak ye to God (that's a remembrance to Kings) Sic loquimini Diis, so speak ye to them whom God hath called Gods (that's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects.) Sic loquimini Imaginibus Dei, so speak ye to Gods Image, to all men (that's a remembrance to all that possess any superiority over others) as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite, your saying with Doing, your good words with good actions: for so our Apostle joins them here, So speak ye, and so Do: and so we are come to our second rule; from the rule of our Words, to the Rule of our Actions.

John Baptist was all voice, yet John Baptist was a fore-runner of Christ. The best words are but words, but they are the fore-runners of Deeds: but Christ himself, as he was God himself, is Purus Actus, all Action, all Doing. Comfortable words are good cordials; They revive the spirits, & they have the nature of such occasional physic: but Deeds are our food, our diet, & that that constantly nourishes us. Non verbo, says the Apostle; Let us not love in word, nor in tongue; but in Deed, and in Truth. Not that we may not love in words; but that our Deeds are the true seals of that love, which was also love, when it was in words. But Ne quod luxuriat in flore, attenuetur & hebetetur in fructu; lest that tree that blew early and plentifully, blast before it knit, second your good words with actions too. It is the Husbandry and the Harvest of the righteous man; (as it gathered in David) The Mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom: so we read it; there it is in the Tongue, in words only: The Vulgar hath it, Meditatur, He Meditates it; so the heart is got in. But the Original, Hagah, is noted to signify, fructificavit, He brings forth fruits thereof; and so the Hand is got in too: And when that which is well spoken, was well meant, and hath been well expressed in Action, that's the Husbandry of the righteous Man; then his Harvest is all in. It is the way of God himself; Philo Judaeus notes, that the people are said to have seen the noise, and the voice of God; because, whatsoever God says, it determines in Action: If we may hear God, we may see him; what he says, he does too. Therefore from that example of God himself, S. Gregory directs us; We must, says he, show our Love, Et veneratione sermonis, & Ministerio largitatis, what a fair respect in words, and what a real supply in Deeds. Nay, when we look upon our pattern, that is, God, Tertullian notes well, That God prevented his own speaking, by Doing; Benedicebat, quae benefaciebat; first he made all things Good, and then he Blessed them, that they might be better; first he wrought, and then he spoke. And so Christs way and proceeding is presented to us too; so far from not Doing when he speaks, as that he Does before he speaks. Christ began to Do, and to Teach, says S. Luke; but first to Do. And He was mighty in Deeds, and in words; but first in Deeds. We cannot write so well as our Copy, to begin always at Deeds, as God, and his Christ; But yet let us labor to write so fair after it, as first to afford comfortable words; and though our Deeds come after, yet to have them from the beginning in our intention; and that we do them, not because we promised, but promise because we love to do good, and love to lay upon our selves the obligation of a promise. The instrument and Organ of Nature was the eye; The Natural Man finds God in that he sees, in the Creature. The Organ of the Law, which exalted, and rectified Nature, was the Hand; Fac hoc & vives; perform the law, and thou shalt live. So also, the Organ of the Gospel is the Ear, for faith comes by hearing; But then the Organ of faith it self, is the Hand too; A Hand that lays hold upon the Merits of Christ, for my self; and a Hand that delivers me over to the Church of God, in a holy life, and exemplary Actions, for the edification of others. So that All, All from nature to Grace, determines in Action, in Doing good. Sic facite Deo, so do good to God, in real assisting his cause: Sic facite Diis, so do good to them, whom God hath called Gods, in real secondings their religious purposes: Sic facite Imaginibus Dei, so do good to the Images of God, in real relieving his distressed Members, as that you do all this, upon that which is made the Reason of all, in the second part of this text, Because you are to be judged by the law of liberty.

Timor futuri judicii hujus vitae praedagogus. Our School-Master to teach us to stand upright in the last judgement, is the Meditation, and the fear of that judgement, in this life. It is our School-master, and School-master enough. I said unto the fool, thus and thus, says David: And I said unto the wicked, thus and thus, says he: for, says he, God is the Judge: He thought it enough to enlighten the understanding of the fool, enough to rectify the perverseness of the wicked, if he could set God before them, in that Notion, as a Judge: for, this is one great benefit from the present contemplation of the future judgement, that whosoever does truly, and advisedly believe, that ever he shall come to that judgement, is at it now; He that believes that God will judge him, is Gods Commissioner, Gods Delegate, and, in his name, judges himself now. Therefore it is a useful mistaking, which the Roman Translation is fallen into, in this Text, in reading it thus, Sicut incipientes judicari; So speak ye, and so Do, as they upon whom the judgement were already begun. For, Qui timet ante Christi Tribunal praesentari, He that is afraid to be brought to the last judgement, hath but one Refuge, but one Sanctuary, Ascendat Tribunal Mentis suae, & constituat se ante seipsum; Let him cite himself before himself, give evidence himself against himself; and so guilty as he is found here, so innocent he shall stand there. Let him proceed upon himself, as Job did, and he is safe; I am afraid of all my sorrow, says he; Afraid that I have not said enough against my self, nor repented enough; Afraid that my sorrows have not been sincere, but mingled with circumstances of loss of health, or honor, or fortune, occasioned by my sins; and not only, not principally for the sin it self. I am afraid of all my sorrows, says he: but how much more then of my mirths and pleasures? To judge our selves by the judgement of flatterers, that depend upon us; to judge our selves by the event and success of things, (I am enriched, I am preferred by this course, and therefore all's well) to judge our selves by example of others, (others do thus, and why not I?) All these proceedings are Coram non Judice, all these are literally Praemunire cases, for they are appellations into foreign Jurisdictions, and foreign Judicatures. Only our own conscience rectified, is a competent judge. And they that have passed the trial of that judgement, do not so much rise to judgement at last, as stand and continue in judgement: their judgement, that is, their trial, is passed here; and there they shall only receive sentence, and that sentence shall be, Euge bone serve; Well done, good and faithful servant; since thou didst enter into Judgement in the other world, enter into thy Masters Joy in this. But howso ever we be prepared for that judgement, well, or not well; and howsoever the Judge be disposed towards us, well, or not well, there is this comfort given us here, that that judgement shall be per legem, by a Law, we shall be judged by a law of Liberty; which is our second branch in this second part.

The Jews that prosecuted the Judgement against Christ, durst not do that without pretending a Law: Habemus legem, say they, we have a law, and he hath transgressed that. The necessary precipitations into sudden executions, to which States are forced in rebellious times, we are fain to call by the name of Law, Martial Law. The Torrents, and Inundations, which invasive Armies pour upon Nations, we are fain to call by the name of Law, The Law of Armes. No Judgement, no Execution, without the name, the color, the pretence of Law; for still men call for a Law for every Execution. And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Shall God judge us, condemn us, execute us at the last day, and not by a Law? by something that we never saw, never knew, never notified, never published, and judge me by that, and leave out the consideration of that Law, which he bound me to keep? I ask S. Pauls question, Where is the disputer of the world? Who will offer to dispute unnecessary things, especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us, to forbear such Disputations? Blessed are the peace-makers that command, and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey, and accommodate themselves to peace, in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies: but, without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness; The Apostle invites us to search into no farther mysteries, then such as may be without controversy: the Mystery of Godliness is without controversy; and godliness is, to believe that God hath given us a Law, and to live according to that Law. This, this godliness, (that is, Knowledge and Obedience to the Law) hath the promises of this life, and the next too; all referred to his Law: for, without this, this godliness (which is holiness) no man shall see God: All referred to a Law. This is Christs Catechism in S. John, That we might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent. A God commanding, and a Christ reconciling us, if we have transgressed that Commandment. And this is the Holy Ghosts Catechism in S. Paul, Deus remunerator, That we believe God to be, and to be a just rewarder of mans actions: still all referred to an obedience, or disobedience of a Law. The Mystery of godliness is great, that is, great enough for our salvation, and yet without controversy; for, though controversies have been moved about Gods first act, there can be none of his last act; though men have disputed of the object of Election, yet of the subject of Execution there is no controversy: No man can doubt, but that when God delivers over any soul actually, and by way of execution to eternal condemnation, that he delivers over that soul to that eternal condemnation, for breaking his Law. In this we have no other adversary, but the over-sad, the despairing soul; and it becomes us all, to lend our hand to his succor, and to pour in our Wine, and our Oil, into his Wounds, that lies weltering and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soul: That soul, who though it can testify to it self, some endeavor in the ways of holiness, yet upon some collateral doubts, is still suspicious, and jealous of God. How often have we seen, that a needless jealousy and suspicion, conceived without cause, hath made a good body bad? A needless jealousy and suspicion of his purposes and intentions upon thee, may make thy merciful God angry too. Nothing can alienate God more from thee, then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him. How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee, if thou wilt be unmerciful to God himself? And, Qui quid tyrannicum in Deo, He that conceives any tyrannical act in God, is unjust to the God of Justice, and unmerciful to the God of Mercy. Therefore in the 17. of our Injunctions, we are commanded to arm sad souls against Despair, by setting forth the Mercy, and the Benefits, and the Godliness of Almighty God (as the word of the Injunction is, the godliness of God) for, to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soul, were to impute ungodliness to God. Therefore to that mistaking soul, that discomposed, that shivered, and shriveled, and raveled, and ruined soul, to that jealous and suspicious soul only, I say, Let no man judge you, says the Apostle, intruding into those things which he hath not seen. Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God, which they have not, nor you have not seen; for, that by which you shall be judged, is the Law; that Law, which was notified, and published to you. The Law alone were much too heavy, if there were not a superabundant ease and alleviation in that hand, that Christ Jesus reaches out to us. Consider the weight and the ease; and for pity to such distrustful souls, and for establishment of your own, stop your devotions a little, upon this consideration. There is Chyrographum, a hand-writing of Ordinances against me; a Debt, an Obligation contracted by our first Parents, in their disobedience, and fallen upon me. And even that (be it but Original sin) is shrewd evidence; there's my first charge. But, Deletum est, says the Apostle there; that's blotted, that's defaced, that cannot be sued against me, after Baptism: Nay, Sublatum, cruci affixum, it is canceled, it is nailed to the Cross of Christ Jesus, it is no more sin; in its self it is; but to me, to condemnation, it is not: here's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is a heavier evidence, Pactum cum inferno, as the Prophet Isaiah speaks, I have made a covenant with death, and with Hell I am at an agreement; that is, says S. Greg. Audacter, Indesinenter peccamus, & diligendo, amicitiam profitemur: We sin constantly, & we sin continually, and we sin confidently; and we find so much pleasure and profit in sin, as that we have made a league, and sworn a friendship with sin; and we keep that perverse, and irreligious promise, over-religiously; and the sins of our youth flow into other sins, when age disables us for them. But yet there is a Deletum est, in this case too; our covenant with death is disanulled (says that Prophet) when we are made partakers of the death of Christ, in the blessed Sacrament. Mine actual sins lose their act, and mine habitual sins fall from me as a habit, as a garment put off, when I come to that: there's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is worse evidence against me, then either this Chyrographum, the first hand-writing of Adams hand, or then this pactum, this contract of mine own hand, actual and habitual sin (for of these, one is washed out in water, and the other in blood, in the two Sacraments.) But then there is Lex in Membris, says the Apostle, I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Sin assisted by me, is now become a tyrant over me, and hath established a government upon me; and there is a law of sin, and a law in my flesh, which after the water of Baptism taken, and the water of penitent tears given; after the blood of Jesus Christ taken, and mine own blood given (that is, a holy readiness at that time, when I am made partaker of Christs death, to die for Christ) throws me back, by relapses into those repented sins. This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation, O wretched man that I am! And yet he found a deliverance, even from the body of this death, through Jesus Christ his Lord: that is, a free, an open recourse and access to him in all oppressions of heart, in all dejections of spirit. Now, when this Chyrographum, this bond of Adams hand, Original sin, is cancelled upon the Cross of Christ; And this Pactum, this band of mine hand, actual sins, washed away in the blood of Christ; and this, Lex in membris, this disposition to relapse into repented sins (which, as a tide that does certainly come every day, does come every day in one form or other) is beaten back, as a tide by a bank, by a continual opposing the merits and the example of Christ Jesus, and the practise of his fasting, and such other medicinal disciplines, as I find to prevail against such relapses; when by this blessed means, the whole Law, against which I am a trespasser, is evacuated, will God condemn me for all this, and not by a Law? When I have pleaded Christ, and Christ, and Christ; Baptism, and Blood, and Tears; will God condemn me an oblique way, when he cannot by a direct way; by a secret purpose, when he hath no law to condemn me by? Sad and disconsolate, distorted and distracted soul! if it be well said in the School, Absurdum est disputare, ex manuscriptis, it is an unjust thing in Controversies and Disputations, to press arguments out of Manuscripts, that cannot be seen by every man; it were ill said in thy conscience, that God will proceed against thee ex manuscripto, or condemn thee upon any thing which thou never saw'st, any unrevealed purpose of his. Suspicious soul! ill-presaging soul! Is there something else, besides the day of Judgement, that the Son of Man does not know? Disquiet soul! Does he not know the proceeding of that Judgement, wherein himself is to be the Judge? But that when he hath died for thy sins, and so fulfilled the Law in thy behalf, thou mayst be condemned without respect of that Law, and upon something, that shall have had no consideration, no relation to any such breach of any such Law in thee? Intricated, intangled conscience! Christ tells thee of a Judgement, because thou didst not do the works of Mercy, not feed, not cloth the poor; for those were enjoined thee by a Law: But he never tells thee of any Judgement therefore, because thy name was written in a dark book of Death, never unclasped, never opened unto thee in thy life. He says unto thee lovingly, and indulgently, Fear not, for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; But he never says to the wickedest in the world, Live in fear, dye in anxiety, in suspicion, and suspension for his displeasure: a displeasure conceived against you, before you were sinners, before you were men, hath thrown you out of that Kingdom into utter darkness. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; the reason is added, because the Law of the Spirit of Life hath made them free from the Law of Sin, and of Death. All, upon all sides, is still referred to Law. And where there is no law against thee (as there is not to him that is in Christ; and he is in Christ, who hath endeavoured the keeping, or repented the breaking of the Law) God will never proceed to execution by any secret purpose never notified, never manifested. Suspicious, jealous, scattered soul, recollect thy self, and give thy self that redintegration, that acquiescence, which the Spirit of God, in the means of the Church offers thee: study the Mystery of godliness, which is without all controversy; that is, endeavor to keep, repent the not keeping of the Law, and thou art safe; for that that you shall be judged by, is a Law. But then this Law is called here a Law of Liberty; and whether that denotation, that it is called a Law of Liberty, import an ease to us, or a heavier weight upon us, is our last disquisition, and conclusion of all: So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty.

That the Apostle here, by the Law of Liberty, means the Gospel, was never doubted. He had called the Gospel so, before this place: Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, shall be blessed in his deed; that is, blessed in doing so, blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel. But why does he call it so, a Law of Liberty? Not because men naturally affecting liberty, might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel, by proposing it in that specious name of Liberty, though it were not so. The Holy Ghost calls the Gospel a Pearl, and a Treasure, and a Kingdom, and Joy, and Glory; not to allure men with false names, but because men love these, and the Gospel is truly all these; a Pearl, and a Treasure, and a Kingdom, and Joy, and Glory: And it is truly a Law of Liberty. But of what kind, and in what respect? Not such a Liberty as they have established in the Roman Church, where Ecclesiastical Liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State, and from being Traitors, though they commit treason, because they are Subjects to no secular Prince: nor the liberty of the Anabaptists, that overthrows Magistracy, and consequently all subjection, both Ecclesiastical and Laick; for, when upon those words, Be ye not servants of men, S. Chrysostom says, this is Christian liberty, Nec aliis nec sibi servire, neither to be subjects to others, nor to our selves; that's spoken with modification, with relation to our first Allegiance, our Allegiance to God; not to be so subject to others, or to our selves, as that either for their sakes or our own, we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God.

First then, the Gospel is a Law of Liberty, in respect of the Author of the Gospel, of God himself, because it leaves God at his liberty. Not at liberty to judge against his Gospel, where he hath manifested it for a Law; for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself, to judge according to that Law, where he hath published that law. But at liberty so, as that it consists only in his good pleasure, to what Nation he will publish the Gospel, or in what Nation he will continue the Gospel, or upon what persons he will make this Gospel effectual. So Oecumenius (who is no single witness, nor speaks not alone, but compiles the former Fathers) places this liberty in God, that God is at liberty to give this Gospel when he will; and at liberty so, as that he hath exempted no man, how well soever he love him; nor put on such fetters or manacles upon himself, but that he can and will punish those that transgress this law. So it is a Law of liberty to God; nothing determined upon any man, nothing concluded in himself, lies so in Gods way, as to hinder him from proceeding in his last judgement, according to the keeping or breaking of this law: still God is at his liberty. And it is a Law of liberty in respect of us: of us, who are Christians; and considered so, either with a respect to the natural man, or with a respect to the Jew. For, if we compare the Christian with the natural man, the law of Nature lays the same obligation upon the natural man, as the Gospel does upon the Christian, for the moral part thereof. The Christian is no more bound to love God, nor his neighbor, then the natural man is: therein the natural man hath no more liberty then the Christian; so far their law is equal: And then all the law which the Christian hath, and the natural man hath not, is a law of liberty to the Christian, that is, a law that gives him an ease, and a readier way to perform those duties; which way the natural man hath not, and yet is bound to the same duties. The natural man, if he transgress that law, which he finds in his own heart, finds a condemnation in himself, as well as the Christian; therein he is no freer then the Christian: But he finds no Sanctuary, no Altar, no Sacrifice, no Church; no such Liberties, as the Christian does in the Gospel. So the Gospel is a law of Liberty to us in respect of the natural man, that it sets us at liberty, restores us to liberty, after we are fallen into prison for debt, into Gods displeasure for sin, by affording us means of reconciliation to God again.

It is so also in respect of the Law given by God to the Jews. The Jews had liberties, that is, refuge and help of sacrifices for sin; which the natural man had not: for, if the natural man were driven and followed from his own heart, that he saw no comfort of an innocency there, he had no other liberties to fly to, no comfort in any other thing; no law, no promise annexed to any other action; not to Sacrifice, as the Jews; or to Sacrament, as the Christians, but must irremediably sink under the condemnation of his own heart. The Jew had this liberty, a Law, and a Law that involved the Gospel; but then the Gospel was to the Jew but as a letter sealed; and the Jew was but as a servant, who was trusted to carry the letter, as it was, sealed, to another, to carry it to the Christian. Now the Christian hath received this letter at the Jews hand, and he opens it; he sees the Jews Prophesy made History to him; the Jews hope and reversion, made possession and inheritance to him: he sees the Jews faith made matter of fact; he sees all that was promised and represented in the Law, performed and recorded in the Gospel, and applied in the Church. There Christ says, Henceforth call I you not servants, but friends. Wherein consists this enfranchisement? In this; The servant knoweth not what his master doth (the Jews knew not that) but I have called you friends, says Christ, for all things that I heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. The Law made nothing perfect, says the Apostle. Where was the defect? he tells us that; the old Covenant (that is, the Law) gendreth to bondage. What bondage? he tells us that too, when he says, The Law was a Schoolmaster. The Jews were as School-boys, always spelling, and putting together Types and Figure; which things typified and figured, how this Lamb should signify Christ, how this fire should signify a holy Ghost. The Christian is come to the University, from Grammar to Logic, to him that is Logos it self, the Word; to apprehend & apply Christ himself; and so is at more liberty then when he had only a dark law, without any comment, with the natural man; or only a dark comment, that is, the Law, with a dim light, & ill eyes, as the Jews had: for though the Jew had the liberty of a Law, yet they had not the law of Liberty. So the Gospel is a law of Liberty to God, who is still at his liberty to give and take, and to condemn according to that law; and a law of liberty to us, as we are compared to the natural man, or to the Jew. But when we confine our selves in our selves, positively, without comparison, it is not such a law of liberty to us, as some men have come too near saying, That the sins of Gods children do them no harm; that God sees not the sins of his children; that God was no further out with David in his Adultery, then in his Repentance: But, as to be born within the Covenant, that is, of Christian Parents, does not make us Christians, (for, Non nascitur, sed renascitur Christianus) the Covenant gives us a title to the Sacrament of Baptism, and that Sacrament makes us Christians: so this law of liberty gives us not a liberty to sin, but a liberty from sin. Noli libertate abuti, ad libere peccandum, says the same Father; It is not a liberty, but an impotency, a slavery, to sin. Voluntas libera quae pia, says he, only a holy soul is a free soul. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, says the Apostle: And Splendidissimum in se quisque habet speculum, Every man hath a glass, a chrystal, into which, though he cannot call up this spirit (for the Spirit of God breathes where it pleases him) yet he can see this spirit, if he be there, in that glass: every man hath a glass in himself, where he may see himself, and the Image of God, says that Father, and see how like he is to that. To dare to reflect upon my self, and to search all the corners of mine own conscience, whether I have rightly used this law of liberty; and neither been bold before a sin, upon presumption of an easy; nor diffident after, upon suspicion of an impossible reconciliation to my God: this is Evangelical liberty.

So then (to end all) though it be a law of Liberty, because it gives us better means of prevention before, and of restitution after, then the natural man, or the Jew had; yet we consider, that it is this law of Liberty, this law that hath afforded us these good helps, by which we shall be judged; and so, though our case be better then theirs, because we have this law of Liberty, which they wanted, yet our case grows heavier then theirs, if we use it not aright. The Jews shall be under a heavier condemnation then the natural man, because they had more liberty, that is, more means of avoiding sin, then the natural man had; and, upon the same reason, the Christian under a heavier condemnation then either, because he shall be judged by this law of Liberty.

What judgement then gives this law? This; Qui non crediderit, damnabitur; and so says this Law in the Law-makers mouth, He that believes not, shall be damned. And as no less light then Faith it self, can show you what Faith is, what it is to believe; so no less time then Damnation shall last, can show you what Damnation is: for, the very form of Damnation is the everlastingness of it; and, Qui non crediderit, He that believeth not shall be damned: there's no commutation of penance, nor beheading after a sentence of a more ignominious death, in that court. Dost thou believe that thou dost believe? yet this law takes not that answer: This law of Liberty takes the liberty to look farther; Through faith into works; for, so says the Law in the mouth of the Law-maker; To whom much is given, of him much shall be required. Hast thou considered every new title of Honor, and every new addition of Office, every new step into higher places, to have laid new Duties, and new obligations upon thee? Hast thou doubled the hours of thy Prayers, when thy Preferments are doubled; and increased thine Alms, according as thy Revenues are increased? Hast thou done something, done much in this kind? this law will not be answered so; this law of Liberty takes the liberty to call upon thee for all. Here also the Law says in the mouth of the Law-maker, If thou have agreed with many adversaries, says Christ, (let that be, If thou have satisfied many duties) (for duties are adversaries, that is, temptations upon us) yet, as long as thou hast one adversary, agree with that adversary quickly in the way; leave no duty undischarged, or unrepented in this life. Beloved, we have well delivered our selves of the fear of Purgatory; none of us fear that: but another mistaking hath overtaken us, and we flatter our selves with another danger, that is, Compensation, that by doing well in one place, our ill doing in another is recompensed: an ill Officer looks to be saved, because he is a good husband to his wife, a good father to his children, a good master to his servants; and he thinks he hath three to one for his salvation. But, as nature requires the qualities of every element which thou art composed of; so this law of Liberty calls upon thee for the exercises of all those virtues, that appertain to every particular place thou hold'st: This liberty, this law of Liberty takes; It binds thee to believe Christ, All Christ; Gods Christ, as he was the eternal Son of the Father, God of God; our Christ, as he was made man for our salvation; and thy Christ, as his blessed Spirit, in this his Ordinance, applies him to thee, and offers him into thine armes this minute. And then, to know, that he looks for a retribution from thee, in that measure, in which he hath dealt with thee; much for much; and for several kinds of good, according to those several good things, which he hath done for thee. And, if thou be first defective in these, and then defective in laying hold upon him, who is the propitiation and satisfaction for thy defects in these, this law of Liberty returns to her liberty to pronounce, and he Judge to his liberty to execute that sentence, Damnaberis, thou wilt be cast into that prison, where thou must pay the last farthing; thou must; for, Christ dies not there, and therefore there they must lie, till there come such another ransom as Christ; nay, a greater ransom then Christ was, for Christ paid no debts in that prison. This then is the Christians case, and this is the Abridgement of his Religion; Sic loquimini, sic facite; to speak aright, and to do aright; to profess the truth, and not be afraid nor ashamed of that; and to live according to that profession: for, no man can make God the author of sin; but that man comes as near it as he can, that makes Gods Religion a cloke for his sin. To this God proceeds not merely and only by commadment, but by persuasion too; And, though he be not bound to do so, yet he does give a reason. The reason is, because he must give account of both; both of Actions, and of Words; of both we shall be judged, but judged by a Law; a Law which excludes, on Gods part, any secret ill purpose upon us, if we keep his Law; a Law which excludes, on our part, all pretence of Ignorance; for no man can plead ignorance of a Law. And then, a law of Liberty; of liberty to God: for God was not bound to save a man, because he made him; but of his own goodness, he vouchsafed him a Law, by which he may be saved; a law of Liberty to us: so that there is no Epicurism, to do what we list; no such liberty as makes us Libertines; for then there were no Law; nor Stoicism, nor fatality, that constrains us to do that we would not do, for then there were no Liberty. But the Gospel is such a law of Liberty, as delivers us, upon whom it works, from the necessity of falling into the bondage of sin before, and from the impossibility of recovering after, if we be fallen into that bondage. And this is liberty enough; and of this liberty, our blessed God give us the right use, for his Son Christ Jesus sake, by the operation of that Holy Ghost, that proceeds from both.

Amen.

A Lent-Sermon Preached before the King, At White-Hall, February 16. 1620. Sermon IV.

1 Tim. 3.16.

And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory.

THis is no Text for an Hour-glass: if God would afford me Ezekiah's sign, Ut revertatur umbra, that the shadow might go backward upon the Dial; or Joshuah's sign, Ut sistat Sol, That the Sun might stand still all the day, this were text enough to employ all the day, and all the days of our life. The Lent, which we begin now, is a full Tythe of the year; but the hour which we begin now, is not a full tythe of this day, and therefore we should not grudge all that: But payment of Tythes is grown matter of controversy; and we, by our Text, are directed only upon matter without controversy: And without controversy, &c.

Here is the compass, that the essential Word of God, the Son of God Christ Jesus, went: He was God, humbled in the flesh; he was Man, received into glory. Here is the compass that the written Word of God, went, the Bible; that begun in Moses, in darkness, in the Chaos; and it ends in Saint John, in clearness, in a Revelation. Here is the compass of all time, as time was distributed in the Creation, Vespere & mane; darkness, and then light: the Evening and Morning made the Day; Mystery and Manifestation make the Text.

The Doctrine of the present Season, is Mortification, Humiliation; and the experience of the present Place, where we stand now in Court, is, that the glory of the persons, in whose presence we stand, occasions Humility in us; the more glorious they are, the humbler we are; and therefore to consider Christ, as he is received into glory, is as much the way of our Humiliation and Mortification, as to consider him in his Passion, in his exinanition: At least, how small account should we make of those things which we suffer for Christ in this world, when we see in this Text, that in the describing the History of Christ from his Incarnation to his Ascension, the Holy Ghost pretermits, never mentions, never seems to consider the Passion of Christ; as though all that he had suffered for man, were nothing in respect of that he would suffer, if the justice of God had required any heavier satisfaction. The Text then is a sufficient Instruction to Timothy, to whom this Epistle is sent, and to us, to whom it is sent too, that thereby we might know how to behave our selves in the House of God, which is the Church of God, the pillar and ground of Truth; as is said in the verse immediately before the Text, to which the Text hath relation: we know how to behave our selves in the Church, if we know in the Text that such a Mystery of godliness there is, and know what it is. Our parts therefore, are but two; Mystery and Manifestation. In the first, the Apostle proceeds thus: First, he recommends to us such Doctrine as is without controversy: and truly there is enough of that to save any soul, that hath not a mind to wrangle it self into Hell. And then he says, that this Godliness, though it be without controversy, yet it is a Mystery, a Secret; not present, not obvious, not discernable with every eye: It is a Mystery, and a great Mystery; not the greatest, but yet great, that is, great enough; he that knows that, needs no more. And then, for the second part, which is the manifestation of the Mystery, we shall look upon that by all those beams, which shine out in this Text, Abortu ad Meridium, from Christs East to his Noon, from his first manifesting in the flesh, to his receiving into glory.

First then, he proposes Doctrine without controversy: for, Quod simpliciter predicatur, credendum; quod subtiliter disputatur, intelligendum est. That which Christ hath plainly delivered, is the exercise of my Faith; that which other men have curiously disputed, is the exercise of my understanding: If I understand not their curious disputations; perchance I shall not be esteemed in this world; but if I believe not Christs plain Doctrine, I am sure I shall not be saved in the next. It is true, that Christ reprehends them often, Quia non intellexerunt, but what? Scripturas, legem: because they understood not the Scriptures, which they were bound to believe. It is some negligence not to read a Proclamation from the King; it is a contempt, to transgress it; but to deny the power from which it is derived, is treason. Not to labor to understand the Scriptures, is to slight God; but not to believe them, is to give God the lye: he makes God a lyer, if he believe not the Record that God gave of his Son. When I come to heaven, I shall not need to ask of S. John's Angel, nor of his Elders, Ubi Prophetae, ubi Apostoli, ubi Evangelistae; where are the Prophets, where are the Evangelists, where are the Apostles; for, I am sure I shall see them there: But perchance I may be put to ask S. Paul's question, Ubi Scribae? ubi Sapientes? where are the Scribes? where are the Wise men? where are the Disputers of the world? perchance I may miss a great many of them there. It is the Text that saves us; the interlineary glosses, and the marginal notes, and the variae lectiones, controversies and perplexities, undo us: the Will, the Testament of God, enriches us; the Schedules, the Codicils of men, begger us: because the Serpent was subtiller then any, he would dispute and comment upon Gods Law, and so deceived by his subtilty. The Word of God is Biblia, it is not Bibliotheca; a Book, a Bible, not a Library. And all that book is not written in Balthazars character; in a Men, Tekel, Upharsim, that we must call in Astrologers, and Caldeans, and Southsayers, to interpret it. That which was written so, as that it could not be understood, was written, says the text there, with the fingers of mans hand; It is the hand of man that induces obscurities; the hand of God hath written so, a man may run, and read; walk in the duties of his calling here, and attend the salvation of his soul too. He that believes Christ, and Mahomet, indifferently, hath not proposed the right end: he that believes the Word of God, and traditions, indifferently, hath not proposed the right way. In any Conveyance, if any thing be interlined, the interlining must be as well testified, & have the same witnesses upon the Endorsment, as the conveyance it self had. When there are traditions in the Church (as declaratory traditions there are) they must have the same witnesses, they must be grounded upon the Word of God: for there only is truth without controversy. Pilate asked Christ, Quid veritas, what was truth; and he might have known, if he would have staid; but, exicit, says the Text there, He went out, out to the Jews; and there he could not find it, there he never thought of it more. Ask of Christ speaking in his Word, there you shall know; produce the Record, the Scripture, and there is Communis salus; I wrote unto you of the common Salvation: What's that? Semel tradita sides, says that Apostle there: The Faith which was once delivered to the Saints: where semel is not aliquando; once, is not once upon a time, I cannot tell when; but semel is simul, once is at once: The Gospel was delivered all together, and not by Postscripts. Thus it is, If we go to the Record, to the Scripture: and thus it is, if we ask a Judge (I do not say, The Judge, but A Judge) for, the Fathers are a Judge; a Judge is a Judge, though there lie an appeal from him. And will not the Fathers say so too? Quod ubique, quod semper; that's common salvation, which hath bound the Communion of Saints; that which all Churches always have thought and taught to be necessary to salvation. Ask the Record, ask that Judge, and it will be so; and it will be so, if you ask the Counsel on the other side. Ask the Council of Trent it self, and the Idolaters of that Council will not say, that our Church affirmes any Error; neither can they say, that we leave any truth unaffirmed, which the Primitive Church affirmed to be necessary to salvation. For those things which the School hath drawn into disputation since, as their form is, in the beginning of every question, to say, Videtur quod non, one would think it were otherwise; if when they have said all, I return to the beginning again, Videtur quod non, I think it is otherwise still. Must I be damned? The evidence for my salvation is my Credo, not their Probo; And if I must get Heaven by a Syllogism, my Major is Credo in Deum patrem, I believe in God the Father; for, Pater major, the Father is greater then all: And my Minor shall be, Credo in Deum Filium, I believe in God the Son, Qui exivit de patre, he came from God; And my Conclusion, which must proceed from Major & Minor, shall be Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, I believe in the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from Father and Son: And this Syllogism brought me into the Militant Church in my Baptism, and this will carry me into the Triumphant, in my Transmigration; for, doctrine of Salvation is matter without controversy.

But yet, as clear as it is, it is a Mystery, a Secret; not that I cannot see it, but that I cannot see it with any eyes that I can bring: not with the eye of Nature: Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, says Christ to Peter: not with the eye of Learning; Thou hast hid these things from the wise, says Christ to his Father: not with the eye of State, that wheresoever I see a good Government, I should presume a good Religion; for, we do not admit the Church of Rome, and yet we do admire the Court of Rome: nor with the eye of a private sence; for no prophecy of any Scripture; for, Quod non nisi instinctu Dei scitur, prophetia est; that which I cannot understand by reason, but by especial assistance from God, all that is Prophecy.) No Scripture is of private interpretation. I see not this mystery by the eye of Nature, of Learning, of State, of mine own private sence; but I see it by the eye of the Church, by the light of Faith, that's true; but yet organically, instrumentally, by the eye of the Church. And this Church is that which proposes to me all that is necessay to my salvation, in the Word, and seals all to me in the Sacraments. If another man see, or think he sees more then I; if by the help of his Optic glasses, or perchance but by his imagination, he see a star or two more in any constellation then I do; yet that starr becomes none of the constellation; it adds no limb, no member to the constellation, that was perfect before: so, if other men see that some additional and traditional things may add to the dignity of the Church, let them say it conduces to the well-being, not to the very being; to the existence, not to the essence of the Church; for that's only things necessary to salvation. And this mystery is, Faith in a pure conscience: for that's the same thing that is called Godliness in this text: and it is to profess the Gospel of Christ Jesus sincerely, and entirely; to have a conscience testifying to himself, that he hath contributed nothing to the diminution of it, that he labours to live by it, that he hopes to die in it, that he fears not to die for it. This is Mysterium, opertum, & apertum, hid from those that are lost, but manifested to his Saints: It is a Mystery, & a great Mystery; that's next: not that there is not a greater; for the Mystery of Iniquity is greater then the Mystery of Godliness: Compare Creeds to Creeds, and the new Creed of the Trent Council, is greater by many Articles then the Apostles Creed is. Compare Oaths to Oaths; and Berengarians old Oath in the Roman Church, that he must swear to the Frangitur & teritur, that he broke the flesh of Christ with his teeth, and ground it with his jaws; and the new Oath of the Council of Trent, that he must swear that all those subtle School-points, determined there, in which a man might have believed the contrary a few days before, and yet have been a good Roman Catholic too, are true, and true de fide; so true, as that he cannot be saved now, except he believe them to be so: the Berengarians Oath, and the Trent-oath, have much more difficulty in them, then to swear, that K. James is lawful King in all his Dominions, & therefore exempt from all foreign jurisdiction over him. There is a Mystery of Iniquity, declared in a Creed of Iniquity, & in an Oath of Iniquity, greater then the Mystery of Godliness: but yet this is great, that is, great enough; he needs no more, that hath this, saith with a pure conscience: he need not go up to heaven for more, not to a Vice-god, to an infallible Bishop of Rome; he need not go over-sea for more, says Moses there; not to the hills, beyond-sea, nor to the lake beyond-sea: for God hath given him his station in a Church, where this Mystery is sufficiently declared and explicated. The Mystery of Iniquity may be great, for it hath wrought a great while. Jam operatur, says the Apostle in his time; the Mystery of iniquity doth already work, and it is likely to work still: It is but a little while since we saw it work under ground, in the vault. But if (as hath been lately, royally, and religiously intimated to us all) their insolency have so far infatuated them, as to think themselves at an end of their work, and promise themselves a holy-day, our assurance is in this, Pater operatur adhuc, & ego operor, says Christ: My Father works yet, and I work: and if amongst us the Father work, and the Son work; for all the vain hopes of some, and the vain fears of others, the Mystery of godliness will stand and grow.

Now, how far this Mystery, this great Mystery, this Mystery without controversy is revealed in this Text, we are to look by the several beams thereof; of which, the first is, Manifestatus in carne, God was manifested in the flesh. Coeli enarrant, says David, The heavens declare the glory of God; and that should be the harmony of the Spheres. Invisibilia conspiciuntur, says Saint Paul, Invisible things of God are seen in the visible; and that should be the prospect of this world. The knowledge of God was manifested often in the Prophets; he foretold, therefore he foresaw. His Wisdom was manifested often, in frustrating all Councils of all Achitophels against him. And his power was manifested often: In the water; consider it at least in the Red sea, and in Pharaoh, if you will bring it no nearer home; And in the Fire, consider it at least in the fiery Furnace, if you will bring it no nearer home. His Knowledge, his Wisdom, his Power, his Mercy, his Justice, all his Attributes are always manifested in all his works. But, Deus in carne, that the person of God, God himself, should be manifested, and manifested in our flesh, Ineffabile omni sermoni, omni ignotum intelligentiae, ipse Angelorum primati non agnitum. And if the Primate of the Angels, the highest orders of them that stand in Gods sight, know it not; if no understanding were able to conceive it, that had all the refinings and concoction, that study, and speculation, and zeal to be vir desideriorum (as the Angel said to Daniel) a man that desired to dwell upon the meditation of his God, could give; must not I, who always come with Moses uncircumcised lips, not to speak perswasively; and always with Jeremies defect, Puer sum, nescio loqui, not to speak plainly; come now with Zachary's dumbness, not to speak at all in this Mystery? But hearkening to that which he who only knew this Mystery, hath said, Verbum Caro factum est, The word was made flesh; And Deus manifestatus in carne, God was manifested in the flesh; rest my self in his Word, and pray you in Christs stead to do so too, in this, and all Mysteries of your Religion, to rest upon the only Word of God: for in this particular, it is nor mis-grounded, nor mis-collected by him that says, Omnes pen errors, almost all Errors have proceeded out of this, that this great Mystery, that God was manifested in the flesh, Aut non omnino, aut non sicuti est creditum; is either not at all, or not aright believed. The Jews believe it not at all; and to them Tertullian says enough: Since out of their Prophets they confess, that when the Messiah shall be manifested, they must for a time suffer many calamities in this world; if their Messiah should be manifested now (says he) what could they suffer? They say they must suffer banishment; Et ubi dispersio gentis, quae jam extorris? whither shall that Nation be banished, which is already in banishment and dispersion? Redde statum Judaeis, let the Jews show me a State, a Kingdom, a Common-wealth, a Government, Magistrates, Judicatures, Merchandise, and Armies; let them show something to loose for a Messiah, and then let them look for a Messiah. The Jews are within the non omnino, they believe not this Mystery at all: And then, for the non sicut est, for the not believing it aright, as the old Valentinians are renewed in the Anabaptists (for both deny that Christ took flesh of the Virgin) so the old Manichaeans are not renewed, but exceeded in the Transubstantiators: for they said the body of Christ was left in one place, in the Sun; these say, it is upon as many Tables, and in as many Boxes as they will. But whether the manifestation of God in the flesh were referred to the Incarnation of Christ; or to his Declaration, when the wise men of the East came to see him at Bethleem; whether when it was done, or when it was declared to be done, hath admitted a question, because the Western Church hath called that day of their coming to him, the Epiphany; and Epiphany is Manifestation. Then therefore is God manifested to us, when, as these wise men offered their Myrrhe and Frankincense, we offer the Sacrifice of Prayer; and as they offered their Gold, we offer our temporal wealth for the glory of Christ Jesus: And when the love of him corrects in thee the intemperances of adorning thy flesh, of pampering thy flesh, of obeying thy flesh, then especially is this Epiphany, God is manifested in the flesh, in thy flesh.

Now, when he was manifested in the flesh, it behooved him to be justified in the spirit; for he came in similitudinem carnis peccati: they took him for a sinner, and they saw him converse with sinners: for any thing they could see, it might have been Caro peccati, sinful flesh; and they saw enough to make them sure that it was Caro mortis, mortal flesh. Though he were Panis de coelo, Bread from Heaven, yet himself was hungry; and though he were fons perennis, an everlasting spring, yet himself was thirsty; though he were Deus totius consolationis, the God of all comfort, yet his soul was heavy unto death; and though he were Dominus vitae, the Lord of Life, yet Death had dominion over him. When therefore Christ was manifested in the flesh, flesh subject to Death, Death, which was the reward of Sin; and would take upon him to forgive sins; it behooved him to be extraordinarily justified, extraordinarily declared to the world: and so he was; he was justified in Spiritu, in the Spirit; first, in Spiritu Sancto, in the Spirit, in the Holy Ghost; both when the Holy Ghost was sent to him, and when the Holy Ghost was sent by him, from him. The Holy Ghost was sent to him in his Baptism, and he tarried upon him: Christ was not, a Christian is not justified by one access, one visitation, one approach of the Holy Ghost; not by one religious act: it is a permanency, a perseverance that justifies: that foolishness, and that fascination (as the Apostle calls it) that Witchcraft which he imputes to the Galatians, is not so worn out, but that there are foolish and bewitched Galatians still, that begun in the Spirit, and will be made perfect in the Flesh; that received their Christianity in one Church, and attend a confirmation, a better state, in a worse. Christ was justified by the Holy Ghost, when the Holy Ghost came to him: so he was, when he came from him, at Pentecost, upon his Apostles; and then he came in Tongues, and fiery Tongues. Christ was not, a Christian is not justified in silence, but in declarations and open professions; in tongues: and not in dark and ambiguous speeches, nor infinite and retractable speeches, but in fiery tongues; fiery, that is, fervent; fiery, that is, clear. He was justified so, a Spiritu Sancto; and so he was, a Spiritu suo, by his own Spirit: not only in that protestation of his, Who can accuse me of any sin? for S. Paul could say that he was unreproachable in the sight of men, and yet he could not choose but say, Quorum ego maximus; that he was the greatest sinner of all men. I were a miserable man, if I could accuse Christ of no sin; if I could not prove all my sins his, I were under a heavy condemnation. But that which we intend by his being justified, a spiritu suo, by his own spirit, is, not by the testimony that he gave of himself; but by that Spirit, that God-head, that dwelt bodily in him, and declared him, and justified him in that high power and practise of Miracles. When Christ came into this world, as if he had come a day before any day, a day before Moses his in principio, before there was any creature (for when Christ came, there was creatures that could exercise any natural faculty in opposition to his purposes) when Nature his Vicegerent gave up her sword to his hands; when the Sea shut up her self like Marble, and bore him; and the Earth opened her self like a book, to deliver out her dead, to wait upon him; when the winds, in the midst of their own roaring, could hear his voice; and Death it self, in putrid and corrupt carkases, could hear his voice; & when his own body, whom his own soul had left & abandoned, was not abandoned by this Spirit, by this Godhead (for the Deity departed not from the dead body of Christ) then was Christ especially justified by this Spirit, in whose power he raised himself from the dead; he was justified in Spiritu Sancto, and in spiritu suo; two witnesses were enough for him. Add a third for thy self, & justificetur in Spiritu tuo, let him be justified in thy spirit: God is safe enough in himself, and yet it was a good declaratory addition, that the Publicans justified God: Wisdom is safe enough of her self, and yet Wisdom is justified of her children: Christ is sufficiently justified; but justificetur in Spiritu tuo, in thy spirit. To say, If I consider the Talmud, Christ may as well be the Messiah, as any whom the Jews place their marks upon; if I consider the Alchoran, Christ is like enough to be a better Prophet then Mahomet; if I consider the Arguments of the Arrians, Christ may be the Son of God for all that; if I consider the Church of Rome, and ours, he is as likely to manifest himself in his own Word here, as there in their word; to say but so, Christ may be God for any thing I know: this is but to baile him, not to justify him; not to quit him, but to put him over to the Sessions, to the great Sessions, where he shall justify himself; but none of them, who do not justify him, testify for him, in spiritu suo, sincerely in their souls: nay, that's not enough: to justify is an act of declaration; and no man knows what is in man, but the spirit of man: and therefore he that leaves any outward thing undone, that belongs to his calling, for Christ, is so far from having justified Christ, as that at the last day, he shall meet his voice with them that cried Crucify him, and with theirs that cried, Not Christ, but Barabbas: if thou doubt in thy heart, if thou disguise in thine actions, non justificatur in spiritu tuo, Christ is not justified in thy spirit; and that's it which concerns thee most.

Christ had all this testimony more, Visus ab Angelis, he was seen of Angels: which is, not only visited by Angels, served by Angels; waited upon by Angels: so he was, and he was so in every passage, in every step. An Angel told his mother, that he should be born: and an Angel told the Shepherd, that he was born; and that which directed the wise men of the East where to find him, when he was born, is also believed by some of the Ancients, to have been an Angel in the likeness of a Star. When he was tempted by the Devil, Angels came and ministered to him, but the Devil had left him before; his own power, had dissipated his. In his Agony in the Garden, an Angel came from heaven to strengthen him; but he had recovered before, and was come to his Veruntamen, Not my will, but thine be done. He told Peter, he could have more then twelve legions of Angels to assist him; but he would not have the assistance of his own sword: he denies not that which the Devil says, that the Angels had in charge, that he should not dash his foot against a stone; but they had an easy service of it; for his foot never dasht, never stumbled, never tripped in any way. As soon as any stone lay in his way, an Angel removed it: He rolled away the stone from the sepulchre. There the Angel testified to the women that sought him, not only that he was not there, (that was a poor comfort) but where he was: He is gone into Galilee, and there you shall find him. There also the Angel testified to the men of Galilee; that looked after him, not only that he was gone up (that was but a poor comfort) but that he should come again. The same Jesus shall so come as he went. There in Heaven, they perform that service, whilst he stays there, which they are called upon to do: Let all the Angels of God worship him; and in judgement, when the Son of man shall come in his glory, all the holy Angels shall be with him: in every point of that great compass, in every arch, in every section of that great circle, of which no man knows the Diameter, how long it shall be from Christs first coming to his second, visus ab Angelis, he was seen, he was visited, he was waited upon by the Angels. But there is more intended in this, then so.

Christ was seen of the Angels, otherwise now, then ever before: something was revealed to the Angels themselves concerning Christ, which they knew not before; at least, not so as they knew it now. For, all the Angels do not always know all things: if they had, there would have been no dissention, no strife, no difference between the two Angels; the Angel of Persia would not have withstood the other Angel 21 days; neither would have resisted Gods purpose, if both had known it; S. Dionyse, who considers the names, and natures, and places, and apprehensions of Angels, most of any, observes of the highest orders of Angels, Ordin. supremi ad Jesu aspectum haesitabant; the highest of the highest orders of Angels, were amazed at Christs coming up in the Flesh; it was a new and unexpected thing to see Christ come thither, in that manner. There they say with amazement, Quis iste? Who is this that cometh from Edom, with died garments from Bozrah? And Christ answers there, Ego, it is I, I that speak in righteousness, I that am mighty to save. The Angels reply, Wherefore are thy garments red, like him that treadeth the wine-press? and Christ gives them satisfaction, calcavi; You mistake not the matter, I have trodden the wine-press; and calcavi solus, I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me. The Angels then knew not this, not all this, not all the particulars of this, The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man: the Angels knew it in general; for, it was commune quoddam principium; it was the general mark, to which all their service, as they were ministering spirits, was directed. But for particulars, as amongst the Prophets, some of the later understood more then the former (I understand more then the ancients, says David) and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets, even of those things which they had prophesied, (this Mystery in other ages was not made known, as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles;) so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ, since Christ came, in another manner then before. And this may be that which S. Paul intends, when he says, that he was made a Minister of the Gospel, To the intent, that now, unto principalities and powers, in heavenly places, might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church, expresses it so, That the Angels desire to look into it. Which is not only that which S. Augustine says, Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis, That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion, from before all beginnings, and that by the Church, Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis, in Deo apparuit; Because they saw in God the future Church, from before all beginnings; but even in the propagation and administration of the Church, they see many things now, which distinctly, effectually, experimentally, as they do now, they could not see before. And so, to this purpose, Visus in nobis, Christ is seen by the Angels, in us and our conversation now. Spectaculum sumus, says the Apostle; We are made a spectacle to men and angels. The word is there Theatrum, and so S. Jerome reads it: And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well, which even the Angels desire to see well acted. Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so, think in the name of God, that he hath a particular tutelar Angel, that will do him no harm to think so: And let him that thinks not so, yet think, that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children, and to the joy of the Angels themselves, and to the glory of God; the Angels do see mens particular actions: and then, if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity, if her servant were by to testify it; nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear, if his friends were by to testify it; if thou canst slumber in thy self, that main consideration, That the eye of God is always open, and always upon thee; yet have a little religious civility, and holy respect, even to those Angels that see thee: That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now, sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father; all sweat wiped from his Brows, and all tears from his Eyes; all his Stripes healed, all his Blood stanched, all his Wounds shut up, and all his Beauty returned there; when they look down hither, to see the same Christ in thee, may not see him scourged again, wounded, torn and mangled again, in thy blasphemings, nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation: Visus ab Angelis, he was seen of the Angels, in himself, whilst he was here: and he is seen in his Saints upon earth, by Angels now; and shall be so to the end of the world: Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles: which is the next branch; Predicatus gentibus, he was preached to the Gentiles.

Mercy and truth meet together, says David: every where in Gods proceedings, they meet together; but no where closer, then in calling the Gentiles. Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God: wherein consisted that truth? to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, says the Apostle there, and that's to the Jews: but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision only for that, only for the truth? No: Truth and Mercy meet together, as it follows there; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. The Jews were a holy Nation; that was their addition; Gens Sancta; but the addition of the Gentiles, was peccatores, sinners: we are Jews by nature, and not of the Gentiles, sinners, says S. Paul: He that touched the Jews, touched the apple of Gods eye; And for their sakes, God rebuked Kings, and said, Touch not mine Anointed: but upon the Gentiles, not only dereliction, but indignation, and consternation, and devastation, and extermination, every where interminated, inflicted every where, and every where multiplied: The Jews had all kind of assurance and ties upon God; both Law, and Custom; they both prescribed in God, and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance; by a conveyance written in their flesh, in Circumcision; and the counterpane written in his flesh; I have graven thy name in the palms of my hands: But for the Gentiles, they had none of this assurance: When they were without Christ (says the Apostle) having no hope (that is, no covenant to ground a hope upon) ye were without God in this world. To contemplate God himself, and not in Christ, is to be without God. And then, for Christ to be preached to such as these, to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jews, & rise at midnight to the Antipodes, to the Gentiles, this was such an abundant, such a superabundant mercy, as might seem almost to be above the bargain, above the contract, between Christ and his Father; more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood, and the reward of his Death: for when God said, I will declare my decree; That is, what I intended to give him, which is expressed thus, I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion; which seems to concern the Jews only: God adds then, Postula a me, petition to me, make a new suit to me; & dabo tibi gentes: I will give thee not only the Jews, but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce: And therefore laetentur gentes, says David, Let the Gentiles rejoice; and we in them, that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand, and received us: And Laetentur insulae, says that Prophet too, Let the Islands rejoice; and we in them, that he hath raised us out of the Sea, out of the ocean sea, that over-flowed all the world with ignorance; and out of the Mediterranean Sea, that hath flowed into so many other lands; the sea of Rome, the sea of Superstition.

There was then a great mercy in that, Predicatus gentibus, that he was preached to the Gentiles; but the great power is in the next, Creditus mundo, that he was believed in the world. We have a Calling in our Church; that makes us Preachers: and we have Canons in our Church; that makes us preach: and we bring a Duty, and find favor; that makes us preach here: There is a power here, that makes bills of Preachers: But in whose power is it to make bills of Believers? Oportet accedentem credere, says S. Paul, He that comes hither should believe before he comes: But, Benedictus sis egrediens, says Moses, God bless you with the power of believing, when you go from hence: where S. James says, You deceive your selves, if you be hearers, and not doers; How far do you deceive your selves, if you come not half way, if you be hearers, and not believers? Tiberius, who spoke all upon disguises, took it ill, if he were believed: he that was crucified under Tiberius, who always speaks clearly, takes it worse, if he be not believed; for, he hath reduced all to the Tantummodo crede, only believe, and thou art safe: if we take it higher or lower; either above, in hearing only, or below, in working only, we may miss. It is not enough to hear Sermons; it is not enough to live a moral honest life; but take it in the midst, and that extends to all; for there is no believing without hearing, nor working without believing. Be pleased to consider this great work of believing, in the matter, what it was that was to be believed: That that Jesus, whose age they knew, must be antidated so far, as that they must believe him to be elder then Abraham: That that Jesus, whose Father and Mother, and Brothers and Sisters, they knew, must be believed to be of another Family, and to have a Father in another place; and yet he to be as old as his Father; And to have another proceeding from him, and yet he to be no older then that person who proceeded from him: That that Jesus, whom they knew to be that Carpenters Son, and knew his work, must be believed to have set up a frame, that reached to heaven, out of which no man could, and in which any man might be saved: was it not as easy to believe, that those tears which they saw upon his cheeks, were Pearls; that those drops of Blood, which they saw upon his back, were Rubies: That that spittle, which they saw upon his face, was ennamel: that those hands which they saw buffet him, were reached out to place him in a Throne: And that that Voice which they heard cry, Crucifige, Crucify him, was a Vivat Rex, Long live Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews; As to believe, that from that man, that worm, and no man, ingloriously traduced as a Conjurer, ingloriously apprehended as a Thief, ingloriously executed a Traytor; they should look for glory, and all glory, and everlasting glory? And from that melancholic man, who was never seen to laugh in all his life, and whose soul was heavy unto death; they should look for joy, and all joy, and everlasting joy: And for salvation, and everlasting salvation from him, who could not save himself from the Ignominy, from the Torment, from the Death of the Cross? If any State, if any Convocation, if any wise Man had been to make a Religion, a Gospel; would he not have proposed a more probable, a more credible Gospel, to mans reason, then this? Be pleased to consider it in the manner too: it must be believed by preaching, by the foolishness of preaching, says the Apostle; by a few men, that could give no strength to it; by ignorant men, that could give no reason for it; by poor men, that could give no pensions, nor preferments in it: That this should be believed, and believed thus, and believed by the world, the world that knew him not; He was in the word, and the world knew him not: the world that hated them, who would make them know him; I have chosen you, says Christ, and therefore the world hateth you: That then when Mundus totus in maligno positus, the world, and all the world, not only was, but was laid in malignity and opposition against Christ; That then the world, and all the world, the world of Ignorance, and the world of Pride, should believe the Gospel; that then the Nicodemus, the learned and the powerful man of the world, should stand out no longer, but to that one Problem, Quomodo, How can a man be born again that is old; and presently believe, that a man might be born again even at the last gasp: That then they which followed him, should stand no longer upon their durus sermo, that it was a hard saying, that they must eat his Flesh, and drink his Blood, and presently believe that there was no salvation, except they did eat and drink that Flesh and Blood: That Mary Magdelene, who was not only tempted (is there any that is not so?) but overcom with the temptations (and how many are so!) and possessed, and possessed with seven Devils, should presently hearken after the powerful charm of the Gospel, and presently believe that she should be welcom into his arms, after all her prostitutions: that the world, this world, all this world, should believe this, and believe it thus; This was the Apostles Altitudo divitiarum, the depth of the riches of Gods wisdom: And this is his Longitudo, and Latitudo, the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, which no man can comprehend. Theudas rose up, dicens se esse aliquem, he said he was some body; and he proved no body. Simon Magus rose up, Dicens se esse aliquem magnum, saying, he was some great body; and he proved as little. Christ Jesus rose up, and said himself not to be some body, nor some great body; but that there was no body else, no other name given under Heaven, whereby we should be saved; and was believed. And therefore, if any man think to destroy this general, by making himself a woeful instance to the contrary; Christ is not believed in all the world, for I never believed in Christ; so poor an objection, requires no more answer, but that that will still be true in the general; Man is a reasonable creature, though he be an unreasonable man.

Now when he was thus preached to the Gentiles, and thus believed in the world, that is, means thus established, for believing in him, he had done all that he had to do here, and therefore, Receptus in gloria, he was received into glory: He was received, assumed, taken; therefore he did not vanish away; he had no airy, no imaginary, no fantastical body; he was true man: and then he was received, re-assumed, taken again, and so was in glory before; and therefore was true God. This which we are fain to call glory, is an inexpressible thing, and an incommunicable: Surely I will not give my glory unto another, says God, in Isaiah. We find great Titles attributed to, and assumed by Princes, both Spiritual and Temporal: Celsitudo vestra, & vestra Majestas, is daily given, and duly given amongst us: and Sanctitas vestra, & vestra beatitudo, is given amongst others. Aben-Ezra, and some other Rabbis mistake this matter so much, as to deny that any person in the old Testament ever speaks of himself in the plural number, Nos, We: That's mistaken by them; for there are Examples. But it is more mistaken in practise, by the Generals, nay Provincials of some Orders of Fryars, when they sign and subscribe in form and stile of Princes, Nos Frater, We Fryar N. &c. It is not hard to name some, that have taken to themselves the addition of Divus in their life-time; a stile so high, as that Bellarmine denies that it appertains to any Saint in heaven: and yet these men have canonized themselves, without the consent of Rome; and yet remained good Sons of that Mother too: We shall find in ancient stiles, that high addition, Eternitas nostra, Our Eternity: and not only in ancient, but in our own days, another equal to that, given to a particular Cardinal, Numen Vestrum, Your Godhead. We find a Letter in Baronius, to a Pope, from a King of Britain (and so Baronius leaves it, and does not tell us which Britain; he could have been content to have had it thought ours; but he that hath abridged his Book, hath abridged his Britain too, there it is Britania minor: But he was a King, and therefore had power, if he filled his place; and wisdom too, if he answered his name; for his name was Solomon) and this King we find reduced to this lowness, as that he writes to that Bishop, Adrian 2. in that stile, Precor omnipotentiam Dignitatis vestrae: he gives him the Title of God, Almighty. But two or three years before, he was far from it; then, when he writ, he placed his own name above the Popes: but it is a slippery declination, if it be not a precipitation, to come at all under him: great Titles have been taken, Ambition goes far; and great given, Flattery goes as far; greater then this in the Text, perchance have; but it hath not fallen within my narrow reading, and observation, that ever Prince took, that ever subject gave this Title, Gloria nostra, or vestra; May it please your Glory, or, It hath seemed good to our Glory. Glory be to God on high; and glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and no more. As long as that scurff, that leprosy sticks to every thing in this world, Vanitas, Vanitatum, that all is vanity; can any glory in any thing of this world, be other then vain-glory? What Title of Honor hath any man had in any State, in Court, that some prison in that State hath not had men of that Title in it? Nay, what Title hath any Heralds Book, that Lucifers Book hath not? Or who can be so great in this World, but that as great as he have perished in the next? As it is not good for men to eat much honey; so, for men to search their own glory, is not glory. Crowns are the Emblems of Glory; and Kings out of their abundant Greatness and Goodness, derive and distribute Crowns to Persons of Title; and by those Crowns, and those Titles, they are Consanguinei Regis, the Kings Cousins. Christ Jesus is crowned with glory in Heaven, and he sheds down Coronets upon you; Honor, and Blessings here, that you might be Consanguinei Regis; contract a spiritual Kindred with that King, and be idem Spiritus cum Domino, as inseparable from his Father, as he himself is. The glory of Gods Saints in Heaven, is not so much to have a Crown, as to lay down that Crown at the Feet of the Lamb. The glory of good men here upon earth, is not so much to have Honor, and Favor, and Fortune, as to employ those Beams of Glory, to his glory that gave them. In our poor calling, God hath given us grace; but grace for grace, as the Apostle says, that is, grace to derive, and convey, and seal grace to you. To those of higher Rank, God hath given glory; and glory for glory; glory therefore to glorify him, in a care of his glory. And because he dwells in luce inaccessibili, in a glorious light which you cannot see here; glorify him in that wherein you may see him, in that wherein he hath manifested himself; glorify him in his glorious Gospel: employ your Beams of Glory, Honor, Favor, Fortune, in transmitting his Gospel in the same glory to your Children, as you received it from your Fathers: for in this consists this Mystery of Godliness, which is, Faith with a pure Conscience: And in this lies your best Evidence, That you are already co-assumed with Christ Jesus into glory, by having so laid an unremoveable hold upon that Kingdom which he hath purchased for you, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible Blood. To which glorious Son of God, &c.

A Lent-Sermon Preached to the King, Serm. 5. At White-Hall, February 12. 1629. Sermon V.

MAT. 6.21.

For, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also.

I Have seen Minute-glasses; Glasses so short-lived. If I were to preach upon this Text, to such a glass, it were enough for half the Sermon; enough to show the worldly man his Treasure, and the Object of his heart (for, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also) to call his eye to that Minute-glass, and to tell him, There flows, there flies your Treasure, and your Heart with it. But if I had a Secular Glass, a Glass that would run an age; if the two Hemispheres of the World were composed in the form of such a Glass, and all the World calcined and burnt to ashes, and all the ashes, and sands, and atoms of the World put into that Glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man what his Treasure, and the Object of his Heart is. A Parrot, or a Stare, docile Birds, and of pregnant imitation, will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisdom of a Council Table, then any Ambrose, or any Chrysostom, Men that have Gold and Honey in their Names, shall tell us what the Sweetness, what the Treasure of Heaven is, and what that mans peace, that hath set his Heart upon that Treasure. As Nature hath given us certain Elements, and all Bodies are composed of them; and Art hath given us a certain Alphabet of Letters, and all Words are composed of them: so, our blessed Savior, in these three Chapters of this Gospel, hath given us a Sermon of Texts, of which, all our Sermons may be composed. All the Articles of our Religion, all the Canons of our Church, all the Injunctions of our Princes, all the Homilies of our Fathers, all the Body of Divinity, is in these three Chapters, in this one Sermon in the Mount: Where, as the Preacher concludes his Sermon with Exhortations to practice, (whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them) so he fortifies his Sermon, with his own practice, (which is a blessed and a powerful method) for, as soon as he came out of the Pulpit, as soon as he came down from the Mount, he cured the first Leper he saw, and that, without all vain-glory: for he forbad him to tell any man of it.

Of this Noble Body of Divinity, one fair Limb is in this Text, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Immediately before, our blessed Savior had forbidden us the laying up of Treasure in this world, upon this Reason, That here moths and rust corrupt, and thieves break in, and steal. There, the reason is, because the Money may be lost; but here, in our Text it is, because the Man may be lost: for where your Treasure is, there your Heart will be also: So that this is equivalent to that, What profit to gain the whole world, and loose a mans own soul? Our Text therefore stands as that Proverbial, that Hieroglyphical Letter, Pythagoras his Y; that hath first a stalk, a stem to fix it self, and then spreads into two Beams. The stem, the stalk of this Letter, this Y, is in the first word of the Text, that Particle of argumentation, For: Take heed where you place your Treasure: for it concerns you much, where your Heart be placed; and, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also. And then opens this Symbolical, this Catechistical Letter, this Y, into two Horns, two Beams, two Branches; one broader, but on the left hand, denoting the Treasures of this World; the other narrower, but on the right hand, Treasure laid up for the World to come. Be sure ye turn the right way: for, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also.

First then, We bind our selves to the stake, to the stalk, to the staff, the stem of this Symbolical Letter, and consider in it, That firmness and fixation of the Heart, which God requires. God requires no unnatural things at mans hand: Whatsoever God requires of man, man may find imprinted in his own nature, written in his own heart. This firmness then, this fixation of the heart, is natural to man: Every man does set his heart upon something: and Christ in this place does not so much call upon him, that he would do so, set his heart upon something; as to be sure that he set it upon the right Object. And yet truly, even this first work, to recollect our selves, to recapitulate our selves, to assemble and muster our selves, and to bend our hearts entirely and intensly, directly, earnestly, emphatically, energetically, upon something, is, by reason of the various fluctuation of our corrupt nature, and the infinite multiplicity of Objects, such a Work as man needs to be called upon, and excited to do it. Therefore is there no word in the Scriptures so often added to the heart, as that of entireness; Toto Corde, Omni Corde, Pleno Corde: Do this with all thine heart, with a whole heart, with a full heart: for whatsoever is indivisible, is immoveable; a Point, because it cannot be divided, cannot be moved: the Centre, the Poles, God himself, because he is indivisible, is therefore immoveable. And when the heart of man is knit up in such an entireness upon one Object, as that it does not scatter, nor sub-divide it self; then, and then only is it fixed. And that's the happiness in which David fixes himself; not in his Cor paratum, My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared; (for so it may be, prepared even by God himself, and yet scattered and subdivided by us:) But, in his Cor fixum, My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; Awake my glory, awake my Psaltery and Harp: I my self will awake early, and praise thee, O Lord, among the people. A Triumph that David returned to more then once: for he repeats the same words, with the same pathetical earnestness again. So that his Glory, his Victory, his Triumph, his Peace, his Acquiescence, his All-sufficiency in himself, consisted in this, That his heart was fixed: for this fixation of the heart, argued and testified an entireness in it. When God says, Fili, da mihi Cor; My Son, give me thy heart; God means, the whole man. Though the Apostle say, The eye is not the man, nor the ear is not the man; he does not say, The heart is not the man: the heart is the man; the heart is all: and, as Moses was not satisfied with that Commission that Pharaoh offered him, That all the men might go to offer sacrifice; but Moses would have all their young, and all their old; all their sons, and all their daughters; all their flocks, and all their herds; he would have all: So, when Gods says, Fili, da mihi Cor, My Son, give me thy heart, God will not be satisfied with the eye, if I contemplate him in his Works: (for that's but the godliness of the natural man) nor satisfied with the ear, with hearing many Sermons: (for that's but a new invention, a new way of making Beads, if, as the Papist thinks all done, if he have said so many Aves, I think all done, if I have heard so many Sermons.) But God requires the heart, the whole man, all the faculties of that man: for only that that is entire, and indivisible, is immovable; and that that God calls for, and we seek for, in this stem of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter, is this immovableness, this fixation of the heart. And yet, even against this, though it be natural, there are many impediments: We shall reduce them to a few; to three; these three. First, there is Cor nullum, a meer Heartlesness, no Heart at all, Incogitancy, Inconsideration: and then there is Cor & Cor, Cor duplex, a double Heart, a doubtful, a distracted Heart; which is not Incogitancy, nor Inconsideration, but Perplexity and Irresolution: and lastly, Cor vagum, a wandering, a way faring, a weary Heart; which is neither Inconsideration, nor Irresolution, but Inconstancy. And this is a Trinity against our Unity; three Enemies to that fixation and entireness of the Heart, which God loves: Inconsideration, when we do not Debate; Irresolution, when we do not Determine; Inconstancy, when we do not Persevere: and upon each of these, be pleased to stop your Devotion, a few minutes.

The first is, Cor nullum, no Heart at all, Incogitancy, Thoughtlessness. An idle body, is a disease in a State; an idle soul, is a monster in a man. That body that will not work, must not eat, but starve: that soul that does not think, not consider, cannot be said to actuate, (which is the proper operation of the soul) but to evaporate; not to work in the body, but to breath, and smoke through the body. We have seen Estates of private men wasted by Inconsideration, as well as by Riot; and a soul may perish by a thoughtlessness, as well as by ill thoughts: God takes it as ill to be slighted, as to be injured: and God is as much slighted in Corde nullo, in our thoughtlessness and inconsideration, as he is opposed and provoked in Corde maligno, in a rebellious Heart. There is a good nullification of the heart, a good bringing of the heart to nothing. For the fire of Gods Spirit may take hold of me, and (as the Disciples that went with Christ to Emmaus, were affected) my heart may burn within me, when the Scriptures are opened, that is, when Gods Judgements are denounced against my Sin; and this heat may overcome my former frigidity and coldness, and overcome my succeeding tepidity and lukewarmness, and may bring my heart to a mollification, to a tenderness, as Job found it; The Almighty hath troubled me, and made my heart soft: for there are hearts of clay, as well as hearts of wax; hearts, whom these fires of God, his Corrections, harden. But if these fires of his, these denunciations of his judgements, have overcome first my coldness, and then my lukewarmness, and made my heart soft for better impressions; the work is well advanced, but it is not all done: for Metal may be soft, and yet not fusil; Iron may be red hot, and yet not apt to run into another mold. Therefore there is a liquefaction, a melting, a pouring out of the heart, such as Rahab speaks of, to Joshua's Spies; (As soon as we heard how miraculously God had proceeded in your behalf, in drying up Jordan, all our hearts melted within us, and no man had any spirit left in him.) And when upon the consideration of Gods miraculous Judgements or Mercies, I come to such a melting and pouring out of my heart, that there be no spirit, that is, none of mine own spirit left in me; when I have so exhausted, so evacuated my self, that is, all confidence in my self, that I come into the hands of my God, as pliably, as ductily, as that first clod of earth, of which he made me in Adam, was in his hands, in which clod of earth, there was no kind of reluctation against Gods purpose; this is a blessed nullification of the heart. When I say to my self, as the Apostle professed of himself, I am nothing; and then say to God, Lord, though I be nothing, yet behold, I present thee as much as thou hadst to make the whole world of; O Thou that mad'st the whole world of nothing, make me, that am nothing in mine own eyes, a new Creature in Christ Jesus: This is a blessed nullification, a glorious annihilation of the heart. So is there also a blessed nullification thereof, in the contrition of heart, in the sense of my sins; when, as a sharp wind may have worn out a Marble Statue, or a continual spout worn out a Marble Pavement, so, my holy tears, made holy in his Blood that gives them a tincture, and my holy sighs, made holy in that Spirit that breathes them in me, have worn out my Marble Heart, that is, the Marbleness of my heart, and emptied the room of that former heart, and so given God a Vacuity, a new place to create a new heart in. But when God hath thus created a new heart, that is, re-enabled me, by his Ordinance, to some holy function, then, to put this heart to nothing, to think nothing, to consider nothing; not to know our age, but by the Church-Book, and not by any action done in the course of our lives, for our God, for our Prince, for our Country, for our Neighbor, for our Selves, (our selves are our souls;) not to know the seasons of the year, but by the fruits which we eat, and not by observation of the Public and National Blessings, which he hath successively given us; not to know Religion, but by the Conveniency, and the Preferments to be had in this, or in the other side; to sit here, and not to know if we be asked upon a surprize, whether it were a Prayer, or a Sermon, or an Anthem that we heard last; this is such a nullification of the heart, such an annihilation, such an exinanition thereof, as reflects upon God himself: for, Respuit datorem, qui datum deserit, He that makes no use of a Benefit, despises the Benefactor. And therefore, A rod for his back, qui indiget Corde, that is without a heart, without consideration what he should do; nay, what he does. For this is the first Enemy of this firmness and fixation of the heart, without which, we have no treasure; And we have done with that, Cor nullum, and pass to the second, Cor & Cor, Cor duplex, the double, the divided, the distracted heart, which is not Inconsideration, but Irresolution.

This Irresolution, this Perplexity is intended in that Commination from God, The Lord shall give them a trembling heart: this is not that Cor nullum, that melted heart, in which There was no spirit left in them, as in Joshua's time; but Cor pavidum, a heart that should not know where to settle, nor what to wish; but, as it follows there, In the morning he shall say, Would God it were evening; and in the evening, Would God it were morning. And this is that which Solomon may have intended in his Prayer, Give thy servant an understanding heart: Cor Docile, so S. Jerome reads it, A heart able to conceive counsel: for that's a good disposition, but it is not all: for, the Original is, Leb shemmeany, that is, Cor audiens, A heart willing to hearken to Counsel. But all that, is not all that is asked; Solomon asks there a heart to discern between good and evil; so that it is a Prayer for the spirit of Discretion, of Conclusion, of Resolution; that God would give him a heart willing to receive Counsel, and a heart capable to conceive and digest Counsel, and a heart able to discern between Counsel and Counsel, and to Resolve, Conclude, Determine. It were a strange ambitious patience in any man, to be content to be racked every day, in hope to be an inch or two taller at last: so is it for me, to think to be a dram or two wiser, by hearkening to all jealousies, and doubts, and distractions, and perplexities, that arise in my Bosom, or in my Family; which is the rack and torture of the soul. A spirit of Contradiction may be of use in the greatest Counsels; because thereby matters may be brought into farther debatement. But a spirit of contradiction in mine own Bosom, to be able to conclude nothing, resolve nothing, determine nothing, not in my Religion, not in my Manners, but occasionally, and upon Emergencies; this is a sickly complexion of the soul, a dangerous impotency, and a shrewd and ill-presaging Crisis. If Joshua had suspended his assent of serving the Lord, till all his Neighbours, and their Families, all the Kings and Kingdoms about him, had declared theirs the same way, when would Joshua have come to that protestation, I and my house will serve the Lord? If Esther had forborn to press for an audience to the King, in the behalf, and for the life of her Nation, till nothing could have been said against it, when would Esther have come to that protestation, I will go; and if I perish, I perish? If one Milstone fell from the North-Pole, and another from the South, they would meet, and they would rest in the Centre; Nature would con-centre them. Not to be able to con-centre those doubts, which arise in my self, in a resolution at last, whether in Moral or in Religious Actions, is rather a vertiginous giddiness, then a wise circumspection, or wariness. When God prepared great Armies, it is expressed always so, Tanquam unus vir, Israel went out, as one man. When God established his beloved David to be King, it is expressed so; Uno Corde, He sent them out, with one heart, to make David king. When God accelerated the propagation of his Church, it is expressed so; Una Anima, The multitude of them that believed, were of one heart, and one soul. Since God makes Nations, and Armies, and Churches One heart, let not us make one heart two, in our selves; a divided, a distracted, a perplexed, an irresolved heart: but in all cases, let us be able to say to our selves, This we should do. God asks the heart, a single heart, an entire heart; for, whilst it is so, God may have some hope of it. But when it is a heart and a heart, a heart for God, and a Heart for Mammon, howsoever it may seem to be even, the odds will be on Mammons side against God; because he presents Possessions, and God but Reversions; he the present and possessory things of this world, God but the future, and speratory things of the next. So then, the Cor nullum, no heart, Thoughtlessness, Incogitancy, Inconsideration; and the Cor duplex, the perplexed, and irresolved, and inconclusive heart, do equally oppose this firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves, and which we consider in this stem and stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter: And so does that which we proposed for the Third, The Cor Vagum, The Wandering, the Wayfaring, the Inconstant Heart.

Many times, in our private Actions, and in the cribration and sifting of our Consciences, (for that's the Sphere I move in, and no higher) we do overcome the first difficulty, Inconsideration; we consider seriously: and sometimes the second, Irresolution; we resolve confidently: but never the third, Inconstancy: if so far, as to bring holy Resolutions into Actions; yet never so far, as to bring holy Actions into Habits. That word which we read Deceitful, (The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it? ) is in the Original, Gnacob; and that is, not only Fraudulentum, but Versipelle, deceitful because it varies it self into divers forms; so that it does not only deceive others (others find not our heart the same towards them to day, that it was yesterday) but it deceives our selves; we know not what, nor where our heart will be hereafter. Upon those words of Isaiah, Redite prevaricators ad Cor; Return, O sinner, to thy heart: Long eos mittit, says S. Gregory, God knows whither that sinner is sent, that is sent to his own heart: for, Where is thy heart? Thou mayst remember where it was yesterday; at such an Office, at such a Chamber: But yesterdays affections are changed to day, as to days will be, to morrow. They have despised my judgements; so God complains in Ezekiel; that is, They are not moved with my punishments; they call all, natural accidents: and then it follows, They have polluted my sabbaths; they are come to a more faint, and dilute, and indifferent way, in their Religion. Now what hath occasioned this neglecting of Gods judgements, and this diluteness and indifferency in the ways of Religion? That that follows there, Their hearts went after their Idols: Went? Whither? Every whither: for, Quot vitia tot recentes deos; so many habitual Sins, so many Idols: And so, every man hath some Idol, some such Sin; and then, that Idol sends him to a further Idol, that Sin to another: for, every Sin needs the assistance, and countenance of another sin, for disguise and palliation. We are not constant in our Sins, much less in our more holy Purposes. We complain, and justly, of the Church of Rome, that she would not have us receive in utraque, in both kinds: But, alas! who amongst us, does receive in utraque, so, as that when he receives Bread and Wine, he receives with a true sorrow for former, and a true resolution against future sins? Except the Lord of heaven create new hearts in us, of our selves, we have Cor nullum, no heart; all vanishes into Incogitancy. Except the Lord of heaven con-centre our affections, of our selves, we have Cor & Cor, a cloven, a divided heart, a heart of Irresolution. Except the Lord of heaven fix our Resolutions, of our selves, we have Cor vagum, a various, a wandering heart; all smoaks into Inconstancy. And all these three are Enemies to that firmness, and fixation of the heart, which God loves, and we seek after. But yet how variously soever the heart do wander, and how little a while soever it stay upon one Object; yet, that that thy heart does stay upon, Christ in this place calls thy Treasure: for, the words admit well that inversion; Where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also, implies this; Where your Heart is, that is your Treasure. And so we pass from this stem and stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter, The firmness and fixation of the Heart, to the Horns and Beams thereof: A broader, (but on the left hand) and in that, the corruptible treasures of this world; and a narrower, (but on the right hand) and in that, the everlasting Treasures of the next. On both sides, that that you fix your Heart upon, is your Treasure: For, where your Heart is, there is your Treasure also.

Literally, primarily, radically, Thesaurus, Treasure, is no more but Depositum in Crastinum, Provision for to morrow; to show how little a proportion, a regulated mind, and a contented heart may make a Treasure. But we have enlarged the signification of these words, Provision, and, To morrow: for, Provision must signify all that can any way be compassed; and, To morrow must signify as long as there shall be a to morrow, till time shall be no more: But waving these infinite Extensions, and Perpetuities, is there any thing of that nature, as, (taking the word Treasure in the narrowest signification, to be but Provision, for to morrow) we are sure shall last till to morrow? Sits any man here in an assurance, that he shall be the same to morrow, that he is now? You have your Honours, your Offices, your Possessions, perchance under Seal; a Seal of Wax; Wax, that hath a tenacity, an adhering, a cleaving nature, to show the Royal Constancy of His Heart, that gives them, and would have them continue with you, and stick to you. But then, Wax, if it be heat, hath a melting, a fluid, a running nature too: so have these Honours, and Offices, and Possessions, to them that grow too hot, too confident in them, or too imperious by them. For these Honours, and Offices, and Possessions, you have a Seal, a fair and just evidence of assurance; but have they any Seal upon you, any assurance of you till to morrow? Did our blessed Savior give day, or any hope of a to morrow, to that man, to whom he said, Fool, this night they fetch away thy soul? Or is there any of us, that can say, Christ said not that to him?

But yet, a Treasure every man hath: An evil man, out of the evil Treasure of his Heart, bringeth forth that which is evil, says our Savior: Every man hath some sin upon which his heart is set; and, Where your Heart is, there is your Treasure also. The treasures of wickedness profit nothing, says Job; 'Tis true: But yet, Treasures of wickedness there are. Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? consider the force of that word, yet; yet, though you have the power of a vigilant Prince executed by just Magistrates; yet, though you have the Piety of a Religious Prince, seconded by the assiduity of a laborious Clergy; yet, though you have many helps, which your Fathers did, and your Neighbours do want, and have (by Gods grace) some fruits of those many helps; yet, for all this, Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? No? Are there not scant measures? which are an abomination to God, says the Prophet there; which are not only false measures of Merchandize, but false measures of Men: for, when God says that, he intends all this; Is there not yet supplantation in Court, and mis-representations of men? When Solomon, who understood subdordination of places which flowed from him, as well as the highest, which himself possest, says, and says experimentally for his own, and prophetically for future times, If a Ruler (a man in great place) hearken to lyes, all his servants are wicked: Are there not yet mis-representations of men in Courts? Is there not yet Oppression in the Country? A starving of men, and pampering of dogs? A swallowing of the needy? A buying of the poor for a pair of shoos, and a selling to the hungry refuse corn? Is there not yet Oppression in the Country? Is there not yet Extortion in Westminster? A justifying of the wicked for a reward, and a taking away of the righteousness of the righteous from him? Is there not yet Extortion in Westminster? Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City? Would they not seem richer then they are, when they deal in private Bargains with one another? And would they not seem poorer then they are, when they are called to contribute for the Public? Have they not increased their riches by Trade, and lifted up their hearts upon the increase of their riches? Have they not slackened their trade, and layn down upon clothes laid to pledge, and ennobled themselves by an ignoble and lazy way of gain? Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City? Is there not yet Hypocrisy in the Church? In all parts thereof? Half preachings, and half hearings? Hearings and preachings without practise? Have we not national sins of our own, and yet exercise the nature of Islanders, in importing the Sins of foreign Parts? And though we better no foreign Commodity, nor Manufacture that we bring in, we improve the sins of other Nations; and, as a weaker Grape growing upon the Rhene, contracts a stronger nature in the Canaries; so do the sins of other Nations transplanted amongst us. Have we not secular sins, sins of our own age, our own time, and yet sin by precedent of former, as well as create precedents for future? And, not only Silver and Gold, but Vessels of Iron and Brass, were brought into the Treasury of the Lord; not only the glorious sins of high places, and National sins, and secular sins; But the wretchedest Begger in the street, contributes to this Treasure, the Treasure of sin; and to this mischievous use, to increase this Treasure, the Treasure of sin, is a Subsidy man. He begs in Jesus Name, and for Gods sake; and in the same Name, curses him that does not give. He counterfeits a lameness, or he loves his lameness, and would not be cured; for, his lameness is his Stock, it is his Demean, it is (as they call their Occupations in the City) his Mystery. Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, when even they, who have no Houses, but lie in the Streets, have these Treasures?

There are: And then, as the nature of Treasure is to multiply, so does this Treasure, this Treasure of sin; It produces another Treasure, Thesaurizamus iram, We treasure up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath: for, it is of the sins of the people that God speaks, when he says, Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up amongst my treasures? He treasures up the sins of the disobedient: But where? In the Treasury of his judgements. And then, that Treasury he opens against us in this world, his Treasures of Snow, and Treasures of Hail, that is, Unseasonableness of Weather, Barrenness and Famine; and he bringeth his winds out of his Treasury, contrary winds, or storms and tempests, to disappoint our purposes; and, as he says to Cyrus, I will give thee (even thee Cyrus, though God cared not for Cyrus, otherwise then as he had made Cyrus his scourge) I will give thee the Treasures of darkness, and the hidden Treasures of secret places. God will enable Enemies (though he loves not those Enemies) to afflict that people that love not him. And these, War, and Dearth, and Sickness, are the Weapons of Gods displeasure; and these he pours out of his Treasury, in this world. But then, for the world to come, He shall open his treasury, (for, whatsoever moved our Translators to render that word, Armory, and not Treasury, in that place, yet evidently it is Treasury, and in that very word, Otzar, which they translate Treasury, in all those places of Job, and David, and Isaiah, which we mentioned before, and in all other places) He shall open that Treasury, (says that Prophet) and bring forth the weapons, not as before, of Displeasure, but in a far heavier word, the weapons of his Indignation. And, in the Bowels and Treasury of his Mercy, let me beseech you, not to call the denouncing of Gods Indignation, a Satyr of a Poet, or an Invective of an Orator: As Solomon says, There is a time for all things; there is a time for Consternation of Presumptuous Hearts, as well as for Redintegration of Broken Hearts; and the time for that, is this time of Mortification, which we enter into, now. Now therefore, let me have leave to say, That the Indignation of God is such a thing, as a man would be afraid to think he can express it, afraid to think he does know it: for the knowledge of the Indignation of God, implies the sense and feeling thereof: all knowledge of that, is experimental; and that's a woeful way, and a miserable acquisition, and purchase of knowledge. To re-collect, Treasure is Provision for the future: No worldly thing is so; there is no certain future: for the things of this world pass from us; we pass from them; the world it self passes away to nothing. Yet a way we have found to make a treasure, a treasure of sin; and we teach God thrift and providence: for, when we arm, God arms too; when we make a treasure, God makes a treasure too; a treasure furnished with Weapons of Displeasure for this World, and Weapons of Indignation for the World to come. But then, As an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil; so, (says our Savior) the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good: Which is the last stroke that makes up Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter, that Horn, that Beam thereof, which lies on the right hand; a narrower way, but to a better Land; through Straights; 'tis true; but to the Pacifique Sea, The consideration of the treasure of the Godly Man in this World, and Gods treasure towards him, both in this, and the next.

Things dedicated to God, are called often, The treasures of God; Thesauri Dei, and Thesauri sanctorum Dei: the treasures of God, and the treasures of the servants of God, are, in the Scriptures, the same thing; and so a man may rob Gods treasury, in robbing an Hospital. Now, though to give a Talent, or to give a Jewel, or to give a considerable proportion of Plate, be an addition to a treasury; yet to give a treasury to a treasury, is a more precious, and a more acceptable present; as to give a Library to a Library, is more then to give the works of any one Author. A godly man is a Library in himself, a treasury in himself, and therefore fittest to be dedicated and appropriated to God. Invest thy self therefore with this treasure of Godliness: What is Godliness? Take it in the whole compass thereof, and Godliness is nothing but the fear of God: for, he that says in his first Chapter, Initium sapientiae, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; says also, in the 22. Finis Modestiae, The fear of God is the end of modesty; the end of humility: No man is bound to direct himself to any lower humiliation, then to the fear of God. When God promised good Ezekias all those Blessings, Wisdom, and Knowledge, and Stability, and Strength of Salvation; that that was to defray him, and carry him through all, was this, The fear of the Lord shall be his treasure. And therefore, Thesaurizate vobis fundamentum, Lay up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come. Do all in the fear of God: In all warlike preparations, remember the Lord of Hosts, and fear him; In all Treaties of Peace, remember the Prince of Peace, and fear him; In all Consultations, remember the Angel of the great Council, and fear him: fear God as much at Noon, as at Midnight; as much in the Glory and Splendor of his Sun-shine, as in his darkest Eclipses: fear God as much in thy Prosperity, as in thine Adversity; as much in thy Preferment, as in thy Disgrace. Lay up a thousand pound to day, in comforting that oppressed soul that sues; and lay up ten thousand pound to morrow, in paring his Nails that oppresses: Lay up a million one day, in taking Gods Cause to heart; and lay up ten millions next day, in taking Gods Cause in hand. Let every soul lay up a penny now, in resisting a small temptation; and a shilling anon, in resisting a greater; and it will grow to be a treasure, a treasure of Talents, of so many Talents, as that the poorest soul in the Congregation, would not change treasure with any Plate-Fleet, nor Terra-firma Fleet, nor with those three thousand millions, which (though it be perchance a greater sum then is upon the face of Europe, at this day, after a hundred years embowelling of the earth for treasure) David is said to have left for the treasure of the Temple, only to be laid up in the Treasury thereof, when it was built: for, the charge of the building thereof, was otherwise defrayed. Let your Conversation be in heaven: Cannot you get thither? You may see, as S. John did, Heaven come down to you: Heaven is here; here in Gods Church, in his Word, in his Sacraments, in his Ordinances; set thy heart upon them, The Promises of the Gospel, The Seals of Reconciliation, and thou hast that treasure which is thy Viaticum, for thy Transmigration out of this World, and thy Bill of Exchange for the World thou goest to. For, as the wicked make themselves a treasure of sin and vanity, and then God opens upon them a treasure of his Displeasure here, and his Indignation hereafter: So the Godly make themselves a treasure of the fear of God, and he opens unto them a treasure of Grace and Peace here, and a treasure of Joy and Glory hereafter. And when of each of these treasures, Here, and Hereafter, I shall have said one word, I have done.

We have treasure, though in earthen Vessels, says the Apostle. We have; that is, We have already the treasure of Grace, and Peace, and Faith, and Justification, and Sanctification: But yet, in earthen Vessels, in Vessels that may be broken; Peace that may be interrupted, Grace that may be resisted, Faith that may be enfeebled, Justification that may be suspected, and Sanctification that may be blemished. But we look for more; for Joy, and Glory; for such a Justification, and such a Sanctification, as shall be sealed, and riveted in a Glorification. Manna putrefied if it were kept by any man, but a day; but in the Ark, it never putrefied. That treasure, which is as Manna from Heaven, Grace, and Peace, yet, here, hath a brackish taste: when Grace, and Peace, shall become Joy and Glory in Heaven, there it will be sincere. Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur naturae, etsi in suo genere non sordidetur: Though in the nature thereof, that with which a purer Metal is mixed, be not base; yet, it abases the purer Metal. He puts his Example in Silver and Gold; Though Silver be a precious Metal, yet it abases Gold. Grace, and Peace, and Faith, are precious parts of our Treasure here; yet, if we mingle them, that is, compare them with the Joys, and Glory of Heaven; if we come to think, That our Grace, and Peace, and Faith here, can no more be lost, then our Joy and Glory there; we abase, and over-allay those Joys, and that Glory. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Treasure, says our Savior. But is that all? Is any Treasure like unto it? None: For, (to end where we begun) Treasure is Depositum in Crastinum, Provision for to morrow. The treasure of the worldly man is not so; He is not sure of any thing to morrow. Nay, the treasure of the Godly man is not so in this world; He is not sure, that this days Grace, and Peace, and Faith, shall be his to morrow. When I have Joy and Glory in Heaven, I shall be sure of that, to morrow. And that's a term long enough: for, before a to morrow, there must be a night; And shall there ever be a night in Heaven? No more then day in Hell. There shall be no Sun in Heaven; therefore no danger of a Sun-set. And for the treasure it self, when the Holy Ghost hath told us, That the Walls and Streets of the City are pure Gold, That the Foundations thereof are all precious Stones, and every Gate of an entire Pearl; what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us, what the treasure it self within is? The Treasure it self, is the Holy Ghost himself, and Joy in him. As the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son, but I know not how; so there shall something proceed from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and fall upon me, but I know not what. Nay, not fall upon me neither; but enwrap me, embrace me: for, I shall not be below them, so as that I shall not to be upon the same seat with the Son, at the right hand of the Father, in the Union of the Holy Ghost: Rectified by the Power of the Father, and feel no weakness; Enlightened by the Wisdom of the Son, and feel no scruple; Established by the Joy of the Holy Ghost, and feel no jealousy. Where I shall find the Fathers of the first Age, dead five thousand years before me; and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me. Where I shall find the blessed and glorious Martyrs, who went not per viam lacteam, but per viam sanguineam; not by the milky way of an Innocent Life, but by the bloody way of a Violent Death; and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own Right, or say, We came in by Purchase, and you but by Pardon. Where I shall find the Virgins, and not be despised by them, for not being so; but hear that Redintegration, which I shall receive in Christ Jesus, called Virginity, and Entireness. Where all tears shall be wiped from mine Eyes; not only tears of Compunction for my self, and tears of Compassion for others; but even tears of Joy, too: for, there shall be no sudden joy, no joy unexperienced there; There I shall have all joys, altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own Salvation, then of mine; nor I surer of the Everlastingness of my God, then of my Everlastingness in Him. This is that Treasure, of which the God of this Treasure, give us those Spangles; and that single Money, which this Mint can coin, this World can receive, that is, Prosperity, and a good use thereof, in worldly things; and Grace, and Peace, and Faith, in spiritual. And then reserve for us the Exaltation of this Treasure, in the Joy and Glory of Heaven, in the Mediation of his Son Christ Jesus, and by the Operation of his Blessed Spirit.

AMEN.

A Sermon Preached at White-Hall, April 21. 1616. Sermon VI.

ECCLES. 8.11.

Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, Therefore the heart of the children of men, is fully set in them, to do evil.

WE cannot take into our Meditation, a better Rule, then that of the Stoic, Nihil infaelicius faelicitate peccantium; There is no such unhappiness to a sinner, as to be happy; no such cross, as to have no crosses: nor can we take a better Example of that Rule, then Constantius the Arrian Emperor, in whose time first of all, the Cross of Christ suffered that profanation, as to be an Ensign of War, between Christian and Christian: When Magnentius by being an usurping Tyrant, and Constantius by being an Arrian Heretic, had forfeited their interest in the Cross of Christ, which is the Ensign of the universal Peace of this world, and the means of the eternal Peace of the next; both brought the Cross to cross the Cross, to be an Ensign of War, and of Hostility; both made that Cross, when the Father accepted for all mankind, the blood of Christ Jesus, to be an instrument for the sinful effusion of the blood of Christians. But when this Heretical Emperor had a Victory over this usurping Tyrant, this unhappy happiness transported him to a greater sin, a greater insolence, to approach so near to God himself, as to call himself Eternum principem, The eternal Emperor; and to take into his stile, and Rescripts, this addition, Eternitatem nostram, Thus and thus, it hath pleased our Eternity to proceed: Yea, and to bring his Arrian followers, who would never acknowledge an eternity in Christ, nor confess him to be the eternal Son of God, to salute himself by that name, Eternum Caesarem, The eternal Emperor: so venomous, so deadly is the prosperity of the wicked to their own souls, that even from the mercy of God, they take occasion of sinning; not only Thereby, but even Therefore; They do not only make that their excuse, when they do sin, but their Reason why they may sin; as we see in these words, Because sentence against an evil work, is not excuted speedily, &c.

In which words, we shall consider, first, The general perverseness of a natural man, who by custom in sin, comes to assign a Reason why he may sin; intimated in the first word, Because. And secondly, The particular perverseness of the men in this Text, who assign the patience of God, to be the Reason of their continuance in sin, Because sentence is not executed speedily. And then lastly, The illusion upon this, what a fearful state this shuts them up in, That therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And these three, The perverseness of colouring sins with Reasons, and the impotency of making Gods mercy the Reason, and the danger of obduration thereby, will be the three parts, in which we shall determine this Exercise.

First then, in handling the perverseness of assigning Reasons for sins, we forbid no man the use of Reason in matters of Religion. As S. August. says, Contra Scriptura, nemo Christianus, No man can pretend to be a Christian, if he refuse to be tried by the Scriptures: And, as he adds, Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus, No man can pretend to love order and Peace, if he refuse to be tried by the Church: so he adds also, Contra Rationem nemo sobrius, No man can pretend to be in his wits, if he refuse to be tried by Reason. He that believes any thing because the Church presents it, he hath Reason to assure him, that this Authority of the Church is founded in the Scriptures: He that believeth the Scriptures, hath Reasons that govern and assure him that those Scriptures are the Word of God. Mysteries of Religion are not the less believed and embraced by Faith, because they are presented, and induced, and apprehended by Reason.

But this must not enthrone, this must not exalt any mans Reason so far, as that there should lie an Appeal, from Gods Judgements to any mans reason: that if he see no reason, why God should proceed so, and so, he will not believe that to be Gods Judgement, or not believe that Judgement of God, to be just: For, of the secret purposes of God, we have an Example what to say, given us by Christ himself, Ita est, quia complacuit; It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure was such: All was in his own breast and bosom, in his own good will and pleasure, before he Decreed it; And as his Decree it self, so the ways and Executions of his Decrees, are often unsearchable, for the purpose, and for the reason thereof, though for the matter of fact, they may be manifest. They that think themselves sharp-sighted and wise enough, to search into those unrevealed Decrees; they who being but worms, will look into Heaven; and being the last of Creatures, who were made, will needs enquire, what was done by God, before God did any thing, for creating the World, In ultimam dementiam reverant, says S. Chrysost. They are fallen into a mischievous madness, Et ferrum ignitum, quod forcipe deberent, digitus accipiunt: They will needs take up red hot Irons, with their bare fingers, without tongs. That which is in the Center, which should rest, and lie still, in this peace, That it is so, because it is the will of God, that it should be so; they think to toss and tumble that up, to the Circumference, to the Light and Evidence of their Reason, by their wrangling Disputations.

If then it be a presumpteous thing, and a contempt against God, to submit his Decrees to the Examination of humane reason, it must be a high treason against the Majesty of God, to find out a reason in him, which should justify our sins; To conclude out of any thing which he does, or leaves undone, that either he doth not hate, or cannot punish sinners: For this destroys even the Nature of God, and that which the Apostle lays, for the foundation of all, To believe that God is, and that he is a just Rewarder. Adam's quia Mulier, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me the Apple: And Eve's quia Serpens, Because the Serpent deceived me; and all such, are poor and unallowable pleas, which God would not admit: For there is no Quia, no Reason, why any man, at any time, should do any sin. God never permits any perplexity to fall upon us, so, as that we cannot avoid one sin, but by doing another: or that we should think our self excusable by saying, Quia ind minus malum, There is less harm in a Concubine, then in another wife; Or, Quia ind aliquod bonum, That my incontinence hath produced a profitable man to the State or to the Church, though a bastard; much less to say, Quia obdormivit Deus, Tush, God sees it not, or cares not for it, though he see it.

If thou ask then, why thou should'st be bound to believe the Creation, we say, Quia unus Deus, Because there can be but one God; and if the World be eternal, and so no Creature, the World is God. If thou ask why thou should'st be bound to believe Providence, we say, Quia Deus remunerator, Because God is to give every man according to his merits. If thou ask why thou should'st be bound to believe that, when thou seest he doth not give every man according to his merits, we say, Quia inscrutabilia judicia ejus; O how unsearchable are his Jugdements, and his ways past finding out! For, thou art yet got no farther, in measuring God, but by thine own measure; and thou hast found no other reason to lead thee, to think, that God doth not govern well, but because he doth not govern so, to thine understanding, as thou shouldst, if thou wert God. So that thou dost not only make thy weakness, but thy wickedness, that is, thy hasty disposition, to come to a present Revenge, when any thing offends thee, the Measure, and the Model, by which the frame of Gods Government should be erected; and so thou comest to the worst distemper of all, insanire cum ratione, to go out of thy wits, by having too much, and to be mad with too much knowledge; not to sin out of infirmity, or temptation, or heat of blood, but to sin in cold blood, and upon just reason, and mature considerations, and so deliberately and advisedly to continue to sin.

Now the particular reason, which the perverseness of these men produceth here, in this Text, is, Because God is patient and long-suffering. So he is; so he will be still: Their perverseness shall not pervert his Nature, his goodness. As God bade the Prophet Osea do, he hath done himself: Go, says he, and take to thee, a wife of fornication, and children of fornication; so hath he taken us, guilty of spiritual fornication. But as in the fleshly fornications of an adulterous wife, the husband is, for the most part, the last that hears of them: so, for our spiritual fornications, such is the loathness, the patience, the longanimity of our good and gracious God, that though he do know our sins, as soon as they speak, as soon as they are acted, (for that's peccatum cum voco, says S. Gregory, A speaking sin, when any sinful thought is produced into act) yea, before they speak, as soon as they are conceived; yet he will not hear of our sins, he takes no knowledge of them, by punishing them, till our brethren have been scandalized, and led into temptation by them; till his law have been evacuated, that that use of the law, which is, to show sin to our consciences, be annihilated in us; till such a Cry come up to him by our often and professed sinning, that it concerns him in his Honor, (which he will give to none) and in his Care of his Churches, which he hath promised to be, till the end of all, to take knowledge of them. Yea, though this Cry be come up to his Ears, though it be a lod Cry, either by the nature of the sin, (as heavy things make a great noise in the moving) or by reason of the number of the sins, and the often doing thereof, (for, as many children, will make as great a noise as a loud Cryer; so will the custom of small sins Cry as loud, as those which are called peccata clamantia, Crying sins) Though this cry be increased by this liberty, and professed sinning, that, as the Prophet says, They declare their sins, and hide them not, as Sodom did; Though the cry of the sin be increased by the cry of them, that suffer oppression by that sin, as well as by the sin it self, as the voice of Abel's blood cried from earth to heaven; yea, though this cry ring about Gods ears, in his own bed-chamber, under the Altar it self, in that Usquequo Domine? when the Martyrs cry out with a loud voice, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood! yet God would fain forbear his Revenge, he would fain have those Martyrs rest for a little space, till their fellow servants and their brethren were fulfilled. God would try, what Cain would say to that Interrogatory, Where is thy brother Abel? And though the cry of Sodom were great, and their sin exceeding grievous, yet, says God, I will go down, and see, whether they have done altogether according unto that cry; and if not, I may know: God would have been glad to have found Error in their Inditement; and when he could not, yet if Fifty, Fourty five, Thirty, Twenty, Ten, had been found righteous, he had pardoned all: Adeo malum, quasi cum difficultate credidit, cum audivit; so loth is God to believe ill of man, when he doth hear it.

This then is his patience: But why is his patience made a reason of their continuance in sins? Is it because there is no sentence denounced against sin? These busy and subtle Extractors of Reasons, that can distil, and draw Poison out of Manna, Occasions of sin, out of Gods Patience, will not say so, That there is no sentence denounced. The word that is here used, Pithgam, is not truly an Hebrew word: And though in the Book of Job, and in some other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, we find sometimes some foreign and out-landish word, derived from other Nations; yet, in Solomons writing very rarely; neither doth Solomon himself, nor any other Author, of any part of the Hebrew Bible, use this word, in any other place, then this one. The word is a Chaldee word; and hath amongst them, the same signification and largeness, as Dabar in Hebrew; and that includes all A verbo ad legem; from a word suddenly and slightly spoken, to words digested and consolidated into a Law. So that, though the Septuagint translate this place, Quia non est facta contradictio; as though the reason of this sinners obduration might have been, That God had not forbidden sin; and though the Chaldee Paraphrast express this place thus, Quia non est factum verbum ultionis; As though this sinner made himself believe, that God had never spoken word of revenge against sinners: yet, this sinner makes not that his reason, That there is no Law, no Judgement, no Sentence given: for, every Book of the Bible, every Chapter, every Verse almost, is a particular Deuteronomy, a particular renewing of the Law from Gods mouth, Morte Morieris, Thou shalt die the death; and of that Sentence from Moses mouth, Pereundo peribitis, You shall surely perish; and of that Judgement from the Prophets mouth, Non est Pax impiis, There is no peace to the wicked. And if this obdurate sinner could be such a Goth and Vandal, as to destroy all Records, all written Laws; if he could evacuate and exterminate the whole Bible, yet he would find this Law in his own heart, this Sentence pronounced by his own Conscience, Stipendium peccati Mors est, Treason is Death, and sin is Treason.

His reason is not, That there is no Law; he sees it: nor that he knows no Law; his heart tells it him: nor that he hath kept that Law; his Conscience gives judgement against him: nor that he hath a Pardon for breaking that Law; for he never asked it: and, besides, those Pardons have in them that clause, Ita quod se bene gerat; Every Pardon binds a man to the good behavior; and by Relapses into sin, we forfeit our Pardons for former sins. All their Reason, all their Comfort, is only a Reprieve, and a Respite of Execution: Distulit Securim, attulit Securitatem: God hath taken the Ax from their necks, and they have taken Security into their hearts; Sentence is not executed.

Execution is the life of the Law; but then, it is the death of the Man: And therefore whosoever makes quarrels against God, or arguments of Obduration, out of this respite of Execution, would he be better pleased with God, if God came to a speedy Execution? But let that be true, Where there is no Execution, there is no reverence to the Law; there is truly, and in effect, no Law: The Law is no more a Law without Execution, then a Carcase is a Man. And so much, certainly, the word, which is here rendered sententia facta, doth properly signify; A Judgement perfected, executed. When Esau was born hairy, and so in the likeness of a grown and perfect man, he was called by the word of this text, Gnesau, Esau, factus, perfectus. And so, when God had perfected all his works, that is, said then, that he saw, that all was good that he had made; where there is the same word, That he had perfected. So that, if the judgements of God had been still without execution; if all those Curses, Cursed shalt thou be in the town, and cursed in the field; cursed in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy land, and in the fruit of thy cattle; cursed when thou comest in, and when thou goest out. The Lord shall send thee cursings, and trouble, and shame, in all thou setst thy hand to. The Lord shall make a pestilence cleave to thee, and a consumption, and a fever. The Lord shall make the heavens above, as brass, and the earth under thee, as iron; with all those Curses and Maledictions, which he flings, and slings, and stings the soul of the sinner, so vehemently, so pathetically, in that catalogue of Comminations, and Interminations, in that place; if all these were never brought into execution, we should say, at best, of those Laws, and judgements of God, as the Roman Lawyer did of that severe Law of the Twelve Tables, by which Law, he that was indebted to many men, and not able to pay, was to be cut in pieces, and divided proportionably amongst his Creditors, Eo consilio tanta immanitas poenae denuatiata est, ne ad eam unquam perveniretur: Therefore so grievous a punishment was inflicted, that that Law might never come to execution: for, from the enacting of that Law, to the last times, in that government, there was never any example, of one execution of that Law: so we should say, That God laid those severe penalties upon sins, only to deter men from doing them, and not with any purpose to inflict those penalties. In Laws, to the making whereof, there concurs, besides the authority of the Prince, the counsel and the consent of the Subject, there are sometimes Laws made, without any purpose of ordinary execution; of which, the Civil Wisdom, and the Religious Conscience, and the godly Moderation of the Prince, is made a Depository, and a Feoffee in trust; and those Laws are only put into his hands, as a Bridle, the better to rule and govern that great Charge committed to him, in emergent necessities, though not in an ordinary execution of those penal Laws. But who was a counsellor to God, or who inserted any Provisoes or Nonobstante's into his Laws? or who conditioned them, with any such reservations, that they should have no ordinary execution? And therefore an ordinary execution they have always had.

The reason why they are sometimes, and why they are not always executed, St. Chrysostom hath assigned; Si nullus puniretur, nemo existimaret Deum pre-esse rebus humanis; si omnes, nemo expectaret futuram resurrectionem: If God should punish no sins here, no man would believe a God; and if God should presently punish all here, no man would be afraid of a future judgement. There the obdurate man may find a reason of the manner of Gods proceeding, in the execution of his judgements: And if he dare stand the arguing of this case, out of Precedent, out of Record, out of the history of God, in his Word, he must hear heavy judgments denounced, and executed, in cases, where he would hardly discern any sin to have been committed, at least, no sin proportionable to that punishment. If he were in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, of having reserved a little of their own, whatsoever should befal, he would never see Counsel, nor petition the judge, never apprehend danger in this case; and yet, God declared by the mouth of Peter, that Satan had filled their hearts, and that they had lied to the holy Ghost; and a heavy judgement of present death, was executed upon them both. If he had been of the Jury, for that man of God, who, though God had forbidden him to eat and drink in that place, yet, when an old Prophet came to him, and told him, that God had spoken to him by an Angel, that he should go with him, and eat, did go, and eat with him, he would have acquitted him of any offence herein; and yet Gods judgment overtook him, and he was slain by a lion. But if he will hear the case of Saul, who did but reserve some of the spoil, and that purchased with the blood of the people, and that pretended to be reserved for Gods service, for sacrifice; and yet Saul heard that judgement, Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and transgression is idolatry: because thou hast cast away the word of the Lord, therefore he hath cast thee away from being king. If he will hear Achan's case, who had taken an excommunicate thing to his own use, and the heavy judgement thereupon, Inasmuch as thou hast troubled us, the Lord shall trouble thee this day: and so, all Israel stoned him. If he will hear Hely's case, against whom, only for indulgence to his sons, God prepared, and studied, and meditated judgements, and threatened beforehand, when he said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, whereof whosoever shall hear, his two ears shall tingle: and so, soon after, upon the heavy news, that Israel was discomfited, that the Ark was taken, that his two sons were slain, Heli fell from his seat, and broke his neck, and died. If he remember Oziah's case, who for putting his hand to the Ark, when it was ready to fall, felt the wrath of God, and died in the place. If he study all this Title, of Gods heavy judgements upon sins, not great in the outward appearance; and then come to them by the consideration of the nature of the first sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and finds there, such a lightness in that sin of eating forbidden fruit, that he durst do it, if it were to do again; as though it were no more to disobey God, when he forbade the eating of fruit, then to disobey his Physician in that point; and yet shall see the heavy judgement of God upon all posterity for that sin, (which he esteems so small a one) to extend so far, as that all his particular sins, even this very sin of undervaluing Adam's sin, and his very sin of obduration, is but a punishment of Adam's sin. If he shall climb by this ladder, to the highest step of all, from Adam in paradise, to the Angels in heaven, and see, that in those Angels, a sin only of Omission, of a not turning toward God, (for there was no creature then to turn upon) in so pure Natures, and done but once, was so heavily punished, as that the blood of Christ Jesus hath not washed it away; certainly the hardness, the flintiness of this obdurate sinner, must necessarily be so much mollified, so much entendred, as to confess, that he can make no good argument out of that, That the judgements of God are not executed.

But yet, howsoever that be, they are not executed speedily. How desperate a state art thou in, if nothing will convert thee, but a speedy execution, after which, there is no possibility, no room left for a Conversion? God is the Lord of hosts, and he can proceed by Martial Law: he can hang thee upon the next tree; he can choak thee with a crum, with a drop, at a voluptuous feast; he can sink down the Stage and the Player; The bed of wantonness, and the wanton actor, into the jaws of the earth, into the mouth of hell: he can surprise thee, even in the act of sin; and dost thou long for such a speedy execution, for such an expedition? Thou canst not lack Examples, that he hath done so upon others, and will no proof serve thee, but a speedy judgement upon thy self? Scatter thy thoughts no farther then; contract them in thy self, and consider Gods speedy execution upon thy soul, and upon thy body, and upon thy soul and body together. Was not Gods judgement executed speedily enough upon thy soul, when in the same instant that it was created, and conceived, and infused, it was put to a necessity of contracting Original sin, and so submitted to the penalty of Adam's disobedience, the first minute? Was not Gods judgement speedily enough executed upon thy body, if before it had any temporal life, it had a spiritual death; a sinful conception, before any inanimation? If hereditary diseases from thy parents, Gouts and Epilepsies, were in thee, before the diseases of thine own purchase, the effects of thy licentiousness and thy riot; and that from the first minute that thou beganst to live, thou beganst to die too? Are not the judgements of God speedily enough executed upon thy soul and body together, every day, when as soon as thou commitst a sin, thou art presently left to thine Impenitence, to thine Insensibleness, and Obduration? Nay, the judgement is more speedy then so: for, that very sin it self, was a punishment of thy former sins.

But though God may begin speedily, yet he intermits again, he slacks his pace; and therefore the execution is not speedy. As it is said of Pharaoh often, Because the plagues ceased, (though they had been laid upon him) Ingratum est cor Pharaonis, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. But first we see, by that punishment which is laid upon Heli, That with God it is all one, to begin, and to consummate his judgement: (When I begin, I will make an end. ) And when Herod took a delight in that flattery and acclamation of the people, It is the voice of God, and not of man; the angel of the Lord smote him immediately, & the worms took possession of him, though (if we take Josephus relation for truth) he died not in five days after. Howsoever, if we consider the judgements of God in his purpose, and decree, there they are eternal: And for the execution thereof, though the wicked sinner dissemble his sense of his torments, and, as Tertullian says of a persecutor, Herminianus, who being tormented at his death, in his violent sickness, cried out, Nemo sciat, ne gaudeant Christiani; Let no man know of my misery, lest the Christians rejoice thereat: so these sinners suppress these judgements of God, from our knowledge, because they would not have that God, that inflicts them, glorified therein, by us: Yet they know, their damnation hath never slept, nor let them sleep quietly: and, in Gods purpose, the judgement hath been eternal, and they have been damned as long as the devil; and that's an execution speedy enough. But because this appears not so evidently, but that they may disguise it to the world, and (with much ado) to their own Consciences; Therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And so we pass to our third Part.

This is that perverseness, which the Heathen Philosopher Epictetus, apprehends, and reprehends; That whereas every thing is presented to us, Cum duabus sausis, with two handles, we take it still, by the wrong handle. This is tortuositas serpentis, The wryness, the knottiness, the entangling of the Serpent. This is that which the Apostle takes such direct knowledge of, Despisest thou the riches of Gods bountifulness, and long-suffering, not knowing that it leads thee to repentance? St. Chrysostom's comparison of such a sinner to a Vulture, that delights only in dead carcases, that is, in company dead in their sins, holds best, as himself notes, in this particular, that the Vulture perhorrescit fragrantiam unguenti, He loaths, and is ill affected with any sweet savor: for so doth this sinner find death, in that sovereign Balm of the patience of God, and he dies of Gods mercy: Et quid infelicius illis, qui bono odore moriuntur? says S. Augustine: In what worse state can any man be, then to take harm of a good air? But, as the same Father adds, Numquid quia mori voluisti, malum fecisti odorem? This indisposition in that particular man, does not make this air, an ill air; and yet this abuse of the patience of God, comes to be an infectious poison, and such a poison, as strikes the heart; and so general, as to strike the heart of the children of men; and so strongly, as that their hearts should be fully set in them, to do evil.

First then, what is this setting of the heart upon evil; and then, what is this fullness, that leaves no room for a Cure? When a man receives figures and images of sin, into his Fancy and Imagination, and leads them on to his Understanding and Discourse, to his Will, to his Consent, to his Heart, by a delightful dwelling upon the meditation of that sin; yet this is not a setting of the heart upon doing evil. To be surprised by a Temptation, to be overthrown by it, to be held down by it for a time, is not it. It is not when the devil looks in at the window to the heart, by presenting occasions of temptations, to the eye; nor when he comes in at the door, to our heart, at the ear, either in lascivious discourses, or Satyrical and Libellous defamations of other men: It is not, when the devil is put to his Circuit, to seek whom he may devour, and how he may corrupt the King by his Council, that is, The Soul by the Senses: But it is, when by a habitual custom in sin, the sin arises merely and immediately from my self: It is, when the heart hath usurped upon the devil, and upon the world too, and is able and apt to sin of it self, if there were no devil, and if there were no outward objects of temptation: when our own heart is become spontanea insania, & voluntarius daemon, Such a wilful Madness, and such a voluntary and natural Devil to it self, as that we should be ambitious, though we were in an Hospital; and licentious, though we were in a wilderness; and voluptuous, though in a famine: so that such a mans heart, is as a land of such Gyants, where the Children are born as great, as the Men of other nations grow to be; for those sins, which in other men have their birth, and their growth, after their birth, they begin at a Concupiscence, and proceed to a Consent, and grow up to Actions, and swell up to Habits; In this man, sin begins at a stature and proportion above all this; he begins at a delight in the sin, and comes instantly to a defence of it, and to an obduration and impenitibleness in it: This is the evil of the heart, by the mis-use of Gods grace, to divest and lose all tenderness and remorse in sin.

Now for the Incurableness of this heart, it consists first in this, that there is a fullness; It is fully set to do evil: & such a full heart hath no room for a Cure; as a full stomack hath no room for Physic. The Mathematician could have removed the whole world with his Engine, if there had been any place to have set his Engine in. Any man might be cured of any sin, if his heart were not full of it, and fully set upon it: which setting, is indeed, in a great part, an unsetledness, when the heart is in a perpetual motion, and in a miserable indifferency to all sins: it may be fully set upon sin, though it be not vehemently affected to any one sin. The reason which is assigned, why the heart of man, if it receive a wound, is incurable, is the palpitation, and the continual motion of the heart: for, if the heart could lie still, so that fit things might be applied to it, and work upon it, all wounds in all parts of the heart, were not necessarily mortal: So, if our hearts were not distracted, in so many forms, and so divers ways of sin, it might the better be cured of any one. St. Augustine had this apprehension, when he said, Audeo dicere utile esse cadere in aliquod manifestum peccatum, ut sibi displiceant: It is well for him, that is indifferent to all sins, if he fall into some such misery by some one sin, as brings him to a sense of that, and of the rest. St. Augustine, when he says this, says he speaks boldly in saying so, Audeo dicere: but we may be so much more bold, as to say further, That that man had been damned, if he had not sinned that sin: For the heart of the indifferent sinner bayts at all that ever rises, at all forms and images of sin: when he sees a thief, he runs with him; and with the adulterer he hath his portion: and as soon as it contracts any spiritual disease, any sin, it is presently, not only in morbo acuto, but in morbo complicato; in a sharp disease, and in a manifold disease, a disease multiplied in it self. Therefore it is, as St. Gregory notes, that the Prophet proposes it, as the hardest thing of all, for a sinner to return to his own heart, and to find out that, after it is strayed, and scattered upon so several sins. Redite prevaricators ad cor, says the Prophet: and, says that Father, Long eis mittit, cum ad cor redire compellit: God knows whither he sends them, when he sends them to their own heart: for, since it is true which the same Father said, Vix sancti inveniunt cor suum, The holyest man cannot at all times find his own heart, (his heart may be bent upon Religion, and yet he cannot tell in which Religion; and upon Preaching, and yet he cannot tell which Preacher; and upon Prayer, and yet he shall find strayings and deviations in his Prayer) much more hardly is the various and vagabond heart of such an indifferent sinner, to be found by any search. If he enquire for his heart, at that Chamber where he remembers it was yesterday, in lascivious and lustful purposes, he shall hear that it went from thence to some riotous Feasting, from thence to some Blasphemous Gaming, after, to some Malicious Consultation of entangling one, and supplanting another; and he shall never trace it so close, as to drive it home, that is, to the consideration of it self, and that God that made it; nay, scarce to make it consist in any one particular sin. That which St. Bernard feared in Eugenius, when he came to be Pope, and so to a distraction of many worldly businesses, may much more be feared in a distraction of many sins, Cave ne te trahant, quo non vis; Take heed lest these sins carry thee farther, then thou intendest: thou intendest but Pleasure, or Profit; but the sin will carry thee farther: Quaeris quo? says that Father; Dost thou ask whither? Ad cor durum, To a senselessness, a remorslesness, a hardness of heart: nec pergas quaerere, (says he) quid illud sit; Never ask what that hardness of heart is: for, if thou know it not, thou hast it.

This then is the fullness, and so the Incurableness of the heart, by that reason of perpetual motion; because it is in perpetual progress from sin to sin, he never considers his state. But there is another fullness intended here, That he is come to a full point, to a consideration of his sin, and to a station and setledness in it, out of a foundation of Reason, as though it were, not only an excusable, but a wise proceeding, Because Gods judgements are not executed. But when man becomes to be thus fully set, God shall set him faster: Iniquitas tua in sacculo signata; His transgression shall be sealed up in a bag, and God shall sow up his iniquity: And, Quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei? What is this bag of God, but the heart of that sinner? There, as a bag of a wretched Misers money, which shall never be opened, never told till his death, lies this bag of sin, this frozen heart of an impenitent sinner; and his sins shall never be opened, never told to his own Conscience, till it be done to his final condemnation. God shall suffer him to settle, where he hath chosen to settle himself, in an unsensibleness, an Inintelligibleness, (to use Tertullian's word) of his own condition: And, Quid miserior misero non miserante seipsum? Who can be more miserable then that man, who does not commiserate his own misery? How far gone is he into a pitiful estate, that neither desires to be pitied by others, nor pities himself, nor discerns that his state needs pity? Invaluerat ira tua super me, & nesciebam, says blessed St. Augustine: Thy hand lay heavy upon me, and I found it not to be thy hand: because the Maledictions of God are honeyed and candied over, with a little crust or sweetness of worldly ease, or reprieve, we do not apprehend them in their true taste, and right nature. Obsurdueram stridore catenarum mearum, says the same Father: The jingling and ratling of our Chains and Fetters, makes us deaf: The weight of the judgement takes away the sense of the judgement. This is the full setting of the heart to do evil, when a man fills himself with the liberty of passing into any sin, in an indifferency; and then finds no reason why he should leave that way, either by the love, or by the fear of God. If he prosper by his sin, then he finds no reason; if he do not prosper by it, yet he finds a wrong reason. If unseasonable floods drown his Harvest, and frustrate all his labours, and his hopes; he never finds, that his oppressing, and grinding of the Poor, was any cause of those waters, but he looks only how the Wind sate, and how the ground lay; and he concludes, that if Noah, and Job, and Daniel had been there, their labor must have perished, and been drowned, as well as his. If a vehement Fever take hold of him, he remembers where he sweat, and when he took cold; where he walked too fast, where his Casement stood open, and where he was too bold upon Fruit, or meat of hard digestion; but he never remembers the sinful and naked Wantonnesses, the profuse and wasteful Dilapidations of his own body, that have made him thus obnoxious and open to all dangerous Distempers. Thunder from heaven burns his Barns, and he says, What luck was this? if it had fallen but ten foot short or over, my barns had been safe: whereas his former blasphemings of the Name of God, drew down that Thunder upon that house, as it was his; and that Lightning could no more fall short or over, then the Angel which was sent to Sodom, could have burnt another City, and have spared that; or then the Plagues of Moses and of Aaron could have fallen upon Goshen, and have spared Egypt. His Gomers abound with Manna, he overflows with all for necessities, and with all delicacies, in this life; and yet he finds worms in his Manna, a putrefaction, and a mouldring away, of this abundant state; but he sees not that that is, because his Manna was gathered upon the Sabbath, that there were profanations of the Name and Ordinances of God, mingled in his means of growing rich. To end all, This is the true Use that we are to make of the long-suffering and patience of God, That when his patience ends, ours may begin: That if he forbear others rather then us, we do not expostulate, as in Job, Wherefore do the wicked live, and become old, and grow mighty in power? but rather, if he chastise us rather then others, say with David, Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy ways, though thou hast sore broken us, in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death: And that if sentence be executed upon us, we may make use of his judgement; and if not, we may continue, and enlarge his mercies towards us.

AMEN.

A Sermon Preached at White-Hall, Serm. 7. Novemb. 2. 1617. Sermon VII.

PSAL. 55.19.

Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.

IN a Prison, where men withered in a close and perpetual imprisonment; In a Galley, where men were chained to a laborious and perpetual slavery; In places, where any change that could come, would put them in a better state, then they were before, this might seem a fitter Text, then in a Court, where every man having set his foot, or placed his hopes upon the present happy state, and blessed Government, every man is rather to be presumed to love God, because there are no changes, then to take occasion of murmuring at the constancy of Gods goodness towards us. But because the first murmuring at their present condition, the first Innovation that ever was, was in Heaven; The Angels kept not their first Estate: Though as Princes are Gods, so their well-governed Courts, are Copies, and representations of Heaven; yet the Copy cannot be better then the Original: And therefore, as Heaven it self had, so all Courts will ever have, some persons, that are under the Increpation of this Text, That, Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God: At least, if I shall meet with no conscience, that finds in himself a guiltiness of this sin, if I shall give him no occasion of repentance, yet I shall give him occasion of praising, and magnifying that gracious God, which hath preserved him from such sins, as other men have fallen into, though he have not: For, I shall let him see first, The dangerous slipperiness, the concurrence, the co-incidence of sins; that a habit and custom of sin, slips easily into that dangerous degree of Obduration, that men come to sin upon Reason; they find a Quia, a Cause, a Reason why they should sin: and then, in a second place, he shall see, what perverse and frivolous reasons they assign for their sins, when they are come to that; even that which should avert them, they make the cause of them, Because they have no changes. And then, lastly, by this perverse mistaking, they come to that infatuation, that dementation, as that they loose the principles of all knowledge, and all wisdom: The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; and, Because they have no changes, they fear not God.

First then, We enter into our first Part, The slipperiness of habitual sin, with that note of S. Gregory, Peccatum cum voce, est culpa cum action; peccatum cum clamore, est culpa cum libertate; Sinful thougths produced into actions, are speaking sins; sinful actions continued into habits, are crying sins. There is a sin before these; a speechless sin, a whispering sin, which no body hears, but our own conscience; which is, when a sinful thought or purpose is born in our hearts, first we rock it, by tossing, and tumbling it in our fancies, and imaginations, and by entertaining it with delight and consent, & with remembering, with how much pleasure we did the like sin before, and how much we should have, if we could bring this to pass; And as we rock it, so we swathe it, we cover it, with some pretences, some excuses, some hopes of coveraling it; and this is that, which we call Morosam delectationem, a delight to stand in the air and prospect of a sin, and a loathness to let it go out of our sight. Of this sin S. Gregory says nothing in this place, but only of actual sins, which he calls speaking; and of habitual, which he calls crying sins. And this is as far, as the Schools, or the Casuists do ordinarily trace sin; To find out peccata Infantia, speechless sins, in the heart; peccata vocatia, speaking sins, in our actions; And peccata clamantia, crying and importunate sins, which will not suffer God to take his rest, no nor to fulfil his own Oath, and protestation: He hath said, As I live, I would not the death of a sinner; and they extort a death from him. But besides these, Here is a farther degree, beyond speaking sins, and crying sins; beyond actual sins and habitual sins; here are peccata cum ratione, and cum disputatione; we will reason, we will debate, we will dispute it out with God, and we will conclude against all his Arguments, that there is a Quia, a Reason, why we should proceed and go forward in our sin: Et pudet non esse impudentes, as S. Augustine heightens this sinful disposition; Men grow ashamed of all holy shamefac'dness, and tenderness toward sin; they grow ashamed to be put off, or frighted from their sinful pleasure, with the ordinary terror of Gods imaginary judgements; ashamed to be no wiser then S. Paul would have them, to be moved, or taken hold of, by the foolishness of preaching; or to be no stronger of themselves then so, that we should trust to another's taking of our infirmities, and bearing of our sicknesses; Or to be no richer, or no more provident then so, To sell all, and give it away, and make a treasure in Heaven, and all this for fear of Thieves, and Rust, and Canker, and Moths here. That which is not allowable in Courts of Justice, in criminal Causes, To hear Evidence against the King, we will admit against God; we will hear Evidence against God; we will hear what mans reason can say in favor of the Delinquent, why he should be condemned; why God should punish the soul eternally, for the momentany pleasures of the body: Nay, we suborn witnesses against God, and we make Philosophy and Reason speak against Religion, and against God; though indeed, Omne verum, omni vero consentiens; whatsoever is true in Philosophy, is true in Divinity too; howsoever we distort it, and wrest it to the contrary. We hear Witnesses, and we suborn Witnesses against God; and we do more; we proceed by Recriminations, and a cross Bill, with a Quia Deus, because God does as he does, we may do as we do; Because God does not punish Sinners, we need not forbear sins; whilst we sin strongly, by oppressing others, that are weaker, or craftily by circumventing others that are simple. This is but Leoninum, and Vulpinum, that tincture of the Lyon, and of the Fox, that brutal nature that is in us. But when we come to sin, upon reason, and upon discourse, upon Meditation, and upon plot, This is Humanum, to become the Man of Sin, to surrender that, which is the Form, and Essence of man, Reason, and understanding, to the service of sin. When we come to sin wisely and learnedly, to sin logically, by a Quia, and an Ergo, that, Because God does thus, we may do as we do, we shall come to sin through all the Arts, and all our knowledge, To sin Grammatically, to tie sins together in construction, in a Syntaxis, in a chain, and dependance, and coherence upon one another: And to sin Historically, to sin over sins of other men again, to sin by precedent, and to practice that which we had read: And we come to sin Rhetorically, perswasively, powerfully; and as we have found examples for our sins in History, so we become examples to others, by our sins, to lead and encourage them, in theirs; when we come to employ upon sin, that which is the essence of man, Reason, and discourse, we will also employ upon it, those which are the properties of man only, which are, To speak, and to laugh; we will come to speak, and talk, and to boast of our sins, and at last, to laugh and jest at our sins; and as we have made sin a Recreation, so we will make a jest of our condemnation. And this is the dangerous slipperiness of sin, to slide by Thoughts and Actions, and Habits, to contemptuous obduration.

Now amongst the manifold perversnesses and incongruities of this artificial sinning, of sinning upon Reason, upon a quia, and an ergo, of arguing a cause for our sin; this is one, That we never assign the right cause: we impute our sin to our Youth, to our Constitution, to our Complexion; and so we make our sin our Nature: we impute it to our Station, to our Calling, to our Course of life; and so we make our sin our Occupation: we impute it to Necessity, to Perplexity, that we must necessarily do that, or a worse sin; and so we make our sin our Direction. We see the whole world is Ecclesia malignantium, a Synagogue, a Church of wicked men; and we think it a Schismatical thing, to separate our selves from that Church, and we are loth to be excommunicated in that Church; and so we apply our selves to that, we do as they do, with the wicked we are wicked; and so we make our sin our Civility. And though it be some degree of injustice, to impute all our particular sins, to the devil himself, after a habit of sin hath made us spontaneos daemones, devils to our selves; yet we do come too near an imputing our sins to God himself, when we place such an impossibility in his Commandments, as makes us lazy, that because we cannot do all, therefore we will do nothing; or such a manifestation and infallibility in his Decree, as makes us either secure, or desperate; and say, The Decree hath saved me, therefore I can take no harm; or, The Decree hath damned me, therefore I can do no good. No man can assign a reason in the Sun, why his body casts a shadow: why all the place round about him, is illumined by the Sun, the reason is in the Sun; but of his shadow, there is no other reason, but the grosness of his own body: why there is any beam of light, any spark of life, in my soul, he that is the Lord of light and life, and would not have me die in darkness, is the only cause; but of the shadow of death, wherein I sit, there is no cause, but mine own corruption. And this is the cause, why I do sin; but why I should sin, there is none at all.

Yet in this Text the Sinner assignes a cause; and it is, Quia non mutations, Because they have no Changes. God hath appointed that earth, which he hath given to the sons of men, to rest, and stand still; and that heaven which he reserves for those sons of men, who are also the sons of God, he hath appointed to stand still too: All that is between heaven and earth, is in perpetual motion, and vicissitude; but all that is appointed for man, mans possession here, mans reversion hereafter, earth and heaven, is appointed for rest, and stands still; and therefore God proceeds in his own way, and declares his love most, where there are fewest Changes. This rest of heaven, he hath expressed often, by the name of a Kingdom, as in that Petition, Thy kingdom come: And that rest which is to be derived upon us, here in earth, he expresses in the same phrase too, when having presented to the children of Israel, an Inventary and Catalogue of all his former blessings, he concludes all, includes all in this one, Et prosperata es in regnum, I have advanced thee to be a kingdom: which form, God hath not only still preserved to us, but hath also united Kingdoms together; and to give us a stronger body, and safer from all Changes, whereas he hath made up other Kingdoms, of Towns and Cities, he hath made us a Kingdom of Kingdoms, and given us as many Kingdoms to our Kingdom, as he hath done Cities to some other. Gods gracious purpose then to man, being Rest, and a contented Reposedness in the works of their several Callings; and his purpose being declared upon us, in the establishing and preserving of such a Kingdom, as hath the best Body, (best united in it self, and knit together) and the best Legs to stand upon, (Peace and Plenty) and the best Soul to inanimate and direct it, (Truth of Religion) and the best Spirits to make all parts answerable and useful to one another, (Wisdom and Vigilancy in the Prince, Gratitude and Cheerfulness in the Subject:) And since God hath gone so far, once in our time already, in expressing his care of our Rest and Quiet, as to give us a Change without Change, an alteration of Persons, and not of Things, that we saw old things done away, in the Secession of one, and all things made new in the Succession of another Sovereign, and all this newness done without Innovation; so that, as David says of the whole earth, we might say again of this Land, Terra tremuit & quievit, The earth shook, and stood still at once; it was all one act, to have been afraid, and to have been instantly secured again, since nothing beyond that, nothing equal to that Change, can be imagined by us from God; may it be ever his gracious pleasure, to continue to us, the enjoying of our present Rest, without shewing us any more Changes. As (to end this Branch) it were a strange enormity, a strange perverseness in any man, to plant a Garden in any place, therefore, because he foresaw an Earthquake in that place, that would disorder and discompose his Garden again; or to build in any place therefore, because the fire were likeliest to take hold of that street; that is, to make any thing the cause of an action, which should naturally enforce the contrary: so is it an irreligious distemper, to be the bolder in sin, because we have no Changes, or to defer our conversion from sin, till Changes, till Afflictions come. For, Satan knew the air, and complexion, and disposition of the world, well enough: he argued not impertinently, nor frivolously, for the general, though he were deceived in the particular, in Job, when he said to God, Stretch out thy hand, and touch his bones, and his flesh, and see if he will not blaspheme thee to thy face. Afflictions, and Changes in this life, do not always direct us upon God: The displeasure of a Prince may make a harsh person more supple, more applicable then before; his graces received may make him more accessible, more equal, more obsequious, then before: and losses and forfeitures sustained, or threatened, may make him more apt to give, to bleed out, to redeem his dangers, then before: But these Changes do not always make him an honester man, nor a better Christian then before. And therefore, says the Apostle, Study to be quiet; Labor to find a testimony of Gods love to you, in your present estate, and never put your self, either for temporal, or spiritual amendment, upon Changes.

To proceed then: This shutting up of themselves against the fear of God, is not merely quia non mutations, because there are no changes; but, quia non illis, because They have no changes. It is a dangerous preterition, not to bring a mans self into Consideration; but to consider no man but himself, to make himself the measure of all, is as dangerous a narrowness. The Epigrammatist describes the Atheist so, That he desires no better argument to prove that there is no God, but that he sees himself, Dum negat ista beatum, prosper well enough, though he do not believe this prosperity to proceed from God. What miseries soever fall upon others, affect not him. He may have seen, since he was born, the greatest Kingdom in Christendom likely to have been broken in pieces, and cantoned into petty Seigniories, and so left no Kingdom: he may have seen such a danger upon our next neighbours, as that, when the powerfullest Enemy in Christendom hung over their heads, and lay upon their backs, they bred a more dangerous enemy in their own bosoms, and bowels, by tearing themselves in pieces, with Differences, in Points of subdivided Religion, and impertinent Scruples, unjustly called Points of Religion; in which, men leave Peace, and Unity, and Charity, the true ways of Salvation, and will enquire nothing, but how soon, how early God damned them: They must know, sub quibus Consulibus, in whose Reign, in whose Mayoralty, what hour of the day, and what minute of that hour, Gods eternal Decree of Election or Reprobation was made. Many, very many of these Changes he may have seen and heard; but all these he hears, as though he heard them out of Livy, or out of Berosus, or in Letters from China, or Japan; and not as though they concerned his Time, or his Place, or his Observation. To contract this: We have all been either in Wars, and seen men fall at our right hand, and at our left, by the Bullet; or at Sea, and seen our Consort sunk by Tempest, or taken by Pyrates; or in the City, and seen the Pestilence devour our Parents above us, our Children below us, our Friends round about us; or in the Court, and seen Gods judgements overtake the most secure, and confident: we have all seen such Changes as these everywhere; but quia non nobis, because the Bullet, the Shipwreck, the Pyrate, the Pestilence, the Judgements have not reached us, in our particular persons, they have not imprinted the fear of God in us.

And the word of the Text, carries it farther then so: it is not because There are no Changes, for they abound; nor because They have had none, for none escapes; but it is, Qui a non habent, because they have no present, nor imminent danger in their contemplation now; because no affliction lies upon them now, therefore they are secure. It is not Quia non habuerunt; every person, every State, every Church, hath had Changes: Because the Roman Church will needs be all the world, we may consider all the world in her, so far; she hath had such a Change, as hath awakened other Princes to re-assume, and to restore to themselves, and their Crowns, their just Dignities; so she hath had a Change in Honor and Estimation. She hath had such a Change, as hath contracted and brought her into a narrower chanel, and called in her overflowings; so she hath had a Change in Power and Jurisdiction. She hath had such a Change, as hath lessened her Temporal treasure everywhere, and utterly abolished her imaginary Spiritual treasure, in many places; she hath had a change in Means, and Profit, and Revenue: she hath had such a change, as that they who by Gods commandment are come out from her, have been equal, even in number, to them who have adhered to her; such a change, as hath made her Doctrine appear, some to be the doctrines of men, and some the doctrines of devils: such a change in Reputation, in Jurisdiction, and in Revenue, and in Power, and in manifestation of her Disguises, she hath had: But quia non habet, because she decays not every day, the Reformation seems to her to be come to a period, as high as it shall go: Because she hath a mis-apprehension of some faintness, some declinableness towards her again, even in some of our Professors themselves, who (as she thinks) come as near to her, as they dare: Because she hath gained of late upon many of the weaker sex, women laden with sin; and of weaker fortunes, men laden with debts; and of weaker consciences, souls laden with scruples; therefore she imagines that she hath seen the worst, and is at an end of her change; though this be but indeed a running, an ebbing back of the main River, but only a giddy and circular Eddy, in some shallow places of the stream, (which stream, God be blessed, runs on still currantly, and constantly, and purely, and intemerately, as before) yet because her corrections are not multiplied, because her absolute Ruin is not accelerated, she hath some false conceptions of a general returning towards her, and she fears up her self against all sense of Truth, and all tenderness of Peace; and because she hath rid out one storm, in Luther and his successors, therefore she fears not the Lord for any other, Quia non habent, Because she hath no changes, now.

Habuerunt then, They have had changes; and Habebunt, They shall have more, and greater: Impii non stabunt, says David, The wicked shall not stand: In how low ground soever they stand, and in how great torment soever they stand, yet they shall not stand there, but sink to worse; and at last, non stabunt in judicio, They shall not stand in judgement, but fall there, from whence there is no rising: Non stabunt: They shall not stand, though they think they shall; they shall counterfeit the Seals of the Holy Ghost, and delude themselves with imaginary certitudes of Salvation, and illusory apprehensions of Decrees of Election: nay, non stabunt, They shall not be able to think that they shall stand: that which the Apostle saith, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall, belongs only to the godly; only they can think, deliberately, and upon just examination of the marks and evidences of the Elect, that they shall stand: God shall suffer the wicked to sink down, not to a godly sense of their infirmity, and holy remorse of the effects thereof; but yet lower then that, to a diffident jealousy, to a desperate acknowledgement, that they cannot stand in the sight of God: they shall have no true rest at last: they shall not stand; nay, they shall not have that half, that false comfort by the way; they shall not be able to flatter themselves by the way, with that imagination that they shall stand.

Now, both the ungodly, and godly too, must have Changes: in matter of Fortune, changes are common to them both: and then, in all, of all conditions, Mortalitas Mutabilitas, says St. Augustine: even this, That we must die, is a continual change. The very same word, which is here, kalaph, is in Job also: All the days of my appointed time, till my changing come. And because this word which we translate changing, is there spoken in the person of a righteous man, some Translators have rendered that place, Donec veniat sancta nativitas mea, Till I be born again: the change, the death of such men, is a better birth: And so the Chaldee Paraphrasts, the first Exposition of the Bible, have expressed it, Quousque rursus fiam, Till I be made up again by death: He does not stay to call the Resurrection a making up; but this death, this dissolution, this change, is a new creation; this Divorce is a new Marriage; this very Parting of the soul, is an Infusion of a soul, and a Transmigration thereof out of my bosom, into the bosom of Abraham. But yet, though it is all this, yet it is a change; Maxima mutatio est Mutabilitatis in Immutabilitatem, To be changed so, as that we can never be changed more, is the greatest change of all. All must be changed so far, as to die: yea, those who shall, in some sort, escape that death; those whom the last day shall surprise upon earth, though they shall not die, yet they shall be changed. Statutum est omnibus, semel mori, All men must die once; we live all under that Law. But statutum nemini hic mori: since the promise of a Messiah, there is no Law, no Decree, by which any man must necessarily die twice; a Temporal death, and a Spiritual death too. It is not the Man, but the Sinner, that dies the second death: God sees sin in that man, or else that man had never seen the second death. So we shall all have one change, besides those which we have all had; good and bad must die: but the men in this text, shall have two. But whatsoever changes are upon others in the world, whatsoever upon themselves; whatsoever they have had, whatsoever they are sure to have; yet, Quia non habent, non timent Deum; Because they have none now, they fear not God. And so we are come to our third and last Part.

They fear not God: This is such a state, as if a man who had been a Schoolmaster all his life, and taught others to read, or had been a Critic all his life, and ingeniosus in alienis, over-witty in other mens Writings, had read an Author better, then that Author meant, and should come to have use of his Reading to save his life at the Bar, when he had his Book, for some petty Felony, and then should be stricken with the spirit of stupidity, and not be able to read then. Such is the state of the wisest, of the learnedest, of the mightiest in this world: If they fear not God, they have forgot their first letters; they have forgot the basis and foundation of all Power, the reason and the purpose of all Learning, the life and the soul of all Counsel and Wisdom: for, The fear of God is the beginning of all. They are all fallen into the danger of the Law; they have all sinned: they are offered their Book, the merciful promises of God to repentant sinners, in his Word; and they cannot read, they cannot apply them, to their comfort: There is Scripture, but not translated, not transferred to them: there is Gospel, but not preached to them; there are Epistles, but not superscribed to them.

It is an hereditary Sentence, and hath passed from David in his Psalms, to Solomon in his Proverbs, and then to him that gleaned after them both, the Author of Ecclesiasticus, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All three profess all that, and more then that. It is Blessedness it self, says the father, David; Blessedness it self, says the son, Solomon; and Plenitudo Sapientiae, and Omnis Sapientia, says the other, The fullness of wisdom, and the only wisdom. Job had said it before them all, Ecce, timor Domini, ipsa est sapientia; The fear of the Lord, is wisdom it self: And the Prophet Isaiah said it after, of Hezekiah, There shall be stability of thy times, strength, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; for, the fear of the Lord shall be thy treasure. It is our supply, if we should fear want, and it is our reason that we cannot fear want; for, he that fears God, fears nothing else. As therefore the Holy Ghost hath placed the beginning of wisdom in this fear; so hath he the consummation and perfection of this wisdom, even in the perfect pattern of all wisdom, in the person of Christ himself, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of God. For, without this fear, there is no courage, no confidence, no assurance: And therefore Christ begun his Passion with a fear, in his Agony, Tristis anima, My soul his heavy; but that fear delivered him over to a present conformity to the will of God, in his Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thine be done: And he ended his Passion with a fear, Eli, Eli, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and that fear delivered him over to a present assurance, In manus tuas Domine, confidently to commend his spirit into his hands, whom he seemed to be afraid of.

Since then the Holy Ghost, whose name is Love; since God, who is Love it self, disposes us to this fear, we may see in that, That neither God himself, nor those of whom God said, Ye are gods, that is, all those who have Authority over others, can be loved so as they should, except they be feared, so as they should be too: If you take away due Fear, you take away true Love. Even that fear of God, which we use to call servile fear, which is but an apprehension of punishment, and is not the noblest, the perfectest kind of fear, yet it is a fear, which our Savior counsels us to entertain; Fear him that can cast soul and body into hell; even that fear, is some beginning of wisdom. That fear Job had use of, when he said, Quid faciam cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus? Here I may lay hold upon means of Restitution; but when the Lord shall raise himself to judgement, how shall I stand? So also had David use of this fear, A judiciis tuis timui: However I was ever confident in thy mercy, yet I was in fear of thy judgement. It is that fear which St. Basil directs us to, upon those words, Timorem Domini docebo vos, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, Cogita profundum barathrum, To learn to fear God, he sends us to the meditation of the torments of hell. And so it is that fear, which wrought that effect in St. Jerome: Ego ob Gehennae metum carcere isto me damnavi; For fear of that execution, I have shut my self up in this prison; for fear of perishing in the next world, I banish my self from this: There is a beginning, there is a great degree of wisdom, even in this fear.

Now, as the fear of Gods punishments disposes us to love him, so that fear which the Magistrate imprints, by the execution of his Laws, establishes that love which preserves him, from all disestimation and irreverence: for, whom the Enemy does not fear, the Subject does not love. As no Peace is safe enough, where there is no thought of War; so the love of man towards God, and those who represent him, is not permanently settled, if there be not a reverential fear, a due consideration of greatness, a distance, a distinction, a respect of Rank, and Order, and Majesty. If there be not a little fear, by Justice at home, and by power and strength abroad, mingled in it, it is not that love, which God requires, to be first directed upon himself; and then reflected upon his Stewards and Vice-gerents: for, as every Society is not Friendship, so every Familiarity is not Love.

But, to conclude: As he will be feared, so he will be feared, no otherwise, then as he is God: Non timuerunt Deum, is the increpation of the Text, They feared not God. It is timor Dei, and not timor Jehovae: God is not here expressed by the name of Jehovah, that unexpressible and unutterable, that incomprehensible and unimaginable name of Jehovah. God calls not upon us, to be considered as God in himself, but as God towards us; not as he is in heaven, but as he works upon earth: And here, not in the School, but in the Pulpit; not in Disputation, but in Application. It is not timor Jehovae, nor it is not timor Adonai: God does not call himself in this place, The Lord: for, to be Lord, to be proprietary of all, this is potestas tam utendi quam abutendi, It gives the Lord of that thing power, to do, absolutely, what he will with that which is his: And so, God, as absolute Lord, may damn without respect of sin, if he will; and save without respect of faith, if he will. But God is pleased to proceed with us, according to that Contract which he hath made with us, and that Law which he hath given to us, in those two Tables, Tantummodo crede, Only believe, and thy faith shall save thee; and, Fac hoc & vives, Live well, and thy good works shall make sure thy salvation. Lastly, God does not call himself here Dominum exercituum, The Lord of hosts; God would not only be considered, and served by us, when he afflicts us with any of his swords, Famine, War, Pestilence, Malice, or the like; but the fear required here, is to fear him as God, and as God presented in this name, Elohim; which, though it be a name primarily rooted in power and strength, (for El is Deus fortis, The powerful God; and as there is no love without fear, so there is no fear without power) yet properly it signifies his Judgment, and Order, and Providence, and Dispensation, and Government of his creatures. It is that name, which goes through all Gods whole work of the Creation, and disposition of all creatures, in the first of Genesis: in all that, he is called by no other name then this, the name God; not by Jehovah, to present an infinite Majesty; nor by Adonai, to present an absolute power; nor by Tzebaoth, to present a Force, or Conquest: but only in the name of God, his name of Government. All ends in this; To fear God, is to adhere to him, in his way, as he hath dispensed and notified himself to us; that is, as God is manifested in Christ, in the Scriptures, and applied to us out of those Scriptures, by the Church: not to rest in Nature without God, nor in God without Christ, nor in Christ without the Scriptures, nor in our private interpretation of Scripture, without the Church. Almighty God fill us with these fears, these reverences; that we may reverence him, who shall at last bring us, where there shall be no more changes; and hath already placed us in such a Government, as being to us a Type and Representation of the Kingdom of heaven, we humbly beg, may evermore continue with us, without changes, in Government, or in Religion.

AMEN.

A Sermon Preached to the Household at White-Hall, Serm. 8. April 30. 1626. Sermon VIII.

MATTH. 9.13.

I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

SOme things the several Evangelists record severally, one, and no more. S. Matthew, and none but S. Matthew, records Josephs jealousy and suspicion, that his wife Mary had been in a fault, before her marriage; And then his temper withal, not frequent in that distemper of jealousy, not to exhibit her to open infamy for that fault; And yet his holy discretion too, Not to live with a woman faulty that way, but to take some other occasion, and to put her away privily: In which, we have three elements of a wise husband; first, not to be utterly without all jealousy and providence, and so expose his wife to all tryals, and temptations, And yet not to be too apprehensive and credulous, and so expose her to dishonor and infamy; but yet not to be so indulgent to her faults, when they were true faults, as by his connivence, and living with her, to make her faults, his: And all this we have out of that which S. Matthew records, and none but he. S. Mark, and none but S. Mark records, that story, of Christs recovering a dumb man, and almost deaf, of both infirmities: In which, when we see, that our Savior Christ, though he could have recovered that man with a word, with a touch, with a thought, yet was pleased to enlarge himself in all those ceremonial circumstances, of imposition of hands, of piercing his ears with his fingers, of wetting his tongue with spittle, and some others, we might thereby be instructed, not to under-value such ceremonies as have been instituted in the Church, for the awakening of mens consideration, and the exalting of their devotion; though those ceremonies, primarily, naturally, originally, fundamentally, and merely in themselves, be not absolutely and essentially necessary: And this we have from that which is recorded by S. Mark, and none but him. S. Luke, and none but S. Luke, records the history of Mary and Joseph's losing of Christ: in which we see, how good and holy persons may lose Christ; and how long? They had lost him, and were a whole day without missing him: A man may be without Christ, and his Spirit, and lie long in an ignorance and senselessness of that loss: And then, where did they lose him? Even in Jerusalem, in the holy City: even in this holy place, and now in this holy exercise, you lose Christ, if either any other respect then his glory, brought you hither; or your minds stray out of these walls, now you are here. But when they sought him, and sought him sorrowing, and sought him in the Temple, then they found him: If in a holy sadness and penitence, you seek him here, in his House, in his Ordinance, here he is always at home, here you may always find him. And this we have out of that which S. Luke reports, and none but he. S. John, and none but S. John, records the story of Christs miraculous changing of water into wine, at the marriage in Cana: In which, we see, both that Christ honoured the state of Marriage, with his personal presence, and also that he afforded his servants so plentiful a use of his creatures, as that he was pleased to come to a miraculous supply of wine, rather then they should want it. Some things are severally recorded by the several Evangelists, as all these; and then some things are recorded by all four; as John Baptist's humility, and lowe valuation of himself, in respect of Christ; which he expresses in that phrase, That he was not worthy to carry his shoos. The Holy Ghost had a care, that this should be repeated to us by all four, That the best endeavors of Gods best servants, are unprofitable, unavailable in themselves, otherwise then as Gods gracious acceptation inanimates them, and as he puts his hand to that plough which they drive or draw. Now our Text hath neither this singularity, nor this universality; it is neither in one only, nor in all the Evangelists: but it hath (as they speak in the Law) an interpretative universality, a presumptive universality: for that which hath a plurality of voices, is said to have all; and this Text hath so; for three of the four Evangelists have recorded this Text: only S. John, who doth especially extend himself about the divine nature of Christ, pretermits it; but all the rest, who insist more upon his assuming our nature, and working our salvation in that, the Holy Ghost hath recorded, and repeated this protestation of our Savior's, I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Which words, being spoken by Christ, upon occasion of the Pharisees murmuring at his admitting of Publicans and sinners to the Table with him, at that feast which S. Matthew made him, at his house, soon after his calling to the Apostleship, direct our consideration upon the whole story, and do, not afford but require, not admit but invite this Distribution; That, first, we consider the occasion of the words, and then the words themselves: for of these twins is this Text pregnant, and quick, and easily delivered. In the first, we shall see the pertinency of Christs answer; and in the second, the doctrine thereof: In the first, how fit it was for them; in the other, how necessary for us: First, the Historical part, which was occasional; and then the Catechistical part, which is doctrinal. And in the first of these, the Historical and Occasional part, we shall see, first, That Christ by his personal presence justified Feasting, somewhat more then was merely necessary, for society, and cheerful conversation: He justified feasting, and feasting in an Apostles house: though a Church-man, and an Exemplar-man, he was not deprived of a plentiful use of Gods creatures, nor of the cheerfulness of conversation. And then he justified feasting in the company of Publicans and sinners; intimating therein, that we must not be in things of ordinary conversation, over-curious, over-inquisitive of other mens manners: for whatsoever their manners be, a good man need not take harm by them, and he may do good amongst them. And then lastly, we shall see the calumny that the Pharisees cast upon Christ for this, and the iniquity of that calumny, both in the manner, and in the matter thereof. And in these Branches we shall determine that first, The Historical, the Occasional part: And in the second, The Catechistical and Doctrinal, (I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance) we shall pass by these steps: first, we shall see the Actions; venit, he came; that is, first, venit actu: whereas he came by promise, even in Paradise; and by frequent ratification, in all the Prophets; now he is really, actually come; venit, he is come, we look for no other after him; we join no other, Angels nor Saints, with him: venit, he is actually come; and then, venit sponte, he is come freely, and of his good-will; we assign, we imagine no cause in us, that should invite him to come, but humbly acknowledge all to have proceeded from his own goodness: and that's the Action, He came. And then the Errand, and purpose for which he came, is vocare, he came to call: It is not, Occurrere, That he came to meet them, who were upon the way before; for no man had either disposition in himself, or faculty in himself, neither will nor power to rise and meet him, no nor so much as to wish that Christ would call him, till he did call him: He came not occurrere, to meet us; but yet he came not cogere, to compel us, to force us, but only vocare, to call us, by his Word, and Sacraments, and Ordinances, and lead us so; and that's his errand, and purpose in coming. And from that, we shall come to the persons upon whom his coming works: where we have first a Negative, a fearful thing in Christs lips; and then an Affirmative, a blessed seal in his mouth: first, an Exclusive, a fearful banishment out of his Ark; and then an Inclusive, a blessed naturalization in his Kingdom: Non justos, I came to call, not the righteous, but sinners. And then lastly, we have, not as before, his general intention and purpose, To call; but the particular effect & operation of this calling upon the godly, it brings them to repentance. Christ does not call us to a satisfaction of Gods justice, by our selves; that's impossible to us: it is not ad satisfactionem; but then it is not adgloriam, he does not call us to an immediate possession of glory, without doing any thing before; but it is ad Resipiscentiam; I came to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to Repentance. And so have you the whole frame marked out, which we shall set up; and the whole compass designed, which we shall walk in: In which, though the pieces may seem many, yet they do so naturally flow out of one another, that they may easily enter into your understanding; and so naturally depend upon one another, that they may easily lay hold upon your memory.

First then, our first Branch in the first Part, is, That Christ jufied Feasting, festival and cheerful conversation. For, as S. Ambrose says, Frustra fecisset; God, who made the world primarily for his own glory, had made Light in vain, if he had made no creatures to see, and to be seen by that light, wherein he might receive glory: so, frustra fecisset, God, who intended secondarily mans good in the Creation, had made creatures to no purpose, if he had not allowed Man a use, and an enjoying of those creatures. Our Mythologists, who think they have conveyed a great deal of Moral doctrine in their Poetical Fables, (and so, indeed they have) had mistaken the matter much, when they make it one of the torments of hell, to stand in a fresh River, and not be permitted to drink; and amongst pleasant fruits, and not to be suffered to eat; if God required such a forbearing, such an abstemiousness in Man, as that being set to rule and govern the creatures, he might not use and enjoy them: Privileges are lost, by abusing; but so they are, by not using too. Of those three Opinions, which have all passed through good Authors, Whether, before the Floud had impaired and corrupted the herbs and fruits of the earth, men did eat flesh or no; of which, the first is absolutely Negative, both in matter of law, and in matter of fact, No man might, no man did; and the second is directly contrary to this, Affirmative in both, All men might, all men did; and the third goes a Middle way, It was always lawful, and all men might, but sober and temperate men did forbear, and not do it: of these three, though the later have prevailed with those Authors, and be the common opinion; yet the later part of that later opinion, would very hardly fall into proof, That all their sober and temperate men did forbear this eating of flesh, or any lawful use of Gods creatures. God himself took his portion in this world so, in meat and drink, in his manifold sacrifices; and God himself gave himself in this world so, in bread and wine, in the blessed Sacrament of his body and his blood: And the very joys of heaven after the Resurrection, are conveyed to us also, in the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. That mensa laqueus, which is in the Psalm, is a curse: Let their table be made a snare, let their plenty and prosperity be an occasion of sin to them, that's a malediction: but for that mensa propositionum, The table of Show-bread, where those blessings which God had given to man, were brought again, and presented in his sight, upon that table; the loaves were great in quantity, and many in number, and often renewed: God gives plentifully, richly, and will be served so himself. In all those festivals, amongst the Jews, which were of Gods immediate institution, as the Passover, and Pentecost, and the Trumpets, and Tabernacles, and the rest, you shall often meet in the Scriptures, these two phrases, Humiliabitis animas; and then, Laetaberis coram Domino: first, upon that day, you shall humble your souls, (that you have, Levit. 16.29. and very often) and then, upon that day, You shall rejoice before the Lord; (and that you have, Deut. 16.11. and very often besides.) Now some Interpreters have applied these two phrases to the two days; That upon the Eve we should humble our souls in Fasting, and upon the Day rejoice before the Lord in a festival cheerfulness: but both belong to the Day it self; that first we should humble our souls, as we do now, in these holy Convocations; and then return, and rejoice before the Lord, in a cheerful use of his creatures, our selves, and then send out a portion to them that want, as it is expressly enjoined in that feast, Nehem. 8.10. and in that, Esth. 9.22. where their feasting is as literally commanded, as their giving to the poor. And besides those Stationary and Anniversary Feastings, which were of Gods immediate institution, And that Feast which was of the Churches institution after, in the time of the Macchabees, which was the Encoenia, The Dedication of the Temple; the Jews at this day, in their Dispersion, observe a yearly Feast, which they call Festum Letitia, The feast of Rejoicing, in a festival thankfulness to God, that he hath brought the year about, and afforded them the use of the Law, another year. When Christ came to Jairus house, and commanded away the Music, and all the Funeral-solemnities, it was not because he disallowed those solemnities, but because he knew there was no Funeral to be solemnized in that place, to which he came with an infallible purpose to raise that maid which was dead. Civil recreations, offices of society and mutual entertainment, and cheerful conversation; and such a use of Gods creatures, as may testify him to be a God, not of the valleys only, but of the mountains too, not a God of necessity only, but of plenty too; Christ justified by his personal presence at a Feast; which was our first: and then, at a Feast in an Apostles house; which is our second circumstance.

The Apostle then had a house, and means to keep a house, and to make occasional Feasts in his house, though he had bound himself to serve Christ in so near a place as an Apostle. The profession of Christs service, in the Ministry, does not take from any man, the use of Gods creatures, nor cheerfulness of conversation. As some of the other Apostles are said to have followed Christ, relictis retibus, They left their nets, and followed him; and yet upon occasion, they did at times return to their nets and fishing after that; for Christ found them at their nets, after his resurrection: so S. Matthew followed Christ, as S. Luke expresses it; Relictis omnibus, He left all, and followed Christ; but not so absolutely all, as S. Basil seems to take it, Adeo ut non solum lucra, sed & ipsa pericula contempserit, that he did not only neglect the gain of his place, but the danger of displeasure by such a leaving of his Place: for S. Matthew was a Publicane, and so a public Officer, and an Accountant to the State: But though he did so far leave all, as that nothing retarded him from an immediate following of Christ; yet, no doubt but he returned after, to the setling of his Office, and the rectifying of his Accounts. When God sees it necessary or behoveful for a man to leave all his worldly state, that he may follow him, God tells him so; he gives him such a measure of light by his Spirit, as lets him see, it is Gods will; and then, to that man, that is a full commandment, and binds him to do it, and not only an Evangelical counsel, as they call it, which leaves him at liberty, to do it, or leave it undone: Christ saw how much was necessary to that young man in the Gospel, and therefore to him he said, Vade & vend, Go and sell all that thou hast, and then follow me: And this was a commandment to that man, though it be not a general commandment to all; upon Matthew Christ laid no such commandment, but only said to him, Sequere me, Follow me; and he did so; but yet not so divest himself of his worldly estate, as that he had not a house, and means to keep a house, and that plentifully, after this. When Elijah used that holy fascination upon Elisha, (we may not, I think, call it a fascination; fascination, I think, hath never a good sense) but when Elijah used that holy Charm and Incantation upon him, to spread his Mantle over him, and to draw him with that, as with a net, after him; yet after Elisha had thus received a character of Orders, after this imposition of hands in the spreading of the Mantle, after he had this new filiation, by which he was the son of the Prophet, yet Elisha went home, and feasted his friends after this. So Matthew begun his Apostleship with a feast; and though he, in modesty forbear saying so, S. Luke, who reports the story, says that it was a great feast. He begun with a great, but ended with a greater: for, (if we have S. Matthews history rightly delivered to us) when he was at the greatest feast which this world can present, when he was receiving and administring the blessed Sacrament, in that action, was he himself served up as a dish to the table of the Lamb, and added to the number of the Martyrs then; and died for that Savior of his, whose death for him, he did then celebrate. This then was festum Ablactationis; Abraham made a great feast, that day that Isaac was weaned: Here was Matthew weaned ab uteribus mundi, from the brests of this world; and he made a feast, a feast that was a Type of a Tyye, a prevision of a vision, of that vision which S. Peter had after, of a sheet, with all kind of meats clean and unclean in it: for at this Table was the clean and unspotted Lamb, Christ Jesus himself; and at the same Table, those spotted and unclean Goats, the Publicans and sinners; which is our third, and next circumstance, He justified feasting, feasting in an Apostles house, feasting with Publicans and sinners.

Is there then any conversation with notorious sinners justifiable, excusable? We see when S. Paul came to be of that High Commission, to judge of notorious sinners, how he proceeded: he delivered Alexander and Hymenaeus to Satan; and there, surely, he did not mean that any man should keep them company. What was their fault? It was but one Heretical point; a great one indeed; for they denied the Resurrection; and for this, the Apostle (as it is also said there) sends them to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme: And may there not be thus much intimated in that, That a man may learn more blasphemy with some men, then with Satan himself? That may be true: but the sending and delivering to Satan, is the excluding of that man from the Kingdom, that is, from the visible Church of Christ, by a just Excommunication: for, all without the Church, is Satans jurisdiction. Of which fearful state, Gregory Nyssene speaks pathetically; Si haberet oculos anima, If thy soul had eyes, to see souls, Ostenderem tibi, tibi segregato, I would show thee, thee who hast wilfully incurred, and dost rebelliously continue under an Excommunication rightly grounded, duly proceeded in, and justly denounced; I would show thee the picture of a man burning in Hell, for that's thy picture, says that Father, to that man; Non Episcopalis arrogantiae existimes, says he, Think it not a passionate act of an insolent Bishop; Caepit in Leg, confirmatur in Gratia, God began it in the Law, and confirmed it in the Gospel; and where it is justly grounded, and duly proceeded in, it is a fearful thing to be delivered over to Satan by excommunication; and S. Paul is so far from conversing with an Heretic in one point, as that he proceeds so far with him, as to deliver him to Satan.

Nay, for a fault much less then this, not opposed against God, as Heresy, but against Natural Honesty, the Apostle proceeds as far, in Incest; Gather you, says he, with my spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver that incestuous man to Satan. Nay, in less faults then that, he forbids Conversation; If a fornicator, if a drunkard, if a covetous person, with him eat not. Nay; for that which is less then these, he is as severe; We command ye, Brethren, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly. Where, Calvin thinks, (and, I think, aright, and many others must think so too; for a Jesuite thinks so, as well as Calvin) that the Apostle by the word disorderly, does not mean persons that live in any course of notorious sin; but by disorderly, he means Ignavos, Inutiles, idle and unprofitable persons; persons of no use to the Church, or to the State: that whereas this is Ordo Divinus, the order that God hath established in this world, that every man should embrace a Calling, and walk therein; they who do not so, pervert Gods order: and they are S. Pauls disorderly persons.

This then being so, that the Holy Ghost by S. Paul, separates not only from all spiritual Communion, but from all civil Conversation, all notorious sinners, and disorderly persons, how descends Christ to this facility, and easiness of conversation with Publicans and Sinners? For, (to speak a word by the way, of the Office of a Publican) though Customs, and Tributes, and Impositions were due to the Kings of Jewry, due in natural right, and due in legal right, fixed and established by that Law in Samuel; and so the Farmers of those Customs, and Collectors of those Tributes, in that respect not to be blamed, or ill thought of; and though in the Roman State, (under whose Government, at this time the Jews were) the Office of a Publican were an honourable Office, (for so that great Statesman and Orator tells us, Flos Equitum Romanorum, Ornamentum Civitatis, Firmamentum Reipub. Men of the best Families and Extraction in the State, Men of the best Credit and Reputation in the State, Men of the best Revenues and Possession in the State, were Publicans; yet when the Romans governed Jewry as a Province, and that these honourable Roman Publicans forbore to execute that Office in those remote parts, and making under-Farmers there, for the better advancing of that service, employed the Jews themselves, who best understood the ways and the persons: these Jews became more cruel and heavy to their Brethren, in these Exactions, then any strangers; and so, and justly, the most odious persons amongst them: and then why would Christ afford this conversation to these, and such as these, to Publicans and sinners? Christ was in himself a Dispensation upon any Law, because he was the Law-maker. But here he proceeded not in that capacity; he took no benefit of any Dispensation; he fulfilled the intention and purpose of the Law; for the Laws therefore forbad conversation with sinners, lest a man should take infection by such conversation: so the Jews were forbidden to eat with the Gentiles; but it was, lest in eating with the Gentiles, they might eat of things sacrificed to Idols: so they were forbidden conversation with leprous persons, lest by such conversation the disease should be propagated; but where the danger of infection ceased, all conversation might be open; and Christ was always far enough from taking any infection, by any conversation with any sinner. He might apply himself to them, because he could take no harm by them; but he did it especially, that he might do good upon them. Some forbear the company of sinners, out of a singularity, and pride in their own purity, and say, with those in Isaiah, Stand by thy self, come not near me, for I am holyer then thou. But, Bonus non est, qui Malos tolerare non potest, says S. August. upon those words, Lilium inter spinas, That Christ was a Lily, though he grew amongst Thorns. A Lily is not the less a Lily, nor the worse, nor the darker a Lily, because it grows amongst Thorns. That man is not so good as he should be, that cannot maintain his own integrity, and continue good; or that cannot maintain his charity, though others continue bad. It was S. Paul's way, I am made all things to all men, that I might save some. And in that place, which we mentioned before, where the Apostle names the persons, whom we are to forbear, amongst them, he names Idolators; and, as he does the rest, he calls even those Idolators, Brethren; If any that is called a Brother, be an Idolator, &c. In cases where we are safe from danger of infection, (and it lies much in our selves, to save our selves from infection) even some kind of Idolators, are left by S. Paul under the name of Brethren; and some brotherly, and neighbourly, and pious Offices, belong to them, for all that. These faults must arm me to avoid all danger from them, but not extinguish all charity towards them. And therefore it was an unjust calumny in the Pharisees, to impute this for a fault to Christ, that he applied himself to these men; which is the next and last Circumstance in this first part, The Calumny of these Pharisees.

Now in the manner of this Calumny, there was a great deal of iniquity, and a great deal in the matter: For, for the manner; That which they say of Christ, they say not to Christ himself, but they whisper it to his servants, to his Disciples. A Legal and Juridical Accusation, is justifiable, maintainable, because it is the proper way for remedy: a private reprehension done with discretion, and moderation, should be acceptable too; but a privy whispering is always Pharisaical. The Devil, himself, though he be a Lyon, yet he is a roaring Lyon; a man may hear him: but for a privy Whisperer, we shall only hear of him. And in their plot there was more mischief; for, when Christs Disciples plucked ears of Corn, upon the sabbath, the Pharisees said nothing to those Disciples, but they come to their Master, to Christ, and they tell him of it: Here, when Christ eats and drinks with these sinners, they never say any thing to Christ himself, but they go to his servants, and they tell him of it. By privy whisperings and calumnies, they would alien Christ from his Disciples, and his Disciples from him; the King from his Subjects by some tales, and the Subject from the King by other: and they took this for the shortest way to disgrace both their preaching, to discredit both their lives; to defame Christ for a Wine-bibber, and a loose Companion, and to defame his Disciples for profane men, and Sabbath-breakers: for, Cujus vita despicitur, restat ut ejus predicatio contemnatur, is an infallible inference and consequence made by S. Gregory; Discredit a mans life, and you disgrace his Preaching: Lay imputations upon the person, and that will evacuate and frustrate all his preaching; for whether it be in the corruption of our nature, or whether it be in the nature of the thing it self, so it is, if I believe the Preacher to be an ill man, I shall not be much the better for his good Sermons.

Thus they were injurious in the manner of their calumny; they were so too in the matter, to calumniate him therefore, because he applied himself to sinners. The Wise-man in Ecclesiasticus institutes his meditation thus: There is one that hath great need of help, full of poverty, yet the eye of the Lord looked upon him for good, and set him up from his low estate, so that many that saw it, marvelled at it. Many marvelled, but none reproached the Lord, chid the Lord, calumniated the Lord, for doing so. And if the Lord will look upon a sinner, and raise that bedrid man; if he will look with that eye, that pierces deeper then the eye of heaven, the Sun, (and yet with a look of that eye, the womb of the earth conceives) if he will look with that eye, that conveys more warmth then the eye of the Ostrich, (and yet with a look of that eye, that Bird is said to hatch her young ones, without sitting) that eye that melted Peter into water, and made him flow towards Christ; and ratified Matthew into air, and made him flee towards Christ; if that eye vouchsafe to look upon a Publican, and redeem a Goshen out of an Egypt, hatch a soul out of a carnal man, produce a saint out of a sinner, shall we marvel at the matter? marvel so, as to doubt Gods power? shall any thing be impossible to God? or shall we marvel at the manner, at any way by which Christ shall be pleased to convey his mercy? Miraris eum peccatorum vinum bibere, qui pro peccatoribus sanguinem fudit? shall we wonder that Christ would live with sinners, who was content to die for sinners? Wonder that he would eat the bread and Wine of sinners, that gave sinners his own flesh to eat, and his own blood to drink? Or if we do wonder at this, (as, indeed, nothing is more wonderful) yet let us not calumniate, let us not mis-interpret any way, that he shall be pleased to take, to derive his mercy to any man: but, (to use Clement of Alexandria's comparison) as we tread upon many herbs negligently in the field, but when we see them in an Apothecaries shop, we begin to think that there is some virtue in them; so howsoever we have a perfect hatred, and a religious despite against a sinner, as a sinner; yet if Christ Jesus shall have been pleased to have come to his door, and to have stood, and knocked, and entered, and supped, and brought his dish, and made himself that dish, and sealed a reconciliation to that sinner, in admitting him to that Table, to that Communion, let us forget the Name of Publican, the Vices of any particular profession; and forget the name of sinner, the history of any mans former life; and be glad to meet that man now in the arms, and to grow up with that man now in the bowels of Christ Jesus; since Christ doth now begin to make that man his, but now declares to us, that he hath been his, from all eternity: For in the Book of Life, the name of Mary Magdalen was as soon recorded, for all her incontinency, as the name of the blessed Virgin, for all her integrity; and the name of St. Paul who drew his sword against Christ, as soon as St. Peter, who drew his in defence of him: for the Book of life was not written successively, word after word, line after line, but delivered as a Print, all together. There the greatest sinners were as soon recorded, as the most righteous; and here Christ comes to call, not the righteous at all, but only sinners to repentance. And so we have done with those pieces which constitute our first part; Christ by his personal presence justified feasting, and feasting in an Apostles house, and feasting with Publicans and sinners, though the Pharisees calumniated him, maliciously in the manner, injuriously in the matter; and we pass to our other part; from the Historical and Occasional, to the Catechistical, the Doctrinal Part.

The other Part, the Occasion, the Connexion was of the Text; and we cannot say properly that this Part, the answer is in the Text; for, indeed, the Text is in it: the Text it self is but a piece of that Answer, which Christ gives to these Calumniators. First, Christ does afford an Answer even to Calumniators; for that is very often necessary: not only because otherwise a Calumniator would triumph, but because otherwise a calumny would not appear to be a calumy. A calumny is fixed upon the fame of a good man; he in a holy scorn, and religious negligence, pretermits it; and after, long after, the generation of those vipers come to say, In all this time, who ever denied it? A seasonable and a sober answer interrupts the prescription of a calumny, discontinues the continual claim of a calumny, disappoints and avoids that Fine which the calumny levied, to bar all posterity, if no man arise to make an answer. Truly, there are some passages in the Legend of Pope Joan, which I am not very apt to believe; yet, it is shrewd evidence, that in so many hundreds of years, six or seven, no man in that Church should say any thing against it: I would they had been pleased to have said something, somewhat sooner: for if there were slander mingled in the story, (and if there be, it must be their own Authors that have mingled it) yet slander it self should not be neglected. Christ does not neglect it; he justifies his conversation with these sinners: and he gives answers proportionable to the men, with whom he dealt. First, because the Pharisees pretended a knowledge and zeal to the Scriptures, he answers out of the Scriptures, out of the Prophet, Misericordiam volo, Mercy is better then sacrifice; and an Evangelical desire to do good upon sinners, better then a Legal inhibition to come near them. And Christ seems to have been so full of this saying of Ose, as that he says it here, where the Pharisees calumniate him to his disciples; and when they calumniate the disciples about the sabbath, he says it there too. He answers out of Scriptures, because they pretend a zeal to them; and then because the Pharisees were learned, and rational men, he answers out of Reason too, The whole have no need of the Physician: I come in the quality of a Physician, and therefore apply my self to the sick. For, we read of many blind and lame, and deaf and dumb, and dead persons, that came or were brought to Christ to be recovered; but we never read of any man, who being then in a good state of health, came to Christ to desire that he might be preserved in that state: The whole never think of a Physician; and therefore Christ, who came in that quality, applied himself to them that needed. And that he might give full satisfaction, even to Calumniators, every way, as he answered them out of Scriptures, and out of Reason; so because the Pharisees were States-men too, and led by Precedents and Records, he answers out of the tenor and letter of his Commission and Instructions, (which is that part of his answer that falls most directly into our Text) Veni vocare, I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

First then, venit, he came, he is come: venit actu; he came in promise, often ratified before: now there is no more room for John Baptist's question, Tune ille, Art thou he that should come, or must we look for another? For another coming of the same Messiah, we do look, but not for another Messiah; we look for none after him, no post-Messiah; we join none, Saints nor Angels, with him, no sub-Messiah, no vice-Messiah. The Jews may as well call the history of the Floud Prophetical, and ask when the world shall be drowned according to that Prophecy; or the history of their deliverance from Babylon Prophetical, and ask when they shall return from thence to Jerusalem, according to that Prophecy, as seek for a Messiah now amongst their Prophets, so long after all things being performed in Christ, which were prophesied of the Messiah; Christ hath so fully made Prophecy History.

Venit actu, He is really, personally, actually come; and then venit sponte, he is come freely, and of his own meer goodness: How freely? Come, and not sent? Yes, he was sent: God so loved the world, as that he gave his only begotten Son for it; There was enough done to magnify the mercy of the Father, in sending him. How freely then? Come and not brought? Yes, he was brought: The holy Ghost overshadowed the blessed virgin, and so he was conceived: there was enough done to magnify the goodness of the holy Ghost in bringing him. He came to his prison, he abhorred not the Virgins womb; and not without a Mittimus; he was sent: He came to the Execution; and not without a desire of Reprieve, in his Transeat Calix, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and yet venit sponte, he came freely, voluntarily, of his own goodness. No more then he could have been left out at the Creation, and the world made without him, could he have been sent into this world, without his own hand to the Warrant, or have been left out at the decree of his sending. As when he was come, no man could have taken away his soul, if he had not laid it down; so, (if we might so speak) no God, no person in the Trinity, could have sent him, if he had not been willing to come. Venit actu, he is come; there's our comfort: venit sponte, he came freely; there's his goodness. And so you have the Action, Venit, He came.

The next is his Errand, his Purpose, what he came to do, Venit vocare, He came to call. It is not vocatus, That Christ came, when we called upon him to come: Man had no power, no will, no not a faculty to wish that Christ would have come, till Christ did come, and call him. For, it is not Veni occurrere, That Christ came to meet them who were upon the way before: Man had no pre-disposition in Nature, to invite God to come to him. Quid peto, ut venias in me, qui non essem si non esses in me? How should I pray at first, that God would come into me, when as I could not only not have the spirit of prayer, but not the spirit of life, and being, except God were in me already? Where was I, when Christ called me out of my Rags, nay out of my Ordure, and washed me in the Sacramental water of Baptism, and made me a Christian so? Where was I, when in the loins of my sinful parents, and in the unclean act of generation, Christ called me into the Covenant, and made me the child of Christian parents? Could I call upon him, to do either of these for me? Or if I may seem to have made any step towards Baptism, because I was within the Covenant; or towards the Covenant, because I was of Christian parents: yet where was I, when God called me, when I was not, as though I had been, in the Eternal Decree of my Election? What said I for my self, or what said any other for me then, when neither I, nor they had any being? God is found of them that sought him not: Non venit occurrere, He came not to meet them who were, of themselves, set out before.

But then, non venit cogere, He came not to force and compel them, who would not be brought into the way: Christ saves no man against his will. There is a word crept into the later School, that deludes many a man; they call it Irresistibility; and they would have it mean, that when God would have a man, he will lay hold upon him, by such a power of grace, as no perverseness of that man, can possibly resist. There is some truth in the thing, soberly understood: for the grace of God is more powerful then any resistance of any man or devil. But leave the word, where it was hatcht, in the School, and bring it not home, not into practice: for he that stays his conversion upon that, God, at one time or other, will lay hold upon me by such a power of Grace, as I shall not be able to resist, may stay, till Christ come again, to preach to the spirits that are in prison. Christ beats his Drum, but he does not Press men; Christ is served with Voluntaries. There is a Compelle intrare, A forcing of men to come in, and fill the house, and furnish the supper: but that was an extraordinary commission, and in a case of Necessity: Our ordinary commission is, It, praedicate; Go, and preach the Gospel, and bring men in so: it is not, Compelle intrare, Force men to come in: it is not, Draw the Sword, kindle the Fire, wind up the Rack: for, when it was come to that, that men were forced to come in, (as that Parabolical story is reported in this Evangelist) the house was filled, and the supper was furnisht, (the Church was filled, and the Communion-table frequented) but it was with good and bad too: for men that are forced to come hither, they are not much the better in themselves, nor we much the better assured of their Religion, for that: Force and violence, pecuniary and bloody Laws, are not the right way to bring men to Religion, in cases where there is nothing in consideration, but Religion merely. 'Tis true, there is a Compellite Manere, that hath all justice in it; when men have been baptized, and bred in a Church, and embraced the profession of a Religion, so as that their allegiance is complicated with their Religion, then it is proper by such Laws to compel them to remain and continue in that Religion; for in the Apostacy, and Defection of such men, the State hath a detriment, as well as the Church; and therefore the temporal sword may be drawn as well as the spiritual; which is the case between those of the Romish persuasion, and us: their Laws work directly upon our Religion; they draw blood merely for that, ours work directly upon their allegiance, and punish only where pretence of Religion colors a Defection in allegiance. But Christs end being merely spiritual, to constitute a Church, Non venit Occurrere, as he came not to meet man, man was not so forward; so he came not to compel man, to deal upon any that was so backward; for, Venit vocare, He came to call.

Now, this calling, implies a voice, as well as a Word; it is by the Word; but nor by the Word read at home, though that be a pious exercise; nor by the word submitted to private interpretation; but by the Word preached, according to his Ordinance, and under the Great Seal, of his blessing upon his Ordinance. So that preaching is this calling; and therefore, as if Christ do appear to any man, in the power of a miracle, or in a private inspiration, yet he appears but in weakness, as in an infancy, till he speak, till he bring a man to the hearing of his voice, in a settled Church, and in the Ordinance of preaching: so how long soever Christ have dwelt in any State, or any Church, if he grow speechless, he is departing; if there be a discontinuing, or slackning of preaching, there is a danger of loosing Christ. Adam was not made in Paradise, but brought thither, called thither: the sons of Adam are not born in the Church, but called thither by Baptism; Non Nascimur sed re-nascimur Christiani; No man is born a Christian, but called into that state by regeneration. And therefore, as the Consummation of our happiness is in that, that we shall be called at last, into the Kingdom of Glory, in the Venite Benedicti, Come ye blessed, and enter into your Masters joy: so is it a blessed Inchoation of that happiness, that we are called into the Kingdom of Grace, and made partakers of his Word and Sacraments, and other Ordinances by the way. And so you have his Action, and Errand, He came, and, came to call.

The next, is the persons upon whom he works, whom he calls; where we have first the Negative, the Exclusive, Non Justos, Not the righteous. In which, Grego: Nyssene, is so tender, so compassionate, so loath, that this Negative should fall upon any man, that any man should be excluded from possibility of salvation, as that he carries it wholly upon Angels: Christ took not the nature of Angels, Christ came not to call Angels: But this Exclusion falls upon men; What men? upon the righteous: Who are they? We have two Expositions, both of Jesuites, both good; I mean the Expositions, not the Jesuites: they differ somewhat; for, though the Jesuites agree well enough, too well, in State-business, in Courts, (how Kings shall be deposed, and how massacred; how Kingdoms shall be deluded with Dispensations, and how invaded with Forces, they agree well enough) yet in Schools, and in Expositions, they differ, as well as others. The first, Maldonat, he says, That as in that parable, where Christ says, that the good shepherd left the ninety nine sheep, that had kept their pastures, and went to seek that one, which was strayed, he did not mean, that there is but one sheep of a hundred, that does go astray; but that if that were the case, he would go to seek that one: so when Christ says here, he came not to call the righteous, he does not mean that there were any righteous; but if the world were full of righteous men, so that he might make up the number of his Elect, and fill up the rooms of the fallen Angels, out of them; yet he would come to call sinners too. The other Jesuite Barradas, (not altogether Barrabas) he says, Christ said, Non Justos, Not the righteous, because if there had been any righteous, he needed not to have come: according to that of S. Aug. Si homo non periisset, filius hominis non venisset; If Man had not fallen, and lain irrecoverably under that fall, the Son of God had not come to suffer the shame, and the pain of the Cross: so that they differ but in this; If there had been any righteous, Christ needed not to have come; and though there had been righteous men, yet he would have come; but in this, they, and all agree, that there were none righteous. None? Why, whom he predestinated, those he called; and were not they whom he predestinated, and elected to salvation, righteous? Even the Elect themselves have not a constant righteousness in this world: such a righteousness, as does always denominate them, so, as that they can always say to their own conscience, or so as the Church can always say of them, This is a righteous man: No, nor so, as that God, who looks upon a sinner with the eyes of the Church, and considers a sinner, with the heart and sense of the Church, and speaks of him with the tongue of the Church, can say of him, then, when he is under unrepented sin, This man is righteous: howsoever, if he look upon him, in that Decree which lies in his bosom, and by which he hath infallibly ordained him to salvation, he may say so. No man here, though Elect, hath an equal and constant righteousness; nay, no man hath any such righteousness of his own, as can save him; for howsoever it be made his, by that Application, or Imputation, yet the righteousness that saves him, is the very righteousness of Christ himself. S. Hilaries Question then, hath a full Answer, Erant quibus non erat necesse ut ventret? Were there any that needed not Christs coming? No; there were none; who then are these righteous? we answer with S. Chrysost. and S. Hiero. and S. Ambrose, and all the stream of the Fathers; They are Justi sua Justitia, those who thought themselves righteous; those who relied upon their own righteousness; those who mistook their righteousness, as the Laodiceans did their riches; they said, They were rich, and had need of nothing; and they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. So, these men, being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going about to establish a righteousness of their own, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; that is, depend wholly upon the righteousness of Christ. He calls it Suam, their righteousness, because they thought they had a righteousness of their own; either in the faculties of Nature, or in the exaltation of those faculties by the help of the Law: And he calls it Suam, their righteousness, because they thought none had it but they. And upon this Pelagian righteousness, it thought Nature sufficient without Grace; or upon this righteousness of the Cathari, the Puritans in the Primitive Church, that thought the Grace which they had received sufficient, and that upon that stock they were safe, and become impeccable, and therefore left out of the Lords Prayer, that Petition, Dimitte nobis, Forgive us our trespasses; upon this Pelagian righteousness, and this Puritan righteousness, Christ does not work. He left out the righteous, not that there were any such, but such as thought themselves so; and he took in sinners, not all effectually, that were simply so, but such as the sense of their sins, and the miserable state that that occasioned, brought to an acknowledgement, that they were so; Non Justos, sed peccatores.

Here then enters our Affirmative, our Inclusive, Who are called; peccatores: for here no man asks the Question of the former Branch: there we asked, Whether there were any righteous? and we found none; here we ask not whether there were any sinners, for we can find no others, no not one. He came to call sinners, and only sinners; that is, only in that capacity, in that contemplation, as they were sinners; for of that vain and frivolous opinion, that got in, and got hold in the later School, That Christ had come in the flesh, though Adam had stood in his innocence; That though Man had nor needed Christ as a Redeemer, yet he would have come to have given to man the greatest Dignity that Nature might possibly receive, which was to be united to the Divine Nature: of this Opinion, one of those Jesuites whom we named before, Maldonat, who oftentimes making his use of whole sentences of Calvins, says in the end, This is a good Exposition, but that he is an Heretic that makes it. He says also of this Opinion, That Christ had come, though Adam had stood; this is an ill Opinion, but that they are Catholicks that have said it. He came for sinners; for sinners only; else he had not come: and then he came for all kind of sinners: for, upon those words of our Saviours, to the High Priests and Pharisees, Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you, good Expositors note, that in those two Notations, Publicans and Harlots, many sorts of sinners are implied: in the name of Publicans, all such, as by their very profession and calling, are led into temptations, and occasions of sin, to which some Callings are naturally more exposed then other, such as can hardly be exercised without sin; and then in the Name of Harlots, and prostitute Women, such as cannot at all be exercised without sin; whose very profession is sin: and yet for these, for the worst of these, for all these, there is a voice gone out, Christ is come to call sinners, only sinners, all sinners. Comes he then thus for sinners? What an advantage had S. Paul then, to be of this Quorum, and the first of them; Quorum Ego Maximus, That when Christ came to save sinners, he should be the greatest sinner, the first in that Election? If we should live to see that acted, which Christ speaks of at the last day, Two in the field, the one taken, the other left, should we not wonder to see him that were left, lay hold upon him that were taken, and offer to go to Heaven before him, therefore, because he had killed more men in the field, or robbed more men upon the High-way, or supplanted more in the Court, or oppressed more in the City? to make the multiplicity of his sins, his title to Heaven? Or, two women grinding at the Mill, one taken, the other left; to see her that was left, offer to precede the other into Heaven, therefore, because she had prostituted her self to more men, then the other had done? Is this S. Pauls Quorum, his Dignity, his Prudency; I must be saved, because I am the greatest sinner? God forbid: God forbid we should presume upon salvation, because we are sinners; or sin therefore, that we may be surer of salvation. S. Pauls title to Heaven, was, not that he was primus peccator, but primus Confessor, that he first accused himself, & came to a sense of his miserable estate; for that implies that which is our last word, and the effect of Christs calling, That whomsoever he calls, or how, or whensoever, it is ad Resipiscentiam, to repentance. It is not ad satisfactionem, Christ does not come to call us, to make satisfaction to the justice of God: he called us to a heavy, to an impossible account, if he called us to that. If the death of Christ Jesus himself, be but a satisfaction for the punishment for my sins, (for nothing less then that could have made that satisfaction) what can a temporary Purgatory of days or hours do towards a satisfaction? And if the torments of Purgatory it self, sustained by my self, be nothing towards a satisfaction, what can an Evenings fast, or an Ave Mary, from my Executor, or my Assignee, after I am dead, do towards such a satisfaction? Canst thou satisfy the justice of God, for all that blood which thou hast drawn from his Son, in thy blasphemous Oaths and Execrations; or for all that blood of his, which thou hast spilt upon the ground, upon the Dunghil, in thy unworthy receiving the Sacrament? Canst thou satisfy his justice, for having made his Blessings the occasions, and the instruments of thy sins; or for the Dilapidations of his Temple, in having destroyed thine own body by thine incontinency, and making that, the same flesh with a Harlot? If he will contend with thee, thou canst not answer him one of a thousand: Nay, a thousand men could not answer one sin of one man.

It is not then Ad satisfactionem; but it is not Ad gloriam neither. Christ does not call us to an immediate possession of glory, without doing any thing between. Our Glorification was in his intention, as soon as our Election: in God who sees all things at once, both entered at once; but in the Execution of his Decrees here, God carries us by steps; he calls us to Repentance. The Farmers of this imaginary satisfaction, they that fell it at their own price, in their Indulgencies, have done well, to leave out this Repentance, both in this text in S. Matthew, and where the same is related by S. Mark. In both places, they tell us, that Christ came to call sinners, but they do not tell us to what; as though it might be enough to call them to their market, to buy their Indulgencies. The Holy Ghost tells us; it is to repentance: Are ye to learn now what that is? He that cannot define Repentance, he that cannot spell it, may have it; and he that hath written whole books, great Volumes of it, may be without it. In one word, (one word will not do it, but in two words) it is Aversio, and Conversio; it is a turning from our sins, and a returning to our God. It is both: for in our Age, in our Sickness, in any impotency towards a sin, in any satiety of a sin, we turn from our sin, but we turn not to God; we turn to a sinful delight in the memory of our sins, and a sinful desire that we might continue in them. So also in a storm at sea, in any imminent calamity, at land, we turn to God, to a Lord, Lord; but at the next calm, and at the next deliverance, we turn to our sin again. He only is the true Israelite, the true penitent, that hath Nathaniel's mark, In quo non est dolus, In whom there is no deceit: For, to sin, and think God sees it not, because we confess it not; to confess it as sin, and yet continue the practise of it; to discontinue the practise of it, and continue the possession of that, which was got by that sin; all this is deceit, and destroys, evacuates, annihilates all Repentance.

To recollect all, and to end all: Christ justifies feasting; he feasts you with himself: And feasting in an Apostles house, in his own house; he feasts you often here: And he admits Publicans to this feast, men whose full and open life, in Court, must necessarily expose them, to many hazards of sin: and the Pharisees, our adversaries, calumniate us for this; they say we admit men too easily to the Sacrament; without confession, without contrition, without satisfaction. God in heaven knows we do not; less, much less then they. For Confession, we require public confession in the Congregation: And in time of Sickness, upon the death-bed, we enjoyn private and particular Confession, if the conscience be oppressed: And if any man do think, that that which is necessary for him, upon his death-bed, is necessary, every time he comes to the Communion, and so come to such a confession, if any thing lie upon him, as often as he comes to the Communion, we blame not, we dissuade not, we dis-counsel not that tenderness of conscience, and that safe proceeding in that good soul. For Contrition, we require such a contrition as amounts to a full detestation of the sin, and a full resolution, not to relapse into that sin: and this they do not in the Roman Church, where they have soupled and mollified their Contrition into an Attrition. For Satisfaction, we require such a satisfaction as Man can make to Man, in goods or fame: and for the satisfaction due to God, we require that every man, with a sober and modest, but yet with a confident and infallible assurance believe, the satisfaction given to God, by Christ, for all mankind, to have been given and accepted for him in particular. This Christ, with joy and thanksgiving we acknowledge to be come; to be come actually; we expect no other after him, we join no other to him: And come freely, without any necessity imposed by any above him, and without any invitation from us here: Come, not to meet us, who were not able to rise, without him; but yet not to force us, to save us against our wills, but come to call us, by his Ordinances in his Church; us, not as we pretend any righteousness of our own, but as we confess our selves to be sinners, and sinners led by this call, to Repentance; which Repentance, is an everlasting Divorce from our beloved sin, and an everlasting Marriage and super-induction of our ever-living God.

A Sermon Preached at White-Hall April 2. 1620. Serm. 10. Sermon X.

ECCLES. 5.

There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and in his hand is nothing.

Ver. 12. & 13. in Edit. 1. In alia 13. & 14.

THe kingdom of heaven is a feast; to get you a Stomach to that, we have preached abstinence. The kingdom of heaven is a treasure too, and to make you capable of that, we would bring you to a just valuation of this world. He that hath his hands full of dirt, cannot take up Amber; if they be full of Counters, he cannot take up gold. This is the Book, which St. Jerome chose to expound to Blesilla at Rome, when his purpose was to draw her to heaven, by making her to understand this world; It was the book fittest for that particular way: and it is the Book which St. Ambrose calls Bonum ad omnia magistrum; A good Master to correct us in this world, a good Master to direct us to the next. For though Solomon had asked at Gods hand, only the wisdom fit for Government, yet since he had bent his wishes, upon so good a thing as wisdom, and in his wishes, even of the best thing, had been so moderate, God abounded in his grant, and gave him all kinds, Natural and Civil, and heavenly wisdom. And therefore when the Fathers and the latter Authours in the Roman Church, exercise their considerations, whether Solomon were wiser, then Adam, then Moses, then the Prophets, then the Apostles, they needed not to have been so tender, as to except only the Virgin Mary, for though she had such a fullness of heavenly wisdom, as brought her to rest in his bosom, in heaven, who had rested in hers upon earth, yet she was never proposed for an example of natural, or of civil knowledge. Solomon was of all; and therefore St. Austin says of him; Prophetavit in omnibus Libris suis, Solomon prophesied in all his books; and though in this book his principal scope be moral, and practique wisdom, yet in this there are also mysteries, and prophecies, and many places concerning our eternal happiness, after this life.

But because there is no third object for mans love. This world, and the next, are all that he can consider, as he hath but two eyes, so he hath but two objects, and then Primus actus voluntatis est Amor, Mans love is never idle, it is ever directed upon something, if our love might be drawn from this world, Solomon thought it a direct way to convey it upon the next: And therefore consider Solomons method, and wisdom in pursuing this way: because all the world together, hath amazing greatness, and an amazing glory in it, for the order and harmony, and continuance of it (for if a man have many Manors, he thinks himself a great Lord, and if a Man have many Lords under him, he is a great King, and if he have Kings under him, he is a great Emperor: and yet what profit were it, to get all the world and loose thy soul; Therefore Solomon shakes the world in pieces, he dissects it, and cuts it up before thee, that so thou mayest the better see, how poor a thing, that particular is, whatsoever it be, that thou sets thy love upon in this world. He threads a string of the best stones, of the best Jewels in this world, knowledge in the first Chapter, delicacies in the second, long life in the third, Ambition, Riches; Fame, strength in the rest, and then he shows you an Ice, a flaw, a cloud in all these stones? he lays this infamy upon them all, vanity, and vexation of spirit.

Which two words, vanity and vexation, because they go through all, to every thing Solomon applies one of them; they are the inseparable Laeven, that sowers all, and therefore are intended as well of this Text, as of the other text; we shall by the way make a little stop upon those two words, first how could the wisdom of Solomon and of the Holy Ghost, avile and abase this world more, then by this annihilating of it in the name of vanity, for what is that? It is not enough to receive a definition; it is so absolutely nothing, as that we cannot tell you, what it is. Let Saint Bernard do it; vanum est, quod nec confert plenitudinem continenti; for who amongst you hath not room for another bag, or amongst us for another benefice; nec fulcimentum innitentï, for who stands fast upon that, which is not fast it self? and the world passeth, and the lusts thereof; Nec fructum laboranti, for you have sowen much, and bring in little, yee eat, but have not enough, yee drink but are not filled, yee are clothed, but wax not warm, and he that earneth wages, puts it into a bag with holes, midsummer runs out at Michalmas, and at years end he hath nothing.

And such a vanity is this world, least it were not enough, to call it vanity alone, simply vanity, though that language in which Solomon, and the Holy Ghost spoke, have no degrees of comparison, no superlative, (they cannot say vanissimum, the greatest vanity,) yet Solomon hath sound a way to express the height of it, another way conformable to that language, when he calls it, vanitatem vanitatum, for so doth it; Canticum Canticorum; The Song of Songs, Deus Deorum, the God of gods, Dominus dominantium, The Lord of Lords; Coeli Coelorum, The Heaven of Heavens, always signify the superlative, and highest degree of those things; vanity of vanities is the deepest vanity, the emptiest vanity, the veriest vanity that can be conceived. Saint Augustin apprehended somewhat more in it, but upon a mistaking; for accustoming himself to a Latin copy of the Scriptures, and so lighting upon copies, that had been miswritten, he reads that, vanitas vani antum: O the vanity of those men that delight in vanity; he puts this lowness, this annihilation not only in the thing, but in the Men themselves too. And so certainly he might safely do; (for though, as he says, in his Retractations, his Copies milled him,) yet that which he collected even by that error, was true, they that trust in vain things are as vain, as the things themselves. If Saint Augustin had not his warrant to say so from Solomon here, yet he had it from his Father before, who did not stop at that, when he had said Man is like to vanity, but proceeds farther; surely that is without all contradiction every Man, that is without all exception; in his best state, that is, without any declination, is altogether vanity. Let no man grudge to acknowledge it of himself; The second man that ever was begot and born into this world, (and then there was world enough before him to make him great) and the first good man, had his name from vanity; Cain, the first man, had his name from possession; but the second, Habel, had his name from vacuity, from vanity, from vanishing; for it is the very word, that Solomon uses here still for vanity. Because his parents repose no confidence in Habel, for they thought that Cain was the Messiah, they called him vanity. Because God knew that Habel had no long term in this world, he directed them, he suffered them to call him vanity. But therefore principally was he and so may we, be content with the name of vanity, that so acknowledging our selves to be but vanity, we may turn, for all our being, and all our well being, for our essence, and existence, and subsistence, upon God in whom only we live and move and have our being; for take us at our best, make every one an Abel, and yet that is but Evanescentia in nihilum, a vanishing, an evapourating. When the Prophets are said to speak the motions, and notions, the visions of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord, then because that was indeed nothing, (for a lye is nothing) they are said (in this very word) to speak vanity. And still, where the Prophets have that phrase, in the person of God, provocaverunt me vanitatibus, They have provoked God with their vanities, the Chaldee Paraphrase ever expresseth it, Idolis, with their Idols; and Idolum nihil est, an Idol, that is vanity, is nothing. Man therefore can have no deeper discouragement, from inclining to the things of this world, then to be taught that they are nothing, nor higher encouragement, to cleave to God for the next, then to know that himself is nothing too. This last of our selves, is St. Pauls humility, I am nothing; The first of other Creatures, is the Prophet Isaiahs instruction, The nations are as a drop of the bucket, as the dust of the balance, the Isles are as a little dust: This was little enough; but, all nations are before him as nothing; that was much less; for the disproportion between the least thing, and nothing, is more infinite then between the least thing, and the whole world. But there is a diminution of that too, they are all less then nothing; and whats that, vanity; in that place, Nihilum, & in ane, and thats as low as Solomon carries them.

But because all the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart, are only evil continually, as Moses heightens the Corruption of man, and therefore men are not so much affrighted with this returning to nothing, for they could be content to vanish at last and turn to nothing, there appears no harm to them in that, that the world comes to nothing; what care they, when they have no more use of it? and there appears an ease to them, if their souls might come to nothing too; therefore Solomon calls this world not only nothing, vanity, but affliction, and vexation of spirit. Tell a natural voluptuous man, of two sorts of torments in hell, Poena damni, and Poena sensus, one of privation, he shall not see God, and the other of real Torments, he shall be actually tormented; the loss of the sight of God will not so much affect him, for he never saw him in his life; not in the marking of his grace, not in the glass of his creatures, and he thinks it will not much trouble him there to lack his sight, whom he never saw here; But when he comes to think of real Torments, he sees some examples of them here in this life upon himself. And if he have but the toothach, he will think, that if that were to last eternally, it were an unsufferable thing. And therefore Solomon affects us with that sensible addition, love not this world; why? It is vanity, it will come to nothing: I care not for that; I will love it, as long as it is something; do not so, for it is not only vanity, but affliction, vexation too. It will be nothing at last, it ends; but it is vexation too, that shall never end. The love of the world, is but a smoke, there's the vanity; but such a one, as putts out our eyes, there's the vexation; we do not see God here, we shall not see God hereafter.

These two words then, as to all the other parts in Solomons Anatomy, and cutting up of the world, so they do belong to that particular disposition, in this Text; This reserving of Riches to the owner, for his evil, and that which follows, is vanity, and vexation; But now we have passed that general consideration, there is thus much more to be considered. First an imputation laid upon the reserving, the gathering of Riches: though Riches be not in themselves ill, yet we are to be abstinent from an over-studious heaping of them, because naturally they are mingled with that danger, that they may be for the owners evil: And therefore because it may come to that, It is a sickness to gather Riches; and it is an evil sickness, for all sickness is not so: and it was no imaginary, but a true sickness, it was seen, it was under the sun; for that death it self, which is not seen, spiritual death in the torments of hell, is not so much thought of; this is seen; but it was the part of a wise man to see it, Solomon saw it, there is an evil sickness, that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son; and in his hand is nothing.

There follows a dangerous, and deadly Symptom of this sickness, that the riches perish. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof for their evil. And those Riches perish by evil travail: And he begetteth a son; and in his hand is nothing.

But that will not fall into this exercise.

First then, the imputation that is generally laid upon riches, appears most in those difficulties, which in the Gospels are so often said to lye in the rich mans way to heaven: Particularly, where it is said to be, as hard for a rich man to enter into heaven, as for a Camel to pass a needels eye; God can do this; but if a rich man shall stay for his salvation, till God do draw a Camel through a needels eye, he may perchance stay, till all be served, and all the places of the Angels filled. St. Jerome made it not a proverb, but he found it one, and so he cites it, Dives, aut iniquus est, aut iniqui haeres: A rich man is dishonest himself, or, at least he succeeds a dishonest predecessor: Proverbs have their limits, and rules have exceptions; but yet the proverb, and the rule lays a shrewd imputation, ut plurimum, for the most part it is so. It is not always so; we have a better proverb, against that proverb, The reward of humility, and the fear of God is Riches, and glory, and life; If we were able to digest, and concoct these temporal things into good nourishment; Gods natural way is, and would be, to convey to us the testimony of his spiritual graces in outward and temporal benefits; as he did to the Jews in abundance of wine, and honey, and milk, and oil, and the like. He had rather we were Rich, because we might advance his glory the more: At least they are equal: and any great measure of either, either of Riches, or of Poverty, are equal in their danger too. Et quae mulcent, et quae molestant, timeo; Poverty, as well as Riches, may put us from our Christian constancy; and therefore they are both praied against, Divitias et paupertates ne dederis; How Riches are to be esteemed when they are compared with Poverty, is another question; but how compared with heaven, is no question: We may see that by the place from whence they are said to come.

Christ is presented there in the person of wisdom; and there it is said, length of days, that is Eternity, in her right hand, and in her left hand Riches, and Glory: Nolite sitire sinistram; press not too much upon Gods left hand for Riches here, least that custom imprint a Bias in you, and turn you on the left hand here, and bring thee to Gods left hand in heaven too. Briefly they have an imputation upon them, they have an ill name, as hindrances to the next life, and they have it also as Traitors to their Masters, That they are reserved to the hurt of their owners in this life; And then, if that Vae, be well placed, Wo be unto you, that are rich, for you have received your consolation, what a woeful thing is it, to have received no consolation in them, but to have had harm here by them?

To proceed then, riches may do harm to their owners. It is no easy matter for a rich man, to find out the true owners of all his riches. Thou art not owner of all, that the right owner cannot recover of thee; that all that is his by law, should be his. Certainly no rich Man hath dealt much in this world, but he hath something, of which himself knows not the right owner, when he receives usury for his money, that interest is not his money, but when he receives usury again for that, there neither the interest, nor principal was his own money; he takes usury for that money of which himself was not the owner, because it was ill gotten: If thou do truly know the owner, restore it to him; if after a diligent examination of thy self, thou do not know the particular owner, yet thou knowest it is none of thine, and therefore give it him, whose it was at first; both before thou hadst it, and before he from whom thou gottest it corruptly, had it; give it to God, in giving it to his poor, and afflicted members; give it him, and give it willingly, and give it now, for that that thou givest at thy death thou dost but leave by thy last will, thou dost not give; he only gives that might keep, thou givest unwillingly; howsoever they have it, by thy will, yet it is against thy will that they have it, thou givest then, but art sorry, that they to whom thou givest, that which thou givest, came so soon to it. And then saepe infirmitatis servi efficimur, we become slaves to our last sickness often; oftentimes Apoplexies stupify us and we are dull, and Fevers enrage us and we are mad; we are in a slavery to the disease, Et servï non testantur, says the law, slaves have no power to make a Will; Testare Liber, make thy Will, and make it to be thy Will, give it the effect, and execute thy Will whilst thou art a free man, in state of health; restore that which is not thine; for even that of which thou art true owner may be reserved to thy harm, much more that, which is none of thine.

Every man may find in himself, that he hath done some sins, which he would not have done, if he had not been so rich: for there goes some cost to the most sins; his wantonness in wealth makes him do some; his wealth hath given him a confidence, that that fault would not be looked into, or that it would be bought out, if it were. Some sins we have done, because we are rich; but many more because we would be rich; And this is a spiritual harm, the riches do their owners. And for temporal harm, if it were hard to find in our own times, examples of men, which have incurred great displeasure, undergone heavy calamities, perished in unrecoverable shipwreck, all which they had escaped, if they had not been eminently, and enormously rich; we might in ancient history both profane and holy, find such precedents enough, as Naboth was; who if he had had no such vineyard, as lay convenient for so much greater a person, might have passed for an honest and religious Man to God, and a good subject to the King, without any indictment of blasphemy against either, and never have been stoned to death. The rich Merchant at Sea, is afraid that every fisherman is a Pyrat, and the fisherman fears not him. And if we should survey the body of our penal Laws, whensoever the abuse of them, makes them snares and springs to entangle men, we should see that they were principally directed upon rich men; neither can rich men comfort themselves in it, that though they be subject to more storms then other men, yet they have better ground tackling, they are better able to ride it out then other men; for it goes more to the heart of that rich Merchant, which we spoke of, to cast his goods over board, then it does to the fisherman to loose his boat: and perchance his life. Sudat pauper foris; It is true the poor mans brow sweats without; Laborat intus dives, the rich mans heart bleeds within; and the poor man can sooner wipe his face, then the rich man his heart, Gravius fastidio, quam ille inedia cruciatur; the rich man is worse troubled to get a stomach, then the poor man to satisfy his: and his loathing of meat, is more wearisome, then the others desire of it. Sum up the diseases that voluptuousness by the ministry of riches imprints in the body; the battery that malice, by the provocation of riches, lays to the fortune; the sins that confidence in our riches; heaps upon our souls; and we shall see, that though riches be reserved to their owners, yet it is to their harm.

As then the burden of that song in the furnace, where all creatures were called upon to bless the Lord, was still, praise the Lord, and magnify him for ever; And as the burden of that Psalm of thanksgiving, where so many of Gods miracles are recorded, is this, for his mercy endureth for ever; so the burden of Solomons exclamation against worldly things, is still in all these Chapters, vanity, and vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit; so he adds thus much more to this particular distemper of reserving Riches, naturally disposed to do us harm. That it is a sickness; Mow, Sanitas naturalis; Nature abhors sickness, and therefore this is an unnatural desire. For whether we take this phrase of Solomon, for a Metaphor and comparison, that this desire of Riches, is like a sickness, that it hath the pains, and the discomforts, and the dangers of a sickness, or whether we take it literally, that it is a disordering, a discomposing, a distemper of the mind, and so truly, and really a sickness, and that this sickness induceth nothing but eternal death, nothing should make us more afraid then this sickness, (for, the root of all evil is the desire of money.) And then if it be truly a sickness all the way, and Morbus complicatus, (a dropsy, and a consumption too) we seem great, but it is but a swelling, for our soul is lean; what a sad condition will there be, when their last bodily sickness, and this spiritual sickness meet together; a sick body, & a sick soul, will be but ignorant Physicians, and miserable comforters to one another.

It is a sickness, and an evil sickness; & there is a weight added in that addition; for though all sickness have rationem mali, some degrees of the evil of punishment in it, yet sometimes the good purpose of God, in inflicting a sickness, and the good use of man, in mending by a sickness, overcome and weigh down that little dram, and washes away the pale tincture of evil, which is in it. There is a wholesome sickness, Et est sanitas, quae viaticum ad peccatum, health sometimes victuals us, and fuels us, and armes us for a sin, and we do those sins, which, if we were sick, we could not do: And then, Mala sanitas carnis, quae ducit ad infirmitatem animae. It is an unwholsome health of the body, that occasions the sickness of the soul.

It is true, that in bodily Sickness, Tua dimicant contra te arma. It is a discomfortable war, when thou fightest against thy self; In ipso gemis, in quo peccasti, that that flesh in which thou hast sinned, comes to vex, and anguish thee; that thy body is become but a bottle of rheum: Thy Sinews but a bundle of thorns, and thy bones but a furnace of vehement ashes. But it thou canst hear God, as St. Augustin did. Ego novi unde aegrotes, Ego novi unde saneris, I know thy disease, and I know thy cure. Gratia mea sufficit, my grace shall serve thy turn. Thou shalt come to that disposition of the Apostle too; Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, because when I am weak, then am I strong: when thou art come to an apprehension of thy own weakness, thou comest also to a recourse to him, in whom only is thy saving healthand recovery. But this Sickness of gathering those riches which are reserved for our evil, comes not to that; it comes to the Sickness, but not to the physic. In small diseases (saith St. Basil,) we go to the Physicians house; in greater diseases, we send for the Physician to our house; but in violent diseases, in the stupefaction of an Apoplexy, in the damp of a leturgy, in the furnace of a Pleurisy; we have no sence, no desire of a Physician at all. When this inordinate love of Riches begins in us, we have some tenderness of Conscience, and we consult with Gods Ministers: After we admit the reprehensions of Gods Ministers when they speak to our Consciences; but at last, the habit of our sin hath seared us up, and we never find that it is we, that the Preacher means; we find that he touches others, but not us. Our wit, and our malice is awake, but our conscience is asleep; we can make a Sermon a libel against others, and cannot find a Sermon in a Sermon, to our selves. It is a sickness, and an evil sickness.

Now this is not such a sickness, as we have only read of, and no more. It concerns us not only so, as the memory of the sweat, of which we do rather wounder at the report, then consider the manner, or the remedies against it. Those divers plagues which God inflicted upon Pharoah, for withholding his people. That devouring Pestilence, which God stroke Davids kingdom with for numbering his people. That destruction which God kindled in Sennacheribs army for oppressing his people. These, because God hath represented them, in so clear, and so true a glass as his word, we do in a manner see them. Things in other stories we do but hear; things in the Scriptures we see: The Scriptures are as a room wainscotted with lookingglass, we see all at once. But this evil sickness of reserving riches to our own evil, is plainer to be seen; because it is daily round about us, daily within us, & in our consciences, & experiences. There are sins, that are not evident, not easily discerned; & therefore David annexes a Scedule to his prayer after all, Ab occultis meis mundame, saith David. There are sins, which the difference of religion, makes a sin, or no sin; we know it to be a sin, to abstain from coming to Church, our adversaries are made believe it is a time to come. There are middle-men, that when our Church appoints coming, and receiving, and another Church forbids both, they will do half of both; they will come, and not receive: and so be friends with both. There are sins recorded in the Scriptures, in which it is hard, for any to find the name, & the nature, what the sin was; how doth the School vex it self, to find out what was the nature of the sin of the Angels, or what was the name, of the sin of Adam? There are actions recorded in the Scriptures, in which by Gods subsequent punishment, there appears sin to have been committed, and yet to have considered the action alone, without the testimony of Gods displeasure upon it; a natural man would not easily find out a sin. Balaam was solicited to come, and curse Gods people; he refused, he consulted with God: God bids him go, but follow such instructions as he should give him after; And yet the wrath of God was kindled, because he went. Moses seems to have pursued Gods commandment exactly, in drawing water out of the Rock, and yet God says, Because you believed me not, you shall not bring this congregation into that land of promise. There are sins hard to be seen, out of the nature of Man, because Man naturally is not watchful upon his particular actions, for if he were so, he would escape great sins; when we see sand, we are not much afraid of a stone; when a Man sees his small sins, there is not so much danger of great. But some sins we see not out of a natural blindness in our selves, some we see not out of a natural dimness in the sin it self. But this sickly sin, this sinful sickness, of gathering Riches, is so obvious, so manifest to every mans apprehension, as that the books of Moral men, and Philosophers are as full of it as the Bible. But yet the Holy Ghost, (as he doth always, even in moral Counsels) exceeds the Philosophers; for whereas they place this sickness in gathering unnecessary riches injuriously; the Holy Ghost in this place extends it further, to a reserving of those riches; that when we have sinned in the getting of them, we sin still in the not restoring of them. But to thee, who shouldest repent the ill getting; Ʋeniet tempus, quo non dispensasse, poenetebit, there will come a time when thou shalt repent the having kept them: Hoc certum est, Ego sum sponsor, of this I dare be the surety (saith St. Basil) But we can leave St, Basil out of the bond; we have a better surety and undertaker, the Holy Ghost in Solomon; So that this evil sickness may be easily seen, it is made manifest enough to us all, by precedent from God, by example of others, by experience in our selves.

To see this then, is an easy, a natural thing; but to see it so, as to condemn it, and avoid it, this is a wisemans slight; this was Solomons slight. The wiseman seeth the plague, and shunneth it; therein consists the wisdom. But for the fool when he sees a thief, he runneth with him; when he sees others thrive by ill getting, and ill keeping, he runs with them, he takes the same course as they do. Beloved, It is not intended, that true and heavenly wisdom may not consist with riches: Job, and the Patriarchs abounded with both; And our pattern in this place, Solomon himself, saith of himself; That he was great, and increased above all that were before him in Jerusalem, and yet his wisdom remained with him. The poor man and the rich are in heaven together; and to show us how the rich should use the poor; Lazarus is in Abrahams bosom; The rich should succor and releive, and defend the poor in their bosoms. But when our Savior declares, a wisdom belonging to Riches, (as in the parable of the unjust Steward) he places not this wisdom, in the getting, nor in the holding of Riches, but only in the using of them; make you friends of your Riches, that they may receive you into everlasting habitations. There's no Simony in heaven, that a man can buy so much as a door-keepers place in the Triumphant Church: There's no bribery there, to see Ushers for access; But God holds that ladder there, whose foot stands upon the earth here, and all those good works, which are put upon the lowest step of that Ladder here, that is, that are done in contemplation of him, they ascend to him, and descend again to us. Heaven and earth are as a musical Instrument; if you touch a string below, the motion goes to the top: any good done to Christs poor members upon earth, affects him in heaven; And as he said, Quid me per sequeris. Saul Saul why, persecutest thou me? So he will say, Venite benedicti, pavistis me, visitastis me. This is the wisdom of their use; but the wisdom of their getting and keeping, is to see, that it is an evil sickness to get too laboriously, or to reserve too gripingly, things which tend naturally to the owners evil: For, therefore in that parable doth Christ call all their Riches generally, universally, Mammonas iniquitatis, Riches of iniquity, not that all that they had was ill got (that's not likely in so great a company) but that whatsoever, and howsoever they had got it, and were become true owners of it, yet they were Riches of iniquity; because that is one iniquity to possess much, and not distribute to the poor; and it is another iniquity to call those things riches, which are only temporal, and so to defraud heavenly graces, and spiritual treasure of that name, that belongs only to them; And the greatest iniquity of all is towards our selves. To take those riches to our heart, which Christ calls the thorns that choak the good seeds; and the Apostles calls temptations, and snares, and foolish, and noysome lusts, which drown men in perdition, and in destruction, and which the wise man hath seen, and hath showed us here, to be reserved to the owners for their evil. To return to our beginning, & make an end; Heaven is a feast, and Heaven is a treasure: If ye prepare not for his feast, by being worthy guests at his table, if you embrace not his treasure, by being such Merchants as give all for his pearl; another feast, and another treasure are expressed, and heightened in two such words, as never any tongue of any Author, but the Holy Ghost himself spoke; Inebriabit absinthio, there's the feast, you shall be drunk with wormwood, you shall taste nothing but bitter affliction, and that shall make you reel, for you shall find in your affliction no rest for your souls. And for the treasure, Thesaurizabis iram dei; you shall treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; and this will be an exchequor ever open, and never exhausted. But use the creatures of God, as creatures, and not as God, with a confidence in them, and you shall find juge convivium, in a good conscience, and Thesauros absconditos, all the hid treasures of wisdom and knowledge; you shall know how to be rich in this world by an honest getting of riches, and how to be rich in the next world by a christianly use of those riches here.

THE SECOND SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL

Upon ECCLES. 5.12, & 13.

There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and in his hand is nothing.

THat then which was intended in the former verse, That Riches were hurtful even to the owners, St. Augustin hath well and fully expressed, Eris proeda hominum, qui jam es diaboli; The devil hath preyed upon thee already, by knowing what thou wouldst have, and great Men will prey upon thee hereafter, by knowing what thou hast. But because the rich man thinks himself hard enough for both, for the devil, and for great men, if he may keep his riches; therefore here is that, which seems to him a greater calamity inflicted; first, his riches shall perish; and secondly those riches, those which he hath laboured and travailed for; And thirdly, they shall perish in travail, and labor, and affliction. And then not only all his present comfort shall perish, but that which was his future hope: The son, which he hath begot, shall have nothing in his hand.

He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor, says Solomon. Is there a discomfort in this? There is. It is presented there for an affliction, and vexation to a rich Man, to be told, that his money shall be employed in any other way, not only then he gathered it for, but then he gathered it by. It would grieve him to know, that his heir would purchase land, or buy an office with his money; for all other means of profit then himself hath tried, he esteems unthriftiness, casual, and hazardous; difference of seasons may change the value of his land, affections of Men may change the value of an office; but whether the year be good or bad, a year it must be, and nothing can lengthen, or shorten his two harvests in the year, from six months to six. Always, but his own, displease him in his heir; but if his heir will be giving to the poor (as Solomon says) then here are two mischiefs met together, that he could never abide the poor, and giving; and therefore such a contemplation is a double vexation to him; but much more must it be so, to hear that his riches shall perish; that they shall come to nothing, for though, if we consider it aright, it is truly all one, whether a covetous mans wealth do perish, or no, for so much, as he hoards up, and hides, and puts to no use; it is all one whether that thousand pound be in his chest or no, if he never see it, yet since he hath made his gold his God, he hath so much devilish Religion in him as to be loath that his God should perish. And this, that is threatened here is an absolute perishing, an absolute annihilation; It is the same word, by which David expresses the abolition, and perishing of the wicked. The way of the wicked shall perish; and which Moses repeats with vehemency twice together pereunao peribitis; I pronounce unto you this day you shall surly perish. So Judas, and his money perished. The money that Judas had taken; he was weary of keeping it, and they who had given it, would none of it neither. Se primum mulctavit pecunia, deind vita. First he fined himself, and then he hanged himself; first he cast back the money, and then he cast himself head-long and burst: often times the money perishes, and the man too: yea it is not here only that they shall perish, in the future; that were a repreive; it were a stalling of a debt; but (as both our Translations have it) they do perish, they are always melting; yea as the Original hath it, vadit et periit, They are already perished, they were born dead; ill gotten riches, bring with them from the beginning a Contagion that works upon themselves, and their Masters.

The riches shall perish, though they be his, though his title to them be good, if he put his trust in them; And those riches, those which he hath got by his travail, Those which he hath reserved by his parsimony, and frugallity. There is sometimes a greater reverence in us, towards our ancient inheritance towards those goods, which are devolved upon us, by succession; There is another affection expressed towards those things, which dying friends have left us, for they preserve their memories; another towards Jewells, or other Testimonies of an acceptation of our services from the Prince: but still we love those things most, which we have got with our own labor, and industrey. When a man comes to say with Jacob, with my staff came I over Jordan, & now have I gotten two bands, with this staff came I to London, with this staff came I to Court, and now am thus and thus increased, a man loves those addisions, which his own Industry hath made to his fortune. There are some ungrateful Natures that love other men the worse, for having bound them by benefits, and good turns to them: but that were a new ingratitude, not to be thankful to our selves, not to love those things, which we our selves have compassed. We have our reason to do so, in our great example, Christ Jesus, who loves us most, as we are his purchase, as he hath bought us with his blood; And therefore, though he hath expressed a love too, to the Angels, in their confirmation, yet he cannot be said to love the Angels, as he doth us, because his death hath wrought nothing upon them, which were fallen before; and for us, so he came principally to save sinners: the whole body and band of Angels, are not his purchase, as all mankind is. This affection is in worldly men too; they love their own gettings; and those shall perish. They have given their pleasant things for meat, to refresh their souls: whatsoever they placed their heart upon, whatsoever they delighted in most, whatsoever they were loath to part withal, it shall perish; and the measure of their love to it and the desire of it shall be the measure of Gods judgement upon it; that which they love most, shall perish first.

Those riches then, those best beloved riches shall perish, and that, saith the text, by evil travail,; which is a word, that in the original signifies both Occupationem, Negotiationem, labor and Travail, and afflictionem, vexationem; affliction, and vexation: They shall perish in occupation, then when thou art labouring, and travailing in thy calling, then when thou art harkening after a purchase, and a bargain, then when thy neighbors can impute no negligence, thou wast not negligent in gathering, nay no vice to thee, thou wast not dissolute in scattering, then when thou risest early, lyest down late, and eatest the bread of sorrow, then shalt thou find, not only that that prospers not, which thou goest about, and pretendest to, but that that which thou haddest before, decays, and molders away. If we consider well in what abundance God satisfied the children of Israel with Quails, and how that ended, we shall see example enough of this: You shall eat, saith God, not one nor two days, nor five, nor ten, nor twenty, but a whole moneth, until it come out at your nostrils, and be loathsome unto you; here was the promise, and it was performed for the plenty, that quailes fell a days journey round about the Camp, and they were two cubits thick upon the earth; The people fell to their labor, and they arose, and gathered all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, saith the Text; and he that gathered least, gathered ten Gomers full; But as the promise was performed in the plenty, so it was in the course too; whilst the flesh was yet between theïr teeth before it was chewed, even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and he smote them with an exceeding great plague. Even whilst your money is under your fingers, whilst it is in your purposes determined, and digested for such, and such a purpose, whilst you have put it in a ship in Merchandice, to win more to it; whilst you have sowed it in the land of borrowers, to multiply, and grow upon Mortgages, and usury, even when you are in the mid'st of your travail, storms at Sea, thieves at land, enviers at court, informations at Westminster, whilst the meat is in your mouths, shall cast the wrath of God upon your riches, and they shall perish, In occupation, then, when you travail to increase them. The Children of Israel are said in that place, only to have wept to Moses, out of a lust, and a grief, for want of flesh. God punished not that weeping; it is a tenderness, a disposition, that God loves; but a weeping for worldly things, and things not necessary to them (for Manna might have served them) a weeping for not having, or for loosing such things of this world, is always accompanied with a murmuring; God shall cause thy riches to perish in thy travail, not because he denies thee riches, nor because he would not have thee travail, but because an inordinate love, an overstudious, and an intemperate,, and overlaborious pursuit of riches, is always accompanied with a diffidence, in Gods providence, and a confidence in our own riches.

To give the wicked a better sense of this, God proceeds often the same way, with the righteous too; but with the wicked, because they do with the righteous, least they should trust in their own riches. We see in Job's case, It was not only his Sons, and daughters, who were banquetting, nor only his asses, and sheep, and camels that were feeding, that were destroyed; but upon his Oxen, that were ploughing, upon his servants, which were doing their particular duties, the Sabaeans came, and destruction in their sword; His Oxen, and his servants perished, in occupation, in their labor, in their travail, when they were doing that, which they should do. And if God do thus to his children, to humble them beforehand, that they do not sacrifice to their own nets, not trust in their own industry, nor in their own riches, how much more vehemently shall his judgments burn upon them, whose purpose in gathering Riches, was pricipally, that they might stand of themselves, and not need God. There are beasts that labor not, but yet furnish us, with their wool alive, and with their flesh, when they are dead; as sheep; there are men, that desire riches, and though they do no other good, they are content to keep good houses, and that their Heir should do so, when they are dead; There are beasts that labor, and are meat at their death, but yield no other help in their life, and these are Oxen; there are men that labor to be rich, and do no good with it, till their death; There are beasts that only labor, and yield nothing else in life, nor death, as horses: and there are some, that do neither, but only prey upon others, as Lyons, and others such; we need not apply particularly; there are all bestial natures in rich men; and God knows how to meet with them all; and much more will he punish them, which do no good, in life, nor death, nay that labor not for their riches, but surfeit upon the sweat of other men, since even the riches of those, that trust in riches, shall perish in Occupation, in the very labor, and in the very travail, which (if it were not done with a confidence in the riches, when they, are got,) were allowable, and acceptable to God.

You may have a good Embleme of such a rich man, whose riches perish in his travail, if you take into your memory, and thoughts, a Spunge that is overfilled; If you press it down with your little finger, the water comes out of it; Nay, if you lift it up, there comes water out of it; If you remove it out of his place, though to the right hand as well as to the left, it pours out water; Nay if it lye still quiet in his place, yet it wets the place, and drops out his moisture. Such is an overful, and spungy covetous person: he must pour out, as well as he hath suck't in; if the least weight of disgrace, or danger lye upon him, he bleeds out his money; Nay, if he be raised up, if he be prefered, he hath no way to it, but by money, and he shall be raised, whether he will or no, for it. If he be stirred from one place to another, if he be suffered to settle where he is, and would be, still these two incommodities lye upon him; that he is loathest to part with his money, of any thing, and yet he can do nothing without it. He labours for riches, and still he is but a bag, for other men: Pereunt in occupation, as fast as he gather by labor, God raises some occasion of drawing them from him again, It is not then with Riches in a family, as it is with a nail in a wall, that the hard beating of it in, makes it the faster. It is not the hard and laborious getting of money, the fixing of that in a strong wall, the laying it upon lands, and such things as are vulgarly distinguished from moveables, (as though the world, and we were not moveables) nor the beating that nail hard, the binding it with Entails, of Iron, and Adamant, and perpetuities of eternity, that makes riches permanent, and sure; but it is the good purpose in the getting, and the good use in the having. And this good use is not, when thou makest good use of thy Money, but when the Common-wealth, where God hath given thee thy station, makes use of it: The Common-wealth must suck upon it, by trade, not it upon the Common-wealth, by usury. Nurses that give such to children, maintaint hemselves by it too; but both must be done; thou must be enriched so, by thy money, as that the state be not impoverished. This is the good use in having it; and the good purpose in getting it, is, that God may be glorified in it; some errors in using of Riches, are not so dangerous; for some employing of them in excesses, and superfluities, this is a rust, without, it will be filled of with good counsel, or it will be worn of in time; in time we come to see the vanity of it: and when we leave looking at other mens cloths, or thinking them the better men for their cloths, why should we think, that others like us the better for our cloths; those desires will decay in us. But an ill purpose in getting of them, that we might stand of our selves, and rely upon our Riches, this is a rust, a cancer at the heart, and is incurable. And therefore, if as the course, and progress of money hath been in the world from the beginning. (The observation is St. Augustins, but it is obvious to every man acquainted with history.) That first the world used Iron money, and then Silver money, and last of all, Gold; If thy first purpose in getting, have been for Iron, (that thou have intended thy money to be thy strength, and defence in all calamities.) And then for silver (to provide thee abundance, and ornaments, and excesses.) And then for gold, to hord, and treasure up in a little room. Thesaurisasti iram. Thou hast treasured up the anger of God, against the day of anger.

Go the same way still; account Riches Iron, (naturally apt to receive those rusts which we spoke of, in getting, and using) account them silver, (naturally intended to provide thee of things necessary) but at last come to account them gold, naturally disposed to make thee a treasure in heaven, in the right use of them.

This is the true value of them; and except thou value them thus, Nisi Dominus edificaverit insi Dominius custodierit. Except the Lord build, except the Lord watch, the house, and city perish; so except the Lord and his glory, be in thy travail, it is not said thou shalt not get by thy travail. Sed pereunt in occupation. Even in the mid'st of thy travail, that which thou gettest, shall perish.

And then that which makes this loss the more insupportable is, (as we noted the words to signify too) pereunt in afflictione, they shall perish then, when thou art in affliction, and shouldst have most use of them, most benefit by them, most content in them. If the disfavor of great persons lye heavy upon me abroad, mihi plaudo domi, I may have health, and wealth, and I can enjoy those at home, and make my self happy in them; if I have not all that, but that sickness lye heavy upon me, yet gold is cordial: that can provide all helps, that may be had, for my recovery, and it gives me that comfort to my mind,that I shall lack no attendance, no means of reparation. But if I suffer, under the judgement of the Law, under the anger of the Prince, under the vehemency of sickness, and then hear, that I am begged for, some offence, hear of fines, and confiscations, and extents, hear of tempests and ship-wracks, hear of Mens breaking, in whose hands my estate was, This is the wrath of Gods anger, in this signifigation of the word, percunt in afflictione. Those riches perish then, when nothing, but they, could be of use to thee.

And all this hath one step lower yet, They perish in evil Travail, and in evil affliction. Now travail, did not begin in that curse, In Sudore vultus; for Adam was appointed to dress paradise, and to keep paradise before; and that implied a travail. But then became his travail to be evil travail, when seeing that he could not get bread without travail; still that refreshed to him the guiltiness of that sin, which had dejected him, to that misery. Then doth the rich Man see, That his riches perish by evil travail, when he calls himself to account, and finds that he trusted wholly to his own travail, and not to the blessings of God. So also every affliction is not evil: it is rather evil to have none; if ye be without correction, you are bastards, and not sons. Gods own and only essential Son, Christ Jesus, suffered most; and his adopted sons, must fulfill his sufferings in their flesh, we are born Gods sons, and heirs, in his purpose at first; and we are declared to be so, in our second birth of Baptism, but yet we are not come to years, not come to a trial, how we can govern our selves, till we suffer afflictions, but then doth this affliction become evil, when that which God intended for physic, we turn into poison: when God hearkens after this affliction, to hear what voice it produces, and when he looks for repentance, he hears a murmuring, and repining, when he bends down his ear, for a Tibi peccavi, he hears a Quare non mortuus? Why died I not in my birth? When he hearkens after: a domine ne statuas, Lord lay not this sin to their charge, a prayer for our persecutors, he hears a Redde eis vicem, Give them a recompense O Lord, according to their work, Give them a sorrow of heart, thy curse to them; as it is there,) (though there, not by way of murmuring, but by way of foresight, and Prophesy, that God would do so.) But to end this part, then when the Rich man can make no good use of his affliction, when he finds, Nullam ansam, no handle in it, to take hold of God by, when he can find no comfort in the next world, he shall loose all here too. And his Riches, Those Riches, which his labor hath made dear unto him, shall not only be taken from him, and he put to his recovery, but they shall perish, and they shall perish in the mid'st of those labours, which are evil, and eat him up, and macerate him. And they shall perish in these afflictions which are evil too, which shall not work, nor conduce to his good.

We come now to the second part: which respects more the future; He begotteth a Son; first that may seem to give him some ease; every body desires it. And secondly, It may seem to give him some excuse of his gathering, because having children, he was bound to provide for them. But such is Gods indignation for the getting of Riches with a confidence in them, that he looses all, all comfort in his Son, all excuse in himself, for in the hands of his Son shall be nothing. First then, for the having of children, and the testimony of Gods love in that blessing, this diminishes Nothing, the honor due to the first chastity, the chastity of virginity. There is a chastity in Marriage: But the chastity of virginity, is the proper, and principal chastity. Barcenus, amongst the Jews was an ignominious thing; but it was considered only in them which did marry, and were barren: God hath given us Marriage for Physic; but it is an unwholsom wantonness to take Physic before we need it: Marriage, In Gods institution at first, had but two ends; In prolem, and in adjutorium; After man was fallen sick, then another was added, In remedium. Marriage is properly according to Gods institution, when all these concurr: where none do it is scarce a Marriage. When we have taken the Physic, yet we are not come to the state of strength, and health, which is intended in Marriage, till we have Children to be the staff of our age; Behold Children are the inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb his reward; He gives Marriage for Physic; but Children are a real blessing, in it self, and reserved to him. And therefore, when God hath given us that use of Marriage, (we are married) he is at an end of his Physic; he doth not appoint us to take Physic again for children: he does not forbid us to take phisick, to preserve our bodyes in a good, and healthy costitution; but drugs, and broths, and baths, purposely for children, come not out of his shop; they are not his ingredients. It is his own work, the gift of children: And therefore when Rachel came to say to Jacob; Give me children, or else I die, Jacobs anger was kindled against her, Anne ego pro Deo: Am I a God to do this. And therefore it is not inconveniently noted, that as the first man Cain, was called Acquisitus a domino, he was possessed from the Lord; so after, so very many names in the Scriptures, held that way of testifying the guift to come from God, that as Samuel, wich is, postulatus a deo, so all the names that have that termination, El, have such a signification in them; And so in the declining of the Jews state, Matheus, is Domini Dei, and Johanes, is gratia Dei; and in the beginning of the Christian Church, every where they abounded with, Deo date, Deus dedit, & quod vult Deus, and such names, as were acknowledgments, that children were the immediate gift of God. And therefore when God said to Abraham; I will be thine exceeding great reward, and Abraham said, O Lord God what wilt thou give me, seeing I am childless? God comes to particulars with him first in that, that he would give him children: And therefore, as to all men, so to this rich man; in our text, it may be naturally admitted for a comfort, that he had a Son.

Now as it was a just comfort, to have children, so it was a just excuse, a just encouragement to provide for them; If there be any that provideth not for his own, he denieth the faith; (that is, in his actions, and works of faith,) and he is worse then an Infidel; for Infidels do provide for their own. Christianismi famam negligit, he betrays the honor, and dignity of the Christian Religion; if he neglect his children, and he hath opened a large gate of Scandal to the Gentiles. And therefore saith St. Augustin, quicunque vult: Whosoever will disinherit his Sons, though it be upon pretext of doing good service, by building, or endowing a Church, or making the Church his heir. Quaerat alterum qui suscipiat, non Augustinum Immo, deo propitio, neminem inveniet: Let him find another that will accept his offer; for Augustin will not; nor, by Gods grace any other. The tye, the obligation of providing for our Children, binds us strictly; for it is, secunda, post Deum faederatio; next to the band of Religion, next to our service to God, our first duty is to provide for them.

But yet, Dic obsecro, cum liberos a Deo petiisti; when thou did'st pray to God to give thee Children, did'st thou add this clause to thy prayer, Da liberos, give me Children, that I may thereby have an excuse, of my covetousness, of my breach of thy Commandment, of my profaning thy Sabaths, of my usury, of my perjury; was this in thy prayer, saith he. If it were, the Child shall surely dye, as Nathan said to David: God will panish thee, in taking those children from thee,which were the colors of thy sin: The children of the ungodly, shall not obtain many branches; not extend to many generations; If they do, if his children be in great number, the sword shall destroy them; His remnant shall be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep. Howsoever, as the words of the text stand, the Holy Ghost hath left us at our liberty, to observe one degree of misery more in this corrupt man. That he is said, to have begot his Son, after those Riches are perished. He had a discomfort in evil travail, and in evil affliction before; he hath another now, that when all is gone, then he hath children, the foresight of whose misery must needs be a continual affliction unto him. For St. Augustin reports it, not as a leading Case, likely to be followed, but as a singular Case, likely to stand alone; that when a rich man, who had no child, nor hope of any, had given his Estate to Auretius Bishop of Carthage, and after, beyond all expectation came to have children, that good Bishop unconstrained by any law, or intent in the donor, gave him back his Estate again. God, when he will punish ill getting, will take to himself that which was robed from him, and then, if he give Children, he will not be bound to restitution.

But if this rich man have his riches, and his Son together, the Son may have come from God, and the riches from the devil, and God will not join them together. Howsoever, he may in his mercy provide for the son otherwise, yet he will not make him heir of his fathers estate. The substance of the ungodly shall be dried up like a river; and they shall make a sound like a thunder, in rain. It shall perish, and it shall be in Parabolam, it shall be the wonder, and the discourse of the time. If they be not wasted in his own time, yet he shall be an ill, but a true prophet upon himself; he shall have impressions, and sensible apprehensions of a future wast, as soon, as he is gone: he shall hear, or he shall whisper to himself that voice: O fool, This night they will fetch away thy soul; he must go under the imputation of a fool, where the wisdom of this generation, (which was all the wisdom he had, ) will do him no good; he must go like a fool. His soul must be fetched away; he hath not his, In manus tuas, his willing surrender of his soul ready; It must be fetched in the night of ignorance, when he knows not his own spiritual state; It must be fetched in the night of darkness, in the night of solitude, no sence of the assistance of the communion of Saints in the Triumphant, nor in the Militant Church; in the night of disconsolatenes; no comfort in that sea. Absolution, which by by the power committed to them, Gods Ministers came to the penitent, In the name of the Father, the Son, & the holy Ghost; and it must be fetched this night, the night is already upon him, before he thought of it. All this, that the soul of this fool, shall be fetched away this night, is presented for certain, and inevitable; all this admits no question; but the, Qua perasti, cujus erunt, there's the doubt; Then, whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? If he say, they shall be his Sons, God saith here, In his hand shall be nothing; for, though God may spare him, that his riches be not perished before his death, though God have not discovered his iniquity, by that manner of punishment, yet, Quod in radice celatur, in ramis declaratur; God will show that in the bough which was hid in the root, the iniquity of the father in the penury of the son. And therefore, To conclude all, since riches are naturally conditioned so, as that they are to the owners harm, either testimonies of his former hard dealing in the world, or temptation to future sins, or provocations to other mens malice, since that though, thou may have repented the ill getting of those riches, yet, thou maiest have omitted restitution, and so there hovers an invisible owner over thy riches, which may cary them away at last, since though, thou maiest have repented, and restored, and possess thy riches, that are left, with a good Conscience; yet as we said before, from Nathans mouth, the Child may die, God, that hath many ways of expressing his mercies, may take this one way of expressing his judgment, that yet thy son shall have nothing of all that in his hand, put something else into his hand; put a book, put a sword, put a ship, put a plough, put a trade, put a course of life, a calling, into his hand; And put something into his head, the wisdom, and discretion, and understanding of a serpent, necessary for those courses, and callings. But principally, put something into his heart, a religious fear, and reverence of his Maker; a religious apprehension, and application of his Savior, a religious sense, and acceptation of the comforts of the Holy Spirit; that so, if he feel, that for his fathers hard dealing, God hath removed the possession from him, he doth not doubt therefore of Gods mercy to his father, nor dishonor his fathers memory, but behave himself so in his course, as that the like judgment may not fall upon his son; but that his riches increasing, by his good travail, they may still remain in the hands of his son, whom he hath begotten.

A Serm. 11. Sermon Preached at Greenwich April 30. 1615. Serm. XI.

Isaiah 52.3.

Ye have sold your selves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.

IT is evident in it self, and agreed by all, that this is a prophecy of a deliverance; but from what calamity it is a deliverance, or when this prophecy was accomplished, is not so evident, nor so constantly agreed upon. All the expositions may well be reduced to three; first, that it is a deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and then the benefit appertains only to the Jews, and their deliverer, and Redeemer is Cyrus; Secondly, that it is a deliverance from persecutions in the primitive Church, and so it appertains only to Christians, and their Redeemer, from those persecutions is Constantine; And thirdly that it is a deliverance from the sting and bondage of death by sin; and so it appertains to the whole world, and the Redeemer of the whole world is Christ Jesus: For the first, since both the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the Jewish Rabbis themselves, do interpret this to be a prophecy of the Messiah, because they labor ever more, as strongly as they can, to wring our weapons out of our hands, and to take from us, many of those arguments, which we take from the Prophets, for the proof of the Messiah: it concerns us therefore to hold fast, as much as they grant us, and not to interpret this place of a temporal deliverance from Babylon, but of the deliverance by the Messiah. And for the second, which is the deliverance of the christians, from the persecutions in the primitive times, though the Christians did then with a holy cheerfulness suffer those persecutions, when they could not avoid them, without prevaricating, and betraying the hour of Christ Jesus, yet they did not wilfully thrust themselves into those dangers, they did not provoke the Magistrate; And the word which is here translated, ye sold your selves, vendictistis vos, implies actionem spontaneam, a free and voluntary action, done by themselves, and therefore cannot well be understood of the persecutions in the Primitive Church. The third therefore, as yet is the most useful, and most received, so it is the most proper acceptation of the word, that it is a deliverance from the bondage of sin, to be wrought by Christ: for as Saint Jerome says, this Prophet Isaiah, is rather an Evangelist, than a Prophet, because almost all that Christ did, and said, and suffered, is foretold, and prophetically antidated in his prophecy, and almost all his prophecy hath some relation (at least in a secondary sense of accommodation, (where it is not so primarily) and literally) to the words and actions, and passions of Christ.

Following then this interpretation in general of the word, that it is a deliverance from the wages of sin, Death, by Christ we may take, in passing a short view, of the miserable condition of man, wherin he enwraped himself, & of the aboundant mercy of Christ Jesus in withdrawing him from that universal calamity, by considering only the sense, and largeness, and extension of those words, in which the holy Ghost hath been pleased to express both these in this Text. For first, the word in which our action is expressed, which is Machar verdidistis, ye have sold, signifies in many places of Scripture, dare proreatia, a permutation, an exchange of one thing for another; and in other places it signifies Dedére, upon any little attempt to forsake and abandon our defences, and to suffer the enemy easily to prevail upon us; so also it signifies Tradere, not only to forsake our selves, but to concur actually to the delivering up of our selves; and lastly, it signifies Repellere, to join with our enemies in beating back any that should come to our relief, and rescue. And then, as we have so sold our selves, for the substance of the Act, as is expressed in that word Machar, we have exchanged our selves at an undervalue, and worse than that, we have yielded up our selves upon easy temptations, and worse than that, we have offered our selves, exposed our selves, invited the devil, and tempted temptations, and worse than that, we have Rejected the succours and the supplies which have been offered us in the means and conduits, and seals of his Graces. As it stands thus with us, for the matter, so for the manner, how we have done this, that is expressed in that other word, kinnan which signifies fecit, as it is here, Gratis, for nought. And in another place, Frustra, to no purpose; for it is a void bargain, because we had no title, no interest in our selves, when we sold our selves; and it signifies, temere, rashly, without consideration of our own value, upon whom God had stamped his Image; And then again it signifies, Immerito, undeservedly, before God, in whose jurisdiction we were by many titles, had forsaken us, or done any thing to make us forsake him. So that our action in selling our selves for nothing, hath this latitude, That man whom God hath dignified so much, as that in the Creation he imprinted his Image in him, and in the Redemption he assumed not the Image, but the very nature of man, That man whom God still preserved as the Apple of his Eye, and (as he expresses himself often in the Prophets) is content to reason, and to dispute with man, and to submit himself to any trial whither he have not been a gracious God unto him: That this man should thus abandon this God, and exchange his soul for any thing in this world, when as it can profit nothing, to gain the whole world and loose our own soul, and not exchange it, but give it away, thrust it off, and be a devil to the devil, to tempt the tempter himself to take it. But then, as the word aggravates our condemnation, so it implies a consolation too; for it is fructra, That is unprovidently, unthriftily, inconsideratly, vainly, and that multiplies our fault, but then it is invalidly, and uneffectually too; that is, it is a void bargain; and when our powerful Redeemer, is pleased to come, and claim his right, and set on foot his title, all this improvident bargain of ours is voided, and reversed, and not though, but because we have sold our selves, for nought, we shall be redeemed without money.

For the other word, in which the action of our Redeemer is expressed, though it have somewhat different uses in the Scriptures, yet it is evermore spoken of him, Qui habet jus re dimendi, no man, by the Law could redeem a thing, but he who had a title to that thing. So the word is used, where there are given Cities of refuge from the avenger.. There the word is, a redemptor, from him that hath right to redeem his kinsmans blood, to bring an Appeal, and to prosecute for the death of his kinsman, who was slain. So is the word used also, where that Law is given, &c. If thy brother be impoverished, & he sell his possession then his redeemer &c. That is, he that is next to that land; And so also, when a man died without issue, he who had the right, and the obligation, to raise seed to the dead man, he was the redeemer: I am thy kinsman, saith Boaz to Ruth, but saith he, Alius Redemptor magis propinquus. Thou hast another Redeemer, nearer in blood then I am. How ill a bargain soever we made for our selves, Christ Jesus hath not lost his right in us, but is our Redeemer in all these acceptations of the world: He is our sanctuary and refuge; when we have commited spiritual murder upon our own Souls, he preserves us, and delivers us to the redemption ordained for us: when we have sold our possessions, our natural faculties, He supplies us with grace, and feeds us with his Word, and cloths us with his Sacraments, and warms us with his Absolutions, against all diffidence, which had formerly frozen us up: and in our barrenness, he raises up seed unto our dead souls, thoughts, and works, worthy of repentance. All this, thy Redeemer hath right to do; &, when it pleases him to do it, he does it, sine argento, without money; when the now Casaph, signifies not only money, but, Omne appetibile, any thing that we can place our desires, or cast our thougths, upon. This Redemption of ours, is wrought by such means, as the desire of man could never have fortuned upon; The Incarnation of God, and then the death and Crucifying of that God, so Incarnate, could never have fallen within the desire, nor wish of any man; neither would any man of himself ever have conceived, That the Sacraments of the Church, poor and naked things of themselves, (for all that the wit of man could imagine in them, or allow to them) should be such means to seal, and convey the graces, which accompany this Redemption of our souls, to our souls.

So then, Having thus represented unto you, a model, and design, of the miserable condition of man, and the abundant mercy of our Redeemer, so far, as those words which the Holy Ghost hath chosen in this text, hath invited and led us, That we may look better upon some pieces of it, that we may take such a sight of this Redeemer here, as that we may know Him, when we meet Him at home, at our house, in our private meditations, at His house, in the last judgment. I shall only offer you two considerations; Exprobrationem, and Consolationem: First, an exprobration, or increpation from God to us, And then a consolation, or consolidation of the same God upon us; And in the exprobration, God reproches to us, first, our Prodigality, that we would sell a reversion, our possibility, our expectance of an inheritance in heaven; And then, our cheapness, that we would sell that, for nothing.

First then, Prodigality is a sin, that destroys even the means of liberality. If a man wast so as that he becomes unable to releive others; by this wast, this is a sinful prodigality; but much more if he wast so, as that he is not able to subsist, and maintain himself: and this is our case, who have even annihilated our selves, by our profuseness; For, it is his mercy that we are not consumed. It is a sin, and a viperous sin; it eats out his own womb; The Prodigal consumes that that should maintain his Prodigality: It is peccatum Biathana ton, a sin that murders it self,

Now, as in civil Prodigalities, in a wastefulness of our temporal estate, the Laws inflicts three kinds of punishment, three incommodities upon him that is a Prodigal, so have the same punishments a proportion, and somethings that answer them, in this spiritual prodigality of the soul by sin. The first is, bonis suis interdicitur; He that is a Prodigal, in the Law, cannot dispose of his own Estate; whatsoever he gives, or sells, or leases, all is void, as of a mad-man, or of an Infant. And such is the condition of a man in sin; He hath no interest in his own natural faculties; He cannot think, he cannot wish, he cannot do any thing of himself; the venem and the malignity of his sin goes through all his actions, and he cannot purge it.

The second incommodity is, Testamentum non facit, The Prodigal person hath no power allowed him by the Law, to make a will, at his death: And this also doth an habitual sinner suffer: For, when he comes to his end, he may dictate to a Notary, and he may bid him write, Imprimis, I give my Soul to God, my Body to such a Church, my Goods to such, and such persons: But if those Goods be liable to other debts,the Legatary; shall have no profit; If the person be under excommunication, he shall not lye in that Church; If his soul be under the weight of unrepented sins, God will do the devil no wrong, he will not take a soul, that is sold to him before.

The third Incommodity that a Prodigal incurrs by the Law, is, Exhaeredatus creditur, He is presumed to be disinherited by his father; that whereas, by that Law, if the father, in his Will, leave out any of his children's names, and never mention him, yet that child which is pretermitted, shall come in for a child part, except the father have assigned a particular reason why he left him out; If this child were a Prodigal, there needs no other reason to be assigned, but Exhaeredatus Creditur, He is presumed to be disinherited. And so also, if we have seen a man prodigal of his own soul, and run on in a course of sin, all his life, except there appear very evident signs of resumption into Gods grace, at his end, Exhaeredatus Creditur, we have just reason to be afraid, that he is disinherited. If any such sinner seem to thee to repent at his end, Fateor vobis non negamus, quod petit, saith St. Augustin: I confess, we ought not to deny him, any help that he desires in that late extremity? Sed non praesumimus quia bene exit, I dare not assure you, that that man dies in a good state; he adds that vehemence, non praesumo, non vos fallo, non praesumo: I should but deceive you, if I should assure you, that such a man died well. There was one good and happy Thief, that stole a Salvation, at the crucifying of Christ; but in him, that was throughly true, which is proverbially spoken, Occasio facit furem, the oppotunity made him a thief: and when there is such another opportunity, there may be such another thief; when Christ is to dye again, we may presume of mercy, upon such a late repentance at our death. The preventing grace of God, made him lay violent hands upon heaven. But when thou art a Prodigal of thy soul, will God be a prodigal too, for thy sake, and betray and prostitute the kingdom of Heaven for a sigh, or a groan, in which thy pain may have a greater part than thy repentance. God can raise up children out of the stones of the street, and therefore he might be as liberal as he would of his people, and suffer them to be sold for old shoes; but Christ will not sell his birth-right for a messe or pottage, the kingdom of Heaven, for the dole at a Funeral. Heaven is not to be had in exchange for an Hospital, or a Chantry, or a Colledge erected in thy last will: It is not only the selling all we have that must buy that pearl, which represents the kingdom of Heaven; The giving of all that we have to the poor, at our death, will not do it; the pearl must be sought, and found before, in an even and constant course of Sanctification; we must be thrifty all our life, or we shall be to poor for that purchase.

It is then an unthrifty, a perplexed bargain, when both the buyer, and the seller loose; our loss is plain enough, for we loose our souls: And certainly, howsoever the devil be expressed to take some joy at the winning of a sinner, howsoever his kingdom be thereby enlarged, yet Almighty God suffers not his treason, his undermining of man, to be unpunished, but afflicts him with more and more accidental torments, even for that; as a licencious man takes pleasure in the victory of having corrupted a woman, by his solicitation, but yet insensibly overthrows his constitution by his sin; so the withdrawing of Gods Subjects, from his alleigance, induces an addition of punishment upon the devil himself.

Consider a little further, our wretchedness, in this prodigality; we think, those Laws barbarous and inhumane, which permit the sute of men in debt, for the satisfaction of Creditors; but we sell our selves, and grow the farther in debt, by being sold; we are sold, and to even rate our debts, and to aggravate our condemnation. We find in the history of the Muscovits, that it is an ordinary detainder amongst them, to sell themselves, and their posterity, into everlasting bondage, for hot drink: In one winter, a wretched man will drink himself, and his posterity, into perpetual slavery. But we sell our selves, not for drink, but for thirst: we are sorry when our appetite too soon decays, and we would fain sin more than we do. At what a high rate did the blessed Martyrs sell their bodies; They built up Gods Church with their blood: They sowed his field, and prepared his harvest with their blood: they got heaven for their bodies, and we give bodies, & souls for hell.

In a right inventary, every man that ascends to a true value of himself, considers it thus; First, His Soul, then His life; after his fame and good name: And lastly, his goods and estate; for thus their own nature hath ranked them, and thus they are (as in nature) so ordinarily in legal consideration preferred before one another. But for our souls, because we know not, how they came into us, we care not how they go out; because, if I ask a Philosopher, whither my soul came in, by propagation from my parents, or by an immediate infusion from God, perchance he cannot tell, so I think, a divine can no more tell me, whither, when my soul goes out of me, it be likely to turn on the right, or on the left hand, if I continue in this course of sin. And then, for the second thing in this inventary, Life; the Devil himself said true, skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life; Indeed we do not easily give away our lives expressly, and at once; but we do very easily suffer our selves to be cousened of our lives: we pour in death in drink, and we call that health, we know our life to be but a span, and yet we can wash away one inch in ryot, we can burn away one inch in lust, we can bleed away one inch in quarrels, we have not an inch for every sin; and if we do not pour out our lives, yet we drop them away. For the third piece of our self, our fame and reputation, who had not rather be thought an usurer, then a beggar? who had not rather be the object of envy, by being great, than of scorn and contempt, by being poor, upon any conditions? And for the last of all which is our goods, though our coveteousness appears most, in the love of them, in that lowest thing of all (Adeo omnia homini cariora seipso, so much does every man think every inferior thing better than himself, than his fame, than his body, than his soul; which is a most perverse undervaluing of himself, and a damnable humility) yet even with these goods also, (as highly as he values them) a man will past if to fuel, and foment, and maintain that sin, that he delights in: that which is the most precious, our souls, we undervalue most; and that which we do esteem most, (though naturally it should be lowest) our estate, we are content to wast, and dissipate for our sins: And whereas the Heathens needed laws to restrain them, from an expensive, and wasteful worship of their Gods, every man was so apt to exceed in sacrifices and such other religious duties, til that law, Deus frugi Colunto Let men be thrifty & moderate in religious expenses, was enacted, (which law was a kind of mortmain, and inhibition, That every man might not bestow what he would, upon the service of those Gods) we have turned our prodigality the other way, upon the devil, whom we have made Haeredem in esse and our sole executor, and sacrificed soul, and life, and fame, and fortune, all the gifts of God, and God himself, by making his religion, and his Sacraments, and the profession of his name, in an hypocritical use of them, to be the devils instruments, to draw us the easilyer, and hold us the faster; and what prodigality can be conceived to exceed this, in which we do not only mispend our selves, but mispend our God.

The other point in this exprobration is, that, as we have prodigally sold our selves, so we have inconsiderately sold our selves for nothing; we have in our bargain, diseases, and we have poverty, and we have unsensibleness of our miseries; but diseases are but privations of health, and poverty but a privation of wealth, and unsensibleness but a privation of tenderness of Conscience; all are privations, and privations are nothing. if a man had got nothing by a bargain but repentance, he would think, and justly, he had got little: but if thou hadst repentance in this bargain, thy bargain were the better; if thou couldst come to think thy bargain bad, it were a good bargain; but the height of the misery is in this, that one of those nothings, for which we have sold our selves is a stupidity, an unsensibleness of our own wretchedness.

The Laws do annull, and make void fraudulent conveyances; and then the laws presume fraud in the conveyance, if at least half the value of the thing be not given: now if the whole world be not worth one soul, who can say, that he hath half his value? it were not merely nothing, if (considering that inventary, which we spoke of before) we had the worse for the better; that were but an ill exchange, but yet it were not nothing. If we had bodies for our souls, it were not merely nothing; but we find, that sin that sells our souls, decays and withers our bodies; our bodies grow incapable of that sin, unable to commit that sin, which we sold our souls for. If we had fame and reputation for out bodies, it were not nothing: but we see, that Heretics, that give their bodies to the fire, are by the very law, infamous, and they are infamous in every mans apprehension. If we had worldly goods for loss of fame, and of our good name, yet still it were not nothing; but we see that witches, who are infamous persons, for the most part, live in extreme beggary too. So that the exprobration is just, we have sold our selves for nothing; and however the ordinary murmuring may be true, in other things, that all things are grown dearer, our souls are still cheap enough, which at first were all sold in gross, for (perchance) an Apple, and are now retailed every day for nothing.

Joseph was sold underfoot by his brethren; but it is hard to say, for how much; some Copies have that he was sold for 20 pieces, and some for 25, and some for 30: and S. Ambrose and S. Augustin, collects arguments, at least, allusions, from this variety of Copies: but all these say, it was but so many pieces of silver. The Septuagints, in their translation, extend them to gold, to so many crowns, or such: Josephus multiplies them to pounds, so many pounds: all think it too low a price for Joseph, to be sold for twenty pieces of silver. But yet if it were so, this was not for nothing; and for this selling, his brethren had some pretence of excuse ne polluantur manus, they would but sell him, least their hands should be defiled with blood: but we sell our selves, ut polluantur manus, therefore, that our hands may be defiled with blood, even with our own blood, with the loss of our bodies, which we consume by sin, and of our souls, which perish eternally by it.

Our Savior Christ, every drop of whose blood was of infinite value (for one of our souls is more worth than the whole world, and one drop of his blood had been sufficient for all the souls of 1000 worlds, if it had been applied unto them) was sold scornfully and basely, at a low price; at most, not above six pound of our money; but we sell our selves, and him too, we crucify him again every day, for nothing: & when our sin is the very crucifying of him, that should save us, who shall save us? Earthly Princes have been so jealous of their honours, as that they have made it Treason, to carry their pictures into any low Office, or into any irreverend place. Beloved, whensoever we commit any sin, upon discourse, upon consideration, upon purpose, and plot, the image of God which is engraved and imprinted in us, and lodged in our understanding, and in that reason which we employ in that sin, is mingled with that sin; we draw the image of God into all our incontinencies, into all our oppressions, into all our extortions, and supplantations: we carry his image, into all soul places, which we haunt upon earth; yea we carry his image down with us, to eternal condemnation: for, even in Hell, uri potest, non exuri Imago Dei, says S. Bernard; The image of God burns in us in hell, but can never be burnt out of us: as long as the understanding soul remains, the Image of God remains in it, and so we have used the image of God, as witches are said to do the images of men; by wounding or melting the image, they destroy the person: and we by defacing the image of God in our selves by sin, to the painful & shameful death of the Cross.

Rachel and Lea complained of their father Laban, thus, He hath sold us, and hath eat, and consumed the money; they lamented it much, to see themselves sold, and by their father, and their father never the better for the bargain. But still our case is worse than any; the devil hath bought us, and he, he who hath bought us, hath eaten and consumed the money: he pretends to buy us, by giving us pleasure, or profit for our selves, and then those very pleasures, and those riches, which he pretends to give us, are his food, and his instruments, to effect his mischievous, and tyrannous purposes upon us. And therefore let no man think himself exempt from this challenge, that he hath sold himself for nothing. Let no man present his Dutals, his Court-rolls, his Bacus, his good Debts, his titles of honor, his Maces, or his Staves, or his Ensigns of power and Office, and say, call you all this nothing? Compare all these with thy soul, and they are nothing. Now, whilst thou wallowest in all these here, thou mayest hear God say, Quid habes, quod non accepisti, What hast thou of all this, which thou hast not received; but when the Bell tols, then he shall say, in the voice of that Bell, Quid habes quod accepisti, What hast thou of all that thou hast received? Is not all that come to nothing? and then thou that thoughtest thy self strong enough in purse, in power, in favor, to compass any thing, and to embrace many things, shalt not find thy self able to attain to a door-keepers place in the kingdom of heaven.

Let no man therefore take too much joy, to apply to himself those words of the parable, Filii saeculi, The children of this world (which grow rich) are wiser than the children of light; for it is but, In generation sua, Wiser in their generation; and how little a while that generation shall last, God knows; and what fools they shall appear to be, for all generations after, we know. They are called the wisest amongst men, as the Serpent was called the wisest amongst Beasts, that is, still, the fittest for the devil to work in, to make his instruments, and engines to desire a curse upon themselves, and their posterity. Let no man wrest Gods example to his purpose, and say, if he do sell himself for nothing, he does but as God himself did, and as David told him he did, Thou sellest thy people without gain, and doest not increase their price. That was not for nothing; God had his end in that: neither was it an absolute sale; but a short term: God sells us over to sickness, to tribulations, to afflictions, for sometime; perchance for the whole term, of this short life; but all this is but to improve us, and that we may be the fitter for him when he Takes us into his own hand again, in that surrender of our self, In manus tuas, when we shall deliver up our souls: to him, that gave them: for here no propriety is Destroyed, still here is meum & tuum betwen God and me; It is still my soul, and still his soul; and when God looked mercyfully towards Job then Satans lease expired. God doth not give his saints for Nothing; for sanguis Semen, The blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church & ye are bought with a price says the Apostle; It is pretiore ye are pretiously bought, even with the precious blood, of the only Sone of God. And for our temporal and secular value, in Gods account, we see how God expressed his care of the people, when he diverted Sennachrib, from afflicting them, by turning him upon other wars. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia, and seba for the, because thou wast precious in my sight, and thou wast honourable, and I loved the; therefore will I give man for the, and people for thy sake. And this leads us in to the second part, The Consolation, that Though, nay, because we have sold our selves for nothing, we shall be Redemed with out money.

Into this part then, there is at first a strange Enterance; Therefore, That therefore, because we have sold our selves we should be redeemed; Therefore because we have been prodigal, we should be made rich. But, this Therefore, this reason, relates to the prise, not to the work of the Redemption, Because it was for nothing, that we were sold, it is without money, that we are Redeemed: for, for that, there is reason in Equity: but for the Redemption itself, there is no therefore, no reason at all: to be assigned, but only the Eternal goodness of God himself, and the Eternal purpose of his will: Of which will of God, whosoever seeks a reason, Aliquid majus Deo quaerit, says S. Augustin, he that seeks what persuaded or inclind the will of God, seeks for something wiser, and greater than God himself.

In this redemption then God pursues the devil, in all those steps, by which he had made his profit, of a prodigality; for, first, as we gave away our selves, so he restores us to our selves again. It is well expressed in the parable of the prodigal; and his case is ours. The portion which he asked of his father, was the use of his free-will. God gave it him; Adams first Immortality was, posse non mori he needed not to have died: It was in his own power whether he would keep a free-will, or, no, and he spent that stock, he lost that free-will. He spent not his free-will so as Bellarmin understands this spending, that that man may be said to spend his life ill, that misimployes it, but yet he hath this life in him still: But the prodigal, Adam, spent is utterly: he spent it so, that he and we have no freewill at all left. But yet; even the prodigal said, that he would return to his father, and he came; He had not only some sudden thoughts of Repentance, but he put himself actually in the way: cum long abesset, says that parable, when he was a great way off, yet because he was in the way, his father met him and kissed him, and put that Robe upon him, which was not only Dignitas, quam perdidit Adam, as S. Austin qualifies it, a restitution to the same integrity, which Adam had and had lost, but that was Amictus sapientiae, (so S. Ambrose calls it) it was an ability to preserve himself in that integrity, to which he was restored. It was a Robe that was put upon him; it was none of his own; but when it was put upon him, it rectified and restored those faculties, which were his own: as the eye sees in a man restored to life, though the soul enable the eye and not the eye it self, so the faculty of free-will works in us as well as it did in Adam though only the grace of God enable that faculty.

When God hath wrought that first cure (which he does by incorporating us, in the Church by baptism) that we are our selves again, then (as in the case of prodigals in the law) as they had Tutors, and Curators appointed them, so he sends the Holy Ghost, to be our Guardian our Curator: and as the office of that person, in that law, was double, first to reverse all contracts and bargains, which that prodigal person, in that state, had made, and secondly to inhibit, and hinder him, from making new contracts, so this blessed Spirit of consolation, by his sanctification, seals to our consciences a Quietus est, a discharge of all former spiritual debts, he cancells all them, he nails them to the cross of Christ, and then he strengthens us against relapses into the same sins again.

He proceds farther than this; beyond restering us, beyond preserving us; for he betters us, he improves us, to a better condition, than we were in, at first. And this he does, first by purging and purifying us, and then by changing, and transmuting us. He purges us by his sun-shine, by his temporal blessings; for, as the greatest globes of gold lye nearest the face and top of the earth, where they have received the best concoction from the heat of the sun; so certainly, in reason, they who have had Gods continual sun-shine upon them, in a prosperous fortune, should have received the best concoction, the best digestion of the testimonies of his love, and consequently be the purer, and the more refined mettal. If this purging prevail not, then he comes to purge those whom he means to lay up in his treasure, with tribulation; he carries them from the sunshine into the fire, and therefore, if those tribulations fall upon thee in a great and heavy measure, think thy dross needed this vehemence, and do not make afflictions, Arguments of God neglecting thee, for he that is presented to have suffered very much, is also presented to have been very righteous, that is Job; And he that was the most innocent of all, suffered most of all, Christ Jesus thy Savior.

From this purifying comes our transmutation, that we are changed in semen Dei, made the seed of God: for, so God calls children that are derived from honest, and godly parents, The seed of God, in the Prophet: but more fully in the Apostle, whosoever is born of God sinneth not, for his seed remaineth in him: for this generation, is our regeneration, of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth: this grace makes us as properly the seed of God, as sin makes us the seed of the Devil, of the Serpent, and so we are expressly called in Gen. and so also in the Apostles, you are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father, you will do. So we are changed in naturam Dei, as S. Peter expresses: it By his precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature: not Ab anteriori, nor a posteriori; not that we are so derived from the nature and essence of God, as that our souls should be of his very substance, as the Manichees imagined, nor, as Origen mistook, upon misinterpreting these words to the Corinthians, ut Deus sit omnia in omnibus, That God should be all in all, so as that at last, the whole nature of mankind, and indeed, all other natures and substances (if Origen have been rightly understood by some men near his own times) should be swallowed up, and drowned in the very substance of God himself. But this transmutation is a glorious restoring of Gods image in us, and it is our conformity to him; and when either his temporal blessings, or his afflictions, his sun, or his fire, hath tried us up to that height, to a conformity to him, then come we to that transmutation, which admits no re-transmutation, which is a modest, but infalible assurance of a final perseverance, so to be joined to the Lord, as to be one spirit with him; for as a spirit cannot be divided, so they who are thus changed into him, are so much His, so much He, as that nothing can separate them from him; and this is the ladder, by which we may try, how far we are in the way to heaven.

And when we are come to this, then we are able to see, and to consider, the poverty, and the value of him, who had before bought us, for nothing, and enthraled us. The Devil is called the Lord of the world; but that is, in the person of Infidells; and we are none of that world. Though we have to do with Principallities, and spiritual wickedness, yet St: Paul motions it thus much, Est nobis Colluctatio, He arms us at all points, in that chapter, fit to indure any violent, or any long attempt, and yet he tells us, that all that we have to do with the Devil, is but Colluctatio, but a wrastling; we may be throwen, but we cannot be slain. So also is the same state of the saints of Gods described. That the Devil labours to Devour, That he walks about, and seeks, Those who are without the pale, without the Church, and these that are Rebellious and refractary within it, these he may devour without any resistance: they fall into his mouth; but for us, who are embraced by thy Redemtion, he is put to his labor, and to lose his labor too; He is put to seek, and put to miss too. He was put to sue out a Commission, for Jobs good; till then he confessed to God, Thou hast put a hedge about him. He was put to renew this commission, for his person; Touch his bones? but further he durst not ask. He hath a Kingdom, but no body knows where: I would we might still dispute, whether it were in the Earth, or in the Air, and not find this Kingdom in our own hearts. Expell him thence; and Gods spirit is as the Air, that admits no vacuity, no emptiness: destroy this kingdom of Satan in your selves, and God will establish his, God will be content with his place. Himself you cannot see; thats one degree of his tiranny, to Reserve him self, and not be seen; for his deformities would make ye hate him: but in his glass in the riches, & in the vanities of this world, you see him and know him not; you see him, and know him, and embrace him, St. Chrysost. hath convinced you, in all that can be said, for the love of this world; If thou wilt (says he) that I must therefore look after worldly things, because they are necessary, E region respendeo, says he: Therefore thou needest not look after them, because they are necessary: Si essent superflua, non deberes confidere quia sunt necessaria, non debes ambigere: for that which is more than necessary, thou shouldest not labor, and for that which is necessary thou shoudst not doubt, for, whatsoever God does not give thee, he knows was not necessary for thee, for he can make thee happy without these temporal things, as his way in this text is, to redeem without money, which is our last circumstance.

In delivering his people out of Egypt, he gave no money for them; nay, he made them get money and Jewels at their coming away. In delivering them out of Babylon, he brought them away rich; Here, in this redemption, it had been bribery to have given, in so good a cause: and it had been a new kind of Simony, never heard of, to give money for the exercise of their own grace. He gave no money then; not because he had it not; for Domini est terra, The earth and all in it, is his: ye have taken my silver, and my gold, says God in one Prophet; and he makes his continual claim, in another, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. But it was God and not the devil, that was to be satisfied. In devilish trading there is no passing without money: in the Temple it self there were, In the Church, and Church affaires there are buyers, and sellers too; if there were no buyers there would be no sellers; but there was a third sort that was whiped out too; which were Changers. But in our case it was God, that was to be satisfied; and therefore we were not redeemed with corruptable things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.

Now this blood of Christ Jesus was not within the Compass of this word, which is here translated Money: though, as I noted at the begining, this word Casaph includes all that the heart can wish, or desire: for though the Application of the blood of Christ, now that is shed is to be wished by every sinner to his own soul, Though the sheding of that blood might have been wished by the patriarchs, to whom God had revealed, that in the fullness of time it should be shed, at the second coming of Christ, and the Resurrection may be wished for, by us now, yet, if we take Rem integram, if we take the matter at first, without any such revealing of Gods purpose as he in his Scripture hath afforded us; so no man might have wished, or prayed, without a greater sin in that wish and in that prayer than all his former sins, that the Son of God might come down and dye for his sins: If it could possibly have fallen into his imagination, that this might have been a way for his redemption; yet he ought not to have wished that way: neither might it, neither certainly did it ever fall within the desire of any desparing sinner, that thought, that the death of Christ appertaind not to him, to wish that God the father, or God the Holy Ghost, would come down, and become man and shed his blood for him. Th blood of Christ by which we are redeemed was not this Casaph it was not Res appetibilis, a thing that a sinner might, or could desire to be shed for him, though being shed, he must desire, that it may be applied to him. And hence it is that some of the fathers argue, that when the Devil began to tempt Christ, he knew him not to be the Son of God: for even to the devil himself, the blood of Christ; could not be Res appetibilis, a thing that deliberately he could have desired should have been shed. If the devil had considered, that the shedding of that blood, would have redeemed us, would he have hastened the shedding of that blood?

He redeemed us then without money; And as he bought so he sells: He paid no money, he asks no money: but he proclaims freely to all, Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters, and ye that have no silver, come, buy, and eat; come, I say, buy wine, and milk, without silver, and without money. But you must come; and you must come to the market; to the Magazine of his graces, his Church; And you must buy, though you have no money: he paid obedience, and he asks obedience to himself, and his Church, at your hands. And then, as Joseph did to his brethren, he will give you your corn, and your money again; he will give you grace, and temporal blessings too: he will refresh and re-establish your natural faculties, and give you supernatural. He hath already done enough for all, even in his mercy, he was just; just to the Devil himself: for as we had done, so he did; he gave himself; both to the first death, as long as it could hold him, and to the second death, as far as it could reach him. But though all this be already done, yet, to conclude, there is a particular circumstance of Comfort, in this word, you shall be: that though the act of our redemption be past the Application is future: and in the elect and regenerate child of God, though his conscience tells him every day, that he sells away himself, yet his conscience shall tell him too, he shall be redeemed without money, he shall not perish finally: as we cannot carry our thoughts to so high a time, but that God elected us, before that, so we cannot continue our sins of infirmity so long, but that God will have mercy upon us after that: I cannot name a time, when Gods love began, it is eternal, I cannot imagine a time, when his mercy will end, it is perpetual.

A Sermon Preached at White-Hall April 12. 1618. Serm. 12. Serm. XII.

Gen. 32.10.

I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands.

THis text is in the midst of Jacobs prayer; and this prayer is in the midst of Jacobs preparation in the time of danger. His dangers were from persons near him, from his Alliance, by marriage, and from his nearest kindred by blood. Laban, into whose house he had married, made advantages upon him, deluded him, oppressed him, pursued him. And Esau his own brother lay how in his way, when he was returning from Mesopotamia to Canaan, from his father-in-law, to his natural father, from Laban, to Isaac. He had sent messengers to try his brothers disposition towards him; they returned with relation of great preparation that Esau made to come forth towards him, but whether in hostile or friendly manner, they could inform nothing. Then was Jacob greatly afraid, and sore troubled, but not so afraid, nor so troubled, as that he was stupefied, or negligent in providing against the imminent dangers. First then he makes as sure as he can at home; He disposes his troops, and his cattle so, as that, if his brother should come hostilly, he might do least harm. And he provides as well as he could that he should not come hostilly, he sends him presents, and he sends him respective and ceremonious messages. He neglects not the strengthening of him self, that so he might make his peace when he were able to sustein a war; he neglects not the removing of all occasions, that might submit him to a war: And in the midst of these two important and necessary cares, love of peace, and provision for war, his chief recourse is to God; to him he prays; and he prays to him first, as he was (as we may say) Deus familiaris, a God to his family, and race O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac; and as a God, from whom this familiarity did not take away the reverence; for he adds there presently the great name of Jehova, the Lord he present to him his obedience to his commandment, Thou saidst unto me, Return unto thy Country, and to thy kindred, he presents to him his confidence in his promises, Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed, as the sand of the sea; and upon these grounds and inducements, he comes to the formal prayer, Erue me, I pray thee deliver me from the hand of my brother; and he prays for others as well as himself; for I fear he will smite me, and the Mothers upon the Children: He solicits God for all that are committed to him. And as in the Midst of danger, he came to preparation, and in the midst of his preparations, he came to this prayer, so in the midst of this prayer, he comes to this humble and gratful consideration, that God had been already more bountiful unto him than he could have proposed to his hopes or to his wishes, I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercyes and of all the Truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

First then this part of the prayer, hath in it, that which is the Center and Basis, and establish-ment of all true prayers A disclaiming of Merit; for when a man pretends Merit, it is so far from a prayer, as that it is rather a challenge, an increpation, an exprobration of his slacknes, to whom we speak that he gives us not with out asking: I am not worthy says Jacob. But yet though Jacob confess humbly this unworthyness in himself, yet he does not say that he is, or was Nothing at all, in respect of these benefits It is not Nihil sam, but katon, parvus sum Impar Sum; Man is no such thing as can invite God to work upon him, but he is such a thing, as nothing else is capable of his working but man. It is not much that he is; but something he is: But parvus sum, prae omnibus, prae singulis; whether I take my self altogether, thus grown up in honor, in office, in estate, or whether I take my self in pieces, and consider every step, that thy mighty hand hath led me; I am not worthy of all these, nor of any of these degrees; not of the least of these. Not whether I consider thy mercies, which are the promises that God makes to us at first, out of his meer gracious goodness, or whether I consider thy truth, the assuredness of those promises, to which he hath been pleased to bind himself; non sum dignus, not whether we consider this Truth, and fidelity of God in Sp, in our own hope, and confident, and patient expectation, that they shall be performed unto us, or whether we consider them in Re, in our thankfulness, and experience, as truths already performed unto us; the truth which thou hast showed, for all these mercies, and all these truths, all these promises, and all these performances, as they found no title at all in me to them at first, so they imprint no other title in me by being come, but to make me his servant, to use them to his glory. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. And then for a second part, all this consideration Jacob seals with a reason, for; it is not a fashional complement with God, it is not a sad and melancholic dejection, and undervaluing of himself; but he assigns his particular reason, and that is, what his former state was, what his present state is. I came over Jordan, he was forced to leave his Country; and he came over it but with a staff, in a poor and ill provided manner; and with his staff, no assistance but his own. And he returns again, there's his first comfort; and he returns now; now that God had spoken to him before he set out, and now that God had revealed to him an army of Angels in his assistance, and now that God had increased his temporal state so far, as that he was become two bands, so that though he should loose much, yet he had much left.

In benefits that pass from men of higher ranck, to persons of lower condition, it is not the way to get them, to ground the request upon our own merit; Merit implies an obligation, that we have laid upon them; and that implies a debt. And a Petition for a due debt is an affront; it is not so much a Petition delivered as a writ served upon him, to call him to answer his injust deteining of a just debt. Thus it is amongst men between whom their may be true merit; but toward God there can be none; and therefore much more there boldness to proceed with him upon pretence of merit. Et de Deo, no tuanquam de benefico largitore, sed tanquam de tardo debitore cogitare; That if we come not to our ends, and preferment quickly, we should give over considering God as a gracious, and free giver in his time, and begin to consider him as a slack pay master, and ill debtor, because he pays not at our time. No Man was worthy to be biden to the supper; But those that were biden, were not worthy; that invitation made them not worthy. No spark of worth in us, before God call us; but that first grace of his, doth not presently make us worthy. If we love Christ a little and allow him his share, but love father and mother more, if we renounce all other love, we are not ambitious, but yet would live quiet, without troubles, without crosses, if we take not up our cross, or if we take it, and sink under it, if we do not follow or if we take it, and sink under it, if we do not follow, or if we follow a wrong guide, bear our afflictions with the stupidity of a Stoique, or with the pertinacy of an Heretic, If we love not Christ, more then all, and take our cross, and follow, and follow him, non digni sumus we are not worthy of him. Nay all this doth not make us worthy really, but imputatively; they shall be counted worthy to enjoy the next world, and the resurrection, says Christ. We are not worthy as to profess our unworthiness; It is a degree of spiritual exaltation, to be sensible of our lowness; I am not worthy to stoop down, and unloose his shoe latchet, says John Baptist; even humility it self is a pride, if we think it to be our own. Only say thus to Christ with the Centurion, non dignus ut venirem, I was not worthy to come to thee, non dignus ut intres, I was not worthy, that thou shouldest come to me, and let others say of thee, as those Elders, whom the Centurion sent, said of him, dignus est, he is worthy, that Christ should do for him. Be thou humble in thy self, and thou shalt be worthy of a double honor; thou shall be truly worthy in the sight of man, and thou shalt be counted worthy in the sight of God.

Now for all this unworthiness, Jacob doth not so much extenuate himself, as to annihilate himself. The word is Katon; it is not Elil, it is parvus sum not nihil sum. It is but little; that man is, proportioned to the working of God; but yet man is that creature, who only of all other creatures can answer the inspiration of God, when his grace comes, and exhibits acceptable service to him, and cooperate with him. No other creature is capable of grace, if it could be offered to them. It is true and useful, that Cyprian presses, nihil est nostrum; nam quid habes quod non accepisti, What hast thou that thou hast not received? Her's a Nihil nostrum; but he doeth not press it so far as to say nihil nos; her's a nihil habemus, we have nothing, but not a nihil sumus; that we are nothing; it is true, and useful, that Jerome says, ipsum meum, sine Dei semper auxilio non erit meum, without the continual concurrence of Gods grace, that which is mine now, would be lost, and be none of mine; but it is as true, that Augustin says too, Certum est nos velle & facere cum volumus & facimus, It is we our selves, that choose, and perform those spiritual actions, which the grace of God only enables us to choose and perform. It is truly and elegantly said by Ambrose, of our power, and out will, Ei committi, nihil aliud quam dimitti, to be delivered to our own will, is to be delivered to the executioner, for nihil habet in suis vicibus, nisi periculi facilitatem, it hath nothing in it, but a nearness or danger; but yet, God hath made a natural man only capable of his grace; and in those men, in whom he hath begun a regeneration, by his first grace, his grace proceeds not, without a cooperation of those men. This humility then is safely limited in Jacobs bounds, parvus sum, it is no great matter that I am; but yet come not to such a nihil sum, such an extenuation of thy self, as to think, that grace works upon thee, as the sun does upon gold, or precious stones, to purify them to that concoction, without any sense in themselves.

Now this littleness, how poor, and small a thing Man is, appears to him, whether he consider himself in omnibus, or in singulis, as the word imports here, as he is altogether, or as he is taken a sunder. Take man at his best, and greatest growth as he is honourable, for, as there is a stamp, that gives values to gold, so doth honor, and estimation to the temporal blessings of this lif. Honor is that which God esteems most, and is most jealous of in himself, his honor he will give to none, and it is the broadest, and apparantest outward seal, by which he testifies his love to man, but yet what greatness is this, in which David repeats that infirmity twice in one Psalm, Man shall not continue in honor, but is like the beast that dye: Man is in honor, and understandeth not; he is like to the beasts that perish. In nature things that are above us, show as little, as things below us; men upon a hill are as little to them in the valley, as they in the valley to them that are raised. It is so in nature; but we have forced an unnatural perverseness in our selves, to think nothing great but that which is a great way above us; whereas if we will look downwards, and see above how many better deservers God hath raised us, we shall find at least such a greatness in our selves, as deserves a great thanksgiving, but yet take thy self altogether at thy greatest, and say with Jacob, parvus sum, all this is but a little greatness, but a poor riches, but an ignoble honor. In all this, thou dost but wrap up a snow-ball upon a coal of fire; there is that within thee that melts thee, as fast, as thou growest: thou buildest in Marble, and thy soul dwells in those mud-walls, that have moldred away, ever since they were made. Take thy self altogether, and thou art but a man; and whats that: ask Aristotle, says S. Chrysostom, and he will tell thee, Animal rationale, man is a reasonable Creature; but ask God and he will tell thee, Animal irreprehensible; a man is a good man. There was a man in the land of Hus, called Job; an upright and just man that feared God; All men, truly men are Copies of this man. And sine hac humanitate, without being such a man as he, whose man soever thou beest, and whose master, whosoever thou beest, parvus es, all is but a small matter, considered together, and at best.

But we may better discern our selves in singulis, then in omnibus; better by taking ourselves in pieces, then altogether, we understand the frame of mans body, better when we see him naked, than apparrelled, howsoever; and better by seeing him cut up, than by seeing him do any exercise alive; one desection, one Anatomy teaches more of that, than the marching, or drilling of a whole army of living men. Let every one of us therefore dissect and cut up himself, and consider what he was before God raised him friends to bring those abilities, and good parts, which he had, into knowledge, and into use, and into employment; what he was before he had by education, and study, and industry, imprinted those abilities in his soul; what he was before that soul was infused into him, capable of such education; what he was, when he was but in the list, and catalogue of creatures, and might have been left in the state of a worm, or a plant, or a stone; what he was, when he was not so far, but only in the vast and unexpressible, and unimaginable depth, of nothing at all. But especially let him consider, what he was when he lay smothered up in massa damnata, in that leavened lap of Adam, where he was wrapped up in damnation. And then let him consider forward again, that God in his decree severed him out, in that lump, and ordained him to a particular salvation; that he provided him parents, that were within the Covenant, that should prepare, and pour out a body for him; that he himself created, and infused an immortal soul into him; that then he put a care in his parents, perchance in strangers, to breed him to a capableness of some course. That then God took him by the hand, and led him into the Court; that there he held him by the hand, and defended him against envy, and practise; that he hath clothed him with the opinions of good men; that he hath adorned him with riches, and with titles; let a man stand thus, and ruminate, and spell over Gods several blessings to him, sylable by sylable, and he shall not only say, parvus sum, when he considers himself at his growth and altogether, but parvus eram I was too mean a subject for thee to look or work upon in the least of these expressings of thy goodness.

And thus it is whether we consider this goodness of God, in miserationibus, In his mercies, or in veritate, in his truth. Not that Gods mercy and truth are ever severed; But we take his mercy to be that promise, that covenant, which out of his own free goodness he was pleased to make to man and which is grounded upon nothing, but his own pleasure, and we take truth, and fidelity, to be the performance, and execution of those merciful promises, which truth is grounded upon his promise. Now for his mercies, first, though we say as truly as School terms can reach too, Miserecordia presumit miseriam, we can consider no mercy, till something be miserable, upon whom mercy may work, and so cannot properly place mercy in God, before the fall of man in such a respect, yet though the work of creation, were not a work of mercy, being intended only and wholly to his glory, yet to create man, in an ability to glorify him in that way, and that measure as he did, this was a work of mercy, because man had been less happy without that ability. So that of this mercy to man, of being dignified above all other creatures, in the contributing to the glory of the Creator, but especially of that mercy of electing certain men, in whom he would preserve that dignity, which others should forfeit, of this general mercy, mankind was not worthy, of this particular mercy these particular men were not worthy, for neither these men, nor this mankind was then at all, when God had this mercy upon them.

But for our understanding the goodness of God, and thereby our own unworthiness, it appears best in the consideration of his truth, of the performance of these his promises for, by the strength of his truth, and fidelity in God, is my soul raised to that, that that which is ordinarily, and naturally the terror of the conscience of a sinner, is the peace of mine, that which is naturally a tempest, is my calm, that which is naturally a rock to shipwreck at, is my Anchor to ride out all foul weather: and that is, the justice of God; that which would shake, and shiver my conscience, if there were no mercy nor promise, settles it now because there is a truth, that that promise shall be performed to me.

Briefly, God was merciful, it was meer mercy in him, to promise a Messiah Christ Jesus, when Adam was fallen; but to give him when he had promised him, was justice, and truth, and fidelity. So that he applies Christ Jesus to me by the working of his blessed Spirit, this is meer mercy; but that when Christ is thus applied to me, I have peace of conscience and an inchoation of the kingdom of heaven here, this is his Justice, and Truth, and fidelity: So that the next, and immediate resting place for my salvation, and my peace, is the Justice of God. Now, for the expressing of his Largeness, in exhibiting to us those blessings, which belong to this promise, It is an useful consideration, which arises out of that miraculous budding of the rodds of the Twelve tribes: Gods promise goes no farther but that, for that Man whom he would choose virga germinabit: His rod should bud forth, but when Moses; on the morrow went to lock how his promise was performed, Levies rod had budded, and blossomed, and born perfect fruit; In his mercys, he exceeds his promises; In his judgments he contracts them; as we see he contracted Davids pestilence of three days, into less than one. He punishes to the third, and forth generation; but he shows mercy unto thousands. He gives more than he promises; and he does it sooner; as St Chrysostom observes: That whereas mans fashion is to demolish and pull down that in one day, which spent many months in the setting up, God dispatches faster in his building, and reparation, than in his ruin and distruction; He built all the world in six days, (says he) and when he would destroy but one Town, Jerico, he imployd Eight; Consider him then in Miserationibus, in his mercies, or in veritate in his truth, and wherein were we worthy of the least of these promises, or performances.

Now, of these mercies grounded upon Gods will, and of these truths grounded upon his word, we must necessarily acknowledge an unworthyness in our selves, if they were proposed to us, but as expectancies, but as reversions, that should be had; nay but as possibilities, that they might be had: for Perdidimus possibilitatem boni; that's our case now; that we have lost all possibility of doing, or receiving any good of our selves. In decimations upon popular rebellions, when they tithe men for execution, every man conceives a just hope; for it is ten to one he may scape with his life. In Lotteries, though the odds be great on the other side, every man hopes, he that is never so far off in a remainder for land, would be loth to have his name expunged, and raced out. He that had been sick thirty eight years, and could never get into the pool, yet he came still in hope that he should get in at last: It is thus in civil and moral things; it is much more so in divine; even expectation from God is a degree of fruition. There is no pain in Davids expectance expectam Dominum, in waiting patiently for the Lord, as long as we know, Habakkuks veniens veniet Dominus, because the Lord will surely come, says he, therefore he does not tary. It is no loss to stay Gods coming, because God will stay when he comes: when we are sure that God will come to succor us, to weaken our enemies, That's a mercy, and that's a truth, which we are not worthy of though he be not come yet.

But Jacob considers here, and every man may in his particular, the mercys, and truths which God had showed him already; neither doth the word which both our translations have accepted here, answer the original nor reach home. It is not only, showing; God may show mercy, and truth, by way of offering it, and withdraw it again, as he doth from unworthy receivers of the Sacrament; he may show it, by way of example; and encourage us by seeing how he hath dealt with others; he may show it, and exclude us from it; as he showed Moses the land of promise. But there it is only Videre fecit, but here it is fecit it self; there it was a land which God showed, here it is Mercies, and Truths, quas fecisti, which thou hast done, and performed towards me; and then comes David especially to his quid retribuam tibi, when he considers omnia quae tribuisti mihi. Thine O Lord, says he, is greatness, and power, and glory and victory and praise; all that is in heaven, and earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, riches, and honor come of thee, in thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength: But who am I said David, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer willingly, after this sort: all things came from thee; and of thine own hand, have we given thee. Why thus much was David, thus much was his people, thus much are all they, to whom God hath done so, in mercy, and in truth, and hath made gracious promises, and performed them, that they are thereby become debtors to God, his stewards, his servants; which is Jacobs last step in this part, mercies and truths which thou hast showed, to thy servant.

All this greatness, makes him not proud: for all this, he is not the less his servant, whose service is perfect freedom. Here men that serve inferior masters, when they mend in their estate, or in their capacity, they affect higher services, and at last the Kings; when they are there, they can serve no better master, but they may serve him, in a better, and better place; if thou have served the world, and Mammon, all this while, yet now that thou hast wherewithal, come into Gods service; show thy love to God, in employing that which thou hast, to his glory; if thou gottest that which thou hast, in his service (as if thou gottest it by honest ways, in thy calling, thou hast done so) yet come to serve him in a better place; in gathering, thou hast but served him in his mines, in distributing thou shalt serve him in his treasury. If thou have served him in fetters, Noli timere serve compedite, sed confitere, Domino & vertentur in ornamenta; let not thy fetters, thy narrow fortune, terrify thee; thy fetters, thy low estate, shall be rings, and collars, and garters, not only sufficiencies, but abundance, and ornaments to thee: what dishes soever he set before thee, still let this be thy grace, Parvus sum, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

We have passed through all the branches, of that which we proposed for the first part, the confession of his own unworthiness. We found a second part implied in this word, for; which was, that this acknowledgement of his proceeded not out of formality and custom, or stupidity, and dejection, but out of debatement, and consideration and reason; and then we found that reason deduced and derived into these two great branches, what his former state had been, With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and what his present state was, I am become two bands. For the reason in general, he that does any spiritual duty even towards God, in praising, and magnifying him, and not upon good, reason, this man flatters God; not that he can say more good, than is always true of God; but towards God, as well as towards man, it is true, that he that speaks more good than himself believes to be true, he flatters, how true soever it be that he speaks. Such praise shall be counted as a curse; and such oil breaks a mans head. Those Sceptique philosophers, that doubted of all, though they affirmed nothing, yet they denied nothing neither, but they saw no reason in the opinions of others.

Those Sceptique Christians, that doubt whether God have any particular providence, any care of particular actions; those which doubt, whether the history of Christ be true, or no; those doubting men, that conform themselves outwardly with us, because that may be true, that we profess, for any thing they know, there may be a Christ, & they might be the worse, for any thing they know, if they left him out, they might prove worse, and in the mean time they enjoy temporal peace, & benefit of the Laws by this outward profession of theirs; those men that sacrifice to Christ Jesus only, ne noceat, least if there be such a God, they should lose him for want of a sacrifice, that worship Christ Jesus with a reservation of the pretended God, that if he prove God at last, they have done their part, if he do not, yet they are never the worse; these men, who if they come to Church, think themselves safe enough, but they are deceived; The Militant, and the Triumphant Church is all one Church, but above in the triumphant Church, there are other Church-wardens, than here, & though he come to do the outward acts of religion, if he do it without a religious heart, they know him to be a Recusant, for all his coming to Church here, he shall be excommunicate in the triumphant there. He praises not God, he prays not to God, he worships him not, whatsoever he does, if he have not considered it, debated it, concluded it, to be rightly done, and necessarily done. If he think any thing else better done, this is not well done.

Jacob had concluded it out of the contemplation of his former, and present state; first he had been banished from his Country; I came over Jordan, Herein he was a figure of Christ; he received a blessing from his father, and presently he must go into banishment; Christ received presents and adoration from the Magi of the east, and presently he submits himself to a banishment in Egypt, for the danger that Herod intended. Christs Banishment, as it could not be less then four years, so it could not be more then seven; Jacobs was twenty, a banishment, and a long banishment. Banishment is the first punishment executed upon man; he was banished out of Paradise; and it is the last punishment, that we shall be redeemed from, when we shall be received entirely body and soul, into our Country, into heaven. It is true our life in this world is not called a banishment any where in the Scripture: but a pilgrimage, a peregrination, a travel; but peregrinatio cum ignominia conjunctu, exilium; he that leaves his Country because he was ashamed, or afraid to return to it, or to stay in it, is a banished man. Briefly for Jacobs case here, S. Bernard expresses it well in his own, est commune exilium, there is one banishment common to us all, in corpore peregrinamur a duo, we travel out of our Country at least; but, Accessit & special, quod me pen inpatientem reddit quod cogarvicere sine vohis. This was a particular misery, in his banishment, that Jacob must live from his father, and mother, and from that Country, where he was to have the fruits, and effects of that blessing which he had got.

He came away then, and he came away poor: in baculo with a staff; God expresses sometimes abundance, and strength, in baculo, in that word. Oftentimes he calls plenty, by that name, the staff of bread. But Jacobs is no Metaphorical staff, it is a real staff, the companion, and the support of a poor travelling man. When Christ enjoyns his Apostles to an exact poverty, for one journey, which they were to dispatch quickly, S. Matthew expresses his commandment thus, possess no monies, nor two coats nor a shoe, nor a staff; S. Mark expresses the same commandment thus, take none of those with you, except a staff only. The fathers go about to reconcile this, by taking staff in both places figuratively; that the staff forbidden in Matthew, should be potestas puniendi, the power of correcting which the Apostle speaks of, Num quid vultis vemam in virga? shall I come to you with a rod, or in love? And that the staff allowed in Mark, is potestas consolandi, the power of comforting which David speaks of, Virga tua, & baculus tuus, ipsa me consolata sunt, Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Christ spoke this but once, but in his language, the Syriack, he spoke it in a word that hath two significations. Shebat, is both Baculus defensorius, and Baculus sustentatorius. A staff of sustentation, and a staff of defence; God that spoke in Christs Syriack, spoke in the Evangelists Greek too; and both belong to us; and both the Evangelists intending the use of the staff, and not the staff it self, 3. Matthew in that word forbids any staff, of violence or defence, S. Mark allows a staff of sustentation, and support; and such a staff, and no more had Jacob, a staff to sustain him upon his way. Hath this then been thy state with Jacob, that thou hast not only been without the staff of bread, plenty, and abundance of temporal blessings, but without the staff of defence, that when the world hath snarled and barked at thee, and that thou wouldst justly have beaten a dog, yet thou couldst not find a staff, thou hadst no means to right thy self? yet he hath not left thee without a staff of support, a staff to try how deep the waters be, that thou art to wade through, that is thy Christian constancy, and thy Christian discretion: use that staff aright, and as Christ, who sent his Apostles without any staff of defence once, afterward gave them leave to carry swords, so at his pleasure, and in his measure, he will make thy staff, a sword, by giving thee means to defend thy self, and others over whom he will give thee charge, and jurisdiction in exalting thee.

But herein in doing so, God assists thee with the staff of others; with the favor and support of other men; Jacob was first in Baculo, and in suo, nothing but a staff; no staff but his own; truly his own for we call other staffs ours, which are not ours, My people ask counsel of their stocks, and their staff teacheth them; that is, they have made their own wisdom, their own plots, their own industry, their staff; upon which they should not rely, & so we trust to a broken staff of reed, on which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and peirce it, when God hath given thee a staff of thine own, a leading staff, a competency, a conveniency to lead thee through the difficulties, and encombrances of this world, if thou put a pike into thy staff, murmuring at thine own, envying superiors, oppressing inferiors, then this piked staff is not thy staff, nor Gods staff, but it is Baculus inimici hominis; and the envious man in the Gospel, is the devil. If God have made thy staff to blossom, and bear ripe fruit in a night, enriched thee, preferred thee a pace, this is not thy staff; it is a Mace, & a mark of thy office, that he hath made thee his Steward of those blessings. To end this, a mans own staff, truly, properly, is nothing but his own natural faculties: nature is ours, but grace is not ours; and he that is left to this staff of his own, for heaven, is as ill provided, as Jacob was, for this world, when he was left to his own staff at Jordan, when he was banished; and banished in poverty, and banished alone.

Thus far we have seen Jacob in his low estate; now we bring him to his happyness: in which it is always one degree to make hast; and so we will; all is comprised in this that is, was present. Now I am two bands, now; it was first now, quando revertitur, now when he returned to his Country, for he was come very near it, when he speaks of Jordan, as though he stood by it, I came over this Jordan. It is hard to say, whether the returning to a blessing, formerly possessed, and lost for a while, be not a greater pleasure, then the coming to a new one. It is S. Augustins observation, that that land, which is so often called the land of promise, was their land from the beginning, from the beginning Sem, of whom they came dwelt there: and though God restored them by a miraculous power, to their possession, yet still it was a returning: and so the blessing is ever more expressed; a return from Egypt, a return from Babylon; and a return from their present dispersion is that, which comforts them still, Christ himself had this apprehension, clarifica me, Glorify me, thou father, with that glory, which I had with thee before the world was. Certainly our best assurance of salvation, is but a returning to our first state, in the decree of God for our election; when we can consider, our interest, in that decree we return. Our best state in this life, is but a returning, to the purity, which we had in our baptism; whosoever surprises himself in the act or in the remorse of any sin that he is fallen into, would think himself in a blessed state, if he could bring his conscience to that peace again, which he remembers, he had the last time he made up his accounts to God, and had his discharge sealed in the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ Jesus. Cleanse thy self often therefore, and accustom thy soul to that peace, that thou mayest still, when thou fallest into sin, have such a state in thy memory, as thou mayest have a desire to return to: and the Spirit of God shall still return to thee, who lovest to receive it, and at last thy spirit, shall return to him that gave it, and gave his own spirit for it.

Jacobs happiness appears first now, quando revertitur; and now, quando jubente Domino, now, when he returned, and now when he returned upon Gods bidding, God had said unto him, turn again into the land of thy fathers, and I will be with thee, Think no step to be directly made towards preferment, if thou have not heard Gods voice directing the way. Stre in usque; stand upon the ways, and inquire not of thy fathers, but of the God of thy fathers, which way thou shalt go: for Gods voice may be heard in every action, if we will stand still a little, and hearken to it. Remember ever more, that Applica Ephod; where David comes to ask counsel of the Lord, he said to Abiathar, Applica Ephod; bring the Ephod; and there David asks, Shall I follow this company, shall I overtake them? when thou doubtest of any thing, Applica Ephod, take this book of God: if, to thine understanding, that reach not home punctually to thy particular case, thou hast an Ephod in thy self; God is not departed from thee; thou knowest by thy self, it is a vain complaint that Plutrarch makes, desectu oraculorum, that oracles are ceased; there is no defect of oracles in thine own bosom; as soon as thou askest thy self, how may I corrupt the integrity of such a Judge, undermine the strength of such a great person, shake the chastity of such a woman, thou hast an answer quickly it must be done by bribing, it must be done by swearing, it must be done by calumniating. Here is no defectus Oraculorum no ceasing of Oracles, there is a present answer from the Devil. There is no defect of the Vrim, and Thummim of God neither, If thou wilt look into it, for as it is well said of the Moral Man, Sua cuique providentia Deus every mans Diligence, and discretion, is a God to himself so it is well said, of the Christian Father Augustin Rectaratio Verbum Dei a rectified Conscience is the word of God. Applica Ephod, bring thine Actions to the question of the Ephod, to the debatment of thy conscience rectified, and still shalt hear, Jubentem Dominus or duni Revocantem, God will bid thee stop, or God will bid thee go forwards in that way.

But herein had Jacob another degree of happiness, That the Commandment of God, was persued with the Testimony of Angells. Not that the voice of God needs strength; Test me ipso witness my self, was always witness enough; and Quia os Domini Locutum. The Mouth of the Lord: hath spoken it was always seal enough. But that hath been Gods abundant, And overflowing goodness ever to succor the infirmity of Man, with sensible and visible things; unto the pillars in the Wilderness; with the Tabarnacle after; and with the temple and all the Misterious, and significative furniture thereof after all. So God leaves not Jacob to the general knowledge, that the Angels of God protect Gods Children, but he manifested those Angels unto him, Occurrerunt ei. the Angels of God met him. The word of God is an infalible guid to thee, But God hath provided thee also visible, and manifest assistants, the Pillar, his Church and the Angels his Ministers in the Church. The Scripture is thine only Ephod, but Applica Ephod, apply it to thee by his Church, and by his visible Angels, and not by thine own private interpretation.

This was Jacobs nunc; now, when he was returned, returned upon Gods Commandment; upon Gods Commandment pursued, and testified by Angels, and Angels visibly manifested; now, he could take a comfort in the contemplation of his fortune, of his estate, to see, that he was two bands. Here's a great change; we see his vow; and we see how far his wishes extended at his going out; If God will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on, so that I come again unto my fathers house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God, In which vow is included all the service that he could exhibit, or retribute to God. Now his staff is become a sword; a strong Army; his one staff now is multiplied; his wives are given for staffs to assist him, and his children given also for staffs to his age. His own staff is become the greatest, and best part of Labans wealth; In such plenty, as that he could spare a present to Esau, of at least five hundred head of cattle. The fathers make Moral expositions of this; That his two bands are his Temporal blessings and his spiritual: And St. Augustin finds a tipical allusion in it of Christ, Baculo Crucis Christus apprehendit mundum; & cum duabus turmis duobus populis, ad patrem rediit: Christ by his staff, his Cross, mustered two bands, that is Jews, and Gentiles. We find enough for our purpose, in taking it literally, as we see it in the Text; That he divided all his company, and all his cattle into two troups, that if Esau come, and smite one, the other might scape. For then only is a fortune full, when there is something for Leakage, for wast; when a Man, though he may justly fear, that this shall be taken from him, yet he may justly presume, that this shall be left to him; though he lose much, yet he shall have enough. And this was Jacobs increase and height; and from this lowness; from one staff, to two bands. And therefore, since in God we can consider but one state Semper idem immutable; since in the Devil, we can consider but two states Quomodo cecidit filius Orientis, that he was the son of the Morning, but is, and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death; since in Jacob and in our selves we can consider first, that God made man righteous, secondly that man betooke himself to his one staff, and his own staff, The imaginations of his own heart, Thirdly; That by the word of God manifested by his Angels, he returns with two bands, Body and Soul, to his heavenly father again, let us attribute all to his goodness, and confess to him and the world, That we are not worthy of the least of all his Mercies, and of all the Truth which he hath showed unto his Servant, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

A Sermon Preached at White-hall. Serm. 13. April 19. 1618. Sermon XIII.

1 Tim. 1.15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners; of which I am the chiefest.

THE greatest part of the body of the old-Testament is Prophecy, and that is especially of future things: The greatest part of the new-Testament, if we number the pieces, is Epistles, Relations of things past, for instruction of the present. They err not much, that call the whole new-Testament Epistle: For, even the Gospells are Evangelia, good Messages, and that's proper to an Epistle, and the book of the Acts of the Apostles is superscribed, by Saint Luke, to one Person, to Theophilus, and that's proper to an Epistle; and so is the last book, the book of Revelation, to the several Churches; and of the rest there is no question, An Epistle is collucutio scripta, says Saint Ambrose, Though it be written far off, and sent, yet it is a Conference, and seperatos copulat, says he; by this means we overcome distances, we deceive absences, and we are together even then when we are asunder: And therefore, in this kind of conveying spiritual comfort to their friends, have the ancient Fathers been more exercised then in any other former, almost all of them have written Epistles: One of them, Isidorus, him whom we call Peluciotes, Saint Chrysostom's schollar is noted to have written Myriades, and in those Epistles, to have interpreted the whole Scriptures: St. Paul gave them the example, he writ nothing but in this kind, and in this exceeded all his fellow Apostles, & pateretur Paulus, quod Saulus seceret, says St. Austin, That as he had asked Letters of Commission of the State to persecute Christians, so by these Letters of Consolation, he might recompense that Church again, which he had so much damnified before: As the Hebrew Rabbis say, That Rahab did let down Jofuah's spies, out of her house, with the same cord, with which she had used formerly to draw up her adultrous lovers, into her house. Now the holy-Ghost was in all the Authors, of all the books of the Bible, but in Saint Paul's Epistles, there is, says Irenaeus, Impetus Spiritus Sancti, The vehemence, the force of the holy-Ghost; And as that vehemence is in all his Epistles, so amplius habent, quae e vinculis (as Saint Chrysostom makes the observation) Those Epistles which were written in Prison, have most of this holy vehemence, and this (as that Father notes also) is one of them; And of all them, we may justly conceive this to be the most vehement and forcible, in which he undertakes to instruct a Bishop in his Episcopal function, which is, to propagate the Gospel; for, he is but an ill Bishop that leaves Christ where he found him, in whose time the Gospel is yet no farther then it was; how much worse is he, in whose time the Gospel loses ground? who leaves not the Gospel in so good state as he found it. Now of this Gospel, here recommended by Paul to Timothie, this is the Sum; That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners, &c.

Here then we shall have these three Parts; First Radicem, The Root of the Gospel, from whence it springs; it is fidelis sermo, a faithful Word, which cannot err: And secondly, we have Arborem, Corpus; the Tree, the Body, the substance of the Gospel, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; And then lastly, fructum Evangelii, the fruit of the Gospel, Humility, that it brings them who embrace it, to acknowledg themselves to be the greatest sinners, And in the first of these, the Root it self, we shall pass by these steps: First, that it is Sermo, the Word; That the Gospel hath as good a ground as the Law; the new-Testament as well founded as the Old; It is the word of God: And then it is fidelis Sermo, a faithful Word: now both Old and New are so, and equally so; but in this, the Gospel is fidelior, the more faithful, and the more sure, because that word, the Law, hath had a determination, an expiration, but the Gospel shall never have that. And again, It is Sermo omni acceptatione dignus, Worthy of all acceptation; not only worthy to be received by our Faith, but even by our Reason too; our Reason cannot hold out against the proofs of Christians for their Gospel: And as the word imports it deserves omnem acceptationem, and omnem approbationem, all approbation, and therefore, as we should not dispute against it, and so are bound to accept it, to receive it, not to speak against it; so neither should we do any thing against it; as we are bound to receive it by acknowledgment, so we are bound to approve it, by conforming our selves unto it; our consent to it shows our acceptation, our life our approbation; and so much is in the first Part, the Root; This is a faithful Word, and worthy of all acceptation. And in the Second, the Tree, the Body, the substance of the Gospel; That Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sinners; First, here is an Advent, a coming of a new Person into the World who was not here before, venit in mundum, he came into the World; And secondly, he that came, is first Christ, a mixed Person, God and Man, and thereby capable of that Office, able to reconcile God and Man; And Christus so to, a person anointed, appointed, and sent for that purpose, to reconcile God and Man; And then he is Jesus, one did actually and really do the office of a Savior, he did reconcile God and Man; for, there we see also the Reason why he came; He came to Save, and whom he came to Save; to save Sinners: And these will be the branches and lymbs of this Body. And then lastly, when we come to consider the fruit, which is indeed the seed, and kernel, and soul of all virtues Humility; then we shall meet the Apostle confessing himself to be the greatest Sinner, not only with a fui, that he was so whilst he was a Persecutor, but with a present sum, that even now, after he had received the faithful Word, the light of the Gospel, yet he was still the greatest Sinner; of which (Sinners) I (though an Apostle) am (am still) the chiefest,

First then, the Gospel is founded and rooted in sermone, in verbo, in the Word; it cannot deserve omnem acceptationem, if it be not Gospel, and it is not Gospel, if it be not in sermone, rooted in the Word: Christ himself, as he hath an eternal Generation, is verbum Dei, Himself is the Word of God; And as he hath a humane Generation, he is subjectum verbi Dei, the subject of the Word of God, of all the Scriptures, of all that was shadowed in the Types, and figured in the Ceremonies, and prepared in the preventions of the Law, of all that was foretold by the Prophets, of all that the Soul of man rejoiced in, and congratulated with the Spirit of God, in the Psalms, and in the Canticles, and in the cheerful parts of spiritual joy and exultation, which we have in the Scriptures; Christ is the foundation of all those Scriptures, Christ is the burden of all those Songs; Christ was in sermone then, then he was in the Word. The joy of those holy Persons which are noted in the Scriptures, to have expressed their joy at the byrth of Christ, in such spiritual Hymns and Songs, is expressed so, as that we may see their joy was in this, That that was now in actu, that was performed, that was done which was before in sermone, in the Promise, in the Word, in the Covenant of God. They rejoiced that Christ was born; but principally that all was done so, sicut locutus, as God had spoken before, that all should be done; done of the seed of a Woman, as God had said in Paradice, done by a Virgin, as God had said by Isaiah, done at Bethlehem, as he had said by Micheas; and done at that time, as he had said by Daniel; Sicut locutus est, says Zachary, in his exultation, All is performed as he hath spoke by the mouth of the Prophets, which have been since the World began. There in the Word, the Gospel begins, and there, and there only, it shall continue for ever, as long as there is any spiritual seed of Abraham, any men willing to embrace it, and apply it, as the blessed Virgin expresses it, when her Soul magnifies the Lord, and her Spirit rejoyces in God her Savior; sicut locutus, as God hath spoken to our Fathers, to Abraham and his seed for ever: so then there never was, there never must be any other Gospel then is in sermone, in the written word of God in the Scriptures. The particular comfort that a Christian conceives, as it is determined and contracted in himself, is principally in this, that Christ is come; his comfort is in this, that he is now saved by him; and he might have this comfort, though Christ had never been in sermone, though he had never been prophesied, never spoken of before: But yet the proof and ground of this comfort to himself, that is, the assurance that he hath, That this was that Christ that was to save us; and then, the munition and artillery by which he is to overthrow the forces of the enemy, the arguments and objections of Jews, Gentiles and Heretics, who deny this Christ in whose salvation he trusts, to have then any such Savior: And then the Band of the Church, the Communion of Saints, by which we should prove, That the Patriarchs and the Apostles, our Fathers in the old and new Testament, do belong all to one Church; this assurance in our self; this ability to prove it to others; this joining of these two walls, to make up the household of the faithful: This is not only that, that the sum of the Gospel is risen, in that Christ is come, but in this, that he is come sicut locutus est, as God had spoken of him, and promised him by the mouth of his Prophets from the beginning, as he was in sermone, in the word.

In the first Creation, when God made heaven and earth, that making was not in sermone, for that could not be prophesied before, because there was no being before; neither is it said, that at that Creation God said any thing, but only creavit, God made heaven and earth, and no men; so that that which was made sine sermone, without speaking, was only matter without form, heaven without light, and earth without any productive virtue or disposition, to bring forth, and to nourish creatures. But when God came to those specifique forms, and to those creatures wherein he would be sensibly glorified after, they were made in sermone, by his word; Dixit & facta sunt, God spake, and so all things were made; Light and Firmament, Land and Sea, Plants and Beasts, and Fishes and Fowls were made all in sermone, by his word. But when God came to the best of his creatures, to Man, Man was not only made in verbo, as the rest were, by speaking a word, but by a Consultation, by a Conference, by a Counsel, faciamus hominem, let us make Man; there is a more express manifestation of divers persons speaking together, of a concurrence of the Trinity; and not of a saying only, but a mutual saying; not of a Proposition only, but of a Dialogue in the making of Man: The making of matter alone was sine verbo, without any word at all; the making of lesser creatures was in verbo, by saying, by speaking; the making of Man was in in sermone, in a consultation. In this first Creation thus presented there is a shadow, a representation of our second Creation, our Regeneration in Christ, and of the saving knowledge of God; for first there is in Man a knowledge of God, sine sermone, without his word, in the book of Creatures: Non sunt loquelae, says David, They have no language, they have no speech, and yet they declare the glory of God. The correspondence and relation of all parts of Nature to one Author, the consinuity and dependance of every piece and joint of this frame of the world, the admirable order, the immutable succession, the lively and certain generation, and birth of effects from their Parents, the causes: in all these, though there be no sound, no voice, yet we may even see that it is an excellent song, an admirable piece of music and harmony; and that God does (as it were) play upon this Organ in his administration and providence by natural means and instruments; and so there is some kind of creation in us, some knowledge of God imprinted, sine sermone, without any relation to his word. But this is a Creation as of heaven and earth, which were dark and empty, and without form, till the Spirit of God moved, and till God spoke: Till there came the Spirit, the breath of Gods mouth, the word of God, it is but a faint twilight, it is but an uncertain glimmering which we have of God in the Creature: But in sermone, in his word, when we come to him in his Scriptures, we find better and nobler Creatures produced in us, clearer notions of God, and more evident manifestations of his power, and of his goodness towards us: for if we consider him in his first word, sicut locutus ab initio, as he spoke from the beginning in the Old Testament, from thence we cannot only see, but feel and apply a Dixit, fiat lux, that God hath said, let there be light; and that there is a light produced in us, by which we see, that this world was not made by chance, for then it could not consist in this order and regularity; and we see that it was not eternal, for if it were eternal as God, and so no Creature, then it must be God too; we see it had a beginning, a beginning of nothing, and all from God. So we find in our self a fiat lux, that there is such a light produced: And there we may find a fiat firmamentum, that there is a kind of firmament produced in us, a knowledge of a difference between Heaven and Earth; and that there is in our constitutions an earthly part, a body, and a heavenly part, a soul, and an understanding as a firmament, to separate, distinguish and discern between these. So also may we find a congregenter aquae, that God hath said, Let there be a sea, a gathering, a confluence of all such means as are necessary for the attaining of salvation; that is, that God from the beginning settled and established a Church, in which he was always careful to minister to man means of eternal happiness: The Church is that Sea, and into that Sea we launched the water of Baptism. To contract this sine sermone, till God spake, in his Creatures only, we have but a faint and uncertain, and general knowledge of God: in sermone, when God comes to speak at first in the Old Testament, though he come to more particulars, yet it was in dark speeches, and in vails, and to them who understood best, and saw clearest into Gods word; still it was but de futuro, by way of promise, and of a future thing. But when God comes to his last work, to make Man, to make up Man, that is, to make Man a Christian by the Gospel, when he comes not to a fiat homo, Let there be a Man (as he proceeded in the rest) but to a faciamus hominem, Let us make Man: Then he calls his Son to him, and sends him into the world to suffer death, the death of the Cross for our salvation: And he calls the Holy Ghost to him, and sends him to teach us all truth, and apply that which Christ suffered for our souls, to our souls. God leaves the Nations, the Gentiles, under the non locutus est; he speaks not at all to them, but in the speechless creatures: He leaves the Jews under the locutus est, under the killing letter of the Law, and their stubborn perverting thereof: And he comes to us, sicut locutus est, in manifesting to us that our Messiah, Christ Jesus, is come, and come according to the promise of God, and the foretelling of all his Prophets; for that is our safe anchorage in all storms, that our Gospel is in sermone that all things are done, so as God had foretold they should be done; that we have infallible marks given us before, by which we may try all that is done after.

All the word of God then conduces to the Gospel; the Old Testament is a preparation and a poedagogy to the New. All the word belongs to the Gospel, and all the Gospel is in the word; nothing is to be obtruded to our faith as necessary to salvation, except it be rooted in the Word. And as the locutus est, that is, the promises that God hath made to us in the Old Testament; and the sicut locutus est, that is, the accomplishing of those promises to us in the New-Testament, are thus appliable to us; so is this especially, Quod adhuc loquitur, that God continues his speech, and speaks to us every day; still we must hear Evangelium in sermone, the Gospel in the Word, in the Word so as we may hear it, that is, the Word preached; for howsoever it be Gospel in it self, it is not Gospel to us if it be not preached in the Congregation; neither, though it be preached to the Congregation, is it Gospel to me, except I find it work upon my understanding and my faith, and my conscience: A man may believe that there shall be a Redeemer, and he may give an Historical assent, that there hath been a Redeemer, that that Redeemer is come, he may have heard utrumque sermonem, both Gods ways of speaking, both his voices, both his languages; his promises in the Old Testament, his performances in the New Testament, and yet not hear him speak to his own soul: Ferme Apostoli plus laborarunt, says S. Chrys. It cost the Apostles, and their Successors, the preachers of the Gospel, more pains and more labor, ut persuaderent hominibus, dona Dei iis indulta, To persuade men that this mercy of God, and these merits of Christ Jesus were intended to them, and directed upon them, in particular, then to persuade them that such things were done: they can believe the promise, and the performance in the general, but they cannot find the application thereof in particular; the voice that is neerest us we least hear, not because God speaks not loud enough, but because we stop our ears; nor that neither; for we do hear, but because we do not hearken then, nor consider; no nor that neither, but because we do not answer, nor cooperate, nor assist God, in doing that which he hath made us able to do, by his grace towards our own Salvation. For (not to judge De iis qui foris sunt) of those whom God hath left (fot any thing we know) in the dark, and without means of Salvation, because without manifestation of Christ; we are Christians incorporated in Christ in his Church; and thereby, by that Title, we have a new Creation, and are new creatures; and as we shall have a new Jerusalem hereafter, so we have a new Paradise already, which is the Christian Church. In this Paradise saith St. Augustine, Quatuor Evangelia ligna fructifera; In the books of the Gospel, as they grow, and as they are suplicated in the Church, grows every Tree pleasant for the sight, and good for meat: And there, says that Father, lignum vitae Christus, Christ Jesus himself (as he is taught he that gives life to all our actions; and even so our faith it self, which faith qualifies and dignifies those actions: And then, says from the Scriptures, in the Church) is the Tree of Life, for it is he, As Christ alone, in this Paradise, that is, the christian Church, is this Tree of life, so lignum scientiae boni & mali, The Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, is Proprium voluntatis arbitrium, the good use of our own Will, after God hath enlightened us in this Paradise, in the Christian Church, and so restored our dead will again, by his Grace precedent and subsequent, and concommitant: for, without such Grace and such succession of Grace, our Will is so far unable to pre-dispose it self to any good, as that nec scipso, homo, nisi perniciose uti potest (says he still) we have no interest in our selves no power to do any thing of, or with our selves, but to our destruction. Miserable man! a Toad is a bag of Poison, and a Spider is a blister of Poison, and yet a Toad and a Spider cannot poison themselves; Man hath a dram of poison, original-Sin, in an invisible corner, we know not where, and he cannot choose but poison himself and all his actions with that; we are so far from being able to begin without Grace, as then where we have the first Grace, we cannot proceed to the use of that, without more. But yet, says Saint Augustine; The Will of a Christian so rectified and so assisted, the lignum scientiae, the Tree of knowledge, and he shall be the worse for knowing, if he live not according to that knowledge; we were all wrapped up in the first Adam, all Mankind; and we are wrapped up in the second Adam, in Christ, all Mankind too; but not in both alike; for we are so in the first Adam, as that we inherit death from him, and incurre death whether we will or no; before any consent of ours be actually given to any Sin, we are the children of wrath, and of death; but we are not so in the second Adam, as that we are made possessors of eternal life, without the concurrence of our own Will; not that our will pays one penny towards this purchase, but our own will may forfeit it; it cannot adopt us, but it may disinherit us. Now, by being planted in this Paradise, and received into the Christian Church, we are the adopted sons of God, and therefore, as it is in Christ, who is the natural Son of God, Qui non nascitur & desinit, as Origen expresses it, He was not born once and no more, but hath a continual, because an eternal generation, and is as much begotten to day, as he was 100. 1000. 1000 millions of generations passed; so since we are the generation and of-spring of God, since Grace is our Father, that Parent that begets all goodness in us, In similitudine ejus, says Origen, conformable to the Pattern Christ himself, Qui non nascitur & desinit, who hath a continual generation, Generemur Domino per singulos intellectus, & singula opera, in all the acts of our understanding, and in a ready concurrence of our Will, let us every day, every minute feel this new generation of spiritual children; for it is a miserable short life, to have been born when the glass was turned, and died before it was run out: to have conceived some good Motions at the beginning, and to have given over all purpose of practise at the end of a Sermon. Let us present our own will as a mother to the father of light, and the father of life, and the father of love, that we may be willing to conceive by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and not resist his working upon our Souls; but with the obedience of the blessed Virgin, may say, Ecce ancilla, Behold the seruant of the Lord, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, Be it done unto me according to thy Word; I will not stop mine ears to thy Word, my heart shall not doubt of thy word, my life shall express my having heard and harkened to thy word, that word which is the Gospel, that Gospel which is peace to my Conscience, and reconciliation to my God, and Salvation to my Soul; for, hearing is but the conception, meditation is but the quickening, purposing is but the byrth, but practising is the growth of this blessed child.

The Gospel then, that which is the Gospel to thee, that is, the assurance of the peace of Conscience, is grounded in sermone, upon the word; not upon imaginations of thine own, not upon fancies of others, nor pretended inspirations, nor obtruded Miracles, but upon the word; and not upon a suspicious and questionable, not upon an uncertain or variable word, but upon this, that is fidelis sermo, This is a faithful saying. It is true, that this Apostle seems to use this phrase of speech, as an earnest asseveration, and a band for divers truths in other places: He says sometimes, This is a true saying, and This is a faithful saying, when he does not mean, that it is the word of God, but only intends to induce a moral certitude, when he would have good credit to be given to that which follows, he uses to say so, fidelis sermo, it is a true, it is a faithful saying: But in all those other places where he uses this phrase, he speaks only of some particular duties, or of some particular point of Religion; but here he speaks of the whole body of Divinity, of the whole Gospel, That Christ is come to save Sinners, and therefore more may be intended by this phrase here, then in other places: When he speaks of that particular point, The Resurrection, he uses this phrase, It is a true saying; If we be dead with him we shall also live with him; when he would invite men to godliness, even by the reward which accompany it in this life, he uses this addition, this confirmation, For this is a true saying, and worthy to be received; when he gives a dignity to the function and office of the Ministry, he proposes it so, It is a true saying; If any man desire the Office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work; it is a work, not an occasion and opportunity of ease. And lastly, when he provokes men to glorify God, by good works, he labors to be believed, by the same phrase still, This is a true saying, and these things I would thou shouldst affirme, That they which have believed in God, might be careful to show forth good works. Till he have found faith, and belief in God, he never calls upon good works, he never calls them good; but when we have Faith, he would not have us stop nor determine there, but proceed to works too. It is a phrase which the Apostle does frequently, and almost proverbially use in these many places, but in all these places, upon particular and lesser occasions; but here, preparing the doctrine of the whole Gospel, this phrase admits a larger extent, That as it is grounded upon the Word, that is, we must have something to show for it; so it is upon a faithful word, upon that which is clearly, and without the encumbrance of disputation, the infallible word of God; no traditional word, no apocryphal word, but the clear and faithful word. Now of all the attributes, of all the qualities that can be ascribed to the word of God, this is most proper to it self, and most available, and most comfortable to us, that it is fidelis, a faithful word; For, this being a word that hath principally respect and relation to the fidelity of God, it implies necessarily a Covenant, a Contract with us, which God hath bound himself faithfully to perform unto us; and therefore God calls his Covenant with David by this name, fideles miserecordias David, An everlasting Covenant, even the sure mercies of David. And when the Prophet Jeremiah apprehended a fear that God would break that Covenant which he had made with that Nation, which had broken with him, he expresses that passion in a word, contrary to this, and imputes out of his hasty fear, even infidelity to God, Why art thou unto me (says he there) as a Liar, & sicut aquae infideles, as unfaithful water, that I cannot trust to; or Aquae mendaces, as it is in the Original, lying waters, deceitful waters, that promise a continuance and do not perform it? Why dost thou pretend to make a Covenant with thy people and wilt not perform it faithfully? Most of Gods other attributes are accompanied with this in the Scriptures, whatsoever God is called besides, he is called fidelis, faithful too. In one place he is fortis & fidelis, he is powerful; but if he turn his power vindicatively upon me, I were better if he were less powerful; but he hath made a Covenant with me, that he will turn his power upon those whom he hath called his Enemies, because they are mine, and therein lies my comfort, that he is a powerful and a faithful God. In another place, he is fidelis & sanctus; he is a holy God; but if he be so, and but so, how shall I, who am unholy, stand in his sight? He hath made a Covenant with me, that as they who looked upon the Serpent in the Wilderness, shed and cast out the venom of that serpent who had stung them before; so when I looked faithfully upon my Savior, all my unholiness falls off as rags, and I shall be invested in his Righteousness, in his Holyness; and so in that lies my comfort, that he is a Holy and a Faithful God. Howsoever we consider God in the Schools, in his other attributes, yet here is my University and my Chair, here I must take my Degree, in my Heart, in my Conscience; and this is that that brings God home, and applies him closs to me, that he is fidelis, a faithful God; that in his mercy he hath made a Covenant with us, and in his faithfulness he will perform it. And therefore consider God in his first great work, his Creation, so he is fidelis Creator, let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit their Souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. He had gracious purposes upon us in our Creation, and he is faithful to his purposes; and so this faithful God is God the Father. Consider God in his next great work, the Redemption, and so he is fidelis Pontifex, a faithful high-Priest, in things concerning God, that he might make reconciliation for the sins of the People, and so this faithful God is God the Son. Consider God in his continuance and dwelling in the Church, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world, so he is fidelis Testis, He shall be evermore presenting to God, and testifying in our behalf, the Covenant which he hath sealed to the Church in his blood, and testifying to our spirit, that that seal belongs unto us; and so this faithful God is God the holy-Ghost; so that when we consider our Creation, we are not to consider a Creation to condemnation; God forbid: When we consider a Redemption, we are not to consider it exclusively, as not intended to us; God forbid: And when we consider Gods presence and government in the Church, we are not to consider it in a Church whose dors are shut up against any of us, so as that we can have no Repentance, no absolution; God forbid, we are not to consider God in those Decrees, wherein we cannot consider him as fidelem Deum; In those Decrees, which are not revealed to us, we know not whether he be faithful, or no; for we know not what his promise, what his purpose was: But as he hath manifested himself in his Word, as he hath made a conditional contract with us, so as that if we perform our part, he will perform his, and not otherwise; so we may be sure that he is fidelis Deus, a God that will stand to his word, a God that will perform his promises faithfully; for, though it were merely his Mercy, that made those promises, yet it is his fidelity, his Truth, his faithfulness, that binds him to the performance of them. The faithful word of God hath said it; in the old-Testament, and in the New too; Let God be true, and every man a Liar. The word of the man of Sin, the God of Rome, is a ly; Pope Stephen abrogates all the Decrees of Pope Formosus, and so gives that ly to him: Next yeere Pope Romanus abrogates all his, and so gives that ly to him; and within seven years, Servius all his; and where was fidelis sermo, the faithful word all this while? When they send forth Bulls and Dispensations to take effect occasionally, and upon emergencies, That rebus sic stantibus; If you find matter in this State, this shall be Catholic Divinity; if not, then it shall be Heresy; where is this fidelis sermo, this faithful word amongst them? If for the space of a 1500 years, the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed might have saved any man, but since as many more, Trent Articles must be as necessary; still where is that fidelis sermo, that faithful word which we may rely upon? God hath not bound himself, and therefore neither hath he bound us to any word but his own; In that only, and in all that we shall be sure to find him, Fidelem Deum, A faithful God.

Now the Truth and Faithfulness of the Word, consists not only in this, quod verax, that it is true in it self, but in this also, quod testificatus, that it is established by good testimony to be so. It is therefore faithful because it is the word of God, and therefore also because it may be proved to be the word of God by humane testimonies; which is that which is especially intended in this clause, Omni acceptatione dignus, It is worthy of all acceptation; worthy to be received by our Faith, and by our Reason too: Our Reason tells us, that Gods will is revealed to Man somewhere, else man could not know how God would be worshipped; and our Reason tells us, that this is that Word in which that Will is revealed. And therefore the greatest part of the Latin-Fathers, particularly Ambrose and Augustine, read these words otherwise; not fideliter, no, but Humanus sermo; and so many Greek Copies have it too, That it is a speech which man, not as he is a faithful man, but even as he is a reasonable man may comprehend, not as Saint Jerome will needs understand those words: Si Humanus & non Divinus, non esset omni acceptatione dignus; for that's undenyably true; if it came merely from man, and not from God, it were not worthy to be received by faith; but as S. Augustine expresses that which himself and S. Ambrose meant, sic Humanus & Divinus, quomodo Christus Deus & homo, as Christ is God too, so as that he is Man too; so the Scriptures are from God so, as that they are from Man too: the Gospel is a faithful word essentially, as it is the word of God, derived from him, and it is a faithful word too, declaratively, as it is presented by such light and evidence of Reason, and such testimonies of the Church, as even the reason of Man cannot refuse it: So that the reason of man accepts the Gospel, first out of a general notion, That the will of God must be revealed somewhere, and then he receives this for that Gospel, rather then the Alcoran of the Turks, rather then the Talmud of the Jews, out of those infinite and clear arguments which even his reason presents to him for that. And then, as when he compares Scripture with the book of Creatures and Nature, he finds that evidence more forcible then the other; and when he finds this Scripture compared with other pretended Scriptures, Alcaron or Talmud, he finds it to be of infinite power above them; so when he comes to the true Scriptures, and compares the new-Testament with the Old, the Gospel with the Law, he finds this to be a performance of those promises, a fullfiling of those Prophecies, a revelation of those Types and Figures and an accomplishment, and a possession of those hopes and those reversions; And when he comes to that argument which works most forcibly, and most worthily upon man's reason, which is Antiquistrum, That's best in matter of Religion that was first, there he sees the Gospel was before the Law: This I say, says the Apostle, that the Law, which was four hundred thirty years after, cannot disannull the Covenant, which was confirmed of God in respect of Christ; so shall always in respect of faith and in respect of Reason, It is worthy of acceptation; for, would thy Soul expatiate in that large contemplation of God in general? It is Evangelium Dei, the Gospel of God: wouldst thou contract this God into a narrower & more discernable station? It is Evangelium Jesu Christi, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: wouldst thou draw it nearer to the consideration of the effects? It is Evangelium pacis, the Gospel of peace,; wouldst thou consider it here? Here it is Evangelium Regni, the Gospel of the kingdom, wouldst thou consider it hereafter? It is Evangelium aternum, the eternal Gospel, wouldst thou see the way by it? it is Evangelium Gratiae, the Gospel of Grace; wouldst thou see the end of it? it is Evangelium gloriae, the Gospel of glory: It is worthy of all acceptation from thee, for the Angels of heaven can preach no other Gospel, without being accursed themselves.

But the best and fullest acceptation is that which we called at first an Approbation, to prove that thou hast accepted it by thy life and conversation: That as thy faith makes no staggering at it, nor thy Reason no argument against it, so thy actions may be arguments for it to others, to convince them that do not, and confirm them that do believe in it; for this word, which signifies in our ordinary use; the Gospel, Evangelium, was verbum civil, verbum forense a word of civil and secular use, before it was made Ecclesiastical; and as it had before in civil use, so it retains still, three significations: First it signified Bonum nuntium, a good and a gracious Message: And so, in spiritual use, it is the Message of God, who sent his Son; and it is the message of the Son, who sent the holy-Ghost. Secondly it signified Donum offerenti datum, the reward that was given to him that brought the good news: and so in our spiritual use, it is that spiritual tenderness that Religious good nature of the Soul (as we may have leave to call it) that appliableness, that Ductileness, that holy credulity which your bring to the hearing of the word, and that respect which you give to Christ, in his Ministers, who brings this Gospel unto you. And then Thirdly, it signifies Sacrificium Datori Immolatam, the Sacrifice which was offered to that God who sent this good Message; which in our spiritual use, is that which the Apostle exhorts the Romans to with the most earnestness, (and so do I you) I beseech you brethern by the mercies of God, that yee give up your Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable serving of God: Now a reasonable service is that which in reason we are bound to do, and which in reason we think would most glorify him, in contemplation of whom that service is done; and that is done especially, when by a holy and exemplar life, we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospel which we profess: for then have we declared this true and faithful saying, this Gospel to have been worthy of all acceptation, when we have looked upon it by our reason, embraced it by our Faith, and declared it by our good works; and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called Radicem, the Root of this Gospel, the Word, the Scripture, the Tree it self, the Body of the Gospel, that is The coming of Christ, and the Reason of his coming, To save Sinners; And then the fruit of this Gospel, that Humility, by which the Apostle confesseth himself to be the greatest Sinner, we reserve for another exercise.

Serm. 14. A Second Sermon Preached at Whitehal. April 2. 1621. Sermon XIV.

1 Tim. 1.15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners; of which I am the chiefest.

WE have considered heretofore that which appertained to the Root, and all the circumstances thereof. That which belongs to the Tree it self, what this acceptable Gospel is, That Christ Jesus came into the World, to save Sinners; and then, that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospel, the Humility of the Apostle, in applying it to himself, Quorum ego, Of which Sinners I am the chiefest, were reserved for this time. In the first of these, that which we call the Tree, the Body of this Gospel, there are three branches; first an Advent, A coming; and secondly, the Person that came; and Lastly, the work for which he came. And in the first of these, we shall make these steps; First, that it is a new coming of a Person who was not here before, at least, not in that manner as he comes now, venit, He came; And Secondly, that this coming is in Act, not only in Decree; so he was come and slain ab initio, from all eternity, in God's purpose of our Salvation; nor come only in promise, so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah; in Paradise, in that ipse conteret, He shall bruise the Serpents head; nor come only in the often renuing of that promise to Abraham, in semine tuo, In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed, nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah, Donec Silo, Till Silo come; and to David, in Solio tuo, The Scepter shall not depart; nor as he came in the Prophets, in I says virgo concipiet, That he should come of a virgin, nor in Michaeas, Et tu Bethlem, That he should come out of that Town; but this is a Historical, not a Prophetical, an Actual not a Promissary coming; it is a coming already executed; venit, he came, he is come. And then Thirdly, venit in mundum, He came into the World, into the whole World, so that by his purpose first extends to all the Nations of the World, and then it shall extend to thee in particular, who art a part of this world; He is come into the world, and into thee. From hence, we shall descend to our second branch, to the considerations of the person that comes; and he is, first Christus, in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man, because he is a mixed person, uniting both in himself; and we find also his Commission to work this Reconciliation, because he is Christus, an anointed person, appointed by that unction, to that purpose; And thirdly, we find him to be Jesus, that is, actually a Savior; that as we had first his capacity and his Commission in the name of Christ, so we might have the execution of this Commission in the name of Jesus. And then lastly, in the last branch of this part, we shall see the work it self, Venit salvare, He came to save; It is not offerre, to offer it to them whom he did intend it to, but he came really and truly to save; It was not to show a land of promise to Moyses, & then say, there it is, but thou shalt never come at it; It was not to show us salvation, & then say there it is, in Baptism it is, in Preaching, and in the other Sacrament, it is; but soft, there is a Decree of predestination against thee, and thou shalt have none of it; But venit salvare, He came to save; And whom? Sinners. Those, who the more they ackowledg themselves to be so, the nearer they are to this salvation.

First then for the Advent, this comming of Christ, we have a Rule reasonable general in the school, Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio, Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent, or to come, when they work in any place, or in any person in another manner or measure then they did before; yet that Rule doth not reach home, to the expressing of all commings of the persons of the Trinity: The second person came more pretentially then so, more then in an extraordinary working and Energy, and execution of his power, if it be rightly apprehended by those Fathers, who in many of those Angels which appeared to the Patriarcks, and whose service God used in delivering Israel out of Egypt, and in giving them the Law in Sinai, to be the son of God himself to have been present, and many things to have been attributed to the Angels in those histories, which were done by the son of God, not only working, but present in that place, at that time. So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially then so, more then by an extraordinary extension of his power, when he came presentially and personally in the Dove, to seal Johns Baptism upon Christ. But yet, though those pretential commings of Christ as an Angel in the old Testament, and this comming of the Holy Ghost in a Dove in the New, were more then ordinary commings, and more then extraordinary workings too, yet they were all far short of this comming of the son of God in this Text: for it could never be said properly in any of those cases, That that or that Angel, was the son of God, the second person, or that that Dove was the Holy Ghost, or the third person of the Trinity; but in this Advent, which we have in hand here, it is truly and properly said, this man is God, this son of Mary is the son of God, this Carpenters son, is that very God that made the world. He came so to us, as that he became us, not only by a new and more powerful working in us, but by assuming our nature upon himself.

It is a perplex't question in the School, (and truly the Balance in those of the middle age, very even) whether if Adam had not sinned, the son of God had come into the world, and taken our nature and our flesh upon him. Out of the infinite testimonies of the abundant love of God to man many concluded, that howsoever, though Adam had not sinned, God would have dignified the nature of man in the highest degree, that that nature was any ways capable off: and since it appears now, (because that hath been done) that the nature of man was capable of such assuming, by the Son of God, they argue, that God would have done this though Adam had not sinned. He had not come, say they, ut medicus, if man had not contracted that infections sickness by Adams sin; Christ had not come in the nature of a Physician, to recover him; non ut Redemptor say they, If man had not forfeited his interest and state in heaven by Adams sin; Christ had not come in the nature of a Redeemer, but ut frater, ut Dominus, ad nobilitandum genus humanus, out of a brotherly love, and out of a royal favor, to exalt that nature which he did love, to impart and convey to us a greater and nobler state, then we had in our Creation: in such a respect, and to such a purpose, he should have come. But since they themselves who follow that opinion come to say, That that is the more subtle opinion, and the more agreable to mans reason, (because man willingly embraces, and pursues any thing that conduces to the dignifying of his own nature) but that the other opinion, that Christ had not come, if our sins had not occasioned his comming, is magis conformis scripturis & magis honorat Deum, is more agreable to the Scriptures, and derives more honor upon God: we cannot err, if we keep with the Scriptures, and in the way that leads to Gods glory, and so say with St. August. Si homo non periisset, filius hominis non venisset, If man could have been saved otherwise, the son of God had not come in this manner: ot if that may be interpreted of his comming to suffer only, we may enlarge it with Leo, Creatura non fieret qui Creator mundi, He who was Creator of the world, had never become a Creature in the world, if our sins had not drawn him to it. It is usefully said by Aquinus, Deus ordinavit futura, ut futura erant: God hath appointed all future things to be, but to be so as they are, that is, necessary things necessarily, and contingent things contingently; absolute things absolutely, and conditional things conditionally; He hath decreed my salvation, but that salvation in Christ; He had decreed Christs comming into this world, but a comming to save sinners. And therefore it is a frivolous interogatory, a lost question, an impertinent article, to enquire what God would have done if Adam had stood. But Adam is fallen, and we in him; and therefore though we may piously wish what St. Augustine, utinam non fuisset miseria ne iste misericordia esset necessaria, I would man had not been so miserable, as to put God to this way of mercy; yet since our sins had induced this misery upon us, and this necessity (if we may so say) upon God, let us change all our disputation into thanksgiving, and all our utrums, and quaeres, and quando's of the school, to the Benedictus, and Alelujahs and Osanna's of the Church; Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited and redeemed his people; blessed that he would come at all, which was our first, and blessed that he is come already, which is our second consideration; venit, He came, He is come.

As in the former branch the Gentiles the Heathens are our adversaries, they deny the venit, that a Messiah is to come at all; so in this, the Jews are our enemies, they confess the veniet, a future comming, but they deny the venit that this Messiah come yet. In that language in which God spoke to man there is such assurance intimated, that whatsoever God promises shall be performed; that in that language ordinarily in the Prophets, the times are confounded, and when God is intended to purpose or to promise any thing in the future, it is very often expressed in the time past; that which God means to do, he is said to have done; future, and present, and past is all one with God: But yet to man it is much more, that Christ is come, then that he would come; not but that they who apprehended faithfully his future comming, had the same salvation as we, but they could not so easily apprehend it as we: God did not present so many handles to take hold of him in that promise, that he would come, as in the performance, that he was come. They had most of these handles that lived with him, and saw him, and heard him; but we that come after, have more then they which were before them, we have more in the history then they had in the Prophets.

It was time for him to come in the beginning of the world, for the Devil was a murderer from the beginning. As the Devil was felo de se, a murderer of himself; as he killed himself Christ gave him over; he never came to him in that line, he never pardoned him that sin: but as he practised upon man, Christ met with him from the beginning: He saved us from his killing, by dying himself for us; for being dead, & having taken us into his wounds, and being risen, and having taken us into his glory; if we be dead in Christ already, the Devil cannot kill us, if we be risen in Christ the Devil cannot hold us: And so he was Agnus occisus ab origin mundi, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, that is, as soon as the world had any beginning in the purpose of God. God saw from all eternity that man would need Christ, and as soon as there was conceived an ego occido, I will kill, in the Devils mouth, then was an ego vivificabo, I will raise from death in Gods mouth; and so, there was an early comming from all eternity; for he is the Ruler of Israel, says the Prophet, and his goings forth have been from the beginning, and from everlasting: it is goings in the plural; Christ hath divers goings forth, divers commings, & all from the beginning; not only from Moses his In principio, which was the beginning of the Creation, (for then also Christ came in the promise of a Messiah) but from St. Johns In principio, that beginning which was without beginning, the eternal beginning, for there Christ came in that eternal decree, that he should come. Neither is this only as he is Germen Jehovae, the bud of Jehovah, issuing from him as his eternal Son, but as the Prophet Michaeas says in that place, cited before, it is, as he shall come out of Bethlem, and as he shall be a Ruler of Israel: so as he came in our humane nature, as he came to dye for us, as he came to establish a Church, so his comming is from all eternity for all this was wrapped up in a decree of his coming: And therefore we are not carried upon the consideration of any decree, or if any means of salvation higher or precedent to the comming of Christ, for that were to antedate eternity it self.

So then this coming in the Text, is the execution of that coming in the decree, which is involved in St. Johns In principio, and it is the performance of it coming, which was enwrapped in the promise, in Moses In principio, it is his actual coming in our flesh: that coming of which Christ said in St. Luke many Prophets and Kings; and in St. Matth. many Prophets and righteous men, desired to see these things which you see, and have not seen them: the prophets who in their very name were videntes, seen, saw not this comining thus; your Father Abraham, rejoiced to see my day saith Christ, and he saw it, and was glad. All times and all Generations before time was were Christs day; but yet he calls this coming in the flesh especially his day, because this day was a holy Equinoctial, and made the day of the Jews and the day of the Gentiles equal; and Testamenta copulat, says St. Chrisostome, it binds up the two Testaments into one Bible; for if the Partriarks had not desired to see this day, and had not seen it in the strength of faith, they and we had not been of one communion. We have a most sure word of the Prophet, says the Apostle, and to that we do well that we take heed; but how far? As unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. But now since this coming, This light hath appeared, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show it unto you. Simon had an assurance in the Prophets, and more immediately then so in the vision; but herein was his assurance and his peace established, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. The kingdom of Heaven was but a reversion to them, and it is no more to us; but to them it was a reversion, as after a Grandfather, and father; two lives, two comings of Christ before they would come to their state; Christ must come first in the flesh, and he must come again to Judgment. To us, and in our case one of these lives is spent; Christ is come in the flesh: and therefore as the earth is warmer an hour after the sun sets, then it was an hour before the sun rose, so let our faith and zeal be warmer now after Christ departing out of this world, then theirs was before his coming into it: and let us so rejoice at this Ecce venit Rex tuus, that our King our Missias is already come, as that we may cherefully say, veni Domine Jesu, come Lord Jesu come quickly, and be glad if at the going out of these dors, we might meet him coming in the clouds.

Thus far then he hath proceeded already, venit He came, and venit in mundum, He came into the world; it is not in mundam, into so clean a woman as had no sin at all, none contracted from her Parents, no original sin; for so Christ had placed his favours and his honors ill, if he had favoured her most who had no need of him: to dye for all the world, and not for his mother, or to dye for her, when she needed not that hell, is a strange imagination: she was not without sin; for then why should she have died? for even a natural death in all that come by natural generation, is of sin: But certainly as she was a vessel reserved to receive Christ Jesus, so she was preserved according to the best capacity of that nature, from great and infections sins. Mary Magdalen was a holy vessel after Christ had thrown the Divel out of her; the Virgin Mary was much more so, into whom no reigning power of the Devil ever entered; in such an acceptation then Christ came per mundam in mundum, by a clean woman into an unclean world. And he came in a purpose, as we do piously believe) to manifest himself in the Christian Religion to all the nations of the world; and therefore, laetentur Insulae, says David, The Lord reigneth let the Island rejoice the Island who by reason of their situation, provision and trading, have most means of conveying Christ Jesus over the world. He hath carried us up to heaven & set us at the right hand of God, & shall not we endeavor to carry him to those nations, who have not yet heard of his name? shall we still brag that we have brought our clothes, and our hatchets, and our knives, and bread to this and this value and estimation amongst those poor ignorant Souls, and shall we never glory that we have brought the name, and Religion of Christ Jesus in estimation amongst them? shall we stay till other nations have planted a falls Christ among them? and then either continue in our sloth, or take more pains in rooting out a false Christ then would have planted the true? Christ is come into the world; we will do little, if we will not ferry him over, and propagate his name, as well as our own to other Nations.

At least be sure that he is so far come into the world, as that he become into thee. Thou art but a little world, a world but of a few spanns in length; and yet Christ was sooner carried from east to west, from Jerusalem to these parts, then thou canst carry him over the faculties of thy Soul and Body; He hath been in a pilgrimage towards thee long, coming towards thee, perchance 50, perchance 60 years; and how far is he got into thee yet? Is he yet come to thine eye? Have they made Jobs Covenant, that they will not look upon a Maid; yet he is not come into thine ear? still thou hast an itching ear, delighting in the libellous defamation of other men. Is he come to thine ear? Art thou rectified in that sense? yet voluptousness in thy taste, or inordinateness in thy other senses keep him out in those. He is come into thy mouth, to thy tongue; but he is come thither as a diseased person, is taken into a spittle to have his blood drawn, to have his flesh cauterized, to have his bones sawed; Christ Jesus is in thy mouth, but in such exrecations, in such blasphemies, as would he Earthquaks to us if we were earth; but we are all stones, and rock, obdurate in a senselesnes of those wounds which are inflicted upon our God. He may be come to the skirts, to the borders, to an outward show in thine actions, and yet not be come into the land, into thy heart. He entered into thee, at baptism; He hath crept farther and farther into thee, in catechisms and other infusions of his doctrine into thee; He hath pierced into thee deeper by the powerful threatnings of his Judgments, in the mouths of his messengers; He hath made some survey over thee, in bringing thee to call thy self to an account of some sinful actions; and yet Christ is not come into thee; either thou makest some new discoveries, and fallest into some new ways of sin; and art loth that Christ should come thither yet, that he should trouble thy conscience in that sin, till thou hadst made some convenient profit of it; thou hast studied and must gain, thou hast bought and must sell, and therefore art loth to be troubled yet; or else thou hast some land in thee, which thou thy self hast never discovered, some ways of sin which thou hast never apprehended, nor considered to be sin; and thither Christ is not come yet: He is not come into thee with that comfort which belongs to his coming in this Text, except he had overshadowed thee all, and be in thee entirely.

We have done with his coming; we come next to the person; in which we consider first, that he was capable of this great employment to reconcile God to man, as he was a mixed person of God and man; and then, that he had a Commission for this service, as he was Christus, anointed, seald to that office; and then, that he did actually execute this commission, as he was Jesus. Now when we consider his capacity & fitness, to save the would this capacity & fitness must have relation to that way, which God had chosen; which was by Justice. For God could have saved the world by his word, as well as he had made it so. Adetur venia now had bin as easy to him, as a fiat lux at the beginning; a general pardon & a light of grace, as easy as the spreading of the light of nature. but God having purposed to himself the way of Justice, then could none be capable of that Employment but a mixed person; for God could not dye, nor man could not satisfy by death; & both these were required in the way of Justice, a satisfaction that by death. Now as this unexpressible mixture & union of God & man made him capable of this employment, so he had a particular Commission for it, employed in the same name too; for every capable person is not always employed; & this was his unction as he is Christus, anointed, severd, sealed for that purpose, for that office. Now whether this unction, that is, this power, to satisfy Gods Justice for all the sins of all mankind, were ex ratione sua formali intrinsica, that is, whether the merit of Christ were therefore infinite in it self, because an infinite Godhead resided in his person, or whether this power and ability by one act, to satisfy for all sins arose ex pacto & acceptatione, by the contract they had past between the Father and Him, that it was so because it was covenanted between them that it should be so; this hath divided the School into that great opposition which is well known by the name of Thomist and Scottish. The safest way is to place it in pacto, in the contract, in the covenant; for if we place it absolutely in the person, and cause the infiniteness of the merit from that, then any act of that person, the very incarnation it self had been enough to save us; but his unction, his Commission was to proceed thus & thus, and no otherwise then be did in the work of our Redemption. His unction was his qualification; He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, else the season of his enduring the cross, could nor have been joy: He was anointed liberally by that woman, when he himself was sold for 30 pieces of silver, beyond the value of 300 pieces in ointment upon him: He was honorably embalmed by Joseph, and Nicodemus, who brought an 100 pound weight of Myrrhe and Aloes to bury him: every way anointed more then others, by others. All his garment smell of Myrrhe, and Aloes, and Cassia, as it is in the Canticles; even in the garments of Religion, the Ceremonies of the Church, there is a sweet savor of life: Oleum effusum nomen ejus, even in the outward profession of the name of Christ there is a savor of life, an assistance to salvation; for even in taking upon us this name Christ, we acknowledg, both that he was able to reconcile, and sent purposely to reconcile God and man.

But then, the strength of our consolation lies in the other name; as he was Jesus, actually he executed that Commission, to which, as he was Christ he was fitted and anointed. Now this is a name, which though the Greeks have translated it into soter, yet the great Master of Latin language, Cicero, professes that there is no word, which expresses it; and that great Minter of Latin words Tertullian doth so often call by the name of salutificator: for Jesus is so; not only a bringer, an applier, a worker of our salvation, but he is the author of the very decree of our salvation, as well as of the execution of that Decree: there was no salvation before him, there was no salvation intended in the book of Life, but in him; yea, no Grammarian can clear it, whether this name Jesus signify salvatorem or salutem, the Instrument that saves us, or the salvation that is afforded us; for it is not only his person, but it is his very righteousness that saves us. It was therefore upon that ground that this name was given him, thou shalt call his name Jesus, says the Angel at his conception: why? for he shall save his people from their sins: not only that he shall be able to do it, nor only that he shall be sent to do it: so far he is but Christus a mixed person, and an anointed person; but he shall actually do it, and so he is Jesus. Names of children are not always answered in their manners, and in the effects: Non omnes Joannes qui vocantur Joannes, says St. Chrisost. every nominal John is not a real John: Absolons name was Patris pax, his Fathers peace, but he was his Fathers affliction; but the name of Jesus had the effect, He was called a Savior, and he was one.

It may seem strange that when St. Matthew says, That Mary was to bring forth a child and call his name Jesus, He says also that this was done that the Prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled, who said, That a virgin shall bring forth a child, & who shallbe called Emanuel; to fulfil a prophecy, of being called Emanuel, he must be called Jesus. Indeed, to be Jesus is a fulfilling of his being Emanuel: Emanuel is God with us, a mixed person, God and man; but Jesus is a Savior the performer of that salvation, which only he who was God and man could accomplish. He was Emanuel, as soon as he was conceived, but not Jesus till he began to submit himself to the Law for us; which was first in his circumcision, when he took the name of, Jesus, and began to shed some drops of blood for us. The name of Jesus was no new name when he took it; we find some of that name in the Scriptures, and in Josephus, we find one officer, that was his enemy, and another a great robber, who lighted upon Josephus more then once, of that name and yet the Prophet Isaiah says of Christ, (& St. Cyril. interprets those words of this particular man Jesus) thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name: And how was this a new name, by which so many had been called before? The newness was not in that, that none other had had that name, but that the Son of God, had not that name, till he began to execute the office of a Savior. He was called Germen Jehovae, the bud of Jehova, before; and he was called the Counselor, and the wonderful, and the Prince of peace, by the same Prophet. But it is the observation of Origen, and of Lactantius after, (and it appears in the text it self) That Moses never calls Oshea the son of Nun, Joshuah, (which is the very name of Jesus) till he was made General, to deliver and save his people, so what names soever were attributo the Son of God before; the name of Jesus was a new name, to him then, when he began the work of salvation in his circumcision. Take hold therefore of his name Emanuel, as God is with us, as there is a person fit to reconcile God and man; and take hold of him as he is Christus, a person sealed and anointed for that reconciliation: But above all, be sure of thy hold upon the name Jesus thy Savior. This was his name, when he was carried to the Altar to circumcision, and this was his name when he carried his Altar the Cross; this was his stile there, Jesus Nazarenus, Jesus of Nazareth: and in the virtue of that name, he shall give thee a circumcised heart, and circumcised lips in the course of thy life; and in the virtue of that name he shall give thee a joyful consummatum est, when thou comest to finish all upon thy last Altar, thy death-bed.

Now from this consideration of the person, so far as arose out of his several names, we pass to his action, He was able to redeem man, He was sent to redeem man, He did redeem man; How? Servavit, He came to save. And here also is that word, which as we said before, is above expressing; for the word which we content our selves with, To save, implies but a preserving from falling into ruin; but we were absolutely fal'n before. The word signifies salutem dare, medici, and it signifies salutem esse; and Christ is truly both, both the Physician and the Physic. But how is it ministered? we see his method is in St. Matth. veni vocare, I came to call: his way is a voice now, vocat non cogit; God doth but call us he does not constrain us, He does not drive us into a pound; He calls us as Birds do their young, and he would gather us as a Hen doth her Chickins. It is true there is a Trahit, but there is no cogit; no man comes to me, says Christ, except the Father draw him, But, non inviti trahimur, non inviti credimus, says St. Augustine, God draws no man against his will, no man believes in God against his will, non adhibitus violentia sed voluntas exitatur, says the same Father, God only excites and exalts our will, but he does not force it: He makes use of that of the Poet, Trahit sua quemque voluptas, our carnal desires draw us, but this drawing is not a constraining; for then we should not be commanded to resist them, nor to fight against them, for no man will bid me do so against a Cannon bullet that comes with an inevitable, and irresistible violence now, habet sensus suas voluptates, & animus deseritur a suis? shall our carnal affections draw us, though they do not force us, and shall not Grace do the same office too? shall we still trust to such a power, or such a measure of that Grace, at last, as that we shall not be able to resist, but shall convert us whether we will or no, and never concur willingly with Gods present grace? Draw me, and I will run after thee, says the Spouse: she was called before, now she awakens; and she does not say draw me, and so I shall be screwd up unto thee, and lay all upon the force of grace, but draw me and I will run; she promises an application and concurrence on her part. So then venit salvare, is venit vocare, He came to save by calling us, as an eloquent and a persuasive man draws his Auditory, but yet imprints no necessity upon the faculty of the will; so works Gods calling of us in his word. God expresses it fully in the Prophet, I sought Ephraim to go,; we are not able to go, to rise, to move without him; But how did he teach him? I took them by their arms; God made use of their faculties, which faculties are the limbs of the Soul: so he enlightened their understanding, and he rectified their will; but still their underding, and their will I draw them says God their; But how, and with what? With cords of man says he, and with bands of love; with the cords of man, the voice of the Minister, and the power which Gods Ordinance hath infused into that, and with the band of love, that is, of the Gospel so proposed unto us: and as it is added there, I took off the yoke from their jaws, and I laid meat before them: God takes off our yoke, the weight of our sins, and the indisposition of our natural infirmities, and he lays meat before us, the Word and the Sacraments in his Church. So that his venit salvare, is venit solvere; solvere, that is, to pay our debt, in his death, and solvere, that is, to untie our bands, and by his grace to make our natural faculties, formerly bound up in a corrupt inhability, to do so, now able to concur with him, and cooperate to good actions. He prepared and he prescribed this physic for man, when he was upon earth; etiam cum occideretur medicus erat, then when he died, he became our physician; medici sanguinem fundunt, ille de ipso sanguine medicamenta facit: other Physicians draw our blood, He makes physic of blood, and of his own blood. So he came to save, in preparing and prescribing, and he came to save in applying, when by the preaching of his word, Joseph who is in the well, and Jeremiah who is in the Dungeon, do as much as they can, for the tying and fitting of that rope which is offered and let down to them, to draw them. God saves us by a calling, and he saves us by drawing; but he calls them that hearken to him, and he draws them that follow upon his drawing; He saves us who acknowledg that we could not be saved without him, and desire, and that with a faithful assurance to be saved by him; which is that which is intended in the next word, peccatores, he came to savesinners.

He came not to call the righteous, but sinners: Is that intended of all effectually? all have sinned, and all are deprived of the glory of God; But sinners here are those sinners, who ackowledg themselves to be sinners; for says he, I came to call them to repentance: and thats the meaning of that exclusion of the righteous; He came not to call the Righteous; not to call them who call themselves Righteous, and thought themselves so, but sinners; not all whom he knew to be sinners, but all who would be brought to know themselves to be so. Them he came to call by the power of Miracles when he lived upon earth, and them he stays to call by the power of his word, now he is ascended into heaven; for as a furnace needs not the same measure and proportion of fire to keep it boiling, as it did to heat it; but yet it doth need the same fire, that is, fire of the same nature, (for the heat of the Sun will not keep it boiling how hot soever,) so the Church of God needs not miracles now it is established; but still there is the same fire, the working of the same spirit to save sinners: for that was the end of miracles, and it is the end of preaching, to make men capable of salvation by acknowledging themselves to be sinners. And this hath brought us to the last part of this text, that which at first we called the fruit of the Gospel, Humility.

This brought St. Paul to be of that Quorum, Quorum ego maximus, not only to discern and confess himself to be a sinner, but the cheifest and greatest sinner of all. Nihil humilitate sublimius; it is excellently, but strangely said by St. Jerome; He might rather and more credibly have used any word then that: He might have been easily believed if he had said, nihil sapientius, there is no wiser thing then humility, for he that is low in his own, shall be high in the eyes of others; and to have said nihil perfective, there is not so direct a way to perfection as humility: But nihil sublimius, must needs seem strangely said, there is nothing higher then lowness; no such exaltation as dejection; no such revenge as patience; and yet all this is truly and safely said, with that limitation which St. Jerome gives it there, apud Deum, in the sight of God, there is no such exaltation as humiliation. We must not coast and cross the nearest way, and so think to meet Christ in his end, which was glory, but we must go after him in all his steps, in the way of humiliation; for Christs very descent was a degree of exaltation; and by that name he called his crucifying a lifting up, an exaltation. The Doctrine of this world goes for the most part otherwise; here we say, lay hold, upon something, get up one step; in all want of sufficiency, in all defection of friends, in all changes, yet the place which you hold which raise you to better. In the way to heaven, the lower you go, the nearer the highest and best end you are. Duo nobis necessaria says St. August. Ut cognoscamus quales ad malum, quales ad bonum: There are but two things necessary to us to know, how ill we are, and how good we may be; where nature hath left us, and whether Grace would carry us. And Abraham, (says that Father.) expresses this two fold knowledge, when he said to God, Loquar ad Dominum, qui pulvis sum & cinis, I know I am but dust and ashes, says Abraham, and there is his first knowledge Qualis ad molum, how ill a condition naturally he is in: but then, Loquar ad Dominum, for all this, though I be but dust and ashes, I have access to my God, and may speak to him; there's his improvement and his dignity. Vere pulvis omnis homo; says he; truly every man is truly dust; for as dust is blown from one to another corner by the wind, and lies dead there till another wind remove it from that corners; so are we hurried from sin to sin, and have no motion in our selves, but as a new sin imprints it in us: so vere pulvis, for our disposition to evil we are truly dust; and vere cinis, we are truly dry ashes; for ashes produceth no seed of it self, nor gives growth to any seed that is cast into it; so we have no good in us naturally, neither can we nourish any good that is insused by God into us, except the same Grace that sowed it; water it, and weed it, and cherish it, and so ment it after. To know that we have no strength of our selves, and to know that we can lack none if we ask it of God, these are St. Augustines two Arts and Sciences, and this is the humility of the Gospel in general.

To come to St. Paul's more particular expressing of his humility here, Quorum ego primus, of which sinners I am the cheifest, as it is true veritas non nititur mendatio, no truth needs the support or assistance of any lie; a man must not bely himself, nor accuse himself against his own conscience, so also, Humilitas non nititur stupiditati, An undiscerning stupidity is not humility, for humility it self implies and requires discretion, for humiliation is not precipitation when the Devil inticed the Jesuit at his midnight studies, and the Jesuit rose and offered him his chair, because howsoever he were a Devil, yet he was his better; this was no regulated humility: and therefore this which St. Paul says of himself, that he was the greatest sinner was true in his own heart, and true in a convenient sense, and so neither falsely nor inconsiderately spoken. How then was this true? As there is nothing so fantastical and so absurd, but that some Heretics have held it Dogmatically; so Aquinas notes here, that there were Heretics that held, that the very soul of Adam was by a long circuit and transmigration come at last into Paul, and so Paul was the same man (in his principal part, in the soul) as Adam was; and in that sense it was literally true that he said, he was primus peccatorum the first of all sinners, because he was the first man Adam: but this is an heretical fancy,a Pythagorean bubble. Great Divines have referred this Quorum ad salvandos, that Christ came to save sinners; of which sinners that are saved say they, S. Paul acknowledges himself to be the greatest; not the greatest sinner in the world, but the greatest of them upon whom the grace of God hath wrought effectually. St. Augustines interpretation is for one half thereof, for the negative part sake; primus says he, non tempore; He says he was the first sinner, but he does not mean the first that sinned, the first in time; but then for the affirmative part, which follows in Augustine, that he was primus malignitate, the first, the highest, the greatest sinner, why should we, or how can we charge the Apostle so heavily? Beloved, to maintain the truth of this which St. Paul says, we need not say that it was materially true, that it was indeed so; it is enough to defend it from falsehood, that it was formally true, that is, that it appeard to him to be true, and not out of a sudden and stupid inconsideration but deliberately: First, he respected his own natural disposition, and proclivity to great sins, and out of that evidence condemned himself: As when a man who professed an art of judging the disposition of a man by his face, had pronounced of Socrates, (whose virtue all the world admired) that he was the most incontinent and licentious man, the greatest thief and extortioner of any man in the world; the people despised and scorned the Physiognomer and his art, and were ready to offer violence unto him: Socrates himself corrected their distemper again, and said, It is true that he says, & his Judgment is well grounded, for by nature no man is more inclined to these vices then I am. And this disposition to the greatest sins, St. Paul knew in himself. He that hath these natural dispositions is likely to be the greatest sinner, except he have some strong assistance to restrain him: and then, he that hath the offer of such helps, and abuses them, is in a farther step of being the greatest sinner: And this also St. Paul had respect to now, that he had had a good and learned education, a good understanding of the law and the Prophets, a good mortification, by being of the strict sect of the Pharisees; and yet he had turned all the wrong way, and was therefore in this abuse of these manifold graces the greater sinner. He looked farther then into his own nature, or into his resistance of asistances; he looked into those actions which these had produced in him, and there he saw his breathing of threatnings and slaugher against the Disciples of the Lord, his hunger and thirst of christian blood: and so says St. Augustine, Nemo acrior inter persecutores, ergo nemo prior inter peccatores, as he found himself the greatest persecutor, so he condemns himself for the greatest sinner. But all these natural dispositions to great sins, negliences, of helps offered, sinful actions produced out of these two, might be greater in many others, then in St. Paul; & it is likely, & it may be certain to us, that they were so; but it was not certain to him, he knew not so much ill by any other man, as by himself. Consider those words in the Proverbs, Surely I am more foolish then any man, and have not the understanding of a man in me: for though they be not the words of Solomon, yet they are the words of a Prophet, and a Prophet who surely was not really more foolish then any man, then in consideration of something which he found in himself, says so: he that considers himself, shall find such degrees of sin, as that he cannot see than any man hath gone lower: Or if he have in some particular and notorious sin, yet in quovis alio, quid occultum esse potest; quo nobis superior sit: He that is fallen lower then thus in some sin, yet may be above thee in Grace; he may have done a greater sin, & yet not be the greater sinner: another hath killed a man, and thou hast not; thon mayst have drawn and drunk the blood of many by usury, by extortion, by oppression. Another in fury of intemperance, hath ravished and thou hast not; thou mayst have corrupted many by thy deceitful solicitations; and then in thy self art as ill as the ravisher, and thou hast made them worse whom thou hast corrupted. Cast up thine own account, Inventary thine own goods; for sin is the wrath of the sinner, and he treasures up the wrath of God) reckon thine own sins, and thou wilt find thy self rich in that wealth, and find thy self of that Quorum, that the highest place in that company and mystery of sinners belongs to thee.

St. Paul does so here; yea then, when he saw his own case, and saw it by the light of the spirit of God; when he took knowledge that Christ was come, and had saved sinners, had saved him; yet still he says sum primus, still he remains in his accusation of himself that he was still the greatest sinner, because he remained still in his infirmity, and aptness to relapse into former sins. As long as we are, we are subject to be worse then we are; and those sins which we apprehend even with horror and amazement, when we hear that others have done them, we may come to do them with an earnestness, with a delight, with a defence, with a glory, if God leaves us to our selves. As long as that is true of us, sum prmus homo, I am no better then the first man, then Adam was, (and none of us are in any proportion so good) that is true also, Quorum primus sum ego, I am still in a slippery state, and in an evident danger of being the greatest sinner. This is the conclusion for every humble christian, no man is a greater sinner then I was, and I am not sure but that I may fall to be worse then ever I was, except I husband and employ the Talents of Gods Graces better then I have done.

A Sermon Preached at White-hall. Serm. 15. February 29. 1627. Sermon XV.

Acts 7.60.

And when he had said this, he fell a sleep.

HE that will dy with Christ upon Good-Friday, must hear his own bell toll all Lent; he that will be partaker of his passion at last, must conform himself to his discipline of prayer & fasting before. Is there any man, that in his chamber hears a bell toll for another man, and does not kneel down to pray for that dying man? and then when his charity breaths out upon another man, does he not also reflect upon himself, and dispose himself as if he were in the state of that dying man? We begin to hear Christs bell toll now, and is not our bell in the chime? We must be in his grave, before we come to his resurrection, and we must be in his death-bed before we come to his grave: we must do as he did, fast and pray, before we can say as he said, that In manus tuas, Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit. You would not go into a Medicinal Bath without some preparatives; presume not upon that Bath, the blood of Christ Jesus, in the Sacrament then, without preparatives neither. Neither say to your selves, we shall have preparatives enough, warnings enough, many more Sermons before it come to that, and so it is too soon yet; you are not sure you shall have more; not sure you shall have all this; not sure you shall be affected with any. If you be, when you are, remember that as in that good Custom in these Cities, you hear cheerful street music in the winter mornings, but yet there was a sad and doleful bel-man, that waked you, and called upon you two or three hours before that music came; so for all that blessed music which the servants of God shall present to you in this place, it may be of use, that a poor bell-man waked you before, and though but by his noise, prepared you for their music. And for this early office I take Christs earliest witness, his Proto-Martyr, his first witness St. Stephen, and in him that which especially made him his witness, and our example, his his death, and our preparation to death, what he suffered, what he did, what he said, so far as is knit up in those words, When he had said this, he fell a sleep.

From which example, I humbly offer to you these two general considerations; first, that every man is bound to do something before he dye; and then to that man who hath done those things which the duties of his calling bind him to, death is but a sleep. In the first, we shall stop upon each of those steps; first there is a sis aliquid, every man is bound to be something, to take some calling upon him. Secondly there is a hoc age; every man is bound to do seriously and scedulously, and sincerely the duties of that calling. And Thirdly there is a sis aliquis; the better to perform those duties, every man shall do well to propose to himself some person, some pattern, some example whom he will follow and imitate in that calling. In which third branch of this first part we shall have just occasion to consider some particulars in him who is here proposed for our Example, St. Stephen; and in these three, sis aliquid, be something, profess something; and then hoc age, do truly the duties of that profession; and lastly, sis aliquis, propose some good man, in that profession to to follow, and in the things intended in this text, propose St. Stephen, we shall determine our first part. And in the other we shall see that to them that do not this, that do not settle their consciences so, death is a bloody conflict, and no victory at last, a tempestuous sea, and do harbor at last, a slippery height, and no footing, a desperate fall and no bottom. But then to them that have done it, their pill is gilded, and the body of the pill honey too; mors lucrum, death is a gain, a treasure, and this treasure brought some in a calm too; they do not only go to heaven by death, but heaven comes to them in death; their very manner of dying is an inchoative act of their glorified state: therefore it is not called a dying but asseeping; which one metaphor intimates two blessings, that because it is a sleep it gives a present rest, and because it is a sleep, it promises a future waking in the resurrection.

First, Then for our first branch of our first part, we begin with our beginning, our birth; man is born to trouble; so we read it, to trouble. The original is a little milder then so; yet there it is, Man is born unto labor, God never meant less then labor to any man. Put us upon that which we esteem the honorablest of labors, the duties of martial discipline, yet where it is said, that man is appointed to a warfare upon earth, it is seconded with that, His days are like the days of an hireling. How honorable soever his station be, he must do his days labor in the day, the duties of the place in the place. How far is he from doing so, that never so much as considers why he was sent into this world; who is so sar from having done his errand here, that he knows not, considers not what his errand was; nay knows not, considers not, whether he had any errand hither or no. But as though that God, who for infinite millions of millions of generations, before any creation, any world, contented himself with himself, satisfied, delighted himself with himself in heaven, without any creatures, yet at last did bestow six days labor upon the Creation & accommodation of man, as though that God who when man was soured in the whole lump, poisoned in the fountain, perished at the chore, withered in the root, in the fall of Adam, would them in that dejection; that exainantion, that evacuation of the dignity of man, and not in his sormer better estate, engage his own Son, his only, his beloved Son, to become man by a temporary life, and then to become no man by a violent, and yet a voluntary death; as though that God who he was pleased to come to a creation, might yet have left thee where thou wast before, amongst privations, a nothing; or if he would have made thee something, a creature, yet he might have shut thee up in the closs prison of a bare being and no more, without life or sense, as he hath done earth and stones; or if he would have given thee life and sense, he might have left thee a toad, without the comeliness of shape, without that reasonable and immortal Soul, which makes thee a man; or if he had made thee a man, yet he might have lost thee upon the common amongst the Heathen, and not have taken thee into his enclosures, by giving the a particular form of religion; or if he would have given thee a religion, He might have left thee a Jew; or if he would have given thee Christianity, He might have left thee a Papist, as though this God who had done so much more for thee, by breeding thee in a true Church, had done all this for nothing; thou pussest through this world as a flash, as a lightning or which no man knows the beginning or the ending, as an ignis fatuus in the air, which does not only not give light for any use, but does not so much as portend or signify any thing; and thou passest out of the world, as a hand passes out of a bason, or a body out of a bath, where the water may be the fouler for thy having washed in it, else the water retains no impression of thy hand or body, so the world may be the worse for thy having lived in it, else the world retains no marks of thy having been there. When God placed Adam in the world, God enjoined Adam to fill the world, to subdue the world, and to rule the world; when God placed him in Paradise, He commanded him to dress Paradise, and to keep Paradise; when God placed him children in the land of promise, he enjoined them to fight his battles against Idolatry, and to destroy Idolators; to every body some errand, some task for his glory; and thou commest from him into this world, as though he had said nothing to thee at parting, but go and do as thou shalt see cause, go and do as thou seest other men do, and serve me so far, and save thine own Soul so far, as the times, and the places, and the persons, with whom thou doest converse, will conveniently admit. Gods way is positive, and thine is privative: God made every thing something, and thou mak'st the best of things, man, nothing; and because thou canst not annihilate the world altogether, as though thou hadst God at an advantage, in having made an abridgment of the world in man, there in that abridgment thou wilt undermine him, and make man, man, as far as thou canst, man in thy self nothing. He that qualifies himself for nothing, does so; He whom we can call nothing, is nothing: this whole world is one entire creature, one body; and he that is nothing may be excremental nails, to scratch and gripe others, he may be excremental hairs for ornament, or pleasurableness of meeting; but he is no limb of this entire body, no part of Gods universal creature, the world. Gods own name is I am: Being, is Gods name, and nothing, is so contrary to God as to be nothing. Be something, or else thou canst do nothing; and till thou have said this, says our text, that is, done something in a lawful calling, thou canst not sleep Stephens sleep, not die in peace. Sis aliquid, propose something, determine thy self upon somehing, be, profess something, that was our first; and then our second consideration is, hoc age, do seriously, do scedulously, do sincerely the duties of that calling.

He that stands in a place and does not the duty of that place, is but a statue in that place; and but a statue without an inscription; Posterity shall not know him, nor read who he was. In nature the body frames and forms the place; for the place of the natural body is that proxima arcis superficies, that inward superficies of the air, that invests and clothes, and apparals that body, and obeys, and follows, and succeeds to the dimensions thereof. In naturet he body makes the place, but in grace the place makes the body: The person must actuate it self, dilate, extend and propagate it self according to the dimensions of the place, by filling it in the execution of the duties of it. Pliny delivers us the history of al the great Masters in the art of painting: He tells us who began with the extremities and the out lines at first, who induced colors after that, & who after super-induced shadows; who brought in Argutias vultus as he calls them, not only the countenance, but the meaning of the countenance, & all that so exquisitely, that (as he says there) Divinantes diem mortis dixerunt, Physiognomers would tell a mans fortune as well by the picture as by the life; he tells us, quis pinxit quae pingi non possunt, who first adventured to express inexpressible things; Tonitrua, perturbationes animas; they would paint thunder which was not to be seen, but heard: and affections, and the mind, the Soul which produced those affections. But for the most part he tells us all the way, in what places there remained some of their pieces to be seen, and copied in his time. This is still that that dignifies all their works, that they wrought so, as that posterity was not only delighted, but improved and bettered in that art by their works: For truly thats one great benefit that arises out of our doing the duties of our own places, in our own time, that as a perfume intended only for that room, where the entertainment is to be made breaths, upward and downward, and round about it; so the doing of the duties of the place, by men that move in middle Sphears, breath upwards and downwards, and about too, that is, cast a little shame upon inferiors if they do not so, and a little remembrance upon Superiors that they should do so, and a thanksgiving to Almighty God for them that do so: And so it is an improvement of the present, and an Instruction and a Catechism to future times. The duty in this Text is expressed and limited in speaking. Cum dixisset, When he had said this he fell a sleep, and truly so, literally so, in speaking, and no more, it stretches far: Many duties, in many great places consist in speaking; Ours do so: And therefore, when Vices abound in matter of Manners, and Schisms abound in matter of Opinions, Antequam dixerimus hoc, till we have said this, that is, that that belongeth to that duty, we cannot sleep Stephen's sleep, we cannot die in peace. The Judges duty lies much in this too, for he is bound not only to give a hearing to a Cause, but to give an End, a Judgement in the Cause too: And so, for all them whose duty lies in speaking, from him who is to counsel his friend, to him who is to counsel his Master in the family (for Job professes that he never refused the counsel of his Servant) Antequam dixerint, till they have said this, that is still, that that belongs to that duty, they cannot sleep Stephen's sleep, they cannot die in peace: and when we ascend to the consideration of higher Persons, they and we speak not one language, for our speaking is but speaking but with great Persons, Acta Apothegmata, their Apothegms are their Actions, and we hear their words in their deeds. God, whose Image and Name they bear does so: If we consider God; as a second Person in the Godhead, the Son of God, God of God, so God is Logos, Sermo, Verbum, Oratio; The Word, Saying, Speaking; But God considered primarily and in himself so, is Actus purus, all Action, all doing. In the Creation there is a Dixit in Gods mouth, still God says something; but evermore the Dixit is accompanied with a Fiat, Something was to be done, as well as said. The Apostles are Apostles in that capacity as they were sent to preach that's Speaking; But, when we come to see their proceeding, it is in Praxi, in the Acts of the Apostles. In those Persons whose duty lies in speaking, there is an Antequam dixerint; in those where it lies in Action, there is an Antequam fecerint; till that be said, and done, which belongs to their particular callings, they cannot sleep Stephen's sleep, they cannot die in peace; and therefore, Non dicas de Deo tuo gravis mihi est, say not of thy God, that he lies heavy upon thee, if he exact the duties of thy plaat thy hands; Nec dicas de loco tuo, inutilis mihi est, say not of thy place, that it is good for nothing, if thou must be put to do the duties of the place, in the place; for it is good for this, that when thou hast done that thou mayst sleep Stephen's sleep, die in Peace. Sis aliquid, Be something, that was our first, and then hoc age, do truly the duties of that place without pretermitting thine own, without intermedling with others, which was our second; and then our third consideration is, Sis aliquis, Be somebody, be like somebody, propose some good example in thy calling and profession to imitate.

It was the counsel of that great little Philosopher Epictetus, whensoever thou undertakest any action, to consider what a Socrates, or a Plato; what a good and a wise man would do in that Case, and to do conformably to that. One great Orator, Latinus Rufus, proposed to himself Cicero for his example, and Cicero propounded Demosthenes, and he Pericles, and Pericles Pisistratus; and so there was a concatenation, a genealogy, a pedigree of a good Orator; Habet unumquodque propositum principes suos: In every Calling, in every Profession, a man may find some exemplar, some leading men to follow. The King hath a Josiah, and the beggar hath a Job, and every man hath some: But here we must not pursue particulars, but propose to all, him whom our Text proposes, Saint Stephen; and in him we offer you first his name, Stephen. Stephen, Stephanos is a leading, an exemplar name, a Significative, a Prophetical, a Sacramental, a Catechistical name; a Name that carries much instruction with it. Our Countryman Bede takes it to be an Hebrew name, and it signifies (saith he) Normam vestram, Your Rule, Your Law: To obey the Law, to follow, to embrace the Law is an acceptable service to God, especially the invariable Law, the Law of God himself: But we are sure that this name Stephen, Stephanos signifies a Crown; to obey the Crown, to follow, to serve the Crown, is an acceptable service to God, especially the immarcessible Crown, the Crown of Glory. Nomen Omen; scarce any man hath a name, but that name is Legal and Historical to him: His very name remembers him of some rules, and laws of his actions; So his name is legal, and his name remembers him of some good men of the same name; and so his name is historical. Nomina Debita: In the old formularies of the Civil Law, if a man left so many names to his Executors, they were so many specialties for debts. Our Names are Debts, every man owes the world the signification of his name, and of all his names; every addition of honor, or of office, lays a new Debt, a new Obligation upon him; and his first name, his Christian-Name above all. For, when new names are given to men in the Scriptures, that doth not abolish or extinguish the old: Jacob was called Jacob after God had called him Israel; & Gideon Gideon after he was called Jerubaal and Simon when he was Peter too, was called Simon. Changes of Office and additions of Honor must not extinguish our Christian, Name; The duties of our Christianity, and our Religion must preponderate and weigh down the duties of all other places, and for all together. Saint Gregory presents us a good use of this diligence to answer our Names, Quo quis timet magis, ne quod dicitur non esset, eo plus quam dicitur erit; The more a man is afraid that he is not worthy of the name he bears, whether the name of office or his Christian-Name, the better Officer and the better Christian he will be for that fear, and that solicitude; and therefore it is an useful and an appliable Prayer for great Persons, which that Father makes in their behalf, Praesta, quaesumus Domine, ut quod in ore hominum sumus, in conspectu tuo esse valeamus: Grant, O Lord, that we may always be such in thine eyes, as we are in their tongues that depend upon us, and justify their acclamations with thy approbations. And so far Stephens name, as his name signifies the Law, and as his name signifies the reward of fulfilling the Law; a Crown hath carried us to the consideration of the duty of answering the signification of our names; But then there are other passages in his History and Actions that carries us farther.

First then we receive Saint Stephen to have been Saint Paul's kinsman in the flesh, and to have been his fellow pupill under Gamaliel, and to have been equal to him, at least in the foundations, in natural faculties, and in the super-edifications too, in learnings of acquisition and study; And then to have had this great advantage above him, That he applied himself as a Disciple to Christ before Saint Paul did; and in that profession became so eminent (for all the Sects, the Libertines themselves taking the liberty to dispute against him, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake) as that his Cousin Paul, then but Saul, envied him most, and promoved and assisted at his execution: For upon those words but two verses before our Text, That they that stoned Stephen, laid down their clothes at Saul's feet, Saint Augustine says, In manu omnium eum lapidavit, That it was Saul that stoned Stephen, though by the hands of other executioners. Men of the best extraction and families, Men of the best parts and faculties, Men of the best education and proficiencies, owe themselves to God by most obligations. Him that dies to day, God shall not only ask, where is that Soul? Is it as clean as I made it at first? No stayn of Sin? or is it as clean as I washed it in Baptism? No sting? No venom of original sin in it? Or is it as clean as I left it when we met last at the Sacrament? No guiltiness of actual sin in it? God shall not only ask this, Where is that Soul? Nor only ask where is that Body? Is it come back in that Virginal integrity in which I made it? Or is it no farther departed from that then Marriage, which I made for it, hath made it? Are those Maritales ineptiae (that we may put Luther's words into God's mouth) the worst that is fallen upon that body? God shall not only ask for that Soul and that Body but ask also, Where is that Wit, that Learning, those Arts, those languages which by so good education I afforded thee? Truly when a weak and ignorant man departs into any vicious way, though in that case he do adhere to the Enemy, and do serve the Devil against God, yet he carries away but a single Man, and serves but as a common Souldier: But he that hath good parts, and good education, carries a Regiment in his person, and Armies and munition for a thousand in himself. Though then thy kinsmen in the flesh, and thy fellow pupils under Gamaliel, men whom thou hast accompanied heretofore in other ways, think thy present fear of God, but a childishness and pusilanimity, and thy present zeal to his service but an infatuation, and a melancholy and thy present application of thy self to God in prayer, but an argument of thy Court-dispaire, and of thy falling from former hopes there; yet come thou early, if it be early yet; and if it be not early, come apace to Christ Jesus: how learned soever thou art, thou art yet to learn thy first letters, if thou know not that Christ Jesus is Alpha and Omega, he in whom thou must begin and determine every purpose: Thou hast studied thy self but into a dark and damnable ignorance, if thou have labored for much learning only to prove that thou canst not be saved, only to dispute against the person and the Gospel of Christ Jesus. But propose to thine imitation Stephen, who though enriched with great parts, and formerly accustomed to the conversation of others of a different persuasion, applied himself early to Christ as a Disciple, & more then in that general application, in a particular function and office as a Deacon, as is expressed in the former Chapter.

The Roman Church that delights in irresolutions and gains, and makes profit in holding things in suspence, holds up this question undetermind, whether that office and function which Stephen too of Deacon, be so è sacris, a part of holy Orders, as that it is a Sacrament, or any part of the Sacrament of Orders. Durand. a man great in matter of Ceremony, Cajetan, a man great in matter of substance, do both deny it; and divers, many, very many besides them; and they are let alone, and their Church says nothing against them, or in determination of the opinion. But yet howsoever the stronger opinion even in that Church lead the other way, and the form of giving that office by imposition of hands, and the many and great capacities that they receive, that they receive it, carry it to a great height, yet the use that we make of it here shall be but this, that even Stephen, who might have been inter Doctors, Doctor, (as Chrysologus says of him) a Doctor to teach Doctors; and inter Apostolos Apostolus, an Apostole to lead Apostles, contented himself with a lower degree in the service of Christ in his Church, the service of a Deacon, which very name signifies service, and ministation. It is a diminution of regal dignity, that the Roman Church accounts the greatest Kings, but as Deacons, and assigns them that rank and place in all their Ecclesiastical Solemnities, in their Ceremonials. But Constantine knew his own place without their marshalling: In the midst of Bishops, and Bishops met in Council, he calls himself Bishop, and Bishop of Bishops: and the greatest Bishop of this land, in his time, professed his Master the King, to be Pastor Pastorum, a Shepherd of Shepherds. It is a name due to the King, for it signifies inspection and superintendency; as the name of Priest is also given to secular Magistrates that had no part in Ecclesiastical function in the Scriptures; particularly, in Putipher, and to divers others in divers other places. But yet though that name of super-intendancy be due unto him, let him who is crowned in his office as Stephen was in his name, accept this name and office of ministration of Deacon, since the holy Ghost himself hath given him that name, The Minister of God for good, (there's the word of ministration, the name Diaconos imprinted upon the King) and since our Super-Supream Ordinary, our Super-Sovereign head of the Church, Christ Jesus himself calls himself, by that name, The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; there's this word of ministration, the office, the name of Deacon imprinted upon Christ himself. And though in our interest, in him who is also a King and a Priest; we are all regale Sacerdotium, Kings and Priests too, yet let us accept the name, and execute the office of Deacon, of ministration, especially upon our selves: for as every man is a world in himself, so every man is a Church in himself too: and in the ancient Church, it was a part of the Deacons office, to call out to the Church, to the Congregation, Nequis contra aliquem, nequis in Hipocrisi; let no man come hither to Church, (indeed no whether, for every place, because God is present in every place, is a Church,) either in uncharitableness towards others, or in Hypocrisy & in dissimulation in himself: Bring always a charitable opinion towards other men, and sincere affections in thy self, and thou hast done the right office of a Deacon, upon the right subject thou hadst ministered to thine own Soul. But then the height of Stephens exemplariness, (which is the consideration that we pursue in this branch of this first part) is not so much in his active as in his passive part; not so much in that he did, as in that he suffered; not as he answered & discharged the duties of his name; so we have proposed him to you; nor as he was an early Disciple, and came to Christ betimes, we have proposed him so too; nor as he made his ambition only to serve Christ, and not to serve him in a high place, but only as a Deacon; for in that line also we have proposed him to you; But as he was a constant and cheerful Martyr, and laid down his life for Christ, and in that qualification propose him to your selves, and follow him as a Martyr.

Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea, was so in love with Pamphilus the Martyr, as a Martyr, that he would needs take his name, before he could get his addition; and though he could not be called Martyr then, yet he would be called Pamphilus and not Eusebius. The name of Stephen hath enough in it to serve not only the vehementest affection, but the highest ambition; for there is a Coronation in the Name as we told you before. And therefore in the Ecclesiastical story and Martyrologes of the Church, there are (I think) more Martyrs of this name, Stephen, then of any other Name; indeed they have all that Name, for the Name is a Coronation. And therefore the Kingdom of heaven, which is expressed by many precious Metaphors in the Gospel, is never called a Crown, till after Stephens death, till our Coronation was begun in his Martyrdom, but after in the Epistles often, and in the Revelation very often. For to suffer for God, man to suffer for God, I to suffer for my Maker, for my Redeemer is such a thing, as no such thing, excepting only Gods sufferings for man can fall into the consideration of man. Gods suffering for man was the Nadir the lowest point of Gods humiliation, mans suffering for God is the Zenith, the highest point of mans exaltation: That as man needed God, and God would suffer for man, so God should need man, and man should suffer for God; that after Gods general Commission, fac hoc & vives, do this and thou shalt live, I should receive and execute a new Commission, Patere hoc & vives abundantius, suffer this and you shall have life, and life more abundantly; as our Savior speaks in the Gospel, that when I shall ask my soul Davids question, Quid retribuam, what shall I render to the Lord, I shall not rest in Davids answer, Accipiam Calicem, I will take the cup of salvation, in applying his blood to my soul, but proceed to an Effundam Calicem, I will give God a Cup, a cup of my blood, that whereas to me the meanest of Gods servants it is honor enough to be believed for Gods sake: God should be believed for my sake, and his Gospel the better accepted, because the feal of my blood is set to it; that that dew which should water his plants, the plants of his Paradise, his Church, should drop from my veins, and that sea that red sea, which should carry up his bark, his Ark, to the heavenly Jerusalem, should flow from me: This is that that pours joy even into my gladness, and glory even into mine honor, and peace even into my security; that exaltes and improves every good thing, every blessing that was in me before, and makes even my creation glorious, and my redemption precious; and puts a farther value upon things inestimable before, that I shall fulfil the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, and that I shall be offered up for his Church, though not for the purchasing of it, yet for the fencing of it, though not by way of satisfaction as he was, but by way of example and imitation as he was too. Whether that be absolutely true or no, which an Author of much curiosity in the Roman Church says, that Inter tot millia millium, amongst so many thousand thousands of Martyrs in the Primitive Church, it cannot be said that ever one lacked burial, (I know not whence he raises that) certainly no Martyr ever lacked a grave in the wounds of his Savior, no nor a tomb, a monument, a memorial in this life, in that sense wherein our Savior speaks in the Gospel, That no man shall leave house, or Brother, or wife for him, but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life; Christ does not mean he shall have a hundred houses, or a hundred wives, or a hundred Brethren; but that that comfort which he lost in losing those things shall be multiplied to him in that proportion even in this life. In which words of our Savior, as we see the dignity and reward of Martyrdom, so we see the extent and latitude, and compass of Martyrdom too; that not only loss of life, but loss of that which we love in this life; not only the suffering of death, but the suffering of Crosses in our life, contracts the Name, and entitles us to the reward of Martyrdom. All Martyrdom is not a Smithfeild Martyrdom, to burn for religion. To suffer injuries, and upon advantages offered, not to revenge those injuries is a Court Martyrdom. To resist outward temptations from power, and inward temptations from affections; in matter of Judicature, between party and party, is a Westminster Martyrdom. To seem no richer then they are, not to make their states better, when they make their private bargains with one another, and to seem so rich, as they are, and not to make their states worse, when they are called upon to contribute to public services, this is an Exchange-Martyrdom. And there is a Chamber-Martyrdom, a Bosom-Martyrdom too; Habet pudicitia servata Martyrium suum, Chastity is a daily Martyrdom; and so all fighting of the Lords battles, all victory over the Lords Enemies, in our own bowels, all cheerful bearing of Gods Crosses, and all watchful crossing of our own immoderate desires is a Martyrdom acceptable to God, and a true copy of our pattern Stephen, so it be inanimated with that which was even the life and soul and price of all Stephens actions and passions, that is, fervent charity, which is the last contemplation; in which we propose him for your Example; that as he, you also may be just paymasters in discharging the debt, which you owe the world in the signification of your Names; and early Disciples and appliers of your selves to Christ Jesus, and humble servants of his, without inordinate ambition of high places; and constant Martyrs, in dying every day as the Apostles speaks, and charitable intercessors, and Advocates and Mediators to God, even for your heaviest Enemies.

We have a story in the Ecclesiastical story of Nicephorus and Sapricius, formerly great friends, and after as great Enemies: Nicephorus relented first, and sued often for reconciliation to Sapricius, but was still refused: he was refused even upon that day, when Sapricius being led out to execution, as a Martyr for the Christian religion, Nicephorus upon the way, put himself in his way, and upon his knees begged a reconciliation, and obtained it not. The effect of his uncharitableness was this Sapricius, when he came to the stake recanted, and renounced the christian religion, and lost the crown of Martyrdom, and Nicephorus who came forth upon another ocasion professed Christ, and was received to the Coronation of Martyrdom. Though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing says the Apostle; but if I have not charity I shall not be admitted to that Sacrifice, to give my body to be burnt. St. Augustine seems to have delighted himself with that saying (for he says it more then once) Si Stephanus non orasset, if St. Stephen had not prayed for Saul, the Church had had no Paul: and may we not justly add to that, If Stephen had not prayed for Saul, Heaven had had no Stephen, or Stephen had had no Heaven: suffering it self is but a stubborness, and a rigid and stupid standing under an affliction; it is not a humiliation, a bending under Gods hand, if it be not done in charity. Stephen had a pattern, and he is a pattern; Christ was his, and he is our Example; ut hoc dicam tibi, at te primo audivi, says St. Augustine in Stephen's person to Christ, Lord thou taughtest me this prayer upon the cross; receive it now from me, as the Father received it from thee then. He prayed for his enemies as for himself; and thus much more earnestly for them then for himself, that he prayed for himself standing, and kneeling for them. Stephen was the Plantiff, and when he comes to his Nolo prosequi, and to release, what hath the Judge to say to the Defendant. If a potent adversary oppress thee to ruin, to death, if thou pass away uncharitably towards him, thou raisest an everlasting Trophee for thine enemy, and prepar'st him a greater triumph then he proposed to himself; he meant to triumph over thy body, and thy fortune, and thou hast provided him a triumph over thy Soul too by thy uncharitableness; and he may survive to repent, and to be pardoned at Gods hands and thou who art departed in uncharitableness canst not; he shall be saved that ruind thee unjustly, and thou who wast unjustly ruind by him, shalt perish irrecoverably. And so we have done with all those pieces which constitute our first part, Sis aliquid, profess something, Hoc age, do seriously the duties of that profession, and then Sis aliquis, propose some good man in that profession for thine immitation; as we have proposed Stephen for general duties, falling upon all professions. And we shall pass now to our other part, which we must all play, and play in earnest, that conclusion in which we shall but begin our everlasting state, our death, When he had said this he fell asleep.

Here I shall only present to you two Pictures, two pictures in little: two pictures of dying men; and every man is like one of these, and may know himself by it; he that dies in the Bath of a peaceable, & he that dies upon the wrack of a distracted conscience. When the devil imprints in a man, a mortuum me esse non curo, I care not though I were dead, it were but a candle blown out, and there were an end of all, where the Devil imprints that imagination: God will imprint an Emori nolo, a loathness to die, and fearful apprehension at his transmigration: As God expresses the bitterness of death, in an ingemination, morte morietur, in a conduplication of deaths, he shall die, and die, die twice over; So aegrotando aegrotabit, in sickness he shall be sick, twice sick, body-sick and soul-sick too, sense-sick and conscience-sick together; when, as the sins of his body have cast sicknesses and death upon his Soul, so the inordinate sadness of his Soul, shall aggravate and actuate the sickness of his body. His Physician ministers, and wonders it works not; He imputes that to flegme, and ministers against that, and wonders again that it works not: He goes over all the humors, and all his Medicines, and nothing works, for there lies at his Patients heart a damp that hinders the concurrence of all his faculties, to the intention of the Physician, or the virtue of the Physic. Loose not, O blessed Apostle, thy question upon this Man. O Death where is thy sting? O Grave where is thy victory? for the sting of Death is in every limb of his body, and his very body, is a victorious grave upon his Soul: And as his Carcas and his Coffin shall lie equally insensible in his grave, so his Soul, which is but a Carcas, and his body, which is but a Coffin of that Carcas, shall be equally miserable upon his Death-bed; And Satan's Commissions upon him shall not be signed by Succession, as upon Job, first against his goods, and then his Servants, and then his children, and then himself; but not at all upon his life; but he shall apprehend all at once, Ruin upon himself and all his, ruin upon himself and all him, even upon his life; both his lives, the life of this, and the life of the next world too. Yet a drop would redeem a shower, and a Sigh now a Storm then: Yet a tear from the eye, would save the bleeding of the heart, and a word from the mouth now, a roaring, or (which may be worse) a silence of consternation, of stupefaction, of obduration at that last hour. Truly, if the death of the wicked ended in Death, yet to scape that manner of death were worthy a Religious life. To see the house fall, and yet be afraid to go out of it; To leave an injured world, and meet an incensed God; To see oppression and wrong in all thy professions, and to foresee ruin and wastefulness in all thy Posterity; and Lands gotten by one sin in the Father, molder away by another in the Son; To see true figures of horror, and ly, and fancy worse; To begin to see thy sins but then, and find every sin (at first sight) in the proportion of a Gyant, able to crush thee into despair; To see the Blood of Christ, imputed, not to thee, but to thy Sins; To see Christ crucified, and not crucified for thee, but crucified by thee; To hear this blood speak, not better things, then the blood of Abel, but lowder for vengeance then the blood of Abel did; This is his picture that hath been Nothing, that hath done nothing, that hath proposed no Stephen, No Law to regulate, No example to certify his Conscience: But to him that hath done this, Death is but a Sleep.

Many have wondered at that note of Saint Chrysostom's, That till Christ's time death was called death, plainly, literally death, but after Christ, death was called but sleep; for, indeed, in the old-Testament before Christ, I think there is no one metaphor so often used, as Sleep for Death, and that the Dead are said to Sleep: Therefore we wonder sometimes, that Saint Chrysostom should say so: But this may be that which that holy Father intended in that Note, that they in the old-Testament, who are said to have slept in Death, are such as then, by Faith, did apprehend, and were fixed upon Christ; such as were all the good men of the old-Testament, and so there will not be many instances against Saint Chrysostom's note, That to those that die in Christ, Death is but a Sleep; to all others, Death is Death, literally Death. Now of this dying Man, that dies in Christ, that dies the Death of the Righteous, that embraces Death as a Sleep, must we give you a Picture too.

These is not a minute left to do it; not a minutes sand; Is there a minutes patience? Be pleased to remember that those Pictures which are delivered in a minute, from a print upon a paper, had many days, weeks, Months time for the graving of those Pictures in the Copper; So this Picture of that dying Man, that dies in Christ, that dies the death of the Righteous, that embraces Death as a Sleep, was graving all his life; All his public actions were the lights, and all his private the shadows of this Picture. And when this Picture comes to the Press, this Man to the streights and agonies of Death, thus he lies, thus he looks, this he is. His understanding and his will is all one faculty; He understands Gods purpose upon him, and he would not have God's purpose turned any other way; he sees God will dissolve him, and he would fain be dissolved, to be with Christ; His understanding and his will is all one faculty; His memory and his fore-sight ate fixt, and concentred upon one object, upon goodness; He remembers that he hath proceeded in the sincerity of a good Conscience in all the ways of his calling, and he foresees that his good name shall have the Testimony, and his Posterity the support of the good men of this world; His sickness shall be but a fomentation to supple and open his Body for the issuing of his Soul; and his Soul shall go forth, not as one that gave over his house, but as one that travelled to see and learn better Architecture, and meant to return and re-edify that house, according to those better Rules: And as those thoughts which possess us most awake, meet us again when we are asleep; So his holy-thoughts, having been always conversant upon the directing of his family, the education of his Children, the discharge of his place, the safety of the State, the happiness of the King all his life; when he is fallen a sleep in Death, all his Dreams in that blessed Sleep, all his devotions in heaven shall be upon the same Subjects, and he shall solicit him that sits upon the Throne, & the Lamb, God for Christ Jesus sake, to bless all these with his particular blessings: for, so God giveth his beloved sleep, so as that they enjoy the next world and assist this.

So then, the Death of the Righteous is a sleep; first, as it delivers them to a present rest. Now men sleep not well fasting; Nor does a fasting Conscience, a Conscience that is not nourished with a Testimony of having done well, come to this Sleep; but dulcis somnus operanti, The sleep of a labouring man is sweet. To him that laboureth in his calling, even this sleep of Death is welcome. When thou lyest down thou shalt not be afraid, saith Solomon; when thy Physician says, Sir, you must keep your bed, thou shalt not be afraid of that sick-bed; And then it follows, And thy sleep shall be sweet unto thee; Thy sickness welcome, and thy death too; for, in those two David seems to involve all, I will both lay me down in Peace, and sleep; embrace patiently my death-bed and Death it self.

So then this death is a sleep, as it delivers us to a present Rest; And then, lastly, it is so also as it promises a future waiting in a glorious Resurrection. To the wicked it is far from both: Of them God says, I will make them drunk, and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake; They shall have no part in the Second Resurrection. But for them rhat have slept in Christ, as Christ said of Lazarus, Lazarus Sleepeth, but I go that I may wake him out of sleep, he shall say to his father; Let me go that I may wake them who have slept so long in expectation of my coming: And Those that sleep in Jesus Christ (saith the Apostle) will God bring with him; not only fetch them out of the dust when he comes, but bring them with him, that is, declare that they have been in his hands ever since they departed out of this world. They shall awake as Jacob did, and say as Jacob said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven, And into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell, where there shall be no Cloud nor Sun, no darkness nor dazling, but one equal light, no noise nor silence, but one equal music, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no foes nor friends, but and equal communion and Identity, no ends nor beginnings; but one equal eternity. Keep us Lord so awake in the duties of our Callings, that we may thus sleep in thy Peace, and wake in thy glory, and change that infallibility which thou affordest us here, to an Actual and undeterminable possession of that Kingdom which thy Son our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the in-estimable price of his incorruptible Blood.

Amen.

Serm. 16. A Sermon Preached at White-hall. February 22. 1629. Sermon XVI.

Matth. 6.21.

For where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I Have seen minute glasses; glasses so short lived: if I were to preach upon this text to such a glass, it were enough for half the Sermon; enough to show the worldly man his Treasure, and the object of his heart, (For where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also) to call his eye to that minute glass, and to tell him there flows, there flies your treasure and your heart with it; but if I had a secular glass, a glass that would run an age; if the two Hemesphears of the world were composed in the form of such a glass, and all the world calcined and burnt to ashes, and all the ashes and sands, and atoms of the world put into that glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man who this treasure and the object of his heart is, a Parot or a Stare, docil a birds, and of pregnant imitation, will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisdom of a Council table, then any Ambrose or any Chrisostome, men that have gold and honey in their Names, shall tell us what the sweetness, what the treasure of heaven is, and what that mans peace that hath set his heart upon that treasure. As nature hath given us certain Elements, and all bodies are composed of them, and art hath given us a certain Alphabet of letters, and all words are composed of them, so our blessed Savior in these three Chapters of this Gospel hath given us a Sermon of texts, of which all our Sermons may be composed, all the Articles of our Religion, all the Canons of our Church, all the injunctions of our Princes, all the Homilies of our Fathers, all the body of Divinity is in these three Chapters, in this one Sermon in the mount; where, as the Preacher concludes his Sermon with exhortations to practise, (whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and does them,) so he fortifies his Sermon with his own practise (which is a blessed and powerful method,) for as soon as he came out of the pulpit, as soon as he came down from the mount, he cured the first Leper he saw, and that without all vain glory, for he forbad him to tell any man of it.

Of this noble body of Divinity one fair limb is in this text; where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Immediately before our blessed Savior had forbidden us the laying up of treasure in this world, upon this reason, that here moths and rust corrupt, and thieves break in and steal, there the reason is, because the money may be lost; but here in our text it is, because the man may be lost, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also; so that this is equivalent to that, what profit to gain the whole world and lose a mans own soul. Our text therefore stands as that proverbial, that Hieroglifical letter Pithagoras his (y) that hath first a stalk, a stem to fix it self, and then spreads into two beams. The stem, the stalk of this letter, this (y) is in the first word of the text, that particle of argumentation, for take heed where you place your treasure; for it concerns you much where your heart be placed; and where your treasure is, there your heart will be also; and then opens this Symbolical, this Catechistical letter, this (y) into two horns, two beams, two branches: One broader, but on the left hand denoting the treasures of this world; the other narrower, but on the right hand, treasure laid up for the world co come, be sure ye turn the right way, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also;

First we bind our selves to the stake, to the stalk, to the staff, the stem of this Simbolical letter, & consider in it, that firmness & fixation of the heart which God requires; God requires no unatural thing at mans hand; whatsoever God requires of man, man may find imprinted in his own nature, written in his own heart. This firmness then, this fixation of the heart is natural to man; every man does set his heart upon something, and Christ in this place does not so much call upon him that he would do so, set his heart upon something, as to be sure he set it upon the right object; and yet truly even this first work to recollect our selves, to recapitulate our selves, to assemble and muster our selves, and to bend our hearts entirely and intensly, directly, earnestly, emphatically, energetically upon something, is by reason of the various fluctuation of our corrupt nature, and the infinite multiplicity of objects, such a work as man needs to be called upon and excited to do it; therefore is there no words in the Scripture so often added to the heart, as that of Entireness, Toto corde, omni corde, pleno corde, do this withal thy heart, with a whole heart, with a full heart; for whatsoever is indivisible, is immoveable; a Point, because it cannot be denied, cannot be moved; the Center, the Poles, God himself, because he is indivisible is therefore immoveable; and when the heart of man is knit up in such an intirenes upon one object, as that it does not flatter nor subdivide it self, then, and then only is it fixed. And thats the happiness in which David fixes himself; not in his Cor paratim, my heart is preparad O God, my heart is prepared, (for so it may be prepared even by God himself, and yet scattered and subdivided by us) But in his Cor fixum; My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed, awake my glory, awake my Psaltery and Harp, I my self will awake early, and praise thee O Lord among the people: A triumph that David returned to more then once, for he repeats the same words, with the same pathetical earnestness again; so that his glory, his victory, his triumph, his peace, his acquiescence, his al-sufficiency in himself, consisted in this, that his heart was fixed; for this fixation of the heart argued and testified an entireness in it; when God says, sili da mihi Cor, my Son give me thy heart, God means the whole man; though the Apostle saith, The eye is not the man, nor the ear is not the man; he does not say the heart is not the man; the heart is the man; the heart is all. And as Moses was not satisfied with that Commission that Pharaoh offered him, that all the men might go to offer Sacrifice; but Moses would have all their young and all their old, all their Sons and all their Daughters, all their flocks and all their herds, he would have all; so when God says, Fili da mihi cor, my Son give me thy heart, God will not be satisfied with the eye, if I contemplate him in his works, (for thats but the godliness of the natural man) nor satisfied with the ear, with hearing many Sermons; (for thats but a new invention, a new way of making beads, as if the Papist think all done if he have said so many Aves, I think all done, If I have heard so many Sermons) But God requires the heart, the whole man, all the faculties of that man; for only that that is entire, and indivisible is immoveable; and that that God calls for and we seek for, in this stem of Pithagoras his Symbolical letter, is this immoveableness, this fixation of the heart; and yet even against this, though it be natural, there are many impediments; we shall reduce them to a few; to three; these three, First, there is Cor nullum, a meer heartlesness, no heart at all, incogitancy, inconsideration; and then there is, Cor & cor, Cor duplex, a double heart, a doubtful, a distracted heart, which is not incogitancy, nor inconsideration, but purplexity and irresolution; and lastly Cor vagum, a wandering, a wayfaring, a weary heart, which is neither, inconsideration, nor irresolution, but inconstancy; and this is a trinity against our unity, three enemies to that fixation and entireness of the heart, which God loves; inconsideration when we do not debate, irresolution when we do not determine, inconstancy when we do not persevere; and upon each of these, be pleased to stop your devotion a few minutes.

This first is, Cor nullum, no heart at all, incogitancy, thoughtlessness. An idle body is a disease in a state; an idle soul is a monster in a man; That body that will not work must not eat, but starve; that soul that does not think nor consider, cannot be said to Actuate (which is the proper operation of the Soul) but to Evaporate; not to work in the body, but to breath and smoke through the body. We have seen estates of private men wasted by inconsideration, as well as by riot, and a soul may perish by a thoughtlessness, as well as by ill thoughts; God takes it as ill to be slighted as to be injured; and God is as much slighted, in Corde nullo in our thoughtlessness and inconsideration, as he is opposed and provoked in Corde maligno in a rebellious heart: There is a good nullification of the heart, a good bringing of the heart to nothing, for the fire of Gods spirit may take hold of me, and (as the Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus, were affected) my heart may burn within me, when the Scriptures are opened, that is, when Gods Judgments are denounced against my sin; and this heat may overcome my former frigidity and coldness, and overcome my succeeding tepidity and lukewarmness, and may bring my heart to a mollification, to a tenderness, as Job found it, The Almighty hath troubled me, and made my heart soft; for there are hearts of clay as well as hearts of wax; hearts whom these fires of God, his corrections, harden: but if these fires of his, these denuntiations of his Judgments, have overcome first my coldness, and then my lukewarmness, and made my heart soft for better impressions, the work is well advanced, but it is not all done; for mettle may be soft and yet not fusil; iron may be red hot, and yet not apt to run into an other mold. Therefore there is a liquefaction, a melting, a powering out of the heart, such as Rahab speaks of Joshuahs spies: as soon as we heard how miraculously God had proceeded in your behalf, in drying up Jurdan, all our hearts melted within us, and no man had any spirit left in him; and when upon the consideration of Gods miraculous Judgments or mercies, I come to such a melting and pouring out of my heart, that there be no spirit that is, none of my one spirit left in me, when I have so exhausted, so evacuated my self, that is; all confidence in my self, that I come into the hands of my God as pliably as ductily, as that first clod of earth of which he made me in Adam, was in his hands, in which clod of earth, there was a kind of reluctation against Gods purpose; this is a blessed nullification of the heart. When I said to my self as the Apostle professed of himself, I am nothing, and then say to God, Lord though I be nothing, yet behold I present thee, as much as thou hadst to make the whole world of; O thou that madst the whole world of nothing, make me, that am nothing in my own eyes, a new creature in Christ Jesus; this is a blessed nullification, a glorious annihillation of the heart. So is there also a blessed nullification thereof in the contrition of the heart, in the sense of my sins; when as a sharp wind may have worn out a marble Statue, or a continual spout worn out a marble Pavement; so my holy tears made holy in his blood, that gives them a tincture, and my holy sighs made holy in that spirit that breaths them in me, have worn out my marble heart, that is, the marbleness of my heart, and emptied the room of that former heart, and so given God a vacuity, a new place to create a new heart in: but when God hath thus created a new heart, that is, re-enabled me, by his ordinance to some holy function, then to put this heart to nothing, to think nothing, to consider nothing, not to know our age, but by the Church-book, and not by any action done in the course of our lives, for our God, for our Prince, for our Country, for our Neighbor, for our selves, (our selves are our Souls,) not to know the seasons of the year but by the fruits; which we eat, and not by observation of the public and national blessings which he hath successively given us; not to know religion but by the conveniency and the preferments to he had in this, or in the other side; to sit here and not to know if we be asked upon a surprize, whether it were a prayer or a Sermon, or an Antheme that we heard last, this is such a nullification of the heart, such an annihillation, such an exinanition thereof as reflects upon God himself; for Respuit datorem, qui datum deserit, he that makes no use of a benefit, despises the benefactor, and therefore a rod for his back, Qui indiget corde that is, without a heart, without consideration what he should do, nay what he does; for this is the first enemy of this firmness and fixation of the heart, without which we have no treasure; and we have done with that, Cor nullum, and pass to the second, Cor & cor, Cor duplex, the double, the divided, the distracted heart, which is not inconsideration but irresolution. This irresolution, this perplexity is intended in that comination from God, The Lord shall give them a trembling heart; this is not that Cor nullum, that melted heart in which there was no spirit left in them, as in Joshuahs time, but Cor pavidum, a heart that should not know where to settle, nor what to wish, but as it follows there, in the morning he shall say, would God it were evening, and in the evening would God it were morning; and this is that which Solomon may have intended in his prayer: Give thy servant an understanding heart; Cor docile; So St. Jerome reads it, a heart able to conceive counsel; for thats a good disposition, but it is not all; for the original is, lcb. shemeany, that is, Cor audiens, a heart willing to hearken to counsel; but all that is, not all that is asked: Solomon asks there a heart to discern between good and evil; so that it is a prayer for the spirit of discretion, of conclusion, of resolution; that God would give him a heart willing to receive counsel, and a heart capable to conceive and digest counsel, and a heart able to discern between counsel and counsel, and to resolve, conclude, determine. It were a strange ambitious patience in any man, to be content to be racked every day in hope to be an inch or two taller at last; so is it for me to think to be a dram or two wiser, by harkning to all jealousies and doubts, and distractions and perplexities that arise in my bosom, or in my family, which is the rack and torture of the soul: A spirit of contradiction may be of use in the greatest Councellers, because thereby matter may be brought into further debatement; but a spirit of contradiction in mine own bosom, to be able to conclude nothing, resolve nothing, determine nothing, not in my religion, not in my manners, but occasionally and upon emergencies; this is a sickly complexion of the Soul, a dangerous impotency, and a shrewd and ill presaging Crisis. If Josuah had suspended his assent of serving the Lord, till all his neighbours and their families, all the Kings and Kingdoms about him had declared theirs the same way, when would Josuah have come to that protestation, I and my house will serve the Lord? If Esther had forborn to press for an audience to the King, in the behalf and for the life of her Nation, till nothing could have been said against it, when would Esther have come to that protestation, I will go, and if I perish, I perish? If one Milstone fell from the North-pole, and another from the South, they would meet, and they would rest in the Center; nature would con-center them; not to be able to con-center those doubts which arise in my self, in a resolution at last, whether in moral or in religious actions, is rather a vertiginous giddiness, than a wise circumspection or wariness: when God prepared great Armies it is expressed always so, Tanquam unus vir, Israel went out as one man; when God established his beloved David to be King, it is expressed so, Uno corde, He sent them out with one heart to make David King; when God accelerated the propagation of his Church it is expressed so, Una anima, The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul; Since God makes Nations, and Armies, and Churches one heart, let not us make one heart two in our selves, a divided, a distracted, a perplexed, an irresolved heart; but in all cases let us be able to say to our selves, this we should do. God asks the heart, a single heart, an entire heart, for whilst it is so, God may have some hope of it; but when it is a heart, and a heart, a heart for God and a heart for Mammon; howsoever it may seem to be even; the odds will seem to be on Mammons side against God, because he presents possessions, and God but reversions; he the present and possessory things of this world, God but the future and speratory things of the next: so then the Cornullum, no heart, thoughtlessness, incogitancy, inconsideration, and the Cor duplex, the perplexed, and irresolved and inconclusive heart, do equally oppose this firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves, & which we consider in this stem & stalk of Pithagoras his Symbolical letter; and so doth that which we proposed for the third, the Cor vagum, the wandering the way faring, the inconstant heart.

Many times in our private actions, and in the cribration and sifting of our Consciences (for thas's the Sphere I move in, and no higher) we do overcome the first difficulty, in consideration, we consider seriously; And sometimes the second irresolution we resolve confidently, But never the Third, In constancy; if so far as to bring holy resolutions into actions, yet never so far as to bring holy actions into Habits. That word which we read Deceitful (The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it?) is in the Original Gnacob; and that is not only fraudulentum, but versipelle, deceitful, because it varies it self into divers forms; so that it does not only deceive others (others find not our heart the same towards them to day, that it was yesterday) but it deceives our selves, we know not what, nor where our heart will be hereafter. Upon those words of Isaiah Redite praevaricatores ad Cor; Return O sinner to thy heart, Long eos mittit, says Saint Gregory, God knows whether that sinner is sent (that is) sent to his own heart; for where is thy heart? Thou mayst remember where it was yesterday; at such an office; at such a Chamber; but yesterdays affections are changed to day, as to days will be to morrow, They have despised my Judgements, so God complains in Ezekiel; that is, They are not moved with my punishments, they call all: natural accidents; And then it followeth; They have polluted my Sabaths, they are come to a more faint, and dilute, and indifferent way in their Religion; now what hath occasioned this neglecting of God's Judgements, and this diluteness and indifferency in the ways of Religion? That that follows there; Their hearts went after their Idols: Went? Whether? every whither; for, Quot vitia tot recentes Deos; so many habitual sins; so many Idols; and so every man hath some Idol, some such sin; and then that Idol sends him to a further Idol; that sin to another; for every sin needs the assistance and countenance of another sin, for disguise and palliation. We are not constant in our sins, much less in our more holy purposes; we complain (and justly) of the Church of Rome, that she would not have us receive in utraque in both kinds; but alas, who amongst us doth receive in utraque so, as that when he receives bread & wine, he receives with a tru sorrow for former, & a tru resolution against future sins; Except the Lord of heaven create new hearts in us, of our selves we have (Cor nullum) no heart; all vanishes into incogitancies except, the Lord of heaven can center our affections, of our selves we have Cor & Cor, a cloven, a divided heart, a heart of irresolution; except the Lord of heaven fix our Resolutions, of our selves we have Cor vagum, a various, a wandering heart, all smoaks into inconstancy; and all these three are enemies to that firmness and fixation of the heart, which God loves and we seek after; but yet, how variously soever the heart doth wander, and how little a while soever it stay upon one object; yet, that that thy heart doth stay upon, Christ (in this place) calls thy Treasure; for the words admit well that inversion, Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also, implies this, where your heart is, that is your Treasure: And so we pass from this Stem and Stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical letter, the firmness and fixation of the heart, to the horns and beams thereof; a broader (but on the left hand) and in that, the corruptible Treasures of this world, and a narrower (but on the right hand) and in that the everlasting Treasures of the next. On both sides, that that you fix your heart upon is your Treasure; for, where your heart is, there is your Treasure also.

Literally, primarily, radically; Thesaurus, treasure is no more, but Depositum in Crastinum, provision for to morrow; to show how little a proportion a regulated mind and a contented heart may make a Treasure: but we have enlarged the signification of these words, Provision and to Morrow; for, provision must signify all that can any way be compassed; and to morrow must signify as long as there shall be a to morrow, till Time shall be no more: but waiving these infinite extensions and perpetuities, is there any thing of that nature as (taking the word Treasure in the narrowest signification to be but provision for to morrow) we are sure shall last till to morrow? Sits any man here in an assurance that he shall be the same to morrow that he is now: you have your Honors, your Offices, your Possessions, perchance under Seal, a Seal of Wax; Wax that hath a tenacity, an adhering, a cleaving nature to show the royal constancy of his heart that gives them; and would have them continue with you and stick to you: but then, Wax, if it be heat hath a melting, a fluid, a running nature to; so have these Honors, and Offices, and Possessions to them that grow too hot, too confident in them or too imperious by them; for these Honors, and Offices, and Possessions you have a Seal, a fair and just evidence of assurance; but have they any Seal upon you? any assurance of you till to morrow? Did our blessed Savior give day or any hope of a to morrow to that man to whom he said, Fool this night they fetch away thy soul? or is there any of us that can say, Christ said not that to him?

But yet a Treasure every man hath, An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, says our Savior, every man hath some sin upon which his heart is set, and where your heart is, there is your treasure also: The Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, says Job: 'tis true, but yet treasures of wickedness there are: Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? consider the force of that word, yet, yet, though you have the power of a vigilant Prince executed by just Magistrates, yet, though you have the piety of a religious Prince seconded by the assiduity of a laborious Clergy, yet, though you have many helps which your Fathers did, and your neighbors do want, and have (by Gods grace) some fruits of those many helps; yet, for all this, Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? No, Are there not scant measures which are an abomination to God, says the Prophet there; which are not only false measures of merchantdize, but false measures of men; for, when God says that he intends all this, Is there not yet supplantation in Court and misre-presentations of men? When Solomon who understood subordination of places, which flowed from him as well as the highest, which himself possest, says, and says experimentally for his own, and prophetically for future times, If a Ruler (a man in great place) hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked, Are there not yet misrepresentations of men in Courts? Is there not yet oppression in the Country; a starving of men and pampering of dogs, A swallowing of the needy, a buying of the poor for a pair of shoes, and a selling to the hungry refuse corn? Is there not yet oppression in the Country? Is there not yet extortion in Westminster? A justifying of the wicked for a reward, and a taking away of the righteousness of the righteous from him? Is there not yet extortion in Westminster? Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City? would they not seem richer than they are when they deal in private bargains with one another, and would they not seem poorer than they are, when they are called to contribute for the Public? have they not increased their riches by Trade, and lifted up their hearts upon the increase of their riches? have they not slackened their Trade, and lain down upon clothes laid to pledge, and ennobled themselves by an ignoble and lazy way of gain? Is there not yet collusion and circumvention in the City? Is there not yet Hypocrisy in the Church? In all parts thereof; half-preachings and half-hearings, hearings and preachings without practise? have we not national sins of our own, and yet exercise the nature of Islanders in importing the sins of foreign parts? And though we better no foragin commodity, nor manufactures that we bring in, we improve the sins of other Nations: And as a weaker grape growing upon the Rhene contracts a stronger nature in the Canaries, so do the sins of other Nations transplanted amongst us. Have we not secular sins, sins of our own age, our own time, and yet sin by precedent of former, as well as create precedents for future? and not only Silver and gold, but vessels of iron and brass were brought into the Treasury of the Lord, not only the glorious sins of high places and national sins, and secular sins, but the wretchedest begger in the street contributes to this Treasure, the Treasure of sin, and to this mischievous use, to increase this Treasure. The Treasure of sin is a subsidieman, he begs in Jesus name, and for Gods sake, and in the same name curses him that does not give: he counterfeits a lameness, or he loves his lameness and would not be cured; for his lameness is his stock, it is his demean, it is (as they call their occupations in the City) his mystery: Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? when even they who have no houses, but lie in the streets have these Treasures?

There are, and then as the nature of treasure is, to multiply; so does this treasure, this treasure of sin, it produces another treasure, Thesaurizamus iram, We treasure up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath. For it is of the sins of the people that God speaks, when he says; Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up amongst my treasures? He treasures up the sins of the disobedient; but where? In the treasury of his Judgments. And then that treasury he opens against us in this world, his treasure of snow, and treasures of hail; that is, unseasonableness of weather, barrenness and famine; and he bringeth his winds out of his treasury; contrary winds or storms, and tempests to disappoint our purposes: And as he says to Cyrus, I will give thee (even thee Cyrus, though God cared not for Cyrus, otherwise then as he had made Cyrus his scourge) I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and the hidden treasures of secret places; God will enable enemies, (though he loves not those enemies) to afflict that people that love not him. And these, war, and dearth, and sickness, are the weapons of Gods displeasure; and these he pours out of his treasury in this world. But then for the world to come, he shall open our treasury, (for whatsoever moved our translators to render that word Armory, and not Treasury in that place, yet evidently it is Treasury, and in that very word Otzar, which they translate Treasury, in all those places of Job and David, and Isaiah, which we mentioned before, and in all other places,) he shall open that treasury, (says that Prophet) and bring forth the weapons, not as before of displeasure, but in a far heavier word, the weapons of his indignation. And in the bowels and treasure of his mercy, let me beseech you not to call the denouncing of Gods indignation, a Satyr of a Poet, or an invective of an Orator; as Solomon says, there is a time for all things, there is a time for consternation of presumptuous hearts, as well as for redintegration of broken hearts, and the time for that, is this time of mortification which we enter into now. Now therefore let me have leave to say, that the indignation of God is such a thing as a man would be afraid to think he can express it, afraid to think he does know it; for the knowledge of the indignation of God imples the sense & feeling thereof? all knowledge of that is experimental, and thats a woeful way, and a miserable acquisition and purchase of knowledge. To recollect treasure is provision for the future; no worldly thing is so; there is no certain future, for the things of this world pass from us; we pass from them; the world it self passes away to nothing. Yet a way we have found to make a treasure, a treasure of sin; and we teach God thrift, and providence; for when we arm, God arms too; a treasure furnished with weapons of displeasure for this world, and weapons of indignation for the world to come. But then, as an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil, (so says our Savior) the good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; which is the last stroke that makes up Pithagoras his Symbolical letter, that horn, that beam thereof, which lies on the right hand; a narrow way, but to a better land; through straights: Tis true, but to the Pacifique sea; the consideration of the treasure of the godly man in this world, and Gods treasure towards him, both in this and the next. Things dedicated to God are called often the treasure of God; Thesauri Dei, and Thesauri sanctorum Dei, The treasure of God and the treasures of the servants of God, are in the Scriptures the same things; and so a man may rob Gods treasury, in robbing an Hospital. Now though to give a Talent, or to give a Jewel, or to give a considerable proportion of plate, be an addition to a treasury, yet to give a treasury to a treasury, is a more precious and a more acceptable present; as to give a library to a library, is more then to give the work of any one Author. A godly man is a library in himself, a treasury in himself, and therefore fittest to be dedicated and appropriated to God. Invest thy self therefore with this treasure of godliness: what is godliness, take it in the whole compass thereof; and godliness is nothing but the fear of God; for he that says in his first Chapter Initium sapientiae, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, says also in the 22th. Finis modestiae, The fear of God is the end of modesty, the end of humility; no man is bound to deject himself to any lower humiliation then to the fear of God. When God promised good Ezekiah all those blessings, wisdom, and knowledge, and stability, and strength of salvation; that that was to defray him and carry him through all, was this, The fear of the Lord shall be his treasure. And therefore Thesaurizate vobis fundamentum, Lay up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come, do all in the fear of God; in all warlike preparations remember the Lord of Hosts, and fear him; in all treaties of peace; remember the Prince of peace, and fear him; in all consultations remember the Angel of the great counsel and fear him; fear God as much at noon as at midnight, as much in the glory and splendor of his Sun-shine, as in his darkest Eclipses; fear God as much in thy prosperity as in thine adversity, as much in thy preferment, as in thy disgrace. Lay up a thousand pound to day in comforting that oppressed soul that sues, and lay up ten thousand pound to morrow, in pairing his nails that oppresses; lay up a million one day in taking Gods cause to heart, and lay up ten millions next day in taking Gods cause in hand: Let every soul lay up a penny now in resisting a small temptation, and a shilling anon in resisting a greater; and it will grow to be a treasure, a treasure of talents, of so many talents, as that the poorest soul in the congregation will not change treasure with any Place-Fleets, nor Terra firma fleet, nor with those three thousand millions, which (though it be perchance a greater sum then is upon the face of Europe at this day, after a hundred years embowelling of the earth for treasure,) David is said to have left for the treasure of the Temple, only to be laid up in the treasury thereof when it was built; for the charge of the building thereof was otherwise defraid. Let your conversation be in heaven; cannot you get thither? you may see, as St. John did, heaven come down to you; heaven is here; here in Gods Church, in his word, in his Sacraments, in his Ordinances; set thy heart upon them, (the promises of the Gospel, the seals of reconciliation) and thou hast that treasure which is thy viaticum, for thy transmigration out of this world, and the bill of exchange for the world thou goest, to; for as the wicked make themselves a treasure of sin and vanity, and then God opens upon them a treasure of his displeasure here, and his indignation hereafter; so the godly make themselves a treasure of the fear of God, and he opens unto them a treasure of grace and peace here, and a treasure of joy and glory hereafter. And when of each of these treasures here and hereafter; I shall have said one word, I have done.

We have treasure though in earthen vessels, says the Apostle, we have, that is, we have already the treasure of grace and peace, and faith, and justification, and sanctification; but yet in earthen vessels, in vessels that may be broken; peace that may be interrupted, grace that may be resisted, faith that may be enfeebled, justification that may be suspected, and sanctification that may be blemished; but we look for more; for joy and glory, for such a justification, and such a sanctification as shall be seald and riveted in a glorification. Manna putrefied, if it were kept by any man but a day; but in the Ark it never putrefied. That treasure which is as Manna from heaven, grace and peace; yet here hath a brackish taste, when grace and peace shall become joy and glory in heaven, there it will be sincere. Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur nature, & si in suo genere non sordidetur; though in the nature thereof, that with which a purer mettle is mixed be not base, yet it abases the purer mettle: he puts his example in silver and gold: though silver be a precious mettle, yet it abases gold, grace and peace and faith are precious parts of our treasure here; yet if we mingle them, that is, compare them with the joys and glory of heaven, if we come to think that our grace and peace and faith here, can no more be lost, then our joy and glory there, we abase and we over-allay those, joys and that glory. The Kingdom of heaven is like to a treasure, says our Savior, but is it all? is any treasure like unto it? none; for (to end where we begun) treasure is depositum in crastinum, provision for to morrow: the treasure of the worldly man is not so; he is not sure of any thing to morrow. Nay the treasure of the godly man is not so in this world; he is not sure that this days grace and peace and faith shall be his to morrow; when I have joy & glory in heaven, I shall be sure of that to morrow. And thats a term long enough; for before to morrow there must be a night; and shall there ever be night in heaven, no more then day in hell, there shall be no Sun in heaven, therefore no danger of Sun-set. And for the treasure it self, when the holy Ghost hath told us that the walls & streets of that City are pure gold, that the foundations thereof are all precious stones, and every gate of an entire pearl, what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us? what the treasure it self within is? the treasure it self is the Holy Ghost himself and joy in him, As the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, (but I know not how) so there shall something proceed from Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and fall upon me, but I know not what: nay not fall upon me neither, but enwrap me, embrace me; for I shall be below them, so as that I shall not be upon the same seat with the Son, at the right hand of the Father, in the union of the holy Ghost; rectified by the power of the Father, and feel no weakness; enlightened by the wisdom of the Son, and feel no scruple; established by the joy of the holy Ghost, and feel no jealousy. Where I shall find the Fathers of the first ages, dead 5000 years before me, and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me. Where I shall find the blessed and glorious Martyrs, who went not Per viam lacteam, but per viam sanguineam, not by the milky way of an innocent life, but by the bloody way of a violent death, and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own right, or say, we came in by Purchase, and you but by pardon. Where I shall find the Virgins, and not be despised by them for not being so; but hear that redintegration which I shall receive in Jesus Christ, called Virginity and Entireness. Where all tears shall be wiped from my eyes; not only tears of compunction for my self, and tears of compassion for others, but even tears of joy too, for there shall be no sudden joy, no joy unexperienced there; there I shall have all joys altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own salvation then of mine, nor I surer of the everlastingness of my God, then of my everlastingness in him. This is that treasure, of which the God of this treasure gives us, those spangles and that single money which this minute can coin, this world can receive, that is, Prosperity and a good use thereof in worldly things, and grace and peace, and faith in spiritual, and then reserve for us the exaltation of this treasure, in the joy and glory of heaven, in the mediation of his Son Christ Jesus, and by the operation of his blessed Spirit.

Amen.

A Sermon. Serm. 17. Sermon XVII.

James 2.12.

So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty.

THis is one of those seven Epistles, which Athanasius and Origen called Catholic; that is, universal, perchance because they are not directed to any one Church, as some others are, but to all the Christian World: and Saint Jerome called them Canonical; perchance because all Rules, all Canons of holy conversation are comprised in these Epistles; and Epiphanius and Oecumenius called them circular, perchance because as in a circle, you cannot discern which was the first point, nor in which the compass began the circle; so neither can we discern in these Epistles, whom the Holy Ghost begins withal, whom he means principally, King or Subject, Priest or People, single or married, Husband or Wife, Fathers or Children, Masters or Servants, but universally, promiscuously, indifferently, they give all rules, for all actions, to all persons, at all times and in all places; as in this Text in particular, which is not by any precedent or subsequent relation, by any connexion or coherence, directed upon any company or any degree of men; for the Apostle does not say, ye Princes, nor ye People, but ye, ye in general to all, So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty: so these Epistles are Catholic, so they are canonical, and they are circular too. But yet though in a circle we know not where the compass began, we know not which was the first point yet we know that the last point of the circle returns to the first and so becomes all one, and as much as we know the last, we know the first point. Since then the last point of that circle, in which God hath created us to move is a Kingdom (for it is the Kingdom of Heaven) and it is a Court, (for it is that glorious Court which is the presence of God in the Communion of his Saints) it is a fair and a pious conception; for this congregation, here present now in this place, to believe that the first point of this circle of our Apostle here is a Court too, and that the Holy Ghost in proposing these duties in his general ye, does principally intend, ye that live in Court, ye whom God brings so near to the sight of himself, and of his Court in heaven, as that you have always the picture of himself, and the portracture of his Court in your eyes; for a religious King is the Image of God, and a religious Court is a copy of the Communion of Saints: And therefore be you content to think, that to you especially our Apostle says here, ye, ye who have a nearer propinquity to God, and more assiduous conversation with God, by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford, (for though God be seen in a weed, in a worm, yet he is seen more clearly in the Sun) so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be Judged by the law of liberty.

Now as the first Devils were in heaven, (for it was not the punishment which they feel in hel, but the sin which they committed in heaven, which made them devils) & yet the salt was not in God, nor in the place; so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts, (as even in Rome, where thy will needs have an innocent Church, yet they cause a guilty Court,) the faults are personal, theirs that do them; and there is no higher Author of their sin. The Apostle does not bid us say; that it is so in Courts, but least it should come to be so, he bids us give these rules to Courts, so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be Judged by the law of liberty. First then, here is no express precept given, no direct commandment to speak; the holy Ghost saw there would be speaking enough in Courts; for though there may be a great sin in silence, a great prevarication in not speaking in a good cause, or for an oppressed person, yet the lowest voice in a Court, wispering it self, speaks aloud, and reaches far; and therefore, hear is only a rule to regulate our speech, Sic loquimini, so speak ye. And then, as here is no express precept for speaking, so here is no express precept for doing: The holy Ghost saw there would be doing enough, business enough in Court; for as silence, and half-silence; whispering may have a loud voice, so, even undoing may be a busy doing, and therefore, here is only a rule, to regulate our doing to, Sic facite, So do ye: And lastly, as there is speaking enough, even in silence, and doing enough, even in undoing, in Court, so the Court is always under Judgment enough. Every discontented person that hath missed his preferment, though he have not merited it; every drunkard, that is over-heat, though not with his own wine; every conjecturing person, that is not within the distance to know the ends or the ways of great actions, will Judge the highest counsels, and execution of those counsels. The Court is under Judgment enough, and they take liberty enough; and therefore here is a rule to regulate our liberty, a law of liberty: so speak ye, and &c. But though for the more benefit of the present Congregation, we fix the first point of this Circle, that is, the principal purpose of the holy Ghost upon the Court, yet our text is an Amphitheater; an Amphitheater consists of two Theaters: our text hath two parts, in which all men, all may sit and see themselves acted first in the obligation that is laid upon us, upon us all, Sic loquimini, Sic facite, and then in the reason of this holy diligence, and religious cautelousness, quia Judicandi; because you are all to be Judged, by &c. which two general parts, the obligation, and the reason, flowing into many sub-divided branches, I shall, I think, do better service, both to your understanding and to your memory, and to your affections and consciences, to present them, as they shall arise anon in their order, then to pour them out all at once now.

First then, in our first part, we look to our rule in the first duty, our speaking, Sic loquimini, so speak ye. The Comic Poet gives us a good caution, Si servus semper consuescat silentio, fiat nequam; that servant that says nothing, thinks ill. As our nullifidians, men that put all upon works, and no faith, and our solifidians, men that put all upon, faith & no works, are both in the wrong; so there is a danger in multiloquio, & another in nulliloquio; he that speaks over-freely to me, may be a man of dangerous conversation, and the silent and reserved man, that makes no play, but observes and says nothing, may be more dangerous then he: As the Roman Emperor professed to stand more in fear of one pale man, and lean man, then of twenty that studied, and pursued their pleasures, and loved there ease, because such would be glad to keep things in the state they then were, but the other sort affected changes, so for the most part, he that will speak, lies as open to me as I to him; speech is the balance of conversation. Therefore as gold is not merx, but pretium, Gold is not ware, but the price of all ware, so speaking is not doing; but yet fair speaking prepares an acceptation before, and puts a value after, upon the best actions. God hath made other creatutes Gregalia, sociable, besides man; sheep, and deer, and pigeons will flock, and heard, and troop and meet together; but when they are met, they are not able to tell one another why they met. Man only can speak; silence makes it but a herding; that that makes conversation, is speech. Qui datum deserit, respuit datorem, says Tertullian; He that uses not a benefit, reproaches his benefactor. To declare Gods goodness that hath enabled us to speak, we are bound to speak: speech is the glue, the ciment, the soul of conversation, and of religion too.

Now, your conversation is in heaven; and therefore loquimini Deo, first speak to him that is in heaven, speak to God. Some of the Platonic Philosophers thought it a prophanation of God, to speak to God; they thought that when our thoughts were made prayers, and that the heart slowed into the tongue, and that we had invested, and apparalled our meditations with words, this was a kind of painting and dressing, and a superfluous diligence, that rather tasted of humane affections, then such a sincere service, as was fit for the presence of God; only the first conception, the first ebullitions and emanations of the Soul, in the heart, they thought to be a fit sacrifice to God, and all verbal prayer to be too homely for him. But God himself who is all spirit, hath yet put on bodily lineaments, head, and hands, and feet, yea, and garments too, in many places of scripture to appear, that is, to manifest himself to us; and when we appear to God, though our devotion be all spiritual, as he is all spirit, yet let us put on lineaments and apparel upon our devotions, and digest the meditations of the heart into words of the mouth. God came to us, in verbo, in the word, for Christ is the word that was make flesh: let us that are Christians go to God so too, that the words of our mouth as well as the meditations of our heart, may be acceptable to him. Surely, God loves the service of prayer, or he would never have built a house for prayer; and therefore we justly call public prayer, the liturgy, service: love that place, and love that service in that place: prayer, They will needs make us believe that St. Francis preached to birds, and beasts, and stones; but they will not go about to make us believe that those birds, and beasts, and stones joined with St. Francis in prayer. God can speak to all things; thats the office of preaching to speak to others; but of all, only man can speak to God, and thats the office of prayer. It is a blessed conversation to spend time in discourse in communication with God. God went his way assoon as he had left communing with Abraham: When we leave praying, God leaves us; but God left not Abraham, as long as he had any thing to say to God; and we have always something to say unto him; he loves to hear us tel him even those things which he knew before; His benefits in our thankfulness, and our sins in our confessions, and our necessities in our petitions: And therefore having so many occasions to speak to God, and to speak of God, David ingeminates that (and his ingemination implies a wonder) O that men would (and it is strange if men will not) O that men would, says he, more than once or twice, O that men would praise the Lord, and tell the wondrous works that he hath done for the sons of men; for David determines not his precept in that, Be thankful unto him; for a thankfulness may pass in private, but, Be thankful unto him and speak good of his name: Glorify him in speaking to him, in speaking of him, in speaking for him.

Loquimini Deo, speak to God and loquimini Diis, speak to them, whom God hath called Gods. As religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer; so those who have that sacred office, and those that have that honourable office to do so, are bound to speak to Kings by way of Counsil. God hath made all good men partakers of the divine nature; they are the sons of God, the seed of God; but God hath made kings partakers of his office and administration. And as between man and himself God hath put a Mediator, that consists of God and Man; so between Princes and People, God hath put Mediators too, who considered in themselves retain the nature of the people, (so Christ did of man) but considered in their places, have fair and venerable beams of his power and influences of him upon them. And as our Mediator, Christ Jesus, found always his Fathers ears open to him; so do the Church and State enter blessedly and succesfully by these Mediators into the ears of the King. Of our Mediator Christ himself it is said, that he offered up prayers, and strong cries, and tears; even Christ was put to some difficulties in his mediation for those that were his: but he was heard, says that Text, in that he feared: Even in those things wherein, in some emergent difficulties, they may be afraid they shall not, these mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too in their due discharge of their offices. That which was Davids prayer, is our possession, our happiness; Let not the foot of pride come against us; we know there is no pride in the head; and because there is no fault in the hands neither, that is, in them into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed, by the great places of power and counsel which they worthily hold, the foot of pride, foreign or home oppression does not, shall not tread us down. And for the continuation of this happiness, let me have leave to say with Mordechais humility and earnestness too, to all such mediators, that which he said to Esther, Who knows, whether thou beest not brought to this place for this purpose? to speak that which his sacred and gracious ears, to whom thou speakest, will always be well pleased to hear when it is delivered by them, to whom it belongs to speak it, and in such humble and reserved manner as such sovereign persons as owe no account but to God, should be spoke too? Sic loquimini Deo, so let Kings speak to God, (that was our first,) Sic loquimini Diis, so let them whom Kings trust speak to Kings, whom God hath called Gods, (that was our second) and then a third branch in this rule of our first duty, is, Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei, so speak you to Gods Images, to men of condition inferior to your selves, for they also are Images of God, as you are.

And this is truly, most literally the purpose of the Apostle here, that you undervalue no man for his outward appearance; that you over-value no man for his goodly apparel or gold rings; that you say not to a poor man stand thou here, or if you admit him to sit, sit here under my footstool: but it is a precept of accessibleness and of affability; affability, that is, a civility of the City of God and a courtship of the Court of Heaven to receive other men, the images of God, with the same easiness that God received you. God stands at the dor and knocks, and stays our leisure to see if we will open and let him in: even at the dor of his beloved he stood and knocked, till his head was filed mith dew, and his locks with the drops of the night: But God puts none of us to that which he puts himself and his Christ; but, knock, says he, and it shall be opened unto you; no staying at the dor, opened as soon as you knock. The neerest that our Expositors can come to find what it was that offended God, in Moses striking of the Rock for water, is, that he strook it twice; that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking; God is no inaccessible God, that he may not be come to, nor inexorable, that he will not be moved if he be spoken to, nor dilatory, that he does not that he does seasonably. Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum, as an old man; but that is as a reverend not as a froward person, Mens in Sermonibus nostris habitat, et gubernat verba: The soul of a man is incorporate in his words; as he speaks, we think he thinks: Et bonus pater familias in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur, says the same Father; as we believe that to be a free house where there is an easy entrance, so we doubt the less of a good heart if we find charitable and curteous language. But yet there is an excess in this too, in this self-effusion, this pouring of a mans self out in fair and promising language: In accessibleness is the fault which the Apostle aims at here: and truly the most inaccessible man that is, is the over-liberal and profuse promiser: he is therefore the most inaccessible, because he is absent, when I am come to him, and when I do speak with him: to a retired, to a reserved man we do not easily get; but when we are there he is there too: to an open and liberal promiser we get easily, but when we are with him he is away, because his heart, his purpose is not there; but Sic loquimini Deo, so speak ye to God (that's a remembrance to Kings) Sic loquimini Diis, so speak ye to them whom God hath called Gods, (that's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects,) Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei, so speak ye to Gods images, to all men (that's a remembrance to all that possess any superiority over others) as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite, your saying with doing, your good words with good actions; for so our Apostle joins them here, so speak ye, and so do ye; and so we are come to our second rule; from the rule of our words to the rule of our actions.

John Baptist was all voice, yet John Baptist was a fore-runner of Christ; the best words are but words; but they are the fore-runners of deeds. But Christ himself, as he was God himself, is purus actus, all action, all doing: comfortable words are good cordials; they revive the spirits, and they have the nature of such occasional physic: but deeds are our food, our diet, and that that constantly nourishes us. Non verbo, says the Apostle, Let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth; Not that we may not love in words, but that our deeds are the true seals of that love, which was also love when it was in words: But, Ne quod luxuriat in flore, attenuetur & habetetur in fructu, Least that tree, that blew early and plentifully, blast before it knit: Second your good words with actions too; It is the husbandry and the harvest of the righteous man, (as it is gathered in David) The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom: So we read it; there it is in the tongue, in words only; the vulgar hath it Meditatur, he meditates it; so the heart is got in; But the original Hagah, is noted to signify fructificavit, he brings forth fruits thereof, and so the hand is got in too; And, when that which is well spoken, was well meant, and hath been well expressed in action, thats the husbandry of the righteous man; then his harvest is all in; It is the way of God himself. Philo Judaeus notes, That the people are said to have seen the noise and the voice of God, because, whatsoever God says, it determines in action; If we may hear God we may see God; what he says he does too: Therefore from that example of God himself, Saint Gregory directs us; we must, says he, show our love, Et vaneratione sermonis, et ministerio largitatis, with a fair respect in words, and with a real supply in deeds: Nay, when we look upon our pattern, that is, God, Tertullian notes well, That God prevented his own speaking by doing; Benedicebat, quae benefaciebat, first he made all things good, and then he blessed them that they might be better; first he wrought and then he spoke: And so Christs way and proceeding is presented to us too; so far from not doing when he speaks, as that he does before he speaks. Christ began to do and to teach, says St. Luke, but first to do; And he was mighty in deeds and in words; but first in deeds. We cannot write so well as our copy, to begin always at deeds, as God and his Christ; but yet let us labor to write so fair after it, as first to afford comfortable words, and though our deeds come after, yet to have them from the beginning in our intention, and that we do them, not because we promised, but promise because we love to do good, and love to lay upon our selves the obligation of a promise. The instrument and organ of nature was the eye; the natural man finds God in that he sees; in the creature. The organ of the Law which exalted and erectified nature was the hand; Fac hoc et vives, perform the law and thou shalt live: So also, the organ of the Gospel is the ear, for faith comes by hearing; but then the organ of faith it self is the hand too; a hand that lays hold upon the merits of Christ for my self, and a hand that delivers me over to the Church of God in a holy life, and exemplary actions, for the edification of others: So that all, all from nature to grace determines in action, in doing good; Sic facite Deo, so do good to God, in real assisting his cause, Sic facite Diis, so do good to them, whom God hath called Gods, in real seconding their religious purposes, Sic facite imaginibus Dei, So do good to the images of God, in real relieving his distressed members, as that you do all this upon that which is made the reason of all, in the second part of this Text, Because you are to be judged by the law of liberty.

Timor futuri judicii hujus vitae paedagogus: Our School-master to teach us to stand upright in the last judgment, is the meditation and the fear of that judgment in this life. It is our school-master, and school-master enough, I said unto the fool, thus and thus, says David, And I said unto the wicked, thus and thus, says he: for, says he, God is the Judge; He thought it enough to enlighten the understanding of the fool, enough to rectify the perverseness of the wicked, if he could set God before them, in that notion, as a Judge. For this is one great benefit from the present contemplation of the future Judgment, that whosoever does truly and advisedly believe, that ever he will come to that Judgment, is at it now; he that believes that God will judge him, is Gods Commissioner, Gods delegate, and in his name Judges himself now. Therefore it is a useful mistaking, which the Roman translator is fallen into in this text; in reading it thus, Sicut incepientes Judicari, so speak ye, and so do, as they upon whom the Judgment were already begun; for qui timet ante Christi tribunal praesentari, he that is afraid to be brought to the last Judgment, hath but one refuge, but one Sanctuary; Ascendat tribunal mentis suae, et constituat se ante seipsum, let him cite himself before himself, give evidence himself, against himself; and so guilty as he is found here, so innocent he shall stand there. Let him proceed upon himself, as Job did, and he is safe; I am afraid of all my sorrows, says he, afraid that I have not said enough against my self, nor repented enough; afraid that my sorrows have not been sincere, but mingled with circumstances of loss of health, or honor, or fortune, occasioned by my sins, and not only, not principally for the sin it self; I am afraid of all my sorrows says he, but how much more then, of my mirths and pleasures? to judge our selves by the Judgment of flatterers, that depend upon us; to judge our selves by the event and success of things, (I am enriched, I am preferd by this course, and therefore all's well) to judge our selves by example of others, (others do thus, and why not I?) all these proceedings are Coram non Judice, all these are literally praemunire cases, for they are appellations into faraign Jurisdictions, and foreign Judicatures. Only our own conscience rectified, is a competent Judge; and they that have passed the trial of that Judgment, do not so much rise to Judgment at last, as stand and continue in Judgment: their Judgment, that is, their trial is passed here; and there they shall only receive sentence, and that sentence shall be, Euge bone serve, well done good and faithful servant, since thou didst enter into Judgment in the other world, enter into thy Masters joy in this. But howsoever we be prepared for that Judgment, well or not well, and howsoever the Judge be desposed towards us, well or not well, there is this comfort given us here, that that Judgment shall be per legem, by a law, we shall be judged by a law of liberty; which is our second branch, in this second part.

The Jews that prosecuted the Judgment against Christ, durst not do that, without pretending a law: habemus legem, say they, we have a law, and he hath transgressed that. The necessary precipitations into sudden executions, to which States are forced in rebellious time, we are fain to call by the name of law, martial law; the torrents and inundations, which invasive armies power upon nations, we are fain to call by the name of law, the law of arms. No Judgment, no execution without the name, the color, the pretence of law, for still men call for a law for every execution. And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? shall God Judge us, condemn us, execute us at the last day, and not by law? by something that we never saw, never knew, never notified, never published, and Judge me by that, and leave out the consideration of that law, which he bound me to keep? I ask St. Pauls question, Where is the disputer of the world? who will offer to dispute unnecessary things, especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us, to forbear such disputations? Blessed are the peace-makers that command, and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey, and accommodate themselves to peace, in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies; But without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; the Apostle invites us to search into on farther mysteries, then such as may be without controversy; the mystery of godliness is without controversy: and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a law, and to live according to that law. This, this godliness, (that is, knowledge and obedience to the law) hath the promises of this life, and the next too, all referred to his law: for without this, this godliness, (which is holiness) no man shall see God: all referred to a law. This is Christs Catechism in St. John, that we might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent, a God commanding, and a Christ reconciling us, if we have transgressed that commandment; and this is the holy Ghost's Catechism in St. Paul, Deus remunerator, that we believe God to be, and to be a just rewarder of mans actions; still all referred to an obedience, or disobedience of a law. The mystery of godliness is great, that is, great enough for our salvation, and yet without controversy. For though controversies have been moved about Gods first act, there can be none of his last act; though men have disputed of the object of election, yet of the subject of execution there is no controversy: no man can doubt, but that when God delivers over any soul actually, and by way of execution to eternal condemnation, that he delivers over that soul to that eternal condemnation, for breaking this law. In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad, the despairing soul; and it becomes us all, to lend our hand to his succor, and so pour in our wine and our oil, into his wounds, that lies weltering and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soul; that soul, who though it can testify to it self, some endeavor to the ways of holiness; yet upon some collatteral doubts, is still suspicious and jealous of God. How often have we seen, that a needless jealousy and suspicion conceived without cause, hath made a good body bad? a needless jealousy and suspicion of his purposes, and intentions upon thee, may make thy merciful God angry too. Nothing can alienate God more from thee, then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him. How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee, if thou wilt be unmerciful to God himself? And qui quid tyrannicum in Deo, He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice, and unmerciful to the God of mercy. Therefore in the 17th. of our injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against despair, by setting forth the mercy and the benefits, and the godliness of Almighty God: (as the word of the injunction is, the godliness of God;) for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soul, were to impute ungodliness to God. Therefore to that mistaking soul, that discomposed, that shivered, and shriveled, and ravelled and ruined soul, to that jealous and suspicious soul only, I say with the Apostle, let no man Judge you, intruding into those things which he hath not seen. Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God, which they have not, nor you have not seen; for that by which you shall be Judged, is the law, that law which was notified and published to you. The law alone were much too heavy, if there were not a suprabundant ease and alleviation in that hand, that Christ Jesus reaches out to us. O consider the weight and the ease; and for pity to such distrustful souls, and for establishing of your own, stop your devotions a little, upon this consideration: first, there is Chirograpbum, A hand writing of Ordinances against me; a debt, an obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience; and fallen upon me. And even that, (be it but original sin) is shrewd evidence; there's my first charge. But deletum est, says the Apostle there, that's blotted, thats defaced, that cannot be sued against me after baptism: nay sublatum cruci affixum, It is cancelled, it is naild to the Cross of Christ Jesus, it is no more sin, in it self it is; but to me to condemnation it is not; there's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is a heavier evidence; Pactum cum inferno, as the Prophet Isai speaks; I have made a Covenant with death, & with hell I am at an agreement; that is, says St. Gregory, Audacter, indesinentur peccamus, et diligendo, amicitiam profitemur: We sin constantly, and we sin continually, and we sin confidently, and we find so much pleasure and profit in sin, as that we have made a league, and sworn a friendship with sin; & we keep that perverse, & irreligious promise, over-religiously; & the sins of our youth flow into other sins, when age disables us for them. But yet there is a delectum est, in this case too, our Covenant with death is disannulled, (says that Prophet) when we are made partakers of the death of Christ, in the blessed Sacrament; mine actual sins lose their act, and mine habitual sins fall from me, as a habit as a garment put of, when I come to that; there's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is worse evidence against me, then either this Chirographum, the first hand writing of Adams hand, or then this pactum, this contract of mine own hand, actual and habitual sin, (for of these, one is washed out in water, and the other in blood, in the two Sacraments.) But then there is Lex in membris, saith the Apostle, I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me; Sin assisted by me, is now become a Tyrant over me; and hath established a government upon me, and therefore is a law of sin, and a law in my flesh, which after the water of baptism taken, and the water of penitent tears given; after the blood of Christ Jesus taken, and mine one blood given, (that is, a holy readiness at that time, when I am made partaker of Christs death, to die for Christ,) throws me back by relapses, into those repented sins. This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation, O wretched man that I am; and yet he found a deliverance, even from the body of his death through Jesus Christ his Lord, that is, a free and open recourse, and access to him in all oppressions of heart, in all dejections of spirit. Now, when this Chirographum, this band of Adams hand, Original sin, is cancelled upon the Cross of Christ, and this pactum, this band of mine own hand, actual sins, washed away in the blood of Christ, and this Lex in membris, this disposition to relapse into repented sins, (which as a tide that does certainly come every day, does come every day, in one form or other) is beaten back (as a tide by a bank) by a continual opposing the merits, and the example of Christ Jesus, and the practice of his fasting, & such other medicinal disciplines, as I find to prevail against such relapses, when by this blessed means the whole law, against which I am a trespasser, is evacuated, will God condemn me for all this, and not by a law? when I have pleaded Christ, & Christ, and Christ baptism, and blood and tears, will God condemn mean oblique way, when he cannot by a direct way? by a secret purpose, when he hath no law to condemn me by? Sad and discomposed, distorted and distracted soul; if it be well said in the School, absurdum est disputare ex manuscriptis, it is an unjust thing, in controversies and disputations, to press arguments out of manuscripts, that cannot be seen by every man; it were ill said in thy conscience, that God will proceed against thee, ex manuscriptis, or condemn thee upon any thing, which thou never sawst, any unrevealed purpose of his. Suspicious soul, ill-presaging soul, is there something else besides the day of Judgment, that the Son of man does not know? disquiet soul, does he not know the proceeding of that Judgment, wherin himself is to be Judge? but that when he hath died for thy sins, and so fulfilled the law in thy behalf, thou mayst be condemned without respect of that law, and upon something, that shall have had no consideration, no relation to any such breach, of any such law in thee? Intricated entangled conscience, Christ tells thee of a Judgment, because thou didst not do the works of mercy, not feed, not cloth the poor: for these were enjoined thee by a law; but he never tells thee of any Judgment therefore, because thy name was written in a dark book of death, never unclapsed, never opened unto thee in thy life. He says to the lovingly & indulgently, fear not, for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; but he never says to the wickedest in the world, live in fear, dy in anxiety, in suspicion and suspension, for his displeasure; a displeasure conceived against you before you were sinners, before you were men, hath thrown you out of that kingdom into utter darkness. There is no condemnation to them, that are in Christ Jesus, The reason is added, because the law of the Spirit of life hath made them free from the law of sin and of death: All, upon all sides, is still referred to a law. And where there is no law against thee, (as there is not to him that is in Christ; and he is in Christ, who hath endeavoured the keeping or repented the breaking of the law) God will never proceed to execution by any secret purpose ever notified, never manifested. Suspicious, jealous, scattered soul recollect thy self, and give thy self that redintegration, that acquiescence which the spirit of God, in the means of the Church offers thee, study the mystery of godliness which is without all controversy, that is, endeavor to keep, repent the not keeping of the law and thou art safe, for that you shall be judged by, is a law. But then this law, is called here a law of liberty; and whether that denotation, that it is called a law of liberty, import an ease to us or heavier weight upon us, is our last disquisition and conclusion of all; So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

That the Apostle here by the law of liberty means the Gospel was never doubted; he had called the Gospel so before this place; whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, shall be blessed in his deed; that is, blessed in doing so, blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel; but why does he call it so, A law of liberty? not because men naturally affecting liberty, might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel by proposing it, in that specious name of liberty, though it were not so. The holy Ghost calls the Gospel a pearl, and a treasure, and a kingdom, and joy, and glory; Not to allure men with false names, but because men love these; and the Gospel is truly all these, a pearl, and a treasure, and a kingdom, and joy, and glory; And it is truly a law of liberty; but of what kind, and in what respect? not such a liberty as they have established in the Roman Church, where Ecclesiastical liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State, and from being traitors, though they commit treason, because they are Subjects to no secular Prince; nor the liberty of the Anabaptist that overthrows Magistracy, and consequently all subjection both Ecclesiastical & Laick for when upon those words, Be ye not servants of men, St. Chrysostom says, This is Christian liberty, Nec aliis, nec sibi servire, neither to be subjects to others nor to our selves, that's spoken with modification an allegiance with relation to our first allegiance, to God; not to be so subject to others, or to our selves, as that either for their sakes or our own, we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God.

First then, the Gospel is a Law of Liberty, in respect of the author of the Gospel of God himself, because it leaves God at his liberty: Not at liberty to judge against his Gospel, where he hath manifested it for a law; for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself to judge according to that law, where he hath published that law: But at liberty so, as that it consists only in his good pleasure, to what nation he will publish the gospel, or in what nation he will continue the gospel, or upon what persons he will make this gospel effectual. So Oecumenius, (who is no single witness, nor speaks not alone, but compiles the former Fathers) places this liberty in God, That God is at liberty to give this gospel where he will, and at liberty so, as that he hath exempted no man, how well soever he love him, nor put any such fetters or manicles upon himself, but that he can and will punish those that transgress this law. So it is a law of liberty to God; nothing determined upon any man, nothing concluded in himself, lies so in Gods way, as to hinder him from proceeding in his last judgment, according to the keeping or breaking of this law; still God is at liberty.

And it is a law of liberty in respect of us: Of us, who are Christians; and considered so, either with a respect to the natural man, or with a respect to the Jew; for, if we compare the Christian with the natural man, the law of nature lays the same obligation upon the natural man, as the gospel does upon the Christian, for the moral part thereof. The christian is no more bound to love God, nor his neighbor, than the natural man is; therein the natural man hath no more liberty, than the christian; So far their law is equal: And then, all the law, which the christian hath and the natural man hath not, is a law of liberty to the christian, that is, a law that gives him an ease and a readier way to perform those duties; which way the natural man hath not, and yet is bound to the same duties. The natural man, if he trangress that law which he finds in his own heart, finds a condemnation in himself, as well as the christian; therein he is no freer than the christian: But he finds no Sanctuary, no Altar, no Sacrifice, no Church, no such liberty as the Christian does in the Gospel. So the Gospel is a law of liberty to us, in respect of the natural man, that it sets us at liberty, restores us to liberty after we are fallen into prison for debt, into Gods displeasure for sin, by affording us means of reconciliation to God again.

It is so also in respect of the law given by God to the Jews: The Jews had liberties; that is, refuge and help of sacrifices for sin, which the natural man had not: For, if the natural man were driven and followed from his own heart, that he saw no comfort of an innocency there, he had no other liberties to fly to, no comfort in any other thing, no law, no promise annexed to any other action; not to Sacrifice as the Jew, or to Sacrament as the Christian, but must irremediably sink under the condemnation of his own heart. The Jew had this liberty, a law; and a law, that involved the Gospel; But then the gospel was to the Jew but as a letter sealed, and the Jew was but as a servant who was trusted to carry the letter as it was sealed to another, to carry it to the Christian. Now the Christian hath received this letter at the Jews hand, and he opens it; he sees the Jews prophecy made history to him; The Jews hope, and reversion made possession and inheritance to him; he sees the Jews faith made matter of fact; he sees all that was promised and represented in the law, performed and recorded in the Gospel, and applied in the Church: there Christ says, Hence forth call I not you servants, but friends; wherein consists this enfranchisement? In this; The servant knoweth not what his master doth; (The Jews knew not that) But I have called you friends, says Christ; For all things that I heard of my father, I have made known unto you. The law made nothing perfect, says the Apostle, Where was the defect? He tells us that, The old covenant (that is the law) gendreth to bondage; what bondage? he tells us that too, when he says, The law was a schoolmaster. The Jews were as school-boys, always spelling and putting together types and figures, with things typified and figured: How this Lamb should signify Christ, how this fire should signify a holy Ghost. The Christian is come from school to the University; from grammer to logic; to him that is Logos, it self, the word; to apprehend and apply Christ himself; and so is at more liberty, than when he had only a dark law, without any comment with the natural man, or only a dark comment, that is, the law with a dim light, and ill eyes, as the Jews had; for though the Jew had the liberty of alaw, yet they had not the law of liberty. So the gospel is a law of liberty to God, who is still at his liberty, to give and take, and to condemn according to that law; and a law of liberty to us, as we are compared to the natural man, or to the Jew. But when we confine our selves in our selves, positively without comparison, it is not such a law of liberty to us, as some men have come to a neer, saying, That the sins of Gods children do them no harm; That God sees not the sins of his children; that God was no farther out with David in his adultery, than in his repentance; but as to be born within the covenant, that is, of christian parents, does not make us christians, (for, Non nascitur, sed renascitur, Christianus,) The covenant gives us a title to the Sacrament of Baptism, and that sacrament makes us christians; so this law of liberty gives us not a liberty to sin, but a liberty from sin, Noli libertate abuti, ad libere peccandum, says the same Father, It is not a liberty, but an impotency, a slavery to sin: Voluntas libera, quae pia, says, he, only a holy soul, is a free soul, Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, says the Apostle: And, Splendidissimum in se quisque habet speculum, Every man hath, a glass, a crystal, into which, though he cannot cal up this spirit, (for the spirit of God breaths where it pleases him) yet he can see this spirit if he be there in that glass: Every man hath a glass in himself, where he may see himself, and the Image of God, says that Father, and see how like he is to that: To dare to reflect upon my self, and to search all the corners of mine own conscience, whether I have rightly used this law of liberty, and neither been bold before a sin, upon presumption of an easy, nor diffident after, upon suspicion of an impossible reconciliation to my God, this is Evangelical liberty.

So then, (to end all) Though it be a law of liberty, because it gives me better means of prevention before, and of restitution after, than the natural man or Jew had, yet we consider, that it is the law of liberty, this law, that hath afforded us these good helps, by which we shall be judged; And so though our case be better than theirs, because we have this law of liberty which they wanted, yet our case grows heavier than theirs if we use it not aright. The Jews shall be under a heavier condemnation than the natural man, because they had more liberty, that is, more means of avoiding sin than the natural man had, and upon the same reason, the christian under a heavier condemnation than either, because he shall be judged by the law of liberty.

What Judgement then gives this law? This; Qui non crediderit, damnabitur; So says this law, in the law-makers mouth, He that believes not shall be damned. And as no less light than faith it self, can show you what faith is, what it is to believe; so no less time than damnation shall last, can show you what damnation is: For the very form of damnation is the everlastingness of it: And, qui non crediderit, he that believeth not shall be damned; there is no commutation of penance, nor beheading after a sentence of a more ignominious death in that Court. Doest thou believe that thou doest believe? yet this law takes not that answer; This law of liberty takes the liberty to look farther; through faith into works; for so says the law, in the mouth of the law-maker, To whom much is given, of him much shall be required. Hast thou considered every new title of honor, and every new addition of office, every new step into higher places, to have laid new duties, and new obligations upon thee? hast thou doubled the hours of thy prayers when thy preferments are doubled, and increased thine alms according as thy revenues are increased? hast thou done something, done much in this kind? this law will not be answered so; this law of liberty takes the liberty to call upon thee for all. Here also the law says, in the mouth of the law-maker, If thou have agreed with many adversaries, says Christ, (let that be if thou have satisfied many duties; (for duties are adversaries, that is, temptations upon us) yet as long as thou hast one adversary, agree with that adversary quickly in the way; leave no duty undischarged nor unrepented in this life. Beloved, we have well delivered our selves of the fear of Purgatory; None of us fear that; but another mistaking hath overtaken us, and we flatter our selves with another danger, that is, compensation; That by doing well in one place, our ill doing in another is recompensed. An ill officer looks to be saved because he is a good husband to his wife; a good father to his children; a good master to his servants; and he thinks he hath three to one for his salvatien. But as nature requires the qualities of every element, which thou art composed of; so this law of liberty calls upon thee, for the exercises of all those virtues, that appertain to every particular place thou holdst. This liberty, this law of liberty takes, It binds thee to believe Christ, all Christ, Gods Christ, as he was the eternal Son of the Father, God of God; our Christ, as he was made man for our salvation; and thy Christ, as his blessed spirit, in this his ordinance applies him to thee, and offers him into thine armes this minute. And then to know that he looks for a retribution from thee, in that measure in which he dealt with thee, much for much; and for several kinds of good, according to those several good things which he hath done for thee: And if thou be first defective in these, and then defective in laying hold upon him, who is the propitiation and satisfaction for thy defects in these: This law of liberty returns to her liberty, to pronounce, and the Judge to his liberty to execute that sentence, Damnaberis, thou wilt be cast into prison, where thou must pay the last farthing; thou must; for Christ dies not there; and therefore there thou must lie till there come such another ransom as Christ; nay a greater ransom than Christ was, for Christ paid no debts in that prison: This then is the christians case, and this is the abridgment of his Religion, Sic loquimini, Sic facite; To speak aright, and to do aright; to profess the truth and not be afraid nor ashamed of that, and to live according to that profession: For no man can make God the author of sin; but that man comes as neer it as he can, that makes Gods religion a cloak for his sin. To this God proceeds not merely, and only by commandment, but by persuasion too; and though he be not bound to do so, yethe does give a reason: The reason is, because we must give account of both; both of actions and of words; of both we shall be judged; But judged by a law, a law which excludes on Gods part, any secret ill purpose upon us, if we keep his law; A law which excludes on our part, all pretence of ignorance; for no man can plead ignorance of a law. And then, a law of liberty; of liberty to God; for God was not bound to save a man because he made him, but of his own goodness, he vouchsafed him a law, by which he may be saved: A law of liberty to us; so that there is no Epicurism, to do what we list; no such liberty as makes us libertins; for then there were no law, nor Stoicism, nor fatality, that constrains us to do that we would not do, for then there were no liberty. But the Gospel is such a law of liberty as delivers us, upon whom it works, from the necessity of falling into the bondage of sin, before, and from the impossibility of recovering after, if we be fallen into that bondage. And this is liberty enough: And of this liberty our blessed God give us the right use, for his son Christ Jesus sake by the operation of that holy Ghost that proceeds from both.

Amen.

A Sermon Preached to Queen Anne, at Denmark-house. Serm. 18. December. 14. 1617. Sermon XVIII.

Proverbs 8.17.

I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me.

AS the Prophets, and the other Secretaries of the holy Ghost in penning the books of Scriptures, do for the most part retain, and express in their writings some impressions, and some air of their former professions; those that had been bred in Courts and Cities, those that had been Shepherds and Heardsmen, those that had been Fishers, and so of the rest; ever inserting into their writings some phrases, some metaphors, some allusions, taken from that profession which they had exercised before; so that soul, that hath been transported upon any particular worldly pleasure, when it is entirely turned upon God, and the contemplation of his all-sufficiency and abundance, doth find in God fit subject, and just occasion to exercise the same affection piously, and religiously, which had before so sinfully transported, and possest it.

A covetous person, who is now truly converted to God, he will exercise a spiritual covetousness still, he will desire to have him all, he will have good security, the seal and assurance of the holy Ghost; and he will have his security often renewed by new testimonies, and increases of those graces in him; he will have witnesses enough; he will have the testimony of all the world, by his good life and conversation; he will gain every way at Gods hand, he will have wages of God, for he will be his servant; he will have a portion from God, for he will be his Son; he will have a reversion, he will be sure that his name is in the book of life; he will have pawns, the seals of the Sacraments, nay, he will have a present possession; all that God hath promised, all that Christ hath purchased, all that the holy Ghost hath the stewardship and dispensation of, he will have all in present, by the appropriation and investiture of an actual and applying faith; a covetous person converted will be spiritually covetous still.

So will a voluptuous man, who is turned to God, find plenty and deliciousnes enough in him, to feed his soul, as with marrow, and with fatness, as David expresses it; and so an angry and passionate man, will find zeal enough in the house of God to eat him up.

All affections which are common to all men, and those to which in particular, particular men have been adicted to, shall not only be justly employed upon God, but also securely employed, because we cannot exceed, nor go too far in employing them upon him. According to this Rule, St. Paul, who had been so vehement a persecutor, had ever his thoughts exercised upon that; and thereupon after his conversion, he fulfils the rest of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh, he suffers most, he makes most mention of his suffering of any of the Apostles.

And according to this Rule too, Solomon, whose disposition was amorous, and excessive in the love of women, when he turned to God, he departed not utterly from his old phrase and language, but having put a new, and a spiritual tincture, and form and habit in all his thoughts, and words, he conveys all his loving approaches and applications to God, and all Gods gracious answers to his amorous soul, into songs, and Epithalamians, and meditations upon contracts, and marriages between God and his Church, and between God and his soul; as we see so evidently in all his other writings, and particularly in this text, I love them, &c.

In which words is expressed all that belongs to love, all which, is to desire, and to enjoy; for to desire without fruition, is a rage, and to enjoy without desire is a stupidity: In the first alone we think of nothing, but that which we then would have; and in the second alone, we are not for that, when we have it; in the first, we are without it; in the second, we were as good we were, for we have no pleasure in it; nothing then can give us satisfaction, but where those two concurr, amare and frui, to love and to enjoy.

In sensual love it is so; Quid erat quod me delectabat nisi amare et amari? I take no joy in this world, but in loving, and in being beloved; in sensual love it is so, but in sensual love, when we are come so far; there is no satisfaction in that; the same Father confesseth more of himself, then any Commission, any oath would have put him to, Amatus sum, et perveni occulte ad fruendum, I had all I desired, and I had it with that advantage of having it secretly; but what got I by all that, Ut caederer virgis ardentibus ferreis, zeli suspicionis et rixarum; nothing but to be scourged with burning iron rods, rods of jealousy, of suspicion, and of quarrels; but in the love and enjoying of this text, there is no room for Jealousy, nor suspicion, nor quarrelsome complaining.

In this text then you may be pleased to consider these two things, Quid amare, quid frui, what the affection of this love is, what is the blessedness of this enjoying; but in the first of these, we must first consider the persons, who are the lovers in this text; for there are persons that are incredible, though they say they love, because they are accustomed to falsehood; and there are persons which are unrequitable, though they be believed to love, because they love not where, & as they should. When we have found the persons, in a second consideration we shall look upon the affection it self, what is the love in this text; and then after that, upon the bond, and union and condition of this love, that it is mutual, I love them that love me; and having passed those three branches of the first part, we shall in the second, which is enjoying, consider first, that this enjoying, is expressed in the word finding; and then that this finding requires two conditions, a seeking, and an early seeking, And they that seek me early shall find me.

The Person that professes love in this place is wisdom her self, as appears at the beginning of the Chapter; so that sapere et amare, to be wise & to love, which perchance never met before nor since, are met in this text: but whether this wisdom, so frequently mentioned in this book of Proverbs, be sapientia creata or increat, whether it be the wisdom, or the root of wisdom, Christ Jesus, hath been diversly debated: the occasion grew in that great Council of Nice, where the Catholic Fathers understood this wisdom, to be intended of Christ himself, and then the Arrian heretics pressed some places of this book, where such things seemed to them to be spoken of wisdom, as could not be appliable to any but to a Creature; and that therefore if Christ were this wisdom, Christ must necessarily be a Creature, and not God.

We will not dispute those things over again now, they are clearly enough, & largely enough set down in that Council; but since there is nothing said of wisdom in all this book, which hath not been by good expositors applied to Christ, much more may we presume the lover in this text, (though presented in the name of wisdom) to be Christ himself, and so we do.

To show the constancy and durableness of this love, the lover is a he, that is Christ; to show the vehemency and earnestness of it, the lover is a she, that is wisdom, as it is often expressed in this Chapter, she crieth, she uttereth her voice; yea in one place of the Bible (and only in that one place I think) where Moses would express an extraordinary, and vehement and passionate indignation in God against his people, when as it is in that text, his wrath was kindled, and grievously kindled, there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex, and speaks to God in the original language, as if he should have called him Deam Iratam, an angry she God; all that is good then, either in the love of man or woman is in this love; for he is expressed in both sexes, man and woman; and all that can be ill in the love of either sex, is purged away, for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus, and the woman no other woman, then wisdom her self, even the uncreated wisdom of God himself.

Now all this is but one person, the person that professes love; who is the other, who is the beloved of Christ, is not so easily discerned: in the love between persons in this world, and of this world, we are often deceived with outward signs; we often mis-call and mis-judge civil respects, and mutual courtesies; and a delight in one another's conversation, and such other indifferent things, as only malignity, and curiosity, and self-guiltiness, makes to be misinterpretable, we often call these love; but neither amongst our selves, much less between Christ and our selves, are these outward appearances always signs of love.

This person then, this beloved soul, is not every one, to whom Christ sends a loving message, or writs too; for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all; not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so, for so he doth to all; As I live (saith the Lord) I would not the death of a Sinner; not every one that he sends jewels, and presents to; for they are often snares to corrupt, as well as arguments of love; not though he admit them to his table and supper, for even there the Devil entered into Judas with a sop; not though he receive them to a kiss, for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him; not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews, sponsabo te mihi in aeternum; not though he make jointures, in pacto salis, in a covenant of salt, an everlasting covenant; not though he have communicated his name to them, which is an act of marriage; for to how many hath he said: ego dixit Dii estis, I have said you are Gods; and yet they have been reprobates; not all these outward things amount so far, as to make us discern who is this beloved person; for himself says of the Israelites, to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love, yet after, for their abominations, devorced himself from them, I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine own heritage, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. To conclude this person beloved of Christ, is only that soul, that loves Christ; but that belongs to the third branch of this first part, which is the mutual love: but first having found the person, we are to consider the affection it self, the love of this text; it is an observation of Origens, that though these three words, Amor, Dilectio, and Charitas, love, and affection, and good will, be all of one signification in the sctiptures, yet says he, wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love, the scripture forbears the word love, and uses either affection, or good will; and where there is no such danger, the scripture comes directly to this word love, of which Origens examples are, that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca, and Jacob upon Rachel, in both places it is dilexit, and not amavit; and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved, it is not to tel him that she was in love, but to tell him, quod vulneratae charitatis sum; that I am wounded with an affection & good will towards him; but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul, there is evermore a free use of this word, Amor, love; because it is even in the first apprehension, a pure, a chaste, and an undefiled love, Eloquia Dominis casta, says David, All the words of the Lord, and all their words that love the Lord, all discourses, all that is spoken to or from the soul, is all full of chaste love, and of the love of chastity.

Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition, yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools, Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est, love is nothing but a desire, that they whom we love should be happy: we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text, when he that wishes us this good, by loving us, is author of all good himself, and may give us as much as pleases him, without impairing his own infinite treasure; He loves us as his ancient inheritance, as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world, which he created for us: He loves us more as his purchase, whom he hath bought with his blood; for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting; But he loves us most for our improvement, when by his ploughing up of our hearts, and the dew of his grace, and the seed of his word, we come to give greater cent, in the fruit of sanctification than before. And since he loves us thus, and that in him, this love is velle bonum, a desire that his beloved should be happy, what soul amongst us shall doubt, that when God hath such an abundant, and infinite treasure, as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus, sufficient to save millions of worlds, and yet, many millions in this world (all the heathen excluded from any interest therein) when God hath a kingdom so large, as that nothing limits it, and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof, even those legions of Angels which were created in it, and are fallen from it; what soul amongst us shall doubt, but that he that hath thus much, and loves thus much, will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdom of heaven? No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self, and be so still, that it love not Christ Jesus, for that's a condition necessary: And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order; that this love be mutual, I love them, &c.

If any man loves not our Lord Jesus, let him be accursed, says the Apostle; Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love; he that loves not at all is first accursed. That stupid inconsideration, which passes on drowsily, and negligently upon Gods creatures, that sullen indifferency in ones disposition, to love one thing no more than another, not to value, not to choose, not to prefer, that stoniness, that in humanity, not to be affected, not to be entendred, to wear those things which God hath made objects and subjects of affections; that which St. Paul places in the bottom, and lees, and dregs of all the sins of the Jews, to be without natural affections, this distemper, this ill complexion, this ill nature of the soul, is under the first part of this curse, if any man love not; for he that loves not, knows not God, for God is love.

But this curse determins not upon that, neither is it principally directed upon that, not loving; for as we say in the schools, Amor est primus actus voluntatis, the first thing that the will of man does, is to affect, to choose, to love something; and it is scarce possible to find any mans will so idle, so barren, as that it hath produced no act at all; and therefore the first act being love, scarce any man can be found, that doth not love something: But the curses extends, yea is principally intended upon him that loves not Christ Jesus; though he love the creature, and orderly enough yea; though he love God, as a great and incomprehensible power, yet if he love not Christ Jesus, if he acknowledg not, that all that passes between God and him, is in, and for Christ Jesus, let him be accursed, for all his love.

Now there are but two that can be loved, God and the Creature: and of the creatures, that must necessarily be best loved, which is neerest us, which we understand best and reflect most upon, and that's our selves; for, for the love of other creatures, it is but a secondary love; if we love God, we love them for his sake; if we love our selves, we love them for our sakes: Now to love our selves is only allowable, only proper to God himself; for this love is a desire, that all honor, and praise, and glory should be attributed to ones self, and it can be only proper to God to desire that: To love our selves then, is the greatest treason we can commit against God; and all love of the creatures, determines in the love of our selves: for though sometimes we may say, that we love them better than our selves; and though we give so good (that is indeed, so ill testimony) that we do so, that we neglect our selves, both our religion and our discretion for their sakes, whom we pretend to love, yet all this is but a secondary love, and with relation still to our selves and our own contentments: for is this love which we bear to other creatures, within that definition of love, Velle bonum amato, to wish that which we love happy; doth any ambitious man love honor or office therefore, because he thinks that title, or that place should receive a dignity by his having it, or an excellency by his executing it? doth any covetous man love a house or horse therefore, because he thinks that house or horse should be happy in such a Master or such Rider? doth any licentious man covet or solicit a woman therefore, because he thinks it a happiness to her, to have such a servant? No, it is only himself that is within the difinition, vult bonum sibi, he wishes well (as he mistakes it) to himself, and he is content, that the slavery, and dishonor, and ruin of others should contribute to make up his imaginary happiness.

O dementiam nescientem amare homines humaniter! what a perverse madness is it, to love a creature and not as a creature, that is, with all the adjuncts, and circumstances, and qualities of a creature, of which the principal is that, that love raise us to the contemplation of the Creator; for if it be so, we may love our selves, as we are the Images of God; and so we may love other men, as they are the Images of us, and our nature; yea, as they are members of the same body; for omnes homines una humanitas, all men make up but one mankind, and so we love other creatures, as we all meet in our Creator, in whom Princes and Subjects, Angels and men, and worms are fellow servants.

Si malè amaveris tunc odisti? If thou hast loved thy self, or any body else principally? or so, that when thou dost any act of love, thou canst not say to thine own conscience, I do this for Gods sake, and for his glory; if thou hast loved so, thou hast hated thy self, and him whom thou hast loved, and God whom thou shouldest love.

Si bonè oderis, says the same Father, If thou hast hated as thou shouldst hate, if thou hast hated thine own internal temptations, and the outward solicitations of others, Amasti, then thou hast expressed a manifold act of love, of love to thy God, and love to his Image, thy self, and love to thine Image, that man whom thy virtue and thy example hath declined, and kept from offending his, and thy God.

And as this affection, love, doth belong to God principally, that is, rather then to any thing else, so doth it also principally, another way, that is, rather then any affection else; for, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, but the love of God is the consummation, that is, the marriage, and union of thy soul, and thy Savior.

But can we love God when we will? do we not find, that in the love of some other things, or some courses of life, of some ways in our actions, and of some particular persons, that we would fain love them, & cannot? when we can object nothing against it, when we can multiply arguments, why we should love them, yet we cannot: but it is not so towards God; every man may love him, that will; but can every man have this will, this desire? certainly we cannot begin this love; except God love us first, we cannot love him; but God doth love us all so well, from the beginning, as that every man may see the fault was in the perverseness of his own will, that he did not love God better. If we look for the root of this love, it is in the Father; for, though the death of Christ be towards us, as a root, as a cause of our love, and of the acceptableness of it, yet, Meritum Christi est affectum amoris Dei erga nos, the death of Christ was but an effect of the love of God towards us, So God loved the world that he gave his Son: if he had not loved us first, we had never had his Son; here is the root then, the love of the Father, and the tree, the merit of the Son; except there be fruit too, love in us, to them again, both root and tree will wither in us, howsoever they grew in God. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, (says God) therefore with mercy I have drawn thee, if therefore we do not perceive, that we are drawn to lov again by this lov, 'tis not an everlasting lov, that shines upon us

All the sunshine, all the glory of this life, though all these be testimonies of Gods love to us, yet all these bring but a winters day, a short day, and a cold day, and a dark day, for except we love too, God doth not love with an everlasting love: God will not suffer his love to be idle, and since it profits him nothing, if it profits us nothing neither, he will withdraw it; Amor Dei ut lumen ignis, ut splendor solis, ut odor lucis, non praebenti proficit, sed utenti, The sun hath no benefit by his own light, nor the fire by his own heat, nor a perfume by the sweetness thereof, but only they who make their use, and enjoy this heat and fragrancy; And this brings us to our other part, to pass from loving to enjoying.

Tulerunt Dominum meum, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him; this was one strain of Mary Magdalens lamentation, when she found not her Savior in the monument: It is a lamentable case to be fain to cry so, Tulerunt, They have taken, other men have taken away Christ, by a dark and corrupt education, which was the state of our Fathers to the Roman captivity. But when the abjecerunt Dominum, which is so often complained of by God in the Prophets, is pronounced against thee, when thou hast had Christ offered to thee, by the motions of his grace, and sealed to thee by his Sacraments, and yet wilt cast him so far from thee, that thou knowest not where to find him, when thou hast poured him out at thine eyes in profane and counterfeit tears, which should be thy souls rebaptization for thy sins, when thou hast blown him away in corrupt and ill intended sighs, which should be gemitus columbae, the voice of the Turtle, to sound thy peace and reconciliation with thy God; yea when thou hast spit him out of thy mouth in execrable and blaphemous oaths; when thou hast not only cast him so far, as that thou knowest not where to find him, but hast made so ordinary and so indifferent a thing of sin, as thou knowest not when thou didst lose him, no nor dost not remember that ever thou hadst him; no, nor dost not know that there is any such man, as Dominus tuus, a Jesus, that is, thy Lord. The Tulerunt is dangerous, when others hide Christ from thee; but the abjecerunt is desperate, when thou thy self doest cast him away.

To lose Christ may befall the most righteous man that is; but then he knows where he left him; he knows at what sin he lost his way, and where to seek it again; even Christs imagined Father and his true mother, Joseph and Mary, lost him, and lost him in the holy City, at Jerusalem; they lost him and knew it not, they lost him and went a days journey without him, and thought him to be in the company; but as soon as they deprehended their error, they sought and they found him, when as his mother told him, his father and she had sought with a heavy heart: Alas we may lose him at Jerusalem, even in his own house, even at this present, whilst we pretend to do him service; we may lose him, by suffering our thoughts to look back with pleasure upon the sins which we have committed, or to look forward with greedines upon some sin that is now in our purpose & prosecution; we may lose him at Jerusalem, how much more, if our dwelling be a Rome of Superstition and Idolatry, or if it be a Babylon in confusion, and mingling God and the world together, or if it be a Sodom, a wanton and intemperate misuse of Gods benefits to us, we may think him in the company when he is not, we may mistake his house, we may take a Conventicle for a Church; we may mistake his apparel, that is, the outward form of his worship; we may mistake the person, that is, associate our selves to such as are no members of his body: But if we do not return to our diligence to seek him, and seek him, and seek him with a heavy heart, though we begun with a Tulerunt, other men, other temptations took him away, yet we end in an abjecerunt, we our selves cast him away, since we have been told where to find him, and have not sought him: And let no man be afraid to seek or find him for fear of the loss of good company; Religion is no sullen thing, it is not a melancholy, there is not so sociable a thing as the love of Christ Jesus.

It was the first word which he who first found Christ of all the Apostles, Saint Andrew, is noted to have said, Invenimus Messiam, we have found the Messiah, and it is the first act that he is noted to have done, after he had found him, to seek his brother Peter, & duxit ad Jesum, so communicable a thing is the love of Jesus, when we have found him.

But when are we likeliest to find him? It is said by Moses, of the words and precepts of God. They are not hid from thee, neither are far off, Not in heaven that thou shouldst say; Who shall go up to heaven for us to bring them down? nor beyond the Seas, that thou shouldst go over the Sea for them; but the word is very neer thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; and so neer thee is Christ Jesus, or thou shalt never find him; Thou must not so think him in heaven, as that thou canst not have immediate access to him without intercession of others, nor so beyond Sea, as to seek him in a forrein Church, either where the Church is but an Antiquaries Cabinet, full of rags and fragments of antiquity, but nothing fit for that use for which it was first made, or where it is so new a built house with bare walls, that it is yet unfurnished of such Ceremonies as should make it comly and reverend; Christ is at home with thee, he is at home within thee, and there is the neerest way to find him.

It is true, that Christ in the beginning of this chapter, shadowed under the name of wisdom, when he discovers where he may be found, speaks in the person of humane wisdom as well as divine, Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding utter her voice? wherthose two words, Wisdom and Understanding, signify Sapientiam, and Prudentiam; That wisdom whose object is God, and that which concerns our conversation in this world; for Christ hath not taken so narrow a dwelling, as that he may be found but one way, or in one profession; for in all professions, in all Nations, in all vocations, when all our actions in our several courses are directed principally upon his glory, Christ is eminent, and may easily be found. To that purpose in that place, Christ, in the person of wisdom, offers himself to be found in the tops of high places, and in the gates of Cities; to show that this Christ, and this wisdom which must save our Souls, is not confined to Cloysters and Monasteries, and speculative men only, but is all so evidently and eminently to be found in the Courts of religious Princes, in the tops of high places, and in the Courts of Justice (in the gates of the City) Both these kinds of Courts may have more directions from him then other places; but yet in these places he is also gloriously and conspicuously to be found; for wheresoever he is, he cries aloud, as the Text says there, and he utters his voice. Now Temptations to sin, are all but whisperings, & we are afraid that a husband, that a father, that a competitor, that a rival, a pretender, at least the Magistrate may hear of it: Temptations to sin are all but whisperings; private Conventicles and clandestine worshipping of God in a forbidden manner, in corners, are all but whisperings; It is not the voice of Christ, except thou hear him cry aloud, and utter his voice, so as thou mayst confidently do whatsoever he commands thee, in the eye of all the world; he is every where to be found, he calls upon thee every where, but yet there belongs a diligence on thy part, thou must seek him.

Isaiah is hold (saith St. Paul) and says, I was found of them that sought me not, when that Prophet derives the love of God to the Gentiles, who could seek God no where but in the book of Creatures, and were destitute of all other lights to seek him by, and yet God was found by them; Isaiah is bold (cries the Apostle) that is, It was a great degree of confidence in Isaiah, to say; That God was found of them that sought him not: It was a boldness and confidence, which no particular man may have; that Christ will be found, except he be sought; he gives us light to seek him by, but he is not found till we have sought him; It is true that in that Commandment of his, Primum quaerite Regnum Dei; First seek the Kingdom of God; the primum is not to prevent God, that we should seek it before he shows it, that's impossible; without the light of Grace we dwell in darkness, and in the shadow of death; but the primum is; That we should seek it before we seek any thing else, that when the Sun of Grace is risen to us, the first thing that we do be to seek Christ Jesus: Querite me & vivetis, Seek me and ye shall live, why? we were alive before, else we could not seek him, but it is a promise of another life, of an eternal life, if we seek him, and seek him early, which is our last consideration.

The word there used for early, signifies properly Auroram, the Morning, and is usually transfered in Scriptures to any beginning of any action; so in particular, Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know, Shakrah, the morning, the beginning of it; And therefore this Text is elegantly translated by one, Aurorantes ad me, They that have their break of day towards me, they that send forth their first morning beams towards me, their first thoughts they shall be sure to find me. St. Jerome expresses this early diligence, required in us, well in his translation, qui mane vigilaverint; They that wake betimes in the morning shall find me; but the Chaldee Paraphrase better, qui mane consurgunt, they that rise betimes in the morning shall find me; for which of us doth not know that we waked long ago, that we saw day and had heretofore some motions to find Christ Jesus: But though we were awake, we have kept our bed still, we have continued still in our former sins; so that there is more to be done then waking: we see the Spouse her self says, In my bed, by night, I sought him whom my Soul loved, but I found him not; Christ may be sought in the bed, and missed; other thoughts may exclude him; and he may be sought there and found, we may have good meditations there; and Christ may be nearer us when we are asleep in our beds, then when when we are awake; But howsoever the bed is not his ordinary station; he may be, and he says he will be, at the making of the bed of the sick, but not at the marriage of the bed of the wanton, and licentious.

To make haste, the circumstance only required here, is that he be sought early; and to invite thee to it, consider how early he sought thee; It is a great mercy that he stays so long for thee; It was more to seek thee so early: Dost thou not feel that he seeks thee now, in offering his love and desiring thine? Canst not thou remember that he sought thee yesterday, that is, that some temptations besieged thee then, and he sought thee out by his Grace, and preserved thee? and hath he not sought thee so, so early, as from the beginning of thy life? nay, dost thou not remember that after thou hadst committed that sin, he sought thee by imprinting some remorse, some apprehension of his judgments, and so miro & divino modo, & quando te oderat diligebat, by a miraculous and powerful working of his Spirit, he threatened thee, when he comforted thee, he loved thee when he chid thee, he sought thee wen he drove thee from him; He hath sought thee amongst the infinite numbers of false and fashional Christians, that he might bring thee out from the hypocrite, to serve him in earnest, and in holyness, and in righteousness; he sought thee before that amongst the Herd of the nations & Gentiles, who had no Church to bring thee into his enclosures and pastures, his visible Church, and to feed thee with his word and sacraments; he sought thee before that, in the catalogue of all his Creatures, where he might have left thee a stone, or a plant, or a beast; and then he gave thee an immortal Soul, capable of all his future blessings; yea, before this he sought thee, when thou wast no where, nothing, he brought thee then, the greatest step of all, from being nothing, to be a Creature; how early did he seek thee, when he sought thee in Adam's confused loins, & out of that leavened and sore loaf in which we were all kneaded up, out of that massa damnata, that refuse & condemnable lump of dough, he sought and severed out that grain which thou shouldst be; yea millions of millions of generations before al this he sought thee in his own eternal Decree; And in that first Scripture of his, which is as old as himself, in the book of life he wrote thy name in the blood of that Lamb which was slain for thee, not only from the beginning of this world, but from the writing of that eternal Decree of thy Salvation. Thus early had he sought thee in the Church amongst hypocrites; out of the Church amongst the Heathen; In his Creatures amongst creatures of an ignoble nature, and in the first vacuity, when thou wast nothing he sought thee so early as in Adam, so early as in the book of life, and when wilt thou think it a fit time to seek him.

There is an earliness which will not serve thy turn, when afflictions, and anguish, shall come upon thee; they shall seek me early and shall not find me, early in respect of the punishment, at the beginning of that; but this is late in respect of thy fault, or of thine age, when thou art grown old, in the custom of sin; for thus we may misuse this early, and make it serve all ill uses, if we will say we will leave Covetousness early, that is, as soon as we are rich enough; Incontinence early, that is, as soon as we are old or sick; Ambition early, that is, as soon as we have overthrown and crushed our enemies irrecoverably; for thus, we shall by this habit carry on this early to our late and last hour, and say we will repent early, that is, as soon as the bell begins to toll for us.

It is good for a man that he bear his yoke in his youth, that he seek Christ early, for even God himself, when he had given over his People to be afflicted by the Chaldeans, yet complains of the Chaldeans, that they laid heavy loads upon old men; though this yoke of this amorous seeking of Christ be a light yoke, yet it is too heavy for an old man, that hath never used himself in all his life to bear it; even this spiritual love will not sute well with an old man, if he never began before, if he never loved Christ in his youth, even this love will be an unweildy thing in his age.

Yet if we have omitted our first early, our youth, there is one early left for us; this minute; seek Christ early, now, now, as soon as his Spirit begins to shine upon your hearts. Now as soon as you begin your day of Regeneration, seek him the first minute of this day, for you know not whether this day shall have two minutes or no, that is, whether his Spirit, that descends upon you now, will tarry and rest upon you or not, as it did upon Christ at his baptism.

Therefore shall every one that is godly make his Prayer unto thee O God, in a time when thou may'st be found: we acknowledg this to be that time, and we come to thee now early, with the confession of thy servant Augustine, sero te amavi pulchritudo tam antiqua, tam nova; O glorious beauty, infinitely reverend, infinitely fresh and young, we come late to thy love, if we consider the past days of our lives, but early if thou beest pleased to reckon with us from this hour of the shining of thy grace upon us; and therefore O God, as thou hast brought us safely to the beginning of this day, as thou hast not given us over to a final perishing in the works of night and darkness, as thou hast brought us to the beginning of this day of grace, so defend us in the same with thy mighty power, and grant that this day, this day of thy visitation, we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, no such sin, no such danger as may separate us from thee, or frustrate us of our hopes in that eternal kingdom which thy Son our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom with the Father, &c.

A Sermon of Valediction at my going into Germany, at Loncolns-Inn, April. 18. 1619. Sermon XIX.

Ecclesiast. 12.1.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

WE may consider two great virtues, one for the society of this life, Thankfulness, and the other for attaining the next life, Repentance; as the two precious Mettles, Silver and Gold: Of Silver (of the virtue of thankfulness) there are whole Mines, books written by Philosophers, and a man may grow rich in that mettle, in that virtue, by digging in that Mine, in the Precepts of moral men; of this Gold (this virtue of Repentance) there is no Mine in the Earth; in the books of Philosophers, no doctrine of Repentance; this Gold is for the most part in the washes; this Repentance in matters of tribulation; but God directs thee to it in this Text, before thou come to those waters of Tribulation, remember now thy Creator before those evil days come, and then thou wilt repent the not remembering him till now. Here then the holy-Ghost takes the neerest way to bring a man to God, by awaking his memory; for, for the understanding, that requires long and clear instruction; and the will requires an instructed understanding before, and is in it self the blindest and boldest faculty; but if the memory do but fasten upon any of those things which God hath done for us, it is the neerest way to him. Remember therefore, and remember now, though the Memory be placed in the hindermast part of the brain, defer not thou thy remembering to the hindermost part of thy life, but do that now in die, in the day, while'st thou hast light, now in diebus, in the days, whilst God presents thee many lights, many means; and in diebus juventatis, in the days of thy youth, of strength, whilst thou art able to do that which thou purposest to thy self; And as the word imports, Bechucocheica, in diebus Electionum tuarum, in the days of thy choice, whilst thou art able to make thy choice, whilst the Grace of God shines so brightly upon thee, as that thou mayst choose the way, and so powerfully upon thee, as that thou mayst walk in that way. Now, in this day, and in these days Remember first the Creator, That all these things which thou laborest for, and delightest in, were created, made of nothing; and therefore thy memory looks not far enough back, if it stick only upon the Creature, and reach not to the Creator, Remember thy Creator, and remember thy Creator; and in that, first that he made thee, and then what he made thee; He made thee of nothing, but of that nothing he hath made thee such a thing as cannot return to nothing, but must remain for ever; whether happy or miserable, that depends upon thy Remembering thy Creator now in the days of thy youth.

First remember; which word is often used in the Scripture for considering and taking care: for, God remembered Noah and every beast with him in the Ark; as the word which is contrary to that, forgetting is also for the affection contrary to it, it is neglecting, Can a woman forget her child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? But here we take not remembering so largly, but restrain it to the exercise of that one faculty, the memory; for it is Stomachus animae. The memory, says St. Bernard, is the stomach of the soul, it receives and digests, and turns into good blood, all the benefits formerly exhibited to us in particular, and exhibited to the whole Church of God: present that which belongs to the understanding, to that faculty, and the understanding is not presently settled in it; present any of the prophecies made in the captivity, and a Jews understanding takes them for deliverances from Babylon, and a Christians understanding takes them for deliverances from sin and death, by the Messiah Christ Jesus; present any of the prophecies of the Revelation concerning Antichrist, and a Papist will understand it of a single, and momentane, and transitory man, that must last but three yer and a half; and a Protestant may understand it of a succession of men, that have lasted so 1000. years already: present but the name of Bishop or of elder, out of the Acts of the Apostle, or their Epistles, and other men will take it for a name of equality, and parity, and we for a name and office of distinction in the Hierarchy of Gods Church. Thus it is in the understanding that's often perplexed; consider the other faculty, the will of man, by those bitternesses which have passed between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, (amongst other things belonging to the will) whether the same proportion of grace, offered to men alike disposed, must necessarily work alike upon both their wills? And amongst persons nearer to us, whether that proportion of grace, which doth convert a man, might not have been resisted by perverseness of his will? By all these difficulties we way see, how untractable, and untameable a faculty the will of man is. But come not with matter of law, but matter of fact, Let God make his wonderful works to be had in remembrance: present the history of Gods protection of his children, from the beginning, in the ark, in both captivities, in infinite dangers; present this to the memory, and howsoever the understanding be beclouded, or the will perverted, yet both Jew and Christian, Papist and Protestant, Puritan and Protestant, are affected with a thankful acknowledgment of his former mercies and benefits, this issue of that faculty of their memory is alike in them all: And therefore God in giving the law, works upon no other faculty but this, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; He only presents to their memory what he had done for them. And so in delivering the Gospel in one principal seal thereof, the sacrament of his body, he recommended it only to their memory, Do this in remembrance of me. This is the faculty that God desires to work upon; And therefore if thine understanding cannot reconcile differences in all Churches, if thy will cannot submit it self to the ordinances of thine own Church, go to thine own memory; for as St. Bernard calls that the stomach of the soul, we may be bold to call it the Gallery of the soul, hanged with so many, and so lively pictures of the goodness and mercies of thy God to thee, as that every one of them shall be a catachism to thee, to instruct thee in all thy duties to him for those mercies: And as a well made, and well placed picture, looks always upon him that looks upon it; so shall thy God look upon thee, whose memory is thus contemplating him, and shine upon thine understanding, and rectify thy will too. If thy memory cannot comprehend his mercy at large showed to his whole Church, (as it is almost an incomprehensible thing, that in so few years he made us of the Reformation, equal even in number to our adversaries of the Roman Church,) If thy memory have not held that picture of our general deliverance from the Navy; (if that mercy be written in the water and in the sands, where it was performed, and not in thy heart) if thou remember not our deliverance from that artificial Hell, the Vault, (in which, though his instruments failed of their plot, they did not blow us up; yet the Devil goes forward with his plot, if ever he can blow out; if he can get that deliverance to be forgotten.) If these be too large pictures for thy gallery, for thy memory, yet every man hath a pocket picture about him, Emanuel, a bosom book, and if he will turn over but one leaf, and remember what God hath done for him even since yesterday, he shall find even by that little branch a navigable river, to sail into that great and endless Sea of Gods mercies towards him, from the beginning of his being.

Do but remember, but remember now: Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be as the first fruits of his creatures: That as we consecrate all his creatures to him, in a sober, and religious use of them, so as the first fruits of all, we should principally consecrate our selves to his service betimes. Now there were three payments of first fruits appointed by God to the Jews: The first was, Primitiae Spicarum, of their Ears of Corn, and this was early about Easter; The second was Primitiae panum, of Loaves of Bread, after their corn was converted to that use; and this, though it were not so soon, yet it was early too, about Whitsontide; The third was Primitiae frugum, of all their Fruits and Revenues; but this was very late in Autumn, at the fall of the leaf, in the end of the yer. The two first of these, which were offered early, were offered partly to God, and partly to Man, to the Priest; but in the last, which came late, God had no part: He had his part in the corn, and in the loaves, but none in the latter fruits. Offer thy self to God; first, as Primitias spicarum, (whether thou glean in the world, or bind up whole sheaves, whether thy increase be by little and little, or apace;) And offer thy self, as primitias panum, when thou hast kneaded up riches, and honor, and favor in a settled and established fortune) offer at thy Easter, whensoever thou hast any resurrection, any sense of raising thy soul from the shadow of death; offer at thy Pentecost, when the holy Ghost visits thee, and descends upon thee in a fiery tongue, and melts thy bowels by the power of his word; for if thou defer thy offering til thy fal, til thy winter, til thy death, howsoever they may be thy first fruits, because they be the first that ever thou gavest yet they are such, as are not acceptable to God; God hath no portion in them, if they be not offered til then; offer thy self now; for that's an easy request; yea offer to thy self now, that's more easy; Viximus mundo; vivamus reliquum nobis ipsis; Thus long we have served the world; let us serve our selves the rest of our time, that is, the best part of our selves, our souls, Expectas ut febris te vocet ad poenitentiam? Hadst thou rather a sickness should bring thee to God, than a sermon? hadst thou rather be beholden to a Physician for thy salvation, than to a Preacher? thy business is to remember; stay not for thy last sickness, which may be a Lethargy in which thou mayest forget thine own name, and his that gave thee the name of a Christian, Christ Jesus himself: thy business is to remember, and thy time is now; stay not till that Angel come which shall say and swear, that time shall be no more.

Remember then, and remember now; In Die, in the day; The Lord will hear us In die qua invocaverimus, in the day that we shall call upon him; and in quacunque dei, in what day soever we call, and in quacunque die velociter exaudiet, as soon as we call in any day. But all this is Opus diei, a work for the day; for in the night, in our last night, those thoughts that fall upon us, they are rather dreams, then true remembrings; we do rather dream that we repent, then repent indeed, upon our death-bed. To him that travails by night a bush seems a tree, and a tree seems a man, and a man a spirit; nothing hath the true shape to him; to him that repents by night, on his death-bed, neither his own sins, nor the mercies of God have their true proportion. Fool, says Christ, this night they will fetch away thy soul; but he neither tells him, who they be that shall fetch it, nor whether they shall carry it; he hath no light but lightnings; a sudden flash of horror first, and then he goes into fire without light. Numquid Deus nobis ignem pacavit? non, sed Diabolo, et Angelis: did God ordain hell fire for us? no, but for the Devil, and his Angels. And yet we that are vessels so broken, as that there is not a sheard left, to fetch water at the pit, that is, no means in our selves, to derive one drop of Christs blood upon us, nor to wring out one tear of true repentance from us, have plunged our selves into this everlasting, and this dark fire, which was not prepared for us: A wretched covetousness, to be intruders upon the Devil; a wretched ambition, to be usurpers upon damnation. God did not make the fire for us; but much less did he make us for that fire; that is, make us to damn us. But now the Judgment is given, It maledicti, go ye accursed; but yet this is the way of Gods justice, and his proceeding, that his Judgments are not always executed, though they be given. The Judgments and Sentences of Medes and Persians are irrevocable, but the Judgments and Sentences of God, if they be given, if they be published, they are not executed. The Ninevites had perished, if the sentence of their destruction had not been given; and the sentence preserved them; so even in this cloud of It maledicti, go ye accursed, we may see the day break, and discern beams of saving light, even in this Judgment of eternal darkness; if the contemplation of his Judgment brings us to remember him in that day, in the light and apprehension of his anger and correction.

For this circumstance is enlarged; it is not in die, but in diebus, not in one, but in many days; for God affords us many days, many lights to see and remember him by. This remembrance of God is our regeneration, by which we are new creatures; and therefore we may consider as many days in it, as in the first creation. The first day was the making of light; and our first day is the knowledge of him, who says of himself, ego sum lux mundi, I am the light of the world, and of whom St. John testifies, Erat lux vera, he was the true light, that lighteth every man into the world. This is then our first day the true passion of Christ Jesus. God made light first, that the other creatures might be seen; Frustra essent si non viderentur, It had been to no purpose to have made creatures, if there had been no light to manifest them. Our first day is the light and love of the Gospel; for the noblest creatures of Princes, (that is, the noblest actions of Princes, war, and peace, and treaties) frustra sunt, they are good for nothing, they are nothing, if they be not showed and tried by this light, by the love and preservation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus: God made light first, that his other works might appear, and he made light first, that himself (for our example) might do all his other works in the light: that we also, as we had that light shed upon us in our baptism, so we might make all our future actions justifiable by that light, and not Erubescere Evangelium, not be ashamed of being too jealous in this profession of his truth. Then God saw that the light was good: the seeing implies a consideration; that so a religion be not accepted blindly, nor implicitly; and the seeing it to be good implies an election of that religion, which is simply good in it self, and not good by reason of advantage, or conveniency, or other collateral and by-respects. And when God had seen the light, and seen that it was good, then he severed light from darkness; and he severed them, non tanquam duo positiva, not as as two essential, and positive, and equal things; not so, as that a brighter and a darker religion, (a good and a bad) should both have a being together, but tanquam positivum et primitivum, light and darkness are primitive, and positive, and figure this rather, that a true religion should be established, and continue, and darkness utterly removed; and then, and not till then, (till this was done, light severed from darkness) there was a day; And since God hath given us this day, the brightness of his Gospel, that this light is first presented, that is, all great actions begun with this consideration of the Gospel; since all other things are made by this light, that is, all have relation to the continuance of the Gospel, since God hath given us such a head, as is sharp-sighted in seeing the several lights, wise in discerning the true light, powerful in resisting foreign darkness; since God hath given us this day, qui non humiliabit animam suam in die hac, as Moses speaks of the days of Gods institution, he that will not remember God now in this day, is impious to him; and unthankful to that great instrument of his, by whom this day spring from an high hath visited us.

To make shorter days of the rest, (for we must pass through all the six days in a few minutes) God in the second day made the firmament to divide between the waters above, and the waters below; and this firmament in us, is terminus cognoscibilium, the limits of those things which God hath given man means and faculties to conceive, and understand: he hath limited our eyes with a firmament beset with stars, our eyes can see no farther: he hath limited our understanding in matters of religion with a starry firmament too; that is, with the knowledge of those things, quae ubique, quae semper, which those stars which he hath kindled in his Church, the Fathers and Doctors, have ever from the beginning proposed as things necessary to be explicitly believed, for the salvation of our souls; for the eternal decrees of God, and his unrevealed mysteries, and the inextricable perplexities of the School, they are waters above the firmament: here Paul plants, and here Apollo waters; here God raises up men to convey to us the dew of his grace, by waters under the firmament; by visible sacraments, and by the word so preached, and so interpreted, as it hath been constantly, and unanimously from the beginning of the Church. And therefore this second day is perfited in the third, in the congregentur aquae, let the waters be gathered together; God hath gathered all the waters, all the waters of life in one place; that is, all the doctrine necessary for the life to come, into his Church: And then producet terra, here in this world are produced to us all herbs and fruits, all that is necessary for the soul to feed upon. And in this third days work God repeats here that testimony, videt quod bonum, he saw that it was good; good, that here should be a gathering of waters in one place, that is, no doctrine received that had not been taught in the Church; and videt quod bonum, he saw it was good, that all herbs and trees should be produced that bore seed; all doctrines that were to be proseminated and propagated, and to be continued to the end, should be taught in the Church: but for doctrines which were but to vent the passion of vehement men, or to serve the turns of great men for a time, which were not seminal doctrines, doctrines that bore seed, and were to last from the beginning to the end; for these interlineary doctrines, and marginal, which were no part of the first text, here's no testimony that God sees that they are good. And, In diebus istis, if in these two days, the day when God makes thee a firmament, shows thee what thou art, to limit thine understanding & thy faith upon, and the day where God makes thee a sea, a collection of the waters, (shows thee where these necessary things must be taught in the Church) if in those days thou wilt not remember thy Creator, it is an irrecoverable Lethargy.

In the fourth days work, let the making of the Sun to rule the day be the testimony of Gods love to thee, in the sun-shine of temporal prosperity, and the making of the Moon to shine by night, be the refreshing of his comfortable promises in the darkness of adversity; & then remember that he can make thy sun to set at noon, he can blow out thy taper of prosperity when it burns brightest, and he can turn the Moon into blood, he can make all the promises of the Gospel, which should comfort thee in adversity, turn into despair and obduration. Let the first days work, which was the creation Omnium reptibilium, and omnium volatilium, of all creeping things, and of all flying things, produced out of water, signify and denote to thee, either thy humble devotion, in which thou saist of thy self to God, vermis eg et non homo, I am a worm and no man; or let it be the raising of thy soul in that, pennas columbae dedisti, that God hath given thee the wings of a dove to fly to the wilderness, in a retiring from, or a resisting of temptations of this world; remember still that God can suffer even thy humility to stray, and degenerate into an uncomly dejection and stupidity, and senselessness of the true dignity and true liberty of a Christian: and he can suffer this retiring thy self from the world, to degenerate into a contempt and despising of others, and an overvaluing of thine own perfections. Let the last day in which both man and beasts were made out of the earth, but yet a living soul breathed into man; remember thee that this earth which treads upon thee, must return to that earth which thou treadst upon; thy body, that loads thee, and oppresses thee to the grave, and thy spirit to him that gave it. And when the Sabbath day hath also remembered thee, that God hath given thee a temporal Sabbath, placed thee in a land of peace, and an ecclesiastical Sabbath, placed in a Church of peace, perfect all in a spiritual Sabbath, a conscience of peace, by remembering now thy Creator, at least in one of these days of the week of thy regeneration, either as thou hast light created in thee, in the first day, that is, thy knowledge of Christ; or as thou hast a firmament created in thee the second day, that is, thy knowledge what to seek concerning Christ, things appertaining to faith and salvation; or as thou hast a sea created in thee the third day, that is, a Church where all the knowledge is reserved and presented to thee; or as thou hast a sun and moon in the fourth day, thankfulness in prosperity, comfort in adversity, or as thou hast reptilem humilitatē, or volatilem fiduciam, a humiliation in thy self, or an exaltation in Christ in thy fifth day, or as thou hast a contemplation of thy mortality and immortality in the sixth day, or a desire of a spiritual Sabbath in the seventh, In those days remember thou thy Creator.

Now all these days are contracted into less room in this text, In diebus Bechurotheica, is either, in the days of thy youth, or electionem tuarum, in the days of thy hearts desire, when thou enjoyest all that thou couldest wish. First, therefore if thou wouldst be heard in Davids prayer; Delicta juventutis; O Lord remember not the sins of my youth; remember to come to this prayer, In diebus juventutis, in the days of thy youth. Job remembers with much sorrow, how he was in the days of his youth, when Gods providence was upon his Tabernacle: and it is a late, but a sad consideration, to remember with what tenderness of conscience, what scruples, what remorces we entered into sins in our youth, how much we were afraid of all degrees and circumstances of sin for a little while, and how indifferent things they are grown to us, and how obdurate we are grown in them now. This was Jobs sorrow, and this was Tobias comfort, when I was but young, all my Tribes fell away; but I alone went after to Jerusalem. Though he lacked the counsel, and the example of his Elders, yet he served God; for it is good for a man, that he bear his yoke in his youth: For even when God had delivered over his people purposely to be afflicted, yet himself complains in their behalf, That the persecutor laid the very heaviest yoke upon the ancient: It is a lamentable thing to fall under a necessity of suffering in our age, Labor fracta instrumenta, ad Deum ducis, quorum nullus usus? wouldst thou consecrate a Chalice to God that is broken? no man would present a lame horse, a disordered clock, a torn book to the King? Caro jumentum, thy body is thy beast; and wilt thou present that to God, when it is lamed and tired with excess of wantonness? when thy clock, (the whole course of thy time) is disordered with passions, and perturbations; when thy book (the history of thy life,) is torn, 1000. sins of thine own torn out of thy memory, wilt thou then present thy self thus defaced and mangled to almighty God? Temperantia non est temperantia in senectute, sed impotentia incontinentiae, chastity is not chastity in an old man, but a desability to be unchaste; and therefore thou dost not give God that which thou pretendest to give, for thou hast no chastity to give him. Senex bis puer; but it is not bis juvenis, an old man comes to the infirmities of childhood again; but he comes not to the strength of youth again,

Do this then In diebus juventutis, in thy best strength, and when thy natural facuties are best able to concur with grace; but do it; In diebus electionum, in the days when thou hast thy hearts desire; for if thou have worn out this word, in one sense, that it be too late now, to remember him in the days of youth, that's spent forgetfully) yet as long as thou art able to make a new choise, to choose a new sin, that when thy heats of youth are not overcome, but burnt out, then thy middle age chooses ambition, and thy old age chooses covetousness; as long as thou art able to make thy choice thou art able to make a better than this; God testifies that power, that he hath given thee; I call heaven and earth to record this day, that I have set before you life and death; choose life: If this choice like you not, If it seem evil unto you to serve the the Lord, saith Josuah then, choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Here's the election day; bring that which ye would have, into comparison with that which ye should have; that is, all that this world keeps from you, with that which God offers to you; and what will ye choose to prefer before him? for honor, and favor, and health, and riches, perchance you cannot have them though you choose them; but can you have more of them than they have had, to whom those very things have been occasions of ruin? The Market is open till the bell ring; till thy last bell ring the Church is open, grace is to be had there: but trust not upon that rule, that men buy cheapest at the end of the market, that heaven may be had for a breath at last, when they that hear it cannot tel whether it be a sigh or a gasp, a religious breathing and anhelation after the next life, or natural breathing out, and exhalation of this; but find a spiritual good husbandry in that other rule, that the prime of the market is to be had at first: for howsoever, in thine age, there may be by Gods strong working, Dies juventutis, A day of youth, in making thee then a new creature; (for as God is antiquissimus dierum, so in his school no man is super-annated,) yet when age hath made a man impotent to sin, this is not Dies electionum, it is not a day of choice; but remember God now, when thou hast a choice, that is, a power to advance thy self, or to oppress others by evil means; now in die electionum, in those thy happy and sun-shine days, remember him.

This is then the faculty that is excited, the memory; and this is the time, now, now whilst we have power of election: The object is, the Creator, Remember the Creator: First, because the memory can go no farther then the creation; and therefore we have no means to conceive, or apprehend any thing of God before that. When men therefore speak of decrees of reprobation, decrees of condemnation, before decrees of creation; this is beyond the counsel of the holy Ghost here, Memento creatoris, Remember the Creator, for this is to remember God a condemner before he was a creator: This is to put a preface to Moses his Genesis, not to be content with his in principio, to know that in the beginning God created heaven and earth, but we must remember what he did ante principium, before any such beginning was. Moses his in principio, that beginning, the creation we can remember; but St. Johns in principio, that beginning, eternity, we cannot; we can remember Gods fiat in Moses, but not Gods erat in St. John: what God hath done for us, is the object of our memory, not what he did before we were: and thou hast a good and perfect memory, if it remember all that the holy Ghost proposes in the Bible; and it determines in the memento Creatoris: There begins the Bible, and there begins the Creed, I believe in God the Father, maker of Heaven and Earth; for when it is said, The holy Ghost was not given, because Jesus was not glorified, it is not truly Non erat datus, but non erat; for, non erat nobis antequam operaretur; It is not said there, the holy Ghost was not given, but it is the holy Ghost was not: for he is not, that is, he hath no being to us ward, till he works in us which was first in the creation: Remember the Creator then, because thou canst remember nothing backward beyond him, and remember him so too, that thou mayst stick upon nothing on this side of him, That so neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature may separate thee from God; not only not separate thee finally, but not separate so, as to stop upon the creature, but to make the best of them, thy way to the Creator; We see ships in the river; but all their use is gone, if they go not to sea; we see men fraighted with honor, and riches, but all their use is gone, if their respect be not upon the honor and glory of the Creator; and therefore says the Apostle, Let them that suffer, commit their souls to God, as to a faithful Creator; that is, He made them, and therefore will have care of them. This is the true contracting, and the true extending of the memory, to Remember the Creator, and stay there, because there is no prospect farther, and to Remember the Creator, and get thither, because there is no safe footing upon the creature, til we come so far.

Remember then the Creator, and remember thy Creator, for, Quis magis fidelis Deo? who is so faithful a Counsailor as God? Quis prudentior Sapiente? who can be wiser than wisdom? Quis utilior bono? or better than goodness? Quis conjunctior Creator? or nearer then our Maker? and therefore remember him. What purposes soever thy parents or thy Prince have to make thee great, how had all those purposes been frustrated, and evacuated if God had not made thee before? this very being is thy greatest degree; as in Arithmatick how great a number soever a man express in many figures, yet when we come to number all, the very first figure is the greatest and most of all; so what degrees or titles soever a man have in this world, the greatest and the foundation of all, is, that he had a being by creation: For the distance from nothing to a little, is ten thousand times more, than from it to the highest degree in this life: and therefore remember thy Creator, as by being so, he hath done more for thee than all the world besides; and remember him also, with this consideration, that whatsoever thou art now, yet once thou wast nothing.

He created thee, ex nihilo, he gave thee a being, there's matter of exaltation, & yet all this from nothing; thou wast worse then a worm, there's matter of humiliation; but he did not create thee ad nihilum, to return to nothing again, and there's matter for thy consideration, and study, how to make thine immortality profitable unto thee; for it is a deadly immortality, if thy immortality must serve thee for nothing but to hold thee in immortal torment. To end all, that being which we have from God shall not return to nothing, nor the being which we have from men neither. As St. Bernard says of the Image of God in mans soul, uti potest in gehenna, non exuri, That soul that descends to hell, carries the Image God in the faculties of that soul thither, but there that Image can never be burnt out, so those Images & those impressions, which we have received from men, from nature, from the world, the image of a Lord, the image of a Counsailor, the image of a Bishop, shall all burn in Hell, and never burn out; not only these men, but these offices are not to return to nothing; but as their being from God, so their being from man, shall have an everlasting being, to the aggravating of their condemnation. And therefore remember thy Creator, who, as he is so, by making thee of nothing, so he will ever be so, by holding thee to his glory, though to thy confusion, from returning to nothing; for the Court of Heaven is not like other Courts, that after a surfeit of pleasure or greatness, a man may retire; after a surfeit of sin there's no such retiring, as a dissolving of the soul into nothing; but God is from the beginning the Creator, he gave all things their being, and he is still thy Creator, thou shalt evermore have that being, to be capable of his Judgments.

Now to make up a circle, by returning to our first word, remember: As we remember God, so for his sake, let us remember one another. In my long absence, and far distance from hence, remember me, as I shall do you in the ears of that God, to whom the farthest East, and the farthest West are but as the right and left ear in one of us; we hear with both at once, and he hears in both at once; remember me, not my abilities; for when I consider my Apostleship that I was sent to you, I am in St. Pauls quorum, quorum ego sum minimus, the least of them that have been sent; and when I consider my infirmities, I am in his quorum, in another commission, another way, Quorum ego maximus; the greatest of them; but remember my labors, and endeavors, at least my desire, to make sure your salvation. And I shall remember your religious cheerfulness in hearing the word, and your christianly respect towards all them that bring that word unto you, and towards my self in particular far bove my merit. And so as your eyes that stay here, and mine that must be far of, for all that distance shall meet every morning, in looking upon that same Sun, and meet every night, in looking upon the same Moon; so our hearts may meet morning and evening in that God, which sees and hears every where; that you may come thither to him with your prayers, that I, (if I may be of use for his glory, and your edification in this place) may be restored to you again; and may come to him with my prayer, that what Paul soever plant amongst you, or what Apollos soever water, God himself will give the increase: That if I never meet you again till we have all passed the gate of death, yet in the gates of heaven, I may meet you all, and there say to my Savior and your Savior, that which he said to his Father and our Father, Of those whom thou hast given me, have I not lost one. Remember me thus, you that stay in this Kingdom of peace, where no sword is drawn, but the sword of Justice, as I shall remember you in those Kingdoms, where ambition on one side, and a necessary defence from unjust persecution on the other side hath drawn many swords; and Christ Jesus remember us all in his Kingdom, to which, though we must sail through a sea, it is the sea of his blood, where no soul suffers shiprwack; though we must be blown with strange winds, with sighs and groans for our sins, yet it is the Spirit of God that blows all this wind, and shall blow away all contrary winds of diffidence or distrust in Gods mercy; where we shall be all Souldiers of one Army, the Lord of Hosts, and Children of one Quire, the God of Harmony and consent: where all Clients shall retain but one Counsellor, our Advocate Christ Jesus, nor present him any other fee but his own blood, and yet every Client have a Judgment on his side, not only in a not guilty, in the remission of his sins, but in a Venite benedicti, in being called to the participation of an immortal Crown of glory: where there shall be no difference in affection, nor in mind, but we shall agree as fully & perfectly in our Allelujah, and gloria in exelcis, as God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost agreed in the faciamus hominem at first; where we shall end, and yet begin but then; where we shall have continual rest, and yet never grow lazy; where we shall be stronger to resist, and yet have no enemy; where we shall live and never die, where we shall meet & never part.

TWO SERMONS, to the Prince and Princess Palatine, the Lady Elizabeth at Heydelberg, when I was commanded by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany. First Sermon as we went out, June 16. 1619. Sermon XX.

Rom. 13.11.

For now is our Salvation nearer then when we believed,

THere is not a more comprehensive, a more embracing word in all Religion, then the first word of this Text, Now; for the word before that, For, is but a word of connexion, and rather appertains to that which was said before the Text, then to the Text it self: The Text begins with that important and considerable particle, Now, Now is salvation nearer, &c. This present word, Now, denotes an Advent, a new coming, or a new operation, otherwise then it was before: And therefore doth the Church appropriate this Scripture to the celebration of the Advent, before the Feast of the Birth of our Savior. It is an extensive word, Now; for though we dispute whether this Now, that is, whether an instant be any part of time or no, yet in truth it is all time; for whatsoever is past, was, and whatsoever is future, shall be an instant; and did and shall fall within this Now. We consider in the Church four Advents or Comings of Christ, of every one of which we may say Now, now it is otherwise then before: For first there is verbum in carne, the word came in the flesh, in the Incarnation; and then there is caro in verbo, he that is made flesh comes in the word, that is, Christ comes in the preaching thereof; and he comes again in carne saluta, when at our dissolution and transmigration; at our death he comes by his spirit, and testifies to our spirit that we die the Children of God: And lastly he comes in carne reddita, when he shall come at the Resurrection, to redeliver our bodies to our souls, and to deliver everlasting glory to both. The Ancients for the most part understand the word of our Text, of Christs first coming in the flesh to us in this world; the latter Exposition understand them rather of his coming in glory: But the Apostle could not properly use this present word Now, with relation to that which is not now, that is, to future glory, otherwise then as that future glory hath a preparation and an inchoation in present grace; for so even the future glory of heaven hath a Now, now the elect Children of God have by his powerful grace a present possession of glory. So then it will not be impertinent to suffer this flowing and extensive word Now to spread it self into all three: for the whole duty of Christianity consists in these three things; first in pietate erga Deum, in religion towards God; in which the Apostle had enlarged himself from the beginning to the twelfth chapter of his Epistle: And secondly, in charitate erga proximum, in our mutual duties of society towards our Equals and Inferiors, and of Subjection towards our Superiors, in which that twelfth chapter, and this to the eitghth verse is especially conversant: And then thirdly, in sanctimonia propria, in the works of sanctification and holiness in our selves: And this Text the Apostle presents as a forcible reason to induce us to that, to those works of sanctification, because Now our salvation is nearer us then when we believed. Take then this now, the first way of the coming Christ in person, in the flesh into this world; and then the Apostle of directs himself principally to the Jews converted to the faith of Christ, and he tells them, That their salvation is nearer them now, now they had seen him come, then when they did only believe that he would come: Take the words the second way, of his coming in grace into our hearts; and so the Apostle directs himself to all Christians; now, now that you have bin bred in the Christian Church, now that you are grown from Grace to grace, from faith to faith, now that God by his spirit strengthens and confirms you; now is your salvation nearer then when ye believed, that is, when you began to believe, either by the faith of your Parents, or the faith of the Church, or the faith of your Sureties at your Baptism; or when you began to have some notions, and impressions, and apprehensions of faith in your self, when you came to some degrees of understanding and discretion: Take the word of Christs coming to us at the hour of death, or of his coming to us at the day of Judgment (for those two are all one to our present purpose, because God never reverses any particular judgement given at a mans death at the day of the general Judgment:) take the word so, & this is the Apostles argument, you have believed, and you have lived accordingly, and that faith, and that good life hath brought salvation nearer you, that is, given you a fair and modest infallibility of salvation, in the nature of reversion; but now, now that you are come to the approaches of death, which shall make your reversion a possession; Now is salvation nearer you then when you believed. Summarily, the Text is a reason why we ought to proceed in good and holy ways; and it works in all the three acceptations of the word; for whether salvation be said to be near us, because we are Christians, and so have advantage of the Jews, or near us, because we have made some proficiency in holiness & sanctimony; or near us, because we are near our end, and thereby near a possession of our endless joy and glory: Still from all these acceptations of the word arise religious provocations to perseverance in holiness of life; and therefore we shall pursue the words in all three acceptations.

In all three acceptations we must consider three terms in the Text; First, Quid salus, what this Salvation is that is intended here; and then, Quid prope, what this Distance, this nearness is; and lastly, Quid credere, what Belief this is. So then, taking the words first the first way, as spoken by the Apostles, to the Jews newly converted to the Christian Faith, salvation is the outward means of salvation, which are more and more manifest to the Christians, then they were to the Jews. And then the second Term, Nearness (salvation is nearer) is in this, That salvation to the Christian is in things present or past, in things already done, and of which we are experimentally sure; but to the Jews it was of future things, of which, howsoever they might assure themselves that they would be, yet they had no assurance when: And therefore (in the third place) their Believing was but a confident expectation, and faithful assenting to their Prophets; quando credidistis, when you believed, that is, when you did only believe, and saw nothing.

First then, the first Term in the first acceptation, Salvation, is the outward means of salvation. Outward and visible means of knowing, God God hath given to all Nations in the book of Creatures, from the first leaf of that book, the firmament above, to the last leaf, the Mines under our feet; there is enough of that. There they have a book which they read; and they have a sentence of condemnation if they do not, porro inexcusabilis, Therefore art thou inexcusable O man. The visible God was presented in visible things, and thou mightst, and wouldst not see him: but this is only such a knowledge of God as Philosophers, moral and natural men may have, and yet be very far from making this knowledge any means of salvation. A man that hath often travelled by that way where there stands a fair house will say, and say truly, that he knows that house; but yet he knows not the ways that lead nearest and fairest to it, nor he knows not the lodgings and conveniencies of that house as he doth that hath been an often and welcome guest to it, or a continual dweller in it. Natural men by passing often through the contemplation of nature have such a knowledge of God; but the knowledge which is to salvation, is by being in Gods house, in the Household of the Faithful, in the Communion of Saints, and by having such a conversation in heaven in this life. That which our Savior Christ says, In domo Patris, In my Fathers house there are many Mansions, as it is intended principally of our state of glory, and diversity of degrees of that in heaven; so is it true also of Gods house at large, Multae mansiones. In Gods house, which is All (all this world, and the next too, is Gods house) there are out-houses, rooms without the house; so considered in this world on the Gentiles, and the Heathen, which are without the Church, and yet amongst them God hath some Servants: so in his house there are women below stairs, that is, in his visible Church here upon Earth; and women above stairs, that is, degrees of Glory in the triumphant Church. To them that are lodged in those out-houses, out of the Covenant out of the Church, salvation comes sometimes, God doth save some of them: but yet is not near them, that is, they have no ordinary nor established way of attaining to it, because Christ is not manifested to them in an ordinary preaching of the Word, and an ordinary administration of the Sacraments. And then to them who are above stairs, that is in possession of salvation in heaven, we cannot say salvation is nearer and nearer to them, because they are already in an actual possession thereof. But to them who are in Gods House, and yet below stairs; to them who have salvation presented unto them by sensible and visible means; to them their salvation is properly said io be near. And such a people God had from the beginning, and shall have to the end; and that people the Jews were; and therefore their glory was just and true glory, when they glorified themselves in that, What Nation is so great? wherein consisted their greatness? that follows; Unto whom is the Lord so nigh as he is to us? and in what consisted this nearness? in this; What Nation hath ordinances and laws so righteous as we have? Here then was their salvation; first God withdrew them from the nations; he naturalized them, he denizend them into his own kingdom, sub sigillo circumcisionis, in the seal of their blood in circumcision, he gave them an interest in his blood to be shed in his passion: and then, this was their farther salvation, that when he had thus taken them into his service, & put them into his livery, a livery of his own color, of blood in their circumcision, then he gave them a particular law for all their actions, how they should live in his favor; and he gave them a particular form of outward religious worship, which should be acceptable to him; the law, which was a sensible rule of their life, and their sacrifices, which were the sensible rule of their religion, was salvation: non taliter, says David, God hath not dealt so with other nations; for though God from other nations do here and there pick out a servant, yet he hath not given other nations salvation, that is, settled an ordinary means of salvation amongst them. That was true of the Jews, and will always be true of the whole Church of God, which Calvin says, quia nec oculis perspicitur, nec manibus palpatur spiritualis gratia, because the grace of God it self cannot be discerned by the eye, nor distinguished by the touch, non possumus nisi externis signis adjuti, statuere Deum nobis esse propitium, we could not assure our selves of the mercies of God, if we had not outward and sensible signs and seals of those mercies; and therefore God never left his Church without such external and visible means and seals of grace. And though all those means were not properly seals, (for that is proper to sacraments, as a sacrament is strictly taken to be a seal of grace) yet the Fathers did often call many of these things by that name sacraments, because they had so much of the nature of a true sacrament, as that they advanced and furthered the working of grace. How a visible sign, water, or wine, (even in a true and proper sacrament) should confer grace, fateor me non posse capere, says a learned Bishop in the Roman Church; as easy a matter as they make it, he professes that he cannot understand it: he argues it subtilly, but he concludes it modestly; omnio brevi sententia dicenda sunt, consistere in pactis; this must says he be the end of all, that these things are not to be considered in the reason of man, but in the Covenant of God: God hath covenanted with his people, to be present with them in certain places, in the Church at certain times, when they make their congregation, in certain actions, when they meet to pray; and though he be not bound in the nature of the action, yet he is bound in his covenant to exhibit grace, and to strengthen grace, in certain sacrifices, and certain sacraments; and so other sacramental, and ritual and ceremonial things ordained by God in the voice of his Church, because they further salvation, are called salvation in this sense, and acceptation of the word, the first way.

This was the first branch, in the first sense of these words; salus adminicula salutis, salvation is means of salvation; and the next is the propè, wherein these means and helps were nearer to the Jews, after they were converted to the Christian religion, then before: and we consider them justly, to have been nearer, that is, more discernabl; first, quia plura, because the helps of the Christians are more; and then, quia potiora, because in their nature they are better; and lastly, quia manifestiora, because they have a better evidence towards us; for so as the more bodies are together, the greater the object is, and so made the more visible; so they are nearer, quia plura, because they are more; and so, as the more beautiful, and better proportioned a body is, the more it draws the eye to look upon it; so they are nearer, quia potiora, because they are better; and so as the more evidence, and light and lustre they have in themselves, the easier things are discerned, so they are nearer, quia manifestiora, because they are more visible. First, how there should be more helps in the Christian religion, then in the Jewish, is not so evident at first: for first, if we consider the law to be salvation, they had a vast multiplicity of laws, scars less then 600 several laws; whereas the honor of the Christian religion is, that it is verbum abbreviatum, an abridgment of all into ten words, as Moses calls the Commandments; and then a re-abridgment of that abridgment into two, love God, and love thy Neighbor, that is, faith and works. If we consider their laws to be their salvation, they had more; and if we consider their sacrifices to be their salvation, they had more too; for their Rabbis observe at least 50 several kinds of contracting uncleaness, to which there were appropriated several expiations and sacrifices; whereas we have only the sacrifices of prayer, and of praise, and of Christ in the sacrament; for so it is, the ordinary phrase & manner of speech in the Fathers to call that a sacrifice; not only as it is a commemorative sacrifice, (for that is amongst our selves, and so every person in the congregation may sacrifice, that is, do that in remembrance of Christ,) but as it is a real sacrifice, in which the Priest doth that, which none but he does; that is, really to offer up Christ Jesus crucified to Almighty God for the sins of the people, so, as that that very body of Christ, which offered himself for a propitiatory sacrifice upon the cross, once for all, that body, and all that that body suffered, is offered again, and presented to the Father, & the Father is intreated, that for the merits of that person, so presented and offered unto him; and in contemplation thereof, he will be merciful to that congregation, and apply those merits of his, to their particular souls. These are our sacrifices, prayer and praise, and Christ thus offered; and how are these more then the Jews had? they had more laws, and more sacrifices, and as many sacraments as we; and if nearness of salvation consist in the plurality of these, how is salvation nearer to us then to them, quatenus plura, in that first respects as the means are more, as it is truly and properly said, that there are more ingredients, more simples, more means of restoring in our dram of triacle or mithridate, then in an ounce of any particular syrup, in which there may be 3 or 4 in the other, perchance so many hundred; so in that receit of our Savior Christ, quicquid ligaveris; in the absolution, of the Minister, that whatsoever he shall bind or loose upon earth, shall be bound or loose in heaven; there is more physic, then in all the expiations and sacrifices of the old law. There an expiation would serve to day, which would not serve to morrow; if it were omitted till the sun were set upon it, it required a more severe expiation: and so also an expiation would serve for one transgression, which would not serve for another; but here, in the absosolution of the Minister, there is a concurrence, a confluence of medecines of all qualities; purgative in confession, and restorative in absolution; corasive in the preaching of Judgments, and cordial in the balm of the sacrament: here is no limitation of time, at what time soever a sinner repenteth, nor limitation of sins, whatsoever is forgiven in earth is forgiven in heaven: salvation is nearer us in this respect, that we have plura adminicula, more outward and visible means then the Jews had, because we may receive more in one action, then they could in all theirs.

It is so also, not only quia plura, because we have more means, but quia potiora, because those means which we have are in their nature better, more attractive, and more winning. The means, (as we have said before) were their laws, and their sacrifices, and their sacraments, and for their law, it was lex interficiens, non perficiens; it was a law, that punished unrighteousness, but it did not confer righteousness: and their sacrifices, being in blood, (if we remove from them their typical signification, and what they prefigured, which was the shedding of the blood of the lamb which takes away the sins of the world) must necessarily create and excite a natural horror in man, and an aversness from them. Take their sacraments into comparison, and then one of their sacraments, Circumcision, was limited to one sex, it reached not to women; and their other sacrament, the passover, was in the primary signification and institution thereof, only a gratulatory commemoration of a temporal benefit of their deliverance from Egypt. And therefore to constitute a judgment proportionably by the effects, we see the law, and the sacrifice, and the sacraments of thy Jews, did not much work upon foreign Nations; it was salvation, but salvation shut up amongst themselves; whereas we see that the law of the Chrstians, which is, to conform our selves to our great example and pattern, Christ Jesus, who, (if we would consider him merely as man) was the most exemplar man, for all Theological virtues, & moral too, that ever any history presented; & the sacrifices of Christians, which are all spiritual, & therein more proportional to God who is all spirit; and the sacraments of Christians, in which, though not ex opere operator, not because that action is performed, not because that sacrament is administered, yet ex pacto, and quando opus operamur: by Gods covenant, when soever that action is performed, whensoever that sacrament is administered, the grace of God is exhibited and offered; nec fallaciter, as Calvin says well, it is offered with a purpose on Gods part, that that grace should be accepted, we see, I say that these laws, and these sacrifices, and these sacraments have gained upon the whole world; for in their nature, and in their attractiveness, and in their applyableness, and so in their effect, they are potiora, better, and in that respect, salvation is nearer us then it was to the Jews.

And so it is, lastly, quia manifestiora, because they have an evidence and manifestation of themselves, in themselves. Now, this is especially true in the sacraments, because the sacraments exhibit and convey grace; and grace is such a light, such a torch, such a beacon, as where it is, it is easily seen. As there is a lustre in a precious stone, which no mans eye or finger can limit to a certain place or point in that stone, so though we do not assign in the sacrament, where, that is, in what circumstance or part of that holy action grace is; or when, or how it enters, (for though the word of consecration alter the bread, not to another thing, but to another use; and though they leave it bread, yet they make it other bread, yet the enunciation of those words doth not infuse nor imprint this grace, which we speak of, into that bread) yet whosoever receives this sacrament worthily, sees evidently an entrance, and a growth of grace in himself. But this evidence which we speaks of this manifestation, is not only, (though especially) in the sacraments, but in other sacramental and ceremonial things, which God (as he speaks by his Church) hath ordained, as the cross in baptism, and adoration at the sacrament (I do not say, I am far from saying, adoration of the sacrament; there is a fair distance and a spacious latitude between those two, an adoring of God in a devout humiliation of the body in that holy action, and an adoring the bread, out of a false imagination that that bread is God: A rectified man may be very humble and devout in that action, and yet a great way on this side the superstition and Idolatry in the practise of the Roman Church) in these sacramental and ritual, and ceremonial things, which are the bellows of devotion, and the subsidies of religion, and which were always in all Churches, there is a more evident manifestation and clearness in these things in the Christian Church, then was amongst the Jews in the ceremonial parts of their religion, because almost all ours have reference to that which is already done and accomplished, and not to things of a future expectation, as those of the Jews were: So you know the passover of the Jews, had a relation to their comming out of Egypt; that was past, & thereby obvious to every mans apprehension; every man that eat the pasover; remembered their deliverance out of Egypt; but then the passover had also relation to that lamb which was to redeem that world; & this was a future thing; and this certainly very few amongst them understood, or considered upon that occasion, that as thy lamb is killed here, so there shall be a lamb killed for all the world hereafter. Now, our actions in the Church, do most respect things formerly done, and so they awaken, and work upon our memory, which is an easier faculty to work upon, then the understanding or the will. Salvation is nearer us, in these outward helps, because their signification is clearer to us, and more apprehensible by us, being of things past, and accomplished already. So then the Apostle might well say that salvation, that is, outward means of salvation, was nearer, that is, more in number, better in use, clearer in evidence then it was before; quando crediderunt, when they believed, which is the third and last term, in this first acceptation of the word. Salvation was brought into the world, in the first promise of a Messiah in the semen contract, That the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head; and it was brought nearer, when this Missias was fixed in Abrahams race, in semine tuo In thy seed shall all nations be blessed; it was brought nearer then that, when it was brought from Abrahams race to Davids family, in solio tuo, The scepter shall not depart from thee, till he come; and still nearer, in Isaiah virgo concipiet when so particular mark was set upon the Messiah as that he should be the son of a virgin; and yet nearer in Micheas, & tu Bethlem, that Bethlem was designed for the place of his birth; and nearer in Daniels 70 weeks, when the time was manifested. And though it were nearer then all this, when John Baptist came to say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, yet it was truly very near, nearest of all, when Christ came to say, Behold the Kingdom of God is amongst you; for all the rest were in the crediderunt, he was nearer them because they believed he would come; but then it was brought to the viderunt, they saw he was come. Beati says Christ: Blessed are they that have believed, and have not seen: they had salvation brought nearer unto them by their believing; but yet Christ speaks of another manner of blessedness conferred upon his Disciples, Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for, verily I say unto you, that many Prophets & Righteous men, have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them. To end this, the belief of the Patriarks was blessedness; and it was a kind of seeing too; for so Christ says your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it; but this was a seeing with the eye of faith which discovers future things; but Christ prefers the blessedness of the Disciples, because they saw things present and already done. All our life is a passing bell, but then was Simeon content his bell should ring out, when his eyes had seen his salvtion. In that especially doth St. John exalt the force of his argument; quae vidimus: That which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, that declare we unto you. Here is then the inestimable prerogative of the Christian religion, it is grounded so far upon things which were seen to be done; it is brought so far from matter of faith, to matter of fact; from prophecy to history; from what the Messiah should do, to what he hath done; and that was their case to whom this Apostle spake these words, as we take them in the first acceptation; salvation, that is, outward means of salvation in the Church is nearer, that is, more and better and clearer to you now, that is, when you have seen Christin the flesh, then when you prefigured him in your law, or sacrifices, or sacraments, or believed him in your Prophets.

In a second sence we took these words, of Christs second Advent, or comming, his comming to our heart, in the working of his grace; And so the Apostles words are directed to all Christians, and not only to the new convertits of that nation; and so these three terms, salvation, nearness, and believing, (which we proposed to be considered in all the three acceptations of the words) will have this signification. Salvation is the inward means of salvation, the working of the spirit, that sets a seal to the eternal means: the prope, the nearness lies in this, that this grace which is this salvation in this sense, grows out of that which is in you already; not out of any thing which is in you naturally, but Gods first graces that are in you, grows into more and more grace. Grace does not grow out of nature; for nature in the highest exaltation and rectifying thereof cannot produce grace. Corn does not grow out of the earth, it must be sod; but corn grows only in the earth; nature, and natural reason do not produce grace, but yet grace can take root in no other thing but in the nature and reason of man; whether we consider Gods subsequent graces, which grow out of his first grace, formerly given to us, and well employed by us, or his first grace, which works upon our natural faculties, and grows there; still this salvation, that is, this grace is near us, for it is within us; & then the third term believing, is either, quando credidistis primum, when you began to believe, either in an imputative belief of others in your baptism, or a faint belief, upon your first Catechisings and Instrustions; or quando credidistis tantum, when you only professed a belief, or faith, and did nothing in declaration of that faith, to the edification of others.

First then salvation in this second sense, is the internal operation of the holy Ghost, in infusing grace: for therefore doth St. Basil call the holy Ghost verbum Dei, the word of God, (which is the name properly peculiar to the Son) quia interpres filii, sicut filius patris; that as the Father had revealed his will in the Prophets, and then the Son comes and interprets all that actually; this prophecy is meant of my coming, this of my dying, and so makes a real comment, and an actual interpretation of all the prophecies; for he does come, and he does die accordingly; so the holy Ghost comes, and comments upon this comment, interprets this interpretation, and tells thy soul that all this that the Father had promised, and the Son had performed, was intended by them, and by the working of their spirit, is now appropriated to thy particular soul. In the constitution and making of a natural man, the body is not the man, nor the soul is not the man, but the union of these two makes up the man; the spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood, and so are of a kind of middle nature, between soul and body, those spirits are able to do, and they do the office, to unite and apply the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body, and so there is a man: so in a regenerate man, a Christian man, his being born of Christian Parents, that gives him a body, that makes him of the body of the Covenant, it gives him a title, an interest in the Covenant, which is jus ad rem; thereby he may make his claim to the seal of the Covenant, to baptism, and it cannot be denied him: and then in his baptism, that Sacrament gives him a soul, a spiritual seal, jus in re, an actual possession of Grace; but yet, as there are spirits in us, which unite body and soul, so there must be subsequent acts, and works of the blessed spirit, that must unite and confirm all, and make up this spiritual man in the ways of sanctification; for without that his body, that is, his being born within the Covenant, and his soul, that is, his having received Grace in baptism, do not make him up. This Grace is this Salvation; and when this Grace works powerfully in thee, in the ways of sanctification, then is this Salvation neer thee; which is our second term in this second acceptation, propè, neer.

This nearness, which is the effectual working of Grace, the Apostle expresses fully, That it pierceth to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit; for, though properly the soul and spirit of a man be all one, yet divers faculties and operations give them sometimes divers names in the Scriptures; Anima quia animat, says St. Ambrose, and spiritus quia spirat: The quickening of the body, is the soul; but the quickening of the soul, is the spirit. If this Salvation be brought to this nearness, that is, this grace to this powerfulness, thou shalt find it in anima, in thy soul; in those organs wherein thy soul uses thy body, in thy senses, and in the sensible things ordained by God in his Church, Sacraments and Ceremonies; and thou shalt find it nearer, in spiritu, as the spirit of God hath sealed it to thy spirit invisibly, inexpressibly: It shall be neer to thee, so as that thy reason shall apprehend it; and nearer then that, thy faith shall establish it; and nearer then all this, it shall create in thee a modest and sober, but yet an infallible assurance, that thy salvation shall never depart from thee: Magnificabit anima tua Dominum, as the B. Virgin speaks, Thy soul shall magnify the Lord; all thy natural faculties shall be employed upon an assent to the Gospel, thou shalt be able to prove it to thy self, and to prove it to others, to be the Gospel of Salvation: And then Exultabit spiritus, Thy spirit shall rejoice in God thy Savior, because by the farther seal of sanctification, thy spirit shall receive testimony from the spirit; that as Christ is Idem homo cum te, the same man that thou art, so thou art Idem spiritus cum Domino, the same spirit that he is; so far, as that as a spirit cannot be separated in it self, so neither canst thou be separated from God in Christ; And this, this exaltation of Grace, when it thus grows up to this height of sanctification, is that nearness, which brings Salvation farther than our believing does? and that's the last term in this part; Believing.

Now, nearer then Believing, nearer than Faith, a man might well think nothing can bring Salvation; for Faith is the hand that reaches it, and takes hold of it. But yet, as though our bodily hand reach to our temporal food, yet the mouth and the stomach must do their office too; and so that meat must be distributed into all parts of the body, and assimilated to them; so though our faith draw this salvation neer us, yet when our mouth is employed, that we have a delight to glorify God in our discourses, and to declare his wonderful works to the sons of men, in our thankfulness: And when this faith of ours is distributed over all the body, that the body of Christs Church is edified, and alienated by our good life and sanctification, then is this Salvation nearer us, that is, safelier sealed to us, then when we believed only.

Either then, this quando credidistis, when you believed, may be referred to Infants, or to the first faith, and the first degrees thereof in men. In Infants, when that seminal faith, or potential faith, which is by some conceived to be in the Infants of Christian parents at their baptism; or that actual faith, which from their parents, or from the Church, is thought to be applied to them, accepted in their behalf, in that Sacrament, when this faith grows up after, by this new comming of Christ in the power of his Grace and his Spirit, to be a lively faith, expressed in charity; then Salus proprior, then is Salvation nearer than when they believed; whether this belief were their own, or their parents, or the Churches, we have no ground to deny, that Salvation is neer, and present to all children rightly baptized; but, for those who have made sure their Salvation by a good use of Gods graces after, we have another fair piece of evidence, that Salvation is nearer them. It is so to, if this believing be referred to our first elements and beginnings of faith: A man believes the history of Christ, because it is matter of fact, and a story probable, and well testified: A man may believe the Christian Religion, or the Reformed Religion for his ease, either because he cannot or will not debate controversies, and reconcile differences, or because he sees it best for order and quiet, and civll ends, which he hath in that state where he lives. These be kinds of faith and moral assents: and sometimes when a man is come thus far, to a historical and a moral faith, God super-infuses true faith; for howsoever he wrought by reason, and natural faculties, and moral, and civil ways, yet it was God that wrought from the beginning, and produced this faith, though but historical or moral. And then, if God do exalt this moral or historical faith farther then so, to believe not only the History, but the Gospel; not only that such a Christ lived, and did those miracles, and died, but that he was the Son of God, and died for the redemption of the world; this brings Salvation nearer him, than when he believed; but then, when this grace comes to appropriate Christ to him, and more than that, to annunciate Christ by him, when it makes him (as John Baptist was) a burning and a shining lamp; That Christ is showed to him, and by him to others in a holy life, Then is Salvation nearer him than when he believed, either as it is credidit primum, when he began to believe, but had some scruples, or credidit tantum, that he laid all upon faith, but had no care of works. To end this, this nearness of Salvation, is that union with God, which may be had in this life: It is the peace of conscience, the undoubting trust and assurance of Salvation. This assurance (so far as they will confess it may be had) the Roman Church places in faith, and so far, well, but then, In fide formata; and so far well enough too; In those works which declare and testify that faith; for, though this good work do nothing toward my Salvation, it does much towards this nearness, that is, towards my assurance of this Salvation; but herein they lead us out of the way, that they call these works the soul, the form of faith: for, though a good tree cannot be without good fruits, yet it were a strange manner of speech to call that good fruit, the life or the soul, or the form of that tree; so is it, to call works which are the fruits of faith, the life or soul, or form of faith; for that is proper to grace only which infuses faith. They would acknowledge this nearness of salvation, this assurance in good works; but say they, man cannot be sure, that their works is good, and therefore they can have no such assurance. They who undertook the reformation of Religion in our Fathers days, observing that there was no peace without this assurance, expressed this assurance thus, That when a man is sure that he believes aright, that he hath no scruples of God, no diffidence in God, and uses all endeavors to continue it, and to express it in his life, as long as he continues so, he is sure of Salvation; and farther they went not: And then there arose men, which would reform the Reformers, and refine Salvation and bring it into a less room; They would take away the condition, if you hold fast, if you express it; and so came up roundly and presently to that; If ever you did believe, if ever you had faith, you are safe for ever, and upon that assurance you may rest. Now I make no doubt, but that both these sought the truth, that truth which concerns us, peace and assurance; and I dispute not their resolutions now; only I say, for these words which we have in hand now there is a conditional assurance implied in them; for when it is said now, now that you are in this state, Salvation is neer you: thus much is pugnantly intimated, that if you were not in this state, Salvation were farther removed from you howsoever you pretend to believe.

Now this hath brought us to our third and last sense and acceptation of these words, as they are spoken of Christs last comming, his comming in glory; which is to us at our deaths, and that judgment which we receive then. And in this acceptation of the word, these three terms, Salvation, Nearness and Believing, are thus to be understood: Salvation is Salvation perfected, consummated; Salvation which was brought neer baptism, & nearer in outward holyness, must be brought nearer than that: And this prope, this nearness is, that now being neer death, you are neer the last seal of your perseverance; and so the credidistis, the believing amounts to this: though you have believed and lived accordingly, believed with the belief of a Jew, believed all the Prophets, and with the belief of a Christian, believed all the Gospel, believed with a seminal belief of your own, or an actual belief of others at your baptism, with a historical belief, and with an Evangelical belief too, with a belief in your root, in the heart, and a belief in the fruits, expressed in a good life too, yet there is a continuance and a perseverance that must crown all this; and because that cannot be discerned till thine end, then only is it safely pronounced, Now is Salvation nearer you than when you believed.

Here then Salvation is eternal Salvation; not the outward seals of the Church upon the person, not visible Sacraments, nor the outward seal of the person, to the Church, visible works, nor the inward seal of the Spirit, assurance here, but fruition, possession of glory, in the Kingdom of Heaven; where we shall be infinitely rich, and that without labor in getting, or care in keeping, or fear in loosing; and fully wise, and that without ignorance of necessary, or study of unnecessary knowledge, where we shall not measure our portion by acres, for all heaven shall be all ours; nor our term by years, for it is life and everlasting life; nor our assurance by precedent, for we shall be safer then the Angels themselves were in the creation; where our exaltation shall be to have a crown of righteousness, and our possession of that crown shall be, even the throwing it down at the feet of the Lamb; where we shall lev off all those petitions of Adveniat regnum, thy Kingdom come for it shall be come in abundant power; and the da nobis hodiè, give us this day our daily bread, for we shall have all that which we can desire now, and shall have a power to desire more, & then have that desire so enlarged, satisfied; And the Libera nos, we shall not pray to be delivered from evil, for no evil, culpae or poenae, either of sin to deserve punishment, or of punishment for our former sins shall offer at us; where we shall see God face to face, for we shall have such notions and apprehensions, as shall enable us to see him, and he shall afford such an imparting, such a manifestation of himself, as he shall be seen by us; and where we shall be as inseparably united to our Savior, as his humanity and divinity are united together: This unspeakable, this unimaginable happiness is this Salvation, and therefore let us be glad when this is brought neer us.

And this is brought nearer & nearer unto us, as we come nearer & nearer to our end. As he that travails weary, and late towards a great City, is glad when he comes to a place of execution, becaus he knows be that is neer the town; so when thou comest to the gate of death, glad of that, for it is but one step from that to thy Jerusalem. Christ hath brought us in some nearness to Salvation, as he is vere Salvator mundi, in that we know, that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world: and he hath brought it nearer than that, as he is Salvator corporis sui, in that we know, That Christ is the head of the Church, and the Savior of that body: And nearer than that, as he is Salvator tuus sanctus, In that we know, He is the Lord our God, the holy One of Israel, our Savior: But neerest of all, in the Ecce Salvator tuus venit, Behold thy Salvation cometh. It is not only promised in the Prophets, nor only writ in the Gospel, nor only sealed in the Sacraments, nor only prepared in the visitations of the holy Ghost, but Ecce, behold it, now, when thou canst behold nothing else: The sun is setting to thee, and that for ever; thy houses and furnitures, thy gardens and orchards, thy titles and offices, thy wife and children are departing from thee, and that for ever; a cloud of faintness is come over thine eyes, and a cloud of sorrow over all theirs; when his hand that loves thee best hangs tremblingly over thee to close thine eyes, Ecce Salvator tuus venit, behold then a new light, thy Saviours hand shall open thine eyes, and in his light thou shalt see light; and thus shalt see, that though in the eyes of men thou lye upon that bed, as a Statue on a Tomb, yet in the eyes of God, thou standest as a Colossus, one foot in one, another in another land; one foot in the grave, but the other in heaven; one hand in the womb of the earth, and the other in Abrahams bosom: And then vere prope, Salvation is truly neer thee, and nearer than when thou believedst, which is our last word.

Take this Belief in the largest extent; a patient assent to all foretold of Christ and of Salvation by the Prophets; a historical assent to all that is written of Christ in the Gospel; an humble and supple, and appliable assent to the Ordinances of the Church; a faithful application of all this to thine own soul, a fruitful declaration of all that to the whole world in thy life, yet all this (though this be inestimable riches) is but the earnest of the holy Ghost; it is not the full payment, it is but the first fruits; it is not the harvest, it is but a truce; it is not an inviolable peace; There remaineth a rest to the people of God, says the Apostle; they were the people of God before, and yet there remained a rest, which they had not yet; not that there is not a blessed degree of rest, in the Credidi, a happy assurance in the strength of faith here, but yet there remaineth a rest better than that; And therefore says that Apostle there, Let us labor to enter into that rest; as though we have rest in our consciences all the six days of the week, if we do the works of our callings sincerely, yet all that while we labor; and there remains a Sabbath, which we have not all the week; so though we have peace and rest in the testimony of our faith and obedience in this life, yet there remains a rest, a Sabbath, for which we must labor; for the Apostle in that place adds the danger; Labor to enter into that rest, says he, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief: He speaks of the people of God, and yet they might fall; He speaks of such as bad believed, and yet they might fall, after the example of unbelief, as far as they that never believed, if they labored not to the last and set the seal of final perseverance to their former faith. To conclude all with the force of the Apostles argument, in urging the words of this text, since God hath brought salvation nearer to you, then to them that believed; nearer to you in the Gospel, when you have seen Christ come there to the Jews in the Prophets, where they only read that he should come, and nearer to you, then where you believed, either seminally & potentially, and imputatively at our baptism, or actually, and declaratorily in some parts of your life, by having persisted therein thus far; and since he is now bringing it nearer to you, then when you believed at best, because your end grows nearer, now, whilst the evil days come not, nor the year approach, wherein thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; before the grinders cease, because they are few, and they wax dark, that look out at the windows, before thou go to the house of thine age, and the mourners go about in the streets, prepare thy self by casting off thy sins, and all that is gotten by thy sins: for, as the plague is got as soon in linings, as in the outside of a garment, salvation is lost, as far, by retaining ill gotten goods, as by ill getting, forget not thy past sins so far, as not to repent them; but remember not thy repented sins so far, as to delight in remembering them, or to doubt that God hath not fully forgiven them; and whether God have brought this salvation near thee, by sickness, or by age, or by general dangers, put off the consideration of the incomodies of that age, or that sickness, and that danger, and fill thy self with the consideration of the nearness of thy salvation, which that age, and sickness, and danger, minister to thee: that so, when the best Instrument, and the best song shall meet together, thy bell shall tol, and thy soul shall hear that voice, Ecce salvator, behold thy Savior cometh, thou mayst bear a part, and cheerfully make up that music, with a veni Domine Jesu, Come Lord Jesu, come quickly, come now.

A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstans January 15. 1625. The First Sermon after Our Dispersion, by the Sickness. Sermon XXI.

Exod. 12.30.

For there was not a house where there was not one dead.

GOd intended life and immortality for man; and man by sin induced death upon himself at first: When man had done so, and that now man was condemned, man must die; yet yet God gave him, though not an absolute pardon, yet a long reprieve; though not a new immortality, yet a life of seven and eight hundred years upon earth: And then, misery, by sin growing upon man, and this long life which was enlarged in his favor being become a burden unto him, God abridged and contracted his seven hundred to seventy, and his eight hundred to eighty years, the years of his life came to be threescore and ten; and if misery do suffer him to exceed those, even the exceeding it self is misery. Death then is from our selves, it is our own; but the executioner is from God, it is his, he gives life; no man can quicken his own soul, but any man can forfeit his own soul: And yet when he hath done so, he may not be his own executioner; for as God giveth life, so he killeth, says Moses there: not as the cause of death, for death is not his creature; but because he employs what person he will, and executes by what instrument it pleases him to choose, age or sickness, or justice, or malice, or (in our apprehension) fortune. In that History from whence we deduce this Text, which was that great execution, the sudden death of all the first-born of Egypt; it is very large, and yet we may usefully, and to good purpose enlarge it, if we take into our consideration spiritual death, as well as bodily: for so in our houses from whence we came hither, if we left but a servant, but a child in the cradle at home, there is one dead in that house. If we have no other house but this which we carry about us, this house of clay, this tabernacle of flesh, this body, yet if we consider the inmate, the sojourner within this house, the state of our corrupt and putrefied soul, there is one dead in this house too. And though we be met now in the House of God, and our God be the God of Life, yet even in this house of the God of Life, and the ground enwrapped in the same consecration; not only of every such house, but let every mans length in the house be a house; of every such space this Text will be verified, There is not a house where there is not one dead.

God is abundant in his mercies to man, and as though he did but learn to give by his giving, as though he did but practise to make himself perfect in his own Art, which Art is bountiful Mercy; as though all his former blessings were but in the way of earnest, and not of payment; as though every benefit that he gave, were a new obligation upon him, and not an acquittance to him; he delights to give where he hath given, as though his former gifts were but his places of memory, and marks set upon certain men, to whom he was to give more. It is not so good a plea in our prayers to God, for temporal or for spiritual blessings, to say, Have mercy upon me now, for I have loved thee heretofore, as to say, Have mercy upon me, for thou hast loved me heretofore. We answer a Beggar, I gave you but yesterday; but God therefore gives us to day, because he gave us yesterday: and therefore are all his blessings wrapped up in that word, Panis quotidianus, Give us this day our daily bread: Every day he gives; and early every day; his Manna falls before the Sun rises, and his mercies are new every morning. In this consideration of his abounding in all ways of mercy to us, we consider justly how abundant he is in instructing us. He writes his Law once in our hearts, and then he repeats that Law, and declares that Law again in his written Word, in his Scriptures. He writes his Law in stone-Tables once; and then those Tables being broken, he repeats that Law, writes that Law again in other Tables. He gives us his Law in Exodus and Leviticus, and then he gives us a Deuteronomy, a repetition of that Law, another time in another Book. And as he abounds so in instructing us, in going the same way twice over towards us, as he gives us the Law a second time, so he gives us a second way of instructing us; he accompanies, he seconds his Law with examples. In his Legal Books we have Rules; in the Historical, Examples to practise by. And as he is every way abundant, as he hath added Law to Nature, and added Example to Law, so he hath added Example to Example; and by that Text which we have read to you here, and by that Text which we have left at home, our house and family, and by that Text which we have brought hither, our selves, and by that Text which we find here, where we stand, and sit, and kneel upon the bodies of some of our dead friends or neighbors, he gives to us, he repeats to us, a full, a various, a multiform, a manifold Catechism, and Institution, to teach us that it is so absolutely true, that there is not a house in which there is not one dead, as that (taking spiritual death into our consideration) there is not a house in which there is one alive.

That therefore we may take in light at all these windows that God opens for us, that we may lay hold upon God by all these handles which he puts out to us, we shall make a brief survey of these four Houses; of that in Egypt, where the Text places it; of that at home, in which we dwell; of this, which is our selves, where we always are, or always should be within; and of this in which we are met, where God is in so many several Temples of his, as are above and under ground: So that this Sermon may be a general Funeral Sermon, both for them that are dead in the flesh, and for our selves, that are dead in our sins; for of all these four houses it is true, and by useful accommodation, appliable to all, There is not a house where there is not one dead.

First then to survey the first House, the House in Egypt, Pharaoh, by drawing upon himself and his Land this last and heaviest plague of the ten, the universal, the sudden, the midnight destruction of all, all the first born of Egypt, hath made himself a Monument, and a History, and a Pillar everlasting to the end of the world, to the end of all place in the world, and to the end of all time in the world, by which all men may know, that man, how perverse soever, cannot weary God; that man cannot add to his Rebellions so many heavy circumstances, but that God can add as many, as heavy degrees to his Judgements. First, God turns their Rivers into blood; Pharaoh sits that process, and more, many more; and then in this bloody massacre of all their first-born, God brings blood out of the channels of their Rivers, into their chambers, into all their Chambers; not only to cut off their children from without, and the young men from the streets (as the Prophet speaks) but (as he says also there) Death came in at their windows, and entered into their Palaces. As Christ says of Mary Magdalens devotion, That wheresoever his Gospel should be preached in the world, there should also this which this woman had done, be told for a memorial of her: So we may say of mans obduration, Wheresoever the Book of God shall be read, Pharaoh shall be an example, that God will have his ends, let man be possest with the spirit of contradiction as furiously, with the spirit of rebellion as ragefully as he will. Fremuerunt Gentes, says David in the beginning of the second Psalm, The Heathen rage, and they break their sleep to contrive mischief. And within three verses more we find, The Lord sits still in heaven, and laughs, and hath them in derision. The building of the Tower of Babel did not put God to build another Tower to confront it; God did nothing, and brought all their labours and their councils to nothing. God took no hammer in hand to demolish and cast down Nebuchadnezzars Image, but a stone that was cut out without hands, smote the image, and broke it in pieces. Si inceperit, if God once set his work on foot, If I begin, I will also make an end, says God to Samuel; if he have not begun, si juraverit, if the Lord have sworn it, it shall be, (those whom the Lord swore should not enter into his Rest, never entered into his Rest.) If he have not sworn, si locutus fuerit, that's security enough, the security that the Prophet Isaiah gives through all his Prophecy, os Domini, thus and thus it must be, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it: if he have not gone so far, si cogitaverit, if he have purposed it, as that word is used in Isaiah; if he have determined it, as the word is used in the Chronicles; if he have devised such a course, as the word is in Jeremiah; God will accomplish his work, if he have begun it; his oath and word, if he have said or sworn it; his purpose and determination, if he have intended it; nothing shall frustrate or evacuate his purpose, he will atchieve his ends, though there be never a soul that doth not sigh, never a heart that doth not ake, never a vein that doth not bleed, never a house in which there is not one dead.

In the building of the material Temple, there was no hammer, nor tool of noise used: In the fitting and laying of us, the living stones of the mystical Temple, God would use no hammer, no iron, no occasion of noise, or lamentation; but there are dispositions which will not be rectified without the hammer, and are not malleable neither, not fit to be rectified by the hammer, till a hot fire of vehement affliction have mollified them. Thespesius they say was a man desperately vicious, irrecoverably wicked; his friends asked the Oracle whether ever he would mend? The Oracle answered, he would when he was dead; he died of a sudden fall, at least to the eyes, and in the understanding of the world he died; but he recovered, and came to life again, and then reported such fearful visions which he had seen in the other world, upon the souls of some of his companions, and of his own father, as that out of the apprehension of those terrors in his ecstasy, in his second life, he justified the Oracle; and after he had been dead, lived well. Many such stories are in the Legends; but I take this at the fountain where they take most of theirs, that is, out of Plutarch; for Plutarch and Virgil are two principal Evangelists of the Legendaries. The Moral of them all is, That God will imprint a knowledge of his Majesty, and a terror of his Judgements, though the heart be Iron: He would bring the Egyptians to say with trembling, We are dead men, though they would not be brought to say it, till there was not a house in which there was not one dead.

But as in a River that is swelled, though the water do bring down sand and stones, and logs, yet the water is there still; and the purpose of Nature is to vent that water, not to pour down that sand, or those stones: so though God be put to mingle his Judgements with his mercies, yet his mercy is there still, and his purpose is, ever in those judgments, to manifest his mercy. Where the Channel is stopped by those Sands, and Stones, and Logs, the Water will find another Channel; where the heart is hardened by Gods corrections, and thereby made incapable of his mercy, (as in some dispositions, even Gods corrections do work such obstructions and obdurations, as in Pharaohs case it was) yet the water will find a Channel, the mercy of God will flow out, and show it self to others, though not to him; his mercy will take effect somewhere, as (in Pharaohs case) it did upon the Children of Israel. And yet God would not show mercy to them, but so, as that at the same time they also might see his judgments, and thereby be brought to say, God hath a Treasury of both, Mercy and Justice; and God might have changed the persons, and made the Egyptians the objects of his Mercies, and us of his Justice.

The first act of Gods mercy towards me, when I see him execute a judgment upon another, is to confess, that that judgment belonged to me, and thereby to come to a holy fear, being under the same condemnation; as the one Thief said to the other, upon their several crosses; Fearest not thou, being under the same condemnation? At this time God delivered his Children out of Egypt; then was fullness of mercy: but God let them see his power and his powerful indignation upon others, for their instruction. God brought them out; there was fullness of mercy towards them: but he brought them out in the night. God would mingle some shadow, some signification of his judgments in his mercies, of adversity in prosperity, of night in day, of death in life. The persecuting Angel entered into none of their houses, God let them live; but God, though he let them live, would not let them be ignorant, that he could have thrown death in at their windows too: For they came not into a house where there was not one dead.

We stay no longer upon this first survey of the first house, That in Egypt: The next is, our own house, our habitation, our family. We have in the use of our Church, a short, and a larger Catechism; both instruct the same things, the same Religion, but some capacities require the one, and some the other. God would catechise us in the knowledge of our mortality; since we have divested our immortality, he would have us understand our mortality; since we have induced death upon our selves, God would raise such a benefit to us, out of death, as that by the continual meditation thereof, death might the less terrify us, and the less damnify us. First, His Law alone does that office, even his Common Law, Morte morieris, and stipendium peccati Mors est: All have sinned, and all must die. And so his Statute Law too, Statutum est, It is enacted, it is appointed to man once to die: And then as a Comment upon that Law, he presents to us, either his great Catechisms, Sennacheribs Catechism, in which we see almost Two hundred thousand Soldiers, (more by many then both sides arm and pay, in these noiseful Wars of our Neighbors) slain in one night; or Jeroboams Catechism, where Twelve hundred thousand being presented in the field, (more by many, then all the Kings of Christendom arm and pay) Five hundred thousand men, chosen men, and men of mighty valor, (as the Text qualifies them) were slain upon one side in one day; or Davids Catechism, where Threescore and ten thousand were devoured of the Pestilence, we know not in how few hours; or this Egyptian Catechism, of which we can make no conjecture, because we know no number of their houses; and there was not a house, in which there was not one dead; or God presents us his Catechism in the Primitive Church, where every day may be written in Red Ink, every day the Church celebrated Five hundred, in some Copies Five thousand Martyrs every day, that had writ down their names in their own blood, for the Gospel of Christ Jesus; or God presents us his Catechism in the later Roman Church; where, upon our attempt of the Reformation, they boast to have slain in one day Seventy Millions, in another Two hundred Millions of them that attempted and assisted the Reformation; or else Gods presents his lesser Catechisms, the several Funerals of our particular Friends in the Congregation; or he abridges this Catechism of the Congregation to a less volume then that, to the consideration of every particular piece of our own Family at home: For so, there is not a house, in which there is not one dead.

Have you not left a dead son at home, whom you should have chastened, whilst there was hope, and have not? Whom you should have beaten with the rod, to deliver his soul from Hell, and have not? Whom you should have made an Abel, a Keeper of Sheep; or a Cain, a Tiller of the Ground; that is, bestowed him, bound him, to some Occupation, or Profession, or Calling, and have not? You may believe God without an oath; but God hath sworn, That because Eli restrained not the insolencies of his sons, no sacrifice should purge his house for ever. And scarce shall you find in the whole Book of God, any so vehement an intermination, any judgment so vehemently imprinted, as that upon Eli, for not restraining the insolencies of his sons: For in that case God says, I will do a thing in Israel, at which, both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle: That is, he would inflict a sudden death upon the Father, for his indulgence to his sons. Have ye not left such a dead son, dead in contumacy, and in disobedience, at home? Have you not left a dead daughter at home? A daughter whom you should have kept at home, and have not; but suffered, with Dinah, to go out to see the daughters of the land, and so expose her self to dangerous temptations, as Dinah did? Have ye not left a dead servant at home, whom ye have made so perfect in deceiving of others, as that now he is able to take out a new lesson of himself, and deceive you? Have you left no dead Inmates, dead Sojourners, dead Lodgers at home? Of whom, so they advance your profit, you take no care how vicious in themselves they be, or how dangerous to the State. Gather men, and women, and children, and strangers within thy gate, says God, that they may all learn the Law of the Lord. If thy care spread not over all thy family, whosoever is dead in thy family by thy negligence, thou shalt answer the King that Subject, that is, the King of Heaven that Soul.

We have (as we proposed to do) surveyed this House in Egypt, where the Text lays it, and the House at home where we dwell; there is a third House, which we are, this House of Clay, and of Mud-walls, our selves, these bodies. And is there none dead there? not within us? The House it self is ready to fall as soon as it is set up: The next thing that we are to practise after we are born, is to die. The Timber of this House is but our Bones; and, My bones are waxen old, says David; and perchance not with age, but as Job says, His bones are full of the sins of his youth. The lome-walls of this House are but this flesh; and Our strength is not the strength of stones, neither is our flesh brass; and therefore, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. The windows of this House are but our eyes; and, the light of mine eyes is gone from me, says David; and we know not how, nor how soon. The foundation is but our feet; and, besides that Our feet stumble at noon, (as the Prophet complains) David found them so cold, as that no art nor diligence could warm them. And the roof and covering of this House, is but this thatch of hair; and it is denounced by more then one of the Prophets, That upon all heads shall fall baldness: The House it self is always ready to fall; but is there not also always some dead in this House, in our selves? Is not our first-born dead? Our first-born (says St. Augustin) are the offspring of our beloved sin; for we have some Concubine-sins, and some one sin that we are married to: Whatsoever we have begot upon that wife, whatsoever we have got by that sin, that's our first-born, and that's dead: How much the better soever we make account to live by it, it is dead. For, as it was the mischievous invention of a Persecutor in the Primitive Church, to tie living men to dead bodies, and let them die so; so men that tie the rest of their Estate to goods ill gotten, do but invent a way to ruin and destroy all. But that which is truly every mans first-born-child, is his zeal to the Religion and Service of God: As soon as we know that there is a Soul, that Soul knows that there is a God, and a Worship belonging to that God; and this Worship is Religion. And is not this first-born child dead in many of us? In him that is not stirred, not moved, not affected for his Religion, his pulse is gone, and that's an ill sign. In him that dares not speak for it, not counsel, not preach for it, his Religion lies speechless; and that's an ill sign. In him that feeds not Religion, that gives nothing to the maintenance thereof, his Religion is in a consumption. In a word, if his zeal be quenched, his first-born is dead. And so for these three Houses, That in Egypt, that at home, that in our selves, There is not a house in which there is not one dead.

The fourth House falling under this survey, is this House in which we are met now, the house of God; the Church and the ground wrapped up in the same consecration: and in this house you have seen, and seen in a lamentable abundance, and seen with sad eyes, that for many months there hath scarce been one day in which there hath not been one dead. How should there be but multiplicity of deaths? why should it be, or be looked to be, or thought to be otherwise? The Master of the house, Christ Jesus, is dead before; and now it is not so much a part of our punishment, for the first Adam, as an imitation of the second Adam, to die; death is not so much a part of our debt to Nature, or Sin, or Satan, as a part of our conformity to him who died for us. If death were in the nature of it merely evil to us, Christ would have redeemed us, even from this death, by his death. But as the death of Christ Jesus is the Physic of mankind, so this natural death of the body is the application of that Physic to every particular man, who only by death can be made capable of that glory which his death hath purchased for us. This Physic, all they whom God hath taken to him, have taken, and (by his grace) received life by it. Their first-born is dead; the body was made before the soul, and that body is dead. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted, because they were not. If these children, and parents, and friends, and neighbours of ours were not, if they were resolved into an absolute annihilation, we could not be comforted in their behalf; but Christ, who says, he is the Life, lest we should think that to belong only to this life, says also that he is the Resurrection. We were contracted to Christ in our Election, married to him in our Baptism, in the Grave we are bedded with him, and in the Resurrection estated and put into possession of his Kingdom: And therefore, because these words do not only affect us with that sad consideration, That there is none of these houses in which there is not one dead; but minister withal that consolation, That there is none so dad, but may have a Resurrection, We shall pass another short survey over all these Houses.

Thus far we have surveyed these four Houses, Egypt, our families, our selves, and the Church, as so many places of Infection, so many temporal or spiritual Pesthouses, into which our sins had heaped powder, and Gods indignation had cast a match to kindle it. But now the very phrase of the Text, which is, That in every house there was one dead, There was, invites us to a more particular consideration of Gods mercy, in that, howsoever it were, it is not so now; in which we shall look how far this beam of mercy shines out in every of these houses, that it is not so now, There is not one dead in every house now; but the Infection, (Temporal and Spiritual Infection) is so far ceased, as that not only those that are alive, do not die, as before; but those whom we called dead, are not dead; they are alive in their spirits, in Abrahams bosom; and they are alive in their very bodies, in their contract and inherence in Christ Jesus in an infallible assurance of a joyful Resurrection.

Now in the survey of the first sort of houses, of Egypt, herein we are interrupted. Here they were dead, and are dead still: We see clearly enough Gods indignation upon them; but we see neither of those beams of mercy, either that there die no more, or that we have the comfort of a joyful Resurrection in them who are dead: For this fearful calamity of the death of their first-born wrought no more upon them, but to bring them to that exclamation, that vociferation, that voice of despairful murmuring, Omnes Moriemur, We are all dead men: And they were mischievous Prophets upon themselves; for, proceeding in that sin which induced that calamity and the rest upon them, they pursued the children of Israel through the Red-sea, and perished in it; and then they came not to die one in a house, but as it is expressed in the Story, and repeated in the Psalms, There remained not so much as one of them alive; so that in their case there is no comfort in the first beam of mercy, that this phrase, They were dead, or They did die, should intimate, That now they did not die, now Gods correction had so wrought upon them, as that God withdrew that correction from them, for it pursued them, and accompanied them to their final and total destruction. And then for the other beam of mercy, of transferring them which seemed dead in the eyes of the world, to a better life, by that hand of death, to present happiness in their souls, and to an assured resurrection to joy and glory in their bodies, in the communion of Gods Saints, Moses hath given us little hope in their behalf; for thus he encourageth his Countreymen in that place, The Egyptians whom you have seen this day, you shall see no more for ever: No more in this world, no more in the world to come. Beloved, as God empayled a Goshen in Egypt, a place for the righteous amongst the wicked; so there is an Egypt in every Goshen, nests of Snakes in the fairest Gardens, and even in this City (which in the sense of the Gospel, we may call, The Holy City; as Christ called Jerusalem, though she had multiplied transgressions, The Holy City, because she had not cast away his Law, though she had disobeyed it: So howsoever your sins have provoked God, yet as you retain a zealous profession of the truth of his Religion, I may in his name, and do in the bowels of his mercy, call you, The Holy City) even in this City, no doubt but the hand of God fell upon thousands in this deadly infection, who were no more affected with it, then those Egyptians, to cry out, Omnes Moriemur, We can but die, and we must die: And, Edamus, & bibamus, cras moriemur, Let us eat and drink, and take our pleasure, and make our profits, for to morrow we shall die, and so were cut off by the hand of God, some even in their robberies, in half-empty houses; and in their drunkenness in voluptuous and riotous houses; and in their lusts and wantonness in licentious houses; and so took in infection and death, like Judas's sop, death dipt and soaked in sin. Men whose lust carried them into the jaws of infection in lewd houses, and seeking one sore perished with another; men whose rapine and covetousness broke into houses, and seeking the Wardrobes of others, found their own winding-sheet, in the infection of that house where they stole their own death; men who sought no other way to divert sadness, but strong drink in riotous houses, and there drank up Davids cup of Malediction, the cup of Condemned men, of death, in the infection of that place. For these men that died in their sins, that sinned in their dying, that sought and hunted after death so sinfully, we have little comfort of such men, in the phrase of this Text, They were dead; for they are dead still: As Moses said of the Egyptians, I am afraid we may say of these men, We shall see them no more for ever.

But God will give us the comfort of this phrase in the next House; This next House is Domus nostra, our Dwelling-House, our Habitation, our Family; and there, They were dead; they were, but by Gods goodness they are not. If this savor of death have been the savor of life unto us; if this heavy weight of Gods hand upon us have awakened us to a narrower survey, and a better discharge of our duties towards all the parts of our Families, we may say, to our comforts and his glory, There was a son dead in disobedience and murmuring; there was a daughter dead in a dangerous easiness of conversation; there was a servant dead in the practice of deceit and falsifying; there was, but the Lord hath breathed a new life into us, the Lord hath made even his tempest a refreshing, and putrefaction a perfume unto us. The same measure of wind that blows out a candle, kindles a fire; this correction that hath hardened some, hath entendred and mollified us; and howsoever there were dead sons, and dead daughters, and dead servants, this holy sense of Gods Judgements shall not only preserve for the future, that we shall admit no more such dead limbs into our Family, but even give to them who were (in these kinds) formerly dead, a new life, a blessed resurrection from all their sinful habits, by the power of his grace, though reached to them with a bloody hand, and in a bitter cup, in this heavy calamity; and as Christ said of himself, they shall say in him, I was dead, but am alive; and by that grace of God, I am that I am.

The same comfort also shall we have in this phrase of the Text, in our third House; the third House is not Domus nostra, but Domus nos, not the House we inhabit, but the House we carry; not that House which is our House, but that House which is our selves: There also, They were dead; they were, but are not. For beloved, we told you before in our former survey of these several Houses, That our first-born, (for still ye remember, they were the first-born of Egypt, that induce all this application;) Our first-born in this House, in our selves, is our Zeal; not merely and generally our Religion, but our zeal to our Religion. For Religion in general, is natural to us; the natural man hath naturally some sense of God, and some inclination to worship that Power, whom he conceives to be God, and this Worship is Religion. But then the first thing that this general pious affection produces in us, is Zeal, which is an exaltation of Religion. Primus actus voluntatis est Amor; Philosophers and Divines agree in that, That the will of man cannot be idle, and the first act that the will of man produces, is Love; for till it love something, prefer and choose something, till it would have something, it is not a Will; neither can it turn upon any object, before God. So that this first, and general, and natural love of God, is not begotten in my soul, nor produced by my soul, but created and infused with my soul, and as my soul; there is no soul that knows she is a soul, without such a general sense of the love of God. But to love God above all, to love him with all my faculties, this exaltation of this religious love of God, is the first-born of Religion, and this is Zeal. Religion, which is the Worship of that Power which I call God, does but make me a man; the natural man hath that Religion; but that which makes me a Father, and gives me an off-spring, a first-born, that's Zeal: By Religion I am an Adam, but by Zeal I am an Abel produced out of that Adam. Now if we consider times not long since past, there was scarce one house, scarce one of us, in whom this first-born, this Zeal was not dead. Discretion is the ballast of our Ship, that carries us steady; but Zeal is the very Freight, the Cargason, the Merchandise it self, which enriches us in the land of the living; and this was our case, we were all come to esteem our Ballast more then our Freight, our Discretion more then our Zeal; we had more care to please great men then God; more consideration of an imaginary change of times, then of unchangeable eternity it self. And as in storms it falls out often that men cast their Wares and their Fraights over-board, but never their Ballast, so as soon as we thought we saw a storm, in point of Religion, we cast off our Zeal, our Freight, and stuck to our Ballast, our Discretion, and thought it sufficient to sail on smoothly, and steadily, and calmly, and discreetly in the world, and with the time, though not so directly to the right Haven. So our first-born in this House, in our selves, our Zeal, was dead. It was; there's the comfortable word of our Text. But now, now that God hath taken his fan into his hand, and sifted his Church, now that God hath put us into a straight and crooked Limbeck, passed us through narrow and difficult trials, and set us upon a hot fire, and drawn us to a more precious substance and nature then before; now that God hath given our Zeal a new concoction, a new refining, a new inanimation by this fire of tribulation, let us embrace and nurse up this new resurrection of this Zeal, which his own Spirit hath begot and produced in us, and return to God with a whole and entire soul, without dividing or scattering our affections upon other objects; and in the sincerity of the true Religion, without inclinations in our selves, to induce; and without inclinableness, from others, upon whom we may depend, to admit, any dramms of the dregs of a superstitious Religion; for it is a miserable extremity, when we must take a little poison for physic. And so having made the right use of Gods corrections, we shall enjoy the comfort of this phrase, in this House, our selves, our first-born, our Zeal was dead; it was, but it is not.

Lastly, in this fourth House, the House where we stand now, the House of God, and of his Saints, God affords us a fair beam of this consolation, in the phrase of this Text also, They were dead. How applicable to you, in this place, is that which God said to Moses, Put off thy shoes, for thou treadest on holy ground; put off all confidence, all standing, all relying upon worldly assurances, and consider upon what ground you tread; upon ground so holy, as that all the ground is made of the bodies of Christians, and therein hath received a second consecration. Every puff of wind within these walls, may blow the father into the sons eyes, or the wife into her husbands, or his into hers, or both into their children's, or their children's into both. Every grain of dust that flies here, is a piece of a Christian; you need not distinguish your Pews by figures; you need not say, I sit within so many of such a neighbor, but I sit within so many inches of my husbands, or wives, or childes, or friends grave. Ambitious men never made more shift for places in Court, then dead men for graves in Churches; and as in our later times, we have seen two and two almost in every Place and Office, so almost every Grave is oppressed with twins; and as at Christs resurrection some of the dead arose out of their graves, that were buried again; so in this lamentable calamity, the dead were buried, and thrown up again before they were resolved to dust, to make room for more. But are all these dead? They were, says the Text; they were in your eyes, and therefore we forbid not that office of the eye, that holy tenderness, to weep for them that are so dead. But there was a part in every one of them, that could not die; which the God of life, who breathed it into them, from his own mouth, hath sucked into his own bosom. And in that part which could die, They were dead, but they are not. The soul of man is not safer wrapt up in the bosom of God, then the body of man is wrapt up in the Contract, and in the eternal Decree of the Resurrection. As soon shall God tear a leaf out of the Book of Life, and cast so many of the Elect into Hell fire, as leave the body of any of his Saints in corruption for ever. To what body shall Christ Jesus be loth to put to his hand, to raise it from the grave, then, that put to his very God-head, the Divinity it self, to assume all our bodies, when in one person, he put on all mankind in his Incarnation? As when my true repentance hath re-ingraffed me in my God, and re-incorporated me in my Savior, no man may reproach me, and say, Thou wast a sinner: So, since all these dead bodies shall be restored by the power, and are kept alive in the purpose of Almighty God, we cannot say, They are, scarce that they were dead. When time shall be no more, when death shall be no more, they shall renew, or rather continue their being. But yet, beloved, for this state of their grave, (for it becomes us to call it a state; it is not an annihilation, no part of Gods Saints can come to nothing) as this state of theirs is not to be lamented, as though they had lost any thing which might have conduced to their good, by departing out of this world; so neither is it a state to be joyed in so, as that we should expose our selves to dangers unnecessarily, in thinking that we want any thing conducing to our good, which the dead enjoy. As between two men of equal age, if one sleep, and the other wake all night, yet they rise both of an equal age in the morning; so they who shall have slept out a long night of many ages in the grave, and they who shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord Jesus in the aire, at the last day, shall enter all at once in their bodies into Heaven. No antiquity, no seniority for their bodies; neither can their souls who went before, be said to have been there a minute before ours, because we shall all be in a place that reckons not by minutes. Clocks and Sun-dials were but a late invention upon earth; but the Sun it self, and the earth it self, was but a late invention in heaven. God had been an infinite, a super-infinite, an unimaginable space, millions of millions of unimaginable spaces in heaven, before the Creation. And our afternoon shall be as long as Gods forenoon; for, as God never saw beginning, so we shall never see end; but they whom we tread upon now, and we whom others shall tread upon hereafter, shall meet at once, where, though we were dead, dead in our several houses, dead in a sinful Egypt, dead in our family, dead in our selves, dead in the Grave, yet we shall be received, with that consolation, and glorious consolation, you were dead, but are alive. Enter ye blessed into the Kingdom, prepared for you, from the beginning.

Amen.

A Sermon Preached at the Temple. Sermon XXII.

Esther 4.16.

Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and eat not, nor drink in three days, day nor night: I also, and my Maids will fast likewise; and so I will go in to the King, which is not according to the Law: And if I perish, I perish.

NExt to the eternal and coessential Word of God, Christ Jesus, the written Word of God, the Scriptures concern us most; and therefore next to the person of Christ, and his Offices, the Devil hath troubled the Church, with most questions about the certainty of Scriptures, and the Canon thereof. It was late, before the Spirit of God settled and established an unanime, and general consent in his Church, for the accepting of this Book of Esther: For, not only the holy Bishop Melito (who defended the Christians by an Apology to the Emperor) removed this Book from the Canon of the Scripture, One hundred and fifty years after Christ; but Athanasius also, Three hundred and forty years after Christ, refused it too: Yea, Gregory Nazianzen (though he deserved, and had the stile and title of Theologus, The Divine; and though he came to clearer times, living almost Four hundred years after Christ) did not yet submit himself to an acceptation of this Book. But a long time there hath been no doubt of it; and it is certainly part of that Scripture which is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness. To which purpose, we shall see what is afforded us in this History of this Heroical Woman, Esther; what she did in a perplexed and scrupulous case, when an evident danger appeared, and an evident Law was against her action; and from thence consider, what every Christian Soul ought to do, when it is surprised and overtaken with any such scruples or difficulties to the Conscience.

For Esther in particular, this was her case. She being Wife to the King, Haman, who had great power with the King, had got from him an Edict, for the destruction of all her people the Jews. When this was intimated to her by Mordecai, who presented to her Conscience, not only an irreligious forsaking of God, if she forbore to mediate and use her interest in the King for the saving of hers, and Gods people; but an unnatural and unprovident forsaking of her self, because her danger was involved in theirs; and that she her self being of that Nation, could not be safe in her person, though in the Kings house, if that Edict were executed, though she had not then so ordinary access to the King, as formerly she had had: yea, though there were a Law in her way, that she might not come till she was called, yet she takes the resolution to go, she puts off all Passion, and all particular respects, she consecrates the whole action to God; and having in a rectified and well informed Conscience found it acceptable to him, she neglects both that particular Law, That none might have access to the King uncalled, and that general Law, That every Man is bound to preserve himself; and she exposes her self to an imminent, and (for any thing she knew) an unescapable danger of death: If I perish, I perish.

For the ease of all our memories, we shall provide best, by contracting all, which we are to handle, to these two parts; Esthers preparation, and Esthers resolution: How she disposed her self, how she resolved: What her consultation was, what her execution was to be. Her preparation is an humiliation; and there, first she prepares, that that glory which God should receive, by that humiliation, should be general; All the people should be taught, and provoked to glorify God; vade, congrega, Go, and assemble all. Secondly, The act which they were to do, was to fast, Jejunate: And thirdly, It was a limited fast, Tribus diebus, Eat not, nor drink in three days, and three nights: And then, this fast of theirs, was with relation, and respect to her, Jejunate super me, Fast ye for me. But yet so, as she would not receive an ease by their affliction; put them to do it for her, and she do nothing for her self; Ego cum Ancillis, I and my Maids will fast too; and similiter, likewise, that is, As exactly as they shall. And so far extends her preparation: Her resolution derives it self into two branches. First, That she will break an Humane and Positive Law, Ingrediar contra legem, I will go in, though it be not according to the Law; and secondly, She neglects even the Law of Nature, the Law of Self-preservation, Si peream, peream.

To enter into the first part, The assembling of the people; though the occasion and purpose here were religious, yet the assembling of them was a civil act, an act of Jurisdiction and Authority. Almost all States have multiplied Laws against Assemblies of People, by private Authority, though upon pretences of Religious occasions. All Conventicles, all Assemblies, must have this character, this impression upon them, That they be Legitima, lawful: And, Legitima sola sunt, quae habent authoritatem principis, only those are lawful which are made by the Authority of the State. Aspergebatur infamia Alcibia des, quòd in domo sua facere Mysteria dicebatur. There went an ill report of him, because he had sacrifices, and other worships of the gods at home in his own house: And this was not imputed to him, as a Schismatical thing, or an act of a different Religion from the State, but an act of disaffection to the State, and of Sedition. In times of persecution, when no exercise of true Religion is admitted, these private Meetings may not be denied to be lawful: As for bodily sustenance, if a man could no otherwise avoid starving, the Schoolmen, and the Casuists, resolve truly, That it were no sin to steal so much meat as would preserve life; so, those souls, which without that, must necessarily starve, may steal their Spiritual food in corners, and private meetings: But if we will steal either of these foods, Temporal or Spiritual, because that meat which we may have, is not so dressed, so dished, so sauced, so served in, as we would have it; but accompanied with some other ceremonies then are agreeable to our taste; This is an inexcusable Theft, and these are pernicious Conventicles.

When that Law was made by Darius, That no man for thirty days should ask any thing of God or man, but only of the King; though it were a Law that had all circumstances to make it no Law, yet Daniel took no occasion by this, to induce any new manner of worshipping of God; he took no more company with him to affront the Law, or exasperate the Magistrate; only he did as he had used to do before; and he did not disguise, nor conceal that which he did, but he set open his windows, and prayed in his Chamber. But in these private Conventicles, where they will not live voto aperto, that is, pray so, as that they would be content to be heard what they pray for; As the Jews in those Christian Countreys, where they are allowed their Synagogues, pray against Edom, and Edomites by name, but they mean (as appears in their private Catechisms) by Edom, and Edomites, the Christian Church, and Christian Magistracy; so when these men pray in their Conventicles, for the confusion, and rooting out of Idolatry and Antichrist, they intend by their Idolatry, a Cross in Baptism; and by their Antichrist, a man in a Surpless; and not only the persons, but the Authority that admits this Idolatry, and this Antichristianism. As vapors and winds shut up in Vaults, engender Earth-quakes; so these particular spirits in their Vault-Prayers, and Cellar-Service, shake the Pillars of State and Church. Domus mea, Domus orationis; and Domus orationis, Domus mea: My house is the house of Prayer, says God; and so the house of Prayer must be his house. The Centurion, of whom Christ testified, That he had not found so great Faith even in Israel; thought not himself worthy, that Christ should come under his Roof; and these men think no Roof, but theirs, fit for Christ; no, not the Roof of his own House, the Church: For, I speak not of those Meetings, where the blessed Children of God join in the House, to worship God in the same manner, as is ordained in the Church, or in a manner agreeable to that: Such Religious Meetings as these, God will give a blessing to; but when such Meetings are in opposition, and detestation of Church Service, though their purpose, which come thither, do not always intend sedition, yet they may easily think, that none of those Disciples is so ill a Natural Logician, but that he comes quickly to this conclusion, That if those exercises be necessary to their Salvation, that State that denies them those exercises deals injustly with them: And when people are brought to that disaffection, it is not always in their power that brought them together so far, to settle them or hold them from going farther. In this case which we have in hand, of Esther and Mordecai's assembling all the Jews in Shusan, which was the principal City of Persia, where the Residence of the Princes was, (Persepolis was a Metropolitan City too; but only for the treasure, and for the Sepulchres of their Kings, but the Court was at Shusan.) If when they had been assembled, and their desperate case presented to them, That an Edict of a general Massacre was going out against them, was it not more likely (judging humanely, and by comparison of like cases) that they would have turned to take arms, rather then to fast and pray for their deliverance? How good soever their pretence (and perchance purpose) be, that assemble people, and discontent them, the bridle, the stern, is no longer in their hands; but there arise unexpected storms, of which, if they were not authors in their purpose, yet they are the occasioners. In Esthers case, the proceeding was safe enough; for they were called to see, that the Queen her self had undertaken their deliverance, their deliverance was very likely to be effected; and therefore it became them to assist her purpose with their devotion, expressed first in Fasting.

Fasting is not a meer humane Imposition, as some have calumniated it to be: The Commandments of it are frequent from God to his people, and the practise of it even amongst the Ninevites,and upon Jona's Preaching, is expressed to be rigid and severe, Let neither man nor beast taste any thing, nor feed, nor drink water, but let man and beast put on sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God. It is true, that they found often that their Fasts did no good; but when they expostulate it with God, Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest it not, we have punished our selves, and thou regardest it not; They received a direct answer from God, Behold, in the days of your fast you seek your own will, and require all your debts; when ye fasted and mourned, did ye fast unto me? To place therefore any part of our righteousness, or to dignify the act of Fasting, with the name of Merit or Satisfaction, did then, and will always corrupt and alter the nature of a true and acceptable fast: And therefore we detest the definition of a fast in the Roman Church, & Abstinentia secundum formam ecclesiae, intuitu Satisfaciendi, pro peccatis, & acquirendi vitam aeternam; That fasting is a satisfaction for sins, and an acquisition of life everlasting. But since the reason of fasting remains, the practise must remain still: For when Christ excused his Apostles for not fasting, as the Disciples of John Baptist, and as the Pharisees did, he did not say that fasting is taken away; but he said, The Bridegroom was not taken away; but he should be taken away, and they should fast. When occasions press us, fasting is required at our hands: Caro mea jumentum, My flesh is my beast; via Christus, and Christ is the way I am to go; Nonne cibaria ferocienti detraham? If it be too wanton, shall not I withdraw some of the provender? Et fame Domem, quem ferre non possum, If I cannot govern him, shall I not endeavor to tame him? And therefore, though by reason of former abuses, it be a slippery Doctrine, the practise of Fasting, (for scarce any man puts himself to much fasting, but he is ready to tell God of it, with the Pharisee, I fast twice a week: And from Hieroms praise of it, Jejunium non est virtus, sed gradus ad virtutem, That though fasting be not a virtue, yet it is the way to virtue; we come a step farther with Chrysostom, In choro virtutum, extremum sortitur Jejunium, That though fasting be the last of virtues (except Chrysostom mean by extremum, the first) yet it is one; yet Sanctificate vobis Jejunium, Fast with a holy purpose; and it is a holy action. As you are bid to cast your bread upon the waters, for many days after you shall find it again; so also cast your fasting upon the waters, look for no particular reward of it, and God shall give you a benefit by it in the whole course of your lives.

But the Jejunate, Fasting it self, hath not so much opposition as the Tribus diebus, that it must be Three days; the certain days, and the limiting of the time, that is it that offends. All men will say that fasting is necessary to all men; but not this proportion, and this measure to all men alike. They are content with that of Augustine, Ego in Evangelicis & Apostolicis literis totoque instrumento novo revolvens, video praeceptum esse jejunium, As often as I consider the Gospel, every where I find Commandments for fasting; but they will have the rest too: Quibus diebus oportet, aut non oportet jejunare, praeceptum Domini & Apostolorum non video definitum, Upon what days we should fast, says he, I see no Commandment of Christ or the Apostles: And it is true, there is no express Commandment for it; but there is an express Commandment to hear the Church. In the Old Testament God gave express Commandment, De Jejuniis stativis; certain fixed and Anniversary Fasts: The tenth of the same moneth shall be a holy Convocation unto you, & affligetis animas vestras, Ye shall humble your souls; and every person that doth not that, that same day, shall even be cut off from his people. The disease which they had is hereditary to us; Concupiscencies in the flesh, and coldness in the service of God: And though it may be true, that the Church cannot know my particular infirmities, nor the time when they press me; yet as no Physician for the body can prescribe me a Receipt against a Fever, and bid me take it such a day, because perchance at that day I shall have no Fever; yet he can prescribe me certain Rules and Receipts, which if I take at his times, I shall be the safer all the year: So our Spiritual Physician, the Church, though she cannot know when my body needs this particular Physic of fasting, yet she knows, that by observing the time which she prescribes, I shall always be in the better spiritual health. As soon as the Church was settled, Fasts were settled too: When in the Primitive Church they fixed certain times for giving Orders, and making Ministers, they appointed Fasts at those times; when they fixed certain times for solemn Baptism, (as they did Easter and Whitsontide) they appointed Fasts then too; and so they did in their solemn and public Penances. So also when Christians increased in number, and that therefore, besides the Sabbath-day, they used to call them to Church, and to give the Sacrament upon other days too; as soon as Wednesday and Friday were appointed for that purpose, for the Sacrament, they were appointed to be fasted too. And therefore when St. Cyril says, Vis tibi ostendam, quale jejunare debes jejunium? Jejuna ab omni peccato. Shall I tell you what Fast God looks for at your hands, Fast from sin; yet this is not all the Fasting that he exacts, (though it be indeed the effect and accomplishment of all) but he adds, Non ideo hoc dicimus, We say not this, says he, because we would give liberty, Habemus enim quadragesimum, & quartum, & sextum Hebdomadae diem quibus solemniter jejunamus, We have a fixed Lent to fast in, and we have Wednesdays and Fridays fixt to fast in. In all times, Gods people had fixed and limited Fasts, besides these Fasts which were enjoined upon emergent dangers, as this of Ester. In which there is a harder circumstance then this, That it was a Fast limited to certain days; for it is, Jejunate pro me, Fast you for me. And these words may seem to give some color, some countenance to the Doctrine of the Roman Church, That the merits of one man may be applied to another; which Doctrine is the foundation of Indulgences, and the fuel of Purgatory: In which they go so far, as to say, That one may fee an Attorney to satisfy God for him; he may procure another man to Fast, or do other works of mortification for him: And he that does so for his Client, Sanguinem pro sanguine Christo reddit, He pays Christ his blood again, and gives him as much as he received from him; and more, Deum sibi debitorem efficit, he brings God into his debt, and may turn that dept upon whom he will; and God must wipe off so much of the other mans score, to whom he intends it. They go beyond this too; That satisfaction may be made to God, even by our selves after our death: As they say, when they had brought Maximilian the Emperor to that mortification, that he commanded upon his death-bed, that his body should be whipped after he was dead; that purpose of his, though it were not executed, was a satisfaction of the Justice of God. And (as error can find no place to stop at) they go yet farther, when they extend this power of satisfaction even to Hell it self, by authorizing those fables, That a dead man which appeared, and said he was damned, was by this flagellation, by his friends whipping of himself in his behalf, brought to repentance in hell, and so to faith in hell, and so to salvation in hell.

But in the words of Esther here is no intimation of this Heresy; when Queen Esther appoints others to fast for her, she knew she could no more be the better for their fasting, then she could be the leaner, or in the better health for it; but because she was to have benefit by the subsequent act, by their prayers, she provokes them to that, by which their prayers might be the more acceptable and effectual, that is, to fasting. And so because the whole action was for her, and her good success in that enterprize, they are in that sense properly said to have fasted for her: So that this Jejunate super me, as the word is, Gnalai, super me, in my behalf, is no more but Orate pro me, Pray for me; and so Saint Jerome translates these words, Orate pro me, Pray for me. And therefore, since Prayers is the way which God hath given us to batter Heaven, whether facta manu Deum oramus, & vim gratum ei facimus, whether we besiege God with our prayers, in these public Congregations, or whether we wrastle with him hand to hand in our Chambers, in the battel of a troubled Conscience, let us live soberly and moderately; and in Bello, and in Duello, here in the Congregation, and at home in our private Colluctations, we shall be the likelier to prevail with God; for though we receive assistance from the prayer of others, that must not make us lazy in our own behalfs; which is Esthers last preparation, she bids all the people fast for her, that is, for the good success of her good purposes; but not the people alone, she and her own maids will fast likewise.

Qui fecit te sine te, non salvabit te sine te, is a saying of Saint Augustine, never too often repeated; and God and his Church are of one mind; for the Church that did Baptize thee without thy asking, will not fast for thee, nor pray for thee, without thou fast and pray for thy self. As in spiritual things, charity begins with ourselves, and I am bound to wish my own salvation, rather then any other mans; so I am bound to trust to my making sure of my salvation, by that which I do my self, rather then by that which I procure others to do for me. Domus Dei, Domus orationis; we have inestimable profit by the public Prayers of the Church, the House of God; but as there is Deus, & Domus ejus, so there must be Ego, & Domus mea, I and my House will serve the Lord. I also and my Maids will fast likewise, says Esther, in her great enterprise; for, that which the Original expresses here, by Gnalai, for me, the Chalde Paraphrase expresses by Gnimmi, with me: She was as well to fast as they. It was a great confidence in that Priest that comforted Saint Augustines Mother, Fieri non potest, ut filius istarum lachrymarum pereat, It is impossible that the son, for whom so good a mother hath poured out so devout tears, should perish at last; it was a confidence which no man may take to himself, to go to Heaven by that water, the tears of other men; but tu & domus tua, Do thou and thy house serve the Lord; teach thine own eyes to weep, thine own body to fulfil the sufferings of Christ; thine own appetite to fast, thine own heart, and thine own tongue to pray. Come and participate of the devotions of the Church; but yet also in thy Chappel of ease, in thine own Bed-chamber, provide that thy self and thy servants, all thy senses, and all thy faculties, may also fast and pray; and so go with a religious confidence as Esther did, about all thy other worldly businesses and undertakings.

This was her Preparation. Her Devotion hath two branches; she was to transgress a positive Law, a Law of the State; and she neglected the Law of Nature it self, in exposing her self to that danger. How far Humane Laws do bind the conscience, how far they lay such an obligation upon us, as that, if we transgress them, we do not only incur the penalty, but sin towards God, hath been a perplexed question in all times, and in all places. But how divers soever their opinions be, in that, they all agree in this, That no Law, which hath all the essential parts of a Law, (for Laws against God, Laws beyond the power of him that pretends to make them, are no Laws) no Law can be so merely a Humane Law, but that there is in it a Divine part. There is in every Humane Law, part of the Law of God, which is obedience to the Superior. That Man cannot bind the conscience, because he cannot judge the conscience, nor he cannot absolve the conscience, may be a good argument; but in Laws made by that power which is ordained by God, man binds not, but God himself: And then you must be subject, not because of wrath, but because of conscience. Though then the matter and subject of the Law, that which the Law commands, or prohibits, may be an indifferent action, yet in all these, God hath his part; and there is a certain Divine soul, and spark of Gods power, which goes through all Laws, and inanimates them. In all the Canons of the Church, God hath his voice, Ut omnia ordine fiant; that all things be done decently, and in order; so the Canon that ordains that, is from God; in all the other Laws he hath his voice too, Ut piè & tranquillè vivatur, That we may live peaceably, and religiously, and so those Laws are from God: And in all, of all sorts, this voice of his sounds evidently, qui resistit ordinationi, he that resists his Commission, his Lieutenancy, his Authority, in Law-makers appointed by him, resists himself. There is no Law that is merely humane, but only Lex in membris, The Law in our flesh, which rebels against the Law in our mind; and this is a Rebellion, a Tyranny, no lawful Government. In all true Laws God hath his interest; and the observing of them in that respect, as made by his authority, is an act of worship and obedience to him; and the transgressing of them, with that relation, that is, a resisting or undervaluing of that authority, is certainly sin. How then was Esthers act exempt from this? for she went directly against a direct Law, That none should come to the King uncalled.

Whensoever divers Laws concur and meet together, that Law which comes from the superior Magistrate, and is in the nature of the thing commanded, highest too, that Law must prevail. If two Laws lie upon me, and it be impossible to obey both, I must obey that which comes immediately from the greatest power, and imposes the greatest duty. Here met in her, the fixed and permanent Law, of promoting Gods glory, and a new Law of the King, to augment his greatness and Majesty, by this retiredness, and denying of ordinary access to his person. Gods Law, for his glory, which is infinite and unsearchable, and the Kings Law, for his ease, (of which she knows the reason, and the scope) were in the balance together; if this Law of the King had been of any thing naturally and essentially evil in it self, no circumstance could have delivered her from sin, if she had done against it. Though the Law were but concerning an indifferent action, and of no great importance, yet because Gods Authority is in every just Law, if she could not have been satisfied in her conscience, that that Law might admit an exception, and a dispensation in her case, she had sinned in breaking it. But when she proceeded not upon any precipitation, upon any singular or seditious spirit, when she debated the matter temperately with a dispassioned man, Mordecai; when she found a reservation even in the body of the Law, That if the King held up his Scepter, the Law became no Law to that party, when she might justly think her self out of the Law, which was (as Josephus delivers it) Ut nemo ex domesticis accederet, That none of his servants should come into his presence uncalled; she was then come to that, which only can excuse and justify the breaking of any Law, that is, a probable, if not a certain assurance, contracted Bona fide, in a rectified conscience, That if this present case, which makes us break this Law, had been known and considered when the Law was made, he that made the Law would have made provision for this case. No presuming of a pardon, when the Law is broken; no dispensation given before hand to break it, can settle the Conscience; nor any other way, then a Declaration well grounded, that that particular case was never intended to have been composed in that Law, nor the reason and purpose thereof.

So, when the Conscience of Esther was, and so when the Conscience of any particular Christian, is, after due consideration of the matter, come to a religious and temperate assurance, That he may break any Law; his assurance must be grounded upon this, That if that Law were now to be made, that case which he hath presently in hand, would not be included by him that made that Law, in that Law; otherwise to violate a Law, either because, being but a Humane Law, I think I am discharged, paying the penalty; or, because I have good means to the King, I may presume of a pardon in all cases, where my privilege works any other way, then, as we have said, (that is, that our case is not intended in that Law) it had been in Esther, it should be in us a sin to transgress any Law, though of a Law-nature, and of an indifferent action. But upon those circumstances which we mentioned before, Esther might see, that that Law admitted some exceptions, and that no exception was likelier then this, That the King for all his majestical reservedness, would be content to receive information of such a dishonor done to his Queen, and to her god; she might justly think that that Law, intended only for the Kings ease, or his state, reached not to her person, who was his wife, nor to her case, which was the destruction of all that professed her Religion.

It was then no sin in her to go in to the King, though not according to the Law; but she may seem to have sinned, in exposing her self to so certain a danger as that Law inflicted; with such a resolution, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish. How far a man may lawfully, and with a good conscience, forsake himself, and expose himself to danger, is a point of too much largeness, and intricacy, and perplexity to handle now: The general stream of Casuists runs thus, That a private man may lawfully expose himself to certain danger, for the preserving of the Magistrate, or of a superior person; and that reason might have justified Esthers enterprise, if her ruin might have saved her Country; but in her case, if she had perished, they were likely to perish too. But she is safer then in that; for first, she had hope out of the words of the Law, out of the dignity of her place, out of the Justice of the King, out of the preparation which she had made by Prayer; which Prayer, Josephus (either out of tradition, or out of conjecture and likelihood) Records to have been, That God would make both her Language and her Beauty acceptable to the King that day: Out of all these, she had hope of good success; and howsoever if she failed of her purpose, she was under two Laws, of which it was necessary to obey that which concerned the glory of God. And therefore Daniels confidence, and Daniels words became her well, Behold, our God is able to deliver me, and he will deliver me; but if he will not, I must not forsake his honor, nor abandon his service: And therefore, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish.

It is not always a Christian resolution, Si peream, peream, to say, If I perish, I perish: I care not whether I perish, or no: To admit, to invite, to tempt temptations, and occasions of sin, and so to put our selves to the hazard of a spiritual perishing; to give fire to concupiscencies with licentious Meditations, either of sinful pleasures past, or of that which we have then in our purpose and pursuit; to fewel this fire with meats of curiosity and provocation; to blow this fire with lascivious discourses and Letters, and Protestations, this admits no such condition, Si pereas, If thou perish; but periisti, thou art perished already; thou didst then perish, when thou didst so desperately cast thy self into the danger of perishing. And as he that casts himself from a steeple, doth not break his neck till he touch the ground; but yet he is truly said to have killed himself, when he threw himself towards the ground: So in those preparations, and invitations to sin, we perish, before we perish, before we commit the act, the sin it self: We perished then, when we opened our selves to the danger of the sin; so also, if a man will wring out, not the Club out of Hercules hands, but the sword out of Gods hands; if a man will usurpe upon Gods jurisdiction, and become a Magistrate to himself, and revenge his own quarrels, and in an inordinate defence of imaginary honor, expose himself to danger in duel, with a si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish, that is not only true, if he perish, he perishes; if he perish temporally, he perishes spiritually too, and goes out of the world loaded with that, and with all his other sins; but it is also true, that if he perish not, he perishes; he comes back loaded both with the temporal, and with the spiritual death, both with the blood, and with the damnation of that man, who perished suddenly, and without repentance by his sword.

To contract this, and conclude all, If a man have nothing in his contemplation, but dignity, and high place; if he have not Virtue, and Religion, and a Conscience of having deserved well of his Country, and the love of God and godly men, for his sustentation and assurance, but only to tower up after dignity, as a Hawk after a prey, and think that he may boldly say, as an impossible supposition, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish; as though it were impossible he should perish; he shall be subject to that derision of the King of Babylon, Quomodo Cecidisti, How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, thou son of the morning! How art thou cast down to the ground, that didst cast lots upon the Nations!

But that provident and religious Soul, which proceeds in all her enterprises as Esther did in her preparations, which first calls an assembly of all her Country-men, that is, them of the household of the Faithful, the Congregation of Christs Church, and the Communion of Saints, and comes to participate the benefit of public Prayers in his house, inconvenient times; and then doth the same in her own house, within doors, she, and her maids, that is, she and all her senses and faculties, This soul may also come to Esthers resolution, to go in to the King, though it be not according to the Law; though that Law be, That neither fornicator, nor adulterer, nor wanton, nor thief, nor drunkard, nor covetous, nor extortioner, nor railer, shall have access into the Kingdom of Heaven; yet this soul thus prepared shall feel a comfortable assurance, that this Law was made for servants, and not for sons, nor for the Spouse of Christ, his Church, and the living Members thereof; and she may boldly say, Si peream, peream; It is all one though I perish; or as it is in the Original, Vecasher, quomodocunque peream; whether I perish in my estimation and opinion with men, whether I perish in my fortunes, honor, or health, quomodocunque, it is all one; Heaven and earth shall pass away, but Gods word shall not pass; and we have both that word of God which shall never have end, and that word of God which never had beginning. His Word, as it is his Promise, his Scriptures and his Word, as it is himself: Christ Jesus for our assurance and security, that that Law of denying sinners access, and turning his face from them, is not a perpetual, not an irrevocable Law; but that that himself says, belongs to us: For a little while have I forsaken thee, but with great compassion will I gather thee; for a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee for a little season, but with everlasting mercy have I had compassion on thee, saith the Lord Christ thy Redeemer▪ How riotously and voluptuously soever I have surfeited upon sin heretofore, yet if I fast that fast now; how disobedient soever I have been to my Superiors heretofore, yet if I apply my self to a conscionable humility to them now; howsoever, if I have neglected necessary duties in my self, or neglected them in my Family, that either I have not been careful to give good example, or not careful that they should do according to my example, (and by the way, it is not only the Master of a house that hath the charge of a Family, but every person, every servant in the house, that hath a body and a soul, hath a house, and a Family to look to, and to answer for) yet if I become careful now, that both I, I my self will, and my whole house, all my family shall serve the Lord; If I be thus prepared, thus disposed, thus matured, thus mellowed, thus suppled, thus entendred, to the admitting of any impressions from the hand of my God; though there seem to be a general Law spread over all, an universal War, an universal Famine, an universal Pestilence over the whole Nation, yet I shall come either to an assurance, that though there fall so many thousands on this and on that hand, it shall not reach me; Et si pereant, Though others perish, I shall not perish; or to this assurance, Si peream, peream, If I perish by the good pleasure of God, I shall be well content to perish so; and to this also, Et si peream, non pereo, Though I perish, I do not perish; though I die, I do not die; but as that piece of money which was but the money of a poor man, being given in Subsidy, becomes a part of the Royal Exchequer: So this body, which is but the body of a sinful man, being given in Subsidy, as a Contribution to the Glory of my God, in the grave, becomes a part of Gods Exchequer; and when he opens it, he shall issue out this money, that is, manifest it again clothed in his Glory: that body which in me was but a piece of Copper money, he shall make a Talent of Gold; and which in me was but a grain of Wheat buried in the earth, he shall multiply into many ears, not of the same Wheat, but of Angels food; The Angels shall feed and rejoice at my resurrection, when they shall see me in my soul, to have all that they have, and in my body, to have that that they have not.

A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inn, Ascension-day, 1622. Sermon XXIII.

Deut. 12.30.

Take heed to thy self, that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did those nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

WHen I consider our ascension in this life, (that which David speaks of, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?) I see the Prophet adds there, as another manner of expressing the same thing, And who shall stand in that holy place? Quis ascendet, & quis stabit? A man does not ascend, except he stand. And such an ascension (an ascension without a redescent) Moses provides for here. First they should ascend to an abolishing of all Idolatry; And then they should stand in that state, persevere in that station, and perpetuate that ascension to themselves, by shutting themselves up against any new reentries of that Idolatry which had been once happily banished from amongst them. The inchoation of this ascension, that step which is happily made in the abolishing of idolatry, is in the beginning of this Chapter; Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, (which is a vehement gradation and heightening of the commandment:) It is a destruction, not a faint discontinuing of idolatry, but destruction; It is utter destruction, not a defacing, not a deferring of idolatry; and it is the utter destruction of the very place, not a seising the riches of the place, nor a slight correction of the abuses of the place, but the place it self, and (as is there expressed) all the place, not to leave the Devil one Chappel wherein the Nations had served their gods. And the Holy Ghost proceeds in the next verse with this particular vehemency, You shall overthrow their altars, break their pillars, burn their groves, hew down their images, and destroy their names. But all this is but the inchoation of this ascension, the first step in abolishing idolatry: The consummation of it is, in standing there; and that's in this Text, Take heed to thy self, &c.

The words are an Inhibition, and the persons are all they to whom God hath extended his favors, so far as to deliver them from Idolatry formerly practised amongst them, and to bring them to the sincere worship of his Name. And for such persons we need not go far, for we our selves are they. God hath given us such a deliverance heretofore in the reformation of Religion; so far we are ascended, and so the Inhibition lies upon us, that we slide not back again. It hath two parts; 1. The main matter of the Inhibition, That we be not snared by Idolaters, after they have been destroyed from before us. And secondly, two particular dangers whereby we may be snared; First, by following them: Take heed you be not snared by them; and then by an over-curious enquiring into their Religion, Enquire not after their Gods, &c. And through the first, the matter of the Inhibition, we shall pass by these steps, 1. That there is no security; there is still danger, though the Idolater be destroyed. And secondly, That there is therefore a diligence to be required, Take heed to thy self. And then thirdly, That the danger from which this diligence must deliver us, is a snare; Take heed lest thou be snared. And for the branches of the second part, the snare of following them; the snare of enquiring into their opinions; it shall least incumber you to have them opened then, when we come to handle them; first we pass through the first part.

In that, the first branch is, That there is no security, though the enemy be destroyed. And there we are to consider first, what amounts to a destruction, what is called a destruction in this case; God had promised the children of Israel, that he would give all the inhabitants of the Land of Promise into their hands; that he would abolish them, destroy them, and (as his own phrase is) cut them off. God performs all his promises; was this performed to them? did God destroy them all? Truly it was very much that God did in this behalf. He got great victories for them, and by strange means. One angel was able to destroy for them almost 200 thousand Assyrians in one night in Senacheribs Army. This was a real execution by the hands of one, who having Commission, had truly Power to do it, an Angel. But he prevailed for them so too in another case, only by an apparition of Angels, when there was no blow strucken, when Elisha's servant saw mountains full of Horses and Chariots of fire. He prevailed for them by creatures of a much lower rank, and weak in their nature, by Hornets. He promises Moses, that he would send Hornets before them, and they should drive out the Inhabitants of the Land. He prevails for them by creatures of a lower rank then they, by creatures without life, by stones. The Lord discomfeited them by great stones from heaven. He prevailed by that which is no creature, no subsistence, a sound only, The Lord thundered with a great Thunder upon the Philistines, and discomfeited them. He took a lower way then this, he employed nothing, and yet did the work, by imprinting a terror in their hearts, Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. And a way lower then that; he wrought not upon their minds, but upon their senses. He smote a whole Army with blindness. And he went further yet; he did nothing at all upon them, and yet wrought his purpose, only by diversion; when Saul pursued David with the most vehemence of all, a messenger came and told him that the Philistines had invaded his Land, and then he gave over the pursuit of David. Really great, admirably strange things did God in the behalf of his children, for the destruction of his and their Idolatrous enemies. But yet were they ever destroyed? totally destroyed they were not; The Lord left some Nations (says the Text there) without hastily driving them out; neither did he deliver them into the hands of Joshuah. The Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day, (says that holy story) and so did other Nations with the other Tribes in other places. They were able (as we are told there) to put the Canaanites to Tribute, but not to drive them out; to make Penal Laws against them, but not to deliver the Land of them. Now why did God do this? We would not ask this question, if God had not told us, ut erudiret in iis Jerusalem, that the Enemy might be their Schoolmaster, and War their Chatechism, that they might never think that they stood in no more need of God. The Lord was with Judah, (saith the Text) so far with him, as that he drave out the Inhabitants of the Mountain, but yet would not drive out the Inhabitants of the Valley. Sometimes God does the greater work, and yet leaves some lesser things undone. God chooses his Matter and his Manner, and his Measure, and his Means, and his Minutes: But yet God is truly and justly said to have destroyed those Idolatrous Enemies, in that he brought them so low, as that they could not give Laws to the children of Israel, nor force them to the Idolatrous Worship of their gods, though some scattered Idolaters did still live amongst them. God could destroy Nequitias in coelestibus, he could evacuate all Powers and Principalities, he could annihilate the Devil, or he could put him out of Commission, take from him the power of tempting or solliciting his servants. Though God hath not done it, yet he is properly said to have destroyed him, because he hath destroyed his Kingdom. Death is swallowed up in victory, saith Saint Paul out of Ose. O death, where is thy sting, says he! Where is it! Why, it is in thy bosom. It is at the heart of the greatest Princes of the earth; Though they be gods, they die like men. O grave, where is thy victory, says he there! Why, above the Victories, and Trophies and Triumphs of all the Conquerors in the world. And yet the Apostle speaks, (and justly) as if there were no death in man, no sting in death, no grave after death, because to him who dies in the Lord, all this is nothing; not he by death, but death in him is destroyed. And as it is of the cause of Sin, the Devil; and of the effect of Sin, Death; so is it of Sin it self; it is destroyed, and yet we sin. He that is born of God, doth not commit sin so, as that sin shall be imputed to him. Sin and Satan, and Death are destroyed in us, because they can do no harm to us. So the Idolatrous Nations were destroyed amongst the Israelites, because they could not bring in an Inquisition amongst them, and force them to their Religion. And so Idolatry hath been destroyed amongst us, destroyed so, as that it hath been declared to be Idolatry towards God, and declared to be complicated and wrapped up inseparably in Treason towards the King and the State. Our Schools and Pulpits have destroyed it, and our Parliaments have destroyed it. Our Pulpits establish them that stay at home; and our Laws are able to lay hold upon them that run from home, and return ill affected to their home. Let no man therefore murmur at Gods proceedings, and say, If God had a mind to destroy Idolatry, he would have left no seed, or he would not have admitted such arepullulation, and such a growth of that seed as he hath done. God hath his own ends and his own ways: He destroyed the Nations from before the Israelites; Christ hath destroyed Sin, and Satan, and Death, and Hell; and Idolaters amongst us, for Gods greater glory, do remain. For such a destruction as should be absolute, God never intended, God never promised; for that were to occasion, and to induce a security, and remove all diligence: Which is our second Branch in this first part [Cave tibi] see, take heed, &c.

In the beginning of the world we presume all things to have been produced in their best state; all was perfect, and yet how soon a decay! all was summer, and yet how soon a fall of the leaf! a fall in Paradise, not of the leaf, but of the Tree it self, Adam fell; A fall before that, in heaven it self, Angels fell: Better security then Adam, then Angels had there, we cannot have, we cannot look for here. And therefore there is danger still, still occasion of diligence, of consideration. The chewing of the Cudd was a distinctive mark of cleanness in the Creature: The holy rumination the daily consideration of his Christianity, is a good character of a Christian. Covet earnestly the best gifts, says the Apostle; those to whom he writ had good gifts already, yet he exhorts them to a desire of better And what doth he promise them? not the Gift it self, but the way to it, I will show a more excellent way. There is still something more excellent then we have yet attained to. Non dicit charisma, sed viam. The best step, the best height in this world, is but the way to a better; and still we have way before us to walk further in▪ Anathema pro fratribus, was but once said; St. Paul once, and in a vehement, and inordinate zeal, and religious distemper said so, That he could be content to be separated from Christ. Exi à me Domine, was but once said, once St. Peter said, Depart from me, O Lord. The Anathema, the exi but once; but the Adveniat Regnum, Let thy Kingdom come, I hope is said more then once by every one of us, every day; every day we receive, and yet every day we pray for that Kingdom, more and more assurance of Glory, by more and more increase of Grace. For as there are bodily diseases, and spiritual diseases too, proper to certain ages, (a young man and an old man are not ordinarily subject to the same distempers, nor to the same vices) so particular forms of Religion have their indispositions, their ill inclinations too. Thou art bred in a Reformed Church, where the truth of Christ is sincerely Preached, bless God for it; but even there thou mayest contract a pride, an opinion of purity, and uncharitably despise those who labor yet under their ignorances or superstitions; or thou mayest grow weary of thy Manna, and smell after Egyptian Onions again. It is not enough that the State and the Church hath destroyed Idolatry so far as we said before; still there are weeds, still there are seeds: And therefore Cave, Take heed. But yet it is but, Take heed. It is not take thought. Afflict not thy self, deject not thy self with ominous presages, and prophetical melancholy, thy God will overthrow this Religion, and destroy this work which his right hand hath been a hundred years in repairing, and scatter his corn which his right hand hath been a hundred years in purifying. Come not to say, It was but the passion and animosity of Luther, It was but the ambition and singularity of Calvin that induced this Religion, and now that that is spent, the Religion melts like snow. Take no such thought, be not afraid that the truth of God shall or can perish: It is not, Take thought; but it is much less, Take arms. Men may have false conceptions of preparations, and ways laid towards a re-entry of Idolatry; and men may have just and true reasons of, or religious indignation to see so bad and so insolent uses made of those favours which are offered to persons of that profession; but yet our inhibition is no further here, but to take heed, not to take arms, not to come by violence, not to slackness of Allegiance and Obedience. It is but Take heed, and but Take heed to thy self. Pretend not thou who art but a private man, to be an Overseer of the Public, or a Controller of him who (by way of coaction) is accountable to God only, and neither to any great Officer at home, nor to the whole body of the people there, nor to any neighbor-Prince or State abroad. Idolatry is destroyed; but yet there is danger, not to make thee take thought, to suspect Gods Power, or his Will to sustain his Cause; not to take arms, as if the Lord of Hosts needed Rebels; but to take heed, to watch plots of circumvention, and to heed to thy self, that is, to all under thy charge, for thy danger is not evident. It is a snare, Laqueus, which is our last stop and step in this first part.

There is danger though the Idolaters be thus destroyed. There is use of diligence, if there be danger, and the more, if this danger be a snare. Take heed that the Idolater do not kindle a Rebellion; take heed that the Idolater do not sollicite an Invasion; take heed of public and general dangers. These be Caveats for Princes; but take heed of a snake, take heed of a snare, this appertains to every private man. God studied plagues for Egypt, and they were strange plagues; but that's as great as any at least, which David speaks of, Pluet laqueos, Upon the wicked God shall rain snares. And after, Mensa laqueus, Their table shall become a snare before them. And if God punish our negligence of his former favours so far, as to rain snares even at our tables, that almost at every table that we can come to, we shall meet some that would ensnare us, Is not this Caveat necessary in these times? Take heed that thou be not snared. David thought he had carried his complaint to the highest, when he said of his Enemies, They commune of laying snares privily. But now they do not plot privily, but avow their mischiefs, and speak so, as we dare scarce confess that we heard them: And that's a shrewd snare, when they dare speak more then we dare hear. Will a man have taken up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing, saith the Prophet? Since they have laid their snares, they will take some, and thou mayest be one: And therefore take heed of their snares. There is a snare laid for thy son, a persuasion to send him to foreign Universities; they will say, Not to change his Religion: For Religion, let him do as he shall see cause; but there he shall be better taught, and better bred then at home. There is a share laid for thy servants, what need they come to Church, they have nothing to lose, who will indite them, who will persecute them? And yet in due time such servants may do the Cause as much good as the Masters. There is a snare laid for thy wife; Her Religion, say they, doth not hinder her husbands preferment, why should she refuse to apply her self to them? We have used to speak proverbially of a Curtain Sermon, as of a shrewd thing; but a Curtain Mass, a Curtain Requiem, a snare in thy bed; a snake in thy bosom is somewhat worse. I know not what name we may give to such a womans husband; but I am sure such a wife hath committed adultery, Spiritual Adultery, and that with her husbands knowledge; call him what you will. There is a snare for thy servant, for thy son, for thy wife, and for thy fame too; and how far soever thou wert from it, they will have the world believe thou diedst a Papist. If thy declination be towards profit, if thy byas turn that way, there is a snare in the likeness of a Chain, of a Jewel, a Pension. If it be society and conversation, there may be a snare in meeting more good company at Masses, then at thy Parish Church. If it be levity, and affectation of new things, there may be a snare of things so new in that Religion, as that this Kingdom never saw them yet, not then when this Kingdom was of that Religion. For we had received the Reformation before the Council of Trent, and before the growth of the Jesuits: And if we should turn to them now, we should be worse then we were before we received the Reformation; and the Council of Trent and the Jesuits have made that Religion worse then it was; as St. Bernard says upon St. Pauls words, Neither height, nor depth, nor life, nor death, shall separate us: Minime tamen dicit, nec nos ipsi. The Apostle doth not say, that we our selves, and our own concupisences shall not separate us from God. So though Excommunications have not, Invasions have not, Powder-Plots have not; yet God knows what those snares may work upon us. In laqueo suo comprehendantur, says David. Now laqueus is a snare, as their malice intends it for us; and laqueus is a halter, as our Laws intend it for them; and in laqueo suo, as it's theirs, let them be taken. Our good and great God in his power and mercy hath destroyed Idolatry; but in his wisdom he hath left exercise for our diligence in some danger, and that danger is a snare, and therefore, Take heed thou be not snared. And so we have done with the first part.

Our second part consists of two branches, of two ways of falling into this danger. First, by following them; and then, by inquiring into their Religion. For the first, the Original word which we translate, following, is Achareihem, and it is only post eos, Come not after them; which (if we were to reflect at all, which we always avoid, upon public things) would afford a good note for the public, for the Magistrate, Come not after these Idolaters, but be still beforehand with them. That which is proverbially said of particular Bodies, will hold in a Body Politick, in any State. Qui medicè miserè. That man hath no health, who is put to sustain it, or repair it with continual Physic. That State hath no safety, that refers all to a defensive War, and to a reparation of Breaches, then when they are made. That State will be subject to the other Proverb, which Chrysostom foresaw: Medice cura teipsum. That State which hath been a Physician to all her neighbor States, let blood, and staunched blood in them, so as conduced best to their own health, may be put to employ all her means upon her self, to repair and cure her self, if she follow, that is (in this acceptation of the word) come after her Idolatrous enemies, and be not still beforehand with them. But that is not our sphere, the Public, the State; but yet States consist of Families, and Families of private persons, and they are in our sphere, in our charge. And therefore we lay this Inhibition upon all that are Masters of Families, Take heed of being snared by following, by coming after them, in this sense. That because thou thinkest thou hast a power in thy wife, in thy children, in thy servants, and canst do what thou wilt with them at any time, therefore thou needest not be so scrupulous at first, but mayst admit any supplanters, any underminers into thy house, because they are good company, or because they have relation to great persons. Come not to this, Post eos, play not that after-game, to put thy self to a necessity of taking sore and unkind courses with wire and children after; but be beforehand with such Idolaters, prevent their snare. We lay this Inhibition too upon every particular conscience. Covetousness is Idolatry, saith the Apostle, and Quot vitia, tot Idola, saith St. Jerome. As many habitual sins as we have, so many Idols have we set up. True repentance destroys this Idolatry, 'tis true; but then, Take heed of being snared, post ea, by coming after them, by exposing thy self to dangers of relapses again, by consideration how easily thou madest thy peace last time with God. It was but a sigh, but a tear, but a bending of the knee, but a receiving of the Sacrament, that went to it then. And post ea, when all is done which was done before in the way of sin, all that is easily done over again, which was done in the way of remedy. Say not so: for a merry heart, and a cheerful countenance, upon the testimony of a good conscience, is a better way to God then all the dejections of Spirit, all the sore contritions, and sad remorses in the world. Thou art not sure that thou shalt get so far, as to such a sadness as God requires for sin, thou mayst continue in thy presumption. Thou art not sure that thou shalt go no further then God requires, in that sadness, it may flow out to desperation. Be beforehand with thy sins, watch the approaches of those enemies; for if thou build upon that way of coming after them upon presumption of mercy, upon repentance, thou mayst be snared, and therefore take heed. And this is the sense of the phrase, as the Original will afford it, with Idolaters in the State, with Underminers in thy House, with sins in thy Soul, be still beforehand, watch their dangerous accesses. But St. Jerome, and the great stream of Expositors that go with him, give another sense of the word, Ne imiteris, Be not snared by following them. And in that sense we are to take the word now.

Follow them not then▪ that is, imitate them not, neither in their Severity and Cruelty, nor in their Levity and Facility, neither not in their Severity, when they will apply all the capital and bloody penalties of the Imperial Laws (made against Arrians, Manicheans, Pelagians, and Nestorians, Heretics in the fundamental points of Religion, and with which Christ could not consist) to every man that denys any collateral and subdivided Tradition of theirs; that if a man conceive any doubt of the dream of Purgatory, of the validity of indulgence, of the Latitude of a work of Supererogation, he is as deep in the fagot here, and shall be as deep in Hell hereafter, as if he denied the Trinity, or the Incarnation and Passion of Christ Jesus; when in a days warning, and by the roaring of one Bull, it grows to be damnation to day, to believe so as a man might have believed yesterday, and have bin saved, when they will afford no Salvation, but in that Church which is discernable by certain and inseparable marks, which our Country-man Saunders makes to be six, and Mich. Medina extends to eleven, and Bellarmine declares to be fifteen, and Bodius stretches to a hundred, when they make every thing Heresy; and rather then lack a Text for putting Heretics to death, will accept that false reading, haereticum hominem devita, which being spoken of avoiding, they will needs interpret of killing (for Erasmus cites a Witness, who heard an antient and grave Divine cite that place so, and to that purpose) follow them not, do not imitate them; be content to judge more charitably of them. For those amongst them who are under an invincible ignorance (because their Superiors keep the Scriptures from them) God may be pleased to save by that revelation of his Son Christ Jesus, which he hath afforded them in that Church: Howsoever, they who have had light offered to them, and wilfully resist it, must necessarily perish. Follow them not, imitate them not in that severity, necessarily to damn all who think not in all things as they do: Nor follow them not in that facility, to make their Divinity, and the Tenets of their Church, to wait upon temporal affairs, and emergent occasions. The Anabaptist will delude the Magistrate in an examination, or in any practise, because he thinks no man ought to be a Magistrate over him in things that have any relation to spiritual Cognizance, and Treason in alienating the Subject from his Allegiance must be of spiritual cognizance, Where others are too strong for them, they may dignify their Religion (so their Jesuit Ribadineyra says) and where they are too strong for others, they must profess it, though with Arms (so their Jesuit Bellarmine argues it.) In this planetary, in this transitory, in this occasional Religion, follow them not: We say in Logic, Substantia non suscipit magis & minus, Substantial and fundamental points of Religion (and obedience to Superiors is amongst those) do not ebb and flow; they bind all men, and at all times, and in all cases. Induite Dominum Jesu, says the Apostle, Put ye on the Lord Jesus, and keep him on, put him not off again. Christ is not only the Stuff, but the Garment ready made; he will not be translated and turned, and put into new fashions, nor laid up in a Wardrobe, but put on all day, all the days of our life▪ though it rain, and rain blood; how foul soever any persecution make the day, we must keep on that Garment, the true profession of Christ Jesus; follow not these men in their severity, to exclude men from salvation in things that are not fundamental, nor in their facility to disguise and prevaricate in things that are.

The second danger, and our last Branch of this last Part is, Enquire not after their gods, &c. Ignorance excuses no man. What is curiosity? Qui scire vult ut sciat, He that desires knowledge only that he may know, or be known by others to know; he who makes not the end of his knowledge the glory of God, he offends in curiosity, says that Father; But that is only in the end. But in the way to knowledge there is curiosity too; In seeking such things as man hath no faculty to compass, unrevealed mysteries; In seeking things, which if they may be compassed, yet it is done by indirect means, by Invocation of Spirits, by Sorcery; In seeking things which may be found, and by good means, but appertain not to our profession; all these ways men offend in curiosity. It is so in us, in Church-men, si Iambos servemus, & metrorum silvam congerimus, If we be over-vehemently affected or transported with Poetry, or other secular Learning. And therefore St. Jerome is reported himself to have been whipt by an Angel, who found him over-studious in some of Cicero's Books. This is curiosity in us, and it is so in you, if when you have sufficient means of salvation Preached to you in that Religion wherein you were Baptized, you enquire too much, too much trouble your self with the Religion of those, from whose superstitions you are already by Gods goodness rescued; remember that he who desired to fill himself with the husks, was the Prodigal. It was Prodigality, and a dangerous expence of your constancy, to open your self to temptation, by an unnecessary enquiring into impertinent controversies. We in our profession may embrace secular Learning, so far as it may conduce to the better discharge of our duties, in making the easier entrance, and deeper impression of Divine things in you: You may inform your selves occasionally, when any scruple takes hold of you, of any point of their Religion. But let your study be rather to live according to that Religion which you have, then to enquire into that from which God hath delivered you; for that's the looking back of Lots wife, and the distemper and distaste of the children of Israel, who remembered too much the Egyptian diet. If you will enquire whether any of the Fathers of the Primitive Church did at any time pray for any of the dead, you shall be told (and truly) that Augustine did, that Ambrose did; but you shall not so presently be told how they deprehended themselves in an infirmity, and collected and corrected themselves ever when they were so praying▪ If you enquire whether any of them speak of Purgatory, you shall easily find they do; but not so easily, in what sense; when they call the calamities of this life, or when they call the general Conflagration of the world, Purgatory. If you enquire after Indulgences, you may find the name frequent amongst them; but not so easily find when and how the Relaxations of Penances publickly enjoined, were called Indulgences; nor how, nor when Indulgences came to be applied to souls departed. If thou enquire without a Melius Inquirendum, without a through Inquisition (which is not easy for any man who makes it not his whole study and profession) thou mayst come to think holy men have prayed for the dead, why may not I? Holy men speak of Purgatory and Indulgences, why should I abhor the names or the things? And so thou mayst fall into the first snare, it hath been done, therefore it may be done; and into another after, It may be done, therefore it must be done: When thou art come to think that some men are saved that have done it, thou wilt think that no man can be saved except he do it: From making infirmities excusable necessary (which is the bondage the Council of Trent hath laid upon the world) to make Problematical things, Dogmatical; and matter of Disputation, matter of Faith; to bring the University into Smithfield, and heaps of Arguments into Piles of Faggots. If thou enquire further then thy capacity enables thee, further then thy calling provokes thee; How do those Nations serve their gods? thou mayst come to say, as the Text says, in the end, Even so will I do also.

To end all, embrace Fundamental, Dogmatical, evident Divinity: That is expressed in Credendis, in the things which we are to believe in the Creed. And it begins with Credo in Deum, Belief in God, and not in man, nor traditions of men. And it is expressed in petendis, in the things which we are to pray for in the Lords Prayer; and that begins with Sanctificetur nomen tuum, Hallowed be thy Name, not the name of any. And it is expressed in Agendis, in the things which we are to do in the Commandments; whereof the first Table begins with that, Thou shalt have no other gods but me. God is a Monarch alone, not a Consul with a Colleague. And the second Table begins with Honor to Parents, that is, to Magistrates, to lawful Authority. Be therefore always fat from disobeying lawful Authority, resist it not, calumniate it not, suspect it not; for there is a libelling in the ear, and a libelling in the heart, though it come not to the tongue or hands, to words, nor actions. If it be possible, saith the Apostle, as much as in you lies, have peace with all men, with all kind of men. Obedience is the first Commandment of the second Table, and that never destroys the first Table, of which the first Commandment is, Keep thy self, that is, those that belong to thee and thy house, entire and upright in the worship of the true God, not only not to admit Idols for gods, but not to admit Idolatry in the worship of the true God.

A Sermon Preached at Pauls Cross to the Lords of the Council, and other Honorable Persons, 24. Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown, and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland. Sermon XXIIII.

Prov. 22.11.

He that loveth Pureness of Heart, for the grace of his Lipps, the King shall be his friend.

THat Man that said it was possible to carve the faces of all good Kings that ever were, in a Cherry-stone, had a seditious, and a trayterous meaning in his words. And he that thought it a good description, a good Character of good subjects, that they were Populus natus ad servitutem, A people disposed to bear any slavish yoke, had a tyrannical meaning in his words. But in this Text, as in one of those Tables, in which, by changing the station, and the line, you use to see two pictures, you have a good picture of a good King, and of a good subject; for in one line, you see such a subject, as Loves pureness of heart, and hath grace in his lips. In the other line, you see the King gracious, yea friendly to such a subject, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend. The sum of the words, is, that God will make an honest man acceptable to the King, for some ability, which he shall employ to the public. Him that proceeds sincerely in a lawful calling, God will bless and prosper, and he will seal this blessing to him, even with that which is his own seal, his own image, the favor of the King, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend.

We will not be curious in placing these two pictures, nor considering which to consider first. As he that would vow a fast, till he had found in nature, whether the Egg, or the Hen were first in the world, might perchance starve himself; so that King, or that subject, which would forbear to do their several duties, till they had found which of them were most necessary to one another, might starve one another; for, King and subjects are Relatives, and cannot be considered in execution of their duties, but together. The greatest Mystery in Earth, or Heaven, which is the Trinity, is conveyed to our understanding, no other way, then so, as they have reference to one another by Relation, as we say in the Schools; for, God could not be a father without a Son, nor the Holy Ghost Spiratus sine spirante. As in Divinity, so in Humanity too, Relations constitute one another, King and subject come at once and together into consideration. Neither is it so pertinent a consideration, which of them was made for others sake, as that they were both made for Gods sake, and equally bound to advance his glory.

Here in our Text, we find the subjects picture first; And his Marks are two; first, Pureness of Heart, That he be an honest Man; And then Grace of lips, that he be good for something; for, by this phrase, Grace of lips, is expressed every ability, to do any office of society for the Public good. The first of these, Pureness of heart, he must love; The other, that is, Grace of lips (that is, other Abilities) he must have, but he must not be in love with them, nor over-value them. In the Kings picture, the principal mark is, That he shall be friendly and gracious; but gracious to him that hath this Grace of lips, to him that hath endeavored, in some way, to be of use to the Public; And, not to him neither, for all the grace of his lips, for all his good parts, except he also love pureness of heart; but, He that loveth pureness of heart (There's the foundation) for the grace of his lips (There's the upper-building) the King shall be his friend.

In the first then, which is this Pureness of heart, we are to consider Rem, sedem, & Modum; what this Pureness is, Then where it is to be lodged and fixed, In the heart; and, after that, the way, and means by which this Pureness of heart is acquired and preserved, which is implied and notified in that Affection, wherewith this pureness of heart is to be embraced and entertained, which is love; For, Love is so noble, so sovereign an Affection, as that it is due to very few things, and very few things worthy of it. Love is a Possessory Affection, it delivers over him that loves into the possession of that that he loves; it is a transmutatory Affection, it changes him that loves, into the very nature of that that he loves, and he is nothing else.

For the first, Pureness it self; It is carried to a great height, for our imitation (God knows, too great for our imitation) when Christ bids us be perfect, even as our father which is in heaven is perfect. As though it had not been perfectness enough, to be perfect, as the Son upon earth was perfect; he carries us higher, Be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The Son, upon Earth, Christ Jesus, had all our infirmities, and imperfections upon him, hunger, and weariness, and hearty sorrow to death, and that, which alone is All, Mortality, Death it self. And, though he were Innocence it self, and knew no sin, yet there was no sin that he knew not, for, all our sins were his. He was not only made Man, and by taking (by Admitting, though not by Committing) our sins, as well as our nature, sinful Man; but he was made sin for our sakes. And therefore, though he say of himself, sicut ego, Keep my Commandments, even as I have kept my fathers Commandments, yet still he refers all originally to the Father; and because he was under our infirmities and our iniquities, he never says (though he might well have said so) sicut ego, Be pure, be perfect as I am perfect and pure, but sicut Pater, be pure as your Father in heaven is pure. Hand to hand with the Father, Christ disclaims himself, disavows himself, Non sicut ego, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, O Father. We are not referred for the pattern of our purity (though we might be safely) to him that came from heaven, The Son, but to him which is in heaven, The Father. Nor to the Sun which is in heaven (the Sun, that is the pure fountain of all natural light) nor to the Angels which are in heaven, though they be pure in their Nature, and refined by a continual emanation of the beams of glory upon them, from the face of God, but, the Father which is in heaven is made the pattern of our purity; That so, when we see the exact purity, which we should aim at, and labor for, we might the more seriously lament, and the more studiously endeavor the amendment of that extreme and enormous foulness and impurity, in which we who should be pure, as our Father which is in heaven is pure, exceed the dog that turns to his own vomit again; and the Sow, that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.

Yet there is no foulness so foul, so inexcusable in the eyes of God, nor that shall so much aggravate our condemnation, as a false affectation, and an hypocritical counterfeiting of this Purity. There is a Pureness, a cleanness imagined (rather dream't of) in the Roman Church, by which (as their words are) the soul is abstracted, not only à Passionibus, but â Phantasmatibus, not only from passions, and perturbations, but from the ordinary way of coming to know any thing; The soul (say they) of men so purified, understands no longer, per phantasmata rerum corporalium; not by having any thing presented by the fantasy to the senses, and so to the understanding, but altogether by a familiar conversation with God, and an immediate revelation from God; whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way; He was hungry, and a fig-tree presented it self to him upon the way, and he went to it to eat. This is that Pureness in the Roman Church, by which the founder of the last Order amongst them, Philip Nerius, had not only utterly emptied his heart of the world, but had filled it too full of God; for, so (say they) he was fain to cry sometimes, Recede ame Domine, O Lord go farther from me, and let me have a less portion of thee. But who would be loath to sink, by being over-fraited with God, or loath to over-set, by having so much of that wind, the breath of the Spirit of God? Privation of the presence of God, is Hell; a diminution of it, is a step toward it. Fruition of his presence is Heaven; and shall any Man be afraid of having too much Heaven, too much God? There are many among them, that are over laden, oppressed with Bishropricks and Abbeys, and yet they can bear it and never cry, Retrahe domine, domine Resume, O Lord withdraw from me, Resume to thy self some of these superabundancies; and shall we think any of them to be so over-fraited and surcharged with the presence, and with the grace of God, as to be put to his Recede domine, O Lord withdraw thy self, and lessen thy grace towards me? This Pureness is not in their heart, but in their fantasy.

We read in the Ecclesiastick story of such a kind of affectation of singularity, very early in the primitive Church. We find two sorts of false Puritans then; The Catharists, and The Cathari. The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure, and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those Creatures. In which error, they of the Roman Church succeed them, in a great part, in their Exorcismes, and Consecrations; Particularly in the greatest matter of all, in the Sacraments. For, the Catharists in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Savior, thought not the bread pure, except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man, not fit to be named here; And so, in the Roman Church, they induced a use of another Excrement in the other Sacrament, They must have spittle in the Sacrament of Baptism. For, in those words of Tertullian, In Baptismo Daemones respuimus, In Baptism we Renounce the Devil, they will admit no other interpretation of the Respuimus, but that Respuere, is sputo detestari, That we can drive the Devil away, no way, but by spitting at him; Their predecessors in this, the Catharists, thought no Creatures pure, and therefore purified them, by abhominable, and detestable ways.

The second sort of primitive Puritans, the Cathari, They thought no men pure but themselves, and themselves they thought so pure, as to have no sin; and that therefore they might and so did, leave out, as an impertinent clause in the Lords prayer, that petition, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, for, they thought they ought God nothing. In natural things, Monsters have no propagation; A Monster does not beget a Monster. In spiritual excesses it is otherwise; for, for this second kind of Puritans, that attribute all purity to themselves, and spend all their thoughts upon considering others, that weed hath grown so far, that whereas those Puritans of the Primitive Church did but refuse to say, Dimitte nobis, Forgive us our trespasses, because they had no sin, the Puritan Papist is come to say, Recede a nobis, O Lord stand farther off, for I have too much of thee. And whereas the Puritan of the primitive Church did but refuse one Petition of the Lords prayer, the later puritan amongst our selves hath refused the whole Prayer. Towards both these sorts of false puritans, Catharists, and Cathari, derived down to our time, we acknowledge those words of the Apostle to belong, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort; that is, leave no such means untryed, as may work upon their Understandings, and remove their just scruples; Preach, write, confer; But when that labor hath been bestowed, and they fear up their Understanding against it, so that the fault lies not then in the darkness of their Understanding, but merely in the perverseness of the will, over which faculty other men have no power, towards both these sorts, we acknowledge those other words of the Apostle to belong too, Utinam abscindantur, Would to God, they were even cut off that disquiet you; Cut off, that is, removed from means by which, and from places, in which, they might disquiet you. These two kinds of false Puritans we find in the Primitive Church; And Satan, who lasts still, makes them last still too. But if we shall imagine a third sort of Puritans, and make men afraid of the zeal of the glory of God, make men hard, and insensible of those wounds that are inflicted upon Christ Jesus, in blasphemous oaths, and execrations, make men ashamed to put a difference between the Sabbath and an ordinary day, and so, at last make sin an indifferent matter, If any man list to be contentious we have no such custom, neither the Chuch of God. The Church of God encourages them, and assists them in that sanctity, that purity, with all those means wherewith Christ Jesus hath trusted her, for the advancement of that purity; and professes that she prefers in her recommendations to God, in her prayers, one Christian truly fervent and zealous, before millions of Lukewarm. Only she says, in the voice of Christ Jesus her head, Wo be unto you, if you make clean the outside of cups and platters, but leave them full of extortion, and excess within. Christ calls them to whom he says that, blind Pharisees, if they have done so; If they think to blind others, Christ calls them blind. But if their purity consist in studying & practising the most available means to sanctification, and in obedience to lawful authority established according to Gods Ordinance, and in acquiescence in fundamental doctrines, believed in the ancient Church to be necessary to salvation, If they love the peace of conscience, and the peace of Sion, as Balaam said, Let me dye the death of the righteous, and let my last end he like his; So I say, let me live the life of a Puritan, let the zeal of the house of God consume me, let a holy life, and an humble obedience to the Law, testify my reverence to God in his Church, and in his Magistrate: For, this is Saint Pauls Puritan, To have a pure heart (The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart) And then to have pure hands (That we may lift up pure hands, without wrath or doubting) And to have pure consciences (Having the mystery of faith in pure consciences.) The heart is the fountain from which my good and holy purposes flow; My hand is the execution and Declaration of those good purposes, produced into the eyes of men; and my conscience is the testification of the Spirit of God with my spirit, that I have actually made those declarations, that I have lived according to that profession. This is Saint Pauls Puritan, Pure in Heart, pure in Hand, pure in Conscience; That I do believe I ought to do this; That really I do it; Thar my conscience tell me after, it was rightly done; for, a man may do good, ill, and go by ill ways, to good ends. And then, if our purity be but comparative and not positive, that we only look how ill other men be, not how good we should be, we shall become either Catharists, purifying Puritans, quarrelling with men, with States, with Churches, and attempting a purifying of Sacraments, and Ceremonies, Doctrine and Discipline, according to our own fancy; Or Cathari, purified puritans, that think they may leave out the Dimitte debita, they need ask no forgiveness. And then, Cains major iniquitas (my sin is too great for God to forgive) is not worse then this minor iniquitas, My sin is too little for God to consider; I cannot have a pardon, and I do not need a pardon, It is impossible for me to get it, and it is unnecessary for me to ask it, are equal contempts against the Majesty and Mercy of God. But this first consideration (The nature of his pureness) enlarges it self by flowing into the second branch of this first part, that is, The place where this pureness is established, The Heart: He that loves pureness of Heart, the King shall be his friend.

Absolute pureness cannot be attained to In via, It is reserved for us In Patria; At home in heaven, not in our journey here, is that pureness to be expected. But yet here in the way, there is a degree of it, acceptable to God; of which himself speaks, and there it may be had; Blessed are the pure in heart (so the pureness be placed there, all's well) for they shall see God. Whether that fight of God be spoken De cognitione Dei, of that sight of God, which we have here▪ In speculo, in a glass, in that true glass of his own making, his word explicated in the Church; or de vision Beatifica, of that beatifical vision of God, which is salvation, howsoever the reward (the sight of God) in the perfect fruition thereof may be reserved for the future (They shall see God) yet they are pure, and they are blessed already, Blessed are the pure in heart. This pureness then must be rightly placed; for, in many things, the place qualifies and denominates the things; it is not Balsamum if it grew not in Palestine. It is not pureness, if it grew not in the Heart. The Hypocrite is the miserablest of all other; he does God service, and yet is damned. The shedding of our blood for God is not a greater service then the winning of souls to God; and the Hypocrite many times does that; his outward purity works upon them who cannot know it to be counterfeit, and draws them truly and sincerely to serve God. He does God service, and yet perishes, because he does it not from the heart. God shall take him away, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. God does not say there, that he will take away the dung, but the man; not that he will take away the Dissimulation of the Hypocrite, but he will take away the Hypocrite himself, as dung is taken away, till it be all gone, till this Hypocrite be swept, not clean, but clean away. If he have a complacency, a joy that he can deceive, and can seem that which he is not (The joy of the Hypocrite is but for a moment) He hath no true joy at all; his joy is but dung, and in a moment comes a Cart, and fetches away that dung, sweeps away even that false joy. Can he hope for more? (The Hope of the Hypocrite shall perish) If he can conceive such a hope, it shall perish in abortion, and never have life (Their Hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost) As soon as it is a Hope, it shall be as the giving up of the Ghost, and a Cart shall carry away that dung, that Hope. What Cart? first, God shall disappoint his Hope of deluding the world; God shall discover him, and lay him open (That the Hypocrites reign not, lest the people be ensnared) And then, when God hath discovered him (The innocent shall stir up himself against the Hypocrite) that is, consider him, observe him, and arm himself against his imaginations. And God shall not only discover him to men, but God shall discover himself to him, and make him see his future condemnation (Fearfulness shall surprize the Hypocrite. ) And then (What is the hope of the Hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul) when the Cart comes for the last load of dung, his corrupt, his putrefied soul, what hope hath the Hypocrite for the next life?

It is not pureness then, except it be in the right place, the heart; But where is the heart? The heart is vafrum & inscrutabile, Deceitful above all things, and desperately wieked, who can know it? It is uncertain and unsearchable; And it is so, because it pursues those things which are in fluxu, ever in motion. Cast but a paper into the river, and fix thine eye upon that paper, and bind thine eye to follow that paper whithersoever the river, or the wind shall carry it, and thou canst not imagine where thine eye will be to morrow: For, this paper is not addressed, as a ship, to a certain port, or upon any certain purpose, but exposed to the disposition of the tyde to the rage of the wind, to the wantonness of the Eddy, and to innumerable contingencies, till it wear out to nothing. So, if a man set his heart (we cannot call it a setting) if a man suffer his heart to issue upon any of these fluid and transitory things of this world, he shall have cor vafrum, & inscrutabile, He shall not know where to find his own heart. If Riches be this floating paper that his eye is fixed upon, he shall not know upon what course; If Beauty be this paper, he shall not know upon what face; If Honor and preferment be it, he shall not know upon what faction his heart will be transported a month hence. But, if the heart can fix it self upon that which is fixt, the Almighty and immoveable God, if it can be content to inquire after it self, and take knowledge where it is, and in what way, it will find the means of cleansing; And so, this second consideration, The placing of this pureness in the heart, enlarges it self also into the third branch of this part, which is De Modo, by what means this pureness is fixed in the heart, in which is involved the Affection with which it must be embraced, Love, He that loveth pureness of heart.

Both these then are settled; Our heart is naturally foul; And our heart may be cleansed. But how, is our present disquisition, Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness? There is not one: Adam fouled my heart and all yours; nor can we make it clean our selves, Who can say I have made clean my heart? There is but one way; a poor beggarly way, but easy and sure, to ask it of God. And, even to God himself it seems a hard work to cleanse this heart; and therefore our prayer must be with David, Cor mundum crea, Create, O Lord, a pure heart in me. And then comes Gods part, not that Gods part begun but then; for it was his doing, that thou madest this prayer; but because it is a work that God does especially delight in, to build upon his own foundations; when he hath disposed thee to pray, and upon that prayer created a new heart in thee, then God works upon that new heart, and By faith purifyes it, enables it to preserve the pureness, as Saint Peter speaks. He had kindled some sparks of this faith in thee, before thou askedst that new heart; else the prayer had not been of faith; but now finding thee obsequious to his beginnings, he fuels this fire, and purifies thee, as Gold and Silver, in all his furnaces; through Believing and Doing, and suffering, through faith, and works, and tribulation, we come to this pureness of heart. And truly, he that lacks but the last, but Tribulation (as fain as we would be without it) lacks one concoction, one refining of this heart.

But, in this great work, the first act is a Renovation, a new heart; and the other, That we keep clean that heart by a continual diligence, and vigilancy over all our particular actions. In these two consists the whole work of purifying the heart; first, an Annihilating of the former heart, which was all sin; And then a holy superintendency over that new heart, which God vouchsafes to create in us, to keep it as he gives it, clean, pure. It is, in a word, a Detestation of former sins, and a prevention of future. And for the first, Mundi corde sunt, qui deposuere cor peccati; That's the new heart that hath disseised, expelled the heart of sin. There is in us a heart of sin, which must be cast up; for whilst the heart is under the habits of sin, we are not only sinful, but we are all sin▪ as it is truly said, that land overflowed with sea, is all sea. And when sin hath got a heart in us, it will quickly come to be that whole Body of Death, which Saint Paul complains of, who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death? when it is a heart, it will get a Brain; a Brain that shall minister all Sense, and Delight in sin; That's the office of the Brain; A Brain which shall send for the sinews and ligaments, to tye sins together; and pith and marrow to give a succulency, and nourishment, even to the bones, to the strength and obduration of sin; and so it shall do all those services, and offices for sin, that the brain does to the natural body. So also if sin get to be a heart, it will get a liver to carry blood and life through all the body of our sinful actions; That's the office of the liver; And whilst we dispute whether the throne and seat of the soul be in the Heart, or Brain, or Liver, this tyrant sin will praeoccupate all, and become all; so, as that we shall find nothing in us without sin, nothing in us but sin, if our heart be possest, inhabited by it. And if it be true in our natural bodies, that the heart is that part that lives first and dies last, it is much truer of this Cor peccati, this heart of sin; for, this hearty sinner that hath given his heart to his sin, doth no more foresee a Death of that sin in himself, then he remembers the Birth of it; and, because he remembers not, or understands not how his soul contracted sin, by coming into his body, he leaves her to the same ignorance, how she shall discharge her self of sin, when she goes out of that body. But, as his sin is elder then himself (for Adams sin is his sin) so is it longer lived then his body, for it shall cleave everlastingly to his soul too. God asks no more of thee, but, fili da mihi cor, My son give me thy heart; Because when God gave it thee, it was but one heart. But since thou hast made it Cor & cor (as the Prophet speaks) a Heart, and a Heart, a double Heart, give both thy Hearts to God; thy natural weakness and disposition to sin (The inclinations of thy heart)▪ And thy habitual practise of sin, (The obduration of thy heart) cor peccans, and Cor peccati, and he shall create a new heart in thee; which is the first way of attaining this pureness of heart, to become once in a good state, to have (as it were) paid all thy former debts, and so to be the better able to look about thee for the future, for prevention of subsequent sins, which is the other way that we proposed for attaining this pureness, detestation of former habits, watchfulness upon particular actions.

Till this be done, till this Cor peccati, this hearty habitualness in sin be divested, there is no room, no footing to stand and sweep it; a heart so filled with foulness will admit no counsel, no reproof. The great Engineir would have undertaken to have removed the World with his Engine, if there had been any place to fix his Engine upon, out of the World; I would undertake, (by Gods blessing upon his Ordinance) to cleanse the foulest heart that is, if that Engine which God hath put into my hands might enter into his heart; if there were room for the renouncing Gods Judgements, and for the application of Gods mercies in the merits of Christ Jesus in his heart, they would infallibly work upon him. But he hath petrified his heart in sin, and then he hath immured it, walled it with a delight in sin, and fortified it with a justifying of his sin, and adds daily more and more out-works, by more and more daily sins; so that the denouncing of Judgement, the application of Mercies, Prayers, Sermons, Sacraments, (which are the Engines and Ammunition which God hath put into our hands) though they have a blessed and a powerful operation, and produce heavenly effects, where they may have entrance; in this, habitual sinners can have none. Some things therefore, some great things every man must depart with, before he can come to the God of pure eyes.

When the heart is emptied of infidelity, and of those habits of sin that filled it, when it is come to a discontinuance, and a detestation of those sins, then we can better look into every corner, and endeavor to keep it clean; clean in that measure, that the God of pure eyes will vouchsafe to look upon it, and the light of his countenance will perfect the work. The diligence required on our part, is a serious watchfulness and consideration of our particular actions, how small soever. In the Law, whatsoever was unclean to eat, made a man unclean, to touch it, when it was dead. Though the body of sin have so far received a deadly wound in thee, as that thou hast discontinued some habitual sin, some long time; yet if thou touch upon the memory of that dead sin, with delight, thou begettest a new child of sin. And as Isaiah speaks of a child, and of a sinner of an hundred years old, so every sin into which we relapse, is born an hundred years old; it hath all the age of that sin, which we had repented and discontinued before, upon it; it is born an Adam, in full strength the first minute; born a Giant, born a Devil, and possesses us in an instant. Every man may observe, that a sin of relapse is sooner upon him, then the same sin was at the first attempting him; at first, he had more bashfulness, more tenderness, more colluctation against the sin, then upon a relapse. And therefore in this survey of sin, thy first care must be, to take heed of returning top diligently to a remembrance of those delightful sins which are past; for that will endanger new. And in many cases it is safer to do (as God himself is said to do) to tie up our sins in a bundle, and cast them into the sea; so for us to present our sins in general to God, and to cast them into the bottomless sea of the infinite mercies of God, in the infinite merits of Christ Jesus; then by an over-diligent enumeration of sins of some kinds, or by too busy a contemplation of those circumstances which increased our sinful delignt then when we committed those sins, to commit them over again, by a fresh delight in their memory. When thou hast truly repented them, and God hath forgotten them, do thou forget them too.

The pureness and cleanness of heart which we must love, was evidently represented in the old Law, and in the practise of the Jews, who took knowledge of so many uncleannesses; they reckon almost fifty sorts of uncleannesses, to which there belonged particular expiations; of which, some were hardly to be avoided in ordinary conversation: As to enter into the Courts of Justice; for the Jews that led Christ into the common Hall, would not enter, lest they should be defiled. Yea, some things defiled them, which it had been unnatural to have left undone; as for the son to assist at his fathers Funeral; and yet even these required an expiation: For these, though they had not the nature of sin, but might be expiated, (without any inward sorrow or repentance) by outward ablutions, by ceremonial washings, within a certain time prescribed by the Law, yet if that time were negligently and inconsiderately overslipt, then they became sins, and then they could not be expiated, but by a more solemn, and a more costly way, by sacrifice. And even before they came to that, whilst they were but uncleannesses, and not sins, yet even then they made them incapable of eating the Paschal Lamb. So careful was God in the Law, and the Jews in their practise (for these outward things) to preserve this pureness, this cleanness, even in things which were not fully sins. So also must he that affects this pureness of heart, and studies the preserving of it, sweep down every cobweb that hangs about it. Scurrile and obscene language; yea, mis-interpretable words, such as may bear an ill sense; pleasureable conversation, and all such little entanglings, which though he think too weak to hold him, yet they foul him. And let him that is subject to these smaller sins, remember, that as a spider builds always where he knows there is most access and haunt of flies, so the Devil that hath cast these light cobwebs into thy heart, knows that that heart is made of vanities and levities; and he that gathers into his treasure whatsoever thou wast'st out of thine, how negligent soever thou be, he keeps thy reckoning exactly, and will produce against thee at last as many lascivious glances as shall make up an Adultery, as many covetous wishes as shall make up a Robery, as many angry words as shall make up a Murder; and thou shalt have dropt and crumbled away thy soul, with as much irrecoverableness, as if thou hadst poured it out all at once; and thy merry sins, thy laughing sins, shall grow to be crying sins, even in the ears of God; and though thou drown thy soul here, drop after drop, it shall not burn spark after spark, but have all the fire, and all at once, and all eternally, in one entire and intense torment. For, as God, for our capacity, is content to be described as one of us, and to take our passions upon him, and be called angry, and sorry, and the like; so is he in this also like us, that he takes it worse to be slighted, to be neglected, to be left out, then to be actually injured. Our inconsideration, our not thinking of God in our actions, offends him more then our sins. We know, that in Nature, and in Art, the strongest bodies are compact of the least particles, because they shut best, and lie closest together; so be the strongest habits of sin compact of sins which in themselves are least; because they are least perceived, they grow upon us insensibly, and they cleave unto us inseparably. And I should make no doubt of recovering him sooner that had sinned long against his conscience, though in a great sin, then him that had sinned less sins, without any sense or conscience of those sins; for I should sooner bring the other to a detestation of his sin, then bring this man to a knowledge, that that that he did was sin. But if thou could'st consider that every sin is a Crucifying of Christ, and every sin is a precipitation of thy self from a Pinacle; were it a convenient phrase to say, in every little sin, that thou would'st Crucify Christ a little, or break thy neck a little.

Beloved, there is a power in grace, upon thy repentance, to wash away thy greatest sins; that's the true, the proper Physic of the soul, it is the only means to recover thee. But yet, wert thou not better to make this grace thy diet, then thy physic? Wert thou not better to nourish thy soul with this grace all the way, then to hope to purge thy soul with it at last? This, as a Diet, the Apostle prescribes thee, Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. He intends it farther there, Whatsoever you do; and farther then that, in another place, Whatsoever ye do, in deed, or in word, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Since there is no action so little, but God may be glorified in it, there is no action so little, but the Devil may have his end in it too, and may overthrow thee by a temptation, which thou thinkest thy self strong enough to leap over. And therefore, if you have not given over all love of true weights, and true measures, weigh and measure your particular and indifferent actions, before you do them, and you shall see, at least, grains of iniquity in them; and then, this advantage will you have, by this preconsideration, and weighing your actions before hand; that when you know there is sin in that action, and know that nothing can counterpoise, nor weigh down sin, but only the Blood of Christ Jesus▪ you may know too, that the Blood of Christ Jesus cannot be had before hand. God gives no such non-obstantes, no such privileges, no leave to sin, no pardon for sin, before it be committed: And therefore, if this premeditation of this action bring thee to see that there is sin in it▪ it must necessarily put a tenderness, a horror, an aversion in thee, from doing that, to which, (being thus done with this preconsideration, and presumption) the Blood of thy Savior doth not appertain. To all your other Wares, the baser and courser they are, the greater weight and measure you are content to give; to the basest of all, to sin, you give the lightest weight, and scantest measure, and you supply all with the excuses of the custom of the time, that the necessity of your trade forces you to it, else you should be poor, and poorly thought of.

Beloved, God never puts his children to a perplexity; to a necessity of doing any sin, how little soever, though for the avoiding of a sin, as manifold as Adams. It is not a little request to you, to beware of little sins: It is not a little request, and therefore I make it, in the words of the greatest to the greatest, (for they are all one Head and Body) of Christ to his Church, Capite vulpeculas, Take us the little Foxes, for they devour the Vines. It is not a cropping, not a pilling, nor a retarding of the growth of the Vines, but Demoliuntur, as little as those Foxes are, they devour the Vines, they root them out. Thy Soul is not so easily devoured by that Lion, that seeks whom he may devour▪ for, still he is put to seek, and does not always find: And thou shalt hear his roaring, that is, thou shalt discern a great sin; and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come in to thy succor, as soon as thou callest: But take heed that thy Soul be not eaten up with vermin, by those little sins, which thou thinkst thou canst forbear, and give over when thou wilt. God punished the Egyptians most, by little things▪ Hailstones, and Frogs, and Grashoppers; and Pharaohs Sorcerers, which did greater, failed in the least, in Lice. It is true, there is Physic for this, Christ Jesus that receives thy greatest sins into his Blood, can receive these Vermin too into his Bowels, even at last; but yet, still make his Grace rather thy Diet, by a daily consideration before hand, then thy Physic at last. It is ill to take two Physicks at once; bodily, and ghostly Physic too, upon thy Death-bed. The Apothecary and the Physician do well together; the Apothecary and the Priest not so well. Consult with him before, at least, consult with thine own Conscience in those little actions, which either their own nature, or the custom of the time, or thy course of life, thy calling, and the example of others in thy calling made thee think indifferent: For though it may seem a degree of flattery, to preach against little sins in such a City as this, where greater sins do abound; yet because these be the materials and elements of greater sins, (and it is impossible to say where a Bowl will lie, that is let fall down a Hill, though it be let never so gently out of the hand,) and there is no pureness of heart, till even these Cobwebs and Crumbs be swept away; He that affects that pureness, will consider well that of St. Augustine, Interest inter rectum corde, & mundum corde; a right heart and a clean heart, is not all one: He may have a right heart, that keeps in the right way, in the profession of the right Religion; but he only keeps his heart pure, that watches all his steps, even in that right way. St. Augustine considers that question of David, Quis ascendet, and quis stabit, Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? And he applies the answer, Innocens manibus, & mundo corde; He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart: Thus, That he that hath clean hands, clean from blood, clean from bribery and oppression, clean from fornication, and such notorious sins, Ascendet in montem, He shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord, he shall be admitted to all the benefits that the Christian Church can give him; but only he that hath a pure heart, a care to glorify God, in a holy watchfulness upon all his particular actions, to the exclusion of lesser sins, stabit, shall stand safe, confident, unshaken, in his holy place, even in the judgment of God; clean hands justify him to men, a pure heart to God: And therefore this pureness of heart, is here wrapped up in the richest mantle, in the noblest affection, that the nature of man hath, that is, love▪ For this is not only a contentment, an acquiescence, a satisfaction, a delight in this pureness of heart, but love is a holy impatience in being without it, or being in a jealousy that we are without it; and it is a holy fervor and vehemency in the pursuit of it, and a preferring it before any other thing that can be compared to it: That's love; and therefore it deserves to be insisted upon, now when in our order proposed at first, from the thing it self that is required (pureness) and the seat, and center of that pureness (the heart) and the way of this fixation of this pureness in the heart, (detestation of former habits of sins, and prevention of future sins, in a watchful consideration of all our actions, before we do them,) We are come to that affection wherewith this inestimable pureness is to be embraced, love: He that loveth pureness of heart.

Love, in Divinity, is such an attribute, or such a notion, as designs to us one person in the Trinity; and that person who communicates, and applies to us, the other two persons, that is, The Holy Ghost: So that, as there is no power, but with relation to the Father, nor wisdom but with relation to the Son, so there should be no love but in the Holy Ghost, from whom comes this pureness of heart, and consequently the love of it necessarily: For, the love of this pureness is part of this pureness it self, and no man hath it, except he love it. All love which is placed upon lower things, admits satiety; but this love of this pureness, always grows, always proceeds: It does not only file off the rust of our hearts, in purging us of old habits, but proceeds to a daily polishing of the heart, in an exact watchfulness, and brings us to that brightness, Ut ipse videas faciem in corde, & alii videant cor in facie. That thou mayst see thy face in thy heart, and the world may see thy heart in thy face; indeed, that to both, both heart and face may be all one: Thou shalt be a Looking-glass to thy self, and to others too.

The highest degree of other love, is the love of woman: Which love, when it is rightly placed upon one woman, it is dignified by the Apostle with the highest comparison, Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved his Church: And God himself forbad not that this love should be great enough to change natural affection, Relinquet patrem, (for this, a man shall leave his Father) yea, to change nature it self, caro una, two shall be one. Accordingly David expresses himself so, in commemoration of Jonathan, Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women: A love above that love, is wonderful. Now, this love between man and woman, doth so much confess a satiety, as that if a woman think to hold a man long, she provides her self some other capacity, some other title, then merely as she is a woman: Her wit, and her conversation, must continue this love; and she must be a wife, a helper; else, merely as a woman, this love must necessarily have intermissions. And therefore St. Jerome notes a custom of his time, (perchance prophetically enough of our times too) that to uphold an unlawful love, and make it continue, they used to call one another Friend, and Sister, and Cousen, Ut etiam peccatis induant nomina caritatis, that they might apparel ill affections in good names; and those names of natural and civil love might carry on, and continue a work, which otherwise would sooner have withered. In Parables, and in Mythology, and in the application of Fables, this affection of love, for the often change of subjects, is described to have wings; whereas the true nature of a good love (such as the love of this Text) is a constant union. But our love of earthly things is not so good as to be volatilis, apt to fly; for it is always groveling upon the earth, and earthly objects: As in spiritual fornications, the Idols are said to have ears and hear not, and eyes and see not; so in this idolatrous love of the Creature, love hath wings, and flies not; it flies not upward, it never ascends to the contemplation of the Creator, in the Creature. The Poets afford us but one Man, that in his love flew so high as the Moon; Endymion loved the Moon. The sphere of our loves is sublunary, upon things naturally inferior to our selves.

Let none of this be so mistaken, as though women were thought improper for divine, or for civil conversation: For, they have the same soul; and of their good using the faculties of that soul, the Ecclesiastick story, and the Martyrologies, give us abundant examples of great things done, and suffered by women for the advancement of Gods glory: But yet, as when the woman was taken out of man, God caused a heavy sleep to fall upon man, and he slept; so doth the Devil cast a heavy sleep upon him too. When the woman is so received into man again, as that she possesses him, fills him, transports him. I know the Fathers are frequent in comparing and paralleling Eve, the Mother of Man, and Mary the Mother of God. But, God forbid any should say, That the Virgin Mary concurred to our good, so, as Eve did to our ruin. It is said truly, That as by one man sin entered, and death, so by one man entered life. It may be said, That by one woman sin entered, and death, (and that rather then by the man; for, Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression.) But it cannot be said, in that sense, or that manner, that by one woman innocence entered▪ and life: The Virgin Mary had not the same interest in our salvation, as Eve had in our destruction; nothing that she did entered into that treasure, that ransom that redeemed us. She, more then any other woman, and many other blessed women since, have done many things for the advancing of the glory of God, and imitation of others; so that they are not unfit for spiritual conversation; nor for the civil offices of friendship neither, where both temptation at home, and scandal abroad, may truly be avoided. I know St. Jerome in that case despised all scandal, and all malicious mis-interpretations of his purpose therein, rather then give over persuading the Lady Paula, to come from Rome, to him, and live at Jerusalem: But, I know not so well, that he did well in so doing. A familiar and assiduous conversation with women will hardly be without temptation and scandal. St. Jerome himself apprehended that scandal tenderly, and expresses it passionately; Sceleratum me putant, & omnibus peccatis obrutum. The world takes me for a vicious man, more (sceleratum) for a wicked, a facinorous man, for this, and obrutum, surrounded, overflowed with all sins: Versipellem, lubricum, mendacem, satanae arte decipientem: They take me to be a slippery fellow, a turn-coat from my professed austerity, a Liar, an Impostor, a Deceiver; yet, though he discerned this scandal, and this inconvenience in it, he makes shift to ease himself in this, Nihil aliud mihi objicitur, nisi sexus meus: They charge me with nothing but my sex, that I am a man; Et hoc nunquam objicitur, nisi cum Hierosolymam Paula proficiscitur, nor that neither, but because this Lady follows me to Jerusalem.

He proceeds farther, That till he came acquainted in Paulas house at Rome, Omnium penè judicio, summo sacerdotio dignus decernebar, every man thought me fit to be Pope; every man thought reverently of him, till he used her house. St. Jerome would fain have corrected their mis-interpretations, and slackened the scandal, as we see in that vehement expostulation, and unlikelihood of an ill love between him and Paula; Nulla alia me Romae edomare potuit? Was Rome so barren, so weak, so ill furnished with instruments of temptation, that nothing in Rome it self could shake my constancy, or retard my austerity, Nisi lugens, jejuna, squallida, fletibus caecata, but a sad, fasting, ill drest woman, blind with weeping? Et quam manducantem nunquam vidi: A woman, whom (as familiar and domestic as I was in her house) I could never see eat bit of meat. But all this would not quench the fire, the scandal grew; he found it even amongst his brethren, Homines Christiani dicunt, he could not say, that only the enemies of the faith, or his enemies, but they that loved Religion well, and him well, talked dangerously and suspiciously of it; and yet St. Jerome could not dispose himself to forbear that conversation. He overcame the sense of it, with a par pari refertur: I, says he, am even with them: Invicem insanire videmur, they think me mad, and I think them mad: But this is not always a safe, nor a charitable way, when he might so easily have cured both madnesses. But he perseveres in it with that resolution, Saluta Paulam, velit nolit mundus, in Christo mem; Remember me to my Paula, let the world say what it will, in Christ, my Paula: Thus he proceeds; if excusably in his own behalf, that is the best; certainly not exemplarily, not to be followed by others, in cases of so great scandal: For there goes not only a great deal of innocency (which we acknowledge, doubtlesly, to have been between that blessed couple) but there must go a great deal of necessity too, (that is, That Paula could not have been reduced by any other means to the service of God, or continued in it, but by following St. Jerome to Jerusalem) to justify such a conversation as became so scandalous. And howsoever, in some cases excuses might be found, what good Mariner would anchor under a Rock, and lie in danger of beating upon that? What Fish would choose his food upon a Hook? What Mouse at a Trap? What man would mingle Sugar and Rats-bane together, and then trust his cunning to sever them again? Why should any man choose such company, such conversation, as may minister temptation to him, or scandal to others? St. Augustine apprehended this danger tenderly, when he gave his reason, why he would not have his Mother in the house with him, Because, says he, though there be no danger of scandal in the person of my Mother▪ all those women that serve my Mother, and that accompany my Mother, and that visit my Mother, all they are not Mothers to me; and a lawful conversation may come to an unlawful love quickly. We see how this love wrought, when it was scattered upon many women, (and therefore could not be so dangerously vehement upon any one) in Solomon, whose wife turned away his heart; so that his heart was not perfect with God. Nec error putavit Idolis serviendum, Solomon never came to think deliberately, that Idolatry was lawful▪ sed blanditiis foemineis ad illa sacrificia compulsus, his appliableness to women brought him to that sacrilege. Thus it wrought, even when it was scattered upon many, in Solomon; and we see how it wrought, when it was collected and contracted upon one object, in Samson; Because she was importunate upon him (says the Text) and vexed him with her words continually, his soul was pained unto the death. Yea, if we go as high as is possible, to Adam himself, we see both St. Augustine and St. Jerome express his case thus, Adam non tanquam verum loquenti credidit, Adam did not believe Eve, nor was not overcome by her reasons, when she provoked him to eat the Apple, Sed sociali necessitudini paruit, he was affected with that near interest which was between them. And ne contristaretur delicias suas, lest by refusing he should put her, whom he delighted in, to a desperate sadness, and sense of her sin, he eat for company. And as the first, and the middle times did, so without doubt, our own times too, if we search but our selves at home, do minister examples of this (in a proportion) which neither St. Jerome, nor Solomon, nor Samson, nor Adam avoided, that an over-tender indulgence towards such women, that for other respects they were bound to love, inclined them to do such things, as otherwise they would not have done; Natural and civil obligations induced conversation, and conversation temptation, or if not that really, yet scandal.

That that we drive to in all this, is this, that if we may not exceed in this love, which is natural, and commanded, much less in any other. So that there is nothing in this world left, for this noble and operative affection, Love, to work upon, but this pureness of heart. Love it therefore, that thou mayst seek it, love it that thou mayest have it; love it that thou mayest love it; for (as we said before) it is a part of this pureness to love it. Some of the ancient Fathers, out of their love to it, have put so high a price and estimation upon it, that they hardly afforded any grace, any pardon to those that sinned after they had once received this pureness in Baptism. So that with them, the heart could never be clean again, after it was once fouled a second time. Our new Roman Chymists, on the other side, they that can transubstantiate bread into God, they can change any foulness into cleaness easily. They require no more after sin, but quendam tenuem dolorem internum, A little slight inward sorrow, and that's enough. For, they have provided an easier way, then Contrition; for, that which they have induced, and call Attrition, is not an affection, qui habet pro sine Deum, That hath proposed God, for the mark, that it is directed too; Nec qui indiget divina gratia; but it is such an affection as may be had without any concurrence or assistance of grace, and is only Dolor naturalis, & ex timore servili,, a natural sorrow, proceeding only out of a servile fear of torment. And yet, a Confession made with this Attrition and no more, is enough for salvation, say they; and he that hath made a confession with such a disposition as this, This that hath no reference to God, This that hath no strength from his grace, This that hath no motive from the fear of God, shall never need to repent any farther for his sins. Displiceri de peccato, sed non super omni displicibili; This is Attrition, to be displeased with our sins, but not more with our sins, then with any thing else; Intendere vitare peccatum, sed non super omne vitabile, To have a purpose to leave a sin, but not the sin rather then any thing else, this is their Attrition, and this is their enough for salvation. A sigh of the penitent, a word of the Priest, makes all clean, and induces an absolute pureness.

Thus some of the Ancients went too far, They would pardon no sin after Baptism; These new Men go not far enough▪ They pardon all too easily. Old Physicians thought all hurts in the heart presently mortal; These new Physicians can pare off some of the heart, and give it to Idolatry; for, so they say, that the worship due to God may be given to a creature, so it be not Tanquam Deo, as that the Creature is thereby professed to be God; and yet, they confess that that worship which they give to the creature is idolatry, but, not that Idolatry, say they, which is forbidden in the commandment, which is, that that Creature, so worshipped with the worship due to God, be also believed to be God; and so, truly I believe it will be hard to find any Idolatry in the world; That they that worship any thing, in representation of God, do believe advisedly that representation to be very God. But the true reason why no hurt received in the heart can be healed, is, quia palpitat, because it is in perpetual motion. If the heart lay still, as other parts do, so that medicinal helps might be applied to it, and admitted by it, there were more hope. Therefore when we lay such a weight upon the heart, as may settle it, fix it, give it a reposedness and acquiescence, though it do receive some wounds, though it be touched with some temptations, it may be cured. But is there any such weight as should so settle the heart, the soul of Man? This love of Pureness is that weight. Amor est pondus animae; sicut gravitas, Corporis; As the weight of my body makes that steady, so this love of Pureness is the weight and the ballast of my soul; and this weight stays the palpitation, the variation, the deviation of the heart upon other objects; which variation frustrates all endeavors to cure it.

The love of this pureness is both the ballast and the frait, to carry thee steadily and richly too, through all storms and tempests, spiritual and temporal in this life, to the everlasting Jerusalem. If you be come to this love, this love of pureness of heart, never to lock up your door till you have carried out your dust; never to shut your eyes at night, till you have swept your conscience, and cast your foulness into that infinite sea of the blood of Christ Jesus, which can contract no foulness by it; never to open your eyes in the morning, but that you look out to glorify God in the rising of the Sun, and in his other creatures, and in the peace and safety of your house and family, and the health of your children and servants; But, especially to look inward, and consider, whether you have not that night mingled poison with Gods Physic, whether you have not mingled sloth and laziness in that which God gave you for rest and refreshing; whether you have not mingled licentiousness in that which God gave you for a remedy against fornication. And then, when you shall have found that sin hath been awake in you, even when your bodies were asleep, be sure you cast not the Spirit of God into a sleep in you, when your bodies are awake, but that you proceed vigilantly in your several ways, with a fore-knowledge, that there is every where coluber in via, A Snake in the way; in every way that you can take, in every course of life, in every calling, there is some of the seed of the old Serpent presents it self. And then, if by Gods infallible word, explicated in his Church, which is Lucerna pedibus vestris (The word is the light, but the Church is the Lanthorne, it presents and preserves that light unto you; and though it be said Lucerna Dominus, Thou O Lord art my light, God himself; And Lucerna Agnus, The Lamb, Christ himself is your light; And lucerna mandatum, The commandments of God are your light; yet it is also said of John Baptist, Lucerna ardens, he was a burning and a shining light; The Ministry of the Gospel in the Church, is your light) If by the benefit of this light, you consider every step you make, weigh every action you undertake, this is that love of Pureness, that Pondus animae, the setling of the heart, that keeps it from evaporating upon transitory things, and settles it so, as that it becomes capable of that cure, which God, in his Church, in the Absolution of sins, and seals of Reconciliation, exhibits to it. To recollect and contract that which hath been said, This pureness is not a purifying pureness, to correct and reform those things that appertain not to us; nor it is not such a purified pureness as makes us Canonize our selves, and think others Reprobates (for, all this is no pureness at all:) neither is it the true pureness, if it be not in the heart (for outward good works, not done to good ends, are impure:) nor is this pureness of heart acquired by any other means, then by discharging the heart in a detestation of former habits, and a sedulous watchfulness in preventing future attempts; nor can this pureness of heart, though by these means attained to, be preserved, but by this noble and incorruptible affection of Love, that puts a true value upon it, and therefore prefers it above all other things. And this was the first of the two marks which we found to be upon that person that should be capable of the Kings friendship, He that loveth pureness of heart. And the other is, that he have by honest industry fitted himself, in some way, to be of use to the public, delivered in that phrase, Grace of lips; He that loveth pureness of heart (There's his honesty;) for the Grace of his lips (There's his sufficiency;) The King shall be his friend, There's his reward his preferment.

Ordinarily in Scriptures, where this word lips is not taken naturally, literally, narrowly, for that part of the body, but transferred to a figurative and larger sense, either it signifies speaking only (as in Solomon, As, righteous lips are the delight of Kings, and the King loveth him that speaketh right things (That is, Him, in whose Counsels, and in whose relations he may confide and rely;) or else it is enlarged to all manner of expressing a mans ability, to do service to that State in which God hath made his station; and by lips, and fruits of lips, is well understood the fruit of all his good labors and endeavors. And so may those words be well interpreted, With the fruit of a mans mouth shall his belly be satisfied, and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled; That is, his honest labors in a lawful calling shall enrich him. As therefore those words, A mans gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men, are not always understood of Gifts given in nature of Bribes or gratifications for access to great persons, but also of Gifts given by God to men, that those Gifts and good parts make them acceptable to great persons; so is not Grace of lips to be restrained, either to a plausible and harmonious speaking, applicable to the humor of the hearer (for that's excluded in the first part, the root and fountain of all, Pureness of heart, for, flattery cannot consist with that) nor to be restrained to the good Offices and Abilities of the tongue only (though they be many;) but this Grace of lips is to be enlarged to all declarations, and expressings, and utterings of an ability to serve the Public; All that is Grace of lips. And in those words of Osea, We render the Calves of our lips, is neither meant as the Jews say, Those Calves which we have promised with our lips, and will pay in sacrifice, then, when we are restored to our Land of promise again. Nor are those Calves of our lips only restrained to the Lip-service of Praise, and Prayer, though of them also St. Paul understand them; but they include all the sacrifices of the New Testament, and all ways by which man can do service to God; so here the Grace of lips reaches to all the ways by which a man in civil functions may serve the Public. And this Grace of lips, in some proportion, in some measure, every man is bound in conscience to procure to himself; he is bound to enable himself to be useful and profitable to the Public, in some course, in some vocation.

Since even the Angels, which are all Spirit, be yet administring Spirits, and execute the Commissions and Ambassages of God, and communicate with men; should man, who is not made all soul, but a composed creature of body and soul, exempt himself from doing the offices of mutual society, and upholding that frame in which God is pleased to be glorified? Since God himself, who so many millions of ages contented himself with himself in Heaven, yet at last made this world for his glory; shall any man live so in it as to contribute nothing towards it? Hath God made this World his Theatre, ut exhibeatur ludus deorum, that man may represent God in his conversation; and wilt thou play no part? But think that thou only wast made to pass thy time merrily, and to be the only spectator upon this Theatre? Is the world a great and harmonious Organ, where all parts are played, and all play parts; and must thou only sit idle and hear it? Is every body else made to be a Member, and to do some real office for the sustentation of this great Body, this World; and wilt thou only be no member of this Body? Thinkest thou that thou wast made to be Cos Amoris, a Mole in the Face for Ornament, a Man of delight in the World? Because thy wit, thy fashion, and some such nothing as that, hath made thee a delightful and acceptable companion, wilt thou therefore pass in jest, and be nothing? If thou wilt be no link of Gods Chain, thou must have no part in the influence and providence, derived by that, successively to us. Since it is for thy fault that God hath cursed the Earth, and that therefore it must bring forth Thorns and Thistles, wilt not thou stoop down, nor endanger the pricking of thy hand, to weed them up? Thinkest thou to eat bread, and not sweat? Hast thou a prerogative above the common Law of Nature? Or must God insert a particular clause of exemption for thy sake?

Oh get thee then this grace of lips; be fit to be inserted, and be inserted into some society, and some way of doing good to the Public. I speak not this to your selves, you Senators of London; but as God hath blessed you in your ways, and in your Callings, so put your children into ways and courses too, in which God may bless them. The dew of Heaven falls upon them that are abroad; Gods blessings fall upon them that travel in the world. The Fathers former labors shall not excuse their Sons future idleness; as the Father hath, so the Son must glorify God, and contribute to the world, in some settled course. And then, as God hath blessed thee in the grace of thy lips, in thy endeavors, in thy self, so thy sons shall grow up, as the Son of God himself did, in grace and favor of God and man. As God hath blessed thee in the fruit of thy Cattle, so he shall bless thee in the fruit of thy Body; and as he hath blessed thee in the City, so he shall bless thee in the Field, in that Inheritance which thou shalt leave to thy Son. Whereas, when children are brought up in such a tenderness, and wantonness at home, as is too frequent amongst you in this City, they never come to be of use to the State, nor their own Estates of any longer use to them. That Son that comes to say. My Father hath laboured, and therefore I may take mine ease, will come to say at last, My Savior hath suffered, and therefore I may take my pleasure; My Savior hath fasted, and therefore I may riot, My Savior hath wept enough, and therefore I may be merry. But as our Savior requires Cooperarios, that we be fellow-workers with him to make sure our salvation; so if your Sons be not Cooperarii, Labourers in some course of life, to make sure their Inheritance, though you have been called wise in your generation, that is; rich in your own times, yet you will be called fools in your generation too; that is, ignominious and wretched in your posterity. In a word, he that will be nothing in this world, shall be nothing in the next; nor shall he have the Communion of Saints there, that will not have the Communion of good men here. As much as he can, he frustrates Gods Creation; God produced things of nothing, and he endeavors to bring all to nothing again; and he despises his own immortality and glorification; for since he lives the life of a beast, he shews that he could be content to die so too, & accepit animam in vano, he hath received a soul to no purpose.

This grace of lips then, this ability to do good to the Public, we are bound to have; but we are not commanded to love it, as we are the pureness of heart; we must love to have it, but we must not be in love with it when we have it. But since the holy Ghost hath chosen to express these abilities, in this word, Grace of lips, that intimates a duty of utterance, and declaration of those abilities which he hath. Habere te agnoscere, & ex te nihil habere; To let it appear in the use of them, that thou hast good parts, and to confess that thou hast nothing of thine own; Hoc est nec ingratum esse, nec superbum; therein thou art neither unthankful to God, nor proud of thy self. As he that hath no other good parts, but money; and locks up that, or employs it so, as that his money feeds upon the Commonwealth, and does not feed it, (that it lies gnawing and sucking blood, by Usury, and does not make blood, by stirring and walking in Merchandize,) is an unprofitable member in State; so he that hath good parts, and smothers them, in a retired and useless life, is inexcusable in the same measure. When therefore men retire themselves into Cloysters and Monasteries, when they will not be content with St. Pauls diminution, to be changed from Saul, to Paulus, (which is little) but will go lower then that little, by being called minorites, less then little, and lower then that, minims, least of all; and yet find an order less then that, as they have done, nullani, nothing at all, Exore suo, out of their own mouths they shall be judged; and that which they have made themselves here, God shall make them in the world to come, nullanos, nothing at all. Paulum sepultae distatinertiae celata virtus, It is all one as if he had no grace of lips, if he never have the grace to open his lips; to bury himself alive, is as much wrong to the State, as if he kill himself. Every man hath a Politick life, as well as a natural life; and he may no more take himself away from the world, then he may make himself away out of the world. For he that dies so, by withdrawing himself from his calling, from the labours of mutual society in this life, that man kills himself, and God calls him not. Morte morietur, He shall die a double death; an Allegorical death here, in his retiring, from his own hand; and a real death from the hand of God hereafter. In this case, that Vae soli, Wo be unto him that is alone, hath the heaviest weight with it; when a man lives so alone, as that he respects no body but himself, his own ease, and his own ends. For, to sum up all concerning this part, the Subject, as our principal duty is, Pureness of heart towards God, and to love that entirely, earnestly; so the next is the Grace of lips, Ability to serve the Public; which though we be bound not to love it with a pride, we are bound not to smother with a retiring. And then for these endowments (for being Religious, and serviceable to the State). The King shall be our friend. Which is our second general part, to which, in our order proposed, we are now come.

As it is frequent and ordinary in the Scriptures, when the Holy Ghost would express a superlative, the highest degree of any thing, to express it, by adding the name of God to it (as when Saul and his company were in such a dead sleep, as that David could take his Spear, and pot of water from under his head; It is called Tardemath Jehovah, sopor Domini, The sleep of the Lord, The greatest sleep that could possess a man; and so in many other places, fortitudo Domini, and timor Domini, signify the greatest strength, and the greatest fear that could fall upon a man) so also doth the Holy Ghost often descend from God, to Gods Lieutenant; and as to express superlatives, he does sometimes use the name of God; so doth he also sometimes use the name of King. For, Reges sunt summi Regis defluxus (says that Author, who is so antient, that no man can tell when he was, Trismegistus) God is the Sun, and Kings are Beams, and emanations, and influences that flow from him. Such is the manner of the Holy Ghost expressing himself in Isaiah. Tyrus shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the years of one King; that is, during the time of any one mans life, how happy and fortunate soever. And so also the miserable and wretched estate of the wicked, is likewise expressed, His hope shall be rooted out of his dwelling, and shall drive him to the King of fears; that is, to the greatest despair; ad Regem interituum (says the Vulgar) to the greatest destruction that can be conceived. So that in this first sence, Amicitia Regis, the Kings friendship that is promised here, (The King shall be his friend) is a superlative friendship, a spreading, a delating, an universal friendship. He that is thus qualified, all the world shall love him.

So also by the name of King, both in the Scriptures, and in Josephus, and in many more profane and secular Authors, are often designed such persons as were not truly of the rank and quality of Kings; but persons that lived in plentiful and abundant fortunes, and had all the temporal happinesses of this life, were called Kings. And in this sence, the Kings friendship that is promised here, (The King shall be his friend) is utilis amicitia, all such frinds as may do him good. God promises, that to men thus endowed and qualified belongs the love and assistance that men of plentiful fortunes can give; great Persons, great in Estate, great in Power and Authority, shall confer their favours upon such men, and not upon such as only serve to swell a train, always for ostentation, sometimes for sedition; much less shall they confer their favours upon sycophants and buffoons; least of all upon the servants of their vices and voluptuousness; but they whom God hath made Kings in that sence, (Masters of abundant fortunes) shall do good to them only who have this pureness of heart, and grace of lips.

But if these words be not only intended of the King literally, That he shall do good to men thus endowed and qualified, but extended to all men in their proportion, that all that are able should do good to such persons; yet this Text is principally intended of the King himself, and therefore is so expressed singularly and emphatically, The King shall be his friend. As God hath appointed it for a particular dignity to his Spouse, the Church, That Kings shall be their foster-fathers, and Queens their nurses; so God hath designed it for a particular happiness of religious and capable men, that they may stand before the King, and hear his wisdom, as the Queen of Sheba observed of the servants of Solomon, and pronounced them happy for that. This then is a happiness belonging to this pureness, and this grace, that the King shall not only nor absolutely rely upon the information of others, and take such a measure, and such a character of men, as the good or bad affections of others will present unto him; but he shall take an immediate knowledge of them himself; he shall observe their love to this pureness of heart, and their grace of lips, and so become their friend.

Unto which of the Angels said God at any time, Thou art my son, says the Apostle? Indeed to none of them; it was a name peculiar to Christ. Unto what man did God ever say, Thou art my friend? only to one, to Abraham; (Israel, and Jacob, and the seed of Abraham my friend) Jehosaphat before this had taken knowledge of this friendship between God and Abraham, (Didst thou not give this Land to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?) And so doth St. James also record this friendship after, (Abraham believed, and he was called the friend of God.) God never called any man friend, but him to whom he gave a change of name, and honorable additions. He called him Abraham, a name of dilatation, Patrem multitudinum, a Father of multitudes; he made him able to do good to others; for he did not only say, Blessed shalt thou be, for that might be, blessed of others, or blessed amongst others; but it is not Eris Benedictus, but Eris Benedictio, Thou shalt be a Blessing, a Blessing to others. I will make thee a blessed instrument of conveying my Blessings to other men. That's Gods friendship, and the highest preferment that man is capable of in this life, to extend men beyond themselves, and make them his Instruments to others.

Step we a step lower, from God to the King; for as Kings have no example but God, so according to that example they are reserved, and sparing in affording that name of friend to any. For, as moral men have noted, friendsship implies some degrees of equality, which cannot stand between King and Subject. But this is the encouragement to this loving of pureness, and this seeking the grace of lips; that this is the true and the only way to that friendship of the King, which is intended in the word of this Text. The word is Nagnah; and Nagnah hath such a latitude in the Scriptures, as may well give satisfaction to any Subject: For Nagnah signifies Amare, to love; and so the King shall love this man. But we have known cases in which Kings have been fain to disguise and dissemble their love, out of a tenderness and loathness to grieve them whom they have loved before; and so the King may love this man, and he never the better. Therefore this word Nagnah, signifies sociare, to draw him nearer, to associate him to him, in Counsels, and other ways, and always to afford him easy accesses unto him; but we have known cases too, in which Kings, though they have opened one Cabinet, their Affections, yet they have shut up another, their Judgements, and their last purposes, even from them whom they have drawn near them. For Kings naturally love to be at their liberty; and it is not only a greatness, but an ease, to be able to disavow an instruction, upon the mis-understanding of the Minister and Instrument. Therefore against such intricacies and intanglings, this Dagnah signifies Docere, The King shall teach him, inform him directly, candidly, ingenuously, apertly, without any perplexities or reservations. And who would not purify his heart, and add grace to his lips, that he might taste this friendship of the King, to be loved by him; and feel the influences of his affection, to be drawn near him; and made partaker of his consultations; to be taught by him, and carried all the way with clearness, and without danger of mistaking? And who would not employ the thoughts of a pure heart, and the praises of graceful lips, in thanksgivings to Almighty God, who hath blessed us with such times, as that such Subjects have found such a King!

Neither is this encouragement to this Pureness, and this Grace in our Text, only in the benignity of the King, (which yet were a just provocation, that the King would consider such men before others; for all Kings do not always so) but it is in his duty, it is in his office; for, (as our Translators have expressed it) we see it is not said, The King will be; but, The King shall be his friend; it is not an arbitrary, but a necessary thing. God, in whose hands the Kings heart is, and who only can give Law, and Precept to the King, hath said, The King shall be his friend. Neither hath God left the King at that largeness, that he shall seem to be his friend, and do for him as though he were his friend, but yet not be so. Etiam simulare Philosophiam, Philosophia est; It is a degree of wisdom to seem wise. To be able to hold the world in opinion that one is great with the King, is a degree of greatness. And we have some Tales, and Apophthegms to that purpose; when men have been suiters to the King for that favor, that they might bid him but good morrow in his ear, thereby to put impressions in the beholders, that they had a familiar interest in him. But when the grounds of this Royal friendship are true and solid, Purenss of heart, and Grace of lips, the friendship must be so too. And then the ground being good, as it is not said, the King shall seem to be, but he shall be; so it is not said, the king shall have been, but he shall be; he shall be so still, he shall continue this friendship; but yet, but so long as this Pureness and this Grace continues, which produced this friendship in him.

For all this great frame, the friendship of the King, turns upon this little hinge, this particle, this monosyllable, His; The King shall be His, His friend. And to whom hath that His relation? To him, and him only that hath both Pureness of heart, and Grace of lips. Neither truth in Religion, nor abilities to serve the Public, must be wanting in him to whom the King shall be a friend. For for the first, sincerity in Religion, St. Ambrose expressed that, (and the other too) elegantly; An idoneum putabo qui mihi det consilium, qui non dat sibi? Can I think him fit to give me counsel, that mis-counsels himself in the highest business, Religion? Mihi eum vacare credam, qui sibi non vacat? Shall I think that he will study me, that neglects himself? His best self? the soul it self? And then for his doing good to the Public, Officium ab Efficiendo, & Efficium dicendum, says he. He only is fit for an Office, that knows how to execute it; he must have pureness of heart for his end; for he that proposes not that end, will make an ill end. And he must have this Grace of lips, which implies that civil-wiswisdom, which, (as the Philosopher notes) versatur circa media perveniendi; He must know wherein he may be useful and beneficial to others, thankful to God, profitable to others; that's his circumference; and then his centre here, is the love of the King. For these destroy not one another, Religion and Prudence. As that love which Christ bare to St. John, who lay in his bosom, (towards whom Christ had certainly other humane and affectionate respects, then he had to the rest) made him not the less fit to be an Apostle, and an Evangelist; nor the great Office of Apostleship made him not unfit for that love that Christ bare him; so both these endowments, Pureness of heart, and Grace of lips, are not only compatible, but necessary to him to whom the King shall be a friend. And both these doth God require, (if we consider the force of the Original words) when he says, Bring ye men of wisdom, and known among the Tribes, and I will make them Rulers over you. For, that addition, (known among the Tribes) excludes reserved men, proud and inaccessible men; though God do not intend there popular men, yet he does intend men acceptable to the people. And when David comes to a lustration, to a sifting of his Family, as he says, He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me; expressing in that, this Pureness; so intending to speak of this Grace of lips, which is an ability to be useful to others, for which nothing makes a man more unfit then Pride, and harshness, and hardness of access, he scarce knows how to express himself and his indignation against such a man; Him (says he) that hath a proud look, and a high heart, I cannot; and there he ends abruptly; He does not say, I cannot work upon him, I cannot mend him, I cannot pardon him, I cannot suffer him; but only, I cannot, and no more; I cannot tell what to do with him, I cannot tell what to say of him; and therefore I give him over: Him that hath a proud look, and a high heart, I cannot. Whatsoever his grace of lips be, how good soever his parts, he doth not only want the principal part, Pureness of heart, but he cannot be a fit instrument of that most blessed union between Prince and Subject, if his proud look, and harsh behavior make him unacceptable to honest men. It was (says the Orator to the Emperor Theodosius) Execratio postrema, an Execration, and an expressing of their indignation, beyond which they could not go, when speaking of Tarquin, Libidine praecipitem, Avaritia caecum, furore vaecordem, crudelitate immanem, vocarunt superbum, They thought it enough to call a man that was licentious, and covetous, and furious, and bloody, proud; Et putaverunt sufficere convitium, they thought themselves sufficiently revenged upon him for all their grievances, and that they had said as much as any Orator in an Invective, any Poet in a Satyr, could say, when they had imprinted that name upon his memory, Tarquin the Proud.

To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into the friendship of the King, without these two endowments: If the King hath always Christ for his example, if he say to them, Amice, quomodo intrasti, Friend, how came you in? If you had not this wedding garment on, or if this wedding garment were not your own, but borrowed by an Hypocritical dissimulation, Amice, quomodo intrasti; though you be never so much my friend, in never so near place to me, I must know how you got in; for, I have but two doors, (indeed, not two doors, but a gate, and a wicket; a greater, and an inferior way.) A religious heart, and useful parts; if you have not these, if you fear not God, and, if you study not, (as I do) the welfare of my people; you are not come in at my gate, (that is, Religion) nor at my wicket, (that is, the good of my people:) And therefore, how near so ever you be crept, I must have a review, an inquiry, to know, quomodo intrasti, how you came in.

But for those which have these two endowments, (Religion, and care of the public) we have the word of the King of Kings, of God himself, in the mouth of the wisest King, King Solomon, The King shall be his friend: And the King hath Christ himself still for his example, Who loved them whom he loved to the end: For, as long as the reason, upon which he grounds his word, remains, Regis verbum Regi Rex est, the Kings word, the Kings love, the Kings favor, Regi Rex est, is a King upon the King, and binds him to his word, as well as his subjects are bound to him.

To recollect and fasten these pieces; these be the benefits of this pureness of heart, and grace of lips, first, That the King shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him, and not be misled by false characters, or false images of him, by any breath that would blast him in the Kings ear. And then, that he shall take it to be his Royal Office, and Christian duty to do so; that to those men, whom he finds so qualified, he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our Text: Amabit, he shall love them, impart his affections to them; Sociabit, he shall associate them to him, and impart his consultations unto them: And Sociabit again, He shall go along with them, and accompany their labors, and their services, by the seal of his countenance, and ratification: And Docebit, He shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure, without intangling, or snaring them in perplexities, by ambiguous directions. This is the capacity required (to be religious and useful;) this is the preferment assured, The King shall be his friend; and this is the compass of our Text.

Now, Beloved, as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation, better then the Fathers could do, because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the Prophecies of that Book, which they did but conjecture upon; so we can interpret and apply this Text by way of accommodation the more usefully, because we have seen these things performed by those Princes whom God hath set over us. We need not that Edict of the Senate of Rome, Ut sub titulo gratiarum agendarum; That upon pretence of thanking our Princes, for that which, we say, they had done, Boni principes, quae facerent recognoscerent, Good Princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do, though they had not done so yet.

We need not this Circuit, nor this disguise; for, Gods hand hath been abundant towards us, in raising Ministers of State, so qualified, and so endowed; and such Princes as have fastened their friendships, and conferred their favors upon such persons. We celebrate, seasonably, opportunely, the thankful acknowledgment of these mercies, this day: This day, which God made for us, according to the pattern of his first days in the Creation; where, Vesper & mane dies unus, the evening first, and then the morning made up the day; for, here the saddest night, and the joyfullest morning, that ever the daughters of this Island saw, made up this day. Consider the tears of Richmond this night, and the joys of London, at this place, at this time, in the morning; and we shall find Prophecy even in that saying of the Poet, Nocte pluit tota, showers of rain all night, of weeping for our Sovereign; and we would not be comforted, because she was not: And yet, redeunt spectacula manè, the same hearts, the same eyes, the same hands were all directed upon recognitions, and acclamations of her successor, in the morning: And when every one of you in the City were running up and down like Ants with their eggs bigger then themselves, every man with his bags, to seek where to hide them safely, Almighty God shed down his Spirit of Unity, and recollecting, and reposedness, and acquiescence, upon you all. In the death of that Queen, unmatchable, immitable in her sex; that Queen, worthy, I will not say of Nestors years, I will not say of Methusalems, but worthy of Adams years, if Adam had never fallen; in her death we were all under one common flood, and depth of tears. But the Spirit of God moved upon the face of that depth; and God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that that light was good. God took pleasure, and found a savor of rest, in our peaceful cheerfulness, and in our joyful and confident apprehension of blessed days in his Government, whom he had prepared at first, and preserved so often for us.

As the Rule is true, Cum de Malo principe posteri tacent, manifestum est vilem facere praesentem, when men dare not speak of the vices of a Prince that is dead, it is certain that the Prince that is alive proceeds in the same vices; so the inversion of the Rule is true too, Cum de bono principe loquuntur, when men may speak freely of the virtues of a dead Prince, it is an evident argument, that the present Prince practises the same virtues; for, if he did not, he would not love to hear of them. Of her, we may say (that which was well said, and therefore it were pity it should not be once truly said, for, so it was not, when it was first said to the Emperor Iulian) nihil humile, aut abjectum cogitavit, quia novit de se semper loquendum; she knew the world would talk of her after her death, and therefore she did such things all her life were worthy to be talked of. Of her glorious successor, and our gracious Sovereign, we may say; Onerosum est succedere bono Principi, It would have troubled any king but him, to have come in succession, and in comparison with such a Queen. And in them both we may observe the unsearchableness of the ways of God; of them both, we may say, Dominus fecit, It is the Lord that hath done it, and it is wonderful in our eyes: First, That a woman and a maid should have all the wars of Christendom in her contemplation, and govern and balance them all; And then, That a King, born and bred in a warlike Nation, and so accustomed to the sword, as that it had been directed upon his own person, in the strength of his age, and in his Infancy, in his Cradle, in his mothers belly, should yet have the blessed spirit of peace so abundantly in him, as that by his Councils, and his authority, he should sheath all the swords of Christendom again. De forti egressa dulcedo, sweetness is come out of the strong, in a stranger manner, then when Sampson said so in his riddle; And howsoever another wise King found it true, Anima saturata calcab it favum, The person that is full despiseth honey, they that are glutted with the benefits of peace, would fallen change for a war; yet the wisest King of all hath pronounced for our King, Beati pacifici, Blessed are the peace-makers. If subjects will not apprehend it with joy here, the King himself shall joy hereafter, for, Therefore (says that Gospel) Therefore, because he was a peace-maker, he shall be called The child of God. Though then these two great Princes (of whom the one con-regnat Christo, reigns now with Christ, the other reigns here over us vice Christi, for Christ, were near in blood, yet thus were they nearest of kin, quod uterque optimus, That they were both better then any other, and equal to one another. Dignus alter eligi, alter eligere, That she was fittest in that fullness of years, to be chosen and assumed into heaven; and he fittest (as Saint Paul did because it was more behoofeful for his brethren) to choose to stay upon earth, for our protection, and for our direction; because (as in all Princes it is) vita principis perpetua censura, There cannot be a more powerful increpation upon the subjects excesses, then when they see the King deny himself those pleasures which they take.

As then this place, where we all stand now, was the Sanctuary whither we all resorted this day, to receive the assurance of our safety, in the proclamation of his undoubted title to this Kingdom, so let it be our Altar now, where we may sacrifice our humble thanks to God, first, that he always gave the King a just, and a religious patience of not attempting a coming into this Kingdom, till God emptied the throne here, by translating that Queen to a throne more glorious. Perchance he was not without temptations from other men to have done otherwise. But, Ad Principatum per obsequ ium venit, he came to be King by his obedience, his obedience to the law of Nature, and the laws of this Kingdom, to which some other King would have disputed, whether he should have obeyed or no. Cum omnia faceret imperare ut deberet, nihil fecit, ut imperaret; All his Actions, all that he did, showed him fit for this Crown, and yet he would do nothing to anticipate that Crown.

Next let us pour out our thanks to God, that in his entrance he was beholden to no by-religion. The Papists could not make him place any hopes upon them, nor the Puritans make him entertain any fears from them; but his God and our God, as he brought him via lactea, by the sweet way of Peace, that flows with milk and honey, so he brought him via Regia, by the direct and plain way, without any deviation or descent into ignoble flatteries, or servile humoring of any persons or factions. Which noble, and Christian courage he expressed more manifestly, when, after that infamous powder treason, the intended dissolution, and conflagration of this state (that plot that even amazed and astonished the Devil, and seemed a miracle even in hell, that treason, which, whosoever wishes might be covered how, is sorry that it was discovered then, whosoever wishes that it might be forgotten, wishes that it had proceeded; And therefore let our tongue cleave unto the roof our mouths, if we do not confers his loving kindness before the Lord, and his wonderful works before the Sons of men) Then I say, did his Majesty show this Christian courage of his more manifestly, when he sent the profession of his Religion, The Apology of the Oath of Allegiance, and his opinion of the Roman Antichrist, in all languages, to all Princes of Christendom. By occasion of which Book, though there have risen twenty Rabshakes, who have railed against our God in railing against our Religion, and twenty Shemeis, who have raised against the person of his sacred Majesty (for, I may pronounce that the number of them who have barked, and snarled at that book in writing, is scarceless then fourty) yet scarce one of them all hath undertaken the arguments of that book, but either repeated, and perchance enlarged those things which their own Authors had shoveled together of that subject (that is, The Popes Temporal power) or else they have bent themselves maliciously, insolently, sacrilegiously, against the person to his Majesty; and the Pope may be Antichrist still, for any thing they have said to the contrary. It belonged only to him, whom no earthly King may enter into comparison with, the King of Heaven, Christ Jesus, to say, Those that thou gavest me have I kept, and none of them is lost; And even in him, in Christ Jesus himself, that admitted one exception; Judas the child of perdition was lost. Our King cannot say that none of his Subjects are fled to Rome; but his vigilancy at home hath wrought so, as that fewer are gone from our Universities thither, in his, then in former times; and his Books abroad have wrought so, that much greater, and considerable persons are come to us, then are gone from us. I add that particular, (from our Universities) because we see, that since those men whom our Universities had bred, and graduated before they went thither, (of which the number was great, for many years of the Queens time) are worn out amongst them, and dead; those whom they make up there, whom they have had from their first youth there, who have received all their Learning from their beggarly and fragmentary way of Dictates there, and were never grounded in our Schools nor Universities, have proved but weak maintainers or that cause, compared with those men of the first times.

As Plato says of a particular natural body, he that will cure an ill Eye, must cure the Head; he that will cure the Head, must cure the Body; and he that will cure the Body, must cure the Soul; that is, must bring the Mind to a temperature, a moderation, an equanimity; so in Civil Bodies, in States, Head, and Eye, and Body; Prince, and Council, and People, do all receive their health and welfare from the pureness of Religion: And therefore, as the chiefest of all, I chose to insist upon that Blessing, That God hath given us a Religious King, and Religious out of his Understanding. His other Virtues work upon several conditions of men; by this Blessing, the whole Body is blest. And therefore not only they which have been salted with the salt of the Court, as it is said of the Kings Servants; but all that are salted with the salt of the Earth, (as Christ calls his Church, his Apostles) all that love to have salt in themselves, and peace with one another, all that are sensible of the Spiritual life, and growth, and good taste that they have by the Gospel, are bound to praise him, to magnify him for ever, that hath vouchsafed us a Religious King, and Religious out of Understanding.

Many other happinesses are rooted in the love of the Subject; and of his confidence in their love, his very absence from us is an argument to us. His continual abode with us hath been an argument of his love to us; and this long Progress of his is an argument of his assurance of our loyalty to him. It is an argument also of the good habitude and constitution to which he hath brought this State, and how little harm they that wish ill to it, are able to do, upon any advantage; Hanc in vobis fiduciam pertimescunt; This confidence of his makes his home-enemies more afraid, then his Laws, or his Trained-Bands; Et contemnise sentiunt, cum relinquuntur; When they are left to their own malignity, and to do their worst, they discern in that, how despicable and contemptible a party they are. Cum in interiora Imperii seceditis, when the King may go so far from the heart of his Kingdom, and the enemy be able to make no use of his absence, this makes them see the desperateness of their vain imaginations. He is not gone from us; for a Noble part of this Body, (our Nation) is gone with him, and a Royal part of his Body stays with us. Neither is the farthest place that he goes to, any other then ours, now, when, as the Roman Orator said; Nunc demum juvat orbem terrarum spectare depictum, cum in illo nihil videmus alienum; Now it is a comfort to look upon a Map of the World, when we can see nothing in it that is not our own; so we may say, Now it is a pleasant sight to look upon a Map of this Island, when it is all one. As we had him at first, and shall have him again, from that Kingdom, where the natural days are longer then ours are, so may he have longer days with us, then ever any of our Princes had; and as he hath Immortalitatem propriam sibi, filium sibi similem, (as it was said of Constantine,) a peculiar immortality, not to die, because he shall live in his Son; so in the fullness of time, and in the accomplishment of Gods purposes upon him, may he have the happiness of the other Immortality, and peacefully surrender all his Crowns in exchange of one, a Crown of immortal glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge lay up for him against that day.

To conclude all, and to go the right way from things which we see, to things which we see not, by consideration of the King, to the contemplation of God; since God hath made us his Tenants of this World, we are bound, not only to pay our Rents, (spiritual duties and services towards him,) but we are bound to reparations too, to contribute our help to society, and such external duties as belong to the maintenance of this world, in which Almighty God hath chosen to be glorified. If we have these two, Pureness of heart, and Grace of lips, then we do these two; we pay our Rent, and we keep the world in reparation; and we shall pass through all those steps and gradations, which St. Ambrose harmoniously, melodiously expresses, to be servi per timorem, to be the servants of God, and live in his fear; to be mercinarij per laborem, to be the workmen of God, and labor in his Vineyard; to be filij per lavacrum, to be the sons of God, and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first, in Baptism; and last of all, Amici per virtutem, by the good use of his gifts, the King of Kings shall be our friend. That which he said to his Apostles, his Spirit shall say to our spirit here, and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt, an everlasting, an irrevocable Covenant, Henceforth call I you not servants, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, have I made known unto you. And the fruition of this friendship, which neither slackens in all our life, nor ends at our death, the Lord of Life, for the death of his most innocent Son, afford to us all.

Amen.

A Serm. 25. Sermon Preached at the Spittle Upon Easter-Munday, 1662. Sermon XXV.

2 Cor. 4.6.

For, God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.

THe first Book of the Bible, begins with the beginning; In principio, says Moses, in Genesis; In the beginning God created heaven and earth: and can there be any thing prius principio, before the beginning? Before this beginning, there is. The last Book of the Bible, (in the order as they were written) the Gospel of St. John, begins with the same word too; In principio, says St. John; In the beginning was the Word: and here, Novissimum primum, the last beginning is the first; St. John's beginning, before Moses; Moses speaking but of the Creature, and St. John of the Creator; and of the Creator, before he took that name, before he came to the act of Creation; as, the Word was with God, and was God from all Eternity. Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings: of the first beginning, the Creation, when God commanded light to shine out of darkness; and of the other beginning, which is indeed the first, of Him, in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God, Christ Jesus.

The first Book of the Bible, is a Revelation, and so is the last, in the order as they stand, a Revelation too. To declare a production of all things out of nothing, (which is Moses his work;) that when I do not know, and care not whether I know or no, what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of, but yet would fain know what so vast, and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of; I care not for a mustard seed, but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of; I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth, but would be glad to know what the Heavens, and the glorious bodies in the Heavens, Sun, Moon and Stars are made of; I shall have but one answer from Moses for all, that all my Elephants, and Cedars, and the Heavens that I consider, were made of nothing; that a Cloud is as nobly born, as the Sun in the Heavens; and a begger, as nobly, as the King upon Earth; if we consider the great Grand-father of them all, to be nothing: to produce light of darkness thus, is a Revelation, a Manifestation of that, which, till then, was not: this Moses does. St. John's is a Revelation too: a Manifestation of that state, which shall be, and be for ever, after all those which were produced of nothing, shall be returned and ressolved to nothing again; the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Heaven. Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations: the first state, that which Moses reveals, was too dark for man to see; for it was nothing: The other, that which St. John reveals, is too bright, too dazling for man to look upon; for it is no one limited, determined Object, but all at once, glory, and the seat and fountain of all glory, the face of Christ Jesus.

The Holy Ghost hath showed us both these, severally in Moses, and in St. John, and both together in St. Paul, in this Text: where, as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens, and shews us both the Creatures that are below it, upon Earth, and the Creatures that are above it, the Stars in Heaven; so St. Paul, as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles, stands in the midst of this Text, (God hath shone in our hearts:) Ours, as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel; and he shows us the greatness of God, in the Creation which was before, when God commanded light out of darkness; and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter, when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus.

So that this Text, giving light, by which we see, light commanded by God out of darkness; and the Object which we are to see, the knowledge of the glory of God; and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ. And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumined, through which we may see it, God having shone in our hearts, established a Ministry of the Gospel: for that purpose, if you bring but eyes, to that which this Text brings, Light, and Object, and Distance, and Means, then, as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms, upon an impossible supposition, If all the other Books of Scripture could perish, there were enough in that one, for the catechising of all that did believe, and for the convincing of all that did not: so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish, this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity, from the Cradle of the world, in the Creation, when God commanded light out of darkness, to the Grave; and beyond the Grave of the world, to the last Dissolution; and beyond it, when we shall have fully, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus. Now, whilst I am to speak of all this, this, which is Omne scibile, all, and more then can fall within the comprehension of a natural man; for it is the beginning of this world, and it is the way to the next, and it is the next world it self, I comfort my self at my first setting out, with that of St. Gregory, Purgatas aures, & hominum gratiam nancisci, nonne Dei donum est? I take it for one of Gods great blessings to me, if he have given me now an Auditory, Purgatae auris, of such spiritual and circumcised Ears, as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words, which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect; much less such itching Ears, as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals, and Reproaches, cast upon the present State and Government. For, a man may make a Sermon, a Satyr; he may make a Prayer, a Libel, if upon color of preaching, or praying, against toleration of Religion, or persecution for Religion, he would insinuate, that any such tolerations are prepared for us, or such persecutions threatened against us. But if for speaking the mysteries of your salvation, plainly, sincerely, inelegantly, inartificially; for the Gold, and not for the Fashion; for the Matter, and not for the Form, Nanciscor populi gratiam, my service may be acceptable to Gods people, and available to their Edification; Nonne Dei donum, shall not I call this a great Blessing of God? Beloved, in him, I must; I do. And therefore, because I presume I speak to such, I take to my self, that which follows there, in the same Father, that he that speaks to such a people, does not his duty, if he consider not deliberately, Quibus, Quando, Quantum loquatur; both to whom, and at what time, and how much he is to speak. I consider the persons; and I consider that the greatest part, by much, are persons born since the Reformation of Religion, since the death of Idolatry in this Land; and therefore not naturalized by Conversion, by Transplantation from another Religion to this, but born the natural children of this Church; and therefore, to such persons, I need not lay hold upon any points of controverted Doctrine. I consider also Quando, the time; and I consider, that it is now, in these days of Easter, when the greatest part of this Auditory, have, or will renew their Hands to Christ Jesus in the Sacrament of his Body, and his Blood; that they will rather loose theirs, then lack his: and therefore towards persons, who have testified that disposition in that seal, I need not depart into any vehement, or passionate Exhortations to constancy and perseverance, as though there were occasion to doubt it. And I consider lastly, Quantum, how much is necessary to be spoken to such a people, so disposed; and therefore, farther then the custom, and solemnity of this day, and place, lays an Obligation upon me, I will not extend my self to an unnecessary length; especially, because that which shall be said by me, and by my Brethren which come after, and were worthy to come before me, in this place, is to be said to you again, by another, who alone, takes as much pains, as all we, and all you too: Hears all, with as much patience as all you; and is to speak of all, with as much, and more labor, then all we. Much therefore for your ease, somewhat for his, a little for mine own, with such succinctness and brevity, as may consist with clearness, and perspicuity, in such manner, and method, as may best enlighten your understandings, and least encumber your memories, I shall open unto you that light, which God commanded out of darkness, and that light by which he hath shone in our hearts; and this light, by which we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus.

Our parts therefore in these words, must necessarily be three; three Lights. The first, shows us our Creation; the second, our Vocation; the third, our Glorification. In the first, We, who were but, (but what?) but nothing, were made Creatures: In the second, we, who were but Gentiles, were made Christians: In the third, we, who were but men, shall be made saints. In the first, God took us, when there was no world: In the second, God sustains us, in an ill world: In the third, God shall crown us, in a glorious and joyful world. In the first, God made us; in the second, God mends us; in the third, God shall perfect us. First, God commanded light out of darkness, that man might see the Creature; then he shone in our hearts, that man might see himself; at last, he shall shine so in the face of Christ Jesus, that man may see God, and live; and live as long, as that God of light and life shall live himself. Every one of these Parts, will have divers Branches; and it is time to enter into them. In the first, the Creation, because this Text does not purposely and primarily deliver the Doctrine of the Creation, not prove it, not press it, not enforce it; but rather suppose it, and then propose it by way of Example and Comparison; (for when the Apostles says, God, who commanded light out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, he intimates therein, these two Propositions: first, that the same God that does the one, does the other too; God perfects his works; and then this Proposition also, As God hath done the one, he hath done the other: God himself works by Patterns, by Examples.) These two Propositions shall therefore be our two first Branches in this first Part. First, Idem Deus, the same God goes through his works; and therefore let us never fear that God will be weary: and then Sicut Deus, as God hath done, he will do again; he works by pattern, and so must we: and then from these two, we shall descend to our third Proposition, Quid Deus, what God is said to have done here; and it is, that he commanded light out of darkness. In these three, we shall determine this Part; and for the Branches of the other two Parts, our Vocation, and our Glorification, it will be a less burden to your memories, to open them then, when we come to handle the Parts themselves, then altogether now. Now we shall proceed in the Branches of the first Part.

In this, our first Consideration is, Idem Deus, the same our God goes through all. Those divers Heretics who thought there were two Gods, (for Cordon thought so, and Marcion thought so too; the Gnostiques thought so, and the Maniches thought so too) though they differed in their mistakings, (for error is always manifold, and multiform) yet all their errors were upon this ground, this root, They could nor comprehend that the same God should be the God of Justice, and the God of Mercy too; a God that had an earnestness to punish sin, and an easiness to pardon sin too. Cordon, who was first, though he made two Gods, yet he used them both reasonable well; for with him, Alter Bonus, Alter Justus; one of his Gods is perfectly good, merciful; and the other, though he be not so very good, yet he is just. Marcion, who came after, says worse; because he could not discern the good purposes of God in inflicting Judgements, nor the good use which good men make of his Corrections; but thought all acts of his Justice to be calamitous and intolerable, and naturally evil: therefore with him, Alter Bonus, Alter Malus; he that is the merciful God, is his good God; and he that is so just, but just, is an ill God. Hence they came to call the God of the New Testament, a good God, because there was Copiosa Redemptio, plentiful Redemption in the Gospel: and the God of the Old Testament, Malum Deum, an ill God, because they thought all penalties of the Law, evil. They came lower; to call that God, which created the Upper Region of man, the Brain, and the Heart, (the presence and privy Chamber of Reason, and consequently of Religion too) a good God, because good things are enacted there; and that God that created the Lower Region of man, the seat and scene of Carnal Desires, and inordinate Affections, an ill God, because ill actions are perpetrated there. But Idem Deus, the same God that commanded light out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts: The God of the Law, and the God of the Gospel too; The God of the Brain, and the God of the Belly too; The God of Mercy, and the God of Justice too, is all one God.

In all the Scriptures, you shall scarce find such a Demonstration of Gods Indignation, such a severe Execution, as that upon the Syrians; when, after the slaughter of one hundred thousand foot in the field in one day, the walls of the City, into which they fled, fell, and slew twenty seven thousand more. The Armies of the Israelites were that day, but as little flocks of kids, says the Text there; and yet those few, slew one hundred thousand. The Walls of Aphak promised succor; and yet they fell, and slew twenty seven thousand. Now from whence proceeded Gods vehement anger in this defeat? The Prophet tells the King the cause; Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the vallies. The Israelites had beaten them upon the Hills, and they could not attribute this to their Forces, for they were very small; they must necessarily ascribe it to their God; but they thought they might find a way to be too hard for their God: and therefore, since he was a God of the mountains, they would fight with him in the vallies. But the God of Israel is Idem Deus, one and the same God. He is Jugatinus and Vallonia both, as St. Aug. speaks out of the Roman Authors: he is God of the mountains, he can exalt; and he is God of the Vallies, he can throw down. Our Age hath produced such Syrians, too; Men, who, after God hath declared himself against them many ways, have yet thought they might get an advantage upon him some other way. They begun in Rebellions; animated persons of great blood, and great place, to rebels their Rebellions God frustrated. Then they came to say, (to say in actions) Their God is God of Rebellions, a God that resists Rebellions; but he is no God of Excommunications: then they excommunicated us. But our God cast those thunder-bolts, those Bruta fulmina, into the Sea, no man took fire at them. Then they said, He is a God of Excommunications, he will not suffer an Excommunication stollen out in his Name, against his Children, to do any harm; but he is no God of Invasion, let's try him there: Then they procured Invasion; and there the God of Israel showed himself the Lord of Hosts, and scattered them there. Then they said, he is the God of Invasions, annihilates them; but he is not the God of Supplantations; surely their God will not pry into a Cellar, he will not peep into a vault; he is the God of water, but he is not the God of fire; let's try him in that Element; and in that Element, they saw one another justly eviscorated, and their bowels burnt. All this they have said, so as we have heard them; for they have said it in loud Actions, and still they say something in corners, which we do not hear. Either he is not a God of Equivocations, and therefore let us be lying spirits in the mouths of some of his Prophets, draw some men that are in great Opinion of Learning, to our side, or at least draw the people into an Opinion that we have drawn them; or else, he is not the God of jealousy and suspicion, and therefore let us supple and slumber him with security, and pretences and disguises. But he is Idem Deus; that God who hath begun, and proceeded, will persevere in mercy towards us. Our God is not out of breath, because he hath blown one tempest, and swallowed a Navy: Our God hath not burnt out his eyes, because he hath looked upon a Train of Powder: In the the light of Heaven, and in the darkness of hell, he sees alike; he sees not only all Machinations of hands, when things come to action; but all Imaginations of hearts, when they are in their first Consultations: past, and present, and future, distinguish not his Quando; all is one time to him: Mountains and Vallies, Sea and Land, distinguish not his Ubi; all is one place to him: When I begin, says God to Eli, I will make an end; not only that all Gods purposes shall have their certain end, but that even then, when he begins, he makes an end: from the very beginning, imprints an infallible assurance, that whom he loves, he loves to the end: as a Circle is printed all at once, so his beginning and ending is all one.

Make thou also the same interpretation of this Idem Deus, in all the Vicissitudes and Changes of this World. Hath God brought thee from an Exposititious Child laid out in the streets, of uncertain name, of unknown Parents, to become the first foundation-stone of a great family, and to enoble a posterity? Hath God brought thee from a Carriers Pack, upon which thou camest up, to thy change of Foot-Clothes, and Coaches? Hath God brought thee from one of these Blew-Coats, to one of those Scarlet Gowns? Attribute not this to thine own Industry, nor to thine own Frugality; (for, Industry is but Fortunes right hand, and Frugality her left;) but come to Davids Acclamation, Dominus Fecit, It is the Lords doing: That takes away the impossibility: If the Lord will do it, it may be, it must be done; but yet even that takes not away the wonder; for, as it follows there, Domiminus fecit, & est Mirabile, though the Lord have done it, it is wonderful in our eyes, to see whom, and from whence, and whither, and how God does raise, and exalt some men. And then if God be pleased to make thee a Roll written on both sides, a History of Adversity, as well as of Prosperity: if when he hath filled his Tables, with the story of Mardoche, a man strangely raised, he takes his Spunge, and wipes out all that, and writes down in thee, the story of Job, a man strangely ruined, all this is Idem Deus, still the same God, and the same purpose in that God, still to bring thee nearer to him, though by a lower way. If then thou abound, come not to say with the over-secure man, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up, for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry: and if thou want, come not to that impatience of that Prophet, Satis est, Lord, this is enough, now take away my life: Nay, though the Lord lead thee into temptation, and do not deliver thee from Egypt, but let thee fall into a sin, though he let thee fall so far, as to doubt of his mercy for that sin, yet Idem Deus, all this while, all this is the same God; and even that voice, though it have an account of despair in it, is the voice of God; and though it be spoken in the mouth of the Devil, it is God that speaks it; for even then, when the Devil possesses man, God possesses the Devil. God can make his profit, and thine, of thy sin: he can make the horror of a sin committed, the occasion of thy repentance, and his mercy: for, Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it? God is no disposer to sin, but he is the disposer of sin: God is not Lord of sin, as Author of sin; but he is the Lord of sin, as Steward of it: and he dispenses not only for our sins, but the sins themselves. God imprints not that obliquity, infuses not that venom that is in our sinful Actions, but God can extract good out of bad, and Cordials out of Poison. Be not thou therefore too nimble a Sophister, nor too pressing an Advocate against thine own soul: conclude not too soon, that God hath forsaken thee, because he hath let thee fall, and let thee lie some time, in some sin: you know who did so, and yet was a man according to Gods own heart; for God hath set his heart upon that way, to glorify himself out of Davids repentance, rather then out of his innocence. In the Hills, and in the Vallies too; in spiritual, as well as in temporal prosperity and adversity too; in the Old, and in the New Testament; in the ways of mercy, and of justice too, thou mayst find the same God, who is in every change Idem Deus; God, that is, the same God, who commanded light out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts: And so we have done with the first Proposition.

The next is, Sicut Deus; As God hath done the one, so he hath the other. God brings himself into comparison with himself: Our unworthiness changes not his nature: His mercy is new every morning; and, his mercy endureth for ever. One generation is a precedent to another, and God is his own Example; whatsoever he hath done for us, he is ready to do again. When he had once written the Law in stone-tables, for the direction of his people, and that Moses in an over-vehement zeal and distemper, had broke those Tables, God turned to his precedent, remembered what he had done, and does so again; he writes that Law again in new Tables. When God had given us the light of the Reformation for a few years of a young King, and that after him, in the time of a pious truly, but credulous Princess, a Cloud of blood over-shadowed us in a heavy persecution, yet God turned to his precedent, to the example of his former mercy, and in mercy re-established that light, which shines yet amongst us; and (if the sins of the people extinguish it not) shall shine as long as the Sun and Moon shall shine above. The Lords hand is not shortened, nor weakened in the ways of justice; and his justice hath a Sicut, a precedent, an Example too. There is Sicut Kore, If we sin as Kore and his Complices sinned, as Kore and his Complices, we shall perish. There is an Anathema Sicut illud, Thou shalt not bring an abomination into thy house, (not an Idolator into thy house) lest thou be an accursed thing, Sicut illud, as guilty in the eye of God, as the Idolator himself. There is Sicut Midian; God can do unto the men of these times, as he did unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, which perished, and became as the Dung of the earth. He can make their Nobles Sicut Oreb, Sicut Zeeb, like unto Oreb, like unto Zeeb, and all their Princes Sicut Zebah, Sicut Salmana. There are precedents of his justice too. But yet in the greatest act of his justice that ever he did, which was the general drowning of the whole world, though that history remain as an everlasting Demonstration of his power, and of his justice, yet he would not have it remain as a precedent; but he records that, with that protestation, I will no more curse the earth, nor smite any more, every living thing, as I have done: though I have showed that I can do it, and have done it, I will do it no more. God forbears, and ways his own example in matter of justice; but God never showed any mercy, but he desires that that mercy may be recorded, and produced, and pleaded to our Conscience, to the whole Congregation, to God himself, as a leading and a binding case, as he commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shone in our hearts.

God proceeds by example, by pattern: Even in this first great act presented in our Text, in the Creation he did so. God had no external pattern in the Creation, for there was nothing extant; but God had from all Eternity an internal pattern, an Idaea, a pre-conception, a form in himself, according to which he produced every Creature. And when God himself proceeds upon pre-conceptions, pre-meditations, shall we adventure to do, or to say any thing in his service unpremeditately, extemporally? It is not Gods way. Now, it is a penurious thing, to have but one Candle in a room: it is too dim a light to work by, to live by, to have but Rule and Precept alone; Rule and Example together, direct us fully. Who shall be our Example? Idaea novi hominis Christus Jesus. If thou wilt be a new Creature, (and, Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision nothing, but only to be a new Creature) then Christ is thy Idaea, thy Pattern, thine Original: for, Quid in eo non Novum? what was there in him that was not new? When was there such a Conception, of the Holy Ghost? such a birth, of a Virgin? such a pregnancy to dispute so, so young, with such men? When such a death as God to die? when such a life, as a dead man to raise himself again? Quid in eo non Novum? To be produced by this Idaea, built up by this Model, copied by this Original, is truly, is only to be a new Creature. But that thou mayst put thy self into the way to this, it is usefully said, Enim vero, certum vitae genus sibi constituere; Certainly to undertake a certain Profession, a Calling in this world, and to propose to our selves the Example of some good, and godly man in that Calling, whose steps we will walk in, and whom we will make our precedent, Tanti Momenti esse duco, says that Father, is a matter of so great importance, as that upon that (says he) lies the building of our whole life. That little Philosopher Epictetus, could give us that Rule; Whensoever thou enter prisest, any action, says he, consider what Socrates, what Plato, (that is, what a wise and religious man) would have done in that case, and do thou so. This way our Savior directs us; I have given you an example: It is not only Mandatum novum, but exemplum Novum, That ye should do, even as I have done unto you. And this is the way that the Apostle directs us to, Brethren, be followers of me: and because he could not be always with them, he adds, Look on them which walk so, as you have us for an example. Love the Legends, the Lives, the Actions, and love the sayings, the Apopththegms of good men. In all temptations like Josephs temptations, love Josephs words, How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? In all temptations like Jobs temptations, love the words of Job, Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all temptations like to Shidrachs and his fellow-Confessors, love their words, Our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us: but if not, we will not serve thy god, nor worship thine image. Certainly, without the practise, it is scarce to be discerned, what ease and what profit there is, in proposing certain and good Examples to our selves. And when you have made up your profit that way, rectified your self by that course, then, as your Sons write by Copies, and your Daughters work by Samplars, be every Father a Copy to his Son, every Mother a Samplar to her Daughter, and every house will be an University. O in how blessed a nearness to their Direction, is that Child, and that Servant, and that Parishioner, who, when they shall say to Almighty God, by way of Prayer, What shall I do, to get eternal life? shall hear God answer to them by his Spirit, Do but as thou seest thy Father do, do as thou seest thy Master do, do as thou seest thy Pastor do! To become a precedent, govern thy self by precedent first; which is all the Doctrine that I intended to deduce out of this second Proposition, Sicut Deus, As God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shone in our hearts: God did as he had done before: and so we pass from the Idem Deus, and the Sicut Deus, to the Quid Deus, What that is which God hath done here, He commanded light out of darkness.

The drowning of the first world, and the repairing that again; the burning of this world, and establishing another in heaven, do not so much strain a mans Reason, as the Creation, a Creation of all out of nothing. For, for the repairing of the world after the Flood, compared to the Creation, it was eight to nothing; eight persons to begin a world upon, then; but in the Creation, none. And for the glory which we receive in the next world, it is (in some sort) as the stamping of a print upon a Coyn; the metal is there already, a body and a soul to receive glory: but at the Creation, there was no soul to receive glory, no body to receive a soul, no stuff, no matter, to make a body of. The less any thing is, the less we know it: how invisible, how intelligible a thing then, is this Nothing! We say in the School, Deus cognoscibilior Angelis, We have better means to know the nature of God, then of Angels, because God hath appeared and manifested himself more in actions, then Angels have done: we know what they are, by knowing what they have done; and it is very little that is related to us what Angels have done: what then is there that can bring this Nothing to our understanding? what hath that done? A Leviathan, a Whale, from a grain of Spawn; an Oke from a buried Akehorn, is a great; but a great world from nothing, is a strange improvement. We wonder to see a man rise from nothing to a great Estate; but that Nothing is but nothing in comparison; but absolutely nothing, merely nothing, is more incomprehensible then any thing, then all things together. It is a state (if a man may call it a state) that the Devil himself in the midst of his torments, cannot wish. No man can, the Devil himself cannot, advisedly, deliberately, wish himself to be nothing. It is truly and safely said in the School, That whatsoever can be the subject of a wish, if I can desire it, wish it, it must necessarily be better (at least in my opinion) then that which I have; and whatsoever is better, is not nothing; whithout doubt it must necessarily produce more thankfulness in me, towards God, that I am a Christian; but certainly more wonder that I am a Creature: it is vehemently spoken, but yet needs no excuse, which Justin Marter says, Ne ipsi quidem Domino fidem haberem, &c. I should scarce believe God himself, if he should tell me, that any but himself created this world of nothing; so infallible, and so inseparable a work, and so distinctive a Character is it of the Godhead, to produce any thing from nothing; and that God did when he commanded light out of darkness.

Moses stands not long upon the Creation, in the description thereof; no more will we: When there went but a word to the making it self, why should we make many words in the description thereof? We will therefore only declare the three terms in this Proposition, and so proceed; first, God commanded, then he commanded light, and light out of darkness.

For the first, that which we translate here commanded, is in St. Pauls mouth, the same that is Moses, Dixit, and no more; God said it. But then if he said it, Cui dixit? to whom did he say it? Procopius asks the Question; and he answers himself, Dixit Angelis, He said it to the Angels. For Procopius being of that opinion, which very many were of besides himself, that God had made the Angels some time before he came to the Creation of particular Creatures, he thinks that when he came to that, he called the Angels, that they, by seeing of what all other Creatures were made, might know also of what stuff; themselves were made, of the common and general nothing. Some others had said, that God said this to the Creature it self, which was now in fieri, (as we say in the School) in the production, ready to be brought forth. But then, says Athanasius, God would have said Sis Lux, and not Sit Lux: He would have said, Be thou, O Light, or appear and come forth, O Light, and not Let there be Light. But what needs all this vexation in Procopius, or Athanasius? When as Dicere Dei est intelligere ejus practicum: when God would produce his Idaea, his pre-conception into action, that action, that production was his Dixit, his saying. It is, as we say in School, Actus indicativus practici intellectus; Gods outward Declaration of an inward purpose by execution of that purpose, that his Dixit, his saying. It is sufficiently expressed by Rab: Moses, In Creation Dicta sunt voluntates; In the act of Creation, the Will of GOD, was the Word of God; his Will that it should be, was his saying, Let it be. Of which it is a convenient example which is in the Prophet Jonah, The Lord spake unto the Fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry Land; that is, God would have the Fish to do it, and it did it. God spake then in the Creation, but he spake Ineffabiliter, says St. Aug. without uttering any sound. He spake, but he spake Intemporaliter, says that Father too, without spending any time in distinction of syllables. But yet when he spoke, Aliquis ad fuit, as Athanasius presses it; surely there was some body with him; there was, says he. Who? Verbum ejus ad fuit, & ad fuit Spiritus ejus, says he, truly, the second Person in the Trinity, his Eternal Word; and the third Person, the Holy Ghost, were both there at the Creation, and to them he spoke. For, By the Word of the Lord were the heavens framed, and all the host of them; Spiritu oris ejus, by that Spirit that proceeded from him, says David. The Spirit of God hath made me; and, By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens. So that, in one word, thou, who wast nothing, hast employed and set on work, the heart and hand of all the three Persons, in the blessed and glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to the making of thee; and then what oughtest thou to be, and to do in retribution? and not to make thee, that which thou art now, a Christian, but even to make thee that, wherein wast equal to a worm, to a grain of dust. Hast thou put the whole Trinity to busy themselves upon thee? and therefore what shouldst thou be towards them? But here, in this branch, we consider not so much; not his noblest Creature, Man, but his first Creature, Light: He commanded, and he commanded Light.

And of Light, we say no more in this place, but this; that in all the Scriptures, in which the word Light is very often metaphorically applied, it is never applied in an ill sence. Christ is called a Lyon; but there is an ill Lyon too, that seeks whom he may devour. Christ is the serpent that was exalted; but there is an ill serpent, that did devour us all at once. But Christ is the light of the world, and no ill thing is called light. Light was Gods signature, by which he set his hand to the Creation: and therefore, as Princes sign above the Letter, and not below, God made light first; in that first Creature he declared his presence, his Majesty; the more, in that he commanded light out of darkness.

There was Lumen de Lumine before; light of light, very God of very God; an eternal Son of an eternal Father, before: But light out of darkness, is Music out of silence. It was one distinct plague of Egypt, darkness above; and one distinct blessing, that the children of Israel had, light in their dwellings. But for some spiritual Applications of light and darkness, we shall have room again; when, after we shall have spoken of our second part, our Vocation; as God hath shone in our hearts, positively, we shall come to speak of that shining comparatively, That God hath so shone in our hearts, as he commanded light out of darkness. And to those two Branches of our second part, the positive and comparative Consideration of that shining, we are in order, come now. In the first part, we were made; in this second, we are mended: in the first, we were brought into this world; in this second, we are led through it: in the first, we are Creatures; in this, we are Christians. God hath shone in our hearts. In this part, we shall have two Branches; a positive, and a comparative consideration of the words: First, the matter it self, what this shining is; and it is the conversion of Man to God, by the ministry of the Gospel; and secondly, how this manner of expressing it, answers the comparison, As God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shone in our hearts. And in the first, the positive, we shall pass by these few and short steps: first, Gods action, Illuxit, he shine; it is evidence, Manifestation: And then, the time, when this day breaks, when this Sun rises. Illuxit, he hath shone, he hath done enough already. Thirdly, the place, the sphere in which he shines, the Orb which he hath illumined, in Cordibus: if he shine, he shines in the heart. And lastly, the persons, upon whom he casts his beams, in Cordibus nostris, in our hearts. And having past these four in the positive part, we shall descend to the comparative; as God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shone in our hearts.

First then, for Gods action, his working in the Christian Church, which is our Vocation, we consider man to be all, to be all Creatures; according to that expression of our Savior's, Go, preach the Gospel to every Creature; and agreeable to that largeness in which he received it, the Apostle delivers it, The Gospel is preached to every Creature under heaven: The properties, the qualities of every Creature, are in man; the Essence, the Existence of every Creature is for man; so man is every Creature. And therefore the Philosopher draws man into too narrow a table, when he says he is Microcosmos, an Abridgement of the world in little: Nazianzen gives him but his due, when he calls him Mundum Magnum, a world to which all the rest of the world is but subordinate: For all the world besides, is but Gods Foot-stool; Man sits down upon his right hand: and howsoever God be in all the world, yet how did God dwell in man, in the assumption of that nature? and what care did GOD take of that dwelling, that when that house was demolished, would yet dwell in the ruins thereof? for the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus in the Grave. And then how much more gloriously then before, did he re-edify that house, in raising it again to Glory? Man therefore is Cura Divini ingenii, a creature upon whom, not only the greatness, and the goodness, but even the study and diligence of God is employed. And being thus a greater world then the other, he must be greater in all his parts, and so in his lights; and so he is: for, instead of this light, which the world had at first, Man hath a nobler light, an immortal, a discerning soul, the light of reason. Instead of the many stars, which this world hath, man hath had the light of the Law, and the succession of the Prophets: And instead of that Sun, which this world had, a Son from God; man hath had the Son of God; God hath spoken to us by his Son; God hath shone upon us in his Son. The whole work of Almighty God, in the Conversion of man, is many times expressed by this act of shining; an effectual, a powerful shining. The infusion of the Holy Ghost into the Apostles at Pentecost, was with fire: The light which shone upon St. Paul, going to Damascus, struck him to the ground. And in both those cases, there were tongues too. The Apostles fire, was fiery tongues, and St. Pauls light, was accompanied with a voice; for then does God truly shine to us, when he appears to our eyes and to our ears, when by visible and audible means, by Sacraments which we see, and by the Word which we he hear, he conveys himself unto us. In Pauls case, there were some that saw the light, but heard not the voice: God hath joined them, seperate them not: Upon him that will come to hear, and will not come to see; will come to the Sermon, but not to the Sacrament; or that will come to see, but will not come to hear; will keep his solemn, and festival, and Anniversary times of receiving the Sacrament, but never care for being instructed in the duties appertaining to that high Mystery, God hath not shone. They are a powerful thunder, and lightning, that go together: Preaching is the thunder, that clears the air, disperses all clouds of ignorance; and then the Sacrament is the lightning, the glorious light, and presence of Christ Jesus himself. And in the having and loving of these, the Word and Sacraments, the outward means of salvation, ordained by God in his Church, consists this Irradiation, this Cotuscation, this shining. And we have done with that.

The next is the time, Illuxit, he hath shone already; and Illuxit Mundo, he hath shone; that is, manifested himself sufficiently to the whole world. Illuxit Nobis, he hath done it fully to this Nation; and Illuxit Vobis, he hath shone sufficiently upon every one of you. First, upon the whole world; for, though at first he shone only upon the Jews, and left all the world beside in darkness, and in the shadow of death; and even to the Jews themselves, he shone but as a light in a dark place; the Temple it self was but a dark room in respect of the Christian Church; yet, as soon as Christ had established that, illumined that, inanimated that, given it breath in his Word, the written Scriptures, and given it motion, and action in the preaching of that Word. and Administration of the Sacraments, when this was done, immediately there was Meridies, a full noon; the light was at the highest, the Sun was at the Tropique, it could go no further; no fundamental thing can be added by man to this light by which the Son of God hath shone in his Church. To set up Candles to Images, is a weakness in them that do it; but to set up Candles to God, is a presumption; that God cannot or hath not shone out sufficiently upon his Church, in his Institutions, but that they must supply him with the traditions and additions of men. Lex Lux, says David, The Law of God, the Scripture, is a light, it is the light, it is all light; and therefore they who would take away this light, not suffer men to read the Scriptures; or if they will not snuff this light, not mend the Barbarisms, the Errors, the Contradictions which are in their Translation, and let it shine according to the Original Truth, this is a shutting of their eyes against this Illuxit: For, God hath showed enough, and said enough, and done enough, and suffered enough, for the salvation of his Church; he hath shone out upon all, and needs no supply of lesser lights.

So he hath shone upon all; and Illuxit Nobis, he hath shone abundantly upon this Nation. He shone upon us betimes; this day sprung, this Sun rose in the East; in the East, Christ lived and preached in person; but in his Beams, his Messengers, he shone quickly into the West too. And when he did so, he did not so shine upon the West, upon Rome, as that that light was cast upon us, as by reflection from a glass, from the walls of Rome: but we had it, as they had it, by persons ordained by God, to convey it over the world. I dispute not too earnestly, I determine not too vehemently any matter of fact in this point. I confess ingeniously, we had many Assistances from Rome; but truly, she hath been even with us since: and, Computatis Computandis, I think she may be content to give us an Acquittance. God shone upon this Island early; early in the plantation of the Gospel, (for we had not our seed-Corn from Rome, howsoever we may have had some waterings from thence) and early in the Reformation of the Church: for we had not the model of any other Foreign Church for our pattern; we stript not the Church into a nakedness, nor into rags; we divested her not of her possessions, nor of her Ceremonies, but received such a Reformation at home, by their hands whom God enlightened, as left her neither in a Dropsy, nor in a Consumption; neither in a superfluous and cumbersome fatness, nor in an uncomely and faint leanness and attenuation: Early in the Plantation, early in the Reformation, Illuxit Nobis, and we have light enough, without either seeing other light from Rome, or more of this light from other places. God continue to us the light of this Reformation, without re-admitting any old Clouds, any old Clouts, and we shall not need any such re-Reformation, or super-Reformation, as swimming Brains will needs cross the Seas for. The Word of God is not above thee, says Moses, nor beyond the Sea. We need not clime up seven hills, nor wash our selves seven times in a Lake for it: God make the practise of our lives agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church; and all the world shall see that we have light enough.

Illuxit Mundo, Illuxit Nobis, and Vobis too; God hath also shone sufficiently upon every of you, that hear this, already: upon the greatest part of you in both, upon all in one of his Sacraments. God hath been content to talk with you in your infancy, as Parents with their children, before they can speak plain, in his Language of Catechisms; and since you came to better strength, in his stronger Language of Preaching. He hath admitted you to him in your private prayers, and come to you in your private readings of his Word. He hath opened your Ears to him, and his to hear you in the public Congregation: and as he that waters his Garden, pours in water into that Vessel at one place, and pours it out again at an hundred; God, who as he hath walled this Island with a wall of water, the Sea; so he waters this Garden with the waters of Paradise: the Word of Life hath poured in this water, into that great, and Royal Vessel, the Understanding, and the love of his truth, into the large and religious heart of our Sovereign, and he pours it out in 100, in 1000 spouts, in a more plentiful preaching thereof, then ever your Fathers had it; in both the ways of plenty; plentiful in the frequency, plentiful in the learned manner of preaching. Illuxit, he hath shone upon you before you were born, in the Covenant, in making you the Children of the seed of Abraham, of Christian Parents. Illuxit, he hath shone upon you ever since you could hear and see, had any exercise of natural and supernatural faculties; and Illuxit, by his grace, who sends treasure in earthen vessels, he hath shone upon some of you, since you came hither now. Consider only now, after all this shining, that a Candle is as soon blown out, at an open door, or an open window, as in the open street. If you open a door to a Supplanter, an Underminer, a Whisperer against your Religion; if there be a broken window, a woman loaden with sin, as the Apostle speaks, and thereby dejected into an inordinate melancholy, (for such a melancholy as make Witches, makes Papists too) if she be thereby as apt to change Religions now, as Loves before, and as weary of this God, as of that man; if there be such a door, such a window, a wife, a child, a friend, a sojourner bending that way, this light that hath shone upon thee, may as absolutely go out, in thy house, and in thy heart, as if it were put out in the whole Kingdom. Leave the public to him whose care the public is; and who, no doubt, prepares a good account to him, to whom only he is accountable. Look then to thine own heart, and thine own house; for that's thy charge. And so we have done with the action, shining, evidence; and with the time, Illuxit, there is enough done already; and we come to the place, in Corde; if God shine, he shines in the heart.

Fecit Deus Coelum & terram, Non lego quod requieverit, says that Father; God made heaven and earth, but I do not read that he tested, when he had done that: Fecit Solem & Lunam, (as he pursues that Meditation;) He made the Sun and Moon, and all the host of heaven, but yet he rested not: Fecit hominem, & Requievit; When God had made man, then he rested: for, when God had made man, he had made his bed, the heart of man, to rest in. God asks nothing of man, but his heart; and nothing, but man, can give the heart to God. And therefore in that sacrifice of Noah after the flood, and often in the Scriptures elsewhere, sacrifice is called Odor quietis, God smelt a savor of rest: in that which proceeds from a religious heart, God rests himself, and is well pleased. Loqui ad Cor Jerusalem, to speak to the heart of Jerusalem, is ever the Scripture phrase, from God to man, to speak comfortably; and loqui de Corde, to speak from the heart, is an Emphatical phrase, from man to God too. He that speaks from his own heart, speaks to Gods heart. Did not our hearts burn within us, while he opened the Scriptures? say those two Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus. And if your hearts do not so all this while, you hear but me; (and, alas! who, or what am I?) you hear not God. But let this light, the love of the ordinary means of your salvation, enter into your hearts, and shine there; and then, as the fire in your Chymney grows pale, and faints, and out of countenance when the Sun shines upon it; so whatsoever fires of lust, of anger, of ambition, possessed that heart before, it will yeild to this, and evaporate. But why do I speak all this to others? Is it so clear a case, that the hearts in this Text, are the hearts of others; of them that hear, and not of our selves that speak? That we are to see now; for that's the next, and last Branch in this part, who be the persons: in Cordibus nostris, in our hearts.

Certainly this word Nostris, primarily, most literally, most directly, concerns us; Us, the Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments. If we take Gods Word into our mouths, and pretend a Commission, a Calling, for the calling of others, we must be sure that God hath shone in our hearts. There is vocatio intentionalis, an intentional Calling, when Parents, in their intention and purpose, dedicates their children to this service of God, the Ministry, even in their Cradle. And this is a good and holy intention, because though it bind not in the nature of a Vow, yet it makes them all the way more careful, to give them such an Education, as may fit them for that profession. And then there is Vocatio Virtualis, when having assented to that purpose of my Parents, I receive that public Seal, the Imposition of hands, in the Church of God: but it is Vocatio radicalis, the calling that is the root and foundation of all, that we have this light shining in our hearts, the testimony of Gods Spirit to our spirit, that we have this calling from above. First then, it must be a light; not a calling taken out of the darkness of melancholy, or darkness of discontent, or darkness of want and poverty, or darkness of a retired life, to avoid the mutual duties and offices of society: it must be a light, and a light that shines; it is not enough to have knowledge and learning; it must shine out, and appear in preaching; and it must shine in our hearts, in the private testimony of the Spirit there: but when it hath so shone there, it must not go out there, but shine still as a Candle in a Candlestick, or the Sun in his sphere; shine so, as it give light to others: so that this light doth not shine in our hearts, except it appear in the tongue, and in the hand too: First, in the tounge, to preach opportune, and importune; in season and out of season; that is, opportune Volentibus, importune Nolentibus: preaching is in season to them who are willing to hear; but though they be not, though they had rather the Laws would permit them to be absent, or that preaching were given over; yet I must preach. And in that sense, I may use the words of the Apostle, As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to them also that are at Rome: at Rome in their hearts; at Rome, that is, of Rome, reconciled to Rome. I would preach to them, if they would have me, if they would hear me; and that were opportune, in season. But though we preach importune, out of season to their ends, and their purposes, yet we must preach, though they would not have it done: for we are debters to all, because all are our Neighbours. Proximus tuus est antequam Christianus est: A man is thy Neighbor, by his Humanity, not by his Divinity; by his Nature, not by his Religion: a Virginian is thy Neighbor, as well as a Londoner; and all men are in every good mans Diocess, and Parish. Irrides odorantem lapides, says that Father; Thou seest a man worship an Image, and thou laughest him to scorn; assist him, direct him if thou canst, but scorn him not: Ignoras quomodo illum praesciverit Deus; thou knowest not Gods purpose, nor the way of Gods purpose upon that man; his way may be to convert that man by thee, and to bring that man to serve him? Religio tuis fortasse, quam tu qui irridebas; perchance more sincerely then thou; not only when thou didst laugh at him, but even when thou didst preach to him. For brass, I will bring gold, says God in Isaiah; and for iron, silver. God can work in all metals, and transmute all metals: he can make a Moral Man, a Christian; and a Superstitious Christian, a sincere Christian; a Papist, a Protestant; and a dissolute Protestant, a holy man, by thy preaching. And therefore let this light shine in our hearts, in the testimony of a good Conscience, in having accepted this Calling, but also shine in our tongues, preach. Though the Disease of St. Chrysostomes times, should overtake ours, Qui quantum placuit tantum principibus displicuit; The more good he did by preaching, the more some great persons were displeased with him; yet all this were but St. Paul's importune, a little out of season: but out of season we must preach. How much more now, now, when, as the Apostle says of God, we may say of Gods Lieutenant, In whom there is no change, nor shadow of change, no approach towards a change, no occasion of jealousy of it? How much were we inexcuseable, if either out of fullness of fortunes, or emptiness of learning; if either out of state, or business, or laziness, or pretence of fear, where no fear is, we should smother this light, which if it have truly shone in our hearts, will shine in our tongues too?

It must shine there, and it must shine in our hands also, in our actions, in the example of our life. Christ says to his Apostles, Vos estis Lux, You are light: there they were illumined': but to what use? It follows, That men may see your good works: For, as St. Ambrose says of the Creation, Frustra fecisset Lucem, God had made light to no purpose, if he had not made Creatures to show by that light: so we have the light of Learning, and the light of other abilities to no purpose, if we have no good works to show, when we have drawn mens eyes upon us. Upon those words of Solomons, Tempus tacendi, tempus loquendi, St. Gregory makes this note, That Solomon does not say first, There is a time of speaking, and a time of silence, that when a man hath taken that calling, that binds him to speak, then he might prevaricate in a treacherous silence: but first there is a time of silence, of study, of preparation, how to speak, and then speak on in Gods Name. But howsoever there may be tempus tacendi, some time wherein we may be silent; yet there is not tempus peccandi; no circumstance of time, no circumstance at all can excuse an ill life in an ill man, less in a leading and exemplar man, least of all in a Church-man. To that which is vulgarly said, Loquere ut te vidiam; speak that I may see thee; I do not see thee, not see what is in thee, except I hear thee preach: Let me add more, Age ut te audiam, do something that I may hear thee: I do not hear thee, not hear thee to believe thee, except I hear of thee in a good testimony of thy conversation. I hope our times, and our callings is far enough from that suspicion of St. Ambrose, Ne sit nomen inane, crimen immane in Sacerdotibus: God forbid the name of Priest should privilege any man otherwise obnoxious from just censure. He were a stranee Master of faculties to himself, that would give himself a Dispensation so; this were truly to incur a Premunire in the highest Kingdom, to forfeit all everlastingly; to appeal from our conversation, to our profession; to make a holy profession the Cloak, nay, the reason of unholy actions. But I speak not now of enormous ill, but of omissions of good, and of too easy venturing upon things, in their own nature indifferent: For, as for our words, St. Bernard says well, Nugae in ore laici sunt Nugae, in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae; Idle words, are but idle words in a secular mans mouth; but in a Churchmans mouth, they are blasphemies. So for our actions; it may become us, it may concern us to abstain from some indifferent things, which other men without any scandal may do.

Vehementer destruit Ecclaesiam Dei, laicos esse meliores Clericis: Nothing shakes the Church more, then when Church-men are no better then other men are. Where we read in Genesis, Vox sanguinis, The voice of Abel's blood calls; it is in the Original, Vox sanguinum, of bloods, in the plural; many bloods, much blood: the blood of a whole Parish, of a whole Province, cries out against the life of such a man: for his Sermons are but his Texts; his life is his Sermon that preaches; Aaron and Moses were joined in Commission; Aaron had the tongue, the power of speaking; Moses had the Rod, the power of doing great works. When the Lystrians called Paul, Mercury, for his Eloquence, they called his Companion Barnabas, Jupiter; their eye was upon their great work, as well as their sweet words. Clearly and ingenuously, we, we the Ministers of the Gospel, acknowledge our selves to be principally intended by the Apostle in this Text; this light, that is the knowledge, and the love of Gods truth, must shine in our hearts, sincerely there; and in our tongues, assidiously there; and in our hands, evidently there; and so we are the persons; but yet not we alone, though the Apostle express it in that phrase, in Cordibus nostris.

When this Apostle speaks of Hereditas nostra, our inheritance; and Pax nostra, our peace; and Sps nostra, our hope, as he does to the Ephesians, and often elsewhere, he does not so appropriate Christ, of whom he says all that, to himself, as that they to whom he writes, should not have an inheritance, and a peace, and a hope in Christ, as well as he, or any Apostle. So when he says here in Cordibus nostris, in our hearts, he intends that the Colossians, that people to whom he writes, (and he writes to all) should have that light in their hearts, and consequently in their tongues and hands too; in words and actions, as well as men of the Church. It is not only to Priests that St. Peter said, God had made them a Royal Priesthood; not only of Priests that St. John said, God hath made us Kings and Priests. There is not so Regal, so Sovereign, so Monarchical a Prerogative, as to have Animum Deosubditum, Corporis sui Rectorem; That man who hath a soul in subjection to God, and in dominion over his own body, that man is a King. And then there is not so holy, so Priestly an Office, as Pietatis hostias de altari Cordis offerre. That man who from the Altar of a pure heart, offers sacrifices of prayer and praise to God, that man is a Priest: so all you are or may be Kings; and all Priests. Nay, St. Chrysost. appropriates this rather to you, then to us; not to us at all; for he read this very Text, in Cordibus vestris, in your hearts. Since then to this intendment you are Priests, as we are; since altogether make up Clerum Domini, the Lords Clergy, and his portion, do not you make us to be all of the inferior Ministry, and all you selves to be Bishops over us, to visit us, judge us, syndicate us, and leave out your selves: Plus Sacerdotum vitam quam suum discutientes, as St. G. complains; that bestow more time in examining the lives of their Pastors, then their own. Quid tibi Malus Minister, ubi bonus Dominus, says Aquinas upon this: As long as thou art sure, that the Master of the house will receive thee kindly, what carest thou though a surly Fellow let thee in at door? Sacramenta ab sunt indigne tractantibus, says that Father: An hypocritical preaching of the Word, an unclean Administration of the Sacraments, shall aggravate the condemnation of that unclean Hypocrite; but yet Prosunt digne sumentibus; a worthy Receiver, receives the virtue and benefit of the Word and Sacraments, though from an unworthy Giver.

I may be bold to say, that this City hath the ablest preaching Clergy of any City in Christendom; must I be fain to say, that the Clergy of this City hath the poorest intertainment of any City that can come into comparison with it? it is so. And that to which they have pretences and claims to be farther due to them, is detained, not because that which they have is enough, but because that which they claim is too much: The circumstance of the quantity and proportion, keeps off the consideration of the very right: So that this Clergy is therefore poor, because they should be rich; therefore kept without any part, because so great a part seems to belong unto them. Grieve not the Spirit of God; grieve not the spiritual man, the man of God neither: Ex tristitia sermo procedens, minus gratus est. He that preaches from a sad heart, under the sence of a great charge, and small means, cannot preach cheerfully to you. Provide, says the Apostle, that they who watch over your souls, may do it with joy, and not with grief: for, says he, that's unprofitable for you. You receive not so much profit by them, as you might do, if they might attend your service entirely; when they are distracted with chargeable suites abroad, or macerated with penurious fortunes at home. Consider how much other Professions, of Arms, of Merchandise, of Agriculture, of Law it self, are decayed of late: and thence, (though not only thence) it is, that so many more in our times, then ever before, of Honorable and Worshipful Families, apply themselves to our Profession, to the Ministry. Let therefore this light shine in your hearts, bless God for this blessed increase, and shine in your tongues; glorify God in a good interpretation of the actions of his Ministers, and shine in your hands; cherish and comfort them so, that they be not put to bread and water, that give you bread and wine; nor mourn in smoky corners, who bring you the Sun-shine of the glorious Gospel, the Gospel of consolation, into the congregation. And so we have done with all the four considerations, which made up this first branch, our Vocation by this Light, considered positively, The Thing, the Time, the Place, and the Persons. A little remains by debt of promise, to be said of this Comparatively, As God commanded light, so he hath shone in our hearts. A little before the Text, the act of the Devil is to induce darkness; but God illumins. Deus hujus saeculi, says the Apostle, the God of this world, that is, the Devil, blinds the eyes of men. Which words by the way give just occasion of making this short note, that many times by altercation and vehemence of Disputation, the truth of the literal sense is indangered: and therefore we should rather content our selves with positive and necessary Divinity, then entangle our selves with impertinent controversies. The Manichees, and those other Heretics, who constituted Duo Principia, and consequently two Gods, one good, and one bad, made use of this Text for that opinion; That if the Devil were God of this world, and if any God did blind the eyes of man, there was an ill God. And to elevate and take away that Argument of those Heretics, very many of the ancient Fathers, Irenaeus, litterally and expressly, and expressly and literally S. Chrys. too, and S. Aug. says, most of the Orthodox Fathers would needs read that place with another distinction another interpunction then indeed belongs to it, not Deus hujus saeculi, The God of this world hath blinded man; but Deus, hujus saeculi mentes, God, that is, the true God, hath blinded the eyes of the men of this world. And so, for fear of giving the name of God to the Devil, they attribute the action of the Devil to God. I do not mean that the Fathers do it, they were far from it; but this shift, and this inconvenient manner of expressing themselves, hath made some later men who think so, think, that the Fathers thought God to be really, positively, primarily, the author of the excaecation of the Reprobates. In what sense that may be said, how, and how far God concurs to this excaecation, we dispute not now. We rest in that of St. Aug. Aliud venit de astutia suadentis, aliud de nequitia nolentis, aliud de justitia punientis. God hath a part, a great part, in this; but not the first. First, says St. Aug. Satan suggests, then man consents; then enters God, by way of punishment, of Justice. And how far doth he punish? Deserendo, he forsakes that sinner, he withdraws his Grace: and then, as upon the departing of the Sun, darkness follows, but the Sun is not the cause of darkness; so upon departing of Grace, follows excaecation. God, our God, is the God of light, and lightneth every man that cometh into the world. So he begun in the Creation, so he proceeds in our Vocation, As he commanded light of darkness, so he hath shone in our hearts.

First, He made light: There was none before; so first, He shines in our hearts, by his preventing Grace; there was no light before; not of Nature, by which any man could see, any means of salvation; not of foreseen Merits, that God should light his light at our Candle, give us Grace therefore, because he saw that we would use that Grace well. He made light, he infused Grace.

And then, He made light first of all Creatures: Ut innotescerent, says, St. Ambr. that by that light all his other Creatures might be seen: which is also the use of this other light, that shines in our hearts, that by that light, the love of the Truth, and the glory of Christ Jesus, all our actions may be manifested to the world, and abide that trial; that we look for no other approbation of them, then as they are justifiable by that light, as they conduce to the maintenance of his Religion, and the advancement of his glory: not to consider actions as they are wisely done, valiantly done, learnedly done, but only as they are religiously done: and ut abdicemus occulta dedecoris, as the Apostle speaks; That we may renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, and not walk in craftiness: that is, not sin therefore, because we see our sins may be hid from the world: For, says St. Ambrose, speaking of Gyges Ring, a Ring by which he that wore it, became invisible; Da sapienti; says that Father, Give a wise man, (a man religiously wise) that Ring, and though he might sin invisibly before men, he would not, because God sees. Nay, even the moral man goes further then that, in that point; Though I knew, says he, hominem ignoraturum, & Deum ignosciturum, that man should never know it, and that God would forgive it, I would not sin, for the very soulness that is naturally in sin. As God commanded light for the Manifestation of his creatures, so he hath shone in our hearts, that our actions might appear by that light.

How then made he that light? Dixit, he said it, by his Word. In which we note, first, the means: Verbo; he did it by his Word; and by his Word, the preaching of his Word, doth he shine in our hearts. And we consider also the dispatch, how soon he made light, with a word. Dixit, id est, summa cum celeritate fecit, his work cost him but a word; and then Cogitasse jussisse est, his word cost him but a thought. So if we consider the dispatch of Christ Jesus in all his Miracles, there went but a Tolle, Take up thy bed and walk, to the lame man; but an Ephptata, Be opened, to the deaf man; but a Quid vides, What seest thou? to the blind man. If we consider his dispatch upon the thief on the cross, how soon he brought him from reviling, to glorifying; and if any in this Auditory feel that dispatch of the Holy Ghost, in his heart; that whereas he came hither but to see, he hath heard; or if he came to hear the man, he hath heard God in the man, and is better at this Glass, then he was at the first; better now, then when he came, and will go away better then he is yet, he that feels this, must confess, that as God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shone in his heart: So, that is, by the same means, by his Word; and so, that is, with the same speed and dispatch.

Again, Deus vidit lucem, God saw the light; he looked upon it; he considered it: This second light, even Religion it self, must be looked upon, considered; not taken implicitly, nor occasionally, not advantageously, but seriously and deliberately, and then assuredly, and constantly.

And then vidit quod bona, God saw that this light was good; God did not see, nor say that darkness was good; that ignorance, how near of kin soever they make it to Devotion, was good; nor that the waters were good; that a fluid, a moving, a variable, an uncertain irresolution in matter of Religion, is good; nor that that Abyssus, that depth which was before light, was good; that it is good to surround and enwrap our selves in deep and perplexing School-points, but he saw that light, evident and fundamental Articles of Religion, were good, good to clear thee in all scruples, good to sustain thee in all temptations. God knew that this light would be good, before he made it; but he did not say so, till he saw it. God knew every good work that thou shouldest do, every good thought that thou shouldest think to thy end, before thy beginning, for he of his own goodness, imprinted this degree of goodness in thee; but yet assure thy self, that he loves thee in another manner, and another measure, then, when thou comest really to do those good works, then before, or when thou didst only conceive a purpose of doing them: he calls them good when he sees them.

And when he saw this light, this good light, he separated all darkness from it. When thou hast found this light to have shone in thy heart, God manifested in his way, his true Religion, separate all darkness, the dark inventions and traditions of men, and the works of darkness, sin; and since thou hast light, be night not thy self again, with relapsing to either.

The comparison of these two lights, created and infused light, would run in infinitum; I shut it up with this, that as at the first production of light, till light was made, there was a general, an universal darkness, darkness over all, but after light was once made, there was never any universal darkness, because there is no body bigg enough to shadow the whole Sun from the Earth; so till this light shine in our hearts, we are wholly darkness; but when it hath truly and effectually shone in us, and manifested to us the evidence of our Election in Gods eternal Decree, howsoever there may be some Clouds, some Eclipses, yet there is no total darkness, no total, no final falling away of Gods Saints. And in all these respects, the comparison holds. As God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shone in our hearts; and so we have done with all the branches of our second part, which implies our Vocation here, and we pass to the last, Our Glorification hereafter.

As in our first part we considered by occasion of the first Creature, light, the whole Creation, and so the Creation of man; and in our second part, by occasion of this shining in our hearts, the whole work of our Vocation and proceeding in this world: so in this third part, by occasion of this glorious manifestation of God, in the face of Christ Jesus, which is intended principally, by this Apostle, of, the manifestation of God in the Christian Church; we shall also, as far, as that dazling glory will give us leave, consider the perfect state of glory in the Kingdom of Heaven: So that first, our branches in this third part, will be three, these three terms, 1 Knowledge, 2 Glory, and then, the face of Jesus Christ. And then we must look upon all these three terms two ways, first, Inchoative, how we have an inchoation of this knowledge, of this glory, in this face of Christ Jesus here in the Church; and then Consummative, how we shall have a consummation of all this hereafter.

To us then, who were created of nothing, in the first part, and called from the Gentiles in the second, in this third part, our preparation to glory, is knowledge. The Persons in this part of the Text, are, as in the former; Not only we, we the Ministers of Gods Word, but you also the hearers thereof: for there is a knowledge, an art of hearing, as well as of speaking. Students make up the University, as well as Doctors: and Hearers make up the Congregation, as well as Preachers. A good hearer is as much a Doctor, as a Preacher: A Doctor to him that sits by him, in example, whilst he is here: a Doctor to all his Family, in his repetition, when he comes home: a Doctor, to that which is more then the whole world, to him, his own soul, all his life. Christ appeared to this Apostle, and said, I have appeared unto thee, for this purpose, to make thee a Minister and a witness, to open the Gentiles eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. There he received his Degree, his learning, and the use of it; but when St. Paul came abroad into the world, when he comes to preach, and to write, he says to the Colos. The Father hath made us meet to be partakes of the inheritance of the Saints in his light. Us, says St. Chrysost, and so says Theophylact too, and many more then they two; Us, that is, all Us, Us that preach, you that hear; you are bound to study this knowledge, as well as we. And truly, a Hearer hath in some respects advantage of the Preacher: for, a Preacher, though in some measure, well disposed, can hardly exuere hominem, put off the affections of man, by being a Preacher; they stick closer to him then his Hood and habit, even in the Pulpit. Some little Clouds, if not of ostentation, and vain glory, yet of complacency and self-pleasing, will affect him; the hearer hath not that temptation, but hath herein a more perfect exercise of the most Christian virtue, Humility, then the preacher hath. Though therefore, when you cast your eye upon this part of this Text, you see in your Book, a difference of Character, in this word, To give, to give light, &c. which seems to fix all upon the person of the Apostle, and consequently of the Minister; yet that word is not in the Text, but the Text is only, for the inlightning; God hath shone, for the inlightning, &c. which is alike upon all; and therefore let us, all us, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: light it self is faith; but, the armor of light is knowledge; an ignorant man is a disarmed man, a naked man.

Ignorance then is not our Usher into this presence, to show us the face of Christ Jesus: almost in every one of the ancient Fathers, you shall find some passages, wherein they discover an inclination to that opinion, that before Christ came in the manifestation of his Gospel (for, since that coming, every man is bound to see him there) many Philosophers, men of knowledge, and learning, were saved without the knowledge of Christ. Christus Ratio, says one of them, well, (for Logos, is, Ratio, and not only Verbum, as it is ordinarily translated) Christ is Reason, rectified Reason; and secundum Rationem vixerunt, Christiani semper, says he, Whosoever lives according to rectified Reason, which is the Law of nature, he is a Christian; and therefore, when that Father, Justin Martyr, who had been before a Philosopher amongst the Gentiles, came to be a Preacher amongst the Christians, he never left off his Philosophers habit, because that gave an impression of his learning, and an estimation by it. That knowledge was a help to salvation, the Ancients thought: but that is a new Doctrine, that men should make a title to God, by being ignorant: that whereas all the life of man, is either an active life, or a contemplative, they should in the Roman Church make one Order, and call them Nullanos, men that did nothing, in contempt of the active life, and in contempt of the contemplative life; another Order, whom they call Ignorantes, men that know nothing. There is an annihilation in sin; Homines cum peccam, nihil sunt: Then when by sin, I depart from the Lord my God, in whom only I live, and move, and have my being, I am nothing: and truly, in this sinful profession of thine, of doing nothing, of knowing nothing, they come too neer being nothing. What other answer can this knowing nothing, here, produce at the last day, from Christ Jesus, but his Nescio vos, I know not you? As David says of God, Cum perverso perverteris, With the froward God will be froward; so, Ignorantes ignorabit, of the ignorant, God will be ignorant; not know them, that study not knowledge. The miracle that Christ wrought in the conversion of the World, was not, that he wrought upon men by Apostles, that were unlearned; for the Apostles were not so; they were never unprovided to give a pertinent and satisfactory answer to the learnedest of the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles, to any of the Gamaliels and Nicodemusses, who were true understanders of the Law amongst the Jews; to any of their Scribes, the perverters of the Law; to any of the Pharisees, their Separatists, and Schismaticks; to any of the Sadducees, their formal Heretics; nor to any of their Herodians, their State-Divines, who made Divinity serve present turns, and occasions: The Apostles were no ignorant men, then, when they were employed: but in this consisted the Miracle, that in an instant Christ by his Spirit, infused all knowledge, necessary for that great function, into them. If they had not had it, they could not have done his work. All must have it; Intelligite Reges, says David; for all their business, Kings must study for it: Erudimini Judices; with their other learning, Judges must have this. The Prophet denounces it for a heavy curse, The Prophet shall be a fool; he that should teach, shall not be able to do it: and, as it follows, The spiritual man shall be mad; if he have knowledge, he shall not know how to use it. St. Jerome translates that word, Arreptitius, he shall be possessed; possessed with the spirit of fear, or of flattery; others shall speak in him, and he become the instrument of men, and not of God. It was the Devils first advantage, knowledge, The Serpent was wiser then any beast: It is so still; Satan is wiser then any man in natural, and in Civil knowledge. 'Tis true, he is a Lyon too; but he was a Serpent first; and did us more harm as a Serpent, then as a Lyon. But now, as Christ Jesus hath nailed his hand-writing, which he had against us, to the Cross, and thereby cancelled his evidence; so in his descent to hell, and subsequent acts of his glorification, he hath burnt his Library, annihilated his wisdom, in giving us a wisdom above his craft; he hath shone in our hearts by the knowledge of his Gospel.

Measure not thou therefore the growth and forwardness of thy Child, by how soon he could speak, or go; how soon he could contract with a man, or discourse with a woman: but how soon he became sensible of that great contract which he had made with Almighty God, in his Baptism: how soon he was able to discharge those sureties, which undertook for him, then, by receiving his confirmation, in the Church: how soon he became to discern the Lords Spirit, in the preaching of his Word, and to discern the Lords body, in the Administration of the Sacrament. A Christian Child must grow, as Christ when be was a Child, in wisdom and in stature: first, in wisdom, then in stature. Many have been taller at sixteen, then ever Christ was; but not any so learned at sixty, as he when he disputed at twelve. He grew in favor, says that Text, with God and man; first, with God, then with man. Bring up your children in the knowledge and love of God; and good, and great men, will know, and love them too.

It is a good definition of ill love, that St. Chrysost. gives, that it is Animae vacantis passio, a passion of an empty soul, of an idle mind. For fill a man with business, and he hath no room for such love. It will fit the love of God too, so far, as that that love must be in anima vocante: at first, when the soul is empty, disencumbred from other studies, disengaged in other affections, then to take in the knowledge, and the love of God; for, Amari nisi nota possunt, says St. August. truly; however we may slumber our selves with an opinion of loving God, certainly we do not, we cannot love him, till we know him; and therefore hear, and read, and meditate, and confer, and use all means whereby thou mayst increase in knowledge. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them, says Christ; you are not happy till you do them; that's true: but ye can never do them, till ye know them. Zeal furthers our salvation; but it must be Secundum scientiam, Zeal according to knowledge. Works further our salvation; but not works done in our sleep, stupidly, casually, nor erroniously, but upon such grounds as fall within our knowledge to be good. Faith most of all furthers and advances our salvation; but a man cannot believe that which he does not know. Conscience includes science; it is knowledge, and more; but it is that first. It is, as we express it in the School, Syllogismus practicus. I have a good Conscience in having done well; but I did that upon a former knowledge, that that ought to be done. God hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of knowledge, that was the first; and then, of the knowledge of the glory of God, that is our second term, in this first acceptation of the Word. The light of the knowledge of the glory of this world, is a good, and a great piece of learning. To know, that all the glory of man, is as the flower of grass: that even the glory, and all the glory, of man, of all mankind, is but a flower, and but as a flower, somewhat less then the Proto-type, then the Original, then the flower it self; and all this but as the flower of grass neither, no very beautiful flower to the eye, no very fragrant flower to the smell: To know, that for the glory of Mob, Auferetur, it shall be contemned, consumed; and for the glory of Jacob it self, Attenuabitur, It shall be extenuated, that the glory of Gods enemies shall be brought to nothing, and the glory of his servants shall be brought low in this word: To know how near nothing, how meer nothing, all the glory of this world is, is a good, a great degree of learning.

It is a Book of an old Edition, to put you upon the consideration what great and glorious men have lost their glory in this world: Give me leave to present to you a new Book, a new consideration; not how others have lost, but consider only how you have got that glory which you have in this world: consider advisedly, and confess ingeniously, whether you have not known many men, more industrious then ever you were, and yet never attained to the glory of your Wealth? Many wiser then ever you were, and yet never attained to your place in the Government of State; and valianter then ever you were, that never came to have your command in the Wars. Consider then how poor a thing the glory of this world is, not only as it may be so lost, as many have lost it, but as it may be so got, as you have got it. Nullum indifferens gloriosum, says that Moral man; In that which is so obvious, as that any man may compass it, truly this can be no glory.

But this is not fully the knowledge of the glory of this Text: though this Moral knowledge of the glory of this world, conduce to the knowledge of this place, which is the glory of God; yet not of the Majestical, and inaccessible glory of the Essence, or Attributes of God, of inscrutable points of Divinity: for scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria, as St. Hiero, and all those three Rabbis, whose Commentaries we have upon that Book, read that place: He that searches too far into the secrets of God, shall be dazled, confounded by that glory. But here, Gloria Dei, is indeed Gloria Deo; the glory of God, is the glorifying of God: it is as St. Ambro. expresses it, Notitia cum laude; the glory of God, is the taking knowledge, that all that comes, comes from God, and then the glorifying of God for whatsoever comes. And this is a heavenly art, a divine knowledge; that if God send a pestilence amongst us, we Come not to say, it was a great fruit year, and therefore there must follow a plague in reason: That if God swallow up an invincible Navy, we come to say, There was a storm, and there must follow a scattering in reason: That if God discover a Mine, we come not to say, there was a false Brother that writ a Letter, and there must follow a discovery in reason; but remember still, that though in Davids Psalms, there be Psalms of Prayer, and Psalms of Praise; Psalms of Deprecation, and of Imprecation too; how divers soever the nature of the Psalm be, yet the Church hath appointed to shut up every Psalm with that one Acclamation, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, &c. Whether I pray, or praise; depricate Gods Judgements from my self, or imprecate them upon pods enemies, nothing can fall from me, nothing can fall upon me, but that God may receive glory by it, if I will glorify him in it. So that then, in a useful sense, Gloria Dei, is Gloria Deo; but yet more literally, more directly, the glory of God in this place, is the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus: which is that which is intended, and expressed in the next phrase, which is the last Branch; in this first acceptation of these words, in facie, The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

When our Savior Christ charged the Sadducees with error, it was not merely because they were ignorant; the Sadducees were not so: but, Erratis nescients Scripturas, says Christ; You err because you understand not the Scriptures: All knowledge is ignorance, except it conduce to the knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the Scriptures lead us to Christ. He is the brightness of his Fathers glory, and the express image of his person. The brightness of the everlasting light, and the image of his goodness. And, to insist upon a word of the fittest signification, Him hath God the Father sealed. Now, Sigillum imprimitur in Materia diversa: A Seal graven in gold or stone, does not print in stone or gold: in Wax it will, and it will in Clay; for this Seal in which God hath manifested himself, we consider it not, as it is printed in the same metal, in the eternal Son of God; but as God hath sealed himself in Clay, in the humane Nature; but yet in Wax too, in a person ductile, pliant, obedient to his will. And there, Signatum super nos Lumen vultus, tui, says David, The light of thy countenance, that is, the image of thy self, is sealed; that is, derived, imprinted, upon us, that is, upon our nature, our flesh. Signatum est, id est, significatum est: God hath signified this pretence, manifested, revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ. For that is the Office, and service, that Christ avows himself to have done; O Father, I have manifested thy Name: that is, thy Name of Father, as thou art a Father: for, Qui Solum Deum novit Creatorem, Judaicae mensuram prudentiae non excedit. Knowest thou that there is a God, and that that God created the world? What great knowledge is this? The Jews know it too. Non est Idem, nosce Deum opificem esse, & habere filium. It is another Religion, another point of Faith, to know that God had a Son of eternal begetting, and to have a world of late making. God therefore hath shone in no mans heart, till he know the glory of GOD in the face of Jesus Christ, till he come to the manifestation of God, in the Gospel. So that, that man comes short of this light, that believes in God, in a general, in an incomprehensible power, but not in Christ; and that man goes beyond this light, who will know more of God, then is manifested in the Gospel, which is the face of Christ Jesus: the one comes not to the light, the other goes beyond, and both are in blindness. Christ is the Image of God, and the Gospel is the face of Christ: and now, I rest nor in Gods picture, as I find it in every Creature; though there be in every Creatare an Image of God; I have a livelier Image of God, Christ. And then I seek not for Christs face, as it was traditionally sent to Agabarus in his life; nor for his face, as it was imprinted in the Veronica, in the womans Apron, as he went to his death; nor for his face, as it was described in Lentulus his Letter, to the Senate of Rome; but I have the glory of God in Christ, I, and I have the face of Christ in the Gospel, Except God had taken this very person upon him, this individual person, me, (which was impossible, because I am a sinful person) he could not have come nearer, then in taking this nature upon him. Now I cannot say, as the man at the Pool, Hominem non habeo, I have no man to help me; the Heathen cannot say, I have no God; but I cannot say, I have no man; for I have a Man, the Man Jesus; him, who by being Man, knows my misery; and by being God, can and will show mercy unto me. The night is far spent, says the Apostle, the day is at hand; Nox ante Christum, Aurora in Evangelio, Dies in Resurrectione. Till Christ all was night, there was a beginning of day, in the beginning of the Gospel, and there was a full noon in the light and glory thereof; but such a day, as shall be always day, and overtaken with no night, no cloud, is only the day of Judgement, the Resurrection: And this hath brought us to our last step, to the consideration of these three terms; 1. knowledge; 2. glory; 3. the face of Christ Jesus in that everlasting Kingdom.

For this purpose did God command light out of darkness, that men might glorify God in the contemplation of the Creatures; and for this purpose hath God shone in our hearts, by the Scriptures in the Church, that man might be directed towards him, here; but both these hath God done therefore, to this purpose, this is the end of all, that man might come to this light, in that everlasting state, in the consummation of happiness in Soul, and body too, when we shall be called out of the solitariness of the grave, to the blessed and glorious society of God, and his Angels, and his Saints there. Hoc verbo re-concinnor, & componor, & in alium virum migro: with that word, Surgite mortui, Arise yee that sleep in the dust, all my pieces shall be put together again, Reconcinnor; with that word, Intra in gaudium, Enter into thy Masters joy, I am settled, I am established, Componor; and with that word, Sede ad dextram, sit down army right hand, I become another manner of man, In alium virum migro; another manner of Miracle, then the same Father makes of man in this world; Quodnam Mysterium, says he, What a Mystery is man here? Parvus sum & Magnus: I am less in body then many Creature in the World, and yet greater in the compass and extent of my Soul then all the World: Humillimus sum, & Excelsus; I am under a necessity of spending some thoughts upon this low World, and yet in an ability to study, to contemplate, to lay hold upon the next: Mortalis sum, & immortalis; in a Body that may, that must, that does, that did dye ever since it was made; I carry a Soul, nay, a Soul carries me, to such a perpetuity, as no Saint, no Angel, God himself shall not survive me, over-live me. And lastly, says he, Terrenus sum, & Coelestis; I have a Body, but of Earth; but yet of such Earth, as God was the Potter to mold it, God was the statuary to fashion it; and then I have a Soul, of which God was the Father, he breathed it into me, and of which no matter can say, I was the Mother, for it proceeded of nothing. Such a Mystery is man here; but he is a Miracle hereafter; I shall be still the same man, and yet have another being: And in this is that Miracle exalted, that death who destroys me, re-edifies me: Mors veluti medium excogitata, ut de integro restauraretur homo: man was fallen, and God took that way to raise him, to throw him lower, into the grave; man was sick, and God invented, God studied Physic for him, and strange Physic, to recover him by death. The first faciamus hominem, the Creation of man, was a thing incomprehensible in Nature; but the Denuo nasci, to be born again, was stranger, even to Nicodemus, who knew the former, the Creation, well enough. But yet the Immutabimur, is the greatest of all, which St. Paul calls all to wonder at, Behold, I show you a Mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed: A Mystery, which it Nicodemus had discerned it, would have put him to more wonder, then the Denuo nasci; to enter into his mothers womb, (as he speaks) to enter into the Bowels of the Earth, and lie there, and lie dead there, not nine months, but many years, and then to be born again, and the first minute of that new Birth to be so perfect, as that nothing can be better, and so perfect as that he can never become worse, that is that which makes all strange accidents to natural Bodies, and Bodies Politike too, all changes in man, all revolutions of States, easy, and familiar to us; I shall have another being, and yet be the same man. And in that state, I shall have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus. Of which three things being now come to speak, I am the less sorry, and so may you be too, if my voice be so sunk, as that I be not heard; for, if I had all my time, and all my strength, and all your patience reserved till now, what could I say that could become, what, that could have any proportion, to this knowledge, and this glory, and this face of Christ Jesus, there in the Kingdom of Heaven? But yet be pleased to hear a word, of each of these three words; and first, of Knowledge. In the Attributes of God, we consider his knowledge to be Principium agendi dirigens, The first proposer, and Director; This should be done: and then his Will to be Principium imperans, the first Commander, This shall be done; and then his Power to be Principium exequens, the first Performer, This is done: This should be done, this shall be done, this is done, expresses to us, the Knowledge, the Will, and the Power of God. Now we shall be made partakers of the Divine Nature, and the Knowledge, and the Will, and the Power of God, shall be so far communicated to us there, as that we shall know all that belongs to our happiness, and we shall have a will to do, and a power to execute, whatsoever conduces to that. And for the knowledge of Angels, that is not in them per essentiam, for whosoever knows so, as the Essence of the thing flows from him, knows all things, and that's a knowledge proper to God only: Neither do the Angels know per species, by those resultances and species, which rise from the Object, and pass through the Sense to the Understanding, for that's a deceiveable way, both by the indisposition of the Organ, sometimes, and sometimes by the depravation of the Judgment; and therefore, as the first is too high, this is too low a way for the Angels. Some things the Angels do know by the dignity of their Nature, by their Creation, which we know not; as we know many things which inserior Creatures do not; and such things all the Angels, good and bad know. Some things they know by the Grace of their confirmation, by which they have more given them, then they had by Nature in their Creation; and those things only the Angels that stood, but all they, do know. Some things they know by Revelation, when God is pleased to manifest them unto them; and so some of the Angels know that, which the rest, though confirmed, do not know. By Creation, they know as his Subjects; by Confirmation, they know as his servants; by Revelation, they know as his Council. Now, Erimus sicut Angeli, says Christ, There we shall be as the Angels: The knowledge which I have by Nature, shall have no Clouds; here it hath: that which I have by Grace, shall have no reluctation, no resistance; here it hath: That which I have by Revelation, shall have no suspicion, no jealousy; here it hath: sometimes it is hard to distinguish between a respiration from God, and a suggestion from the Devil. There our curiosity shall have this noble satisfaction, we shall know how the Angels know, by knowing as they know. We shall not pass from Author, to Author, as in a Grammar School, nor from Art to Art, as in an University; but, as that General which Knighted his whole Army, God shall Create us all Doctors in a minute. That great Library, those infinite Volumes of the Books of Creatures, shall be taken away, quite away, no more Nature; those reverend Manuscripts, written with Gods own hand, the Scriptures themselves, shall be taken away, quite away; no more preaching, no more reading of Scriptures, and that great School-Mistress, Experience, and Observation shall be removed, no new thing to be done, and in an instant, I shall know more, then they all could reveal unto me. I shall know, not only as I know already, that a Be-hive, that an Ant-hill is the same Book in Decimo sexto, as a Kingdom is in Folio, That a Flower that lives but a day, is an abridgment of that King, that lives out his threescore and ten years; but I shall know too, that all these Ants, and Bees, and Flowers, and Kings, and Kingdoms, howsoever they may be Examples, and Comparisons to one another, yet they are all as nothing, altogether nothing, less then nothing, infinitely less then nothing, to that which shall then be the subject of my knowledge, for, it is the knowledge of the glory of God.

Before, in the former acceptation, the glory of God, was our glorifying of God; here, the glory of God, is his glorifying of us: there it was his receiving, here it is his giving of glory. That prayer which our Savior Christ makes, Glorify me, O Father, with thine own self, with the Glory which I had, before the world was, is not a prayer for the Essential Glory of God; for, Christ in his Divine Nature was never divested, never unaccompanied of that glory; and for his humane Nature, that was never capable of it: the attributes, and so the Essence of the Glory, of the Divinity, are not communicable to his Humane Nature, neither perpetually, as the Ubiquitaries say, nor temporarily in the Sacrament, as the Papists imply. But the glory which Christ asks there, is, the glory of sitting down at the right hand of his Father in our flesh, in his humane Nature, which glory he had before the world, for he had it in his predestination, in the Eternal Decree. And that's the glory of God, which we shall know; know, by having it. We shall have a knowledge of the very glory, the Essential glory of God, because we shall see Sicuti est, as God is, in himself; and Cognoscam at cognitus; I shall know, as I am known: that glory shall dilate us, enlarge us, give us an inexpressible capacity, and then fill it; but we shall never comprehend that glory, the Essential glory; but that glory which Christ hath received in his humane Natute, (in all other degrees, excepting those which flow from his hypostatical union) we shall comprehend, we shall know, by having: we shall receive a Crown of glory, that sadeth not: It is a Crown that compasses round, no enterance of danger any way; and a crown that fadeth not, fears no winter: we shall have interest in all we see, and we shall see the treasure of all knowledge, the face of Christ Jesus. Then and there, we shall have an abundant satisfaction and accomplishment, of all St. Augustines three Wishes: He wished to have seen Rome in her glory, to have heard St. Paul preach, and to have seen Christ in the flesh. We shall have all; we shall see such a Jerusalem, as that Rome, if that were literally true, which is hyperbolically said of Rome, In Urbe, in Orbe, that City is the whole world, yet Rome, that Rome, were but a Village to this Jerusalem. We shall hear St. Paul, with the whole quire of Heaven, pour our himself in that acclamation, Saluation to our God, that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb: and we shall see, and see for ever, Christ in that flesh, which hath done enough for his Friends, and is safe enough from his Enemies. We shall see him in a transfiguration, all clouds of sadness removed; and a transubstantiation, all his tears changed to Pearls, all his Blood-drops into Rubies, all the Thorns of his Crown into Diamonds: for, where we shall see the Walls of his Palace to be Saphyr, and Emerald, and Amethist, and all Stones that are precious, what shall we not see in the face of Christ Jesus? and whatsoever we do see, by that very sight becomes our. Be therefore no strangers to this face: see him here, that you may know him, and he you, there: see him, as St. John did, who turned to see a voice: see him in the preaching of his Word; see him in that seal, which is a Copy of him, as he is of his Father; see him in the Sacrament. Look him in the face as he lay in the Manger, poor, and then murmur not at temporal wants; suddenly enriched by the Tributes of Kings, and doubt not but that God hath large and strange ways to supply thee. Look him in the face, in the Temple, disputing there at twelve years; and then apply thy self to God, to the contemplation of him, to the meditation upon him, to a conversation with him betimes. Look him in the face in his Fathers house; a Carpenter, and but a Carpenter. Take a Calling, and contain thy self in that Calling. But bring him nearer, and look him in the face, as he looked upon Friday last; when he whose face the Angels desire to look on, he who was fairer then the children of men, as the Prophet speaks, was so marred more then any man, as another Prophet says, That they hid their faces from him, & despised him; when he who bore up the heavens bowed down his head, & he who gives breath to all, gave up the ghost: and then look him in the face again, as he looked yesterday, not lamed upon the Cross, not putrefied in the Grave, not singed in Hell, raised, and raised by his own power, Victoriously, triumphantly, to the destruction of the last Enemy, death; look him in the face in all these respects, of Humiliation, and of Exaltation too; and then, as a Picture look upon him, that look upon it, God upon whom thou keepest thine Eye, will keep his Eye upon thee, and, as in the Creation, when he commanded light out of darkness, he gave thee a capacity of this light; and as in thy Vocation, when he shone in thy heart, he gave thee an inchoation of this light, so in associating thee to himself at the last day, he will perfect, consummate, accomplish all, and give thee the light of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus there.

This is the last word of our Text: but we make up our Circle by returning to the first word; the first word is, For; for the Text is reason of that which is in the Verse immediately before the Text; that is, We preach not our selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and our selves your servants, for Jesus sake. We stop not on this side Christ Jesus; we dare not say, that any man is saved without Christ; we dare say, that none can be saved, that hath received that light, and hath not believed in him. We carry you not beyond Christ neither, not beyond that face of his, in which he is manifested, the Scriptures. Till you come to Christ you are without God, as the Apostle says to the Ephesians: and when you go beyond Christ, to Traditions of men, you are without God too. There is a fine Deo, a left handed Atheism, in the meer natural man, that will not know Christ; and there is a sine Deo, a right handed Atheism in the stubborn Papist, who is not content with Christ. They preach Christ Jesus and themselves, and make themselves Lords over you in Jesus, place, and farther then ever he went. We preach not our selves, but him, and our selves your servants for his sake; and this is our service, to tell you the whole compass, the beginning, the way, and the end of all, that all is done in, and by, and for Christ Jesus, that from thence flow, and thither lead, and there determine all, to bring you, from the memory of your Creation, by the sense of your Vocation, to the assurance of your glorification, by the manifestation of God in Christ, and Christ in the Scriptures, For, God who commanded light out of darkness, hath shone, &c.

The 26 Sermon. Serm. 26.

Psa. 68.20.

And unto God, the Lord, belong the issues of Death. (from Death)

BUildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them, support them; and of their buttresses that comprehend them, embrace them; and of their contignations that knit and unite them. The foundation suffers them not to sink; the buttresses suffer them not to swerve; the contignation and knitting, suffer them not to cleave. The body of our building is in the former part of this verse; it is this; He that is our God, is the God of salvation; ad salutes, of salvations in the plural, so it is in the original; the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too. But of this building, the foundation, the buttresses, the contignation are in this part of the verse, which constitutes our text, and in the three diverse acceptations of the words amongst our expositors, Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death. For, first the foundation of this building, (that our God is the God of all salvations) is laid in this, That unto this God the Lord belongs the issues of death; that is, it is his power to give us an issue and deliverance, even then when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death, and to the lips of that whirl-pool, the grave; and so in this acceptation, this exitus mortis, this issue of death is liberatio a mory, a deliverance from death; & this is the most obvious, and most ordinary acceptation of these words, and that upon which, our translation lays hold, The issues from death. And then, Secondly, the buttresses, that comprehend and settle this building; that He that is our God is the God of salvation are thus raised; Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, the disposition and manner of our death, what kind of issue, and transmigration we shall have out of this world, whether prepared or sudden, whether violent or natural, whether in our perfect senses, or shook and disordered by sickness; there is no condemnation to be argued out of that, no judgment to be made upon that, for howsoever they dye; precious in his sight, is the death of his Saints, and with him are the issues of death, the way of our departing out of this life, are in his hands; and so, in this sense of the words, this Exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio in morte, a deliverance in death; not that God will deliver us from dying, but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death, of what kind soever our passage be; and this sense, and acceptation of the words, the natural frame & contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us. And then lastly, the contignation and knitting of this building, that he that is our God, is the God of all salvation, consists in this, Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, that this God the Lord having united and knit both natures in one, and being God, having also come into this world, in our flesh, he could have no other means to save us, he could have no other issue out of this world, nor return to his former glory, but by death. And so in this sense, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by death, by the death of this God our Lord, Christ Jesus; and this is St. Augustines acceptation of the words, and those many and great persons, that have adhered to him. In all these three lines then, we shall look upon these words; first, as the God of power, the Almighty Father, rescues his servants from the jaws of death; and then, as the God of mercy, the glorious Son, rescued us, by taking upon himself the issue of death; and then, (between these two,) as the God of comfort, the holy Ghost rescues us from all discomfort by his blessed impressions before hand, that what manner of death soever be ordained for us, yet this exitus mortis, shall be introitus in vitam, our issue in death, shall be an entrance into everlasting life. And these three considerations, our deliverance a morte, in morte, per mortem, from death, in death, and by death, will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation, of the buttresses, of the contignation of this our building, that He that is our God, is the God of all salvation, because Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death.

First then, we consider this exitus mortis, to be liberatio a morte; that with God the Lord are the issues of death, & therefore in all our deaths, and deadly calamities of this life, we may justly hope of a good issue from him; and all our periods and transitions in this life, are so many passages from death to death. Our very birth, and entrance into this life, is exitus a morte, an issue from death; for in our mothers womb, we are dead so, as that we do not know we live; not so much as we do in our sleep; neither is there any grave so close, or so putrid a prison, as the womb would be to us, if we staied in it beyond our time, or died there, before our time. In the grave the worms do not kil us: We breed and feed, and then kill those worms, which we our selves produced. In the womb the dead child kills the mother that conceived it, and is a murderer, nay a Parricide, even after it is dead. And if we be not dead so in the womb, so, as that being dead, we kill her that gave us our first life, our life of vegetation, yet we are dead so as Davids Idols are dead; in the womb, we have eyes and see not, ears and hear not. There in the womb we are fitted for works of darkness, all the while deprived of light; and there, in the womb, we are taught cruelty, by being fed with blood; and may be damned though we be never born. Of our very making in the womb, David says, I am wonderfully and fearfully made, and, Such knowledge is too excellent for me; for, Even that is the Lords doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes. Ipse fecit nos, It is he that hath made us, and not we our selves, no, nor our Parents neither. Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me round about, says Job; and, (as the original word is) Thou hast taken pains about me; and yet says he, Thou doest destroy me: though I be the master-peice of the greatest Master, (man is so) yet if thou do no more for me, if thou leave me where thou mad'st me, destruction will follow. The womb which should be the house of life, becomes death it self, if God leave us there. That which God threatens so often, the shutting of the womb, is not so heavy nor so discomfortable a curse, in the first as in the latter shutting; not in the shutting of barrenness, as in the shutting of weakness, when Children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It is the exaltation of misery, to fall from a near hope of happiness. And in that vehement imprecation the Prophet expresses the highth of Gods anger Give them O Lord; what wilt thou give them? give them a mis-carrying womb. Therefore as soon as we are men, (that is, inanimated; quickened in the womb) though we cannot our selves, our Parents have reason to say in our behalves, Wretched man that he is, who shall deliver him from this body of death? for, even the womb is the body of death, if there be no deliverer. It must be he that said to Jeremiah, Before I formed thee I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee. We are not sure that there was no kind of ship nor boat to fish in, nor to pass by, till God prescribed Noah that absolute forme of the Ark; that word which the holy Ghost by Moses, uses for the Ark, is common to all kinds of boats, Thebah; and is the same word that Moses uses for the boat that he was exposed in, that his mother laid him in an Ark of bullrushes. But we are sure that Eve had no Midwife when she was delivered of Cain; therefore she might well say, Possedi virum a Domino, I have gotten a man from the Lord; wholly, entirely from the Lord: it is the Lord that hath enabled me to conceive, the Lord hath infused a quickening soul into that conception, the Lord hath brought into the world that which himself had quickened; without all this might Eve say, my body had been but the house of death, and Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis, To God the Lord belong the issues of death.

But then this Exitus a morte, is but Introitus in mortem, this issue, this deliverance from that death, the death of the womb, is an entrance, a delivering over to another death, the manifold deaths of this world. We have a winding sheet in our Mothers womb, that grows with us from our conception, and we come into the world wound up in that winding sheet; for we come to seek a grave. And, as prisoners, discharged of actions, may lie for fees, so when the womb hath discharged us, yet we are bound to it by cords of flesh, by such a string, as that we cannot go thence, nor stay there. We celebrate our own funeral with cries, even at our birth, as though our threescore, and ten years of life were spent in our Mothers labor, and our Circle made up in the first point thereof. We beg one Baptism with another, a sacrament of tears; and we come into a world that lasts many ages, but we last not. In domo patris, (says our blessed Savior, speaking of heaven) multae mansiones, there are many, and mansions, divers and durable; so that if a man cannot possess a martyrs house, (he hath shed no blood for Christ) yet he may have a confessors, he hath been ready to glorify God, in the shedding of his blood. And if a woman cannot possess a virgins house (she hath embraced the holy state of marriage) yet she may have a matrons house, she hath brought forth, and brought up children in the fear of God. In domo patris, In my Fathers house, in heaven, there are many mansions, but here upon earth, The Son of man hath not where to lay his head, says he himself, No? terram dedit filiis hominum. How then hath God given this earth to the Sons of men? He hath given them earth for their materials, to be made of earth; and he hath given them earth for their grave and sepulture, to return and resolve to earth; but not for their possession. Here we have no continuing City; nay no Cottage that continues; nay, no we, no persons, no bodies that continue. Whatsoever moved St. Jerome to call the journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness, Mansions, the word, (the word is nasang) signifies but a journey, but a peregrination: even the Israel of God hath no mansions, but journeys, pilgrimages in this life. By that measure did Jacob measure his life to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage. And though the Apostle would not say, morimer, that whilst we are in the body, we are dead, yet he says, peregrinamur, whilst we are in the body, we are but in a pilgrimage, and we are absent from the Lord. He might have said dead; for this whole world is but an universal Church-yard, but one common grave; and the life and motion, that the greatest persons have in it, is but as the shaking of buried bodies in their graves by an earthquake. That which we call life, is but Hebdomada mortium, a week of deaths, seven days, seven periods of our life spent in dying; a dying seven times over, and there's an end. Our birth dies in Infancy, and our infancy dies in youth, and youth, and the rest die in age; and age also dies, and determines all. Nor do all these, youth out of infancy, or age out of youth, arise so, as a Phenix out of the ashes of another Phenix formerly dead, but as a wasp, or a serpent out of carrion, or as a snake out of dung; our youth is worse then our infancy, and our age worse then our youth; our youth is hungry and thirsty after those sins which our infancy knew not, and our age is sorry and angry that it cannot pursue those sins which our youth did. And besides, all the way so many deaths, that is, so many deadly calamities accompany every condition, and every period of this life, as that death it self would be an ease to them that suffer them. Upon this sense does Job wish, that God had not given him an issue from the first death, from the womb; Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? O that I had given up the Ghost, and no eye had seen me; I should have been, as though I had not been.

And not only the impatient Israelites in their murmuring, (would to God we had died by the hands of the Lord, in the land of Egypt) but Elijah himself, when he fled from Jezabel, and went for his life, as that Text says, under the juniper tree requested that he might die, and said, It is enough, now O Lord take away my life. So Jonah justifies his impatience, nay his anger towards God himself; Now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die, then to live. And when God asked him, dost thou well to be angry for this, and after, (about the Gourd) dost thou well to be angry for that, he replies, I do well to be angry even unto death. How much worse a death, then death is this life, which so good men would so often change for death? But if my case be St. Pauls case, Quotidy morior, that I die daily, that something heavier then death fall upon me every day; If my case be Davids case, Tota die mortificamur, all the day long we are killed, that not only every day, but every hour of the day, something heavier then death falls upon me: though that be true of me, conceptus in peccatis, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, (There I died one death) though that be true of me, natus filius ira, I was born, not only the child of sin, but the child of the wrath of God for sin, which is a heavier death, yet Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis, with God the Lord are the issues of death; and after a Job, and a Joseph, and a Jeremiah, and a Daniel, I cannot doubt of a deliverance; and if no other deliverance conduce more to his glory, and my good, yet, He hath the keys of death; and he can let me out at that dor, that is, deliver me from the manifold deaths of this world, the omni die, and the tota die, the every days death, and every hours death, by that one death, the final disolution of body and soul, the end of all.

But then, is that the end of all? is that dissolution of body and soul, the last death that the body shall suffer? (for of spiritual deaths we speak not now;) it is not. Though this be exitus a morte, it is introitus in mortem, though it be an issue from the manifold deaths of this world, yet it is an entrance into the death of corruption, and putrefaction, and vermiculation, and incineration, and dispersion, in, and from the grave, in which every dead man dies over again. It was a prerogative peculiar to Christ, not to die this death, not to see corruption. What gave him this privilege? not Josephs great proportions of gums and spices, that might have preserved his body from corruption and incineration, longer then he needed it, longer then three days; but yet would not have done it for ever. What preserved him then? did his exemption, and freedom from original sin, preserve him from this corruption and incineration. 'Tis true, that original sin hath induced this corruption and incineration upon us. If we had not sinned in Adam, mortality had not put on immortality, (as the Apostle speaks) nor corruption had not put on incorruption, but we had had our transmigration from this to the other world, without any mortality, any corruption at all. But yet since Christ took sin upon him, so far as made him mortal, he had it so far too, as might have made him see this corruption and incineration, though he had no original sin in himself. What preserved him then? did the hypostatical union of both natures, God and man, preserve his flesh from this corruption, this incineration? 'tis true that this was a most powerful embalming: To be embalmed with the divine nature it self, to be embalmed with eternity, was able to preserve him from corruption and incineration for ever: And he was embalmed so, embalmed with the divine nature, even in his body, as well as in his soul; for the Godhead, the divine nature, did not depart, but remain still united to his dead body in the grave. But yet for all this powerful imbalming, this hypostatical union of both natures, we see, Christ did die; and for all this union which made him God and man, he became no man,) for, the union of body and soul makes the man, and he, whose soul and body are seperated by death, (as long as that state lasts) is, (properly) no man.) And therefore as in him, the dissolution of body and soul was no dissolution of the hypostatical union, so is there nothing that constrains us to say, that though the flesh of Christ had seen corruption and incineration in the grave, this had been any dissolving of the hypostatical union; for the divine nature, the Godhead might have remained with all the elements and principles of Christs body, as well as it did with the two constitutive parts of his person, his body and soul. This incorruption then was not in Josephs gums and spices; nor was it in Christs innocency and exemption from original sin; nor was it, (that is, it is not necessary to say it was) in the Hypostatical union. But this incorruptibleness of his flesh, is most conveniently plac,d in that, non dabis, Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. We look no farther for causes or reasons in the mysteries of our religion, but to the will and pleasure of God. Christ himself limited his inquisition in that; Ita est, even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Christs body did not see corruption, therefore, because God had decreed that it should not. The humble soul, (and only the humble soul is the religions soul) rests himself upon Gods purposes, and his decrees; but then, it is upon those purposes, and decrees of God, which he hath declared and manifested; not such as are conceived and imagined in our selves, though upon some probability, some verisimilitude. So, in our present case, Peter proceeded in his sermon at Jerusalem, and so Paul in his at Antioch; they preached Christ to be risen without having seen corruption, not only because God had decreed it, but because he had manifested that decree in his Prophet. Therefore does St. Paul cite by special number the second Psalm for that decree, and therefore both St. Peter and St. Paul cite for that place in the 16. Psal. for, when God declares his decree and purpose in the express word of his Prophet, or when he declares it in the real execution of the decree, then he makes it ours, then he manifests it to us. And therefore as the mysteries of our religion are not the objects of our reason, but by faith we rest in Gods decree and purpose, (it is so, O God, because it is thy will it should be so) so Gods decrees are ever to be considered in the manifestation thereof. All manifestation is either in the word of God, or in the execution of the decree; and when these two concur and meet, it is the strongest demonstration that can be: when therefore I find those marks of Adoption, and spiritual filiation, which are delivered in the word of God, to be upon me; when I find that real execution of his good purpose upon me, as that actually I do live under the obedience, and under the conditions which are evidences of adoption and spiritual filiation, then, and so long as I see these marks, and live so, I may safely comfort my self in a holy certitude, & a modest infallibility of my adoption. Christ determins himself in that, the purpose of God; because the purpose of God was manifest to him: S. Pet. & S. Paul, determine themselves in those two ways of knowing the purpose of God, the word of God before, the execution of the Decree in the fullness of time. It was prophesied before, said they, & it is performed now; Christ is risen without seeing corruption.

Now this which is so singularly peculiar to him, that his flesh should not see corruption, at his second coming, his coming to Judgment, shall be extended to all that are then alive, their flesh shall not see corruption; because (as the Apostle says, and says as a secret, as a mystery, behold I show you a mystery) we shall not all sleep, (that is, not continue in the state of the dead in the grave) but we shall all be changed. In an instant we shall have a dissolution, and in the same instant a redintegration, a recompacting of body and soul; and that shall be truly a death, and truly a resurrection, but no sleeping no corruption. But for us, who dy now, and sleep in the state of the dead, we must all pass this posthume death, this death after death, nay this death after burial, this dissolution after dissolution, this death of corruption and putrefaction, of virmiculation and incineration of dissolution and dispersion, in, and from the grave. When those bodies which have been the children of royal Parents, and the Parents of royal Children, must say with Job, to corruption thou art my Father, & to the worm thou art my Mother & my Sister. Miserable riddle, when the same worm must be my mother, & my sister, & my self. Miserable incest, when I must be married to mine own mother and sister, and be both Father and Mother, to mine one mother and sister beget and bear that worm, which is all that miserable penury, when my mouth shall be silled with dust, and the worm shall feed, and feed sweetly upon me. When the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest a live tread upon him, nor the poorest receive any contentment, in being made equal to Princes, for they shall be equal but in dust. One dyeth at his full strength, being wholly at ease, and in quiet, and another dies in the bitterness of his soul, and never eats with pleasure; but they ly down alike in the dust, and the worm cover them. The worm covers them in Job, and in Isaiah, it covers them, & is spread under them, (the worm is spread under thee, and the worm covers thee. There is the mats and the carpet that lie under; and there is the state and the canopy that hangs over the greatest of the Sons of men. Even those bodies that were the Temples of the holy Ghost, come to this dilapidation, to ruin, to rubbish, to dust: Even the Israel of the Lord, and Jacob himself had no other specification, no other denomination but that, vermis Jacob, thou worm of Jacob. Truly, the consideration of this posthume death, this death after burial, that after God, with whom are the issues of death, hath delivered me from the death of the womb, by bringing me into the world, and from the manifold deaths of the world, by laying me in the grave. I must die again, in an incineration of this flesh, and in a dispersion of that dust, that all that monarch that spread over many nations alive, must in his dust lie in a corner of that sheet of lead, and there but so long as the lead will last: and that private and retired man, that thought himself his own for ever, and never came forth, must in his dust of the grave be published, and, (such are the revolutions of graves) be mingled in his dust, with the dust of every high way, and of every dunghil, and swallowed in every puddle and pond; this is the most inglorious and contemptible villification, the most deadly and peromptory nullification of man, that we can consider. God seems to have carried the declaration of his power to a great height, when he sets the Prophet Ezekiel, in the vally of dry bones, and says, Son of man can these dry bones live? as though it had been impossible; and yet they did; the Lord laid sinews upon them, and flesh, and breathed into them, and they did live. But in that case there were bones to be seen; something visible, of which it might be said, can this, this live? but in this death of incineration and dispersion of dust, we see nothing that we can call that mans. If we say can this dust live? perchance it cannot. It may be the meer dust of the earth which never did live, nor never shall; it may be the dust of that mans worms which did live, but shall no more; it may be the dust of another man that concerns not him of whom it is asked. This death of incineration and dispersion is to natural reason the most irrecoverable death of all; and yet Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis, unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, and by recompacting this dust into the same body, and re-inanimating the same body with the same soul, be shall in a blessed and glorious Resurrection, give me such an issue from this Death, as shall never pass into any other death, but establish me in a Life, that shall last as long as the Lord of Life himself. And so have you that that belongs to the first acceptation of these words (unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death) That though from the womb to the grave, and in the grave it self, we pass from Death to Death, yet, as Daniel speaks, The Lord our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us. And so we pass to our second accomodation of these words (Unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death) That it belongs to God, and not to Man, to pass a Judgement upon us at our Death, or to conclude a dereliction on God's part, upon the manner thereof.

Those Indications which Physicians receive, and those praesagitions which they give for death or recovery in the Patient, they receive, and they give out of the grounds and rules of their Art: But we have no such rule or art to ground a presagition of spiritual death, and damnation upon any such Indication as we see in any dying man: we see often enough to be sorry, but not to despayr; for the mercies of God work momentanely, in minutes; and many times insensibly to by-standers, or any other then the party departing, and we may be deceived both ways: we use to comfort our selves in the death of a friend, if it be testified that he went away like a Lamb, that is, but with any reluctation; But God knows, that may have been accompanied with a dangerous damp and stupefaction, and insensibility of his present state. Our blessed Savior admitted colluctations with Death, and a sadness even in his Soul to death, and an agony even to a bloody sweat in his body, and expostulations with God, and exclamations upon the Cross. He was a devout man, who upon his death-bed, or death-turse (for he was an Hermit) said Septuaginta annis domino servivisti, & mori times? Hast thou served a good Master threescore and ten years, and now art thou loth to go into his presence? yet Hilarion was loath. He was a devour man (an Hermite) that said that day that he died, Cogitate hody coepisse servire Domino, & hody finiturum. Consider this to be the first days service that ever thou didst thy Master to gloryfy him in a christianly and constant death; and, if thy first day be thy last day too, how soon dost thou come to receive thy wages; yet Barlaam could have been content to have stayed longer for it; Make no ill conclusion upon any man's loathness to die. And then, upon violent deaths inflicted, as upon malefactors, Christ himself hath forbidden us by his own death to make any ill conclusion; for, his own death had those impressions in it; he was reputed, he was executed as a Malefactor, and no doubt many of them who concurred to his death, did believe him to be so. Of sudden deaths, there are scarce examples; to be found in the Scriptures, upon good men; for, death in battle cannot be called sudden death: But God governs not by examples, but by rules; and therefore make no ill conclusions upon sudden-Death; nor upon distempers neither, though perchance accompanied with some words of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of God. The Tree lies as it falls; 'Tis true; but yet it is not the last stroke that fells the Tree; nor the last word, nor last gasp that qualifies the Soul. Still pray we for a peaceable life, against violent deaths, and for time of Repentance against sudden Deaths, and for sober and modest assurance against distempered and diffident Deaths, but never make ill conclusion upon persons overtaken with such Deaths. Domini, Domini sunt exitus Mortis, To God the Lord belong the issues of Death, and he received Samson, who went out of this world in such a manner (consider it actively, consider it passively; in his own death, and in those whom he slew with himself) as was subject to interpretation hard enough; yet the holy-Ghost hath moved Saint Paul to celebrate Samson, in his great Catalogue, and so doth all the Church. Our Critical day is not the very day of our death, but the whole course of our life: I thank him, that prays for me when my bell tolls; but I thank him much more, that Carechises me, or preaches to me, or instructs me how to live, fac hoc & vives, There's my security; The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, Do this and thou shalt live. But though I do it yet I shall die too, dy a bodily, a natural death; but God never mentions, never seems to consider that death, the bodily, the natural death. God doth not say Live well, and thou shalt die well; well, that is, an easy, a quiet death; but live well here, and thou shalt live well for ever. As the first part of a Sentence pieces well with the last, and never respects, never hearkens after the parenthesis that comes between, so doth a good life here, flow into an eternal life, without any consideration what manner of death we die. But whether the gate of my prison be opened with an oiled key (by a gentle and preparing sickness) or the gate be hewed down, by a violent death, or the gate be burnt down by a rageing and frantic fever; a gate into Heaven I shall have; for, from the Lord is the course of my life, and with God the Lord are the issues of death; And farther we carry not this second acceptation of the words, as this issue of death is liberatio in morte, God's care that the Soul be safe, what agony soever the body suffer in the hour of death; but pass to our third and last Part; as this issue of death is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by the death of another, by the death of Christ.

Sufferentiā Job audistis & judistis finē Domini, says S. Ja. 5.11. You have heard of the patience of Job, says he; All this while you have done that; for in every man, calamitous, miserable man a Job speaks; Now see the end of the Lord, saith that Apostle, which is not that end which the Lord proposed to himself (Salvation to us) nor the end which he proposes to us (conformity to him) but, See the end of the Lord says he, the end that the Lord himself came to, Death, and a painful, and a shameful death. But why did he die? and why die so? Quia Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis (as Saint Augustine interpreting this Text, answers that question) because to this God our Lord belonged these issues of Death; Quid apertius diceretur? says he there; what can be more obvious, more manifest, then this sense of these words? In the former part of the verse it is said, He that is our God is the God of Salvation; Deus salvos faciendi, so he reads it, The God that must save us; Who can that be, saith he, but Jesus? For therefore that name was given him, because he was to save us: And to this Jesus, saith he, this Savior, belongs the issues of Death, Nec oportuit cum de hac vita alios exitus habere, quam mortis, Being come into this life in our mortal nature, he could not go out of it any other way then by Death. Ideo dictum (saith he) therefore is it said, To God the Lord belong the issues of Death; Ut ostenderetur moriendo nos salvos facturum, to show that his way to save us, was to die. And from this Text doth Saint Isiodore prove, that Christ was truly man (which, as many Sects of Heretics denied, as that he was truly God) because to him, though he were Dominus Dominus (as the Text doubles it) God the Lord, yet to him, to God the Lord belonged the issues of Death. Oportuit cum pati, more cannot be said, then Christ himself saith of himself, These, things Christ ought to suffer; He had no other way but by Death. So then, this part of our Sermon must necessarily be a Passion Sermon, since all his life was a continual Passion, all our Lent may well be a continual good-Friday; Christ's painful Life took off none of the pains of his Death; he felt not the less then, for having felt so much before; nor will any thing that shall be said before, lessen, but rather enlarge your devotion to that which shall be said of his Passion, at the time of the due solemnization thereof. Christ bled not a drop the less at last, for having bled at his Circumcision before, nor will you shed a tear the less then, if you shed some now. And therefore be now content to consider with me, how to this God the Lord belonged the issues of Death.

That God the Lord, The Lord of Life could die, is a strange contemplation; That the red-Sea could be dry; That the Sun could stand still; That an Oven could be seven times heat and not burn; That Lyons could be hungry and not bite, is strange, miraculously strange; But super-miraculous, That God could die: But that God would die, is an exaltation of that; But, even of that also, it is a super-exaltation, that God should die, must die; and non exitus (saith Saint Augustin) God the Lord had no issue but by death, and oportuit pati (saith Christ himself) all this Christ ought to suffer, was bound to suffer. Deus ultionum Deus, saith David, God is the God of Revenges; He would not pass over the sin of man unrevenged, unpunished. But then, Deus ultionum libere egit (says that place) The God of Revenges works freely; he punishes, he spares whom he will; and would he not spare himself? He would not. Dilectio fortis ut Mors, Love is as strong as Death; stronger; it drew in Death, that naturally was not welcome. Si possibile (saith Christ) If it be possible let this Cup pass, when his Love, expressed in a former Decree with his Father, had made it impossible. Many waters quench not Love; Christ tried many; He was baptized out of his Love, and his love determined not there; He wept over Jerusalem out of his love, and his love determined not there; He mingled blood with water in his Agony and that determined not his love; He wept pure blood, all his blood, at all his eyes, at all his pores; in his flagellations, and thorns; (to the Lord our God) belonged the issues of blood.) and these expressed, but these did not quench his love.

He would not spare, nay, he would not spare himself; There was nothing more free, more voluntary, more spontaneous then the death of Christ; 'Tis true, libere egit, he died voluntarily; But yet, when we consider the contract that had passed between his Father and him, there was an Oportuit, a kind of necessity upon him, All this Christ ought to suffer; And when shall we date this obligation, this Oportuit, this necessity, when shall we say it begun? Certainly this Decree by which Christ was to suffer all this, was an eternal Decree; and was there any thing before that that was eternal? Infinite love, eternal love; be pleased to follow this home, and to consider it seriously, that what liberty soever we can conceive in Christ, to dy, or not to dy, this necessity of dying, this Decree is as eternal as that Liberty, and yet how small a matter made he of this Necessity, and this dying? His Father calls it but a Bruise, and but a bruising of his heel (The Serpent shall bruise his heel) and yet that was, that the Serpent should practise and compass his death. Himself calls it but a Baptism, as though he were to be the better for it; I have a Baptism to be baptized with; and he was in pain till it was accomplished; and yet this Baptism was his death. The holy-Ghost calls it Joy (For the joy which was set before him, he endured the Cross) which was not a joy of his reward after his passion, but a joy that filled him even in the middest of those torments, and arose from them. When Christ calls his passion Calicem, a cup, and no worse, (Can ye drink of my cup;) He speaks not odiously, not with detestation of it; indeed it was a cup; salus mundo, A health to all the world; and quid retribuem, says David, What shall I render unto the Lord? Answer you with David, Accipiam Calicom, I will take the cup of salvation. Take that, that cup of salvation his passion, if not into your present imitation, yet into your present contemplation, and behold how that Lord who was God yet could die, would die, must die for your salvation.

That Moses and Elijah talked with Christ in the transfiguration both St. Matthew, and St. Mark tel us; but what they talked of, only St. Luke; Dicebant excessum ejus, says he; they talked of his decease, of his death, which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem. The word is of his Exodus, the very word of our Text, Exitus, his issue by death. Moses, who in his Exodus had prefigured this issue of our Lord, and in passing Israel out of Egypt through the red sea, had foretold in that actual prophecy Christs passing of mankind through the sea of his blood, and Elijah, whose Exodus, and issue out of this world, was a figure of Christs ascension, had no doubt a great satisfaction, in talking with our blessed Lord, De excessu ejus, of the full consummation of all this in his death, which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem. Our meditation of his death should be more viseral, and affect us more, because it is of a thing already done. The ancient Romans had a certain tenderness, and detestation of the name of death; they would not name death, no not in their wills; there they would not say, Si mori contingat, but Si quid humanitas contingat, not if or when I die, but when the course of nature is accomplished upon me. To us, that speak daily of the death of Christ, (He was crucified, dead and buried) can the memory or the mention of our death be irksome or bitter? There are in these latter times amongst us, that name death freely enough, and the death of God, but in blasphemous oaths and execrations. Miserable men, who shall therefore be said never to have named Jesus, because they have named him too often; and therefore hear Jesus say, Nescive vos I never knew you; because they made themselves too familiar with him. Moses and Elijah talked with Christ of his death only in a holy and joyful sence of the benefit which they and all the world were to receive by it. Discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity, but edification. And then they talked with Christ of his death, at that time when he was at the greatest height of glory, that ever he admitted in this world; that is, his transfiguration. And we are afraid to speak to the great men of this world of their death, but nourish in them a vain imagination of immortallity and immutability. But bonum est nobis esse hic, (as St. Peter said there) It is good to dwell here, in this consideration of his death, and therefore transfer we our Tabernacle, (our devotion) through some of these steps, which God the Lord made to his issue of death, that day.

Take in his whole day, from the hour that Christ eat the passover upon Thursday, to the hour in which he died the next day. Make this present day, that day in thy devotion, and consider what he did, and remember what you have done. Before he instituted and celebrated the sacrament, (which was after the eating of the passover) he proceeded to the act of humility, to wash his Disciples feet; even Peters, who for a while resisted him. In thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament, hast thou with a sincere humilty sought a reconciliation with all the world, even with those who have been averse from it, and refused that reconciliation from thee? If so, (and not else) thou hast spent that first part, of this his last day, in a conformity with him. After the sacrament, he spent the time til night in prayer, in preaching, in Psalms. Hast thou considered that a worthy receiving of the sacrament consists in a continuation of holiness after, as well as in a preparation before? If so, thou hast therein also conformed thy self to him: so Christ spent his time till night. At night he went into the garden to pray, and he prayed prolixius; He spent much time in prayer. How much? because it is literally expressed that he praied there three several times, and that returning to his Disciples after his first prayer, and finding them asleep, said, could ye not watch with me one hour; it is collected that he spent three hours in prayer. I dare scarce ask thee whither thou wentst, or how thou disposedst of thy self, when it grew dark and after last night. If that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thy self to God, and a submission of thy will to his; that it was spent in a conformity to him. In that time, and in those prayers was his agony and bloody sweat. I will hope that thou didst pray; but not every ordinary and customary prayer, but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of tears, and dispositively, in a readiness to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases, puts thee into a corformity with him. About midnight he was taken and bound with a kiss. Art thou not too conformable to him in that? Is not that too literally, too exactly thy case? At midnight to have been taken, and bound with a kiss? from thence he was carried back to Jerusalem; first to Annas, then to Caiphas, and, (as late as it was) there he was examined, and buffeted, and delivered over to the custody of those officers, from whom he received all those irrisions, and violences, the covering of his face, the spitting upon his face, the blasphemies of words, and the smartness of blows which that Gospel mentions. In which compass fell that Gallicinium, that crowing of the Cock, which called up Peter to his repentance. How thou passedst all that time last night, thou knowest. If thou didst any thing then that needed Peters tears, and hast not shed them, let me be thy Cock, do it now; now thy Master, (in the unworthyest of his servants) looks back upon thee, Do it now. Betimes in the morning, as soon as it was day, the Jews held a Council in the high Priests house, and agreed upon their evidence against him, & then carried him to Pilate, who was to be his Judge. Didst thou accuse thy self when thou wak'dst this morning, & wast thou content to admit even falls accusations, that is, rather to suspect actions to have been sin which were not, then to smother & justify such as were truly sins? then thou spendst that hour in conformity to him. Pilat found no evidence against him; & therefore to ease himself, & to pass a complement upon Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee, who was at that time at Jerusalem, (because Christ being a Galilean was of Herods jurisdiction) Pilat sent him to Herod; & rather as a mad man, then a malefactor, Herod remanded him with scorns to Pilat to proceed against him; & this was about 8 of the Clock. Hast thou been content to come to this inquisition, this examination, this agitation, this cribration, this pursuit of thy conscience, to sift it, to follow it from the sins of thy youth to thy present sins, from the sins of thy bed to the sins of thy board, and from the substance to the circumstance of thy sins; that's time spent like thy Saviours, Pilat would have saved Christ by using the priviledg of the day in his behalf, because that day one prisoner was to be delivered; but they chose Barrabas. He would have saved him from death, by satisfying their fury, with inflicting other torments upon him, scourging, and crowning with thorns, & loading him with many scornful & ignominious contumelies; but this redeemed him not; they pressed a crucifying. Hast thou gone about to redeem thy sin, by fasting, by alms, by disciplines, & mortifications, in the way of satisfaction to the justice of God; that will not serve, that's not the right way. We press an utter crucifying of that sin that governs thee, and that conforms thee to Christ. Towards noon Pilat gave Judgment; and they made such hast to execution, as that by noon he was upon the Cross. There now hangs that sacred body upon the cross, re-baptized in his own tears & sweat, and embalmed in his own blood alive. There are those bowels of compassion, which are so conspicuous, so manifested, as that you may see them through his wounds. There those glorious eyes grew faint in their light, so, as the Sun ashamed to survive them, departed with his light too. And there that Son of God, who was never from us, & yet had now come a new way unto us, in assuming our nature, delivers that soul which was never out of his Fathers hands, into his Fathers hands, by a new way, a voluntary emission thereof; for though to this God our Lord belong these issues of death, so that, considered in his own contract, he must necessarily dy, yet at no breach, nor battery which they had made upon his sacred body issues his soul, but emisit, he gave up the Ghost: & as God breathed a soul into the first Adam, so this second Adam breathed his soul into God, into the hands of God. There we leave you, in that blessed dependancy, to hang upon him, that hangs upon the cross. There bath in his tears, there suck at his wounds, & lie down in peace in his grave, till he vouchsafe you a Resurrection, & an ascension into that Kingdom which he hath purchased for you, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood.

Amen.

Holy Sonnets

Sonnet I

THOU hast made me, And shall thy work decay?
Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste,
I run to death, and death meets me as fast,
And all my pleasures are like yesterday;
I dare not move my dim eyes any way,
Despair behind, and death before doth cast
Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste
By sin in it, which it t'wards hell doth weigh;
Only thou art above, and when towards thee
By thy leave I can look, I rise again;
But our old subtle foe so tempteth me,
That not one hour my self I can sustain;
Thy Grace may wing me to prevent his art,
And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart.

Sonnet II

As due by many titles I resign
My self to thee, O God, first I was made
By thee, and for thee, and when I was decayed
Thy blood bought that, the which before was thine;
I am thy son, made with thy self to shine,
Thy servant, whose pains thou hast still repaid,
Thy sheep, thine Image, and, till I betrayed
My self, a temple of thy Spirit divine;
Why doth the devil then usurpe on me?
Why doth he steal, nay ravish that's thy right?
Except thou rise and for thine own work fight,
Oh I shall soon despair, when I do see
That thou lov'st mankind well, yet wilt'not choose me,
And Satan hates me, yet is loth to lose me.

Sonnet III

O might those sighs and tears return again
Into my breast and eyes, which I have spent,
That I might in this holy discontent
Mourne with some fruit, as I have mourned in vain;
In mine Idolatry what shores of rain
Mine eyes did waste? what griefs my heart did rent?
That sufferance was my sin; now I repent;
'Cause I did suffer I must suffer pain.
Th'hydroptique drunkard, and night-scouting thief,
The itchy Lecher, and self-tickling proud
Have the remembrance of past joys, for relief
Of comming ills. To (poor) me is allowed
No ease; for, long, yet vehement grief hath been
Th'effect and cause, the punishment and sin.

Sonnet IV

Oh my black Soul! now thou art summoned
By sickness, deaths herald, and champion;
Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done
Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled,
Or like a thief, which till deaths doom be read,
Wisheth himself delivered from prison;
But damned and haled to execution,
Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.
Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;
But who shall give thee that grace to begin?
Oh make thy self with holy mourning black,
And red with blushing, as thou art with sin;
Or wash thee in Christs blood, which hath this might
That being red, it dies red souls to white.

Sonnet V

I am a little world made cunningly
Of Elements, and an Angelike spright,
But black sin hath betraid to endless night
My worlds both parts, and (oh) both parts must die.
You which beyond that heaven which was most high
Have found new sphears, and of new lands can write,
Power new seas in mine eyes, that so I might
Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,
Or wash it if it must be drowned no more;
But oh it must be burnt! alas the fire
Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,
And made it fouler; Let their flames retire,
And burn me o Lord, with a fiery zeal
Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.

Sonnet VI

This is my plays last scene, here heavens appoint
My pilgrimages last mile; and my race
Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My spans last inch, my minutes latest point,
And gluttonous death, will instantly unjoynt
My body, and soul, and I shall sleep a space,
But my'ever-waking part shall see that face,
Whose fear already shakes my every joint;
Then, as my soul, to'heaven her first seat, takes flight,
And earth-born body, in the earth shall dwell,
So, fall my sins, that all may have their right,
To where they're bred, and would press me, to hell.
Impute me righteous, thus purged of evil,
For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the devil.

Sonnet VII

At the round earths imagined corners, blow
Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattred bodies go,
All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,
All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance, hath slain, and you whose eyes,
Shall behold God, and never taste deaths woe.
But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourne a space,
For, if above all these, my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace,
When we are there; here on this lowly ground,
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou'hadst sealed my pardon, with thy blood.

Sonnet VIII

If faithful souls be alike glorified
As Angels, then my fathers soul doth see,
And adds this even to full felecity,
That valiantly I hels wide mouth o'stride:
But if our minds to these souls be descryed
By circumstances, and by signs that be
Apparent in us, not immediately,
How shall my minds white truth by them be tried?
They see idolatrous lovers weep and mourne,
And vile blasphemous Conjurers to call
On Jesus name, and Pharisaical
Dissemblers feign devotion. Then turn
O pensive soul, to God, for he knows best
Thy true grief, for he put it in my breast.

Sonnet IX

If poisonous mineralls, and if that tree,
Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us,
If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
Cannot be damned; Alas; why should I be?
Why should intent or reason, born in me,
Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?
And mercy being easy, and glorious
To God; in his stern wrath, why threatens he?
But who am I , that dare dispute with thee
O God? Oh! of thine only worthy blood,
And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,
And drown in it my sins black memory;
That thou remember them, some claim as debt,
I think it mercy if thou wilt forget.

Sonnet X

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and souls delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Sonnet XI

Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side,
Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,
For I have sinned, and sinned, and only he,
Who could do no iniquity, hath died:
But by my death can not be satisfied
My sins, which pass the Jews impiety:
They killed once an inglorious man, but I
Crucify him daily, being now glorified.
Oh let me then, his strange love still admire:
Kings pardon, but he bore our punishment.
And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire
But to supplant, and with gainful intent:
God clothed himself in vile mans flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.

Sonnet XII

Why are we by all creatures waited on?
Why do the prodigal elements supply
Life and food to me, being more pure than I,
Simple, and further from corruption?
Why brook'st thou, ignorant horse, subjection?
Why dost thou bull, and bore so seelily
Dissemble weakness, and by one mans stroke die,
Whose whole kind, you might swallow and feed upon?
Weaker I am, woe is me, and worse than you,
You have not sinned, nor need be timorous.
But wonder at a greater wonder, for to us
Created nature doth these things subdue,
But their Creator, whom sin, nor nature tied,
For us, his Creatures, and his foes, hath died.

Sonnet XIII

What if this present were the worlds last night?
Mark in my heart, O Soul, where thou dost dwell,
The picture of Christ crucified, and tell
Whether that countenance can thee affright,
Tears in his eyes quench the amazing light,
Blood fills his frowns, which from his pierced head fell.
And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell,
Which prayed forgiveness for his foes fierce spight?
No, no; but as in my idolatry
I said to all my profane mistresses,
Beauty, of pity, foulness only is
A sign of rigor: so I say to thee,
To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assigned,
This beauteous forme assures a pitious mind.

Sonnet XIV

Batter my heart, three personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breath, shine, and seek to mend,
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived , and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Sonnet XV

Wilt thou love God, as he thee? then digest,
My Soul, this wholesome meditation,
How God the Spirit, by Angels waited on
In heaven, doth make his Temple in thy brest.
The Father having begot a Son most blest,
And still begetting, (for he ne'r begonne)
Hath deigned to choose thee by adoption,
Coheire to his glory, and Sabbaths endless rest;
And as a robbed man, which by search doth find
His stolen stuff sold, must lose or buy it again;
The Son of glory came down, and was slain,
Us whom he had made, and Satan stolen, to unbind.
'Twas much, that man was made like God before,
But, that God should be made like man, much more.

Sonnet XVI

Father, part of his double interest
Unto thy kingdom, thy Son gives to me,
His joynture in the knotty Trinity
He keeps, and gives to me his deaths conquest.
This Lambe, whose death, with life the world hath blest,
Was from the worlds beginning slain, and he
Hath made two Wills, which with the Legacy
Of his and thy kingdom, do thy Sons invest.
Yet such are thy laws, that men argue yet
Whether a man those statutes can fulfill;
None doth; but all-healing grace and spirit
Revive again what law and letter kill.
Thy laws abridgement, and thy last command
Is all but love; Oh let this last Will stand!

Sonnet XVII

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her Soul early into heaven ravished,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is sett.
Here the admyring her my mind did whet
To seek thee God; so streams do show their head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
But why should I beg more Love, when as thou
Dost woo my soul for hers; offring all thine:
And dost not only fear least I allow
My Love to Saints and Angels things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Least in the World. Flesh, yea Devil put thee out.

Sonnet XVIII

Show me dear Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear.
What! is it She, which on the other shore
Goes richly painted? or which robed and tore
Laments and mourns in Germany and here?
Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year?
Is she self truth and errs? now new, now outwore?
Doth she, and did she, and shall she evermore
On one, on seven, or on no hill appear?
Dwells she with us, or like adventuring knights
First travail we to seek and then make Love?
Betray kind husband thy spouse to our sights,
And let myne amorous soul court thy mild Dove,
Who is most trew, and pleasing to thee, then
When she is embraced and open to most men.

Sonnet XIX

Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begott
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vows, and in devotione.
As humorous is my contritione
As my profane Love, and as soon forgot:
As ridlingly distempered, cold and hot,
As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.
I durst not view heaven yesterday; and to day
In prayers, and flattering speaches I court God:
To morrow I quake with true fear of his rod.
So my devout fitts come and go away
Like a fantistique Ague: save that here
Those are my best days, when I shake with fear.

Colophon

John Donne's sermon folios were printed posthumously as LXXX Sermons (London: Miles Flesher for Richard Royston and Richard Marriot, 1640), Fifty Sermons (London: Ja. Flesher for M. F., J. Marriot, and R. Royston, 1649), and XXVI Sermons (London: Thomas Newcomb, 1661). The Holy Sonnets circulated in manuscript during Donne's life and were printed posthumously among his poems.

This Good Work Library text was donated by Chris of Antediluvian Publications. The donor reports that the file was prepared from a University of Michigan OCR witness, with OCR errors corrected, long-s forms replaced by ordinary short-s forms, spelling lightly updated where appropriate, and Biblical names modernized. Residual early modern spelling and source texture remain where they belong to headings, phrasing, or unresolved witness forms.

In the received donor witness, the XXVI section passes from Sermon VIII to Sermon X and contains no separately headed Sermon IX. This library file preserves the donated text at that point.

This is an archival English text, not a Good Works Translation. The underlying seventeenth-century works are public domain. The donor-prepared text is reproduced here by donation to the Good Work Library.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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